by Lillie Love
I couldn’t help but smile along with him. Otto had an infectious smile, a character far too quirky for the business world.
“Thank you,” I said. “I emailed you the detailed report this morning.”
Otto nodded. “I got it.” He smiled again and looked at me with eyes so dark they were almost black.
“Is there anything else you need?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so,” I said. Nothing that Otto could provide, anyway. “Thank you. I’ll report back again in a week.”
He smiled at me with an open mouth. It was comical and not in the least unsettling. Working for someone like Otto would never be like working for Ken Nettles. More contrasts. There were so many of them now.
The raw nature in Aspen verses the concrete jungle in Denver. Ken Nettles’ strict way of doing business set against Otto’s relaxed attitude. Zach at the top of the food chain with more money than he would use in his lifetime and me, a country girl from the wild forgotten side of Colorado.
I left Otto’s office and walked back to my desk. Jess was back at her station when I arrived. She jumped up to hug me.
“I haven’t seen you in so long,” she said. “The office is a total drag without you.” She took both my hands in hers. “You have to tell me everything.”
Jess was smiling, her eyes sparkling. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun and her shirt looked a little rumpled. She looked like she’d had a long day, but a good one. What did I look like to her? Did I seem different?
“I have to take care of these notes, first,” I said. “But are you free for lunch after?”
Jess nodded. It was a date.
I opened my laptop on my desk and clicked on the file with Zach’s press conference details. I didn’t feel like working on his speech. I didn’t feel like doing anything that had to do with his life. It only reminded me that I couldn’t be a part of it as anything more than a hired PR agent.
By the time lunch rolled around I had a headache and I felt miserable but I was resolved not to let it get to me. I knew this would happen. I knew we would play this game the moment I decided to go further than just a kiss.
“Are you just about done?” Jess asked behind me. I nodded and hit save before closing my laptop and standing up.
“Let’s go out for lunch somewhere. I don’t feel like cafeteria food today.”
We left the building and walked to Steuben’s, which was just a short distance away. The restaurant had an old diner feel with a slightly modern flare. Decorated in browns and beiges with leather chairs at the long counter and booths all around, it was homey and classy at the same time.
Jess and I sat down in a booth. A waitress approached us with a please-me smile and took our order.
“So, I’m guessing this job is going well for you,” Jess said when the waitress left. “And traveling with your client? That’s a big one.”
I nodded. “Everything’s going great. I owe you so much for this one.”
Jess laughed and shook her head. “You can’t tell me you owe me every time. I know I pushed you into it, but you’re doing all the work yourself. You’re making a name for yourself. That has nothing to do with me.”
I shrugged. I guess that was true.
“So, what’s he like?” Jess asked, leaning her elbows on the table. “I picture him as someone cold and standoffish with a lot of money and no manners But there’s no doubt, that man is hot!”
I chuckled. That had been accurate at first, but now…
“I don’t know, he’s not so bad.” Understatement of the year. “He’s just lost, you know?”
“Aren’t all our clients?”
The waitress delivered the iced coffee we’d ordered. When she left again I shrugged at Jess. It wasn’t exactly what I’d meant.
“I think you’re doing great,” Jess said. “The Nettles are in the news all the time. I flipped past one of his press conferences last week and he looks good. All because of you, Hailey.”
I nodded and smiled. It was mostly my doing, but Zach did have a flare of his own that I could never teach. Still, his outward image had been something we’d been working on. The rest of who he was, the person I had gotten to know behind closed doors, had nothing to do with me. And that was the way it should be. There was so much more to him than just his public appearances, the face the Company and all the women – even his father – saw.
That was the side of him I liked most, but the fact that he was well-rounded and a little cocky was rather attractive too. And that he was a tiger in the bed didn’t hurt anything.
Just having those thoughts was a sign that I was in over my head.
“Have you ever had feelings for a client?” I asked Jess. It was a difficult question to ask, but I needed to know. I had no idea how to handle the situation.
Jess blinked at me, putting two and two together. She looked toward the window, thinking. I watched her face, trying to guess her next response.
“I did, once,” she finally said. “It was a while ago, though. Just before Brian and I decided to get serious. One of my first jobs, actually.”
So, her situation was similar to mine.
“What happened?” If Jess was with Brian it meant that whatever it was hadn’t worked out.
“Well, it’s a working relationship that you build. You spend a lot of time together, but you’re working with the guy so you’re building his image, not taking him for what he already is, right? It was an illusion, I think.”
“So, your feelings weren’t real?”
The food arrived. A blackened chicken club sandwich for me and a tuna melt sandwich for Jess. I wouldn’t have gone for fish if I still had to go back to the office.
Jess shook her head, unwrapping her knife and fork from the napkin.
“No, it was real,” she said. Her eyes were on her food and it was hard to read her expression. “But, it was the kind of thing that shouldn’t have happened.”
I nibbled on a piece of chicken from the side of my sandwich.
“What happened?” I asked again.
Jess glanced up at me. “The problem is that when you work with someone who you end up falling for, it jeopardizes everything you’re trying to do. It ruined everything I tried to do for him. I don’t have to tell you that doing my job became impossible.”
I nodded.
“Are you having that problem?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I was just wondering,” I said.
Jess raised her eyebrows at me. She didn’t believe me.
“You’re doing so well, Hailey,” she said. “You’re just getting started and you can go really far with your career. Don’t mess it up for some guy. Trust me, it’s not worth it.”
I shook my head. “Of course, not,” I said. “It’s just a silly crush, anyway.”
Jess nodded “Silly crushes have a bad habit of sneaking up on you.”
I chuckled and changed the topic. It was easier to talk about other things, smaller things, that didn’t matter. What I had with Zach was just a silly crush, after all. I just had to keep telling myself that and everything would be fine. It was a fling. He wasn’t the kind of man to settle down. I had to be realistic.
The rest of the day in the office was slow. I couldn’t concentrate on my work. I struggled to focus. My mind kept jumping back to Aspen, to Zach.
That last day had been bittersweet. When I woke up in bed next to Zach, he was attentive and caring. We packed our things and loaded the car. I returned the key and then we hit the road, embarking on a three-hour drive back to Denver that felt too short.
Zach dropped me off at my apartment. He got out of the car and helped me with my bag even though he didn’t have to. I’d gotten my own bags my whole life. When we were in front of my door, he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tightly against the body. I held onto him, feeling every inch of the body I’d gotten to know so well.
“Nothing has to change,” he said into my hair, but we both knew he was wrong. Everything h
ad already changed. There was no other way.
He kissed me then, and it tasted like goodbye.
When he walked away, I watched his broad back and his easy, confident gait. In that moment, I knew that, when I saw him again, he couldn’t be the same person to me. I had to get my mind straight. It was up to me to see him as my client again and not as my lover, not as the man who made me feel, for one week, like anything was possible.
I had taken Sunday to research the Nettles family in depth, finding out everything about their business life and the way they portrayed themselves to the press. I watched press conferences about the company, working my way back to just after Zach’s mother died.
They showed a photo of her. Blonde hair. Dark eyes. A wide, bright smile. She was beautiful, and I could see parts of him in her face. My heart ached for him, though I wasn’t honestly sure how he felt about all of it.
She was the person they were honoring. It was her legacy that needed to be protected. I couldn’t ruin everything she’d done by being selfish. I knew that the fate of the company rested on Zach’s shoulders so much more than he wanted it to and because of that, I had to take a step back.
So, before I had to see him again the next day, I distanced myself from my memories of him and vowed to look at him the way that the rest of the world did, to see him as my client and nothing more.
It had been hard, but not impossible. At least, not that night.
Chapter 15: Zach
It’s amazing what I was able to accomplish with the right motivation. Like a no-nonsense, hot woman to impress.
I was up and dressed by six o’clock. By six thirty, I was in my car driving away from my building. When Hailey walked through my office door at five to seven, I was already sitting behind my desk reading the newspaper.
She stopped, clearly surprised. She had a beautiful startled look on her face. All her expressions were beautiful, but the startled face was immensely satisfying.
“You’re here,” she said.
I nodded. “Our meeting is at seven.”
She nodded and closed the door behind her.
“I didn’t expect you to be here already.”
I smiled. “Punctuality and all that, right?”
Hailey nodded and smiled back at me. It was like a break in the clouds, a ray of sunlight when it had been overcast all day. Hailey walked toward my desk, ready to get right down to it. Like always, she was dressed to kill in a black and white dress suit with a pencil skirt that didn’t do her legs justice and a neckline that left too much to the imagination. I knew what she looked like underneath all her clothes, and I yearned to see more of her.
Hailey saw me staring and blushed. “You checking me out?”
I grinned at her, unashamed. “Fuck yeah.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Alright, Mister. Let’s get started, shall we?” Hailey asked, sitting down in her usual seat. Instead of sitting in my chair behind my desk, I sat down on the opposite side next to her. She glanced at me when I sat and swallowed.
Her face was closed again, the blush and her little smile gone. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Was she undressing me like I was her? Damn, I hoped so.
She put her notes on the table and we went through them from the top. Her fingers were long and elegant as she pointed to the bullet points one by one. I tried to keep up, but everything about her turned me on.
“You’ll have to really focus when you talk about this,” Hailey said, discussing a point I was making about anyone being able to start up a small business and make it in the big leagues. “This is the whole point of your speech today – that anyone is important, no matter their social standing. Women are so much more aware of this than you think.”
I nodded. I knew it all already. Hailey didn’t have to coach me on what to say, but if it bought me some time in her presence, I was all for it.
Her eyes were a deep blue and her perfume was subtle, but present. I breathed in deeply to catch her scent. “Are you listening?” Hailey asked as a smile played at the edge of her perfect, pink lips.
I nodded even though I hadn’t heard a word. “Absolutely. There is this place by the coast in Virginia,” I said. “It’s small and secluded – the village itself barely exists. But the views are absolutely incredible. You’ll love it. I want to take you there sometime.”
Hailey sighed and turned her body toward me. “We really need to take care of this speech, Zach. This is important.”
I looked down at the paper where she’d neatly drawn up all the bullet points for me.
“I know what I’m doing, remember. You said so yourself. To my father.”
She nodded. “That’s all well and good, but arrogance and preparation are so much better together than just arrogance alone.”
Her eyes were cold. Weird. The sudden shift threw me off a little.
“It’s just a speech, Hailey.”
She shook her head. “It’s so much more than that.”
I leaned back in my chair. My flirtatious, warm mood was dissipating.
“You sound just like my father.”
Hailey hesitated before she spoke. “He does have a point sometimes, you know.”
I looked at her hard enough that she squirmed. Good. I still called the shots with her.
“Okay,” I said finally. “Let’s finish this, then.” We were going to work, but only because I said so. It wasn’t because I was obeying her demands. I decided I wanted to work, so we would work. Hailey looked a little unbalanced. She looked at me for a moment, trying to decide where I stood, before she finally nodded and turned her attention back to the page. I looked at her profile – her long lashes, her straight nose, her lips.
Finally, I turned my attention to the page too.
When we’d gone over the last bullet point and Hailey insisted I recite my speech for her, we were finally done.
“I’m starving,” I said. “All that talk about empowerment takes a lot out of a guy.”
Hailey packed her notes into her bag.
“Lunch?”
She looked up at me, her hands on her bag.
“Together?”
I nodded. What else?
Hailey shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?” Something inside me shifted. Why did this woman matter so much? I was usually trying to shake the girls I slept with off my leg, but not her. Fuck, she was probably going to have to do that with me.
It was a less than comfortable feeling.
She hesitated again. She was making a very decided effort to choose her words carefully. She was hesitant around me now. I didn’t like it. “I have a lot to do today. I still need to get back to my office and take care of these files.” She patted her bag.
“Do it after lunch. You’re allowed to take a break.”
“Don’t you have a lot of work to do as well? We were away for a week. It’s a lot of catching up to do for the both of us.”
“Hailey,” I said, interrupting her excuses. “Everyone has to eat. Come and eat with me.”
Hailey opened her mouth to protest again, but she’d run out of excuses and she couldn’t deny it. She closed her mouth again and nodded, clearly defeated.
I smiled and walked toward the door, holding it open for her. “Wow. That was hard.”
She gave me a look. “Just the lunch room, not a restaurant or anything,” she said. “It’s not a date.”
“Of course, not,” I said, following her. “It just makes sense to eat together, seeing that we both need to do it.” Did my father tell her to back off? Was he seriously meddling in my shit to that degree?
Hailey rolled her eyes at me. She was irritated. Did she know how much I wanted to kiss her when she did that? I wanted to be with her and I’d won this round. Hailey was coming to lunch with me.
We made our way up to the lunch room and sat down at a corner table with three seats. I ordered coffee. Hailey asked for water. When the bottle arrived, I poured some i
nto her glass and she took a sip before putting the glass back down again.
I thought back to the first time we’d been here together. What a contrast compared to how things were now. Back then, I didn’t want her here – I thought she was the devil herself, sent to make my life a living hell. So much had changed since then. Now, I wanted to be here with her. I wanted her involved in my business.
“What are you having?” I asked.
Hailey glanced over the lunch card on our table that held the specials for the day.
“I’ll have the bacon and blue cheese salad.”
I raised my brows at her. “You don’t need to eat a salad.”
“I want to.”
I’d wanted to get her something grand to eat. I didn’t argue with her, though. If she wanted salad, then fine. I ordered a steak with pepper sauce and fries instead of the vegetables of the day.
“This makes me think of Element 47,” I said.
Hailey frowned. “This is nothing like Element 47. That was a five-star restaurant. This place is nice, but it’s a lunch room.”
“I meant us being here together,” I said.
Hailey looked down at the table and fiddled with her fork. I watched her. She was as shut down as she had been the first day we’d worked together. I couldn’t reach her no matter what I did.
“I think we should go back there,” I said. “Even if it is just for the food.”
“That’s the second time today you’ve mentioned going away again. We just got back.” She glanced up, her eyes stormy with too many emotions.
I nodded. “I know, but it feels stuffy here all of a sudden. I don’t like it. Not at all.”
I watched her face intently. She didn’t give anything away. She didn’t respond to what I’d said, either.
“Thank you for being early this morning,” she said. “I’m glad that you’re taking your work seriously.”
I looked around the lunch room. There weren’t many employees around. Most of the tables were empty.
“Surely, you know that it’s for you?”
She looked up at me. Her eyes were so dark they were almost a midnight blue. Dark and cold and unreadable.