Barefoot Kisses: A Billionaire Love Story (8 page)

“You are afraid of success,” Darcie told me that morning on our way up. I loved getting to ride the elevator with her the whole sixteen floors now. “You have got to believe in yourself. Kathryn believes in you, I believe in you, and that piece of paper from cute Book Guy you keep in your pocket believes in you.”

“I hate you sometimes,” I informed her. I had no idea how she knew about the paper.

“Yeah, well.” She shrugged. “Just wait until I sign you up for that ball kicking class. Then you'll love me again.”

With that I rolled my eyes and started my third official morning as Kathryn's paralegal. I walked in to her office and she looked up from her writing and frowned. I smoothed my hands down my slacks, suddenly feeling under-dressed and unworthy in her gaze. I knew it had been too good to last.

“We need to get you some new clothes. I can't have you dressing like that in front of clients.” That was not what I had been expecting. She picked up her phone and hit a button. I looked down at my clothes. I had on simple black dress pants and a cute polka-dot blouse. I thought it was a very work appropriate outfit.

“I have suits I can wear,” I offered. I was determined to make this work. I wanted to keep this job.

“Are they Prada?” Kathryn raised her eyebrows as she waited for the other line to pick up.

“No. JC Penny,” I admitted. There was no way I could afford anything close to Prada level suits on my salary. Maybe one or two with my new salary, but definitely not any with the old one.

“I need you to look like you work for me. My clients pay a lot of money to have the best, so I need you to look like the best. Consider it another perk of the job,” she explained.

I looked down at the spot where her desk met
the
floor. I had no way to pay for an expensive suit.

“It goes on the company credit card,” Kathryn informed me. “Don't you worry about the money. It counts as a business expense.”

I shifted my weight as she focused her attention to the phone conversation. I liked my clothes, but I understood Kathryn's point. It was time to dress to impress. With clients worth billions of dollars, she needed me to look like I belonged among them.

“Claire, schedule a fitting with Raoul this evening for Lena...” she ordered. The person on the other line responded and she frowned before putting her hand over the mouthpiece. “What are you doing right now?”

“Um, whatever you tell me to.” I shrugged nervously. “I just finished the last item on the list you gave me”

Kathryn's eyebrows raised in approval. “Excellent. Remind me to give you more tomorrow.” She focused back on her phone. “Yes, now will work.”

The phone call ended with a click. My palms were sweaty and I was glad I had double checked all my work. If I hadn't, I would have really been freaking out that I had missed something. As it was, I was just partially freaking out. I wanted to be good at this.

Kathryn scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to me. “You are to go to this address and do whatever Raoul says to do. He's going to make you look like the McDonald, Smith and Ward employee that you are. Understand?”

I nodded. “Do I need to bring anything?” I was really glad I had chosen to wear my newer underwear this morning.

“Just your smile and my name,” Kathryn replied. “Go have fun.”

***

T
he address was one of the Magnificent Mile's fashion boutique. As the company cab pulled up, I nearly called Kathryn to confirm I had the right place. It was the kind of shop that looked so expensive window-shoppers had to pay a fee.

A soft bell chimed on the door as I stepped inside. White walls with artsy black and white photographs hung at strategic intervals throughout the store, but there was a surprising lack of clothing. I picked up a sequined covered dress on a nearby hanger to see a price tag that would pay my rent several times. I nearly dropped the hanger before realizing that would be even worse.

“You must be Kathryn's,” a man said, emerging from a back room. He wore simple black pants and a black shirt that hugged is thin frame with a bright blue scarf around his neck.

“That's me,” I replied with a laugh. The man grinned, his teeth white against his dark skin. He came closer and I realized he had the most amazing blue eyes. “I don't really know what I'm doing here.”

“Well, the clothes out here aren't really for you.” He motioned to the sequined dress. “I doubt Kathryn would appreciate that in her office.”

I giggled at the image of me sparkling while preparing her legal documents. “No, probably not.”

He held out a friendly hand. “I'm Raoul.”

“Lena,” I replied, taking his hand. His fingers were calloused and his grip strong.

“Come with me, Lena.” He grinned. “I'm going to make you look like a star.”

***

T
hree hours later, I had tried on more clothing than I had ever even owned in my entire life. I was exhausted. I had no idea how just putting on and taking off clothes could take so much energy. Suddenly, I could see how the socialites of the world stayed so skinny. All they did was change their clothes.

The door leading to freedom opened and Kathryn walked in. “How's it going, Raoul?”

“Fantastic. I think we have a good base,” he answered, handing her his bill.

“A good base?” I repeated quietly, looking at the pile of clothes I had tried on. It was a mountain, yet all I had to show for my work was three suits, two dresses, some dress shirts, four pairs of shoes and the appointment card for another fitting. Apparently, despite trying on fourteen sets of suits that I thought looked great, Raoul felt I needed to get some custom made. I was due to come back for round two in a couple of days.

Kathryn signed the bill for my clothing without even looking at it. I had a feeling I didn't want to know how much it was for. If I did, I wouldn't dare breathe in any of it for fear of ripping a ten thousand dollar stitch.

“Lena,” Kathryn asked suddenly. “Do you have a swimsuit?”

“Uh- swimsuit?” I imagined myself walking through the halls of the office in a skimpy bikini. I couldn't imagine why I would need a swimsuit for this job. I was fairly sure that Kathryn was in to men.

“I have some in stock,” Raoul said helpfully. “It's off season, but everything is at this time of year.”

“Go ahead and bring it out,” Kathryn told him. “Can't have her wearing a three-thousand dollar suit to the meetings and a ten dollar bathing suit to the beach.”

“Bathing suit?” I asked once Raoul disappeared into his storage room. Kathryn sat down on the couch next to me. “Beach?”

“You are accompanying me to the Travel, Inc. legal meeting,” she informed me matter-of-factly.

“What's that and why does it require a swim suit?” I was still confused, but at least it wasn't for the office.

She reached for her briefcase and began looking for something. “Our firm heads all legal council for Travel, Inc. Every year, Travel, Inc. and MSW meet to discuss the future.”

“In swimsuits?” I had the sudden image of an entire board room full of high powered business executives in swimsuits. There was a towel on the center of the table and everyone was drinking fruity drinks.

Kathryn must have imagined something similar because she laughed. “The meeting is held at a resort on Key Island.” When I showed no recognition of the name, she added, “in the Caribbean.”

“Oh.” I raised my eyebrows as understanding hit me. “We're going to the Caribbean?”

“I told you this job had travel,” Kathryn said, still rooting around in her briefcase for something. “I believe my exact words were, 'It will be long hours, there will be travel, and I expect perfection.'”

“I was thinking travel like to Toledo. The Caribbean sounds great,” I said, trying to sound calm and mostly succeeding. This job just kept getting better and better. “You said it was a legal meeting for Travel, Inc.?”

“Yes,” she responded. She handed me the file she had been searching for. If I was going to be her personal paralegal, I was going to have to help her manage her files better. “We're the lead firm and will head the meetings.”

I flipped through the folder. “I'm afraid I don't know much about Travel, Inc. other than their commercials,” I admitted. The file in front of me said they were the world's largest travel website and had recently added a “concierge travel” service that was destroying the competition by leaps and bounds. “Do they not have their own legal department? I would think a billion dollar company would have their own lawyers.”

“They do. In addition to their in-house lawyers, they contract out to 15 firms to handle all their legal work,” Kathryn explained. “This meeting is where the partners of these firms and the key players for Travel, Inc. meet to make sure we're all on the same page.”

“In the Caribbean.” I grinned. Screw Texas, I was going to a tropical island instead!

“At a beautiful, all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean,” Kathryn amended. She grinned.

“What do you need me to do?” I was already excited. We'd probably be stuck in meetings all day and barely get to see the beach, but I didn't care. I was going to the Caribbean.

“Make me look good. Everything's already prepared, but I need you to make sure I make it to meetings on time, have my presentations up and running, and to help wrangle some of the other firms.” She shrugged and leaned back in her chair. “It should actually be a pretty low-key event. Almost vacation-like, really.”

“I can do that. When do we leave?” I hadn't taken a vacation in a very long time. I hadn't seen the ocean since I was a kid and we went to Florida for a family trip in high school. I remembered I really liked the water, even though it had been nearly brown with sand.

“Two weeks. We'll be there for six days.” She looked at me as if I might complain. My roommate would be able to handle my one little sad plant for six days.

“Consider me already packed,” I told her with a grin.

“Just about.” Kathryn nodded to the changing room. Right then Raoul returned with a clothing rack full of swimsuits ranging from skimpy bikinis to full pieces my grandmother would be comfortable in.

I took a deep breath and prepared for another round of clothing with Raoul. I wasn't terribly excited about trying on swimsuits, in fact it was something I usually dreaded, but I knew that at the end of it, I would be going to the Caribbean.

I would happily try on swimsuits for that.

I
stared out the glass doors of my room in awe. Outside the ocean sparkled in blue jewel tones against pristine white sand, rolling and dancing together like lovers. Even through the glass,
I
could hear the song of the sea, calling me like a siren's song. The bright blue sky stretched out into infinity. It was possibly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.

I looked down at the schedule in my hand. I was going to get some good time in with that perfect turquoise water. The schedule looked more like a vacation than a conference. There was barely a meeting a day and never for more than a couple of hours. Most of the items on the schedule were for fun events like wine tastings and dancing. Alexa and Calvin could suck it in Texas while I vacationed with Kathryn in the Caribbean. I sent Alexa a silent thank you for taking my spot. She was going on thankless coffee runs while I sunbathed.

It wasn't just the vacation that was making me happy. It was my job. In just two weeks, I had done more with Kathryn than I had ever done with Calvin. Kathryn trusted me and appreciated my ideas and experience. Even though I wasn't a lawyer, she listened to me like I was. For the first time in months, I was appreciated and being used to my full potential.

The only thing that could have made the last two weeks better was if Aiden had come back. I kept my eyes open for him, but I hadn't seen him in the office since that night. When I'd asked around, no one knew who Aiden the Assistant belonged to or where I could find him. If I hadn't kept the note from dinner, I would have thought I had dreamed him up.

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. It came from the adjoining door to Kathryn’s suite. If I thought my room was luxurious with the ocean view and king sized bed, Kathryn's made it clear that my room was meant for the hired help. She had a huge living room and a giant bedroom that dwarfed even my apartment at home. I had only heard of luxury like this.

“Lena, I'm going to go meet some of the other lawyers for drinks,” she informed me. She was wearing a low cut sundress that showed off just how fit she had stayed through the years. Her hair was down and she almost looked relaxed. It was a far departure from the perfect lawyer I had worked with for the past two weeks, but I liked it. “The evening is all yours. I'll see you tomorrow for the first official meeting.”

“I'll make sure everything is ready, Ms. McDonald. Have a wonderful evening.” I grinned at her.

“We're not in front of clients here. We'll be with colleagues pretty much this whole trip, so you can just call me Kathryn. Especially in private,” Kathryn told me with a warm smile. “This is the closest I get to a vacation, so I won't have you ruining it by making me feel like I'm working.”

“Okay, Ms... Kathryn.” It felt strange to call her that, but I liked it. It felt like we were friends. “I'll make sure you're out of bed by noon tomorrow for the meeting.”

Kathryn grinned. She had the enthusiasm of a college freshman going to her first frat party wrapped around her like clothing. I had a feeling it might be harder than I was expecting to get her up in time. “I knew it was a good idea to bring you.”

Kathryn giggled and hurried out the door. I went back to my own room and looked out the window again. The ocean was calling me. I was going swimming.

***

T
he water was even better than the pictures made it out to be. It was calm and clear, like looking into an aquarium. I stepped timidly out into the water and was presently surprised to find it warm. It was like bathwater. The water wasn't cold like Lake Michigan or sandy like the beach in Florida. It was exactly what I imagined a beach looked like
in heaven.