I appreciated her resilience. I just wished she didn’t have to utilize it so much lately.
“I’ll drop in on the team, check on her.” I decided. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“She got me a bagel,” Knox announced, clearly thrilled.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think your loyalty was shifting to my girlfriend.”
“You never give me snacks.”
“Get out of my office,” I snapped.
Knox laughed the whole way out. I waited until he was gone to smile.
The phone buzzed, so I picked it up. “Yeah?”
“Sir, there’s someone here to see you.” Meghan spoke quietly.
Usually, Meghan sent anyone without an appointment packing. The fact she was calling to tell me this piqued my interest.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Lewis Regal, sir.”
I felt my eyebrows lift. “Lewis Regal is here right now?”
She made a sound of agreement. “He said he flew in this morning to talk to you.”
Running my tongue over my teeth, I made a decision. “All right. Send him in.”
“Right away, sir.”
A few moments later, Knox opened the door, allowing Regal inside. Nodding once to my guard, I silently let him know it was fine to wait outside.
“Mr. Regal,” I said, not bothering to come around my desk for a handshake. It would be a false politeness anyway. “I’m surprised to see you.”
“You’ve been so tough on the negotiations. I had no choice but to fly here myself.”
“I didn’t realize we were negotiating anything. I said no. I meant it.”
He chuckled good-naturedly, as if this was going to be a conversation between friends. I guessed he had more tolerance for fake politeness than I did. “I like to say everything in business is a negotiation until the ink on the contract is dry.”
“I feel that you’ve wasted your time coming here today. I won’t change my mind. Zero is a personal project of mine, one that I’m very proud of, and I could no more sell it to you than sell one of my own children.”
“You don’t have children, do you, Mr. Anders?”
“No. Maybe that’s why I feel so paternal toward this project.”
“My son told me his meeting with you didn’t go well.”
“With all due respect, Mr. Regal, your son needs some more lessons in business negotiation.”
The older man sat in one of the leather chairs, indicating I should join him. He was tall with slightly stooped shoulders and dark hair that I’d bet my helicopter was dyed. He wore a traditional navy-blue suit with a matching tie and black dress shoes he probably paid someone to shine and polish for him.
Lewis Regal was a shrewd businessman. Formidable. And he wasn’t used to hearing the word no. I admit I’d never said it to him until recently.
He chuckled fondly when I basically dissed his only son. “Alan is young and passionate. I was the same at his age.”
That really wasn’t something he should be proud of.
Sitting down across from him and crossing one leg over the other, I resigned myself to this waste of time. “Should I call for some coffee?”
“No need. Let’s get down to business.”
I gestured for him to say whatever it was he’d flown all the way here to say.
“You’re well aware that Zero is a knockoff of Primal Fear, Regal Tech’s most profitable game.”
I made a face, considering his claim. “Knockoff? No. A far superior game with upgraded technology and capabilities with some similarities would be my take on things.”
“Thirty million dollars is a very generous offer. Far above market price for something like this.”
“The reason you’re offering such a generous amount is because you know as well as I do you would recoup that cost and make a heavy profit on top.”
“If that game launches under Ansoft’s label, Regal Tech will become a laughingstock in the gaming world.”
Shrugging one shoulder, I said, “Regal Tech is the biggest technology company in this country. You don’t even need a gaming division. Just leave this sector to the people who know how to play.”
His hand gripped the arm of the chair, and he pulled himself forward. “Name your price.”
Leaning forward, I mirrored his stance. “This game—and any of Ansoft’s future work—is not for sale. No matter the price.”
“You’re messing with the wrong company.” He warned me.
Sitting back, I mused, “I think you’ve got it all wrong here, Mr. Regal. I’m not the one messing with anyone. You keep coming at me.”
“You little shit. You think you’ve finally managed to get one up on me. You’re still bitter about what happened all those years ago.”
Both feet hit the floor, and all traces of my amusement were gone. “Now why on earth would I need to be bitter about something when I’ve risen above it?”
His eyes narrowed, and the wrinkles around his mouth seemed to deepen.
“You did me a favor all those years ago. I might not have recognized it then, but once I pulled the knife out of my back, I realized I didn’t need you.” Gazing around my office, I added, “The fact that you’re sitting there with your checkbook open proves I was right.
“I’ll tell you what…” I continued. Getting out of my seat, I paced across to my desk. “How about I offer you a price for Primal Fear? You can close down your gaming division that never quite took off and use the money to put it toward your more profitable ventures.”
Lewis chuckled, coming to stand in front of my desk. Facing off, my workspace between us, he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and tossed a white envelope onto the tabletop.
Clearing my throat, I opened it up, unfolding the letter-size papers inside.
“I’m prepared to go public with everything,” Lewis informed me quietly.
As I read over the words, my fingers tightened, making the pages crumple. “Where did you get this?” I asked, hoarse.
“Did you think I wouldn’t do my homework? That I wouldn’t want to know how a nineteen-year-old kid ended up in my office with a game to sell?”
“I was trying to survive.” My words were angry. “And I trusted you to help me!”
He laughed. The sound made me sick. “I did help you.” Lifting his arms, he gestured around. “Look at where you are now. You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for that check I wrote you.”
The papers in my fist balled up. “Get out.”
“Did I finally shake that cool façade of yours?” he mused. “I see the boy from back then”—he pointed to the wad of papers—“is still in there somewhere.”
“Get out of my building and don’t ever come back.”
“Sell me all the rights to Zero, including the team who built it. Name your price, and I will be sure that information never sees the light of day.”
“Now I see it,” I said, controlling my anger. Keeping my face expressionless, I jammed my hands into my pockets, not wanting him to see the way I shook with anger. “I see that your son is just like you.”
Regal’s eyes narrowed. “If that gets out, it won’t matter how many state-of-the-art games you create. No one will buy from a killer.”
“Get out!” I roared.
The frame on the double doors leading into the room shook as Knox barged in. Looking up from beneath my brows, I saw it wasn’t just Knox, but Aaron, too.
“Boss?” Knox asked.
Aaron and I locked eyes. He didn’t say anything, just stalked forward to take Regal’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“Think about it.” Regal coaxed. “If you want to keep everything you have, including that new girlfriend you seem to be so attached to—”
My eyes and nostrils flared before he even finished threatening me. The wadded-up paper hit the floor, and both my hands slammed onto my desktop, knocking several things over.
Aaron and Knox dragged him from the room. Halfway to the door, h
e started to protest, realizing he was going to be seen in the lobby, looking way less composed than his image would allow.
“Get your hands off of me!” he declared.
My guards ignored him. A few more of my security team met them at the doorway, and a small group formed around the man, escorting him out.
Stepping out into the hall, I watched as he was led away. The second he turned the corner, out of sight, Meghan appeared, hurrying toward me.
My eyes snapped up, and her steps faltered.
“Hold my calls,” I ordered, then went back inside, slamming the door behind me.
Hand closing over the first thing it found, I launched it across the room. The heavy award crashed into a piece of art on the wall, shattering the glass and making the entire thing clatter loudly to the floor.
Nora
Anna slipped into the room, wariness written all over her face. “Guys,” she whispered.
All of us looked up from what we were doing.
“Apparently, the CEO is on the warpath. It’s probably best to hide out here for a while.”
When I stood, the chair slid out from under me, rolling away. “Carter? What’s wrong with him?”
“A few people in the hall said they saw some man in a suit being dragged out by security. Whatever happened has even Meghan cowering at her desk.”
“I’ll be back,” I said, rushing to the door.
“Whoa,” Anna said, blocking my path. “Maybe you should give him some time to breathe.”
Devin made a sound of agreement. “I know you and our CEO’ve got something going on, but we’ve been here longer. He can be scary when he wants… Best to give him some space.”
Well, that was advice I wasn’t going to take.
When I continued forward regardless of the warning, Anna blocked me again.
Frustrated, I glared. “I’ll be fine. Move.”
Forcibly, the door pushed open, and all of us looked up.
Carter’s dark head appeared, his eyes blacker than usual. The very air around him shimmered with danger.
“I was just coming to find you.”
Not glancing at anyone else, he grasped my wrist, towing me to the door. Before leaving, he paused and looked back. “How’s progress?”
“A little ahead of schedule,” Devin answered.
His voice was swift, no-nonsense, and in no way invited any reply. “Good. Keep working. If you have any updates, call my personal cell.”
I had to jog to keep up with his long strides as he pulled me down the hallway. I thought we were going to his office. Instead, he pulled me into an empty conference room at the end of the hall.
Pressing my body against the closed door, he rested one hand on the wood beside my head. His eyes glittered like a vast galaxy, so intense it was almost unfathomable. Anger simmered beneath the surface, reminding me of a caged animal who was pacing to be set free.
“What happened?” I asked, reaching up to touch his face.
He jerked back, and I froze. Dropping my hand, I refused to look away from his eyes. If I couldn’t physically touch him, then my stare would have to be enough.
“Come with me.” He said it almost like a challenge, like this was somehow a test.
The wildness in his eyes didn’t scare me. I didn’t care where he wanted to go. Moving slow, I reached out again, this time my fingers slipping into his.
“Let’s go,” I whispered, conviction in my words.
Surprise flickered in his eyes. Then his fingers tightened around mine. The door banged against the wall when he yanked it open, and once again, I was jogging to keep up.
Aaron waited at the end of the hallway. The second he saw us, he spoke into the phone at his ear. Knox and another guard were at the elevator, standing in the door to keep it open.
Carter walked right in without stopping. The guards smoothly stepped in, backs turned, and the doors slid closed. There was a black car with heavily tinted windows waiting at the curb just outside the lobby. A man in a black suit and black cap opened the door the moment we stepped from the building. Carter stopped long enough to usher me into the back seat, joining me immediately.
The car door shut.
A thick glass divider slid up, blocking the back seat from the front.
Gliding away from the curb, the car sped up, the city of Miami passing by.
“Don’t you want to know where we’re going?” Carter questioned.
“No.”
The way his Adam’s apple moved against his throat when his head turned to look at me made my fingers clench in my lap. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t care.”
Neither of us said a word as the car drove to our unknown destination. When we stopped, Carter didn’t wait for the driver to open his door. Pushing out, he unfolded from the back seat, reaching a hand inside for me.
The sun was so bright it was nearly blinding. My eyes watered and blinked, trying to adjust. A heavy breeze ripped the strands of my hair away from my cheeks, and the scent of salt was thick in the air.
As Carter led me around the front of the car, I spied his glistening white yacht, the one he’d rescued me in the night I’d gone overboard. It was even bigger in the daylight, much more luxurious than I had realized.
Ocean waves did their best to rock the large boat anchored at the end of the long dock, but in no way did they succeed. A man stood on the dock beside the craft. He was dressed in a suit, and I assumed it was the captain.
Halfway down the pier, Carter stopped abruptly. Pushing the hair out of my face, I gazed up, questions in my eyes.
“If you step on that boat with me, our no-sex deal is over.” His voice was sandpapery, making my stomach quiver.
Never had a warning made me so feverishly excited. Never had I wanted anything or anyone as much as I wanted this ebony-eyed man’s body covering mine.
That’s how it happened.
Reality stayed where we left it on the dock, and we sailed off into fantasy.
Carter
Irony - a sometimes humorous state of affairs or events that is the
reverse of what was or of what was to be expected.
It was truly ironic that Nora thought of me as Mr. Fantasy. Me. The man who preferred to be alone because reality was just too harsh.
I understood where the moniker came from. I supposed, from the outside, it was the way I appeared. Rich, young, with various successful businesses to my name. I lived on a private island and used my resorts and the city of Miami as my playground.
Money and success didn’t make me Mr. Fantasy, though. It just gave me the means to make me appear that way.
What made me Mr. Fantasy was Nora.
From the very moment I heard her fantasizing about the man who supposedly lived on the island—about me—I began fantasizing about her. That night with her was a chance to be something more than I was. A chance to be someone’s fantasy. A chance to be better than my reality.
She didn’t know it, but I needed her. More than she could ever need me. On the outside, some people looked as though they didn’t need anything at all. Usually, those were the people who needed the most.
Nora might want reality, but what I needed right now was a fantasy. Our fantasy.
The dress she wore billowed behind her, giving glimpses of the backs of her bare thighs as it waved in the ocean breeze. Her arms leaned on the railing, face upturned toward the shining sun as she gazed out across the endless turquoise sea.
Coming up behind to spoon my body against hers, I wrapped my arms around her, careful not to spill the champagne I held.
“What’s this?” she asked, taking one of the glasses.
Using my teeth to drag back the cap sleeve of her T-shirt, I kissed the top of her bare shoulder. “Your skin is warm,” I murmured.
“I am standing in the sun.”
We sipped at the champagne while the yacht glided through the waves, carrying us farther away from Miami.
Rotating in my arms, Nor
a’s back rested against the rail, her blue eyes beguiling. “What happened today?” she asked.
Catching a strand of hair before it blew into her eye and tucking it behind her ear, I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Then what is it you want to do?”
I couldn’t look away from her. I didn’t want to. “So many things. I want to do so many things with you.”
Wearing a soft smile, she brushed the hair off my forehead, dragging her fingers through it more than once. My eyes drifted shut, and a feeling of peace washed over me.
When I looked at her again, she was watching me, and the tender expression in her gaze made my heart somersault.
“Will you stay with me, good girl? Will you do all the things I want to do?”
“Where’m I going to go?” she answered, a teasing smile lifting the edges of her lips. Turning back to the railing, her hand swept out, gesturing to the view. “I’m in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight.”
Draining the rest of the alcohol in my glass, I stated, “Guess that means you’re mine.”
I could feel the tension coiled within me easing with every passing moment she was in my arms. No amount of money or success or luxury had ever been able to do that.
Leaning back into me, she said, “You ever wonder what’s down there under the surface of the water? There could be a shark or a whale right beside us and we don’t even know it!”
“Let’s go see.” Linking our hands, I led her to the stairs so we could descend to the lower level. It was cooler here because the sun was mostly blocked.
“It’s just how I remember it,” she mused, gazing around as we stepped into the master bedroom.
“You didn’t see everything,” I confessed, flipping a small switch nearby.
The quiet sound of a motor running startled her. Her eyes rounded and turned to the floor. “What’s that?” she asked, wary.
“You said you wanted to see what was below us.”
A section of the bedroom floor rolled away, slowly revealing a solid sheet of thick glass.
Gasping, Nora jumped back onto an unmoving section of floor. Looking at me, then quickly back down, she pointed. “Is that the ocean?”
Mr. Fantasy: (A standalone romance) Page 20
