Billionaire's Contract Engagement (Kings of the Boardroom #3)(37)

Her stomach rolled into a tight ball. The last thing she wanted was a raucous night at Rosa with the work gang. Usually she’d be all over it. The Maddox employees regularly hung out at the upscale martini bar just a block away. It’s where they met to celebrate, commiserate or just take a break from a hellish workday.

The last celebration they’d staged there had been for Jason after he’d landed the Prentice account. Now Brock was lining up the chorus for her.

Her cheeks tightened in pleasure even as her heart sank at the idea of ditching Evan after agreeing to meet him. He’d think her the worst sort of coward even if it was the smart thing to do.

“I’d love to, Brock, but I already have plans for the evening. Important plans,” she added after a pause.

“Besides, I’d rather not jinx myself before going into the presentation. It’s not in the bag—yet—but I certainly plan to perform a slam dunk on Friday.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I understand. We’ll go and just call it a pre-planning session. It’s as good an excuse as any to throw back a few. But if you land this, just be prepared for a victory celebration to end all victory celebrations.”

She grinned. “Oh, you know it. I can’t wait. I’ll totally hold you to it.”

“Okay, take care and see you tomorrow.” He turned to go but stopped and turned back once more.

“Oh, and, Celia, if I haven’t already said it, thank you. You did a magnificent job. I doubted your approach at first, but you came through in spades.”

Her heart sped up and she curled her fingers until her nails dug into her palms. It was all she could do not to stand up and throw her arms in the air complete with an obnoxious yell.

“Thank you for your trust,” she said as calmly as possible.

With a short salute, he disappeared down the hallway, leaving Celia grinning like a loon.

Promptly at a quarter to five, Celia headed down the elevator—fifteen minutes before quitting time so she’d miss the majority of her coworkers. She didn’t want to explain why she wasn’t joining them at Rosa.

Her apartment wasn’t far, and usually she’d enjoy driving her Beamer with the top down—it really was a sassy, smooth handling dream machine—but today she was just impatient to be home, and the traffic was driving her mad.

When she reached her apartment, she recognized the car out front and the driver standing on the curb beside it. With a groan, she slowed to a stop on the street and rolled down her window.

“I’ll only be a moment,” she called.

The driver smiled, tipped his hat and said, “No hurry, Miss Taylor. Take your time.”

She maneuvered into her parking spot and dashed inside, ready to do battle. She hadn’t missed Evan’s reaction to her sexy, feminine lingerie. It was her one indulgence or what she deemed a silly indulgence since her sex life was so staid in the last few years that no one but her had a prayer of ever seeing what her underwear looked like.

Hopping on one foot as she stepped out of her clothing, she went over to her drawer to find the most sinful set of lingerie she owned. She settled on pink. What was more feminine or soft looking than pink?

Even growing up with a hoard of boys hadn’t erased the girly from her. And since she was a redhead, wearing pink clothing wasn’t an option. But pink underwear she could do.

Unsure of whether she’d return to her apartment before going to work the next day—and she did like to be prepared for anything—she threw an outfit into an overnight bag along with her toiletries and a

lavender bra and panties.

She did a quick check of her messages and then did something she never did. She turned off her BlackBerry and tucked it into her overnight bag. Tonight was hers. She needed no reminders from the business world. If she was going to indulge in fantasy, she was going whole hog.

She locked up and hurried out her door to the street where the driver waited. He ushered her into the backseat and they drove away into traffic.

It amused her how exciting she found the whole experience. She could be a mistress at the beck and call of her über-wealthy benefactor, discreetly bundled into a private car and rushed to meet him at an undisclosed location.

“Get it together, Celia,” she muttered.

Lord, but she did lose all her brain cells when it came to this man. If she wasn’t careful, she’d throw away all her independence and start greeting him at the door every evening, wearing a kitchen apron with oven mitts and a piping-hot casserole dish.

Oddly but the image wasn’t all that distasteful. For the first few seconds anyway. She laughed outright and it had the effect of someone popping her thought bubble with a sharp pin.

The driver looked up in the rearview mirror, and she valiantly tried to look back with a straight face. If he only knew the absurd thoughts she was processing.

If she was truly the naughty girl of her fantasies, she would have ridden over with only a trench coat covering her sexy lingerie. Then when she walked into Evan’s room, she could discard the coat and watch his reaction.

The idea certainly had merit, and if she ever received another invitation such as tonight, she’d give it serious consideration.

A few minutes later, the driver pulled up to the sumptuous hotel Evan resided in when he was in town, bypassed the main entrance and stopped at the second pull in where her door was immediately opened by one of the hotel staff.