Misguided Heart (4 page)

Damn it!

I pulled myself together and shouted her name. The first time she either ignored me or didn’t hear, so I shouted it again. This time when she finally turned around, her emerald green eyes instantly locked with mine. I could tell by the confound look on her face, I was the last person she expected to see here.

After a few inane questions, she finally sat down across from me. I couldn’t help but stare at her and her amazing figure. Not that her face wasn’t just as amazing, but either way
, I was definitely checking her out, and I’m pretty sure she was doing the same to me.

I could feel the tension rise when our waitress came, completely ignoring Aston. I quickly glanced over at the below average gi
rl standing to my side, giving her a cross look and then focused all my attention on Aston.

Out of curiosity or
need I wasn’t sure, but I had to ask her what the dress was for. Her answer was definitely not what I was expecting. Apparently she was going to an ex-boyfriend’s wedding. Odd! Through the confusion in my mind, I couldn't help but focus on the fact that whomever she took with her was going to be around her all night, and in that dress.

I continued with the personal questions
, trying to get a feel for what this girl was all about, and was pleasantly surprised when she actually answered them, all of them. After we finished our lunch, I felt the need to be with her a little while longer. Even if it was just to walk back to the office, I was in.

Just before she stepped into the street, I reached for her hand and held it firm as we crossed the busy intersection.

Seriously? Who even holds hands anymore?

It would seem, that I did. Her skin felt just as
I had imagined it would, like butter, soft, smooth, supple butter.

Yum!

I was relishing in her touch, when suddenly she dropped her hand from mine. I glanced down at the overwhelming distance between us in confusion. When the elevator doors binged open, I waved my hand in front of me for her to step in first. The way she was pounding on the buttons, you would’ve thought I was trying to kill her.

My hands twitched at my sides. I wanted to touch her, in all the right places. I wanted her to scream my name. I smiled at myself
, knowing that it was inevitable. I would have her screaming my name one day very soon. She gave me a small wink as she exited the elevator and I winked back. I would take that, for now. We parted ways and both went straight to our offices, doors slamming.

Aston

“Shelby, girl, I am telling you the truth. He literally grabbed my hand and we walked across the street together. Well, I guess you could say he more-or-less, led me across the street. It was something straight out of a movie.”

Shelby and I had met one fine summer day at Girl Scout Camp. Yes, I said it, Girl Scout Camp. We were ten years old
, with the equivalent of Girl Scout Barbie for our mothers. Neither one of them would even know how to dress for the occasion of camping, but if it entailed buying a new outfit, they were all for it. We were assigned to the same bunk for the whole six weeks that we were there.

Her mom and mine were instantly connected at the hip. The minute they both broke out their pink Caboodles, they were friends for life. This made it quite easy for Shelby and me to become friends. Besides the fact that we were nothing
like our mothers, we were one in the same. We had a blast that summer and ever since we had been inseparable. Her mother had married rich and it just so happened that her father had known my mom from high school. We lived a block away from each other and we went to the same school all the way up until graduation.

Since graduation
, Shelby and I slowly drifted apart for a while. My mother had died from breast cancer the summer after graduation and I fell into a deep depression, ignoring everything and everyone. Eventually, when I came back to reality, Shelby had called and told me that her parents had divorced a short time after. Since then, Shelby and I agreed to never lose touch with each other ever again.

Shelby now lived in a small house down the street from her mom in Chandler and she
owned a small travel agency in Gilbert. As for me, I moved out exactly six months after my mother died, and never looked back.

I could hear her sigh on the other line. “Girl you are so lucky. You’ve got pretty boy who is all googily eyed over you there, mister I can’t get over you, but I am getting married over here. I mean seriously what do you feed these boys? I can’t even get a date to the wedding for crying out loud.”

I rolled my eyes. “Shelby Graves, you are the most dramatic person I have ever met, I swear. I thought you were going to ask Davis to go with you? Wait, let me guess. He called, something was said, and you decided not to take him.” I rolled my eyes through the phone. Shelby always, and I mean always, found something wrong with every guy she has ever liked. I wonder why she was alone? I rolled my eyes and giggled to myself.

“Hey! Come on now, that’s not fair. Everything was going great. We were hanging out a lot, but he started getting extremely clingy and I never realized it until our date last week, but he is
too short. I just couldn’t do it.”

This is exactly why she was alone. “Shelby, just take someone. Who cares w
ho it is. Girl, if anything find someone who will give it to you good, just so I don’t have to hear you whine and complain about not getting any. I’m not even bringing… Wait, yes I am bringing a date. I’ll have to call you back.”

“But…
wait!” I heard her protest before I hung up the receiver.

I slipped my shoes back on, checked my reflection in the mirror, swiped some
lip-gloss across my bottom lip and headed straight for Mr. Sloan Holden’s office.

I stop
ped a few feet short of his office and almost changed my mind. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and lifted my hand to knock on his door. I kind of, sort of, ended up knocking on his father’s forehead instead. I was completely mortified and covered my face as I profusely apologized.

“I am so incredibly sorry, Mr. Holden. I closed my eyes for just a second and then there you were.” I just kept shaking my head in disbelief.

A smile appeared across his face. “It is quite all right Ms. Boyd, I completely forgive you. Now if you will excuse me, I have a meeting to get to. Good day.”

All I could see besides the enormous grin spread across
Sloan’s face, was his hand waving me into his office. “Hurry up and get in here, before you hurt someone else.”

“Oh, you are so funny, maybe you could laugh less and be more helpful.” I smirked.

I knew the angle from his leather chair sitting directly across from him would give him a perfect view of my dangerously, long legs. I strutted over to the chair, making sure to show off every inch of them. How could he say no to me then?

“So, I was wondering, if you’re not busy four weekends from now, would you like to accompany me to my ex-boyfriend’s wedding?” I slowly slid one leg over the other (all Sharon Stone like) and I could see his eyes follow them closely.

“Why Ms. Boyd, are you asking me to be your date?”

I half smiled and pretended to blush, like I had just been caught doing something bad. “I sure am Mr. Holden.” I winked.

He stood up and walked over to me
, perching himself on the edge of his desk. I could smell his cologne and it took everything inside me not to ravage him right there on his marble top desk. I sat back and drank him all in, like a tall glass of red wine, or white, whatever you prefer. I wanted him and I could tell by the cat and mouse game he was playing with me, that he wanted me too.

“I would love to Aston.” He smiled, stood up and walked back behind his desk. “Have your assistan
t give my assistant the details.”

“Will do Sir, thank you.” I slowly stood up and as I knew he was watching me,
I walked away as sultry as I could, without being too noticeable. There was definitely an undeniable sexual chemistry between us, one I wanted to explore. God knows I needed it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone with Shelby
, telling her all about my clever seduction. I tried to get some work done in between laughs, but I found myself being too distracted to concentrate on anything.

I hung up with Shelby an hour before I was due to leave work, but at the last minute I decided to stay and make up some hours. I didn’t want my
newfound crush to get in the way of my new job. I glanced over at the clock just as it hit six and realized that I was famished. I reached for my phone to call Annie into my office, but it rang for me instead.

“Ms. Boyd.” I sighed.

“Hi Ms. Boyd, its Annie. I just noticed what time it was, so I took it upon myself to order in some Chinese. It should be here in about twenty minutes. I also wanted to let you know that I have a message for you from Ariel over at Mr. Holden’s office.”

“Annie, honey, how many times do I have to tell you, when it’s after five
, you can just come in my office to talk to me.” I paused to wait for an answer. “So, could you please come in here?” I asked politely.

“Yes, Ms. Boyd, I’ll be right in.”

A moment later Annie was dragging her over worked pint sized butt through my door and into the small leather chair across from me. She looked overly tired today and I couldn’t help but wonder if something was bothering her. So, being who I am and the fact that I always say what I want, I decided to ask.

“Annie, you look tired. Are you feeling okay?” I was truly concerned.

“I’m okay. I just moved into a new condo and my neighbors seriously stay up all night and sleep all day. I am exhausted.” She yawned.

“Well, you can head out now if you want. I’m just going to b
e reading manuscripts all night anyway, and I can get my own coffee tonight. Go home, go to bed and get some sleep.” I shooed her away with my hands. “Oh wait, before you go, do you have that message from Ariel?” I was beyond curious as to what Mr. Holden couldn’t tell me in person.

“Oh, yeah, I am supposed to check with you to see what night this week works for you to join him for a meeting. He gave me three nights for suggestions, Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday?” She looked at me with questioning eyes.

“I’ll get back to him myself. Thanks for the message. Now get home and get some rest. See you tomorrow morning.” I waved a good-bye and reached into my bottom desk drawer for my purse.

The Chinese food delivery boy showed up
almost an hour later, when I was already three cups deep into my first pot of coffee. I paid him and choked down as much as my Java filled stomach would allow. I was just about to inhale another bite of lo mein, when I heard a faint knock on my office door. I looked at the clock on my computer screen and couldn’t help but wonder who in the hell was still at the office at eight o’clock at night? I shrugged and walked the ten feet to open it.

“Wha
t are you still doing here?” Sloan's voice echoed through my brain.

“Oh, you know, I thought I would take in the scenery.” I laughed. “I have about a million and one manuscripts to read and they aren’t going to read themselves.” I smiled.

“Well, I just finished my conference call, do you want to order some take out and attack the stack together?” He grinned.

I smiled back and pointed to my desk, where there were at least three open boxes of Chinese take out. “I knew it was going to be a late night.” I frowned. “But you’re more than welcome to come in and partake in some delicious Chinese food.” I secretly hoped he would accept.

He pushed past me and slipped his jacket off, folding it over the leather couch in the corner of my office. “Where do we start?” He asked as he grabbed a box of orange chicken and sat cross-legged underneath the window.

I threw a manuscript at him and grabbed the one I had been reading. “You can start on that one.” I pulled up a piece of carpet next to him and nudged him with my elbow. We sat in silence for quite sometime. I was almost done with the manuscript I had started earlier that day when he suddenly had the urge to start a conversation.

“So, you never got back to my assistant about the meeting.” He didn’t look up from his work.

“I was actually going to call
you
back, but I got wrapped up.” I held up the folded over manuscript.

He smiled his impossibly irresistible smile. “Well, I was thinking Saturday would work the best.”

I knew where this was headed. He was asking me out on a date, but I decided to play it coy. “Saturday, for a meeting huh? That seems like an odd day?” I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

“That’s because I’m asking you out on a date Aston.” He finally looked up from his manuscript.

I paused briefly, “If that’s the case, then yes. What did you have in mind?’

“Ho
w about I pick you up around eight and we’ll head up to Sea Saw?”

My mouth dropped open in shock. I tried to suppress my surprise before answering him. “That sounds great.” I smiled as I turned back to my work. Sea Saw was one of the most expensive restaurants in Scottsdale. They specialized in a
ten-course meal, with the works. Every woman in Arizona knew that if a guy asked you out and took you to Sea Saw, he was either proposing or was extremely into you. I was guessing it wasn’t the former, but I would take the latter.