“One-second kids,” my dad said thankfully stopping the slow steps that I was taking toward the door. “Let me just properly introduce you Isla. This is my niece Maya Price - she works here as an interior designer. Maya this is Isla Banks - her father is a Senior Architect and is heading our location in Italy at the moment. Isla grew up with Luke, Adam, and Mark; they were inseparable as kids.”
Isla had looked stunned until my father said the last piece and I don’t think anyone in the room missed the grimace that both Isla and I gave. Yeah, we had been inseparable, and then I’d done something wrong, unforgivably bad, but I was going to change it. I just needed to figure out how. How do you fix the heart and trust of someone you betrayed?
I could feel Maya’s stare drilling into the side of my face as we left Isla’s office after the introductions had been made and as soon as the door shut she pounced. “Okay asshole, what the hell did you do to that poor girl?” She asked glaring at me with her arms crossed. Shit!
12
____
Maya
After an exhausting morning that had included trying to get Luke to spill the beans, I finally started on some work. Since Luke, the tight ass, wouldn’t tell me about Isla, I’d conned him into doing quick drawings of the renovations that I’d come up with on Saturday. I was in the middle of creating a virtual shot of what the changes would look like when there was a knock on my door, and Ren was standing there smiling at me.
“Hey baby, you look adorable behind that desk with your serious face and the pencil in your hair,” he said winking at me. He looked disheveled and was wearing a tight black T-shirt and well-worn jeans and the whole outfit just gave him a hot bad boy look.
“Hey,” I croaked, because even if I were worried about his reputation, I’d still gone to sleep with a smile on my face last night.
“You up for lunch?”
“Lunch? What time is it?” I hadn’t even had my morning coffee, was it some a mechanic thing having lunch mid-morning?
Ren
Maya looked gorgeous today in her work dress and with a pencil sticking out of her hair. I’d been watching her concentrating on the screen and biting her lower lip, frowning and tilting her head and then closing one eye and looking at it with the other.
Yesterday had been amazing, and it had been hard to leave her last night after our kiss, but for Maya, I was going to take this slowly because she meant too much to me to rush and lose or just write off as a one nighter.
Obviously, she had no idea that it was already 12.30pm, so I figured she’d had a busy morning and mentally patted myself on the back for coming to take her for a surprise lunch. Laughing at the way she was looking around the office for a clock when she had a watch on her wrist, the time on her computer screen and her cell on her desk, I walked up and pulled her out of her chair gently and put my arms around her. “Baby, it's half twelve,” I couldn’t help chuckling.
“No way, oh my God, how the hell did that happen?” She sounded confused which made me laugh harder.
“Its what happens. Get your cell and whatever shit you need and let's get some lunch baby.”
Something about holding Maya centered me, and I hated letting go of her, but I did - reluctantly. When she slowly let go of me too, I knew she felt the same way and the fire that had been burning inside me since I met her burnt hotter.
Maya
“So where are we going?” I asked picking up my purse and cell and powering down the computer after saving the designs.
Just as we got to the door, he tugged me back, “I need to say hello properly”.
He lowered his head and his lips moved slowly over mine, gently rubbing, and when the pressure increased and his tongue gave a lazy swipe across my lower lip the kiss I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I vaguely heard the thud of something as my arms went around Ren’s neck and our tongues stroked slowly and gently against each other.
With one of Ren’s arms around the base of my back with his other hand at the base of my head, our bodies were pressed as close together as they could get without it becoming indecent. His hand had tilted my head back and to the side giving him control over the slow, gentle lapping of his tongue. My hands moved up his chest and into his hair, and I pulled his head against me a bit more. Before the kiss could get out of control, Ren pulled away, and his hand moved out of my hair and around my neck cupping my chin and rubbing his thumb gently across my lower lip while we tried to calm our breathing.
“Remind me to surprise you at work some more,” he whispered looking from my mouth to my eyes and then flashing me a cheeky grin. “Now, can I take you for lunch before we get carried away?"
Getting carried away actually sounded perfect to me until I realized that we were still in my office and that my cousin's office was beside mine and George’s was directly across the floor.
“If you must,” I sighed like it was a burden to spend time with Ren, trying to hide how much I liked our bodies that close together and how much the kiss had affected me; I don’t think it worked because he laughed even harder.
“Oh shit wait, I was going to invite the new girl Isla to lunch,” I said smacking my forehead.
How could I forget? I wanted to get to know her better and make her feel welcome, and I wanted to find out about her and Luke. She hadn't looked happy when I’d walked into her office earlier.
“Why don’t you go and get her and I’ll text Cole to meet us as Jilly’s too?”
“Damn, poor Isla. Cole on the first day?” I groaned. I hope she was still sane and liked me by the end of lunch.
* * *
“So did y’all know each other at school?” I asked Isla, Ren, and Cole, as we sat eating our lunch in the diner. Isla had been telling me about her background, and I couldn’t believe that they had all gone to the same school, but didn’t know each other like I’d known my classmates.
“Uh, I was in the same grade as Luke,” Isla replied in her natural raspy voice. Seriously, she’d make some serious cash as one of those dirty call handlers with that voice.
Like he was in my head, Cole pulled out his phone and started playing with the screen. “Shit gorgeous, your voice was made for sin. What's your number?”
“What the fuck?” Came barked from behind me, making me jump and spin around to see Luke looking at Cole like he was going to throttle him.
“Oh hey man,” Cole said, apparently none the wiser as he was still fiddling with his phone and setting up contact details for Isla, who was looking very uncomfortable and anywhere but at Luke. “Okay, you’re in as ‘I B Sexpot’ because of your initials and the obvious. Just put your number in and hit save,” he said as he slid his phone across the table. She hadn’t even had a chance to pick it up before Luke had it in his hand.
“Unless you want a team of highly skilled surgeons removing your phone from your colon, I’d forget that plan you little shit,” Luke seethed leaning over the table towards Cole, who surprisingly didn’t seem that worried by him.
“I need to get going,” Isla whispered as she picked her bag up and started to get out of her chair. I was getting pissed at Luke now; I liked her, but every time Luke was around or mentioned she looked like her heart had been torn out. What the hell had he done to her?
Before she could get out of the booth, though, Luke sat down beside her and yelled across the diner at the waitress for his lunch. Surprisingly the waitress, who looked like she was chewing wasps, grinned and swished into the kitchen. She’d been glaring at us so much since we arrived that I’d inspected my food carefully in case she’d spat or done something to it.
I couldn’t help snorting when I looked back at Luke and saw him realize that he’d pushed Isla closer to Cole when he’d sat down. He tried to correct this mistake by wrapping an arm around her hips and tugging her closer towards him and Cole looked like he loved this while Isla was looking longingly out the window at freedom.
Trying to break the tension, I repeated my earlier question. “So, how was
it that you didn’t know each other at school?”
Ren looked uncomfortable as did Luke, but Isla looked downright miserable and just muttered, “Different social circles.”
Cole as always broke the tension by looking Isla up and down. “Oh I knew who Isla Banks was, I used to stare at her ass every time I saw her. In fact, I remember kissing you at Macy Perkins party when we were 14 and played spin the bottle. That kiss has given me loads of spa…” he trailed off when he heard Luke’s growl and saw his fists clench.
Apparently this was what Isla needed to break out of her shell. “Really? And what was I doing in these memories of…” but the last words were muffled by Luke’s hand which was now firmly over her mouth while he struggled to contain his rage.
“We’re leaving,” he barked, pulling Isla out from the booth and not waiting for his lunch to arrive.
“What the hell was that about?” I asked as we all watched him pull her out of the diner and head in the opposite direction of the office.
“I’m not sure, but Isla lived with her Gran when she was in high school, and I remember her and Luke hanging out a lot. Her dad’s a dick, and she didn’t get along with her stepsister who had a thing for Luke. Anyway, there was an issue at prom or something and Isla left not long after it,” Ren filled me in.
“Who was her stepsister?” Cole asked frowning at Ren.
He shifted in his chair and rubbed the back of his neck,“Calista Brennan.”
The look on Cole’s face was almost comical. “Are you serious?”
Ren nodded, and Cole said no more leaving me totally confused about who the hell Calista Brennan was.
Before I could ask, though, angry smurf sashayed up with Luke’s lunch in a paper bag and dropped it in front of me as she snapped, “Take this to Luke and tell him Trinny did it just the way he likes it, as always” and sashayed off again. What was her problem?
I needed to head back to the office to get the huge workload off my desk so I could leave some time before midnight. “Sorry guys, I have to go.”
Cole stood up and gave me a hug goodbye while Ren threw down money for lunch and said he’d walk me back, which he did giving me a sweet goodbye kiss outside the building.
When I got to Luke’s office, his door was shut, so I knocked and waited. When I didn’t get a reply, I knocked again and shouted, “Luke it's me! I’ve got your lunch, and the sour faced diner chick said to say something like she did it just the way you liked. Oh, and she added as always afterward.”
Instead of the ‘come in’ that I’d been expecting, the door opened, and a red-faced Isla came out, giving me a quick smile and rushed to her office leaving me with a furious Luke.
“Sorry did I interrupt?” I asked knowing full well that I had. For the first time, Luke turned his angry expression on me making me take a step back and slammed his office door shut. Oh, this was going to be interesting.
As I settled back into doing the mockups of Ren’s house and looking at suggestions for Cole’s, George called me to an office meeting which was just frigging typical when the pile of work on my desk was that ugly that even Stephen King couldn’t do it justice.
Once we were all in the conference room, he began by introducing Isla to the office as the head of the Legal Department and explained that her father, Geoffrey Banks, was the director of our offices in Italy. I saw her getting a lot of appreciative looks from the male staff members and the same glares from the females that I’d received when I’d started, but what made me chuckle was Luke’s glares around the office at the male members of staff, which stopped on one in particular called Gabe.
He opened his mouth to say something when my Uncle said, “We have just received confirmation that we have won the contract for a law firm called Billings and Associates who have offices in New York and Houston. Apparently they require more substantial buildings in all locations and the buildings that they’ve found need to undergo a lot of work.
“Isla- you will handle the legal side of negotiations from planning permission to contract agreements. Luke- I need you to look at the blueprints of the locations and meet with the clients next week to get an idea of what work they want to be done. Maya- they need the interiors to be overhauled as soon as work is completed on the renovations. Gabe- You can help Luke and also Isla as you have background knowledge of projects like this,” George said looking at the four of us. “Although I have assigned four members of staff to this, we will all be needed to jump in as required. Our existing contracts are important, however, there were eight other companies considered for this contract, so I would like to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. We have also been awarded a huge build in Italy courtesy of Geoffrey and his team, so today is a fantastic day for us." Hearing her fathers name, I saw Isla shift and look down at the table in front of her not looking proud of her father's success which was understandable after hearing about her family briefly at lunch.
After the meeting, I went back to my desk and printed off the pictures for Ren’s house and then bound them and the ideas for Cole’s to make sure that nothing went missing. I still had a couple more potential clients to reply to and a load of designs to look at, and then I could go home. Yawning, I looked at the clock and counted down the minutes until I could get into bed.
* * *
The panoramic views of the New York skyline out of the windows of my office meant nothing to me. That bastard George Banks had stolen from me again, and it was time to put the plan that had taken me twenty-eight years in motion. I was going to take everything away from him like he’d done to me.
Picking up the phone, I dialed as excitement filled me. “It's time. Business and family; leave him with nothing,” I barked and slammed the phone down because there was nothing else that needed to be said. I wanted him to suffer and for his heart to be torn out the same way he’d done to me all of those years ago.
Breathing deeply and slowly to calm the shaking, I reached for the photo that I’d carried with me for all of these years. It was time…
13
____
Maya
I’d just pressed send on the final email of the day and was packing up when my cell went off with a text from Cole.
Cole: Ma wants u at hers 4 dinner. I think she wants 2 make sure that Ren’s wood is in good hands ;-)
I couldn’t help laughing and even though I was tired, I liked them all, so it wouldn't be a hardship staying awake for a couple more hours.
Me: You’re obsessed with your brothers wood! Tell her thanks and I would love to come. Do I need to bring anything with me?
Cole: Hey all that was offered was food. U cumming is up 2 Ren, but if he can’t get it right then, I’ll gladly help u out. No just bring urself, underwear optional.
Me: You’re disgusting! I’m showing Ren.
Cole: NO DON’T!
Me: Too late
And purely because it was Cole, I added in a devil smiley face at the end.
I figured it would be smarter not to show Ren the texts and just to let Cole panic as I locked up my office and picked up the folder to show Colette. I know our meeting wasn’t until tomorrow, but if I was there already, I may as well show her and then they don’t have to put their day on hold for the meeting tomorrow.
Turning to leave, I saw Isla, who was also on her way out and looked as exhausted as I felt as we walked towards the exit. “How was your first day?” I asked remembering how overwhelmed I’d been on mine not that long ago.
“Unexpected,” she mumbled.
“Hey listen, I’m going to a club called Sheeve’s on Friday with a girl called Ava. I know you might not know her, but why don’t you come along?” Ava wouldn’t mind, and maybe I could get Scarlett to join us too.
“Hell no,” Luke growled from behind us making both of us jump and squeak at the same time. Turning around with my hand on my heart, I saw Luke storming towards us looking furious.
Forever Mine (Providence Series Book 1) Page 9