Bound by Pride Read online

  Bound by Pride

  Book 3 in the Portland Lovers Series

  By

  SARA R STEWART

  Copyright © 2021 Sara R Stewart

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.

  ISBN: 979-8-4526-1616-0

  Cover design by: www.yuneekpix.com

  Printed in the USA

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  DEDICATION | For my daughter Nyla. Becoming your mom is the best decision I ever made and I am so grateful to have the privilege of watching you become the extraordinary woman you are. You’re stuck with me forever. I love you.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  CHAPTER ONE | Cordelia

  CHAPTER TWO | John

  CHAPTER THREE | Cordelia

  CHAPTER FOUR | John

  CHAPTER FIVE | Cordelia

  CHAPTER SIX | John

  CHAPTER SEVEN | Cordelia

  CHAPTER EIGHT | John

  CHAPTER NINE | Cordelia

  CHAPTER TEN | John

  CHAPTER ELEVEN | Cordelia

  CHAPTER Twelve | John

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN | Cordelia

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN | John

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN | Cordelia

  CHAPTER sixteen | John

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN | Cordelia

  CHAPTER eighteen | John

  CHAPTER Nineteen | Cordelia

  CHAPTER Twenty | Coredelia

  Chapter Twenty-ONE | John

  Cordelia

  Epilogue | Cordelia

  SNEAK PEAK of TRAINING HIS HEART | Portland Lovers Series book 4 | Paige

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  DEDICATION

  For my daughter Nyla. Becoming your mom is the best decision I ever made and I am so grateful to have the privilege of watching you become the extraordinary woman you are. You’re stuck with me forever. I love you.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  WHAT MAKES A NOVEL is curious. There are the characters and ideas that flow onto the page from an author’s soul, and then, there are all of the other events, people, and life’s hard knocks that work the words on the page into what it eventually becomes.

  Thank you to all my people. Thank you to the members of the New Hampshire branch of Romance Writers of America for all you have taught me. Thank you to Amber Cross for her expertise with blurb writing. Thank you to my Virtual Critique Partners for your input, in particular Maggie Simms and Melverna McFarlane who guided my vision into what it is today.

  Thank you to my new friend and editor, Jo Griffiths who insisted I spice things up more – you were right! Thank you to graphic designer, Susan from www.yuneekpix.com for another extraordinary cover design. And a big thanks to my new PA, Rosie Swisher, who has helped me spread the word of my impending book release and for heating up my social media presence.

  Most importantly, I want to thank my family. I lost my mom this past year and before that cared for her the last three years of her life while she bravely battled brain cancer. I have not been myself for a while and loosing my mom has been one of the most difficult things I’ve faced during my journey on this planet. My incredible husband, held it all together while I fell apart, and my amazing children showed me in their different and unique ways how much they loved us through the experience. Finishing this book took a year. I couldn’t have done it without the love, support and sacrifice of my incredible family.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Cordelia

  Stepping off the MAX train, I cross the street to grab a coffee before heading to the office. I hate driving in traffic so I take the train whenever I can. Today I’ll be meeting the newest addition to my team, and I’m a bit pissed that he was hired while I was on vacation. I don’t like having employees that I didn’t get to handpick and god knows I already inherited enough of them. I’ve been irritable all morning because of this, and I only hope the guy is half as good as my boss seems to think he is.

  When I arrive, I wave at the receptionist and head back to my office. It isn’t anything fancy, but I worked my ass off to get promoted to Director of Sales, and I’m proud of everything I’ve accomplished. It isn’t easy working in a male-dominated industry, and I’ve had to take my fair share of hits along the way to get ahead. To say I’ve had to put up with a lot is putting it lightly.

  Walking into my office, I’m instantly pissed because some asshat is sitting at my desk using my space as if it were his own. He doesn’t notice me walk in as he has his back to me, and is wearing a headset, talking on the phone. Although I cannot see his face, I cannot help but notice his physique. The man is huge, with thick arms and a broad, muscular back. Noticing that he is on what sounds like a cold call, I decide to stand there and wait for him to finish. I listen in to how he approaches the conversation and the ask for more time to talk about our products. As he says goodbye and signs off the call, I clear my throat to get his attention.

  “Oh, hello. You must be Ms. McAdams,” says the behemoth of a man as he strides from behind my desk to greet me. He is easily the most attractive man I have ever seen, and for an instant, it stuns me silent and makes my girly bits take notice. Shaking it off, I respond with a bit of my irritation coming through.

  “And who the hell are you? Why are you in my office?” I ask. Might as well establish right up front I’m not taking his crap, and I’m no pushover. I wish he had stayed seated; as I must tip my head back, way back to look him in the eyes, he is so tall.

  “I’m John Gulbrandson, your newest Sales Manager. It is nice to meet you, Ms. McAdams,” he says with his hand outstretched to shake mine. I begrudgingly shake his hand and get a jolt of electric attraction shoot up my arm. His smile is too sexy and his eyes are an intense blue that I feel like could get lost in. Not liking my reaction to him at all, I walk around him to put my bag on my desk and sit down in my chair.

  “John, as I’ve just returned from a two-week vacation, I have a few things to do to get caught up this morning. Find another place to work until our meeting at nine; we can catch up then.”

  “Sounds good boss. I’ll look forward to my meeting with you after you’ve settled in. Have a nice morning, and let me know if you need anything. I’m at your disposal,” says John with a wink as he strides out of my office. Did he just flirt with me?

  It is hard not to notice his nicely sculpted ass as he walks from my office, and I shake my head to get it out of the gutter. What an annoying and distracting man. Did he think his smile and wink would appease me after he took over my office? Why the hell did he think it would be okay to set up camp in here while I was out anyway? I’ll bet one of my team put him in here as an attempt at hazing, knowing how annoyed I’d be arriving to find someone making themselves at home in my office.

  Deciding to get to the bottom of that later, I open my email and groan. There are over five hundred unopened emails in my inbox. This is why I hate taking a vacation, and I only do so when forced by the Vice President of Sales to spend down my paid time off. It isn’t like I enjoy taking off time anyway. All I can think of while I’m gone is what leads the team is dropping without my help, and what deals aren’t getting closed. Let’s just be honest, I’m a workaholic, and I would have been managing email remotely if my boss hadn’t made a big deal about locking me out if I tried.

  “Good morning everyone, thank you all for the welcome I got this morning. Finding someone working at my desk when I arrived was a surprise,” I say. Looking around the room at my employees, seated at the conference table for our meeting. I can see John’s eyes go wide when it hits him that I am calling the team out on something they know is a bad idea. “I am sure John will thank whoever handed him the misfortune of being faced with my good mood this morning. But, you better hope he does you the good fortune of not letting me know who it was, or someone will be handling all cold calls, nothing but cold calls, for the rest of the month.” The room erupts in a few chuckles, and I can see a few people exchange nervous glances.

  My team is fifty percent people who have been in their role too long that I did not hire but rather inherited and fifty percent sales managers I did hire. Just looking into the room you could probably guess the people hired by me as they were the only non-male or non-white employees in the group. Someone has to put a stop to the old boys’ club, why not me?

  “Michael, walk me through the sales pipeline updates since I left. I want to know about any wins or losses that have been added to the board for the team and the Western Region in the last week.”

  “Sure thing, boss,” Michael says. He then shares his screen on the digital monitor on the wall and begins to talk about the businesses that moved from lead to prospect while I was away. About twenty minutes in, I’m pleasantly surprised at how well my team did in my absence and thinking I should take vacations more often.

  At the end of the hour, I close the meeting and ask John to stay in the meeting room to discuss his onboarding and training. The rest of the team heads out, and I pour a glass of water from the pitcher sitting in the middle of the table. Once they are out of the room, it is quiet for a moment before John starts talking.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. McAdams, I swear I wasn’t aware that using your office wouldn’t be okay. Someone led me to believe that you wouldn’t mind and even encouraged me to do my fir
st few cold calls off the floor so that I wouldn’t be self-conscious.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it meant as a bit of hazing. But, what I did hear of the call sounded good. Who has been working with you since you were hired last Monday?”

  “Michael let me shadow him last week until Friday afternoon where he had me role play cold calls with him. I was on my second outbound call without him when you came in this morning. I’m glad you didn’t think it sucked.”

  “Good, Michael is one of the best. What have they got you set up to do for the rest of this week?”

  “I’m told I’ll do cold calls in the morning this week and then mining for leads in the afternoon with Chuck until I get the hang of it.”

  “Sounds good. Who trained you on our product line and elevator pitch?”

  “Also, Michael. I’m getting pretty good at it.”

  “Great, let’s go with that plan this week but leave Friday afternoon to work with me after lunch. I want to test you on your product knowledge and talk about our lengthier pitches. I’ll also take you through our client database and how to track potential clients from the mining stage all the way through to a successful or unsuccessful sale.”

  “Okay, boss.”

  “About that, call me Delia, please. Where have they set you up to work?”

  “I’m told I’m using the cubicle that someone named Daryl used to occupy.” John is across from me, sitting up in his chair. I notice he doesn’t seem fazed at all by my questions. Perhaps I’m losing my touch.

  “Good, that will work. Linda is the office manager who sits at reception. Let her know if you need anything for your desk. I’ll check in with you later in the week. Welcome to the team.”

  “Thanks, Delia.”

  Packing things up, we both stride out of the meeting room. John beats me to the door and opens it for me. I’m annoyed that I like that and try not let it go to my head. Attraction to an employee is dangerous and I’ve been on the receiving end of unwanted attention enough to not want to do that to anyone else. Ever. I don’t wait to see if John has any more questions, and head directly back to my office to work on emails.

  ***

  “HE CAN’T BE THAT HOT. No one is that hot,” says my best friend Lilly over cocktails on Monday night. Lilly is petite and East Asian. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and we met when I moved to Portland. She makes me laugh but has a self-deprecating sense of humor that constantly has me simultaneously trying to build up her self-esteem.

  “He is, and I think the universe has decided to punish me for going on vacation. This guy is sexual harassment sexy. I’m so fucked.” I chug the rest of my mojito and raise my eyebrows at the bartender that has been eyeing us for the last hour. I make it clear I want another drink without giving any encouragement to his attention. He is totally not my type.

  “Correction, I think you mean you are so not-fucked.”

  “Precisely. So, what did you do while I was sitting on a beach in Cabo drinking Margaritas?”

  “Bitch, don’t remind me. I’m so jealous.”

  “I told you to come with me.”

  “I only have two weeks of vacation this at the new job. If I took it all at once, I’d be regretting it for the rest of the year, and my mom would never forgive me if I didn’t go home for Christmas.”

  “I know, I know. So, spill.”

  “I went out with a guy from Tinder, and let’s just say I won’t be doing that again. Tinder has been permanently deleted from my phone.

  “What happened?”

  “Let’s just say there may have been a catfish involved,” says Lilly.

  “Yikes I’m sorry,” I say in sympathy. I hate when people misrepresent themselves.

  “I went once with Candace to a new club downtown dancing. It was actually pretty fun. The music was great, and two really cute guys asked me for my number.”

  “Wow, that sounds great. Did either call you?”

  “They both did, and I have two dates this weekend. So I’m super excited.”

  “Lucky you, I haven’t gotten laid in so long. I think my vagina has grown cobwebs.”

  “It’s your own fault; you work too much.”

  “I know; I don’t see that changing anytime soon, though.”

  “What about the new guy at work?”

  “Are you kidding? That is so not happening. First of all, I’m his boss. Trust me, there is no bigger turn-off to a guy than being his boss. Second, I can’t date my employees. You don’t shit where you eat, trust me.”

  “In that case, I hope he quits soon so you can ask him out.”

  “Right. Tell me about your dates this weekend.”

  Lilly proceeds to tell me about her brunch plans with a guy named Tran and how later that evening she is going out with the other guy, Jim, I think his name is, to have dinner in the Pearl District.

  Honestly, I am not jealous in the slightest. Dating just sounds like a lot of work to me. Investing energy getting to know someone who most likely will only last a few dates, no thank you. Or worse, investing weeks in dating someone only to find out they are seeing other people at the same time or lying about something big. What a waste of energy.

  Okay, so I am jaded still. It is three years after my divorce, and I just don’t see the point in dating when I hardly have any downtime to begin with. Spending time with Cassie and Lilly is enough socializing for me, a few nights out with drinks or dancing each month, and I am satisfied.

  My focus is making Vice President of Sales for the Western Region by the time I am thirty-five. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of competition from the directors in the San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles offices. Not to mention I am the only woman Sales Director in a company not known for promoting women. Who has time for men?

  A few days later, I am in the breakroom getting my second cup of coffee when John walks in with his mug. I am putting cream in my coffee with my back to the door when he enters, and I don’t notice him there at first, that is until I feel like someone’s eyes are boring a hole in my back.

  Turning around, I noticed John standing in the door, and his eyes guiltily jumped up from my ass to my face when I turn around. Busted! I just smile and look back at my coffee.

  “Good morning,” I say with my back to him.

  “Good morning Delia. How are you today?”

  “Doing fine, and you?”

  “Great. I just converted two leads to prospects.”

  “That’s terrific. Have you set up any others this week?”

  “Yes, one on Monday afternoon and one yesterday. I had a lot of rejections as well.” I notice that he is still standing at the door when I turn around to hear him speak. I cannot help but smile at the thought that he is still distracted by getting caught ogling my ass.

  “That’s par for the course. I think even our seasoned managers average about twenty-five cold calls to one lead. You’re doing great. How do you feel about the mining process?”

  “There is a lot more to it than I anticipated; it makes sense, though.”

  “Good, I’ll look forward to talking more about it on Friday.” I started to walk out of the break room but stop as John is blocking the door. He looks at me seeming confused for a minute that I’m standing in front of him looking at him expectantly.

  Then smiling, he moves into the room and around me. I guess I must have flustered him a bit after all. That’s good. At least I can still keep my employees on their toes, I think.

  When I get back to my desk, and into my email, it seems like the rest of the day flies by while I work. The first time I look up from my computer is when my cell phone rings from inside my desk drawer. Retrieving it, I see it is my friend Cassie. We’ve been friends since we were in grad school in Southern California ages ago.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Delia, it’s Cassie.”

  “Hey, my friend, what are you up to?”

  “You know, reading, shelving, and circulating. The average day for any librarian. What about you, busy since you got home?”

  “Oh my god, yes, I have about two years’ worth of email to dig through. I’ve been going at it for three days and still don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not to mention I have to drive out to meet with one of our biggest prospects next week.”