Page 22 of The Boss

If she’d been mine, I’d have taken her up to my office and spanked her ass until it was red and she felt it any time she moved. No one put something of mine in danger, no matter who they were. She wasn’t mine, though, which meant my only option was to make certain she got home okay tonight.

“There’s going to be a lot of press,” I said as I smoothed out the lines of my jacket. “Don’t answer anything, even if you think you know the answer. Stu’s here so he’ll be fielding any A&R questions.”

“Am I allowed to say my name, or would that be giving away too much?”

I laughed even though I should have snapped at her to take this seriously. No woman I’d taken to something like this had questioned this much. Ashlee continued to surprise me, and I liked it.

“They’re going to try to find out who you are,” I said. “As soon as they know you’re a Manhattan Records employee, they’ll start making assumptions, and there are a few of them who’ll print whatever they think, no matter what evidence there is to the contrary.”

“Isn’t that libel?” she asked.

“It is,” I said, impressed that she knew the difference between libel and slander. “I have an attorney on retainer to take care of issues like that. He insists that it’s better to be proactive and prevent stories rather than being reactive and trying to minimize the damage.”

“That makes sense,” she said. “I’ll ignore any questions.”

I held out my arm again, and she tucked her arm around it, making me wonder if she was truly averse to my touch…or if she just didn’t like how she reacted to it. How far could I push her to find out? Walking like this was her touching me through two layers of my clothes, plus it was the gentlemanly thing to do. Were either of those reasons behind her willingness to take my arm? I had no problem continuing to be a gentleman in public, but there were plenty of ways I could maintain that and still test my theory.

If nothing else, it would be a challenge and would keep me entertained instead of the night dragging on endlessly as it usually did at events like this. In that curve-hugging dress, she would’ve been quite a distraction on her own, and I found myself glancing down at her as we made our way into the ballroom, appreciating the way she looked.

“We’ll make a round before everything kicks off, just to make sure there’s nothing that needs my attention. At some point, Stu will check in with me, and when I give him the go-ahead, he’ll get things started. The dinner will be last.”

“I wondered if you did anything at these events,” she said, looking around, her wide eyes sweeping the elegant room.

“You’ve been thinking about me, then?” I winked at her. She was so easy to flirt with.

“I’ve been doing my job,” she countered. “A job that involved working with Mr. Hancock and Ms. Lamas to plan this event. I probably know as much about it as they do.”

She said it in such a matter-of-fact way that I knew it wasn’t her being arrogant. She was the A&R assistant, after all, and that meant she’d probably done a lot of research and made most of the calls checking the time and the like. If she hadn’t seen my name on much, it made sense that she would wonder what I actually did at these events.

“A great leader knows how to hire great people,” I said. “Delegation is key.”

She glanced up at me. “Did they teach you those clichés at business school?”

I nodded. “Night class.”

My answer surprised a laugh out of her, and her entire face lit up. I’d never seen anything like it. Unfortunately, we were interrupted before I could make her laugh again. Stockholders, journalists, photographers…person after person approached to make small talk and ask questions, and all the while Ashlee was sweet, charming –and silent –on my arm.

It didn’t feel like she was checking out, though, merely being arm candy because I’d told her not to answer questions. The intelligence I’d seen in her eyes and heard in the way she spoke told me that she was probably one of the smartest people in the room. And I considered myself more intelligent than most. I had a feeling she was absorbing everything around her, sorting through it, categorizing it.

I couldn’t wait to get her impressions of this entire night. It had been a long time since I’d seen any of this through new eyes, and I had a feeling her eyes would be seeing things I missed. She’d be able to give Stu, Suzie, and me insight into the things she thought worked and those that didn’t. Becoming irrelevant was death in this industry, and we needed to stay on our toes. She’d help with that.

“Well, look at you.”

A jolt of anger went through me, but years of self-control kept me from showing it. I retained my plastic smile and slowly turned around to face the last person I wanted to see here.

“Roma. You managed to find a way in, after all.”

My ex gave me the saucy grin that had preceded so many of our trysts, but it did nothing but turn my stomach now. Her eyes narrowed as they left me and fell on Ashlee, pure venom in that gaze.

“Who’s this?” The words were practically a snarl.

“Now, now, Roma, dear.” The older man next to her patted the hand on his arm. “You should be nice to the CEO responsible for tonight’s party.”

“Good to see you, Bradley,” I said mildly.

“Nate.”

“Who. Is. She.” Roma spoke between gritted teeth.

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