The Executive Page 5

  I picked up a small assortment of treats for Stacey, including a very yummy Nutella pinwheel that I was lucky to snag a sampling of—my way of saying thank you for letting me escape for a few minutes. I also grabbed one for me and a couple of croissants for the morning.

  “Have a good rest of your day,” I said as we rode the elevator back up.

  “You, too. I hope the day gets better.” The elevators slowed and she popped the last bite of the cookie she was munching into her mouth. “Let me know if you want to grab a drink tonight. Mister is out with the guys to a Mariners game tonight.”

  “A drink sounds perfect after this day.” Or ten. Sadly, it wasn’t a Friday when I could indulge, but one or two drinks would take the edge off.

  “Yay!” The doors slid open and she stepped out. “Let me know what time you’ll be out. We can check out that martini bar down the street.”

  “Will do,” I said as I gave her a wave.

  Only twenty minutes had passed since I left, but it felt like hours. A truly refreshing break.

  Stacey was still working on the report, and I noticed a bag sitting on my desk.

  “They just delivered it,” she said as I looked through the containers to make sure they were correct.

  “Good, because I honestly forgot about it.” He had me so worked up I’d forgotten I ordered his lunch or that he was wanting it.

  “I didn’t tell him…” she trailed off, her body stiff as she looked at the door.

  “Don’t worry, it’s fine.” I set the box down in front of her. “I brought you back a treat.”

  Her mouth popped open as she looked down. “Ivy, you didn’t have to.”

  I nodded. “Yes, I did. Enjoy.”

  A big smile lit up her face. “Thank you so much. Really.” She stood and removed something from the printer and held it out. “It’s all fixed.”

  “What was it?”

  She went over the issue, and I noticed my ire had notched itself back up. I thanked her, grabbed his lunch, and entered his office.

  “Here’s the new file,” I said as I held it out for him. He took it, giving me the opportunity to set the box down. “And here’s your lunch.”

  He took it from me and scanned it over. “Better.”

  “Question.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Did you have to be so nasty about it?” I asked, my arms folded in front of me.

  “It wasn’t right.”

  “There was one number off of the calculation you gave me.”

  He looked up from the report. “Which one?”

  I pointed to the line in the graph, then back up to the numbers. “That one. The numbers were transposed.”

  There was a pause as he looked them over. “Thank you.”

  “What was that?” I asked, needing to make sure I’d heard him correctly. In all the time I’d worked for him I’d barely gotten a word of praise, and it astounded me that the word rolled off his tongue so effortlessly.

  “Thank you for finding my error, and forgive me for losing my temper.”

  I regarded him for a minute, trying to determine his level of sincerity. He looked truly contrite. “I forgive you. Now all you have to do is thank Stacey. She’s the one who figured out what happened.”

  His brow scrunched. “Who is Stacey?”

  I stared at him for a moment before I shook my head and sighed. Only the girl who has been sitting across from me for a month. “The intern.”

  “There’s an intern?” he asked. Just when I was about to go off, his lip twitched up into a sexy little smirk.

  “You’re an asshole,” I said without thinking. My blood froze for a second as I waited for his response.

  He chuckled, which surprised me. “Oh, yes, that’s why I hired you.”

  Maybe Alex was right. Maybe we just needed a little more time to get to know one another.

  Time would tell.

  Lincoln

  Miss Prescot was better than I anticipated. In just over two months, she managed to get ahead of my requests. A quick learner, she did her best to get everything perfect. For the most part, everything was perfect, and I was impressed. However, there were times that she was on the receiving end of my wrath.

  I knew the fault was mine. Between my attraction to her and the walls I created, I’d given her little to work with. I knew it, but I continued to do it.

  I was more and more enamored with her every day and had done my best to throw her off that, though I knew I failed more than once. Sending fake gifts to women I dated in the past seemed like a good idea, fake lunches with them, all to dissuade her from an interest in me. I knew she had a boyfriend, but the more obstacles between us, the better.

  I even made her pick out the gifts to women she thought I was fucking.

  “I need you to select a gift and send it to this address,” I said as I handed her a slip of paper.

  “What kind of gift?”

  “For a woman.” I studied her closely, noticed the way her jaw gave a slight tick.

  “A girlfriend?”

  “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

  She looked up at me, her brow raised. “But you’re asking me to buy a gift for a woman.”

  “Yes. I enjoyed the company of a beautiful woman for a few nights, that’s all. I don’t have the time or energy to devote to a relationship, but I do have a list of women who enjoy a night here and there.”

  I wasn’t about to disclose that since her interview, I hadn’t been able to think about being with any woman but her.

  Still, I had her continue to set up lunch dates and buying gifts.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Linc,” Dakota said over the phone. The fifth package had arrived. While the gifts were for different women, they all ended up at one of my little sister’s storefronts.

  “Just accept them,” I said. She’d sent me a text with a “WTF?” after the first one, and I played it off as a mix up.

  “Do you have any idea how weird it looks when you deliver this shit to one of my addresses?”

  Dakota had three spa locations around the city and I never knew which one she was at, but it fit the story I was selling.

  “Just accept them, Koa,” I said, trying to sweeten it by calling her by the nickname I gave her when we were children.

  “Don’t Koa me. What the fuck is this all about?”

  “Nothing you need to worry about. Give the stuff away to your employees. I don’t give a shit what you do with it.”

  “Seriously, you fucking tell me right now.”

  I owed it to her, to tell her. She did follow me out to Seattle after… We both built lives after disaster leveled me. “It’s a game, that’s all.”

  “Trying to make some slut assistant jealous?”

  I didn’t appreciate her calling Ivy a slut, but I also wasn’t forthcoming with what was going on. “Something like that.”

  “Fine. Could you send over some diamond earrings next time?”

  I chuckled. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Big ones, like a carat each.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay.”

  “And I want to actually attend one of these dates. You know, have lunch with my big brother who I haven’t seen in months,” she said, laying it on thick.

  “I figured you were busy with Jack.”

  “Which reminds me, you are coming to the engagement party next month, aren’t you?”

  Fuck. I needed to make certain it was on my schedule and that I had a gift.

  My little sister didn’t just stay in Seattle for me, or at least after the first few years I was no longer the reason. Jack Ackerman, building contractor and amateur beer brewer, snagged her attention and last year popped the question. He was a great, down-to-earth guy and a perfect balance for Koa’s energy.

  “If I miss it, you will never forgive me,” I said as I typed up a message for Miss Prescot.

  “Damn straight.”

  “Lunch Wednesday?” I asked as I scanned my
calendar.

  “What if Wednesday doesn’t work for me, Mr. CEO?”

  I ignored her and sweetened it with the best Italian restaurant in town. “Angelos.”

  “That place is too pricey,” she argued.

  “I’m paying.”

  “I’ll be there!”

  I chuckled and shook my head. “Bye, Koa.”

  “Later, Linc.”

  I hung up the phone, a smile playing on my lips. Dakota was the breath I desperately needed.

  “Is that a smile on your face, or are you just happy to see me?” Miss Prescot asked as she stepped in, a file and a cup of coffee in her hand.

  “I was just catching up with my sister, but I am always happy to see you.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know you had a sister,” she said with surprise.

  I nodded. “She’s a pain, but I love her.”

  “Sisters are like that.”

  “Experience?”

  She nodded. “But brothers are the worst.”

  I took a sip of the coffee and sighed. “That is exactly what I needed.”

  “You’re going to turn into a coffee bean if you don’t lay off a little.”

  I narrowed my eyes playfully at her. “And you should butt out and not try to break up me and my precious.”

  She let out a sweet giggle that I wished I could have recorded just to listen to it over and over.

  “Are you going to hunch over and start stroking the cup? If so, I’m going to have to video it for prosperity.”

  “Are you trying to make me into one of those, what do they call it? Viral videos?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t think many people would find it as funny as I do.”

  “Are you saying I’m not viral video material?”

  “Not unless I made you into some angry music video about coffee.”

  “Coffee is life. I’m sure you’ll be happy to spend some time with your boyfriend this weekend and away from me,” I said. It was a desperate attempt to remind myself that the beauty before me was off limits in any other capacity than assisting me. Our conversation was making me forget, and I slipped when that happened.

  “I don’t have a boyfriend anymore,” she admitted, and by her tone, I suspected it wasn’t recent.

  I froze for a fraction of a second and glanced at her while trying to not seem too interested. “What happened?”

  “You.”

  My heart stopped dead in my chest. “Me? Is there something I should know?”

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” she said as she typed on her phone. “Your insane hours are the cause. He broke up with me over voicemail.”

  “That seems harsh.”

  She shrugged. “We hadn’t been together long, so it was kind of fitting.”

  “I was under the impression it was longer.”

  “It was only a few weeks, really,” she admitted before changing the subject back to business. “Tomorrow you have lunch with Dan at one.”

  “Why so late?”

  “It was all your schedules could afford this week.”

  I still remembered the day I was appointed CEO after less than two years with the company. Dan was not happy to be passed up by a young newbie to the company, especially after working his way up through their ranks for a decade. He’d been CFO for less than a year, and still retained that title. There was some hostility in the beginning, but after a year, he changed his tune. I think the uptick of his paycheck helped with that. He also became what I would consider my only friend.

  I had grown DCS so much that first year, but it paled to how the company grew the years following. What had once been a smaller data consolidation company had branched out drastically. Something that couldn’t have been done without Dan working alongside me.

  “You have a doctor’s appointment in the morning, don’t forget. I’ve already informed Austin. The doctor wants you to fast beforehand, so cancel tomorrow’s breakfast or have it delivered here at a later time. Also, this is your last coffee of the day, no arguing.”

  The doctor was a necessary evil. I was on the verge of a few issues due to the stress of my job, and I knew he was going to bring them up again. The advice was always “Try to reduce your stress.” Like that was an easy thing to do when you ran a hundred-million-dollar company.

  I worked out, ate decently, in peak physical condition, and was healthy.

  I glared up at her. “Excuse me?”

  “Don’t give me that look. You’re not as scary as you think you are. And don’t try to order Stacey to get it. I’ve also warned the Starbucks staff to not serve you, and Austin has been informed.”

  “Do you really think I’m that nefarious?”

  “To get what you want? Absolutely.”

  She headed back to her desk and I pondered our conversation, wondering when we had become comfortable. Yes, I had my outbursts and demands, but the conversation had an ease I hadn’t experienced since Amanda left. Small jabs, lighthearted comments, and playfulness.

  And for fuck’s sake, she giggled.

  I definitely wanted to hear that again.

  Due to the coffee restriction, I closed out our day at five instead of the usual schedule of staying late.

  “Have a good evening, Miss Prescot,” I said as the elevator doors opened onto the lobby.

  “You, too, sir.” She smiled at me, a true smile, and I smiled back, watching her as the doors closed, cutting us off.

  At first, I’d wondered how she had worked for Dante for so long without succumbing to his advances and manipulations, but after a while it became obvious—Miss Prescot didn’t put up with bullshit. She wasn’t one to let people walk all over her without a fight. Submissive to a point, just enough to do her job, but more than that and she would put you in your place.

  Ivy Prescot was born to sit next to a king as an equal ruler, not lay at the feet of a self-centered tyrant.

  I stared through the glass windows to the grey sky and the ever-present dusting of dew that seemed to always be settled over the city. It made me miss Colorado and the wildly differing seasons, but I had to admit I didn’t miss the frigid winters.

  The lobby was packed with people heading out after the long day, a cacophony of voices echoing through the vast space.

  Even through the myriad of sounds, one stood out. One blood-boiling voice.

  It’d been over a year since I’d seen him, but I would never be able to forget him or his voice. I resisted turning to the sound, but I couldn’t help my need to fuel the fire that drove me. To look into the eyes of the man responsible for the tear in my chest.

  To the man I was going to bury.

  I couldn’t kill him with my bare hands like I wanted to, so I was resigned to becoming the giant toppling his empire, crushing it and him beneath my shoe.

  His dark eyes glanced up and caught mine for a fraction of a second. Then there was the spark of recognition, the double take.

  A darkness rolled through me, eyes narrowing as my fists balled at my side. Time was never enough to still the staggering anger that consumed me. I still wanted to pummel his face, beat him until he was unrecognizable.

  He bid farewell to whomever he was there to see, then headed toward me.

  I should have left, continued on my path to the car, but I couldn’t make my feet move in that direction.

  “Lincoln, how good to see you again. How are you, old friend?” The smile that drew up on his face was done so with enough theatrics to convince the harshest of film critics.

  He held out his hand, but all I could do was look down in disgust. “Don’t call me that.”

  That sly smirk I’d seen so many times before surfaced, the one he wore as he repeated his innocence. “How do you like my leftovers?”

  I shook my head. “She was never your leftovers.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because Miss Prescot is quite possibly the strongest woman I’ve ever met, and I don’t for one second believe she’d ever let slime like you touch
her.”

  “Resorting to name-calling already? I thought the hot shot CEO of DCS was more mature than this.”

  “Go crawl back to whatever girl you’ve convinced to love you with your bullshit lies.”

  “I’ve got a lot of those, but none were as good at sucking my dick as Lo—”

  I snapped forward, cutting him off. “Don’t you dare say her name,” I snarled. “You never get to say her name. Ever.” My whole body vibrated with the consuming need to lay him out on the marble floor.

  “Jealous that she loved me more than you?”

  “That could never happen.”

  “Of course not. I forgot how perfect Lincoln Devereux is. The world revolves around Lincoln Devereux.”

  “No, you narcissistic ass, the world revolves around you, remember? Isn’t that what you made her believe?”

  “She was weak, easy to lure away with a few sweet words and a promise of a life away from you.”

  I couldn’t stop my reaction, stop myself from grabbing onto his collar without a care of who was watching.

  “Once again you know nothing!” I spat out, teeth bared.

  “No, it’s you who knows nothing. You’re blind, just like always. Trusting dipshit. I’ll steal Ivy away, just like I did her.”

  I pushed off him and stepped back. “I’d like to see you fucking try.”

  “Mr. Devereux, do you need assistance?” Austin asked from behind me.

  I enjoyed watching the way Dante’s eyes widened, the blood draining from his face at the behemoth of a man behind me. There was more than one reason I employed Austin. He was great for intimidation if the need ever arose.

  “No. I’m done here.” I turned and continued to the doors, Austin in step behind me.

  “She has no loyalty to you, Lincoln,” Dante yelled. “I can have her crawling back to me by the week’s end!”

  The anger crackled through me, blinding me, but I kept my goal in the front of my mind and kept walking.

  I wasn’t going to let him bait me into a fight. The pieces were falling into place, and my final strike would take him down.

  Forgo a battle to win the war.