“I really appreciate the opportunity, Mr. West,” she said, extending her hand. It quivered with nerves as he gripped it. Her fingers were ice cold and covered completely by his large warm hand. Leaning in, he made that shot of her cleavage more than just a hint. Magnificent. The handshake lasted a few beats too long, and it wasn’t until Mathew stood up that they released each other.
“Call me James.” The plan was formed in his mind. He’d build the sexual tension so high between the two of them that by the time she was out of a job she’d be begging to climb into his bed. No amount of innocence or righteous indignation would be able to control her desire when he was done with her. Every interaction would be layered with long lusty looks, subtle dirty talk, and casual touches that couldn’t be avoided until she was begging to be stripped down and taken by him.
“I’m sure I’ll get your best,” James grinned devilishly, imagining bringing her body to the brink of ecstasy. He’d certainly have the best of her. But now as he watched her walk out of the room he wasn’t convinced he could wait a week to have her. He may have bitten off more than he could chew.
Mathew left the room in silence and within a minute Liberty was back, knocking apologetically on the door. “I just wanted to make sure you aren’t upset. I was out of line this morning and even when I mentioned the severance stuff just now. That wasn’t my place.”
God, she was hard to bark at. He wasn’t sure anyone had ever been so genuinely apologetic to him before. Aunt Marissa had been right. James always had a soft spot for helping the underdog. He hated to see people pushed around. It had become part of his job over the years to be assertive, to be direct, but he still gave respect where it was due. Something about this woman had his old protective senses tingling.
“It’s no problem,” he assured her. “You probably think I’m coming in here and just slashing things left and right. People will talk about who I am, what they think I’m doing, but if they knew they might actually stand with me instead of against me.”
“What are you trying to do?” Liberty asked, kicking her head to the side in a way that tugged at his chest. She actually wanted to know. She wasn’t listening to form her reply; she was just plain listening. A bizarre concept in this day and age.
“I’m going to save this place. My father was so concerned with his legacy, with keeping the business exactly the same, that he let the world pass him by. I’ve been creating a business strategy for another company I was about to launch, but now I’m here. So I’m going to make West Oil work.”
“Why start your own company? You had all this already.” She inched back into the office and leaned against the wall.
“I had nothing. My father kicked me out of here a long time ago. He never listened to a word I said about the future or facts, even when they were right in front of him. My new company was going to prove it to him.”
“But he got sick first,” she said, an empathetic understanding in her eyes. “That must make being here hard.”
“Life’s hard,” he shrugged, even though he wanted to agree. “At least I have my own jet and a few billion dollars.”
“I don’t intend to base my opinion of you on gossip. I can make up my own mind. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I really do appreciate the chance.”
“Sure,” he said, his head doing circles. She was making him feel things he’d much rather keep stuffed away.
“But we’re okay, right? We can just forget this morning?”
“I don’t forget anything,” he said with a playful smile, his eyes trailing down her body and then racing back up. “But we can focus on something else.”
For now.
CHAPTER 6
“How do you accidently become an executive assistant to the CEO of a billion-dollar oil company?” Jessica asked, handing Libby a glass of wine.
“I don’t know,” Libby admitted, blinking tears away. “I was sitting in this meeting and everyone was quitting or getting fired or whatever, and I just knew I had to do something to keep my job.”
“You don’t have a job there,” Jessica corrected, flipping her hair out of her eyes.
“Well I do now,” Libby whined. “Look,” she said, passing a contract over to Jessica. “They tripled my salary and gave me a twenty-five-thousand-dollar advance if I last thirty days. Do you know what that means?”
“That doesn’t make any sense. How in the world did you end up with a contract like this after not really working there? There must be more to the story.” Jessica seemed exasperated but intrigued as she glanced over the papers in her hand.
Libby considered telling her about her sexy encounter with Mr. West and his proposition. But she knew her friend too well. Jessica would have her calling human resources and reporting the man. She was a woman of principle, or strength, and never tolerated being treated unfairly. The complete opposite of Libby. “This means I can keep my mother in Shady Mills. It means she can get the care she needs for the long haul. If I’d have walked out of there today without a job, we’d be done. She’d have to move to some state facility, and I know she wouldn’t survive that. I did what I had to do.”
“I guess I just don’t understand how you did it. I’ve known you most of your life. You don’t exactly exude confidence. You’re telling me they didn’t see right through you?” Jessica’s eyes were narrow, raking skeptically over Libby, who could feel herself turning hot and ember red.
“So much was going on. They had so many people walk out, and apparently on paper I’m a stellar employee. I’ve done some impressive crap for West Oil in the last five years,” Libby explained as she flailed her arms around, nearly spilling her wine. “And you should see him,” she said, pulling her phone out and flashing a picture of James West she’d pulled up on the Internet.
“Holy hell,” Jessica gasped. “You sat across from that man today? And your panties didn’t burst into flames?”
“I know,” Libby gulped. “He’s even better looking up close. And the way he treats people. The way he talks to them. I felt like he was peeling off every layer of my clothes with his eyes, and I think if he had reached over and started doing it for real I would have let him. You know me. I’m not like that, but he is so magnificent looking,” she said, raising a finger as a reminder to herself. “The way he talked to me. The way he just demanded things of me—” Her voice trailed off as Jessica cut in.
“If you weren’t smiling so big about it I might assume you were furious about the treatment. From where I’m sitting, it looks like you loved the way he talked to you.” Jessica was not laughing. “Libby,” she said softly, resting a hand on her shoulder. “West Oil killed your father. Their negligence caused his death on that oil rig. Then JW intimidated your mother into taking some back-room deal so it didn’t need to be reported the right way. You hate them.”
“I might hate them, but I need them. I’m not convinced that James is like his father. He seems dead set on doing things differently.” Libby was fighting tears now, the conflict inside her coming to a powerful collision. Maybe her feelings about James West, Jr. were written on her face, but she wouldn’t go into full detail with Jessica about how the man’s voice seemed to trace its way up her spine. Or how his handshake had made her weak in the knees and warm between her legs. If they had been alone in that office, if he’d have wanted her, said the words out loud, she’d have willingly given herself over to him. But Jessica’s logic was not wrong. How in the world could she pretend to do this job without it blowing up in her face? How could she continue taking money from a company who’d hurt her family so badly? And most importantly, how could she be next to a man she was hoping would snap his fingers and demand her body? But there was always something more important than anything else. Something it always came back to. Responsibility.
“I never wanted the deal my mother made, but now I think she may have been having some early signs of dementia. There is a chance she knew she’d need to be cared for. She believed JW and West Oil when they told
her she’d never win a lawsuit. She believed him when he told her this was her best option. I’d be on the books, collecting a paycheck, and no one would know the difference. My mother did what she thought was right.”
“They tricked her,” Jessica said, as though she’d wanted to get those words out into the world for quite a while. “Your father wasn’t trained properly, and the equipment wasn’t serviced right. It’s their fault he died.”
“I know,” Libby nodded. “But my mother completely depended on my father. He always made the decisions. He took care of everything. She didn’t even drive a car. Losing him, she was lost.”
“I’m not blaming her,” Jessica shot back quickly. “Your mom is an angel; I adore her. I just don’t want to see you get involved with a company capable of such awful things. Maybe it’s time to walk away. With all the other people leaving, you’ll hardly be noticed.”
“And my mother?” Libby asked, knowing Jessica couldn’t find a solution where there was none.
“I know.” Jessica shrugged and resigned herself to reality. “What do you need to do?”
“I have this list from James, I mean Mr. West, and I have to start making appointments for him. Even when people don’t want to meet with him I have to make it happen. I can’t take no for an answer. No excuses from them are acceptable.”
“That’s not you at all. That’s the opposite of you.” Jessica shook her head. “Then you need to research your part,” she said, flipping open her laptop and clicking on her vast library of movies. “We’ll watch every movie with a badass woman in it. Take a little bit from each of them. I’m not saying I believe you’ll be able to pull this off long-term, but the longer you can do it the longer you can take care of your mother. I’ll help however I can. But,” she said with a warning glance, “if you sleep with him all bets are off. You’d be spinning a web you’ll never be able to get out of. And we all know how you feel about spiders.”
“We’re not going to sleep together.” She laughed dismissively. “He’s a wealthy gorgeous supermodel looking guy. I’m me.”
“You underestimate what a woman like you can do to a man like that. You’re a toy, a plaything they like to use and then get rid of.”
“A woman like me?” Libby asked, looking slighted somehow.
“Oh come on, you have those big doe eyes and that way you look for the best in everyone. You’re a powerful man’s wet dream. But that’s about all you could be to a man like James West. You’re too good for someone like him.”
“Doe eyes,” she said, glancing at herself in the mirror hanging on Jessica’s wall.
“You don’t even begin to know the power you have.” Jessica laughed. “That’s what makes you so desirable. It’s also what makes him so dangerous.”
CHAPTER 7
“Good Morning, Mr. West,” Libby hummed in a singsong voice as she stepped into his office and placed a coffee on his desk. Late into the night she and Jessica had stayed up researching everything they could about West Oil and the industry in general while movies starring strong confident women streamed in the background. The to-do list James had left for her had been thoroughly reviewed. Every name, every contact, researched. It was the exciting buzz of being completely prepared for a final exam in school.
She was right on time for the meeting he’d scheduled with her. She was determined to keep this job. She didn’t need to approve of Mr. West. She didn’t need to solve every problem of the past. The paychecks just had to keep coming.
“What’s this?” he asked with his brows knit together, glancing over her from top to bottom the way he had the day before. A blaze of heat rolled up her body and her nipples perked up, begging to be touched. But he looked disappointed in her somehow.
“Coffee,” she replied with a cautiously victorious smile. “I asked around what you like to drink.”
“You don’t get my coffee. We have interns for that.” His eyes were back on the documents in front of him now, and she missed the penetrating stare already.
“I know,” she said, swallowing hard. “I just thought I should get off on the right foot.”
“How you get off,” he said, raking his eyes over her once again, “has nothing to do with coffee.”
Did he mean how she got off? What got her off? The double entendre. She wasn’t sure if the sparks she was feeling were all imagined. She needed to keep this job, which meant pushing out the lusty thoughts that kept climbing into her brain and tickling it. Not to mention he seemed like a cold-hearted, brash jerk. Surely, now that they’d be working so closely, he wouldn’t be propositioning her anymore. There were hundreds of women who would line up for the job of being his plaything. This job, executive assistant to the CEO, was hers.
“Okay,” she said, stretching the word out nervously. “I’m sorry.”
“What time is my appointment with Daniel Rickers?” he asked, barely sparing her a glance now as he checked his watch.
“You don’t have one yet,” she stuttered out. “It’s the first thing on my list. I’ll be reaching out to Dodgewood Solutions after this.”
“It’s eight thirty in the morning. Why do you think I asked to see you? I wanted to regroup about what you’ve done so far. Are you saying you’ve done nothing?” He cracked his knuckles absent-mindedly and shifted back in his chair.
“I’ve done things,” she defended, thinking about how long it had taken her to turn on her computer and get her phone working properly. It was hard sorting out if the heat rolling through her body was nerves from his harsh tone or the way his bottle green eyes kept dancing at the scoop neck of her shirt. She’d had to rush out last night and buy a few outfits and this one, in retrospect, might have been too revealing. Calling that an accident was easy, but a part of her knew it had plenty to do with Mr. West and how he might feel about it.
“Just not the things I told you were of the highest importance? You haven’t done those?” He stood, rounded toward her, and leaned against his desk in front of her. His body was inches from her with his arms folded tightly across his chest. She lost her breath but caught it just in time to get a magnificent whiff of his cologne. Libby imagined the musk cost a fortune and was named something like stallion or had no name at all, just a symbol that you had to draw for the sales person to know what you wanted. All she knew was it brought out something animalistic in her that had been hibernating for a long time. But nothing beat it back to its cave like the idea that she was failing.
James spoke and yanked her back to the sad reality that she wasn’t likely to keep this job, and worse she didn’t get to feel his tongue tracing up her back. “I think you and I both know you aren’t cut out for this job. You should be, your work history says you are, but I’m guessing whoever your last boss was had very little in common with me. You are not prepared to work for a man like me.”
She wanted to stand, hop out of the chair. That’s what a strong woman would do. She tipped her chin up and stared at him. If she couldn’t feel strong, she’d at least act it. Fake it until she could make it. “I would like to be judged on more than just one hour of work. You’ll have your meeting with Dodgewood Solutions.”
Finally standing, she had to squeeze her body by, brushing against him as she passed. Her shoulder touched the rock solid mass of his chest, and she wondered if he heard her lose her breath. He caught her elbow and walked her back a few steps until she was staring up into his face. When he let her go she felt naked, as though his hand had been the cover she’d been wearing all her life and now it was gone.
“James,” she breathed out as she felt his hand again on her elbow, trailing down her arm to her wrist. Instinctively her other hand reached for his waist. His rock hard muscles flexed under her touch. And she said only his name again, this time with a lusty desire she couldn’t hold back. “James.”
He pulled her wrist up higher, and she thought for sure he leaned over her and shut his office door. Nothing was on her mind but the desire to hike up her skirt, spread her legs, and
welcome him inside of her.
“Your burn looks better,” he said coolly as he inspected her arm like a distracted doctor. “You should keep putting aloe on it.”
“What?” she asked, dropping both arms down and backing up a few large steps as though he’d just sprouted vampire teeth and intended to suck her dry.
“Save us both some time, Liberty,” he said, keeping his voice annoyingly flat. “You’re in over your head.”
“I’m not,” she croaked out, feeling her face blazing with embarrassment as she wondered if anyone outside the office had heard his assessment of her or the way she’d been saying his name so desperately.
“I’m looking out for you,” he said gently, dropping his arms down and tipping his head to the side. “You don’t strike me as someone who likes to fail.”
“Mr. West,” she choked out, sheer embarrassment keeping her from calling him James again, “I can do this job. I need to.”
“You can get another job,” he said, inching even closer to her. His smoldering gaze was screaming that he wanted her but his words kept contradicting. “I know it’s not easy to admit when you don’t have what it takes. Maybe you and I can get a drink and talk about it.” One of his eyebrows was cocked tantalizingly high, and if swooning made a sound, she’d be buzzing with the noise. The idea of a heady buzz and the peeling away of clothes filled her mind.
“I,” she breathed the word out softly as she tipped her head back, expecting to be kissed, but the kiss didn’t come. He was close enough now to pull her into his arms. But he didn’t. He just continued to stare down at her, drawing in deep intentional breaths as though he was employing all his self-restraint.
It was time for Libby to face facts. He was not going to kiss her. He was not going to quench her insatiable thirst for him. “Are you saying I have to sleep with you to keep my job?” she asked, fighting off a hopefulness she shouldn’t be feeling. If he answered yes, that would be wildly inappropriate. Illegal. And absolutely . . . undoubtedly . . . amazing.
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