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No. It would be worse than her prom. This was real life, not high school. And Jake, gorgeous, sexy Jake, would laud her as his executive assistant—his sexless executive assistant—and then flirt with every woman in the place except her.
She didn’t care, though. He could do what he wanted, with whatever woman he wanted. She really didn’t...
Emily turned on her heel, pushed her way through the still-crowded corridor, made her way to the elevators and stabbed the call button.
She didn’t have to be here. She didn’t have to spend the evening with her boss. Her day began at nine and ended at five, thank you very much, unless you counted the endless overtime she put in and never, ever bothered mentioning to Jake.
Well, he was in for a surprise.
Emily pushed the button again. Where was that miserable elevator? You’d think, in a hotel like this, one would come when you wanted it.
Jake would have to learn that she had a life of her own. That she couldn’t trot along behind him like a well-trained puppy. That when she said no, no was what she meant. No more letting him dictate commands, or bait her into dizzy arguments she couldn’t win. She wouldn’t permit it. She wouldn’t let Jake get under her skin...
Or touch it. Stroke it, with his hand. With his lips...
“Dammit!” Emily growled, and slammed the call button again.
As if in response, the doors slid open and disgorged a carful of laughing, chattering party guests. Emily tapped her foot impatiently, waited until the car emptied, slipped inside...
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Jake suddenly loomed in the space between the slowly closing doors. She could see only his face, dark with annoyance, and his hand as he jammed it between the doors, forced them open and stepped into the car with her.
The doors swished shut. Suddenly, the car felt small. Very small, and very, very airless but there wasn’t a way in the world she’d let him know that.
“I’m going home,” she said briskly, and pressed the lobby button.
“Going home, or running away?”
“You’re wasting your time if you think you’ll bait me into going back, Mr. McBride. You want to think I’m running away? Fine. Think it.”
“Don’t be silly.” Jake spoke calmly. So calmly that she wanted to slug him. “We just got here.”
“So?”
“So, I’m not ready to leave.”
“I’m not asking you to.” Emily slapped the button again. Why was the damned elevator moving so slowly? “In fact, I don’t want you to leave. Not when you’re obviously having such a good time.”
Jake’s dark brows lifted. “Interesting. Who’d have suspected the formidably efficient Ms. Taylor has normal female instincts?”
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Could it be,” he said, with just a hint of smug satisfaction, “that you’re jealous of Crystal?”
“Is that her name?” Emily folded her arms and stared straight ahead at the blinking lights on the control panel. “You sure it isn’t Brandi the Second?” The elevator came to a stop. The doors slid open but no one got on. After a minute, the doors shut and the downward journey resumed. “Your companions are difficult to tell apart, considering that they’re always tall, leggy, and brain-dead.”
Jake laughed. “You are jealous.”
“Jealous? Of your women?”
“I don’t have ‘women.’ Anyway, I’ve known Crystal for years.”
“You can know her for centuries, for all I care. Dammit, what is with this elevator? Why doesn’t it move?”
“It is moving,” Jake said. “If anything, it’s moving too fast.”
And, just like that, he reached out and hit the Stop button. The car lurched to a halt. Emily staggered and landed against Jake’s chest. His arms went around her but she jerked away.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
Jake leaned back against the wood-paneled wall and folded his arms. “We came here so you could network.”
“You came here to network.” Emily glowered at the closed doors. “I came here so you could save yourself from a fate worse than death.”
“Yeah.” He gave a sigh of apology. “Listen, about that. I’m really sorry but—”
“But,” Emily said coldly, “that’s okay. It turns out I did network. I met three people. Four, if I expand the list to include life-size mannequins with improbable names.”
She reached towards the Stop button but Jake’s hand shot out and clamped around her wrist.
