Lainey felt tears prick her eyes but she willed them to hold. She couldn’t cry in front of Hugh. He’d never let her help him if he thought it was distressing her. It had taken a massive chunk out of his pride as it was when she’d discovered just how deeply mired in debt he was to Lee Ling.
“Yes, just business. So can I rely on you not to go to the casino? I won’t be able to concentrate this weekend if I have to worry about what you’re up to as well.”
“Sounds more like I should be worried about what you’re up to,” her grandfather answered gruffly.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” Lainey assured him, pushing Adam’s earlier “companion” reference to the back of her mind.
He had to have been joking. There was no way he expected more from her than her duties as his personal assistant. Until last night, he’d never shown so much as a speck of interest in her as a woman, and she knew she definitely wasn’t his type, so why would he start now?
The look in his eyes when he’d recognized her at the casino burned in her mind. But she wasn’t that person. No matter what his expectations of her this weekend were, she was definitely not that person.
Lainey brushed a kiss across her grandfather’s weathered cheek.
“I love you, Granddad.”
“I love you too, child.”
She watched him a moment longer before heading back inside the house. He’d aged ten years in the past couple of months and it worried her that she would be leaving him alone this weekend. He’d been good, staying away from the casino for almost four weeks. Could she begin to hope he’d now stay away for good?
As she let herself back into the house she looked across at the wide mantel over the fireplace—at the numerous television awards he’d won for his long-running gardening show and community work. Retirement didn’t sit easily on his shoulders but the network had felt, eight years ago, that at sixty-five he was past his best and they’d appointed a much younger presenter to the gardening show he’d fronted for so very long. Even now he still received fan mail from his loyal viewer base.
The role he’d then taken, as the spokesperson for a garden centre chain, had fulfilled him for a few more years after that but the touring required for nationwide demonstrations had begun to take its toll and he’d reluctantly retired from the public eye at seventy.
And then he’d discovered the casino and the thrill of winning—for a while at least. When the size of his wins had garnered him entry into the VIP gaming areas things had taken a different turn. Lainey had been horrified when she’d discovered just how deep in debt he’d become in a relatively short period of time. She’d been adamant he use her savings to repay part of the six figure loan he’d entered into with Lee Ling. After all, she paid virtually nothing toward her upkeep here at his home—something he’d insisted for years was unnecessary. But she knew for a fact that the money left to them through her parents’ life insurance policies was long gone, as was most of what Hugh had saved during his heyday on television.
When she’d gone to repay the money lender, Ling had disclosed the full extent of her grandfather’s debt and proposed an alternative to the interest payments that were crippling Hugh’s attempts to clear the money owing. For every evening she accompanied Ling to the casino he’d not charge his usual daily interest on her grandfather’s loan.
Lainey loved her grandfather above all else in this world. He’d stepped in and cared for her when her parents had died. He’d put up with the tumultuous behavior she’d indulged in, in an attempt to mask her grief. And he’d stood by her side as she’d finally calmed down and settled into her new life.
Once the public furor had died down about her parents’ deaths and she’d stopped fighting against the world, she’d craved privacy. She’d even changed schools, attending her new school under her mother’s maiden name in an attempt to drop under the radar of the public eye—and he’d supported her all the way. She’d depended on him for everything.
Now, she owed it to Hugh to get him out of this awful situation before it destroyed him completely. She’d agreed to Ling’s suggestion she act as his companion at the casino—help him sweeten the deal with the people he did business with. She hated every second of it but for as long as she was helping her grandfather it was worth it.
As this weekend would be worth it. It simply had to be. But it wasn’t until she got ready for bed later that night that she realized her grandfather hadn’t offered her his assurance that he would stay away from the casino. She just had to hope he would. He knew how important it was that he stay away. That he not risk everything on the mistaken belief that he could strike a winning run, because if he did that, everything she was doing now would be a waste of time.
Lainey had worried, in the lead-up to the weekend away, about just how comfortable she’d initially feel around Adam but she needn’t have been concerned.
The wives of Adam’s two clients chose to travel together in the vehicle Lainey drove, while the men took the lead in the vehicle driven by Adam. On the forty-minute journey from the inner-city hotel, where their clients had been staying, the women seemed happy for Lainey to concentrate on the road while occasionally bringing items of interest to their attention as they drove north through Orewa and Hatfields Beach and finally wound down the hill to the thermal springs village of Waiwera before heading over yet another hill toward the township of Puhoi.
After the bistro lunch at the historic Puhoi Pub the group wandered slowly up the main road for a bit, stopping at the specialty shops here and there, until they reached the cemetery. There, Mr. Schuster found the final resting place of one of his distant relatives. It was clear, from the grave markers, that the lives led by the early settlers had been extremely hard as they’d hewn a civilization from the riverbank. Lainey looked around the township from her vantage point and found it difficult to reconcile the Puhoi of today with what these people must have found after their journey from Prague, which had taken more than four months.
Adam’s client was voluble in his appreciation of the stop and the chance for him to visit a slice of world his ancestor had come to almost a hundred and fifty years earlier and it was clear to see how much Adam’s foresight had moved him.
Lainey knew how important Palmer Enterprises’ wool exports were to the Czech Republic, the home of the original Bohemian settlers who had come here. But she doubted that business had been Adam’s sole reason behind this pit stop on their journey north.
He had a deep sense of family and heritage. It was a vein that ran strongly through all the Palmers and anyone who worked for Palmer Enterprises saw firsthand how they interlinked with one another. Both Mr. and Mrs. Palmer still held positions in the company, although Mrs. Palmer spent most of her time working with the trust that supported the various foster homes it sponsored for teenagers from difficult backgrounds. If Lainey hadn’t had her grandfather to turn to when her parents died, it was likely she’d have ended up in such a place.
Although Adam was an only child, Lainey knew from her contact with his cousins, including the entrepreneur—Brent Colby—who had been featured in all the gossip columns recently, that they all felt the same way about one another. For them family was a bond that could not be broken, and it explained why he’d go to this kind of trouble for Mr. Schuster—or for anyone, for that matter.
The rest of the journey north to Russell passed uneventfully. Lainey followed Adam’s lead in the black luxury car she’d been allocated to drive today. She loved the handling and power of the vehicle. They’d stopped again on their journey, at the harborside complex in the city of Whangarei where their guests had been delighted with a glassblowing demonstration by one of the resident artisans there, but by the time they entered the seventy-five-acre private estate at Russell, she was a little weary from the travel and the strain of being tour guide as well as driver.
She alighted from the car and went around to the back to start unloading the cases that had been stowed for the trip.
“Leave that.”
Adam materialized beside her, instantly setting her senses on full alert. He stood so close she could feel the warmth of his body through the light silk sweater she wore. The sweater he’d paid for.
“The staff will bring the luggage through. You’re here as my companion, remember, not my slave.”
With a small nod Lainey stepped away from him, determined to maintain a clear distance between them for the course of the weekend. The word companion kept whispering in the back of her mind. She wished she’d made it clear that, as far as she was concerned, companionship meant company—and company only. Even so, there was another little voice inside of her that asked her just how hard she’d object if he expected more.
Adam Palmer was, without a shadow of a doubt, a very attractive man. From the top of his dark head, to the soles of his hand-tooled shoes, he was every inch the epitome of power and success in a very enticing package. And yet he’d remained unmarried all these years. At thirty-four he was eight years her senior and, to her knowledge, while he’d had several long-term and even more short-term relationships, he’d never taken that final step toward settling down. For a man for whom family was as important as it clearly was to Adam, it was surprising that he hadn’t married.
Still, she reminded herself as he settled a warm hand in the small of her back and guided her toward the front door of the house where their hosts and staff stood in a welcoming reception line, it really was none of her business what he did in his private time.
After the highly publicized deaths of her parents and her behavior thereafter, not to mention the eternal public scrutiny for being the grandchild of a very public figure, Lainey prized privacy above everything else. It was part of why she always preferred to downplay her link to her grandfather, not to mention the looks she’d inherited from her mother. Once she’d settled down, Lainey found it a whole lot easier to get through life by being virtually invisible, and it certainly went a long way toward keeping her life on an even keel. Until Hugh’s gambling had blown out of control.
A pang of worry creased her brow as she wondered if he would be okay over the weekend.
“Problem?” Adam bent slightly to whisper in her ear.
Instantly a run of goose bumps scattered along the skin of her neck, sending a shiver to chase after them.
“No. Everything’s fine.”
Why did she react to him like this? While she hadn’t been averse to enjoying the view he presented each day they’d worked together, she’d never experienced this magnified awareness of him. Was it because he’d seen the Lainey Delacorte that lay beneath the dowdy clothes and the brown contact lenses she wore to work? Was it because, for once, she really wanted him to see her as the woman she was?
Lainey forced her thoughts back into submission. That track led to nothing but trouble. No, she was here to do a job and to do it well. To act as hostess to his overseas visitors and to ensure that the entire weekend ran as smoothly as she made certain his day to day office world ran, too.
She knew the Palmer family and their business enterprises earned into the billions of dollars but she was unprepared for the elegance and sheer wealth of the dwelling they were shown into. Panoramic views of the Bay of Islands were visible from almost every window of the building and the twenty-five-meter heated infinity lap pool gave the impression they were perched on the edge of one of the most exquisite places in the entire world.
The estate boasted several self-contained luxury dwellings, this particular one being the most lavishly appointed of them all. She knew, from having made bookings here for Adam in the past, there were four individual bedroom suites, each complete with its own private bathroom, but she was unprepared for the beauty of the room she was shown to.
The artwork on the walls alone was worth more than all of her personal possessions combined. Growing up, Lainey had never known poverty, but then again, she’d never experienced this type of lifestyle either.
“Have you got a minute?” Adam asked from the bedroom door.
“Sure,” she turned away from the view of the bay. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to show you the office. There are some changes we need to make to the contract we’re negotiating with Mr. Schuster’s company.”
Lainey heaved an imperceptible sigh of relief. Work, she could handle. It was quantifiable and kept things on an even keel between them. Something she could tackle automatically without overanalyzing every nuance.
“Are the Schusters and the Peseks all right for now?”
“Yeah. They said they wanted to stretch their legs for a bit before settling in, so they’ve gone for a walk around the grounds. We’re meeting back here, on the deck, for pre-dinner drinks at six. That gives us about an hour and a half to get these changes done so legal can check them and we can give them to Mr. Schuster and Mr. Pesek to sign.”
“You’re that close to finishing the deal? I had the impression the other day that it wasn’t going so well.”
“We’ve managed to fine tune a few of the issues that were of concern to them during the journey.”
“Was that your aim all along? Why we traveled in separate vehicles?”
“I like to do things properly, and not necessarily always in a business environment. They’ve been cagey all week. Tremont Corporation has been sniffing around them, too, and we’re not going to lose another contract to Josh Tremont if I can help it. The trip up gave them both a chance to tell me exactly how they felt. Two dogs, one bone, should give you some idea. But we’ve overcome the worst of it. I’m confident of a closed contract before we head back on Monday.”
Adam showed Lainey into the designated office and she was pleasantly surprised to discover the room was fitted with state-of-the-art equipment. Working together, they didn’t take long to make the necessary changes. Changes that Lainey had to admit were far friendlier than she’d expected for a deal of this magnitude. She was nearly finished when Adam straightened from the desk.
“I’m off to shower and change. Once you’ve e-mailed that to legal you might want to do the same. Take a few minutes to relax and unwind before dinner.”
“You don’t want me to wait until they e-mail back?”
Adam patted his cell phone. “I’ll get it. If there are any changes I’ll let you know. By the way,” he paused at the doorway, “I like what you’re wearing today.”
“You should. You paid for it,” Lainey muttered as his footsteps echoed down the hall but she couldn’t quite suppress the thrill of pleasure it gave her to receive the compliment from him.
Once she’d finished her work, she made her way back toward the bedroom. She took a moment as she entered the door, to just stop and appreciate the tranquil beauty of the furnishings and the view from the massive picture window that looked out across the wide deck and the bay. If she ever had the chance to live in a place like this she knew she’d never tire of the view. There was something about the water, smooth as it was today, or all riled up with a storm, that always spoke to her inner peace. She drew in a deep breath and let it go slowly.
This weekend was going to be okay. Everything would be just fine, she was certain of it.
She went over to the large double doors that led in to the spacious wardrobe that doubled as a dressing room. Her empty suitcase lay tucked in a corner on the floor inside and she looked up onto the rails to find the outfit she’d bought for this evening. She raised a hand to push aside the hangers but froze. Those weren’t her clothes.
She rifled through the garments—men’s shirts and trousers, long shorts. Tucked in further along were her clothes. What the heck? Someone had made a terrible mistake. This was her room, wasn’t it?
She wheeled around to check the built-in drawers. Sure enough her lingerie was all neatly folded and put away in the top drawer. Lainey hesitated a moment before opening the drawer below. Boxers. Socks.
Her heart hammered in her chest. Someone had definitely made a mistake.
&nbs
p; She grabbed her clothes off the rail and scooped up her lingerie from the drawer and headed out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Adam materialized out of the en suite bathroom behind her.
Lainey turned around and almost dropped her things. He’d just come from the shower, his dark hair mussed as if he’d just scrubbed dry it with a towel. His skin glowed with a deep tan and droplets of water that slowly, inexorably, trailed down his torso, across the washboard abdomen that usually remained appropriately hidden behind imported suits and tailored shirts.
Instant heat flooded her body—pooling deep down, low—but she was too disconcerted to figure out if it was embarrassment, or worse. Desire.
Words failed her. She knew she should say something, avert her eyes, anything, but she couldn’t. Her eyes roamed his body, skirting over the towel knotted at his waist and down to his bare feet. Moisture matted the dark hair on his legs; his long feet glistened with water.
“Lainey?”
She dragged her eyes back up over his body, up the strong column of his neck and further to meet the blue fire of his gaze.
“I…I, um. My clothes were in the wardrobe. I was going to move them to my room.”
“Put your things back, Lainey. This is your room.”
“But—” she started.
“Or should I say, this is our room.”
Four
Adam turned and went back into the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind him and leaving Lainey standing there in shock. The sudden heat that had suffused her body had been rapidly replaced by an icy cold that froze her in place.
Their bedroom?
Her mind buzzed with the ramifications of Adam’s statement. He expected her to sleep with him? She sank down onto the lush king-size bed behind her then leapt back up onto her feet when she realized what she’d done. The bed—their bed. There had to be some crazy mistake. She wasn’t sleeping with him. That was never part of their agreement.
Pretend Mistress, Bona Fide Boss Page 3