Miami Hot: #1 (Miami Heat Series) (13 page)

“Yeah, he is a regular at the cas
inos and racetracks,” Lucas laughed. “The man knows how to move fast.”

Conrad
gave him a look, “Let me see if I can talk some sense into him.”

“You don’t have to.
Moira has been there before. She was just humoring an old man,” Sam said as he laughed at their expressions.

Lucas laughed and clapped Sam on the back. “Well fuck. Maybe she does have the poker face after all.”

“I’m not sure I can look my dad in the eye after this. I’ll probably give it away if he mentions it,” Conrad chuckled. His phone rang and when he looked at the caller ID he quickly made his goodbyes and left. “Hi baby.”

“Hi, are you still at your penthouse?”

“No, I slept at the hotel.”

Silence.

“With Lucas.”

Silence.

“Fuck! Not in the same bed. I’m not explaining myself well. How about I start over?”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me. It’s not like you and me…”

The valet brought his car around and Conrad got in. He raced out of the parking lot as if the hounds were after him. “Yes, I have to. I fumbled and you misunderstood what I was saying. I will be there in a few, can we talk then?” Oh God, was this what a relationship entailed? He never had to explain his comings and goings before.

“No need, it’s probably best we stick to business. I’ll come to your office at 8:30am.” Then she clicked the phone off.
Moira threw the phone beside her then continued mixing the flour and sugar. Why would a man sleep at a hotel when he had a penthouse that close by? Moira could only come to one conclusion. A woman. Which he had tried to cover up by bringing Lucas into the mix.

It was barely
six and a few people had started arriving. It was nice seeing her co-workers again. Everyone stopped by and said hi before they all went to their own station to start preparing for the breakfast of the day.

By eight her whole gang was in and everything just fell back to normal. They worked like a well oiled machine until it was time for
Moira to go and meet Conrad. She was suddenly nervous wondering if he would turn her away. Maybe he already had a meeting scheduled for the same time. She hadn’t thought of that before. Either way, she would go and if the least she did was see her friend Janet, that would be good enough. She took a few of Janet’s favorite breakfast items and packed them to go.

When she arrived she was glad to see that at least one person was glad to see her. Janet fussed over her as if she was still sick.
Moira almost thought that had there been a bed close by, Janet would have laid her down and fluffed up the pillows. After a couple of minutes she ushered her inside and she found Conrad pacing his office.

Moira
heard the door click and realized he had locked the door. She could never get over the remote locking of doors. She took a deep breath and walked over to the sofa’s, giving him a wide berth as she made her way. “Good Morning sir,” she said before she reached the sitting area.

Before she
could sit down, Conrad was beside her and had pulled her into his arms. And as she made to push him away and tell him off, he slammed his lips against hers. Moira felt his frustration in the kiss and she returned the kiss with all the anger she had inside her. When they both came up for air, they held each other close together, then bumped foreheads.”Why are you so stubborn?”

“I…”

“No, that was a rhetorical question,” he said then took her lips once more, this time with all the tenderness that had been lacking in the last kiss. Moira moaned and opened for him. And when her legs gave out, he carried her and placed her in his lap and continued kissing her. She whimpered when he kneaded her breast. The ringing of the phone finally broke them apart. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll just return the call later,” he said as he moved his hand to the other breast.

“It’s probably best we stop anyway. I can’t stay long,” she told him.

“Okay, but let me explain about earlier. I know we haven’t talked yet, but I am hoping we will soon. Today or tomorrow. It’s up to you.”

“I can’t. Sam is watching me like a hawk. He wants me home by 1pm at the latest. Apparently he is still following the docs order
s to the letter,” she complained.

“Can’t fault him for that,”
Conrad said as he laughed.

“But I think he is working this weekend, so I
could meet you on Saturday. I’ll have to confirm and let you know,” she said as she tried to get up.

“Stay in my arms. I just need to hold you for a little while longer.” He brushed his
thumb across a nipple and she shivered. “Very responsive,” he said and kissed her forehead. “So about this morning. I slept at the hotel because Lucas and I drank a whole bottle of scotch last night. I was yearning for you and Lucas was just being a helpful friend.”

Moira
snorted.

Conrad
chuckled. “That’s what friends are for. Anyway, he keeps a suite at the hotel in cases such as the one last night. We were both drunk so just made our way to his suite. I have a bedroom there where I keep extra clothes. And I promise, it had nothing to do with some woman, real or imagined. None of us have even brought women to that suite. It’s kind of our hideout, so we made a pact never to bring women there.”

“Okay.”

“And just to put your mind at ease, I intend being exclusive with you. And I expect the same from you. That also means no Freddie, unless I am there to supervise.” He took her lips again in a fast and hot kiss. “Understood?”

“I can’t think,” she complained.

“Try being me for the past few days,” he chuckled. He straightened and looked down at her. “A simple ‘yes’ is the only possible answer here.”

“Yes. Now I need to get up. I have a business proposition for you an
d I can’t do it sitting on your lap.”

“If you must,”
Conrad said and let her go.

Moira
straightened her clothes then went to sit on the other end of the sofa. “So Valentine’s Day is coming up,” Moira started.

Conrad
groaned.

“You are such a man. Anyway, you have more females at your company than males, so speaking on behalf of all those females, I was thinking of making Valentine themed desserts on that day and serving them to each department. Individually wrapped. And
of course King International would need to pick up the tab.”

Conrad
guffawed. “And how much is this going to cost me? Don’t think I haven’t forgotten about the other trick you played me.”

“Well not you personally, the company. Besides that other issue is so in the past. That was personal. This is business.”

“It’s a nice gesture, except that you are costing me. And you don’ even have a price point to start with. Besides we have never done something like that here. Well, not to my knowledge, anyway,” he replied.

“So I guess it’s time for a change. Things like this
are what boost morale. Can you seriously tell me that dessert tab you picked up didn’t change a few people’s perceptions or change a few things around? To this day people are still commenting about it in the cafeteria, and I am guessing some are even asking you for a repeat performance. True or false?”

Conrad
sighed. “True.”

Moira
smiled, “So I rest my case. So it’s a go them?”

“I think my brain is fried. Yes, it’s a go. I can’t believe I am agreeing to this crap,”
Conrad groaned.

“Yeah! Since this is the first time we are trying something like this, I am guessing I have an unlimited budget, right?”
Moira was jumping up and down like a little kid. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

“Wrong. My brain may be fried, but there is no way I would give you an unlimited budget. A couple of thousand dollars at the most.”

“Oh come one. Don’t be a tightwad. You need to think higher. I’ll put a preliminary budget together then let you know later today.” She moved closer to him, gave him a smacking kiss then picked up his remote and opened the door and slipped out.

“Fuck,”
Conrad said and groaned. “How am I going to explain that little budget item. Not that anybody would dare ask. John maybe. Well maybe if she stuck to a couple thousand, it could end up being petty cash.”

Since his head was still reeling with all things Valentines he left the office to go and meet Lucas’ florist. She had called and said he
could stop by anytime. When he got there he was surprised to see the amount of activity going on in the store. Apparently the delivery of flowers was starting as early as Monday. Some people preferred gift baskets and every hand in the flower shop seemed to be putting a different gift basket together. Now he was confused on whether to do flowers or a gift basket. He ended up sticking to the flowers after he realized there were too many options of the gift baskets. By the time he was done in choosing the flowers he wanted, he realized the bouquet would most likely be huge, but he didn’t care. He wrote a personal message, paid then left.

By the time he got back to his office, he
realized Janet had joined the Valentines fever, so he closed his door and requested no interruptions. What a wuss he thought to himself. He was still playing at sequestering himself in his office the next morning when his dad dropped by. He found him behind his desk starring at the live feeds he had been looking at. Fuck he thought to himself.

“Spying on the employees,
Conrad? Or on just the little pastry chef?”

Busted.

“Dad, it’s not what you think,” he started.

“Doesn’t matter what I think. It’s what you are going to do about her that matters,” his dad replied.

“What do you mean?” he asked puzzled.

“Son, your mother never cheated on me, which means I don’t doubt your paternity. But it’s times like these that I doubt you are mine. Look at her? She is a beauty. Are you going to wait until some foo
l gobbles her up? Look at that Myers fellow? I can see he wants into her pants.”

“Dad, I know. But she claims he is just a friend.”

“Today, her friend. Tomorrow, her friend with benefits. And the next day, her boyfriend then fiance, then husband. Get my meaning, son?”

Conrad
groaned. “Yes, but how do you know anything about being a friend with benefits?”

Williams chuckled. “Well a few ladies have propositioned me lately.”

“Okay. I think that’s too much information even for me. But just so you know, I wouldn’t fault you if you took the offers. Just don’t get anyone pregnant. I am not looking for a brother or sister at my age.”

His dad laughed. “No, I’ll leave that to you. I need grandkids, then I can go on full time retirement.”

“Then I guess that won’t be for a long, long time. A very long, long time, dad. Being a bachelor suits me just fine. Marriage or being a father isn’t in the near future.”

William made his way to the coffeemaker and poured himself a cup of coffee. “I’m glad your mother isn’t here to hear you say that. You know she always wanted to hold your
children.”

“I know dad,”
Conrad couldn’t help smiling at his mother’s memories. “It’s just not in the cards, at least for now.”

“Well back to the original question. What are your intentions with
Moira?” his dad hammered him again.

“It’s tough going for now, but we are almost there. She has been ill, as you very well know. As much as I wanted to press my advantage while she was weak, I didn’t want the drugs to make the decision for her.”

“Aha.”

Time to deflect. “I hear you went to visit her. She must have enjoyed your visit.”

“Trying to change the subject son? Like father like son. When I met your mother, I resisted, just like you are doing. It’s going to be fun to see you fall, son.” He cackled then left.

Conrad
was still puzzling on the last few statements from his dad, when he saw him appear in the cafeteria. He greeted a few people as he beelined for Moira. When she noticed him, her smile was radiant. He saw her put a tray together and they both walked to one of the booths. They seemed to have all the time in the world as they drank their coffees and ate the little items she had artfully displayed in their plates.

Conrad
was no stranger to the way his dad could charm the pants of someone, and Moira was no exception. Except that this time it seemed like a reciprocal relationship. After a while he realized they were having a disagreement. The company had invested in new cameras to monitor common areas, and unfortunately the live feed was just video and no audio. He wished they had added audio like they had done with the conference rooms. Unfortunately the café and hallways had been thought to be a little too much to have audio. Made sense with the number of conversations that would be going on at any given point in time. And besides, people still needed their privacy. The video was for security reasons, yet Conrad was abusing it for his own personal gain.

When his cell rang, he saw his dad’s name come up on the screen. He wondered what the argument had to do with as he answered.