“If you’re promoting ‘family friendly’ you need to accommodate for families with children from infants to teenagers. If you can configure the walls in the rooms to give you 2 or 3 bedroom apartments that would definitely be a selling point. Rooms with microwaves and dishwashers are great selling points too, as mums don’t want to be doing dishes on their holiday and washing machines/dryers are great incentives also, as it means you would need to pack less luggage. In terms of furniture, nothing with sharp pointy edges, TV’s braced to walls, high chairs, porta pots and heavy duty and easily cleaned carpets as children are ferrals. Bunk beds yes, but not in all rooms, families with children ages between 1 and 5 will find them a nuisance and dangerous, so a variety of sleeping and bed configurations would be great. I think neutral colours predominantly yes, but kids love colour, colour plays on mood, a good mood equals a good holiday. Have things like Nintendo Wiis and maybe big coloured dots on the carpet to resemble a Twister Game and those wall play centres you find in family feeding rooms in shopping centres.” I was starting to go and on and the more I thought about it, the more came to mind.
“I’m sorry, I’ve babbled on too much.” I sat in the chair and twiddled my fingers, looking up I noticed Patrick was taking notes, he smiled.
“Twister Carpet, I love it! That’s a lot of useful information, there are certainly many things we can implement, that would definitely fall within budget.” Patrick seemed impressed.
“Great, work with the information Alexis just gave you and get back to me with new sketches, designs and figures and we’ll go from there. Alexis, I’ll also need you to organise a meeting with Chris from Marketing.” Patrick packed up his things, stood and extended a hand to me.
“It was pleasure meeting you Alexis, I’m sure we will be seeing more of each other in the near future. Mr Clark, thank you for your time.” He shook Bryce’s hand then exited the room.
“You really are a piece of work, Alexis.”
“I’m sorry?” He was smirking the smirkiest ‘smirk’ to date, I laughed even that smirk was hard to ignore.
“Why? Did I Hijack your meeting? I’m sorry, it’s just when I thought about what you were trying to achieve the ideas and expectations just tumbled out.”
“Exactly, you really are the perfect person to work with in terms of these renovations.” I was over whelmed, he was thrilled with my input, so much so that I think I am now a vital part of the project.
“Well I’m glad I lived up to your expectations.”
“You surpass them Alexis.” The tension was starting to creep back in between us. Nip it in the bud, Alexis. I looked at my watch it was 7pm.
“If that is all you need from me tonight, I should head home.”
“Actually if you don’t mind staying a little longer there is something I want to show you.” He looked like Nate when he had seen a Lego Set in Target and just couldn’t live without it. Please Mum!
“Sure, what is it?” He jumped up with such enthusiasm.
“Follow me, Ms Summers.” He extended his hand. Oh my goodness his hands are glorious, strong, masculine and big. You know what they say about men with big hands? Alexis, you need to slap yourself. He led me into the apartment and to his private elevator.
“In you go.” He placed his hand on the small of my back and gently moved me into the elevator, he hit the button titled Ob. Ob? Oh of course Observatory. Ooooh how exciting. The doors opened into a small dome shaped room, it really was very cosy. Hit flicked a switch on the wall and the dome roof started to open. OMG, the stars looked enormous, I don’t know if it’s because there was not a cloud in sight or if it was because we were so high in the air.
“Wow, this is amazing.” I had my head arched all the way back and performed a pirouette.
“You have seen nothing yet, here, take my hand.” He helped me onto a step ladder which led to an enormous telescope, there were only a few rungs on the ladder but he felt he needed to stand right behind me. His body was hard against my back, my breathing quickened. You shouldn’t have agreed to this Alexis, this is what gets you in trouble.
“Look in here.” I leant down to look into the eye piece Bryce was pointing too, he basically hugged me in order to reach a few knobs on the telescope to adjust.
“What can you see?”
“It’s the moon, a big ginormous Moon. I feel like I can just reach out and touch it.” Stupid me does in fact reach out, derrr Alexis.
“This is great, I can see why you like this hobby, I twisted around to see his expression. Our faces were again only inches away from each other. Oh shit not again. I was about to object,
“Don’t worry Alexis; I’m not going to kiss you again.” Phew that’s a relief, or was it?
“Every single entire ounce of me wants to grab you and kiss you until our mouths are dry, then I want to rip your dress from you, take your underwear off with my teeth and kiss every inch of your fabulous body, paying a lot of attention to your sexy arse, gorgeous tits and moist….” I swear my heart stopped beating, I was panting and well and truly lubricated in the very underwear he wanted to tear off me.
“But, I’m not going to Alexis, not until you tell me you want me too. I will never cross the line and kiss you again without your permission. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to though. That will not change.”
CHAPTER NINE
I was speechless and utterly craving what he had just declared, he was ‘smirking’ at me, which I would normally find completely irritating but also endearing. This time though it made me mad, extremely pissed off more to the point, I placed both my hands on his chest and shoved him. He stumbled back and nearly fell on his arse.
“You can’t just say that and smirk at me, what am I supposed to do with that confession? What do you want me to do?” I stepped off the ladder and stomped like a child to the elevator. He followed and stood with his back against the wall facing me, he had his hands in his trouser pockets and was completely relaxed and casual.
“I know you feel it Alexis, you want me between your legs just as badly as I want to be there.”
“Bryce stop it, you are so far out of line it’s not funny.” He started to laugh, I turned to face him. Is he for real? He is so infuriating yet adorable, yet maddening, yet delectable. Oh my God he is turning me into a freakin Yo-Yo. I slapped him across the face, he rubbed his cheek and smiled at me impressively. I tried to keep my furious expression but I was very slowly losing the battle with the muscles in my face. He laughed again and I followed suit.
“I hate you right now.” I was beyond being polite and stepping on eggshells where our employer/employee relationship was concerned, he had overstepped that mark well and truly.
“No you don’t.”
“Yes I do.” It dawned on me we weren’t going anywhere.
“Bryce, I need to go home before I punch you, press the bloody button.” He laughed but this time he was mocking me.
“Oh, you don’t think I can?” I shot him a challenging look, he shook his head.
“Kiss me again, I dare you.” He was on me like a flash. He ravaged my mouth and I his hair, he lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. No, No, No, stop it Alexis, what did you say that for and where was this punch you so boldly threatened? I released my legs and punched him in the arm, he broke away. I tried to get a in second blow but he caught my fist, then brought my arm down, he spun me around and had me cross armed across my chest and perfectly secured to his abdomen, he whispered softly into my ear, his breath was hot and paralysing.
“You gave me permission, Alexis. You can’t then attack me, not that I’d call that an attack, in fact you need a lot of instruction on attack and Self-Defence. So on Monday morning you are coming to my Self-Defence class, wear your gym clothes.”
“Let me go, I need to go home to my husband.” He released me and hit the button to his apartment, the doors opened and I stepped out. I grabbed my bag and turned to meet his face, he was leaning up against the entryway wall where
we had first kissed earlier . It felt like days ago but I guess that was because so much had happened today and I hadn’t really let it settle in yet. Thank god it was Saturday tomorrow, I would have the entire weekend to recover from the head fuck that this day had been, I began to talk and he cut me off.
“I can’t help myself Alexis, you, you are like no one I have ever met and I want you.”
“You can’t have me Bryce, I’m taken.”
“I don’t believe anything is absolute. Things change, people change, circumstances change.” I can’t believe him, Lucy was right when she said ‘he sees something he wants, goes for it and gets it’. Well this was something he was not going to ‘get’. I put my hand up to indicate he shut up.
“You’ve had an emotional day and you are probably still high on adrenalin.” You don’t really believe that.
“I’ll see you Monday.” I let myself out and headed home.
“Mum, wake up…….Mum, its Saturday Mum. You need to make pancakes!” What? Pancakes? Coming back to reality I opened my eyes to see Charlotte virtually nose to nose waiting very patiently, but not patiently enough to let me wake up myself.
“Charli it’s too early, let Mummy sleep longer.” Rick moaned as he turned over.
“But Mum, I’m hungry and you always make pancakes on Saturday.” She was right, I did, every Saturday I would cook up a batch of pancakes before Nate and Rick left for football and Charli and I left for dancing, I grumbled and basically rolled out of bed and into a vertical position.
“Slippers, where are my slippers?” Charli was already on bended knee placing my slippers down so I could step into them. I slowly came back to earth as I sipped on my cup of tea and poured batter into the pan, Charlotte was sitting at our breakfast bar waiting eagerly. Nate had not yet surfaced and Rick, well he did make that animal sound when Charli came in, but not a peep since.
“So Charli Bear, how was school yesterday?” I’d gotten home after she had gone to bed last night which was a bit shattering.
“Good, we are going on an Excursion to the Zoo in a few weeks.” Charli loved animals, she had already decided she wanted to be a Vet, but that was after she had decided she wanted to be a Princess, Teacher and the next Rachel in Glee.
“That will be nice, you’ll get to see the baby elephant Ongard.” She did a little happy dance in her seat, I laughed, she was such a delightful child.
“Here you go, maple or lemon?” I don’t know why I asked, she always chose maple.
“So would you like to see where Mummy works and visit Lucy and her baby?”
“Can we? That would be Awesome, what’s his name? Can I hold him? Can I feed him a bottle?”
“Whoa, settle petal, yes we can and no you can’t hold him or feed him, he’s only one day old.” I was going to give Lucy a call after Breakfast to check if it was ok to visit her and to find out if baby Clark had a name yet? I finished cooking the batter and got Charlotte ready for dancing.
“Rick, Nate, get up or you’ll be late for football.” I heard stirring in Nate’s room but knew Rick needed further persuading. He was dead to the world, I could set a firecracker off in the lounge and he would sleep through it. I crept up to him and spoke softly.
“Rick, Rick, get your arse out of bed.” He opened his eyes.
“You get your arse into bed.” He grabbed me and pulled me on top of him.
“Stop it you horny shit, we are going to be late.” I tried to break free.
“We’ve got time, come on Babe, you were barely awake when you finally got home last night.” I leant down and kissed his forehead.
“I know I had a big day.” That was an understatement!
“Come on, we don’t have time.” He surrendered and got out of bed.
“So I was thinking, after footy and dancing I’m going to head into the city to see how Lucy and the baby are, then I might show Charli City Towers.”
“Sounds good, wouldn’t mind checking out your half a million dollar office myself!” Oh shit, I hadn’t bargained on Rick actually wanting to come along too, I hope Bryce was out doing whatever billionaires do.
“Knock, Knock.” I peeped into Lucy’s room and to my delight she was cradling the most beautiful little blue bundle of joy, I had told Rick and the kids to wait outside for a minute, so that I could check if she was feeding or not.
“Aaaaw look at him, he’s adorable.” I gave her a kiss on the forehead.
“This is little Alexander.” She popped her finger on his tiny chin and gave it a very gentle wiggle.
“Hi Alexander.” He was peacefully wrapped up like a cocoon.
“It suits him!”
“It was going to be Jack up until yesterday, I wasn’t a fan of Jack, but Nic loved it. Not only did you help bring him into this world…..”
“Pfft, I didn’t help bring him into this world; you did that all by yourself.” She continued her sentence.
“Not only did you help bring him into this world; you gave me the perfect idea for an alternative name for him.” Alexander, oh shit she has named him after me. No, don’t do that, I didn’t do anything. I was so overwhelmed by her sentiment; I was about to boil over with emotion from the past day’s events.
“That’s lovely Lucy, it really is.” I didn’t have anything else to say.
“No, thank you Alexis. I mean it; you really were a god send yesterday, not only me but Bryce, it’s the least I can do.” I was feeling really uncomfortable, I didn’t want any recognition.
“I bought Rick and the kids in with me, they are just outside, do you mind if I introduce you and Alexander? Charli is very excited.”
“Sure, of course bring them in.” I introduced my family to Lucy, she was great, she had a knack of speaking to you as though she had known you for years. Charlotte was in love with baby Alexander and Lucy let her sit up on the bed for a cuddle. We didn’t stay long as Alexander was not far away from his next feed, we said our goodbyes and Charlotte gave baby Al, as she so aptly named him, the blue teddy she picked in the gift shop.
We walked into the lobby, Charlie was on the phone and gave us an excited wave.
“He sure is excited to see you.” Rick gave me a nudge.
“Shut up, he bats for the other team stupid.” I gave him a little hip and bump.
“So who wants to see the Aquarium?”
“The Aquarium, sick!” ‘Sick’ was Nate’s word of the month, last month it was ‘Totes’. I showed Rick and the kids the Aquarium and sundeck, Charlotte was disappointed she didn’t have her bathing suit.
“There are plenty of chances to come for a swim Charli, just not today, anyway didn’t you want to see what a Penthouse was like?” Her little eyes lit up.
“Come on then.”
The elevator doors opened, there was no evidence of anyone around, I could normally hear a low murmur whenever Bryce was in his office.
“So this is Mummy’s desk.”
“It’s so high up Mum, don’t you feel height sick?” Lol, height sick, I love how her little mind works.
“Only when you look down.”
“Mum, I need to go to the toilet.”
“Of course you do, Nate do you need the toilet too?” He shook his head.
“Good stay here with Dad and we’ll be back in a minute.” I took Charlotte through to the toilet.
“Mum this place is so Cool! I want to work here when I grow up.” She was sniffing her clean hands, I must admit even I was a fan of the hand wash here.
“I thought you wanted to be a Vet?”
“I changed my mind, this is so cool.” We made our way back through the conference room and I could hear Rick talking. Oh shit, it’s Bryce. I took a deep breath and opened the door into the reception.
“Alexis, can’t get enough of the place?” You guessed it, he was ‘smirking’. I managed a fake laugh, maybe too fake.
“Yeah, you just can’t keep me away. No, Charlotte was very keen to see where Mummy worked. Charlotte this is Mr Clark, Mummy
’s boss, and this is my son Nate and my husband…….”
“Rick, yes we have already introduced ourselves, so Charlotte have you ever seen a Helipad?”
“No, what’s a Helipad?” She looked at me all wide eyed.
“It’s where Helicopters land, silly.” Nate was acting cool in front of Bryce.
“Come and meet the Crow.” Bryce gestured towards his office, I gave him a snide glare but quickly corrected it to a smile when Rick looked my way. He led us out to the Helipad and introduced the kids to the ‘Crow’ which I’d now cottoned on was in fact the Helicopter.
“Do you fly it? Asked Nate, he was dropping his tough boy façade now.
“Yeah, all the time, would you like a ride?” I jumped in very quickly.
“No, no, not today, maybe some other time.”
“Aaaaw Mum, can we?”
“No not today, Mr Clark is a very busy man, maybe next time.” I shot Bryce a ‘don’t even think about it’ look, he registered my expression and offered a compromise.
“That’s alright maybe next time. Nate, Mum tells me you like Astronomy? Maybe you’d like to have a look at my Observatory?”
“Sweet.” Oh yeah, another past word of the month. It was Rick who started asking questions next.
“So, how often do you take her out?” Fuck, where did this come from. Was it that obvious?
“Never, why?” I said defensively. Rick looked at me confused.
“At least once a week.” Bryce offered.
“Too easy, must be nice and quiet up in the air with no other traffic, or having to fight for a parking spot?” Oh, the Helicopter, stupid me. Rick tried to make out it was a joke, but I sensed he was having a stab.
“That’s one of the reasons I love it, no other idiots to contend with!” Hhhmmm this was starting to feel like the beginning of a cock fight. Bryce led us back inside but this time into his apartment.
Temptation (The Temptation Series) Page 7