“I’m your only son,” I reminded her, leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek. “But I do agree that you have a beautiful granddaughter. You’ll have to ask her how she is when you see her though. I’ve only just finished up in the shower and she hasn’t come out of her room yet.”
My mother breezed past me into the house when I stepped aside, dressed to the nines as always. Her hair had been as black as mine once, but it was almost completely silver now. It was neatly coiffed and pulled into a French braid that hung to the nape of her neck.
Bright, light-blue eyes that I had gotten from her swept across the expansive entrance hall as she made her way to the modern farm-style kitchen. With her heels clacking against the hardwood floors, she peered down the hall.
“Millie, love, I’m about to start breakfast,” she called without stopping. “We need to leave for school in forty-two minutes.”
“Forty-two minutes?” I asked as I followed her into the kitchen. I turned on the coffee machine as she opened a drawer and unfolded a royal-blue apron. “That’s ridiculously accurate, even for you.”
“Punctuality is an important key to success,” she said, repeating the same words she’d drilled into me for years. “There were forty-five minutes when I got out of my car, so we’ve already lost three.”
My lips spread into a grin as I grabbed my travel mug and her favourite white china one. After filling them both, I took a seat at the island in the centre of the kitchen.
Mum started to crack eggs into a pan on the stove on the other side of it, accepting her coffee with a grateful smile. “Thank you, my darling. Tell me, how’s work going?”
“It’s been a good year,” I admitted. “The company has done better than ever, so I’m going to have a party to celebrate on New Year’s Eve.”
If it hadn’t been for my mother, the company never would have gotten as far as it had. She had supported me every step of the way, taken over caring for Millie during the day before I’d been able to afford a nanny, and still came over to make her breakfast every morning even though I had a chef on staff.
She had also refused my hiring someone to take care of her granddaughter, insisting on doing it herself. Back when I’d pitched the idea of going out on my own to her, she’d assured me that she would support Millie and me in every way possible, and apparently, she felt that caring for Millie even now was part of that promise.
Smiling as she turned up the heat on another pan and added pieces of bacon to it, she gave me an encouraging nod. “I always knew you were going to be the most successful investment manager out there.”
I quirked a brow, struggling to hold back my grin. “I didn’t always know it, so I’m glad you did. How is it that you still think the world of me even after everything you’ve seen?”
There had been hard times while I’d been getting the company off the ground. Nights when I’d almost cracked and mornings when I only got home just before it became afternoon. Mum had been there through it all, but she’d never judged me.
Eyeing me with a contemplative gleam, she shrugged her narrow shoulders. “You and Millie are my world. Therefore, I will always think the world of both of you. Besides, what you’ve accomplished with that company is certainly noteworthy. There wouldn’t be so many stories in the news about you if it wasn’t. I think I’m more than justified in my views.”
“Those stories are hardly news,” I scoffed. I wasn’t even being modest. They just weren’t. “If you ask me, it’s you they should be doing features on.”
“They’ll catch onto that someday.” She winked as she lowered the spatula into the eggs to scramble them. “About this party of yours, I trust there will be something for the kids there as well.”
It wasn’t a question. I furrowed my brow, taking a quick sip of my coffee and swallowing it down as I tried to come up with the best way to say what I needed to.
“I was thinking of having the employees bring their partners but not their children. We want to be able to have fun, you know? You’re more than welcome to come, though. I can find someone to babysit Millie for the night.”
Disapproval darkened her gaze. “Archer James Lee.”
Damn. Apparently, I wasn’t just in trouble. I was Mum-using-my-middle-name in trouble. She pointed a French-manicured nail at me.
“You have a daughter who would love to spend New Year’s Eve with you, as I’m sure many of your employees do as well. Whatever fun,” disgust coloured her tone, “you were thinking of having, if your daughter can’t be there for it, then you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
“I’ll think about it, okay?” I said, then rose from my chair. “It’s just that this has been a hard year and I’m pretty sure everyone will want to let off some steam.”
“If you’re a parent, you better be able to blow off steam with your children there.” She plated up the eggs and used a pair of tongs to turn the bacon over. “I don’t even think I want to know what you had in mind for blowing off steam that you couldn’t do with the children around. Whatever it was, it had better not be any nonsense like you got into with that Anna woman.”
An internal sigh lifted my shoulders. Anna. My ex and Millie’s mother. Mum was never going to let that go. Saying that she was protective of me now was like saying the Outback was only a patch of sand, a gross under-exaggeration of the most epic proportions.
Although I’d never brought another woman home after she had left us, I didn’t even want to think about how Mum might react if I tried. I wasn’t all that interested in a relationship or bringing any women into Millie’s life, luckily.
A quick and dirty fuck at an office party hadn’t really been what I’d had in mind anyway, considering that all the women there would either be an employee of mine or involved with one, but apart from setting her mind at ease, I didn’t really want to talk to my mother about whether I was thinking about fucking someone or not.
“All I meant was that there’s going to be an open bar and some people might want to indulge, but I’ll think about it.”
She sniffed, opening her mouth to reply but smiling instead when I heard the padding of feet behind me. “Good morning, darling.”
“Morning, Grandma, morning Daddy,” Millie’s sweet voice said just before her thin arms wrapped around my waist. I hugged her back, twisting on my stool to drop a kiss to the top of her head.
“Morning, gorgeous.” With her mother’s wavy blonde hair and my blue eyes, I thought she was the most gorgeous little girl on the planet. I was also already looking up what kind of shotgun I was going to buy when boys started thinking so too. “Sleep well?”
She nodded, her rosy cheeks lifting on a smile as she walked around the island to give my mother a hug. “That smells really good.”
“It does,” I agreed. “I wish I could stay for it, but I have to get to work. My first meeting starts at eight so I can’t go in later today.”
Millie simply nodded again, not showing any emotion about my not being able to join them for breakfast. At this point, she was used to it.
A pang of guilt punched me right in the heart.
Mum was right, as usual.
I had to let the kids come to the party so I could spend some time with Millie.
Mum didn’t react either. She gave me a wave but was focused on getting plates ready for them.
Millie waved too. “Bye, Daddy.”
“Goodbye, my angel. I’ll try to get home early so we can spend some together later, okay?” I got to my feet, taking my travel mug with me when I walked to Millie’s side and gave her another hug.
“Okay,” she said, but she didn’t sound very confident that it would happen.
Another punch of intense guilt made me swallow against my suddenly dry throat, but I couldn’t stay to do anything about it. I’d simply have to make sure that I kept my promise and got home early.
Without dragging it out any longer, I gave them a last smile and then strode to my garage. My Mazda SUV was nice, but it was a f
ar cry from the sports cars I’d dreamt of buying once I made some money. Unfortunately, those were bachelor cars, not Dad cars. It wasn’t much of a sacrifice to have made for the sweetest, smartest, and most loving little girl ever, though.
When I got to my office, I made it with only a few minutes to spare before my meeting started. The party planner was already late, given that my assistant had told her to be fifteen minutes early for our appointment. It wasn’t a good sign, but it was made even worse when eight came and went without any sign of her.
A frustrated sigh left me. How was she going to plan a party like the one I had in mind if she couldn’t even be bothered to show up on time?
At a quarter past eight, a firm knock on my door had my head jerking up from the report I had been reading. “Come in.”
The woman who appeared in my doorway a second later was certainly not what I had been expecting. My assistant was behind her, briefly entering the office to let me know that my appointment had arrived before she left.
There was another woman who walked in after the first, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her for long enough to know what the other one looked like. The first one was too beautiful, too captivating to look away from without letting my eyes wander for just a moment.
Bright and intense hazel eyes met mine, flecks of gold interspersed with a green that reminded me of freshly cut grass in the springtime. A dark blue ring around the pools of green and gold gave her eyes an intensely mesmerising effect.
Hair that was such a dark brown, it bordered on black, framed a delicate, porcelain-skinned face and tumbled to her waist in loose waves. Where it fell drew my attention to her waist and the way it was tapered in beneath her ample breasts only to flare out again to accentuate her hips and her shapely bum. She had curves for days, this one.
But her beauty didn’t excuse her blatant disregard for punctuality. As much as I could think of far more enjoyable ways to punish her for her lateness, ways that made my dick swell behind my zipper, it wasn’t like I could order her to bend over my desk.
It was too bad really. Instead of issuing that command, I straightened my spine and narrowed my eyes right on those magnetising ones of hers and snapped, “You’re late.”
Chapter 6
Heidi
“We really shouldn’t have been late,” I whispered to Bonnie as we stood in the lift, panting from our rush to catch it.
A quick glance down at my watch told me that it had taken us ten minutes longer than we’d had time for to get through security, find the building, park and grab our things before making our way inside.
Keeping her voice low, Bonnie flashed me yet another apologetic smile. “I know. I’m so sorry, but I had to make sure that my makeup looked right. There’s no telling who we could run into in a building like this.”
The place was impressive. Situated right in the heart of the CBD which was the hub for financial services firms, it would offer spectacular views of the harbour from the upper floors. We happened to be heading to one of those, so I looked forward to catching a glimpse of the view before our meeting started.
Or I had been looking forward to it, but now we were late and probably wouldn’t be spending any time in a waiting area. “We’re only here for a meeting. We won’t be running into anyone except the man we’re here to see, and I thought you’d given up on that.”
She shrugged, a mischievous glint creeping into her eyes. “You never know. I won’t make a play for the illustrious Mr. Lee in the middle of a meeting, but there might be a friend or two of his around.”
I let out a quiet sigh, but then we reached the floor our appointment was on and it was time to get my head in the game. I was still uncertain about working with this guy, but the money would be good, and I had been able to arrange for a colleague to take over most of my other upcoming events so I could take care of this one.
It didn’t feel like I had much of a choice when he was willing to pay as much as he was. Bryan, my boss, sure was excited about the prospect. He’d promised me a hell of a bonus if I pulled it off, but he also respected me enough to tell me to turn it down if the client made me too uncomfortable.
The windows on one entire side of the building stretched from floor to ceiling, giving me that quick glimpse of the view as we hurried to the office number we’d been given. It was breathtaking, an almost panoramic view of the harbour, the waterfront, and everything in between.
Maybe working with Archer Lee wouldn’t be so bad if I got to come back here to take this in properly someday soon. There was a woman sitting outside his office when we arrived, a stern-looking older lady who rose gracefully from her seat when she saw us.
“Are you Mr. Archer’s eight a.m.?” Disapproval rang from her tone as she gave the clock on her desk a pointed look. When I nodded, not inclined to have to explain myself twice in a row, she motioned to the door behind her.
I took a deep breath, smoothed out the dress I’d chosen for the occasion, and knocked. The stern assistant came up behind me. “I would have—”
“Come in,” that same smooth, deep voice from the phone called out from inside.
Anxiety bloomed in my belly, but I refused to let it show. It didn’t matter that this would be a big project. I was the one who still had to accept.
Twisting the doorknob, I pulled my shoulders back and hopefully managed not to look intimidated by the fact that we were meeting someone who, by all accounts, was quite a big deal.
As soon I stepped into the office and got my first look at him, I could instantly see why he was so popular with the ladies and the tabloids around here. Good looking didn’t begin to describe him.
Although he hadn’t stood up when we walked in, I saw that he would be a good couple of inches taller than I was if he did. The perfect height that I would be able to nuzzle that strong column of a throat without having to strain my neck or stand up on my toes. Not that I was ever going to, but I probably would have been able to.
Short hair that was black as night swept across just less than half of his forehead, accentuating clear, bright, ice-blue eyes. His strong nose was straight as an arrow, and just like his jawline, his features seemed to have been cut from stone.
The glint in his eyes was sharp, as was his chin. Power and confidence radiated from him almost palpably as he sat behind his glass-topped metal desk with the entire city visible through the large windows behind him, as though he was the king and this was his ivory tower.
There was nothing soft about this man, no trace of joy or kindness. A sliver of apprehension slid through me.
Working with him was not something I would look forward to, but I didn’t hunch my shoulders or cower under the intensity of those sharp eyes. I lifted my chin instead, ready to get the meeting started.
Just before I could open my mouth, he beat me to it with a short clip of a statement in a tone so cold it gave me goosebumps. “You’re late.”
His looks faded as soon as he opened his mouth, and he continued without giving me a chance to say anything. “Being late is not only unprofessional, but disrespectful too.”
I blinked, stunned by the hostility in everything from his posture to his tone. Keep calm, Heidi. Getting into it with him isn’t going to help anything.
“We apologise for our delay,” I said as evenly as I could manage. I didn’t blame Bonnie, and I didn’t offer him any explanation. We didn’t owe him anything. He’d practically ordered us here to begin with. “Should we get started?”
With a slight tilt of his head, his gaze narrowed on mine. Unwilling to let him see how much having him looking at me that way unnerved me, I simply waited for him to answer my question.
“If you hadn’t done such a good job for Parker, we wouldn’t have been getting started at all,” he said finally. “Since you’ve already wasted a quarter of the time we have together this morning, let me show you the building and tell you what I’m going to want from you.”
Again, there was no acknowledgement of the fact I
hadn’t accepted the job yet. The bastard obviously knew that no company as small as ours would be able to turn down the kind of money he would be paying us—especially not at this time of year.
With a soft sigh, I resigned myself to probably having to put up with his arseholery for the next six weeks and rolled my eyes at Bonnie for putting us in this position while he stood up and shrugged into a light suit jacket.
She ignored me in favour of admiring our newest client in his bespoke suit with a dreamy look in her eyes. It was all I could do not to roll my eyes at that too. But Archer was closing the space between us in long strides, his gaze flicking between us.
“Which one of you is the party planner?”
I took a step forward. “I’m Heidi. This is Bonnie, my assistant.”
“Very well,” he said to me, disregarding Bonnie in an instant. Another wave of annoyance rippled through me at how dismissive he was of her, but I supposed it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. “One of the concerns you raised during our conversation the other day was that we were going to be hard-pressed to find a suitable venue for the party. I think you’ll find that won’t be a problem. Follow me.”
Jeez. This guy really did like to think that he was some kind of ruler of his little world up here, didn’t he?
He motioned for us to walk out of his office ahead of him, which I guessed was at least one small gesture that he did have some manners in there somewhere, but it could also have been that he just didn’t want us in his precious office without him for even a second.
Bonnie still had stars in her eyes when we walked out, but I turned slightly to face Mr. King-of-the-World. “Do you have a venue here in the building?”
He gave me a tight nod as he shut his door behind him. “We occupy the top two storeys of office space in this tower, but there’s an open-air rooftop garden above us.”
“Open air,” I mused, my brain clicking into planning mode automatically. I didn’t have to like this guy, and he might not have given me much of a choice in the matter, but if I was going to be planning this event, then I was damn well doing it right. “What if it rains? Is there any kind of shelter up there?”
Show My What You Got Page 4