Alpha Male Incorporated: Take Control (11 page)

“No.”

Thorsten’s eyes narrowed into slits as he glared at her. “Why not?” he asked. “I asked you very nicely. I didn’t demand you do it and you still tell me no.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t do it.”

“What is your problem? Jax is wrong, you aren’t worth the hassle. I’m thinking I’ll be better off without you. Damn the consequences. Enjoy the rest of your day, Ms. August,” Thorsten snapped at her before moving away and going back around the stand.

“Come back here,” Raya said, rushing behind Thorsten. “Why are you and Jax talking about me in the first place?”

Hurrying back around the side of the wooden stand, Raya froze in her tracks when she noticed Thorsten was nowhere in sight. How in the hell did he get away from her so fast? He was there one minute and gone the next. Had he rushed through the crowd on purpose to get away from her?

Why did she allow him to get under her skin like this?

Thorsten pushed buttons she didn’t even know she had. Constantly getting on her bad side was possibly what made his day. Every night, he probably climbed into bed with a smile on his face, pleased he had driven her up one wall and down the opposite one.

However, she wasn’t about to let the rest of her day be ruined by Thorsten. He was gone and she was going to push the memory of dealing with him from her world. She wasn’t going to allow him to drag her down this immature road he loved to travel.

Spinning around, Raya ran into someone standing directly behind her. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she apologized, glancing up at the woman. “I didn’t see you there.”

A pair of unblinking, sky blue eyes—icy and with a lethal calmness in them—looked down at her. The woman’s rich, pale blond hair hung in long, graceful waves over her tanned shoulders.

“It’s alright,” the female replied in a low voice, soft and clear. “I should have been watching where I was going. It was completely my fault.” The woman gave her a smile then walked around her and blended in with the passing crowd.

Great. Now, she was running into strangers because of her problems with Thorsten. Usually, she was more self-aware than this, but as usual seeing him had her less than a hundred percent.

Enough! Raya impatiently pulled her drifting thoughts together. This was her day and she was going to get back to it without any more thoughts of the Irizarry men clouding her head. With a new spring to her step, she moved forward to get caught back up into the fun of being at the farmers market.

Struggling with the bags in her hand, Raya fought to get the key into the front door. Finally succeeding, she pushed it open with her hip and then dropped the bags inside before taking the key out and slipping it back into her purse.

She kicked the door closed with her shoes and grabbed all of her bags off the floor before hurrying back to her bedroom. Since she couldn’t get herself together at the farmers market, she’d decided to treat herself to her favorite store at the mall,
Body Central
. She’d hit the jackpot and tried not to think about how she spent way too much money. However, what woman wouldn’t love a sale that allowed her to get ten dollars off a purchase of thirty dollars or more?

Raya placed the five bags down on the bed and pulled out the knee-length gray dress she bought at the very last minute. The salesgirl was about to hang it up when she asked to see it. Thank God she knew her size well enough to know it would be a perfect fit without trying it on.

Walking away from the bed, she went over to her standing floor-length mirror by the wall. She held it against her body and smiled at her reflection. Damn. She was going to look good when she wore this. Light gray always looked good against her skin tone. Something about it made her black hair stand out even more when she wore it down instead of pulled back into a bun.

She continued looking at her reflection, trying to decide when she was going to wear her new outfit for the very first time. It was way past time for her to get back out there on the dating scene. Sahara had already fallen in love and gotten married. Not even a few months after, Sabrina started dating Zander and she was happily married to him with a baby on the way.

What was up with her? Why wasn’t she at least seeing a hot guy a couple nights a week? Was she being too picky? Her mother had advised her on more than one occasion she shouldn’t find so many faults in the guys who asked her out on dates, but she couldn’t help it.

She wanted to feel comfortable around a man who was just himself, someone who didn’t try to impress her with a built-up image of himself. Nothing about a self-serving guy made her want to date him.

Taking one final glance in the mirror, Raya walked away and went back over to the bags of clothes on her bed. Sitting down, she laid the dress across the mattress and thought about something she had been avoiding for a while.

The impromptu shopping trip she had taken today allowed her stressful mind some relief for a few wonderful hours, but it was time for her to face the facts. For almost over a year, she tried pretending it wasn’t right in front of her face but it was.

No matter how hard she worked at it, she wasn’t able to save her family business. Nothing she was doing was made any difference whatsoever. So, why couldn’t she admit it to anyone but herself yet?

Was she that scared of failure?

Cedric and her father could be right about selling the hedge fund while there was still a chance of making some money. The idea of someone else owning what her father built from the ground up hurt her. She promised him that she was better than her big brother and could do what he couldn’t, but she didn’t do it.

This only left one thing for her to figure out. What in the hell was she going to do with the rest of her life if it wasn’t put towards saving the family name?

Raya couldn’t stop herself from pondering if, had she not followed the straight and narrow, her father would have devoted the time he did to her brother in her direction instead. The thought froze in her brain. She spent so much time trying to please everyone else that she never focused on her own personal wants or needs.

The phone rang, interrupting Raya’s thoughts about the plans for her wavering future. She grabbed her purse and dug out her cell phone.

“Hello?” she answered on the second ring,

“Are you free a week from Friday?” Sahara’s perky voice asked her.

“God, I don’t have a clue, but I can’t think of anything right now. Why?”

“Okay, what’s going on with you? Is there something wrong? Do I need to come over there?” her friend questioned, the perkiness completely gone out of her voice.

“No, I’m fine,” she lied. “Tell me why I need to be free a week from Friday.”

Getting up from the bed, she picked up her bags and carried them over to her walk-in closet. Inside, she placed them on the white dresser she kept her jewelry and scarves on. She would hang everything up after she got off the phone with Sahara.

“I’m not telling you anything until you’re honest with me.”

“Shit!” Raya jumped at the sound of her best friend’s voice behind her. Spinning around, she found Sahara in the open doorway of her closet, holding a bottle of wine and two glasses.

“I hate when you do that,” she snapped, closing her cell phone as she came up to her friend. “I still haven’t gotten used to you teleporting from one place to another. It’s crazy.”

“I know, but once my husband taught me I fell in love with it. I don’t do it all of the time, but tonight seemed like the perfect time for me to do it again. Come on, let’s have a drink and we can talk.” Sahara handed her a glass, then moved away from the closet door and took a seat in a chair near her bed.

She followed Sahara into the bedroom. “How is Jax doing? I heard something about him today,” Raya said, sitting down on a bench at the foot of her bed. She held her wineglass still while Sahara poured both of them some wine.

“I can only wonder what you heard,” Sahara said, staring at her. “Do you want to tell me what it was?”

Raya took a sip of her wine. She knew Sahara was trying to sound nonchalant, but she heard the curiosity in her voice. “Thorsten told me that Jax advised him to put more effort towards me. Why would he give him any kind of advice about me? He knows how much I hate Thorsten. He pushes me to think about causing another person bodily harm and I’m not a violent person.”

“Hmmm…Jax did tell me about how you came to Alpha Male Incorporated and got into another argument with Thorsten. Do you think there is a reason you are so drawn to him? It could be more than dislike. Honestly, I think you and he would make a cute couple.”

She stared at her best friend as her body froze in shock. She was so thrown by Sahara’s ridiculous comment that she paused from taking another sip of her wine. “Have you lost your mind? You know how I feel about him. Furthermore, you do know he was the one trying to steal the hedge fund from me by using a fake company. Why would I have any kind of feelings towards him? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Thorsten is a businessman and he takes over failing companies as a living. You shouldn’t take it personally, Raya. All I’m saying is you protest too much when it come to him. Maybe you’re fighting something and aren’t ready to admit it,” Sahara said, then took a sip of her drink while peeking at her from the corner of her eye.

Raya took a quick breath of utter astonishment. “I’m not drawn to Thorsten in any way, shape, or form. Nothing about him is appealing to me.
Nothing
!”

“Okay, don’t get all upset with me,” her best friend replied and placed her glass down on the carpet. “I won’t bring him up again. But, one last thing, you’ve been so involved in hating him that maybe your initial dislike of Thorsten is clouding your judgment now. Look at me.”

She frowned. “What about you?”

“Come on. You recall how much I hated Jax when I first laid eyes on him. I wanted him gone and no one was going to talk me out of it. Now, I’m madly in love him.”

Raya looked at Sahara with surprise, remembering her hostility towards Jax when he was her bodyguard, but that had zilch to do with her and Thorsten. Both situations were on a completely different level in her head.

“It’s not the same. You were his
Unique
woman .You’re his mate, which made him determined to have you no matter how hard you fought. It was sweet with this romantic vampire twist mixed in. He’s perfect for you as you are for him. I can’t see either of you with anyone else.

“But it’s different with me and Thorsten. I’m not a
Unique
woman like you and Sabrina waiting to be claimed by a non-human mate. Jax’s cousin is a playboy who believes every woman with a pulse will fall for his practiced smile and good looks. I won’t, so he should stop trying.”

Sahara’s gentle laugh rippled through her bedroom. “Oh, I can see Thorsten has really struck a nerve with you. He can be a bit much sometimes, but he’s a good guy once you get to know him.”

Raya huffed. “Well, I’m not worried about finding out about his good guy side now or in the future. How about you tell me why you called me?”

“I’m having a party a week from Friday and I want you to be there. It’s going to be so much fun. Don’t tell me you can’t do it because I already know you don’t have any plans.”

“You’re inviting me to a party. I thought you would be busy getting ready for your tour,” Raya pointed out.

She placed her wine glass down on the floor and crossed her legs. She watched as Sahara’s entire persona changed as she slowly transformed into Coco. Her dark eyes lit up and Sahara got this wonderful glow that didn’t happen before she turned into a vampire.

“I can’t tell you
too
much because I want everyone to be surprised, but I need a head count for the caterers. I really want you to be there for me, so will you come? My party won’t be the same without my best friend there.”

Attending a party wasn’t something Raya had her mind set on doing with everything else she had going on in her life, but she couldn’t let Sahara down. “Of course, I’ll be there for you. You know that we’re like sisters,” she said.

Sahara grinned. “Wonderful, I can’t wait to see you there and don’t forget to bring a date. You never know, Thorsten might be up to accompanying you to the party. It would be the perfect chance for you to get to know him better. It wouldn’t hurt for you to get used to being around him more.”

Raya completely ignored Sahara’s comment pushing her towards Thorsten. She didn’t want to get into a disagreement with her best friend over him. She wasn’t going to ask Thorsten to Sahara’s party. She would come alone and be quite happy about it.

“Alright, it’s getting late so you better leave. I don’t want your husband coming after me again. I have firsthand experience about what he’d do to protect you.”

“You aren’t fooling me,” Sahara replied. “I know something is going on with you and it involves more than the problems you are having with the hedge fund. What is it? I know we haven’t done much together in a while, but I can stay longer and listen to whatever is upsetting you.

“Don’t keep it bottled up inside of you. If you need me to stay over for a girls’ night I can do it and Jax will understand. How about we go and get one of those fattening, greasy hamburgers we loved to eat so much and just talk?”

She was beyond touched Sahara suggested their former favorite hangout, but things had changed. They couldn’t spend hours at the mall gossiping about hot guys while munching on junk food.

“No, I want you to go home,” she answered, standing up. “I promise you everything is fine with me. I’m just having a down day but it isn’t anything for you to worry about. I’ll probably be better after a good night’s sleep. I haven’t been sleeping well because of some crazy dreams, but hopefully tonight I’ll sleep like a baby.”

Jumping up, Sahara stared down at her with a slight frown. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner you are still having those nightmares? Are they the ones about Mr. Edwards or the stranger’s voice? I’m hurt, Raya. I’m really worried about you. What else are you keeping from me?”

“I swear I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. I’m tougher than I look.”