“Actually,” I said, drawing my shoulders back, “I’m replacing Michael Cole.” Taking advantage of being a good six inches taller, even in my ballet flats compared to her nude Jimmy Choo’s, I extended my hand. “Kara Collins. Any financial queries can be directed to me.”
She didn’t take my hand. “Fine. Sit quietly, save your questions until last. Make sure you take notes.” She looked me up and down with pursed lips. “I have no time to run through details with him because of your incompetence.”
Remaining professional, I took the seat closest to where I stood. I felt more than a little out of place, sitting here in my grey skinny jeans. Her patronising dismissal of my intelligence riled me. I was glad to have no more dealings with her after this. The CEO for Marketing, Geoff, sat to my left and made small talk as I fired up the note app on my tablet.
The chatter descended into a hushed silence, signalling Nate’s arrival. He walked with brisk, harried steps, phone clenched in one hand, to the far end of the table where the redhead sat batting her eyelids. He pulled out a chair, unbuttoning his navy jacket as he sat beside her. He looked uncomfortable, agitated even. Definitely not like someone about to unveil the culmination of months of hard work for the biggest deal in his company’s history.
The redhead smiled, patiently waiting for him to begin. Her bright smile didn’t even slip when Nate whispered something in her ear. The sight of them being so intimate spiked a pang of jealousy in me. It was silly, but I felt like my ear was the only one he should be whispering into. By the scowl on Nate’s face, I knew it wasn’t sweet nothings he’d said.
“First,” he began, “I appreciate you all being here today in what should be an exciting moment for both of our companies.” His eyes followed each attendee around the table, but completely skipped me. They also skipped the woman to his right. “I must apologise for missing dinner last night. Trust me, I didn’t go hungry. And neither did you if the tab was anything to go by.”
There was a ripple of laughter, but I think everyone in the room sensed something was off. I had no idea Nate even had a dinner scheduled, let alone cancelled because of me. I knew his hungry reference was aimed at me, but when I glanced up again from my tablet, he still wasn’t looking my way.
“I’m sure you’re very much in demand, Nate,” the redhead purred.
“I am,” he agreed, “which is why, unfortunately, I’m going to have to cut this meeting short.” Calmly, he twisted the lid off the water bottle in front of him and took a long gulp. The attendees shuffled in their seats with murmurs of discontent and uncertainty.
“This is highly unprofessional, Blake.” A greying man with a portly belly and rosy cheeks huffed a few seats down from Nate. He was right. This behaviour was so unlike Nate, but he didn’t seem to care about the damage this could cause his reputation.
“Let me assure you, RED will continue to handle this project with the utmost care and professionalism, synonymous with the NTB Brand. I’ve seen some of the mock-ups, and I believe we’ve truly excelled ourselves this time with our innovation and forward-thinking. You won’t be disappointed, Roger,” Nate stated, addressing the man. “And as a gesture of good faith, I will fully reimburse all of your expenses and cover the rescheduled trip at a later date.”
Roger looked a little mollified. The redhead placed her hand on Nate’s arm. “May I say a few words?”
Nate shot her a look that would’ve had the mightiest of men withering in their seats, but she didn’t flinch. “Nate and I go back a long way,” she started, “and I’m certain there’s an excellent reason for cancelling at such short notice. He’s such a consummate professional, an expert in his field. There’s no-one else I’d rather get close with again.”
She failed in catching his eye, because now was the exact moment he chose to find mine. Wide-eyed with concern, he studied me carefully. He’d reclined in his seat, distancing himself from the redhead who had noticed where he was looking. The glare she gave me could’ve killed.
“Purely professionally, I mean.” She giggled coyly as if her faux pax hadn’t been intentional. Her fake smile said she was full of shit. “I’m sure everyone agrees, mixing business and pleasure rarely ends well.”
That comment was definitely intended for me. My skin prickled and the knot in my stomach returned.
“If that’s all, Miss Grainger, the meet—”
“Oh, Nate,” the redhead giggled again, “you know you can call me Ashleigh.”
Ashleigh
. Her sickly sweet tone grated on me—her name even more so.
Why did it feel like it had been following me around, hounding my subconscious?
It only took the sheer panic flaring in Nate’s eyes for me to realise it had.
Nausea flooded the pit of my stomach as it gradually dawned on me who this woman was. Nate had called her Ash, but there was no mistaking he was referring to the woman sitting across from me, cosying up to him without shame. Only she wasn’t some ex-girlfriend tucked away in the past as he’d led me to believe. Ashleigh Grainger was here, large as life in the very same room, breathing the very same air.
The urge to vomit became so overwhelming I lunged for one of the water bottles in the centre of the table and promptly sent my tablet crashing to the floor. “Shit!” I cursed quietly, all shaking fingers and thumbs as I scrambled to retrieve it from under my seat. There was a small commotion and a very audible
tsk
from her.
“Are you okay, Kara?” Straightening up, my eyes found Nate. Leaning forward, concern etched into his beautiful features, he waited anxiously. I knew from his gentle tone he wasn’t referring to the accident that just happened.
He’d got it. He knew I’d put all of the pieces of the puzzle together and made a very ugly picture. Ashleigh peered at me with a fake look of concern. “I’m fine, Nate. Sorry—Mr. Blake.” I squirmed as all eyes turned on me. My hand went to my neck, twisting the starfish back and forth along the chain. My face heated. My black sheer blouse felt like it was sticking to my skin, and my mouth was dry.
I didn’t even hear the meeting conclude. The only indication it had finished was when everyone stood and the room began emptying out. Ashleigh pushed to her feet, her fingers steepled on the table. “Miss Collins? Could you wait a moment, please?”
Nate was buttoning his jacket, standing beside her. “You have nothing to say to her,” he snapped, picking up his phone.
“Just want to ensure she has all she needs for her boss.” She touched his chest and swung her eyes to me, a cruel smirk twisting her lips. Disgusted, I looked away, busying myself with gathering my belongings together.
The room had emptied by the time Nate reached me. His hand curved my shoulder as he bent down. “You don’t have to listen to any of her bullshit, Kara.”
A chill moved through me as his lips brushed my ear. My traitorous body had other ideas, reacting to the briefest of touches the only way it knew how—with heated longing and understanding of how good they felt when they swept over more intimate parts of my anatomy.
“I think I do.” I pulled back my shoulders. “Maybe I’ll finally get some answers.”
I should have been preparing for a confrontation, but instead, I found myself scrutinising everything about her. Ashleigh was pretty—I’d expected nothing less—but she was nothing like me. I’d hazard a guess and say she was late twenties. She wore her blouse tucked into a knee-length white pencil skirt and expensive accessories. Impossibly thin, her face was immaculately made-up and framed by shoulder length hair cut in a choppy style that looked effortless but had probably spent hours to perfect.
Redheads were notoriously fiery and spirited. Ashleigh appeared no exception to that stereotype. Everything about her screamed bold and sexy. And the way she’d been chasing Nate? She wasn’t afraid to use her assets to her advantage.
Nothing like me.
“So,” she said, perching on the edge of the table a few feet away, “how long have you two been fucking?”
“That’s enough!” Nate turned to me. “Let’s go.”
“Don’t try to deny it. I’ve seen evidence proving it. My investigators were very thorough.” Ashleigh pinned me with narrowed grey eyes designed to force me into submission.
“
Your
investigators?” I spluttered.
“This is so out of line, Ashleigh,” Nate warned, his mouth thinned, eyes glaring. “It’s none of your fucking business.”
My mind raced, question after question jostling for position. Still, I found myself answering, “What Mr. Blake does in his private time is none of your concern. Your association is business, not pleasure.”
Ashleigh gave a conniving laugh and swung her legs off the table. “Kara, you seem like an intelligent girl, so it should come as no surprise to learn you’re merely warming his bed for me.”
“Jesus!” Nate raked a hand through his hair, the other on his hip. “You’re so deluded it’s sick.”
“That’s what you think?” I asked. Small and inferior because she was standing, I pushed back my chair and stood.
My sense of superiority was fleeting when she sneered, “It’s what I know. We have history. Our families are great friends. It’s a shame I was out of town for Thomas and Sadie’s party, my parents had an amazing time.”
The couple I met briefly… No wonder the atmosphere had been frosty. Then I remembered how protective Nate’s family had been that night. “I doubt you were invited. I know you weren’t missed.”
Nate came to me. “Let’s go, baby. She isn’t worth our time. I’ll answer every question you have, just not here. Not like this.”
“Let her talk. I’m interested to hear what she has to say.” I had no idea where my fighting spirit had come from, but I wasn’t running this time. I was ready to confront the truth. Belief that I deserved better, along with a backbone to stand up for what was mine were the greatest gifts Nathan Blake had given me.
“You know she’s gonna feed you a pack of lies?” he warned sternly.
“Am I lying when I say we’ve met for dinner in New York, and we had a very…
interesting
run-in at the vineyard a while back?” she pointed out sweetly.
I couldn’t ignore that. I knew he’d seen her the other week, but not over dinner. And how long was a while back? “Is she?” I croaked.
“You make it sound like it was just the two of us,” he corrected harshly, glaring at her before turning to address me. “This all happened weeks before I even met you.”
“Kara.” Ashleigh sighed, propping her hip to the table. “He’ll inevitably return to his first love. Me.” She crossed her arms, all the while maintaining eye contact, trying to put me off. “We were both virgins, but it was still good.” Cocking her head, she giggled. “Well, as good as anyone’s first time ever is.”
Her revelation hit me like a punch in the gut. The bitch was goading me with moments I could never share with Nate. A memory forever etched into his mind.
“Enough!” Nate snapped. He stalked towards her, knuckles white with rage around his phone. “Didn’t you cause enough damage the last time? Can you not get it into your fucking crazy head that I’m not interested? You have
nothing
over me anymore!”
“No?” she asked calmly, her smile sardonic.
“No,” he hissed, a warning through gritted teeth. Towering over her, irritation and rage rolling off him in waves, he was a man on the verge of cracking and losing all self-restraint. “Now, I swear to God, if you don’t get your goddamn ass out of here, this whole bullshit farce of a project can go to hell!”
Ashleigh balked and swayed a little, her head jerked back from the venom in his threat. She did what he said, hastily shoving her bound notebook into a beige Chanel tote. I picked up my glasses and tablet, shaking with anger. Pain lanced through my chest and I was on the verge of collapsing. I watched her leave when she stopped by the door and looked back. “I still wear the ring he bought me,” she said dreamily. “Reminds me of his eyes.” She flashed a rather gaudy sapphire creation on her right hand. So
not
like something Nate would choose. Then she laughed and waved her left hand. “Not on
that
finger anymore, though.”
“Out!” Nate grabbed her elbow and marched her out.
My head pounded, overloaded with intimate revelations. The room grew small and stifling hot, stagnant bitter air circulating around me. My feet began to move, carrying me out of the room. From the corner of my eye, I saw Nate haul Ashleigh into a lift, but I carried on walking, stumbling my way into his office.
I left my tablet on his desk and went to the cabinet in search of a drink. He came in and shut the door a few seconds later.
“Why don’t you have any alcohol?” I cried. “What good is water to me?” I poured a large glass, then twisted to face him. His chest was heaving, the stunning face I adored flushed and set hard and angry.
“I didn’t fuck her,” he seethed, his lips thinning.
“Jesus! It’s not about that! Before we met, you could’ve fucked hundreds of women for all I care!” That wasn’t true, but I had no claim on him back then. “You led me to assume you’d had a casual run-in with her, not that you’re in business together.”
I allowed my gaze to drift over every sophisticated, divine inch of him. My eyes snagged on the long, talented fingers flexing nervously by his side, the tensing making the throbbing veins glaringly prominent.
“You were engaged?” I whispered.
“Never,” he assured softly. He tossed his phone onto the sofa and approached. “It’s all lies, Kara. All of it.”
“Stop,” I snapped, my upheld hand warning him not to come any closer. I gave the tumbler a squeeze, imagining it shattering into a thousand tiny pieces when it hit the window behind him.
He sighed. “Ashleigh bought that ring years ago with my money and passed it off as an engagement ring to any fool who cared to listen.”
“A fool like me?”
He cursed under his breath. “A fool who doesn’t know the real me—who wouldn’t know a man in love if he kicked them up their ass and shoved his heart in their faces.”
I went to his desk, focusing on the two photographs taking centre stage. I lifted the newest one, the two of us at the anniversary party—a gift from his parents—and studied it carefully, searching for flaws. There were none. Our love was real and deep down I knew it.