Rivals in Paradise (13 page)

Chase squinted his eyes. His mother had laid down some heaviness, and he really had to ponder her words.

Could he lay it all on the line knowing that he didn't stand a chance? He didn't know. He'd always approached everything without a care about losing, because he'd always won and he didn't expect that to change.

With Cicely, he'd already seen that he could lose to her when she beat him in college. If she really didn't want him, would he have the tenacity to keep trying to make her see that he was the one and only man for her, knowing that she might never see it?

He wasn't sure if he could. But he was damn sure going to try.

F
eeling like you peaked in college, finding the man of your dreams, only having a brief island fling with said man of your dreams and wondering if you should take out a restraining order on your formerly quiet and nice nerdy ex-boyfriend instead of just changing your number like you opted to do was enough to make a girl go for the Krispy Kreme doughnuts
and
the Chunky Monkey ice cream.

Cicely wondered if she should take her brother-in-law up on his offer. Working for Harrington Enterprise wouldn't have been that bad. The import-export business of dealing with cement and oil
refineries was probably more interesting than she had imagined….
Not
.

At least she wouldn't have to worry about Leonard Stone sabotaging her and belittling her left and right.

After a week of dealing with her jerk of a boss, ignoring Isaac's apologetic phone messages and not hearing a word from Chase, her life was just as crappy as it had been before she'd taken the trip to Dahinda that was supposed to help her get her groove back.

Granted, she shouldn't have expected to hear anything from Chase since she hadn't left him any of her contact information….

But a small part of her was hoping.

So, instead of having a Saturday night out with her girls, or hanging out with her sister, niece and nephews or even spending some time with Gran, she was in her condo. Her hair was up in a haphazard ponytail and she was wearing a pair of ripped-up sweats and an old FAMU T-shirt, eating a pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream and watching a marathon of old romantic comedies.

Seriously, why couldn't her life be like Julia Roberts's or Sandra Bullock's or Meg Ryan's? Well, maybe not their lives, exactly, since the actresses were probably as unlucky in love in their real lives as she
was. But definitely the characters they played in those little movies Latonya had gotten her hooked on.

A perfect job—well, with the exception of Vivian Ward, Julia's hooker with a heart of gold in
Pretty Woman
—a perfect man to sweep her off her feet and a perfect life…

Was that really too much to ask for? Really?

She was just at her favorite part of
Notting Hill,
where Julia's Anna tells Hugh Grant's William that she's just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her. That part always guaranteed a good cry, and she needed a good excuse to cry, otherwise it would seem like she was sitting in raggedy sweats, stuffing her face, moping and crying over Chase Yearwood.

And she was not doing that! She was just in a little mood, that was all, and it would pass soon.

There was a knock at the door and then a prolonged press of the bell.

She huffed and put the movie on pause. If Isaac had taken to showing up at her door now that she had changed her number, she was going to call the police and take out that restraining order.

She looked through her peephole, and what she saw there shocked her to her core. Chase was leaning against her door like he didn't have a care in the world. How he'd managed to get her address and why was he showing up at her place took second place in
the line of questions running through her head. Those sensible questions had no billing with her.

No, the top thing on her mind was,
Do I look presentable enough for him to see me?

“One second.” She took the scrunchie out of her hair and gave her do a quick finger toss. She looked down at what had formerly been her favorite pair of orange sweats but had suddenly morphed into a fashion-don't now that Chase was going to see her in them looking like a slouch.

She opened the door, and her breath caught in her throat. Chase pulled her into his arms and kissed her, sending her world into the stratosphere and making a pretty shitty week all of a sudden
the best week ever.

Chase knew he should have said something first before he just attacked Cicely with his lips. But seeing her there looking so adorable and clearly shocked to see him, made him want to kiss her and shock her even more. The more he tasted her the more intense his feelings became.

She'd left him, left him with out a care or a way to contact her.

She'd left him as if it had been the easiest thing in the world to do and gone back to her cheating ex-boyfriend.

His lips stopped mid-kiss and he pulled away. He touched her face, stroking and caressing it lovingly
as all of the questions he wanted to ask her bounced around in his head.

“Is your
man
here? You said the two of you broke up. But he answered your phone when I called you and staked his claim…” He took a deep breath, but he didn't take his hand off of her pretty face.

“My man? When did you call me? I don't have a man. No man should have answered my phone. And I just got my phone number changed because my ex wouldn't stop calling. He was still here when I came back from Dahinda. So I had to make him leave, and then I had the locks changed in case he had more copies of the keys. I left to go to the store while I waited for the twenty-four hour locksmith to show up when it seemed like he was getting a little extra upset about the breakup. When I came back he had trashed the place and smashed my phone.”

Chase nodded and walked into her condo. He probably should have waited for an invite, but…oh, well…

“Sorry about that. He probably decided to wreck the place after talking with me. He didn't seem to like what I had to say. And for the record, you
do
have a man. I'm your man.” He gave her a pointed stare that he really hoped she wouldn't argue with. They had wasted an entire week apart. That was too damn long. “And we are renegotiating your ground rules. I'm not letting you go.”

He walked over to her sofa and sat down. A movie was on pause, and a bunch of DVD jackets from other movies were all over the place.
You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Runaway Bride, How to Lose A Guy in Ten Days
and a bunch of other chick flicks were scattered all around.

Someone must be in an interesting mood.

He sat down on the sofa and picked up the empty pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream that was on the end table.

Yes, someone must be in a really interesting mood. Regret, maybe?

He turned and saw that she was kind of stuck in the same spot. She hadn't moved. “Are you going to stand there all night?” he asked.

“No, I'm just wondering what you're doing here, Chase. I thought we agreed that we'd have an island fling. No questions. No promises. No problems.”

“And I told you I was agreeing to that mess under duress and I retained my right to change my mind. I've changed my mind. Come sit down by me, Cicely. I've missed you.”

Her eyes widened even more, but she came and sat down next to him.

His heart was beating like he'd just run a marathon. He didn't know if he was truly ready to put everything on the line just for Cicely to tell him no. He wanted so much more than to just continue their island fling.
He wanted to build a relationship with her. The truth was, he had finally found a woman that he wanted to be his wife, to have his children. And he didn't think he could take it if she turned him down once he put his entire heart on the line.

His mother was right. He was scared to lose, especially when it mattered. He now realized why the student government presidential election had plagued him for all those years. It wasn't losing the election that had hurt him. It was losing all of the possibility sparked by that one kiss with Cicely that had hurt the most.

“How did you get here?” Cicely asked. She had an expression on her face that was a mix between confused and irritated. “You're not supposed to be here, Chase! Why do you think people have boundaries? Just for you to stomp all over them whenever you like?”

The shock was wearing off, and she clearly had her guard up.

Chase turned to face her, pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She needed an outlet for all that fire, and he was more than willing to provide one.

Their heated passion took over in seconds, and she kissed him back instead of questioning his motives. He decided he would do that before he answered any of her questions, especially the ones where she had an attitude.

“You don't get to just put up boundaries when there are two people involved, Cicely. It's unfair. I'm not going to be Mr. Frank and let you string me along for twenty-something years just because you think it's some kind of test of how much I care. You ran this time and I found you, but you can't keep running just because, Cicely. You're not the only one who is scared.”

He realized he had revealed way more than he'd intended, but he couldn't stop himself. His stomach felt queasy, his throat was dry and his palms were sweating. He felt like he was walking a tightrope without a safety net. He usually enjoyed the thrill of risk taking. It lit fire to his blood. But risking things like money, property, status and anything else that didn't involve feelings was pretty easy for him. This kind of risk was not.

This must be what it feels like to go for broke….
He didn't like the feeling at all.

“It was hard enough to leave Dahinda—”

“Didn't seem like it was hard to me. You just left me there without a word or a backward glance,” Chase interrupted.

“It was hard, Chase! And now you're here and I don't think I'll be able to walk away from you again.” She nibbled her upper lip and shook her head. “Don't you get it, Yearwood?”

He traced her lips with his tongue deliberately,
as though he had all the time in the world. And then he slowly snaked his tongue through her lips and touched hers ever so softly. It only took that moment of contact for her tongue to wake up and start dueling with his. Their tongues danced for several minutes before he pulled away.

“Good. I'm glad it will be hard for you to walk away again. It should always be hard for either one of us to walk away.” He kissed her again before standing. He held out his hand. “Can we please go to your bedroom so that I can show you how much I've missed you?”

She took about a second to contemplate before she followed him.

Cicely let The Wolf into her bedroom. If Chase was determined to carry on their affair beyond the beautiful blue skies and teal waters of Dahinda, then she'd just have to put on her big-girl panties—
or
take them off, in this case—and have him for as long as it lasted.

She slowly undressed him, taking her time to appreciate every bulge and muscle she'd thought she would never see again. His skin beckoned for a kiss and then a lick. So she kissed and licked every area she stripped. Soon he was standing in front of her, naked in all his beautiful male glory. His manhood jutted forth like a very long, very sturdy rod. She dropped to her knees and took his shaft in her mouth,
kissing and licking it the way she had the various other parts of his body.

Just as she had wondered when he was giving her oral pleasure on the island, she again pondered how she could have gotten it all so very wrong.

Fellatio wasn't overrated at all. It was her new favorite thing, both the giving and receiving.

When she had driven him almost to the point of no return, he pulled out of her mouth with a gasp. He pulled her up and made quick work of her sweats and FAMU T-shirt.

“Hey, be careful with the threads, dude. They're vintage,” she joked when he yanked down her incredibly torn sweatpants.

He laughed, grabbed a condom from his pants on the floor and covered himself. When he came back to her, he tried to walk her backward to the bed. But she flipped the script, turned him around and walked him backward instead. She straddled him once she got him where she wanted him and eased down his shaft like she was coming home.

It felt wonderful.

She moved her hips up and down, riding him like her name was Annie Oakley. She bent down and continued tracing the contours of his chest with her tongue as she rode him. He grabbed her hips and bucked upward, proving to be a pretty wild stallion
indeed. She clutched her inner thighs as her inner walls clutched him and held on for the ride of her life.

They both rode until they found completion in sated bliss and then rode some more. They spent all day Sunday in her bed. And when he left, telling her that he would be back on Monday evening after work, she was okay with that. She was going to ride this ride for as long as it lasted and worry about the consequences later.

“W
ait until you meet the guy they hired to head up Mergers and Acquisitions. I know you threw your hat in the ring for that position, Cicely. But you barely do a decent job without me riding you 24/7 here in Finance. This guy they hired, due to my recommendation, of course—” Leonard Stone took a breather to puff out his already overstuffed chest before finishing “—is a real predator in the business world. He's not afraid to do what it takes to win.”

Cicely rolled her eyes as she listened to her division head go on and on about the new hire. He delighted in rubbing her nose in the fact that someone else had gotten the position she'd wanted so very badly.

She wanted to do him bodily harm, and she despised him for bringing out this evil part of her. She could have gone her entire life without even knowing that something like that existed in her. Someone who could stab Leonard Stone in the eye with her number-two pencil and laugh crazily lived inside of her, and she had to keep that person chained and subdued, or else…

They were sitting in the conference room waiting for the president of Mainstay to come in and introduce the new boy wonder. The person's identity had been kept hush-hush, but now everyone was going to meet the man.

Cicely couldn't care less. Any friend of Leonard's was an enemy of hers. That was for certain. She couldn't care less if the man walked on water and turned said water into wine. She was not going to like him. Period.

She practiced zoning Leonard out as he went on and on about the last report she'd written that apparently wasn't up to his standards.

Big. Surprise.

She tried not to hate people, but she was starting to hate Leonard Stone.

Who was she kidding? She despised the man. She didn't know if she could despise anyone more until she saw Chase Yearwood walking into the conference room with the president of Mainstay, Ron Samuels.

Chase had taken her job.

Chase was a friend of Leonard's.

Chase had made love to her like no one ever had, shown her his softer side and made her fall in love with him.

And Chase had taken her job.

The jerk!

Oh, sure, Chase seemed shocked at seeing her there. But one look at Leonard Stone's smug face told her that somehow he and Chase must have been in cahoots. Leonard was one step away from saying,
Na-na-na-na-na.
And she just knew that's what he was thinking.

Woosah.

She tried to calm the crazy, pencil-wielding maniac inside of her, but it was extra hard. There were two people she wanted to puncture with her trusty number two now….

Everything went by in a blur. The introductions, Ron Samuels reciting Chase's impressive resume, all of it might as well have been
blah, blah, blah
as far as Cicely was concerned.

Her heart felt as if someone had taken a butcher knife to it. She just knew her chest had to be bloody and her heart must have been spurting all over the place, because that's what it felt like. She couldn't get over the hurt and betrayal she felt.

Was this or was this not the same man who had
just made love to her all day Sunday? Had he or had he not begged her to continue their fling—which he was now calling a “relationship,” by the way…

When the traitor finally made his way to her division, she had resolved that she would play it cool in the workplace. But the first chance she got outside of work, it was going to be on!

“Hi, Cicely. I didn't know you worked for Mainstay.” Chase glared at Leonard. “That's something you could have told me, Leonard.”

Leonard laughed his boisterous, annoying “ah ha ha ha, ah ha ha ha” that sounded like a jacked-up Santa who didn't know his lines. She hated Leonard's laugh almost as much as she hated Leonard.

“So, you're trying to tell me that you didn't know I worked here?” Cicely seethed. “Next thing you'll be saying is you didn't know that I was also in the running for your job until the company found out that could get this whiz-kid interloper.”

Chase's eyes narrowed.

Leonard smiled. “Almost karmic, isn't it? Except karma had nothing to do with it.” Leonard walked away, looking a little too pleased with himself.

Chase sighed. “I honestly didn't know, Cicely. We didn't talk about work in Dahinda. And Leonard didn't let on that you worked here. He certainly didn't tell me that you also wanted this job. If he had, I can't say for sure it would have made a difference
when I first applied, because a few weeks ago I still held a grudge against you and it would have made my big ego feel vindicated to know I beat you out of something you wanted. But now I feel horrible.”

“Yeah, right, Chase. Listen, I don't believe in fraternizing with my colleagues and especially not my superiors…so, needless to say, anything we agreed on continuing yesterday is null and void today.”

“The hell it is, Cicely. You don't get to just decide that—”

“The hell I don't!” She narrowed her eyes at him in disgust. “Careful, Mr. Yearwood, you don't want to pick up a harassment suit on your first day. Stay the hell away from me.” Cicely walked away with her head held high even though her heart was broken.

 

Chase didn't know what to make of the fact that Cicely worked at Mainstay and Leonard hadn't thought it was important to share that tidbit of information. Leonard had probably been going for the shock factor. Especially since he knew how much Chase had hated losing that election to Cicely years ago. But Leonard would have been the one in shock if he had known just how far past all of that nonsense Chase and Cicely had moved.

Only to end up further back than they had started! Chase knew in his heart that Cicely had meant every word she'd uttered to him in the conference room on his first day. That first workday had kept him
too busy to go and talk with her again. He'd had a whole new company and a whole new way of doing things to process. But he did try to talk to her later that evening and again and again every day since.

When he tried to call her she didn't answer.

When he dropped by she refused to answer the door.

He knew she was hurting because he could feel it. But he was hurting, too. Being without her was killing his spirit.

As he sat in his office wondering if she would make good on her threat to file a sexual harassment suit if he didn't leave her alone, Leonard came waltzing in.

“So, I thought I'd give you a little time to get the lay of the land and get over the shock of seeing Cicely here. I thought that would get you good, seeing her. But don't worry. She's on her way out of here, man. As soon as I can manage it, I'm axing her behind. I'm just biding time since she's worked here for a while.”

Chase wanted to punch that smug look off of Leonard's face. But he decided to let the fool cut enough rope to hang himself. As hard as it was to listen to Leonard, he just let the man talk.

Chase leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up on his desk. “I was rather surprised to see her, and even more surprised that you would think that I
didn't need to know that little piece of information before I took a job here.”

“That's the beauty of it. You can help me get rid of her and pay her back for wiping the floor with you during that election. Just think of her little prissy know-it-all self out of a job in her thirties, in this economy. It would be a dish served cold for sure.” Leonard took a seat without being offered one.

Chase tried to keep himself calm, but the venom in Leonard's voice was taking him to a place of no return. He cleared his throat and loosened the knot in his tie a little. It helped stop him from pummeling Leonard for the moment. He needed more information. Leonard seemed to have far too much anger where Cicely was concerned.

“Tell me something, Leonard, what did Cicely ever do to you? Why do you dislike her so much?”

“I don't dislike her. I hate her. First, she thought she was too cute to give a brother the time of day in college. I asked her out and she turned me down flat. But then she used to make goo-goo eyes over you, left and right, when she thought no one was looking. I could tell she had a thing for you even then. She probably still does, I caught her watching you the other day all longingly when she thought no one was watching her. I bet it's killing her having you here!

“Do you know she didn't even remember me at first when I came to work here? Me? After all that
time we all spent in the SGA office, she had the nerve to have to be reminded of who I was. But she remembered you just fine, didn't she. I always knew she had a thing for you. And that night when you were feeling her up and kissing her in the SGA office…man, that was something. I thought the two of you were going to take it all the way. I was glad I had my camera. But she stopped after all that teasing.”

Chase stood up then. “You took the picture of us kissing?” He walked around the desk and stood by Leonard's chair.

Leonard sprang up and backed away, clearly rethinking what he had, in his bitter tirade about Cicely, over-shared. “Okay, listen…you're going to find this sort of funny. Yes, I took the picture of the two of you kissing. I don't know why I took it. But after I took it, I figured it would be a way to possibly snag the election for myself. I figured once it was leaked, it would ruin both of your chances and I could swoop in as the write-in. So, you see, Cicely ruined the election for me, as well.” Leonard backed up, inching toward the door.

It was all Chase could do not to punch the man. He did follow his every step, though. And his hands did find their way around Leonard's neck quicker than a flash. Before he knew it, he had Leonard jacked up against his office door.

“Hey, man, it was just a college election,” Leonard
sputtered as his feet dangled in the air. “This is unprofessional, man! I could get you fired for this or press charges. You need to watch it! Sheesh! I can't believe you're tripping like this.”

Chase sneered, feeling more like a wolf than he had ever felt in his life. The need for blood raced through him.

“Let me get this clear. Were you trying to use me in your sick little vendetta against Cicely?” Chase gritted his teeth, and he still didn't let go of Leonard's neck or let him down from the wall.

“Yes…I mean, no…I mean, I don't know, man…” Leonard's answer changed each time Chase's grip tightened on his neck.

“Okay. You seem confused. Let me clear this up for you. You are going to let go of this little vendetta of yours. Because Cicely Stevens is off-limits. I will go to any length to protect people who are important to me. And Cicely is the most important person in the world to me. She's the woman I love. And if you so much as look at her sideways, you don't even want to know what I'll do to you.”

Chase let Leonard slide down from the door. He straightened his tie and started walking toward his desk. “Get the hell out of my office, Leonard. And do try to stay away from me. It would be in your best interest.”

Leonard gained a little more courage once his
feet were on the ground and the door was partially opened. “You stay the hell away from me, too, Yearwood. Based on our former friendship, I won't press charges on your ass. But for the record, we are no longer friends!”

Chase narrowed his eyes and started walking back toward Leonard. “Why are you still in my office?”

Leonard made haste getting out of there.

 

Cicely sat in her office, stunned. She had gone looking for Leonard and was more than a little irritated to have to hunt him down in Chase's office, of all places.

She so did not want to have to see Chase with all his I'm-sorry-I-didn't-know crap. He'd been calling her and trying to see her, but she'd been doing a pretty good job of not seeing him. It hurt too much to see him, and now she really couldn't have him because he was in league with The Evil One.

She didn't know what she had done to Leonard to make him hate her so much, but she did know that if Chase had ever really cared anything for her, he wouldn't be a friend to a person who despised her to the degree that Leonard did.

She walked up to Chase's office. She could hear Leonard's big, ugly, braggadocio voice clear into the hall. And what she heard shocked her to her core. Leonard's vicious hatred spilling forth to a clearly listening and willing participant—Chase:

That's the beauty of it. You can help me get rid of her and pay her back for wiping the floor with you during that election. Just think of her little prissy know-it-all self out of a job in her thirties, in this economy. It would be a dish served cold for sure.

That was enough to seal the deal for her. Chase was in league with the devil. It was only after she got back to her office that she realized she was giving both of those pigs too much leeway. She wasn't going to take any more of Leonard's crap, and she was going to confront Chase about his part in this. The least he owed her was an explanation.

She went back to Chase's office after contemplating what to do. The workplace was not the place for their confrontation.

She left a note on Chase's secretary's desk telling him that they needed to talk. They needed to get this over with once and for all.

 

After work, Chase decided to go to the 100 Black Businessmen of Miami mixer that he had been debating whether to attend. He had been a member for the past ten years and found the networking beneficial, but he just wasn't in the mood that night.

Cicely was clearly still avoiding him, because he hadn't seen her at all that day at work. Leonard's confession still had him steaming, and he couldn't
believe that Leonard had basically used him as a weapon against the woman he loved.

He knew he couldn't allow Leonard to continue using him to hurt Cicely. He would have to leave Mainstay. Luckily, he was in the right place to get the ball rolling on that.