I nodded to acknowledge the compliment, but it didn’t change my mind. “This is how it’s happening, Addison. Everything is laid out how it needs to go, we just have to follow the strategy and the jackpot is ours.”
She shrugged. “Fine. Have it your way. It’s your job. I’m just here for my cut. If you want to fuck the girl, then fuck the girl. Just don’t let it fuck up the plan.”
Addison turned on her heel and left the room. I couldn’t resist watching her go. We’d met through mutual acquaintances a few years ago, and what started as a torrid affair turned into a platonic working relationship. We were each the best at what we did and made a natural duo.
I need to call Kat.
The timing was just about right—she should still be riding off the endorphin rush from the date the night before, and the associated brain chemicals would make her susceptible to influence.
Manipulating people was an art, and I was Michelangelo.
The phone rang twice before she answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Kat.” I let my voice rumble more than the norm, a little deeper to help stimulate her memories of the date and the way she’d felt grinding on me. “I’ve been thinking about you.”
“Oh, James. It’s good to hear from you.” Her voice was shaky, as though she’d just learned her dog died.
I winced and changed my strategy. “Are you all right, Kat? You sound like you haven’t had the best day.”
She laughed—a short and humorless acknowledgement of the truth. “That’s a mild way of putting it.”
I burned to know, but asking her about it wouldn’t serve my purposes. I didn’t want her to think of me as a confidant. She had to view me as the antidote. Given the things she’d told me already, it was almost guaranteed to be work-related.
“Why don’t you let me take you out on the town tonight and get your mind off it? I have a few friends that could set us up with excellent reservations at a new wine bar. A classy evening for you to unwind.”
“That… that actually sounds nice,” Kat admitted. “I feel bad using you as a distraction from my regular life.”
Trust me, I’m using you far more than you’re using me.
I injected heat into my voice. “You can use me however you wish. Don’t be surprised if I use you in return.”
Her lip bite was almost audible, and I could picture it clearly as I waited for her response.
“Damn. Okay, you win. Want me to meet you somewhere?”
“No need,” I said. “I’ll pick you up around seven.”
“That sounds great. I’m looking forward to it, James.”
It sounded like a promise.
I hung up the phone and leaned back in the chair, eyes on the ceiling.
Damnit.
Her shaken voice had gotten to me—I wanted to hold her until the pain went away. That was bad—very bad.
7
~ Kat ~
This time, I watched out the front window.
Just as the clock hit seven, the red Tesla pulled up to the curb.
Impressive.
I smoothed the front of my dress. It was a slinky black thing that clung to my body and showcased curves without displaying too much skin. Hiding and revealing in equal turns. Paired with heels and careful makeup, I knew I looked good enough to eat.
I hope James feels the same way.
The doorbell rang, and I grabbed my purse before opening the door.
James had ditched the casual wear and wore a silvery dress shirt with a matching tie and well-fitting slacks. Almost too well-fitting—his level of endowment was obvious, but he might not be able to do anything about that.
“Kat. You’re looking fantastic.” He held out his hand, which I accepted as he walked me to his car.
“Thank you. You do too—not sure I expected you to clean up so well.”
“Real men know how to put themselves together.” He opened the passenger door for me and closed it once I’d slid inside.
The car pulled away, quiet and smooth.
“Thank you for offering to take me out tonight,” I said. “You called at just the right time—I needed something to look forward to, and this helped a lot.”
He smiled. “I had a feeling. You sounded like you’d been put through the wringer on the phone.”
I still hadn’t fully absorbed the meeting with Nick, and didn’t want to tell James about it, so I nodded. Sexual harassment in the workplace was one of those things that everyone knew about, but I never thought it would happen to me. For some reason, I felt embarrassed, as though it was my fault.
It didn’t take long to get to the wine bar. One of the best things about living in the Mission District was its proximity to downtown—not to mention all the other interesting things to do in the neighborhood itself.
The place was fancy enough to employ a valet, so James pulled up to the front door. It sat near the top of the hill—the sides of the building were all glass to take advantage of the view. We were shown to a table by the window with a vantage over the city.
“It’s gorgeous,” I said, gazing out. The sun was low enough for long shadows to stretch across the cityscape.
“There seems to be a lot of that going around,” James said. He looked right at me as he spoke, and a flush crept up my neck. His full attention was intense, like a powerful beam of light.
A waitress came to take our order, and James made his selection without even looking at the menu—a pair of glasses of a wine I’d never heard of.
“Tell me something about yourself, Kat.” His mouth played with my name like it was a choice cut of steak. It was crazy how the inflections in his voice made me shiver. “What are your passions? Dreams?”
It had been a while since I’d actively dated, so I wasn’t used to talking about myself and my interests. Our wine arrived as I gathered my thoughts, buying me more time. A taste of the red proved James’ expertise—a medium-bodied burst of flavor and character.
“Well, I love to travel. I feel like that’s a stereotypical answer that everyone gives—who doesn’t like to travel?”
“Not everyone, but it is a popular answer,” he replied. “Where have you been? Where do you want to go but haven’t?”
I counted them off on my fingers. “I’ve been a lot of places in the Caribbean with friends during school, including the Dominican and Mexico, Saint Martin, Saint Lucia, and Jamaica. I went to Costa Rica. And I spent a month in Thailand one summer. It was the most incredible experience I’ve ever had—I’d wanted to go for years.”
James nodded like he wasn’t surprised. “It’s a beautiful country with wonderful people.”
“I’ve also been to Italy and France and Spain, although I need to do more visiting in Europe. There’s still so much I haven’t seen yet. I’ve heard Croatia is magnificent, it’s high on my list.”
“That’s an impressive list,” he said. “You would love Croatia—the islands are spectacular, and the sea is the most riveting shade of blue I’ve ever seen.”
“What about you? You must have gone places with the Marines. Was there anywhere really interesting?”
He arched an eyebrow. “That’s classified, remember? All I can say is that I could do with never visiting a desert ever again.”
“I can imagine.” There were so many horror stories around military service in the Middle East. That must have been where he was deployed. “What about traveling as a civilian?”
“I’ve been around,” he said. “At last count, I’ve been to over a hundred countries.”
“A hundred!” I couldn’t even fathom. “That’s insane! How could you even fit that much in? You can’t be much older than I am, and if you were in the Marines for so long that would have eaten up a lot of time.”
“I must tell you the stories sometime,” he said. “I’m curious though, what do you hope to do with your career? Is data security something you’re passionate about?”
The sudden change in topic caught me off guard.
“No, of course not. It was a fantastic opportunity I couldn’t turn down. To get a title like this at such a young age is a huge boost to my options in the future.”
So long as it doesn’t all go to shit on me.
I took a long sip from the wine glass to help calm my anxiety about the situation at work. The alcohol fortified me, and the rest of the glass disappeared in moments. James signaled the waitress.
“It sounds impressive. Almost unbelievable. What do you want to do after this? What’s your dream job?”
The dream job. “I want to do something that helps people,” I said. “Coming out of school, I almost went the nonprofit route, but the pay was so much lower than the private sector. With how much everything costs these days, I had to follow the money.” It had been a hard decision that still shadowed my thoughts. My life would have gone in a different direction if I’d taken one of those offers.
“That’s admirable of you,” James said. “Many people pretend they would do those types of things, but I actually believe you. Anything in particular you want to do?”
It was something I’d thought about for a long time. “There’s so much waste in the non-profit and charity world. So much duplicated effort. I met someone who volunteered in a small village in Africa. He told me about how one of the big relief organizations came and built a network of wells to give fresh water to the villages in the region. Then they packed up their things and went home.”
“That doesn’t sound like a bad thing.”
“No. You wouldn’t think so. But they used technology the locals didn’t have the tools or knowledge to fix. So when the wells failed within a few years, there was no realistic way for the villagers to repair them. Then a different organization arrived. They already had big plans drawn up for a project, and they built another set of wells, right alongside the old ones. Then they packed up their things and left.”
James shook his head. “Repeating the same mistakes.”
“Exactly. The same thing happened as the first time around. The wells fell into disrepair, and there’s nothing the natives could do about it. Can you guess what happened when a third organization came into the region?”
“No…”
“Yup. And that’s why I’d love to create a company that focuses on coordinating relief efforts around the world with different organizations. There could be knowledge sharing, lessons learned and cooperation on projects. Together we might help those less fortunate in sustainable ways that work with the culture in place and empower those people to live better lives, instead of cramming Western ideas of progress into places they don’t belong.”
“You’re very passionate about it. I like that.”
The way he looked at me brought a flush to my face—or was that the alcohol? While talking we had worked our way through a couple more glasses of wine.
“It’s something I think could drastically improve the lives of people around the world without the need for any additional spending or resources. Just people working together to create better outcomes. Something worth getting passionate about.”
“You’ve convinced me,” James said. “If you need an investor down the line, you have one right here. Now, I’d love it if you danced with me. What do you say?”
A small dance floor centered the room, an open space I had paid little attention to. While talking, a small quartet had taken up residence in the corner of the space and begun to play. Two couples were already on the floor, twirling to the music.
I had little experience with real dancing. Bumping and grinding to songs at a party or a club, yes. Making any kind of elegant show on a dance floor, no.
“Um, do we have to?”
James stood and took my hand. “Come on, you’ll enjoy yourself, I promise. Just follow my lead and I’ll show you a great time.”
He held my eyes with his own dark gaze as his thumb rested on the back of my hand, moving slightly and stroking the skin. It sent a tingle up my arm. His eyes promised things I still wasn’t sure I wanted him to deliver.
No, that’s not it. I definitely want him to deliver. I just don’t know if it’s a good idea.
I took to my feet with reluctance. “Fine. We’ll try it, but I’m telling you it’ll be a disaster.”
“Hush. You’ll be great. Follow me.”
He didn’t give me a choice, keeping possession of my hand as though to make sure I wouldn’t retreat to the table. If he hadn’t, it would have been tempting.
This’ll be awkward.
As if James had timed it that way, we arrived at the dance floor as the musicians finished their song. They paused only for a moment while James pulled me close.
“Put your hand here,” he said, pulling my free hand up to his shoulder. His went to my waist, but he kept holding my other hand. “And now we’ll start off moving, just like this.”
As the musicians eased into the next song, James rocked us from side to side, helping me to feel the melody and the motion.
“Ready?” he asked.
“You want to do more than this?”
“Trust me.”
He said it like it was the simplest thing in the world.
His feet moved, first in small steps, then growing larger. His hands were strong on my waist and hand, urging my body along to where he wanted me to go.
“Just let me move you and place your feet where it feels natural,” he said, his mouth low to my ear.
I tried to follow his directions. It still felt awkward as hell, and I was ready to give up when something clicked. All of a sudden I fell into the pattern his body showed me, and we flowed together like one.
The music surrounded us—simple, but classic. I risked looking away from the floor long enough to look up at James. He smirked at me. Only then did I pay attention to what expression my face made—equal parts terror and fascination.
I let myself relax more, and trust the way James steered us around the dance floor, skillfully guiding me in a weaving and whirling adventure.
All too soon, the song wound to a close, leaving us embracing in the middle of the dance floor, breathing heavily.
“Wow. That was so much more fun than I thought it would be.”
James used his hand on my waist to hug me closer. “I told you that you could trust me. I won’t steer you wrong.”
His voice was so low, so sincere.
I might fall for this man.
It didn’t seem like it would be such a bad thing.
“Can we do it again?” I had to experience it at least one more time.
“Of course.”
The next song the quartet played was slightly different in tempo, but after a few miscues where I trod on James’ feet, I got the hang of it. He even spun me a few times, catching me as I thought I would fall, and setting me back on my feet no worse for wear.
We stayed on the dance floor for another four songs until the musicians took a break. It was perfect timing—I hadn’t picked my heels for dancing, and my toes throbbed by the end of the set.
“I can’t believe I’ve never done that before!” Moving with James had been incredible. Like a version of sex that could be done in public. My pulse pounded wildly in my ears.
“You’re a natural,” James said. “I’ve had many worse partners than that, trust me.”
I didn’t want to think about his other partners. For a man like him, I’m sure there had been many.
“We have to go out dancing again sometime. I think I found my new favorite activity.”
James led me back to the table and then excused himself to use the restroom. I checked my phone and sorted through the new messages.
An email from Nick on my work account made me groan. It was bad enough he ruined my day; there was no excuse for sending emails late on a Friday night.
It was short and to the point.
We didn’t sign Onyx, they went with someone else. I hope you have a genius marketing strategy lined up, or else you know what the other choice is.
I stared. Eve
ryone at the office had talked about Onyx like they were a done deal. The contract was so massive it would have single-handedly doubled revenue on the year. The loss would be impossible to recover from.
8
~ James ~
The night was going perfectly. Kat had enjoyed the dancing and gave the obvious tells that she was ready for more. Like most women, she didn’t even realize how easy it was to read her intentions. Knowing what to look for meant I knew what she wanted better than she did.
Returning from the restroom, I knew something had changed from across the room. Her shoulders and back were tensed, and she stared down at the table, neck craned at an uncomfortable angle.
What the hell happened?
I walked up beside her, grabbing my chair and pulling it alongside hers so we were side by side instead of across from each other.
“Anything interesting happen while I was in the bathroom?”
Kat looked at me, face blank. “I’m screwed.”
“Why do you say that?”
“My boss just emailed me. A huge client we targeted chose another provider. We lost a huge source of revenue.”
I tilted my head. “Why does that mean you’re screwed? You’re in charge of public relations and marketing, right? I don’t see why that’s your problem.”
She brushed her long brunette hair back with a trembling hand. “My boss is an egomaniac and prick. It’s a long story, but we need to have the best quarter in company history or else I’m fired.”
Her voice wavered and I could tell she held back sobs. My heart broke for her, but I clamped down on those feelings.
You aren’t supposed to care about her. It doesn’t matter if she’ll lose her job, because if you do yours, the company won’t survive.
Caring was deadly. Caring threatened the plan.
Still, I had to pretend to care—and it was a perfect opportunity to gather more insider intel on ARCANE.
“Why would he hold you accountable for a target like that? You only just started, and you aren’t the head of sales.”
Bad Boy Boxed Set Page 4