Tessa Radley - The Executive's Vengeful Seduction / Rich Man's Revenge

He gave a soft laugh and slid his hands over her shoulders with an ease that only an ex-lover can have. “Hmm. I like your hair this length.” Provocatively, one finger coiled around some blond strands that curled below her neck. “It suits you.”

She shivered as his warm breath wafted over her and wrapped her in its minty scent. It seemed like only yesterday when she would have leaned into the hard wall of his chest and relished his strength. And only yesterday that they had made love with a passion that had stolen her breath away.

“You’re even more beautiful than I remember,” he murmured, his hands sliding down to her hips.

Up close, his green gaze was a caress, his male scent too enticing, the tension between them building, overwhelming her, restricting her breathing, making her forget that never again had she wanted to be close enough to see into the irises of his emerald eyes…or the grain of his skin as it weaved and dipped its way over a strong nose and lean cheekbones…nor had she ever wanted to touch the fullness of his lips, to know she’d once ached to have them on her body.

“Stop it,” she whispered, hating herself for letting him affect her like this.

“Stop what?”

“Damien…”

“Gabi…”

Gabi . He’d only ever called her that once before. He’d been thrusting inside her and she’d been welcoming each plunge of his body. They’d reached their climax together. It had been the only time she’d felt his equal, and not some young woman who’d been the daughter of his business partner.

All at once she had to get out of the kitchen.

It was too small.

There wasn’t enough air.

She pushed his hands off her and spun away, heading for the door, not even sure if Damien had hired a car yet for her, but willing to catch a cab if necessary. “I need to see Keiran…at the office…in case he goes out.” She was babbling but couldn’t seem to stop herself.

He came up behind her, putting his hand on her arm, stopping her but not in a forceful way. “I’m coming with you,” he rasped, the huskiness still in his voice, the desire still glittering from the depths of those green eyes.

His touch sent a tingle along her spine. “There’s no need.”

His mouth tightened and he dropped his hand. “I said I’d help and I will. Don’t underestimate Keiran. There’s power in numbers, Gabrielle.”

She sent him a wary glance. “I know my own cousin.”

“Then you know you need me with you.”

As much as she didn’t want it to be, what he said was true. She abruptly nodded her head. “Okay, but I need to get that rental car later for my own use,” she said, giving in but perhaps not as gracefully as she could, and that was more to do with needing to get away from Damien’s presence than not needing him to help her deal with Keiran.

But in the confines of his car, her mind couldn’t stop from going back to Damien. She realized that being a woman desired by him was more dangerous to her now than five years ago. Now he would want more than girlish enthusiasm in his bed. He’d want a woman’s response, slow and deliberate, not a rushed and naive eagerness. And he’d expect her to be a mature partner, able to handle a sexual relationship without too much emotion. It was a world of difference to five years ago.

She pushed all her thoughts to the side as they walked into the building that housed the head office of her father’s company. The first person she saw was one of her father’s managers she remembered from years ago. He greeted her warmly then expressed sympathy over her father’s condition.

“Thank you, James. I’m glad to see you’re still here.”

The older man’s eyes flicked to Damien then back to her. “Not for long I’m afraid. I’ve accepted a position with another company. I finish up at the end of the week.”

Dismay filled her. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Gabrielle, I’ve got nothing to lose by saying this. I’ve always enjoyed working for your father, but it’s going to be a while before he’s back on his feet. I’m sorry but I can’t work with him until that happens.”

“You mean Keiran?” she said to clarify, but knowing all Damien had told her was true.

James nodded. “I don’t mind saying I think that man’s going to ruin the company with his ideas. And I’m not the only one leaving, either. There are two heads of departments who have put their resignation in and another planning on it.” He clicked his tongue. “They’re men who are going to be taking a whole lot of experience and knowledge with them when they go, I’m afraid.”

She tried to look confident. “James, that’s why I’m here. My father wanted me to take over if anything happened to him and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Relief flared then died in his eyes. “Keiran isn’t going to step aside so easily,” he warned.

She squeezed the older man’s hand. “Keiran won’t have a choice.”

But when Damien opened the door to her father’s office and Gabrielle saw her cousin sitting behind her father’s desk like he owned the place, every instinct inside wanted to tell him to get the hell out of there.

Keiran glanced up at the interruption and for a moment looked like an animal caught in the headlights. Then he went rigid. “Well, well. If it isn’t my long-lost cousin.” He pasted on a false smile as he stood and came around the desk. “Gabrielle, how nice to see you again.”

Her mouth tightened as he pecked at both her cheeks like a chicken. “Keiran, you haven’t changed a bit.” He was two years older than her, and he’d wielded his older stance often during their childhood.

“You’re still the sweetest thing,” he joked as he glanced at Damien. But his eyes were wary beneath his blond head and they held a heartless gleam that had been in them since the day he’d been born. Now, here was one person her father should have cut off, she thought, suppressing a moment of pain that it had been his own daughter her father had ignored instead.

She stepped away. “What are you doing in here, Keiran?”

His smile flattened. “What do you think I’m doing in here? Someone had to step in when your father had his stroke.”

“Then thank you. I appreciate it but I’m here now.”

His piercing eyes contrasted sharply with his relaxed stance. “Not so fast. You can’t just walk in here and take over.”

She arched a brow. “Why not?”

He strode back around the desk. “You’ve been gone five years. And before that you never worked here in any capacity anyway.”

She refused to let him see his comment had hit its mark. “I spent a couple of school holidays working here, remember?”

“And that gives you the experience to run a multinational company dealing in property and finance, does it?”

“From what I hear, I could do better than what you’ve been doing,” she said coolly.

As if a storm was brewing, the air seemed to sizzle with electricity. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I mean that from all accounts you’re running the company into the ground. All our managers are leaving.”

He waved a dismissive hand. “They were old and stale. We need new blood.”

She gave a soft gasp. “That’s a callous statement.”

His lips twisted. “Perhaps I’m a chip off the old block.”

She held herself stiffly. “My father would never have dumped his employees.”

“Sure? I think if Russell kept them on, it was for his own selfish reasons.”

She didn’t want him to see that he was probably right, so she ignored that. “Look, I’m here now and I have Damien to help me.”

“No.”

She blinked. “What do you mean no?”