Frustrated, Jake decided to take the step of contacting Carlos directly in an attempt to set up a meeting. The initial part of the conversation hadn’t gone as he would have wanted, but in the end he elicited an agreement to a meeting between the three of them.
His hope was that once they were face to face, and if he asked the right questions, he would be in a better position to decipher the meaning behind Carlos’s actions.
Carlos had stalled for a number of days before Jake could finally tie him down to a meeting date and time. Having neglected his business commitments for much too long, Jake was in his office when the call came in that MacKenzie was on her way up.
The days she had spent in the Kingdom home had rapidly taken on a pattern that Jake was becoming familiar with; if MacKenzie saw him coming, she would quickly disappear in the opposite direction. While he didn’t like the tactic, he was a master at picking his wars, so he allowed her to escape whenever she had a mind to avoid him.
**********
MacKenzie had never been to the Kingdom Hotel because it was way out of her price range. Stepping into the lobby she took a few minutes to look around and was immediately stunned. She had an almost overwhelming feeling of having stepped back in time. She had arrived with expectations of grandeur, but the display before her wasn’t what she had been expecting.
Her eyes didn’t know what to look at first, the marble columns, the vintage art deco elevator facades or the sweeping staircases, on either side of the building that majestically wound their way upward. In a word, the hotel was stunning. From what she could see, everything about the hotel was simply stunning.
Making her way across the black and white marbled mosaic floor, MacKenzie approached the front desk with a feeling of apprehension. She was a little taken aback to see that the desk wasn’t staffed solely by young beautiful people. Rather there was a mixture of men and women both young and older. Their common denominator was they were impeccably dressed in black suits reminiscent of the art deco era.
MacKenzie introduced herself.
“Ahh, Ms. Braithwaite, we have been expecting you.”
Before she could respond, someone was standing at her side ushering her across the vast lobby towards an elevator. When the doors opened, MacKenzie came face to face with Jake.
A little surprised that he had bothered to come down to meet her; she said the first thing that came into her mind. “This place is off the chain!”
With a nod, Jake dismissed her escort, stood to the side, and with an arm extended, indicated that she should join him in the elevator.
“Hello, MacKenzie. Welcome to the Homestead.”
“Homestead?”
“That’s what we call this place,” Jake said with a grin. “It’s a long story better suited for another time.”
“Okay.”
“You look beautiful! Your suit matches your eyes.”
Unable to return to her home because of the paparazzi, Aviva and Jake had urged her to order whatever she and the baby needed online. Reluctant at first, when it looked as though Aviva intended to order a whole store, MacKenzie had capitulated. The suit she had on was one of her purchases. In one of her rare moments of vanity, she had recognized that the suit did indeed match her eyes, and knew she had to have it. It was also why she had chosen this meeting to wear it. McKenzie knew she needed to pull on every bit of confidence possible in order to remain calm. Otherwise, she would probably end up diving across a table and punching Carlos in the face.
Deciding to play it cool, MacKenzie went for sophisticated nonchalance, and replied with a simple, “thank you.” Adding a shrug to her reply as if his compliment was of no importance; she turned away. That Jake had noticed her appearance was oddly pleasing, and MacKenzie hoped her blush didn’t show.
“Yes, you look lovely.” As he spoke, Jake ran his hand down MacKenzie’s arm. His touch sent shivers along her spine. She didn’t know what it was about this man, but whenever she was near him, he turned her insides to mush. Even with a layer of clothing separating the touch of his hand against her skin, MacKenzie just managed to conceal the shiver that ran through her body. Before she could stop herself, her mind wondered. With only a touch; images of them alone together in her home rushed into her mind, and her recollections almost overwhelmed her.
As his warm fingers made contact with the skin of her throat, MacKenzie’s awareness of him rose. Unable to resist, she leaned closer to his warmth. She had deliberately been avoiding him, but right now she wanted nothing more than to experience the feel of his big muscular body surrounding her. She wanted to know the touch of his expert hands as they moved against her skin making her forget about what she was about to face.
The popping sound came as a complete distraction to the thoughts that occupied her mind. She knew the sound. Her eyes darted to his hand; Jake held up the price tag that blew her pretense of sophistication out of the water.