A Bet with Benefits

by Karen Booth

  Mindy finished chewing a bite of her sandwich, then wiped her mouth with a napkin. “No. That’s not right. I signed our offer. I had to as majority owner of the company.”

  “Do you think it’s possible the offer was never actually submitted?”

  Mindy reared back her head. “No way. Matthew told me he did it. Why would he lie to me about that? He wanted the building just as badly as I did.”

  Sam nodded. “I don’t know why he would lie, but I’m worried he did.”

  “What? I can see those gears turning in your head. You’re thinking something and I need to know what it is.”

  “How much do you trust this Matthew guy?”

  “He came very highly recommended. Every company he’s ever run has been nothing less than supersuccessful. And he’s brought a bunch of companies back from the brink of failure.”

  “That’s not what I asked. I asked if you trust him. Do you?”

  Mindy sighed and she hunched her shoulders. “Not really.”

  “I see.”

  “I figured that was just because it’s my company and I’m a control freak and don’t really trust anyone when it comes to this.”

  “Okay, well, here’s the other piece of this puzzle that I know about. Our acquisitions team got a tip about the Mercer. We were told to bid quickly and bid low but do an all-cash deal. They checked it out, the building was a great buy and they pulled the trigger. But nobody can tell me exactly where the tip came from.”

  “None of this makes sense. Why would Matthew want to sabotage the attempt to buy the building? Our only other option was looking at new construction or hoping something better came along. It was a huge setback when we didn’t get it.”

  “Maybe he’s trying to sabotage you. Either he’s in a competitor’s back pocket or, what I think is a more likely scenario, he’s seen firsthand that you have a real gem on your hands, but you’re in a vulnerable position right now. This is pretty much the time when businesses like yours either fail or flourish. I’m wondering if maybe he’s pushing you just close enough to failure to make you want to sell to him.”

  “People do that?”

  “Are you kidding? All the time. Especially guys like Matthew. He runs companies. He doesn’t come up with ideas. He has no expertise in building a team. He only knows how to run with existing ones. But you have a pretty amazing setup, you have unlimited growth potential and, most important, he already knows that you’re distracted by another big business.”

  “Eden’s.”

  “Right. You have another year where your attention has to be divided between the two. I’m guessing that he’s hoping that you’ll give up on one.”

  “But I would never give up on BMO. It’s my baby.”

  Sam felt a sharp pain in his chest just hearing the distress in Mindy’s voice. “I know that. And I’m sure he knows that on some level, too. But he’s hoping that at some point, you’re going to give your baby up for adoption.”

  Mindy’s jaw was set tight. She seemed confused and stressed out. “Can you help me figure this out? Help me try to decide if this is what’s really going on? You’re the only one who can do it. If my sisters get involved, he’ll know something is up.”

  “What about me, though? He knows we’re exes.”

  “And maybe that’s why he picked you to tip off. He knew it made it a plausible story that you would have swooped in and bought the building.”

  “We were seen at your sister’s wedding together. So it looks like we’re back together.” Sam didn’t say it, but it felt that way, too. It felt like they were a couple, for real. He didn’t want to think about what was coming at the end of their week together, when Mindy would once again be under the influence of her family.

  Mindy took another bite of her sandwich, and Sam took his chance to eat something, too. Meanwhile, the gears were clearly turning in Mindy’s head. He did love seeing her spring to action. “If your hunch is correct, maybe it’s a good thing if he thinks we’re back together. That should make him plenty nervous, shouldn’t it?”

  Sam smiled wide. He loved the way she was looking at this. “Yes. And nervous people make mistakes.”

  “Which means it’ll make him even more nervous when he finds out you sold me the building for a dollar.” Mindy sipped her wine, then leaned over and kissed him, her sweetness lingering on his lips. “Thank you again, by the way.”

  “You’re so sexy when you’re being calculating,” he said.

  “You’re so sexy when you’re helping me squash all of my problems. Now we just need to figure out how to squash this one.”

  Eight

  Two days after he sold the Mercer to Mindy, Sam arrived home from work to what was becoming a regular occurrence in his apartment—Mindy, cooking in his kitchen. In heels and a designer dress, no less.

  “I see you’re at it again,” he said, coming up behind her and kissing her neck.

  “I had the worst day.”

  “Most people just have a drink.” He reached around to the countertop to a pile of grated parmesan she’d left on the cutting board. “Ooh. Why is cheese so good?”

  “I don’t know, but I do know that cheese is the best part of anything with cheese in it.” She took a wineglass from the cabinet, poured some for him and topped off her own. “Cheers. Here’s to letting the day fall away.”

  “Cheers.” To anyone else, this scene might be nothing but mundane, but to Sam, it was extraordinary. So this was what cohabitation was like. So this was what it was like when Mindy and Sam didn’t have anyone between them.

  Although Mindy had said she’d had a bad day, she seemed to be in a good mood. Much better than he tended to be when things at work became overwhelming. She buzzed around the room, opening the fridge, adjusting burners and cutting vegetables.

  “What happened? Something at Eden’s?” he asked.

  “Actually, stuff at Eden’s is pretty much on autopilot at this point. So much of the staff has been there forever. It’s BMO stuff again. Stupid stuff. Totally preventable. The art director not talking to the marketing team. The head of production letting us run out of things a printing business should never run out of.” She took another sip of her wine, looked up at the ceiling shaking her head, then pointed her sights at him. “Like paper. Actual paper.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.”

  Sam sat down on a bar stool next to the kitchen peninsula. “Do you think it’s Matthew?”

  Mindy shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I had a call with him today. He claims that he’s working on it, and everything he tells me seems to check out, but I just don’t know. It feels like somebody is setting little fires everywhere, just so I can run and put them out.”

  Sam felt a bit like he was about to set a big fire square in the middle of Mindy’s work life, and he hated it. But he also knew that the truth would ultimately be so much better for her. “I have some info I want to share with you. I did some digging into Matthew. And I discovered some interesting stuff.”

  “Good interesting or bad interesting?”

  “I don’t think you’ll be happy. But maybe this is for the best.” He unzipped his laptop bag and pulled out a file folder. “Here’s what we found.”

  “We?”

  “I’m no detective. I mean, I found some of this on my own, but I also have people who work for me who are exceptionally good at digging.” Saying it out loud made him feel bad that he’d taken this step without asking her first.

  Mindy wiped her hands on a kitchen towel and joined him at the kitchen peninsula, settling in next to him. “Okay, then. Show me what you found.”

  Sam opened the folder and walked her through the documents—a mix of online articles about businesses Matthew had run, financial reports and timelines, all of which had a recurring second character—a man named Zeke Anderson. There
was a very regular pattern of one of them working their way into a high position within a promising start-up, things going from good to great and then suddenly starting to take a downward turn. At which point the other person, either Matthew or Zeke, swept in and offered to buy a majority stake in the company, just to “rescue” a struggling owner. The companies all miraculously recovered and went on to record earnings.

  Mindy clasped her hand over her mouth. “Oh, my God, Sam. This is not only exactly what’s happening with BMO, but Matthew suggested to me today that I should consider selling the company before we do the move. So I wouldn’t have to deal with the hassle and could just cash in.”

  “Did you tell him that I sold you the Mercer?”

  “I did. He didn’t seem fazed by it, but he did bring up the idea of selling right after I told him.”

  Sam worried that Mindy had a real mess on her hands. He hoped he could figure out a way to help her through it. “I wish I had better news to deliver.”

  “Me, too. I also wish this had never happened. I feel like a complete idiot for putting my company in jeopardy like this. I clearly didn’t do a good enough job vetting this guy.”

  Sam shook his head emphatically, wanting her to understand that the situation she was in was not of her own doing. “You cannot blame yourself for this. It’s not you, Min. You’re a brilliant businesswoman. Look at the companies these two have gotten involved with. Most are hugely successful. That’s how they get the next gig and keep themselves looking like geniuses.”

  “Meanwhile, they’re orchestrating the whole thing.”

  “That’s my gut.”

  “I don’t want to let him get to the point where he gets to be the hero. I want to stop him as soon as we can.”

  “Well, yeah. Of course. If anyone is going to be the hero in this story, it has to be you. I’m here for whatever you need.”

  Mindy looked at Sam, her eyes bright and full of life. No one could blame her if she were feeling down or defeated by any of this, but she wasn’t. She was leaning into the wind, ready to tackle her problems head-on. “Will you help me figure out how to catch him at his own game? At least enough for me to force him out? He has a pretty ironclad contract with us. Unfortunately, I worried more about him not sticking around than I ever worried about needing to get rid of him.”

  Sam hadn’t sorted out how they would do this, but he was fairly certain he could come up with something. “I’m sure I can think of something. Might involve some cloak-and-dagger work. Corporate espionage is no small matter.”

  Mindy’s eyes glinted with mischief. “Ooh. I feel like I’m fully stepping into your dark and sexy underhanded world, Sam.”

  Sam laughed quietly. “Trust me, it’s not that sexy.” He cleared his throat when he saw the way Mindy’s mouth went slack. That vision of her mouth made him want to take her, right then and there. “Scratch that. With you in it, it’s supersexy. Like unbelievably sexy.”

  Mindy slid off her bar stool and stood between Sam’s legs, wagging her hips back and forth, knocking herself against his knees. “You are amazing. Truly amazing. Thank you for showing me the light of day with Matthew. If it wasn’t for you, I would be barking up the wrong tree right now, worried about little stuff while much bigger issues were going on under my nose.”

  “We make a great team.” The words had left his lips before he’d really had a chance to think them out.

  She smiled and leaned into him. “We make an amazing team.”

  Once again, Sam was overcome with relief. He’d made so many mistakes in the past and he wanted to prove to her this week that he wasn’t that guy. He was capable of making her happy. He felt like he’d done that today.

  He lowered his head, she raised her chin, and their lips met. Passionate and eager, this kiss felt far more potent than any other. A kiss on steroids, turned on at full blast. Mindy combed her fingers into his hair at the nape, digging in her nails, driving him wild. Her tongue wound in circles with his, the kiss wet and hot. He inched forward on the bar stool and she pressed right against his crotch with her hips, rocking into him as the blood in his veins went from warm to red hot.

  He tugged down the zipper of her dress and didn’t wait until the garment was off before he was unhooking her bra. Mindy let go of their kiss and shook the straps from her arms, leaving both items of clothing to fall to the floor. He dropped his feet to the floor and picked her up at the waist, plopping her down on the kitchen counter.

  She was as tempting as could be sitting before him in nothing more than heels and a pair of lacy black panties. “Much better,” he said, taking her breasts in his hands. Her skin was soft as the finest silk, her nipples hard beneath his touch. He drew one tight bud into his mouth, swirling his tongue, savoring her sweetness. How he loved feeling the reaction of her body against his lips, her skin puckering from his touch.

  He reached down and curled his fingers into her perfectly round bottom, urging her closer to the edge of the counter. He put one of her legs on his shoulder, then the other, and using his thumb, pulled aside her panties, leaving her bare to him. Mindy planted her hands back behind her, tilting her pelvis and giving him the perfect angle. He lowered his mouth against her center, and licked, slowly at first, listening to her soft moans—pure music to his ears. Making her happy, bringing her close to the brink of orgasm, left everything in his body impossibly tight. It felt as if the blood had left his head and feet and instead raced to his hips, pulsing hard. Mindy bucked her hips, her breaths becoming short and fast.

  “Come for me, darling,” he said, slipping two fingers inside her. She was so warm, so wet, and he could hardly wait to be inside her, especially as his erection grew harder and heavier between his legs. Still, he wasn’t willing to do anything but focus on her pleasure, so he returned to his charge, swirling his tongue in circles while his fingers glided in and out of her body. She gasped loudly when she came, pressing her calves against his back, nearly squeezing his head between her knees. He gave her center one more kiss, which made her suck in a sharp breath.

  She lowered her legs and he stood, kissing her deeply. Mindy wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer. “I need more of you,” she said. “All of you.”

  That was exactly what he wanted to give her, but as tall as he was, the cabinet was still in the way. So were his clothes and shoes and far too many other things. “I don’t want to have sex in the kitchen, if that’s okay with you.” He didn’t wait for a response, wrapping one arm around her waist and scooping her legs up in his other arm. Mindy wasn’t a damsel in distress. She didn’t need to be saved. But he loved having the chance to feel for at least a few moments like he might be her knight in shining armor.

  * * *

  Mindy curled into Sam as he carried her down the hall to his bedroom, his strides long and confident. She felt so sexy in his arms, especially in that postorgasm glow. The man had the most talented tongue, the sexiest mouth. And he knew exactly how to send her over the cliff. When it came to the physical, he knew exactly how to make her happy.

  They arrived in his room and he left the light behind, setting her down on the mattress. She wasn’t about to get settled, though. Sam had taken off his shirt, and shoes, but his pants had to go. She scrambled off the bed and shimmied her panties down her legs. Then she went to work, getting rid of his pants and boxer briefs. Sam spent most of his day looking perfectly yummy to Mindy, but tonight he looked even better than usual. Maybe it was because she knew now that he wanted to protect her. No man had ever wanted to do that, let alone try. She was strong and independent, but there was still this part of her inside that was soft and gooey and needed to know that somebody would be there to catch her fall.

  She took Sam’s erection in her hand, which immediately produced a deep groan from his lips. She stroked firmly, trying to match the tension beneath his skin with pressure of her own. She felt a little bit like she was lo
sing at this idea, but Sam was more than pleased, his lips humming with approval. She kneeled on the bed and took him into her mouth, skimming her wet lips along his steely length, gripping his hips with her hands. She pressed her thumbs into his skin hard, and that made him growl. She’d learned by now that Sam really liked the contrasts—the hard with the soft, the rough with the tender.

  She wrapped her hand around the base of his erection and gently pulled him from her mouth. She rubbed her thumb along the tender underside, enjoying the power she wielded in this situation. She knew she could do anything she wanted and he would be happy. But the reality was that she was most interested right now in what would make them both happy—him inside her. So she eased back on the bed and stretched her arms high above her head, clasping her hands. She was his for the taking and he did exactly that. Descending on her, blazing a hot trail of kisses from her stomach up to her breasts, then settling in her neck just as he drove inside.

  The pressure was intense from the very beginning. He filled her so perfectly and they once again fell into that rhythm that made them both happy. He used one hand to keep her in place, leaving her deliciously defenseless. Meanwhile he slipped his other hand between their bodies, resting his thumb on her center, backed by his complete body weight. Mindy already felt like she was about to rocket into the upper atmosphere, but she told herself to relax, to savor every deft stroke he took inside her.

  He had his head turned to one side, breathing hard, pressing one shoulder against hers while bucking his hips.

  “Kiss me, Sam,” she said. As close as they were right now, she needed more of him. She was desperate for all of him the way a person wants cool water on a hot day.

  He claimed her mouth with his, their tongues tangled, and the pressure in her hips coiled so tight she nearly bit Sam’s lips. His thrusts were as deep as she could imagine, and she pressed hard on his backside with her feet, raising her hips to meet his. The pleasure was making her light-headed, like she was fading into dark and coming back to light. As good as she knew the climax would be, there was a part of her that wanted this to go on forever. She never wanted to be anywhere else but right there. With Sam.