Torn (Lords of the City #1) (11 page)

What have I done? If Corey finds out…

I shook the thought away. Nothing really happened. We hadn’t even kissed. Not kissing made it forgivable, a moment of indiscretion. Even though I owed Corey nothing, I surely owed him more than this. I crawled across the floor and reached for my clothes. “It’s not right.”

“It feels right to me,” Noah persisted. “I want you, Imogen. Let me have you. Let me rule you. Let me awaken you.”

“Please,” I begged, hugging my clothes, tears of confusion and denial threatening to spill. “Please, just take me home.”

We stood together. “Don’t be upset,” he said, caressing my cheek. “You did nothing wrong. We’ll leave.” His thumb went across my lower lip. “You owe him nothing.”

I gasped. Was he able to read my mind?

Wanting to get as far away from the club as possible, I hurried across the dance floor as soon as I was dressed, pushing out of the door. I’d only made it a few steps when I tripped over the bottom of a barrier post and went crashing to the ground. Noah was instantly by my side to help me up.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine!” I snapped, not meaning to be so abrasive. “I’m fine,” I repeated more calmly. “I just want to get out of here.”

Before I could break down in front of everyone, Noah picked me up into his arms and carried me back to the car. We rode in silence until we reached my apartment. When the driver opened the door for us, Noah got out first then offered me his hand.

“I don’t need your help. I can manage on my own.”

“I told my brother I would watch out for you, and that’s exactly what I plan to do, no matter what does or does not happen between us.”

Looking up at him, I rubbed a scrape on my palm. “As long as you accept that you won’t be staying over.”

“I won’t be so mistaken.” He grinned and held his hand out to me again. “Let me be a gentleman and lend my arm to a damsel who has what looks like could very well be a sprained ankle.”

With my ankle starting to swell, I couldn’t refuse his chivalry, but I wouldn’t let him carry me. Instead, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and acted as my crutch. I was comfortable beneath his arm, which made everything much more complicated.

As soon as we stepped into my apartment, I wished I hadn’t let Noah be a gentleman. I should have sent him away. If I had, then we never would have interrupted Julia making out with a dark-haired hottie on our couch, their bodies so intermingled that neither of them heard us come in.

Noah stormed over to the couch, grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt, and pushed him towards the door, exerting a strength I knew he possessed but had never seen.

“What the hell?” the man griped. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

“Let me tell you who I fucking am. I’m the billionaire who bought this apartment. I command every inch of this place, including the women who live here. Leave before I throw you out the window and watch you fall.”

“Noah!” I reprimanded, ignoring the pain in my ankle.

“You can’t do this!” Julia yelled. “Leave him alone!”

“I will, as soon as he disappears,” Noah seethed.

“I’m outta here,” the man muttered, backing away. He looked past Noah towards Julia. “I’ll see you soon, baby,” he said and ran out the door.

“What the hell was that all about,” I demanded, more overwhelmed than ever. “Why would you care if Julia was making out with another guy?”

“He doesn’t care about the guy,” Julia said, her anger boiling off of her. “He cares that I’m his property. And no one touches Noah Stafford’s property.”

“You agreed to my terms,” Noah reminded her.

“You haven’t come near me since she’s been here,” Julia countered. “Scratch that. You haven’t looked my way since I gave you her file. You were obsessed with Imogen before you even met her.”

I reached my breaking point. My voice rose, matching the volume of those around me. “Someone explain to me what the hell all of this is about. Now!”

Julia’s demeanor changed. Her eyes sparkled with an icy vengeance. “I’ll tell you exactly what this is about. When Noah hires a personal assistant, it’s not just so she can answer his calls and schedule his meetings and book his flights. He thinks of himself as some sort of teacher. After you become his personal assistant, he convinces you to make an agreement outside your contract. You’re loyal to him. He’s loyal to you. And you express that loyalty in the bedroom. And when your year is over, you move on to a better department, and he moves on to a better fuck.”

I felt ill. “That’s what tonight was all about?” I demanded of Noah, full of accusation. “You wanted me to agree to some sort of game you play with your personal assistants?”

Julia answered for him. It was probably the first time anyone had answered for him. “Oh, it’s not a game to him. It’s a lesson.”

I waited for Noah to speak, but he refused, his jaw clenched.

“You can’t treat women like that,” I professed, indignant. “I thought you were virtuous, like your brother. I thought you wanted to help people because you cared about them. I never imagined you thought yourself so much higher than everyone around you that you would treat them like trash.”

“I never treated anyone like trash!” Noah roared, losing his composure, showing his creases. It was the most emotion I’d seen from him. “I never force my personal assistants to do anything they don’t want to. I don’t mess with their heads. I’ve had plenty of assistants who’ve turned me down, and I respected that.”

“I turned you down,” I reminded him. “And you continued to pursue me.”

“Because we have a connection. You know it, and I know it. But I would never let you do something you didn’t want to. The moment I felt I was pushing the line, I would have backed off.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” Julia challenged. “I see the way you look at her. This goes beyond a mere infatuation. You want her more than you’ve ever wanted anyone before.”

“You will not speak again in my presence tonight,” Noah ordered her.

“She can speak whenever the hell she wants,” I defended. “It’s time for you to leave.”

“Not like this. Not until you let me explain.”

“What more is there to explain?” I shook my head. “No, I’ve heard enough. It is what it is. Now go. Before I throw you out of the window and watch you fall.”

***

After tossing in bed all night, it was a relief when the sun finally peeked in through the window. Knowing I had no other choice, I pulled my suitcases down from my closet and began to pack. There was no way I could continue to work at Stafford Scientific. The whole damn thing had gotten too messy. I would go back to Milwaukee, I would find a job flipping burgers, and I would be happy because I would be settled.

If my time in Chicago had taught me anything, it was that I really did want the peace that came with settling down. That was probably why I’d waited so anxiously for Corey. I thought he could be the one I could settle down with. My new family. But neither of the Stafford brothers had proved trustworthy. Corey clearly wasn’t going to keep his promise to find me, and Noah had no intentions of committing himself to anyone. They were both playboys who fished for women, caught them on the end of their hooks for fun, then dropped them back in the water.

As soon as everything I owned had been stuffed into my suitcases, I wheeled them out into the front room, planning to leave a note for Julia, who I assumed was still sleeping. I froze when I saw her, standing near the couch with her own set of baggage.

“Why are you all packed up?” I asked.

“Why are you all packed up?” she returned.

“I’m leaving.”

“So am I.”

I sighed. “Maybe neither of us should leave until we’ve had a cup of coffee. Would you like one?”

Her fingers pressed into her temples. “I would kill for one. I couldn’t sleep.”

“Neither could I. That’s what happens when you find out that not only is your boss a tyrant, but he’s a super tyrant.”

Julia fell down onto the couch, her arms flopping by her side, and yet she still managed to look elegant. “The problem is, Mr. Stafford really isn’t such a tyrant. I’m as much to blame as he is. I knew what I was getting into. As a consenting adult, I didn’t feel at all manipulated or pressured. It was made very clear to me that I could end the agreement at any time. Because loyalty is part of the agreement, I just assumed that since he had moved on to you, that it was over.”

Putting the conversation on pause, I went to the kitchen, chose a hazelnut flavored coffee, and flipped the machine on, stalling for time. Neither of us could act irrationally. Julia had sacrificed a year of her life to work as a personal assistant, a job she was way overqualified for. I had nothing left in Milwaukee to return to. I had found my new family, not with Corey but with Julia, my sister. It broke my heart to imagine us fleeing in opposite directions.

“I still don’t understand his outburst last night,” I said, carrying our coffees over to the couch.

Eagerly, Julia took hers. “Mr. Stafford feels the need to control everyone. It’s in his nature. I know I sound like I’m trying to defend him, and I’m not, his behavior was inexcusable, but sometimes I think the reason he feels like he has to exert so much control is because there’s something in this life that he feels really helpless over.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t know. Women’s intuition.”

I sat on the couch beside her. “What are we going to do? This is so messed up.”

“I know what I’m going to do. I’m going back to Boston, and I’ll use my connections at Harvard to find another job. The way I spoke to him last night, he’ll never forgive me for that. The best thing for me is to resign.”

“Do you love him?” I asked, hoping she would forgive my forwardness.

“No. I don’t love him. I never did. He’s a jerk, but he still has a way of making you care about him. I’ve never known a man so gorgeous, so steady, and yet so lonely.”

I understood loneliness.

“You should stay,” Julia insisted. “He knows now that the line has been crossed. I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You’re strong. You can handle it.”

“Promise me you won’t leave yet,” I begged her, forming a plan. “Please just wait here. Don’t go yet.”

Before she could protest, I flew out the door and drove straight to the company. On the top floor, I stormed into Noah’s office, expecting to wait on the couch until he arrived, but he was already there, going over his schedule on his wall of screens.

“I guess it’s business as usual for you,” I sniped.

He didn’t seem at all put off by my temper, returning to his cool exterior, as if the previous night had never happened. “My employees have families they need to feed. Work doesn’t stop because you’re angry at me.”

“Don’t fire Julia,” I demanded.

“I didn’t plan to.”

I studied him, trying to figure him out. “You understand that Julia can’t be your personal assistant anymore, don’t you? She’s humiliated. You need to give her the promotion. Now instead of later.”

He turned away from the wall. “Let me make one thing clear, Imogen. No one tells me what to do in my own company.” He stepped closer to me, his eyes seeming to sear through my soul. “But I can see how much Julia means to you, so I’ll allow her to transfer whenever she chooses, but only if you trade me something for it.”

I almost stomped my foot. I couldn’t believe him. “You’ve gotten all you’re going to get out of me. I’m not interested.”

“Not that. I want your loyalty. Don’t leave. I’ll let Julia have her promotion, but only if you stay.”

I stared at him, trying to read between his lines, but he was as closed as I’d ever seen him. “I can do that,” I said finally.

“Good, because I already sent her an email with a copy of her transfer. I never intended on letting her go. Her mind is too valuable to this company.”

I exhaled, feeling a fraction of the tension inside me slide away. “So Julia has her job?”

“Yes. My business people will be expecting her to call in tomorrow. I told her she could have today off.”

“Then we’re okay,” I said, trying to maintain my standing. “I’ll stay, and Julia will stay, and everything will be very professional.”

Returning to his wall, Noah smiled. “Until you give in to the inevitable.”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

Ignoring that I still wore flannel pajamas, I went into my office before the stitches of our relationship opened up.

For reasons I wouldn’t admit, I could no longer tolerate the red in the office. It glared at me like an angry bull. Ignoring how tired I was, I went to my laptop and spent most of the morning picking out new furniture. Then, thinking it only fair after Noah’s behavior last night, I also used the company credit card to purchase yellow and aqua curtains and a rug for the apartment, the color template Julia and I had agreed to the night of our drinks in the blues bar. If Noah was going to take liberties, so was I.

Against my will, I looked towards the door, wondering if he would come through, but he never did.

It’s only because he looks like Corey,
I told myself.
Corey is the one I want, not his domineering brother.

And yet, I continued to look towards the door.

S
cratch tickets lay across the floor at my grandma’s house. As I scribbled on the back of one, a pizza in one hand, a crayon in the other, I was filled with a childlike whimsy. My grandma sat on the couch beside me watching an old Western on television, cotton stuck between her toes as her polish dried.

“You know what the thing is about these Westerns,” she said aloud, talking to no one in particular. “The bad guys, they aren’t always so bad. And the good guys, they aren’t always so good. That’s life. We all have our own reasons for doing stuff.”

Suddenly, the house began to shake, and the scratch tickets flew around the front room as if trapped in a tornado. I tried to run to my grandma, but the house crumbled on top of us before I could.

Gasping, I woke with a start, my hand over my heart, sweat streaming down my brow. I was safe, but I was still caught in the dream. Outside my apartment, the wind howled, beating against my window like a bat hitting a baseball.