The Billionaire’s Obsession. 2
She leaned over his desk, placing her palms on the edge, furious now. “I haven’t taken a single day off in the four years I’ve worked here. I cash in my vacation time and take the money. Just once, I actually need the time off. I’m taking it.”
Travis folded his arms stubbornly. “Making coffee might not be in your job description, Ms. Caldwell, but traveling with me when I need you definitely is a condition of your employment. And I haven’t needed that assistance in the four years you’ve been working for me.”
Travis was right. He had never asked her to travel with him, and it was part of her job should the need arise. He did everything alone. So why did he need her now? “This is important,”
she muttered.
Ally knew she needed the time off for her sanity. She needed to rip the scab off her wounds and deal with the mess Rick had left behind. Her credit card statements had come yesterday, and she was reminded that she’d never bothered to cancel Rick’s user privileges. The bastard had charged up the cards immediately after she’d closed the sale on the house and caught the asshole cheating on her, probably to buy expensive gifts for his new girlfriend. In her wildest imagination, she never would have thought that Rick would do that to her. Of course, she hadn’t thought she’d find him banging another woman in their home either. And the house needed to go up for sale. Not only did she not need the reminder of her failed engagement and five wasted years, but there was no way she could carry the expensive mortgage without him contributing for any length of time. Not with the other debt he’d run up in her name. And she didn’t want to be house poor, killing herself working two jobs just for a home she no longer wanted. This wasn’t where her life was supposed to be. She was supposed to have a fiancé—soon-to-be husband—who was finally working in his profession, contributing to their life together. Instead, she had a mess to sort out, her dream of finally having a normal life completely shattered.
Don’t think about it right now. You’ll figure it all out when you get a minute to breathe. Focus on work.
Travis snorted unpleasantly. “You’re marrying a loser. Better if you don’t get married. You’ll be divorced within a year.”
Ally gritted her teeth, fuming. How many times had Travis said that? And God, it really annoyed the crap out of her that he was actually right. “I’m not getting married,”
she answered, her voice clipped.
Travis’s head jerked away from his computer, giving her an intense stare. “Since when?”
“Since about a month ago, when I found my supposed future husband boinking some young, attractive, probably barely legal, big-breasted Barbie doll in our brand new bed,”
she answered loudly, her words completely uncensored. Travis made her crazy, but for the first time in four years, she found herself genuinely losing control. “So excuse me if I need some goddamn vacation time that I’ve genuinely earned from your company to deal with that. I don’t have a second to breathe between working here and at Sully’s. I have personal things I have to take care of. I have a house I now need to sell, and I need to bail myself out of credit card and other debt that I had no part in creating.”
Ally gulped and took a deep breath, panic beginning to swamp her for the very first time. “I need some time to figure everything out.”
Where did she go from here? Her whole life had revolved around her plan and Rick’s education for years.
“You didn’t tell me,”
Travis answered calmly.
Ally threw her hands up in the air, trying to keep herself from going for Travis’s throat. Like he really invited warm and fuzzy conversation? He spent most of his time barking orders at her. “I didn’t realize that I needed to share my personal life with my self-centered bastard of a boss. I keep my troubles to myself because I know that’s the way you like it. You pay me to work, and I do my job. Now I want to take my earned vacation time.”
Had she really just called Travis a bastard? They fought constantly, and she’d certainly wanted to say those words to his face about a million times in the past, but she’d never been that blunt or unprofessional. She really was beginning to lose it. “Please. Just give me the time off. I’ll come back a better person for it.”
“He hurt you,”
Travis stated neutrally.
Ally dropped into the chair in front of Travis’s desk, depleted. “My whole life revolved around his career for years. I stopped going to college after my bachelor’s degree instead of trying to go on for my MBA so he could finish first. It made sense at the time. Or I thought it did. I sacrificed everything I wanted, but I had a plan to make everything work out. I’d work hard, help him finish school, and then it would be my turn. Except, now that it’s supposed to be my turn, it isn’t,”
she answered quietly, her anger spent.
“I didn’t realize you worked another job. What do you do?”
Travis leaned back in his chair, but he didn’t look away from her, his dark eyes watching her intently.
“I’m a bartender. I work at Sully’s Oasis almost every night of the week. I started as a cocktail waitress, and the owner taught me to make drinks. Eventually, I got good at it. The bartending pays better.”
Travis lifted an eyebrow. “Better than I pay you?”
“No. Better than being a cocktail waitress. I had to work my way up to bartending.”
It had taken her two years, but she’d gotten a raise at Sully’s. “The tips are good. You pay me a very good salary. I could never match it with bartending. But the extra job helps to pay the bills. I need to sell the house, get clear of the debt my cheating fiancé racked up, and get rid of the extra job so I can go back to school part-time.”
“You look tired, Alison,”
Travis observed, his eyes traveling over her face.
“I’ve been exhausted for years. I’m used to it.”
Ally laughed, trying to make light of the situation. This wasn’t the type of conversation she usually had with Travis, and she was feeling raw and awkward. She was much more comfortable fighting with him.
“She better be a good temp.”
Travis finally spoke after a moment of silence. “I still need you in Colorado, but you can have the time off before we leave. Just bump it up a week so you’re back before I have to go. I assume since you’re not getting married, what time you take off doesn’t really matter.”
Ally looked at Travis in surprise. “He is a very good temp, and that would mean I’d have to go on vacation next week.”
“Then go.”
Travis shrugged.
“What are we doing in Colorado?”
she asked curiously.
Travis grimaced. “A fundraiser. I need an escort.”
Ally gaped at him. “I’m not going as your date to a fundraiser. That’s personal. I thought you had business there.”
“I do. And you aren’t technically my date. I have to attend this function, and I don’t want to go alone,”
Travis rumbled. “It’s not that difficult. You go. You talk nicely to people and try not to call them self-centered bastards. And then you eat and drink whatever they have to offer. Tate Colter has been a business associate and a friend of mine for years. He agreed to do this charity ball only if I’d come to Colorado because I haven’t visited for a while. He wants me to be there. Going alone would be—”
Travis coughed before finishing. “Awkward.”
“Why?”
Ally crossed her arms in front of her. There was nothing strange about going to a fundraiser alone. There had to be something Travis wasn’t telling her. “You attend these types of things all the time. You don’t need me there.”
“This one is…different,”
Travis said hesitantly. “I just need you to be there, Alison. It is technically business. Your presence is required. The temp can stay and hold down the fort with Kade while we’re gone.”
Ally eyed Travis curiously, wondering what he wasn’t saying. “I don’t have the necessary attire for that kind of function. I’ve never needed anything but office attire.”
“I’ll provide it. You’re dismissed back to your duties.”
He waved a hand at her like she was a pesky fly.
God, Ally hated it when Travis did that. She felt like a naughty schoolgirl. “And how long will we be gone?”
“Leave Friday, return Monday. The actual ball is on Saturday night,”
Travis answered absently, as though he had already put the whole thing out of his mind.
Ally stood, brushing imaginary wrinkles away on her tight skirt and tugging it down her hips. “Diet,”
she reminded herself, turning to leave the office. She wanted to argue with Travis, but she couldn’t. He’d never asked her to travel with him, and it was part of her job as his assistant. The fact that Travis was a loner, and preferred it that way, was one of the reasons she was actually able to work a second job. He was usually alone, and didn’t feel the need for an entourage. And he never required anything from her outside of work hours. She’d do this for him just because he wasn’t demanding in that way, and he very well could have been. Somehow, although he was making light of it, it seemed important to him, and he’d never asked her to travel to events with him before.
“Totally unnecessary, Alison,”
Travis said in a low, graveled voice so quietly that Ally almost didn’t hear him.
She turned back to him. “What’s unnecessary?”
“You don’t need to diet.”
Travis scowled at her.
Ally rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Sure. My gorgeous body certainly didn’t keep my fiancé from banging another woman in our bed,”
she answered facetiously, surprising herself again by the words that popped out of her mouth. She might do battle with Travis fairly often, but it had never gotten this personal.
Travis rose slowly, his liquid, fierce gaze never leaving her as he crossed the room unhurriedly, stopping right in front of her. Ally stepped back, trapping herself between Travis’s massive body and the door as he stepped forward again. His masculine scent filled the air around her and she almost sighed when she inhaled the intoxicating smell. She didn’t get this close to him very often, but whenever she did, her knees got weak just from the virile, musky male scent that emanated from his body like pheromones, beckoning her to get close enough to wallow in him. Travis might be a stubborn ass most of the time, but one thing Ally couldn’t deny was that he was a gorgeous, potent, testosterone-overloaded male ass.
Travis placed a palm on each side of her head, leaning down until Ally shivered as his warm breath caressed her ear.
“Your ex-fiancé was and is an idiotic fool. You, Alison, have the kind of soft, feminine body any man wants beneath him when he sinks his cock into a woman’s body. Every single thing about you is perfect.”
His voice was husky, warm, and mesmerizing. “If he’d been smarter, he would have made you come, given you exactly what you wanted until you were so addicted to him that you’d never walk away, and he’d never want another woman when he had you in his bed.”
Ally nearly moaned against Travis’s shoulder, the seductive voice in her ear enthralling her. “He didn’t do that,”
she admitted, leaning her head back against the door. Rick hadn’t given a shit whether she was satisfied or not.
Travis straightened, looking down at her from his towering height, his face changing to a mask of indifference. “Then he didn’t deserve you. Actually, he never did.”
He stepped back, allowing space to open the door.
Ally fumbled with the door, flustered. What the hell had just happened to her? She scurried out, not looking behind her as she closed the door to Travis’s office, her hands shaking, her nipples hard and sensitive just from the sheer eroticism of Travis’s low, seductive voice whispering naughty words into her ear.
She sat down at her desk, dazed and confused, wondering if her overactive imagination had just conjured up that particular moment in time. Travis Harrison had never looked at her with anything other than irritation. And he’d certainly never said anything that made her hot and bothered in less than a few seconds.
Sipping her lukewarm coffee, she put her reading glasses back on and turned to her computer, giving herself a mental slap to stop thinking about Travis. After all, he hadn’t even touched her. It was nothing to make a big deal over. So, he’d thrown her a very strange compliment, but at the end of the day, it didn’t really change anything. Travis was just…different today, and in a very odd mood.
Shaking her head, she got back to work.
Jason Sutherland was in an excellent mood as he strolled into Travis Harrison’s top floor office, and he smiled when he saw a pretty blonde woman sitting behind a desk right inside the door. She had to be Ally, Travis’s assistant with whom he’d spoken earlier that morning. Her looks were just as appealing as her voice. Not that he’d ever notice her in a romantic way. But she appeared to be just as charming as she’d sounded on the phone.
“Mr. Sutherland?”
The woman rose from the chair and gave him a friendly smile that surprised him.
He was used to a sly, artificially bright welcome from women, and looks that sized up him and his bank account at the same time. Hope Sinclair, Grady’s younger sister, was the only woman who had ever really treated him like a person rather than an eligible billionaire. In fact, Hope had always treated him with a little too much nonchalance, and way too much like an older brother for his taste—until the incident that had happened at Christmas when he’d seen her in Amesport. “Ally.”
He grinned back at her, taking the hand she offered him in welcome. “It’s very nice to meet you in person. Please call me Jason.”
Ally took her hand from his and nodded as she answered. “It’s nice to meet you, too. Thank you for calling this morning. Mr. Harrison is expecting you. I’ll call him.”
“He’s already here,”
a low, irritated baritone announced from the other side of the office. “Come in, Sutherland.”
Jason looked toward the voice, feeling underdressed in a pair of jeans and a buttoned-down shirt when he looked at Travis Harrison. Grady had already warned him that Travis was an intimidating son of a bitch, according to Simon, and now Jason knew why. The dark look on Travis’s face was almost homicidal, and Jason had to work to keep a straight face as Travis glanced at Ally in a proprietary manner and then back at him again. Really, Jason didn’t care that Travis was openly an asshole, and wasn’t the least bit daunted. He’d rather have a man be openly hostile than have him smile to his face and then stab him in the back. He had a feeling he’d always know exactly where he stood with Travis Harrison, and that was fine by him.
He winked at Ally as he passed her desk and sauntered into Travis’s office.
“She’s off-limits,”
Travis growled at him after he’d closed the office door.
“She married?”
Jason asked innocently, taking a seat in front of Travis’s desk.
“No,”
Travis rumbled, sitting down behind the massive oak desk.
“Involved?”
he pushed, smirking as Travis scowled at him.
“No.”
“A relative?”
Jason knew damn well she wasn’t related to Travis, but he was starting to really have fun yanking Harrison’s chain. He guessed that misery really did love company.
“Hell, no,”
Travis replied, disgusted. “But if you touch her, I’ll kill you.”
Bingo. Jason knew he’d hit a nerve. “She’s very nice, and very pretty—”
“I told you—”
“But I’m not interested,”
Jason finished with a grin.
“You gay?”
Travis asked, actually looking hopeful.
Jason shook his head, nearly hating to squash Travis’s relief that he wasn’t heterosexual. Shit, Travis had a real thing for Ally. Obviously, the man thought that any guy who looked at her wanted to fuck her because he was so obsessed with the idea himself. And Jason knew exactly how that felt. “No. But my affections are otherwise engaged.”
Travis picked up a pen and twirled it thoughtfully between his fingers, scrutinizing Jason so thoroughly that it almost made him want to squirm. Hell, Jason had gone rounds with the biggest boys out there, sometimes more than once, but Travis was in a whole different league. Not meaner, exactly. Just…different.
“I didn’t know you were engaged, or even had a girlfriend,”
Travis admitted, dropping the pen on his desk.
“I’m not. It’s…complicated,”
Jason confessed, leaning back in the chair and giving Travis a disgruntled look.
“Ah…unrequited lust. You want to fuck her, but she doesn’t want you. It sucks, doesn’t it?”
Travis finally commiserated, shooting Jason a knowing look.
That wasn’t exactly how it had gone with Hope, but close enough for him to answer, “Big time,”
Jason affirmed, starting to feel a strange affinity with Travis. The poor guy had a serious case of blue balls over his secretary, and that situation was obviously uncomfortable because Travis had to be in close proximity to Ally all of the time.
“So how serious are you about managing this foundation with us?”
Travis asked, changing the subject, obviously satisfied that Jason wasn’t going to pursue Ally.
“My time is valuable, and I flew here from the East Coast. I’m extremely serious. I’m not only willing to donate, but work the investments to keep the charity solvent as long as the overall plans are workable.”
Jason wanted to be involved, needed to do something valuable. He had more money than he could ever possibly spend over several lifetimes, even if he bought every toy he wanted. He admitted to himself that he was restless; he needed something more important to work on than just increasing his own wealth.
“It’s workable. I figured out most of the plans myself,”
Travis answered arrogantly, pushing a thick folder across the desk. “We can go over to Kade’s office and go over it with him. This is an important project for both he and his wife, Asha.”
Jason stood, ready to get busy. He needed the distraction right now. “Kade Harrison. He was a hell of a quarterback,”
Jason said, following Travis to the door of his office.
“Still is,”
Travis replied, opening the door to his office, and turning back to Jason. “He just doesn’t play anymore. Hell of a businessman, too.”
Jason smiled at Travis’s back as they left the office. Travis Harrison might be raw, but he obviously was fiercely protective and proud of those he cared about. As far as Jason was concerned, that type of loyalty was better than false charm, and rare in the circles that they both traveled in.
Ally smiled at Jason as he walked past her desk, and he grinned back at her, wondering absently if she knew that she had such a ferocious protector, and that Travis’s feelings for her, like his own for Hope, were about as far from brotherly as feelings could get.
“I’ll be in Kade’s office,”
Travis snapped at Ally.
Judging by Travis’s not-so-gentle treatment of his assistant, Jason doubted she knew a damn thing. But he nearly laughed when he saw her dismissive attitude, acknowledging Travis’s comment with a small nod, but not appearing the least bit afraid of him. In fact, she’d almost ignored him, not even looking up from whatever work she was doing on the computer.
She challenges him.
Jason smirked as he followed the other man down the hall to Kade’s office, wondering just how long it would take Travis to crack.
She isn’t getting married. She broke up with her asshole of a fiancé. She’s available. She’s available. She’s available.
The mantra drummed in Travis’s brain as he drove his Hennessey Venom GT around his racetrack for the first time, testing out the speed and handling of the new vehicle that had just arrived earlier in the day. Ordinarily, he would have been itching to get the vehicle up to the fastest speed possible, completely focused on examining its capabilities, but today wasn’t an ordinary day.
Today is the day I found out that Alison Caldwell isn’t engaged anymore.
Driving at deadly speeds and thinking about Ally Caldwell really didn’t mix, but his cock was hard, and it wasn’t from the throbbing engine of the vehicle he was currently driving. It was her fault; his erection was due to the fact that the blonde menace in a tight skirt was actually single for the first time since she’d become his employee.
His fingers tightened around the steering wheel as he expertly maneuvered around a curve, barely lowering his speed as he hit the straightaway again. God, the vehicle was sweet, but all he could think about was how much sweeter fucking Ally would be, having her panting his name beneath him as he made her come over and over, until all she could think about was him.
Four years and thirty-two days he’d dreamed about just that scenario; one thousand, four hundred and ninety torturous days of blue balls that no other woman could cure. Except her. He’d been in trouble since the day she’d walked into his office for an interview, slightly breathless and nervous. His dick had twitched in his pants immediately, making him want to reach out, pull her onto his lap, and make her even more breathless until they were both completely sated. Why in the hell he’d gone ahead and hired her he never understood. He must have been feeling masochistic, because her sweet, guileless beauty had haunted him every damn moment since the day he’d hired her. And her intelligence and sharp tongue both annoyed the shit out of him and challenged him. There was nothing more that he wanted than to tame the little tigress, make her yield to him until she purred.
I need to just fuck her and get her out of my system.
Rounding the curve again, Travis accelerated, moving the car to an elevated speed after getting used to the feel of the handling. He tried to concentrate on his new vehicle. Having paid well over a million dollars for the speed demon, he should be more enthusiastic about driving it. He had more expensive cars, but he’d wanted to add this particular vehicle to his collection for a while, had anticipated its arrival because it was so damn fast. Today, he wasn’t getting the same high he usually did in acquiring one of the fastest vehicles in the world.
Because of her!
“Dammit!”
he exploded, frustrated. He knew better than to drive like this when he wasn’t concentrating. He slowed the vehicle down and finally pulled it into the garage, one of his mechanics waiting for him at the door.
“She’s fast, boss, huh?”
the mechanic asked excitedly.
“Very,”
Travis replied, leaving the engine running as he exited the vehicle. “Can you put her away for me, Henry? Take it for a spin if you want before you shut it down.”
He had certain people he trusted to drive his cars, and Henry was one of those few mechanics he’d trust with any of his vehicles.
“Thanks, boss,”
the older man said enthusiastically. “You leaving?”
“Yeah. I’ll probably be back tomorrow night,”
Travis affirmed, heading toward his Ferrari F12, the car he had driven to the track. The Ferrari was fast, and it was comfortable. Since he generally didn’t do suicidal speeds outside of the racetrack, he could appreciate the beauty of the Ferrari, but didn’t require the acceleration some of his other cars gave him on the track.
“Kade will love this car,”
Henry commented as Travis walked away.
“He will. But I’m not letting him drive it,”
Travis replied wickedly, flashing Henry an evil grin. He knew Kade would be salivating over the Hennessey, but Kade had his own damn toys. The garage was full of expensive race cars and motorcycles. Maybe in a few months, Travis would break down and let Kade give it a try, but not on the track, and not at reckless speeds. Kade was an expert at handling bikes, but he wasn’t as good with cars. The last thing Travis wanted was to see Kade injured again. It had nearly killed him when his brother had had the accident that ended his pro football career. He couldn’t watch his twin suffer like that again. It had taken Kade two years of rehab to even be functional and be able to walk without relying on crutches.
Kade deserved every bit of happiness he was now experiencing with his wife, Asha, who was pregnant and expecting their first child.
Although Travis couldn’t even begin to understand having that type of relationship with a woman, the same loving relationship his sister Mia had with her husband Max, he was good with it because his siblings were happy.
“He’ll be mad,”
Henry warned.
Travis waved as he got into his F12. “He’ll have to get over it,”