The Project

“You look like hell,”Lucas said, sighing heavily as he dropped down in the chair next to him.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Devyn murmured absently as his gaze shifted to Carta Hotels’ lawyers seated at the end of the boardroom table, going through the contracts one last time before his gaze flickered to Hillshire Hotels’ lawyers and their CEO doing the same on the other side of the table. He took in the Carta Hotels’ board members standing around the large boardroom, smiling as they congratulated themselves on a job well done as he sat there, unable to stop thinking about the small woman that was threatening his sanity.

This deal should have been more than enough to hold his attention, but he couldn’t stop thinking about her. This morning when he woke up and realized that she wasn’t there, he’d realized just how much he liked waking up with her in his arms. She’d felt so fucking good in his arms and-

What the hell was he doing? Devyn couldn’t help but wonder as he forced himself to stop thinking about Andi and focus on making sure that this deal went through. Over the past week, they’d gone through every file, looking for anything that would justify putting off this meeting, but everything was exactly the way that it was supposed to be, destroying every last concern that he’d had about this deal. Lucas was right, this deal was perfect and was exactly what he needed to secure his contract with Carta Hotels for two more years.

“You should have called me,” Lucas said absently as he watched the lawyers discuss the details of the stock transfer before his gaze shifted to the CEO of Hillshire Hotels, noting the relieved look on his face before he glanced back at his lawyers.

“And what would you have done if I had?” Devyn asked as Mark, the head lawyer for Carta Hotels, gave him the nod that he’d been waiting for.

“Probably made everything worse,” Lucas admitted, sighing heavily as he stood up. “Looks like I’m on.”

“Looks like it,” Devyn murmured, slowly exhaling as he gestured for the meeting to begin.

Everything was going to be fine. Lucas and his team had been working on this project for almost two years, making sure that everything was perfect, Devyn reminded himself as the rest of the board members took their seats. If there was one thing that he knew about Lucas, it was that he would do whatever it took to get what he wanted.

For the past two years, Lucas had been eyeing a seat on the board and with a deal this big, it was all but guaranteed to happen. Lucas would get a bigger office along with a bigger stake in the company, and Devyn would be able to stop fucking worrying about this deal and focus on taking over Hillshire Hotels and making sure the transition went smoothly.

He kept telling himself that for the next hour as Lucas went through his presentation, focusing on their plans for Hillshire Hotels, the projected earnings, and their expectations until finally, it was time. As Lucas stepped back, copies of the contract were handed to each member of the board while the master was placed in front of Devyn for his signature. He looked over the contract, his gaze lingering on the words, “Ten billion dollars,” before he found the signature line with his name typed beneath it followed by the words, CEO of Carta Hotels.

Relieved that this was finally over, Devyn reached for his pen and-

“Don’t sign it!” came the hysterical shout that drew his attention to the closed boardroom doors as they were thrown open and the last person that he’d expected to see came stumbling through them, hugging her iPad and a legal pad against her chest, gasping for air and-

“Please, don’t sign the contract!” Andi said, swallowing hard as she grabbed onto her side and muttered, “Stupid stairs,” as she tried to catch her breath.

“What the hell is going on?” Lucas asked while Devyn sat there, too stunned to do anything more than stare at Andi, wondering when she’d lost her damn mind.

“You can’t sign that contract,” Andi managed to get out as she stumbled towards him, only to get a panicked look in her eyes when she saw the pen in his hand.

“Call security!” Lucas snapped, moving to go after her only to curse when Andi grabbed the contract away from Devyn and-

Had him fucking sighing when she hugged the contract against her chest, moved to make a run for it, saw the large security guards walking into the room and decided that diving beneath the table was her best bet as the room erupted in shouted demands that someone stop her.

“What the hell is she doing?” Janet demanded as Devyn pushed his chair back and glared down at the small woman hugging the table leg as she continued struggling to catch her breath.

“Miss Dawson,” Devyn drawled, holding his hand out for the contract, praying like hell that she handed it over to him before she made this worse.

“Grab her!”

“You don’t understand. You can’t sign the contract!” Andi rushed to explain as she threw a panicked look at the large security guard reaching for her and-

“Oh, come on!” she said when they grabbed her, pulling her away from the table and managed to get the contract away from her before she could stop them.

“I’ll talk to you later, Miss Dawson,” Devyn said, feeling his stomach drop as he forced himself to look away as she struggled to break free. He had a job to do, Devyn reminded himself. He needed to sign the fucking papers and-

“Devyn, please!” she said, breaking him as he moved to go after them only to move his ass faster when the pain in the ass that had a lot of explaining to do managed to take the security guards carrying her by surprise and fell to the floor with a weakly mumbled, “That’s going to leave a mark.”

“Get her out of here!” Lucas snapped as Devyn dropped by Andi’s side, ignoring everything around them as he focused on her.

“You can’t sign the contracts,” Andi said, shaking her head frantically as he helped her sit up, absently noting that she was still hugging her iPad and the legal pad against her chest.

“Start talking,” Devyn said, hoping for her sake that she had a good reason for pulling this stunt.