Only, I couldn’t walk away completely.
I couldn’t shake off the image of her sweet smile, those big blue eyes that made my heart feel emotions I’ve never experienced before or since.
One night with Natalie.
That’s all it took for her to bring me to my knees, something no other woman had ever managed to do.
Winning her trust before was so easy. After all, I was her big brother’s best friend. All I had to do was say the right words, play the part perfectly. I knew she had been attracted to me. I could see it in her eyes, the way her breath caught when I looked at her.
She was supposed to be a means to an end. When I walked away from her that night, that was supposed to be the end of it—a clean break, a successful manipulation.
I put the scrunchie away, back into my pocket, my lips pressing together into a hard line as memories threaten to surface.
I went out with multiple women after her. Models, businesswomen, actresses—beautiful, accomplished women who should have been more than adequate replacements. But none of them evoked the same reaction within me as Natalie. At some point, taking those women out became an act of desperation. Maybe one of them would be able to make me forget the taste of Natalie’s soft skin, the sound of her breathless moans.
But those dinners and dates never progressed past the meal. They didn’t look like Natalie. They didn’t have her sharp wit or the honesty that shone within her eyes. They didn’t smile like her. They didn’t laugh like her, that genuine sound that made something in my chest tighten. They were simply not her, and that’s where their fault lay.
She’s no longer the shy and inexperienced girl she used to be. The woman who stepped into my new office today was self-assured and confident, with a steel spine that hadn’t been there before. From the information I’ve gathered about her, she left New York a few weeks after our night together. Her first job was somewhere in Montana until she left a year later for a firm in California. By the time Thalvyn headhunted her, she hadbeen on her third company, somewhere in Georgia for six months.
I take out Natalie’s folded resume from my pocket, studying it with the same intensity I’d use for a business acquisition. Going over it confirms my suspicions. The companies she worked at weren’t better than the ones she received job offers from. And she received offers from plenty of good companies—I made sure to track every single one. She deliberately chose jobs in small companies, ones that the ambitious girl I had gotten to know would never even have considered.
It’s not like Braxton to hire an employee like that, and since he was the CEO when she was hired, this had to be his decision. There must have been a compelling reason.
She’s a good HR head—exceptional, even. She restructured the department once she got here, implementing policies that actually made sense. After her arrival, the employee turnover rate decreased drastically, and while in her California position, several policies were passed that benefited both the company and the employees. Her work speaks for itself.
If Natalie thinks I’m going to let her leave after all the effort I put in, she’s going to have a long uphill battle. Even if the personal aspect wasn’t involved, she’s too skilled of an employee to be let go of—too valuable to lose to a competitor.
I flick the edge of the paper in my hand, a plan already forming.
Did she really think she could get away from me that easily? I made sure to block every exit for her before I officially took over this position. Every major HR firm in the city has connections to my companies somehow.
She can try to escape all she wants, but all doors will lead back to me.
I’ve waited five years for her.
I don’t intend to wait any longer.
Braxton Thompson didn’t handover all the internal documents of the company until he actually left, the coward. As I study the financial records and the ongoing projects, I feel a wave of fury building. It’s five in the evening. The workday is ending, but my work is just beginning.
Pressing the intercom, I scowl at the innocent device. “Clarice, get me the head of marketing. I don’t care if she’s on her way home. She had better be in my office in the next ten minutes.”
Leaning back in my chair, I compare the reports of the Marketing Department to the ones the Finance Department has compiled over the last six months. The discrepancies are glaringly obvious—so obvious that there was no way Braxton was not aware of this systematic manipulation.
When the intercom buzzes five minutes later, I have more reports in my hand, and my blood is boiling with each new discovery.
“Mr. Wilder, Miss Campbell has arrived.”
I nearly slam my hand down on the button with excessive force. “Send her in.”
The door opens and a young woman looks in hesitantly, clearly nervous about the sudden summons. She’s not very tall, her blonde hair cut in one of those edgy styles that Megan keeps rambling about in our family dinners. She looks young—way too young to be heading a department in a company this size.
One look at her has me making a sound of disbelief. I have a sinking feeling I know exactly why she holds the title, and it has nothing to do with her qualifications.
“Miss Campbell, can you tell me how you got the position as head of marketing?”
She pales instantly, two bright spots appearing on her cheeks like warning flags. “I—What?”
“I’m asking you how someone as young as you became the head of marketing?” I ask, keeping my tone steady despite the irritation building inside me.
