“Yes, last night.” So I could study hours of useless information to be a liaison, it would seem. Why wouldn’t she tell me that I was going to be Henry’s assistant?
“Good. You’re all set then. I have about forty conference call requests in my inbox. Please get them booked in for this week, between 5:00 and 8:00 a.m. Pacific time. Whatever length of time the requester has set, cut it in half.” He scans his watch. “A few key people are arriving this morning. I need to meet them at the helicopter pad shortly.” He collects the suit jacket that lies across his couch and slides his taut, muscular arms into it. “The suit hanging behind my door needs to go to the cleaners. Belinda has already made arrangements for the day, but make dinner reservations for three at Lux for 7:00 p.m. Ensure Cedric is available to us for wine selection, and that Phil is ready with the plane for our excursion tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m.”
My mind is spinning as he’s firing off instructions. Grabbing a pen and pad, I quickly jot down the important names and times, because those will be the first I forget.
He stops at the door. “Oh, one other thing. In here, when it’s just the two of us, it’s okay to call me Henry. But outside of these walls, it’s Mr. Wolf at all times. Is that understood?”
“Yes. Understood.” It’s a good reminder that this man is my boss. I need to douse whatever fire my body wants to stoke for him.
“So?”
“So...”
“I assume you’re accepting this job.”
This is my chance to get out of this predicament.
Oh, who am I kidding? “Yes. Of course I am.” I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, nervously. “I hope I’m what you’re looking for.”
“To be honest, you are not what I was expecting.” He pauses, and a flash of something dark flickers in his eyes. “But I think you’re exactly what I’m looking for while I’m here.”
What exactly is he looking for then? Because if it’s me, then it’s not a competent, experienced assistant. But I will try.
A knock on the door sounds. “That will be your employment contract.” He opens the door and Belinda steps through.
She smiles and then, seeing me standing there, sets the paperwork and a laptop down on the side table. “Abbi, please read over and sign this as soon as possible. The laptop is to stay here at all times.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
She looks to Henry. “Can I have a word with you? In private?”
That’s my cue. “I’ll take that suit to the cleaners,” I offer, rushing to his bedroom to grab it and head for the servants’ door. That was one of Paige’s strict directives: always use staff entrances and exits wherever possible.
I’ve stepped outside, suit slung over my shoulder, and the door is about to close when I realize that I left my key inside. My hand blocks the door just before it shuts and locks on me, relieved that I don’t have to start off on the wrong foot by ringing the doorbell to gain entry.
“I still don’t understand why you wanted her. She has no hotel or corporate experience,” I hear Belinda say through the servants’ entrance, still ajar to Henry’s cabin.
I freeze, knowing they’re talking about me, but unable to keep myself from listening.
“She has some experience. And she’s a college student with exceptional grades,” Henry offers.
I’m a straight-A student. But how does he know that?
“She didn’t interview well. She shook through the entire interview, wringing her hands like a worried mother hen.”
“She was nervous.”
“She’s awkward. And frumpy.”
I don’t think there’s anything worse than eavesdropping while someone talks negatively about you. I should go, but now I’m afraid they’ll hear the door creak open again, and figure out that I was still here all this time.
“Not everyone looks like you, Belinda,” Henry says, and I can hear irritation in his voice beginning to mount. I don’t know if I should find comfort at his words.
“She doesn’t fit the Wolf employee mold. Did you see that cheap small-town special she wore to the interview?”
I didn’t think it was that bad.
“You’re making some bad choices lately, Henry.”
“What the hell is your problem?” he snaps.
Yes, exactly. What does Belinda have against me working for Henry? I’ve never done anything to her!
“Is this about Kiera?” she asks.
Who’s Kiera? Henry’s ex?
Silence hangs in the room and I take a step closer to the door, afraid I’ll miss his answer.
“I heard things got ugly. And expensive.” Belinda’s voice has turned soft, more cautious, as if she knows she’s treading on thin ice. “I got a call from your father a few days ago.”
“For fuck’s sakes,” he grumbles, and then heaves a sigh of exasperation. “A few days ago? Why didn’t you tell me right away? What did he want?” This is a new Henry, and not a happy one at that.
“He asked me if there was anything going on up here that he should be worried about.”
“And you told him what?”
She clears her throat. “That everything was going smoothly.”
“Good. Let that be the answer every time he calls.”
“And will it be the truth?”
“I don’t like this version of you, Belinda. You work for me.”
“I work for Wolf, and right now that’s still William Wolf, until he officially hands the company over to you. And I’ve worked too hard for this company to have it all go down the drain because you’re fucking some farm girl. She’s twenty-one!”
My mouth drops open in shock with the suggestion. She thinks he... we’re... why would she think that?
Henry starts to laugh. It’s not a happy sound, though. “Is that what this is all about? Are you jealous of Abbi? What’s wrong, Belinda? You’re starting to panic about the big forty coming up?”
“Fuck you.” The contrite woman is gone again.
“Don’t forget who gave you this job,” he warns through a growl. “I chose the farm girl to avoid any more headaches.”
“Well, she’s not exactly ugly.”
“No, she’s not,” he agrees. “But she is a girl, pining for some spineless dickhead who dumped her and is never coming back. Insecure, stupid little girls don’t attract me, Belinda. You know that.”
My cheeks burn with hurt and confusion. He just finished telling me that I was a smart woman, and I lapped it up. Now I’m an insecure, stupid little girl?
“Maybe I need to be reminded.”
I frown at the suggestive tone in Belinda’s words.
There’s a long, lingering pause, unsettling my nerves. “Wolf Hotels will be mine next month, and you won’t have a job here if you don’t inform me the second my father calls next time.” Henry delivers that threat in a curt, no-nonsense tone that I never want him to use with me. “And if you ever feel like giving him truths, how about you tell him how much you loved having my dick in your mouth while we were opening that hotel in Istanbul. Find out if he thinks that was professional.”
Oh my God.
He’s her boss. Isn’t that against the rules?
Above my shock, though, envy erupts in my chest. Now I know why she hates me so much. Though it’s ridiculous.
Belinda’s heels click along the tile and then the main entrance door opens and shuts. I steal a peek through the tiny window in time to see Henry marching two steps ahead of her down the covered path.