“Okay,” Jared replied with humility.
"Now, go and sort this mess out. You've got two weeks and I don't want to hear you threatening anybody. When the authorities show up for the investigation, let them in. Have I made myself clear?"
“Crystal,” Jared replied obediently.
"Good," Christian picked up Jared's unfinished drink and drank it up. When he was done drinking, he looked Jared fiercely in the eye. "Now get out of my office, I have an appointment," he said, glancing at Angie who he noticed to be letting out a relieved breath.
“Jared, one more thing,” Christian stopped him before he exited the office, “I also don’t want you anywhere near that TV station or the newscaster. Make that your first instruction.” He instructed him and waved him off as soon as he was done.
Angie looked away quickly and smiled weakly. She knew what that meant.
“Angie, I’m ready.”
*****
Alison Cooper barely stepped away from the live studio after casting the nine o’clock news, when the news editor, Maxwell Stone, approached her hostilely.
“Miss Cooper!” Maxwell screamed as if he would let his lungs out as he was approaching her.
His raised voice drew the attention of several crewmembers, but except for the fact he was interrupting them with his unpleasant, most weren't surprised at his demeanor. For so long, the rivalry between him and Alison was an open secret. And while she had tried to not inflate the volatile atmosphere around their working relationship, Maxwell was always trying to breathe down her neck and drive her nuts. But, for the fact he was an in-law to the CEO of the station's parent company, the management knew she was more valuable to them dead than he was—even if he was immortal.
Alison didn't bother at first when she heard him hollering her name as if she was ten miles away. But as he continued to call her out like a missing person in the woods as he was rounding the stairs that led to the platform she was standing, she irked.
She quickly signed the package that had arrived for her and instructed the courier man where to set it down before she turned to face Maxwell, looking very irritated.
Alison raised her hands to her hips, just as his eyes and hers made contact.
"Jesus! Maxwell, why are you murdering your voice when I'm right here? It's fucking embarrassing," she reprimanded him with a taunting voice.
"Don't even use that tone with me!" he snapped, and when he noticed their confrontation was drawing unwanted attention, he changed his mind on trashing out their issue right there. "My office. Now!" he demanded and walked past her, nearly arrogantly shoving her out of the way.
"Maxwell! What the fuck?" she cursed as she staggered to regain composure of her balance. "This has got to stop," she murmured angrily while straightening her navy blue suit.
“You okay?” her friend, Amanda Trevor, asked her in a very concerned tone.
When raised her chin to look into the worried face of her friend, her demeanor changed to be more welcoming, but she was still furious. Amanda was holding two cups of coffee. One was definitely for her.
She gathered her blonde hair and tied it into a bun at the back of her head. When she was done, Amanda handed one of the cups to her.
“Coffee?” she filled the silence between them with a question.
“Yes, please,” Alison collected the steaming cup from her.
She sipped slowly from it. “I’ve had enough of this shit,” she demonstrated her frustration referring to Maxwell’s attitude toward her. “How can he be so, so…gosh! I don’t even know what adjective to use now.”
“You should probably take a deep breath,” Amanda advised her.
“No, I’m not calming down yet,” she rebuffed her friend’s advice. “I need to tell him how exactly I feel, even it means baptizing his face with this hot coffee and retiring immediately,” she raised her left hand and dropped it before walking toward Maxwell’s office.
“Alison! You not planning a faceoff are you?”
“Watch me!” she hissed before turning right into a corridor after crossing a doorpost.
Alison walked right into Maxwell's office without a knock, and she left it open after pushing it to gain access.
Maxwell looked up from his Apple monitor as she walked right in, wearing her no-nonsense look.
“What the hell was that for?” she demanded referring to his shoving at the studio.
“You tell me why the hell you pushed a story before I vetted it?” he asked, completely ignored her question.
Alison folded her arms across her torso. “What exactly are you talking about?” she asked nonchalantly before compressing her lips.
Maxwell banged his fist against his office desk and sent some papers flying across it. "Cut the bullshit Alison," he fumed. "You know well enough that I'm talking about the SmartTech's alleged tax evasion news. I learned you were responsible for that. How do you plea?"
She scoffed. “What the fuck do you mean by ‘how do you plea’?” she asked him. “You don’t think I’m stupid to pick a story and read it without passing through the right channels?”
“I never got it!” he retorted.
“Yeah, right,” she uttered with sarcasm. “If you’d arrived to work when you should have, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You didn’t even bother to return my calls or at least reply to the email I sent over,” she said defiantly.
“That still didn’t give you any right to push that story into your news bulletin. That’s my decision to make, not yours.”
Alison waved her hand before him in an amusing manner. “Hello, sir,” she said with a hint of scorn in her voice, “I wasn’t going to throw away a golden opportunity for this station to break an allegation against one of the biggest company in the U.S. Well before FOX, The New York Times, and CNN just to stroke your ego,” she uttered in a quick tone.
"Do you have any idea how big this is for this station? You should be thanking me. WE BROKE THIS NEWS"
Maxwell reclined in his seat and shot her a disdainful stare. "You mean ‘YOU'?" he asked as his eyes hovered leisurely around her.
She raised her hands, dropped it frustratingly and heaved deeply. “Why do you have a penchant for always missing the point? Stop making it look like I'm after your job. What the fuck are you doing anyway?" she glared at him.
“Everyone is doing their best to raise this station,” she pointed around, “to a higher level to compete with the big boys in the news business. But you…” she scoffed, “I really don’t know. Do you know how stupid you sound making this all about you? You should be embarrassed.”
Maxwell applauded her contemptuously. "Nice talk," he said and wagged his finger at her. "Call me stupid all you want but remember this is on you when Mr. Terry comes to settle a score with us. That's if you're aware of what he's capable of doing to anyone who dares to drag his business into the mud without any evidence."
Angie rolled her eyes and laughed nervously, "C'mon I'm not stupid. I verified my source’s facts, and the management confirmed it too. But never to worry, I'm a tough girl, I can handle whatever Christian has in stock for me," she said closing the distance between them.
She rested on his desk with her hand and looked him closely in the eyes. "Now, let make this clear, don't let what happened out there repeat itself. You don't want to see the bad side of Miss Cooper," she warned him, brushing his shirt lightly with her long fingers.
“Are you threatening me?”
"Call it what you want, but I'm done taking your shit," she informed him in a clipped tone. "Now, if you don't mind, I've got work to do," she said and turned to walk out of his office.
“Enjoy your popularity while it lasts!” he shouted after her.
*****
Christian Terry scrolled through his phone slowly as he read Alison Cooper's profile online. She had not only read the news with an audacity that baffled him, but she was also the one to be in possession of the pieces of evidence that fingered SmartTech.
He was looking at more and more of her images and didn't seem to have seen enough when Angie dragged loudly on her soda with her straw to get his attention.
He peeked at her casually and looked back at his phone to save more pictures of Alison. He had no idea why he was doing such, but something about her kept drawing his attention.
Angie repeated her former action.
Christian sighed heavily, "What is it, Angie?"
“You’ve barely touched your foodr,” she reminded him. “What happened to your ‘I’m terrible famished’ mood?” she demonstrated amusingly.
Christian glanced at his food, dropped his smartphone on the table and rubbed his forehead. "I don't know," he admitted. "But this news is spreading like wildfire and I do not love the image it's casting on SmartTech," he said in a concerned tone and exhaled loudly.
Since the news broke the story, it had been on the top trend on Twitter, Facebook and popular blogs and websites. It appeared some of his rivals were sponsoring popular blogs to add new twists to the story. But what he feared most were lawsuits.
Although he had an army of highly placed lawyers to defend his companies, he still hated lawsuits, so much that he always tried to avoid them by every means possible.
He always wanted to go up the ladder, and anything that tried to interrupt that progress or shift the gear into reverse, he dealt it with it immediately. That was how meticulous and obsessed he was with his business empire.
Angie tilted her head at him a little and shot him a curious stare with a warm smile sitting on her beautiful face.
“What’s with all your performance?”
“Tell me, uh, which bothers you the most right now. The news or the newscaster?”
Christian frowned, “To be frank?”
"Mm-hmm," she replied in between bites.
“The newscaster,” he flushed.
Angie smiled broadly, and there was excitement in her eyes. "You like her, don't you?"
“Isn’t it crazy?” he uttered. “I should be mad, hunting her down to find out the source of her news. Instead, gosh, this is a mess.” He ran his hand through his hair and got up abruptly.
He caught Angie's sudden frown. "Shit. Sorry about the hair," he apologized and hastily tried to do a quick fix to it.
He was notorious for ruffling his hair, and she always tried to fix the damn thing before he walked into an official event or gathering.
She laughed heartily and waved him off, “Never mind. I’ll fix it before your next meeting.”
“Thanks,” he replied in a quick breath but shortly after he froze when his eye caught the image on the flat screen TV in the private section of the restaurant.
There appeared to be a disturbing skip in his heartbeat and when it resumed his heart drummed too quickly against his chest. It puzzled him.
Angie glanced toward where his eyes were fixated. She chuckled seeing it was Alison’s closed up shot that was all over the screen.
“So, would you like me to arrange a meeting between you two?” she asked, a teasing delight appearing in her eyes.
“Wait,” he appeared to be excitedly taking unexpected by her question, “you can do that for me?”
“Of course. Anything the boss wishes,” she winked at him. “One quick question though. Is this Hollywood’s love at first sight or what? Because I haven’t seen you so disoriented by one woman at a time when your company is going through a terrible peril.”
He brooded for a while. “Honestly,” he said, adjusting his chair to sit down, “I don’t know. It’s crazy, yes, but she intrigues me.”
Angie picked up her glass and sipped from it. “Well,” she said cradling the fragile glass between her fingers, “you have to tuck in all that simmering feelings into your pants on your first meeting.”
Christian frowned, his eye still casting glances to the screen. “Why’s that?” he asked curiously.
“Because it’s Alison Cooper we talking about here., She hates flirts.”
He frowned even the more, but the look in his eye said otherwise. "Is she gay?"
"Jesus, Christian!" Angie exclaimed. "I said she disliked flirts not men."
“Well, the thought was endearing.”
“Really?”
He drank up his drink.
“So, how soon can you make this happen?”
“Today,” she replied lazily.
Christian clapped his hands in excitement. "Awesome. Finally, something positive to look forward to," he said as Angie peered at her silver wristwatch.
"Time to go boss. We've got just ten minutes to fix your stubborn hair," she said and got up gracefully.
Christian followed her full length as she stood. His eye hung around her curves for a moment before he quickly stood up himself. She was a damsel—beautiful, very attractive and principled. He was so glad she had agreed to stay to work for him despite his advances at her some years back. But he has since learned his lesson and cultured his lustful appetite ever since.
“Add autocrat to that list,” she said as he followed her to the elevator to head downstairs.
“What list?”
She glanced behind at him.
“List of the kind of men she dislikes.”
"She's got nothing to worry then," he said. "Uh, is that all?" he asked seconds later as the elevator was opening.
“You’ll get to know more if you two ever become a thing,” she teased while walking into the elevator.
“Oh, that’s for sure.”
She cast a phony smile his way, “Don’t be so sure of yourself. Some women are allergic to your charm.” She chuckled and sniffed in deeply.
“Try me.”
“You smell exotic today,” she added seconds later giving him a fascinating look.
Christian smiled broadly when he looked into her eyes. "So do you," he retorted humorously and they both laughed.
His special line rang, and he quickly yanked it out of his pocket. Any call to that line was very important. When he stared at the caller id, it was Jerry.
“Jerry?” she asked him gently, watching his demeanor.
“Yes,” he replied her before picking up the call.
It was very odd for Christian Terry to be nervous about meeting a lady he was keenly interested in. He had dated all sorts of women in his entire forty-three years of living, but most of them bored him after a few months of their relationship. Others terminated their relationship when they couldn't keep up with him.
Angie had once teased him that he needed more than one woman at a time, to satisfy him and had considered it for some time but had never tried it.
Still, he had to admit he was nervous. And it heightened with every second that passed as he sat in the expensive restaurant, a few blocks from his tower, waiting for the one lady that he couldn't stop thinking about.
He wished they were meeting under a different circumstance. However, he still hoped to play their discussion in his favor, and if it didn't go well as he wanted, he wouldn't give up trying to win over her attention and affection.
His phone that he had been holding anxiously for so long beeped. It was a message notification from Angie: "Check your six," the message read.
Christian didn’t need any more interpretation of the words. Alison had arrived to the restaurant.
But before he could turn to watch her approach the table he had reserved for them, he could tell she was magnificent as the men around him suddenly had their eyes looking toward one direction.
Not a coincidence, he thought just as he finally turned his head and their eyes locked contact.
"Wow," was all he could manage as he drank up her breathtaking appearance with his eyes. Christian didn't know he had stopped breathing the moment he had set his eyes on her. But he knew one thing for sure. He knew the cameras had lied because she looked more adorable and beautiful seeing her person than he had observed watching the TV.
Right then he wished he had arranged somewhere more private because of the lustful thoughts
that besieged his mind. Angie had talked him away from the idea, because according to her, Alison might suspect he had a hidden agenda and turn him down or be too be too defensive. But the truth was, he had a hidden agenda—a lustful one.
Before now, the only pictures he had seen of her were close-up shots. Only one picture he found on a celebrity blog showed her full portrait, but that was on a red carpet over three years ago. What she looked like now, was nothing compared to that. Her physique was charmingly so luscious and curvaceous. He couldn't deny he wanted to devour her right there and his erection was rising to the urgency already.
His eyes panned slightly to Jerry who was sitting at the far end of the room, keeping an eye on him. Christian’s eyes were asking him if there could be a quick change of plans to their venue. But Jerry shook his head gently.
Damn! He exclaimed in his mind, as just as his hormones boiled to a higher degree. He felt an urgency to drive her to ecstasy after he had undressed and taken her into a paradise of pleasure with his steamy kisses and arousing fondling—a place she wouldn't want to return from.
“Mr. Terry?” her gentle but formal tone dragged him back to reality just she bridged the remaining distance between them.
Christian stood up and stared into the most crystal eyes he’d seen since he moved into the city. None of his exes had this heart-stopping effect on him. She was something, and he was determined to win her over by all means possible.
He outstretched his hand to greet her formally. “Thank you for honoring my request. Please have a seat,” he pointed toward a chair. But as soon their hands made slight contact, he felt an electrifying effect.
All Christian could imagine immediately was to have loud, kinky sex with her. He imagined Alison hitting high notes with every thrust he made into her. But those thoughts came at a price as his erection grew to the extent he felt uncomfortable, and he had to quickly sit before she had.
For a moment there, he thought he had caught her stare trail toward his groin. If she had, her eyes didn't reveal the usual glitter most ladies had whenever they caught a glimpse of his hardness.
THE HEALING HEART: Military and Pregnancy Romance Page 31