Forever Mine (Providence Series Book 1) (11 page)

11

____

May
a

After a fantastic day at the lake
yesterday we’d had a ‘campfire BBQ’, as Cole called it, sitting around the fire talking and laughing. Mace was gorgeous, but he was a bit scary; he had this darkness in his eyes and such a serious face that when all of it was directed at you, I’m sure it would make grown men confess to every sin. When he allowed himself to smile or laugh though it took your breath away.
 
He was also clearly in love with Ava, and her with him, so why they weren’t together I don’t know.
 

Ava was gorgeous and best friends with Mace’s little sister Gia who worked just over three hours away from Piersville who sounded like a hoot from the stories they’d all told me. It was great to finally have a female friend who lived close by now and we’d arranged to meet for lunch through the week to discuss our night out on Friday, I don’t think Ren and Mace were happy about our plans, but girl night sounded like heaven to me.
 

Cole had been hysterical as always, but he’d been expecting me to get my revenge immediately for what he’d done when Ren and I were kissing, so he’d been wary all evening. Little did he know that the success in retaliation came when the person least expected it, and now that I knew more about his phobia’s, my revenge would be sweet.
 

Last night when Ren dropped me home, we’d gone into my kitchen and just as I turned to say something to him, he’d kissed me. I hadn’t been expecting it at all and just as it started to heat up he’d pulled away, kissed me on the nose and told me that we were going to take this slowly and that he would see me today.
 
As much as he heated me up, I’d only ever slept with two guys- my high school boyfriend, the boyfriend I’d had during my second year at college. I’d never slept with Andy, which, thinking back on it, was probably telling in itself because I’d never even felt like I wanted to, so Ren giving me that meant a lot to me.

Walking into my office, I remembered that we had a new girl starting today. George had told Luke and I last week about Isla, who had grown up in Piersville and was coming back to work as a lawyer for us.
 
Luke’s reaction to this news had confused me because he almost looked scared, angry and excited at the same time, but I hadn’t had the chance to talk to him about it.
 

I loved my eldest cousin. Luke was about the same height as Ren but had blonde hair and dark green eyes. He was also very protective of my sister and me and the closest thing I had to a brother, as were my other cousins and I loved them fiercely.

As I sat behind my desk and placed all of the research for Ren and Cole’s house beside my computer, I saw a message from a company called Zingbrini and groaned.
 
They wanted me to make an appointment to meet with their CEO to discuss the refurbishment of their building; it was going to be a busy day.

Luke

I sat at my desk waiting for Isla to walk through the door; I couldn’t believe she was back here.
 
All weekend I’d been reliving what I’d done to her and wondering how to apologize all of these years later.
 
There were other feelings involved that I didn’t want to go near just now; I wasn’t ready to face them, but I’m sure I’ll have to sometime soon.
 

I started up my computer to deal with all of the emails that would be waiting for me and caught a flash of long dark hair out of the corner of my eye. If I hadn’t seen it, I’d still have known that she was here by the way the hair on my arms stood up.
 

Getting up from my desk and walking toward the door my jaw almost hit the ground when I got a good look at her. Standing talking to my dad was a gorgeous woman I had ever seen in my life.
 
She had perfect curves, gorgeous legs, and her hair fell to the middle of her back in beautiful dark waves.
 
Isla had been stunning before, but that beauty had magnified over the years. Her hazel eyes were focused on Dad, and she was grinning at something that he said. I could feel the burn starting back up in my chest that had been reduced to a small spark when she left town eight years ago after I’d..I couldn’t go there just now, but what I did know was that I was certain that I was going to do whatever I could to finally make Isla mine.

Isla

Well, I was back. I swore I’d never come back to this place after what had happened, but when my Gran told me she needed help I’d dropped everything and moved back. She meant the world to me and had been the only person ever truly to love and give a shit about me, well aside from my three best friends, and I would do absolutely anything for her; even come back here. When my father had remarried, it had been like I didn’t exist as he focused on his new wife and perfect stepdaughter, so I’d moved in with Gran when I was eleven. To this day, he still only spoke to me when it suited him, and I was lucky if my birthday cheque arrived within eleven months of my actual birthday.
 

My graduation from school had been hell because he and Jodie had only turned up for Calista’s big moment and had been oblivious when I’d taken to the stage, then they hadn’t even turned up to my College graduation. Instead, Gran and the Montgomery’s had come; minus Luke of course. Both of those hurt, but I was pretty much used to it now and had accepted I meant nothing to Geoffrey Banks.
 
My return to Piersville had been something that I swore I’d never do, but Gran asking for help when she never asked anyone for anything had hit me hard. It hadn’t hurt that George Montgomery had called right after, offering me a job in his legal department either and crossing off one item from my list.
 

It had been strange packing up my life; it had been weird shipping it all to my father’s old house here, it had been hard walking into that house and being assaulted with all of the bad memories attached to it. It had been fun though walking around the house and planning all of the work that I was going to have done to it, but none of it had been as terrifying as walking through the doors of the Montgomery’s building knowing that I was soon going to be seeing Luke again.
 
The Luke, who had held my hand when I needed it, who had hugged me when I’d cried and when I’d needed a hug the most, who had given me confidence, and the guy who had then stripped me of all of that.
 
It had been eight years, and I’d found myself and was happy with who I was. I wasn't the sniveling little girl that had no one and who had let Luke Montgomery make a fool of anymore; I was Isla Banks and damn it- I could do this.

“Okay sweetheart, your office is next to Luke’s and just over here.
 
It's great having you back Isla,” George said guiding me toward my office. “Now, the rest of the legal team will be coming to meet you at 1.30pm to introduce themselves and lay out the different items and cases that they’re working on. On your desk are the personnel files of your team so that you know levels of experience and can allocate the work properly. If you have any questions, Luke is next door, I’m across the office, and LeAnne will be at her desk; until you have a secretary, feel free to use her.”
 

I was shocked at his confidence in me and started to wonder if I’d bitten off more than I could chew by taking on this job.

“George, what if I can’t do this? What if I let you down?”

Walking over to me he held my shoulders, “You can do this; that's why I gave you the job. Don't put too much pressure on yourself and give yourself time to learn the company and the ongoing cases; it will all be fine.”
 

I swear this man was wasted as an architect, even though he designed beautiful buildings. He’d always been able to pep me up, and if he’d been a counselor or therapist, I have no doubt he would have been a billionaire.
   

“Morning son. Look who’s back,” he crowed turning me around and my eyes hit the object of both my dreams and nightmares who was walking toward me with a look in his eyes that threw me off balance.
 

“Isla,” he rumbled, then I was in his arms and surrounded by the smell of him with his face was buried in my neck. “I’m glad you’re back,” he whispered in my ear, and I had to remind myself not to groan as the scent of him, being in his arms, having his breath on my neck and him just being Luke hit me.
 

“Great to see you,” I replied quietly.
 
I needed to be careful; I couldn’t give him any ammunition to rip my life apart again.
 
I had to be immune and vigilant but friendly, so I slowly pulled away and gave him a quick smile that I’m sure didn’t reach my eyes and that he knew was as fake as his last girlfriend's chest. I couldn’t forget who the real Luke was, I’d made that mistake before and would never do it again. From now on, I had to be fake too- fake fake fake, and if life was kind to me, maybe I’d escape with my dignity intact.

“Morning. Luke, I need your advice on something,” a soft voice with an accent I couldn’t place, and belonging to a seriously beautiful woman, sounded from behind George.
 
She gave everyone a beautiful smile including me and then moved to hug George and Luke. “Hi, you must be Isla; I’m Maya Price,” she said walking up to me and hugging me.
 
It was then that something that had been niggling at me hit me full force- she was real, there was no fakery on her.

Luke

Isla looked even better up close than she did from a distance if that was even possible. I hadn’t planned to hold her, but I couldn’t stop myself and God she’d smelt out of this world.
 
When I pulled back and saw the quick smile she’d flashed was tight and false, I knew that I was going to have to work hard for her forgiveness. I’d been about to ask her to lunch or dinner when Maya came in with a stack of papers looking for me.
 

“Sure, my office?” I tried not to sound disappointed at the missed opportunity to ask Isla out. The odds had been in my favor with dad standing next to us, so she would have almost had to say yes if I’d asked in front of him.

“One-second kids,” my dad said thankfully stopping the slow steps that I was taking toward the door. “Let me just properly introduce you Isla.
 
This is my niece Maya Price - she works here as an interior designer.
 
Maya this is Isla Banks - her father is a Senior Architect and is heading our location in Italy at the moment. Isla grew up with Luke, Adam, and Mark; they were inseparable as kids.”

Isla had looked stunned until my father said the last piece and I don’t think anyone in the room missed the grimace that both Isla and I gave. Yeah, we had been inseparable, and then I’d done something wrong, unforgivably bad, but I was going to change it. I just needed to figure out how. How do you fix the heart and trust of someone you betrayed?

I could feel Maya’s stare drilling into the side of my face as we left Isla’s office after the introductions had been made and as soon as the door shut she pounced. “Okay asshole, what the hell did you do to that poor girl?” She asked glaring at me with her arms crossed. Shit!
 

12

____

May
a

After an exhausting morning that
had included trying to get Luke to spill the beans, I finally started on some work. Since Luke, the tight ass, wouldn’t tell me about Isla, I’d conned him into doing quick drawings of the renovations that I’d come up with on Saturday. I was in the middle of creating a virtual shot of what the changes would look like when there was a knock on my door, and Ren was standing there smiling at me.

“Hey baby, you look adorable behind that desk with your serious face and the pencil in your hair,” he said winking at me.
 
He looked disheveled and was wearing a tight black T-shirt and well-worn jeans and the whole outfit just gave him a hot bad boy look.
 

“Hey,” I croaked, because even if I were worried about his reputation, I’d still gone to sleep with a smile on my face last night.
 

“You up for lunch?”

“Lunch? What time is it?” I hadn’t even had my morning coffee, was it some a mechanic thing having lunch mid-morning?
   

Ren

Maya looked gorgeous today in her work dress and with a pencil sticking out of her hair.
 
I’d been watching her concentrating on the screen and biting her lower lip, frowning and tilting her head and then closing one eye and looking at it with the other.
 

Yesterday had been amazing, and it had been hard to leave her last night after our kiss, but for Maya, I was going to take this slowly because she meant too much to me to rush and lose or just write off as a one nighter.

Obviously, she had no idea that it was already 12.30pm, so I figured she’d had a busy morning and mentally patted myself on the back for coming to take her for a surprise lunch.
 
Laughing at the way she was looking around the office for a clock when she had a watch on her wrist, the time on her computer screen and her cell on her desk, I walked up and pulled her out of her chair gently and put my arms around her. “Baby, it's half twelve,” I couldn’t help chuckling.