Tempting The Boss (9 page)

Dean ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I think you’ve already made up your mind, and no matter how dangerous it is to you, you’’re going to let Terry back into the business.”

“I never said I won’t be careful, Dean.”

“You don’t need to say it! You stopped being careful the second you refused to go to the police last weekend.”

Victoria rubbed her temples as she tried, and failed, to think of a comeback to his perfectly reasonable point. This wasn’t like her. She was known for being logical and calculated, but for some reason she was leading with her gut when it came to her brother.

Damn it, how could Terry do this to her?
If Dad died, they were all they had left. Truthfully, his wanting to work with the company and come back to the family would’ve been fantastic news in any other circumstance. It killed her to think that she could turn him away when he was reaching out because there was a chance he was responsible for the attack on her.

“I don’t disagree with you, Dean, but I’m still going to consider this.”

“You ‘don’t disagree’?”” he said.

She frowned. “I’m trying to be honest.” One of her cardinal rules was to be gently honest with her employees. Normally people liked it when they learned she was on their side.

He stepped forward and stopped just a few inches from her. “I’m a little confused. We had fantastic sex today, you invite me back to your room, and now you’re talking like we just met an hour ago. If you want me to leave, I will. But you have to let me know.”

“You thought I asked you here for sex? Oh God…” she sputtered.

He set a hand on her arm. His heat seeped through the sleeve of her sweater. “I didn’t think that. Well, I did, but it was more of a hope than an expectation,” he said with a sexy grin.

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to distract me?”

“Do you want to be distracted?”

She licked her lips and glanced at the desk, remembering the things he’d done to her on the identical one in his own room. She should ask him to leave. She needed to be focused on Terry and the plant acquisition and her father. “I wouldn’’t mind a distraction,” she said instead.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Dean downed the water bottle in just a few long drags. He hadn’t expected the plant visits to be so exhausting. The three contractors who’d been in to give estimates of the new scrap removal system that Victoria wanted installed were incredibly detail-oriented. When they’’d walked through the rows and rows of raw material to finished goods the day before, Dean had barely known which way he was facing.

Now he felt as if he knew every nook and cranny of the damn place. He was rather surprised that Victoria would even sit through all the monotony of the measurements and jargon. He thought most CEOs would just wait for a summary report that someone else had already been through with a fine-tooth comb.

And the entire thing was boring as hell. He was used to doing hands-on labor and losing himself in a job. Thank God he wasn’t expected to retain any of the mindless dribble that had been discussed all day. Victoria, on the other hand, had seemed perfectly at home. She’d attentively listened for the entire eight hours so far and had taken diligent notes.

It was the first time in his life that he’d been grateful to drop out of college. If this was what would’ve been in store for him, he didn’t want it. He’’d take bumbling his way through a dirty crawl space to get to the janky wiring over this any day.

The door to the conference room he was standing in swung open and Victoria gave him a sympathetic smile. “Hanging in there?”

He couldn’t help but smile back at her. She’d dressed right for the busy day in jeans and sneakers and a light green, silky blouse. But they weren’t normal relaxing jeans. They hugged her ass in just the right way that whenever the boredom had threatened to overcome him, he’d have to stare intently at that ass and remember what they’d done together the night before and all the things he wanted to do the next time he got her alone. ““I’m managing,” he said.

She leaned against the conference table and gave him a sympathetic look. “Well, I don’t have any good news.”

He groaned and ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t tell me there’s more.”

“It’s probably going to be a few more hours.”

He snorted and let out a laugh.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! We’re going to order dinner in before we take another look around the plant.”

“Hey, if you need me here, I’m all for a few more hours.” She’d hired him to keep an eye on her and he had no trouble with that. They were out of town and in the middle of nowhere, so it wasn’t as if he had anything better to do. It was the boredom of it that was getting to him. “Want me to pick up food?”” he offered. Anything to get a breath of fresh air for a few minutes.

“You’re not my gofer, Dean. You don’t have to do that.”

“Please let me be your gofer,” he said. “I’ll do anything to get out of the building for a few minutes.”

He finally got a laugh out of her. “Is this really that bad?”

“It feels like we’ve gotten nothing done. If I were on the job today, I could have had a brand new constructed house wired by now. I know this project is supposed to save millions, but it’s hard to feel like we’ve made any progress today.”

She nodded. “That’s pretty much my life. That’s what I do. I make big decisions that are implemented over long stretches of time.””

He grunted.
As long as it was her and not him.
He looked to the piece of paper in her hand. “Is that the menu?”

She handed it to him, along with a sheet of paper that listed what everyone wanted. “Yep. We haven’t called it in yet. I was here to get your order.”

“Consider it done,” he said.

Victoria smiled up at him. Her eyes were just as bright as they had been earlier in the day. She wasn’t worn out or bored by the tours. He looked away. He needed to stop following her around like a lost puppy. She was hot and the sex was great, but when they got back to New York, she was going to hire an actual bodyguard who could really protect her, and he’’d go back to being a broke electrician.

Spending time with her away from the city, it was easy to forget who she was. What she was. He had trouble buying work supplies some days, and here she was buying an entire damn plant.

If he was lucky, she’d invite him back to her room again tonight, but after that, they’d be going their separate ways. He’d had casual sex before, but it had never been this messed up.

He’d been in no position to date when Katy first came to live with him, and something about raising a six-year-old girl made him much more particular. Not necessarily with the women he slept with, but with the women he brought home.

He just didn’t have time to keep a relationship going. Katy was always number one, and he’d never met a woman who would be comfortable being number two.

“Thanks, Dean. Give me a call when you get back and I’ll let you in. The receptionist is gone for the day and we don’t have the keycards to get in.””

“No problem,” he said as she set the keys to the rental car on the table and walked away. As soon as she was gone, he pushed her out of his mind.
Practice for when she was really gone.

He quickly scanned the menu and called in the dinner order for the eight people still at the plant. The restaurant said the to-go order wouldn’t be done for twenty minutes, but Dean didn’t feel like waiting. He picked up the keys and strode out to the car.

It was still sunny outside, and he took in a deep breath of the fresh air. It was a bit warm for his tastes, but he liked the seclusion of the plant. It made him miss the camping trips he used to take with Katy. He could never afford a trip to Disney World, but a few times during the summer, he’d get a few days off work and pitch a tent in the middle of nowhere.

He wondered whether Victoria would like camping or whether she’d freak at the idea of living without plumbing for a few nights. Just days ago, he never would’ve imagined Victoria Green living without any amenities for even a short period of time. But she was so down-to-earth and easygoing when working with the guys on the plant floor.

And there he went again thinking about Victoria.
Fuck. This could turn out to be a problem.

He hit the little button to unlock the rental Ford. After he sat down, he had to adjust the seat and steering wheel to fit his frame. Victoria had insisted on driving so far and Dean couldn’t figure out why.

Maybe she missed it. She lived and worked in Manhattan, so she probably only drove on these trips. But, God help him, a bit more experience wouldn’t hurt her. To be fair, he didn’t like other people driving him anyway, but there were a few quick brakes that almost gave him a heart attack.

Once he was adjusted, he keyed the address of the restaurant in the GPS. He put the car in gear and turned onto the secluded highway. The other great thing about the small town the plant was in was that there were hardly any other people. Dean wouldn’t give up city life for the world, but it was nice to not be thrown into World War III every time he drove in the city.

He hit the gas as he pushed the car up one of the steep inclines of North Carolina. Once he reached the top, the car rolled faster and faster down the hill. If he was on his own, he might’ve seen exactly what the rental could do. His truck had almost a hundred fifty thousand miles on it, and he didn’t think he’d ever driven a car with less than five figures on the odometer.

Reluctantly, he moved his foot to the brake pedal. He frowned as the pedal easily slipped to the floor, with no effect on the speed of the car. He sat up straighter and gently hit the brake again, but nothing happened.

“Shit,” he muttered. The speedometer ticked higher and higher as the car sped down the hill. He scanned the road and didn’t see any other cars. The road was lined with trees, so he didn’t want to chance slamming into one.

Another hill was coming up. Dean tried his best to keep calm as the speed topped a hundred miles per hour, sighing in relief as he finally headed uphill again. Gravity slowly worked its magic and, as soon as he felt as though he had enough control, he pulled the emergency brake. He tried to be gentle, but the car still jerked at the abrupt friction and the back end spun out.

He steered into it, and the car finally stopped, back end in the gravel of the shoulder and front end hanging out into the road.

For a second, Dean just sat in the driver’s seat, only then realizing how fast his heart was beating.
Shit.
He needed to move the car out of the road. He needed to call Victoria. What the hell was he supposed to tell her?

His gaze fell to the gauges. The rental only had two thousand miles on it, and the brakes had gone out. He shook his head. It wouldn’t do any good to assume shit. Instead, he put the car in neutral. The one good thing about spinning the car was that it didn’t roll down the hill when it was in neutral.

He hopped out of the car and walked in a slow circle around the vehicle to make sure there was no damage. After making sure everything looked okay, he leaned against the hood and pushed gently, the car inching back until it was out of the road.

As soon as it was safe, he pulled the emergency brake again and bent to look under the car, only to confirm his suspicion.

CHAPTER NINE

Victoria’s stomach growled and she glanced at the clock again.
Where was Dean with the food?
But when she looked at the time, she realized he’d only been gone for ten minutes. It would be awhile still before he would be back.

For the third time that day, she watched a contractor assess the best location for the scrap processing equipment. Thankfully, she at least understood what the contractor was talking about at this point. One of the benefits of going on tours like this was that when she was getting ready to sign on the dotted line for a multimillion-dollar project, she had some idea what she was signing.

She just had a lot more patience for the technical jargon when she had a full stomach.

A movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention. Dean strode towards her, pissed-off expression on his face and noticeably no food in hand.

“Can I talk to you?” he asked in a hushed tone as soon as he reached her.

A sinking feeling settled in her stomach. “Sure.” She faked a smile, not wanting to scare anyone. She looked to the plant manager and the salesman across the plant aisle. “I’’ll be right back.” She turned to walk with Dean. As soon as they were out of earshot, she asked, “What happened?”

He clenched his jaw. “Someone cut your brake lines.”

It took a second for Victoria to realize that her jaw hung open. “What? Are you serious?”

“I was in the car when the brakes failed,” he snapped. “There’s a puddle of brake fluid where the car was parked.”

“And you think someone did this on purpose?”

“It’s practically a new car,” he pointed out. “What are the chances there just happened to be a slit in the front and back lines that happened to appear while we weren’t anywhere near the car?”

Victoria rubbed the back of her neck. “So someone tried to kill me again?” Even saying it out loud seemed so unbelievable. She was likeable, damn it! People just didn’t want her dead. “I thought this kind of stuff only happens in the movies.”