Impossible (to Resist) Boss: Billionaire Romance

by Arabella Quinn

  Jason slammed the door and sank into a chair. His world was collapsing around him. Why? Why did she do this? Why did she do this to him?

  It felt like a knife was twisting in his gut. He felt sick. Like he was about to puke his guts out.

  Chapter 21

  Somehow, Jason would make everything okay. He was the CEO of the company and he could make the impossible happen. I’d witnessed it myself.

  I sat on the rumpled bed, where we had just spent hours making love, still wrapped in a damp towel. All my clothes were in a heap somewhere in the same room where Jason was talking to William Travers.

  How stupid could I be? Unsuspectingly, I had pranced right into the room, my hair still dripping wet from the shower, my body naked under the towel. The evidence was damning. There was no way Jason could spin this as anything else to Mr. Travers. We were busted.

  How problematic it was, I didn’t know. Maybe Jason could keep a lid on it. I wasn’t entirely sure how trustworthy Mr. Travers was; I’d always gotten a creepy vibe from him. But, Jason wielded tremendous power at Kaine Industries. It wasn’t an ideal situation at all, but I had faith he could keep me protected from the vicious spotlight that this could potentially shine on me.

  As worried as I was, and as horrible as that scene had been, it still couldn’t smother the glowing happiness that kept bubbling up inside me. I wasn’t just having an affair with my sexy boss. No. Something else had happened between us. It was soul stirring. Deep. Tantric. It was a connection so powerful that it scared me. And this morning proved to me that Jason felt it too. I could see it in his eyes.

  I was remembering a particularly deep ‘connection’ of the naughty kind when the bedroom door opened. I knew right away that something was very wrong when Jason entered. His face was unusually pallid and the look in his eyes had changed. They had dulled. In fact, the look he was giving me was downright hostile.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?” I was immediately anxious and the thready note in my voice reflected that.

  A sense of wariness unsettled me when he didn’t reassure me like I was certain he would. “What did Travers say? What’s going to happen? Oh My God, does he know we’re together?”

  “We’re not together.” His cold pronouncement cut me in two.

  “What I meant to say-” My towel slipped a little.

  His eyes narrowed. “I think you need to get dressed.”

  There was no warmth in his eyes. No comfort.

  “My dress is out there. Jason, what’s going on? Why are you so angry?” I pleaded with him to tell me.

  “Bill Travers just showed me some information. It was about a little project you’ve been working on.” His voice sounded stony. I barely recognized it.

  “What project? Did I mess something up?”

  He folded his arms across his chest. “I know everything.”

  “What do you mean? Jason, please.”

  “I know all your secrets.” He smiled cruelly. “Or should I say your corporate secrets?”

  My heart skipped a beat. He knew about Corporate Secrets? I didn’t even have time to fully comprehend how humiliating it was that all my darkest fantasies about Jason had been exposed to him. And to William Travers, apparently. And God knew who else in the company. I didn’t have time to digest this bombshell because Jason was outright pissed.

  I hung my head in shame. I could die. “You know?”

  “So you’re not going to bother denying it? Deny what you did?” He looked sickened.

  There was no use denying it. I was guilty. The file must have been discovered somehow at work, so chances were that he already knew I had written most of it on company time. I had broken the rules. Why else would he be so angry? Lying to him about it now would only make things worse.

  I felt my lower lip trembling. How could I fix this?

  “You’ve certainly been busy doing all this behind my back.” His mouth twisted into an ugly sneer. “Here I thought you were the perfect employee. Exemplary, I called you. I even gave you a fucking award last night! That’s fucking rich. You must have laughed your ass off at that.”

  My mouth opened, but no words came out. His derisive hostility was like an arrow through my heart. I swallowed the lump in my throat and felt a tear slide down my cheek. I was terrified at how angry he was. Terrified that I’d lose him.

  His eyes softened for a moment. His hand shot through his hair. “Tell me you didn’t do it. Tell me Travers was wrong.”

  I needed to make him understand. I stood up and took a step towards him, but then froze when he put up his hand out to stop me. The quick glimpse of softness I thought I saw was gone. It was replaced with contempt. I inhaled sharply.

  “Did you do it? Is it true?” he demanded.

  “Yes.” It was barely a whisper.

  He swayed back on his feet. He looked like he’d been struck by a train. “Don’t bother coming back to work. You’re fired.”

  I gasped. I knew he was a stickler for the rules, but I didn’t expect to be fired. Not after what we had shared. “Jason… let me explain.

  He gestured to the door. “Please leave now. I don’t want to see you ever again. Do you understand?”

  Facing such cruelty was heartbreaking. I slinked out of the bedroom and he immediately closed the door behind me. I was left standing alone, wrapped in my towel, in his hotel suite. Almost clinically, I noticed that my teeth were chattering. I retrieved my scattered clothing from the floor and robotically got dressed in silence. I wondered if I was experiencing shock.

  It wasn’t until hours later, when I was sitting on the plane bound for Logan International Airport in Boston, that the full extent of my situation hit me. Tears had already been spilling down my cheek, but I was desperately trying to hold off the torrent of grief until I was home in private.

  The same words kept circling around my head. He fired me. He never wants to see me again. He fired me. He never wants to see me again.

  I knew misusing company time was a fireable offence. He had a right to be angry, but to throw away everything we had, just for that? It didn’t make any sense.

  Well, it didn’t make any sense from my perspective. Because I loved him. I could think of only one scenario that it would make sense from his point of view - only if he didn’t feel the same way about me as I did for him.

  It was all starting to add up. Once his seduction was complete, once Jason Kaine got exactly what he wanted, he no longer had a need for me. In fact, I had become a liability to have around, once he had gotten his fill.

  He used me and threw me away like trash. He was just using my moonlighting as an excuse to fire me. If it wasn’t that, he would have found another way to get rid of me.

  He had fucked me over. Literally. It was time for him to find a new bimbo. I was out.

  I hated him.

  Chapter 22

  Jason was exhausted. His eyes were gritty and irritated and a dull ache had been residing in his head since he’d awoken. Instead of spending the weekend preparing for the emergency board meeting, he’d spent it drowning his misery at the bottom of a bottle. Several bottles. He’d lost count of how many. It had served its purpose to numb the pain, but now he was regretting it.

  He was seriously off his game; he wasn’t even sure what was going on behind the scenes at his own damn company. Instead of walking into the meeting fully equipped to handle anything, he was going in cold. He had no idea who was lining up for him and who was against him, although he suspected.

  And worse than that, he hadn’t reminded people of allegiances owed, rallied anyone to his side, or called in any favors. His adversaries sure hadn’t sat on the sidelines while he wallowed in heartache all weekend. In short, he had no plan and was going to have to wing it. Thinking quick on his feet and superb instincts had gotten him this far. With any luck, he’d survive this current crisis with the shredded pieces of his heart being the only casualty.

  He’d either overestimated his abilitie
s or he’d underestimated the extent of the problem. He was the last to arrive inside the executive conference room; they’d obviously given him the wrong time and had already been deep in discussion when he arrived. The room was instantly quiet and no one looked at him as crossed the room to stand behind his usual seat at the head of the giant table. It was a bad sign.

  “The meeting will please come to order.” Jason took his seat and continued, “Good morning, ladies and gentleman. This being a special meeting, we will bypass the reading of the minutes by the secretary. Are there any objections?”

  When no one objected, he deliberately gazed at each of the board members in the room, especially the ones he thought were the most friendly. “Let it be noted that we have enough members present to reach quorum. Because this was an emergency meeting, hastily assembled, let me call on Bill Travers to fill us in on today’s agenda.”

  Travers spread his hands out on the table in a conciliatory gesture. “As you are aware, Jason, we have some serious business to discuss. I was hoping we could discuss the matter off the record first?”

  Jason sat back in his chair, exhibiting a much more relaxed posture than he felt. In the past, most issues before the board had always been worked out in committees with reports issued to the board before ever reaching the official meetings for consensus.

  Talking ‘off the record’ held a certain amount of danger for him. Either way, Lilliana’s undermining and outright sabotage of the company was going to come out. He wasn’t concerned about protecting her, only about shielding himself. In all probability, the colossal mistake of his affair with his traitorous secretary would be brought out. There was no way his adversaries would let that slide. It was only a matter of how much damage it would incur.

  Hopefully, he could prove that his affair with Lilliana never affected his decision-making at Kaine Industries or his pursuit of the company’s saboteur. He knew that an off the record conversation was inviting mudslinging and salacious details to be brought up, but he didn’t want to appear to be unreasonable or that he was stifling questions. He had to walk a thin line. If the board members weren’t allowed to air their grievances, resentments could fester. He had to show that he had nothing to hide.

  “Very well. We are now officially ‘off the record’ until I indicate otherwise.”

  Travers smile was smug. “I don’t think we have to go over how much damage the leaker has caused the company. It was extensive and it was costly. Very costly. I’ve had the opportunity to update the board on our recent discovery as to who was responsible for all this. I’ve prepared a report detailing the sting operation that you and I undertook to flush out the culprit. We were all very shocked and concerned to find out that Lilliana Collins, your administrative assistant, was the one responsible for all that damage. Of course, we’re relieved that she’s finally been caught.”

  Jason steepled his fingers. “Ms. Collins has been fired.”

  Travers nodded his head. “That’s good. I wasn’t sure you would do it.”

  He could sense Bill subtly throwing him under the bus. “Of course I needed to review the facts thoroughly before firing someone.”

  “And we’ll be pursuing criminal charges?” Bill’s eyebrows rose questioningly.

  Jason’s stomach clenched. He was angry. He wasn’t sure if it was because Travers was clearly goading him or if he was still so angry that he’d gotten played by Lilliana. “I’m not sure that’s appropriate. I’ll need some time to consult with legal before I can answer that.”

  “Criminal charges would send a clear signal though.” That was from Monica Gaston, someone whom Jason thought would be unquestioningly on his side. It wasn’t a great sign.

  Travers spoke up again. “Charges against her or a lawsuit would bring the company tons of negative publicity. Horrible publicity that would put this whole sordid affair in the media spotlight. It’d be a feeding frenzy. It would be a disaster for us.”

  Several heads around the table nodded in agreement. It was the first thing Travers said that Jason agreed with. He was surprised that Travers didn’t want to go after Lilliana though. If they all agreed to keep this quiet, maybe he could weather the storm after all.

  Then, Greg Hines spoke up. “Speaking of sordid affair, rumor has it that you were having an affair with Ms. Collins. That’s troubling to say the very least.”

  All heads swiveled in his direction. This was the moment he dreaded. “Yes, I deeply regret that on the night of the awards ceremony an inappropriate contact occurred. Nothing untoward ever happened before that evening. Prior to that, the relationship was strictly professional.”

  “I see.” Greg opened a file that was sitting on the table in front of him. “Nothing inappropriate? I’m afraid I don’t believe you, Mr. Kaine.” He pulled some photographs out of the file and started tossing them onto the table. “Here is a picture of you and Ms. Collins on a luxury yacht together. She’s barely dressed in this photo – if you call that bikini, ‘dressed’. And here are the two of you dancing at a night club. This doesn’t look very ‘professional’ to me. Here you are holding hands while parasailing. Here is Ms. Collins getting into your car after work and the two of you out to a romantic dinner. None of this looks ‘strictly professional’ to me, Kaine.”

  Jason’s jaw was clenched tight. He had to hold back the rage from his voice. “You had me followed? You were spying on me?”

  Hines shook his head. “No, not spying on you. Keeping tabs on Ms. Collins. We’ve suspected her for some time now. You were well aware of the mounting evidence against her. Yet, you chose to ignore all the warning signs.”

  Jason scanned the faces around the table. He had lost most of them. The rest were staring at the damning photographs in the center of the table with mouths wide open. “There was no mounting evidence. Just a heap of accusations.”

  “Which turned out to be true.” Hines chuckled haughtily.

  Travers smoothly cut into the conversation with a gratingly condescending tone. “Look, Jason, no one here wants this.” His hands swept over the photos. “No one is accusing you of collusion with Ms. Collins, even though you gave her that award she obviously didn’t earn. You’ve made some bad mistakes that have hurt this company. But, no one wants to see you suffer.”

  How magnanimous of him. Jason wouldn’t be surprised if Travers and Hines had fully coordinated this attack against him. His enemies certainly had been busy while he’d been drinking away his heartbreak.

  He experienced a poignant moment of self-doubt. Maybe they were right. He was making bad decisions all over the place and it was all because of Lilliana. He felt his heart hardening as a new jolt of pain pierced through him. He’d been right about women all along. The only ones he’d ever come across were gold diggers. It was all about the money.

  Monica Gaston spoke up. “Do you deny that you had an affair with Ms. Collins?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  She frowned. “This is unacceptable. This leaves us extremely vulnerable as a company on top of the damage that Ms. Collins has caused the company with the blown deals. Frankly, I have to say that I’m astounded.”

  Hines piled on, “She sabotaged five deals. She almost got Triton. It’s projected out that she lost us billions of dollars. Now she might even have a legitimate sexual harassment lawsuit against us. There’s no question Kaine was duped by his lover. He’s got piss-poor judgment.”

  Heads nodded in agreement around the table and Travers went in for the kill. “It’s safe to say that many of us have lost faith in your ability to lead, Kaine. I think it’s time for you to step down as CEO of Kaine Industries.”

  Jason looked around the table. He’d known most of these people for years. He’d probably written letters of recommendation for most of their kids and grandkids, attended their children’s weddings, hired them at his company and sent gifts for all kinds of special occasions. He’d treated them like family. Now, most of them grabbed onto the knife handle while he was being stabbed
in the back.

  “I’m not stepping down. I built this company.”

  “We’ll offer you a very attractive termination package. Save yourself and the company the embarrassment, Kaine.” Travers turned to address the General Counsel on the board. “Reggie, do you have the agreement?”

  Reggie pulled some papers out of his briefcase and handed them over to Travers who then slid them over to Jason.

  “The termination package is extremely generous considering the irreparable harm you’ve caused this company. Sign it right now and we’ll shield you from this. You’ll walk away a very rich man with your pride and dignity intact.”

  There hadn’t been an official vote, but there was no doubt, he was being railroaded out of Kaine Industries. Even more shocking, it didn’t look like he had any supporters left there at all. They were unanimously against him. The photos had damaged him too severely.

  He glanced down at the paper in front of him desperately trying to buy more time to think up a way to stop the inevitable. It was all happening too fast. He’d thought he’d had more time.

  He skimmed the legal contract. They were offering him a 28 million dollar golden parachute. He’d have to relinquish all shares he owned of Kaine Industries at fair market price. Also, if he signed, he was giving away any rights to sue the company. That seemed odd.

  Reggie Phillips finally spoke up, he sounded tired. “If you don’t sign, you’ll walk away empty handed. You should take it. It’s a fair deal, Kaine. We all wanted you to be compensated fairly.”

  His head began to throb right at his temple. His company was being taken away from him. If he accepted the money, it would cut all his ties with Kaine Industries forever. If he didn’t, he’d be fired and possibly disgraced in the court of public opinion, but at least he’d still retain his shares.

  He pushed the papers away. “I’m not signing this.”