Sultry in Stilettos (29 page)

Her eyes narrowed. “What's
your game? You want something for your silence?"

He went still and dropped
his hands. "What?"

She rolled her eyes. “I
hate to do this, but look—you keep your mouth shut, and the VP job
is yours."

Well if this didn't beat
it all to fuck. All he had to do to have his dream job was to fuck
over the woman loved.

Beckett stared at Serena,
unwilling to believe what he was hearing. "You mean to tell me,
you’d give me the job just like that? Forget the presentation and
who had honestly done the better job?"

Serena shifted from foot
to foot. "I'm willing to do what it takes to keep you quiet. Zach
can’t find out. Think about it. I’ll expect your answer after the
presentations at the end of the week."

Beckett didn't bother to
watch her run to the cab. His mind spun out of control. The old
Beckett would have taken the job on the spot, screw whoever got
trampled on the way. But he didn't have to be that guy anymore.
Then again, he could be the youngest VP this company had ever seen.
It was within his grasp. All he had to do was slice open his
vein.

He eventually made it to
Ricca’s doorstep. When she answered her door, her hair was rumpled,
and her Winnie the Pooh sleep shorts and tank top were
askew.

"Shit, sorry. I didn’t
realize you'd be asleep already.”

She smiled a soft smile
"S'okay. I'll be making you pay for it later."

He returned her smile, but
he felt sick. He couldn’t stand back and take a job he knew
belonged to her.

Ricca turned back to look
at him. "You coming?"

He let out a deep breath.
"Yeah, right behind you."

Once he'd stripped down to
his boxers, she grinned and started to peel off Pooh and
friends.

All he had to do was tell
her what he’d seen, and he’d be absolved. But he opened his mouth,
and instead, all that came out was. "You mind if I just hold you
for a bit?"

She easily melted in his
arms, and he held her tight. He’d figure out what to do about
Serena tomorrow. For tonight, he wanted to pretend that he and
Ricca were still in their bubble.

Ricca
paced back and forth outside the presentation hall. She reviewed
her notes time and again. She knew the presentation. She was just
too nervous to go inside and sit. She kept checking the halls for
Beckett, but she hadn’t seen him since last night.

He'd made love to her with
the fervor of a starving man. Heat pricked her cheeks and her sex
as she recalled last night. Unrelenting, he'd demanded more from
her than she'd thought she could give. But then, this morning she'd
woken up to find him gone.

Her first reaction had
been that he'd needed to go home and change for work, but he hadn’t
even left a note. He'd been off when he arrived at her place last
night, but not too bad.

She halted in front of the
presentation door again. She could do this.
Get your head out of your ass, Munroe
.
Job first. You can worry about
Beckett afterward. Right now you need to focus.
She heard the muffled footsteps behind her, and her heart
leaped.
Beckett
.

But it wasn't
him.

Sucking in a deep breath,
she went in to do her job. She'd find Beckett later and ask him
what the hell he thought he was doing. He was the one who’d said he
wanted this job. But he was throwing away his chance. With a deep
breath, Ricca walked into the conference room.

Her presentation was
smooth. She went through each of her notes effortlessly. As she
closed out her slides and potential fantasies, Beckett walked into
the room, and she almost stuttered. He looked amazing in the suit
he wore. She hadn’t even known Beckett owned a suit. He'd always
kept it business casual, even for presentations, telling her it
helped clients identify with him.

She knew right away
though, that something was wrong. He wouldn't meet her eyes, and he
went right to Serena. He didn’t say anything, but he murmured
something to her, and she nodded her head. Ricca didn't know what
had happened, but in that briefest of exchanges, she felt her dream
slipping away.

****

Beckett couldn't look at
Ricca during his presentation. He’d blown it. Soon enough, Ricca
would know it too. Serena and her boy-toy were both watching him
with keen eyes. How the hell had he gotten himself into such a
mess?

He'd left Ricca’s early in
the morning. If he'd stayed, he would have told her his plan, and
it wouldn’t work if she knew. Since he hadn’t slept all night, he’d
had some time to think.

His palms were sweaty.
Which was a joke because he'd done some of the most dangerous
stunts on God's green earth and never been nervous doing
this.

"Serena, Zach, before you
make a decision, I need to say this."

Serena glared at him, but
she could kiss his ass.

"I appreciate the time and
effort Fantasy, Inc. has put in to help build my career." Here it
was. Could he do this? Could he give it all up?

His eyes swung in Ricca's
direction of their own volition. The pain and confusion in her eyes
felt like a knife to his heart.

"I, however, am removing
myself from consideration for the job. Ricca Munroe is a terrific
asset to the team and an exceptional planner. She deserves the
promotion. I’m taking myself out of the competition. I'm good, but
Ricca Monroe is better. More than smart and capable, she's creative
and intuitive and one step ahead of the client at all points.
Giving me this title is a sham and a travesty compared to someone
who shows that it all takes hard work. I refuse to take something
that should have been hers from the beginning.”

Ricca's face froze in a
mask of shock.

Serena scowled as she
said, "Beckett, you do understand that another opportunity like
this may not come along again, and that you're throwing this away
for whatever relationship you two may have?”

Beckett sucked in a
breath. “Ricca deserves this job. More than I ever did." He looked
straight at Zach. “One more thing, Serena was behind the accidents
on this fantasy. She wanted a relationship with Roberto and was
angry when he wouldn’t leave Lila. She tampered with the car, the
juice meant for Lila, the suits at the track, she was behind it
all.” The room went silent and frozen. “And last night, she offered
me this job if I kept quiet about the relationship.”

Gasps of shock filled the
conference room. He stepped away from the podium and looked back in
Ricca's direction, but she was gone, the door to the conference
room still open. She’d left. Well at least he had his answer. There
was nothing he could do. He'd really messed up. But for once, he
felt okay.

On his way back to his
place, he passed the Westhorpe Hotel and immediately thought back
to New Year’s Eve. A simple kiss under the mistletoe, and his whole
life had changed.

The logo on the front
caught his attention. The thought that burrowed in his mind made
him stop. Could he do this and swallow his pride? He glared at the
automatic doors with the doorman in front.
You can either get on with it, or you can go home and hit the
want ads, what’s it going to be?

He chose the hotel. As he
strode through the opulent lobby, bellmen and receptionists didn’t
stop him. He was as much a fixture here as the front
walls.

When he got to Alec’s door
he paused. Could he do this? He knocked. Alec’s terse “Come in,”
had Beckett sucking in a breath.

When he walked in, Alec
looked up and confusion etched on his brow. “Beckett? Jaya’s not
here, man.”

Beckett nodded. “Yeah, I
know.” He rocked back on his heels and cleared his throat. “I’m
actually here to see you.”

Two weeks into her new
job, Ricca wrapped up her first round of reports. After Beckett's
little firebomb and vanishing act, the whole office was in complete
disarray. She personally couldn't believe he'd backed out of
consideration. He’d wanted it just as badly as she had.

Her heart squeezed like it
always did when she thought of him. She’d tried to call him, went
by his place, but he hadn’t called her back. If he wanted to talk
to her, he knew where to find her. She just wished he’d told her
about Serena. He’d been off the night of the base jump. She should
have pressed harder to get it out of him.

But then Beckett was full
of surprises. How stupid of her to leave before he’d made his
announcement that he was turning down the job. Everyone said the
true fireworks had started after she left.

The police had been
called. Serena was being charged with reckless endangerment among
other things. She and Zach were headed for divorce court. A few
days after the kerfuffle, Lila had called her to say thank you and
apologize for all the madness and nearly getting her
killed.

Apparently before Lila had
met Roberto, he and Serena had had an affair. Roberto had
eventually ended it because he met Lila and he supposedly felt
horrible about hurting Zach. Lila said Serena had apparently never
gotten over the rejection.

Ricca shuddered. All that
pain had been over a man. Though, knowing what it was like to
actually be in love, she understood how it could make someone so
totally cray-cray. But attempted homicide was taking it a bit
far.

God, she missed Beckett.
But if he’d wanted to be found, he’d have left a forwarding
address. Jaya and Micha had taken her out to celebrate and help her
forget. Somewhere along the line, things had just gotten so
complicated. He hadn’t believed that she had any faith in him.
That’s why he hadn’t told her about Serena. He hadn’t trusted her
enough.

An insistent knock at her
door brought her head up. She hadn’t ordered room service. She
wasn’t expecting anyone, and the client didn’t arrive in Quebec
until tomorrow.

Putting the laptop down,
she padded to the door in her bare feet and considered getting a
sweatshirt to put on. Her Armani Exchange T-shirt was nearly
see-through and did nothing to hide the double Ds. She looked like
a yoga sexpot or something.

She breathed a long sigh
when she looked though the peephole, then stumbled back in shock.
"Beckett."

Dressed in dark jeans and
a light blue shirt, he looked handsome and striking. She opened the
door slowly.

"Hi, Ricca.” He gave her a
lopsided smile. “I hope you don’t mind me tracking you
down.”

****

Beckett loitered in the
doorway for several moments. How the hell was he going to do this?
Just put himself out there like this.

She turned to face him, and
he nearly swallowed his tongue. Again. It really should be illegal
to run around in that see-through shirt.
Down boy
. That's not what he was
here for. He was a letch, but for ten minutes or however long she
let him stay, he could do his best at being a nice guy. “It’s good
to see you.”

His heart thundered. All
he wanted to do was hold her, but he owed her an explanation or
two.

"So you going to tell me
where you disappeared to? I looked everywhere for you. Even Jaya
didn't know where you were."

Good old Jaya. She was a
shit liar, but a good friend. She'd kept her mouth shut. Granted,
she didn’t know too many details about his new venture with Alec.
If she did, she’d probably have a fit. Alec wanted the San Diego
Westhorpe to become a prime destination for the adventure set,
especially for locations in South America. Beckett had been on a
scouting mission for a week. It was something he knew how to do.
And he could do it well. Jaya just knew that he’d be working with
Alec on some things. She knew he needed the time, and she'd given
it to him.

Well, at one least one
thing had gone the way he wanted it to.

He cleared his throat.
"Yeah, I took off for a few days and got a new job.” He paused.
“I’m working for The Westhorpe now.”

Ricca’s delicately arched
brows drew down over her forehead. "What do you mean? I looked for
you. I called you."

“I needed to work some
stuff out, and I couldn’t do that in San Diego."

She moved into the living
room without a backward look and stood by the window, as if she
just expected him to follow. Like he'd done for so many
years.

In the living room, he
told himself he couldn't touch her. The temptation to pull her
close and bury his head into her hair was already too strong, so he
stood and leaned against the archway. "I wanted to explain about
Serena."

She shook her head. "You
don’t owe me any explanations. She offered you the one thing you've
been dying for. That job would have given you the means to renovate
Swim on J. I just wish you’d told me."

He put up a hand to stop
her. "That's just it. You were right."

She cocked her head. "I
was?"

He nodded. "I only
considered her offer for about a minute before I knew what I wanted
to do. I was going to tell her to go fuck herself, but I wanted it
in writing. I wanted her gone. I guess I wanted to punish her for
nearly killing you. I wanted to expose her in the most public way
possible.”