by Parker, Ali
“Why not?” It didn’t sit right with me either, but I needed to hear it from someone else. A part of me thought I might be overthinking because of my personal connection to him.
She lifted her hand, counting on her fingers. “Firstly, because he’s supposed to be here for work, but he’s spending a whole weekday working on this with us.”
I had also thought about that one. What kind of businessman—or any working person—could part with his whole Thursday to help a girl he had sex with once? None I knew of. “Second?”
“He has all this inside knowledge about guest patterns and what will draw more guests into our hotel. That’s not exactly knowledge every businessman has, despite what he says.”
Another point I thought of. It didn’t look like I was overthinking things after all. “Anything else?”
“He disappears for a day, then gets back and suddenly has files full of information pertaining to our branch of the company all ready to go, so he can convince you to make immediate changes? It just doesn’t smell right, regardless of how delicious he smells himself.”
He really did smell good. I got a look at his bottle of cologne in his bathroom before I left his suite. I knew it cost a ton, but I was seriously considering buying a bottle to spray on my sheets before I went to bed. I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept so well as I had next to him. It might have been the orgasms though, not just the way he smelled.
Plus, I couldn’t afford a bottle of that cologne. And it would be super creepy if I actually did spray the stuff on my sheets just so I could feel like he was close by. Like the kind of creepy I might have to go to therapy for, and I couldn’t afford that either.
Tiffany was right about the situation not smelling so good. I didn’t think about it while I was there in his hotel room, but I realized on the way home it seemed like too big of a coincidence that he just happened to have our branch’s numbers on hand to discuss with me. I hadn’t even gotten around to telling Tiffany he had told me not to worry about the budget for all the changes we had to make.
There were possibilities, of course. He might’ve been thinking about me while away on business and decided to have a look at the company’s financials since he knew we were worried about our jobs after the announcement was made.
He was a numbers guy, after all. And he had stock in the company, so getting their financials would probably have been pretty easy for him. He might even have had them all along and was only prompted to take a look because of the circumstances.
It was a perfectly plausible scenario, but somehow I didn’t think that was it. I didn’t have any more time to mull it over though, since he was walking back toward us.
Just before he reached us, Tiffany leaned in to whisper. “Don’t worry. I’m going to find out what his deal really is.”
Before I could tell her not to bother, that he and I were going to be having this talk later if he kept his promise, she bounced away from me to greet some new guests waiting at the front desk. Blake started after her. “Everything okay?”
“Everything’s perfect. Are you ready to carry on?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do it. I had a couple more ideas while I was on the phone. It’s going to end up being a lot of work though, we’re probably going to have to spend the week working on it.”
If it meant he was staying at least another week, I was in. Somewhere in all of those hours we would have to spend together, he was going to have to make time to tell me exactly what was going on.
Chapter 21
Blake
Three straight days of working nonstop with Aston and her team was paying off. Breakfast on Saturday morning was packed and people were still streaming into the lobby. I sat on one of the new couches, waiting for Aston to finish up with a meeting.
We still had a lot of work ahead of us, but I was satisfied so far. California had a lot of potential. I didn’t know why we hadn’t paid this kind of attention to it before. Three days of focused, driven promotion of the branch and there was already an increase in traffic.
And the company hadn’t even really thrown its weight behind the branch. Not yet, anyway. In my next report to my father, I was definitely telling him that this could, and should, be one of our biggest branches.
With Aston at the helm, this branch could make a turnaround for sure. Fuck making cuts here, we should be looking at increasing their capacity instead of decreasing it.
The increased traffic made Aston a lot busier, but I enjoyed seeing her on top of her game. She was a remarkable woman and it was time she got acknowledged for it. And not because of our personal history. She really was a damn good manager.
Guests in the hotel adored her and she deserved it. She made sure to welcome as many people as she could personally, she was on call whenever she was needed and seemed to have a way with even the most difficult guests. Everyone walked away from her smiling.
It was fucking impressive to watch her in action. It was also incredibly sexy. Some men might get off on their women being mild and submissive, but I wasn’t one of those men. Give me a powerful, successful woman in her own right any day. I was man enough to handle it.
Even just thinking about watching Aston doing her thing threatened to make me hard. Combined with the memories I had of what she looked like when she came, I was having a tough time keeping myself from popping a damn boner every time I saw her. It was almost worse than my teenage years.
My only saving grace was thinking about work whenever we were in public together. God knew there was enough work to think about. My primary task during the two weeks I had to turn things around was focusing on that, but that didn’t mean my regular work wasn’t piling up.
Burning the midnight oil became nothing more than a song I loved earlier this week. Staying up to all hours of the morning trying to catch up on work was now my usual. It didn’t need its own name or term anymore.
But it would all be worth it. I knew Dad was going to be as impressed with the branch as I was. I reviewed some of the very preliminary increases in the numbers just this morning, and they looked good.
Danny and Dustin could also kiss Dustin’s promotion goodbye. No way was he getting it after what Aston was pulling off here. It would be a fucking travesty if he did. The man sat on his ass all day and ordered his staff around.
He was nothing compared to Aston. He shouldn’t even have been a blip on the same radar. Dad would see things my way, I knew he would. Danny might have been blind to anyone but Dustin, but Dad wouldn’t be.
Aston didn’t know it yet, but her hard work here was going to pay off in a big way. She told me she wanted a future in this company, and that she thought it was the kind of place where a girl like her could go far, and far was exactly where she was going.
If it were up to me, I would’ve simply handed her the promotion on a giant silver platter this morning. And not just because I thought she was seriously sexy while she was doing her thing. My feelings for her didn’t factor in to my opinions of her professional performance at all.
She was a fucking rock star. She deserved to rise to the top and I looked forward to seeing her there. It was only a matter of time.
I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even see her enter the lobby until she was standing right in front of me. Wearing a black pantsuit with a ruffled white blouse, she looked like the utmost professional. The powerhouse of a woman I was learning was hidden inside her.
Her hair was pulled back into a bun on top of her head and her face was almost bare of makeup. Beautiful. She really was stunning. She was also smiling expectantly at me. “Well, Mr. Slave Driver, I hope you’re proud. Your hard work is running me ragged.”
I grinned at her, standing up from the couch so I could look right into those green eyes. “You’re all the more gorgeous for it.”
She flushed. “Thank you, but seriously. I hope you’re proud, because all of this is because of you.”
Making a sweeping motion with her arm, she gestured at t
he guests clamoring in the lobby. “Well Aston, I may have helped get them in the doors, but your personality is what’s going to keep them coming back and telling their friends to do so too.”
“This is crazy,” she said. There were stars in her eyes as she surveyed the bustling room. “I can’t believe what we’ve pulled off in such a short period of time. You were sent by angels, you know that?”
Only if she called my father an angel. He was a cool guy, sure, but he was far from being an angel. And my brother sure as shit wasn’t. As the other main reason I was here, he was the furthest thing from an angel I could think of.
“Let’s just call it luck, shall we?”
She pouted playfully. “Call it whatever you want, but it’s just flat amazing.”
“It sure is.” I wished more than anything I could ask her to lunch and tell her she got the promotion. To finally come completely clean and tell her who I was.
But none of those things could happen. I knew she was too busy for lunch, I had to discuss the promotion with Dad before I could say anything, and telling her who I was now would derail our speed on the work front.
I considered throwing Dad’s rule about not making any promises about the promotion out the window. She had it in the bag as far as I was concerned and I was sure I could make Dad see things my way.
The results from Dustin’s investigation would be coming in any day now. When they did, he was out. As was Danny’s chances of choosing a different candidate for the promotion. That left my candidates and Aston was definitely right at the top of the list.
She was a shoo-in. But I couldn’t tell her yet. It wasn’t only Dad’s rule holding me back. We had procedures in place for announcing promotions. Procedures I helped write, so I knew their value better than anyone.
Since lunch was the only one of the things I wanted that I might have a chance at getting—if I could convince Aston to sit down for half an hour to eat—I was about to ask her when my phone rang. The damn thing kept interrupting our conversations.
I ignored it. It was a Saturday, after all. The office could get along without me for one afternoon and it could only be work calling. “I hear the chef upstairs is preparing a special seafood dish for lunch, care to join me?”
My phone started buzzing again. I reached into my pocket and silenced it without even pulling it out. Whatever it was, it could wait. I knew I owed a call to the manager of the Dubai property, but I’d already spoken to him earlier. The report he wanted wasn’t ready yet.
Aston glanced at the pocket holding my phone. “Don’t you want to get that? I need to check on those women at the desk, I’ll be right back.”
She rushed away from me, smiling as she welcomed the guests. I was about to follow her, but just then, the damn phone went off again.
Annoyed, I yanked it out of my pocket. I expected to see the number of the Dubai branch on my screen, but Danny’s infuriating face was there instead.
Frustrated, I slid my thumb across the screen. “I’m in the middle of something.”
“Blake.” One word and I knew something was wrong. “Walk out of whatever you’re in the middle of right now.”
His voice was off. Danny didn’t get shaken. The man could be standing in the middle of an earthquake and he wouldn’t be rattled, but he was rattled now. My blood went cold. The tips of my fingers went numb. I’d never heard him like this before.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I dreaded his answer. I knew it was going to be something bad. For all our disagreements, Danny wouldn’t have been fucking around with me.
I heard him barking orders to someone on his end of the line, then he was back. “It’s Dad.”
My heart dropped to the molten center of the earth. “What about Dad, Danny?”
“He’s in the hospital.” My already cold blood froze. It felt like my heart couldn’t pump it any more. My whole body felt like it turned to ice. “He had a stroke earlier this morning. I know you’re busy in California, but—”
“I’ll be on the next flight out.” I promised him, though it felt like everything was a blur. My own voice sounded foreign to my ears. My tongue felt too big for my mouth. “How bad is it?”
“We don’t know all the details yet, but it’s not good. Just get here, okay?”
“Okay.” There was no question about it. I wasn’t even sure whether I’d hung up on Danny before I was scrolling through my contacts to book my flight.
If I’d been thinking clearly, I would’ve felt worse about leaving Aston in the lurch. We were in the middle of a giant overhaul of the branch that provided her livelihood. But I wasn’t thinking clearly. The only thing I could focus on now was Dad.
The mental image of him lying in a hospital bed, connected to tubes with pipes plugged into his veins haunted me. It jumped into my head unbidden and refused to leave.
I didn’t have all the information yet, but I didn’t need it. I only needed to get home.
Chapter 22
Aston
The hotel was insanely busy and I loved every second of it. I finally felt like I was doing my job and not simply being a placeholder management used to keep everyone happy.
I was making a difference, and trying to save people’s jobs. It was an amazing feeling.
As curious as I was about how Blake knew everything he knew, I couldn’t deny that I would never have pulled this off without him. He was not only the one who brought the need for these changes to my attention, but he was also the one who was instrumental in making everything happen. With everything going on, we hadn’t had a chance to talk yet.
Since he’d asked me to lunch, I was hoping we could take the little bit of time we would have to finally get to that talk. There were a couple of things I had to check on in my office before I could give him an answer about lunch though.
Pulling up my emails, I checked on the arrival time of the new coffee we’d ordered to stock the rooms with. Blake somehow made a deal where we got the coffee and shout outs on the supplier’s social media page.
How he got the things done that he did amazed me. The man had some serious contacts, by the looks of things.
I was so absorbed in thinking about him and wondering how we’d gotten so lucky to have someone like him in our corner that I didn’t notice the knock on my door at first. It became more insistent until I finally called out. “Come on in.”
I hoped whatever it was wouldn’t take too much time because I really wanted to be able to tell Blake we could go to lunch. It was strange since we were spending so much time together, but I missed him.
We were hardly ever alone anymore and when we were, we were working. I wanted some one on one time with him.
I blinked in surprise when it was Blake who stepped into my office following the knock. “Something’s come up. I need to go back to the office.”
My gaze snapped away from the computer at the ragged sound of his voice. There was something wrong. When I really looked up at him from more than just the corner of my eye while I was busy, I did a double take.
There was no color in his cheeks and his eyes were wide and slightly wild. “What’s wrong?”
His jaw was tight as he ground his teeth. He put a hand up against my doorframe, but it was balled into a fist. “I just need to get back to the office. I’m leaving today. Now. If you need me for anything, I’ll be on my cell.”
Without another word, he turned and walked out of the office. I got up and tried to follow him, but by the time I made it to my door he was already pushing out of the back exit. An exit I had never shown him, but I was too worried to think about how he knew it was there now.
I stared at the door he disappeared through. He didn’t really answer my question when I asked what was wrong, but I knew something was. Very, very wrong.
Not for the first time, I wondered if I would ever see him again or if that dramatic exit was the last I would see of Blake. I had a bad feeling about the way he left. It was too abrupt. I hadn’t seen his bag with him, but t
hat didn’t mean he hadn’t already packed it.
Spinning around, I rushed to the front desk. I needed to know if he checked out before he left. There had to be some clue somewhere about what was going on.
Sure, he said to call if I needed anything from him. But somehow, now didn’t seem like a good time to bombard him with questions.
I was nearly at the staff door to the lobby when Tiffany came barreling through it. In her haste to get wherever she was going, she almost slammed into me. When she saw who she bumped into, her eyes grew wide.
“There you are! I’ve been looking for you.”
I frowned, there was something unsettling in the way she was looking at me. She grabbed my arm and started dragging me to my office. “I need to talk to you in private.”
“Okay, okay. I’m coming.” I told her, shuffling along behind my friend. She was moving with a rare urgency for Tiffany.
When we reached my office, she closed the door with a decisive click and spun around to face me. “Remember when I told you I was going to look into Blake?”
A shiver of apprehension ran through me. “Yeah? Why?”
“I looked into him,” she said, pausing for dramatic effect. “You’re not going to believe what I found.”
“What is it?” Whether I was ready or not, I was about to find out what Blake had never got around to telling me about himself. A part of me wanted to tell her to shut up, that I wanted to speak to him personally about whatever it was.
The larger part of me couldn’t wait another minute. I was nervous, worried about him and anxious to know why Tiffany was acting the way she was. The internal debate between the two sides only lasted a minute.
There really wasn’t a question about it. Despite the extra work we were doing, there had been ample time for Blake to talk to me himself. I’d asked him over and over again and he’d never given me a straight answer. I vowed to let him explain, if there was anything to explain, but I had to find out what Tiffany knew.