Chapter 10
10
BENNETT
I t’s when I’m leaving the office to meet up with Henry and Drake down in the lobby to go to the museum like I had promised when I finally check my phone notifications.
Some are not important, like the one from Drake’s school notifying me that my nephew wasn’t in school today and the one from the Australian tech company thanking me for meeting with them this morning and informing me that they will get back to my assistant with a response.
There is one notification though that trumps all the others.
One from Dante with the subject line Elizabeth Vincent.
Since I just talked to him this morning, I didn’t think that I would be getting the information I requested so fast, but I guess when the devil is tasked with something, he does everything in his power to get it done.
Not a single ounce of hesitation runs through me as I open up his email.
Everything that I need to know about Ella Vincent is staring back at me. Something I knew. Date of birth. Social Security number. Address and where she got her high education. But what Dante sent over gives me a deeper look at the woman that is currently up in my office finishing up her first day as my assistant.
Some of the information starting back at me is deep that I wonder how Dante got his hands on it. Like the fact that Ella has been in more foster care homes than I could possibly ever imagine, and all the bank account and credit card that she has in her name.
I scroll through the email and take a mental note of all the information that it proves. The names of every single school that she has ever attended, every address she has ever lived, and every job that she has ever held.
From the age of twenty the woman has held a steady stream of jobs, more than anyone else her age. It’s impressive but also angering. She was trying to get buy and in the process, she was drowning in work.
I continue to read through everything that was sent to me, including the information about her known associates which thankfully don’t include anyone under the Lane Enterprises umbrella, until I reach the bottom and find the information regarding a sixteen year old girl.
Charlotte Sinclair.
Not Vincent like her older sister. They must have a different dad.
I scroll through the sister’s information, but there isn’t much there like there is for Ella. There is enough information to make her identifiable for what I need to do. Perfect.
After taking a second to save the information in the appropriate place, I shoot off a thank you to Dante and continue my way down to the lobby.
As the elevator climbs down, my mind goes back to Ella.
The woman captured my attention this morning, enough to get Dante to look into her. But the second that she was in my personal space for more than five minutes, she not only had my minds full attention but my body’s. Every time I got a whiff of her perfume or she hand grazed mine as I was passing her a file, my dick twitched. It took everything that I had in me to not wrap my arms around her waist and sit her on my lap as I showed her how to use our communications system or when she was sitting across from, taking notes while meeting with the Australians.
The woman is clouding my mind and I need to find a way to get out of it. With her being my employee now, I can’t keep having these types of thoughts, especially in a workplace environment. With the CEO title so close to being mine, I can’t risk any sexual assault claims coming to haunt me.
Is as the elevator stops on the first floor that I work through my mind that I need to keep my distance from Ella. She may have captured my attention, but it has to stop there.
I can’t act on my attraction to her. Nothing can come from my knowledge of her or how she makes my dick twitch without even touching me.
It’s what is best. I can’t have a woman get in the way of something I worked so hard for.
With the information that Dante sent, I got what I needed anyway. Ms. Vincent isn’t attached to anyone that may want to bring me down, so she is trustworthy. Now she just has to work her way up to the level of having one hundred percent of my trust. Just because her report came back clean, doesn’t mean I trust her full yet. Things can arise.
Walking off the elevator and through the lobby, my mind shifts away from my new assistant, to the kid running full force in my direction.
Sometime in the next couple of years, Drake is going to stop getting excited whenever he sees me. He’s going to become the typical teenager and not want to hang out with his uncle like he does now. He’ll be just like his siblings.
It’s life, but just because it’s life doesn’t mean that I like the idea of my nephew growing up.
“Can we get ice cream?” Is what Drake ask instead of a greeting.
I ruffle his hair, just as dark as mine, before responding. “Only if you ate all of your lunch and you listened to Henry.”
“I did.” He looks up at me with the biggest puppy dog eyes.
My eyebrow raises a bit not believing him, so I turn to Henry for confirmation.
The old man gives me a nod. “He even cleaned his room without having to bribe him.”
“Your brothers have to learn from you.” I say looking back down at Drake.
The kid laughs like it’s the funniest thing in the whole world. “That will never happen.”
One day it will and Drake is going to be surprised beyond belief.
“Let’s go. You have school tomorrow and we can’t spend all night at the museum.”
Thankfully he doesn’t argue and he starts walking toward the main door.
As we are about to leave the building, I feel as if there is eyes on me, so I turn to see who is the one staring at me now.
To my surprise, I find no other than Ella, coming off the elevator with a small smile on her face as she watches me, my nephew and Henry walk out of the building.
She must have caught the fact that I turned because her eyes go from looking over at Drake to looking me in the eyes. For a split second, she looks slightly embarrassed that she was caught looking at me but the embarrassment is gone as quickly as it appeared and replaced with a real smile while she send a wave in my direction.
That’s when I realized that pushing away my attraction for this woman is going to harder than I thought. Just a small damn wave and I want to be as pussy-whipped as Dante is.
I wave back and make my way out of the building before I do something absolutely insane, like cross the lobby just to be near her.
Fucking hell.
What the actual fuck happened to me this morning? A meet a woman and only a few hours later is all that mind what’s to think about? I think my therapist is going to be getting a call because this isn’t me. It has never been and I’m sure as hell never going to be.
I’m able to push any thought of Ella out of my mind for the majority of the drive to the museum, but when Drake mentions his call with his siblings and them coming come for the weekend like I predicted, I’m reminded of her again.
More so, I’m reminded of the idea I had when Ella was telling me about her sister.
“Henry.” I call from the back seat of the Rolls Royce to Henry who’s in the driver seat.
“Yes, sir?”
“Has the Lane Foundation filled all their Saint Christopher scholarships for the year yet?”
The look he gives me through the rear view mirror tells me that he know that I am up to something. Especially handling the foundation is usually something that I don’t do.
That foundation was met mother’s baby right next to her two sons, so when it came to running it, I handed everything over to Henry. I couldn’t do it. I still can’t. Sure, I will attend a charity function here and there, but I can’t run my mother’s baby.
Which is ironic, since I’m on the verge of being murderous if Gerald doesn’t make his retirement announcement soon hand me the title that will have me running my father’s baby.
“No, sir. Not yet. There is still scholarships available.”
“Good. I have a candidate that needs to be put up for consideration.”