Page 109 of Ramsey & Emerson

“I don’t care about last year’s numbers,” I snapped. “Have you researchedanyfinancials these past few months? Everything from the cost of living, interest rates, to a goddamn Snickers bar has gone up exponentially. Do you honestly believe that distribution costs haven’t risen or are going to rise?”

The entire table was silent, but I didn’t care. Honestly, if this group had no clue of what it cost to live in America these days, then we were paying them too fucking much. While I had no problem with achieving the level of success that we’d had, I did have a problem with becoming so wealthy that a person lost touch with the real world.

“Mr. Reed-”

“What are the projected figures in therealworld, Adaline?” I asked, my voice darker than normal.

Before she could answer, the door to the conference room opened, and all heads turned to see Emerson storming her way inside like a hurricane hellbent on total destruction. She also looked absolutely beautiful with her hair down and fire in her eyes.

“Everyone out,” she ordered, and all I did was lean back in my seat, wishing that she was here to ride my dick, but knowing better.

Knowing who she was, no one said a word as they gathered their things to beat one another to the door. I watched with a smirk on my face as Dash stopped to whisper something in her ear before Deke grabbed him by his arm to hurry him along. Knowing Dash, he had probably begged her to go easy on me since he knew exactly what it felt like to be a husband coming into the race from behind.

As soon as Deke shut and locked the door behind him, I asked, “Need something?”

“Have you lost your goddamn mind?” she hissed, only stopping when she was finally standing in front of me.

“I already told you-”

“You didn’t tell me that you hit him!” she yelled.

“He threatened to fire you,” I informed her as I stood up for this fight.

Her head reared back like she was seeing me for the first time ever. “And you thought that hitting him was the way tosavemy job?”

“The motherfucker said that he was going to shoot his shot with you, Emerson,” I snapped. “What the fuck did you expect me to do?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” she replied as she shook her head slowly. “I’m not sure I even know what the hell is happening anymore.”

I reached for her. “Emerson-”

“Don’t touch me,” she bit out, making me see red.

Grabbing her arm, I yanked her towards me. “Do notevertell me not to touch you, Emerson. You belong to me, and I don’t give a fuck what year we’re living in,” I growled down at her. “Youbelongto me, so I’ll touch you whenever the fuck I want.”

“Watch yourself, Reed,” she warned.

“Just as soon as you do,” I fired back.

Emerson’s silver gaze was on fire as she let out a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Normally, she’d respect that I was at work, but having had disrespected her workplace earlier, turnabout was fair play it seemed. I also knew that everyone was going to be whispering about how Mrs. Reed disrupted a business meeting in a rage, but I didn’t care about that. I was perfectly okay with the world seeing just how much power my wife had over me.

“If I lose my job, you will have hurt me more than whatever it was that you did to me in high school,” she said, and I could see in her eyes that she wasn’t exaggerating.

At that, I loosened my hold on her. “Would that be such a bad thing? You’ve been mentioning retirement as soon as grandkids started popping up.”

She looked like she wanted to eviscerate me.

“What? You have,” I repeated.

“Are you deliberately trying to make me lose my shit?” she hissed. “There’s a big difference between retiring with a heads up to the kids that I’m in charge of and just suddenly disappearing from their lives because I’ve been fired, Ramsey. We’re talking about kids that have been let down by the people that are supposed to love them, and you think it’s okay for me to just be erased from their lives?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I bit out. “You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

Emerson yanked her arm out of my hold, and when she lifted her fingers to massage her temples, I knew that something serious was happening, only I didn’t know what. While I wasn’t worried about her leaving me or anythingdetrimental like that, Emerson was more than just pissed off at me; she was genuinely upset.

“Baby, what’s going on?”

Her silver eyes looked back up at me, her hands dropping to her sides. “He said that he could always sue you for assaulting him…” She let out another tired sigh. “Unless I was willing to make things right.”

---