Taking on the Billionaire

by Robin Covington

  Adam had a hero complex. In only the best way.

  It wasn’t the first time she wondered who protected Adam Redhawk. If he ever let anyone close enough to take care of him.

  As far as she could tell, the answer to that question was a decided no.

  “Yeah, I guess I am a little protective of him.” Tess remembered the moment this afternoon in his office and the jolt of connection that had leaped between them and seared her skin and down deeper in a place she didn’t want to acknowledge. “Franklin came into Redhawk/Ling today and Adam physically stepped in between the two of us. He actually used his body to shield me from the venom of Franklin Thornton.” She paused, remembering the shiver-induced goose bumps that ran up and down her spine during the moments when they’d been so close and she’d had all of his focus on her. “It was intense.”

  “That’s good. I’m glad. I think it’s been a while since somebody looked out for you,” Mia murmured, her voice low and tentative, as if she didn’t want to scare Tess away from this conversation. “You must mean a lot to him.”

  Tess shook her head, confused about a lot of things but pretty clear on this situation. “Mia, he takes care of everybody. It’s what he does. It’s why his employees stick it out even if the risks they take at Redhawk/Ling aren’t guaranteed. It’s why he had me look for his brother and sister after so long. It was killing him not to know where they were or how they were doing. He is so confident in his ability to change the world that he couldn’t imagine a world where he didn’t find them and guarantee that they would never want for anything.”

  “And today he stood up for you.”

  “He did.”

  And he’d called her baby.

  What would he call her when he learned about her deception? Not that she didn’t have the best reason to walk that line between lie and truth. Franklin had irrevocably destroyed her family and she had to make him pay. Had to avenge her dad and restore his good name and reputation.

  As much as Adam carried the burden of restoring his own family, he would understand why she had to do what she was doing.

  They were really two sides of the same coin. Doing what they had to do to make things right for the people in their lives who mattered most.

  At least that’s what she’d tell herself every time Adam called her “baby.”

  Five

  Adam was going to ignore the light on in Tess’s office.

  It was late at Redhawk/Ling. Not night-before-an-app-release late but there weren’t many people in the building on this Tuesday night. All the ones who had lives had left long ago and Adam didn’t want to dwell too long on what that meant about him and Tess. They’d been working from Robin Roberts to Conan O’Brian time with very little off-duty opportunity to do much but grab a run and hit the sheets. Alone.

  Not that he hadn’t thought about being in his king-size bed with somebody—somebody who looked a lot like Tess—but sleep deprivation and long hours hadn’t diminished his belief that getting involved with the sexy redhead would be a very bad idea.

  Tess was reading a file, taking notes on her laptop as she flipped between the pages. Her hair was piled on top of her head, curls sneaking loose and tumbling around her shoulders like a titian waterfall. Emerald green reading glasses were perched on her nose, the old-fashioned chain that helped her keep track of them looped around her neck. Dressed today in a black pinstriped double-breasted suit with high heels, she looked like his bossy librarian wet dream fantasy suddenly live and in person.

  And it was ridiculously cliché and predictable but he barely resisted the compulsion to cover the distance between them and bend her over the desk—glasses intact—and explore every inch of her until this inconvenient and all-consuming need for her was nothing but embers and ash. Tess was driving him crazy, and in his sleep-deprived state he knew that being alone with her was a really bad life choice. What he wouldn’t give to have just an iota of the poker-faced talent that Justin used at the card tables right now. Because he knew that nothing about his desire and need for Tess Lynch was hidden from anyone who was looking.

  And Tess was looking. Whenever they were in each other’s orbit it was as if their bodies and minds synced into perfect rhythm. They completed each other’s sentences, reached for the same files at the same time, and jumped to the same conclusions. Justin said it was creepy but to Adam it was mesmerizing and enticing; for a man who’d been uprooted so early and had never found his balance it was the closest thing to equilibrium he had ever experienced. And Adam knew that it was dangerous in the best and worst ways as only the most visceral of need fulfillment could be.

  He should leave; turn on his heels, walk down to his bike, go home and work out this insanity in the gym or in the bed of a woman who didn’t make him want things he wouldn’t do justice to.

  But he knocked on Tess’s door anyway.

  “I order you to go home and do whatever it is you do when you’re not working,” he said, trying for an I-don’t-really-care-what-you-do-when-you-go-home tone only to be undone when Tess lifted her head and smiled at him with a hazy focus that whispered of slow and easy mornings in bed. She was sexy as hell and his body thrummed in response, his dick getting hard under the well-worn denim of his jeans. Adam shifted slightly to try and hide his reaction.

  Tess laughed, shaking her head as she leaned back in her chair and gave him the once-over. “I know you know me better than that. You don’t really think that I’d allow anyone to ‘order’ me to do anything.” She flashed him a grin and a raised eyebrow that said she had his number. “Even though I hear that you’re really good at it.”

  Her words sucked all the oxygen out of the room, heat flashing like a wildfire along his skin as he struggled to catch his breath and steady his racing heart. Adam knew what she was referring to; he was discreet about his bedroom practices but he knew his partners were not and the stories about him were all true. Not that he kept a dungeon or anything in his basement but he often liked to be in control of the moment and his partner when he was having sex and it was in stark contrast to his usually reserved demeanor. It wasn’t what people expected and that made it hot gossip in Silicon Valley.

  Tess’s grin faded and her cheeks flushed with a blush, something he’d never witnessed on her before. Her stammering would have been almost cute if he hadn’t been so turned on.

  “Adam, that was...holy hell, I can’t believe I said that.”

  He waved off her apology as he moved into the office, feeling just how small it was with the sweet-hot tension building between them. He wasn’t embarrassed by her comment—he was intrigued. Because Tess had sounded interested and that was something he had no choice but to explore.

  “Well, I am really good at it.” Adam kept his eyes locked on hers as he rounded her desk, stopping just shy of her personal space but close enough to feel the heat generated by their proximity and chemistry. Pure chemical reaction. Spontaneous combustion.

  He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the edge of her desk, his last-ditch effort to keep his hands off Tess Lynch. Adam locked on her gaze, now defiant and smoldering with any hint of embarrassment long gone. His stare flicked away long enough to note the white-knuckle grip she maintained on the arms of her chair, a welcome reminder that he wasn’t the only one struggling with what was brewing between them.

  He ended the standoff. It was time.

  “I’m a decisive man, Tess.”

  “Yes. I am aware.” She rose from the chair and he tracked her movements, soaking in the way she moved in closer, but not close enough to touch. With her heels on, they were almost eye to eye, mouth to mouth, chest to breast. “You are also private, loyal, harsh, fair and intense.” Her voice lowered and he leaned in closer to catch every word. “And you’re very sexy.”

  Adam let his gaze drop to her mouth, giving himself one last chance to not do the thing that would complicate an
already complicated situation. His gaze traveled higher and he locked eyes with Tess, the arching of her right brow in question and invitation cutting through the last, fragile threads of his common sense.

  Her mouth was soft, lips warm, and she tasted like the sweetest fruit: like all things forbidden. Tess took a moment to react, her breath caught on a swift intake of surprise that quickly gave way to her leaning into the kiss and opening to his tongue. Her fingers ghosted over his chest, his hands skimming over her arms and along the curve of her hips, their only firm connection the warm, wet tangle of their tongues and the hungry press of their lips.

  Adam ended it first, needing to attempt a small grip on his sanity. “Damn. Tess, that—”

  With that one sexy eyebrow raised again and a grin teasing at her swollen lips, Tess skated her hand down his torso, letting it hover over his aching hard-on. “If you say it was a mistake and apologize, you’ll regret it.”

  If Adam didn’t think that he could be in serious trouble with this woman, that moment sealed it. Smart and ballsy, Tess was a puzzle he was compelled to decipher, an indulgence that he would allow himself for once. For tonight.

  “I’ll never regret that kiss. The question is what we do next.” Adam snaked his hands around her waist, pulling her lush body against his for the first time outside of his fantasies. Tess fit against him perfectly, her full breasts pressing against his chest, her long legs entwined with his, her hips cradling his hard length with heat that tempted him to strip her down and move on from kisses to something more. “I’ll make it clear what I want.”

  “I’ll add that you are direct to that list of things I know about you,” Tess said, her fingers warm against his chest, her hips bucking against his own as she gave him a mischievous smirk. “But I think I know what you want.”

  Adam chuckled, his grip tightening on her hips to keep her from moving. If she kept that up, he’d bend her over the desk and make a mess of her and the files strewn across the surface. But he had somewhere to go and something to do.

  He leaned in and pressed a kiss against her temple, groaning again when she wiggled against him. “I just want to be clear because we are working together. It could get complicated.”

  “Adam, it won’t get complicated,” Tess said with conviction as she unwound herself from his grip, her hands moving to fix her hair and straighten her suit as she rounded to the other side of the desk. He wanted to pull her back into his arms but this was a conversation they probably needed to have with some acreage between them. “You don’t do complicated. You do sex. Great sex. You do clear rules and parameters with your bed partners and nothing that lasts over a couple of months. They don’t leave happy but they do leave knowing that you were honest with them.”

  Tess held her hands out in a “how did I do?” gesture and Adam let out a harsh breath of shock. He wasn’t sure why he was surprised at her information. He’d hired her because she was good at what she did and his sex life wasn’t something he spoke about but it wasn’t a secret in the small community of Silicon Valley. In the end, it was relief that settled low in his belly, relief that whatever they decided tonight, they would be on the same page.

  But he didn’t have to have a full dossier on her to understand her.

  “I could say the same thing about you, Tess. No long-term relationships for you. No strings.” When she raised an eyebrow and put her hand on her cocked hip, he bit back a laugh. Bull’s-eye for him. Adam strode around the desk, moving slowly toward the very kissable and very tempting woman he desperately hoped would accept what he could offer. “So, are we on? No strings? Nothing serious? I have enough serious in my life. Hundreds of employees that depend on me and a new family that I have no clue how to navigate.”

  “And when the job is over?”

  He nodded, reaching out to wrap an arm around her waist to pull her close. “When the job is over, it’s over. Can you live with that, Tess Lynch?”

  Tess stared at him, her green-gold eyes shrewd but lit with heat that gave away what her answer was going to be. She wasn’t a woman to back down from what she desired and she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

  “I can live with that, Adam Redhawk.”

  Adam laughed, leaning in to brush a swift kiss against her mouth before checking his watch.

  Tess glared, glancing down at his watch. “Do you have somewhere to be?”

  “Yeah.” Until tonight, he’d never regretted his second Tuesday of the month plans in his life. But he didn’t want to let Tess go. Not yet. She was clearly up for propositions tonight and maybe she’d go for another. “Have you ever been a groupie?”

  Six

  Tess added “owning a motorcycle” to her bucket list.

  She loved the hum of an engine and hot metal in between her legs as she sped down the road with nothing between her and high-speed danger. It was a thrill that couldn’t be rivaled by many things. Sex, great sex, was one of those things but the instances of that kind of sex she’d had in her lifetime didn’t outnumber the fingers on her right hand.

  The hand currently settled over Adam’s heart and gripping his tight, black T-shirt as they sped down the road, chasing the city lights and dodging cars filled with people looking for a good time. Tess took advantage of the ride requiring her to hold on tight to the hard-bodied man nestled between her legs, and indulged in the anticipation of this night and their new arrangement.

  Adam’s black Heritage Classic Harley-Davidson was a sweet ride, powerful and loud and everything you wanted a motorcycle to be. It was an odd choice for such a quiet man who did nothing to grab for attention. But it suited him when you really got to know him.

  This bike was outward evidence of the part of Adam he buried down deep inside of him: reckless, intense and rebellious. Adam was a man of a million layers and she wanted to unpeel every single one.

  So, it was a no-brainer to change her clothes and jump on the back of his bike to find out what the hell he did the second Tuesday of every month. Tess knew where he went, she’d discovered it during her background check of him, but something had held her back from following him inside the bar located on the seedier side of the Valley and finding out exactly what it was that brought him there every month, come rain or come shine.

  Before she knew it and before she wanted the ride to end, they pulled up in front of Duke’s, passing by the entrance to enter a parking lot and head to an empty space. Duke’s had seen better days, the front of the building a dirty brick and the sign faded, but it had a loyal clientele and was packed almost every night. Live music and a generous pour were the hallmarks of this local institution.

  Adam motioned to a guy sitting in a booth in the parking lot, giving him a thumbs-up of thanks and acknowledgment when the guy waved him in. Adam cut the engine, slipped off his helmet and twisted to look at Tess. She bit back a grin, unwilling to let him see just how adorably sexy he was with his dark hair mussed and an excited smile on his face. He reached into a side bag and pulled out a black baseball cap with Stanford embroidered on it, placing it low on his head so that the bill hid part of his face.

  “You ready?” he asked, turning and reaching up to help her remove her helmet. His grin was genuine, a little bit shy and all kinds of sexy. “I’m running a little late.”

  “A little late for what? You never did tell me exactly what is happening here.” Tess watched him hop off the seat and she accepted his outstretched hand to help her do the same. She’d changed into a jade-green T-shirt-style mini-dress and ankle boots and the length of her skirt required her to maneuver a bit to not land on her face on the pavement or flash the patrons of Duke’s milling about the parking lot.

  Adam held on to her hand, lacing their fingers together, his eyes mischievous but narrowed a bit with skepticism. “Are you telling me that you really don’t know why I come here?”

  She shook her head, allowing him to tug her along to a side entr
ance as she waited for him to clue her in. “It wasn’t necessary for the job.”

  Adam paused at the door. “That never stopped you before.”

  She shrugged, opting to go for honesty on this one, even if it was embarrassing. “I wanted to leave some things for you to tell me.”

  Her reward for her candor was a quick, hard kiss and a flash of his dimple before he pulled the door open and she was hit by a wall of sound from the crowd of people inside Duke’s. The space was dim but not dark, the long bar visible where it ran the length of the room on one side. There was a stage at the end of the room and on it a band was setting up for the show. As if on cue, the two men and one woman on stage turned and waved at Adam.

  It was too noisy to hear what they were saying but their gestures were the universal symbol for “where the fuck have you been?” and suddenly Tess had a pretty good idea about what Adam did here once a month on the second Tuesday.

  Adam turned back to her, gesturing toward the stage. “I’ve got a tab here. Order whatever you want and there’s a table up front for our guests.”

  Tess gripped his arm, tugging him back to get a little more info. “Whose guests? Who are those people?”

  Adam grinned, his smile contagious and de-aging him about a decade. Tess caught her breath, grateful to have saved this revelation for now, this time and this place. He was so damn cute, sexy, so excessively fuckable. Agreeing to indulge in this thing between them was looking like one of the best mistakes she ever made. Now she only wondered how long this gig would go before she and Adam could get back to one of their places and a horizontal surface.

  “It’s my band, The Double E’s!”