Chapter Nine

 

Upside #9: You can do what you want. You also have to do the things you don’t want to do—like provide your own orgasms.

 

Jake joined me in the office around ten minutes after I’d stormed off from him. Unfortunately for him, I was on the phone and returning a call, so he’d have to wait.

Ring, ring.

How could he make the decision to just fire people? He knew nothing about the people who worked here. And they weren’t all bad at their jobs, they were just…not wholly competent in all areas.

Neither was I. I only just managed the people side of my job.

Ring, ring.

Was it normal to just fire people when a new owner came in? The previous ones I’d known hadn’t. All right, so this was the only job I’d ever known, but still. Wasn’t that morally wrong?

These people had families and bills to pay.

He couldn’t fire them because he didn’t know them.

Ring, ring.

I held the phone to my ear with such harshness it almost hurt. Jake paced back and forth in front of the desk, hands in his pockets, head down, eyes on the floor. Was he thinking about the bluntness he’d just used? How unreasonable the idea seemed?

I couldn’t work with this man. I just couldn’t. And it wasn’t even about the boobs thing. It was just…everything.

He was too attractive.

Too strong-willed.

Too-pig-headed and stubborn.

Just like me. And there wasn’t enough room in this hotel for two stubborn idiots.

I sighed as the call rolled to voicemail. I left a quick message with a time frame to call back and hung up. Jake was still pacing. Up and down the office like he was on autopilot.

I leaned back in my chair and stared at him. “You’re just going to fire people without bothering to get to know them? You haven’t even been here a week. The only person you’ve spoken to more than twice is me.”

He stopped, sighed, and looked at me. “Are you going to listen to me?”

“Listen to what? How you’re going to fire half my staff?” I stood up and put my hands on my hips.

“You have a real problem with authority, don’t you?”

“Actually, no. I get on with authority just fine. Unless the authority is being an asshole.”

Jake walked toward me and tapped my nose. “Sit down, Melanie, before I fire you for running that pretty little mouth of yours.”

Said mouth dropped open at his bold statement. “My name is Mellie. And if you tap my nose again, you won’t have to fire me, because I’ll kick you on my way out.”

His lips twitched to the side. “Calm down, spitfire. If you’d be quiet for five minutes, you’ll see there’s more to my plan than just randomly pointing at people and firing them. Now, are you going to listen?”

“I—”

“Nope.” He cupped my chin and pressed his thumb against my lips, shutting me up. “That’s not listening.”

“I was going to say I’d listen,” I murmured against his thumb. “But you stopped me.”

He just stared at me for a moment. I hoped he’d remove his thumb, but no. He didn’t. He kept hold of my jaw, his fingers digging into my skin and making it tingle, and talked again.

“You know there’s a big refurb happening. Part of my plans is an entire overhaul of everything, including staffing. And you’re right. I don’t know any of the staff or what they’re doing, but what I do know is that you’re not happy about some of them.”

Well, that wasn’t a lie.

“Do you do staff meetings?”

I didn’t answer. His thumb was still on my mouth.

He raised his eyebrows.

I glanced down.

He got the hint.

I shivered and stepped back. “Mostly managerial meetings. It’s the job of the departmental managers to hold regular meetings with their staff. I know Rosa, who heads cleaning, has meetings twice a week. Lillie does it three times. Off the top of my head.”

“How often do you hold meetings?”

“Once a week. It doesn’t need to be any more often. It’s mostly to go over rosters, orders, special events, things like that.”

Jake nodded. “When’s your next meeting?”

“Uh…” I picked up the planner from the desk. “Tomorrow morning.”

He perched on the corner of my desk, taking the planner from me. “I want to be there. New ownership means new rules. If you’re not happy with the staff, neither am I. As of tomorrow, all staff—including management—will be under review. If in two weeks, they’re deemed not good enough, they’ll be given a one-week notice of unemployment.”

I swallowed. “Even the managers?”

“Who is responsible for training the staff?”

“The departmental managers,” I said gently.

“So, if their staff aren’t up to scratch, they’re not being trained properly. Like when I got here on Monday, and you were doing the bar order. The manager was on vacation—a stupid idea during Mardi Gras—and the staff member who should have been doing it was unable to.” He scratched the back of his neck. “You have enough to do without picking up the slack of another department.”

“How did you know all that?”

“I smiled at Lillie, and she folded like a wet piece of paper.”

I let go of a long breath. “Of course. Look, it wasn’t a big deal. It was busy. And if it weren’t for the fact Quinn’s sister was getting married, she never would have had this week off.”

“It is a big deal.” He folded his arms across his chest. “If you walk into a coffee shop and they get your order wrong, you’d complain. If the same staff member got it wrong every day or needed help to use the machine, you’d think they need to be fired.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but I couldn’t. He was right.

“I’m not unreasonable, Mellie. But I’m also not a horrible person for wanting to have the best possible staff working for me. This building is literally my entire inheritance. I’m living with my cousin, for the love of God. There’s nothing worse than hearing his personal pornstars going at it in his bedroom every night.”

I bit the corner of my bottom lip and fought a smile.

“If I didn’t have to make this hotel a success, I would be living on my own. In peace.”

“It could be worse.”

“He asked me last night if I wanted to join them. It really couldn’t.”

This time, I couldn’t fight it. I let my lips curve into a smile, and I laughed, too. Hell, even Jake couldn’t fight a low laugh of his own.

“Fine. As long as the length of employment and willingness to undergo re-training is considered,” I finally relented. “But I’m not the one delivering the news about the review, you are.”

He held out his hands. “What is this? Good cop, bad cop?”

“Yes,” I said, putting the planner back where it belonged. “Because I’m the nice one they all like, and you’re the mean new guy.”

“Way to endear my employees to me.”

“Judging by your relationship with Lillie so far, all you have to do is smile and the women here practically melt into their panties.”

He quirked a brow. “Do you do that when I smile?”

Yes. “In your dreams, New Guy. I’d rather melt into quicksand.”

He stood, his gray eyes seeing through the lie. “You’re a terrible liar.”

I folded my arms across my chest and met his eyes. “That’s a matter of opinion. Now, do you know how to run a staff meeting, or do you need me to draw up a plan for you?”

He grinned wolfishly. “If I need you to, does that mean you won’t do anything for me?”

I narrowed my eyes. “What do you want me to do?”

“I told my cousin you’re the manager. He wants to know if he can have the number for your friend with “the huge knockers.””

“Peyton? Oh God, no. If I give out her number, she’ll shoot me.” I paused. “She’s picky. If he has a dick pic, that’s a whole other story.”

“A dick pic?”

I opened the top drawer of my desk and pulled out a small business card with “Pick A Dick” on the front, the ‘i’ in ‘dick’ shaped like a penis. “Um, here.”

Slowly, Jake took the card from me. Pinching the corner between his finger and thumb, he scanned the card and read, “Pick A Dick. Dick pics required.”

“The website is on the back.” I twirled my finger in a circle. “She runs a hook-up website. She basically spends her life looking at dicks and matching men to women looking for specific things.”

“What is this? Tinder on crack?”

“That’s pretty much it, yeah.”

“Except she wants the dick pics?”

“They’re required,” I said. “You can’t send an application if you’re a guy and don’t attach a dick pic.”

He peered up from the card and looked at me. “I don’t really know how to respond to this.”

“Yeah, well you should have seen her dad’s face when she announced it. Her grandma offered to sign up. Actually, it might have been her grandma that scared him.”

Jake nodded slowly and tucked the card into his back pocket. “Well, if anyone has a plethora of dick pics on their phone, it’s Sam.”

“There are people who don’t have a plethora of dick pics on their phones?”

“I can honestly say I’ve never once taken a photo of my cock.”

“Why? Can the camera not see it?” The words came out before I could stop them.

Jake stared at me for a moment. Something warred in his eyes—amusement and restraint, as if he wanted to reply but couldn’t.

I swallowed as he stood up and took one step closer to me. He reached out, fingers trailing across my temple as he pushed my blond hair behind my ear.

“No, spitfire,” he said in a low, cool voice. “It wouldn’t fit on the screen.”

I drew in a sharp breath through my nose. His words, his touch, the warmth of his breath skittering across my cheek—it made me shiver. Desire tickled down to the pit of my belly, and Jake bit back a chuckle as he released me.

My eyes dropped momentarily to his crotch before I yanked my attention away and stared at an empty photo frame on the bookshelf behind me.

“I’m going to endear myself to my employees before tomorrow.” He kept his eyes on me the entire time. “I’d really appreciate if you could focus on a review plan for me.”

I put as much annoyance in my glare as I could, but obviously, it was nowhere near enough, because his laugh echoed down the hall, even when he was well out of sight of me.

That bastard.

 

***

 

Peyton: Is he sending a dick pic?

Chloe: Don’t you get enough of those?

Peyton: Nothing I’m interested in.

Me: I’ve had enough talk about dicks today. I was just giving you a heads up.

Peyton: Why? Are you schmoozing your new boss?

Me: I don’t want to talk about my boss.

Peyton: If you don’t want him…

Chloe: Don’t you have a date tonight, Pey?

Peyton: The little d doesn’t always equal the big D, you know that.

Me: I don’t want to be friends with you people anymore.

 

I closed the group chat and put my phone face-down on the desk. I was supposed to have left work roughly two hours ago, but that was before a fight had broken out in one of our hotel rooms and the police showed up.

Don’t cheat on your girlfriend. She will smash your head with a vase, then throw a shoe at the girl you’re mid-fuck with.

In the hotel room you’re sharing with your girlfriend.

Lillie and I decided to keep our opinions about him deserving the vase over the head while we spoke to the police. I’d sent her home, but it’d been so wild for the hour this all happened that I still hadn’t come down from the high.

So, that’s why I was still sitting in my office with my feet up on the desk, and my shoes were strewn across the floor.

I was tired and I was hungry, but I was still buzzing like crazy.

I was also totally icked out because I hated blood, and Mr. Cheater had been covered in it.

Not only had I had to get the room basically steamed by the maids, I’d had to reassure all our customers that it was a one-time thing and give them all vouchers for a free alcoholic drink.

Nobody was bringing me one, though, were they?

I leaned right back in the chair and closed my eyes. The leftover adrenaline was slowly beginning to subside, and the more my head cleared, the more resigned I became to the fact that I’d be ordering dinner in and throwing out the chicken I’d left to defrost.

This wasn’t how I’d planned on spending my Friday night. Never mind I’d planned to spend it braless and sans pants, eating on my sofa in front of trashy reality TV.

Three light knocks sounded at the door.

I opened my eyes and rolled my head to the side. “Yes?”

The hinges squeaked as the door opened. Jake walked through, a big pizza box balanced on his hand. He lifted it up. “I thought you’d be hungry.”

“How did—never mind. The cops called you?”

He closed the door behind him and nodded. “Not long after they arrived here. I’ve already been down to speak to them and confirm pressing charges for the damage done to the hotel room.” He pushed my keyboard and mouse to the side and set the pizza down. “I called here to see if everything was okay and Lillie said you were still here and hadn’t eaten, so I stopped by the pizza place. And the bar on the way back here.” He placed a bottle of white wine on the desk along with two glasses.

I hadn’t even seen him holding that.

“Thank you.” I smiled. “You’re good at feeding me. Maybe sharing an office won’t be so bad after all.”

His lips curved to the side. “Food is the way to your heart. Got it.”

I was too exhausted to respond. I wasn’t even tired—if I went to bed, there’d be no way I could sleep. I was simply exhausted.

“Here. Eat, and then tell me why you’re still here this late although it’s all been dealt with.” He opened the box, and the scent of hot, melted cheese and pepperoni reached me.

My stomach rumbled.

I couldn’t even be embarrassed. I snatched up one of the slices and bit into the end of it. Apparently, I was starving. I hadn’t eaten since we’d had lunch, and that was now eight hours ago. I’d barely drunk anything in the last few, so downing half the glass of wine halfway through my first slice of pizza probably wasn’t my best idea.

Ah, who was I kidding? Wine was always a good idea.

We both ate in silence. Well, I mostly ate. Jake sat on his phone, swiping and tapping across the screen until I was done. Although I’d been starving, three pieces had been the sweet spot.

I wiped my mouth with a napkin then scrunched it up and threw it into the pizza box. A sigh escaped me before I could stop it, and I leaned right back in my chair and threw my forearm over my eyes.

“What happened? The police could only give me a vague timeline because they hadn’t interviewed everyone yet, but I’ve seen the room already.”

I let my arm fall and met his eyes. “I’m not sure how it started. Actually, that’s a lie. It started because some idiot brought a random girl back to the hotel when he was here with his girlfriend.” I pulled my hair out of the ponytail it’d been in all day and ran my fingers through it until it hung loosely over my shoulders. “The general idea and smashed vodka bottle in the room tells me they were pretty drunk.”

“Yeah. I think they took her to the hospital to evaluate her because she passed out at the station.”

I rolled my eyes. “There you go, then. Stupid choices all around. Anyway, the maids were cleaning the room next door ready for an early check-in tomorrow when the girlfriend showed up.”

Jake nodded slowly. “They said it was something like that.”

“Yeah, well the worst part is that it spilled out into the hall where a family was just returning back to their room. Their children saw the whole thing, including her screaming blue murder at him and using cuss words I didn’t know existed.”

“Ah, shit.”

“I’d use a stronger word. I know a few new ones now.” I picked up my wine glass and let it dangle in my hand, cupping the main bit. “As well as having to offer discounts to every hotel resident at the bar by the way of a free drink, I had to give her one night free off her bill by way of apology.”

“Did she accept it?”

“After her husband told her that punching a drunk person would get her arrested.”

“Usually, I’m against violence, but that would have been acceptable.”

I tilted my wine glass in his direction before taking a sip. “So, that’s why I’m still here. I had to inform all the staff what had happened and that any questions should be directed to management. I pulled the meeting forward tomorrow so everyone is prepared, then I had to people and reassure everyone it was over and it was a personal misunderstanding.”

Jake’s eyes searched my face. They flit up and down, from the frown marring my forehead to the way I had my lips downturned. I didn’t need to look in the mirror to know what my expression looked like.

I could feel it.

Like I said, I was exhausted. I wanted my bed, even though I knew I wouldn’t sleep.

“Mellie…Are you all right?” The concern in his voice trickled warmly over my skin.

“I’m fine. Honestly. I’m just tired.” I set the empty wine glass down. “I can’t begin to imagine how much damage that incident may have caused.”

“It’s all fixable.”

“I don’t mean financially. I mean to the hotel. Once the local media get hold of it…”

He leaned forward. “You’re tired. I can handle the meeting tomorrow. You go home and come in later.”

“I am tired, but it’s fine.”

Jake stood and held out one hand. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

“I’m fine. Really. I have some paperwork to do.”

He walked around the desk, hand still out. “Let’s go.”

“I just said—”

He grabbed my hand and yanked me up, then scanned the floor for my shoes. Letting go of my hand, he picked up the shoes and handed them to me. “Put these ball-scaring stilettos on and let’s go. I’m not arguing with you. I’m taking you home, and you can come in late.”

“Fine.” I took the shoes from him. “You can take me home, but I’ll be here at seven.”

“We’ll continue the last part of that in a minute.”

I’m sure we would.

I would also win.

I slipped my feet into the heels, grabbed my things, and allowed him to steer me out of the office. He locked it behind us, then cupped my elbow and guided me through the hotel. I waved a half-hearted goodbye to Lillie on the front desk before leaving with Jake.

He’d parked in the next street over. I couldn’t even take a minute to enjoy the sleek beauty of his Audi. Instead, I allowed him to open the door so I could sit on the cream, leather passenger seat and spear my heels into the mat on the floor in front of me.

Jake closed the door and walked around to the driver side. He said nothing as he got in and started the car. I was thankful for his silence. This week had started hellacious and, apparently, was going to end that way.

From my boss knowing what my boobs looked like to seconds away from a potential murder scene, I was one hundred percent done.

Okay.

The murder scene thing might have been an exaggeration, but not much of one.

Given another five minutes and some privacy, we could have had a haunting on our hands.

Hey, it was New Orleans…

“What are you thinking?” Jake glanced over at me at a red light.

“That we almost had a resident ghost at the hotel.”

“You think?”

“That she could have murdered him or that he’d have left a ghost behind?”

“The ghost thing. Do you believe in them?”

I shifted, turning my head to look at him. “I live in New Orleans. Of course, I believe in ghosts. The entire history of this city is steeped in ghosts and hauntings. Do you know nothing about it here?”

“No.” He pulled away, glancing at me once more. “I told you, I’ve never been here. I don’t know a lot. Especially not about ghosts.”

“You should do a ghost tour. Apparently, they’re great for tourists.”

“You’ve never done one? And I’m not a tourist. I’m a resident. Technically.”

“Why would I do a ghost tour? I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve heard all the tour stories and then some.” I paused, tucking hair away from my face. “And you’re an almost resident. Until you can eat our food without wincing, eat the head of a crawfish, and accept this city is haunted as fuck, you’re an almost resident.”

“All right. I think I can do all that, but I need a ghost tour.”

“I bet Brittany can find you a ghost tour for this weekend.”

He slid his gaze toward me quickly. “I think you should find me a ghost tour.”

“Wait. Why me?”

“You’re the one who brought up ghosts.”

“Still, she’s the one who knows all the best tours. She literally advises on them and books them as part of her job. Get her to do it.”

We pulled onto my street and miraculously, he was able to pull into an empty spot on the side of the road behind my car.

“You brought up the ghosts. You find me a tour.” He undid his seatbelt and killed the engine, then flashed me that disarming grin. “Please.”

I stared at him for a moment before I relented. “Fine. I’ll do my best.”

“You’re coming with me.”

“I’m damn well not.” At that, I got out of the car and dug through my purse to find my keys.

“Aw, come on, Mellie.” Jake followed me, hands out at his sides, his bottom lip jutted right out. “Why not? It’ll be fun. You know this city better than I do. I’m still using GPS, for fuck’s sake.” He pointed at the GPS embedded in the dashboard. “I’ll get lost on my way there.”

“I feel like this is bribery. Why don’t you bring all the staff and make it a morale-boosting trip?” I finally retrieved my keys from the depths of Coach leather and pulled them out with a flourish.

“Because that sounds like my idea of hell,” he admitted. “I don’t like people.”

“You just bought a hotel.” I stared at him.

He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t like people and you manage the hotel.”

“Yes, well, I was a naïve little teenager happy to have independence when I got the job. Working with people has jaded me against them.”

“So, in a ghost tour, the people are all dead.”

“Not true. There are groups of like fifteen people. They’re definitely living.”

He leaned against the stone column that held up the balcony just off my bedroom, folded his arms across his chest, and smirked at me. “You just sound like you don’t want to be alone with me.”

“I’ve spent half my day alone with you. There’s just a chance I don’t like ghosts.”

“How can you live here your whole life and not like ghosts?”

“All right, first,” I held up a finger, “It’s New Orleans, not Amityville.”

He snort-laughed.

“And I happen to believe that a lot of the stories are fabricated.”

“I feel like you’re making excuses.”

“I feel like you’re doing your best to talk me into it.”

Jake paused, then nodded. “Absolutely, I am. Will it kill you to take me on a ghost tour? After all I’ve done for you this week? Donuts, lunch, pizza…”

I clicked my tongue. “That’s low, Jake. That’s real low.”

He grinned, still leaning against the column. “Look, it’s either you take me on a ghost tour, or I’m going to insist you come in late to work tomorrow.”

“That’s even lower!”

“I’m not messing with you, Melanie.”

“I don’t like your attitude, Mr. Creed.”

“Touché,” he muttered, pushing off the column and walking toward me. “Well? Will it kill you?”

I swallowed and glanced away before the intensity of his gaze made me meet his eyes. “Maybe. Some ghosts are violent.”

He smiled, his full lips twitching. He reached up and scratched the side of his jaw, and my fingers itched with the fleeting desire to see if the stubble that darkened his jaw was as spiky and tickly as it looked.

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.” The smile widened, turning wolfish, and the glint in his eye matched that, too.

This sounded like a terrible idea.

“You’re going to keep annoying me about it until I agree, aren’t you?” My grip on my key tightened, and it cut into my palm. “I can see it in your eyes.”

He didn’t say anything. Just stared at me with that stupid grin on his face.

“Fine.” I threw my hand in the air and almost dropped my keys. “Fine. I’ll take you on a damn ghost tour, but I’m going to bitch and complain the entire time. Are you okay with that?”

He hooked his finger under my chin, his smile still unwavering. “I think I’ll be able to cope with it.”