The Gamble

by Alice Ward

  He nodded as the light faded a little from his eyes. “I understand that, but don’t go. Stay and let’s finish talking. So we kissed... big deal. We’ve kissed a million times.”

  “I know, but it’s all the things I want you to do to me after the kiss. That’s the problem.” I moved back and let out a shaky breath as I finished getting my stuff together. My body screamed in protest as an almost frantic feeling filled me. I didn’t want to go, but I had to.

  There was no way to shake the image of us making love on the couch, and some part of me didn’t want to. I wanted to explore every minute of it, needed to. The last few years had left me cold to passion, and the man beside me doused my resolve in gasoline and lit a match I wasn’t sure how to extinguish.

  “Promise me something.” He followed me into the kitchen as I started to breathe in short quick breaths.

  “What?” I put the signed documents in my bag and walked back into the living room, trying to ignore the way he watched me like a hawk.

  He grabbed my arm and tugged me toward him. “When this is over, you’ll let me have one night with you. One night to touch every part of you, to taste every inch, to make love to you the way I’ve wanted to my whole life.”

  I swallowed hard as tears filled my eyes again. There was no easy way out of our situation, and even if there was, I wouldn’t take it. I nodded and lifted to my toes, pressing my lips to his. I moved back as he reached for me.

  “We can talk later about the office cameras and our next steps. Thank you for dinner.” I moved to the door and stopped as he called out to me, the slight hint of desperation in his voice almost killing me.

  “Alisa.”

  I turned and wrapped my arms around me as we stood in an oddly comfortable silence for a moment. I had nothing to say that wouldn’t sound like ‘pick me up and take me to your bed now,’ so I waited for whatever he wanted from me.

  “I’m sorry if tonight went too far. I didn’t mean for it to.” I brushed my fingers over my lips as he watched me with a sensual hooded glare. “But I’d do it all over again. You know that, right?”

  “Yes, and I hope you would push it past the breaking point if ever it happens again. I want so badly to drown in you, but something tells me I might not get the chance to come back up for air. I can’t risk that right now.” I gave him a tight smile and walked out of the house to my car as a soft sob left me.

  Agony swirled in my stomach over the loss of a night wrapped around him once again. It was so much more than the sex. It was the righting of a wrong from all those years ago, and the validation that he was as taken by me as much as I’d always been taken by him.

  I cried the whole way home, my body weary and heart aching by the time I reached my small unpacked apartment. I’d almost expected him to try and stop me, but he hadn’t. He was too respectful of my wishes, my desires, my demands. I should have shown him my true ones and sat back to watch him indulge in a sensual feast of my flesh.

  “Stop it,” I mumbled under my breath as I moved up to the apartment building. We would get through everything and spend a weekend naked together. He could explore every part of me, and then some. He was the only man I could see myself completely opening up to. Anything he wanted... I wanted him to have it.

  My phone buzzed as I stopped and flipped it open.

  Zek: You make it home safe, pretty girl?

  Me: Yes. Thanks again for dinner.

  Zek: Thank you for this extreme level of discomfort. I’d almost forgotten how good you were at this. My balls thank you.

  Me: Pet them for me?

  Zek: Really?

  I laughed and dropped my phone back into my bag, knowing good and damn well that I shouldn’t be texting anything but professional messages with him as my client. I would have to tell him the next day that we would have to keep things on the up and up. I wasn’t about to step forward into anything, love or lust with him, until we had full resolution on his legal matters.

  He had to understand that, no matter how badly our bodies seemed ignorant to the truth. I could deny it all day long, but I would belong to him one way or the other.

  Hell, I already did.

  The sound of someone clearing their throat behind me caused me to turn and stiffen. The last person I expected to see darkening my door stood there, her eyes hateful, her stance almost aggressive.

  “Melissa. What are you doing here?”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Zek

  Every part of me ached as she walked out of the door. I should have stopped her, but she was a fucking conundrum and I wasn’t faring very well on keeping up with what she wanted from me. Earlier today in her office, she pushed me away and shut down, and then tonight to be invited in for a long, hot kiss and nothing more?

  I ran my hands through my hair as a growl left me. What the hell was I going to do with her?

  A million ideas raced through my mind, but I settled on one. I was going to take it slow, respect her wishes, and push into every part of her the minute I felt her resolve weaken. I should have tugged her pants open and tasted her while I had the chance. It wouldn’t have gone much further than me bringing her to orgasm on the couch, but I needed to feel her release, wanted to hear her cries and know they belonged to me.

  “I’m going to lose my damn mind before this is over.” I walked back to the living room and dropped down onto the couch, sliding my hand over my erection and squeezing firmly. The need to find release washed over me, but I denied it. Instead, I got up, grabbed my keys and headed toward the office.

  With the company being temporarily shut down thanks to the investigation by the SEC, I hadn’t been in the office in a few days. I missed it. Missed being important. Needed. Wanted.

  The drive did me good, and by the time I reached the familiar high-rise, I was a bit more settled. It would take more than a few minutes of thinking about Alisa to have me raring to go again, but she wasn’t around. I had the rest of the night to think through things alone.

  I pressed my code for the door and locked it behind me before waving to the security guard and taking the stairs to the executive suite on the top level. There was no need to turn on lights as I moved through the darkened hallways. The faint moonlight from the windows provided more than enough glow to keep me on my path.

  The computer and security room was just up ahead, but I paused as something shifted behind me.

  “Zek?” Jeffery’s voice surprised me and I turned. My partner in the firm had been relatively supportive through most of the last week or so, but he’d also been absent.

  “Jeff. Hey, man. I was coming by to check out some of the security footage that my lawyer requested.” I moved back down the hall and extended my hand to him.

  “Oh. Anything I can help with?” He shook my hand firmly, looking me in the eye initially, but then he did something that didn’t sit too well with me. He diverted his attention to his nails, picking at them as we continued to talk about nothing.

  Was I becoming paranoid?

  “No. I’m good. Just going to do this and head home.” I watched him curiously. “You okay?”

  “Hmmm?” He glanced up as an inquisitive look took his features hostage. “Yeah, yeah. Just having some trouble with the wife. You know how that shit goes. Well, sort of.”

  “Right. Sorry to hear that. I’ll be in touch soon.” I turned on my heel and walked toward the camera room, not quite sure what to think about the odd interaction. Was Jeffery pulling back from me because he knew I wouldn’t survive the investigation from the SEC? It was smart, but I’d already discerned that ten times since the bubble burst. I wasn’t sure what my own actions would have been should we have switched places.

  I locked the door behind me and sank down into the old leather chair in front of the security cameras as I glanced around the multi-screen display. Jeff was the only one in the building with me, and by the look of things, he was drinking himself silly in his office.

  A sigh left me as I realized that part of his
downfall was because of mine. I had no doubt that he and his wife were fighting because the firm was on the fritz. He’d invested all of himself in our business as I had too. I knew how he felt, and yet it was my fault. That he wasn’t ragingly pissed at me seemed almost off.

  After forcing myself away from my depressing thoughts, I pulled the tape for the week before and popped it into the extra computer that set a little bit back from the mainframe. I wanted to check for evidence of Melissa coming by my office multiple times during that week. Something told me that she was just crafty enough to know that we had cameras and would have slipped into my empty office to make it look like she was with me.

  I pressed my teeth into my bottom lip and tried to stave off the images of Alisa sitting in my lap, her hunger almost overwhelming, just like it had always been. I smiled at the memory of thinking how lucky her future husband would be. She was so aggressive and demanding that she had to be a tigress in the bed. He would have it made, and yet, here she was, divorced.

  “Why? That makes no damn sense.” I moved toward the monitor as the date for the interviews appeared at the bottom of the screen. Celia ushered in intern after intern, but it was only after Melissa came in that she got upset with me. Most likely because she heard the little tart moaning in my office.

  “What the fuck were you thinking?” I grumbled and slumped back in the chair, continuing to watch as the day moved by slowly. I reached up and pressed the fast-forward button, letting the feed run until I saw Celia talking to someone who looked familiar.

  I jerked up and rewound the video to the correct spot and hit play again. Melissa and Celia were talking about something. Even more strange, they were and laughing a little too much for an intern and the executive assistant to the CEO. An odd feeling washed over me, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Celia had anything to do with my downfall.

  Of all people in the world, she was the very last I would have accused in my mind a month back. She had been loyal to me, and good to my family for as long as I could remember. She was almost like a second mother to me. Having her turn me into the cops for the rape alongside Melissa was one of the worst moments of my life.

  “I trusted you with everything.” I leaned forward, pausing the frame in the middle of them laughing. “Why would you be a part of anything that hurt me?”

  And why would Melissa be laughing and having a good old time on the day she was raped? Most people were scarred by such an event, but the timetable I was looking at put her outside my office three hours later, cutting up with my secretary.

  I grabbed a pad of paper from the file cabinet behind me and jotted down some of my thoughts to share with Alisa. After checking my phone and finding nothing from our silly bantering, I dropped back down in my seat and moved the feed forward.

  The next few days showed Melissa stopping by my office, talking with Celia a little, but never coming in. Alisa had been right about finding the correct evidence to prove that the girl was a perpetual liar. I had it in front of me. As long as she confessed to the courts that she did in fact have a project with me, and we did meet up several times to work on the assignment, we would have her.

  My heart almost stopped at the image that moved along the screen on Saturday. The day I’d taken Melissa up to the cabin with me.

  Celia was sitting at her desk, which was odd. She rarely worked weekends simply because I didn’t make her work them. She wanted some downtime, and I respected that and had for years.

  “What are you doing here, Celia?” I stood up and slid my hand in my pockets. There was no audio on the machine, but I wished like hell there was. I wanted to know what she was up to.

  A guy walked up to her and leaned over the desk, his face hidden from the camera. I could tell that he was older by the color of his hair. The smile that lifted her lips said that he was important to her.

  I’d never known her to date, and she wasn’t married after all the years we’d been together. She was far too independent to have a man bugging her for this or that. Sadness moved through me at the loss of our relationship, but I tucked it away for a visit some other time.

  Paranoia tugged at me, and I had to try hard not to reach up and fast forward the video in hopes of getting a glimpse of the guy. He had to turn in a few minutes anyway. He had to.

  She laughed and by the subtle movement of his shoulders, I could tell that he’d laughed as well. His business suit was navy and stretched across his back, his hair white and slightly balding on top. Why would someone wear a business suit on a Saturday?

  I reached up to press the fast-forward button as a knock at the door behind me scared me half to death. Pressing my hand to my heart, I walked to the door and pulled it open to find Jeffery standing there with his bag on his shoulder.

  “Alright, man. The old hag should be asleep by now. I’m going to crawl into bed, grab a few hours of sleep and get out of there before she wakes up again.” He gave me a weary smirk. “You let me know if you need anything from me and keep me in the loop. I want to know if we’re jumping ship or hanging on tightly.”

  “You need to do whatever you think is best, Jeff. No hard feelings between us. This is all my fault, and you shouldn’t suffer because of it. Start a new firm and pull out the clients you want to take with you. I’ll rebuild once I clear up my name. Maybe we can meet back up down the road later.” I ran my fingers through my hair as guilt threatened to tear me in half.

  “Does that mean you were involved in the trading scandal?” His eyes narrowed slightly.

  “No. Not at all, but it means that I chose the wrong type of people to hang around, and they were involved in one. I’m implicated by some of the normal course of business transactions I did with them. It’s going to get a lot uglier before it gets better.” I hated to lie, but I had no choice. I reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “You were my protégé all those years. It’s only fair to tell you that I’m good with you doing anything you need to do. Okay?”

  “Yeah. I appreciate that. I’m hanging on until I figure out there’s nothing left to hang onto. If you hear something, just don’t forget to tell me. I’d rather know the ship is sinking from you than anyone else.” He smiled and pulled back. “Night, partner.”

  “Good night, my friend.” I closed the door and let out a long sigh before sitting back down in front of the monitor. I had to rewind it to get back to the scene with Celia and her visitor, but with nothing but time on my hands, it was fine.

  Anger bubbled up inside of me as I waited and I let out a soft grunt, hoping to release some of the horrid emotion that filled up my chest. I’d let so many people down in my indiscretion with both Melissa and Dane. After being such a stickler for the rules for the last twenty years, I’d let my guard down once and ruined everything.

  Not just for me, but for all the people I care about too.

  Jeffery wouldn’t rebuild, but most likely take a desk job somewhere, hating his life and losing his wife. My mother would lose her house without me supplying her with supplemental income from my bank accounts, and my brother would crack in half emotionally. I needed to ignore Mom’s demands that I not pay off her house and just do it before it was too late to make it happen. She would be pissed, but it was one thing I could do before I found myself without resources to help.

  “And what will happen to Alisa?” I knew the answer all too well. She would find a good man and have a family with him. My family. My woman. My life. Gone.

  I paused the monitor as the older man turned, his smile tight, his eyes dark.

  “No fucking way. What are you doing in my office on a Saturday? Why are you talking to my secretary?” I rose to my feet as my blood ran cold. Alisa didn’t need to dig into who else was involved with Melissa in her scandal. I had it right there on tape.

  Her father. My lawyer. Jon Mills.

  Continue on to read Part 2…

  THE BILLIONAIRE PRISONER

  Part Two

  CHAPTER ONE

  Alisa

  I hel
d my breath as the pretty young girl who accused Zek of rape stood behind me, half shrouded by the shadows. The apartment door was only a few feet away, but having never been one to shy away from a threat, I turned and squared my shoulders.

  “I asked what you were doing here.” There was no reason for Melissa Mills to be anywhere near me, and the fact that she knew where I lived was concerning.

  “I needed someone to talk to. You seemed nice at the coffee shop. I just... I just...” She reached up and pressed her hands to her face as a sob left her.

  Some part of me wanted to walk to her, comfort her, but I knew a criminal when I was in the presence of one. She wasn’t speaking the truth where Zek was concerned. Her attack against him not only had the opportunity to destroy his career, but his life as well. Rape was a strong accusation, and a taint he wouldn’t soon remove from himself if she won.

  He probably still won’t get rid of it now that the press has caught wind of it all.

  “You need to go home, Melissa. I’m legal counsel for Mr. Kellington. Your family is a great resource to you. Use them.” I took a few steps back while she kept her face pressed to her hands.

  She glanced up and wiped furiously at her cheeks as her lips turned down into an ugly frown. “My family? Is that a joke?”

  “How did you find out where I lived?” I worked to get the key to my apartment ready. I’d have just enough time to unlock the door if she charged me, or I could use the damn thing as a weapon if I needed to.

  “My father knows everything. He thinks he’s God.” Melissa threw her hands into the air dramatically and stomped her foot. She’d morphed into a little girl now –— she’d transformed into one right in front of my eyes. It was fascinating and frightening simultaneously. I had no question to the fact that she was ill and needed help.