Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (130 page)

“The pleasure is mine, Adam. I’m so happy
you could join us tonight. The flowers are lovely, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now that I have a free
hand, sir, I have something for you, too.”

I pulled out the cigar and Alicia’s dad
said, “John,” again before taking it. He brought it to his nose and slid it
underneath and inhaled. “My favorite, how did you know?”

“I have to give Alicia credit. I texted
her earlier and asked.”

“Well, thank you anyways, it was very
thoughtful of you.” I looked up then and saw Alicia standing in the dining room
door looking at me. She was wearing a green sweater dress that brought out the
green in her hazel eyes and her hair was down around her shoulders. I wished we
were alone suddenly.

“Hi, baby,” she said.

“Hi. You look beautiful.”

“So do you,” she told me. “Are the flowers
for me?”

“Oh yeah.” I handed her the orchids.

“They’re beautiful, thank you. Dinner is
ready.” She took her mother’s flowers and brought both bouquets back in a vase.
We all took a seat at the table. I wasn’t sure I could eat. My stomach was
doing cartwheels. Alicia’s father sat at the head of the table with Alicia to
his right and Alicia’s mother to his left. That left me between Alicia and her
mother.

I did my best to make conversation with
her and after I asked her a few questions about her hometown in England and
what charities she was involved in, she seemed to warm up to me. She asked me
about myself and I told her I was born and raised in New York, that both my
parents had passed away, and I didn’t have any siblings. I complimented her
necklace and earrings and by the time we finished our main course, I think she
was almost flirting with me.

The nerves were beginning to recede if for
no other reason than Alicia’s calming presence. Her father didn’t talk much,
but when he did it was with warmth or humor. I decided quickly that I really
liked him. He seemed like the kind of man I could be good friends with someday.

After dinner, Alicia sent her parents out
to the sitting room with a fresh carafe of coffee and I helped her cleaned up
the kitchen. “That went okay…so far,” I said with a grin. “I think your mother
actually likes me.”

“How could she not? You were so charming.”
She smiled at me and continued, “And handsome.”

I couldn’t stand it any longer. I grabbed
her and holding her tightly I kissed her on the lips,

“I’ve wanted to do that since I got here.”

“Me, too,” she said.

Once we finished in the kitchen, Alicia
fixed a tray of dessert cups along with the frozen fruit and cream and brought
it into the sitting room with us. I helped her father stoke the fire and when
we were all seated comfortably, her mother finally said,

“So, Adam, Alicia tells us you’ve asked
her to marry you?”

I looked at Alicia and then back at Lady
Winston, “That’s true; it would make me the happiest man on earth.”

Alicia’s mother smiled. “Well, that is a
good answer. I have to say, however, I hope you can see how we might be worried
about your futures based on what has been going on lately in your lives?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “I would absolutely
be concerned if it were my own daughter. All I can tell you is the truth. I
love your daughter more than I’ve ever loved anything or anyone. I promise you
that I will always love her and take care of her needs. She and I are an
awesome team and I believe that with Alicia by my side, I can rebuild my
practice to be even more successful than it was before.”

Alicia’s father said, “I’m glad to hear
all of that, son. A marriage is a partnership. For better or worse aren’t just
words. What you’re going through now may just be scratching the surface of what
is yet to come of the worse. The important thing is that you see you and Alicia
as a team. As long as you keep seeing it that way, I believe you two will make
it as well.”

Happily, for me at least, that was the
last of the serious talk for the evening. We chatted and laughed and played a
game of scrabble before I finally announced that I should be going if I were
going to be able to get up for work the next day. Alicia walked me out.

“Thank you so much for coming. I think
they really like you. I knew they would,” she told me.

“I’m glad. I like them, too. They did a
great job with you. That was something they had going for them right from the
start.”

She laughed and before she turned to go
back inside she turned serious and said, “Don’t forget our meeting with David
in the morning.” I hadn’t forgotten it. I was just trying not to dwell on it.
It seemed the more I knew about the Brigham case, the less I wanted to.

“I won’t,” was all I said to her. I didn’t
want to end the wonderful night on a depressing note. I put my arm around her
waist and pulled her in for a kiss. It was a long, languid one and we were both
breathless when we pulled apart. “Damn, I wish you were coming home with me.”

“Me, too,” she said. “Goodnight, love.”

“Goodnight.”

I watched as Luis’s nighttime counterpart
called the elevator down for her before I took my keys from the valet and
headed home. I couldn’t wait until the day that her home was mine and vice
versa. I would never want ten kids…or even five, but I have begun to like to
think about having at least one or two with Alicia. We’d never talked about
children so I’m not really sure how she feels about it, but if she’s open to
it, so am I.

CHAPTER
NINE

ALICIA

I was still smiling as the elevator doors
closed to take me back up to the apartment. I could tell Adam was nervous when
he first got there tonight, but as usual, he’d charmed the pants off of
everyone in the room. The elevator stopped on the second floor and a man
stepped on. It took me a second to realize it was Miles IV. “Mr. Brigham, what
are you doing here?” I asked, feeling very uncomfortable.

“You and I need to talk, young lady.” He
looked – and smelled – as if he had been drinking heavily.

“Why don’t you come into the office and
see me in the morning? I’ll be there by nine.” Miles pushed the stop button on
the elevator. I was beginning to feel panic well up inside of me.

“What are you doing?”

“I said we need to talk. The papers and
the television are smearing my family’s name all across this State. I’m up on
charges for a murder I didn’t commit. My son will probably be arrested soon for
a murder he probably did commit, but no one was supposed to know about, and all
of the information my company has kept private and personal for years will
probably pop up any day now. You and your damn boss are responsible for all of
that, and I want to know what you plan to do about it.”

My heart was racing and I could feel the
sweat on my palms. I stood my ground though.

“Mr. Brigham, I will forgive you for this,
just this once, because I believe you have had too much to drink. In the
future, however, if you wish to speak with me, you will use the phone and make
an appointment to see me at my office. Now, I have company waiting for me in my
apartment and would appreciate it if you would press that button and get us
moving again. If you choose not to do so, I will press the emergency button and
you can explain to the police why you felt it was okay to trap me here against my
will.”

Miles looked at me and smiled. “I like
your balls, young lady,” he said before pushing the button for my floor. We
rode up without speaking further, but as I stepped out, he said, “I’ll be
calling you for that appointment.”

“That’ll be fine,” I told him.

I waited for the elevator doors to close
before turning my back on him. The hairs on the back of my neck were still
standing up. I thought about calling Adam and telling him, but decided to let
him rest easy tonight. I would tell him in the morning.

********

I told Adam about Miles on our way out to
meet with David. “He’s so used to using intimidation in his business and family
dealings, he probably thought it would work with you, too. Way to go putting
him in his place, babe.”

I smiled. “Thanks, I can take care of
myself when I have to.”

“I know you can,” Adam told me as he took
one hand off the wheel and reached over to take mine.

We arrived at the diner ten minutes before
David was supposed to be there and went inside to order coffee. We were both
alternately anticipating and dreading what David might have to say. We were
surprised when he walked in to see him flanked by two large men who appeared to
be Federal agents. We had known he would be under close watch, but for him to
be willing to talk to us directly in front of the officers seemed curious.

David walked up to the table and said,
“Mr. Hanson,” and then looking towards me, “Miss Winston, I’m glad you both
could make it. I’d like you to meet my colleagues, Agents White and Williams.”

We were confused. “Colleagues?” Adam
asked.

“Yes,” David told us as he took out his
wallet. He opened it and laid his FBI identification and badge on the table in
front of them. There was a picture of him on the ID and it identified him as
“Special Agent David Tyler.”

“You’re an agent?” I asked, still unsure
what was happening. Adam picked up the wallet and examined it more closely.

David said, “May I?” When we both nodded,
he sat down with us at the table. The two other men took a seat in the booth
behind us. After the waitress brought David his coffee, he finally continued.

“I’m sure this is confusing to you both. I
will try to explain as best I can. I am a Special Agent with the FBI. I have
been deep undercover for several years now. My job was originally to find out
what was going on with a large influx of money coming both in and out of the
President’s campaign fund.

“I was placed as an intern. I was given a
background as a Political Science major who was attending law school and had
loyalty to the Republican Party. I met Vick and realized that as campaign
manager, he was going to be a very important piece of the puzzle.”

I couldn’t help it; my face must have
involuntarily shown my disdain regarding the man’s scruples.

David smiled at me and said, “I assure
you, Ms. Hanson, I was not using sex to get what I needed from Vick. Vick and I
worked closely together for a while. He agreed to help us before anything
sexual ever took place between us. We fell in love. Vick was working with me,
to expose what was going on with that campaign.

“I admit, it is seriously frowned upon in
my line of work to get romantically involved with an informant, and especially
if that informant is of the same sex as you. I have been severely reprimanded
for that, and I am sure I haven’t heard the last of it.” He paused and glanced
over at his colleagues.

“Anyways, Vick was already on the inside.
It was where I needed to be, but didn’t have the time I needed to work my way
all the way in.”

“Wait,” Adam said, “Brigham had proof that
Vick was stealing funds himself. I’ve seen the paper trail.”

“That was part of the plan,” David said.
“Vick needed to look dirty so he could attract the people who were really
behind all of this. We set it up to look like he was a playboy and a
philanderer. His fiancée Cindy McGuire was paid to play her part. Money was not
the draw for her; she loved the drama. His mistress however, the stripper, she
did it for the money.”

“What about your relationship with Celia
Brigham?” I asked. “You used that young girl?”

“Yes, I did,” David said with what seemed
to me to be little remorse. “After Vick began giving us information, we started
figuring out that getting close to Brigham was going to be key for us to
infiltrate this political circle. He was in very good standing with the
President and all of his close advisors before the oil spill and all of the
negative press. We needed to get close to the family so we could get close to
him.

“The plan was that we would stage Vick’s
arrest, and Miles would push for me to become the President’s campaign manager.
Instead, Vick ended up dead and Brigham had discovered our relationship by
then. He pushed for Alex Fritz to be put in his place. What Brigham didn’t
know, at least from what we’ve discovered, was that Fritz was already deeply
involved in what was going on.”

“Now wait,” Adam said. “Alex is and has
been a very good friend of mine for some time now. There’s no way he’s involved
in any dirty politics.”

David took a long sip of his coffee and
said, “I’m afraid he is, Mr. Hanson. Fritz is involved up to his eyeballs.”

“Involved in what, exactly?” I asked. “You
aren’t exactly telling us what this is all about. “

I could tell Adam was getting angry. I put
my hand on his thigh under the table in a calming touch and waited for David to
answer the question.

“Let me back up a bit,” David said. “A few
years back when Miles Brigham IV began putting his money in politics, he made a
deal with some very powerful people to look the other way, so to speak, about
the way he does business. They were willing to do so in exchange for a lot of
cash.