Counting the Kisses (Counting the Billions, #3)

by Lexy Timms

  Daniel answered a couple of questions good-naturedly and then led me forward with a hand at my lower back so that we could get in the building and get to work. He greeted a few people around the office as we entered, people he hadn’t seen since before the trial. Everyone wanted to congratulate him on getting out relatively unscathed.

  “So did you want to talk to me first about Thursday and Friday, or did you want to talk to Erin about the Duncan thing?” I asked in an undertone as we neared Daniel’s office.

  “I want to talk to Erin, but I want you to be there,” Daniel said, smiling over at me. “You’re my advisor, after all. I want to hear your read on the situation.”

  “You’ve already heard my read on the situation,” I pointed out. “I let the guy go.” I couldn’t help sounding defensive about it.

  But Daniel shook his head. “I’m not questioning what you did,” he assured me, his hand at my lower back again for one brief moment. It was the most we’d touched in the office, and I noticed a couple of grins out the corner of my eye. But I forced my attention to remain focused on Daniel.

  He lowered his voice even further. “I know the guys around the office trust me. But in light of what Duncan was asking about, I think it might be for the best if I’m not alone in my office with any of the women I work with if I can help it. Other than you, of course. Let them think what they will about that.”

  I snorted and shook my head. “If you keep the door open, though, surely no one will question that,” I said.

  Daniel shook his head as well. “I wish I could believe that. But the number of absurd things that the media has said about me at various points makes me a little worried,” he admitted.

  “That’s fair,” I said, nodding. I hadn’t thought about things that way.

  We headed into his office, and Erin followed after us at a word from Daniel. Daniel looked around with a grimace on his face. “I am so sorry I put you through all of this,” he said to me, gesturing around at the mountains of paper.

  I exchanged a look with Erin, and we both giggled while Daniel laughed. “All right, have a seat,” he said to both of us. “Erin, I’ve heard something about Friday’s incident, but I was hoping you could tell me exactly what Duncan said to you.”

  Erin nodded and outlined the situation again. I could feel my face flushed; I was still so embarrassed that I had let things happen the way they had. But I clung to the fact that Daniel said he would have done things exactly the same way if he had been the one in charge that day. I couldn’t let it bother me.

  Daniel nodded when Erin was finished, and I could tell that he was thinking long and hard about the situation. Finally, he shook his head, a grimace on his face. “I really wish there was more that we could do. But I’m afraid that Abby is probably right that it’s all press we don’t want at the moment.

  “That’s what we all think,” Erin confirmed, nodding at Daniel. She shrugged, a grin on her face. “Anyway, it’s not like he got anything damning out of any of us. We’ve never slept with you. Not much of a story there, unless he chooses to lie to the press about something. And if he does, then we can focus on a lawsuit to take him down over that. No harm, no foul.”

  Daniel nodded. He glanced over at me. “I also want to make sure we’re scheduling time in Abby’s and my schedule to get her more involved in the day-to-day CEO activities,” he said. “I don’t anticipate another lawsuit, but it bothers me that I didn’t anticipate this one and ended up having to throw Abby into the thick of things like that. I should have been more prepared. If I don’t want to bring in someone from outside the company to cover for me, then I need to make sure that I have a suitable stand-in here in the company.”

  “That makes sense,” Erin said, nodding. I could see the corners of her mouth twitching into a grin. She glanced at her watch. “You could start by bringing her in to the meeting with Mr. Dorsey this morning. They haven’t met yet. I don’t think anyone in the company has met Dorsey except for you and I. But if she ever has to stand in for you, well. You know Dorsey.”

  Daniel rolled his eyes. “I know Dorsey,” he agreed. “And that’s a great idea. I forgot we had a meeting scheduled for this morning.”

  “Who’s Mr. Dorsey?” I asked curiously.

  “He’s one of our biggest investors,” Daniel explained.

  “But he’s a little bit intense,” Erin whispered conspiratorially. “He basically doesn’t acknowledge anyone around the office except for Daniel. Says he doesn’t have time to be friendly with people.”

  “He’s nice enough,” Daniel interrupted quickly. “He’s not going to be rude to you or anything. He’s just, I guess, focused. Like what’s happening in his brain is the most important thing in the world, to the exclusion of all else.”

  I snorted. I was a little worried to meet this man, but if Erin and Daniel both thought it was a good idea, I supposed I didn’t really have much of a choice. Anyway, I wanted to be a CEO one day. That meant that I had to get used to interacting with different types of people. This was a great place to start.

  “Don’t be nervous,” Daniel whispered in my ear a little while later as we headed to the conference room where Mr. Dorsey was waiting for us. He was pressed in close to me, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. And then he was gone again, opening the door and gesturing for me to enter before him.

  I tripped over the threshold but managed to right myself before I toppled headlong into the room. Still, I was sure I was blushing as I held out a hand to Mr. Dorsey.

  “Bode, this is my advisor, Abby James,” Daniel said smoothly. I could see the hint of a grin on his face, but he kept his eyes on the investor. “I hope you don’t mind that she’ll be joining us for our meeting today?”

  “No problem at all,” Dorsey said, reaching out to shake my hand. But he was already turning back to Daniel. “So about those latest acquisitions.”

  They moved swiftly on to the business at hand, and I struggled to keep up. Daniel had briefed me on some of the business before we had come in to the meeting, but I still felt like I didn’t quite know enough about the company to keep up.

  Still, it was all interesting, and I made sure to jot down the questions I had for Daniel. I was sure I’d get a chance to ask all of them later. And despite the fact that on Friday I had felt sure that I would never actually be a CEO, that I wasn’t even sure anymore that was something I might want, I now felt tons more confident than I had before.

  Maybe it was just that I had Daniel by my side now. But I didn’t think it was just that. It was more his easy confidence in me, the fact that he thought it was worth training me up. The fact that he had so easily brushed off my mistake from the previous week.

  I smiled to myself as I continued to jot down notes. Maybe I could make it after all. I just had to believe in myself.

  Same as for my relationship with Daniel. Maybe we could make everything okay. Make everything work out. We just had to believe in it.

  Chapter 19

  Daniel

  AFTER LAST WEEK HAD been such a mess, I should have known that this week would feel ten thousand times better. Abby and I had shown up at work together every morning, and there had been no more uncomfortable media encounters for her. Not only that, but I had gotten to wake up next to her every day.

  Things were going well around the office, too. I had helped her to pass off some of the normal advisor duties to one of the other guys who worked in the office, and she had extra time to shadow me and learn more about the company from a CEO perspective. She was coming along well in her training, and I had to admit, I was pretty damned proud of her for everything.

  She was going to make an amazing CEO one day.

  Of course, she thought I was just training her up in case I needed her to take over for me for a few days in the future. Or for when she was ready to leave McGregor Enterprises and go on to another company. That wasn’t quite the case, but I wasn’t ready to have a serious conversation with her yet about how if I had my way, she
would work for my family’s business for the rest of her life—right by my side.

  I was selfish like that. I didn’t want all her talent going off to one of my competitors.

  There was a lot that we would need to talk about, but I didn’t want to make her any more nervous than I had to. Because she was nervous, I could tell. I didn’t know if it was because of her perceived mistake the previous week with Duncan or if she was just generally nervous about having all this responsibility one day, but I definitely noticed an uptick in her usual clumsiness. She would trip walking into the conference room or blurt out a question in the middle of a meeting and then slap a hand over her mouth. That kind of thing.

  She always looked embarrassed when those things happened. Then, she would give me a sheepish look, one that made me sure she expected me to kick her out of the meeting or something.

  But of course I wasn’t going to do anything like that. In fact, every little clumsy mistake she made just made me think she was even more adorable.

  “What are you thinking about?” Abby asked from across the table.

  I shook my head, grinning at her. “You,” I told her. “Have I mentioned that you look particularly beautiful tonight?”

  Abby blushed and ducked her head. “You might have,” she said, but I could tell that she was pleased with the praise. And I wasn’t just saying it to be nice. I had asked her to come out to dinner with me and told her that I wanted to take her someplace fancy. But I still hadn’t expected her to pull out the stops like she had.

  She had left her blonde hair in loose waves that fell down around her shoulders, and she was wearing a stunning backless dress in lipstick red. I could just see a bit of a lacy black bra peeking out from the low-cut neckline, and I wanted nothing more than to drag her home with me.

  It was definitely a change from the way she dressed around the office. And I would never ask her to dress like this all the time. I liked her relaxed look around the house, and I liked the professional look she had at work. But this—I definitely wasn’t complaining about the way she looked tonight. If it hadn’t been as fancy a place as it was, I might have dragged her off to the bathrooms to have my way with her there.

  Of course, if it hadn’t been as fancy a place as it was, she probably wouldn’t be dressed like that.

  I watched Abby shiver a little, and I frowned. “Are you cold?” I asked.

  “No,” Abby said, shaking her head. “It’s just that the way that you’re looking at me...” She leaned forward, lowering her voice. “I think we can do without dessert. I’m not going to last much longer with you looking at me like that.”

  I laughed. “I was thinking exactly the same thing,” I told her.

  We finished up our dinner, chatting easily about the things we could do together that weekend. I didn’t care what we did as long as I got to spend time with her. I still couldn’t help thinking back to the previous weekend, when she’d been ignoring my calls. I definitely didn’t want to go back to that. Anything else would be preferable.

  “Sir, I just wanted to let you know that there are a number of photographers out front,” the maître d’ informed me in an undertone as we were putting on our coats. “Our guys are, of course, doing their best to manage the situation, but it might be advisable for you and your lovely dining companion to leave through the back."

  I glanced over at Abby, who was smiling at us. She shook her head slightly. “It’s all right,” she said. “Let’s give them a few photos. Maybe it’ll help cover up all the bad press from last week.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked, remembering what she had originally said about wanting to stay out of the media’s eye. For a second, my mind flashed back to Ivy. But that was ridiculous. There had never been a time when Ivy didn’t want to be in full view of the media. And besides, what Abby said about covering up the stories from the trial made sense.

  Because there had been plenty of stories all week. I hadn’t really read through any of them, not even the ones that Austin had forwarded over to me. For some reason, that week it had been easier to just ignore all of them. I could imagine, by now, the kinds of things they might be saying about me. And I realized I just didn’t care.

  If people wanted to believe the media about me, so be it. The people that I worked with knew the real side of me. People like Abby would never believe the shit that was there in the tabloids about me. I just needed to surround myself with more people who didn’t care about all of that garbage. Keep reminding myself that if people didn’t want to do business with me over all of that, they probably weren’t the kinds of people that I wanted to do business with anyway.

  Abby smiled at me. “Look, I’ve been thinking about this. And it’s up to you—if you want to sneak out the back then we will. I just think that if we control more of our narrative, give them a few good images of us together and give them tame stories about the two of us, it’ll keep them happy without them going wild speculating on all sorts of crazy things. They’ll have their column about our date night, rather than making up some stupid shit about how we do business together.”

  “That’s a good point,” I said, nodding at her. “If we show them that we have nothing to hide, they’ll realize that we have nothing to hide.” I grinned. “Although I do like the idea of running out the back with you. It seems more exciting.”

  Abby snorted and gestured down at her outfit, including her heels. “I’m not fit to be running anywhere tonight,” she pointed out. Then, she winked at me. “But I’m pretty sure I make suitable arm candy for the hottest young billionaire in Chicago?”

  I laughed and pulled her into my arms for a moment, kissing her. “You always make suitable arm candy, as far as I’m concerned,” I promised her. I pulled away, and she finished buttoning up her jacket.

  “All right, let’s go,” she said.

  There weren’t as many photographers out front as I had expected, although we were both nearly blinded by flashbulbs the second we walked out together. I looped an arm around Abby, pulling her close and steadying her in case she had any of those clumsy jitters I had seen around the office. I tried to smile rather than grimace at the blinding lights. It was easier when I glanced down at Abby at the same time that she smiled dazzlingly up at me.

  “They’ve got their photos—now take me home,” she demanded in an undertone, startling a laugh out of me.

  We headed over to my car, where the driver was waiting. Together, one after the other, we slipped into the back seat. Abby giggled as we pulled away. “So that’s what it’s like to feel like a movie star, I guess,” she said.

  I shook my head, making a face. “Sorry about that. Again,” I said.

  Abby shrugged. “It wasn’t your fault,” she pointed out. “And anyway, it was my suggestion that we actually let them take some photos.”

  “A brilliant suggestion, too,” I told her, brushing back a lock of her hair. “Yet another example of what a great CEO you’ll make one day.”

  Abby blushed and ducked her head. “That’s a long way off,” she said.

  I leaned in and kissed her, and she moved eagerly against me. As we kissed, I couldn’t keep myself from unbuttoning her jacket, my fingers tracing the low-cut neckline, touching the edges of her breasts, that teasing bit of lace I’d caught flashes of all evening.

  “You drive me wild,” I told her between kisses.

  Abby smirked at me, reaching down to fondle me in my slacks. “I’d noticed,” she said, and I groaned.

  “You don’t know how many unsexy things I had to think just so that I could stand up and walk out of there without embarrassing myself,” I admitted, and she laughed.

  “There are definitely times when I’m glad I’m not a dude,” she said.

  “I am very glad you’re not,” I joked, pulling her in for another heated kiss, my hand making its way up her inner thigh so that she squirmed against me. “Number one reason to hire a driver.” I laughed as Abby straddled my lap suddenly, grinding down against me.


  She giggled but didn’t stop moving against me, her panties dragging along the tip of my still-clothed erection. I growled and looped a hand around the back of her neck, pulling her down toward me so we could continue sloppily making out. I barely noticed when we reached my house.

  Finally, I released her. “Inside. Now,” I panted. Abby wasted no time in scrambling out of the car and waiting for me to lead the way.

  I grabbed her the second we were in the foyer with the door shut behind us. I pinned her back against the wall, my fingers back between her legs, pushing her panties out of the way so that I could finger her open. There was no way I could make it upstairs with her right now. I felt like my whole body would combust if I didn’t get inside of her right now. And from the breathy moans that she was making, I was sure she was in complete agreement.

  I unbuckled my slacks, freeing my prick from its confinement at long last, gasping when Abby reached down a hand between us so that she could tug me to full hardness. I scooped her up into my arms, pressing her back against the wall, and thrust into her.

  Chapter 20

  Abby

  I GASPED AS DANIEL lifted me into his arms right there in the hall, driving his hard cock into my slick entrance. It was what the whole night had been working toward, really. When Daniel had suggested on Wednesday afternoon that we should go out for a fancy dinner on Friday evening to celebrate the end of the trial and the start of my good training toward one day becoming a CEO, I had hatched the plan to dress as nicely as I could.

  I had enlisted Leanne’s help to find the perfect dress on Thursday evening after work. Her jaw had dropped when I’d walked out in this red number, and I knew that it was the perfect choice.