Millionaire Boss, page 13
She folded her arms across her chest and eyed the two furiously. “Yes. Busted. Honestly,” she fussed as she crossed the room, stooping to pick up one of the dropped bottles that was currently leaking soda into the carpet. “I can understand Jared taking advantage of my absence. He’s only a child. But you,” she said, straightening and aiming the nearly empty bottle at Erik’s nose. “You are an adult and should know better than to fill your system with junk food. And look at this mess!” She slammed the bottle down on Erik’s desk. “And the language I heard both of you using. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Jared ducked his head. “Sorry.”
“Me, too,” Erik mumbled.
“Well, sorry isn’t good enough.” She planted her hands on her hips, much as she’d done earlier when she’d scolded Jared before leaving on her errands. “I will not put up with this kind of behavior. You’ll clean up the mess you’ve made to my specifications and satisfaction or suffer the consequences.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they said obediently.
“And when you’re finished, you are both to come directly upstairs. Understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” they said again.
With a last scathing look at the two, she turned and marched for the door.
Jared flinched as the door slammed behind her.
Erik let out a lusty sigh.
“Damn, but she’s pretty when she’s mad.”
Jared slanted Erik a look. “Dude, what’re you smokin’? Ain’t nothin’ pretty about a woman with her panties in a knot.”
Chuckling, Erik slapped Jared on the back. “Just shows how much you know about women.”
Jared huffed a breath. “I know enough to know we don’t want on her bad side. Now get your head outta your pants and start thinkin’ of a way for us to get back on her good side.”
Realizing the boy had a point, Erik pursed his lips thoughtfully, then cut a sideways glance at Jared. “Flowers?”
“Flowers! Man, if you want outta the dog house, you gotta chunk out some change for your ol’ lady. Jewelry,” he said, and used the toe of his sneaker to scoop a candy wrapper from the floor. He flipped it up high in the air and nabbed it easily, one-handed. He shot Erik a cocky wink. “Diamonds. No woman can stay mad when her ol’ man lays diamonds on her.”
home friday morning remember no clothes e
Though written in sentence fragments and without the proper capitalizations, Penny didn’t have a problem deciphering Erik’s latest e-mail. He was coming home Friday morning and wanted to remind her of the new rule: no clothes while they were at home.
She scrolled to the next message. Three more days, she thought with a shiver of excitement, and Erik would be home. forgot tell punk hand’s off my computer games e
Laughing softly at his last message, she closed her e-mail program and shut down her computer. With her work completed for the day, she reached for her purse and stood. Just as she did, the elevator dinged, signaling its arrival on the executive floor. She glanced up as the doors opened and her jaw dropped when she saw a red-faced Suzy standing inside the car, her hand fisted in the neck of Jared’s T-shirt, all but dangling the boy off his feet.
Suzy gave Jared a shove, sending him stumbling ahead of her out of the car. “Call the cops,” she ordered Penny, then turned to Jared and pointed to a chair. “Sit.”
Jared dropped down onto the chair so fast, Penny barely had time to blink, much less wonder what the two were doing together.
She finally found her voice. “What on earth is going on?” she cried, rounding her desk.
Suzy leveled an accusing finger at Jared. “This pervert tried to pick me up in the lobby.”
The blood drained from Penny’s face as she turned to stare at Jared in horror.
He slumped lower in the chair, scowling. “So I read her signals wrong. I thought the babe was sellin’.”
Moaning, Penny dropped her face onto her hands. “Oh, Jared. How could you?”
“And the worst part of it is,” Suzy continued furiously, “he only offered me a twenty.”
Penny dropped her hands to glare at Jared. “You apologize right this minute, young man.”
“Apologize!” Suzy cried. “Like hell. That pervert’s going to jail.”
“He’s not a pervert. He’s…” Penny struggled to think how best to describe Jared. “He’s Jared Smith,” she finally said, unable to think of a better description.
“I don’t care who he is!” Suzy raged. “Nobody’s going to proposition me with an offer of a measly twenty bucks and get by with it.” She stabbed a finger at the phone. “Either you call the cops, or I will.”
Jared pushed his hands against the chair’s armrests and heaved himself to his feet. “Dude, I’m outta here. This chick’s trippin’.”
Suzy flattened a palm against his chest and shoved him back down. “You’re not going anywhere, unless it’s for a ride in a police cruiser.”
“Suzy!” Penny cried in dismay. “Jared’s not going to jail. He’s staying right here with me.”
Suzy slowly turned to look at Penny. “With you?”
“Yes,” Penny replied, suddenly feeling as if she were going to cry. “I’m responsible for him until Erik’s return. He’s Erik’s ward,” she explained, sniffing.
“Erik’s ward?” Suzy repeated, turning to stare at Jared.
“Yes. It was official yesterday when Erik signed the legal documents I overnighted to him.”
Suzy blinked once, then stooped, pushing her face close to Jared’s. Wrinkling her nose in distaste, she reached out and caught a dreadlock between thumb and finger. “I’ll bet he’s got head lice.”
“Hey!” Jared ducked away from her hand. “Keep your paws to yourself.”
Suzy humphed a breath and took a step back, folding her arms across her chest. “When your niece wanted dreadlocks,” she said in aside to Penny, “you threatened to shave her head.”
Penny sighed wearily at the reminder. “Yes, I know.”
Jared shifted his gaze to Penny’s, frowning. “You got a problem with dreadlocks?”
“Well…yes,” she replied truthfully. “My experience with the hairstyle has taught me that it is a haven for vermin.”
Scrunching his nose, Jared scratched uneasily at his head. “Vermin? Is that like bugs or somethin’?”
Suzy smiled smugly. “If you’re worried about what might be nesting in that mop of yours, I could cut it for you.”
“Like I’d let you anywhere near me with a pair of scissors! You’d probably whack off my ears.”
“No, she wouldn’t,” Penny said, quick to defend her friend. “Suzy is an excellent hairstylist. She cuts and styles her own hair all the time.”
Jared eyed Suzy’s mass of wild blond hair, currently twisted away from her face in tiny rows held in place at her crown by a colorful assortment of butterfly-shaped clips. “Swear?”
Penny sagged, relieved that the drama was over…and thrilled that Jared seemed to be considering allowing Suzy to cut his hair. “Triple-dog swear,” she assured him, quoting a pledge she’d heard her nephew use.
Erik dumped his garment bag and briefcase on the living room floor and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Pen-ny! I’m ho-ome!”
He heard her squeal of delight from the kitchen and ripped off his T-shirt, prepared to be stripped down to nothing by the time she rushed into the room to greet him wearing only a smile. He’d imagined this moment throughout his week-long meetings at FBI headquarters and throughout the flight home from Virginia. He’d even broken every speed limit posted between the airport and his apartment, he was so anxious to enact it.
Grinning like a loon, he toed off his boots and had his fingers on the snap of his jeans when she appeared in the doorway. His grin melted off his face. “You’ve got on clothes,” he said, unable to mask his disappointment.
“Jeez,” Jared complained, pushing his way past Penny and into the room. “Give the lady a break. She just crawled outta bed, and you’re already wantin’ her back in it.”
If Penny’s appearance had surprised Erik, the punk’s threw his system into shock. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in school.”
“School is starting an hour later today,” Penny explained. “There’s a teachers’ meeting.”
“Oh.” Erik cut his gaze back to Jared. “What happened to you? Did you get your head caught in a fan?”
Sheepishly, Jared combed his fingers through his freshly shorn hair. “Suzy gave me a peel.”
“Suzy?”
“Suzy,” Penny repeated. “You know. The friend I have lunch with every Friday.”
In spite of his efforts to do otherwise, Erik couldn’t take his eyes off Jared. “Oh. That Suzy.” He gave his head a shake, trying to absorb the dramatic change in the kid in just a week. “New clothes, too?”
Jared scuffed the toe of his new sneakers on the scored concrete floor. “Yeah. Penny thought I needed some new rags.” He ducked his head and scuffed his toe again. “Like anybody’s gonna notice what I wear.”
“Oh, they’ll notice all right,” Penny assured him, fussing with the collar of his freshly ironed tropical-print shirt. “You’re going to make all the girls swoon.”
“Swoon?” Jared hooted a laugh, then shocked Erik even more by dropping a quick kiss on Penny’s cheek. “Woman, this is the new millennium. It ain’t the dark ages anymore.”
“Isn’t the dark ages,” Penny corrected and locked her fingers together at her waist to keep from brushing a lock of hair from the boy’s forehead.
Jared grinned and shot Erik a wink. “Yeah, that’s what I said. It ain’t the dark ages.” He hooked a finger in the loop of a brand-spanking-new backpack and slung it over his shoulder. “Later, dude and dudette,” he called as he headed for the elevator. “I got me a school bus to catch.”
Erik stared until the elevator doors closed behind Jared, blocking his view of the boy, then shook his head again and turned to peer at Penny. “Was that the same kid I was playing Stargate with last week?”
Beaming, Penny crossed to loop her arm through his. “Yes, and isn’t he just the most handsome young man you’ve ever seen?”
With Penny’s breast pressed against his side, Erik forgot all about Jared and his new look and remembered why he’d been in such a rush to reach home. “Yeah. Handsome,” he agreed and turned Penny into his arms. He smiled down at her. “But not as handsome as me.”
She melted against him. “Maybe,” she replied coyly, then laughed at his wounded look and gave him a quick hug. “Did you have a good trip?”
Placated for the moment, he slid his hands to her buttocks. “Mission accomplished.”
“I never expected any less.” She slipped from his arms and caught his hand, tugging him toward the kitchen. “Have you had breakfast?”
“Yeah. On the plane. But I’m still hungry.” He pulled her to a stop. “For you,” he added, and scooped her off her feet and into his arms. He dipped his head over hers, captured her mouth with his and headed straight for the bedroom.
He didn’t break the kiss until his knees bumped the side of the mattress. He dumped Penny unceremoniously onto the freshly made bed, then planted a knee in the comforter and lowered himself over her. “You weren’t planning on going down to the office anytime soon, were you?”
“Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I—”
“Uh-uh,” he informed her, and reached for the top button of her blouse. “You’re not going anywhere. Not for a long, long time.”
The heat in his eyes stole Penny’s breath, but before she could draw another, he had ripped open her blouse and closed his mouth over a lace-covered breast. He drew her deeply inside, and she arched, gasping, then shuddered as he a dragged a hand up the inside of her thigh and slipped a finger inside her panties and stroked the length of her folds. Heat shot to her center and burned, and she fisted her shoulders against his shoulders.
It’s too much, she thought wildly, too fast! She couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe.
But before she could beg him to slow down, he slid a finger inside her, and she knew it wasn’t nearly enough. Impatient to have all of him, she grabbed for his zipper, ripped it down.
“Hurry. Please,” she begged, pushing at the waist of his jeans.
He rolled to his back and dragged her over him, bracing his hands on her hips, while he kicked free of his jeans. “I’ve been thinking about this for hours,” he said, breathlessly and pushed inside. Her walls clamped around him, and he jerked convulsively. “Days,” he confessed, groaning, then pushed deeper.
With her hands braced on his chest, Penny let her head fall back and rode him. Faster and faster to meet each hard thrust. Her palms grew slick with his perspiration, her knees burned from chafing against the comforter, the air became too thick to breathe. Yet, still, she rode him, watching the passion build on his face, thrilling at the tension she felt gathering in his body…and experiencing a sense of power she’d never known.
And when he climaxed, he took her with him, shooting her high over the edge. She closed her eyes and flung her arms wide, letting the sensations carry her, then drifted slowly to his chest, resting her cheek over his heart.
Still breathing hard, he lifted his head to press a kiss on her hair, then dropped weakly back to the bed and closed his eyes. “I could sleep for a week.”
She smiled smugly. “Did I wear you out?”
He chuckled, and the sound vibrated against her cheek. “That, too. But I didn’t sleep much while I was gone. Missed having you curled up beside me.”
Emotion clotted in Penny’s throat at his confession. It was the closest he’d ever come to exposing his feelings to her. “I missed you, too.”
He dragged her up higher on his chest and nuzzled his nose in the curve of her neck. “In the future, where I go, you go.”
Pleased that he wanted her with him, Penny tipped back her head and smoothed a lock of hair back from his forehead. “That’s really sweet, but you know I can’t.”
He tucked his chin to frown at her. “Why not?”
She lifted a shoulder. “One of us has to be here with Jared.”
He settled his head back on the pillow and reached down to cup a hand over a cheek of her butt. “I’ll hire somebody to stay with him.”
Penny tensed, unsure if he was serious or not. “You wouldn’t really do that, would you?”
“Sure I would. There’s bound to be somebody out there desperate enough for money who’d be willing to keep a juvenile delinquent.” Squeezing her buttocks, he raised his hips to meet hers. “I’m not sleepy anymore. How about you?”
Numbed by his careless remarks about Jared’s welfare, Penny braced a hand against his chest and pushed herself up to look down at him. “But you can’t just leave him with anyone. He’s your ward, your responsibility.” Frustrated when he began to nibble at the breast she’d exposed, she pushed his head away and sat up. “Erik! Listen to me.”
Frowning, he drew himself up to his elbows. “I heard what you said. But it’s not like I’m going to lock him up in a closet. I said I’d hire someone to keep an eye on him, and I will.”
“But he doesn’t need a baby-sitter!” she cried. “He needs stability. Guidance. The reassurance that someone really cares about him.”
Scowling, Erik sat up, draping his arms over his drawn-up knees. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“What deal?”
He waved a hand in frustration. “Those papers I signed. I agreed to serve as the kid’s guardian. Provide a home for him. Which I’m doing,” he reminded her pointedly.
Penny stared at him, unable to believe that anyone could be so cold, so unfeeling. “Surely you must feel something for him?”
“Why do I have to feel anything for the kid?” he asked angrily. “Isn’t it enough that I let him stay here with me?”
A knot slowly twisted in Penny’s stomach. “And what about me?” she asked. “Am I supposed to be grateful that you allow me to stay here, as well? Is that supposed to be enough for me, too?”
He stared at her a long moment, then glanced away, a muscle ticking on his jaw.
She slowly gathered the panels of her blouse together, suddenly feeling exposed…betrayed. Used. “It’s not enough,” she said, fighting back the tears that threatened. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, fumbling with the buttons on her blouse. “Not for Jared, and certainly not enough for me. We need more.” She buttoned the last button and looked at Erik. “We need your heart.” A tear slipped over her lower lash, and she dashed a hand across her cheek as she turned for the door.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” he shouted. “We’ve got work to do.”
She braced a hand against the doorjamb, stopping her forward movement, but didn’t look back. “Home,” she whispered, then added in a stronger voice, “I’m taking the day off.” Choked by tears, she dropped her hand and strode from the room.
Erik didn’t get any work done that morning. He paced his apartment, instead, waiting for Penny to return, telling himself that she’d be back, that she just needed some time to cool off. Once she had, he knew she’d realize how ridiculous their argument was.
But when noon came and went without a sign of her, his confidence began to fade. By two he was sweating and convinced he had an ulcer. By three his concern over a possible ulcer had given way to a chilling fear that he was suffering a heart attack. By three-thirty he was in the master bathroom, digging through the medicine cabinet searching for the aspirin that he’d read somewhere would ward off a heart attack.
He heard the elevator ding and, sure that it was Penny returning, raced for the living room.
But it was Jared who stepped from the car. Not Penny.
Grinning, Jared dumped his backpack on the floor. “Hey, dude! Where’s the dudette?”
Erik turned away and headed for the kitchen. “Gone.”
Jared trailed him. “Gone? As in gone, or just out running errands?”
Erik dropped down on a bar stool, braced his forearms on the granite counter and stared at his fisted hands. “Gone, as in gone.”
