Reckless (8 page)

“It wasn’t performance issues.” She said. “I passed out.”

They were quiet for a moment before they both started laughing.

“It’s not funny!” she chided. “It was so embarrassing!”

They hit the streets of Manhattan and started their short walk three blocks to work. Upon entering the building, they each signed in and were given and ID badge and a large stack of paperwork to fill out. Once that was done, they were directed upstairs to a large conference room where they were going to meet their new bosses for the summer.

Excitement buzzed in the room as Brianna took in all of the new faces she’d be working with the next twelve weeks. There were chairs set up in the room for a presentation, complete with a podium at the front, and large screens and monitors on either side of the podium. Eleanor was helping herself to the free coffee while Kevin found two empty seats next to each other and shooed a man down a chair for the third seat.

“Thanks, Ellie.” She murmured as Eleanor handed her a steaming cup of coffee.

“Can you believe this, Bree? I can finally get out from under my stepfather’s thumb when I make this job permanent.” Eleanor gave a wistful sigh.

“I can get away and move on too.” She thought that she whispered to herself, but from the look Eleanor gave her, she’d heard.

“We all have a story.” Ellie gave another sigh and they headed for their seats.

The room quickly became crowded and people rushed to find seats as an overweight, balding man walked into the room flanked by two other older men. A younger, very beautiful, Latina woman rushed in behind them. For a moment, Brianna thought that she was an assistant, but when she took a seat in the center of the men, it became clear that she was equal to or more powerful than them in the company.

A hush fell over the crowd as the balding man stepped up to the podium. This was it. This was the hopeful new beginning to her new life. Her stomach was filled with butterflies and she was surprised and comforted when both Ellie and Kevin grabbed her hands in anticipation.

“Good morning, recruits. I am John Holt, director of Human Resources for KLS Global. Introduction from left to right is Paul Lancaster, head of Public Relations, Vanessa Gonzalez, corporate attorney and personal attorney to our CEO, Mr. Spence, and Brian Johnson, from our Board of Directors.” He said. Bree tried her best to memorize names and faces.

Everyone around her seemed to have a tablet out, taking notes, so she pulled out her phone and did the same. After ten minutes of talking about the company, it’s three founders, and the summer job program, Mr. Holt finally got to the good part as a line of people walked into the room from a set of doors close to the podium.

“Everyone will be working with a team in each division of this company. This year, our three founders, Gavin Kline, Thomas Lomax, and Andrew Spencer, who prefers to be called Spence, have each decided to take on one individual to personally mentor.” He said. The doors opened again, and Brianna’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. “And here they are now.”

“Oh holy hell!” Eleanor gasped. “That’s the guy from last night! The panty melter, as you called him.”

“I think my boxer briefs just got a little constricted.” Kevin added.

Brianna couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be happening to her. Not again. Another billionaire mogul. Another corporate badass who probably had a girlfriend stashed somewhere. Another Lucian introduced to the crowd as Andrew Spencer.

Andrew’s eyes scan the crowd until they skimmed over her and then snapped back. When their eyes locked, a smoldering look crossed his face along with a small smirk that made her squirm in her chair. She had no idea why he turned her on so much with just a simple glance, but she was ready to storm the stage and take him in front of everyone in the crowd.

Her panties were now a puddle.

He leaned over and whispered something to Gavin Kline and then Thomas Lomax. They were staring at Brianna, Eleanor, and Kevin. God, they were going to pick them to be specially mentored. She was going to be working very closely to Andrew Spencer and the idea both frightened and excited her.

After a few minutes of short speeches from Lancaster, Gonzalez, and Johnson, everyone in the front of the room gathered in a small circle and started talking. Mr. Holt returned to the stage a couple of minutes later with a tablet in front of him. He started naming off names and directing people into groups for different departments.

She was pretty much shocked when her name was called to work for one of the executives who runs the money. Accounting, billing, bookkeeping. Ugh! She wasn’t at all happy about it, but she was grateful all the same. Her heart sank when she realized that she wouldn’t be working with Andrew, but she was also relieved. She didn’t know if she could handle that kind of pressure mixed with the inevitable sexual tension.

When the meeting was over everyone headed off to their separate departments. Brianna made plans with Eleanor and Kevin to have drinks on their way home to celebrate their first day. It was already hard enough for her to stand on her own two feet and the world around her was spinning from the moment she jumped out of Andrew’s bed earlier, but coming down from a hangover took a little more alcohol sometimes. Hopefully she would be able to function better the rest of the week.

Her boss was a woman named Regina Houston who was a little mean and standoffish. The first thing the woman did was look her up and down and assign her to a cubicle until further notice. She knew what that meant right away. She was immediately disliked and she was going to be Regina’s punching bag for the summer.

And if things couldn’t get worse, at the end of the day she saw Andrew and Vanessa Gonzalez walking together with her arm looped through his. He said something to her and she was laughing as they climbed into the same car together.

“Well, there goes our bet.” She murmured as she waited for Kevin and Eleanor to meet her in the lobby.

“Ready to go?” Kevin asked, putting an arm around her shoulder.

“Champagne, a couple of drinks, then dinner, and bed before eleven.” Eleanor came up behind them. She looked exhausted, but still wore an almost perky grin. “My boss is a pig.” She stage whispered.

“Let’s go before Little Miss Sunshine gets us all fired.” Kevin put his arm around both of their waists and led them through the door.

They were halfway down the block when Brianna received two texts.

You did good dropping that rich asshole. You owe me a conversation, Bree. We need to talk about what happened and how you’re going to make amends with me.

“Fucking James.” She murmured, suddenly afraid. Then she read the next one.

We need to talk. I’m coming to NY.

“Fucking Lucian.” She murmured again.

“Girl, you look like you need something stronger than champagne.” Eleanor observed as they walked into the restaurant.

“Yes. Hell yes.” She said.

Alcohol. She needed alcohol.

Eighteen

              She’d been in New York for three fucking weeks and she hadn’t even attempted to get in contact with him. She avoided his texts and calls and he’d been out there twice trying to talk to her, but she wouldn’t even meet him in the lobby of his hotel just to talk. He was becoming more and more frustrated with the situation.

              He was also engaged.

              It’s not that he didn’t love Samantha. He loved her a lot. He wanted her in his life. But he just couldn’t get Brianna out of his head. She was having his child and she wouldn’t even talk to him. It was becoming an obsession. He just wanted a taste of her, and now he was going through withdraws. She’d quickly become an addiction. She was bad for him. She didn’t fit into his life, but she was pregnant and he couldn’t help but to wonder if I was a sign.

              “Lucian!” Kelsey answered the door and threw her arms around him.

              “Hey Lucian.” Amira gave him a sweet smile. Her smile faltered when she saw Samantha behind him.

              “I need to talk to you alone.” He told Kelsey and ushered her toward the back of the apartment.

              When they entered her bedroom, he closed the door and locked it. He definitely didn’t want Samantha walking in on this. He placed her iPod into the docking station and started playing music, then he spoke softly to his sister.

              “Have you heard from Brianna?” he asked.

              Kelsey eyeballed him suspiciously, but nodded. “Yeah. We made plans for dinner next weekend. Why?”

              “Don’t get pissed. As a matter of fact, don’t react at all to this.” He warned her.

              “Okay.” She sat in her chair and stared up at him with her big baby blue eyes and innocent little face. “Lay it on me, big bro. What’s going on between you two? I’ve noticed something’s amiss since the day after I got back from Mexico.”

              He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced around the room nervously before letting out a long breath. “I got her pregnant.” He said.

              “What!” Kelsey screamed and jumped out of the chair.

              “It’s a long story, Kels.” He told her.

              “Obviously.” She frowned.

It took her a moment to calm down enough to be rational. It was hard not to hug her when she was so obviously excited to be an aunt, since she was jumping up and down singing, “I’m going to have a new niece or nephew to spoil.”

“She won’t talk to me. She won’t include me. She’s pushed me out.” He sighed.

“Because of Sam.” It wasn’t a question, but he nodded anyway. “Tell me the whole story, minus the sex. I don’t need to hear about how this baby was conceived. Just the story around it. And what about Sam? Does she know?”

“Sam doesn’t know.” He said.

“She’s going to kill you! And Bree!” she gasped. “What are you going to do? Are you going to go for rights or just send her money? Oh God! Do you think she did it just for the money? I never took her as a gold digger.  I mean, she seems genuinely mad at you…..”

Kelsey was babbling. That meant she was just as nervous as he was. And he loved her for how much she cared, he just didn’t have time for it.

“Kels, sweetheart, I need your help.” He said. She glanced up at him and nodded. “I need you to not tell her that I’m coming to dinner with you next weekend. As a matter of fact, avoid her until then. I don’t need you spilling that you know anything about this.”

“Fine.” She pouted. “But I’m so going baby shopping tomorrow.”

He couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. He couldn’t wait to buy things for this baby. His baby. His first born.

“You like her, don’t you?” Kelsey asked.

“I do.” He admitted.

“But you’re still going to marry Sam.” She frowned.

“I love Sam.” He said.

“How long have you been seeing Bree behind her back?” she asked, making him cringe a little.

“I paid her twenty five thousand dollars to spend the week with me.” He told her. He watched the shock spread over her until her eyes looked like they were going to bulge from her head. “It was a challenge, and you know that I never back down from a challenge. She didn’t think I would pay her that much. And she still hasn’t cashed the check. I don’t understand.”

“It means she’s really pissed at something you did, probably this thing with Sam, and she wants nothing to do with you.” She said. “I haven’t seen anything different about her lately. We had lunch a few days ago and she was perfectly the same. Maybe she’s so pissed at you that she had an abortion.”

The thought literally made his knees weak. He flopped down on her bed and put his hands through his thick dark hair.

“It was only supposed to be one night. Then two. Then a week. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I don’t want to hurt Sam, but during my week with Brianna, sparks flew. I didn’t…. There wasn’t a lot of time spent together, but there were definitely sparks.” He sighed.

“Sparks lead to fire, and fire is dangerous.” Kelsey interjected.

“Fire is also hot…. Sexy.” He mused.

“Eww! So didn’t need to hear that!” She snorted and threw a pillow at him. They laughed for a moment, and then she suddenly got serious. “You have to make a decision, Lucian. And no matter what, that child has to come first.”

He nodded again and stood up. He knew that he’d chosen Samantha. That wasn’t going to change. He just needed to corner Brianna alone and straighten things out with her. After that, he was done.

Nineteen

Three weeks she’d been working at KLS Global, and it was a fucking nightmare. Ms. Houston was a goddamn slave driver and an all-around bitch. The only saving grace about Brianna’s time in New York was Eleanor and Kevin, and her time with Kelsey. Despite Amira tagging along, she was having a great time with her friends. They were all becoming close really fast and she knew that she was going to miss them like crazy when their time in the city was over.

They spent almost every night checking out different bars, but at least once a week, Kevin would drag them back to Flannigan’s, the bar that they’d originally started in. The one where she’d met Andrew Spencer. The same Andrew Spencer that was now acting like he didn’t know her, but she’d catch him on her floor talking to Ms. Houston and eye fucking her at the same time.