“This is your room.”
What? I slowly looked around the room taking it all in and it just did not make sense. I shook my head silently for a few seconds before I managed to get the words out.
“No, there must be some mistake. Isn’t this the top floor?”
“Yes.” His eyes sparkled as he continued to watch my reaction.
“So this is the penthouse?” I sounded like an idiot. Nice Elena, way to show how smart you are.
“Yes, and this is your room.”
“If this is my room, where is your room?” I blurted the words out instantly regretting them. He didn’t have to tell me anything; it was none of my business where his room was.
He pointed to a door in the corner of the room. “My room is right through that door.”
What was that? Adjoining rooms? I felt like I needed a drink.
“So we have adjoining rooms?” My voice was suddenly very small.
“Yes, is that a problem?” He raised his eyebrows at me waiting for my answer, daring me to say it was a problem.
“Not at all.”
He smiled at me and gave the concierge a tip and thanked him for his service and he left. He closed the door behind him and Sebastian and I were left alone standing in the middle of the room, his eyes slowly roamed over my body and then settled in my eyes.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yes.” My mouth was suddenly very dry.
“Me too, dinner is in an hour. You can wear the black dress you tried on for me, that should be good enough for now. You can donate it to charity after Clarissa provides you with new clothes.”
I did need new work clothes since I no longer wore a uniform and I couldn’t afford to buy anything new just yet. Hopefully the pieces she gave me would be enough where I could mix and match them to help stretch the few business clothes I did have. Donate that dress to charity? I couldn’t do that because I still needed the dress. It was one of very few nice dresses that I owned and just because Sebastian didn’t like it, didn’t mean I was going to get rid of it. When I had the kind of money he did, maybe I would have the luxury of donating my nice clothes to charity. Nice clothes in my opinion, anyway.
He turned to walk toward the adjoining door and my questions stopped him in his tracks.
“Sebastian, why do we have adjoining rooms? Won’t the others gossip about that?”
He turned around to face me and slowly walked over to me. He stopped about six inches away from me, totally all up in my personal space, and gently put a finger under my chin lifting my eyes to his.
“We have adjoining rooms because we are going to be together during this trip, Elena. You know that I want you and I can’t wait much longer. The others won’t know because we won’t tell them. I’ll meet you in the lobby for dinner in an hour.”
With that, he turned and walked to the door and entered his room, closing the door behind him.
I was in complete shock with everything that had just happened. I was not going to be able to take too many more surprises because the last few weeks had completely changed my life and I was surprised that I hadn’t fainted or passed out from the excitement. The hard worker in me was offended that Sebastian arranged for us to have adjoining rooms. It was arrogant and pompous of him to assume that I would sleep with him at all, especially since he was my boss. But the woman in me was craving his touch and I couldn’t wait to feel him kiss me and touch me everywhere. I got lost in my daydream and a loud bird outside snapped me back to reality. I didn’t have a lot of time to get ready so it was time to rush. I hopped in the shower, got dressed quickly and threw on a bit of lipstick before leaving my room at exactly 6:57 to meet everyone in the lobby.
Chapter Nine – São Paulo Part 3
When I walked off of the elevator into the lobby Mark and Carol were already sitting on the white couch waiting for everyone else to arrive.
“Hi guys, how was your flight?”
“It was surprisingly smooth, no turbulence at all. We thought you might have missed your flight because we didn’t see you on board. Did you take an earlier flight?” Carol’s question was innocent but I instantly felt nervous because they were not supposed to know about Sebastian and me and there was no way that I was going to tell them I flew private with the boss. Thankfully just as I was about to answer them I heard Sebastian’s voice behind me.
“I see we’re all here.”
“Sophia is not he…”. As I turned to remind Sebastian that we needed to wait for Sophia, I was shocked into silence by the sight of her arm linked through his as they approached us. She gave me a withering look and then smiled sweetly at Carol and Mark.
Great. Not a good way to start this trip if she can barely look at me. I had dealt with women like her before many times and it always pissed me off how catty they could be. I never understood why women couldn’t support each other instead of being petty and jealous. Sophia was a beautiful woman but I knew the minute she saw me at the gala that she wouldn’t like me because she seemed to still have a thing for Sebastian, and Sebastian definitely had a thing for me.
Sebastian looked at me with no expression as Sophia clung to his arm and that pissed me off.
“Sophia, this is Elena Sumner, our new VP of marketing, Elena this is Sophia Hudson, our PR global chair of creative strategy.”
I did my best to give her a genuine smile but it was difficult with the daggers that I had to dodge which flew out of her eyes at me. Does anyone see the way this girl is looking at me? I’m going to be the bigger person here.
"It is so nice to meet you Sophia, I hear that we are going to be working together and I am really looking forward to collaborating with you on new strategies for the hotel.”
“It’s nice to meet you as well Elena, I think I have it all figured out but I’ll give you a minute and listen to your little ideas, I guess.”
I was totally stunned that she said that in front of everyone, including Sebastian. I glanced at Carol and Mark who quickly looked at the floor when our eyes met and then I looked at Sebastian. He was checking his phone and was completely oblivious to what Sophia had just said to me. He must have felt me staring at him because he glanced up from his phone and I was sure he could see the look of astonishment on my face because he furrowed his brow and then glanced at everyone else.