Chapter 7: Zach

My weekly schedule had changed since Hailey came into the picture. Instead of rolling out of bed, throwing on something comfortable, and going into the office when I was ready, I had to start waking up early. I showered and shaved – the three-day stubble look just didn’t work so well with the suits I put on – and got dressed to the nines before stepping out of the house. I once hated the idea of having to dress up all the time. I didn’t like the concept of doing something for the sake of the Company when I felt like I was fighting so hard to keep my own identity.

All that changed, though. I felt good in a suit. If I had to say so myself, I liked what I looked like in suits. I was ten times more attractive and that was saying something.

I went into the office at seven every morning to start with my day with Hailey. She expected me to be punctual, and slowly, that was what I became. For myself, not her. Or so the story rolled around in my head.

I was still angry with her for interfering with my game on Monday after the press conference. If she wanted to mould my image for the sake of the Company that was one thing – I could somehow find it in myself to meet her halfway – but she interfered in my personal life and that was unacceptable.

Of course, she did have a point. Flirting with someone just after the press conference when there were still so many reporters around probably was not the best move, but I never asked her or my father to change who I was. The fact that she’d pulled me away in front of that brunette just made it so much worse. And I wasn’t exactly going to admit Hailey that she was right. I hadn’t fallen that far from grace.

Thursday morning brought another change. I had gotten strict instructions from Hailey to pack enough clothes for a week and meet her at the car after work. I still put in a half day’s work – if we were going somewhere I would have preferred to miss work altogether, but she needed to iron out a few things with my father first. I didn’t even want to know what those were.

I waited for her in the lobby of my building. The doorman helped me with my suitcases. A moment later, a black car pulled up, and Hailey stepped out.

“Always on time,” I said, stepping toward the car. Hailey nodded, looking like the angel she probably was. As always, I found myself wondering what she was like outside of the office, like naked, bent over in a shower. Was she giving? Did she like to give head?

“Hey. Did I lose you?” She touched my arm and smiled.

“Yep. I was trying to figure out how to get into your panties.” I shrugged as she laughed softly.

“Not happening, and you know that.” She took a deep breath and gave me a stern look. “Now, come on. Let’s get your bags loaded.”

“What? Why? Where are we going?” I bristled at the thought of being told anything, especially if it meant I was leaving town without knowing ahead of time.

“We are going to Aspen.”

I frowned. “You’re coming on this trip, too?”

She nodded and directed the doorman to load the suitcases into the trunk of the car. I noticed her suitcase was already packed and lying in the trunk. I walked around to the driver’s side and got in behind the wheel. Hailey took a moment to talk to the doorman, thanking him, before she got into the car. Hailey was the kind of person that knew everyone’s names and treated them like they did her a favor every time they did their jobs.

When she got into the car and closed the door, she programmed the GPS.

“Right,” she said. “Let’s go.”

I glanced at the GPS. It told me we would be driving for three and a half hours, just about.

“I feel like this might a good time for you to explain why we’re going to Aspen and why I’m just finding out about it,” I said as I put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb.

Hailey shrugged and looked out of the window. I weaved through the streets of Denver, heading in the direction the GPS told me.

“It will be good to get away for a bit,” she said. “Everyone needs a break and I think things have been piling up so much that you could use one.”

I didn’t feel like I was burnt out. Everything had changed, though, and I hadn’t had a single woman since Hailey and I started working together. It was horrible, and yet, I felt great. I was getting sleep again, and feeling less like a failure.

She was the most effective cockblock I had ever met.

“And my father was good with us just jetting off like two lovers in the night?

She laughed, but ignored my come-on. “Oh, he’s very encouraging,” she said. “I booked the place on his expense actually, and he gave me a card. So, with your dad’s blessing, we are good to go.”

I glanced at Hailey. “How did you manage to convince him that slacking off is a good thing?” I asked.

Hailey chuckled but didn’t answer my question. It was for the best. I didn’t really need to know. A vacation was a vacation. No matter how we scored it.

We left Denver and headed into the mountains of Colorado. I hadn’t been to Aspen since I was a kid, since before my mom died.

“Why did you choose Aspen?” I asked, wondering if my father put her up to it.

“It wasn’t too far and seeing that your dad made sure money wasn’t a problem, I didn’t have to search all over the place. Besides, we’re only going away for a week. It’s nothing serious, just a quick break.”

I nodded and looked ahead. I had the feeling she wasn’t telling me everything, but Hailey had arranged a little get away for me.

After everything she’d made me do – and I’d done it with little complaint – this felt like a reward and I would take it as such. Besides…it would be a good time to test the waters with the pretty girl. See if she were interested in something more than a working relationship. Sex. Sex would be bliss.

The only downside about going to Aspen with Hailey was the fact that I was getting away with the only woman who didn’t treat me like I was God’s gift to mankind. My idea of fun was between the legs of multiple women, not with a constant companion that told me how to dress and how to act in public. Still, I could work around that part. Maybe, if I gave her an evening off, I could pick up someone in Aspen and locate that part of me that had been put on the backburner for the last two weeks.

“So, what’s it like working for the Nettles?” I asked.

Hailey glanced at me. “You mean aside from you being a pain in the ass?”

I shook my head, but I couldn’t help smiling. When I glanced at Hailey her blue eyes were on me but I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. These were very rare moments – her expressive side usually told me everything I wanted to know.

“I mean, what’s it like to know us personally as opposed to what you’ve read about us?”

We were everywhere on the internet and in the news, of course, but my father went to great lengths to make sure that information was screened before it went live, so that our image wasn’t tainted in the public. Most of the time, anyway. When I wasn’t snapped off guard.

“I don’t know,” Hailey said, shrugging. “Do you really know anyone? I mean, whether you’re online or not, everyone is different than they come across as first, I think.”

“That was very vague,” I said.

I felt her eyes on me. “You didn’t ask me a very specific question,” she said.

I breathed in deeply. “Okay, fair enough. What did you search about us before you started working for my dad?”

She was quiet for a moment. “To be honest, I didn’t have a chance to Google you before I started working with you. I did have a chance to do it later, of course, but I didn’t learn anything that could have helped me. At least, not about you. Your dad does a good job of keeping it in the family. Like keeping everything in. I can see why he hired me. Not that you’re fucking things up, but you could. Anyone could. Easily.”

I narrowed in on her last words. “What did you learn then, Hailey?”

Another short silence. “I learned a little about your Mom. After the press conference, when you’d spoken about her so highly, I Googled her.”

“And?” I asked.

Hailey shifted in her seat. “She seems like she was a great woman. Powerful. Her visions were spectacular and she did so much before she passed away.”

I nodded. My mom had been all of that and more.

“She was so much more than what they say about her online, though,” I said.

“I can imagine.”

I glanced at the GPS. We had miles to go on this endlessly straight road.

“They don’t say anything about the kind of person she was,” I continued. “I guess, they’re not required to. It’s the legacy she left behind that they’re really interested in. But she was great. She cared for people, you know? Even when she had a lot of money. Even when people shouldn’t have mattered that much, she always cared.”

I paused, Hailey kept quiet and the atmosphere in the car was warm and comfortable. We sat side by side, instead of facing each other. The silence in the car, the lack of eye-contact, asked for more and without thinking about it, I filled it.

“She used to tell me that everyone was worth the same, that money meant nothing. I didn’t understand what she meant then. I’d grown up with money my whole life and because of it, I’d been classified by everyone. People react to you differently when you have money and I guess it goes to your head.”

I glanced at Hailey. Her eyes were on the road ahead. She nodded, her eyes sliding to me.

“She used to put her family first. Even after she’d created the NWF and there were so many women that needed help, even when she’d changed direction and started Daybreak. It never felt like work was something that got in the way. Sometimes, I think that my father and I don’t have the right balance.”

“Your father cares very much about the Companies,” she said.

I chuckled without emotion. “Yeah. He cares about them so much because they’re all he has left of my mom and he sometimes forgets about me. I know it sucks that she died, but we can’t change that. I’m still here, though, and he doesn’t seem to see that.”

I closed my mouth and glanced at Hailey. Why was I telling her all these things? She was just the PR agent my dad assigned to me because he didn’t have the time to scold me himself. She wasn’t anyone… although, that wasn’t true. She was the kind of person that made me feel like I was just as important as what I did for a living.

“Anyway,” I said. “Tell me about you. You’re not originally from Denver, are you?”

Hailey shook her head and went with the topic change.

“Hell no. I’m a country girl.” She started telling me about her life in the country and I settled back and listened. It was so much easier to listen to someone else’s life than to talking about my own.

We arrived at the lodge after a long drive. I got out of the car and stretched my legs and my back. I hadn’t driven so far in a long time – I usually paid for a ticket. Doing it the old school way though, reminded me of my younger days. The trip had been comfortable.

Hailey walked into reception and checked us in. She came back with a roughly drawn map and a key.

“We just need to follow this road and then we’ll reach our chalet,” she said. We got back into the car and Hailey directed me. We followed a road that wound through trees, moving higher up into the mountain. Finally, we pulled through a large gate. I parked the car and leaned forward to look at the place through the windscreen.

Hailey laughed incredulously. “When they said chalet, I imagined something like a cabin.”

“You trying to get me alone in the woods?” I winked and got out of the car, loving the way she blushed each time I teased her.

The place wasn’t a cabin at all. It was a large, elaborate house nestled at the foot of the mountain. The whole thing was made of wood, with large windows. Lights were on in the house, bright and welcoming, and smoke curled out of the chimney. It was picturesque and inviting, and I was glad we’d come.

“This looks great, Woods,” I said.

She rolled her eyes at me teasing her and walked around the trunk. She wrestled her suitcase out.

“I’ve got it,” I said. She protested, but I shook my head and gently pushed her away, taking her suitcase. I was going to be a gentleman even if she fought me on it. She didn’t have to do it all herself and after what she’d arranged for us she definitely deserved a break too. This place was spectacular even by my standards.

Hailey unlocked the door and I brought the suitcases inside. The bedrooms were huge, with wooden floors and fur rugs. The windows were full length with a breathtaking view of the mountainside.

A fire crackled in the downstairs fireplace and the kitchen was huge, with marble counters and hidden lights above the cabinets. It was like a fully furnished permanent home, not a holiday destination, and I immediately felt at home.

“Hailey?” I called. I walked to the room where I’d put her suitcase. When she wasn’t there I walked through the rest of the house, looking in the office, the dining room, the guest rooms and the breakfast room. She wasn’t in the house at all.

Through the windows in the living room I saw her. She stood with her arms folded a short distance away from the house. She was looking out at the mountain, her back to me, her blonde hair blowing in the breeze. The sky was darkening. It wasn’t just the night creeping closer – dark clouds were building. It was going to rain, soon.

I left the house through the front door and walked toward her.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked when I was right next to her. She jumped.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” I said.

Hailey shook her head. “I was just lost in this view. This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

Thunder rumbled from the mountainside.

“We should get inside,” I said as my body grew hard. The set up was almost too much. A week away together in the mountains with her looking like an innocent sex kitten that had yet to be explored and me going on a few weeks of chastity? Fuck me. I’d have to have her.

“Just a second. I love it out here.” She didn’t move. She kept her eyes glued to the view. She watched the mountain and I watched her. Everything about her was different than the women I usually spent time with. She was delicate and strong, all at the same time. Her skin was like milk. I wanted to touch it, feel what she would be like beneath my fingertips.

Her eyes slid from the view to mine and she smiled. It was a secret smile, hiding something. Her eyes were a deep blue.

The first drops fell. Hailey looked up at the sky and it was as if the sky opened. The rain came down in a shower. I grabbed Hailey’s hand and we ran toward the house.

It wasn’t very far, but by the time we reached the house we were drenched. I pushed the door open and pulled us into the house. Hailey crashed into me, her hands on my chest while she laughed.

I don’t think I had ever heard her laugh in the sweet, free way she did then. It did something to me.

I put my hand on her cheek. Her breath hitched, her eyes finding mine. Her pupils were dilated, her lips slightly parted and a ghost of a smile played across her lips. The atmosphere changed, charging intensely between us. I brushed wet strands of hair from her face. My eyes slid down to her lips and I couldn’t help it. I needed to taste her. “Don’t pull away from me.”

“No,” she whispered as she stiffened. She was terrified, and I found myself wanting to protect her – from me.

I lowered my mouth to hers, and paused, teasing her by brushing my nose by hers. “You want this, don’t you?”

“I hate you,” she whispered and closed her eyes, tipping her face up to mine. I brushed my lips against hers before kissing her properly.

When our lips touched something passed between us, something serious. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to the feeling. I traced her lips with my tongue and she gasped, opening her mouth for me, letting me in. Her breathing sped up and became erratic, her chest rising and falling. I slid my hands down her neck and onto her shoulders. I thumbed her collarbone. Her skin was wet and slippery beneath mine. Smooth. Perfect.

My body ached. My dick was thickening and throbbing and as I pulled her tighter against me. She had to know I was going to take her, to own her.

I broke the kiss for just a moment to look her in the eyes. Her pupils were fully dilated, her breathing shallow and erratic. All that from just a kiss? This woman was as innocent as if she had never been touched.

“I need to feel you beneath me.”

“No.” She shook her head but gripped me tighter. “I can’t, Zach. Seriously.”

“Yeah, you can.” I kissed her again, enjoying the soft wetness of her tongue. “And you will.”