by Lia Lee
The concierge made Laine wait to be escorted up to the suite, where the staff member encouraged her to have a seat at a circular conference table. She took out her planner and skimmed over her to-do list while she waited.
“Morning, tiger.”
Laine looked up and felt her heart skip a beat. “Aziz! What are you doing here?”
“Well, I made an appointment to hire a decorator.” Aziz strolled up with his hands in his pockets and sucked in his lower lip as his eyes looked her up and down.
“A decorator.” Laine stared blankly for a moment.
“Yes. I’ve been looking for one for some time. Imagine my surprise when I happened to run into the very woman I was to meet this week?”
Laine leaned forward incredulously. “And you happened to, purely by accident, pick me?”
“Not at all.” Aziz strolled around Laine and leaned against the wall. “I picked you quite deliberately. I know that you helped to design the club we went to this weekend, and your designs have made it into several home magazine features. Not to mention the Northeastern Interiors Award you won last year. Darling, of course I know who Laine McConnell is.”
Aziz spread his hands. “Going to that party where you happened to be, that was the accident. A happy one. As I said, it must be fate. How different would our relationship be if we had only just now met?”
“Our relationship would be a lot more appropriate for work if we had,” Laine informed him.
“I will pay incredibly well for a job well done,” Aziz continued, ignoring her concern. “My home is quite large, and we’ve much to do in the way of updating it. I would oversee more of the work, but as you can imagine, I am a very busy man. I am on a bit of a working vacation at the moment, but at home, I cannot spend the time to make these decisions.”
Laine rose from the table slowly. “Are you saying you want to hire our company?”
“I want to hire you. Laine, I have seen your work. We swam in it.”
Laine couldn’t help but laugh a little at that.
“You have the very flair for style that I need! The way you select color—art, even! I implore you to consider my offer.” Aziz went over to a cabinet underneath a flat screen television. There, he pulled out a folder, set it on the table, and took out several photographs of large rooms.
“It is you I want, Laine, not your firm,” Aziz continued. “But as you work for them, I will abide by their rules…if you so demand. I would much prefer to simply hire you and turn the redesign of our home over to your capable hands.”
Laine stared at him and then looked down at the photographs. His home was simply enormous. It seemed to be much more of a palace than a house. Laine had to admit that the challenge of designing for such a tremendous space was very alluring. Not that she disliked decorating apartments for people in the city, but there was only so much to do, and she’d been doing it constantly and well, for a while now. Her creative muscles wanted stretching. With this canvas and Aziz’s budget, this job could be the very thing to satisfy her.
Laine stood as she looked over the rooms in front of her. “I would need a lot more detailed pictures.”
Aziz turned to her and touched her chin with two fingertips. “No, no, Laine. I want you to come back to Bahrain with me.”
Laine took a moment to let that concept sink in. Come back with him? Go half a world away from her home, just to decorate his house? Could she get away from the office for that long? Other designers traveled. They took on accounts in Chicago, Maine, Florida. But would Mr. Brandt be okay with her doing it? Laine thought that he should be. She’d proven herself more than reliable, but knowing that she was owed that respect and demanding it were two different matters.
“I…I can’t just take off work here, Aziz. I have other accounts,” Laine sputtered after a moment.
“I would pay you handsomely to hand those off to someone else and focus on my home.”
“And I don’t really need to be there to pick out patterns.”
“But you must live in the place. You must feel its energy and learn more about us, if you are going to do what you do best.” Aziz brushed his fingers through the bit of white hair falling over her forehead. “I have considered this. I can convince your boss that this is the best thing to do.”
“I don’t want you to talk to my boss!” Laine snapped, pulling away from him. “I’ll talk to him.” She sighed and put her hands on her hips. “Okay, I could come for a week. Maybe two. Check out the place, really assess your needs. I’ll have to get back to you, though. I can’t just pick up and go!”
I don’t know if I can go at all, she thought to herself. What if Mr. Brandt says no? What if Dad needs something while I’m away?
“I understand this. Although if you could be on the plane with me when I head back, it would make things much simpler.” Aziz crossed his arms. “Will two weeks be long enough to do a job such as this?”
“It’ll have to be. Just…give me some time to think…” Laine moved over to the window, trying to put more distance between herself and Aziz. The chemical attraction between them was almost too much, sometimes.
“Take some time,” Aziz allowed. He moved behind her and hugged her waist. His chin rested on her shoulder, and Laine almost couldn’t breathe. “But please, Laine, come to my home. Bring it to life for me.”
Laine closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his strong arms just for a moment. She felt torn. Going with him would be a huge boost for her status and for her career. One that she might need, if she were ever to move forward. But if she went with him, there was so much she would be leaving behind. There would be so much she was risking. What if her designs just weren’t good enough for a project of this scale? And ultimately, Laine was afraid that if she went, there would be no escaping falling in love with him.
Chapter Six
Laine walked into the staff meeting the next day with a heart full of anxiety and a head full of ideas. She had been thinking over the offer carefully. She’d spent an hour on the phone with her father the night before talking about it. Of course he’d encouraged Laine to take the job. He’d always encouraged his girls in their careers. That didn’t mean he’d be all right if she left him all alone, with only the occasional, random visit from Emma.
Laine set down her coffee and iPad and settled in. She liked being at meetings early. It allowed her to observe people as they came in and prepare herself for the conversations to come.
“I saw a little video of our Miss Lainey,” Adrian Ramos said as he entered and sat across the table from her.
Laine rolled her eyes. “Right. From the party.”
“Nooo. At the club you and I designed together.” Adrian leaned forward on the table. “Who knew our Lainey could cut it up on the dance floor? And with such a hot guy.”
“Hush. I was…wooing a potential client.” It was kind of true, now.
Adrian looked dubious, but others started to fill in, and he turned to talk to Richards when he walked in. Soon Mr. Brandt arrived, and the meeting started. Everyone presented on their current accounts and prospective leads. When it was Laine’s turn, she discussed the several smaller accounts that she’d finished up the week before and then went over the various upsells she’d made to the Madison account.
“It will take a few more months to execute, but the designs are finished and approved. In the end, the Madison account is going to do very well by us,” Laine concluded.
“Nicely done.” Mr. Brandt bobbed his head. “All right. From here, I’d like Joel to take over the Madison account. Cross the T’s, dot the I’s, make sure they stay happy. You got that?”
Mr. Brandt looked to Joel just as Laine did. Joel seemed to shrink under the scrutiny, since Mr. Brandt was appraising, but Laine’s look was downright murderous.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Laine said with as much politeness as she could muster. “I brought in the Madison account. I’ve seen them through all their designs and convinced them to do much more work than they’d o
riginally come in for. I even arranged for a local artist the family loves to paint a mural for their kids’ room.”
“And you’re suggesting,” Mr. Brandt breezed with a shrug, “that it’s ‘yours’? The company has my name on it. Everything we do here is for Brandt Interiors.”
“Of course not, sir, I just…” Laine felt at a loss for words.
How could Mr. Brandt do this to her? She had been unwaveringly loyal since her first day here! She had passed up other opportunities to keep working here, because the Brandt reputation was one that attracted the kinds of awards that she won. With Joel’s name closing the Madison account, he would get half the credit for a job in which she’d done 97% of the work, and he would get half the commission!
And it wasn’t even as though Joel had seniority. He’d come in six months ago. Mr. Brandt had just handed the whale she’d reeled in over to a damn baby.
“So this isn’t a problem, correct?” Mr. Brandt tapped his pen on the table. “I need team players here. I need everyone to be thinking of what’s best for Team Brandt, not Team McConnell or Team Ramos.”
Adrian looked up from his nail polish and caught Laine’s eye as if to say, “What did we do to get signaled out for the sports metaphors?”
Laine pressed her lips together in a fine line and narrowed her eyes. The temperature of the room seemed to drop a few degrees, and she could tell that Joel was terribly uncomfortable.
Good.
“Actually, sir, this is excellent news,” she said with frosty confidence. “With Joel tying up all the loose ends and doing the paperwork, I can get started on the next big lead that I hooked over the weekend.”
“Oh?” Mr. Brandt raised a brow. “How big?”
Laine caught the look he was casting over to Richards. She could tell that he was considering making this a “team” effort, if the client was big enough.
“The Amirmoez estate in Bahrain.”
“Amirmoez?” Mr. Brandt’s brow furrowed. “That name sounds familiar.”
“They have large holdings across economic sectors internationally,” Richards said.
“Sounds like a bit of a big job for you, little lady,” Mr. Brandt said. “Why don’t we team you up with Richards and Jenkins for this? They can work on location, and you can coordinate from here.”
“Aziz asked for me personally. He’s not going to book us if you send two strangers to his house,” Laine said.
“Excuse me?” Mr. Brandt straightened his shoulders. “Who is Aziz?”
“Aziz is the head of the Amirmoez estate, with whom I met yesterday. I’ll have to be on location for the initial planning, but I’m sure in the end, with what Aziz has promised in way of my fee, it will be worth it to the team,” she added.
Mr. Brandt seemed to be torn between anger and flashing dollar signs in his eyes.
“Maybe we should have a meeting with Mr. Amirmoez,” Richards suggested.
“Maybe you should, John,” Laine snapped. “Maybe if you heard it from him, then you would believe what I am telling you. If I am not the one on that plane with him, he will go with another company. He made the appointment looking specifically for my work, not my secretarial skills. So while it seems like none of you can bear to acknowledge the success I’ve brought to this business, Aziz is more than willing to see it.”
“Laine, you are on thin ice,” Mr. Brandt warned.
Laine looked up at the right corner of the room. It was where she stared every time he handed off a case or diminished some accomplishment she had made. Why had she ever expected a payoff for her efforts?
The rest of her coworkers were sitting in uncomfortable silence. Aside from Adrian, who was practically bursting with words that wouldn’t be appropriate to say aloud.
“I need at least two weeks,” Laine said. “And I think it would be beyond foolish to let this account get away, just because you don’t believe I can handle it. It would almost literally be like tossing a million dollars into a pile and setting it on fire.” She rose from her chair. “I can have my assistant send you the information.”
“Miss McConnell, you and I need to have a talk in my office,” Mr. Brandt said in a low voice.
“I suppose we do.”
As Laine made her way back to her office, she ruffled a hand through her hair and took deep breaths. If she still had a job, it was only by the skin of her teeth, and perhaps the subconscious realization from Mr. Brandt that his new hires wouldn’t be able to compensate for the money Laine regularly brought in. An intern started across her path but then skittered back to a cubicle on the far side of the room. What Laine needed now was some time alone to think. She just wanted to go home, take a hot bath, and mull over that bar brawl of a meeting with a glass of wine.
Laine stopped and fixed her eyes on a tall figure perched on the desk of the pretty temp outside of her office. She hadn’t caught this one’s name. They tended to cycle through the office since Mr. Brandt was too cheap to spring for the kind of assistant that might actually last here. The young woman had a full wave of blonde hair and looked up at Aziz with stars in her eyes, giggling and covering her mouth as he spoke.
Laine rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth. She picked up her pace and closed in on the desk, causing the new temp to jump.
“I was just thinking about you,” Laine said to Aziz.
“You were? Excellent. I hope you were thinking about my offer.” Aziz looked at her and smiled beatifically.
It annoyed Laine even more that she suspected he knew she was bothered.
“Come into my office. We have some things to discuss.” Laine stepped toward the door and then gave the temp a pointed look. “Go down to the mailroom to check on packages for the Madison account, would you? They need to be delivered to Joel Pratt ASAP.”
The temp hopped up with a nod and hurried away. Laine went into her office.
“I don’t like that expression,” Aziz said as he followed her. “Have you decided not to come with me? I don’t intend to give up so easily.”
“You’re completely wrong. I just talked to my boss in our weekly staff meeting. I’m all yours,” Laine replied tersely.
Aziz lifted his brows. “That’s excellent!”
Laine walked around him to close the door. “I’ll need you to talk to Mr. Brandt about your expectations. Honestly, it’s either that or he’s going to change his mind in the next two weeks and just fire me.”
“Fire you? I don’t imagine any of your coworkers has brought in a client offering what I am.”
“That doesn’t matter to him.”
Aziz pursed his lips. “You should quit. Don’t hang onto this old carcass just because you are afraid.”
“Who said I was afraid?” Laine pushed past him to reach her desk.
“Why else would you work for a small man like that? Brandt himself does not do the work. He hires other people to do it for him, and he tries to make them small. You are much better than this place. Leave and don’t look back!”
Laine swallowed, feeling a lump in her throat. That was right. She was leaving. She had basically issued an ultimatum to her boss over taking this job in Bahrain. When had she decided? With a slow, irritated breath, she realized it must have been the moment that it became clear he would take this job from her without a second thought. Mr. Brandt would take everything from her that he could and turn around to her male coworkers with the praises and raises.
Still, making a huge life decision because she was pissed was hardly the action of the rational woman she prided herself on being. But she couldn't go to Mr. Brandt’s office now and take it back.
“Just so you understand,” Laine said. “I’m coming in an official capacity only. There will be times when I’ll need your input, and hopefully, you won’t be too busy flirting with other women to help me get this job done.”
“Ahh. You are jealous. Why not just say so?” Aziz laughed and moved to slip his arms around her waist. She moved away and crossed her arms imperiously. Aziz’s gri
n only grew wider. “Again, you make me work for what I want.”
Laine turned her head slowly as Aziz began to circle around her. He reached over to the window that faced the rest of the office and drew the blinds closed. Then, he lowered his hand to lock the door.
“We had our fun. But now I’m your employee. This is my career. It’s important to me!” Laine trailed off as Aziz unbuckled his belt. She remembered the energy between them only a few days before and how she missed his scent and his heat against her body.
“Your career is also very important to me. I don’t intend to damage it in any way,” Aziz assured her. “Or you. Unless you ask me to.”
When Aziz approached her again, his hands grabbed her hips and pushed her back against her desk. It rattled slightly, and Laine looked behind her at the papers and the frame with a picture of her father inside.
“You are angry,” Aziz whispered. “Show me your fire, tiger.”
Kissing Aziz hungrily, she turned the picture over and began to caress the back of his neck. His hands moved up and down her sides, and within moments, she was letting his big hands push up her skirt.
Her panties disappeared easily, and she restrained a gasp when she felt two large, rough fingers entering her. She bit her lip and arched her back as Aziz put his fingers to work, stroking and teasing in the most expert way, and causing her muscles to tighten and jump with anticipation for more.
Laine bowed her head over his shoulder and let his body muffle her panting. Aziz stroked the back of her hair and moved his hands to lift her easily. She pushed away the trinkets and picture frames that littered the edge of her desk before Aziz laid her back on a bed of files, drawings, and hastily scribbled notes. He loosened several buttons on the front of her blouse as he nibbled his way down her chest, then slipped one hand into her bra. His thumb teased over her waiting nipple, making it stand erect before his lips moved over it with gentle, open-mouthed kisses.
Laine’s head fell back and her lips opened in a silent cry. She looked at the skyline outside of her office as her breasts ached and her core throbbed with need. A soft shush and thump told her his pants had hit the floor.