The Seduction Plan (16 page)

Then she saw him. “Victor?” she whispered, looking towards the conference room where a group of men and women were talking with Victor who was patiently answering their questions as he walked down the hallway.

Nancy heard her and looked down the hallway. “Yep. That’s the man in the flesh, so to speak,” she laughed. “That’s Victor Davenport, our new owner. He’s the man responsible for all the changes around here.” She chuckled softly, before saying, “But you can’t be mad at him for the changes like you were two months ago. This is honestly the best writing you’ve ever done and if he hadn’t eliminated the previous line you were writing for, you’d never have excelled so dramatically.”

Lana felt as if her world was starting to spin out of control. Victor was the publisher? No, that wasn’t right. He owned a cosmetics company. But weren’t there other companies Victor owned? He’d mentioned that his previous friend had tried to attack “one of his companies” which meant that there were more than one and definitely more than a cosmetic giant under the conglomerate. Did he own the publishing company as well? Or maybe just controlling stock in it? That made more sense. But how could she have missed that? And why hadn’t he told her?

His eyes locked with hers and she saw the smile form on his face. The look he gave her froze her insides and she looked away. In that same instant, her eyes fell on the manuscript still in Nancy’s arms. The book!

Her eyes moved from the manuscript back to Victor and all the pieces fell into place. He was the new owner of the publishing company. And he wanted more sex in the books. She was one of the writers, hence he’d do anything to increase sales. Including showing a poor, dumb writer how to add a little sex to the mix.

Lana finally understood, all the lessons, all the sweet gifts. They were all ways he could increase the sales of his books. It wasn’t about her and forming a relationship with Lana. To Victor, it was all about the bottom line.

The shock must have shown on her face because Victor’s expression mirrored the horror she was feeling inside. He took a step toward her and she took a step back, unable to get close to him under the circumstances.

She finally tore her gaze away from him and looked around, her eyes frantically searching for an escape. She had to get away, she had to hide and think. Rushing out of Nancy’s office, she tore down the hallway, ignoring the surprised and indignant expressions on the other people in the office as she brushed by them, desperately trying to make it to the elevator before she broke down in tears. She’d done that already and it was the main reason she was here in this situation. She would not repeat that humiliation, especially since Victor was bearing down on her with his long stride and determined expression.

She couldn’t think of anything except getting away from him. Lana knew that, if he caught up with her, he’d pull her into his arms and he’d make her feel better. If there was anything about Victor she could count on it was his ability to spin situations in his favor.

She jammed her finger to the elevator call button but at the same moment, she heard him call her name with his deep, hypnotic voice. She abandoned the elevator and slipped into the stairwell, taking a long, deep breath in an effort to silence her disloyal heart. Her whole body was starting to shake with the pain of his betrayal and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle the situation right now.

Getting away was all she could think of at this moment. She couldn’t let him talk his way out of this and slide everything so it would work to his benefit, once again. She couldn’t allow that. She knew what was happening and she didn’t want to hear him spin this away.

She rushed down the stairs, her heart racing and her breathing frantic with the effort to move faster. She burst out of the building and looked at the beautiful winter’s day. She wasn’t sure how it could be so wonderful when her entire world had just crumbled around her feet. Hadn’t it been snowing when she’d walked into Nancy’s office just a few minutes ago? She looked down at her watch and realized that it was over an hour since she’d gone inside. The light snow had already melted and the clouds blown away, leaving only blue skies and bright sunshine.

“I have to go, Jimmy. Thank you!” Without another word, she ducked into the back seat of the cab. “Just go,” she almost yelled to the cab driver, terrified that Victor would emerge from the building at any moment. She watched the front doors and sure enough, a moment later, she saw him explode from the building, his eyes searching the sidewalk traffic for her. Jimmy called out, his arm indicating her direction and Victor’s jaw hardened as he nodded to Jimmy.

The cab turned the corner at that moment so she didn’t see if he was able to catch up with her and she sighed in relief, turning to face forward in the cab. She let the tears fall now that she was finally alone.

“Where to, lady?” the cab driver asked, somewhat politely since he noticed her distraught expression. Cab drivers in New York City weren’t known for their compassion but she didn’t blame them. They had to endure a lot from the people in this heartless town.

Lana tried to concentrate. She looked out of the window and tried to get her bearings. She was in the middle of London but wasn’t very familiar with the specific street. “Um…could you just take me to a decent hotel?” she asked, unsure of where she would go from here. All she knew was that she needed time to figure things out and decide how she was going to take the next step. And even what the next step would be.

The hotel the cab driver dropped her off at was fine but was one of those nondescript places that wouldn’t stick out in her mind. The décor was mostly grays and mauves but nothing that would differentiate it from any of the other mid-level hotels she’d been in during her childhood.

Checking in was painless as she just gave the front desk clerk her credit card and was handed a key, thanking the clerk for the map of New York City but declining it just the same. She wasn’t here to see the sights but to avoid being seen.

As soon as she was able to close the door behind herself, she fell onto the bed, her body wracked with tears of shame and humiliation. How could she have been so gullible as to think someone as handsome and dynamic as Victor would be interested in a nobody like her? She wasn’t his type. She wasn’t sure about the kinds of women he’d been with in the past but imagined they were all super glamorous and ultra chic. She hadn’t even been able to kiss properly before meeting him.

And he was wealthy. That had been obvious from the start so why had she ignored that little detail and figured out who he was? There had been so many clues, why had she just buried her head in the sand for so many months? The more she thought about their relationship and how silly, gullible and pathetic she’d been with him, the more embarrassed she was. The tears flowed unchecked and her shoulders shook with the violence of her anger and sadness.

After a long while, the sobbing slowly subsided and she was able to think a little, consider what she knew about him and start to think about things more objectively. Slowly, she thought about all the times she’d been with him, the things they’d done together and the conversations they’d had. Was there ever a point at which she ignored a big red flag? She’d even been to his office and knew the kind of power he wielded.

Oh, what was the use, she thought, wiping her eyes with yet another dissolving tissue. She’d been so obliviously happy that she wouldn’t have recognized a red flag if it was printed with a huge “danger” sign and flapped in the wind outside her window.

Sitting up, she looked around and decided that it was time to get her head out of the clouds. She needed to know who she had been with for the past two months. Thankfully, she’d had the forethought to take her computer and mercifully the hotel had high speed internet.

She had difficulty logging on since her eyes kept blurring with tears. But she finally got her computer hooked up and running and the internet connection was definitely fast. Too fast, she thought as she pulled up a search on Victor Davenport. What she found genuinely scared her. Victor was more than wealthy. He was a billionaire that owned what seemed like half of the world. The list of companies he owned went on and on, and the list she was reviewing didn’t even have the publishing or cosmetics companies he’d just acquired. There were articles with him meeting with the Prime Ministers of various European countries, monarchs, even the American president.

Good grief, she thought as she switched from the business articles to the gossip columns. Seeing the pictures of Victor with the women he escorted to the various charities and society functions made her stomach churn. They only confirmed what she’d been thinking earlier. She wasn’t anything like these women. They were stunningly gorgeous and all of them looked so confident and secure as they posed for pictures on Victor’s arms, smiling for the cameras as if they had been born into the life, and they probably had been.

There were supermodels, actresses, many of whom she’d seen at the cinema, and many more society women, all of whom were incredibly beautiful and sophisticated. At the time, she’d genuinely respected the actresses’ talents. Now, seeing them on her computer, draped against the man she’d thought she was in love with, she hated them beyond anything she’d considered having the capacity to hate.

Shutting down the computer, she laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling. How was she going to survive? She had no idea and simply rolled onto her side, letting the sadness take over, unable to fight the feelings any longer. Burying her head in the pillows, she eventually cried herself to sleep. Occasionally, she woke up and ordered food and coffee, but after only a few bites, she was uninterested and placed the tray outside to be picked up by the seemingly silent hotel staff.

Two days later, she knew she’d have to get up and do something about her situation. She hadn’t left the hotel room for anything and now she was starting to feel the effects of only nibbling at her meals for seventy-two hours. As she showered, she knew she was going to have to pull herself together. She didn’t bother to look into the mirror, afraid of what she would see.

Instead, she pulled on the clothes she’d been wearing for the past two days, packed up her computer and purse and left the room. Catching a glimpse of herself in the polished metal doors of the elevator, she realized that she looked like hell but didn’t care. Victor had betrayed her and the hurt she was feeling was so much more horrible than what she’d gone through with Drew. She now understood that she had been dependent on Drew. It hadn’t been love but merely an existence with him. Victor she had loved with all her heart and soul. And his betrayal now left a hole inside her that was so much deeper than anything she had thought could exist in the world.

Knowing she had some tough decisions, she checked out of the hotel and stood on the sidewalk trying to get her head around what the next step in her life should be. Standing on the cold sidewalk with the dirty, melting snow, she forced her mind to start working once again. It was tough, having been in a mind coma for so many days, but she considered all of her options and weighed the obstacles.

Apartment, she thought instantly. She had to find a place to live. She couldn’t go back to Victor’s place. And her old apartment had been vacated. So her first objective was to find a roof over her head. Knowing she was homeless at this particular point in time, she smiled to the doorman and asked him to catch her a cab. Moments later, she was in the back of a cab, giving him directions to one of the places she’d shown to Victor. It was within her budget and had been the one place he hadn’t had any strong objections to. The security was good and the apartment layout interesting. Arriving at the rental office, she was grateful that the agent she’d spoken to before was still available, as was the apartment she’d been looking at. She signed the paperwork that afternoon and was given keys.

Standing in the empty apartment later that afternoon, she had to fight down the desire to sink into the carpet once again and let the pain take over. She would not allow Victor the joy of breaking her. He’d gotten his profit in her book and she wasn’t going to give him anything else. She knew the book would sell well, it was great. The best she’d ever written and she’d been so excited about it only a week ago, albeit hesitant to see her secrets in print.

Lana gritted her teeth at the memory of how she’d been so conflicted about allowing Nancy to publish such intimate details of her and Victor’s relationship. And all that time, Victor had been re-inventing her so he could make a profit on her writing skills. The man was a genius, she’d give him that. Anything for profit.

But now that was all in the past, she told herself firmly, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand. “Food,” she said to the empty apartment, ignoring the echoes since her words had nothing to stop the vibrations.

She went back to the rental office and asked directions to the nearest grocery store. They told her it was only two blocks to the right and Lana enjoyed the fresh air as she made her way down the street. And each time she started thinking about Victor, she pushed him from her thoughts. Fresh fruit, lean chicken, cereal and milk was about all she could endure purchasing on her first outing. She walked back to her new apartment and unloaded the groceries into the pristine refrigerator and pulled out the chicken. Then put it back. She didn’t have anything to cook it with. She took out the fruit instead and munched on the apple, accepting that she’d have to go out once again so she could get plates, bowls, utensils…everything she would need to start over again.

She needed a change of clothes as well. She’d been in the same outfit for three days and it was starting to wear thin even though she’d washed out her underwear each night. She thought about her wardrobe back in Victor’s penthouse but shook her head. She’d never ask him for anything again, not even her clothes. Eventually, she’d have to get her furniture out of storage but she wasn’t even sure where that was since she’d let Victor take care of all those details, happy enough to go along with him in ignorant bliss.