by Ashley Blake
“Did your mind wander off somewhere, Elena?” A sly smirk turned up the corner of his mouth and I was completely mortified at the thought of him being able to tell what I was thinking.
I was totally embarrassed and prayed that my flushed cheeks didn’t give away my thoughts. What is wrong with you, Elena? He is your boss! I stretched my lips across my teeth in what I can only assume was a pathetic attempt at a smile and tried to appear unfazed by his question.
“What? Oh, just thinking about work.” And you running your tongue all over my…stop it!
“Work? Is that what they’re calling it these days?” That smirk was infuriating.
I looked him square in the eye and tried not to waver. “Yes, work. Speaking of which, I am going to take a look at some files. Did you need anything else?”
He seemed totally amused as the smirk had turned into a full blown grin. “Not right now. I’ll let you now when it’s time.”
Time? “Time for what?”
His eyes smoldered as they fell to my lips. “Time for us.”
Now my cheeks were burning and I averted my eyes so that he could not see into my soul and know that I wanted him. I had to keep that to myself for a little while longer, I couldn’t let him complete control, not yet.
I immersed myself in the files for an hour and then it was time for lunch. The flight attendant served us a meal that could have rivaled a five star restaurant. The rich really do have it good. When we were done eating Sebastian told me a bit more about what we were going to do while in São Paulo.
“Sophia Hudson, the global chair of creative strategy in our in-house public relations firm will be joining us. I would really like for you two to work together this week and come up with some sort of joint strategy to get the word out, and clients in, Blu Sierra São Paulo. She will join us on Friday so you should spend the majority of the day with her.”
“Okay, I’m sure that we can come up with quite a few ideas.”
He went back to checking email on his iPad and I jotted down ideas to share with Sophia when I met her on Friday. We were about an hour away from São Paulo when my mind wandered to Sebastian’s touch and I remembered that he had a date for the gala and she clearly did not appreciate the attention he gave me. Was he the type who liked to cheat? I wanted to know who she was.
“Sebastian?”
He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me. “Yes?”
“Who was the woman that you were with the night of the gala?”
He seemed completely caught off guard by my question and I could see in his eyes that he did not really want to answer me.
“That was Sophia.”
“Sophia, the PR exec?”
“Yes.”
So he did like to mix business with pleasure, well that sucks. Now I had to work with the woman who was staring daggers at me that night.
“Why are you asking me out if you have a girlfriend Sebastian? I am not the type of person who goes after other women’s men.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Oh, are you coming after me?” There was that sexy smirk again.
I shifted in my seat completely flustered that I had let the words come out of my mouth the way that they did.
“I didn’t mean it that way. Look, if you want to cheat on your girlfriend you’re going to have to look elsewhere. I have no interest in being a part of that.”
A deep sigh escaped his lips as he peered at me over the top of his glasses and then removed them.
“Elena.” His voice was pure seduction. “Sophia is not my girlfriend, she was at my table because she’s the global head of PR. We were not there together.”
I narrowed my eyes at him trying to decide if I should believe him. “She looked awfully upset when I came over to introduce myself.”
“That is probably because she knows that I like beautiful women and you are exquisite.” His sexy, little smile wasn’t going to derail my questions.
“No, there was something more there Sebastian. If I’m supposed to work with her please tell me if there is anything I should know.”
He has hesitated once again and then told me something that I did not want to hear. “Sophia is protective of me and can sometimes go overboard, but it comes from a good place.”
I was not stupid, I knew that there had to be something else. A woman is not possessive of a man for no reason so I raised my eyebrows at him, crossed my arms and waited for the rest.
“Sophia is my ex, it was over three years ago and it took time for her to accept that the relationship was over. But she finally did and she has been dating someone for nearly 2 years.”
“Where was her date that night?”
“He was in Los Angeles on business. Is there anything else you would like to know?”
“Yes, did you start dating her before or after she joined the company?”
“She has been working for us for nearly 10 years, so it was well after she started with the company.”
“I’m assuming the hotel doesn’t have a policy forbidding co-workers to date each other?”
He looked directly at me, his eyes holding mine. “No, we don’t.”
I was really uneasy with the way that I found out this information about Sophia and, at first, I thought he should have told me from the beginning that I would be working with his ex-girlfriend. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this wealthy billionaire did not owe me anything. I didn’t want to make a huge issue out of it, especially because I felt like I had nearly crossed the line with my questions so I decided to just drop it.
“We’re starting to descend so you should put your things away Elena.”
As I powered down my laptop I started to feel giddy about seeing São Paulo for the first time but the thought of having to work with Sebastian’s ex-girlfriend was leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. I was sure she was going to be pissed that I was the person she had to work with, given the way daggers flew from her eyes when she saw me the night of the gala. The wheels of the plane touched the ground and I couldn’t wait to get the initial meeting with her over with.
Chapter Eight – São Paulo Part 2
As we rode in the car to the hotel, I noticed that São Paulo was not what I expected at all. I thought I would see a vibrant, thriving city but instead I was met with gray buildings in all shapes and sizes, high density living, horrendous traffic, iron gates and electric fences surrounded even the most modest homes. I knew that crime was prevalent in São Paulo but once I was there, I could see that the people were truly concerned about it. Even the people I saw walking on the street were much more conservative than I thought they would be, wearing modest clothes and little to no jewelry. As the biggest and most cosmopolitan city in Brazil, it just was not what I expected. I had to admit I was a little bit disappointed and it must have been obvious because Sebastian asked me if something was wrong.
I looked at him and decided to tell him the truth. “I guess I had this pre-conceived idea of what São Paulo would be like and it is very different.”
He cracked a small smile and a knowing look fell over his face. “Oh, you’re not the first person to say that. Trust me, São Paulo is a beautiful city and you will have a chance to see that later today.” He waved his hand around at the buildings. “This is only one part of São Paulo, I will show you many other sides and you will not be disappointed.”
His words made me feel a bit better so I sat back and relaxed as I took in all of the scenery on our drive to the hotel. We rode in silence as Sebastian checked email and I checked out the city. When we arrived at the hotel two men immediately surrounded us and Sebastian told me they were his bodyguards.
“They will be with us the entire time we are here so don’t be alarmed if you notice them every day. Having bodyguards is one of the things that I have learned to live with, you’ll get used to it.”
“Why do you need them? Is it that dangerous here?” I was starting to feel nervous about being in a foreign country.
&nb
sp; “No, they are not with me because I am in São Paulo, they are with me everywhere I go. There have been a couple of kidnapping attempts on my family in the past so we all have bodyguards. You might not always see them, but they are always there. I see that look of fear on your face but trust me Elena, you’re not in any danger. You will always be safe when you are with me.”
The bodyguard thing freaked me out a little bit because it never occurred to me that they would be necessary, and why would it? I didn’t live in a world where I was so rich that I had to have constant protection. But Sebastian’s words telling me I would be safe put me at ease. I was beginning to feel extremely comfortable and natural around him and it was a good feeling.
I was blown away by how beautiful the hotel was and I felt like I was in a completely different city than the one I had just driven through. The hotel was a five star hotel and sat behind what had to be gates that were at least 20 feet tall, and there were two security guards standing by the doors. Once we entered the lobby I was blown away by how elegant it was. It was extremely ornate but not in a gaudy way, and the signature crystal vases filled with beautiful fresh flowers were on display everywhere.
The concierge staff nearly broke their necks to get to Sebastian and me to make sure that we had everything we needed. I had never been fussed over like that in my life, but I had to admit that I kind of liked feeling special. We were escorted to our rooms and I just assumed that I would be far away from Sebastian and he would have a gorgeous penthouse suite or something since he was the owner of the hotel. When we didn’t go up on separate elevators I just thought that they were making sure the boss was taken care of first, so when we got to his door on the top floor I casually leaned against the wall fully expecting to be asked to wait outside while they made sure Sebastian was settled.
Sebastian waited for me to enter the room first and I was totally confused. Does he want me to see his room or something?
“What do you think?”
What did I think? The room was enormous and stunning and I wished that I was going to be staying in a room like that. The super rich really did have a chance to live like no one else in the world. We walked around the room and the concierge pointed out all of the amenities and little extras and I was hoping I would be shown to my room soon because I was exhausted.
“Is everything to your liking miss?” The concierge had a friendly smile on his face but I was baffled by his question. I stood there looking like what I had to assume was a complete idiot because my brain did not want to allow words to come to my mouth to answer him.
“Elena? Is something wrong? Do you not like the room?”
I turned toward Sebastian’s concerned voice and I glanced at the concierge who looked extremely worried and all I could think was “why do they care what I think about the room”? Say something Elena!
“Your room is beautiful, Sebastian. I’m assuming my room is on one of the lower floors?”
He casually put his hands in his pants pockets and smiled at me, amusement written all over his face.
“This is your room.”
What? I slowly looked around the room taking it all in and it just did not make sense. I shook my head silently for a few seconds before I managed to get the words out.
“No, there must be some mistake. Isn’t this the top floor?”
“Yes.” His eyes sparkled as he continued to watch my reaction.
“So this is the penthouse?” I sounded like an idiot. Nice Elena, way to show how smart you are.
“Yes, and this is your room.”
“If this is my room, where is your room?” I blurted the words out instantly regretting them. He didn’t have to tell me anything; it was none of my business where his room was.
He pointed to a door in the corner of the room. “My room is right through that door.”
What was that? Adjoining rooms? I felt like I needed a drink.
“So we have adjoining rooms?” My voice was suddenly very small.
“Yes, is that a problem?” He raised his eyebrows at me waiting for my answer, daring me to say it was a problem.
“Not at all.”
He smiled at me and gave the concierge a tip and thanked him for his service and he left. He closed the door behind him and Sebastian and I were left alone standing in the middle of the room, his eyes slowly roamed over my body and then settled in my eyes.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yes.” My mouth was suddenly very dry.
“Me too, dinner is in an hour. You can wear the black dress you tried on for me, that should be good enough for now. You can donate it to charity after Clarissa provides you with new clothes.”
I did need new work clothes since I no longer wore a uniform and I couldn’t afford to buy anything new just yet. Hopefully the pieces she gave me would be enough where I could mix and match them to help stretch the few business clothes I did have. Donate that dress to charity? I couldn’t do that because I still needed the dress. It was one of very few nice dresses that I owned and just because Sebastian didn’t like it, didn’t mean I was going to get rid of it. When I had the kind of money he did, maybe I would have the luxury of donating my nice clothes to charity. Nice clothes in my opinion, anyway.
He turned to walk toward the adjoining door and my questions stopped him in his tracks.
“Sebastian, why do we have adjoining rooms? Won’t the others gossip about that?”
He turned around to face me and slowly walked over to me. He stopped about six inches away from me, totally all up in my personal space, and gently put a finger under my chin lifting my eyes to his.
“We have adjoining rooms because we are going to be together during this trip, Elena. You know that I want you and I can’t wait much longer. The others won’t know because we won’t tell them. I’ll meet you in the lobby for dinner in an hour.”
With that, he turned and walked to the door and entered his room, closing the door behind him.
I was in complete shock with everything that had just happened. I was not going to be able to take too many more surprises because the last few weeks had completely changed my life and I was surprised that I hadn’t fainted or passed out from the excitement. The hard worker in me was offended that Sebastian arranged for us to have adjoining rooms. It was arrogant and pompous of him to assume that I would sleep with him at all, especially since he was my boss. But the woman in me was craving his touch and I couldn’t wait to feel him kiss me and touch me everywhere. I got lost in my daydream and a loud bird outside snapped me back to reality. I didn’t have a lot of time to get ready so it was time to rush. I hopped in the shower, got dressed quickly and threw on a bit of lipstick before leaving my room at exactly 6:57 to meet everyone in the lobby.
Chapter Nine – São Paulo Part 3
When I walked off of the elevator into the lobby Mark and Carol were already sitting on the white couch waiting for everyone else to arrive.
“Hi guys, how was your flight?”
“It was surprisingly smooth, no turbulence at all. We thought you might have missed your flight because we didn’t see you on board. Did you take an earlier flight?” Carol’s question was innocent but I instantly felt nervous because they were not supposed to know about Sebastian and me and there was no way that I was going to tell them I flew private with the boss. Thankfully just as I was about to answer them I heard Sebastian’s voice behind me.
“I see we’re all here.”
“Sophia is not he…”. As I turned to remind Sebastian that we needed to wait for Sophia, I was shocked into silence by the sight of her arm linked through his as they approached us. She gave me a withering look and then smiled sweetly at Carol and Mark.
Great. Not a good way to start this trip if she can barely look at me. I had dealt with women like her before many times and it always pissed me off how catty they could be. I never understood why women couldn’t support each other instead of being petty and jealous. Sophia was a beautiful woman but I knew the minute
she saw me at the gala that she wouldn’t like me because she seemed to still have a thing for Sebastian, and Sebastian definitely had a thing for me.
Sebastian looked at me with no expression as Sophia clung to his arm and that pissed me off.
“Sophia, this is Elena Sumner, our new VP of marketing, Elena this is Sophia Hudson, our PR global chair of creative strategy.”
I did my best to give her a genuine smile but it was difficult with the daggers that I had to dodge which flew out of her eyes at me. Does anyone see the way this girl is looking at me? I’m going to be the bigger person here.
"It is so nice to meet you Sophia, I hear that we are going to be working together and I am really looking forward to collaborating with you on new strategies for the hotel.”
