She flipped her hair off her shoulder. “Keep going.”
A deep throaty laughter bubbled from his lips before they latched onto hers and he coaxed a moan from her mouth, only to be swallowed by his. Laying breast to chest, she could feel every angle, every plane of his hard body beneath hers.
“God you make me crazy, wanting you. I haven’t had this much sex in almost my whole life.”
“Good. I’m glad I’m not alone in this malady.”
“How about we soak in the hot-tub?”
“That sounds like fun.” He pushed her to her feet and proceeded to unbutton her blouse.
She giggled and brushed his hands away.
“What?”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Taking your clothes off so we can get into the hot-tub.”
“Naked?”
“Of course. Is there any other way?”
“I suppose not, but have you always been this insatiable in your sexual appetite, Sir?”
“Yep. Now strip.”
He sat back down and she turned her back to him, letting her blouse float down her back and arms before she shot a sexy look over her shoulder and let it fall at her feet. The bra came next with a flick of her wrist before it shimmied down her arms and she flipped it over her shoulder to land on his lap. She hooked her thumbs into the stretchy waist of her shorts and slowly skimmed them over her hips, down her buttocks and dropped them as he hissed behind her.
With a tortured growl, he scooped her up, took the several steps to the built in hot-tub and let her go with a plop into the steamy water.
When she surfaced, she said, “Aren’t you coming?”
“Not yet.”
“You wicked, wicked man.”
“I try, babe, I try.”
He quickly shucked his own clothes and slid into the water next to her before he pulled her tight to his chest. Her breasts were flattened against him, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and sucked at the hollow of his throat where his pulse beat rapidly.
“Liss,” he murmured.
“You taste good.”
His cock swelled between them, bobbing and pulsating with the blood she knew rushed to his groin in the same way her pussy throbbed and filled with every beat of her heart.
She lifted her head and smiled before she whispered, “I love you, Andrew Novak.”
The next moment she felt a white-hot sting, like someone had stuck a hot poker through her left shoulder. Her eyes widened and a painful moan slipped from her mouth when she looked down to see blood dripping down her left chest to pool between them.
“Liss?” His terror filled eyes widened when he saw the blood and the last thing she heard before she lost control and slipped into unconsciousness was, “Oh my, God. Lissa?”
* * * *
Pain seared through her shoulder and she moaned when she tried to focus her eyes. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think. It hurt to move.
God! What happened? Where am I?
She licked her dry lips and croaked, “Drew.”
“Lissa? Oh God, Liss.”
Trying to lift her hand to touch him, she felt wetness fall on her face.
“Don’t move, baby.”
A moment later, he was gone and she whimpered, hoping he would return and stop the pain.
“Melissa? Can you hear me?” a deep voice said before fingers lifted her tired lids.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“We’re going to give you something more for pain, but I need you to do something for me.”
“Who?”
“I’m Doctor Brett Novak. You are in the emergency room at Flagstaff Medical Center. You’ve been shot and we need to remove the bullet.”
“Novak?”
The man chuckled and she wondered at the resemblance until he said, “Yes. I’m actually one of Drew’s cousins.”
She frowned and the whispered, “Shot?”
“The bullet is still lodged in your chest and it nicked your lung. You’ve got a chest tube in to help with that, but we need to take you to surgery.”
Forcing her eyelids open, she looked for Drew, but didn’t see him. “Drew.”
His warm hand grasped her fingers and squeezed. “I’m right here, babe.”
Terror-filled brown eyes met hers and she tried to smile reassuringly before she nodded her acceptance. “Do what you need to.”
“I’m sorry, Liss.” He dropped his gaze to where their hands were clasped together.
“For what?” she whispered, battling with the need to sleep.
“It’s my fault you are here. If I hadn’t gotten involved…”
“Can we talk about this later? I’m so tired.”
He kissed her hand and she was sure she heard him whisper, “I love you.”
The next time she woke, she opened her eyes to find the inside of the hospital room dark except for the green light of the monitor over her head beeping every so often. Faint light shone under the door to her right. A soft groan slipped from her mouth when she tried to shift in the bed. From the corner of her eye, she saw movement on the other side of the room and her heart sped up until she saw who came toward her in the dim light.
“Lissa?”
“Mandy?”
“Hey girl. You have to get into trouble, don’t you?”
Trying to smile, she fought the cloud surrounding her brain while she focused on the face of her cousin. “Where?”
“Where are you?”
“Yeah.”
“Flagstaff Medical Center.”
Closing her eyes, she tried to clear her brain. “What?”
“You were up here with Drew and you were shot.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not sure the details.”
“Where’s Drew?” Mandy dropped her gaze and Lissa fought the panic that zipped through her. “Tell me.”
When Mandy’s gaze returned to hers, she said, “I wish I knew, Lissa, so I could kick his ass for leaving you.”
“He left?”
“I guess, hon. I haven’t seen him since I got here, two days ago. He called me and told me where you were and I came as soon as I could but he was already gone.”
“He didn’t say anything?”
Mandy shook her head and said, “I’m sorry. I wish you’d never met that jerk.”
She closed her eyes as tears slid silently down her cheeks. “I love him.”
Her cousin wrapped her arms around Melissa and hugged her tight. “I know, sweetie. I know.”
A week later, Mandy took her home and now all she had to do was heal. Her heart lay shattered in her chest when she thought of Drew. He hadn’t returned the entire time she’d been at the hospital, hadn’t called and no one knew where he was. She’d fought with herself about calling him several times over the week she’d been there, but every time she picked up her cell phone, she would just put it back down again without dialing.
Mandy had retrieved Melissa’s things from the cabin, but when she came back, she reported that all of Drew’s things were gone. Her suitcase and all her clothes had remained, but there’d been no trace of his presence.
If that son-of-a-bitch wants to talk to me, he can call me. I’m not chasing his sorry ass.
Brad didn’t even know where Drew had disappeared to. He hadn’t shown for work even since the accident and despite her anger and hurt, she really was worried something bad had happened to him. After all, she loved him.
* * * *
Cold. So cold.
Shivers racked his body and he couldn’t stop the chills racing along his skin.
Liss, I love you. Don’t give up on me, baby.
Steel doors slammed in the distance and he peeled open his still swollen eyelids, trying to see.
“I see you’re awake. Good.”
“Fuck you,” he murmured through cracked lips.
The big man standing in the doorway of what Drew had come to think of his prison, just laughed. “Drew. Drew. What am I
going to do with you?”
“I could give a shit.”
Footsteps came closer. “I know you don’t care about yourself. That much is obvious, but Melissa Gordon?”
Drew struggled to prop himself against the wall behind him and then shove himself to his feet. “Leave her alone. She’s got nothing to do with this.”
“But she does. She’s the head of the company I want brought to its knees. She has everything to do with this. The means to an end, so to speak.”
“Fucking up Caroline’s life wasn’t enough for you, Jonathan? Beating the shit out of me and keeping me locked up in this cell for the last week, isn’t enough?”
One fist grabbed the front of what remained of Drew’s t-shirt and pulled him close, so they were nose-to-nose. “No, Drew. It’s not. Marshall Enterprises will close its doors and declare bankruptcy before I’m done. Caroline will learn not to mess with me.” Jonathan shoved him back against the wall roughly and laughed when air rushed from Drew’s lungs.
“This whole thing has to do with the fact that she went back to her husband?”
“I could give a shit about her going back to the loser, but she’s not going to be the one to cut ties.”
“So why shoot Melissa?”
“I got what I wanted. You.”
Confusion tripped across his foggy brain. He’d left Melissa at the hospital after he called Mandy. Finding clues to who shot her were foremost in his mind when he’d returned to the cabin. His heart shattered in his chest when he’d see the blood dripping down her breast and the pain in her eyes. She’d lost consciousness shortly after that and he’d flipped her limp body out of the hot-tub to carry her inside. The ambulance got there fairly quickly and when she’d finally opened her eyes in the emergency room, he couldn’t stand to see the trust there. He’d put her in jeopardy with his involvement with Cockrill. He had no doubt the shooting had something do with the whole fiasco of their attempted take over.
Traipsing through the pines behind the cabin, looking for something, anything to point towards Cockrill, he hadn’t been prepared when something came down hard on the back of his head and he’d slumped to the ground. When he regained consciousness, he found himself in this dark, dank prison under Cockrill’s house.
“I see you don’t understand. Well, let me fill you in. You were fucking Melissa Gordon. She is the CEO of Marshall Enterprises and your sister is her CFO. By making Melissa believe you left her after she took a bullet, she won’t want to see you again, thus putting her back into the bitch with the reins mode. She had become less interested in the company than before since she met you. With you out of her life, it will be easier for my insider to be less noticeable in filtering secrets my way and easier to make everyone believe it’s her or Caroline who is the insider.”
“Melissa will never believe that. My clothes and stuff were still at the cabin.”
Jonathan shook his head and said, “We took care of that. By the time Mandy went back to get her things, yours were gone without a trace, Drew. She thinks you left her.”
Rage turned his vision red. “You bastard. I’ll kill you. You’ll have to let me out of here sooner or later. When you do, you’d better watch your back.”
Worry wrinkled Jonathan’s brow for a moment before he schooled his features, but Drew saw it, just the same. “You are no threat to me.”
Drew chuckled dryly. “So why are you so worried, Jonathan?”
The other man shot Drew an exasperated look, turned on his heel and disappeared through the steel door, slamming it behind him.
Drew sighed and laid his head back against the rock wall before he slumped slowly to the cold floor. God, what a mess. How am I ever going to get out of here? This is fucking crazy! Jonathan’s crazy!
The scrape of a key in the lock caught his attention and he squinted, trying desperately to see who opened the door.
“Drew?”
“Who’s there?”
The door squeaked open on rusty hinges, grating along his nerves. A moment later, a petite blonde poked her head through the door.
“Who are you?”
“A friend.”
A chuckle left his lips. He had no friends here.
“I’m here to help you.”
“The only way you could help me would be to get me out of here.”
“That’s my plan, but you have to trust me.”
“I don’t know who you are. How am I supposed to trust you?”
Her brows wrinkled at that and he fought the urge to rush for the door until she said, “My name is Becky.”
“Well, Becky, how are you going to help me?”
“We are going to leave here through the back gates, but we have to hurry. Jonathan will know the key is missing soon.”
The fear he saw in her eyes made him pause. She was going to help him no matter what the consequences of her actions.
“Don’t put yourself in danger for me.”
“I’m getting you out of here. In the long run, it will help me too. You have to stop his plans to take over Marshall.”
A loud banging sound came from over there heads and he heard Jonathan yell, “Rebecca!”
“We have to go—now. Follow me.”
She turned on her heel and headed out the door. He had no choice but to trust her, so he followed her out and to the left as the loud noises above them continued.
“Hurry.”
Within seconds they reached a long hallway with a bright light at the end. As they continued toward it, he could feel the warmer air from outside hit his skin and the smell of freedom almost made him giddy. Becky pushed aside some foliage and they stepped into the sunlight.
“There.” She pointed toward an overgrown path that led away from the house toward a red rock cropping in the distance. “Follow the path. There’s a car on the other side of the rocks with the keys in the ignition. Take it and go.”
“Aren’t you coming?” he asked, hearing the crash of heavy footsteps getting closer. “Come with me.”
“I can’t,” she said, but he could see the fear in her eyes when she shot a look back over her shoulder.
“Why? If you stay here, he’ll hurt you.” He grasped her hand and tried to pull her along with him. “You’re terrified of him. I can see it in your face.”
She shook her head and ripped her hand from his. “I can’t leave, not yet. I still have things I need to do here to make sure he doesn’t succeed with his plans. I need you to get to Melissa and warn her.”
Drew turned back and said, “I don’t understand.”
“Jonathan is my husband, but my maiden name is Marshall. My father trusted her with his company. I’m trusting you to help me stop Jonathan from taking it away.”
* * * *
Dawn sunlight streaked across the carpet of Melissa’s office as she sat behind her desk and pounded on the keyboard while she worked on her notes for the upcoming board meeting. She’d called an emergency meeting and it was set for first thing this morning.
Dark circles shadowed under her eyes and they’d lost the sparkle of a woman in love when she’d looked in the mirror this morning. After her shower, she stood drying off, but when she had caught her reflection in the glass over the vanity, the shock of what she saw, shook her to the core. Gone was flush on her skin from Drew’s lovemaking. Now, she just looked tired — too tired to care anymore. It had been two weeks since the shooting and his betrayal. No word. Nothing. No phone call, no note, no messages — nothing. He had convinced her he loved her and she been sucked into his lies with both eyes wide open. She couldn’t blame anyone but her own heart.
Andrea poked her head through the office door several moments later and said, “Coffee, boss?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Her secretary pushed open the door and set a large cup on the desk before she took the seat across from Melissa. “I know this isn’t going to be easy for you, but you are the best thing to happen to this company and I know you’ve got it under control.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Andrea, but I sure don’t feel very in control these days.”
“After this meeting, things will be better. I can’t wait to see Jack’s face.”
Melissa chuckled dryly.
Andrea stood and headed for the door. “Everything is ready in the board room. Nine o’clock right?”
“Yeah.”
“See you then.”
The door closed behind her secretary and Melissa leaned back in the leather executive chair with a heavy sigh. Once upon a time, she had lived for the wave and ebb of the corporate empire with its intrigue and day to day changes, attempted takeovers and everything that went along with it. Now, she just wanted a quiet weekend by herself to heal her broken heart.
Two hours later, the boardroom was filled to capacity. Twenty board members lined the long conference room table, including Arthur Marshall, the owner of Marshall Enterprises, and every person who held a position of management within the company.
Melissa stood at the end of the table and raised her hand to quiet the group. “Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate you making arrangements to be at this emergency meeting on such short notice.”
“Melissa, would you care to elaborate on why you’ve called us all here?” Arthur said as he focused his bright blue eyes on her.
“Yes, Mr. Marshall, I would.” Her eyes swept the entire group, landing on Jack who sat near the back of the room before it moved to Caroline sitting on the other side of the table. She shot a glance to Andrea who gave her a quick ‘you-go-girl’ smile before she focused on Mr. Marshall again.
“I took over as CEO of this company about six months ago. In that time frame there has been at least one attempt of another company trying to takeover Marshall Enterprises. I’ve done the best job I could to prevent this from happening, but it has come to my attention there is someone on the inside leaking information to Cockrill Enterprises.” She focused her gaze on Caroline again, watching as the other woman’s gaze dropped to the floor at her feet. “Under the circumstances and my failure to prevent or find out who is leaking that information, I feel it is in the best interest of this company to resign my position as CEO.”
Professional Liaison [Between the Sheets] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 11
