by Lindsey Hart
A huge bonus.
Another huge bonus was that people like Dale and Trey didn’t get their hands dirty. They sat up in their glass tower and watched while the rest of their menial little ants ran around all day, doing their bidding. She knew for a fact she wouldn’t see either of them. She’d just make sure that they knew that it was her who had planned the party everyone was raving about after. After. She’d send a thank you card with her signature on it and they’d know that not only had they given her company business, they’d also hired and paid her, the woman that Dale Hartford looked at as scum.
She’d make sure that everyone fell in love with her. That there was no chance she wouldn’t get a good reference or repeat business. She’d work her butt off for it and then, she’d have her revenge in the only way she could get it short of sending a steaming bag of shit to Trey’s doorstep. She hadn’t exactly ruled that one out, even half a decade later.
She just needed to find an anonymous pooper and an anonymous delivery guy willing to drop off a sketchy package. Maybe she’d use the six grand from planning the happy holiday party to do just that.
Ambi grinned as she picked up her pen and scrawled the happiest thought she’d had in a long time along the bottom of the notepad’s page.
Steaming hot pile of dung. Dubious package. Clueless delivery guy.
She underlined it after. Twice.
Revenge was a dish served piping hot. Piping hot and smelly.
CHAPTER 2
Trey
There were a few things in life that he regretted. Amberina Danby was one of them. His father threw down an ultimatum. He’d taken the bait. He had money now. He was VP right under his father, who was President, of a very wealthy, healthy, thriving company. He had a sprawling house in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Minneapolis. He had a collection of antique cars that would make most museums salivate. Sometimes, he even drove them.
In short, life was good. Life was really, really good, and Trey enjoyed the hell out of it. He believed in living.
He also had a shithead side that believed in sticking it to his father.
Daddy dearest told him to get rid of Amberina or lose his inheritance and spend his days penniless. Not that it would have happened. He was smart and he could have made his own money. Because he was stupid and young and a little afraid of a man who’d always been more like a dictator than a father, and because Dale had always played the mother card, invoking how disappointed Violet would be if he walked away from his duties and his family over a pretty face. Trey had loved his mother just about more than anything in the world, so he finally caved.
He’d also made just about every eligible bachelor list, magazines, and even a few billboards in the past five years. It was a big flip off to his father when that shit came out.
Dale Hartford had made stipulations about Ambi. But he hadn’t made stipulations about marriage, and sadly enough for him, that’s where he’d gone wrong.
To add fuel to the fire, when his father announced his intentions to throw a big office Christmas party to show just how well H&H treated their employees, he’d gone right along with it, knowing full well exactly who he’d get to plan that party.
He may have also done a little creeping- er- digging, in which he paid some very unsavory character to find out the finer details of Amberina’s life. She was still single. She owned her own business, Ingenuity & Imagination Event Planning. She was the sole employee as far as he knew.
Trey told himself this was just a nice way to make his father pay. He also wanted to see Ambi and apologize. He’d never been able to properly tell her how sorry he was. For everything.
He knew she wouldn’t listen. Ambi was Ambi. She was gorgeous, compassionate, kind, and also, tough as nails. He figured she’d rather kick him in the balls by way of an apology than listen to anything he had to say. Hell, he might just let her try.
Trey adjusted his tie for the millionth time. He had a cheque in his hand, compliments of Sandy in accounting. Ten percent and the six grand Ambi demanded for her services. Sarah was more than a little shocked when he’d breezed by her desk that morning and told her he’d be handling the event planning from here on out. She’d gladly passed over a yellow lined page with the few details she scrawled down and told him the event planner, someone named Annie, was going to be dropping by at three for the deposit.
He’d told her to show Ambi to their board room, stressing that her name wasn’t Annie, even if it was a dick move.
It was ten after three and Sarah had just called his office to inform him that his appointment, Ambi, was there. At least she’d got her name right. He’d thanked her and hung up while she was still talking. He then proceeded to pace the hallway outside the board room for a good five minutes, the check growing sweaty and clammy in his palm.
He could practically smell Ambi’s scent lingering in the hall. She hated perfume and only wore natural products. She disliked deodorant and chose instead to use lemons- yes, real lemons. It was crazy, but it worked for her and she always smelled delicious. Clean and fresh with the underlying scent of lemon and the floral tang of her natural shampoo. Mixed with her own special blend of pheromones and whatever else she was putting out there, she was always this heady, intoxicating mix of perfection.
Finally, he took a deep breath, one he swore was lemon tinged, squared his shoulders, and pushed open the solid door to one of their larger meeting rooms.
The thing was fully stocked with its own coffee bar, large screen TV mounted on the wall, projector, a massive table surrounded by at least twenty expensive leather office chairs, and a myriad of abstract art purchased straight from some gallery in New York that neither he nor his father gave a shit about.
His house was pretty much the same story. Entirely soulless. Put together by a designer more interested in a commission than in what he truly wanted.
Trey had just a second between the time his hand left the door handle and Ambi’s head jerked up from the notepad in front of her to observe her.
She’d always had this incredible head of raven black hair. She hated haircuts and it was pretty obvious that she still had that strange opinion that hairdressers were akin to the devil. A river of sleek silky hair flowed down her back, spilling over the table and chair in long blue-black currents. She was dressed professionally, at least from what he could see of her above the table. A black dress that was tight enough to show off the fact that she had nice breasts, but not tight enough to be in bad taste for a business meeting. It nipped in at her narrow waist. She’d always looked good in dark and bright colors and she’d paired the dress with a fire engine red cardigan and a vintage gold necklace with a bold pendant that boasted a cluster of jade stones.
“Miss Danby,” Trey said, letting the words roll off his tongue, smooth and delicious like burnt sugar.
Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice. It only took about three seconds for her beautiful features- and god, she was beautiful- to contort in horror. Her huge blue eyes nearly popped out of the sockets. Her dark brows shot straight up her forehead. A bright flush of pink appeared on her delicate skin right above the high slashes of her cheekbones. Her nostrils flared and her perfect bow lips, done in a shade of bright red to match her sweater, parted in shock.
“You!” She exclaimed, half accusation and half slur before she scrambled to push her chair back.
The thing was huge and Ambi flailed as her feet kicked, which was a mistake, given that the chairs were ergonomic, obscenely expensive and all that bullshit. They were quite springy at the back and instead of holding up Ambi’s weight and stalling her momentum, the chair kicked back, sending her tumbling head over heels straight to the floor.
“Holy shit!” Trey cursed under his breath.
Ambi let out a scream of surprise as he rounded the table. It only took him a second to reach her and she was indeed wearing a dress. And it was not tight enough to hide the fact that she had bright red lace panties on beneath.
Who the
hell wore bright red lace panties to a business meeting? Fuck. Now he wasn’t just nervous as hell, he was also hard as hell. He bent, taking care to hide the fact that there was a fucking camping party going on in his pants, tents pitched all over the place and stared at Ambi.
He offered his hand, the one not still clutching the cheque, but she looked at him like she’d rather eat a shit sandwich than accept his help.
She pushed herself to her feet, pulled down her dress, adjusted her sweater, and brushed the clinging strands of her hair from her face. God, her hair. It trailed well past her waist.
Trey straightened, threw the cheque down on the table, and slammed his hands into his pockets to hide the fact that his dick really appreciated her being there. It was like the bastard wanted to greet her after five long years. Shake her hand, maybe. Her mouth…
Fuck again. Trey did his best to block out the mental images that came to mind the second he saw Ambi. It wasn’t his fault. They had a history. There was enough material there for him to draw on for years to come. Even if they didn’t, she was gorgeous. Five nine, but curvy in every place that mattered. Annnnnnd apparently wearing red lace panties. Maybe she’d known all along he was going to crash her meeting and she’d come dressed to slay.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she hissed, and there went that assumption. She bared her teeth, genuinely pissed.
“It’s good to see you too, Ambi.”
“Don’t Ambi me,” she shot back, her face suffused with rage. “It’s Amberina for you. Better yet, don’t address me at all. You have no right to use my name in any capacity. What are you doing here? I’m not meeting with you.”
“Well, I work here,” Trey started, being purposely obnoxious. Neither of them moved to take a seat.
God. Seeing Ambi was like a punch right to the throat. It stole all his breath and made even the most basic functions, like swallowing impossible. He was pretty sure he might actually have a river of saliva trailing out of the corner of his mouth, but he didn’t want to take his hands out of his pants pockets to check seeing as that would give away just how much he enjoyed seeing her.
“And secondly, you are meeting with me. I’ve decided to be your contact for this. Sarah is busy with other things and I thought I’d help her out where I could.”
Ambi blinked. “Help out your admin assistant? Or whoever’s assistant she is? Doubtful. People like you don’t get your hands dirty and you don’t stoop to mingle with the common folk.” The words were venomous and before he could react, Ambi grabbed up her black tote from the floor. She swept her flowing hair over her shoulder. “See you. Enjoy finding someone else to plan your party.”
“What? No!” Ambi might be fast, but he was faster. Trey pretty much ran to block the door and he stood there, an obnoxious as hell tree that he knew Ambi couldn’t budge even if she tried. Judging by the way she looked at him like she wouldn’t touch him with a hundred-foot pole, she wasn’t going to try.
Her brows knitted together, and her lips pursed. “I am not under any obligation to take this contract. Nothing was signed or agreed on. No money was exchanged. I would never, ever work for you. Ever. So, dream fucking on, Trey. Nice try.”
He slowly crossed his arms, praying that Ambi wouldn’t look down, because he was pretty sure that he was still indecent south of the border. Thankfully, Ambi always had been one for maintaining eye contact, even when she was pissed.
She was even prettier when she was in a rage like someone opened her up and filled her full of fire, sunshine, and life. She’d always lived in a way that most people didn’t. Like she floated instead of walked, sparkled and dazzled in bright color when everyone else was shades of foggy grey.
He had to admit that he felt a little drunk, like his head was going to lift right off his shoulders, and no, it wasn’t because Ambi was looking at him like she’d rather see his head on a pike.
“I’ll double your asking price. And I’ll make sure that every contact we have in this city and beyond knows who planned our very successful event. I’ll make sure your business increases tenfold this year. You’ll have to hire some real employees.”
Ambi’s eyes sparked. “How do you know I don’t have any employees?”
He shrugged as casually as he could while he cursed himself inwardly for being massively stupid. Then again, he’d always been pretty stupid when it came to Ambi. At least in the tongue-tied, fall over your feet, hopeless kind of way. She’d owned him, every bit of him, from the first time he set eyes on her crossing the college campus with a butt load of books in her arms, her black hair trailing behind her like a gothic cloak.
“I don’t. I was just saying. You’ll have to hire more, you’ll have so much business coming in. I imagine that since you’re here in person, you do most of the work yourself.”
Ambi cocked her head to the side. She gave him two seconds in which she pretended to consider his offer before she lifted her right hand and flipped him off. Right there in his own conference room after she’d just tumbled so ungracefully to the floor. In a freaking dress. She had the nerve to flip him off and laugh in his face. Except she wasn’t laughing. She was dead serious. She’d rather spit on him than accept his money or his offer to help her.
“Please. Let me make it up to you in any way I can. Ambi I-”
“Stop.” Her bird changed to a flat open palm that she held up like a stop sign. “Nope. Not taking your money. Not taking anything from you. I tried that once. It didn’t work out so well. Really, that was your loss and not mine.” She swept up to him, so close that the intoxicating scent of lemons reached him when he breathed in. He pressed a little harder into the door. “Oh, and Trey,” Ambi murmured. “It really is your loss. Now. Get out of the way before you embarrass yourself.” Her eyes flicked down, down to his slacks where his cock was trying to high five her for taking a stand.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. None of this whole meeting had gone down how he thought it was going to go. The cheque still sat, the amount unfilled, on the board room table. Worse, he was pretty sure that his normal bronzed complexion was ten shades of scarlet.
“Fine.” He stepped to the left, leaving the door open. “But you will plan this party. We’re not done here.”
“Maybe you aren’t, but I am.” With another pointed glance at his groin, and a loud scoff, like what was there didn’t impress her at all, Ambi flipped her hair, set her tote on her shoulder, and stalked out of the room.
Trey wanted to go after her, but he’d had about as much humiliation as he could handle for the hour. Cursing under his breath, he slapped the cheque off the table and slammed it into his pocket. Ambi’s sea glass eyes still haunted him as he stomped his way back to his office.
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LIST OF BOOKS
Alphalicious Billionaires Series
Married by Mistake
Faking It
Baby Mistake
Seducing My Best Friend
The Dating Game
Claiming Her V-Card
His Runaway Bride
Steamy Proposal
Rules of Love Series
Love Contract
Love Auction
Love Antique
The Box Set
Beastly Love Series
Captivated by The Beast
Beautiful Encounter
A Husband for Beauty
The Box Set
Standalones
Her Captor
Against His Will
Burning Touch
Free & Wild
Scars of Love
Jordan
The Roommate: A Sizzling Stepbrother Romance
A Christmas Proposal
I Kissed The Boss Box Set
iends