She dropped her gaze. “I guess.”
“Cade is pissed for no reason. He knows I’ll make the sale. Or, if he doesn’t, I guarantee Trey Soren has my back. He knows me better than anyone. He’ll take this glitch in stride.” Isaac kissed her softly. “Baby, you’re worried for no reason.”
“But…” Her chin trembled. “This isn’t totally about you. They all know how great and capable you are. This was about me proving I can handle a sale and get a client to fall in love with Soren Security.”
He eyed her sincerely. “Mindy, you’ve done that. They’re coming to our headquarters.”
“Unless Marcus decides not to because I didn’t come through.”
Isaac said nothing for a few moments, which reinforced her mother’s words and doubts.
“Face it. If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve ruined this trip completely. I’ll never be given a second chance to make a first impression.”
“That’s not—”
“You know it’s true.” Her gaze bored into his and he glanced away. “I’m not stupid. I know what it takes to make it in this business. I wanted to, I truly did, but it’s obvious I’m not cut out for sales.”
“Don’t count yourself out yet.”
“Why not?” She shoved away from him. “We’ll both have to face Trey. When we do, we both know what we need to say. And I hold you to a very high standard.” Her eyes met his and held fast. “You must be truthful. That’s the only way to make this right and do what’s best for the company. It’s not about us.”
A hint of defeat drew down the corners of his mouth.
“You can’t lie to Trey like you did to Cade.”
Isaac dipped his chin. “I hear you. I’m not going to lie.”
When his gaze returned to hers, she found so much compassion in the depths she couldn’t bear to look at him. She stood, brushed past him and dressed for the plane ride home, which would take off within three hours.
As Isaac released a distressed sigh, the phone in their room rang. He answered, thanked the man, and set the phone in the cradle. “Maybe we beat your Mercury retrograde after all. Our luggage just arrived.”
While Isaac went down to the lobby to retrieve their newfound luggage and bring up a garment bag he’d ordered for her new wardrobe, Mindy glanced at the bed where he’d made passionate love to her. Despite her stress over their jobs, a wistful heartache settled under her ribs. Housekeeping would have no doubt about the phenomenal sex that had happened between those sheets. She placed her hand over her abdomen.
A fresh wave of longing poured through her when she thought of how he’d taken her, entered her, stretched her, and made her deliciously sore. No matter what, she’d never regret the incomparable experience of being made love to by Isaac. His skill and mastery made for the best memories of her life.
Nothing could take that away or lessen the beauty of what they’d shared, even if their careers or personal choices mandated they never touch each other romantically again.
A frown pulled at her lips and her heart knotted. They both needed time apart to think long and hard about their priorities. About what mattered more, what mattered most, at this stage of their lives. She needed to accept they may come to different conclusions and decide to part ways.
The knots in her chest tightened, but if nothing else, Helen had taught her to be pragmatic. Like a dozen fresh-cut roses, no matter how stunning and memorable, some things simply weren’t meant to last.
With that truth weighing heavy on her, she finished getting dressed and then packed both their carryon suitcases.
When she reached the door, she paused and looked back. The sexily rumpled bed sheets were the only proof they’d been here, and soon those would be disposed of down a laundry shaft, erasing all that she’d experienced during this life-altering trip. She hoped the result would be life-altering in a good way, in the best way, and somehow she and Isaac would end up together.
But she’d learned long ago hopes were best tempered by worst-case scenario expectations. Thank you, Helen.
The times Mindy felt at her worst and most insecure, Helen was always at her best and most biting. Mindy was tired of the advice and comparisons. Exhausted, actually. The first thing she planned to do when she returned home was to write an op-ed piece, even if she only found publication in the local paper, detailing her experience abroad. How sometimes an unfortunate mistake becomes a most fortunate outcome. Then she’d sent the clip to her mother and explained that while she might not live up to her mile-high expectations, her life in the Mile High city amounted to something. She had a career she was proud of and a future she looked forward to.
Strangely, a weight lifted from her psyche. She felt more empowered now than she had in years. She looked forward to creating the first draft of her op-ed piece on the god-awful long plane ride home.
Bearing their carryon luggage, she passed Isaac in the lobby. He suggested she go out to the car awaiting them, that he’d take the new wardrobe bag and pack up the last of the clothes, then he’d meet her at the car.
Agreeing, she stepped out to the curb and waved toward their driver with a smile. She wanted to express her gratitude to the man who’d carted them around St. Petersburg without complaint for four days.
Unfortunately, the man who stepped out from the tinted-windowed driver’s side wasn’t their driver. “Where’s James?” she asked.
The gruff man snatched the suitcases out of her hand and shoved them in the trunk as if they were garbage. “Unavailable. The Markovs sent me.”
How odd, since James had been at her and Isaac’s beck and call the whole time they’d been here. Not to mention their new driver gave off a nasty vibe she didn’t appreciate.
“Is this all you got today?” he demanded.
Put off by his presumptuous manner, she had to assume Isaac had relayed the ordeal about their missing bags. “The rest is coming.”
Nodding curtly, he returned to the driver’s seat, slamming the door. Someone was in a grouchy mood, she thought, climbing into the back seat.
While waiting for Isaac to bring out their newly acquired luggage plus her wardrobe bag, she tried to be pleasant. “I’m Mindy. What’s your name?”
“Sig,” he muttered.
“Nice to meet you, Sig.” She extended her hand toward the front seat, but he didn’t respond in kind.
Instead, his knuckles gripped the steering wheel—knuckles that bore a gold ring with a large oval jade stone.
Panic flashed through her. Oh, my God. It’s him. The thief who tried to rob me.
The man’s height, his weight, his meaty fists and his cigarette breath came at her hard. “You…”
Suddenly, his glance flicked up into the rearview mirror with cold recognition in his eyes. That’s when she knew for sure. It was him. The man who’d brutalized her and terrified her in the hotel room.
His eyes widened and he reached toward his waist.
Infuriated, Mindy grabbed the knife from her purse and held it against his throat. “Don’t. You. Dare.”
Chapter 9
From her position in the back seat, she had the upper hand. Her knife’s edge rested against his carotid artery. Whatever badass people he associated with, apparently he realized that with one slice, she could end his life.
Lifting his hands in a gesture of surrender, he glared at her murderously.
“It was you, wasn’t it? You held me captive and tried to steal the security device. The one that just arrived today in our missing luggage.”
A tap on the darkened window was Isaac’s attempt to have the driver open the trunk. A powerful vengeance she didn’t even know she contained rushed through her. Reaffirming her grip on the knife, she told him, “Roll down the window.”
He hesitated.
She seethed, “If you think for one second I don’t know how to use this weapon, or won’t, you’re wrong.”
The man held up his index finger and she followed its movement toward the right rear window
adjuster.
“Isaac,” she yelled. “Get away from the car. Don’t let this driver come near our luggage.”
The second he saw her expression and the way she clutched her knife, Isaac raced to the driver’s side door and yanked it open. “Get out,” he said. “Before she slits your throat. Before I let her.”
Bug-eyed and caught by surprise, the thief made a move to exit the vehicle. Then his fist made a sudden arc toward Isaac, who met the man’s hand by grabbing his wrist, twisting and pinning it behind his back.
The man yelped the same way she had when he’d thrown her against the wall during his escape. The coward. “You work as a driver for the Markovs don’t you? Don’t you?”
“Yes,” the man admitted with a groan of pain, thanks to Isaac.
Anger shaking in her tone, she told him, “Serves you right for what you did me to me.” Then she sent a less angry and more relieved expression to Isaac. “Thanks for having my back.”
“You know it.” He nodded as if the alternative were unthinkable.
While holding the man incapacitated with one hand, Isaac called the Markovs. She silently questioned him, but he said, “Trust me, people like the Markovs have their own form of justice.”
Mindy caught the terrified expression on the burglar’s face and knew right then justice definitely would be served.
A few minutes later, Mr. Markov arrived, stepped out and shook hands with Isaac. “I beg your apology, sir. We will fix this troubling issue in our ranks.”
Isaac nodded, looking relieved to get rid of the traitor into the back seat of Mr. Markov’s car. They drove off and in pulled James to take their place.
He stepped onto the sidewalk and Mindy raced up to give him a big hug. “I never thought I’d be so happy to see you, James.”
The man blushed under his cap.
“You’ve taken great care of us while we’ve been here,” she told him. “I can’t thank you enough.”
Isaac withdrew a wad of Russian currency bills from his wallet and stuffed them into James’s hand. “I think he understands,” he murmured to her.
James whistled a pleasant tune all the way to the airport. Whatever amount Isaac had given him must’ve made the man’s day or week…or year.
Halfway to the airport, she finally released her grip on the knife, folding her hands on her purse. Isaac seemed to take that as an opening for dialogue since neither had spoken much. “Nice moves, by the way. In a questionable situation, always aim for the jugular, and you did.”
After her heart finally calmed its rhythm, taking solace in his words, she exhaled a deep breath. “I never would’ve done that, defended myself, if not for you.”
He brushed her hair back from her face. “Now you know you can.”
They didn’t talk much on the plane ride home. Their layover in London consisted of small talk about their sight-seeing excursion. But neither of them touched on the kiss he’d given her at the palace that led to their phenomenal lovemaking.
To her surprise, he seemed reserved. As if he were uncertain, perhaps questioning if her passion for him would cross the time zones back to their final descent into Denver. She wanted to tell him her passion would cross any chasm of time or space, including forever, if only she could find a way to say that without sounding desperate or lonely or foolish. She also wished she knew what would happen when they both sat in front of their CEO, Trey Soren, and Trey demanded an explanation why she’d didn’t meet Marcus, their wealthy new client, to explore their own special chemistry.
They returned to Denver on Monday, and she fully expected Isaac to ignore his own sleep deprivation to reconnect with his sales team. He proved her right, working a full day at the office. Whereas Cade took one look at her and gave her two days off—mandatory.
Cade was a highly perceptive man. The word sensitive might’ve been used by some, but Mindy had worked side by side with Cade long enough to know he wasn’t the clichéd sensitive artist type, although some came away with that impression upon meeting him. No, Cade had a gift for sizing up and reading people. He often gave whatever impression people expected of him, a bit of a chameleon in that regard. While he wasn’t sensitive in an artistic angsty way, he sensed just by looking at someone what that person needed. While he was stunningly handsome, Cade carried much more depth beneath the surface than people gave him credit for. And she gratefully accepted the two days off he’d demanded on her behalf.
Not once did Isaac call her. Not once did he email or drop by or give any indication he cared about what they’d shared in Russia.
Mindy finished her news piece about her adventure in Russia, sent it to her contact at the Denver Post, and they published it on Wednesday. She tore out the article and sent it to her mother with a note: I’m not all you had imagined I would be, but I’m where I’d always imagined I wanted to be. She also sent the clipping to her father. Daddy, thank you for the dollhouse you built me so many Christmases ago. I got to see the real thing, and it was just as magical.
That entire Wednesday, not one Helenism entered her mind. She did some fall cleanup in the flowerbeds of her condo’s mini backyard and felt somewhat productive. That night she downloaded the movie Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Obviously, her imagination had taken liberties with regard to the restaurant where they’d met the Markovs. Although it wasn’t that far off…
Then she went to her solitary bed and let a few tears leak into her pillow. She missed Isaac. The warmth of his body. The power of his presence. The safety of his arms.
She didn’t look up what her astrologer said about the likelihood of their compatibility. She based her emotions solely on how much she missed him, how great they were together, and the passion they’d shared. In the deepest, most sacred part of her heart, she doubted any man would ever compare to Isaac. He was the one she wanted, would always want to be with, for one day or a thousand.
Thursday she returned to work, gave Cade an update favorable to both her and Isaac’s careers, and then began to dread running into her one-time lover. Although she tried to maintain her upbeat personality, several coworkers asked if something was wrong. “No,” she said, “just tired from my trip.”
Meanwhile her heart clenched and her stomach refused to let her eat anything. God, was she that hopelessly in love with him?
Finally, mid afternoon the phone call came from Trey Soren. “I’d like to meet with you and Isaac in my office.”
When Trey made a request he meant now.
With shaky legs, she got up from her desk and decided to walk the three floors to her CEO’s office. As she pushed through the door and stepped into the hallway, the elevator doors at the other end parted. Her stomach dropped.
Out strolled Isaac looking impossibly handsome, completely put together, fresh and un-sleep-deprived. The complete package. And so opposite her, she thought, the familiar ache of disappointment returning to her chest.
The second he saw her, he broke into a run. She stopped dead in the middle of the hall, frozen, not sure what to do.
When he reached her, he grabbed her and twirled her around, while her arms remained stiff at her sides. “Mindy, I’ve been looking all over for you. Didn’t you get my message the past two days?
Honestly, when she returned today she hadn’t gone through all her messages, fielding calls from inside the office and requests for Cade to address the media about this, that, and the other. “I didn’t,” she admitted.
“Jesus.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I couldn’t find you in the office. I thought you were avoiding me.”
Me, avoiding him? The thought was ludicrous.
“I hoped that wasn’t the case, but why—?”
The door beside them swung open, and Trey stepped into the frame. “If you don’t mind, I’ll ask the questions for the next thirty minutes.”
Contrite, they both took a seat in the leather chairs opposite Trey’s desk. Trey closed the door, approached, and smoothed a hand down his tie as he sat down fac
ing them.
Trey looked so official in his three-piece suit, and Isaac looked devastatingly handsome as always. Nervous, she crossed her legs. She noticed Isaac’s glance flicker her way as if he couldn’t help himself. A thread of hope wound around her heart.
Unexpectedly, Trey started laughing. A soft, intelligent laugh that made her retreat in her chair further away from Isaac. “I see.” Trey steepled his fingers. “You two are going to sit across from me and pretend you’re not in love with each other.”
She sucked in a breath. “Sir—”
“Now hold on a minute,” Isaac said, sitting forward in a defensive posture.
“Relax.” Trey held up his hands. “My wife informed me the day you two left together that you’d come back as a couple.”
As if on cue, Devon Leigh Soren burst into the room. “There you are.” She rushed toward Mindy. “I couldn’t wait until you got back so I could show you the pictures of our kids.” With proud joy, Devon thrust three photos into Mindy’s hands. “Aren’t they beautiful? The oldest at five is Kristin, the boy Benjamin is four, and Bethany’s the baby.”
Completely caught off guard, Mindy blinked. “You’re getting three children? At once?”
“They’re a sibling group we’re adopting from the Philippines. Aren’t they precious?”
The excitement in Devon’s eyes was so genuine and loving, Mindy’s own eyes teared up. She glanced at Trey, then back at Devon. “I’m so happy for you.”
Regarding his wife with affection and frustration, Trey coughed into his hand. “Honey, we’re in the middle of a serious work matter.”
Devon rolled her eyes. “This is more important. Talk to Isaac, I’m stealing Mindy for a few minutes.”
Shrugging helplessly, Mindy accepted Devon’s grasp on her arm and followed her into the hallway.
“I’ve met them, Mindy.” The compassion in Devon’s dark eyes was unmistakable. “We went to the Philippines to meet our babies. They had my heart the second I saw them.”
Bedded by Her Bodyguard (Billionaire Bodyguard Series) Page 11
