Heart & Soul: The Surprise (Heartland Series) (7 page)

Sam rushed through the entrance to the
office that connected to David's and shut the door quickly behind her.
 
Leaning her forehead against it, she took a
deep breath before turning to see Rachael watching her, her eyebrow raised and
a curious look on her face.

"Don't fancy the inquisition
huh?" Rachael asked, causing a small smile to creep onto Sam's face.

"How'd you guess?"
 
Sam said as she pushed off the door and
approached Rachael's desk, the files she'd grabbed in her arms.
 
Sam saw Rachael's eyes drop to the files and
then flick back up to her face.

"I'm guessing those are for
me?"
 
Sam felt the guilt begin to
swamp her again as Rachael realised what was happening before she
’
d even said anything.
 
Giving her a small smile, Sam nodded and held out the files for her.
"Guess it's my own fault, I should have come in yesterday.
 
I knew David had an important meeting.
 
I should have made more of an effort to get
my ass in here."

"You can't help it if you're
ill." Sam said as she perched on the edge of Rachael's desk.

Sam watched as the other woman sighed,
taking the files from her as their eyes connected.
 
In that moment, Sam knew that there was
something Rachael wasn't telling her.
 
They'd worked together on a number of occasions and whilst they were in
no way close friends, she prided herself on her ability to read people, and
this was one woman who definitely had a secret.
 
Deciding not to push, Sam stood.
 
Giving Rachael a small smile, she turned before the PAs voice stopped
her.

"I wasn't ill." Turning
back, Sam took back her position on the edge of the desk and smiled,
encouraging her to continue. "David and I, we kind of hooked up Friday
night."

Sam saw the flush that crept onto Rachael's
cheeks at her confession.
 
David was a
good looking guy; most of the women in the office had imagined getting all hot
and sweaty with him before now, including her when she
’
d first joined the company.
 
She wasn
’
t surprised that Rachael had those fantasies too, but she
was surprised that she was the one who had turned them into a reality.

She
’
d
always found Rachael to be a sweet girl.
 
She was pretty with shoulder length blond hair and a curvy figure that
most guys loved.
 
She wasn
’
t short of admirers, knowing for a fact that at least two of
the guys in the office had tried to get into her panties before now, but
Rachael had always politely declined.
 
From what Sam could remember of the conversations they
’
d had, Rachael had been burnt badly a few years ago by a guy
at her old job. She avoided office romances like the plague, which is why this
latest revelation was such a surprise.

“
What happened?
”
Sam asked, not wanting to pry but her curiosity was getting the better of her.

Sam watched as Rachel folded her arms
on her desk and lowered her head, groaning as she stretched her arms out in
front of her and raised her eyes to look at her.
 

"I don
’
t know. It kind of just happened.
 
I wasn't well on Friday, that was
genuine.
 
David came round to drop off a
file I needed that I'd forgotten the night before.
 
We started talking about work and it moved
onto his family and mine.
 
Before I knew
it he was on top of me and I was screaming his name as he fucked me on my
couch.
 
I still can't quite believe it happened.
”

Sam bit her lip as Rachael talked,
trying not to ask the obvious question.
 
The one all women wanted to know the answer to when a friend got with a
new guy.
 
As if sensing what she wanted
to ask, Rachael smiled and fanned her face dramatically.

“
It was the best sex I
’
ve
ever had.
 
Let me tell you, that guy
knows how to please a woman.
 
The things
he did with his tongue....
”

Sam held up her hand to halt Rachael
’
s words.
 
She had to
work with the guy and she didn
’
t want those images in her mind when
she did.
 
She was having enough trouble
trying not to think about her and Alistair, adding images of Rachael and David
wasn
’
t something she wanted to have to deal with.

“
Anyway, he text me all over the weekend asking how I was but
I didn't reply.
 
I didn't know what to
say to him, I still don't.
 
I couldn't
face coming in yesterday but I knew I wouldn't be able to avoid him
forever.
 
He hasn't mentioned anything to
me since I walked in and he has been acting like nothing happened."

Sam listened to Rachael's words,
understanding the blond woman more than she realised.

"Well how does that make you
feel?" Sam asked her.

"Honestly. It pisses me off.
 
I know I ignored his messages over the
weekend and effectively ran and hid yesterday, but I expected...hell I don't
know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't this.
 
Sam, what if he thinks I just slept with him
for my career? I don't sleep with my boss for that. I'm not that kind of girl.
 
It just happened.
 
For some reason I just looked at him Friday
night and saw this guy who I suddenly found I wanted.
 
He's already given you the Lockwood job, I
guess that's his way of telling me what he thinks of me."

Sam watched as Rachael dropped her
head into her hands as her shoulders slumped.

"Rachael, David didn't give me
this job, Alistair Lockwood requested me.
 
David tried to keep you but Alistair insisted."

"So he hasn't given you the job
over me?" She asked, Sam detecting the hint of hope in her voice.

"No. The only way you're gonna
find out what he's thinking is if you talk to him. He's a guy.
 
You need to talk straight to them or they
have no clue.
 
Dropping subtle hints
rarely works."

Sam grinned as Rachael smiled for the
first time since she'd come to get her from her desk earlier.
  
David and Rachael.
 
Now that wasn't a pairing she'd thought about
before.
 
Working in an office like her's,
she saw interactions between men and woman she had a habit of pairing people
off but these two, they hadn't been on her radar.

"I might see if he wants to get
lunch, just a business lunch of course." Rachael said, for clarification.

"Of course. I'd better get back
to it before Alistair returns."

"So it's Alistair huh? Landed on
your feet with that one Sam.
 
He is so
hot.
 
What I wouldn't give to tap
that."

“
You and most of the female population.
”
Sam said with a small laugh.

Standing from her position on Rachael
’
s desk Sam walked towards David's office
And
knocked.
 
When David called out for her
to come in, she briefly turned seeing Rachael looking more like her normal
self.
 
As she opened the door, Sam
vanished behind it to get the information she needed to become Alistair
Lockwood's personal contact with RMG.
 
What the hell had she gotten herself into?

~ 5 ~

It sure was good to be back in
Toronto.
 
He had to admit, he'd missed
this place. Working overseas had it's advantages; the climate, the exotic men
and women, the food, but it wasn't home.
 
Technically, Toronto wasn't home either.
 
He and Alistair had grown up in Montreal along with their baby sister
and parents. As far as he knew, Adrienne was still there.
 
The last he'd heard, she'd started college
and had just moved in with her high school sweetheart.
 
The same sweetheart that he and Alistair had
practically kidnapped to find out his intentions towards their baby
sister.
 

Paul was a couple of years older than
Adrienne, making him two years younger than Anthony.
 
They'd been careful not to leave any marks on
the younger man, but they'd made sure he was well aware of what they would do to
him if he ever did anything to hurt Adrienne.
 
To his credit, he hadn't run scared.
 
He'd just arrived at their house that night to collect her for their
date as if nothing had happened.
 
In
doing so, he
’
d shot up in their estimations considerably.

Checking his watch, he tapped his foot
on the floor as he wondered how long this elevator was going to take to get
them to their destination.
 
He hated
being in confined spaces like this.
 
Even
though he knew they'd only been in there a very short time, it felt like hours
to him.
 
The metal box felt even smaller
due to the pure size of Chris who stood beside him, flicking through his smart
phone.
  

The man was huge, much bigger than
Anthony remembered.
 
Then again, he had
always been a bit skinny growing up so anyone was huge compared to him.
 
It had only really been since he'd hit
eighteen and discovered the gym that he'd started to bulk up.
 
By the age of twenty, he was twice the size
that he
’
d been in his teenage years, he could hold his own against
any guy.
 
His physique hadn't hurt his
love life either.

"You keep doing that you're gonna
put your foot through the floor."

Anthony turned in the direction of the
deep voice.
 
Chris was still messing with
his phone, not looking in his direction.
 
His expression remained neutral and if he hadn
’
t just heard him speak, he would swear he was ignoring him
completely.

Glancing down, he saw that he was
still tapping his foot, a nervous habit he'd picked up during his time abroad,
one he'd never quite been able to break. Why did his brother have to go at take
an interest in a place at the top of a forty storey building?
 
Wouldn
’
t
a nice five storey building have been enough?

Breathing a deep sigh of relief when
he felt the elevator begin to slow, Anthony forced his way through the doors
before they'd opened fully.
 
He heard a
deep chuckle behind him and he turned, frowning at Chris as he stepped out next
to him.
 

"A little eager to get out are
ya?" Chris said as he continued to chuckle at the younger Lockwood
sibling.

Anthony glared at him before turning
and taking in their surroundings, wondering whether his brother had actually
seen the place that he'd been so adamant they come and see today.
 
To say the place was huge was an
understatement.
 
At the moment,
everything was white, even the furnishings.
 
The whole of the first floor was open plan.
 
The kitchen spanned the entire length of one
side and was so state of the art it would make any Michelin star chef drool
with envy.

Taking a step further into the vast
space, he let out a low whistle as he took in the massive area.
 
This place was so not like his brother.
 
At the moment, it was way too clean and
clinical.
 
If his brother was going to
shell out the millions it would take to secure it, some major refurbishments
would be needed, which would probably cost him a few more million.
 
He guessed that being one of Hollywood
’
s hottest commodities had its advantages.