Stolen: Business or Pleasure (Contemporary Billionaire Romance) by Holly Rayner Read Free Book Online Page B

to me. I should have apologized then for what I’d said about her and Grant. If I really looked into my heart, I didn’t believe she was cheating on me. But, it seems my life lately was a lot of “should haves” and “could haves.” I didn’t talk to her and when Liz showed up on Friday night and started talking, I got the distinct feeling things were going to get a lot worse before they got better.
     
    She breezed into the office looking like she’d just stepped off of a fashion runway and reeking of Chanel. She kissed my cheek and then immediately said, “I cannot wait for us to start working together.”
     
    I took the seat opposite her and said, “Liz, you need to hear me when I say this; Adele is the senior partner of this company. She is not going to approve this merger.”
     
    She leaned in towards me and I almost choked on her perfume. “Then we just won’t ask her,” she said.
     
    “You’re not making sense.”
     
    “I’m making perfect sense if you’ll just listen, Seth. Remember what I told you? Daddy has things ready to go, and I know that your business is struggling. We are prepared to walk in here and take over. I am prepared to finish buying the stock as soon as I walk out of this office.”
     
    “Why, Liz? Taylor Corp. is doing fine from what I hear. Why do you need to try and control our company as well?”
     
    “I don’t need to… I want to. You and I never really ended things, Seth. You were still sewing your wild oats and that was fine. You’re a rich, sexy man; you had to get the slumming out of your system. Now that you have, you need to start thinking about your future. Your future is not with a fledgling company. Your future is not with a desperate woman trying to claw her way to the top. She’s going to fail and she’s going to fall far when she does. Your own father is not going to let her win, Seth. You have two choices: You can join forces with me, both personally and professionally and we can continue to build on the legacies that our fathers meant for us, or you can fall with her.”
     
    I was sitting there listening to her in disbelief. She was so used to getting whatever she wanted that she really thought she could come in here and demand mine and Adele’s company, bad mouth the woman I loved to boot, and walk away with what she wanted. I stood up to stand my ground.
     
    “I thought you and I could handle this amicably, Liz. I can see that’s not going to be the case. I’d like you to go now.” Her lips twitched and she stood up too. What she did next blew me away. She leaned in and kissed me. I was frozen for a few seconds with shock before I took her by the arms and pushed her back. When I did I said, “Whatever happens between our businesses you need to know that I love Adele Morgan with my entire being. I will always love her and I have no intentions of leaving her for you or anyone else. Now again, Liz… I’d like for you to go.”
     
    She narrowed her eyes and said, “You will be sorry.”
     
    “I don’t think so,” I said. “But that’s my choice to make. Now go, or I’ll have security walk you out.”
     
    Liz grabbed her purse and as she left she tossed one more barb over her shoulder, “Whatever it takes, Seth, I will be sitting in that chair behind your desk, and soon. Your little red-haired girlfriend will be out on her ear and you’ll be left with no other choice at that point. I’m guessing you’ll beg me to reconsider. You better hope I’m in an amicable and forgiving mood at the time.”
     
    As I watched her go I wondered if I’d made a grave mistake by not telling Adele about this. I had wanted so badly to do something to prove to her that she could trust me. I wanted more than anything for her to know that both she and this company came above anything else in my life. But now Liz Taylor was pissed and Taylor Corp. was in a position to punish me for her unhappiness if they chose to. I had a feeling my good intentions had