by Parker, Ali
“Says the girl from California,” he said, teasing lightly. Placing his hand at the small of my back, he made me feel all girly and protected as he guided me to the waiting town car. I could take care of myself and I definitely could’ve made my own way to the gleaming black vehicle, but I liked being treated this way by him. It made me feel cherished.
As we slid onto the soft leather of the back seats, he gave me a pointed look. “People from all over the world stream to California to find fame and fortune. New York is no different. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Stop being such a downer.” I rolled my eyes, but allowed my lips to creep up into a smile. “Besides, I’m from Palo Alto. It’s not exactly Hollywood.”
“Well,” he leaned over and brushed the lightest kiss to my temple, “it’s definitely where all my dreams came true.”
I practically swooned over his words and my heart melted into a puddle of goo. I was sure if I looked down it would be seeping out of my chest and going straight to his. My heart belonged to this man, utterly and completely.
“I’m sorry for being a downer, though,” he interrupted my love-struck thoughts. “Let’s stay here for a few days, shall we? We can take a look around the sights, make your first trip to New York memorable.”
“That would be fantastic.” Anywhere would be memorable as long as I was with him. It didn’t feel like the time or the place to tell him how I really felt about him, but I wanted to find that time and place very soon. It didn’t feel right to keep the words to myself anymore.
The trip to the hotel went faster than I would’ve liked. I considered asking Blake if we could take a drive before going to the hotel, but he was here on important business and needed to deal with it before playing tour guide to his mesmerized companion. Girlfriend. Whatever.
So instead of asking him to take the long way to the hotel, I took in everything I could on the way.
Everything felt bigger here, so much freaking bigger. The buildings, the crowds, the traffic jams. It was like the city itself was on steroids. Even though we were stuck in the car, it was like I could feel the pulse of the city beating to a much louder, faster drum than what I was used to.
There were people everywhere, but none of them seemed to notice each other. They rushed past one another on the sidewalks, and looked like they avoided collisions based on instinct alone since they all seemed so absorbed in their own worlds.
The lights in the city were bright and colorful, even in the daytime. The billboards were massive and even the number of cabs was almost overwhelming.
When we arrived at the hotel, the sounds of the city punched into my eardrums as soon as Blake opened the door. I followed him out, actively stopping myself from gaping as the bustle of downtown injected itself into my veins like a shot of adrenaline.
Blake grinned, taking my hand before tugging me along with him into the hotel. “It’s something else, isn’t it?”
I nodded speechlessly. I couldn’t wait to go exploring. This felt like the kind of place I could get lost in—both literally and metaphorically.
We pushed through the revolving doors into a lobby that was far grander than ours back in Palo Alto, yet very familiar at the same time. There was no doubt that my hotel and this one belonged to the same group, even if I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.
Blake marched up to the reception desk where Tiffany’s counterpart—a much more straight-faced girl with her hair pulled up in a severe bun—waited with a razor sharp smile. I couldn’t decide if she was trying to be welcoming or warning us that she could bite.
“Welcome to New York, Mr. McAllen. We weren’t expecting you, but if you would like to have a drink at the bar with your guest, I’ll have a suite ready for you in less than thirty minutes.”
She didn’t mince her words and clearly, unlike Tiffany and I, knew exactly who Blake was. I was impressed with how quickly and professionally she adapted to having one of the McAllen men in her hotel.
It was obvious she was much more accustomed to unexpectedly encountering and checking in high profile guests than we were. That she could have a suite cleared and ready in less than half an hour meant their housekeeping staff had to be machines.
I felt like I should’ve been taking notes, but shelved my professional interest and concentrated on Blake instead. He was different here, or maybe it just seemed that way.
He seemed taller somehow, more imposing. Shaking his head at the receptionist, his voice was clipped and bordering on arrogant when he spoke again. A quiet authority laced itself into each word in a way that made me want to jump to attention, ready to do whatever he wanted. At the same time it also turned me on.
“We won’t be waiting at the bar. I need to speak with Dustin immediately. We’ll show ourselves to his office. Don’t bother letting him know we’re on our way back there, either.”
The receptionist paled. “He’s not here, sir. I haven’t seen him for the past few days. He—he’s been in important meetings.”
“Important meetings?” Blake arched a dark eyebrow. “Sure. Please have our bags taken up to the suite and leave the key when it’s ready. We’ll be back.”
Without another word or waiting to see if she would get someone to attend to our bags, he turned and gave me a second to catch up before striding back to the revolving door. When we were outside, he took my hand. “Dustin isn’t at work because Danny’s in town. I fucking knew it.”
“Knew what?” I frowned, feeling my eyebrows pushing together.
“They’re out partying, spending the money Dustin’s been stealing from the company.”
I almost tripped over my own feet. “He’s been stealing from the company?”
Blake nodded with a grim smile. “Yeah. For months.”
“And Danny still wanted to promote him?” My brain struggled to catch up to the enormity of what we were discussing. Daniel McAllen, the son of the man who spent his life building this company, wanted to promote a man who had been stealing from his family for months and give him even more power than he already had.
“Jeez, it’s no wonder you said this guy is influencing him. Why else would he want to do something so very, very stupid?” Danny seemed smarter than that. He had to be.
Blake kept walking down the block, his hand firmly in mine. I wanted to be looking around and taking in the sights, but our conversation was giving me enough to absorb. “It’s a fucking nightmare, all right. I don’t understand it either, but it’s another item on the long list of reasons why I can’t trust Danny in the company right now.”
“I’m totally with you on that now,” I said, hurrying to keep up with his clipped pace. The set of his jaw was tense as I looked up at him, his expression drawn. I could see it was getting to him that he had to keep chasing down his brother to do what needed to be done. “Look, they’re bound to make their way back to the hotel eventually. It’s getting late. How about you take me to a nice dinner and we have the receptionist let you know when they surface?”
Reluctantly, he slowed down and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do that. It’s driving me insane that he’s never where he’s supposed to fucking be. I need to calm down before I talk to either of them anyway.”
I wholeheartedly agreed with his assessment. “Where do you want to go to dinner?”
“There’s a place not far from here that makes a mean burger. You up for that?” Relaxing visibly after I nodded and started talking to him about the city on the way to the restaurant, Blake seemed like himself again by the time we were seated.
With little fanfare we placed our orders. “What do you think about New York so far? I know we haven’t seen very much of it, but I’d like your first impressions.”
“It’s—big,” I said eventually, wishing there was space in my brain for a better word. But my brain capacity seemed to have been taken up by all the sights and sounds of the lively city.
Blake laughed. “That’s for sure. There’s no other place like it, not that I’ve been
to anyway.”
“How do people live here? California and Florida are okay, but New York looks to be a bit much to live in, don’t you think? It doesn’t even feel like we’re on the same planet, never mind in the same country.”
“You wouldn’t want to live here?”
I shook my head so fast I made myself a little lightheaded. “Definitely not. I don’t even quite understand how it’s possible we’re in the same business as the hotel here. It’s all so surreal. When I think about the numbers now, it feels impossible that we’re on the same level as this branch.”
Blake gave me a look I hadn’t seen before as he reached across the table and took my hand. “Your numbers are so good because you’re so good. People want to stay at your hotel because of what you offer. It’s a hundred times better than what they offer here.”
I felt heat creep onto my cheeks. “Stop it. I can take compliments, but that’s just preposterous.”
“It’s true,” he chuckled, tightening his grip on my hand. Our eyes caught and he held onto my gaze, letting me see the truth as he carried on. “People love you, Aston. I love you.”
“People don’t,” I stared protesting before the rest of what he’d said sank in. My brain slammed to a halt while my heart tried its hand at gymnastics in my chest. “Wait, what did you say?”
“I love you,” he repeated, the corners of his lips rising into a slow, sexy smile. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Before I was fully aware of what I was doing, my ass lifted off the chair I was in and I was standing next to him, leaning down to kiss him with all the joy bubbling from my heart and spilling into every fiber of my being. I couldn’t believe he’d finally said it. I couldn’t believe I finally got to say it.
It was one of the best, most freeing moments of my life. “I love you, too.”
Chapter 59
Blake
Straightening my tie, I watched in the reflection of the full length mirror as Aston sat down cross-legged on our unmade bed. She was still in her pajamas, her hair in a messy ponytail on top of her head. “You are the most beautiful woman in the world, have I told you that today?”
She flushed, laughing before grabbing a pillow with the indentation of my head still on it and chucking it at me. She missed, but it didn’t seem to bother her. “Shut up. I’m so far from beautiful right now I’m in a different zip code. But no, you haven’t told me yet today. So, thank you. You’re not so bad yourself, by the way.”
Done getting dressed, I walked over to her and pushed her shoulder gently down on the mattress. It dipped where I put my knee on it as I leaned over her and kissed the tip of her nose. “You could never be a different zip code than beautiful. It follows you around everywhere you go.”
“Beauty is my stalker?” She tried to keep a straight face, but then burst out in a fit of giggles when I nodded. “You’re insane. I haven’t even showered yet and you look like you’ve just stepped out of a menswear magazine.”
I wagged my eyebrows, giving her a wink. “It sounds stylish.”
“Oh, it is,” she breathed, propping herself up on her elbows so her lips brushed mine when she spoke. “I’d love to see that Bespoke suit on the floor right about now.”
“So would I,” I sighed, lifting myself off the bed while I still could. It would be too easy to lose myself in her. To spend the day in bed with my ridiculously sexy girlfriend instead of doing what I had to do. “I promise you we’ll see what it looks like on the floor later, but for now, I have to go. Danny and Dustin are downstairs.”
The teasing playfulness vanished from her expression in an instant, replaced with a serious frown as she sat up. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“I always want you to come with me,” I said, joking before sighing and shaking my head. “I need to go see my brother alone, though. Will you be okay?”
Gesturing around our suite, she batted her eyelashes and pressed her hand against her chest. “Little old me all alone in a fancy suite for a couple of hours? I don’t know how I’ll survive. Certainly not with the longest bath known to man and an awesome book.”
Despite what I had to go do, I grinned. “I’ll be back as soon as I can to save you from that awful fate.”
“I’ll be right here,” she hopped off the bed to kiss and hug me fiercely. “Good luck. I wish I could make this easier for you somehow.”
“You already have,” I said. “Just knowing you’ll be here when I get back is more than I ever could’ve asked for.”
Blushing, she patted my chest and stepped away from me. “Go, before you keep saying things like that and force me to drag you back to bed and keep you there forever.”
“I love you.” I grabbed her wrist and tugged her back into my arms to give her one last kiss before I took her up on that offer and stayed.
It came to within an inch of killing me to go downstairs instead of staying with her, but I managed to survive and soldier on. If only just.
The last remnants of warmth from her kisses disappeared when I got to the lobby and saw Danny and Dustin behind the counter. They both looked up when they spotted me, equally hostile eyes following my trek across the polished tiled floor.
“Blake. I heard you were in town,” Danny said coolly. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to speak to both of you. In private.”
Dustin narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think so, buddy. I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“Don’t mistake me for my brother, buddy.” I practically spat the last word. There was a dangerous edge to my voice that I could see cutting into both of them when they heard it. “Follow me. Now.”
No one would’ve said no to me in that moment. Not even I would have refused me. Danny gave me a glare that was meant to shoot daggers, but they bounced right off. Nothing could touch me right now. I was here on a mission and I was fucking pissed off I’d had to wait this long to start carrying it out because they were off dicking around yesterday.
Dustin’s office was easily three times the size of Aston’s, or more. I discovered after it was already done that he had commissioned a contractor to tear down the walls and incorporate the two adjacent offices and a supply closet beside him into a larger office for himself.
Narcissistic, conceited bastard. I shut the door behind us and turned to them. “Listen to me carefully, because I’m only going to say any of this once. This little joyride you’ve been taking this company on is over.”
Dustin opened his mouth to object, but I didn’t give him the chance. “As it is, you’ve been allowed to occupy this office for much longer than you should’ve been.”
“Bla—” Danny tried interrupting, but he shut up at the look I shot him.
When I saw him stand down, for the moment, anyway, I turned my attention back to Dustin. “You can resign, or you can be fired. That offer stands for the next five seconds. What’s it going to be?”
“I’m not going anywhere until my boss,” Dustin’s chin jutted out and he pointed at Danny, “tells me to leave. I don’t recognize your authority to make me do a single damn thing, big guy.”
Danny crossed his arms obstinately. “He’s not going anywhere.”
Staring me down, I knew Danny was putting on a show for Dustin’s sake. I wished he wouldn’t act this way, but he was so fucking deep into this idiotic mess Dustin had created that I doubted he could see reality anymore. In his mind, he and Dustin were right and entirely justified in their plans and actions, regardless of the fact that he’d seen the proof of his friend robbing the branch blind.
Sighing, I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a copy of the paperwork Dad’s lawyer had sent to me, handing it over to my brother. “Unfortunately for both of you, neither of you have a choice but to do as I say. I’m in charge, which means your reign of terror around here is over. Danny, you need to get back to Florida. Today.”
“I’m not going,” he seethed, waving the document appointing me as the head of the compa
ny around. “Despite this obviously forged piece of shit, I’m not listening to you.”
“It’s not forged, asshole. Do you honestly think I would stoop that low?” I looked imploring into my brother’s dark blue eyes, searching for the man I knew was in there somewhere—buried beneath all the layers of bullshit he was flinging around. “You need to go back to Florida for Dad. He’s at home, Danny. Go be with him.”
Danny’s jaw loosened, but before he could say something, Dustin threw a temper tantrum. The only thing he needed to make himself seem more like a child causing a scene was to stomp his feet. And then he did.
“I’m not going fucking anywhere. This is my office. My hotel. You can’t just march in here and take it from me. It’s mine. Mine. We have things planned for the company your puny brain could never begin comprehending. I’m not letting you take the future of our company away from us.”
“Our company?” I would’ve laughed right in his red face if I wasn’t so stunned. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I told you my offer was valid for five seconds. Since you haven’t resigned yet, you’re fired. You have until lunch time to get whatever shit in here actually belongs to you and not the hotel together and get out. If you ever so much as breathe in the direction of this company again, I’ll call the cops.”
A vein in his forehead throbbed, “Are you threatening me?”
I shook my head calmly, surprised at how easy it was to keep my cool when Dustin looked like he was about to explode. Or implode. Whatever the case might be. “I’m not threatening you, I’m promising you. Get the fuck off this property and don’t come back.”
Dustin glared at me, looking torn before he turned and marched to the door. When he reached it, I called out, “And don’t even think about badmouthing the company. If you say a single fucking word about it, I’ll know, Dustin. And when, not if, but when I find out, I’ll slap you with a lawsuit so fast it’ll make your head spin. Also, I will release all the evidence against you to every major media outlet in the country. You’ll be lucky if you ever work again.”