Dark Alpha (ALPHA 2) (6 page)

“You tried to blackmail him?”

“I just said that I didn’t,” she held on to her temper with difficulty. “Whatever lies he told you, I didn’t, nor would I ever, try to blackmail anyone. He was the one who threatened me, not the other way around!”

“Nicky, I haven’t spoken to Lionel Jenkins, nor do I intend to do so,” Lucien sounded bored now.

“Then one of your minions spoke to him, possibly the cool blonde outside—”
 

“I don’t allow my ‘minions’ to talk to men like Lionel Jenkins either.”

“My God...” Nicky gave an incredulous laugh as she stared at him. “You really do consider yourself to be king of all you survey, don’t you?”

“If I did then I’d have you on your knees in front of me right now,” he drawled derisively. “But the truth is,” he continued over Nicky’s outraged gasp, “all of my employees sign a contract that contains a confidentiality clause. It prohibits them from discussing me, and this company, or associating with any and all of my competitors. Jenkins believes himself to be of the latter category.” His top lip curled back to show that he didn’t agree with that assessment.

Nicky could almost—almost—have liked Lucien at that moment. If he hadn’t been quite so outrageous just seconds before.

“So, what really happened, Nicky?” Lucien leaned back against the black leather seat as he studied her through narrowed lids.

She eyed him uncertainly. “You’re willing to believe my version of what happened and not his?”

He shrugged. “I don’t believe you’ve ever lied to me. On the contrary, you’ve always been brutally honest,” he added derisively.

It was true, Nicky hadn’t lied to Lucien. Not directly. Except that her whole life was a lie. Including the name he knew her by...

But her past had no bearing on this present conversation.

“Whereas Lionel Jenkins has something of a reputation where his female employees are concerned.” Lucien’s top lip curled back again with disgust. “He’s just too powerful in the city for most people to challenge him on it.”

“But not you?”

“Not me,” Lucien confirmed hardly. “What did he do, Nicky? Try to put his hand down your bra? Your panties? Or maybe both of those things?”

“This must all seem so trivial to you,” she accused emotionally. “Just one of the perks of being the boss? A little harmless groping of the hired help?”

Lucien very much doubted Nicky would be saying that if she could see the way his hands were clenched into fists beneath his desk. He didn’t share, and no one touched what he considered to be his.

And Nicky may not know it yet—may not be willing to acknowledge it yet, Lucien corrected, as he recalled the trembling of her body just minutes ago when he had been standing so close behind her they were almost touching—but Lucien had decided she
was
going to be his.

Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow either. But she
had
walked willingly back into his life, for whatever reason, and by doing so she was going to be his.

The anticipation would only make her eventual surrender all the sweeter.

Which was an odd thing for him to think, because he wasn’t usually a man who enjoyed delayed sexual gratification. Wasn’t a man who usually
allowed
delayed sexual gratification.

Except he had a feeling that Nicky was going to be worth every minute of that frustrating wait.

Maybe he was even taking a perverse satisfaction in it?

If that’s what it was, it now allowed him to sit unmoving, silent, as he waited for Nicky to speak again.

He didn’t have to wait long.

“Except it isn’t harmless,” Nicky continued angrily, those dark brown eyes aglow with that emotion. “I’m a person, not an object. And I get to choose who touches me.”

Lucien’s jaw clenched. “You still haven’t told me where he touched you?”

“I don’t—”
 

“Where, Nicky?”

She eyed Lucien warily, disconcerted by the steel she could now hear in his tone. “On my bottom a couple of times. And my breasts that last time when he tried to kiss me.”

“Did he succeed in kissing you?”

“No!”

“So you didn’t go to bed with him?”

“Of course I didn’t go to bed with him!” She glared. “He wanted me to, and when I refused he—he gave me two days to think it over, said that if I didn’t agree to have sex with him at the end of those two days, then I could look for another job.”

Lucien could feel a nerve pulsing in his cheeks as he listened to Nicky talking. Yes, he was a man who knew what he wanted, and he always went for it, but he had never ever used force to achieve it. That was his father’s forte, not his. Ever.

Although he couldn’t help wishing at this moment that it was; a couple of broken fingers might make Lionel Jenkins think twice before he attempted to blackmail one of his young and pretty female employees again.

But there were other, more subtle ways of payback than resorting to physical violence.

He nodded coolly at Nicky. “So you walked.”

“Yes, I walked!” Nicky hated that he was so calm, so cold, when she was so obviously upset.

But why shouldn’t Lucien be calm and cold? None of this had happened to him. And it never would. Because he was billionaire Lucien Wynter—

“When?”

She blinked. “When what?”

“When did you walk?”

Nicky gave an impatient shake of her head. “What does it matter when it happened?”

“Obviously it matters to me or I wouldn’t have asked,” Lucien answered in that infuriatingly calm voice.

“I…a month ago.” She couldn’t quite meet his gaze as she made the admission. “I’ve been trying to find a new job ever since. But every time I manage to get as far the interview stage, they contact Jenkins, Simmons and Simmons for a reference, and Lionel Jenkins—” she broke off abruptly as she realized that those cool eyes had become glacial in the past few minutes. “I don’t mean this to sound as if I came to you as a last resort—”
 

“Even if you did?” Lucien came back evenly.

She winced. “I just assumed, after the last time the two of us were together, and the way in which we parted—”
 

“When you walked out on me, you mean?”

Nicky nodded. “I wasn’t even sure you would even agree to see me again and—I’m just making this worse, aren’t I?” she groaned.

Lucien raised dark brows. “Not at all. I’m just surprised that any woman might consider me as being her champion: the White Knight, riding to the rescue just in the nick of time! The novelty value alone is amusing.” He didn’t look particularly amused. “Or perhaps it was just a case of ‘the devil you know’?” he drawled mockingly—no doubt as another reference to the remark she had once hurled at him.

Nicky studied him for several seconds. “You’re still playing games with me, aren’t you,” she realized flatly. “There is no real job. There never was. You’re all the same, aren’t you? Rich, powerful bastards who treat the rest of humanity like cattle, to be played with for your amusement?”

“Because you’re obviously upset, I’m going to ignore those last insulting remarks—”
 

“Don’t bother; I’m leaving,” Nicky assured him scornfully as she gave a toss of her head and looked around the beautifully appointed and yet somehow sterile office. As cold as the man it belonged to. “Don’t you ever get lonely, locked away up here in your ivory tower? Don’t you ever want to
feel
, to be a part of what’s going on out there?” She nodded towards the huge picture windows where the London skyline lay stretched out before them.

Lucien felt a chill travel the length of his spine. “I assure you, I know better than most exactly what goes on ‘out there’.” He stood up restlessly before walking over to the wall of windows and looking out at the huge sprawl of buildings that made up England’s capitol.

From up here on the tenth floor it looked almost magical; Big Ben, the slowly rotating London Eye, the historical buildings, the gentle flow of the Thames under the ornate bridges.

From way up here, it wasn’t possible to see the drug dealers, the pimps and prostitutes, and the underworld violence.

But Lucien knew they were all there. He had always known they were all there. He had spent the last fifteen years trying to escape them and the memories associated with them.

“Lucien...?” Nicky wondered if she had gone too far with that last comment. The stiffness of Lucien’s shoulders, as he stared grimly out of the windows, seemed to say that she had.

Besides, who was she to criticize the choices this man made about his own life, when she couldn’t even claim her own name? “I’m sorry, that really was incredibly rude of me, when you’ve been completely honest with me from the beginning as to exactly where your interest in me lies.”

“An interest you still claim not to share?” His smile was mocking as he turned back to face her, all evidence of that bleakness having disappeared as he looked across at her in challenge.

Nicky would be lying to herself, as well as him, if she claimed not to have thought of this man—often—since she last saw him. Impossible not to think of the man who could arouse her so easily she had been begging for his touch in a public restaurant, albeit an empty one.

A man who’s piercing eyes seemed able to see into her very soul. To see and know her physical longings. To be able to see every shocking fantasy Nicky had ever had.

Most of which he had featured predominantly in since they last met.

She would also be lying if she said she hadn’t been tempted by Lucien that night. As she was tempted by him again now. Knew that if he had kissed her today, just once, then she would have capitulated and kissed him back. That a part of her longed, ached, to be desired in that raw, all-consuming way. To lay aside, if only for a short time, the burden of responsibility she had carried with her for the past six years.

That of keeping her brother and herself alive.

But she couldn’t do it.

She daren’t do it.

As if aware of her inner battle, Lucien’s derisive smile widened to a hard and confident grin. “The next time I see you, Nicky, I guarantee you won’t be leaving again until after I’ve taken you in every way you’ve ever fantasized of being taken.”

Nicky’s heart stuttered in her chest. “I thought you said if I walked away again now that I wouldn’t be allowed back in?” she reminded quietly.

Lucien crossed the room with soft and predatory steps, coming to a halt just inches away from her. “I don’t think you are angry this time, Nicky, just scared. Because we both know I could take you across that desk right now if I chose to do so.”

Nicky was again totally unnerved by his close proximity. “You’re very sure of yourself...”

“Am I?” He lifted his hand and ran his fingertips lightly against her cheek.

Nicky wanted to deny it. Wanted to tell Lucien he was wrong about her. Throw his accusations of desire back in his arrogant face.

But she couldn’t do it.

How could she, when even that lightest of caresses against her skin made her melt inside? At the same time as her skin felt so ultra-sensitive, her nipples ached inside her bra, and she could feel her channel swelling, moistening, the folds becoming slick and wet in readiness for—

For what?

For Lucien...

He was right, damn him; Nicky still wanted this man so much her body ached from fighting the desire she now felt just to give in. To let him do as he asked and lay her naked across that black marble desk and just take her. Any way he wanted.

“Then why don’t you just do it and get it over with?” she challenged achingly.

His lips curled into a smile. “Because, no matter what you might think to the contrary, first I want to hear from your own lips that you want me to,” he murmured throatily.

He didn’t
know
that already?

Was he blind?

Couldn’t Lucien see the longing in her eyes? The flush in her cheeks? The way her body was even now curving instinctively towards his?

Like a cat that wanted to entwine and rub itself sensuously against and all over him. To mark him as hers.

Except Lucien made it perfectly clear he had no intention of ever belonging to any woman. That any relationship between the two of them would only exist for as long as it took him to satisfy his desire for her, her reward being that he would give her that same satisfaction in return.

But could any woman, once branded by this man’s lovemaking, ever quench that desire enough to be able to let him go when the time came?

It was the fear that she wouldn’t be able to let go that held Nicky back from capitulating to this man’s every desire.

She clenched her hands so tightly her fingernails dug into her palms and painfully pierced the skin, succeeding in breaking the sensual spell Lucien’s close proximity had been weaving about her senses.

She even managed to draw in a deep breath and step away from the touch of those lightly-caressing fingers. “I wouldn’t hold your breath if I were you.”

Lucien chuckled softly as Nicky continued to exert that defiance he found so intriguing. A defiance he sincerely hoped she would bring to bed with her. The last thing he ever wanted was to tame this woman; it was her wildness, her defiance that drew him like a moth to a flame. “Don’t worry, Nicky; I can wait.”