He winced, as if he’d forgotten he told me that. “It would be best if you don’t speak about that to her. She’s a private person.”
I nodded.
A beautiful young woman with shoulder-length dark hair and gorgeous green eyes approached us. She was dressed professionally but with a flair of style I envied. She clearly shared a genetic pool with my bosshole, Chad Thundercock.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m Jordan.”
“Skip the introductions,” Mr. White said. “Jordan, take Jules to her room and make sure she can get on the hotel Wi-Fi. I need her ready to work within the half hour.”
Jordan gave me a wry, what can you do, sort of look, then motioned for me to follow her. When I looked back over my shoulder a little while later, I saw Mr. White talking to two tall, very attractive men. Apparently everybody we met on this trip was going to look like they just climbed out of a modeling catalog. Good to know.
“If you’re busy I could find the room on my own,” I said as we headed up the stairs to the second floor.
“Thanks, but Adrian would lose his shit if he knew I just let you roam off on your own.”
I cocked my head at her. “What? Why? Does he think I’m a twelve-year-old on a field trip?”
She hesitated. “Because he already seems to put quite a lot of value in the work you do.”
We moved through a long, carpeted hallway and passed a few more well-dressed people. I sensed Jordan was holding something back.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
She stopped then, turning to face me. “You two aren’t sleeping together, are you?”
I pulled my head back. “Excuse me?”
She laughed softly, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I’ve just never seen him quite this protective with an employee. He’s acting strange, and I thought if—well, yeah. I’m sorry I asked.”
My memory flipped back to our bathroom encounter and the handful of other belly clenching close-calls it felt like we’d already had. There really wasn’t any denying it, was there? When Mr. White and I were together, some sort of fiery energy crackled between us. At times, it just seemed like the clash of his abrasive personality with mine. But I was starting to wonder if it was more than that, and if his sister was this curious, maybe I wasn’t crazy to wonder.
“Has he said something?” I asked carefully.
“He tells me about all his new hires,” she said, continuing to walk and occasionally reference the number on the room card. “He must really respect what you bring to the table. It’s like I said, he doesn’t normally do more than grunt that he hired someone to me. It’s one of my jobs to get them settled in with the company and see that they have everything they need. But he took a personal interest in making sure I was going to do the things I always do. Annoying, really,” she added with a small laugh.
I smiled back, but my mind was picking over everything she’d told me, trying to figure out what it all meant.
“This is you,” she said, punching the room key in the slot above the door handle and waiting until a light flashed green. My luggage was already waiting beside the bed when we entered the room. Jordan looked around, her face once again flashing with confusion.
“Is something wrong with the room?”
“No, but this looks like an executive suite. It’s also right next door to my brother’s room.”
I shrugged. “He probably wanted a nice room for himself and wanted to be able to yell at me through the walls for convenience.”
Jordan smiled. She had a beautiful smile, and I found myself envying her again. Some people really had all the luck. “It sounds like you already know him pretty well.”
I guiltily thought back to pressing my mouth into his erection while my bare ass was stuck out behind me. “Yep,” I said. “We’re getting to know each other pretty fast.”
“Well, let’s get this laptop set up.”
I waited patiently while Jordan got my computer online, then thanked her and watched her go.
I knew I should immediately dive into my email to see what Mr. White needed me to do, but I took a moment to walk to the window and look out over New Orleans. It wasn’t the prettiest city I’d ever seen on the surface. But something about it charmed me. I could see a group of friends on the street below walking arm in arm, laughing about something and clearly a little drunk even though it was the middle of the day.
It was a shame that I was going to be stuffed in my room working for the whole trip here. With a sigh, I cracked open my laptop and looked at my email. Naturally, I had a dozen new messages and one personally sent to me from Mr. White.