For His Pleasure: The Boxed Set, Books 1-6 (For His Pleasure, For His Taking, For His Keeping, For His Honor, For His Trust, For His Forever) (34 page)

She cried out once, twice—and then she lost herself in his touch, in his kiss, lost in such a way that she knew she’d been found.

When it was over, Red told her he needed to go down to the AK offices for yet another meeting, and crack some skulls over losing their number one client to Kane Wright.

“Should I come with you?” she asked him.

He looked at her. “Honestly, it’s not even worth your time, Nicole. Go out and see the sights. Or better yet, stay in the hotel and relax. They have a full day spa downstairs.

Make use of it. I’ll be back for dinner.”

She shrugged. The truth was, although she’d have gone to AK if he’d needed her to, she was more than happy to stay back at the hotel and just enjoy some peace and quiet.

After he’d left, Nicole lounged in the room, watching a German-subtitled Raiders of The Lost Ark on TV. A few hours later, she napped, and then ordered more room service.

This time, it was a fruit plate and a tuna salad sandwich.

At about two o’clock in the afternoon, her hotel room phone started ringing. She stared at it, wondering who it could be. Perhaps the concierge? Maybe something urgent, she thought. She decided it was best to answer, and so Nicole picked up the phone and gave a soft “hello.”

“I thought you might be in,” came the even, deep reply from the familiar voice. It was Kane Wright—his accent was unique, and completely unmistakable. “I hope you don’t think it rude of me to call like this,” he said.

Nicole’s hand shook. “Red’s not here,” she said. “You should try his cell phone.”

“I didn’t call for Red.”

She took a long, shaky inhalation. “I don’t wish to speak to you.”

“You and I both know that Red is making a terrible mistake,” he said softly. “And I have a feeling you’d like to protect him if you could.”

“How Red chooses to do business is his decision, not mine,” she replied, as evenly as she could, given her nerves.

“But he would listen to you,” Kane said. “He trusts you.”

“He trusts me because I know to mind my own business. I don’t tell him how to run his company.”

“Well maybe it’s time you started.”

She laughed at the man’s arrogance. “You’ve tried your best to destroy his company and you expect me to take your advice? You must think I’m a complete fool.”

“I have no interest in destroying him unless he forces me to.”

Nicole switched the phone to her other hand. It was slick with sweat. “You know what I think? I think you’re an arrogant asshole who believes having a lot of money makes you better than other people.”

This made Kane chuckle. “I like your style, Nicole. I can see why Red finds you so attractive.”

“You don’t know the first thing about Red and I.”

“So tell me. Why would it be so bad for Red to work with me? He could keep his beloved company, continue to be the CEO, continue to build his empire. And together we could be even stronger.”

“He’s not interested,” she said. “And you should have this conversation with him yourself.”

“He’s far too emotionally invested for me to have a reasonable conversation with him,” Kane told her. “He believes I’m the devil or something. The truth is, I’m just a competitive person who tries to win. I’m the same as him, but with a little more experience. I could teach him a lot if he’d let me.”

“I don’t think he wants to be your student.”

“Nicole, I don’t care what he’s told you. I’m sure right now he’s convinced himself that even if he loses Jameson International, he’ll be fine. He’ll start a new company, he’ll travel the world with you and begin a new life. But I’m here to tell you right now that if he loses this company, he will be a broken man.”

She laughed. “Somehow I doubt that.”

“Don’t be so quick to laugh,” Kane said. “Very few people know what it’s like to have made yourself into a billionaire from nothing, to build a company and a brand that’s known throughout the world. Very few people know what it’s like to lose that identity, to go back to being just a regular person that no one cares about.”

“Just because he’s not a CEO, doesn’t mean nobody cares about him,” she said, but a part of her was starting to wonder if Kane might have a point. Red’s entire adult identity was wrapped up in this business, and to lose everything so fast—to be suddenly considered a failure, might have devastating consequences.

“Of course he’ll have people who care about him in his personal life,” Kane said softly, gently. “You’ll be a comfort, as will some of his friends and family. But Red Jameson lives his life in the public eye, and he’s used to being treated like a god. To fall so quickly from grace will be a tremendous blow to his confidence. His ego will be shattered.”

“How can you be so sure?” she said.

“Because,” Kane replied, “I lost everything once, in my late twenties. And yes, I was able to come back from it. I came back stronger, in fact. But I almost lost my mind in the process. And I’m not sure I ever truly recovered emotionally from what it did to me. I think I’d like to spare Red some of that pain, if I can.”

Nicole wasn’t sure she believed him. She thought he must have an ulterior motive.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” she said, finally.

“Just try talking to him,” he said. “Really see if he has a good reason to not come and work with me.”

“You mean come work
for
you,” she corrected him.

He chuckled. “Technically, yes, I would be his boss. But I’ll give him quite a bit of autonomy. I respect Red Jameson very much, and I think with a tiny bit of guidance he will be the best we’ve ever seen.”

“I’ll mention that you said so when I talk to him later,” Nicole replied drily.

“Obviously you can tell him what you want,” Kane replied. “But I’d suggest that if you tell him we’ve had this conversation, he won’t listen to another word you say on the matter.”

“Maybe that’s because he’s smart,” Nicole said.

“There’s a difference between being stubborn to the point of self-destruction, and being intelligent and strong minded. Maybe someday you’ll both be lucky enough to recognize the difference.”

And then he was gone.

***

Nicole agonized all day on whether or not to tell Red that she’d been contacted by his archrival. Back and forth, back and forth she’d gone in her mind.

But when he came back to the hotel room in a terrible, grim mood, she knew the answer.

“It’s finished,” Red said as he entered the hotel room, his face pale and somewhat haggard—eyes dry and bloodshot. “We lost another big client today. And Jameson International’s stock dropped over twenty percent during trading. Now I’m getting calls from our other offices. People are panicking. It’s like a run on the bank. All the confidence and trust we built up over the last decade is gone, just like that.” He snapped his fingers.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, getting up from the couch and moving to hug him.

“I can’t—not right now,” he muttered, shying away from the contact.

That was when Kane’s words from earlier rang in her ears.

To fall so quickly from grace will be a tremendous blow to his confidence. His ego
will be shattered.

She could see that already Red was changing. The stress of failure could do things to a person—and although Red might like to think he could rise from the ashes, Nicole was beginning to wonder. It wasn’t even about the money really. It was about losing. Red was going to think of himself as a loser from now on, and for a man like him who was used to being on top and in control—who depended on that sense of control and power—there was no telling what it might do to him.

“I need a drink,” Red told her. “Let’s go out.”

“Really?” she asked, a strange feeling in her stomach. “You want to drink?

Shouldn’t you just try and relax, maybe get some sleep?”

“I can go alone,” he said, his eyes restless.

“Of course I want to go with you.”

“Great,” he said, not sounding that enthusiastic. “Come on.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

And so they took a cab to a bar in Berlin, some place that Red said he’d heard was fun and unique. When they there, Nicole wasn’t sure it was such a great idea. Sure the place was unique—as advertised—but not in a good way.

The bar was dark inside, and the clientele seemed rough. Red and Nicole were far more dressed up than anyone else in the place. A lot of the people were young, some of them had a punk look going on—lots of piercings and tattoos and strange haircuts.

Red didn’t seem to care. In fact, she sensed that he was in a very dangerous mood tonight. When one of the men in the bar would give him a look, Red would glare back at them, as if daring them to challenge him in some way.

Nobody did—at least, not at first—but Nicole was uneasy just the same.

“Shouldn’t we maybe go somewhere else?” she asked, as they took seats at the bar and Red ordered himself two shots of vodka, and a cranberry and vodka for her.

He shook his head. “I like it here.”

“No you don’t. You’re just looking for trouble,” she said.

He glanced sideways at her, as the bartender handed him the first shot and he slugged it down. “Bullshit, I am.”

“This isn’t the way to handle what’s going on with your business,” she told him, knowing he wouldn’t want to hear it.

“I just need to let off some steam, Nicole. I can’t always play rich businessman, it gets old.”

“Couldn’t you just lift some weights or go run on the treadmill?”

Red laughed, did another shot. When he was done with that one, he ordered two more. The bartender gave him a look. “Zwei verschiedenen wodkasorten,” Red said, the volume of his voice rising slightly.

The bartender poured two more shots and slid them across the bar. Red drank one and then sat and looked at the second one.

Nicole sipped her cranberry drink, which was too strong for her tastes. She looked around the bar. People were all staring at them. She didn’t like this at all. Not one bit.

But after a time, it seemed the other patrons were losing interest in the strange Americans. The bar got more crowded, noisier, loud heavy punk rock music was playing over the speakers.

Red seemed to have relaxed a little, too. He rolled up his shirtsleeves, undid his tie, and began drinking vodka and cranberry with Nicole. He kissed her for embarrassingly extended periods of time.

But eventually she was starting to get a little bit tipsy as well, and her body was loosening up. She was starting to think that earlier in the night she’d been more afraid of this bar because it was so foreign and the people spoke another language. Sure, they were dressed kind of funny, and they looked intimidating, but most of them seemed to be having fun and acting like young people did in New York every night.

“I’ve got to go to the bathroom,” Red said in her ear. As it was, she could barely hear him over the noise.

She nodded.

“And then let’s get out of here, huh?” he said.

She nodded again, gratefully.

He smiled and kissed her cheek. “You’re the best, baby,” he yelled to her, and then pushed his way through the crowd to get to the bathroom.

A couple of minutes later, a young man wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and heavily tattooed arms plopped down on the empty stool next to her with his beer. He looked at her and grinned. She saw he had two or three gold teeth, and some kind of tattoo around his right eye. “American?” he asked.

She nodded nervously. “My boyfriend’s—“

“My name is Karl,” he said, holding out a large, calloused hand to her.

She didn’t want to touch him at all—he was giving her a really bad vibe. But she told herself to calm down and just try and end this as quickly and politely as possible. “Hi, Karl,” she said.

“Do you like boxing?” Carl asked her.

She shrugged. “I—I don’t really know—“

“Because I’m a boxer.” He smiled again. “What about your boyfriend?” he said.

His accent was thick but he spoke perfectly reasonable English.

“What about him?” she said.

“He looks like a fucking twat,” Karl replied, grinning. He glanced back and she saw that he had a couple of goon friends watching nearby.

Nicole’s heart started to speed up. She didn’t want Red to come back and see this idiot giving her a hard time. “I really should go,” she said.

“Why?” Karl asked. “You one of those stuck up Americans?”

“No. But you’re being rude and you’re frightening me.”

Karl smiled. “Awww, I’m really nice, sweetie. I swear I am. And I got a big motherfucking schwanz, too.”

“Get away from me,” she said, as he leaned in.

That’s when Red appeared, pushing through the crowd. When he saw Karl on his stool his eyes turned cold and hard and she knew he was furious. “Are you okay, Nicole?”

he called out, not taking his eyes off the punk.

“Yes,” she said.

Karl turned, saw Red and grinned. He stood up, and he was big, at least as big as Red. On top of that, he looked mean, as though he fought a lot and quite enjoyed it.

Nicole realized that he hadn’t truly been interested in her at all—talking to her had merely been a means to an end. He’d wanted to start a problem with her boyfriend.

“Red, don’t do anything,” she said, getting up and grabbing his shirtsleeve.

“Did he touch you?” Red asked, his eyes still unwavering.

She leaned in to talk to him. “He didn’t touch me, and besides, he’s a boxer. He wants to fight you.”

Karl grinned at Red, mocking him with wide eyes. “What a fucking twat you look like,” he said. Behind them, his friends laughed and closed in.

“You box?” Red asked.

“Enough to knock the teeth out of rich American faggots.”

Red grinned and nodded. “Good for you, man.”

“Good for me, not so good for you, son.” Karl took another step closer.

Red put out a hand and lightly pushed Nicole out of the way, and she knew something was going to happen.

And then it did, as if in slow motion and fast-forward all at once.

Karl threw a quick punch that caught Red on the nose, snapping his head back.

Nicole screamed.

And then Red threw two powerful punches. One of them landed on Karl’s chin and the other seemed to hit his temple. His head flashed back as if he’d been shot, and the big German dropped like a sack of potatoes.