Love Torn Read online

  Love Torn

  by

  Anna Valentine

  Cupid’s Arrow Publishing

  Copyright © 2012 Anna Valentine

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, by printing, faxing, emailing, copying electronically or by any other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. All names and characters, in this book, are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Published by Cupid’s Arrow Publishing.

  Chapter 1

  Jackie climbed out of the taxi and pulled her skirt straight. She hated these functions. Why on earth could she not say no to Jason her boss when he asked? Because she was weak, she thought bitterly as she reluctantly walked towards the double doors that led into the foyer of the largest hotel in town. All he ever had to do was look at her, with those blue eyes, and she found herself automatically saying yes, to whatever he demanded. Damn he was gorgeous. Why did she have to have a crush on her boss?

  She reached the doors and pulled them open. In the foyer, she spied the large sign announcing their company was being hosted in the Blue Function Room. She put her head down and made her way there. She had spied Marcia Cummings the new receptionist talking to some people she didn’t recognize near the reception desk, and she desperately wanted to avoid Marcia, no matter what.

  “Oh Jackie! Jackie Forbes!”

  Too late. Marcia’s voice screeched across the foyer. She fixed her best smile on her face and turned to face Marcia.

  “Oh, you’re looking good today!” Marcia beamed and slapped Jackie on the arm.

  Jackie resisted the urge to punch her back, “Ha, thank you Marcia. How are you?” She cringed at the thought of the predictable answer she was about to get.

  “All the better for seeing you!”

  Jackie laughed what she called her plastic-laugh, “I have to go Marcia, and Jason is expecting me.”

  “Ooh, he’s a dish, isn’t he?” Marcia giggled. “I wish I could work with him,” she sighed.

  Jackie turned and walked away. “If you like that sort of thing,” she called back to the insanely grinning woman behind her. Jackie shook her head. Marcia was always the same, one of those bubbly-types, who were far too effervescent for her liking.

  She approached the doors to the Blue Room. As she reached out to grab the handle the door swung out and almost hit her in the face.

  “Oh I am so sorry!”

  “Jason.”

  “Did I hit you?” He reached out and touched her shoulder.

  Jackie gasped and stood stock-still with the shock his touch produced in her.

  “Oh God, I must have, you are in shock. Come and sit down over here.” Jason placed his hand on the small of her back and led her to a dark corner of the Blue Room. “Sit down.” He motioned her to a chair. She automatically sat and stared at him, her whole body tingling from his touch.

  How can he do that? Why am I reacting like this? She asked herself.

  “Wait here.” Jason turned around, and he was gone.

  Damn it, she thought as her body calmed down and her breathing settled back to normal, along with her pulse. She frowned; Jason was cute, but she’d never reacted like that to him before.

  Jason returned moments later with two coffee cups in his hands. He offered one to Jackie who took it gratefully. “Look, I’m sorry I hit you with the door.”

  She shook her head, “You didn’t hit me Jason. You just shocked me. That’s all.”

  “Sure?” He fixed her with those blue eyes she loved, and she blushed. He noticed.

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  “Good. So are you all ready for today’s function?”

  She gave him a sarcastic look.

  “Oh don’t be like that,” he laughed, “you know you love to hear our CEO talk about how great he is and how wonderful his company is too!” He winked at her.

  “No, that’s not why I’m here, and you know it.”

  “And why are you here?”

  “Because you insisted, and you know that I can’t say no to you!” She didn’t mean it to come out the way it had. She knew he would read more into that than she had intended.

  He shot her his boyish grin and his eyes twinkled. He lowered his voice, “Then maybe you’ll say yes to coming to dinner with me afterwards then?”

  Jackie stood up, “No.”

  He protested. “Hey, I thought you couldn’t say no to me!”

  She stopped as she walked past him, “Maybe I am turning over a new leaf.”

  “Or playing hard to get?”

  She turned round to face him. Had he read more into what she’d said? “I’m not playing hard to get.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  She gave in, “Jason!” She sighed, “okay, okay, I’ll go to dinner with you afterwards… But it better be good.” She turned around and marched off to find her place at the table.

  “Oh it’ll be good.” He muttered.

  Chapter 2

  As Jackie walked around the tables, she noticed that someone had put her on the same table as Marcia. There was no way that she would sit through a whole day with the top execs in the company droning on and do it sitting with Marcia Cummings. After putting her coffee cup in her place, Jackie looked over her shoulder and then picked up Marcia’s place name card. Eyeing the room, she moved to the next table and changed the card for one belonging to someone called Erica Myers. She hoped that no one had seen that, and that Erica Myers didn’t turn out to be an insufferable bore either. Jackie turned around and walked in the direction of the display tables along the left hand wall. She knew the drill – start at the left and work right, picking up each piece of paper until you had all of them. God, these things were boring. She’d got half way along the table when a voice from behind her made her jump out of her skin.

  “I saw you do that.”

  She spun around to see who had spoken – it was Jason. He had a mischievous glint in his eye. He leant closer to Jackie.

  “I saw you change Marcia’s card for someone else’s. Now, why would you do that?”

  Jackie blushed; she’d been seen, and she was ashamed of what she’d done. She turned to face him and hoped that whatever came out of her mouth would sound convincing.

  “I… just…” she stopped; she hoped the truth would serve her better. “Jason, be honest – would you like to spend the day with Marcia?”

  The smile on his face was all the answer she needed. They both turned back to the display table and continued collecting the information that that evening they both knew would be shredded and heading for the recycle bin.

  “So, who did you put on our table?” He asked as they continued.

  “Someone called Erica Myers?”

  “THE Erica Myers?” He stopped and stared at her.

  “I dunno, I’ve never heard of her before.”

  “Oh dear. Quick let’s get this done, get back to the table and change it back before anyone notices.” His tone was hard, and business like. Jackie knew she’d done something wrong. As they made their way back to the table, the room was being to fill up.

  “Who’s this Erica anyway?” Jackie asked as they found their table and Jason made the swap.

  “Only the CEO’s secretary.”

  Jackie shrugged her shoulder. “So? What does it matter which table she sits at?”

  Jason lowered his voice to a whisper, “It matters. She needs to be sitting there.”

  “Why?” Jackie knew she was pushing him now.

  “Because she’s sleeping with the boss,” he snapped.

  Jackie swore under her breath, and resigned herself to sitting through a boring day
which would be worsened by Marcia’s constant chatter. She was embarrassed. She knew that the CEO would have been furious if his little bit-on-the-side hadn’t been looked after properly and that it would come down heavily on Jason who’d been influential in the organisation of the event.

  Marcia finally arrived. Jackie could hear her progress through the hall. Surely, it was illegal to be that chirpy, she thought. Jason avoided looking at her. She knew he was angry with her and that their dinner that evening would probably be off. Marcia, as she knew she would be, was over the moon at being on a table with Jason and Jackie. Jackie just smiled politely and sipped the remainder of her coffee. There were six people at their table, two men, and one other woman. Mary Owen from accounts, and two other men from accounts that Jackie had never met before. She was certain she’d be glad never to see either of them again. The man to her left, George Parker, spoke to her incessantly of his root canal surgery. Jackie suddenly found the notes in front of her on last year’s sales-figures extremely interesting. This in turn, caught the attention of the man on her right, Leigh Wilson, who it turned out had written up the report and knew it word for word, as he demonstrated to her.

  Jackie looked up, desperate for a way out, and noticed Jason smiling at her. Had he deliberately placed her between the two most boring men in the country? She hoped that they would still be going out to dinner, because if they were then she was going to make him pay for this.

  The main event began and much to Jackie’s horror they were all expected to give the CEO a standing ovation. She hated this kind of ego-stroking nonsense. She fought the desire to run out of there, and shot Jason a dirty look – he laughed at her.

  It was painful and got worse as the day wore on, Jason she could tell, was enjoying her discomfort. She, however, was enjoying one thing, seeing Marcia flirt outrageously with him. He had miscalculated that; Marcia wanted him and she was making no effort to hide the fact.

  Jackie was glad when lunchtime rolled around. She took the earliest opportunity to slip out of the building and head to the road, her intention to hail a taxi to eat some place quiet. She exited the car park and stood by the side of the road looking for a cab when she heard a car horn toot beside her. She waved the car away – hoping the guy in the car wasn’t trying to pick her up. The horn tooted again. Jackie turned angrily to give the driver a piece of her mind and saw it was Jason.

  “Come on, get in!” He called.

  Jackie almost ran round to the other side of the car. She got in and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Where to?”

  “Anywhere but here,” she laughed.

  Jason put his foot down and pulled out into the traffic. He seemed to know exactly where he was going, and before long, he pulled up outside a Chinese restaurant.

  “Do you like Chinese food?”

  Jackie nodded, eagerly climbed out of the car and headed towards the doors. Jason was close behind her. He pressed his key fob remote lock, and the car bleeped.

  “Hey wait,” he called after her. “Allow me miss,” he winked at her as he opened the door for her. Jackie smiled at him; he was definitely laying on the charm today, and she was enjoying every minute of it.

  They were shown to a seat in the corner of the room. They quickly selected what they wanted to eat from the menu. Each time that Jason spoke to her, he stared into her deep blue eyes. She was glad that the waiter returned swiftly with their drinks. She was uncomfortable and was embarrassed to admit she was getting turned on. Jackie had worked with Jason for a little over a year now. The flirting had been light and was nothing serious. Until then. It was obvious that he wanted her, and her body was reacting to him; she wanted him too. She knew that if they did go out for dinner that night, that there would be more than food on the menu. Jackie wasn’t sure that she was prepared for more. Her mind screamed that it was foolish to become romantically involved with the boss, but she was beginning not to care.

  “I feel guilty,” Jason smirked. “Perhaps we should have invited Marcia out for lunch with us.”

  Jackie laughed, “Yeah, she’d have liked that, but I wouldn’t have.”

  Jason seemed to enjoy seeing her uncomfortable. “Why not? Marcia’s a lovely girl, isn’t she?”

  Jackie refused to be baited and kept her mouth shut. Jason held her gaze. Why did her stomach lurch when he did that? She felt the familiar tingling in her panties – if her Chow Mein didn’t arrive soon she’d have him here in the restaurant. The glint in Jason’s eyes and the way his breathing had changed told her that he felt the same way.

  The meal arrived, and Jackie was acutely aware of every mouthful she took. She felt as though Jason’s eyes were on her lips the whole time. She knew what he was imaging and it made her more agitated; she lost her appetite. His eyes strayed to her breasts. Now she couldn’t breathe – she wanted his hands on her. Damn it, she’d have to sit through an unbearable afternoon before she could enjoy that.

  It seemed that Jason echoed that thought, “I wish we didn’t have to go back to the function Jackie.” His voice was low and husky, his mouth inviting. Their eyes locked for what felt like an eternity; both of them knew what they wanted, but this was neither the time nor the place for that. A smile crept across Jason’s face, “Tonight should be interesting.” The anticipation was almost too much to bear and she giggled at the thought of sitting through the rest of the boring function in such a state of arousal.

  The tension in the air between them was tangible, and before long the waiter had picked up on it and grinned knowingly at them each time he passed.

  “Come on, we should get out of here. I don’t like being the entertainment.” Jason’s face had suddenly become serious. Jackie had tried to insist on going Dutch, but Jason firmly refused and paid while she went to the bathroom to fix her lipstick.

  Jackie met Jason back at the car. He had regained his good humour and smiled suggestively at her as she approached. Jackie could feel his eyes on her curves; she felt as though she was naked under his gaze. His eyes caressed her, and as he licked his lips, Jackie involuntarily gasped. He held the car door open for her, and she climbed in on unsteady legs. She was going crazy with desire for him, and she didn’t care. All she wanted was to make love with him and to hell with the fact that he was her boss.

  Chapter 3

  They drove back to the hotel that the function was being held in. The silence and tension in the car was tangible. Jackie felt oblivious to all those around her. There must have been at least three hundred people from the company there at the function, but she hardly noticed any of them as they walked across the foyer and into the function room. They reached their table again just as Marcia did.

  “Where did you guys sneak off to?” She practically screeched at them. “Naughty, naughty.” She pretended to chide them.

  “Naughty Marcia? What do you mean? Going for lunch is hardly naughty.” Jackie knew she was being curt but didn’t care.

  Marcia pouted. “I just hoped that you’d want to have lunch with me.”

  Jackie felt like a rat. “You should have said something.” Why did she feel guilty? She didn’t even like Marcia, and there was no way she wanted her around now that things with Jason had taken such an interesting turn.

  Jason pulled out his chair and sat, “Jackie and I had some things to discuss. This function has given us some great ideas we’d like to implement in the office.”

  Nicely deflected, Jackie thought.

  Marcia was spurred on by his comment and chatted away happily, giving them her opinions of the function too. Neither of them listened very well; they were trying to look at each other without being too obvious.

  The afternoon dragged on and boring executive after boring executive droned on about what, Jackie knew not. She was so focussed on Jason that it came as some surprise when everyone stood to applaud the CEO once more as he ended the proceedings. Jason caught her eye and nodded towards Marcia. She knew what he meant. How were they to slip away without Marcia followin
g them? Jackie turned to the person behind her, thanking her lucky stars that he’d just dropped his paperwork on the floor. She bent down and helped to pick them up. As she looked sideways, she saw Marcia had attached herself to Jason. Damn, now what were they going to do?

  Jackie pretended to be interested in what the man, she had helped, was saying to her, and walked towards the doors with him and his colleagues. At least she was managing to exit the function room without Marcia following her. If, her need for Jason weren’t so intense and urgent, then she would have found it amusing, that he couldn’t escape from Marcia.

  She made it out to the car park and nervously walked towards Jason’s car. Am I too obvious? She asked herself. Footsteps behind her made her jump, but she was pleased to see it was Jason.

  “How did you escape?” She asked open mouthed.

  “Her sister arrived to take her to dinner!” He grinned and turned his face heavenward, “Thank you!”

  He ran to the car, “Come on, let’s get out of here.” He called back to her.

  Giggling, Jackie climbed into the car; she felt heady from the excitement. Jason watched at her as she fastened her seat belt. She could see that he was just as excited and was straining to break free from his trousers already.

  Jason put the car into reverse and then joined the queue of other vehicles waiting to exit. Jackie could see that he was trying to concentrate on something other than her. She had no idea where they were going. They turned left towards the city as they exited the car park and then drove for about half a mile before Jason turned abruptly into the small car park of an edge-of-town convenience store.

  “Wait here; I’ll just be a second.” He called to her as he slammed the door and ran off into the store.

  While she waited for him to return, she played with the radio. She found something she liked and sat back to listen and wait. Jason was taking his time in the store, and she started to fidget, but what could she do? She started to flick through the radio stations, but none could keep her interest. What she wanted was still in the store.