I turned my attention to my computer, hoping my lack of interest would shoo Jamal away.
"Indie, look at me."
I rolled my eyes.
"What?"
"We have to think about the future of the company."
"I am thinking about the future which is exactly why I want to get back to work."
"The executive board has been working to make a $300 million acquisition from the Harkness family. With their infrastructure and their reach in the rural sector, it's an acquisition we can't afford to screw up."
I grinned, "That's your realm, isn't it Jamal? So don't screw it up. I know you can do it."
"Will Harkness might be more ameliorative to our proposition if he had a vested interest in the success of Holloway Inc."
"Are you suggesting I date Will Harkness so we can acquire his company?"
Jamal smiled, "No. I'm suggesting you marry him."
"Jamal!"
"I've spoken about it to Will's people and he's willing to cut you a deal that would make you think twice about your reaction."
"Cut me a deal? So he's trying to buy me?"
"Not buy you. Make an arrangement."
"Funny how women are always supposed to be property in these arrangements."
"It's not like that, Indie."
My temper bubbled over the edge.
"Then what is it like, Jamal?"
"It's an arrangement, like I said. One you could stand to benefit from."
He pulled a folder out of his jacket pocket and slid it across the desk.
"I'm not reading that."
He opened the folder.
"It's a prenup. Take a look."
"A prenup!? Jamal, have you lost your goddamn mind? Have you told mama what the hell you're up to?"
Jamal clenched his jaw.
"Read it, Indie."
I scanned the first few pages of the prenup. After the third page, I felt sick. It wasn't that the offer was bad. Will Harkness offered $5 million cash as well as $2 million in stock options for the marriage. For every child I bore of the Harkness name, he'd add an additional $1.5 million to my investment portfolio.
I would never have to work again -- ever. I'd leave behind Holloway, Inc. And turn into an upper east side housewife.
I slammed the folder shut and slid it across the table back to my brother.
"I am not for sale, Jamal," I hissed.
His eyes narrowed. Our disagreement had the trimmings of bubbling up to one of our childhood disagreements.
"Think strategically for once, Indie."
"Right. Brilliant strategy to sell me to an old man."
"Will is only ten years older than you."
"That's too old."
"What about his son?"
"Are you listening to yourself?"
"Indie, this is important," Jamal uttered through grit teeth.
"My life is more important than a business proposition, Jamal."
He leaned forward and whispered, "If you're going to keep being this difficult, I could have you sign this by force."
I matched his intensity.
"If you do that Jamal, I will ensure you regret it."
He chuckled, "How? I'm the CEO of the company. I manage the family wealth. I could have you out on your ass scraping by to make rent like the rest of them."
I snorted, "You're arrogant."
"I'm intelligent. And I know what's best for this company. I would do anything to put this company first."
"Why don't you marry Will Harkness then," I replied with a smirk, "it's not like it's illegal."
"I'm not laughing, indie."
"Jamal, take this piece of paper and get the hell out of my office. The answer is no."
He rose, indignant and pushed the folder further onto my desk.
"Watch yourself, Indie. Pops made difficult decisions for this company, and I'll do the same."
"You can't force me to marry someone, Jamal. You don't have the power."
"I didn't have the power. Now I do. I'll handle what our father was always too much of a sap to do and I'll ensure that Holloway Inc. Crushes the Carmichaels. I don't need your help to do it."
He turned and left, leaving a frigid disturbance in my office. I wasn't worried about Jamal's threat at first but seeing that cold, determined look in his eye and knowing he had everything it took to make my life a living hell sent chills down my spine. He was right. In the past, he wouldn't have had the power to do anything to change my life. Without our father to keep his unbridled ambition in check, he might actually be so crazy as to force me into a wedding.
Mama was too old to stop him now. And he'd ensure she knew as little as possible. I tossed the folder into the trash. Jamal couldn't change my mind. I wasn't marrying Will Harkness.
My phone buzzed and startled me.
Rich, again.
-- Still there?
-- I need to see you.
-- I knew you couldn't resist.
-- Not about that.
I shoved my phone into the desk and plugged in my headphones to get work done. For a few hours, I could pretend Jamal's marriage proposal and threats didn't get to me. I couldn't ignore the concern brewing in my chest. I knew my brother. I knew he'd succeeded at everything he put his mind to and he hadn't let his Holloway name distract him from his goals of achieving his own success.
There were times when he'd called out my father's weakness when it was clear he craved more for us than sloppy Carmichael seconds. We could all agree the Carmichael family was dangerous, cruel, thieving and manipulative. Jamal didn't just believe that. He believed they needed to suffer for what they'd done, for how much they'd taken from us.
All the money in the world wasn't enough for Jamal. He craved dominance. He craved power. He would stop at nothing to turn Holloway into a household name and he planned to do so at the Carmichael family's expense.
I understood how important the Harkness merger was. With their resources, we'd sky-rocket our financial growth and thrust the family business into a new era of global tech dominance. The prospects were too shiny to resist and there was no room for failure in that gamble. Any added security for a successful acquisition would be hard to resist.
But I wouldn't put my life on hold to save the company. Jamal's ambition might have blinded him to one important fact: I had ambitions too. And none of those ambitions involved becoming a prisoner to Will Harkness.
By the time I finished working, the office building was quiet. There were only two lights on mine and Jamal's. I wondered if he was waiting for me to leave, but I couldn't bring myself to meet Rich yet. Jamal hinted at danger, a plan that would only end badly for me. If Jamal moved any closer to marrying me to Harkness, my best bet would be disappearing...
And what about the reason I wouldn't marry Will? The real reason? The reason that nagged on my mind and forced me to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth that I'd been desperate to deny?
Rich Carmichael.
I hadn't expected to find myself intertwined with the playboy. His irresistible lips, his cocky attitude and his instant lust for me had pushed me into unfamiliar territory. With Rich there were no games; there was no need for me to fit myself into some box for him to understand who I was.
I could be Indie Holloway: the heiress and the businesswoman. Rich wasn't like Will Harkness. He didn't need the woman by his side to sit on a shelf collecting dust like a porcelain doll. He accepted me, he opened up my wild side. I unraveled in Rich's arms in a way I'd never done before.
I'd never fallen for someone so hard and so fast...
"Love at first sight" doesn't begin to describe it. Love at first kiss, maybe. If this could even be called love...
Whether our encounters had been romance or lust, they'd weighed on me every moment I was away from him. As much as I tried to deny myself the pleasure of his touch and the pleasure of his lips sliding across my skin, I couldn't. I had to reply to him. I had to meet him again.
Rich was a contradiction. He was streng
th. He was the part of me that I never allowed anyone in my ambitious screwed up family to see. Rich was the part of me exhausted from the competition, exhausted from being a caged little bird, serving only the needs of the great Holloway, Inc.
What about me? What about Indie?
Rich was the only man I'd met who cared about that.
I packed my things and left the office, sending Rich one final message.
-- Leaving work now. Can't wait to see you.
Jamal didn't own me. And he never would.
Runaway
RICH
"You're angry."
She dropped her purse on the chair and shrugged her pea coat off her shoulders.
"Angry doesn't begin to describe it."
"Nice heels. Sexy. Your ass looks great in that dress."
She smiled.
"Thanks. My ass is the last thing I want to talk about."
"Right. The anger. Come."
I wrapped her in a hug and kissed her forehead, then her cheek.
"Killer work day?" I asked.
"You can say that."
"Were you followed?"
"Not this time."
"Good."
I leaned down and kissed her.
"Feel better?"
"A little. I need another one."
I kissed her again.
"Mm. Perfect."
She pulled away but kept her arms wrapped around my shoulders.
"It's... my brother."
"Jamal?"
She nodded.
"What's wrong?"
"I know you two used to be close but... he's different, Richard."
"How so?"
"He's drunk off of power. He's losing his mind."
"What did he do?" I asked.
"He wants me to get married."
I chuckled, "Really? Does he have a man in mind."
She scowled.
"He doesn't know about us..."
"I know."
"He wants me to marry Will Harkness," she finished.
"That old bastard?"
She sighed and dropped her arms.
"Yes. They're making me an offer I can't refuse."
"Are you considering it?"
"No!" She huffed.
Her lips pouted as anger flooded her face. Her indignation expressed itself in a thunderous response.
"Jamal doesn't own me! I could ruin him, Rich. We could ruin him."
I chuckled.
"Come on. You're angry Indie, but you don't believe what you're saying. You're a Holloway."
"Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I've been reminded of my duty every damn day of my life?"
"Indie, calm down."
"No! I won't be calm! I'm sick of this. I'm sick of you powerful men thinking you can tell women what to do. I don't need a man to tell me how to live my life and who I can live it with, Richard."
"I know."
She glanced over at me and for once, saw that I was on her side. When we were locked away in our hotel rooms it didn't matter who our families were. I saw the longing in her eyes, the desire for what we had to be more than clandestine. Neither of us was in a position to fix that. Not yet.
"What should I do, Richard?"
"Call his bluff."
"You think he's bluffing?"
She moved over to the bed and kicked her heels off, emitting a loud sigh.
"I don't know. Harkness is a notorious bachelor but he wants to settle down. I know that."
"With me? Why me?"
"Politics."
"Politics, love, money... none of them have any business with each other."
"That's not the way the world works."
I joined her on the bed, pushed a curl of hers out of the way and kissing her cheek.
"What about us Richard? If he forces me to do this, what are we going to do?"
She tilted her chin to the ceiling, closed her eyes and sighed, exposing the nape of her neck. Her soft burnt Sienna flesh stimulated the sudden urge to kiss her.
"You don't want to marry Will?" I asked.
"Of course not."
"But you do want to marry?"
"Someday."
"And this... us... if this is important to you, what are we doing here?"
"I don't know."
She glanced at me inquisitively.
"Making a mess of things?" She asked.
I laughed.
"If we're making a mess of things, being a mess has its perks."
"Not if we get caught."
"We won't get caught," I assured her, "and I won't like a bastard like Will Harkness steal away the most attractive woman in Manhattan."
She laughed.
"Really? The most attractive?"
"Without a doubt."
"How the hell did we end up here, Richard?"
"I don't have a fuckin' clue."
I kissed her then and she melted into my arms. My body ached with need for her. I reached back for the zipper on her dress.
"I think it's time we take your mind off things."
"Please..." she whispered, "ruin me..."
She hungered for her own undoing. I knew better than anyone what sort of life she'd had. Her family name had become everything to her. She hardly knew who she was if she wasn't Indie Holloway. She and I craved the same things -- to transcend our family name and destroy every bit of ourselves that belonged to our family so for once, we could become our own people.
I could be more than Richard Carmichael, III. She could be more than Indie Holloway.
Lust preceded our undoing. When we lay in bed together, we defied the very foundation of our family names. Our prejudices dashed against the earth and without all those walls and barriers and ambitions and family names when we were finally undone, only then could we truly be happy.
The zipper slid down her spine, exposing her warm flesh to me. I stripped it off her hips and positioned her on her back, electrifying every inch of her skin with kisses. She reached for her bra and exposed her gorgeous breasts to me once again. I never tired of her curves.
"Take those panties off..."
She giggled and slipped them off. I spread her legs, kissing her thighs and then burying my face between them. Indie gasped as my tongue slid between her folds. I pressed her thighs back, allowing myself greater access to the slickness between her thighs.
"Delicious..."
My tongue lapped at her folds, pushing her to the edge of an intense orgasm within moments. She moaned, grasping the bedsheets and thrashing her head against the pillow as her chest heaved and rocked with her shuddering breath. She whimpered and I drove my fingers between her legs to join my tongue in pleasuring her. She moaned and climaxed a second time.
Desire pulsed through every inch of my skin and I couldn't hold back a moment longer. My cock surged to attention and my mind was filled with one all-consuming thought.
"I'm going to fuck you so hard, they'll kick us out of the hotel..."
I rolled a condom onto my hardness and spread her legs wide, preparing her for entry.
I slipped inside of her with the ease of a hot knife slicing through butter. My weight pressed into her thighs, and my chest pressed to hers. Her heart raced, pumping into my skin. She moaned as each inch slid deeper and deeper until I'd buried too deep inside her to go further. I moved slowly at first, allowing her time to adjust to my girth.
Her nails clawed into my back as she adjusted to my massive cock. My hardness stiffened and I drove my hips into her with a steady rhythm. She moaned as she came unseated beneath me. Whatever stiff, put-together parts of Indie had existed before now unraveled between her legs. She gripped my buttocks and squeezed me deeper into her.
I plunged into her with shattering precision, squeezing my engorged organ along the most sensitive parts of her passage. She pleaded with me to go deeper as she writhed like an eel beneath me.
"Yes, Rich," she moaned, "Fuck me..."
I obliged, pounding into her deeper and succumbing
to the wild taboo that was our interaction. She climaxed beneath me, tilting her head back as she moaned in pleasure. Her howls and her writhing slammed the bed against the wall creating a euphoric cacophony of uninhibited female desire.
I yanked on her hair, pulling a tuft of it back to expose her neck. I grazed my teeth along the sensitive bit of flesh as I continued to pummel her. She exploded again in the throes of pleasure and my stiffness continued to delve into her simmering depths. Her wetness gripped me tight and her heat intensified with each deep thrust.
As she shuddered in relief from another climax, I slowed my pace to accommodate her catching her breath. She whimpered and her chest heaved as both of my hands gripped her hips and I slid into her tightness.
"Cum for me..." she whispered, the words floating through the air like cotton in the summer.
I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers. Her brown skin and my own pale skin were both slick with sweat. I grunted as I thrust into her with slow but deep strokes. I grunted as I lost control and edged my way to a volcanic finished between her legs.
She grasped for my back.
"Yes, Richard... Take me, daddy. Take me..."
Her sultry whispers and her writhing exposed body beneath me pushed me over the edge. I grunted as I finished inside her.
Breathless, she whimpered again, "Take me..."
I grunted again as my cock stiffened and then expunged even more between her legs. I'd arrived at my explosive finish and all I craved was to remain inside her, to keep our bodies intertwined and pressed together. She wrapped her legs around me, drawing me closer and touching her lips to mine.
I closed my eyes and kissed her back, indulging in her floral perfume and the scent of starched linen that lingered on her skin. Her lips reached for mine and I obliged her with another kiss as I removed my organ from between her legs. She moaned as my member left her vacant. I rolled onto my back, desperate for my breathing to return to normal.
"You make me wild, Richard."
"You were wild when I met you."
She giggled.
"Not this wild."
"You can be wilder than this you know?"
"What are you talking about Richard?"
"You and me. We don't have to let anyone push us around. We don't have to allow anyone to force us to keep this secret."
Her eyes widened in terror.
Alpha Bait_BWWM Billionaire Romance Novel Page 6