Boardroom Sins

by J. Margot Critch

  When she quieted, he pulled his mouth away but drew her closer to him. “You always look so beautiful when you come,” he whispered against her ear. “Your breath is shallow, your cheeks are flushed and your pupils are so dilated, I can barely see how beautifully blue they are.” Where the hell had that come from?

  She sighed, and he released his hold on her leg, letting her foot drop back to the floor. “Oh, my God, Brett.” She sighed.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Fingering her on a terrace during a party hosted by the mayor was one thing, but there was still so much more he wanted to do with Rebecca Daniels, to her. “We can go back to my place,” he suggested hopefully, his lips just a whisper away from hers. He pressed them together for a second. Kissing her felt too damn good.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she told him.

  “It definitely isn’t.” He grinned. “But let’s do it anyway.”

  Rebecca’s laugh was more heavy exhalation than humor, and he watched the storm as it progressed over her blue eyes. They had darkened significantly with desire, and the flush that colored her cheeks and her chest showed him that she was just as affected as he was. They heard laughter from the doorway leading into the house. Brett looked over his shoulder and saw that two men and a woman had just joined them outside. The trio barely gave them a second glance.

  “I should go,” she said, finding her own footing without his support. He pulled the front of his jacket over the bulge of his cock, disappointed, but he noted with satisfaction her wobbly stance. She turned away from him.

  “Wait,” he called.

  “Yeah?”

  He withdrew his wallet from the inside pocket of his jacket and took out a card. “Here,” he said. “Take this.”

  “What is it?”

  “If we’re done talking business, come by some night.”

  “Di Terrestres?”

  “Yeah, it’s my club. The address is on there, and my cell number is on the back. I’ll show you around. Soon.”

  Her lips twitched as she looked down at the card. She said nothing before she slid it into the pocket of her dress, and she walked away from him.

  “It was nice seeing you, Becca,” he called to her.

  She stopped and turned. “Rebecca,” she corrected him. “And you, too, Brett,” she said, turning and walking away from him. “But don’t forget. Don’t come after DI anymore. I don’t have time for games.”

  Brett took a deep breath and watched her walk away. He hadn’t meant for any of that to happen. But he hadn’t been able to control himself. He’d completely lost his mind. Apparently, all he had to do to forget business and their previous hostility was touch her and he became that same twenty-two-year-old who’d been hopelessly infatuated with her. His only hope was that she was just as shaken as he was...

  He was going to have to learn to control himself if he was going to be anywhere near Rebecca Daniels again. How could he hook up with her on Saturday and go into work Monday clearheaded enough to deal with the fact he had to replace an executive VP thanks to her?

  No. This would never do. He had to act now.

  When Rebecca was completely out of sight, he nodded in recognition to the people who’d joined them on the terrace and headed back inside to the party. He saw his friends, who’d again found each other and taken their place in a small exclusive huddle near the bar. Alex, Rafael, Gabe and Alana watched him approach. They said nothing, but their raised eyebrows spoke volumes even as they each, almost simultaneously, raised their glasses to their lips to hide their smirks. He ordered another soda water from the bar and turned back to them.

  “What?” he asked them.

  They all played clueless for a moment, not answering until Alex finally broke. “Okay, what the hell was that?”

  Brett shrugged. “What was what?”

  Alex rolled his eyes. “Don’t play stupid with us. What were you doing with Rebecca Daniels?”

  “Nothing. We were talking. Just catching up.”

  “Just catching up with her tongue down your throat?” Alana countered.

  “What did you see?” Brett narrowed his eyes.

  Alana’s widened. “What did you do?”

  Brett took in the amused but concerned faces of his friends. “It was nothing. But something came to me. I’ve got an idea.” He turned to Alex. “You know how we were talking about taking Collins/Fischer to the next level?”

  Alex eyed him, his stance wary. “Yeah, what do you have in mind?”

  “We’re going to be number one. And we’re going to do that by dismantling the competition.”

  “Okay... How?”

  “A takeover. I want us to buy out Daniels International.” He let it sink in, aware of the curious and cautious way his friends eyed him.

  “What?” Alex asked him.

  “What aren’t you getting here? They’re a real estate development firm,” Brett said. “So is Collins/Fischer. We’ll initiate a takeover. Buy them out. When we’re successful in taking them out, we’ll move on to the next one, then the next one, until we’re the only game in town.”

  None of his friends looked convinced. They were silent until Alana spoke up first. “Why?” she asked.

  He thought about his answer. He’d been looking for a project, the next business move. He’d always been in this for the long game—to be the only real estate firm in town. He’d been at battle with Daniels International for months, and the company’s profits had been declining for years, partly because of stiff competition from Collins/Fischer. Why not start there? It was a logical procession. But he would be lying if he didn’t admit that there was more to it. His lips pulled downward in a frown, and he let the flames of animosity fuel him. “Now’s the time,” he started. “We’re on the verge of being on top of this city. And isn’t that what we want? Our goal has always been to run this bitch,” he reminded them. “A buyout. We’ll get as many shares as we can.” He looked at Gabe, an equal business partner in The Brotherhood’s operations but also the group’s lawyer. “Think we can get the paperwork by Monday morning?”

  Brett hadn’t even finished his sentence before Gabe had his phone in his hands, most likely writing a message to his assistant to start the work. “By 9:00 a.m.,” he promised before looking up.

  Alex also had his phone out, clearly engaged in getting a takeover bid in order for Monday. He and Alex had worked together, known each other long enough to trust each other fully. All Alex needed was to know Brett thought it was a good idea, a good move for the business, and he was on board. Only Alana eyed him skeptically.

  “What?” he asked her.

  “What’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing. We’re just planning what’s next for the businesses.”

  “But it’s Rebecca,” Alana reminded him. “She was my friend in college, and I spent as much time with her as I did you. You guys have this weird history. I know how you are together.”

  “How we were together,” Brett corrected. “And Rebecca was nothing more than a hookup.” When she eyed him skeptically, he amended his statement. “A hookup nemesis?”

  “Who is this person?” Gabe asked, putting his phone back in his pocket. He hadn’t gone to the same college as they had, having attended Harvard Law, and he hadn’t heard the story. “Old girlfriend?”

  “No,” Brett said, definitive.

  “She was in our undergrad and MBA programs,” Alana explained. “She’s so smart and just as stubborn as Brett, so you know they zeroed in on each other. They rivaled each other to be top of the class in every course. They competed for the best grades and for awards, but despite all the fighting and scornful looks, they hooked up all the time. I don’t quite know how it happened, though.”

  Brett sighed. He knew that Alana and Rebecca had been friends, but he didn’t realize that she’d been privy to all of the
dirty details. Well, not all of them, apparently—she didn’t know how it’d all started. One late night in the library before finals, they’d fought over the last private study room in the business library. But the fight hadn’t lasted long before they’d agreed to share it. It had been only a matter of time before he had her lying on the small table of a study room, with his palm over her mouth to keep her from screaming out into the silence of the library, visible to anyone who walked by through the small window in the door.

  From then on, they’d still challenged each other, in class and outside, but they couldn’t stop themselves from giving in to their desires and enjoying private moments in public and semipublic spaces around campus. And that had gone on throughout their MBA program until she’d gone off to New York. “It doesn’t matter how it happened.”

  “Okay, then how is she going to react when she sees the takeover bid on her desk on Monday morning?” Alana asked.

  Brett didn’t want to admit to his friends how much seeing her again had affected him, and how much his own reaction had surprised him. He had to fight the discombobulation that had come from being near her tonight, and even though he could still smell her on his fingers, taste her kiss on his lips, he’d immediately shifted back into business mode. Survival mode. When it came to work, he could overcome any feelings to focus on the business. He’d done it before, and he was goddamn sure he could do it again.

  But he smiled, trying to appear more confident in his resolve than he felt. “It doesn’t matter how she reacts,” he told her. “It’s business.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  YAWNING, REBECCA SAT back in her father’s—no, her—chair, and picked up the take-out paper cup that had contained four full shots of espresso only ten minutes ago. She’d taken a sip. It hadn’t been enough. She’d needed more, and she gulped it down, completely draining the cup. The fear that she may need to go back to the lobby café was real. The coffee had done nothing to keep her awake, and she didn’t think there was any amount of caffeine or makeup that would make her look or feel like a human being this morning. She hadn’t slept in two nights, not since Mayor Thompson’s party, and it was all Brett Collins’s fault.

  With a sigh, she dramatically threw her head back and swiveled around in her chair to face the back wall as she remembered how it felt to have him kiss her, touch her again. She’d gone five years not being with him. And she thought she’d rid herself of that ghost, but no. Just one word, one touch, one kiss, a mind-altering orgasm against Mayor Thompson’s terrace wall was enough to bring back the college-aged girl who had made a mistake... Hell, dozens—hundreds—of mistakes because of some weak, hormone-crazed moments during her academic career. Times when she’d hated the man in front of her, but she couldn’t help herself and had bent to his every desire, and bent him to hers.

  She touched her fingertips to her lips, and they still burned with the feel of his mouth on hers. She’d spent half a decade trying to banish him and his devilish hands and wicked kisses from her mind, and she thought she’d been successful. Yet there was no way to quell the feeling that she wanted nothing more than to take the night further. But part of her still held back. Pushing him away had been the right thing to do, even though her body had screamed at her to comply.

  She huffed out a frustrated breath. One moment of weakness had made it all come back at her like a backdraft in a fire. She burned for him, needed him, craved his lips, his fingers, the bulge of his cock that she’d felt pressed against her belly, as he held her close, his hands bringing her to a shattering orgasm. She gripped the arms of her leather chair and she clenched her thighs together. He’d been an amazing lover. They’d learned everything, experimented together, and she didn’t think she would survive being with him when he had five more years of experience literally under his belt.

  A knock on her door startled her, and she whipped around in her chair to face it.

  “Come in,” she called, not sure if her legs were sturdy enough to stand.

  Her assistant, Amy, walked into her office, holding a stack of envelopes. “I’ve got your mail here, and a courier just dropped this off.” she said, holding up an envelope.

  “Thanks so much,” she said, accepting it with a tired smile.

  “You doing okay, hon?”

  “I’m tired. I didn’t sleep well last night.”

  “Need some more coffee? I was just about to head down to get some for myself.”

  Rebecca smiled. “That’d be great. Thanks!” When she was alone in her office, Rebecca tackled the large stack of mail on her desk. There were some invites to corporate functions, some junk mail, but it was the envelope that had been couriered, which bore a return-address label for Collins/Fischer, that caught her attention. Using her letter opener, she sliced open the envelope.

  Her mouth dropped when she read the letter enclosed, and she knew that it had also gone out to the rest of the shareholders at Daniels International. It was a takeover bid. Brett was initiating a hostile takeover of her father’s company.

  Shock and rage made her fingers curl over the paper, crumpling the edges. She pushed away from her desk and stood. She couldn’t let Brett get away with what he wanted to do to her company, the one her father had worked his ass off to build. She’d told them that Daniels International was done playing games with him and Collins/Fischer. She slammed her fist down on her desk, unable to staunch the curse words that flowed past her lips.

  He’d been irritating her for weeks. Now she was angry.

  * * *

  Brett and Alex sat in Brett’s office on the top floor of the BH, the office building that was owned by The Brotherhood. Their mugs of coffee had long since cooled as the two of them discussed the next move in the takeover of Daniels International. They were pleased. Things had moved quickly already, and he had his amazing partners and their teams to thank for it. He and Alex had settled on a very generous offer for DI’s shareholders. They’d been willing to go far enough above market price so that the shareholders wouldn’t be able to refuse, and they’d already been contacted by quite a few of them. It would be only a matter of time before Daniels International fell under the umbrella of The Brotherhood, and they would then move on to dismantling the next, and then the next, until Collins/Fischer was the only firm in town. They were on a mission, and once they were on track, they wouldn’t be deterred. At least, if he kept telling himself that, he might be able to convince himself that was the only reason he was doing this.

  Although Brett had told his secretary he didn’t want to be interrupted, she buzzed through on the intercom. “Mr. Collins,” she started, “I have Rebecca Daniels on line one. She says it’s urgent.”

  Brett grinned and looked at Alex. She would have gotten her mail and their tender offer already. He couldn’t wait to hear what she had to say, and part of him wanted to hear her beg him to spare her company. “Put her through,” Brett responded. He kept the phone on speaker as the call was patched through.

  “Rebecca, hi—”

  “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded over the intercom, interrupting him.

  “Rebecca, please calm down,” Brett said in an attempt at placating her.

  “Please, go fuck yourself!” she retorted. Brett and Alex both widened their eyes in surprise at the vitriol in her words, but she wasn’t done. “So what’s your plan here? You make me come and then take over my business?” Brett shot a quick look at Alex, who raised an eyebrow, trying to hide his smile. He didn’t try that hard. His friend was clearly enjoying the show.

  Brett reached out to pick up the phone receiver, to allow them a little privacy, but Alex swatted his hand away from it. He wanted to keep listening. “It’s just business, Rebecca,” Brett said. “It’s not personal. It’s a strategic move for our own company. This sort of thing isn’t unheard of.” He stood, unsure of why he was putting space between him and her voice on the inte
rcom.

  “This is plenty personal,” she said, her voice cold. “But you know what, don’t bother explaining any further. You should hear this, though. There is no way in hell you’ll get your fingers on any part of my father’s company, or me, again. Have a nice day,” she said before the phone call disconnected.

  “Well,” Alex said with a smirk. “She certainly hates your guts. Interesting.” He sat back, suddenly serious. “Why don’t you tell me what’s really behind this takeover? There is some personal shit here, isn’t there?”

  Brett returned to his desk and sat down. He clenched his fists and hoped that Alex didn’t see the tremble in them. He was angry. Angry she still had the power to affect him, like she had years earlier. Sure, the past few months had been interesting—invigorating even—to have his former rival back in town pushing his buttons. But if their encounter the other night had told him anything, it was that she was a distraction big enough to throw him off course—and Brett had come too far and worked too hard to let that happen. He’d created a life for himself around specific things: his work, his business goals with The Brotherhood, staying fit, keeping up with his parents... There was no room for anything else. Certainly not for Rebecca Daniels, one of the few people who made him feel vulnerable and exposed—or at least she had once in college. He couldn’t let it happen a second time. “There’s nothing to tell,” he told his friend.

  “And what about that part about making her come?”

  “Would you believe me if I called it female hysterics?”