Partners (Fire & Lies - One) (2 page)

“No, you
dumbass. What does she want from
us–
as in Price Security,
the company you work for?”

“Oh, sure–she
didn’t tell me. Like I said, she’s only interested in you.”

Chewing my lip
in thought, I nod and tell him to let her in as I look at the
folder in my hands. It says that her name is Ms Chloe Saunders. The
surname doesn’t mean anything to me on sight, but the last time I
came across a woman named Chloe, my life fell apart.

“Here she is,”
Jared announces, as he opens my door again and ushers the woman in.
He’s so fucking big that he blocks the doorway, and all I can see
is a peek of dark blonde hair over his shoulder, and a whisper of a
slender leg in those lethal looking pointy shoes that I love
watching chicks teeter around in.

Closing the
folder, I place it on the desk in front of me and look up as the
woman comes into view. My eyes travel from her shoes and up the
length of her curvaceous body. The higher I get, the smaller the
room becomes as my mind wages war with my cock. The familiarity
sets in. I know those legs. I know that body. The moment my eyes
meet hers, all expression leaves my face and a pit forms in my gut
as every memory I have of her slams me in the face, full force. I
thought she was gone. I thought she had taken off and was living a
life of luxury on some island paradise that didn’t have an
extradition treaty. But here she is, large as life and still sexy
as hell.

The woman
before me isn’t Chloe Saunders at all. This is Chloe Donovan, the
beginning of my end. The one woman I let close enough to feel more
than a passing affection for. She’s all temptation and destruction
wrapped in a beautiful package. She’s a road no man should travel
down twice.

“Impressive
set up,” she states, looking around my office and taking in every
detail, from the suede look blue-grey walls, across the large floor
to ceiling window behind me, and over the coordinated dark stained
office furniture that makes up my very modern, but sterile
office.

“Get the fuck
out of here,” I growl, the contained anger in my voice stopping her
before she moves any closer. She smiles sweetly, like I’m a child
having a tantrum, and all she has to do is remain in control.

“Aiden,” she
says, ignoring my request to leave and stepping further inside my
office. “I know you don’t want to see me, but I really need your
help.”

Glaring at
her, my mind revisits the short time we spent together, the way she
smelled, how soft her skin was under my fingers, how she tasted…
Blinking away the images, I pick up the folder and tear it in half
as a show of my disdain.

“Why don’t you
go and get some help from your husband. He’s a powerful guy with
connections.” That stops her in her tracks, and I note the
hesitation cross her face.

“He isn’t in
the picture anymore, Aiden,” she replies, heat creeping up her neck
and brightening her cheeks. It tells me she’s uncomfortable, but it
just makes her look more beautiful.

And it makes
me want to touch her.

Just being in
her presence makes me want to touch her.

It’s why she
needs to
go
.

“Leave, Chloe.
I don’t have any help to give you.” I snap my gaze away from hers,
keeping my features still and cold as I focus my attention on the
computer screen in front of me.

“Can we just
talk?”

“Leave,” I
repeat, my voice more commanding this time.

Refusing to
look back at her, I don’t catch her expression before she turns
around and leaves. But my eyes do stray enough to watch the way
that arse of hers sways as she walks away with her head held high,
as if getting thrown out of my office doesn’t faze her at all.

I watch until
I can’t see her anymore then listen as her footsteps fade and the
front door closes from her departure from the building. Slowly, I
release my breath and move my eyes to Jared who is still standing
in my door way.

He says
nothing, knowing me well enough to understand that now is not the
time for questions. Instead, he gives me a nod of respect and
closes his hand around the handle of the door, retreating quietly
from my office to leave me in peace.

“Wait,” I call
out before the door is fully shut. He pushes it open, just enough
for his head to lean in with his brow raised in question. “Have her
followed.”

He nods, and
pulls his head back, clicking the door shut behind him.

The moment I’m
alone, I sit back in my chair and run my hands through my hair,
blowing out yet another slow and steady breath. I would have
thought that seeing Chloe again after almost three years wouldn’t
affect me the way it did. After everything that went down, I would
have thought she’d stay far away from the likes of me. But there
she was, large as life and even more beautiful than she is in my
dreams.
Fuck
. Seeing her has rattled me, way more than I
even want to admit to myself, and my rigid dick doesn’t know well
enough not to react to that body of hers.

Traitorous
appendage.

FEBRUARY,
three years ago

THE ACT of
walking into his boss’ office was something that Aiden Price did on
a daily basis in his job as head of corporate and personal security
at the Donovan Corporation–a position he had held for the last six
years after leaving the armed forces.

Originally, he
was hired because of his specialist military background. His
position had him working closely with the founder and CEO of the
company, Terry Donovan, as a bodyguard of sorts–a lot of money
changed hands at Terry’s behest, which therefore made him a very
powerful man. And powerful men tended to make enemies–especially
ones who were so willing to skirt the edge of the law as closely as
Terry did.

On this
particular day, things were a little different. When Aiden opened
the door, he was talking about some paperwork he had in his hands
and didn’t immediately notice that Terry wasn’t inside.

Instead, when
he glanced up, he was treated to the sight of a perfectly
curvaceous arse as a young woman leaned over Terry’s desk, reaching
for something on the other side. He stopped walking and frowned a
touch, wondering who she was. A new personal assistant? A client?
But that didn’t make any sense – all new additions to the firm were
run through him for a security check, and he didn’t know anything
about this woman. She had to be someone Terry trusted, or she
wouldn’t be allowed in his office…

Realising that
she was no longer alone, the young woman quickly righted herself
and turned around, her hands fluttering nervously as she smoothed
down her dark blonde hair, then ran her hands over her crisp white
shirt and fitted red skirt. The action was meant to iron out any
creases in her already perfect outfit, but all it really did was
call Aiden’s attention to her body even more.

Aiden’s mouth
quirked in a grin as he watched her fidget before him. There was an
innocence about her that drew him in and made him want to do really
dirty things to her. He loved making good girls show their bad
side. It was one of his favourite past times. And new girls, well,
they were the perfect game for an experienced man such as
himself.

Slowly, the
girl’s hands stilled and she looked up to meet his gaze. Aiden had
thought that the rear view of her was nice to look at, but from
front on, she was probably the most stunning woman he’d ever laid
eyes on. And when her deep blue eyes met his green ones, for the
first time in his life, he became locked in a gaze, unable to make
his brain connect with his mouth so he could speak. Then, feeling a
slight stirring down below, he realised his inability to speak was
caused by a lack of blood flow to his brain – it was being directed
elsewhere.

The girl’s
cheeks flushed a bright pink as she opened her mouth to say
something –anything to explain what she was doing in the CEO’s
office. But she found herself unable to speak as well.

Something
happened when their eyes met that she couldn’t explain, and all she
could do was stare back and wonder about the man who stood in front
of her–who he was.

She found
herself wanting to know everything about him. And not just the
basic things that anyone could find out. She wanted to know the
things he never told anyone–the things he didn’t even admit to
himself. She wanted to know
who
he was and not just the man
he presented to the world–who, from the look of him, was much older
and world-weary than her own twenty-three years of close family and
private schooling.

Despite first
impressions, when she looked a little closer, there was a boyish
quality in his masculine features. His dark hair was a little messy
on top, like he’d styled it. He spent the morning raking his
fingers through it in thought. And he had a line that ran down his
right cheek that appeared to either be a scar or possibly from
years of smiling on that one side of his mouth. It was a quirk, and
she noticed the crease deepen as his mouth twitched. He was
enjoying this silent exchange of nothing more than pheromones.

Continuing her
silent perusal of what she thought was his character, her eyes
gazed over him as a whole, taking in his height, his stature and
his innate presence. She imagined that to most, he appeared tough,
intimidating. But to her, he was intriguing–the epitome of a man,
broad, tall and strong–his hands looked rough–powerful. She sensed
that he was once a cop of some sort as he had a great air of
control. A gentle shiver ran down her spine as she imagined those
hands sliding over her skin toward more…intimate areas.

Neither knew
how long they stood there looking at each other. Something strange
was happening, something neither had experienced before. For both,
it was incredibly disconcerting, as it was in that moment that both
their notions of attraction and their ability to control it, were
thrown out the window and replaced with this...tension.

“
Aiden,”
Terry Donovan boomed suddenly, slapping him on the back in
greeting. “I was just about to call you in. I see you two have
already met.”

Aiden cleared
his throat, snapping out of whatever trance he’d seemed to slip
into, and shook his head. “Actually, no. I just arrived,” he said,
keeping his eyes on the girl as he stepped toward her and held out
his hand.

Slipping her
small hand into his, she tried her best not to get caught in his
gaze again, but struggled to maintain her composure when a warmth
seemed to spread from his hand to hers, reaching over her body like
a soft warm blanket. She wanted to stay there. To curl up inside it
and feel everything it promised.

“
Aiden, I’d
like you to meet Chloe, my daughter,” Terry said, by way of
introduction. “And Chloe, this is Aiden Price. My head of
security.”

Suddenly,
Aiden released her hand and stepped back, the word ‘daughter’
echoing in his mind. “It’s nice to meet you, Chloe,” he said,
nodding at her courteously, as he squashed the desire he was
feeling toward her down into a box he kept in his mind labelled,
‘Don’t be an Idiot’
.

PRESENT,
14 days before the job

“THAT DIDN’T
take very long,” Leah, my friend and current flatmate, says, in his
slightly mixed accent as I get in the car.

“He wouldn’t
speak to me,” I tell him flatly, feeling like absolute shit as I
reach over and buckle my seatbelt.

“What do you
mean he wouldn’t speak to you?”

“Exactly that.
I walked in there, he saw me, and he told me to get out.”

“You want me
to talk to him?”

I glance over
at Leah. My eyes take in his black jeans with the chain on the
side, his fitted black tank and the tattoos that run down his
rather large arms. I meet his cat-like eyes, which look very
serious as he looks back at me.

“No. You going
in there will just make things even worse.”

“Jesus, girly.
When you break a guy’s heart, you break it good.”

“I didn’t
break his heart,” I insist, folding my arms across my chest
petulantly. “He was a player. He would have moved on with the next
pretty girl that came his way the moment his bed grew cold.”

“Then why is
he so pissed? It doesn’t make sense that he blames you for what he
thinks your dad did.”

“Of course he
does. Just drive, Leah. I want to go home.”

He reaches
forward and starts the car, slowly pulling his way onto the street
when the road is clear.

For a while,
we drive in silence, listening to the latest hits as they blast
through the radio. Then he reaches out and shuts it off.

“What are we
going to do now? Don’t we need him for this?”

“Yeah, we need
him.”

“Then what’s
your next brilliant plan? Going to hire him directly didn’t work
and we have ten days, tops. We need him in and we need him
now.”

I close my
eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose as my head begins to hurt with
all the information it holds. “I know,” I snap, before taking a
deep breath so I can speak calmly. “We need to move on to plan
B.”

“What’s plan
B?”

“His father
owned a bar that he inherited a while back. He runs it with his
sister. His company runs the security, so it’s where he spends most
of his nights if he isn’t working on some other job.”

“Fuck you’re a
stalker. How long have you been watching him for?”

“The whole
bloody time,” I say, reaching out to turn the music back on before
I look out the window, my face turned away from him, signalling
that I’m done with the conversation.

***

The moment we
get in the door of our small two bedroom flat, I flop down on the
couch and pull my heels off my feet. A warmth spreads through my
toes as I wriggle them up and down, working the circulation back
through. I’m not used to heels anymore. I don’t tend to wear them a
lot as my current life is built around an obsession that doesn’t
involve an office and suits as often as it involves backyard
dealings and information gathering in places unseen. Today,
however, I wore the heels for Aiden. I remember how much he loved
me in them, back when things were different and there was hope in
my world.