Page 23 of Dirty Rival
“You’ll follow my lead? We both know that isn’t how this goes.” She grabs my arm and closes one of the two steps left between us, the unexpected contact, along with those fierce green eyes locked on mine, tightening every muscle in my body. “Do not embarrass me in there. I’m sorry about the cuffs, okay? But that was private. Punish me in private. This is—”
“If I want to punish you,” I say, wrapping my fingers around her arm and maneuvering us so that my back is to the door, blocking Carrie from prying eyes, “it will be in private and that pretty little backside of yours will be mine.”
Her beautiful green eyes flash with defiance. “You will never own my backside, whatever that even means.”
“Words that would mean so much more if I hadn’t already licked your—”
She points at me. “Don’t even say what you were going to say,” she hisses, and it’s all I can do to not tangle my fingers in her hair and drag her mouth to mine before I demand, “What are you thinking right now?”
“That you’re making me crazy.”
“Then maybe I should amend my prior statement. Maybe you do need to think about me between your legs, instead of creating a problem that doesn’t exist. Yes, you left me in that hotel room, Carrie, and by doing so, you denied us both what we wanted in the name of misplaced revenge, but right now isn’t about that. Right now, we’re walking into that meeting and it’s about making money together. I’m not going to hurt your ability to make that money. We are not enemies.”
“You’re just an asshole?”
“Yes. It works for me. And since you cuffed me and brought me here, you need to make it work for you. Let’s go do this.” I step back and to the side. She inhales and steps forward and I fall into step with her.
We arrive at the glass doors that separate the executive offices from the rest and I reach for the door but pause to glance over at Carrie. “Your father’s failure will be seen as yours. Standing with me outside your father’s circle to better your financial resources means job security to your staff. That’s what we want to give them tonight before the stockholders’ meeting goes public.”
“I know. I put all of that in the copy I gave you.”
“You included everything but a direct statement about your father’s failure. That will be discussed in the stockholders’ meeting. If you don’t address that elephant in the room, they’ll whisper about it later.”
“Right,” she says again cutting her gaze but immediately meeting my stare again. “He did fail. I don’t understand why he made those decisions. I don’t know how to explain that to the staff.”
“Don’t. Keep it simple. Mistakes were made. We’re going to make up the hit for those mistakes delivered in triplicate.”
“Right. I understand.”
I study her a moment, and I find steel in her jaw that settles in her eyes. Satisfied, I open the door and allow her to exit first because I might be an ass by design, but my mother taught me to open a damn door for a woman. It was another woman that taught me never to get close to anyone. It’s not a lesson Carrie West is going to make me forget.
Carrie
Reid walks beside me toward the meeting room, radiating confidence, power, and sex. He’s an animal, a wolf on the hunt, willing to kill, no hesitation in him. These things and this man affect me. I can’t pretend it’s not true and survive. I am aware of Reid Maxwell in every fiber of my being, this man I hate and also crave.
This man who could walk in front of my staff and destroy me and yet, I never even considered that option until right before we were entering the meeting. He’s the man that orchestrated a hostile takeover of my family business. I should have considered that. I’m crazy to want him. I’m crazy to trust him. I don’t trust him. I can’t, and the closer we get to the meeting room doors, the more I doubt his promise that he isn’t working against me. Actually, he didn’t promise at all.
Lifting my hand, I indicate our destination to Reid without looking at him, not about to risk him reading me. I want this over with one way or the other, and when I would just enter the room, Reid catches my arm, heat radiating over my body with the contact. He leans close, his mouth near my ear. “I am not your enemy,” he says softly as if he’s read my thoughts, as if he knows I expect the worst of him.
I glance up at him, my eyes daring to meet his piercing blue stare. “We’ll see inside, won’t we?”
“Yes,” he says. “We will.” His hold on my arm loosens but I have this feeling that he doesn’t want to let me go, and it’s a feeling that I don’t understand. That stirs a funny feeling in my chest, that I don’t want to feel with this man.
I shake off the sensation and enter the room, where fifty-seven people in rows of chairs wait. A room where Reid and I either stand together or apart. We reach the front of the room and I begin to talk. I introduce Reid and he nods. He takes the microphone from me after that introduction. “I just want to be clear,” he says, which I’m coming to know as one of his signature statements. “I’m behind the scenes helping Carrie navigate a ship with a hole. She’s captain. Everything goes through her.”
One of the tech guys says, “But you’re CEO?”
Reid gives him a deadpan stare and then says, “That is what we said,” and hands me back the microphone.
It’s not long after that when I send everyone home and Reid huddles up with me. “I’m not your enemy. I’ll be in my office with Gabe when you get done here.”
“Not tonight,” I say.
His lips twitch but he says nothing more. He just turns and leaves.
Sallie steps to my side. “He’s such an arrogant piece of perfection.” She glances over at me. “How’s that working for you?”
Too well and very badly, I think. I’m about as naked as a girl can get with a man.