Placing my hand on her cheek, I asked, “Hey, are you okay? Were you dreaming?”
She looked confused, her gaze darting from me to the bed, back to me again.
“I guess. I, um … I had a bad dream.”
Her eyes looked full of fear, her face filled with a boatload of regret.
“Want to tell me about it?”
When her expression turned solemn, I knew my answer.
“No,” she said sharply before getting out of the bed and making her way to the bathroom.
I sat there, trying to decide if I should follow her or not. With a heavy sigh, I got out of the bed and went after her.
The door creaked open, and I watched as Charlie splashed her face with cold water. Her eyes finally met mine in the mirror.
My breath caught in my throat at the look she gave me.
Goddamn it, Charlie. Just tell me. Please just tell me.
She slowly turned to face me. Her chin quivered and her mouth opened.
Come on, baby. Come. On.
The look of pain on her face nearly killed me. I rushed over to her, cupped her face in my hands, and brushed my lips over hers.
“Talk to me, Charleston.”
A sob slipped from her lips. “I … I … I want to so badly, but I’m so afraid.”
My mouth crushed to hers and when she opened to me, I practically exploded when our tongues touched. The kiss was slow, deep, and full of something so much more than passion.
Her hands landed on my chest, causing a burning feeling to hit me.
I loved this woman more than I ever dreamed I could. I needed her to tell me about her stupid-ass plan. She needed to spill it, so we could move past the wall that she’d been hiding behind.
It was so fucked up, but right now all I wanted to do was make love to her. I wanted to coax it out of her, but I knew it had to be on her terms. Picking Charlie up, I walked us back to her bed. Gently placing her down on the soft covers, I crawled over her. Slipping my hand between her legs, I groaned. She was ready for me.
I pushed inside of her and we both groaned.
Lacing my fingers with hers, I pushed her hands above her head and looked into her eyes.
“Listen to me, Charleston.”
Her blue eyes stared into my gray. “There is nothing you could do or say that will make me run or push me away ever again.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Th-that’s not true.”
I pulled out and pushed slowly back in, causing her to close her eyes and moan. More tears spilled out onto her cheeks.
“We were meant to be together, Charleston. We’re meant to be together. You know that and I know that, and there’s nothing that could ever divide us again. Nothing.”
I believed it with all of my heart. I have never felt this way before about any other woman. Charlie made me want things and those things only involved her.
Marriage. Kids. All of it and she didn’t have to fucking trick me into it.
When her eyes snapped open. My heart skipped a beat. There was hope dancing in them.
“Tucker,” she gasped.
“Say it.”
Her body arched when I pushed deeper inside of her.
“Goddamn it, say it!” I urged, pulling out and pounding back inside of her.
She gasped for the breath she needed to speak. “We’re meant to be together.”
Smiling, I leaned down and kissed her tear-soaked cheeks.
“Fuck yes we are.”
I wanted to tell her I loved her, but I didn’t. I would, though.
Soon.
And with that, I slowly made love to the woman I had fallen in love seven years ago and continued making love to the woman who’d owned my body and soul for those entire seven years.
MARGE SAT AT the large table looking awkward as her gaze bounced between me and Mitchell Landing.
“What did you find out?” I asked, the nervous edge evident in my voice.
Mitchell cleared his throat, “All but three of the other board members support you, Ms. Monroe.”
Marge smiled a brilliant smile.
I held mine back. “What I need to know is if there is a legal way you can get me out of this marriage clause.”
Looking away, I could see he was hiding something from me.
“What do you know that you’re not telling me?” I demanded.
Mitchell looked at Marge and then turned his gaze towards me. “Ricker is having you followed.”
My mouth dropped open. “What in the fuck?”
“Charleston!” Marge gasped.
“Oh, for the love of all that’s good and holy, Marge. It’s just the three of us.” Turning back to Mitchell, I opened and closed my hands a number of times before placing them flat on the table.
“Why is he having me followed?”
His brow lifted. “Why do you think? He’s reported back to a few on the board that you’re dating someone you’ve known for a number of years and that things seem to be … serious.”
I stood. “He’s crossed both a personal and a professional line, and I will not allow this man to invade my privacy.”
I was fuming. How dare that son of a bitch think he can get away with this. But right then a lightbulb went off.
“Wait a minute, what if we could use this against him?” I asked.
“We could probably find some legal reason for letting Ricker go, if you want to take it that far.”
An evil grin spread over my face. “Fire Ricker? That would make my world, but that still doesn’t take care of my dear granddaddy’s little twist he has for me. Unless we can find some sort of legal loophole around the bylaws, I still need to get married and the months are ticking away.”
Marge’s watch went off with a reminder. She stood and made her way out of the room.
Sighing, I stood and walked over to the large window.
“Mitchell, I need the truth from you.”
I could feel his eyes on me. “We can fight, Charleston, but it will take longer than you have. You’ll be removed as CEO while the legal proceedings go on. You still have majority stock and a say-so. Just not in the day-to-day operations.”
Tears pricked at the back of my eyes. The last few weeks I’d spent with Tucker had only shown me that this wasn’t the life I thought I wanted. Hell, a part of me deep inside always knew that I wasn’t this person, wasn’t the head of a huge company. I wanted more out of my life and Tucker made me realize that with every minute I spent in his arms.
But I’d made a promise to my father that I’d run the company, and I was damn good at it.
“I’m sure I want to do this.”
I heard him stand and soon felt him next to me.
“You could step down as CEO and appoint someone else. You’ll still be a very rich woman and retain your stock portion and your vote in the company.”
The breath I blew out hit the window. “The company wouldn’t go in the direction it should though. I had so many plans, so many places I wanted to take this company. Yet …”
My arms wrapped around my stomach, and for the first time in my life I felt like I was going to lose my composure in a boardroom.
“Yet, this isn’t what you want?”
I chewed on my lip for a moment before looking back at one of my father’s best friends.
“Do you see your family much, Mitchell?”
Sadness swept over his face.
“Not like I want to but, Charleston, you can still have a family. You can still run this company and be a wife and mother. Women do it all the time.”
“I’m not worried that I couldn’t do it. I could, but at what price? You already see what’s happened by me taking the weekends for myself. Do you honestly think I could drop my kids off in the morning, come to work, and be off in time to pick them up and take them to soccer practice each day?”
His gaze drifted down to the floor. “Maybe not all the time, but some days you could.”
“I don’t thin
k I want some days.”
Turning back to the window, I cursed under my breath. “Damn my grandfather for doing this to me. Why did he have to be such a prick?”
A low rumbled laugh came from next to me. “That prick built this company with his cutthroat mentality.”
“And almost lost it, if you remember. If it hadn’t been for my father, CMI Consulting would have been broken up into a few other companies.”
I dropped my head back and sighed in frustration. “I’m not the person I wanted to be. I’m lying to the one person I should be able to tell everything to. I’m scheming to keep a position I’m not sure I even want anymore.”
His hand on my shoulder made me jump.
“I wish I could do something more, Charleston. I really do.”
Turning to the man who was like a second father to me, I let him pull me into his arms. I didn’t show weakness when it came to CMI, but in this moment, I was really missing both my father and mother. Each for different reasons.
The door to the room opened and Paul Ricker and Mr. Potts both walked in. Their eyes widened when they saw me in the arms of Mitchell. I took a step back and smoothed out my pencil skirt.
“What’s going on here?” Ricker asked, casting an accusing glance at me and then Mitchell.
“Nothing that concerns you,” I stated.
He cleared his throat. “I think it does if there is an affair going on between the two of you.”
Potts’s head snapped over to look at me so fast I thought for sure he broke his damn neck.
“What!” Mitchell boomed.
I was not in the mood for this asshole’s games today. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Ricker. Stow the accusation, will you? I was upset and my father’s best friend, who also happens to be my friend, was comforting me. In case you forgot, I did lose both of my parents not too long ago. Contrary to what you think,” I said as I walked up to the rotten scumbag, “I’m not entirely made of stone. I have some heart left.”
Ricker sneered at me. “Good to hear that. By the way, how’re things going with the marriage?”
A smirk moved my lips up some. “You should know; you’re having me followed.”
Mr. Potts sucked in a breath of air. “What? You’re having her followed?”
I wasn’t surprised when Ricker didn’t deny it. “The board needs to make sure this isn’t an arranged situation.”
My head fell back and laughed. “The board or you? Maybe you get off reading the reports you get back. I can leave a window open so that your flunky detective can video me if that would help convince the board.”
Mitchell cleared his throat, and I knew I’d gone too far. My father was probably rolling over in his grave right about now.
“If you keep this up, my personal lawyer will have a field day with you, and you’ll be the one looking for another job, Ricker. I’d tread very lightly with this situation if I were you.”
Paul Ricker reached up and messed with his tie some. His face turned red, and it appeared he was having a hard time breathing.
Marge appeared in the door just in the nick of time.
Plastering on a smile, I said, “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I have a meeting I’m running late for.”
I followed Marge out of the room and down the hall. It felt like someone was squeezing my chest, making it harder and harder for me to breathe.
Please God, please let Marge have had success.
“Did you find anything out?” I asked in a hushed tone.
She nodded and then replied, “I did, and trust me when I say you’ll be happy to hear it.”
With a smile, I lifted my chin a little higher and walked into my office, the same office that used to be my father’s. Marge shut the door behind her and held up a large envelope.
“What’s that?” I asked, making my way to my chair and sitting. Marge took a seat in one of the large leather chairs on the other side of my desk. I’d kept all of my father’s office furniture. At the time, it had felt like the right thing to do. One of these days I would change it … well, that was if I stayed on as CEO.
“I was right. The cameras I found in here are indeed working and recording everything.”
I let out the breath I held. “Thank God.” Since the first day I set foot in this office, I swore someone was watching me. Marge waved off my concern at first, thinking I was feeling the presence of my dead father instead.
“He’s here guiding you, sweetheart,” she would say every time I mentioned it. Then she stumbled upon one of the cameras and showed me. It didn’t take us long to find three more. I had a strange feeling there might even be more.
Marge smiled. “Once I figured out who your father would have trusted with the videos, it didn’t take me long to track them down. His name is Dustin Greene.”
I was momentarily stunned when I heard the name. “Did you say … Dustin Greene?”
She nodded. “Yes, his father owned the security company monitoring the cameras and he recently retired, giving control over to his eldest son.”
I could feel my body begin to sweat. Blake’s brother owned the company who had the security tapes from my father’s office. Holy hell. Did my father know?
“Do they do the security for the rest of the office?” I asked.
Marge frowned. “No, that’s why it took me so long to figure out who was monitoring it. The bill came across your desk in your father’s name about a week ago. The moment I saw it, I remembered it was the one piece of mail your father never let me open.”
“Why was my father having his office …”
My voice trailed off, and I looked around. “Is it still recording everything?” I asked in a hushed voice.
She chuckled. “Yes.”
“Well, shit.” I dropped back into my oversized, leather office chair and sighed. “I need to figure out if I still want that.”
Marge lifted a brow. As if telling me there was a reason my father had to have recording devices in his office.
Note to self: Don’t ever have sex in this office with Tucker. Or pick my nose. Or do anything else I don’t want people to see.
My mind quickly went back to all the times I sat in this office on this side of the desk and on the opposite side. Why wouldn’t my father have told me about the cameras? Why wouldn’t he have told anyone? Even Marge.
“I’m not understanding why my father felt the need to have his conversations recorded and then kept private.”
Her brow lifted. “Maybe he knew something you didn’t. But I’m not surprised. You grandfather had them in his office as well.”
A slow smile spread over my face. “Maybe. But if we can find the conversation where he told Ricker to change that ridiculous marriage clause, maybe I can get this moving along faster than we had thought.”
“Do you still want to keep this between us?”
Leaning back in the chair, I nodded. “Yes. Not even Mitchell needs to know this bit of information.”
Marge nodded.
My eyes traveled to the envelope again. “What’s in there?” I asked. “The cameras were installed seven years ago, recently updated right before your parents were killed.”
My mouth dropped open. “What!”
She nodded. “I went back and looked at the board meeting notes and noted when Mr. Ricker said he spoke to your father about the clause. I asked Mr. Greene for that entire year, six before and six months after.”
“Looks like we have some videos to watch,” I grumbled.
“I have two copies. I’m not sure if it is wise for me to watch them here, so I’ll do it while I’m at home.”
Damn, this was why my father kept this woman around. Not only was she the best executive administrator in the state of Texas, but she was street smart too.
“Smart thinking. We shouldn’t use the office server.”
Marge handed me a thumb drive. “I’ll take the first half; you take the second.”
“I know what I’ll be doing this weekend,” I said with a
jutted-out lower lip.
THE KNOCK ON my office door had me looking at the clock on the wall. It was after six.
“Come in,” I called out.
The entire room came to life when Tucker walked in. The smile on his face made the ache between my legs grow.
“Hey, you ready to go?”
I gave him a confused look. “Go?”
“This weekend, the lake house.”
Dropping my mouth open, I groaned while closing my eyes. “Shit! Tucker, I completely forgot about the plans you made.”
I felt like a complete jerk. The look on his face went from excited to disappointed.
I stood. “No! I mean, I can still go, but I would have been packed up and ready to go if I had remembered. Sorry, just a hella long day today.”
He’d shut the door to my office when he walked in. He made his way around my desk and pulled me closer to his body.
“Baby, you don’t need a bag because I plan on keeping you naked the entire time.”
I smiled and kissed him. His hands moved over my silk blouse, leaving a wake of tingles in his path.
“As amazing as being naked all weekend sounds, I think I’ll at least want to bring something a little more comfortable for the drive up there.”
“Lily packed you a bag. I sort of figured with the crazy week you’ve had, you might have forgotten.”
My heart jumped, and my stomach did a few flips. The fact that Tucker was so understanding about my job made my eyes fill with the threat of tears. I held them off and pushed them away.
“I’m so sorry. I’m working on a merger with another telecommunications company, one much smaller than ours. Trying to convince them they’d be better off joining us now rather than us taking them over in two to five years.”
He widened his eyes. “Damn, woman, it’s fucking hot as hell hearing about you taking over companies and shit.”
With a smirk, I went to cup his junk when I remembered the cameras. My hand jerked away like I was about to do something terribly wrong. Tucker frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
I looked around the office and whispered, “Cameras.”
His brow lifted. “Pictures?”
“Huh?”
Tucker shrugged. “I don’t know. I figured we were playing a word game.”
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