by Alina Jacobs
"I see you're all hot and wet from the excitement of maybe being caught," he said, his voice low as he turned her around and unzipped his pants. He was hard from the smell of her. He pushed her skirt up and pushed her panties to the side, letting his finger make little circles in the slickness.
"Do you want me to fuck you, Liz?" he asked conversationally. "Your' office will never be the same. You'll always think of me when you're sitting at your desk."
"Please," she said.
He was so hard. He couldn't believe he was doing this. All for his company, right? He was unbelievably hard, though. He wanted this, and he wanted her. Wes bent her over the desk and pushed inside of her, the lace from her panties scraping against his dick.
She moaned as he slid in and out of her. He didn't know how much time they had. He was sure someone would come looking for her.
He thrust into her, hard and fast, a finger furiously working on her clit. She arched against him.
Liz's breath was coming in slight gasps every time he thrust into her. He put his free hand over her mouth. "Hush," he said. His own voice sounded ragged. Liz licked his hand, and he felt her buck against him.
It was the very definition of quick, hot, dirty, forbidden sex. She bit his hand as she came, and Wes thrust into her erratically as he came a few moments later. He slowly disentangled himself from her, and she turned around to stare at him.
She seemed shocked by the forcefulness of it. "I've never seen you lose control like that," she said, her eyes wide.
Wes smirked. "That wasn't me losing control." He patted her hair out of her face.
"Now that you're nice and relaxed, I need you to help me with something else."
"What is it?" She was looking up at him, her face flushed, her makeup slightly blurred.
Wes zipped up his slacks and rolled his sleeves back down. Then he pulled her close to him. "I don't want my company chopped up and sold for parts. I want to expand it, and I need your assistance."
"If all you wanted was a plan for growing your company, we could have sat down and talked about it like adults," Liz hissed, jerking away from him and neatening her clothes.
"I just wanted to fuck you first." He silently cursed at himself. He knew he shouldn't have listened to the Svenssons. He needed to salvage the situation. Grinning in what he hoped was a relaxed manner, Wes said, "I've always wanted to fuck you in your office. It was a slight detour. My apologies. Won't happen again."
"Well," Liz said, draping his tie around his neck and pulling him down by the silky fabric. "I didn't say that." She kissed him then stepped back to gaze at him. "Look, Wes, I'm always in your corner. If Walsh Systech grows, that's good for Holbrook. It also helps us if we are trying to entice other companies to sell. It means they trust us to help them reach their full potential."
Wes nodded.
"So," she said. "Let's talk business."
They went through various companies Liz had her eye on and drew up a plan that Wes thought would satisfy Svensson Investment.
At the board meeting later in the week, after everyone was seated, Greg Svensson looked at Wes pointedly and said, "We need to talk about the assets and the direction for Walsh Systech."
Wes stood up and buttoned his jacket. "Liz and I have been working on a plan for growing Walsh Systech." Liz pulled up the presentation they had prepared, and Wes talked through the list of startups they were targeting for acquisition as well as the revenue projections that took into account the new growth targets. Greg seemed satisfied with the results.
That evening, Liz and Wes were meeting his cousins and brother for dinner.
Rhonda and Mark were already waiting in the restaurant when they arrived. Wes didn't know if he would be able to spend a whole evening in Rhonda's presence.
The girls all sat on one side of the table, with the guys on the other. Wes ended up across from Rhonda, and he felt her bare foot slide along his ankle. Wes wondered if she meant it to be erotic. It just made him angry.
You could say something and end it. Rhonda kicked him as if she knew what he was thinking.
"Try this shrimp," Carter said, shoving a plate of seafood in front of Wes.
Liz beamed. "You guys look so great together," she gushed.
"They're like the four musketeers," Rhonda said.
"Scoot in. Let me take a picture," Liz told the Holbrooks. Wes's cousins and brother crowded around him. Carter ruffled up his hair. "Such an attractive photo." Liz laughed, and she reached over and patted Wes's hair back into place. Wes could almost have enjoyed himself if Rhonda hadn't been there.
49
Liz
"Dinner was fun. Wasn't it?" Liz asked Wes as they drove back together.
She wanted to ask if she could stay over at his apartment but wasn't sure if she should. Liz wondered about Wes's behavior. Surprising her in her office and that amazing display of lust. Did that really only happen because he wanted something from her? You're being paranoid. Allie's in your head. Wes probably just wanted sex. That was all. Wasn't that how men were? Once they were horny, they had a one-track mind. Liz needed to trust him and stop being so suspicious.
The car stopped in front of Liz's building. Wes stepped out with her and kissed her.
"Is this goodnight?" Liz asked.
Wes smiled. "I'm afraid I won't be much fun tonight," he said. "I have calls."
"Of course, I understand. I'll see you tomorrow."
Liz tried to creep quietly to her apartment, but she wasn't quiet enough, because the door down the hall opened. Liz sagged. Had Mrs. Burbank been waiting for her?
"That Holbrook's not with you?" Mrs. Burbank called.
"No," Liz said.
"Don't throw yourself at that Holbrook so much," Mrs. Burbank said as Liz unlocked the door. The elderly woman looked at Liz with disapproval. "You shouldn't give away the milk for free. The man's not going to buy the cow that way."
"Thank you, Mrs. Burbank," Liz said, opening her door and stepping halfway inside. "I promised my sister I would call her. I don't want to keep you. Have a good evening."
Liz could barely sleep that night. She was concerned about her relationship with Wes. Had she given away the milk too soon, she wondered. Was Mrs. Burbank right?
She knew that as soon as she saw Wes, all her fears would dissipate, but Wes had gone back up to Connecticut for some company emergency, and she didn't see him until the day they were slated to leave for the West Coast.
He picked her up outside of her building later that week. Liz kissed him and settled down in the car.
"We have to drop Kal off," Wes told her.
"Off where?"
They drove to a familiar tower.
"Allie's taking your dog?" Liz exclaimed.
"Sort of. Carter said he would," Wes said.
"I'm glad you're relying on your family more," Liz said. "That's great!"
Kal seemed excited to be back in the luxury tower. He wagged his tail furiously as Allie opened the door.
"We'll take good care of Kal," she said.
"Allie will probably teach him some tricks," Carter told Wes. He was sprawled out on the couch, sipping a toxic-looking green drink. "I'm detoxing," Carter explained. "I can't believe you two are working on a Sunday."
"The meeting is Monday morning," Liz said. "West Coast time makes scheduling weird."
Allie handed Liz a folder. "I made some notes on these companies. If we're folding in all these new startups, we need to make sure they have some sort of quality-control process in place. We can't pay millions of dollars for a company that's run out of someone's garage and propped up on bubbly venture capital."
"I agree," Liz said, flipping through the notes.
"Walsh Systech has to follow the same procedures too," Allie said to Wes. "I heard you all are going to start aggressively growing, but you cannot sacrifice quality."
"He knows, Allie," Carter said. "He's a CEO. He's not an idiot."
"You would be surprised," Kate said, coming int
o the room with Grant.
"I thought the newspapers had you two broken up and filing for divorce," Wes remarked. Kate shook her head. Grant looked annoyed. Liz couldn't believe Wes had brought it up.
"We're fine," Kate said. "We even started going to see a marriage counselor."
"That's a very adult thing to do," Liz said.
Kate looked at Liz in what almost felt like pity. Liz tried to ignore it. "If it's worth it, then you have to work at it," she said.
"You see, Grant," Carter said, "I have it all figured out. I don't argue—I do what I'm told."
"That is not a healthy attitude to have," Grant scolded.
"Plus you ignore me sometimes," Allie said.
"Not on purpose!" Carter exclaimed, jumping up and kissing her on the cheek. "I spent years in the marines. I'm practically deaf." Allie looked up at the ceiling. "You could learn a thing or two from me, Grant," Carter said, throwing an arm around his cousin. Liz stifled a giggle.
"I am so tired of living here," Grant muttered.
"When is your renovation done?" Liz asked.
"Not soon enough," Grant replied. "They can only work for a few hours a day because of noise ordinance and HOA bylaws."
"You should move in too, Wes," Carter said. "We can be one big happy family."
"No, thank you," Wes said. "Simone de Beauvoir said that the secret to a good relationship is separate apartments."
"Seems sensible," Liz said. Then she thought for a moment. "Though I wouldn't mind living with you, Wes."
"You don't want to keep any mystery in our relationship?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"You're not that mysterious," Liz said with a laugh.
She felt more at ease with Wes as they drove to the airport.
After they settled down in their seats, Wendy the flight attendant said, "We'll be taking off shortly. Then I'll hand out drinks."
"That's the nice thing about being part of the Holbrook family," Liz said. "The private jets."
During the flight, Liz pretended to work, but she was really watching Wes. He seemed completely at home on a private jet. With his fancy suit, impeccably styled hair, and his long legs stretched out in front of him, he looked like a model in a luxury car commercial. That made her like him even more.
It was late afternoon when they landed in Palm Springs. The hot dry air hit Liz as they stepped out of the airplane and made their way to the waiting car.
"This is the place we're staying," Liz said as the car pulled up in front of a large house.
"No hotel?" Wes asked as they approached the front door.
"There aren't really good ones in Palm Springs."
"It seems crazy that Vision Tech has their company here," Wes said.
"It's close to a lot of empty land they can test on," Liz said while Wes unlocked the door. "Plus I think one of them is the daughter of some Hollywood mogul. I'm sure they have property out here."
"This house is insane," Wes said as Liz followed him inside.
"It's very old Hollywood glam. I would love to live in a place like this," Liz said, spinning around on the black-and-white marble floors.
The marble was continued in a pool that was protected from the wind by glass walls. Wes didn't have any pressing calls, so he was free to relax with Liz in the pool.
"What are you thinking?" he asked her as they floated in the slightly cool water.
"This would make a great scrapbook page," she said.
They met with Vision Tech, the winners of the pitch competition, the next morning. It was still cold from the night before, but the sun was bright and hot. Liz knew it would be like an oven later that day.
The young women were professional but clearly excited to meet them. They kept stealing glances at Wes as he asked them questions about the technology and how they saw it fitting into the current market.
"I'm sure you have a lot of interest from investors," Liz said.
"Yes, but," one of the young women looked at Wes, "we really want to work with Walsh Systech. We're so impressed with the micro robots you all are developing. I think our software would integrate well, especially for search-and-rescue type operations."
"See, Liz," Wes said. "This is a perfect opportunity for growth." They discussed more of the particulars of the company, then they left.
The women giggled and waved as Liz and Wes headed off to visit a few other companies in the area.
"You sure are Mr. Popular," Liz said.
Wes threw an arm around her. "You're so jealous!" He laughed.
50
Wes
Palm Springs had been a welcome reprieve from the cold of New York City and the revenge scheme. Wes had almost been able to pretend that he and Liz were really partners, as opposed to him being the person who she would hate for the rest of her life.
"It's her fault," he told himself. "She stole the company in the first place. Remember your employees. This isn't about you. Just because you're fine doesn't mean that everyone else is."That was a sobering thought. To be unemployed so close to Christmas was terrible. What if one of his former employees killed himself. That would be on Wes. He had to finish this.
"Talking to yourself?" Grant asked as he came around the corner.
"Bad habit," Wes said, putting his phone away and following Grant into the conference room. He was arranging his notes as Kate and Liz walked into the room.
"It seems like a waste of time to keep meeting about this lawsuit," Walter muttered to Wes as the representatives from Harrington Thurlow walked into the room along with Hank. Wes glared at the man who had raised him.
"Are you sure we can't just settle?" Wes asked. "Is it really necessary to drag everyone through the press? Now you're bringing Grant and Kate into it."
"That wasn't us," said the lawyer.
"My father didn't want to face me on his own, I see," Kate said. Wes almost felt sorry for her. He knew what it was like to have a father who barely thought of you as a human being.
"Mr. Thurlow is a busy man," said the young lawyer.
"So they sent little baby Evan Harrington to come waste our time," Grant sneered. "I can't believe they didn't send someone whose balls had already dropped. I would be insulted if it weren't so pathetic."
Though he certainly knew Grant had a temper, he was still somewhat shocked to hear him talk like that. He exchanged a look with Kate.
The young Harrington looked annoyed. Grant smirked. "We both know this meeting is a formality," Evan Harrington finally said.
"What if Wes and Dana didn't go through with the adoption?" Liz asked. "If Hank was so keen on keeping his children, then you all would agree to that plus a settlement." Hank looked down at his water.
Wes hurriedly texted Rhonda.
I might be able to swing not doing the adoption.
Rhonda wrote back immediately.
No
Go through with the adoption
I have a plan.
Hoping no one was paying attention to who he was texting, Wes wrote back.
Why?
He could almost feel Rhonda smiling through the phone.
Because then if they die you inherit everything
When he looked up from the phone, Evan was still arguing with Liz about the adoption.
"It's not about us," the young lawyer said with a smirk. "He is not going to call off the adoption." He gestured to Wes.
Wes wondered if Rhonda had already talked to the lawyer. She seemed like she had her tentacles everywhere.
"You're right," Wes said grimly. "I don't want Hank to be my legal father anymore." He looked directly at his father when he said that, and he saw the hurt in Hank's eyes. "Hank was a horrible person. He was abusive and a drunk and unemployed through a large portion of my childhood." Wes could tell the blows were landing. His father's shoulders slumped. "The only reason you're drawing this out in the press is to keep from facing your own inadequacies about how you failed to keep control of your family." Wes wasn't sure if he was talking to his fat
her or himself.
"Wes, that's enough. I think we're done here," Walter said, standing up. "This was yet another unproductive meeting."
"Merry Christmas," Evan Harrington spat as he walked out of the conference room, Hank trailing behind him.
The next few days were a blur of meetings. Thankfully, Rhonda and Robert were out of the state. Wes didn't think he could handle any clandestine evening meetings. He would rather spend those evenings with Liz. He also tried to stay out of his apartment as much as possible. He had a creepy feeling in his apartment like he wa's being watched.
When Liz was busy or he didn't feel like she particularly wanted him in her condo, he spent the time taking Kal for long walks in the cold or sitting in his apartment in the dark, tinkering with his robots in the soft glow of a headlamp. The young women from Vision Tech had given him more ideas for robots that could do search and rescue.
That Saturday it started to snow. The Holbrook Foundation ball was scheduled for that night, but the snow looked light, so Wes didn't think it would be canceled. That was too bad. Wes didn't really want to go.
The dress was black-tie, and Wes had to purchase a tuxedo. After slipping on the starched pants, he adjusted the suspenders, trying to keep them from digging into his shoulders. He was tired of the suits. He wished he could wear work boots and canvas pants.
His phone beeped with a notification that the car was waiting. When he walked outside, pulling up his overcoat against the sleet, someone ran over to him.
"Mom?"
"Wes! My baby." She reached for him, but he stepped back from her.
"Are you stalking me?" he demanded.
"I was in the area, visiting Dana," his mother said. "I wanted to see you."
"I don't want to deal with you right now," Wes said in disgust.
"I need you to understand!" she pleaded. "I made a mistake. I didn't mean for any of this to happen!"