Suddenly, he was magnanimous. No, you don’t have to come over. The only thing missing there was the addition of a sweetie pie.
And in that moment, I wondered whether he’d used that opening intentionally, just to see if I’d jump the moment he called and told me he needed me.
At which point I sat myself right back down on the couch, put the call on speaker, tossed my phone onto the coffee table, and crossed my arms. No, he couldn’t see me, but I didn’t care. It made me feel better to take that pose and get the phone—and his voice—as far from me as possible.
“So, what is it?” I asked, my voice becoming frosty again. “If you’re not hurt then it’s not an emergency. What do you want?”
Another pause, and I could imagine him taking a moment to frown the way he did when he was thinking really hard. Probably trying to figure out how mad I actually was. Probably trying to figure out how he could talk me out of being upset—the way he’d done so many times before.
Only I’d never been upset because we’d slept together and he’d blown me off before. I’d never been this deeply wounded before.
So he was going to have a pretty hard time talking me out of this one. Not even his legendary charm could take away the rejected, pathetic feelings I’d been feeling all day yesterday.
I mean yeah, I’d left all that hurt in yesterday, like I said. But I was reserving the right to make him pay for what he’d done. That part of it belonged to me forever. I’d been the one who had spent the entire day feeling like crawling right into the closest hole and burying myself alive.
“Damon,” I said when he didn’t answer me. “What’s going on? What do you need and why are you bothering me on Sunday?”
“It’s Josh Brody,” he finally said, and my entire body froze—and then flooded with the heat of certainty.
Oh my God, he did know! He had called because I’d accepted that job! How on earth did he know I’d done that? Were there some super-secret rules between CEOs—even those who hated each other—about letting other CEOs know when their assistants were cheating on them?
How had I never heard about that?
“What about him?” I asked carefully.
“I received an email from him yesterday that said he was making a move on the Northern Mariana Islands. He says he has a deal almost wrapped up there. A deal that will give him some broadcasting rights, I’m sure.”
My jaw dropped open, partially in relief that this had nothing to do with me, and partially at the implication of what Damon was saying. My mind, freed up from the guilt of Damon calling me to ask about my new job, flew right into problem-solving mode at the news.
“But you own all the rights on those islands,” I said quickly. “What rights could he possibly be buying? And how?”
“That was exactly what I wondered. I called one of my contacts there and it sounds like he’s talked the governor into pulling some of my rights and selling them to him instead. He’s given the governor some song and dance about a level playing field, especially since his company is geographically closer to the islands. I don’t know how he did it, but he’s sweet-talked the governor into forgetting all about our relationship. Everything I’ve done for the islands.”
“Right, okay,” I said, my brain whirring. “So you talk to the governor, get him to tell you what’s happened, and make him undo it. You have a long history with the man. He’ll listen to you.”
“I have to do it in person.”
I spasmed like I’d just been hit by a volt of electricity. “You what?”
“I have to do it in person. It’s the only way. The only way to truly convince him.”
I was shaking my head halfway through his statement, because that was ridiculous. And also, totally not true.
“No you don’t. You can do it over the phone, just like you’ve done all the other business you’ve had with him. I can get him on the phone first thing tomorrow and you guys can get this sorted out. There’s no reason to go there in person. That’s got to be an eight-hour flight, at least, and you’re in the middle of so many other negotiations right now. You can’t take that sort of time out of your schedule.”
“I’ve already had Honi book the jet,” he said, completely ignoring what I’d just said. “We have a flight plan and everything. And Aubrey, I need you there with me.”
“What?” I spat.
Never mind that he was talking about a complete waste of sixteen hours to fly there and back, plus whatever time he spent there. That wasn’t even my problem. I was planning to quit, anyway. So thinking he was going to take me with him was completely out of the question. Not only because I’d accepted another job—with the rival he was flying to Saipan to try to stop—but also because I was planning to quit Damon’s company tomorrow.
And I was just opening my mouth to tell him that I couldn’t possibly go with him, since someone had to stay here to man the office, when I realized that this had just become a whole lot more complicated. Because I was already going to be leaving Damon, and there was no way he would not find out that I had ended up with Josh. I was going to be leaving him high and dry—for his biggest rival.
His biggest rival who was currently trying to steal some of his most important business dealings. Right now, when I was leaving him.
I was leaving his company to go help the other company succeed. In a deal that put the other company up against Damon.
If I hadn’t felt guilty before, now I really did. And the damage was already done, since I’d already accepted that other position. I mean yeah, I could retract my acceptance, but I’d heard about the relationship between Damon and Josh. There was zero chance Josh wouldn’t tell Damon what had happened, just to brag about it. Damon was going to find out, one way or another. And if they happened to be in Saipan together, at the same time?
I groaned. If they were there at the same time, Josh would tell him in person. And that seemed even worse.
I hated the thought of hurting him. Even after all that had happened, even after what he’d done to me, I hated the thought of hurting him. It was something I hadn’t even thought about before, but now that I had…
In the end, it was why I ended up asking what time we were leaving—in an hour, evidently—and telling him I’d meet him at the tarmac then.
Because I was going to leave him high and dry. And I was thinking I’d feel a whole lot less guilty about that if I helped him fix this one problem first. Even if it meant flying all the way to Saipan with him, spending who knew how long there, and then coming back.
I’d just quit when we got back. Yeah. That was what I’d do. And in the meantime, I’d just keep myself as physically far from him as I possibly could.
Chapter 11
Damon
I was standing in front of the jet at the appointed time, the stairs already rolled up to the doorway, and I’d looked at my watch at least five times in the last three minutes.
More than that, probably. I’d been here longer than three minutes and I’d looked at my watch at least a hundred times, terrified that Aubrey wasn’t going to show.
Yes, she’d told me she would be here. Yes, she’d then emailed me a list of the things I needed to make sure to bring, because even though she’d told me that she thought this trip was a waste of time, she was still my assistant. Her job was still to make sure that if I was going somewhere, I got there with toothpaste and a comfortable pair of shoes for when I wasn’t in meetings.
And yes, I was trying really hard to believe that if she’d told me she’d be here, then she would be. She’d never stood me up before. And I didn’t think she was the type of girl who would do something like that. Especially when she knew how important this was to me, and to the company.
But I also couldn’t stop remembering the look on her face when she’d left my house the morning after we slept together. That look that had been part heartbreak and part absolute fury. The look that had told me pretty plainly that if I hadn’t been her boss, she would have started out by
giving me a very firmly worded piece of her mind, and then refused to talk to me or see me ever again.
I’d seen her heart breaking right there in front of me, and I hadn’t done a thing about it. I hadn’t opened my freaking mouth to tell her that I hadn’t meant what I said—or that I had, but not for the reasons she thought.
Honestly, if she didn’t show up, I wouldn’t even be able to blame her. I knew what I’d done. I knew how wrong it was. And I was dead set on making it up to her by showing her that we could move on and keep things on an even footing. Forget it ever happened. Act like we’d never even thought about it.
It would be a lie. I’d been reliving the whole freaking night ever since I woke up that morning and glanced over to see her beautiful, freckled face through a mass of blond hair. I’d been thinking about the way her lips had felt on mine, remembering the way her body had moved against me as if she’d been made just for me…
I shook my head sharply, tossing the fantasy away—as I’d done so many times already. Because that was exactly the wrong thing to be thinking. She’d made it quite clear that she didn’t want to talk about it or even remember it, and I was going to respect that. I was going to make this all normal again, or die trying.
But only if she showed up.
If she didn’t show up… well, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Because there was no way I’d make it through this trip without her. I’d have to put it on hold and go find her, somehow convince her to come with me.
Or at least… that was what I was telling myself. That it was all about needing her for the trip. Because thinking about it being any more than that—thinking about it being a need to see her again, a need to make sure she was all right—that wasn’t something I was going to allow into my head for more than the time it had just taken to think that I wasn’t going to think about it.
God, I was a rambling mess. I couldn’t even hold my own thoughts together without Aubrey. What was I going to do?
And at that moment, the woman of the hour came marching up, a bag slung across her shoulder, a suitcase on wheels behind her, and her face a mask of casual, easygoing, early morning alertness. Easy and breezy. As if nothing at all had happened between us.
Then she opened her mouth.
“Got everything?” she asked coldly. She took a sip of her coffee—I noticed she hadn’t brought me any—and then gave me a hard stare, seeming like she was flat-out daring me to have forgotten an extra pair of underwear or my laptop charger.
“I hope so,” I said, conjuring up a smile from somewhere in the bottom of my stomach. “If not, I’m sure they sell whatever I need on the islands.”
“One would hope so,” she answered vaguely. Then she took one step past me and made for the stairs, her suitcase bumping along behind her.
I reached out and grabbed her arm, desperate to have this thing between us sorted out. There was an abyss opening up between where she was standing and where I was, and I didn’t want it. She’d never talked to me that way before, and I more than didn’t like it. I hated it, down to the marrow of my bones, down to the soles of my feet, even—and for all I knew, into the dirt below the tarmac we were standing on.
Aubrey was the most important person in my life. She was not only my assistant but my best friend. She was the one I called in the middle of the night if something was wrong. She was the one I wanted to talk to when I suddenly hit that lonely place where I felt like no one in the world could possibly understand me. She knew how I took my coffee. She knew what laundry detergent I liked best.
She was my damn emergency contact, because when I’d had to fill that part out on the life insurance documents, I’d known that if I was dying, or even if I was just hurt, she was the one and only person I’d want to be there with me.
So for her to speak to me like I was her enemy… no. I couldn’t stand it. I had to fix this.
“Aubrey, about what happened,” I said. “We don’t have to think about it. We can pretend it never happened. We were both drunk and we did something we shouldn’t have, and if I could take it back, I would. I would pay anything to take it back. Because I can’t stand that it’s coming between us. I can’t stand it if it ruins our friendship. Please, let’s just forget that it happened and go back to normal.”
She stared at me, the brown of her irises growing darker as her eyes got wider, her mouth forming a perfect ‘O’ of surprise—or shock, I supposed. I really didn’t know.
I was just opening my mouth to continue along the same vein when I saw her face change. In a single second, she went from surprised—or shocked—to absolutely furious. Her eyes narrowed, her mouth tightened into a tiny button of displeasure, and her entire face seemed to draw up and get tight.
“Forget it happened?” she hissed. “You think we can just forget it happened?” She took a deep, shuddering breath—that kind of shuddering you hear in someone who’s right on the verge of tears—and then lifted her chin up. “So you’d just forget about it,” she continued more quietly, sounding… sad.
Where was that coming from? Didn’t she want to forget about it?
“If that’s what you want—”
“It’s not what I want,” she interrupted, her voice returning to that ice-shards place. “What I want is to tell you that I’ve been offered another job. And I took it. After this trip, I’m handing in my resignation. I think that’s the best thing for both of us, don’t you? Then you can hire another assistant and go back to normal with her, while I get on with my life. Now, are we leaving, or what? Let’s get this show on the road and get it over with.”
She turned on her heel and was up the stairs and into the plane before I could even figure out what had just happened, and then I was rushing after her, my mind wiped completely blank by what she’d said.
Chapter 12
Aubrey
By the time we got to the islands, I felt as if I’d spent eight hours doing battle with some enormous many-tentacled sea monster. One that also talked. And asked way too many questions.
Damon had spent the entire trip grilling me about the new job, why I was leaving, and how much they’d offered to get me away from him. Even though I’d somehow managed to avoid revealing that the job had been offered to me by none other than Josh Brody, in response Damon had offered me more money, better vacation time, and even a house if I would stay with him. A car, a shorter work week, a better title. Company shares. Half of the company. He’d basically turned himself inside out trying to figure out why I would leave and where I would go, and trying to get me to change my mind.
He hadn’t once offered another opinion on us having slept together, and he certainly hadn’t said anything about actually caring about me. Which was exactly why I’d refused to tell him anything about the new job, and turned down all of his offers—including the one for half of the company, which, on any other day, I would have jumped at.
I mean, it was a multi-billion-dollar empire. Of course I would have wanted half of it. But he was still missing the point. If I’d thought he actually cared about me—maybe even wanted to make something work between us, after what had happened—I would have taken a freaking pay cut and still stayed.
But no, he was bound and determined to act like nothing had happened. Even worse, he acted like he was just doing what I wanted! And really, it just confirmed for me the fact that I had to leave. I had to get myself out of the pool of quicksand that was Damon Parker, figure out who I was on my own, and then get to work living a life that didn’t revolve around a man who didn’t give one fig about whether we’d slept together or not.
As far as he was concerned, it had been a mistake. One he could just wish away.
Well, if I left and was no longer in the picture, he’d have to think about that mistake even less often. And maybe I could find a way to put it behind me, too.
The taxi ride from the airport was quiet, to say the least. Luckily, I was so absorbed with the scenery around us that I didn’t need conversation.
We’d arrived in Saipan early morning the next day, without having gotten much sleep. And though I was freaking exhausted and already knew that the next two weeks were going to be a nightmare of jet lag and trying to get back on the right time zone, arriving in the morning was absolutely brilliant. Because we were driving up the coast of the island to see the sun rising over the water, sending streaks of orange, pink, and yellow across the horizon and into the clouds. I could see dolphins playing in the water, in the distance—near coral reefs, I supposed, since the area was awash with them—and I stared at the entire scene in absolute wonder.
Hey, I’d grown up in Hawaii. Seeing the sun rise over the water is something that gets into your blood and never really lets you go. Add in a school of dolphins, and I was completely enchanted. I could have watched that sunrise for hours and hours and never gotten tired of it.
Before long, we passed into Garapan, and then our view of the ocean was broken up by hotel after hotel, each of them part of a large network of resorts that covered the beaches here. Garapan was the largest village on the island of Saipan, which was the largest island in the Northern Marianas—and the place where we would find the governor himself.
So Damon could have his all-important, has-to-happen-right-now-and-in-person meeting.
I wondered suddenly if he’d bothered to make an appointment, or if he was just planning to show up unannounced. I certainly hadn’t done any appointment-making for him. Not in the time he’d given me, and not on a Sunday. Honestly, though, I doubted whether he’d thought of it at all. He’d be expecting the governor to be honored to see him, or some such thing.
Not like he had an entire set of islands to govern or anything like that. Of course he should have free time to take a meeting with Damon Parker.
The Billionaire's Lockdown Baby Page 5