by Rush, Olivia
“That’s right,” he said. “And at any point during my time here, have you ever known me to give advice or offer an opinion that might steer this little outfit in the wrong direction?”
“Get to the point,” I said, not in the mood to play his game.
He stood up and gestured toward the screen. “This is a bad idea,” he said. “I’m not going to pussyfoot around it. Bryce, we’re a company, not a charity.”
“We’re a conglomerate,” I said. “At least, that’s the plan. And a socially minded division is going to be a key component of that.”
“Oh, I get that,” he said, raising his palms. “You made that abundantly clear. But it’s a loser. The resources you’re investing in this could be better invested in the technology division, or the IT services department, or hell, anything else.”
“Being as profit-minded as always,” I said.
“And why wouldn’t I be? I’m in this game to make money and build up this company in the process. And I can’t just stand around while you piss away money and manpower during such a delicate time for us on some Boy Scout shit.”
He was taking a tone with me that I didn’t care for one goddamn bit.
“Piss away?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “First of all, check your tone, Hunter. Second, this social enterprise initiative is a chance to do some good in this city. And if that’s not enough for you, getting this program off the ground will make us look great to investors in the future, which means more opportunities for expansion.”
Hunter shook his head. “I’m not convinced. From where I’m standing, it looks like you’re taking an unnecessary risk so you can play philanthropist.”
“That’s the nice thing about being CEO,” I said, my voice taking on a hard edge. “I don’t have to care if you’re convinced.”
He narrowed his eyes, and the two of us regarded one another with icy glares.
“This is a bad idea, Bryce,” he said, finally speaking up. “And I’d bet you anything I’m not the only person in the meeting who feels this way. I was just the only one with enough balls to speak up.”
“You’ve made your point,” I said. “Now—” I gestured to the conference room doors, and with one last scoff, Hunter stormed out.
I stood in silence for a time, letting my blood cool after the conversation. But one thing was for sure—this wasn’t going to be the end of it.
Chapter 20
Chelsea
I stepped into the gorgeous interior of the Primrose, one of the newest and trendiest bistros in the neighborhood. The tables were a light birch, the servers were all dressed in stylish black-and-white uniforms, and the space was filled with sunlight that poured in through the glass façade. The din of conversation filled the air, and the smell of delicious food encircled me.
“Welcome to the Primrose!” spoke the hostess, a gorgeous redhead who was so pretty I bet she moonlighted as a model. “Do you have a re—”
Then her eyes flashed with realization.
“Wait a minute,” she said, her eyes briefly flicking down to my ring. “Your Bryce Carver’s fiancée, right?”
It looked like I wasn’t even going to have to give a name.
“Chelsea, right?” she said. “Sorry if that sounds weird, but I follow all those stupid gossip sites. Oh my god, I saw your dress from that event this last weekend, and it was so freaking gorgeous I wanted to scream.”
“Thanks,” I said, not sure what else to say. “Bryce helped me pick it out.”
“Wow, insanely hot and good taste in clothes?” she asked. Then her fair skin went red and her hands shot to her mouth.
“Sorry,” she said. “I totally just told you how hot your fiancé was. That’s so awkward of me.”
I chuckled. “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I wouldn’t be marrying him if I didn’t know how hot he was.”
“I’m just going to stop talking,” she said. “Are you meeting him here?”
“Yes,” I said. “He told me that he has a usual table.”
“Oh, for sure,” she said. “Right this way.”
She grabbed a couple of menus and started off into the restaurant. After leading me to a small, round table near the back in a slightly secluded corner, she set down the menus and headed off, but not before taking one last glance at my ring.
“Enjoy!” she said in that same cheery voice.
I lifted one of the menus from the table, letting my eyes drift over the various delicious-sounding selections. I ordered some sparkling water from the waiter, and when he brought it, sipped it slowly while watching the bustle of people on the sidewalks outside.
I felt calm, the anxiety I’d felt before the meeting slowly working its way out of me.
But a posh voice calling out to me sent my nerves back into a jangle.
“Chelsea! Is that you?”
I turned around just in time to see the beaming face of Felicity rush toward me, her eyes almost frantically wide and her mouth like an upturned crescent moon of pure white rimmed with blood-red lipstick.
I only had enough time to get up out of my seat and begin to mouth the word “hey!” before she let out a shriek that got the attention of everyone nearby. She threw her arms around me and pulled me into a hug so tight I would’ve thought she was a childhood friend that I hadn’t seen for decades.
“It’s so good to see you!” she said, giving me a quick once-over as she let me go.
“You too!” I said, doing my best to match her enthusiasm. “What’re you doing here?”
I realized how dumb the question was as soon as I’d asked it.
“Why, having lunch, silly,” she said. “I just love this place. How about you?”
“Never been, actually,” I said. “Bryce told me to meet him here while he finished up with some work.”
She raised her eyebrows and clasped her hands together.
“Oh, you’re meeting Bryce?” she said. “In that case, I’ve a lovely idea—why don’t I keep you company until he gets here? I was just going to have a little something at the bar, but no sense in eating alone if I bump into a good friend.”
My instincts told me to say no, to make up any kind of excuse that would get her away from the table.
“Sounds great!” was what I said instead.
She slid into the chair across from me, flagging down the server as she did.
“A bottle of the Château Fourcas Dupré,” she said. “And two glasses.”
He nodded and headed off.
“I bet if we do our very best we can kill the bottle before Bryce gets here. Up for the challenge?‘’
“Um, I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
“So!” she said, folding her hands on the table and leaning forward. “How’s the life of a married-to-be woman treating you? I bet you’re still over the moon about it.”
“You could say that,” I said. “Just still trying to wrap my brain around everything that’s been going on.”
A strange expression took hold of her prim, pretty features. “It’s curious,” she said.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Just that this thing you and Bryce are doing, this sudden marriage. It’s quite a bold, spur-of-the-moment thing, yes?”
“Sure,” I agreed.
“But just in the little bit I’ve gotten to know you, Chels, you seem a little more down-to-earth, not the kind of girl who’d agree to something like this.”
She had that right.
“And I know Bryce well—very, very well,” she said, the expression on her face making it clear that she wanted me to be acutely aware just how well she knew him. “He’s much the same way. So that gets me thinking, which of you was the one to suggest such a wild plan?”
It was a good point. Why would the level-headed tech girl and the cool-and-calm CEO make a plan that sounded like something two lovestruck high-schoolers would do?
I struggled for an answer. And part of me wondered if Felicity was suspecting something fishy about the
marriage story.
“Just…love makes you do crazy things, I guess,” I said.
At that moment the server arrived and opened up the bottle, pouring us both a glass.
“I suppose I should know better than anyone about that,” she said. “Bryce…got me to act a certain way. Got me to do some silly things that I can’t help but regret.”
Once the waiter was gone, Felicity quickly took up her glass from the table and raised it.
“To the silly things we do for love,” she said.
“I’ll drink to that,” I said, tapping the edge of my glass against hers.
She sipped her wine and shook her head.
“Still can’t believe I let a man like that go,” she said. “But you know what, it led me to the man I have now, so it can’t be all for the worst.”
I noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm in her voice as she brought up Hunter. With her usual actress panache, she quickly switched to a livelier expression.
“But we can’t always end up with the man who steals our heart from the first instant we meet him, right? Well, not all of us can, I suppose.”
It was another one of her barbed comments. Then she chuckled brightly.
“Something funny?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “Just remembering the time Bryce and I met. It was at this silly little after-party for some awards show, and he was there with one of the other actresses. Can’t remember her name—who cares?—but she’d won some award or another.”
Her eyebrows furrowed.
“It’s odd, you know? Bryce always struck me as a man of having very particular tastes with regards to women. Actresses, models, dancers—those types. And here he is, about to marry an adorable nerd-girl from the computer department.”
“The software development department,” I corrected.
She waved her hand through the air, showing how unimportant she considered the detail.
“Who can tell the difference?” she said. “Either way, you’re not the type, as charming and as lovely as you might be. Anyway, he had this woman on his arm the whole night, but he and I still managed to make the most sensual eye contact from across the party, eye contact that sent the oh-so-clear message that while there might’ve been a girl on his arm, there was another one entirely on his mind.”
“What did you do?” I asked, now curious.
“I worked my charm on him the moment she stepped away, planted the seeds of attraction in his mind—the usual way to steal a man away from a less deserving woman.”
Her eyes lingered on mine in a way that made me uneasy as she spoke the words.
She smiled and looked away, as if indulging in some long-passed memories.
“A little more working of my ‘magic’ later, and he was mine, all mine. That’s the man he was back then, always looking for the next pretty thing to catch his eye. Lucky for me, I knew just the way to keep his eyes from wandering. Maybe if we get to know each other a little better I’ll teach you some of my tricks.”
The engagement might’ve been fake, sure, but this was too much.
“I could do without the references to you screwing my fiancé,” I said with a faux-friendly smile.
“Oh, you Americans can be so prudish,” she said, reaching across the table and placing her hand on mine. “It’s all in the past, right?”
Before I could say anything, Felicity’s eyes lit up bright and wide at something over my shoulder.
“And there he is!” she said, springing out of her seat.
I turned to see Bryce strolling toward us, his expression focused.
Felicity threw her arms around him and planted a big, wet kiss on his cheek. I could’ve been imagining things, but I was almost certain she flicked a glance back in my direction to see how I reacted to it.
Bryce politely returned her hug and slid into one of the open seats.
“I know you’re both here for a quick lunch, but do you mind if I finish my glass of wine? I was having so much fun with Chelsea.”
“Sure,” said Bryce. “No harm in that.”
I couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t ask me if this was fine. But I put it out of my head.
“Chelsea and I were just talking about how you and I first met,” she said. “You remember? Back at that Emmy’s after-party?”
“How could I forget?” asked Bryce. “You swooped in on me like a vulture. I had no idea what even hit me.”
“And you two,” she said. “How was it that you met? I bet you’ve both got a charming little story about it.”
Something about the way Felicity regarded Bryce and me gave the distinct impression that her question was more about getting information than wanting to hear a cute story.
Did she know?
No, I told myself. There was no way. But there was the chance she suspected there was something strange about the engagement.
Bryce and I shared a quick look.
Thankfully, the waiter arrived just in time.
“There will be three?” he asked.
Felicity raised her hand as she finished off the last bit of her wine.
“Oh, no, no,” she said. “Just the two of them. I’m being a third wheel, and I’ve actually got so much to do today that I’m not sure what I was even thinking of stopping for lunch.”
She set down her glass and stood up.
“It was such a joy to see you both,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll bump into each other again before too long. Ta-ta!”
She left but not before blowing Bryce a kiss.
I turned my attention back to Bryce, raising an eyebrow. “What the hell was that all about?”
Chapter 21
Bryce
“That was quite the coincidence,” I said, watching Felicity leave. “Her bumping into you here like that.”
Chelsea furrowed her brow.
“What, are you suggesting that she planned on meeting me here?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I do know Felicity well enough that I’d be surprised if her chattiness with you didn’t have an ulterior motive.”
“Someone’s being paranoid,” said Chelsea, leaning over the table and flashing me a mischievous look.
The sight of Chelsea’s cleavage as she leaned forward was enough to knock every thought out of my head. The slight hint of her breasts through her blouse made my cock go hard underneath the table, and I was consumed by the thought of what it’d be like to pour the rest of the bottle of wine on her tits and lick it clean off her nipples.
“Hmm?” I asked, trying to come back to reality.
“Nothing,” she said. “Maybe I’m the one who’s being paranoid. After all, she’s friends with Hunter, and Hunter’s your coworker, so maybe she just wants to be friends.”
I bristled at Hunter’s name, and Chelsea must’ve picked up on this. The thought of my spat with Hunter made my cock deflate instantly.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Rest of the meeting go badly?”
“Just butted heads with Hunter about the social enterprise plans I have.”
“Want to talk about it?” she asked.
My first inclination was to say no. I wasn’t normally the type to vent about my problems. Keeping them close to the chest and sorting them out on my own was typically my style. But something about Chelsea made me feel like I could tell her anything.
It was strange. Why did I feel like this around a woman I’d only known for a short while? It was disconcerting and pleasing all at the same time.
“Hunter had some gripes about the housing project, like I said.‘’ I shook my head and went on. “The man knows how to make money—to a fault. So when I tell him about a plan I have that technically isn’t profitable, all he can think about is better ways to use our resources. He doesn’t get that the name this will make for us in the city will do more long-term good for our bottom line than buying a new startup. And…”
Chelsea said nothing, instead waiting patientl
y for me to go on.
“There’s more to it than that. Building this low-income housing will do some actual good for the city. I feel like I’ve earned so much living here that it is time for me to give back. My upbringing, growing up with nothing, having been shoved off from foster family to foster family. Housing like this would’ve made all the difference for someone like me when I was younger.”
“That’s really admirable of you,” she said. “Plenty of wealthy men in this city don’t give a damn about anything other than making even more money.”
“There’s more to life than that,” I said. “Not many people are in the position I’m in, and it makes me keenly aware that I have the ability to change things in a way others can’t. How can I think about nothing but money when that’s the case?”
A small smile curved her lips. She reached over the table and placed her hand on mine, giving it a light squeeze. The feeling of her skin on mine brought back the arousal that had taken hold of me before.
God, this girl was in my mind like I couldn’t believe. Even just sitting here with her, all I could think about was making love to her again.
I’d told myself I wouldn’t. I needed to put distance between her and me, like my plan had originally been.
But it was so damn hard.
And as if she could read my mind, she spoke.
“You seemed cold to me today. Like you didn’t want me around.”
That couldn’t have been further from the truth. I’d put up space, barriers, and here she was, knocking them down with nothing more than a smile and a warm look in her eyes.
I was getting more than I’d bargained for with this girl.
“Just got a lot on my mind,” I said. “And the meeting today only made things more complicated.”
“Is there anything I can do?” she asked.
“Just stay on course,” I said. “Keep on top of what you and I are doing, and make sure that the tech department is running how it should.”
She smiled. “Simple stuff,” she said.
There was more she could do for me. A lot more. And all of it was running through my mind like the dirtiest movie of all time.