Senior Advisor to the Boss: Billionaire Obsession Dark Romance (Managing the Bosses Series Book 9) (16 page)

Mark's feet drew him down to the driving range.

He hadn't meant to be there. Since the breakup with Erica, he usually avoided it. It was just too awkward to be there when he didn't have to be for professional reasons, and with Erica ignoring him every time that she wasn't talking to him as her boss, Mark had no reason to be hanging out and watching her teach. But that was where he found himself today. Standing on the driving range and watching as she instructed a kid, who was probably no more than twelve, on how to swing the club.

There was no sign of any of the pros she had been so interested in. Mark knew they were possibly completing, or training at other courses, like Dale Richardson, but there was a part of him that was worried another would come along and Mark would find him exchanging tips and techniques with Erica. He had no right to be upset about anything of the sort, but that didn't make seeing Erica with another man not hurt.

She was beautiful.

As always.

Watching her move, Mark couldn't help but admire the graceful lines of her body and the golden fall of her hair pulled back into a tail. The way her clothes fit her, close and sleek and showing off her lean, lightly muscled frame.

That night with Ginny, all he'd been able to think about was her. How much he wanted Erica. How she would feel around him. How was he supposed to just move past that?

Erica shifted her weight, moving half around the boy so that she could show him something else, and looked up. Her eyes caught on Mark.

For a moment, they both just stood there staring, hardly even breathing. Then Erica wrenched her gaze away and Mark turned back toward the clubhouse.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and Mark fished it out. “Mark Reid,” he said, lifting it to his ear. “What can I do for you?”

“Mark,” Alex said. “We caught the hacker.”

Mark stopped in his tracks. “You caught him? Finally. That’s great, Alex.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line, and Mark started to wonder if something had happened. Obviously Alex didn’t think them finding the hacker was as great as Mark did.

“It was Zander,” Alex said finally, and Mark suddenly understood.

“What? You’re joking!” Mark shook his head. “Why?”

Alex laughed. It had a bitter sound to it. “Nicholas is his uncle. How we missed that…” Mark could imagine Alex shaking his head, could almost hear it over the line. “He was using his mother’s name. We never connected the dots.”

Despite himself, Mark had turned to look out over the driving range again. Erica’s attention was back on the boy she was teaching, and he watched as she guided him through another swing.

“Mark!” Alex said sharply in his ear.

“Sorry, Alex. I’m listening. Keep talking.” He watched the slide of Erica’s hair over her shoulder in the sunlight, and wondered if he could have somehow found a way to avoid breaking up with her. Maybe if he had tried harder…

“I’ve filed a police report,” Alex said. “Obviously he’s fired.”

“Of course,” Mark said, pulling his gaze away from Erica. “Have the police picked him up yet?”

“Just this afternoon. They’ve been by the office to take his computer, and some of the others. The ones that we know were used for the hacking.”

“Do you think there’s enough evidence against him?”

“We’ve got files of it. Not to mention whatever is on his computer. I’m sure they’ll be able to pull enough to charge him. Whether the court will actually manage to convict or not is up in the air, but I have faith in it. They convicted Nicholas.” His tone turned sharp. “I’m sure that Zander will be glad to have some quality time with his uncle. And he paid off employees. We’ve got witnesses to that.”

“Keep me updated,” Mark said. “I want to know what’s happening.”

“I will. There’s—” He paused, a voice in the background that was probably Jamie saying something to him that Mark couldn’t make out. “Jamie wants to know if you and Erica have made up yet.”

Mark hadn’t even known that Jamie knew they had broken up. Christine must have told her. “I’m not sure this is the kind of thing you make up from,” he said, his eyes moving back to Erica.

She had finished with the boy she was teaching, and his parents were collecting him. She took the opportunity to take a drink of water, head tipping back as she drank, and Mark was definitely staring. It shouldn’t be that sexy to watch someone drink water, but Erica was sexy no matter what she did.

“Mark,” Jamie’s voice came on the other line, she’d clearly taken the phone from Alex, “you listen to me.”

Mark startled, pulling his attention back to the phone conversation. “Yes?”

“You have to talk to her if you want to get her back.”

He glanced down the slope again to where Erica was lining up for a swing of her own, body moving smoothly forward through the curve of it and the white golf ball soaring away down the range. His mouth went a little dry.

“Do you want her back?” Jamie asked.

“Yes,” Mark said, without even thinking about it. “Yes. I do.”

“Then talk to her,” Jamie said firmly. “You’re not going to have a chance if you don’t make one. I saw the way that she looked at you when both of you came over for dinner. Unless something really drastic happened, she’s going to want you back, too, Mark. You just have to take the first steps toward that.”

The first steps.

Mark wasn’t sure that it was that simple, but maybe Jamie was right.

“I’ll talk to her,” he said. “Promise.”

“You had better.”

He smiled. “I will, Jamie. Really.”

“Good.” She sighed. “I think maybe things are actually looking up now. So you had better make sure they start looking up on your end, too. I’m done dealing with tragedies for this month. Or this year.”

“You got it,” Mark laughed. “No more tragedies.”

“Also, don’t forget that the twins’ birthday party is next Sunday. It’s a little late with all the craziness that’s been going on, but I don’t think they’ll mind.”

He almost had forgotten, although he was sure that he would have remembered before the actual date. Mark was still glad that Jamie had reminded him.

“I’ll be there,” he said. “And thanks again, Jamie.”

“No problem. Good luck, Mark.”

“Good luck,” Mark echoed, and the call ended.

He stood there where he was, looking down at Erica teaching another student, and decided that Jamie was right. He missed the way that they had been. Missed Erica in his arms and in his bed, and the sound of her voice and her smile. He needed to talk to her. Before too much more time passed. As soon as the club closed for the night, he decided, he would find Erica and they would talk.

He was going to get her back, no matter what else happened.

Ten employees.

Zander had paid off ten employees. They’d found the proof when they were going back over the employee files. There were a few whose numbers had been used without their permission, and Alex gave them a stern talking to about securing their passwords. The ten who’d taken Zander’s money he fired. It was little enough to let them off with when he could have had them charged as accessories to Zander’s crime. But he didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else going to jail. Like Gina, they’d made the wrong friends.

“Now that they’re out, we can start putting the company back together,” Jamie said. “It will be a bit of an uphill climb, but we’ve come out of bad times in the past.”

They hadn’t been bad times like this one. Before, he’d been the one on display in the media. Now it was his company. Stocks had fallen. Customers were angry. Eleven of his employees, including his most senior advisor, had been fired. He wasn’t sure how they were going to recover from it. Even the hope in Jamie’s voice couldn’t quite make him believe that everything would be okay.

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “There’s a lot going on this time, Jamie. Finance is brutal. The company could go under.”

And then what would he do? Would he start a new company? Try to resurrect Reid Enterprises from the ashes? Give up on business altogether and live on the billions he had in the bank? As much as part of him wanted to just be with his family 24/7, he knew that he wouldn’t be happy without something to put his hand to.

“It could,” Jamie said. “But I know you. And I know that you won’t let it. We’ll get it back up on its feet. I promise.”

Alex turned to look at her. “You’re amazing. You know that?”

Jamie smiled at him, a little bemused by the sudden turn in the conversation. “I’m amazing?”

He nodded, reaching out and pulling her close with an arm wrapped around her waist. “You’re amazing,” he said again. “I don’t know what I would do without you. I really don’t, baby.”

She slid her arms around his neck and leaned into him, the warm weight of her body pressing into his chest. “You won’t have to do anything without me,” she promised. “Because I’ll be here for you. No matter what happens. And I’ll be here to help you get your company running again.”

Alex sighed. “I can’t believe that ten of them took his money. Some of them had worked for Reid Enterprises for more than half a decade.”

He hadn’t meant to go back to the subject, but he couldn’t seem to tear his thoughts away from it. The memory of finding out how many of his employees had betrayed him kept sliding into his mind, and he couldn’t avoid it. Some of them had looked guilty when they’d been confronted. Some of them had looked angry. None of them had cried the way Gina had, but Alex hadn’t really expected them to. Gina had at least been trying to help him, however misguided she was. The employees he’d fired for working with Nicholas had taken money to deliberately do harm to him and his company. Undoubtedly Zander had promised them a job somewhere else when Reid Enterprises went under, though Alex wasn’t sure that he had the ability to actually give them one. Sunrise Applications wasn’t going to be rising from the ashes of its demise any time soon. And if it did, Nicholas’ nephew wasn’t going to be at the top of the list for employment.

“I know,” Jamie said, and Alex realized that he had almost forgotten they were in the middle of a conversation. “I can’t believe it either. But it’s dealt with now.”

Alex pulled away from her, running a hand through his hair. “Do you think that I should have had them charged with a crime?”

She shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. I think that what we did was enough. They’re not going to be getting jobs anywhere else any time soon, and I’m sure that they all have families. Having them put in jail might have been too much.”

He wasn’t sure that it was too much, thinking about it more, but Jamie was right; they did have families. He wasn’t going to destroy them for the sake of revenge.

“They’re lucky that I have you, too, you know.”

Jamie laughed, and Alex felt himself stirring with something that wasn’t anger. Wanting her. She was so beautiful. It had taken him a long time to teach her to even start to believe it when he told her so, but he thought maybe she was finally starting to agree.

“You’re sexy as hell.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Is there something about business talk that makes you want to get into my pants, because you’re being really heavy-handed with the flattery today.”

“There’s something about that makes me want to get into your pants,” Alex retorted, taking a step toward her.

Jamie gave him a look from under her eyelashes, blue eyes shining with laughter. “Is that so, Mr. Reid?”

“That is so, Mrs. Reid.” The twins were outside with the nanny. They had a little time. Might not hurt to work off a little stress before they had the peanuts awake to take care of. “You leave me in a constant state of wanting you.”

He took another step, and Jamie gave him a look that said she knew what he was up to. He wondered if she’d let him catch her easily. Another step, and then she turned and ran, taking off toward the kitchen.

Alex, growling, gave chase. “I’m going to catch you, Jamie. Just give up now and save yourself the effort.”

“Come and get it!” Jamie called back, turning just enough to look at him over her shoulder. “If you think you can!”

Oh, he could. And he was going to prove it to her. Putting aside all thoughts of business and Zander, Alex went after his laughing wife. They had some lost time to make up for. With the twins out for a walk with the nanny, he checked his watch, they had a good twenty minutes before they’d be back… if not more.

He caught her by the kitchen counter, his hands circling around her hips. Wordlessly, he reached out and pulled her to him. She didn’t resist but slid over. “What do you want?”

“You.” He pulled her to one of the kitchen chairs and sat down with her on his lap and kissed her hard. Instant heat rushed through him.

She kissed him back and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her skirt slid up as she straddled him. He reached out to cup her ass, his hands hiking her skirt up higher. Jamie pressed against his thighs and he groaned.

Jamie reached down and unbuttoned his shirt. “The twins?” She arched her back slightly so she could see his body.

He groaned when her hand touched his bare chest. “You’re so fucking sexy,” he whispered. “Twins are out,” he said roughly. His hand slid along her hipbone, over her skirt, and then slipped inside it and rubbed his fingers over her silk undies. He grinned when he realized it was a thong. Damn, she was beyond sexy.

She was also a woman who knew how to be efficient. She unbuttoned his pants with one hand while the other slipped inside her own shirt and pressed her breast.

“Damn it, woman,” Alex said in a husky voice and leaned down to press his lips and tongue against the swell of her breast pressing up against the opening of her blouse. Lust took over as heat coursed through his body. She grew wet from his touch. Her hair fell in her face as she leaned forward, her breath coming out hot against his skin.

“Fuck me,” she begged.

Alex gasped. How was he going to say no to that? Who in their right mind would?

“I want you inside of me. Now.” She grabbed hold of his cock and rubbed it as she went to kiss him and taste his tongue against hers. She cried out when his hand stopped its rubbing motion against her wet panties to touch her breast.

His mouth crushed hers and he reached down to move the seat back. “On your back,” he hissed, and in one motion he twisted and pushed her down on the kitchen table. His hand cupped one of her breasts as she fell back, his fingers pinching her nipple hard against the material of her bra.

Alex was on top of her, his knees on the table, kissing her jaw, her neck and then her breasts. He ripped her shirt open and yanked her bra down so he could lick and bite her nipple. Not satisfied, he slid off the table and pulled her to the edge so her knees hung over. He jerked her skirt up higher and reached into her panties to touch her bare pussy.

Jamie clenched her teeth and a small scream escaped as his hand made contact. Alex smiled and he continued to rub her clit. Jamie’s hips bucked as pleasure spread through her like electricity. She gripped the edge of the table as he sank two fingers into her folds and started thrusting gently.

He growled and grabbed a hold of her panties; the sound of them ripping sent ripple of desire through him. It had been too long. His eyes trailed down her body as he ripped the other side and pulled the tattered remains off her. He lowered his head to her pussy and licked it. Her hips lifted and he gripped them to hold them still. “Don’t move.” He didn’t stop even when her back arched as she tried to get him inside of her. He slid two fingers into her as his tongue continued its sensual torture. She came, exploding against his mouth and crying out as every muscle clenched. “You want more?” he growled at her wickedly. “I’m not finished.”

He stood and pulled down his pants and boxers in one swift movement, freeing his rock-hard cock. He rubbed it against the inside of her thigh. He buried himself in her again in one smooth stroke. He watched in fascination as he slid into her and then slowly out. Pressure built inside of him, and when he couldn’t hold it back anymore he picked up his pace. He felt Jamie come hard around him and it pushed him over the edge. His own hips rocked as he came with her. Whatever they’d been through, they were amazing together. No one could ever take that away.

Slowly, Alex pulled out of her, shuddering and groaning as he did so. “You are so incredibly amazing.” He shuddered again as he pulled his boxers and pants back on. He politely lowered her skirt and she sat up, grinning at him. He knew she wouldn’t want to be left in a vulnerable position if the twins came back.

“I love you, Alex.” She stood up and kissed him softly on the lips. “You have no idea just how unbelievable you are.”

“I could say the exact same thing about you.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. “You have no idea how much I love you.”