laid eyes on him.
“Ms. Rayne. This is the newest member of our team, Shawn Miles, chief information security officer,” Mr. Vallant said, rising once again from his chair to make the introduction. “Shawn, please meet Cydney Rayne from Elite Events, Incorporated.”
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Rayne,” Shawn said with ease, once again giving himself away and proving that he wasn’t surprised to see her at all. Of course Shawn works for the Peter Vallant Company, she thought sarcastically. What was it with this man! How did he manage to pop up in her life not once, not twice, but three times!
“Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Miles,” Cyd replied, accepting his handshake and ignoring the electric surge that shot through her arm. He looked great in his navy blue suit, but she refused to give him a compliment. He never told her what he did for a living, but he’d admitted to researching her online. She guessed it was partially her fault for not researching him online, too. She’d much preferred to keep him a mystery, but had she just searched his name on the internet, she could have saved herself some embarrassment.
She was so sick and tired of Shawn getting the upper hand. Even if he was new to the company, he’d probably been told that she would be the lead planner for the appreciation tour. Cyd nervously glanced around the table before her eyes settled back on Shawn. She wished he’d wipe that smirk off his face. Better yet, she wished she could punch it off him. But Cyd had way more class than that.
“Let’s all take a seat,” Mr. Vallant said as he returned to his chair. As Cyd sat back down, she twisted in her seat so that her back was slightly to Shawn, directing her full attention to Mr. Vallant at the head of the table.
“I’ll begin our discussion with the rotation schedule for the events. As lead event planner, Ms. Rayne will be attending every event. Here is the schedule for the rest of the events,” Mr. Vallant said as he directed his attention at the material that had been placed in front of each attendee’s seat.
Cyd didn’t hear Mr. Vallant announce that as CISO, Shawn would also be present at every event, though a quick scan of the document made that fact evident, anyway. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on high awareness as Shawn leaned forward to pick up something he’d dropped on the floor. She sighed a little deeper than necessary as she gripped the mahogany table while uncrossing her legs just to cross them back again.
There it was again. The butterflies she couldn’t stop from swarming in the pit of her stomach. Yet she managed to answer every question that was directed at her during the course of the meeting. Though she wasn’t sure how she answered anything at all, given all her attention was secretly fixed on the man to the right.
She glanced at the clock on the wall and prayed that the already forty-minutes-long meeting would conclude in the next twenty minutes. She looked through a folder that Mr. Vallant had handed her a few minutes prior to see the list of hotels she would be staying at during the appreciation tour. Over the next month, there would be four stops. Cyd lived in downtown Chicago, but tonight she would be staying at the JW Marriott, host hotel for the Peter Vallant reception for the employees to thank them for all their hard work. On Friday, they left for their first stop, Springfield, Illinois.
At the sound of Shawn’s voice, Cyd turned her head to listen to what he was saying, as did everyone at the table. She wanted to comprehend his words, but she couldn’t. His lips looked too sexy today. He stuck his tongue in and out between sentences to moisten his lips, glancing at her after every lick. I’ll definitely be changing my panties after this meeting, she thought. She was a visual person and right now the only thing she could visualize was seductively bouncing on top of him and riding him like the bull she’d ridden at her sister’s bachelorette party.
“Is that okay with you, Ms. Rayne?” asked Mr. Vallant. Crap, she’d missed the question. “Yes, that’s fine with me,” she replied, hoping that her answer would suffice.
“Great. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our meeting. I’ll see you all tonight at the reception.”
Cyd quickly grabbed her belongings, politely smiling to the others as she tried to leave the room so she could seek refuge in the privacy of her hotel room, but Shawn had other plans.
“Are you ready?” Shawn asked, gently catching her arm before she dipped out into the hallway.
“For what?” she asked, trying not to notice his blatant appraisal of her outfit. He smelled of men’s soap and aftershave that complemented his natural masculine scent. The fact that she could also detect that he was wearing a brand of Kenneth Cole’s cologne to match the scent of aftershave both aggravated and aroused her at the same time. She’d never noticed those things about a man before, yet with Shawn she noticed every little detail. She nervously played with her hair, awaiting his response.
After one more look at her outfit, he finally decided to answer. “You agreed to let me take you on a tour of the building.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did,” he said, standing a little closer than before. “And you also agreed to let me escort you to your hotel to ensure that everything is well with your accommodations.”
Cyd took a step back from him. “No. I. Didn’t,” she said a little slower than before. That was probably what Mr. Vallant meant when he’d asked her if she was okay with something. She just hadn’t known what that something was until now.
“Look, Mr. Miles, I—” Cyd stopped talking when Shawn let out a hearty laugh.
“Mr. Miles? Seriously? After everything we’ve done, you want to be formal with me? Tell you what. How about you call me Mr. Miles when we’re around everyone else. But when we’re alone,” he said, stepping back into her personal space, “I want you to call me Shawn just like I plan to call you Cydney.”
Was that a request or an order? Cleary Shawn didn’t know what type of woman she was. Cyd did not take orders from any man. “Listen, Mr. Miles. Had I known you worked for the Peter Vallant Company, I would have never...” Her words trailed off when he leaned in toward her ear.
“There is no way you wouldn’t have been intimate with me, so save yourself the trouble and don’t deny something you know was bound to happen, anyway.”
Talk about cocky! He really thought he had her eating out of the palm of his hand. Although she was the first to admit that part was true, the fact that he wouldn’t let her finish her statements was nerve racking.
“Tell you what,” Cyd said, crossing her arms over her chest, not caring that his eyes followed her movement. “How about you be the good golden boy and tell Mr. Vallant that you showed me around the building and made sure my room was okay. In the meantime, I will head to my hotel without you and I’ll make sure I have Mr. Vallant’s assistant give me a tour some other time.” With that she walked away, got on the elevator and hightailed it out of the Peter Vallant Company.
Only when she had paid the cab driver, checked into her hotel and settled into the confines of her luxury room did she absorb the situation. “For the next month or so I have to work with Shawn Miles,” she said aloud.
A quick call to her sister in her cab ride to the hotel had eliminated the notion that Daman and her partners had known that Shawn worked for the Peter Vallant Company. Too bad Imani was laughing so hard that Cyd didn’t have the chance to vent to her.
“Truly comical.” She would be laughing at her situation, too, if she wasn’t too busy freaking out. Cyd walked over to the floor-length mirror positioned
