by Maya Blake
Fifteen minutes later, a tiny spurt of excitement lanced her.
‘Found something you want to share?’
She looked up and found laser eyes trained on her. ‘What?’
‘You just made the universal feminine sound of excitement,’ he drawled, lifting his cup and draining it.
She tried to look away, but found herself unable to. ‘I’m not sure what that is, but yes, I may have found something.’
‘And?’ he pressed impatiently.
With effort, she refocused on the screen. ‘And I have another thirteen minutes until my time is up. So if you don’t mind?’
He made a sound beneath his breath, a cross between a growl and a huff, as he stood to refill his cup yet again. The sound rumbled along her nerve endings, causing her fingers to stumble over the keys.
God. What on earth was wrong with her?
Even before the incident that still had the power to make her stomach turn in sick horror, she’d never reacted this strongly to another man. Ever. She hadn’t allowed herself to even indulge in thoughts of the opposite sex since the incident. Sure, there hadn’t been a shortage of male attention despite her often blatant lack of interest. From those who wanted to date the boss’s daughter to further their own ends, to those who thought she would be accommodating with her affections because of the rumours surrounding her parents’ marriage. Each and every one of them had been firmly rebuffed.
Alejandro Aguilar hadn’t so much as flicked an interested eyelash in her direction. Yet her senses seemed poised on the edge of an unknown precipice, anticipating a sensation she couldn’t quite name.
The ping of an incoming email brought blessed refocusing. She read it quickly, then reached for her phone. ‘I need to make a quick phone call.’
‘Why?’ he asked without lifting his gaze from his document.
‘I want to confirm a few things before I present my findings. I still have five minutes left.’
He nodded to the state-of-the-art gadget crouched in the middle of the coffee table. ‘Use that phone.’
The bite of distaste stung deeper, prompting her to utter words she would’ve been better off stemming. ‘Are your trust issues as big as your caffeine problem?’
Glacial green eyes sliced into her. ‘You call them problems, I think of them as necessary tools that keep me at the top of my game. Your time is almost up. Use the phone or cut your losses and leave.’
Her hand tightened around her phone. ‘You’d toss me out before you hear what I’ve found out? Just because I state a few home truths?’
‘We met an hour ago. Are you naive enough to demand that I trust you in so short a time?’
‘Of course not. Nevertheless, I don’t appreciate being treated as if I’ve committed a crime or I’m about to commit one when all I’m trying to do is to help you.’
‘You take pleasure in debating non-issues when the only thing that should be important here is your service to me. Learning to give me what I want will go a long way to improving your chances of earning this contract.’
Her breath hitched as another voice surged into her head.
Stop playing so hard to get. Give me what I want and I’ll reward you...
The distaste of bitter memories made her snap, ‘I told you, if you’re looking for someone to lie down for you to walk all over, then I’m the wrong person for the job.’
He strolled the last few steps to the coffee table and dropped his papers on the gleaming surface. Regarding her with cold detachment, he drawled, ‘Lying down, in any shape or form, won’t be necessary. But once again we’re at an impasse, it seems. The next move is yours.’
Every atom in her body screamed at Elise to slam shut the laptop, get her things, and leave. She stayed put. Tried to get herself under control.
Yes, Alejandro Aguilar had done nothing but make demands that chafed, but they weren’t uncommon.
Sucking in a breath that didn’t quite rebalance her equilibrium, she set her phone on the table and, using Alejandro’s conference set, dialled the number she knew by rote.
When the familiar voice filled the room, Elise wondered for a moment whether she’d done the right thing.
‘Hi, Grandma.’
A furtive glance at Alejandro showed both eyebrows lifted in cold mockery.
‘Elise, my dear, what a pleasant surprise. I hope you’re calling to tell me you’ve finally found a young man worthy of your affections? I know half of them are dim-witted and the other half focused on the almighty dollar, but a beautiful, intelligent girl like you is capable of landing the right man. You’re not being too picky, are—?’
‘No, Grandma, I’m not... I’m calling about something else.’ Cringing and red-faced, Elise switched to Japanese, her chin lowered to avoid Alejandro’s drilling stare. ‘Something work related.’
‘Oh. Okay...’
Elise asked the questions she needed to, then a few more to verify she was on the right track, then quickly ended the call, unwilling to invite her beloved grandmother’s laser probing into her non-existent love life.
In the seething silence, she cleared her throat, momentarily gripped by embarrassment.
‘In the interest of getting this surreal hour over and done with, can we attempt to get past the fact that you blithely dropped your work to make a personal phone call?’ Alejandro snapped.
‘It...umm...wasn’t a personal call. At least not from my end...anyway.’ Elise stopped, smoothed her damp palms over her skirt, and tried to form coherent words. ‘My grandmother is Japanese. She lives in Hawaii now but she still owns several businesses in Kyoto. I thought she might have insights as to what’s stalling your merger.’
Alejandro returned her gaze, narrow-eyed, then took the seat opposite her. Wordlessly, he waited, his powerful arms braced on his knees.
Elise cleared her throat. ‘Kenzo Ishikawa, Jason and Nathan’s grandfather, started the company.’
‘I’m aware of that.’
Elise barely managed to keep her lips from pursing. ‘He’s old school. Traditional.’
‘I know what old school means. Explain yourself better.’
‘Kenzo has taken a back seat, but he’s still on the board.’ At his darker glare, she hurried on. ‘The company’s been based in Kyoto since it was created. Were you planning on moving any of their factories from Kyoto?’
Alejandro nodded. ‘Seventy per cent of them, yes. It’ll save millions of dollars in revenue and deliver a faster service if we relocate the factories and warehouses to Europe and the US.’
‘That probably doesn’t matter to him. Since this is a merger and not a buyout, they’ll still be associated with it. Kenzo won’t want to see everything he’s worked for moved to another continent.’
‘So your opinion is that this deal is stalling because of nostalgia?’
‘Sentimentality can be a strong motivator.’
‘I don’t have time for sentimentality. Or protracted delays. Sitting back while they grapple with their touchy-feely emotions isn’t cost-effective for me.’
‘Perhaps it hadn’t been a card they felt they could play and win,’ she ventured. ‘But now they do?’
His jaw clenched. One fist wrapped around the other, then he surged to his feet.
‘You know, don’t you?’ she queried.
‘Why the Ishikawas have suddenly gone dewy-eyed? Sí, I do,’ he breathed.
Elise was certain fire would shoot from his nostrils, so devastating was the rage simmering from him.
But he simply returned to his desk. Slightly dazed, she heard him order Margo to summon his strategy team. Once the instructions were snapped out, he jammed his hands into his pockets and turned to the window. Although his gaze remained fixed on the view of Lake Michigan, Elise sensed his thoughts were very much turned inward.
To the source of the problem she’d just helped him uncover.
She sat, hands in her lap, as minutes crawled by. Finally, irritation snapping at her fraught nerves, she stood an
d shrugged on her jacket. Buttoning it, she approached him.
‘Pardon my interruption of your non-Zen rumination, but does the light bulb I just handed you mean that I’m hired?’
His shoulders stiffened. Slowly he turned and leaned against the window, his ankles crossed. Elise forced her gaze to remain on his face, not glance down to the thighs bunched against the taut fabric of his trousers.
‘Sí, I’m inclined to give you the commission.’
She tamped down the absurd fizz of excitement. ‘I hear a busload of buts in there.’
His eyes gleamed a dangerous, hypnotic green. ‘But...we need to establish a few ground rules.’
‘I can live with a few reasonable rules.’
His mouth twisted with a parody of a smile. ‘I assure you, it’ll be in your interest to do so.’
She attempted a smile of her own. ‘I’ll be the judge of that. So shoot.’
‘First, there will be instances when if I say jump, you will ask me how high.’
‘I don’t think—’
‘Like now, for instance, when I say if you want to be hired, you’ll let me finish speaking before you give in to the urge to interrupt.’
She swallowed hard against the urge to tell him to go to hell and reminded herself why she needed this commission. Practising a woefully inadequate restorative breathing exercise, she forced out a nod.
‘Second, are we agreed on the extreme confidentiality of this deal?’
‘Yes.’
‘So, no more phone calls to Grandma.’
Heat rushed up her neck. ‘No more phone calls to Grandma.’
‘Good. You’ll work from here in my office, full time, until this deal is done.’
‘I thought I’d be working alongside your own PR team.’
‘They’ll be brought in when extra support is needed. Don’t worry, you’ll be adequately compensated.’
Not seeing any way around that bar refusing, she pressed her lips together and nodded.
‘Was that a yes, Miss Jameson? If so, I prefer to hear the word, so there’s no misunderstanding.’
She gritted her teeth. ‘Yes. It was a yes.’
‘Perfect. You’ll start today. Right now. Margo will escort you to HR and you’ll sign the requisite confidentiality papers. If you need lunch, let her know and she’ll organise something for you.’
‘I’m quite capable of getting my own lunch.’
‘This is one of those instances where wasting time on a matter will be considered a breach of your work rules.’
Shock widened her eyes. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Lunch, unless you have specific dietary requirements, is lunch, Miss Jameson. Wasting time arguing about who gets you lunch is counterproductive.’
‘I... Are you serious?’ she asked, unsure whether to be grossly offended or mildly hysterical.
He jerked his head to a connecting door at the far side of the room. ‘There’s a Michelin-starred chef employed to prepare and serve whatever dish you desire to my personal dining room. All you need to do is ask.’
Elise was aware the scenario he’d just described would be most professionals’ idea of a dream perk. Certainly, her parents would relish the chance to laud such a privilege over their competitors and brag about it to clients.
‘I have simple tastes, Mr Aguilar. A sandwich from a bistro is perfectly adequate for me. Besides, taking a few minutes away from the office to walk to said bistro helps my cogitative process.’ She took a breath. ‘But I concede that you’re under time pressures. If the chef isn’t offended by making me a sandwich, then I’ll be happy to eat in your dining room.’
Another hard non-smile twitched his sculpted lips. ‘I do believe you’ve just jumped again, Miss Jameson. Although in a puzzlingly overcomplicated way.’ He nodded at his door. ‘Don’t keep Margo waiting.’
Elise forced fists that had unconsciously curled to loosen. She stared at him as he resumed his seat...his throne...and carried on ruling his kingdom as if he hadn’t just swatted her away like an annoying fly.
‘Is there something about me that rubs you the wrong way, Mr Aguilar?’ she asked, suppressing the part of her that questioned her compulsive need to go head to head with him. She reassured herself it was because she didn’t want to be caught by a horribly unpleasant surprise further down the line, the way she had last year. If something swirled beneath Alejandro’s forbidding mask, she preferred to uncover it sooner rather than later.
He scrutinised her from head to toe, then back again. Slower. More intensely. Until her whole body tingled from the penetrative stare.
‘Are you about to start another argument with me?’ he enquired silkily.
She shook her head but stood her ground. ‘No. But if there happens to be something bothering you about me, I think we need to address it now, before...’ She stopped, unwilling to bring the ugly past to this discussion.
One brow lifted. ‘Before?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t like surprises, Mr Aguilar. I like working in a fraught environment even less.’
His jaw clenched for an infinitesimal moment, then he did something unexpected. He pressed two fingers against each temple and rubbed. The sigh he emitted was filled with thick weariness.
‘This deal should’ve been done months ago. I don’t mind the challenge of a difficult deal if it’s warranted,’ he murmured, surprising her further by admitting to being anything other than omnipotent. ‘But I’m bored by the games the Ishikawas have suddenly decided they want to play.’
‘I don’t think—’
Cool green eyes met hers. ‘Yes, I know what you think. But I’m bored nevertheless. Boredom makes me...unpredictable.’
He was skimming the real issue behind his acerbic attitude. What she wasn’t sure of was whether the real reason, somehow, involved her. Just as she was certain he wouldn’t answer if she probed further.
She needed to leave this office. Go find Margo and get the HR papers signed. The earlier she got to work, the quicker her last ever commission for Jameson would be done. Then she could truly put the past behind her.
So why was she picking up a sleek bottle of mineral water from the coffee tray and holding it out to him?
Alejandro looked from the bottle to her face. A face she willed with everything inside her not to redden again.
When he didn’t take it, she set it down in front of him. ‘Try drinking some of this instead of guzzling down gallons of caffeine. It might ease that tension headache you’ve got going on.’
He ignored the bottle. ‘I don’t anticipate adding nursemaid to your list of duties. The ones I have in mind for you will be quite involved. Let’s concentrate on those, shall we?’
‘Duly noted. You can be assured that if I happen to be around when you’re struck by lightning or a murder of crows decide to use you for pecking practice, I’ll continue on my merry way.’
The smile that twitched his mouth was a shade warmer than the last one. Elise found herself wondering what a genuine smile from him would look like and abruptly stepped back.
Turn around. Go.
She headed for the door.
‘Miss Jameson.’
It wasn’t a request. It was an order couched in psuedo-reasonable, even tones.
Keep walking. She took another step.
‘Elise.’
She froze, the sound of her given name so unbelievably sensual coming from his deep, slightly accented tones, that she couldn’t suppress a gasp. She slowly turned around.
He was no longer massaging his temples. But he’d wrenched the top off the water bottle, the tip of it poised an inch from his lips.
‘One last thing. My company isn’t the place to find your next boyfriend or a husband. As long as you’re contracted to work for me, you’ll practise a zero-fraternisation policy. I find that petty lawsuits are best avoided that way.’
‘Are you speaking from personal experience?’ she asked before she could stop herself.
His fa
ce tightened into a rigid, forbidding mask. Hell, she’d struck another nerve. God, what was wrong with her?
‘That is not your concern. Just be sure to let Grandma know you’ll be disappointing her for a while longer where potential wedding bells are concerned, would you?’
Elise turned back around, too filled with roiling emotions to trust herself to speak.
Keep walking.
CHAPTER THREE
IS THERE SOMETHING about me that rubs you the wrong way?
Of all the words she could’ve chosen.
Alejandro snorted, inwardly grimacing at the sexual bent he’d afforded the words. But they wouldn’t fade away. Like the headache pounding his temples, each heartbeat flashed an image of Elise Jameson onto his retinas, each one more vivid than the last.
Madre de Dios.
He didn’t need to waste time on an attraction his principles wouldn’t allow him to act upon.
Now he knew the cause of the stalled merger, he could simply pay Jameson PR for services rendered, plus a generous bonus. He had no doubt that Gael had arrived at the same realisation as he had, but, since negotiations hadn’t yet been severed with SNV in favour of Toredo, it was most likely Gael hadn’t found a satisfactory way to appease the Ishikawas, either.
With that last puzzle unravelled, he didn’t need Elise Jameson.
Except she’d rooted out his problem with a single, albeit unorthodox, phone call, whereas his strategy team had spent weeks trying to unravel the mystery of the stalled negotiations.
Sending her away would save the irritating prickling of his senses whenever she was near. Or he could keep her around as the extra pair of eyes she’d advocated until this deal was in the bag.
He stemmed the need to call HR and retract the contract. He never set rules for his staff he didn’t follow himself. Regardless of how looking at Elise Jameson’s face and body made certain parts of him stir, his only focus in dealing with her would be this merger.
A pep talk. He was giving himself a pep talk. Por el amor—
He tossed the curiously empty water bottle on the tray, having no recollection of drinking it. He refused to believe his easing headache was because of his water intake. Or the unknotting of his muscles because Elise had helped him finally unravel the mystery of his failing deal.
