Chapter 34
Aidan
Samantha didn’t answermy texts on Sunday. She didn’t answer my phone calls or messages. She didn’t acknowledge me at all.
Something was wrong, but what could I do? Showing up at her building and banging on her door seemed like an asshole move so early in our relationship—our real relationship, that was. If I knew Samantha at all, I knew she wouldn’t appreciate a guy who demanded her attention nonstop. Maybe she needed a day of space, especially since we were going to be back to work Monday morning. After a day of impatient fretting, I decided to make sure we talked on Monday.
Except on Monday, she didn’t come to work.
“Where is she?” I asked Jade, the receptionist.
“Sick,” Jade said. “She called early and said she wouldn’t be in.”
So her phone wasn’t broken, then. It worked well enough for her to call Jade, but not me.
Something was definitely wrong.
I walked back to my office, trying her cell again. No answer. It went straight to voicemail, as if her phone was off.
I had just sat at my desk, perplexed, when Jade rang my desk phone. “I have Emma Riley here, wanting to see you. Were you expecting her?”
I wasn’t expecting Samantha’s sister, but no way was I going to turn her away. “Send her in.”
Emma came in to my office. She was dressed to kill in a pencil skirt and sleeveless top that fit her perfectly. Her red hair was tied up on top of her head.
“Well,” she said without preamble, closing my office door behind her and sitting down, “you’ve done it, Aidan.”
“Done what?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. I’d met Emma once, when I set up the contract for her to find me an executive assistant. Now I could see that she resembled Samantha, though she had a more aggressive air about her. And even without knowing her, I could tell she was definitely pissed at me.
“Of course you don’t bother looking at the gossip sites, do you?” she said. “Even when they’re talking about you.”
She was being rude to a paying client, which meant something was really wrong. “Emma, tell me what you mean.”
“That little stunt at the benefit, showing up with a model. You thought she wouldn’t see that? I sent it to her myself.”
The penny dropped. I pinched the bridge of my nose. That was why Samantha was ignoring my calls. “I gave Angelica a ride because her car service didn’t show. We arrived at the benefit and went our separate ways. I don’t suppose the gossip sites mentioned that?”
“No. At least, not until today, when Angelica Barnes gave a statement that you two are only acquaintances and are definitely not dating.”
“Which I would have told Samantha myself if she’d answered any of my calls or texts. But fine. Once she sees the update, I’ll talk to her and explain.”
For the first time, Emma fidgeted. “You can’t exactly do that.”
“Why not?”
“She left.”
That made no sense. “Left where?”
“New York.”
For a second I was so stunned I could do nothing but stare at her. Then I got up and paced to one end of my office, then the other. “You’re telling me,” I said finally, “that Samantha—the calmest, most competent person I know—saw a single photo on a gossip site and, without talking to me, she packed a bag and left town?”
“That’s what I’m telling you.” Emma sighed. “Okay, I agree—it’s insane, stupid behavior. And it’s nothing like the way she usually acts. In fact, I’ve never known her to be insane or stupid in my life. That’s why this is extra worrying.”
I leaned on my desk and looked hard at her. “You know where she is, don’t you?”
“She told me, yes, so that I wouldn’t worry whether she was safe. But she told me not to tell you, and I promised.”
That should have pissed me off. Instead, my mind started ticking, thinking about where she would go. Because there was no way I was going to let Samantha walk out of my life because of one stupid photo. “Why did she do it?” I asked Emma. “She could have called me, even if it was just to yell at me and call me names. Samantha has the coolest head of any woman I’ve ever met. Why would she pull this stunt now?”
“I think it’s for a few days. She’ll come to her senses and come back. But she did it in the first place because her pieces are falling apart.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Emma looked thoughtful. “She told you about our adoption, right?”
I nodded.
“It’s hard to explain,” Emma said. “We have great parents and had a happy childhood. We’ve both done well. But when you’re not only adopted, but abandoned, there’s a piece that is always missing. Most adopted kids know there’s a record somewhere of who their real parents are, even if they can’t access it. Samantha and I don’t even have that. We’ll live our entire lives without knowing.” She looked away, her eyes serious. “And even when you’ve had a good life like we have, it’s like a puzzle piece that’s missing. The rest of the puzzle is there, but there’s that one hole, and you know you’ll never have the piece that fills it. You’ll never have the answers.” She looked at me. “Her puzzle started breaking apart. It wasn’t just that silly photo, Aidan. It was you.”
“Me?”
“You’ve pushed her off balance. She’s never had a serious boyfriend in her life, or any man she’s had real feelings about. Samantha is like me—everything is under control as long as true emotions aren’t involved. Deep feelings mess up your life. Everyone knows that.”
I looked at her. Emma might look obviously different from Samantha—the red hair, for one, and she was taller with fewer curves—but when you talked to her, you saw the similarity. Emma was as smooth, as unruffled as Samantha was. She was calm and imperturbable. All the qualities that made for a top-notch executive assistant. She had every detail in place, like Samantha.
At least, until I came along. Now Samantha was a woman who left town on a whim and played hooky from work.
“You’re saying she pulled this stunt because she has feelings for me,” I said.
“Yes.” Now Emma looked annoyed. “What did you do to her? I know my sister. A few dates and nice words from a good-looking man wouldn’t do it. Your money would have no effect on her. She’s hard to impress—you could put her on your private jet and she would just shrug. Even great sex wouldn’t crack Samantha, though I don’t want any details, please. So what the hell did you do?”
I dared her to play other roles and be other women,I thought. I pushed her outside herself and I made all the pieces scramble. “It’s just my charm,” I said, deflecting the question. “And I don’t have a private jet. I fly commercial. I’m rich, but I’m not an asshole.”
Emma still looked annoyed. “Well, if she’s just another fuck to you then I’m going to have to castrate you, Aidan. Because you broke my sister.”
I raised my eyebrows. I could very easily see this woman robbing a man of his balls and going on with her day. God help any man who tried to take her on—he’d have to have confidence the size of Staten Island.
But if she wanted to do a cold negotiation, then I was her match. Cold was the Man in Black’s middle name. “She isn’t just a fuck to me,” I said. “She’s the only woman I want, not that it’s any of your concern. And if you think Samantha is broken, then you don’t know her as well as you think you do. Are you going to tell me where she is?”
“No,” Emma said. “Of course not. That’s off the table.”
“Then I’d appreciate it if you’d leave, because I’m going to go find her.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You think you can do that?”
“I know I can do it within half an hour if I track her credit cards, but I don’t need to. I already know where she is.”
“You’re bluffing,” Emma said. “You can’t possibly know.”
“I already do.” I smiled. “Big emotions, Emma. I’m going to go express mine to your sister. You might want to get out of the way.”