I Have Lived And I Have Loved: A Charity Romance Collection

by Willow Winters

  “The only moments I care about are the ones I have with you.”

  Now it’s her turn to raise my hand to her lips and brush them across my knuckles. “I love you,” she says. “Come dance with me.”

  I do.

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  Thank you for reading! 100% of the profits from this anthology will be given to the Live A Thousand Lives charity.

  This charity donates audio players - equipped with hundreds of hours of classic stories - to low-to-no mobility patients in nursing facilities and hospitals.

  The Live A Thousand Lives Project has been fueled by prolific Romance writers and unabashed book lovers who appreciate that audiobooks boost mental health, improve memory and stimulate the brain in ways that mirror reading printed text.

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  WAYS TO HELP:

  You can find out more and donate by clicking here!

  Or you can purchase an audio device for yourself - a Brilliant Blue Classic or a Red Hot Romance Audio Player (with over $200 worth of audio books from bestselling authors) by clicking here!

  For every ONE player purchased, Live A Thousand Lives is able to donate TWO Brilliant Blue Classics.

  Thank you so much for reading First Dance! Want more of Summer and Dayton? Their epic military romance Before She Was Mine is available everywhere now. Happy reading!

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  LINKS:

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  Amazon: https://readerlinks.com/l/491529

  Apple: https://readerlinks.com/l/491574

  Nook: https://readerlinks.com/l/491619

  Kobo: https://readerlinks.com/l/491664

  Google Play: https://readerlinks.com/l/491709

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  AUTHOR BIO:

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  Amelia Wilde is a USA TODAY bestselling author of steamy contemporary romance and loves it a little too much. She lives in Michigan with her husband and daughters. She spends most of her time typing furiously on an iPad and appreciating the natural splendor of her home state from where she likes it best: inside. For more books by Amelia, visit her online at https://awilderomance.com.

  Shaken

  By Livia Grant

  Chapter 1

  Lanie watched the digital clock on her desk flip to 4:00PM. What a complete waste of an afternoon, waiting… worrying. As each hour crept by, she’d switched to regret. She should have just kept her head down and her mouth shut.

  Then the sharp buzz of the office phone in her workspace made her jump. As tempting as it was not to answer, she lifted the receiver, attempting to sound more confident than she felt.

  “Good afternoon. This is Alaina. How may I help you?”

  “Ms. Bennett.” It was a statement, not a question. Based on the internal extension information flashing on the LED readout of her phone, it was coming from a conference room extension instead of an assigned office. “I’d like you to please join me for a short meeting on the 44th floor.”

  “Em… Okay. What time would you…”

  “Immediately,” the gravelly voice on the other end interrupted.

  Unable to contain her nerves, she asked, “Is this about the meeting I had with my boss, Peter, earlier this morning?”

  “All will be explained when you arrive. The executive receptionist will direct you when you get off the elevator. Please leave now.”

  The line went dead.

  She tried not to read too much into the abrupt tone of the call, reminding herself it was the nature of working in an engineering firm. The engineers and architects working at Rossi, Anderson, & Hart weren’t exactly a hotbed of social engagement, but then again, she hadn’t become a CPA for excitement either.

  Grabbing her cell phone, she locked her computer screen before pushing to her feet. She was tempted to detour to the ladies’ room to pee and apply fresh lip-gloss but knowing the owner of the gruff voice was waiting, Lanie went straight to the bank of elevators instead. She intentionally bypassed the door to the staircase she normally used to move between floors, not wanting to arrive at this most important meeting out of breath. Taking the stairs a floor or two was healthy. Schlepping up the eleven stories to the executive level was closer to torture.

  Determined to remain calm, she reminded herself that she wasn’t the one who’d done something wrong. She’d merely done her job as a staff accountant, ferreting out the irregularities in the company’s books and then bringing them to the attention of her supervisor. While she hoped the errors she’d found were honest mistakes, it would take help, or at least additional security clearance, to truly get to the bottom of the issue. All she knew for sure was there was a lot of revenue missing that, so far, no one above her seemed interested in investigating.

  She may only have a few years of work experience under her belt, but her sixth sense had alarm bells blaring as she exited the elevators and approached the reception desk. “Hi, I’m Alaina…”

  “Mr. Graves is waiting for you in the office at the end of the hall,” the severe-looking woman said, motioning with her arm to the left. The diamonds in her expensive tennis bracelet glittered in the afternoon sunshine.

  Momentarily distracted by wondering how a PA working in one of the most expensive cities in the country could afford such an expensive piece of jewelry, it wasn’t until she was almost to the closed door that Lanie realized she’d only been on this particular floor one other time in her six months working at RAH, and that had been the day she’d come for her final interview. The plaque on the wall next to the dark wooden door confirmed her realization that she was about to meet with the Vice President of Human Resources.

  Taking a calming breath, Alaina forced herself to knock, looking forward to relaying the details of her investigation again in hopes of getting the help she’d need to get to the bottom of the discrepancies. Of course, Peter would have gotten Human Resources would be involved as the investigation may require sanctions for any wrong doers.

  Expecting to hear a man’s voice bellowing to advise her to come in, she jumped when the heavy door swung open and a tall man she recognized from security opened the door.

  “Oh, hello. I’m Alaina Bennett.”

  “Come in. We’ve been expecting you,” the man in the black suit replied, motioning for her to enter. She was almost to the center of the office when she realized there were two others present.

  The portly man behind the huge desk, she assumed, was Mr. Graves from HR. Sitting in one of the two chairs facing their host was her boss’s boss’s boss, CFO of Rossi, Anderson, and Hart, Jack Leahy.

  “Have a seat, young lady,” the guy from security ordered, motioning to move deeper into the room. She startled as he was much closer than office etiquette dictated.

  Intimidated by the three older men in the room, Alaina moved slowly to take the final seat, leaving the man standing ominously behind her. The western sun pouring through the wall of windows cast a shadow across Lanie, reminding her how close he was standing.

  Several long seconds passed before Mr. Graves finally spoke. “I assume you know why you’ve been invited here.”

  Clearing her throat, Lanie focused on keeping her voice steady and calm. “I believe it’s to discuss the accounting irregularities I reported to my boss, Peter Blankenship.” When no one confirmed her observation, she added, “I’m happy to go through my findings again with anyone you need me to in order to get to the bottom of things.”

  It was the CFO on her right that cut her off. “Oh, that won’t be necessary, Ms. Bennett. Believe it or not, we actually have many professionals here at RAH that do know what they’re doing.”

  Okay, she hadn’t expected the employee of the year award, especially since to her knowledge, no such award existed at Rossi, Anderson, & Hart, but she had at least expected a tiny bit of appreciation for digging deep enough to be able to sound the alarm.

  She felt the heat of Mr. Leahy’s glare from the few feet separating them but kept her focus on the man behind the desk, after all, they were in his o
ffice.

  “At no time did I indicate that my peers didn’t know what they were doing. I merely wanted to point out that in my role of staff accountant, I have the opportunity to see a bigger picture of the company’s financial footprint and as such, the discrepancies sort of just jumped out at me. My hope is there are very reasonable explanations, but in my position, I’m not able to…”

  Jack Leahy cut her off. “Don’t you mean in your position you were able to pilfer funds from your employer and when your manager indicated that he’d found the paper trail of missing funds that led directly to you, that you then came up with this insane story to cast doubt on your innocent co-workers in an attempt to deflect blame?”

  Lanie felt like someone had gut-punched her. Spinning to her right to take in the angry glare of the CFO, she opened her mouth to defend herself, but no words came out. Her heart raced as she tried to make sense of what was happening. She’d come prepared to explain her findings, to even have someone convince her that she must have made a mistake, but never had she expected to have the accusations fly back in her direction; particularly not from a man she’d only passed in the hall.

  “Perhaps Peter didn’t share all of the details I provided to him when I turned over my findings,” she answered, wishing her voice sounded more forceful.

  The CFO interjected, “Mr. Blankenship has done a very thorough review of every spec of the so-called proof you provided, and it was that inspection that led us to conclude we do indeed have a serious problem in our accounting team. I came to discuss these concerns with our Human Resources team, and we have come to the conclusion we must terminate your employment, Ms. Bennet, effective immediately.”

  “My employment? But why in the world would I get fired?” Her timidness had fled, quickly replaced with righteous anger. “I’m the one who pointed the problem out in the first place! What kind of an idiot do you think I am that you think I’d raise red flags on myself?”

  “I’m confident you would have remained silent, had Peter not uncovered your scheme and confronted you.”

  “Wait, he said he approached me? It’s the other way around! I took my findings to him! Maybe he’s the one responsible for the missing money, did you ever think of that?” Lanie accused, wishing she’d just kept her big mouth shut longer until she’d been able to discover who was behind the deception.

  “Mr. Blakenship has been a trusted member of this accounting team for over five years now. He’s the hardest working manager we have, working late, weekends, and even through holidays. He is the most dedicated accounting employee we have, and I will not have you trying to sully his reputation with your accusations,” the CFO barked, his face getting ruddy as he shouted.

  “Well, I sure as hell am not going to sit here and allow you to sully my reputation with your accusations. Let me go to my desk and get my laptop. I’ll walk you through the same proof I showed him this morning and then you can make your own determination.”

  The VP of HR spoke. “Interesting, he warned us that you’d try to deflect things when we confronted you with proof.”

  “What proof? You haven’t confronted me with jack shit!” she shouted.

  It was the guy from security that stepped in front of her, posing an intimidating figure as he groused, “He also warned you could become verbally abusive.”

  Lanie scoffed, trying her best to remain calm so she could reason with these men who obviously had been lied to by her boss—the boss she had trusted.

  “I’m sorry I cursed, but I’m understandably upset. I demand to see exactly what proof you have that I’ve done anything wrong.”

  “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Then you could try to take it with you so you could doctor it.” It was then that Mr. Leahy patted a tall stack of papers sticking out of a briefcase next to his chair.

  “Why would I need to do that? All the proof we need that Peter is behind this is on the server. Start with auditing the Accounts Payable disbursements. They’re out of balance with the P&L statement by over a quarter of a million dollars, and that’s just within the last six months. Who knows what we’d find if we go back farther!”

  It was Mr. Graves that put an end to her defense. “Enough! Peter has already provided a detailed paper trail that dates back to the very week after you started here at RAH, Ms. Bennett. You wasted no time at all getting to work with your deception. I’ll be honest, if it were up to me, I’d have called the police and turned you in. There is no place for this kind of illegal behavior in the business world. You should be thanking Mr. Leahy here for advising that it would be best for Rossi, Anderson, & Hart if we just quietly cut ties with the root of the problem rather than having to take the proof of your deception to the police as that would require notification to the board of directors.”

  Alaina’s heart was racing. She’d never so much as been reprimanded, let alone fired. It was hard to concentrate when faced with three angry men. Still, a sliver of something niggled in her brain, fighting to be heard.

  But before she could come up with a new way of reasoning with them, Mr. Graves pushed a big packet of papers across the desk at her. “I’ve prepared your termination papers. I need you to sign them now, indicating that you are leaving our employ of your own volition.”

  “But I’m not. More importantly, I won’t. You want me out, you’re gonna have to fire me,” Lanie gritted out, trying to hold back her panicked tears gathering.

  “So you can try to claim unemployment? I don’t think so,” the HR guy countered.

  She couldn’t sit there and take their insane accusations a minute longer. Determined to leave and regroup, she shot to her feet and brushed past the security dude. Yanking open the door to the office, she was blocked by yet another burly guy dressed in the same black suit of the rest of the building’s security team, only this guy was holding a huge box full of things. There was the frame sticking out at the top, her State of California CPA certificate behind glass.

  Spinning to address the men still in the room, Lanie unleashed the anger that had been growing. “You had someone pack my things while I was away from my desk? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “That is quite enough, Ms. Bennett,” Mr. Graves sanctioned.

  The maniacal laugh she heard was her own. “Oh, believe me, it’s not even close to enough. How dare you have someone go through my things. I assume you are going to try to prevent me from stopping down on my floor to even say goodbye to my co-workers, or to even check to make sure you’ve packed all of my things?”

  Reaching into his top desk drawer, Mr. Graves came out with his business card, holding it out to her from across the room. “Take my card. If you find you are missing anything, email me. In fact, I am to be your only contact at Rossi, Anderson, & Hart after you leave here today. You are not to contact your previous co-workers.” He couldn’t even get his fat ass out of the chair to walk it to her. Well screw that.

  “Keep your damn business card. I don’t need it. I also won’t be contacting my co-workers, since any one of them could be in on the clearly illegal activities that you are all so very fast to cover up. No, the only people I plan on contacting will be a lawyer and each and every one of the members of the board of directors!”

  She’d gritted out her parting shot, using up all of the adrenaline spiking through her system. But her righteous anger was morphing to less productive emotions. As furious as she was, she was a realist. There would be no changing of minds with the men in the room, and that meant she needed to retreat and regroup.

  Lanie grabbed the box, yanking it from the guy who had so far stood in the doorway silently. She tried to brush past him, but he was blocking her. Only when she used enough force to crash the box against his chest did he stumble out of the way. As she took the first few steps into the hall, she saw another whole pile of her belongings leaning up against the wall under that damn plaque.

  She only had a few seconds to look through the items, deciding to walk away from several framed inspirational pos
ters, the fern she’d been keeping alive since her Grandma’s funeral the year before, and the smaller box with a desk lamp, calculators, and other office supply items. It was nothing important.

  She was halfway down the long hallway when the first tear fell, but she’d be damned if she was going to let anyone see her cry. But when regret for leaving her grandma’s plant hit her, she stopped to turn and grab it, only to crash into the security dude who had the nerve to be following her as if he didn’t trust her to leave the premises.

  “Get out of my way. I need to go back and get my plant.”

  She wasn’t expecting any kindness so when he softly instructed her to, “Stay here, I’ll get it for you,” another tear fell.

  Balancing the heavy load of her box against the wall, she quickly lifted her fingers up to swish away the trace of wetness.

  The next few minutes were a blur as she struggled to carry her heavy box back towards the bank of elevators, one of which would take her to the lobby for the last time. She took the train into work each day. How was she supposed to get all this crap home? Her hands were too full to press the call button, but the guy helping to carry her plant moved in to press it for her.

  She couldn’t see over the strewn pile of her belongings but heard the ding of the arriving elevator. She stepped into the enclosed space, but when the security guy moved to follow her, she’d had enough. She needed to be alone.

  “Just put the plant on the floor and leave. I don’t need your help.”

  She couldn’t see his reaction, only the movement in her peripheral as he stepped in just far enough to place the basket holding the dying plant near her feet before retreating.