Chapter Ten

Reid

Carrie walks toward the door, and holy hell, I’m obsessed with this woman’s ass in that pink dress. I’m obsessed with everything about her; the sweet way she smells, those emerald green eyes, and my absolute fucking need to be inside her. All acceptable and expected after our half fuck that needs to be finished, because the obsession will end once we finally do fuck. What isn’t acceptable is the way I’d actually wanted to pull her to me and promise her everything was going to work out. I don’t comfort people. I don’t do tender and gentle, nor do those things help Carrie. She has to swim with the sharks, and that means people like me, to claim this company and the job she otherwise deserves.

I follow her to the door and I’m just behind her when she exits, stepping to her side in time for my brother—impeccably dressed in a blue pinstriped suit, to saunter in our direction. “We need to tighten security,” I say, and not quietly.

Gabe laughs. “True. They let you in.” He stops in front of us and gives Carrie a warm stare. “You must be Carrie West. I remember you from the auction. You looked stunning then and now.”

“Thank you,” she says.

“I’m Gabe, Reid’s brother. I’m only here to show added support in the meeting, without any planned participation, but if you need anything, I’m at your service.” He winks. “Reid and I do the good cop, bad cop routine well. I’m always the bad cop, as I’m sure you can tell.”

She laughs, a soft sweet laugh that has my cock twitching and my anger at Gabe for being so damn charming, spiking. “Obviously,” she replies, casting me a teasing look. “I can’t imagine why anyone would see Reid as the bad cop.” She scrapes her teeth on her lips, amusement dancing in her eyes, and I know she’s thinking about those damn cuffs. And so am I.

Sallie rushes toward us. “Everyone is accounted for. We’re ready when you are.”

Carrie sucks in air, a nervous reaction that wipes away her smile and I answer for her. “We’re on our way,” I say, lifting a hand.

Carrie turns to me. “You didn’t tell me what you’re going to say.”

I glance at Gabe, who nods and walks away. I step closer to Carrie and lower my voice. “I’ll follow your lead.”

“You’ll follow my lead? We both know that isn’t how this goes.” She grabs my arm and closes one of the two steps left between us, the unexpected contact, along with those fierce green eyes locked on mine, tightening every muscle in my body. “Do not embarrass me in there. I’m sorry about the cuffs, okay? But that was private. Punish me in private. This is—”

“If I want to punish you,” I say, wrapping my fingers around her arm and maneuvering us so that my back is to the door, blocking Carrie from prying eyes, “it will be in private and that pretty little backside of yours will be mine.”

Her beautiful green eyes flash with defiance. “You will never own my backside, whatever that even means.”

“Words that would mean so much more if I hadn’t already licked your—”

She points at me. “Don’t even say what you were going to say,” she hisses, and it’s all I can do to not tangle my fingers in her hair and drag her mouth to mine before I demand, “What are you thinking right now?”

“That you’re making me crazy.”

“Then maybe I should amend my prior statement. Maybe you do need to think about me between your legs, instead of creating a problem that doesn’t exist. Yes, you left me in that hotel room, Carrie, and by doing so, you denied us both what we wanted in the name of misplaced revenge, but right now isn’t about that. Right now, we’re walking into that meeting and it’s about making money together. I’m not going to hurt your ability to make that money. We are not enemies.”

“You’re just an asshole?”

“Yes. It works for me. And since you cuffed me and brought me here, you need to make it work for you. Let’s go do this.” I step back and to the side. She inhales and steps forward and I fall into step with her.

We arrive at the glass doors that separate the executive offices from the rest and I reach for the door but pause to glance over at Carrie. “Your father’s failure will be seen as yours. Standing with me outside your father’s circle to better your financial resources means job security to your staff. That’s what we want to give them tonight before the stockholders’ meeting goes public.”

“I know. I put all of that in the copy I gave you.”

“You included everything but a direct statement about your father’s failure. That will be discussed in the stockholders’ meeting. If you don’t address that elephant in the room, they’ll whisper about it later.”

“Right,” she says again cutting her gaze but immediately meeting my stare again. “He did fail. I don’t understand why he made those decisions. I don’t know how to explain that to the staff.”

“Don’t. Keep it simple. Mistakes were made. We’re going to make up the hit for those mistakes delivered in triplicate.”

“Right. I understand.”

I study her a moment, and I find steel in her jaw that settles in her eyes. Satisfied, I open the door and allow her to exit first because I might be an ass by design, but my mother taught me to open a damn door for a woman. It was another woman that taught me never to get close to anyone. It’s not a lesson Carrie West is going to make me forget.

***

Carrie

Reid walks beside me toward the meeting room, radiating confidence, power, and sex. He’s an animal, a wolf on the hunt, willing to kill, no hesitation in him. These things and this man affect me. I can’t pretend it’s not true and survive. I am aware of Reid Maxwell in every fiber of my being, this man I hate and also crave.

This man who could walk in front of my staff and destroy me and yet, I never even considered that option until right before we were entering the meeting. He’s the man that orchestrated a hostile takeover of my family business. I should have considered that. I’m crazy to want him. I’m crazy to trust him. I don’t trust him. I can’t, and the closer we get to the meeting room doors, the more I doubt his promise that he isn’t working against me. Actually, he didn’t promise at all.

Lifting my hand, I indicate our destination to Reid without looking at him, not about to risk him reading me. I want this over with one way or the other, and when I would just enter the room, Reid catches my arm, heat radiating over my body with the contact. He leans close, his mouth near my ear. “I am not your enemy,” he says softly as if he’s read my thoughts, as if he knows I expect the worst of him.

I glance up at him, my eyes daring to meet his piercing blue stare. “We’ll see inside, won’t we?”

“Yes,” he says. “We will.” His hold on my arm loosens but I have this feeling that he doesn’t want to let me go, and it’s a feeling that I don’t understand. That stirs a funny feeling in my chest, that I don’t want to feel with this man.

I shake off the sensation and enter the room, where fifty-seven people in rows of chairs wait. A room where Reid and I either stand together or apart. We reach the front of the room and I begin to talk. I introduce Reid and he nods. He takes the microphone from me after that introduction. “I just want to be clear,” he says, which I’m coming to know as one of his signature statements. “I’m behind the scenes helping Carrie navigate a ship with a hole. She’s captain. Everything goes through her.”

One of the tech guys says, “But you’re CEO?”

Reid gives him a deadpan stare and then says, “That is what we said,” and hands me back the microphone.

It’s not long after that when I send everyone home and Reid huddles up with me. “I’m not your enemy. I’ll be in my office with Gabe when you get done here.”

“Not tonight,” I say.

His lips twitch but he says nothing more. He just turns and leaves.

Sallie steps to my side. “He’s such an arrogant piece of perfection.” She glances over at me. “How’s that working for you?”

Too well and very badly, I think. I’m about as naked as a girl can get with a man.

***

It’s a good forty-five minutes before I clear the building and make my way back to the executive offices. My father’s office door—no, Reid’s office door, is open. I walk that direction and I’ve just reached the edge of the door when I hear Gabe say, “Let’s talk about Carrie.”

I freeze in my footsteps and suck in a breath. “Let’s not talk about Carrie,” Reid replies.

“Then we won’t talk about her, but in the interest of full disclosure, I’m going to show her some extra moral support.”

“Stay away from her,” Reid says brusquely. “And I mean, stay the fuck away from her.”

I’m stunned by how intense his reaction is while Gabe simply laughs. “Easy, brother. I’m not going to distract her. I know how much money is on the line.”

Right, I think. I’m money to Reid. Just money. And of course, he wants to sleep with me, but that’s a conquest thing. An unfinished thing.

“Hear me and hear me well, Gabe,” Reid states tightly. “You will not offer her anything but your professional services, which will come through me. Now, either move on to the next case we need to review or leave.”

Leave?

Crap. If he leaves, I’m busted listening in and about me of all things, though one could argue I have a right. I inhale and decide I can’t even consider rushing away. I could get busted. I have to charge forward. I straighten my spine and march toward the office, appearing in the doorway, and I am instantly blasted by the force of Reid’s stare. As if he expected me. As if he knew I was there all along.

“Carrie,” he greets, and I’m aware of Gabe turning his attention on me but I only see Reid.

“Everyone’s gone,” I say. “The coast is clear when you decide to leave. You won’t be accosted.”

He arches a brow, and I can feel my cheeks heat. He’s thinking about the cuffs. Or I’m thinking about the cuffs.

“And where will you be when I leave?” he asks.

“Most likely in my office working.” I glance at Gabe to find him watching me with a cunning stare and intelligent eyes, certainly sensing this push and pull between me and Reid.

“You did good in there tonight.”

“Thank you,” I say, “but we’ll see how true that is based on how they all handle tomorrow.” I glance between them but damn it, I’m pulled into Reid’s magnetic stare again. “I’ll leave you two to work.”

“I’ll walk with you,” Gabe offers.

“No, you won’t,” Reid states, giving Gabe a hard look before his eyes find mine. “Go back to your office, Carrie.” It’s an order and in his stare there is possessiveness, intense, fierce possessiveness. It overwhelms me. It consumes me.

And this time I take his command for two reasons: a) I’m suffocating in all that is this man, and b) I have no desire to start trouble between him and Gabe, which is where I believe this could lead. Someone else might see that as an opportunity, but I do not. I don’t wish that sibling divide I have with my brother on them. I, in fact, envy that they work together and obviously well.

I nod at him and then at Gabe and exit the office. They are silent in my departure, no doubt by intent, and I cross the lobby quickly entering my office to sit down. Reid was possessive, and Lord help me, on a pure female level I know what it’s like to be touched by that man like he owns me. My body says, oh yes, more, but my mind warns me to tread cautiously, to set boundaries.

I grab my phone and send Reid a text message: In case you think me taking that order means you now own me, you do not. It means I have more manners than you.

His reply is instant and yet another command: Don’t leave without me. I have something for you.

Damn him, I could assume that means about ten things, including his mouth on my body, and he knows it. He means to make me squirm and it worked.