Evernight Publishing
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2013 Laurel Cremant
ISBN: 978-1-77130-473-3
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
To my best friend and other-half, thank you for being my own personal He-Man, and encouraging chapters one through thirteen.
To my mother, please skip chapters one through thirteen.
To my sister, please don’t let me know if you relate to chapters one through thirteen.
To all my readers, please enjoy chapters one through thirteen and may you all find yourselves stranded with your own best friend and enjoy a life time of smexy days together.
~Laurel
PERSUASION SKILLS
Boardroom Acts, 1
Laurel Cremant
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
This is where dragons be.
The silly phrase from spontaneous childhood road trips with her family flickered through Pepper’s mind as she drove along a jagged dirt road. One no doubt built to destroy a car’s suspension and bruise a passenger’s ass. As a matter of fact, calling the bumpy, rocky path a road was a kindness.
Gritting her teeth, she gripped the steering wheel harder as she drove through yet another deep rut and bounced roughly in the driver’s seat. No amount of expensive soft leather seating was enough to protect her rear end from hurting.
She mentally catalogued every bounce and responding bruise, adding them to Jaxon Grey’s list of sins. She growled softly as the anger she’d kept leashed all morning came rushing back to the surface. He was the reason she was driving through the cold Colorado Mountains instead of being in the warm, welcoming climate back home in Miami.
Her ever-reclusive, volatile business partner, and fast approaching former best friend, had been missing in action for several weeks, and she was long past exhausted from holding down the fort without him.
Together, they both owned equal shares of their company eTheorial Inc., a research and development firm specializing in electronics.
She smacked her hand against the steering wheel in frustration. Like Jax was handling his fifty percent at the moment. He was handling diddly squat! He’d left her high and dry to take care of it all.
It was ridiculous that, although he was seven year her senior, she was the mature one in their relationship.
They’d met in college and became fast friends while she majored in business and he focused on both computer and electrical engineering. When they had started the company, the joke was that she was the brains and he was the talent. They made a great team, and the company had grown and prospered over the last few years through blood, sweat, and tears. He went about creating magic in the lab, and she slew dragons in the boardroom.
Snorting loudly, she slowed the car down to search for the “slight right” the GPS insisted was up ahead.
“I didn’t sign up to play Indiana Jones,” she mumbled. Spotting the turn, she let out a groan. This new road seemed in even worse condition.
“The things I do for the company.” She sighed and shook her head before maneuvering onto the path. Thinking of how hard they had both worked to make eT a success only made her more determined to drag him back to Miami one way or another. The phrase dead or alive flashed through her mind after she hit a particularly deep pot hole.
Sadly, the poor condition of the road made her feel better about her decision the week before to postpone her trip up the mountains.
She’d originally planned to make the drive eight days prior. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had seen fit to start the snow season early that year, effectively delaying her plans for several days.
She continued to bob by endless rows of snow-tipped trees and bit back a curse. Basic common sense and logic proved that he wasn’t responsible for the weather, but she was adding it to his list of transgressions anyway.
As much as she wanted to physically maim Jax and drag him home, she wasn’t crazy enough to drive along unfamiliar mountain roads through the snow. No way was she going to become the basis for some Lifetime Movie Of The Week.
So she’d bided her time and waited for both the weather and road conditions to clear before setting out on her trip.
She gritted her teeth at the soreness seeping into her rear end.
Under normal circumstances, she would have hired a driver familiar with the area. However, a small part of her brain also worried about anyone else witnessing just how upset she was with her missing-in-action partner, so she didn’t want anyone around when she finally confronted Jax.
Her lips tightened as she thought about the last set of text messages they’d exchanged.
He’d postponed yet another important meeting with the company’s lawyers to discuss the finalization of the purchase of Lubtech, an up and coming software firm. A takeover that she’d spent the last year and a half working hard to make happen. Without Jax present, she couldn’t move forward, and he refused to give her his proxy.
He-Man: Hey Pep, can’t make the Lubtech meeting. Reschedule.
Me: We can’t postpone again. Get back to Miami ASAP!
He-Man: No can do.
Me: Then give me your proxy. I will handle on my end.
He-Man: No
Me: Stop being an ASS!
He-Man: Stop being a BRAT! See you in a few weeks.
That last text had caused her to throw her phone across the room, smashing it against the opposite wall. The device splintered and shattered into small electronic pieces, giving her a split second of satisfaction before she added its demise to Jaxon’s list of wrongdoings. It was the third phone she’d destroyed since he decided to pull his disappearing act.
As she’d stared at the shiny broken parts scattered on the floor across the room, she’d made the decision to come looking for him.
She’d already tried previously to get the manifests from their corporate jet, but Jax had somehow managed to bribe the flight crew from telling her anything. When she approached their VP of Research and Development, the woman had only blinked owlishly at her and said that Jax phoned her twice a day to make sure everything was running smoothly in the labs. Outside of that, the woman knew nothing of his whereabouts.
After a few more fruitless conversations with staff and a short phone call to his sister, she had no choice but to lure his ever-efficient assistant away from his desk long enough to search for Jax’s latest billing statements. He was notorious for liking the finer things in life even before their success with eT, so wherever he chose to hide out, he would leave an extensive money trail.
After some quick spying, she’d been surprised to see that there had been only one major charge to his credit cards in the last three months — a cabin rental in somewhere named Lissit, Colorado. When she’d investigated further, she’d learned that Jax had rented the cabin through the remainder of the year. The news had only fueled her anger. No way was she waiting another two months for him to decide to return to Miami.
Thinking of that blaze of anger made her stomach burn with acid. The ensuing rush hadn’t helped matters, either. She was on the plane to Colorado within twenty-four hours. When she’d arrived, she’d taken the time to buy a satellite phone, some warm clothing, and rent an SUV equipped for trekk
ing through the mountains.
The weather delay had only served to increase her frustration. She had a lot of work still left to do regarding the acquisition of Lubtech, and there was only so much she could get done from her laptop within her hotel room.
It also gave her too much free time to think about Jax and the state of their relationship.
She ran a hand over her face and shook her head in confusion.
After years of friendship, she couldn’t believe that Jax would just up and abandon her when he knew how hard she had worked to secure the deal. She just didn’t understand his behavior lately. They had been friends throughout college and had survived financial ups and downs, family tragedies, and recent health issues together.
Her mind skittered away from the memory of the breast cancer scare she’d had three months earlier. She touched her chest, an unconscious gesture to reassure herself she was still okay.
Jaxon had been her rock through the whole thing. He was the first person she had run to when she noticed something odd in her left breast, and he was the one who sat with her, gripping her hand in support, when she was told the cyst was benign.
She could feel a flush work its way up her throat as she thought of that day. Relief had crashed through at her results, and she was lucky to have been given a clean bill of health. However, she still remembered that day with a profound sense of embarrassment. If only I had avoided that last glass of wine.
Perhaps if she hadn’t had that last glass of liquid courage, her relationship with Jax wouldn’t be so awkward right now.
The car ran into another pothole, and she cursed under her breath. At the jolt, or at the memory of that night? She nibbled on her lower lip, not wanting to know the answer.
She’d always had a bit of a crush on him, ever since he had shown up in the middle of a dicey situation she’d gotten into in college. Over the years, she’d excused her infatuation based on the fact that Jax was an incredibly handsome man, and a woman would have to be blind, deaf, dumb, and possibly an extra terrestrial not to appreciate his good looks. But even the aliens would at least look twice.
The only indication of his Italian roots could be seen in the smooth olive tint to his skin. With his broad shoulders and tall frame, he’d always reminded her a bit of a super-hero, right down to his wavy honey-blond hair that always managed to fall over his intense dark-green eyes and the damn dimple that constantly seemed to wink at her when he smiled.
She caught herself smiling softly at the thought of those sexy dimples and scowled.
He completely negated the skinny nerd stereotype, which just made his sexy quotient tick up even higher. A sexy meathead Pepper could appreciate then ignore, but a hunky genius? Not a chance.
Perhaps it had always been inevitable that she would make a fool of herself with him eventually. And of course, with her luck, it wasn’t him catching her staring at his butt for the millionth time, or noticing how her nipples tended to tighten up whenever he entered a room.
Nope.
Those scenarios would have been preferable. Instead, she had to make the merlot-inspired decision to strip in front of him and beg him to make love to her.
Shifting uncomfortably in the leather seat, Pepper replayed that day, more specifically that night, over in her mind for what must have been the millionth time.
Jax, as usual, had been an amazing friend. Just as she had been there for him only a few months prior when his mother passed away, he’d dropped everything to help her through the doctor’s visits, biopsy, and ultimate good news that the lump she found was nothing serious.
After the last appointment, he had taken her out to dinner to celebrate, and the night should have ended at that. Unfortunately, Pepper was so relieved she was healthy that she made the drunken decision to finally act on her long-standing attraction to Jax.
The giddy need to seize life and finally live out her fantasy had almost ruined their relationship. For one night, she’d let herself live out what she had only allowed herself to imagine for years. Even now, the event caused her panties to go damp and her body to prickle with heat.
“Do you trust me, Pep?”
The huskily asked words whispered through her mind.
She had always known Jax was an intensely focused man, but to have all of that raw energy concentrated on her was one of the most erotic things she’d ever experienced.
The idea of allowing someone else to control her pleasure had always appealed to her, but she’d never trusted anyone enough to give them that power. But with Jax … with him, she had relinquished everything.
“Yes.”
She had whimpered softly into the cabin of the plush rental car as her body heated, remembering the feel of him rubbing against her flesh, his hard chest pressing against her nipples as he pulled her hands above the bed and tied them loosely to the headboard.
She remembered the sense of freedom when she gripped the edges of his silk tie bond around her wrists.
“That’s it, honey. Let me in.”
A shiver worked its way down her spine as her body relived the memory of his almost bruising grip holding her hips down as he kneeled between her legs, circling his cock at her wet entrance.
The sound of his hisses of breath and grunts of satisfaction. The pressure of his lips against hers. The slow licks of tongue and soft nips of teeth. The force of his hard length slowly working its way into her was ingrained in her memory forever.
If only it hadn’t been the worst mistake of her life.
Sadly, that night had forced her to recognize that she felt more than just attraction for Jax. Finally sleeping with him forced her to see that her love for him went way past the confines of friendship and into something more. Pepper had woken up that morning realizing she was in love with her best friend and had been for years, and it terrified her.
She had heard that morning-afters could be awkward, but nothing had prepared her for the feeling of sheer panic and terror that had gripped her when she woke to find him looking at her with a look of regret hovering on his face.
She’d had Jaxon in her arms and bed, but the cold light of day had shown that he’d only stayed to spare her from embarrassment.
Sputtered excuses of too much alcohol and the promise that they should both forget the whole thing had ever happened had quickly fallen from her lips as she’d ushered him out of her bed and home.
The burn of that shame engulfed her, and she powered the heater off hoping the return of cold air in the cabin would help her to escape that humiliating feeling.
There had been a few stilted conversations and awkward moments after that, but their years of friendship had persevered. At least, that’s what she’d initially believed.
Just as Pepper had finally thought they were beginning to feel comfortable with each other again, he’d surprised her by stating he would be taking a few weeks off, and he had been virtually incommunicado ever since.
Another jarring dip brought her back to the present. She focused back on the road and glanced at her navigation display, thankful she hadn’t missed her turnoff. According to the little screen, she was less than an hour away from the cabin Jax had rented.
Her pulse quickened, as it always did at the thought of seeing him, but the excitement was quickly doused by the simmering anger that had burned in her ever since he left her.
Chapter Two
Jax stood inside his cabin staring out at the small doe nibbling its way across the lawn. Despite knowing the animal’s speed and strength, it was hard for him to not appreciate the smooth delicacy of its body as it moved across the snow. Its tentative steps reminded him so much of Pepper that his lips twitched, knowing she would find the comparison insulting.
The sun was making its daily trek peaking above the treetops and signaling the approaching afternoon. He hoped, assuming he’d played his cards right, he should be getting company soon. He grinned at the thought of finally seeing Pepper again.
She had always been stubborn. One of th
e qualities that made them such great business partners. She possessed the tenacious business skills while he focused on the research and development portion of the business. Short of sheer exhaustion, her pure bullheadedness and threats of bodily harm were the only things capable of pulling him out of the computer and testing labs long enough to attend the necessary meetings that kept their company running.
He attributed most of their success over the last ten years to her. She literally captained the ship and kept it from sinking on more than one occasion. It wasn’t until recently that Jax had finally realized Pepper meant more to him than just a brilliant business partner and amazing friend. Unfortunately, he knew the pigheaded woman well enough to reckon that convincing her of that fact would take some drastic measures. His body heated, and his cock jumped at the thought of the plans he had for her.
He’d always preferred his sex just a little bit rough with a touch of kink, and had never imagined that Pepper would like the same in bed. He swelled almost painfully as he remembered how she had looked bound, naked, and open before him, and so hot and wet to the touch.
Although he wasn’t into the full Dom/sub lifestyle, he’d learned early on in his sexual experience that he preferred to be dominant with his sexual partners. He loved knowing that a woman trusted him with both her body and pleasure, and Pepper had submitted so sweetly and completely. The look of utter trust on her face as he’d slid into her had almost been his undoing.
Stifling a groan, he adjusted his stance, hoping to relieve the building pressure.
Aside from their strong friendship, his sexual preferences were a big reason why he had never let his attraction for her go anywhere. He had been sure she wouldn’t want to play on that level.
He thought back to when they first met and shook his head in amusement. If someone told him back then that he and Pepper would be partners in a company fast approaching the Fortune Five Hundred list, let alone lovers, he would have laughed in their face.
Persuasion Skills Page 1
