by Nina West
“So, what happened, exactly? Your assistant wanted a relationship and you didn’t want to give it to her?”
“I’ve never been cut out for normal relationships.” He sighs. “That’s always where things seem to fall apart with them.”
“With them?” I feel my eyebrows popping with shock. How many other assistants have there been?
He waves a dismissive hand at me. “Women, in general. Kiera was the first assistant I got involved with.”
I don’t know if that’s a comfort to me or not.
Either way, my gut tells me he’s telling me the truth. Or maybe it’s my heart, because I want to believe him. And, while finding out that he slept with his last assistant still stings, it’s a sting that will fade quickly. After what Jed did to me, this is really nothing. We can get through this. To what end, I’m not sure.
But Henry said he wants this to work out. He wants us to work out.
“So? Now what?”
“Now I get to listen to my father berate me for several hours, and then kiss people’s asses for the next forty-eight hours so they’ll give Wolf Cove glowing write-ups.” Cool, abrupt Henry is back.
“And what about the lawsuit, and the charges?”
He reaches out to flatten my disheveled hair. “Dyson’s going to arrange a meeting with her to try and persuade her not to go through with this.”
“And by ‘persuade’ you mean talk to her, right?” I haven’t forgotten the conversation I walked in on.
Henry gets my meaning right away. “Fuck, of course, Abbi! What do you think I am, a thug?” He shakes his head. “If she wants to play hardball, she’s going to have to deal with what I’m willing to pitch, and it won’t be pretty, but I didn’t start this. She needs to realize the repercussions of her lies. All the personal dirt that’s going to be revealed in court about our relationship.”
“You’re hoping she’ll recant.” I lean into his chest to feel his warmth. “I hope so, too.”
“Listen... I need you to do something for me.”
I frown, because I can tell this is serious by the stern look on his face. “Of course, anything.”
“If we sort out this mess with Kiera, I’m in the clear. But, if my dad then finds out that I turned around and got involved with you, it’s over. I’m done.”
“He’ll give the company to Scott?” The monkey who weighs gold, according to Henry.
Henry heaves a sigh. “He threatens it, but honestly I can’t see him giving Wolf Hotels to Scott. If the police press charges, I’ll have to step down immediately, leaving the CEO spot vacant. My guess is that he’ll appoint someone from the outside and force us to offer an IPO. He’ll take Wolf Hotels public. My brother and I’ll be able to cash in our 10 percent each and walk away if we want, but the business will be protected. Our family will no longer own it. My grandfather was completely against that.”
I shake my head.
“What? Why are you shaking your head at me?”
“Nothing. It’s just.... You know, you probably shouldn’t have slept with me.”
He chuckles, bowing his head. “You know, you’re right. And if I’d known what Kiera was going to pull, I probably would have tied my dick in a knot to keep myself from using it. But I honestly thought she’d sign the severance package, we’d go our separate ways, and what I did with my dick while in Alaska wouldn’t be such a hot topic.”
“What you do with your dick is a very hot topic, for everyone around here.” I hear the comments every day as we pass both staff and guests. Feel the eyes. Henry is an enigma and everyone seems to want a part of him.
And I seem to be getting a bigger part of him now. An emotional part. Henry’s opening up to me, showing me an imperfect, vulnerable, self-deprecating side to him that I would never have believed existed.
It makes my heart swell. Even with the topic at hand.
And yet, something about this doesn’t add up. “If you’re charged, why can’t your dad just take over again until you can clear your name? Didn’t he run it for years?” He seems quite involved, still.
Henry’s gaze drops to the floor, a somber mask settling over his features. “Because my father has pancreatic cancer and it’s terminal.”
“I’m... so sorry.” I wasn’t expecting that.
He nods. “They’ve given him three more years at most. He wants to spend them relaxing on an island somewhere, knowing that he made the right decisions about our family legacy. That’s why I’ve been acting CEO for the last eighteen months.”
“That’s just.... I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine my dad dying.”
“You two are close?”
I smile. “Yeah.” He’s a man of few words, and he hates the phone so much that I’ll be lucky to talk to him once while I’m here, but he was the one who spent hours in the fields, teaching me how to catch a baseball. He was the one who hugged me while I cried and told me that Jed doesn’t deserve me, even as Mama chirped in the background, minimizing Jed’s “mistake.” Even thinking about saying good-bye to him forever makes my throat close up and my eyes water.
A sympathetic smile touches Henry’s lips as he peers down at me. “I’m guessing your dad and my dad are very different. Still... it’ll be a shock when he’s gone. But giving me controlling share of Wolf Hotels is the right decision, and I know he wants to do it.”
“Well, I don’t plan on telling your father what we’ve been doing, so....”
“I’m not worried about you telling him. I’m worried about him finding out.” Henry’s chiseled jaw tenses. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few weeks, but I’m guessing there are going to be lawyers asking questions, and if the media gets hold of the story, they’ll be asking questions. There may be a detective calling. Staff.... They’ll all be asking you. I’m going to be under a microscope, which means you’re going to be under a microscope. If there’s anything at all you might have said about me already, to anyone....”
“I haven’t told a soul.”
“Are you positive?”
I frown, racking my brain for anything I may have said about Henry that could be misconstrued. “Oh my God.”
Henry’s eyes flash. “What?”
“That text to Jed, the one when we were in the boat. You know, about you staring at my breasts?”
“Shit. Right. That was my fault.” He pauses. “Okay. Text him back and tell him you were just kidding, trying to make him jealous. Tell him I’m a dick but I don’t pay any attention to your boobs or any other part of you.”
“Okay.” I groan, remembering the e-mail to Lucy. “I also told my friend over e-mail that I thought you were really hot.”
He smirks. “Don’t worry about that one. There are plenty of those floating around about me. Doesn’t mean I slept with all those women.”
I roll my eyes. “What do I say if someone flat out asks me if we’ve... you know.” Good grief. The man just had me tied up and bent me over a table and I still can’t use the actual words?
Henry doesn’t seem to notice. “Then you honor the confidentiality contract that you signed on your first day working for me.”
“But that’s not....” I frown. Does sex with Henry fall under that contract?
“Listen to me very carefully, Abbi. No one can know about us. You tell anyone who asks—anyone, including my father—that you are my assistant and I’m your boss, and we have a professional relationship. You know nothing about my previous assistant or anything that may or may not have transpired.”
“You expect me to outright lie to your father?”
He smirks. “Why not? You lied to your own mother.”
“This is different.”
He heaves a sigh and, while he’s being patient with me, I think his patience is running out. “Do you want everyone on this resort and your family and friends at home to know how much you love fucking your boss?”
He knows the answer to that as well as I do. “But what if the police ask me?”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t get that far.” He sounds much more calm about the whole situation than he was twenty minutes ago.
But I’m not. “But what if it does get that far?” I press.
“Then you tell them that you’re my assistant and you have signed a confidentiality agreement that keeps you from discussing me at any length. I can hire a lawyer to protect your rights. And if they ask whether I’ve ever forced myself on you, you say no because that’s the truth. Anything beyond that is none of anyone’s fucking business as far as I’m concerned. My relationship with you has no bearing on what happened between Kiera and me.”
“I’m a terrible liar, Henry.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” he mutters wryly, adjusting the front of my blouse and holding out my blazer for me. “Come on. We need to go.”
I barely have time to grab my iPad. With one hand at my back, he gently herds me toward the door as my mind still churns with all the fears and worries that were suppressed for those brief stolen moments of intimacy, all the more potent now that I know the truth and my heart has nothing but affection for this man once again.
Henry’s touch disappears the second we step outside. He enacts the unspoken two-feet-at-all-times distance rule between us, that’s intended to steer people clear of any suspicions of inappropriate behavior between boss and assistant. It’s so much harder when I’m so desperate to reach out and touch him, to hold on to the private connection we shared for a little while longer.
I sigh.
“What now?”
“Nothing. Just preparing for the asshole version of you again,” I mutter, steeling myself.
He chuckles, but I’m not laughing.
Will two feet be enough? If Kiera’s claims get out in the media, and people start looking at us under a microscope, it’ll be impossible for me to hide the way Henry stirs my blood and makes me hot, how I’m hyperaware of where he is in the room at all times, how I’m constantly checking my phone to see if he has messaged, how I can’t keep the stupid grin off my face when I think about him unzipping his pants in front of me, of how hard he gets for me.
They’ll know right away.
“I can hear you thinking,” he grumbles under his breath as we make our way along the covered path.
“I can’t help it. I’m overwhelmed. This all has me frazzled.”
“I can’t have you frazzled right now. I need you levelheaded.”
“Levelheaded. Right.” If I were levelheaded, I probably wouldn’t have let my boss under my skirt. I surely wouldn’t be fantasizing about life with Henry after Wolf Cove. Will I visit Henry in New York? Will he visit me in Chicago for my last year of college? I won’t be a Wolf Hotel employee by then, so we can make out in the middle of the street and no one can say a word.
Maybe I should let him fire me so I can just stay in his cabin, ordering room service and having sex with him for the rest of the summer. Sure, it might get kind of boring, and I wouldn’t be earning any money, and I’d be the talk of the entire hotel, but....
Suddenly, I notice that Henry’s not beside me anymore. I stop and turn to find him just standing there, watching me, a strange look on his face.
“What the fuck am I thinking, bringing you with me to meet my father?” He glances at his watch. “I need you to make yourself scarce. Parading you around will only irritate him right now.”
“Okay?” I’m not going to take offense to that. Honestly, it’s a relief. If Henry’s nervous to see him, then I shouldn’t be there.
His jaw clenches. “And do me a favor; stay the hell away from Scott. He’s a fucking weasel, but he’s slick and perceptive, and he’s probably sharpening his knife to plunge it into my back. He’s been waiting for something like this to happen since my dad appointed me CEO and not him, and he’ll want to make sure he has plenty of ammo. He’ll lie and manipulate and interrogate you until he gets the answer he wants.”
I feel my face blanch. “Interrogate?”
Henry drops his voice to a low murmur. “Hell, he won’t even need to interrogate you. One look at those big golden eyes and those plump lips and those fucking beautiful big tits, and he’ll know there’s no way I was able to resist you.”
His words pull a soft gasp from my lips. “Okay. I’ll keep away from him.”
“I should have hired a male assistant. Or an elderly woman.” He sighs, his gaze skating over my body. “You know, one day, when this is all over and I officially control the company, I’m going to strip you down and fuck you right here.”
Blood rushes to my head with the abrupt change in subject, and his flash pan change in demeanor. Private Henry is back, but we’re not in private. “Here?” I look around. It’s a secluded path, screened from bugs, shielded from the elements above, surrounded by dense bush and only used by the three Penthouse Cabins’ guests and the staff catering to those guests. I rarely ever pass anyone on my way to and from Henry’s place. It’s quite peaceful and private. Still, just beyond those trees, maybe a hundred feet away and definitely within earshot, is a resort full of people.
What Henry’s talking about is basically exhibitionism. Is he serious?
One glance at the hard look on his face tells me he is.
My body, which can still feel him inside me, responds immediately. But this isn’t good. The lines between Private Henry and Public Mr. Wolf are beginning to blur for him. “I think you need to focus on your various serious problems at hand,” I warn him in a slow, careful voice.
His jaw clenches. “Believe me, those problems are still very much in the forefront of my mind. I’m just setting something to look forward to once they’re all resolved. You know, goals.”
“Goals.” I drop my gaze to the front of his pants, to the bulge forming. Goals for his dick, apparently. Which is exactly what got him into his current problems. I do believe that Henry is a smart and shrewd businessman. He’s just not thinking clearly right now, and he has a lot to lose by not thinking clearly. He does need me to be levelheaded because he can’t seem to be. “Okay, how about we focus on more responsible goals for now.”
He closes the distance, breaking the two-foot rule.
“What are you doing?” I hiss, glancing around.
“Trying to hold on to what we had back there for a little longer.” He jerks his head toward the cabin. “Trying to avoid reality.”
So, he felt the deep connection too. My heart swells. “I didn’t think Henry Wolf avoided anything.”
“That’s because you haven’t met my father yet.”
This must be what Belinda was talking about when she said Henry gets reckless with his father’s imminent approach. Only, I think it’s been amplified by the Kiera mess. The combination seems to have really thrown Henry for an emotional loop.
And I have the overwhelming urge to hide him from the world until he can get a grip on himself because this version of Henry should not be talking to anyone. “Why don’t I grab the truck and an ax, and we can drive out to that spot to cut some wood.”
His brow arches with playful curiosity. “Right now?”
“Right this instant. Just say the word.”
He frowns. “You’d actually go back there?”
“Yes.”
“Even with the grizzly bear lurking around?”
A shiver runs down my back at the thought of those beady eyes and sharp claws. “Even with the grizzly bear lurking around.”
“He could be more aggressive this time around.”
“Then we’ll get eaten. That’s a really good way of avoiding reality.”
Henry’s head tips back and he belts out a deep, hearty laugh that makes me smile wide. I wish he laughed more. With a deep groan, he continues walking along the path. “Thank you. I needed that.”
I fall into step with him again. “So, do you want me to just go back to my cabin?”
“No. He’ll know I’m hiding you. Fucking suspicious old man,” he mutters.
“Sounds like a smart suspicious old man,” I
correct. “So, where do you want me?”
When I glance up to see the smirk on his face, I immediately hear the potential innuendo in my question. “Stop it!”
“Okay. Okay. You’re right. You need to start behaving, Abbi. This is getting to be too much.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m suddenly feeling very ill. I should go rest for the day.”
“Or, you know what? Better yet, get one of the Outdoor crew guys to drive you over to the old cabin.”
I frown. “Your grandparents’ place?” The one we were at just yesterday?
“Yeah. Some of the media wants to see the original Wolf family cabin that inspired all this, so Paige sent a team over this morning to clean and stage it for tomorrow. Make it look less abandoned. I want you to head over there to keep an eye on things.”
“Until when?”
“Until you hear from me. Stay until the last of them leave. If they’re done early and you have to come back, you can take the rest of the day off. I’ll be holed up with my father until late tonight, anyway.”
“And tomorrow, for breakfast and the entire morning,” I remind him. I’m the one who slotted that into Henry’s calendar.
“Fuck. I can’t wait until he’s back on his helicopter and gone,” he mutters as we round a bend in the covered path.
Two stone-faced men are strolling down the path toward us.
I hear a quiet hiss of “shit,” under Henry’s breath. He speeds up to meet them head-on, leaving me in the background.
“I hope you’ve been more cordial to your guests than you have your own family.” The older man, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Henry only with silver hair, calls out, his strides toward us measured and purposeful, his suit falling gracefully with each step. It’s Mr. William Wolf. I recognize his voice from the phone call, and he sounds no less annoyed now.
“You’re early.” Henry reaches out to clasp hands with his father before shifting his attention to the younger man standing next to him. “And you’re not supposed to be here yet.”
This has to be Henry’s brother, Scott. Aka the weasel. Aka the interrogator. Aside from the same chestnut-brown hair, they bear no resemblance to each other. Scott is attractive in his own right, but it’s more of an average boy-next-door appeal, his jawline less pronounced, his eyes more sloped, and his nose daintier.
