Heidi Rice - Out of Hours...His Feisty Assistant - The Tycoon's Very Personal Assistant / Caught on Camera with the CEO / Her Not-So-Secret Diary

His brows drew together in a forbidding line.

‘We talked about it, yesterday in your office, remember?’ Kate prompted. ‘You said you were going to ring her about it.’

‘Yeah, but I didn’t call her.’

‘I know you didn’t,’ Kate said, shifting uncomfortably against the hard marble.

She’d felt pretty foolish the day before when she’d mentioned his name to the housekeeping manager. He owned the hotel, for goodness’ sake, of course he didn’t concern himself with trifles. Still, she’d been oddly hurt when Mrs Oakley had told her she hadn’t been contacted by Mr Boudreaux, especially after getting his dinner invitation.

‘It’s all right,’ she said with a brightness she didn’t quite feel. ‘I sorted it out myself. Turns out two of the maids quit last week so Mrs Oakley was more than happy when I—’

‘You’re not working here.’ He interrupted her.

‘I..? Excuse me?’ Had she heard him correctly? She couldn’t have.

‘Kate…’ his voice softened a little ‘…I’ve got a strict rule against sleeping with women who work for me.’

‘Oh.’ The flush working its way up her neck made her feel foolish and more than a little hurt. She hadn’t realised how much she’d been looking forward to continuing their fling. She blinked, determined not to let her sadness at the dismissal show. Of course he’d only been looking for a one-night deal. So had she. When had she started thinking it could be anything else?

‘I understand,’ she said, concentrating on a space above his shoulder. She noticed the clock on the wall behind him and saw her get-out clause. She needed to leave before she embarrassed herself any further. ‘Well, it’s been fun, Zack,’ she said, putting her mug down on the counter. ‘But I really should be going. Mrs Oakley will be waiting.’ She gave him what she hoped was an unconcerned smile. ‘I don’t want to be late my first day on the job.’

She went to walk past him, but his fingers closed over her arm, stopping her dead.

‘You’re not listening to me, Kate.You’re not working here.’

She gawped at him. ‘Yes, I am,’ she said carefully. What was he on about?

‘No, you’re not,’ he said, the definite edge to his voice starting to worry her. ‘You don’t have to now.’

‘Of course, I do. I need the money.’

His jaw went rigid. ‘I gave you five hundred dollars. If that’s not enough, say so.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ She crossed her arms over her chest, trying to hold back her own temper. ‘I don’t want you to give me any more money. The more I take, the more I’ll have to pay back.’ Why was he being deliberately dense? ‘I left four of the hundreds you gave me in the living room, by the way. Mrs Oakley was nice enough to say she’d sort out a proper advance in a couple of days. When I—’

‘What are you talking about?’

She stiffened. Why was he so irritated?

He twisted away, shoving his fingers through his hair and combing it into unruly furrows. Frustration snapped in the air around him before he gave a long-suffering sigh and turned back. ‘You say you need money.’ He said the words slowly, surely, as if he were talking to a dim-witted child. ‘I gave you money. Why are you giving it back to me?’

‘Because it’s not my money,’ she shot back, annoyed at having to state the obvious. ‘It’s yours.’

‘So what? It’s only five hundred bucks. I don’t want it back.’

‘But I thought that was the advance we’d talked about.’

‘What advance?’ he said, holding his palms up in exasperation before slapping them down on the sideboard.

Realisation suddenly dawned on Kate. With it came the grinding feeling of helplessness, of inadequacy, she’d fought throughout her childhood.

‘Wait a minute,’ she said, carefully. ‘You mean you gave me five hundred dollars. Why would you do that?’

She’d thought the money was an advance, but if it wasn’t…? The events of the previous night came reeling back to her. Without the glow of sexual excitement, the romance of the moment, what she’d done took on a whole different hue.

She pressed her thighs together, felt the lingering tenderness and was suddenly ashamed of all the times he’d been buried deep inside her.

What had he been thinking when she’d flirted with him, when she’d thrown herself at him, when she’d come apart in his arms? She covered her mouth, scared she might throw up.

‘I’ve got to go,’ she blurted out, desperate to get away.

Zack couldn’t believe his eyes as the colour drained out of her face and she turned and ran out of the room. ‘What the…?’

It took him a minute, but he caught up with her in the hallway, snagged her arm. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

She shot him a disdainful look, but he could feel her shaking. Something had really upset her, but what?

‘I thought I told you yesterday,’ she said, the tears hovering on her lids. ‘I’m not a prostitute.’

‘What? Who said you were a prostitute?’

‘You don’t give someone five hundred dollars for nothing.’

So that was it. They were back to the money again. Damn, the woman had more issues than a daytime chat show. ‘You were in a fix. I helped you out. It’s not that big a deal.’

‘It is to me.’ He could see by the stubborn tilt of her chin she wasn’t kidding.

She tried to wrestle her arm free. He held firm. No way was she skipping out on him until they got this settled.

‘Will you let go of my arm?’

He softened his grip, but kept her in place. ‘Not until you tell me what the problem is.’

‘It’s simple. I don’t accept money from men I don’t know.’

‘First off,’ he said, pulling her closer, ‘you do know me. After what we did last night you know me pretty damn well.’ He felt a stab of satisfaction when she blushed a vivid red. ‘Second off, the five hundred wasn’t payment for sexual favours.’ Now he thought about it, he was pretty damned insulted himself. ‘I’ve never paid for sex and I never will.’

The blush intensified, but her arm relaxed. ‘Okay.’ Her breath gushed out and the rigid line of her shoulders softened. ‘I’m sorry I accused you of that. It’s just…It looked…I don’t know—it looked funny.’

‘It was a gift between friends.’

She nodded. ‘All right, but I still can’t accept it.’

Now she was just being stubborn. ‘Why not?’

‘Because I can’t,’ she said, her voice rising to match his.

Her lips puckered up into the defiant pout he’d admired the day before. He wasn’t admiring it so much any more.

‘Look, calm down, okay?’ He ran his palm down her bare arm, struggling to soothe while his own emotions were in turmoil. He could see the hot flash of temper in her eyes, but beneath it was something else that looked suspiciously like hurt. It bothered him he might have caused it.

He tried to figure out where he’d gone wrong. How things had got messed up so fast.

Everything had been great when he’d woken up, his body still humming from one incredible night of mind-blowing sex. He’d spent the next ten minutes lying in bed, the hazy dawn sunlight streaming over him while he’d breathed in the lingering scent of Kate’s perfume overlaid with the smell of freshly percolating coffee and enjoyed some inventive fantasies about what they could do for the rest of the day.

When he’d found Kate in the kitchen, clutching Joey’s Pop Tarts, the soft blonde hair he now knew was natural still damp from her shower and that sexy dress stretched across her lush rear end, he’d figured it wouldn’t take him long to start making his fantasies reality. The next few days had spread out before him like a smorgasbord of sexual pleasures and he’d had every intention of digging in.