Fighting Seduction (3 page)

“Don’t be, we still have to pay for the stupid
surgery. If I hadn’t gotten the damn surgery-”

“If you hadn’t gotten the surgery I wouldn’t have a
mother,” I cut her off. “So you just worry about getting yourself all better,
and I’ll worry about the bills.”

“Like you don’t have enough expenses paying your way
through college. I’m sorry for being such a lousy mother, baby.”

“Don’t say that!” Tears formed in my eyes, ready to
break free. “Having to file for bankruptcy because dad bailed on you after
forcing you to co-sign on his loan does not make you a lousy mother. It makes
you a good person who faced terrible consequences for being one. You need to
stop blaming yourself. You took care of me all my life, now let me take care of
you. It’s going to be okay.”

“But-”

“No but. I’ll figure out a way to pay the hospital
bills. You relax and get all pretty. It’s nine o’clock, John will be over with
his daily tea service.”

She chuckled nervously. “What do you mean get
pretty? He’s just my neighbor who likes to help out sometimes. And bring me
mugs of tea. Just a…friend.”

“Okay mom, have fun with your neighbor-friend,” I
laughed. “I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetheart. Take care of yourself.”

“Mom, I love you, bye!”

I hung up with a smile still on my face and tears in
my eyes. I still couldn’t believe what my dad had done to her. I had no idea
where he was now, what he was doing, if he ever thought about us. He left us to
take care of ourselves and I started working at the age of fourteen, while my
mom tried her best to fend for us, living paycheck to paycheck, while dealing
with her heart condition. It all motivated me to work hard and excel in college
so I could become a successful loan officer and give my mom all the things she
deserved.

This was exactly why I could never let Zayden
Sinclair get into my head again. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath with
new reserve.

The flowers had to be returned.

---

I walked into the loan officer’s desk feeling
nervous. This morning Stacey had helped me dress up in her black suit, so I
looked confident and mature enough to handle the situation. I had hoped the
attire would kill the moths in my stomach, but no such luck so far.

“Hi, I am Aria,” I said, offering my right hand.

“Wilson.” His handshake was curt. “Take a seat,
Aria. You’re one of the tellers here, correct? I see you whenever I walk in
through the front.”

I nodded.

“How long have you been working here?” He was
looking at his computer screen.

“Just about three months. I worked at State Park
Bank for almost two years before that.”

“As a teller?”

I wanted him to get to the point.

“Yes, sir,” I said meekly.

“And you’re still in school?”

Why was he asking me these questions when he was
obviously looking at a document that told him all the answers? Mr. Wilson was
not helping the moth situation in my stomach.

“Yes, at Southern Eastern. Junior year.”

“Really?” He finally looked at me with raised
eyebrows. “It says here that you have only been in college for two years.”

“Yes, but I had excellent grades in many AP classes
so I had a whole year transferred over.”

“Impressive.” It didn’t sound like a compliment, for
some reason. “Do you have any other jobs besides this one?”

“No, just the bank. But I work insane hours, so it’s
practically two jobs,” I laughed nervously. He was not amused.

“I see,” he said and typed something on his
computer.

There were a few minutes of silence during which the
moths in my stomach participated in an intense war. I was just about ready to
throw up. This loan was my only bet— the only way I would be able to pay for my
mom’s surgery without dropping out of college. The future of my entire life
depended on whatever this Wilson guy was typing on his computer.

When he finally looked up, my heart was pounding.

“Here’s the thing, Aria,” he said without a single
expression on his face. “You seem like a smart girl with a very promising
future. However, between your college tuition and loans and your own living
expenses, and just this job to sustain yourself – even if it is, as you put
it,” he paused to make air-quotes, “‘practically two jobs,’ there is just no
way you will be able to handle a loan for 60,000 dollars.”

My heart fell, and I could feel my eyes start to
prickle.

“But I will be out of college in a little over a
year.” My voice was shaky. “And I will have an excellent job, I assure you, and
my situation will change completely.”

“When that happens you can reapply for the loan.” He
actually looked a little apologetic.

“I need to pay for my mother’s heart surgery.” I
don’t know why I said it. Studying to be a loan officer, I knew that there was
nothing Wilson could do personally. His reasoning was completely sound.

“I’m really sorry to hear that, and I wish the bank
could help you out, but right now there is nothing we can do.”

“I understand.” I did. That didn’t stop me from
wanting to run into the bathroom and bawl my eyes out. “Thank you.”

My face was swollen and covered in tears by the time
I made it back to the teller’s booth.

CHAPTER
4

ZAYDEN

She was crying. Crying women made me uncomfortable.
My mother knew this so well that I didn’t remember the last time I saw her
without tears in her eyes. At first it was about my dad’s death, so I used to
try and make her feel better, but slowly it became directed towards my dad, in
bitterness. At first I didn’t understand why she would speak of her dead
husband as though he were some sort of a monster, but snide comments here and
there about how I was handling my billions and it all started adding up. She
couldn’t believe that he hadn’t left a single penny in her name, which made no
sense to me at first either, but eventually the truth came out: she had been
cheating on him for years. With his lawyer. Who also happened to be one of his
best friends. He tolerated it while he was alive because he loved her or some
nonsense of that sort, but apparently this “love” thing was not that big of a
deal because he found a way to get back at her from the grave. It made me hate
her for a little bit, which added to the endless crying, but she was still my
mother and I found a way to tolerate her. I bought her a giant house in
California, thousands of miles away from me.

Why was Aria Roberts crying? I debated whether to go
over to her and what the implications of that would be. There was no question
about the fact that I wanted her body, but approaching her at an emotional time
might suggest I wanted more. That I cared about how she was feeling. Well,
maybe that’s exactly what she wanted; maybe believing exactly that would be
what broke her restraint. I got a strange feeling in my gut that I didn’t
understand. I was the master of manipulation. I messed with women’s emotions
all the time. The hint of moral fiber had to be because she was crying.

I shook my head and trotted over to the booth. She
was the only person there. Her mascara had slightly run down her smooth,
blushing olive cheeks, which made her look surprisingly sexy.

She seemed to be so phased out that when she noticed
I was standing in front of her, she jumped. Quickly wiping her face with her
palms, she said in a squeaky voice, “Good morning, Mr. Sinclair!”

“Liar,” I teased. “It doesn’t seem to be that good
of a morning for you.”

“Oh, yeah, I am sorry about this. I’ll cut it out
before a customer walks in, I promise.”

“Well, obviously, that’s what I came over here to
say.” I was smiling. “It’s okay, Aria.”

That made her burst into a whole new bout of tears.
I guess it wasn’t okay, whatever it was. Completely unsure of what to do, I
told her, “Take a paid hour off. Walk around if you need to, take a break.”

“I can’t,” she said between sniffs. “Mrs. Brian
won’t be here until noon and Kevin is sick. I’m the only teller on duty right
now.”

“That’s okay, just take some time. I’ll man the
booth,” I heard myself say.

She looked perplexed, but that made the crying slow
down significantly. “What? You can do that?”

“The thing about owning the company, Aria, is that I
can do whatever I damn well please.”

I must have come across strong because her
expression turned into that of slight fear. I tentatively put a hand on her
shoulder, expecting to feel her muscles relax; instead, I felt them tense.

“It’s okay. Just go for a little bit. It’s not a
request.”

“Alright, alright,” she said, starting to sniff
again. “I’ll just take a walk around the block and be back soon.” She pointed
towards her face. “No more of this after that. I promise.”

The minute she walked out, I felt myself get angry.
What the fuck was I doing? Teller in my own bank? To get into a girl’s pants.
She better be worth it when I finally made it in there. I was working way too
hard for this otherwise.

I even wanted to punch the young guy who had just
materialized in front of me.

“I need to deposit a check,” he said.

I pointed towards the front exit. “There’s the ATM
Machine. They take checks these days. And by these days, I mean the past ten
years.”

He looked terrified and strutted out. I was lucky I
was the CEO of the company and never had to work customer service.

---

When Aria returned a half-hour later, her make-up
was freshly painted on, with no trace of the crying fiasco on her face.

“Thank you so much and I am so sorry!” she
exclaimed.

She should be. It was the worst half hour of my
goddamn life.

“Don’t worry about it! But if you really feel that
bad, you can make it up to me by telling me what’s bothering you.”

I wasn’t sure I cared for the answer, but that
seemed like the right thing to say.

She scrunched her nose like she wasn’t sure it was a
good idea but eventually said: “My request for a loan got turned down. My
mother recently had heart surgery and without insurance she owes the hospital
60,000 dollars. She can’t apply for a loan herself because my family is still
recovering from a bankruptcy.”

Well that was easy enough. I could take care of that
right away. I didn’t want to make it so easy though.

“Who was the loan officer you spoke to?”

“Wilson. I don’t know his full name.”

“I will talk to him.” I chose my words very
carefully, making sure not to make any promises I couldn’t keep. Or didn’t want
to keep, more like.

Her face visibly changed colors and her eyes
widened. “You can do that?”

“What did I say about owning the company?”

She jumped and for a second it looked like she was
going to hug me but changed her mind.

“Oh my god, thank you so
so
much! You can get him to approve the loan!”

“That’s not what I said.” I spoke slowly. “I said I
would talk to him.”

Her face fell. “Oh, of course – I am sorry I didn’t
mean to-”

“It’s okay. Try to cheer up. I’m sure we can work
something out.”

I walked back to my desk and called the loan office.
“Wilson, please.”

“Mr. Sinclair! To what do I owe the pleasure?” The
guy sounded absolutely thrilled to be getting a call from the CEO of the
company. This could be so very easy if I wanted it to be. But a very different
idea was forming in my head altogether. I would rather this be fun than easy.

“Why did you turn down Aria Roberts’ loan request?”

There was a short pause. “I’m sorry, sir, it’s
classified-”

“Do you like your job, Wilson?” I spat. “Do you
enjoy having somewhere to go to every day and getting a nice fat paycheck at
the end of the month?”

“Yes, of course! I am sorry, sir. The situation was
completely out of my hand. As you know, we run all loan requests through a
software that processes applications and calculates risks. Aria Roberts’ risk
was almost a 100 percent. She has no savings, spends all her money from the job
paying for college and even though her credit is pretty good for her age, she
simply does not have any assets or any kind of solid foundation. Not 60,000
worth anyway.”

“I see.”

“However,” he said a little too quickly, “ultimately
I call the shots, and I can change the shots I called if you want.”

Is that what I wanted? No. I wanted this to be fun.
This was going to be too much fun. Aria Roberts had no idea how much fun we
were going to have together.

“What I need you to do is to send Aria an email
letting her know you heard from me today, and that you explained to me why her
loan could not go through.
 
Make it very
clear that I tried to get you to change your mind, but the system simply did
not allow for it, so you were personally writing to apologize to her for the
inconvenience. Copy me in the email.”