Walker stopped her. “You said there were two issues.”
“Yes, I did. The other issue is you, Walker. Spencer and Aiden are having difficulty dealing with the fact that you want to be part of the team. I suggest you three sit down and figure it all out.”
Walker was nodding his agreement as she walked toward the door.
“I’ll be right back,” Aiden said to his brothers as he rushed around Cordie to open the door for her. Once they were in the hall, he smiled at her. “You’re very shrewd, Dr. Kane.”
“Thank you, Mr. Madison,” she replied, somewhat surprised by his praise. Aiden didn’t hand out compliments readily.
There was a different security guard in front of the elevator. He wasn’t wearing a name tag, but Aiden knew him.
“How’s your brother doing, Josh?” Aiden asked.
“Real good,” the young man answered. “He’s going to run track in the fall. He’s pretty sure he’ll make the team.”
“That’s good to hear,” Aiden replied.
How did he keep everyone straight? Cordie wondered. He had hundreds of employees. He couldn’t possibly know all of them, and yet she had a feeling he did.
After introducing her to Josh, Aiden took her arm and turned her toward their suite. Looking over his shoulder at the guard, he said, “You know the rule.”
“Yes, sir, I do.”
Cordie stopped in the middle of the hall. “What rule?” she asked. Aiden was trying to get her into the suite, but she wasn’t budging.
Josh didn’t seem to notice the struggle and answered her. “You can’t leave this floor unless you’re with Mr. Madison.”
She looked up at Aiden as he dragged her into the suite. “I can’t leave the floor unless I’m with you?”
“He was speaking English, Cordelia. You heard what he said.” He picked up a folder from the table and turned to go back to Walker’s suite.
She followed him to the door. “I have to know.”
“Know what?”
“How come you’re so nice to everyone else and so rude to me?”
His answer didn’t please her. He laughed.
“You’re driving me crazy, Aiden.”
She didn’t wait around to hear if he had anything to say about her comment, knowing it would probably set off her temper. Aiden was arrogant, bossy, and a know-it-all. And she was still hopelessly in love with him.
Crap.
? ? ?
Cordie spent the rest of the day with Sophie and Regan. Her friends had taken some time off from work to be with her. She knew they were worried about her, and she tried her best to calm their fears. She kept insisting she was on the mend and was safe. She also insisted that soon Alec and Jack would come up with a brilliant plan to get the man who tried to kill her.
Regan surprised her and Sophie with spa treatments. Since Cordie couldn’t go down to the spa, the spa came to her. Regan handed her a pamphlet and told her to choose the treatments she wanted. Cordie didn’t know what half of them were, so Regan made the choices for her. While she and Sophie had facials, Cordie’s hair was shampooed, trimmed, and styled. She was also waxed everywhere, it seemed. After that, she was plucked and then slathered with the most wonderful scented lotion. Last but certainly not least, she was given a lovely pedicure with Mula Red polish. While she was most appreciative, she couldn’t help but feel like a car up on a rack getting a lube job. When she made the comment aloud, Regan wanted to know what kind of car, which instigated a whole other conversation among the friends.
As they were sitting quietly waiting for their nails to dry, Sophie wanted to hear the details of Cordie’s near-death experience once more.
“Don’t make me go over it again,” Cordie begged. “And FYI, it wasn’t a near-death experience.”
“When I write about it for my newspaper, it will be,” Sophie said.
“You do the cooking column,” Regan reminded her. “Which I still find hilarious. How are you going to work in the near-death angle?”
“That’s easy,” Sophie said. I’ll write something like: ‘When you eat this chocolate soufflé, you’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven . . . and speaking of dying, my friend Cordie . . .’”
“How do you come up with new recipes, Sophie?” Cordie asked. “We know you can’t cook.”
“That’s not true. I’m getting better. But I have a secret weapon.”
Regan guessed. “Your husband.”
“Yes,” she said. “He loves to cook, and he’s really good.”
Cordie was feeling so serene she sat back against the soft cushions of the sofa with her feet propped up and dozed off while her friends chatted around her. She woke up when Sophie nudged her.
“Do you?”
“Do I what?” Cordie asked, startled from her slumber.
“Do you think Regan’s brothers will ever get married?”
She thought about it for a minute and said, “Spencer will. Of the three, he’s the most compassionate. Walker . . . maybe. He’s vulnerable now, and I think it would be difficult for him to trust anyone outside his family.”
“And Aiden?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know about him.” She did know, though. He was too driven to settle down . . . too busy.
“I don’t think he’ll marry,” Sophie surmised. “But then, I didn’t think I’d ever get married, and look what happened.”
Regan smiled. “Jack happened,” she said.
Sophie blew on her fingernails and tapped one to make sure it was dry. “How are you getting along with Aiden?” she asked Cordie. “Is it weird sharing a suite with him?”
“Look how big this place is,” Regan said, throwing her arms wide. “There’s plenty of room for both of them.”
“We get along just fine. He’s rarely here, and I hardly notice him when he is,” Cordie asserted, knowing full well that wasn’t true. Now she was lying to her friends, and the more questions they asked about Aiden, the more lies she would tell. Not wanting to continue the conversation, she jumped up and reached for the hotel phone. “Let’s order room service. I’m starving.”
“Great idea,” Regan said. “I’m suddenly in the mood for a chocolate soufflé.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Cordie decided she was going to have to give up sex. To be more specific, sex with Aiden. Not that being specific mattered. Before Aiden, she hadn’t had sex with any man in such a long time she thought there must be something wrong with her. Had she turned into a female eunuch? Or had her hormones taken a sabbatical?
Saying no to the sexiest man alive . . . how hard could that be? She’d given up sugar and caffeine for Lent last year, and she’d gotten through the forty days without cheating. Granted, the first week had been rough. She’d had a horrid headache, and the boys at school ran the other way when they saw her coming, but she’d gotten past it.
This wasn’t at all the same. She’d already given up on her “I’m over him” mantra. How could she possibly get over the man while she was living with him? She could walk away from him, though. She could go into her bedroom and shut the door.
Oh, who was she kidding? Just thinking about the way he touched her made her breathless. The erotic words he whispered in her ear were so hot.
She had it bad, all right, and she didn’t know what in the world she could do about it. He hadn’t given her any promises, and she didn’t have any expectations of a future together. For him it had just been raw sex, and she was okay with that.