Chapter Six

Reid

“Let me out of this office,” Carrie demands without turning to face me, my hand still planted on the door above her head; her pink dress hugging her perfect ass that’s a lean away from being pressed against me.

“If you walk out of this office with an attitude,” I warn, “you fuck me and you,” her damn floral perfume scents the air like I know it does her skin. “If you divide us,” I add, “I’ll be forced to let you pack that box and leave. Is that what you want?”

She rotates to face me, lifting that perpetually defiant chin, those perfect, pink lips tilted upward, begging me to kiss them. “If I wanted this to end that way,” she says. “I wouldn’t have signed that contract.”

“Then stop thinking of me between your legs, because obviously only one of us can do that and still get our jobs done.”

“Are you trying to be crass or is that just natural for you?”

“Does it make you hate me more?”

“Yes.”

“Then hate me, Carrie, but do it behind closed doors, with or without me. In fact, if you want me to yank your skirt up and help you fuck it out of your system, we can do that too, but you will not do it in front of the staff.”

“What happened to you not fucking where you work?” she fires back.

“Seems like breaking that rule might be a public service.”

“Stop being an ass. It doesn’t help me help you, and don’t tell me that I’m not helping you. You’ve made it clear that you wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

“I’ll make no apologies for who and what I am. Support me or move on. Can or can’t.”

“Can,” she bites out. “I already said ‘can,’ so you’re the one who needs to move on.”

“You said ‘can’ and then you insulted me and charged for the door.”

“As you said. I’ll save the hate for more intimate moments, the ones spent without you.”

In other words, my reminder of our encounter won’t intimidate her. My lips quirk. She’s got balls and I fucking love it. “You’re with me. We are one. Say it.”

“I’m with you,” she bites out, anger vibrating off of her. “We are one.”

She’s defiantly submissive, which on her is both sexy as hell and the best I can hope for just minutes after I’ve stripped her of the control she believes should be hers. “Don’t make me regret this,” I say, pushing off the door and heading back to my new desk.

She stands there at my back, watching me, and when I round the desk, she’s still looking at me. “I will make you regret this. Not now. Now you’ll get your payday, but one day.” She turns and leaves, shutting the door behind her.

She hates me and I’ve barely gotten started. I’ve yet to force her to make hard decisions, like seeing her father in his true light. The path to getting there will surely be filled with more hate, but at least if we do end up naked, there’s no risk of her actually confusing me with that hero she already assured me I am not. And I’m damn sure not the guy any woman, most especially this one, takes home to their father. My cellphone rings on the desk where I set it and I glance at the caller ID. How well-timed. I decline the call. My father is toxic. He needs to stay away from this, and everything for that matter, and so does Carrie’s father. It can be no other way.

Just like us fucking has to happen and so does her hating me. Our families are enemies and she doesn’t even realize just how deep that runs. Which actually makes her perfect for me. I can want her all fucking day and night, but she’s safe. There will never be more than hate. And so, we’ll hate fuck when this is over—or hell, maybe before it’s over. It won’t make it all better, but I will. I’m going to make all of this bigger, better, and then I’ll be gone, which is just the way Carrie West will want it.

***

Carrie

Don’t think of him with his head between my legs? Asshole. He really is an asshole. He said that to make me think about his head between my legs and his mouth, too. And that damn cologne of his, woodsy and earthy, I couldn’t stop smelling it when I left him in that room.

I walk past Sallie, and just as I’d feared, she follows me into my office. By the time I’m on the other side of the desk, she’s shutting the door and crossing to stand in front of me. I sit. I would rather not be eye level. She sits. Wonderful. “What is happening?” she asks. “And why is that man still in your father’s office?”

The words I have to speak hang in my throat, but I have to say them to everyone tonight. I need to practice now. “My father’s retiring. Reid Maxwell’s firm is now the majority stockholder. And Reid Maxwell is the man sitting in my father’s office.”

“Oh my God,” she whispers. “A hostile takeover.” Panic lifts in her voice. “We’re under siege. My God.” She stands up.

“Sit,” I say, feeling like I’m repeating what just happened between me and Reid.

“I can’t sit.”

“You can. Sit. I need you to listen to me.”

She sits. “Are you being fired?”

“No. I’m working with Reid to make some positive moves forward and the plan is for me to reclaim the role of CEO.”

“And controlling stock?”

“I’ll have the opportunity to be majority stockholder, not controlling. Not now.”

“That’s not good.”

“A successful CEO of a monster company like this one is not bad.” It’s true, I remind myself. “We are going to be bigger and stronger.”

“Without your father?”

“This kind of thing happens often, and if we do what Reid Maxwell wants us to do, we’ll all have bright futures.”

“So you will be CEO, right?”

“I don’t know. We’ll see.” I want to comfort her and tell her everything will be okay, but I’ve never made promises I can’t keep. I don’t lie. I hate lies. They’ve burned me. They’ve hurt me. I don’t want them to hurt anyone else.

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“We made mistakes, Sallie. You know that.”

She nods. “Yes. The two big projects that went bottom-up in six months.”

“Yes. Stockholders don’t take kindly to those kinds of losses.”

“You were against those deals,” she says. “We did report after report to convince your father to walk away.”

“It’s done. We can’t look back.”

“You need to make sure the board knows you said no to those deals.”

“Reid knows.”

“Which is why you’re still here and your father is not. Will you get your father’s seat on the board?”

“That’s up in the air,” I say, and I hope it really is at this point. “For now, there will be a mandatory staff meeting at six. No one can miss it. Please arrange it.”

“I will.” She starts to get up.

“Sallie.”

“Yes?” she asks, settling back into her seat.

“Please don’t bail. If I make it to the other side of this, I’ll take care of you. I promise. I’ll make it worth your while.”

“And if you don’t make it to the other side?”

“Do a good job, and you might survive even if I don’t. I’ll make sure Reid knows how good you are, and you do the same.”

“He’s a hot piece of arrogant man. That means demanding and difficult.”

“Yes to all. Is that a problem?”

“Just one of my random observations.”

Which I normally like, but at this moment, I’ve had enough arrogant, demanding man for one day, and the day has only started. “An accurate one,” I say, and with that, she stands and heads for the door while my phone buzzes with my father’s extension. I pick up the receiver. “Yes, Reid?”

“Yes,” he says, as Sallie shuts me inside my office, in what could represent peace, if not for this man on my phone. “I like that word,” he says. “My secretary, Connie, is joining us tomorrow, after the announcements. I need her cleared to get past security.”

I wonder if he’s been between Connie’s legs and before I stop myself, I say it. “Have you been between Connie’s legs, too?”

“No. I have not. I told you—”

“You don’t fuck where you work unless it’s a public service, and who knows how easily you decide it’s a public service.”

“Never,” he says. “As in never, Carrie, but you changed our dynamic, not me.”

“For the record,” I say. “I never planned to actually—”

“Have an orgasm?” he supplies. “Those are the best kind. The unexpected ones.”

“I didn’t say it was good,” I say.

“You didn’t have to,” he says. “I was there, remember?”

All too well, I think. “I’ll have my assistant Sallie handle Connie’s security clearance,” I say tightly.

“I’ll have her call Sallie. When can I expect you and those reports to be back in my office?”

“Soon,” I say, which translates to too soon.

“In other words, you haven’t had time to call your father and talk about me.”

That comment pisses me off. He’s trying to find out if I function without my father. I don’t say a word. I hang up, grab my MacBook, round my desk, marching out of my office and toward his office. This man will not make me cower, and damn it, I think, when I reach the door about to open it, he will not make me quiver, quake, or moan either. Period. The end. I won’t let it happen.

With that vow, and once again, without knocking, I open the door and walk into Reid Maxwell’s new office, ready to prove I mean it.