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ONE
Alexander
It’s fucking freezing.
Who knew that Las Vegas even got this cold. I thought that it was always supposed to feel like hell. Sweltering, sauna hot, and full of tourists. sweltering.
I glare out the window of the town car as we fight our way through late evening Las Vegas traffic. We stop at a red light and I roll my eyes when I see the line out the door for the wedding chapel there. It’s almost Valentine’s Day, I realize when I catch sight of the insufferable red and pink hearts hanging in all of the shop’s windows. There are even some hearts hanging from street lamps every few feet. I give them a dirty look, wishing the car would start moving by now. I just need to get to the hotel room where everything will look bland and I can forget all about this terrible holiday. I scowl at the happy couples as our car starts to move once more.
“You’re scaring people,” Eden, my assistant, says next to me and I turn slightly in my seat, looking at her out of the corner of my eye.
She’s typing away on her cellphone, sending emails and replying to texts. The internet was down on the plane so I know that she must have a ton of messages and work to get through. Luckily for me, she’s a hard worker and I’m sure she’ll be caught up by the time we get to our hotel.
Her head is bent, the auburn locks reflecting gold highlights from the sun, while her fingers fly over the phone screen. I don’t know how she can always tell what I’m doing when she never seems to be looking at me.
I glare at the side of her head and she flips me off, grinning as she finishes up her email.
“The windows are blacked out. No one can see me,” I remind her.
She rolls her eyes, putting her phone away and pressing her face against the window. We’re on Las Vegas Boulevard now, the main strip in Las Vegas, and she’s staring up at the Paris Hotel’s Eiffel Tower and the light shooting up out of the Luxor Hotel. We pass by the Excalibur Hotel and she smiles, taking in the castle like structure.
She cranes her neck, smiling as her eyes try to take everything in.
What a sap. How can anyone in their right mind be impressed by any of this?
I turn back to the window, ignoring her.
We pass by the New York-New York Hotel and I bare my teeth, hating the sight. It feels like the whole hotel was built to mock me. Like it’s taunting me.
We just left New York to come to this hellhole. I don’t know why Mr. Grainer cared so much where we finished this deal, but it seemed important to him that it was here. I tried everything in my power to convince him to finish this deal in New York—the city—but he had been determined that we needed to sign the papers in Las Vegas.
We drive past the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Eden Ooh’s next to me. Apparently, she can’t see all of the drunk people stumbling along the sidewalk out front.
“We should check out the aquarium!” she says excitedly, pointing up to the glowing sign.
“Hmm, how about no,” I say sarcastically, staring out my window.
I know without looking that she just rolled her eyes at me.
Maybe we’ve been spending too much time together, I muse. We seem to know what the other is doing without even glancing at each other.
Eden has been my personal assistant for the last two years. She deals with my cranky ass and insane work hours and I pay her exorbitant amounts of money to do so. Before her, there was a long line of assistants who had only lasted a week or two, tops. I’ve been called every name imaginable and had resigned myself to a revolving door of assistants when Eden came in for an interview.
She was gorgeous and had looked so sweet that part of my brain told me to kick her out right then and there. This angel didn’t need to deal with my shitty mood swings or antisocial tendencies. I had been about to tell her to leave when she opened her mouth.
“You know how real estate companies stage homes so they sell better?” she asked, looking around my office with a slightly confused look on her face.
I had frowned, unsure where she was going with this line of questioning.
“Yes. What does that have to do with anything?” I asked, my eyes fighting not to trail over the lines of her body once more.
“I’m just thinking maybe you should hire one of them to decorate your office. No wonder no one wants to work here. It’s so boring in here! Where’s all of your stuff?”
I had just stared at her. Sure, my office was pretty bare, but I was here to work, not stare at little trinkets.
I hired her right then and there.
It took me about two seconds for me to figure out that Eden was going to be a problem for me, but even knowing what a distraction and potential liability she was, I still found myself telling her to head downstairs to HR to fill out her new hire paperwork.
