Chapter 07

Ryan

Being surrounded by so many people makes me feel claustrophobic. Even more the fact that most of the guests in this party are vultures looking to widen their business contacts so they can grow their influence and business relationships, that’s all they care about.

“Smile, Ryan. It's not polite to greet your guests with a grunt,” Dan suggests. And he's right. I soften my face to seem more calm, even though that's far away from how I truly feel. He continues without skipping a beat, “And, by the way, where's that secretary you've been keeping hidden from all of us?”

Mentioning Lena makes my sour mood return. She was supposed to be right by my side greeting the guests, but since she's half an hour late, Dan is doing her job.

“I have no idea.”

A few minutes later, everyone goes silent and, after staring at the entrance, the whispering start. Both me and Dan look towards the entrance and, like an angel making her way down to Earth to be with us mortals, Lena stands in the walkway taking off her coat and revealing a white dress that almost gives me a fucking heart attack. It fits her like a second skin, has long sleeves and falls right above her knees.

She walks through the crowd while ignoring every mocking stare they throw at her. Almost everyone here knows who she is, mostly because her father stole money from all of them. But she brushes them off like they're annoying flies surrounding a delicious dessert.

I can't stop looking at her, a mixture of anger and desire brewing inside of me. She stops just in front of us and gives me the fakest innocent smile someone could have given me in her position.

“Good night, Mr. Blake. I hope you're satisfied with my outfit.” I don't miss for a second the daring tone in her words.

“It'll do,” I reply, not giving her the satisfaction of knowing how pissed at her I am. She gives me a short smile but she knows deep down it's working.

“You got yourself a feisty one, Ryan. Aren't you going to introduce us?” Dan speaks and I completely forgot his existence.

“Dan, this is Lena Marzoli, my secretary. Lena, this is Dan Reynolds, the VP of the company.” I make the proper introductions a little bit reticent.

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Marzoli,” says Dan, grabbing her hand and placing a soft kiss on the back of it. She gives him a genuine smile and a bubble of rage floats up my throat.

I walk away, fearing that, if I stay too close to them I might yell at someone and I’ve spent too many years cultivating my reputation for it to be extinguished by the source of all my resentment.

I walk around making small talk with a few acquaintances when Walter Warren, the previous owner of this building, calls my name and, guarding myself up, I make my way towards him.

“You really spared no expenses in renovating this old building.” He says as soon as I’m standing next to him. Not wanting to state the obvious, I just nodded. He continued, “This was the first apartment building I owned, it has a special place in my heart. I gave it to my son so he could accomplish what I did, but he made some bad choices, and it fell apart. I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t happy with the deal he made with you, but seeing it now, makes me proud of him.”

His son was a monumental imbecile, but Walter has his rose colored glasses on and to him, his son couldn’t hurt a fly, and if he did, there will be dear old dad to swipe the fly under the rug. I can’t wait to see how Hunter is going to get out of this mess he got himself into.

The sound of a laughter brings me back from my thoughts and into reality, and as soon as I direct my attention to the source of the laughter, a roar of jealousy broke free inside of me. Lena was having the time of her life chatting with Dan instead of doing her fucking job and it pisses me the hell off. I leave Walter talking to the wall as I storm directly to them. I stand as close to Lena’s back as I can without touching her.

“Follow me, now.” Her whole body tenses as soon as she hears my hard tone. I step aside and walk towards the doors but stop three steps in as I don’t hear her actually doing what I told her to do. “I said now, Lena.”

The clapping of her heels in the marble floor lets me know she’s doing what I told her to.

I know this place like the back of my hand, since I was immersed in the renovation of the building, so I know that there’s an office three doors from our right. I walk inside and hold the door so Lena can make her way in. And, as soon as she does, I close the door and lock it.

This is a bad idea. But fuck me, I sure as hell am going to enjoy it.