ONE
Knox
My fingers taprestlessly on the armrest as my private plane takes us farther and farther away from Los Angeles and toward Bora Bora.
Chloe, my new assistant and my obsession, is seated next to me, flipping through some papers. She thinks that we’re going to meet a client and while I hate to lie to her, telling her that I needed her to come with me on a business trip was the only way that I could get her alone.
She’s been ignoring all of my advances for the past three months and I can’t take it anymore. I know that she’s the one for me and that she can feel this thing between us too, but she won’t let me convince her of that. I’m hoping that this trip does just that.
“I can see why the clients didn’t want to come all the way to Los Angeles,” Chloe says as she stretches her legs out next to me. “It’s a long flight.”
“Are you not comfortable? The flight attendants can get you anything that you like. Something to eat or drink? A pillow and blanket if you want to take a nap.”
“I’m fine,” she says, waving me off like she doesn’t want to be a bother. What she doesn’t know yet is that I live to give her anything that she might want.
“Are you sure?” I ask, already looking around for one of the flight attendants.
“Yeah, I’m alright. Shouldn’t we be going over some of the contracts for the new client?” she asks, looking at me expectantly.
Her green eyes draw me in, just like they always do, and my fingers itch to pull her against me, to taste her lips. She has her strawberry blonde hair tied up in a bun on top of her head, and I imagine my fingers tugging at those strands.
“Right, we can wait,” I say, trying to come up with a believable lie. “We’ll have time once we land to rest and go over everything.”
She nods, not thinking anything of it, and I relax back in my seat.
We’re about twenty minutes away from the airport and I know that she’s going to find out as soon as we pull up to the resort that there is no client. She’s going to be pissed and I rehearse what I’m going to say to her in my head as the flight attendants ask us to buckle up as we begin our descent.
I’m good at closing deals. That’s how I got so far in life. I started Temple Hotels when I was twenty-five and I’ve grown it into one of the biggest hotel and resort companies in the United States in just three short years.
I’ve always been driven. Once I know what I want, I go after it until it’s mine. Now I’m a billionaire with a great company, a great house, a great life. All that’s missing is a partner.
I want a wife and kids. I want it with the curvy little bombshell sitting next to me and if this trip goes to plan, I’m going to get it.
We land and I brace myself for Chloe’s wrath as we stand to de-board. I know that she’s going to be upset with me, but I didn’t see any other way. I can’t keep lusting after her. I can’t keep seeing her, knowing that she’s only an arm’s reach away, and that she’s not mine.
I know that she wants to keep everything between us professional. She’s worried about what people will say or that they might think that she’s sleeping her way to the top.
She hasn’t told me any of this, but I can pick up on it with the way she acts around my other employees. It doesn’t help that the first week she started at Temple Hotels, a couple got caught in the copier room. I had to let both of them go for indecent exposure on company grounds.
There’s a waiting car on the tarmac and we head over there, me caring Chloe’s luggage for her. She doesn’t look happy that I’m carrying her things and I know that she wanted to get them herself.
My girl is independent. She likes to take care of herself and everyone else around her. I wonder why that is, but I haven’t found the right time to ask her yet.
I know that her parents are rich. That she used to live in New York with her sister and parents in some Upper East Side penthouse. She should have been served the world on a platter. She should have gone to an Ivy League college and had her pick of jobs, but instead she’s here in Los Angeles, working for me and living in a tiny little studio apartment.
I watch her face as we drive along the beach toward the resort that I rented out for just the two of us. She looks around curiously as we drive along the coast and my heart starts to race as the resort sign comes into view.
She frowns, looking around.
“Are they not open yet?” she asks, turning to me and I wince.
“Not exactly…”
“Knox?” she asks, a bite to her usually sweet voice.
“I rented the place for us. Just the two of us,” I tell her and then I hop out, trying to escape the car before she can start screaming at me.
I just need to get her to see how perfect we are together. Then she’ll forget all about me tricking her.