But Ari’s calm voice soothes my fears. “It’s fine. We’ll be good while you’re gone. I promise Daisy and I will sit right here on the couch, watch a movie or two, and be safe and sound.”
I take a steadying breath, knowing that she’s right but fighting the instincts that yell in my mind to not leave her, to stay by her side and keep her safe. But I realize that’s a lesson in futility. Ari’s going to do whatever the fuck Ari wants to do, and we’ve established that. Oh, she’ll do exactly what I tell her, obediently drop to her knees for me or run a million copies at work. As long as that’s what she wants to do. Give and take, take and give. And we’ve found that perfect balance together.
So I leave the two women curled up on my couch to go get ready, but I can’t help but pause at the door to listen as they gossip.
“Holy shitballs, chica. What the fuck happened? I mean, I know the basics from when Liam called . . . which, by the way, when I answered your number and it was him saying you’d been hurt, I about came through the line at him.” She’s not the least bit apologetic about it and really had been pissed as hell at my calling until her anger had morphed into cold fear at the news.
Arianna laughs, then hisses in pain, but I force myself not to go back in. “Sorry about that. Was kinda busy with the paramedics then.” I hear the creak of the leather couch as one of them moves around, then Ari speaks again. “Well, I was kidnapped by Melvin, a crazy asshole who was all butthurt at being looked over for the CEO gig, like he had some right to it that Liam didn’t. He thought he’d frame Liam for killing me, but Liam came busting in and saved me.”
Daisy whistles. “Fuck, girl. That’s so scary.” They’re both silent, but then I hear the sniffles and wonder which one is crying or if they both are. “How’d they even know where you were? And what happened to Melvin?”
“Well, Melvin was swinging my bat around like a Major League Baseball player, slamming it on the walls and stuff. I guess at some point, with his swings or maybe when I kicked him into the wall, a sensor for the boat was set off. The alarm sounded on the bridge and in the hallway, but the siren was pretty far down the hall so I could barely even hear it, and Melvin was too far gone in his anger to notice it, but it led them to check there. Liam had already realized I wasn’t in the audience for his speech and knew I wouldn’t miss it, so he knew something was wrong. I got lucky.”
It’s quiet for a moment, and I say a little prayer of thanks at how lucky we all got that night.
“Then, between Liam, Jacob, and the crew, they held Melvin down until the police got there. He’s got a broken nose and a concussion from the fight. He’s worse off than I am, maybe.”
She lists out Melvin’s injuries matter-of-factly, but I secretly confess to myself that I’m not sorry. Not in the least. In fact, I’d do it again, beat the shit out of him even worse for daring to touch a single hair on Ari’s head, for using her as a pawn to get to me.
“But you’re okay?” Daisy asks, the concern for her friend obvious.
“Yeah, I’m on concussion watch for a week. But it’s a mild one, not too bad, considering the blows I took. I should be fine to start school on time, just have to rest until then and be careful I don’t overdo it. Speaking of, I can’t really watch movies. Doctor said no screen time for a bit,” Ari says, her voice already getting weaker than when she started her tale.
“No problem, honey. You seem pretty wiped out. Why don’t you take a nap for a bit? I’ll sit right here and wait.”
“Mmkay,” Ari responds, and I can tell she’s already half-asleep. I’m just about to tiptoe down the hall when I hear a ‘psst’ from the living room.
I peek around the doorway and find Daisy looking at me with a bemused smirk and a glint in her eyes. She mouths, “We’re fine, go get your shit done.” And then she shoos me with a waving motion of her hands. If she weren’t Ari’s best friend, I’d kick her out on her ass for her sheer gall.
But Ari loves Daisy, so I give her a pass. But not before telling her through a series of gestures to keep her eyes on Ari and call me if she needs anything.
As comfortable as I’m going to get that Ari is in good hands, with Daisy at her side and Randolph on extra alert, I head to the office.
Jacob is standing at the front of the room when I arrive, the rest of the board already seated around the table. “Please, I’m not at liberty to discuss what happened at the party.”
Jacob’s a good man and an even better friend. We knew this meeting was going to be a shit show, but I’m not one to shy away from the hard stuff when it’s necessary. And this definitely is.
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” I say, and all eyes turn to me. The people seated around the table are all in suits, their usual office garb even though it’s Sunday morning. I was too focused on taking care of Arianna to bother with dressing up, though, and I’m in jeans and a polo shirt. It’s a perk of being the fucking boss. There’s a murmur of greeting and I launch into what they really want to know.
“As you’re all aware, there was a rather disturbing incident on the boat at Helen’s party.” I pause, letting my eyes click from person to person, wondering if they feel the same way Melvin did. Or hell, maybe someone here was in on the idea with him? My mind races at the thought.
John Summers, a long-standing board member, speaks out. “Liam, we don’t know what happened. Just that everyone was waiting for the big cover reveal and your speech, and then we were all shepherded below-deck to the dining room. We could see that there were a lot of flashing lights, police or fire, maybe, and then we were told we could go home. We don’t know anything.”
“I see. Well, then let me explain a bit of what happened,” I say before launching into the whole sordid tale. I leave out the part about Arianna and me fucking on the balcony, simply saying that Melvin had figured out that Arianna is important to me and was going to use her against me to have me removed as CEO.
Another board member, Susan Johansson, speaks. “I think we all knew how unhappy Melvin was with your leadership and that he wanted you fired, but I can’t believe he would go to these lengths.” She shakes her head disbelievingly.
I glance to Jacob, who shrugs. He caught the same slip I did. “I’m sorry, did you say Melvin wanted me fired?”
Susan nods. “Yeah, he kept bringing me all these reports, piles of statistics showing what he called your ‘steady chipping away at Morgan’s greatness’. Honestly, I felt the figures showed you turning around the divisions you’re working on and the appropriate reallocation of resources from areas you said we should discontinue. The figures showed exactly what they should have based on your plans. But Melvin just didn’t see it that way.”
The other members nod, muttering things like ‘he did the same to me’ and ‘could not get him to shut up about a zero-point-three-percent change.’
“Let me get this straight. Melvin Jackson has been coming to each of you, complaining about my leadership and trying to turn you all against me? How long has that been going on? Since I shot down his market predictions presentation?” I ask, surprised, though I should’ve seen this coming.
John leans forward. “It began before we even hired you as CEO. He applied for the position too, and because he’s a VP with a finance background, the board interviewed him. We felt his approach was too conservative and wouldn’t create the boon we knew Morgan needed to get back to where we once were. Your way is sometimes uncomfortable for us traditionalists, but we can’t argue with results.”
My head spins, and I begin to put the pieces together. There’s so much I should’ve seen with Melvin, obviously. But he hid it so well, none of us realized what was lurking beneath the surface of his nerdy exterior.
“It seems Melvin is more of a master manipulator than any of us gave him credit for. He’s been coming to me since day one, offering intel on each of you, saying that the board was questioning my decisions, regretting bringing me on, and actively working to renegotiate my employment contract. That stopped,
of course, after I shut him down on his market forecast presentation. But I think the seeds of doubt had already been planted and watered by then, drummed up on gossip, rumors, and lies.”
I glance around the table, seeing the same realization dawning in everyone else’s eyes. We’ve been duped . . . badly. And not only did I almost lose my position of leadership here, but I almost lost something much more precious. Arianna.
“I think we’re going to need to start over in a lot of ways. Though the business decisions we’ve made under my time here are working and Morgan, Inc. is doing better, I want the partnership between me, as CEO, and each of you, to be transparent. It sounds like we have a lot to discuss.”
Arianna
I’m bundled up against the cold as I step into the lobby, but I immediately begin unraveling my scarf as the heated air of the building warms me. Striding through the echoing front area, I hear my name.
“Good morning, Ms. Hunnington. How are you today?”
I turn, seeing Dora Maples smiling warmly at me as she heads over with a cup of coffee. “Good, Ms. Maples. Any Christmas plans?”
She launches into a story about her kids coming home for the holiday week, and I smile, nodding along. It’s nice to listen to her, chatting casually and comfortably as I walk to the elevator.
It hasn’t always been this easy. Right after the whole thing with Melvin, word got out almost instantly that Liam and I were sleeping together. The rumors were pretty ugly at first, but I’d already been through that once before, so with Liam’s support this time, I handled it with my head held high.
When we let it be known that we were not some casual fuck but rather a happy couple, it seemed to help after a bit of cattiness about our age difference, albeit not too much, and drastically different financial statuses. But who cares about a number, whether it’s years on this earth or dollars in the bank? Definitely not me.
It took some time, but it’s all died down now and most people have accepted that I work for Liam and Jacob part-time and that Liam and I are a couple. It’s nice to not have to hide anymore, although we still have to sneak when we have a quickie at the office.
People are accepting, but not that accepting. Well, except Jacob, who just rolls his eyes.
“So, how were finals?” Jacob asks when I get upstairs.
He’s bundled up against the chill, wearing perhaps the world’s ugliest Christmas sweater, but apparently, it’s his tradition. I guess it does help add to the festive mood.
“Kicked ass. Come on, you and Liam have been giving me enough lessons that I should be able to pass Advanced Modern Business Theory with my eyes closed. Hell, Liam could teach the class!”
Jacob laughs, nodding. “Well, some would call that an unfair advantage . . . but that’s what business is all about.” He checks his desk, humming. “Hey, Helen sent over a few copies of the magazine. It hit newsstands already, but she wanted you to have a few for posterity. Her words, not mine.”
He hands over a stack of six magazines, and I trace the photo of Liam and me on the cover. That seems so long ago. Just an overworked and underappreciated intern who got roped into something wildly beyond her dreams and ended up with the perfect man.
The one worth waiting for, the one worth paying the price for the real thing. The one I love. “Hey, where is he?” I ask, thinking that Liam’s schedule had an early morning meeting, but he should be in by now.
“You should keep up with your boss’s schedule better, Ms. Hunnington. That is your job, after all, right?” I hear a voice say behind me, the laughing arrogance sending a shock through me the same way it does every time. He’s not a fairytale Prince Charming, that’s for damn sure, but he’s my Mister Right . . . and my Mister Right Now.
I spin in place, looking up at Liam through my lashes and clasping my hands behind my back. “You’re right, sir. I’m so very sorry. Perhaps you should remind me again about where to find your . . . calendar.”
Liam growls and grabs my hand, dragging me into his office. Right before he shuts the door, I hear Jacob call out, “I guess I’ll be holding your calls?” Liam’s answer is the click of the lock on the door.
“Such a naughty doll, forgetting about my calendar,” he teases, letting his voice drop down low as if he’s reprimanding me. “Strip for me. Get against the glass.”
I obey, but slowly, taking my own sweet time to give him what he wants. I slip my heels off, lay my skirt and blouse over the back of the chair, and then give him a questioning look.
He’s already rubbing his hand over his thick cock, the thin fabric doing nothing to hide how hard and swollen he is. “All of it, Arianna.”
I reach back and unclasp my bra, setting it on top of the stack of clothes before sliding my lace panties off and doing the same with those.
I take deliberate steps to the window, knowing that he’s stroking himself as he watches me. Once I’m there, only then does he follow me over. He crowds against me, pushing my overheated flesh to the cool window, his cock nestled against my ass. “Don’t worry, doll. No one can see you but me. But I want to fuck you overlooking my kingdom.”
I have a flashback to when he discovered me sitting in his chair, thinking it was fit for a king and that he was definitely the man in charge. He still is, and now, for as long as I let him be, he’s in charge of me too.
“Put your hands on the glass and arch your back for me,” he says, and I gladly obey that order, knowing he’s about to give me what I want. I hear his zipper being lowered and then him moving about as he stacks his clothes up on the chair with mine.
Sometimes, it’s a wild tornado of flung-off clothes with us, but this deliberate stall while I wait for him is so fucking sexy. The way he plays me the same way I did him. Both of us knowing what’s coming and letting the anticipation build.
Finally, he’s behind me again. Our entire bodies connect, skin to skin and heart to heart. He crouches, and I lift to my toes, letting his cock line up with my pussy as he slams in with one thrust. “Ahh, fuck, Liam!”
And suddenly, I’m complete. Like I walk around all day, missing a piece of myself, and when he’s inside me, I’m everything I should be.
His virgin.
His whore.
His.
He thrusts again, slow but hard, hitting deep inside me on that secret spot he knows makes me come in moments. His pace picks up, pulling all my attention, and my eyes flutter closed. I feel him grabbing at my hands, holding them to the cool glass and interweaving our fingers.
“Open your eyes, doll,” I hear him say from far away.
Somehow, I do, blinking at the view of the city below us. Something tickles my finger, and I look over, seeing him twisting a diamond ring on my left hand. He somehow slipped it on without my realizing it.
His thrusts never stop, slowly and steadily driving me higher as my heart explodes in light. “That’s it, Arianna. You’re mine, and I’m going to fuck you over our kingdom. My dream, my reality, your dream, and now your reality. Look out and see everything I’m giving you.”
I cry out, so close to the edge, but I fight the orgasm back, tilting my hips to let Liam slip out of me. I spin in place, putting my back to the window and cupping his face. “Liam, I want to see the most important thing you’re giving me.” My eyes lock on him, all I’ll ever need, and I kiss him hard, our lips slamming together.
And when he enters me again, I keep my eyes open, never leaving his for a moment. I watch the orgasms get closer and closer, the pleasure and the love mixing in his eyes the same way I know they are in mine.
And we come together, the waves crashing over us, as sparkles dot my vision. But our eyes never close. Together, giving and taking everything.
Liam
CEO Playboy Ends Chaotic Year With Proposal to Student Girlfriend! I read, shaking my head. It’s Norma Jean’s second cover story for the student paper, the first being her exposé on the incident aboard Helen’s yacht. “Seriously?”
Arianna, who’s lounging
on the other end of the couch, chuckles. “Read it, honey. I want to hear how your little sister describes you this time.”
Rolling my eyes, I clear my throat and begin. “Taking her side, I see. Okay, well . . . breaking rules and breaking hearts has been hot-headed CEO Liam Blackstone’s MO since he first stepped onto the corporate scene. But now it seems the notorious womanizer . . . I’m so gonna have to have a talk with Norma,” I mutter, not flattered with her description of me. “I’m not notorious, and I wasn’t a womanizer. I just . . .”
Arianna can barely contain her grin. “No worries. Whatever experience you had before me just meant that you could be a good teacher for me.” She winks at me sassily, a habit she’s picked up from my sister. They’re friends now and spend way too much time chatting on the phone and giving me shit. “As long as I’m the only one benefitting from that experience now . . . and always.”
I can hear the possessive threat, which should probably scare me but instead is sexy as fuck. I like that she claims me, because I damn sure claim her back. I’ve even threatened to make some appearances at her university, mostly so that the assholes there know to back the fuck off.
“But there might be some truth to the hothead part. Keep going,” she says, and I realize that she might have a point.
I give Arianna a lighthearted scowl, but I can’t be mad at her. The sparkle of the diamond on her finger is still too new. It makes my heart go soft and my dick go hard in about three seconds flat. “Let’s see . . . ah, here’s a part you’d like. The couple plans to celebrate their engagement with a trip to the coast, where they’ll begin a week-long cruise aboard a private yacht. Though rumors initially ran rampant about the couple, considering their age difference and the fact that Ms. Hunnington was an intern at Morgan, Inc., an anonymous insider stated that everyone is truly happy for the newly-engaged couple.”
The Virgin Diaries: The Complete Series Page 24