Seduced by the CEO

by Barbara Dunlop

Riley slowed down to look at them.

  “If you’d care to wait here,” said the butler, gesturing to a grouping of walnut and red velvet armchairs. “I’ll find Ms. Smith.”

  Riley wasn’t sure if it was a question or a command, so he nodded. One room in this place was as bad as another.

  The butler’s footfalls faded slowly away on the hardwood floor while Riley gazed at the paintings. He took in a suit of armor and some bronze statuettes placed on heavy, wooden tables. He couldn’t help but wonder how often his mother had polished the pieces. They looked like they’d been there for decades.

  He gazed around the huge room, mentally comparing it to their small, basement apartment twenty miles away. His mother had ridden two buses every day to get here. She’d cleaned up after Dalton Colborn, his wife and their guests, growing tired and ill while Dalton had looked down his nose at her, never caring that she’d once shared his bed.

  The sound of footsteps echoed behind him, and he turned, expecting Kalissa.

  It was Shane, who stopped short, obviously surprised to see Riley.

  The two stared at each other, while resentment churned in Riley’s gut.

  Then Shane walked forward. “I didn’t know you were here.”

  “I didn’t expect you either.”

  It was midday Thursday, and Riley had guessed Shane would still be in the city.

  “Starting the weekend early,” said Shane. “You?”

  “I’m here to see Kalissa.” Riley stated the obvious.

  “She’s outside.”

  “Your butler told me to wait here.”

  Shane gave an absent nod, his gaze going to the large portrait of Dalton directly above them. Riley couldn’t help but wonder if Shane was also considering the irony.

  “I bet he’d turn over in his grave,” said Riley.

  Shane’s gaze narrowed, but Riley wasn’t in the mood to back off.

  “Seeing you and me, here, together.”

  “Why?” asked Shane.

  “Please don’t,” said Riley, his stomach cramping, his tone going hard. “Not here. Not now. Not when it’s just you and me.”

  “Don’t ask a question?”

  “Don’t play dumb,” Riley spat out.

  But Shane wouldn’t let up. “He’d hate Ellis Aviation?”

  “Yeah, right. Ellis Aviation is what would tick him off.”

  “Okay,” said Shane, evidently willing to let it drop.

  Well Riley wasn’t, not this time, not if he was going to continue to see Kalissa and keep running into Shane. Not next to the antiques his mother hand polished, under Dalton’s roof, with Shane standing there as the new lord of the manor.

  “I’m talking about me,” said Riley. “He’d hate me.” He waited for Shane’s reaction.

  “Are you saying he knew you?”

  Now they were getting somewhere.

  “My mother brought me here once. I was thirteen. I was just old enough to get it. Do you know what he said? Do you know what he said to his own son?”

  Shane went still.

  Yeah, Riley had said it. He’d spoken the forbidden words the mighty Colborn family had hidden for so long. “He said, ‘servants use the back door, and they don’t wear dirty shoes in the hall’.”

  Shane reached out and braced himself on a table.

  “That was it,” said Riley. “The only words our old man ever uttered to me, and the only time he ever looked at me.”

  “He didn’t—”

  “Don’t make excuses for him,” Riley ground out. “You resent Ellis Aviation? You don’t like me touching your sister-in-law? You think you can keep the Colborn family untainted by the illegitimate son of a servant?” Once rolling, Riley barely stopped for breath.

  “I know you’re poisoning Kalissa against me,” he ground out. “And it’s not going to work. I won’t let it work. I grew up tough, Shane, a whole lot tougher than you. I was on the outside, and it was cold out there. I watched him dote on you. I watched him tutor you. Then I watched him hand you his world on a silver platter. All the while, I was fighting down there in the dirt. You might hate me, but that’s nothing compared to how I feel about you.”

  The color had drained from Shane’s face, and his chest rapidly rose and fell.

  “Riley?” Kalissa shocked voice was directly behind them.

  Riley pivoted, his stomach bottoming out, while Shane stood frozen.

  “Riley?” she repeated. “What is going on?”

  He cursed a streak inside his brain.

  She swallowed. “Is it true? It’s true,” she laughed a little hysterically.

  “I’m sorry,” he blurted out, moving toward her.

  She recoiled, taking a step back.

  “I wanted to tell you.” He kicked himself for letting his temper get away from him.

  “That you’re Shane’s brother? His brother?” The pitch of her voice went higher. Her hand went to her forehead as if she had a sudden pain. “That you hate and resent him?”

  “This is bad,” said Riley. “I never would have—”

  “Bad doesn’t begin to describe it.” She took another backward step. “I see it now. It’s been about this all along.”

  He moved, trying to keep the distance small between them. “I shouldn’t have come here. It was stupid for me to come here. I thought I could handle...”

  “The lies?” she asked.

  “I didn’t lie.”

  “You did nothing but lie.”

  “Ellis,” said Shane.

  “Not now,” Riley barked over his shoulder.

  Kalissa let out a whimper and turned on her heel.

  Riley followed, but she began to run.

  “Ellis,” Shane called behind him.

  Riley ignored him. He had to get to Kalissa.

  He caught up to her in the main reception room. She was heading for a staircase.

  “Kalissa, stop.”

  She stopped. But she didn’t turn around.

  He slowed his pace, coming up behind her. “I know this must be a shock. I didn’t say anything, because—”

  “I’m only stopping because I want this to be final. I know I’ve been an easy mark. I don’t know why, but I was attracted to you.” She gave an unsteady laugh. Still, she kept her back to him. “You obviously know I was attracted to you. But I know how you operate, solidify your position before revealing the truth. It’s not going to work a second time. I can’t help you compete with your brother. I can’t help you be a Colborn.”

  Riley was horrified by the statement. “That’s not what I want.”

  She turned, finally. “Yes, it is.” Her eyes glistened with tears.

  “You and me, we have nothing to do with the Colborns.”

  “We have everything to do with the Colborns. Shane’s the reason you want me. Dalton’s the reason you’re here. Your past drives you. From what I can see, it’s always driven you.” She swallowed and seemed to force herself to moderate her voice. “At least now I know why. I understand you, Riley.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  She didn’t understand him. If she understood him, she’d know he was in love with her.

  “Leave,” she said. “Just leave.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You don’t have a choice.”

  “Let’s go somewhere, anywhere but here. Let’s talk this through. I never, ever meant for any of this to hurt you.”

  She gave a weak smile. “So you can lie to me some more.”

  “I’m not going to lie. There’s nothing left. You know everything.”

  She paused. “Yes, I do. I know everything. Goodbye, Riley.”

  “Kalissa, no.”

  But she was mounting th
e stairs.

  He could see Garrison out of the corner of his eye. Riley wanted to chase her. But he knew he’d never get there. Garrison wouldn’t let him get near her.

  He tried to reason with her. “How can talking hurt?”

  But she didn’t stop, she didn’t even look, she just disappeared around the corner of the staircase.

  Riley’s heart was pumping. It took every last ounce of control that he had to remain at the bottom of those stairs. There had to be something he could do. He needed a next move. But he couldn’t for the life of him come up with one.

  “Riley,” Shane called out, passing Garrison to approach him.

  “Not now,” said Riley. “Not...now.”

  He knew leaving was his only move. Leaving and regrouping, then coming back, coming at this from another angle. Because there was no way this was the end for him and Kalissa.

  * * *

  Kalissa made her way across the mansion on the second floor. She took the service stairs and left through the back exit. There, she found Megan in the rose garden.

  “I know it’s a few weeks before we can start,” said Megan, smiling with what looked like pure joy. “But I can’t help wandering around out here and salivating. There’s so much we can do with these grounds.”

  Kalissa forced her own smile. “Do you know where you want to start?”

  “Not yet. Maybe the pond. How fun would it be to expand and get some pure white swans.”

  “Sure. Swans.”

  “I’m joking, of course.” Megan peered at her. “Kalissa? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Well. I just broke up with Riley.” Kalissa’s legs suddenly lost all their strength, and she sat down on the grass.

  “You what?” Megan crouched down beside her. “Why? What happened?”

  “Kalissa?” Darci called from the lawn beyond the garden.

  “Over here,” Megan answered, sitting down next to Kalissa. “Does she know?”

  Kalissa nodded, her chest heavy and aching. “Shane was there.”

  Darci rushed past the Pink Flamingo bushes. “Are you all right?” she asked, dropping down beside Kalissa and giving her shoulders a squeeze. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  “What happened?” asked Megan.

  “Riley lied again. Or is it still. I think it’s still.”

  “Shane had no idea,” said Darci. “He’s stunned.”

  “What did he lie about?” asked Megan, glancing from one woman to the other.

  “He’s Shane’s brother,” said Kalissa. She reached out and grasped Megan’s arm. She was coming clean, here and now. “And I’m inheriting—” She looked to Darci. “Is that the right way to say it? Inheriting?”

  “Say it however you want.”

  “Part of Colborn Aerospace,” Kalissa finished.

  “What?” Megan looked confused.

  “I’m not keeping any more secrets. I was trying to wrap my head around it, but you need to know. I tried to stop it, but I couldn’t. It looks like I’m going to be crazy rich.”

  “What does that have to do with Riley?” asked Megan.

  “Nothing,” said Kalissa. “He doesn’t know.” Then it dawned on her. “I guess I’m keeping secrets from him, too.” It was comically ironic.

  “It’s not the same thing,” said Darci.

  “Am I wrong?” asked Kalissa. “Was I wrong to keep quiet?”

  “You broke up with him?” asked Megan. “Or the other way around?”

  “It was me,” said Kalissa. “He was talking to Shane, yelling at Shane really. He’s spent his entire life wanting what Shane has, maybe even wanting to be Shane.”

  “So, Dalton was his father?” Megan asked. “He had a different mother?”

  “She worked here,” said Darci. “Apparently she was one of the housekeepers.”

  “Riley said she was young and didn’t want to lose her job,” said Kalissa, battling against instinctive sympathy for Riley. “That was before I knew he was talking about Dalton Colborn and this particular mansion.”

  “Shane didn’t know,” said Darci. “Riley thinks Shane shunned him all these years. But he didn’t know.”

  “That had to be tough on Riley,” said Megan.

  “I can’t help feeling sorry for him,” said Kalissa.

  She wanted to stay angry, but she couldn’t help picturing him as a young boy, a teenager. He was hurt, wounded, and it seemed to have impacted his entire life.

  “Maybe it’s too soon to ask,” said Darci. “Could you ever forgive Riley?”

  Kalissa wanted it to be that simple. Her throat closed over again. “It’s not about that. It’s about Shane. Whatever Shane has, Riley wants, too. He’s not thinking clearly. He’s not seeing me clearly. It’s all emotion and dark history.” Darci’s face twisted in a grimace. “He wanted me before he came anywhere close to knowing me.” Kalissa looked to Megan for confirmation.

  Megan didn’t disagree.

  “He had tunnel vision the whole time,” said Kalissa. “And I was flattered. It was hard not to be flattered.”

  “But you like him, too,” said Darci.

  “Are you on his side?” Megan asked.

  “I don’t want there to be sides.”

  “Because he’s Shane’s brother,” Kalissa finished for her. It was a terrible situation for Darci and Shane. Kalissa started to rise. “Listen, I’m going to get out of the way—”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” said Darci, grasping Kalissa’s elbow.

  “This is a disaster.” A tear crept from Kalissa’s eye.

  “And we’re going to figure it out together,” said Darci.

  “I can’t see him. I won’t see him.”

  “You don’t have to see anyone. I’m on your side, now and always. You’re my family.”

  “Riley is Shane’s family.”

  “It’s not the same thing,” said Darci.

  “How is it different?”

  “I don’t know, but it is.”

  “I’m going to hate him,” said Kalissa, trying, but failing to be strong.

  The upright posture lasted about twenty seconds before she slumped. “Maybe tomorrow. I can start hating him tomorrow.”

  Darci slipped her arm around Kalissa’s shoulders. “We just have to make it to tomorrow.”

  Kalissa gave a gloomy nod. Tomorrow seemed incredibly far away.

  “We’ll do something fun,” Darci said with encouragement.

  Kalissa knew she was reaching. She was trying to be a good sister, and come up with a distraction.

  “Like what?” asked Megan, gamely buying in.

  “Dinner out, somewhere nice?”

  “I’m not going out in public,” said Kalissa. That was the last thing she wanted to do.

  “A tour of the wine cellar?” Darci suggested.

  Getting drunk was tempting, but Kalissa knew she’d only feel worse in the morning. “Pass.”

  “Well, that’s disappointing,” said Megan with a mock pout.

  Darci shrugged. “Wine cellar’s not going anywhere. We’ll do that another day.” Then she snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it. Spa day. Well spa night. Night and day. There’s no rush to get back.”

  “No, thanks,” said Kalissa. “I don’t want to run into anyone who saw the broadcast.”

  “We won’t.” Darci’s voice held a lot of conviction. “Not in upstate New York.”

  Both Kalissa and Megan gaped at her in confusion.

  “I’ve got a jet,” explained Darci, pulling out her phone.

  It took Megan a moment to speak. “You mean a private jet?”

  “There’s a place called Glimmer Mist Falls. Massage, facial, pedicure, mineral springs. They’ll send a limo to meet t
he plane.”

  Kalissa shook her head. She just wanted to bury herself under the covers and wait for unconsciousness.

  Megan stuck her hand in the air. “I’m in.”

  “We’re not taking no for an answer,” said Darci. “Garrison will help.”

  Kalissa had no desire to go along. Then again, she wasn’t sure she had the energy to fight them off either.

  “Sweetheart?” Darci said into the phone. “We want to take the jet to Glimmer Mist Falls.” Her gaze went to Kalissa, turning sympathetic. “I think so, too.” She paused. “We will. Thanks, honey.”

  Thirteen

  For the next three days, Riley focused on two things, work at Ellis Aviation and coming up with a strategy to win back Kalissa. The work part was easy. All he needed there was energy and an edge. His frustration gave him both.

  Getting Kalissa back seemed impossible. As long as she was out at the mansion, he couldn’t get near her. He knew Shane would keep the place locked down tight. And Garrison was loyal to Shane. He might sympathize with Riley, but he would definitely do his job.

  Even if Riley could find a way to see her, he didn’t know what he’d say. She was right to accuse him of lying. He hadn’t told her about Shane. And that made it look like Shane mattered. He didn’t.

  He cracked open a bottle of whisky in his kitchen, pouring a couple of ounces over ice. Liquor might not be the answer. But he was tired, and it was late, and he was sick of dreaming about Kalissa.

  The dreams were spectacular, but waking up was a nightmare.

  A knock sounded on his front door.

  He double checked the clock. It was coming up on ten. While Ashton might drop in this late, Ashton was on his way to Alaska today. He’d invited Riley along. Riley had to admit, he’d been tempted.

  He crossed to the foyer and opened the door, shocked to find Shane on the front porch.

  “Is Kalissa all right?” The question was out before Riley could censor it.

  “She’s fine,” said Shane. “She’s in New York.”

  For some reason, the answer struck Riley as absurd. “Why is she in New York?”

  All this time, he’d been picturing her at the mansion. It annoyed him to be wrong. It annoyed him more that it was Shane who had the information.

  “Darci took her to a spa. Garrison’s with them.”