Her CEO: An Instalove Possessive Alpha Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 180)

by Flora Ferrari

  He needs to know, and I owe him more than an apology.

  Oh, Eric… don’t be mad.

  I’ll explain everything, I promise.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Eric

  Before I even get to the barman, his hands are up in surrender.

  “Mr. Chambers, she was all alone, there was just those few seconds that woman stopped to talk to her, I swear!”

  I have my hands out, ready to grab him by the throat, but I can join the dots.

  “Blond? Like a mess?” I ask, and he nods his head.

  I growl and give him a stiff nod before taking off after Alyson,

  “Alright, at least now I know who I’m up against,” I snarl out loud before I rush out into the plaza, trying to think where she might have gone, which way would she run if she was so upset?

  Whatever she told you, Alyson, it’s a lie! I hope you can see that. I know you must…

  The whole building’s so vast, and I never run aimlessly without a clear direction or goal in mind.

  It turns my stomach to turn back, but I spin on my heel, heading straight for the security office on the same level, having someone bring up footage from just a few minutes ago.

  In seconds I can see which way she’s gone, and who else was going in the same direction.

  I jog to the spot. The little nook where I kissed her not long ago, and thank god I run straight into her, my arms wrapping around her straight away, her wet mouth on mine instantly, pressing hard as I grip her tighter than ever.

  “I’m sorry, Eric,” she gasps, but I’m not done kissing her yet. I won’t ever let anyone upset her ever again, and I’ll never let her out of my sight, not even for a minute, I make a solemn vow to myself.

  She’s clutching her phone, trembling all over and I can tell she’s been crying.

  “Whatever it is,” I tell her. “Just know I love you. That everything between us is real and I’d give up all of this if it meant having you by my side. The thought of losing you.”

  My voice breaks with emotion, but I reel it in, and after kissing her again, so hard I’m almost scared I’ll hurt her, I see the mischievous glint in her eyes.

  “What is it, baby? What’s happened? Tell me,” I demand.

  “I can do better than tell you Eric,” she says, holding up her phone.

  “I know you love me, and I love you. I just… I dunno, I flipped when someone reminded me of my past, made me doubt myself for a second,” she says, the gleam in her eye getting brighter as she tilts her phone in front of me.

  “What is it?” I ask her one last time. I hate surprises, unless I’m the one delivering them.

  And after a few moments, listening to what she’s recorded just now, plus what I know I can prove, where a certain two people were standing right when the recording was made.

  I feel a glint in my own eye. The thrill of a new kind of excitement.

  Justice. Served piping hot.

  “How’d you like to sit in on your first ever board meeting?” I ask her, and grin when she nods a firm yes without even giving it a second thought.

  “Did you really believe her?” I ask Alyson, getting in just one more hug and kiss before we get to the boardroom’s floor.

  “No. Like I said, it just threw me. She was pretty convincing though.”

  I growl in agreement. “Yeah, a nasty piece of work, and I thought firing her was enough.”

  “Well, you have a case now,” she chimes, and I know I do. More than enough for the board to chew on for a while, and plenty of live ammunition for my pending unfair dismissal case too.

  Fashionably late, I’m always the last in on any board meeting and today’s is no exception.

  The huge black doors are closed and before we go in, Alyson straightens the back of her skirt as I ask her quietly, “What did you say? When you gave your resume to that creature?”

  She looks puzzled for a moment, then stifles a laugh as she remembers. “Oh… Something about being the next big thing at Chambers Inc.” She smirks and I feel that swell of pride again.

  “I think you might be onto something there, Alyson. You might just be onto something…”

  I give her a quick kiss before swinging both huge doors wide open, letting her go in first before I close them behind us both again, leading her by the small of her back up to the head of the board room table, where I’ve made arrangements for our two seats to be set side by side.

  Nobody’s saying anything, as is customary before I sit down, but the air is thin and the mood pensive. Tense.

  I want more than anything to take Alyson’s hand, but something in me says no, let her take this in her own way, on her own merits.

  I know she can do it.

  I just know she can.

  The meeting’s brought to order and I jump straight in.

  “Gentlemen, I’m not going to beat around the bush,” I start out, noting that my chairman, Dave Cowper is scowling, crimson as his eyes travel up and down Alyson, who’s technically sitting in his place.

  “I’m sure you all have heard about Alyson joining Chambers this past few days, and I’m sad to have to bring it up as a point of order, but our Chairman, and no doubt, all of you have been under the impression my motives for bringing her in are… shall we say… questionable.”

  There’s a murmur around the table, heads bobbing and I can tell already they’re out for blood before any of them have even spoken.

  My hand’s up, which brings the room to order again, and I know it’s going to put Alyson on the spot a bit, throw her in the deep end, but I know she’ll manage.

  Like she said, she’s the next big thing at Chambers Inc. So I decide to let her prove that for herself.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Alyson

  It’s intimidating, to say the least. And being in on a board meeting of Chambers Inc. On my first official day at work, if that’s what today really is, is the last place I thought I’d be.

  I have something useful for Eric though, so I feel like I’ve earned my keep again, as he’d put it. But I’m suddenly rattled, terrified when he announces that I’m going to present the board with the findings of my recent ‘covert investigation’ into executive protocols, procedure and practices here at Chambers Inc.

  I don’t even know what that means, and my gaping mouth tells Eric, and the whole boardroom so too.

  He leans in close, whispering only loud enough for me to hear.

  “Just tell them about what happened when you applied for the job, then play the taped conversation. I’ll pick up the rear. You got this,” he tells me and I can almost feel his huge arms around me, supporting me all the way as I stand up, shaking inside but pleasantly surprised when I hear the power in my own voice.

  “I came to Chambers Inc. promoting myself as a college graduate seeking employment. I have relevant skills for a range of intern and entry level positions.”

  I feel myself faltering a little, but I have everyone’s attention so far, Eric giving me a solid, slow nod, reminding me to take my time and to tell the truth.

  “What I didn’t expect to find was fraud, prejudice and criminal corruption of the highest order,” I hear myself saying. I think it’s a line from a movie I saw but it sounds good, like it fits, so I roll with it.

  The whole room erupts with each board member shouting protests, forgetting where they are and bellowing for the instant removal of Eric from the board, calling for a unanimous vote of no confidence for him as CEO of the company.

  I feel myself getting overwhelmed again, wanting to run away, but one look at Eric makes me stand my ground.

  The grin on his face reminds me that he’s the boss still and we have some pretty damning evidence to back up what I’m saying.

  He lets them all shout and ballyhoo for a few minutes, eventually signaling me to just play the recording I made.

  I take my phone out and set it on the wide, gleaming walnut table in front of me, noticing my hands are shaking again, but determined t
o see this through.

  Eric calls for quiet, and I’m allowed to say a little more before I play the recording.

  “What you’re about to hear is a taped conversation between the head of Human Resources, Timothy Sloane, and the receptionist who was dismissed yesterday after it was revealed she broke company procedure and her employment agreement by behaving in a prejudiced manner towards myself.”

  There’s a few looks of ‘so what’ but Eric urges me to go on, and I remember what he said about him bringing up the rear.

  “Did you tell her? Did she fall for it?”

  “Yeah, I told her. Said Chambers has a rotating roster of fat nobodies that he uses than throws away. I don’t think she bought it though.”

  “Well, she’d better have bought it. I want that fucker, Eric Chambers to go down, and hard. I want our little plan for your unfair dismissal case to be the start of a long campaign to ruin him.”

  “Will it work though? I mean, twenty-five million for being fired?”

  “It’s the settlement we’re after. Chambers won’t want the publicity, he’ll pay twice that just to have all this go away, but it won’t just go away… because even when he pays, we’ll be there, demanding more. This is it, honey! The one scheme that not only sets me free from Chambers, but sets us up for life!”

  Eric motions for me to pause playing, then he stands up.

  “Not just an admission of intent to defraud Chambers Inc. A plot to personally blackmail me as well.”

  Someone from the end of the table moves suddenly, bolting for the door, which is suddenly filled with security and a line of police behind them.

  “It took some doing, gentlemen,” Eric continues. “But we managed to convince the authorities to act on this straight away, and in time for our meeting, before anyone else involved could alert those implicated.”

  There’s a groan or two, but most of the board members are leaning forward, shaking their heads in disbelief.

  Eric eyeballs each one of them, the guilty already showing their true colors with their faces.

  “It’s not the only rottenness in this place,” he snarls. “And starting today, with Alyson by my side, we’re going to root out all of it, starting right from the top and working our way down to the mailroom.”

  The board starts to murmur again, and Eric’s hand goes up.

  “There’s plenty more in that short conversation, implicating some in this room, and many in this building. All I can say is this much, I’m disappointed on the one hand, but grateful to Alyson on the other for bringing all this to the surface.”

  He takes my hand, and I stand up, but nobody seems very excited except for Eric.

  “For that reason, I’m announcing the appointment of Alyson Bennet as our first, and joint Chairperson of Chambers Inc. as well as joint majority shareholder no votes required, the deciding voters are about to be arrested for a string of white collar crimes.”

  “This is outrageous!” Cowper cries out, turning purple and shaking his fists.

  The security team wants to move in, the police eager to make their arrests, but something tells me Eric’s only just started to upset the apple cart.

  “You can’t just announce a new majority shareholder… not unless…” The chairman gasps, all the color draining from his face.

  I feel my own face grow puzzled. I have no idea what Eric’s talking about now. I thought we had the receptionist and Human Resources guy down for fraud, trying to scam the company for unfair dismissal, but I never thought I was going to be…

  “I can have a new joint majority shareholder,” Eric says loudly, his booming voice making the whole room hush as he brings my hand to his lips and kisses it.

  “If she’ll only agree to be my wife. If she marries me,” he says, and I feel my knees go weak as it registers what he really means, then feel him catching me. His face an inch from mine.

  “Say yes, darling. Say you’ll be mine forever. Marry me.”

  “Yes!” I hear myself breathe huskily. “With all my heart, yes.”

  And the room erupts again, but this time it's cheers. Cheers for the lucky bridegroom and cheers for his blushing bride to be.

  EPILOGUE

  ONE YEAR LATER

  Eric

  “So, let me get this straight,” she asks, rolling over as we both pant loudly from our second, or is it third time tonight?

  I roll my eyes, then smile. Always wondering how Alyson manages to be fully focused when I make love to her, but still managing to mull over a hundred things while we do it.

  It’s why I hired her, I guess.

  Why I love her so much. She’s the perfect multitasker as well as the sexiest woman alive.

  “You never even knew anything fishy was going on in your whole organization? Not until I came along?” she asks, and I can see the smile already playing at the corners of her mouth.

  She likes to remind me every chance she gets, and I never get tired of it. I owe her everything because of it.

  “None,” I tell her. “Without you coming along, I would’ve been broke in a year, probably sooner, the whole company stolen out from under me,” I tell her, in half-truth.

  Okay, complete truth. The federal investigation that was apparently in the works, catapulted by the evidence of her recording was what set the ball rolling for a lot of bad people to be removed from my business.

  Our business.

  “Ha!” she exclaims and hooks her arms around me, and I pull her over to me, kissing her as I roll over on top of her again.

  “Again!” she exclaims. My hardness pressing up against her, ready to keep going whenever she is.

  “It is our wedding night,” I reason, but truth be told, once I get hard around Alyson, it’s usually an all-day or all-night affair until things finally simmer down.

  It’s taken a while longer than I wanted, but I put a ring on Alyson’s finger as soon as we were both free enough to take a break.

  Neither of us have any family to speak of and Alyson was positive she only wanted one thing: me. But she did want to spend some months setting herself up in her new position at work.

  She loves her job and I have a hard time coping sometimes, trying to keep as much of her to myself as I can, but she’s learned to delegate and we always make time for our own private meetings, sometimes all day affairs.

  “I don’t need or even want a big ceremony, Eric. Just make it official, and for god’s sake don’t put all that money in my name!” she said.

  But I did. I have.

  The legal department screamed prenup and half the board threatened to resign, the other half wanted to double down on their shareholdings, wanting more of a stake in the company over salary once they saw the vision Alyson had. Once they cottoned on to just how brilliant she is.

  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’d give it all up if it meant I could be with her. Business be damned, because my life’s nothing without Alyson.

  Our life.

  The life we’re making together now.

  I was originally planning for the building she lived in to be her wedding present, but once I saw how clever she was, how much I actually needed her. I gave her what’s rightfully hers, half of everything.

  Our life’s perfect, except for the one thing I know I can’t rush.

  The one thing I secretly wish we’d both be blessed with, but hasn’t come yet.

  Our own family.

  After dozing for a bit, I lay in the gray, predawn light, thinking about our future family. I reach out for Alyson and frown when she’s not there next to me.

  As much as I dislike travel, Alyson loves it, so Italy was her choice for our honeymoon and I willingly went along with it. Even the ramshackle, prehistoric villa we rented, I think she bought to stay in, overlooking an equally ancient village with its own courtyard and fountain.

  It has a draft, ancient walls and uneven wooden floors and poor plumbing, but Alyson loves the place.

  “It has charm, darling.�
�

  “It has mice,” I remember telling her.

  The memory makes me smile but I suddenly sit up, cocking my ear, then bolting out of bed when I hear Alyson crying, her soft sobs reaching me from the other end of the room.

  From the bathroom.

  My feet slide across the floor as I use my arms to grip the doorway, stopping myself.

  My heart in my throat, until I see the blue pregnancy test in her hands, and realize her tears are tears of joy.

  “Baby? What is it! Tell me you’re alright.”

  “We’re gonna have a baby,” she cries, and I feel the first real tear I’ve cried since I was a boy trickle down my own cheek as I rush over to hold her.

  Vowing to protect her even more from this moment on.

  “Our precious cargo,” I whisper, putting my hand over hers as she rubs her belly and I kiss her forehead.

  “I love you, Alyson Chambers,” I tell her, both of us weeping for joy now.

  “And I love you, Eric Chambers,”

  “Do we have any baby names yet?” I ask, making her frown.

  “It’s been less than a minute, Eric.”

  I open my mouth, she’s right. “But as long as it’s not Cynthia,” I offer, making her smile, then we both laugh.

  “Or Timothy… Ew!” she calls out loud and I hug her close again, tight as I dare, whispering the one thing I can never tell her enough, the one thing I want etched in the hearts and mind of her and our children, forever.

  I love you.

  EXTENDED EPILOGUE

  THREE YEARS LATER – VALENCIA, ITALY

  Alyson

  “Mommy! Daddy!”

  “It’s your turn,” I remind Eric, who looks up from between my legs, blowing out a short breath.

  “I’ll keep it warm,” I promise him.

  He kisses my mound softly, and I shiver, watching him get out of bed, making himself decent with his robe before he stretches and yawns, his bare feet sliding on the wooden floor as he makes his way down to the kids room.

  “Momm-”

  “Alright!” he calls out, and the twins go quiet once they realize they’ve summoned their father.