True Loves (A Collection of Firsts) (42 page)

T
he door
to my office opens and I scowl, fully expecting Margo to waltz back in for round two. I relax when Jack walks through the door instead.

His neatly trimmed dark hair matches his pressed black suit. Jack hasn’t looked in my direction yet to see my utter disarray because he’s too busy running his hand through his hair and staring at my man-eater secretary.

When the door shuts behind him, Jack’s wearing the biggest shit-eatin’ grin known to mankind. “Damn. You didn’t tell me that you hired a new hot piece of ass. Have you tapped that yet, or do I still have a shot at getting in there before you? You know how I fucking hate your sloppy seconds.”

I roll my eyes. “Brother, if I were you, I wouldn’t touch that bitch with a double-bagged dick. She’s fuckin’ trouble.”

Jack’s face lights up as he glances back at the door before turning back to me, wiggling his eyebrows over his dark eyes. “My favorite kind.”

Oh, shit. I’ve just enticed him even more. Jack has been my wingman for a long time, and I know he’s just as smooth with the ladies as I am. If he sets his sights on Margo, he won’t give up until he’s fucked her seven ways till Sunday.

I’ve got to correct this situation stat. Throw a little ice water on him, so-to-speak, before he goes getting any crazy ideas like asking her out.

“She’s Dan Buchanan’s daughter,” I quickly inform him before he has a chance to get a full-on chub thinking about how damn hot Margo looks sitting out there on the other side of that door.

Jack’s eyes widen. “No fucking way! Buchanan produced that? I don’t believe it.”

I lean back in my chair and straighten my tie. “Afraid so.”

“So what’s she doing here? When you said you’d give her a job, I didn’t expect it to be as
your
assistant. Doesn’t she know that we’re about to dismantle her father’s business and sell it for parts? She should hate our guts, not be out there working for the enemy.”

I nod. “She knows, and it’s the very reason she’s here. The last time I met with Buchanan, as you know, he only agreed to sell me Buchanan Industries if I promised to give his darling daughter a job, so I figured I’d put her where I’d be able to keep my eye on her.”

His brow furrows. “He can get her a job as a secretary anywhere.”

“He was afraid that since she’s a new grad, she’d have a tough time finding something that paid well in this economy.”

He shakes his head. “I still don’t understand why make it part of the deal that she has to work here for you?”

I drum my fingers on the desk. “Think about it, Jack. Buchanan is a crafty old son-of-a-bitch. He’s going to fight tooth and nail to figure out a way to save his business. By getting his daughter in here, he figures he’ll be able to get info about the buyers we have lined up and cut us off at the pass. Then he’ll try to make a deal with them first to sell off pieces of his company that are easily discarded, leaving him with less overhead and keeping him afloat until he can figure out his next move.”

“And you agreed to let her come here knowing that? Shit, Alexander. She could ruin everything.” I hear the edge in Jack’s voice. He’s never been one to keep a cool head when he stresses. “We’ve got billions riding on this deal. You have to become the activist shareholder in Buchanan Industries.”

I hold up my hand, stopping him before he even gets started. “Relax, Jack. I have this under control. Do you honestly think that Margo Buchanan is a match for me? Come on, man. You’ve known me for how long now?”

He shakes his head. “You’re right. I do know you, which means I know that women are your fucking kryptonite. Face it; you’ve been in a rut for a couple of years now. Hell, you’ve not been the same since Jess fucked you over. You haven’t been with a woman longer than one night since her. If Margo wags her hot ass in front of you, you’ll leap, my friend, and your self-control will be flushed down the fucking toilet. She’ll get in your head, and this whole deal will be fucked.”

I know Jack thinks that I’ve hit a dry spell since Jess Fontaine left me for another man two years ago—that she crushed me—but he couldn’t be more wrong. Jess taking off with some tennis pro she met at the country club only hardened me more. It made me stronger—made me realize that love really doesn’t exist. It’s just this thing people created to comfort themselves within stories—a mythical thing like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I learned a long time ago that fairy tales don’t exist. People need to stop wasting their time searching for something that isn’t real.

Paying for pussy is definitely the way to go.

So Jack needs to stop worrying about me. Margo Buchanan will not get to me no matter how tempting she may be.

I chuckle. “Trust me. That’s not going to happen.”

“Make sure it doesn’t. We need Buchanan to sell you his shares. Our Japanese connections want pieces of his company, and the only way we can make that happen is if you’re the main shareholder. We can’t afford for anything to go wrong.”

“You’ve got to stop worrying. You’re going to make yourself old and gray far too soon.” I push myself away from the desk and walk over to the small bar that’s in my office. The crystal decanter holding my favorite thirty-year-old scotch clinks against the glass as I pour the amber liquid. “Come have a drink with me. Let’s celebrate our victory before we close this deal over lunch.”

Jack walks over and lays a couple of papers on the wooden bar. “I’ve got the latest numbers on the Buchanan stock. It’s down thirty points. Everything is lining up for us perfectly. We’re on the road to making our biggest deal yet. Your father would’ve been proud.”

I hand Jack his glass as I smile at the thought of my father. It pleases me immensely to know that if he were here, Father would be partaking in this celebratory drink. Fucking cancer. It took him away from me much too soon, forcing me to grow up way too fast.

I tip the glass back and down my drink before pouring myself another. I need a fucking subject change. “I heard a rumor about you.”

Jack’s eyebrow arches. “Me? From whom?”

I smirk. “One guess.”

“Fucking Diem.” Jack rubs the back of his neck. “What did your darling sister tell you about me now?”

I laugh. “Rachel Winslet, Jack? Really? How fucking desperate were you to take that home?”

“Dammit,” Jack mutters. “I was at a benefit at the Waldorf, and I had one too many to drink. I spent most of the night talking to your sister. When it was time to find someone to share in the pleasure of my company for the evening, all the good women were taken. Rachel was my only willing body.”

“Her body’s always willing,” I say, and then laugh, unable to hold it back.

Jack shrugs, like it’s there’s nothing else he can say. It’s a well-known fact that the woman is working her way through our social circles on her back.

I hold up my hands. “Hey, no judgment. A lay is a lay as long as you don’t plan on taking it any further than that.”

Jack tips back his glass and then sets it down on the bar. “Did Diem say anything else?”

I shake my head. “No, but what in the hell were you doing talking to my sister all night? You’re not fucking her, are you? You know that’s the one thing that would cause me to murder my best friend.”

His face contorts, and his top lip curls. “It’s not like that. You know we’ve always been friends. She’s your little sister for Christ’s sake.”

“Well, what were the two of you doing together?”

“Diem and I were
just
talking.”

“About what?” I ask a little agitated.

“Mainly . . . we were talking about you.”

This causes my brow to furrow. “What the hell could possibly be so interesting about me that would cause the two of you to chat all evening?”

He shrugs. “She worries about you a lot. It’s not healthy for you to work all the time and then spend your evenings alone.”

I roll my eyes. “So you and Diem are experts on what’s best for me now?”

“No. We just want to see you happy.”

I level my stare on him. “Is anyone ever truly happy with their lives, Jack? The best someone can hope for is to have enough money not to be miserable in their existence until they die.”

Jack sighs. “That’s a pretty depressing outlook on life, man.”

“Yeah, maybe, but it’s an honest one. Seriously, you and Diem need to find more interesting topics of conversations.”

He laughs. “What can I say? The King is a hot topic of conversation these days. It’s hard to avoid talking about you when I’m out in public. I think you’ve pissed off over half of the females on the Upper East Side. They all say your name with such disdain that it’s comical, and unfortunately, your sister and I are assholes by association. We’ve bonded through our pariah status. I would stop being your friend, but I like getting laid for being the nice guy out of our duo.”

I chuckle. “Ah, so being the best friend of Manhattan’s biggest prick has its perks?”

Jack fills his glass again and has a twinkle in his eye. “Sometimes.”

A quick knock on my door catches my attention just as it swings open. Margo steps into my office and makes a big show of checking out the inside of the room before her eyes land on Jack. Her face lights up as she points a smile in his direction, and for some reason my shoulders stiffen.

“Do you need something, Margo?” I ask, drawing her attention away from Jack.

“I was just making sure that you were decent. The last time—” She smirks as her eyes flit over to Jack and then back to me “—I seemed to have come in at an inopportune moment when you had a guest in here.”

Jack tilts his head, and I feel his gaze on me. I usually tell him everything—but admitting to your best friend that you buy sexual favors from high-paid escorts isn’t something that I want to readily divulge to him.

Damn that Margo. She’s doing this to get under my skin, but the fucking joke’s going to be on her because I refuse to let this chick see me sweat.

I take a long drink and eye her over my glass. “Well, I’m glad that you’ve learned barging in without knocking is rude as fuck. At least you’ve learned one thing from me today.”

She bites the corner of her lip. “I’ve learned plenty today.”

“Glad to be of service. I always aim to please.” I raise one eyebrow, daring her to say more in front of Jack, but she doesn’t.

Instead, she glances down at the silver watch on her wrist. “You have a lunch meeting at twelve thirty and your car service is downstairs waiting.”

I set my glass down. “Thank you, Margo. Be sure to bring your tablet and a notepad to take notes.”

“I’m going?” I fight back a smile as I hear the surprise in her voice.

“Of course. That’s what assistants do—they assist. I’ll be ready in five and I expect you to be as well.” I allow a hint of a smile to play along my lips as she stands there gaping at me. “That will be all, Margo.”

I can tell that she doesn’t like me dismissing her like common help, but something tells me that she doesn’t want to make too big of a scene in front of Jack, so she doesn’t mouth off before she turns and walks out of my office. The princess is definitely not used to anyone bossing her around.

This little game of ours is going to be fun.

The second the door closes, Jack scrubs his hand down his face. “Fuck. This isn’t good.”

“What?” I ask, unsure of what he’s talking about.

He locks eyes with me. “Are you sure you haven’t already fucked her?”

“No!” I argue. “I haven’t touched her.”

“Maybe not yet, but you will. I can see the way you two are looking at each other. It might be a hate fuck, but it’s going to happen, and it’s going to ruin everything we’ve worked for. She’s part of her father’s deal. Please, use the head on top of your shoulders because it has the smarter brain. It’ll tell you that the best thing for business would be to
not
slip your dick in this chick.”

I understand why he’s flipping out. We have a lot of money riding on this, and with him being my company attorney, screwing this up will cause him a shit-ton of work on top of all the money King Corporation will lose. But he has to know that money and making sure that the company my father built succeeds is far more important than a piece of ass.

“Don’t worry, Jack. I’ve got it all under control. I promise not to fuck the hired help.” I put the crystal stopper back in the scotch decanter. “Now, let’s head to lunch and see if we can get that bastard, Buchanan, to sign this deal.”

I slap Jack on the back as I pass him and we head out to seal the deal and get Margo Buchanan the hell out of my office.

I
cross
my legs feeling Alexander King’s cool gray eyes, which are set beneath a pair of dark eyebrows, taking in every inch of my exposed flesh. Even when I catch him staring, he doesn’t seem the least bit apologetic. Rather than look away like most men would do in his position, he gives me one of those smart-ass smirks that I’ve grown accustomed to over the past few days since I started working for him, and he continues to stare at me blatantly.

The man is infuriating, and to make matters worse, he’s impossibly good-looking. If I hadn’t seen him in person, I would swear every picture I’ve ever seen of him had to have been airbrushed because no man ever looks that perfect all the time. But, sadly, Alexander is the exception. Everything about him draws me in. His Roman sculpted nose, chiseled cheekbones, and masculine jawline covered in a light beard—all of it fits exactly what I find attractive in a man to a T. It’s a shame he’s such a rat-bastard. Beauty is wasted on the wicked.

Infiltrating Alexander’s business and seducing him in order to gain access to all the information my father needs is a far more difficult task than I had originally anticipated. Most men are all too eager to please me, but not Alexander. He’s hell bent on making me miserable and teaching me what he deems as my place in this situation—below him. He has no idea that I’m not like most of these ridiculous Manhattan twits who run around here. His infamous name and hoards of wealth don’t do a thing for me. He won’t be able to walk all over me and use me as he does every other woman in our social circle. I’m pretty sure when I stood my ground earlier today it rattled him a bit, showing him that perhaps he’s met his match with me.

“So, Ms. Buchanan, how do you like the job so far?” The deep voice beside me asks.

I turn toward Jack Sutherland, who I’ve quickly learned is one of the attorneys for the King Corporation and second in line for the biggest manwhore in Manhattan, behind none other than Alexander King. I can see why women throw themselves at Jack. Like Alexander, he’s beautiful with his curly brown hair, hazel eyes, and adorable crooked grin. Though it seems to be a running theme that all well-polished men with model faces and insanely hot bodies are assholes. I swear there’s a handbook somewhere that all attractive men are given, teaching them it’s a must to be an egotistical womanizer who jump when any opportunity to stick their dick in something comes their way regardless of the consequences.

My mother constantly accuses me of trying to be the female version of Robin Hood. She thinks that I look for ways to punish men like these two for the sake of all womankind. I, on the other hand, always correct her and tell her that I simply won’t allow jerks like Alexander King to gain the upper hand with me.

I will never allow a man to use me again. Once was enough of that bullshit.

Besides, someone needs to put these guys in their place from time to time.

I give Jack my most flirty smile, doing the best I can to win him over. God knows I don’t need him breathing down my neck for being here like Alexander did earlier. “It’s been a real eye-opening experience. There’s obviously a lot for me to learn since this is my first job, but I tend to catch on to things very quickly.”

Jack’s eyes dart down to my mouth for a split second before he reconnects his gaze with mine, and he grins. “I love a woman who’s a quick study. Where did you graduate?”

“Harvard,” I answer, and it causes him to raise his eyebrows.

“Really? Wow. That’s impressive. What was your major?”

“I double majored in finance and pre-law and graduated with honors. I wanted to keep my options open.”

“Wow. I must say, Ms. Buchanan, that’s amazing. Old King here had better be on his toes when it comes to you. You seem like a highly intelligent woman.” I revel in his compliments as I thank him because I’m damn proud of my education. I earned that completely on my own merit.

I love my mother to pieces, but I never wanted to be like her when I got older. She’s beautiful, which is exactly what caught my father’s eye years ago. My mother married into wealth, became accustomed to the lifestyle, and when my father divorced her, she was desperate to find another wealthy man to take his place. I always told myself that I wanted to be a woman who stood on her own two feet—a woman who didn’t need a man to complete her or her bank account.

And believe it or not, in this day and age, a determined woman intimidates the shit out of most men.

My deep-seated drive to succeed came out in full force today. It gave me the courage to rattle the unshakable Alexander King this morning. Of course I knew the little show he put on for me with the skanky bottle-blond hooker was meant to send me running for the hills, and while it turned my stomach to see such a disgusting display, I decided I wasn’t going to make getting rid of me so easy for him.

“Do you think you’ll make a permanent home with us at King, or are you using the position as a mode to gain experience?” Jack asks, jerking me away from my thoughts.

I glance over at Alexander, who is watching me intently as if he’s studying his prey. It’s as if he’s just waiting for me to say the wrong thing so he can attack.

“So far I love how kind everyone has been to me. This would be an amazing company to work for long-term. I guess we’ll have to wait to see if I screw up around here before I can make any predictions on how long I’ll stay. Mr. King may fire me.”

Jack chuckles. “I doubt he’ll be allowing you to go anywhere anytime soon. You’re already far too important for him to ever entertain the idea of letting you go over simple on-the-job mistakes.”

“That’s very kind of you,” I tell him as I glance over at Alexander again. “Hopefully, he decides to keep me around for a while.”

The cool smile playing on Alexander’s lips is difficult to read, but if I had to guess from our previous conversation, that annoyingly charming expression only reiterates his feelings from earlier. He won’t get rid of me, but he’s going to do his damnedest to make sure I leave on my own. Well, I have news for him.

Game on, motherfucker.