by Selena Kitt
But her mother’s words came back to her.
You do whatever you have to do to keep him, if he’s the man for you.
Was she going to repeat her mother’s mistake and walk away from Ric, simply because of her own fears and insecurities?
If he needed this—and when she looked at him, she saw some part of him did, indeed, need her to prove herself to him—then she would give him what he wanted. They’d talk later about what a head-fuck this was, how unfair and wrong it was to have put her in this position, simply because he wanted to see for himself if she would defend him, if tested.
For now, she had his back—as promised.
“I’m here on family business,” she informed Jenny coolly.
“Well, this is a private acquisitions meeting, so you can just run along.” Jenny waved her hand in dismissal. “I’m pretty sure your boyfriend can take care of himself.”
“Boyfriend?” Annalesa laughed in disbelief. Did Jenny really not know? How could she not know? Although, Annalesa had to admit—she hadn’t known him either, not at first. Not until she looked into his eyes. “No wonder you wanted a private meeting. Is that the only way you can get a deal? Playing the whore?”
“You’re still so naïve.” Jenny did her blouse button up and gathered their papers from the table. “This is the way the world is. When you’re on the bottom of the business food chain, there are things you have to do to work your way up.”
“Ric...” Annalesa turned to him and smiled as sweetly as she could manage. “Would you like to come clean and tell them how ‘low’ down the food chain you really are?”
“R-Ric?” Jenny looked up at him, going very pale. The papers in her hands fluttered to the floor, unnoticed, as the recognition overtook her.
“Who’s Ric?” The redhead looked confused, glancing around the room as if she might find another person to identify as the man-in-charge. Her gaze settled on Ric.
“R-Ric Ryker,” Jenny stuttered.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” The redhead snatched the folder and papers from the floor, talking the whole while. “You got us into this mess, Jen, you better get us out of it. If I get fired for this, I’m going to kill you.”
The redhead stood and glared at all of them before she stormed out of the room. There was a short silence after the door slammed shut.
“I can’t believe it.” Jenny looked at Ric with a mixture of awe and loathing. “You’re really Big Dick!”
“Call him that again, and you’ll lose your teeth.” Annalesa snatched a Samsung Galaxy off the table, swatting Jenny away easily as she swore and tried to grab her phone back.
Annalesa noted a text on the notification screen from a Lucas Bailey-Zandermeyer—Honey, did you pull off the deal? When you home?—but focused on finding the Ryker Arms’ home page on Google. She clicked on the page with all the pictures of the management team, featuring a particularly gorgeous photo of Ric, albeit with much shorter hair.
“Take a look.” She handed the phone back to Jenny. “You really don’t do your research, do you?”
“You lying bastard.” Jenny stared between Ric and his picture, going paler by the moment.
“When did I lie?” Ric shrugged. “If I recall, you weren’t really interested in formal introductions.”
Jenny’s eyes narrowed. “I should sue you for harassment.”
“How will you make that stick?” Annalesa laughed.
“It’s such an obvious set-up! We have a history, and he flew us here to meet him today—first class.” Jenny’s gaze narrowed at Ric. “You know as well as I do—he could supply props for an action film to just about any production company he wanted to—but he chose mine.”
Annalesa couldn’t argue with that and felt sick, realizing how much planning had gone into this moment. But then she saw Jenny wiping her hands on her skirt like she was rubbing away the thought of touching the old Ric and the disgust on Jenny’s face made her furious all over again. Annalesa felt as if her body was vibrating with rage, from her heels to the back of her neck, and fought hard to keep the tremble out of her voice.
“I know you, Jenny. You’re still the same bloody cunt you were in high school,” Annalesa snapped. “If you push forward with some sort of suit, it will be your word against his—and mine. Because I saw you shaking your tits in his face and your little friend feeling him up, but Ric didn’t touch either of you.”
“No one will believe him.” Jenny glared back and forth between them. “Trust me—you’re going down for this, Big Dick.”
Annalesa would have tackled her to the floor and pounded her if Ric hadn’t been there to catch both of her upper arms in his big hands, pulling her back against him.
“God, you two are sick.” Jenny shook her head in disgust. “You’re still protecting her, after the way she treated you?”
Annalesa felt Ric’s grip tighten on her arms and winced.
“Oh God, we made so much fun of you.” Jenny laughed, and it was an evil sound that made Annalesa’s stomach flip. “Annalesa was always the worst. We never would have made fun of you, but she had this game she liked to play. We’d try to out-do each other. Do you remember?”
“No.” Annalesa could barely speak through clenched teeth.
“She’d start off with, ‘My stepbrother is so fat...’ And we’d all fill in the blanks. Some of them were really funny. Annalesa was the best at it, though. Let’s see... my stepbrother is so fat… he’s the reason they invented double doors!” Jenny let out a peal of laughter “My stepbrother is so fat… the only letters he knows are KFC...”
Annalesa felt Ric’s body tense, like a lion ready to pounce.
“Stop it.” Annalesa tried to go after Jenny again, but Ric was still holding her too tightly.
“Oh! Oh!” Jenny giggled. “My favorite one—my stepbrother is so fat he sat on my iPhone and it turned into an iPad!”
“Get out.” She could barely get the words out. Her throat felt tight, hot.
“You can lose all the weight you want, Big Dick.” Jenny looked over Annalesa’s head at Ric, emphasizing his former nickname with relish. “You’re still the same pathetic loser you were in high school—and you always will be.”
“Ric, let me go,” Annalesa struggled against his hold, her hands clenched into fists so tight they hurt. She couldn’t see anything but red.
“Please do.” Jenny grinned. “I can add assault and who knows, maybe attempted murder, to the lawsuit.”
“Fuck you, bitch,” Annalesa snarled, and she wrenched herself forward so hard, Ric almost lost his grasp on her. At the last minute, he grabbed her back to him, putting his big arms around her so she couldn’t get away this time. She didn’t know how he could just stand there and let Jenny talk to him like this.
When she twisted her head to look back at him, Ric shook his almost imperceptibly. Annalesa felt her body relax a little when she looked into his eyes and she turned back to Jenny, finding her voice again.
“It wasn’t me who made fun of him,” she said softly. “And if I’d heard you, any of you, saying anything like that, just once, I would have killed you.”
“You didn’t have the fucking guts then and you don’t now.” Jenny rolled her eyes. “We only kept you on because you were so fucking naïve. You were like a dumb dog who slinked around no matter how many times we kicked you.”
“It’s time for you to go.” Ric didn’t raise his voice but he didn’t have to.
“Fine with me.” Jenny slipped her phone into her pocket and slung her purse over her shoulder. “I’ll see you in court.”
“You won’t be suing anyone.” Annalesa watched as Jenny crossed the room toward the door. “Unless you want Lucas Bailey-Zandermeyer to know what a slut you were in high school.”
Jenny stopped, her hand on the doorknob.
“Unless you want him to know how many times you took a train to New York to have a little procedure, so your daddy wouldn’t know you’d done it again.”
“
Shut up.” Jenny glared over her shoulder at Annalesa, her face pale.
“I’m sure Lucas Bailey-Zandermeyer won’t be hard to find and message on Facebook or Twitter.”
“True, that,” Ric murmured. “He’s her boss.”
“Oh Jenny.” Annalesa shook her head sadly. “You’re still sleeping your way to the top, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you.” Jenny glared at them, narrowing her eyes. “This isn’t the end of this.”
“Yes, it is,” Ric replied. “If you come after me, or Annalesa, or anyone I care about, ever again, you won’t even remember your own name when I’m done with you. Telling your fuck buddy about the other guys you’ve screwed over through the years, and the dozens of fetuses you’ve left in the trash along the way, will just be the cherry on the shit-cake I’ll make you sit and eat for the rest of your miserable little life. Now, get the fuck out of here.”
Jenny took one long look at them both, humiliation burning in both cheeks.
“You two deserve each other,” she choked and then fled from the room.
Annalesa watched her go, feeling Ric’s grip on her finally loosen.
“I wanted to scratch her eyes out,” she told him, still looking at the door where Jenny had disappeared.
“I almost let you.” He chuckled. “But she was right about that. I didn’t want her to have a real reason to go to the cops.”
“Probably best.” Annalesa took a little, shuddery breath. “I might have actually gone too far and strangled her.”
She looked up at him, feeling her mouth trembling and her eyes filling with tears at the triumphant look in his eyes. He gazed down at her and his smirk softened to an expression of pride. It warmed her for a half-second before the anger at being set up took over. Suddenly, she wanted to smash the nearest chair over his head.
She sprinted out of the meeting room, heading for their suite. Ric’s shock at her sudden bolt gave her a head start and she tore up two flights of stairs, getting to her room and slamming the door behind her before he could get to it. She leaned against it, panting—she really needed to work out more, she told herself—trying to catch her breath and get a hold of her temper.
Ric bellowed on the other side of the door, but she didn’t answer. She heard his muffled curses and smiled, knowing he couldn’t get in. She needed time to think. Time to absorb what had just happened in the conference room. She still couldn’t quite believe it had been real.
A moment later she heard rattling, and he exploded into her smaller room from the adjoining door of the deluxe suite. Crap—she’d forgotten about that. The room was dark, making his outline seem huger—even bigger than he actually was. She stayed where she was, leaning against the door, wiping the tears off her face as he switched on some lights and came to stand over her.
She didn’t look up at him, but she felt his presence, could see the rise and fall of his broad chest. Then he surprised her, raking his fingers lightly through her hair, tilting her head up and forcing him to meet his eyes. His gaze was soft, almost loving. He looked like the Ric she’d spent her whole, wonderful, romantic weekend with.
“Did I pass your shitty little ‘test’?” She swallowed back a rising sob.
“You did. And then some.” Ric pulled her against him, his lips brushing her hairline. “You were a little tiger. I couldn’t barely hold you back.”
“I wasn’t doing it just for you!” Annalesa snatched herself out of his grip and stormed across to the bar, yanking up the bottle of brandy they hadn’t put away earlier. She took a long swig without bothering with a glass.
He took a step forward and she warded him off with a palm. “You need to give me a minute.”
She half-expected him to pounce across the room and snatch the bottle, but he stayed back, lowering himself onto the little couch in the room’s living space. She grabbed a glass and poured herself a generous double, tossing that off and then getting a glass of water. Her throat burned but her nerves were beginning to steady.
Her pulse returned closer to normal and the drink helped her get a grip on the shakes trying to take over her body. She went over to the armchair and slumped onto it, all her energy drained.
When she finally spoke, she felt numb. “I need to know... Ric... was there any point to that? I mean, besides you getting your jollies testing my... my what? My loyalty? I don’t even know...”
“She’s a bitch. Always was. I’m sorry you couldn’t see it back then,” Ric said quietly.
“Me, too.” Annalesa hugged herself, shivering. “But we were kids. She hurt you. I get it. That doesn’t make it right for you to... to...”
“Do you think I’m that shallow?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “This wasn’t about fat-jokes, Leesa. That woman, in her short and nasty little career, has run over more men than I can count. She’s had them fired, vilified, demoted—that doesn’t count the one they couldn’t prove she pushed off a balcony. He lived—but he couldn’t remember anything about the accident. Oh, and he’s a paraplegic now.”
“What?”
“She needed to be put in her place,” Ric said coldly. “And... well, I needed to put what she did behind me, so... call it a two-fer.”
“You know what I call it?” Annalesa sat up, her whole body on fire. It was partly the alcohol, but not all. “I call it stupid and cruel and... and... vicious!”
Ric just shrugged. She wasn’t getting through to him. This thing he’d done, he’d clearly justified it in his own mind, but it wasn’t right. None of this was right.
“That was fucking savage,” Annalesa whispered. “What you just pulled back there. That wasn’t you. That was... that was a stunt worthy of Big Dick.”
She saw a volcanic anger pass through his eyes. He looked like he’d been slapped, but she didn’t care. He had no right to do this—even if Jenny mostly deserved it. Did he think Annalesa deserved it too? How dare he put her in this position?
She held his gaze as the muscles in his jaw clenched, his body going rigid with anger. He got up from the couch, stalking over and yanking her from the chair. She gasped when he pulled her hard against him, his arms like a vice around her.
“Ric.” She turned her face up to him, feeling tears surface.
She wanted him back. Her Ric—the one with the big heart, who would do anything for the people he cared about. This heartless man in front of her wasn’t her Ric. She wasn’t sure who he was.
“Ric, I love you. I promised you I’d prove it to you—whatever it takes, I’ll do it. But please... let this be the end of it. Don’t... don’t make me do anything like that again.
Ric didn’t say anything. Instead, he slid his arms beneath her, lifting her feet off the floor. He made her feel once again like she weighed absolutely nothing. She was too tired to struggle as he carried her over to his bedroom and set her down by the bed. Huge, warm palms slid round her waist and up between her shoulders, caressing her bare skin as he found her zipper and pulled it down.
“You’re not going to seduce your way out of this,” Annalesa warned.
She felt her breathing pick up mutinously as he pressed the dress down her body and let it drop to the floor at her feet. The dim light played over his body as he hauled his shirt up over his head, making every muscle glide beneath his skin. She looked down to the floor as his trousers then briefs came off, kicked to one side. She stood stock still as he eased her underwear away with all the gentleness he’d shown over their long weekend together.
“Do you know what really bothers me?” Annalesa gave her anger one last shot, unable to finish the night with resentment trapped inside her. He raised an eyebrow at her and waited for her to finish. “I thought you asked me to come because you needed me. That you’d gotten yourself into a situation that you... you weren’t sure you could handle. But... turns out, you didn’t really need me at all.”
“You’re wrong.” Ric lifted her up again, and they were skin to skin now. He nuzzled her hair, her neck. “I did need you. And you came.”
/>
His mouth found hers and he claimed it, her body responding, in spite of her intention to hold onto her anger.
“You came, and you stayed, Leesa. Even if you were mad at me.” He murmured this against her lips. “That’s what I needed from you.”
Really not understanding why she was allowing it to happen, she let him put her in bed. He spooned up behind her, offering his bicep as a pillow. His heat dissolved the last of her reticence and she didn’t resist as he stroked across her belly like she was something to be adored.
She tipped back against him as he pressed his fingers down between her legs and she hooked her calf back over his, opening herself up to him. He stroked his fingertips up and down between her lips, making her clit swell and her pussy slick. She tried, but couldn’t remain completely silent, and her ragged breathing seemed to increase his erection—it pressed hard against the small of her back.
His fingertip stopped at her entrance, touching lightly in question.
She nodded and worried her lip between her teeth to silence herself as he pressed her upper leg forward again, then pushed his cock inside with one long, delicious stroke.
Once he was inside her, she was his. Her body betrayed her, giving in to him, in spite of what he’d done—maybe even because of it. Some raw, primal part of her had taken over then, and it took her over now. She moaned as he began thrusting faster, deeper, giving her more and more of him with every stroke.
“I want to hear you.” His teeth raked her neck, nibbled her earlobe. “I need it, Leesa. I need to hear you.”
She moaned and bucked back against him, all heat and sensation. His hips rocked in approval and her noises filled the room, ranging from harsh pants and little kitten cries to long, drawn out moans.
She felt so small against the hard ridges of his body that cradled and rocked her. Ric sent her into a delirium of feeling, trapping her in his arms as he filled her over and over with his huge cock, all the while stroking the side of his thumb against her clit.
Her body trembled on the edge, teetering back and forth. She whimpered, turning her face into his bicep, licking and sucking at his bronze flesh so hard she imagined her lips growing black with ink. He gave a little hiss when she let her teeth rake him.