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“Well, she’s not going to leave you in your perfectly tailored bespoke suits and an overpriced businessman’s haircut.”
“Why not?” Andreas demanded, aggrieved.
“How should I know? You’re the one who said she insisted on a makeover.” Kayla thought he was plenty devastating just the way he was.
“Genevieve believes I am not approachable enough for husband material.”
“What kind of husband does she think you need to be?”
“That is a good question and perhaps one I should have asked before paying her a twenty-five-thousand-dollar retainer.”
“You think?” Kayla asked with heavy sarcasm.
Andreas frowned at her. “It is not as if I asked her nothing.”
“Oh, I’m sure.” Kayla started ticking off on her fingers. “Can you find me a bride who will fit these requirements? Will she be an asset to my business? She must be of a certain age and come from an acceptable background.”
“You know I am not seeking to marry some wealthy socialite.”
“That’s not what I meant by acceptable background. I know you well enough to know your list of background attributes ran more to the lines of came from a stable home so she knows what good parenting looks like for when you have children.” Which left Kayla out of the running right there. “Has an education, but isn’t a PhD because you’re enough of a chauvinist it would bother you if your wife was more educated than you.”
“It doesn’t bother me that you are smarter than me.”
“I’m smarter at computers, not more intelligent and we have the same number of years in our degrees. Do not tell me if I had a PhD in engineering it wouldn’t bother you.”
“I would be proud of you. Do you wish to go back to school?”
Sometimes Kayla did. She loved learning, but more because she thought maybe someday she’d like to teach at the adult level. She didn’t say that now, though. She just stared at him.
“What?” he demanded.
“My future plans aren’t your concern.”
“I do not agree.”
“Andreas, you’re going to be way too busy with your new venture capital firm to worry about what I do on the daily with my life.”
“That is not true.”
“You’re so stubborn.”
He laughed. “Have you met yourself?”
“Seriously, Andreas. You have this picture of how everything is going to be and you assume everyone is going to fall into it. That’s not the way the world always works.”
“As you have proven. We are in New York.”
“So you have reminded me.”
“It is a fascinating city, but I had no plans to visit this week.”
“Neither did I before you dropped your bomb.”
“It was not my intention to explode your life.”
“Just move yours forward. I know.”
“In my defense, I believed I was moving both our lives forward.”
“Because you are arrogant and believe you know what is best for other people.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight with me?”
“No. Just not letting you get away with anything. It’s what I do.”
“It has been too long since we shared a meal like this.”
“You’ve been busy the past couple of months.” She looked at him as the pieces started to fall into place. “Getting ready for the sale to Sebastian Hawk, right?”
Andreas grimaced. “You make it sound like I was sneaking around. I did nothing in secret.”
“Then why didn’t I know about it?”
“Because neither did I advertise the fact.”
Kayla just shook her head. “Sneaky.”
“No.” His phone buzzed, indicating a text message of low priority, but then it chimed with Bradley’s tone and Andreas looked at the screen, his face taking on a thunderous appearance as he read.
“What’s the matter?” Kayla asked.
He looked up at her, his jaw set. “I’ll explain in a moment.” Then he dialed a number on his phone.
The sound of a woman’s tones answering could be heard. If Kayla wasn’t mistaken it was Genevieve.
Andreas barely listened for a second before saying, “You are fired.”
Outraged squawks followed.
“I do not care what you saw on some social feed. I do not answer to you for my time and I will not have my instructions ignored or questioned by those who work for me. I expect a breach-of-contract portion refund of my retainer. Our business dealings are at an end.”
The woman was no longer yelling, clearly trying to cajole Andreas into changing his mind, but Kayla could have told her it was a waste of her breath. He had made up his mind before making the call. Whatever she’d done had pissed him off on a level that there was no coming back from.
Not in Andreas’s world.
“Goodbye, Genevieve.” He ended the call without any more words.
Kayla stared at him. “What was that all about?”
Andreas looked pained. “You sure you want to know?”
With that look on his face? “Definitely.”
“Genevieve wanted to come to New York to give me the infamous makeover, but I told her no. She decided this morning to ignore my wishes and come anyway. Bradley learned of her plans because my administrative assistant has ears everywhere and gave me a heads-up. Not that Genevieve hadn’t told me herself in a text.” Oh, Andreas sounded pissed.
“What would make her think that would be okay with you?”
“More like what made her think she might be losing a lucrative client?”
Kayla had a bad feeling. “And what was that?”
“Someone posted a picture of us kissing to one of those social media sites.”
“But how would she have seen that? Surely they didn’t know our names.”
“A stroke of bad luck, I think. First an enterprising social media paparazzo saw you with Jacob and made it her mission to find out who you were, which wasn’t hard after his sister apparently dissed you on Twitter for bailing on your date with him. The social media paparazzo happened to be on the cruise with us this morning. She decided to update the scandal of your botched date with Jacob by posting the picture of you and me kissing this morning.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Improbable. Ridiculous timing. But not impossible.”
“And Genevieve found out already?”
“She’s a shark and stuff like this is blood in the water to her.”
“Wow.”
“That is no excuse for her ignoring my instructions.”
“She was clearly worried about your commitment to finding a wife.”
“I’m not married yet. I’m not even dating any of her candidates.”
“Still.”
“Still nothing. I fired her and she’ll refund at least eighty percent of that retainer or she’ll learn why there are risks involved targeting my demographic as her clientele.”
“Okay, relax, Andreas. She told you all that just now?”
“She wanted me to know what a bad risk you are for involvement.”
“That wasn’t very nice of her.” Not that Kayla expected any different.
“She’s not a very nice person, but she is efficient.”
“That’s good I guess.”
“Don’t sound so enthusiastic.”
“You’re the one who fired her.”
“You know I don’t tolerate being ignored.”
“I ignore you, you’ve never fired me.”
“You are the exception to the rule.” He winked at her and was too darn sexy with it. “Don’t let that get out.”
“We can’t have anyone thinking you are a pushover.” Kayla couldn’t help the warmth that filled her at this reminder of her unique place in Andreas’s life.
“Because I am not.”
“No, you are not.” He was selling the company out from under her after all. Andreas was no sentimental pushover.
“Have you finished?” Andreas asked, indicating her mostly eaten plate that she hadn’t touched in over ten minutes.
“Yes.”
“Are you ready to do some more sightseeing?”
Funnily enough, she’d expected him to ask to go back to the hotel. The sexual tension in the air was thick enough it should be an opaque cloud around them, but it was as if he was intent on building the anticipation to maximum levels.
He used to do that, back in the day, when they’d been lovers.
It had driven her crazy, in the best possible way.
* * *
A new-model, dark sedan was waiting for them when they reached the street.
“Where to now?” she asked as he handed her into the back seat, her slacks sliding easily over the plush leather seats.
There was something odd in his expression, almost hesitant as he joined her. “I thought the Brooklyn Bridge. You were fascinated by it this morning on the tour.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“And you like bridges.”
Portland had its own fair share, and she’d spent enough time exploring them, photographing them, walking across the ones with pedestrian ways and lost in contemplation staring at the river from their heights.
She shrugged. “They’re like code, you know. They make a way between where you are and where you want to be.”
“Your mind is unique, Kay-love. You realize this?” His voice was warm with approval.
And she wasn’t sure what to do with that. “I know I don’t think like normal people.”
“What is normal?” His dark Greek brow creased. “Are we supposed to strive for average? I do not think so.”
“Your arrogance is showing again.” But she knew he absolutely believed what he said.
