Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (101 page)

Kane stood up to greet them.
 
“How good of you both to join me,” he
said, shaking Red’s hand and then taking Nicole’s as well.
 
His grip was soft, his hand warm and smooth.
 

He was wearing a light blue blazer and a
gold watch.
 
His hair was lighter
than Red’s, and feathered in a more stylish fashion.
 
Red came across far more rugged and
“working class” than Kane did, which was funny, since they were both ultra-rich
billionaires.

When everyone was seated, Kane looked
across the table at them.
 
“I took
the liberty of ordering a bottle of red wine for the table,” he said.
 
“A 1997 Dom Romanee Conti.”

Red smiled, but just barely.
 
“Good choice.”

“Does the lady approve?” Kane asked,
turning his attention to Nicole.
 
His eyes, again making her uncomfortable with what felt like an
intrusive intimacy.

“I’ve never heard of it,” she said
softly.

Kane laughed.
 
Red’s cheek twitched in response.
 

“I think you’ll find it quite satisfying,
Nicole,” Kane said, taking his linen napkin and spreading it across his lap.

“Why don’t we dispense with the
pleasantries and get down to business?” Red asked, his expression almost
predatory.
 
Nicole could feel the
waves of hate and tension radiating off him, like he was holding himself back
from leaping across the table and strangling the other man.

If Kane sensed the hostility, he didn’t
appear intimidated by it.
 
Instead,
he raised his eyebrows.
 
“I thought
we were getting down to business.
 
You see, that’s the difference between your fiancé and I,” Kane said,
turning once again to Nicole.
 
“He
thinks like a crocodile.
 
It’s all
about the kill for him—whereas I am more like a cat with a mouse in its
jaws.
 
The cat doesn’t just clamp
down and break the mouse’s neck, although it could.
 
Instead, it plays with its food, it
chases it, lets the poor thing believe it has a fighting chance.”

Red was about to reply, but the waiter
appeared with the wine and began to pour.
 
Kane spoke to the waiter in German, and if anything he was more fluent
in the language than Red.
 
The way
he spoke was melodic, and she could tell that Kane loved hearing the sound of
his own voice.

Once the wine had been poured, the waiter
placed the bottle on the table, bowed and disappeared back into the dark gloom
of the restaurant.

Nicole took a sip from her glass and found
that it really was an amazing taste.
 
She hated that she was enjoying something this man had given them,
knowing how it came at Red’s expense.
 

“You like?” Kane asked.

Red put up a hand to stop her from
speaking.
 
“Enough,” he said to
Kane.
 
His voice was low and
guttural.
 
“I’m about to get up and
end this so-called business meeting unless you tell me why you’ve asked me
here.”

Kane laughed yet again.
 
He seemed genuinely pleased in having
provoked this response from his younger opponent.
 
“Please, you frighten me with these
threats.
 
What would I do if you
left me here like this?”

“I imagine you’re used to dining alone,”
Red replied.

“A man who cannot stand to be alone has a
weakness that can be preyed upon by his foes,” Kane said.
 
He picked up his wine glass and sniffed
the contents, then drank it with apparent enjoyment.
 
“As you wish, my friend.”
 
He placed the glass on the table again,
and his smile faded, as he looked across the table at Red and Red alone.
 
“Let me lay my cards on the table for you.”

“Please.”
 
Red sat back and crossed his arms.

“We both know that Jameson International
is a hair’s breadth away from utter catastrophe.”

Red didn’t react to the other man’s
assertion.
 
His face was as calm and
implacable as a black lake on a winter’s day.
 

“I’m interested in a partnership with you
and your company,” Kane said finally, smiling a bit at the sound of what he was
saying.
 
“Perhaps I can be of some
help to you.”

Red shook his head.
 
“I can’t partner with someone I don’t
trust.
 
And I’m not interested in
having a partner in any case.
 
I
built Jameson International from the ground up and I don’t require any
help.
 
But I appreciate the offer.”
 
He made as if to stand.

“Wait just a moment, don’t be so hasty,”
Kane said.
 
“There’s still more drink
and food to be had.
 
This is the
best restaurant in all of Germany and you want to rush back to your hotel for
what?”
 
Then he glanced at Nicole.
 
“Of course, you have your reasons for
wanting to rush back, I am sure.
 
But still…” he smiled.
 
“Let
me clarify my position a bit further.”

Red relaxed into his chair again,
waiting.
 
“Go on.”

Kane met his gaze and they stared at one
another for a long enough time that it made Nicole distinctly
uncomfortable.
 
She could see there
was some kind of subtle fight between them, a quest to establish dominance,
probably going all the way back to their caveman ancestry.
 
These two men were kings of their
respective domains, used to getting whatever they wanted, used to people bowing
and scraping.
 
But in this instance,
they were faced with another man who considered himself a true equal.

“There are two ways I can have what I
want,” Kane said, after a time.
 
His
eyes were turning colder and colder, Nicole thought—as if his pleasant
mask were slowly melting away and his true face was coming through.
 
Behind the mask of politeness lay a true
predator who was no better than any cold-blooded killer, despite the fact that
he could discuss wine and politics and music.
 
“The first way I get what I want is
through cooperation,” Kane continued.
 
“Mutual cooperation between you and I,” he told Red.
 

“And the other way?” Red asked, sounding
interested.

“The other way is far less pleasant,
unfortunately,” Kane replied.
 
“You’ve already had a taste of it,” he said to Red.
 
“I’ll bleed your newly acquired German
advertising agency white, suck the very marrow from its bones.
 
Your stock will plummet, as it already
has begun to—and what was at first a minor flesh wound will become
infected.”

Red smirked, but Nicole could tell that
Kane was telling the truth.

“This infection will fester,” Kane said,
toying again with his wine glass.
 
“When the quarterly earnings reports come out, it will become gangrene
and an amputation will be required.
 
I have a feeling that the amputated limb might just be Jameson
International’s own founder and CEO.”
 
Kane glanced up to gauge Red’s response.

Red hadn’t reacted at all, however.
 
For the first time in the conversation,
Kane seemed a trifle miffed.
 
His
arrogant smile morphed into a tiny frown momentarily.

“I’m not afraid of losing my job,” Red
told him.
 
“I’ve started one
company, I can start another.”

“But you needn’t lose your job,” Kane
said.
 

The waiter reappeared just then, asking
in heavily accented English if they were ready to order.
 
“We haven’t had a chance to look at the
menu yet,” Red told him.

“That’s all right,” Kane said.
 
And then in German, he and the waiter
exchanged some words back and forth, before the waiter departed.

Red shook his head.
 
“I’m not interested in anything you’ve
presented so far.
 
Not your offer to
become partners, nor your threats to my job, and certainly not your restaurant
etiquette.”

Kane shrugged.
 
“You should consider what I’ve said
tonight.
 
Pride should never
interfere with business.”

“I’ve had just about enough fortune
cookie wisdom,” Red said, standing and pulling Nicole’s seat back for her so
that she could get up as well.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Nicole,”
Kane said, standing and bowing his head slightly.

She didn’t know what to say, so Nicole
just smiled uncomfortably and then Red took her hand and they left.

On the taxi ride home, Red was mostly
quiet, contemplative.

“Should I just keep my thoughts to
myself?” she asked him.

He turned to her and shook his head.
 
“Of course not,” he said, putting his
hand on her leg, where his touch electrified her skin.
 
“I want you to be able to tell me
anything.”

As the cab bumped its way through Berlin,
shadows moved across Red’s face.
 
Somehow it felt more romantic than ever to be close to him.
 
“First, remember how much I love you,”
she told him.
 
“So when I say this,
it comes from a place of wanting what’s best for you—and for us.”

“Of course,” he said.

“I think you should accept his offer.”

Red just looked at her.
 
“You can’t be serious.
 
That man is the scum of the earth,
Nicole.”

“He might be.
 
But what’s the alternative?”

Red sat back and rubbed his bottom lip
with his thumb.
 
He was sexy even
when he was confused and unsure, she thought—especially since he was
unsure so rarely.
 
Although lately,
it seemed events were conspiring against him.
 
First the drama with his mother, and now
an even bigger threat posed by his arch-nemesis.
 

 
“It won’t be a true partnership,” Red explained.
 
“He’s going to want me to sell him
Jameson International, and then he’ll keep me on as the CEO.”

“He didn’t say that.”

“He didn’t have to.
 
It’s what I would do if I were him.”

She didn’t know how to respond to that at
first.
 
But after a time, she said,
“Maybe that’s not the end of the world.”

Red laughed.
 
“Not for you, maybe.
 
But I’d just as soon go shovel pig shit
for a living than work for Kane Wright.”

“Was he serious about the other things he
said?”

“About destroying my company?” Red
asked.
 
“Yes, I’m sure he was.”

“And can he do it?”

“Yes.”
 
He looked at her, and the shadows across
his face seemed even darker now.
 
“Yes, he can destroy me.
 
But
I might still have a few tricks left up my sleeve.”

***

They both fell into bed exhausted, and
Nicole was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

In the middle of the night she awoke, and
Red was kissing her neck.
 
The room
was dark, but for the dim light coming from the connected kitchen.
 

His lips burned hot against her flesh as
her eyes fluttered open, like she was having a fever dream.

“I can’t sleep with you next to me,” he
murmured, his hands caressing her face, her cheeks, and then running down her
lacy nightgown to her bare legs.
 
She wasn’t wearing any underwear, and as he slid the fabric up her
thighs, Nicole’s wet interior began to throb with desire.

Nicole moaned as he pulled the nightie up
and over her breasts, and his lips were on her nipples, kissing, sucking.

He looked up from her slick nipples.
 
“I’m going to take you exactly as I want
to,” he told her.

“Yes,” she gasped.
 
“Anything you want, anything.”

He slid his mouth first onto one breast
and then the other. With his mouth on one breast, his hand would play with her
other nipple.
 
After that, he kissed
down her breastbone to her ribcage, and then down further still, to the wetness
that awaited his lips.
 
He lightly
kissed her opening, licked the dripping folds that sent shocks of pleasure
through her body.