I walked into my office and closed the door. The city spread out beneath my window with a view I rarely took time to appreciate. I started going through my email and then picked up my phone. It suddenly hit me that I hadn’t heard a single word from Abby since our encounter. That was very unusual behavior for someone I shoved my cock into—especially a virgin. My mind started to drift back to our encounter. There was something different about Abby and I really couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was. When I met her at the club, she seemed like every other lost soul that didn’t know what they wanted until I served it up to them on a silver platter. I had already stepped outside my normal routine by pursuing her after being rejected at the club and before I really had time to think about it, I was sending her an email asking for a second date.
NOT INTERESTED.
“What the fuck?” I felt my temper rising as I stared at her response.
I hit reply and immediately started typing a response, making it very clear that she belonged to me and I would have her again whenever I wanted her. When my fingers slowed down and I read what I had typed, I closed the email without sending it. I stared at her response, letting it bounce around in my head. The response was exactly why I kept my emotions and my lust separated. I swore to never let another woman tempt my heart after my divorce and the first time I dipped my toe into the water to test the temperature, I got rejected. I sat at my desk trying to remember how real romance worked. What did people normally do after a first date if they wanted a second? Flowers seemed to help me get the first one—maybe that would work again.
You might not be interested, but I am. I think we both know I normally get what I want.
The flowers would be an offline response to her email and a dash of romance, all mixed into a pretty bouquet. I continued working and when I got a notification that they had been delivered, I checked my email constantly for the next couple of hours, waiting on some sort of response. My ego started to get the better of me when the day ended, so I decided to have my driver swing by her office. If she wanted to tell me no, I was going to make her say it to my face. If I could catch her alone, I would let my lips do the talking and see if she really wanted to resist round two. I walked into the building and approached her desk, but it was empty.
“Fuck...” I stared at the roses I had sent her. They were in the garbage and the note was ripped up, scattered throughout the remnants of my romantic attempt.
“Hi, can I help you?” I heard a man’s voice behind me. “Oh shit, you’re Max Martin!”
“And you are?” I raised my eyebrows as I turned to see a blond haired man smiling from ear to ear.
“I’m Adam Rutherford.” He extended his hand. “I’ve done some work for you over the years—well, for your company.”
“You work here now?” I had no idea who he was, but I tried to be civil. A lot of people did work for my company.
“I’ve been brought on as a consultant for the Energy Enhanced campaign.” His grip was strong when we shook hands.
“Well, that is why I’m here. I was looking for Ms. Abby Grant.” I pointed to her desk.
“She went home for the day. I think she got bad news or something, I don’t know. She’ll be back tomorrow. We have a meeting to collaborate on some ideas. She’s the Team Lead, but I’d be happy to help you with any questions you have. The campaign is coming together very well.” He was overly enthusiastic, but he seemed nice enough.
“Actually, why don’t I stop by tomorrow for the meeting? I’d love to see where you’ve put together so far.” I saw his eyes hit the floor when I made my suggestion.
“We’re not really ready, yet...” He stammered over his words. “But yeah, we’ll have something ready for you. Absolutely, Mr. Martin.”
“Eight o’clock?” I asked.
“Uh, yeah. We were going to meet at nine, but I’m sure everyone will be happy to meet a little earlier.” He nodded quickly.
“Good. I’ll see you then.” I walked towards the exit with a smile on my face.
If you want to play hard to get, then you’re about to learn how dangerous it is to play games with me.
Chapter 13: Abby
The roses in my garbage can had started to wilt and shrivel up when I arrived at work the next morning. I had hoped the cleaning crew would take them away before I returned. Apparently, an email response wasn’t enough of a rejection for Max to leave me alone. I noticed the office seemed to be in a bit of a panic when I poured my morning coffee. There was nothing on the agenda that should have caused that kind of reaction. I turned on my computer to get caught up on my emails and I saw Adam in the conference room already setting things up, so I pushed open the door and walked inside. He seemed to be even more enthusiastic than usual, moving things around on the table.
“What’s going on?” I looked around the room. “I thought we were just having a meeting at nine.”
“You haven’t read your emails. Shit, I should have sent you a text. I don’t have your phone number. I need your phone number.” His words were erratic and confusing. He walked briskly towards me and put a hand on each of my shoulders. “Max Martin is coming for the meeting—well, not our meeting exactly. He wants a presentation. He’ll be here in thirty minutes. Can you walk him through your storyboards?”
“What?” I blinked a couple of times in surprise. “Max Martin is coming here? Why?”
“I don’t know. I actually thought you might know why he was here.” Adam tilted his head. “I saw him yesterday. He came by and said he was looking for you. I assumed it was about the campaign.”
“Right.” I nodded quickly. “Yes, we’ve—traded a couple of emails.”
“Good, I’m glad you’ve been keeping him in the loop. Okay, so we need to get some pastries in here and some coffee. I’ll take care of that. You get your storyboards together.” Adam ran out of the room at a jog, wiping sweat from his brow.
Fuck.
There was no way Max was coming to see our presentation because he gave a shit about it. Even the clingy clients didn’t ask us to show them the work-in-progress until we had finished our first draft. Max had come to the office to see me and when he saw the flowers in the trash, he decided to swing his dick around and make my life miserable. There was no way to stop the car crash that was coming, so I just did my best to get everything ready. It would be impossible to ignore Max forever, especially when he was an investor in the product I had to make successful in order to keep my career moving in the direction