Adriana
Adriana was trying as hard as she could to be professional. That was the most important thing: to come off self-assured and confident and strong. And useful. Above all things, Adriana had to be useful; otherwise, she didn’t know how to operate.
But it was really hard to make a positive first impression when her new boss seemed so strange, staring down at her with burning eyes like she’d just committed a terrible crime. She concentrated all her energy on not fidgeting, keeping her hands still in her lap to convey that his behavior hadn’t affected her at all, even if all her internal organs were churning up a storm inside her stomach.
“So,” Ryder finally said, clearing his throat and looking away from her sharply. “We need to have a discussion about your place in this business.”
Adriana inhaled deeply, preparing herself to hear the worst. When she learned a few minutes earlier from one of the servants that Giovanni had been passed over for his father’s position, she’d hoped that she would be able to hold onto her job, even if the new Don wasn’t as nice as the previous one and could potentially cut her pay. But now it was happening. She was going to be fired, and then she’d run out of money to pay her dad’s medical bills, and then the doctors wouldn’t give him the surgery he needed to survive, and then…
“I understand that you were essential to my father in his last months. Thank you for that,” Ryder said, but his face was stern and hard, his eyebrows furrowed together like she’d said something to offend him.
“You’re welcome,” Adriana answered a little uncertainly, continuing to maintain eye contact with Ryder. Looking away would mean admitting defeat, somehow, even though she knew it was irrational to think that way. “He was important to me, too.”
“Yeah, I bet.” Ryder clicked his tongue from behind his teeth.
Adriana suddenly felt even more uncomfortable, her skin crawling like a thousand tiny bugs decided to use her body as a dance floor.
“Honestly, it’s not a problem. I get it. But your relationship with me won’t be like that, okay? It’s going to be strictly professional.”
For a long moment, Adriana had no idea what he meant, turning his words in her head over and over again, trying to understand what he was getting at. But then it hit her, all at once, like a sudden burst of cold rain right over her head. She honestly felt like she was about to throw up. Ryder was implying that she’d had sex with his father!
Adriana leaped to her feet, feeling her face go hot with embarrassment and anger at the same time. “Excuse me, sir, but I think you’re confused,” she said, her tone coming out harder and harsher than she intended. But at this point, she really didn’t care. She’d never felt so disgusted and insulted in her entire life. Paolo Rainieri was important to her. He gave her a chance when nobody else did, but the idea that they had an affair together repulsed her to her core. “My relationship with your father was purely professional.”
Ryder looked at her skeptically, his disbelief written clearly all over his face. “Sure. Well, anyway, I just wanted to be clear with you—”
Adriana waved her hand forward to get him to stop talking. “No, let me be clear. I don’t know who told you otherwise, but I never slept with your father. Period. End of story.” Adriana glared up at her would-be boss, watching his gaze flick back and forth between her own eyes like he was trying to read her mind and see if she was telling the truth. She groaned and shook her head. “You know what, that’s it. I’ll be submitting my resignation later today. Thank you for your time.”
She turned on her heel and headed for the door, marching as powerfully as she could, even though behind her eyes a hot, stinging sensation threatened to spill over. I’m not going to fucking cry, she told herself, hardening her own jaw. It’s not going to fucking happen. Not over this. Not over these assholes. Adriana reached for the handle of the door, but before she could push it open, she heard scuffling noises that caught her attention, causing her to freeze in place for a moment.
The next second, Ryder’s hand clamped down on her shoulder, keeping her in place. “Wait, wait, please. Just give me a minute,” Ryder said, slowly turning her around to face him. Adriana kept her jaw set and her gaze vicious as she looked up at the new Don, wanting him to be aware of how much she hated him at this moment. She’d never felt so disrespected before, and she wasn’t going to yield to his commands easily.
Ryder blew out his breath and pulled his hand away, gesturing for her to sit back down again. This time, she refused, crossing her arms to display her discomfort rather than pretending for Ryder’s benefit. But Ryder didn’t push, apparently sensing that she wasn’t going to budge. “All right, well, just let me explain myself. I’ve never met you before today. I don’t know anything about you—”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Adriana said, cutting him off again. “You don’t.”
“That’s fair. That’s totally fair.” Ryder nodded at her. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have judged you that way when I haven’t even met you before. I was just going off of what my brother said.”
“Oh, Giovanni?” Adriana said, scoffing. “Yeah, he sure seems like a trustworthy source.”
Ryder laughed then, sounding much younger and looser than he had before. “Good point. He does like to run his mouth. Listen, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have insinuated that you slept with my father. It was really uncalled-for.”
Adriana stared up into Ryder’s eyes, searching for any sign of deception, but she couldn’t find any. Instead, she discovered only genuine emotion, real sorrow and regret for what he’d said. She felt like his eyes were penetrating her armor a little bit… until she felt her heart sink in sympathy for him. After all, his father had died just hours before. Maybe he deserved a second chance.
She sighed and walked around him to the chair in front of the desk, then sat down and waited expectantly for him to come sit across from her. “Well?” she said, turning in her seat to face him after a few moments of awkward silence. “You want to get to know the business, don’t you?”
Ryder smiled at her, and for a brief second, Adriana felt like she could feel the warmth of the sun on her face, shining down on her from above. She shook her head as soon as Ryder wasn’t looking at her, silently admonishing herself for feeling at all flirtatious towards the man who’d just insulted her so badly.
Don’t be an idiot, she thought as Ryder walked back to sit down at his father’s desk. Just because he’s attractive doesn’t mean he’s a good person. It doesn’t mean he wants you. It doesn’t mean you should want him.
# # #
Ryder
“Okay, so here’s where your father keeps—kept, I’m sorry, kept—the files on the Mexican connection,” Adriana said, pulling out a drawer from the underside of the desk.
“Uh-huh,” Ryder said, pretending to pay attention when really, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the curve of Adriana’s ass, which stuck out as she bent over to pull various file folders out of the desk drawer. It was almost like she was trying to tempt him. God, her ass looked so plump, so firm and muscular yet juicy at the same time. Ryder would love to smack his hand against that ass, to make it sting, to mark it up, to claim it as his own.
He’d only met this girl about an hour earlier, and already he was imagining what it would be like to take her into his playroom, especially now that he knew that she hadn’t actually fucked his dad. She was pure, untouched. Perfect for him. But would she be willing? If she saw what he really was, would she be tempted to run away… or climb up into the darkness with him?
“And this is the connection with the Persian Empire, which as you know, has been very active over the past few years,” Adriana said, pointing to a bookshelf against the wall, but Ryder was lost in the curves of her body, the way her skin shone with an inner light that drew him in. He could stare at her for hours—for days, even.
But the next second, she dropped a stack of files loudly on top of the desk, tearing Ryder’s attention away from her body temporarily. “What? Huh?” he asked.
“Just as I suspected,” Adriana said, folding her arms across her chest and staring down at him with a stern expression on her face. “You’re not paying attention to what I’m saying.”
“Yes, I am!” Ryder protested, but Adriana just shook her head and smirked.
“The Persian Empire connection, Ryder? That’s ridiculous. I was testing you, and you didn’t react! You aren’t hearing a single word I’m saying, are you?”
Ryder sighed and hung his head between his shoulders, admitting defeat. “I’m sorry. It’s just been a hard day. I’m distracted.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, but given that Adriana probably assumed his distraction was because of his father’s death, it wasn’t exactly the truth, either.
Adriana tapped her fingers impatiently on the surface of the desk, grimacing a little as she looked at Ryder. “Look, I’m just here to help you succeed, okay? That’s all. If shit hits the fan because you weren’t paying attention, that’s going to come around and bite you in the ass, not me.”
“True.” Ryder nodded in agreement.
Adriana sighed and shook her head. “But the truth is, I’m just wasting my time here. Maybe your mother is right. Maybe I shouldn’t work here anymore.”
“Paolo left you to me though,” Ryder said on reflex, inwardly cringing a bit at how awkward he’d phrased that. A person couldn’t be granted to another person like any other object, but he couldn’t deny that something in his loins stirred a little bit at the idea that Adriana belonged to him now. He decided to press on, continuing to argue his point even though Adriana looked more and more dejected as the seconds ticked by. “Look, don’t listen to my crazy mother. She doesn’t know anything.”
“She knows a lot about the business,” Adriana retorted. “She’s been around it for thirty years, right?”
“She doesn’t know anything about me,” Ryder said back. “I know I haven’t been paying close attention just now, but I feel like you and I could be a good team. Just give me a couple days to prove it to you.”
Adriana dragged her lower teeth over her upper lip, her eyes rolling up into the back of her head as she considered Ryder’s proposition. “I don’t know…” she said after a moment of silence.
“One night, then. Just give me one night to prove we’d work well together.”
Adriana raised one eyebrow, looking skeptical. “When?”
“Tonight,” Ryder said without thinking. “Let’s have dinner and talk about it.”
Adriana sighed and shook her head. “Listen, I don’t mean to be a jerk or anything, but I can’t mix my personal life up with my professional one. It just gets too messy.”
“I understand that,” Ryder said, quickly rebounding her from her rejection. “Believe me, it wouldn’t be personal. It’s just about business. We can discuss the latest deals that my father was working on before he passed.”
Adriana stared at him for a long moment, narrowing her eyes a little as she considered his offer. Ryder felt a little thrill of anticipation go down his spine, coursing into the bones of his hands and fingers, but he stayed still, not wanting to betray how nervous and excited he was for her response.
There was something exhilarating about being judged by her—having her decide if he was worth her time or not. Although he was a Don, he wasn’t interested in exerting control over weak people. A submissive partner would only appeal to him if she had the strength to resist and chose not to.
Clearly, Adriana had plenty of inner strength to spare, in addition to razor-sharp intelligence. It made his heart pound faster, just watching how her mind calculated the risks and benefits of his offer. But at the same time, she was taking so long to come to a conclusion that Ryder felt like he was going to lose his mind.
“Look, you deserve a nice dinner after what I put you through today,” Ryder added with a shrug, inwardly praying that it wasn’t obvious how much he wanted her to accept his offer. “This is my dad’s office, okay? I’m not comfortable here. Let’s talk about the business over some nice wine, all right? That way, I won’t get distracted.”
Adriana tilted her head to one side, still silent as she considered his latest offer. Ryder held his breath as she thought over the proposition. Just when he thought he was about to pass out from lack of oxygen, she finally spoke again. “All right. One night. One dinner. But no funny business, all right? Otherwise, I’m gone, and you’ll have to figure out all the files yourself.”
“Got it,” Ryder replied with a grin, feeling victorious. “Take the rest of the day off and meet me at my penthouse at 8 PM. One of the servants will give you the address.”
Adriana hesitated, shifting her weight from one foot to another. “Are you sure? I can help you go through some of your father’s financial paperwork if you want. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate right now.”
“Yeah, but none of it is going to get done today,” Ryder answered truthfully. He’d pushed the fact of his father’s death to the back of his mind, procrastinating the task of processing the reality of the situation for later, but it was still hanging over everything like a row of storm clouds.
“I suppose that’s fair,” Adriana said, nodding slowly. She sighed and began to place some of the files back in their proper location. “Okay. I’ll see you tonight, then?”
“You definitely will,” Ryder promised, permitting himself to gape at Adriana’s thick, curvy backside as she walked away.
As soon as she left the room, Ryder jumped to his feet and began pacing back and forth, from one edge of the office to another, over and over again. His whole body was jittery, full of sensations that he hadn’t felt in so long. It was like all of his skin was itching, but he didn’t want to scratch it. He wanted to feel the pain, feel the temptation, feel the ache. He wanted to prolong his satisfaction as long as possible.
But when I do let loose, he thought, oh, boy, I’m going to fucking take her apart. She may be strong in the boardroom, guiding me this way and that, but in the bedroom, she’s going to be all mine.