Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (103 page)

“God, that was sexy,” he said, leaning in
and kissing her hard on the mouth.
 
She met him with just as much enthusiasm, and soon his hand had reached
into her bathrobe and was touching her, pulling her closer to him.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too,” he told her.
 
“And by the way, even if I lose my
company and my job, I still have forty-nine percent of Jameson
International.
 
With a buyout, we’re
going to be very financially secure for a long time to come.”

“Whatever,” she shrugged, and then his
tongue was in her mouth, and he’d pushed her against the wall, opening her robe
entirely.
 
His hands ran up and down
her torso, as if he couldn’t get enough of her.
 
His mouth was on her neck and breasts,
and then he was licking her pussy, as she stood and her legs flexed and
shivered.

She cried out once, twice—and then
she lost herself in his touch, in his kiss, lost in such a way that she knew
she’d been found.

When it was over, Red told her he needed
to go down to the AK offices for yet another meeting, and crack some skulls
over losing their number one client to Kane Wright.

“Should I come with you?” she asked him.

He looked at her.
 
“Honestly, it’s not even worth your
time, Nicole.
 
Go out and see the
sights.
 
Or better yet, stay in the hotel
and relax.
 
They have a full day spa
downstairs. Make use of it.
 
I’ll be
back for dinner.”

She shrugged.
 
The truth was, although she’d have gone
to AK if he’d needed her to, she was more than happy to stay back at the hotel
and just enjoy some peace and quiet.

After he’d left, Nicole lounged in the
room, watching a German-subtitled Raiders of The Lost Ark on TV.
 
A few hours later, she napped, and then
ordered more room service.
 
This
time, it was a fruit plate and a tuna salad sandwich.

At about two o’clock in the afternoon,
her hotel room phone started ringing.
 
She stared at it, wondering who it could be.
 
Perhaps the concierge?
 
Maybe something urgent, she
thought.
 
She decided it was best to
answer, and so Nicole picked up the phone and gave a soft “hello.”

“I thought you might be in,” came the
even, deep reply from the familiar voice.
 
It was Kane Wright—his accent was unique, and completely
unmistakable.
 
“I hope you don’t
think it rude of me to call like this,” he said.

Nicole’s hand shook.
 
“Red’s not here,” she said.
 
“You should try his cell phone.”

“I didn’t call for Red.”

She took a long, shaky inhalation.
 
“I don’t wish to speak to you.”

“You and I both know that Red is making a
terrible mistake,” he said softly.
 
“And I have a feeling you’d like to protect him if you could.”

“How Red chooses to do business is his decision,
not mine,” she replied, as evenly as she could, given her nerves.
 

“But he would listen to you,” Kane
said.
 
“He trusts you.”

“He trusts me because I know to mind my
own business.
 
I don’t tell him how
to run his company.”

“Well maybe it’s time you started.”

She laughed at the man’s arrogance.
 
“You’ve tried your best to destroy his
company and you expect me to take your advice?
 
You must think I’m a complete fool.”

“I have no interest in destroying him
unless he forces me to.”
 

Nicole switched the phone to her other
hand.
 
It was slick with sweat.
 
“You know what I think?
 
I think you’re an arrogant asshole who
believes having a lot of money makes you better than other people.”

This made Kane chuckle.
 
“I like your style, Nicole.
 
I can see why Red finds you so
attractive.”

“You don’t know the first thing about Red
and I.”

“So tell me.
 
Why would it be so bad for Red to work
with me?
 
He could keep his beloved
company, continue to be the CEO, continue to build his empire.
 
And together we could be even stronger.”

“He’s not interested,” she said.
 
“And you should have this conversation
with him yourself.”

“He’s far too emotionally invested for me
to have a reasonable conversation with him,” Kane told her.
 
“He believes I’m the devil or
something.
 
The truth is, I’m just a
competitive person who tries to win.
 
I’m the same as him, but with a little more experience.
 
I could teach him a lot if he’d let me.”

“I don’t think he wants to be your
student.”

“Nicole, I don’t care what he’s told
you.
 
I’m sure right now he’s
convinced himself that even if he loses Jameson International, he’ll be
fine.
 
He’ll start a new company,
he’ll travel the world with you and begin a new life.
 
But I’m here to tell you right now that
if he loses this company, he will be a broken man.”

She laughed.
 
“Somehow I doubt that.”

“Don’t be so quick to laugh,” Kane
said.
 
“Very few people know what
it’s like to have made yourself into a billionaire from nothing, to build a
company and a brand that’s known throughout the world.
 
Very few people know what it’s like to
lose that identity, to go back to being just a regular person that no one cares
about.”

“Just because he’s not a CEO, doesn’t
mean nobody cares about him,” she said, but a part of her was starting to
wonder if Kane might have a point.
 
Red’s entire adult identity was wrapped up in this business, and to lose
everything so fast—to be suddenly considered a failure, might have
devastating consequences.

“Of course he’ll have people who care
about him in his personal life,” Kane said softly, gently.
 
“You’ll be a comfort, as will some of
his friends and family.
 
But Red
Jameson lives his life in the public eye, and he’s used to being treated like a
god.
 
To fall so quickly from grace
will be a tremendous blow to his confidence.
 
His ego will be shattered.”

“How can you be so sure?” she said.

“Because,” Kane replied, “I lost
everything once, in my late twenties.
 
And yes, I was able to come back from it.
 
I came back stronger, in fact.
 
But I almost lost my mind in the
process.
 
And I’m not sure I ever
truly recovered emotionally from what it did to me.
 
I think I’d like to spare Red some of
that pain, if I can.”

Nicole wasn’t sure she believed him.
 
She thought he must have an ulterior
motive.
 
“I don’t know what you want
from me,” she said, finally.

“Just try talking to him,” he said.
 
“Really see if he has a good reason to
not come and work with me.”

“You mean come work
for
you,” she corrected him.

He chuckled.
 
“Technically, yes, I would be his
boss.
 
But I’ll give him quite a bit
of autonomy.
 
I respect Red Jameson
very much, and I think with a tiny bit of guidance he will be the best we’ve
ever seen.”

“I’ll mention that you said so when I
talk to him later,” Nicole replied drily.

“Obviously you can tell him what you
want,” Kane replied.
 
“But I’d
suggest that if you tell him we’ve had this conversation, he won’t listen to
another word you say on the matter.”

“Maybe that’s because he’s smart,” Nicole
said.

“There’s a difference between being
stubborn to the point of self-destruction, and being intelligent and strong
minded.
 
Maybe someday you’ll both
be lucky enough to recognize the difference.”

And then he was gone.

***

Nicole agonized all day on whether or not
to tell Red that she’d been contacted by his archrival.
 
Back and forth, back and forth she’d
gone in her mind.

But when he came back to the hotel room
in a terrible, grim mood, she knew the answer.

“It’s finished,” Red said as he entered
the hotel room, his face pale and somewhat haggard—eyes dry and
bloodshot.
 
“We lost another big
client today.
 
And Jameson
International’s stock dropped over twenty percent during trading.
 
Now I’m getting calls from our other
offices.
 
People are panicking.
 
It’s like a run on the bank.
 
All the confidence and trust we built up
over the last decade is gone, just like that.”
 
He snapped his fingers.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, getting up from
the couch and moving to hug him.

“I can’t—not right now,” he
muttered, shying away from the contact.

That was when Kane’s words from earlier
rang in her ears.
 

To
fall so quickly from grace will be a tremendous blow to his confidence.
 
His ego will be shattered.

She could see that already Red was
changing.
 
The stress of failure
could do things to a person—and although Red might like to think he could
rise from the ashes, Nicole was beginning to wonder.
 
It wasn’t even about the money
really.
 
It was about losing.
 
Red was going to think of himself as a
loser from now on, and for a man like him who was used to being on top and in
control—who depended on that sense of control and power—there was
no telling what it might do to him.

“I need a drink,” Red told her.
 
“Let’s go out.”

“Really?” she asked, a strange feeling in
her stomach.
 
“You want to
drink?
 
Shouldn’t you just try and
relax, maybe get some sleep?”

“I can go alone,” he said, his eyes
restless.
 

“Of course I want to go with you.”

“Great,” he said, not sounding that
enthusiastic.
 
“Come on.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

And so they took a cab to a bar in
Berlin, some place that Red said he’d heard was fun and unique.
 
When they there, Nicole wasn’t sure it
was such a great idea.
 
Sure the
place was unique—as advertised—but not in a good way.

The bar was dark inside, and the
clientele seemed rough.
 
Red and
Nicole were far more dressed up than anyone else in the place.
 
A lot of the people were young, some of
them had a punk look going on—lots of piercings and tattoos and strange
haircuts.

Red didn’t seem to care.
 
In fact, she sensed that he was in a
very dangerous mood tonight.
 
When
one of the men in the bar would give him a look, Red would glare back at them,
as if daring them to challenge him in some way.

Nobody did—at least, not at
first—but Nicole was uneasy just the same.

“Shouldn’t we maybe go somewhere else?”
she asked, as they took seats at the bar and Red ordered himself two shots of
vodka, and a cranberry and vodka for her.

He shook his head.
 
“I like it here.”

“No you don’t.
 
You’re just looking for trouble,” she
said.

He glanced sideways at her, as the
bartender handed him the first shot and he slugged it down.
 
“Bullshit, I am.”

“This isn’t the way to handle what’s
going on with your business,” she told him, knowing he wouldn’t want to hear
it.

“I just need to let off some steam,
Nicole.
 
I can’t always play rich
businessman, it gets old.”

“Couldn’t you just lift some weights or
go run on the treadmill?”

Red laughed, did another shot.
 
When he was done with that one, he
ordered two more.
 
The bartender
gave him a look.
 
“Zwei
verschiedenen wodkasorten,” Red said, the volume of his voice rising slightly.

The bartender poured two more shots and
slid them across the bar.
 
Red drank
one and then sat and looked at the second one.