Love.com (30 page)

Emily recovered before she fell flat on her face, walking around
the desk to sit. “I thought you were staying in Germany another year? What are you doing here?”

He smiled slightly and shrugged. “
It’s nice to see you too! I got an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“Here in Sacramento?” Emily knew she sounded like an idiot to her own ears. She knew she should go look for the new guy.
Ian commanded her attention the minute she sat down. He looked the same. He was still gloriously sexy, as fit as ever, dressed in a smart navy blue suit. It hurt to see him again, in places she knew shouldn’t feel such pain after a year. “Where?”

“Here, Emily. I’m the new art director. Evan offered me the job before he left.”

Emily looked stunned, unable to comprehend Ian Sawyer was now her new art director, her new trainee, the newbie she’d been looking for since she arrived. She was angry Evan would deliberately keep such information a secret.

How
Evan must be laughing on his way to New York, knowing what a curve he threw her before he left? Evan more than guessed what was between Emily and the former consultant from Ambidor. He said she had it written all over her face the day Ian resigned. She never denied or confirmed it, determined not to lie if she didn’t have to. A small wooden statue of Pinocchio sat on her desk to remind her of it now. The truth would set her free. The truth was, even after a year, she was still crazy about Ian and trapped in that prison of unrequited love. Seeing him here today brought it all back with such force she gripped the edges of her chair for support.

“For how long?” Emily glared at him
now, seeing his blue eyes darken and narrow at her words.

“What do you mean
by that?”

“How long do you plan to be here this time before you quit?”

Ian looked amused at her angry tone. “I got tired of being on the road, Emily. Evan offered me the job. I took it. Today is my first day. Do we talk about my last day right now? That’s no way to start, kind of self-defeating, isn’t it?”

“Everything that begins must end, according to you,”
Emily said coolly and raised an eyebrow. “I just wanted to know what I can expect from you, Ian. This job comes with its own expectations. Think you can handle those? We both know how much you hate them.”

“Are we talking about the job
still? Or are we talking about something else now?”

“Evan hired you, not me,” Emily went on
tightly, ignoring his comments. “This company doesn’t need people who are uncommitted to anything but themselves.”

Ian looked irritated at her words
then, his jaw tensing. “You think I won’t do a good job, Emily? Is that what you’re saying?”

“That’s not what I said at all! I asked you how long you plan to remain here before you jump
ship at the next opportunity that comes along. It’s a fair question. You’ll be part of my team. I need to know I can count on you, Ian. The art director job is an important one.”

“I think we both know why I left here a year ago, Emily. Choice had little to do with it.”

“You had a choice! You left rather than fight to keep your job, as I recall! I think I have a right to question how committed you plan to be to this agency.”

Ian eyed her mockingly
now, sweeping her with his intense blue gaze, his admiring stare disconcerting her. “What are you really asking me, Emily?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Still lying, I see? Here I thought you decided to stop all that? Tsk…tsk…think of your nose.”

“You’re still an asshole,” Emily muttered, longing to toss him out on his ear. Evan hiring him meant only Evan could fire him. She gnashed her teeth to know she had little or no control over his being here and they both knew it.

“I took your advice. Travelling wasn’t for me anymore,” Ian allowed with a lazy grin. “Besides, German chicks don’t shave their legs. That did help me decide it too, in all fairness.”

Emily turned a bright angry red, knowing he was baiting her. She took a slow, soothing breath, counting
mentally as the therapist advised her. She forced herself to calm down. Ian was smirking at her, as if daring her to continue needling him. “We have a daily meeting at one o’clock. I suggest you move into your new office during that time, meet your people, and get acquainted before then.”

“I already did all that,”
Ian said smoothly and sat back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “I did that when I got here at seven-thirty.”

“
Then go do it some more,” Emily grumbled and pointed to the door.

“Don’t we have a new employee handbook and a benefits package to go over?” He dimpled at her
. She longed to smack him for being so unaffected by her anger.

“Somebody from HR does that,” Emily snapped and glared at him. “They will go over
all that with you during your orientation.”

“Aw, Evan said you were the one guiding me through all this,” Ian said with
wounded look. “He said he left you in charge of my training.”

“Training? Ha! You’re un
-trainable and we both know it! You just want to push my buttons and piss me off! Go back to your department until I call for you!”

“
Yes’m, boss lady, whatever you say,” Ian drawled in his best southern accent.

“Cut the crap, Ian. We have to hit the ground running
. You’re training can just wait. I need a presentation delivered by the end of the week. Your assistant will help you,” Emily fairly growled as he rose; his long frame unwinding before her eyes, reminding her of how he looked naked.

“See you at lunch, Emily,” Ian
called over his shoulder as he sauntered out of her office.

“I’m not having lunch with you!” She shot
back her denial into his broad back.

“Yes
, you are.” He closed the door before she could get out her last exclamation.

Emily stared at the door and knew Ian being here would destroy
whatever progress was made in her six months of therapy by day’s end. What was it about the man that drove her into crazed fits of anger, lust, and whatever emotion that was unsettling and disruptive to her state of mind? What right did he have coming back here and tormenting her now?

Emily ground her teeth, staring at the door, willing him to come back even as she sent him away. She knew it was wrong to allow him to control her emotions as he did. Didn’t Dr. Simon sa
y this unhealthy attachment began as her way of avoiding dealing with her pain and problems? She sighed depressively. What pain was that anymore? Time healed all. The only problem she had these days was getting home early enough to take Willie to dog obedience class before he chewed tunnels through her house. Why did she feel this dizzying excitement the minute she set eyes on the man who broke her heart a year ago? Exactly. Therapy was seriously overrated.  

~
~ ~

Lunch arrived in the form of take-out and Ian, leaning inside her door frame, looking impossibly hot and unaffected by her
dark scowl when she noticed him standing there.

“It’s my treat,”
Ian offered as he shook the bag of Wong Fu, her favorite Chinese food. “I thought we could talk before the meeting.”

“Talk about what?” Emily tossed down her pen and was disgusted her heart began to hammer in her chest the closer he
came.

Ian closed the door and sat down, taking the containers within out and offering her one. “I more than sense you’re angry with me still, Emily. If we’re going to work together
, we need to clear the air.”

“Is this where you tell me you’re still not
that
guy and the one who treated me like shit is sorry again?” She snatched the container and opened it, pleased to see it was General Tso’s Chicken, minus the fried rice. “Why don’t you go call me and leave it on my voicemail? I’ll listen to it after lunch.”

“Ok, that’s fair,” Ian conceded and took his own container and opened it. He frowned down at it. “You got my food, I think.”

“Bummer for you,” Emily replied and dug in with her chop sticks, enjoying his look of disappointment.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, Emily. I think you know that.” Ian handed her several napkins and an eggroll wrapped in wax paper. “What happened between us was inevitable. I won’t say I regret it.
I was honest with you. I never claimed to feel something I didn’t just to get you into bed.”

“No, you just took advantage of how I felt
about you,” Emily said between bites, flicking him a look of disgust. “Isn’t that about the same thing?”

Ian sighed and gazed down at his food with a saddened expression. “You aren’t making this easy
on me, are you?”

Emily munched on her eggroll and rolled her eyes. She swallowed and gazed at him with resentment flaring in her gaze. “Why should I? It would seem to me, I made it too damn easy for you a year ago. Where did that get me? Exactly
! What do you want me to say, Ian? That I understand that you’re still not
that
guy and its ok with me now? Well, it is. Go enjoy your solitary, uncomplicated life.”    

“
Wow, talk about some anger issues,” Ian remarked with a grin as he nibbled on his pork lomein. “Here I thought you had that licked in therapy, Em.”

Emily glared at Ian, wondering if he bug
ged her therapist’s office. She cringed to think the only topic ever discussed while there was Ian Sawyer for six months straight. Poor Dr. Simon used to grip his pencil in discomfort every time she uttered Ian’s name, his eyes filling up with dread whenever the source of her unhealthy crush came up in session.  “I licked a lot of things in therapy, Ian. Can we just forget about the past?”

“I don’t want there to be any bad feelings between us
anymore, Emily,” Ian said as he set down his lunch. “I came back here to start over fresh.”

“Why here? Why not Chicago?”

Ian chewed thoughtfully and avoided her gaze. “Let’s just say the memories here were better than there.”

Emily didn’t want to read anything into what he said, wonder if she was a part of those fonder memories he referred to. She refused to harbor one single hope he came back for her. He came because he needed a job, nothing more. He could have called her a million times this last year and didn’t. Not a word. He was still the same Ian
, though, irresistible to her. She couldn’t hold up this angry pretense anymore. She couldn’t pretend she wasn’t glad to see him. She decided to work on her own detachment, stay away from subjects that were bound to cause her discomfort.

“Where are you staying?” That was safe enough.

“I got Evan’s old apartment as part of the deal,” Ian returned and smiled fondly. “He said he wasn’t ever coming back.”

“I don’t think he ever will,” Emily agreed with a
shake of her head. “That thing with Tabitha shook him up pretty bad. He went running back to his wife after he found out her plans for him.”

“Speaking of which,” Ian said in
sudden concern. “Has Tabitha ever shown back up here since then?”

“No, not a word,” Emily said
quietly and shrugged. “Nobody knows where she is. Stu probably doesn’t even know. After he got fired, I think he decided to tow the line.”

“Don’t underestimate her, Emily. She didn’t strike me as the type who gives up
on her goals easily.”

“She has five warrants
out for her arrest for check fraud, Ian,” Emily remarked and shrugged dismissively. “I doubt she’s hanging around for us to notify law enforcement. If she’s smart, she left town.”

“She never struck me as smart, just determined.”

“I’m not worried about Tabitha, or rather Stephanie, that is,” Emily said and frowned suddenly at Ian’s worried look. He knew something. A feeling of intuition told her by the frown creasing his perfect brow just then. “Should I be?”

“I don’t want to alarm you
. While I was in Luxemburg, Evan had me use my Intel resources there to do some digging on her.”

“What did you find out?”

Ian looked at her with a look that reminded her of how ruthless he could be. His jaw tightened. He had a cold look in his eyes that unnerved her. “Emily, they have reasonable cause to believe Stephanie Watterman might have poisoned three of the patients at the nursing home where she worked. She was cashing their Social Security checks before she was caught. They exhumed two of the bodies recently for testing to confirm their suspicions.”

Emily flinched at his words, remembering what Tabitha plotted against Evan, hoping he’d suffer
ed a heart attack while taking Viagra with his other medications. Even she had not believed Tabitha capable of more than leading a horse to water. It sounded like she was poisoning the water. It definitely changed matters. “Do I need to worry about this?”

“Let’s face it
; you two weren’t besties, Em. She blames you for exposing her scam to marry Evan. I think it’s safe to say you’re high up on her list of chosen targets these days.”