1
A midnight caller
Eve was once again standing in a boring employee meeting. She felt locked in the never-ending torture as she leaned against the wall of the cramped boardroom in one of the highest buildings in Seattle. She switched her weight from foot to foot occasionally, because she’d just had to wear her new sexy black heels that day. It was a silent stab against her ex, Brent, who was running the meeting and droning on and on about sales numbers being down. Brent had hated it when she’d worn heels, which would make her a few inches taller than his five-seven frame.
The man had charmed her years ago with his sophisticated sweep of blond hair, those crystal eyes, and the little dimple in his chin. He’d been born a smooth talker into a large family of them.
He only dressed in the finest business suits and had custom-made clothing for everything else.
Glancing around the room, she realized that every butt sitting in those expensive cushioned chairs made twice what she did now, and probably would ever make, at Morgan Stein Marketing Firm.
The job had been one of Eve’s first after getting her Bachelor of Science in marketing from the University of Washington.
She’d started her job and had fallen for Brent Stein, son of the business owners, Morgan and Ewan Stein, quickly.
Marrying him within that first year of knowing him had been a mistake she’d fixed by divorcing him nine short months later. Brent had shown signs of being controlling when they’d dated, but she’d been so blinded by all the wining and dining, she’d overlooked them. Being the son of the owner of one of Seattle’s largest marketing businesses had its perks. Of course, she’d gladly signed the prenup his parents had demanded of her. She was in love and nothing else mattered. Brent was, so she’d thought, the perfect man.
Growing up, she’d been taught to never rely on anyone for anything. She should have listened to those lessons after leaving home shortly after graduating high school.
Now, however, three short months after their divorce was finalized, she was still struggling with Brent, who, it seemed, was having second thoughts after signing the divorce papers her grandfather’s lawyer had drawn up.
She should have put in her resignation the day she’d handed him the divorce papers, but she’d needed the income and didn’t really want to update her resume. Besides, moving out of the massive three-thousand-square-foot mansion they’d lived in together and renting the studio apartment she now called home had been expensive.
So, she’d stuck with her job at the firm and dreamed of the day she could break free from the Stein’s clutches. She knew that, because of her and Brent’s past, she was sliding downhill at the firm. That first week after the divorce was legalized, she’d been moved out of the cushy office that overlooked Seattle’s sound and moved into a small cubicle where she shared her space with a temp who only worked two days a week.
Still, they hadn’t cut her paycheck, so she hadn’t minded that much. She did everything in her power to annoy Brent when she could without crossing the line, such as wearing heels or calling him Mr. Stein. He hated being called that because he didn’t like to be associated with his father, a fact that he had confided in her shortly after they had started dating.
“That is all,” Brent finished, getting her attention again. Sighing, she moved towards the door, eager to get off her feet.
“Eve, would you mind waiting?” Brent called out to the room. Every eye turned to her as the room grew silent.
“Sure.” She sighed and shifted her sore feet again. She’d been dreaming of sitting for the next few hours, since she’d been working on a few projects with approaching deadlines when Brent had called the meeting.
Brent followed the last person to leave the meeting room and shut the door behind them. To get under his skin, she remained standing as he stopped directly in front of her.
It worked. His eyes narrowed slightly, and she could tell he was agitated at her height.
He was still handsome as sin, like a young Brad Pitt, with his sandy blond hair, silvery eyes, and chiseled chin. But shortly after their divorce he’d turned soft, losing what little muscle mass he had. Not that he was fat; he was too small of a man to be considered fat. He just wasn’t as… firm as he had been when they’d been dating. Was it all in her head since her views on him had changed?
“You wanted something, Mr. Stein?” she asked, innocently. His eyes narrowed further as he motioned for her to take a seat.
She held in a groan of appreciation as she finally got off her feet. She held herself firm, crossing her hands in front of her, laying them on the smooth rich wood of the massive meeting table as she waited for him to explain what he wanted from her.
He sat directly next to her. Instead of turning her body towards him, she twisted her back slightly so that she could give him her attention without fully ignoring him. “I was hoping that we could talk about your position at the firm.”
Her dark eyebrows shot up. “My… position?” Her voice was a little shaky. Here it was, the day she’d been dreading. She’d known since the day she filed for divorce that one day she’d be jobless. She’d just hoped it would be after the holidays, a little under five months from now.
“I know that getting back together, well, that’s not possible.” He reached over and laid his hand over hers. “I mean, mother and father have…” He sighed and shook his head. “Anyway, it’s not possible. But I was hoping that… That is…” He cleared his throat. “I think we can come to some sort of arrangement. I know you’ve been eyeing Ben’s position, since he’ll be leaving at the end of the month.”
She swallowed. Ben Regan was taking a position in Philadelphia, where his wife had been transferred for her government job. Ben had been in charge of online content that went out of the firm, something Eve had a talent with.
The rest of Brent’s words sank in, and she jerked her hands free and stood up suddenly, sending the wheeled chair spinning across the room.
“Dream on,” she said in a low tone. “You know where I stand on us getting back together.” She tried to stop the shaking that started every time she thought of being with Brent again.
The man was sexy as sin but one of the most controlling asshats she’d ever met. And since she came from a family of controlling asshats, she had a lot to compare him to.
“I’m not talking about getting back together in the sense of what we had in the past.” He stood, moving closer to her and once again taking her hands in his. She would have jerked free, but he had her pinned between the wall and the chair now. “What I’m proposing is more of a… physical arrangement.”
She felt her lunch threaten to surface and jerked her hands free of his. She wrapped them around her waist, desperately trying to hold in what she could of her bubbling stomach.
“No.” She shook her head and glanced towards the door, dreaming of escaping. “It’s not going to happen. Ever,” she whispered.
In the next moments, Brent turned, like he had so many times in the past. She’d watched the Jekyll and Hyde show so many times in the past, it had stopped amazing her at how quickly he could go from a kind, caring man to a controlling, manipulative asshat so quickly.