Falling for the Boss (21 page)

“Get some sleep.  We’ll leave on Friday.”

With that, he unlocked her door and gently pushed her inside. 

Victoria
took her key and closed the door, wishing she could appear as unaffected as he
was
.  But she was a shaking mass of nerves and
unsatisfied desire
.  She wished she had the courage to call back to him and ask him to stay the night, but she didn’t.  She crawled into bed and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what she had gotten herself into. 

She had one more day, then she’d be spending five days, alone, in one of the most romantic cities in the world with the man of her dreams.  Unfortunately, he was so out of her league she was bound to be hurt.  She didn’t understand his rules, much less know how to play by them.  He was part of the jet set, literally.  He was tall, wealthy, gorgeous, incredibly intelligent and the best kisser she’d ever experienced.  How was she supposed to keep her wits about her when she was alone with him?

She’d just have to tell him she couldn’t go through with it.  He’d be angry, but she knew he wouldn’t push her towards a relationship. 

She fell asleep with that final thought. 

The next day was complete chaos.  The machinists realized that a major vice president was in the building and all of them wanted to talk with him.  Thomas, Bob and Mike worked on getting a late after
noon meeting organized with the
machinists while
Victoria
hurriedly worked up her final evaluation on the accounting staff while also fielding calls from worried staff members about what the machinists wanted. 

It was past
midnight
when she gave up waiting for the other three.  The meeting was still going on, someone had ordered pizza for over two hundred people. 
Obviously, the machinists were not happy with their current working conditions and didn’t trust Thomas to do anything about it or were convincing him of some much needed changes. 

Victoria
went back to the hotel and fell asleep, but she set her alarm for five in the morning
.  She wanted to
be up and ready before Thomas sent Mike and Bob home, leaving her alone with Thomas. 

It seemed that the whole world was conspiring against her effort at common sense. 

Even electronics.  The previous night, she’d set her alarm for what she’d thought was
five o’clock
in the morning. 
Unfortunately,
it turned out to be
five o’clock
in the afternoon. 
She looked out her window and
the sun was high before she rolled over and realized she’d overslept. 
Victoria
rushed through her shower and was just pulling on a green
suit with a soft yellow silk shirt when someone knocked on her hotel room door. 

“Yes?” she asked, opening the door slightly. 

“I’m here to get your bags, ma’am,” a bellboy said. He had a trolley behind him and smiled patiently.

“Oh.. well, I’m not quite ready.  I’ll be downstairs in a few minutes and I can carry my bags.”

“Will fifteen minutes give you enough time?”
the bellboy asked politely. 

“Oh, yes. Plenty,” she
assured him
.

“I’ll be back then,
ma’am,
” he said
, tipped his hat
and immediately pushed the baggage trolley down the hallway. 

Victoria
groaned and hurriedly packed her bags. She didn’t have time to pull her hair back before the bellboy was again knocking at her door.  “I’m sorry, I’m not quite ready,” she said and pulled open the door wide, thinking she could just give him her bags while she pulled her hair back in the elevator.  

“You look incredible to me,” Thomas said from the doorway. 
His hands were braced
on opposite sides of the door frame and
he
was leaning slightly inside the room. 
He looked refreshed and charming, instantly turning
Victoria
’s stomach to jelly. 

“Thomas!”
  He looked so incredibly handsome but she was terrified of what he might be expecting of her. 

“Were you expecting someone else?”

“Yes, the bellboy.”

“Well, when he came back
to the lobby
empty handed, I decided to come up and see if you were trying to back out of the weekend.”

Victoria
opened her mouth to respond, but the words wouldn’t come. 

Thomas smiled and walked into the room.  “I see my assumptions were correct.”

She sat down on the bed, defeated and unable to look at him. 
“I just don’t think this is the best plan of action.”

He slowly walked towards her.  “It probably isn’t,” he said as he stopped in front of her, an enigmatic smile on his face. 
He took her hands in his and pulled her gently to her feet so she was standing in front of him. 
“How about if I promise nothing will happen that you don’t want?”

Victoria
couldn’t think with him this close. 

He reached out and took a lock of her hair in his hands and his smile deepened.  “I guess that’s part of the problem,” he said, raising one eyebrow in inquiry. 

“What do you mean?”

“What you and I both want is the dangerous issue.”

Victoria
let out the breath she’d been holding.  “I just don’t want to get hurt.”

Thomas took her hands and pulled her close, then put his arms around her waist.  “Let’s just have a nice, relaxing weekend.  No pressure.”

Victoria
leaned her forehead against his chest, her hands resting on his forearms.  “Ok,” she said, her voice muffled by his shirt. 

“What did you say?” he asked, pulling back slightly so he could look at her face. 

She sighed and lifted her head to look him in the eye.  “I said, okay.”

With those words, he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room.  “Great.  The bellboy will be back in a few minutes to get your bags.  Let’s head downstairs and get you
your first
cup of coffee before we have to head to the airport.”

“What about Mike and Bob?”

“
They are already
back in
Washington
,
D.C
.
  They left
late last night right after the meeting with the machinists ended.
  Jim dropped them off and came back to pick us up.  He’ll fly back on Tuesday night to get Mike and Bob and we’ll meet up on Wednesday.”

Victoria
blushed, wondering if Mike and Bob knew why they’d been flown home alone.  “Do they know why we’re not with them?” she asked, stepping into the elevator with Thomas. 

“No.  I di
d
n’t think they would mind though since it gave them an extra day off.  I told them you were finishing up a report I’d asked for, which was the truth at the time since you stayed at the office so late last night.”

“How
did you know I was there late?”
she asked, amazed at the amount of information he could assimilate. 

He glanced back at her as they entered the elevator.  His smile was gentle as he casually said,
“I had a spy come tell me.”

“Ah,” she said.  She should feel like her privacy was invaded.  But his obvious concern only made her feel
cared for
. 
The thought popped into her head that Barry rarely knew what she was doing or where she was, and never asked unless she was late for a date with him. 

Victoria
banished that thought, not wanting to think about what this weekend would do to her relationship with Barry.  She knew she would have to break up with him, no matter the outcome of this weekend.  Even if she and Thomas had a completely platonic few days with each other, she understood she was no longer in love with Barry, if she’d ever been.  She’d latched onto him as a security blanket, not knowing what she was missing until Thomas exploded on her life. 

Paris
was more romantic than she had ever imagined.  They spent the first day just walking down the streets, taking in
a few sections of
the Louvre, the gardens that were perfectly tended, the restaurants and the Arc De Triumphe.  They had pastries and tea in the afternoon, then Thomas pushed her gently into her hotel room to sleep off the jet lag and time zone changes. 

She woke up at
seven o’clock
that night and felt wonderfu
l
.  Thomas took her to dinner at
a lovely restau
rant that looked out over the lights of the city.
Afterwards,
they climbed the
Eiffel
Tower
and held hands on the balcony as the wind whipped around them. 
Usually
Victoria
was afraid of heights but being up on that metal edifice with Thomas, she felt completely safe and was able to enjoy the view. 

The next few days were a romantic blur.  Thomas hired a car and driver to speed them all through the city.  He showed her Notre Dame,
Montmartre
, The Louvre, Musee
D’Orsay
and they shopped for hours,
buying presents for their families
.  Each night, Thomas took her to dinner and they made each other laugh about stories from their past. 

And each night, Thomas left her at her hotel room door with a kiss that made her toes curl wi
th it
s latent passion.  She fell asleep each night smiling but
hopelessly frustrated
.

Sunday night, it was
ten o’clock
when Thomas walked her to her hotel room.  She could hear the phone rin
g
ing through the door and rushed to answer the phone thinking it was Laci. 

“Hello?” 

“Remember me?” a man’s voice asked
angrily
. 
Barry was not a happy camper, she thought. 
She knew he was trying to be funny and jovial but it came across as simply sarcastic.

“Barry!”
Victoria
gasped, the guilt
immediately
coming to the surface. 
She glanced at Thomas and noticed the angry expression
come over
his face. 

Barry
chuckled sardonically and
Victoria
had to grit her teeth to keep her voice calm and not shout at him to
call back another time
. 
“So you do remember me!  It’s good to know since we haven’t spoken in almost two weeks.  I wasn’t sure,”
now
his sarcasm was
blatant
. 

She turned so she was facing the wall instead of Thomas’ angry face. 
“I’m sorry Barry.  Things have been pretty hectic,” she lied. 
Victoria
had been able to phone her parents and her sister on a regular basis but had put off calling Barry because of the guilt she felt over her feelings for Thomas.  “What are you doing calling this late?  Isn’t it around
2 am
in
Washington
?”

His voice gentled slightly. 
“It’s three but I’ve been worried about you.”

She looked up in time to catch Thomas’s furious expression and her hand shook as she pushed her hair out of her face.
“You shouldn’t be.  Everything is fine.  Listen Barry, I need to call you back,” she said
quickly.  She needed to explain the situation to Thomas before he got the wrong idea.