Can't Buy Me Love (12 page)

 “Who knows if it’s love?”

The left corner of Prim’s mouth twitched upward as if tugged by an unsaid thought.

“Really? A smart girl like you? He stopped seeing a
billionaire
heiress because of you. Said he didn’t make a
move
because you were too important. And, if that isn’t enough, waited a full eight months before doing anything. Right? If that’s not love then sign me up, because I think what you’ve got going with Cole Jackson might be even better.”

“I just…” Meg faltered.

Prim was her closest friend and would call her out if she lied, even unintentionally, to herself.

Meg lowered her voice to a whisper. “I just don’t want the gossip and the innuendo.”

Prim’s eyes eased into a gentle softness. Her gaze was tender—understanding where Meg came from and how many times Meg moved as a child, how many new schools Meg attended, how many ex-lovers and new jobs Meg’s mother had acquired. Prim reached her hand across the table and gripped Meg’s fingers.

“You are not your mother, okay? You’ve worked too hard and been too smart. You’ve never ever had an affair with a boss.”

Meg’s anxiousness folded in on itself, loosening, if only for a moment, the tightfisted grip it had on her heart. Prim was right.

“Besides,” Prim said lightly, “if things ever go south, which I am sure they won’t, you’ve always got Ryan’s offer from Metro Media. He asked me again just yesterday if I knew what your deal looked like as president of TBC and if you’d consider president of Asian affairs at Metro Media.”

“I guess it’s good to have a backup plan.” Even with her friend’s reassurances, foreboding snaked through Meg. She couldn’t shake the feeling that things wouldn’t remain settled.

Her mother had uprooted her life so many times as a child. With each move, Meg hoped that
this time
her mother’s words were true—that
this time
they were there to stay,
this time
they wouldn’t move again. She’d start school, join clubs, make friends, but once Meg felt comfortable and let down her guard one of her mother’s indiscreet affairs always spoiled her life. The one thing Meg learned for certain as a kid from packing, moving, and relocating was that no matter how temporary, there was definitely a requisite calm before every storm.

*

“Excuse me? Miss? You can’t go in there.”

Meg spun around and eyed the guy sitting in front of Cole’s office. Jordan, Cole’s new first assistant, wore an understated blue suit and red striped tie. With his fresh face and excited eyes, Jordan looked like he’d just finished twelfth grade when actually, Meg knew, he’d just completed his MBA at Harvard.

“Mr. Jackson is in a meeting.”

Since returning from Costa Rica, the paperwork for the TBC deal had consumed Meg. She hadn’t met Jordan yet.

“You’re Cole’s new first.”

A coveted spot. He’d not yet been approved to keep the position permanently but according to Cole, Jordan might work out.

“Nearly a month, but I don’t know if it’s permanent or not.”

“I’m sure Mr. Jackson will let you know soon enough,” Meg said.

“I hope sooner rather than later.” His Cheshire grin enhanced his boyish charm. “His last assistant got the best job in the company when she was promoted.”

Jordan obviously wasn’t aware that Cole’s last assistant now stood before him.

“Really?”

 Jordan shuffled a file folder on his desk. “But I won’t be getting my promotion
that
way.”

Meg’s heart dropped and she clung to her light-hearted smile as a slick oily feeling coiled in her stomach.

That way.
Had the entire company discovered her and Cole’s affair? Her bottom lip trembled. Even the new guy was making innuendos about her career advancement.

“And
how
did Mr. Jackson’s last assistant achieve her promotion?” Meg needed to hear the scuttlebutt being passed from floor to floor.

 “They say—” Jordan leaned forward and peered toward Cole’s door, as if to ensure his new boss couldn’t hear.

Meg’s heart lurched. The viper’s tooth of fear embedded in Meg’s heart pierced deeper.

“They say,” Jordan continued in a whisper, “that his last assistant waited
three years
for her promotion!”

 A nervous giggle escaped Meg’s lips.

“I did,” Meg said. “I absolutely did.”

Leaving Jordan confused, Meg walked toward Cole’s now open office door. Cole nodded to her with a neutral expression that belied nothing of their intimate relationship. He pulled shut the door and once inside surprise overtook her. Fallon McKenzie, head of Comnet security, sat in front of Cole’s desk.

A big man, yet inconspicuous with a plain meaty face, dark suit and military-like haircut. Fallon was the type of man who slid into the background unnoticed—an asset, Meg supposed, in his line of work.

“Meg,” Cole said. “We need to discuss something with Fallon.”

“Miss Parson,” Fallon said, and nodded.

Meg settled into the chair in front of Cole’s desk, next to Fallon.

“Mr. Jackson has brought your
relationship
with him to my attention.”

An embarrassed flush threatened to grip Meg’s cheeks as the heat climbed from her chest and up her neck. She grasped her hands tightly in her lap.

She and Cole had decided together that they’d tell
no one
about their
relationship
until Meg was ready.

“This is a necessary precaution,” Cole said.

“Necessary?” Her voice quivered with anger—an anger that surprised even her.

Fallon cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. “Since you are a valuable asset to Comnet, your protection is paramount.”

 To her ear, Fallon’s tone was dismissive—perhaps even disrespectful. Meg crossed her arms over her chest. She wouldn’t sit here and be judged. Not by a man who poked and prodded through people’s private lives for a living.

“Meg?” Cole’s eyes registered surprise, perhaps even shock with her response. That he failed to realize how disloyal it felt that he’d shared their private relationship with the head of Comnet security—no matter the reason—broke her heart even more.

“We need to run security checks on your close friends,” Fallon said.

“Absolutely not.”

“We also need to assign you a security detail,” Fallon said.

“That won’t happen either.”

Meg raised her eyebrow, daring either of the two men to offer up any other requirements that she might deny.

Regardless of their power and position, she would not be run over by these two. She knew how men shuffled women; she’d watched such maneuverings as a child. Meg wouldn’t be managed or handled or patted on the head and told to be a good little girl and not make a ruckus.

“My private life is mine.”

“Miss Parson—” Fallon started.

Meg rolled her shoulders back and tilted her chin.

“Fallon,” Cole interrupted, his tone placating, perhaps even patronizing. “Let me and Miss Parson…Meg, discuss this.”

“Very well,” Fallon said, and looked directly at Cole. “But I need that list of contacts as soon as possible.” He stood and walked toward the door and exited without another word.

Betrayal and hurt swept through Meg. “How could you discuss our relationship with someone in the company without me?”

“This isn’t a choice, Meg, it’s a requirement.”

“A requirement?” Meg stood and stepped closer to Cole’s desk. Cole did not get to unilaterally determine what was required within their relationship. “This is
your
company. Fallon is
your
employee. He does what you say, he plays by your rules—”

Cole stepped around his desk and in a lightning quick moment wrapped his arms around Meg. He held tight even as she squirmed against him.

“I don’t want to be touched right now.” Meg pushed against his chest, but she might as well have been pushing away a brick wall.

Cole pulled her closer and looked into her eyes. “Please, Meg.”

The fight drained from her body. Cole’s embrace smothered her anger while igniting another fire entirely.

“I need to do this not just for you, but for me.”

Meg pressed her teeth to her bottom lip and looked up at him. His breath smelled of mint. His chin, thick with stubble, pressed against her cheek. Beyond him, outside his window, dusk cloaked LA, the top curve of the sun barely visible as it sank into the sea. Meg closed her eyes and surrendered.

“I don’t want people to talk,” Meg whispered. “To assume that I got this job because I’m seeing you.”

“You know the truth—I know the truth. Isn’t that the most important thing? And…well this,” he said, and squeezed her. “This means more to me than anything anyone could ever say.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “I love it when you wear your hair down.” He pulled her dark mane to the side and exposed the nape of her neck.

Meg trembled, her body anticipating his lips. Her desire for him doused the last flames of anger. His lips kissed the spot where her earlobe met her neck. Her skin quivered.

“There are things that have happened in my past. Things that make it necessary to ensure that Comnet is secure.”

Meg wedged her hands between her chest and Cole’s. It took all her strength to gently push away from him while he nibbled her neck.

“What kind of things?”

Cole sighed, and an irritated look clouded his face.

“If you expect me to offer up my life for you and Fallon to rummage through then I expect some disclosures from you.” Meg crossed her arms over her chest again, creating a barrier between them. “Not so fun when I’m making the demands, now is it?”

“No.” Cole turned from her and gazed out into the darkness that claimed Los Angeles.

“You can’t always be in charge,” Meg said. “In this building I have to do what you want, what you say, but out there, when it’s just you and me, you have to let me participate, decide.”

“What is it you want to know?” Cole asked without looking at Meg.

A chill shivered down her spine. His tone was suddenly so different than the warm one she’d grown accustomed to. His demeanor was suddenly so cold.

“Why don’t we start with why you feel it’s necessary to know everything about my family and friends?”

Chapter Sixteen

Betrayal could eat through a person’s soul like dry rot and leave hollow spots in the foundation. While Meg’s childhood was filled with nomadic upheaval, she hadn’t been double-crossed and abandoned by her only living relative.

Cole didn’t want to revisit these memories. The death of his parents, the abandonment by his uncle, and finally the theft of his company. The destruction—both accidental and intentional—of all that Cole loved twisted him into the hardened man he needed to become to survive.

“It was my uncle,” Cole said.

“You have family?” She couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice. “But I thought…when your parents died.” She walked to the window where he stood, gazing out at the Pacific. “I don’t know what I thought.”

He’d never shared this tail. Before Meg there’d not been anyone he needed to tell, but this relationship wrapped around him like a quilt. To hold on to her warmth, there was little choice. Cole had to retell the events of his past, if only once.

“When my parents died my uncle became my guardian.”

Cole stiffened with the thought of his mother, his father, and all that was destroyed when he was merely a boy. With the memory of his mother’s arms around him, Cole’s heart grew heavy. Her face floated through his mind.

Cole clenched his jaw and turned from Meg, willing away his tears. Tears were a weakness reserved for lost little boys, not grown men.

“My uncle was supposed to take care of me until I turned eighteen and my assets until I reached twenty-one. But instead of taking care of Comnet and my parents’ other properties, he used the trust fund as though it were his own private ATM.”

“He stole from you?”

Grief seethed up from his soul, pounding into the black gaping hole within his heart. A hole filled only with pain and loss and tears.

“He stole my future and my past. Everything my parents worked together to build. By the time I reached eighteen, well there wasn’t much left.”

“Wasn’t it in a trust? Didn’t anyone oversee—”

“Easy to fool. The executor was a close friend of my uncle. He claimed bad investments. My uncle utilized every possible scam to pilfer every penny. I was completely unaware. The money ran out my second year of college, and when the dollars disappeared so did he.”

Meg’s jaw trembled. There was no pity in her tear-slicked eyes, but instead empathy and perhaps even a hint of anger on Cole’s behalf.

“There were still my father’s business connections. Some close personal friends knew what my uncle did. Jet-setting. Leaving me in boarding school for holidays and summers. When the money ran out and I couldn’t pay my tuition one of them gave me a job in the mailroom. Eventually I got promoted. Made some smart deals.” Cole’s ragged gaze met Meg’s. “And here we are.”

“You lost your parents, their business, and you were completely alone. The one person you trusted—”

“Betrayed me,” Cole finished. “Stole from me, betrayed me, and abandoned me. Do you understand my cautions now?”

Meg nodded slowly, the weight of Cole’s memories sinking into her psyche. “Do you think I would betray you?” Meg whispered.

Pain swept through Cole—
did he think Meg would betray him?
While his heart wanted to say no, the life experiences, the childhood memories caused his brain to flash caution.

“I’m fearful someone in your life could betray you to get to me.” Cole’s statement was true. “I know how money corrupts. Before my parents died, he was my favorite uncle. He took me skiing and fishing. We did everything together, but once he got his hands on the cash? It was like I didn’t exist. Like I’d died right beside my parents and left him to have his good time.”

Cole folded his arms around Meg. He needed her warmth, he craved her goodness.

“I’m sorry,” Meg whispered. “I’m so sorry you’ve been alone for so long. I didn’t—I don’t think I understood.”

“You couldn’t know. You may have known some of the facts, but not the details. I’ve never shared the details before. I’ve never really needed to share them before today.” He leveled his gaze on Meg. “I’m sorry,” Cole whispered. “I would never intentionally betray your trust. I just want to keep you safe. To keep
us
safe.”