Luckily it was one o’clock, which meant she could take lunch. But instead of sneaking into the kitchen, as she did most days, she locked the door to her office and flopped down on the two-seater couch she’d crammed into the small space so that if her guests wanted to they could be slightly more comfortable.
It had been a long morning. She’d done a quick tour first thing when she’d got in, followed by meetings with three guests wanting to plan trips. Usually she would be ecstatic about it. She loved her job. And she had Connor to thank for that.
She sighed, and sank even lower on the couch. Officially she was the ‘Specialised Concierge’—a title she had initially thought pretentious, but one that seemed to thrill many of the more elite guests she worked with at the hotel. Unofficially she was a glorified tour guide, whose brother had persuaded her to work at the hotel to drag her from the very dark place she had been in after their parents’ deaths.
She didn’t have to think back that far to acknowledge that the job had saved her from that dark place. Once she had seen her parents’ coffins descend into the ground—once she had watched people say their farewells and return to their lives as usual—she had found herself slipping. And even though her brother had been close to broken himself, he had stepped up and had helped her turn her life into something she knew had been out of her grasp after the car crash that had destroyed the life she had known and the people she loved.
The thought made her miss him terribly, and she grabbed her handbag and headed to Connor’s office. Maybe he felt like having lunch together, and he could calm the ache that had suddenly started in her heart.
As she walked the short distance to his office she greeted some of the guests she recognised and nodded politely at those she didn’t. She smiled in sympathy when she saw her friend Kate, dealing with a clearly testy guest at the front desk, and laughed when Kate mimicked placing a gun to her head as the guest leaned down to sign something.
Connor’s door was slightly ajar when she got there, and she paused before knocking when she heard voices.
‘If we keep doing what we’re doing, in a couple of years—three, max—the hotel will be turning a profit again, Blake.’ Connor’s voice sounded panicked. ‘I’m just not sure this plan is the best option. Surely there’s something else we can do? Especially after we’ve stepped up in the last few years.’
‘Connor, no one is denying the work you’ve done at the hotel. You’ve increased turnover by fifty per cent since you took over—which is saying something when you consider the state Landon left it in. But three years is too long to have a business running in the red.’ There was a pause, and then Blake continued. ‘Would you rather we move on to the other option? I’ve told you that it would come with a lot more complications...’
‘Of course I would prefer any other option. But you know what’s best for the hotel.’
Callie felt a trickle of unease run through her when she heard her brother’s voice. It wasn’t panicked this time, but resigned, as though he had given up hope on something.
‘All right, then.’ There was a beat of silence. ‘I suppose we should start preparing to lay off staff.’
The words were fatalistic, and yet it took Callie a while to process what she had heard. Once she did, her legs moved without her consent and she burst through the office door.
‘No!’ she said, and her voice sounded as though it came from faraway. ‘I can’t let you do that.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘EXCUSE ME?’ BLAKE LIFTED his eyebrows, and suddenly Callie wished her tongue had given her the chance to think before she spoke.
‘I’m so sorry, Mr Owen... Connor...’ She saw the look in her brother’s eyes and hoped her own apologised for interrupting. ‘I just heard—’
‘A private business conversation between members of management. Do you make a habit of eavesdropping?’
His eyes were steel, and she could hear the implication that he thought she had more poor habits than just eavesdropping.
‘No, of course not. I was on my way to ask Connor if he’d like to do lunch, and then I heard you because the door was open.’ She gestured behind her, although the action was useless now, since it stood wide open after her desperate entrance. ‘I didn’t mean to listen, but I did, and I’m telling you that you can’t lay off staff. Please.’
Blake’s handsome face softened slightly, and she cursed herself for noticing how his dark blue suit made him look like a model from the pages of a fashion magazine. It was probably the worst time to think of that, she thought, and instead focused on making some kind of case to make him reconsider.
‘There are people here who need their jobs. Who love their jobs.’ She could hear the plea in her voice. ‘Employees here who have families who depend on them.’
‘I’m aware of that, Miss McKenzie.’ Blake frowned. ‘I’ve thought every option through. This one is the best for the hotel. If we downsize now we can focus on operations and then expand again once we turn enough profit. It would actually be fairly simple.’
‘For you, maybe. And for the hotel, sure. But I can assure you it would be anything but simple for the people you lay off—’ She broke off, her heart pounding at the prospect. ‘This is a business decision without any consideration for your employees.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘I have considered my employees, and I resent your implication otherwise. You have no idea what any other option would require from us. This is the most efficient way to help Elegance, Cape Town, get back on its feet.’
‘Are you listening to yourself?’ she asked desperately. ‘You’ve been tossing around words like “downsizing” and “efficiency” as though those are good things. They aren’t!’
‘Callie—’
Connor stepped forward and she immediately felt ashamed of her behaviour when she saw the warning in his eyes. She knew she was embarrassing him in front of their boss. She even knew that she was embarrassing herself in front of her boss. So, even though more words tumbled through her mind, and even though the shame she felt was more for Connor than for herself, she stopped talking.
‘It’s okay, Connor.’ Blake eased his way into one of the chairs in front of Connor’s desk. ‘I understand your sister’s anger. However unprofessional.’
Callie’s heart hammered in her chest and she wished that she hadn’t said anything. But then she thought of Kate, and Connor, and of the fact that her job meant the world to her, and she straightened her shoulders. She wouldn’t feel bad for standing up for their jobs. Not when it meant that she’d at least tried to save them.
‘There is another option, Callie.’
Blake spoke quietly, and she wondered if he knew the power his voice held even so.
‘I’ve looked into other investors.’
‘Why did you dismiss the idea?’
Something shifted in his eyes, as though he hadn’t expected her to ask him about his reasons.
‘The Elegance hotels are the product of my father’s hard work, and mine, and I don’t want an outside investor to undermine that. Not at this stage of the game.’
He looked at her, and what she saw in his eyes gave her hope.
‘Of course I have considered it. Especially an international investor, since that might give Elegance the boost it needs to go international. But it would be a very complicated process, and it would require a lot of negotiation.’ He turned now, and looked at Connor. ‘Like I told you before, I would have to think through the terms of this thoroughly before I make any decision.’
‘But you’ll reconsider it?’ There was no disguising the hope Callie felt.
Blake looked at her, and those blue-green eyes were stormier than she had thought possible.
‘I don’t want another investor. This hotel group has been in my family for decades, Miss McKenzie. It’s a legacy I want to pass on
to my children.’ He paused. ‘But if we can secure an international investor, that legacy might be even more than I thought possible. We’ll talk about it.’
He gestured to Connor, and then moved to sit behind the desk Connor had had put in his office for Blake.
Callie waited, but the look on her brother’s face told her she had been dismissed. She nearly skipped out of the room, because despite his non-committal response Blake Owen was considering an option other than laying off staff. If Blake chose an investor it would mean that everything her brother had worked so hard for wouldn’t have been for nothing.
He had toiled night and day to try and get the hotel running smoothly again, and the news of Blake’s arrival had been a difficult pill to swallow—it had been a clear sign that everything Connor had done hadn’t been enough. Callie knew he loved the hotel, and the last thing that he wanted was for his employees to lose their jobs. And, she thought, the last thing she wanted was for him to lose his job—and for her to lose hers.
So before she left she wanted to say one more thing to Blake.
‘Mr Owen... Blake?’
He looked up, and she smiled.
‘Thank you for reconsidering.’
* * *
Blake couldn’t sleep. He had been working with Connor until just past midnight, trying to draft an investment contract that he was happy with. A contract that would require all his negotiation skills to convince an investor to accept—although he knew it was possible. He had put out feelers even before he had spoken to Connor, when he had initially thought of finding an investor, and the response had been positive. But he still wasn’t convinced that this was something he wanted or if it was something he was being persuaded into by a pretty face.
He threw off his bedcovers and walked downstairs to the kitchen of his Cape Town house. He had bought the place without much thought other than that he would need somewhere to stay when he visited his father, who had retired here. Now he was incredibly grateful he had, since he didn’t know how long he would be in town.
The house was a few kilometres from the hotel, and had an amazing view. He could even see the lights of the city illuminating Table Mountain at night through the glass doors that led out onto a deck on the second floor. But he wasn’t thinking about that as he poured himself a glass of water and drank as though he had come out of a desert.
Since the house was temperature-controlled, he knew he wasn’t feeling the heat of the January weather. No, he thought. It was because he was considering something that would complicate his life when all he’d wanted was a simple solution.
Blake had been raised in the family business. His father had opened the first Elegance Hotel four decades ago, and had invested heavily in guest relations. He had made sure that every employee knew that the Elegance Hotel’s guests came first, and seen that vision manifested into action. Eventually, after two decades, his investment had paid off and he had been able to expand into other hotels.
Blake had been groomed to take over since he was old enough to understand that his father was not only building a business, but a legacy. And he hadn’t been given control of the hotel until his father had been sure that he could do it.
That was why he wanted to lay off staff instead of considering an outside investor. He would be able to solve the problem that had arisen while he’d been trying to fix his relationship with Julia easily, and make the reminder of his failure disappear. It would mean that his feelings of losing control and being helpless would be gone.
A memory of himself standing at the front door, watching his mother leave, flashed through his mind, but he shook it away, not knowing where it had come from, and forced his thoughts back to the matter at hand. Laying off staff might have been the simple option, but it was also a selfish one. Especially when he thought of the hope he had seen written on Callie and Connor’s faces.
He sighed as he made his decision. He would do this—but not for Callie. The slight heat that flushed through him every time he thought about her, the intensity of it every time he saw her, was a sure sign that he should stay away from her. He wouldn’t make this big a decision based on his attraction to her or her need for him to do so. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
* * *
‘Mr Owen, do you have a moment?’
Callie stood awkwardly at the door, wishing with all her might that she didn’t feel quite so small in his presence. But she straightened when he looked up and gestured for her to come in.
She knew Connor had to attend one of the conferences at the hotel today, and she was using the opportunity to speak to her boss without her brother’s disapproving look. And without the disapproving lecture she would no doubt receive—like the one she’d received just after midnight—which, she had been told, was when Connor and Blake had finally finished their meeting.
She knew she’d been out of line when she had spoken up, and she hadn’t needed Connor to tell her that. So once again she was preparing to apologise to Blake.
She walked in and swallowed when he looked up, the striking features of his face knitted into a stern expression.
‘What can I do for you, Miss McKenzie?’
‘It’s Callie, please.’
He nodded. ‘Okay, then. What can I do for you, Callie?’
Her stomach jilted just a little at the way he said her name. She cleared her throat. ‘I wanted to say sorry.’
He almost smiled. ‘It’s becoming a habit, then.’
She let out a laugh. ‘Seems like it. I’ve made quite the mess since meeting you.’ She stepped forward, resisted pulling at her clothes. ‘But I am sorry. The first time I apologised it was because I’d made a mistake. This time it’s because I shouldn’t have barged in here and spoken out of turn.’
‘I’m not upset with you because you spoke out of turn.’
Blake stood, walked around the desk and leaned against it. He was wearing a blue shirt, and the top button was loosened. She swallowed, and wondered if the temperature in the room had increased.
‘I’m not your school principal.’
‘Aren’t you, though? In some ways?’
This time he did smile, and it did something strange to her heart.
‘I won’t take the bait on that one.’
He paused, and then crossed his arms. She could see the muscle ripple under his shirt, and the heat went up another notch.
‘You say you’re sorry for barging in here. But not that you eavesdropped?’
‘No, I’m not sorry about that. If I hadn’t you wouldn’t have considered investors. Which you have been doing, right?’ she asked, and knew that subtlety was not her forte.
‘I have. I made a few calls this morning, and I have a few people interested.’
He walked towards her, and though the distance between them wasn’t small her heart thudded.
‘So the answer to your real question is yes, I am going to do this.’
‘You are?’ Relief washed over her. ‘Oh, wow!’ She pressed a hand to her stomach. ‘That’s amazing.’
‘But I need your help.’
Relief turned into confusion. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Like I said yesterday, we need a very specific kind of investor. An international one who will be willing to invest in the hotel, but also in this city. Especially if I want him to agree to my strict terms regarding the expansion of Elegance Hotels.’
His hands were in his pockets now, and he moved until he was just close enough that she could smell his cologne. It reminded her of when they were in the elevator together—a time when she hadn’t had to think of him as her boss.
She shook off the feelings the memory evoked, but when she spoke, her voice was a little husky. ‘And how can I help with that?’
‘You can help me sell the city. You are the “Specialised Concierge”
, right?’
He smiled slyly, and she realised he knew about her made-up title.
‘Or, in more common terms, a tour guide,’ she said.
‘Exactly. So I’ll need you to help me sell Cape Town to potential investors. Your knowledge of the city will be an asset to any proposal I make. I’ll take care of the business side of it, of course, and once that’s done we can take them on the tour you will custom-design to fit my proposal.’
‘How do you know I can do it?’ She felt her heart beat in a rhythm that couldn’t possibly be healthy.
‘Because your job depends on it.’
He smiled now, and she couldn’t read the emotion that lined it.
‘Callie, are you prepared to work with the boss?’
She stared helplessly at him, and despite everything inside her that nudged her to say otherwise she answered, ‘Yes, I am.’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘YOU’RE HERE BECAUSE you want to keep your job. You’re here because you want to save Connor’s job. You’re here because you’re saving your colleagues’ jobs.’
Callie repeated the words to herself as she walked into what had previously been known as Conference Room A. Blake had turned it into an office. Not one he would share with Connor. No, that had ended the minute she had agreed to work with him. This conference-room-turned-office was hers and Blake’s to share. It was one of their medium-sized conference rooms, and Callie had only been in it a few times when she’d had tours with groups of more than six. But, despite its reasonable size, Callie felt closed in. And this time she wasn’t fooling herself by attributing the feeling to claustrophobia.
Her heart hammered as she saw him sitting at one end of the rectangular table, a large whiteboard behind him already half filled with illegible writing.
‘Are you sure you weren’t meant to be a doctor?’ she asked, hoping to break the tension she felt within herself.
The Tycoon's Reluctant Cinderella Page 3
