Page 37 of Alpha Bait

I understood how important the Harkness merger was. With their resources, we'd sky-rocket our financial growth and thrust the family business into a new era of global tech dominance. The prospects were too shiny to resist and there was no room for failure in that gamble. Any added security for a successful acquisition would be hard to resist.

But I wouldn't put my life on hold to save the company. Jamal's ambition might have blinded him to one important fact: I had ambitions too. And none of those ambitions involved becoming a prisoner to Will Harkness.

By the time I finished working, the office building was quiet. There were only two lights on mine and Jamal's. I wondered if he was waiting for me to leave, but I couldn't bring myself to meet Rich yet. Jamal hinted at danger, a plan that would only end badly for me. If Jamal moved any closer to marrying me to Harkness, my best bet would be disappearing...

And what about the reason I wouldn't marry Will? The real reason? The reason that nagged on my mind and forced me to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth that I'd been desperate to deny?

Rich Carmichael.

I hadn't expected to find myself intertwined with the playboy. His irresistible lips, his cocky attitude and his instant lust for me had pushed me into unfamiliar territory. With Rich there were no games; there was no need for me to fit myself into some box for him to understand who I was.

I could be Indie Holloway: the heiress and the businesswoman. Rich wasn't like Will Harkness. He didn't need the woman by his side to sit on a shelf collecting dust like a porcelain doll. He accepted me, he opened up my wild side. I unraveled in Rich's arms in a way I'd never done before.

I'd never fallen for someone so hard and so fast...

"Love at first sight" doesn't begin to describe it. Love at first kiss, maybe. If this could even be called love...

Whether our encounters had been romance or lust, they'd weighed on me every moment I was away from him. As much as I tried to deny myself the pleasure of his touch and the pleasure of his lips sliding across my skin, I couldn't. I had to reply to him. I had to meet him again.

Rich was a contradiction. He was strength. He was the part of me that I never allowed anyone in my ambitious screwed up family to see. Rich was the part of me exhausted from the competition, exhausted from being a caged little bird, serving only the needs of the great Holloway, Inc.

What about me? What about Indie?

Rich was the only man I'd met who cared about that.

I packed my things and left the office, sending Rich one final message.

-- Leaving work now. Can't wait to see you.

Jamal didn't own me. And he never would.

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