by Bonnar King
I was about to cook some eggs when my phone rang on the kitchen counter. I frowned down at it, then picked it up.
“Morning, sweetheart,” I teased.
The male voice on the other line grumbled, and I chuckled. My personal advisor and good friend, Tom Matthews, always hated it when I joked like that with him, especially when he hadn’t had his coffee yet—and based on his bad mood, he hadn’t had it yet.
“We need to talk,” Tom said.
“Is this about that Italian omega you wanted to bang who wouldn’t give you the time of the day? You know I can always seduce him for you.”
Tom grumbled again. “Justin…”
“Fine, fine. So maybe you already seduced him. What’s up?”
He sighed. “I need to talk to you before your meeting with the board.”
I straightened. He sounded serious—and when you combine serious and the board, it wouldn’t be good news.
“About?” I asked mildly.
“About your good time with an omega last night.”
Huh. I wasn’t expecting that.
I sighed. Then I told him to come to my apartment instead, knowing both of us might need a good breakfast before heading into the firing squad.
Lord knew I could already see the shitstorm coming from a mile away.
I wonder what I did to piss them off this time.
There were pictures—lots of incriminating pictures uploaded on social media about my “good time” with the omega I met last night. Fortunately, none of them were naked pictures, but there were enough clothes removed that no person would doubt what happened after said pictures were taken. Or before, considering there were already hickey marks on my neck. The omega must have silently taken the snaps in the car, right before I took him out of the car and I pounded his ass with him bent over on the hood while gazing at the city lights from afar.
Damn it. I must have been too drunk to notice. I was usually careful when it came to pictures, but the omega had outsmarted me. It must have been his ploy all along—to get a high-profile billionaire to commit lewd acts and then sell the pictures to TMZ and the like.
Tom’s frown kept growing deeper as I scrolled through the pictures that had been shared and re-shared over a million times. As a public figure, that was normal.
But not everyone was going to like it.
As if on cue, Tom finally spoke. “The board isn’t going to like it.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered. Normally I wasn’t fazed by such things, but the board had already been up my ass over my last trending picture on the internet: that of my hand inside an omega’s pants in a bar, and his expression contorted in pleasure.
I mean, he was willing and all, so it shouldn’t have been a problem.
“You need to stop doing this, Justin,” Tom was saying as he picked at the French. “It’s making a mess.”
“I need to stop what? Living my life and having fun?” I asked, slightly sarcastically. “Because hell knows that’s the only thing I’ve been doing. You’re all acting like I murdered someone.”
Tom sighed. “I get that. But you’re the CEO of a reputable company, and the board’s eyes are all on you. You have an image to maintain or it affects the share price. Do you want them to quit or try to wrestle power over you? You know either way, you’re going to lose a lot of sales, or worse—the company you built from the ground up.”
He was right. I hated to admit it, though.
I shot him a look instead. “What do you suggest I do?”
It looked like Tom already knew I was going to ask him, because a gleam entered his eyes. He leaned forward.
“I’m going to have to do some damage control. And hire you a new PR firm, because your old one sucks, they’re outdated, old fashioned, and don’t understand how social media really works. Not only that, but I will assign you a dedicated PR rep, who will oversee everything you do going forward, so there are no more missteps. And you’re going to have to bear it.”
Well, hell.
I already had a feeling things were about to get worse before they got better.
2
Sam
“You want me to do what?”
I stared at my boss like he’d grown two heads. Actually, I stared at my boss like he’d grown three, pretty sure I misheard what he was saying.
“Justin Ellis needs a new PR rep, and I need you to take the assignment. It will last for several months, and you need to stay at his side at all times when he’s out in public. You’ll need to stay at his apartment as well until we can get things under control.”
I blinked, my mind running around with the shocking words that had just been tossed at me. Why was I the one assigned to this man, when I was just a rookie? Sure, I was performing very well and I was organized. But why did I need to stay at his place? This seemed like way beyond the call of duty.
“Okay, but why me? I’m not a babysitter,” I protested.
“This is a huge opportunity for our firm. You know we don’t just get handed high-profile clients like this every day. That’s why I need my best talent for this client.”
Best talent? Flattery. Damn, it was beginning to work.
“Why does he need a new PR firm, what happened to his previous one?” I blurted out.
My boss, Robert Madison, eyed me at the question. We normally didn’t ask why a person needed to hire our PR firm, as we usually just accept the job happily, especially if it involves someone influential—and there was no doubt this man was influential. And we were probably charging him a premium rate for our out of hours services.
To an omega like me, I was definitely going against the grain in the career I had chosen. My family all wanted me to just be a good, little omega and find a nice alpha and make babies, but I wanted a career and a life of my own. Ironically, this meant I had no life at all. Work was my life. Alphas had it easy in this line of work. Hell, even the betas did, but an omega like myself—well, I had I had to work three times as hard just to be noticed. I was never taken seriously or given any respect in the workplace until I busted my ass in order to achieve my results. Thank god that my boss finally took notice. So, if he was asking me to carry out a task for him, I wasn’t going to shy away from the challenge. This was my chance to prove I could do the job.
Justin Ellis was the owner of Ellis Enterprises, an advertising and multimedia company that had started out small while he was in college, but had grown over the years, catching fire internationally and spreading all across the globe in its influence and power just as the web 2.0 days were in there infancy. The man was as wealthy as they came, and what was more admirable was how he came from a low-class family and did it all by himself. He was a true alpha in every sense of the word—driven, self-motivated, had unwavering confidence, and most annoyingly, cocky as hell!
He was always on social media and in magazines—a handsome, charming daredevil who liked being the center of attention. And by daredevil, I meant actual daredevil—as in someone who liked stunts that often had other alphas cowering in fear. The media had covered him sky diving, helicopter bungee jumping and climbing mountains without safety gear, riding hundred-root waves that could kill you, all with a devilish grin on his face. All that was fine, really. It was his partying ways that made most of the headlines. It was almost as if he could do no wrong. The crazier his stunts were, the more people admired him. I think it was due to the public living vicariously through him. He did what others could only dream of—if they even dared to dream of such things.
The media had also covered the different omegas in his arm and his not-so-private sexual escapades with them. From the hottest omegas in Hollywood, to royalty—he had no limits.
He was a one-man wrecking ball, that was for sure. And I somehow already knew why he needed a new PR rep appointed just for him.
“He’s had another scandal crop up online that the board isn’t pleased with, and they need a new PR rep who understands social media, to fix his image and help him improve
over the next few months before the final acquisitions are completed of their newest division. They can’t afford to lose this multibillion-dollar deal.”
I knew the type of alpha Justin Ellis was. I had seen it all too often in college. They walked through life thinking they were god’s gift to all omegas and could do no wrong. There was no improving that type of alpha, my brain said. And I hated assignments like this—hated it with a burning passion. The last businessman—billionaire—I tried to fix the image of tried to seduce me in turn, asking for a blowjob and dropping heavy hints until I was sick and tired of it and told him to go to hell or I’d report him. Jerks would always be jerks, and those types of alpha-holes needed to be put in place.
And I didn’t want to be the one handling them.
Something else Robert said finally sank in.
“Wait. Did you say I need to stay at his place?”
Robert nodded. “Yes. I spoke to Mr. Ellis’ personal advisor and he said the man needs constant monitoring for now. The board trouble is creating tension and they don’t want it to blow up, so your job is crucial to keep him in line.”
Great. Just great.
I could always turn it down, couldn’t I? I looked at Robert, prepared to tell him so. But his next words stopped me.
“This is a very big job, and if you’re successful…well, let’s just say I’ll be re-thinking that promotion for you. No more cocky businessmen after this, and you’ll be doing more work with agreeable clients. I’ll even let you pick your own clients.”
Way to dangle the carrot in front of the horse. He knew just how hard I had worked to prove myself as a worthy omega in this industry.
If I turned it down, it meant I had more future assignments lined up exactly like this one—probably worse ones, with married alphas who thought my pay check included sleeping with them.
Suddenly the choice was clear.
I nodded my head at my boss, then forced a smile on my face. “I’d love to take on the job.”
Robert looked pleased. “Good. You start today.”
As I shook his hand, I had two thoughts in mind: first, I was going to do a very good job.
And second, I was going to get that promotion no matter what it took.
I had worked too damn hard and been through too much shit to just throw this opportunity away.
Justin Ellis was always was very good-looking in pictures, and it was crazy insane how he never seemed to have a bad angle in every published shot, professional or candid. It was the kind of good-looking that you often saw in models and movie stars, and sometimes I wondered why he didn’t get into acting himself. As someone who’d just turned thirty, he could have pulled it off. Maybe in another life.
Those pictures on the internet? It didn’t do the real thing justice.
Justin walked up to me on his building’s lobby where I’d been waiting for him for an hour. Fashionably late, he was wearing a charcoal grey suit that accentuated his body—long, lean, muscled in all the right places with just the perfect shade of tan. I imagined that body had been honed to perfection by exercise and all those extreme sports he did, and I found myself staring at it involuntarily. It was a hot body, there was no denying that. And at the end of the day, I was still an omega, so the way I saw it, there was no harm in looking.
But his face itself…oh, my.
In photos, Justin’s face did nothing for me. He just seemed like the typical pretty boy.
In the flesh, my heart fluttered and he made me weak in the knees.
Gosh, why were all the hot alphas the assholes?
He had dark hair, a chiseled jaw, a sensual mouth and a strong jaw covered in a light stubble. I noticed his rugged face had a few light scars on it, probably from the extreme sports and dangerous stunts, but he was all the more charming for it. It was a face made to plant kisses on, frankly.
But all his other features were nothing compared to his eyes.
His eyes were as clear as the sky. They were so blue and so light, and I wondered how anyone could have eyes like that. Heck, I wondered how anyone could concentrate when looking into his eyes. I had to be careful, because those weapons he called eyes was probably how he was able to get so many omegas to fall for him.
Careful, don’t look into his eyes for too long!
Perhaps I was too preoccupied in my thoughts, that I hadn’t realized I was staring for so long. Then reality set in, and I realized something.
He was staring back, and there was a cocky smirk on his face that let me know he knew exactly what I was thinking.
I caught myself. I straightened my shoulders and cleared my face of any expression, then held out my hand to him.
“Good morning, Mr. Ellis. I’m Sam Jones. I’m your new PR rep.”
He looked at my hand, then back at me. His gaze slid down to my mouth, then down to my body in a slow, lingering movement that indicated he was checking me out. A faint smile appeared on his lips—naughty, amused. By the time his gaze returned to my mouth, it was already so dry and my cheeks were heating up.
I was right. He was an arrogant playboy through and through.
When his gaze returned to meet mine, I showed him the coolest expression I could muster.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I added.
He didn’t respond for a long time that I had to wonder if he was even listening to me. But finally, his hand stretched out and gripped mine, giving me a firm handshake. His fingers were warm, and I felt his thumb brush my palm and cause a tingle before I snatched my hand back.
“Sam,” he murmured. “I didn’t realize you’d be coming in today. You wanted to meet me that bad?”
His voice was husky. Almost flirty. It had a melodious, smooth quality to it, and I realized that even his voice oozed charm. I inwardly shook my head, wondering again how someone could have everything. Then I eased the thoughts off by reminding myself I was here to do a job.
“The earlier the better,” I replied smoothly, ignoring his actual question. “Mr. Ellis, I wanted to discuss with you the terms of my work and how we are going to need to work together. I already have a schedule and some activities planned out for you, and it would be best if you looked at it before we make any changes.”
Something flickered in his eyes, and the smirk slipped off. But before I could analyze what that flicker meant, he was already stepping forward—closer—and I looked up as he invaded my personal space.
“We can discuss it over lunch,” he said.
Lunch, my ass.
Because he was so close, I could smell him—a hint of aftershave, clean laundry…and something else. Something virile and purely alpha… his scent. My brain told me this man was dangerous and yet I wanted to dive in and bath in his scent.
My brain also told me I could handle it.
What the hell was this alpha doing to my poor omega brain?
I gave him another cool smile as I took a tiny step back. “Of course. I’d love to have a business lunch with you.”
Like I said before, I already had experience working for alphas like him, just not as insanely hot and alluring.
If he wanted to play, let him play. All I wanted was that damn promotion.
All I had to do was stick to the game plan for just a few months.
Two could play this game.
3
Justin
Twenty minutes into meeting my new PR rep and I knew I’d made a terrible mistake—or rather, Tom had made a terrible mistake. This omega that had been assigned to me was beyond distracting.
I couldn’t take my goddamn eyes off this hot piece of omega ass. The fact he was playing hard-to-get made me want to fuck him all that much more. My cock was stiffening the more I looked at him and took in his sweet, omega scent.
I’d have to deposit my filthy thoughts into my spank bank for later if I planned on getting anything done right now.
I took him to one of the most exclusive restaurants that I knew near my office—an Italian place where the chandeliers were fu
lly crystal and the waiters were as haughty as they came. I generally stayed away from haughty people, considering I had enough to deal with in boardroom meetings alone, but I couldn’t resist. Sam Jones fascinated me with him standout red hair, bottle green eyes and vibrant energy despite the fact that he was short, the top of his head reaching only my chin. A normal omega would have blushed at my not-so-formal words earlier, but he ignored my flirting. A normal omega would have already gotten ideas at the lunch invitation—something I usually avoided—but either he misinterpreted it, or chose to ignore it again.
To my surprise, he wasn’t intimidated. Sam looked at the menu for a few minutes, then ordered what he wanted without batting an eye. He then patiently waited for me to order mine before he leaned against the table. The action had his shirt tighten against his body, making me aware of the fact that he had tight rocking body under that conservative shirt. I wondered what he looked like naked.
Then the wondering stopped when he spoke.
I listened at first, fascinated by his voice. He had a cheerful voice, one that matched his name perfectly and made me wonder if this was a façade. Then I absorbed his words, and whatever good mood I’d been in steadily spiraled downward as he began to get right into business.
“I heard you’re in big trouble, Mr. Ellis.”
“Justin,” I corrected, fully expecting him to give me the same courtesy. He didn’t. “And it’s not trouble. It’s more like…an inconvenience.”
He frowned, then slipped a hand inside his bag. He handed me the papers he received, and I accepted them and read quickly, finding some documents printed by Tom about what exactly had happened that had caused an uproar. It wasn’t just the latest escapade, either. It included all the others, such as the scantily clad omegas I partied with in public and the publicized fist fights I’d been in with other alphas. There were two cases that were notable, really—the first alpha had been a jerk who was harassing an omega in public while he was simply serving me drinks in a bar, and the second was a smug businessman who tried to make a nasty business deal with me involving illegal child labor. Naturally, I reacted by punching them in the face and severing all ties with him. I didn’t care who his daddy was.