by Ava Storm
I stared at his profile, wondering if he meant what I thought he did. And if he didn’t, what was I going to do with all the ways that I wanted him?
Just biology, I told myself, and forced myself to look at the waiter. Our one-night stand had confused nature. It thought we were supposed to be together because of Madelyn. It didn’t know what a bad idea that was.
After dinner, Ford started to say something to me, but another Bob Moss-type latched onto him.
I waited for a minute, playing with my napkin behind his turned back. Leave, I told myself. But my body didn’t move. He’s your boss, I told myself. Still, nothing.
Finally, I forced myself to conjure up an image of Madelyn. A twenty-four-inch tall, seventeen-month-old terror with my eyes and Ford’s expressions. For the first time though, she did not detonate between us. Instead, I found myself picturing what he might be like with her.
And that scared me into action. I stood up abruptly and wound my way through the crowd to the exit. The others were right—after parties were forming all around me, but I just wanted to get back to my room. I sped through the lobby to the elevator banks, half afraid and half hoping that Ford would call after me.
When I got to my room and the heavy, spring-loaded door swung shut behind me, I leaned against it. I was alone—I’d gotten what I wanted.
But at the expense of what I really desired.
22
Ford
One minute she was there, the next she was gone. Clark was talking when I heard her chair slide back. I knew she was standing up because his eyes followed her. I knew she was gone when he looked back at me, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Any other time, I’d have wanted to talk to him. He was smart, innovative, hungry. Tonight, I just wanted him to shut the fuck up so I could follow Paige.
By the time we were done talking, there was no sign of her. I walked the perimeter of the ballroom, scanning the groups of people just in case she’d gotten caught up in another conversation with Bob Moss or was socializing with the Chicago office.
“She left,” Griffin said, intercepting me with a drink. “Made for the elevator like the hounds of hell were after her.”
“Maybe they were,” I said. I took the drink without looking at it. Some sort of beer. Whatever it was would do. “But I wasn’t looking for her.”
Griffin laughed quietly. “Sure you weren’t.”
I made requisite appearances at different after-hours events, but as soon as I could, I went back to my room. I was tempted to pull up the spreadsheet she’d made of room assignments, but I stopped myself. I’d told her I wouldn’t pursue her again, and I wouldn’t.
I thought about her all night, though. She was in my head when I couldn’t fall asleep, and she was tangled in my dreams when I finally did.
I woke early and harder than I remembered being in a long time. The woman was going to be the death of me. I decided the only way to deal with it without breaking my promise to was to give myself some relief. So I climbed out of bed and headed to the shower.
As the water sluiced down my back, I wrapped my hand around my shaft and closed my eyes. I conjured up a particular spicy part of a dream I’d had during the night and began to stroke myself in a determined rhythm. In my mind’s eye, Paige was on her knees before me, her smart mouth full of my cock, sucking me like it was her job. I had to place my free hand on the wall of the shower to steady myself as the orgasm built. Almost without warning, the dam broke, and I grunted loudly as I came hard, spilling down the drain at my feet.
My breathing returned to normal and I finished the shower, hoping I would be able to stand next to her today without clenching my teeth so hard they felt like they were going to break.
I wasn’t surprised at all when I went down to breakfast the next morning and she was the first person I saw.
She was walking into the cafe ahead of me, intent on getting to the coffee machines before another man. I hung back, watching her. The Chicago staff was allowed to dress casually during the day unless they were presenting or manning a booth. She looked younger in jeans and a white t-shirt with her hair pulled back in a low ponytail. She had one of the company messenger bags slung over her arm, and I saw her ever present notepad sticking out of the top.
When the other man had gotten his coffee and left while she was still searching for something, I came up beside her.
“Good morning,” she said. “Does this look like twenty-four ounces to you?”
I glanced briefly at the cup she was holding. “Yes.”
“Really?” She frowned into it. “It looks smaller this morning.”
As if noticing that I wasn’t as interested in the cup as she was, she looked up at me and tilted her head. “What? I’m not late for anything, am I?” Her voice was light, but I picked out the wary glint in her eye.
“You disappeared last night,” I said, answering her unspoken question of whether I was going to bring it up or not. “I told you I wanted you with me.”
“The night was over, Ford,” she murmured, glancing around to see if anyone else was in earshot. “If I’d stayed, it might not have been.”
“I told you that wouldn’t happen again until you asked for it.”
Her eyes met mine, and she gave me a half smile. “I know you’re used to telling people things and controlling the universe, Ford, but there are two of us making decisions here.”
Unconsciously, my eyes dropped to her mouth while she was talking. “What would you have decided?”
“What I did decide was to go back to my room alone.” She put a hand up flat against my chest, and I realized that I’d been moving closer. “And now I’m deciding that I have to walk away.”
I watched with growing frustration as she paid for her coffee and hurried out of the shop without a second glance at me. It was getting harder and harder to keep even the semblance of professional distance between us. It was getting harder to want to.
I caught glimpses of her throughout the day, speeding past in my periphery, standing in the wings, talking and laughing with other people, but she was ephemeral. Every time I got a free moment, she disappeared. The part of me that was still burnt and blackened from my experience with Georgia wondered if she was staying teasingly just out of my reach on purpose. It’s what Georgia would have done.
But Paige wasn’t Georgia, I reminded myself as I got ready for dinner. I was seated with another carefully curated guest list, but Paige would be there, too, and she wouldn’t be able to disappear like smoke for a full ninety minutes. After dinner, there was a band playing. There were three actually, a different genre in each of the ballrooms so people could dance to slow jazz if they wanted, rock out to a Rolling Stones tribute band, or relive the early 2000s with a pop band that had been popular back then. This was the night I looked forward to most—not because I loved music, but because everyone was too busy having a good time to bend my ear about business.
I met Kai in the hallway, and we headed down together. He was quiet, which was never a good sign.
“What’s on your mind, big brother?” I finally asked.
“What’s going on with your executive assistant?” he asked when the elevator doors had slid closed and it was just the two of us. “I saw her groping you in the cafe this morning.”
My eyebrows shot up and I barked out a laugh before I remembered that Kai never joked. “Trust me, if she’d been ‘groping me’ in the cafe this morning, I wouldn’t have been at our morning meeting.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” he said. “Ford, she works for the company. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
“Right, which is why I’m not the one doing the groping.”
“Company policy aside,” Kai went on, ignoring me. “Griffin tells me she has a kid. That’s messy.”
Fucking Griff. Just wait until the next time he crossed the line. And I was getting sick of Kai, too. Just because he was made of ice didn’t mean the rest of us were. “When I need your advice, I’ll ask for
it, big brother. Until then, stay out of my business.”
“I would if I wasn’t a co-founder.” He lowered his voice as the elevator doors slid open and we walked into the lobby. “I don’t give a shit if you want to get your dick wet, but don’t do it in the company pool. Didn’t you learn anything from Griffin’s near misses? Fire her if you have to.”
Across the lobby, I saw Paige coming from the other elevator bank. She really had made sure we were as far apart as possible. “Sure thing, big brother,” I said, clapping Kai on the shoulder in an exaggeration of geniality. “Thanks for the advice.”
Paige looked over when she heard my voice. I saw her hesitate, like she wanted to hurry and disappear into the ballroom before we reached the entrance, but she must have realized there was no point. Once again, she was sitting with me.
“You look nice,” I told her briefly when we met. She looked better than nice. Her black dress accentuated her curves without clinging to them. The skirt was longer than the one she’d worn to the bar two years ago, but shorter than anything I’d seen her in since. The neckline dipped low enough to show a hint of cleavage, and that was enough to make my mouth water.
“Remember what I said,” Kai said to me, his eyes going over her, too. “Enjoy dinner, Paige.”
Paige smiled at him, then looked at me when he’d gone. “He didn’t sound like he meant that.”
“He didn’t.” I led the way to our table and pulled out her chair.
“I think I can count on two fingers how many times someone has pulled out a chair for me,” she said, sinking into it and looking up at me curiously.
I didn’t respond. It didn’t surprise me though, considering her ex had slept with a waitress six months before their wedding. This bit of chivalry strangely enough came from Jameson. He’d grown up in boarding schools that drilled manners into his bone marrow. The four of us had spent the summer at his father’s estate when we were getting Blip off the ground, and his father, James Miller, had made it his mission to make up for our public schooling.
I was aware of her every second of dinner, even as she did her best to talk with everyone but me. When the last dessert plate had been cleared, those distractions began to excuse themselves one by one until it was just the two of us. Already, the waitstaff was beginning to carry off the empty tables to make more room for the dance floor. A weighted silence settled between us.
“So,” I said, taking a sip of my whiskey and staring straight ahead. “What are you going to decide to do tonight, Paige?” I waited to see if she’d take the coward’s way out and pretend I was talking about the bands, or if she’d answer what she knew I was really asking.
I could feel her watching me, trying to figure it out herself. When the silence stretched on interminably, I threw back the last of my whiskey and stood up. “If you decide to go after what we both know you really want, you know where I am,” I said briefly, and left without looking back.
23
Paige
I watched him go, waiting for the warring emotions to tug at me from each side again, for the voices of reason to combat the unreasonable urge I felt to go after him. They didn’t say a word though. The swirling turmoil I’d felt had settled into a sense of inevitability. I was going to give in to what I wanted, despite all the reasons I had to stay away.
I’d deliberately made plans to meet the rest of the Chicago office in the third ballroom. Priya had said narrowly, “Are you sure you don’t have other plans?” And so, I felt obligated to make an appearance. A small part of me hoped that reason might prevail, but the rest of me just wanted to get it out of the way so I could go find Ford.
“I told you she’d be here,” Will announced when I found the group congregated in the lobby, about to go in.
“I never said she wouldn’t be,” Priya said, shooting him a nasty look.
God, she had my number. I should have just given up a few compliance percentage points and let her have the convertible.
We pulled together enough chairs around a table to fit everyone, and a few people ransacked the abandoned bar, bringing back wine, champagne, and beer for the table. I ended up drinking champagne to calm my nerves. I wasn’t nervous about Ford—it was more the looks Priya kept slanting me as she leaned in to whisper in another teammates’ ear. Strangely enough though, her suspicion didn’t deter me from going to Ford, it galvanized me. Apparently, she was going to put the scarlet S for slut on my reputation anyway. I might as well get what I wanted.
“Priya is such a bitch,” Will slurred, dropping down beside me. “Do you know what she’s saying?”
I could imagine, but I wasn’t about to discuss it with Will.
“I’ve told her it’s not true,” he said, leaning in too close. “If you want, I can help you.”
I shifted over in my chair slightly. “No, thanks. I can handle it.”
“You’ve got to stop spending so much time with him,” Will groused. He sounded offended. “Spend some time with us so people see it isn’t true.”
“I’m spending time with you now,” I pointed out. “She’s spreading the rumor right in front of my face.”
And I didn’t care. I just wanted Will to leave me alone so I could enjoy the band. I’d been in elementary school when most of these songs came out. They’d played at my fifth grade dance. They were throwbacks at high school dances that could get everyone on the dance floor. If I weren’t afraid that Will would try to dance with me, they’d have the same effect now.
With Will still far too close, I finished my champagne and plucked my purse off of the table. “This was fun, but I’m exhausted,” I said for the benefit of everyone who was paying attention. “Good night, everyone.”
I saw Priya shoot an I told you so glance at another girl.
Will saw it too and got to his feet. “I’m tired too,” he announced. “I’ll go back with you.”
“That’s okay—” I started, but he had already slung his jacket over his shoulder and was walking toward the only exit. Either I followed him, or I didn’t leave. Reluctantly, I waved goodbye to the others.
I cursed myself for having not thought to put Will in the other tower. I’d thought it made sense to keep the Chicago office together on the same floor, but now I saw the downside of that plan. There was no reason at all to split off from him before we reached our rooms. He’d definitely try to invite himself in, and he wasn’t good at taking no for an answer the first four times.
It started in the elevator. He leaned his shoulder into mine and whispered, “Like I was saying back there, I can help you out with this stupid rumor.”
God, he was making it sound like sleeping with me would be a favor. I wondered what it was like to be that arrogant.
“Like I said,” I said with as much patience as I could muster. “I can handle it.”
Thankfully, there were two other people on the elevator with us, so he had to be discrete. Unfortunately, they got off at the third floor. Between the fourth and the eighth floor, he pressed his case. “You don’t want those kinds of rumors, Paige. Trust me. Sleeping with the boss is not a good look, and it’s not going to get your more money, if that’s what you think.”
“Oh?” I said, determinedly ignoring the fact he’d just implied I was a corporate prostitute. “Does anyone think you’ve slept with one of the bosses?”
“No, I’m talking about Melanie Greenwell. You saw what happened to her.”
“From what I’ve heard, Melanie Greenwell got the job because one of the founders wanted to sleep with her. She lost it because she was incompetent.”
Will couldn’t argue with that; he’d said it himself often enough. The elevator let us off at the eighth floor, and I tried to remember if his room was before mine or past it. I silently cursed when we got all the way to mine and he still hadn’t peeled off.
“Well,” I said, pulling my key out of my clutch. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Let’s have a nightcap,” Will said, plucking the card out of my ha
nd and unlocking my door himself.
I was stunned for a moment—long enough for him to push it halfway open. “No, thanks,” I said, shooting an arm out across the door frame before he could take a step over the threshold. “I’m going to bed.”
But rather than backing off, he gave me a crooked, knowing smile. “Is that an invitation?”
“What? No.” While I was wondering how he could possibly be so dense, he managed to get past me, pulling me in after him.
My heart stopped when I felt his arm around my waist, brushing me forward so easily even as I tried to dig my heels in. “Will, stop!” I still thought he was confused. Then the door thudded shut behind us, and he maneuvered me back against it. I could see my face in the full-length mirror over his shoulder. I looked annoyed as I pushed against him, but as his hands found my wrists and tightened, I saw my expression change to fear. It was slowly occurring to me that this wasn’t a misunderstanding.
He angled his head, but just as his lips pressed my neck, there was a knock at the door.
Will pulled back, annoyed. He looked down at me. “Did you order room service?”
I stared back at him, my heart in my throat. Slowly, I nodded. “Champagne,” I whispered, desperate for him to let go of my wrists and open the door. When did he think I’d had a chance to order room service? Why would I order room service? Did his victims usually cater their own sexual assaults? Did he know it was a sexual assault, or was it a misunderstanding after all? What the hell was going on?
Looking pleased, he swung open the door.
“You’re fired, asshole,” Ford said, and punched him in the stomach.
24
Ford
I’d watched her follow him out. Watched them walk to the elevator together. Fury and jealousy mashed up in my gut when he leaned into her as the elevator doors slid shut. I’d almost chalked it up to the black-hole-sized blind spot I had when it came to people I wanted to trust. But something hadn’t let me walk away. Maybe Paige could fool me, but not Will. He was up to something; I could see it in his strut.