by Tawny Weber
She wanted him to want her. So much, she wished he’d say he was interested in more than business with her. An unrealistic hope, the logical part of her mind pointed out.
Mia’s breath lodged in her chest at the idea of her and Spence getting physical. No connection other than their bodies. No commitments other than pleasure. Those big, strong hands caressing her. Those intense, dark eyes watching her.
Oh, my.
She could get on board with him being physically interested in her.
Except he worked for her, she reminded herself, hoping the warning would take hold before she did something stupid. Like touch him.
Her fingers itched to skim that hint of stubble on his cheeks. Thankfully he answered before she could reach out and make a fool of herself.
“I think this is a great job that’ll give me plenty of opportunities to up my game. I’ll learn the ins and outs of working with high society, I’ll get a solid behind-the-scenes understanding of how charitable programs function and I’ll get to meet a lot of people.” He offered her a smile that was so full of charm, she didn’t need light to see it. “And who knows, if the security gig doesn’t pan out, maybe we can work it out so I stay with you permanently.”
Permanently? Delight fluttered in Mia’s belly, then quickly dove into rock-hard dread at the memory of her earlier lie. As much as she’d rather keep it to herself, to just pretend it hadn’t happened, she knew she couldn’t. Not if Spence was going to continue working with her. Especially not if he was going to participate in the Alcosta fund-raisers.
“I have a confession to make,” she said, the words as quiet as the night wind dancing through the trees. She wet her lips, her fingers twisting in the fabric of her dress as she tried to force herself to make the confession. But the words wouldn’t come.
“What’s your confession?” Spence prodded, stepping closer and shifting to the side just enough that the lights from the ballroom glanced off his face. Mia almost wished he hadn’t moved. It was harder to make an idiot of herself if she could see his expression.
“Maybe it’ll be easier if I give you the context first. See, earlier this evening, a potential client—a really important one whose business I really, really need—expressed an interest in me. Actually, he expressed a little more interest than I was comfortable with.”
“Did someone get pushy with you?” Spence asked. The words were quiet and calm, but there was something beneath them that sent a chill down Mia’s spine.
She angled just a little closer to the heater.
“Oh, no. Nothing like that. And I’m usually better at shutting that kind of thing down. But this time I got flustered, I think, because the client is so important. Really, really important.”
“Mia. You’re rambling.”
“Probably because this is a little embarrassing,” she murmured, biting her lip as she tried to figure out how to admit the rest. Finally she just blurted it out. “When you came over to talk with me, he misinterpreted our relationship. Or rather, I encouraged him to misinterpret it. And now that it’s been misinterpreted, I’d like to keep it that way.”
Grimacing, Mia tried to mentally rephrase that in a way that made sense. She wasn’t sure she could follow that line of babbling herself, so she had no expectation that he would. Before she could try, Spence nodded.
“So to sum up, the guy hit on you and wasn’t taking no for an answer. Because you want his business, you didn’t want to offend him, so you claimed I was your boyfriend?”
Relieved that he seemed more amused than irritated, Mia drew in an easy breath of cool night air and smiled. “Exactly. I swear, I’ve never done anything like that before. But I’ve worked really hard on the Alcosta campaign and didn’t want to offend him before I’d even pitched my ideas.”
“Alcosta?”
A little unnerved at the icy look in his eyes, Mia slowly nodded.
“You told Alcosta that we’re in a relationship? That I’m your guy?”
“Yes.” No longer relaxed, Mia tried a placating smile.
“Excellent.” Before Mia could do more than frown at the change in tone, he angled his head and smiled. “Tell you what, if you’re going to incorporate security into this pitch, we need to solidify our story and strategy ahead of time.”
“Ahead of what time?”
“Ahead of that meeting time,” he said, steely determination lurking just beneath the friendly tone. “I’m going with you. This way, I’m there to answer any questions and you won’t be alone with Alcosta. At all.”
Chapter 5
“What do you mean, you’re dating your new assistant? How the hell did this happen so fast?”
“It’s not fast, really,” Mia lied. “It’s pretty casual, so I hadn’t told you about him before. Kind of like how you keep everything about your boyfriend, including his name, a secret.”
After a lot of tossing and turning the night before, Mia had decided to keep up the fiction of her and Spence having a relationship in front of Jessica. It wasn’t right to ask the woman to fib to her boss, and Mia wasn’t willing to walk back the lie, so this just seemed easier.
Or at least it’d seemed that way in the wee hours. Now the bright morning light streaming through the kitchen windows seemed to emphasize every flaw in that thinking.
Or more to the point, it emphasized the irritation on her roommate’s already flawlessly made-up face. With her hair falling in loose curls over the shoulders of what Jessica considered casual Sunday wear—a silk maxi dress and designer heels—the blonde looked like she wanted to throw something.
“And where the hell did this guy come from? How’d he end up being your assistant?” Jessica asked, shooting out the next question with a bang before Mia had even responded to the first. “I thought you were letting me find a new assistant for you. I’m supposed to be helping you out, Mia. Don’t you trust me?”
Teeth clenching, Mia bit back her automatic curse. Years of built-up frustration due to her family’s guilt, guile and straight-up manipulation made her want to scream. But she knew Jessica wasn’t deliberately trying to guilt-trip her, so Mia kept her tone light and her expression friendly as she explained.
“I appreciate all of your help, Jessica. I know how busy you are with your own work.” Not to mention her even busier love life, since it’d kept her away from the apartment for two days. “Lucky for both of us, I mentioned my predicament to Spence and he offered to help out. He’s perfet for the job.”
“Perfect, is he? I guess that means you don’t need my help any longer.” Jessica’s pretty face rearranged itself into a pout as she dropped into a chair with enough force to jar the table, sending Mia’s tablet skittering across the slick surface.
Mia clamped down on the urge to grab her tablet and move it to a safer place. She’d had enough experience with drama to know that the second she chose the expensive tool she needed to basically run her business over her pouting roommate, things would get ugly.
“Of course I need your help,” she said instead. “I don’t know what I’d have done this last week without it. Especially with crafting the proposal for your boss. If I get that contract, added to all the events I have coming up, I’m going to need all the help I can get.”
“That’s true. You’re going to be so busy training this boyfriend of yours, you’ll probably have twice as much work for me,” Jessica said, her teasing facial expression at odds with the irritation in her eyes. “I’d set aside this afternoon to work on your client and vendor database. I still need all of your contact information to get started, though.”
No, Mia mentally groaned. Not the database.
Yes, she needed to put all of that information into a database. It was the biggest to-do task on her list, and had been for over a year. And it wasn’t like it was top secret or anything. But it was hers.
She’d collected many clients’ details o
ver the years, with everything from their favorite restaurant to their favorite flowers to their pets’ names. Her vendor information was complete, with notes on which subcontractors were friendliest, which were leeches and which ones needed big tips to do their jobs. Potential contacts, networking information, family connections. All of those notes, those index cards and those scraps of paper stuffed into a file needed to be input into an easily searchable database.
But she wanted to do it herself.
“Actually, I have a couple tasks that are much more important than the database, if you’ve got some time?” she told Jessica. To give herself time to think of them, she bent down to peer through the oven window. The cranberry-pecan muffins looked as done as they smelled.
Perfect.
“I’ve incorporated everything you told me about Señor Alcosta’s preferences to incorporate as many cultural elements from his homeland as possible into my proposal. I have a list of venue options for Señor Alcosta but need their availability confirmed. I need quotes from three liquor vendors, to solicit set lists and demos from all of the local mariachi bands and a cost analysis for each event I’ve outlined, focused on the donation levels necessary to hit our goal,” she listed as she pulled the tray from the oven using a vivid teal-and-green-striped oven mitt, pouring the ruby-studded golden mounds into a waiting basket.
All tasks she could easily do herself, but if Jessica took them on, Mia would have more time to perfect her presentation.
“If I’m doing all that, what’s your guy doing?”
Mia almost said security, but caught herself at the last second. For some weird reason, Jessica was already feeling threatened by Mia having a new assistant. No point in making things worse.
“I figured I’d work with him one-on-one. You know, show him the ropes, use these first couple of weeks as training for bigger events,” Mia hedged.
“Did you check his references? I’ll do it myself,” Jessica decided, pulling her cell phone out of her dress pocket. “Give me his name, his address, phone number—any pertinent information I can use to run him. Better yet, you have his application, right? I’ll do a background check on him and on his references this morning.”
“That’s all taken care of.” It wasn’t, but for all she knew, a wife or girlfriend should show up in that background check and ruin her fictional relationship.
“I hope you did a thorough job. It’s your reputation—and mine, now—if he’s incompetent,” Jessica muttered, kicking the table again. “Of course, all that one-on-one training probably has its benefits. I hope you’re not paying him for that.”
“And I hope you’re not insinuating that I don’t know what I’m doing,” Mia snapped, finally at the end of her rope. The only thing that irritated her more than someone trying to tell her how to handle her business was someone trying to tell her how to run her life.
“No, no.” Looking horrified, Jessica waved both hands in the air as if clearing the slate. “I’d never do that. I admire what you’ve built. You’re totally great at your job or I wouldn’t have recommended you to my boss. I guess I’m just a little protective. You know, because I don’t want to see some guy take advantage of you. And I’d especially hate to see anyone screw up your business or lose you a huge account like Alcosta International.”
Surprised—and a little touched, once she got past the irritation, at how serious the other woman was—Mia offered a conciliatory smile.
“I’m not about to let anyone take advantage of me,” she vowed. “Spence is a great guy. He’s clever and strong. He has a take-charge personality and a great sense of humor.”
Not to mention a tight butt and shoulders to die for.
“I can’t wait to meet this paragon.”
“I think you’ll like him,” Mia lied. Then, because she didn’t see any way around it, she admitted, “He’s coming by this afternoon. You can meet him then.”
“You invited him here? To our apartment?” Her eyes wide with outrage, Jessica reminded her, “Don’t you remember our agreement? No lovers, no overnight guests, no uncomfortably sexy scenarios.”
That hadn’t so much been an agreement as the rule Mia had laid down after listening to Jessica go into detail about how one of her hotel room sexcapades had resulted in a shattered lamp, torn curtains and a broken bed frame.
Mia, on the other hand, had never even had sex hot enough to tear up the sheets, let alone do property damage.
Besides, it was her apartment, and up until a month ago, had been her office, as well. So she had every right to invite over anyone she wanted, especially anyone she might be dating—for real or otherwise. Those and a dozen other responses ran through Mia’s mind. But pissing off Alcosta’s assistant before she’d even had her morning coffee wasn’t a good way to get it.
So she swallowed her comments and offered a placating smile before getting up to pour coffee into an oversize cobalt mug. Doctoring it with sugar, cream and a dash of cinnamon, she handed it to the woman who held her career in her manicured hands.
“This is just a business meeting, so the furniture is safe. Spence is handling the details on a few of my smaller events this week so I can focus on the presentation for Señor Alcosta,” she explained. “I don’t have a lot of extra time, so it seemed smartest to have him come here, where all the files and information are, instead of meeting him somewhere else.”
With narrowed eyes, Jessica considered that as she took her first drink of coffee. By the second sip, she’d stopped tapping her foot against the table leg, and by the third her face was irritation-free and her body had relaxed.
“Well, I guess this is good, then. Anything that gives you more time and energy to focus on Santiago is great.”
For a brief second, Mia considered asking Jessica if her boss was always a lech, but dismissed the idea. Dealing with perverts probably ranked right up there with property-damaging sex in Jessica’s list of things strong women did.
“I didn’t get a chance to talk with you Friday,” Jessica continued. “But Santiago mentioned again how beneficial he thought it’d be if your uncle was attending his events. He’s sure he can lure in a lot of dignitaries if they think a senator will be attending.”
Mia’s spine automatically stiffened.
She wasn’t using her uncle as a bargaining chip, dammit. She wanted to get this job—every job—on the basis of her skills and reputation as a stellar event planner. Not because her uncle was a senator. Or her father an admiral, or her brother-in-law a fighter pilot.
But...
She covered her hesitation by getting up to top off her own coffee. Taking a little extra time stirring in a dollop of coconut milk, she considered the pros instead of the cons.
She knew perfectly well that networking was one of the strongest lynchpins in the art of soliciting large sums of money from people. Maybe it’d help if she looked at this as just another form of that. And agreeing to invite her uncle didn’t guarantee his attendance. But it could cement this contract, would get her points for her willingness to meet the client’s wishes and might pacify Jessica out of her snit.
“I’ll give my uncle a call this evening. I’ll mention the scope of the event and see if he might be available during that time frame. No guarantees,” she cautioned when Jessica clapped her hands. “Even if he is available, he might not attend. He’s very particular about that kind of thing.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a quirk of his. He doesn’t like to imply support of any cause unless he’s 100 percent behind it.” Mia smiled in memory. “Once, he refused to attend my sister’s ballet performance because they were doing La Bayadère and he was taking a stand against Russia.”
“This is totally different,” Jessica assured her. “I mean, who doesn’t support hospitals for children?”
Actually, it was exactly the same, but Mia didn’t bother pointing that out before Jess
ica glanced at her watch and gave a delicate yelp.
“I’ve got to go,” she said, leaving her empty coffee mug on the table as she hurried out of the kitchen. “I’m meeting my hunk in an hour and I don’t want to be late.”
“I thought you were hanging out here today.”
“I was planning to spend the day helping you. But now that you have someone to replace me, I’m going to give my hottie a good-morning treat before his flight.”
“Where is he flying off to this time?” Mia asked, not surprised when Jessica shook her head.
“No, no, no. I can’t tell that.” Jessica stopped to lean her elbows on the short bar that ran between the kitchen and living room and offered a naughty wink. “But if you want, I’ll tell you what we’ll be doing. In great, vivid detail.”
“No, no, no,” Mia shot back. The last thing she wanted before a one-on-one session with the hottest man she’d ever met was to talk about someone else’s wild, passionate sex life.
“Your loss,” Jessica said with a laugh, heading toward her bedroom. “I could have inspired hours of work-time kink for you and your new hottie.”
“During work time, he’s my assistant.” Nonwork time, too. More’s the pity.
“Your call. Still, you might want to primp a little. Maybe punch up the makeup, wear something girly,” Jessica threw over her shoulder. “You might not want bust-up-the-furniture passion, but if you’re dating this guy, you do want him more interested in you than in the work.”
No. She definitely wanted him interested in the work.
Mia caught a glance at herself in the etched mirror over the fireplace and frowned.
She’d given her hair its usual swipe of serum and finger-comb after her shower, so the short strands stood this way and that in gamine-like tousled disarray. Since she planned to work from home all day, she’d gone for casual, the front hem of her forest-green tee tucked into the waistband of her favorite boyfriend jeans, a chunky quartz-crystal necklace on a leather band and her favorite hoop earrings, the ones her father claimed were big enough for a bird to perch on. A smudge of liner and a swipe of mascara were all she’d bothered with for makeup.