Conquest of the Heart

by R. J. Dillon

“Several times. I told him we’d revisit our situation once the project was over, trying to let him down gently. I figured that maybe he will have forgotten that I even exist over the next six months. Lauren basically told him to back off,” she chuckled. “I’m glad she was there.”

  “I’m glad you and Lauren are getting along. She’s a great person,” he said. He was still glad she wasn’t interested in Carter, but he would now have to have another talk with him. Pursuing Faith was proving to be a lot of work.

  “What cities do we have left for next week?” she asked as she stood and walked over to the table with her laptop.

  “I don’t have them memorized. I’m good, but I’m not that good. Look at your list, I know you have it sitting there,” he smiled, teasing.

  Faith pulled out her copy of the agenda, smiling. “It looks like we have Los Angeles, Madison, Milton,” she put the paper down. “Where on earth is Milton?” she asked with a bewildered look on her face. She continued, “Salt Lake City, Reno, Philadelphia, Portland, and Miami.”

  “Well, let’s get started. Let’s look at Milton first, since you don’t know where it is. Neither do I,” they both laughed.

  Faith used her resources to pull up information about Milton. “Milton is in Massachusetts,” she said.

  “Are you serious? We shouldn’t even meet about that one. Let’s scratch it right now.”

  Faith giggled, “We should at least see why both you and Adrian picked this city.” She glared at him, and he looked away and stared at his laptop.

  “It says that Milton is one of the top 100 cities to live in. So, people actually move there on purpose?”

  “Are you going to make jokes all afternoon?” she said, giggling again. “What else do you see about this city?”

  “The primary employment industry is the service industry. Hey, isn’t Massachusetts where they burned witches at the post? I’m not sure this is the safest place to expand our business.”

  “That was Salem. I’m pretty positive they don’t do that anymore. Although I can think of one person I wouldn’t mind burning at the post.”

  He laughed full from his belly. They were both in rare form this afternoon. “We need it to be quicker. How about a hanging?” he continued to laugh.

  She started to giggle a little. “Death is not guaranteed with hanging. How about a guillotine?” Gavin laughed even harder as they both came up with ways to get rid of Chandler.

  He couldn’t stop, and Faith started to laugh with him. Tears were rolling down their faces. By the time they calmed down, their stomachs were sore. Faith got up to get some tissue from her desk. She handed one to Gavin. As he wiped his eyes, he said, “I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. I think we needed that.”

  “I think we did. Now, back to Milton,” she said, sitting down in front of her computer.

  They continued to talk about Milton, and eventually moved on to Los Angeles.

  “I never asked you. Is New York the first American state you’ve been to?” Gavin asked.

  “No. I’ve been to a couple of others. Nothing major. I spent most of my time in European countries. I’ve visited Asia, and Africa. I’ve been pretty much everywhere, except America. I’m going to enjoy these trips.”

  They continued to discuss Los Angeles, laughing along the way. When they finished their outlines and client lists, Gavin said, “It’s good to see you smiling. I was a little worried this morning.”

  “I’ve got thick skin. You have to when you deal with people all day. It didn’t take me long to calm down. Thanks for taking a walk with me this morning.”

  “Thanks for keeping your promise not to kill me.”

  Faith smiled, “You’re welcome. Did you talk to her? I know you did.” She stood up to move her laptop back to her desk.

  As Gavin shut his laptop down and closed his portfolio, he answered her question. “Yes I did. She just doesn’t get that we’ll never be together. I told her to leave you alone or she was fired. How did you know I talked to her?”

  “Because you talked to her after our little incident at the party, even though I didn’t ask you to. I know you care about this company, more than maybe other people know. Her behavior was inappropriate, and as my boss, you felt it was necessary. What about other women you’ve been with? I mean, you’ve never laid a finger on me, and she’s having a conniption. Has she bothered any others?”

  “I’ve never been like this before. Most of the time, when someone tells me no, I leave it at that. For whatever reason, I’m not accepting that from you. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone.”

  “So I suppose one more ‘no’ just won’t do, huh?”

  “Nope, won’t work.”

  “You know that I will never give in to you.”

  “You say that now, but you haven’t had sex in a while. I don’t know how long it’s been. I know for a fact that can wear on a person. Eventually, you’ll allow yourself to be with me.”

  “Are you sure you want to be with Chandler that long to find out? I’m stronger than you give me credit for. Once I make up my mind about something, it’s tough to break me, and I’ve made up my mind not to give in to you.”

  “I made up my mind about you the first day you started. No one is going to change that, not even you. Chandler is just a pawn. She should know that, but she wants something else from me. She’ll serve her purpose until I’m able to have you.”

  “Then what? You enjoy me for a while? When you tire of me? What then?” Faith was agitated. She hated the thought of being used.

  “I’m not sure, Faith. All I know is that I want you something fierce. I can’t say that I would ‘tire’ of you as you put it.” Gavin was ready to grab her. He found it interesting that she would entertain this conversation, but didn’t want to be asked out by Carter. He must be getting to her.

  Faith went to sit at her desk. She leaned back in her chair, and faced the window. Gavin got up and stood behind her. He bent down and sensuously whispered to her.

  “Why do you let me get to you?”

  Faith moved her head away from him. She couldn’t answer.

  Gavin didn’t move. “I think you want me just as much as I want you.” Of course, he was getting aroused, being so close to her.

  She was able to muster, “Enough Gavin. No more today.”

  He knew he had asked the right question. He would just keep trying.

  He stood up straight. “Okay. I’ll leave you alone. It’s been a long day. Why don’t you go ahead and go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Thanks,” she said, looking up at him.

  Again he wished he could kiss her, but knew he had to wait. Even though he was aroused, he wasn’t going to call on Chandler. Not being able to see him for a short spell was going to be her punishment, and essentially, his.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Gavin came to work the next day, excited to see Faith. He felt that he had made progress the previous afternoon, and that maybe she was beginning to break sooner than he expected. He also needed to talk to Lauren, and then to Carter.

  As he went to see Lauren, he first went to say good morning to Faith. He peaked in, and she wasn’t there. He turned and proceeded towards Lauren’s office. Her office was a couple of doors down from his. He knocked on her door to get her attention.

  “Well, hello. To what do I owe this visit?”

  “I just wanted to stop by and check on everyone. How are things going with you?” he asked as he walked in.

  “Like I told Carter yesterday, things are getting really busy with us here in HR. We’re working on updating all of our office policies before the expansion project is complete, per Adrian’s request. Then we’re going to have a lot of employee activities when we start hiring for the new office. It’s been a little crazy,” she smiled.

  “Well, if we haven’t told you lately, we appreciate all of the hard work that you’re doing,” said Gavin.

  “I know you guys do. You take very good care of u
s here. I can’t imagine working anywhere else.”

  Gavin looked at her seriously and asked, “Have you been feeling okay?”

  “Of course. Why?”

  “Because your nose is starting to turn a little brown,” he said.

  “Oh, shut up. You know I mean every word,” chuckled Lauren.

  “I know, I know you do,” he smiled.

  “So, I went to lunch with Faith yesterday. She’s nice. We’re going to try and meet once a week. Just us girls.”

  “Sounds thrilling. I sure wish I could be there,” he said sarcastically.

  “Well, I’m sure Carter would like to wiggle his way in, but we’re trying to come up with a way to keep him out.”

  ‘Lovely,’ thought Gavin. ‘This is going to be easier than I thought.’ He didn’t even have to be sneaky. “Well, maybe the two of you could schedule a shopping day, with lunch included. Carter hates shopping,” he suggested.

  “That would be fun. Shopping is a good stress reliever, too. I’ll ask her what she thinks. I know she’s been pretty busy working with you and Carter on the project.”

  “Yes, we’ve been in a lot of meetings. We won’t be finished with them until the end of next week.”

  “So why haven’t you approached her yet? She is totally your type.” Lauren thought she might as well ask since he was there.

  “What are you talking about?” Gavin tried to look clueless.

  “Oh, cut the bullshit Gavin! Faith is everything that you look for in a woman. Why would you leave her alone? When I brought it up yesterday, she didn’t seem to have a clue.”

  Gavin quickly realized that Faith was keeping their conversations to herself, so he decided to do the same. “Like I said, we’ve been in a lot of meetings. We’re all working very hard and diligently to get this project moving. We have a lot of information to comb through. I’m very focused on the project.” He didn’t like to lie, so he had to choose his words carefully.

  Lauren gave him a suspicious look before finally saying, “Okay. If you say so.” That would do for now. “But I’m keeping my eye on you, Gavin Carlisle. You’re out of character, and that’s mysterious.”

  “Ooh,” he said with a shaky voice like a ghost, waving his fingers around. “Sounds spooky.” He stood up to leave, and continued, “Well, I have some other things to do before my meeting this morning. It was good chatting with you. Let me know if you need any help with the policies.”

  “Thanks. I’ll keep you informed.” Lauren returned to her work.

  Gavin’s next stop was Carter’s office. He wanted to warn him, again, to leave Faith alone. Carter had just gotten to work and was logging in. Gavin knocked, trying to stay calm. He didn’t want either of them to be uncomfortable at the meetings today.

  Carter looked up and had a good feeling what this was about. “Hey Gavin, what’s up?”

  “I think you know what’s up,” he said calmly. “You’ve been asking Faith out again. Why won’t you listen to me? I told you to leave her alone. I’m not comfortable with your intentions.”

  “I told you that I couldn’t do that. Look, Faith is a big girl. She can make her own choices. She clearly has chosen me.”

  “What on earth makes you think that?” Gavin asked, shocked.

  “Just the way she acts when she’s around me. Sometimes she’s shy, but there are other times that she’s been very flirtatious.”

  Gavin saw that this problem was bigger than he originally thought. He knew for a fact that Faith was not interested in Carter. She was just as honest with him, as he had been with her. Plus, Lauren had confirmed that neither of them was extremely excited that Carter was with them for lunch yesterday.

  “Carter, are you serious?”

  “Of course I am. Faith started flirting with me at the meeting yesterday.”

  “Carter, Faith was not ‘flirting’ with you at the meeting. She was joking. There’s a big difference,” Gavin was growing concerned.

  “You’re in denial. Finally there’s a woman who wants someone else besides you. You should be happy for me.”

  ‘He is totally delusional,’ thought Gavin. “For your own good, stay away from her, Carter. I won’t warn you again.”

  “How are you going to stop me? You couldn’t control us going to lunch together. How are you going to keep us apart?”

  Gavin was losing his patience. “Carter, if I can help it, there will never be an ‘us’ with you and Faith. I don’t need to work very hard. I believe you’ve misunderstood Faith’s kindness for flirtation. You need to clear your head and think about what you’ve just said to me.”

  Carter was quiet for a few moments. Gavin stood watching, waiting for him to come to his senses.

  “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I just want her to like me.”

  Gavin was relieved for the moment, but wasn’t completely convinced that Carter was clear in his thoughts. Carter could be deceiving when he wanted to be. He decided to leave it alone for now. It was almost time for their meeting.

  “Look, I don’t want either of us to be uncomfortable dealing with this situation. Faith is not the only woman on the planet. Let’s stop acting silly, okay?” Gavin believed if he smoothed things over between them a little bit, that Carter would back off for a while. It worked.

  “You’re right. We’ve been acting kind of stupid, huh?”

  Gavin nodded, “Let’s get ready for the meeting, okay? I’ll see you in the conference room.” Gavin went next door to his office to get his things. ‘Phew,’ he thought. He was going to have to put Carter on a tighter leash.

  At the meeting, Gavin hoped that Faith would be more direct in her responses and reactions, with little playing or joking. He didn’t like that she would have to be this way, but it was too soon after his conversation with Carter. He’d made the decision to have two short meetings throughout the day. This meant that he would have to meet with Faith after the workday, which he knew she was prepared to do.

  All went as Gavin planned in the early meeting. As they wrapped up with one city, Gavin told them how their day would go.

  “Yesterday was a little tiring, with such a long meeting in the morning. Let’s go ahead and keep our afternoon meetings this week. This will give us a chance to take a break, get other work done, whatever. Our minds will be more alert this way. I think sitting in this room over the next two weeks is going to be very grueling. Do you both agree?”

  “Sure,” said Faith.

  Carter just nodded. He was still thinking about what Gavin had said earlier.

  Gavin dismissed the meeting. He followed Faith to her office to discuss his plans for that evening.

  She walked into her office unaware that he was behind her. He spoke up as he entered. “I need to talk to you about this evening.”

  Faith turned around, startled a little bit. “Hey. I didn’t know you were behind me. What about this evening?” she asked, as she sat her things down at her desk.

  “We won’t be able have our meeting to work on next week’s outlines until then. Are you okay with that?” Again, he knew that she was, but he didn’t want it to be a surprise.

  “I’m prepared to work three nights this week. So, yes, I’m okay with it.” Gavin didn’t seem normal. He was antsy. “What’s wrong?” asked Faith, noticing right away.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You look agitated, and it’s not normal for you to cut our meetings short when we have the opportunity to finish early. What’s bothering you?”

  “It’s nothing I want to talk about right now. I’ll be okay.”

  Faith looked at him, not believing what he said.

  “I’m fine. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

  She sat down, saying, “Alright.”

  Later that afternoon, they met as agreed, and finished before the day was over. As usual, Gavin took all of their notes to Agnes so they could be typed up when the week was done. He went back to his office, closed his door, and lied down on his sofa in silence for what see
med to be an eternity. He closed his eyes, to rest his mind. A lot had gone on during the day and he didn’t want to think about Carter. He thought about Faith instead, which was more pleasant. He didn’t realize how tired he had been until he woke up almost two hours later. It was five o’clock. Sitting up and stretching, he let out a deep sigh before he finally stood up. He opened his door to find that most of the team had left for the day. He walked down the hall to see Faith.

  “Hi,” he said groggily.

  She spoke without looking away from her computer screen. “There you are. I stopped by to see you earlier but you had your door closed. I didn’t want to bother you.”

  “You should have. I fell asleep for two hours.”

  “I’m glad I didn’t then. You must’ve needed the rest.”

  “I haven’t had a chance to eat. Do you want something?” he asked, still sleepy from resting so long.

  “No, I’ve got something here that I can warm up. I’ll get things ready so we’re not here that long tonight.”

  “Thanks. I won’t be long.” He walked back to his office to get his wallet and his phone. He never went anywhere without his phone, not even down the street.

  On his way back from picking up dinner, he made one extra stop to get some coffee for Faith. He figured if she didn’t want it, he could drink it. He could use all the caffeine he could get.

  When he got back, Faith was sitting at her meeting table. He handed her the coffee. “Here you go. I remembered what you ordered yesterday.” She was impressed. Her combination of ingredients was hard for her to remember sometimes. Gavin got it right on his first try.

  “Thank you. Are you sure you don’t just want to go home? You look really tired. We have all day Friday if we need it.”

  Gavin had forgotten about that. He was really beat. “Let me get some food in my stomach, and we’ll go from there, okay?” He sat down on her sofa, sitting his bag on the coffee table.

  She decided to ask him again what was going on. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No,” he said quietly. She almost didn’t hear him. “I don’t even want to think about it. The only good thing I could come up with to think about this afternoon was you. That’s when I fell asleep.”