The CEO's Contracted Mistress

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Bobbie followed her boss through the lobby of the hotel and knew people were staring. Grady was a damn good-looking man. She knew eyes immediately pivoted to him wherever he went. He was tall, with wide shoulders, piercing blue eyes and a bald head.

She was five foot six but, in her heels, she was five foot nine and came to Grady’s shoulder. Her blonde hair she had darkened to a warm honey blonde, and it was pinned in a tight bun at the nape of her neck. Her blue eyes were highlighted with a dark framed pair of glasses. She sported a black pencil skirt, a pale pink camisole under a buttoned black blazer. She carried her leather briefcase which housed her laptop and any documents which Grady might need.

She knew people sometimes gossiped about her relationship with Grady but with him, she felt safer than with anyone else. He loved Everly desperately and he was fiercely loyal to his wife. He would never cause her to feel the pain he’d once felt. He was her big brother and her best friend, and she loved him dearly but not in the way anyone would ever suggest. He called her his not-sister and he loved her like a sibling.

Her heart had no room for love. She had loved once. It had been a fruitless love and she’d known it while in it. Not only had Olivier ruined her for any man because of how she’d loved him, he ruined her ability to trust her instincts. Never in her wildest dreams would she have considered he would have sold her off. But he had and while she couldn’t regret him, because of the blessings of her children, she would never allow any man to have such control on her heart again.

Now as she and Grady crossed the hotel lobby and several business professionals also leaving the hotel at the same time were checking them out, she could feel the heat of multiple men’s gazes. It made her uncomfortable.

Grady stepped back to let her exit the hotel first and she chuckled at his manners. “Such a southern gentleman.”

“You’ve met my mother. I’d put money on it if I failed to demonstrate proper etiquette, she would bat me around the ears at dinner tonight.” He looked for their car which hadn’t quite pulled up to them.

“She would too,” she giggled and patted his arm. She stepped forward to allow another patron of the hotel to pass by her towards another waiting car and she looked up to apologize for blocking the entrance and her heart skipped a beat as she took in the tall frame of the man.

She needed to get a grip. Not every man with sandy blonde hair around six feet tall was going to be Olivier. If there was a God, he was bald and sporting a paunch anyway. And she reminded herself, she deliberately booked this hotel on the other side of the city away from the hotel where he had kept a suite.

“Are you okay?” Grady looked at the man and then back to her.

“Yup. Looking for ghosts of Christmas past where there are none,” she reassured him and patted his hand gently.

Their car pulled up and she slid into the back seat first and Grady followed behind her.

“f**k I hate this city,” he grumbled as he took in her pale countenance. “I swear every time we come here, one of us sees someone who gives us flashbacks.”

“I live with two people who give me flashbacks daily,” she grunted. “I birthed the man’s clones. The only difference is one is dark haired, and one is blonde. They both have his eyes, round cheeks, and dimples. I need them to be short like me. It’s all I ask.”

Grady laughed outright. “Don’t wish that on Max. He’ll constantly be questioned on his p***s size. He needs to be tall.”

She whacked his leg playfully. “He’ll make up for it with his confidence. He has more confidence at his age than I do now. Cocky little bastard.”

“I almost died laughing when he told you he was going to board himself to the plane and didn’t need your help.”

“He’s eight going on thirty.”

“Then Ollie last night jumping off the high diving board. Jesus, I’m a grown ass man and I wouldn’t go up there. She climbed the ladder and cannon balled off without hesitation.” Grady shook his head. “She’s fearless.”

“She’s the reason I had to pluck my gray hair again. I hope she listens to Everly and Nana today.”

“My mother can handle her and if she can’t Everly will.”

“True,” Bobbie grinned. Prudence Hoffman was a force to be reckoned with. She had been a judge in Houston when she abruptly retired when Everly had Lark. She moved to Dallas to be with her only son and his wife to be a live-in support. Nobody had been able to dissuade her. She had been divorced from Grady’s father for many years. She was a petite woman with a strong personality. She not only took Everly as her daughter, but she took Bobbie and her twins as her own as well. There had been no arguing. If she babysat one, she babysat all three. And she insisted they all call her Nana.

Bobbie had gone back to work when the twins were only six weeks old, and Nana had been right there. They had set up a nursery at the offices on the floor where Grady’s office was and when Everly went back to work after three months, Grady had insisted she relocate her offices to the main floor of the building he owned in downtown Dallas.

Six months after initiating working for Grady he had dropped an application form on her desk, told her tuition was paid and all she had to do was commit to five years with the company and successfully complete the paralegal program. She had been heavily pregnant when she’d enrolled, and she had completed the program before the twins second birthday. She wasn’t just Grady’s personal assistant; she was a certified paralegal.

As they settled into the limo, they began to discuss the plan for today. Their client, Mr. Trace Waterman, was selling his company to a larger oil company named Moreno Oil and Gas. They tried to keep their thoughts factual and as if they knew of no other connection to Moreno. The company was headed by Gael Moreno, a billionaire tycoon who lived to make his next buck. He’d been after Mr. Waterman’s company for decades. Now it was within his sight.

Moreno’s lawyers were likely going to push their client to giving up every single penny they could and take control as cheaply as possible. According to Grady, Gael Moreno was going to make their client pay for making him wait so long to take what he had wanted.

“Are we likely to see Moreno today?”

“I already told you, no. He’s going to send in his legal team, and they will start with trying to make Trace a stupid lowball offer.”

“What’s Moreno like? Did you do more research on him?”

“Ruthless, cold, vindictive. He’s in his late sixties and unlikely to ever retire.”

“Family?” she hated asking.

“Two daughters, much to his annoyance.” At her grimace he continued, “According to Trace, he wanted sons. His wife had two girls. One of them married like he demanded, and her husband tows the company line. He’s a VP of marketing or something and one of their two daughters works with Gael directly. His other daughter married for love. Some Cajun from Louisiana with more money than Moreno. Moreno hated him because it meant he couldn’t control him. His only grandson took over his father’s company instead of following in Moreno’s footsteps. It doesn’t matter he has four granddaughters who are all smart enough to take over. He’s a misogynistic son of a bitch.” They both pretended they had no idea who the grandson was.

“Great,” she rolled her eyes and looked out the window. As they drove through the city, their driver took them past the hotel of her past and she felt her stomach clench involuntarily at the sight of the tall building. Unable to stop herself she looked up to the top floor and wondered if he was still there. Did he still hold a penthouse suite? Did he still pick up unsuspecting coffee baristas and turn their entire universes upside down?

“What’s wrong?” Grady looked out the window, “more ghosts?”

“No,” she chuckled annoyed he’d gotten so good at reading her. “No ghosts. Just thoughts about misogynistic assholes and how much I hate them.”

“Thankfully, our client is not a bastard, and he will be very respectful.”

“I’ve spoken to him multiple times on the phone,” she agreed. “He’s lovely. He’s really looking forward to retiring and spending time with his grandkids.” She considered her words, “or, at least he’s trying very hard to convince himself of this.”

“His wife had cancer three years ago. He told me all the money in the world couldn’t stop her getting cancer and it was his most helpless feeling. She’s in remission now and he wants to spend as much time as he can with her and his family. Life is fleeting, according to him.”

“He told me the same.”

“He tried to sell to three other companies but every time he would get close, Moreno would threaten to destroy the company. He wanted this company, and he wasn’t going to allow Trace to sell to anyone else.”

“Why?”

“Because Trace has the one thing Moreno always wanted.”

“The company?”

“No. Trace’s wife.”

“What? Even now?” she was appalled as she looked at her friend who was gossiping like a little old lady at knitting club. “No way!”

“Yes. The three of them went to high school together. Trace got the girl. Gael ended up marrying a woman his parents approved of. Trace had a son. Gael had the girls. He’s waited forty years to exact his revenge.”

“People are really strange.”

“He’s not a person. Definitely demonic, pact with the devil kind of guy.” Grady joked.

“Must be genetic,” she whispered finally acknowledging her pretense was only going so far. “Trace must really not want to do this deal then.”

“He doesn’t but his back is against the wall. He wants to move on with his life. He wants to spend time with his family. Occasionally, you need to dance with the devil in order to get to the partner you want.”

“Is this life advice?” she mocked him nudging him with her leg.

“From me? Jesus no. I’m the most spiteful person I know. There’s no way I’d make a deal with my mortal enemy.”

“You’re saying if you had to make a deal with Sawyer or Charlotte,”

“f**k no!” he cut her off before she could even finish her sentence, his sneer so intense she couldn’t help but roar with laughter at his response.

“Okay, okay,” she giggled as he gave her a half-hearted punch to the shoulder. “I get it.”

“What about you?” he countered. “Could you make a sacrifice for the greater good?”

“Depends on what’s at stake I guess.” She met his gaze seriously, “you’re talking to a girl who sold her body to cover her sister’s medical bills only for her sister to die anyway. I feel I’m the person who makes decisions for the right reasons, but it bites me in the ass anyway.”

“Yes, but look what you got out of it? If you hadn’t gone through all it, you wouldn’t have the twins, you’d never have run off to Dallas, you’d never have met Everly, I’d never have the best damn paralegal on the planet as my assistant.”

“I have an amazing life,” she agreed. “I have no regrets about what precipitated all the changes in my life. I’m only saying, I’m the kind of girl who definitely would sacrifice it all for the greater good but then lose it all anyway.”

“I found out about the affair about an hour before the tabloid released the video. My father called me to tell me he’d found out about it from Sawyer’s father. Dad was worried about how the fallout would affect not only me, but mom’s career as a judge and his career as the most famous real estate agent in all of Houston. The publicity was going to be insane. I told Dad to let the world burn. I didn’t do anything wrong other than have crappy judgement in friends and wives. Then it hit and it was too late. The paparazzi hounded me for months. Sawyer did a public statement begging for my forgiveness.” He wasn’t revealing anything he hadn’t already told her but somehow being in the city always brought it back to the forefront.

“Then you punched him.” She giggled, aware of how the story ended.

“Then I punched him. Knocked the fucker out cold. Broke two knuckles.”

“Regrets?” She knew Grady had done it with a full throng of reporters looking on. Once when they were drinking a bottle of wine, she and Everly had googled it and watched it. They had laughed for days.

“None,” he smirked. “As a lawyer, I considered suing him for breaking my knuckles with his face. If I regret anything, it was not doing it sooner.” He nudged her with his shoulder, “have you ever punched someone?”

“Nope. I kneed that guy in the balls, way back when, and for me, it was as satisfactory as your punch to the face.”

“Listen to us reminiscing about the things which make us hate Houston so much.”

“Right? We need to refocus or we’re both going to be seeing ghosts all day.”

“Amen.” Grady said with a nod. “Change of topic. This is the last conversation we have about ghosts this trip. Deal?”

“Deal!” they shook on it and settled back against the cushion of the limo.

Now, Bobbie considered, she just needed her overactive imagination to agree.