When the fifteenth of the month rolls around, it's time for my meeting with Rex LaPrise. He's coming to Diamond House Tower to meet me in my office, on my own turf.

In general, I avoid Rex as much as possible. But with the upcoming merger between our two companies, avoidance is no longer a valid strategy. We may be bitter rivals in competition for the same position, but we still have to work together to ensure a smooth transition.

I hold out some hope that he'll cancel the meeting so I don't have to deal with his fucking ass today, but no such luck. A few minutes before our scheduled meeting at four-o'clock, my intercom buzzes.

"Mr. Steele. Mr. LaPrise is here," says my assistant's voice.

My finger slips off the talk button and my fist clenches involuntarily. Here we go. I hit it again. "Let him in." I pull out my handy bottle of scotch from my desk drawer, and take a swig.

Dealing with scum like Rex practically requires a baseline level of intoxication.

The door clicks open and he enters my office. He's older, with short, buzzed graying hair and a dead-looking face like a ghost, or maybe a robot. He creeps me out. Every time I'm around the guy, I feel like he's waiting for the perfect time to skin me and play around in my blood.

We've only got about four weeks left until our two companies merge, and the board of directors picks just one of us to take over the new publishing empire.

My jaw twitches.

I stand up and extend a hand to Rex. I may hate the guy, but that doesn't mean I'm going to break basic business etiquette.

He reaches over my desk and takes it. We both squeeze hard. Hard enough that it could break the bones of lesser men. Rex is a lot stronger than pudgy old Rick.

Rex releases his grip first and puts an eerie smile on that pale, ghastly face of his.

"Rex."

"Mr. Steele."

"Talk."

"Well, thank you for the warm welcome," he says. His face nearly contorts into a sneer, but he holds back just enough that I can't be sure. "As you know, Mr. Steele, preparations are underway for the merger. And the combined board will be making their decision shortly thereafter."

"Did you come to summarize the next month, Rex, or do you have something useful to say?"

He gives me a nasty little grin. "Well, I simply wanted to wish you luck."

"Then why don't I believe you?"

"Paranoia?"

"Not at all."

"Then perhaps you're just taking this all too seriously."

I grit my teeth. "You know the stakes, Rex. And I don't intend to go quietly into the night."

He sneers. "Is that right?"

"I built this business from the ground up. You inherited McMaster while it was already flying high. You're not qualified for the job. You won't take away what I've built."

He gets under my skin, and I hate it, but I don't let him see it. I maintain my composure. That's how this game is played. The first one to show weakness gets torn apart.

He shrugs. "We'll see about that. Though, should the board pick me, I'll see to it that you're placed into a lucrative Vice President position. Or Assistant Director."

Either of those positions would be an insult, not a sportsmanlike concession, and he knows that just as well as I do.

I don't respond.

"One other thing," he adds, and I brace myself. He always likes to throw curveballs at the last minute.

"Speak."

"I hear you were quite the playboy back in your younger days, Luke."

I narrow my eyes and shake my head at him. "I have no idea where you're going with this, but I suggest you stay the hell out of my business. Worry about you."

"Oh?" he says, an evil little grin on his face. "Well, all I'm saying, is that it would be a damn shame if all of these find their way into the public sphere." He reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a USB thumb drive.

I grit my teeth. "What the hell is that?"

"A little something I dug up. Photos, videos, eyewitness accounts of your bad behavior from back in the day. There's a lot of material here. Drinking, girls, clubbing… you know."

My fist clenches. "Unbelievable," I say. "This is beyond the pale."

Yeah, back in college and in my earlier days, I partied to excess and did some things I'd rather leave in the past. But everyone has some ghosts in their closet, and I thought mine were locked in there for good.

But now Rex is digging up my past in order to derail my future. And it's probably the only way he can, too, because I have a leg up on him where it really counts—in business skill and knowledge.

"You know," he says quietly, "you could always step out now. You know, save yourself the embarrassment. I'm sure everyone would understand if you decided you simply no longer wished to lead the new company."

That motherfucker. I can't believe he'd come into my office and try to blackmail me like this.

"Over my dead body," I say.

"Well," he says, pocketing the USB drive again, "Then I trust we'll be seeing more of each other during the coming weeks."

I have to hold myself back from launching myself over the desk at him. This is how he finds advantages. By getting under your skin until you say or do something that you shouldn't. Then he unravels you like a ball of yarn.

He won't do it to me. No matter how hard he tries. If he releases dirt on my past, I'll deal with it when it happens. Because that's who I am now. A good, responsible man. I'm not a playboy partier anymore. Those days are over.

And whatever I am, I'm definitely not like Rex.

"That will be all. Get the hell out of my office," I say, using my most authoritative, get-shit-done voice.

He stares into my eyes, then gives me the most fake smile I've ever seen in my life before he turns and leaves.

What a fucking waste of air he is.

* * *

In the days after my meeting with Rex, I'm completely on fucking edge. I don't know exactly what dirt he has, or how he plans to use it, but I do know that I'm in for the fight of my life.

It pisses me off that there's nothing I can do. Even if I'd grabbed the USB drive from him, he's smart enough to have a backup copy of the data somewhere else.

I feel like I'm going to fucking explode. I need a distraction.

I think about Leah. She still hasn't texted me since she picked up the notebook from my place. I'm starting to wonder if she actually wants to see me again. I'm not used to women doing anything except jumping all over me. So now that a woman I like isn't falling all over me, it's bothering me.

My phone sits on my desk, beckoning. I grab it and kick back in my chair, throwing my feet up on my desk. I switch to the text messaging app and compose a new message:

I want to see you again. I haven't stopped thinking about you.

I don't expect a response anytime soon, and so I stand up, shove my phone in my pocket, and get ready to head out for the evening. But to my great surprise, my phone dings with a new text message almost right away.

Is that right? :)

Grinning to myself, I tap a reply.

I've been dying to get my hands on you again ever since that night. Maybe more than just my hands.

This time, I don't get a reply back right away. I wait five minutes, then ten, and still nothing.

Well, shit. Maybe this is the time that I went too far with a woman. Maybe Leah really isn't that kind of girl, and I should have played it cooler with her.

I pace around my office. Damn. This is really out of character for me. I'm Luke Steele, CEO of the biggest publishing company in the world. Not some teenage dumbass who can't wait for his phone to ring.

But then my phone dings again, and I rush to read the message:

I'm thinking about that, too.

I reply:

You must love keeping me in suspense, then.

She texts back:

Just busy. Let's do something soon. I want to see you too. I like the way you make me feel.

Hell yes. I grin to myself as I pack up for the day.

Maybe everything with Rex is going to hell in a handbasket, but knowing that I'm going to see Leah Price again makes everything seem okay.