Seduced By My Billionaire Boss (The Billionaire Boss Series, #1) (11 page)

Alright, the briefcase felt
very
clunky in my hand by now. Tom eased it gently away and set it by the door. Then, taking my hand, he led me to the table and pulled back a chair.

I sat down silently, face aglow from the candles. But when he sat down across from me, I couldn’t help but ask. “This is a
work
dinner? With champagne?”

“Do you see this?” He pulled out a single page from the merger. It was an appendix, or a translation glossary, or something equally useless. I watched with wide eyes as he wedged it beneath his wine glass. “Now it’s a work dinner.”

I bit back a smile as he poured me a glass of champagne.

“To your hard work—not bad for your first week on the job,” he toasted.

I raised my glass and countered, “To
your
hard work. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“To us.” He smiled. “We make a good team.”

“To us,” I agreed.

We clinked glasses and took a sip, each of us staring at the other over the top of the sparkling stemware. The champagne provided a well-needed relief, and within a minute, we’d both finished our first glass. He was quick to pour us another, and we got to work on those.

“So,” I said eventually, “do you own this place too? It has the same soundtrack.”

Faint strains of Christmas music were tinkling down from speakers overhead. He glanced up as a band struck up with ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,’ noticing it for the first time.

“Does it bother you?” he asked suddenly.

I looked up quickly, not entirely hiding my surprise. “No...of course not.”

It wasn’t exactly true. I hated Christmas. In fact, I hated everything to do with the holiday. But it wasn’t something that ever came up in conversation, and I truly didn’t think anyone had ever noticed before.

“You’re lying.” His eyes sparkled as he leaned across the table. “I saw it at the coffee shop as well. Tell me why.”

“I’m not,” I insisted. I couldn’t believe we were having this conversation. But he raised his eyebrows and stayed right where he was. After a second or two, I relented. “Christmas isn’t exactly my thing.”

“Isn’t exactly your thing?” he quoted. “Who doesn’t like Christmas?”

I smiled and took a sip of my champagne. “You’re looking at her.”

“Well, there has to be a story behind that,” he cocked his head curiously, “care to tell me why?”

The champagne was working on the both of us, calming our nerves and breaking down barriers where they normally would have stood.

With a small sigh, I leaned back in my chair, bringing the glass once to my lips before saying, “It’s a pretty classic tale of holiday abandonment. My dad left on Christmas when I was four. My mother never celebrated after that. The foods, trees, carols...everything set her off.” I smiled wryly. “I guess it sets me off now too.”

Of course, there was a lot more to the story. There was the Christmas when I found my mother choking to death on a mouthful of pills. The Christmas when I spent the night in the ER and the next day making funeral arrangements.

But no need to go into all of that now. It was far too heavy for a fake work dinner.

Before Tom had a chance to say anything, a pair of waiters came up and brought us two platters of pasta and bread. After running my legs into the ground, carbs were just what I craved.

We dug in, the conversation momentarily forgotten, as we replenished ourselves. When we finally came up for air, Tom laughed and poured us still another glass of champagne. “I don’t usually go for pasta, but you see, I had a particularly grueling day on the treadmill.”

I laughed and took a large mouthful of bread. “I’m right there with you.”

He leaned back in his chair and studied me with a thoughtful expression. “So you really don’t like Christmas. You’re not just one of those people who says they don’t to get extra attention and gifts?”

I chuckled and shook my head. “No, but you have to respect those people for ambition.”

He was quiet for a while, thinking, and I finally cocked my head with a grin.

“Let me guess, you just
love
Christmas. You love
everything
about it.”

He threw back his head and laughed, the sound echoed off the marble heaters before losing itself in the chilly night. “I do love Christmas. I love everything about it. Furthermore, I feel the profound need to change your mind about the whole thing.”

I smiled and took another sip of bubbly. “Oh, so you’re one of those. The ‘protectors.’ You’re going to save me from myself.”

“Absolutely,” he said seriously. “I’m just going to need...a little more champagne.”

We laughed again and settled back for a rather delightful meal. Not once did we talk about work. Not once did we mention the merger. We only talked about each other, asking random questions and probing little details that most people would never have thought to ask.

It wasn’t long before dessert came and the two of us laughed like a pair of old friends. Well, maybe a little
friendlier
than friends...

“Why did you ask me here?”

The candles had burned down low, and we were speaking more plainly now. He looked up at me in surprise, considering for a moment, before he shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly.

He didn’t know. Well, that made two of us.

With a little smile, I nodded and got up to leave.

“Jenna,” he hurried after me, “I’m sorry, I don’t—”

“I’m not mad,” I said just as sincerely as him. “It’s just getting late, and I have to present this merger first thing tomorrow.”

His face fell, and before I knew what I was doing, I squeezed his hand in mine.

“Thank you, for dinner.” I smiled shyly. “I had a lot of fun.”

“Thank you for coming,” he said softly.

I nodded quickly and turned to leave, heading out of the warm circle of candlelight.

Then all at once, I was in his arms.

He smashed me up against the brick wall, hiking up my dress and hitching my leg around his waist as his lips found mine. His mouth explored mine, his tongue dancing around mine in perfect harmony. He devoured me with a kiss so deep...that I swear I was seeing fireworks. I fought to stay in control but I couldn’t help but let myself go.

I was consumed by every thrust of his tongue. Tasting him like this felt so natural, so damn right. I tangled my hands through his carefully combed hair and wrapped my other leg around him. Heat shot through me as his lips traveled down my neck.

I was so caught up that I couldn’t remember all the reasons why this was so wrong. I hadn’t been kissed with such intensity or passion in a long time. And as much as I was enjoying this amazing kiss, I snapped back into reality. I was playing with fire. I was playing with my career. I could be fired for this kind of behavior. What was I thinking?

“We can’t do this,” I said, gasping for breath.

His fingers trailed through my hair. “Why not?”

He pressed his lips against my mouth and we started kissing once again. His kiss was hungry, hot as hell, demanding, and intense.

I moaned as his tongue slid down my neck. “You know why.”

It was almost impossible to break off the addictive kiss, but I broke away.

“We can’t,” I said. “You know this will change everything. I’m madly attracted to you. I am. And I want to keep going...desperately. But I know we can’t.”

I could feel him hardening beneath me, but before things could go any further, we both abruptly stopped.

“I’m sorry,” he panted, “I’m sorry.”

I fought to catch my breath. I slipped quickly back to the roof, trying to catch my breath. “No, it’s okay. It’s just—”

“We can’t,” he finished. “I know we can’t.”

He took the words right out of my mouth, but I suddenly realized that I didn’t want to hear him say them, any more than I wanted him to stop. I wanted us to be right back up against the wall, picking up where we left off.

One look at his eyes told me he was thinking the same thing. But he restrained himself, summoning a strength of will instilled by nearly a decade of professionalism.

“I’ll take you home now.” He stared at me hungrily once more, before turning his back and opening the door to the elevator. “I’m sorry again—I never should have done that.”

“Don’t worry,” I tried to reassure him as I followed him inside. “We’ll just forget it. It’ll be like it never happened.”

But as the doors closed shut, locking the two of us in together, I felt suddenly certain.

There was
no way in hell
I could ever forget...

T
he next day at work was terrible. And I mean...
terrible
.

It should have been fantastic—a huge milestone triumph. My coming out party into the world of financial business. I got to the office early, and with the utmost gravitas, solemnly placed my printed copy of the merger on Patti Macer’s desk. Her eyes widened as she picked it up and flipped through the first few pages.

“This has to be half an inch thick,” she exclaimed.

“It’s about three hundred pages.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “With a glossary and everything...?”

I stifled a smile. At the last possible moment, I had remembered the page Tom removed for our ‘work dinner’ last night, and slipped it back in. “Yep, it’s all there.”

She leaned back in her chair and actually took off her glasses, staring at me like she’d never quite seen me before. “Harks, I don’t know how you did it.”

I beamed with pride but contained myself with a casual shrug. “I had some help. Both Michael and Thomas pitched in over the weekend. It was really a group effort.”

Her eyebrows shot to her hair. If I had only said Michael’s name, I think there’d be a good chance that she’d shut the door and sit me down for an interrogation regarding inter-office relations. But Tom’s name was above repute. When I added it on, I saw her visibly relax. Then she picked up the merger and started smiling so hard, I thought it might split open her face.

“Jenna,” we both sat up a bit straighter as she said my name for the first time, “this is above and beyond all my expectations. I’ll be sending the California branch a letter of thanks immediately for all your hard work.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Don’t even mention it—I’m a New Yorker now. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”

Like, seriously,
please
don’t mention it.

Then, in true, awkward Macer style, she rose slowly from her chair and slowly extended both of her hands. I wasn’t sure what exactly was expected of me here, but I took them as gravely as I could and held on until she nodded finally and I was kindly dismissed. As the door shut behind me, I paused for a moment, wondering if I’d just been knighted.

I decided I loved the idea.

And so, riding high on a wave of adrenaline, I took off down the hall.

It was like a movie. People came out of their offices in slow motion, clapping and cheering me on. People I’d never seen before patted me on the back and offered me their congratulations. I shook my head like it was nothing, walking through their rows of applause, but I couldn’t help but throw a beauty pageant wave Jamie’s way as he peered outside to see what all the commotion was.

“I take it this means you got the merger done?” he asked with a congratulatory grin as we headed down the hall for the morning staff meeting.

I tossed my hair back with casual arrogance. “Sure did.”

He cocked his head to the side. “Or I should have said, you got
your part
of the merger done? You know, you’re not the only one who worked all weekend.”

“Yes well,” I stretched ostentatiously, lowering my arms quickly as it pulled up on my already rather short skirt. “I think they just recognize true talent when they see it.”

“Uh-huh.” He gave me a sarcastic grin, indulging my victory lap. “So what do you say, Superman, should I take this ‘write to California’ memo Macer just sent over seriously or what?”

I snatched it out of his hand at the speed of light. The next second, it was crumpled up and tossed into the nearest trash. “What memo?”

“Goodness, I’ve created a monster.”

“A monster that just wrote a three hundred page merger, son!”

He blinked mildly. “Did you just call me
son
?”

My cheeks flushed, and I ducked into the conference room. In moments like these, I had the unfortunate habit of slipping into certain colloquialisms a girl like me just couldn’t pull off.

Once the rest of the office had settled down, Mr. Trask walked slowly inside, flanked by both Larchwood brothers. The rest of my co-workers sat up automatically a bit straighter, but I kept my eyes firmly on the wall. To be frank, I didn’t trust myself to look at either one.

I didn’t trust myself not to smack Michael across the face—again. And when it came to Tom...? There was a long list of things I didn’t trust myself not to do.

“This is going to be a very short meeting,” Trask said robotically, going through his list of notes. “First of all, I’d like to thank legal and PR for putting together something so quickly. I know it wasn’t a fun weekend for anyone here. But that brings me to my second point.” His colorless eyes peered out from overtop his papers. “Miss Harks?”

Every head swiveled around, and Jamie nudged me comically in the back. “He actually doesn’t remember which one you are,” he whispered with a chuckle.

Taking my cue, I raised my hand slightly, and half stood to get his attention. The second those creepy eyes fixed on me, I tried to sit back down, but he motioned for me to keep standing.

“I’d like to take a second here to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our most recent addition. Miss Harks was given this assignment in her first week, and managed to single-handedly write the bulk of the first draft—finally getting us back on schedule with the Chinese.”

The room burst into applause, and my cheeks flushed pink. “Oh no, it wasn’t just me—” I tried to say, but both Larchwoods were clapping along with everyone else. Blushing even brighter, I gave a small smile and sank back into my chair, intensely pleased but uncomfortable with all the attention.