A Mile High Valentine Read online

  He looked at her, clearly confused.

  "Forget it. None of my business, Tyler. Screw who you want." She started to walk away.

  "Sarah, wait."

  She kept walking, but he caught up to her at the glass doors to the office.

  "Sarah, we should talk."

  She glared at his hand holding the door closed. "Look, Mr. Corrigan. I've worked a fourteen hour day already, I'd really like to get back to my hotel and eat something if you don't mind. Oh, and thanks for the lovely shoebox of an office. A supply closet? Really? Nice touch. Honestly, you'd think a man like you could handle rejection a little better."

  She pushed her way out the door, leaving Tyler Corrigan staring after her, his mouth open.

  * * *

  First thing the next morning, Sarah was moved to an amazing corner office with unobstructed views of the harbor. There was a large mahogany desk, a small table, two bookcases, and the most comfortable office chair she'd ever sat in.

  The view was like something you'd see on a postcard. She was still staring out the windows in complete awe when Brad dropped by.

  He whistled as he looked around. "Well, now this is what I'm talking about."

  "Thank you," she said.

  "Oh, don't thank me for this. I just asked my buddy Paul if he could get one of the offices set up for you. He said sure, but this…I had nothing to do with this."

  "Maybe Fiona was so grateful that I finished the invoices in time that she decided to reward me."

  He bit his lip.

  "What?"

  "Fi's not even in today. And I don't think anyone else in the department needed that information."

  "Fuckin' A. Are you serious?"

  He stared at her, eyes wide.

  "Sorry. I have a tendency to talk first and think later. But, seriously, are you telling me that that uptight little…"

  Someone coughed from the hallway and Sarah looked up to see Tyler Corrigan standing there.

  Brad glanced back and forth between them and backed towards the door. "I better be going. Good morning, Mr. Corrigan, sir."

  "Morning, Brad." He stepped into the room and Sarah forgot to breathe for a moment as she stared at him. He was stunning in a dark gray suit with a light blue dress shirt underneath. It somehow added depth to his intensely green eyes.

  They stared at each other for a long moment, neither one moving. Finally, Tyler took a seat in the chair across from her desk.

  "So, better?"

  "Than the broom closet I was in yesterday? Yes. Much." She licked her lips nervously. She didn't know what to say to him. "So, was this your doing?"

  "Yes. And I'm sorry about yesterday. I had no idea you'd been put in that room. It's not even an office. I can't imagine what Fi was thinking."

  Sarah laughed. "Oh, really? Maybe your new girlfriend was thinking she didn’t like getting saddled with your holiday fling for a month."

  "My new…? Holiday fling…? Sarah." He glared at her. "We need to talk."

  "No. We do not." She crossed her arms and then uncrossed them when she saw his eyes drift downward.

  "How about dinner tonight?"

  "No."

  "Sarah…"

  She walked to the door. "Mr. Corrigan, sir, I realize that I work for you, but my personal time is my own and please don't ask again to see me outside of work hours. It's inappropriate. I'd hate to have to contact HR about this matter."

  He stared at her for a long moment. It took everything she had to meet his stare, but she managed it. Just barely.

  "Very well, Miss Baxter. It's clear you want nothing to do with me." He paused in the doorway, mere inches from her. "It's really too bad. Because you're the most amazing woman I've ever met and I haven't been able to sleep in weeks thinking about you."

  He walked down the hallway, never looking back.

  Sarah watched him, her heart breaking into little pieces, but she knew this was the right thing to do. They could never work. A woman like Fiona with her perfect looks and high-class breeding was what he needed, not Sarah with her too-loud mouth and too-tight clothes.

  She closed the door and leaned against it, forcing herself not to cry.

  * * *

  She was about to leave the office and meet Brad and his friends for drinks when she received an urgent e-mail from Mr. Horowitz asking her to review a report one of the trainees had prepared before the next day. He told her he didn't need it until noon, but given the time difference it was either review it now or at four the next morning, so she messaged Brad her regrets and sat back down.

  It was a good thing Horowitz had asked her to look at the report. The numbers from the report flowed into four others that were crucial to creating the year-end numbers and Tracy had completely messed it up.

  It took Sarah until ten to fix it.

  She sighed as she trudged down the hall. Two days in Sydney and all she'd done was work late. She was jetlagged, exhausted, and just wanted to go home.

  She passed by an office with the light still on and glanced inside without really thinking about it. Tyler was sitting at a giant desk, his head resting on his hands. He looked like he was asleep.

  Sarah leaned against the doorframe. "You should really go home and get some rest. Your neck's going to kill you if you fall asleep like that."

  He startled and looked up at her, his eyes bleary. "You're probably right. There's just so much to do." He shook himself and leaned back, stretching.

  She tried not to notice how his shirt pulled against his muscular chest. Tried not to remember what it had felt like to wrap her hand around his bicep as he moved above her. Tried not to remember the clean, crisp smell of his cologne as he held her.

  "Why are you here so late?" he asked.

  "Horowitz needed me to look at something for him. Turned out to be a mess."

  "Have you eaten yet?" he asked.

  Sarah tensed and took a step backward. Corrigan held up his hand. "Wait, hold up. Promise we won't talk about anything meaningful. I'm just…I realized I haven't eaten yet and I'm starving and I thought that if you hadn't eaten yet that maybe we could grab something to eat together. That's all."

  She bit her lip. Her whole body was screaming yes, but she knew the best thing for her was to keep her distance.

  As she hesitated in the doorway, he powered down his computer and grabbed his coat. "Come on. Half an hour, I promise."

  * * *

  They found some dive around the corner and squeezed into a tiny corner table, their knees touching as they drank dark beer and ate fish and chips wrapped in plain brown paper.

  "Oh my god, this is so good." Sarah licked the salt and fat off her fingers.

  "I know, right? This is my favorite place." Tyler smiled at her and she felt herself falling into his eyes. He was so beautiful.

  She wrenched her gaze away and stared down at the table.

  "Sarah…"

  "No." She glared at him. "You told me we weren't going to talk. I thought you meant it."

  He sighed and studied her for a long moment. "We don't have to talk. I just want to say something, okay?" He held her gaze as he continued, "I don't know what went wrong that day, Sarah. I really don't. But whatever it was, I'm sorry." He reached across the table and took her hand in his. "Please…give me a second chance. Give us a second chance."

  She wanted nothing more than to say yes, but she just couldn't do it. She pulled her hand out of his grasp. "There was no us, Tyler. You don't even know who I am. To you I'm just the poor girl you can mold into the perfect woman and I'll always be grateful because you rescued me. Well, I don't need rescuing. And I don't care if my clothes aren't right or if I say the wrong things. I like myself and I don't want to change. Face it, we're just too different to ever work. So, just…leave it, would you?"

  She threw her napkin on the table and left before the tears could start.

  * * *

  She didn't speak to Tyler for the rest of the week. She saw him a few times from a distance, but
when she did she immediately turned and walked the other direction. And she made sure to leave the office by six each night so they couldn't have any more late-night encounters.

  Brad asked her to come out with him and his friends, but she passed each time. She spent each night burrowed under the covers in her hotel room, trying to sleep.

  Of course, she couldn't, so she spent most of that time thinking about Tyler. The most perfect man she'd ever met had asked her for another chance and she'd told him to go away. Not a surprise really. It's what she always did. Pushed away the great guys because she knew what would happen. What always happened.

  Once the fun and novelty wore off they woke up and realized that she wasn't good enough for them. Their parents wouldn't approve, their friends wouldn't get it. They'd lose everything. And for what? Her? That's when they left.

  It was easier for her to leave first. Less painful.

  On Friday, Fiona pranced into Sarah's office, a large bouquet of a dozen roses in her hands. For a moment, Sarah wondered if they were for her. Maybe Tyler was making one last try for her heart. It was the day before Valentine's after all.

  "Look what Tyler sent me." Fiona flashed the flowers at her.

  "They're beautiful." Sarah tried to hide how much it hurt to hear that. "What's the card say?" she asked, walking around her desk.

  Fiona snatched it away before Sarah could look at it. "None of your business. That's personal."

  Sarah shrugged and brushed past her. "Well, they're beautiful. Enjoy them."

  She forced herself to walk to the bathroom as slowly as possible. She would not run, she would not give that hateful woman the satisfaction.

  Once there, she hid in the corner stall and cried her eyes out.

  * * *

  Sarah woke up Saturday morning and realized she had no interest in exploring Sydney. Not today. It was Valentine's Day and everywhere she went there'd be couples looking all cute and lovey-dovey.

  It was the perfect day to catch up on some work for Mr. Horowitz. She'd go in, work for six or seven hours, come back to her room, order room service, and watch some action movie on pay-per-view. If she tried hard enough she could avoid anything and everything to do with the holiday.

  At least Tyler and Fiona wouldn't be in. He was probably taking her to some fancy restaurant somewhere amazing. Like Singapore.

  * * *

  It was almost three in the afternoon when Sarah looked up to see Tyler standing in the doorway.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked.

  "I could ask you the same thing. It's Saturday, Sarah. You should be off exploring Sydney."

  She shrugged. "Didn't feel like it today. Too many couples out and about. Speaking of…don't you need to get going so you and Fiona can spend a romantic candlelit night together?"

  He laughed. "What is this about me and Fiona? Where do you get this from, Sarah?"

  She stared at him. "Do you think I'm stupid? You sent her a dozen roses and let her use your private jet and kissed her when she arrived and…"

  "And you think that means we're a couple?" He shook his head and stepped into the room, sitting down across from her. "Look at me, Sarah." He stared at her with his brilliant green eyes, enunciating every word. "Fiona means nothing to me, nothing has ever happened between us, and nothing will."

  Sarah shook her head. "She said you spent last Christmas together skiing in the Alps."

  He laughed. "She and I? Just the two of us?"

  "That's what she made it sound like." Sarah crossed her arms, she didn't like feeling mocked.

  Tyler leaned back in his chair. "Well, she misled you, Sarah. There were twenty of us on that trip. Yeah, she spent a lot of time hanging around me, but we certainly weren't there as a couple and nothing happened between us. And the roses? I sent roses to every single department in every single office. If she chose to pretend that they were especially for her, well…" He smiled his little half-smile that made her heart skip a beat. "That's her problem.

  "She's not my type, Sarah. You are."

  Sarah glanced at him and away again. She couldn't do this.

  "Sarah, I'm sorry if you thought I was trying to change you. I wasn't. I…I wanted to show you how much I cared about you and I thought that…" He sighed. "Most women like it when a man buys them clothes. At least, most women I've dated before. I'm sorry if you didn't. It wasn’t meant to…" He sighed again and sat back. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me?"

  She glanced at him, noting the dark circles and the worry lines around his eyes. She wanted so badly to hold him and pretend that none of this mattered.

  "Okay, you're forgiven."

  He sat forward, his face lighting up with a smile. She raised a hand. "But. It doesn't change the fact that we're just too different to ever be together."

  He stood and paced the room. "Bullshit, Sarah. I love you." She stared at him, lost for words as he continued. "And I think you love me. Or at least like me a helluva lot. You can't fake what we had in Paris, Sarah. You can't." He leaned on the desk staring into her eyes, pinning her to her seat with the intensity of his gaze.

  "It isn't enough, Tyler," she whispered, feeling a tear form in the corner of her eye.

  "How do you know?" he demanded, still holding her gaze, his eyes so green they glowed.

  "I…"

  "You don't, Sarah. Give this a chance. Don't run away from me just because you're scared. Look, it's Valentine's Day and I can't imagine any other woman on this planet I'd rather spend it with. Please, just tell me you'll have dinner with me."

  She looked down so he wouldn't see her cry, but he gently lifted her chin until she was staring into his eyes once more.

  "Please, Sarah. Give us another chance."

  She shook her head and pulled away. "It isn't that simple, Tyler. It's not just you and me. It's your family and friends and…It won't work."

  He came around the side of the desk and knelt down in front of her, grabbing the arm rests on her chair. "It is you and me, Sarah. I don't care what anyone else thinks. If they don't like you, screw them. I don't need people like that in my life. I need you in my life. Those two weeks we spent in Paris were the best weeks of my life."

  He brushed a tear from her cheek. "Please, Sarah…"

  She rested her cheek against his hand, relishing the feel of his soft touch. She wanted so badly to say yes…

  But…

  She stared into his eyes. She didn't want to lose him, not again. "Oh to hell with it. Yes. Yes, I'll have dinner with you and…"

  She couldn't finish her sentence because Tyler pulled her to him and kissed her fiercely. She kissed him back, losing herself in the feel of their lips moving together. She didn't know how long they kissed, but when he finally pulled away, Tyler was grinning at her like a little boy, all the stress and worry gone.

  She laughed. "You know, Mr. Horowitz is not going to be pleased about this…He thought your asking for an accountant was all an elaborate ruse to get me down here."

  "It was." He kissed her again. "All part of my master plan to get the woman I adore back by my side. And it worked." He ran his hand through her hair, staring at her face like they hadn't seen each other for years.

  "It did." She stared back at him, just as lost in him as he was in her.

  "So, dinner?" he asked. "Where do you want to go? Brisbane? Melbourne? Auckland? Anywhere in the world you want, we'll go."

  Sarah laughed. "How about my hotel room? I'm thinking champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries, and not leaving the room again until Monday morning."

  He kissed her again. "That sounds perfect."

  As she followed him down the hallway she realized it really did sound perfect. She was still scared as hell that he'd wake up one day and realize she wasn't what he wanted, but until then…Well, she couldn't think of another man she'd rather be with than Tyler Corrigan. Even if he was a billionaire.

  * * *

  The story continues in A Mile High Weekend. Or you can read the entire eight-st
ory collection, A Mile High Romance: The Complete Collection.

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  For other titles by C. Coal as well as titles by Cassidy Coal, Callista Carr, and C.K. Carr visit http://ckcauthor.com/.

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  A Mile High Romance: The Complete Collection

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  Sweet Short Stories by Cassidy Coal

  writing as C. Coal

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  Novels by Cassidy Coal writing as C.K. Carr

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  Text copyright 2014-2015 M.L. Humphrey

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