Rush: A Second Chance Romance

by Ellen Lane

  “I’m sure father has told you about the building going up in LA,” he stated, as diplomatically as he could. “Have you, by any chance, seen the plans for it?”

  “No,” Lucas returned, curiosity coloring his tones, “He’s very adamant about keeping it a secret until the ground breaking.”

  “Well,” Vlad blew out a long breath, “I saw them today. And... well...I found them a bit unorthodox.”

  There was a beat before Lucas answered carefully. “Isn’t this something you’d be better off discussing with Dad?”

  “That’s the thing...I can deal with Dad,” Vlad replied, hesitating slightly before he continued. “It’s this architect I’m worried about. Charlotte Gardner. I was rather...blunt with her. I worry that I might have offended her sensibilities.” That was a delicate way of putting it, if anything. Vlad knew he had pissed her off. He’d be lucky if she ever spoke to him again, which would, of course, promote a wondrous working relationship. “I was wondering if you had any advice. If we’re supposed to be working together, I’d like to avoid tension at any cost.”

  Surprisingly, Lucas chuckled in the wake of his question. “You think you hurt her feelings. That’s not like you, Vlad. I thought you crushed and ate the souls of the weak.”

  “Not funny,” Vladimir retorted, even as his lips twitched with the threat of a smile. “Even I can reflect and realize that I’ve spoken out of turn.”

  “What did you say to her?”

  Now that was a complicated question if there ever was one. Vlad contemplated sugar coating things before simply telling Lucas exactly what had happened. That he had called Charlotte’s work unorthodox, more suited to practically everything else than the company’s needs; and then he had promised to speak to their father to ensure that he had chosen the design most in line with the company’s image.

  “Wow.” After a beat of silence, Lucas’ incredulous answer made his brother wince. “That’s...well, that’s...Wow.”

  “‘Wow’ what?” Vlad demanded, obviously tense.

  “Well, let’s see here,” Lucas replied mildly, “You insulted her work, her rationale, Dad’s validity in choosing her design, and her creativity all in one fell swoop. That’s impressive, Vlad.”

  The dark-haired man’s stomach twisted in renewed guilt and he groaned lowly. “Is that all?”

  “Pretty much, yeah. She’s probably pissed as hell - at the very least.”

  No kidding. That he knew. “So, what do I do to fix it?”

  Lucas blew out a long breath, contemplating for a moment before he answered. “Well, did you do any research on her or her work before meeting with her?”

  Vlad arched a brow at the question. Should he have? He had hoped that he might do so after their meeting, trusting his father’s choice in design. That, he now realized, was a mistake. If he had researched her before their meeting, he might have been better prepared for what he’d seen - less inclined to make rash statements. “I didn’t.” He admitted reluctantly. “I trusted father’s decision.”

  “And I think you should continue to trust it,” Lucas replied mildly. “Dad doesn’t make decisions rashly. There has to be a reason he picked that design, and a reason he picked Charlotte. Might be a good idea to educate yourself on both before the two of you meet up again.”

  Indeed. Even though Vlad had every intention of speaking to his father, the more he spoke with Lucas, the more convinced he was that the elder man wasn’t going to bend - which meant that the ground would break on Charlotte’s design sometime in the next two or three weeks.

  And he would have to face her again. “Alright. I’ll look her up.”

  “See that you do,” Lucas’ tone turned teasing, “Oh, wow. She’s cute. Not your type, surprisingly, but cute.”

  Vlad realized that Lucas was doing just what he’d instructed him to do. Usually he would have merely rolled his eyes at the comment, but strangely, he felt something strangely like envy twisting his gut at Lucas’ warm assessment of Charlotte. “Think she likes younger men?”

  “You stay your ass in New York,” Vlad growled with surprising conviction, “I’ll handle this.”

  “Then handle it,” Lucas returned, obviously pleased with himself. “I have every confidence in you, Vlad.”

  Chapter 4 - Diametrically Opposed

  “The gall. The fucking unmitigated gall…” Charlotte paced back and forth through the kitchen restlessly, anger driving her steps. “How dare he!”

  Lila, who was sitting at the table not three feet from her friend, winced. “Calm down. You’ve been pacing for half an hour. If you’re not careful you’re going to wear a hole in the tile.”

  “He was an asshole, Lila!” Charlotte continued, almost as if she hadn’t heard the blonde. “He told me that he needed to speak to Jackson to be sure that he’d made the right decision. What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  Lila winced. “I’ll admit, it doesn’t sound good.”

  “Of course it fucking doesn’t! He’s threatening me, Lila! Me and all I’ve worked for! How could he think...how could he want…” Charlotte trailed off, words completely deserting her. For the first time in her life, she found herself at an absolute loss to find a statement that adequately described how she felt.

  Like something had been dangled in front of her and snatched away before she’d really even had a chance to nurture it. Both betrayed and more pissed off than she could ever remember being.

  And, atop that, she was mad at herself. Because even after all the man had said to her - the imperious way he’d gazed down his nose at her, knowing that he held her very future in his hands, she was hurt he’d so easily brushed her off.

  Why the hell should she care about the approval of a man like that?

  “Lottie, I’m going to need you to take a deep breath for me.” Lila, ever calm, raised her hands in an attempt to get Charlotte to focus on something beside her anger. “Deep breath, ok?” For a moment, the redhead merely glared at her. Her braid had come undone, her lipstick had smeared, and the moment she got home she had unzipped the skirt that was all but choking her waistline. She knew that she had to look an absolute mess and the last thing she wanted at that particular moment was to breathe.

  But Lila was trying to help. That was all Lila ever tried to do and Charlotte knew, from experience, that if she blew up on one of the only people that understood her in the heat of the moment, she’d regret it.

  So, she forced herself to take a breath. In for a full five seconds, and then out. “Good.” Lila directed her in another breath. “Let’s go again.”

  Charlotte felt rather like a petulant child being disciplined, but she obeyed. Unsurprisingly, after a few more breaths, she began to feel slightly calmer. There was, of course, still a hot river of anger and outrage coursing through her just below the skin, but she didn’t feel like she was about to destroy their kitchen anymore.

  “Better?” Lila ventured cautiously, just before the elder woman dropped into a chair across from her.

  “Yeah, slightly,” Charlotte croaked, before tugging free the remains of her braid. As her hair resumed its previous wild tangle of curls, Lila gave her a small smile.

  “If you want to take your clothes off and stomp around the house, I completely understand.”

  Charlotte snorted. “What I want to do is call Vladimir fucking Kensley and give him a piece of my mind.”

  Lila sighed, taking a sip of the hot tea she’d made for herself. “I wouldn’t advise it. Especially since nothing has actually happened yet.

  Charlotte eyed her incredulously. “So, him insulting me is nothing?”

  Lila hurried to placate her before she could get amped up again. “He did insult you. I’m not saying that was ok. What I am saying is that we’ve already established the Vladimir isn’t the one with the last say where this building is concerned, is he? That’s his father’s call. And you haven’t heard anything from Jackson, have you?”

  Charlotte opened her mouth, a retort on
the tip of her tongue -before she realized that her roommate was absolutely right. She’d left Vladimir’s office in a full-blown rage almost eight hours ago - plenty of time for the man to do all he promised - to call his father and rant and rave about Charlotte’s design.

  But Jackson hadn’t contacted her to tell her she needed to change anything. And, despite her anxiety, there was no hint of him firing her.

  Which meant that the project was still on - for now.

  The realization made her feel a little bit better - at least the part of her that was concerned for her job security. For the entire afternoon, Charlotte wondered if she had made a mistake- if she would have to go groveling back to her old architecture firm for a job after Kensley rejected her - but it appeared that nothing that serious had happened yet.

  So, instead, she was left with the slightly lesser wrath of a woman spurned.

  Exhaling hotly, Charlotte leaned against the table, eying Lila apologetically. “I really am off my rocker, aren’t I?” She inquired lowly, by way of apology.

  The blonde smirked. “Completely - but you’re perfectly entitled to get mad. Everyone gets mad. Hell, I’d be pissed if someone insulted my artistic creativity. Trust me, I’m not arguing with you: Vladimir Kensley is a huge douchebag. But he hasn’t won, babe. Not by a long shot.”

  Her words drew a small smile from Charlotte. “I guess not.”

  Lila chuckled softly. Now that the tension between them had diffused, she was far quicker with her smiles. “I take it there was no seduction involved if you come home like this.”

  Charlotte made a face. The last thing she wanted, at this particular juncture, was to seduce the man. She was pretty sure that her feelings for Vladimir had gone from lukewarm enthusiasm to downright hatred…. but if that was the case, why couldn’t she get over the little inkling of irritation that he had so easily rejected her. Would things have gone any better if she had flashed her boobs and batted her eyelashes?

  Somehow, Vladimir didn’t occur to her as the type of man who was easily swayed by physical gestures.

  And she certainly wasn’t that type of women. Though, if she was...it would certainly be a man like the younger Kensley who tested the limits of her self-control…

  “Have they given you a date for the ground-breaking?” Lila’s question brought her back to the present issue, and Charlotte sighed, shaking her head.

  “Not yet - but it’s supposed to be sometime in the next two weeks.”

  “Can I give you a bit of advice?” Lila asked gently - carefully. Charlotte eyed her warily.

  “I’m not sucking up to him. If he doesn’t like me, he doesn’t like me. I sure as hell don’t like him.”

  “That’s not what I was going to say,” Lila replied with a barely hidden smile of amusement. “I was just going to suggest that you be polite. You two are bound to run into one another sooner or later whether at the groundbreaking or before - and it would help you if you were just polite. You are going to be working together, after all.”

  “Yeah, if Jackson doesn’t fire me,” Charlotte rebutted under her breath in a resentful murmur.

  “He’s not going to fire you,” Lila groaned in exasperation. “You said it yourself: Jackson Kensley knows what he wants, and if he wants your design, the building is going to constructed using your design. That’s all there is to it.”

  At that point, Benny poked his head from the bedroom. He had come over to bring Lila some of her favorite sushi and decided to stay to nap before his evening shift. When he arrived a few hours earlier, he had taken one look at Charlotte’s enraged form and fled to Lila’s bedroom.

  Now, the redhead greeted him with a sheepish smile. “Hi, Benny. I’m sorry about earlier.”

  “Hey, no problem.” The doctor yawned, stretching his lean form and scratching his stomach as he ventured into the kitchen to look for the remains of the sushi. “I know how it is. Big contract and all.”

  “The biggest,” Lila corrected, unable to help a smile as he bent to kiss her on the cheek. “She’s stressed, Ben. She didn’t mean it.”

  “Hey, I don’t ask.” He held up his hands defensively with a grin. “As long as my head stays right where it is, I will do whatever I need to, to get out of the way.”

  Charlotte flushed slightly in embarrassment. Before she could apologize again, however, Lila spoke again. “Actually, maybe there’s a way you could help, Ben.”

  “Lay it on me.” He ran a hand through thick brunette curls as he rifled through the fridge. The blonde looked to Charlotte for a brief moment, as if asking her permission, before she continued. “Do you have any advice for this guy? I mean, I know you’re completely different people, but maybe you can give us a guy’s insight to what he’s thinking.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Benjamin nudged the fridge closed with a thigh, turning back to them with a carton of juice and the sushi leftovers in hand. “But I need the lowdown on what happened. Is that ok?” He looked to Charlotte in cautious inquiry and she nodded. Though her first impulse was to believe there was nothing anyone could say about Vladimir Kensley that would make her view him as anything other than an incorrigible asshole, Benny was one of the few men she held in very high regard. If he wanted to shed some light on the situation, she supposed she wouldn’t be opposed.

  Lila gave her lover the quick and dirty version and Ben listened in silence, nodding every so often. When the blonde finished, he was silent for a long moment before he answered hesitantly.

  “Look, I’m a doctor - I have no idea what it’s like to run a multi-billion-dollar company, but if it’s anything like the stress of having people’s lives in your hands, I can imagine that, in some ways, he’s almost as frazzled as you are, Charlotte.” When her eyes narrowed dangerously, Benny hurried to continue before her ire could flare anew. “I’m not defending him, I’m just saying that you’re both probably under a lot of pressure - you just handle it differently. I don’t know much about this guy…” He took a swig of juice,” But from what I read in the papers, he’s not the best people person. Maybe just...don’t go into your next meeting on the warpath. If he has a heart at all, he will have realized he might have made a faux pas saying what he said.”

  “And if he doesn’t?” Charlotte returned, a slight edge to her voice.

  Ben shrugged. “Then you have my full permission to shank him when he’s not looking - only don’t tell the cops that when they arrest you.” Lila stifled a snort of amusement and even Charlotte found herself smiling slightly.

  Well, if she had his permission…

  But that wasn’t what it was really about. If she was going to be able to work with Vladimir Kensley at all, she was going to have to find a bit of tolerance somewhere - and with her career on the line, she was forced to admit that both Lila and Benny had valid points. She would have to curb her temper - and the next time she came face to face with her would-be employer, she would have to have the best poker face on the planet.

  Or else.

  **

  Barely a week passed before Vlad was forced to admit that Charlotte Gardner had been right. Even though his talk with Lucas had encouraged him to try to see things more from her perspective, that hadn’t kept him from calling his father to discuss the design he’d decided upon for the Los Angeles building.

  The conversation had been slightly awkward, to be sure. Though it was clear Jackson had expected his son to be surprised by the uniqueness of the design, he clearly hadn’t expected him to question him on it, and Vlad found himself scrambling to make it sound as if he had another reason for calling. It was clear within a week of Vlad’s first meeting with Charlotte that the groundbreaking was going on as planned.

  And she had probably gotten wind of it as well. Of course, Charlotte hadn’t contacted him since the day of their falling out - and he hadn’t really expected her to. If anything, he should have been the one to call her with some semblance of an apology - but Vladimir had his pride. Besides, he knew he had his work cut out for h
im when they met again. He would have to somehow regain her trust if he didn’t expect this project to be a complete debacle.

  Vlad followed his brother’s advice, doing all he could to research Charlotte, her work, and her methodologies. He found himself surprised that, despite the strange nature of her work, she was an up and coming name in the West Coast architecture field. Vlad supposed he shouldn’t be too shocked. Just because he found her work rather unorthodox didn’t mean that other people shared his opinion. It made sense that those on the west coast had a rather more open opinion of what defined the inside and outside of the box of conventionalism.

  The moment he caught himself in that particular thought, he exhaled a long breath. Vlad caught himself many times over the past week lying in bed as he grappled with his opinion of Charlotte Gardner and her work.

  On the one hand, he had never seen building designs like hers, and he wasn’t inclined to believe their outlandish nature would make construction easier. On the other hand, he had to admire her drive. As she had once told him, he wasn’t the first to think her work strange - and he wouldn’t be the last. The fact hadn’t seemed to cow Charlotte - offend her, certainly, but she hadn’t been intimidated by him. She had, in fact, taken her plans and sauntered off before he could investigate them more closely.

  But that hadn’t been a problem. Once the plans were revealed, Jackson Kensley had no problem sending his son copies to look over.

  If Vladimir thought that he might see more reason in the designs upon his second perusal, he was wrong. He was just as hard pressed to see why his father had chosen the design as he was the first time Charlotte had laid the blueprints out on the table before him.

  Was he missing something? Something that everyone else but him could easily discern? Somehow, he didn’t think that was the case.

  He tried to reassure himself in his insistence that he had no problem with the architect at all, but with the plans themselves.

  As he showered on the morning of the groundbreaking ceremony, Vlad kept seeing Charlotte’s sharp expression - the way her cheeks had colored and her full mouth pinched into a tight line - in his mind’s eye. Even when she was angry, she was unspeakably gorgeous - as lovely in a pencil skirt and crisp white button up as she was in a loose green dress with her hair in disarray. Precisely why he was so attracted to her when she was like no woman he’d ever been with was beyond him.