“No need to apologise. He’ll learn the hard way. He certainly met his match with you. It might make him think before he opens his mouth in future.”
Max pushes through a glass door and holds it open for me. He’s the perfect gentleman. If half of his manners rub off on his brother, then he’ll be a good mentor.
“Have a seat.”
Max points over to a couch in the corner of the office. I sit on one and he sits on the couch opposite me, throws his leg over his knee, and leans his arm on the backrest. He looks like one cocky motherfucker, but I love that confidence that pours out of him.
“So, let’s get down to business, Alexa.”
“Absolutely.”If there’s one thing I can do it’s talk business.
“Your company was recommended to me by Alan Henshaw.”
I raise my brows. Henshaw is a large trucking company. Not who I’d expect to be passing on my details to Maxwell.
“We went to school together,” he explains. “We’re old friends.”
I sit forward on the edge of my seat, take out a folder from my bag, and hand it over to him. “That has all my contact details, price lists, list of jobs we do. I pride myself on always being professional. No job is ever too big for my staff. With any new client I take on, I set up a rota, organise the staff accordingly, and do regular spot checks. For the first few weeks, I would be here, making sure the staff are fully on board with the tasks they must do. I’d then appoint a supervisor to take over my role once I was satisfied that everything was running like clockwork. I run a tight ship, Maxwell.”
“I can see that.” He flicks through the folder, nodding his head at different pages. “And I could leave you to deal with all the cleaning rotas, ordering stock, making sure the linen is stocked up…”
I nod. “Yes. I work with another hotel in Glasgow, I have for two years now. It’s a little smaller than this, but I set up the task force, got all the details for the suppliers they use, and that’s one job I make sure the supervisor can handle.”
“So, I would never need to worry about the cleaning side of things?”
“Not at all. If the supervisor has any problems, he or she will come to me. The only time you will need to come to me is if you’re getting problems with the cleaners. However, rest assured, I will be looking at reviews frequently and making sure the guests have a great stay.”
Max throws the folder down on the table. “This all seems a little too good to be true. My other hotels don’t run this smoothly.”
I shrug. “That’s because they don’t have my company on board,” I state confidently.
I might not ooze confidence about myself or my body, but I can, hand on heart, guarantee that the work my company provides is top class. I am more than confident about that. I’d bet my life on it.
“I like what I hear so far. How many cleaning staff do you think I would need to get up and running?”
“I would say start with eight. We can always tweak it as we go along, but eight would give you enough to split between the rooms, the communal areas, bar and restaurant. Peak times may require more, but I have staff I can switch up and change around if the need arises.”
“I have to say, I’m impressed. When you said last night that you were a workaholic, I don’t know what I imagined.”
The simple reminder of last night opens all the floodgates, and every touch, kiss, and smell rushes in like a tidal wave. I shift position on my seat to try and hide my unease, but I’m just drawing even more attention to myself.
“I like the saying,never judge a book by its cover,Maxwell.”
He smirks at me with a twinkle in his eye. Even that look is smoking hot on him. “Would you like to look around the hotel and get a feel for it?”
I stand up, straighten my clothing, and stand tall. Maxwell follows suit, and we both make our way to the door together.We both reach out for the handle at the same time and our hands collide. Maxwell leaves his hand lingering and then trails the tips of his fingers up my arm. From just one simple touch, my knickers are soaked and the hussy somewhere within me is rearing her ugly head.
Something snaps me into the here and now, not thinking about Maxwell and how he can turn me on a million ways, and I brush his hand off my arm.
“Let’s get one thing straight, Maxwell. What happened last night will never happen again. Here, at work, we’re Alexa and Maxwell. Last night, we were Max and Lexi. Those characters don’t exist anymore.”
Our eyes meet, his smirk turns into a smile, and he reaches out for the door handle. “Whatever you say, Alexa.” And he walks away in front of me.
I let out a breath, clench my thighs together to stop the aching in my pussy, and try to put one foot in front of the other without falling over. I can be professional. I can forget all about last night and concentrate on the tasks at hand. Maxwell will just have to deal with it.
Chapter 3
Maxwell
