by Susan Meier
“What are you doing?”
Erin’s heart about burst in her chest and her gaze flew up as Hugo entered his office.
She sprang from his desk chair. “Looking for the voucher I gave you yesterday.”
She just barely managed to keep her voice from shaking. He’d scared her, but the newspaper article had done more damage. Her stupid crush had been snuffed out. Totally. Brutally. She should have known someone so work-focused wouldn’t give a damn about anybody but himself—wouldn’t give a damn about his family.
But his not returning for his mother’s funeral? Because he wouldn’t inherit his family’s sole possession? That was hard-core petty.
She tried to stop the comparison between Hugo and Josh, but it rose in a tidal wave of anger. Both thought only of themselves. Neither cared about the feelings of those around him.
Those closest to him.
To have made the decision he had, Josh clearly hadn’t known her at all. And now it appeared, after two and a half years of working together, she didn’t know her boss at all.
“I need the check today.”
“I’m sure it will be coming when my office sends their courier with the mail.”
And that was another thing—
Why did he have her here, in a makeshift office, among the construction and noise? Why wasn’t she in the space rented for his New York staff?
Was it because he didn’t want her to know his family had owned the hotel he’d scooped up for a song?
Scooped up for a song!
If his family had retained any part of the hotel at all, their share of the sale would be next to nothing. Was that what he’d been so proud of? That he’d shortchanged his family?
The man was scum.
As she scrambled around his desk, to the front of it where an employee belonged, he glanced down into the open desk drawer and frowned.
Then looked up at her.
Their gazes met and held.
He knew she’d seen the newspaper.
She swallowed but didn’t shift her eyes away. Let him yell at her. She now knew the truth.
* * *
Her unspoken revulsion washed over Hugo as he slowly took his seat. He’d expected the story of the hotel would be printed in the business section of legitimate press. He hadn’t expected the tabloids to pick it up...or that their accusations would skim along his skin like lightning before a bad storm.
“Satisfy your curiosity?”
Her chin rose. “Enough to know you’re pretty heartless.”
Anyone in London could say that to him and he’d shrug and go on with his life. But Erin Hunter had been like a right-hand person to him. She’d played a major part in his recent successes. He’d believed she respected him. No. She had respected him.
And one unsanctioned tabloid story seemed to have totally changed her mind.
Anger bubbled again.
“You didn’t even come back for your mother’s funeral?”
He hadn’t been told his mother had died. No one spared the thirty seconds of internet searching it would have taken to find him.
“I wasn’t told about my mother’s death, let alone her funeral.” He slammed his hand on the desk. He had absolutely no idea why Erin’s disgust hit him in the chest like a stab of betrayal, but it did.
He wanted to scream, Get out. Instead, he drew a slow, calming breath, one that quelled the rising anger, not just with Erin but with his brother and sister who seemed so cautious about him. He’d wanted a happy reunion. What he got were two supercareful siblings. Though Jay seemed to be coming around, his only hope of repairing his relationship with Sally was the Christmas Eve grand opening party.
And for that, he needed Erin.
“I’ll phone my office and track down the check.”
She primly said, “Thank you,” turned on her heel and raced out of the room.
He cursed, squeezed his eyes shut, then went back to work. Or tried. Her blatant hatred haunted him. They’d worked together amicably for the past week, got so many details nailed down—
So what?
People he loved hated him and he had survived.
He always survived.
To hell with her. His goal was repairing his family.
He worked until his brain forgot Erin Hunter and completely focused on his plan to bring his family’s hotel back to life. At a little after six that night, the sounds of hammers and saws still filling the high-ceiling spaces of the first floor, he left the hotel. Tired, he ambled out to his waiting limo in time to see Erin heading up the long sidewalk around the driveway to the street.
Confusion overcame his automatic burst of anger with her. “Where’s she going?”
The driver holding the limo door for him snapped to attention. “Ms. Hunter?”
“Yes.”
“Probably to a bus stop.”
Hugo gaped at him. “How far away is the apartment my staff rented for her?”
His driver opened the door a little wider, a hint for him to get inside and get them both out of the cold. “I’m afraid I don’t know, sir.”
“Well, it looks like we’re going to find out. Stop when we reach her.”
The limo took the circular drive around the hotel to the entry to the main road, then stopped. Hugo lowered his window.
She might despise him, and his feelings for her might also be in the toilet, but he wouldn’t let her walk when he’d promised her a nice stay in London. “It’s too cold to walk.”
She tugged the sides of her coat collar closer together. “I’m fine.”
And there was her pride again. Misplaced for sure, but he’d never allow her close enough that she’d see just how wrong she was.
Still... He wouldn’t let a single mum, trying to get home to her family, take the bus when he had a limo.
“Let me give you a ride.”
Miss Pride looked about ready to refuse, but she sucked in a breath. “For the record, I’m sure Manhattan is much colder right now.”
He laughed as he opened the car door and got out, offering her entry to the warm back seat.
She slid in. He slid in beside her. “And for the record, I’m not in any way, shape or form showing you a nice side of myself, so you won’t hate me after what you read in that paper.”
She sniffed.
“I don’t care if you hate me. I don’t care if anyone hates me.”
She snorted. “No kidding.”
“And if you think I’m trying to repair our relationship, we don’t have one. Except professional.”
She glanced at him.
He held her gaze. “To ruin that, you’d have to screw up the Christmas Eve grand opening. You’re too good to do that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have wasted the money bringing you here.”
She said nothing, just stared at him, and he felt immeasurably better. He’d rather she hated him for being an unfeeling businessman than for things he hadn’t done.
He gestured to the driver. “Give Ronnie your address.”
She did and then settled back on the seat with a long sigh.
“Rough day?”
“My boss is a taskmaster.”
He chuckled, not sure why her disrespectful side amused him, except that it felt good to have their argument from the morning out of the way. Or maybe he liked that she was always honest with him?
“He may be a taskmaster. But his hotels are some of the best in the world.”
* * *
With another sigh, Erin realized she had to give him that one. “True.”
“And you’re a big part of that.”
The sincerity in his voice warmed her more than the limo’s heaters. She didn’t want to like him or hate him and was glad that he seemed to be taking them back to their original impersonal work relationship. “Thanks.�
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“You’re welcome. I don’t ever say it, but I always hope the fee I pay you shows you that I appreciate you.”
Grateful to be back on neutral ground, she glanced at him. When their gazes met, something trickled down her spine. She immediately blamed her stupid attraction, but her brain wouldn’t accept that because her crush was gone. It had been snuffed out when she’d read that newspaper article. This felt more like a connection of some sort.
She hauled in a long breath, telling herself that was ridiculous. Guys like Hugo Harrington didn’t connect. He’d proved that with how he treated his family.
He looked away and they drove a few blocks in total silence before he said, “Are your son and mum settling in?”
She peered over at him. A personal question after that weird connection? Her brain tried to make the leap that maybe he’d noticed her crush on him and he was making a move, but her crush on him was dead. Frankly, she’d like to keep it that way.
Deciding he was only making conversation, she said, “Yes. Noah is thrilled. I’ve taken him a few places, but we haven’t officially been sightseeing yet. We’re saving that for the weekend—closer to Christmas, when Santa will be out, and everything will be more real for him.”
“Humph. That makes sense. Have you given any thought to the Christmas cookies I mentioned?”
Yep. He was only making simple conversation, which he easily brought back to work. No need to worry he’d seen her crush or was even trying to be friends. She was safe.
“The gingerbread men?”
He nodded.
“Found three recipes online. I gave them to Louis Joubert. He’ll make all three. You can do the taste test to choose the one you want.”
“Good.”
They drove the rest of the way discussing the project. So many details that Erin’s head began to spin. Now that she knew the hotel had belonged to his family during its heyday, his surety of what he wanted didn’t surprise her. But her heart tugged when it occurred to her that he could be recreating his past.
The memory of Hugo asking about gingerbread men popped into her brain. At the time, she’d held back a laugh, thinking that must have been one of his childhood favorites. But what if they’d actually been a big part of the Christmas Eve celebrations of the past? And what if it had been his mom, not the chef, who’d made them?
What if those had been the cookies he and his mom had set on a plate for Santa?
Emotion swamped her and the sense of connection rose again. It was almost as if she could see him as a child.
She shook her head to clear it, but realization also hit her. Now that she understood the hotel had once belonged to his family, she’d be making all sorts of connections like this—
And whether she wanted to or not, she’d be getting to know him.
Her breath stalled. She did not want to like him! He’d deserted his family—
But she didn’t want to hate him either. That would make working together difficult. And the truth was it didn’t matter what he’d done in the past with his family. She was a subcontractor. Someone who worked for him. She’d do her best to keep enough distance that even if she did learn things about him, it wouldn’t matter.
He. Was. Her. Boss.
The limo pulled up to her building and Hugo slid out of the car, motioning for her to exit.
Finishing the work discussion, she said, “Tomorrow morning, I’ll send Dave and Terry on a scouting mission in the attic. We may find old lamps or paintings. Things we can use to draw out the ambience of the hotel when it was popular. Honestly, I think everything you want will be easy to accomplish.”
He winced. “Even getting my brother and sister to hang ornaments with me?”
She slid the strap of her purse farther up her shoulder. Guessing that must have been one of their family traditions, she wished she could promise that, if only from a professional standpoint. But she didn’t know much about his brother and sister except that he’d abandoned them, and she wouldn’t promise something she couldn’t deliver. She certainly wouldn’t blame them if they wanted no part of hanging ornaments with him, as if everything was peachy keen and hunky-dory.
“Let me touch base with them before I commit.”
He gestured for her to walk up the sidewalk to the building, and she frowned.
“I want to see your quarters. I was under the impression they’d found you something nice and close to the hotel. Since they blew the close-to-the-hotel part, I need to see what they rented for you.”
Surprised by his concern, she said, “It’s fine.”
“I promised you an opportunity to show your son a wonderful holiday. Part of that is having a good place to live.”
The odd feeling of connection with him tightened her chest again, maybe because he sounded more like a friend than a boss. “We do have good living quarters. Actually, they’re wonderful.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
They ambled up to the three-story building, which reminded Erin of some of New York’s brownstones. He opened the main door for her, and she turned to the right to enter the first apartment.
As she opened the door, Noah jumped off the sofa and ran to her. “Mom!”
She scooped him up, turning to Hugo. “See? Perfectly comfortable.”
He glanced around at the gray walls, white kitchen cabinets and solid hardwood floor in the living room and said, “It is nice.” Then he looked at Noah, his eyes lit and his lips lifted into a smile. “How do you like it?”
Noah turned his face into his mom’s shoulder.
“He’s just shy,” Erin said, as more conflicting feelings rippled through her. She hadn’t expected all-business Hugo Harrington to be interested in her child. Estranged from his family, he was even more of a lone wolf than she’d originally thought. But judging from his expression, Noah intrigued him.
Still, everybody liked her adorable son.
“That’s okay. When he sees the Christmas gift I told Santa to bring him, he’s going to love me.”
The little boy’s head slowly lifted from Erin’s shoulder. “Santa brings presents.”
“And he takes special orders from bosses of little kids’ moms.”
Her heart began to soften at his unexpected kindness, but she stopped it. She liked not having a crush on him. She might have been righteously indignant on behalf of his family, but it made working for him so much easier.
She could not let a few kind words drag her back. Not when she had evidence that he wasn’t a nice guy.
She kissed Noah’s cheek then slid him to the floor. “Go sit with Grandma a sec, and then we’ll watch a Christmas movie before bedtime.”
Noah obediently did as he was told.
“He’s a great kid.”
“Thanks. He’s a sweetheart. Barely a ripple of badness when he hit the terrible twos.”
Hugo laughed. Then he glanced around again. “I’m satisfied with your quarters.” He walked to the door and she followed him, seeing him out.
He turned to her, and their eyes met. Her blasted attraction tried to rise again. She reminded herself he’d abandoned his family, told herself anything nice he said about Noah was because Noah was adorable, and her defenses returned.
“See you tomorrow.”
She murmured, “See you tomorrow.” And almost felt guilty that she now knew enough about him that her feelings couldn’t simply be neutral. She was either wondering what it would be like to kiss him or sitting on the edge of totally disliking him.
Still, smart women did not mess around with guys who thought so little of their families. No matter how good-looking he was or how strong her curiosity about what it would be like to kiss him.
CHAPTER TWO
THE NEXT DAY, meeting with Erin as she quickly reported on the progress of the details of the Christmas Eve celebration, Hu
go was in awe. She was every bit as shrewd as he was in getting her own way and every bit as tough of a negotiator.
But something had happened the night before. Every time he’d looked at her, a weird sensation had shuffled through him. At first, he’d taken it as a continuation of his surprise to discover her disrespectful remarks amused him. But the more he’d stood in her quarters, the more times their gazes linked, the more he noticed odd little things about her. Things he liked.
Sitting in front of his desk, notebook on her lap, pen in hand, glasses perched on her nose, she went on with their meeting, totally oblivious to his confusing thoughts.
“The Christmas trees are ordered. Even the huge one for the ballroom.”
Taking in her simple blue T-shirt that outlined nice-sized breasts and her worn jeans, he told himself that it was okay to agree that she could wear work clothes in a dusty hotel that was being renovated. But the nice-sized breasts observation was one of those unexpected things again.
Not that she wasn’t attractive. She was. Maybe too attractive.
Seeing she was waiting for a response, he said, “Great. The trees are very important to the overall scheme of things.”
“I saw that. I got the general idea of the size for each one from the old photos you gave to the contractor recreating the rooms and lobby.”
Her hair caught up in a ponytail was also cute. Though it was abundantly practical when working in a construction zone, he liked it. He also loved that she hadn’t lost one iota of her stunning beauty when she quit wearing makeup. The dusty environment had probably forced that too. But it had made his breath catch to see her skin clean and shiny, her bright eyes every bit as luminous without shadows and liners or whatever it was women used to make themselves pretty.
She needed none of it.
And it was confusingly odd that he reacted to that too.
“I’ve been in the attic with Terry and Dave and we’ve uncovered a treasure trove of decorations.”
All thoughts of how pretty she was fled at the mention of decorations. He sat up. “The originals?”