by V. T. Do
Cole stood up. “I’ve got to go. I’m meeting Joey for lunch. We’ll go with Bern’s proposal. It’s the best one out of all of them. Trust me.”
He knocked on my desk once and walked out of the office, closing the door behind him. I stared after him, still lost in thought. I spent the whole day in limbo, and never did finish reading those proposals.
Chapter Fourteen: I Want You
Emery
At least once a year, I helped my aunt set up a charity event that was close to my heart.
It was established when I was ten, when my grandpa started the charity, and then my aunt soon took over. For one night, I would play my part, and play it perfectly. I would dress up in the best dress I owned and schmooze some of the biggest names in the business world. And they would be generous with their donations. After all, my grandpa had helped keep them from filing bankruptcy more times than they could keep track of.
It was the only time in my life when I didn’t mind living up to the Caldwell name.
Over the course of ten years, we have helped countless numbers of families fight against drug and alcohol problems, have put in funding for children affected by these issues, have fought for awareness, and have set up affordable outpatient facilities throughout the state of New York.
It was amazing what the rich could solve when they really put their minds to it.
I often wondered if any of the people we had helped over the years happened to be my mom. She was too much of an addict to have been able to take care of me, and that was why she dropped out of my life without so much a letter to remember her by.
This was the only charity event I was directly involved in.
Four days after my dinner with Wyatt, I went to the meeting with Aunt Helen at the Werrington Hotel. It was still a relatively new hotel downtown, opened just five years prior, and it was one of the businesses my grandpa had invested in. The owners agreed to let my aunt throw her charity function at their hotel.
While the event itself wouldn’t take place until this coming Saturday, Aunt Helen had asked if I wanted to go with her to the meeting to take care of all the little details beforehand. I had said yes, and that was where I found myself after classes on Wednesday, in the car with Aunt Helen.
“You’re quiet,” she commented. I looked at her, and the surprise must have been evident on my face because she smiled and added, “What, you don’t think I notice these things?”
I shook my head. “It’s not that. I didn’t realize I was acting so out of character for you to comment on it.”
“I noticed you haven’t been yourself these past few days. Preston mentioned a man driving you home last week?”
I looked up and met Preston’s eyes in the rearview mirror. If he could read my mind, he’d be insulted. Instead, he gave me an expressionless glance, and then looked forward again. “It’s nothing. That’s just my... friend, Wyatt.” I almost chocked on the word “friend.”
Wyatt said we were. I wasn’t so sure. Not when I had spent the last four days staring at his pictures on my phone, wondering about him, and regretting ever telling him not to kiss me on Saturday.
“Friends?” She sounded like she didn’t believe me. That meant Preston had told her about the kiss. I’d always thought there was something going on between Preston and my aunt. I caught them in the garden one time, holding hands. The action was innocent enough, I supposed. But then I would also catch these looks between them that were anything but innocent.
My cheeks flamed as I looked back out the window. “Just friends.”
“Hmm.” I hated when she did that. I could never tell what she meant by “hmm.” It was almost as aggravating as when Wyatt did it.
“So, tell me about today’s meeting,” I said, just to change the topic.
She turned to me, a small smile tugging on her lips. “You’ve been to enough of these meetings to know what it’s about. I sent you the guest list, right?”
I held up my phone. “Yes, I got the email this morning.”
“Good. So you know what you need to do.”
“Memorize useless facts about the people attending?” I sounded about as excited as a cat chasing a dead mouse.
She smiled. “Oh, cheer up. I wouldn’t have tasked you with that if you weren’t so good at it.”
“I’m not good at it. They only listen to me because I’m a Caldwell.”
“No, they listen to you because you, my dear niece, are brilliant.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I could be as dumb as a post, and they’d still nod along.”
She tapped my nose affectionately. “Don’t undersell yourself.”
I looked at her and smiled. I wondered if she ever regretted not having children. My uncle died when I was six, and they never got the chance. She was almost like a mother to me when I was growing up. And she had the markings of a great mother.
She was kind and patient. She answered all of my questions when I was little, and she had become one of my best friends as an adult. The fact that we liked a lot of the same things had helped us bond over the years.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing. I’m just glad you’re here with me.”
She wrapped me in her arms and squeezed affectionately, before letting go. I knew she didn’t like showing signs of affections very often, but she showed them to me nevertheless, as if she couldn’t help herself.
It let me know that she truly loved me, even if we didn’t share the same bloodline.
We spent the majority of the ride in silence. When Preston pulled up to the hotel, I got out before he could open the door for me. No matter how many times I’d asked him not to be so formal with me, he still treated me like I was his boss, not the little girl he taught how to ride her bike without training wheels.
I smiled at him over the car as he got out and opened the door for my aunt. He looked at me, and I swore I saw a hint of a smile on his lips.
Jamie stood out front, a smile on his face, and his warm brown eyes twinkling.
“Miss Caldwell,” he greeted when I walked over to him.
“Jamie. How have you been?”
“I am good, thank you for asking.”
“Are you graduating soon?” I asked. Jamie was several years older than me. He was putting himself through law school, and I believed this was his last semester. I didn’t know how he and my grandpa met, but it was my grandpa who got Jamie a job at the Warrington Hotel as a concierge, and Grandpa was also the one who, unbeknownst to Jamie, funded more than half of his tuition through a working student scholarship my grandpa founded decades back.
“Yes, it’s my last semester.”
I smiled, genuinely happy to hear that. “And before you know it, you’ll be kicking the corporate world’s ass.”
He laughed, his dimples showing. “I don’t know about that. Right now, I’m just trying to get through my classes.”
“You’ll do fine. You’re brilliant,” I said, looking up at him. Jamie was a tall man with a lean build, and at over six feet tall, he easily towered over most people. He also had short blond hair, tan skin, and an attractive smile. I imagined he would do well in the corporate world, a world I knew very little about.
Aunt Helen walked up to me then, and she smiled and took Jamie’s hand. “How are you, dear?”
“I’m doing well, thank you, Ms. Caldwell. Please, let me lead you both to the conference room. Mary is already there.”
“Thank you,” Aunt Helen replied, and together we followed Jamie in.
The hotel was bustling for a Wednesday afternoon. It looked like there was a conference being held here today—there were men and women in business suits everywhere.
“What’s going on?” Aunt Helen asked as we took a left down the hallway, and the noise disappeared.
Jamie looked back and smiled. “It’s the International Convention on Architectural Modern Designs. They have it here every year.”
“Oh,
that sounds lovely,” Aunt Helen commented absently.
I followed silently behind, wondering if perhaps this was the kind of thing Wyatt and Cole attended, and if I would see Wyatt again. We never agreed to see each other after our dinner. He had my number and I had his, but we hadn’t so much as texted since he dropped me off afterward.
And what were the odds that I would run into him here, of all places? I thought the chances were highly unlikely. Still, that didn’t stop my heart from skipping a beat. We walked into the conference room, and Mary was there, talking to one of the managers about something to do with the hotel. She looked up when we entered, a flawless smile on her face.
Mary had worked with us on this event since we’d begun having it here at the hotel. I didn’t know her very well, but she was nice enough. She was always professional with my aunt and me, and she got the job done. She was in her early thirties, with shiny honey blonde hair, flawless skin, and bright green eyes.
She was the kind of woman I imagined would flourish in my world. Lately, it seemed other people were more cut out for the life I was trained to live, and I was slowly playing catch up.
We sat through the meeting for thirty minutes, and when I say we went through every little detail, we went through every little detail. Aunt Helen liked to be thorough, and I got it. I might have had personal reasons for wanting to be involved in this charity in the first place, but this whole organization was her baby.
I shifted in my seat, before finally standing up. Aunt Helen paused mid-sentence and looked up at me. I gave her a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry. I need to use the restroom. Please continue without me.”
I left as they went back to their discussion. The bathroom was just down the hall, and when I entered, there were three women in front of the mirror, applying makeup.
I walked into the stall as they were talking.
“He said that to you?” one of the girls said. She had one of those high-pitched voices that wouldn’t take long to grate on my nerves.
“Yup, said he was in a committed relationship now, and that’s why he couldn’t meet me in my room tonight.”
“Oh, please. He does not know what a committed relationship looks like. I mean, the last time we were at one of these things, he took Marina and me up to his room. And let me tell you—”
“Gah. I don’t even want to know. Now that I can’t have him, you’re going to rub that in my face?”
I bit my lips to keep from laughing out loud.
“What about his business partner?” the last of the trio asked. She sounded absolutely smitten. “The quiet one.”
“Oh, sweetheart. Don’t even go there. To catch a big fish like James, you need blonde hair and double Ds.”
I looked down at my modest-sized breasts and shrugged. If this James person really wanted someone with big boobs, he might be out of my league. I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of their conversation.
“You never know. He smiled at me.”
“So?” This response came from the first woman. I shook my head over their nastiness to one another. I didn’t make friends easily, especially with girls, for this very reason alone.
“He might be interested.” The third woman sounded small and unsure. I had finished my business, so I flushed and walked out of the stall. Their conversation halted as they each turned my way and watched me.
I wanted to roll my eyes. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t seen me walk in. This was a public restroom. It wasn’t my fault they wanted to discuss their personal lives here.
I washed my hands, and the first woman turned to the one closest to her. “He is not interested,” she said with force, obviously not caring about having an audience. The woman she was talking to did, though, with her flushed face and tense posture. I wanted to get out of there, for no other reason than I hated seeing how uncomfortable she was. And her so-called friend remained oblivious to it. Or if she knew, she didn’t care. In that case, I would say it was time to make new friends.
I grabbed a hand towel from the basket near the sink and dried my hands.
“Okay, I get. You don’t think I have a chance.”
The woman snorted. “With Wyatt James? Yeah, I don’t think you have a chance.”
I froze where I stood, feeling a sharp pinch in my chest. So he was here. And with Cole. I didn’t know why I was both excited and nervous about the fact that we were in the same building. The three women walked out, chattering about something, what I couldn’t be sure. I was no longer paying attention.
All that was left was this roar in my ears, as I imagined how Wyatt must look today, wearing another one of his expensive suits. What was it about this particular man in a suit that got to me? I couldn’t answer that question.
The night he dropped me off at my house was the first night I openly admitted to myself how much I wanted him. I had never wanted another man more. But this was just physical.
My body’s reaction to him was unreal. Unfamiliar. But I knew enough to know how much I lusted after him.
When he was near, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. I thought back to our first kiss, how much I hadn’t wanted it to end. I knew that night that I would have agreed to anything he asked of me, if only to prolong that kiss a little more. Just a little longer.
It was a shame that Preston had caught us. Who know where Wyatt’s hands might have ended up? I took a deep breath and watched my reflection in the mirror. I was dressed nicely enough. With my button-down red shirt, blue jeans, and black leather boots, I looked casual for the meeting, yet there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that I came from money. But it wasn’t the clothes I was wearing that got to me.
It was my body’s reaction to just the thought of Wyatt.
My skin was flushed, my green eyes were nearly dark, and add to that the heightened sensitivity of my skin. I wondered how I was supposed to go back into the meeting and pretend everything was normal.
Taking a deep breath, I walked out of the bathroom, only to bump into a hard wall.
I looked up and met surprised gray eyes that had haunted my dreams. “Emery? What are you doing here?”
“Wyatt.”
A group of middle-aged men passed us, their hushed chatter indistinguishable from the flutter of my heart.
Wyatt waited until they passed and then pressed me back into the bathroom I had just come from. He turned to me, his eyes unreadable.
“What are you doing here?” he asked carefully.
“I’m not following you, if that’s what you think,” I quickly explained. “My aunt and I have a meeting here, because this is where we’re having an event for one of her charities.”
He stood with his back against the bathroom door, his eyes never leaving me. I couldn’t tell if he believed me or not.
“I mean, how would I have known you were here in the first place?” I asked. “I’m really not a stalker, I swear.”
His lips curved up in one corner. “Calm down, Emery. I just wanted to know why you were here.”
My shoulders relaxed a little. “Oh. Well, as long as that’s clear.”
His eyes roamed my body. I felt a little naked then. But then he blinked, and whatever he had been thinking was gone in an instant. “Okay. I have to get back to the convention. Cole and I are speaking this year. I’ll let you get back to your meeting.”
He turned, and I didn’t know why I said what I did. Only that I didn’t want him to go. “Why didn’t you text me? Or call me?”
Almost as soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to take them back. “Never mind,” I said. “I’ll let you get back to the convention. Good luck with your... presentation.”
He turned around, his gray eyes almost dark. I looked away, and at the mirror instead. But I wasn’t sure if I liked the reflection of us any better. I looked unsure of myself, something I had never felt in my entire life, and he was staring at me.
“Did you want me to call you?” he asked quietly.
“Yes. But only if you wanted to.
”
He smiled. I didn’t know what his smile meant. “This isn’t a good idea.”
I looked back at him, taking a small step forward, then another and another, until I was half a foot away from him. “Maybe. Or this might be the greatest idea I’ve had yet.”
I pushed my hand through the gap between his arm and waist, reaching behind him for the lock. I turned it, the click sending a stutter to my heart. We were chest to chest now. And he felt amazing against me. How could it be a bad idea when this felt so good?
I looked up and met his eyes. “Why can’t I stop thinking about you?”
“For the same reason I can’t stop thinking about you,” he said.
I smiled. “Good. So I’m not the only one feeling this? I think... I think I just need to get you out of my system.”
His eyes flared. I wondered if that was a good thing or not. I couldn’t bring myself to analyze everything, not like I usually would have done. Because if I gave myself even a minute to think about why I shouldn’t do this, in a public bathroom of all places, I would back away. And at the moment, I didn’t want to. I had almost forgotten what his lips tasted like.
So I reached up and kissed him. He remained where he was, his arms still at his side. He hadn’t pushed me away yet, so I leisurely explored his lips, as if I had all the time in the world to do so.
In this space, without any intrusion from the outside world, it felt like we did. It felt like we were the only two people left on earth.
And when I pulled his bottom lip between my teeth, Wyatt came alive in my arms. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me tighter against his body.
I moaned when I felt his tongue enter my mouth. He picked me up until I had my legs wrapped around his waist. Then he walked over to the sink and set me down so that I was sitting there, my legs and arms wrapped around him.
