Billionaire Erotic Romance Boxed Set: 7 Steamy Full-Length Novels (178 page)

Alex tried his code again and the elevator beeped again. I watched him enter several codes, all of which produced the same result—a beep of protest from the elevator and no other response. Soon enough, Alex admitted defeat by pressing the main lobby button. We would have to leave the building through the main entrance.

The tension was so thick in the elevator that I felt like I was choking on it. I touched Alex’s arm to test his reaction and he wrapped his hand around mine and looked at me.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. My heart was still beating rapidly in my chest from the earlier encounter with Henderson.

“I know that must have been stressful for you. I wanted you in there with me though. I needed to have you stand before Henderson. It was a way to show him that he hadn’t broken us.”

I stood on my tiptoes and kissed Alex on the cheek. I was calming down. With Alex, I was feeling invincible. Even Henderson, with just as much money as Alex Strauss, hadn’t been able to take us down. Yes, he had seriously wounded Alex with his hostile takeover, but looking at Alex there was no other option than to believe that Alex would come out of this victorious.

The elevator door opened. We walked out of the elevator into the main lobby of the Strauss Engines building. The number of employees walking around was at least double what it had been when we had walked in. Many stood by, chatting with each other idly, as if waiting for something.

When we walked off the elevator, I realized they had all gathered to see us.

The silence spread immediately, like a sonic black hole. This time, Alex stopped and looked around, very aware that every set of eyes was upon him. I watched Alex carefully and tried to read how he felt about being the main spectacle for all of the employees. His face gave away nothing. I hoped that someday soon I would be able to read even his most expressionless moments.

Then I spotted Emily. She was bouncing up and down in the back of a crowd of tall men. Her face poked around the side of the guys and her eyes grew large when she saw me. There was a look of shock and worry on her face. She walked out from behind the guys and stared at me. I saw her waving me over and I realized I needed to talk to her.

I gave her a wave that meant to tell her to come over to me. Emily responded by fervently shaking her head no and then motioned me over again. I gave her a stern look and tried to motion her over to me. She mouthed “Are you serious?” and I mouthed back “Come on!” Finally, our little show ended and Emily timidly walked over to me.

“What’s going on?” Emily asked in a whisper. “Everyone is scared, Samantha.”

“Why is everyone scared?” I asked, confused.

Emily looked around and leaned in close to me. Her eyes were all over Alex and I felt a little surge of pride as Emily seemed dumbfounded by the man that I was with. “Is it true that, um, Mr. Strauss was fired?” Her voice was such a low whisper that I strained to hear it.

“Yes, I’ve been removed from my position as the CEO of Strauss Engines,” Alex said. Emily turned a crimson red.

“Is the company being sold?” Emily asked Alex.

“That is the plan that the board is going to decide on soon. If they do decide to sell, it’ll happen within the year.”

There were murmurs and loud whispers throughout the main lobby. More people were flooding out of the elevator and the stairways, alerted that the former CEO Alex Strauss was simply standing in the main lobby.

“What is that going to mean for us?” Emily asked. She had become the voice of every employee in the building. Even the security guards watched on in fascination.

“If Strauss Engines is sold, it will mean that you will all lose your jobs,” Alex said. He sounded like he was exhausted.

Emily looked panicked. Then I felt Alex walk by me and put his hand on Emily’s shoulder. She looked up at him, her eyes as big as plates in the middle of her face. I studied Emily and for a brief moment I worried that she was going to topple into a heap on the floor. Instead, her mouth hung slightly ajar and she looked up at Alex.
Oh, if you only knew him like I did, Emily,
I thought, laughing to myself.
You’d definitely faint.

“I’m going to try and make sure that no one will lose their jobs,” Alex said.

A man I had never seen before spoke up. “But you’re not the CEO anymore. What can you do for us? Share some of your stocks with us? Even if the company goes under, you’re still rich beyond anyone’s wildest dreams!”

An angry murmur of agreement with what the man said now passed through the crowd. The crowd of employees grew quiet in anticipation for Alex’s response.

“I know I’ve been removed from all of you. I admit, I am wealthy beyond anyone’s wildest dreams and before Samantha came into my life, I gave little reflection to what that meant to anybody actually working at Strauss Engines. I’ve focused all my energy on developing new technologies to help the poor in India, all the while being a ghost at my own company outside of board meetings.” Alex paused, he took his hand from Emily’s shoulders and she looked down at where the hand had been as if in doubt that it had happened at all.

“I can make this right. Trust me. I will take back this company from the hostile takeover that has occurred. Then I can personally promise that no one is going to lose their job.”

The compassion was audible in his voice. I reflected on his words. It was as though he was wrought with some sort of guilt at his previous behavior, despite the best of intentions that he had. Somewhere along the way, the plight of his employees had begun to matter to him. Even in Henderson’s office, away from a mob of employees and prying eyes, Alex had asked about the employees. When he had walked out into the main lobby, he had to answer the question that Henderson only scoffed at. And he had answered it honestly. It must not have been easy.

Alex turned to me and nodded. It was time to go.

“I’m sorry, Emily,” I said. “I’ll call you soon. I promise. Life has been crazier than you could possibly imagine.” Her mouth finally closed and she simply responded with a raised hand and a small head nod.

We walked through the crowd. No one clapped or cheered at Alex’s heartfelt speech.

Chapter Twenty-three

“We have to hurry. There’s little time and we’re already way behind Henderson,” Alex said to me. We were outside. A guard from the security firm was waiting for us outside the front entrance, and when he joined us to escort us to the limousine, Alex seemed to take no notice of him. Alex was miles away, lost in the commotion of thoughts that were driving him now.

Alex opened the limousine door for me and I jumped in quickly. He turned to the driver and said something briefly before joining me in the back. Without speaking, he took off his tie and jacket hastily, as if they were the source of all his woe.

“We’re going to the last ally we have, Samantha. She’ll be able to help us figure this out. The key is to first analyze the company’s stock, and not just the public information on it. I need to know just what Henderson has done or who he has been working with.”

“Can we absolutely trust this person we’re going to see now?” I asked cautiously.

“Yes, without question.” Alex said no more and the authoritative tone of his voice made me satisfied with the answer. I thought of asking just who it was that we were going to see, but then thought better of it. Soon enough I would find out anyway and if Alex had thought it important to tell me just who this person was, he would have done so.

I thought of Alex’s short speech to the employees in the Strauss Engines main lobby. I almost asked him if he meant what he had said to those people, but I knew Alex well enough to know that when he said something, he absolutely meant it. He cared about the fate of those people.

“Samantha, follow my lead. I trust you completely. Trust me,” Alex said. “You handled the meeting with Henderson better than I could have imagined. But we’re going to have to take him head-on now. Don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid,” I said proudly.

“Well, then maybe I’m also telling myself not to be afraid.”

It was an honest admittance that caught me off-guard. This was a man that I was almost beginning to believe was totally without fear, like one of those rare cases you’re told about in  college psych class where a person’s brain doesn’t work properly and they never experience fear. Chemically, they are incapable of it. Yet Alex was showing that he was capable of much more than his outward demeanor showed.

Stress worked its way across Alex’s brow. Deep lines of thought cut through the skin above his eyebrows as he focused in on the problems at hand. I ran a hand gently over his left ear and rubbed my fingers down his neck. He turned to look at me and the furrowed look on his face relented slightly. He managed a small smile and leaned back in the limousine, closing his eyes as if to try to get some rest.

I could almost see the weight of the world on him. Saving Strauss Engines had become much more than just reclaiming his legacy. There were jobs at stake for people who did not have unlimited wealth and resources. A human element had entered into the whole equation, and it was right before Alex’s eyes. If he failed, there would be no water filter for those villages in India and there would be thousands of employees at the unemployment offices. There would be suffering beyond that of a man losing control of his father’s company.

More than anything, I wanted to make Alex feel good, even if only for a brief moment. I began to massage his shoulders slowly, but with enough force that I hoped to relieve some of the tension building there. His muscles resisted my attempts at first, but I felt them loosen as I moved my fingers deeper. Then I began to work my fingers around his chest, massaging them a little more gently than his shoulders. I knew that a chest massage felt wonderful for a man and I lingered there for a minute or two longer than I had on his shoulders.

I got on my knees before Alex and began to rub his legs. My eyes soon found their way to his crotch and I knew that soon enough, I would have him in my mouth. Being around Alex made me ferociously hungry for sex, as if I were starving and he was my only nourishment. I lowered my head and exhaled slowly against his pants, warming them with my breath.

His cock grew large inside his pants, and I rubbed my lips against it through the fabric. I looked up and saw that Alex remained unchanged; his head still leaned back and his eyes closed, as if trying to take a nap. My hands rubbed up and down his legs and then up onto his stomach. I moved them slowly along the deep ridges of his abdominal muscles that were chiseled from what must have been hundreds of hours of crunches and leg-lifts.

I unbuttoned his pants and pulled them down with one violent tug. His cock lay against his lower stomach, hard and waiting. I ran my tongue from his balls up to the tip of his cock and then back down again. My hands pushed against his inner thigh and massaged the area around his groin while I wet his cock from base to tip.

I slipped one hand down around his balls and then with my other hand, I grabbed the base of his rigid cock and pointed it towards me. I sucked on the head and moved my tongue around the smooth end of his beautiful penis, slowly moving my hands up and around in circular motions. I pushed my head against it and swallowed it in its entirety. Alex’s trimmed pubic area pushed against my nose and I worked my tongue around the base of his cock.

I slid my head back and forth, gaining momentum as I went. Soon I was making a lot of noise as I sucked greedily on his cock. I was so wet. I freed one hand and took off my panties and my skirt. I bobbed up and down on Alex, feeling his cock grow harder and harder up to the point that he could have wielded it as a weapon. Soon I had my top off and I was sucking on Alex with all of my energy, naked before him.

His face was unchanged except for a smile that was growing. I could see his chest moving up and down faster and faster as I took him in my mouth. I knew he would come soon if I didn’t stop, and I badly wanted him to come inside me.

Still holding his cock, I pulled my head back and stared at the pulsating rod in front of me, dripping with so much of my saliva. I turned around so my back was facing him, and sat down on his cock, pushing it deep into my pussy. I held my ass cheeks in my hands as I moved up and down on Alex, spreading them so he could watch. When I turned around, he was now watching me, staring down at me riding him.

He looked up at me and we locked eyes. “I want you to come inside me, my love,” I cooed at him.

His hands rose up to my breasts and worked on my nipples. My entire body was alight with sexual energy and I moved faster and harder on his stiff cock. I swore loudly as my orgasm rolled through my body and soon enough, I was grabbing his outer thighs in order to pull myself down harder on him to enhance my orgasm.

Alex stood up, still inside me, and swung me around. I was now on my knees on the limousine floor and Alex was fucking me from behind. I reached in between my legs and rubbed the area behind his balls, pushing down against it. Alex wrapped my hair in his hands and pulled back firmly, but still gently. I moaned loudly and it felt like I was still coming.

“Beg me to come,” Alex told me. I felt his balls grow tight against him and I knew he was about to shoot inside of me. I begged him. I begged him so loudly that if any cars had their windows down in the immediate area, they would have definitely heard me.

Then Alex’s entire body convulsed and I felt his cock explode hot cum inside of me. It jumped up and I felt another shot fill me. I pushed back against Alex and he was gritting his teeth, trying to suppress his desire to let a loud moan out. He thrust in and out of me and I felt his warm cum slide down my inner thigh.

I rested my head on the back seat of the limousine, Alex holding up my backside as he slowed. He was slowly rubbing my asshole with his finger, not penetrating, simply rubbing. I looked back at him and he was still wearing his shirt, which I could see now had tiny patches of sweat on it. He looked at me and we locked eyes. I pushed against him gently and his cock, still as hard as a diamond, was deep inside me.