Page 10 of Enemies with Benefits

She started to walk away. I shrugged on my jacket and followed. ‘Wren.’

She paused without turning.

I stepped around to face her. ‘I still want to know where your brother is. This time I’m not taking no for an answer.’

The eyes she lifted to mine were haunted, filled with the tension I’d sensed in her all evening. For a handful of seconds, she pressed her lips together. Then her gaze shifted away from mine. ‘I don’t know.’

Instinct suggested she wasn’t lying. ‘When was the last time you heard from him?’

A shaft of pain crossed her flawless features. ‘My mother spoke to him a week ago.’

Her mother. Not her. Was that the reason for the tension between them?

‘I need to reach him, Wren.’

Her face tightened. ‘Is that why you followed me here? To pump me for information?’

I bit back my irritation. ‘We both know what just happened has been a long time coming, pun intended. Don’t demean it.’

Her eyes flickered and I could’ve sworn she blushed. Slightly mollified, I trailed my knuckles over her warm cheek. ‘Doesn’t change the fact that I still need to hear from Perry, though.’ I dropped my hand. ‘When you do get in touch with him, tell him it’s in his interest to contact me, asap.’ Knowing I needed to leave before I gave in to the urge to re-enact that heady episode again, I stepped away.

‘That sounds like a threat,’ she challenged.

I turned back to the woman I intended to have, again and again, in the very near future, and smiled. ‘You can see it as such if you want. It’s a simple statement that says I’m done playing games. He’s fucking around with something important to me. Sooner or later, he’s going to have to answer to me. How much mercy I show him is entirely up to him.’

CHAPTER TWO

THEFILESONthe desk in front of me had increased three-fold in the last three weeks. Each one was flagged with a red Post-it note that indicated it required urgent attention.

Except three weeks ago, I’d been infrontof the desk and Perry behind it. My brother had been the CEO with the full backing of the board of directors at Bingham Industries. Whereas I’d had to fight my way into anactingCEO position, even after Perry finally resurfaced a few days ago and accepted that he needed help.

Unfortunately, it’d been too late to stop the tabloids from splashing his alcohol-fuelled downward spiral on the front pages, plunging the company into a stock-market nightmare and me into a fight to protect my own family firm from ruin.

Bitterness soured my mouth as I inched my chair closer to the desk. I’d been here for fifteen minutes and was yet to reach for the first file.

I couldn’t. Not because I was scared. Far from it. I couldn’t reach for it because everything in this office reeked of my father. With strong undertones of Perry, the son and heir he’d treasured above everyone else. Including me.

Both hard, intransigent men with firm, ingrained views about a woman’s place. Perry had tried to disguise his beneath brotherly concern, but that conceit had been there, inherited from the man he’d looked up to. A man who’d taken reckless risks with the Bingham name and died bitter and broken when those risks had shattered his family.

With hands I refused to let shake, I reached for the phone. My PA answered on the first ring. ‘Alana, can you find me a replacement desk asap? Ideally today?’

‘I...yes, of course. Right away, Miss Bingham. What do you want done with the old one?’

‘Have it couriered to the house in Esher. They can put it in my father’s study.’

I set the phone down, took a deep cleansing breath. My position as Acting CEO might well be temporary if I lost my fight against the Big Boys Establishment that were my uncles and cousins. But I intended to do things my way for however long I was here.

And before my stint ends, I’ll show them...

That silent vow echoing through me, I picked up the first five files, rose and moved to the chesterfield sofa situated beneath the window. Everything in the office was stuffy and old-school but the chair and coffee table would have to do as a working area until the new desk arrived.

Setting the files down beside me, I opened the first one. Then immediately shut it when the name on the letterhead jumped up at me.

The Mortimer Group

My breath rattled around in my chest, echoing the sensations in my body. Mainly of the hot and bothered kind. Mainly between my legs. All because of Jasper Mortimer and what I’d let happen in the maze a week ago.

I’m done playing games.

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