Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
K ingston
"So how's everything going with your new assistant?" Remington asks as I walk into his office on Tuesday morning.
"Everything's fine. Why?" I take a seat in the leather chair across from his desk and he just gives me a knowing look. My heart pounds for a second and I wonder if he does know.
"I don't know. She's just looking cuter and cuter each day," he smirks.
“I haven’t noticed that she's looking cuter and cuter?” I shrug and pretend like I haven’t been paying close attention to her every single time I see her.
"Well, I feel like she's wearing shorter and shorter skirts and more revealing tops and there's a certain look she gives you when she sees you."
"Er? A look of hatred," I say and he chuckles.
"Yeah, something like that. So it's working out then?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be working out?"
"Just checking." He grins and nods toward the desk outside his office where his secretary, Juniper, sits. "This is the secret to having a long-lasting assistant."
"What is?" I ask him.
"Not being attracted to her. And you can do that in one of two ways. Either you get someone that's older. I mean, unless you have a fetish for older women or you like cougars. There are some very attractive older women, but I'm just saying, as a general rule, that works."
"Okay. And the other?"
"The other one is if you're going to go with a younger one, make sure you don't want to bed her."
I stare at him. "Is this your way of telling me that you have or haven't bedded Juniper?"
"No way. I would never do that. We have too much of a mutual understanding."
"And what understanding is that?"
"Neither one of us is interested in the other," he says with a grin. "She…well, I don't even think she dates," he laughs.
"Okay, so she's not interested in you and you're not interested in her."
"Exactly. Kind of like you and Skye."
"Exactly," I say, nodding. "I have zero interest in her."
"Which is surprising to me," he says. "Because she's very attractive."
"She's okay if you like redheads."
"You know something I've always wondered about redheads?" he asks.
"No. What's that?"
"Come on. You have to know what I'm thinking, Kingston."
"If you say if the carpet matches the drapes, I will stand up and leave your office."
"Then I won't say it," he grins. "But don't you sometimes look at her and wonder?"
I stare at him for a couple of seconds and I just keep my lips pressed together. One, because I already know that her carpet matches her drapes, and two, because if he keeps up this conversation, I'm going to smack him because I do not want him wondering about Skye whatsoever. I haven't seen her in a personal manner since Sunday morning, and while I’m grateful that we’ve decided to separate the personal and the business, it’s still odd having her act so professional in the office, as if nothing else is happening.
"So anyway," he says. "Shall we start going through these continuances? I need to get Juniper to contact Judge Warren to see if there's any update on when we can go to trial for the Altadena Electronics case."
"Okay. Well, let's see," I say, leaning back. He mumbles about something related to one of his cases and I feel my mind wandering off. I wonder what fun night Skye is going to plan. I wonder if she's racking her brains for something really fun and exciting. Hopefully she doesn't spend too much money. I realized then that I need to have a conversation with her. I'd feel awful if she was spending a lot of money on me. Maybe it would be a smart idea for me to give her a credit card. That way she wouldn't have to pay for the dates out of pocket, but she could choose what we did. That’s actually a great idea.
"So yeah, what were you thinking about that, Kingston?" Remington says, and I look up at him.
"Yeah, sounds good to me," I nod.
"Well, that was easy," he says with a smirk.
"Yep. You know me. Easy Kingston Chase."
"Actually, things are never this easy with you, but I'm not going to argue. Also, by the way, Max wanted to know if you're interested in going to Atlantic City with me, him, and Gabe in a couple of weekends?"
"Yeah, sounds like fun. When were you thinking?"
"I'm thinking the third Saturday next month."
"Saturday?" I pause as I stare at him.
He nods. "Yeah. Saturday. Why? You got big plans for some distant Saturday next month?"
"No, no plans," I say quickly. "But I will need to check my calendar. I may or may not have something scheduled with an old friend."
"Really?" he says. "And you can't get out of it?"
"It's been scheduled for a while. I'll check and see."
"Okay, well let us know. We can change it to another Saturday."
"Can't we go on a Friday?"
He stares at me for a couple of seconds. "I guess we could, but traffic out of The City will be horrid and we want to stay the night." He stares at me. "We were thinking of getting some sort of suite and…"
"I'd prefer it to be a Friday. Of course, I can check and see if I can do a Saturday if absolutely necessary," I say quickly when I realize he's looking at me suspiciously.
"Okay, well, you check your calendar and let me know." He leans forward. "Is everything okay Kingston?"
"Yeah. Why are you asking me that?"
"You've just been acting funny."
"Erm, funny how?"
"I don't know. You haven't said one thing about any of the five cases I've just been speaking about. You now have random plans with a random friend for a Saturday. Let's be real. I haven't heard you talk about any friends other than your law partners in a really long time. You're not dating someone, are you?"
"What? No, of course not," I say quickly. "Me? Are you kidding?"
His eyes narrow. "Are you dating someone? Holy shit. Who are you dating?"
"I'm not dating anyone. There may be someone that I'm having some fun with, but that's it."
"Holy shit. Who is it? Oh my God. Not Natasha."
"Natasha?" I stare at him.
"Your last female of the month."
"Oh, Natasha. No, no, no, no," I say and shudder. "Definitely not."
"Huh? Who is it? Can we meet her?"
"Why would you need to meet her when she's nothing?"
"Well, she's obviously something if?—"
"Hey, Remi, do I ask you about your women of the weekend?"
"No, but there's no point because it's a different one each weekend." He grins. "Actually, that reminds me. Hold on a second." He presses the intercom on his phone. "Hey, Juniper."
"Yes sir?" she responds immediately.
"I need you to contact Bruno at the local flower shop and have him send a dozen roses to Camilla, and another dozen to Lily Anne. Oh, and a dozen to Charity as well."
Juniper clears her throat. "And what color roses would you like me to send, sir?"
"All red. Or wait, do you think I should send yellow or pink or?—"
"Red sounds fine, sir."
"Great, and you'll do that now?"
"Certainly, sir. And what would you like the card to say?"
"You can just say, 'Looking forward to seeing you soon. Always yours, Remington'"
"Yes sir. Anything else, sir?"
"That sounds good." He presses the intercom button and grins at me. "Thank you for that. I nearly forgot I needed to send those roses."
"Are you kidding me?" I stare at him. "You're sending a dozen roses to three different women."
"Yeah, I met them all within the last couple of weeks and I don't want them to think I've forgotten them."
"So you're dating all of them?"
"No, but I plan to see one of them this weekend and I'm not sure which one I want to see yet. Camilla was a blonde, but her hair was a little short and I'm in my long hair phase." I roll my eyes and he grins. "What can I say? I just love pulling on long hair, especially when I'm behind."
"Really, dude? I do not care to hear about your prowess in bed or your preferences."
He chuckles. "I know, but sometimes I like to share."
"Anything else?" I say, standing up. "I really have got work to be doing."
"No, I guess we're good for now. So you'll check your calendar and see about next month?"
"I'll do that." I walk over to the door and look back at him. "You really are a dog, aren't you?"
"Hey, it takes one to no one," he grins. "Woof, woof."
I step out of his office and close the door behind me. I look over at Juniper, who's scribbling something on her notepad. "How are you doing this morning, Juniper?" I ask, looking down at her.
She peers up at me through her thick glasses, her hair in a tight bun on the top of her head, her lips a pale pink. She's wearing a baggy, oversized shirt and she gives me a small smile. "I'm fine today. Thank you for asking Mr. Chase. How are you?"
"I'm doing good. I just wanted to say that even though you don't work for me, I'm appreciative of the fact that you put up with Remington. I know it's a lot having to deal with him."
Her smile widens as she pulls off her glasses for a second and rubs the arch at the top of her nose. As I stare down at her face without the glasses, I realized that she's really quite pretty, or at least could be if she did something with herself. "I appreciate that comment Mr. Chase. It's always nice to be in high regards at the law firm you work at." She puts the glasses back on and they swallow her entire face up again.
"Well, you're welcome. Keep up the good work."
"Thank you," she says with a nod. "I better order these bouquets now."
"Yeah." I roll my eyes. "Good luck with that."
I head back to my office and I see that Skye is busy texting someone. I stop next to the desk and clear my throat. She looks up and blushes slightly. "Oh, what are you doing?" I ask her, lowering my voice slightly.
"Nothing. Why do you ask?" she says far too quickly.
I pull out my phone to see if she's been texting me, but I have no missed messages from her. "Were you sending someone a dirty pic or something?"
"No, of course not. I don't send dirty pics."
"I know, unfortunately." I grin. "So then what were you doing?"
"Well, not much. I was just checking something."
"You were typing into your phone rather rapidly," I say. "You can tell me."
"I mean, can I?" She wrinkles her nose.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't you be able to tell me?"
"I was applying for a reality dating TV show," she shrugs and licks her lips.
I frown slightly. "You what?"
"I was applying for a reality dating TV show. Love is Blind . Have you heard of it?"
"You mentioned it to me before, but I thought that was because you wanted to watch it, not because you wanted to be on it."
“Well, you know." She clears her throat and looks away. I can feel myself getting angry.
"Okay, well good luck," I say, though I don't really mean it.
"Thanks." She blinks as she looks up at me. "So is there any work that you need me to do? Because I was actually hoping that I?—"
"Yes, I have a lot of work that I need you to do. Did you finish transcribing the recordings that I gave you this morning?"
"No, but you said you needed them by Friday and it's only Tuesday and?—"
"Well, I need them by the end of the day."
"But there's five hours of transcription for me to do."
"And is that a problem?"
She lets out a huge sigh. "No, I guess not."
"Good. If you can get them done by five PM today, I would be grateful."
"But you said Friday when you handed it to me and now you're?—"
"I know you're not talking to me like that."
"What?" Her jaw drops.
"I'm your boss and I demand respect." I know I sound like a jerk, but I just can’t stop myself.
She narrows her eyes and takes a deep breath. I can't keep my eyes off of her lips. She looks so sexy when she's mad.
"You're such a freaking jerk," she mutters under her breath.
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"Nothing, Mr. Chase."
"Oh, I didn't think so. Also, by the way, you've got to let me know the plan for Saturday."
"Really?" She looks indignant. "You're going to bring up Saturday now?"
"Why wouldn't I? I need to know what to wear and what time to be ready, right?"
"Really, after you just told me to spend the rest of my afternoon transcribing recordings that you told me weren't due till Friday, you're going to now ask me about Saturday?"
"The two are not related, are they?" I grin. "Oh, and I’ll have a credit card for you by the end of the week."
"What are you talking about?"
"For the dates, the fun nights that you plan. I don't want you having to spend your money on the dates that we plan."
"They're not dates," she snaps.
"Well then on the activities that we partake in before we bang."
"Oh, wow. Way to make me feel like a classy woman."
"What would you rather me say, Skye? Would you rather me say dates? Would you rather me say activities? Would you rather?—"
"I would rather not talk about it in the office." She gives me a stare. "Thank you very much."
"Okay then. So you want to talk about it later?"
"We can talk about it on Friday afternoon," she says. "When I figure out what we're going to do."
"You haven't figured out where you're taking me on our fun night yet?"
"No, I have not," she says. "And if you keep this up, there's not going to be another fun night."
"Oh, so you use me for one fun night and that's it?" I grin at her.
She just shakes her head. "I have work to do Mr. Chase, so if you don't mind." She picks up the headphones on the side of her desk and places them over her ear then gives me the sweetest smile. "If you have any other questions in regards to work, please let me know." She puts the headphones over her ears and presses play on the digital recorder I'd handed her earlier and begins typing into her laptop.
I stare at her for a couple of seconds and just smile before heading back into my office. I sit at the desk and watch her typing outside the tall window. I wonder if she's really mad at me or she is just faking it for work. I have a feeling it's a little bit of both. I'm curious what date she's going to plan. Even though technically they're not dates, that's how I like to think of them.
I probably shouldn't. It most likely puts me in a mental place I shouldn't be in, but I don't care. I'm having fun and I hope she's having fun too.
I scowl as I remember that she said she'd applied to be on Love is Blind . I type the name of the show into Google to check out what it's all about. As I read about the premise, I'm not impressed. I do not want her going on that show. I do not want her looking for love with a stranger. I do not want any of it. For a few moments, I think about applying myself.
How funny would that be if we both got on the show and she didn't even know I was in the other pod? I grin to myself. I wonder if we would connect then. I freeze as I realize what thoughts are crossing my mind. It shouldn't matter if we connect in the pods because the pods are about finding a connection and I'm about physical intimacy.
"Remember what you're doing, Kingston," I chastise myself as I click out of the website and open my emails to see if I have anything that I need to send. I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and rub my temples as I realize this is getting far too complicated, far too quickly. You just need to remember what this is about. Sex and fun. Fun and sex. I open my eyes again and my heart races slightly as I see that I have an email from Skye. I grin as I open it eagerly, and I burst out laughing as I read what it says.