Scattered Thoughts (Betrayed by Love Book 1) (7 page)

Traffic was heavy as I neared Palafox Street. A glance at the clock revealed it was twenty after eight and I was only five minutes from the office. The extra time would go a long way in helping me clear my growing to-do list. All the traveling I’d been doing lately had left me less time for paperwork and I was falling way behind.

My cell phone rang as I pulled into the parking garage. “Izzy James,” I answered in my professional office voice.

“Good…good morning, Mrs. James,” a shy voice I didn’t recognize came across the speakers. “This is Haley, ma’am, Mr. Howard’s new intern,” she said, saving me the trouble of asking.

“Welcome to Dimarco, Haley. What can I do for you?”

“Well, Mrs. James,” she fumbled the phone, “Jonathan isn’t here and your eight o’clock appointment is wondering when you’ll be in.”

“Eight o’clock appointment,” I thought to myself, searching my memory for details, coming up empty this time.

“I’m parking the car now, Haley.”

“Um…okay. Is that what you want me to tell Mr. Payne?”

“Alec Payne?”

“Yes, that’s him.”

I exhaled loudly, not even trying to mask my frustration. “Show him to the conference room and tell him I’ll be with him shortly.” I disconnected the call without waiting for her response. Banging my palms on the steering wheel, I screamed as loud as I could. As if my earlier nightmare and dealing with Spencer weren’t enough, this was exactly what I needed today. There went my plan of getting caught up on my growing pile of work. Now I had to deal with Mr. Control Freak.

A hot control freak
, my inner voice added. He was wonderfully good looking, but that certainly wasn’t helping my mood at the moment.

I took the back stairs up to my office, hoping the exercise would cool my raging nerves. Unfortunately, my plan backfired as I grew more annoyed with each flight I climbed. The nerve of that jerk, he’d showed up without an appointment, and then told my bosses new intern I was late, for an appointment we didn’t have! By the time I opened the stairway door on the fifth floor my blood was boiling.

Jonathan handed me a caramel macchiato as I stormed past his desk. I accepted it with a forced smile even though I really did appreciate that he’d gotten it for me. “He said he made the appointment directly with you,” Jonathan said by means of an explanation for my early morning visitor, knowing all too well that I didn’t like to schedule meetings before nine.

“That’s right.” I took a slow sip of the coffee, not offering any further explanation. “Thanks for the coffee, Jonathan. Please tell Mr. Payne I’ll be five more minutes.” I walked into my office and collapsed on the sofa, slowly sipping the sweet concoction, taking deep, deliberate breaths between sips. I needed to regain my composure before even attempting to deal with Mr. Control Freak, no matter how long it was going to take for that to happen.

Fifteen minutes turned out to be the magic amount of time it took before I could force myself off the sofa. Flipping through the files on my desk, I pulled out Ultimate’s. With a final deep breath I tucked the file under my arm, pulled my shoulders back and glided down the hall to the conference room, ready now to take on the control freak that was waiting inside.

I walked into the conference room where Alec had been waiting for the last hour. “Good morning, Mr. Payne.”

Looking up at me, he said, “Good morning, Ms. James.” That wicked grin crossed his face, making me blush. I looked at the floor, out the window, everywhere but at him until he stood and extended his hand.

Placing my hand in his, I expected a handshake but he lifted it to his mouth and kissed my knuckles instead. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Isabella.”

My insides quickened. I pulled my hand from his grip and walked swiftly around the table, intentionally taking a seat on the opposite side, safely out of his reach. I needed to squash whatever ideas he had gotten from our dinner and tour yesterday. Dimarco had strict guidelines on client relationships and I wasn’t about to break them to become Alec Payne’s latest conquest.

“Did we have an appointment, sir?” I asked, doing my best to maintain a sense of professionalism despite my overwhelming annoyance.

“Don’t you check your email?”

Seriously?
my inner voice snapped and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. When exactly was I supposed to check email? He knew how late it was when I got in last night, and he was here before I even made it to the office.

Alec’s jaw tightened. “So, you did read it?” His harsh tone told me instantly what email he was talking about.

“Please don’t tell me you came all this way to discuss my views on the necessity of eye rolling.” I laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

“That, plus any other unreasonable considerations of professionalism you may have.”

“You think
I’m
unreasonable?” I snapped, annoyed that he was wasting my time. “I’m not the one who boarded a plane and flew almost two hours to discuss whether or not eye rolling is an appropriate response to the ramblings of a control freak,” I shouted, surprising even myself with my boldness in front of a client.

Alec leaned back in the chair, folding his arms across his chest, the muscles in his jaw clinching. I maintained eye contact, unwilling to concede defeat this time. “Control freak?” he said, finally putting an end to the awkward silence.

“Control freak,” I repeated. “And now that we’re both up to speed, Mr. Payne, I have a lot of work to do today.” Alec’s mouth dropped open but I didn’t care. He was toying with me and I was in no mood to play. Not now, and especially not at my office. I might have crossed the line last night but I sure as hell wasn't about to let that happen again. I had to put a stop to this.

Gathering the file I needlessly brought with me I stood to leave, pausing to add, “The next time you’re in need of self-discovery, please, make an appointment.” I moved quickly toward the door before he had a chance to gather his thoughts. “Enjoy your day, sir.” I called over my shoulder as I exited the room.

“I bet he wouldn’t like it if someone wasted
his
time like that,” I mumbled as I stormed off in the direction of my office. Alec Payne might have been accustomed to getting his way, but not this time. Not with me. I wasn’t about to jeopardize my career to become his latest fling.

“Move my nine o’clock meeting to ten and hold all my calls,” I said as I passed Jonathan’s desk on the way to my office. Closing the door, I plopped down in my leather desk chair. “Control freak!”  I said out loud, tossing the file I’d needlessly taken with me on top of the credenza.

I leaned back in my chair and stared at the stack of files still awaiting my attention. Exhaling slowly, puffing out my cheeks out as I did, I picked up the top file and started reading.

An hour later there was a knock on my door. “Excuse me, Izzy,” Jonathan said poking his head into the room. “Your next meeting starts in five minutes.”

“Thanks, Jonathan. Can you print five copies of the Sandestin action plan and the Ultimate timeline I just emailed you?”

“Sure thing.” He pulled his head back out and closed the door.

Gathering the files I’d been reading into a neat stack, I placed the list of hand written notes I’d just compiled on the top. I took a deep, calming breath as I prepared to leave the safety of my office, not realizing until that moment I was about to return to the very room where I left Alec, mouth wide open, undoubtedly stunned by my outburst.

“He’s gone, Izzy,” I reassured myself. Alec Payne was not the kind of man who was going to sit around and wait for anything, well, except maybe an unscheduled meeting with me. The thought made me smile for the first time today and with a renewed sense of confidence I opened my office door and strolled down the hall to the conference room.

My team was already assembled when I arrived. I did a quick scan of the room and, just as I’d thought, there was no sign of Alec. A sigh of relief escaped me. “Good morning,” I said in full business mode now. “We implement at the Sandestin next week, so let’s start there.” I passed around the reports Jonathan printed for me then took my seat at the table.

• • • • •

My list of notes was long and it took over three hours to get through them all. I assigned the necessary action items and was confident the work would be handled. I walked back to my office, exhausted from the marathon problem solving session, and more than ready for lunch. I’d skipped breakfast again this morning, a fact my stomach was refusing to let me forget.

“I’m going to Hopjacks,” I announced as I passed Jonathan’s desk. I needed food, and I needed to get out of here, even if it was only for an hour. Hoping to avoid Tim, I hurried down the hall to the stairs. If he saw me I knew I could forget about lunch. I ducked inside the stairwell and moved quickly down the five flights of stairs, pausing only to straighten my skirt once I reached the bottom floor. I needed time. Time to breathe, time to process all that had happened since yesterday and, more importantly, time to figure out how to get Alec Payne out of my head because no matter how hard I tried, or how much I wanted to, I hadn’t been able to make that happen.

The cool, salty, air invigorated me and I strolled down the sidewalk toward Hopjacks Pizza. There was already a line of people at the door: business professionals, families, locals, tourists, all waiting for a table. But not me, no, I moved past the mob and headed straight for the bar.

“What’ll it be?” the bartender asked after I’d settled into one of the high back stools.

“Caprese salad and a glass of water, please.”

And a glass of that Riesling you like so much
, my inner voice coaxed. “I’ll have a glass of Chateau St. Michele too,” I added, quickly surrendering to her temptation.

“Coming right up.” The bartender poured the wine and set the glass down on a cardboard coaster in front of me. I wasted no time in tasting it. It wasn’t as good as the wine I’d had last night with Alec, but it was still one of my favorites.

Blocking out the chaos around me, I sat in silence, sipping the glass of wine as I waited for my lunch to arrive. Without permission, thoughts of Alec kept popping into my head: his beautiful body, his smile, that wicked grin. His words, “Dangerous, dangerous game,” rang in my ears again and I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d meant.

The bartender set my lunch on the counter in front of me. “Can I get you another?” he asked, pointing to the nearly empty glass of wine in my hand.

As much as wanted another glass I still had work to do today. “I better stick to water.”

He smiled and walked away, leaving me alone to eat my lunch. One bite of tomato drizzled with the balsamic vinegar glaze, and food was all I could think about. My stomach growled, encouraging me to eat faster. The fresh mozzarella practically melted in my mouth, and that was all the encouragement I needed. Bite after bite I powered through the food on my plate.

When I’d finished eating the bartender returned with a fresh glass of wine. “Compliments of that gentleman over there,” he said, motioning to the end of the bar. I closed my eyes, secretly hoping it was Alec but afraid to look.

“Thanks,” I said when I opened my eyes again. I lifted the glass and took a long drink, deliberately looking in the opposite direction of where he’d pointed. If it wasn’t Alec, I didn’t care who’d sent it, and if it was him, well, that was a whole different problem.

The mystery was quickly solved when Alec took the seat next to me. “Drinking on the job, I see,” he teased.

“It’s from a client,” I snapped, conflicted by the feelings he elicited and my responsibility of professional conduct. “What are you doing here?”

“Ironing out the details of my latest contract.”

Shit. Now I’d have to apologize. I’d accused him of flying here to see me when really he had business to take care of. Before I could formulate a complete sentence that resembled an apology, I heard my name being called.

“Izzy.” I heard again, only this time I knew who it was. I turned just in time to see Tim approach, waving a file in his hand.

“Hey, Tim, what’s that?”

“Our newest contract.”

“Ultimate’s contract?” I asked cautiously. Tim nodded and I slowly started to put the pieces together. Alec wasn’t meeting about some other contract.  He’d  gone  over  my  head  and  finalized  the Ultimate contract with my boss. Turning back to the bar, I took a long drink of the wine Alec had ordered for me, trying not to think about what all the control freak managed to change without my knowledge.

“Wait until you hear the good news, Izzy,” Tim said, barely able to contain his excitement. “We’re going on a cruise.”

“Who’s going?”

“You and Tim,” Alec chimed in. “You’re coming on the maiden voyage of Ultimate’s newest ship.”

“The Ultimate Fantasy,” I muttered, unable to believe what I was hearing. I’d declined the trip two weeks ago when Lily invited me. Going away would involve rescheduling dozens of meetings and that would put me even further behind than I already was.

“Yes, that’s the one,” Tim said.

“But that cruise departs Friday, as in two days from today.”

“Actually, you’re flying over tomorrow,” he said. “It’ll give you an opportunity to observe the crew’s processes before the passengers arrive.” It didn’t take a genius to figure out who came up with that bright idea.
Control freak!

“Mr. Payne is sending his corporate jet to pick you up tomorrow night.”

I shook my head. “Of course he is,” I snapped, my nerve strengthened once again by the wine.

“That isn’t a problem for you, is it?” Alec asked.

Of course it’s a problem you control freak!
I wanted to scream and yell and maybe even throw things, but I doubted Tim would appreciate any of those things so I opted for deep breathing instead.

“Izzy, this isn’t a problem, is it?” Tim asked in that ‘you better not ruin this for me’ kind of tone.

“Not at all,” I said finally. When I looked over at Alec, that wicked grin crossed his face and I blushed.
Damn it.

“It’s settled then,” Tim said. “Alec, I’m sorry about how things went with your morning meeting but I’m glad it gave us the opportunity to finalize your contract with Dimarco.”

Alec shook his hand. “I’m happy we got that finalized too. It’s nice to meet someone who appreciates client expectations as much as I do.” Alec looked right at me. “And strives to meet them.”

“I’m afraid I have to get back to the office, but Izzy will email you the finalized contract later today.” Tim nodded at me then walked away, leaving us alone.

I took another drink from the wine glass I was now clutching. “I should go too. Apparently I have a contract that needs to be edited and emailed to a client today, along with all the other shit on my to-do list.”

“Maybe your client will give you until morning.”

“Doubtful. He’s a real control freak.”

“Maybe he just knows what he wants.”

I took another drink. “Maybe he needs to realize he can’t always get what he wants.”

“Says who?”

“The Rolling Stones for starters. They have a whole song about it.”

Alec laughed. “Fair point, Isabella, but I’m afraid I don’t subscribe to every belief someone has written a song about.”

I rolled my eyes. “So, what, you just expect people to give you what you want simply because you want it?”

“I expect a lot of things, but I never expect them to be
given
to me.”

“Then you don’t expect to always get what you want?”

“That’s not what I said. I work very hard to secure the things I want, Isabella.” Alec leaned toward me and pushed my hair off my shoulder. Goosebumps covered my neck then ran down my arm. “And what I want right now is for you to stop rolling your eyes at me.”

My insides quickened. I took another drink to strength my nerve. “Well, you’re going to have to work extra hard to make that one happen.” I bit my bottom lip to keep from rolling my eyes at him now.

He reached over and pulled on my chin, simultaneously freeing my trapped lip and making me squirm. “I guess I could learn to live with that,” he whispered.

I lifted the wine for another drink, but Alec took the glass out of my hand. “I’d say you’ve had enough wine for a workday lunch. Let’s go. I’ll walk you back to your office.”