"Madam mayor." His masculine voice rang in Giselle's elegant office. She sat at the helm of her large wooden desk and he stood on the opposite side of her, eyeing outside the window.
"Do you always work this late?" He inquired as he saw her shut her laptop immediately he walked in.
"Elections tend to be a busy affair." She replied immediately, adjusting herself in her seat. She wore a nice corporate dress, the kind that drew attention.
"Yet you're the only one here." The entire office was cleared out when he walked in, the whole building.
He looked at her compassionately for a brief moment, then took his attention to admiring her office. The last time he'd been here it wasn't nearly as enchanting, but then it wasn't her office. "The people of this city are a lucky bunch."
She let out a small and sultry laugh at his comment. "I called you here because my campaign fund received a sizable donation from a certain modelling agency in Florida, know anything about that?"
"Don't you have a treasurer or an account manager?" He asked in sarcastic tone. She looked at him suspiciously but his face had no readable tells, he just looked alluring under her office lights.
"Oh I do, and after some digging it turns out… It's a subsidiary of some oversees Finance company in Portugal. Now I don't know anyone from Portugal, but I remember we spent a december together there a few years ago." She gave him a knowing look, subtly telling him she knew it was him who made the donation.
"Good times." He smirked at her and then rose from seat. His eyes lingered on her body and he admitted how stunning she was to himself. He felt the same as the last time and all the other times be had been with her—he enjoyed spending time with her but never were they in love. She was always a welcomed distraction and he was her escape.
She strode to fix them a drink and he sat on her desk, a few thoughts peered into his mind while he felt the surface of the fine wood with his hand.
She turned to him with a look in her eye, one he knew so well. She walked back teasingly slow, her eyes were glued to his dark ones—he could see the desire glowing within her's.
He took the glass of bourbon she had pressed against his chest, he drank then put the glass beside him on the table. The gap between them was almost nonexistent, he knew what she needed and he wouldn't mind a distraction. The dinner last night had left sour thoughts in his mind all day, Camile's voice ringing in his head was a persistent annoyance.
The smell of Giselle's cologne filled his senses and expelled everything else, her touch was slow and torturous. She wanted to tease him till he was filled with angst and frustration, so much so that he'd lose all his resolve.
When he did, she no longer had a flicker of control. His lips moved across her neck, leaving light kisses along the way. Then he moved to her lips, the taste of it was just what he needed to remove the name Camile Reynolds from his lips.
Giselle moaned from the kiss, a soft yet passionate moan, like that first bite of your favorite meal when you haven't had in a very long time. Soon those moans grew louder and filled the entire office as they grew more and more intense.
____
Landon wakes up in his apartment suite. The other side of the king-sized bed was empty and it was way past dawn. Giselle who had come home with him last night was nowhere to be found, gone without even so much as a note.
Memories of last night come flooding in and the intimate moments with Giselle replayed in his mind. He had been engulfed by nostalgia and that was likely the reason he had gone to her for old time sakes, to relive a time they once had.
But that wasn't the reason and he knew it. The thoughts he had sought to replace with Giselle last night had begun to haunt him again. He was infuriated, repulsed with himself as she took more space in his head than he was willing to admit.
That wasn't all that repulsed him though, his behaviour at the dinner was less than disappointing and Camile was absolutely right. He hated that, but not as much as he hated how Katherine stood up and left, he had broken his promise to her because he couldn't put his feelings for Camile aside.
He couldn't forgive her, he just couldn't. His mind thought of the first time they met—he was back home from boarding school on holidays and saw his father had taken on an art student whom he was mentoring.
She was brilliant, talented and beautiful. A bit older though but he didn't care, he wanted her as soon as laid eyes on her. Caleb was spending less time at the office so she was around a lot, they spent a lot of time together and soon the chemistry between had developed into something else.
Camile's attraction to him was undeniable even though he was still in highschool—he looked nothing like a typical highschool student, he was a constant temptation to her but she remained strong enough to resist it.
The holiday ended sooner than expected and Landon had to go back to school, nothing had happened between them but it seemed inevitable in the near future. The next time he came back, news of her affair with Caleb echoed throughout the mansion and that was how their feud began.
He sighed in defeat, her words still echoed in every corner of his mind. "You and I know that's not the real reason you hate me. You're still that silly little boy who can't fathom not getting everything he wants."
He scoffed at the thought and got up to make coffee in his kitchen. He saw an adhesive piece of paper on his refrigerator and reviewed its content. It was from Giselle, she did leave a note after all— you still sleep like you're dead.
He scrunched the piece of paper and tossed it in the rubbish bin, helped himself to some Coffee and decided the best way to clear his head was to call someone he absolutely didn't want to.
"Hey." The familiar voice sang after the third ring.
He didn't know what to say and was frozen for a few seconds before the voice called out again. "Hello?"
He snapped from his daze and answered. "Wanna get coffee?" The idea came from the one he was currently sipping on.
The voice was silent for a while before she spoke back. "I don't know if that's a good idea Landon."
"What's the worst that can happen… Camile?"