Sexy in Stilettos (14 page)

After his shower, he ordered breakfast and a change of clothes for Jaya. He’d already snooped in her closet when he hid in her bathroom, so he knew her size. When the bathroom door opened, he couldn’t help the excitement at seeing her again.
Easy sparky.
But reasoning with sparky didn’t help. He wanted to be let off leash.

She smiled at him as she picked through the new clothes. “You think of everything don’t you.”

“Well, I had to think fast. I wasn’t expecting us to—” He bit his tongue and tried again. “I mean—”

She shook her head. “Relax. I’m okay. I practically begged you to take off my clothes.” She eyed his still-shirtless form. “Are you going to finish getting ready? I wanted to go over logistics for the wedding.  I made you a folder of the key players.  Who you’ll need to run interference with if I’m to get a crack at Brett James.”

Alec frowned. He knew he was supposed to understand what she was talking about, but his brain was still foggy. “Logistics?”

Her sunny disposition vanished. “You seriously forgot?”

“It’s early. I need a memory-jogger.” He shrugged and tried for a charming grin.

“You know what?” she muttered as she dragged on her discarded white sundress, leaving the clothes he’d called up for her in a pile. “Forget it. When you said to come over and  give you the run-down, I thought—”

Shit
. “Jaya. I’m sorry. I totally forgot. It slipped my mind. And I was up ‘til four. Give me five minutes. I—”

“Forget it, Alec I don’t need your help. I can go it alone.” She slipped delicate feet into her heels.

Her quiet declaration pissed him off. It’s not like he was brushing her off. But he had forgotten, so that was a problem. As she tried to move past him to the door, he took her arm. “Look, I screwed up. Okay? I know that. I gave you my word. And that actually means something to me, believe it or not. I said I’d be your date and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

His skin warmed as her eyes roved over his chest. She sighed and relaxed in his grasp. “You’re going to need a shirt, then.”

He snatched his polo off the bed and dragged it over his head. “Are you happy now that I’m decent?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Happy isn’t the right word exactly.” She pulled a large folder out of her bag. “So you understand the plan?”

He rolled his eyes as he scrubbed his hands over his stubble. She didn’t give up on anything she wanted. And it was exhausting.

He still hadn't had any sleep but at least he wasn’t as frustrated now, though the need for her was like a constant ebb in the background. “I understand. I pull your father aside, asking him to show me around the country club. You get Brett James alone and chat with him. Not too hard.  If I see Derrick coming, I’ll send up the Bat Signal.  How did the family dustup happen, anyway.  Your sister seems a little self-absorbed, but man-stealing goes against a sister code or something, right?”

 Jaya shrugged.  “I guess I bored him or something.  All I know is I came home to find Tamara faking it like a porn star in my bed.  No surprise really.  He was terrible in bed.”

 “Well, at least there’s that.  Tamara got what she deserved.”

“Can you believe he tried to tell me he thought she was me? We don’t look
that
much alike.” She blew out a breath and planted her hands on her hips. “Look. I get it.  You think this is some ‘woman scorned’ stuff, but it’s really important to me. I need to get my job back.”

“I know how important this is to you.” He rubbed his hands over her shoulders and she didn’t stiffen. “Though I'm still not sure why you have to get
that
job back. If things go well with Adele, you'll be able to get any job you want. Why is that one so important?”

She shook herself out of his grip and he let her go easily. “Beside the fact that Derrick doesn’t want me there? This is my family. I belong at Trudeaux. I helped build that place. It's my legacy.” She blew out a breath. “It’s my home.”

A need for home was one thing he could understand. “You can still have a home without being at Trudeaux. Any chance you and your father will work it out?”

“After last night, I doubt it. Without work tying us together, there's nothing really there. After Mom died, he got even more distant. Tams has always been his favorite. But he
needs
me. He just doesn’t know it. I promised my mother I would look out for both of them.”

Ah, ghosts. She wasn’t the first person to do something trying to please someone who was long gone. He lowered his voice. “She’s gone, Jaya. Do you really think she would want you bending over backwards and making yourself unhappy? I doubt it.”

She softened her chin. “Says the guy who's the perpetual rolling stone and has no responsibilities?”

“Touché.” She did have a point. What the hell did he know about family and responsibility? He’d run from everything that ever mattered.

She scrubbed her hands over her face. “I'm sorry. That wasn’t fair. I'm really keyed up.  I need to make this work.”

He shrugged. “But it's the truth, isn't it? I'm the perpetual vagabond. We both know it.”

Jaya eyed him shrewdly. “But you don’t have to be. You’ve already shown you’re smart. You choose the vagabond lifestyle for a reason.” She shrugged. “I wish I knew what it was.”

She was digging too close and it made him itchy. No one ever got this familiar with him except Adele, and he'd already worked out ways to avoid her prying. Jaya was something different. She was getting closer to him than he ever let anybody, and he barely knew her. Good thing he wouldn’t be here long because she was dangerous to him.

“Jaya, I won’t be sticking around.”

Her eyes met his. “I know. But there’s no point in pretending I’m not enjoying myself.”

When Jaya’s phone rang for the fifth time that afternoon, she considered putting a bullet through it.  She should have turned her answering machine off the moment she got home.  Trying to appeal to Tamara’s sisterly bonds had backfired on her.  She didn’t know what had possessed her to try and reason with her sister.  All she wanted was confirmation that Derrick had sabotaged her job prospects.  What she’d gotten was a fight. Now she had a migraine looming

Flopping back on the couch, she covered her eyes.  Maybe if she continued to ignore the phone it would just stop ringing. 

It was either Tamara, who she didn't feel like fighting with anymore or her father who she really didn’t feel like talking to. Her father thought cellphones were rude so he didn’t ever want to contribute to their noise. Tamara knew Jaya would screen the calls on her cell. Tamara likely didn’t factor in the caller ID on the home phone. But whatever. As Jaya sunk further into the couch with her mug of hot cocoa, she tried not to think about what a disaster her life had become.  Her cell buzzed with a text message as the voicemail l kicked into her land line. "Jaya Trudeaux, this is Adele Westhorpe’s assistant calling. She would like to you to meet with her in her office on Thursday at one PM. please do not be late. Mrs. Westhorpe does not appreciate employee tardiness."

With a frown, Jaya sat up.  Yeash!  What the hell had she signed up for?  Then the world employee filtered into her consciousness. 
Employee
.  Holy shit. Adele Westhorpe was offering her the job. 

Her thudding heart threatened to beat out of her chest and her throat constricted.  Even with the blown interview, she still got the job?  Maybe Alec had intervened for her.  Though is he was a bartender and Guy-Friday he hardly had the kind of clout needed to get her a job.  With sweaty palms, she carefully placed her mug of hot cocoa on to her coffee table.  Unable to resist, she stood up and employed full booty dance maneuvers.  Finally, she had something that was hers, no Tamara involvement whatsoever. 
And
she hadn’t needed her father’s connections. 

A sobering thought slapped her in the back of her head.   If she did this, then it meant she was no longer part of Trudeaux.  She was on her own.  What if she couldn’t— she shook her head.  She
could
do this.  She was good enough to do this.  All she had to do was stay on Adele Westhorpe’s good side.  How hard could that be? 

All she had to do was pretend Dragon Lady was the male version of Pierre.  Lord knew she‘d had enough practice trying to please someone who didn’t want to be happy.  And this job didn’t have to mean she’d give up her goal of Trudeaux.  She’d be on board as an independent contractor.  And Adele Westhorpe might not know it yet, but she was just the kind of client Pierre would love.  He’d see it as major cache and hire her back in an instant.

Her mood on rocket boosters, she twirled as she scooped up her cell phone off the side table.  Checking the text message, she couldn't help but smile. Alec.

We should review the plan for the rehearsal dinner. Want to come over?

If he was so kind as to offer her some help, how could she turn hin down?   Not to mention that her heart skipped at the thought of seeing him again. Those dammed butterflies.   It wasn’t like she didn’t know better.  “He’d not staying, Jaya.  No attachments.”  He’d been clear with her.  And she’d been clear with him.  She just hadn’t been so clear on how he made her feel. 

To remind her again why he was on her no go list for emotional entanglements, she pulled up her list of all the reasons why she could not go gaga over Alec.  One, She did not have time for boyfriend right now.  Especially now that she was working for Adele Westhorpe and even more so when she got her job at Trudeaux back. 

Two, He was not sticking around.  As boyfriends went, it was good if they had some roots.  Three, He was a sex God.  And so good-looking it hurt to look at him.  A guy like that would eventually cheat.  And next time she couldn’t recover. 

Four, She liked him, even though, he was a sarcastic, slightly pompous ass who was entirely too reckless with his life.  She’d vowed to not care about someone more than they cared about her ever again.  Five, he drove her bat shit crazy with his complete and utter lack of forethought or planning.  Six, she drove him crazy with her complete need for planning and structure.  Seven, she liked him.  So what if she already wrote that down.  It was a good reminder that liking him was a bad idea…just ‘cause.  Eight, he was really sweet.  And made her feel like she was the only woman in the world.  She needed to remind herself that men lied.  Point blank.  She could not trust anything he said.  But what about what he did?  Slamming the thought shut in a lock box, she peered at her list.  This was good.  She needed the reminder that he was just for fun.  Nothing wrong with a little fun.  A little fun to work out the kinks.  Totally casual.

She repeated her reasons again.  Huffing out a breath, she realized how screwed she was.  She was already willing to make up any excuse to go over and see him. And a “thank you for getting me that job” reason was as good as any that she'd already been able to come up with.

Maybe it was time to relax her rules. So far they hadn't gotten her anywhere except heart broken and fired. What was the definition of insanity again? Why did she think she was going to get different results if she kept trying to do the same exact thing? Oh, she'd still go to the wedding and she'd still talk to the client, but not so she could go back to Trudeaux. Not for her father. For her. It was about time she started looking out for herself and doing things just because she wanted to.

Starting now, she was going to start living a little by the seat of her pants. In a hurry to get to Alec, she flitted to her bedroom and kicked off her bunny slippers. Now what did one wear for seduction? It wasn't like she was going to completely abandon who she was. Besides, any good seduction needed a really good plan.

***

 “So what’s the emergency?” Alec let Adele into his suite. “I’m supposed to be somewhere in an hour. I already told you, I don’t have any additional information on where Max is. Caleb’s on it.” He stopped when he saw the strained expression on her face.

“There was a visitor at the house last night. Several, actually.”

“What the hell do you mean, a visitor?”

“One of those low-life goons your brother owes money to came to the house in La Jolla, looking for Max. They paid a visit to Sue, as well. She called me in a panic after they threatened her and the baby then left.”

Holy shit
. “Where was your security team?”

“I don’t need them in my own house. The system was on, but they must have disarmed it.”

That didn’t sound like any kind of goon he’d heard of. After chasing his brother down in LA, he had taken care of Max’s debt in the hopes of accelerating the Max cleanup effort, so who the hell was paying visits? “Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

She sniffed and wrapped her arms around herself. “Don’t I look fine?”

“No arguments, Mimi. I’m having Caleb put some men on you and Sue. At least until I can find Max. Did they say anything last night? Give any indication of what they were looking for?”

“None of it made any sense. They just kept saying they just wanted back what my son took from them. ‘We’ve moved the cash, but we want our file back. No questions asked if he gives us what they want.’”