4. Grayson
I’m in my office, which I consider to be my fortress, with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the Boston Common. It used to be that my mansion was my home, but now that it has been invaded by a woman who is not there by my invitation, I need somewhere else to steal off to.
I’m wrapping things up for the day when Rick Vangelis wanders into my chrome-and-glass domain and closes the door behind him. He loves his work as much as I love mine, but today he is wearing a frown.
“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” I rise from the white leather chair behind my glass-topped desk and plant my hands on the surface. “What is that look on your face about?”
“I’ve got good news, Grayson.”
Then why do I get the feeling that his good news is about to be my bad news?
“I had a meeting today with Jake Foreman,” Rick says.
He stands there for a moment, allowing this news to sink in. Everyone in my business knows who Jake Foreman is — the CEO of Avilus, Inc., an enormously successful biotech giant that is easily ten times the size of Colossus Pharma. Foreman has been courting our company lately, and since Avilus, is extremely conservative with a family-friendly image, my bad feeling only gets worse.
“And what was this meeting about, Rick?”
My partner clears his throat and shuffles his feet. “We have the opportunity to grow our business by leaps and bounds...”
“Rick,” I say. “Just come out with it.”
“All right. Foreman and I discussed a merger, and if it goes through, we’ll stand to make more than triple our net worth on stock options alone.”
I narrow my eyes. “So let me get this straight... You want to make a deal with Jake Foreman, who’s been pushing you to oust me.” I stand up to my full height, keeping my cool, which is slowly turning into a vicious burn. “I don’t see how this is good news.”
“But it is!” Rick’s expression brightens with the optimism I’m used to seeing. “I explained to Foreman that you’ve met a woman and you seem ready to settle down. He was quite skeptical about that, but he was very curious.” He clears his throat. “We’re in a position to convince him that merging with us is a good move, but there’s no way I’m letting you walk into the lion’s den without some practice. That’s why I want to have dinner with you and Miss Turner tomorrow night.”
Great.
Rick forges on. “It will be a test-run for the day you and Harlow are introduced to the people at Avilus, Inc. We’re only going to get one opportunity to breed confidence in Jake Foreman about this merger. He’s got to see firsthand that you’ve changed — and it needs to be believable. Tomorrow, you’ll show me that you’re ready for prime time.”
Seething, I slowly turn away from Rick, facing the window instead. Below me, people are walking through the park. There are some couples holding hands with dogs happily trotting in front of them. Everyone down there seems so carefree. Meanwhile, here I am, getting more caged in by the second.
I still don’t understand why I am being held under the thumb of so many people when all I have done is save lives with my research and make this company shitloads of money.
Rick says, “In case I didn’t emphasize it enough, this test-run dinner is not an option. This is an opportunity that we cannot pass up.”
Then I hear the door close, but that doesn’t put an end to the anger surging through my veins. All my life, I have been grasping for control. I have secured it for my family with all the money I have made, but as far as my life goes, the bullshit never ends. It seems that I am always going to be controlled by something else, and the fact that Jake Foreman has stepped in to navigate my life makes me want to put a fist through the wall.
I leave the building even more frustrated than when I came into it. When I get back to my mansion, I go straight to the west wing. Now that Jake Foreman has come on the scene, it is more imperative than ever that my mail-order bride lives up to every expectation.
I find her in the game room with Jayne. It is their laughter that leads me to them, and I linger outside the entrance, not quite knowing what to do with the joyful sound. It tries to ease its way into me, but I will never be able to join them. There is too much at stake right now, and I don’t have any time to fool around.
The minute I fill the doorway, the laughter dies. Harlow and Jayne are at the billiards table, and Harlow stands up straight, as if ice just flew down her spine at the sight of me. I am not sure how she manages to look so sunny while, at the same time, seeming so wary of the stranger who just interrupted their game.
As she watches me with those big blue eyes, a sharp ache needles me from my chest to my cock.
Fuck this ache.
Jayne puts away her cue, and then she breezily walks over to me. At the same time, I can’t take my eyes off of Harlow, even though I know it would be best if I didn’t indulge myself too much with thoughts of undoing every button on that skimpy spring dress that she is still wearing. Anger bubbles inside me even more as I wonder why she isn’t already dressed in one of the conservative outfits she was instructed to buy.
“Jayne, exactly what did you get done on your first day?” I ask.
“We got our shopping done, Mr. Royal. While we ate dinner, we studied the ins and outs of Colossus Pharma so Harlow will be able to converse about your business the first time she goes out in public. We were just taking a bit of a break here in the game room.” She smiles at me. “You do know what a break is, don’t you?”
“Yes, Jayne. I have heard of the concept.”
This whole time, Harlow hasn’t looked away from my intense stare. I have to hand it to her — there aren’t many people who can withstand my scrutiny. And none of them have the power to undo me second by torturous second with the sight of their lovely blue eyes and breezy long curls, which will need to be tamed into a more conservative hairstyle going forward.
Jayne knows when to leave well enough alone, and with a little wave to Harlow, she leaves the room. Harlow smiles at her, but when she meets my gaze again, that smile disappears.
“Are you ready to start your job in earnest?” I ask.
Harlow raises her chin an inch. “Yes, I am.”
“We are having an important dinner with my business partner tomorrow night, and just to let you know how important it is, you should consider this to be a test. If you fail to show Dr. Vangelis that you are capable of passing muster as the love of my life, you go home.”
I see something like fear crawl through her gaze. But then she tenses up and chases it away. “Don’t you mean if we fail?”
Fuck, she’s got some steel. “The first thing you need to do is show me some of those outfits you bought today so I can decide what is most appropriate for tomorrow evening.”
She doesn’t budge. I don’t think she likes being ordered around.
“We will have the fashion show up in your room,” I say tightly. “Let’s go.”
Without a word, we both relocate upstairs to her bedroom. As I sit down in a velvet chair, I try not to think about tales of princesses who are kept in towers, locked away, even though the similarity to Harlow’s situation has struck me several times over.
She closes the door to her walk-in closet, and as I wait for her, my cock clenches in agonizing awareness of what she is doing just out of my sight. She is stripping off that simple dress of hers inch by inch, revealing more and more flesh. All that is separating us is the door, and it takes most of my willpower not to open it for a view of her smooth skin, her curves, the beautiful breasts that her hippie outfits don’t hide, and the tight ass that I would love to cup and squeeze as I pull her against my hard cock.
Blood thunders to my dick, and I grip the sides of the chair. When she walks out of the closet in a blue, no nonsense designer sheath, I shake my head.
“No.”
Harlow doesn’t complain. She only turns around and goes back into the closet, closing the door behind her again. The next time she comes out, she is wearing a beige cocktail dress with sparkly fringes that sweep against her shapely, long legs.
Too flippant.
“No.”
Harlow clenches her hands at her sides. “I think this one is quite pretty.”
“It is too flirty for the occasion. You are not out to seduce my business partner.”
There is something in my tone that I don’t recognize — something dark and tense. If I were the kind of man who gets jealous, that might be what it is.
“Next dress,” I say through my teeth.
Harlow goes on to try three more outfits, and the answer is always the same.
No. No. No.
Finally, as she stands before me in a pink beaded gown that actually makes her look like a teenage girl headed to prom, she loses her cool. “I have no idea what you want, Mr. Royal.”
“We can start by having you call me Grayson. If we are going to sell this idea of intimacy and epic love, you need to stop calling me Mr. Royal and I need to stop calling you Miss Turner.” I sigh in exasperation. “Next dress?”
Harlow stares at me for a few heavy moments, and I know I have pushed her to her limit. She turns on her heel, goes back into the closet, and softly closes the door behind her. And it is not the kind of soft closing of a door that bodes well for anything. Somehow, I sense some spite in the gesture. And when she comes out of the closet again, my theory is confirmed.
I sit up in my chair as she stands before me in a filmy, white baby doll nightie that shows off the length of her legs and all that tanned, luscious skin. It’s innocent enough to cover up everything a nightie should be hiding, but it’s also erotic enough to hint boldly at what’s beneath.
My cock pounds in utter anguish. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Trying stuff on for you. You don’t like this?”
Goddammit. “Where the hell did that even come from?”
She shrugs. “Jayne thought it might be fun to throw in a few sassy numbers.”
Jayne. She has a cheeky side, and it looks as if it’s inspired the same sort of nonsense in Harlow.
There’s something going on that I’m not used to, something Harlow brings out in me, and all I can do is replace it with anger. That’s all I know how to do. “You will take back everything that you and Jayne bought today and return them. Get better stuff.”
“Better stuff?”
I’m still trying like hell not to look at that fucking nightie. Little by little, I’m being taken over by the urge to get out of this damned chair, storm over to Harlow, and then sweep her to that big, inviting bed that’s only a few yards away. “Yes, better stuff. As in more appropriate outfits, once you stop being such a smartass and get your head back in this game.”
She sighs. “Don’t be ridiculous! We don’t have time to get a whole new wardrobe. You’ll probably hate all the new stuff anyway.”
I can’t take my gaze off of her beautiful tits, which are outlined so temptingly under that filmy material. I keep imagining what her lips would feel like wrapped around my cock. I’m falling fast down the rabbit hole of desire, and there’s nothing for me to grab onto.
I slowly stand from the chair. “Do as I say or get the hell out of here. Don’t question me, Harlow.”
She widens her eyes as if she can sense the tension — and my temperature — rising. She looks frustrated too, all flushed and breathing heavily.
Then, out of nowhere, she laughs.
I take a few steps closer to her. “What the hell is so funny?”
“You,” she snarls.
She reminds me of a tiny, adorable thing that’s been backed into a corner. A kitten that has no idea what she’s toying with.
“Keep it up.” My breathing is tight as I walk closer still.
She takes an unsure step backward. “Or what? What will you do to me?”
Everythingabout me tenses up, fully loaded and about to spring. She has obviously spotted my hunger.
“I’m about to show you what I will do to you,” I say. “Be very careful with what you’re saying, Harlow.”
Her chest is rising and falling as fast as mine is. Those beautiful tits...that mouth...
Her.
“Maybe I don’t want to be careful,” she whispers.
And that’s all I can stand.
My vision goes red, my body exploding with all the pent-up need that it’s been fighting since the moment she walked through my door.
The next thing I know, I’m on her, pulling her into my arms and crashing my mouth to hers.