Chapter Nine
“Paul,” Kinsley spluttered. She blinked several times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. But it was her ex. She would never forget those dark eyes, that handsome square face. The man she’d been ready to pledge her life to only for him to tell her she’d become boring and predictable.
The sad part was there might have been a shred of truth to his claims.
Because she hadn’t been living her life. She’d been living his.
Elena glanced back and forth between them. “Uh, I’ll leave you two alone. I need to get back to the front desk anyway.”
Paul smiled charmingly as he stepped aside, allowing Elena to pass. Then he looked over at Kinsley and blew out a breath. “Man, it’s so good to see you.”
“I only moved back to New Jersey a little over a month ago. You could have seen me before then and saved yourself the six-hour drive.”
“Baby, don’t be like that.” He began to pace around her office, inspecting the old photos of her family she had hanging on the walls. He stopped and looked over at her with a thoughtful expression. “I knew you’d come back here. You’re very predictable, but that’s what I’ve always loved about you.”
She folded her arms. “I thought that’s why you broke up with me. My predictability. You found that boring. Remember?”
He chuckled as if she’d just told the best joke ever and walked over to her desk with his arms stretched out for a hug. But she remained standing still.
She hated to admit it, but he looked darn good, all trim and confident. He might have even lost a few pounds. His light-brown hair was combed in a slicked-back style, and she caught a bit of graying at his temples, which always made a man appear distinguished to her, but especially on a man in his early thirties.
Struggling to keep her tone light and not annoyed like she was feeling, she asked, “Why are you here, Paul?”
He dropped his arms. “I won’t mince words with you, Kinsley. I want you back.”
She blinked, not entirely sure how that phrase made her feel, but she didn’t experience the usual flutter she would have had last year, and for that she was grateful. “It’s been almost nine months. You’re just realizing this now?”
“What can I say?” he said, flashing her a remorseful grin. “I’m a fool.”
She couldn’t have agreed more, but would have added a few more F-words than just fool.
When she remained silent, he arched an eyebrow. “Don’t you have anything to say?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Paul, but you have to understand this is quite a shock to me. You didn’t even try to call me before showing up here.”
“I know,” he said, rounding her desk to take her hand. “But as soon as I could get some time off work, I had to see you. I’ve missed you. I miss working with you, too. We made a good team.”
“We were never a team. That’s where most of our troubles began.”
Paul blinked, taken aback by her honest statement. “That’s so not true. You were my best event planner, which is why you belong back there with me, not here in this dilapidated hotel, squandering your talent.”
She snorted. “Talent? You were never happy with what I was doing at the casino, and if you were, you took my ideas to corporate and claimed them as your own,” she added, disengaging her hand from his.
“You’re being dramatic, babe. What difference did it make who got the credit? We were a couple. If I benefited, you benefited.”
Except that was never true. She just continued to be belittled and shoved aside, while he became the golden boy of Royal Rouge Casino. She stared at him in disbelief. He obviously didn’t have any remorse over his actions and still found a way to trivialize her current job as well as her family’s hotel.
Why couldn’t she have seen all this before?
She took a deep breath. “Paul, I have a life here now. I’m settled. This hotel used to belong to my family. I’m bringing it back to where it was. It’s important to me.”
“Since when? I thought I was important to you. I thought your job back in Connecticut was important, and our future together.”
“Yes, they were.”
“And now?”
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m staying here.”
Paul’s face reddened as if he was restraining himself from lashing out. “So that’s it? You’re determined to waste your time here instead of coming back to your life with me? Kinsley, you’re in way over your head. You’ll never turn this thing into a profit.”
Damon had said something similar, but Paul’s words held a much sharper edge. “Maybe. But I have to try. I owe it to my parents to try.”
He rubbed a hand over his face and laughed mirthlessly. “I thought I knew you, but this I did not predict. I figured you’d jump at the chance to come back to your old job. Come back to me.”
That would have been true not so long ago, she realized. But now, with the help of Wade and her friends, she had the confidence she needed to stand on her own two feet.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
“Sorry? You’re sorry? That’s all you have to say? You have no idea what it’s been like with corporate breathing down my neck. We can’t even get Red Seven to play at the casino this year.” He stared at her like that last statement explained everything. “Hey, how did you get them to perform last year anyway? Did you take your contacts with you when you left?”
“Um, no, I didn’t. I— Wait.” She blinked. “Are you here for me or my list of contacts?”
Paul shook himself as if he’d just realized how his words sounded. “You, of course. I’m here for you. But, naturally, both would be great.” He grinned and gave her an apologetic shrug. “So, tell me, how did you manage it?”
She held in a groan and refrained from smacking her forehead. The compliments. The I-want-you-backs. Oh, brother. She was wrong before in thinking Paul was the fool. It was clear to her now that she was the bigger one by far.
“You need to leave,” she told him flatly.
Paul’s expression turned startled. “What? If you won’t come back to me, the least you can do is help me.”
The least she could do? She had to cancel the reception banquet and the band because he’d changed his mind about marrying her. She’d lost all those deposits. Money she could have used to fix up the hotel. Not to mention the embarrassment and heartache.
Tamping down her temper, she stepped away from him. “I have work to do. You really do need to leave.”
“Work?” he scoffed. “This is not work. It’s a charity case, and you’ll realize that when you fall flat on your face and need another job.”
Tears stung her eyes, but she held them in check. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Good luck with everything, Paul.” She skirted around him, leaving her own office, since he wasn’t making any moves to leave it himself.
“Wait, Kins.” He reached out and grabbed her arm, held it tight. Uncomfortably tight. “I’m not done.”
“Well, I am. Now, please, let go,” she said, trying to twist out of his grasp.
“Kinsley, come on. I—”
“Let her go,” Damon growled.
Kinsley whipped her head in Damon’s direction and blinked. His blue eyes were deadly and trained on Paul like a laser sight. He looked dark, rumpled, and foreboding. A state she’d never seen him in before. He was normally so unemotional and reserved. But standing in her office doorway, he appeared a smoking volcano about to blow at any second.
He was also usually put together. But not right now. Damon’s hair was slightly wet and disheveled as if he’d just showered, but he hadn’t bothered to shave. It looked as if he’d just thrown on a shirt and jeans to come downstairs. He hadn’t even put on shoes.
“What are you doing here? I thought you would take the day off.”
Damon’s gaze never left Paul as he answered her. “I feel perfectly fine. I heard struggling.”
“Who are you?” Paul asked in an indignant tone.
“The guy who’s going to rearrange your face if you don’t let her go.”
Paul winced at Damon’s response, and she took advantage of the timing to remove her arm from his grip.
“Kinsley, who is this guy?” Paul demanded.
Her gaze fluttered between the two men. She felt like a deer caught between two lions. Once she found her voice, she answered, “He’s my boss.”
Paul’s gaze narrowed. “Boss? Seems like an unhealthy working environment to me if he’s coming into your office and threatening your fiancé.”
“You’re not my fiancé. You pretty much saw to that nine months ago.”
“But I came here to fix that.”
She shifted away. “Paul, I think it would be best if you just went home. I’m not changing my mind. I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing.”
“Believe me, I am, too,” he spat, as he stormed toward the door.
Damon threw him a smug smile as he stepped aside to let him pass. But before Paul left, he turned toward her one last time. “When you realize your mistake, Kinsley, I won’t be waiting for you. This was your chance and you blew it. Just so we’re clear.”
She nodded, and then with one last scathing look tossed at Damon, Paul walked out of her office and out of her life once and for all.
Kinsley collapsed in her chair, throwing Damon a skeptical glance. “Oh my gosh, did you really just threaten to rearrange his face?”
Damon walked up to her desk and sat down on top of it. “My fever must be coming back,” he told her, a faint smile touching his lips.
She leaned in and laid a hand across his forehead. “Sorry to break this to you, but your temperature is normal.”
“Then…” A new softness edged his voice. “I don’t know why I said that. I honestly don’t know what came over me. I saw him touching you, and I just reacted.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you okay?”
She glanced at her arm. No marks or redness from Paul’s hand. The only real thing she was suffering from was embarrassment. How could she have been in love with that guy? “I’m fine.”
Damon cocked his head slightly, studying her face. “I didn’t ask if your arm was okay. I want to know if you’re okay.”
“Oh.” She blew out a long breath then chuckled. “Well, the answer to that question is a bit more complicated, I’m afraid.”
“Try me.” The words were spoken simply and honestly. And if she’d detected so much as an ounce of mere politeness instead of true interest and concern, she would have declined his offer.
“That was my ex-fiancé, Paul.”
“I gathered as much. Why was he here?”
“He said he wanted me back.”
Damon’s blue eyes turned to ice. “Did he? And was that his idea of winning you back, manhandling you at work?”
“It became rather apparent that he really didn’t want me back.” She looked down at her folded hands, her nails unpolished and cut short in a no-nonsense, sensible fashion. No, Paul wouldn’t want her back for any other reason than to help his career. “The funny thing is I don’t think he ever loved me for me. I was always a stepping-stone to whatever else he was after. And in this particular case, he wanted to know how I was able to contract Red Seven at the casino.”
She shook her head, disgusted she hadn’t seen Paul for what he really was years before.
Damon’s brows drew together. “Red Seven? The pop band?”
She nodded. “Do you want to know the great ‘secret’ that Paul was so desperate to know?” She paused for dramatic effect. “Chocolate.”
“Chocolate?”
“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. All I did was a little research on the lead singer and found he really loves these specialty chocolates from Paris. So after I had called his agent and was turned down, I sent a nice handwritten note along with those chocolates, asking if they would reconsider.” She shrugged. “I lucked out when they did.”
“I would hardly call that luck. You reached out to them on a personal level. That was very smart. Like I said before, I shouldn’t underestimate your talents to get a job done.”
“Thanks. Paul thinks I’m wasting my time here. That I’ll fall flat on my face. And maybe you’re both right, but this hotel,” she said, spreading her arms out, “is important to my family. Especially for my dad. I really feel a revived purpose in my life being here. I haven’t felt a true sense of belonging since my parents passed, but I feel it now. I feel it here. So I’m going to try until you and your company tell me to stop.”
After a few seconds, Damon finally stood, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Okay.”
She paused. “Okay? Okay…what?”
“I’ll increase your budget with my own money. If you think you can turn the hotel around in the timeframe I’ve given you, then it’s yours.”
Her heart rate spiked. “Oh my gosh, really?” Laughter bubbled up inside her. “You’ll increase my budget and let me do some marketing and everything else?”
“Within reason. Come up with a new budget plan, and we can discuss it tomorrow. You can do whatever you want, however—”
Kinsley jumped up and launched herself into his arms. “Thank you,” she breathed into his shoulder. “Thank you for believing in me.”
Damon stilled. Then his arms slowly came around her and he pressed her to his chest. “You’re welcome,” he whispered in her hair.
She made no movement to separate herself from his embrace. She knew it was wrong—highly inappropriate, actually—to be standing in her office, burrowing in her boss’s chest like a chipmunk. Anyone could barge in. But he felt so nice, so warm with that freshly showered, masculine scent all his own. She couldn’t resist staying in his arms a little longer until good sense entered her brain again.
Kinsley dropped her arms and they both slowly drew apart. Damon didn’t look happy. In fact, his jaw was clenched so tight, it looked like it might shatter. She just hoped this little overly affectionate stunt didn’t cost her her job.
“Sorry,” she muttered, her face growing hotter with every passing second. “Sometimes I let my emotions get carried away. I didn’t mean to…jump you. It’s just that I’m so grateful.”
Damon remained silent, his brows furrowed together as if contemplating how to tactfully fire her without hurting her feelings.
“It, uh, won’t happen again,” she assured him. “The hugging part, not the thanking you part.”
“I know what part you were referring to,” he growled.
She swallowed. “Oh, right. Of course. Sorry for the… Sorry.” Somebody tape my mouth closed now.
Damon held up his hands in a time-out sign. “We’re off the clock, right?” he asked.
Dread had her hesitating. Was he really going to fire her? She nodded and slowly met his steel-blue eyes.
Then before she could blink, Damon St. James pulled her back into his arms and kissed her.