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“Because it’s still attached to mine.”
“So you know I booked a flight to Alaska.”
He gave her a single nod, lips twisting into that ugly sneer she’d gotten to know so well over the past two years. “I know you always wanted Ash and Piers. You’re finally getting what you wanted.”
She planted her hands on the desk. “I wanted you. That is why we were together. Let the record reflect that you, Charlie Young, walked away.”
He stood. “But I’m not the guy that you really wanted.” With that, he turned and walked out.
After he was gone for a full minute, then two minutes, Sylvee still sat there, fury coiled in her chest, glaring hot, poisoned arrows at the door he’d left open on purpose just to irritate her.
Why did he have to spout all those things about Ash and Piers? She’d never admitted that she had crushes on Ash, and then Piers, and then both of them at the same time. No, that information she kept private. Not another soul on earth ever knew her feelings about them, and what did it matter when the feelings faded after she got with Charlie?
He was being so…so…
Damn him.
She drew up to her full height. He was using his boardroom negotiation tactics on her by twisting the blame to her. She’d seen him do it many times over the years, dumping guilt on the other party until they caved under the weight just to get free of it.
Well, she wasn’t the one who broke up their marriage by sleeping with the secretary.
While she didn’t have any idea how the settlement between her and Charlie would shake out, she was not about to build a new practice from the ground up. She owned half of the business and intended to keep it.
She stalked to the door and forced herself to close it quietly rather than slam it and splinter the frame the way she wanted.
“What. A. Bastard!” She leaned back on the door to gather her wits.
Her stare fell on the computer monitor. Before Charlie so rudely interrupted, she had been memorizing the size and shape of her old friends.
Now the world was looking a little brighter. Very soon she’d be on her way to Alaska to be with them.
Chapter Three
Sylvee’s fingers ached from digging them into the hard plastic chair arms. Every time the small commuter plane dipped on a pocket of air, she dug her fingers in harder. By the time they landed, she’d need assistance to peel them from the arms.
When she booked the airfare—on the company card—she didn’t think much about it being a ten-passenger plane. The Boot Knockers Ranch was remote and there was no landing strip for a 747. But she didn’t expect to be flying over the jagged Alaskan mountains in the equivalent of a bus in the sky. Not even a big orange school bus. One of the short ones.
She pried her eyelids open and glanced around at the other passengers. All women, each different from the last. The loud engine made it difficult to talk to each other, but not impossible. A conversation taking place behind her caught her attention, and she focused on it to distract herself from the treetops they were drawing closer and closer to as they began their descent.
“What brings you to the ranch?” A brunette with bright eyes filled with genuine interest seemed to be the most outgoing of the bunch.
The woman next to her was a short redhead. When she pushed out a sigh, a curl bobbed on her cheek. “My entire life I struggled with my weight. My childhood was misery, and I endured so much bullying.”
Several gasps sounded from around the plane. “That’s horrible!” someone from the back said.
“I lost some of the weight, but I still don’t think I’m a prize.”
“Oh honey, you’re beautiful. I saw you get on the plane. You have curves that most women only dream of!”
“I don’t know about all that…”
“Don’t worry—the Boot Knockers will treat you right.”
Sylvee continued to listen to the ladies talk. One had saved up her money for three years to get here after a bad breakup. Another lifted her fingers to her jaw and touched the scar she bore from a car wreck. The injury—and a string of surgeries—had affected her self-esteem.
Sylvee grew so engrossed in listening to their diverse reasons why they’d chosen to come to a sex ranch and be serviced by hot cowboys that she didn’t realize the woman beside her was staring at her expectantly.
She was usually the last person in the party to speak, preferring to hear other people’s ideas before sharing her own.
