Chapter 3: Crazy Lass

Ivette’s eyes cracked open and she squinted at the ray of light penetrating through the blinds. Odd. She always kept the window blinds shut.

Without turning, she reached for her phone and work tablet where she always kept them by the bed stand before she went to bed. She stretched further when she couldn’t reach it and groaned in frustration before sitting up. She groaned again as a blinding pain shot through her head. She winced, running her fingers through her hair. She had taken been taking the medications for the migraines. It shouldn’t hurt so much.

Massaging her scalp, she straightened again. The covers pulled down from her chest and she stared down at herself, blinking.

What on earth. . .

Why. . .where were her clothes?

She pulled up the white duvet up to her chin to cover her bare chest and she looked around.

Definitely not her room. Judging from the exaggerated décor and the towels lying on the tasteful armchair by the ceiling to the top window, she’d take a wild guess that she was at a suite. A hotel suite.

Her heart started to sink.

What. . .what did she do?

Her ringtone blared, severing her dreadful thoughts and she slid off the bed, wrapping her very naked body with the duvet. Her clothes were in a neat pile on the white couch and she couldn’t keep the horrific look off her face when she saw her red thong spread out on top of the pile, like it had been an afterthought.

Her phone was on the small table, beside the tray of apples and she grabbed her phone, along with an apple.

“Yeah?” She breathed into the phone and sunk her teeth into the apple.

“Where are you? Aaron’s been blowing up my phone. He knows you didn’t go home last night—so don’t bother with the lie. I covered for you—but you’re running late for work.”

Ivette said nothing, only munched on the apple, even if it tasted like ash. Her gaze shot to the headboard and there was a crack on its surface, like she knew there would be.

A disturbing image assaulted her and she recalled being flipped over and moaning loud as a horse. Ivette swallowed. Oh God. Oh no.

“Ivy?” Ann said after several seconds of silence.

“Yeah?” Ivette answered again.

“What did you do?” Ivette choked on the apple and started to cough.

“What? Nothing. What do you mean?”

“Ivy, where are you?”

Ivette sighed and dropped the half-eaten apple. “A hotel, okay? I think--Christ. I think I. . .I messed up, Ann.”

As if on cue, another memory surfaced. A much more embarrassing one.

She pulled down the male’s briefs with her teeth. Slowly and seductively, until his eyes had that fire in them. The fire hot enough to singe her. Her ache worsened and she gave up on using her teeth to pull it down. She yanked it down and she went still between his legs, marveling at the sheer size of him.

Then she licked her lips and said, “Oh wow.”

Ivette shut her eyes and wished the ground would fracture and consume her. Oh God. Just how much did she drink last night?

“You need me to come pick you up?” Ann asked quietly.

“Ah. . .yeah. My car—I think I left it at the club. I need fresh clothes too—I’m sorry for the inconvenience—“

Ann cut in sharply. “Send your location to me. I’ll be there shortly. . .” She paused and added quietly.

“It’s never an inconvenience to help you. You need to realize you don’t always have to do it all alone.” Before Ivy could counter it, Ann hung up.

Last night. . .she didn’t want to think of it but. . .she’d gotten engaged last night and had gotten herself knocked up as well. By someone, she didn’t even know. She had cheated on her fiance the very day of their engagement and to make matters worse, she hadn’t even remembered Aaron through all of it. Not a single thought of him had crossed her mind as she had moaned and pleaded—Christ. She was going crazy.

****************

“I got you this, just in case,” Ann said, extending the small pack she’d grabbed from the top of her dashboard. Ivette took it and instantly knew what it was when she felt the pack. She murmured her thanks, not bothering to tell her friend she was already on birth control and didn’t need the morning-after pill.

She shifted, adjusting the straps of Ann’s heels for the third time. It was a size bigger and it felt awkwardly free. They weren’t exactly her style—nor was the short purple gown that made her look more like a lost Disney princess than a woman on her way to sign a business deal that was technically her marriage and life— but she could hardly complain. At least, Ann had shown up, not only with the clothes, but also with the hideous hat and sunglasses that she’d left the hotel with, shielding her face from public eyes. Someone was always watching. Someone was always waiting for her to flop, and fail. She could only hope she had been just as discreet last night with her ‘escapade’.

At least he had paid the bill for the room. She had asked his name at the counter but the receptionist had stared at her flatly and said, “The room was booked under the name; Crazy Lass.”

Ivette had been mortified, and Ann had choked on the coffee she had been sipping.

“So, care to tell me what the fuck happened?” Ann said and Ivette flinched at the harshness in her tone. She knew Ann was worried about her. Knew Ann was more bothered about her mental health than what her activities would do to her reputation. Already, Ivette could feel the guilt clawing at her. Burrowing deep into her and tearing at the little bit of self-respect she had left for herself. Her confidence too. How was she going to face Ron again, knowing that she had spent the night in the arms of another and enjoyed it too?

Ivette’s eyes shuttered and she squeezed her fists. “I—I don’t know. I was drunk. . .and he was hot.”

“Must’ve been hot enough to make Ivette King break a solid wooden headboard,” Ann joked.

“Oh, stop it,” Ivette hissed, earning a hearty chuckle from Ann.

Ann took the next turn and while she waited for the traffic lights to turn green, she said, “What happened last night, Ivy? I saw you. You turned white as sheet. ”

Ivette sucked in a rush of air and brought her hand to the base of her throat. “He never would have proposed if the merger wasn’t mentioned.”

“You don’t know that,” Annet murmured, not taking her eyes off the road.

“Yes. Yes, I do, and you know it too.” Ann’s lips formed a grim line but she said nothing to deny that fact.

Ann didn’t like Aaron. Ivette knew it. Hell, everyone knew it. Since they’d met at the fun fair four years ago, Ann had never bothered hiding her utmost dislike for the man. Ann perceived Aaron as shallow, self-absorbed. . .and a couple of other things Ivette had once told her to get out of her apartment for saying.

Now, the truth was in her face, laughing and squeaking, “I fucking told you so!”

“Why say yes, then?” Ivette blew out a breath and leaned back in her seat as she watched the still-crossing pedestrians. “Because no wasn’t an option. I love Aaron and I want to marry him. I had no reason to speak otherwise.”

Ann snorted. “Say that to a blind man. . .or write that on paper to a deaf man and he might just believe you. Emphasis greatly on ‘might’.”

Ivette had no reply for Ann, so she kept her eyes on the road as the car moved again, speeding through the lines. The moment the words left her lips, she had known they were a lie. Though she wasn’t sure what part of it was.

As they rounded the corner of the Third Main Street, nearing the towering walls of King Corp that nearly touched the clouded sky, her phone buzzed and she glanced down at it. Aaron. She closed the screen and forced deep breaths into her lungs, raising her walls again and fortifying whatever armor had weakened last night. She’d need all of the strength she could muster today.

************

“No.”

Ivette let the anger rise to the surface as she stared her father down. She had attended the meeting, zoned out through half of it while thinking about that man’s tongue in places that had made her dance wildly for him—and she had been shaken out of her reverie when she heard the third clause of the agreement.

She was to hand over all of her responsibilities to Aaron the moment the merger was finalized.

She had been too shocked to speak. Years of unending work and effort, all forgotten, tossed aside, and for what? To be used as a figurehead while Aaron took over everything? Everything that rightfully belonged to her?

The details of the merger would be finalized after her marriage to Aaron, which had been set to be in a month. Another decision that had been taken without her consent. They were hell-bent on driving her crazy and like hell would she let them back her to a corner again. Like they had done those many years ago.

Her father’s face remained impassive. “You will do well to remember who owns the very floor on which you stand, demonstrating this height of insolence.”

“I am King too. I own this company, and these floors as much as you do, and I say no! You can’t do this to me!”

Her father waved his hand dismissively and looked at the merger papers in front of him. “It has been finalized. You will get married to Mr. Maxwell and he will handle all of your responsibilities as CEO. You will be his COO and—“

“I refuse,” Ivette said, surprised at the steel in her voice.

Her father’s dark stare leveled hers and his lips curled in disdain—or disgust. . .she couldn’t tell which it was. “This is the only way you can be of use to the King family line. Clearly, your mother hasn’t taught you well—“

“Do not bring mom into this. You would give my inheritance away? Because I am a woman? Not the boy child you always wanted, eh? Fucking adopt Aaron then!”

Ivette didn’t care that the employees passing by could hear them, or that Aaron was right outside, frowning at her outburst. She didn’t care about any of that. She’d had enough. She’d given up on her dreams of a simple life to take on the position of CEO that had basically been shoved down her throat when the company had been on the verge of bankruptcy and she had singlehandedly made the deal that saved it. It was that feat that won her her very first award in the business world. CEO of the year.

Whilst she had fought tooth and nail for the company, Alden King had confined himself to his study for weeks, abandoning his job, her mother, and herself. Amelia King had taken it upon herself to teach Ivette what she knew of the business, of spinning words to one’s advantage and how body language could very well affect one’s decision-making. Ivette would never admit it but her mother’s teachings had helped her every step of the way. At least, her mother had done something.

“You will do as I say. Your opinion is of no use in the matter. As you can see,” Her father paused, flipping through the pages so she could see the required signatures for the merger, and surely enough, her name wasn’t included, however, Aaron’s was. “these papers do not require your approval.”

Just how long had this been going on? For how long had they planned this? Had the proposal been the final piece in the puzzle? All those meetings Aaron had been oddly vague and secretive about—was this what it had been about?

She shot Aaron a death glare and the tight disapproval in his gaze caused her fuse to spark. “Then I will not marry Aaron.”

Aaron’s eyes widened but she’d already turned to meet her father’s icy gaze. “What did you say?”

She squared her shoulder and leaned back on her heels. “I will not marry Aaron. I will not play a part in your game. I am no pawn.”

Her father dropped the papers and smiled faintly, brushing his dark curls away from his forehead. It was the scariest expression she had seen on him. “But you will.”

Her blood went cold. “No. You can’t force me to do that.”

He angled his head to the left, observing her. It was something she took from her father. That weird motion of observing people like they were opponents that needed to be taken down.

“Breaking the engagement earn a severe backlash. Except you want the very company you fought to save in peril, you will marry Aaron Maxwell.”

She slammed her hands on the desk, glaring at him with nothing but hate. “I do not accept this, father!”

He looked at her hands, then her face, and said blandly, “Get out. I’m busy.”

Ivette’s lips parted to release a string of words that would fill up the swear jar in her old bedroom at the family house, but she thought better of it and stormed out of his office, slamming the door hard enough to rattle its frame.

Mere words didn’t work with Alden King. Facts. Proofs. Actions. She needed those things to ensure her place in the company, even after the merger. She’d have to show him she was irreplaceable. Other than that, she knew her father wouldn’t budge.

Aaron awaited her when she walked into her office, and he spun on her executive chair, turning away from the stunning view of the Seattle bathed in the golden glow of the evening. She hadn't even noticed him leave her father's door.

He grinned up at her, patting the armrest. “This is unbelievably comfortable.” Ivette almost forgave him. Almost. It was that damned smile that disarmed her every time. The light seeping into his twin pools of blue, the slight crinkle around each eye that made him seem younger, untried, and unbothered by life or problems.

It was that very thought that had Ivette strutting for him. A naughty smile teased his lips as she leaned in, no doubt expecting something else. Instead, Ivette gave him a sour smile and whispered, “Get off my chair.”