I don’t like risks, I like to know what I’m getting into and when it comes to risks I like to be the guy who knows every chance I’m taking will pay off. But Jill, she’s a whole different kind of gamble because she’s the woman who brings out the master in me, the darkly passionate man who is looking for a woman with the same edgy and forbidden desire burning within her.
Jill’s ambitious and talented, and since she came up from a bad neighborhood she’s also determined to make it to the top and be as successful as her wildest dreams say she can be. But when she takes a job at rogue Enterprises she finds herself fighting against a tide of taboo passions that could derail everything she ever thought she wanted.
Maximillian is a one in the million kind of guy, smoking hot and wealthy, powerful to the extreme. But it isn’t his money that intrigues me, it’s the power he’s wielded over my heart and body from the moment we met that has me running for cover.
The soaring building that housed Rogue Enterprises stood proud and high against the city skyline, its many windows throwing refractions of sunlight back into the clear, still air and deep blue sky.
Jill stood in front of the revolving doors, clutching her messenger bag and trying to get her nerves quieted down.
Easier said than done. She’d just landed a plum job at the corporation that was redefining the words wealth and power, and that meant that she would have a hand in not only reshaping the city, which had steadily grown under Rogue’s guidance, but in the future of that company too.
She fidgeted and took a deep breath.
The revolving doors slid in neat circles and she recalled that revolving doors had been invented to help maintain air pressure inside skyscrapers, an ingenious and simple solution that had revolutionized architecture. Innovation at its simplest and most powerful.
She gulped hard and walked toward the doors. She caught sight of her reflection in the windows. Perfect crisp blouse. Pencil skirt with just a hint of a slit and a wide belt. Good shoes. Her blonde hair was swept up into a neat coil, revealing the planes and angles of her face. She’d gone with minimal makeup, just a dash of mascara on her naturally thick lashes and a pretty pink matte lipstick to emphasize her slightly too-generous mouth.
Her slender shoulders were up high and square and the blouse showed the gentle swell of her breasts and the narrow tuck of her waist while the skirt slid neatly over her lean hips and long legs.
She didn’t look like a small-town girl. She also didn’t look like the girl who had often been the target of schoolyard bullies because she was so plain and skinny.
That gave her an additional boost of confidence and she walked into the lobby and up to the desk briskly. She had her ID badge already, and she knew which floor she had to go to. She headed to the elevator, squeezing into the car with at least a dozen others. There was little room and she found herself smashed into a corner, trying to make herself even smaller and keep her bag at her side as the car started upward.
It hit the second floor with a bump and a shudder. The doors whooshed open. The man standing next to her turned his face to hers and she drew a sharp breath.
God he was handsome, and around her age—not quite thirty. His face was carved like rock. All sharp cheekbones and full lips, straight black eyebrows and piercing gray eyes. His hair was a rich thick auburn color, and the scent rising off his natty suit was purely intoxicating. Soap and expensive cologne mingled with a masculine scent that came from his skin, from below it and mingled with the cologne and soap to form something so incredible that she wanted to sniff it again and again.
The car let two people out and she heaved a sigh of relief but then three more crowded in.
Her hip bumped the narrow hip of the sexy man next to her and she muttered a brief sorry.
His body was tight against hers now. Her pulse raced. Heat spread through her entire body and she had to force her teeth together to keep herself from licking her lips in a nervous gesture.
The car continued upward. The vibrations running up from the bottom of it spread up from the soles of her shoes into her calves and then thighs. Her fingers clutched the bag more tightly.
He shifted slightly. His body pressed against hers. She knew there was not an inch of space to spare in the car, and her other side was mashed so hard against the little steel corner her ribs ached. She looked at him again and he nodded slightly, a little gesture that said he understood. He was crowded on either side as well. When the doors opened to let a few more people out he said, “Hit the close door button.”
She could see people dashing toward the elevator. Her thumb shot out and the doors closed. He moved slightly away from her, giving her space to breathe but the phantom warmth from his body still clung to hers and she had an almost irrational urge to lean closer to him to get more of that heat.
The others in the elevator were silent. They got off in two and threes and eventually it was just her and the stunningly handsome man in the car.
She said, “You’re going to twenty-five too?”
“Yes. I keep telling the partners they need an express elevator for the employees on that floor.”
She allowed herself to smile. “I think there is an express but is just for the partners.”
His eyes met hers. That gaze was weighty and assessing. “Do you think that’s fair?”
“Maybe they have to get places faster than the rest of us.” She wasn’t comfortable saying anything else.
“That could very well be.” There was amusement in his tone. The car stopped and the doors opened. She stepped out onto the twenty-fifth floor and looked right and left.
The offices up there were all extraordinarily appointed and large. As she passed a few she saw opulent paintings and carpets, caught sight of massive desks and long sofas. And those were just the areas that the assistants worked in!
Her nerves rose up again. Was she really capable of working there on that rarified floor?
He walked beside her. She swallowed down her doubts and asked, “Do you work up here as well?”
“I do.” His voice was low and smoky. It reminded her of whiskey, all honeyed burn and deep notes. “I’m Maximillian Vaughn.”
Her face paled. Maximillian Vaughn, the fourth of a quad of self-made billionaires who had formed Rogue Enterprises years before.
She spoke without thinking, “Oh. I thought you would be older.”
He stopped walking. Heat hit her face and ran from her chin to her hairline. She opened her mouth, trying to think of anything that would lessen that inane series of words.
“I usually hear I thought you’d be taller.” His lips curved upward in a smile that was not only genuine but that showed square white teeth, perfectly even but for one slightly chipped incisor. That small flaw made him human, somehow, and she stuttered out, “Oh God. I’m so sorry. I really am. I…I’m Jill Widefield. The new architect.”
His hand came out. She took it. Their fingers met and little thrills shot through her entire body. She shook his hand firmly and released it quickly. He said, “I’ve heard nothing but good things about you Jill. You’ll be working with me quite a bit.”
He nodded and then he stepped toward the door of an office that bore his name on the door. “I’m looking forward to it too.”
He left her standing there, shaken and excited. Her nipples pressed against the fabric of her blouse and she looked down, realized those erect peaks were clearly visible and cursed inwardly.
She hastened to her office, a small but still amazing space tucked into a corner at the end of the hallway. Max’s office was the only one next to hers as hers took up the end of that hallway and there was nothing across from their two offices either.
She took note of that as she headed into her office, a delighted smile crossing her face as she took in the large floor-to-ceiling windows behind the desk. She set her bag down and headed to the windows, staring out at the city spread below her.
This was happening!
She went to the desk and
sat down. The chair was ergonomic, the blotter crisp and clean and someone had left a gorgeous and expensive Mark Cross pen set there. It had her name on it!
She drew deep breaths and managed a smile when a woman walked in. She was older with a face that said she was stern and busy to boot. She said, “I’m Ms. Holt. I am to be your assistant, I’m also assistant to Mr. Riley so my office is down the hall.”
She showed Jill how to call her and then set a thick file on the desk and then a printed schedule. She asked, “Would you like coffee or a water?”
“No, no thank you Ms. Holt. I’m fine.”
The schedule was daunting. She had a meeting in less than twenty minutes and she had a full day beyond that. She saw Maximillian’s name on the schedule and her breath caught in her throat.
Ms. Holt left and Jill quickly gathered the blueprints she had down, rough drawing for a new project, and did a fast few minutes of meditation to try to clear her head and prepare for the day but the vision of Max kept floating upward in her mind.
Max.
She was already shortening his name to something that felt far too intimate.
She had to remember not to do that.
She gathered her things and took a quick peek at the schedule again and then at the clock. She had to go. She headed down the hall to the conference room marked on her schedule, pausing in the doorway as she saw Maximillian already there, lounging in a chair.
He’d taken off the jacket he had worn earlier. The shirt he wore clung to his broad shoulders and arms, and arrowed nicely down a trim and toned waist and stomach.
He saw her and said, “Good morning. Do you like your office?”
“Yes, very much, thank you.” She managed to keep her tone as crisp as her blouse, which pleased her. She asked, “Which chair should I take?”
He indicated the one directly across from him and she set her things down but remained standing. Others began to fill the room. She recognized Hunter, the partner whose name was synonymous with great ideas and fast yachts. Dante Sterling, a take-no-prisoners kind of businessman whose luck as a gambler had not failed him in business either, and Brad Draper, a street racer turned financial advisor with the devil’s own luck in investments and a keen sense of property.
And Maximillian, a former realtor who had turned flipping foreclosed houses into a successful venture that gave him the stake he needed to join his friends in creating the company.
Maximillian was the man who planned out the property takeovers and building projects that Rogue Enterprises had used as a springboard to all the nationwide projects that they were now undertaking.
Next they would branch out into the global markets. That was if the projects they undertook now proved to be as profitable as they thought that they would be.
She’d be a part of those projects, if the ones she did now were good enough. She’d finally have the success that she had been chasing.
Maximillian spoke first, “I would like to see the roughs please.”
She needed and opened the tube she’d placed them in. She spread them and opened her mouth but before she could Maximillian was up and speaking.
She clamped her mouth shut but she was fuming. The arrogant bastard! His finger was moving over the rough and he was talking fast and naturally everyone had pretty much forgotten she was even around. There was a lot of discussion, a few arguments, none of which she managed to insert a words into, and then the meeting concluded and everyone left.
Everyone but her and Maximillian.
He gave her a long cool look and asked, “Is something wrong?”
Holding her temper was nto her strong suit. She snapped, “Yes, there is something wrong. You basically just hijacked my design and then changed it.”
“For the better,” he said coolly.
“Maybe so but all I was given was a general idea and after it became clear where the weaknesses were you never gave me a chance to speak!”
“Get used to it,” he said callously. “That’s how we get things done. Learn to shout above the din.”
He drew closer. Her body trembled with a mixture of rage and desire. His face was close to hers and her eyes dropped to his mouth, curled into a sardonic smile now. She said, “I’ll do…”
He kissed her.
His mouth came down on hers, fierce and demanding. Fire spiked along her nerve endings as his teeth tugged ta her bottom lip and then his tongue thrust into her mouth. Her response was immediate and primal.
She kissed him back.
Her body sagged against his and then her hands wound into his thick hair, the crisp waves of it crackling below her fingers as she drank in the flavor of his mouth and tongue.
They broke apart. She was breathing hard and dazed. He looked as cool as ever.
He said, “See you at the next meeting,” and sauntered out, leaving her stunned and blinking, propped up by the long rectangle of the table.
“Oh God,” she whispered to the empty room. “I’m going to have to quit.”
**
Maximillian, Max to his friends, was thoroughly amused—and intrigued.
From the moment that Jill had stepped into that elevator he had bene intrigued. She had a sort of vulnerability that had stiffened his cock and as she had bene forced closer to him and the heady scent of her hair—roses and lilies—had filled his nose he had grown even more intrigued. Her body was lean and sharply angled, just the way he like da woman to be. Her face was a marvel of bone structure and clear skin.
He’d not meant to kiss her but now that he had he knew that he was in big trouble. Jill was passionate under the cool exterior she projected, he could sense the depths of that passion and he had no doubt that her passion burned as darkly as his own, even if she didn’t know it yet.
Yet because he intended to have her, and to teach her a few things about desire and sex while he was at it.
Of course there was the issue of her working for the company. That could be problematic. Sexual harassment lawsuits weren’t something he wanted to get hit with by any means so he would have to be very careful to make sure she was as interested in him as he was in her.
Of course if that kiss was any indication she absolutely was.
He whistled as he walked down the hallway toward his office. It had been a long time since he’d met a woman who got under his skin, and Jill had done that and done it so quickly that it was slightly unsettling but it was also very exciting.
Too exciting perhaps.
He could be risking a lot more than he was comfortable with, in fact.
Unlike his partners Max was more thoughtful and cautious then he seemed. He had made his money carefully and he had done it with careful planning. He left the gambling up to the others. They had the stomach and stamina for the crazy big business deals while he had the ability to handle things on a long-term and more cautious way, and his way put plenty of money into the coffers too, more than any other partner his plans and schemes were based not on gut instinct or hunches but solid and reliable research.
So research her.
His lips canted upward as he considered just how he could research the lovely new employee, and how much fun that ‘research’ would be.
**
The day passed in a haze of meetings, quick drawings, lots of frustration and plenty of interesting ideas and exhilaration. Jill was both tired and electrified by the work and after she went back to her office after that last meeting she threw herself into work, drawing quickly and running estimates on the new design, which she had to admit held a lot of promise even if she didn’t like the way that Max had added his design to hers without so much as a by your leave.
“Still at it?”
She looked up as Max’d voice floated into the room. He stood near a door, his lean hip just touching the frame. She said, “yes but I am almost finished now. I just wanted ot get a few more things done.”
“You do know it is nearly eight?”
Was it? She glanced at her watch and was shoc
ked to see that it was indeed just that late. She said, “Oh, I must have lost track of time.”
“Everyone else has long since headed home you know.”
She said, “You’re still here. You must be something fo a workaholic too.’
He came even closer. His cologne had faded over the day but that smell that was uniquely his was still there and she breathed it in as he moved so that he was standing right beside her desk. She stood and said, “I suppose we need to talk about that…um…thing in the conference room.”
His eyes glowed with amusement. “The thing?”
Her cheeks reddened. “That kiss.”
“Oh, that. I suppose we could talk about it if you wanted to.’
Asshole!
She fought back the angry word and said, as evenly as possible, “Yes I will admit I kissed you back but I have to say that that was probably very foolish and it won’t happen again.”
“Because you don’t want it to?”
She did want to kiss him again, and she had a feeling that he kne wit. She cleared her throat and said, “We work together. That sort of thing is probably not wise.”
“True. But you evaded my question, quite neatly too. Should I ask it again?”
She shook her head. “No, you shouldn’t. It doesn’t matter if I want you to kiss me or not or if I want you to kiss me or not…”
His voice was low and husky. “I would say it matters a great deal.”
“Why?” Her voice was a shaky whisper.
“Because I definitely want to kiss you, but if you don’t want me to then I will abstain from kissing you.”
She licked her dry lips. Her eyes went to his mouth. His body, powerful and magnetic, drew her eyes and they slid along every curve until they stopped at the front of his slacks. The outline of his cock, thick and long, was very visible and desire swelled up and swept away her inhibitions. She said, “I’d like it very much but I don’t think it is smart.”
“I think you need a lesson in how to be more decisive.”
The words, low and laced with intent, made a slow shiver steal down her spine. She said, “Really? What kind of lesson could you give me on that?”
Married To The Cowboy (Love In Collin's Ranch 3) Page 70