Boss Woman

by Victoria Quinn

  “Is he going to talk about his father?” I asked incredulously.

  “Looks like it,” Thorn said. “But why? What does he get out of this?”

  Hunt’s expression didn’t change as he took the question. “Shortly after that photo was taken. My father is an astute businessman. He taught me everything I know. I would be lying if I said he hasn’t had a tremendous impact on my life.”

  “But you haven’t spoken since?”

  Hunt shook his head slightly before he answered. “No.”

  “Why is that?”

  Hunt didn’t fidget in his chair, but he didn’t rush into the answer. He wore a black watch, and he held himself like he was the one conducting the interview. The topic made him uncomfortable, but he never showed it. “We disagreed on a lot of things.”

  “Money?”

  “No.”

  “Then what?” John pressed.

  “My mother had a son before she met my father. When she passed away, my father took him in. But he never loved him. My younger brother Jax and I were always treated differently. We went to the best schools, had the best clothes…but my eldest brother was outcast. When it came to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore, I left. My father made me choose—and I chose my brother.”

  “Oh my god…” I covered my mouth as I watched Hunt confess the truth to the entire world.

  John asked Hunt to reflect on his childhood memories and his mother, but I stopped listening.

  “I can’t believe he did that.” I didn’t see any advantage to telling the world about his painful relationship with his father. It was bound to piss off Vincent Hunt, and they were already butting heads.

  “I can’t believe he did that either. There’s only one explanation for it.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “He’s trying to take the focus off you.”

  * * *

  The reporters disappeared from outside my building. Not a single one lingered behind. I walked into my building without a single camera pointed in my face and took the elevator to my penthouse.

  It was nice to be home.

  I made myself a drink and sat on the couch. My stilettos were kicked off, and I let my feet relax.

  All I could think about was Hunt and that interview.

  My phone went off with a text message. You must have seen my interview by now. It was Hunt.

  I stared at the screen, unsure what to say.

  I’m in the lobby of your building.

  Of course he was. Why didn’t that surprise me? I checked the code to my elevator, but I was certain Hunt wouldn’t try to come up without being invited. But if he knew I was home, that meant he saw me walk inside. He wasn’t far behind me.

  Titan.

  He knew I was staring at the phone right that second. He could read me without even being in the room with me. I should tell him to leave me alone, but I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to ask him about that interview…ask if he was okay. I shouldn’t care, but of course, I did.

  I walked to the elevator and hit the code so the doors would open.

  When he didn’t text again, I knew he’d stepped inside. The light over the elevator lit up as it counted the floors. It beeped before the doors opened, and I came face-to-face with the same Hunt I saw on TV. He was even in the same suit.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and forced myself not to take a breath, not to let my body react to him naturally. Each time he walked into the room, I was a little weaker than I was before. My mouth ached for his. My body did too.

  But those days were over.

  He stepped inside with his eyes fixed on me, that intensity burning holes in my skin. He still looked at me like he owned me, like I was his possession. He closed in on me and barely left any space between us.

  He smelled exactly the same.

  I looked up into his face, maintaining the stoic expression I wore around people I didn’t trust.

  Because I didn’t trust him anymore.

  I was the first one to speak. “Are you okay?”

  He tilted his head slightly as he looked at my mouth. The heat radiated off him, the desire to press his mouth to mine. But he didn’t move in because I would only pull away. His eyes took in the rest of my features, slowly drinking them in like he hadn’t seen me in years. “You know I’m not okay.”

  I knew he wasn’t referring to the interview. He was referring to the distance between us, to the end of the most beautiful relationship I’d ever known. It was full of passion, trust, love…and now it was gone. “Why did you do it?”

  “You’re a smart woman, Titan. You’ll figure it out.”

  “You did it so people would stop talking about me…”

  His only response was a slight nod.

  “Why, Hunt? Why do you care?”

  “You’re the woman I love,” he whispered. “Of course I care.”

  My heart ached with a pain that wouldn’t subside. I was livid with him, I didn’t trust him, but I loved him—so goddamn much.

  “My father is pissed. He’s probably smashed everything in his house by now. I’ll pay for the interview…in many ways. But no one cares about your story anymore, Titan. It’s old news, and it won’t surface again. Everyone will be talking about this for months…if not years. You still believe I betrayed you?”

  I stared at his hard jaw, the smooth skin that was cleanly shaven. I used to run my lips over that chiseled jawline. I used to plant kisses there when he was asleep beside me. Now I stared at it because I couldn’t meet his gaze.

  “Why would I sabotage myself for you?” he whispered. “Why would I make this sacrifice if I’d really stabbed you in the back?”

  “I don’t know…”

  “Because there is no reason. I’ve always been loyal to you. I just proved it.”

  His scent was overwhelming, and the look in his eyes burned me. I stepped back, needing the space to breathe.

  But he crowded me once again. “I’m not going away, Titan. If I’d betrayed you, I would admit it. But I never did.”

  “The papers were in your drawer…”

  “But I never read them. And I certainly didn’t show them to anyone.”

  I looked at the ground because I couldn’t stand the intensity in those brown eyes. “I don’t know what to think.”

  His hand moved to my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Yes, you do. Maybe all the evidence says I’m guilty. But you know I’m not.”

  I enjoyed the touch of his hand so much. I nearly closed my eyes when he felt me. A moan almost escaped my lips. But the terror gripped me by the throat. I had no idea if he was guilty or innocent, and that made me afraid. I stepped back so his touch would disappear. “Maybe you did tell that reporter, but it was a month ago. You fell in love with me in the meantime, and now that the story is out, you needed to do something to win me back.”

  “No.”

  “Maybe you did want the world to know because you thought it would break me. Then you could take Stratosphere all for yourself.”

  He shook his head slightly. “I fell in love with you because you’re unbreakable. It’s gonna take something a lot stronger than this story to chip away at you. My woman doesn’t bend. She doesn’t break. Not for anyone, not for me.”

  It was painfully sweet, smooth all the way down. “Maybe you regret what you did, and you’re just trying to make up for it.”

  “No. The only reason why I did it was to prove my loyalty to you. If I had done it, I just erased all its effectiveness. I threw my reputation, my own family, under the bus. We both know that doesn’t add up.”

  I took another step back, hardly able to breathe.

  “Baby.”

  “Don’t call me that—”

  “Baby.” His hands moved into my hair, and he crowded me, his body moving into mine. He pressed his forehead to mine and held me there, touching me, existing with me. “I know you’re scared. I know you’re hurt. But I swear on my mother’s grave, it wasn’t me. I’m a man who will alwa
ys admit his faults. I’ll always be honest with you. If I made a mistake, I would say it. But I didn’t do this.”

  My hands moved to his wrists, and I felt his steady heartbeat. I felt the prominent veins that were corded within his skin. I felt the tight muscle, the subtle shift every time he moved. I felt the heat that burned on the surface of his body. I closed my eyes, savoring the touch of this man.

  Then he kissed me. Softly and sensually, his mouth moved against mine.

  I kissed him back, my mind turned off and my body taking control. My tongue greeted his, and my mouth was flooded with his warm breath. I wanted to be loved by this man for the night. I wanted to be loved by this man all my life.

  But I couldn’t.

  I stepped back and ended the wet kiss. “Hunt, you should go.”

  “No.”

  “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

  The dark sexiness in his eyes disappeared as a shadow passed. His anger turned to fury, his fury to rage. “Titan, you’re better than this. Think it through. Don’t push me away when I belong right beside you. Don’t let them win.”

  “I need to think about it.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Yes. I do.” I took another step back even though he wasn’t crowding me. He didn’t try to rush me again. He kept his distance this time, his anger keeping him back. “I understand everything that you said. I understand everything that’s happened. But this is complicated and doesn’t deserve a simple answer. Outside of Thorn and me, you were the only one who knew about what happened.”

  “But—”

  “Trust is the hardest thing for me to give. It comes naturally for most people, but for me, it’s like giving up my heart. I gave you my trust so quickly because it felt right. You stood up for me when other men wouldn’t. You admired me when most men would call me bossy. You swept me off my feet instantly. And that’s where everything went wrong…it happened too fast.”

  “It didn’t happen fast enough, if you ask me.” His powerful arms hung by his sides, tense in the jacket that hugged his body. He showed a tense jaw, furrowed eyebrows. He was angry, but dangerously sexy at the same time.

  “I don’t know you, Diesel Hunt.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “I’ve known you for a few months. I’ve known Thorn for a decade.”

  “Irrelevant.”

  “I shouldn’t have trusted you so quickly. Now that this has happened, I can’t trust you again.”

  “I. Didn’t. Do. It.”

  “There’s no way for me to know. You’re doing and saying all the right things, but will I ever really know? I’m not a risk-taker. You know that. All the risks I’ve taken have cost me more than I bet in the first place. I learned my lesson the first time…and now I learned it again.”

  “Don’t compare me to him.”

  “That’s not how I meant it—”

  “It sounded like it.”

  “Bottom line is…I don’t trust you.” I looked him in the eye as I said, knowing he needed to understand I meant it. There was no explanation for how my past was leaked. Hunt had one story along with his own theories, but I couldn’t prove any of them. Unless the proof was right in front of me, it was unknown. “That’s not going to change. Everything is different. It’s too risky.”

  “Baby—”

  “I’m not going to change my mind, Hunt. I was scared to begin with, but now I’m too scared to give this another try. I’m afraid it’ll ruin everything I’ve worked so hard for. Thorn is safe. There’s no one in the world I trust more.”

  His chest rose and fell at a quicker rate, the rage obvious in his eyes.

  “You should go.”

  He didn’t move. Like a mountain, he stood absolutely still and weathered the storm. His feet were firmly planted on the ground.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and hugged myself, feeling the shot of pain all over again. The betrayal happened again in my mind, the raw cut that caused an open wound. I was still bleeding everywhere because I hadn’t had time to deal. It would be a scar eventually, the kind of scar everyone could see. “I don’t think we should do business together anymore, but if you leave me no choice…”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Hunt, nothing is going to change. We will only be business partners from now on…”

  He gave me a hard stare.

  I refused to say anything else, making my statement clear. Bringing the attention on to himself was touching. I’d have to be made of stone not to appreciate it. But it didn’t change the circumstance. Too much had changed. I didn’t feel the same way anymore. If I were to be with him again, I would constantly be paranoid. That wasn’t how a relationship should be. With Thorn, I would get everything I wanted—without heartbreak. “Please go, Hunt.”

  He stayed rooted to the spot, the anger in his eyes changing to obvious disappointment. The burn in his expression fading to a painful stare. He slid his hands into his pockets, and he finally took a step back.

  It hurt to watch him walk away.

  He turned around, hit the button, and then stepped into the elevator.

  He stared at me as the doors closed. They inched to the center until he was completely blocked from view. The elevator beeped before it began to descend.

  I didn’t cry over anything. Crying was a waste of time and a waste of energy. But the tears built up in my eyes on their own, becoming thicker and heavier. My vision blurred, and I felt them streak down my cheeks. The last time I cried, I’d told Hunt I loved him.

  And now I cried again when I told him goodbye.

  5

  Hunt

  I was the kind of man who never gave up.

  If I wanted something, I didn’t stop until I got it.

  That applied to business, to tasks.

  Never people.

  I’d never wanted a woman that I couldn’t have. Women wanted to get into my pants because I had a reputation for bringing the heat to the sheets. Or they wanted to be close to my wallet, to take a ride in my Bugatti. They wanted to know how I became so successful, like I’d part with my secrets if they sucked my cock well enough.

  But they never cared about me.

  Tatum Titan didn’t need a damn thing from me. There wasn’t anything I could give her that she couldn’t give herself. The only thing she wanted from me…was me. She actually cared about me. She loved me for everything underneath my designer suits, for my flesh and bone.

  And now she was gone.

  I’d put myself on the line when I told the world about my father. Now I was being hit with questions left and right, questions I didn’t want to answer. I’d tarnished my father’s reputation with a past he wanted to stay buried. I’d basically declared war on him.

  For one woman.

  But it didn’t matter. It didn’t win back her trust. It didn’t win back her heart.

  It was all for nothing.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised by her decision. It took so long for her to open up to me in the first place. For months, we got to know each other over sex and limited conversation. It took months for her just to crack her shell. Even then, she hid most of herself behind her eyes. She kept her walls tall and thick.

  But over time, I slowly knocked them down.

  I defeated all of her walls until I was deep inside her, seeing her bare soul when no one could. I had her under my thumb, had her right next to my heart. I got past Tatum Titan and finally got to just Tatum…the beautiful woman at her core.

  But then she was taken from me.

  It didn’t surprise me that she ran off. It didn’t surprise me that she wouldn’t give me another chance. She stuck out her neck for me and got the edge of a blade. She got too close to the fire then got burned. She wasn’t the kind of woman who ever took risks because her past taught her not to.

  And now she was too terrified ever to trust me again.

  Unless I cleared my name beyond a reasonable doubt, she would never be mine again.r />
  Fuck.

  I spent the next few days camped out in my penthouse. Unknown numbers kept calling me, I was all over the news, and my inbox was flooded with prying emails. All the heat was on me. Not a single person was thinking about Titan anymore.

  When I’d pictured myself moving on with my life, I didn’t know what direction I should take. Before I met Titan, my life was pretty simple—but also mundane. I went out to the clubs with friends, picked up a few women, and fucked late into the night. I had business meetings during the week. I counted my checks and dropped them off at the bank. I had so much, but I felt so empty at the same time. Good sex was easy to come by, but great sex like I had with Titan was unheard of.

  That woman invigorated me.

  Could I go back to before? Now that I’d known something so much better?

  The idea of kissing another woman didn’t arouse me at all. She could be a supermodel, and that wouldn’t make a difference. I didn’t want to bury myself between a woman’s legs with a condom wrapped around my length. There was only one person I wanted to be with, only one fantasy I wanted to have.

  I was a one-woman man now.

  I knew Titan better than anyone, and when she said she wouldn’t change her mind, she meant it. There was nothing I could offer her to alter that. She was scared of me, didn’t trust me.

  So now I was stuck. I didn’t want to move on from this woman, but this woman didn’t want me.

  There was never a problem I couldn’t solve. But this problem didn’t have a solution.

  None that I could see.

  * * *

  I didn’t care that much about Stratosphere. It was a viable company with a lot of potential. One day, it would be one of the biggest companies in the world. With Titan’s vision and my experience, we would turn it into a household name. But I was already wealthy and had other companies to invest my time in.

  Titan was the only reason I was still there.

  It was the only connection I had to her. Even if I couldn’t have her the way I used to, I needed to have some of her. She was important to my happiness. I’d rather have some of her than none of her at all.