“Okay, I’ll give you the abridged version.”
“Abridged version? I’ve got time and plenty of cookies. I want to hear everything.”
“Don’t be so damned nosy,” Nia teased. “It’s people like you that give small towns a bad name.”
Nia reached for more cookies, but Amy smacked her hand.
“Quit eating and start talking,” she said.
“Here’s the deal,” Nia said. “I slept with him. I’m angry with him. I’m disappointed in him. But at the same time I miss him and can’t stop thinking about him.”
This time it was Amy who put down her cookie. “Wow, that’s a lot to take in.”
Nia rolled her eyes. “Try living with it the past few days.”
“So that explains the one-woman HGTV crew thing you’ve got going on in here.”
Nia nodded. “By the time I’m done at night, I’m too exhausted to think or feel anything.”
Amy leaned forward and crossed her arms on the table. “So what are you going to do about it? Besides turn this house into a showplace?”
“Nothing,” Nia said. “I promised myself it would only be a one-night stand.”
“So break your promise.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Nia said. “Besides, I already told him I didn’t want to see him again.”
Her friend studied her a moment. “Do you want to know what I think?”
Nia shrugged. “No, but you’re going to tell me anyway.”
“I think of all those feelings you’ve got swirling around, the dominant one is you’re crazy about him,” she said. “And it scares the hell out of you.”
Nia wrapped her hands around her coffee mug, absorbing its warmth. “Maybe I am a little scared, and you know why.”
“You’re not your mother, Nia. Her mistakes were her own.”
And I won’t make the same ones, Nia thought.
“I’m not going to convince you to call him, am I?” Amy asked.
Nia shook her head. “The best thing for me to do right now is get back to my life in Chicago.”
Once she got home, she’d forget all about Kyle Ellison.
Chapter 14
“How could a son of mine be such a screwup?”
Kyle stretched out on the leather sofa in his office and watched his uncle pace back and forth. He couldn’t agree more with the rant, but was too damned tired to join in.
He’d left Candy, Ohio, four days ago and still hadn’t slept in his own bed.
The Ellison jet had touched down in Nashville en route from Candy only to take off again an hour later.
He and his uncle had decided the best way to undo the mess Logan had created was for Kyle to do in-person damage control. That had meant two days of smoothing ruffled feathers at the skin care company’s headquarters in Puerto Rico.
From there he’d flown to New Hampshire to try to placate the angry owners of the natural toothpaste company. The family who owned the company had verbally agreed to Ellison purchasing it with them retaining creative control.
But Logan had contacted them and contradicted the terms. He’d told them Ellison Industries’ honchos would take over creative control, and then blindsided the family with talk of moving the company’s Portsmouth manufacturing plant overseas after the sale.
“Nothing we can do to get the toothpaste deal back on track?” Uncle Jon asked.
“They barely agreed to see me. Even then, the family was irate. Bottom line is they no longer trust us,” Kyle said. “What was Logan thinking?”
Uncle Jon stopped midpace. “Logan thought our agreeing to keep their U.S. manufacturing plants was short-sighted. He also thought Ellison should retain creative control.”
“Didn’t he realize the current owners’ creativity was part of what we were buying? That’s why they were to remain in their current positions as our employees.”
His uncle threw up his hands. “Logan was only supposed to familiarize himself with the deals, not blow them up.”
Kyle had been so occupied trying to undo his cousin’s mess it occurred to him he’d hadn’t seen him since his return. “So where is Logan?
“He left early to take his wife to the hospital,” his uncle said. “They thought she’d went into labor early, but it turned out to be a false alarm. I told him to take the rest of the day off.”
“Just the day?” Kyle raised a brow.
They both knew what needed to be done. Logan’s actions were more than enough reason for dismissal, and Kyle was surprised Uncle Jon hadn’t already shown him the door.
His uncle slumped into the executive chair behind Kyle’s desk. The elder Ellison’s shoulders drooped as he exhaled a weary sigh and rested his face in his palms.
When he looked up again, he looked ten years older than his sixty-four years.
“This fiasco is my fault,” he said. “Seeing my son after all these years, I lost my head and forgot everything your father taught me about separating emotions and business.” Uncle Jon shrugged. “And it cost us a company we worked long and hard trying to acquire.”
Kyle pulled his tired body into a sitting position on the sofa. He took no pleasure in being right. He also didn’t like seeing his uncle look so defeated.
“There’ll be other companies,” he said.
“Yeah, I know, but that’s not the real problem, is it?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Can’t you see the irony?”
Kyle shook his head. “You’re talking in riddles, Uncle Jon. It’s been a long couple of days, and I’m too tired to try to figure them out.”
“Your father left me in charge as a stopgap to make sure his sons were ready to run Ellison Industries,” his uncle said. “Now it appears David prepared you two even better than he’d thought, because this is the second time I’ve screwed up because I ignored his sons’ advice.”
Kyle listened as his uncle explained. “First, I tried to force your brother into an arranged business deal of a marriage to the Brook’s Brands heiress. If he hadn’t refused, he would have been tied to a woman he didn’t love and Ellison Industries would have merged with her family’s bankrupt business,” he said. “Then, despite your repeated warnings, I hired Logan anyway, and we see how that turned out.”
His uncle had messed up both times, but Kyle didn’t have it in him to gloat or say I told you so. Not tonight. He stifled a yawn with his fist. “It’s late, Uncle Jon,” he said. “Time we both headed home.”
“Kyle, what I’m trying to tell you is it’s time.”
“For what?”
Kyle lifted himself off the couch and walked over to the closet. He pulled his suit jacket off a hanger.
“It’s time for me to finally step aside. I should have done it the moment Adam turned down the job, instead of making you jump through hoops for months,” he said.
Kyle, who had been shrugging on his suit jacket, froze with his arms midair. His uncle was upset, he thought, pushing his arms through the sleeves of the jacket. “That’s just exhaustion talking, Uncle Jon. You’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep.”
“No, son. I’m serious,” Jonathan Ellison said. “You’ve handled everything I’ve thrown at you and demonstrated yourself more than ready to sit in your father’s chair. It’s time Ellison Industries had a real CEO, not an interim babysitter, who’s done more harm than good.”
Kyle had imagined this moment at least a hundred times. Now that it had arrived, the victory felt hollow and lonely.
Another irony was at play here, Kyle thought, but it had nothing to do with his uncle.
All these years, he’d been considered second best at work and relegated to his older brother’s shadow. However, his love life was flush with the most beautiful wome
n in town.
Now the reins of the top job at Ellison Industries had finally been handed over to him, and he couldn’t get the woman he wanted to as much as go on a date with him.
Kyle thought briefly about calling Nia or going back to the farmhouse to try and talk to her, but what would he say?
Her last words to him echoed in his head.
Every time I look at you, I’ll think of my hometown sliding into financial ruin.
Essentially, nothing had changed as far as Nia was concerned. Even when his new job became official, Kyle wouldn’t reverse his decision about the candy factory. Not even for her.
Nia’s proposal was impressive. Peppermint Lane’s product was not.
And Nia wanted nothing to do with him.
“Of course, it’ll have to go before the Ellison board first, but we both know they’ll rubberstamp my recommendation.” His uncle paused. “Are you listening to me?”
Kyle nodded. “Your decision caught me off guard, that’s all,” he said. “Just taking it all in.”
“Are you sure there isn’t more to it? I have to admit, I’m surprised at your reaction. I thought you’d be thrilled.”
“I am, but I guess I’m beat from all the traveling,” he said. “Right now, I just want to sleep in my own bed.”
There was another bed back in Ohio he wished he could slip into tonight, and hold a certain woman in his arms. But that was all over now, he reminded himself, and they had only been passing the time during a snowstorm.
Uncle Jon rose from the desk. “I’m headed back to my office to wrap up a few things.”
“How long do you think you’ll be?” Kyle asked. “I need a ride. My Ferrari’s still in Atlanta being repaired, and my other cars are at the estate.”
His uncle reached into his pants pocket and tossed Kyle a set of keys. “Take mine,” he said. “Have someone from the house staff come back for me in two hours.”
Ten minutes later, Kyle steered his uncle’s car down the interstate toward the Ellison estate, south of Nashville. He wondered what Nia was doing right now.
Damn.
Every time he’d thought he’d managed to banish her from his head, his mind drifted right back to her.
“What’s the matter with you?” he muttered.
He’d finally gotten the job of his dreams. He should be celebrating. Not obsessing over a woman he should have forgotten the moment he left Candy.
Suddenly, his phone rang and the name Ariel flashed across the screen.
Disappointed, Kyle started to let the leggy model’s call go to voice mail, but changed his mind and answered.
After all, the best way to get a woman who didn’t want you out of your system was with another one who did.
* * *
Nia stared at the clock, which seemed to be frozen at 4:50 p.m.
A few days back at work had felt more like a decade. Just a few more minutes and she could grab her purse from the bottom drawer of her desk and make a break for it—as the other two secretaries in the office had done almost an hour ago.
Being related to the boss had its perks; unfortunately Nia wasn’t kin to Gerald Randall.
She glanced at the clock again and back at the pile of work on her desk. Who was she fooling? She’d answered phones, typed, scheduled and problem-solved snafus all day long, and she’d barely made a dent in her boss’s to-do list.
She wouldn’t be getting home to her apartment anytime soon.
The director, Nia and two other secretaries staffed the suburban city’s office of economic development. The picturesque suburb was rapidly becoming a favorite setting for feature films, and city officials had funded a new assistant-director position—a job her boss, Mr. Randall, had all but promised to her.
Hearing a knock on the open door, Nia looked up from her desk to see, Janice, who worked in the city clerk’s office, leaning on the doorframe.
Janice frowned at the two vacant desks across from Nia’s. “So where are Cinderella’s lazy stepsisters?” she asked, referring to Nia’s coworkers.
Nia suppressed a giggle, knowing her boss was still in his office and wouldn’t appreciate her laughing at jokes about his wife’s nieces. “Gone.”
“Then why are you still here?”
“Because I’ve been away nearly three months, and I have tons to catch up on.”
Janice pushed aside a stack of file folders on Nia’s desk and plopped her behind on the freshly cleared corner.
“I’m presuming since their desks are free of everything but nail polish and gossip magazines, you’re back to doing the work of three people,” Janice said.
“Plus all the work that piled up since I’ve been gone.” Nia thought about her to-do list and shook her head. “It’s going to take me forever.”
Janice lowered her voice to a whisper. “Then why not shovel some of this shit onto their desks so at least it’s evenly distributed?”
“Because I’m on the short list for the assistant-director position, and I don’t want to screw it up whining about being overworked.”
Nia pushed away from her desk to retrieve the memos she’d typed from the printer. Most were sent out in email blasts, but a few were still handled the old-fashioned way.
“Any word on your impending promotion?”
Nia shook her head. “Not yet,” she said. “And I don’t feel quite right asking after being on leave for months.”
“Humph,” Janice grunted, and glared at Mr. Randall’s closed office door.
Honestly, Nia was nearly as exasperated as her friend. She was trying to be patient, but the months of working with the mayor and city council in Candy had spoiled her. They’d sought out and valued her opinion.
Here she was sought out to make coffee and take up the slack of her coworkers. However, she still had a job, which made her fortunate in the current economic environment. More than she could say of the people in her hometown.
Janice snapped her fingers. “Oh, I nearly forgot. I came up here to ask you something.”
Nia groaned inwardly, knowing what was coming next. Her friend was going to ask her to accompany a group from work to a Chicago nightspot to scope out single men.
“Not interested,” she said.
“How do you know?” Janice asked. “I haven’t even asked yet.”
“What is it this time? A club? New bar?”
Janice sighed. “It’s a sports bar Kim went to a few nights ago and met the hottest lawyer. So a few of us are going tonight during some big game. You should come along.”
“Thanks for thinking of me, but...”
“Yeah, I know. Some other time,” Janice said. “You always say that.”
“How about we all go out to lunch tomorrow?” Nia offered.
Catching up on the office gossip with her work friends would be a fun diversion. However, sitting at a bar fishing for men held little appeal.
Janice shook her head. “Nia, honey. Let me give you a heads-up. A sexy, available hunk isn’t going to materialize out of thin air. You’re going to have to find him,” she said. “He isn’t going to find you.”
If her friend only knew, Nia thought. Mother Nature had sent one to her special delivery, and no matter how hard she tried, she hadn’t been able to get him or their night together out of her head.
“Nia, I need to see you in my office.”
Fortunately, Nia’s boss stuck his head out of his office door, ending her rumination over Kyle and the debate with Janice over spending the evening perched on a barstool.
“If you change your mind, call me on my cell,” Janice whispered, making a hasty exit.
Nia walked into her boss’s office, hoping he wanted to talk to her about the assistant-director position.
“I have a few more things I
need you to take care of this week.” Gerald Randall grabbed his suit jacket from the hook. “First, the website needs to be updated. It hasn’t been done since your leave of absence.”
Nia pressed her lips together to keep from pointing out one of his nieces was responsible for keeping the website up-to-date. In fact, most of the tasks she’d performed today were duties of the other secretaries.
Instead, she nodded her head and hoped her patience would soon pay off.
Chapter 15
Ariel ran a crimson fingernail around the rim of her wineglass.
“When I asked you out, I didn’t think it would be over a week before you finally had time for me.”
Kyle’s eyes flicked briefly across the candlelit table to his date before returning to the menu. He’d skipped lunch to take back-to-back conference calls this afternoon, and now he was starved.
“I’ve been swamped with my transition to CEO,” he said. “I’ve barely had time to breathe.”
It was true.
If it hadn’t been for Margie keeping him on top of his new schedule, he’d be lost. Kyle sighed inwardly. He’d been thinking a lot about Margie lately and debating whether to keep her on as his administrative assistant.
The selfish part of him didn’t know how he’d manage without her, while the side that ran Ellison Industries knew she deserved to have her own office—not continue to run someone else’s.
Another side effect of his trip to Candy. And meeting Nia.
Kyle continued to scan the entrées silently debating on whether he should order two. The steak sounded good. Then again, so did the grilled veal chops.
Truth be told, he could chuck the entire menu and head to his favorite barbeque place for platters of pulled pork with all of the fixings, but he knew Ariel would never go for it. He couldn’t even imagine her in the roadside restaurant where the menu was posted on the wall underneath a smiling pink pig.
The idea almost made him laugh out loud.
“Care to share the joke? Because I don’t think you’ve listened to a word I’ve said since you picked me up,” Ariel said.
She sounded annoyed and Kyle didn’t blame her. He had been preoccupied all evening, first with work and then by food. It didn’t help that he kept subconsciously comparing his date to Nia—the woman he’d mistakenly thought spending time with Ariel would help him forget.
Sweeter Temptation (Kimani Hotties) Page 12