Rebel

by HELEN HARDT

  He’d at least put on a button-down black shirt for the occasion, open at the neck, a few dark chest hairs peeking out.

  “Please have a seat, Mr. Wolfe,” I said, willing my voice not to crack. “Everyone else is here, so we can get started.”

  He glared at me. “Who the hell are you?”

  “I’m Lacey Ward, your father’s estate attorney.”

  “Lacey, huh?”

  “Yes.”

  Charlie sat down at the opposite end of the table to take notes. She glanced at me with an “I’m sorry” look.

  Rock chuckled and took the seat next to Reid. “Did your mother name you after the lingerie she was wearing the night you were conceived?”

  Reid nudged him. “Jesus Christ, Rock.”

  My cheeks warmed. This was Derek Wolfe’s son all right, clear down to the douchebag gene. Stay professional, Lace.

  “My name isn’t up for discussion right now. Since we’re all here, let’s get to your father’s will.”

  “I can’t fucking wait,” Rock said with a touch—okay, a huge amount—of sarcasm.

  I cleared my throat and began.

  3

  Rock

  Lacey Ward was fucking hot.

  Oh, she tried to hide it in her navy-blue blazer and tight-ass high-necked blouse, her dark blond hair pulled into a high ponytail so tight that her facial muscles could barely move, and her unglossed lips pressed into a straight line, but I knew the type.

  A fucking tomcat in the sack.

  I could tell by her eyes. They were big, blue, and vibrant, and they looked me over as if I were a hunk of USDA prime beef tenderloin.

  Yup, a tomcat.

  Not that I’d ever know. Hell, not that I cared.

  I was here for one reason only—so my mother and siblings could hear the contents of the shithead’s will. I already knew he’d left me a fat lot of nothing.

  And I didn’t care one fucking bit.

  Lacey Ward’s voice had a rasp to it. A sexy rasp. It wouldn’t be a hardship to listen to her for the next few hours. Hell, I didn’t even need to listen to the words. I knew what they’d be anyway.

  Rock gets nothing.

  Fine with me.

  “Section Five, distribution of personal property,” Lacey said. “All of my mother’s jewelry in my possession and in the safe deposit box at First National Bank is hereby bequeathed to my daughter Riley Doris Wolfe.”

  No surprise there.

  “My automobiles, except for the Tesla and the Porsche, are bequeathed to my sons, Roy and Reid Wolfe, with Roy, as the older, to have the first choice. They will then choose alternately. The Porsche is bequeathed to my daughter, Riley Wolfe.”

  His cars. Daddy’s pride and joy. He loved those damned cars more than he ever loved any person in his life, least of all me.

  I stopped listening. I sat back, closed my eyes, and basked in the rhythm of Lacey’s sexy voice.

  Yeah, Rock. Fuck me good, baby. Pound that hard cock into me…

  My groin tightened. Hell, I didn’t care. Just get this day over with.

  That’s it, baby. Fuck me. Make me come…

  Damn, she’d look good on the back of my bike, that blond hair flowing out of a helmet. Yup, I was a helmet man. No point in splattering my brains all over the place. Now that I had a life I enjoyed, I wanted to keep it that way.

  I hated Manhattan. I wanted to go back to Montana, where the sky was big and blue and everything was open. New York was so closed in. And it smelled. Even in this posh Manhattan office, the stench of the streets still wafted in the air.

  I looked around. My brother Roy was looking down at his lap, while Reid was ogling Lacey. Not that I blamed him. He’d probably fucked her already.

  A spear of jealousy hit my gut. Why? I didn’t know. So what if he’d fucked her? Reid fucked anything in a skirt.

  My little sister, Riley, sat next to my mother.

  Riley… The sight of her brought it all back. We weren’t close, and I was sorry about that. I’d been protecting her that day, but she didn’t know that, and I could never tell her.

  Then of course…Mommie Dearest.

  Constance Wolfe.

  Bitch extraordinaire, who’d had no issue with turning a blind eye to her husband’s extracurricular activities.

  My gaze floated back to Lacey Ward. I closed my eyes again and sighed. This was going to be a long day.

  “Section Seven, real property…”

  Can I please doze off now? The villa in Tuscany, the ski chateau in Aspen, the loft in Paris. Who needed all that shit? I had my small cabin in Montana, a Harley, and a job doing construction. It kept me fit and paid well, enough to pay my mortgage, keep food in my belly, and gas in my bike. I got to spend a lot of time outdoors. Who needed anything else?

  Man, that voice…

  Sink that big cock into me, Rock. Yeah, just like that…

  Then…

  Silence.

  My eyes shot open.

  Five gazes, belonging to my mother, my siblings, and my father’s current slut, were darting arrows straight toward me.

  4

  Lacey

  Had Rock Wolfe heard what I said?

  I’d expected a major outburst.

  The outburst came, but not from Rock.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Reid said, standing. “You misread that.”

  I cleared my throat. “I assure you I didn’t.”

  “Dad couldn’t have agreed to that,” he said.

  “It’s outrageous,” Connie Wolfe said, her perfect lips a straight line. “Nothing to me? Or my other children?” she added, most likely as an afterthought.

  “You’re the ex-wife, Connie,” Fonda said, smirking, “in case you’ve forgotten.”

  “I’m the mother of Derek’s children,” Connie snarled back at her, “and I don’t recall hearing your name being read either.”

  These two were about to have a mega-catfight if I didn’t regain control of this meeting. Roy remained silent, but that didn’t surprise me. He was known to be quiet. Riley, however, looked distant, as though she were somewhere else entirely.

  I cleared my throat. “These were Mr. Wolfe’s wishes. I have all the notes in my office, and I recorded all of our meetings.”

  “We’ll just contest it,” Connie said. “Reid has been Derek’s right-hand man for years. None of this makes any sense.”

  Right. That viper wasn’t concerned about Reid at all. Her gravy train had ended with Derek’s death, and she was far from happy about it.

  “You may certainly contest the will, Mrs. Wolfe,” I said, “but you’ll be wasting your time and money. Your ex-husband made his wishes very clear.”

  Constance Wolfe darted her gaze to her oldest son, who was staring at me wide-eyed. “Rock, don’t you have anything to say about all of this?”

  “Why should I?” he asked.

  Connie shook her head and scoffed. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

  “That’s a good thing, from where I’m sitting,” Rock said, smiling. “Why the hell is everyone staring at me?”

  “Uh…because our father just mandated that you become CEO of Wolfe Enterprises,” Reid said.

  Rock cocked his head, one eyebrow rising. “Excuse me?”

  “Christ, Rock, haven’t you been listening?”

  “Of course I haven’t been listening. Do you think I give a rat’s ass what the bastard put in his will? He only mandated that I be here so that he could rub my nose in the fact that I was getting nothing. What he didn’t count on was me not giving a flying fuck.”

  “Rock,” Roy said softly. “Dad just put the fate of our birthright in your hands.”

  Ten minutes later, I found myself in my office with a rabid Rock Wolfe.

  “I’m out of here,” he’d said, standing and heading toward the door.

  Charlie had looked at me with pleading eyes, so I’d turned to the family. “I’ll take care of this.” Then I’d headed out the door after Ro
ck.

  Somehow I’d convinced him to follow me to my office.

  “What?” He looked at me irately.

  “Were you truly not listening to anything I said in there?”

  “Honestly? No. I was imagining the two of us fucking.”

  Warmth spread to my cheeks, and my pulse thumped, despite myself. A torpedo shot between my legs.

  I cleared my throat. “I’d like to keep our relationship professional, please, Mr. Wolfe.”

  “Sure, we can keep it professional. You asked if I was listening. I told you what I was doing instead of listening. Nothing unprofessional there.”

  Best to ignore him. Rock Wolfe was trouble. Trouble I didn’t need in my life at the moment.

  I cleared my throat again. Time to cut to the chase.

  “Mr. Wolfe—”

  “Rock. Mr. Wolfe was that bastard who died.”

  He wasn’t making this easy. “All right. Rock. Your father just mandated that you move to Manhattan and take your place at the head of his company—rather, your company—as chief executive officer.”

  “What? No way. What the hell is he trying to pull? He hates me. And I don’t know anything about his fucking business. I also don’t give a shit.”

  I sighed. “Believe me, I tried to talk him out of this scheme, but he was adamant.”

  “You wrote this thing?”

  “That’s what he paid me to do.”

  “Jesus fuck.” He sat down in one of the leather chairs across from my desk. “I won’t do it, I tell you. I won’t. I wouldn’t know what I was doing anyway.”

  I walked around my desk and took a seat, facing him. “You really weren’t listening, were you?”

  He smiled. God, he was gorgeous. I hated the effect he was having on my body.

  “I already told you what I was doing, Lacey Lingerie.”

  I seethed, despite the tickle between my legs.

  “I still bet your mother was wearing lace that night. Where else would you get a name like Lacey?”

  “You’re one to talk, with a name like Rock.”

  “My mom was a fan of the old Rock Hudson and Doris Day movies. Riley’s middle name is Doris.”

  “You do know that Rock Hudson was gay, right?”

  “Yeah, I do. So what? That doesn’t mean everyone named Rock is gay.”

  “And neither is every Lacey named after undergarments.”

  He smiled again, but this time he didn’t push it.

  I cleared my throat. “Your father has left his business interests in Wolfe Enterprises, which, as you know, is a three billion dollar corporation—”

  “I haven’t seen my father in twenty-some years. I don’t know shit.”

  “All right.” I sighed. “Now you know. You are heir to a three billion dollar corporation.”

  “You’re telling me I’m as rich as Bill Gates now?”

  “Hardly, but you are rich. Once you get into billions, does it really matter?” Indeed, any amount in the billions was incomprehensible to most, myself included.

  He sat, stunned, his green eyes wide. “What the hell am I going to do with all of that?”

  “It’s not solely yours. He left it in equal parts to you, your brothers, and your sister.”

  “Good. They deserve it.”

  “But there was a stipulation.” I stood. “Didn’t you wonder why everyone was staring at you in the conference room?”

  “It was obviously my devastating good looks,” he said, smiling.

  I couldn’t fault his observation, even though he was clearly just flirting with me. If I were the type to go for a leather-clad bad boy, I’d be all over Rock Wolfe.

  Fortunately, I wasn’t that type.

  At least that was what I kept telling myself.

  “Mr. Wolfe—”

  “We’ve been through that. My name is Rock.”

  “Rock.” I sighed. “The stipulation I’m talking about is this. For you and your siblings to inherit the business holdings at all, you, Rock Wolfe, must move to Manhattan and take your place as CEO of the company. You need to run the company, or it will be sold to the highest bidder.”

  5

  Rock

  Fucking bastard.

  This had to be some kind of a sick joke.

  “I assure you it’s not,” Lacey said, when I mentioned the same. “I tried to talk him out of this. I told him you had no idea how to run a billion dollar company, and that it was irresponsible to put his company in the hands of a son he’d been estranged from for so long, a son who’d never had any experience in business at all.”

  A son who’d tried to off him once.

  But she didn’t know that.

  “And he didn’t listen to you? What the hell kind of lawyer are you? Can’t you control your clients?”

  She walked around her desk and stood right in front of me, forcing me to look up at her. “It’s my job to advise my clients what the law is and what is in their best interests under the law. I didn’t feel this decision was in his company’s best interest, and I told him so many times. However, the law allows a person to bequeath his property to whomever he chooses with whatever stipulations he chooses. I did my job, Mr. Wolfe.”

  There she went with the Mr. Wolfe again. She looked cutely irate, her hands glued to her hips and her cheeks flushing a glorious pink.

  “Well”—I stood, this time making her look up to me—“I won’t do it. I don’t give a flying fuck about Wolfe Enterprises.”

  “Do you give a flying fuck about Roy, Reid, and Riley?” she asked adamantly.

  I sat back down with a plunk.

  Roy, Reid, and Riley.

  Of course I gave a fuck. They were my brothers and sister. I’d protected them as best I could before I’d been sent away.

  “Well?” she asked again.

  I closed my eyes. “Yes.”

  “Then you don’t have a choice,” Lacey said. “They lose their inheritance if you don’t do as the will stipulates.”

  “You mean as my bastard father stipulates,” I said. “He’s coming after me from the grave, the son of a bitch.”

  She placed her hand on my shoulder. The gesture was caring, but it ignited a spark under my skin.

  “He is. But if you don’t do this, Rock, your siblings will suffer. They won’t get their share of the business.”

  “They still got plenty from that will,” I said. “I was lucid when I heard that Reid and Roy got all the cars, Riley all the jewels. They can still live the high life. Who got the home in Tuscany? Aspen?”

  “You did.”

  I stood. “What the fuck?”

  “You got all the real property, including the Manhattan penthouse.”

  “Well, that’s easy enough to remedy. I’ll give all the real estate to my siblings.”

  “You can’t.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “It’s all part of the stipulation. You take the reins at Wolfe Enterprises, or everything is sold to the highest bidder.”

  “What about cash on hand?”

  “There isn’t any. Nothing of substance, anyway. Your father died without any liquid assets. It’s all tied up in real estate and business.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “I wish I were. I’m sure your siblings wish the same thing.”

  “I can’t do this, Lacey. I just can’t. I have a life, damn it. A life I love in Montana. I’m free there. Free to do as I please. Take off on my bike whenever I want.”

  An image appeared in my mind, of Lacey, clad in tight leather chaps and a leather halter top, climbing on the back of my bike and wrapping her arms around my waist.

  Then taking off, the roar of my pipes, the wind in my face…and Lacey clinging to me.

  “I understand. Really, I do.”

  “You don’t. You sit here in your tight-ass office wearing your tight-ass suit, when you should be outdoors enjoying life.”

  “Mr. Wolfe, I—”

  “Rock,” I said. “Da
mn it. Call me Rock.” My groin was tightening, and I couldn’t stand it any longer.

  I grabbed her and crushed my mouth to hers.

  She kept her lips pinned shut, but I traced my tongue over the seam of them, nudging them open. “That’s right, baby. Open for me.” I swept my tongue into the warmth of her mouth.

  She tasted minty fresh with a touch of vanilla. Delicious.

  I glided my lips over hers as our tongues slid together.

  I’d kissed a lot of women. Almost every weekend I took a new luscious treat to my bed.

  But this kiss…

  She pulled away and pushed at me.

  I didn’t move.

  “Mr.—”

  “Rock, damn it. I just had my tongue in your mouth. Call me Rock.”

  “Rock…” She swayed a little, steadying herself by placing her hand on the edge of her desk.

  I couldn’t help smiling.

  “This… I’m not… This isn’t…professional.”

  “It’s not? That was a damned good kiss, baby. I’d say you could do it professionally.”

  Her cheeks went from rosy to crimson. Again, I smiled.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “You’re my father’s lawyer. You’re not mine. You and I don’t have a professional relationship.”

  “It’s not—”

  I quieted her by placing two fingers over her pink, swollen lips. “You know what I’d like to do, Lacey Ward?”

  She gulped.

  “I’d like to lift up that blue skirt and bend you over that desk.” I inched closer to her. “I bet you’re already wet for me.”

  She squirmed, crossing her legs.

  Yup. She was wet.

  I inhaled. I could already smell her musky arousal. I inched forward again, until only a few centimeters separated us.

  She backed up against her desk. “I don’t think—”

  “Don’t think, baby. Now isn’t the time for thinking. Where the hell would thinking get us? Just give in. Turn around.” I lightly touched her arms, turning her around. Then I buried my nose in her neck and inhaled. “You smell like a fantasy.”