The voice on the other end lightens a little. “We’ll find her, Mr. Parker, make sure she gets to where she needs to be.”
She needs to be with me.
“Her dad’s in PR now, maybe see she gets to his floor? Thanks.”
I have to hang up, barely able to speak now as I hear myself giving orders for anything that doesn’t bring her straight back to me.
As long as she’s still in the building.
My building.
As long as I can see her, know where she is, I’ll have another chance.
I’ll make damned sure I have another chance.
Just leave her to settle down for a while.
Take stock, clean house, Parker.
Then take what’s already yours, claim what’s coming to you…
Chapter Nine
Chrissy
It still feels like a dream, but one that’s turned into a nightmare.
What the hell am I doing?
I want Logan and I know he wants me.
It’s like that Mike guy put some evil spell on me, right at my most vulnerable moment when I was so worried about seeing my dad. Right after Logan…
My god, he’s so perfect. His mouth on me… making me come like that.
What the hell have I done?
It’s like the further away I get from Logan, the more I realize the gravity of the mistake I’m making. But it’s too late.
I’ve blown it. I know I have.
I told him I need to go find my dad, that I don’t believe he could really want me… those files… must’ve been hundreds of girls in there…
Oh! I just don’t know anymore.
I can barely focus as I step into the elevator, realizing that on top of walking away from the greatest man alive, I have no idea where I am or where I’m going.
I stab a button and bark a sob as the doors finally close, heading down. The only way I can go from now on.
I have to sniff back my tears as I feel the elevator slowing, somebody else getting in. I don’t want to look up but it’s nice to see such a friendly face when I feel so bad.
“You alright, sweetheart?” she asks, an older gray haired woman. She looks like someone’s friendly grandma.
I can only crease my mouth, kind of shrugging.
“You’re lost,” she observes casually, pushing her own floor and patting my arm gently.
“I still lose my own way around here sometimes. Do you know where you should be?” she asks, her tone friendly and helpful.
“PR,” I stammer, “My dad,” I manage, but know if I try to speak again I’ll burst into tears.
Oh, Logan! I’m sorry.
“But it’s not your dad you’re worried about is it?” she asks, and I can’t help but shake my head.
“What happened?” she asks me firmly, her mouth set in a determined look, but her eyes staying clear and calm.
“I was with Mr. Parker, Logan,” I tell her, watching her eyes grow wide.
“Somebody said he was using me, that he has a hundred girls and once he’s had them he just throws them away,” I blurt out, feeling the tears coming now, I can’t help it.
“Who said that?” She asks me cuttingly, practically gripping my arm.
“Mike… Mike…” I stammer.
“Mike Collins,” The old woman says sharply to herself, her eyes narrowing before they grow clear and wide again.
“Let me tell you something dear,” she says with great warmth, taking my arm in hers as the elevator opens silently and she guides me out with her into an empty corridor.
“I’ve worked here for twenty years, worked my way up from cleaner to executive in human resources and I can assure you, Logan Parker has only ever had one woman.”
I feel my heart sink, waiting for the news of his wife, his long and happy marriage to miss perfect somewhere.
“It’s this place,” she adds with a confidential tone. “Logan Parker is married to his company and has worked on it day and night for twenty years, he even lives here. I’ve never known him to even have a day off let alone go on a date. Why, if any girl ever was lucky enough to land him, he’d treat her like a queen. I can guarantee you that!”
She registers the look of shock on my face, her own dropping a little as she realizes what I’m really experiencing.
She takes a deep breath. “Young lady, I’d forget anything anybody else said that isn’t reminding you what a great man Mr. Parker is, and if you’re trying to tell me what I think you are, don’t waste a minute, go back to him and don’t you ever let him go.”
She gently squeezes my arm, pointing to a series of frosted glass doors up ahead before disappearing into a stairwell. “PR is through there honey… but I’d be getting back in that elevator if I was you, heading straight back up to you know who.”
I feel a moment of relief, then hope. I know deep down that Logan’s not a womanizer, but that Mike guy was so convincing… like he has an answer for everything.
It’s enough to make me stop blubbering, but the jagged hole that’s the pit of my stomach dropping hasn’t improved with the knowledge I really have made a fool of myself with Logan.
I doubted he wanted me in the first place, and now I doubt he’d ever take me back let alone give me a second chance,
I know from what my dad’s told me, nobody gets near Logan Parker personally unless he wills it to be so. The man’s an island and this building is his fortress…
‘Why, if any girl ever was lucky enough to land him, he’d treat her like a queen…’
The old woman’s words echo in my mind and I hear the elevator opening again, a couple of burly looking security guards are heading my way.
One of them looks happy to see me.
Somebody’s happy to see me… probably come to throw me out though.
“Ms. Foster?” he asks politely. “Boy are we glad we found you, Mr. Parker sent us to make sure you got to where you need to go. Public Relations, where your dad is at, it’s right this way,” he says, holding his open hand towards the doors up ahead.
“We have some other business there ourselves, so we’ll walk with you if that’s alright?”
I nod absently, stunned. Even after being so stupid, acting like a spoiled child, Logan’s only concern is making sure I don’t get lost.
Even once I walked out on him he still only wants to protect me.
“What do you know about Mike Collins?” I ask one of the guards, making both of them look awkward to the point of stopping in their tracks.
They eye each other for a second, then look around, making sure nobody else is listening.
“He’s not our favorite,” the first guard says diplomatically. “Matter of fact we’re just on our way to escort another of our least favorites from the building, wish it was Collins we were getting rid of as well. Man’s a damned criminal, but the board they keep him on,” he says before catching himself.
“This way, Miss. Please,” he says, both of them urging me forward, looking like two boys who just told a stranger everything they shouldn’t have.
“What do you mean, a criminal?” I ask, and the guard sighs before opening the door for me.
“Forget we even said anything Miss, but a word of warning, don’t let yourself get caught alone with Mike Collins if you catch my meaning.”
It all makes sense somehow, and I feel bad for Logan all over again.
His own company, something he’s worked so hard to build, and he has to deal with people trying to bring him down every minute of his workday.
Moving through the huge glass doors, I catch sight of my dad’s head over some partitions instantly, and he looks up as if by instinct, waving me over.
“There’s my dad, thank you,” I tell the guard, “…for everything.”
He tips his finger to his cap in salute and I rush over to my dad.
“Honey? What’s the matter. Why were you with security? Have you been crying?”
Good old dad, there’s no putting anything past hi
m, but I can’t tell him the truth, no way can I tell him the truth.
“I just got lost, and a little upset is all. They just showed me where you were,” I tell him, half-truthfully.
Only leaving out the part where Logan Parker ate me out on his desk for a half-hour and then I imagined him doing that to every girl in the building and storming off like an idiot…
Ugh!
I notice a third security guard in front of a closed door, making those other two guys look puny. He’s almost as big as Logan.
Logan.
“What’s going on, dad?” I ask, noticing just how concerned he looks.
“I dunno sweetie, it’s just weird. When I saw you just before, Mr. Parker took me aside, telling me to go with Campbell down here to PR and that he’d get in touch later today or maybe tomorrow about a promotion. Then not two minutes after we all got back down here, there was security in front of Campbell’s office and Mike Collins took off like a bat outta hell.”
“I think Mr. Parker might just be cutting away a little dead wood, dad,” I hear myself saying absently, making him give me a quizzical look.
“He only told me to come down and make sure you found your way alright, to your new job,” I continue, hoping my dad buys my story.
“And what else is Mr. Parker telling you?” he asks, looking more like a protective father than an employee.
“I think you might be right about that internship,” is all I can manage.
I don’t like lying to my dad, but I don’t want to lose my chance at being with Logan either.
“I’ll head back up now, you might have your new office before you know it,” I tell him, finally feeling myself smile again as I tip my head towards the closed door with the guard out front as I sense my dad shaking his head once again.
Unable to believe myself just how this day’s panning out.
Chapter Ten
Logan
I know when to act and when to wait, but this waiting… it’s killing me inside.
I’m not sure how long I’ve paced until I finally stare out the window, looking over the fifty-foot high red letters on the building that spells my name, reflected in the hotel’s glass opposite.
None of it means anything without her anymore.
None of really meant anything in the first place, not until she walked into my life.
She can’t just walk away, I won’t let her.
What are you gonna do… force her to love you? Make her come back?
I talk myself into a tight ball of nerves, reminding myself to just wait, to be patient.
Something always presents itself.
But sometimes a man has to do what he has to do, he has to act.
She did ask if I was the boss, didn’t she? She also told me she was mine. She fucking told me.
I can’t force her to love me, to even come back but I can sure as hell tell her how much I love her. How much I need her.
The company be damned.
As soon as I have the thought, the moment my heart lifts at the thought of Chrissy in my arms again as I remember how damn fine she felt with my hands running over her… the taste of her still in my mouth…
The god damned phone rings again.
Never a minute’s peace, not for twenty fucking years!
“What!” I snarl, snatching up the handset, swearing I will fire everyone today if that’s what it takes.
“Mr. Parker...I’ve had a disturbing phone call from Mike Collins and Campbell… Campbell what’s his name, from Public Relations.”
It’s the most senior board member apart from myself, Alex Haywood. Been with me since the beginning.
“So?” I hear myself spit, glad he hasn’t come to my office in person, my hands are white-knuckled and itching to lash out at something.
“I’ll tell you this in confidence, Logan, a lot of us on the board are unhappy with the way you’re running things. A meeting’s been called and it doesn’t involve you. There’s talk of a hostile takeover, with a lot of support from other-”
My growl silences him. I sound like a wounded animal, but an angry one too.
I hold the majority share of the company, always have and always will, but this is how the dice rolls. Fat cats wanna get fatter and they can’t stand to see a younger man at the helm. A man with principles.
A man with some conscience.
Off the top of my head, doing the roughest math, I know I could get out. I could let even just the majority control slip by a few percent and still have enough money for ten lifetimes.
More than enough for one lifetime with Chrissy.
With our own family…
The only business I really want to be in now, the only company worth keeping.
But I’m as stubborn as I am strong, and I don’t take threats or orders from anyone, no matter who they are.
“Campbell’s under independent investigation,” I reply dryly. “Mike Collins is next and I can add your name to the list if you want, Alex. I won’t have you, the board, or anybody interfering with the way I do things. It’s gone on for too long as it is. If anyone’s got no confidence it’s me, no confidence in you or your fucking board,” I hear myself telling him quite calmly by now, feeling some of the Parker steam returning to my pipes, the valves working again.
My machinery back online.
As it should be.
Alex is wheezing, trying to catch his breath. I don’t think anyone’s ever spoken to him like that in his whole life, but I’m gonna stick by my word and I’ll cut down the next prick who tries to get between me and Chrissy… the next prick who tries to tell Logan Parker how things should be done.
I hang up the phone gently, feeling my whole body relax. A little pain rushing through my muscles after I realize how long I’ve been so tense.
“I should’ve just taken you to bed, baby. Locked the door and…” I say aloud, my voice catching in my throat.
The gravity of not having her being here dawning on me.
I turn on my heel and head for the door. I know where she’s headed, where she’s most likely to be.
I should probably tell her dad the good news anyway, he’s the new head of Public Relations, best point him in the right direction too, get him set up with some staff, a meeting.
People love meetings.
Now, I remind myself.
I’m gonna go claim my girl. I’m gonna take us both away from this place for a while. Long enough to spoil her and tell her everything, make sure she doesn’t ever doubt me enough to think she has to leave ever again.
I could take my private elevator, but I think the time for Logan Parker lurking in the shadows has come to an end. I’m the boss and it’s about time people around here remembered that.
I straighten my tie and lifting my head a little higher, stride towards the open elevator outside my office, catching sight of someone as they open a stairwell door.
“Evelyn?” I ask, stepping from the open elevator towards her, my hands out.
She looks like she might be about to faint.
“Mr. Parker!” she exclaims, smiling and flushing bright red, grateful when I let her rest her hands against my forearms.
“Are the elevators not working?” I ask her, worried about her color and heavy breathing.
“No, just… getting in… my daily… steps…” she assures me.
“But it’s...the girl...I came about...Mr. Parker… I saw her down there… she’s in a… awful state… worried sick I’d say…” she heaves, a mischievous glint in her eye.
I feel myself swallowing hard, grateful there’s still real employees left in this company.
Grateful for people like Evelyn.
“What did she say?” I ask her, almost grabbing her by the arms.
“I told her to get her ass right back to you… Sir...” she says, smiling broadly and patting my arm.
I smile myself, finally feeling the weight lifting, and kissing Evelyn on the forehead, I tell her that once she’s recovered herse
lf, to see about drafting a contract of employment for Charles Foster, the new head of Public relations.
“The girl’s father?” Evelyn asks, sounding not too surprised.
“That’s right, Evelyn, time for a shakeup around here. A new dawn for Logan Industries.”
Chapter Eleven
Chrissy
Leaving my dad, who has a few others surrounding him already once they get the drift of what’s happening. If he’s going to be their new boss, they’re doing all they can to make him feel welcome.
Or just kissing his ass, who knows?
Who cares?
I know where my place is, and it’s not on this floor. Not even with my dad anymore.
I shiver with excitement and just a little apprehension as I make my way back to the elevator, determined to find Logan and do whatever it takes to start over.
I had no idea the corporate world was so intense, I can’t believe I believed that moron Mike Collins even for a second.
I’m trembling all over as I punch the button for the very top floor, the button which has Logan all over it.
The ride up feels like a year and although I start to have my usual doubts and insecurities all over again, I clench my jaw and shake my head.
No. He told me I’m his, and dammit I told I am… there’s not a moment to-
The elevator swishes open and as if my own thoughts have become reality again, he’s there.
Waiting for me.
Sort of.
He’s standing by the elevator, pushing the button over and over with his finger, his eyes growing wide once he sees me, and then he does what I wished he’d done in the first place.
He steps into the elevator and pulls me towards him, shaking his head firmly to silence me when I try to speak.
The only thing I feel is his hands around my waist and his lips on mine, his mouth pressing so hard, so hot and wet it’s a command all of its own.
His body pressing against mine as his hands move over my back and up to my neck, instantly reigniting every emotion, every feeling, and of course, every need I have for him all over again.
Dad's CEO Boss: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 203) Page 4
