Rule's Addiction (The House of Rule 3)

“Technicalities don’t interest me. How old are you?”

She held his eyes as she slowly shook her head. “You’re breaking the law by asking me that question.”

“You really have a problem with telling me?”

“How old are you?” she asked instead of answering him.

“Twenty-nine,” he fired back instantaneously. “How old are you?” he asked again.

There was five seconds of silence while she stared back at him, and he read fire in her eyes. “I’m twenty-five.”

“You look younger.”

“Thank you,” she snapped.

He narrowed his eyes. “It wasn’t a compliment. Extreme youth isn’t an attribute for a position like this—”

“What position are we talking about?”

“You haven’t figured it out yet? I’m interviewing you for the position of GM. Right now. That’s what we’re doing.”

“Interviewing me? I thought you were about to get rid of me.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Seriously? Your blonde girlfriend—”

“Okay. Let’s get that settled between us right now. I already told you last night—and I really don’t like to repeat myself—she’s not my girlfriend. Not that it would be any of your business if she were.” He studied her thoughtfully. “Was that the reason you went Rambo on her ass? Are you jealous?” Shit, he liked the thought of that.

“Jealous?”

He shrugged a shoulder, attempting not to give too much away. “You have to admit it’s a valid question. Your actions don’t make sense. You’ve been putting up with an asshole who, by the looks of it, was doing nothing but gambling on his office computer all day while you performed his job.”

“He’s only been here since Mr. Duncan’s wife flew into a panic at the first thought of real work—”

Garrett continued as if she hadn’t interrupted him, “And then Courtney comes down for a few weeks after the sale goes through . . . and she’s nothing but quiet and sweet. So why would a female employee of the Rule Corporation put you in such a snit if you weren’t jealous? You have to know she told me how you tried to sabotage the refurbishment process.”

Her tone became heated as she looked at him with contempt . . . and something else she seemed to be hiding. “I wasn’t jealous,” she bit out under her breath, looking around as if gauging whether or not anyone could hear the conversation before looking back to him. “And neither did I do a damn thing that hurt the hotel. I would never do anything detrimental to the hotel. All I did was inconvenience her a little.”

“Why?”

“I wasn’t jealous,” she maintained, refusing to answer the question.

“If you want the damn job, I want an answer, an answer that makes sense.”

Her features became pointed as she stared at him without backing down. Her mouth flattened, her arms crossed over her chest as she spit out, “I don’t care for nepotism. And it seemed to me that she was going to get the job I deserved because of her relationship with you.”

As soon as the statement left her lips, all Garrett was able to see was the flash of fire in her eyes. But when he managed to regroup, he felt the direct hit of her accusation. Nepotism? He was being accused of nepotism? Truthfully, he’d never given it much thought.

Although his relationship with Courtney wasn’t the type Maria had in mind, there was a relationship. And for a moment, he almost felt guilty, but not quite. And why should he? He and his brothers fully owned the corporation. They could hire whoever the hell they wanted. So yeah, they’d hired both Erin and Courtney after the girls had graduated from college. Why the hell shouldn’t they? The girls were both extremely smart, they were family members who would be loyal to the corporation, and what the fuck? He and his brothers could do whatever the hell they wanted . . . they owned one hundred percent of the corporate stock. The corporation wasn’t publicly traded. It was private. And they could make private decisions as they saw fit.

But looking at it from this girl’s point of view, he could see how the situation might have pissed her off. Garrett marshaled his thoughts and answered her question to the best of his ability . . . but only for his satisfaction. “Courtney’s not my girlfriend and I’m not going to say that again—but she is a member of my family. You and I are not going to have a discussion about nepotism, so you best let that go.” Picking up his glass, he took another drink before setting it back down a little too abruptly. “So, here’s the deal about the GM position. From where I sit, it’s obvious you run the hotel and you deserve the job with a commensurate pay level. You can have the job on a probationary basis, until I see that you can handle it—”