Cael strode purposefully up to the mansion door and pressed the doorbell. The faint sound of the bell filtered out from under the massive door. The door was freakishly heavy, a fact he knew too well considering how much time he'd spent in this very house over the years.Armani's house had become something of a second home for him. Their fathers were very close friends and business partners and so naturally, they'd grown as friends, siblings even. He knew every nook of this place as well as he knew the back of his hand.How many hours had they spent running around the house, sometimes just the two of them and sometimes with other childhood friends?Only a few seconds passed before the door began opening slowly. Cael added his weight and pushed the door open. The door was still quite heavy, unnecessarily heavy, in his opinion but it didn't feel as heavy as it did when he was younger.Sadly, for the man revealed in the doorway when the door finally opened all the way, it had become incre
Cael followed Armani through the familiar halls. He even knew they were headed. It was the one place Armani would unconsciously pick to go to inside this mansion. They'd spent so much time in here as kids.They arrived at the Solarium and Armani immediately beelined to a plant. One of the leaves was drooping slightly. Cael sighed. The fact that he even recognized that face was enough to remind him that he spent way too much time here.The Solarium was beautiful. It held a variety of plants and flowers that Armani had carefully tended over the years, continuing her mother's legacy. As far as Cael was concerned, the entire set-up was more trouble than it was worth.The plants needed constant tending. It was a good thing Armani never needed to work a regular job otherwise, how would she keep up with all this? Well, he supposed she could work as a gardener or something.The glass room itself required a lot of maintenance. The glass needed to be constantly cleaned. Constantly! She sometime
Mikayla smiled patiently at the elderly woman across the table from her. She was awkwardly bent over the table to see what the woman was so excitedly showing her on her phone."And this was little Tommy's graduation just last week. Except he's not so little anymore if he's already going to college, right?" She laughed. Mikayla laughed too, "Yeah, he's not so little anymore.""I would have invited you to the ceremony except we haven't seen each other since my last checkup last month. It would have been lovely to have you there," Mrs Durall, the elderly patient, said.Mikayla smiled politely while thinking that she would never have gone even if invited. Even though she knew quite a bit about the family already, it was because Mrs Durall couldn't ever stop talking about them.At every checkup, she took her time to bring Mikayla up to speed on the going-ons of her large family. Mikayla didn't actually know any one of them herself. And judging from those pictures, it was a family affair.
Throughout work that day, Mikayla's mind was constantly on the text message she'd received last night. Even as she consulted with her patients, smiled, laughed and gisted, it continued to niggle at the back of her mind.Thankfully, she couldn't focus too much on it or she may have dissolved into a ball of anxiety. Patients kept on coming and whatever the case, the hospital must go on running. Mikayla's next patient came in. Mikayla rose with a smile to receive her. "Mrs Smith, welcome!""Hello, Dr Wall," Mrs Smith said sweetly. "How have you been?""I should be asking you that as your doctor instead," Mikayla teased. Mrs Smith took her seat and Mikayla followed suit. "I wanted to apologize for leaving so abruptly at the fundraiser event. Something came up urgently and I had to leave. I was going to call you but it's been a bit hectic since then.""Oh, it's no problem. I understand, dear. I hope you were able to sort out whatever it was," she said kindly.Mikayla cleared her throat. "
Mikayla stopped in her tracks. "Did you just say Armani Granger?" She asked."Yep," Anna said happily, oblivious to her friend's discomfort.Mikayla's mind raced a mile a second. This information changed everything. She'd spent all day and all night trying to think of business-related reasons for the emergency meeting but she hadn't thought of personal ones.She'd had little interactions with most of the investors in recent time apart from Mrs Smith who was a sweetheart and would have informed Mikayla about this if she were involved. Because of that, she'd completely left out the fundraiser as a possible catalyst. Only Cael and her knew what happened at the event but it was Armani's party, so it wasn't impossible to think that she might know too.She suddenly remembered that Cael had been with Armani before he came to her. He only approached her after Armani went up the stage to give her speech. Had she inadvertently slept with an investor's boyfriend? Mikayla face-palmed. Enough pe
Cael Lautner strode casually into the boardroom like a panther on the prowl. His eyes immediately went to Mikayla who was looking at him slack-jawed. He pinned her with his glittering black eyes.He saw her mouth open in a gasp when he stepped out of the elevator but it was drowned out by the gasps of everyone else in the room. "Young Lautner!" A voice called in exclamation. He turned around to see Mr Rogers walking up to shake his hand. "What a surprise to see you here. So you will be investing in the hospital?" "That's right, sir," he answered. Mr Rogers was another acquaintance of his Father. He'd never known them to be especially close but their paths had crossed a few times for business-related reasons.Mr Rogers was a shrewd and sharp businessman with a wide portfolio but he majored in business acquidition unlike the Lautners. His nickname in the business world was "the shark" because of how he'd sink his teeth into a business and shake loose every possible thing it had to of
Mikayla was trapped under Cael's massive body. She couldn't trust herself in this position. Looking up at him, it was all she could do to not reach up and pull his face down to hers.She looked around wildly, hoping that someone would appear to rescue her. She tried to escape from between his arms but his grip was firm. There was no chance for escape. She swallowed."How did you find me?" She muttered."How indeed," he said. "It didn't take much to find you. First off, you were at Armani's event. There was a list of attendees. Also, I have the resources to trace you to any corner of the earth if I want to. But most importantly, just like Cinderella, you left me a very nice glass slipper."Mikayla frowned. What was that supposed to mean? What glass slipper did he leave him?Cael reached into his pocket and pulled out something. Because of her blasted curiosity, she didn't immediately make a run for it the moment his hand came down. Plus, where would she go anyway?.The elevator would t
Mikayla stood stunned in front of the closed elevator door. She was now alone on the boardroom floor. In the silence of emptiness, she could pause to think about everything that had just happened.Too many thoughts warred for space in her head at the same time so she couldn't make sense of anything. "Okay, okay, let's take this one at a time. Let's start at the beginning," she said out loud.One, Armani was no longer an investor because she sold her shares to someone. Two, that someone was no other than Cael Lautner, the very man she hoped to never see again. Three, Cael Lautner had no intentions of leaving her alone, spending millions of dollars just to be close to her was a good enough indication. Four, she couldn't resist Cael Lautner any more now than she could the night of the event.In simple terms, she was screwed. Actually, she'd been screwed ever since that day she met him.She'd known it deep inside that once you meet a person who affected you so much on such a deep leve