Chapter 2

Evan

Early October - Three Months Ago

The thing is … I’m actually a really professional person. Normally. Ask anyone.

The current situation didn’t highlight that virtue, but I promise it’s true.

It was just very hard for me not to press my ear to Reid’s office door so I could listen in on his conversation with Emmy.

I wouldn’t usually.

I might be infatuated with my boss, but his relationship with Emmy was none of my business.

However, yesterday, I’d had the unfortunate task of relaying to Reid that his girlfriend rang up a whopping five grand bill under his personal account for the store. Reid had gone quiet at the news, giving nothing away regarding his feelings on the matter.

Then, today, I’d been in the staff room trying to diffuse a quarrel between Ailsa, the manager of the salon, and Louis, the manager of the beauty department. Apparently, Ailsa had recommended a product to a customer that we didn’t stock and this ruffled Louis’s feathers. While he was sort of right that she should only recommend store products, I couldn’t help but understand why Ailsa was pissed off at him for his condescending attitude.

Handling staff disputes was not part of my job description. It should fall to either George, the general manager, the human resources department, or Reid himself. Reid, however, had no patience for ‘tattletales’ as he called them, and George was in a meeting with our events coordinator for the upcoming Halloween sale. Human resources were surprisingly good at avoiding human contact outside of their own department. Reid had asked that ‘I see to the problem’ regarding the staff. This had been happening more and more lately since I had a knack for diffusing situations.

“So,” I was saying to Ailsa and Louis, “If Ailsa thinks this product is a better one than the products in Shaw’s, I’ll talk to Reid about stocking it. That way we all win. Yes?”

Louis gave a little huff but nodded.

Ailsa beamed.

That’s when I saw Emmy floating by the staff room wearing four-inch heels, her diaphanous trench coat billowing behind her as she strutted down the hallway toward Reid’s office.

“Uh … I have to go. We’re all good?” I gave Louis and Ailsa a thumbs up before scurrying out of the staff room before they could stop me. “Back to work,” I threw over my shoulder.

Emmy was already in Reid’s office by the time I caught up. The woman had outrageously long legs.

That’s when I abandoned all common decency and pressed my ear to the door.

I was shamefaced but not nearly enough to stop myself.

“Three months is nothing,” Reid said calmly.

While my boss could glower for Scotland and brood and cut a person with a look so dirty I’d seen grown men crumble under it, he rarely raised his voice. He was always so in control. It made me want to ruffle his feathers.

And by ruffle his feathers, I mean drive him so wild with passion he falls on me like a wild thing.

Flushing hot at the imagery, I squeezed my thighs tight together and tried to concentrate on the somewhat muffled conversation beyond the door.

“Do you know how many men would die to have me in their bed?” Emmy countered.

At her arrogance, I stifled a snort.

So she was tall, voluptuous and gorgeous.

Big deal.

If she had a beautiful heart to go with her pretty facade, then she would have been right. Reid would be lucky to have her.

Unfortunately, Emmy was kind of a snooty cow.

She looked down her nose at Reid’s staff and expected them to snap to her every demand and was what she referred to as a socialite. A socialite? Did those even exist in Edinburgh? Apparently so, because Emmy didn’t work for a living. She had a degree from St. Andrews University, so she wasn’t stupid, but she was from a wealthy family. Between their money and Reid’s, Emmy didn’t seem to think working was a productive use of her time.

Did I sound judgemental?

I wasn’t usually judgy.

But I was judging her. I admit it.

The thing of it was, I couldn’t understand how this lack of work ethic could appeal to Reid. My brother’s best friend hadn’t gotten to where he was in life without a serious amount of hard work. He’d grown up around the corner from us in Dalkeith, a town about thirty minutes southeast of Edinburgh city center. A town I stilled lived in, occupying a tiny one-bedroom apartment a few streets over from my parents’ house.

Reid had grown up with a single mum, Annie. She’d worked her arse off to keep a roof over Reid’s head and food in his stomach. Like us, they didn’t have much, but they had each other and Annie had my parents while Reid had Patrick. I hadn’t come along until my brother and Reid were thirteen years old, so by the time I was old enough to really get to know Pat and Reid, they’d left home. Despite how easy it might have been for them to fall in with the wrong crowd of boys in our estate, they’d both stuck in at school and gotten into Edinburgh University. While Patrick then studied for his medical degree in Manchester, Reid got his MBA at a top business school in London. We’d see them over the holidays as Annie and Reid always spent Christmas with us. I wasn’t aware of Reid back then. I was only a kid, after all, and just excited to have my big brother home.

Reid returned to Edinburgh before Patrick, and we didn’t see much of him at all.

My brother returned home two years later to complete his foundation program as a doctor at a GP practice in the city. It was then we saw more of Reid. Not loads. But more.

And I developed my first real crush.

I remember it clearly.

I was thirteen years old. It was Christmas Day and Patrick was spending the night with us, rather than staying at his flat. Like always, Annie and Reid came over for Christmas day.

I’d noted that Reid didn’t smile much.

But he smiled at me as he strolled into my parent’s sitting room and wished me a happy Christmas. His smile set off a riot of flutters in my belly and I found myself tongue-tied and flustered around him.

The feeling never really went away, although it lost its intensity as I got older and saw him less and went off to Edinburgh university to pursue my own degree in Business Management. An MA that proved to be useless to me when I left school and competed with a ton of other young people with similar degrees and very little experience.

After six months of job searching with no luck, Patrick said Reid was looking for a new personal assistant at his department store and he was willing to give me a shot.

I hadn’t even thought about my old crush.

All I’d thought about was the great pay and the fact that my first job would be working with one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Scotland.

After working for several companies over the years, networking, accruing stock and investments, Reid purchased an aging department store in the heart of Edinburgh. Situated on the main thoroughfare of the city center, on Princes Street, the department store had lost its luster years ago, as many had because of online shopping. Reid bought the store and the three shops that shared the same turn-of-the-century building. Knocking through into those meant he could create a much bigger department store. While he maintained its nineteenth century charm, he created a mini empire with everything from clothing to home furnishing to electronics to beauty to a salon and spa and topped it off with a fine dining restaurant on the level below the office floors. He created an atmosphere where people wanted to shop and he catered to those in the city who had money to do so.

Everyone thought he would fail.

In the last three years the store had gone from strength to strength, proving all the naysayers wrong.

Unfortunately, success meant Reid was a busy man. Too busy to think about women beyond the convenience of having a partner with him at a business dinner and someone to satisfy his sexual appetite. While not necessarily a womanizer, Reid was definitely a serial monogamist. He had a few rules when it came to women.

They had to be understanding of his long working hours.

Everything was on his schedule.

And he didn’t do immaturity. Which meant he never dated a woman younger than twenty-eight. Patrick told me that. It didn’t make sense to me at all. I knew women twice my age way more immature than me. That ridiculous rule stung.

Did I mention my youthful crush returned when I started working for Reid and was now growing into a full-blown infatuation? It wasn’t just because Reid was tall with the athletic physique of a swimmer, or that he had the most beautiful glimmering dark eyes and wickedly boyish grin. I suspected Reid had much passion and feeling buried beneath his cool, overly controlled facade. For instance, he was loyal and generous to a fault. I wasn’t supposed to know it, but my parents were in financial difficulty because of a second mortgage they’d taken on with the house and were in danger of losing it. Reid paid off their debt. No questions asked. I could only imagine how much of a hit that was to Dad’s pride. Reid would have handled it delicately though. I’d seen him handle businessmen with a deft touch and he loved my dad, so I couldn’t imagine him not handling him with care.

Then there were the many charities I knew he donated to. Anytime I tried to ask him about them, he just blew me off. But I worked for him. I saw the good he did without wanting accolades for it.

And all of his staff were competitively paid. If one of them had a personal problem that was interfering with their duties, Reid had instructed Nicola, our Human Resource Manager, to create a supportive environment for them and to put measures in place to help them.

His staff were a priority.

When I mentioned this he just replied, ‘Happy staff are productive staff. Productive staff bring in more sales.’

All that was true, but I still thought he was a big softie, really.

For the last six months, I’d seen Reid with two women up close and personal. The first was Anushka. She and Reid had been dating for three months before I appeared. His PA before me was a lovely older lady called Janet. She’d retired.

Anushka was unhappy that Reid’s new PA was a twenty-two-year-old, not entirely unattractive (I hoped) woman. Again, Patrick filled me in on that. After about two months working for Reid, Anushka grew increasingly paranoid about me. At her jealous insistence that Reid fire me, he fired Anushka instead.

Emmy appeared on the scene about a month later.

And she was the worst.

While I truly got the sense Anushka had genuine feelings for Reid, all Emmy saw was Reid’s success and what his money could do for her. Patrick told me (if you hadn’t already guessed my big brother was a bloody gossip!) that Reid had to stop at his mum’s house in Dalkeith one night while Emmy was with him. Despite Reid wanting to buy his mum a nice house somewhere else, she didn’t want to leave. Instead, he paid off her mortgage. The darling man.

Anyway, back to the story. So Reid goes to Annie’s to drop off the new phone he’d insisted on buying her when her old one broke and Emmy had stayed in his car, dramatically terrified to get out of it as if Dalkeith was the ghetto. While the estate we grew up in was a little run down and very working class, the insinuation that it was dangerous was insulting. Patrick had been pissed when Reid told him Emmy had said “he was never to bring her back to that dump again”. Reid had just shrugged it off. When I asked Patrick why, he said Reid wasn’t serious about her. He was just interested in their sexual relationship, so there was no point getting upset about her attitude.

I got upset.

Mostly at the reminder that the snooty cow got to have sex with Reid.

Reid who looked after his body with the same careful discipline he brought to all areas of his life. There was a staff gym on the top floor that Reid used first thing in the morning, every morning.

I’d once found him in there, shirtless.

The image was BURNED on my brain.

“I don’t care how many men would die to have you in your bed,” Reid was saying to Emmy. “Go find one of them.”

“What?!” Emmy screeched.

I winced.

There was a moment of silence and then, “I called you in here to discuss the charges on my store tab. I’m not a man you can use like this, Emmy.”

“Use you? I’m using you,” she said indignantly. “As if you aren’t using me. Reid, I’m at your bloody beck and call. You do realize that’s not how normal relationships work? They’re about give and take. Outside of the bedroom, you’re all about take. Surely, a little compensation for being one step up from an escort isn’t a lot to ask.”

“An escort?” he replied coolly.

I knew that tone. If Reid wasn’t happy before, he really wasn’t happy now.

“Yes, an escort. And I’m worth more than that. You think you can break up with me? I’m breaking up with you.” Footsteps moved toward the door and I skittered quickly back to my desk, staring at my computer like I hadn’t been eavesdropping.

The door to Reid’s office opened and I heard Emmy say, “You’re an unfeeling bastard, Reid, and you’re going to die alone for it.”

I tried not to let my jaw drop in shock at her awful snipe.

She stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind her with a little slam. She cut me a dirty look and strolled away.

“Good riddance,” I called out to her as if I was calling a cheery ‘good day’.

Emmy glanced over her shoulder, pausing. “Excuse me?”

“Go-od. Rid-dance,” I drawled, as if she were challenged in the hearing department.

“Screw you,” she huffed and marched away.

“No thanks,” I muttered to the screen. “Can’t afford you, babe.”

A snort sounded from the doorway, and I looked up to find Reid leaning on the doorframe of his office.

I grimaced. “Sorry. Not professional, I know.”

“No. But funny.”

I smiled sympathetically. “She’s wrong, you know.”

He raised an eyebrow. “About?”

“You’re not an unfeeling bastard who is going to die alone.”

Reid’s expression closed down. “Has Butler called?”

I knew by the very fact that he didn’t want to talk about what Emmy had said meant that she’d drawn blood. Hating that she’d wounded him, I suggested, “Why don’t you finish up early? I can handle everything here.”

“I’m fine. Let me know when Butler calls. If he doesn’t call by three o’clock, you call his assistant.” He disappeared back into his office before I could reply.

Hours later, once the store was closed at seven o’clock and the staff had all gone home except for the night time maintenance crew and security, I knocked on Reid’s office door.

In my hand was the bottle of eighteen-year-old Macallan I’d bought from our small whisky department with my staff discount. Grabbing two glasses from the staff room, I approached Reid.

The man didn’t seem to have anyone to talk to except Patrick, and sometimes guys couldn’t say the things they wanted to say to each other. Especially two proud Scots who thought it only appropriate to cry at football, funerals, or at the death of a beloved family pet.

“Come in.”

I stepped into the office, using my arse to close the door behind me. Reid raised an eyebrow at my entrance as I held up the items in my hands. “Thought you might need this.”

I expected him to reject the idea and tell me to go home. Instead, he exhaled heavily and pushed away from his desk. He gestured to the sofa and coffee table at the back of the small room and I made my way over to it. Ignoring the flutter in my belly and the slight increase of my pulse, I placed the glasses on the coffee table and opened the whisky as Reid approached.

The rich, spicy scent of his cologne caused a flush across my skin as he settled down onto one end of the sofa and relaxed back into it. I handed him a tumbler of whisky and he muttered his thanks before taking a sip. I tried to ignore the movement of his strong throat as he swallowed. And the way his fingers clasped the glass. He had gorgeous hands. Masculine but graceful; big knuckles. And his forearms. Gosh, he had lovely forearms with thick veins and sun-kissed skin and only a dusting of hair across the top. I’d never noticed so much about a man before, but Reid’s hands and forearms totally turned me on. Okay, everything about him turned me on.He had cut cheekbones, a square jaw and a wicked grin. Reid would almost be too perfect, but thankfully he wasn’t. He’d broken his nose playing rugby when he was fourteen years old and it was slightly crooked. Somehow this just made him rugged and sexier.Damn him.Taking hold of my glass, I sat down at the other end of the sofa. It was a small two-seater, so we weren’t exactly miles apart. Studying him as I took a sip of the drink, I enjoyed the smooth warmth of the alcohol as it slid down my throat. There was a strained weariness to his features that made me want to touch him. Comfort him.

Reid’s eyes slid toward me and I held my breath at his study. “I didn’t know you drink whisky.”

I nodded. “Got a taste for the stuff when I was at uni.”

Reid smirked. “Most students have less expensive tastes.”

“I’m not most people.”

He didn’t respond to that, just leaned forward, elbows to his knees, glass cradled between his palms. His expression turned contemplative as he stared into the golden amber liquid.

Though it was unpleasant to think about him brooding over another woman, as his wannabe friend, I had to ask, “Did you have strong feelings for her?”

Reid raised his eyebrows as he looked at me. “Emmy?”

I nodded.

He shook his head. “Less than I should have.”

“What does that mean?”

Instead of answering, he threw back the entire glass and reached for the bottle to refill it.

“You can talk to me, you know. If you need to.”

“You’re my employee,” he reminded me. “I shouldn’t even be having a casual whisky with you.”

I scoffed, “Reid, you’ve known me forever.”

“Another reason not to talk about this with you. Your brother is my best friend. And he’s a fucking gossip.” He threw me a quick grin.

Chuckling, I nodded. “Too true. But unlike Patrick, I am a vault.”

Settling back against the sofa, Reid took another sip and murmured, “There’s nothing to say.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” I’d grown to know Reid very well over the last six months, and he always seemed to have this never-ending source of energy. But lately, he’d seemed … frustrated or restless or something.

And today he just seemed exhausted.

“Do you miss Anushka?” I prodded.

Reid shook his head, his dark eyes troubled. “Not as much as I should. It never seems to be as much as I should. That’s the problem.” He smirked unhappily. “You promise our conversation does not leave this office?”

“Of course.”

“I always …” he sighed as if frustrated with himself as he scrubbed a hand over the dark hair he styled short. “It was just Mum and me growing up, you know. I always thought that once the success came, everything else would fall into place. Wife, kids.”

Surprise and longing burned through me.

Reid always came across as the perennial bachelor. I’d never have guessed he had plans to be a family man.

Apparently, I didn’t know him as well as I’d thought.

“I wanted what me and Mum never had. I wanted to give her a family. A daughter-in-law. Grandchildren. But I keep fucking up.”

“How do you keep fucking up?”

“I never make time to do it right with a woman. The store always comes first. What kind of family man would I make? A pretty shitty one. I’d end up turning my wife into my mum; essentially leaving her to raise whatever children we have alone.”

I considered this a moment, sorry for the bitter self-recrimination I heard in Reid’s tone. I understood then that he felt he’d failed. In all of his success, in this one aspect of life, he felt he was failing. “Reid, have you ever considered that you just haven’t met the right woman?”

“Emmy doesn’t count, but I’ve been with a lot of good women over the years.”

“Good woman doesn’t equal the right woman.”

“You mean like a soul mate?” he scoffed. “I don’t believe in that, Evan.”

I made a noise of irritation. “I’m not talking about soul mates. I’m talking about the person who feels like they … fit. The person who drives you wild.” Considering how controlled Reid was in everything he did, I asked (and hoped for a negatory answer), “Haven’t you ever been infatuated with a woman?”

“I’ve dated plenty of attractive women.”

“That’s not what I asked.” I chugged back my whisky and leaned over to refill it, trying not to roll my eyes at his cluelessness. “Haven’t you ever met a woman who made you lose your common sense? Who made your skin hot and your blood pump and everything else but kissing her, touching her, ceased to matter?” I blushed a little, imagining being said woman.

Reid tensed, gazing at me speculatively. “Have you ever met a guy who did that for you?”

I thought about Luca and lowered my gaze, feeling the old hurt still after all this time. “Once.”

“Who?” he demanded.

Wondering at his sudden glower and the reason behind it, I took a slow sip at my whisky, knowing my lack of a rush to respond would irritate him. Reid liked everyone to give him the answers to his questions with speed and efficiency.

“Evan?” he leaned toward me. “Who? Does Pat know about this guy?”

“I asked first.”

“What?”

“I asked you first if you’d ever met a woman who made you feel that way.”

“No,” he bit out. “Your turn.”

I shouldn’t have felt pleased by his response, but I really did. In fact, it elated me. So much so, I had to hide my smile in another sip of drink.

“Are you deliberately being irritating?” Reid asked.

I smirked sadly at him. “No. I just … haven’t spoken about it. To anyone.” Not even to my best friend, Cass. She’d asked. But I’d been too raw about the whole thing for a long time. My infatuation with Reid, however, had eased the hurt Luca left behind.

Concern flashed across Reid’s expression. “Did someone hurt you?”

“Emotionally, yes. His name was Luca. He was an Italian studying at Edinburgh. I met him in second year. I’d never met anyone like him. Italians are so affectionate and open and charming and passionate. At least he was. We dated for just over a year. I’m pretty sure you knew that.”

Reid frowned. “I knew you had a boyfriend at uni but no one said anything about him hurting you.”

“Because I told everyone that we broke up because he was going to back to Rome.”

“What really happened?”

“I let myself get wrapped up in him. He’s one of those guys who makes you feel beautiful because he genuinely finds women in all their forms gorgeous. Too much. But the sex was amazing,” I admitted, unable to look at Reid when I said it. “I think I let my hormones ignore all the warning signs. One day I was in the library and this girl came over, sat down beside me and told me that Luca had been cheating on me with her and gotten her pregnant. She thought I should know. And when I confronted him, he didn’t deny it. Told me people weren’t meant to be monogamists.” I finally met Reid’s angry gaze. “I argued that if that was how he felt then he shouldn’t have misled me into believing he loved me and that we were each other’s only one.”

“I’m sorry. He sounds like a fuckwad.”

“Oh, it got worse. I shared a flat with four other girls. My best friends. One of them confessed to me after the fact that she and Luca fucked a couple of times behind my back.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Yeah.” I took a long swallow of whisky, remembering the betrayal. I coughed a little and wiped at my lips, placing the glass on the table. “There was a part of me terrified I’d never be able to trust people again.”

“And can you?”

“Yes,” I answered firmly. “Two people who don’t understand what loyalty entails will not make me bitter or distrustful. Luca wasn’t the right guy for me. I confused lust for love. I never felt truly comfortable around him. Looking back on it, we never talked about anything serious. Anything real. I think the right person is someone who makes you vibrate with awareness.” I grinned, thinking of how much Reid did that to me. “And distracted as hell. But also be the one person you can trust to talk to about anything. To be comfortable enough with to be who you really are. To say how you really feel. You haven’t met her yet, Reid. It doesn’t mean she’s not out there.”

“Says the twenty-two-year-old who has all the time in the world. I’m not getting any younger, Evan.”

I snorted. “You’re talking as if you’re ancient. You’re only thirty-five, Reid.”

“Men have ticking biological clocks, too, you know,” he teased, surprising me.

“No, they don’t,” I disagreed, laughing. “You have nothing to worry about in that regard. But maybe if you had fewer rules, you’d meet the right woman.”

His brow furrowed in confusion. “What rules?”

“Patrick said you have rules,” I explained. “No dating women who’ll nag about your schedule, no dating women who don’t understand the store comes first, and no dating women younger than twenty-eight.” I tried not to emphasize the last.

“Your brother needs to keep his mouth shut,” Reid muttered.

“Are they true?”

He shrugged uncomfortably. “Aye. And, clearly, the reason I’m still alone. I need to let them go. Except for the last.” He refused to meet my gaze. “The last is a firm rule.”

Disappointment burned in my gut along with the whisky. “Why?”

Still not meeting my gaze, he shrugged again. “I’ve dated younger women. They’re too immature.” He cut me a look. “I was born older than my years, Evan. I don’t want to be with a woman who is disappointed I’m not interested in clubbing or going to music festivals or taking selfies together for social media.”

Feeling irritated by his assumptions, I griped, “Not all twenty-somethings are into clubbing and music festivals and social media.”

He raised a querulous eyebrow.

“They’re not. Some of us are more mature than that.”

“Maybe you are,” he conceded. “But I haven’t met many others who are. Plus, I’m not screwing around. Contrary to what people think, I’m looking for someone to start a family with. Women my age are ready for that.” He sighed, closing his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not that I can seem to slow down enough for it to matter.”

“You’ll find her,” I promised him. It’s me, you fool! “One day you’ll find her, Reid.”

He opened his eyes, looking at me through a low-lidded gaze. “You think so?”

His secret longing for a wife and family just made my infatuation increase to ovary exploding levels. I shifted uncomfortably, feeling the blush stain my cheeks.

All I had to do was slowly but surely prove to my brother’s best friend that I was Mrs. Right. That I was a mature twenty-two-year-old who wanted the same things as him.

“I know so.” The words came out hoarse with emotion.

Something in my voice caused Reid to stiffen and as our eyes held I felt this thick tension fall between us. I wanted to dive on him. Crush my mouth against his and show him that there was a woman out there who wanted him for his loyalty, his determination, his secret sweetness, and his understanding of what was truly important in life. I wanted to show him that for the right woman, he would loosen the reins on the store to be with her.

To be with me.

Something flared in his eyes before his expression shut down. Then he leaned forward and patted my knee. “You’re a sweet kid, Evan. Thanks.” He stood up abruptly and strolled across the office to the coat stand in the corner where his suit jacket hung. Shrugging into it, he said, “You get home okay?”

Deflated, and a little embarrassed, I stood up too at the subtle rejection and hint for me to leave. “Oh, of course. I’ll see you next week.”

“Have a good weekend.” He held the door open but wouldn’t meet my gaze.

“Yeah, you too,” I muttered, hurrying to collect my things so I could get the hell out of there.

“You’re a sweet kid, Evan.”

Ugh.

Shot to the damn heart.

However, hours later, after the mortification left me, determination returned.

I didn’t imagine that little moment on the couch between us.

And Reid’s response of, “You’re a sweet kid, Evan,” felt a little contrived. Like he was trying to put distance between us.

Maybe I was a nutter and completely wrong.

But I had hope that I wasn’t.

And I had time to prove to Reid that I was a woman. A mature woman.

The right woman.