by Cynthia Dane
I didn’t mention that I was pretty sure he was sleeping with Brooke. Unless that was made public, or Aiden had figured it out for himself, I wouldn’t say anything.
“Beards,” Aiden said, already bored. “I have it on good authority that they’re escorts.”
I scoffed. Not that the idea disgusted me, but because… well, why would I want to think about Mr. Mann with beautiful, talented, full-servicing escorts?
Indeed… why would I! The mere thought made my cheeks red! I’d rather think about him with Brooke! At least she was cool and they had chemistry! Escorts… kidding me?
“What authority is this? The National Enquirer? The Daily Social?”
“I have sources here and there. Like you, Natalie, I have quite the background in the business world. I graduated from Harvard.”
I knew that. I also knew that was a huge win for him getting this job. Half the interns who landed this gig were Harvard Business School graduates. Brooke Pentecost went there once a year to scout for graduating talent and took her findings back to Eric.
When I tried to speak, I sputtered, as if I hadn’t been captain of the debate club in high school and undergrad.
“If you think a billionaire is running around with call-girls because he’s gay, then boy do I have some news for you about what those fools get up to in their private lives.”
“Would you know, Nat?”
Appalled. Simply appalled.
“Don’t insult me,” I snapped. This was it. No more avoiding it, because I only wanted to avoid Aiden Webb. It was time for me to establish that I was the alpha personality in the room. He could be the laidback dude all he wanted. But when it came to us? I was Queen. He was a fucking bug compared to me. Maybe if he was a harder worker who earned his place at my side, I could offer him respect. In an ideal situation, I would respect everyone I work with. I would know that they had my back and I could have theirs whenever necessary. We would all be well-oiled cogs in the grander scheme of the universe. When one faltered, the others would help him up. If I stumbled for a while, I could rely on them.
I could not rely on Aiden. Even if he had a change of heart overnight and became the greatest force to challenge me in the boardroom, it was too late. I would never fully respect him, because this was his true self, and he foolishly let me see it so soon.
“Sorry,” he glibly said. “Didn’t mean to offend you, Nat.”
“You didn’t, huh?”
“Of course not. I like you. You’re the most interesting person in the office.” He laughed. “Besides Mr. Mann, of course.”
I couldn’t believe it. (Oh yes, I could.) Was he suddenly flirting with me?
I finished my drink and yanked my bag off the counter. “It was fun, Aiden, but I really need to get going. Unfortunately, I’m not much into gossip.”
“Let me show you out.”
Groan.
Did he think I couldn’t navigate a crowded bar after work? The place wasn’t that big. The only way it looked even slightly intimidating was from the sheer amount of people crowding through the door. Whatever. It was a bunch of middle-class office workers looking to relax for an hour before hitting the transit system. Like I was about to do.
But if it made his feeble brain feel better about me ditching him, then he could…
He could grab my fucking ass on my way out the door!
I rounded on him, my pupils dilating and my hand swatting at his.
“Don’t touch me,” I snarled.
Aiden held both of his hands up, as if he hadn’t groped me. “I didn’t do anything!”
“I’ve got it from here.” I shoved past the idiots blocking the door and burst onto the sidewalk as if I really had places to go.
Instead, I relished being alone in the twilight washing across the downtown core. Aiden was nowhere around. I could finally breathe again.
And let two frustrated tears fall down my cheeks.
Two tears. One for wasting my time, and one for having my ass grabbed. As soon as I wiped them away, I would march home.
A car had been parked next to me on the sidewalk. Until that moment, I couldn’t give a fuck about the sleek and black Mercedes-Benz S Class littering my peripheral vision.
The door nearest me opened. I expected someone to get out. Instead, I turned my head to see a familiar face.
Chapter 8
ERICA
“You sure you don’t need me to ride with you tonight?”
Sherman stood on the sidewalk, head barging into the back of my Mercedes. My driver patiently waited for us to sort this out so we could begin the drive home. “I’m fine,” I insisted to my head of security. “Going straight home. I’m sure Nick can take care of me from there.”
With a nod, Sherman stepped back and shut the door. My driver Clyde didn’t hesitate – we pulled onto the street before my bodyguard could change his mind about having a last-minute meeting with his team regarding my security needs at the San Francisco gala. He was under strict orders to go home to his wife after that.
My phone rang. That time of night, it was most likely Brooke, or maybe Sherman had forgotten to tell me something. I didn’t think twice when I answered with, “Eric Mann.”
There was a pause. Before I could hang up and check the caller’s name, I heard, “This is Sam Garrett. I want to talk to you. It’s about your father.”
I froze in my seat. Sam Garrett. The reason there was a Garrett in Mann-Garrett. The silent partner my father took on during his tenure, although I barely knew why. Me. The CEO and president of my own company, and I still barely understood why another family’s name was attached to mine.
“Go on,” I said.
“No, not on the phone. I’m merely giving you warning so when I call your secretary to make an appointment, you’re not shocked.” He hung up. I stared at my phone as if it had a virus.
As if that hadn’t been enough, Sherman had caught up to our slow as molasses car and hopped into the passenger seat up front. I only had a minor heart attack. Clyde acted as if he saw that coming. He probably had.
“Sorry,” Sherman said, keeping his face pointing forward. “Moved the meeting to tomorrow afternoon. You know how it is.”
We hadn’t made it two blocks before us being stuck in traffic meant I saw something that distracted me enough from that phone call that I forgot about it.
Natalie and Aiden stood on the sidewalk outside a small Italian restaurant. My gut instinct told me that they had been on a date, but before I could tell my driver to hurry it up so we could protect my fragile ego, I saw Natalie shirk Aiden off her, disgust on her fair face.
My brows furrowed. No. That had not happened.
“Pull over here,” I told Clyde. “Please.”
He didn’t question me. As soon as he had an opening, he pulled up to the curb in front of the restaurant and idled.
“Erica,” Sherman said, “what are you…”
It barely gave me enough time to catch Natalie as she turned to the sidewalk, that amazing determination she carried on her shoulders mesmerizing me so much that I almost forgot to push the button that opened the passenger side door.
“Ms. Chen.” I leaned across the backseat, hoping she wouldn’t be too startled to see me still hanging out in the neighborhood. “Is everything all right?”
It didn’t work. Natalie jumped a foot into the air. The only reason I didn’t panic was because she didn’t clasp her hand over her heart or gasp her last breath. “Everything’s fine!” That awkward laughter she always espoused when I caught her off guard rang from her throat. I had seen something I wasn’t meant to behold. I didn’t care. “You surprised me. But it’s kind of you to ask.”
I made a possibly regrettable decision on the fly. But after the two weeks I had, hating not only myself, but the more blackened parts of my past? I took erratic chances that I would more than likely regret later.
“Get in,” I said. “I’ll give you a ride wherever you’re going.”
“Ther
e’s no need for that…” Natalie held her bag close to her body and looked up and down the sidewalk as if she worried she would see someone. I didn’t see where Aiden had gone, and I didn’t care. It was time for me to take up Natalie’s precious time.
“Nonsense.” I thought back to her personnel file, which I had memorized in the days since she had started working for me. A familiar address flashed before my eyes. “Surely, you don’t live too far from here. Seven blocks, yes?” Prayers that didn’t make me sound like a stalker.
Natalie gazed at the traffic backlog occurring beside us. “It would be faster to walk.”
I had to think quickly. This may have been my only shot to spend some time with her and assess what my true feelings were – and whether we had real chemistry. Only one excuse popped into my mind. One that would’ve made Brooke choke on her gum. “I insist, Ms. Chen. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you, anyway.”
She looked over her shoulder. Whatever she saw made her hop into the empty seat beside me. Clyde didn’t hesitate to close the door behind her.
“Thank you.” Natalie continued to look out my tinted windows before turning to me. “You really didn’t have to.”
“This is the woman I was telling you about.” I leaned forward toward Clyde. During our many drives to and from my house, I had mentioned a few changes around my office. That included the interns and what I thought of them. Clyde always smiled and nodded, as was expected of him. He never asked questions. “Ms. Natalie Chen, one of this year’s interns.”
He tipped his hat in the mirror. Sherman raised his shoulders with one heavy breath, but he didn’t say anything. Typical. With my luck, Sherman already knew what was going on with me. The observant bastard.
“They’re not big talkers,” I told Natalie, who continued to look as if she had no idea what she was doing in the back of my car. To be fair, it had been a sudden event. Just because I was comfortable in present company didn’t mean she was. I suppose I would have to orient her. “This is Sherman, my personal bodyguard. We go back. And this is Mr. Clyde Bluth, my driver. He doesn’t go as far back as Sherman, but he’s been working for me for many years.” There was a reason for that. Clyde was one of the few people who knew my secret.
“Pleasure to meet you,” Natalie said. “I’m sorry for making you do this.”
Clyde made sure we effortlessly wove through traffic. “Not a problem, Miss. Is the address correct on the screen?”
I had never seen Natalie so flustered before. While she didn’t have the doe-eyed look of They can do that these days? she still gaped at the technology on display in the headrest before her. A monitor had turned on, complete with a GPS system displaying the address we had on file for her.
“It sure is.” Natalie sighed in disbelief.
“Do you need to go somewhere else, instead?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t mention a boyfriend’s house.
“No. I was about to head home.”
“ETA to destination is approximately fifteen minutes,” the computer’s voice announced through the car speakers. “Traffic is normal for this time of day.”
I couldn’t help my undying need to be witty and charming around the woman who held the keys to my current infatuation. “Which is to say… abysmal.”
Clyde chuckled. “You said it, not me.”
I patted him on the shoulder. “I must speak with Ms. Chen about something sensitive. Excuse us.” Perfect time to raise the privacy partition, giving me the space I needed with Natalie. She blinked away the shock of yet another marvel in the latest range of luxury vehicles. (That one was custom made for me, but I digress.)
Yet now I needed to come up with a gentle segue into what I had in mind. Before I could lay on my subtle flirtations, I had to figure something out. Something that could make or break the attraction between us.
“Was that Mr. Webb I saw you with back there?”
Natalie did not hesitate with her explanation. “We were grabbing an after-work drink. Should I not have done that?”
No, she shouldn’t have, because she made me insanely jealous when she cavorted with other people from our office. But I couldn’t say that, now could I? Especially since I knew she was asking about office protocol. “Do as you please. I was merely curious, because when I casually asked his plans for tonight, he said he was heading straight to the nursing home to visit his grandmother.” That had actually happened, by the way. One of many ways I sussed out what was going on between Aiden and Natalie. It helped that he was always eager to talk to me. Sometimes, too eager. He could’ve been working.
Natalie snorted.
Chuckling, I said, “I felt much the same.”
“What did you need to ask me, sir?”
Sir. Such a gentle, deferential word, yet I was always shocked to hear people say it. Sometimes I felt like an imposter. Not in gender, but in status. I spent so much time at home that I often wondered if I was really all I was cracked up to be. Didn’t matter that they talked about my business book in graduate classes, or that I had been featured in gentlemen’s magazines. Imposter syndrome. That’s what it was called. Was it so strange to think that I may be a victim of it, even around Natalie, a woman I was sure I could seduce had I the body she expected?
“It’s about the trip to San Francisco,” I said. “I understand Ms. Pentecost told you that I’ve hired someone else to accompany me for that weekend.”
Natalie nodded. “She told me a little while ago.”
“Forget whatever she told you. I still want you to come with me, if you have the time.”
“Sir?”
“Ms. Pentecost approved that without my approval. Don’t get me wrong. She absolutely means well. She looks out for my best interests as well as Sherman does, just in different ways.” God, I could say that again a few times! They practically ran my life for me! When Sherman wasn’t clearing the path for my female body, Brooke was playing mind games with everyone around us, ensuring that nobody asked impertinent questions. They would conspire until my dying day to keep me from following my heart – unless I happened to fall in love with one of the escorts who knew, I suppose. Then there would be other problems.
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“If you haven’t figured it out, Ms. Chen,” I said, looking between Natalie’s angelic profile and the shadowy mass that was Sherman’s head on the other side of the partition, “Sherman protects my body while Brooke looks after my emotional and professional best interests. I trust them both with my life.” At least that was true, even with my issues with them. “Both facets of it.”
Natalie sat up straight, hands folded on top of her impeccable pencil skirt. Heaven help me. I stole a glance at her chest in the few seconds I could spare. “I see. Are you saying that Ms. Pentecost thinks it’s against your best interests to bring me along on your trip?”
Clever. I knew she was damn clever, but I always received a little thrill when she understood what I was trying to say. “Ah, it’s that kind of quick calculation that makes you a great employee, Ms. Chen.” I looked away before I forewent admiring her quick wit to do nothing but stare at her body. “But yes. I suppose you could say that. Although I want to make it absolutely clear that she thinks that with no animosity directed toward you.” She better not. Oh, she better not.
“Of course not.”
“That said, I’m quite good at overriding her. If I think you’re competent enough to take along with me, then I damn well will. Assuming you’re still game to go, of course.”
Natalie perked up with great interest, lips threatening to expose a smile of unprecedented joy in her life. The exact reaction I had been hoping for. “Of course! I mean…”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. There was such an innocent awe to how she sounded and acted that it cut me right across the chest. I hadn’t felt like that since Brooke agreed to go steady with me. That had been… years ago. Dare I say that a part of me wished it could go even farther with Natalie? That’s how I knew I was i
n trouble during those few minutes in the back of my car. Natalie made me feel things that I knew could ruin me, yet I didn’t care!
“San Francisco is wonderful this time of year,” I said, forcing myself down from Cloud Nine. “Not to mention the red-carpet treatment we’re sure to get. You’ll see all the sights without the hassle. Have you ever been there before?”
“Not really. I’ve passed through, but never stayed more than a few hours.”
“Then you’ll love it, and it’s no wonder you’re excited.”
I wanted to take credit for that excitement. I wanted to believe that the whole reason she was beside herself was because I was offering a weekend trip of just her and me. But I wouldn’t let myself fall into the trap. I knew that, even if she would sleep with me, she was career driven before anything else. She was excited for the opportunities I presented. All of them.
The car turned onto a residential street. Before we reached her house, Natalie said, “I would be honored to go with you. But what about Ms. Pentecost?”
Like I really cared. “Leave her to me. Like I said, she thinks she’s looking after my best interests. I assure you there are no personal ill-feelings toward you.”
I hated that we reached her house so quickly yet had said so little. There went my chance. Why had I wasted it? I could’ve asked her more about her relationship with Aiden. Or paid her a compliment to make her blush. Anything. I suppose I laid good groundwork for future conversations, now that we would be traveling together, but it hadn’t been enough to satisfy me.
“Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, Ms. Chen,” I said when the door opened for her.
“The pleasure was mine, sir.” She stepped out right foot first. My eyes lingered on her toned derriere, and I sighed, a defeated monster. “See you Monday.”
“I’ll make sure the appropriate materials are delivered to you a week before the trip. See you Monday.”
As soon as we pulled away, I flung myself against my seat and tapped my head, as if that would fix the jumbled mess swimming around my brain.