by May Sage
Then, Tori giggled, holding her glass up. Bryant whistled and Mav laughed with good humor.
“Okay, that’s a wake-up call,” the man admitted. “We’ll limit that kind of talk to nine-to-five, how about that?”
“Amen to that,” she smiled, hitting his glass with the bottom of hers, all the while thinking that she wasn’t going to stop drooling over him anytime soon.
This was their first actual interaction, and the man had admitted he was wrong. Something her father, ex-fiancé, or any man she knew had never done until now. And it was hot as the deepest level of hell.
The Pawn
They’d established a sort of cordial working relationship over the course of the previous evening’s strangely refreshing brand of honesty.
Which was good, and bad. Good, because now they could simply greet each other, the palpable tension always floating between them having subsided, some. Not a lot, but some. And it was also pretty fucking bad, because in the space of a few hours, relaxing, chatting with ease, he’d gotten to know her a little on a personal level. Perhaps not down to her deepest, darkest secrets, but he knew she was funny, honest, unafraid to speak her mind. She’d relaxed a lot around him. Enough to properly meet his gaze. His dick twitched each time she did.
Fuck. How screwed was he? Five levels of screwed, that’s how much.
Lexi Taunton was charming. Charming was dangerous.
He had a couple of choices. Going back to being a dick, or manning up and just fucking dealing with it. He had plenty of female friends; he could just hang out with her without giving in to the attraction. Hell, they were working together right now. They could be cordial without crossing any lines, he was sure. He'd never crossed the line with an employee before, why would it start now?
He fully intended to do just that, but when he entered the office, Lexi was sitting in a high-waisted black skirt, with a lacy white top and a strand of pearls around her neck.
Fuck.
Kneel.
The word almost crossed his fucking lips, right there in the office, and fuck Bryant and Tori if it bothered them. He was pretty sure it wouldn't, anyway.
“Good morning,” he said tightly, heading to his desk without sparing her another glance.
Back to being a dick it was. And if that made him a fucking coward, so be it.
* * *
He’d purposefully brought Croft Advertising with him so no one in the hotel paid him any mind, but while the small team of three was brainstorming a marketing strategy to advertise the newly renovated palazzo, he was accessing the confidential internal files.
While their private investigator was looking into the finances of each of those suspects, Mav intended to gather proof. They’d move quickly once they had every bit of information.
Mav followed the trail of significant numbers which had started to shift slowly, by small installments about six months into the renovation projects, and towards the end, when there were always unexpected costs. He frowned. The thief wasn’t stupid; and he or she may also be experienced at this. Could have stolen from someone else before. Or from them.
He recoiled at the idea.
Mav didn’t know how long he’d been working when a discreet sound startled him; Lexi had put a cup of coffee on a coaster next to him.
It was easy to forget that she was just an assistant; Bryant and Tori both treated her like her advice was invaluable - which it often was. Mav could guess why, thinking about it: she’d had a point the previous day, she was normal people and they were the rest of the world. When they needed to see what a down-to-earth person with a normal life would think, she was the right person to ask.
But still, she did her job very well, from what he could see. They always made it to whatever appointment they had scheduled in plenty of time, as she seamlessly ordered their water taxi, gave them a warning, and made them leave when they needed to. None of their appointments had clashed, but they’d accepted invitations to balls from every single person they needed to acknowledge.
She made all that seem effortless, when he knew it was anything but. He’d gone through his fair share of assistants before finding one who could do everything he needed him to do.
Lexi left to give her own bosses their coffees before he could say thank you. Probably not a bad thing, if he was to keep the asshole act up.
Mav watched her leave, smiling. Oh, she could walk away from him any day, with an ass like that. He found himself biting his lip, before shaking his head - a pointless gesture that didn’t work to shake her out of his mind.
Returning to the numbers took some effort; a first. That was how dangerous Lexi Taunton was to his sanity. She messed with his mind while he worked. No one else ever had. Oh, he’d fucked Sarah at work, but during an established, purposeful break. If he planned to work, nothing disturbed him. Nothing except a five-foot-four blonde with an ass one could bounce a quarter off of.
“Have you thought about my suggestion?” Lexi asked.
As he couldn’t concentrate on his spreadsheet anyway, he listened in.
“Sorry?” Bryant prompted.
“Staying the weekend. They predict a pretty bad bout of wind around the Mediterranean coast on Friday. Our flights might be delayed, or even grounded. If you want me to set up some more meetings over the weekend, that could give you a chance to greet the business partners we couldn’t pencil in. Or we simply could take it as a weekend off - give you lovebirds a chance to visit the city.”
The newlyweds exchanged a glance.
Hell, no. Like, hell to the no. It was one thing to deal with her fine ass at work, or even in the evening, when they were making an appearance at a partner’s ball, but there was no way in fucking hell he was spending a weekend alone with her in this palazzo. There was no doubt that they would be alone. Bryant and Tori were either going to do the touristy thing or be locked up in their room and fucking like bunnies the whole time. Probably both.
Mav couldn’t imagine a situation that wouldn’t end in him licking every single part of Lexi’s delightful little body. He could see it. He’d see her at the bar, in the restaurant, down at the lobby, everywhere. The polite thing would be saying hello. He’d try to resist. And he’d fail. He’d offer to accompany her; she didn’t speak Italian and who wants to visit a foreign city by themselves?
Yeah, well, whatever way his imagination went, it ended in hot, wet, hard sex on every available surface.
“Wait,” he said, “is that just a bout of mistral? They get that wind practically all year around, it’s nothing to worry about. Besides, I have a commitment on Sunday.”
And he did; he was visiting his father with his brothers. And sure, that was an excuse, but he was sticking to it.
“You guys can stay, of course, but no need to reschedule my flight.”
Bryant weighed in, “Honestly, the mistral is a pretty common wind in these parts, I doubt they’ll ground flights for long, if at all. We all have to work Monday. We should go home.” He smiled at his wife, promising, “We’ll come back if you want to.”
Mav redirected his attention from the disgustingly sweet couple back to his computer.
He had the thief. All the proof he needed was there. He knew exactly who had taken their money; whose login ID had been used, in any case. It had taken him some time, as the thief had operated smartly, taking small amounts sporadically over a period of a year.
Maverick excused himself to make a phone call.
Some were redirected to a secretary or a lesser agent, but his call was answered by Nate Knightley himself, on the third ring.
“King. I was about to contact you. I have almost everything you need. Just need to look into some details about one employee…”
“Forget everyone else. Look at Kathryn Woodrow. Her ID was used each time for withdrawals of a hundred thousand, all after hours. She’s authorized to handle petty cash, and with the sort of purchases they made around that time, one or two withdrawals per month wouldn’t have raised a flag, bu
t there were a hundred and ninety I can’t account for.”
“Nineteen mil.” Nate sighed on the other end of the phone. “She’s the one we still need to look into. We’ve certainly noticed the withdrawals, and I was going to hand over the file - however, my wife pointed out something strange. She lives modestly. In a bad part of town, she doesn’t have a car, never goes on vacations, and doesn’t have much savings.”
“A front,” Mav guessed.
“That’s what I intend to find out. The money has been transferred to a foreign account. Not Swiss, thankfully. I want to see who, exactly, has access to that account.” The CEO marked a small pause. “She could be getting framed, or worse. Used.”
Used. The term made Mav recoil as he recalled her pretty mouth wrapped around her boss’ cock.
Fuck.
“Blackmailed, somehow, you mean?”
“Possible.”
Maverick’s lips thinned. He wanted a name, and he wanted to come down on them like a hammer, right now. But he wasn’t going to ruin the girl’s life if she was simply a pawn in all this. In any case, not if she was an unwilling pawn.
“Find out now. I have to report to my brothers.”
That was going to be fun.
As expected, Cal was reasonable, and boring, as always. Inclined to wait. Desmond, however, genuinely surprised Maverick. Not because of his rage, but because it was directed in a direction he wouldn’t have foreseen.
“You’re saying you believe Wallace may be blackmailing his assistant into stealing from us - and into fucking him, too?”
“That’s a possibility. Nate is looking into it, anyway. When I come back…”
“No.” The word was final. “We’re getting to the bottom of this now. Today. Not after you get back and recover from jetlag.”
“Des, if that’s been going on for three years, a couple of days won’t hurt. We need answers. The girl could just be keeping the money.”
“She isn’t, or Nate would have found it by now. I’m contacting him now. Not waiting for you on this.”
His brother actually hung up on him.
Mav stared at the phone in disbelief. Who knew the cyborg could actually go off-script on anything?
Wishful Thinking
When he returned to the office, Maverick was tense, Lexi could tell. He seemed to visibly grow tenser yet when he found Tori and Bryant gone.
“Lunch time,” she pointed out. “They’ve gone off to find a bite to eat.” She had to smile, knowing that probably meant Bryant would be finding that bite between his wife’s long legs. “I was going to go myself - would you like me to bring you anything back?”
For a beat, she wondered if he was going to make any reply at all. Apparently not. Dick. After the awkwardly long pause, Lexi logged off from her laptop and got up, intending to just leave Mr. Disapproval to his sulking.
But just then, he broke the silence, saying, “What the hell, let’s go for lunch, too. I know a nice little place not too far from here.”
Lexi was so very proud of herself. She smiled, held her head up high, and replied, “No, thank you. I think I’ll stay here.”
What, he believed he could be a dismissive ass one moment and then have her eat out of the palm of his hand the next?
She wasn’t Tori or Bryant; there was no professional reason why he might want to speak to her. He didn’t sneer at her bringing coffee, but his virtual assistant, based in NYC, was taking care of his own schedule and admin. That meant she didn’t have to go at all unless she wanted to. And she didn’t.
Maverick frowned. “Have I offended you in some way?”
“Not at all” she lied with her sunniest smile. “But I have to be back at work within an hour and a half, and I’d much rather remain here, and catch a nap.”
“I would have thought you might want to see a little more of Venice while you’re here.”
“This is a business trip. I’ll do my job during working hours. Besides, I’ve seen plenty of balls in flamboyant palaces. I can hardly complain.”
Maverick seemed slightly amused, his eyes twinkling. “There you go again. Rejecting me. My ego is truly going to take a hit.”
“Little chance of that, I’m sure.”
He smiled again, the asshole. Her knees buckled, but she somehow managed to stay upright.
“Well, if that’s all, see you later, sir.”
They both froze for a second as that word escaped her lips. Shit. Maverick’s smile disappeared, and something flashed in his eyes. Anger? No, that wasn’t quite it, although it burned just as much.
Lexi regained her senses and ran for it as fast as she could.
Sir. Sir? Seriously? Saying that to just about anyone else might have seemed innocent enough, simply a mark of respect and formality. But she’d been saying it to a fucking dom. That was a completely different ballgame. ‘Sir’ was a play word. She felt his gaze burn into her back as she left the room.
“Lexi,” he called back.
She turned; she had to. Not simply because they were at work and he was an important business partner, but because his voice demanded she did. Commanded her. It wasn’t the normal way he spoke; his voice had dipped lower, said it slower, softly, like a caress.
She bit her lip.
“Enjoy your nap.”
On that note, he turned his back on her, giving her a delightful view of his firm ass in those fitted pants.
Never mind a nap. She needed a cold shower first.
Everyone was ready on time the next morning, standing in the hallway at six thirty exactly, although some amongst them looked better than others. Lexi was amused and delighted to see Maverick's zombie-ish stance and his repetitive yawning, betraying the fact that the man was actually not perfect.
Lexi knew just what to do with someone like that - courtesy of working for Tori, who could be a bear if not handled properly first thing in the morning. As the three professionals stood in the hall, waiting for the water taxi which was scheduled to arrive fifteen minutes later, she disappeared towards the restaurant.
It wasn't technically open yet, even for breakfast, but with a mixture of begging, batting her eyelashes, and handing the right person a ten euro note, she came out of it victorious.
"Here you go."
Lexi came back armed with a platter containing four sandwiches and, more importantly, four cups of coffee.
"You're a beautiful, beautiful human being. Make her give you a raise," Bryant said, pointing to his wife, who was too busy stuffing her face to speak - but she nodded her agreement.
Maverick was the last one to take his share. His eyes met hers and softened. "Thank you."
She hid her ridiculous excitement at hearing those two words from his lips. She rushed to return the plates and cutlery to the kitchen, and came back just in time.
She didn't think she'd ever seen a place more beautiful than Venice at sunrise. Around seven, the sky exploded in a picturesque watercolor so wonderful she could only stare at it, utterly speechless.
When night finally gave way to day, she cursed herself. "Dammit."
"What's the matter?" Tori wondered.
"I didn't take a picture."
Her friend smiled kindly. "You'll come back, some day. You can take pictures then."
But she was wrong, of course. She wouldn't come back here, unless she was needed again for work purposes. She'd spend her next vacation watching Netflix in her PJs, ordering take-out, and reading trashy romance novels. She didn't point that out, as she'd already stuffed her foot in her mouth once about class differences. It wouldn't do to sound too bitter about it.
If Lexi was one to believe in a higher power, she might have thought that it was quite fond of her today. Right then, she wished she could stay a little longer in the enchanted place. Not return today to the gray, grim reality where she had a twelve-foot-square room in a moldy shared apartment.
And that's when the dark, threatening wind started roaring.
The End of the Road
> What do you mean, grounded?" Maverick practically growled at the man who’d dared inform him that they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Although why he was surprised, he didn’t know. He’d been in the wind fifteen minutes ago. It was bad.
Still, he insisted. “We have a private jet. Surely it’s different from commercial flights. We can go as soon as it quiets down for a spell.”
“Sir, I’m sorry to say that smaller, personal planes are even more likely to be in distress during turbulences like these. For the safety of the crew, as well as that of our passengers, we are listening to the airport's restrictions, until the wind passes. According to the weather forecast, it isn’t likely to clear up today.”
He was seething but knew better than to direct his anger at the poor attendant who was just doing his damn job. Or at the weather. Guilty as nature may be, she didn't give a fuck.
Instead, he turned to Lexi, roaring, "I bet you're happy now. You get to tell us I told you so."
The assistant glared over the phone she was clutching in her hand. "I would be happy if we were in the air, or better yet, in bed, sleeping in. Right now, trust me when I say I wish the weather predictions had been as exaggerated as you said they were.”
He bit back an irritated retorted as a little wrinkle deepened between her shapely brows. Maverick found himself wanting to sooth it. Chase her worry away.
"What now?"
"When we checked out this morning, the clerk was saying that they had a waiting list from members of the press to book into the palazzo pre-opening. You know, get to try out the place and write about it. I'm trying to check back in on the internal website, but it says it's full. I tried to call, but the network is just dreadful.”
Well, that was easy enough to sort out. "Don't worry about it. I'll get Sebastian on it."
"Your PA?" she frowned. "It's two in the morning in New York, Maverick."
He didn't think she'd ever called him by his name before. Just "sir," that one time. Yeah, that was still fucking with his mind. Big time.
