ROMANCE: BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The CEO's Game (CEO Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance) (New Adult Romance Short Stories) (2 page)

Chapter 3

“Mr. Torrance! I didn’t know you were here.”

Shooting to her feet, Kathleen smiled shyly and felt the blush rushing under her cheeks and poking its way through her skin in shades to rival the walls just beyond the glass doors.

“I am so sorry,” she continued. “I was just---”

“I saw what you were doing,” he said. “And you do not have the job just yet.”

Feeling defeated before she even had a chance to step her best foot forward, a long buried part of Kathleen felt as if she should just call it a wash and slink off with her tail between her legs.

But since she had come this far…

“Can’t blame a girl for hoping,” she said with a smile. “Are you going to hold it against me? Or credit me for showing up on time for the interview?”

Something in her words seemed to take him aback, and whatever Adam Torrance might have intended in the way of a snappy comeback fell away as his eyes moved from her legs to her sweater before his stare finally focused on nothing but her face.

“Being prompt is a start,” he said. “But one step at a time.”

“Please lead the way, Mr. Torrance.”

Stepping back like a polite suitor on a first date, Adam waved his arm towards his open door, and Kathleen’s confidence returned as she stepped over the threshold and entered the man’s inner sanctum. Whistling lightly under her breath, Kathleen soaked in the sight of more white walls covered in abstract prints. A cold fireplace rested before a plush white rug; the room smelled of money and leather.

“Have a seat, Miss Bedford,” he said. “And it’s Adam.”

“Nice to know that you’re not one to stand on ceremony,” Kathleen said. “Then again, I’ve never heard anyone say word one against you.”

“That’s because they want to keep their jobs,” he said as he unbuttoned his jacket and settled behind his large desk. Swiping his tablet to attention with manicured fingers to best her own, Kathleen felt daring, maybe even a little playful as she scooted closer to the edge of his desk and tried to attract his gaze.

“Then what happened to my predecessors?” she carefully asked.

Adam stared up quickly, and Kathleen thought she caught a hint of fury mixed with fear washing across his face. Was it more than the women trying to change? Trying to become something that they weren’t? Or was it possible that there was some darker power at play?

“Miss Bedford,” he started. “I don’t think that---”

“You can call me Kathleen,” she quipped. “Since we’re getting so familiar and all.”

The man appeared to consider the possibility, and she longed for the sound of her name dripping off his tongue when the corners of his mouth curled into a soft smile.

“Kathleen,” he said. “Has a nice lilt to it. But time is money. And in the interest of time, I think I’d prefer to call you Kate.”

Kate.
She couldn’t recall the last time, if any, that she had been referred to her by the shortest version of her name. Sometimes it was
Kathy
when she was back home, when she was younger, but that was long ago. And Kathleen or Kate was all about looking forward and not moving back.

“Don’t have the time for even a second syllable?” she teased.

“Touché,” Adam said with a gentle smirk. “But you’ll find that I get what I want. Or you’ll be out the door with far greater alacrity than the others.”

“Alacrity! Now that’s a five dollar word if ever I heard one,” she said.

“It means---”

“Speed. Rapidity. Think you’ll find that I can keep up,
Adam
.”

Crinkling his nose as a slight blush crossed his cheeks, Adam returned his attention to the tablet and scrolled down the screen.

“You think you’re very clever,” he continued. “And you do come highly recommended.”

“Thought as much,” Kathleen answered. “Otherwise why would you waste one second of your precious time.”

“That’s right,” he said. “I see lots of criminal justice courses on your resume. Why stop there?”

“What do you mean?’ she asked.

“Law school. The next logical step.”

She could be brutally honest and state that it was a matter of finances, that she was already trying to make ends meet with a mountain of student loan debt pressing down on her shoulders. But she didn’t want one shred of his pity. And she didn’t want to appear like a woman with a desperate plan of action.

“I thought it’d be more fun to learn from the master,” she said, crossing her legs under her flared skirt as she leaned forward in her chair.

“Are you trying to flatter me?” he challenged.

“Would you like me to?” Kathleen asked. “Does that fit your particular set of needs?”

“Possibly,” he said. “But as the old saying goes, it’ll only get you so far.”

Kathleen pictured them batting this imaginary ball back and forth for the duration of the morning until the hour turned to lunch. Even as she felt sure that she could meet him swat for swat and possibly come out the other end with the match point in her favor, Kathleen knew that he’d want to know one way or the other if his selection was strong or if he would have to resume the search. And for her part, Kathleen wanted the course of her future determined. Whatever the path may be.

“Fine then,” she started. “Mr. Torrance, I---”

“Adam,” he corrected her.

“In a minute,” she said. “And then for good I hope.”

Pushing back in his chair, Adam folded her fingers behind his head and peered intently into her eyes.

“Exactly one minute,” he said. “Make it count.”

A sharp ray of sunlight suddenly poked through the glass, the spotlight that she had willingly stepped into. No stepping back and bowing her head; it was now or never.

“I know how this firm works,” she started. “I know where you are, and where you hope to go.”

“Know all that, do you?”

“Thought I had the floor,” she said.

“Of course,” he said. “How very rude of me.”

“No worries. As I was saying…”

Sucking in a deep breath as she rose to her feet, Kathleen felt like the executive she could be, that she was meant to be as she lightly pressed her hands to her hips.

“I can be discreet,” she said. “Ask any of the associates I backed up. Never breathed a word of one brief.”

“So you know everything that goes on here to boot?” he asked.

“I know that you’re about to represent the Hotchkiss Group when it comes to their mobile app patent,” Kathleen said. “And I think that you stand a better chance of getting the job done with me and my talents backing you up.”

Slinking out of her seat, Kathleen swallowed at the thought that she might have gone too far, said too much. But just because she kept her ears open didn’t mean that she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

“I see,” he said. “Spoken like a closing argument. But I’m the judge and jury here. And I’ve reached my verdict.

Kathleen’s shoulders dropped as he led her towards the door. She had overplayed her hand. Would he at least let her stay on and going back to slumming it in the trenches?
              “Hope the chair was comfortable,” he said.

She nodded slowly as she bit down on her lip.

“I…yes, Mr. Torrance.”

“Good. Because you better get used to it. And let’s keep it Adam from here on out.”

“So I got it?” Kathleen asked, her voice cracking around the last word in her statement as he smiled brightly and patted her arm.

“Think it’s going to be… fun having you around, Kate. Sound like a plan?”

“Sounds perfect,” she said as she shook his hand, basking in the warmth of his fingers and the feeling that her life was beginning. New name. New job. What other surprises might lay in store?

Chapter 4

“Kate! Would you please come in here?”

Three weeks in. Naturally she knew that burning the midnight oil would be the price of stepping into Adam Torrance’s private circle. But Kathleen had never felt more awake, and she was certain that she was on the verge of setting a productivity record sans sleep.

“Coming,” she answered. They’d bypassed the intercom on the second day, and for that she was glad. No need for his voice to be so grainy when they were that close.

“I need you to go over these contracts again,” he started.

“Didn’t we already do that like three times?” she asked.

“Something suddenly even you can’t handle?”

“Not at all. But isn’t my time… our time better served going over what Walters and his crew think they’re entitled to?”

“Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you.”

“Because I’m usually right?” she teased.

“Because you’re doing the job that I hired you for. And doing a fine…”

His voice trailed off as his eyes moved down her legs and settled on her bare feet.

“Going for some kind of a Japanese vibe?” he asked. “Shall I call out for some sushi?”

“Adam, it’s just us now. You try walking around in heels for ten hours plus and see how it feels.”

“Think I’ll pass. Here. Read.”

Handing over a heap of papers, Kathleen started to protest again when Adam rubbed the bridge of his nose and turned around in his chair.

“I know, I know,” he started. “But good old Hotchkiss
just
remembered this earlier draft. And if the opposition is even half as smart--”

“I would argue that they have a leg up,” Kathleen said.

“And I would agree,” he said as he swiveled his chair back around to face her. “So eyeball it again. Let’s make sure that there’s nothing that’s going to bite us in the ass.”

“Yes, Sir,” she said with a gentle salute, and she was nearly out the door when Adam snapped his fingers. Facing him again, Kathleen waited in silence as he tapped the tips of his fingers to his lips and tilted his head to the side.

“How do you manage it?” he asked.

“Manage what?”

“Nothing ever fazes you,” he said. “What if I told you that the entire brief requires a do-over.”

“Does it?” she asked, hardly able to hide a hint of fear in her voice.

“Finally some cracks in the foundation?” he teased. “Nice to know that you’re human.”

“Hit me up with that sushi, and I’ll make it work.”

Adam laughed as he smoothed his hands down his shirt and kicked his feet to his desk.

“Think you should follow my lead,” she said. “Shoes on the table equal bad luck.”

“Maybe that’s why none of the other girls worked out.”

She nodded her head and waited for his compliment. Not that she needed it; at the end of the day her paycheck should have been enough. But it would still be nice for him to say something even sweeter.

“Maybe it’ll give me some of your stamina,” he said as he kicked off his shoes and reached for his phone.

“California Roll good for you?”

“I’ll take some tempura, too,” she said. “And a spider salad.”

“Who’s paying for all of this?” he asked.

“Your name is on the door,” Kathleen said. “Not going to take it out of my pay, are you?”

“No way,” he said. “Probably high time that we shared a meal.”

He seemed sad as he spoke the words, but Kathleen stepped closer and patted his cheek.

“Don’t look like it’s a death sentence,” he said. “I’ll share the tempura with you.”

Smiling, Adam took hold of her hand, and his lips just met her wrist. Kathleen felt her heart buzzing in her chest. If she was a different kind of girl, she might throw caution to the wind and fall into his lap right then and there. But she simply disentangled herself from his touch and winked.

“And I’ll get started on these,” she said as she waved the forgotten contracts before his face. Leaving the room on shaking legs, Kathleen was grateful for her chair, and she flattened her palms to her cluttered desk and closed her eyes.

The other girls. They tried to be something that they weren’t. That’s not me.

Needing to keep her eyes on the prize, she tried to make sense of the words on the page. From what she could decipher, Hotchkiss all but admitted that Walters had a right to half the profits and any sales that might come to a pass at a later date. A post-it note scrawled in Adam’s hand mockingly mentioned that the agreement had taken place over too many drinks.

Well look at that.

“So he never stopped to think who he was crawling into bed with,” she muttered. “Impulses can do you in every time.”

Maybe sushi and tempura and the rest were a mistake. Better to put her shoes back on her feet, make her own notes, and---

“Dinner’s on is way, Kate.”

Kathleen straightened up the length of her neck as his hands surrounded her shoulders, and a raspy breath left her lips when his kiss drew close to her hair.

“Adam, I think that---”

“Problem?” he said. “You knew the job had its… challenges.”

“So let’s get to it,” she said, wriggling away from him as she stamped the contracts on the surface of her desk.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he twirled a stray strand of her hair around his finger. “I was looking forward to getting to know you a bit better.”

“That… that sounds nice,” she said.”

“But?”

He perched on the edge of her desk and stared down at her, his finger under her chin. The sharp lines of his face nearly brought her hands to his cheek, but Kathleen held back and shook her head.

“What’s the problem?” he asked. “Hot date waiting for you somewhere?”

“Hardly,” Kathleen confessed. “But you have a gorgeous girlfriend, why do you need something on the side? Especially something that looks like this” she said softly looking down at her ample thighs.

For a second, his face went white, and Kathleen felt sure that she had found him out when he crossed his legs and folded his arms across his chest.

“And what if I do?” he said. “This is where I want to be right now.”

“Are you so sure about that?” she asked.

Adam licked his lips and leaned in to kiss her. She struggled some when he claimed her mouth, but he flooded her brain with unimaginable alacrity, and Kathleen brought her arms around his neck.

“Wait,” she said, backing away to suck in a clean breath tinged with the scent of rose wood.

“I don’t want to make the same mistake as the others,” she said. “I’m not that kind of girl.”

Adam rolled his lips over his teeth, and she was ready for him to bolt back to his desk and leave her to the stale box of crackers in her drawer when he shot her a soft smile.

“Maybe that’s very lucky for me,” he said. “Kate…”

He kissed her again, and Kathleen did not resist, wanting him even though she knew it was wrong. Collecting her cheeks in his hands, Adam pressed his brow to hers.

“Share a meal with me,” he said. “I think… no. I want to know everything about you.”