Bear Shifters: Hunt Collection #1 (11 page)

Chapter Four

Mark raged inside his office, door closed and phone off the hook. His bear had seen fit to smash a bookcase in the process and embed a shred of oak in his bicep.

As he shifted back to human form, he went to his cabinet to withdraw gauze and wrap the wound. Sighing deeply, he reflected over the past few weeks.

The first week or so was fine, he'd managed to text Abigail and tell her how he missed her. Then all hell seemed to break loose there at the company; employees quit, the stockmarket took a dive, and decisions were made in split seconds on crucial topics. He was literally living at the office the past few weeks, not having time to call or text her during hours that were appropriate. Many nights he didn't stop until 3 am, all to get up and start again at 6. He didn't want his restless nights to end up being the cause of her sleepless nights.

****

Abigail couldn’t believe the courage that raged inside spurned by her love of Mark.  She had never traveled on her own and now here she was on a plane heading to New York City.  She sat nervously as she looked out the window.  In a few hours, the plane would land and she’d be in a strange city with no idea where to look for Mark.  But she didn't let that hinder her, she'd find a way to see him even if it meant going online and searching for the names of businesses associated with him.

The plane landed and she got a cab into Manhattan.  It didn’t take long for Abigail to find out where Mark’s office was located after getting the address off the Web.  The cab driver knew exactly where to drop her off when she mentioned Mark’s name.  She paid the driver and stepped out, observing the building.  She knew Mark had money, but she never imagined he was this rich.  She took a deep breath, what was she thinking flying all the way out here unannounced.  What if Mark didn’t want to see her?  There had to be a reason he hadn’t called in all these months.  This was a mistake.  But he had nowhere to go, her plane home wouldn’t be until the end of the weekend.  She had to take a chance, the biggest she ever made in her life.   

Abigail walked into the enormous lobby.  It was full of business people, it reminded Abigail of how the diner looked the day she met Mark.  Looking around, she couldn’t spot Mark.  Of course he wouldn’t be out here with anyone else.  He’d be in his office doing his work.  She shook her head with how she wasn’t thinking straight.  She walked over to the receptionist’s desk.

“Yes?  May I help you?”  Abigail squinted to see that the receptionist’s name was Maria.

“Yes, you could.  Maria is it?  Hi.  I’m Abigail Yates.  I’m here to see Mr. Mark Conklin.”

Maria eyed Abigail suspiciously.  She didn’t look like she was here for business.  “You’re here to see Mr. Conklin?”

Abigail smiled.  Now she was getting somewhere.  “Yes I am.  Is he in today?”

“I’m sorry Miss but I don’t have you on any list for interviews today.  And if it’s for the assistant job, it’s already been filled.”

“I’m not here for a job.  I’m just here to speak to Mark.  I came to surprise him so he doesn’t know that I’m here.”

“Look, I don’t know who you think you are, but first of all you’re not being professionally by coming in here and calling Mr. Conklin by his first name.  No one here does that.  Second of all, he is a very busy man.  He doesn’t have time for people to come in off the streets who claim that they know him.”

“But I do know him.  He was with me when he was in town for the convention a few months back.  I’m sure if you just give him my name he’ll know right away who you’re talking about.”

“And I already told you, Mr. Conklin is very busy.  He has meetings scheduled all throughout the day and unless you’re one of those appointments, I cannot let you into see him.”  Maria was beginning to lose her patience.

“I’m sure he’s going to have to take a break at some point.  Wouldn't you be able to leave him a message or something.  Just let him know that I’m here.”

Abigail was beginning to lose hope.  She should’ve planned this out much better.  How did she expect to just drop in at Mark’s office and get in to see him?  Of course he was busy, he was the CEO of this company.  But she didn’t come all the way over here to be turned away.  “Please I’m begging you.  I need to see Mark.  If you’d just tell him that it’s me I’m sure he’ll come down to see me.”

Maria didn’t know who this girl was, and she usually knew all the girls that came in the office to see Mark.  There was something about Abigail that didn’t show she was one of the usual golddiggers that came in to get Mark’s attention.  In fact, she began to feel bad for Abigail.  “Alright, I’ll tell you something.  It seems to me that you traveled far to get here.”

Abigail nodded, “Yes.  All the way from a small town that you’ve probably never heard of.”

“I remember now when Mark went out there for the convention.  He never mentioned your name before and usually I know all the girls he has coming in to the office.  But you don’t strike me as one of those types.  Look I can’t promise you anything.  And I don’t know if even if I leave word with him that you’re here that he’ll come down to see you.  But you can take a seat in the lobby and I’ll give him a call.”

Abigail was so ecstatic, she could jump over the desk and hug Maria, but that would lose any chance she had to see Mark.  Remaining calm, she thanked Maria before finding a seat by the window.  All she had to do was wait and see if she’d be able to see Mark.

The longer Abigail waited, the more she felt like giving up.  Of course Mark would ignore the memo from Maria that she was down here waiting for him.  This whole spur of the moment trip was wrong.  She had never been spontaneous in her life, now she knew why.  Everything always turned out better when it was planned in advance.

She would give Mark another fifteen minutes.  If Maria didn’t come over to her with news that Mark was on his way or wanted her to go up to his office, then she’d leave.  If she was lucky, she could leave before Mark even found out she had come all the way to New York to see him. 
This was a stupid idea.

*****

Mark was relieved to be done with his meetings for the day.  When he arrived at work this morning and saw his itinerary for the day, he thought he’d be in endless meetings until it was time to go home.  It was now a little after one in the afternoon and, with a little help of making the meetings go faster, he was done for the day.  The only thing he wanted to do now was get lunch, go back to office and finish his paperwork and then go home and hop into bed.

“Maria, were there any messages for me while I was in the meetings?”

“I left them for you on your answering machine.  I guess you didn’t get them.  There was one girl…”

Mark didn’t hear a word that Maria was speaking.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blonde woman.  “No.  It couldn’t be.”

“I’m sorry Sir.  It couldn’t be what?” Maria broke Mark away from his thoughts.  “Is everything all right Sir?”

“I just thought I saw someone sitting over there that I knew.  But I must be dreaming.  There’s no way she’d be over here.  She doesn’t even live nearby.”

“You wouldn’t happen to mean someone by the name of Abigail Yates would you?”

“Actually yes I do.  Wait, how do you know her?”

Maria smiled.  “Because that’s exactly who it is.  She came in asking to speak to you but I told her you were in meetings and couldn’t see anyone.  I did leave you a message but I guess you never got around to it.”

“I rushed out of the conference room after the last meeting that I hadn’t gotten a chance to go to my office yet.  She still stayed here though?”

“I told her she could wait in the lobby until I was able to get a hold of you.  I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind?  I don’t mind at all.  I’m glad you got her to stay actually.  I haven’t seen her in months.  To be honest, she’s actually my girlfriend.”

“I knew it!  There was something about her while I was talking to her that didn’t come off that she’s one of those girls who come here just trying to get you into bed.  That was the only reason I told her to stay.  She didn’t mention you two were a couple.  All she told me was that she knew you.”

“That's probably all my fault.  She doesn’t know where she stands with me now in our relationship.”

“Why’s that?”  Maria never pried on Mark’s personal life.  But after meeting Abigail, she felt too involved not to know the whole story.

“Because I stopped calling her after the first month I came back home.  I started to second guess it all.  But I never stopped loving her.”

“Then why are you still here explaining everything to me?” Maria laughed.  “Go on and go be with her.  You should be over there embracing Abigail in your arms.”

“You’re right,” Mark said before running over to where Abigail was sitting by the window.  “Abigail?”

Taking her eyes off her phone, Abigail looked up and saw Mark standing in front of her.  “Mark!  I was just about to leave.  I didn’t think you wanted me to be here so you were going to ignore the message that I came to surprise you.”

Mark pulled her up off the chair and kissed her passionately.  “Does that look like I don’t want you to be here?”

“I didn’t know what to think anymore.  I figured there had to be a reason why you stopped calling me.  We haven’t talked in months.  I thought you just didn’t want to be a couple anymore.  Though, I thought you would breakup with me, even if by a phone call or text.  But the texts, the emails, the phone calls.  They all stopped together.”

“I knew this was all my fault.  Abigail, I’m so sorry that my phone calls stopped abruptly. I promise you, I'll explain.”

Abigail had tears in her eyes.  “I thought I had done something wrong and you didn’t want to talk to me anymore.  Or that the distance was too much to bear and you wanted to have a girlfriend you could go out with any day.  I saw the girls who work here, I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to date one of them instead of me.”

Mark wiped away her tears with his thumb before the fell down her cheek.  “Abigail I don’t want you to blame yourself at all for what I did.  I was wrong to not call you.  I broke the promise I made to you.  I’m surprised you didn’t call to breakup with me after I did that.”

“I just felt wrong to bother you.  I know how busy you are with this job.”

“That’s exactly the reason why I hadn’t had time to call you. Well that and another thing.  I know it’s no excuse, but it’s true.  Things were slow in the office the first month I got back.  But then everything got hectic.  I haven’t had one moment of time for myself.  Every day from the moment I got in until I went home, I had one meeting after another.  Today is the first day that the meetings ended early.”

Abigail smiled.  “Is that why you never came down here to see me?  You were in meetings the whole time?  I figured you were mad I showed up and didn’t tell you.”

“I would never be mad at you.  Abigail, you flying out here is the best surprise I could ever ask for.”  He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as he kissed the top of head.  “It feels so good to have you back in my arms.  Tell you what.  I’m pretty much done for the day.  Any paperwork I had can wait until I come back on Monday.  How long are you in town for?  I’d like to spend as much time with you as possible.”

“I’m only here for the weekend.  I couldn’t afford a hotel for any longer than that.”

“I wish you would’ve told me about your trip out here.  You could’ve stayed with me at my apartment.  You sure you don’t want to make your stay longer?”

“Can’t.  At least not this time.  I only took the weekend off from work and it wouldn’t be fair if I called up my manager to take more time off.”

Not this time she said.  That means she still wants to be my girlfriend and plans on coming to visit more often.
  Mark couldn’t be happier hearing those words from Abigail.  “We can go out now if you’d like.”

“Are you sure?  I mean if you have work to do, I don’t want you to put it off because of me.  Plus I have to go to my hotel and check in.”