The Collision on Hardwood Drive (11 page)

“
Rob, come on.” Ugh. I hated that familiar unpleasant feeling that flooded through me when I thought of those pictures, but I couldn’t help it.

Rob
grew serious suddenly, and I found myself holding my breath. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t know a lot of beautiful women… but they never meant much to me.”

I glowered at him but stayed silent for a moment.

“I know what you’re thinking, Steph. What about you and me? What makes us special? And commitment is tough, not gonna lie.”

“You sure know how to comfort me,” I said.

He trailed off and searched for the right words. He shrugged as though at a loss. “Maybe we should talk about something else. Come here, my little ball of sarcasm.”

He released me, letting me roll on top of him.
“Those kinds of women love to have a good time, but they are
not
you.” He looked up at me, eyes smoldering with heat. “Look, I don’t know where this is going, but I will be honest with you. I usually lose interest after I have sex with a woman. However, I don’t feel this way about you.”

“Thanks for making me feel like a number
,” I said, suppressing a smile. I gave him a quick peck on the lips and rolled off him to snatch another piece of bacon. My curiosity had been satisfied. “Fine. I won’t torture you much longer. Tell me. How does a kid from Philly become the CEO of the biggest media conglomerate on the East Coast? Besides being a good salesman, that is.”

“S
lept my way to the top,” he said, sneaking a peek under the covers at my naked legs while I laughed.

“Oh, silly me. Why did I even ask?”

His gray eyes glimmered in the sunlight as he smiled at me. “I worked my ass off,” he said. “I knew I didn’t want to end up like my deadbeat dad, so I did everything in my power not to.”

“We hardly had any money growing up. My dad spent most of his paychecks at bars. He dr
ank our rent every other month.”

I snuggled
with him, hoping to comfort him with my warmth while still letting him talk without interruption.

“I did whatever it took to break that cycle. I put myself through school. I believed i
n myself when no one else did. When I graduated, I applied to every job opening I could fine. I wore my little polyester suit from Men’s Warehouse and handed out résumés whenever I could.”

“Ooh, Men’s Warehouse, huh?
Ladies love guys who dress there.”

Rob
gave me a pointed look before smiling again. “Not really. But, hey, it was a start.”

“I finally
was hired to do entry-level sales for Clark Automotive, and I made sure they never regretted hiring me. I worked my way up the chain. Long hours every night, hard work every day. Then, when Clark Automotive was acquired by GI fifteen years ago, I worked my way up that chain—more long hours and more hard work. The company saw that and, well, to make a long story short—here I am.”

He looked—thoughtful, and I stayed quiet for a moment to think over his words as well.

“So, CEO and largest shareholder—and the recipe is just hard work? That’s it?”

Rob
laughed appreciatively. “You
have
done your homework. Honestly, though—” He grew serious again, that pensive look returning to his face. “I gave up a lot. People say your early twenties are supposed to be fun. Mine were… busy. I didn’t have time to have fun back then. You really have to want success and nothing else—which I did.”

“Well,” I said,
“I’ve seen what happens when you really want something—otherwise, we wouldn’t be lying together here in this bed. Why are you in the news again?”

He sighed. “There’s a big vote coming up in a few weeks. It’s going to decide who
controls the board. I’m the largest shareholder, but I don’t hold the majority vote.” He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “The company’s reached a crossroads about where it’s heading, and I want to be the one to decide which road we take. I know I’m the most capable—if I don’t gain control, we might not survive the state this economy is in. But a few haters don’t want this to happen.”

His eyes darkened instantly
, and I felt that I shouldn’t ask for more details—not now. Not yet.

“Well, as fascinating as all that is,” I said, stroking my fingers down the planes of his back, “I seem to remember someone telling me he knew how to have
fun
. I think I might be interested in hearing a little more about that right now.”

That devilish grin returned to
Rob’s lips as he rolled us over, pinning me back down against the bed. “What kind of fun did you have in mind?”

He slipped a hand up my waist, brushing his fingers against the curve of my breast. Almost instantly, I grew wet with desire again.
“The kind that doesn’t involve much
talking
,” I replied, responding to his every touch.

“
Tempting,” he said, lowering his mouth to my nipples. He teased each with his tongue, one after another. As I reached down to feel his growing erection, his phone began to buzz on the nightstand next to us.

“
Steph, I have to take this.”

He reached across the bed, his strong arms flexing as he
grabbed the phone. “Fuck,” he said as he skimmed an e-mail. “I have to run into the office to take care of a few things.”

A flash of disappointment crossed my face. He must h
ave noticed it because he frowned, sympathetically.

“I don’t want to leave you,” he said as his eyes
traveled up my naked body. “If this weren’t an emergency, I wouldn’t even think about leaving your side.”

“Then
,
don’t
,” I said.. “Now that I know what you do, I’d love to see you in action.”

“I thought you saw me in action last night,” he said, his eyes crinkling with roguish mirth. “
Twice
.”

I laughed. “Well, if that’s what you’re like in action at
work
, then I’m doubly intrigued.”

“And have you with me all day? Fuck no, I don’t mind,” he said as he curled a palm around my breast. “But I can’t promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

“Nor would I want you to,” I said. “You have a deal, Mr. Huntley.”

I reached for the dress I wore the night before.
I thought it acceptable because I had worn it for forty-five whole minutes last night before letting it drop into a pile around my ankles. I decided to leave my panties in the bedroom. Rob made me feel adventurous, and I wanted to surprise him if the occasion arose.

I was quite proud of my fashion sense, but
Rob was in a league of his own. He had impeccable taste in clothing. I lay back on the bed with my chin on my hands and watched him dress.

“Which tie?” he asked, holding up two ties. One was a deep purple
, and the other was simply black.

“Purple,” I said after a moment of deliberation. “Not many men can pull off a purple tie—you can, so you might as well.”

He laughed. “I’m not sure if I follow that logic, but I’ll go with it. You ready?”

I nodded, excited for our excursion and the chance to see where
Rob Huntley worked. We walked down the porch steps, fingers interlaced. Rob opened the limo door for me.

“After you.”

“Do you go
everywhere
in a limo?” I asked, feeling genuinely curious as we settled in the back of the luxury car.

He smiled, a bit sheepishly, and ran a hand through his freshly combed hair. “I prefer taking the Bentley out, but I usually have to review projects on the way
to work or take calls—or, when I’m lucky, play with
you
.” He paused to shoot me a devious little wink. “Besides, this way I don’t have to worry about parking. Not to mention the
last
time I drove my car. I don’t know whether you remember, but some gorgeous woman wrecked it.”

I buried my face in my hands in mock agony and shame. “And here I was assuming you already got what you wanted as payback for that.”

He slid closer to me on the leather seats, dropping his hand between my legs. “I’ll let you know when you’ve made it up to me. Until then, consider yourself indebted to me.”

His hand continued to move
upward, making my heart beat impossibly faster. I wanted him.
Again
. His fingers brushed against my outer folds, discovering that I had left my underwear at home. He ran his tongue over his full lips.

“Naughty girl,
” he said, low and dangerously as his mouth curled into a smirk. “I should never have let you out of the house. Now, I’ll just be distracted all day.”

I saw him stiffen in his well-tailored pants—
just
the effect I hoped for. “Keep touching me,” I whispered, parting my legs slightly, just enough to let him know that I had given in—that I couldn’t get enough of him.

The limo lurched to a sudden stop. “We’re here,” he whispered back, running his thumb over my clit. “We’ll finish this later.”

As we walked into the spacious building, my heels clicked against the floor. The sound echoed off the walls as a well-dressed building manager scurried from behind the front desk to greet us.

“Mr. Huntley! Good morning!”

Rob nodded hello silently. The manager escorted us to the elevator, which arrived almost as soon as we pressed the button. I wasn’t sure how they coordinated our arrival with the availability of an elevator, but I didn’t need to know the technical details to be impressed.

The elevator shot to the top floor, letting us out into a long corridor
that approached a large set of glass doors with a humongous desk on the other side. As we got closer, a long-legged blonde pushed the door open for us.

“Good morning, Mr. Huntley. The paperwork you requested is on your desk.”

“Thanks, Sam. Would you mind bringing in some coffee? Let’s say in about an hour.”

“Absolutely, Mr. Huntley,” Sam replied with a small smile. She looked
as if she belonged on a movie set—perhaps playing the role of a secretary working in Manhattan, but not
actually
working as a secretary in Manhattan. Her blonde hair fell short in a blunt cut framing her feminine jaw. Were there
any
women Rob was associated with that didn’t look as if they could be lingerie models?

Rob
guided me into his office, his hand warm at the small of my back, his office the size of my apartment. Enormous glass windows lined the back wall, overlooking the cityscape.

I whistled low and long. “Not bad, Mr. Huntley. Not bad at all.”

“Make yourself comfortable,” he replied with a modest shrug. “I’ll try to be quick.”

I made my way to the velvety couch that sat under an oil painting that looked
very
expensive. I picked up a
Newsweek
sitting on the coffee table in front of me and tried at least to
look
as if I wasn’t eavesdropping on Rob’s conversations. As I flipped through the pages, I heard Rob barrel through call after call. He talked about quarterly earnings, merger strategies, and a plethora of topics in which I had little interest.

Hanging up from what seemed his final call,
Rob turned toward me with a devious smile on his face. As he opened his mouth to speak, the door to his office flew open with so much force that it slammed into the wall behind it. A pudgy, gray-haired man stormed into the room. His hair was greasy, and he looked as if he hadn’t slept in days, dark circles rimming his sunken, beady eyes.

“Huntley,” he said, his voice booming so loudly that it was
nearly a shout. “I swear to fucking
God!
”

Rob
looked up from his desk, completely unruffled. “Hank, shut the door,” he said, quietly yet firmly.

“Look
, Rob,” he said, his previously high-pitched voice shooting several octaves higher. “I don’t report to you. If you think I’m going to roll over that easily—”

“Actually, you
do
report to me,” Rob answered, lowering his voice threateningly. “That was established by majority vote at our last meeting. Shut the goddamn door, Hank. I’m not going to ask you again.”

Hank sl
ammed the door shut, furious, then stomped to the bar cart in the corner and poured himself a generous portion of some sort of dark liquor.

“Get it together, Hank. You w
ant to discuss something? Act like a man.”

“You think just because you’re the
CEO
, you’re entitled to control the board.” Hank spat the word
CEO
out as if it sickened him. He lowered his voice and hissed, “Let me tell
you
something, Huntley. I know what you’re planning, and I won’t allow it. When you lose control of the board—and you
will
lose control of the board—you can consider that merger dead in the water. I won’t stand for it.”