Because He Watches Me (Because He Owns Me, Book Nine) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (40 page)

He was older than Red, perhaps late forties or even early fifties. But it was obvious that he took very good care of himself. His broad shoulders and muscular build confirmed that much. What Nicole found most daunting were his eyes, however. He had light colored eyes, but when he glanced at Nicole his eyes darkened. And like Red, she saw a very similar intensity and hunger in Kane’s gaze when it locked on hers.

Kane stood up to greet them. “How good of you both to join me,” he said, shaking Red’s hand and then taking Nicole’s as well. His grip was soft, his hand warm and smooth.

He was wearing a light blue blazer and a gold watch. His hair was lighter than Red’s, and feathered in a more stylish fashion. Red came across far more rugged and “working class” than Kane did, which was funny, since they were both ultra-rich billionaires.

When everyone was seated, Kane looked across the table at them. “I took the liberty of ordering a bottle of red wine for the table,” he said. “A 1997 Dom Romanee Conti.”

Red smiled, but just barely. “Good choice.”

“Does the lady approve?” Kane asked, turning his attention to Nicole. His eyes, again making her uncomfortable with what felt like an intrusive intimacy.

“I’ve never heard of it,” she said softly.

Kane laughed. Red’s cheek twitched in response.

“I think you’ll find it quite satisfying, Nicole,” Kane said, taking his linen napkin and spreading it across his lap.

“Why don’t we dispense with the pleasantries and get down to business?” Red asked, his expression almost predatory. Nicole could feel the waves of hate and tension radiating off him, like he was holding himself back from leaping across the table and strangling the other man.

If Kane sensed the hostility, he didn’t appear intimidated by it. Instead, he raised his eyebrows. “I thought we were getting down to business. You see, that’s the difference between your fiancé and I,” Kane said, turning once again to Nicole. “He thinks like a crocodile. It’s all about the kill for him—whereas I am more like a cat with a mouse in its jaws. The cat doesn’t just clamp down and break the mouse’s neck, although it could. Instead, it plays with its food, it chases it, lets the poor thing believe it has a fighting chance.”

Red was about to reply, but the waiter appeared with the wine and began to pour. Kane spoke to the waiter in German, and if anything he was more fluent in the language than Red. The way he spoke was melodic, and she could tell that Kane loved hearing the sound of his own voice.

Once the wine had been poured, the waiter placed the bottle on the table, bowed and disappeared back into the dark gloom of the restaurant.

Nicole took a sip from her glass and found that it really was an amazing taste. She hated that she was enjoying something this man had given them, knowing how it came at Red’s expense.

“You like?” Kane asked.

Red put up a hand to stop her from speaking. “Enough,” he said to Kane. His voice was low and guttural. “I’m about to get up and end this so-called business meeting unless you tell me why you’ve asked me here.”

Kane laughed yet again. He seemed genuinely pleased in having provoked this response from his younger opponent. “Please, you frighten me with these threats. What would I do if you left me here like this?”

“I imagine you’re used to dining alone,” Red replied.

“A man who cannot stand to be alone has a weakness that can be preyed upon by his foes,” Kane said. He picked up his wine glass and sniffed the contents, then drank it with apparent enjoyment. “As you wish, my friend.” He placed the glass on the table again, and his smile faded, as he looked across the table at Red and Red alone. “Let me lay my cards on the table for you.”

“Please.” Red sat back and crossed his arms.

“We both know that Jameson International is a hair’s breadth away from utter catastrophe.”

Red didn’t react to the other man’s assertion. His face was as calm and implacable as a black lake on a winter’s day.

“I’m interested in a partnership with you and your company,” Kane said finally, smiling a bit at the sound of what he was saying. “Perhaps I can be of some help to you.”

Red shook his head. “I can’t partner with someone I don’t trust. And I’m not interested in having a partner in any case. I built Jameson International from the ground up and I don’t require any help. But I appreciate the offer.” He made as if to stand.

“Wait just a moment, don’t be so hasty,” Kane said. “There’s still more drink and food to be had. This is the best restaurant in all of Germany and you want to rush back to your hotel for what?” Then he glanced at Nicole. “Of course, you have your reasons for wanting to rush back, I am sure. But still…” he smiled. “Let me clarify my position a bit further.”

Red relaxed into his chair again, waiting. “Go on.”

Kane met his gaze and they stared at one another for a long enough time that it made Nicole distinctly uncomfortable. She could see there was some kind of subtle fight between them, a quest to establish dominance, probably going all the way back to their caveman ancestry. These two men were kings of their respective domains, used to getting whatever they wanted, used to people bowing and scraping. But in this instance, they were faced with another man who considered himself a true equal.

“There are two ways I can have what I want,” Kane said, after a time. His eyes were turning colder and colder, Nicole thought—as if his pleasant mask were slowly melting away and his true face was coming through. Behind the mask of politeness lay a true predator who was no better than any cold-blooded killer, despite the fact that he could discuss wine and politics and music. “The first way I get what I want is through cooperation,” Kane continued. “Mutual cooperation between you and I,” he told Red.

“And the other way?” Red asked, sounding interested.

“The other way is far less pleasant, unfortunately,” Kane replied. “You’ve already had a taste of it,” he said to Red. “I’ll bleed your newly acquired German advertising agency white, suck the very marrow from its bones. Your stock will plummet, as it already has begun to—and what was at first a minor flesh wound will become infected.”

Red smirked, but Nicole could tell that Kane was telling the truth.

“This infection will fester,” Kane said, toying again with his wine glass. “When the quarterly earnings reports come out, it will become gangrene and an amputation will be required. I have a feeling that the amputated limb might just be Jameson International’s own founder and CEO.” Kane glanced up to gauge Red’s response.

Red hadn’t reacted at all, however. For the first time in the conversation, Kane seemed a trifle miffed. His arrogant smile morphed into a tiny frown momentarily.

“I’m not afraid of losing my job,” Red told him. “I’ve started one company, I can start another.”

“But you needn’t lose your job,” Kane said.

The waiter reappeared just then, asking in heavily accented English if they were ready to order. “We haven’t had a chance to look at the menu yet,” Red told him.

“That’s all right,” Kane said. And then in German, he and the waiter exchanged some words back and forth, before the waiter departed.

Red shook his head. “I’m not interested in anything you’ve presented so far. Not your offer to become partners, nor your threats to my job, and certainly not your restaurant etiquette.”

Kane shrugged. “You should consider what I’ve said tonight. Pride should never interfere with business.”

“I’ve had just about enough fortune cookie wisdom,” Red said, standing and pulling Nicole’s seat back for her so that she could get up as well.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Nicole,” Kane said, standing and bowing his head slightly.

She didn’t know what to say, so Nicole just smiled uncomfortably and then Red took her hand and they left.

On the taxi ride home, Red was mostly quiet, contemplative.

“Should I just keep my thoughts to myself?” she asked him.

He turned to her and shook his head. “Of course not,” he said, putting his hand on her leg, where his touch electrified her skin. “I want you to be able to tell me anything.”

As the cab bumped its way through Berlin, shadows moved across Red’s face. Somehow it felt more romantic than ever to be close to him. “First, remember how much I love you,” she told him. “So when I say this, it comes from a place of wanting what’s best for you—and for us.”

“Of course,” he said.

“I think you should accept his offer.”

Red just looked at her. “You can’t be serious. That man is the scum of the earth, Nicole.”

“He might be. But what’s the alternative?”

Red sat back and rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb. He was sexy even when he was confused and unsure, she thought—especially since he was unsure so rarely. Although lately, it seemed events were conspiring against him. First the drama with his mother, and now an even bigger threat posed by his arch-nemesis.

“It won’t be a true partnership,” Red explained. “He’s going to want me to sell him Jameson International, and then he’ll keep me on as the CEO.”

“He didn’t say that.”

“He didn’t have to. It’s what I would do if I were him.”

She didn’t know how to respond to that at first. But after a time, she said, “Maybe that’s not the end of the world.”

Red laughed. “Not for you, maybe. But I’d just as soon go shovel pig shit for a living than work for Kane Wright.”

“Was he serious about the other things he said?”

“About destroying my company?” Red asked. “Yes, I’m sure he was.”

“And can he do it?”

“Yes.” He looked at her, and the shadows across his face seemed even darker now. “Yes, he can destroy me. But I might still have a few tricks left up my sleeve.”

***

T
hey both fell
into bed exhausted, and Nicole was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

In the middle of the night she awoke, and Red was kissing her neck. The room was dark, but for the dim light coming from the connected kitchen.

His lips burned hot against her flesh as her eyes fluttered open, like she was having a fever dream.

“I can’t sleep with you next to me,” he murmured, his hands caressing her face, her cheeks, and then running down her lacy nightgown to her bare legs. She wasn’t wearing any underwear, and as he slid the fabric up her thighs, Nicole’s wet interior began to throb with desire.

Nicole moaned as he pulled the nightie up and over her breasts, and his lips were on her nipples, kissing, sucking.

He looked up from her slick nipples. “I’m going to take you exactly as I want to,” he told her.

“Yes,” she gasped. “Anything you want, anything.”

He slid his mouth first onto one breast and then the other. With his mouth on one breast, his hand would play with her other nipple. After that, he kissed down her breastbone to her ribcage, and then down further still, to the wetness that awaited his lips. He lightly kissed her opening, licked the dripping folds that sent shocks of pleasure through her body.

Her legs shivered and spasmed.

His tongue penetrated her, as he brought his thumb up to the nub of her clitoris and flicked it once, twice, three times. She cried out each time he touched it.

And then his fingers were rubbing her mound and her clit, and her juices were flowing and she was crying out again and again, her hands clutching the sheets. “Please, I need you,” she rasped. “Inside of me.”

He rose up onto his knees on the bed. “Turn onto your stomach,” he commanded.

Desperate for him to enter her, she spun to her belly and lifted her pelvis, arching her back. She was sweating and slick all over.

“I’m going to have my way with you. I’ve had your mouth and your pussy, but I’ve never been inside your ass, Nicole. And tonight I’m going to penetrate you anally.”

A nervous feeling rippled through her belly. Was she ready to accommodate him? Of course she would try, but her buttocks clenched in anticipation.

“Are you nervous?” he asked her.

“A little.”

“Don’t be. I’m going to make sure you want it as much as I do,” he told her.

She wasn’t so sure. But then he was spanking her bare butt and it was loosening her muscles. Nicole truly enjoyed the feeling of her butt being slapped by Red—it was so sexy and enticing, the way he did it. Every time his hand touched her bare skin, she was reminded anew of how much this man turned her on.

And she was still getting wetter.

Suddenly, he went from spanking her to pushing his erect penis against her pussy lips, sliding the head in and out slowly. Waves of pleasure rolled through her. “I’m going to come,” she said.

“No, not yet.” He pulled out, and then he was taking her own juices and lathering up her anus, pressing one finger against it gently, testing. It was different, but very pleasant, Nicole realized. Still, she was anxious about the size—the girth—of Red’s penis going into her that way.

A moment later, he was reaching under her right hip and using his fingers to stimulate her clitoris, and once again she was very close to climaxing. “Now you touch yourself,” he commanded.

Gratefully she began masturbating, using both hands to rub her swollen mound. The climax was building. As she did this, Red pushed the head of his cock into her anus. The tip slid in and the feeling was so exciting to her that she started to have an orgasm.

“That feels good,” she whispered.

“You’re so tight,” he said. “I’m going in further now. Tell me if it becomes too much.” And then he was sliding in and the sensation was much more pleasant than Nicole ever could have imagined, although there was some pressure too that could have been uncomfortable if she didn’t trust him so much. She played with her pussy as he moved into her, sliding in and out of her wet rectum. She began to push back into him, taking his cock even further than expected.

Red gasped. “Oh my god. Nicole. You feel amazing.”

“I’m coming,” she cried out.

And then he came inside of her as she climaxed, and it was a strange, but distinctly good sensation as she was stimulated in both places at once.