The Tycoon's Reluctant Cinderella

‘Hey, Cals, I’m happy you made it without missing too much.’ Connor gave her a kiss on the cheek, and angled his face so that Blake wouldn’t see his questioning look. ‘I see you’ve met the reason we’re all here.’

It took a full minute before Callie could process his words. ‘This is Blake Owen?’

‘Yes.’ Blake intercepted Connor’s reply. ‘Although, to be fair, I was about to introduce myself. Connor just got here before I could.’

Blake shook Connor’s hand in greeting, and Callie couldn’t help but notice how much more efficient the action was now than when he had done it with her.

‘How do you two know each other?’

‘Connor is my brother,’ Callie said, before her brother could say anything. All the feelings inside her had frozen, and she resisted the urge to shiver.

‘So you’re here to support him? That’s great.’ Blake smiled at her.

Connor laughed. ‘No! Callie’s a good sister, but I’m not sure she would attend an event so far out of her comfort zone for me.’ At Blake’s questioning look, Connor elaborated. ‘Callie works at the hotel.’

Connor’s simple words shattered the opportunity for any explanation Callie might have wanted to give. Blake’s eyes iced, and this time she couldn’t resist the shiver that went through her body.

‘Well, we should probably get going,’ Connor said when the silence extended a second too long.

‘Yes,’ Blake agreed, his gaze never leaving Callie’s. ‘You should probably start introducing me to the other employees—’ he said the word with a contempt that Callie hadn’t expected ‘—before I make a mistake I can’t rectify.’

Callie watched helplessly as they walked away, wondering how she had already managed to alienate her CEO.

CHAPTER TWO

BLAKE WATCHED AS the crowd in the banquet hall began to thin. There must have been about three hundred people there, he thought. And, the way he felt, he was sure he had spoken to every single one of them. No, he corrected himself almost immediately. Not everyone. There was one person he had avoided ever since learning who she was—an employee of the hotel.

Julia, his ex, had been an employee. She had been a part of the Human Resources team in the Port Elizabeth hotel, where he spent most of his time.

He had been enamoured of her. She was beautiful, intelligent, and just a little arrogant. And she had a son who had crept into his heart the moment Blake had met him. It had been a fascinating combination—the gorgeous, sassy woman and the sweet, shy child. One that had lured him in and blinded him to the truth of what she’d wanted from him. The truth that had made him distrust his judgement and conclude that staying away from his employees would be the safest option to avoid getting hurt.

He narrowed his eyes when he saw Callie walking towards him, and cursed himself for the attraction that flashed through his body. But he refused to give in to it. He would ignore the way some strands of her hair had escaped from her hairstyle and floated down to frame her face. He wouldn’t notice that she walked as if someone had rolled out a red carpet for her. He hardened himself against the effect she had on him—and then she was in front of him and her smell nearly did him in.

The floral scent was edged with seduction—a description that came from nowhere as she stood innocently in front of him, those emerald eyes clear of any sign of wrongdoing.

‘What do you want?’ he snapped, and surprised himself. Regardless of the way his body reacted to her, he could control it. He would control it.

Her eyes widened, but then set with determination. ‘I wanted to set the record straight. I know you must be confused after finding out I work here.’

‘That isn’t the word I’d use.’

‘Well, however you would describe it, I still want to tell you what happened.’

She took a breath, and Blake wondered if she realised how shakily she’d done it.

‘I had no idea who you were when we were stuck in that elevator. If I had, I wouldn’t have—’

‘Flirted with me?’

Something in her eyes fired, and reminded him that he had flirted with her, too. But her voice was calm when she spoke.

‘Yes, I suppose. It was an honest mistake. I didn’t seek you out to try and soften you up, or anything crazy like that. So...’ She paused, and then pushed on. ‘Please don’t take this out on Connor.’

Blake frowned. She was explaining to him that she’d made a mistake—and the honesty already baffled him—but she didn’t seem to be doing it for herself. She was doing it for her brother, and that was...selfless.

Almost everything Julia had done had been self-serving. But then he hadn’t known that in the beginning. He’d thought that she was being unselfish, that she was being honest. And those qualities had attracted him. But it had all been pretence. So what if there didn’t seem to be a deceitful motive behind what Callie was saying? He knew better than anyone else that she might be faking it.

But when he looked at her, into those alluring and devastatingly honest eyes, that thought just didn’t sit right.

‘So,’ he said, sliding his hands into his pockets, ‘I can take it out on you?’

Was he still flirting with her? No, he thought. He wanted to know what she thought he should do about the situation. Yes, that was it—just a test. How would she respond now that she knew he was her boss?

She cleared her throat. ‘If need be, yes. I understand if you feel you need to take disciplinary action, although I don’t believe it’s necessary.’

‘You don’t?’

‘No, sir.’

The word sounded different coming from her, and he wasn’t sure that he liked the way she was defining their relationship.

‘I apologise for my unprofessional behaviour, but I assure you it won’t happen again.’ She looked at him, and this time her eyes pleaded for herself. ‘I didn’t know who you were. Please give me a chance to make this right.’

Blake was big enough a man to realise when he had made a mistake, and the sincerity the woman in front of him exuded told him he had done just that, in spite of his doubts. He straightened, and saw that there was almost no one left in the room for him to meet. Relief poured through him, and finally he gave himself permission to leave.

But before he did, he said, ‘Okay, Miss McKenzie. I believe you. I’ll see you at work on Monday.’

* * *

By eleven o’clock on Monday morning Blake had had enough. He had got in to the office at six and had been poring over the financials since then. Again. But no matter how he looked at it—just as he’d feared the first time he’d reviewed them—there was no denying the fact that this hotel was in serious trouble.

How had he let it get this far? he thought, and walked to the coffee machine in the office he would be sharing with Connor. The man had set up a makeshift space for Blake, which made the place snug, but not unworkable. Right now, he was tempted to have a drink of the stronger stuff Connor kept under lock and key for special occasions—or so he claimed. But even in Blake’s current state of mind he could acknowledge that drinking was not the way to approach this.

With his coffee in his hand, he walked to the window and looked out at the bustle of Cape Town on a Monday morning. The hotel overlooked parts of the business district, and he could feel the busyness of people trying to get somewhere rife in the air as he watched the relays of public transport. But he could also glimpse Table Mountain in the background, and he appreciated the simplicity of its magnitude. It somehow made him feel steadier as he thought about the state the hotel was in.

How had he let this happen?

The thought wouldn’t leave his head. He had picked up that the hotel had been struggling years ago—which was why he had fired Landon and promoted Connor—but still this shouldn’t have got past him. But he knew why it had. And he needed to be honest with himself before he blamed his employees when he was probably just as responsible for this mess.

He had been too focused on dealing with Julia to notice that the business was suffering.

His legs were restless now, as he got to the core of the problem, and he began to pace, coffee in hand, contemplating the situation. About five years ago the Elegance Hotel in Port Elizabeth had started losing staff at a high rate. When he’d noticed how low their retention numbers were, he’d arranged a meeting with HR to discuss it.

It had been at that meeting that he’d first met Julia.

She hadn’t seemed to care that he was her boss, and had pushed the boundaries of what he had considered appropriate professional behaviour. But the reasons she had given him for losing staff had been right, and he’d had to acknowledge that she was an asset to their team. And as soon as he had she’d given him the smile that had drawn him in. Bright, bold, beautiful.

To this day, whenever he thought about that smile he felt a knock to his heart. Especially since those thoughts were so closely intertwined with the way it had softened when she’d looked at her son. The boy who had reminded him eerily of himself, and made him think about how Julia was giving him something Blake never had—a mother.

Until one day it had all shattered into the pieces that still haunted him.

He knew that Julia had taken his attention away from the hotels. And now this hotel was paying the price of a mistake he’d made before he’d known better. The thought conjured up Callie’s face in his mind, but he forced it away, hoping to forget the way her eyes lit up her face when she smiled. He had just remembered the reason he didn’t want to be attracted to her. He didn’t want to be distracted either, and she had the word distraction written all over her beautiful face. And, he reminded himself again, he knew better now.

He grunted at the thought, walked back to the desk, and began to make some calls.

And ignored the face of the woman he had only met a few days ago as it drifted around in his head.

* * *

‘Yes, darling, include that in my trip. I would love to see the mountain everyone keeps harping on about. And please include some cultural museums on my tour.’ The woman sniffed, and placed a dignified hand on the very expensive pearls she wore around her neck. ‘I can’t only be doing touristy things, you know.’

‘Of course, Mrs Applecombe.’ Callie resisted the urge to tell the woman that visiting museums was very much a ‘touristy’ thing. ‘I’ll draw up a package for you and have it sent to your room by the end of the day. If you agree, we can arrange for the tour to be done the day after tomorrow.’

‘Delightful.’ Mrs Applecombe clasped her hands together. ‘I just know Henry will love what we’ve discussed. Just remember, dear, that it’s—’

‘Supposed to be a surprise. I know.’ Callie smiled, and stood. ‘I’ll make sure that it’s everything you could hope for and more.’

After a few more lengthy reminders about the surprise anniversary gift for her husband Mrs Applecombe finally left, and Callie sighed in relief. She loved the woman’s spirit, but after forty minutes of going back and forth about a tour Callie knew she could have designed in her sleep, she needed a break.

Luckily it was one o’clock, which meant she could take lunch. But instead of sneaking into the kitchen, as she did most days, she locked the door to her office and flopped down on the two-seater couch she’d crammed into the small space so that if her guests wanted to they could be slightly more comfortable.

It had been a long morning. She’d done a quick tour first thing when she’d got in, followed by meetings with three guests wanting to plan trips. Usually she would be ecstatic about it. She loved her job. And she had Connor to thank for that.

She sighed, and sank even lower on the couch. Officially she was the ‘Specialised Concierge’—a title she had initially thought pretentious, but one that seemed to thrill many of the more elite guests she worked with at the hotel. Unofficially she was a glorified tour guide, whose brother had persuaded her to work at the hotel to drag her from the very dark place she had been in after their parents’ deaths.

She didn’t have to think back that far to acknowledge that the job had saved her from that dark place. Once she had seen her parents’ coffins descend into the ground—once she had watched people say their farewells and return to their lives as usual—she had found herself slipping. And even though her brother had been close to broken himself, he had stepped up and had helped her turn her life into something she knew had been out of her grasp after the car crash that had destroyed the life she had known and the people she loved.

The thought made her miss him terribly, and she grabbed her handbag and headed to Connor’s office. Maybe he felt like having lunch together, and he could calm the ache that had suddenly started in her heart.

As she walked the short distance to his office she greeted some of the guests she recognised and nodded politely at those she didn’t. She smiled in sympathy when she saw her friend Kate, dealing with a clearly testy guest at the front desk, and laughed when Kate mimicked placing a gun to her head as the guest leaned down to sign something.

Connor’s door was slightly ajar when she got there, and she paused before knocking when she heard voices.

‘If we keep doing what we’re doing, in a couple of years—three, max—the hotel will be turning a profit again, Blake.’ Connor’s voice sounded panicked. ‘I’m just not sure this plan is the best option. Surely there’s something else we can do? Especially after we’ve stepped up in the last few years.’

‘Connor, no one is denying the work you’ve done at the hotel. You’ve increased turnover by fifty per cent since you took over—which is saying something when you consider the state Landon left it in. But three years is too long to have a business running in the red.’ There was a pause, and then Blake continued. ‘Would you rather we move on to the other option? I’ve told you that it would come with a lot more complications...’

‘Of course I would prefer any other option. But you know what’s best for the hotel.’

Callie felt a trickle of unease run through her when she heard her brother’s voice. It wasn’t panicked this time, but resigned, as though he had given up hope on something.

‘All right, then.’ There was a beat of silence. ‘I suppose we should start preparing to lay off staff.’

The words were fatalistic, and yet it took Callie a while to process what she had heard. Once she did, her legs moved without her consent and she burst through the office door.

‘No!’ she said, and her voice sounded as though it came from faraway. ‘I can’t let you do that.’

CHAPTER THREE

‘EXCUSE ME?’ BLAKE LIFTED his eyebrows, and suddenly Callie wished her tongue had given her the chance to think before she spoke.

‘I’m so sorry, Mr Owen... Connor...’ She saw the look in her brother’s eyes and hoped her own apologised for interrupting. ‘I just heard—’

‘A private business conversation between members of management. Do you make a habit of eavesdropping?’

His eyes were steel, and she could hear the implication that he thought she had more poor habits than just eavesdropping.

‘No, of course not. I was on my way to ask Connor if he’d like to do lunch, and then I heard you because the door was open.’ She gestured behind her, although the action was useless now, since it stood wide open after her desperate entrance. ‘I didn’t mean to listen, but I did, and I’m telling you that you can’t lay off staff. Please.’

Blake’s handsome face softened slightly, and she cursed herself for noticing how his dark blue suit made him look like a model from the pages of a fashion magazine. It was probably the worst time to think of that, she thought, and instead focused on making some kind of case to make him reconsider.

‘There are people here who need their jobs. Who love their jobs.’ She could hear the plea in her voice. ‘Employees here who have families who depend on them.’

‘I’m aware of that, Miss McKenzie.’ Blake frowned. ‘I’ve thought every option through. This one is the best for the hotel. If we downsize now we can focus on operations and then expand again once we turn enough profit. It would actually be fairly simple.’

‘For you, maybe. And for the hotel, sure. But I can assure you it would be anything but simple for the people you lay off—’ She broke off, her heart pounding at the prospect. ‘This is a business decision without any consideration for your employees.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘I have considered my employees, and I resent your implication otherwise. You have no idea what any other option would require from us. This is the most efficient way to help Elegance, Cape Town, get back on its feet.’

‘Are you listening to yourself?’ she asked desperately. ‘You’ve been tossing around words like “downsizing” and “efficiency” as though those are good things. They aren’t!’

‘Callie—’

Connor stepped forward and she immediately felt ashamed of her behaviour when she saw the warning in his eyes. She knew she was embarrassing him in front of their boss. She even knew that she was embarrassing herself in front of her boss. So, even though more words tumbled through her mind, and even though the shame she felt was more for Connor than for herself, she stopped talking.

‘It’s okay, Connor.’ Blake eased his way into one of the chairs in front of Connor’s desk. ‘I understand your sister’s anger. However unprofessional.’

Callie’s heart hammered in her chest and she wished that she hadn’t said anything. But then she thought of Kate, and Connor, and of the fact that her job meant the world to her, and she straightened her shoulders. She wouldn’t feel bad for standing up for their jobs. Not when it meant that she’d at least tried to save them.

‘There is another option, Callie.’

Blake spoke quietly, and she wondered if he knew the power his voice held even so.

‘I’ve looked into other investors.’

‘Why did you dismiss the idea?’

Something shifted in his eyes, as though he hadn’t expected her to ask him about his reasons.

‘The Elegance hotels are the product of my father’s hard work, and mine, and I don’t want an outside investor to undermine that. Not at this stage of the game.’

He looked at her, and what she saw in his eyes gave her hope.

‘Of course I have considered it. Especially an international investor, since that might give Elegance the boost it needs to go international. But it would be a very complicated process, and it would require a lot of negotiation.’ He turned now, and looked at Connor. ‘Like I told you before, I would have to think through the terms of this thoroughly before I make any decision.’

‘But you’ll reconsider it?’ There was no disguising the hope Callie felt.

Blake looked at her, and those blue-green eyes were stormier than she had thought possible.

‘I don’t want another investor. This hotel group has been in my family for decades, Miss McKenzie. It’s a legacy I want to pass on to my children.’ He paused. ‘But if we can secure an international investor, that legacy might be even more than I thought possible. We’ll talk about it.’

He gestured to Connor, and then moved to sit behind the desk Connor had had put in his office for Blake.

Callie waited, but the look on her brother’s face told her she had been dismissed. She nearly skipped out of the room, because despite his non-committal response Blake Owen was considering an option other than laying off staff. If Blake chose an investor it would mean that everything her brother had worked so hard for wouldn’t have been for nothing.

He had toiled night and day to try and get the hotel running smoothly again, and the news of Blake’s arrival had been a difficult pill to swallow—it had been a clear sign that everything Connor had done hadn’t been enough. Callie knew he loved the hotel, and the last thing that he wanted was for his employees to lose their jobs. And, she thought, the last thing she wanted was for him to lose his job—and for her to lose hers.

So before she left she wanted to say one more thing to Blake.

‘Mr Owen... Blake?’

He looked up, and she smiled.

‘Thank you for reconsidering.’

* * *

Blake couldn’t sleep. He had been working with Connor until just past midnight, trying to draft an investment contract that he was happy with. A contract that would require all his negotiation skills to convince an investor to accept—although he knew it was possible. He had put out feelers even before he had spoken to Connor, when he had initially thought of finding an investor, and the response had been positive. But he still wasn’t convinced that this was something he wanted or if it was something he was being persuaded into by a pretty face.

He threw off his bedcovers and walked downstairs to the kitchen of his Cape Town house. He had bought the place without much thought other than that he would need somewhere to stay when he visited his father, who had retired here. Now he was incredibly grateful he had, since he didn’t know how long he would be in town.

The house was a few kilometres from the hotel, and had an amazing view. He could even see the lights of the city illuminating Table Mountain at night through the glass doors that led out onto a deck on the second floor. But he wasn’t thinking about that as he poured himself a glass of water and drank as though he had come out of a desert.

Since the house was temperature-controlled, he knew he wasn’t feeling the heat of the January weather. No, he thought. It was because he was considering something that would complicate his life when all he’d wanted was a simple solution.

Blake had been raised in the family business. His father had opened the first Elegance Hotel four decades ago, and had invested heavily in guest relations. He had made sure that every employee knew that the Elegance Hotel’s guests came first, and seen that vision manifested into action. Eventually, after two decades, his investment had paid off and he had been able to expand into other hotels.

Blake had been groomed to take over since he was old enough to understand that his father was not only building a business, but a legacy. And he hadn’t been given control of the hotel until his father had been sure that he could do it.

That was why he wanted to lay off staff instead of considering an outside investor. He would be able to solve the problem that had arisen while he’d been trying to fix his relationship with Julia easily, and make the reminder of his failure disappear. It would mean that his feelings of losing control and being helpless would be gone.

A memory of himself standing at the front door, watching his mother leave, flashed through his mind, but he shook it away, not knowing where it had come from, and forced his thoughts back to the matter at hand. Laying off staff might have been the simple option, but it was also a selfish one. Especially when he thought of the hope he had seen written on Callie and Connor’s faces.

He sighed as he made his decision. He would do this—but not for Callie. The slight heat that flushed through him every time he thought about her, the intensity of it every time he saw her, was a sure sign that he should stay away from her. He wouldn’t make this big a decision based on his attraction to her or her need for him to do so. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.

* * *

‘Mr Owen, do you have a moment?’

Callie stood awkwardly at the door, wishing with all her might that she didn’t feel quite so small in his presence. But she straightened when he looked up and gestured for her to come in.

She knew Connor had to attend one of the conferences at the hotel today, and she was using the opportunity to speak to her boss without her brother’s disapproving look. And without the disapproving lecture she would no doubt receive—like the one she’d received just after midnight—which, she had been told, was when Connor and Blake had finally finished their meeting.