by Lexi Blake
“That’s business, Ellie,” he said quietly. “That’s what most people call success.”
“Then we need to redefine the word. Think about that, Riley. You say you want to be my general, but you don’t understand the war I want to fight. It won’t always be about money.”
“You’re an odd one, Eleanor Stratton.” His hand slid away from hers.
Yeah, that was the story of her life. She’d never fit in, but she’d managed to make a place for herself at StratCast despite being her father’s daughter. “You should think about it. I don’t know that I’m the right CEO for you. I don’t have your killer instincts. I’ll hold off on signing the contract.”
“Don’t.” His eyes came up, catching hers. “Sign the damn contract, Ellie. Our contract, not the other one. I can handle your odd notions about social justice and I think you’ll find we’ll still make incredible amounts of cash in the process. And if you’re planning on making changes at StratCast, you’ll need someone like me who can see who’ll come after you. Your board could turn on you. No one likes change.”
She knew there would be issues. “I’ll have to make them see my point.”
“And if they won’t? You can do all the pretty arguing and I’ll handle the real business. I’ll get you what you want.”
“How will you do that?”
“I don’t know that you want the answer to that question, princess. The men on your board will fight dirty. I’ll fight dirtier.”
It was a tempting proposition. She wasn’t foolish. She knew there was a nasty fight ahead of her and she might have to get her hands bloody. She dreaded it. What if Riley was exactly what he said he was? What if he could handle the ruthless parts of the business so she could concentrate on making StratCast everything she thought it could be?
“I’ll sleep on it.”
“But not with me,” Riley surmised.
“I think if we’re going to work together, we should keep some distance.” Oh, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to take him back to her place and forget how shitty the day had been. She wanted to lose herself for a night.
And that would be a terrible mistake. She didn’t know this man. She was likely making a mistake by hiring him, but he’d come recommended and not simply by her father’s old lawyers.
The fact that he came from 4L Software made her believe he was as good as he said he was.
She would likely never know about the other stuff. The sex stuff. After all, he only had himself to recommend his talents. It wasn’t like he carried around a pamphlet with five-star reviews from his past lovers. He should. It could really help his cause. She could see it in her head. There would be a sexy pic of him on the cover and all his former lovers would talk about his superlative oral techniques.
“What are you grinning about?”
She shook it off. Her mind wandered to the oddest places at times. “Nothing. I should get home. Tomorrow’s a long day. I did appreciate dinner. It’s been a while since I went out like this.”
He took the paid bill from the waiter, who nodded her way. He’d been very kind and attentive. She hoped Riley tipped well.
Riley slid out of his seat and held his hand out, gallantly helping her up. “I intend to force you out more often, then. I know you think we shouldn’t have a relationship outside of work, but there’s a very good reason people like us end up with coworkers. We don’t have personal lives and we need someone who understands when all we talk about is work. You’re the boss. Do you really think you’re going to hop on the Internet and meet a guy who understands you?”
She was fairly certain no guy would understand her. “Maybe I’m doomed to be married to my company.”
“Somehow I doubt it.” He held an arm out. “Let me walk you home. I promise to keep my hands to myself. No funny business until you give in.”
He was going to kill her. She’d known the man one day, and she was already fairly certain she was going to regret not taking him up on his offer. But she was a businesswoman, and the truth was having a relationship with him could hurt her. She had to think about the goal. Once the buyout was finished and she had the stock she needed in hand, she could think about having a personal life.
Maybe.
She let the first cool blast of spring air slide over her skin as he led her up the stairs and back to the street level. When they’d gone in for dinner, the sun had been setting. Now it was past ten. She’d spent three hours sitting and talking with him. And they’d flown by, mostly with her talking.
It had been nice to be the center of all that attention for once.
She stopped. “It would be easier for you to get a cab here.”
He stared at her.
She put her hands up in defeat. “Fine. You’re the one who’ll be walking a block or two out of your way.”
“I don’t mind.” He settled in beside her, adjusting his longer gait to match hers. “I don’t have many nights like this.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you don’t date much, gorgeous.”
She could have sworn he flushed.
“Surprisingly, no. I don’t actually date very much. I travel a lot between Austin and here. The very long hours I put in don’t leave much time for dating. I had a girlfriend a while back, but it petered out. She started seeing some project manager. I got invited to their wedding,” he said with a little huff. “Naturally I was busy that weekend.”
She liked casual Riley. Somewhere in the middle of dinner, he’d relaxed. They’d still talked business, but something seemed to have calmed him, and he’d peppered in talk about his favorite sports—football and baseball. “So it hit you pretty hard, huh?”
He thought about that for a moment. “You know, I think what hit me was the fact that most of the people I knew in college are married and breeding like rabbits and I’ve never even lived with a woman. A bunch of guys from time to time, but never a woman. I barely manage to spend the night at a woman’s place.”
“I think the whole living-together thing might be overrated,” she admitted. “There is a whole lot of compromise. I wish I’d lived with Colin before we got married. I could have saved myself a ton of cash if I’d known he was one of those guys who lets toothpaste go everywhere. Put the cap on, dude.”
“Ah, messy, huh? I can see where that would offend.”
She rounded the corner that would lead to her building and found herself slowing down. “So did you share a house with a bunch of guys in college?”
She could see him in a frat house. He’d likely been the king of the campus.
“I lived in a group home as a teen. You think your ex-husband was messy. You put twelve basically homeless teenage boys together and see what happens. Not pretty. I think I actually developed some OCD from those days. I’m quite neat.”
It took a second for what he’d said to settle in. A group home. Not a frat house. “A group home?”
“Think of it as foster care for the too-old-to-adopt puppies. My parents died when I was twelve. I lived in two different group homes until I was eighteen.”
He’d been in foster care? “What happened at eighteen?”
“My brother had aged out before me and he took me in,” he explained in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’d been diligent about school and got a scholarship. Managed to avoid most of the pitfalls of our lovely system.”
“The pitfalls?” She was still reeling at the idea of him being so vulnerable.
“Drugs, physical abuse. Pretty much anything a desperate kid can do, I’ve seen happen. But I kept my head down, paid attention to school. My older brother was very insistent about schoolwork. He took his responsibilities very seriously. I’m fairly certain he was harder on my ass than my dad ever would have been. My father was actually kind of a softie. Well, I think he was. It’s hard to remember sometimes.”
She felt like her whole perception of him had tu
rned around. If she’d been asked, she would have said he’d had a privileged upbringing. All the right manners. All the right schools. His confidence alone made her think he was one of the entitled, though he wasn’t as obnoxious as some she knew. Suddenly, instead of simply a gorgeous, sexy guy in front of her she saw the boy he must have been. Alone. Afraid. Determined. “I don’t like thinking about you in a group home.”
She’d seen sex on a stick, but there was a human being under the beauty. All human beings ached and hurt. Some simply hid it better than others.
He stopped, his hand going to hers, and he looked down at her. “You’re far too tenderhearted, Ellie. But I don’t like to think about it much, either. I don’t know why I’m talking about it. I rarely talk about the past. The present and future are much more interesting.”
She glanced at the door. She should go through it, but found she didn’t want to leave him. Not like this. And if she kept talking about his past, she might start crying. Not a good thing to do in front of a man who would essentially be her employee. “Speaking of the future. Do you think we can get the buyout contract finished before the board meeting? I want to walk in with all my cards in hand.”
Business. She needed to remember to focus on business around him.
“I can try. The board meeting is in a month. Unfortunately, because Castalano tried to shove that clause in there, we’ll likely go back to the table. I’ll tell his team tomorrow that we won’t accept the contract as it is and send back a few demands of our own.”
“I don’t have any demands except that I give him the money for his stock and his backing of me as CEO.” Steven wouldn’t be on the board, but they would listen to him. If he went public with his backing, there would be an easy vote.
“We can put that in the contract, but he can always lie unless we hold off on transfer of funds and stock until after the board meeting.”
She didn’t want to play it that way. If she did it like that, she would look weak, like she’d bought her place, unsure that her partner would back her without a threat hanging over his head.
“No. I want to do it before.”
“I’ll try,” he promised. “But these are delicate negotiations and the press will be watching, so we have to be careful. We’re lucky it appears the sale of your sister’s stock was a private one or it would have been reported on. It still might be. It depends on who bought it and why.”
She could see the story now. If her own family was bailing, how could a young woman ever lead a tech company? The stock would suffer. She could potentially be out.
Damn, but she’d needed her sister’s vote. She’d put up with Shari, with everything she’d done, because since the moment she’d known their father was dying, she’d known she needed Shari to back her, and now she had to find someone else.
Of course, if she did sign that contract, Riley Lang became a voting member of the board. Perhaps all wasn’t lost.
“Hey, it’s going to be all right.” He was standing in her space, tilting her chin up to look at him. “No matter what happens, I’m going to take care of it. Try to remember that. Even if something goes wrong, I can make it right eventually.”
She wanted to believe him more than anything. She was feeling so alone, and he was offering her company, companionship.
“Tell me I can kiss you,” he commanded, his voice going low. “We’re off the clock. If you don’t want me to touch you at work, I won’t. We can keep this thing between us very quiet.”
“That would be incredibly unprofessional.” She meant the words as an admonishment, but they came out kind of breathy and sultry.
“Yes, but I really wouldn’t care. That’s what it means to be the boss. You do what you want, when you want it. I learned a very long time ago that if I don’t take what I want, someone else will. Take what you want, Ellie.” His mouth hovered above hers, so close she could feel the heat of his body, smell the mint on his breath.
It would take so little to go up on her toes and let their mouths meet.
But he didn’t understand what it meant to be female in the business world. She was under thirty and a woman. Everyone was watching her. Everyone was waiting for her to screw up so they could take her apart and split the company between them.
She didn’t get to follow her instincts.
He took a step back. “I’ll be ready when you are. Go upstairs. I’m not leaving until I’m sure you’re safely inside. I would walk up with you, but you aren’t ready for that.”
She wasn’t. Not at all. He was too much, too good to be true. She turned and fled like the coward she was.
—
“I’m surprised to see you.” Drew looked up from his laptop, squinting into the darkness that filled the Upper West Side penthouse he’d bought a few months back. “I thought you would be bedding down with her for the night. Did she not take the bait?”
The only lights in the place came from the floor-to-ceiling views of the Hudson and the lights beyond. Much like everything in his brother’s world, the penthouse always seemed to be in shadows.
So unlike the cheerful tiny place in Brooklyn Ellie called home. He’d been surprised at how small it was. Nothing but a neat, comfy-looking living room, a tiny kitchen, and a door that led to the bedroom he hadn’t managed to get into. He’d only been there for a few moments, but he couldn’t help compare it to his brother’s multimillion-dollar penthouse. It boasted the best money could buy and it had never once felt like home. Neither did the mansion in Austin.
“She’s shy.” She was so different from what he’d thought she would be. Not really shy. That was the wrong word. Cautious was a better one. “She’s well aware how it would look if she starts fucking her lawyer. I’ll get around it because she’s also very curious.”
She was a sensual thing. She’d enjoyed it when he’d touched her, but he might be moving too fast for her. She’d been burned before. It was only natural she be cautious about men.
He’d expected her to be hard, to take what she wanted. He’d expected the daughter of Phillip Stratton to be as ruthless as her father.
She wanted to make corporate America a better place? Who was she fooling? It was a naive thing to do, and it would get her booted out of the CEO spot quicker than she could show her board a business plan.
She needed a keeper, but it wouldn’t be him.
“You usually blast through caution.” Drew flipped the lid of the laptop down, and Riley noticed he had a glass of Scotch in front of him. It was one of Drew’s nighttime rituals. Only one glass. He would never allow himself to be out of control.
Riley bet Ellie would get silly after a few glasses of wine. She’d relaxed after the one she’d had, but if she felt comfortable, she would likely let herself get a little tipsy, a bit playful.
“I can tempt a woman out of a bar. She’s not a one-night stand.”
Drew sat back, glass in hand. “No, she’s not. She’s the mark and you would do well to remember it.”
“I’m sorry. What have I done in the few hours since we met her to make you believe I view her as anything but the mark?”
Drew took a long drink, draining half the glass before he put it back on the table. “I had dinner with our sister and her husband tonight. Case is an interesting man.”
Case was a hard ass for the most part. Case had been the one to train Riley over the course of the last year. He was the reason he was in the best shape of his life and now knew how to handle pretty much every weapon known to mankind. He also, it turned out, was a bit of a philosopher. “Did he give you a lecture on the pitfalls of vengeance?”
“Not at all. It was nothing like that, but he got me thinking. He was attentive to Mia. She practically glows around him. She’s happy. I was envious of her. If I’m envious, you and Bran will be, too.”
Shit. What the hell had happened to make his brother admit something like that
? Drew never admitted weakness. Not once. In all the years he’d been with Drew, he’d never seen him cry. “Mia’s different. She didn’t go through what the rest of us did. I don’t know that I’m capable of being happy the way Mia is.”
Drew stood and walked to the bank of windows, his large frame illuminated in the moonlight shining off the river. “Hence the envy, brother. I don’t know that any of us can be. I only know that we’re too close to turn back now. And I understand her appeal.”
“Ellie’s?”
“She’s lovely and far softer than I would have given a Stratton credit for. In person, she’s quite warm. Having read her history, I understand she’s been hurt before. You’re going to hurt her, Riley. You’re going to tear her up. Do you really think you can do it?”
He didn’t like hearing it put like that. “She’ll have the money at the end of this. Hell, she’ll likely still have the company. We’re merely going to force the buyout to take longer. Allow Castalano to get desperate. The truth is her company really does have an advantage with the coolant system she’s working on. Even if we tank the stock, she should be able to recover.”
“Unless someone swoops in and buys the place up,” Drew pointed out.
That was always a risk. “We can’t think about that. She’s a smart woman. I’ll be by her side. I’ll help defend the company against a hostile takeover if I have to.”
Drew turned, pointing a finger his way. “That’s what I’m afraid of. You’re already thinking about how to save her. You’re thinking about fighting by her side. You’ve known the woman for a fucking day and you’re plotting how to help her.”
“Do you not feel a moment’s guilt, Drew? Are you seriously so fucked up that you can’t see she’s innocent? Yes, we need to put Castalano in a corner and give him the justice he so richly deserves, but can’t we mitigate the damage to her? I’m not backing down. I’ll do what it takes, but if I can take some of the sting out of this, I will.”