Cherishing Her: A Protector Office Romance

by Annabelle Love

  He was like the goose who’d laid the golden egg, and that baby just kept on laying them.

  Derek eyed me a second, and I knew he knew what Max had done.

  There was concern in his face even as he hustled me out of the way, taking Nida’s attention off me and onto him. He greeted him with a smile that could only be considered sharkish, and I watched as, focus snatched by something more interesting than a pregnant blimp, Nida was guided into Max’s office.

  Derek usually shut the door when we had meetings. I was amused to note he hadn’t this time.

  Max wanted me to hear Nida’s annihilation. And though I’d moved on in the past few months, a part of me never could. The bloodthirsty part that had reared her head when she’d discovered she was pregnant and knew she was a tiger when it came down to protecting her cub, well, that part wanted vengeance.

  Karma was about to hit Martin Nida square in the jaw, and karma’s name?

  It was Max Greene.

  Despite my need for revenge, my legs were shaky as I slumped back into the desk chair.

  It amused me that, even though I was now Jessica Greene, I still worked for the corporation as a temp. I think Max got a kick out of it too. Telling me that we could work through his boss and secretary fantasies at a later date, because technically, I wasn’t his employee.

  Technically.

  The man was king of them.

  The perks of being Jessica Greene?

  My desk chair cost the equivalent of my monthly salary. A gift Max had insisted on giving me when we’d learned I was pregnant.

  It hadn’t been worth four months of morning sickness though. Jeez. I had to be the only woman who could seriously lose weight when she was pregnant, then blow up like a balloon in the third trimester.

  Like a reminder, I pressed my hand to my belly and felt the stirrings rumbling inside. It was a comfort as, ear pricked, I finally heard the men get over the usual bullshit greetings. Max was shit at small talk so even though Derek was technically only his PA, he had a habit of handling the start of meetings. Smoothing over things, making things nice and neat before they got down to business.

  “I’m grateful you could fit me in, Max. I wanted to discuss the next stages of the merger.”

  The merger? We’d finalized one last week, I knew that, and Max had already set Derek to task… Avalon had bought it with the full intention of dismantling it. Piece by piece.

  My eyes widened at the realization.

  Especially as it clicked that Martin Nida was the President of Omacorp… a very large, flourishing publishing company.

  Had Max bought that just on a whim? For me?

  I knew in business he was a mean SOB. Max had a habit of buying businesses just to get access to their tech patents, and once he had those, he had zero problems in doing away with the company. It always amused me though because the employees? Yeah, they always found work because Max had ways of shuffling them into other Avalon-owned companies. But the presidents and the VPs? The executives? Yeah, they were always shoved out into the cold.

  The law firm he’d told me about, the one with Derek’s girlfriend? He used them a lot to finagle his way through the legal minefield that came hand in hand with untying meaty contracts like executives usually had.

  Something he was about to do with Martin Nida, I realized.

  Dismantling his contract, wrecking it, making it so he’d have to go without his bonuses, without his umbrella payouts.

  It wouldn’t break him, but it would hurt his reputation.

  Derek had once told me that executives who worked in companies Avalon had taken over rarely found jobs in the same sector, and never again at the same level. How that was so, I didn’t know, but Max had ways… He was like a job hitman. Stealing work only from the rich and giving it to people who weren’t a part of the old boys’ network.

  Martin Nida was about to be ruined.

  He wouldn’t be destroyed financially; that I knew. Not unless he’d been reckless with his money. But he’d lose a lot. He’d worked his way up from VP to President in just under three years since that one day he’d changed my life… all of that was about to be hit by the wrecking ball that was my man.

  Max, in a cold tone that told me he was feeling as bloodthirsty as I was, murmured, “Oh? Why would you want to discuss that?”

  Silence fell at the question, then a hearty laugh that I remembered and, God help me, recognized, escaped him. I felt sick at the sound. He’d made that laugh afterward. I’d been sobbing. Curled up in a ball as he zipped up his pants and stared down at me like I was shit on his shoes…

  Nausea pummeled me harder, then I jolted when I heard the door to the outer office open once more. Seeing Kayla and the team of sharks Max called lawyers, I blinked at them and nodded when Derek’s girlfriend made a gentle motion with her hand, asking whether they could go in.

  I had no idea if they could go in. This wasn’t my rodeo and I had no say in what was happening.

  A part of me was glad about that.

  I’d wanted karma to work her wicked wiles on the bastard in there, but it hadn’t exactly worked, had it? He’d had a promotion, had gone from strength to strength, whereas I’d been living in a tenement building to make ends meet. Living on ready meals because I couldn’t afford broccoli, not if I wanted to live on my own and not at home anymore.

  How was that justice?

  I mean, I hated broccoli, but still. That wasn’t the point, was it?

  “What’s so funny?” Max asked, his voice stony and cold, but that was the last I heard because the final attorney in the gathering of sharks closed the door behind him—apparently, he hadn’t gotten the memo that I was supposed to be able to listen in to the destruction of Nida’s career.

  But, the crazy thing was, I didn’t need to hear any more.

  I really didn’t.

  Was I happy this was happening?

  Happy was a discomfiting word.

  I didn’t want to be. I’d never thought I was the kind of woman who could be pleased in another’s destruction, but this was the man who…

  My throat choked.

  A part of me was mad at Max. He’d brought Martin Nida here. Here. A place where I’d always felt safe. My enemy had infiltrated that safety zone, and he hadn’t even warned me.

  And yet…

  Max was doing this for me.

  Oh, but it was for him too.

  I wasn’t blind. His rage at my past treatment stunned even me sometimes, and I knew he wanted to sow the seeds of vengeance on my behalf—that hadn’t exactly been news to me. But he wanted me to have closure.

  I’d had it in so many ways, but he wanted me to face the bastard, I recognized, on my home turf. In a place where I was safe, where no one could ever touch me. Hell, no one would ever be able to touch me again, because of Max, but he was reminding me of that.

  A shaky breath escaped me, and though I’d been studiously avoiding looking into the office, I looked up at the sound of an explosion emanating from the man who’d held me down, forced himself inside me, and had made me bleed.

  My gaze caught Max’s, and unbidden, I smiled.

  A glint appeared in his eyes, and knowing I had his attention for a split second, I mouthed, “I love you.”

  His head jerked down in silent assent; both agreeing and reciprocating my declaration, before his attention turned to the man he was about to systematically destroy on my behalf.

  Slaying all my dragons like the knight in shining armor he was.

  For me, only for me.

  My man, my love, my Max.

  The End

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  Continue on to read an excerpt of my releases, Needing Her!

  Needing Her

  Those intense, blue eyes had such an effect on me… a pull that I couldn’t resist. And the man they belong to doesn’t even realize that he has changed my life forever…

  Hailey was my distraction. I buried my frustrations in her.

  I hurt her because of how unhappy I was with my life.

  It’s been haunting me ever since.

  No one had ever told me I looked unhappy before.

  No one had ever run away from me before.

  No one had ever made me want to run after her before.

  I needed to gain closure… at least attempt to apologize.

  But there's more than I bargained for when I find Hailey again.

  She’s kept something from me… Something I need.

  Something that has changed our lives forever.

  ***Needing Her is a stand-alone novella with no cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed HEA. And oh yes, plenty of steam too!***

  An Excerpt

  Hailey

  Reaching for my phone propped up on the dashboard, I checked the time before turning off the car my company had loaned me for this week.

  Only briefly checking my makeup and hair in the rearview mirror, I adjusted my stereotypical chauffeur cap and threw back my shoulders. Smiling at myself, I forcefully pushed away all thoughts about my family—my mom, in particular—to focus on the job at hand.

  George Carlton had called me personally, after all; I couldn’t just disappoint my potentially immediate supervisor.

  “Okay!” Climbing out of my car, I secured the locks before making my way closer towards the entrance of the airport. Even the sidewalks were packed with people, and my heels clicking on the cement was lost under the sound of conversation and rolling suitcases. The smell of people just getting on or just leaving a plane mingled in the air to withstand the slight breeze of late September, and thick tendrils slithered up my nostrils to curl my nose hairs.

  Weaving effortlessly through the sea of people, I made my way to the gate board to search for the incoming flight from California. Plucking at my service vest, my fingertips tingled as they grazed shiny, brass buttons that lined my belly. I hadn’t worn my uniform for years, but my self-esteem couldn’t be higher that it still fit. Ignoring the noise and smells of the airport as I made my way towards my gate, I actively avoided licking my lips and smearing the light coat of lipstick I wore.

  All I had to identify my ‘important client’ was a name and a face, and I waited patiently beyond the cordoned-off terminal. It took mere moments for the speakers to blare with a feminine voice declaring the plane was being unloaded, and I tapped my foot absently as I glanced around. A woman waited with her five children, one only a few weeks old, and the anxiety surrounding her was palpable.

  It took only a fraction of a second to realize why she looked so tense when a big, muscly man in full Marine uniform came rushing out of the terminal. He dropped his heavy knapsack to make a break for his family, and his childrens’ shouting and screaming filled the terminal. Every pair of eyes were on them, and I almost felt bad for watching as he slid to his knees to bear hug all of his kids together.

  The oldest couldn’t have gone through puberty yet, but he clearly didn’t care too much about his appearance as he burst into tears.

  My heart squeezed painfully, and I tore my eyes off them to focus on the gate as my lungs stuttered. I didn’t even know anyone in the military, but no one could deny the emotion of the moment. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I squared my shoulders and pursed my lips into a thin line before regular fliers began to disembark the gate.

  “Mr. Richards—” Putting on my best smile, my cheeks heated at the immediate, intense gaze that raked down my front. A shock of ear-length, dirty blond hair curled slightly on either side of intimidatingly bright, blue eyes, but Anthony Richards didn’t so much as twitch in greeting. “I’m Hailey Montgomery—I’ll be your driver for the week. May I take your bag?”

  Smooth-shaven cheeks did nothing to hide Anthony’s thinning lips, and he held out his carry-on in silence to nod curtly.

  “Let’s get this over with, then.” Gruff and hard, his deep voice hit me like a brick to the face, and my smile strained slightly as I took the leather handles of his small duffel bag.

  “Right this way, please.” The quiet bubble around us only grew denser on the way out of the airport and back to my car, and tension thrummed through my veins. I didn’t know anything about Anthony Richards aside from his name, but his picture didn’t do him justice.

  He was large and in charge—and he was not in a good mood.

  Great, just great.

  “Take me to the Rochester.” Speaking up from the back seat, Anthony’s demand coiled underneath my shoulder blades as I pulled off the curb and into the ever-flowing ocean of traffic leaving the airport. Rolling my inner cheek between my teeth, I glanced in the rearview mirror to find him scowling at his reflection in the tinted window of the back passenger side seat.

  A cell phone chimed a tune I didn’t recognize as I zipped up a highway on-ramp, and I tapped the steering wheel absently. There were definitely worse things that a grumpy client—like a client that never shut up or got personal. Putting pressure on the gas pedal, I checked my mirrors habitually before flicking on my blinker to merge into the far left lane.

  “You couldn’t call me in the morning? I just landed, I’m not even at the hotel yet.” Annoyance seeped into Anthony’s thickened voice, and I flexed my toes in my heels as the urge to glance back at him burned between my eyeballs and their sockets. “I know that, this isn’t my first business trip, you know. If you don’t like it, why don’t you do something about it besides complain?”

  “You know what—I really don’t care at this point. I’ll call you when I feel like it.” Electricity crackled in the air as Anthony cut the call, and I couldn’t resist temptation anymore. Peeking in the rearview mirror, my eyes widened slightly as I watched him drag his hand down his face. His grimace morphed his expression as he slouched in his seat; even behind his palm, he couldn’t hide the frown that tugged at his mouth.

  He looks really stressed.

  The thought banged against my forehead just as his eyes flickered to mine, and I fixed mine back on the road without watching his pupils restrict. For a long, tense moment, Anthony stared at the back of my head, and I held my breath as my hair follicles tingled under my cap.

  But Anthony didn’t call me out, and after that few seconds slid by on pins and needles, my tight muscles relaxed when he moved his stare to the scenery.

  Anthony

  Scrolling through the search page I’d brought up on my cell phone, I frowned deeply at the sheer number of bars and clubs this city had to offer. The elevator gave a shrill ping as it stopped at the ground floor, and I stepped out onto solid ground without tearing my eyes from the screen.

  “This one looks the best, I guess.” Slipping my phone into my suit pants pocket, I raked my hand through my hair as my grumble rang in my ears. My bad mood had only gotten worse since landing, and I strode heavily towards the hotel’s revolving doors to step onto the busy sidewalk. This city’s nightlife was insanely active, and I took a deep breath filled with the smell of food from nearby restaurants and bars.

  The map to the particular place I wanted to check out branded against my eyelids every time I blinked, and I set out at a leisurely pace. Couples on dates,
groups of people just hanging out, flooded every inch of downtown, but the claustrophobia eased some of my nerves. It only briefly came to me that I should’ve asked Hailey for a tour, but I didn’t want to talk more than necessary and end up heaping guilt on what was already a volatile situation.

  Music spilled onto the street as I passed a bar-b-que joint that was filled to the bay windows, but it couldn’t stave off my frown. Loosening my tie and unfastening the top two buttons of my shirt as I wandered down the sidewalk, I rubbed my neck roughly before shoving my hands into my pockets.

  “At least she didn’t seem to take it personally…” My mumble was lost under all the other noise, floating on the crisp breeze that combated the heat radiating from various eateries. Hailey was a nice surprise from the groveling, insipid drivers that I was usually stuck with; I got the instant impression she was a great conversationalist.

  But I’d kept my mouth shut on the 45 minute drive to the hotel rather than test that theory.

  Not that there’s not a good reason, though.

  My mind wandered back to California, and I ground my teeth as the phone call only two hours ago rang in my ears. Irritation flooded my veins at the overbearing tone in my father’s voice, and I curled my hands into fists in their sheaths.

  If my father didn’t trust me after all this time to run the businesses he forced me to take over, why in the fuck didn’t he just take them back? The question haunted me more often than I cared to admit, and even after five years, I didn’t have an answer. He was a control freak, he always had been, but that strictness that’d served me well in adolescence was crushing me as an adult.

  Our relationship had deteriorated considerably since my father’s heart attack, and I could barely stand to even take his calls anymore.

  Money. Hedge-funding. Banking. Properties. Stocks. Everything my father had shoved down my throat, he topped with a direct style of management that I couldn’t swallow. Slowly over the years I had begun to break away from him, but he still found ways to fuck with me.