Chapter 3
DRAKE
Travis Maxwell, the CEO of Maxwell Hotels, greeted me as he stopped by my office the next morning. "I hope you had a good time last night. I didn't tell the team who you were. I wanted you to get a feeling for how everything works."
I nodded. I had been pleased with everything except Kimberly, but I wasn't going to address that. If I was on good terms with Travis, that was all that mattered.
"Remind me, are you staying for another night?" he asked.
"Yeah, for four in total."
"Let's do rounds. I can introduce you to everyone. They should be here by now."
"Sounds good," I said, standing up.
Travis Maxwell seemed like a no-nonsense kind of guy. Kimberly seemed to be his complete opposite. What the hell got into me last night?
I met Dorian, Gina, and Helen first and shook hands with all of them. They were in marketing and sales.
"Welcome to the Maxwell Hotel," they each said.
"Thank you. I'm looking forward to working with all of you."
It was true. I’d come to Chicago for my sister, but I was determined to make the best of everything.
“Let’s go see Kimberly,” Travis suggested, moving through an open door.
He smiled at the two women inside. "Oh, Reese, you're here too. Good. Meet our new general manager, Drake DuGray."
Kimberly was sitting at her desk but stood abruptly when she saw me.
Reese turned around, smiling wildly. "Drake, I'm glad to meet you in person. I've already heard so much about you."
She glanced at Kimberly, and I instantly knew Reese was aware of our altercation. I shook her hand.
Kimberly came up to me, too, and her eyes held the same annoyance from the bar. She stretched out her arm, offering her hand for a shake, and I knew this was nothing close to a truce.
"We met last night," she told Travis, "but I was off the clock, so it doesn't count."
Interesting. Maybe that meant she wanted a clean slate. I wasn't sure who needed it most, her or me, but I took it.
"I'm glad to meet you, Reese, and you again, Kimberly."
I shook her hand, holding it a few seconds longer than was polite.
She took in a sharp breath, and I couldn't help looking up at her mouth. She was wearing red lipstick today. Last night, her lips hadn’t appeared to have any color on them.
They were lush and plump—she didn’t need to cover them with makeup.
A good, possessive kiss would bring a natural blush to them.
Christ, I'm losing my mind.
"Did Travis show you around?" Reese asked.
"I was just starting to introduce him when I heard voices in here, but I'm going to take him around the hotel," Travis replied.
He probably had other, more important things to do. "Travis, I appreciate it, but you don't have to do that. I can walk around on my own."
"Nonsense, man. I know this place better than anyone. There's no one better to introduce you than me."
I nodded. "Then I'll accept the opportunity."
Maybe I could get used to working in a smaller company. There were no tours given by the CEO in any of the other chains I'd worked with.
Travis exited the office, and I took one last look at Kimberly before following him out. She pressed her lips together, crossing her arms over her chest.
The friendly facade was just for Travis’s eyes. I couldn’t wait to be alone with her again. Figuring out Kimberly Maxwell wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.
Kimberly
I went back behind my desk when Travis and Drake left.
"Well, well, well," Reese said. "You haven't told me everything."
"What are you talking about?" I glanced at her. "I gave you a play-by-play of the shitty evening.”
"Yes, but you failed to mention anything about the sparks."
"What sparks?" I asked, bewildered.
My sister grinned, sitting down in the chair opposite me and laying her elbows on the desk with her fingers laced together. "The sparks between you and Drake."
"You're imagining things."
“No, I'm not. Let me see if I got anything wrong. He shook your hand. You reacted to that. He then looked at your mouth in a very obvious way."
I blinked and shimmied in my seat, feeling hot all of a sudden. "Wait, that was all obvious? You think Travis noticed?"
She shook her head. "No, he was too busy selling his skills as a hotel tour guide to pay any attention. And I was already a little biased after your story."
"Biased?" I parroted. “How? I told you he’s an ass."
"Yeah, but you told it with such passion, you know? And you kind of respect him for having the balls to crash your date."
"Oh, Reese," I said, laughing. "You're imagining things."
"Am I? You're not even 5 percent attracted to him?"
I held up my hands. "Of course I am.”
She grinned. "Aha. I knew it."
I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Reese. You know that's true, very objectively speaking. But there are no sparks. I've been at odds with him since we hired him and he shot off that first email. Besides, after the disaster in Paris, I will never get involved with someone I work with again. Ever."
Her smile faded. "I'm sorry that was such a shitty experience, especially because you had to go through it alone, and you didn't have me to pamper you with sisterly advice and take you shopping."
"But now I'm back, and you can spoil me six ways from Sunday after every shitty date."
I'd dated my boss in Paris, and things seemed to be going okay—up until he went on vacation for a whole month and came back married. I lost most of faith in humanity right then and there. Then again, my sister had even shittier luck. She’d been engaged years ago and found out that her then-fiancé was sleeping with her best friend.
I'd flown home right away and tried my best to comfort her, but she'd been inconsolable.
"We both have a knack for dating assholes," she said.
"Yes, that's another minus point in Drake's column. He’s an ass.”
“But he did save you from a bad date."
"Oh, Reese, you should have been there to see it. He was so full of himself."
"I can picture it because he seems to be the type.”
“Anyway, I wanted to ask you something else." I chose my next words carefully because I didn't want to alarm her. "Have you spoken to Tate lately?"
"Yeah, I went by his house yesterday evening after they came home from the doctor."
"You did?" I asked. "I thought about going, then figured they wouldn't want me crashing there."
Reese winked. "I don’t think they wanted me there either. But I was too worried. The baby's fine. Her fever went down soon after they gave her the medicine."
I sank lower in my chair, breathing out in relief. "That's good. God, I couldn't handle being a mom. I'm anxious every time I hear one of our nieces is sick. I couldn't imagine how uptight I'd be if it were my baby."
She gave me a sympathetic smile. "Tate says you never really get used to it."
“Very encouraging,” I murmured. "But why do I even think about stuff like this? I'm light-years away from having a family and kids."
"No, you're not," Reese said, standing up. "You're very putting yourself out there and going on dates."
"You know me. I'm nothing if not determined. And if you’re ready to jump into it, I do have a few good websites that screen people beforehand.
For example, they ask you to upload résumés, double-check that the data fits, and so on.
You can put all sorts of filters, like college degrees and things like that.
I might have overdone those filters, and that's how I ended up being matched with Patrick.
But I'm sure I'll have more luck next time," I said, grinning from ear to ear.
I liked the dating process. It was exciting—most of the time.
"One of these days, I hope to catch some enthusiasm from you. In the meantime, I wouldn't discard Drake too quickly."
I cleared my throat. "By all means, if you want to date him, go for it."
"I meant for you."
I shook my head. "Reese, don't start again."
"I'm not, but the sparks don't lie. Trust me, I saw them. You have them in spades, and I stand by every word."
"Whatever. Now, shoo. I need to start my workday, and I can't do it with you filling my head with all sorts of ideas."
"Okay, I'll stop for now. Maybe I'll see you at lunch."
"Cool," I said as she walked out, closing my door behind her.
I loved this the most about being back in Chicago: working with Travis and Reese. I could meet up with them every day, sometimes for lunch. I even dropped by Tate's house during the day if anyone was home.
I went through my to-do list, ticking off items as I finished them. God, I loved my job. For so long, I'd been determined to do things independently.
I wouldn't say I was ashamed of the Maxwell name, but I hadn't embraced it. I’d insisted on doing everything on my own. I didn't know when I got past that, but I was glad I did. I was proud to know that I was working toward something that contributed to our family legacy.
Shortly before lunch, I received an email from Drake.
Subject: Urgent.
I groaned. Everything was urgent with him.
I'd like to schedule a one-on-one meeting as soon as possible. I didn't see any access to your calendar. Add me ASAP.
I smirked. He wants access to my calendar, huh?
Obviously, as general manager, he should have it, but I was feeling extra feisty. I’d been out of line last night, I knew that, but so was he. I was going to make him suffer a bit more for it.
I went back to my to-do list, and my breath caught when I heard his voice in the corridor. I broke out in a sweat. My mouth was dry, and I licked my lips. If there were a prize for sexiest voice alive, he'd take home gold, no doubt about that.
Jesus, Kimberly, get yourself together. He's a colleague, he's an ass, and he's absolutely, incontestably off-limits.