Chapter Four
Liam wanted to pull his hair out. Or punch something. Maybe both.
He never worked this late. Never. One of Jed’s cardinal rules was that anything that didn’t get done during normal business hours could wait until tomorrow. Liam used to try to work later, especially as they approached deadlines for big games, but Jed had a sixth sense for when someone was left in the building working. He thought, as the boss, he should be the last to leave, and if someone stayed late, he would chase them out so he could get home.
He’d grown to like that rule—no, love that rule. Thanks to Jed’s eldest daughter, though, Liam was stuck here late for the second night in a row. He glanced at the company messenger on the side of his screen and saw the green dot beside Vivien’s name. So, the Ice Queen was still here, too. Good. He wanted to give her a piece of his mind.
With Flynn trailing behind him, Liam jogged up the spiral staircase that led from the Game Development floor to the CEO’s office. Jed had designed it so he could always have his finger on the pulse of MT’s lifeblood. Liam couldn’t count the number of times he’d climbed these stairs, fired up with a great idea to share with Jed. Now the only thing fired up was his temper.
Without knocking, he threw open the door, and Vivien let out a small scream, all the color draining from her pretty face. He’d seen her in meetings, but this was the first time he’d been alone with her since their first meeting. Damn, but she packed a punch, even with her lipstick chewed off and her hair trying to escape the elegant chignon.
“Jesus. Liam, what the fuck?” Vivien said, pressing her hand to her breastbone. “I’m already well on my way to a heart attack. You don’t need to tip me over the edge.”
Some of his anger dissipated, replaced with a knee-jerk reaction of concern. “What are you still doing here?”
“What am I still doing here?” Some of the ice slid back into place, but the wild look didn’t leave her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets, moving closer to her desk. “Someone has me filling out a million reports every day, on top of doing my regular job. Not to mention the emails I’m getting from other departments, complaining that you’re trying to mess with their workflow. What are you working on that can’t wait until tomorrow morning?”
“Shit. Sorry.” Vivien cradled her head in her hands, her chest quivering as she took a shaky breath. “Um. Right, I’m trying…I’m trying to read up on this stupid game release press conference tomorrow. I…I was supposed to be ready by now, but there was an emergency with one of my client’s portfolios and then there was some crisis with the marketing department that I had to make sense out of and I’m…”
“Totally in the weeds?” Liam supplied. He went to the wet bar in one corner of the office and poured a generous splash of Jed’s favorite bourbon into two tumblers.
He set the tumblers down on the coffee table in front of the couch, then pulled Vivien to her feet, gently guiding her to sit down. The elegant small of her back did something to him, stirring up the desire he’d been trying to ignore. He couldn’t help but admire the way her hips flared before tapering into those lovely legs of hers. What man wouldn’t want to think about how they would feel entwined with his?
“What are you doing? I need to—” Her weak protest died as he pressed one of the glasses into her hand.
“You need to stop and breathe.” He took a seat next to her, motioning for Flynn to sit down. The contrary dog hopped onto one of the armchairs, curling into an exhausted ball of fur. Liam rubbed a hand up and down Vivien’s arm, the warmth of her body radiating against him, stirring his libido even more, but the worry drowned that out. She looked ready to go to pieces, and every protective instinct said for him to keep her together.
“If I stop, I might lose it. I don’t know the first thing about press conferences, let alone having to confidently talk about a video game. And it’s the first release since Jed died, and they’re going to ask a million questions about the transition, and I don’t have answers.” Vivien took a sip of the scotch, her hand shaking a little. “I’m trying to get a handle on this and make sense of the nonsensical way things work around here. My uncle is breathing down my neck, but I can’t even find my feet long enough to decide who should take over.”
Liam’s heart clenched a little. This was the woman he’d seen that first day. A fierce warrior with armor for days but a vulnerable side as well. As much as she irritated him with her type A personality, she was also in way over her head. “Don’t worry about your uncle right now, and we’ll get back to your departmental meddling. If you want, I’ll help you get ready for the press conference. But you’ve got to relax, or you’ll make yourself sick.”
“I—” For a minute, he thought she might try to bullshit him that she didn’t need help, but she stopped, taking a deep breath. “Thank you. I…I would appreciate your help.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard,” he teased, sipping his own scotch. “You don’t have to do all of this on your own, you know. MT’s always been a company based on collaboration and equality.”
Vivien snorted into her glass, taking another sip as she kicked off her shoes, curling her legs up on the couch as much as her pencil skirt would allow, putting distance between them. Too bad it didn’t diminish his awareness of her innate sensuality one damn bit.
“Didn’t you hear? I don’t play well with others.”
“I didn’t when I first started here, either, but I learned.” He stretched his arm along the back of the couch, studying her. Why did he find those skirts of hers so appealing? “What’s with the dark circles? Have you been getting any sleep?”
Shrugging, she swirled the Wild Turkey around, not meeting his eyes. “I don’t sleep much. Usually a few hours and I’m good. Guess I was restless last night. Uncle Richard showed up at like ten thirty, and then I’m still not used to being back and I couldn’t settle in.”
“Wait, what?” Apprehension snaked into Liam’s gut. “He just showed up? What did he want?”
“He mentioned something about wanting to find some of Mom’s papers.” As he started rubbing the back of her neck, her breathing eased a little and she leaned into his touch. For a second, he wondered what might happen if he slid his hands under the collar of her shirt and felt the delicate skin at the base of her neck, but her auburn brows furrowed, bringing him back to reality.
“Something was just…off. This would all be so much easier if I had one of those warm, fuzzy uncles.”
If she only knew. His suspicions about Barton crept back to the forefront and he made a note to send Sophia a text, pushing her to take a closer look at the CFO. Liam didn’t trust the man, and every day that distrust grew. He hated the idea of Barton doing anything to intimidate or bully his own niece, even if that niece could eat most men for breakfast without breaking a sweat. No one, not even an Ice Queen, could be at the top of her game in these circumstances.
“If he shows up like that again, let me or Eli Williams know,” Liam urged. “Don’t let him try to push you around, especially not about the CEO job.”
“He’s the least of my worries,” Vivien said, waving her hand, her mask sliding back into place a bit more. She drained the bourbon with barely a wince. “Right now, I need to focus on all the work I’ve got to do.”
Liam nodded. “Okay. What do you need to know for the press conference?”
“I’ve got notes on Jed’s—my desk.” She uncurled and started to stand, but she swayed a little.
Liam quickly got to his feet to steady her. For a moment, they stood with her body pressed along the front of his, every luscious curve sending his libido into hyperdrive. Without her heels, the top of her head barely reached his chin, but it would still be so easy to lean down and taste her lips. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I—um, it probably wasn’t smart to down that bourbon on an empty stomach. I can’t remember if I stopped to eat lunch today,” Vivien admitted, taking a step back from him.
A swell of protectiveness mixed in with the irritation she normally caused. He didn’t want to like her, didn’t want to take care of her, but for some reason he couldn’t walk away. For all her steely backbone, she couldn’t do this alone, and he wasn’t willing to let her stumble and fall. He owed her father that much at least.
“Jesus, Viv. If you can’t remember lunch, I’m guessing you forgot dinner, too.” He shook his head, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Get your papers together. I’ve got some leftover pizza in my office fridge. I’ll heat it up and grab us some Cokes. Then we’ll go over everything you need to know about RPGs designed for kids aged eleven and older. Flynn, stay.”
Not waiting for her response, he turned and left to get food and distance. But distance didn’t help lessen her impact on him. He returned to find her back on the couch, papers spread out on the table in front of her. Flynn’s bark of greeting brought her attention back to him, and there was a softness in her gaze that surprised him.
“You’re sweet, you know that?” She sounded annoyed by that sentiment.
He chuckled. “Why does that not feel like a compliment coming from you?”
She accepted the paper plate laden with cheese pizza from him with a shrug. “I’m not used to sweet. But you are. You’re sweet and even a little cute, when you’re not being a pain in the ass.”
“Okay, I think you need some pizza to soak up the Wild Turkey.” He pretended like her words didn’t affect him, but he had to be one hell of an actor.
His help might be for her father’s sake, but his desire was purely her fault, and he needed a minute to get a rein on his cock. As much as his body might want her, she was too much of a risk to be anything more than his boss and maybe his ally in the fight to save MT.