The Billionaire's Terms: Prison Or Passion (4 page)

Moving carefully, she inched her way out of the bed, praying that he wouldn’t wake up and touch her again. She knew exactly where that would lead to and she was too embarrassed by her actions of the night before to see his reaction in the morning.

Alicia didn’t know how she achieved it, but she finally tiptoed out of the room, her clothes in her hands. She dressed quickly in the hallway, then wandered down in search of the door. She hadn’t noticed anything last night when he’d taken her here but it only took two wrong turns before she found the front door. There was an elaborate security system on the panel but she was able to step out of the penthouse with only a little bit of trouble. The elevator was another trick since it required a code to move. But she finally found the phone and reached the security guard in the lobby who started the elevator from some sort of command post.

Alicia smiled gratefully to the man as she walked by, incredibly embarrassed to be seen walking through the lobby of a very expensive building in an evening gown so early in the morning. But the man only smiled professionally at her and tipped his hat as she passed out onto the street.

Luckily, she was able to catch a cab almost immediately and was back in her apartment twenty minutes later. She closed the door quietly, noting that her sister was still curled up on the sofa, a blanket pulled over her shoulders as she slept peacefully.

Alicia went into her room and pulled off the dress, hanging it carefully in the closet then turning to the shower. The water took only ten minutes this morning but the warm water, when it finally did come, served to remind her of the shower she and Adam had shared only hours ago. Her body wanted him again and he wasn’t even here. Just her memories.

Sighing, Alicia crawled into bed and pulled the covers up, intending to get a few hours of sleep before her sister woke up. But she could only stare out the window as the sun rose over the gray buildings of New York City and her body remembered every aching detail of the night before.
Chapter 3

A month later, Alicia walked into her office at Global Industries and sat down, sighing as she noted the stack of audits that were still piled up on her desk. She loved her job, but lately, she had been hard pressed to concentrate. Almost daily, she found herself staring off into space remembering her one night of passion with the most exciting man of her dreams. Or when she was walking down the street, she searched the faces of each person, wondering if she would ever run into Adam again.

She didn’t even know his last name! What would her mother or sister think if they ever found out what a wanton person she had turned into that night?

If she had any sense, she would find the man and throw herself at him once again. The blush on her face at the idea was, thankfully, not witnessed by any of her co-workers since she was usually the first person into the office each morning.

Taking the first file off the top of her in-box, she forced her mind to concentrate on her work. If she didn’t pick up the speed, she was going to get a stern talking to by her supervisor who had been throwing concerned looks her way for the past couple of weeks. She liked and respected Nancy who had taken her in several months ago when she’d been looking for a job that paid more. Because of Nancy’s generosity with Alicia’s starting salary, Alicia had been able to pay off her mother’s mortgage much more quickly than anticipated. Which was now how she found herself in her current position of working only one job for the first time in more than ten years.

Two hours later, Alicia had managed to get through a large portion of the morning’s work when her supervisor stuck her head in. “How in the world do you know Adam Meyers?” Nancy Peterson asked, sitting down in the chair in front of her desk with a surprised expression on her face.

Nancy laughed at Alicia’s stunned expression. “I can see by the look on your face that you know of the man in question.”

Alicia thought frantically. How in the world could Nancy know Adam? They definitely didn’t run in the same circles. “Yes, I met him at the spring ball last month. At least I think it was Adam Meyers. I don’t know his last name,” she explained. When Nancy looked at her curiously, waiting for more of an explanation, Alicia went on to say, “We didn’t really get to the last name phase before I had to go.” None of that was a lie but the un-told truth behind her statement caused her to blush.

Nancy looked suspiciously at Alicia, her brows coming together, “Are we talking about the same man; tall, gorgeous, black hair, incredibly sexy eyes and a body to die for?”

Alicia licked her lips, remembering touching and tasting the body Nancy was discussing. She looked down at her papers, hiding her instantaneous reaction to the description of the man she now thought of as her “dream man”. we’re talking about the same man. What about him?” “Yes, that sounds like

Nancy laughed, completely thrilled with her bombshell. now he wants to see you in his office. Immediately.” “Well, lucky you! But

“His office?” she asked, knowing that her mouth was hanging open but unable to do anything about it but look on as if the world and everything in it had just turned purple.

Nancy nodded her head vigorously, her eyes alight with glee and a small amount of jealousy. “Of course. Fiftieth floor.”

Alicia’s pencil dropped from her numb fingers but she ignored the small clatter. Nothing was getting through to her consciousness but the words that were being spoken by her boss. “Are you saying that he works here?” Alicia was almost afraid to hear the answer. Her whole body was tense with anticipation.

Nancy’s mouth fell open. “Are you kidding?” At Alicia’s blank stare and negative nod, she explained, “You could say that he works here. He owns the whole company. Well, he owns a majority of the stock, I should say,” she corrected herself. “The man built this company from nothing. He’s the mastermind behind the exponential growth.”

Alicia’s mind refused to accept this information. “He owns the company?” she asked weakly, her stomach actually turning slightly sick at this latest news.

“Sure! How could you not know that? Everyone knows about Adam Meyers. Good grief, he’s on the nightly news or in the newspapers almost weekly at times, depending on what new acquisition he’s buying into. In fact, more than half the female staff watch the nightly news or read the newspapers solely for a glance at that man, he’s so gorgeous,” she gushed, rolling her eyes and pretending to shiver in delight then fan herself as if she were overheated.

Alicia closed her mouth and breathed a sigh of relief. She felt almost silly for assuming that Nancy was talking about the man who had occupied her mind almost constantly in the past month, both day and night. “We must be thinking of different people,” Alicia said, shaking her head. “The Adam I know is only in his mid-thirties.”

Nancy grinned with unabashed enthusiasm. “Yep, that’s the one. Like I said; tall, incredibly gorgeous with black hair, great body…” Nancy sighed in happiness just thinking about him. “Is that the man you met?”

Alicia could only nod her head. She didn’t add that she’d spent one, incredible night with him, ravaging his body, allowing him to do things to hers that she couldn’t ever repeat and then slinking out of his apartment like a dockside hussy the following morning. Even now, she was ashamed of how she acted that night.

“You probably didn’t realize who he is because you never watch television and, with the three jobs you used to work, never had time to read the newspapers. Well, you’d better hurry. The illustrious man is waiting for you in his office.” Nancy announced that little tid bit and started to get up out of the chair she’d been occupying for the past few minutes.

Alicia gripped the side of her desk, her knuckles turning white with Nancy’s words. “Me? Why on earth would he want to see me?” she squeaked. She hoped she didn’t know. How would she face him? Just the things they did made her face flame into color again.

“Dunno,” she laughed, “but you’d better hurry.” Nancy stood up and left the office, leaving Alicia to stare at the empty chair, her whole body starting to shake with nerves and shame.

Alicia put down her pen and slowly stood up, smoothing her neat, professional navy skirt as she walked. In the elevator, she pressed the button for the fiftieth floor and looked down at her outfit, wondering if she looked too dowdy. Her hair was pulled back into a tight chignon at the nape of her neck and her slim navy skirt ended just above her knees. She pulled the matching navy jacket down more smoothly over her stomach and gently touched the faux pearl necklace at her throat. She suspected that she looked like a school marm but that couldn’t be helped, she supposed.

The elevator doors opened and she stepped out into the eerie quiet of the executive offices.

Jim Peterson, head of security, had watched Adam’s reaction as he’d laid the folder open twenty minutes ago. The evidence was irrefutable against the woman. There had been other transgressions in the past against Global Corp but he’d never seen Adam react the same way. It was as if he were taking this latest investigation as a personal slap in the face. That wasn’t the usual cool, calm and merciless man he’d worked with for the past ten years.

When he’d brought up the issue two weeks ago about suspected embezzlement, Jim hadn’t had any idea who was doing the work. It had taken long hours of tracing information back to the source, often off in the wrong direction only to backtrack to his starting point again before he finally narrowed the data to the female mentioned in the file. He also had a picture of her, taken when she posed for her security badge. She was definitely a looker, he thought. And she looked innocent enough from the picture. But in his experience, looks rarely played a factor in guilt or innocence.

“I could be wrong,” Jim mentioned but the man staring out the window didn’t move.

 

“Do you really doubt your findings?” Adam asked briskly without turning around.

Jim thought about the small, niggling details he hadn’t been able to close but shook his head. He’d eventually resolve them as well but the case was pretty concrete as it was now. “Not really. There’s always some doubt,” he explained. “But the facts in this case lend themselves to a pretty solid case.”

A moment later, a petite and stunningly beautiful woman in a conservative but fashionable navy blue suit stepped into the doorway. “I was told to come up to your office,” Alicia said hesitantly. “I’m sorry but your secretary isn’t at her desk or I would have waited.”

Jim was curious about the blush that stole into her cheeks and the look in her eyes. It was not what he was expecting. In fact, she was so attuned to Adam, she didn’t even realize that Jim was also in the room.

Adam turned and looked the woman up and down, his eyes hard and his features completely blank. “So we meet again,” he said softly.

Alicia wished she could just ease back down to the safety of her office but she tried to put on a brave, sophisticated front. “So it would seem,” she said and smiled briefly, her eyes glancing down to the carpet.

Adam watched her perfectly porcelain skin turn a becoming shade of pink and gritted his teeth. What an actress, he thought. But no more! He’d spent too many hours trying to find this woman and to have her presented in this way, as a criminal, made him doubt all of his recollections of their one night together.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed her petite form for a long moment. “Please come in and have a seat,” Adam snapped. “Let me introduce you to Jim Peterson. He’s the head of security for Global Industries.”

Alicia walked into the room and smiled graciously at the man, shaking his hand before she took the seat opposite Adam’s desk.

Adam continued to stand, an intimidating, forceful persona that seemed to emanate anger and hostility. “Now that the pleasantries are over with, perhaps you could explain this to me,” Adam said and pushed the file with all the evidence across his desk. It stopped at the edge and Alicia reached out to take the file, the only expression on her face was one of professional curiosity.

Jim watched intently as the woman calmly opened the file and searched through the documents. She shook her head several times. “I’m sorry, this isn’t right,” she said as she ran a tapered fingernail down several checks that had been made out to a dummy bank account. She turned the page and shook her head again, her brow furrowed in confusion. “This isn’t protocol either,” she said and glanced up at Adam. “The accounting rules don’t allow this to happen,” she said but kept flipping through the documents.

Adam put his hands on his hips and waited impatiently until she got past all the checks for large amounts. The evidence that convicted her was after the checks. It showed her name as the beneficiary of all the dummy accounts with her own signature at the bottom. There were also several pages of her signature that had witnesses to it, as well as the security signature that compared her signature to the dummy accounts in case they were different.

He knew the exact moment she realized she’d been caught. Her finger stopped moving along the document, right at her signature. “This isn’t right!” she said, gasping but her hands continued to sift through the following pages.

She saw her own picture and directly behind that, the most damning evidence possible, at least in his own mind. It was an article about her father that described his conviction for embezzlement ten years ago and how he’d subsequently been killed in a prison fight. By the time she picked up the article, her fingers were shaking. Her eyes went to Adam and she was already shaking her head. “It isn’t true,” she said forcefully. “I didn’t steal this money.”

“Isn’t that what all thieves say?” Adam asked sarcastically, sneering with contempt at her act of innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Her fingers clutched the papers to her lap and she looked up imploringly to Adam. “You have to believe me. Yes, my father embezzled money from the company he worked for but I know what effect it had on my family. I would never jeopardize them in this way.”

Jim stood up and cleared his throat. “Should I make the call?” he asked Adam.