Ryan turned around to see me fully clothed. Almost looking disappointed at the sight.

"I don't know what it is about you, Vicky, but you drive me in fucking sane."

"I drive you insane?" I asked, pointing at myself with my index finger.

He kept going, completely ignoring my commentary. "No one has ever put me in my place, the way you have. Sure, other girls have called me an asshole and a spoiled brat, but none have ever said it in a way that has really made an impact on me. But your words, your words made me furious, hurt, and happy all at the same time.

"Vicky," he continued, looking sheepish. "You see who I am. You see me beyond my money or my family. You see that I am miserable. I've been miserable for too long and taking my problems out on everyone. Especially you. You had nothing to do with what Eric did to me in high school."

"You don't say?" I huffed, guiding an irritating, strand of damp hair, behind my ear.

He ignored me again. "And us having sex, the other night, really had nothing to do with him either. I know I told you that I was excited to take advantage of you when I saw that you were my assistant, but that wasn't true. The feelings I had for you freshman year came flooding back when I saw you that first day at the office. And it wasn't feelings of anger or revenge."

A huge part of me wanted to believe what Ryan was saying, but most of me was still keeping up my defenses, as I wasn't sure how much of his words were just words.

I felt the weight of the conversation sink in. I grabbed one of the pillows and sat with my back pressed against the headboard, with the pillow resting on my lap. Ryan also moved to sit on the bed, but I shot him a "don't you dare" look, and he moved to sit on the pale-green, cushioned chair in the corner instead.

"I'm sure Mrs. Turner has told you how all the assistants that have worked for my brothers have hooked up with them." His gaze was fixated on a thread sticking out of the chair's arm and didn't look up at me for confirmation. "It's almost like a long-running game or tradition for them. To see how many assistants they can bag. 

"I was initially excited to be part of the company for that reason. I know it sounds sleazy, but if I was going to cave and work for the family business, I at least wanted something to keep me entertained. But when I saw it was you, the fear of you rejecting me came with it, which is why I wanted Mrs. Turner to fire you.

"After our first executive meeting, when my brother's and I stayed behind briefly, they were giving me their approval and urged me to just go for it. They said that you would be easy and my perfect 'first' assistant since you were fresh out of college. Though, they didn't know I knew you. And they certainly didn't know you were with Eric either."

I stared over at Ryan with disbelief. His brother's thought I was going to be easy? Just because I was new to the corporate world didn't mean I was naive. They were the definition of a chauvinist pig.

"So did they still encouraged you to go after me when they saw that I was with Eric?" I had to know, as my anger was rising inside once again, and I didn't know if I was madder at Adam and Peter, or Ryan.

"No! When they saw that Eric was your boyfriend, I mean fiance, they told me to stay away from you." Ryan scratched his gelled hair, making it lose it's perfect form slightly. Though he didn't seem to care at that moment.

"I guess you didn't do a good job of listening to their advice, huh?" I said snidely. I looked down at my chipping nail polish and wished I was back at the nail salon right then, instead of having to sit through this dreadful conversation. Though part of me was also glad to be finally putting the puzzle pieces together, that was Ryan Herman.

"I tried, trust me," he insisted. "Hell! I was doing everything I could to stay away from you before my brother's warned me. Or before I knew about Eric. I even had Heather, one of the Account Managers, in my office, while you were out for lunch on your first day. She and I had hooked up a couple times before you started, and I thought she'd help distract me from you."

"The redhead who was giving you a blowjob?" I asked as the memory made it's way back to the front of my brain.

"How did you?" He looked slightly embarrassed.

I blushed. "I came into your office to hand you your lunch when I saw her kneeling in front of you."

"Shit! I'm sorry. I thought she locked the door when she came in." He chuckled slightly. Almost the same nervous chuckle I had when I had seen it. Though this time, I didn't laugh. I didn't want to give Ryan the satisfaction.

"So back to the matter." I shifted my legs as my foot was starting to fall asleep. "Why did you pull me into your office and kiss me that day? Especially if you were trying to stay away from me?"

"Honestly?" He paused and looked down, clearly thinking about his answer. "When I opened my door and saw you standing there, I just had to know."

"Know what?"

"If kissing you was as good in reality as it had been in my mind. After building you up for so long, I was hoping that kissing you would help me squash it and allow myself to move on completely. But of course, you had the opposite effect on me. That kiss exceeded my expectations. So much so, that I forced myself to stay away from you and just keep things professional. Up until this week." I could see Ryan's ears were turning a slight shade of red from his confession.

"That's flattering." I blushed.

Ryan rose from the chair and walked over to the mini-fridge. He looked inside to see if there was anything there, but it was empty. He shut the door and turned back around to look at me. "When Peggy called stating she was sick and couldn't come on this trip, Adam suggested having you join us instead. He's been really impressed with you in our last few meetings and New York projects, that he wanted to see if you were ready to work with a potential major client. I agreed that it was a good idea. I figured that this trip would be business as usual, and I would be able to control myself.

"Then you had to come out clubbing with us. Seeing you in that pink, sexy fucking dress, reverted me back to square one with you. Which was why I texted Natasha to join us. She had been subtly hitting on me during dinner. Actually, more like groping me under the table, but that's beside the point. She insisted she and Mr. Gosling had an open relationship and wanted to meet up that night to... you know. I figured as long as she was there and occupying my time, I'd be able to stay away from you."

"This is a lot to take in, Ryan," I said, feeling exhausted and emotionally confused from just listening to him.

"I know. I'm sorry." He looked at his watch. "Fuck, it's almost time to meet Adam downstairs."

After hearing all of that, I didn't really want to go to dinner with them. Though, my stomach had a different opinion on the matter and growled. It was loud enough for even Ryan to hear.

"Alright, let's get dinner over with." I flung the pillow off my lap, to the end of the bed, and stood up.

"It could take all night," Ryan said with a witty smile. I couldn't tell if it was the smile or my sleeping foot that was making my knees feel weaker at that moment.

"That's what she said," I joked, trying to keep a straight face.

Ryan looked at me with surprise and burst out laughing. I couldn't help but laugh a little too. I even felt the slightest bit of relief that he and I were getting somewhere. I felt like the tension between us was lessening. But I was still mildly flustered about what happened on the plane ride over.

***********

All through dinner, I kept my composure the best I could. Usually, it was Ryan that would annoy me every time he said something, but this time it was all Adam. After hearing about what he thought of me before he even knew me, made my respect for him go way down. I didn't care if Adam's opinion of me had changed, the fact that he even thought that pissed me off. Thank goodness working for Ryan for as long as I had, made it easy to slap on the professionalism. No one was the wiser to what I was really saying to Adam in my mind.

Adam even brought up that he spoke with Mrs. Turner and Peggy about getting our positions swapped. Ordinarily, that would have made me happy to hear and excited that his proposition was becoming a quick reality. But then I began wondering if he was only switching me with Peggy because he had ulterior motives. I recalled that Adam said he didn't like Eric. And that Mrs. Turner mentioned that it didn't matter if the assistants were with someone or not. They still all ended up sleeping with their boss.

Was it by choice? Or manipulation? Either way, now I knew that no matter who I work for at the company, I was going to have to keep both eyes wide open.

When we arrived back at the hotel, Adam requested to speak to Ryan privately in his suite. I thanked him for paying for dinner and headed back to my room. I was glad to be alone. I was tired and knew we had an early flight. I made sure to check that the connecting room door was securely locked this time, before I undressed down to my underwear, turned on the television, and got under the bed covers. I switched off the room lights, and just let the glow from the screen illuminate the room.

I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep until my alarm went off. It was morning. I had slept all night, uninterrupted. I was almost surprised that Ryan didn't try to force his way into my room while I was asleep. Thankfully, it appeared he did still have some gentlemen-like qualities, as minor as they were.

I quickly brushed my teeth and got dressed back into the clothes I had worn the day before. I hated wearing the same thing twice and cursed the airline for not allowing me to at least grab a change of clothing from my suitcase.

I walked out of my room at the same time, Ryan was walking out of his.

"Good morning," he greeted with a kind smile.

"Good morning," I said politely and walked with him to the elevator. He didn't have any gel in his hair, which made his hair fall to the sides of his face, creating a precise center part. Seeing him that way reminded me of the 90's boy band hairstyles. I actually preferred seeing him this way. Then suddenly, as if being struck by lightning, I gasped, unable to hold back the words that came with my reaction. "Oh, my God!"

"What's the matter? Did you forget something?" he asked, startled by my reaction.

"No. I just remembered you from freshman year!" I couldn't believe the memories of him was flooding back to my mind.

"Seriously? You're just now remembering me? Even after everything I told you about talking to you at those dorm parties." Ryan looked at me, quizzically.

"I was picturing you with your hair gelled back this whole time. But seeing you like this," I gestured to his more natural appearance. "I now completely remember you! I remember walking into trig one day and seeing that you were the only one there. Your hair was the first thing I noticed. Then I noticed your eyes when you greeted me, and couldn't stop sneaking peeks back at you."

"Really? Because of my eyes and hair?" I could see Ryan was more bashful as I told him about my memory. He pressed the button to call the elevator.

"What can I say? I'm a hair and eyes kinda gal," I admitted.

The elevator arrived, and it had several people in it. We both politely greeted the other passengers and rode down to the next floor in silence.

Adam was waiting for us outside the lobby entrance, by the Uber car. "Don't you two look cheerful this morning?" I notice him wink at Ryan.

"We were just reminiscing about trigonometry class," Ryan responded, climbing into the back seat.

"What could possibly be cheerful about trigonometry?" Adam scoffed and got into the front passenger seat.

I climbed in next to Ryan, and we were off, heading back to the airport. I crossed my fingers the whole time, hoping there wasn't going to be any more delay in getting home.