Helen wished she hadn’t touched him and it had nothing to do with the fact that her finger hurt after coming into contact with the steel muscles in his stomach. Anger, she told herself. That was good. Desire? That would be bad. Maintain the anger and get out of here as quickly as possible.
Her mind gave her instructions but her body moved an inch closer. “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere over France right about now?” She smelled him, and wanted to get closer. Not a good reaction, she told herself. Move away. Run, she told her feet. But they stayed put, not moving even an inch even as her nose inhaled his masculine scent, noting his spicy aftershave and something that was just….male. And sexy.
Alec leaned toward her, forcing her back an inch. “I was able to get an earlier takeoff. But that’s irrelevant,” he snapped, unable to believe he’d actually explained himself to her. “What’s important here is that you’ve once again disrupted my staff.”
That worked, taking her out of the spell his scent had put her under. Anger returned. She continued to poke him in the chest, emphasizing each word as she spoke, refusing to back down no matter how furious his expression became. “Listen here, buddy. Today is Edna’s birthday and you’re an awful employer for not giving her the day off to celebrate with her grandson and daughter. And to top it off, you’re scaring her grandson,” she growled, hearing Jonathan’s whimpers behind her. “And that’s unacceptable. So make nice and find some small portion of humanity in your heart, if you still have one,” she mocked, “and be a gentleman for a small fraction of the day!”
Alec could not believe he was being reprimanded by this tiny woman. Leaders of industry quaked in their shoes when he showed the smallest interest in their company. Rulers of countries called him to ask advice and women threw themselves at him constantly in an effort to gain his attention. And she was yelling at him? Unbelievable!
“In my office,” he pointed behind her, glaring down at her face.
Helen didn’t move fast enough for him so he took her by the arm. As he passed by Edna who had her head bowed, he snapped out, “Go home Edna. But have the Lindsey contract ready for my review tomorrow morning by nine o’clock,” he continued.
At Alec’s first words to Edna, Helen had thought he was firing the woman. By the looks on everyone else’s face, they’d thought the same thing. So when he continued with instructions for the following day, Helen was too relieved to resist when he pushed her into his office and closed the door.
Then the seriousness of the situation struck her. Edna was leaving, which meant that Nancy, Jonathan and even her mother would be gone from the outer office. She was definitely alone with a man that terrified her, broke down the barricades she’d built to protect her self-control.
Thankfully, her anger reasserted itself and she stomped into the middle of his office, then turned to glare at him. “That was very gracious of you, Alec,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “A few kind words, even a ‘Happy Birthday’ wouldn’t have hurt you. But I guess you’re too busy being the head honcho and not letting anyone see that you have a nice part of you, even if it’s a small fraction of a cell.”
Alec stalked her, taking one step at a time as he said, “I’ll have you know that I currently employ over one hundred thousand people in almost every country in the world.”
“So?” she bit out, still glaring. “All that proves is that you’re merciless.”
“It also proves, very adequately, that I know how to run a company. One could even go on to say that I’m a very good employer since every employee in this company knows that they will still have a job to come back to in the morning as long as they perform to my standards.”
“Perhaps your standards are a bit too high!”
“I would beg to differ with you!” he snapped right back at her.
“Beg all you want but the reality is, some of your employees were enjoying a small break and you made a federal case out of it. What does that say about you and your so-called employee relations?” He was almost to her and she wished she could take a step back but she stood her ground, refusing to let him see her retreat. “And I’m not afraid of you. You don’t employ me so there’s nothing you can do to me.”
“You should be,” he said softly.
As he closed in on her, she wasn’t able to support her anger any longer. Her mind refused to maintain the fury and it was quickly being replaced by his scent, his masculinity, his heat. So she couldn’t help it when she lost the thread of the conversation. His mouth was too close and she could smell his spicy aftershave. Her eyes drifted away from his black, scowling eyes and watched his mouth, her mind running rampant as her curiosity to feel his lips on hers almost overwhelmed her. “Should be what?” she whispered, trying desperately to figure out what was going on.
“Afraid of me. You should be very afraid of me. And understand that there are many things I can do to you. Many things I will do to you. So this is fair warning, Helen.”
His meaning slowly penetrated and her entire demeanor changed. Gone was the anger. Unfortunately, it was replaced by the same desire she saw reflected in his eyes. “No,” she gasped a moment before she took a step to run away.
That step was halted when his arm snaked out and wrapped around her waist, pulling her up and against him.
Helen was terrified. When his lips covered hers, she couldn’t think but pushed against him, her small fists punching against his massive shoulders. But he easily grabbed her arms and held them by her sides, the whole time not relenting on her mouth. It took him less than two seconds before she was no longer fighting him but wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing herself against him and opening her mouth to his, glorying in the feel of his tongue as he invaded.
Helen whimpered, pulling herself closer, needing to feel him and touch him. She couldn’t get enough of him and wasn’t sure what she could do to assuage this desperate need that had taken control of her senses.
When she felt his hand on her waist, slide up and touch her back, her ribs, she melted even further into the chaos that was rampant in her mind. Something was telling her to run, but the stronger message in her mind was to find out all those mysteries that she’d been thinking about for the last week.
Reaching up, she let her fingers slide into his hair, feeling the softness, her fingers touching his jaw, his hair, his ears and caressing his neck as she found answers to the desperate questions that had been plaguing her nights after their last meal. She didn’t want to know, but each time her fingers encountered another texture on this man, her body shivered, reacting and falling just a little deeper under his spell.