He managed to get the attention of one of them, and took the frightened young man to a less populated corner of the hall.
‘What happened when the electricity went out?’
As Blake spoke the man’s eyes widened and Blake thought that ‘boy’ might be a more appropriate description.
‘It was only a few moments, sir. As you can see, everything is running smoothly again. Enjoy your evening.’
The boy made to move away, but at Blake’s look he paused.
‘Was there anything else, sir?’
‘Yes, actually. I was wondering if you brush off the concerns of all your guests, or if you reserve that for just a handful of people.’
If the boy had looked nervous before, he was terrified now. ‘No...no, sir. I’m sorry you feel that I did. We’re just a bit busy, and I have to make sure that everything is okay before Mr Owen gets here.’
‘That would be me.’
The words were said in a low voice, softly, but for their effect they might have been earth-shatteringly loud.
‘Mr... Mr Owen?’ the boy stammered. ‘Sir, I am so sorry—’
‘It’s fine,’ Blake said when he saw the boy might have a heart attack from the shock. ‘You can answer my original question.’ At his blank look, Blake elaborated. ‘The power outage...?’
‘Oh, yes. Well, it wasn’t such a train smash here. The candles gave sufficient light that there wasn’t much panic, and Connor—Mr McKenzie, I mean—managed to calm whatever concerns there were.’
Blake was surprised the boy had been able to string enough words together to give him such a thorough explanation.
‘And that was it?’
‘Yes, sir. The generator was back on in under thirty minutes, so it wasn’t too long. Although I did hear there were people trapped in the elevator.’
Blake thought it best not to tell the boy he had been one of those who had been trapped. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to handle another shock.
‘When was the last time the generator was checked?’
‘I...I don’t know, sir.’
Blake nodded and left it at that, making a mental note to check that out when he officially started on Monday. The list of what he would have to do at the hotel seemed to grow the more time he spent there, and he wasn’t having it. Not any more. Somehow the Elegance in Cape Town had flown under his radar for the past few years, while he had focused on his other hotels in South Africa.
And while he focused on rebuilding his self-respect after letting himself be fooled into a relationship that should never have been.
When he had eventually started reviewing the financials he’d realised that although Connor McKenzie had pulled the hotel out of the mess that Landon Meyer, the previous regional manager, had made, it wasn’t enough. The hotel hadn’t made a profit for three years, and he couldn’t let that continue.
But that wasn’t tonight’s problem, Blake thought as he scanned the crowd. He knew it would only take a few minutes before he would be recognised, and then he would have to start doing the rounds as guest of honour. He paused when he saw the woman he had been stuck in the elevator with a few moments ago. She was standing near a table full of champagne, and before Blake knew it he was walking towards her.
As he came closer he saw that his recollection of their time spent in the elevator didn’t do justice to what he saw now. He had noticed that she was attractive when she’d walked in, but he had taken care not to stare. And with the darkness that had descended only a few moments later, he hadn’t been able to look at her as he was now.
The red dress she wore clung only to her chest and then flowed regally down from her waist to the floor. Her black hair stood out strikingly against the dress, her golden skin amplifying the effect, and for reasons he couldn’t quite place his finger on it disconcerted him. Her round face held an innocence he hadn’t been privy to in a long time, and her green eyes persuaded him to consider pursuing her.
The thought shocked him, as there was nothing in her expression to prompt it. There was also nothing in his past that encouraged him to trust a woman again. Yet now he felt an intense desire to get to know this woman. One he had only just met an hour ago.
* * *
‘I think that after being stuck in an elevator the least we could do is have a drink together.’
Callie heard the deep voice as she reached for a glass of champagne. Her hand stilled, and then she continued, hoping that her pause wouldn’t be noticed.
‘I don’t know if I’m inclined to agree,’ she said and took a sip of her drink. ‘I never have drinks with anyone I don’t know.’
‘Really? But you have nothing against flirting with strangers?’ He gave her an amused look, his smile widening when she blushed.
‘Must have been a temporary lapse in judgement.’
‘How do you date if you don’t flirt?’
‘I don’t.’ She sipped her drink.
‘Which would explain the lack of a boyfriend.’
Callie aimed a level look at him. ‘Yes. And it would also explain why I don’t have to deal with conversations like this very often.’
‘Touché.’ He smiled and lifted his glass to her in a toast.
Her lips almost curved in response, but then she stopped herself. What was she doing? A memory flashed into her mind, of him sitting with her in the elevator, patiently talking to her to distract her from her fears. And then she remembered. She was flirting with him because there was something about him that had kept her calm when she should have had a panic attack.
Heaven help her.
‘And you’ve told me everything I need to know about why you’re single, then?’ she asked, and immediately regretted it when his expression dimmed. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.’
‘No,’ he responded, ‘it’s fine.’ But he changed the topic. ‘Since you seem to want to know so much about me, how about you offer me the same courtesy? You can start with your name.’
She smiled. ‘Callie.’
She held out her hand, proud that her voice revealed none of the strange feelings he evoked in her. He took it and shook it slowly, making the ordinary task feel like an intimate act, and she shifted as a thrill worked its way up her spine.
‘Blake? I’m so glad I’ve found you. I was about to send out a search party.’
Callie stared dumbly at her brother as he strode towards them, his tuxedo perfectly fitted to his build and perfectly suited to his handsome features.
‘Hey, Cals, I’m happy you made it without missing too much.’ Connor gave her a kiss on the cheek, and angled his face so that Blake wouldn’t see his questioning look. ‘I see you’ve met the reason we’re all here.’
It took a full minute before Callie could process his words. ‘This is Blake Owen?’
‘Yes.’ Blake intercepted Connor’s reply. ‘Although, to be fair, I was about to introduce myself. Connor just got here before I could.’
Blake shook Connor’s hand in greeting, and Callie couldn’t help but notice how much more efficient the action was now than when he had done it with her.
‘How do you two know each other?’
‘Connor is my brother,’ Callie said, before her brother could say anything. All the feelings inside her had frozen, and she resisted the urge to shiver.
‘So you’re here to support him? That’s great.’ Blake smiled at her.
Connor laughed. ‘No! Callie’s a good sister, but I’m not sure she would attend an event so far out of her comfort zone for me.’ At Blake’s questioning look, Connor elaborated. ‘Callie works at the hotel.’
Connor’s simple words shattered the opportunity for any explanation Callie might have wanted to give. Blake’s eyes iced, and this time she couldn’t resist the shiver that went through her body.
/>
‘Well, we should probably get going,’ Connor said when the silence extended a second too long.
‘Yes,’ Blake agreed, his gaze never leaving Callie’s. ‘You should probably start introducing me to the other employees—’ he said the word with a contempt that Callie hadn’t expected ‘—before I make a mistake I can’t rectify.’
Callie watched helplessly as they walked away, wondering how she had already managed to alienate her CEO.
CHAPTER TWO
BLAKE WATCHED AS the crowd in the banquet hall began to thin. There must have been about three hundred people there, he thought. And, the way he felt, he was sure he had spoken to every single one of them. No, he corrected himself almost immediately. Not everyone. There was one person he had avoided ever since learning who she was—an employee of the hotel.
Julia, his ex, had been an employee. She had been a part of the Human Resources team in the Port Elizabeth hotel, where he spent most of his time.
He had been enamoured of her. She was beautiful, intelligent, and just a little arrogant. And she had a son who had crept into his heart the moment Blake had met him. It had been a fascinating combination—the gorgeous, sassy woman and the sweet, shy child. One that had lured him in and blinded him to the truth of what she’d wanted from him. The truth that had made him distrust his judgement and conclude that staying away from his employees would be the safest option to avoid getting hurt.
He narrowed his eyes when he saw Callie walking towards him, and cursed himself for the attraction that flashed through his body. But he refused to give in to it. He would ignore the way some strands of her hair had escaped from her hairstyle and floated down to frame her face. He wouldn’t notice that she walked as if someone had rolled out a red carpet for her. He hardened himself against the effect she had on him—and then she was in front of him and her smell nearly did him in.
The floral scent was edged with seduction—a description that came from nowhere as she stood innocently in front of him, those emerald eyes clear of any sign of wrongdoing.
‘What do you want?’ he snapped, and surprised himself. Regardless of the way his body reacted to her, he could control it. He would control it.
Her eyes widened, but then set with determination. ‘I wanted to set the record straight. I know you must be confused after finding out I work here.’
‘That isn’t the word I’d use.’
‘Well, however you would describe it, I still want to tell you what happened.’
She took a breath, and Blake wondered if she realised how shakily she’d done it.
‘I had no idea who you were when we were stuck in that elevator. If I had, I wouldn’t have—’
‘Flirted with me?’
Something in her eyes fired, and reminded him that he had flirted with her, too. But her voice was calm when she spoke.
‘Yes, I suppose. It was an honest mistake. I didn’t seek you out to try and soften you up, or anything crazy like that. So...’ She paused, and then pushed on. ‘Please don’t take this out on Connor.’
Blake frowned. She was explaining to him that she’d made a mistake—and the honesty already baffled him—but she didn’t seem to be doing it for herself. She was doing it for her brother, and that was...selfless.
Almost everything Julia had done had been self-serving. But then he hadn’t known that in the beginning. He’d thought that she was being unselfish, that she was being honest. And those qualities had attracted him. But it had all been pretence. So what if there didn’t seem to be a deceitful motive behind what Callie was saying? He knew better than anyone else that she might be faking it.
But when he looked at her, into those alluring and devastatingly honest eyes, that thought just didn’t sit right.
‘So,’ he said, sliding his hands into his pockets, ‘I can take it out on you?’
Was he still flirting with her? No, he thought. He wanted to know what she thought he should do about the situation. Yes, that was it—just a test. How would she respond now that she knew he was her boss?
She cleared her throat. ‘If need be, yes. I understand if you feel you need to take disciplinary action, although I don’t believe it’s necessary.’
‘You don’t?’
‘No, sir.’
The word sounded different coming from her, and he wasn’t sure that he liked the way she was defining their relationship.
‘I apologise for my unprofessional behaviour, but I assure you it won’t happen again.’ She looked at him, and this time her eyes pleaded for herself. ‘I didn’t know who you were. Please give me a chance to make this right.’
Blake was big enough a man to realise when he had made a mistake, and the sincerity the woman in front of him exuded told him he had done just that, in spite of his doubts. He straightened, and saw that there was almost no one left in the room for him to meet. Relief poured through him, and finally he gave himself permission to leave.
But before he did, he said, ‘Okay, Miss McKenzie. I believe you. I’ll see you at work on Monday.’
* * *
By eleven o’clock on Monday morning Blake had had enough. He had got in to the office at six and had been poring over the financials since then. Again. But no matter how he looked at it—just as he’d feared the first time he’d reviewed them—there was no denying the fact that this hotel was in serious trouble.
How had he let it get this far? he thought, and walked to the coffee machine in the office he would be sharing with Connor. The man had set up a makeshift space for Blake, which made the place snug, but not unworkable. Right now, he was tempted to have a drink of the stronger stuff Connor kept under lock and key for special occasions—or so he claimed. But even in Blake’s current state of mind he could acknowledge that drinking was not the way to approach this.
With his coffee in his hand, he walked to the window and looked out at the bustle of Cape Town on a Monday morning. The hotel overlooked parts of the business district, and he could feel the busyness of people trying to get somewhere rife in the air as he watched the relays of public transport. But he could also glimpse Table Mountain in the background, and he appreciated the simplicity of its magnitude. It somehow made him feel steadier as he thought about the state the hotel was in.
How had he let this happen?
The thought wouldn’t leave his head. He had picked up that the hotel had been struggling years ago—which was why he had fired Landon and promoted Connor—but still this shouldn’t have got past him. But he knew why it had. And he needed to be honest with himself before he blamed his employees when he was probably just as responsible for this mess.
He had been too focused on dealing with Julia to notice that the business was suffering.
His legs were restless now, as he got to the core of the problem, and he began to pace, coffee in hand, contemplating the situation. About five years ago the Elegance Hotel in Port Elizabeth had started losing staff at a high rate. When he’d noticed how low their retention numbers were, he’d arranged a meeting with HR to discuss it.
It had been at that meeting that he’d first met Julia.
She hadn’t seemed to care that he was her boss, and had pushed the boundaries of what he had considered appropriate professional behaviour. But the reasons she had given him for losing staff had been right, and he’d had to acknowledge that she was an asset to their team. And as soon as he had she’d given him the smile that had drawn him in. Bright, bold, beautiful.
To this day, whenever he thought about that smile he felt a knock to his heart. Especially since those thoughts were so closely intertwined with the way it had softened when she’d looked at her son. The boy who had reminded him eerily of himself, and made him think about how Julia was giving him something Blake never had—a mother.
Until one day it had all shattered into the pieces that st
ill haunted him.
He knew that Julia had taken his attention away from the hotels. And now this hotel was paying the price of a mistake he’d made before he’d known better. The thought conjured up Callie’s face in his mind, but he forced it away, hoping to forget the way her eyes lit up her face when she smiled. He had just remembered the reason he didn’t want to be attracted to her. He didn’t want to be distracted either, and she had the word distraction written all over her beautiful face. And, he reminded himself again, he knew better now.
He grunted at the thought, walked back to the desk, and began to make some calls.
And ignored the face of the woman he had only met a few days ago as it drifted around in his head.
* * *
‘Yes, darling, include that in my trip. I would love to see the mountain everyone keeps harping on about. And please include some cultural museums on my tour.’ The woman sniffed, and placed a dignified hand on the very expensive pearls she wore around her neck. ‘I can’t only be doing touristy things, you know.’
‘Of course, Mrs Applecombe.’ Callie resisted the urge to tell the woman that visiting museums was very much a ‘touristy’ thing. ‘I’ll draw up a package for you and have it sent to your room by the end of the day. If you agree, we can arrange for the tour to be done the day after tomorrow.’
‘Delightful.’ Mrs Applecombe clasped her hands together. ‘I just know Henry will love what we’ve discussed. Just remember, dear, that it’s—’
‘Supposed to be a surprise. I know.’ Callie smiled, and stood. ‘I’ll make sure that it’s everything you could hope for and more.’
After a few more lengthy reminders about the surprise anniversary gift for her husband Mrs Applecombe finally left, and Callie sighed in relief. She loved the woman’s spirit, but after forty minutes of going back and forth about a tour Callie knew she could have designed in her sleep, she needed a break.
The Tycoon's Reluctant Cinderella Page 2