Stilettos & Scoundrels (13 page)

“Excuse me,
m
iss.” A man in a somber black suit interrupted
my
thoughts. By the look of him,
I could tell that h
e was one of the plethora of security guards.
The earpiece gave him away.
“No unauthorized people are allowed in this area of the hotel.”

“Well then,”
I
said with exaggerated sweetness. “It’s a good thing that I am authorized
.
My
name is Presley Thurman. I am here to interview Senator Daniels. It was confirmed with his assistant, Tobey Stone, this morning.”

“One minute
,
please,” the man said, holding up his finger as he proceeded to talk into his secret ninja microphone
discreetly hidden in his lapel, which I
admit was somewhat cool but also annoying. “I’m sorry
,
miss, but there has been a change in plans. You will have to call and reschedule for tomorrow. Senator Daniels is not seeing anyone else
today.” Attempting to usher me
to
the door, he had his hand on my
elbow
and was almost pushing me
toward the exit.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” I
exclaimed. “But we had an appointment. I am from out of town
,
and I don’t have time to reschedule. What do you mean he is not taking any appointments?” The guy just looked at
me
, seemingly bored and resigned to hav
ing
to deal with this
inconvenience
.
Smug jerk.
Was the main job qualification here to look and act condescending? If so, he must be their best employee.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but you will have to reschedule,” the man repeated in his calm patronizing voice. That might work to intimidate most people, but
I
wasn’t most people. If he thought
I
was going to cave and reschedule, he was crazy.
I
wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass
me
by.
I
was about to embark on a whole new career and wasn’t about to be defeated before
I
even started.
I
wasn’t going to waste
my
Donna Karan power suit by just going home either.
The fact t
hat the Senator thought he was so much more important than the rest of
them
and
that he
felt he could inconvenience others whenever he pleased made
me
even mad
der
.

As
I
geared up to give this guy a piece of
my
mind and clearly express
my
displeasure,
I
heard
someone walk
up behind
me
.

“What seems to be the problem
,
Simon?” a man asked, addressing the wanna
-
be
bald
thug, whose name was apparently Simon. The man’s voice sounded really familiar, which
I
thought strange.
I
couldn’t think of anyone
I
knew who worked for Senator Daniels
other than
Tobey Stone
,
and this voice was definitely not Tobey’s.

“Well, sir,” the man named Simon started to reply, but
I
cut him off.

“I had a three
o’clock appointment with…” As I
turned around to face the man who had spoken,
I
came face to face with
Cooper
Sands
. Where did he come from?

The proverbial bad boy
in high school, Cooper was tall,
dark, handsome
,
and a lot of trouble, which
made him even more attractive
to
the average
high school girl. Hell, it made him attractive today
,
and
I
wasn’t a high school girl anymore. He ran with a
more dangerous
crowd
than my
own
,
p
artied
,
and got in minor trouble with the law, much like his good friend Dirt
—
the garden-variety smashing mailboxes and spray-painting-street-signs kind of trouble. However, this bad boy with the chip on his shoulder
had come
to
my
rescue once, after one of
my many breakups with Brian. We
had talked for hours and ended up having sex in the back of his car, something
I
hadn’t even done with Brian
,
w
hich
,
ironically
,
was the main reason Brian
and I
had fought; sex had always been Brian’s goal back then. However, something about
Cooper
made it feel right at the time.
I
couldn’t really explain it. Big freaking mistake that was. It showed how
little
I
knew back then. Although
I
wasn’t much better now, come to think of it, looking back on
my disastrous relationship with Rick
.

Cooper
had taken me
home that night and
,
afterward
,
had
never spoke
n to me again except for a nod as we
passed in the halls.
I
was crushed.
I had thought we
shared something special
,
but
he
was just a
stereotypical teenage male. It had happened right at the end of the school year
,
so luckily
I
hadn’t seen him at school for that long before
we graduated and went our
separate ways.
I
headed to Chicago and
,
over time
,
forgot
about
Cooper
Sands
.
I
hadn’t spoken to or seen him since
then
and hadn’t thought about him in years.
It was all childish history
, I thought as I faced him, e
xcept
that he
was still great
looking.
H
e hadn’t faced the same ravaging effects of premature aging
that
Brian
had experienced
.
No matter what kind of jerk he may have been
and
probably still was,
I
couldn’t argue that he was ho
t—
whew
—h
ot enough that
I
felt
I
was about to melt.
Cooper was a
lways tall, but
he wasn’t
skinny anymore
. He had
filled out
i
n all the right places,
I
noticed
,
against
my
better judgment. He obviously got to the gym more often than
I
did, which really wasn’t saying much, but he definitely worked on those muscles. His hair, which had been dark brown, longish
,
and wavy, was now cut short on the sides and a little spiky on top. The effect was very masculine
,
and in combination with his piercing blue eyes
,
made him look like a Gap model. In fact, he reminded
me
of the poster
I
saw last time
I
shopped at the Gap with Wentworth Miller
, a
nother badass hottie, a complete turn
-
on.

If
I
wasn’t so shocked to see
Cooper
,
my
hormones would be in overdrive, but there wasn’t any time for
my
hormones to act because
I
was too busy wondering what the hell he was doing here.

“What the hell? You have to be kidding. Of all people to run into
…
”
I
exclaimed. “Where the hell did you pop up from?”

“Well, hi to you too, Presley Thurman.”
Cooper
said with exaggerated politeness. “Simon, I’ll take it from here.”
Cooper
nodded to him.

“Sure, boss.” S
imon walked away, glaring at me
as
he left
.
I
wouldn’t want to
work
in security, but
I
had to admit that covert communication stuff was cool.
I
could envision hanging out at the bar with Tonya and Trevor, checking out guys and talking about them through the cool ear buds.

As Simon walked away,
Cooper
put his hand on
my
elbow and tried to lead
me
off to a side office, which brought
my
attention back to the present.

“Get your hands off me!”
I said with my
hands on
my
hips, while
I
tried to act angry.
I
was angry, but it was hard for
me
to maintain
outrage
when
I
had to work so hard to keep from drooling. What was that saying from Casablanca?
Of all the gin joints in all the world?
However, that wasn’t the priority now.
I
needed to focus on getting this interview with Senator Daniels and good looks or not, he wasn’t going to stop
me
.

“I hope you aren’t planning on telling me the same thing your little security dude did. I
am
talking to the Senator today,”
I
said defiantly with what
I
considered
my
tough I
-
don’t
-
take
-
shit attitude with a bit of
my
condescending attitude thrown in.
I
was quite good at
both
.

“Calm down,”
Cooper
said and rolled his eyes. “It’s not as if this is a life or death matter.”
I
could tell he found this amusing.

“Maybe not to you. It’s not your career on the line,”
I
retorted.

“Oh, well
,
in that case
,
please do tell me what it is and I will get you in right away,” he said sarcastically.

“Listen,
pal
,”
I
replied and returned his sarcasm with much more skill. Poor guy,
I almost felt
sorry for him, he just didn’t realize he was up against a pro at projecting disdain
. I
had spent years perfecting it. “Like I told that other guy…”

“You mean Simon,” he interrupted.

“Whatever,”
I
said rolling
my
eyes. “I told Simon I had a three o’clock appointment
,
and I’m not taking no for an answer. I have a
dead
line I can’t miss. Why is the Senator canceling his appointments anyway? Doesn’t he know that’s rude? I just confirmed this morning. What could
possibly
have
happened between
then
and
now
?”
I
asked
in a rush.

Cooper
stood there and listened with half a smile on his face.
I
couldn’t tell fo
r sure if he was laughing at
me
, but
I
had a strong suspicion he was. The fact he found
me
amusing was pissing
me
off.

And he did find her amusing. Cooper thought to himself that she was more beautiful than she had been over ten years ago and she was just as feisty. He had often wondered what she had been up to over the years. He felt a surge of excitement at the prospect of seeing her again after all this time.