they get it. Simple as that.”
Dawn shook her head in wonder. “You truly don’t live in the real world.”
“I am very familiar with the real world.” His face and tone were rough-edged.
“Sorry!” She held up her hand, remembering Alice’s revelations about his upbringing and his mother’s recent death. “I don’t know you well enough to say that.”
“I forget that it sounds impressive to have a concierge when really it just allows me to work without interruption.” He started toward the hallway where the elevator had delivered her. “Let’s get you into the bathrobe while I make the call.”
In an astonishingly short time, the concierge service had delivered three pairs of designer jeans, three blouses in various styles, and three pairs of shoes, all far more stylish and expensive than anything she owned. Leland stood outside the locker room, talking on his cell phone about something incomprehensibly techie, while she pulled on a pair of jeans and chose a rose-colored blouse that made her sigh at the drape of the exquisite silk. She’d balked at having Leland order her lingerie and used the time before the delivery to blow-dry her bra and panties. Since Leland had already dried her hair, she just used one of the locker room combs to smooth it out.
Then she picked up one of the shoeboxes and gasped at the label. Christian Louboutin. She opened it to find a pair of block-heeled black ankle boots accented with a red sole. She ran a finger over the butter-soft leather with a longing that she hadn’t known she could feel about a pair of shoes. She closed the box and checked out the next one. Saint Laurent. Inside were black-and-silver-striped ankle boots with narrow tapered heels. Utterly gorgeous. The third box claimed to be sneakers but the label said Balenciaga. She didn’t know they even made sneakers. She opened the top to find what looked like normal running shoes, albeit in an ultra-stylish combination of taupe, gray, and white with the designer’s name embroidered along the sides.
She tried to gauge which of the shoes was the least expensive because once she wore them, there was no taking them back. She had tried on her own boots, but they squished out water with every step she took, so she had to pick one of these exorbitantly expensive offerings.
She shrugged and chose the ones she would most like to wear again: the Louboutins. They didn’t shout their origin like the others. Besides, the leather was delicious.
“Did you find something that fits?” Leland called through the door.
“Yes, I’m coming.” She packed all the extra clothing back into the bags and carried them out with her. “What do you want to do with these?”
“They’re for you,” he said. “Keep them.”
“Look, you may not realize it but this stuff is all designer. It’s bad enough that I have to keep this one outfit because I’m wearing it. You can return the rest of it.” She held up the bags.
He hesitated a moment before he took them out of her hands. “We won’t argue about the clothes. It’s more important for you to take a look at the website.”
The elevator whisked them downward to stop at a floor that required Leland to key in a code before the doors would open.
“This is the executive level of KRG,” he explained. “If you don’t have the code, you have to go through multiple guardians of the gates to be escorted up here. Unless you’re staff, of course. They always have full access.”
The doors opened onto a sleek, contemporary seating area done in shades of blue and taupe. The wood-and-chrome reception desk was unmanned whereas the one on the floor she had originally been sent to by Alice’s arrangements was attended by a security guard. He had directed her up to the pool enclosure on the roof.
Leland led her across the thick blue carpeting and down a hallway lined with glass-walled offices until he turned into a windowless interior space. What it lacked in windows, it made up for in computer equipment, all clearly cutting edge, with slim, curved monitors set on utilitarian gray built-in desktops. Giant screens hung on all the walls while high-end gray-and-chrome ergonomic chairs stood scattered in front of the various workstations.
“Is this your office?”
He set the shopping bags down on the floor and gave a short laugh. “Define ‘office.’ This is where I spend most of my working time. I have an official and fairly useless office in one of the building’s corners