I can’t help but smile when Byron shows up at my office a week later.

“Jacob,” he begins, and his nervousness only makes me happier.

“What’s up, Byron?” I can tell my casual demeanor is putting him off a little bit, and I like it.

Byron helped me at a time when I really needed it. I didn’t have anyone else that believed in me when I was creating Quest, and there was no way for me to make my vision a reality without financial help. Byron took a risk and made everything happen. Without him, I don’t know where I’d be.

For years he’s been a stalwart ally on the board, but these last few months… well, things are changing. And I don’t think Byron wants to be left behind.

I can’t blame him. I think he sees Quest much the same way I do: he helped build this place, and he cares about it, doesn’t want to get pushed out like I am. He’s playing ball even though that makes him a traitor.

“There’s a board meeting today,” he says.

“Another surprise meeting?” I ask.

He nods and doesn’t meet my gaze. “It’s about you, actually.”

I raise an eyebrow, heart beating fast. “Really?”

“There were some… allegations,” he says. “I’m sorry, Jacob. I don’t know what to do. I tried to defend you but the tides have turned, and I…’

“If you want me to forgive you for not helping me, I forgive you,” I say to him.

That takes him by surprise. He looks at me, a deep frown on his face. “I appreciate you saying that.”

“But I won’t forget it,” I continue.

“Jacob, I’m not sure you understand what’s happening here. These allegations are serious.”

I grin at him. “I know. I’m the one that created them in the first place.”

He stares at me, his eyes a little wide. “What are you talking about?”

“Do you really think a wart like Karl could take my place?” I ask him softly. “You know me better than that, Byron. You saw something in me all those years ago… that something isn’t gone. Not yet, at least.”

Byron stares at me, at a total loss for words. I smile at him and check my watch. “I appreciate you stopping by, but I think the meeting is about to start. We don’t want to be late, do we?”

I stand up and he wordlessly follows me. We head out through the office and stop outside of the boardroom.

“You go ahead,” I say to him. “Don’t want the others to think you’ve switched sides.” I give him a vicious smile.

I may forgive him, but I won’t forget.

He sighs. “I hope you know what you’re doing.” He heads into the room without another word.

I wait a minute before following. Inside, the board is sitting around the table and all eyes snap to me. Karl is standing at the head of the table and Sofia is sitting on a chair off to the side, looking nervous as hell.

I smile at her and nod. She gives me a little smile back.

“Ah, just the man we were talking about,” Peter says.

“Hello, everyone,” I say, standing in front of my chair.

I can feel the tension in the room, thick and sticky. Everyone is staring at me but nobody meets my eyes, except for Byron. He looks more curious than anything else now. He’s probably finally putting it all together, or at least he’s realizing that I have a plan.

I look over at Karl and smile. “What are you doing here?” I ask him.

“Karl here was just telling us something very disturbing.” Peter frowns and glances at Sofia. “This young woman says you’ve been, ah, having inappropriate relations with her.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Really?”

“This is serious, Jacob,” Karl snaps at me. “We know you’ve been phoning it in for a long time, but this? It’s borderline illegal.”

“Interesting,” I say. “Very interesting.”

“We can’t tolerate this sort of thing from you,” Peter says. “The board was just discussing what do you with you, and we believe we will allow you to resign and keep this scandal from the news if you’re agreeable to that.”

I shake my head. “No, thanks.”

Peter looks surprised. “This is a good deal for you,” he says. “If what this girl says is true, she could press charges, although I don’t think that’s her plan. Is it, dear?”

Everyone looks in Sofia’s direction and she looks so uncomfortable. I feel horrible for her. I know this part of the plan sucks, but it’s almost over.

“I’m not pressing charges,” she says.

“And why would you?” I ask her.

“You forced her to do lewd and awful things,” Karl says to me, hate burning in his slimy little eyes. “You’re a disgusting cretin and you took advantage of your employee.”

“No, I didn’t,” I say to him and turn to Sofia. “Right?”

She nods. “That’s right.”

The board starts to mumble. “Sweetheart, it’s okay,” Peter says. “You can admit the truth.”

“The truth is, I lied to Karl.”

A murmur goes around the table. “No, you didn’t,” he says, his fury cold and intense.

“I definitely did,” she continues. “None of that was true. I’m sorry for all the confusion I caused.”

“What’s going on here?” Peter asks Karl.

“Don’t listen to her,” Karl says. “It’s true, believe me. If you heard the tapes, you’d see.”

I have to control myself with every ounce of my willpower. I want to burst out laughing and scream with joy. That idiot Karl just played right into my hands. I expected him to be off guard enough that I could blindside him here, but he just confirmed what I’m about to reveal to the board.

“Recordings?” I ask him. “Since when is it company policy to record an employee, especially when it’s about something so private?”

“I didn’t know it was going to be that way,” he says.

“So you record everything that happens in your office?” I press him.

He hesitates. “Yes,” he says finally. “I do. I find it useful.”

“What’s the meaning of this?” Peter asks, looking between the two of us.

“The girl is lying,” Karl says. “There’s something going on between the two of them.”

“There’s definitely something going on, but it has nothing to do with Sofia.” I turn to the board and look at them each individually. “Gentlemen, I had Sofia lie to Karl here to prove a point.”

“What could that possibly be?” Peter asks, clearly annoyed.

“I’ll show you.” I walk over to the phone at the center of the table and pick it up. I pop off the bottom easily, since I unscrewed it last night, and I gently pull out the bug that Karl had planted.

Everyone stares at the tiny recording device. “This is a bug,” I say. “And Karl here planted it.”

He stares, clearly surprised. He didn’t know that I knew, and this moment is so fucking delicious. That snake deserves this.

Everyone looks at Karl. “Is this true?” one of the other members of the board calls out.

“Are you planting… bugs in this office?” Peter asks, completely at a loss.

“No,” Karl answers, anger flaring through his face. “This man is a liar.”

“Am I?” I grin at him and walk over to the door. I open it up and Josh walks in with a gray plastic bucket. He upends it on the table and spills out a bunch of bugs. “Josh here has been combing through the offices and he found all of these.”

“I have nothing to do with that,” Karl says.

“And yet you just admitted to taping all your conversations in your office.” I look at Sofia. “Did you know he was taping?”

“No,” she says.

“You bugged your office. You bugged the boardroom, and the break room, and a ton of other spots all over the office. You’ve been spying on people, breaking all kinds of ethical standards, laws, and company policies in the process.”

Karl looks totally fucking speechless as this hangs in the air.

“Why wouldn’t he report what Sofia told him to Human Resources?” I say softly to the stunned men. “Because he wanted to use it against me. He doesn’t care about the people that work here or even this company. He only cares about himself. This is the man you want to follow?”

“You’re lying!” Karl shouts, red with anger. “You lying bastard!”

Karl rushes at me, anger in his eyes. He tries to tackle me to the floor but I manage to fight him off, wrestling him down into a chair. People start shouting and for a second, the room is total chaos. Karl is trying to fight his way out of my grip, probably so he can try to murder me, and everyone is shouting. A few minutes later, security arrives and they jump on Karl. After a short struggle, he calms down and they drag him outside.

Slowly the group calms down. Everyone looks shaken as they sit back in their chairs.

“Are you okay?” I ask Sofia.

She nods. “I’m okay.”

“Good.” I smile at her and head to the front of the room. As the board settles back into their seats, I watch them and wait. I can’t help but smile as finally, one by one, they turn their attention back to me.

“I’m glad he did that,” I say softly, making them lean in to listen to me. “That’s the kind of man that creates vicious, brutal, inhuman business plans like the one you were all going to follow.”

I let that sink in for a second. Byron gives me a little nod, a surprised look on his face.

“I have an alternative,” I say. “And I hope you’ll all give it a chance.” With that, I open the door one more time, and Clay comes in. He hands out copies of his proposal to each member of the board.

“What just happened here?” Peter asks me after getting his copy.

“Karl bugged this office. He’s paranoid and unstable and I proved it.”

“How can you—” Peter asks, but he’s interrupted.

“Enough, Peter,” Byron calls out. “Your boy was a mistake. Jacob got us to where we are, and it’s time to trust him again.”

I give him a nod, thankful. The other board members all seem to agree, and Peter sinks back into his seat, defeated.

“Read that,” I say to them. “Tell me if you don’t think that’ll work much better than what Karl was proposing. If any of you have any doubts, you know where to find me.”

Without another word, I turn and leave the room. Sofia follows me out.

We walk in silence together back to my office. Once in there, I shut the door then throw myself at her, wrapping her in a huge hug and pulling her tight against me.

She laughs, a seriously happy sound, like all the tension and stress is slowly leaking from her body.

“Is this seriously over?” she asks me. “Karl’s finished?”

“You saw him in there,” I say to her. “He flipped his lid. He’s done. No way the board will keep him on.”

She laughs and kisses me. I return her kiss, deep and full, pleasure rolling through me in waves.

She doesn’t need my protection anymore. I don’t have to be her Daddy. Karl is gone and the threat is over. We can go back to work and be normal again if we want to.

But I don’t want that. I don’t want it at all. The more I’m around her, the more I know this is real. It’s not just a fun little thing from the past we both decided to revisit. It’s dirty and fun and maybe a little taboo, but it’s the best thing I’ve ever had.

“Sofia…” I say softly. She looks at me, her eyes wide. “I’m in love with you. I need you to know that.”

She doesn’t answer right away and I can’t read the look on her face until she kisses me again, deep and full. “I love you too,” she whispers. “I don’t want this to end.”

“It won’t,” I say to her, and I pull her tight against me.

This is what I’ve needed, what I’ve always been looking for. I thought Quest satisfied me, gave me purpose, but that was nothing compared to how I feel around Sofia. She gives me meaning again, makes me look forward to every single second I have with her.

She’s my girl, she’s mine forever. I’m never going to let her go. I’ll always be her Daddy, always be her protector and her Dom. I’ll make her feel things she’s never even imagined before, and in return she’ll make my life so much better.

I never want this moment to end. And I realize that it never will.