An Elite Event

Reaching her destination, she promptly signed the visitor logbook and waited in the tastefully decorated lobby for Mr. Vallant’s assistant.

“Ms. Rayne?” said a woman with a questioning, raspy voice.

“Yes, I’m Cydney Rayne,” Cyd replied as she shook hands with the woman. The woman didn’t say anything at first, but observed her so intently, Cyd felt as if she were under a microscope.

“My name is Verona Neely and I’m Mr. Vallant’s assistant,” she said, her awkward demeanor growing perky in a matter of seconds. “Mr. Vallant invited a few other individuals to the meeting and he apologizes for not telling you about this change sooner. Please follow me to the conference room.”

“Thank you, Ms. Neely.”

When they arrived at the conference room with tall, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Michigan, seven people were already seated at a large table. Cyd placed her belongings on a counter off to the side of the room.

“Ms. Rayne,” said Mr. Vallant as he stood to shake her hand. “Allow me to introduce you to a few members of my executive team. We have Kim Lathers, chief marketing officer. Jim Pearson, senior vice president of business development. Jacob Early, chief financial officer. Brittany Higgins, senior vice president of client services. Tom Mendez, senior vice president of communications and Paul Jensen, general counsel. Everyone, this is Cydney Rayne from Elite Events, Incorporated.”

Cyd made her way around the table as she shook hands with each member before taking a seat in one of two vacancies. “Nice to meet you all.”

“Throughout the next month members of the executive team will be present at a few of the appreciation events. I felt it best that we all attend this meeting to ensure that everyone understands the schedule. Team, I trust that you will make Ms. Rayne feel welcome during the tour.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and exchanged a few warm words. Adjusting herself in her seat, she tried to place the reason behind her suddenly quickened heartbeat. Her heart only beat this fast when she was nervous, but she usually never got nervous on the job. She momentarily stopped observing her behavior when she heard the conference door open. No way.... No freaking way. Now it all made sense. There was one new development in her life that seemed to be wreaking havoc on her nerves since the day she’d laid eyes on him.

“Ms. Rayne. This is the newest member of our team, Shawn Miles, chief information security officer,” Mr. Vallant said, rising once again from his chair to make the introduction. “Shawn, please meet Cydney Rayne from Elite Events, Incorporated.”

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Rayne,” Shawn said with ease, once again giving himself away and proving that he wasn’t surprised to see her at all. Of course Shawn works for the Peter Vallant Company, she thought sarcastically. What was it with this man! How did he manage to pop up in her life not once, not twice, but three times!

“Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Miles,” Cyd replied, accepting his handshake and ignoring the electric surge that shot through her arm. He looked great in his navy blue suit, but she refused to give him a compliment. He never told her what he did for a living, but he’d admitted to researching her online. She guessed it was partially her fault for not researching him online, too. She’d much preferred to keep him a mystery, but had she just searched his name on the internet, she could have saved herself some embarrassment.

She was so sick and tired of Shawn getting the upper hand. Even if he was new to the company, he’d probably been told that she would be the lead planner for the appreciation tour. Cyd nervously glanced around the table before her eyes settled back on Shawn. She wished he’d wipe that smirk off his face. Better yet, she wished she could punch it off him. But Cyd had way more class than that.

“Let’s all take a seat,” Mr. Vallant said as he returned to his chair. As Cyd sat back down, she twisted in her seat so that her back was slightly to Shawn, directing her full attention to Mr. Vallant at the head of the table.

“I’ll begin our discussion with the rotation schedule for the events. As lead event planner, Ms. Rayne will be attending every event. Here is the schedule for the rest of the events,” Mr. Vallant said as he directed his attention at the material that had been placed in front of each attendee’s seat.

Cyd didn’t hear Mr. Vallant announce that as CISO, Shawn would also be present at every event, though a quick scan of the document made that fact evident, anyway. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on high awareness as Shawn leaned forward to pick up something he’d dropped on the floor. She sighed a little deeper than necessary as she gripped the mahogany table while uncrossing her legs just to cross them back again.

There it was again. The butterflies she couldn’t stop from swarming in the pit of her stomach. Yet she managed to answer every question that was directed at her during the course of the meeting. Though she wasn’t sure how she answered anything at all, given all her attention was secretly fixed on the man to the right.

She glanced at the clock on the wall and prayed that the already forty-minutes-long meeting would conclude in the next twenty minutes. She looked through a folder that Mr. Vallant had handed her a few minutes prior to see the list of hotels she would be staying at during the appreciation tour. Over the next month, there would be four stops. Cyd lived in downtown Chicago, but tonight she would be staying at the JW Marriott, host hotel for the Peter Vallant reception for the employees to thank them for all their hard work. On Friday, they left for their first stop, Springfield, Illinois.

At the sound of Shawn’s voice, Cyd turned her head to listen to what he was saying, as did everyone at the table. She wanted to comprehend his words, but she couldn’t. His lips looked too sexy today. He stuck his tongue in and out between sentences to moisten his lips, glancing at her after every lick. I’ll definitely be changing my panties after this meeting, she thought. She was a visual person and right now the only thing she could visualize was seductively bouncing on top of him and riding him like the bull she’d ridden at her sister’s bachelorette party.

“Is that okay with you, Ms. Rayne?” asked Mr. Vallant. Crap, she’d missed the question. “Yes, that’s fine with me,” she replied, hoping that her answer would suffice.

“Great. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our meeting. I’ll see you all tonight at the reception.”

Cyd quickly grabbed her belongings, politely smiling to the others as she tried to leave the room so she could seek refuge in the privacy of her hotel room, but Shawn had other plans.

“Are you ready?” Shawn asked, gently catching her arm before she dipped out into the hallway.

“For what?” she asked, trying not to notice his blatant appraisal of her outfit. He smelled of men’s soap and aftershave that complemented his natural masculine scent. The fact that she could also detect that he was wearing a brand of Kenneth Cole’s cologne to match the scent of aftershave both aggravated and aroused her at the same time. She’d never noticed those things about a man before, yet with Shawn she noticed every little detail. She nervously played with her hair, awaiting his response.

After one more look at her outfit, he finally decided to answer. “You agreed to let me take you on a tour of the building.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did,” he said, standing a little closer than before. “And you also agreed to let me escort you to your hotel to ensure that everything is well with your accommodations.”

Cyd took a step back from him. “No. I. Didn’t,” she said a little slower than before. That was probably what Mr. Vallant meant when he’d asked her if she was okay with something. She just hadn’t known what that something was until now.

“Look, Mr. Miles, I—” Cyd stopped talking when Shawn let out a hearty laugh.

“Mr. Miles? Seriously? After everything we’ve done, you want to be formal with me? Tell you what. How about you call me Mr. Miles when we’re around everyone else. But when we’re alone,” he said, stepping back into her personal space, “I want you to call me Shawn just like I plan to call you Cydney.”

Was that a request or an order? Cleary Shawn didn’t know what type of woman she was. Cyd did not take orders from any man. “Listen, Mr. Miles. Had I known you worked for the Peter Vallant Company, I would have never...” Her words trailed off when he leaned in toward her ear.

“There is no way you wouldn’t have been intimate with me, so save yourself the trouble and don’t deny something you know was bound to happen, anyway.”

Talk about cocky! He really thought he had her eating out of the palm of his hand. Although she was the first to admit that part was true, the fact that he wouldn’t let her finish her statements was nerve racking.

“Tell you what,” Cyd said, crossing her arms over her chest, not caring that his eyes followed her movement. “How about you be the good golden boy and tell Mr. Vallant that you showed me around the building and made sure my room was okay. In the meantime, I will head to my hotel without you and I’ll make sure I have Mr. Vallant’s assistant give me a tour some other time.” With that she walked away, got on the elevator and hightailed it out of the Peter Vallant Company.

Only when she had paid the cab driver, checked into her hotel and settled into the confines of her luxury room did she absorb the situation. “For the next month or so I have to work with Shawn Miles,” she said aloud.

A quick call to her sister in her cab ride to the hotel had eliminated the notion that Daman and her partners had known that Shawn worked for the Peter Vallant Company. Too bad Imani was laughing so hard that Cyd didn’t have the chance to vent to her.

“Truly comical.” She would be laughing at her situation, too, if she wasn’t too busy freaking out. Cyd walked over to the floor-length mirror positioned on the wall to give herself a pep talk. “You can do this!” she chanted a couple times, taking deep breaths in between chants. “You’re damn good at your job and you can definitely handle a man like Shawn Miles!”

But could she really? Could she handle a man who brought her to her knees with just one look? It may sound conceited but she didn’t lust after men—men lusted after her! Yet somehow, Shawn had managed to make her crave his touch...and his touch only.

She cracked her neck as she placed her arms on each side of the mirror. “What I need to do is take control of the situation,” she said, getting closer to her reflection.

“Why can’t I enjoy Shawn while I’m on the tour? Participate in a little sweet seduction in between planning?” She was an adult after all, one who could enjoy sex with Shawn if she wanted to. Cyd always did as she pleased, but she was beginning to realize that there were some things she should have thought about before taking action. This definitely wasn’t one of those times.

She sprinted to her suitcase and pulled out one of her grandmother’s old diaries. When Faith “Gamine” Burrstone had passed away years ago, Cyd had been devastated. Her mother, Hope Burrstone-Rayne, could barely function after the loss. The entire family was shocked by Gamine’s death, but luckily, Imani had stepped in and helped the family through the tragic time. While the death had affected Imani in ways she’d never admit, Cyd admired the strength that her sister had. The Burrstone clan was a loving, yet overwhelming, bunch at times. There were many reasons why Cyd was glad that her sister had found a man like Daman, the main reason being the fact that he helped Imani realize that she wasn’t responsible for everyone’s life.

Although they were sisters, she never did have the type of responsibility to the family that Imani did. But that didn’t make things any less complicated for Cyd. Her role in the family was always a little more rebellious. She was the go-getter and adventure seeker. The one you ran to if you didn’t need someone to bail you out of jail, but rather needed someone to sit in the jail cell beside you. Cyd had long ago decided to dance to the beat of her own drum rather than follow directions or fulfill obligations. As her mother affectionately told her, Cyd’s antics oftentimes brought her parents to the brink of heart attacks. She had it all, brains and beauty. Class valedictorian, prom queen, and she was voted in high school most likely to run the world one day. She had a big heart and wasn’t at all selfish, but she also didn’t really care what people thought about her decisions. Men sometimes feared her confidence, falling into the friend category and staying there. And with each and every romantic downfall, she told each man the same thing: “I’m not the relationship type. I enjoy being single and free entirely too much to spend my days engrossed in a man. Trust me, you don’t want to go there. But we can still be friends.” To this day, her friends and family didn’t understand how she convinced so many guys to actually agree to be friends with her. “What can I say... I have a gift,” she’d often respond. But having that gift made the fact that she secretly longed for a storybook romance so out of character.

Lying on the bed, she propped herself up on her elbows and began flipping through pages of the diary. Gamine had left her a few things in her will, but the most important had been her diary collection. As soon as Cyd had dived into the pages, she became engrossed in the life of a woman she realized she hadn’t really known. She knew Gamine the mother and grandmother, Gamine the community activist, Gamine the best friend to all who graced her presence. She even knew Gamine the romantic since her relationship with her grandfather, Edward Burrstone, had been one that everyone in the family had admired. What she hadn’t expected to find in the diaries was a woman who understood her more than she thought. A woman who used to be just like Cyd when she was her age and a woman who’d dared to dream big and live on the edge.

Cyd’s fingers graced the page of her favorite entry, written during a time in Gamine’s life when she had first discovered true love. Cyd was never much of a reader, but she’d read Gamine’s diaries so much that every crème page was curled at the corners and tea stains were evident on more than a few places.

“So romantic,” she said aloud as she reread one of her favorite lines. She wanted to find her Mr. Right, which was the reasoning behind her creating her love-versus-lust lists. Gamine’s diaries had opened up a side of Cyd that she’d often kept concealed...even from herself. Hidden in the pages of Gamine’s deepest thoughts were feelings Cyd longed to experience. An escape into a world that showed her, although she was one of a kind, many women shared her thoughts and feelings of finding the perfect man. It may not fit the persona that people were used to when they thought of the infamous Cydney Rayne. But it was how she felt, nonetheless.

She turned on her back and closed the diary, holding it close to her chest. Once again, the pages had given her the answer she desired. Shawn may have more “I don’t” traits from her list than “I do,” but a girl had a right to have fun. Who knew what things she could learn about herself through a man like that. Even though he’d caught her off guard and put her in her place a couple times, she liked that he was aggressive and not afraid to take her head-on.

Cyd got off the bed and put the diary back in her bag before heading to the shower. “Shawn Miles, wait till you meet the likes of Cydney Rayne.” And she was certain he wouldn’t know what hit him.

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