Tempted By Scandal. Karen Booth
his only course was to let her lead the way. He bounded across the room and opened the door. She regularly knocked the breath out of him, but today her effect on him was even stronger.
“Mr. Richmond.” Without making eye contact, Nadia swept into the room and set her purse and laptop bag down on the coffee table, then strode over to the desk. She immediately began straightening the papers he’d left strewn about. “You’ve been busy.”
He followed her, walking through the heavenly wake of her perfume. Her wavy blond hair was up in a twist and he caught himself wanting to pull it out. Instead he stuffed his hands into his pockets. “You don’t have to do that.”
“You have a very busy day and you work better when you’re organized.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “You know me better than I know myself.”
“It’s my job to know you.” She turned and finally looked at him, but her eyes weren’t warm and inviting like they’d been last night. Now they were full of worry. “Which makes me wonder what you were thinking when you had the hotel put me in the room next to yours. That doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
“What? I had no idea. You made the reservation.”
“And the Richmond Hotel Group manages the hotel.” She took in a deep breath. “Look, Mr. Richmond...”
He reached out and placed his hand on her arm. The connection to her was immediate. He craved her the way he needed to breathe. “You’re going to call me Mr. Richmond now? After the things we did together? We’re alone, Nadia. Please, call me Matt.”
“Fine. Matt. Last night was a mistake.”
That word sliced through him. The only mistakes he ever made were in trusting the wrong people. Had he slipped up by trusting her?
“We both need to forget it ever happened,” she continued.
That didn’t sit well with him, either. “That’s going to be a difficult task when I go home tomorrow and climb into bed and realize my sheets smell like you.”
“So have one of your ten housekeepers change them.”
Matt didn’t enjoy having his success thrown in his face. It wasn’t his fault he was successful or rich. From the desk, his phone rang. Nadia turned and picked it up, glancing at the screen.
“It’s Shayla.” Shayla Jerome was Richmond Industries’ head of Public Relations.
“Is this important?” Matt answered. “I’m in the middle of something.”
“Yes, it’s important. We have a situation on our hands.”
Matt hated the way Shayla couched every bit of news she had to deliver. “Please spit it out. I don’t have time for this. If there’s a fire, get out the extinguishers.”
She cleared her throat. “Fine. TBG just posted pictures of your beauty-queen admin leaving your house in the middle of the night wearing the gown she’d been photographed wearing hours earlier at the hospital benefit.”
Matt’s stomach sank. The Big Gossip, or TBG, was a tabloid website with an unsavory reputation and a massive following. He ran his hands through his hair. Nadia glanced over at him and her eyes narrowed. Nadia had an uncanny ability to read him and he wasn’t ready to share this bit of news with her. He turned and walked away. “How did this happen?”
“That’s not really a question for me now, is it? I’m guessing that somebody on your security detail fell down on the job. Or more likely, fell asleep.”
A low rumble escaped Matt’s throat. “Fine. I’ll talk to Phil.”
“That only helps with preventing this from happening again. For now we have a story trending about you sleeping with an employee. It does not look good.”
“So kill it.”
“TBG has new ownership and a whole new editorial team. They’re not about to bend to the whim of a publicist.”
“Then offer them something better.”
That was enough to get Nadia to walk over to where he was standing by the windows, her flawless face full of worry. He did enjoy the way her full lips went slack. “What’s going on?” she whispered.
Matt merely shook his head.
“Access to the Saturday night gala during the retreat?” Shayla asked.
Matt had refused TBG’s request for access. That retreat was meant to be an exclusive weekend-long getaway for the business elite and Matt’s closest celebrity friends. People came to a party like that to have fun outside the public eye. “Is there another way?”
“I can deny the story and make something up. Say there was a work emergency and you had to go straight to your house from the fund-raiser. You needed Nadia’s help and it was closer than the office.”
Matt thought it through for a second. “That could work.”
“Oh, my God,” Nadia said, looking at her phone. She showed him the screen. There was the story. And that horrible headline, plain as day: “Beauty and the Boss?” Whoever had taken the picture of her tiptoeing her way out of his house had used a camera with night-vision technology.
“I need Nadia to sign a nondisclosure agreement before I do this, though,” Shayla said. “Richmond Industries can’t afford to have her turn around and decide to sell her story to the highest bidder.”
Matt’s stomach was done dropping and was now angrily churning. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“Do you trust her implicitly? Because I don’t.”
“You don’t trust anyone.”
“A man in your position shouldn’t, either. For all we know, Nadia tipped off that photographer.”
Matt refused to believe Nadia was capable of that. “Just take care of it. Please.” With that, Matt ended the call.
Nadia’s wide eyes were pleading. “Is this why Shayla called?” She glanced down at her phone in disgust and handed it to him. “We have to do something. I don’t want my coworkers knowing that I slept with you.”
Matt hated that the memory of his amazing night with Nadia had now been eclipsed by a pulpy story, but at least he knew that Nadia had not played a role in the photographer’s presence. If she had, she wouldn’t be so upset right now. “I told Shayla to kill it. Don’t worry about it. It will go away.”
“It’s so easy for you to say that. You have all the power here. I’m nobody.” Nadia wrapped her arms around her waist and turned to the window overlooking the falls.
He hated hearing her refer to herself that way. She wasn’t nobody to him. And looking at her right now, all he could think about was how badly he wanted her. It made it nearly impossible to think straight. “Nadia.” He put his hand on her shoulder and watched as she turned and looked back at him, her warm brown eyes inviting him in. “I don’t want you to regret the things we did together. We’re two consenting adults.” Matt knew it wasn’t as simple as that. People would talk. All the more reason for Shayla to get rid of the story as soon as possible.
She sighed and her shoulders dropped in defeat. “I know that, but it doesn’t matter. We can’t let this happen again. There are too many prying eyes. It could destroy us both.”
Nadia was right. Matt only wished he wasn’t so disappointed by the truth. If he could have anything he wanted right now, it would be her. “I won’t let that happen.”
“See? Power. You can control this. I can’t.”
He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. He knew he shouldn’t, but the way she subtly pressed against his touch sent the blood coursing through his body. “If you understood how badly I want you right now, you