My gaze returned to the attractive woman. There was no mistaking that she was aiming to take my place in more ways than one. Things had just gotten worse.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Scott
Ten days. Ten days had passed since I’d taken control of this company. Since I’d essentially ended any chance of a reconciliation with my wife. In the meantime, I’d done a great job of burying my head under Blackstone Holdings. Figuratively speaking, of course. Although somedays it felt literal. Then again, I would’ve done just about anything to drown out all the feelings
I was still reeling from. Betrayal. Disappointment. Powerlessness so acute it made me want to smash things. The last one particularly devastating. Worse yet, I was trying desperately to hold on to my righteous anger, but it was hard when the person I wanted to be angry at wasn’t making it easy.
Sydney had been nothing but helpful, facilitating the transition every way I asked and even going the extra mile when I didn’t. There was no resentment, no bitterness, no threats of lawsuits coming from her. No tears either––which annoyed the fuck out of me.
She didn’t seem all that upset about being fired. I’d feel a little better about the situation if she was at least a little angry in return. Nothing would feel better than unloading on her. But, no, she’d shown me nothing but kindness and hard work.
For the past three nights, she’d stayed late to help Katherine Daly get up to speed. With no small amount of satisfaction, I’d hired her away from one of my father’s competitors. Maybe the one thing I’d done right since returning to this garbage dump of a rat-infested shit hole city.
I wondered what the old man would say if he could see me now, occupying his office, trying to fill his shoes. He was dead and I was still trying to get his attention. How fucked was that?
As I drummed my fingers on the keyboard of my computer, my bare ring finger caught my attention. Today I’d check to see if Sydney still wore hers. At some point, I’d get around to divorcing her, but not any time soon. I had a company to run after all.
“Scott, a word?” Katherine Daly marched right in without waiting for a reply. Which, of course, irritated me. Although almost everything did these days.
She took a seat in the wing chair stationed on the other side of my father’s desk and crossed her legs. Funny how I still thought of it as Dad’s.
“Did you see the game last night? We need a better DH.”
She was talking about the Yankees game which I had absolutely no interest in discussing. I tore my eyes away from my desktop screen, ready to tell her I didn’t have the time nor the inclination for idle chitchat, when I noticed her black skirt gapping open. It had spilt up to her thigh, revealing the lace band of her thigh high stockings.
There was no question she’d worn it on purpose. I’d been the victim of so many female schemes of seduction over the years I could teach a class on it.
Inappropriate, I thought, and discarded the sentiment just as quickly. I wasn’t about to grant her any more mental space than was absolutely necessary and even negative interest could fuel the fire. Her come-ons had grown bolder over the last week. I was trying my best to pretend it wasn’t happening.
“Did you need to discuss something––other than the game?” I remarked with as much irritation as I could pack into one sentence. My expression said more of the same.
“I thought we could have dinner tonight and go over the files Sydney sent me last night. The Tokyo project in particular may be problematic.”
“No.” My attention moved back to the computer screen.
“No?” She chuckled.
My patience with her, the little I had left, had officially run out. “Look…Katherine. You came highly recommended and I appreciate you hitting the ground running with all the turnover Blackstone has suffered since my father’s death, but make no mistake, this is a working relationship. I don’t know how Campisi runs his office, but I don’t fuck my employees. I’m not interested. Am I making myself clear?”
Somewhere between the death of my father and the end of my marriage I’d lost all capacity to be diplomatic. It would’ve been lost on her anyway. I was getting the impression that this one needed blunt force to get through to her.
Katherine sat up straighter, her legs uncrossing. After easing shut the gap in her skirt, she laced her fingers together on her lap. “We’re clear.”
Exhaling tiredly, I continued, “Good. Now tell me what Sydney said about the Tokyo property?”
As if summoned, Sydney appeared in the open doorway to sucker punch me in the gut. The dogs shot up from a dead sleep on the couch and ran to greet her, circling her legs, whining and crying as she fussed over them. I hadn’t seen her in a few days. I’d tried to stay away, but it was getting increasingly harder instead of easier.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked with a soft smile, her gaze shooting back and forth between me and Katherine.
“No,” I shot back immediately. She’d just granted me the perfect cover to get rid of Katherine.
She wasn’t in work clothes, I noted. She wore a black sweater and black jeans that hugged her long athletic legs. Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders.
Fuck, I miss her, was my first and last thought. I almost laughed bitterly. Rather inconvenient to have a beautiful almost ex-wife that I still loved. And I did…despite everything.
“We were discussing the Tokyo property, but that can wait.”
“Oh. If you have any questions I can––”
“Not yet…maybe later.”
She stepped further into my father’s office and stopped halfway. That’s how I thought of it––all of it. My father’s company. My father’s office. My father’s desk. None of it felt mine. Not like the Lazy S did. None of this felt real.
The woman who stood calmly watching me a few feet away was real…and she’d been mine not so long ago.
Sydney
“Thanks for the notes, Sidney,” Katherine said, standing. There was only genuine gratitude in her voice. I had to give her credit for that. “They’ve been quite helpful.”
I tore my eyes away from Scott’s intense expression to take in Katherine’s appearance: the white blouse and black pencil skirt, the bee-stung lips and Disney-princess eyes. Very sexy. No doubt about it. Katherine was a beautiful woman and a really good lawyer. It was the latter that rankled.
At least Scott was speaking to me. He’d said more in the last five minutes than he had in the last three weeks combined. That was something to be grateful for.
“We can go over the files later, Scott,” Katherine said to him. More flirtation followed, and I almost rolled my eyes. Everyone in the office knew she was after him. Some were even taking bets on how long before they got caught fucking in the supplies closet. It gave me a panic attack every time I heard someone whispering his name.
“I’ll give you guys some privacy,” she said.
Scott didn’t bother replying and his attention didn’t waver from me. I didn’t know what to make of this new attitude, and quite frankly, I was too exhausted to even try. Sensing she wasn’t going to get another word out of him, Katherine made for the exit.