Vivien’s pillowy lips parted. “Hi, Jaime.” Her voice was a deep sexy rasp. “Fancy meeting you here.”
Fancy meeting you here? Give me a fucking break. She knew exactly where we were having dinner. I studied her. She was petite and brunette. Jaime’s “type.” Reflecting on her behavior at the Gloria’s Secret Fashion Show and after-party, I wondered—had she and Jaime had sex? Was she one of Jaime’s submissives? There was something more than met the eye going on here. I sucked in a breath.
Jaime responded. His voice was as cold as dry ice. “Nice to see you.”
Victor’s turn. “So, Zander, I understand from my daughter, you’re courting the Gloria’s Secret account.” A smug smile slithered across Vivien’s face.
Before Jaime could respond, I hastily chimed in, “Actually, Victor, it’s the other way around. I’m courting him. I’m impressed by his creativity.”
Victor was stunned into silence.
Jaime shot me a surprised look and then broke into a sexy, grateful smile.
“Why, thank you, Ms. Long. I hope tomorrow we can seal the deal.” He came around the table and pulled back my chair, signaling me to stand up too. As I got to my feet, Victor’s steely eyes ran down my body. I could feel him mentally undressing me. “Gloria, you exhibit poor judgment when it comes to men.”
I scowled. “That’s not for you to judge.”
Jaime’s eyes narrowed and his lips pressed thin. He clenched his hands so tightly his knuckles turned white. One fist rose. My heart raced. Was he going to punch Victor?
To my relief, he relaxed his hand. “Come, Gloria. We should talk business,” he gritted.
Vivien sneered while her father remained steely faced. As Jaime ushered me to the entrance of the restaurant, I could feel Victor’s eyes on me the whole time.
“Wasn’t I supposed to pay for dinner?” I asked while he called his driver Orson on his cell.
“No need. As of yesterday, I own the restaurant.”
The drive back to the hotel was fraught with uncomfortable, tense silence. Brooding, Jaime kept his distance. Maybe, he heeded my words. That is was best to keep our relationship purely professional. Still buzzed from the wine, mixed emotions and questions swirled around in my head. So much had gone down tonight. I was dealing with a potential Christian Grey in my life who definitely had some fucked up issues of his own. And I had my own share of fuckedupness that I was not sharing with him. Finally, as we neared the hotel, I broke the thick silence, deciding to get some answers to questions that could effect our potential business relationship.
“What the hell is going between you and Victor? You know, he’s the Chairman of Gloria’s Secret and wields a lot of power.”
“He’s nothing to me,” Jaime hissed.
I didn’t believe him, but the tone of his voice set up a don’t-go-there wall.
“What about Vivien?”
“What about her?” he snapped back.
“Have you ever fucked her? She seems your type.”
He took a long second to answer. “No.”
Again, I didn’t believe him, but let it be. “You know, if you do win the Gloria’s Secret account, she may be your point person. She’s my assistant, and she’s being groomed, under a father’s orders, to take over marketing.”
“I’ll deal with it,” he said curtly.
The elevator ride up to our floor was no less tense. He accompanied me down the long corridor to our rooms. When I reached mine, I broke away from him and ransacked my bag for my card key. Damn it. I couldn’t find it. I must have left it in my other purse.
“Looking for this?” Jaime was in my face, holding up a card key. His mood had lightened.
“That’s my card key?” He had easy entry to my suite?
He grinned sheepishly. “I had it made the night you were passed out drunk.”
He flipped me around and pressed me against the door, pinning me against it with his hips. I could feel the heat of his arousal against my belly through my thin chiffon dress. My breath hitched in my throat as he grabbed my arms and raised them over my head. Like shackles, his fingers locked around my wrists, holding my fisted hands tight against the slab of wood. Once again, I was his prisoner. His to control. Moving in close to me, his hooded eyes bore into mine.
“Let’s finish what we started, Gloria, before that prick interfered.”
My eyes stayed wide open as he crushed his warm lips onto mine. Every part of my body tingled, from my head to my toes. As the kissed deepened with the entry of his tongue, my core ached. Wanting so much more than his tongue inside me. Desperate moans escaped my lips.
He slid the card key into my door and kept me pinned against it as he pushed it open, his mouth never leaving mine. Finally, he withdrew from my mouth. My breathing was shallow, his loud and heated.
“Gloria…”
Oh, the breathy way he said my name!