But she’d already accepted the position, Charles was in New York, there was no turning back.
Besides, what was she going to turn back to? New Mexico? Capani’s? She grabbed her Gucci bag, removed her sunglasses, and stepped out of the car.
Inside, Beatrice and Paige were standing behind the front desk watching as the small, shapely black woman stepped out of a car that looked remarkably like Charles’s.
“That’s her?” Paige asked. She was astonished. “That can’t be her!”
“And it looks like his car, Paige,” Beatrice said. “It has to be her.”
“Charles is a lot of insufferable things,” Paige said. “He does things differently just for the hell of it most of the times. But there is no way you can convince me that he would be so reckless as to turn his business, a business like this, over to somebody like her!”
“Yes,” Beatrice said, staring at Jenay too. “She is gorgeous, isn’t she?”
Paige looked at Beatrice. What did that woman’s looks have to do with what she was saying, she wondered?
But Beatrice knew exactly what it had to do with what she was saying. Beatrice was worried about this woman taking her job. Paige was worried about this woman taking her man. A man, Beatrice and everybody else in town already knew, she never had to begin with. Abigail Ridge was Paige’s competition, Beatrice thought. Not this exotic piece of meat they had on their hands right here.
But as Jenay walked into the majestic lobby of the Jericho Inn, a lobby with a massive crystal chandelier hanging from the rafters of its cathedral ceilings, and the dual staircases sweeping down on either side, and remarkable artwork donning the walls, she was too busy admiring the grandeur of the place rather than the look on the faces of two older women. Because it was all so daunting. She was astounded that Charles would believe she could run all of this. She was pleased that he would give her this chance, and was inwardly excited by the prospect. But she was awestruck too.
And she remembered what he had said. He wasn’t giving her any pass. He would crack the whip if he had to. It was a lot to take in all at once.
“Welcome to the Inn,” Beatrice said cheerfully as Jenay walked up to the desk.
Jenay returned her smile. “Thank-you.” She also noticed the other one standing beside her. She wasn’t even pretending to be cheerful. She was too busy staring daggers at her.
“Do you have a reservation?” Beatrice asked.
“No, actually, I’m Jenay Franklin. I’m here to see Beatrice Moynihan.”
Paige nor Beatrice could still believe it. She looked so young, thought the fifty-year-old Beatrice. She looked so black, thought the forty-year-old Paige.
“I’m Bea Moynihan,” Beatrice said as she extended her hand.
They shook. “Nice to meet you, Miss Moynihan.”
“Bea please. Or Beatrice. Charles told me you were coming.”
“Yes. He mentioned you as well.”
“Well, I know you’ve had a long drive. He said you were coming from Boston?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I have the VIP suite prepared, as he instructed me,” Beatrice said, “and I’ll be happy to show you to your room. We don’t have Valet parking here, but I’ll get one of the staff to retrieve your luggage.”
“Actually,” Jenay said, “I’m not ready to see my own room. I would like to see the Inn first.”
Beatrice wasn’t accustomed to anybody, outside of Charles Sinatra, going against her suggestions so easily. “You would like to see it?”
“Yes. Specifically the guestrooms.” Jenay was convinced that if the rooms were lacking, so was everything else. If the rooms were in tiptop shape, so was everything else. She had to know what she was up against.
“You want to see the rooms now?” Beatrice asked, as if she’d never heard anything more ridiculous.
Jenay didn’t think she had asked anything odd. She remained steadfast. “Yes.”
Beatrice smiled that smile again. “I know you’re tired,” she said. “You’ve had a very long drive.”
“It wasn’t that long,” Jenay pointed out. “Little over three hours.”
Beatrice and Paige exchanged a glance. Beatrice looked back at Jenay. “I suggest you get some rest,” she said, “and start fresh in the morning.”
“I would rather start fresh now. I would like to look around. At the guestrooms first and foremost.”
Beatrice exhaled and looked to Paige for help.
“That’s really not necessary,” Paige said to Jenay.
Jenay looked at her. “You work here also?”
“No.”
“Then what’s not necessary?”
“Your insistence on seeing the guestrooms. You just got here. Bullying the staff is not necessary.”
Bullying the staff? By making a request? Jenay was floored. “And you are again?”
“I’m Paige Springer,” Paige said proudly. “I’m Charles’s girlfriend.”
Jenay was taken aback by that assertion, but she wasn’t surprised by it. It was only two days ago that Charles had decided that they should see where their brand new relationship led. She was certain she wasn’t going to come to his hometown and find that he had no love interests already here. She expected to find plenty love interests. She was just surprised to find it in her face so quickly.
But she wasn’t about to let the girlfriend know her true feelings. She looked at Beatrice. Charles hired her to do a job, and she was going to do it. “Show me every available guestroom,” she ordered.
But if she thought it would be as easy as giving an order, she was mistook. “There are none,” Beatrice said, and Paige smiled. They were a united front.
“There are no vacancies?”
“None,” Beatrice said, grabbed her clipboard off the countertop, and began to walk around the desk. “But I’ll be happy to show you the facilities if you like. We can begin in the kitchen.”
Paige grinned. Exactly where she needed to begin, she wanted to say.
Jenay knew she wanted to say it too, and it would not have mattered. She wasn’t about to lower herself by arguing with some girlfriend and a woman who was actually her subordinate. They wanted that. They wanted the conflict and some knock-down drag-out so that they could run back to Charles and tell him what a major mistake he made by hiring that woman. But it wasn’t going to happen. Jenay actually smiled. “I’d love to see the kitchen,” she said. “Lead the way!”
Beatrice hadn’t expected that response. And Paige either, whose grin was gone. Black girls had hot tempers, or so she’d heard. She was expecting fireworks. What in the world?
Beatrice was expecting it too. But now that it was clearly not going to happen, she was on the hook. “Right this way,” she said, and began escorting Jenay to the backside of the inn.
Paige fell against the countertop when they left. She was floored. She immediately pulled out her cell phone, and waited for her friend to answer.
“You will not believe,” she said into her phone, “what Big Daddy has hoisted upon us now.”
It was nightfall before the meetings ended for the day. Negotiations were going nowhere, and Abe and Ethan was leaving it all up to him. But as soon as he plopped down in his chauffeur-driven Town car to make the journey back to the hotel, he pulled out his cell phone. Jenay was on his mind. But when she answered his call, she didn’t sound as upbeat as he had hoped.
“Hey,” he said.
“How’s New York?” she asked.
“Tense. How about there?”
Jenay hesitated. But then spoke the truth. “Tense,” she responded.
Charles didn’t expect to hear that. He had warned Beatrice he didn’t want any bullshit. “You’re in Jericho?”
“I’m here. I’m at the Inn.”
“What are you doing?”
“Right now I’m in the hotel’s restaurant looking over the financial records. The bookkeeper---”
“Megan?” Charles asked.
“Ye
s. She’s been very nice. She pulled the records for me.”
“Good. What about Beatrice? How has she been?”
Jenay didn’t mix words. “Not so nice.”
Charles was cautious. He had to make sure Jenay wasn’t just being too sensitive. “She’s treating you disrespectfully?” he asked.
“Oh, she smiles and is as friendly, conversation-wise, as she can be. But she still wants to control everything. Contrary to what you may think, Charlie, she’s not ready to hand over the reins of power to anybody yet. Especially not me. Maybe not even you.”
“That’ll change, don’t worry. So what do you think about the place?”
“What I’ve been able to see of it, it’s quite wonderful.”
“What do you mean what you’ve been able to see?”
“I wanted to see the guestrooms. First off. That would let me know just how well run this place really is. But that didn’t happen.”
Charles frowned. “Why the hell not?”
“We’re booked solid. According to Beatrice. No rooms to show.”
Charles knew better than that. And now he was fuming. “Other than that, you’re okay?”
“I’m okay,” Jenay said less convincing than she realized. “Adjusting, that’s all.”
Charles felt like a prick. Like a monumental fuck-up. How could he allow her to go into that lion’s den alone? He knew there would be some resistance. There usually were whenever he made changes to his business command structures. But he’d let Beatrice have the run of that place far too long. She wasn’t ready for the change.
“I’ll let you get back to work,” he said. “You take care of yourself.”
“You too,” Jenay responded, and the call ended.
Charles was about to phone Beatrice Moynihan and read her the riot act, but that wouldn’t solve his immediate concern. Jenay and her happiness, and her adjustment in his world, concerned him more. He made another phone call, alright, but this time to Abe.
“I’ve got to get back to Maine,” he said over the phone.
“But you’re our lead negotiator,” Abe reminded him. “You can’t just leave!”
“You’ll have to take the lead, Abe. Something’s come up and I’ve got to go.”
“What came up?”
Charles frowned. Abe knew him better than that. “Don’t you worry about what. You handle negotiations. You, not Ethan. Keep me posted by phone.”
“Yes, sir,” Abe responded. He didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter.
And Charles ended the call. He leaned back and exhaled. He had already decided that he was more than determined to try and make it work with Jenay. Businesswise and especially personally. And no devil in hell, and none in Jericho either, was going to sabotage his determination.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The VIP suite was a luxurious suite and Jenay was in the garden tub, soaking and sipping wine at the end of her busy day, and trying her best to keep it upbeat. Beatrice Moynihan was going to be a problem. A major one if she didn’t figure out how she was going to handle the situation. Her relaxed style worked today. She, at least, didn’t get in any knockdown, drag-outs with her or that so-called “girlfriend” of Charles’s. But what about tomorrow? It couldn’t wait until Charles returned. She had to deal with this now. People were funny. You give them an inch, they actually did want to take a mile. And she wasn’t about to be that kind of manager.
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She had hoped, after she left California, that it would get easier for her. Quince was behind her, and all of that craziness during their divorce was behind her too. Her hope had been that it would have gotten easier. Not easy. But easier. Now that was being threatened too.
She heard a sound, and quickly opened her eyes. Then she started hearing footsteps in the suite. She immediately sat straight up, her heart pounding. “Who’s there?” she yelled. She couldn’t think of anything else to yell. “Who’s there?”
“Who do you think?” a very familiar voice yelled back, and Jenay’s heart went from horror to happiness. And then he appeared, walking into the bedroom like the man she was growing increasingly fond of. And when she saw him, after such an unsatisfying day, she couldn’t help herself. She stood up and jumped from the tub. As he entered the bathroom, she was running into his arms.
Charles was elated when her face lit up like a kid on Christmas and she ran into his arms. He wrapped her wet, naked body tightly and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around him.
“You didn’t say you were coming back tonight,” she said with joy in her voice.
Charles looked at her pretty face. “Are you disappointed?”
She smiled. “You know I’m not. I don’t think there’s anybody better I would have wanted to see.”
Her revelation, that she was into him too, warmed his heart. He gave her a kiss on her lips.
“Why did you come back?” she asked him.
Charles was not a sentimental man. But seeing Jenay’s happiness, and holding Jenay’s wet, hot body, made him more prone to take a step. “I wanted to make sure your first day wasn’t a total bust,” he admitted. “I didn’t like the way you sounded on the phone.”
Jenay suspected she was the reason, but after experiencing nothing but hope turned to despair in all of her previous relationships, there was still that seed of doubt. But when Charles kissed her again, and he kissed her in a way that made clear that she was absolutely the reason, she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned the excitement of his kiss.
Charles started moaning as he moved his face from side to side and enjoyed the sweetness of her kiss. He felt her. He felt the skin of her smooth, black face against his hard, white face. He felt her toned arms around his neck, and her legs around his waist, and her breasts pressed against his chest, and her vagina pressed against his penis. It felt so wonderful to him that he wanted more of her. He knew at some point on his return, he would want her this way. But he never dreamed it would be this desperately. He wanted her, all of her, right now.
He lifted her, to where her breasts were in his mouth, and he feasted on them. And as he sucked her, and licked her, and nibbled on her, he carried her into the adjacent bedroom.
When he laid her on the bed, he immediately began to undress.
“I’ll bet you didn’t expect your night to end this way,” he said as he undressed, and stared at her gorgeous face, her beautiful body.
“You’d win that bet,” she said, just as he stopped undressing, got down on his knees, and began making love to her, between her legs, with his mouth. She clenched her teeth, as he ate her, and her body reacted by releasing those vaginal juices Charles was waiting for. He ate her harder when she released, and she squirmed in delight. Until the squirming, and her juices, and her fantastic taste, was too much for Charles.
He flung off his shirt, dropped his pants and boxers, stepped out and kicked his clothes aside, pulled a condom from his wallet, and then pulled her further onto the bed. He moved onto the bed too, and positioned his penis in direct aim of her vagina. He was about to pound the shit out of her. He wanted her just that badly.
But then he looked into her eyes, and saw that spark, that tenderness that attracted her to him in the first place, and he felt a thump in his heart. That odd thump he felt before when he was with her this way. And instead of putting it in her right away and giving her that pounding his dick was clearly ready to give to her, he leaned down, kissed her again, and then pulled her into his arms.
Jenay felt a swell of emotion when he held her. She knew her body was the object of men’s affection. She often wondered if that was all men wanted from her. She’d even wondered if it was all Charles wanted from her. But now, as he held her, as he kissed her so lovingly, she was beginning to feel differently about Charles. She suspected he could be somebody special. Now she believed he was.
Charles couldn’t let her go. Even after his body betrayed him and he guided his rock hard penis into her soft, wet pussy,
he continued to hold her. He fucked her, long and hard, but he still couldn’t let her go. And when they came, within seconds of each other, Charles, too, felt a swell of emotion. What in the world was going on, he wondered as he stared at her. What was it about this woman, of all the women he’d ever had, that made him want her so completely?
But he wanted her. As he poured inside of her, as he filled her up, as he fucked her senseless, he wanted her. Life could very well become an impossibility without her. And that reality, for a man like Charles Sinatra, was a hell of an amazing thing.
“Another one,” Charles said later that night, as Jenay laid in his arms.
They were still naked, under cover, he on his back, she on her side, with her head on his chest. She smiled. “Not another one, Charlie!”
“Another one,” he said again. “I like the way you taste. Up and down.”
Jenay kissed him yet again. Charles enjoyed her kiss and fondled her bare butt as she laid her head back down on his chest again. After a moment, he spoke again.
“So you like my hometown?”
“I haven’t seen it yet.”
“So you like Jericho Inn?”
“From what I’ve seen of it, yes, it’s beautiful.”
“You don’t like the name, do you?”
“It’s a simple name.”
“It’s supposedly a simple town. People like simple around here.”
“But it’s not the people around here who stays here. Jericho is on the way to other places, including Canada. Those world travelers hear Jericho Inn, they may think a dinky motel. But if they hear, say, Berkshire Bed and Breakfast, or some such name like that, they will check it out and be willing to pay the price.”
“So you recommend I change the name?”
“Yes,” Jenay said. “I know I just got here, but yes. We’ve also got to build a website, and that’s on my To Do list too, but we need the right name first.”
“Compile a list of names,” Charles said, “and I’ll take a look. But this place has been around for over twenty years with that same name and it has some loyal guests. I haven’t owned it for even a year. I’m disinclined to change the name at this point, but I can be persuaded. Do your research, compile the list, and I’ll see.”
Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1) Page 11