Twelve Days The Beginning

Chapter Nineteen

The following few days passed quickly and before Elise knew it, it was Wednesday evening and she was packing for the conference. Now that Dale had given his ‘permission’, she found that she really was excited about it; not least because she got a whole night away from home. She tried hard not to consider that it had anything at all to do with spending quality time with a certain MD.

He had not communicated with her further since she had slammed out of his office on Monday, save for work related e-mails that were generally sent to everyone. She wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. On the one hand, she knew that they had a lot of time together coming up but on the other, he seemed to blow hot and cold. She didn’t know why she was surprised at the lack of communication, considering that it was her that had slammed out of his office in the first place. She could hardly blame him.

Cole had been on much better form and was really pleased for her having the opportunity to spend this time with Vaughn. Apparently he had a reputation in this field and there were high expectations that Vaughn would be gaining several promising contacts. They had not discussed Cole’s situation any further as she reckoned that he was as confused as she was and needed time to process everything. There was absolutely no doubt that he was attracted to girls; his endless pursuit of most of the female population of the office was testament to that and she knew that there was definitely a simmering attraction between the two of them – he just needed to work out what his feelings were for his own sex and that was something that really only he could straighten out in his own head.

Grabbing the overnight duffel bag from the back of her wardrobe, her eyes lingered briefly on her dress, the one she had worn to Indigo – and slept in at Vaughn’s flat. She toyed with packing it for dinner tomorrow night but knew that it would be a working dinner and it really was a party dress rather than a formal one. Sighing forlornly she went back to the task in hand and pulled out her dark blue trouser suit for the day of the conference. It was smart, practical and comfortable and she could wear her flats with it, which would be a godsend when she would be on her feet all day.

For Thursday, which was their day of travelling and setting up, she decided to wear her smart jeans and a grey halter neck top that had a matching knitted jacket. It was casual but tidy and would be perfect for travelling and lugging dirty conference equipment around.

That just left dinner, and for that she selected her failsafe little black dress with a high oriental collar neck and mid length sleeves. It was longer than her usual dresses and skimmed her calves giving her the illusion of extra height. She usually wore her black suede heels with this dress so she packed those too.

Once she was all packed, she left her bag by the front door ready and had a long hot bath before turning into bed. Dale wasn’t home yet. True to his word, he had been working long hours to try and make up the time he had lost and had not been getting home until at least ten pm. As far as she was aware, he’d not had a drink since Monday, which had meant for a relatively cordial attitude at home although they had hardly seen much of each other which had been a blessing for Elise. Neither of them had mentioned the conversation that they had had in the car the day he left hospital, and Elise felt that him drinking almost immediately after discharge rendered the whole discussion pointless in any case. He had clearly not managed to change his ways for long and although the atmosphere at home was calm, Elise couldn’t shake a nagging feeling of dread that this was most definitely the ‘calm before the storm’ and that Dale was just biding his time. She had been married to him long enough to know that these quiet periods never lasted for long however she also knew that this time, when the blowout finally came, that there would be a hell of a lot more at stake.




Thursday arrived and Elise went into the office as usual. The plan was for her to leave her car in the underground car park and they would go together in Vaughn’s. They were due to leave just after nine so she made sure she was in by eight-thirty to check on any last minute details and answer any e-mails before she left.

Sure enough, just after nine she saw him striding through the office towards her desk and she hastily shut down her computer and grabbed her handbag.

“Ready to go, Elise?” Vaughn asked, as he reached her desk. It was the first time she had seen or spoken to him since she had slammed out of his office and the sound of his voice had its usual effect, the tingling beginning to radiate from the nape of her neck.

“Yes sure, I just need grab my bag from my car if that’s okay?” She asked, busying herself with her handbag and keys in an effort to hide her now trembling hands. She really needed to get a handle on her reaction to this man. Before he had a chance to reply Olivia spoke, taking them both by surprise.

“Er... Vaughn – sorry, Mr Granger - I just wondered...would we be able to talk about me joining the off site team at some point? I really think it’s where my strengths lie and that I would be an excellent addition.”

Vaughn glanced across at her, a slightly irritated expression on his face.

“How long have you worked for Andrews & Andrews, Olivia?” he asked.

“Er... just under a month” she replied.

“Right. And how much experience do you have in the field?”

“Well, none really since I only just graduated from university. But I came top of my class and I’m a quick learner – I really would love the opportunity to work in all areas of the company.”

“I’m sure you would.” Stephen muttered under his breath and Elise had to stifle a giggle. She had been unaware that he had also been listening to every word.

“I think, Olivia,” said Vaughn patiently, “that you have probably just answered your own question. Employees that work off site are usually our more experienced staff as you can be asked any number of awkward questions and are expected to think on your feet. At present, you need to finish your core training period. Then I am sure that we can think about reviewing the situation.”

End of conversation.

Unfortunately for Olivia though, she didn’t recognise the tone in Vaughn’s voice and instead carried on speaking and trying to press home her point.

“But Roger....he’s going with you and he’s only just started as well. How is that fair?”

Her tone of voice and choice of words made her sound like a petulant child and Elise almost felt sorry for her as she watched Vaughn struggle to keep his patience.

“It is not my place to discuss other employee’s careers with you or anyone else for that matter. Now if you’ll excuse us, we really need to get on the road. Continue to work hard Olivia and I am sure that you will find yourself rewarded in due course. Stephen.” he nodded to his friend and grasped Elise lightly by her upper arm, steering her out of the door and down the stairs to the basement car park.

As soon as they were safely out of earshot, Elise burst into laughter effectively breaking any leftover tension between them and causing Vaughn to stop and regard her quizzically.

“You do realise that you’ve just shattered that poor girl’s illusions, don’t you?” she said in-between splutters.

When Vaughn continued to regard her in total confusion, she punched him lightly on the arm - again. This was becoming a bad habit.

“Ow! Will you stop hitting me?!”

“Man, you’re so dense!” she said, “If that wasn’t an invitation to jump back into your bed then I don’t know what it was!”

“What do you mean, ‘back into my bed’?” he queried, following her to her car where she proceeded to unlock the boot and retrieve her overnight duffle bag.

“Duh! After the Christmas party of course, when you all headed off home together. She was definitely rough around the edges the following morning.”

“You think I slept with Olivia that night?” he asked incredulously. “You must think a lot of me if you think I did that and then began pursuing you the day after.” He shook his head at her in total confusion, his hair flopping adorably over his eyes as he deposited her bag into the boot of his car.

“Is that what you’re doing then? Pursuing me?” She decided to focus on the second part of his statement. The first, questioning what he had or hadn’t done with Olivia that night was somewhere that she didn’t think she was ready to go. She knew that he had left the party with Olivia that night and in her own mind had decided what that meant but to hear him confirm it would be too hard. Besides, she didn’t want him to think she was jealous. Because she definitely wasn’t...was she?



“Yes, Elise,” he said almost tiredly, “pursuing, seducing – call it what you will. You know and I know that we have something here and I have every intention of proving that to you, sooner rather than later. Consider that fair warning.”

The finality with which he delivered that statement caused an excited tingling to course through her body and she shivered involuntarily. She once again wondered how she could find such dominance so attractive on Vaughn but so repulsive on Dale. It didn’t make any sense.

“Oh...” was all she could manage and it squeaked out in a ridiculously small voice as she felt the electricity begin to crackle between them again. Why did she lose all useful faculties the second she was in this man’s company? For the second time that morning she felt sorry for Olivia - the poor girl would seem to be similarly afflicted.

Vaughn unlocked the doors chuckling, clearly aware of and enjoying the effect that his words had on her, and they both got into his car. She’d never really taken much notice of it before but now she did and registered that it was sleek and black – panther-like. She smiled at the simile – he was all sleekness, dark eyes and dark hair and he could definitely be described as predatory. The car suited him and she luxuriated in the leather of the seats which she remembered from the first time she had ridden in it. The smell was still beautiful and fresh and she breathed it in almost hungrily as she settled into the passenger seat.

Vaughn was watching her with an amused expression on his face. “You are the strangest, most infuriating and most arousing woman that I have ever met.” he said. “You go from laughing manically one second, to punching me the next, then when my back is turned you are berating me, and now you’re practically having an orgasm inhaling my car seats. I am beginning to think that my radar is seriously off where you’re concerned!”

Elise picked up his intentional sexual reference and laughed quickly in order to cover her reaction.

“That’s what you get when you play with damaged goods.” she quipped. “One sandwich short of the nearest institution!”

She looked across at him, surprised to find that his face had turned serious rather than amused or even perplexed at her odd play on words.

“Don’t, Elise.” he said, suddenly serious. “Don’t ever refer to yourself as damaged goods. You are beautiful inside and out - I mean it. Don’t let how that man treats you dictate how you feel about yourself and never sell yourself short. You are worth so much more. Believe me.”

He paused and locked his eyes onto hers for a moment and then started the engine, navigating out of the parking space and back onto the street. His words ran around in her head as she watched his hands, beautiful and capable on the steering wheel. She had never really thought about hands before, particularly men’s hands, but she found she couldn’t stop staring at Vaughn’s, admiring them flexing with each turn, the fingers long, nails square and bluntly cut. Abruptly a memory of those hands all over her body filled her head and she had to turn away from him to hide her blush. Heat began to seep through her as she remembered what had happened in his bedroom and she had to close her eyes to break her vision of him so that she could have a chance of recovering some equilibrium. If she carried on like this, the car journey was going to be absolute torture. She really needed to find something else to focus on and wrung her hands together, wishing that she had thought to bring a book with her.

His voice broke through the silence, and it was almost as if he had read her thoughts.

“I’ve got my sat nav but I never completely trust those things so I prefer to have a good old fashioned map as back up. There should be one in the side pocket of your seat.”

Elise reached down, grateful for something useful to do, and located the map. Opening it to the right page, she proceeded to plot a route to their destination in Swindon, surprised to see that the journey was largely on the motorway.

“I didn’t realise that it would be virtually all motorway,” she said, voicing her surprise out loud. “I guess I’m so used to living in the country that I forget that there are proper roads out there in the big wide world.”

“Yep, the motorway; a wonderful modern invention!” He laughed. “I take it you’ve not travelled much then?” he asked.

“Not really, no. I was born and brought up in Eastwood, attended university there and met Dale so I’ve never really left. We kept meaning to go travelling, but the time was never right. I’d love to go to New York but we just don’t have the money – perhaps one of these days.” She finished wistfully and glanced out of the window, taking in the harsh beauty of the winter countryside.

He nodded and was quiet for a moment. “New York is beautiful, you’d love it. It’s a completely different world over there. Maybe ...” his voice trailed off.

“Have you travelled much then?” she asked when it became obvious that he wasn’t going to finish his sentence.

“Not greatly, although I did have the luxury of a few holidays to Spain and the Canaries when I was a child. Outside of the UK in recent years, I’ve only really visited America and spent a bit of time in Vegas - the usual tourist spots.” He shrugged “I’ve never had a need to travel either; I guess I’m just a country boy at heart too.”

“What about your parents? Are they local?” she asked and then immediately regretted her words. What if he was one of those people that had had a rubbish childhood and didn’t want to talk about his parents?

He must have caught her stricken look and he laughed again. “Don’t panic – I had a very normal childhood with very normal parents who I love dearly and still speak to most days.”

“Phew!” she said relieved. “I always speak without thinking and it generally gets me into trouble. Do you see them often?”



“As often as I can. They moved to a retirement village a few years ago, right down on the coast near to Lands End so it’s a bit of a trek. We always meet up for Christmas though. This year, we’re going to my sister’s. She lives about halfway between us with her husband and my two nephews so it kind of makes sense. It’s usually pretty noisy but that’s what Christmas is all about. See...” he spread one hand out in a nonchalant gesture, “completely normal.”

Elise found herself suddenly saddened at the comparison between what this man was going to be experiencing over Christmas and what she knew was in store for her. There was no way she would be seeing her parent’s over Christmas. She had already used up her allotted monthly visit for her Dad’s birthday so it would just be her and Dale – as usual.

“What about you, Elise?” He asked softly, “Do you get to do the whole family thing at Christmas?”

She considered for a moment before answering, unsure whether to lie or to be truthful. She opted for the truth; she was totally fed up with all of the lies.

“No, it’s usually just Dale and me. I’m an only child so no nieces or nephews and my parents – well, I don’t get to see them as often as I would like. It’s fairly quiet.” Nearly the truth then.

She left it at that, hoping that he wouldn’t decide to pry any further. Sometimes Christmas was noisy; those were the occasions when Dale would go just a bit too far with the drink and start shouting at her for some minor misdemeanour. Usually though he just sat in the chair morose, and then demanded his ‘present’ once he’d finished with all the re-runs on the TV. She was probably one of the only people who were grateful for modern twenty-four hour television; especially on Christmas Day.

The year after the debacle with her parents, she had tried again and had bought a tree and decorated it, made a full roast for lunch and even made a Christmas cake. She had bought Dale a present and had lovingly wrapped it and put it under the tree. That had been the year when his drinking had really escalated – he’d taken one look at the tree, called her a ‘sentimental bitch’ and promptly removed it to the garden, dumping his present in the bin on the way. He hadn’t even opened it. That was the night when she had finally realised what it was to have your heart broken.

“Hey, Elise – where’d you go?”

“Oh – sorry” she started at Vaughn’s soft sexy voice, “Just – reminiscing. What were you saying?”

“I just wondered what junction we needed on the motorway and if there was a service station nearby. I could really do with a coffee.”

“Oh right – erm yeah. If we get on the M5 here,” she pointed with her finger to the right place on the map, “then we can pick up a service station after about 10 miles. Would that be okay?”

“Sounds perfect!” he said with a wink, “Woman – take me to my coffee!”