Love Stories Read online

“Do you know how many men would die to have me in their bed?” Emmy countered.

  At her arrogance, I stifled a snort.

  So she was tall, voluptuous, and gorgeous.

  Big deal.

  If she had a beautiful heart to go with her pretty facade, then she would have been right. Reid would be lucky to have her.

  Unfortunately, Emmy was kind of a snooty cow. She looked down her nose at Reid’s staff and expected them to snap to her every demand, and was what she referred to as a socialite. A socialite? Did those even exist in Edinburgh? Apparently so, because Emmy didn’t work for a living. She had a degree from St. Andrews University, so she wasn’t stupid, but she was from a wealthy family. Between their money and Reid’s, Emmy didn’t seem to think working was a productive use of her time.

  Did I sound judgmental?

  I wasn’t usually judgy.

  But I was judging her. I admit it.

  The thing of it was, I couldn’t understand how this lack of work ethic could appeal to Reid. My brother’s best friend hadn’t gotten to where he was in life without serious hard work. He’d grown up around the corner from us in Dalkeith, a town about thirty minutes southeast of Edinburgh city center. A town I still lived in, occupying a tiny one-bedroom apartment a few streets over from my parents’ house.

  Reid had grown up with a single mum, Annie. She’d worked her arse off to keep a roof over Reid’s head and food in his stomach. Like us, they didn’t have much, but they had each other, and Annie had my parents while Reid had Patrick. I hadn’t come along until my brother and Reid were twelve years old, so by the time I was old enough to really get to know Pat and Reid, they’d left home. Despite how easy it might have been for them to fall in with the wrong crowd of boys in our estate, they’d both stuck in at school and gotten into the University of Edinburgh. While Patrick then studied for his medical degree in Manchester, Reid got his MBA at a top business school in London. We’d see them over the holidays, as Annie and Reid always spent Christmas with us. I wasn’t aware of Reid back then. I was only a kid, after all, and just excited to have my big brother home.

  Reid returned to Edinburgh before Patrick, and we didn’t see much of him at all.

  My brother returned home two years later to complete his foundation program as a doctor at a general practice in the city. It was then we saw more of Reid. Not loads, but more.

  And I developed my first real crush.

  I remember it clearly.

  I was fourteen years old. It was Christmas, and Patrick was spending the night with us, rather than staying at his flat. Like always, Annie and Reid came over for Christmas Day.

  I’d noted that Reid didn’t smile much.

  But he smiled at me as he strolled into my parents’ sitting room and wished me a happy Christmas. His smile set off a riot of flutters in my belly, and I found myself tongue-tied and flustered around him.

  The feeling never really went away, although it lost its intensity as I got older and saw him less and went off to the University of Edinburgh to pursue my own degree in business management. An MA that proved useless when I left school and competed with a ton of other young people with similar degrees and very little experience.

  After six months of job searching with no luck, Patrick said Reid was looking for a new personal assistant at his department store, and he was willing to give me a shot.

  I hadn’t even thought about my old crush.

  All I’d thought about was the great pay and the fact that my first job would be working with one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Scotland.

  After working for several companies over the years, networking and accruing stock and investments, Reid purchased an aging department store in the heart of Edinburgh. Situated on the main thoroughfare of the city center, Princes Street, the department store had lost its luster years ago, as many had because of online shopping. Reid bought the store and the three shops that shared the same turn-of-the-century building. Knocking through into those meant he could create a much bigger department store.

  While he maintained its nineteenth-century charm, he created a mini empire with everything from clothing to home furnishings to electronics to beauty to a salon and spa and topped it off with a fine-dining restaurant on the level below the office floors. He created an atmosphere where people wanted to shop, and he catered to those in the city who had money to do so.

  Everyone thought he would fail.

  In the last three years, the store had gone from strength to strength, proving all the naysayers wrong.

  Unfortunately, success meant Reid was a busy man. Too busy to think about women beyond the convenience of having a partner with him at a business dinner and someone to satisfy his sexual appetite. While not necessarily a womanizer, Reid was definitely a serial monogamist. He had a few rules when it came to women.

  They had to be accepting of his long working hours.

  Everything was on his schedule.

  And he didn’t do immaturity. Which meant he never dated a woman younger than twenty-eight. Patrick told me that. It didn’t make sense to me at all. I knew women twice my age way more immature than me. That ridiculous rule stung.

  Did I mention my youthful crush returned when I started working for Reid and was now growing into full-blown infatuation? It wasn’t just because Reid was tall with the athletic physique of a swimmer, or that he had the most beautiful glimmering dark eyes and wickedly boyish grin. I suspected Reid had much passion and feeling buried beneath his cool, overly controlled facade. For instance, he was loyal and generous to a fault. I wasn’t supposed to know, but my parents were in financial difficulty because of a second mortgage they’d taken on the house and were in danger of losing it. Reid paid off their debt. No questions asked.

  I could only imagine how much of a hit that was to Dad’s pride. Reid would have handled it delicately, though. I’d seen him handle businessmen with a deft touch, and he loved my dad, so I couldn’t imagine him not handling him with care.

  Then there were the many charities I knew he donated to. Anytime I tried to ask him about them, he just blew me off. But I worked for him. I saw the good he did without wanting accolades.

  And all his staff were competitively paid. If one among them had a personal problem that interfered with their duties, Reid had instructed Nicola, our Human Resource manager, to create a supportive environment for them and to put measures in place to help.

  His staff were a priority.

  When I mentioned this, he replied, “Happy staff are productive staff. Productive staff bring in more sales.”

  All that was true, but I still thought he was a big softie, really.

  For the last six months, I’d seen Reid with two women up close and personal. The first was Anushka. She and Reid had been dating for three months before I appeared. His PA before me was a lovely older lady called Janet. She’d retired.

  Anushka was unhappy that Reid’s new PA was a twenty-three-year-old, not entirely unattractive (I hoped) woman. Again, Patrick filled me in on that. After about two months of me working for Reid, Anushka grew increasingly paranoid. At her jealous insistence that Reid fire me, he fired Anushka instead.

  Emmy appeared on the scene about a month later.

  And she was the worst.

  While I truly got the sense Anushka had genuine feelings for Reid, all Emmy saw was Reid’s success and what his money could do for her. Patrick told me (if you hadn’t already guessed, my big brother was a bloody gossip) that Reid had to stop at his mum’s house in Dalkeith one night while Emmy was with him. Despite Reid wanting to buy his mum a nice house somewhere else, she didn’t want to leave. Instead, he paid off her mortgage, the darling man.

  Anyway, back to the story. So Reid goes to Annie’s to drop off the new phone he’d insisted on buying her when her old one broke, and Emmy had stayed in his car, dramatically terrified to get out, as if Dalkeith were the ghetto. While the estate we grew up in was a little run-down and very working class, the insinuation th
at it was dangerous was insulting.

  Patrick had been pissed when Reid told him Emmy had said “he was never to bring her back to that dump again.” Reid had shrugged it off. When I asked Patrick why, he said Reid wasn’t serious about her. He was only interested in their sexual relationship, so there was no point getting upset about her attitude.

  I got upset.

  Mostly at the reminder that the snooty cow got to have sex with Reid.

  Reid who looked after his body with the same careful discipline he brought to all areas of his life. There was a staff gym on the top floor that Reid used first thing in the morning, every morning.

  I’d once found him in there, shirtless.

  The image was BURNED on my brain.

  “I don’t care how many men would die to have you in their bed,” Reid said to Emmy. “Go find one of them.”

  “What?” Emmy screeched.

  I winced.

  There was a moment of silence and then, “I called you in here to discuss the charges on my store tab. I’m not a man you can use like this, Emmy.”

  “Use you? I’m using you,” she said indignantly. “As if you aren’t using me. Reid, I’m at your bloody beck and call. You do realize that’s not how normal relationships work? They’re about give and take. Outside of the bedroom, you’re all about take. Surely, a little compensation for being one step up from an escort isn’t a lot to ask.”

  “An escort?” he replied coolly.

  I knew that tone. If Reid hadn’t been happy before, he really wasn’t happy now.

  “Yes, an escort. And I’m worth more than that. You think you can break up with me? I’m breaking up with you.” Footsteps moved toward the door, and I skittered quickly back to my desk, staring at my computer like I hadn’t been eavesdropping.

  The door to Reid’s office opened, and I heard Emmy say, “You’re an unfeeling bastard, Reid, and you’re going to die alone for it.”

  I tried not to let my jaw drop in shock at her awful snipe.

  She stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind her with a little slam. She cut me a dirty look and strolled away.

  “Good riddance,” I called out to her as if I were calling a cheery “good day.”

  Emmy glanced over her shoulder, pausing. “Excuse me?”

  “Go-od. Rid-dance,” I drawled.

  “Screw you,” she huffed and marched away.

  “No thanks,” I muttered to the screen. “Can’t afford you, babe.”

  A snort sounded from the doorway, and I looked up to find Reid leaning on the door frame of his office.

  I grimaced. “Sorry. Not professional, I know.”

  “No. But funny.”

  I smiled sympathetically. “She’s wrong, you know.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “About?”

  “You’re not an unfeeling bastard who is going to die alone.”

  Reid’s expression closed down. “Has Butler called?”

  I knew by the very fact that he didn’t want to talk about what Emmy had said meant she’d drawn blood. Hating that she’d wounded him, I suggested, “Why don’t you finish up early? I can handle everything here.”

  “I’m fine. Let me know when Butler calls. If he doesn’t call by three o’clock, you call his assistant.” He disappeared back into his office before I could reply.

  Hours later, once the store was closed at seven and the staff had all gone home, except for the night maintenance crew and security, I knocked on Reid’s office door.

  In my hand was the bottle of eighteen-year-old Macallan I’d bought from our small whisky department with my staff discount. Grabbing two glasses from the staff room, I approached Reid.

  The man didn’t seem to have anyone to talk to except Patrick, and sometimes guys couldn’t say the things they wanted to say to each other. Especially two proud Scots who thought it only appropriate to cry at football, funerals, or at the death of a beloved family pet.

  “Come in.”

  I stepped into the office, using my arse to close the door behind me. Reid raised an eyebrow at my entrance as I held up the items in my hands. “Thought you might need this.”

  I expected him to reject the idea and tell me to go home. Instead, he exhaled heavily and pushed away from his desk. He gestured to the sofa and coffee table at the back of the small room, and I made my way over to it. Ignoring the flutter in my belly and the slight increase of my pulse, I placed the glasses on the coffee table and opened the whisky as Reid approached.

  The rich, spicy scent of his cologne caused a flush across my skin as he settled onto one end of the sofa and relaxed back into it. I handed him a tumbler of whisky, and he muttered his thanks before taking a sip. I tried to ignore the movement of his strong throat as he swallowed. And the way his fingers clasped the glass. He had gorgeous hands. Masculine but graceful. Big knuckles. And his forearms. Gosh, he had lovely forearms with thick veins and sun-kissed skin and only a dusting of hair across the top. I’d never noticed so much about a man before, but Reid’s hands and forearms totally turned me on.

  Okay, everything about him turned me on.

  He had cut cheekbones, a square jaw, and a wicked grin. Reid would almost be too perfect, but thankfully, he wasn’t. He’d broken his nose playing rugby when he was fourteen, and it had healed slightly crooked. Somehow, this just made him rugged and sexier.

  Damn him.

  Taking hold of my glass, I sat at the other end of the sofa. It was a small two-seater, so we weren’t exactly miles apart. Studying him as I sipped my drink, I enjoyed the smooth warmth of the alcohol as it slid down my throat. Reid possessed a strained weariness to his features that made me want to touch him. Comfort him.

  His eyes slid toward me, and I held my breath at his study. “I didn’t know you drank whisky.”

  I nodded. “Got a taste for the stuff when I was at uni.”

  Reid smirked. “Most students have less expensive tastes.”

  “I’m not most people.”

  He didn’t respond, just leaned forward, elbows to his knees, glass cradled between his palms. His expression turned contemplative as he stared into the golden-amber liquid.

  Though it was unpleasant to think about him brooding over another woman, as his wannabe friend, I had to ask, “Did you have strong feelings for her?”

  Reid raised his eyebrows as he looked at me. “Emmy?”

  I nodded.

  He shook his head. “Less than I should have.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Instead of answering, he threw back the entire glass and reached for the bottle to refill it.

  “You can talk to me, you know. If you need to.”

  “You’re my employee,” he reminded me. “I shouldn’t even be having a casual whisky with you.”

  I scoffed. “Reid, you’ve known me forever.”

  “Another reason not to talk about this with you. Your brother is my best friend. And he’s a fucking gossip.” He threw me a quick grin.

  Chuckling, I nodded. “Too true. But unlike Patrick, I am a vault.”

  Settling back against the sofa, Reid took another sip and murmured, “There’s nothing to say.”

  “I don’t think that’s true.” I’d grown to know Reid very well over the last six months, and he always seemed to have this never-ending source of energy. But lately, he’d seemed … restless.

  And today he just seemed exhausted.

  “Do you miss Anushka?” I prodded.

  Reid shook his head, his dark eyes troubled. “Not as much as I should. It never seems to be as much as I should. That’s the problem.” He smirked unhappily. “You promise our conversation does not leave this office?”

  “Of course.”

  “I always …” he sighed as if frustrated with himself as he scrubbed a hand over the dark hair he styled short. “It was just Mum and me growing up, you know. I always thought that once the success came, everything else would fall into place. Wife, kids.”

  Surprise and longing b
urned through me.

  Reid always came across as the perennial bachelor. I’d never have guessed he had plans to be a family man.

  Apparently, I didn’t know him as well as I’d thought.

  “I wanted what me and Mum never had. I wanted to give her a family. A daughter-in-law. Grandchildren. But I keep fucking up.”

  “How do you keep fucking up?”

  “I never make time to do it right with a woman. The store always comes first. What kind of family man would I make? A pretty shitty one. I’d end up turning my wife into my mum, essentially leaving her to raise our children on her own.”

  I considered this a moment, sorry for the bitter self-recrimination I heard in Reid’s tone. I understood then that he felt he’d failed. In all his success, in this one aspect of life, he felt he was failing. “Reid, have you ever considered that you just haven’t met the right woman?”

  “Emmy doesn’t count, but I’ve been with a lot of good women over the years.”

  “A good woman doesn’t equal the right woman.”

  “You mean like a soul mate?” He scoffed. “I don’t believe in that, Evan.”

  I made a noise of irritation. “I’m not talking about soul mates. I’m talking about the person who feels like they … fit. The person who drives you wild.” Considering how controlled Reid was in everything he did, I asked (and hoped for a negatory answer), “Haven’t you ever been infatuated with a woman?”

  “I’ve dated plenty of attractive women.”

  “That’s not what I asked.” I chugged my whisky and leaned over to refill it, trying not to roll my eyes at his cluelessness. “Haven’t you ever met a woman who made you lose your common sense? Who made your skin hot and your blood pump and everything else but kissing her, touching her, ceased to matter?” I blushed a little, imagining being said woman.

  Reid tensed, gazing at me speculatively. “Have you ever met a guy who did that for you?”

  I thought about Luca and lowered my gaze, feeling the old hurt still after all this time. “Once.”

  “Who?” he demanded.

  Wondering at his sudden glower and the reason behind it, I took a slow sip, knowing my lack of rush to respond would irritate him. Reid liked everyone to give him the answers to his questions with speed and efficiency.