“Say what?”
“Yes.”
What game was he playing? “No.”
His voice deepened, and hot desire shot through Alethea as he said, “You are a delicious challenge, Alethea. Keep fighting to control every situation. It’ll make your eventual submission that much sweeter.”
Alethea’s heart thudded loudly in her chest as her body once again was at odds with what she was thinking. Submission? Who does this guy think he’s talking to? With some irony, Alethea admitted to herself, only a woman who just drenched her panties at the thought of him trying to make her submit.
Cool. Play it cool. Don’t let him see that he’s getting to you.
“I thought you wanted to meet for a drink.”
“We both know what you really want from me. Why try to deny it?”
“Wow, there probably isn’t room for me and your ego in your bed, so I’m going to pass on that offer.”
His low chuckle was about the sexiest thing she’d ever heard. It was playful, yet held a promise of determination. “I love the way you hide behind sarcasm when you’re scared. It may turn off some, but I think it’s hot. You can insult me all you want, Alethea. It won’t change how the night ends. I know what you need.”
A cold shower? What the hell is wrong with me? She angrily tucked her comforter tightly around her. “I don’t need anything. I can have who I want, when I want, how I want.”
“And that’s why you’re not satisfied. You don’t want someone you can control. You dream of being taken, roughly, again and again. You want to be the one who begs for release. I know what you crave, and I can give you that fantasy and more. But you have to submit to me fully. That’s what I like. That’s what I need.”
Alethea panicked and hung up.
Before she agreed.
Her phone vibrated and she checked her messages. He’d sent her a short text. “I thought you were braver than that.”
She could almost hear him laughing, and an angry heat spread up her cheeks. Bastard. She threw her phone down next to her on the bed.
What an arrogant ass. Who does he think he is—God’s gift to the vagina?
She mimicked his voice as she repeated his words, “No man has ever fully satisfied you.”
Ridiculous.
And right.
Of course, she’d had her share of orgasms and sexual partners, but none so remarkable that they’d remained crisp in her memories. She’d kept the number to one hand by remaining in contact with one of the more talented of her partners, but even he was little more than a convenience. A girl could only invest in so many batteries before sex had to involve the real deal.
Maybe that’s the problem. She tried to remember the last time she’d had sex and realized it’d been more than a year. It’s been too long. That’s all this is. I’m a healthy woman in my prime.
Marc is nothing special.
I should have met him for a drink just to scratch an itch and end this ridiculous fascination I have with him.
Why couldn’t he ask her out, buy her a drink, and let her sneak out in the middle of the night while he slept, like every other man she knew? Why go all macho and all “You will submit to me”?
By saying that, he proved how very little he does know me.
I’ll never submit to a man.
Okay, now and then in a passing fantasy, but that’s fantasy. In reality I would never give anyone else control over me.
She remembered a therapist she’d spoken to back in high school, when her mother had thought she needed to talk out her feelings. The woman had warned her that she would never be happy if she lived the rest of her life on high alert.
Easy advice to give if you’ve never lost everything because of a threat you didn’t know was there.
Had your father die and know it was your fault.
I won’t relax as long as I have something to lose.
Someone to protect.
Relaxing, much like deep sleep, can wait until I’m dead.
Marc set his phone on the table, started undressing for bed, and smiled. He hung his suit in the closet and donned a pair of flannel lounge pants. Alethea wasn’t going to meet him that night, but he hadn’t expected her to. She was rattled, though, and that had been his goal.
He placed his wallet and watch on his nightstand beside photos of his family, and shook his head in amusement. His mother would have boxed him on the ear if she’d ever heard him speak to a woman the way he’d spoken to Alethea, and both of his sisters would have done the same. He’d been raised in a household of strong, opinionated females. His father was a retired Marine, just as his father had been before him, a fact that gave people the wrong impression of how he’d grown up. Born to older parents, he’d missed the deployments and had grown up in a solid two-parent home with a father who doted on his wife and spoiled his daughters. Stone men were fiercely protective of their family and country, but in the home, they were laid-back and more prone to humor than harsh words. His father often said there were times and places that required the worst of what was in a man; the home was not one of them.
They weren’t a wealthy family, but they worked hard and raised their children to respect authority, education, and the value of a loaded Colt .45. He’d grown up with more than a little admiration for intelligent, independent women.
But there was something about Alethea that made him want to pound his chest and drag her off to the nearest cave—an urge that was only stronger now that he sensed a part of her wanted him to do just that.
Shit.
Focus.
I need to get into her head, not her pants.
His loyalty to Dominic was not going to be undermined by a paranoid redhead, no matter how gorgeous she was or how many cold showers it took.
He took his laptop to bed with him and searched the Internet for anything that would explain what motivated her. He’d read her personal history via a detailed background check, and it didn’t add up. She’d been a model student until middle school, and then something had happened. Something serious enough to change the course of her life. The list of private schools that had thrown her out was impressive, speaking volumes about the financial clout her family must have had. The report stated that her father had died of a heart attack. Had she been there when it happened? It didn’t say. There was remarkably little information about the incident.
Thanks to the social media explosion, his search revealed photos of Alethea and Lil at public events over the years. Proms. Parties with friends. Even someone as careful as Alethea couldn’t keep all of her photos off the Internet. People had posted and tagged her. Lil had made an entire montage of the two of them during their senior year and put it on an old blog that both had likely forgotten about.
He smiled at a photo of the two of them standing in front of a school, side by side in their late teens, looking gloriously guilty. There were more recent photos of Alethea looking down at a newborn Colby in her arms with love in her eyes.
She obviously loved Lil and her child. How far would she go to protect them? Was Jake right? Were the software glitches Alethea’s warning that there were holes in the Corisi server firewall?
Although he admired her loyalty to Lil, he knew what it meant.
He couldn’t trust her.
And he had to stop her.
Across town, Alethea was doing her own research while giving her libido a pep talk. She hadn’t slept, but that was nothing new. Her bed was covered with files she’d pulled. Stop thinking about what tonight could have been like and focus on what’s important.
The early morning sun was just beginning to brighten the windows of her apartment. She’d slept for only a couple of hours, and then, not peacefully.
Why would Stephan still be targeting Dominic?
What could he want?
His family will have Isola Santos back when he marries Nicole.
His company is doing better because of his association with Corisi Enterprises.
Is it jeal
ousy?
He had the opportunity to take Dominic down without being caught. But instead, he confessed and risked everything for Nicole.
To do what? To lull them into trusting him?
What could he possibly be planning that would be bigger than financially ruining Dominic?
She opened and closed one of the folders on her lap. It was a proposal for a business opportunity in Denmark. They wanted her to test the security for a new bank chain. It was an amazing opportunity for her and one that she normally would have jumped on.
How easy it would be to simply hand over what she knew about the Corisi computer glitches to Jake and walk away. No one was going to thank her for her involvement. I barely know Stephan. It’s not my responsibility to clear his name.
My gut tells me it’s not him, but what if it is? What if I sit on this information for too long because I don’t want to believe that he’s capable of it—because I don’t want the fallout to hurt Lil?
What if that’s what he’s counting on? That no one would suspect him now?
I need to dig deeper.
I need to know if he’s after Dominic.
And if he’s not, I need to know who is.
Chapter Six
Lil invited her two guests to sit and set four teacups on a serving tray. She didn’t ask the staff to serve them. In fact, she’d given the staff the morning off. She didn’t want anyone to overhear what she’d planned.
Marie Duhamel, Dominic’s personal assistant and second mother, took the cup she was offered and placed it carefully before her. She looked at the fourth cup and raised an eyebrow. Lil pretended not to notice.
Don’t be late, Alethea. Don’t call me with an excuse not to come. This has to work.
Her sister-in-law, Nicole, picked up her cup and looked around the room. “Lil, you sounded nervous when you asked me to come over this morning. Did something happen? Is Abby okay? I saw her yesterday and she looked fine.”
“It’s not Abby.”
Marie leaned across the table and put a supportive hand over Lil’s. “Whatever it is, we’re here for you. You can tell us anything.”
Can I? Is this the right choice? Alethea and I have been here before—saddled with information that could save or just as likely alienate the ones we love. I almost lost Jake the first time because I lied. These people are my family. And we all want the same thing. We all want Stephan to be innocent. No one is going to be happy with the news—not Alethea, not Marie, and definitely not Nicole. But we can prove Stephan isn’t involved—together. I’ll make them see that.
After taking a fortifying breath, Lil said, “I invited Alethea to join us.”
Marie’s face tightened and she withdrew her hand. With forced politeness she said, “Well, what a nice surprise.”
Nicole looked on sympathetically. “It can’t be easy for you, Lil. I know how much you love her, but some personalities don’t mix well with others and, unfortunately, Alethea has one of those personalities.”
“You’re being kind,” Marie said to Nicole. “Very kind.”
Squaring her shoulders in determination, Lil defended her friend. “Alethea has been a good friend to me for a long time. I know she can take things too far. She’s impulsive, she’s snarky, and she’s suspicious of even the moon the moment she can’t see it. But she’s like a sister to me, so please don’t speak poorly of her in front of me.”
Marie’s expression softened a bit. “No one is saying you can’t be friends with her.” Lil held her eyes and Marie added, “And we should probably all try to make more of an effort to be nice to her. You shouldn’t have to feel like you need to defend her to us.”
Nicole laid her cup down and smiled. “I can’t believe she snuck into the hospital through the kitchen. That girl has balls. I’ll give her that.”
“I’m hoping you’ll both give her more than that.”
Marie cocked her head to one side. “What do you mean?”
Lil bit her lip nervously, then said, “She told me something and I don’t know what to do with it. Marie, you’re a problem solver. I need your advice. And, Nicole, you may know something that could clear all of this up before it goes any further. I trust both of you completely. I hope you’ll understand why I brought us together.”
Nicole went white. “You’re making me nervous.”
Alethea stood in the doorway, unannounced as usual. “No one told me this was a party.”
Lil crossed the room to join her friend and took her by the arm. “Al, this is better than your way. I can’t play detective with you this time. I have too much to lose. Tell them what you know. Let’s work together to figure this out.”
She tried to drag Alethea toward the other two women, but Alethea didn’t budge. She looked from Marie to Nicole and back. “Throw me to the lions, why don’t you? You think they want to hear what I know?”
With warming cheeks, Lil conceded her point. This is going to work. It has to. “Want? No. Need to hear it? Yes. I love you, Al, but I love them, too. Trust them. Trust me.”
Alethea reluctantly walked up to the table where the two women were seated. Neither stood. She looked at Lil one last time before saying, “I have information linking recent computer glitches at Corisi Enterprises to Stephan’s IP address.”
Marie suddenly stood and aggressively threw her napkin on the table. “What kind of nonsense is this?” A moment earlier, Marie had appeared to be a mild-mannered older woman. Everything from her choice of a conservative jacketed linen dress to her delicate jewelry broadcast New York sophistication. Her civilized veneer thinned at the hint of a threat to one of her boys.
Lil intervened quickly. “It’s not nonsense. If Al says she has information, it’s true.”
Alethea interjected, “It doesn’t mean that—” but didn’t have time to finish her sentence before Nicole cut her off.
“No,” Nicole said loudly. She stood and covered her mouth with a hand that shook. Tears filled her eyes. “Stephan would never do anything to hurt me or my family. We’re getting married. How could you think that he would be involved in anything like that?”
Alethea raised a placating hand, but her tone wasn’t as kind as Lil knew was necessary to calm a woman who still worried that Dominic would never fully accept the man she loved. “Let’s try to focus on the facts and not get emotional about this.”
Her voice rising, Nicole said, “Not emotional? Not emotional? You little bitch. You stand there and tell me that my fiancé is trying to sabotage my brother’s company and I’m not supposed to be offended by it?”
“I didn’t say—” Alethea started impatiently.
No, this is going all wrong. They weren’t listening to Alethea, and she was getting defensive. That didn’t bode well for a good outcome. Lil cut in, “Nicole—”
“What evidence do you have?” Marie asked in a cold voice.
Flipping her long curls defiantly over one shoulder, Alethea answered sharply, “Does it matter? Either you believe me or you don’t.”
Clasping her hands before her until they were white, Nicole announced, “I don’t. I don’t believe any of this. And I don’t have time to waste on someone who loves to stir up trouble.” Before she left, she turned to Lil and asked angrily, “Do you believe Stephan’s involved in whatever she’s accusing him of?”
I’m not good under pressure. I wish Abby were here. She’d know what to say to Nicole to reassure her. “No, I don’t. I don’t want to believe any of this, but Nicole, you’re the one who is closest to him. People make mistakes. He spent years hating Dominic. Is he over that? If anyone would know, it’s you.”
Backing away, with a voice that cracked with emotion, Nicole said, “I do know and I can’t believe that you’d even ask that.” She turned and walked out of the room.
“I didn’t mean it the way it sounded . . .” Lil said sadly, knowing that chasing after Nicole would only make it worse. Marie is still here. She’ll know how to fix this.
Alethea and Marie were
standing nose to nose, two strong women who would never come to blows but who certainly knew how to tear each other apart verbally. I can’t let that happen.
Lil groaned when she saw the fire in Alethea’s eyes. She didn’t respond well to confrontation. Some people avoided conflict; Alethea ramped up in the face of it. Angry with her? She’d be angrier. It was part of the fear Lil had always sensed in her friend. Alethea needed to be in control, and the moment she felt she wasn’t she came out fighting.
In a cutting tone, Alethea said, “No one said Stephan is guilty. I don’t know who would have access to his accounts or why he’d give it to anyone, but the path leads back to him.”
“Of course it does. No, you didn’t accuse Stephan, you just said enough to plant a seed of doubt.” Marie bristled. “How miserable are you that you can’t stand to see anyone happy?”
No. No. No. “Marie, stop. Alethea didn’t organize this meeting, I did.”
Marie continued to challenge Alethea. “These glitches, do they even exist? I’ve heard nothing about them, and the boys tell me everything. You know what I think? I think you’re afraid you’re losing Lil and you’re willing to destroy anyone to stop that from happening.”
Head high, Alethea said, “Do you honestly think I care what you think of me? I don’t need to prove anything to you. Lil knows the truth.”
Do I? Lil searched Alethea’s face urgently. “I know you believe there is a problem, Al, but I’m not sure what to think this time. I know things have changed between us. That can’t be easy for you. Lately I’ve seen a side of you, though, that I don’t understand. You were cruel with Jeisa. I’ve never seen you like that before. I’m not saying you’re making this up, but could you be wrong?”
Alethea’s expression hardened. “So, you don’t believe me either?”
“I didn’t say that, Al, but do you see how this could ruin everything? Can’t you let it go?” Lil looked helplessly at Marie and then back at Alethea.
“You know I need to uncover the truth.”
Lil slumped a bit. “Even if this destroys our friendship?”
Breaching the Billionaire, AR, Kobo Page 5