“Okay, well,” she stammered. “Let’s start with tonight. You don’t want to have dinner in the hotel so um…”
“Not alone,” I interrupted.
She lifted her eyes from the page. I watched as she swallowed an anxious lump down before she continued.
“Oh, okay,” she began. “Right, of course. Um, I can um, make some calls. I’m sure I can arrange a dinner companion for you.”
“What do you mean, arrange one?” I said. I angled my head down at her, feigning displeasure. “What kind of professional concierge are you? Does Katy know about all these plans of yours and how almost zero of them are of any interest to me?”
“No,” she said. “This isn’t Katy's business, sir. It’s mine. Now, with all due respect, I’ve apologized to you for how things have gone so far, but I would ask that you please don’t mention any of this to her. Please, I can make this right if you’ll just give me a chance.”
This was almost too easy.
Slapping my hands on my knees once again, I narrowed my eyes at her as I leaned back into the car seat.
“Since you haven’t had the foresight to arrange for suitable escort for me this evening, I’ll have to insist that you accompany me instead.”
And then, almost as quickly as she’d flushed moments earlier, the process reversed itself before my eyes. Within seconds a much paler Maddie Olsen locked eyes with me.
“You want me to be your escort?”
I nodded but didn’t speak.
Her eyes darted back and forth for a moment as I assumed she searched for some reason not to do it. Her hand floated up and she started to twirl a strand of her blond hair around her index finger for several seconds. Finally she released it and her hand fell back into her lap.
“This is strictly business, isn’t it?” she asked. “I mean, I just want to know what your expectations are here.”
Just then, the limousine pulled up to the entrance of the hotel. Maddie glanced towards the bellman as he approached the car to open the door. As he tugged on the handle, the door creaked open and the din of the city evening invaded the intimacy of our exchange.
“It’s simple, Miss Olsen,” I replied. “I expect you to do what I want. That is your job after all.”
MADDIE
Half an hour after I dropped Mr. Sinclair at his hotel, I arrived back at my apartment complex. As the limo pulled into the parking lot, I noticed Katy’s car.
I am going to kill her. Who the hell did she get me mixed up with?
Exiting the limousine, I informed Armando he’d need to come back and get me not later than seven thirty if I was to make it back to the hotel bar and meet Mr. Sinclair in time to have dinner. With a nod of understanding, he told me it wouldn’t be a problem and proceeded to drive away. That done, I cast a scowl towards the building and headed inside to get ready and tell Katy how much I appreciated the ‘opportunity’ she’d given me with Greyson Sinclair.
I jostled the house keys back and forth in my palm. The cool brass edges dug into my flesh as I closed my hand around them and slid the key into the lock. With a swift turn of my wrist, the sound of the deadbolt sliding into the open position cued me to unleash holy hell on Katy the instant I saw her. Turning the knob, I pushed the door open to see Katy in the kitchen bent over at the waist, looking for something in the cabinets.
“Hey girl! You’re home just in time,” she called out without looking up. In the background, a large pot bubbled on the stove top. Judging by the pungent aroma, she was having pasta for dinner and I guessed she expected I’d be joining her.
Oh boy, was she ever in for a surprise.
Without a word, I wrapped my hand around the door and slammed it shut. An instant later, Katy poked her head up over the edge of the kitchen counter. A random strand of her hair fell across her eyes as made visual contact with me. I glared at her, but before I could utter a single word, she brushed the hair from her face and after gripping the edge of the kitchen counter, pushed herself into a standing position.
Katy wasn’t as tall as me but she was cute. Chestnut hair with auburn highlights framed a roundish face accented by freckles and two caramel brown eyes, the shapes of tiny moons. If anything, her looks made people think she was a pushover when it came to business, but nothing could have been further from the truth. She ran the travel agency she started like a diminutive tycoon. She was bossy, businesslike and as sharp as they came. But as I looked down at her, it was time for me to give the business genius a piece of my mind about her ‘client’.