Allyson was speechless. She rarely was, but Dane’s announcement was the last thing she’d expected. For the three years she had worked at Prescott Global, Dane had been the company CEO. He’d been working in that position for four years, and in the company since he was old enough to work.

It was Dane who had pushed the company outside of America and opened factories and stores in Canada, Mexico, and throughout the rest of the Americas. And he’d kept right on pushing until they’d gotten a merger with Handel and Company to make their first push into Europe.

“You can’t step down,” she blurted out.

He narrowed his eyes. “I can and I will.”

She grimaced. Giving Dane orders was never going to work, but she was still trying to wrap her head around what he was saying. “But you made Prescott what it is,” she said, more gently this time.

“I made it a company that’s now in free-fall,” he muttered.

“Everyone has setbacks.”

“Not me. This is because of us. Because of me. I wasn’t putting the company first. I don’t mess up. At least, not before.”

Silence. She didn’t know how to respond to that. Mostly because it was true. Dane was New York City’s golden boy. The Prescott name was synonymous with the city’s sports teams and athletes. The Prescotts owned the baseball parks, the basketball arenas, the ice rinks, the aquatic centers. Prescott Global made the sports equipment. Not to mention all the other things they owned that had nothing to do with sports. Restaurants, hotels, music halls, commercial properties. The family was respected. At least, they had been until her fake relationship scandal with Dane became tabloid fodder. Combine the scandal with his father being in the hospital, and the media couldn’t stop speculating about the fate of Prescott Global.

“Why do you want to step down?” She reached for her cup of yogurt and started eating, trying to focus so she could calm her nerves.

“It’s for the best.” He pushed his wavy blond hair out of his eyes in frustration. His hair had gotten a bit longer over the last two weeks, and somehow it just made him look more devilishly handsome. “My father needs me. I can’t expect my mother to be the only one taking care of him. The stress of all this has been getting to her, and I don’t want her to get so run down that she gets sick, too.”

“Sometimes being the caretaker can be stressful enough to make you sick.”

“That’s why I have to step aside.”

There was an expression on his face that she’d never seen before. Somewhere between exhausted worry and gritty determination. It troubled her to see him like this. Dane looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. And in a lot of ways he did. His job as Prescott’s CEO definitely wasn’t easy, and now he had to take care of his parents while the press kept hounding him. Just thinking about it exhausted her.

“If I’m the first person you’ve told about this, you obviously haven’t told your mother.” Somehow, she didn’t think Liliana Prescott would be happy about the news.

He shook his head. “There’s nobody I trust more than you, Allyson. If there’s something important going on in my life, you’ll always be the first person I tell.”

A tender ache laced through her heart. After every crazy thing she had put him through, he still trusted her. The weight of that realization was enormous. They had only been dating for a few weeks, but she felt closer to him than any man she had ever dated. It touched her and terrified her all at once to have Dane’s trust so early in their relationship.  

“When are you going to tell your parents?”

“I’ll tell them soon,” he replied. “It won’t be easy, but they’re on the board and they’ll have a vote in who my replacement will be.”

“You’ll have a vote, too,” she said, now curious about who he might have in mind. “Who do you want to replace you?”

“I wanted to keep the position in the family, but that’s clearly impossible. There’s no one.” His brows furrowed, as if he was deep in thought. “The best candidate is someone I trust, so I’m leaning towards choosing John Handel.”

She nodded. “That makes sense.” John Handel had been the vice president of Handel and Company before the merger. Now he had a senior position and spent his time travelling back and forth between Prescott’s New York City headquarters and Prescott’s London office. He hadn’t exactly been happy about the way things had gone down with the merger, since she and Dane had kept up their fake relationship to ensure that the deal went down. But, he had stayed loyal in the fall-out of the scandal, and he was well liked despite being new to Prescott. Unlike his scheming children, John Handel was a team player.

“Will you feel comfortable working for him?” Dane asked. “Because I want to make sure you’re happy being his assistant.”

She blinked, taken aback. “You’re serious? Dane, you have to do what’s best for the company.”

“You’re what matters most, too.”

“I...I don’t know what to say to that.” Allyson ate another spoonful of yogurt. “You can’t choose a new CEO based on whether I’d like them. I work for the company.”

“I’ve narrowed the candidates down to who I thought were the best people for the job,” he assured her. “I figured you’d get a say in whether you’d be able to work for the people on my list. I’ll have you meet them and then I’ll let you pick the top three.”

She swallowed hard. One of the things that both thrilled and scared her was the intensity of Dane’s feelings for her. Even before they started dating, the lengths he was willing to go to protect her had shocked her. He stood up to her family, his own mother. He’d even gone to war with the Handels and the press when the thought they might be trying to hurt her. Dane was different from every other man she had dated in that he was powerful enough to destroy people he thought might be a threat to her. Knowing that sent a shiver down her spine. Made her break out in a hot, desperate, sexually-frustrated sweat. “Meet them?” she asked, hoping her voice didn’t betray her emotions. “You don’t think anyone else at Prescott is a suitable replacement?”

“The best candidates within the company are my parents and John Handel,” Dane said firmly. “If you don’t want to work for John, I can remove him from the list and focus on some outside investors I have in mind.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think it’s crazy to make a decision this big based on what your girlfriend wants?”

“Allyson, you’re my secret weapon. You’re the reason I’ve managed to be even remotely successful. I’m not asking for your opinion as my girlfriend. I trust your judgment because I respect you as my assistant.” He regarded her, his blue eyes flashing with curiosity.

“Well, you can focus on whatever else you need to, because I like John,” she began. “He treats the staff with respect and he works hard. But I’m worried about what his kids might think. Especially his son.”

“Nicky won’t like it, but after the way he ousted his own father from Handel and Company, I’d say maybe it’s time karma finally caught up with him.” His tone was cold, pitiless, and unrepentant. Dane wasn’t cruel, but he could be ruthless when he wanted to be. “By the way, if you want Katherine gone just say the word and I can make it happen. Her job at Prescott isn’t set in stone.”

She frowned. “I don’t think you should fire her. She hasn’t bothered me since the day at the country club. Honestly, Dane, are you sure you aren’t making decisions based on me being your girlfriend?” She did like using the term, and he didn’t seem to mind it either.

“I’d be making these decisions even if you weren’t my girlfriend.”

“I seem to recall you having a bit of a crush on me before we started dating,” she teased. “Have you ever made a business decision that didn’t involve your feelings for me?”

“I have absolutely no intention of ever giving you an answer to that question.” Something very dark and wicked flashed in his eyes. His huge hand slipped under the table and he started to caress her knee, reaching up her skirt.

Oh, damn. “Dane,” she squeaked. “What are you doing?”

“I can stop if you’d like,” he growled. “Do you want me to stop?”

“No.” Her voice trembled. “Don’t stop.”

His hand slipped up her skirt, trailing across her inner thigh. She licked her lips, unable to take her eyes off him. A low, breathy moan escaped her throat. He gave her a wolfish smile and she practically melted into a puddle. Desire spread across her skin, made the place between her legs throb. They hadn’t made love in so long, and this was already making her so needy she could hardly stand it.

He leaned forward, his hand running up her thigh until he stopped at her silky panties. “You’re so wet already,” he breathed.

She gasped. That dirty mouth of his was going to get them into so much trouble. They were in a hospital cafeteria, for crying out loud. It was pretty high up on the list of places to absolutely, positively, not mess around.

“I think we should stop,” she managed to choke out. Her mouth was telling him to stop but her own body didn’t want to cooperate. The sexual frustration was making her crazy.

Dane pulled his hand away and leaned back in his chair. “Pity.”

“We can do that later.” She tried to ignore how good it felt to have her bare leg brushing up against his. “We’re in a hospital. A public place. People might see us.”

“Nobody cares who we are,” he pointed out. “Besides, everyone is so caught up in their own problems they probably haven’t even noticed us.”

“We can’t afford to be reckless now,” she reminded him. “You want to influence the board to pick John, remember?”

“The board will probably be glad to see the back of me,” he muttered.

“Have they said something?”

“Not since Father’s heart attack. They’re too respectful to try to give me too much grief about the way things are, but the longer Prescott’s problems with the stock market go on, the more likely they are to want to talk about it. If I step down for a while, things will cool down and their opinion of my might improve.”

“I’ll miss working for you,” she said softly.

He smiled. “It’s only temporary. John will be the interim CEO until I’m sure my father’s better. That’s why I trust John. He’ll step aside when it’s time for me to come back.”

***

The board room on Prescott Global’s top floor was already full of the members of the board waiting around for the morning vote to start. Allyson was already riddled with anxiety, and she didn’t feel any better as she stepped into the board room. She was almost never in this room, since most board meetings were typically private. Which was why board members stared at her disapprovingly as she headed towards Dane, who was sitting in his usual place at the head of the table.

She took a seat beside him and leaned forward. “Are you sure it’s a good idea for me to be here?”

“It’s only fair for you to meet your new boss as soon as possible,” he replied smoothly.

Her eyes darted around the room. “I don’t think the rest of the board members are happy to see me.”

“I don’t care what they think,” he said flatly.

Even now, knowing that he was about to hand over the reins of power to someone else, Dane was at his most arrogant. His complete disregard for the rules when it came to her should have given her pause, but right now it didn’t. It was way too much of a turn-on, and she wasn’t about to argue with him when he was like this.

Board members started to take their seats and Allyson glanced around the room, trying to read their faces. Over the past three days, since he had told her he was stepping down, Dane had done everything he could to get the board to vote his way. Most members had agreed to vote for John Handel, but there were still enough undecided members that it made Allyson a little nervous. She had met the other two candidates and liked them, but she was more comfortable with John Handel.

She kept her eye on the board members she knew best. Dane’s mother looked drained. Her usual dyed-blond hair had lost its luster and she had lost weight. Meanwhile, a confident-looking John Handel took a seat beside his son, Nicholas. Nicky looked sulky, no doubt upset that Dane’s favorite for the CEO position was the older Handel and not the cutthroat, double-crossing son. Nicky had caused problems at the last company meeting, but he was silent this time. Nicky was as gorgeous as ever with his dark hair slicked back and his full, sexy mouth set in a harsh line. He was dressed in a dark, expensive suit and he reminded her of one of those models from the men’s magazines.

Alfred Prescott, Dane’s father, was still in the hospital so he had already proxied in his vote.

Dane called the vote to order and Allyson sat quietly, observing while board members started voting. When the vote ended Allyson went around the room, piling voting cards into a box. She handed the box over to Dane.

He rifled through the cards. Then rifled through them again. His face hardened, and Allyson could almost feel him fighting the anger boiling inside him.

“What is it?” she whispered.

Those blue eyes of his slid to hers, anger blazing within them. “John Handel lost the vote,” Dane said.

She glanced around the room “Then who won?”

He clenched his jaw. “Nicholas Handel.”