Chapter 32
CHAPTER 32
ABIGAIL
L ast night with Simon had been interesting—to say the least. Standing under the spray of my shower at home, I knew I had to start focusing my mind on getting ready for the presentation at Fit Gal, but our middle-of-the-night conversation kept churning through my head.
The sex had been mind-blowing. I wasn’t usually one to get hung up on that kind of thing, but holy crap. It turned out there was a reason some people did get hung up on it and I’d officially discovered that reason: bone-numbing orgasms.
Simon had been my first and even way back then, he’d gone out of his way to make it good for me—and it had been. Insofar as partners went to explore all that stuff with, he’d been amazing. Patient, attentive, observant.
I was probably one of the few women who could say that my very first sexual relationship had been extremely satisfying. It had only been later, after he’d left, that I’d discovered that wasn’t always the case.
A few attempts later, I’d given up on finding what I’d had with him, writing off the remembered pleasure and intense connection and electricity to teenage hormones and thinking I had been in love. I’d bought a vibrator and rarely brought it out, and I’d simply accepted that maybe my libido had been irrevocably affected by my heartbreak.
And then, last night had happened.
My teeth sank into my lower lip as warm water cascaded over my shoulders, my body tingling at the mere memory of the sensations he’d elicited last night. My skin felt so sensitive that even just the water was threatening to turn me on, but more than that, I’d discovered that I hadn’t misremembered the pleasure or the intense connection and electricity.
It was all still there and it’d been an experience that had reawakened desires and parts of myself I hadn’t even been sure were real. There was nothing I would have liked more than to spend the week in bed with him, exploring and embracing my sexuality with someone I had not only always trusted implicitly in this arena, but who also happened to be someone I cared very much about.
The heat that had just been starting to sizzle between my legs quickly simmered down again when my thoughts returned to that conversation. It’d been like this all morning, and I was quite sure it was going to keep happening all day.
To have found out the story behind what had happened to us had made me feel different about the situation. That night at the restaurant, I’d cut him off before he had been able to go into the details and I didn’t regret it.
It would’ve been way too much to take in all at once, and while I’d realized then that his father must’ve said some pretty terrible things to have made him feel the pressure like he had, I hadn’t expected George to go that far. Simon had told me at that restaurant that he’d caved, but dear heavens above. If my father had tried to pin the death of one of my sisters on me, I would have done anything to change his mind.
What George had said to him had been beyond cruel and beyond simple manipulation. It’d been straight-up inhumane. A form of mental torture, even.
All throughout our childhood, I had felt Simon’s love for me. When he’d left, I’d questioned everything but now I knew it had always been true. Simon Astor had loved me and I had loved him. There had been nothing imaginary or blown out of proportion about it.
If we ever tried again in the future, however, would he up and leave me out of nowhere again in order to satisfy his father’s wishes? Just last week, he’d stolen my pitch on his father’s command, and sure, he hadn’t known that it’d been mine, but he hadn’t questioned his dad at all.
While I was sure he’d learned a lesson out of it, it remained a risk that his dad would get between us again. I shook my head at myself and decided to take things day by day. It was tempting to let my thoughts and daydreams run away with me, but I couldn’t go there.
I had to stay focused and what I had to focus on was Fit Gal. With that thought in mind, I quickly rinsed off the suds I’d worked up, washing myself and my hair while I’d been lost in thought. Then I raced through getting ready for the day.
When I arrived at Fit Gal HQ, I was pumped up and excited for the day. Everything else set aside, I absolutely loved this company as a potential client and I was super happy to be going to Florida with them. The learning experience would be invaluable going forward and so would the opportunity of getting to see the reception the products got away from their home market.
After stopping to grab a quick coffee from the cart outside, I made my way into the building and up to my office. Karen and Jeffrey’s door was open. I peeked in to say hi, but before I could say a word, Karen rolled her eyes at me.
“You’re late,” she said. “Are you always this unorganized?”
I chuckled. “Good morning to you too, Karen.”
Jeffrey looked up from his computer and gave me a polite, distracted smile. “Good morning, Abi. Did you know you can tell the temperature by counting a cricket’s chirps? That’s odd, right? It’s been rather pleasant outside recently, according to this cricket on YouTube.”
I blinked a couple too many times but then returned his smile. “I didn’t know that, but thank you for sharing. As it happens, I agree with the cricket. The weather has been lovely. Have a good day, you two. I’ll see you at lunch.”
Backing away from their door before he made me watch the cricket predicting the temperature I’d just felt outside for myself, I headed into the office I shared with Simon. He was already there, pretending to be hard at work and completely immersed, but the key word was definitely pretending .
I could feel him watching me when I appeared in the doorway, his attention shifting from his computer. My desk came into view. On top was a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, an arrangement of pinks, purples, and oranges that tinged the air with a delicate, floral aroma.
“What’s this?” I asked, so surprised that I didn’t even say good morning. On the other hand, I’d already said that a couple hours ago. “Who are these from?”
As I set my stuff down and picked up the bouquet to bring it to my nose, he turned and brought those forest-greens to mine. “Some weirdo who’s probably stalking you. Looks like he could be your grandpa.”
Chuckling, I rolled my eyes, took a deep whiff of the flowers, and sighed dreamily before I sat down. “Well, whoever they’re from, they’re stunning. I love them.”
“We’ve got a lot of work to do.” He smiled and turned back to his computer. “T-minus three hours to our meeting with the bosses. Have those people come back to you with a quote for the key rings yet?”
Shaking myself out of my bouquet-induced, swoony state, I finally sat down and fired up my laptop. After opening my email program, I found that I had, in fact, received a quote in the early hours of the morning and I forwarded it to Simon. After that, I tapped into my earlier excitement about our presentation and jumped right back into putting on the finishing touches we needed.
It came down to the wire, but by the time we had to head to the conference room for our meeting, our pitch was perfect. I stood up from behind my desk, brimming with excitement, and lifted my hand for a high-five.
“We’ve got this,” I said as Simon chuckled and smacked his palm into mine. “They’re going to be wowed. I can feel it.”
“Let’s hope they are.” He pumped his eyebrows at me. “If they’re not, I suppose you’ll just have to come over again tonight so we can rework the presentation.”
“Or you could just invite me over to not work.”
He arched a dark eyebrow at me. “Would you accept?”
“I don’t know,” I teased. “Ask me again after the presentation. We might just have something to celebrate.”
Simon groaned, huffing out a laugh as he watched me dart out of the office ahead of him. Following closely behind, he finally beat me to the conference room, opening the door for me. When we walked in, Blake and Ashley were already there and I instantly wiped the goofy, playful smile off my face.
“Good morning,” I said evenly as I took a seat on the opposite side of the expansive table from them.
Blake smiled and didn’t make much of a secret of looking me up and down. “Good morning, Abigail. Are you guys ready?”
“We are.” I flashed him a tight smile in return and nodded at Ashley as I settled in. “Good morning.”
She glanced at me. “Morning.”
The word was quick and curt, her gaze mostly on Simon as he walked in and greeted them. Her smile was much wider all of a sudden, her tone a lot bubblier. “Good morning, Simon. I’ve totally been looking forward to seeing what you’ve got for us today.”
“Abigail and I are sure you’re going to like it.” At least he included me this time.
After we’d grabbed some coffee and set up his laptop, he launched straight into the presentation he’d prepared. Ashley stopped him a few times to ask questions but appeared to be pretty zoned out during my part of things. Blake, on the other hand, kept nodding at me, his gaze sharp and attentive on mine.
“This is pretty eye-catching,” he said at one point. “I like it. Have you considered our placement within the expo space, though?”
I talked him through our thoughts, noticing that he didn’t look away from me the entire time. Since he didn’t interrupt my explanation, I moved on after I’d given it and Simon took over from me again a few minutes later.
Ashley smiled when he started explaining our ideas for branding. Interrupting him, she leaned forward, her gaze fixed firmly on his. “Yes! See, this is what I’m talking about. This is fabulous. Fantastic.”
I really didn’t like watching her flirt with him, but it was also abundantly clear to me that Simon wasn’t a big fan of Blake’s infatuation with me, either. His lips kept pursing when Blake spoke, he barely made eye contact with him unless it was strictly necessary, and he gave short, businesslike answers to questions.
After the presentation was over, both siblings were raving about our plans and they gave us a firm go-ahead. Ashley grinned at Simon. “Once again, I’ve been surprised by the innovation of Astor and Co. Well done.”
“Let’s not pretend he’s not part of a team,” Blake said pleasantly, but I saw the shimmer of a dangerous edge in his gaze. “Both of these firms are very strong competitors. It seems their stellar reputations were well earned.”
He didn’t like it that his sister was so openly favoring Simon. To be fair, he wasn’t being a lot more subtle about it, but he sure was a lot better about the appearance of objectivity than his sister.
Either way, we were good to go in terms of preparations for the expo and I left the conference room with a smile on my face. Simon didn’t seem to be in as much of a good mood as we strode side-by-side back to our office.
“That guy…” He didn’t finish the sentence, but his jaw was hard and he scoffed, his eyes rolling toward the ceiling.
I laughed. “Him? You know Ashley spends ninety percent of every meeting hitting on you, right?”
“And her brother would make you his any day,” he muttered irritably. “I’d say we’re even.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m off-limits.”
His eyebrows went up, surprise flickering across his features, but he didn’t look like he minded the statement, so I added a quick, “To everyone.”
Simon’s face went straight and he sighed, but I chuckled. As much as I appreciated knowing that he had loved me after all and that he hadn’t left me willingly when he’d disappeared, and as much as I hated his father for what he’d done, I wasn’t ready to jump head-first back into this thing—and I didn’t know if I ever would be.