Take Me: The Complete Series (Power Play #1-4) (30 page)

“Bloody hell,” he exclaims, shaking his head. “I don’t think we’ve ever fucked like that.”

I give him a fierce grin. I can’t agree with him more. There’s something primal in the way we’ve been fucking all night. Something that can’t be planned—it just has to happen on its own. Tonight has been nothing short of magical. It’s been exactly what I needed.

“You’re like an animal,” he says, pushing himself onto one elbow to face me. He’s still taking deep breaths, and I can still feel his warmth settling inside of me. Tiny little aftershock trembles are still running their way up and down my legs.

“It’s all because of you.”

“Well, whatever it is, I want to keep it around. It’s a dangerous little thing. I may have to keep you locked in the bedroom with me if you’re going to keep fucking me like that.”

I bite my lip.

“That doesn’t sound like the worst plan in the world...”

His eyes narrow as a tiny growl rumbles up from his chest.

“Don’t tempt me, woman. I’ll do it.”

I run my finger down his chest and gaze up at him.

“I love you,” I say. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever said it first. It feels different. It feels nice.

Isaac leans forward and kisses me. His lips are soft and playful against mine, causing my heart to skip a couple of beats. When he finally pulls away, his gray eyes take all of me in. The way he looks at me makes me feel like the most precious and adored thing in the world.

“I love you more than anything,” he says.

“You can’t go saying things like that. I might start to get the wrong idea.”

“There’s no wrong idea to get. I would do anything for you, Hannah. Anything. You name it, it’s yours.”

“All I want is you.”

There’s a lurch in the pit of my stomach when I realize what I said. Not just because of what I said, but because I realize just how true of a statement it is. I realize just how happy Isaac makes me, and I wonder if it might be possible to be happy with just him in my life.

“I’m glad you say that...”

I cock an eyebrow, giving him a curious look.

“Why’s that?”

“Because I have another surprise for you, tonight.” The corners of his lips tug into that secretive little smirk he gets when he knows something that I don’t. It drives me wild with curiosity.

“Well, what is it?” I ask, after a silence so long that I just can’t handle it anymore.

He holds my attention with that smirk for a few more seconds before his eyes flit towards the corner of the room.

“The inside pocket of my jacket,” he says, nodding to the discarded lump on the floor. My brow pulls down, even more confused than I had been a moment, earlier. His smirk widens into a smile. “Go on... go see for yourself.”

I give him a cautious look. What could possibly be in his jacket that I didn’t notice earlier when I tore it off of him? It can’t be anything large…

I slide off the bed and pad over to the corner of the room where his black, leather jacket lays discarded. I pick it up slowly, nervous about what I might find. I can’t help but wonder if it’s a ring. For an instant, my mind plays out a whole big romantic proposal. That’s where guys keep an engagement ring hidden away, isn’t it? In the inside pocket on their jacket, waiting for the right time to bring it out? The thought of it startles me so much that I fumble and nearly drop the jacket.

“You okay?” Isaac asks from the bed.

I give him a tight smile.

“I’m fine.”

When I reach into the pocket my fingers close around what feels like a thick envelope. My eyes widen in surprise when I pull it out and see a blue envelope with a British Airways logo on it. Inside are two first-class tickets from New York City to London.

They’re for next weekend.

“Come away with me.”

Isaac is watching me from the bed, intently. His muscular, hunky frame still glistening with our sex as he sits up against the headboard. I look back down at the tickets, my fingers going numb with a nervous cold.

“Next weekend?”

“The timing isn’t perfect, but it never will be. Let’s put all of the mess of New York behind us and get away for a while…”

“It’s just so quick.”

“This whole mess at BMG will be sorted by then… It will do us both some good to get away.”

He did have a point. Everything at BMG would be decided, one way or another, by next weekend. Maybe going away for a little bit is a good idea? I give him a soft smile as I pad back to the bed. And besides, I can’t think of anyone else I would rather get away with.

I slide back into bed next to him and curl up in his arms. He holds me there for a couple quiet minutes. It feels so peaceful to be held by the man I love.

“So what will it be?” His deep voice is soft as he whispers into my ear. “Will you do me the honor of letting me take you away from here?”

I don’t even hesitate before I give him an answer.

“Yes. I can’t think of anything else I’d like more than to get away with you.”

It’s early the next morning when I find myself standing outside of Declan’s office. My heart is racing a million miles a minute as I look at the folded letter in my hands.

Just do it
.

If I think about it too much I’m going to change my mind. I know this is the right decision, even if I never in a million years would have thought I could find myself in this very position.

Just do it
.

I knock on the door, slow and timid, at first, but then stronger and louder.

“What is it?” Declan calls from within.

He sounds frustrated and on edge. I’m not sure how long he’s been in the office already, but he was already here when I came in early.

I open the door and enter to find him hunched over his desk with his head down. He’s wearing one of his nicest suits, but the haggard look on his face tells me that he’s in high-stress mode. When he sees me his expression sours even more.

“Whatever this is, I don’t have time for it.”

“I need to talk to you. It will only take a minute.”

“I don’t have a minute. The buyers will be here any minute and I need to get ready for them.”

My back straightens, indignantly, when he flicks his wrist at me, dismissively.

“This can’t wait. I need to talk to you
now
.”

I raise my chin, refusing to back down to him, and make my way to his desk. Declan looks outraged that I didn’t do as I was told.

“Look, if this is about the sale then you might as well turn around and march right back out of here. There’s nothing you can do, it’s going to happen whether you like it or not.”

“It’s not about that.”

I drop the folded letter in front of him and nod at it. He gives me a confused look. His blue eyes study me for a moment before he looks down at the letter. Finally he picks it up, unfolds it, and reads.

My pulse quickens when I see his eyes scanning the page, reading the words that I hastily typed out this morning.

“Seriously?” he says, when he gets to the end of it. He gives a tiny half-laugh before looking up at me. “Is this some kind of joke?”

I shake my head.

“It’s no joke. I’m done. I can’t work here, anymore.”

The half-smile on his face spreads to a full one.

“You know, after everything I’ve seen you go through, I never would have thought you’d be a quitter. More and more I’m certain that I made the right decision in cutting you out of this deal.”

Heat rushes to my forehead as anger bubbles up inside of me. I take a few deep breaths in an effort to calm myself before responding.

“I’m not
quitting
. I’ve just decided that BMG is no longer the place for me. I can’t work for you. You disgust me.”

He leans back in his chair, folding his fingers together in front of him. A satisfied smile looks at home on his face.

“Well, at least that saves me the hassle of having to pay your unemployment insurance after I fired you. Maybe I’ll send you a little gift basket for saving me some money.”

My eyes flash, dangerously.

“You’re an impossible asshole. I can’t believe that we ever took you into our family and treated you as one of our own. I don’t know how you can live with yourself.”

He leans forward, fixing me with a cocky smile.

“I assure you, I live quite comfortably.”

I have to clench my mouth shut to stop myself from saying the first things that come to mind. I’m not going to let him bait me into lowering myself to his level. This is still the house my dad built, and I am going to walk out of here without compromising myself.

“I’ll collect my things and be gone by lunch.”

I spin around and march straight out of the office before he’s able to chide me with another smart-ass comment. I might be leaving BMG once and for all, but at least I’m leaving on my own terms. It’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

My office feels even larger than usual. It doesn’t take me long to pack the few personal affects I’d actually had enough time to get setup during my short stay at BMG. All of my things fit comfortably into a single brown box. It looks sad and depressing as it sits on top of the huge desk that I had called mine for a few weeks.

The last thing I pack away is the picture of Daddy that I had sitting on the desk with me. I get a little emotional as I look at his smiling face one more time before placing it on top of everything else in the box.

A tap at the door breaks me from my line of thinking. I didn’t bother to close the door and give myself any privacy while I was packing. I’ve done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide.

I glance up to see Lilith standing in the doorway. She has a serious but curious look on her face as she glances between me and the brown box on the table.

“Leaving so soon?” she asks, softly.

Lilith is Declan’s secretary. Her dark hair is only shoulder length, and she’s wearing one of her usual gray pencil skirts. I wouldn’t say that she’s always been nice to me, but she’s never been mean, either. That makes her one of my favorite people in the whole company.

“This place isn’t for me.”

“But you’re a Barnes. Your name is on the letterhead.”

“That’s my father’s name. I’m afraid I’m going to have to find something else to put my own name on.”

“I see.”

“Did you need something?” I ask.

“Yes… You’re needed in the boardroom.”

I let out a groan.

“You can tell Declan that if there’s anything he has to say to me, it’s too late.”

“No, I don’t think it’s that. The buyers are here, and they’re the ones that asked that you join.” She gives me a sly little grin. “I might be wrong, but I think Declan is pretty pissed off about it.” She lowers her voice a little before adding, “I can say that kind of thing to you now that you’re leaving. I’ve never really liked the way he treats people…”

I can’t help but let out a tiny laugh.

“You and me both.” We share a knowing smile, but then I realize what it was she said just before that, and my heart skips a beat. “Wait, the
buyers
want to talk to me?”

She gives me another nod.

“Yes. They requested you by name. Insisted that you be included in the meeting.”

I frown, my mind racing. What in the world could they possibly want to talk to
me
about? It’s not like I have any real say around here, as Declan has made overtly clear.

“You’d better get down there quickly. I think they’re waiting.”

I give her one more nervous look, then jerk my head in a nod.

“Thanks Lilith… for everything.”

She waves her hand at me.

“It’s nothing. You’re one of the good ones.”

The boardroom is located in the corner of the building. I have to pass it every time I walk to Declan’s office. When I tap on the door, a voice calls for me to enter.

Cracking the door open, I see the familiar layout of the room. There’s a huge, wooden table positioned in the middle, with chairs lining the walls around it. Declan is sitting by himself on the far side of the table, opposite a girl closest to the door.

The buyer.

I take all of one step into the room before the profile of the girl sitting across from Declan catches my attention. There’s something about the tight curls in her auburn hair that makes my breath hitch in my chest. When she glances over her shoulder to look at me, she gives me a knowing smile.

“Hannah Barnes…” Annabelle says. “…I’m so pleased you could make it.”

I freeze in place, startled by the appearance of Isaac’s ex girlfriend sitting in the boardroom. My mind races, trying to figure out what in the world is going on.

“Annabelle, what are you doing here?”

“It’s Ms. Pierce, actually.” She fixes me with a confident smile.

Declan frowns at us.

“You two know each other?” he asks, suspiciously.

“We’ve met,” Annabelle says, quickly. There’s a soft edge in the look she gives me, warning me away from elaborating on the answer she gave him. The edge is gone as fast as it appeared.

Declan’s eyes narrow and he studies us for another second, but then dismisses the line of thought.

“Great. Well, now that we’re all acquainted, can we move this along?”

I quickly take a seat at the end of the table. It seems like the appropriate place for me. I don’t want to sit on either side with Declan or with Annabelle. It’s not like I work at BMG, anymore. I don’t even know why I’m here in the first place.

Annabelle gives him an assured smile. She doesn’t even look remotely intimidated by the harshness in his tone. She’s as cool and collected as she was when I first saw her sitting with Isaac.

“As you know, we’re here to discuss the sale of BMG and all of its operations to my clients.”

I’m surprised by how professional she sounds. She’s confident, attractive, and intelligent—I can see why Isaac dated her.

Declan gets an annoyed look on his face.

“Yes, we’re all aware of why we’re here… But I don’t understand why
she
needs to be here, too.”

A scowl settles on my face as he juts a finger towards me. He doesn’t even bother looking at me, like I’m not really here, or something. The calm smile on Annabelle’s face doesn’t falter, but her green eyes take on a harder tone.