Chapter 33

He stared down at the income statement he was reviewing and pushed it away. Then he turned his gaze to the telephone on his desk and willed it to ring.

It didn’t.

Forty minutes later however, when he’d finally retrained his thoughts back on to work, it did. And it made him jump in his seat like he’d been stung in the ass. He grabbed the handset so quickly he knocked his paperclip holder and his pen into the far reaches of the office. “Ian James.”

“Meet me for lunch,” Aubrey said.

Disappointment darkened his tone, “I’d love to but I can’t—”

“That wasn’t a request, love,” Aubrey continued. “It’s important.”

“Not as important as what I have planned,” Ian told her firmly. “I have to run over to Jordan’s and see about—”

“It can wait,” she insisted. “It has to.”

“It really can’t…”

The annoyance in her voice intensified. “Trust me, Ian. It can wait. This won’t. You don’t have a choice in this.”