Page 28 of Hot Summer Nights

“Yeah, I’m alright. Shouldn’t we be going over some of the contracts for the new client?” she asks, looking at me expectantly.

Her green eyes draw me in, just like they always do, and my fingers itch to pull her against me, to taste her lips. She has her strawberry blonde hair tied up in a bun on top of her head, and I imagine my fingers tugging at those strands.

“Right, we can wait,” I say, trying to come up with a believable lie. “We’ll have time once we land to rest and go over everything.”

She nods, not thinking anything of it, and I relax back in my seat.

We’re about twenty minutes away from the airport and I know that she’s going to find out as soon as we pull up to the resort that there is no client. She’s going to be pissed and I rehearse what I’m going to say to her in my head as the flight attendants ask us to buckle up as we begin our descent.

I’m good at closing deals. That’s how I got so far in life. I started Temple Hotels when I was twenty-five and I’ve grown it into one of the biggest hotel and resort companies in the United States in just three short years.

I’ve always been driven. Once I know what I want, I go after it until it’s mine. Now I’m a billionaire with a great company, a great house, a great life. All that’s missing is a partner.

I want a wife and kids. I want it with the curvy little bombshell sitting next to me and if this trip goes to plan, I’m going to get it.

We land and I brace myself for Chloe’s wrath as we stand to de-board. I know that she’s going to be upset with me, but I didn’t see any other way. I can’t keep lusting after her. I can’t keep seeing her, knowing that she’s only an arm’s reach away, and that she’s not mine.

I know that she wants to keep everything between us professional. She’s worried about what people will say or that they might think that she’s sleeping her way to the top.

She hasn’t told me any of this, but I can pick up on it with the way she acts around my other employees. It doesn’t help that the first week she started at Temple Hotels, a couple got caught in the copier room. I had to let both of them go for indecent exposure on company grounds.

There’s a waiting car on the tarmac and we head over there, me caring Chloe’s luggage for her. She doesn’t look happy that I’m carrying her things and I know that she wanted to get them herself.

My girl is independent. She likes to take care of herself and everyone else around her. I wonder why that is, but I haven’t found the right time to ask her yet.

I know that her parents are rich. That she used to live in New York with her sister and parents in some Upper East Side penthouse. She should have been served the world on a platter. She should have gone to an Ivy League college and had her pick of jobs, but instead she’s here in Los Angeles, working for me and living in a tiny little studio apartment.

I watch her face as we drive along the beach toward the resort that I rented out for just the two of us. She looks around curiously as we drive along the coast and my heart starts to race as the resort sign comes into view.

She frowns, looking around.

“Are they not open yet?” she asks, turning to me and I wince.

“Not exactly…”

“Knox?” she asks, a bite to her usually sweet voice.

“I rented the place for us. Just the two of us,” I tell her and then I hop out, trying to escape the car before she can start screaming at me.

I just need to get her to see how perfect we are together. Then she’ll forget all about me tricking her.

Right?

TWO

Chloe

I can feelKnox’s eyes tracking me as I pace back and forth across our bungalow. The place is beautiful with a view of the ocean and cutouts in the floor so you can see down to the water below but I can’t enjoy the view right now.

I can’t believe that he did this and I don’t know how to react.

On one hand, I’m flattered that he did all of this to get to spend some alone time with me. I’m attracted to Knox, of course I am, but he’s my boss. My insanely sexy boss with the dark brown hair and those deep blue eyes that I could drown in.

I just started working at Temple Hotel a few months and it took me that long to convince people that it wasn’t my last name or my looks that got me this job. Now I’m wondering if I was wrong about that.

“Did you hire me because you wanted to sleep with me?” I blurt out and he shakes his head no right away, taking a step toward me.

“Of course not. You were selected based on your resume before I ever laid eyes on you. I never could have predicted how I would feel once I met you. You stole my heart that first day. I just want a chance to get to show you that we’re meant to be.”

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