Possessed - Part Two (4 page)

“What the …” I mutter to myself, putting down my coffee.

I listen to the conversation they’re having while trying not to be noticed.

“You had to go and ruin it,” Leo says.

“I was
trying
to help you,” Marilyn says.

“No, you were trying to sabotage me. Like you always do.”

“I’m not! I was trying to help you out.”

“Tsk, you call that helping? Showing up after telling me you wouldn’t?” He frowns. “You told me you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

She fake smiles. “That’s because of your choices, not mine.”

He sets his coffee cup down so hard the coffee splashes over the edges. “I didn’t choose for you to be the horrible stuck-up bitch you are.”

Holy shit. Talk about marital fights. This shit is real.

“Well, excuse me for finally giving you what you deserve.”

“Is that what you want? To hurt me?” Leo stands up. “You’ve done it, all right. You try to ruin my chances with this company. With her. You ruin everything.”

My cheeks flush.
With her?
Does he mean me?

He grabs his coffee cup and throws it in the trash. “I’m out of here. Talk to me when you’re ready to quit this crap.”

“Leo … we’re not done talking yet.”

“I am.” He grabs his coat and waltzes toward the door, leaving her there. While I wonder what the fuck is going on, Leo suddenly turns his head and looks straight in my direction.

The moment he sees me, his eyes widen and he freezes in place.

Oh, shit.

Oh, fucking shit.

No!

I duck, not wanting to be seen, but of course, it’s already too late for that. Ridiculous. Hiding like I’m a kid.

Instead, I grab my cup and make a run for it, out the other exit.

“Sam?” I hear him call, but I’m already well on my way running the other direction.

Oh God, I do not want to talk to him right now. It feels as if I just snooped on a very private conversation, even though it was loud and clear for everyone to hear in Starbucks. I wasn’t the only one ogling the fighting couple, but oh boy, the moment Leo saw me, shit has just fallen down on top of me.

Goddammit. Why did he have to come here, out of all places? It’s like my favorite place, and now even that is ruined.

“Sam, wait!” he yells.

I can hear his footsteps behind me. I’m not nearly as fast as he is.

I look back to see his concerned face, and all it makes me do is wish I never came here.

But then my feet bump into a pot and my face is slapped by a plant, and I’m almost tumbling over until Leo catches my hand.

“Gotcha.”

“Oh, my God,” I say, pulling myself away from him as quick as I can.

“I can explain,” he says, holding up his hands. “What you saw in there was real.”

“Jesus, can we not do this here? Please?” I ask, looking around.

“All right. I don’t want to make a scene. Let’s go sit on that bench over there and talk things out.”

“What guarantee can you give me that I’ll feel better afterward?”

He cocks his head. “I promise you will. If not, I’ll give you free rein to slap the living shit out of me.”

I want to give him a chance. I mean … if he really meant me when he said that she ruined his chance with me, maybe he does care more about me than I thought. “Promise?” I say.

“Promise. She already slapped me on this cheek, so I might as well let you do the other half.”

“Leo!” I bark. “Are you kidding me?”

“I wish,” he chuckles. “She hits quite hard.”

I roll my eyes, laughing a little to myself because I don’t want to give him the satisfaction. But when he sees my smile, a smirk appears on his face.

“I like it when you laugh.”

“Oh, c’mon. Keep the flattery to yourself. Let’s get this over with.”

“I meant it, though,” he says with a wink. “Your smile is like coffee. Addictive. Rich.”

“Bitter,” I add.

Now, he laughs. “No, that’s just you, and for the right reasons.”

“Hmm … tell me about it.”

“I will.”

We sit down on the bench. I place my plastic bag with the sexy outfit in my corner so he won’t snoop, and I lean as far away from him as I can. I don’t want my physical attraction for him to cloud my judgment.

“So … did she really hit you? You know that’s a criminal offense, right?”

“I called her a bitch, so I guess I deserved it.” He laughs. “I don’t mind. I’m not going to sue her over it. Sometimes you just get what you deserve.” He smirks, looking my way. “Like with you. I definitely got what I deserved from you. And I’m sorry I put you through all that.”

I sigh. “All right. I’m going to give you a chance to tell me why you lied to me, but you’d better not lie to me again, mister …” I growl.

He chuckles. “I wouldn’t dare.”

The way his eyes narrow and his lips tip up into a devious smile tells me that this man enjoys pushing my buttons. I sip from my cup when he notices I’m looking at him smile. Goddammit. I feel caught in the act. Luckily, the steam from my coffee camouflages my red cheeks.

He rubs his hands together and clears his throat. “Okay … here we go.”

“This should be interesting …” I murmur.

“Not really, more like embarrassing.” He raises his eyebrows. “Basically, I am married to her. Legally.”

“So, she
is
your wife?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not fake or anything?”

“Well … the thing is, it’s kind of against my will.”

I frown, looking sideways at him, because I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “What?”

“It’s complicated.”

“That’s an understatement,” I jest.

“Hmm …”

When he doesn’t speak up again, I say, “Start at the beginning. That way I can get the complete picture.”

“Well, Marilyn is one of the oldest relations of the company.”

I snort when I hear the word old. I imagine her with wrinkles, and it makes me feel good. Yes, I’m that childish.

“She’s worked with us even before I became the CEO.”

“The company belonged to your father.”

“Yes,” he says. “And I used to work closely with her. Until I became CEO.”

“Oh …” Everything starts to click. “Instead of her.”

“Exactly. Because of her outstanding work for the company, she expected to get the job, but then I did,” he muses. “And that didn’t go down well with her. We talked a lot. Yelled a lot. There were plenty of fights in the office, and I totally understood her anger. She felt betrayed. And I didn’t want to lose a friend. Neither did she. I mean, we were basically torn apart by this position. I almost didn’t want to take it.”

Leo glances my way with the most sincere look I’ve seen in ages.

“I thought I could handle it, and these last few months were going so well, I thought she was over it already. I mean, everything was going well.”

He sighs, and I take a sip from my coffee to take it all in for a second.

He shakes his head. “Marilyn has always had this … thing for me.” He smashes his lips together. “I didn’t realize it at the time until it was too late.”

“Until you were suddenly married?” I laugh. “Sorry, that was a bad joke.”

“It’s funny because that is actually what really happened.”

“What?” I exclaim. “You must be shitting me, right?”

“I wish.” He rolls his eyes. “Seriously, if I’d known, I would have never have gone to Vegas with her.”

I lean forward. “What really happened when you were there?”

“We were celebrating a deal she’d just made for the company. Of course, I let myself get carried away. I mean, she practically begged me to party with her. I couldn’t say no, after all our arguments. I wanted us to be good again.”

“And then you got married …”

“While I was drunk, yeah.”

“But you got married.” I make a face. “I mean, you have to take accountability for it.”

“She got me drunk. On purpose.”

“What?” I gasp.

“She admitted it to me. On the phone.” He takes a deep breath. “She said she wanted to make me feel what I’d made her feel all those years. That’s when I knew it was deep.”

“Wait … what? She baited you into a marriage?”

“I feel uncomfortable that I have to admit it, but yes.”

“Holy shit,” I say.

“Tell me about it.”

Suddenly, laughter bursts from my mouth. Uncontrollable, loud, stupid laughter. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I shouldn’t be laughing at this. That’s bad.”

“No, it’s all right. I know, it’s pathetic.”

I gulp down some coffee to stop myself from laughing.

“I wish that was all there’s to it. I mean, I was in shock when I realized that I’d married her.”

“I can imagine. With a woman like her …” I shake my head. “Actually, I don’t want to imagine.” My body shivers from the thought.

He chuckles. “Me either, which is why I was even more horrified when I found out she did it on purpose. Even when I told her I didn’t want to get married and that it was all one huge mistake, she didn’t want to quit.”

“What? You mean she’s stringing you on, on purpose?”

“She won’t let go of me as her husband until she gets a large bonus. She says it’s only fair because I stole her job, so this is the payment.”

My jaw drops. “Are you kidding me?”

“I wish I was, but she really believes she has a right to the company, and now that she’s found a way in, there’s no way she’s letting it go.”

“Oh, my God. Some people …” I’m at a loss for words.

“It gets worse because when my parents found out they believed it was real. They wanted to meet her. Then news started spreading about my marriage to her, next thing I know even business partners wanted to meet her. They’d heard she was behind a lot of deals for the company, which is true.”

I nod along, listening to his longwinded story.

“Except, she wasn’t at all willing to pretend to actually be my wife until everything had calmed down, so we could organize an annulment and arrange something for the family to believe. I mean, she blatantly said no to every idea I had. She just would not give up on trying to get the annulment through as quickly as possible, sucking me dry of my money.”

“Jesus,” I mutter.

“Basically, she just said screw you. She wanted me to suffer. She was waiting for a chance to see me fail, like, with my family and having to tell them it was all one big fucking joke … She wants me to make a fool out of myself.”

“But why did she show up at the hotel then?” I ask.

He frowns. “I don’t know, really. Maybe she changed her mind. Or maybe she realized what I was doing and made an attempt to sabotage it.” He looks at me with a sarcastic smile on his face. “She enjoys ruining me.”

I shake my head, unable to comprehend or understand the vicious jealousy of this woman. “I can’t believe it …You’re not in the process of divorcing her yet?”

“I am, but she isn’t. She has yet to sign the annulment. I don’t think she ever will do it, at least not willingly.”

“Well, can’t we make her do it then?”

“We?” He narrows his eyes at me, smiling like the smug bastard he is. “Hmm … you sure do want to get me out of that marriage quickly. I’d almost be inclined to say you want me for yourself.”

I shove him. “You know what I mean. I want to help.”

“Your help is much appreciated, although I don’t think it will make her sign the contract. Plus, I don’t want to bother you with any more of my shit than I already have.”

“Well, isn’t there anything we can do?”

“I’m trying. I’m speaking with my lawyer soon, and then we’ll see what can be done. But she is persistent in getting as much out of this as possible. It seems to have been her plan all along. She didn’t get the CEO position, so now that she’s married to me, who did, she’ll suck me dry.”

I frown. “What a bitch.”

“Now, now … that’s no way to act, Sam,” he muses, gazing at me from under his eyelashes. “Even though you’re right.”

“Tsk, you called her a bitch yourself. No way in hell you’re teaching me how to behave now.” I drink the last few drops of my coffee and feel rejuvenated already. God, the truth does some good.

“True. You’re always so onto me. Like a cat. Meow.” He makes raking motions with his fingernails, which makes me chuckle.

“Sorry, but when I hear stories like that, I just want to cut a bitch, if you know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean, and trust me, I’ve thought of strangling her with that fur coat she has because of the viciousness of her plans.” He winks at me. “We are like-minded, you and I. I love that feistiness in you.”