Page 24 of Once Upon a Prince
“I’m not going to fuck with them. I’m going to kill them with kindness. They may not consider it kindness but they won’t have any repercussions, if I play my cards right.”
“If there’s one thing that you do very well, dear brother, it’s play your cards right. And what cards are you going to play when it comes to your assistant?”
“I’m not playing anything with her. She’s my assistant, nothing more.”
“Is she really?” Anna held my gaze and didn’t look away. If I wasn’t careful, she was going to get me to admit more than I wanted to.
“I’ve explained my actions. There might have been other reasons but it isn’t what you think. I’ve asked her to go to Buenos Aires with me at the end of the month. I don’t want her to be embarrassed or feel underdressed while we’re there.”
“You asked her to go or you told her she was going?” Anna asked.
“I asked her. It’s technically not a part of her job duties to travel with me. While it will make my life easier to have her there, I can’t demand that she go with me.”
“Would it make your life easier? I would think having a woman you’re attracted to accompany you on a business trip would make things more complicated. That is unless you’re hoping the trip will cause things to get complicated.”
“I didn’t ask Ella to go to Buenos Aires with me in order to sleep with her.”
“You don’t need to convince a woman to go to a wonderful city in order to seduce her, you could do that easily here. Though not having the distractions of work and the city might make things easier.”
“She’s my assistant.”
“You keep saying that. Yet, you’ve been more generous with her than with any other assistant. You want to take her on a business trip, also something you haven’t done before. And there is a look in your eyes, a softness that comes over your face when you talk about her. There is something there. I can see it; I just don’t understand why you won’t allow yourself to feel it. What’s holding you back?”
I lifted my right eyebrow at my sister as I poured the last of the wine into our glasses. She laughed at me and then took a sip of her wine.
“You wouldn’t be the first boss to sleep with his assistant. Nor one to use being in an exotic location to do it,” she said.
“That isn’t why I asked her to go to Buenos Aires with me.”
“It could be an added bonus,” Anna teased.
I shook my head at her and took a drink.
“Just admit it, you like her.”
“She isn’t a dessert and this isn’t high school,” I countered.
“No one said she or it was. You’re attracted to her, you’re interested in her, you have thought more than once about sleeping with her. The question is, what are you going to do about it?”
“There’s nothing that I can do about it.”
Anna was asking all the questions and making me think of all the things that I didn’t want to think about. Ella and my desire to have her had been on my mind all weekend. I had wanted to do something nice for her, but I hadn’t counted on it blowing up in my face. I had told myself that Ella didn’t belong in my world, that she wouldn’t want to be. But after seeing how she had looked, how she had stood, how she had almost changed before my eyes when she was in that pantsuit, I knew that it was I who was out of her league and not the other way around.
I wanted her, I wanted her to go to Buenos Aires with me, I wanted to have time with her when we weren’t in the office. I wanted to show her a town that I loved. I wanted to show her the life that I could give her. Most importantly, I wanted to feel her naked body next to mine as she screamed out my name.
“There’s a lot you can do. The question is, what do you want to do about it. I know you brother, this isn’t going to go away, and you aren’t a man to hide from a challenge or a problem.”
“Ella isn’t a problem.”
“But she’s a challenge and one that isn’t going to go away. You need to figure out what you want to do with your feelings for her. Well, first you need to admit to yourself that you have feelings for her, then decide what you want to do about them.”
“I’m not the only consideration here.”
“Well, admitting your feelings didn’t take as long as thought,” Anna muttered. “Certainly, there’s a lot to think about. Until you decide what you want to do, what you really want when it comes to you and Ella, you can’t move forward. You don’t need to answer me, you don’t need to do anything but listen to what I’m saying and then do something about it.
“I like Ella, I think she’s good to you and has allowed you to see a different side to yourself. You’ve been happier and more relaxed since she has come into your life even more centered. I think that would only grow if you two were to get involved. But that isn’t for me to decide. If you need a sounding board you know where to find me, but I think you have a lot of thinking to do and then you need to have a long and serious conversation with Ella.”
Anna downed the last of her wine and placed the glass on the table. She got up from her chair and kissed the top of my head. I didn’t look at her or even acknowledge her as she walked out of my apartment. All I could think about was what she said and what I was going to say to Ella when I saw her on Monday.