by Tara Rose
“Oh, I like that idea. Except we’d need mosquito netting over all of them.”
“That’s for sure.”
The awkward pause in conversation didn’t bother him. It gave him a chance to sneak a glance at her legs again. The short boots were almost as cute as her skirt, and he noticed for the first time how her jewelry perfectly matched the outfit. He bit back a laugh. He sounded like Taj.
“Jeff, I was wondering…that is…if it’s not entirely inappropriate to ask you this…would you like to go out for a drink sometime?”
He blinked a few times, convinced he’d hallucinated, and then realized she looked absolutely terrified, as if he’d turn her down. Was she out of her mind? What man with half a brain would say “no” to her? “I’d love to. How about today, after work? It’s Friday. In fact, let’s have dinner.”
Her delighted smile made his dick ache, and when her voice came out breathy as she said she’d love to, he wondered how the hell he’d get through the rest of the afternoon. This had just turned into the best day he’d had in a very long time.
Chapter Three
Sallyanne was nowhere around by the time Alaina returned to her office, which made what had just happened outside even better. There was no one to ruin it for her. She closed her door and sent her calls to voice mail, then changed her status message to “On A Call.” Let everyone think she was in here on the phone. At least for an hour. That was enough time to think about the fact that she was having dinner with one of the objects of her undying fantasies for the past eight years.
She had no idea what had possessed her to finally ask, but she was so glad she’d listened to the voice and just gone for it. Her legs were still shaking, but that might have been because her heart was also still pounding.
Too bad Taj wasn’t coming along as well. Alaina squirmed in her chair as she imagined being with both of them at once. It certainly wasn’t the first time she’d had that fantasy. But reality was reality, and right now she’d take a date with one of them as opposed to the empty expanse of nothingness she’d had up until now.
What had changed? She had no idea, and she wasn’t going to question it. He was taking her downtown right after work, and she wished she’d worn something different. Something a bit clingier to show off her curves. But then again, judging by the looks on their faces when she’d turned in the hallway earlier, what she’d worn today would be just fine.
She really did have work to catch up on, so she forced herself to concentrate on it. She had three calendars from which she worked. One was her calendar in Outlook, and everyone who reported to her plus Sallyanne had access to that. She also had a paper desk planner, and she used that as a back-up to the electronic calendar, but also added in personal appointments like haircuts or the rare times she visited a doctor.
The third calendar wasn’t really a calendar at all. It was a complicated system of color-coded post-it notes that helped organize and prioritize her day. Her team teased her about it all the time, but it had worked all through her undergrad and graduate years, so she saw no reason to abandon it simply because there were now digital ways to keep track of things.
Alaina liked to know what she needed to do every minute of every day in her life. It kept her focused and on target. First on the agenda right now was calling her contact at Restraining Orders once again to make sure he knew that their missing order had been resent this morning, and she’d personally made sure it had gone out with the correct address, and by express. In fact, it should be on the mail plane by now.
That conversation took forty-five minutes, after which she felt as slimy as if she’d gone outside after a hard rain and rolled around in the mud. But they couldn’t lose this customer. A little sucking up was worth it this time.
Two hours passed, and she was so caught up in a spreadsheet she’d recently started putting together, that it was several minutes before she realized that the voices she heard in the hallway were raised in anger.
“Now what?” she muttered, opening her office door. Sallyanne and Asa Durante were there, both with red faces, pointing fingers at each other’s chests. Sallyanne had obviously been crying. Taj and Jeff stood to one side, the looks on their faces a cross between amusement and boredom. Sallyanne’s uncle Tim was also there, glaring in turn at Taj and Jeff , until he spotted Alaina.
“You.” He actually pointed a finger at her. “This is your doing.”
She forced her face to stay neutral. Taj and Jeff both stepped forward to flank Tim, and she had to bite back a smile at that gesture. They were trying to protect her. Wow. She hadn’t expected that. “What are you talking about, Mr. Raleigh?” She never called the CEOs by their first name, even though most of the upper level employees routinely did.
“If you had just let your past relationship stay where it belonged, none of this would have happened.”
She swallowed hard, and didn’t dare glance at either Taj or Jeff right now. She’d never told anyone about her history with Alex. Never. He must have said something. She wasn’t surprised. His assurances when he’d first come here that he was over it and had no reason to tell anyone were bullshit, and she’d known that. But seven years of silence from him had lulled her into believing she had nothing to worry about.
She’d been wrong.
“Alex Nesfield didn’t do his job. You have the proof.”
“And you pushed for his dismissal because you didn’t want him around.”
“That isn’t true, sir. I brought Restraining Orders to us as a customer. He messed up more than one of their orders. We’re lucky they haven’t pulled out and sued us for breach of contract.”
Her palms were damp, but she resisted the urge to wipe them on her skirt. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how upset she was. She risked a quick glance at Sallyanne, whose tears had suddenly dried up. The look on her face was purely predatory. Alaina could have choked her right then and there.
“In fact, I was on the phone with them earlier, smoothing everything over.”
“Well, aren’t you just the little heroine?”
Alaina ignored Sallyanne. It was pointless to answer her when she took that tone. There was nothing constructive in her comments, so Alaina wasn’t going to play into her hands. She finally glanced at Taj and Jeff, who both looked confused and skeptical. Fuck it all. What had Alex said to these people? She didn’t know, and right now that fact put her at an extreme disadvantage.
Asa shot his niece a dark look. “Put a sock in it. I’d hardly call that an appropriate comment to your employee.”
“She won’t be my employee for long. She didn’t disclose her past relationship with Alex, and because of her grudge all these years over him dumping her, she conspired to get him fired.”
“What?” Alaina tried to process everything she’d just learned in that single sentence. One, Alex had definitely been fired. Two, Sallyanne thought he’d dumped her, not the other way around. And three, at least two people standing in the hallway believed she’d held a grudge against Alex for years.
What the fuck was going on here?
“You can’t deny it. He told me all about it.”
Really? Alaina narrowed her eyes and studied Sallyanne’s face. The truth struck her as suddenly as if a light switch had been flipped inside her brain. It explained everything, from why Sallyanne had been crying about a shipping clerk getting fired, to the looks on Taj and Jeff’s faces.
Why hadn’t she seen it before? All the signs had been there. Sallyanne’s reaction each time Alaina brought yet another error of Alex’s to her attention, the way she’d brush them off or try to blame Alaina for the fuckup, and now this. The ultimate screw-up. Sallyanne knew that anyone else with such a track record would have been long gone. But not the man she was fucking.
“Oh my God…” Alaina hadn’t meant to whisper it out loud, but something else was suddenly obvious to her. The reason why Taj and Jeff had never fired Alex was because they knew. They knew that Sallyanne was sleepi
ng with him. And they’d been protecting him. Or her. Or both.
“You knew. You both knew.”
They at least had the grace to look guilty.
“It’s complicated,” said Jeff, cutting his gaze toward Tim.
Sure. Sure it was complicated. Alaina knew that Tim Raleigh had handpicked his niece to be in charge of sales, even though she’d had almost no experience in that area. And she knew why he’d done it. Everyone from middle management on up knew why. Sallyanne’s mother, Rissa, had died when Sallyanne was only three and Jeff had been seven. The two had practically grown up with their cousin, Dallas.
Tim thought of Sallyanne as his own daughter, not his niece. Lucas had never been much of a father to either, if rumors were to be believed. The grief over losing his wife had made him distant and bitter.
But that didn’t excuse what was going on here. It didn’t mean that she should bear the consequences of what had happened. She wasn’t responsible for this. Sallyanne and Alex were.
She looked Jeff right in the eyes, wishing she’d at least have had the chance to have that dinner with him. Now, she’d never know what might or might not have happened. “All right Let’s put that aside for now and return to the accusations against me. My past relationship with Alex has nothing to do with this. Facts don’t lie. There’s a paper trail. I didn’t screw up the orders. He did.”
“You made him look bad on purpose.”
“Oh, knock it off, Sallyanne.” Asa’s voice echoed in the hallway. “You know damn well she couldn’t have done that. I wasted two hours checking the records. They weren’t doctored. He did exactly what she said he did, time after time. Your relationship with him shouldn’t have clouded your judgment, or prevented you from doing your job.”
Sallyanne was caught in the net and she knew it. Her mouth worked, opening and closing like a fish, but there was nothing to say. She glared at Alaina, and now Alaina understood the meaning of the phrase “if looks could kill.” Then she turned her nasty looks on Taj and her brother.
“They should have done their jobs, too, then. Not just me.”
Good God. She sounded like a twelve year old. It was difficult to believe she was thirty, only four years younger than Alaina.
“You’re right,” said Taj. “We should have.” He cut his gaze toward Tim. “But we had our reasons for not firing him before now.”
Ah, so that was it. They hadn’t fired Alex because Tim had asked or told them not to. That mollified the situation a bit, but it still didn’t answer the question of what Alex had told them. Obviously it hadn’t been the truth.
But how should she handle this? If she just blurted it out now, it would look like she was rubbing salt in the wound. It would perpetuate the very image of her that Sallyanne was trying so desperately to plant in their minds. No. As much as Alaina hated to swallow this bitter pill, she knew that right now she had to do exactly that. Whatever they believed of her and Alex would just have to ruminate in their minds a bit longer.
The most important thing was that the problem was gone. And she could deal with Sallyanne. She’d been doing it for years now.
Sallyanne actually put her hands on her hips. “So that’s it?”
“What more do you suggest I do?” asked Asa. “Alaina did her job. Alex did not, and neither did you. Him, I can fire. You, unfortunately, I cannot. Since this issue is now resolved, I suggest we all get back to work.”
Asa left without another glance at any of them. Alaina had no idea what to say. She only knew that this sucked. Big time. But she couldn’t try to save face right now or she’d end up looking like as big a crybaby as her boss did right now. With one last glance at Taj and Jeff each, she went into her office and closed the door.
She stood in front of the window, trying not to cry. For eight years she’d given one hundred and ten percent to this company, every single day. She’d worked her way up to this position, ignoring the obvious nepotism and the preferences given to the Durante and Raleigh descendants, because it had never directly affected her. And, she had been warned about it in advance. She knew to expect it.
And for seven of those eight years, she’d tried to ignore the man who had hurt her so badly that she hadn’t had a date in almost a decade. A decade. Who the fuck lives like that unless they’ve taken a vow of celibacy? She’d never told anyone what Alex had done to her, because as long as he did his job, she hadn’t had to let it bother her.
But he hadn’t done his job. And now, when it shouldn’t matter any longer, he’d turned the tables and come out smelling like a rose. And she’d been painted as a vindictive bitch who couldn’t handle the fact that a man had dumped her. And worse of all was that Taj and Jeff would believe that now. Nothing she said would change their minds because they’d side with their family. Most of the Durantes and Raleighs did that whenever conflicts came up.
And Alex was no longer around to confront and force the truth out of. Even if she could find him, there was no guarantee he’d come clean. He’d obviously lied to Sallyanne, who was the biggest chump of them all in this mess. But that didn’t change the fact that now her reputation was ruined, and there wasn’t one fucking thing she could do about it.
What had been the best day of her life mere hours ago, was now shit piled on top of more crap.
She glanced at her computer, then crossed the room to her desk and turned it off. Fuck it. It was Friday afternoon. She was done with this week.
Chapter Four
Taj spent the rest of the afternoon on Google, trying to find out everything he could on Alaina and Alex. There wasn’t much. It bothered him that she’d never said anything about there being a prior sexual relationship between them, even though that omission hadn’t affected her work product.
But what bothered him even more was that whether or not Sallyanne was right, and Alaina was still carrying a torch over Alex and was bitter about the breakup, it definitely cast a suspicious light on how many times she’d come to them, complaining about Alex.
Then again, the man hadn’t done his job. Whether or not what Sallyanne had told them was true, that was set in stone. Alaina, on the other hand, did hers impeccably well. No one could argue that. But had her campaign to have Alex fired been colored by her personal feelings toward the man? That’s what Taj wanted to know.
It had been impossible to discern the truth from her reactions earlier. She’d kept a calm, cool head, which wasn’t a surprise. She usually did. And there had been no guilt on her face that Taj had been able to detect. It was entirely possibly that Sallyanne had lied, or Alex had. Alaina was too much of a professional to have brought up that fact with both CEOs standing there, watching the show.
Should he simply ask her? Was it really any of his business? No. It wasn’t.
“Hey, you staying here all night?”
Taj glanced up to find Jeff standing in the doorway. “No. Just finishing up something and then I’m out of here. Want to grab a beer?”
“Well, I’m not sure. I’m supposed to be having dinner, but I think I’ve been stood up.”
Taj raised his brows. “What?”
“I was outside for lunch earlier, and Alaina was as well. We talked for a few moments near the lake, and then she asked me out for a drink. I turned it into dinner. But now her phone goes to voice mail and Outlook says she’s gone for the day.”
Taj cleared his throat in an attempt to hide his surprise and jealousy. “Oh. Do you have her cell phone number? Maybe she left after the playground fight?”
Jeff snorted. “Yeah. I would have, too. I called her cell, but it goes straight to voice mail as well.”
“She stood you up, dude.”
Jeff sighed and perched on the edge of Taj’s desk. “Either that or she was embarrassed and didn’t think I still wanted to have dinner with her.”
“I would be, too. What do you think about all this?”
“I don’t know what to think. But I was ready to give her the benefit of the doubt and let her explain. Given
Sallyanne’s reputation, I’m less inclined to believe her version of this. Aren’t you?”
Taj nodded as fresh guilt washed over him. He’d been searching on Google while Jeff had merely bided his time, waiting to ask Alaina directly what the truth was. That’s what he should have done as well.
Jeff stood. “Well, I guess I’ll have to wait for a better opportunity. Since I’m dateless again, want to grab a beer and dinner?”
Taj turned off his computer. “Sure.”
* * * *
Lady of The Night was a bar and restaurant that had been part of the area on the island everyone called “downtown” since 1967. The décor had gone through several updates, from what Alaina had been told, but the owners were all from the same family and simply passed the bar down through the generations. The current owners were Justin and Laila Macey, and Alaina knew them well. When she’d first arrived eight years ago, they were the couple who had helped her figure out where the condo she’d rented sight unseen was.
Alaina wasn’t one to eat or drink alone in a bar very often. It was too sad and depressing to watch others having fun and dancing to the constant reggae and Cuban music that permeated the air in the downtown area, while she had no one to share it with. She didn’t even have close female friends. That was her doing, and she knew that. For eight years she’d kept her head down and buried herself in her job. Cultivating friendships had taken as much of a backseat as dating had.
But this particular Friday night, she wandered into the bar and sat at the counter, engaging Laila in a conversation about ex-boyfriends, and how they all deserved to be hung upside down and have their balls cut off. Slowly. And that was without the benefit of alcohol. Laila made Hurricanes strong, and Alaina knew if she had even one, she’d never get home. She wasn’t in quite a shitty enough mood to make a blind, stinking drunk fool of herself in front of the residents of the island. Not yet, anyway.