by Holley Trent
“Is this why Aunt Beth is sailing all the way from Bermuda to fetch you?”
“More or less.”
“And you couldn’t get him to keep his mouth shut?”
She shrugged. “He misses me. It’s sweet.”
“Sweet?” Aaron’s voice was at the point of near hysterics, but he calmed himself down just as one of the new eligibility workers plodded up the hall and bent over the box to seek out size large shirts. When he heard the elevator ding and the doors shut, he took up where he left off.
“There’s nothing sweet about him using the British press for a signal boost and telling the world he wants his wife to come home? What the Hell, Elly? Now every person in the globe is going to think Dad is holding you here against your will.”
She put her magazine on the coffee table then propped her feet up on the edge. “Isn’t he? Him and Rick?”
Aaron covered his face with his hands and groaned. “Do you even love this guy? Just tell me that. Do you, Elly?”
“I’m having his baby, aren’t I?”
“Those are two completely disparate issues. Maybe you’re not mature enough to realize it. You know, I’m actually quite surprised Dad isn’t on the way out here right now to strangle you.”
She picked up the remote control and turned up the channel on the pop culture news show she’d tuned into at the exact right time. There was her mug on the screen right next to the Indian ambassador’s son.
“Shit. Is it even a legal marriage?”
She shrugged. “Dunno. There were elephants and dancing and stuff. I guess so.”
“Oh my God.” He laced his fingers through the hair at his temples and pulled. “You’re going to screw me six ways to Sunday. You know, I’d planned on having a girlfriend at some point. You’re making it hard for me to have a personal life.”
She blew out a raspberry and flicked off the television set. “Do what you want. Nothing I do has any bearing on your choices. You can play Boy Scout all you want, but don’t blame me for it. Blame Rick. Blame Dad. Blame your own cowardice. Not my problem.”
“What kind of woman do you think would have me if she thought her entire life would be laid bare by the media because of her association to me? Huh? Especially with Dad hinting about making a go at the presidency?”
She shrugged again and stood right as Tina came to the door to fetch her for the night.
As a parting blow, Elly added, “Maybe find someone just as squeaky clean as you so when someone gets bored enough to pay you any attention, they won’t find anything worth reporting.”
Tina rolled her eyes and pulled her away. “Come on, twerp.”
That statement stunned Aaron. He actually didn’t know if Mandy passed the squeaky clean test. Her background check had revealed no major transgressions beyond the occasional speeding ticket earned in Martin County — which everyone with a driver’s license had — but something about the glint in her eyes when she’d had her lips wrapped around his cock warned him she might have needed a bit of taming.
He kicked the box away from the door and headed downstairs to the bar.
CHAPTER 11
“I’m sorry to call you so late, Abi. What is it, three A.M. there?” Mandy watched the bar from her corner booth. None of the CTW staff was paying her any attention there in the dark nook so her whispering was probably unnecessary.
“What happened? Is it Archie? I’ll kill him.”
Mandy stifled a giggle. “Put your pistol back in the nightstand. Not Archie this time.”
Abi sighed on her end. “What’s wrong, abejorro?”
Mandy chuckled. Bumblebee. Abi had started calling her a bumblebee when she was three because she wouldn’t sit still during a transatlantic flight. She stared down into her glass of red wine and swirled it while she got her words together. “There’s a man I like.”
“Oh! Well, he must be some kind of man for you to wake an old lady from her beauty sleep. Rough night. Somebody’s dog is out on the terrace barking every time a bus goes by.”
“Well … yes. It’s a complicated situation. His father is a public figure so he makes a point of not dating.”
“So he’s making an exception?”
“I don’t know if I’d call it that. Not an exception and not dating. I think under different circumstances we’d probably hang out for a while before making any moves, but something seems different about him. Well, us, when we’re together. It feels right and good and — ”
“And super secret.”
Mandy sighed. “Yes. That.”
“And you like him more than that?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
Silence stretched in the distance between Mandy in Suffolk and her grandmother in Madrid. After what seemed like an hour of not talking, Abi dispensed her usual brand of no-nonsense psychiatry in the manner Mandy had become accustomed to.
“Does he like you more than that?”
“Seems like it. But, you know it’s always hard for me to read men. I always think I know, then I get dumped.”
“Men are stupid. Sometimes women are, too, but I don’t count you in that lot. Listen, I’ll tell you what I told your mother before she married that American and ran away to the U.S. at seventeen. You want a man who is willing to break some rules to get you. If not, it’s too easy for them to let you go.”
“That sounds pretty Romeo and Juliet to me. I don’t want anyone to end up poisoned or stabbed. I just want to be with a guy I like a lot.”
Abi yawned. “You know exactly what I mean.”
“I do, but there’s another complicating issue.”
“What is it?”
“The man is kind of my boss. I got a new job.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Yeah. See?”
“It doesn’t have to be a problem. Your grandfather and I worked together for years and spending that time together in the shop was one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had. We learned a lot about each other that way. You’ll figure out the boundaries. We always left work at work and kept our personal lives outside of the office. Everything will be fine, te lo prometo. I promise. When can I talk to him? See if he’s good enough for mi abejorro?”
The “him” in question showed up in the doorway of the bar at exactly that moment and was scanning the room.
“Abi, te adoro, but just pretend I didn’t say anything.”
Aaron spotted her there in the corner and started moving toward her direction.
“Remember what I said. Oh! Before I go, I have a big box of clothes to send to you. The girls and I went shopping. They all got you something. Couldn’t resist.”
Mandy very nearly salivated. She loved those little old ladies so much.
“I’ll put it in the post tomorrow.”
“Oh, shit, hold off, please. I don’t have an address right now. Archie put me out.”
“I’ll kill him. Come visit? I miss you. Quiero abrazarte, eh?”
Mandy’s heart warmed at the sentiment. Adriana had never quite been capable of vocalizing her affection for her, although she tried to be generous with her hugs and kisses. To Mandy, there was just something special about being told she was wanted for a hug.
“Sí, sí. Ditto, Abi.” She ended the call right as Aaron approached and stood a good three feet back from the edge of the table.
He had his hands clasped behind his back and watched the bar via the decorative mirror behind the booth. When he spoke, his voice was low, tone polite and platonic.
“Tired?”
She tucked her phone into her jeans pocket and picked up her wine glass. “Today has been a pretty long day, so yes, I guess.”
“Do you have any luggage you need brought in?”
“No. I’m going to go o
ut to my car and stuff some things from my suitcases into a tote. I can carry that myself.”
“Okay.” He shifted his weight and pulled his lips in between his teeth while he studied her. “Been keeping up with the news down here at the bar?”
“You mean this?” She plucked her phone back out of the pocket and activated its Daily Mail app. She held the screen toward him.
He hardly looked at it. His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he swallowed hard. He was agitated. Frightened, maybe?
Suddenly, Abi’s words about breaking rules rang in her ears. He was terrified, thanks in part to Elly’s shenanigans Mandy guessed, and she may have been the only person in the room who knew it.
He cleared his throat. “Your room key should be in your folder. I put it in when everyone stepped out for break.”
She tipped her wine glass toward him in acknowledgement. “Busy day tomorrow. I’ll probably head up soon to get some sleep. Thanks for getting me set up.”
“Glad to have you on board, Miranda.”
“I know, right? Mandy is so stinkin’ cool.”
They both startled at the voice. Chas appeared holding a half-drained beer bottle in his hand and slid into the booth mere inches from Mandy’s hip. She noted the twitch of Aaron’s jaw as Chas sidled in and how Aaron pulled that silver pen out of his pocket to twirl between his fingers. Agitation again. No, jealousy maybe?
“Did you know she got fired from her last job for being short?”
Aaron raised one brow and slid into the bench beside Chas. “Oh?”
“Yeah, yeah! If I were practicing right now I’d totally take the case. You didn’t tell him, Mandy?”
She shook her head. It wasn’t something she really discussed widely, and had only told Chas because he was discussing tailoring and dry cleaning … the other thing she thought was a racket.
“Mind if I tell him?”
She blew out a breath. “Be my guest. I guess he’ll find out soon enough, anyway.”
“Okay, well, the store she worked at made up a new rule that staff could only wear clothing available there for purchase to work. You know — built-in advertising? They don’t carry much in the way of petites, so Mandy would have had to have a whole wardrobe full of pants and skirts altered at, what fifteen, twenty bucks a pop?”
She drained what was left of her wine and nodded.
“Well, duh, she refused to comply thinking it was an unreasonable expense and just kept wearing her own stuff. Nobody noticed for a while, because who could tell one plain pair of tan slacks or black skirt apart from another, right? Well, some chick from corporate visited during the inventory overhaul and noticed the lining of Mandy’s skirt was the wrong color. She could see it through the little slit at the back. She tried to call Mandy out on it there on the sales floor and they got into it. Loudly. Vigorously. The lady might have let that slide, or at least she said, but Mandy’s deployment of a couple of f-bombs in front of a vendor tipped the scale. She got her walking papers the next week.”
Mandy couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw Aaron breathe a little sigh of relief. How did he think I got fired? On-the-clock blowjobs? Oh, she reserved those for him.
Aaron reached across the table and gave her resting hand a friendly squeeze. “Fortunately, we’re not so hung up on dress codes and colorful language at CTW. Wear what you want. You’ll be working from home most of the time, anyway. And I’m sure you’ll make appropriate language choices when you have to address the public.”
“Of course.” She arched her lips into a smile and looked at both men in turn. “Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I want to catch up on this policy tome so the next time someone asks me how much notice they need to give for a day off I can give them a legitimate response.”
“Okay. Wise. Someone should probably read that thing because I sure haven’t,” Chas said with a shrug.
Aaron groaned.
Chas drained his beer and grabbed her hand before she could skirt away. “Meet up for breakfast? The last time I stayed here there was an awesome omelet station and the silkiest cheese grits I’ve ever had. I rarely get a hot breakfast at home. I should probably get a girlfriend who can cook.” He wriggled his eyebrows. “Can you cook, Mandy?”
She saw Aaron’s jaw clench and gave the back of Chas’s hand a pacifying pat.
“Um, I usually work out in mornings. I’ll probably grab a muffin and a cup of coffee and bring them into the meeting with me.”
Aaron’s jaw relaxed.
“Cool.” Chas leaned forward to see around Aaron. “I should probably make sure Frank’s okay. He was starting to talk to himself when I left him at the bar.”
“Should have warned you about that,” she said with a cringe while edging out of the booth. She picked up her pile of orientation materials and shifted them to one arm. “He’s a paranoid drunk. Always seems to kick in around the third drink. It’s why he doesn’t drink when he’s on tour. He starts yelling at his guitar. Might want to get him to bed.”
“Damn, sucks for him.” Chas gave Aaron’s arm a nudge. “Help me man?”
“Yeah, let’s go. I think he’s sharing a room with Marty, who if I’m not mistaken is the pile currently sitting with his face down on that table.” He bobbed his head in the direction of a slumbering patron nearby. She remembered him from the session earlier. Nice guy. Had seven kids, all under age ten. She figured she would probably get plastered away from home if she had seven kids, too. Still, she’d made a note of it just in case he started missing time from work later. The old managerial compulsion had kicked right back in as if she’d never stopped coordinating staff.
“I need to start hiring people who can handle their liquor. This is Hell on my back,” Aaron whined.
“Huh. You do seem to get one in every group of new hires.”
“Yeah. Must be something about working with cars. Party animals and gearheads.”
• • •
Mandy managed to transfer her clothes and toiletries from her car to Aaron’s suite without being spotted by anyone of consequence, although she did have quite a fright when someone knocked on the door. She automatically put her hand on the lever to pull it, then remembered at the last possible moment it wasn’t her room. Common sense kicked in, so she pushed a chair over, climbed up on her knees, and squinted through the peephole. Turned out to be a hotel staff member holding a clipboard, and since Mandy couldn’t imagine what she wanted at that late hour, she waited until the woman walked away. When she was gone, Mandy quickly and quietly opened the door and placed the Do Not Disturb tag on the lever. The woman had left behind a survey about the conference room set-up.
Aaron slipped in about half an hour later with an expression of absolute exasperation of his face.
“Jesus Christ, Chas wanted to talk me to death about tort reform and tried to come up to the suite.” He flopped onto the bed facedown and heeled off his shoes without looking. She adjusted her heavy black gasses on her nose and capped the highlighter marker she’d been using to draw attention to important staff traffic issues. If he had noticed her sky blue sheep pajamas or her dorky glasses, he certainly didn’t seem to mind.
“How’d you get rid of him?”
“I told him I was expecting a phone call from my father about the Elly scandal, and I guess he didn’t want to be in the room when it occurred.”
“Is he typically present during Elly fallout events?”
“More often than not, it seems.” He rolled over and pushed himself up onto his elbow, then stared at her, his shock registering in how he eyed her from head to toe. “But Elly is always in some sort of trouble.” He made a come here gesture with his hands, so Mandy put down her manual and crawled onto the bed.
“When’d it all start?”
He sat up and started fiddling with the buttons of his polo shir
t. “Hmm. Hard to pinpoint. She’s always been a bit off the rails, but I’d say she really started grabbing for attention right around the time Dad became North Carolina’s secretary of state.” He pulled the shirt over his head and let it fall to the floor.
“You’re going to have to help me out here. I don’t keep up with any offices beyond governor and lieutenant governor. Sorry.” She shrugged. If he wanted a girl interested in politics, he’d picked the wrong one. She watched his face carefully for signs of revulsion, but he only bent forward to peel off his socks.
“About eleven years ago, I think, so Elly would’ve been twelve. She went through a lot of private schools that year. Got brought home by the cops a few times. That sort of thing.” He unbuttoned his slacks and shimmied out of them, letting them fall to the floor, too.
“You mind taking those off?” He pointed to Mandy’s pajamas before sandwiching himself between the covers.
“Not sexy enough for you?”
“Not by half. I forgot you were a UNC grad. If I’d known you have so much team spirit, I might have had second thoughts about hiring you. I get enough of that March Madness rivalry shit in the office as it is.” He tapped the bedside lamp off and reached for the remote control.
Mandy spread on the evilest smile she could manage. “You went to State, didn’t you?”
He turned off the television so the only light remaining was from the hallway in front of the bathroom. “Yeah. I’ll get you a cute little nightie with State wolves printed on the fabric. I think that’s more your speed.”
“Whatever!” She got under the covers, sheepy pajamas and all.
“Oh, you thought I was kidding?” He sat up and straddled her waist, pinning her wrists over her head once again while he unfastened the buttons of her top.
“Learn to love the sheep, baby. The sky is blue because the Lord loves the Tar Heels.”
“If you’re going to sleep in my bed, you’ll wear red.” He pulled her top off her arms and tossed it toward the nearest trash receptacle. “Or nothing.”
Before she could balk, the sensation of his warm tongue on her nipple stilled her words. And just like that, a little light bantering and close proximity and he was hard as a rock against her thighs.