Page 32 of Hard Deal
Would she accept his challenge?
“We’re currently exploring venues for the retreat, but we’ll be putting together a team to create a schedule for the three days,” Jason said from the front of the room. “If you’re interested in being part of this team, please email Mary and we’ll schedule a meeting for later this week to get things started.”
Imogen bit down on her lip, making a note of Jason’s instructions on her notepad all while her other hand found the tab of his zipper and slowly pulled down. Caleb thanked his lucky stars that he hadn’t bothered with underwear today. Her soft, warm palm enveloped his cock and he gripped the edge of his seat to keep himself from thrusting into her hand.
Holy fucking hell, this was the hottest thing he’d ever done. Imogen was an utter surprise, and if he’d been hot for her before then he was downright burning up now. Her fingers formed a tight ring around him and she paused to squeeze his head before sliding her hand back down. His balls drew up tight against him. He couldn’t let himself come...but damn her hand was working magic.
“And we have one more announcement to make,” Gerald said from the front of the room. “It’s with a heavy heart that I announce my intent to step down from the position of CEO within the next three months.”
Caleb froze and Imogen snatched her hand away. All eyes were glued to the front of the room. Tucking himself back into his pants, Caleb tried to figure out what the hell had happened.
“I know many of you will not be surprised that I’m announcing Jason as my successor. He’s been shadowing me for some time and I am confident he will take this company in an exciting new direction while holding on to the values that we at Allbrook hold dear.” He held up his hand when questions started to fly. “This is earlier than intended, but I have some health issues which I have kept private. However, for the sake of my family, it’s time for me to take a step back and let someone else have the spotlight.”
Health issues? Since when?
Imogen looked at Caleb, her mouth agape, but he could only shrug. Jason, however, didn’t look surprised in the slightest. He did look guilty when Caleb speared him with a look.
How could they not have told him what was going on?
“This transition will take some time, but in the interim we have decided to appoint someone to fill Jason’s role while he shadows me more intensely.” Gerald cleared his throat. “We’d like to thank our current head of projects, Matthew Donaldson, for agreeing to step up and help out.”
The wind was totally knocked out of Caleb’s lungs. So, not only was his father sick and hadn’t told him about the changes to the family company, but he hadn’t even given Caleb the opportunity to take up the position of general manager.
If it had ever been foggy before, the message was crystal-fucking-clear now: Caleb was totally on his own.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
IMOGEN WALKED, SHELL-SHOCKED, from the ladies’ room where she’d gone to wash her hands and splash her face with cold water in the hope it might pull her out of her stunned state. Prostate cancer. Totally treatable. But Gerald’s doctor had indicated the need for rest and a reduction of stress. That meant reducing his role to board-level involvement in the Allbrook family business.
Oh, and she’d given her boss’s son a hand job under the boardroom table.
What the ever-loving smurf were you thinking? Have you lost your freaking mind?
Thoughts buzzed around in her head like bees, each one fighting to be the loudest until all she could hear was an incessant, ear-splitting whine. Her job was safe, Gerald had stressed that when he’d called her into his office after the management meeting. She would be working for Jason.
Let’s make sure you don’t get fired for performing a sex act in the middle of a team meeting.
She headed into her office and shut the door, sagging back against it for a moment to catch her breath. But that’s when she saw Caleb leaning against the wall beside her desk, arms and ankles crossed, his pants pulled up just enough to reveal a pair of electric-blue socks patterned with yellow polka dots.
“Did you know?” he asked.
His hair—which had been perfect in the meeting—now flopped over his forehead. That coupled with the dark expression and narrowed eyes gave him a wild, dangerous look. But even then, Imogen could only see him through a veil of lust. Her body remembered too much—the demanding grip of his hands at her hips, the velvety hard erection in her palm. How he’d tasted on Saturday night—like whiskey and sex and sinfulness.
“Not until now,” she said. “I... I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry that my father has cancer or that I found out along with the rest of the company?” His lips took on a cruel edge as he smirked. “Don’t answer that.”
“I wasn’t going to,” she whispered.
She couldn’t imagine what that must be like—to have a father who so coldly cut you out of his affection, out of his business. Out of his life, from what she could tell. Her own father was a tough, hardworking man of few words. And even though he never mustered the vulnerability to say “I love you” outright, he always managed to show it by coming over to repair her light fixtures or tighten the decrepit pipes under her kitchen sink.
But Gerald—a man she’d once admired with all her being—was rapidly losing her respect for how he treated his youngest son.
Sure, Caleb wasn’t an ambitious self-starter like his brother...but had he ever been given a chance? She’d always thought of him as a party guy, a social butterfly who didn’t really care too much about work. But she’d seen what he was like in Gerald’s office talking about the leadership retreat, she’d heard the passion in his voice. And now she’d seen the devastation in his face when his father and brother took credit for his idea.
What if his lack of ambition had nothing to do with his personal goals and everything to do with being forced to live in the shadows?
“Do you want to talk?” she asked.