A Private Affair Page 14

  Ron stepped up to her, looking at her with his big brown eyes, his mouth bent into a frown just before he pulled her into a hug. Riley had to fight every instinct she had. How many times had she cried in his arms when she was a little girl? But Riley wasn’t that girl anymore and she’d cried enough.

  “I’ll see you in the morning,” she said when he pulled away because she couldn’t say anything else.

  After the breakup with Walt she’d apologized to her parents and brothers profusely for how she’d messed up. Tonight, she couldn’t say those words. She’d trusted and she’d believed and a part of her knew she wasn’t wrong for doing either of those things. The other part... Well, once she closed and locked the door, Riley fell back against it. She closed her eyes and whispered, “Oh, Chaz, what have you done?”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  IT WAS EIGHT THIRTY in the morning when Chaz walked into his office at King Designs. He felt like he’d just left this place and now he was back again.

  Yesterday had been hectic with Tobias calling Chaz into a meeting with Lenzo fifteen minutes after Chaz had arrived at the office. Chaz was still riding on the high of the weekend with Riley until he’d stood in a room with a designer who apparently hated him.

  “He’s not a designer. You brought him in because he’s your relative, not because he has an ounce of experience in this industry. And then you expect me to stand on my head to please him. Hell no, Tobias! I’ve been with you for ten years and this is how you treat me!”

  Lenzo’s fists were clenched at his sides while Chaz stood next to his uncle’s desk.

  “This is my company, Lenzo. I call the shots. Whether you like my calls or not. And if you had a problem with Chaz you should have come to me and perhaps we could have worked it out. But as it stands now I’m letting you go.”

  “You’re what?” Lenzo’s eyes almost bulged from his face. “You’re firing me because I wouldn’t listen to this playboy’s advice?”

  Chaz had been called worse than a playboy.

  “It’s not about my advice,” he’d said. “You were instructed six months ago to follow my rebranding plan. You chose not to do that.”

  “Security will escort you out,” Tobias told him.

  When that scene was over, Chaz had returned to his office, where one issue after another plagued him, including a press sheet he received from his marketing team about ChatMe. Juggling two major business events in one week wasn’t the smartest plan, but he was determined to make it all work. Before long the day and night had gotten away from him. Chaz didn’t get a moment to look at his phone until he’d walked into his apartment at a little after midnight.

  Riley’s message immediately warmed him and he’d smiled.

  Missed you so much today.

  He’d typed his response seconds before falling face-first onto his bed and into a deep slumber.

  Now he checked his phone for the fourth time since leaving his apartment this morning. There was no response from Riley.

  After dropping his briefcase onto the floor beside his desk, Chaz plugged his phone into the charger and set it near his laptop. Easing down into his chair, he tried to focus on what he needed to tackle first. He definitely wanted to go over the press sheet for the ChatMe launch one more time. Valeria wasn’t publishing his interview on her blog, nor was there going to be any type of advertising on her YouTube show. He chuckled at how petty she was being but decided to move on.

  His fingers moved quickly over the keyboard as he pulled up his Conversation Media account. He was about to send a message to his team when the door to his office opened.

  “What the hell is this?” Tobias stormed into the office.

  He dropped not one but three tabloid papers onto Chaz’s desk.

  “What were you thinking? We never, ever allow items from our collection to be photographed and printed before the show!”

  The look on Tobias’s face, his tone and the headlines on the tabloids all brought Chaz to a full stop.

  “First, I never gave permission for anything to be printed.” Especially not the pictures of him and Riley, which were staring back at him in full color.

  Tobias didn’t seem to hear a word he said as his rant continued. “And you’re sleeping with Ron’s daughter? I told you to watch out for that one and you jump into bed with her? What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Chaz stood and looked his uncle in the eye. “I did not approve any of these pictures and who I sleep with is my business. Always has been and always will be.”

  “She’s the enemy’s daughter!”

  “She’s your enemy’s daughter. To me she’s just a woman that I lo—have grown very fond of in the past weeks. And I don’t appreciate someone following us around and printing malicious lies about us.” Chaz really had no idea what the articles said. All he knew was that there were pictures of him and Riley and that was enough.

  Tobias pointed at the picture of a dress. “This dress right here is one of the ones you pulled from the show. How did someone get it? Was it Riley? Did you show her our collection?”

  Chaz looked closer at the papers. He lined them up next to each other and stared at the pictures, thinking. “We said no bridal couture this season. That’s why I took the dress out of the show.”

  “I know that! What I’m asking is how Riley knew.”

  Chaz glanced up at his uncle. “What would she gain by releasing our dress to the press early? Not that I’m saying she’s responsible.” Because she wasn’t. Chaz was certain of that fact. He was also positive that the moment Riley saw these papers she was going to totally lose it.

  “Well, somebody leaked the picture. And do you see Ron’s pompous remarks? He’s not at all threatened by whatever we have in our show. To hell with him and his king-of-the-world attitude!”

  Chaz grabbed his phone and was headed toward the door when Tobias called to him.

  “Where are you going? We’ve got to deal with this!”

  “I’ve got something else to deal with first.”

  Tobias sighed heavily. “She is not the priority, Chaz. She’s the enemy.”

  Chaz stopped at the door. He turned around and remembered all the things his uncle had done for him. All the money he’d spent on his education and the time he’d taken teaching Chaz everything he needed to know about being a black man in this world. Chaz appreciated all of it and he loved Tobias, but today he was going to set him straight.

  “I don’t care what you think about Riley, or her family for that matter. But she means a lot to me and there’s nothing you, this fashion house or anybody else can do to change that.”

  He walked out, not giving Tobias a moment to respond. Chaz didn’t care what his response would have been. All he was concerned with right now was getting to Riley before she could see these papers.

  * * *

  “You didn’t give them the picture like Dad told you to,” Riley said to RJ.

  She was sitting in her office and RJ was standing on the other side of her desk. Maurice was sitting in one of the guest chairs and Major leaned on the edge of her desk. They’d all filed into her office at seven this morning, tabloids in hand. Riley had already read the stories. She’d looked at the pictures again and she’d taken aspirin to ward off the headache that still pounded at her temples.

  “You were right—it made it look as if we were conceding and we’d never do that. Dad’s just working on anger right now, Ri. You know he didn’t mean all that stuff he said to you last night.” RJ could be the voice of reason where their father was concerned.

  Riley didn’t know if that was because he was the firstborn or because he was the one who would eventually take Ron’s place at the helm. Either way, it annoyed Riley sometimes. Last night it had pissed her off.

  “But let’s clarify something,” Maurice said. “You are sleeping with Chaz Warren?”

 
There were moments when Riley detested being the only girl among her siblings. This was definitely one of those moments. Having a sister here to help take some of the heat would have been fantastic. As it was, Riley would stand on her own, just like always.

  “Yes. We met up in Milan and continued the affair here.” She stopped before explaining any more because she’d said enough. In her mind, however, every second of her time with Chaz had been on replay.

  She’d spent the whole night lying on her bed and trying to figure out when and where Chaz had stolen their design.

  “And that’s why you were acting different,” RJ said.

  “Different how? Please don’t tell me she’s fallen in love again,” Maurice groaned and made a face.

  If Riley weren’t still very irritated she would have thrown something at her forever-juvenile brother.

  “To be clear, I’ve never been in love,” she stated.

  “Because you’ve got good sense like the smart twin,” Major added.

  “Where’s Dad? I thought he’d want to be here to continue his reprimand.” And if her brothers were finished staring at her and questioning her, Riley would really like to get back to work.

  “He wasn’t here when I came in, so I figured we’d see him later,” RJ said.

  “That’s not like him to miss an opportunity to rant about Tobias King,” Major said. “Speaking of which, I’ve gotta say this was a pretty underhanded stunt and one Tobias could have certainly pulled a long time ago. Why now? Why this line and why target Riley again?”

  Riley hadn’t thought of those particular questions last night or this morning. She’d been too busy thinking about Chaz.

  “Those are good questions,” RJ stated just before the door to Riley’s office was pushed open.

  Chaz came in with Korey hot on his heels.

  “I tried to tell him he wasn’t welcome, but he pushed right past me!” Korey practically screamed those words the moment he made it into the office.

  Chaz ignored him. “Riley, I need to talk to you.”

  Maurice bolted up from the chair and Major eased away from the desk. The twins fell in behind RJ, who immediately stepped up to face Chaz.

  “That’s not a good idea,” RJ told him. “Neither was you coming here. You can turn around and leave now.”

  “I can call security,” Korey added.

  “I just want to speak to Riley. I’ll leave as soon as I’m done,” Chaz said evenly.

  RJ wasn’t budging. “You’ll leave now.”

  Chaz shook his head. “No. Not until I talk to Riley.”

  Korey reached across Riley’s desk to grab the phone. “I’m calling security!”

  She stood and snatched the phone out of his hand and slammed it down.

  “You are not calling anybody and I’m perfectly capable of deciding whether or not I want to talk to someone.” She walked around her desk and pushed through the barrier the twins created with their matching muscular frames.

  RJ didn’t move so Riley walked around him. She felt utterly foolish stepping between him and Chaz, but it had to be done or the testosterone oozing in the room would reach a boiling point and all hell would definitely break loose.

  “I don’t think talking is necessary,” she said when she finally looked up at Chaz.

  “You’re wrong. It’s very necessary.”

  “Don’t talk to my sister like that,” Maurice snapped.

  Riley figured this situation could only get worse, so she turned to face her brothers. “I’ve got this,” she told them. “Leave us alone.”

  “Oh, hell no,” Major chimed. “Leave him alone with you in your office?”

  “I’ll be fine,” Riley told them, and while she was certain her brothers were concerned for her well-being, she had a suspicion they were also concerned about Chaz being in the office and possibly stealing more of their secrets.

  “Really, you can all go now. This is my office.”

  RJ continued to glare at Chaz.

  “You and I are going to have a conversation,” he told Chaz.

  Chaz nodded. “That’s fine with me.”

  Her brothers filed out of the office and Chaz stared at Riley.

  Riley turned to Korey, who was still leaning against the edge of her desk. “I’ll be fine, Korey. You can leave us alone.”

  Korey looked at her another moment before pushing away from her desk. He did that thing with his fingers pointing to his eyes and then pointing to Chaz as he passed them and walked out.

  When the door closed, Riley squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. She released it slowly before saying, “What do you want to say?”

  He remained still.

  “First, above all else I want to tell you that I’ve fallen in love with you, Riley Gold. I didn’t mean to and I don’t know exactly when it happened, but that’s that.”

  Her hands were shaking and she hated it. She refused to clench her fingers or cross her arms or anything like that. She was going to face him and what he’d done head-on.

  “Did you steal the design?”

  Chaz flinched as if she’d hit him.

  “No. I would never do anything to hurt you or your company. But I think I know how it might have happened.”

  “I don’t want to do this, Chaz. I never wanted to do this. We were supposed to have an affair. Twenty-four hours and it was supposed to be over. If we’d just stuck to that none of this would have happened.”

  “None of this would have happened if someone hadn’t copied your design and called it King’s. Nothing you or I did led to this.”

  His tone was serious and his voice still rubbed her in that same sensual way. Riley hated that but couldn’t change what was. Instead she turned away from him. She walked back to her desk because that was where she felt safest. At her desk everything was about work, about this company and their reputation. Standing too close to Chaz when he was saying those words... It was just too much.

  “I’m not going to keep saying I didn’t do this because I’d like to believe that you trust me enough to know better. Or that you have a modicum of respect for me after all we’ve shared.”

  She stopped on the other side of her desk but did not sit.

  “You want to talk about respect, Chaz? Just how much respect do you think I’ll get in this company now? My father thinks I’m too dense to know when a man I’m sleeping with steals from me. My brothers have already planned to hover over me for all the days of my life. And now, even my assistant is going to be giving me the side-eye because I agreed to talk to you.” Her headache was pounding with full force now and Riley wanted desperately to go home, close her blinds and just sit in the dark for a while. There she only had to listen to her own voice telling her how foolish she’d been.

  “So you really think I’d do that to you.” It wasn’t a question, just a somber statement.

  Riley massaged her temples. “No,” she said on a weary sigh. “I don’t. And that makes this even more confusing.”

  “It doesn’t have to be, Riley. We both know what we’ve shared and I have an idea of what’s really going on with those pictures. So just let me figure it out and you continue to work on your show.”

  He’d come closer so that he stood right beside her now, but he didn’t touch her. He wouldn’t, not until she acted as if she were receptive to his touch. She wasn’t. Not right now.

  “I don’t need you to figure anything out for me, Chaz. I knew this was a mistake from the start. I lost my focus and I—”

  He moved so that they were now face-to-face instead of side by side. “Look me in the eye and tell me that you regret every moment we’ve spent together. Tell me that you weren’t thinking about us having a future together just yesterday. Tell me, Riley.”

  She looked him in the eye—those warm brown eyes that always stared back at her
with such caring and understanding. The words were in her mind but she couldn’t say them. She couldn’t bring herself to lie.

  “I do not regret anything that we’ve done. We’re adults and we decided to sleep together. I’m fine with that and I hope you are, too. But that’s done now, Chaz. The affair is over and we can both get back to our respective lives.”

  He didn’t look as if she’d slapped him this time, but he did stare at her in disbelief. She hoped he wouldn’t continue to press this issue. She’d told him that she believed him—what else did he want? It didn’t matter because Riley had nothing else to give.

  “Yeah,” he said finally. “We can get back to our respective lives.”

  “Great.” That was a relief. She rubbed her hands down her skirt and moved to sit in her chair. “Good luck with your show this weekend and with the app. I really do wish you much success.”

  His lips were drawn in a tight line as he continued to stare at her. “Same to you, Riley. I wish you the best of whatever you’re courageous enough to reach for.”

  He didn’t wait for her response but left her office, closing the door quietly behind him.

  Riley sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. If she kept them closed she wouldn’t think about what she’d just done or how all those dreams she’d had this weekend had walked out the door. She wouldn’t think about the man who’d just told her he was in love with her, or the fact that she was certain she’d fallen in love with him, too.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  TOBIAS SLAMMED THE phone down so hard it skipped over the base and he had to fiddle with the receiver to finally get it down correctly. When that was done, he slammed his palms on his desk and cursed fluently.

  Chaz had walked into his uncle’s office five minutes ago, catching the tail end of a one-sided conversation, but he could guess what it was about.

  “That was the detective. We’re pressing charges against Lenzo for stealing our product, which was the dress he made, and Ron’s pressing charges against the receptionist at RGF who gave Lenzo the original design used for the dress. They’ll both be charged with theft. From what the detective told me, she didn’t waste any time confessing. Seems Lenzo was dating her specifically to get information. I could wring that idiot’s neck right now!”