Chapter 8 California
By Alejandro
With the time change, we arrived at 2 PM in California.
At 8 PM, we had to meet Kevin White for an informal dinner.
We had the afternoon to settle in and take a nap.
I asked her to wake me up at 5 PM to review a contract.
The rooms were next to each other but not connected.
I fell asleep immediately.
At 5 PM, my phone rang; it was Valeria.
"Come to my room in 20 minutes and bring your laptop."
I showered and must have taken longer than I thought because when I came out, Valeria was knocking on the door.
I put on my pants and answered the door shirtless.
She looked at me suspiciously.
"If I had done it on purpose, I would have waited without pants," I joked, but the truth was that as I spoke, I couldn't take my eyes off her cleavage.
I was already bothered by the lack of control I felt when she was near.
When I finally looked away from her chest, my gaze traveled down her body. She was wearing white shorts.
Valeria's legs always leave me breathless.
Look at her face, I told myself.
And I looked at her mouth.
Damn, everything about her is beautiful. She's stunning as a whole and in every part.
I turned my back to her because I couldn't corner her or throw her on the bed like I wanted to. She had already said no twice.
I didn't want to keep staring at her like a desperate man because that's what she made me feel—desperation to have her.
I wasn't going to play a game where I didn't have the winning cards.
We worked for about an hour.
"You need to make time for the maids to take my clothes to the dry cleaners."
"Yes, sir... Alejandro, no problem."
I smiled.
I looked at her again, shamelessly this time, with the confidence that characterizes me.
"It's an informal dinner. A short dress will be fine. I'm wearing a suit. I need you to take care of my clothes, matching each shirt with a suit."
"Have you unpacked yet?"
"No."
"Should I do it?"
"Please."
She looked at me; it was the first time I had said please.
I don't usually use that word.
She organized my clothes and told me where everything was, even my underwear.
"I'm going to change. I've already set aside the shirt and suit for tonight."
When I wasn't trying to win her over, she relaxed, and we got along very well at work.
Without a doubt, she's the best assistant I've had so far—prepared, intelligent, kind, sweet, and beautiful, very beautiful.
At 7:30, I sent her a message.
She said she was ready.
She was wearing an electric blue dress, fitted, short, showing off her perfect legs. Her shoes were black, as was her purse.
It wasn't too low-cut, but it highlighted her entire figure. Her blonde hair fell over her back like a cascade.
It seemed like she had spent the entire afternoon getting ready to stand out, yet it didn't even take her half an hour.
Her beauty is natural, which made her even more stunning, but that didn't mean she wasn't striking—she was, immensely, outshining all other women.
Her body seemed to be calling out to me to make love to her.
When I placed a hand on her back to let her enter the elevator first, I felt that powerful electricity again, burning me inside and out.
I have to avoid touching her, brushing against her, even looking at her.
Since there were more people in the elevator, we stayed close, maybe too close.
She avoided looking at me. When another person got on, she glanced up as if to apologize because we were even closer than before.
We looked at each other without saying a word.
Those cat-like eyes awakened a thousand sensations in me.
I looked away; I couldn't hold her gaze, but I looked at her mouth.
I controlled the urge to kiss her.
We were in an elevator full of people, and for me, the world didn't exist at that moment.
I was about to say I was canceling everything and ask her to spend the night in my room, even though I knew she would refuse.
That drove me as crazy as she did.
By Valeria
I stand my ground
The elevator was more than full. It was a first-class hotel, 30 floors, with many elevators and many people.
We were so close I could feel his breath.
He made me feel a thousand sensations.
I didn't want to look at him. I would get lost in his gaze and end up being just another name on his endless list.
But at one point, another person got on, and I looked up, meeting his eyes.
God, what a deep gaze!
Does he know what he does to me?
We shouldn't get any closer because he'll notice he makes me tremble to my core.
I noticed he didn't hold my gaze but looked at my mouth, as if he was going to kiss me, like he did the other day at the pub.
That day, I was about to go with him, wherever he wanted. I still wonder where I found the willpower to say no.
At one point, I kissed him back, let myself be carried away by his kisses, his caresses. No one had ever kissed me like that. Actually, the only one who had kissed me was Diego, and he couldn't even compare to Alejandro.
My knees had gone weak.
Alejandro was pure fire.
His hands immediately went to my chest, and I was dying to feel his hands on my skin.
He was even touching my butt and started moving his hand lower, I got scared, there were a lot of people around and I was letting him touch me like that, hoping he wouldn't stop.
When I saw him coming, he was too close, the only thing I did was tell Emi that my two bosses were there and I pointed to Omar.
Immediately Alejandro pulled me aside and that's when he kissed me.
When he told me to leave with him, I realized it was crazy to go with him, he insisted once and I told him no again.
He turned around and within two steps he already had another woman in his arms.
That same day he had been with a woman in his office and asked me to send her a gift, I even signed the card.
I watched him leave with a woman he had obviously just met.
He just wanted to have sex.
It would be very difficult, if I slept with him, to see him afterward as if nothing had happened, it would be difficult and painful, I'm not that open and I know for him it would just be a pastime.
I needed the job and it was very well paid, easy to do, I talked to people from other countries, meaning I practiced languages and had the opportunity to learn Chinese.
Everything would go well as long as I stayed away from his arms, because I'm sure I would even lose my job as a secretary once he got tired of me, if I ended up in his arms.
It hurt a lot that he wasn't even half a meter away from me when he already found a replacement for my kisses.
But it was for the best.
Even though my self-esteem hurt.
I don't want to analyze the fire I feel when he's near.
I know he likes me, the thing is he likes everyone.
He's always surrounded by beautiful, striking women, generally taller than me and with good figures, many are platinum blonde and with a lot of plastic.
The day after that night at the pub, he seemed in a bad mood.
I pretended nothing happened and continued treating him formally and calling him sir, although it was ridiculous after how he kissed and touched me, but I gave myself some respect, I wasn't going to let him correct me and tell me to call him sir.
On the plane, he told me he ordered me to use the informal "you" and call him by his name.
He's still my boss and I treat him with distance, because if not, the only one who will lose will be me.
I couldn't afford to lose this job.
We arrived at the restaurant where Kevin White was already waiting for us, accompanied by a beautiful woman who couldn't take her eyes off Alejandro, so I guessed I would be going back to the hotel alone in a taxi that night.
Kevin was also looking at me, showering me with compliments.
The woman with Kevin was his cousin and from what I could observe and hear, she had slept with Alejandro before.
He doesn't waste time, ever.
It seemed my boss didn't like Kevin filling me with compliments continuously.
Although he didn't say much, just a couple of times he indicated that we were working and the American replied that we were adults and could choose what to do later.
To my amazement, he didn't leave with Kevin's cousin, instead, we both went back to the hotel alone.
We had spoken everything in English, Alejandro speaks it perfectly, it's clear he's used to traveling.
I think I did pretty well, although Kevin's cousin tried to exclude me from the conversation all night.
When we returned, there were hardly any people left, so we traveled more apart in the elevator.
At the door of my room, he greeted me properly.
The next day we were busy all day, going from meeting to meeting, looking at products to import, he also met with some people who, from what I understood, were partners in a top-tier hotel chain in our country and wanted to buy two hotels in the United States and Alejandro wasn't very enthusiastic about that idea.
I also realized he wasn't speaking on behalf of Zalco Company, but on behalf of himself and Omar.
And those hotels weren't included in the documents that arrived at my desk every day.
I couldn't contribute anything, I was just accompanying Alejandro.
That night we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, went up together and when I thought he was going to open his room door, he winked at me and went back to the hotel lobby.
I smiled at him.
What else could I do?
Even though I liked him a lot and he made me tremble when he was near, we couldn't have anything and if we did, I would just be another one on his list and that would be humiliating and painful.
I heard him return 20 minutes later, which was the time it took to go down and come back up at that hour.
He's quick to seduce, although he probably had already marked her during dinner.
It's incredible how women threw themselves at his feet and it's no wonder, he has nothing to envy Hollywood heartthrobs.
There's also the fact that he often pays for those services.
He tried to buy me on the first day.