“I’ll see what I can do, Mr. Sloane,” Keely said, and hung up.
8:27 a.m.
“Any luck?” Jack asked as he browsed the mail on Keely’s desk. He’d come into the office ten minutes ago, settled himself at his desk with a cup of coffee and, when he couldn’t psyche himself out to work, he roamed over to her desk to check the mail.
He couldn’t stop thinking about Keely’s sister, Lei. She’d occupied his mind so much that he’d passed on a night of uninhibited sex with Dayna who—once she took a look at his roadster—was all over him like a rash.
He should have backed out of the date and stayed with Keely’s sister, but he had a bit of class. He knew what it was like to be stood up. His ex- fiancée had given him the lesson from hell, leaving Jack a commitment-phobe ever since. But, if nothing else, he always kept promises.
At least one good thing came out of that date with Dayna. It made him realize that he did desire a relationship—with Lei.
Since he’d dropped Dayna off at the curb of her high-rise apartment, Dayna had left seven messages on his cell. Funny, he hadn’t been worthy of her time when he had on jeans and an old T-shirt. He wondered if Lei was the cool, calculating type.
No way to know but to find out for himself, he decided, unable to stay focused in his office. His gaze kept straying to the couch where he’d kissed her, where she’d kissed him back, where she’d rubbed him up and down with her amazing breasts. Oh, the plans he had for those breasts…
“I sent her an e-mail, Mr. Sloane. Not sure how current her e-mail address is, though,” mumbled his secretary, now bent over the copier. She was always so busy doing something that she never quite seemed to talk to him face to face, or look him in the eye.
“She said you told her about the job,” he pressed
on.
“I hope you don’t mind. It’s just that I hear from
her every now and then, when she’s between jobs. She…ah, she doesn’t stay at jobs very long.”
“I can see why. Some jerk probably hits on her every ten minutes,” Jack replied, undeterred.
There was no response to that, he noted, and watched as she moved from the copier to the fax machine with her head down and her back to him. She had an interesting walk, Jack thought, graceful and unrushed. He wondered how old she really was.
He cleared his throat and studied a marketing brochure. “I was thinking…are you due for a raise anytime soon?”
“No, sir. You gave me a raise when you took over the hotel.”
“Hm, well, I’ve decided to issue checks for an annual clothing allowance for administrative staff. I’ll give you a list of names. Cut a check for...” he named a figure that he considered more than fair. He heard her gasp. “What? Should it be more?”
“Umm…if you threw in another five hundred dollars, that would be fine,” she said in a hoarse little voice.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll be in my office for the rest of the morning.”
8:49 a.m.
Jack Sloane, Keely fumed as he buzzed her extension, was going to drive her up the flipping wall!
She ignored him, knowing there would be no rest for him now, or anyone else for that matter. Once he was in pursuit of a woman, nothing stood in his way.
She tried to dissuade him by hinting that Lei was a free-spirit, a job-hopper, but he didn’t care. When Jack Sloane wanted a woman, he got her.
Since Lei had worked him into such good spirits, Keely had recklessly tacked that ridiculous five hundred dollars on to his already ridiculously high clothing allowance just to test his mood. Yet Jack didn’t even blink over the higher dollar figure.
She finally picked up the line as she had done four times since he’d locked himself in his office twenty minutes ago and said, “She’s not e-mailed me back, yet, sir.”
“I see,” he said.
“But not to worry. You’ll be the first person I tell if she does,” she told him with mild sarcasm.
“Yes, thank you,” he replied drily. “I just e-mailed you that list, by the way.”
“Yes, sir,” Keely said. She clicked on his e-mail and opened it up.
There was only one name on the list. Hers.