Page 12 of Trainer

“Yeah, right,” I replied. I kept my head down like I didn’t want to listen, but the truth was that I was hanging on his every word.

“Melinda is…a bit wild,” he said slowly, as though he was choosing his words carefully. “She wanted to surprise me with a party and that’s what that was up there.”

“That’s your normal kind of party, is it?”

“No!” he said firmly. “And…that’s why she did it. Because I haven’t been going out much lately or seeing anybody.”

“Really?” I asked, finally looking up. “And why’s that? And don’t tell me it’s because you’re finally looking to settle down.”

Chase opened his mouth to speak, then thought of something, stopped, and started again.

“Okay…let’s just say I’ve grown a bit tired of that kind of life. And believe me, if I’d known Melinda was going to do that, I never would have taken you back here.”

I still wasn’t convinced, but I was getting there. Chase didn’t seem like a liar to me, but then again, what did I know about guys? Let alone billionaire ones?

“Cady,” he said, bending slightly so he was down at my eye level. “I want to be with you, not them. And I’m going to prove it to you now.”

“Yeah? How are you gonna do that?” I asked.

Chase leaned in, a sparkle in his eyes that had my stomach swimming with butterflies, and squeezed my hand in his.

“I’m going to take you out of here,” he told me. “Away from all this nonsense, where I can have you all to myself. Come on.”

Chapter Six

Chase

I wanted to kill Melinda. Really, I did. If she wasn’t such a damn good COO, I would have fired her years ago. But this last little stunt, along with the other things that had been going on lately, had me ready to finally pull the trigger.

Melinda had been working for me for three years now and was basically m

y right-hand woman. She knew how to keep the troops in line, how to boost morale when it was needed, and how to use her charms on people to get us places I couldn’t. But lately, things had shifted between us and I knew why.

Melinda wanted me.

At first I’d thought all the eyelid flickering and cute faces she’d been giving me were just part of her sucking up to me and making it obvious that she would do whatever it took to keep her job, but a few months ago after our company retreat to New Hampshire, I realized the truth.

We’d gone camping in the mountains as part of a team bonding exercise, and after the hike, bonfire, and cookout, Melinda had crept into my tent looking to do a little more than just chat with her boss.

I told her no, of course. I wasn’t one to mix business with pleasure, and even if I was, Melinda just wasn’t my type. She was rough, abrasive, and honestly kind of rubbed me the wrong way on a personal level. On a business level she was great; she got things done and the company was better with her, but I just could never see myself with her.

She’d pretended to take it well, but I knew she was furious. Melinda had grown up wealthy, gone to the best schools, and had everything she’d ever wanted, and now she wanted me but couldn’t have me, and that was driving her crazy.

That little “surprise party” back at the apartment had been a ruse. Really, what had happened was that she’d heard (probably from Jeremy) that I was bringing a girl home with me, had gotten jealous, and decided to ruin it for me.

Bitch…

I was furious, of course, not because of what she’d done to me, but because of what she’d done to Cady.

Seeing those tears running down her cheeks had made me want to demolish the entire building. It was a protective instinct I hadn’t felt since ten years ago when I was in college and Dick Rainy, hotshot on the crew team, had been going after Lana Brown, a cute girl in the drama club who I had my eyes on.

But this feeling I had now was a thousand times stronger than anything I’d felt back then. I would go to war for Cady. I’d do anything to make sure I never saw another tear in her eye again unless they were tears of happiness.

“I thought you were taking me out of here,” she asked as I led her back into the elevator.

“I am,” I smiled, pressing the button with the big red R on it.

“R?” she asked. “That doesn’t mean—that doesn’t mean what I think it means, does it?”

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