by Karen Booth
“Mr. Richmond, I have no earthly idea what Liam is talking about. And whatever he may think of me, I assure you that has no bearing on my abilities as an event planner.”
Matt shook his head, still seeming confused. He turned to Liam. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
“She and I have a history. Or more specifically, she and my father. But I think you should have her explain it.” Every dirty detail.
Matt sighed and pulled Liam aside. “Look, she and I are weeks into planning the retreat. I’d rather not throw all of that work away. This event is already taking on a life of its own. Give me a chance to meet with her and I’ll catch up with you later, okay?”
Liam knew Matt had a point. Letting business and personal matters intermingle was never a good idea. Matt was a stickler for keeping the two things separate. Liam was as well, but he was apparently having a weak moment. Maybe he simply needed to go outside and clear his head. “Yeah. Of course.” Liam turned to look at Teresa one more time. He expected to see her gloating, but she looked worried. Good. Let her suffer at least a few repercussions. With nothing left to say, he stalked out into the hall.
He headed for the bar just beyond the lobby. It had a large balcony overlooking the falls. He looked forward to a shot of autumn air to clear his head, but every step away from his altercation with Teresa left him feeling more foolish, and that in turn only made him more angry. He knew he shouldn’t let his emotions get to him, but the matter of Teresa was a complicated one.
The night Liam had first met Teresa, he couldn’t have been any more entranced and enchanted. His father had asked him to dinner at the house, the Christopher family estate on the west side of Mercer Island. His father hadn’t made note of the occasion, only saying that he had a promising student in the class he was teaching at the University of Washington, his alma mater. Liam hadn’t wanted to attend the dinner. He was twenty-five by then, fully independent and making a name for himself within the family company. Plus, he knew exactly what was going to happen at dinner that night. His father would start to drink too much and would begin regaling their esteemed guest with tales of business conquests and billions made. Liam and his mother, Catherine, would exchange pained smiles and endure it. Liam didn’t begrudge his father his success. He only disliked his obsession with it. Nothing was ever enough.
Much to Liam’s surprise, that night’s dinner guest was a breath of fresh air. Yes, his father was being a bit of a boastful blowhard during the meal. But Teresa St. Claire was as charming and beautiful a woman as Liam had ever seen. She was smart as a whip, with a wit that made him laugh more than once. She had a broad range of interests, was keenly focused on business and was nothing but eager to take on the world. No wonder his father was so enamored of her. Liam was as well. In fact, he’d never encountered a woman quite like her—an unparalleled beauty, sexy and enticing, but wholly enthralled with the business world. By the time dessert was served, Liam was convinced that meeting Teresa was fate. She was his perfect woman. At the end of the night, he walked her out to her car and made his move.
“It was so nice to meet you,” she’d said, offering her hand.
Liam could hardly think straight when her skin touched his—there was an unmistakable zap of electricity between them. He’d gazed down into her deep blue eyes, made even more complex and intriguing in the soft evening light. “I really enjoyed meeting you. I’d love to see you again. Would you like to have dinner next week? Just the two of us? There’s an amazing new seafood place downtown. The St. James?”
Surprise crossed Teresa’s face. “Oh. Wow. That does sound nice.” She’d looked away, untucking her hair from behind her ear, almost as if she was trying to hide from him. “But my life is crazy right now. I’m working two jobs and going to school. I’m surprised I even had time to come tonight.” Her eyes fell on the house and her expression changed to one of longing. Liam had never regarded his childhood home with the awe and wonder she did in that moment. In many ways, the house had seemed like a prison when he was growing up. But Teresa saw it differently. He could see it on her face—she aspired to a life like the one his family had. She thought it was perfect. If only she knew the truth. “Your father has been so generous with his time and advice. I’m so thankful for his help.” She turned back to him. “And I’m so glad we had a chance to meet. Perhaps we can get a drink sometime. When my life has calmed down a bit.”
Liam hadn’t needed more explanation than that. He’d been turned down very few times, but he knew the brush-off when he heard it. “Of course. I understand.” Liam had his own craziness, working for the Christopher Corporation and trying to carve out a place for himself while living in the shadow of his dad. It would have been nice to have had a distraction as beautiful as Teresa St. Claire. Maybe even a relationship. There was a huge part of Liam that longed for a connection with a woman, in the same way Teresa seemed to long for a big, fancy house. Apparently she was not his dream woman. “Have a good night.”
During the weeks that followed, Teresa regularly disproved her assertion that her life was too crazy for something as trivial as a dinner out. His mother had reported Teresa’s regular visits to the house. She and his father were often shuttered away in his home study, and his mother, who was deeply suspicious of most people, would spend endless amounts of time speculating about what they were doing. “It’s been hours, Liam. What could possibly be so important?”
If only his mother had known what torture it was for him to hear these things. He wanted Teresa, badly, and she only had time for the one man who’d never had time for him—his father. “Mom, I don’t know. I’m sure it has something to do with the class she’s taking.”
“I think there’s something else going on. I think he’s having an affair with her.”
That leap had made Liam sick to his stomach. His father had many personal shortcomings, but to Liam’s knowledge, he’d never cheated on his mother. She’d clearly never suspected it. If she had, Liam would have heard about it. His mother told him everything. “I’m sure that’s not what’s going on. I’m sure it’s all perfectly innocent.” Only Liam wasn’t so sure anymore, either. This all seemed so peculiar.
Then one night, his mother had called, frantic. “She’s here again. I can’t take it, darling. I just can’t do it. Your father is throwing this affair in my face.”
“Mom, he’s not having an affair.” Liam had said it with zero conviction.
“Please come to the house. I want you to see them together. I need to know that you really believe that. If you tell me there’s nothing going on, I’ll believe you. You’re so good at reading people. Much better than me.”
The idea of seeing Teresa again brought up a complicated mix of emotions. Liam was still hurt by her declining his dinner invitation. His ego wouldn’t have been so bruised if she wasn’t spending a great deal of time with his dad. “It’s late and I have a big day tomorrow.”
“Exactly, Liam. It’s late. Why would she still be here? Please come over and tell me I’m not crazy. I can hear music and laughing.”
Liam’s heart was filled with dread, but he couldn’t say no to his mother. Her paranoid tendencies were purely a product of his father’s detachment. “Okay. I can be there in thirty minutes.” He’d hopped in the car and raced over, hoping to hell Teresa would just be gone by the time he arrived. Unfortunately, he was not so lucky.
“They’re still in the study,” his mother muttered when Liam reached the door. Her breath smelled of vodka. “The door is open a tiny bit. Will you look and see what they’re doing?”
Liam had no patience for this cloak-and-dagger routine. If the door was cracked, nothing was going on. His dad might be foolish, but he wasn’t stupid. “I’m putting an end to this right now.” Liam marched down the hall and raised his hand to knock on the door frame. But then he caught a glimpse of Teresa through the narrow sliver of open door. She was sitting on the edg
e of his father’s desk, her legs crossed, a tight black skirt riding up to nearly midthigh. His father brought her a drink. Teresa toasted his father, saying she was so glad she’d found him. They smiled at each other with such adoration that Liam felt sick. They clinked their glasses and each took a sip, then Teresa hopped off the desk, gripped Linus’s shoulders and kissed him tenderly on the cheek.
Liam couldn’t watch anymore. He slunk away without saying a thing.
“Well?” his mother asked, waiting in the foyer.
“It’s nothing.” Liam hated to lie to his mother, but he needed time to think. He knew how she would react if he confirmed her suspicions. There would be chaos. And Liam couldn’t afford that with his dad at that time. He was about to propose the company undertake a risky project that would eventually become the Sasha technology. He needed his dad on his side. “They’re talking about stuff for his class. She must need some extra help.”
“You’re sure?”
Liam nodded, telling himself that he would find a way to confront his dad about Teresa. As soon as the Sasha project was approved. “I’m sure.” He’d leaned down and kissed his mom on the cheek. “Get some sleep. I’ll talk to you soon.”
Seven years later, that night was still so vivid in Liam’s memory, and having seen Teresa only brought up the disappointment he’d had with himself over not telling his mom the truth. He walked up to The Opulence’s bar and flagged the bartender. Early afternoon, and it was quiet, with just a couple sitting at one of the tables. “Club soda with lime, please.” He craved something harder, but that would have to wait. He and Matt needed to have a long talk about Teresa.
“Coming up,” the bartender said.
Liam took a seat at the bar. Dark thoughts and questions continued to tumble around in his head. And then it dawned on him—if Matt was so eager to give Teresa St. Claire a free pass simply because she’d worked for weeks on planning the retreat, maybe Liam needed to do some digging into her life. After all, Liam knew very little about her, and where there was one misdeed, there were often many. Maybe Liam needed to give Matt more reason to fire her.
Three
Teresa took solace in one fact—today could not get any worse. Between the threatening phone call about Joshua and running into an inexplicably irate Liam Christopher, she couldn’t have imagined a more miserable beginning to her twenty-four hours at The Opulence.
“Let’s get started.” Matt clapped his hands. “I have a million things to get to today.” He took a seat at the conference table, leaning back in the black leather chair. Despite being one of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the business world, Matt wore dark jeans and a charcoal-gray dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He was famous for rarely wearing a suit.
“Yes. Let’s.” Teresa sat opposite Matt. She pulled out her binder, already bulging with papers and notes. Matt had brought nothing but himself to the meeting, but she was used to that by now. Matt Richmond kept everything in his head. “Shall we start from the top? The guest arrival on Friday afternoon?”
Matt’s blue eyes lit up. This event clearly meant a lot to him and he was excited by the prospect of knocking people’s socks off. “Yes. Perfect.”
Teresa began to brief Matt on the latest details. She showed off artist’s renderings of the decor for The Opulence’s lobby and samples of the custom room keys being printed for the weekend. She went over each item in the goody bags guests would receive, which included complimentary personalized luxury skin-care products, a $12,000 Tiffany & Co. watch with a custom cobalt blue face, and a seven-day stay at the all-new Kapalua Lanai Resort in Hawaii, the latest in Richmond Industries’ hotel-management portfolio.
Matt was sparing no expense since it was his company’s fifth anniversary, nor was he holding back his opinions. His reactions were mostly enthusiastic, but even the elements he was wowed by still required changes to please him. Teresa nodded and made endless notes, realizing it would be a miracle if she got any sleep at all before the retreat. There was a lot to be settled and Matt expected nothing short of perfection, and that meant she had to be perfect, too. But there were outside forces in the mix—the mystery man, the Joshua problem and Liam. If any of them blew up in her face before the retreat, she was sunk.
“I’d like you to go over the Saturday night gala menu with Nadia and Aspen. Nadia knows the dietary restrictions of our VIP guests and Aspen should be apprised of all catering decisions.” Aspen Wright was the events manager for The Opulence, but Matt had pushed her aside in favor of Teresa. This had already created friction.
“Nadia and I have a meeting scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Aspen is away from the hotel today, but I’ll make sure she knows everything.” Teresa had met Nadia a few times, and they’d communicated about the retreat, but their working relationship would intensify over the coming weeks. Teresa hoped it could be a good one.
“Great. You two can have your meeting while Liam and I go over the details of Saturday morning. As soon as we’ve decided on everything, I’ll bring you in.” When Matt had first hired Teresa, he’d asked her to block out one hour of the retreat schedule Saturday morning for an undisclosed event.
“Liam is involved with the top-secret project?”
Matt nodded. “Something we’ve been working on for years. We’re keeping a very tight lid on it. He’ll be running the presentation, but I won’t be able to give you details until a day or two before the retreat. Sorry. It’s just the way it has to be.”
“Of course.” This made Teresa all kinds of nervous, not only because she needed to know her role in this mysterious announcement, but also because the topic of her would invariably come up in Matt’s meeting with Liam. She had to speak to Liam today, privately, to find out what he’d meant when he said that she ruined his father’s life. Linus had been nothing but a fabulous mentor to her and she’d always shown her deep appreciation. He was the reason she got her start in event planning at MSM. He’d made the call to get her the interview with Mariella Santiago-Marshall. That was a professional leap that would have taken an average person years to make. It wouldn’t have been possible without Linus Christopher’s help.
“Are you okay?” Matt asked. “You seem distracted.”
Teresa was mortified that she’d let her mind wander. “I’m perfectly fine.”
Matt sat forward and smoothed his hand over the glossy wood table. “Do you want to tell me how you know Liam?”
“We met a long time ago. His father was one of my professors. It doesn’t go beyond that.”
“Liam seems to think it does.”
Teresa drew a cleansing breath in through her nose. “I honestly have no idea what he was alluding to. Whatever it is has no bearing on my ability to plan your party.”
Matt leaned back again and folded his hands over his stomach. “It seems to be affecting your concentration.”
“Not at all. If I seem deep in thought, it’s only because your comments gave me some ideas I’m eager to start on.”
“I can’t afford a single misstep, Ms. St. Claire. One whiff of trouble and I’ll bring Aspen in to coordinate. She was unhappy with me for giving you the job.”
“There won’t be any problems. I can promise you that.” She was used to demanding clients by now. She’d dealt with tons of them while working for MSM. The betrothal of Delilah Rhode and Alex Dane certainly stood out as a bad one. Between the happy couple’s parents warring over glitz and over-the-top decadence vs. understated elegance, and the pre-wedding party that ended with the mother of the bride duking it out with Mariella Santiago-Marshall’s sister over a handbag, Teresa had seen it all on that one day alone.
She’d thought coming back to Seattle would be easier, or at the very least, calmer. But now she had two very different ghosts from her past staring her down. Either could be her undoing. “Is there anything else, Mr. Richmond?”
“I think it’s all well in hand
for now. Liam should be heading in any minute. What do I say when he asks me what you said about your past?”
Teresa hated that this was still being discussed and she was eager to put an end to it. “I’m happy to stay for that part of the conversation. As I said earlier, I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
Matt shook his head. “It’s okay. I’d rather skip any fireworks today. I have enough of that going on already. Let’s just make sure you and Liam are ready to play nice by the time this retreat comes along.”
The notion of playing nice with Liam nearly made her laugh. Oh, she’d like to play with Liam if he could drop the attitude and get back to being the sexy, brooding guy she quite enjoyed looking at. Unfortunately, she was certain he had no interest in her. “I’m always ready to play nice. As for Liam, I’m not quite sure what it will take to make him happy.”
* * *
Liam filed into the meeting room minutes after Teresa left, but as near as Matt could tell, those two had not had a run-in. Liam seemed remarkably calm as he closed the door behind him. “I saw the TBG story.” He rounded to the other side of the conference table and took a seat. “I don’t want to be a jerk, but what in the hell are you doing? Sleeping with your assistant?”
A frustrated grumble left Matt’s throat. He wasn’t sure what to be more angry about—the fact that he’d made a mistake, the fact that the entire world knew about it or the fact that Shayla, a woman he paid an exorbitant amount of money to, had failed to do her job and get the story taken down from the site. “It just happened. We were at the hospital fund-raiser I’d had a brutal day at work, the champagne was going down a little too easy, and Nadia…”
Matt was struck with a powerful image of Nadia in the dress she’d worn—it hugged her full hips and dipped low in the front, the gentle swell of her breasts driving him crazy. Every man in the room had noticed—a normal occurrence, as Nadia was a singular beauty—but last night it was like she was lit from within. She could have gone home with any number of men—at least a dozen asked her to dance. But she dismissed them all and stayed by Matt’s side, making him laugh more than once and charming him with every flash of her eyes. Sure, he was her boss, but this had been a social affair. She wasn’t obligated to do anything but have fun. It had taken only one trip around the dance floor, his hand settled on the small of her back and hers on his shoulder, their bodies pressed together, before she asked the question, “Do you want to get out of here?”