Angel in Armani (19 page)

She managed a smile. It wasn’t as though there was an argument she could make other than
I’m nervous
. There hadn’t been enough time the other day for her to meet anyone else at the Saints, and she’d sort of been counting on Lucas being there now. But that just didn’t rate against someone who needed medical attention.

She was just going to have to suck it up. She could do it. If she could leave home and join the army, she could manage to deal with a new job.

That part was easier than dealing with the fact that she’d slept with Lucas again and that, during their very long night, it had become crystal clear that she wasn’t ready to stop sleeping with him anytime soon. And he was her boss.

“I don’t want anyone at the Saints to know about us,” she said as he started to tie his other shoe.

Silence. He finished tying the shoe then straightened slowly. “Forever?”

“For now,” she said. “Is that okay?”

“Mal and Alex won’t care,” Lucas said.

“Maybe not. But I will. I have to work with them. They need to trust my piloting skills if I’m going to be worth what you’re paying me. So I don’t want them thinking that you only hired me because I slept with you.”

“Technically you weren’t sleeping with me when I hired you.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Mal and Alex are my best friends,” he said. “It’s not really feasible that I’m never going to mention you.”

She pulled the quilt tighter around her. The heating in this apartment was temperamental and apparently this morning it hadn’t yet kicked in, making the air chilly. “This is brand new,” she said. “We have no idea if it’s even going to last. So let’s not do the friends-and-family bit, just yet. Okay? Just for a little while. That’s all I’m asking.”

“You getting ready to kick me out of your bed?”

“Right now, no,” she said. “But like I said, this is new. In a few more weeks we might annoy the crap out of each other.”

He cocked his head as he slid his heavy watch onto his wrist. “After last night, do you think that’s likely?”

“I think last night proved we’re good in bed. That doesn’t equal good at life together. So let’s keep it under wraps for now.”

“You want me to be your secret boy toy.”

She smiled. “Well, who doesn’t want a secret gorgeous sexy boy toy?”

“Now you’re just appealing to my male vanity.”

“Is it working?”

His face was serious. “Maybe. But only for a while, Sara. I’m not going to lie to my partners forever.”

She nodded. “That’s fair enough. Just a month or so maybe. Which means, no sleeping together in Florida. I definitely do not want anyone catching you sneaking out of my hotel room.”

He frowned. “Not sleeping with you isn’t very appealing right now.”

“You’ll live. I hear cold showers work wonders.”

“How about phone sex?”

She laughed. “I’ll take it into consideration.” She glanced at the clock. It was getting close to six thirty. She wanted to be at Deacon by eight. “You should get going, shouldn’t you?”

“See, you are trying to get rid of me,” he said, but he smiled and leaned over and kissed her again. The kiss had turned heated way too quickly when she finally pulled away. They stayed close for a moment, foreheads resting together, breathing heavily.

“Remind me why I have to go again?” he said, sounding hoarse.

“Something about a pesky Hippocratic oath and some idiots who’ve managed to smash themselves up.”

“Right. That.” He made a noise deep in his throat as he moved his hand off her breast. “I hate that.”

“No, you don’t. So go be a doctor. I’ll be right here tonight.”

“Tonight’s a long time away.”

“Operate fast then.”

Chapter Thirteen

True to Lucas’s word, once Sara flashed her pass at the security gate and drove through into the underground parking lot, Gardner was waiting for her by the elevator.

“Good morning,” he said as she reached him.

“Hi.” Nerves bloomed again as she stared at the Saints logo painted on the elevator door, fingers clamping around the strap of her purse. Nothing to be nervous about. It wasn’t as though this was a job interview. They’d already hired her. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“You, too. I hope things went smoothly in Orlando? There was no problem with the helicopter we hired?” The doors slid open and he gestured for her to get in.

“It was great,” she assured him. “Do I need to take anybody anywhere today?”

“Not so far,” Gardner said, pressing the button for the fourth floor. “But that could change. Alex wanted to be here to say hello but he got called into Ice headquarters. So Maggie Jameson is going to give you the tour.”

“Maggie Jameson? Whose dad used to own the Saints?”

“The one and only.” Gardner smiled. “She insisted. Said she knows the place better than the rest of us. Which no one can argue with.”

The elevator came to a halt. Sara took a deep breath.

Gardner looked sympathetic. “Trust me, Maggie’s not scary. Well, not unless you’re a Yankees fan.” He frowned. “You’re not, are you?”

“Definitely not,” Sara said. Thank God he hadn’t asked if she was a Saints fan.

“Good.” The smartphone in his hand suddenly started buzzing. He looked at the screen. “I’m sorry, I have to take this. Do you mind finding your own way? Maggie’s in Alex’s office, it’s the one at the end of this corridor. Just knock on the door.”

Sara hesitated but nodded when Gardner lifted the phone to his ear. She was going to have to meet everyone eventually. Might as well start at the top. And she had to admit to a certain degree of curiosity about Maggie Jameson.

She’d managed to avoid the finer details—or most of the details, really—of baseball growing up, but it was hard not to know at least something about Maggie Jameson, who hadn’t gone to school on Staten but was kind of island royalty, if there was such a thing. Maggie had been a year or two ahead of Sara at school and she’d been a topic of frequent speculation whenever she appeared in the news due to the Saints connection. Sara hadn’t paid much attention but she knew a bit about her. That her mom had died and she’d been raised by her baseball-team-owning father.

She had a vague mental image of a very pretty girl with long dark hair and dark eyes, but who knew if that was right?

So meeting Maggie was kind of like meeting a celebrity … someone you’d heard about but never met.

Besides which, this was the woman who’d roped herself the golden, glowing Alex Winters. Anyone would be curious about that. The man was hot. Sara had read stories about his companies and their aeronautical research and she remembered the pictures of the man who accompanied the articles. Tall and chiseled with piercing green eyes and brownish-blond hair.

Of course, she leaned more toward near-black hair and blue eyes, but Lucas or no Lucas, she could appreciate other guys. Maggie Jameson was obviously no one to be underestimated if she’d scored herself Alex Winters.

It almost made Sara have second thoughts about the whole keeping-herself-and-Lucas-under-wraps thing. If anyone could give her tips on how to handle a man with piles of money like Lucas, it would be someone like Maggie.

Of course, Maggie had grown up with piles of money herself so maybe it was no big deal to her. Still … girl talk. With moving to back to Staten Island and Viv settling into her new job, it had been weeks since she’d had any serious girl time. The brief chats with the women who worked at the various heliports didn’t count. She couldn’t let herself confide in them because the helicopter charter world was small and she had no intention of letting her private life be the subject of its grapevine.

So yes, she wanted to meet Maggie and talk girl for a little bit, if there was a chance to do so. She could talk girl without giving away the fact she was seeing Lucas. Of course, if Maggie was as baseball-mad as the rest of them, they might not have a lot in common, but Sara would cross that bridge when she came to it.

The corridor went on for a while, its path slightly curved. The white walls had rows of black-and-white pictures of both teams and individual players breaking up the space between doors leading to other rooms or offices. Sara didn’t pass anyone coming in the other direction. Gardner had said the office at the end of the corridor so she just kept walking until she came to a set of doors marked CEO with a discreet silver plaque.

She pushed one of the doors open and stepped into a large room with another set of doors at its far end. Those would be the actual office, she figured. The room she was in had several cubicle-style desks that held computers and various knickknacks and pictures but were currently uninhabited. One of the doors across the room was open and light spilled out, along with the loud sound of guitars and drums.

Sara smiled when the drums faded a bit and a guy started singing and she finally recognized the song. Springsteen. She’d grown up with Springsteen, Jamie having formed a small obsession with the man’s music at an early age. Maybe she and Maggie had something in common after all.

She reached the doors and paused at the threshold. The office was big with an impressive desk centered against the far wall. But the decor was less interesting than the tall brunette wearing dark skinny jeans, battered pink Converse shoes, and a Saints hoodie, who was shaking her booty to the music as she studied a row of figures scrawled down a massive whiteboard.

As Sara watched, she executed a twirl when the guitar riff screamed into life then stopped when she saw Sara. She looked embarrassed for half a second then just laughed, her dark eyes bright. She pulled out a small white remote control out of her pocket and pointed it at the computer on the desk. The music died.

“That’s what I get for getting my groove on.” She tucked the remote away again. “I take it you’re Sara?”

Sara nodded, wondering if she’d just put her foot in it by surprising Maggie. But she would worry about that another time. Right now she had to act like a normal person and make nice with Lucas’s best friend’s girlfriend. Who was also one of her bosses, in a way.

“Hi,” she said. “Sorry to interrupt you. Gardner had to take a call.”

Maggie shook her head with a smile and beckoned Sara into the room. “Trust me, you aren’t interrupting anything exciting. That’s why I had the music on.”

Given how intently Maggie had been looking at the figures on the whiteboard, booty shaking or no booty shaking, Sara wasn’t sure she believed her.

She hovered near one of the leather chairs set opposite the desk. Maggie perched on the edge of the desk, tapping on her pink shoes. Her casual clothes made Sara wonder if she’d misjudged her outfit choice. She’d gone with a neat black pantsuit and white shirt with her usual black flats. But Gardner had been in a suit as slickly cut as any of Lucas’s, so maybe not.

“Sorry about the outfit.” Maggie must have noticed the uncertainty on Sara’s face. “Mal wants to drag me around the bowels of the stadium later. I’ve learned it’s safer not to wear heels and a suit for that.” She smiled, but curiosity was plain on her face. “So you’re our new helicopter pilot.”

“Yes.”

Maggie nodded approvingly. “Very cool.”

“You like helicopters?”

“Absolutely. Dad had one for a while in the late nineties when he was running way too many companies. I used to love it. Being up so high, seeing everything laid out below you. I used to nag him into taking me on flights whenever I could.” She grinned, looking nostalgic. “How did you become a pilot?”

Sara smiled at her, finding her enthusiasm contagious. “My dad is a pilot. So was my grandfather.”

“Ah, the good old family business,” Maggie said. “I know a bit about that. It can be hard when something’s in the blood that way.”

“Hard, but good,” Sara said. “I love flying.”

“Well, with the current state of crazy around here, there will be plenty of that.”

“I’m happy to do other things, too,” Sara said. “I already asked Lucas about it in Florida. I’m not very good at just sitting around, so if there’s other stuff I can do for you when you don’t need the helo, you should let me know.”

“What sort of thing did you have in mind?”

“I did a lot of office work for Charles Air—that’s the family company—so I know my way around a computer and admin-type stuff. The amount you’re paying me, I want to be useful.”

Maggie’s expression turned approving again. “Well, there’s always plenty of paperwork and stuff to be dealt with. And Lucas said you’d been in the army, so Mal might find a use for you with what he’s doing with the security stuff.”

“I just flew in the army, I didn’t do anything too exciting,” Sara said.

“Flying in war zones sounds plenty exciting to me.” Maggie slid to her feet. “Anyway, how about I start by showing you around and then we’ll figure out how best to put you to work. And you can tell me how you met Lucas.”

Sara’s stomach curled slightly. She’d expected the question, knew damned well that Maggie was likely to ask about Lucas, but that didn’t mean she had to give anything away. And hey, that would just give her the opportunity to grill Maggie in return. So she was going to grab the opportunity while she could.

“There’s not much to tell,” she said. “He hired me to take him to Newark. Pretty standard.”

Maggie waved a hand toward the door. “You must have done a good job. He was the one who pushed to hire you. Lucas doesn’t impress easily.”

She headed toward the outer office, and Sara followed her.

“We’ll start with the stadium,” Maggie said. “That’s the fun bit, that and the training complex. Then I’ll show you where everything is back in here.” She reached out and hooked a scarf and gloves off a shelf near one of the desks. “Will you be warm enough outside?”

“I have a scarf and gloves in my purse,” Sara said.

“Well, leave that here and bring those.”

Sara did as she was told.

Maggie set off again. “So,” she said as they walked, “being a pilot must mean lots of travel. What does your boyfriend think about that?” She smiled innocently at Sara.

Sara sent an equally innocent smile back. “No boyfriend. Just a dog. And he stays with my folks when he needs to.”