In His World (For His Pleasure, Book 28) (3 page)

“When I offer someone an opportunity like I’ve offered you, they damn well take it,” Brody told her. “And yet here you are, talking to me about two weeks notice and needing references,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Maybe we’re just not a good fit,” she replied, feeling defensive now.

He locked eyes with her. “I think we’ll fit very well,” he said, and her nipples instantly stiffened and her thighs contracted.

She had a vivid image of Brody’s cock sliding inside her, and her accepting it, her entire body responding with lust and orgasmic pleasure as he fucked her.

Fitting well. Fitting perfectly.

Trying to hide her flustered reaction to his comment, Chloe picked up the wine glass in front of her and took a long, long sip.

The taste was exquisite, and she felt it going right to her head.

“Brody, I want to seriously consider your offer,” she said, trying to control the tightness that had come over her throat, the steady beating of her heart.

“You should do more than consider it,” he said.

“How much would I be compensated? What would my salary even be? I have no idea what a personal assistant makes.”

Brody touched his wine glass but didn’t pick it up. His fingers, she noticed, were both strong and also delicate. She could easily imagine them touching her skin, sometimes softly, others roughly, controlling, taking what he wanted effortlessly.

“Now we’re getting to it,” he smiled. “It always comes down to money.”

“It’s a job,” she said. “So I guess it should come down to money.”

“Everything comes down to money,” Brody replied.

As she was listening to him, watching him, she caught movement from the corner of her eye as a couple was seated at a nearby table. It was only when they were seated and the host moved out of Chloe’s line of sight, that she made eye contact with the other woman at the table.

It was her boss.

Amy was staring at her with a frozen expression on her face.

Chloe swallowed and felt herself turn white.

“Everything okay?” Brody asked, his brow wrinkling.

“Ummm…no, not really,” she managed.

This was a nightmare. Chloe had taken the day off from work so that she could go on her interview with Red Jameson, claiming in an email to her boss that she’d not been feeling well. And now here she was in a fancy restaurant, dressed up and obviously not even remotely ill.

Amy continued staring at her.

And Amy was sitting with
her
boss, who oversaw multiple hotels and normally didn’t even remember Chloe’s name. But he would remember her name now, after she’d helped lose their biggest client and now been caught in a bald-faced lie about being too sick to come into work.

“Have a drink of water,” Brody told her. “You look like you saw a ghost.”

“I wish,” she muttered, picking up her glass of water and drinking it. Her hand shook visibly. “Can we leave?” she asked him.

His eyes shifted, and he sat up a little straighter.

“Looks like someone’s coming over to say hello,” he said.

Amy was approaching. She was wearing a very black, severe pantsuit, and her eyes were blazing with barely concealed anger. When he got within a couple of feet of the table, she looked briefly at Brody and then back to Chloe. “You look very well,” Amy said.

Chloe cleared her throat. “I—Yes, I meant to call and let you know that I was doing better. I intended to—“

“Oh, yes, I’m sure you did intend to.” Amy turned to Brody. “I do apologize for interrupting this lovely…is it a date or something?”

Brody smirked. “Or something,” he replied, matching her tone almost perfectly.

Her eye twitched as if his response had deeply irritated her.

Was it possible she had no idea who he was? Brody had one of the most recognizable faces on the planet, but Amy seemed strangely unaware of his notoriety. She pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow before turning back to Chloe. “Well, it’s unfortunate for you that we decided to come here to eat. You clearly had a fun day planned for yourself while you neglected the mess you left us to handle from this weekend.”

“I’m so sorry,” Chloe said.

“If you expect to keep your job, I expect you to get up immediately and head into the office.” Amy glared at her. “And even then, I won’t make any promises. Nobody is happy with your performance. Nobody.”

Brody laughed.

The sound of it was so pure, so lacking any tension, as if Amy had just cracked the best joke he’d heard all day.

She turned towards him again, her eyes narrowing. “I suppose you find her incompetence amusing,” Amy said. “But then again, why wouldn’t you? I have a feeling you’re not interested in Chloe for her stimulating wit or her intellect. You’re shopping for disposable goods, I think.”

Brody scratched his jaw and looked Amy up and down. “I don’t do discount or disposable,” he replied.

Amy sniffed. “I have a feeling that you’re not exactly shopping for couture, in any case. You got your hands on bargain basement goods at best.” She shifted her gaze to Chloe. “Up, out of that chair now or your fired.”

Chloe felt humiliated beyond belief.

But she also couldn’t afford to burn this particular bridge right now—if she left and went back to work as Amy had ordered her to do, there was still a slim chance she could get past these recent incidents and keep her job. And despite Brody’s offer, Chloe knew that he was unpredictable. His offer could disappear quicker than his enigmatic grin.

“Chloe,” Brody said softly. “Look at me.”

She turned her head and made eye contact. “I have to—“

“If you go with her, you’ll regret it. She’s going to fire you anyway.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Amy said. “He has no idea what I plan to do.”

“I spend my life watching people, and it’s gotten to the point where I can tell what they’re going to do, sometimes before they even know it themselves,” Brody told her. “And she’s going to fire you no matter what.”

Chloe swallowed, her throat constricting further as she glanced at her boss.

Amy folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “Your choice. You can believe Mr. ESP over here and get fired for sure, or you can get back to the office—try to repair your reputation, and hope for the best.”

“Excuse me,” Brody said, turning and waving to someone. A moment later, a gray haired man in a dark suit rushed over. “Mr. Hawk, how can I help you?”

“This woman has been very belligerent to me and my friend.”

“Excuse
me
—“ Amy said, her voice rising indignantly.

“I’m the manager of this restaurant,” the gray haired man said to Amy, “and Mr. Hawk is a very important customer. His happiness is paramount to us, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave our establishment. Now.” The manager glared down his nose at Amy.

She shriveled a little, looking around and seeing all eyes in the elegant restaurant were upon her.

“Now, please—“ the manager repeated, ushering her almost physically. Amy was forced out, as the manager continued to herd both Amy and Amy’s boss, who’d accompanied her to lunch, towards the exit.

“I feel sick,” Chloe said, putting a hand to her mouth. “That was my boss—and I just got her kicked out of a restaurant.”

Brody buttoned his suit coat. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“No, we can stay,” she sighed.

He shook his head. “I can already tell that the mood in here is ruined. We might as well pack it in and go somewhere else.”

She stood up. “I seriously can’t believe I just lost my job.”

“What was your job again?” he asked.

She sighed. “I worked in hospitality at a New York hotel. I was responsible for corporate sales.”

“I have connections to the biggest and best hotels in this city among many others, as you might imagine,” Brody told her, making way for her to walk with him. “If you don’t come work for me, I’ll make a phone call and get you the same job at an even better hotel. If that’s what you really want.”

“You can’t just snap your fingers and get me any job I want,” Chloe said, as she walked towards the exit with him. She peered out the windows to make sure her boss wasn’t in sight as they headed for the door.

“Actually, I can snap my fingers and get you any job that you’d likely be interested in,” he said. “But I still think you should come and work with me, especially now that you seem to have been freed up from other obligations.”

She turned and faced him. “You can’t just mess with my life. I’m a person. A real person.”

His brow furrowed. “Did I ever say otherwise?” His lips quirked, and Chloe’s eye was drawn to the small cut on his otherwise, perfect, soft pink lip. She imagined her own lips kissing his, her tongue flicking out…

“You didn’t say otherwise, but you act like I can just do whatever you need me to do right this instant. I have a life and responsibilities and I can’t just run off—“

“How much would it cost me to purchase your assistance at short notice?” Brody asked, tugging on his cufflink, straightening it so that it was aligned with the rest of his perfection.

“How much would it cost? I don’t know. I can’t even imagine.”

“I’m a reasonable man,” he smiled.

“I don’t see any evidence of that,” Chloe retorted, and he grinned wider.

“I agree that this is an inconvenience, and since you’ve lost your employment on my account, let’s say that I compensate you for it. I’ll pay you a hundred thousand dollars a year to be my personal assistant, and I’ll also give you a twenty-thousand dollar signing bonus for agreeing to travel with me on short notice.”

Chloe was stunned. Her mouth opened and closed. “That seems like an unreasonable amount,” she finally was able to say.

Brody’s devastatingly handsome face broken into an even more amused smile. “Too low?”

“I didn’t say it was too low.”

He held out his hand. “Then accept my offer, Chloe.”

She thought about it. Why was she resisting him so much? What exactly was there to fear? She’d already lost her job. Amy had hated her from the very beginning and she’d known that her chances at continuing on at the hotel had gone from slim to none as soon as she’d lost that big account.

Now she had a new opportunity, and it was something far better than she’d ever have imagined for herself. Working directly for the biggest athlete, the biggest superstar on the planet at the moment—making great money, traveling the globe…what was she waiting for?

The hesitation was because she didn’t trust him, Chloe realized. She didn’t understand him or his motives. This was all happening so fast.

Brody Hawk didn’t know anything about her, what she was capable of or good at doing, and yet he was willing to just hire her to be his assistant.

But there it was. His large, calloused hand was outstretched, and he was waiting.

Brody Hawk is waiting for me.

Her thighs twitched.

His green eyes stared into hers. And then she found her arm moving as if on its own, lifting, her forearm outstretched in order to meet him and then her hand slid into his, and he warmly wrapped his fingers around hers.

His skin was like silk, but strong, and she could feel his power.

“I accept,” she said, and as soon as the words left her mouth, she knew that she was in over her head.

“Good,” Brody told her, his voice warm and soft. His eyes looked suddenly hungry. “I’ll have my attorney draw up the contracts.”

“Of course,” she said, noticing he had not yet let go of her hand.

Finally he did let go of her, taking out his phone and getting her contact information and quickly entering it into his device. When that was done, he put the phone away and turned to her.

“I’d like you to come back to my apartment,” Brody said. “I still owe you lunch.”

Chloe’s entire body started to tingle. “I don’t think that’s necessary,” she told him. “I’ve taken up enough of your time already.”

“Fine, then. I’ll make it a working lunch. Come on,” he said.

He nodded his head towards the exit and then she was following him once more, feeling more confused than ever.

* * *

“
O
h my goodness
,” Chloe cried, as she set foot into Brody Hawk’s incredible penthouse apartment.

They’d parked right out front of the elegant building and quickly passed through the lobby, with the security guard letting Brody immediately inside.

The elevator had gone straight to the top of the building and opened into a grand foyer with white marble floors and a skylight that showed pure blue sky overhead.

After traveling through the foyer and down a short hallway, they came to the great room.

“This is amazing,” she said, as they emerged into the living space of the apartment.

“I thought you’d like it,” Brody said. “Since you’re in the hospitality industry.”

“Was in the hospitality industry,” she corrected him.

“Maybe you still are,” he said, shooting her a meaningful glance as he walked into the room.

The New York City skyline unfolded around her like a dream as she stared out.