Rage at the faceless young woman mixed with the lust he felt, dangerously fueling his blood. Nobody fucked with his family; nobody fucked with the business he and his brothers had slaved over and built into the empire it now was. And here was the kicker, not only did he feel rage, he felt as if he’d been betrayed. Why? Because he’d had the pleasure of speaking to Maria on the phone several times before his intentions of buying the property had become common knowledge.
The first couple of times she’d been courteous and professional before transferring his call through. But with every call, her voice had gotten warmer and sweeter, until finally, she’d become so friendly that he’d thought they had a rapport. So yeah, her actions now felt like a betrayal, truly pissing him off. This was what he got from the girl who used to be so friendly that it was almost as if they were flirting?
Resolutely, he pushed the memory of the tone she’d used to tease him with out of his mind; it only pissed him off further. This goddamn fascination he had with her should have already dissolved; he should have known what she looked like by now. She should have been at the hotel the day he’d flown into Florida to inspect the property before buying it. But she hadn’t been at work that particular day, and his disappointment had manifested itself into a deeper infatuation, the spell she’d cast over him via the telephone staying firmly in place.
The hotel had been in chaos when he’d arrived. The owner had dropped dead of a heart attack a couple of months before, and the running of it had been left to his widow, a woman who apparently, wanted nothing to do with work of any kind. She had immediately hired a general manager for the short-term, and then had listed the hotel for sale.
The day Garrett had visited, the general manager had called in sick, and Maria was a no-show as well. He’d asked the widow about her whereabouts; he hadn’t been able to stop himself. He’d been told that she’d taken a personal day, but the woman hadn’t elaborated. He hadn’t been able to let it go at that; he’d done some digging while subtly interrogating some of the other employees and found out that it was one of many personal days that she’d earned over the years but hadn’t seen fit to take before.
It had made Garrett wonder about her reason for not being there on the day he’d been scheduled to inspect the property. As he’d been given a tour of the facility and came to the desk that she used, the utilitarian look of it made him wonder about her even more.
Either a man or a woman could have used the space; there wasn’t a single picture or knick-knack to give a clue about the personality of the employee who usually sat there. But there had been a scent. A sumptuous, layered, ultra-feminine scent that conjured visions of naked limbs and smooth skin that had made him even more hotly curious.
He’d wanted to stay in Miami for another day, strictly to meet her, but he’d already made his decision to purchase the hotel, and had put the pieces in place for the deal to move forward. Hanging around for another day on a whim wasn’t an option. He’d had shit to take care of; lingering for the sole purpose of glimpsing a girl who’d flirted over the phone wasn’t conducive to business.
So he’d left, proving to himself that his pecker couldn’t rule him, and the sale had gone through.
The next time he’d spoken to her, her voice had changed. The husky, flirtatious tone was conspicuously absent. In its place was a no-nonsense, professional voice that sounded as if she had no time or desire to speak to him, simply transferring his call without any unnecessary fanfare.
So it had been obvious to him—the sale had pissed her off. Or the Rule Corporation had pissed her off, or maybe Courtney had pissed her off. Something had pissed her off.
And he shouldn’t give a shit why the change in her had occurred. She was just another faceless woman at another piece of commercial real estate that he had dealings with.
But in the back of his mind, he had a tantalizing thought; he now owned the hotel where she worked. Tomorrow morning he was going to get on a plane, and soon he’d be in Florida to take care of things, just as he’d promised he would, so Courtney could get back to the Rule Corporation headquarters in St. Louis . . . but not before warning her to keep quiet about his impending arrival. There was no reason to give the conniving little Judas named Maria any advantage.