The Billionaire's Elusive Lover (6 page)

“In my office,” he pointed behind her, glaring down at her face.

Helen didn’t move fast enough for him so he took her by the arm. As he passed by Edna who had her head bowed, he snapped out, “Go home Edna. But have the Lindsey contract ready for my review tomorrow morning by nine o’clock,” he continued.

At Alec’s first words to Edna, Helen had thought he was firing the woman. By the looks on everyone else’s face, they’d thought the same thing. So when he continued with instructions for the following day, Helen was too relieved to resist when he pushed her into his office and closed the door.

Then the seriousness of the situation struck her. Edna was leaving, which meant that Nancy, Jonathan and even her mother would be gone from the outer office. She was definitely alone with a man that terrified her, broke down the barricades she’d built to protect her self-control.

Thankfully, her anger reasserted itself and she stomped into the middle of his office, then turned to glare at him. “That was very gracious of you, Alec,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “A few kind words, even a ‘Happy Birthday’ wouldn’t have hurt you. But I guess you’re too busy being the head honcho and not letting anyone see that you have a nice part of you, even if it’s a small fraction of a cell.”

Alec stalked her, taking one step at a time as he said, “I’ll have you know that I currently employ over one hundred thousand people in almost every country in the world.”

“So?” she bit out, still glaring. “All that proves is that you’re merciless.”

“It also proves, very adequately, that I know how to run a company. One could even go on to say that I’m a very good employer since every employee in this company knows that they will still have a job to come back to in the morning as long as they perform to my standards.”

“Perhaps your standards are a bit too high!”

“I would beg to differ with you!” he snapped right back at her.

“Beg all you want but the reality is, some of your employees were enjoying a small break and you made a federal case out of it. What does that say about you and your so-called employee relations?” He was almost to her and she wished she could take a step back but she stood her ground, refusing to let him see her retreat. “And I’m not afraid of you. You don’t employ me so there’s nothing you can do to me.”

“You should be,” he said softly.

As he closed in on her, she wasn’t able to support her anger any longer. Her mind refused to maintain the fury and it was quickly being replaced by his scent, his masculinity, his heat. So she couldn’t help it when she lost the thread of the conversation. His mouth was too close and she could smell his spicy aftershave. Her eyes drifted away from his black, scowling eyes and watched his mouth, her mind running rampant as her curiosity to feel his lips on hers almost overwhelmed her. “Should be what?” she whispered, trying desperately to figure out what was going on.

“Afraid of me. You should be very afraid of me. And understand that there are many things I can do to you. Many things I will do to you. So this is fair warning, Helen.”

His meaning slowly penetrated and her entire demeanor changed. Gone was the anger. Unfortunately, it was replaced by the same desire she saw reflected in his eyes. “No,” she gasped a moment before she took a step to run away.

That step was halted when his arm snaked out and wrapped around her waist, pulling her up and against him.

Helen was terrified. When his lips covered hers, she couldn’t think but pushed against him, her small fists punching against his massive shoulders. But he easily grabbed her arms and held them by her sides, the whole time not relenting on her mouth. It took him less than two seconds before she was no longer fighting him but wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing herself against him and opening her mouth to his, glorying in the feel of his tongue as he invaded.

Helen whimpered, pulling herself closer, needing to feel him and touch him. She couldn’t get enough of him and wasn’t sure what she could do to assuage this desperate need that had taken control of her senses.

When she felt his hand on her waist, slide up and touch her back, her ribs, she melted even further into the chaos that was rampant in her mind. Something was telling her to run, but the stronger message in her mind was to find out all those mysteries that she’d been thinking about for the last week.

Reaching up, she let her fingers slide into his hair, feeling the softness, her fingers touching his jaw, his hair, his ears and caressing his neck as she found answers to the desperate questions that had been plaguing her nights after their last meal. She didn’t want to know, but each time her fingers encountered another texture on this man, her body shivered, reacting and falling just a little deeper under his spell.

“No!” she called out when his hand touched her breast at the same time his teeth nipped at her ear lobe. It was too much and she couldn’t understand what was happening to her. The feelings were frightening and she called out a halt, grateful when Alec allowed her the space. Helen pulled back and, in his surprise at her reaction, he allowed her the freedom.

Alec watched in stunned surprise as she backed up, her eyes wide with fear and desire. “Helen?” he asked, taking a step closer but she shook her head, holding her shaking hands up in front of her and closing her eyes. She swallowed and took a deep breath, trying to gather her wits and explain.

“Have you never…”

“No!” she interrupted him and steadied herself against his desk. “No. I haven’t. I need to go.”

She started to move toward the door but he stopped her by the expedient way of simply stepping in front of her. “I won’t let you go. You need to stay and talk to me. If we need to go to a restaurant where others can see us then that’s fine.”

“Alec,” she said, starting to reach up and touch his chest but she pulled her fingers back before she made contact with him. Unfortunately, he was having none of that and took her hand to press it to the middle of his chest. She shuddered and tried to pull her hand away but he wouldn’t let her, in fact he moved closer. “I can’t,” she whispered. “You wouldn’t understand. Please just respect the fact that I can’t do….this….” she said awkwardly, “with you.”

“I won’t accept that. And I do respect you. I respect you enough to know that something is holding you back from a relationship with me. I need you to tell me what that is so I can eliminate it.”

Helen had to laugh at his arrogance. He honestly believed there wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix and make right. Or at least right enough in his mind. “That’s very admirable of you but this isn’t one of those things that can just go away.”

Thankfully, the phone rang at that moment. He sighed and stepped back, releasing her hand. “We’re not done with this conversation. We’ll finish it as soon as I can get rid of whoever is on the phone.”

He turned his back to her and walked around his desk, picking up the phone and snapping out a greeting. Helen listened to him for a moment, trying to decide when would be a good time to escape. He turned around to sort through some documents and Helen knew that this was the perfect time to simply slip out the door.

But she didn’t. She stayed right where she was and waited, watching in amazement as he discussed numbers off the top of his head, demanding more information and it was as if she could see the wheels turning inside his mind as he analyzed the data and made decisions. The commands were about dollar values that she couldn’t even comprehend, in terms and financial jargon that she’d studied only vaguely in school but had no practical knowledge of. She was simply in awe of his amazing intelligence and it startled her to admit that to herself.

She saw him glance in her direction and it surprised her so much, she almost flinched. What exactly she was waiting for, she wasn’t sure. Would Alec listen to the promise she’d given to her very old-fashioned father ten years ago? Would he understand her position and leave her alone? Could they be friends? Looking at his tall body and muscles rippling underneath the fabric of his shirt, she knew the answer. Alec was not a “friend” kind of man.

She and Alec could never be friends. They could definitely be lovers for as long as the passion lasted but then where would that leave her? Would he marry her? And if he did, how long would that last? Her carefree mother and business oriented father had lasted for only five years before the inevitable break up. Two completely different souls could not last, especially in this world. Could she and Alec last longer? What would happen to her at the end of their marriage? Would she be able to fall in love with someone else? Her mother hadn’t. Deep down, Helen knew that her mother pined for her father almost constantly, that they were both still madly in love with each other and living miserable lives separately.

No, a relationship between herself and Alec made no sense. She had to get away and run as fast as she could from this incredible man. And if she never met anyone like him again? Well, at least she could find someone else before her feelings were too involved. She didn’t want to fall in love with Alec and find herself fighting with him all the time, then leaving him because the fights were too much to live with, hurt too deeply or that they found that their love had been killed by the hurt and anger of their fighting.

Taking a deep breath, Helen stood up and walked quietly to the door, slipped out when he was distracted and walked out of the now empty reception area to the elevators. Her heart was beating the entire time, wondering if he would realize she’d left and come after her. A part of her was honest enough to admit she wanted him to do exactly that. She wanted Alec to take the decision out of her hands and make love to her, show her what it was all about and her promise be damned. But she couldn’t. That would be breaking her word and she couldn’t do that to her father. She loved him and it would break his heart if she became some wealthy man’s mistress, which is all she could be with Alec.

Out on the street, she pulled herself together and hurried to the subway station. She had to get out of here. She had a photo shoot tomorrow and she needed to get ready for it. She had things to do and places to go, film to pick up, memory cards for her digital cameras to clear up and download to her computer so they were free for the next day, processing chemicals to purchase. She had to get going and most importantly, never think about Alec, nor come into close proximity with the man that could make her forget a very important promise.

Helen pushed herself until late that night. After she’d gotten ready for the next day, she grabbed her camera and headed out of her tiny apartment. She couldn’t stay there and think or she’d go insane so she followed her nose to the park and took pictures of kids on the play ground and when it became too dark for children to be out playing, she snapped night shots of the city lights, the cars zooming along the boulevards and the people mingling on the sidewalks, eager to get home to their families or whatever their plans were for the night.

It was after midnight before she allowed herself to crawl into bed. She prayed she would be able to sleep without dreams of Alec invading her mind. He’d been there for the past seven nights, wouldn’t it be nice to have at least one night where she didn’t wake up yearning for something that was too dangerous for her to handle?

Chapter 3

Alec was furious! The woman had slipped out of his office and was nowhere to be found. Dammit, how could he not have grabbed her purse and gotten her identification? He didn’t even have her phone number. He waited patiently until the following morning when Edna walked in and sat down at her desk.

Strolling out when he heard her start to settle into her routine, he leaned against the edge of her desk. “Did you have a nice afternoon off?” he asked easily enough. He watched in frustration as a look of wariness crept over her face. Was he really that much of an ogre? Was his entire staff this afraid of him?

“Yes. It was a nice surprise,” she replied stiffly. “Thank you very much and I’m terribly sorry about the party. I had no idea. Helen implied it would only be her,” she explained weakly. “But you know Helen,” she said with a shrug.

That grated on Alec. He tried hard to not grit his teeth as he answered, “No, actually. I don’t know Helen. What about her?” He sat down in the chair in front of her desk and watched her expression soften with affection for the woman who was slowly driving him insane. The fact that anyone could actually accomplish that feat was irritating him to no end. He’d been called cold, emotionless and merciless before by his previous mistresses and business associates. He could just imagine their amusement now if they could see how this one tiny woman had gotten under his skin.

Edna smiled fondly. “Oh, I don’t think I know her very well either. I just know she has a personality that people flock to. She can get people to do just about anything. They open up to her because she’s just so open and light-hearted herself. People want to be with her, be her friend and she loves humanity too much to ignore anyone that might need her help, even if it’s just a simple conversation. Her mother is also delightful. We all had dinner together last night.”

That startled him even further, knowing that he’d wanted to have dinner with her himself before she’d snuck out of his office. “Helen was with you?” he asked, trying to keep the jealousy and frustration from his tone.

Edna frowned at his question, her eyes curious as she looked across her desk at her boss who had never had a personal conversation with her in the five years she’d been working for him. “No, actually. Elisia, Helen’s mother, couldn’t reach Helen. She wasn’t answering her phone for some reason so dinner was just with my daughter, my grandson and Helen’s mother.”