Twisted knight, p.35
Twisted Knight, page 35
“Thank you,” Holden says to her.
“You’re so very welcome, Mr. Knight.”
Gag. She couldn’t be any more obvious if she tried. I watch her as she walks toward the back of the plane to take her own jump seat. Maybe that seatbelt will get locked, and she’ll be stuck there for the rest of the flight so she can’t come over here and drool all over Holden.
“What’s that look for?” Holden asks, bringing my eyes back to his.
“Nothing.”
“You’re not good at hiding your emotions, Rowan.” He glances over his shoulder and then grins when he looks back at me. “What?”
“She wants you.”
He snorts. “Sweet little Rhonda?”
“She may be sweet, but that doesn’t make her want you any less.”
He shrugs, amusement lighting up his eyes as he narrows them. “And that bugs you?”
“No,” I say stone-faced, even though every bone in my body is rife with jealousy.
“No?” He smiles, clearly seeing the unwelcome emotional response in my eyes. “And here I was turned on by the thought of you being jealous over me.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.” He leans forward. “But we’ll let that slide. If you’re going to take her down when we order drinks, just let me know ahead of time though. I might want to record it on my phone.”
He thinks this is hilarious.
“Is that why you summoned me here? To get back at me for the server room stunt by making me watch your gorgeous flight attendant drool over you?”
“And here I thought you thought better of me.”
“You don’t seem like a man who’s challenged very often. It wouldn’t surprise me if what I did pissed you off.”
His smile is a slow, crooked crawl. “Is that why you think I brought you here? For me to get back at you?”
I shrug, suddenly feeling juvenile but still needing validation. “We’ve barely talked at all. A few texts. Some meetings in the conference room. A lot of closed-door meetings. You’ve been busy at night. It seems a logical assumption.” I say the words but with each one, I feel more ridiculous by the syllable.
“Part of the reason I asked you to come with me—to take this little trip—is because I owe you an apology.” I open my mouth to speak, and he shakes his head as if to tell me to let him finish. “You were right. I may not have liked the way you did it. Scratch that. My dick didn’t like it, but hell if the rest of me didn’t admire the fuck out of you for having the balls to do it.”
“It was stupid. I didn’t—”
“Don’t go all soft on me now, Sunshine.” He laughs. “It takes a lot to make me speechless. That did. Let’s just not make a habit of it.” He reaches out and touches my hand. There’s something about the action that startles me. Holden’s not one for casual touching, but then again, we’re never really in the situation to be able to. “I butted in when I shouldn’t have. I asked you to do a job because I knew you could do it and then I overstepped.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong. I was wrong.”
“Thank you.” Those are big words from him and appreciated more than he’ll ever know. I’m so used to my brother stepping all over everything and never caring. “I appreciate it. I truly do. But that doesn’t explain why I’m here. An apology could have been done in the office.”
Holden leans back as the jet begins to taxi. “It’s killing you not knowing, isn’t it?” His grin taunts.
“It is.”
“Good.” He leans back in his chair as if this topic is over with. “Now, tell me about the other suppliers you’ve been in contact with.”
I stare at him for a beat, hating that he’s not giving in to me, but then again, I don’t expect any less from him. If he thinks I’m a control freak, he’s one ten times over.
He lifts his eyebrows as he waits.
I relent.
We talk shop for the next two hours. I lay out the ideas I’ve been culminating over the years. Markets I feel like we’ve left untapped. Revenue streams I think we’ve been so shortsighted on that we’re missing possible gold mines. Current suppliers who I think are screwing us—Porter and Greatland included.
I take advantage of his undivided attention to prove I have a head for more than just marketing, as my title denotes.
“And so Horner’s coming to the office to meet with you on Monday?” he asks in regards to a raw materials supplier I’m trying to onboard. “May I ask if I can sit in?”
I smile. He did get my point. They’re my clients. They’re my deals to seal. “Sure, if you plan on coming to Georgia with me to meet them.”
“So now you’re meeting them on their turf to avoid me butting in. Got it,” he teases.
“Maybe. And maybe because that’s where their distribution center is set up and I asked to oversee their operation logistics for a few days so I can make a better decision on terms.”
“How long are you gone for?”
“Three days plus travel, and with all the canceled flights these days, who knows how long that will take.”
“Take the jet.”
“Hilarious.” I roll my eyes.
“I’m serious. Take the jet. Besides, then you’ll have time for you and Rhonda to compare notes about my skills.”
I connect with his shin beneath the table. “Ow,” he belts out but then laughs. “There are no notes, Sunshine. But see, you are jealous. Now I’m definitely turned on.”
I blow out an exasperated sigh and shake my head. “Funny.”
We banter back and forth between business discussions, laughing and teasing as we do so.
“And your brother,” Holden asks eventually. The sky is dark outside the windows of the jet with dots of light below us wherever we are. “Where do you think he stands in all of this? Gut instinct.”
“I think he’s to blame for the company failing. Yes, the economy plays a factor, and the interest rates affect our loans, our price points, but that doesn’t account for the loss in capital.”
“And where do you think that capital has gone?” There’s an intensity in his eyes. An expression that says he might know more.
“That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”
“Excuse me, Mr. Knight,” Rhonda interrupts, her voice even more sultry this time around.
Holden looks at me and grins before turning to her. “Yes?”
“We’ve been cleared for landing. I need to collect your drinks and plates.”
“Of course,” he says, chewing the inside of his cheek to fight the grin that acknowledges my jealousy.
“You’re still not going to tell me where we’re going?” I ask to distract once she’s left us.
“Not yet, no.”
“Can you give me a hint?”
He twists his lips for a moment and then nods. “We’re celebrating.”
“What are we celebrating?”
“Whatever it is you want to. Closing a deal. Getting out of the office. Finally doing something you’ve promised yourself you’re going to do forever.” He shrugs playfully. “Make of it what you will. You don’t always have to have a specific reason to celebrate.”
“Yes, you do.”
“You don’t get to make the celebration rules, Sunshine.”
FIFTY-SIX
Rowan
“Manhattan?” I ask, eyes wide as I stare at him, excitement bubbling up. “Why are we in Manhattan? We have clients—”
Holden’s lips meet mine to shut me up as the limo heads toward the city’s lights. Our tongues touch and our bodies heat up as I thread my fingers through the hair at the base of his neck and his splay across my back. “No more talking about work. We’re off the clock.” Another brush of his lips. “We have plans.”
“Plans?” I ask and then silently freak out at the clothes I have on and my makeup bag being back in the office. Hold up, Row. You’re in New York City. The man just whisked you away in his private jet. This is when you sit back, stop trying to control shit, and enjoy the ride. “What kind of plans?”
He just gives me a shy smile and shrugs, but then wraps his arm around my shoulder, pulls me into his side, and presses a kiss to the crown of my head. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
But the waiting and seeing doesn’t take long—the car soon pulls up in front of the Ritz-Carlton. We bypass the front desk and step directly into a waiting, private elevator. Holden nods at the elevator attendant and within moments he is opening the door to the royal penthouse suite without breaking stride.
I follow him in and am surprised to find a team of women waiting there. “Holden?” So many questions in those two syllables of his name.
He leans over and presses a kiss to my lips. “Can’t have you going out for a night on the town without having someone help you get ready.”
“Are you…”
“Serious?” He smiles. “Yes, I’m serious. I’ll be taking these from you because no working is allowed,” he says, removing my phone from my hand and my bag from my arm before turning to the team of ladies waiting for me. “I’ll be over here working. Ladies, she’s all yours.”
Our eyes hold for a beat, so many things I want to say but don’t know how to voice so I try to put them in the one, single look. Thank you.
For making me feel special.
For taking time out to do something.
For whatever this is.
Over the next two and a half hours I am pampered within an inch of my life. A relaxing massage at a glass window with the world around me. A quick shower and then a mani-pedi. My hair done. My makeup done. Several sets of lingerie to pick from followed by a rack of ridiculously expensive dresses.
“That man’s got it bad if he’s going through all this trouble for you,” the lead stylist, Anissa, murmurs softly so that Holden can’t hear.
I laugh. “No. We’re not like that. We work together. We…”
“Sleep together,” she finishes for me with a chuckle and a knowing look. “It’s obvious in the way he keeps looking at you. Like he wants to eat you up and then come back for more. Girl, you can tell yourself all you want that you’re just having a sexy little fling, but this”—she points to the entire room set up solely for getting me ready—“says a lot more than that.”
“He’s just an over-the-top guy.”
But that’s the thing. Holden isn’t. He’s stoic. Not flashy … and yet he hired a team of women to pamper me.
“Uh-huh.” She nods to the five boxes of Christian Louboutin heels set on the table in front of me. All in my size, all apparently mine to keep. “You just keep telling yourself that.” She looks me up and down and whistles. “I do think you made the right decision going with this dress,” she says as she adjusts my bra strap.
It’s a deep, dark blue. The cleavage is low and the drape at the curve of my ass even lower. It’s sophisticated and classy with just enough sexy. And I feel incredible in it.
Anissa is fixing the hem some as I stand looking at my reflection in the mirror. Holden comes into view over my shoulder. He’s wearing a tuxedo that’s clearly custom tailored and only adds to how handsome he is. Our eyes meet and he smiles in a way that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Mesmerized. Taken with me. Pleased.
How did we go from me being lethally jealous a few weeks back to this? Just … how?
I turn to face him. “You like?”
Anissa somehow fades away like the true professional she is as he moves the short distance to me and presses a kiss to my cheek. “Breathtaking,” he murmurs in my ear. “I’m one lucky man to have you on my arm tonight. But I do think these might complement the dress a bit more.”
I laugh when he pulls the sapphire earrings out of his pocket. “Breaking into my house these days?” I tease.
“You left them in the top drawer of your desk. Not a very safe place to keep something so very important.” He stares at them and then back up to me. “Will you wear them for me tonight? Just this once?”
With my eyes on his, I take the first sapphire earring from the velvet case and put it on. Then the next. He turns me around so I can look in the mirror. He’s behind me like a second skin and as much as the earrings are stunning and complete the entire look, he does even more so.
There’s a contrast between us.
He’s dark while I’m light. He’s unreadable while my emotions are on my sleeve. He’s the bolt of lightning and I’m feeling blinded by its force.
He leans forward and presses a kiss to my bare neck without breaking our connection in the mirror. Desire fires in his eyes despite the room full of women suddenly trying to act small so as to not interrupt this moment.
“Do I get to know yet where we’re going?” I ask yet again.
My guess is we’re going to some charity function. Some place where Holden Knight needs to see and be seen, which then poses a problem for me and our platonic-in-the-eyes-of-everyone-else situation.
“Our first stop of the evening will be dinner.”
“And then?”
His chuckle is a low rumble. “And then? Is dinner with me not enough for you? Greedy girl.”
“That’s not what I meant.” I laugh.
He puts his hands on my shoulders, turns me around, and steps into me. “Then what did you mean, woman I want to kiss but whose freshly applied lipstick I don’t want to mess up?”
“You said first, so that implies there is a second part. That’s why I asked,” I say as I run my hands up the lapel of his tuxedo. I love the soft hiss he emits. It tells me he’s just as affected by my presence as I am by his. Then I lean in and whisper in his ear, “Always mess the lipstick up. Always.”
I feel the rumble of his chuckle the same time as I hear it. “Good to know we’re on the same page.”
He runs the back of his hand down my cheek. “Hmm.”
His response piques my curiosity. Before I can think too much about it, he leans in and brushes his lips ever so slightly against mine.
“Time to go.”
FIFTY-SEVEN
Rowan
The evening has been magical.
And that’s coming from a woman who isn’t keen on romance and flips the channel anytime a Hallmark movie comes on.
But it has been.
The surprise trip to Manhattan. The pamper team waiting for me at the hotel. The way Holden looked at me when he saw me wearing my new dress and his sapphires.
Then there was our private dinner on the top floor of a skyscraper with nothing but a wall of windows separating us from the city beyond. The food was delicious—and real. Not the fancy-looking morsels that food magazines post images of that look like art and diners go home hungry from. It was paired with a fine wine and an incredibly cozy atmosphere. But more important than the meal was my time with Holden.
It was like we were back at the rooftop restaurant on the coast and then some. We talked about anything and everything but work. We laughed about silly stories. We cringed at embarrassing moments.
We were normal, everyday people—just Holden and Rowan—on a date. Not bazillionaire Holden Knight who is poised to take over my company, and not determined Rowan Rothschild struggling to figure out who this new version of her is who sleeps with the enemy and enjoys it.
And now we’re here, standing outside on a street in New York City. My hand is in Holden’s, and I’m beginning to think my heart might be too.
The distance between “think” and “know” is short. And I’m trying not to focus on it.
I shake the thought away and force a smile when I notice him scrutinizing me.
“What was that look for?” he asks, ever the observer.
“What look?”
He narrows his eyes. “The one you were just giving me when you were looking at me but not really seeing me.”
I was seeing you all right. In fact I was seeing you so much I was trying to put all of these emotions you create in me in check. The problem? It’s getting harder and harder to do that the more time we spend together. The more we get to know each other.
I shrug. “I was just wondering what you did with the painting.”
He barks out a laugh that makes his shoulders shake and his eyes fire to life more than they already are. “How about I haven’t done anything with it yet?”
“Oh?” I ask and he nods. “I thought that you had destructive plans for it,” I tease.
“I do. I’m taking my time with it, enjoying its ugliness for a bit before I have fun destroying it.” His eyes meet mine and narrow as the muscle in his jaw pulses.
I don’t know why that sentence has goose bumps clawing their way up my spine, but it does.
And just as quick as the feeling comes, it passes. So does the somberness of his expression. I watch as he flips a switch, his smile lightening the shadows that were just there.
“We both know that’s not what you were wondering. Lay it on me, Sunshine.”
I laugh, welcoming the shift. “Maybe I was simply wondering where we are and what we are doing … which in all fairness has been an ongoing theme tonight.”
“Perfect. That’s exactly what I was going for.” He squeezes my hand and brings it to his lips. “Good to know I succeeded.” He looks at the door. It’s as nondescript as the building itself. There is a plaque next to it that is all blacked out and offers no clues to what it holds inside. “Are you ready?”
“For?”
“You asked me why I summoned you to the jet today. I said part of the reason was to apologize, and the other part was this.”
“This?” I laugh nervously.
“Yes,” he says and opens the door for me to go through. It’s a lobby of some sort with high ceilings and a huge chandelier. It feels new but looks old with its décor and lighting. “This. An early birthday present.”
“What? It’s not for two months. How did you even know?”
Now that we’re alone, Holden leans forward and kisses me. It’s gentle yet urgent. Tender but laden with desire. When it ends, he rests his forehead against mine. “You forget, I know everything.”
And before I can respond, he grabs my hand and leads me farther into the building. But when we go through the next set of doors, I realize this is anything but a building, it’s a theater of some sort.
