The CEO Buys in (Wager of Hearts #1) (8 page)

Luis caught her looking at it and reached out to pick it up before walking around the bed without a sound. She nodded her thanks as she took it from him and held it in front of her like a shield.

Trainor exhaled. “I’m going to sleep. Chloe, I’ll call Ed, and you can tell him what you’d like to do for the next two hours. He’ll arrange whatever you need.” He shifted his attention to Luis. “You can take my temperature and give me whatever medications Ben foisted on you. However, you will
not
tell him I couldn’t walk across the room or that I stopped working to sleep.” There was steel in his voice, and Luis instantly murmured agreement. Trainor looked back at Chloe and used the same tone. “You will not tell him either.”

“No, sir,” she said, feeling as though she should slam her heels together and salute. Evidently, the major general had taught his son something about command.

A crease appeared between his eyebrows as he considered something. “Chloe, you might as well stay in the guest room here tonight. That way we can make up for the time we’re losing now.”

Her burgeoning pleasure at the prospect of a two-hour break withered under a lava flow of exasperation. “I have obligations at home,” she said stiffly. For some reason she didn’t want to tell Trainor about Grandmillie. Maybe because she was having hot fantasies about him, and mentioning she lived with her grandmother would take that sexy edge away.

He looked genuinely surprised. “What kind of obligations? You’re not married.”

“How do you know that?”

“You’re not wearing a ring.”

He hadn’t looked at her left hand before he said it, and she felt a guilty twinge of delight that he’d noticed and drawn his conclusion before this moment. However, that didn’t mean she was going to desert Grandmillie for a second night. “I have
other
responsibilities.”

He sighed and said in a long-suffering tone, “You stayed here last night, so clearly those responsibilities can be taken care of by someone else.”

“In an emergency,” she said, remembering how worried she’d been. “Dr. Cavill felt my presence was necessary for your well-being, so I made an exception. However, you are clearly on the road to recovery, and dealing with your e-mails does not constitute an emergency.”

“We’ll discuss it later,” he said, sweeping his hand over the intercom control panel at his bedside before dropping his arm in a way that betrayed his exhaustion. “Ed will be here in a minute.”

“I’m not staying.” She started toward the door to waylay Ed in the hallway.

“You underestimate my powers of persuasion,” Trainor said.

Chloe closed the bedroom door behind her with a slight bang, just to show Trainor she wasn’t intimidated. Ed was coming toward her at a fast clip. “Is everything all right, Ms. Russell?” he asked. He spoke calmly, but she could see anxiety in the tight way he held his shoulders.

“It’s fine. Mr. Trainor just wants to give you all sorts of orders about what I’m supposed to do, but I wanted to mention a couple of things to you out of his hearing.”

The butler looked both relieved and guarded. He nodded for her to continue.

“He’s still very weak. He tried to walk across the room and nearly collapsed. Even
he
admitted that he wasn’t ready to get out of bed. And now he’s decided he needs to sleep for a couple of hours.” She paused. “I get the feeling he doesn’t nap often.”

Ed’s watchfulness ratcheted down a few notches. “That would be accurate.”

Chloe debated a moment but decided a butler was probably privy to his employer’s social calendar. “He received an e-mail wedding invitation too. His father’s getting married next weekend.”

She got a kick out of Ed’s expression of shock. He muttered something under his breath that she thought was a strong expletive. To her he said, “Thank you for letting me know about the invitation.”

Since it was apparent that Ed worried about his boss, Chloe added, “Mr. Trainor was a little perturbed by it.”

“It’s somewhat unexpected,” Ed said in an obvious understatement.

“I didn’t tell you any of this,” Chloe said, fixing him with what she hoped was both a commanding and a pleading look.

His control cracked as he gave her a near smile. “I understand. Would you mind waiting in the guest room while I speak with Mr. Trainor?”

“I wouldn’t mind at all,” Chloe said. “I’ll be out on the terrace.”

She felt the need for some fresh air after spending the morning cooped up with a sick man. She hoped her flu shot and her immune system were proof against all the germs floating around her boss. Sliding open the door, she stepped out onto the tile expanse and lifted her face to the Indian-summer sun. The warmth and light soaked into her skin like one of the luxurious creams in the guest bathroom. “Except this luxury is free,” she murmured.

After basking for a couple of minutes, she pulled her cell phone from her skirt pocket, dialing Judith’s direct number at Flexitemps. Her employer picked up and said, “Chloe, are you still working at Trainor’s apartment?”

Chloe had called Judith from the car in New Jersey to give her a brief explanation of the change in circumstances. “Yes, and I’m out of my depth here. I have two hours free. Can I come to your office?”

The sound of a mouse clicking came through the phone. “Okay, I’ve cleared my schedule for a half hour starting in twenty minutes. Is that enough time?”

Judith’s business was very successful, due mostly to her hands-on approach to customer service, so Chloe appreciated the significance of a cleared half hour. “I’ll make it work.”

Disconnecting, Chloe walked to the wall of the terrace and gazed at the Hudson River, the same view Trainor’s bedroom had. A sleek sailboat glided upriver, the white of its sails almost blinding in the brilliant autumn light.

“May I offer you lunch on the terrace? We won’t have many more days like this one.”

Chloe jumped and turned as Ed’s voice came from behind her. The butler stood a few feet away from her—his somber, tailored clothing looking out of place against the vivid fall flowers in the planters.

“I’m sorry if I startled you,” he said. “Even this high up, the street noise can cover the sound of footsteps.”

“I was lost in my own world,” Chloe admitted. “Lunch out here would be amazing, but I need to go see my boss at Flexitemps. Could you call a car for me?”

“Mr. Trainor has put his car and driver at your disposal.”

Chloe nearly rolled her eyes. Trainor just had to keep his hands on the reins.

Even without the eye roll, her exasperation must have shown on her face, because Ed said, “Mr. Trainor understands how unusual it is to ask you to work in his home, so he wishes to lessen the imposition in any way he can.”

Chloe stifled a snort. Mr. Trainor wanted to make sure she was at his beck and call. “I appreciate his thoughtfulness,” she said, an edge of sarcasm in her voice.

“I’ll have Oskar, the driver, take you down in the elevator to the garage,” Ed said.

Chloe shifted in the chrome-and-white-leather chair in front of Judith’s glass-topped desk as she finished describing her experience with Trainor’s lifestyle. “So the chauffeur—because he’s wearing a black suit and a hat so that makes him a chauffeur, not a driver—ushers me into this elevator all trimmed in fancy wood and we go down into a garage that only Trainor’s elevator has access to. It’s a separate area from the rest of the parking under the building with a gate that you have to swipe a card to open. It’s unbelievable. Then Oskar asks me which car I would like to use.”

Chloe twisted the cap off the bottle of water Judith had handed her and took a gulp. Her friend lounged in her executive chair behind the desk, her red hair pulled back into a businesslike ponytail, her signature pantsuit a dark-green wool over a tailored white blouse. Chloe didn’t think she’d ever seen Judith in anything other than trousers.

“Isn’t it interesting to see how the other half lives?” Judith asked.

“Trainor is not the other half. He must be in the top one-thousandth of one percent,” Chloe said. “There were six cars to choose from, including a Maserati and a Rolls-Royce.”

“Which one did you choose?”

Chloe grinned. “The Rolls-Royce.”

“So you’ve ridden in a helicopter, been driven by a chauffeur in a Rolls, and worked in an apartment bigger than most people’s houses,” Judith said. “What’s the problem?”

Chloe fiddled with the bottle cap. “It’s weird to work in his home.” She shook her head at herself. “No, it’s weird working in his bedroom. I mean, the man is lying in bed wearing pajamas while I’m reading him his e-mails.” The picture of Trainor’s shoulder muscles under his gray shirt flashed through her mind.

Judith sat forward. “Has he done anything that qualifies as sexual harassment?”

“No, no, nothing like that!” Chloe was appalled that Judith would think that’s what she meant about Trainor. For all her mixed feelings about his position and power, Chloe didn’t want to imply that he was sleazy. “I don’t think he even likes me much. I’m just convenient.”

Judith looked skeptical but let it pass. “So what is it that makes you uncomfortable?”

Chloe frowned, trying to put her finger on why she struggled with the situation. She should have been grateful to take the extra pay as long as it lasted. Instead, she found herself fighting against the sense that she was sliding down a dangerously slippery slope with every additional hour she spent with Trainor. “It’s supposed to be a professional relationship, but I’ve also sort of gotten involved with his physical well-being. When he was feverish, I could calm him. It was flattering.”

“Sweetie, you’re not falling for Nathan Trainor, are you? Not that anyone could blame you, but he’s out of your league.”

Chloe gave a rueful shrug while she mentally shook herself. “There’s something about seeing a man barefoot that makes you look past the suit and the giant desk. He becomes human.” And capable of feeling pain. She remembered his face after he received his father’s wedding invitation. There had been shock and anger, but there had also been hurt. She felt a flutter of concern. This was treacherous territory she was venturing into. First she jumped to Trainor’s defense, and now she was feeling sorry for him.

Judith stared at the ceiling for a moment before she brought her gaze back to Chloe, saying, “Here’s some advice. Whenever you start to think he’s just another man, remember the size of his penthouse and the fact that he has a doctor on call twenty-four/seven and the choice of six cars with a driver. The very rich are different because they are insulated from all the normal wear and tear of life. People like Nathan Trainor don’t consider other people’s needs because their own are met without any effort on their part. He’ll just assume yours are too, so he’ll run right over you without a qualm.”

Chloe thought about Trainor saying he’d find a way to persuade her to stay overnight, proving that Judith was right. Chloe wanted to be adamant in her refusal, yet she found herself longing to share the strange intimacy with him a little longer. Once he and his regular executive assistant recovered, her presence wouldn’t be necessary and she’d never see him again. The thought left her with a hollow feeling. Not good. She needed to shore up her resistance to this unhealthy attraction.

“I’d offer to send someone else in your place, but it’s been made clear that you are the only person Trainor wants,” Judith said. “And you would not believe what you’re making an hour now.” Judith quoted a number that made Chloe’s eyes go wide. “You’re getting triple the usual rate, and I expected only double, so I’m giving you all the extra.”

“That’s not right,” Chloe said. “You should take your percentage from the total.”

“Sweetie, I know you need to sock away money for when Grandmillie needs a companion, and you were the one who negotiated the increase.”

Chloe sighed. “I wasn’t trying to get more money, although I really appreciate what you’re doing. I was trying to make Trainor send me home because I was too expensive and demanding.”

“He likes expensive, demanding women. He dates models and actresses.”

“Really?” Chloe was disappointed in her temporary boss. “I’m pretty sure the woman he just dumped wasn’t either of those things.”