Man in Charge, Book 1

by Laurelin Paige

  Sarah turned to me, disappointment in her eyes.

  I’ll fix this, my eyes said in return. But it was a promise I had no business making.

  Meanwhile, everyone at the table seemed confused. A few people shuffled, not knowing if the meeting was over or not.

  Brett attempted to settle the question. “Should we—”

  Scott cut him off. “We’ll go ahead and have the contracts prepared,” he said, eyeing the lawyers present. “SIC has very specific image issues that need to be addressed with the foundation we sponsor. There is no better choice than the DRF for this, and though my father isn’t yet convinced, I guarantee you he will be.”

  It was hard not to look at him then as a hero, hard not to feel something tight and warm in my chest at his gallant declaration of support.

  But I couldn’t help wondering if Scott was also making promises he had no business making.

  Sixteen

  Scott wrapped up the meeting after his bold declaration and left the room at the same quick pace as his father.

  My whole body felt heavy. There had never been a chance that I’d walk out of today with signed contracts—they still had to be written, details negotiated—but it should have felt like a done deal. Even with Scott’s promise, it seemed like that was miles away, disappearing into the horizon.

  I needed a drink.

  Before I could drown my sorrows, however, I had to finish doing my job, er, the one I’d created for myself.

  “Sarah,” I said, rushing over to her. “I’m so sorry about this. I hadn’t been informed that Henry Sebastian had to put his stamp of approval on this, or I would have met with him before bringing you in. I’m truly embarrassed by all this.”

  She looked nowhere as disheartened as I felt, and on top of that she appeared baffled. “Embarrassed about the Sebastians drawing up contracts for a partnership? I’m pleased we’re getting that far.”

  Had she not been in the same room I’d been in?

  “They haven’t indicated they’ll sign yet, though. And Henry was…” I wanted to say an asshole but decided it wouldn’t be the most professional thing to call him. “Well, he was awfully callous about an organization that does an extreme amount of good.”

  She made a dismissive tsk with her tongue. “You think he’s the first CEO who has suggested that the reason dysautonomia doesn’t get funded is because it’s a disease that happens to women? I wish. He’s not even the tenth. Believe it or not, we generally walk away with a check of some kind once we make it to this point. If it’s not the sponsorship, that will be disappointing, but it will likely be a sizable donation, and no way am I going to consider that a loss.”

  I had a hard time being so optimistic. Sure, a donation was a donation, and the charity always needed funds. But it wasn’t just about the money. A corporate sponsorship would bring awareness to a common ailment that many people knew very little about.

  And on a personal basis, there was no way that Kendra would overlook my going behind her back if I didn’t walk away with a coup. It was probably a good time to plant a seed about needing a job with Sarah.

  Except, when I opened my mouth, I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I hadn’t really wanted to leave Conscience Connect when this started, and now that I’d done some actual pitching, I wanted to leave even less. And not just because I felt some stupid loyalty to Kendra—that loyalty was so thin these days, it was almost a deterrent. I wanted to stay because I believed in the work. There were a lot of organizations I felt passionately about, not just the DRF. I wanted to find sponsors for all of them.

  Which was why I wasn’t giving up hope.

  “You’re right, Sarah. Any donation would be fantastic, but my job is to get you a sponsorship, and by damn, I’m gonna do that.”

  She broke into a smile. “When you say it like that, I have no choice but to believe you.”

  Most of the room had emptied by this point, and I still needed to clean up. Sarah offered to help, but I shooed her out with a promise to keep her updated. When she’d gone, I was alone except for Brett.

  From the judgy look on his face, he hadn’t stayed to help.

  “You saw us exchange one smile,” I said, exasperated. “I’m not sure how you could draw any conclusions from that.”

  “I know my cousin.”

  “Second cousin,” I corrected, as though the difference mattered, and began gathering the leftover pamphlets from the conference table.

  Brett followed me around. “Still family. Still have spent lots of time with the guy. Still familiar with how he is with women, and not to be disrespectful to the man, he’s not very nice.”

  So far, Scott Sebastian had been plenty nice to me.

  But I knew what he meant.

  “I’ll take your warning to heart,” I said, which wasn’t exactly a lie since I’d already been warning myself the same thing for days.

  Brett wasn’t satisfied. “Tess…”

  I stopped my work and turned toward him. “What? He’s a player. I got it. I’ll try to make sure I don’t smile at him again.” In public, anyway.

  “I’m serious here. He’s got a reputation for stringing girls along, even when he knows that they’re misinterpreting his actions.”

  Scott had probably done that to a lot of girls, but I suddenly had a strong feeling Brett was talking about Eden. Hadn’t Scott mentioned Brett was her friend? After witnessing the way Scott had been with her, I could see how she’d feel strung along. Brett probably harbored resentment toward Scott over that. Especially if he liked me as I had a feeling he did.

  I didn’t need him to protect me, though. I liked owning my mistakes all out. “That sucks that he does that,” I said. “It really does. I’ve been on the other end of that more times than I’d like to count.”

  “Then you understand what I’m saying.”

  “I do. And you understand that I’m saying I get it. I know what you’re trying to warn me about. I appreciate you looking out for me.” I gave him a reassuring smile. “But I can handle myself. I promise.”

  It wasn’t what he’d wanted, I was sure. He’d wanted me to say I’d stay away from Scott altogether. I wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t.

  But it was all over his face as he studied me. I knew what he was thinking, too, because I’d thought it myself a million times. Why would a girl knowingly get mixed up with a heartbreaker? Why wouldn’t she pick a decent man who treated women with respect?

  Good question, Brett. Damned if I know.

  He seemed to come to his own damning conclusion. “If you think you need to get with him to get this contract…”

  Now I was all sorts of offended. I’d gone out of my way with Scott to be sure that I didn’t get accused of crossing ethical lines, and here Brett was suggesting it anyway. Based on a smile, no less. Is that really what he thought of me?

  And why jump to that conclusion at all? Couldn’t I be interested in flirting with a player because I didn’t mind being played? Were women not allowed to have drive-by sex the way men did?

  My indignation must have shown on my face.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have suggested that you’d do something like that. I just wanted you to know, in case he pressured you…”

  “Has he been known to do that?” It was one thing for Scott to be a philanderer. If he purposefully used his power over women, that was another thing.

  “No, he hasn’t,” Brett admitted. “That doesn’t mean I’d put it past him.”

  He really was sour about his cousin. Second cousin.

  I hesitated before responding as I replayed all my interactions with Scott so far, looking for any breach of ethics on his part. I couldn’t find any besides the ones I’d already known about, and I was just as much a party to those as he’d been. It was a good thing we’d agreed to put a hold on whatever it was we were doing until the contracts were signed, just to be sure.

  Though, I was already longing for him way more than I cared to admit.

  �
��Scott has been very professional,” I assured Brett. “And as much as I want SIC to sponsor the DRF, I wouldn’t use sex to go about it.” Role-playing it was a different story.

  “Okay. I’m reassured. I was only trying to look out for you. Not trying to assume the worst.”

  “I know. Thank you. I’ve got it under control.”

  He nodded. Then we stood there awkwardly, neither of us sure what to say next.

  “I should finish…” I gestured to the pile of pamphlets in my hand.

  “Of course. Do you need help?”

  I was nearly done, and even if I weren’t, I was ready to be by myself. “Nope. I got it.”

  After he left, I threw the pamphlets into my briefcase, gathered up the few bits of trash that had been left, and sighed. I had no idea if anyone else had the room booked after, which was why I should have been scurrying to get out of there, but my head was overwhelmed, and I needed a minute. There was too much to sort out between worrying if Henry would nix the deal and if I’d have a job when Kendra came back and what to do with my new found passion for selling causes if I was fired and wondering if Brett’s concern about Scott meant he was even more of a player than I’d realized.

  So instead of trying to sort anything, I placed my palms on the conference table, and took a deep breath, and let myself be okay with all the unknowns.

  And tried very hard not to imagine Scott pushing me down further and fucking me from behind.

  Since, of course, that was exactly what I was thinking about the most, I jumped back like I’d been doing something naughty when I heard the sound of the door opening. Probably someone else needed the room.

  “Just leaving!” I turned to grab my briefcase from the chair, then dropped it back in the chair when I looked up and saw who’d entered.

  “I was hoping you’d still be here,” Scott said, his blue eyes latching with mine. His tie matched the color exactly, I realized now. As well as his cufflinks, which was somehow really sexy.

  He really was too hot to look at in general. Not without repercussions, anyway. Like storms of butterflies in my stomach and goosebumps skipping down my skin and panties that were suddenly flooded.

  And I shouldn’t have been as thrilled as I was that he’d come looking for me. Especially when he most definitely shouldn’t have been looking for me.

  So much for having this thing with Scott under control.

  “You just caught me,” I said, hoping my voice didn’t sound as shaky as I felt. “What’s up?”

  “I wanted to apologize for my father. I invited him as a formality. He never follows through on those invitations. I didn’t think he’d show up this time, or I would have warned you.”

  Oh. It was about business then.

  Stupid me, I was disappointed.

  No, this was good. Business talk was perfectly acceptable. “I’ll admit, I was taken aback by him. Mostly, I was caught off guard by the realization that he’s the one who ultimately decides if this goes through or not.”

  “Yes, he is,” he confirmed. “For that matter, he’s the final say on everything SIC does. He just doesn’t typically concern himself with most of it. I’m not sure why he decided to poke his head in this time. He probably thought I was taking too long to get the deal done.”

  “Wonder why he would think that?”

  He gave the slightest of smiles. “Whatever the reason, there’s nothing to worry about. He’ll come around. This is his way. He doesn’t like to appear like he’s giving anything easily.”

  It didn’t make me feel any more confident that this would end up okay, but I wasn’t really interested in thinking about that at the moment.

  “Oh, is that where you learned it?” I teased. It was too easy not to. Too much of a temptation to try to lure another smile.

  I didn’t get one this time. Instead, he feigned offense. “I’m not like that.”

  “Difficult is the word I was told about you.” I told myself I wasn’t worried about Brett’s more recent warnings.

  Scott gave a huh sound. “Difficult,” he mused. “I’m glad I keep Brett on his toes.”

  “Among other people.”

  He’d moved closer at some point. Or I had. Now he was only an arm’s length away. I could reach my hand out and yank him to me if I wanted to.

  The thought somehow circled me back to an earlier one. “You know, if your dad is really the last word on the matter, then what’s happened between us couldn’t really be considered unethical since you don’t have any power to hold over me in the first place.”

  He winced a little. “I wouldn’t say I don’t have any power.”

  “Sorry,” I laughed. “Did I insult your manhood?”

  “My manhood is fine, thank you very much. I was simply making sure you were clear on the facts.”

  “Crystal clear now. I appreciate the clarification. And I wasn’t trying to diminish your position. I was making myself feel better.”

  “And do you? Feel better?” His voice was low, and suggestive. He’d inched closer again, too.

  Or I had, which wouldn’t be surprising considering that I was also now putting together that if I had no reason to feel better about what we’d done in the past, then there wasn’t much reason to keep from doing it again.

  I wondered if he was thinking the same thing.

  As if he could read my thoughts, he said, “By the way, I locked the door.”

  There were so many other reasons not to lunge myself at him, reasons beyond the ethics of the situation, like the fact that he was probably a bigger player than I’d first thought and the fact that we were in the conference room of his work.

  But I’d seemed to have a strained relationship with reason since I’d met Scott Sebastian, so a couple of minutes later, I found my back against the window, one leg wrapped around his thigh, his erection rubbing against my belly as he kissed me like a starving man.

  “Turn around,” he said when he broke away to breathe.

  I did as he said, the view from being pressed right against the window giving me a flash of vertigo. I blinked, and with the world righted, I realized how kinky this was. We were much too high to be seen from the sidewalk and too far from the building across the street for anyone to be able to tell what we were doing if they looked. But it certainly felt like we were on display in front of the whole of Midtown, and that was super crazy hot. Much better than the banging on the conference table.

  “God, yes,” I said, undoing my dress pants and pushing them to my ankles along with my panties.

  “Of course you’re an exhibitionist. I knew you were perfect, Tessa.” I heard the rip of the condom, which he must have put on at lightning speed because it was barely a handful of seconds later that he lined his tip up to my hole and shoved in.

  “Fuck, Scott.” Even with my bra on, my breasts bounced against the glass. His tempo was merciless. “Just...fuck.”

  “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about your pussy. I convinced myself I didn’t remember it right. It couldn’t feel that good. Fucking you couldn’t feel that good.”

  “And does it?”

  “It feels so much fucking better.”

  “It does, it does, it does.” It couldn’t decide if I was crushed that it did because I really didn’t need to get addicted to the man’s cock or if I was elated that he felt the same because I was already completely addicted and had to have him a whole bunch more times in a whole bunch more places.

  I was both. Both crushed and elated and really, really turned on. By all of it—the sneaking around and the borderline ethics and the banging against the glass in broad daylight. “Do you think anyone can see us?”

  He nipped at my ear before answering. “If they can, no one can tell what we’re doing. Unless they have binoculars.”

  My pussy clenched down around him. “Obviously, I’m pretending that someone does.”

  He let out a growl. “Perfection. Fucking perfection.”

  Perfection. That’s exactly wha
t it was. His speed, his angle, his girth, his length. The way he hit that exact right spot. Each. And. Every. Time. The way he called me Tessa, and the way he smiled when he saw me, and the way his eyes lit up when they met mine.

  It should have frightened my climax away to realize I was thinking about him on a level that went beyond just sex, but that seemed instead to be the thing that brought it on. It tore through me like a tornado, twisting my insides and making my head spin and sending dots flying across my vision like debris caught in the storm.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” Scott said under his breath as he continued to saw into me, the last yes drawn out when his body stiffened and he trembled out his release.

  Actually, I thought it was my name he was clinging to. “Tessa, Tessa, Tessssssa.” But I didn’t want to acknowledge that. Not when I was already so close to losing sight of what this was between us, what this had to be to me because of what it most surely was for him—sex and nothing more. Sweet words didn’t change that. The way he said my name didn’t change that.

  He stayed inside me while he regained control of his breath. When he pulled out, he immediately turned me around to face him, catching me when I stumbled over the pants wrapped at my ankles. A skirt would have been easier, but at least he wouldn’t be able to steal my panties this time.

  I wasn’t sure I considered that a win.

  “Have dinner with me tomorrow night,” he said. He kissed me before I could answer, less urgent than before but just as committed. “My place. Seven. Don’t say no.”

  My heart was racing. Experienced as I was with players, I was well aware that this was when I needed to cut this off. “Okay, I won’t say no.”

  Knowing the right thing and doing it were two very different things.

  He narrowed his eyes, as though he didn’t trust me. “Don’t say maybe, either. Say you’ll be there. I need you to be there.”

  “I’ll be there.” As if I would ever have given any other answer.

  “Good girl.” His smile was victorious. “Next time I fuck you, it’s going to be in a bed.”