Wait for Me / Trust in Me (16 page)

The
man
looked
at
her
with
obvious
disbelief. He had a briefcase at his feet and he reached for it, pulling it into his lap and opening it. Without a word, he handed her his card. “I'm William Montgomery. I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina. That's where my company is, too. It's been in my family for three generations and, God willing, it will go to my sons and they'll carry on long after I'm gone. I've got three sons; always wanted a daughter, though,” he said lightly.

“I don't normally come to these conventions; seems like a great waste of time. Most of the attendees are here looking for a break from work, not to learn more about how to do their jobs more effectively.” He sighed wearily and then smiled. “We drew straws, my sons and I, to see who would come and check this place out. I lost.” He gave a light chuckle and felt relief when Maggie gave a small smile. “I'm too old for nonsense like this. Conventions are a young man's game.”

William
looked
around
the
lobby, clearly unwilling to leave her in such distress.

“Although, most of the young men I met here today need to learn a lot more not only about business, but about respect in general.” Maggie nodded and wiped at her tear-streaked face. William reached for a handkerchief in his pocket and handed it to her. “I don't know about you, but it certainly makes me lose a little bit of faith in this generation.”

“I agree,” Maggie said softly.

William
couldn't help but smile. He wanted so badly to help this woman but she was clearly spooked. Something had happened and he may not ever find out exactly what it was but he knew that he had to get her out of the hotel and to someplace where she'd feel safe.

William
smiled
at
her. His manner was fatherly, caring—nothing at all like the way Martin had treated her. “Listen,” he said calmly, “how about we go over and have a cup of coffee? The café over there is still open.”

“Oh, I can't,” she said nervously. “I don't have my wallet with me.”

“It's my treat.” When Maggie hesitated, William quickly added, “You'd be doing me a huge favor. I've done nothing today but talk to a bunch of upstarts with overinflated egos.”

Maggie
thought
about
it
for
a
moment
and
realized
that
maybe
it
would
be
okay
to
join
him
for
coffee. She hadn't had anything to eat since they'd left Virginia on the early morning flight—Martin hadn't allowed her to eat all day. Sadistic bastard.

She
stood
and
said
a
quiet, “Thank you.”

William
towered
over
her
petite
frame. “It's my pleasure, Ms…” He left the words dangling.

“Maggie,” she said finally. “Maggie Barrett.”

“Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Maggie Barrett,” he said, his tone nothing but friendliness, and Maggie knew in that instant that things just might work out all right.

* * *

True to his word, William had set the wheels in motion to get Maggie settled into her new position. Within an hour, he had all her belongings transferred to the executive floor, and from where he stood in his office doorway, he could see her working with Rose. After lunch, they would sit down together with Jason and get things really moving.

It did his heart good to see Maggie up here working where she belonged. He hated pushing her into it, but deep down William knew he'd let her hide out too long. What that bastard had done to her back in California so long ago had been traumatic for sure, but William also knew that Maggie had too much to give to spend her life hiding away from everything and everybody.

When William had offered her the position with Montgomerys, Maggie had been shocked and more than a little apprehensive. Desperate to help her when she was so clearly in need, he had vowed to meet her every wish in order to get her to agree to work for him.

She had wanted a low-profile position; he gave her one. She needed to get her belongings from where she lived in Virginia to someplace new in North Carolina. William paid for the move and put her up temporarily in an executive apartment that the company owned until she found a place of her own. He'd sent people to get her car and had taken care of ending her employment with Martin Blake without letting anyone within the man's company know where she was going.

William Montgomery was very thorough in everything he did, and if keeping this woman under the radar for a little while meant keeping her safe, he'd do it.

Her final request was that no one know that she was single. While William didn't think that would deter some men, he knew that no one within his company would dare approach Maggie in an unprofessional manner. So he'd agreed to her request and no one was the wiser. Luckily, it wasn't something that came up very often. According to his human resources manager, Ann Kincade, Maggie was a virtual loner. She was pleasant to work with, but never engaged in any outside activities with her coworkers, mostly keeping to herself.

For a moment, William felt remorse at forcing her so clearly out of her comfort zone, but then he thought of how well it had worked last year when he'd done the same for his son Lucas, and silently prayed that he would have similar results.

Maggie sensed William's stare, looking up and giving him a weak smile. By now, she knew her boss could be trusted and was sure that his son would be no different, but she wasn't happy that this promotion, this shift in her life, was not her decision. It was going to take a little while to adjust to it.

Working with Rose was no hardship; the woman knew her job and was easy to talk to. The job itself had some challenges that were actually related to her skills, but for the most part, the biggest challenge was going to be in trusting the man she was going to assist.

Maggie had seen Jason Montgomery often enough around the building. He was certainly an attractive man and his mere presence seemed to bring out sighs from the women working around her. That always irritated Maggie. She was never going to show any outward signs of attraction to anyone. No matter how attractive that six-foot-tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed package was!

Looking back, she knew that she hadn't had any attraction to her former boss; she had genuinely liked Martin as a person. Somehow, however, he mistook that feeling for sexual interest, and thought that gave him the right to seduce her. Just the thought of it now, years later, made Maggie sick to her stomach.

“Are you okay?” Rose asked.

Shaking her head to clear it, Maggie looked at her. “Sure. Why?”

“You just had a weird look on your face and you kind of went pale.” Rose looked at her watch. “Why don't we stop here and break for lunch. I have you and Mr. Montgomery scheduled to meet with Jason at two o'clock. You'll have an hour for lunch and then about thirty minutes after you get back to get organized and write up any questions you have for him. Will that work?”

“Yes, thank you,” Maggie said with a smile, relieved that Rose didn't push her for more of an explanation. Walking to her desk, Maggie picked up her purse and a notebook. Her plan was to start making notes now on the things she wanted to discuss with Jason Montgomery.

Stepping onto the elevator, the first and most important question came to her mind.
Are
you
a
pervert
who
plans
on
mistaking
a
simple
smile
for
an
invitation
to
sexually
harass?

“What?”

“Is there a problem? I think the question was fairly simple.”

Jason looked at the woman sitting across from him at the conference table and then to his father. “This is some sort of joke, right?”

Maggie looked at him, her brows furrowed. “I don't think this is a joking matter, Mr. Montgomery. The question speaks for itself. Are you the kind of man who can tell the difference between someone being polite and someone offering an invitation?”

“What the hell kind of question is that?” he yelled and then turned to his father. “Seriously? This is who you think is the best option to work with me?”

William was barely able to contain his mirth. “She meets and actually exceeds all of your requirements, Jace. She's got the computer skills, organizational skills, and customer service skills that will prove useful on your trip, plus she has years of experience as an executive assistant.”

Jason narrowed his eyes as he heard his father's words. “If she's so qualified, why has she been working in customer service all this time?”

Maggie had had enough. “If you have a question about my qualifications, Mr. Montgomery, please address me. I am more than capable of answering
your
questions.”

Jason couldn't help but take note of her obvious dig at his inability to answer her earlier question. “Fine,” he bit out. “If you have all of these qualifications, why haven't you been assigned to anyone in all of your years with Montgomerys?”

“I was a bit burned out after my last assignment with my previous employer and wanted something a little less stressful.”

“And you think that now you're ready to handle the stress again?” he asked.

Her first response was to say no and hope that he'd let her leave and go back to her quiet position three floors down, but she knew she had made a promise to William. “Yes, I believe that I am more than capable of taking on this assignment.”

“Ann tells me that you're married. How does your husband feel about you taking on a position that will have you traveling for the next several weeks?”

Maggie was not a very good liar but said a silent prayer that she'd sound believable. “My husband travels a great deal for his job, so we both have no issues with this trip.” That sounded plausible, didn't it? She looked over at William and saw his slight nod of approval.

Jason looked over Maggie's resume and personnel file. “This is not in any way, shape, or form a pleasure trip. We'll be working long hours and meeting with a lot of people. It is imperative that you be able to keep up the pace and keep notes on all of our dealings and get whatever information is needed back here to Rose for her to begin processing. Is that going to be a problem?”

“I can assure you,” Maggie began, “that I am highly organized and I don't have any issues with the long hours. It will be a refreshing change of pace after doing the eight-to-five schedule.”

“We'll have no regulated schedule,” Jason countered. “Some days we may be up at dawn for an early morning meeting, other days we may not be meeting with anyone until the late afternoon. When we're not in scheduled meetings, we'll be working together on organizing the data we've collected, planning ahead for our next clients, or traveling. Maybe all at one time. Will that be a problem?”

Maggie shook her head. “As I said, I believe I am more than up for the challenge.”

“It won't leave you a lot of personal time. You'll be more than compensated for all of the overtime and I will try to make sure that you're not overwhelmed, but I won't have time for someone who feels the need to make constant calls to home or has a jealous or needy spouse who needs to call you several times a day.”

“That won't be a problem,” Maggie said firmly.

“Be sure that it's not, Mrs. Barrett,” Jason said with equal firmness.

William chose that moment to interrupt. “I think the two of you have more than enough to get started on. I do have some calls to make, so Jason, why don't you take Maggie to your office and let her get started going over all of the client files?”

Jason nodded and stood. Maggie did the same. “Maggie, if you have any questions, please feel free to come and see me, okay?” William said gently and Jason had to wonder at the exchange. His father was notoriously kind to all of his employees, but Jason sensed that there was something different about Maggie. He was about to comment on it when Maggie turned and headed for the door.

“Jason?” his father said quietly.

Jason saw that Maggie had exited the office, and he turned and looked at his father.

“Maggie is exactly what you're looking for. If you push, she's going to push back. You won't have to worry about her like you did with the others. She's going to do a good job for you on this trip.”

At the moment, Jason wasn't so sure. While he could appreciate Maggie's credentials, he had a feeling that their personalities were going to clash, and that was almost as inappropriate as some of his former assistants' behavior. “I hope so, Dad. There's a lot riding on this trip.”

“That's pressure that you've put on yourself, Jace. You wanted to try for this expansion, and while I think it's a great idea, I don't want it to consume you to the point of pushing yourself so hard that you forget to live a little.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Jason snapped.

“It means that you have a great work ethic and a desire to see the company succeed. Just don't forget that Montgomerys isn't your whole life.”

There were times when his father spoke like Yoda, and right now Jason didn't have the time to delve any deeper into what he was saying. He had to get Maggie acclimated with his project and make sure she was completely prepared when they left in two weeks for their whirlwind trip.

* * *

Jason had done a damn good job. Sitting on the private plane that was getting ready to take off, he looked over at Maggie and smiled. They had worked long hours for the last two weeks, and she was just as familiar with every aspect of this project as he was. She was smart, inquisitive, and well versed. He knew without a doubt that she was going to be an asset to him on this trip and that he wouldn't have to spend precious time explaining things to her, because she clearly understood exactly what it was he was trying to accomplish.

Not once during the previous weeks had there been an issue with the long hours. At first Jason was sure that her husband was going to put up a fight; after all, Maggie had been working fairly regular hours for so many years, so this was quite an adjustment. But just as there'd been no complaint from the husband, Maggie hadn't complained either.

They'd worked side by side from eight in the morning until sometimes as late as ten at night. Jason found that after their initial clashing during their interview, they both seemed to come to understand each other and had formed mutual respect for one another. Conversation flowed when it was needed and at the same time, they were both comfortable working in silence. For having worked together only two weeks, they were seemingly in sync. Jason wasn't used to that.

“If we don't hit any delays we should be in Chicago by ten. I called and confirmed the town car, and since we'll have missed most of the morning traffic, we should be at the hotel by eleven,” Maggie was saying as she glanced at their schedule on her tablet. “We're meeting the Claremont people at one, so once we're checked in, we can have lunch brought up to the rooms and be ready to go by twelve thirty.” She looked up at him. “How does that sound?”

“Good,” Jason said distractedly. Meetings like this didn't normally stress him out, but this plan for expansion that he had made him a little edgy. “Did we leave the evening free or did you pencil something in?”

“I left it free just in case they wanted to meet over dinner. I didn't want to over-schedule us on our first day,” she said lightly. “I've researched several restaurants in the area and the one at our hotel would actually be perfect for a meeting. I can call in a reservation now if you'd like, just in case?”

She was very efficient; that was what Jason admired most. Maggie was certainly making his life easier already. “Let's wait and see how the afternoon goes. For all we know they can be exhausting and not people we want to work with. In which case, we'll just have a quiet dinner and discuss our next plan of attack.”

Maggie laughed. “Sounds like a plan. I'll just mark these places for future reference.”

While she was busy tapping away on her tablet screen, Jason studied her. With her blonde hair pulled back into a severe ponytail and her brown eyes downcast, Maggie seemed to do her best not to stand out. Jason had to wonder a little at that. While he could appreciate her professional manner and her obvious desire not to draw attention to herself, he couldn't help but wonder why. Most of the women he knew, both in business and in his personal life, did things to make themselves look attractive. Maggie, on the other hand, wore little to no makeup, dressed ultraconservatively, and did her best to blend into the background. This was exactly what Jason had said that he wanted, but the more he got to know Maggie, the more he had a feeling that she wasn't presenting her true self.

Their captain announced their turn for takeoff and Jason watched Maggie's response. Her white-knuckled grip on the seat told him that flying was definitely not her thing. While most of their travels were going to require flying, there were going to be some shorter legs that he had planned a rental car for. He was sure that Maggie would be relieved on those days.

“Not a fan of flying, huh?” he asked, hoping to distract her.

“No, not really.”

“It's not so bad,” he said in a soothing tone. “The key is to just relax.”

“Easy for you to say,” she mumbled and heard Jason laugh.

“Look, don't focus on what you're feeling, focus on me.”

Maggie's eyes went wide. “Excuse me?” she said, indignant.

“I mean, talk to me about this meeting today. Talk to me about the weather. Talk to me about what you think of my tie,” he suggested.

“Your tie?”

“Sure. Whatever you need to talk about, we'll talk about,” he said and smiled at her confused look. “So what do you think? Stripes? Is it a good look?”

He was teasing her and for that Maggie was relieved. In their time working together, they had gotten along much better than she had expected. They had always kept things on a business level; this light side of him was a pleasant surprise. His dark eyes twinkled and she felt herself relax. “I'm not normally a fan of stripes, but they aren't overly obnoxious.”

“Stripes are obnoxious?” he asked.

“They can be. Think of prison stripes.”

That made Jason laugh again. “Well, I can guarantee you I will not be going for the prison stripe look. Ever.”

“Good to know,” Maggie said and realized that her stomach no longer felt so queasy and that they were no longer climbing. She loosened her grip on her seat and looked out the window. “Is that it? We're done with takeoff?”

Jason smiled at her. “See? A little distraction always works.” The next hour passed quickly, and soon they were in the car and heading for their hotel. Check in went like clockwork. Jason was glad they had adjoining rooms. They were only going to be in Chicago for two days, but it would make things easier if Maggie was close by when he needed her help.

No sooner were they settled in their rooms than lunch was being delivered. While Jason had been checking them in, Maggie had been taking care of ordering their food. Jason knocked on the door dividing their rooms and Maggie unlocked it and let him in.

“That was fast,” she commented as she reached for her briefcase.

Jason stopped her. “Whoa, we're going to eat lunch like normal people and not talk business for the next fifteen minutes, okay?”

Maggie more than readily agreed. They had been talking business for weeks and she felt like if Jason were to fall ill, she would be able to handle any and all of his meetings because she knew the details so intimately. To be able to have a few minutes reprieve to eat and relax sounded like heaven.

Jason had set up their food at the table in his room and waited for Maggie to sit down before he joined her. “I hope you had enough time to get at least a little settled into your room.”

Maggie waved him off. “I don't plan on getting too comfortable. It makes it easier when it's time to leave if I haven't taken everything out.”

“That makes sense. Did you have time to call home?”

“What for?” she asked without thinking.

Jason arched a dark eyebrow at her. “I thought you would check in with your husband and let him know we arrived safely.”

“Oh,” Maggie said, forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be married. “I texted him. He's at work so I just figured we'd talk later tonight.”

It sounded believable enough, but Jason had to wonder how good a marriage she had if they spent so much time apart and didn't seem to mind it at all. If he was married, he'd certainly be uncomfortable with his wife traveling with another man! What was wrong with Maggie's husband?

Clearing those thoughts from his mind, Jason took a bite of the BLT Maggie had ordered for him and then asked, “Have you ever been to Chicago before?”

She was delicately eating a chef's salad and held a finger up while she finished chewing before answering. “Actually, I haven't. It was never on my radar as someplace I wanted to see and I'm not really focusing on it now, since we're not here to sightsee.”

Practical, Jason thought, and for just a minute he felt bad about not making any time to show her some of the sights. It seemed like Maggie led a very quiet, sheltered life and it made him a little sad for her. With a husband who seemed to lack any interest in her and Maggie's quiet acceptance of it all, it just didn't sit well with Jason.