How to Seduce a Billionaire (6 page)

It stunned him to think that he’d actually had sex with Kelly. She was a fascinating woman and he’d known that for years, but now he’d seen a completely different side of her. And he wanted more. She’d been so uninhibited and sweet, so unlike any other woman he’d been involved with in the past.

It was a good thing they’d reaffirmed their ground rules last night. The absolute last thing he wanted was to hurt Kelly, so he was glad they’d talked things over. It was good to see her smile as she reassured him that it wouldn’t be a problem for her if they kept seeing each other. She insisted they were just having a good time and she was happy to be learning so much about the art of seduction. But, she’d said, there was no way in the world she would ever be dumb enough to fall in love with him.

His mind deep in thought, he didn’t notice when Kelly walked into his office until she placed a hot cup of coffee on his desk blotter.

Looking up at her, he murmured “Hey there, stranger,” and was about to grab her hand and pull her into his lap when she cut him off brusquely with a sharp look of warning.

“Good morning, Brandon.” She said it loudly and followed it with an overly obvious nudge of her chin, just as their concierge manager rushed in behind her. “Serge has a matter of some urgency he’d like to discuss with you.”

Serge paced in front of his desk. “Do you have a moment, Brandon? A problem has arisen with the new tour company.”

“Sure.” He gave Kelly a brief but meaningful nod, then turned to Serge. “What can I do for you?”

Kelly poured water into the coffeepot and stifled a yawn. It was no wonder she was tired. Besides attending to all the general preparations and last-minute emergencies that went with the grand opening of the hotel, she’d also spent the entire night making love with Brandon. That meant she had gotten almost no sleep and now her body ached in all sorts of places she never even knew she had. Not that she was complaining. No way. And she refused to feel guilty. In fact, she felt wonderful.

She still couldn’t quite believe that Brandon had simply appeared at her hotel room door. She was even more incredulous over the fact that she’d spent hours after that having spectacular sex with him. It was so much more fun when you did it right, she thought.

But then this morning as she got dressed, she began to worry about how Brandon would react to seeing her in the office. Even though they’d made a pact that neither of them would feel remorseful or embarrassed, she couldn’t be sure. Maybe she’d made a huge mistake by sleeping with him.

Or maybe not. After all, it was sex, nothing more. There were no emotions involved. She was just having a little affair with a man millions of other women would kill for. No pressure.

By the time she walked into the office, she’d worked herself into a state of anxiety, wondering over and over again what in the world she’d been thinking the night before. Had she lost her mind? Why had she slept with him?

But then she’d walked into Brandon’s office and he’d smiled broadly and reached for her. And she knew why.

It had been wonderful and totally worth it.

She should’ve known Brandon would do it right. Besides being tall, gorgeous, utterly captivating and totally sexy, he’d lived a charmed life ever since he’d been adopted by Sally Duke at the age of eight.

Sally had once given Kelly a thumbnail sketch of Brandon’s life, starting with him being a high school honors student and an All-American football player in college. He was drafted into the NFL where he played quarterback for many years before becoming a sports commentator for the premier sports news station in the country. But he’d grown weary of the limelight and had joined his brothers’ hotel and real estate development team a few years ago.

Sally had also confided that the man attracted women like flies. Kelly was already well aware of that. For the past four years, she’d been charged with the job of keeper of the keys to the inner sanctum. In other words, she screened every woman who called or came by to speak with Brandon. Depending on his instructions, she would either put them through or put them off.

Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would end up as one of those women. The thought didn’t appeal to her as she sat down at her desk and powered up her computer.

“I’m not one of those women,” she argued with herself, recalling their conversation late last night. “We’ve got an arrangement. This is a temporary situation only.”

But now she could see why all those women had had such stars in their eyes. Brandon’s touch had put a twinkle in her eye, too. The thought made her smile as she gathered the mail and began to open each envelope, sorting the enclosed documents and letters into several different piles, depending on priority. When she caught herself humming off key, she giggled. Then she froze.

“What in the world was that?”

Kelly never giggled. What was wrong with her? Was she coming down with something? She held her hand against her forehead to check her temperature, but her skin was perfectly cool and dry. She was pretty sure there was only one answer to the question. She was…happy?

Okay, happy was a good word to describe how she felt. She couldn’t believe her good luck and even though Brandon had warned her not to say the words out loud, she couldn’t help but be grateful. She wished she could thank him for his…what? His
assistance?
No, that made it sound like he was helping her bake a cake. Grateful for his
special friendship?
Kelly shivered. No, that sounded vaguely icky.

“For his expertise,” she said aloud, and nodded at the description. “I’m in training.” She smiled again. It sounded much better, more subtle, than the other choices. After all, she often went for training on new computer systems and software programs, so why not sexual expertise? It made perfect sense and besides, it was true. She really was in training to improve her sexual proficiency. She was the student and Brandon was the master.

She could only imagine the syllabus.

She giggled again. Okay, maybe she was getting a little carried away.

“Kelly, do you have the Redmond file?”

“It’s right here, Brandon.” She managed to refrain from calling him
Obi-Wan,
then stifled another giggle.

“What’s the smile for?” Brandon asked genially.

“I’m just in a good mood,” she said. “Coffee’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

“Thanks,” he said, and strolled into his office, closing the door behind him.

She knew Brandon had a conference call starting momentarily that would last an hour or more. She planned to use that time to check on Roger’s conference agenda. He and the employees of his small, high-powered hedge-fund company would arrive on Monday. They had reserved two mid-sized conference rooms each day as well as one of the small banquet rooms each evening for dinners and a special event or two. But Kelly remembered that the schedule showed that Thursday night was a free night, during which the attendees could dine at their choice of any one of Napa’s world-class restaurants or go off to sample wines at any number of local wineries.

Kelly planned to lure Roger to her room Thursday night, get him all hot and bothered, then kick him out. That would teach him a thing or two. And Kelly looked forward to being the one to teach him. In fact, she was eager for the chance to show her ex-boyfriend a few of the incredible moves Brandon had showed her. She already felt more sure of herself and more sure of her sensuality and attractiveness, thanks to Brandon. Ever since yesterday morning when he got all tongue-tied while gawking at her and her new look, she’d felt her confidence soar. She really appreciated that his gawking turned out to be good in all the right ways.

The telephone rang, startling her. She grabbed the receiver quickly so the ringing wouldn’t disturb Brandon’s conference call. “Mr. Duke’s office, Kelly Meredith speaking.”

“It’s Bianca Stephens,” a breathless voice said. “Let me speak with Brandon immediately.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Stephens, Brandon is on a conference call and can’t be disturbed.”

The woman gasped. “What? Well, interrupt him. Tell him I’m waiting. I know he’ll want to talk to me.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Kelly said, trying not to roll her eyes, “but he’s on a long-distance call with several business clients and his partners. I’ll have to take a message and have him get back to you.”

“Kathy, do you know who I am?”

“Yes, I do, Ms. Stephens, and it’s Kelly.”

“Whatever,” she said. “Look, just slip a note under his nose. I know he’ll take my call.”

“Except he gave me instructions not to interrupt him, and since he signs my paycheck, I generally do as he asks. I’m terribly sorry, but I will give him your message.”

“What did you say your name was?”

“Kelly,” she said distinctly. “Kelly Meredith.”

“Well, Kelly,” Bianca said with a tone that implied that she was talking down to a particularly stupid first grader. “I’ll be sure to tell Brandon how uncooperative you have been.”

“Yes, ma’am. And I’ll be sure to give him your message.”

“You’d better,” she said imperiously. “He won’t be happy to find out he missed my call.”

“I’m sure that’s true,” Kelly said. “I—”

But the line was already dead.

Shaken, Kelly stared at the phone. “Gosh, I hope I don’t forget to give him that message.”

After hanging up the phone, she had to get up and walk around the office. She stretched her arms and rolled her neck around, just to get rid of some of the anger she was feeling. Of course she knew who Bianca Stephens was. She was the daughter of a former secretary of defense who hosted a national morning talk show. She was model-thin and Playmate gorgeous, and she was probably really smart, too. Damn her.

Walking into the kitchenette to pour a soda, Kelly gave herself a stern lecture. She understood that there had always been women like Bianca Stephens in Brandon’s life and there always would be. They were supermodels, heiresses, actresses and designers. Some were nice and some were awful, like Bianca Stephens. It didn’t matter to Brandon. He dated them because they looked good on his arm and probably in his bed, although she didn’t want to dwell too closely on that possibility. The plain fact was that Kelly was disappointed by the fact that Brandon would ever want to be with anyone as rude as Bianca Stephens.

Kelly took a moment to thank her lucky stars that she wasn’t so emotionally involved with Brandon that she cared one way or the other, but she had to admit it was upsetting to be treated as though she were nothing but the hired help.

That thought stopped Kelly in her tracks. She took a few deep breaths, shook her hair back, did some more shoulder rolls, then headed for her desk feeling cranky and restless.

“Not to put too fine a point on it,” she muttered as she sat in her chair. “But
hired help
is exactly what you are.”

Fine. Didn’t mean she had to dwell on it. She grabbed her knifelike letter opener and pulled out another short stack of mail. Being the hired help wasn’t the issue, she insisted to herself. It was having to deal with rude people like Bianca who looked down her nose at someone like Kelly just because she was hired to answer the phone. The fact was, Bianca thought she was better than everyone else, not just Kelly.

But that wasn’t the real problem, Kelly realized as she slashed open another letter. She’d fielded these sorts of phone calls from petulant women in the past and she’d always let them roll off her back. So what was different about Bianca’s call?

“You wouldn’t care so much if you hadn’t slept with him,” she whispered aloud as she tossed several letters into a file for Brandon’s review. With a frown, she ripped open a small parcel and tried to deny the words.

Was that why she was so upset? Did she suddenly care too much for Brandon? She didn’t think so. She
cared
for him, of course, but she certainly didn’t, well,
love
him, God forbid. There was no way she would ever let that happen. Not only had they talked about it and she’d assured him that she’d never fall for him, but also, she knew better!

But, thinking about it now, she was willing to admit to feeling a little sensitive. After all, they had spent last night doing the most intimate things a man and a woman could do together. So of course she was a bit distressed. Who wouldn’t be? But she’d snap out of it, quick. Because if she didn’t, she’d wind up with black and blue marks from kicking herself in the behind. No way would she ever allow herself to be that much of a twit.

The telephone rang and she jumped. “Now what?”

Hoping it wasn’t Bianca calling back, she grabbed it and answered in her most officious voice.

“Hello, Kelly dear. It’s Sally Duke.”

“Oh, Mrs. Duke, hello,” Kelly said, and relaxed. Brandon’s mother was always so lovely and kind. “How are you?”

“Fine, sweetie. I’m looking forward to seeing you this weekend.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing you, too.” She opened one of the folders on her desk. “I’ve got your itinerary right here and I see you’ll be arriving around two o’clock Friday afternoon. The limousine will be waiting for you at the airport. Did Brandon make dinner reservations for you?”

“I hope so. Would you mind checking for me?”

“Not at all. I don’t see anything noted in the file, but I’ll ask Brandon as soon as he’s off his conference call. We’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”

“I know you will and I must admit I’m excited,” Sally said. “There are hundreds of fabulous restaurants in Napa I’d love to try.”

“Oh, me, too.”

Sally paused, then said, “Kelly, dear, is something wrong? You don’t sound like yourself.”

It was not a good thing when the boss’s mother could tell you were in a blue mood.

“No, I’m fine,” Kelly insisted. “Or I will be. I just had to deal with something unpleasant.”

“Something or someone?”

Kelly sighed, knowing she’d already said too much. “Really, it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“Ah,” Sally said. “Some
one.
”

Kelly laughed ruefully. “You’re good at that.”

“I raised three boys. I’ve learned to read nuance.”