Room Service

by Chance Carter

  “Emma Valentine?”

  “Present!” I said, shooting up out of my seat.

  It didn’t hit me how idiotic it looked until I saw the interviewer’s lips curl into a smile.

  “Right this way,” she said.

  We passed down the same glass hallway that I’d watched three people before me traverse, then entered into a brightly lit office space. There were cubicles spread across the room, each one tastefully decorated to match the general artistry of the space. People in business suits milled around the room, either chatting with their coworkers, working at their desks, or walking from place to place. It was all a little overwhelming.

  Thankfully, the interview was held in an office at the back of the room. It was sparsely decorated, which led me to believe that perhaps it was the office of the person who had left, and thus provided a suitable vacant space.

  “Take a seat,” the brunette instructed, stepping around to the other side of the desk and sitting down.

  I sat as well, smiling in what I hoped was a pleasant, but not creepy or fake manner.

  “I’m Haddie Thompson,” she said, “Mr. Westfield’s current personal assistant, and I’ll be interviewing you today.”

  “Lovely to meet you, Haddie.”

  I reached over and shook her hand, which seemed to please her.

  “Before we get into your qualifications, Emma, let’s talk about why you’re here.”

  She shuffled the papers on the desk and nudged them to the side.

  “Why do you want this job?”

  I gulped.

  “I’ve always wanted to work in a professional office environment and I think it would be a good use of my skills.”

  Haddie raised a skeptical brow.

  “You’d be surprised how often I hear that.”

  Though evidently unsatisfied with my answer, Haddie was ready to move on. She pulled the papers back toward her, and I saw it was my resume she was looking over.

  Oh no. She already didn’t like me.

  What came next was the result of me having a major WWBJD (What Would Bridget Jones Do?) moment.

  “Actually, I applied for this job because I’ve been a waitress for the past two years and I’m trying this new thing where I better my life instead of taking steps backward because my crappy ex-boyfriend kicked me out of our apartment and I have nowhere to go but up,” I blurted.

  Haddie’s eyes met mine again and the panic rising in my throat slowly settled. It was almost impossible to believe, but she looked impressed.

  “That is unfortunate,” she said. “I had one like that. You’re right, the only thing you can do at that point is work on you.”

  With the faintest of smiles, she smoothly transitioned to my resume.

  The interview went on much longer than the others had seemed to. After we discussed the position and my qualifications, sparse though they were, Haddie and I just chatted for a bit. We both loved the pizza place down the street and she gave me tips on other places in the neighborhood worth checking out. I was feeling very hopeful about the whole thing, so by the time I hit the elevator, I was on another plane.

  I texted Willow, even though I knew she was at school and wouldn’t be able to answer for a little while. I told her that the interview had gone well and that hopefully I’d hear soon. She surprised me by texting back immediately, and I walked across the lobby downstairs with my nose shoved practically right against the screen. I was so excited about the potential job that I didn’t care how stupid it was to get so absorbed in my phone.

  I was just telling Willow that I would pick up a bottle of wine for us on the way home when the consequences of my carelessness hit me in the face. Well, more like I ran into them. Or him.

  The man whose shoulder I’d just clipped was about as solid as a brick wall. In my haste to back away, I tripped over my own feet and went sprawling on the marble.

  My knees hit the floor painfully, and I let out a small yelp without meaning to.

  “Are you okay?” a deep, male voice asked.

  I looked up at the man who I’d run into, and any words I’d been about to say dried up in my mouth.

  He was, without a doubt, the most attractive man I’d ever seen. His hair was so dark it was nearly black, and he wore it neatly combed back from his forehead. He had soulful cornflower blue eyes, now sparkling with mirth, and a wicked mouth that curved sensuously as I ogled him. He was leaning down toward me, extending a hand that I hadn’t noticed until now. I swallowed hard and took it, my skin burning where it touched his. From his wide jaw, dusted with a five o’clock shadow, to his long, aristocratic nose, this guy looked like he’d walked out of a fantasy built specifically for me. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, and even when I was standing again I was hesitant to drop his hand.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

  “I noticed.”

  He reached down and plucked my phone off the tile, handing it back to me.

  How had I not noticed that I’d stood up without my phone? This was going from bad to worse.

  “Do you work here?” the man asked.

  I shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

  This amused him, and his eyes narrowed on me.

  “You don’t know, huh? You can’t be that great of an employee, then.”

  “Either the best or the worst.”

  He chuckled and extended his hand, this time to shake.

  “I’m Max.”

  “Emma.”

  Losing his touch once was bad enough. This time, I had to do everything in my power not to hang onto his hand after the handshake. Was I going crazy? I certainly felt like it.

  “I only ask because I feel like I would have remembered seeing you around before,” Max said.

  “Likewise.” I shamelessly let my gaze slide down his towering frame, admiring the tailored fit of his charcoal suit and the white shirt stretched across his chest beneath. His leather shoes were shined perfectly, and everything about this guy screamed money.

  “Do you make a habit of bowling over innocent businessmen?” he asked.

  I smiled flirtatiously.

  “Only the cute ones.”

  What? This was a major WWBJD moment!

  “Cute?” Max made a face. “I haven’t been called cute in a good many years.”

  “What do people normally call you?”

  He smiled and said, “Depends on the person. If it’s my mother, ungrateful bastard is right up there.”

  The laugh that rippled through me was completely genuine. I loved how easy it was talking to Max. Even though I was still nervous and a little awkward because of how damn attractive he was, I felt generally at ease with the handsome stranger.

  “In that case, I only bowl over the ungrateful bastards,” I said, with a little half-smile. “Which today I guess puts you at the top of my list.”

  His eyes flashed. “I don’t think I mind being there.”

  Electricity zapped between us. I hadn’t gone this mushy over a guy other than Lance in a long time, and even with Lance, the attraction had never been so intense.

  Ugh. Lance.

  Talk about throwing a bucket of ice water over my mood.

  Max looked down at his watch, a flashy Rolex that probably cost more than my dream wedding. “I’ve got a meeting to get to,” he said. “But it was nice to meet you, Emma.”

  “Likewise.”

  He grinned, “Perhaps I’ll see you around.”

  I offered another shrug, “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  He stepped around me and walked toward the elevator, though the rich sound of his laugh floated back to me. It took everything in me not to turn and watch him walk away. He probably had a spectacular ass. It was a damn shame that I needed to keep at least a tiny shred of my dignity.

  When I got out into the cool air, I found that my cheeks were burning. I wondered if I’d been blushing like that the whole time.

  I texted Willow, filling her in on what
had happened. She was excited that I’d had a flirtatious conversation with a complete stranger, and that he’d been sex on legs to boot. Maybe excited didn’t cover it. She was thrilled. She wanted me to get over Lance more than I even wanted me to get over Lance. Not to say I didn’t want to get over him, just that I didn’t see the need to rush. Getting over a heartbreak took time, right?

  One thing was for certain—even if my encounter with Max had been a little embarrassing, it was a big step for me. And a good one, too. For the first time in a long time I walked down the street with my head held high, feeling like I could take whatever the world wanted to throw at me.

  Chapter 4

  Max

  Jeremy had a bad habit of rearranging everything in my office, from the moment he first stepped in to the millisecond before he left. Right now he was stacking paperclips into some sort of pyramid structure, and I left him to it. Cleaning up a few paperclips would be easier than rearranging the chairs once he was gone.

  “Do you think they’ll take the deal?” I asked.

  We were in the process of acquiring a couple properties on the outskirts of the city. They were far from exceptional investments, but I was eager to expand my father’s business in any and every way I could. He’d started working at Goodman-Westfield back when it was still Goodman, Inc., and had moved up the ranks until he was Bernard Goodman’s right hand man. The older man had practically treated my father like the son he never had, and my father had paid him back by using his sound business acumen to make strong investments and build the company. Goodman-Westfield was only what it was today because of my father’s hard work. It was a legacy I wanted to honor.

  “Of course they will. Their lawyers are a bunch of weak-willed sea sponges. Now, if they had someone like your mother on their legal team...” He made a throat slitting gesture.

  I laughed. “That woman has a sixth sense for sniffing out weakness.”

  “If only you’d inherited such a talent,” Jeremy mused. “Perhaps then you wouldn’t be so vulnerable to her every whim.”

  I sat up in my chair, frowning. “I am not vulnerable to her every whim.”

  “Oh, come on, Max.” My friend smiled. “I’m just messing with you. Although, I do think it’s worth mentioning that although you inevitably reject every girl she sends your way, you still let her keep sending them.”

  “You say let her as if I have a choice in the matter,” I muttered. “Even after she’s dead, she’ll be sending me potential wives from beyond the grave.”

  “Unless you’ve already married one of them by then.”

  I exhaled through my teeth. “Not likely.”

  Jeremy moved on from his paperclip creation to the stack of post it notes beside my computer. He tore one off and sat back, folding it thoughtfully.

  “I heard about her declaration at your birthday,” Jeremy said. “Very ominous.”

  “Who told you about that?”

  “Haddie.” He grinned. “That girl’s an awful gossip.”

  “Only because she knows how annoying you can be when you want to.”

  I didn’t mind that Haddie had told Jeremy about what my mother said. As far as I was concerned, Jeremy was privy to any and all secrets I might have, and Haddie knew that. But the new PA, whoever he or she was, wouldn’t know anything about me or how I liked my office run. Or my life.

  “When’s the new girl start?” Jeremy asked, sensing my train of thought.

  “Haddie said today. Can’t remember if it’s a woman or a man though.”

  “Here’s to hoping for a beautiful young woman.” Jeremy placed the tiny, neon pink paper airplane on my desk and then crossed his fingers.

  “As long as they can do the job, I don’t care.”

  There was a knock on the door, and I glanced up. “Come in.”

  Haddie walked in a moment later, smiling brightly at us. “I see you two are hard at work.” She gave a pointed glance to the tower of paperclips and the little paper airplane.

  I was too distracted to answer by the sight of the woman who walked in behind her.

  No. It couldn’t be.

  But, then again it made sense that Emma, the girl who’d run into me in the lobby a week ago, would be my new assistant. That would explain why she was in the building, and her being unable to say whether she worked there or not. Plus, it was the kind of cruel shit that fate would do.

  “You know us,” said Jeremy, eyes raking over the slender redhead. I wanted to reach over the desk and smack him. “Always hard... at work.”

  I rolled my eyes. So did Haddie. I was going to miss her.

  “Gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Emma Valentine.” She pushed the girl in front of her, presenting Emma like she was a show pony. “Emma, this is Max Westfield and Jeremy Braun. Max is, as you know, your boss. Jeremy doesn’t work here, but he’s constantly lingering and we can’t seem to get rid of him.”

  “Hey!” Jeremy objected. “I could sue you for that.”

  Haddie raised an incredulous brow, then looked at me. “That’s the best your corporate lawyer’s got? Are you sure you’re getting the most for your money?”

  Emma looked like she was officially in over her head. While we three laughed and joked with each other, she was staring at me with a wide eyed expression that said it still hadn’t sunk in that the man she’d been flirting with a week ago was now her boss.

  I liked her when she was a little off balance like this. She seemed so confident at times, and at others so shy. It was a delicious mix.

  “Emma and I have met actually,” I said, standing and offering my new assistant my hand anyway.

  “You have?” asked Haddie.

  Emma shook my hand, and I wondered if she also felt the current of electricity that passed between our palms.

  “We ran into each other in the lobby after my interview,” Emma supplied.

  She pulled her hand back and cradled it against her stomach like I’d burned her.

  “Quite literally.” I sat back down, and tried to look as least intimidating as possible. More than anything, I wanted this girl to be a good employee. Being afraid of me wouldn’t help that along.

  Almost more than that, I wanted to slam her against the wall and ravage her mouth with mine. The way her pencil skirt hugged the tight curve of her hips was enough to drive a man insane, and the cleavage peeking through her blouse wasn’t helping things. She had an angelic face and delicious, plump lips, and I’d been hoping to see her again since our first meeting. But not like this.

  “I’ve got lots of stuff I need to show Emma still,” said Haddie. “And it looks like you boys have got, uh, stuff to do as well.” She grinned cheekily. “We’re just outside if you need anything.”

  I watched Emma walk out the door, her ass bouncing in the tight skirt, making my cock twitch in response. She closed the door behind her, and when I looked to Jeremy, he wore a knowing smile.

  “Now that’s going to be a distraction,” he said.

  I ran a hand through my hair and sat up in my chair. “That was the same thing you said when Haddie first started.”

  While it was the same thing he’d said when Haddie first started, the situations were entirely incomparable. I hadn’t talked to Haddie before, hadn’t thought about kissing her before I’d even known her name. And even though Haddie was beautiful, she’d never brought out a carnal lust in me like Emma did.

  Jeremy wasn’t buying my excuse either. “Oh, please,” he said, rolling his eyes. “You were looking at that girl like you wanted to eat her. I’ve never seen you with so much as a professional hair out of place, but she got a reaction.” He grinned, “That girl is going to be trouble with a capital T.”

  “She’s going to be my new assistant,” I corrected impatiently. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

  Jeremy raised his eyebrows at my sudden irritation. He didn’t need to say any more to get his point across.

  “We should be talking business anyway.” I sat forward,
gathering up the pile of paperwork on my desk. “Where were we?”

  Jeremy sighed, “I can’t believe that not only do you have a mother determined to set you up with beautiful heiresses at the drop of a hat, but now you have a smoking hot new assistant.”

  “Enough.” I made my tone sharp. This time it got the message across. Jeremy slid forward in his seat to look at the papers in front of him, but the expression on his face was almost petulant. Working with my best friend had its advantages and its disadvantages.

  Jeremy and I finished the rest of our business without interruption, and he left soon afterward. Even though the air in the room was a little charged, I knew we’d be fine the next time we saw each other. Jeremy had a talent for dancing on a person’s last nerve, something he often used in the courtroom to destabilize his opponent. He could control it about as well as I could control my snappy temper. I knew that once he was gone, we’d both have some time to breathe and things would smooth out between us in a heartbeat.

  Things didn’t smooth out for me, unfortunately. I wasn’t angry at Jeremy, but I still felt agitated for some reason. I kept wanting to go out and check on my new assistant, but it was an urge I knew I couldn’t give into if I wanted any chance of keeping things professional for the foreseeable future. I was lusting after Emma in a bad way, and I would be the first to admit it. I’d spent my career maintaining as much professional distance in my relationships as possible, because I didn’t want to inherit my father’s reputation. Plus, it didn’t seem right.

  Wanting her felt wrong and agonizing, but that didn’t mean I could stop it. The only thing to do was grin, bear it, and hope that in time I’d find some fault with Emma, something that would dump a bucket of ice water over me so I could see her with a clear head.

  And if nothing came up? Well, I was officially screwed.

  Chapter 5

  Emma

  It was a miracle I made it back to my desk without collapsing into a wiggling pile of goo on the office floor. The moment Haddie turned me back over to the computer, I practically fell into the office chair and had to take a moment to regain my composure without her seeing what had gotten me so frazzled.