Driven (7 page)

“We’ve met?”

“Yes, I introduced you to him on Saturday at the benefit.”

“You introduced me to a lot of people at the benefit,” I tell him laughing, although I don’t remember the name Colton. “So many I couldn’t keep their names and faces straight. Let’s hope I remember what conversation I had with him so I don’t look like an ass.”

He laughs at me, the reassuring sound booming off the walls of his office. “I’m sure you’ll be fine! Anyway, this could be it, kid! All your hard work will finally come to fruition!”

“This is so great, Teddy!” Relief seeps into me. We’d been told earlier in the week that without the complete funding, the project might possibly be delayed by another eight months to a year.

“Almost too good to be true, really.” He shakes his head as if he is still trying to believe this is really happening. “I have to tell you though, Ry, I’m gonna have to depend on you to help me with this. They want a dedicated person from our office to work side by side with theirs to make this happen, and they requested you.”

I nod my head despite my eyes narrowing as I try to figure out why or how the company knows me. It doesn’t matter. What matters is getting the funding. “Sure, I’ll do anything. You know that.” I put my hand up to my chest, covering my heart. “I can’t believe it! Whatever you need, I’ll do to get this funding—to keep this ball rolling.”

“That’s my girl! I knew I could count on you!” He rises from his desk. “C’mon, I can’t wait for you and Colton to reacquaint and go over the fine print on the agreement.”

I follow him down the hallway, a little insecure in my attire. I feel underdressed for a business meeting, but if Teddy doesn’t care, neither should I.

Teddy enters the conference room ahead of me announcing, “Here she is, Colton.”

I turn the corner, entering the doorway and come to a dead stop. Donavan is sitting in a chair at the other end of the conference table, a stack of papers on the table in front of him. His arms are crossed casually over his chest and his biceps pull noticeably at the sleeves of his polo shirt. His eyes meet mine and his mouth spreads into a slow, smug smile.

What the hell?
I stop in the doorway looking at Teddy and back to Donavan. “I—I don’t under—understand?” I stammer.

The appalled look on Teddy’s face tells me that I’ve made a serious blunder in my reaction. “Rylee?” He questions as he looks at Donavan quickly, making sure I’ve not offended him, and then back at me, a warning look on his face. “Rylee, what are you talking about? This is Colton Donavan, among other things, the CEO of CD Enterprises—I introduced you to him the other night?”

All at once, with these words, my world turns and tilts on its axis. My head is reeling from the fact that the man across from me—the man who reduced me to a puddle of sensation the other night—is none other than Colton Donavan.
The
Colton Donavan—hot and upcoming racecar driver extraordinaire, son of a mega-Hollywood-movie director, and the serial philanderer who gives the tabloids constant fodder for their gossip columns.

The Colton Donavan
who left me with salacious dreams and a carnal, unrequited craving since last Saturday.
Fuck me!

I can’t believe that I didn’t put it together sooner. I knew he seemed familiar when I met him, but in light of my actions, I realize I wasn’t thinking rationally either. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this. All of the air has been punched out of my lungs.

My head swivels from Teddy to Dona-er-Colton and back to Teddy. From the way Teddy is staring at me, the look on my face must be quite unpleasant. I look down, take a deep breath, and try to compose myself and quiet the emotions rioting in my head. I can’t screw up this donation regardless of my own feelings—there is too much at stake if I do.

“Um—I apologize,” I say softly, “I just—I thought your name was Donavan.” I walk further into the room, gaining confidence, telling myself I can do this. “I misunderstood when we met the other night … ” The quick flash of Colton’s grin in mention to the other night stops me and transports me to the here and now.

You can do this
, I repeat to myself like a mantra. I refuse to let him know that he can affect me so easily.

I hold my head up and walk with purpose to where he sits, holding out my hand, plastering a smile to my face. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Donavan.”

I can hear the deep breath Teddy has been holding—afraid my reaction has possibly hampered this deal—release from his chest. The tension in his face ebbs.

“Colton, please,” Donavan says as he unfolds himself gracefully from his chair and rises, taking my hand in his, holding it a beat longer than necessary. “Nice to see you again too,” he states, a spark flashing through the emerald of his eyes.

“Please, let’s all sit,” Teddy says, enthusiasm returned. We oblige him and he looks at Colton. “Colton, I’ll let you fill Rylee in on your company’s proposal.”

“I’d be glad to, Teddy.” Colton says professionally, all business, as he shifts his chair to face me, placing a packet of paper in front of me. “CD Enterprises is invested in giving back to our community. On a yearly basis, my team and I choose an organization, and devote time, connections, and funds to create awareness for their cause. After unexpectedly attending your function last weekend in my mother’s place when she fell ill, I found the premise behind your organization to be inspiring.”

I observe him while he continues on with facts and figures of past organizations that CD Enterprises has supported. I’m having a hard time rationalizing that this professional, put-together man is the same person who reduced me to tremors and whimpers. He is delivering his presentation with an understated confidence and an overwhelming passion.

This is the type of man I usually fall for. All business. Black and white, no grey area. Knowledgeable and passionate. This is what I find sexy. Not the arrogant, self-serving bastard from the other night full of reckless and uninhibited actions. Thank goodness I know the truth so I don’t find myself falling for this facade in front of me.

At least this is what I’m telling myself when I hear my name pass from his lips.

“What?” I ask as I shake myself from my thoughts.

“Do you have any questions thus far?” Colton asks me, cocking his head to the side as he regards me pensively. The humor lighting up his eyes tells me he knows exactly what I’m thinking about—
him in particular
.

“First of all, let me say that I hope your mother is feeling better,” I state, letting my manners override my contempt for him. When he nods, I continue, “What exactly does CD Enterprises do, Mr. Donavan?” I ask.

“My mother is doing better, thank you. As for CDE, the company’s primary function is ownership and management of a race team. My race team,” he says exuding pride. “Among other things, our biggest current venture is a cutting edge technology that will help increase the safety quotient for drivers. It is currently patent pending.”

“Hmmmm,” I contemplate trying to figure out how this can all tie in, “and how exactly are you going to tie a race car or team, per se, into raising funds for orphaned kids and Corporate Cares?” I am back in business mode now, my intellect unaffected by his charm.
For the most part
. I’m trying to feel out what else is going on though because Colton’s quick flashes of smile resemble the ones he gave me at the charity event. My subconscious tells me there’s a catch here.

Once bitten, twice shy.

“Thank you for the segue,” he says. “On Monday, I brought your organization to my team’s attention. After some research, discussions, and brainstorming, we created the following proposal.” He flips the packet on the desk in front of me to the next page and looks at me, pleasure softening his hard features as he announces, “CD Enterprises proposes that up front, we donate one and a half million dollars to Corporate Cares.”

Holy shit!
I try to stifle the words from tumbling out of my mouth. Pride is evident in his eyes as he watches me pensively, quietly gauging my reaction before continuing.

“In addition to the immediate funds, we plan to devote a portion of my car’s graphics in the upcoming season to promote your cause or mission, if you will.” He sees the confusion and questions forming from the expression on my face and puts his hand up to halt me so he can finish. “We plan on using this advertising spot to entice other companies and race teams to add to the sponsorship. My team will get them to commit to paying a set dollar amount per lap my car completes or a blanket sponsorship.”

I widen my eyes in disbelief; this could bring in a staggering amount of money for the company. I glance over to Teddy, who is so excited he is fidgeting in his chair, a huge grin on his face. I look back to Colton and my eyes meet his, emerald to amethyst, warring between gratitude and confusion. Why us? Why our company?

He smiles softly at me as if knows what I’m thinking and is acknowledging my dilemma. Accepting the donation means I have to accept his date. He continues, “We’re ironing out the details as to whether we offer the sponsorship per race or over the whole season. My team in working on that as we speak, seeing as we only have a little under three months until the first race to get as many corporate sponsors as possible.”

“Isn’t that unbelievable?” Teddy bellows from beside me.

I turn to him and smile sincerely before turning back to face Colton. “It’s very generous on you and your company’s behalf; I’m just a little baffled as to why us. Why Corporate Cares? What’s the connection?”

The corners of his mouth turn up, his elbows propped and fingers steepled on the desk in front of his chin. “Let’s just say that you can be very persuasive, Ms. Thomas.” He holds my stare as I inhale a sharp breath of air. “I think I’ll enjoy working with someone as passionate and,” he looks away, finding the word, before bringing his eyes back to mine, “
responsive
as I found you to be on Saturday night.” He keeps his face impassive although his eyes are anything but as his tongue darts out to lick his lower lip.

Despite the blood draining from my head at his words, I can feel the flush spread over my cheeks and down my neck. He senses that I get his insinuation for the humor in his eyes is unmistakable. The corners of his eyes crinkle to express his amusement. I squirm under his gaze wishing to be anywhere but here at this moment.

Like in his bed, under him, with his fingers dancing across my skin and his lips possessing mine
. What the fuck? It’s bad enough he’s in my face, now he’s corrupting my thoughts. This is not good.
Definitely not good
.

I suppress my anger at the nerve of Colton. I can’t believe he’s just said this. Is referring to my indiscretion in front of my boss really that necessary? How dare he come in my office and provoke me. Remind me of something I’m not proud of. Something I’m not going to forget anytime soon.

“Responsive,” Teddy says, rolling the word over his tongue in thought, “That is a great way to describe my Rylee here!” He pats me on the back and pride fills his voice for he is completely oblivious to the concealed message that Colton is rather audaciously sending me. “Always going above and beyond.”

Colton shifts his eyes to Teddy, who is unaware to the unspoken sexual tension in the room. “It is, indeed. And a very hard quality to find in someone,” he nods, agreeing with Teddy. “I watched her in
action
on Saturday night and was quite impressed.”

I’ve had enough of this, yet I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’s gotten the rise out of me I know he was hoping to with his comments. I don’t want to work with this man, but let’s face it, Corporate Cares has no other option to make all my blood, sweat, and tears over the past two years come to fruition. He’s stepping up to the plate, even if it is some misconstrued, vindictive way of getting back at me for not wanting him or his wanton ways.

I have to think of this collaboration as
a means to end
. My boys and the many others who can benefit deserve this new facility. I just don’t realize how much this statement,
a means to an end
, will become my mantra once I realize the fine print of the agreement.

“So Mr. Donavan—”

“Colton, please,” he reiterates.

“Colton, I understand the premise,” I state primly, wanting to get this conversation back on track, “What exactly is my involvement in this whole collaboration?”

“Well, Ms. Thomas, I won’t need much from you from a business standpoint for I have a team that is very experienced in this type of thing. Obviously though, I’ll need you to be the point of contact for their questions and other miscellaneous things.”

It is the miscellaneous other things he has in mind that worries me. “So why—”

Colton holds up a hand to stop me again, and I am getting rather annoyed at this habit of his. “As I discussed with Teddy, the contract between our companies for the donation is contingent on several factors.” He pauses, squaring up his papers on the table before him. He looks up, his attention focused solely on me. “For the next several months and into the season, I will need a representative of Corporate Cares with me on numerous occasions.”

He stops as I purse my lips, my eyes enlarging as I hope my assumptions are incorrect. “Me?” I question already knowing the answer.

“Yes. You.” He mouths. I watch his eyes narrow as I lick my lips for all of the sudden it is rather hot in this conference room. His lips part fractionally as he watches me, and I have to shake the inappropriate thoughts regarding their adept skill out of my head as he continues on in his professional tone. “In conjunction with the announcement of our joining forces, there will be several events—some locally, some out of town—black tie affairs, press junkets, et cetera,” he says, casually waving his fingers in the air in a motion of nonchalance, “that I will need you to escort me to.”

“What?” I stand up, pushing my chair back with force and look back and forth from Colton to Teddy in bewilderment. How dare he? I tell him no to a date, no to going beyond second base backstage, and he schemes up a way to tie me to him with a contract? What an immature prick! His ego must really be bruised from my rejection.