by Kaylee Quinn
Ever since Kaylee showed me his picture last week, I had been fantasizing about those firm lips and rough hands on my skin. Now, standing here before him, I wanted to reach out and run my fingers through his perfectly-trimmed hair to see if he was real, or some figment of my sexually-frustrated imagination.
Silence stretched between us, until I finally glanced down and followed his line of sight. Humiliation slammed into me as I noticed that my nipples were so hard that they were poking through my thin shirt.
Damn you Kaylee, for taking away my cardigan. My nipples were like this because I was cold, of course. Their sensitivity had nothing to do with the man before me, or the erotic thoughts that seemed to keep springing to my mind.
Reaching behind me, I grabbed my sweater and threw it over my shoulders, covering my embarrassing breasts. The movement caused him to blink and step back, putting some much needed distance between us.
“How many corporate accounts do you handle?” he asked as he turned away from me. His low and seductive voice caused the muscles in my lower abdomen to tighten. He sounded so powerful, so self-assured. I wondered what it would feel like to have a man like him kissing my skin and moving in between my thighs. A man as powerful as Drake Barrett would not be gentle, I guessed.
He’d fuck just like he ran his company: hard and without mercy.
When he turned to face me once more, his eyes were as cold and tough as metal. “Are you deaf?”
Fresh heat climbed into my cheeks. What was wrong with me? I wasn’t the type to think about such things. While other women seemed to enjoy fucking, I didn’t. The one and only time I had sex in college had been disappointing. It was a sloppy joining in the upstairs bedroom of a frat house. He was drunk. I was curious. The asshole fumbled with my half-covered breasts and came before he was fully inside of me. I still didn’t understand what all of the fuss was about.
There was something about this man, however, something about his commanding presence and stern features that told me that he wasn’t the type to fumble with a girl’s breasts and ejaculate prematurely. No, Drake Barrett knew how to give a woman pleasure, I was sure of it.
“I said, are you deaf?” He spoke slow and loud, as one would to a small child.
“No, sir.” I cleared my throat and straightened as my thoughts snapped back to the present. “No.”
“Then answer the question.”
It took me a moment to remember what he’d asked. “I handle about a dozen accounts, sir.”
“Not nearly enough. I want more.” He dropped his gaze to my now-covered chest. As he did, his features changed. “Much more.” His eyes became more dark, and his jaw, hard. Heat slid through my body as I thought of him taking my breast into his mouth and sucking on it until I begged him to fuck me right here in my office…
“Do you think it is appropriate for the corporate representative of my hotel to wear an outfit like the one what you have on?”
I hugged my cardigan tighter around my body. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”
He made a low grunt of disapproval. “Everyone at this hotel is too casual for my tastes. That shirt you’re wearing is much too plain, and that skirt has way too much material. You represent my brand now, Talia. See that you dress more appropriately.”
I blinked and stared at him in shock. While I never considered myself fashionable, I didn’t think I looked bad, either. I liked my plain, loose-fitting clothes. They were comfortable.
“What do you think is appropriate?”
“Something more flattering to your curves.”
“My curves, sir?”
“Yes. The Barrett World Class brand is about beauty and modern luxuries of the highest caliber. We are a Lamborghini in the hotel business, Talia, not a Ford pickup. You are a young woman with an attractive body and must dress accordingly. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered that he’d said I had an attractive body or furious that he was objectifying me. Beside the confusion of his backhanded compliment, I now had to worry about how I looked and not just job performance.
Lovely. Instead of binge-watching the latest episodes of my favorite cop show tonight, I had to run out and buy new clothes. With my luck, he’d hate those as well, and I’d end up spending my entire paycheck on outfits I could never wear.
“So we understand each other, then.” He straightened and turned his back to me. As he did, I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
“Yes,” I mumbled.
“Now, there is something else we need to discuss, something you need to do for me.”
“Yes, sir. Of course.” I picked up a pad of paper and pen off my desk. “Anything you want.”
He stilled, and the air suddenly became thick with tension. I shifted my stance and fumbled with my pen as I awaited his orders.
“Anything I want. . .” he murmured.
“Yes.”
For a long moment he didn’t say anything. Then, when he spoke, his low, seductive voice felt like silk sheets sliding along my skin.
“Be careful what you say, Ms. Chambers. One could take your words to mean more than you intend.”
More than you intend. . . Of course he didn’t mean anything erotic by it, but that was where my thoughts immediately leapt. I imagined him standing before me with his pants open and his cock thick and ready. Moistening my lips, I’d fall to my knees and grab the base of his shaft with both hands. He’d push slowly into my mouth, never stopping until he touched the back of my throat…
“The rates you are charging your corporate clients are too low,” he said as he turned back to face me.
Shock slammed over my body, freezing my muscles and numbing my mind. “Excuse me?”
“Your rates, they’re too low.” He narrowed his gaze. “Are you sure you’re not deaf?”
“I assure you that I can hear very well.”
“Good.” He crossed his arms and straightened. “Your prices are ten percent below those of my other hotels. You need to raise them so that they are comparable across the board.”
I blinked in surprise. “You want me to raise the corporate prices by ten percent?”
He twisted his lips into a sexy half-smile. “Ah, the girl does have a brain.” He straightened. “Yes. I want you to call all of your corporate accounts and inform them of the change.” He turned to leave.
“I can’t do that, Mr. Barrett.”
He paused, then turned and raised his brows at me, his gaze growing positively stony. “What did you say?”
I knew that the smart thing to do would be to let this go and just do what he asked of me, but I couldn’t. What he was proposing was unfair. “We just raised rates six months ago after our renovations.”
He scowled and glanced at the walls. “You renovated this place?”
I lifted my chin. “Extensively.”
“Could have fooled me.”
I shook my head, trying to cool my anger so I didn’t say something I’d regret later. “When we raised prices, we ended up losing about a third of our accounts. I can’t raise rates again without losing more. It could be devastating to the hotel’s profit margins.”
He straightened to his full height. “The hotel is now part of my personal brand. We are the very best, the premium product in this market. You will charge accordingly.”
“But—”
“No ‘buts’. The rates go up starting now. You will call and tell all of your clients about the change today. And I refuse to hear that we have lost even one account.”
I looked up in shock. “That’s impossible. Whenever we have a rate change we lose accounts.”
“If you do not retain each and every one of your clients, you can forget about coming into work tomorrow. Understand?”
Steeling my jaw, I glanced down at my plain, black shoes in defeat. “Yes, sir.”
“Good, now hand me your cell phone.”
I was too surprised to argue. He frowned a
t the screen and handed it back. “Put in your passcode and unlock the screen.”
I took the phone back and pressed the code with numb fingers. Ten percent increase in rates after already increasing them in the last calendar year. If I retained just one client after today, it would be a miracle.
I gave him my phone, and he immediately started typing. When he finished, he handed it back. “There. I have several meetings today, so I won’t be in my office until later. I want you to personally contact me once you have finished calling every client and alerting them of the rate change.”
“Yes sir.”
He turned to go. “And I don’t want to lose one corporate account, Ms. Chambers. Not one.”
Before I could respond, he left the office, closing the door behind him. For a long moment I stood there, staring at the space he had just left.
Drake Barrett was everything that the rumors had made him out to be. Forceful and arrogant, he had bulldozed his way into my office and charged me with an impossible task. I didn’t care how handsome he was or how much he turned my insides to water. What he had asked me to do was impossible. Yet somehow I had to make it happen, or I’d lose the only job I’d worked at since graduation.
How would it look if I went out on a new job search after being fired by the biggest name in our business?
Not good, that’s how.
Glancing down at my cell, I stared at his contact information. He had written ‘Drake Barrett’ next to his number. I suppose I should have been thankful that he didn’t write ‘boss’ or ‘sir’ or ‘superior-being-not-of-this-earth.’ God, I’d never felt so embarrassed or humiliated in my life. Mr. Barrett was not just my new boss, he was a first-class asshole.
Sliding my phone into my cardigan pocket, I sat down at my desk and started looking up the client files so I could make the necessary phone calls. I was still searching for the first folder on my hard drive when the screen blurred with tears.
I couldn’t do this, not after the rate increase this past summer. No one was going to stay with the hotel after such a large hike in fees. I was going to lose all of these corporate accounts, and then I was going to lose my job.
While this wasn’t my dream job, it was a comfortable one. It suited me just like my big, woolly cardigan did. Now I was going to lose them both, and it was all that man’s fault.
Swatting the tears away with the sleeve of my cardigan, I knew that I couldn’t stay in this office. I had to calm down before I talked to clients, and the longer I sat at this desk, in this room, the more I was reminded of that man and how he was ruining my life.
Choking back a sob, I hurried to the door and threw it open to find Kaylee standing there, arm raised as if she was about to knock.
“Talia?” Kaylee lowered her arm as concern etched her features. “You look a mess. What happened?”
I didn’t trust myself to respond. My humiliation was still too raw, my anger too strong. Grabbing Kaylee’s arm, I dragged her down the hall to the bathroom and slammed the door, shutting us off from the rest of the hotel staff. Shutting us off from him.
“Talia, talk to me. What did he say to you in there? Did he—did he fire you?”
“No, he did something worse.” I sobbed and sank onto the edge of the sink. “Much worse.”
.
Chapter 2
I grabbed another tissue from Kaylee’s outstretched hand and sank against the edge of the sink.
“Feel better?” she asked.
I blew my nose and shrugged. “A little, thanks.”
“No problem. That’s what friends are for.” She squeezed my shoulders and rested her temple against mine.
I had no idea how long I had been crying. All I knew was that Kaylee stood there beside me, rubbing my back and handing me tissues for what seemed like hours.
“I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think,” she said. “Why don’t you tell me?”
I slid up onto the counter space in between the sinks and let out a long breath. “Where is he now?” I asked.
“Barrett? Gone. Came out of your office smiling and then entered a limo downstairs. He’s off to God-only-knows-where. Visit with investors, I think.” She smirked. “The entire staff took a collective sigh of relief as the limo pulled away.”
“He’ll be back,” I said.
“I know. On his way out he told Andy that his assistant would be arriving to oversee the setup of his new office within the hour. He expected everything to be ready to go when he returned to the hotel at four.”
“What time is it now?”
“A little past one. Are you hungry? Do want some lunch?”
I shook my head. Just the thought of food was making my stomach churn.
Kaylee pushed off the edge of the sink and crossed her arms. “Okay then. Spill it. What happened that got you so upset?”
“Drake Barrett.”
Kaylee rolled her eyes. “I know Drake Barret, but what did he do?”
“I hate that stuffy windbag, Kaylee. I hate him with every fiber of my being.” I sniffed and tossed the tissue in the trash. “Drake Barrett is an arrogant, rude, ignorant—”
“Sexy.”
“Sexy asshole.” Wait, what? I shook my head and waved my hands in the air. “No.”
“Oh come on. You know he’s handsome. You said as much last week when we were looking up pictures of him online.”
“That was before I met the demeaning bastard. I don’t care how good looking he is, or how many women want to fuck him. Good looks can’t make up for being a callous piece of shit.”
Kaylee straightened and blinked. “I’m sure he wasn’t that bad.”
“I’m not surprised that everyone in the business world hates him. The man has no heart.” I fisted my hands at my sides. “Do you know what the son of a bitch said to me?”
Kaylee shook her head. “What?”
I lifted my chin and lowered my voice to mimic his. “I want you to raise the corporate accounts by ten percent. I don’t care that they already had a ten percent increase this past summer and are struggling to make payments. All I care about is getting more money to feed my enormous greed.” I snapped my fingers. “Make it happen.”
“That seems . . . a little over the top.”
I sighed and slumped my shoulders. “I’m paraphrasing, but that basically was his intent. He said I have to call all of the clients and tell them about the increase. All of them must agree to pay the higher fees by the end of the day or I lose my job.”
“You’re kidding.”
I shook my head. “If I lose one account, just one, I’m out.”
Kaylee widened her eyes. “This has to be some sort of joke.”
“I wish I was joking. Somehow, I have to convince these poor people to give us more money.” Anger bubbled through me as the impossibility of the task weighed down on my shoulders.
Kaylee rubbed my shoulder. “If anyone can convince those people to stay, it’s you. You can do this.”
“No, I can’t.” Turning, I stared at myself in the mirror above the sink. My blonde hair, once in a tight ponytail, had fallen out in a ratty mess around my face. My mascara had emptied onto my cheeks, and my nose was redder than that famous reindeer. I looked a mess.
“You know what else he said?” I pulled the elastic from my hair.
“What?”
I glanced down at my favorite cardigan. “He said I looked too plain. I had to update my wardrobe and wear something that “flattered my curves.’” I made air quotations and sniffed. “The cocky prick wants me to dress up like one of his trophy models and parade around him like a hooker.”
Kaylee widened her eyes and grinned. “That’s amazing!”
I turned away from the mirror and stared at my friend. “Amazing? You have to be kidding. Have you even been listening to me?”
Kaylee grabbed my shoulders and smiled. “Think about it. If he wants to see your curves, it means he’s interested. You may have just captured the eye of the most handsome an
d powerful man in Boston.”
I shook my head. “This has nothing to do with his taste in women.”
“How do you know?”
“He said that he wanted me to reflect his company’s brand. He was all business, believe me.”
Kaylee sighed and lowered her arms. “Have you ever thought, just for a moment, that you might be desirable to someone as handsome and sexy as Drake Barrett?”
I snorted. “I doubt it. Besides, even if he was interested, I wouldn’t want him. You saw what he did to Andy. The man is incapable of thinking of anyone but himself.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Those women who dated him always seemed happy on his arm. I bet fucking him would be amazing.”
“Those women only stuck around for a week or two. I bet Drake Barrett is a serial dater because he’s horrible in bed and women get fed up with his tiny dick.”
“Talia!”
“What?” I hugged my cardigan tighter around my torso. “It’s true.”
I didn’t really believe it, but somehow it felt so good to say it. I only wished I could say it to his smug, arrogant face and maybe give him something to think about.
Maybe he would do well to get a dose of his own medicine for a change.
“Do you really think he has a small dick?”
“I’m sure he does,” I lied, feeling a surge of empowerment at knowing that I was playing with fire, talking this way about him in the hotel he owned. “That man’s ego is so huge. He has to be compensating for something. I can’t see how someone as selfish and mean as him could ever please a woman. He probably takes what the needs from his dates and gives them nothing in return.”
Kaylee eyes grew wide as she leaned against the wall behind her. “That’s harsh.”
“It’s true.” I lifted my chin in defiance.
“You don’t know that. Besides, even if he has a small dick, he’s still our boss. You need to be careful. Venting to me in the ladies room is one thing.” She nodded toward the door. “Venting out there is something else. If you want to keep this job, you need to get control of yourself.”