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Easy tiger. You’ve just been hanging around the old coot for long enough. You said it yourself. It’s time to get out and let some new blood into the old beast.
Let Condor be managed by someone who’s actually related to the founder, too.
That’s gotta be a positive spin. I bet he wishes he had family involved years ago. It might have given him and his company the image he always craved.
I just wish I didn’t have to sit here and listen to him. I’d rather be with Chloe.
I can’t actually believe we’ve given up a day in bed for this.
Kenneth Condor being the man he is, has to explain everything in detail, giving his own personal shine to the story and chain of events as I stifle a yawn.
My stomach is churning at the thought of food and the buzz in my pants that hasn’t stopped since I met Chloe, already hungry for something else as well.
“So you hired private detectives to track down a child you may or may not have even fathered years ago?” I ask, trying to sound interested once he gets to the DNA part of his story.
“Condor needs a line. It needs a family!” he practically shouts. “I’ve built it up, sure. But everything you see is from the hard work and thoughtfulness for the future of all those before us,” he adds, settling back into his chair.
He’s exhausted by even a tiny outburst like that.
I nod and crease my mouth in an understanding way, casually glancing at the mantle clock. Wondering just how much more of this I have to endure before I can get back to Chloe.
Letting her go with the others clearly wasn’t a great idea. I miss her already.
Should I just tell him now?
Tell him I quit and thanks for everything, but I really couldn’t care less about a billionaire and his chain of hotels.
I’ve got a life of my own to live now. I can’t believe I even wasted so much of it with this clown. Doing his bidding like a hand puppet.
Nah. I think after lunch would be better. Let him down easy. Plus, Chloe needs to eat as much as I do right now.
“I guess we should join the others,” I muse aloud, shifting myself out of my seat, ready to push the old man’s chair for him.
“Sit down,” he says dryly, clicking his tongue.
A mean look washes over his bony features.
“Yeah, I hired private detectives to find her. To find anyone who was last of the Condor lineage…,” he says after staring at me so long I figure he’s forgotten what he’s even been talking about.
He really doesn’t have long. It happens, I guess.
“This girl. The one pretending to be Ms. De Laurent,” he says with disdain. “I heard you were in her suite all night?”
He’s stepping on that line. I’d hate to see him cross it.
If anyone says or does anything to upset Chloe, or speaks ill of her, I can’t be responsible for what happens next.
Billionaire boss, sick old man or not.
“She wasn’t pretending anything,” I growl slightly, running a tense hand through my hair. “There was a misunderstanding.”
Condor humphs and scowls at me, crossing his arms, but his eyes are clear, scanning me like an X-ray machine.
Deliberating something.
“And if it’s really anything to do with you, which it isn’t,” I add. “Chloe and I are a couple now. She’s mine, and I don’t give a damn what you or anyone else has to say about it.”
I dunno why it matters what this old fool thinks. But the way he’s looking at me, the things I can just tell he wants to say about her.
Fuck it.
“Anyway. I may as well tell you now instead of after lunch… If I ever get any,” I sigh. Staring him down like a gunfighter about to outdraw the slickest gun in the west.
“Don’t tell me,” he butts in, talking over me like he always does.
“You’re gonna marry her too?” he scoffs, shaking his head as he looks away.
It does stop me cold. But only because I’d actually never thought things that far ahead.
Married. To Chloe?
The idea makes me smile wide. Makes what I have to tell him a whole lot easier.
“I quit, Kenneth. That’s what I came out here to tell you. Effective immediately.”
The words make me feel at least fifty pounds lighter, and I can even feel my shoulders straightening up.
Standing taller for the first time in years, if that’s at all possible.
I always thought I was in charge of my life, but I haven’t been.
I’ve been dancing to this old man’s tune for decades.
Today is the first day of my life with Chloe, and if I want to act on the marriage idea, I’d better act fast.
I’m expecting shock, surprise, or even a hint of sadness from him. But Condor’s face is granite.
