He brightened instantly. “Let it never be said that I don’t fulfil my commitments to the ladies properly. Go shower and change into one of your battle suits so that I can concentrate.”
She slapped him again, but more playfully. Knowing that she had an effect on him, a tantalizing one, sent a rush of pleasure through her as if she were a prom queen surveying her supplicants.
Dom watched her walk to the shower and smirked at the state her denim skirt was in. Unlike its stiff, too-long, early morning predecessor, the skirt was now crushed, rucked up to a much better height so he got a good look at her thighs. He chuckled. When he’d suggested helping her nab Rick-the-dick, he hadn’t counted on her being such a firecracker underneath all that drab clothing. Rick wouldn’t know what hit him. Something cold and clawed wrapped a hand around his heart and gave it a squeeze at the thought of Maya with Rick. That wasn’t fair of him. She’d been clear about what she wanted, and he’d seen the excitement in her eyes when she told him she’d finally scored a date with Rick-the-dick. Still, the guy didn’t deserve her. And you do? Dom looked at the scrap of red lace bra on the kitchen floor and scooped it up.
Maybe he wanted her, but it didn’t mean he was going to go there. Sex was one thing. Anything else was—was what exactly? Was a commitment he’d decided he wasn’t ready to make? This year was about consolidating. Working on the business. Spending time with his sisters when he got back home to Sydney. Maya was heading back to the States. They could work together, and help each other out, but that was going to be where it ended. Period.
Her cell rang and he picked it up, checking the display automatically to see if it was Prince Surfalot. What was that about leaving well alone? He trotted to the bathroom door but stood just outside. “Your phone.”
The water stopped.
“Who is it?”
He pretended he hadn’t already checked. “Says Holo.”
“Right. Pass it here.” She came out dripping in only a towel and Dom was surprised that even with such a small glimpse of her, there was a flicker of attention in his groin.
A few quick words and she turned to him with a grin. “He’ll be here in three hours. We better get to work.”
Work. Consolidation. Rebrand. Focus. Nope, not working. “Okay, but please tell me you’re going to get dressed first. I think we may have stumbled across the ideal outfit for the wedding, you should go dripping wet, in only a towel.”
Her face flattened. Good one. Reminding her of Rick? Now? It’s a good thing. Yes, probably. Still, didn’t make him feel very gallant.
The next three hours passed quickly with a series of calls and constant flood of emails. In between he went through more details of his new branding idea with Maya and when Holokai arrived, Dom was satisfied she knew what he was looking for and had the right questions ready to see whether the surfer was the perfect fit.
“So it’s a casual line?” Holokai’s face was unreadable.
“Yes. With street appeal, but with a more urban flavor than the stuff you’d usually be the face for,” Maya said smoothly. “It will start the rebranding of the whole Wolfes clothing brand.”
“Why’d you want a surfer for it?” The question came right at him and Dominic didn’t flinch. “I want a maverick. Someone bold and playful but with a conscience and a heart. That’s who this line is for. This Wolfe man is mature, without being old. Intelligent and maybe a bit intrepid. The clothing puts luxury fabrics with casual styling. It’s for someone who’s not obsessed with owning heaps of clothes but who knows how to dress them up or down. A surfer, a real surfer, one who loves the ocean and the earth, is perfect.”
“I pretty much wear boardies and Ts, I’d look like a phony in anything suity. I’ve tried a couple of times, but those clothes just look wrong on me.”
“This isn’t suits,” Maya said quickly. “Not like the other lines. But either way, Wolfe clothing is about giving men a way of showing off the bits that they like the most. Not asking them to carve chunks off themselves to fit into a pre-made mold.” Dom was impressed she’d remembered so clearly what he’d said about his fashion philosophy. “This line works for the surf scene because you guys are all really easy with your bodies. As fabulous as they are, they’re not all the same. You don’t work out to look like you do, you just live. You get on with living.”
“And while you all have an air of indifference, I figure you do care a little about what you look like off the water. It’s that fine line we’re looking for,” Dom added.
“The not looking like you care, but caring thing.” Holokai offered.
“Sounds lame when you put it like that, but yes, essentially. It’s about giving you clothes you like and that fit you so well you don’t have to care.” Dom smiled with the statement.
“Hey, nice. We might be able to use something in that,” said Maya and scribbled down what he’d said.
Again she was right on the money. Picking up the kernels of truth in what he said off the cuff and turning them into philosophy. Dominic smiled.
“She’s smart this one aint she,” said Holokai and Dom had to stop himself patting Maya on the leg possessively and nodded instead.
“So,” Maya gave Holokai her full attention. “What do you think?”
“I think it sounds nice and all, but you know me, I’m not a huge fashion head and I don’t know that I really want to be a pretty boy just for pants.”
“This isn’t just about pants though is it,” Maya nudged forward on her seat and Dom watched her at work, spinning the story about the ecological sponsorship part of the campaign around Holokai, hooking him, delivering him perfectly wrapped. If she wasn’t so set on being stuck in the surf scene, she’d be a great asset to Wolfe clothing, to anyone.
“I like it,” said Holokai with a grin. “Green clothes but for real, and not made of hemp. Have you tried wearing that stuff? Pain in the ass if you don’t iron it, and I’m not a fan of ironing anything.”
Dominic laughed. He liked the guy. Liked him a lot, and that was a large part of finding the right face for a campaign in his experience. “So shall we do this?”
Maya nudged him.
“I mean, I have to discuss this with my PR consultant. But after that, shall we do this?” Dominic said.
Holokai’s eyes sparkled and he held out a hand. “Talk business later.” He stood and Dominic walked him to the door. When he came back Dom found Maya with her hands on her hips. “Discuss this with my PR consultant? Surely you don’t do business like that all the time? You’d lose all your negotiation power.”
He pulled her into him and smoothed a stray curl of hair from her forehead. “I don’t do business like that very often no. But this is different, more personal. And anyway you’re here to make sure it all goes smoothly, remember? I teach, you make everything else work out?”
They stood like that, staring into each other’s eyes, Dominic’s heart starting to speed up thinking about what he might teach her next before Maya pulled away.
“I still think you shouldn’t have been so blatant about wanting him to do it.”
“But I do want him to do it.”
“And the other two?”
Dom noticed she avoided saying Rick’s name. “I can still meet with Rick if you want me to, but honestly, he’s not right.”
She ducked her head and he longed to tilt her chin up and stare into those green eyes again. “No, it’s okay. I’ll call him and let him know. It’s great that you’re one hundred percent happy already. Means it’s meant to be.”
Meant to be.
“Right then. Time to get cracking on the rest of the campaign. I’ll order us some lunch in shall I?” she said.
Yes. That’s what he needed, some food and a good dose of focus.
Chapter Ten
Maya picked up her cell to call Rick then put it down again. It could wait couldn’t it? What for? Doncha wanna talk to your date? No. The simple answer was that she didn’t. Not with Dominic in the room. Not with Dominic any
where near her. It just felt—like cheating? That couldn’t be it.
Straightening her shoulders she scooped up her phone and headed for the door. “I’m going to grab food from the café next door and let the others know they don’t need to come up for the sponsorship meeting. Back soon.” Not giving him a chance to protest, Maya was out in the hall before she could change her mind.
When she popped out of the elevator into the foyer she dialed Rick’s number and waited for his answering service.
“Maya.”
Oh. “Hi.”
“Looking forward to our meeting today. Nice to get to see you so soon after last night.” He was chirpy, brighter than he usually was with her and filtered through the phone he sounded different. Hell, was he flirting?
“Yes, that’s why I’m calling actually. The client wants to go with someone else. So you don’t need to come up after all. Sorry.”
She was sure she could hear him shrug. “Thems the breaks hey? No worries. Thanks for putting me up for it in the first place. You’re always looking out for me. I don’t tell you enough how special you are do I?”
“Yes. Right. Nice of you to say so.” This was weird. He was flirting with her and her body didn’t know what to do with it. The hand holding the phone was tight, and her jaw felt like it might crack any second.
“I was thinking about going to my sister’s wedding with you while I was in bed last night. Crazy how I never asked you out before isn’t it? Guess I’ll have to make up for it.”
What did that mean? Maya didn’t exactly shrink at the thought of what Rick might have been plotting as he lay in bed, but she sure didn’t come over all weak and hot like she had last week or like she did when Dominic looked at her. This is your future husband remember. It was. And it wasn’t like he wasn’t tasty to look at. Her problem was just that she’d been spending too much time with Dominic. When she saw Rick again everything would click into place.
“I mean, it’s lucky that I lost Brooke’s number. Cos there you were the whole time.”
“Yes.” There she was. The whole time. And he hadn’t noticed. Not once. Not till Dominic had taken her in hand. And not till all the other male surfers in that bar had paid attention.
“Your new haircut is bangin by the way. And that dress....” He blew out a long whistle.
Dominic’s dress. “I’ll see you tomorrow night then. I don’t think we’ve got any media calls in between. You’re all sorted.” She switched to work mode.
“Sorted,” he said.
“Bye.” Handing up the call, Maya turned and saw a tall blonde-haired man, impeccably dressed, standing at the hotel reception desk. Her heart contracted. Was Dominic checking up on her? The man turned and it wasn’t him. Disappointment? Didn’t she just decide her problem was that she’d been spending too much time with Dominic?
Too much time. And not enough.
They had work to do. Plenty of it. If she could focus on that, everything would be okay. She dialed Jerry’s number quickly and left him a message saying that at the moment they were sorted for the promotion, but if anything changed she’d let him know. Better to have at least one other guy for back up. Not Rick? Maya exhaled. No, not Rick, she was pretty sure Dominic had only agreed to consider him because of her, and after the way he’d been on the phone, if he rocked up to meet Dominic full of flirty comments—well, she could just tell it would never work.
When she reappeared in the suite with veggie burgers and fries, Dominic had spread out campaign images across the table, had made a bunch of notes and was nodding into his phone.
“Don’t be like that. You know I’d be there if I could. And I won’t be that long either. I think we just sorted the guy. You’d love him. Or you would if I wasn’t your number one.”
Oh. Maya almost turned and fled the room. Girlfriend alert. No one talked to their PA like that. Or no one who wasn’t interested in either dating the girl or defending a harassment suit. Surely not. Surely he wasn’t a cheater. Just as she put her hand on the door again, deciding she didn’t want to find out right now, Dominic turned.
“Hey I have to go. Lunch has arrived.” He paused, listening and turning his back to her and lowering his voice. “I know, I know, and I miss you too. Bye.” He rang off and turned back to Maya. “I hope you got steak, I’m starving. We kinda forgot breakfast.”
Mayas whole body stiffened, the confusion tightening every muscle. He’d just got off the phone to his girlfriend and he was bringing up the fact that they’d had sex? In the kitchen, only hours before? She stiffened. “I got burgers.”
“Excellent.” He took one of the outstretched bags and pulling out the burger, took a huge bite. “Not bad. Tastes a bit weird though,” he said after swallowing.
“They’re vegetarian. Better for the cows.”
“Huh.” He took another bite. “Better than the last thing you got I guess, at least this has protein in it. That salad you ordered me was pathetic.”
Was he really just going to ignore the fact he’d been speaking to his girlfriend? In front of her?
“Want a drink?” He asked. He walked to the kitchen and ran a finger over her shoulder as he passed her. She shrugged him off.
“Hey?” He turned back. “What’s up? One of the guys give you a hard time for me blowing them off.”
“Hardly.” She knew she didn’t mean anything to him. She knew their morning together had been a purely physical thing for him. An opportunity for him to teach her how to boost her confidence. But the reality of having him dismiss her as just someone who brought him lunch sat under her skin and poked at her. Hard.
He tilted his head. “Then what? You race out of here and then come back all uptight. I do have a remedy for that you know—”
“How can you say things like that? You get off the phone to your girlfriend and start talking about helping me unwind?”
“Girlfriend?” Dominic’s eyebrows shot up. He started to smile then the warmth dropped off his face. “You don’t think that’s a bit rich coming from someone who has been working towards dating someone else this whole time?”
Fair call. Didn’t make her feel any better. “He’s not my boyfriend. Not yet. If he was I wouldn’t have done—” she waved her hand between them. “What we did.”
“You mean have glorious uninhibited sex?”
He was determined not to make this easy. As he came towards her she backed away, and he put his hands up. “That was my sister. She said she wanted me to go to my nephew’s league game with her but really she was just calling to check up on me.”
“Your sister.”
“One of three. Remember I told you they brought me up.” He held up his index finger and thumb with a tiny space between them. “She’s a leeeettle bit protective.”
“Your sister.”
“Sorry to disappoint. So, about that drink?”
“Yes. Great. Water. Thanks.” Idiot. Maya felt the blush rising up like a heat wave from her shoulders. He had sisters that looked out for him and who he obviously adored. He had strong principles about his work and lived by them. Passionately. Dominic was a pretty nice guy. A pretty awesome guy. When she put him and Rick on the same page in her mind, the surfer didn’t seem nearly as great as he had only days ago.
“Okay?” Dom handed her a glass of water.
She looked for an excuse for her mood so he wouldn’t realize the turmoil her heart was in. “I’m just nervous about the date I guess. Remembering that Rick wanted to date my besty only last week.”
Rick was definitely a dick. Dominic tried not to let his irritation at the guy show. Like her girlfriend had said, Maya deserved much better than a guy who had only noticed her after everyone else in the bar had. Still. He wasn’t supposed to be adopting any more strays. He was supposed to be helping her stand on her own two feet and then getting the heck back to Sydney. “Well he’s clearly come to his senses. I saw the way he looked at you in the bar.”
“Yes. Maybe. Probably. I guess.”
“Hey. It’ll be okay. Let’s eat, then work, and then I’ll hack something in your wardrobe for this wedding of the year.”
She laughed and Dominic’s heart released. When she laughed, her eyes crinkled and her nose scrunched up. A bit like—uh oh. A bit like an adorable little puppy. Work. Focus. Now.
For the rest of the day they poured over images and locations. Dominic called his agency and Maya booked in time with Ashton, a great surf photographer she knew whose photos blew Dominic away. In between, Maya ducked out for a couple of media calls and Dominic ran through about a hundred emails with his PA. By the end of the day they were talked out, organized, and ready to chill.
“Pizza and a movie?” He flopped onto the sofa. “I still have work to do but I am not moving off this couch.”
Maya froze. “Omygod. I haven’t called my hotel.”
Dominic had forgotten about the night before too. It just seemed so easy having her around. “You saw the state of it. They won’t have fixed anything yet. And you have everything from your room right? I had them put it in your room.”
“I think so.”
“So chill.” He patted the seat next to him. “You pick the flick and I’ll order in.”
“I thought you had work to do.”
“I can multitask.”
Maya hesitated, but only for a moment, then sat down and pointed the remote at the television. The hotel had a wide array of choices on its in house movie system and he watched as she flicked past all the horror, cartoons and action. “You know how I said you should chose the movie?”
She gave him a wicked grin. “Yes. You did. I was thinking of choosing something, you know, relaxing, with Julia Roberts in it.”
Save me.
She laughed. “How about Steve Carell?”
They settled on Crazy, Stupid, Love, with what’s-his-abs, that Gosling guy in it, but Dom figured he’d probably crash out half way through anyway. The pizza arrived and Maya pulled the biggest slice out the box. In between emails he watched her cram the cheesy portion in her mouth and had to pull back, hard, on his impulse to catch the long strands of mozzarella and have a Hundred and One Dalmatians moment. He settled for shutting his laptop for a second and grabbing his own piece of pie.
Making over Maya (Hot Tide Book 2) Page 13
