Page 24 of Christmas Baby with Her Ultra-Rich Boss

‘It has been a few years since I’ve touched base on this. Explain them to me.’

She rolled her chair back until it touched the wall and then spoke in polite, professional detail about how they ensured guest and staff safety in extreme weather.

‘Is Sven aware of the procedures?’

‘All the staff are aware. It is part of our induction and we do ongoing training, too, to keep it fresh in people’s minds.’

Now he remembered one of the things that had impressed him when he’d interviewed Lena for the general manager’s role was her suggestion that the ongoing training be increased. She’d implemented it within days of starting the job.

‘What time is he due?’ In their meeting with Sven the day before, one conducted in an atmosphere as cordial as the one they were having now, Konstantinos and Lena had discussed the transition process and Konstantinos’s expectations of him for when he took over the role. The meeting had been cut short when Konstantinos needed to video call with his directors. He’d left Lena to arrange a time to continue it for that day.

‘In two hours.’

‘Good. That gives you time to look at the homes my people have shortlisted for you.’

Not by a flicker did she react in any way that could be construed as delight or pleasure, her features retaining their amiability, her tone remaining polite. ‘That is wonderful, thank you, but I will have to look at them later—I’m due to give Jocasta her appraisal in ten minutes.’

‘Should Sven not sit in on it so he can see how they’re conducted?’

‘We’ve already agreed he will sit in on Mikhail’s appraisal at four.’

She didn’t miss a trick. Of all his managers, she was by far the most thorough and conscientious. His hotel’s loss was his baby’s gain, a thought that gave him no satisfaction whatsoever. Konstantinos had felt out of sorts since he’d woken at what would have been the crack of dawn in any normal part of the world. His sleep had been abysmal, something he blamed Lena for.

Their conversation about his brother and Cassia’s betrayal had had the desired effect. Any hint of emotional turbulence from Lena had been extinguished. She’d understood his unspoken message, that much was clear. What was not clear was why he was unable to get his own body to compute the message. Her body language was everything he wanted, not a hint of the expressive emotions that fed into his veins, not even during the meal they’d shared at the Brasserie last night when she’d acted as if she was dining with a business acquaintance. It was how she should have acted during their celebratory meal five months ago, he thought grimly. Howheshould have acted, too. And then he’d walked her back to her cabin like a gentleman should, the beats of his heart getting stronger the closer they’d gotten to it, his nerve endings tingling even as he mentally prepared the rebuffs he would make when she invited him inside, only to reach her door and be wished a brisk good-night.

‘I shall sit in on Jocasta’s appraisal,’ he decided, folding his arms across his chest. He would have to deal with Lena for the rest of his life. Practice would make perfect his determination to rid himself of this physical infatuation he seemed to have developed for her.

If Lena was perturbed at this declaration, she didn’t show it. ‘In that case, I will have extra pastries brought in.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘You provide refreshments when you do appraisals?’

‘I find it makes for a nicer atmosphere and allows them to relax.’

‘An appraisal of your staff’s work should be conducted professionally, not as if you’re conducting a tea party.’

‘It is conducted professionally, as you will discover when Jocasta gets here.’

‘Professionally with pastries?’

‘I prefer the carrot to the stick approach. It creates a feeling of openness.’

‘That sounds like psychobabble.’

She shrugged. ‘It’s my way of working.’

‘Because you dislike confrontation?’

‘I dislikeunnecessaryconfrontation,’ she corrected, the slightest hint of steel sounding in her calm voice. ‘I have appraised a dozen staff since I took the role and sent the full reports to you. If you had a problem with them, you should have told me.’

She had him there, but he was saved from wondering too deeply why he was doing his best to pick fault with her—unnecessary fault at that, seeing as she’d no longer be his employee in four days—by a tap on the door.

Lena welcomed an early Jocasta inside, called out to her assistant for the refreshments to be brought in, and prayed for the strength not to punch Konstantinos in the face. She had the distinct impression he was deliberately trying to find fault with her, although to what end she couldn’t begin to imagine.

She was doing her best. The message he’d given her when relating his brother and fiancée’s betrayal had been received and understood. When he said he didn’t do relationships and that she would only ever be the mother of his child to him, he meant it. Nothing more needed to be said about it, not by either of them. His accusation that she’d only slept with him because of his wealth sealed it. That he still had such a low opinion of her and that the most incredible night of her life was so diminished in his mind hurt immeasurably, but she couldn’t defend herself because to do so would only dredge it all up again.

She wished he’d delivered his message when her time here in Sweden was done, not when she still had to suffer four days of his unceasing presence and had to pretend she felt nothing. She was proud, though, that when he’d walked her back to her chalet after their polite dinner together where they had made a tentative plan on how best to co-parent their child, she’d let herself in without giving in to the plaintive yearning to invite him inside; proud, too, that when he’d appeared in her office that morning she’d smothered the swirl of emotions playing havoc inside her to greet him with a smile.

Her crush needed to be kept under lock and key. The emotions Konstantinos created in her needed to be contained. It was the only way she could get through the next few days.

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