Table For Two: Barrington Billionaire's Series: Book Two (4 page)

Tessa might think she was stronger than he was, but he was going to prove how mistaken she was. No one knew him and definitely had no idea what he was capable of, but if they got in his way, they were going to find out.
No matter how sexy you are.

It didn’t take him long to arrive at B&H Advance Engineering. Funny how his brother had been in business with Asher Barrington for several years, yet he never had been invited there before. If Brice thought he could use the success of his company as a form of intimidation to back off from the acquisition, then he was going to receive one hell of a blow today.

Brice’s personal assistant, Nancy, had aged some, but her powerful personality hadn’t diminished over the years. As he approached, she came out from behind her desk and wrapped her arms around him. Getting hugged was not something he would ever be comfortable with. It wasn’t something they did growing up, and it was too late to break those old ways.

“Dean, I can’t believe what a handsome young man you have turned out to be. I don’t think I have seen you since . . .”

My father kicked me out? Yeah. One hell of a memorable time.
Being back in Boston really sucked at times. After thirteen years one would think people had forgotten, but they hadn’t. It seemed all anyone recalled when they saw him was what he had done. As though one moment in time determined his entire existence. So be it. After all these years he didn’t care. Leaving that house probably was a blessing to him. It got him away from the emotional and physical abuse their father inflicted on them all. But no one seemed to want to bring that up. No, his father had been a brutal, hateful man all his life, but no one had dared to say anything to him. He, on the other hand, apparently was never going to be able to escape the one time he snapped.
If that is the case, so be it. I don’t live with any regrets.
“Nice to see you again too, Nancy. I think my brother is expecting me.”

She got the hint and let him go. “He’s in his office but not in a great mood. Don’t let him bite your head off today like he tried doing to me.”

Dean wasn’t worried about what Brice was going to say. If Nancy knew him, she would be far better off warning Brice to watch his step with him instead.

He crossed the room and entered Brice’s office. “You wanted to see me this morning?”

Brice looked up from the stack of papers he had sprawled out on his desk. “Sit down. This might take a while.”

Dean pulled the chair across from Brice’s desk farther away. He leaned back and brought his feet up to rest on the corner of the desk. It was time for his big brother to get the message.
I’m no child you can boss around any longer.

“Why don’t you make yourself comfortable?” Brice’s tone held the sarcasm it was meant to.

“What is it that couldn’t wait any longer?”

“We haven’t seen you much since Dad’s funeral. Why is that?”

“I’ve been busy.” It hadn’t been as though they’d been all that close over the past few years. If it hadn’t been for Zoey keeping track of them all, he probably wouldn’t know anything that was going on in the family. The most time he had spent with Brice since he and his father had parted ways was at the hospital before their father died. It sounded horrible to even think it, but with their father gone, an unfamiliar level of peace had entered them all. All the years of abuse were finally put to an end.
No one should ever feel this way about a parent. Are you going to haunt us from the grave too, Dad?

“Too busy to answer my calls?” Brice asked.

Dean laughed. “That is funny coming from you. If I recall, only Zoey was able to get you on the phone. Or have you forgotten since you have Lena and Nicholas back in your life?” He had to admit, his brother had changed a lot over the past few months. He was happy things had turned around for him. That didn’t mean they were changing for the rest of them. “So you didn’t ask me here for small talk. What’s this all about?”

“You know exactly, Dean. Poly-Shyn’s future or lack thereof,” Brice said in a tone he had used on him many times over the years. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk. “Trent came by to see me yesterday after leaving your office. He is under the impression that Poly-Shyn is off the market. Why would that be? I thought I made it clear that the company needs to be sold, and the Henderson name be disassociated with it.”

“You said the company needed a new owner. That is what you are going to get.”

Brice glared at him. “What game are you playing, Dean? You don’t have the money to purchase the company, and you are far from qualified to run it.”

Dean clenched his fist on his lap. Brice’s comments only acted as fuel to the fire already within him. Proof once again that it was time to show his brothers who he was, what he was capable of. They’d underestimated him way too long. When he was through, they never would again.

“I am familiar with the asking price, and as far as I am concerned, the company is off the market and within the next few months will be mine.” He didn’t break eye contact with his brother.

“With what money? I don’t believe you have five-sixths of the three and a half million dollars we are asking.”

He would do what he needed to do to buyout his five siblings. He was not about to back down.
Never have, never will.
“Don’t worry about my financial situation. Just know that I plan on making Poly-Shyn mine. Nothing is going to stop me.”

Brice leaned back in his chair. “That is what concerns me, Dean. How far are you willing to go? Who are you willing to crush to get what you want?”

Anyone I have to.
“Have the lawyers draw up the paperwork. I will be able to give you one-third down and the rest within ninety days.” Dean got up from his chair and headed for the door.

Brice called out to him. “Where the hell are you getting this kind of money, Dean? You don’t even have a job. Has gambling been that good to you lately?”

Some things hadn’t changed. Their expectations of who he was, did not match him at all. Yes, he gambled, but not in cards. He was a shark in the water and not afraid to swim with the other sharks. Brice could sit in his lab if he wanted to, but not Dean. He needed the excitement of the hunt, of the kill. His brother couldn’t understand that. But people like Asher Barrington and Trent Davis knew exactly what it felt like.
What a fucking rush to win!

Before he left the office, he said to his brother over his shoulder, “Everything is a gamble, Brice. You just never got in the game.”
And it’s a game you don’t want to play with me.

D
ean was trying to do as Tessa had asked and give Brittany-Lynn a chance to prove herself. She followed through on any task he asked of her. Answered the phone professionally and didn’t have an issue deflecting any calls he asked her to. It was possible she was capable of doing the job. But the truth was all he saw when he looked at her was a pretty young girl who was too innocent to be exposed to the type of people he associated himself with. And that could cause her a lot of pain that she wasn’t prepared for.

In some ways, she reminded him of Zoey and his close childhood friend, Kenzi Barrington. She was tenderhearted but probably wouldn’t admit it. He remembered too clearly what effect that had on Kenzi. One that haunted her to this day. Although they never spoke about it, he knew it molded each of them to who they were today.

Even thinking about it now boiled his blood. The day a person who he considered a friend told him what he had done to Kenzi had changed his life forever. Dean thought his father had been a cruel, abusive man, but to have listened to his friend boast about how he had drugged and raped Kenzi and show absolutely no remorse for doing it, was like looking at an animal who he knew would do it again if given the chance. It was bad enough he had done that to Kenzi, but he would be damned if he let that bastard do it to another defenseless person. Something within him snapped. He had one thought only.
Kill the bastard.

He almost accomplished it too. Dean beat that kid with his fist until he was unconscious and left him there in the park. But when he got home and saw Zoey, she knew he had done something. How she knew was beyond him, but somehow she always knew things that no one else did. All she did was give him a hug and say these simple words that cut him deep: “I know you will do the right thing.”

Although he hated that kid, and as far as he was concerned he got what he deserved, the guilt of leaving even a scumbag like him to die alone in the park began to eat at him. Dean had picked up his cell phone and called for an ambulance to be dispatched to the location. He hadn’t given any other information, but that one call cost him more than he had realized. The police traced it back to him, and he was charged with attempted murder. The one question the judge asked was why. Dean refused to answer, and the kid pretended as though he didn’t know either.

Dean’s father had been so pissed that he told the judge to let him serve time in the juvenile detention center. It was a place that wasn’t going to reform him. His own father didn’t come to see him there. Zoey was the only constant back then and even now.
Even though she knows what an asshole I am.

It was one hell of a rude awakening on how fucked up life was at times. He protected Kenzi’s honor by never sharing what happened to her, and the guy who did it healed from his injuries and got to walk out of the hospital, while Dean sat in jail.

Was being back in town bringing back those harsh memories? The last he heard, Kenzi was in town also. Neither of them had seen each other or spoken in years. It wasn’t by accident either. Her family never liked him around her in the first place, and once he had a criminal record they liked him even less.
If only they knew.

He laughed to himself. Would them knowing actually change anything? She didn’t ask him to attack anyone. Kenzi probably would have begged him not to, as she never could bring herself to be mean to another person. No, Dean did this because he had so much built-up anger for the years of abuse he and his siblings had experienced. That night was just the last straw, and he let out all his frustrations with every blow of his fist.
Maybe I’m an animal myself?

A soft knock interrupted his thoughts. He needed a distraction because in his current state of mind he wasn’t going to be able to concentrate on the paperwork in front of him.

“Come in.” He fully expected it to be Brittany-Lynn again. Instead, it was Tessa. He knew she had been avoiding him for the last few days. He didn’t mind letting her play her little game for now, as he had work to do, but what brought her to him now?

“Am I catching you at a bad time?”

Never a bad time for you.
He looked at her, and she was totally different from his secretary. Brittany-Lynn dressed to be noticed and Tessa, the total opposite. If he hadn’t seen her bent over, he probably would never have given her a second look. She was far from ugly, but he normally liked his women dressed for the taking. Yet there was something about her that told him she was hotter than anyone he had ever met. So why was she hiding herself behind those big glasses and oversized sweaters? Did she not feel sexy, or was she trying not to?

“I can spare a few minutes. What’s up?”

Tessa entered the office and stood by his desk. “There has been talk among some employees that Poly-Shyn may be taken over by an outside party. I wanted to see if there was any truth to the rumors.”

What the fuck?
How could he answer that? She knew what the rumors were because she probably was the one starting them. No one else in the office would be privy to such information. So if she wanted to have him confide in her, then he would. Only the information wasn’t going to be factual.

“I can’t see how we are going to hold on. I’m trying to find out who it is now, so we can make a deal and settle this peacefully. If they want the company, I might as well let them have it. It’s not like I really want it anyway.” He leaned back in his chair and watched her for a reaction. Was that sadness he read in her eyes? Why? She should be ecstatic he was willing to let this place go to her true employer.

In a very soft tone she said, “It must be very difficult for you to have to give up your father’s company. I hear he dedicated his entire life to building it.”

Tessa was right on that. Everything his father had done was about making money in this damn business. His family meant nothing to him. His funeral was proof of what a cold-hearted person he was. The only people there were the six of them. No relatives at all. It was as though the family started and ended with their father. Dean often wondered about that. Where was their mother? He may have been rich and powerful, but he still needed a woman to have a child, never mind six. If a mother was going to reappear, he thought it sure would have been then to try to claim the business. When that didn’t happen, Dean decided to claim it himself.

He wanted the company his father loved so much to show him that he could do it even better than his father had. “I have no real attachment to the place. Just killing time here.”

She looked shocked at his statement. Why shouldn’t she be? After all, her purpose here was to look for his weakness and report on it, and he had delivered it to her on a silver platter. It was probably killing her to stand there in front of him, pretending to feel bad, when all she wanted to do was run back and deliver the message.

“If running Poly-Shyn isn’t what makes you happy, then I hope you find what does one day.” Tessa turned to head out of the office.

Something in her voice seemed sincere. It intrigued him. Actually, everything about her did.
What the hell is it about you? You’re not what I usually go for.

“I was just about to leave for lunch. Join me.”

Even from behind the glasses he saw her eyes widen. “I have a lot of work to do.”

“It wasn’t a request.”

“Did you still need to discuss something with me?” she asked.

Dean had a lot of things to discuss, none of which could be said to her. No, this lunch was going to be a fishing adventure, but on his terms, not hers. “Why else would I ask?”

Tessa nodded. “Let me get my purse, and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

He watched her leave his office. The confidence she had been portraying earlier had vanished. Was she questioning if she was going to be able to go through with the assignment? Was he too big of a challenge? He got up from his chair and grabbed the keys to his Aston Martin. Dean couldn’t hold back the laughter as he left his office.
Maybe she can’t resist my charm.

Tessa grabbed her purse and headed for the lobby. She didn’t want to keep him waiting as his mood seemed to be different from before. That didn’t mean it was better, but something had changed. There was only one way to find out what that was, and that was by listening while having lunch with him.

Growing up, her father always told her the more you listen, the more you learn about another person. She hadn’t thought of applying it to reading a CEO of a company, but then again, she never thought she would be in the position to actually have lunch with one either.
Life is full of surprises. Hopefully, this is one of the pleasant ones.

When she arrived, the lobby was empty except for the security guard. “Mr. Henderson said for you to go outside. He will be waiting for you there.”

So much for changes. It looks like his old self is back.
When she exited the building, she expected to see a limo waiting with him already in it. Instead, there was a bright red Aston Martin waiting out front with Dean in the driver’s seat.
Why in the world would any sane person have a car that cost about three-hundred-thousand dollars?
There was nothing practical about it at all. This thing screamed rich playboy for sure. She opened her door, slid inside, and buckled up.

As they drove, she took in the interior of the car: rich black leather, a pop-up navigation system, and more buttons and gadgets than she cared to count. And when would anyone ever need to drive 220 mph?
Maybe it strokes his ego to know he could if he wanted to. Men!
Finally, the silence was killing her. How could she listen if he wasn’t speaking? “Was there something specific you wanted to talk about?”

He looked at her briefly then turned his eyes back to the road. Traffic was always crazy in Boston, but that time of day was the worst. She never drove and only took public transportation. Right now, sitting in the midst of all the honking horns and people swearing at each other, she was glad she didn’t do this on a regular basis.

“Why don’t we wait till we get to my place where we can talk without interruptions?”

His place? What happened to lunch?
If he thought for one minute that she was the type of girl he could take home with him for a little afternoon delight, he had another thing coming. There was no way was she going any farther with him. “Did I hear you correctly? We are going to your place?”

He nodded without looking at her. “You heard right.”

Dean Henderson, you have some nerve.
“Then I would like you to take me back to the office now. There is no way am I going to your home or any other place you may have planned. You said this was a business lunch. Not a . . .”

They stopped at a red light, and he turned to look at her. “A what?”

Tessa huffed and crossed her arms. “You know exactly what. There is no way I’m going to have . . .”

He laughed. “Are you so shy you can’t even say the word?”

Of course, she couldn’t say it. She didn’t even want to think it. This was her boss. It was bad enough she found him sexually attractive, but acting on such desires was never going to happen. “I choose not to say it. Now, please take me back to the office.”

Dean continued to look at her as though he was searching for any chance she might be playing hard to get.
Consider me impossible to get. It ain’t happening.
Tessa couldn’t face him any longer and turned her face away. He reached for her and cupped her face to turn it toward him again. Their eyes locked, and she trembled at his touch. Tessa inhaled his scent and a rush of heat flowed through her.

“I was only joking. But know this Tessa, if I want you, whether it be at my home or office, I will have you.” She opened her mouth to correct him, but he hushed her by brushing his lips gently on hers. “So if you were wise, you would stop looking at me with those deep green eyes that are begging me to make love to you, because I won’t be able to hold back any longer if you don’t stop.” A car horn beeped from behind them. Dean didn’t release her but asked, “So are you ready for the lunch I offered earlier?”

The horn beeped again, followed by a man yelling, “Hey are you fucking deaf or just dumb? If you want to get it on then get a damn room.” Tessa was so embarrassed by the man’s words. She tried to pull away and look around, but he was not releasing her. She knew he had to hear what was going on, yet he seemed unaffected by it.
Are you really going to just sit here?
“You’re holding up traffic.”