Was he…? My mind had barely formed the thought when I looked over and saw a much paler Lucien. His eyes were wide, darting around the cabin as the plane gathered speed, everywhere but the mandatorily open window. His breath was coming faster and faster, so perhaps that was why I moved. My hand dropped down, as if directed by someone else, under the table into the space between his seat and mine, and to my horror, it reached out and grasped his thick thigh.
Just as I was worrying about the total inappropriateness of that gesture, his hand let go of the bench and grabbed mine, his thumb moving restively, brushing over and over, back and forth across my knuckles, tightening almost to the point of pain when we heard the thud that indicated the plane had launched itself into the air. I went to pull away then, his grip having loosening somewhat, but those fingers tightened around mine when I did. He stared at me, eyes blazing silver, but not from sexual attraction now. His beast had shouldered forward, wanting out as his body convinced himself he was facing near and present danger. Lucien just nodded, the only recognition he gave of how he gripped at my hand, then pressed his still tense body against the seat.
“Sydney…”Beau said as we emerged out of the airport several hours later, taking in a deep breath, before looking down at me. “A friend of mine owns a fabulous restaurant down at the Rocks. We’ll have to take you while we’re here.”
“It looks like we have functions to attend every night, sir,” I said, the honorific having taken on a strange air, but I couldn’t seem to bring myself to stop from saying it. “Perhaps next time.”
“Next time.” Beau nodded slowly, then smiled. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Our driver is over here,” Max said, swooping in and grabbing my bag along with his, then hauling the lot over to the massive black SUV.
14
The convention centre was amazing, but so was everything about this trip. The drivers had taken our luggage, stowing them in the car, and right now, were moving them to our hotel rooms, leaving them there for us to find later. As we approached this massive building that looked a little like an origami house that had been squashed a little, I couldn’t help but stare.
“Impressed?”
Lucien’s colour and demeanour seemed to have recovered now we were all back on solid ground.
“Very,” I replied. “So how many floors are we renting for this event?”
“All of them,” Beau said, stepping closer, not catching me blanching, then tapping out notes into my phone. I snapped off a few pics, just in case I needed them for later. “Don’t want one with us in it?”
Beau stepped closer to his brothers, but both Max and Lucien shot him a wary sidelong look as he went in for a stereotypical tourist snap pose. I shook my head with a smile, then took a quick photo to keep him happy.
“Let me look.” He bounded over with all of the energy of a golden retriever, but that seemed to fade when he saw the shot. “We need to take it again. These pricks didn’t even bother to smile!”
“Because we’ve got a clusterfuck of an event to sort out,” Lucien snapped. “Which your bloody girlfriend dropped the ball on.” His eyes had never got that hard when he stared at me, but right now, they were hazel-coloured lasers, slicing into Max. “Beau, you won’t have anything to sic your phalanx of ‘influencers’ onto if we don’t get this sorted.”
Before any of us could respond, he was off, striding up the steps and towards the entrance.
“Did they warn you our brother is a grumpy cunt?” Beau asked in a faux bright tone. “What’re they paying you? It should be double for dealing with him.”
“He did offer me double,” I replied in a determinedly calm voice. Inside my head, I was screaming at this situation, at this event, at the fact we were going to try and organise something that would span the entire four floors of this massive building, plus include a symposium to the mix. I cursed Miranda, Crystal, but most of all, myself.
Then Lucien.
“I’ll talk to Tobias,” Beau said, taking my arm and tucking it in his. “We’ll negotiate some retention bonuses.” He patted it then, as if that made everything all right. “Each month you stick around is another couple of K.”
“That isn’t a terrible idea,” Max said with a slight frown. “Before Crystal, we never had anyone that stuck around for more than a month.”
“Shh…” Beau shot him a harsh look.
“As if I wouldn’t find out,” I said, extricating my arm, then climbing the steps, determined to follow on Lucien’s heels. He’d be making decisions, I just knew he would, which was fine, but without one, the others’ say-so, and two, me taking notes, those decisions would get lost in the mess. “And I don’t need retention bonuses. I just need someone to report to and enough information to make this event a success, someone who can make the event a priority and approve decisions.”
“And an event management company,”I said after we walked through the building. The place was massive, gleaming, beautiful, and utterly intimidating. My mind teemed with everything we’d need—security, display board hire, food and beverage staff, cleaning… I’d been typing out notes the whole time we’d been taken through the building by the very nice man who managed the place.
“Why do we need an event management company?” Lucien’s question was sharp and insistent as he turned to me. “If that’s all it takes, what do we need you for?”
My eyebrow cocked upwards so damn fast, the muscles in my face spasmed. His frown faded as he remembered just how we got into this situation in the first place.
“What you’re proposing is massive,” I said. “To expect one person to manage that and act as your personal assistant is insane. It explains the high turnover of staff.”
“Not entirely…” Beau muttered under his breath.
“You want this all done in house,” I continued.
“Yes,” Lucien replied with a slight growl.