Conquest of the Heart (13 page)

When Gavin finished scolding Chandler, he
prepared for his meeting with Faith. He called to see if she had
returned from lunch. Faith answered her phone.

“I was just checking to see if you were back.
Are you ready or do you need more time? … I’ll be there in a few
minutes.”

Gavin sat back in his chair and took a deep
breath. It had been a busy morning. He stood, picked up his
portfolio, and went to Faith’s office.

She was doing what she usually does - working
diligently. It was Monday, she’d had a rough start to her morning,
and she didn’t know what to expect from Gavin.

“Hey, how was lunch?” he said, sitting his
portfolio down on the meeting table in her office.

“It was interesting.”

“Did you go somewhere strange or something?
Who’d you go with?”

“Lauren and Carter. I had a great time with
Lauren. We’re going to try and go at least once a week
together.”

“And Carter?” he asked. He could feel his
blood pressure rising. He’d had just about enough of everyone
interfering with his plans.

“Carter is different. He kind of just tagged
along. It was strange.”

“Did he ask you out again?”

“Several times. I told him we’d revisit our
situation once the project was over, trying to let him down gently.
I figured that maybe he will have forgotten that I even exist over
the next six months. Lauren basically told him to back off,” she
chuckled. “I’m glad she was there.”

“I’m glad you and Lauren are getting along.
She’s a great person,” he said. He was still glad she wasn’t
interested in Carter, but he would now have to have another talk
with him. Pursuing Faith was proving to be a lot of work.

“What cities do we have left for next week?”
she asked as she stood and walked over to the table with her
laptop.

“I don’t have them memorized. I’m good, but
I’m not that good. Look at your list, I know you have it sitting
there,” he smiled, teasing.

Faith pulled out her copy of the agenda,
smiling. “It looks like we have Los Angeles, Madison, Milton,” she
put the paper down. “Where on earth is Milton?” she asked with a
bewildered look on her face. She continued, “Salt Lake City, Reno,
Philadelphia, Portland, and Miami.”

“Well, let’s get started. Let’s look at
Milton first, since you don’t know where it is. Neither do I,” they
both laughed.

Faith used her resources to pull up
information about Milton. “Milton is in Massachusetts,” she
said.

“Are you serious? We shouldn’t even meet
about that one. Let’s scratch it right now.”

Faith giggled, “We should at
least see why both
you
and Adrian picked this city.” She glared at him, and he looked
away and stared at his laptop.

“It says that Milton is one of the top 100
cities to live in. So, people actually move there on purpose?”

“Are you going to make jokes all afternoon?”
she said, giggling again. “What else do you see about this
city?”

“The primary employment industry is the
service industry. Hey, isn’t Massachusetts where they burned
witches at the post? I’m not sure this is the safest place to
expand our business.”

“That was Salem. I’m pretty positive they
don’t do that anymore. Although I can think of one person I
wouldn’t mind burning at the post.”

He laughed full from his belly. They were
both in rare form this afternoon. “We need it to be quicker. How
about a hanging?” he continued to laugh.

She started to giggle a little. “Death is not
guaranteed with hanging. How about a guillotine?” Gavin laughed
even harder as they both came up with ways to get rid of
Chandler.

He couldn’t stop, and Faith started to laugh
with him. Tears were rolling down their faces. By the time they
calmed down, their stomachs were sore. Faith got up to get some
tissue from her desk. She handed one to Gavin. As he wiped his
eyes, he said, “I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.
I think we needed that.”

“I think we did. Now, back to Milton,” she
said, sitting down in front of her computer.

They continued to talk about Milton, and
eventually moved on to Los Angeles.

“I never asked you. Is New York the first
American state you’ve been to?” Gavin asked.

“No. I’ve been to a couple of others. Nothing
major. I spent most of my time in European countries. I’ve visited
Asia, and Africa. I’ve been pretty much everywhere, except America.
I’m going to enjoy these trips.”

They continued to discuss Los Angeles,
laughing along the way. When they finished their outlines and
client lists, Gavin said, “It’s good to see you smiling. I was a
little worried this morning.”

“I’ve got thick skin. You have to when you
deal with people all day. It didn’t take me long to calm down.
Thanks for taking a walk with me this morning.”

“Thanks for keeping your promise not to kill
me.”

Faith smiled, “You’re welcome. Did you talk
to her? I know you did.” She stood up to move her laptop back to
her desk.

As Gavin shut his laptop down and closed his
portfolio, he answered her question. “Yes I did. She just doesn’t
get that we’ll never be together. I told her to leave you alone or
she was fired. How did you know I talked to her?”

“Because you talked to her after our little
incident at the party, even though I didn’t ask you to. I know you
care about this company, more than maybe other people know. Her
behavior was inappropriate, and as my boss, you felt it was
necessary. What about other women you’ve been with? I mean, you’ve
never laid a finger on me, and she’s having a conniption. Has she
bothered any others?”

“I’ve never been like this before. Most of
the time, when someone tells me no, I leave it at that. For
whatever reason, I’m not accepting that from you. I want you more
than I’ve ever wanted anyone.”

“So I suppose one more ‘no’ just won’t do,
huh?”

“Nope, won’t work.”

“You know that I will never give in to
you.”

“You say that now, but you haven’t had sex in
a while. I don’t know how long it’s been. I know for a fact that
can wear on a person. Eventually, you’ll allow yourself to be with
me.”

“Are you sure you want to be with Chandler
that long to find out? I’m stronger than you give me credit for.
Once I make up my mind about something, it’s tough to break me, and
I’ve made up my mind not to give in to you.”

“I made up my mind about you the first day
you started. No one is going to change that, not even you. Chandler
is just a pawn. She should know that, but she wants something else
from me. She’ll serve her purpose until I’m able to have you.”

“Then what? You enjoy me for a while? When
you tire of me? What then?” Faith was agitated. She hated the
thought of being used.

“I’m not sure, Faith. All I know is that I
want you something fierce. I can’t say that I would ‘tire’ of you
as you put it.” Gavin was ready to grab her. He found it
interesting that she would entertain this conversation, but didn’t
want to be asked out by Carter. He must be getting to her.

Faith went to sit at her desk. She leaned
back in her chair, and faced the window. Gavin got up and stood
behind her. He bent down and sensuously whispered to her.

“Why do you let me get to you?”

Faith moved her head away from him. She
couldn’t answer.

Gavin didn’t move. “I think you want me just
as much as I want you.” Of course, he was getting aroused, being so
close to her.

She was able to muster, “Enough Gavin. No
more today.”

He knew he had asked the right question. He
would just keep trying.

He stood up straight. “Okay. I’ll leave you
alone. It’s been a long day. Why don’t you go ahead and go home.
I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” she said, looking up at him.

Again he wished he could kiss her, but knew
he had to wait. Even though he was aroused, he wasn’t going to call
on Chandler. Not being able to see him for a short spell was going
to be her punishment, and essentially, his.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Gavin came to work the next day, excited to
see Faith. He felt that he had made progress the previous
afternoon, and that maybe she was beginning to break sooner than he
expected. He also needed to talk to Lauren, and then to Carter.

As he went to see Lauren, he first went to
say good morning to Faith. He peaked in, and she wasn’t there. He
turned and proceeded towards Lauren’s office. Her office was a
couple of doors down from his. He knocked on her door to get her
attention.

“Well, hello. To what do I owe this
visit?”

“I just wanted to stop by and check on
everyone. How are things going with you?” he asked as he walked
in.

“Like I told Carter yesterday, things are
getting really busy with us here in HR. We’re working on updating
all of our office policies before the expansion project is
complete, per Adrian’s request. Then we’re going to have a lot of
employee activities when we start hiring for the new office. It’s
been a little crazy,” she smiled.

“Well, if we haven’t told you lately, we
appreciate all of the hard work that you’re doing,” said Gavin.

“I know you guys do. You take very good care
of us here. I can’t imagine working anywhere else.”

Gavin looked at her seriously and asked,
“Have you been feeling okay?”

“Of course. Why?”

“Because your nose is starting to turn a
little brown,” he said.

“Oh, shut up. You know I mean every word,”
chuckled Lauren.

“I know, I know you do,” he smiled.

“So, I went to lunch with Faith yesterday.
She’s nice. We’re going to try and meet once a week. Just us
girls.”

“Sounds thrilling. I sure wish I could be
there,” he said sarcastically.

“Well, I’m sure Carter would like to wiggle
his way in, but we’re trying to come up with a way to keep him
out.”

‘Lovely,
’
thought Gavin.
‘This is going to be easier than I thought.
’ He didn’t even have to be sneaky. “Well, maybe the two of
you could schedule a shopping day, with lunch included. Carter
hates shopping,” he suggested.

“That would be fun. Shopping is a good stress
reliever, too. I’ll ask her what she thinks. I know she’s been
pretty busy working with you and Carter on the project.”

“Yes, we’ve been in a lot of meetings. We
won’t be finished with them until the end of next week.”

“So why haven’t you approached her yet? She
is totally your type.” Lauren thought she might as well ask since
he was there.

“What are you talking about?” Gavin tried to
look clueless.

“Oh, cut the bullshit Gavin! Faith is
everything that you look for in a woman. Why would you leave her
alone? When I brought it up yesterday, she didn’t seem to have a
clue.”

Gavin quickly realized that Faith was keeping
their conversations to herself, so he decided to do the same. “Like
I said, we’ve been in a lot of meetings. We’re all working very
hard and diligently to get this project moving. We have a lot of
information to comb through. I’m very focused on the project.” He
didn’t like to lie, so he had to choose his words carefully.

Lauren gave him a suspicious look before
finally saying, “Okay. If you say so.” That would do for now. “But
I’m keeping my eye on you, Gavin Carlisle. You’re out of character,
and that’s mysterious.”

“Ooh,” he said with a shaky voice like a
ghost, waving his fingers around. “Sounds spooky.” He stood up to
leave, and continued, “Well, I have some other things to do before
my meeting this morning. It was good chatting with you. Let me know
if you need any help with the policies.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep you informed.” Lauren
returned to her work.

Gavin’s next stop was Carter’s office. He
wanted to warn him, again, to leave Faith alone. Carter had just
gotten to work and was logging in. Gavin knocked, trying to stay
calm. He didn’t want either of them to be uncomfortable at the
meetings today.

Carter looked up and had a good feeling what
this was about. “Hey Gavin, what’s up?”

“I think you know what’s up,” he said calmly.
“You’ve been asking Faith out again. Why won’t you listen to me? I
told you to leave her alone. I’m not comfortable with your
intentions.”

“I told you that I couldn’t do that. Look,
Faith is a big girl. She can make her own choices. She clearly has
chosen me.”

“What on earth makes you think that?” Gavin
asked, shocked.

“Just the way she acts when she’s around me.
Sometimes she’s shy, but there are other times that she’s been very
flirtatious.”

Gavin saw that this problem was bigger than
he originally thought. He knew for a fact that Faith was not
interested in Carter. She was just as honest with him, as he had
been with her. Plus, Lauren had confirmed that neither of them was
extremely excited that Carter was with them for lunch
yesterday.

“Carter, are you serious?”

“Of course I am. Faith started flirting with
me at the meeting yesterday.”

“Carter, Faith was not ‘flirting’ with you at
the meeting. She was joking. There’s a big difference,” Gavin was
growing concerned.

“You’re in denial. Finally there’s a woman
who wants someone else besides you. You should be happy for
me.”

‘He is totally
delusional,’
thought Gavin. “For your own
good, stay away from her, Carter. I won’t warn you
again.”

“How are you going to stop me? You couldn’t
control us going to lunch together. How are you going to keep us
apart?”

Gavin was losing his
patience. “Carter, if I can help it, there will never be an
‘
us
’ with you and
Faith. I don’t need to work very hard. I believe you’ve
misunderstood Faith’s kindness for flirtation. You need to clear
your head and think about what you’ve just said to me.”