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Driven to Temptation
by Melia Alexander
 
Copyright © 2016 by Melia Alexander. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
 

Chapter One

He was the Mad Hatter trapped in a bad production of Alice in Wonderland. No doubt about it.

Aidan Ross drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and stared straight ahead.

…One thousand eight… One thousand nine… One thousand ten…

He blew out a frustrated breath while the driver of the luxury vehicle ahead of him finally completed an excruciatingly slow turn onto a side street. Once they were out of the way, Aidan stepped on the gas pedal and maneuvered his truck through Milestone’s Tuesday morning traffic.

The residents of the central Oregon city didn’t compare with Portland’s crazy-ass drivers, but man, he wished they at least drove like they had somewhere important to go.

Didn’t help that he did.

After way more time than it should’ve taken, he pulled into a space in front of the Ross and Associates office.

Normally, Harold White, his second-in-command at the fledgling geospatial engineering firm, would have their materials piled on the sidewalk, ready to be loaded. Only this morning, there were no easels, charts, or laptop. No Harold, either.

Which was weird. The guy was always on time. Always.

Aidan shoved the truck into park. Better find out what was going on.

He cut the engine, stepped out of the 4×4, and slammed the door shut. Sucking in a deep breath, he crossed the front of his Chevy Silverado. Harold was always after him to come to the office, but Aidan knew that was the last place he should be.

He forced his feet across the sidewalk, then yanked open the glass door. Late-morning sunlight streamed through an open window at the far end of the small room, landing on the wooden reception desk and the man pacing in front of it.

A client.

And Brenda, the office manager-cum-receptionist-cum-accountant, was nowhere around.

Damn.

Sweat trickled down his back, despite the cooler late-summer temperatures. He wasn’t good with clients, or with people in general. Harold, on the other hand, was a master.

Which was why Aidan preferred to work from home.

The man turned, nodded at him, then did a double take. “Aidan?” He smiled. “I haven’t seen you since we signed a couple of years ago. How are you?”

Well, shit. Now what? Harold was also after him to shake his standoffish manner with their clients, not that Aidan could really control how he was. But it wasn’t like he could walk out now.

His mind whirred as he forced a smile and stepped toward the older man’s outstretched hand. “How are you, sir?”

What the hell was the man’s name? Oh. Right. Brewster. Joe Brewster. He scanned his memory for some tidbit to do the small-talk stuff that Harold swore put people at ease. Something else Aidan needed to work on.

Damn it.

He owned Ross and Associates, for God’s sake. He had a distinguished military record. All good reasons he should be able to do the small-talk bit.

He shook the man’s hand, making sure to exert just the right amount of pressure. If he remembered correctly, Joe’s quarter-million-dollar renovation of a recently purchased Milestone mansion had hit the paper not that long ago. “How’s the remodel going?”

The man’s face darkened. “The remodel’s fine, but I hope Evelyn comes to her senses. ’Course, it’s too late for any sort of reconciliation, but I want to be able to tell her that myself.”

What the hell? Had Aidan missed something?

Joe clearly recognized the confused look on his face. “Evelyn. My wife. Ran off with a carpenter.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Why hadn’t Aidan heard this? And how the hell was he supposed to recover from opening this can of worms? He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Where was Brenda? He glanced at the partition that separated the reception area from the rest of the space and willed her to appear.

The older man didn’t seem to notice his discomfort. Or chose to ignore it. “She’s in for one huge surprise when the divorce is final,” he said, shaking his head in satisfaction. “Serves her right. No one embarrasses Joe Brewster.”

Because, of course, Joe Brewster’s many affairs didn’t count as embarrassing to Evelyn at all, did they?

Aidan refrained from pointing that out and cleared his throat instead. “Ummm… How about some coffee?”

But the man was on a roll. “If that woman had any brains, she’d realize I’ve raised her up from the depths of despair.”

Oh, shit.

First they were late getting out of Milestone, and now he’d managed to set off an important client. Where the hell were his employees?

“But what does she do?” Joe’s face scrunched into an ugly scowl. “Screws a goddamned carpenter,for God’s sake.”

At the sound of rapid-fire footsteps from behind the partition, Aidan blew out a deep breath. About time.

A redheaded woman walked around the corner, holding a couple of boxes and glancing at her watch. She looked up, her emerald-green eyes latching onto his. “Finally,” she said. “If you’re on time, you’re late. Didn’t you know that?”

He frowned at the verbal jab, bit back the retort on his tongue, and raised an eyebrow instead. He didn’t like being late. Ever.

This was so obviously not the mild-mannered Brenda.

Whoever the woman was, she clearly worked for him. “Please bring our guest some coffee,” he instructed Red.

There were some advantages to owning his company, weren’t there?

***

Delaney Harper stopped, trying her damnedest to keep her face neutral while the hairs on the back of her neck bristled.

Four years of engineering school, countless hours of engineering internships with some of the largest construction firms in the Pacific Northwest, two years with Ross and Associates. And after all that she was asked by the man himself to deliver coffee like some servant?

She swallowed down the retort on the tip of her tongue. And here she’d bothered to dress in a suit instead of the jeans and T-shirt she preferred. Even now she fought the need to fidget, to straighten the seam that somehow kept falling low on her shoulder and the skirt that seemed to slide up and down her hips when she walked. Maybe Mr. Please-Bring-Our-Guest-Coffee might have a safety pin she could use.

Remember the goal.

Run a major project for Ross and Associates. Convince her parents she had what it took to make it in a man’s world. All so she could run her own engineering firm and employ female engineers who might otherwise not be given a chance to prove themselves in the construction world. If any of it was going to happen, it was up to her.

Failure wasn’t an option. Which meant she had to show some of the grace her older brothers swore she lacked.

She sucked in a deep breath and made her feet move toward the stack of boxes and her roller bag by the front door. The last thing she needed to do was engage her mouth before her brain had a chance to process her words. A habit she had yet to break, if her brothers were to be believed.

Besides, if what she’d overheard was correct, Aidan Ross clearly needed her help to get him out of a sticky mess with one of the company’s largest clients. No wonder the man didn’t hang around the office.

She set the boxes down, readjusted her skirt as surreptitiously as possible, and, smile plastered on her face, turned. “Of course.” She nodded. “How would you like your coffee, Mr. Brewster?”

For his part, Joe seemed to have recovered from his tirade. “Oh, no need for that, young lady.” He smiled broadly. “I’m just waiting on some files for the Century Plains project.” He raised his chin in Aidan’s direction. “I know you’ll choose your best team for this project, right?”

Hint. Hint.

“Of course.”

Century Plains? The large computer chip manufacturing facility had been on hold for a couple of years through the recession. Rumor had it they’d finally be breaking ground.

Delaney straightened, tugged on her navy skirt, and not because she wished she were in jeans instead. One always dressed for success when meeting her boss for the first time. At least, that’s what her mother advised. Not that she took her advice very often.

This, however, was an opportunity dropped on her. Finally.

Brenda bustled into the room with the efficiency of a multitasking working mother. Or a damned good office manager. She pushed her telephone headpiece off her head with one hand. “Here are the files, Joe. Let’s head to the copier where you can look these over. Hello, Aidan,” she called over one shoulder as she preceded their client toward the back. “Good to see you.”

Brenda didn’t seem all that surprised to see the man. Although as far as Delaney could tell, he never showed up here. At least, not during normal working hours. There were plenty of nights she didn’t leave until pretty late, though, and she’d never seen him come in then, either.

Aidan stood with a slightly bewildered look on his face, almost like he was trying to take it all in. He shoved his hands into the front pocket of his fitted jeans. Not that she was really looking all that closely at them.

Delaney cleared her throat. “I’m just about ready,” she said, surveying the assorted pile. “Just a couple more boxes, and the easels and charts, then we’re good to go.”

And given the late nights she’d spent making sure her projects were successful, she’d be on the road to a future she knew she’d more than earned.