Laura Lee

Malakai is my ex’s older brother.”

She’s going to review each phase of—”

Mr. Maxwell then entered the room. As usual, he was dressed impeccably in a charcoal designer suit—Prada, I was guessing—with a crisp white shirt.  The overhead lights glinted off his signature platinum cufflinks as he looked at his watch.

His light blue eyes met mine and for a moment, I forgot about how much I loathed this man. His focus was so intense, it was a miracle I could finish my sentence. Ronan Maxwell was so beautiful, yet masculine, it took my breath away. Every inch of him was undeniably attractive, but my gaze always got hung up on his ridiculously full lips.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d fantasized about tugging that lower lip between my teeth. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he got injections. As much as I’d like to deny it, my lady bits were instantly ready for action any time he was near. Hell, the man could practically make me come just with his deep, rumbly voice. It also didn’t help that you could bounce a quarter off his ass and he always wore his dark brown hair in that freshly fucked way that I loved.

He rolled his eyes. “I don’t give a shit what testers responded best to. I care about what’s going to max out our occupancy. What’s going to boost sales for spa services and guest excursions. I care about what’s going to make me and our shareholders money. And this slogan is not it. Understand?”

She blinked rapidly. “Yes, sir. We’ll come up with more ideas and get those to you by the end of the week.”

“You have until Thursday, or you’ll all be looking for new jobs. Am I clear?” Mr. Maxwell folded his arms over his chest.

Sylvie nodded and began closing down her laptop. “Yes, sir.”

Mr. Maxwell looked around the room. “Well, what are you waiting for? The meeting is over. Get out of here.”

Ugh, he is such an ass.

As I headed toward the door, Mr. Maxwell said, “Not you, Miss Montgomery. I’d like a word.”

Sylvie mouthed good luck as she stepped out of the room.

I mirrored his stance and crossed my arms. “Yes?”

He stared at me without a word.

“Nice of you to finally show up. I thought at this point you had taken the rest of the day off.” I looked up, startled by the deep voice. Mr. Maxwell was standing in the doorway to my office that served as the antechamber to his.

“Of course not, Mr. Maxwell.” My voice was sugary sweet but laced with arsenic. “I would never dream of doing such a thing without permission.”

He folded his arms and leveled me with a glare. “What took you so damn long?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “This is Los Angeles, sir. Traffic at any time of day is a nightmare. Since you decided to send me across town in the middle of the evening rush hour on a Friday, it was even worse. My apologies for not having the ability to steamroll over thousands of vehicles so I could return sooner.”

He laughed mockingly. “Could’ve fooled me.”

Okay, that was the last straw. I had officially reached my limit. “You’re an asshole.”

Holy shit! I couldn’t believe I’d just said that out loud.

Mr. Maxwell’s ears reddened as he took a few steps toward me. “What did you say, Miss Montgomery?”

I propped a hand on my hip. “You heard me.”

He took one more step and gripped the edge of the desk on each side of me, effectively caging me in. “Let’s say I didn’t. Go ahead and repeat what you said. I fucking dare you.”

Well, crap, there was no sense in backing down now. My pride wouldn’t allow it. I tilted my chin up and looked him directly in the eyes. “I said, you’re an asshole. Surely that’s not the first time someone’s called you that.”

I didn’t know which one of us lunged first, but before I knew it, our lips were pressed against each other’s.

I gasped when I felt his hand on my hip, which he took as an open invitation to invade my mouth with his tongue. After that, all hope of pretending this wasn’t happening was gone. Damn, Ronan Maxwell knew how to own a woman’s mouth.

When my inner muscles stopped clenching, he withdrew his fingers and pressed them against my lips, prompting me to open. I sucked them into my mouth down to the knuckle, locking eyes with him the entire time. G

Too bad she was also a wretched bitch.

I swear, that woman knew how to antagonize me like no other. She was always mindful, never quite crossing the line into insubordinate—well, until last Friday anyway—but she had fire. She was the only person in this building who didn’t take my shit when I was being an outright bastard—which, let’s face it, was more often than not. I respected the hell out of her for it, but it also annoyed the fuck out of me. Mostly because it made my dick hard.

All week, Miss Montgomery had been especially cold to me but excessively friendly to everyone else. And by friendly, I meant she was shamelessly flirting with every male in the vicinity. Even now, I could hear her chatting with my brother, Liam, fucking giggling. Miss Montgomery was not a giggler.

She knew Liam was happily married, so I had to believe she was doing this for no other reason than to get under my skin. What’s worse is that it was working. Well, fuck her and her manipulation tactics. I was going to put an end to this shit-show.