by Malone, Nana
“I had no idea you were trying to reach me. Carol, my secretary, is a bit of a battleax. When I’m on vacation, she insists I’m on vacation. She won’t put anything through unless it’s life or death and sometimes, not even then.”
“Well I wanted to speak to you about your upcoming project for the All-Tech conference. I want to make sure there are some aspects of the service you're aware of.”
“Sure. I have to tell you, that Battlestar reference sealed the deal for us.” He grinned. “But can we discuss in the morning? I already told your father that I want you heading the team. Your pitch was the most innovative and tailored. Everyone else pitched us like we were a bunch marketing geared folks. They don’t understand the Tech Geek set. They think we care about leggy models and bright colors. Models are nice, but I’m more interested in the next piece of tech.”
Now was her chance. “Mr. James—”
“Brett, please.”
First name basis, okay. “Brett, I’m sure my father is going to mention this in the morning, but I feel I have to tell you that I’m no longer with Trudeaux Events. Derrick Cooley will be in charge of your event.”
He frowned. “You mean, the one who attempted to distract me with pretty colors and not much substance?”
“I’m unaware of what he may have presented to you.” Look at her, learning to be politically correct. “But he’s got a unique skill. I’m sure—”
Brett’s frown didn’t lighten up. “I’ll be discussing this with your father in the morning. Can I ask, what events company did you move to?”
Her brain blanked. Of all the plans not to have come up with. “JT Events. I’m an independent consultant. One of my first events will be the Westhorpe gala at the end of the year.” Holy cow, had she just said that? Had she created her own company on the spot?
The frown lines on Brett’s forehead disappeared. “The Westhorpe gala? That’s no easy feat. Adele Westhorpe is known to be a—handful.”
“She’s not so bad.” Maybe she was, but no one would hear that come out of Jaya’s mouth.
“Tell you what. How about I give you a call after I speak with your father tomorrow?”
Jaya felt her head jerking up and down, but the synapses in her brain didn’t fire enough to recognize actual words. But she got the gist. She had the All-Tech account if she wanted it. Holy shit.
“I suppose we can talk in the morning. Make sure to enjoy the champagne.” Now, time to get out before she did any damage.
He raised his glass. “Don’t you worry about that. I'm on my fourth glass.” He looked around. “Where is your date? I assumed you’d be here with the Westhorpe guy? That was him with you at the rehearsal dinner, right?”
Her breath caught and she frowned. “Westhorpe?” A nervous giggle escaped her lips. That bad feeling that had been following her around like a lost puppy squeezed tight around her. “No. His name is Alec Danthers.”
“That’s a good point,” he conceded. “But whether he likes it or not, he’s Royce Westhorpe’s oldest son. I met him in passing with his mother a couple of years ago. I didn’t get the chance to talk to him at the rehearsal. I was hoping to catch up with him tonight.”
Jaya's heart hammered. The rush in her ears drowned out all other sound. Excusing herself, she forced her body erect. She cleared her throat hoping she didn’t look as befuddled as she felt. Westhorpe? “He was unavailable tonight.”
“Always a shame to leave a beautiful woman unattended. Please make sure to save me a dance.”
She gave him a wooden smile and excused herself, desperate for escape. As Jaya made her way back to her table, her legs trembled. Just like that, it had been as easy as a conversation. Brett James wanted her to manage their conference. And in the same breath, he’d told her the man she thought she’d been in love with wasn’t who she thought.
She tried to process what that meant. He’s a Westhorpe? She had a contract with Adele Westhorpe. Would the matriarch go back on the deal? Not likely. She may have given Jaya the job because of Alec, but Jaya was good and she knew it. And after everything, she didn’t want to go back to Trudeaux. She could do this all on her own. At the same time, the Alltech was the epitome of everything she’d ever wanted to do.
Too busy mulling over her choices, her brain didn’t register Alec’s lean frame in the doorway of the reception hall until she’d already walked past him. As dawning hit, she stopped, teetering on her heels ever so slightly. Her breath locked in her lungs and she couldn’t breathe.
His voice was low. “I hope I’m not too late.”
“I don't know what you’re doing here, but I don't need you.” Jaya brushed at the skirt of her dress as stalked past him. She’d made it through this much of the wedding without him, so why did she feel a pang at the mere sight of him?
He nodded. “Okay, I deserve that. But hear me out.” He took a step toward her.
The pull of his magnetism made her struggle for a minute, but she managed a step back. She'd already spent too much time trusting and believing in him. “I'm not sure exactly what I’m supposed to hear out. You mean about the part where you abandoned me when I needed you? Or about the part where you’re a fucking Westhorpe?” She sniffed.
His shoulders stiffened and his lips thinned. “I’m not a Westhorpe. I’m nothing like my old man. Besides, he didn’t want me, so it’s not like I have a birthright to claim.”
“Semantics, Alec. Adele Westhorpe is your step-mother. You may not consider yourself a Westhorpe, but you have all the trappings. God. I’ve been so stupid.”
“No, wait.” He put up his hands. “Shit, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. I wasn’t supposed to be here more than two days. You assumed I was a bartender, and for that night I was. I just didn’t tell you I was also the son of Royce Westhorpe. I never tell anyone. I’m ashamed of him.”
She shook her head, unwilling to let him get out of it that easily. “You didn’t need to lie to me, Alec. I wasn’t after your money. You must have chuckled about poor Jaya. ‘She doesn’t even know I own the damn hotel.’”
“Come, on, it wasn’t like that. The penthouse suite is Max’s. I want to be as far away from the Westhorpes as possible. I’m nothing like them. I spend more time exploring the world than following corporate greed.”
“Oh, of course. Your adrenaline rushes.” She dropped her head into her hands. “I'm such an idiot.”
“Jaya, I came after you because you're the only one who made me feel something. I'd been chasing a rush for so long, I didn't know I could feel that rush with anyone.”
“’Oh, and to ante up the adrenaline, let me lie to her and string her along.’ I don’t even know what to say. Did you fix your emergency, at least? Your matter of life and death?”
“I was able to find my brother. Caleb’s arranged a deal for him with his contacts at the FBI. I think he’ll be okay.”
“So just like that, everything is okay?”
He frowned, his beautiful face taking on harsh lines. “No, not quite, but it’s on its way.”
She sighed. “Well, at least it was worth it.”
“I'm sorry, Jaya. My dad, he was like Max.” Softer, he added, “Like me, I guess. He couldn't stick around long. He left my mother when she was pregnant with me. I never knew who he was until my mom died and I found her documents. I went to find him so I could avoid the system. He didn’t exactly want me around, but Adele took me in. Treated me like her own. Even after they had Max. She forced the old man to be a father.”
“I'm sorry you had it rough, but it doesn't make up for your actions, Alec. I never want to see you again. I'm done.” As she walked away, her eyes were dry. No use wasting any tears on him. The man she loved didn’t exist.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Alec didn't anticipate the burning in his lungs or the pain that stabbed its way into his gut and hung around like a festering cloud. Was this what loving someone felt like? If so, it blew the big one. He watched her walk out and her father take steps to follow her.
If glares had temperatures, he had a feeling glacial would be how the man felt at the moment.
Pierre’s look was hard and flat. “You're going to tell me how to handle my daughter? You’ve been lying to her all along, Westhorpe. You think I didn’t know. I knew your father.”
Alec nodded. The truth was a bitch. Especially when people kept grabbing it by the tail and bitch-slapping you with it. “Yes, I lied to her. For my own reasons. But at the end of the day I love her and I've lost my chance. If you love her, you can't keep treating the way you do.”
Pierre’s hazel eyes narrowed. “And what do you know about it? You’re nothing but the bastard son with a trust fund and a hotel. You don't know my daughter.”
“I know how she sounds when she laughs. I know what makes her cry, and I know she thinks you don't love her and that you favor her sister. I know she thinks you'd rather take the word of your son-in-law than hers.” He drew in a breath. “I know if you don’t take some steps to fix things with her, she'll be gone to you forever.” He left out the unspoken like I am. But Pierre’s expression grew grave and solemn.
“How can she think I favor her sister?”
Alec's eyes rolled of their own volition. “You fired her. Then made it impossible for her to get another job. What kind of father does that? I thought my dad was a harsh bastard, but you take the cake.”
Pierre's lips flattened. “As I told her, I've never stood in her way. I let Jaya go for a slew of reasons, the most important being I wanted her to strike out on her own. And less importantly because she, and my self-important son-in-law, would have eventually killed each other. You don’t know my daughter. She has to figure things out on her own. I offered to call around and see if I could help her get another job.”
Alec shoved his hands in his pocket. “You mean after you already called and told everyone she was unemployable?”
“What would I have to gain by doing that? I don’t want her to fail. I do love her.”
Alec held his breath. Jaya had been so sure it was her father who'd made those calls, but maybe it was someone else entirely. “Maybe, sir. It's time you talked to her. And not just talked, but listened too.” He shrugged. “Maybe I should have tried that.” Before turning to leave, he added, “And sir, you might also want to think about who else had something to gain by slandering Jaya around town.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Okay, so he left you,” Micha said, brows drawn.
Ricca chimed in. “Then he came back to you, and still made it to the wedding reception.”
Jaya nodded. “But it was a lie. All of it a lie. Who he was, his real name. Everything about him.” The pain of it all still percolated in her belly, as if she'd swallowed an ample helping of boiling pain-and-regret soup. God, she felt sick. Sure, Alec had been clear about the whole relationship thing and she’d seen him as some fun to be had for a couple of weeks. She wasn’t supposed to fall in love. So maybe that had been her fault. Love was a tricky animal. But he'd still abandoned her and lied.
The lies were the part she just couldn’t swallow. She shook her head. “I must be a giant lie magnet.” She circled her forehead with her index finger. “Big ol' target here that says, ‘Yes, I’m easily duped and tread upon. Have at it. Do it for sport even.’” Feeling another pinprick behind her lids signaling yet another round of the sniffle-sniffle and dab-dab of her lids, she sniffed deeply and blinked hard to try and ward them off.
“You’re not a fool, Jai. These things happen sometimes,” Ricca tried.
Micha gave a quick shake of her head. “None of this is your fault. How the hell were you supposed to know he was a Westhorpe?” She shrugged. “So this whole time, Adele Westhorpe was his mother.”
“Step-mother,” Jaya corrected. “So now, I have to think about what all this means. Do I still have a job? Was she in on the whole thing?”
Rica flopped back on Micha's duvet cover. “What are you going to do? Talk to her?” Jaya's head did the side-to-side routine again. “No. She's huge on professionalism. So I’m going to go to work on Monday and do my job. Until somebody shows up with security to show my black ass the door. It's the only thing I can do. And did I mention that Brett James wants to hire me to do the All-Tech?”
“Holy shit!” Micha gaped at her. “Again with the burying the lead.”
Jaya pinned Micha with a stare. “Can we get back to what’s important? Plan is I'm just going to status-quo it. For all I know, Adele has no idea about the shenanigans. All she'll notice is that Alec isn’t around as much.” Then a thought struck her. What if Alec didn't go to Durban like he'd said? What if he stayed? Then what would she do?
Oh, come on Trudeaux. Like he’d stay. He said himself he was not that guy. Always needed to be on the move. He wouldn’t stay for her, so she needed to stop expecting the big grand gesture.
Micha picked up one of her wigs and adjusted it on her head. The pretty ringlet curls bounced around her shoulders cheerily.
Jaya was in no mood to be cheery. “How the hell did my life go to shit in a matter of weeks?”
Ricca did the usual hug-and-back-rub routine. Pat-pat, rub-rub.
Micha pinned her with a stare. “Sure. It's been a shitty two weeks, I give you that. But you know what? You got a job out of it. Shit, you got two. Your sister is actually, really trying with you, and maybe you'll repair your relationship. Plus you had the best sex of your life and you've crossed off some of your Thirty list. All in all, you gained, right?” She smacked Jaya on the shoulder. “And keep in mind, it’s a job you actually like, despite the tyrant-like nature of your evil boss. Not to mention, Derrick is about to get fired by Brett James.”
Good old Micha. Keeping it in perspective.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
This was it. The final culmination of all Jaya’s work. And the end of everything, she'd started with he-who-she-refused-to-name-lest-she-have-to-find-him-and-shoot-him-between-the-eyeballs. The location was gorgeous. She’d been right. The industrial feel had been just what Adele was looking for. Though the old bird hadn’t said it was perfect. She'd only said passable. But Jaya knew what she'd meant.
Over the last six months, Jaya had gotten to know her better. She wasn’t as tough as she looked. Well, maybe a little, but it seemed they understood each other. Adele had never mentioned Alec. And Jaya had never mentioned that she knew of their relationship. They’d kept it professional. But having a client like Adele Westhorpe really did make your name. She already had three clients in the queue. She really was happier on her own.
Jaya had used some photos taken by a photographer from Paris to decorate, as well as lights. All kinds of tea lights hung from the ceiling and down from the artwork. Not too shabby, if she did say so herself. With a rush of pride, she stood on the platform overlooking the main party. The gallery had several semi-private balconies that patrons could use to view some of the artwork from above. It was really beautiful. Even the guest of honor put on her best. Not that Adele wasn’t always dressed to the nines. But tonight she'd taken special care. She looked feminine, pretty in her blush-colored dress. Monique Lullier. Jaya had seen it in a magazine. For once she looked younger than her actual years. Soft, somehow. Not that Jaya would dare bring up that fact.
Adele joined her on the balcony. “Miss. Trudeaux, I must say this event has shown to be…”
Passable, Jaya thought. After all, that was Adele’s favorite word.
But Adele surprised her, continuing with, “extraordinary. It's exactly the feeling I wanted. Outstanding job.”
Jaya couldn’t help it. Her mouth did a fly-trap routine as she stared at Adele.
“Don’t look at me like that, dear. You make me seem like I'm never nice.”
“I-I-I didn't say you weren’t nice. You are.” Jaya tried hard with the lie.
Adele shrugged and settled a beaming smile
on her. “At least you tried.” She brushed at her skirts. “I know I can be…what do the assistants call me?” She tapped her finger on her chin. “A dragon lady.”
Even as Jaya tried to deny what they both knew was truth, Adele held up her hand. “I know. I'm deliberately difficult. I test the mettle of people. But I’m loyal and I love deeply.”
Jaya looked around surreptitiously. What had she done to deserve this level of honesty?
“You proved yourself over the last six months. And you put up with me, which means you have more patience than sense sometimes. Not to mention more than once you've stood up to me. It's a skill I admire in an employee.”
Not knowing what else to say, Jaya nodded and muttered “Th-Thank you, Miss Westhorpe.”
“And let's stop that Miss Westhorpe nonsense, call me Adele. Everyone else does behind my back.” She looked around at her guests. “I'd like you to stay on to do events for the hotel. All the top bill clients. If you're willing to think about it, we can discuss it in my office on Monday.”
Holy shit. This was the kind of job she'd dreamed about. Except she didn't necessarily want that anymore. “Miss—” she changed course, “—Adele. Thank you for considering me for a job but—”
Adele smiled. “You want to run your own place?”
Jaya frowned. How had she—
“He said as much. So I’d like to retain your services on a contract bases. Would something like that work for you?”
Jaya’s stomach knotted. He. He. He. Damn it. He-who-shall-not-be-named-lest-she-have-to-find-him-and-shoot-him-between-the-eyeballs was not behind this job offer. Could. Not. Be. Why did all her dreams come true feature him. Damn it. “Adele, thank you. Honestly, but—”
She laid a hand on Jaya's arm. “Think about it. I know you and my son aren’t exactly on speaking terms, but maybe it's time you were. Besides, I would have hired you without his prompting. Don’t let a man come between you and something you want. You’ll always regret it.” She turned and sauntered away to greet more guests.