Taking Care of Business

by Lauren Dane

  Leah sighed and nodded, letting it go.

  When they dropped some money on the table and headed towards the elevators, Leah touched Kate's arm.

  'You know I'm only giving you a temporary pass on this whole thing with Dix. I want to hear everything about the talk you two have.'

  'Yeah, yeah. I know. I have another hour and some change before I need to get in and bust some corporate balls so I'll be on my way. Try to save time for me later.' She leaned in close to Leah. 'But if you get a chance to have Band Boy trim your hedges, we can catch up another time.'

  16

  The rooms were already set up with everything the group needed. Brandon had made sure of everything himself. He'd even called the bagel place to confirm the delivery. He'd never had a problem with their service, but he didn't want today to be the first time.

  'You OK?' Melinda, the front-desk clerk, asked. 'You look a little flushed.'

  'No, I'm fine.' His tie felt a little too snug around his neck though.

  'You sure?' She leaned on the counter to stare at him. Melinda liked to joke that she was Brandon's surrogate mother, since his real mom lived so far away. She brought him hot soup in a Thermos on cold days and had invited him home for dinners more times than he could count. 'You don't look fine. You look like you're going to jump out of your skin if someone hollers boo.'

  'Nan.' He took a deep breath but made sure not to be too obvious about it. There was no way he was going to tell his self-appointed surrogate mom that he was a horny bastard just waiting until he could be alone with a woman who probably was only going to tease him again ... or that he half-hoped she would.

  'OK, if you say so.' Melinda didn't look convinced. 'I have some Prevent-A-Flu back in the office. Maybe you should take some.'

  'I'll drink some orange juice, OK?' He smiled, hoping to ease her fears that he was about to topple over with some grave disease. With the imminent erection he knew was ready to spring up the moment he saw Leah, there was no chance of toppling.

  'You do that. You want to come over for dinner Saturday night or do you have a big date?' Melinda laughed. She knew he hadn't been doing much dating. 'Or do you have to work?'

  'I probably have to work.'

  'They work you too hard,' she protested. She was more protective than his own mother.

  'I need the money,' Brandon said simply.

  Melinda tutted but, before she could say more, she had to turn to the man who'd walked up to the desk. 'Hi. Can I help you?'

  'I want to talk to him.' The guy jerked his chin towards Brandon.

  It was that guy from the bar the night he'd met Leah: Mike, the ex-boyfriend. Brandon stood taller, consciously straightening his shoulders, making himself bigger.

  'What can I help you with?' He kept the question carefully neutral, not pretending he didn't know the guy, just not acknowledging him as anything other than a hotel guest.

  'You really want to do this here, buddy?'

  At the tone of the guy's voice Melinda looked like she might leap over the desk and get between Mike and Brandon and, as much as Brandon appreciated her sentiment, he didn't need a babysitter.

  'We can go into my office.'

  Mike nodded, hard. Brandon didn't nod and he didn't hurry, and he didn't look over his shoulder to make sure Mike was following. He pushed open his office door and left it open, still without looking, and took a seat at his desk. He tilted back in his chair and gestured at the rickety chair with the bad leg in front of his desk. 'Have a seat.'

  Mike stayed standing. 'I want to know how long you've been fucking my girlfriend.'

  Brandon didn't blink. 'From what I hear, buddy, she's not your girlfriend any more.'

  'She tell you that?'

  'It was pretty obvious the other night.'

  Mike scowled. He looked like a lawyer but acted like a bully. Brandon didn't like being bullied. He smiled, not to take the sting out of his words but to give them extra.

  'How long? Since that night? Or before then? You'd better tell me.'

  'Or what?' Brandon set all four legs on the floor with a thump. 'What are you going to do? She doesn't want to be with you any more, man. Have some pride.'

  Mike growled. Literally. The sound rose from deep in his chest and surged out from behind clenched teeth. His fists clenched.

  It took everything in him, but Brandon didn't rise to the blatant challenge. He smiled instead.

  Mike sneered. 'Fucking pussy,' he said.

  'Apparently I am,' Brandon said. 'And you're not.'

  Mike bared his teeth. 'She can't possibly like you better than me. You don't know what she likes.'

  Brandon said nothing.

  'Did you get her on her knees yet? Did she suck your cock? That's what she likes, man, can you handle it?' Mike jerked his chin again, his jaw set. 'She likes it when you tie her up and spank her, did she tell you that? Can you give it to her like that? I don't think so.'

  Heat flooded him at this rant and Brandon gritted his teeth. 'I think you' d better leave.'

  'Or what?' Mike mimicked in a falsetto voice. 'What are you going to do?'

  'I can call security and have you escorted out of here, for one thing.' Brandon got to his feet, slowly, immensely satisfied by the way Mike had to tilt his head to look up when he was done.

  'Big man.' Mike gave a silent 'Ooh'. 'I'm impressed.'

  'She doesn't want to be with you any more,' Brandon said. 'Respect that.'

  Mike sneered again, his laugh derisive. 'Respect? That little bitch doesn't need respect. She needs my hand on her ass -'

  Mike found himself backed up against the closed office door with a fistful of his shirt in Brandon's hand before he could finish speaking. His words died off with a squeak. Brandon gripped just a little tighter, not quite hard enough to shake him but there was no doubt in either of their minds that he could.

  'You'd better leave,' Brandon said. 'Now.'

  Mike sputtered and wriggled out of Brandon's grip, but had no place to go. The office was tiny, the door was still closed and Brandon blocked his way. He straightened his shirt and jerked his shoulders back and forth a couple of times.

  'Too much of a pussy to even punch me, huh?'

  'I'm at work, man.' It seemed like a simple enough reason to Brandon, who had no intention of getting fired over this asshole.

  'So?' Mike, as though sensing he could keep pushing, got up in Brandon's face as far as he could, which, considering the height difference, wasn't as much as he probably wanted.

  'You're not worth it.'

  Mike's eyes narrowed. 'You think you're hot shit, don't you?'

  Brandon sighed, bored. 'No. I don't. But I think you are a piece of shit and, if you don't get out of my office, I really will call security to have you removed.'

  'You can't give it to her the way I can. Just remember that.'

  Mike shoved past Brandon, who stepped aside, to yank open the door.

  'I'll keep that in mind.'

  Mike turned, still not ready to let it go. 'You really are a smart ass, aren't you?'

  'No, man. I just can't be bothered with you.' Brandon backed up, hands lifted. 'You've got some sort of agenda and I don't have time for it. I'm at work. She doesn't want you. You should get over it.'

  'She doesn't want you, either.' Now Mike sounded sort of desperate and Brandon would have felt bad for him if the guy hadn't already acted like such an asshole.

  He wasn't going to play peacemaker with him, either. Brandon knew how it felt to be walked out on, but he'd never gone after Ben Miller, the guy Karen had cheated on him with. He'd wanted to smash the guy's face in, sure, but he hadn't done it. He'd never even confronted Karen about her infidelity.

  'That's not any of your business.'

  'Anything Leah does is my business. She's mine.'

  'Not any more.'

  Mike shrunk a little, shoulders sagging. 'I'll get her back.' 'You can try, I guess.' Brandon shrugged, then went back to his desk and sat down. He clicked open a f
ile on the computer, not really paying attention to it but not wanting to give Mike any more of his time either.

  'How long? That's all I want to know.'

  Brandon sighed and looked at him. 'What difference does it make, really?'

  'A huge fucking difference.'

  'You want to know if she left you for me, is that it? Will it make you feel better? Or worse. God, man.' Brandon shook his head. 'And you called me a pussy. Grow some balls.'

  Mike glowered. 'If I see you with her -'

  'Give it a rest,' Brandon said sharply. 'I'll kick your ass and you know it.'

  Understanding flooded the room between them, and Brandon groaned inwardly at the alpha-dog posturing crap. Mike's fists clenched, but he made no move towards the desk or out of the door. He opened his mouth as though to speak, then closed it. Opened it again.

  'You don't know what she needs.'

  'I think I know exactly what she needs,' Brandon said as he thought of the way she moaned his name and how she'd come on his tongue.

  Something must have shown on his face because Mike growled again, but kept his distance. Then he slammed open the office door so hard the handle dented the wall, and he stormed out. Brandon waited a minute, thinking Mike might come back, but he didn't.

  He stared at his computer, the tension over the confrontation stiff in his neck and shoulders. Nothing about this situation could be good. Leah had broken up with the guy only a couple of days ago and, Mike still had a thing for her. Who was to say she wasn't going to go back to him and was only using Brandon as a convenient way to get off in the meantime? Why should he expect this to be anything else, really, but sex?

  Except they hadn't even had sex, really.

  He passed a hand over his hair and then tugged at his too-tight tie as he remembered her hand on his crotch, her scent in his nose and her taste in his mouth. She wanted the details. He'd give them to her.

  And after that? Well, he'd just have to see what happened.

  17

  Dix had driven home the night before far too fast and just a little bit recklessly. What the hell had happened between them? One minute she'd been sweet and hot and the next she'd been enraged and shoving him out of the door.

  Of course he'd gotten next to no sleep. His skin smelled of her, her taste lay on his fingers, on his lips and he liked it there.

  When she'd told him she had taken a job in Philadelphia and had moved, he'd expected to feel panic but instead a sense of warmth had settled over him. It was two hours, but two hours wasn't a seven-hour plane trip. It was drivable on a Friday after work. It was drivable if she met him halfway to have dinner during the week. They could have something real. Build it into something more.

  A relationship. Something he'd been sure he'd never have again after his divorce. Something he'd been sure he never wanted again after Eve had wrung him out.

  After seven years in the wake of his divorce he'd never once yearned for anyone. It had been Kate who'd appealed to him so strongly. Kate who was the total opposite of his ex. At one time he'd thought he needed a feminine woman who needed to be taken care of. It'd made him feel manly. For a while. Until he realised he was a parent to his kids and his wife. A wife who patently refused to be a full partner in their relationship and what could he say? After seven years and two kids he had no right to demand she be a different person. He'd tried, she hadn't, and in the end he'd walked away. From Eve, not his kids. Never that. Charles Dixon knew his priorities and he was proud of that.

  He knew what he was. What he wanted and what he needed.

  How could Kate say she didn't know what they had? She was full of shit. That's what it was. The woman was one of the sharpest legal minds he'd ever come across and she was a scared dumbass if she thought he'd just let her keep him at a distance and call the shots.

  He wanted her. He would have her. Because she wanted him too. There had to be a story behind her reaction to his wanting to stay over with her. He saw the panic on her face, heard the vehemence in her voice when she'd spoken about the differences between how men and women were allowed to act.

  He pulled his car into a spot at the hotel. He had to admit, after a night of going over every moment of the evening before like the obsessive compulsive he was, she was right. To a point.

  He could live without sleeping over until the conference ended the next afternoon. Then they'd sleep over. No fucking question about it.

  Once inside the hotel he was on a mission. After a brief look around, he came around the corner to catch a glimpse of her standing outside the hotel restaurant. She and Leah stood close, heads bent towards one another, laughing. The two had an easy rapport, a connection easily perceived even from across the room.

  He found that interesting. Leah was such a cool, accomplished woman but, when the two of them were together, they both warmed, gave a deeper glimpse of the women behind the business façade. That was the Kate he wanted to know, although the other woman, Katherine, in her business suits and tight but chic chignon, fascinated him as well.

  He admired Kate's dedication to her career. Understood keeping walls up between the personal and the professional.

  He did the same thing, never mixing business with pleasure despite the steady flow of offers from the women he worked with. Hell, Carlina tossed her tits in his face several times a week. But dipping his cock into a hot blonde who worked for him wouldn't be worth the potential complication and he knew it.

  Smiling, he leaned against the wall and continued to watch them talk and laugh. It was silly in a way, but he'd been glad he hadn't broken his work rules because now he had Kate and nothing stood in his way but her silly defensiveness.

  Finally, Leah headed one way and Kate the other, back towards the business centre. Quietly and single-mindedly, he moved to intercept her.

  Not before admiring the way she looked from behind. It wasn't as if her skirt was very short or her clothing tight. No, she wore her tailored navy-blue suit just right. It was her attitude that intrigued him more than just her physical package. Her back held ramrod straight, her steps precise and yet graceful. Whatever it was worked on him in an elemental sense.

  As if she'd sensed him, she turned and looked over her shoulder, her eyes widening just a bit as she saw him.

  'Katherine, I've got some files for the presentation but I realise I've left them in my car. Would you like them now or shall I bring them in later? Are you on your way to a meeting?'

  She hesitated a moment before answering. 'No. I was just on my way to check for some faxes. But it can wait a few minutes.'

  He led the way out the side of the hotel and into the parking garage. It wasn't quite eight but the heat already shimmered from the pavement just beyond. It was what his gut felt like suddenly as she walked beside him.

  He looked around but the lot was empty. He'd parked his Mustang at the back to avoid any dings and other cars. Come to think of it, what a wise choice. All alone with her out there.

  Once he opened the passenger door, they stood behind it, partially screened.

  'You look beautiful today.' He stepped close. So close her body heat buffeted him. She didn't move away at all, in fact, she leaned towards him slightly.

  She smiled. 'You're full of shit. I'd return the compliment but you know you look handsome. Only a man like you could work the purple shirt with the grey suit and make it look totally suave instead of totally eighties.'

  'Well, sure, I know I look handsome. But I'd never complain about a sexy young woman telling me so.' Not complain at all. Hearing her compliments made him want to preen like an idiot. He stepped a bit closer to her, his resolve slipping.

  She looked around but realised, as he had, how secluded it was. 'I thought you wanted to talk.'

  'I do and we damned well will. Tonight after the meetings are over. Alone in your hotel room. Naked so it's not nearly as easy for you to get mad or run off.'

  She raised a single brow at him. 'So this is? What?'

  'This? Katherine, da
rling, I left the files in the car. Look, there on the seat. Terribly unprofessional of me but I had this woman on my mind. The scent of her cunt still in my nose. Mouth watering for a taste again. I forgot everything once I pulled in and knew you were inside.' Not a line at all, but the truth. She made him forget himself.