Sinful Pleasures

Chapter Eleven

***WARNING!! THERE IS MENTION OF MINOR ASSAULT IN THIS CHAPTER!! IT MAY BE A TRIGGER FOR SOME READERS!!***

I quickly got dressed and made my way to the kitchen. There was a cup of coffee and a warm bagel waiting on the counter for me. I didn't see Damon anywhere, so I grabbed the cup and bagel, making my way to the patio. I sat down and took a long drink of my coffee. The liquid slowly warmed me as it made its way down my throat to my stomach. I was slowly starting to relax again when I heard the door shut.

I jumped a little and turned toward the door. Damon was making his way towards me with his own coffee in his hands. He sat beside me and gently kissed my cheek. I leaned back and rested my head on his shoulder. If this was the way every morning could begin, I would be thoroughly content with life.

"Are you going to tell me what really woke you this morning? I know it had something to do with your dream, and I know you aren't telling me the whole story." I rolled my eyes, even though I knew he couldn't see my face. I knew that he was going to tell me that I was being overdramatic. That I was overthinking the dream.

"It started out as the perfect dream. The hotel was doing great. We were doing great. We had been named the hottest power couple in Manhattan. Then everything went black. Amanda's face appeared in my dream, and that's when I woke up. I had this really bad feeling that something terrible was going to happen."

I didn't want to look at him. I didn't want to see him roll his eyes, or silently judge me. I know that Amanda and I had started off on the wrong foot, and I wanted to believe that her apology last week had been sincere. But something about that dream left me worried. I finally gave in and looked at him. I was surprised by the look in his eyes. He wasn't judging me. The worry had made it's way back to his gaze.

"Why do you feel like something terrible will happen? I would never let anything happen to you, or our hotel." He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. He kissed my head and I instantly felt better. I was hoping that I was just overreacting. I took another drink of my coffee and tried to push the thought from my mind.

"Where were you after you made the coffee? I didn't see you anywhere?" I looked at him with a frown. I knew he could come and go as he pleased, but I didn't like when he wasn't here.

"I just went to my room and grabbed the rest of my clothes and stuff. I figured there was no point in having stuff in my room, if I am staying here all the time. Unless you don't want me here all the time?"

I watched a smirk play on his lips and I rolled my eyes at him. "Of course I want you here. I wish we could just spend all day here, but we have to have responsibilities. Like running this hotel. Who's dumb idea was that?" I tried my best to keep a disgusted look on my face, but completely lost it when Damon started to laugh.

"I believe you were the dumb one. I'm just along for the ride. But speaking of responsibilities, we should probably head downstairs to the office. We still have two hours until the meetings start, but we could always get a head start on our emails. Maybe Jen's manager got back with you about which suite to block off."

Damon had already stood up and was holding his hand out for me. I took it and we made our way inside. He rinsed out our mugs and proceeded to make one to go for me. He handed the mug to me as we got into the elevator. I took a long drink. We made our way down the hallway to our offices, but I was surprised when Damon walked by his and instead followed me into mine. I raised my eyebrow then saw him set up his laptop on the table in front of the couch. I didn't even notice he had grabbed it.

I made my way to my desk and got to work on my emails. About an hour later, there was a knock on my door that made me jump. The door slowly opened, and I internally groaned as I watched Amanda walk her, her eyes looking down at her phone.

"Hey Blaire, have you seen...Oh! Damon! Just the guy I was looking for." I watched her smile as she realized he was here. I rolled my eyes as she proceeded to join him on the couch. She sat so close to him that I could see her leg pressed against his. I tried to ignore her and focus on my emails. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but it had something to do with the papers she had with her. I watched as she leaned closer to him. I could feel my heart rate increase and the dream quickly came to mind.

"I'm sorry Amanda. But can you finish this conversation after our meetings later? I need to discuss something with him." She glared at me, but didn't make a move towards the door. I was quickly becoming annoyed with her again, not wanting to play games with her. I had already made it clear once that I wasn't afraid to fire her. I still stood by that.

"Well, if it is about the events, I would love to hear what you have to say. After all, I am the one in charge of them." She flashed me a fake smile and brushed her arm against Damon's. I don't know why, but I just knew she was purposely trying to piss me off. I was tempted to fire her right then just for being a b***h, but I decided to change my tactics. If she wanted to play dirty, I would too.

"No, actually I wanted to talk to him about hiring another EC. Since my goal is to make this the hottest hotel in Manhattan, I expect to bring in more events. More for just two ECs to handle. No offense."

I couldn't help but grin as she narrowed her eyes at me. I could see Damon trying to hide a smirk as he went back to his laptop. "Fine, Damon, I will just meet you in your office after the client meetings. There is still a lot to go over." She smiled sweetly at him, and tried to place her hand on his thigh as she stood up. Thankfully, Damon caught on to what she was trying to do and shifted so that her hand fell onto the couch instead.

She finally left and Damon made his way over to my desk. He walked around to my side and leaned back against it. I leaned back in my chair and just admired him. This was by far one of my favorite views.

"Well, it looks like your dream was right. There is no way that she isn't up to something. Though, I am surprised that she was that forward about it. Right in front of you."

I rolled my eyes. Nothing surprised me with her. "I'm not. Especially considering how she acted towards me when we first started. I am going to send Lexi a text to put another posting for ECs. I would like to find two or three more soon. I don't know how much longer I can deal with her. I also want to be prepared in case Haley goes with her."

Damon nodded in agreement as I quickly typed out a text to Lexi. She said she would do it right away, and set up interviews with anyone who applied. I made sure to tell her to not notify Amanda, that I would personally do it. Although, I actually had no intention of telling her. After all, Damon and I were the ones that would do the initial hiring.

Damon and I spent the next 30 minutes going over important questions to ask the clients. We made our way to the conference room that we decided to use for the meetings. We entered the rooms first and took the seats by the windows so we were facing the door. A few minutes later, Amanda appeared in the doorway with a younger couple who looked to be in their early 20's. We stood to greet the clients. They looked to be very nice and quite in love.

The couple sat across from us, but Amanda took the empty seat next to Damon. I rolled my eyes, but quickly started the meeting with the clients. Amanda showed them the visuals she made up for them. Since they were doing the engagement party, they wanted a space that was just big enough to hold about 30 people. They only wanted their immediate families and close friends to attend. I told them that wouldn't be a problem, as we had a gorgeous banquet hall on the second floor that would be perfect. They said they just wanted to do some appetizers from the hotel restaurant and maybe some drinks from the bar.

I quickly jotted down their ideas on decorations and told them we would get back to them with a full plan by next week. Once the clients left the room, there was a sudden tension. I could feel Amanda glaring, and I knew she was pissed that I had taken control of the meeting. I couldn't wait to hear what she had to say.

"What the hell Blaire? I am the event coordinator. I am the one who is going to be handling the events in this hotel. Hence my job title. Why did you take the meeting from me?" She continued to glare at me. Damon looked highly uncomfortable since he was literally caught in the middle of us. I took a few deep calming breaths before I answered her.

"Amanda, I know exactly what your title is. But did you forget that this happens to be my hotel. And Damon's. It is not yours. You might be the event coordinator, but I am still your boss. Either Damon or I ultimately get the final say. I am not sure what you seem to have forgotten from our multiple conversations last week. I still will replace you if I see the need. The way you are acting now is making that need very prominent."

She obviously didn't like what I said and proceeded to stomp out of the room like a child. I rubbed my temples and could feel the beginning of a migraine. I had no idea what the hell was wrong with her, but she was wearing my patience very thin. I felt Damon's hand rubbing my back and I turned to look at him.

"Let's go grab a coffee while we wait for the next client." I nodded my agreement and followed him downstairs. We stood in the lobby with our coffees for a few minutes before heading back upstairs. We were talking about what to do for dinner tonight when I heard Amanda's obnoxiously fake laugh from the other side of the lobby. I turned to see what was causing the horrid noise and couldn't believe my eyes.

Amanda was standing near the elevators with Jason, slowly running her hand up his arm. She saw that I had looked over and leaned close to Jason like she was telling him something private. He got a confused look on his face, almost like he didn't believe what Amanda had just said to him. I noticed her start to point to me and he c****d an eyebrow. I was curious what she had said to him, but I didn't want her to get that satisfaction. I knew whatever she was up to was to get a reaction from me. I turned to Damon and suggested we head back upstairs. The next client was due in 20 minutes.

The next meeting went smoothly. A college age girl, around 22, wanted to throw a surprise party for her best friend at the end of the month. She only requested to use the bar here for about 2 hours, as she wanted to make a whole night out of multiple stops. She said she had seen pictures of the bar online and loved the atmosphere. She didn't request much, just that she could have it closed off just to her and the guests. She was estimating about 60 people, which would take up a good amount of space. Like the first couple, I told her that we would be in touch with her by next week with all of the confirmation details.

By the time the meeting was over, it was going on 3:30. It was still kind of early in the day, so I told Damon I just wanted to get a head start on her confirmation, seeing as it wasn't very demanding. He said he would go to the store and then make dinner for us. He kissed me goodbye and I headed into my office. Lexi let me know that she already had three people interested in the EC position, and scheduled interviews for tomorrow with both Damon and I. I thanked her and added the interview times to the calendars for Damon and myself. I typed out the confirmation for the surprise party and sent it to Derek and the client. I wanted Derek to be aware of the younger crowd that would be occupying the bar next month, just in case something happened.

I shut down my computer and made my way to the elevator. I realized I was starving and couldn't wait to see what Damon had planned for dinner. I felt like the elevator was taking longer than usual, so I started to scroll through my phone. I wasn't really paying attention to the screen, just idling scrolling to keep my mind off of things. I ended up being engrossed in something, that I didn't notice there was another person near by. I looked up, but I couldn't see anyone. I brushed it off as nothing.

The elevator still hadn't come down and I was beginning to become annoyed. I was about to call Addie to have maintenance look at it when I felt strong arms wrap around my waist. I didn't think anything of it and melted into the touch. I started to notice that something wasn't right. The touch felt wrong. The cologne smelled wrong. I looked down and noticed that the arms were in black sleeves. Damon wasn't wearing a black shirt today, and I suddenly realized who had his arms wrapped around me.

I quickly moved out of the grasp and turned to face Jason. He wore a grin and I really wanted to slap it off of him. "What the hell are you doing?" I crossed my arms and glared at him. Did he forget that I told him I was seeing someone? Did this have something to do with Amanda? I was instantly becoming pissed off.

"Come on Blaire, I see the way you look at me when you walk by me in the lobby. You were definitely checking me out earlier." He smirked and stepped closer to me. I had no idea what he was doing, but I didn't like it. I knew that nothing good was going to happen. I was wrapped in my thoughts on how to get out of this situation and hadn't noticed Jason step closer to me. There was barely any space between us. I could feel him staring at my lips. I started to panic.

Before I could think of a way around him, he backed me up against the elevator doors. He pinned my hands above my head and crashed his lips against mine. I struggled and tried to get my hands out of his grip. He was a lot stronger than I was, so I lost the battle of freeing my hands. As I was about to resort to kneeing him in the d**k, I heard a voice that I didn't want to hear. I knew this was going to look really bad. I just hoped I could explain that this actually was truthfully not what it looked like.

"What the f**k is going on? Get your hands off her!"

Jason pulled away from me and Damon grabbed him by the shirt. I had never seen Damon so pissed off. Everything began to happen so fast. Damon was yelling in Jason's face then all I could see was Damon's fist connecting with his face. Jason bent over and immediately covered his face. I could see blood oozing between his fingers. Damon immediately came to my side and pulled me into his arms.

Jason stood up straighter and moved his hands from his face. Blood was dripping from his nose and I noticed that it looked slightly crooked. Jason started to look pissed off. I was trying to figure out where my phone had ended up so I could call Derek. I finally found it on the floor behind us. I dialed Derek's cell and waited for him to answer.

"You broke my f*****g nose! What the hell is your problem? She is the one who came onto me. She has been eye f*****g me since we started. She even tried to get me to go out on a date with her last week."