Falling for the CEO (Entangled Flaunt) (4 page)

But almost everything at Harbor was digitized. The table was completely empty of folders, or brown paper bags, or—

“Meredith,” he said, his voice soothing. Placating.

He crouched next to her, his hands on the armrest of the chair as he looked up at her from where he was squatting on the floor. It should have been ridiculous, the CEO of a major corporation kneeling before her, but her heart started beating so fast, she thought she’d explode. Something in his eyes made her feel like she was a goddess that he was about to worship. Preferably with his tongue.

You couldn’t just let that thought go, could you?

She snapped her posture upright, arming herself against the feeling of being completely exposed to him. No one else had ever made her feel quite this
naked
, even though his expression was completely neutral. His voice came out low and quiet. “What do you think would happen if you
had
meant something inappropriate?” he murmured, not taking his eyes off hers for a moment.

At the responding images that rose up in her mind, she could almost feel her panties disintegrating beneath her skirt.
This was so wrong.
She forced herself to look away from him, to be professional. “I—you would have to report me, of course,” she whispered, directing her words to the wall, focusing on the blank whiteness while she composed herself, then turned back to him, clearing her throat. “Luckily, though, that’s not the case.”

His eyes flashed briefly with—was that
disappointment
? Then it was gone, and he merely nodded, rising, moving away from her and dropping back into his chair with a sigh. “Time to call the bank. And we should put in an order for lunch. You must be famished.”

That was it?
She was tying herself up in knots and he dismissed the entire thing as though it had never happened and asked her about lunch?

Definitely not affected.
Meredith forced herself to nod. She usually ate earlier than this, but she hadn’t wanted to interrupt for something as trivial as eating. Except that now, between the stress of dealing with the fund and the way her mind and body were playing tricks on her, “famished” didn’t even begin to describe how she felt. Turned inside out, about to self-combust, maybe.

“Lunch sounds great,” she managed.

“Any preference on restaurant?”

She shook her head. Truth be told, she wanted to eat alone, to get some time by herself to regroup. It wasn’t anything personal against Andrew. Being in such close quarters with someone else, especially when she had this many
feelings
to deal with, just wasn’t something she was used to. But she wasn’t about to say such a thing to him.

This was how her life had been when she’d been fostered, anyway. When there was nowhere she could go in those homes to have a few minutes of quiet. There were always too many kids, too many demands, and to ask for time alone would have resulted in being laughed at, at best. Being punished, even, sometimes. She’d learned to cope as best she could.

He stared at her for a moment. “I hope you know that you should always feel free to tell me what you want without feeling like you’re imposing,” he said.

For a moment, she thought he was talking about her need to have some time alone. But then she remembered that they had been talking about restaurants, and nodded politely. “Thank you. Truly, anywhere you choose will be fine.”

She wasn’t about to tell him what she really wanted. Him.

Chapter Six

By five o’clock, Andrew felt ready to break something. Or worse, lose his temper and shout out his frustration.

Who had made Meredith this way? Who had beaten down her own desires until she was afraid to voice something as simple as what kind of food she wanted for lunch? He could tell she didn’t really like the Italian place he’d chosen, but she’d simply accepted it as her due. But for what?

Before today, he’d never realized how terrible she was at asking for things for herself, because she didn’t seem to have a problem asking for things for others, or for Harbor. Until today, that had been the extent of their interaction, too. But working in such close quarters like this, he had finally seen that when it came to things that were just for herself, she retreated. Clammed up, disappeared, avoided, as though she were trying to make herself invisible.

Leanne, his executive assistant, appeared in the doorway. “Excuse me.” She nodded to both of them in turn. “The senator is here, Andrew.”

Damn it. He had forgotten about the meeting.

“Of course, Leanne. We’ll only be another minute. Do you mind showing him to the conference room?”

Leanne nodded and walked away, and Meredith jumped up immediately, gathering up her things and stuffing them into her laptop bag. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I should have remembered that you had a meeting. I—I’ll head to my office and try to keep going through the other account statements, since I haven’t gotten anything back from the bank yet. The manager said she’d try to send me information by Monday at the latest, but I was hoping to get something by now.”

What a mess.
Poor Meredith looked frazzled, and he didn’t want her to carry the stress into this evening. She was doing him a favor by going as his date, and he wanted her to enjoy herself.

“Don’t bother with the other statements, at least for tonight. Even if you find something, we won’t be able to do anything about it until everything opens again on Monday morning. You may as well get going, anyway, to get ready for the gala.”

Meredith looped her bag over her shoulder and nodded. “Okay, great. I mean, it’s not great that we haven’t gotten any answers! I just meant that sounds like a good plan.” She was speaking too quickly and throwing nervous glances toward the closet as though a bogeyman were going to jump out of it.

Or maybe an evening gown.
He wondered if she’d actually take the dress without him offering again. She may have felt daring enough to accept it this morning, but with a full day behind them, would she still be so bold?

Bold for Meredith, that is.

Perhaps it was cruel of him, but Andrew refused to let Meredith off the hook this time. He had watched her work all day long and knew how sharp and assertive she could be when it came to her work and the commitments of Harbor’s employees. There was no way he was going to allow her to shrink away from something she’d already laid claim to.

He told himself it was because he wanted her to be a part of the new company he was trying to launch. In order to make the venture a success, she would have to be capable of reaching out and taking hold of anything she needed. But there was another part of him that knew it was also because he wanted her to reach out and take hold of
him
.

She walked over to the closet and opened the door. He held his breath, but she merely pulled her coat out of it. Belatedly, he remembered his manners, and rushed over the help her put it on. He could see the dress just inside the dark wood cabinet. Light bounced off the sparkly things in the skirt, making it look like it was giving him a conspiratorial wink.

Take the dress,
he willed her.
Take the dress and let me see your bare shoulders tonight.

God, was he going crazy? There was no way anything could come of this attraction. He was her boss. They were professionals. He barely knew her.

Except that wasn’t really true. He knew how she took her coffee. He knew how hard she worked and how selfless she was. He knew he wanted to know
more
.

“Well. I’ll see you at seven thirty, then,” she clipped out, and before he could shout, “Just take the damned dress!” her arm reached up, grabbed the hanger as though she were floating in the ocean, clinging to a life preserver in the middle of a raging storm, and nearly yanked it from the wardrobe.

He wanted to cheer. Instead, he nodded. “See you then.”

***

This dress had cost six
thousand
dollars. Meredith stared at the price tag lying on the bed next to the black dress, and then looked to her left where she’d placed one of her old gowns. As soon as she’d gotten home from the office and seen that abundance of zeros on the heavy stock paper, she’d panicked, draped the dress gently on her bed, and backed away slowly, as though it were some terrible, volatile creature instead of just silk and feathers and beautiful crystals.

She’d hidden in the bathroom, showered, then done her makeup and put up her hair as well as she knew how, but when she emerged she still didn’t feel strong enough to fight the pull of that dress.

Instead, she’d brought out the most attractive dress she could find that was already in her closet and laid it next to the intimidatingly expensive one, trying to convince herself that the difference really wasn’t so great, and that she could look just as good wearing something she already owned, that she had paid a
reasonable
price for.

It didn’t work. The need to see herself completely transformed into the kind of woman who could ask for something she wanted overshadowed her reservations about the extravagance of spending that much money on a dress she’d likely wear only once. It had already taken every ounce of courage she had to yank that dress out of Andrew’s closet earlier, as though she were shoplifting. But she’d done it. And instead of completely depleting her of courage, the act had only made her feel even more daring. She’d walked home with that dress cradled to her body, and she’d felt her excitement and her pride in herself rising with every step.

Wear the six-thousand-dollar dress. Use that newfound courage and wear it.

Her finger reached out and traced over the too-large number on the price tag. It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford a dress like this. She’d done well at her previous company, and the package that Harbor had offered her had been even better. Even if she couldn’t have paid for it herself, Andrew had said he would. A thank-you gift, to offset the
inconvenience
he’d caused her.

As if wearing something that looked like dreams and magic to a sparkling, glittering ball was an inconvenience.

“Isn’t this what you wanted?” she asked herself, fingering the soft, feathery skirt. It didn’t feel like what she thought real feathers should feel like. But she had no doubt they were real, more luxurious and fine than she could ever have imagined. Is this how everything was? The things she’d wanted for so long—in reality, were they even better than she imagined? If so, then wasn’t it time to finally, finally take them for herself?

“Yes,” she sighed, exactly the same sound she’d made when Andrew had offered her the dress this morning and she’d accepted it. Except now she was offering it to herself.

“Yes, I’ll take it,” she whispered, and reached for dreams and magic.

Chapter Seven

Where was she? Andrew checked his watch again. Seven thirty-six. The limo service dispatcher had called just after seven o’clock to let him know that Meredith had been picked up and was on her way. She should have arrived by now. He was standing just inside the lobby, watching guests arrive and greeting a few on their way in, but mostly he was waiting for her.

The event planner was standing a few feet away, checking in with him every couple of minutes now, eager to get him backstage and miked up for the keynote. Meredith was supposed to have arrived over ten minutes ago. He didn’t want to abandon her to find her own way to their table with people she didn’t know, to have to explain who she was and why she was there. The planner raised her eyebrows again in question, and Andrew was about to shake his head when a car pulled up in front of the building and he
knew
. It was her.

The driver opened the door and started walking around the car to help Meredith out, but Andrew was there before him, popping the latch and thrusting his hand forward and—everything stood still for a moment.

It came to him in bits and pieces first. The flash of diamonds in her ears. The loose, curling tendrils of hair that framed her face, falling from a simple upsweep that showed off her pale, slender neck. Lips painted pink, outlining just how luscious and full they were. Big green eyes behind glasses.

He was used to women who wouldn’t be caught dead wearing glasses to a formal event. But Meredith was wearing hers.

He thought it was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.

Those eyes were shining as they stared up at him, as though he were some kind of prince coming to sweep her off her feet. Her look made him feel like a prince, anyway, and when she set her palm in his, he really couldn’t resist pulling her hard against him. Sweeping her up.

She was wearing her heavy coat over her dress, but he didn’t hesitate for a moment. Everything he needed to know, he could see in her face.

“You look beautiful.”

Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open into a little
O
. “Thank you,” she whispered, sounding breathless. Her eyes roamed his face and then his body, taking in his black-tie tuxedo. “So do you.” She blushed. “Handsome, I mean.”

He grinned. “Come on, let’s check your coat and I’ll take you to our table. I apologize, but I’ll have to leave you right away. The event planner is already about to kill me for delaying for so long.”

She smiled her consent, and he led her immediately to the coat check, impatient to see her in the gown she’d fought herself so hard for. And when he took the coat from her and she turned around to face him, it was obvious that she had emerged the winner.

Those shoulders. Those slender, strong,
sexy
shoulders. A small diamond pendant hung from a delicate strand of stones around her neck, setting her face aglow with the reflection of the warm lighting in the lobby. The black silk hugged her breasts, tightened around her waist, then flared again over her hips before disappearing into a tumbling mass of sparkling feathers.

But what made her truly irresistible was the way she was standing. He hadn’t even realized that she often hunched and cowered in meetings, and that she scurried instead of walked. Not tonight, though. Tonight, she was standing straight and tall, shoulders thrown back and chin up.

“Breathtaking,” he murmured, and she blushed.

God, had he really said that out loud?

He needed a moment to regroup. It wouldn’t be okay to ravish his CFO in the lobby before he gave a speech about the importance of social consciousness, and giving back to the community that fostered businesses like the ones these attendees represented.

Of course, he shouldn’t ravish his CFO, ever. But so help him, he really wanted to.

He passed her coat across the counter and took the chip that the clerk gave him. “May I escort you to the table?” Just as he had the night before, he offered his arm to her, but instead of helping her after she’d injured herself, he was the one who’d been knocked off his feet.

She slipped her hand through his arm and he nearly groaned.
Damn it.
How was he going to get through the keynote with an erection?

Thankfully, she brought up a topic that was decidedly unsexy, and his arousal abated somewhat. “How was your meeting with the senator?” She pitched her voice low so that the crowd couldn’t hear them as they walked toward the ballroom.

“It went very well.” He nodded at someone who waved at him from another set of doors, but kept walking. “He agreed to most of my suggestions for additions and edits, and I think this bill has a pretty good chance of passing.”

“Oh! I’m so happy for you!” She squeezed his arm, inadvertently pushing her breasts against his biceps. His eyes nearly rolled back in his head. When was the last time he’d been so turned on by the press of breasts against his arm? The answer was never. He’d
never
felt that way. The women he’d dated in the past had, for the most part, been smart and nice, but he’d simply never felt so
right
with any of them as he did with Meredith.

But before he could process the rest of that thought, that
Meredith
was the main attraction and he didn’t think he’d be able to tear his attention away when the end of the night rolled around, they entered the ballroom and she gasped in delighted surprised.

“Oh, my gosh! It’s
beautiful
,” she gushed. But all he could do was shake his head, because the only thing running through his mind as he turned and looked at her was
Yes, you are. You really are.

***

As promised, the ballroom had been transformed into a winter wonderland—the whimsical North Pole, complete with white Christmas trees, wrapped “presents” arranged in centerpieces at every table, a lovely candy house on one side of the stage at the front of the ballroom, and snowflakes dangling from the ceiling. White lights everywhere gave the room a magical glow.

A thrill rolled through Meredith. It was the most incredible transformation she’d ever seen. It really did feel as if she were in a different world.

“Magic at the North Pole,” Andrew remarked, just as a waitress wearing an elf costume stopped to offer them hors d’oeuvres from a gleaming silver tray. His eyes were on her, but his face looked strange, as though he’d gotten lost and couldn’t figure out where this abundance of sparkle and magic had come from.

Her mind was whirling with a thousand thoughts a minute. Since she’d left her last foster home for college, she’d not bothered with putting up a tree, or any kind of decorations, not feeling much like celebrating on the same day that her parents had died. And now, standing here in a gorgeous gown, on the arm of an even more gorgeous man, she couldn’t help feeling that maybe she’d been wrong all these years to turn her back on Christmas.

She felt a sharp pain in her chest as the breath whooshed out of her.
Definitely not the tribute to her parents that they would have been pleased to see.

Before they had died, Christmas at her house had been so magical, with a big tree and carols playing on the living room stereo. Her mother used to bake cake and pies and cookies, and Meredith would perch next to her on a stool at the counter when it was time to ice the sugar cookies.

Warmth and celebration and joy. Hadn’t this been exactly what she’d dreamed of when she’d wished for a family for Christmas? Or was she feeling this just because Andrew was the one who had given it to her?

He escorted her to a table right in front of the stage, pulled out her chair, and introduced her to several couples before murmuring, “I have to go now. I’ll be back for the main course, though.” And then he was gone, following a swiftly moving little blond woman behind the stage.

“So, how long have you and Andrew been together?” the woman to her left—Genevieve, was it?—turned to Meredith.

“Oh, we’re not
together
,” Meredith said, but Genevieve’s eyebrows immediately rose at those words, clearly disbelieving.

“Could’ve fooled me,” came a laughing voice from Meredith’s right, and another woman, Caroline, leaned across Andrew’s vacant chair, joining the conversation. If one could call it a conversation. To Meredith, it felt more like an exercise in humiliation at the moment, even though these women were being perfectly nice.

“He looked about ready to gobble you up just now. Are you trying to keep it quiet? You know, for the press? Because we understand how that goes.” Caroline looked back for a moment at her husband, and Meredith tried not to gape.

Caroline’s husband was the mayor of New York City. Of
course
she would understand wanting to keep a relationship out of the public eye.

Except Meredith wasn’t being coy, but Genevieve spoke before Meredith could convince them otherwise. “Oh, that makes sense. The way he looked all hot and possessive about you, oh!” She fanned herself with her hand, teasingly.

“Nothing like scoring the hottest young bachelor in town,” Caroline added with a laugh and a wink.

I wish
, Meredith wanted to say.
I wish so desperately that were true, but it’s not. He’s just my boss!
Though by the time she got finished processing what they had said…
gobble you up…hot and possessive
…someone had tapped the microphone on the stage, just behind her, and she turned with the rest of the suddenly hushed audience to look at the speaker.

It was Jon Myerberg himself, introducing Andrew, the golden boy of the tech industry, but better known across America as the Santa CEO…

Andrew walked out on stage and stole her breath at the sight of him, even though she’d seen him only minutes before. The ballroom clapped for him, then quieted.

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming out tonight to show your support for the Myerberg Foundation and for all the good work it does for our nation’s underprivileged children. Ten years ago, when I started Harbor Technologies, I had the privilege of meeting Jon here, and it was a meeting that changed my life.” He nodded toward Jon Myerberg, who was standing to one side of the podium.

“Before that meeting, I had always thought of philanthropy, of good works, as things that simply happened. I didn’t bother to really think about how giving, like any other thing we do in business, is a conscious action that we have to make happen or it will fall by the wayside. Jon changed that for me by asking me one simple question. Within the first minute of our meeting, he asked me, ‘What do you want?’”

He paused, looking around the room, and Meredith couldn’t help but feel relieved that he wasn’t looking at her just then, because it felt like her cheeks were on fire. Hadn’t he asked her that today, in not so many words? Hadn’t she been asking herself ever since she’d woken up this morning and realized that she had wanted
something
more?

“I wasn’t sure why he’d asked me that until I answered. Now I can’t remember what I said. I think it was something about Harbor’s software, but it doesn’t really matter. What Jon pointed out to me was that, until I’d voiced my request, he would never have known what I was looking for. He showed me that silence is not action. Giving does not just happen. It might seem counterintuitive to so many of us, but the truth is that you have to go out and ask for the action of giving. It is not enough just to ask it of yourself. One person can only take things so far. You have to let other people
know
what you want in order to truly attain it. You have to take action, and silence is not action.”

Oh, God. Was that her heart in her throat, threatening to choke her dead?

“That’s why I am telling all of you tonight that Jon and I have partnered to create a new organization specifically focused on helping corporations to set aside and manage funds that give back. We want you all to consider putting a portion of your organization’s earnings into a fund that we can grow to benefit the most people possible. We are telling you what we want. We are taking action. We hope that you will do the same.”

What? He was starting another company?
Did that mean that he would be leaving Harbor? Andrew paused, and she could hear a few murmurs of approval around the room, but Meredith had to fight back the urge to shake her head. If he left Harbor, would she even see him again in passing, much less have another opportunity to spend a night like this with him? With someone she respected, admired, and, yes,
lusted after
with an intensity she’d never felt for any other man?

But then Caroline leaned over again and whispered, “Andrew is
so
inspiring,” making Meredith snap to attention, force a smile to her lips and nod casually, as though she wasn’t afraid. But she was. So afraid that she was once again going to lose a connection that she hadn’t even realized she wanted so badly until tonight.

You’re here for Andrew. Put on a happy face and pretend this is the most wonderful thing you’ve ever heard.

“It is amazing to think back to that meeting, a decade ago, and realize that my life completely changed overnight.”

His voice had quieted, and she could practically feel the audience collectively lean in to hear his next words. But instead of staring out back at the crowd, Andrew shifted his gaze to the table where she sat. To
Meredith
herself. Their eyes locked, and she could feel herself practically being pulled into him, mesmerized.

“From one day to the next, I became someone different. It took a person who cared enough to take the time to really talk to me, to
see
me, to teach me how to ask for what I wanted. That’s what it took to shake up everything I knew and turn my life around. For the better, of course,” he added, and the crowd chuckled. “While that description might make what Jon did seem commonplace, or easy, I have met very few people since who had had such a profound impact on my life.”

His eyes were practically boring into hers now. “And somehow, each one of those people seems to have impacted me the same way that Jon did—effecting a transformation in such a short time that I often wonder if some kind of magic wasn’t at play.”