Debra almost groaned aloud. She’d managed to avoid the hotel managers’ annual conference so far this week and was hoping she might break a leg or catch some dreaded disease before her scheduled appearance as speaker on Thursday. Her avoidance had nothing to do with the recently promoted manager from Riversleigh being in attendance.
She was loaded down with more important matters which required urgent attention. Squirming in her seat she chided herself.
That’s why I’ve just wasted fifteen indecisive minutes dithering about escort agencies.
I should have guessed Paul wouldn’t allow me to miss another luncheon. Damnation.
He’d primed her personal assistant to make sure nothing prevented her presence.
Debra caught sight of Jase the second she entered the restaurant. She was able to watch him for a moment before anyone was aware of her presence. He could have been poured into his dark suit, he looked so good.
The breath caught in her throat as Debra remembered how it felt to be in his arms, to feel his hard muscles under her fingers...
“That hungry look isn’t fitting for a business occasion,” whispered a voice in her ear.
“What are you talking about?” she snapped at Paul’s speculative expression.
“You look like a starved person staring at a ten-course banquet. And yet, I doubt it’s food you were thinking about—”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She walked forward, but his hand on her arm stopped her.
“Did something happen between you two?” His voice lowered to a menacing growl. “If he—”
Debra plucked his hand off her arm. “I’m a big girl now, Paul. I can take care of myself.”
Paul caught up with her in a millisecond. “Can you?”
She felt the warmth of his concern and ran a finger down his cheek. A lopsided smile accompanied her response. “I sure hope so.”
****
Jase watched the by-play between the siblings with narrowed eyes, wondering what Debra would do if he bowled right on over there and kissed those pouty lips. That was nothing less than what she deserved. She’d ignored his phone calls. He’d even degraded himself into asking her personal assistant if she’d gotten his messages.
His expectation of spending time with Debra this week hadn’t materialised. She’d taken no part in the conference although her name had been listed as an attendee at some of the meetings already held. He’d wondered if she was avoiding him.
He’d actually hoped she was avoiding him, but seeing her glide around now—casually mingling—she showed no interest in singling him out. In fact when she joined the group he stood with, she shook his hand as calmly and dispassionately as she shook everyone else’s. His confidence plummeted.
This was not the girl who’d struggled to work in his dining room. The girl he’d reassured and held in his arms during their time in the lift. This was definitely not the girl who had melted in his arms in their Queenstown hotel.
Jase swallowed as she laughed at something. Even her laugh was different.
Disappointment dragged at Jase’s shoulders. Essentially she was his boss. She was the boss of thousands of people with God knows what sort of weight and responsibility on her slim shoulders. Why had he imagined she could be interested in a broken down hack like him?
He turned aside to answer a comment from the man next to him. He wasn’t in the same league as Debra Laurie. Time he came to grips with the fantasy he’d been weaving, and put it to bed. That’s all it was, a fantasy.
****
The idea struck her as she presented an address to the assembled conference on Thursday. It hit Debra with such force she was robbed of words and stood dumb-struck at the podium for long enough to evoke concerned murmurs from those attending.
Dragging her gaze from a frowning Jase, she apologised and continued, although her mind was far from her presentation.
“Rachel?” she strode through her assistant’s office, barely pausing. “Ask Jason McEwan to join me on completion of today’s programme.”
She closed her door and slumped against it. The temerity of what she planned was robbing the strength from her body.
With nothing achieved in the ninety minutes before his arrival, Debra looked up from a pile of papers at Rachel’s knock and waved Jase into a chair. “I won’t be a moment.”
Her gaze returned to the papers, seeing nothing but a huge blur of black on white. “That’s all I need you for tonight. Thank you Rachel.”
A quiet goodnight echoed around the room as Debra fiddled some more with the papers before picking up a pen and slashing on her signature. She hoped these could be replicated when her brain began functioning again. Bundling them into a tray she lifted her eyes to Jase.
The breath left her body as soon as their gazes clashed. Her lungs screamed for air but she seemed incapable of doing anything but drinking in the sight of him.
The narrowed look he subjected her to didn’t hold any of the blazing desire she’d once witnessed in his eyes. Their detachment and the tenseness radiating from his body alerted her. Despite his attempts to contact her, she could see that he had not forgiven her.
Okay, that made her request easier. It would be business. An arrangement between two business associates with no emotion involved. It wouldn’t be much different from engaging an agency escort.
She could pay him for his time and be secure in the knowledge no-one would suspect her. Providing Jase was willing to play his part.
She chewed her bottom lip.
Could I fire him if he refuses?
“I have a task I want you to perform.”
She rose as coolly and confidently as her shaking body would allow and stepped toward the window. Swinging around, she faced him.
She’d decided with the light behind her, her face would be in shadow. “I realise it is not within your job description but I’m confident you could carry it out without any onerous consequences.”
She was almost silenced by the quirk of his eyebrows. With a determined deep breath she continued, praying no panic edged into her voice. “I require an escort and you would do very well for the occasion.” Ignoring his astonished expression, she named the date set aside for the wedding.
“You’re kidding?” He almost laughed.
“If you knew me better, Jase, you’d know I don’t kid.”
“You’re ordering me to be your escort?”
Her lifted chin threatened to wobble, but she managed to control it. “Well, not ordering...exactly.”
“Like some fancy-boy gigolo?”
Her heart rate accelerated at his obvious distaste. Omigod! He’s going to refuse.
Her chin lifted. “It wouldn’t be such an arduous duty, surely? One day, one function.” Her eyes narrowed. “You will be well paid, of course.”
“How much?”
She had no idea. She hadn’t really expected him to be interested in money. She’d only offered it to reinforce the arrangement as a business deal.
Disappointment shrivelled the fervour she’d been feeling whenever he’d invaded her mind. It stung at her chest. She hadn’t expected him to refuse, either.
“Five thousand.” It had to be large enough to change his mind—to make him accept.
“Five thousand dollars!” He leapt to his feet. “You’re willing to pay me five thousand dollars?” He was so close she felt the brush of his minty breath on her face. “And how exactly do you expect me to earn this five thousand dollars?” The gaze travelling up and down her body left her in no doubt of his assumption.
“Not like that, you can be certain.” She jerked away from the fingers burning her cheek.
His head tipped to one side, his expression evocative. “I suppose I could consider servicing your needs.” His tongue running across his lips turned her legs to cotton wool. “I’d need some encouragement from you, though.”
With a shove against his chest she slipped past him and settled back at her desk, thankful her legs hadn’t collapsed during the three-step journey. “I need a partner to attend my brother’s wedding with me.” She glared ice. “Nothing more.”
Sitting behind the desk reasserted her control. She clenched her fists under its surface and waited while he settled himself back into his own seat.
Goaded by his sudden casualness as he stretched out his long legs and leaned back, Debra’s tension level rose tenfold. She had to disguise her impatience and get him out of her presence while she still maintained some semblance of authority.
“Are you willing to consider my request?” she demanded.
“You’re my boss. So it’s hardly a request, is it?” he drawled with distinct mockery.
“Oh, for God’s sake.” She jerked open a drawer and took out paper before slamming it shut. The sound echoed around the room as loud as a rifle shot at close quarters.
Silence filled the room as she scribbled a guarantee his job was not in jeopardy irrespective of his response. She threw the letter across the desk. He only just caught the page as it flew off the edge.
She glared while he scrutinized every word. Enamel soured her mouth. The tightness across her forehead had exploded into a thumping headache but she wasn’t resorting to the painkillers she kept close by. She daren’t show such weakness.
When his gaze travelled up, his intense look drilled her back against her chair. Their eyes remained locked as he folded up her letter and slipped it inside his jacket.
She forgot to breathe as Jase leaned across the desk. “Tell me why you’re willing to go to such lengths.” His expression appeared a mixture of derision and sympathy. “You must know heaps of blokes who’d jump at the chance to take you out. Why not ask one of them?”
“That wouldn’t work.” She’d considered every man she knew. Chloe and, especially, Paul would never be taken in by pretence she’d developed an undying passion for one of her acquaintances.
She sensed his frustration at her reply.
“Debbie?” Somehow the hated version of her name sounded soft and gentle on his lips. “I’m not agreeing to this unless you’re honest with me.”
He shook his head. “Why a beautiful, sexy woman like you would resort to paying a man...” Warmth invaded Debra, jostling aside the frustrated anger she’d been feeling. “So explain. You can start with, why choose me?”
“I need someone new, someone different, but with a certain”—she shrugged—“social standing, a soigné approach. I thought you could carry that off.”
“Well, thank you,” he mocked. “Now tell me why you have to pay someone to take you to your own brother’s wedding?”
“I just expect—”
“You can expect all you like but I’m not buying until I know what you’re selling.”
He leaned even further back in his seat, but Debra sensed a return of his earlier tension.
“You want me to do this,” he said. “You tell me why.”
Debra swallowed and glanced around. There seemed no other way but to admit her reasons to Jase. He didn’t appear likely to shift otherwise.
She cleared her throat and stared at the wall above his head. “Concern has been voiced in front of Chloe—concern about Paul’s over-commitment to his work. It appears some people believe I force Paul to work outrageous hours just because I do so.” Her face burned. “And that because of this, I will interfere in his marriage.”
She tensed, waiting for his laughter. When none came she glanced at him. He watched her. Her gaze dropped to her desk. “I like the girl my brother is marrying. She doesn’t deserve to have such worries on her wedding day.”
“If I turned up with someone irresis...” Her face scolded as she hastily substituted, “An attractive man—one I could pretend to be interested in—I’d show her, and Paul, that I have a life, too. Hopefully Chloe will think work, and interfering in Paul’s life, is the last thing on my mind.”
The silence in the room lengthened. Debra bit her lip. She couldn’t force Jase to do this, and now she’d given her reasons, what would she do if he refused? She gnawed at her lip.
“So what’s your plan?”
“Will you do it? Will you take me?” The timidity of Debra’s whisper grated on her nerves, but he held the upper hand for the moment. Once he agreed...
“Tell me what you intend to do.”
A little more confident, she shrugged. “Go to the wedding together, pretend to be a couple, let Chloe have the type of day every girl deserves.”
“And what about afterward? After the honeymoon?”
“Chloe will be more sure of herself once they’re married, and she’ll soon realise all the talk about how I control...h-how Paul and I live in each other’s pockets isn’t true.”
“Granted we do have the same interests. For heaven’s sake, we’re twins.” Debra bit her lip hard and blinked. “Now I know what a home-body she is...I’ll make sure he cuts down his hours and I won’t have too much to do with them. She won’t have any cause to be concerned.”
A frown gathered at Jase’s brow. The incessant tapping of his fingers on her desk caused her to jump up and return to the window. She kept her head high, staring out across the harbour, refusing to be alarmed by his continued non-compliance with her request.
Tension filled the room.
“Don’t you think this would work a little better if our public association lasted for longer than just one day?” He appeared at her side. “Let’s go to dinner tonight and we can plan this in a little more detail.”
She glanced up to see a quirky little smile teasing his lips.
“What are the most likely places where we might be seen?” he asked.