I close the door rather loudly, turning the heads toward me. Crap!
“Here she is, finally honoring us with her lovely presence.” Adam moves through the crowd, holding two glasses of champagne. I’ll need both of them to calm my nerves. He sports his usual bad-boy look through and through, despite the perfect and crisp, navy-blue, two-button suit he’s wearing. His thick, long hair is unsuccessfully pulled back with gel, silken dark curls rebelling around his face. His eyes are constantly flaming, his lips curled at one corner hinting at the promiscuous thoughts that must be running wild in his mind. He extends one of the champagne glasses for me, and I take and swallow a large sip. “How are you?” he whispers, drilling his deep-set, intense eyes into me.
I’ve a sufficient number of reasons for my legs to shake tonight; I can’t deal with his not-so-subtle flirtations on top of them. I ignore his question and proceed toward the middle of the crowd where Valerie stands. She winks at me but says nothing. A few calming words would go a long way.
I guess the quicker I get the unavoidable opening speech over with, the better it’ll be for all of us. “I’m glad we’re here celebrating yet another successful year with higher profit margins and satisfied clients. And, let’s not forget our new employees.” I raise my glass toward the two ladies in the legal team. I hope they’re already drunk enough to overlook my shaking hands.
“When Jack died and I took over the company, I thought the right thing to do for the survival of the company was to sell it. After all, as most of you know, I was majoring in Sociology and had no idea about construction. However, you guys proved me wrong, and together we made Edelman Constructions what it is today.” Some nod; some clap hands. “Each of you has left a significant imprint in our company’s success; be it Bree, who skillfully turns down some very persistent insurance agents; David, who manages to deposit the Christmas bonuses exactly on Christmas day, never early enough for us to really buy a Christmas present with it; and Valerie, who is so obsessively fixed on providing training for work ethics and professionalism that I feel a strong urge to download a porn video onto her computer.”
People laugh and nudge each other. Even the subjects of my little joke. I straighten my face and take another sip, before continuing with my nervous talk. “Together we’ll make Jack’s legacy last for many years and decades to come.”
The laughter dies into softer smiles at the mentioning of Jack. My eyes wander around to find Jack’s picture that I requested my assistant, Bree, to bring to the party. My beautiful man with the face of baby and heart of an angel.
“To Jack,” Adam says and toasts his glass with mine.
Even if no one gave a shit about Jack, Adam would, as Jack’s best friend since childhood. And actually, it’s thanks to Adam that the company is more successful than it’s ever been. Following Jack’s death, I had no one to turn to but Adam to continue where Jack had left with the business. Graciously, he resigned from his highly-paid position in a multimillion-dollar marketing company to work for me. Upon his resignation, his employers convinced him to continue working part-time with the same amount of salary he used to earn working full-time.
Same amount!
How impressed they must have been by Adam’s success that they wanted to keep him so desperately. In the end, we made arrangements for him to work half of the week for me and the other half for the other company. Even so, his accomplishments have been more than I’d expected and helped us increase the company’s profit margins.
“Let the dinner begin,” I announce and motion everyone toward the spectacularly arranged tables with some extraordinary French food. All Bree’s idea.
As the guests start moving toward the tables, my eyes scan the suite for Adam and spot him by the door. He’s crooking his forefinger to me, gesturing me to go to him. I want to thank him in person, anyway, so I move toward him under his intense stare, which makes me extremely self-conscious, as if I’m naked. His eyes are roaming over my body, lingering around my breasts. No amount of clothing will make me feel comfortable around him. I fist a hand on my side and clutch the champagne glass with the other to suppress the urge to cover my chest with my arms.
“You look particularly delicious in that dress,” he points out, as soon as I stand in front of him.
Delicious, mouthwatering, mind-blowing, tempting, and so many other inappropriate words of his preference to describe my looks. Where is the good, old pretty?
Nevertheless, his words burn into my skin and make the hair on my arms and neck stand up. I can barely escape his deep, penetrating eyes that are practically undressing me with each passing second. Were it not for several years of exposure to his blatant advances, and the sacrifices he’s made for the company, I’d have already emptied the contents of my glass onto his face.
“Thank you,” I say with my voice low. “I wanted to personally thank you for being a part of Edelman Constructions. Don’t tell anyone, but it’s actually because of your hard work that the company is what it is today. You practically saved my life by saving the company, and I owe you a big one for that.” Trying to crack a shy smile, I let my eyes follow the curves of his full lips, then move up to the hazel-fire of his eyes. A big mistake. My stomach twists and turns at the sight of lust brewing in his irises. He stares at me as if he’s restraining himself from smashing his lips onto mine.
“Is that so?” He leans in, invading my personal space, and whispers to my ear, “Then, why don’t you pay back the favor and go out on a date with me tomorrow night?” His breath is warm and penetrating on my skin, and I shiver at the close proximity of his lips to my ear.
“Adam, please. Not tonight.” I raise my left hand, my palm close to his chest. I can’t believe how he can be so dead set on getting me into his bed, under the false pretense of wanting to have just a dinner date with me.
“If not tonight, then when? When will you finally agree to have a simple dinner with me? I won’t initiate anything you aren’t comfortable with. I just want a few hours alone with you outside of work hours. We can order a pizza or go eat at a nice restaurant. Whatever you want.” The rawness in his voice, however, hints at everything but a simple dinner.
“It… it feels wrong.” I nervously twist my wedding band around my finger. Yeah, I’m still wearing my wedding band. How pathetic of me, and how much more pathetic of Adam to want to have a date with me. This only goes to show he just wants to screw me. “I’m not ready for this.” And I never will be. But, if I tell him that, it might be the end of his commitment to the company.
He rolls his eyes in a well-practiced manner, as if he was expecting my answer. “Three goddamn years have passed since the accident.”
As if I’m not aware of that. I drop my head and glare at the stones on my boots. I wish I could take them out and plug them into his mouth to shut him up, because he seems to have a long speech prepared.
“I want you, Taylor. I’ve never wanted another woman like I want you, and I’m ready to take it as slowly as you want to. But you don’t even let me be a friend; you shut me out completely. What will you lose if you have dinner with me? What you’re doing to yourself isn’t healthy.”
Healthy? “What do you know about healthy?” I’m so annoyed, I’m ready to leave the celebration and head directly home.
“A great deal. A lot of people lose their loved ones, but life goes on. Do you think Jack would want you to stay single and lonely for the rest of your life? Look, I don’t want to fight. I just want to take you out tomorrow night. Please, give me that much. I know you don’t feel the same way for me as I feel for you, but let me at least try and show you what may become of us.”
Us? This is too much. My stomach is so tight with knots, I’ll have to rush to the bathroom to puke if he goes on. Sucking in a desperate breath of air, I take a step back and pull my eyes away from him toward the stage and see Valerie’s brown eyes, wide with shock, staring at me. As soon as our eyes meet, she scoots out of the suite and shuts the door behind her. Oh, shit. Th
e last thing I wanted was her finding out about Adam’s interest in me.
“Excuse me,” I say and pace toward the table Bree’s sitting. “Bree, can you go and check up on Valerie, please?”
She pulls her eyebrows together in confusion, but without asking a question, stands up and heads to the door.
I throw myself at the chair and start massaging my forehead to rub away the looming headache. The party was supposed to honor Jack and celebrate the growth of the company, not to host a cheap soap opera. I vaguely notice the chair beside me is pulled out and look up to see Adam holding it.
Why am I even surprised? He must have forced Bree into arranging the tables so he can sit with me. Poor Bree. How much more of Adam’s games to get me will she endure? She’s already acting as his personal mailman, bringing me his weekly dinner-date cards with some bullshit romantic words on them.
As if we didn’t just discuss his plans about my bedroom life, he takes his place nonchalantly next to me, not neglecting to brush his leg against mine as he sits, and nods to the girl sitting across from me. Although plus-ones weren’t invited to the party, Bree brought her friend—with my permission, of course—to fill in the place of another employee who canceled at the last minute. I don’t miss the ecstatic look on the girl’s face as Adam reaches for the menu.
Yet another evening of being surrounded by women who can’t stop giggling, flaunting, or generally making fools of themselves for Adam.
“I’m Nichole,” the girl says with a large smile and holds out her hand to Adam, and Adam shakes it briefly and introduces himself.
“I’m Taylor,” I say when her eyes find mine, but I don’t bother with shaking hands. The three-tiered silver tray of pastries between us is too big an obstacle.
Grabbing a mushroom-cheese mini-quiche, I inhale its aroma and swallow it with one easy move. Bree’s friend causally slides onto Bree’s seat, which is right next to Adam’s, and begins chatting with him.
Bree comes back, shooting an angry look at her friend, and leans down to whisper in my ear, “I think Valerie is crying. I heard sobs in the restroom, but I’m not sure if it’s her.”
I nod and tell her to sit and enjoy the dinner. I don’t want to deal with someone else’s heartache. Valerie is a beautiful, young woman. And smart too. Why the hell is she crying over a man with whom she hasn’t shared anything beyond work duties? Or did she, and I don’t know about it?
Feeling angry and curious in equal parts, I wipe my lips with the napkin and leave the table, under Adam’s questioning eyes.
The restroom is well-lit and smells of fresh flowers. I start to check the stalls to locate Valerie, but she materializes from the last one, with her eyes red and wet, and strides to the sinks.
“What is the matter?” I know what it is, but I want to hear it from her lips.
She blows into a tissue and walk passes me to the mirrored room. “Like you don’t know what the matter is.”
“I want to hear it from you. What upset you so badly that you hid in the restroom to cry?” Looking at her reflection in the mirror, I cross my arms over my chest and stand close to her.
“Is he into you?” She pulls the faucet on and begins washing her hands.
“Who?”
She rolls her eyes and snorts. “Is Adam into you?”
“Yes, he wants to screw me, if that is what ‘into you’ means for you.”
“It didn’t look to me like he wants just that.”
“Seriously? I’m one fucked-up woman who sleeps in her dead husband’s pajamas. Every second sentence I speak is about Jack. And, I’m still wearing my wedding band, in case you haven’t noticed already—” I raise my left hand to show her the ring. “What else can he want from me?”
She shakes her head, barely hiding a smile. “Since when did you know about it?”
“Well,” I say, trying to remember the first time Adam asked me out on a date. “I think it was six months after Jack’s death.”
Her eyes grow large with surprise and she gasps. “That’s more than two fucking years ago.” Abruptly, she turns to face me. I’m forced to take a step back by her closeness. Actually, I’m a little worried she’ll slap me in the face.
I shrug, although I’m, too, more than a little taken by the lengthy amount of time Adam has been pursuing me. Since then, he hasn’t missed a Friday to ask me out for a dinner for Saturday night. But, of course, I won’t tell her that.
“And, you were gonna tell this to me… when?” she asks, her chin up, eyes narrowed.
“I don’t know. The thing is I don’t give a shit about his advances. He loves attention. He loves women. Lots of women. He uses one and moves on to the next. Haven’t you ever heard of his relationship with the famous country singer, Pat Carter? He dumped her after four years of relationship, and she couldn’t keep it together for a long time after him. He’s a playboy. I thought you’d figure it out on your own, without me having to tell you about his interest in me.” I pause and hesitantly put my hand on her shoulder. “You deserve someone better than him.”
She dries her eyes with tissue; even so, she doesn’t take those damn glasses off. Her eyelids are coated with dark grey eye-shadow. I consider telling her she’d have a better chance with him if she ditched those glasses and considered a new makeup style but I don’t want to be slapped. So, I just squeeze my hand tighter on her shoulder before we leave the restroom.
“Maybe I just want some senseless fuck,” Valerie says.
My stomach turns at the thought, and I taste in my mouth the quiche I’ve just eaten. “I don’t want to hear a word about it, then.”
“A playboy, huh? I’ve never imagined that.”
“Not a word,” I warn, raising my forefinger to stress my point.
When we come back to our table, I find Bree and her friend giggling at Adam’s jokes. I turn and give Valerie a ‘what have I just told you?’ look.
The servers come to take our drink orders and, when I ask for soda, Adam glances at me with an approving look in his eyes for the choice of my non-alcoholic drink and then goes back to entertaining the girls. Oh, Bree. I’m going to raise your salary for freeing me from Adam’s clutches even for a few hours. And, I’ll promote you if your little friend gets in the sack with him.
In a couple of minutes, the servers place our drinks and entrees efficiently and disappear as soon as they come. I dig into the glazed duck leg with figs while enjoying the exchange between Nichole and Adam. Valerie not so much, I notice. Nichole manages to have her hand very close to Adam’s arm. Unable to mask my curiosity about her next move, I swallow a piece of fig and touch Valerie’s shoe with the tip of my boot to raise her attention to the happening.
Nichole moves her hand very casually toward Adam, while laughing with body-racking laughter at Adam’s yet another joke. I’m about to burst with excitement and thrill, as though I’m watching a blockbuster in 3D. As soon as Nichole’s hand lands on Adam’s arm, though, he jerks away as if stung by a bee and pushes his chair back to stand up. His face a peculiar hue of purple, like the fig on my plate, he excuses himself to go talk to one of the employees. Employee, my ass. He dashes off directly toward the door.
There goes the promotion for Bree. I exchange curious looks with Valerie and remember to swallow the piece of tender duck in my mouth. He’s playing the devoted and loyal around me. I bet money it’s all part of his scheme to get me.
Nichole gapes after him with her mouth wide open and cannot bring herself to shut it even long after Adam’s gone. I’m surprised to find a tickling of compassion for her inside me. She has no way to know of Adam’s relentless pursuit of me.
When Adam comes back, approximately ten minutes later, he avoids our table like the plague and socializes with the accounting team. Nichole eyes me briefly with shame written all over her face, before cocking her head down to her plate. I observe with amazement that she has yet to touch her dish. What an effect Adam has over women that they even neglect eating! Forget about Weightwat
chers or Jenny Craig. There’s no better way than Adam to get those humps in shape.
“So, Bree. The evening has been great so far,” Valerie says between the sips of her champagne. “I think you should go into event planning rather than waste your talent with organizing Taylor’s agenda.”
“I’m happy with my job, and Taylor is the best boss ever,” Bree says with a cheery tone and grabs a scone off of the pastry tray.
“Don’t feed her mind with nonsense.” I nudge Valerie’s ribcage, while stealing a glance at Adam. No matter how I detest his flirtations, I still find him the most interesting person in the room. Even though I can’t make out what he is speaking about with the people at his table; his demeanor, energy, and the power he radiates as he speaks make me want to switch tables to his. If only his intentions for me were of a more friendly nature. He’d make a great friend, I’m sure.
While I’m vaguely listening to Valerie’s strong opinions about how Republicans are on the verge on ruining the country, a group of four young men with musical instruments enter the suite. I turn to Bree with a questioning look. Her face beams once she notices the group of men, and she stands up abruptly. I guess this is her only chance to break free from Valerie’s infamous political discussion.
“Our musical guests have just arrived. I’d better attend to them,” she explains to Valerie.
“I didn’t know we’d have live music,” I say, showing my discontent for not having been informed about it. After all, I’m paying for this evening, and I have every right to know what and who is on the menu.
“Oh, but I mentioned them to you early this morning. Besides, the entire evening plan was sent to you together with the bill. Both in paper and electronically.”
“Oh, my mistake, then. Sorry.” I gesture at her to go and see to the musicians. From their Michael-Bublé looks, I assume we’ll be listening to some jazz-pop classical tunes.
Tapping my fingers on the table, I study the band members as they prepare their instruments and settle on the stage. When I see the guy whom I assume to be the singer nod his head to Bree, I start to stand up to introduce the band. However, Adam appears by the stage and grabs the microphone from the singer’s hand.
Pleasure Extraordinaire 2 (PURSUIT) Page 15
