Her heartbeat slowly calmed under her palm. “Jesus. I don’t need a reminder, Philip.”
He laughed and turned away from her, tending to the teakettle that was now boiling. “You haven’t checked in.”
“I was never told to check in. One minute I’m in New York to meet with a client, the next I’m working for Colin, who says he paid off my debt.”
He manned his tea like a London housewife, his pinky in the air, as he served it, his attention completely focused on his task. Amara watched, enthralled at this weird creature of a man. Once he walked around the island and sat in the barstool, he took a sip of the tea, put the cup down with a delicate clink, and looked at her with serious, calculating eyes.
“If Colin thinks paying off your debt means you have no contract with me, he’s in for quite the surprise. In fact, he should have had his attorney read over the paperwork for him.”
“What does it say?” Amara asked in a quiet voice.
“Just that you have to complete one last order of business before you are let go.”
“Let go?”
“Yes. Now, do you have anything on Colin you’d like to share?”
Amara exhaled. “Colin doesn’t trust me. Not even a little bit.”
“Make him! Make him fall in love with you again. Do whatever you need to do.”
“He doesn’t know about the account you’re after, if that’s what you’re worried about. He doesn’t even want to be involved in his dad’s company, from what I’ve seen.”
“Did you tell him about the account?”
“Of course not! I’m not an idiot. I don’t trust him either.”
“Good… good…” he exhaled. “You need to make him fall in love with you and get him to trust you.”
“People don’t just fall in and out of love,” Amara scoffed.
He paused, holding the cup of tea to his lips, and looked at her over the brim. It seemed as if he was contemplating her response. Amara didn’t expect him to understand. What could this wretched man possibly know about love?
“You’re right,” he conceded after taking a sip and putting the glass down again. “They usually never fall out of love in the first place.”
Amara had a million reasons to believe otherwise, but discussing love with Philip was pointless. His heart, if he had one, was black and twisted.
“If you can’t get what I need, you’re no use to me there. I’ll have to replace you,” Philip said slowly, letting the words drift around the room in accordance with his eyes.
“No, no, I just have to get friendly with the right people in the company.” She didn’t want to do it, but she couldn’t imagine not seeing Colin every day, even if it was under false pretenses.
“You need to hack into his computer.”
“Yeah, it’s a good thing I work for the Geek Squad.”
He frowned, not understanding.
She rolled her eyes. “I can’t just hack into his computer! I don’t know the first thing about that. I can barely remember my own passwords!”
Philip fluttered his hands in dismissal and exhaled.
“We’re taking a trip soon. And you have a gala to attend in a couple of weeks with the benefactor of a big nonprofit organization. Here’s his information.” He took a folded envelope out of the inner pocket of his jacket and slid it on to the table. “In the meantime, try cracking Colin’s password.”
Philip stood and shot Amara a pointed look as he walked toward the elevator. “Thanks for the tea.”
Once he left, she shut down the elevator so that it couldn’t drop anybody off on that floor without a pass code. Amara had changed it recently, so not even Philip had it. She should have done that sooner, she realized. Taking the envelope he’d left her, she tossed it on her mattress before striding to the bathroom to get ready for bed.
A short time later, settled under silky sheets, Amara opened the envelope to see what she’d be dealing with. The contents included a couple of papers, one of them a photo of a man’s face. The image revealed blond spiked hair, bright blue eyes and a Colgate smile belonging to a man who seemed to be in his thirties. The other paper read like an impressive résumé (like the ones most of the other clients in Méchant had).
Amara never understood how this guy, Reid Davis was his name, couldn’t get a regular date without help. He was good looking, rich, ran a good nonprofit that built schools for orphaned kids in different countries, and graduated Ivy League (Harvard). She put the papers aside and turned the envelope upside down. A boarding pass fluttered to her lap. She was booked on a flight leaving from JFK and arriving in IKA. Curious, she looked up the unknown airport on her cell phone. Her heart sunk deep into the pit of her stomach when she realized it was going to Iran, of all places. What could Philip possibly want her to do there? Would she see her grandfather again? Would he put an end to all of this if she told him about it?
Somehow, she pushed everything to the back of her mind long enough to fall asleep. She’d been so exhausted that she forgot to eat, even falling asleep with the lights on. When her cell phone rang, jarring her from sleep, she awoke disoriented, blinking around the lit room. Squinting, she saw Colin’s name on the caller ID and answered sleepily.
“Do you think those Chop Wizard’s are any good?” he whispered when she picked up.
“What?”
“Chop Wizard. It’s supposed to slice and chop any kind of vegetable.”
She groaned. “Colin, are you serious? What time is it?”
“One thirty,” he whispered.
It was dark outside, lit only by the illuminated windows of night owls, wrapping around the city like earthbound stars, and outshining the ones in the vast, lonely sky.
“Is this what you had your last assistant doing? Picking out Chop Wizards for you in the middle of the night?”
Her heart leapt at the chuckle that rumbled through the line. Maybe he was done treating her like crap. “Definitely not. She would have killed me. So?”
“Are you drunk?”
“Answer the question.”
“You answer the question.”
“Oh, we’re back in high school now?”
Amara rolled to her side. “You’re the one calling in the middle of the night to ask about a fucking kitchen utensil.”
“Making sure you’re alone,” he said.
She stayed quiet for a beat. “That makes more sense. Go back to sleep, or go bother Molly.”
He let out a breath. “I don’t want to.”
“Isn’t that what married people do?” She didn’t know why they were both whispering, but it seemed weird if he was and she wasn’t.
“We’re not married yet.”
“Soon enough. You might as well start practicing.”
“I am,” he said with a voice that made her stomach flip.
“Wrong girl,” she replied.
“Says who?”
The smile on Amara’s face faded as she fanned the fingers of her left hand and imagined him putting a ring on somebody else’s finger. How had that proposal gone? Fake or not, he must have asked when he gave Molly the diamond ring.
“Yep. No ring on my finger,” she quipped over a yawn.
“Your own fault,” he growled, and her stomach flipped again. Conversations like this made her wish she could just confess everything to him—tell him the real reason why Philip still had his hold over her. She also wasn’t sure she could entirely trust Colin. Everything about that scared her.
“Good night, Boss,” she said, not wanting to be on the phone for one more second. He had awakened more feelings in her that she really shouldn’t be having.
He chuckled lightly. “I like that.”
“Hanging up now.”
“Fine. I’m buying the goddamn Chop Wizard because of you.”
“I never said it was a good idea,” she said defensively.
“You never said otherwise.”
She rolled her eyes. “You have serious shopping issues. You don’t even c
ook, Colin. What do you want a Chop Wizard for?”
“So I shouldn’t get it, right?” He wasn’t whispering anymore, but he was still speaking in a low voice and his sex appeal was starting to unnerve her.
“I don’t know!” she said loudly into silence.
When she looked down at her phone, she saw that he’d hung up on her. She figured he would. She wondered if Molly had heard her voice. She hated thinking about that, picturing him sleeping beside another woman, eating with another woman, fucking another woman. All of it made her crazy, so she tried not to think about it, but it was hard. Knowing that Colin was still in love with her didn’t make things easier for her. It didn’t make things harder either; it just didn’t make a difference. She couldn’t change how she felt about him, and how she knew he felt about her…and all of it hurt like hell.
Amara threw herself back on her pillow with a huff. She was belatedly wishing she hadn’t been rude to Colin, because she knew what a prick he would be to her at work tomorrow. But alas, the past is in the past, just like he said.
“AMARA! GET IN here!”
The sole of her left foot hadn’t even left the elevator floor before she was greeted with an order from Colin. She would have cringed, had she not known him— had she not already been dealing with his turbulent bipolar-like attitude for the past week and a half. Old Colin wasn’t this way. Old Colin, pre-Méchant Colin, was always calm, cool, collected and rather calculating, but never hot and cold like new Colin. Amara lowered her purse-inspired briefcase to the floor beside her chair and walked over to his office. Colin’s back was to her, affording her a view of his well-dressed backside, clothed in a navy pinstriped suit and white dress shirt. Although new Colin was a pain in the ass, he also made her a little hotter, if that was even possible, than old Colin.
“Good morning,” she said, stopping just inside the threshold of his office. Amara rested her hand on the doorway and leaned into it as she waited for him to respond.
He scowled at her as he turned around. “You didn’t cancel my appointment with Mr. Winters for two o’clock.”
Her eyes jumped on a couple of items in his office, as her mind replayed yesterday before landing back on his angry gaze. “No. You had an appointment with Mr. White at two, I canceled it like you asked, and Brandon replaced it with an appointment with Mr. Winters.”
“Why would he do that?” he growled.
She shrugged in response.
“Okay, okay,” he said, repeating a silent mantra as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay.” He looked up at her as if he found a solution. “I hope you’re hungry because you’re going to a cake tasting today.”
She blinked at him. “Excuse me?”
“I was supposed to go try cakes at two o’clock. Molly’s going to hound me—my mom is going to hound me—so you’ll be doing it for me.”
“Excuse me?” she repeated raising her voice, not for lack of hearing.
“You heard me.”
“I did, and I’m waiting for the punch line.”
He looked at her, face completely still, unmoved. His body was tight—she could tell from the way his jaw twitched and his hands were bunched up by his sides. Amara knew he wasn’t kidding, but she was hoping he would take it back. How could he want to purposely hurt her? He knew it would.
“Does it look like I’m joking?”
She blinked to fight the tears she felt coming. Amara knew he could be mean, but she didn’t expect him to be this insensitive. He had to know it hurt her to come to terms with the wedding, and a cake tasting was practically sealing the deal. Her gut was telling her to speak out, her mind was telling her to accept it and move on, and her heart was shredding apart. Through her turmoil, Colin watched her through narrowed eyes.
“Colin, I can’t,” she said, finally. Her voice was small. It matched the way she felt perfectly.
“Why not?” he asked, cocking his head to one side as he crossed his arms over his chest.
A million reasons flickered between them, beginning as small speckles of light and building into a bigger fire, a wild conflagration, with every moment their eyes searched the other’s. Amara’s heart accelerated and lodged into her throat until she felt like she was going to choke on the intensity of her feelings for him.
Light tears began to fall, unable to stay behind the wall she’d built for them. “Because as much as it kills me to joke about your impending wedding—as much as it hurts when we discuss Molly and I pretend it doesn’t—seeing cakes, trying cakes, picking out flavors… that would make it real, Colin. Don’t you see that? You know me better than anybody else.” Can’t you see me breaking? She wanted to scream, but held it back. Barely.
For the first time since she’d gotten back to New York, she saw something other than distaste in his eyes. There was a shattering pain now that mirrored hers. Colin stood and slowly rounded his desk. She forced herself not to reach out to him as he stopped in front of her. Amara could smell him —could almost taste him from this proximity—but she kept her hands at her sides, waiting. Colin reached out, his fingers softly skimming down the sleeves of her white blouse, down her arm, until he reached the bare skin of her wrist.
“It is real, Amara,” he whispered.
Her eyes traveled up his perfectly pressed white shirt to the spot where his collar was open, the knot on his tie that was already loosened, and finally to his eyes—his intense, chocolate eyes.
“I know, but you don’t have to rub it in my face every chance you get,” she said, finally gaining control of herself.
Colin dropped his hand from hers and laughed, his shoulders shaking in dry disbelief as he looked away from her. “I feel like a string puppet, being pulled in all different directions. I don’t have a choice. What don’t you understand? I have to get married. I don’t have to like it, I don’t even have to like her, but it’s something I need to do. I wanted it to be you, and you threw it back in my face. And you have the audacity to stand here crying?”
“Why? Why do you have to get married before your birthday?” she asked, annoyance clear in her voice.
Colin turned away from her to stand behind his desk again. Clutching the sides of the polished mahogany, he leaned forward with narrowed eyes. “Because this company is riding on that, Amara. Because Lotus is riding on it. Because three of the four companies my dad left behind in his will are dependent on whether or not I get married. If I do, I remain the majority share holder in them.”
Amara licked her lips and placed her hands on the other side of the desk, mimicking his stance. “And if you don’t?”
Colin didn’t answer right away, his eyes wandered from her full lips to her defined arms, her red nails, and back up to her eyes. “If I don’t, my uncle takes my place.”
“Benjamin? Would that be so bad?” Her voice was soft, belying the way her heart raced from the way energy crackled between them.
“It would be for Lotus, Mara. It would be for my mom, probably for my future,” he said, his voice losing its pretense. And just like that, they were only Colin and Amara again, as they were before life got messy and smeared its shit all over them.
Amara exhaled, her minty breath tickling Colin’s senses, making his nostrils flare. “I don’t have a choice in what I’m doing. Fucking strangers is not my idea of a good time, and that’s the least of what I’ve had to do for Philip. One thing I am grateful for though, is that I’ve learned a lot about people.” She paused, unsure of whether or not to finish her statement. Colin leaned in a little closer, their noses almost touching now. Amara’s breath quickened at the movement. “I would be very careful. I can’t marry you. I can’t agree to something like that, not because I don’t want to, Colin, because dammit…” This time, when she let out a breath, he leaned in closer.
“Shit.” The startled voice behind Amara brought reality crashing into the moment. Jumping away from one another, they looked toward the door to find Brandon standing just inside Colin’s office. “I’ll come back,” B
randon blurted apologetically.
“No, I was just leaving,” Amara responded, brushing past him without making eye contact with either of the men.
Intent on busying herself, Amara looked through contacts and sorted out emails and phone numbers. When she heard footsteps behind her again, her back straightened with tension.
“Lunch today?” Brandon asked as he walked past her desk on his way to the elevators.
“Does this lunch involve wine?” she asked with a smile.
Brandon only smiled and winked as he entered the open doors.
When next she heard someone approaching, her heart began to flip flop, knowing it was Colin. She didn’t look up; she couldn’t. The thought of looking into his eyes again made her self-conscious. Amara heard him pause behind her chair, and she waited for him to address her. She didn’t know what to expect.
“We don’t do business with Dr. Edwards anymore,” Colin said, pointing at her screen. “Delete him.”
Amara nodded and did as she was told. His breath was suddenly on the back of her neck, his lips slightly grazing the sensitive area. She inhaled sharply as her insides began to coil tightly.
“We’re going to finish our conversation,” he murmured against her skin.
Amara could barely breathe, so she simply nodded.
“Do you understand?” His words left trails of fire and ice behind them as his lips moved toward the shell of her ear. He didn’t kiss her, didn’t touch her with his hands, but he might as well have been fucking her as he spoke.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Take off after lunch. I’ll see you later,” he said, straightening to walk toward the elevator.
Their eyes met and stayed glued to the other as he stood inside the elevator. When the doors whooshed closed, Amara let out a heavy breath. Finding it hard to concentrate, the time ticked by slowly as she gave up trying to be productive and checked her email. Finding one from Colin, she read it with hesitation. Her eyes danced around the room, watching the ticking clock, looking at the elevator dial showing what floor it was on, everywhere except for the task she was supposed to be working on. . Forcing herself to try to focus on something, she checked her email.
The Sinner's Bargain (Contracts & Deceptions #2) Page 3
