Impossible (to Resist) Boss: Billionaire Romance

by Arabella Quinn

  By the time I made it to the front door, I was breathing heavily. The last thing I expected when I heaved open the giant door was to be greeted by a throng of well-dressed attendees. So much for the enclosed vestibule I was envisioning. The door opened into an enormous and ornate hall where dozens of people were still milling about and just about every one of them turned to stare at my abrupt entrance.

  A young man quickly approached me. “Miss, this is a private party. I’m sorry, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

  I heard a few titters of laughter around me. “No. I’m not here for the party. Jason Kaine asked me to come –”

  “You’re a guest of Jason Kaine? Do you have an invitation?” he looked me up and down skeptically.

  I shook my head. “No, no. I’m not a guest. Mr. Kaine asked me to bring him something. If you could just make sure this gets delivered to him…” I held out the folded sheet of paper with the speech on it for his inspection.

  The man ignored my offering. “You don’t have an invitation? I’ll have to check with my supervisor about this.”

  “No, I don’t want to go into the party. Just give this paper to Mr. Kaine – he’s waiting for it - and I’ll leave.”

  The man grabbed my arm and guided me away from the front door next to another security guard stationed at the side of the hall. “I can’t disturb the guests. I’ll have to check with my supervisor. Stay here until I get back. Rudy, watch this lady while I check with Wallace.”

  I sighed with frustration as he walked away. “Hurry! Mr. Kaine is waiting for this.”

  I tried valiantly to ignore all the attention I was attracting as I stood in my pajamas being guarded by Rudy. It was becoming more than a bit uncomfortable. As soon as I could pass the speech off and be sure that it would get to Jason, I was so out of there.

  I saw him only seconds before he spotted me. Holy shit! He looked hot. Melt your panties kind of hot. I had never seen him in a tuxedo before - maybe in media photos, but never in person. And the woman clinging possessively to his arm looked pretty good, too. Red carpet dress with plenty of cleavage showing, sex kitten makeup and gorgeous upswept curls. The pair would make the picture-perfect romance novel cover.

  I don’t think I could have ever regretted the pajamas more than at that very moment, but there was absolutely no time to escape.

  Jason had spotted me almost immediately. “Lilliana. I knew you’d come through for me.”

  I felt like a cornered mouse as the glamorous couple approached me.

  I had been worried sick for Jason and yet, he didn’t look the slightest bit ruffled. “I thought you had to give the speech in 40 minutes? Did you miss it?”

  “No,” he smiled cockily. “I asked the organizers to slow things down a bit. No problem. Did you find it?”

  I felt irrationally aggravated with him again. I glared at him. “Yes. And I dropped everything to get it to you as fast as I could.”

  Jason’s eyes narrowed. “And again, I really appreciate it.”

  “Do you?” I couldn’t back down from the childish standoff we seemed to be having.

  Jason’s date, the one who had summarily dismissed me the moment she set eyes on me, was getting bored. “This is your secretary?”

  “Executive assistant,” Jason corrected.

  “Whatever,” the woman dripped contempt. “Could you get me a refill?” She held out her empty champagne glass to me.

  My mouth gaped open with outrage, but a reply sufficiently scathing didn’t come to mind quickly enough. Interestingly, Jason seemed equally annoyed by the woman, if I was reading his body language correctly.

  He turned to her. “Mara, why don’t you head back to our table? I have to make my speech any minute now, so I’ll join you after. Okay?”

  Mara seemed reluctant to leave his side, but he firmly started her on her way before turning back to me. “What’s wrong?”

  Great! If I started complaining now, it was going to look unprofessional. He really put me in an awkward position. “Nothing.”

  “You’re angry with me. I can tell.”

  I felt like his eyes were piercing right into me, almost reading my mind. Suddenly, I felt the need to justify myself. “No. It’s just that I was busy. It’s a Saturday night…” I trailed off lamely.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll compensate you generously. This was a real life saver, Lilliana. But, I’m truly sorry I disturbed your evening.”

  Jason gave me a slow sexy smile and in an instant, everything changed. The energy crackled around us like a live wire. My heart was hammering in my chest while the blood felt warm and sluggish in my veins. Something in me, that I had absolutely no control over, was responding to Jason’s pure magnetism in a completely sexual way.

  I remembered that I wasn’t wearing a bra when I felt my nipples harden against the thin fabric of my sleep shirt. Oh Lord! His eyes flicked downward to my chest, and his smug, self-satisfied smile told me that he definitely noticed. His eyes lingered on my breasts and I didn’t think that my nipples could possibly ache any more than they already did.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Heartbreaker?”

  “What?” My brain was barely functioning. I was like a star-struck teenager ready to melt into a puddle at his feet.

  “Heartbreaker… your shirt…”

  I looked down at my shirt and read the words emblazoned in gold inside the giant red heart plastered across my chest. ‘Heartbreaker’. Oh God, he wasn’t checking out my irresistible breasts, he was just reading my juvenile pajamas. I felt my cheeks flame.

  I awkwardly shoved the speech at him. “Here.”

  He took it. “Thanks again. Now you can get back to your very busy evening.”

  Was he mocking me? The man was insufferable. “Yes, I need to get back. I left … in the middle of something.”

  I thought I saw a flicker of annoyance flash in his eyes. Why was I implying something that was patently untrue? And why did I even consider for a moment that someone like Jason would care one bit? I was delusional. He was heading straight back to the lovely Mara and had already forgotten my existence.

  Chapter 4

  Jason rubbed his eyes wearily. Things were getting worse. In nearly as many months, four lucrative contracts had fallen through. Each time, he was getting undercut at the very last minute. Damn. He wasn’t going to be able to hide this from the board members for much longer.

  At first, he had just thought it was bad luck. He couldn’t be successful 100% of the time – statistics just wouldn’t allow it. The second deal that fell through was more alarming. It had been rock solid. Until it wasn’t. Again, it had unexpectedly imploded at the last possible minute, before he could do anything to rectify it.

  After that, he had vague suspicions swirling in his head. He hadn’t gotten to where he was in the world without listening to his gut, so he personally kept a very close eye on the next big deal. Even under his careful watch, that one too fell apart.

  He immediately suspected foul play from his competitors, but a different company had benefited from his loss each time. This felt more personal, like he was being targeted. Was it someone in his own company with a serious grudge? Or someone from the outside, who had inside sources? One thing was certain; someone in his company was leaking proprietary information.

  Jason had quietly marshaled his resources. He had human resources reviewing the files of every single employee to see if they had any past connections to any of the three companies that had stolen the contracts out from under him. A few hits had popped up, but he was able to satisfy himself that they were nothing. He had also requested the records of every new employee hired in the past year. He personally reviewed each one and could find nothing suspicious.

  With his next big deal pending, he decided to take more action. The IT team had scoured the network and had run penetration tests to search for security vulnerabilities. Even though they had assured him that the network was secure, he instructed the team to monitor all his employees�
�� correspondence in case an inside leaker was stupid enough to leave evidence. To try to protect his next deal, he narrowed the list of people involved to the bare minimum. They were aware of the tight information protocols that Jason was initiating, but not the reasoning behind it.

  Jason would trust these last few people with his very life. They had been dedicated employees and some he even considered long time friends, so when the fourth deal crashed and burned in spectacular fashion, Jason was devastated. Kaine Industries was hemorrhaging money this quarter and that fact would be public knowledge within months. That would create a cascading tsunami-like effect where potential clients would legitimately avoid him like the plague. He had to get this problem under control before it buried him.

  Jason closed the file that the private investigator had given him. “So, you’re sure that neither of these two are responsible for my problems?”

  The rugged looking PI that Jason had employed numerous times for different matters over the years shrugged. “I can’t reveal all my methods, but trust me, these guys aren’t involved. They’ve both got plenty of shady deals going down, but nothing to do with Kaine Industries.”

  Jason nodded thoughtfully. His PI was one of the best. He was sure that the man employed many illegal tactics to get his results, but most of the best investigators did. So, if the PI’s information was to be trusted, Jason was back to square one.

  He left his investigator’s office feeling frustrated. How could he fight his enemy if that enemy never revealed himself to Jason?

  Outside on the sidewalk, he found his driver leaning against the car having a smoke. “Where to next, Mr. Kaine?”

  Jason got into the back of the car and opened up the calendar on his phone. He had an afternoon meeting scheduled, but he had more pressing matters on his mind. If he didn’t figure out who was sabotaging him fast, it was going to get real ugly.

  Instead of calling Lilliana to have the meeting canceled, he dialed Frank’s direct line. He went way back with Frank- if he was going to cancel- it was better to do it personally in this case. He explained to Frank that something important came up, and thankfully, the man let him off the hook fairly easily. They promised to reschedule soon and then Jason ended the call.

  Now he could concentrate the rest of the afternoon focusing on his problem. He asked his driver to take him back to Kaine Industries and then sat back to relax for the 45 minute ride to his office.

  When he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, visions of Lilliana popped into his thoughts. Ever since he had seen her in those ridiculous pajamas, he couldn’t get her out of his head.

  He kept seeing images of her tits straining against the worn fabric of her shirt and it affected him like it was the most erotic thing ever. Why had that turned him on more than Mara’s ample tits? Mara’s breasts had been bursting out of her dress that night and he had certainly sampled their loveliness many times before. But, one glimpse of Lilliana’s nipples pebbling through her well-worn pajama shirt and his cock was throbbing like a pimply-faced teenager’s.

  Then she had mentioned getting back to her boyfriend - that they were in the middle of something. God, that had infuriated him. He had always assumed that she was single. Why should he even care? Even if he did admit that he was attracted to Lilliana, having sex with her would only be a means to satisfy his desire. He had no long-term interest in her. Having sex with her would be a criminally stupid mistake to make.

  Yeah, he used plenty of women for sex. Some, he was sure, even used him for sex right back. Some used him for money or status, too. It was all part of the game and each party knew what they were getting into. He was quick to bail out if that convenient arrangement was ever threatened. That was why he went through women faster than he went through executive assistants. If he even sensed that they were developing any kind of feelings for him, they were promptly shown the door. It had kept everything nice and tidy.

  He didn’t want to get Lilliana mixed up into any of that bullshit. Besides being the best-damned secretary he’d ever had, she was way too good of a person for that nonsense.

  ***

  I was in a terrific mood. My boss was gone for the afternoon and I felt incredibly free. I had accomplished a lot of work already and it was only just past noon. After lunch, with a few more hours of work, I’d finish up the latest special project Mr. Kaine had me working on. And since Mr. Kaine was gone, I could even leave on time for once.

  I heated my lunch in the small kitchenette on our floor and decided to eat at my desk so I could continue reading my latest novel. It was definitely against Mr. Kaine’s strict rules, but I was feeling like a rebel. I sat at my desk and carefully dabbled at my reheated pasta from the night before, mindful of the white blouse I was wearing. I picked up my paperback – a steamy contemporary office romance and opened to the bookmarked page.

  I hadn’t seen the sexy, dark eyed stranger in the elevator for days. Was he avoiding me? I scoffed at my silly notions. More likely, he was away on business or his schedule had simply changed. I had probably imagined the whole thing anyway - the way his brooding eyes fixed on me as the elevator ascended each morning. The hand that had accidentally brushed up against my hip…

  I had fantasized about this stranger for weeks since I had started my new job and had run into him on the elevator every morning. And now, my hopes of seeing him this morning were dashed once again. The empty elevator was a bitterly disappointing start to my day.

  Strange, the elevator wasn’t stopping at my usual floor. I had pressed the button for the fourth floor, but now no buttons were lit as the elevator mindlessly whisked me upwards. I was just about to press any random button, trying to coax a response from the runaway elevator, when it slowed to a stop.

  I gasped when the doors slid open. It was the sexy stranger!

  He didn’t say a word. He stalked onto the elevator, casually pressed the red button on the panel and then backed me into the corner with his fiercely intense eyes. Only a second of silence hung between us until his mouth crashed hard into mine. Our passions erupted into an orgy of frenzied groping.

  He pushed me against the wall, his thigh wedged between my legs, forcing them further apart. His ravaging kiss muffled the moans that tried to escape from my lips. My fingers were struggling to release his belt buckle when I felt his hand slide under my skirt and into my soaked panties.

  My legs were growing weaker. A finger pressed inside me. An indescribable burst of pleasure snaked through me. I was about to come. What he did next utterly blew my mind. His long…

  A strand of dangling spaghetti slipped from my fork and landed on my blouse.

  “Darn!” I lifted the offending noodle off my white blouse and frowned with dismay at the twisting streak of red stain that snaked across the white material.

  I looked around my desk, desperately trying to find something that might remove the stain. I had nothing.

  I quickly hopped up from my chair, intent on getting to the restroom. Maybe if I got to the stain before it set in, a judicious use of soap and water might work. I was already two steps towards the ladies’ room when I remembered Jason Kaine’s private restroom. He would never know. That way I could remove my blouse and really rinse the stain out.

  I didn’t think twice. I rushed through Mr. Kaine’s office and went straight into his personal restroom. I felt around the wall until I found the light switch. The bathroom wasn’t as large as I thought it would be, but it was much more elegant. The brown and beige color scheme was way too masculine for my tastes, but the overall look was stylish and tasteful.

  I stripped off my blouse and headed over to the fancy marble sink. The sleek faucet protruded from the wall, but I could see no fixtures for making it turn on. Was it automatic? I waved my hand in front of the faucet, but no water emerged. After a few moments of confusion, I tapped the faucet. Water rushed out. It was ice cold but I had no idea how to adjust the temperature.

  Feeling foolish standing half naked and totally confou
nded on how to work the faucet, I laughed at myself. I dipped the small section of my blouse under the running water and reached for the container of hand soap. I pumped a small amount directly onto the red stain and began rubbing it in.

  The hand soap smelled masculine. It was a unique scent, but I had definitely smelled it before, obviously on Mr. Kaine. Leave it to Mr. Kaine to have masculine smelling hand soap. It probably cost a fortune. I snorted in derision.

  I worked on the stain for a few minutes, but the soap wasn’t doing the trick. The stain had faded, but it was definitely still visible. I needed club soda. Mr. Kaine probably had club soda in his office bar cabinet, but I couldn’t stroll out of the bathroom half naked to get the club soda.

  That’s when the moment of panic set in. I looked down at my blouse draped over the edge of the sink. The soap had been extremely foamy. I had been so intent on getting out the stain that I hadn’t noticed how wet the blouse was getting. I held up the blouse. Except for the sleeves, the whole front of the blouse was soaking wet. Now what?

  I stood over the sink contemplating my dilemma. Of course in a bathroom this fancy there would be no electric hand dryers. I really had no choice. Due to my own stupidity, I would have to wring out the sopping blouse and put it back on – soaking wet, stained, wrinkled and all.

  That’s when I caught the shadow of something in the mirror. I whirled around in surprise and got the shock of my life.

  Jason Kaine stood a few feet in front of me. He was staring at my chest with a look of utter horror on his face.

  I wanted to die - to melt into a puddle on the floor. My humiliation knew no bounds.

  “Ms. Collins!” He sounded like a shocked schoolmarm. “What on Earth?”

  I felt my face flaming. Jesus, Mary and Joseph! If my boss was going to see me half naked at least I could have worn a more attractive bra instead of the old but comfortable, not-so-white-anymore standby.