by Alison Aimes
Chest tight, Alexi pressed a kiss to the top of her head and held her tighter.
He doubted she realized what she’d revealed. But he’d heard it loud and clear.
And hated every word of it.
She’d been lonely, had a past that cut deep enough to haunt her still, and—hardest of all to swallow—the man who’d destroyed the lives of those he cared about had, in fact, been her savior.
He called her Armageddon, but this moment felt like a reckoning. Those sleep-issued words obliterating who he’d been and forging him into something else.
He’d started this day one man and would leave it another.
Only he had no idea what the guy he was becoming was supposed to do now.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“You were terrific.” Jessie’s red tips bristled with excitement, a near match to the ornate rose centerpiece that sat atop the lunch table they’d just left. “The fire only made you come out swinging harder. Mr. Nurasawa was definitely impressed.”
“You think?” Lily tried to keep her excitement to a dull roar.
The Cosmopolitan Club was a somber place, all dark leather and cigar smoke, and one of the most exclusive gentleman’s clubs in the city. The only reason she’d been able to set her little toe inside was thanks to Nurasawa’s invitation. The man was not only a prominent developer and businessman, but a key Winslow Industries board member—and now, thanks to today’s meeting, a supporter of Lily Bennett for CEO.
The urge to throw back her head and bay at the moon like the ferocious hunter she was rode her hard. She’d snagged her first unequivocal vote for next month’s board meeting.
“I agree.” Jim bounced along beside them. “I thought after what happened…I mean, when you went home you seemed so tired and defeated and yet…today you…” The tips of his ears reddened. “Well, the point is, you’re focused, confident, and had an answer for every one of his concerns. Very CEO-like. I don’t know what got into you yesterday, but keep it up.”
The memory of exactly what—or rather who—had gotten into her brought a flush to her skin.
A rival who’d stayed the night though she’d expected him to cut out any minute. Who’d kept his promise and picked up the broken pieces and made her feel whole again. Who’d helped make breakfast and then given her a good luck orgasm on the breakfast counter for dessert. Who’d sent her off to work with a sexy growl and the demand that she kick some serious ass.
It was hard to believe she’d ever thought Alexi cold. Or unfeeling.
There’d been a worrying ache in her chest since he walked out her door this morning, but she wouldn’t take last night back for anything.
She’d been on her own her entire life. Gone without more times than she could count. It had been more than nice to have someone there when she was down.
She just needed to make sure she didn’t get too used to it.
“Hmmmm.” Jessie stared at her phone, oblivious to the two doormen in uniform who pulled open the massive oak doors of the lobby. “Looks like you just got a request for another meeting with a board member at two. Are you up for it?”
“Of course. The more the merrier.” Hands gripped tight around her briefcase, Lily marched through the lunchroom. The tide was changing. More of the board members were interested in hearing her ideas now that Russell’s eldest and Don Pierson were out of the picture. Speaking of which, “Any word on Paul?”
Jessie and Jim exchanged a quick look, the deep grooves around the latter’s eyes making him look older than only days before. “Nothing yet. He’s not answering my calls.” His guilt was painful to behold.
She reached out gave his hand a squeeze. “I’m sorry. This is hard, but don’t forget it isn’t the first time he’s disappeared. Last time he and Russell had a fight, he took off for Thailand and returned two weeks later as if nothing had happened.”
“But he’s not there this time. We checked.”
“We have our best people looking for him. He’ll turn up.”
“Until then, we just have to keep to the business plan.” Unlike Jim, Jessie didn’t appear too broken up about Paul’s vanishing act. “Bring more board members to our side. Not let ourselves get distracted. It’s the only way.”
“You’re right,” agreed Jim, a determined look stealing over his face.
Lily smiled at them both. “You guys are amazing. None of this would be possible without you.”
Her phone pinged.
The elevator doors that led to the garage opened.
She stole a quick glance at her cell.
Jessie hustled in. Jim right behind. They looked at her expectantly.
Heels planted firmly, she remained where she was. “Text me the meeting address. I’ll get a taxi and meet you there at two. I need to…take care of something first.”
The elevator doors slid shut on two surprised faces.
A minute and one walk through the fancy lobby later, she stood before a discrete set of doors labeled members only.
The dark doors of an elevator slid open. “Finally.” Kazankov loomed within.
“Is everything okay? What are you doing here?”
“Waiting impatiently.” Large, rough hands wrapped around her arms and drew her across the threshold.
The doors slid shut behind her.
Kazankov’s talented mouth skimmed her throat, her temple, her jaw. “I just paid a king’s ransom to fast track a membership to this place. Turns out they have a top-floor apartment that’s available to members only.”
She titled her neck for better access while trying to play catch-up. “Won’t someone be in it?”
“Not anymore.”
Need flared. Amusement, too. Giddy, beautiful relief, as well. The man was ridiculous—spending far too much—but she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t floored by what he’d done to be with her.
They were breathing hard when they broke apart. The floors flashing by as the elevator climbed upward.
Raw lust warred with good sense as she studied him warily. “I thought…I thought last night was it.”
His gaze bore into hers, dark, hungry, unreadable as ever. “Not for me.” He shifted closer. “We’ve tried to end it before. It doesn’t take.”
“Last night was…different.” She couldn’t excuse it away as just primal attraction or angry, lust-filled one-upmanship. He’d been there for her—and it had changed something inside her for good.
“You’re right.” He didn’t even try and pretend otherwise.
She swallowed hard.
“Your choice, Lily.”
He was making no promises. Offering up no solutions or deals or bullshit about a compromise that would work for them both.
Pure honesty. Since they knew there were no solution to be had.
Paul was missing. The police were no closer to figuring out who was behind the vandalism or the fire than they’d been before. The board was dividing into fixed camps, some of whom supported her, some of whom supported Alexi.
Only one of them would win. The other would lose—and the stakes only seemed to grow. But in the meantime…
Her hand closed around the lapel of his jacket and dragged him closer. “Someone could see us.”
“There are no cameras on this elevator.” He nipped at her lower lip. “It’s just us.”
She dropped her briefcase, the bang echoing in the intimate space, and grabbed his ass. “Then why are we still talking?”
He smiled against her lips, sliding her skirt upward, the rough friction of his hands making her moan. “You could not be more perfect.”
“I could,” she spoke between frantic kisses, her hands pulling at his shirt, the belt buckle of his pants, “if I was screaming your name as you drove deep.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
It was midnight before they ordered carryout. Chinese from the place down the street. A late dinner that fit her schedule to a T.
He’d pulled up ten minutes after she’d arrived home, talked his way pas
t the security, and surprised her with a knock on the door when she’d been en route to the shower.
Needless to say, they were wet, clean, and satisfied now.
Who would have thought the man she’d once imagined strangling would fit seamlessly into her life?
“What?” He paused, chopstick halfway to his mouth, thankfully misinterpreting her look. “This is damn good.”
They ate thigh to thigh, him in his navy boxers, her in his T-shirt, their backs against the wall, two moving cartons serving as a table. She hadn’t yet had time for decorating or unpacking. The soft carpet beneath them the extent of the current luxury, the floor-to-ceiling window of her glamorous, mostly empty family room glittering with the bright lights from below.
Even at this hour, the city was bustling. And the little girl in her who’d skipped meals and shared a sagging couch in a rusted trailer still had trouble believing this was her life.
Yes, it would end eventually, but she’d seize what she could in the meantime.
“Tell me about your day.” Stabbing her chopsticks into her food, she smiled up at him. “Make anyone cry? Take over any vulnerable, unsuspecting companies?”
His gorgeous, vicious eyes lit with excitement. “Well, there was this one company—”
The shrill ring of a phone echoed from down the hall. The theme to Jaws.
His expression shifted to wary. “I have to get that.”
Jumping up, he gave her a spectacular view of a muscular back and an ass hard enough to bounce a quarter off.
He was almost to the door when he swiveled around, pointing at her. “Stay just like that. No moving.”
Bossy as ever, he disappeared down the hall. As if he’d been here a thousand times before. As if this was how it would always be.
Her heart gave a lurch.
“All okay with Lena?” His voice rumbled down the corridor.
She leaned a little closer toward the door.
“That’s why you’re calling me?” His tone sharpened to exasperation. “I don’t know the name of the nearest food delivery place, you idiot. If Morales is nearby, tell him to shoot you. Nothing fatal, but something that will hurt. And bleed. A lot.”
She leaned so far over she practically fell onto her side.
“I don’t give a shit what you do with your free time,” he continued. “What I care about is that you follow my instructions and, unless Lena wakes up and wants company, don’t bother me for the rest of the weekend.”
Her eyes went wide. The whole weekend? That was not part of their nonexistent ground rules.
Hands unsteady, she set her food down on the makeshift table.
“What?” This time his phone growl was tinged with excitement as well as exasperation. “Well, why the hell didn’t you lead with that?” More silence. “Interesting. Let me know the minute you find them.”
She was still trying to puzzle it all out when the chatter ended.
He appeared in the doorway, all wide shoulders and mouthwatering ten-pack. “Now, where were we?”
“I don’t…” She shook off her daze. “Is everything okay?”
He scooped her up, his amazing strength on display, every glorious muscle rippling, as he slid beneath her to sit against the wall. He settled her back on his lap, sideways, his shirt riding up so her bare behind was against the sudden prominent bulge in his boxers. “It is now.”
Lust made it hard to think straight. “I couldn’t help but overhear. You’re, ah”—she cleared her throat—“hoping to stay the weekend?”
“Yes.”
No explanation. No excuses. No circling around the issue.
Lord, what she wouldn’t give for one-tenth of his confidence.
She raised an eyebrow. “When were you thinking to ask me?”
He drew her closer, inhaled deep. “Probably Sunday, around ten p.m.”
She laughed. “You are unbelievable.”
He didn’t smile, but his eyes were playful. “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
“I don’t see you asking for either.”
“Good point.” He nuzzled her neck, his voice that low, sexy rasp she’d come to associate with mind-blowing sex. “You have the softest skin.” While she’d been wrestling with the enormity of their nondecision, he’d moved on, his hand sliding up her thigh to dip across the curve of her waist.
She bit back a moan. This deliberate, slow seduction might just be the death of her.
“How’d you get this?” Catching her off-guard, his thumb circled the small scar at her hip.
“Hard to remember.” The vague explanation was old habit. Russell had never been close enough to see it. Francoise had hated it and told her to get rid of it. But she’d wanted it as a reminder.
A reminder that recklessness led to pain. Recklessness…just like now.
A chill swept through her.
“You cold?” He drew her closer.
“This is really stupid, isn’t it?”
His hands stilled. He knew exactly to what she was referring. “Everything leaves a mark, solnyshko. But I won’t hurt you. What you tell me stays between you and me.”
Heart pounding, she shifted to face him. She was so tired of playing it safe. “Then tell me what that phone call was really about.”
His expression blanked. “What?”
“You want me to trust you? Trust me.”
He blew out a breath, his gaze boring into hers.
She stared back, unblinking. This was it. Now or never.
“What you tell me stays between you and me.” She repeated his earlier words back to him. “This goes both ways, or it doesn’t go at all.”
His slow smile revved her up all over again. “Damn, I like your fire.”
“Then tell me.”
“Don Pierson may be missing, too.”
Shock slammed through her. “Missing?” She shifted on his lap. “Since when?”
“Around the same time as Paul.”
“Do the police think it’s related?”
“The police aren’t aware of this information yet. My team discovered the link and they’re searching for both men now. There’s a chance, after all, that one’s on vacation while the other’s just not answering his phone.”
“Or they could be together?” A shiver wound down her spine.
“My team will find out for sure. They’re also notifying the police.”
“Thank you for telling me.” Her gaze lifted to his. “Despite our less than smooth beginning, you’ve been a huge help every step of this mess.”
He cradled her jaw in his palms. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. You can trust me on that.”
Her heart fluttered once more.
“I got that scar when I was thirteen.” Her heart beat fast, her palms shook.
As if he sensed her nerves, he leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. “I knew you were a fighter.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” The look of pride in his eyes egged her on. “My aunt kicked me out of her trailer for the night to do some entertaining. I took it as a sign I should go down to the lake with a bunch of older boys. Like an idiot, I dragged my younger sister with me.” She traced the teardrop lines of the scar, courtesy of a sharp rock that had sliced into her as she’d been dragged toward the trees by a bunch of drunk hillbillies who hadn’t heard the expression no means no. “Needless to say, we ended up over our heads. I…I would have probably come away with far worse, but the police were out that night busting kids for underage drinking. They broke things up before it got too ugly.”
He’d gone tense beneath her. “Are those motherfuckers in jail or dead?”
She laughed. “Given where I come from, probably.”
His scowl remained. “I take it they didn’t go to jail for what they did to you.”
“For messing with trailer trash? No.”
He squeezed so tightly she nearly lost her breath. “You are not trailer trash.”
“Not anymore,” she j
oked, or at least tried to, gesturing toward the view. “I get to remember it all from the safety of the penthouse now, but back then it kind of sucked. If I remember correctly, I was the one who got in trouble. I think my aunt beat me even worse than those boys for bringing the police around.”
“I don’t normally go after women, but your aunt deserves a special place in hell.”
“She got it. Pancreatic cancer at age thirty-six. Dead three weeks later.” She let out a long, slow breath. “What about you? Any scars?”
“More than I can count.”
“I don’t see any.” She shifted on his lap to take a closer look.
“They’re on the inside.” His expression remained inscrutable. “But if you look really close down here”—he pointed toward his thigh and the growing bulge straining against his boxers—“you might find something.”
She gave a playful shove. “Very funny.”
Then he put his arms around her as if she was the most fragile, precious thing in the world, and her emotions ping-ponged in an even more terrifying direction. “I like your scars,” he said. “Each and every one of them.”
“You haven’t found them all.” A familiar flare of shame seared through her.
“I can be patient.”
It was the way he looked at her when he said it.
Alarm bells flared, the hair at the back of her nape prickling as realization dawned. “You know, don’t you?”
He didn’t even try and feign ignorance.
“About France? Yes.” His tone was casual. Too casual. As if he’d known this moment was coming. Or decided to make it happen.
She skittered off him. Sliding until her ass hit the floor. Until they were no longer touching and she was on her own, the air chilling around her. “How long have you known?”
Deep down, she’d known her secret couldn’t stay buried forever, but she’d let herself hope.
“Tell me,” she demanded. “You owe me that at least.” Lord, she’d been such an idiot. Thinking she could let him in just a little. Thinking she could lean on someone else without getting burned all over again.
He watched her intently, his hands fisting at his sides. “I always do my research. You can’t be happy about it in the case of Don and Paul and then hold it against me now.”
