still be lying there. Warm and sated from his lovemaking. Belonging to him.
Chapter Three
Jewel stood outside the third floor offices of the Anetakis Hotel and smoothed a hand through her hair for the third time. It was a bad nervous habit and one destined to bring down more tendrils from the elegant knot she’d fashioned.
Instead she placed her palms over her skirt and removed nonexistent wrinkles as she waited admittance into Piers Anetakis’s office.
She knew she looked cool and professional, a look she strove hard for. The woman who’d let loose with such abandon two nights before no longer existed. In her place was an unreadable face devoid of any emotion.
Still, despite her best efforts, thoughts of her lover drifted erotically through her mind. She’d left while he was in the shower, but she’d hoped to run into him again. A chance meeting. Maybe it would lead to another night even though she’d sworn it would only be one.
It was just as well. He was probably already gone back to wherever it was he lived. She’d move on herself in a few more weeks, armed with enough money to sustain her travels.
At times, she wondered what it would be like to settle in one place, to have all the comforts of home, but such an idea was alien to her. She’d learned long ago that a home wasn’t in the cards for her.
She glanced down at her watch. Two minutes past eight. She was to have been summoned at eight. Apparently promptness wasn’t one of Mr. Anetakis’s strong points.
She clutched her briefcase to her and stared out the window to the waves crashing in the distance. The sea lost some of its romance in the daylight. It was still beautiful and striking, but at night under the flicker of torches and the glow of the moon, it took on a life of its own.
Her mouth twisted ruefully. She was still thinking of her dark-eyed lover. He was hard to forget, and she knew she’d be thinking of him for a long time to come.
Behind her the door opened, and an older woman stuck her head out and smiled at Jewel. “Miss Henley, Mr. Anetakis will see you now.”
Jewel pasted a bright smile on her face and marched in behind the woman. Across the room Mr. Anetakis stood with his back to them, a cell phone stuck to his ear. When he heard them come in, he turned and Jewel halted. Her mouth flew open, and her eyes widened in shock.
To his credit, Mr. Anetakis merely raised an eyebrow in recognition, and then he closed his phone and nodded to the other lady.
“You can leave us now, Margery. Miss Henley and I have a lot to discuss.”
Jewel swallowed nervously as Margery quietly left the room and shut the door behind her. Her fingers curled around her briefcase, and she held it almost like a shield as Mr. Anetakis stared holes through her. God, how this must look.
“You have to know I had no idea who you were,” she said in a shaky voice before he could speak.
“Indeed,” he said calmly. “I could see the shock when I turned around. Still, it makes things a bit awkward, wouldn’t you say?”
“There’s no reason things should be awkward,” she said crisply. She moved forward, holding an outstretched hand. “Hello, Mr. Anetakis. I’m Jewel Henley, your new assistant. I trust we’ll work well together.”
His lips twisted into a sardonic smile. Before he could reply, his phone rang again.
“Excuse me, Miss Henley,” he said in a cool voice. Then he picked up his cell phone.
He wasn’t speaking English, but it was obvious the phone call wasn’t to his liking. He frowned and then outright scowled. He barked a few words into the receiver before muttering something unintelligible and snapping it closed.
“My apologies. There is something I must attend to at once. You can see Margery in her office, and she’ll get you…set up.”
Jewel nodded as he strode out the door. As soon as the door shut, all her breath left her in a whoosh that left her sagging. Of all the rotten luck. And to think she’d hoped they’d run into each other again so they could have a repeat performance.
On wobbly knees she went to find Margery and then prayed that she’d get through the next four weeks without losing her composure.
Piers got out of the helicopter and strode toward the car waiting to pick him up. As they drove toward the airport where his private jet awaited, he snapped open his phone and placed the call that he’d been deliberating over since he left his office.
His human resources manager for the island hotel picked up on the second ring.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Anetakis?” he asked once Piers had identified himself.
“Jewel Henley,” he bit out.
“Your new assistant?”
“Get rid of her.”
“Pardon? Is there a problem?”
“Just get rid of her. I want her gone by the time I return.” He took a deep breath. “Transfer her, promote her or pay her for the entirety of her contract, but get rid of her. She can’t work under me. I have a strict policy about personal involvement with my employees, and let’s just say she and I have history.”
He waited for a moment and when he didn’t hear anything, he said, “hello?” He cursed. The connection had been cut. Oh well, he didn’t require a response. He just wanted action.
Even if he hadn’t already been extremely distrustful of situations that seemed too coincidental, his brother’s assistant had sold valuable company plans to their competitor. After that debacle, they’d all assumed very strict requirements for the people working closest to them. They could ill afford another Roslyn.
Still, his chest tightened as the car stopped outside his plane, and he got out to board. He wasn’t so much in denial that he could refute that the night had been more than just a casual one-night stand. Which was all the more reason to cut ties now. He wouldn’t give up any power, no matter how subtle, to a woman ever again.
Jewel sat in Margery’s chair behind her desk filling out a mountain of paperwork while Margery puttered around in the background making phone calls and grumbling at the printer when it didn’t spit out the appropriate documents.
She’d spent the morning on pins and needles, waiting for Piers to return so they could at least try and air things out and get it behind them. The old saying about an elephant in the room was appropriate, only Jewel felt like there was an entire herd.
At lunch, she went down to the small café and nibbled on a sandwich while watching the seagulls dive-bomb tourists who had bread to feed them. If Margery let her on the company computer this afternoon, she’d e-mail Kirk and let him know she’d arrived on the island and would be staying a few weeks.
He was her only friend, but they rarely saw each other. He was forever taking assignments to far-flung places, and she was equally determined to travel her own way. It amused her that they were essentially lost souls who wandered from place to place. Neither had a home, and maybe that was why they understood each other.
An
