The French Billionaire(46)

Once they were safely in the elevator, Mia grabbed Xander’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “Well played, Xander,” she whispered. She could not have been more grateful that he had walked into the office when he had, before Robert had gotten her to really do anything damaging.

***





Chapter 3




They sat quietly in the car on the way to the hotel. On top of everything she had been stressing about before, she now had to worry about the situation with Robert Jackson. How would she find her way out of this? She would have to come up with a plan sooner.



Xander was silent, and he seemed quite tense. Mia wondered how much of her conversation with Robert he had heard. He would be livid if he found out about any of it. I should have just said no when Lillian asked me to take this job, Mia thought. Then I’d probably be at home right now, watching Netflix and waiting desperately for someone to email me with a new case.



They arrived at the restaurant, which was on the first floor of one of the city’s most respected hotels.



“Alexander Will, reservation for two, please,” Xander said to the host.



They were lead through the dining room, which was elegantly decorated in rich burgundy colors, and featured a live string quartet playing softly in the corner. They were taken through a door at the back, which lead to an intimate private dining room. Mia was surprised at the lengths Xander had gone to get her alone.

“I hope this is sufficient, sir,” said the host.

“It’s exactly what I wanted,” Xander said, handing him a hundred bill.

“A server will be back in a few minutes to take your orders.”

They sat down at the table and began to peruse their menus.

“Why were you talking to Robert?” Xander asked angrily. “That man is always up to something. Was he flirting with you? Be honest with me.”



“He wasn’t flirting with me, I swear,” Mia said, a tremor of nervousness in her voice. “He… he wanted to talk about this business deal with Jayden. It’s not a big deal, really.”

Xander looked at her, concern and worry in his eyes. He reached across the table and took her hand, making small circles on her palm with his thumb. Mia started to relax. “Please tell me what’s going on, Sarah. I can tell that you’re worrying about something, you’re not looking your best. Whatever it is, I can handle it. I don’t want you bottling all of this up.”

“I really don’t know much,” Mia said. “It’s something to do with a contract Robert wants Jayden to sign. He didn’t give me too many details.”

“Ahh, I see,” Xander said. “You don’t need to worry about this, Sarah. A few months ago, Robert came to Jayden, asking him to sign a deal that would bring the whole company down. He wanted to bribe him with a very large sum of money. Luckily, Jayden came to me afterwards, and told me what was going on. We decided he would keep meeting with Robert to placate him, so he doesn’t go off and do anything aggressive or damaging. Jayden’s been stalling on signing the deal for months. It’s not going to happen. We have it under control.”

Mia forced herself to smile. “Okay,” she said. “I’m sorry I’m not myself right now. Robert’s quite intimidating. He just really threw me for a loop, that’s all.”

“I know he’s horrible to deal with, but just don’t let him treat you like that, alright? He’s not your problem, he’s ours.”

“I know. He really just wanted to talk to Jayden anyway, I don’t know why he was even bothering me. Let’s not worry about it. I want to enjoy our time together,” Mia said, trying to divert the subject.

“Speaking of,” Xander said with a flirtatious smile. “I booked us the luxury penthouse suite for tonight.”

***





Chapter 4




Mia was in awe when she saw the suite Xander had booked. It had a bedroom, a living area with a fully equipped entertainment system, a bathroom with a spa area, and a kitchen with a fully stocked bar.

“Let’s forget about work for the night,” she said. “Tonight’s going to be about us.”

She grabbed Xander’s hand and pulled him into the bedroom. She pushed him down on the bed and straddled him. She kissed him and started to work on undoing the buttons of his shirt, and he slowly pulled the zipper down on the back of her dress.

“I have a better idea,” Xander said. “Why don’t we take full advantage of this gorgeous spa bathroom. It’s been a long day, I think we could both use a shower.”

Mia stood up, taking her dress off completely in the process. “I would love to be with you in the shower,” she uttered seductively.