No Strings... (Harlequin Blaze)

chapter 11



AIDEN HAD BEEN home from the airport for a few hours and had just finished his last load of laundry when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the display, surprised to see his boss’s cell number, especially since it was Sunday evening and Aiden was due back in the office in the morning.

He connected the call and answered. “Hey, Perry.”

“Aiden,” the older man said. “I just got a call from Edward Luca, the VP of the St. Raphael Resort. He told me that you had to leave the island early this morning. Is everything okay?”

Aiden inwardly cringed. Perry sounded more concerned than upset that he’d taken an earlier flight out, instead of the scheduled afternoon one, but Aiden wasn’t about to tell his boss the real reason why. “I had everything I needed for my campaign, and I had a family situation that needed my attention.” The little white lie was better than the truth...that he’d fallen in love with Chloe and didn’t know how to handle his feelings for her. God, he was pathetic.

“Well, I just heard from Luca,” Perry informed him enthusiastically. “Chloe pitched this brilliant concept this morning that would utilize a traditional matchmaker they have on the island. Luca loved the concept and is going with it!”

Perry went on, but the sudden ringing in Aiden’s ears prevented him from hearing anything else. His stomach churned, making him ill, and his head began to spin. Angry thoughts flashed through his mind, fast and furious. Chloe had pitched without him and behind his back? And Jesus, she’d actually used his concept to win over Luca and secure the account? Used it as her own idea and took credit for something he’d created?

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, trying to see things another way, to think maybe he was wrong. But Perry himself had said, Chloe pitched a brilliant concept using a traditional island matchmaker. There was no other explanation.

How could a woman he thought he knew so well, a woman he’d trusted in so many ways, do something so unforgiveable? And how stupid was he for believing she was any different than Paige when it came to her career when he’d known all along how important climbing the corporate ladder was to Chloe?

After everything they’d shared, her betrayal cut deeper and sharper than a knife, and left him reeling with disbelief...yet there was no denying what Perry had just told him.

He shook his head hard, and forced himself to focus on what Perry was saying.

“...I haven’t had the chance to talk to Chloe yet,” his boss continued. “Luca told me that she missed the afternoon flight out because she’d been doing the presentation. He flew her out by private commuter plane, but chances are she missed her connecting flight in Nassau. I’ll just see the two of you in the office in the morning.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Aiden said, because he didn’t know what else to say. Besides, he was still trying to process the fact that Chloe had double-crossed him.

He disconnected the call and tossed his cell phone onto the counter. Frustration roiled through him. With no way to confront Chloe when she wasn’t back in Boston yet, his anger simmered all night long. By the time he arrived at the office in the morning, he was like a lit fuse waiting to explode.

* * *

AFTER ONLY A few hours of sleep in her own bed, Chloe’s alarm clock startled her awake. It took everything in her not to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep. Instead she dragged her tired body into the shower. Exhausted or not after her flight snafu yesterday that had finally gotten her back to Boston after midnight, she was expected in the office this morning.

She hadn’t had a chance to call Aiden, or talk to Perry about her spontaneous meeting yesterday with Edward Luca, and she needed to let them both know that she’d already pitched their ideas, and why. She still felt it had been the right thing to do, because there was no way she wanted the Metro boys to have any kind of leverage over her or Aiden.

A hot shower helped to clear her head, but she couldn’t shake the fatigue and jet lag weighing her down. She figured it would probably take a day or so for her body to readjust. Dressed in a leopard print A-line skirt, a black silk blouse and black heels, she grabbed her computer case and headed out the door. On the way to work, she picked up a large skinny vanilla latte with an extra shot of espresso, and made it to her office with minutes to spare, even after stopping to say a quick hello to Holly.

She’d just sat down and turned on her computer when she glanced up and saw Aiden heading toward her office, looking as gorgeous as ever in a charcoal-gray suit that fit his broad shoulders and lean frame to perfection. Memories of their time together, the intimate ones where they’d both been stripped bare, emotionally and physically, swamped her. There was no doubt that her feelings for this man had changed drastically during their time on the island, but she still had no idea where she stood with him, and she had to admit, it was a very vulnerable place to be.

His stride was purposeful, his body language tense, but it was the dark, angry look on his face that took her completely off guard. He entered her office, bringing with him a wave of foreboding that sent a chill up her spine...even though she didn’t know why.

“Hi,” she said, and smiled at him, trying to act normal, as if their time on the island hadn’t changed anything between them when it came to working together. After all, that had been their promise—that what happened at the resort, stayed at the resort.

He didn’t return her greeting, or her smile. Instead, he braced his hands on the opposite side of her desk and leaned toward her, his expression furious. “Are you seriously going to sit there and act as though you didn’t screw me over?”

She jerked back, stunned by the bitterness dripping from his voice and the contempt in his gaze—as well as his abrasive, confusing question. “Excuse me?”

“Don’t play stupid with me,” he said, his voice a low, savage snarl. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. According to Perry, you pitched my goddamned matchmaking concept and won the St. Raphael account.”

Two things hit Chloe at once—the startling fact that Aiden already knew about her meeting with Edward Luca, and that Luca had already chosen Aiden’s campaign. On the heels of that knowledge came the more painful realization that Aiden had jumped to the automatic conclusion that she’d passed off his presentation as her own to steal the account from him.

A crushing pressure banded around her chest. She was devastated that he could so easily think the worst of her, that he honestly believed she’d betrayed him without giving her any opportunity to explain or defend herself against his harsh accusation.

A muscle in his jaw clenched, and his gaze narrowed. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”

She pushed aside the pain enveloping her heart, and let her own anger surface. “Why should I?” she said with a shrug that seemed to piss him off even more, but she didn’t care. “You think you have it all figured out.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but a brusque knock on her office door, and the sound of Perry’s voice, stopped him before he could reply.

“Hey, you two,” Perry said in a cheerful tone, oblivious to the heated conversation he’d just interrupted. “I need to see both of you in my office right away.”

Perry moved on, and Aiden glared at her. “I guess we’ll settle this in Perry’s office.” He pushed off her desk and stalked down the hallway toward the executive rooms.

Chloe slowly stood up, realizing her legs were shaking as she followed Aiden from a distance. The emotions swirling through her ranged from devastation and hurt to indignation. But it was the latter that she focused on as she took a seat beside Aiden in Perry’s office.

Their boss looked from Aiden, to her, and frowned, finally sensing the animosity radiating off of Aiden. “Everything okay between you two?”

“No,” Aiden said immediately. “Just to be clear, the matchmaking concept that Luca wants for his campaign was my idea, not Chloe’s.”

Perry looked taken aback by Aiden’s very pointed claim. “When I called you last night, I never said it was Chloe’s idea,” Perry said carefully. “What I said was that Chloe pitched a matchmaking concept, Luca loved the idea, and is going with it.”

Aiden still didn’t look convinced, and it killed Chloe that he thought she was capable of doing something so deceitful, that after two years of working with her and spending a very intimate week together, he didn’t trust her to have his back. The conversation they’d had about his ex-wife came back to her, how the one woman who should have been the most loyal to Aiden had betrayed him and their marriage for the sake of career.

She understood that he’d been burned badly in the past, but the fact that Aiden had lumped her into the same category as his ex-wife wrecked her in ways that made her wonder if she’d ever recover. Chloe was the first to admit that she was competitive when it came to her job, but she wasn’t devious, underhanded or unscrupulous. She’d certainly never steal a concept or idea from a coworker to win an account.

Somehow, she managed to keep her own temper in check and addressed Perry. “I’d like to explain exactly what happened yesterday.”

Perry waved a hand in the air. “By all means, please do,” he said, obviously anxious to clear up the misunderstanding.

“Yesterday, I overheard the boys with the Metro Ad Agency, who were being very persistent about pitching to Luca before they left the island, even though Edward told them he had meetings with both agencies this week,” Chloe said, her tone calm and professional, despite the upheaval going on inside her. “Darryl assured him that their presentation was all Edward would need to see to make a final decision, so Luca gave them a meeting time. I decided to show up, too, because I wasn’t about to let another agency pull one over on us.”

The corner of Perry’s mouth quirked up in a smile, as if he admired her gumption as much as Edward had.

“I had Aiden’s flash drive with his presentation on it, because he’d shown me his campaign the day before and I forgot to give the drive back to him. But thank God I had it because I was not only able to pitch my own concept, but Aiden’s, too, separately,” she added, making sure that Aiden understood she’d presented his campaign with just as much dedication as her own.

Finally, she glanced at Aiden. She should have been gratified by the stunned look on his too handsome face as he realized what she’d done for him, but the moment lacked any enjoyment because her heart just felt utterly broken.

“And it appears I did a damned good job on your behalf, since obviously Luca liked your idea the best. You and your concept won the account, not me,” she said, her tone cool. “Congratulations.”

“Chloe—”

She’d never know what Aiden had been about to say as she stood up, refusing to acknowledge him.

“What’s going on with you two?” Perry asked.

Clearly, their boss suspected something had happened between them on the island. But what did any of that matter when she and Aiden were now adversaries? She’d not only lost Aiden as her lover, but as her friend. And that only compounded her devastation.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get back to my office,” she said, and walked out before her forced calm gave way to the full-blown anger still simmering inside her and she gave Aiden a real piece of her mind.

She strode into her office and sat down at her desk, watching as Aiden passed her office on the way to his. She tried to concentrate on answering the emails she’d gotten during her absence, but her mind wouldn’t let her focus—on work, anyway—and she knew there was something she had to do to begin to put this whole mess with Aiden behind her. She wasn’t sure if that was even possible, but she had to try. The hurt and resentment swirling inside her was only going to grow and get worse if she didn’t confront Aiden and get everything out in the open between them.

With determination and a whole lot of irritation driving her, she headed over to Aiden’s office and closed the door, because this was something she didn’t want the entire floor overhearing. Aiden glanced up, his features etched with misery and contrition. But for her it was too little, too late.

“Chloe—”

She heard the apologetic note to his voice, and refused to let it soften or waylay her. “No, you don’t get to talk,” she said, quickly cutting him off. “You had your chance and you chose to be an ass and make all kinds of wrong assumptions. Now it’s my turn to get a few things off my chest.”

He sat back in his chair, quiet and wary.

She braced her hands on the opposite side of his desk, just as he’d done in her office earlier. “I could have just pitched my own concept and never mentioned yours, but I don’t operate that way. We’ve always worked together, as partners, sharing ideas and concepts, and trusting one another. I’ve always been honest and real with you, and I’ve given you absolutely no reason to think I’d ever betray you.”

Emotion clogged her throat, making her realize that this conversation had just turned very personal. Now that the floodgates were open, she couldn’t stop the flow of words, or the overwhelming hurt she felt. “You left the island, Aiden. You left me. Without any kind of explanation. Like what we shared didn’t matter to you at all. Not just the sex, but the intimate conversations we had, the way I trusted you with things that had happened in my past. You made me care again when I swore I didn’t have it in me, and even worse, I fell in love with you.”

The declaration tumbled out, and his eyes widened in shock, then clouded with regret, though he didn’t respond—and she didn’t want him to, anyway.

“It doesn’t matter, though, does it?” she said, hating the pain and sadness in her voice. “Because when it comes right down to it, you don’t trust me. You think I’m so focused on my career that I’d do whatever it takes to make it to the top, even steal an idea from my own colleague. From you. You want to believe that we’re opposites and not compatible in any other way but in the bedroom, but you couldn’t be more wrong. We have a lot in common, Aiden, if you’d just seen past the scars that your ex-wife left you with, instead of dwelling on them. I love my job, but I’d never be so underhanded. And just for the record, I’d never sacrifice a baby for the sake of my career. I’m the kind of woman who believes she can have a marriage, family and a profession, so do not lump me into the same category as your ex.”

He shifted in his seat, his gaze darkening with anguish, and she knew her words had struck a very sore spot for him. Tears choked her, and before the moisture could fill her eyes and she completely lost her composure she turned around and left his office.

She heard him curse, but he didn’t come after her, and honestly, she was glad because she was so close to falling apart. Back in her office, she picked up her phone and dialed Perry’s extension. Her call went to his voice mail, and she took advantage of that fact and left him a message, telling him she was exhausted and taking a few days off and would be in touch. With Aiden winning the St. Raphael account, it wasn’t as though she was needed at the office.

All she wanted was to be alone with her misery. She needed time and space to figure out what her next move was going to be, because one thing was certain. She could no longer work with Aiden, because seeing him day after day, loving him the way she did, would absolutely destroy her.

She’d have to resign from the firm, she realized, as she tossed a few things into her briefcase so she could work from home. She had a great résumé and it wasn’t as though it was the first time she’d started over with a new company. But she knew better than to make a rash decision in the heat of anger, not that she expected to change her mind—or calm down anytime soon.

She stilled when she caught sight of the piece of paper and the tagline for the resort she’d come up with on the spur of the moment and had written down after her presentation with Edward Luca, so she wouldn’t forget it.

As if she ever could.

Find Love in Paradise. The laugh that escaped Chloe held no humor at all. She might have found love in paradise, but her current reality was a nightmare.

* * *

AIDEN MET HIS brother Sam’s inquisitive gaze from across the table at McGann’s Pub, swallowed his pride, and confessed just how badly he’d botched things with the one woman who meant more to him than he ever could have imagined. “I screwed up with Chloe. Big-time.” And the worst of it was, he didn’t know if he’d be able to repair the damage he’d done.

He’d just finished telling Sam about what had happened between him and Chloe at the resort—from their agreed upon affair, to falling for her, to how he’d thought the worst of Chloe and her intentions when it came to pitching his campaign to Luca. He’d been miserable all day, wanting to apologize and make things right, but considering she’d taken the next few days off of work, Aiden knew she had nothing left to say to him, and no doubt wouldn’t listen to him, either. She’d made that abundantly clear in his office that morning.

Not that he could blame her for blasting him with her indignation, which he fully deserved. His behavior, and the conclusions he’d jumped to, were inexcusable, even if they’d been a knee-jerk reaction based on his past. In reality, that made his assumption even worse, because Chloe was nothing like Paige when it came to honesty, integrity and her sense of loyalty. Those were characteristics that mattered to him, and over the past two years of working with Chloe, she’d proved time and again that she was a woman who lived by those traits.

She was right in telling him that she hadn’t had to pitch his presentation to Luca, that she could have just promoted her own campaign and not even mention his. Yet she’d delivered his concept with enough persuasion to sell his idea to the vice president of the resort. She was the type of woman he’d always be able to trust to have his back, and he was sick to his stomach to think that he’d destroyed something so precious and rare.

Sam leaned forward in his seat, arms braced on the table and a cold bottle of Guinness in his hand. “Well, the first step to making amends with Chloe is admitting that you’re wrong,” Sam offered with a hint of humor, trying to make light of a dark situation. “And as difficult as I know that is for you to do, you just confessed that you screwed up.”

Aiden raised a brow at his brother, not all that impressed with his worldly advice, but curious to hear what he’d suggest next. “And the second step?”

“Groveling. Lots of it.” Sam grinned, as if he’d done his share and was an expert. “Women love that shit.”

Aiden shook his head. “That might work with your playmates, but I don’t think groveling is going to cut it with Chloe.”

“Then just take the direct approach and man up,” Sam said simply. “You owe her an apology and it’s up to you to make her listen to it.”

“Kind of hard to do when she won’t even listen to me.”

“You hurt her, so of course she’s going to be standoffish and defensive.” Sam took a drink of his beer, paused for a moment, then slanted him a curious look. “Do you care about Chloe?”

“Of course I do,” Aiden said, his tone adamant.

“Do you want a real relationship with her?”

His brother’s question brought up yet another huge obstacle standing in his way. “Yes. But even if Chloe forgives me, having any kind of real, open relationship with her is a whole other complication.”

Sam frowned. “How so?”

Aiden swirled the amber liquid in his own bottle of beer. “Everyone at the agency is required to sign a strict no dating policy.” It was a common practice in most high-profile firms, because of potential legal issues, conflict of interest and distractions at work. “An office relationship is grounds for termination of employment.”

“Awww, shit,” Sam muttered, sympathizing with Aiden’s dilemma. “That sucks.”

The rule definitely put Aiden at a disadvantage, because even if Chloe forgave him and wanted an open relationship, he wasn’t willing to risk Chloe losing her job. He’d always planned to leave the firm to start up his own ad agency, was nearly there financially thanks to the bonus he’d gotten winning the St. Raphael account, but this was Chloe’s career, and she didn’t deserve to be terminated. It was a catch-22 situation, and Aiden needed to figure out a way to not only get Chloe back, but keep their employment intact.

“Do you love her?”

Sam’s quiet question made Aiden’s heart beat faster. No matter how complicated, there was no denying that he did love Chloe. On the island, during their last night together, he’d known that she was the one he wanted to spend his life with, but he’d been so damned afraid to embrace the emotion and believe he could have a future with her. And then everything had unraveled from there, and he’d let those fears overrule rational thought.

A huge mistake he wanted to rectify.

“Yeah, I love her,” he said gruffly.

Sam grinned. “Then do whatever it takes to make it happen, bro. Personally and professionally. I like Chloe and I think she’s good for you. You two seem very compatible.”

Aiden groaned at his brother’s choice of word, since he and Chloe had just spent the past week debating the different aspects of compatibility. They’d each filled out a questionnaire that had deemed them opposites, yet a traditional matchmaker and her mystical flower had determined that they were soul mates. He could believe the results of those quizzes they’d taken, or he could take a chance on what Chloe made him feel. How he loved being with her, laughing with her, having deep, intimate discussions with her that bonded them emotionally.

Ironically, he chose to believe Hattie.

Chloe loved him, and knowing how she truly felt gave Aiden the hope that he still had a chance with her, to make things right and to let her know he wanted a future, and everything that came with it, with her.

Now he just had to figure out a way to have Chloe in his life, without jeopardizing her job.