Ruthless (A Lawless Novel) Read online

  She sighed and took another sip of the wine. “This is really good wine. I’m usually a white drinker, but this is lovely.”

  Yes, she would indulge in sex the same way she did in food. No inhibitions, just purely for the pleasure.

  He was hard in the middle of a restaurant. That was a first. He was controlled. Always. He’d learned that in his first years in a group home. Don’t lose your temper. Don’t relax. Always be in control of yourself and your surroundings.

  It had only taken one brutal beating to teach him those lessons.

  “I’m glad you like it, and this isn’t a meeting. It’s a date.”

  Her eyes flared and there was that pretty flush again. This was why she wouldn’t make it in the business world. The woman couldn’t lie to save her life. He would always be able to tell he was getting to her from the pink stain that illuminated her skin.

  “A date?” That cynical brow rose over her right eye. He was starting to get her “tells.” “Why on earth would you ask me on a date?”

  He got the feeling she would see through any reason with the exception of honesty. “Because I would really like to sleep with you. It’s traditional to date first. You see, men take women out usually more than once, though you should feel free to completely ignore societal norms when it comes to that. We go out on a few dates, see if we like each other. Maybe have a really nice make-out session that ends with me taking a cold shower. Then you decide if I’m the man who can bring you multiple, screaming orgasms.”

  Her eyes had widened, but there was a smile on her face. “Wow, Mr. Lawyer. That is quite a sales pitch.”

  “I was serious about you picking the timeline. You’re a very modern lady. You should go with whatever schedule suits you.” It had been a long time since he’d been this flirty with a woman. “Might I also point out that the answer to that last question, the one about the screaming orgasms, is yes. I’m the man.”

  “Hey, at least you’re confident.” She eyed him, relaxing into the moment. “Are you always this forward?”

  “Yes. I do what you say you’re trying not to. I see something I want and go after it. I saw you today and realized you aren’t the woman from the press pictures. What was up with the frumpy business suits? And the bun? You’re gorgeous this way.” He let his eyes slide to the V of her shirt. He didn’t want there to be any misconceptions about the fact that he was attracted to her.

  It was easy to be attracted to her.

  “My father was very strict about what he believed a businesswoman should be. He also thought my weight was a sign of weakness and therefore I should cover up as much of my body as possible.” She sat back. “My father was kind of a dick.”

  He chuckled but his stomach twisted. Her father had been a murdering bastard. “So Daddy died and you came out of your shell?”

  “I needed a change. I needed to not be the me who married Colin. I needed to not be the woman who let her father run her life for so long. So I threw out the stuff that I hid behind and bought clothes that made me feel pretty.” She frowned, but it was a cute expression, her nose wrinkling sweetly. “I still wish I had those suits sometimes. They were like armor. On good days, I’m confident. Most of the time, I don’t really care what other people think about what I’m wearing. But I’ll admit there are times I want to hide again. Like now.”

  “Why now?” He’d done his absolute best to be charming.

  “I don’t think it’s a particularly good idea to mix business and personal lives.”

  “Do you have a personal life outside your business?”

  “No, not really. I tried some online dating. It didn’t work out. Maybe I’m supposed to work on the business for now. A woman doesn’t always need a man in her life. She does, however, need a lawyer.” She sat back, assessing him. “You’re not what I expected.”

  Because she was used to her father’s lawyers. Old men who would likely dismiss her out of hand because they’d seen her in school uniforms and because dismissing smart women was what they’d been taught to do.

  “That’s good, because you’re not what I expected, either. Tell me what bothers you about me.”

  She paused as though thinking about what to say. She was obviously trying not to act on her impulses, but he needed to strip that layer of caution away. “It worries me that you seem to know so much about me. I don’t think my old lawyers remembered my name half the time.”

  “I have exactly two clients. I have StratCast and 4L Software. I was hired by 4L straight out of law school.” No lies there. He’d gone to law school because his brother didn’t trust anyone but family. They’d used an old friend of Hatch’s in the beginning, but the minute he could, Drew had handed everything over to Riley.

  Would he even be able to practice after this?

  “Wouldn’t he want a more experienced lawyer?” Ellie asked. “After all, the man is one of the richest men in the country. I’m surprised he wanted someone straight out of school.”

  He had this story in place. “We became friends in college. Drew appreciates loyalty.”

  “All right. I suppose I can understand that.” She put her hands on the table and sat up straighter. “Why do you need StratCast? I’m not anywhere close to 4L’s earnings. I’m not even in the same league. I would think 4L would keep you busy. Do you work in billable hours there or for a piece of the company?”

  He owned a large piece of the company, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. “I don’t bill by the hour even for Drew. We have a similar agreement to the one I’ve offered you. For my services, you give me stock as you’ve agreed to do. In return for that you have my brain and my experience.”

  “I haven’t signed the paperwork yet. The amount of stock you want isn’t insubstantial.”

  He wasn’t a fool. She’d already made her decision. She wouldn’t be here with him if she hadn’t. The paperwork meant nothing. “But you’ll find my services are worth far more than what you’re giving up. I meant what I said. My job is to ensure that you can do yours. I have 4L’s legal department working like a well-oiled machine now. The boss is finally comfortable with the team I hired, so I can open up a bit. I want a different challenge. The cooling system you’re developing has ramifications that go far beyond the computers we use today. Have you thought about what it could mean to quantum computing?”

  The faster-than-anything-on-the-market machines had one small issue. They were in experimental stages, but the models calculated and worked so quickly that the machines themselves would only work at near-absolute-zero temperatures.

  The person who solved that would make a lot of money.

  A grin hit her lips. It was a sexy smirk that told him she knew exactly what she was doing. “I try not to let it out. I’ve turned away good press because I don’t want the word out before we’re ready for manufacture, which is likely a year or two off. Yes, I understand the possibilities. We’ve tried to be quiet about it, but we’ve obviously used the possibilities to attract investors. We have some tests coming up in the next few weeks that should garner real attention.”

  “I’ve done a study of your business,” he assured her. “The kind of money that’s riding on this type of engineering leap guarantees that you’ll have issues. Issues you need someone like me to handle for you. You won’t have to get your hands dirty because I’ll do it for you.”

  “And that means you need to know everything about my personal life?”

  He was his brother’s right hand. He needed to make Ellie see how good that relationship could be for her. She was the kind of executive this type of relationship could really work for—if he were on the up-and-up. “Absolutely. You’re about to become the CEO of a major player in communications technology. Everything about you can be used against the company, to manipulate stock, to take you down. I wasn’t joking. At this level, business is war, and I don’t know that you’re ready to play gen
eral.”

  “You don’t think I’m tough enough?” The question didn’t seem to come with any challenge, as though she already knew the answer.

  “I don’t think you should have to be. I think you’re smart enough to know that a good leader delegates.”

  Her brow rose again, but this time she took a long sip of wine. “A good leader also knows when something is too good to be true.”

  “Ah, I’m definitely not that. I’m a ruthless bastard. Don’t ever mistake me for less. I’m here as your lawyer because I believe your company is exactly what I need to make it to the next level. I think I’ll make a lot of money off StratCast. I’m here as a man because I would really like to get to know you better.”

  “I thought you knew everything,” she said, her eyes steady on him.

  “About your business, yes. Like I said, you’re not what I expected. And I don’t have a personal life outside of business. I work all the time. If I’m going to see someone, she’s probably going to be from work. The good news is you can always fire me if it doesn’t work out.”

  “Not according to that contract I can’t,” Ellie shot back. “If I sign it, I can’t let you go unless I want to pay you a god-awful amount of money. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t do this the old-fashioned way. Why shouldn’t I simply hire a lawyer and pay him by the hour and not pay him when I don’t need him? You’re going to cost me a fortune.”

  Money was the least of her problems. There were issues at StratCast he didn’t have to manipulate in order to use. Her employees might adore her, but at the executive level, there were people who thought she had no business running the company. “I’ve already saved you a fortune. That contract had already been through your legal department and your father’s lawyers. Not one of them mentioned the clause. Why?”

  Her mouth firmed. “They were very likely paid not to.”

  He had her. He just had to reel her in. “Now you’re thinking like a CEO. Yes. You pay those men by the hour and someone else can buy their loyalty. My pay is directly tied to the best interests of you and the company. I will be your champion. I cannot be bought. You’ve already purchased me.”

  “Wow. When you put it like that, I’m reminded of how crappy business can be.”

  He needed to remind her of that often so she would turn to him when things got rough. So she would trust him over the man she’d known all of her life. “That’s why you’ve got me. You like to do what you do. You like to deal with your people. Let me handle the rest. The buyout is going to be hard. I know you thought it would be a breeze, but that clause in the contract was a clear indication that your partner is going to war.”

  “I didn’t expect him to do that to me.” She took a deep breath and stared down at her uneaten salad for a moment. “I thought he cared about me.”

  “Maybe he does, but Castalano knows that there’s no place for emotion in negotiations like these.” He reached out and covered her hand with his, his skin warming at the connection. “Let me do my job, Ellie. Let me take care of you.”

  She looked up, and those fucking eyes were so vulnerable he felt like a hunter about to slaughter a doe. She nodded. “All right, I’ll sign the contract, but I have to think about the other part. I still don’t know if it’s a good idea.”

  But she picked up her fork. He still had a shot.

  He fully intended to take it.

  Four

  Ellie finished off the last of the cake she hadn’t meant to order. They’d brought the dessert cart by at Riley’s insistence. She’d tried to turn them away, but Riley had ordered a massive slice of chocolate decadence and then offered her a fork.

  God, she loved chocolate. It had been forever since she’d allowed herself to indulge in dessert. She’d worked so much in the last year she usually didn’t head home until long past dinnertime and had settled for whatever the team was eating or something she could microwave.

  Life, it seemed, had gotten away from her. It hadn’t been a conscious thing, really. After the divorce, she’d put everything into her job. She so rarely simply enjoyed anything these days.

  She was thinking about enjoying Riley Lang. If she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a great dessert, she really had no recall of even satisfactory sex.

  She was pretty sure she even bored her vibrator these days.

  “Tell me why you went into your father’s business.” He sat back, lounging against the booth in his oh-so-casual, I’m-not-a-predator-but-I’m-going-to-eat-you-up way. “It sounds like he wasn’t much of a dad.”

  Why did her lawyer have to be the sexiest man she’d ever encountered? She tried to concentrate on answering his questions rather than staring into those piercing eyes. “He wasn’t a good person. It’s more about the company than him. I went to boarding school most of the time, but I was home for summers. You have to understand that the boarding school I went to was a little like The Hunger Games for mean girls. I was the odd one out. I was bigger than the rest of the girls. Got these babies early.” She gestured to her chest. “And wasn’t very into fashion and pop music. I liked Doctor Who and read Stephen King and romance novels. There was this used bookstore and when we would go into town, I would stock up on cheap paperbacks because despite my father’s money, I had limited funds. Everyone else would buy makeup or convince some creepy perv to buy them cigarettes or beer, and I had a stack of books.”

  “I can see you with your nose behind a book.” He finished off the last of the pinot noir. “So you didn’t spend a lot of time at home, I take it.”

  “Nope. My mom died when I was six and then Dad remarried and had Shari. My stepmom was okay. She was nice, but she was very into being a rich man’s wife, and that did not include a ton of childcare. So when I came home for the summers, I shared a nanny with my sister. By the time I was ten or so, Dad didn’t want to burden Shari’s nanny with me, so he took me to work and told me to sit in the mailroom and read.”

  “For a whole summer?” Riley asked softly.

  Poor little rich girl. That was her. “It lasted about a week, and then Steven came down. He decided he needed an assistant and he showed me around. Oddly enough, I ended up in research and development and I kind of became their mascot. I fit in with the geeks. I spoke their language, though let’s be plain, I’m not a math genius. They were very kind to a lonely girl, and I started looking forward to spending my summers and Christmas breaks with them.”

  “You grew to love the company.”

  There had been times in her youth when she felt so much more at home in the development lab than she did her own room. She’d often cursed the fact that she wasn’t gifted in math and science. “I fell in love with the company and what it can be. I went to business school because it was expected of me, but also because I realized that I could contribute something. I can handle the outside world—the never-ending reports to the board, the budget, the advertising and marketing. I can handle that so they can do what they do. They can make the world a better place.”

  “Holy shit. You’re a do-gooder.” He shook his head. “Please tell me you don’t really think a company like StratCast can help people do anything but spend their hard-earned dollars on better Internet.”

  She should have guessed he was a cynic. She shrugged. She typically didn’t argue with cynics. They couldn’t be changed. “Everyone wants better Internet. Are you ready to go?”

  He reached for her hand, sliding his around and enveloping her. “Hey, I was teasing you. I want to hear what you have to say.”

  How could she say it without sounding like an idiot? And why did she care if she sounded like an idiot? It was better that the man understand what he was getting into with her. If he was anything like her father, he would tell her she was naive. She’d been very careful in the last few years to play by her father’s rules so he would leave the majority of his stock to her. He’d wanted an heir and she�
�d played the part. It was time to start shedding that costume.

  “We can do better. Corporations owe it to their employees and the people who support them to be better citizens of the world around them. We treat corporations like the be-all, end-all of American existence, so the people who run them have a duty to the world. If I can help make communications cheaper and better and more accessible to everyone, I’ll have done my job.”

  “You really believe that?” Riley asked somberly.

  At least he wasn’t laughing at her. “My father was rough on his employees. They were cogs in the machine. I spent seven summers interning with this brilliant man. His name was Herbert Simmons. The professor, as we called him.”

  He’d been one of the single kindest men she’d ever known. Patient. Quiet. He’d taught her more about the tech end of the business than anyone else.

  Riley nodded. “Yes, I know his work well. He invented the cable system most high-tech firms now use.”

  She was impressed. Most suits didn’t care about anything but the money involved. The fact that he knew Herb’s name and contribution meant he was a cut above the normal bottom-line guy. “Yes, StratCast was built on that system. Higher function, more speed capability, almost indestructible. It made the company billions, which my father promptly wasted buying up other companies in an insane attempt to show what a big dick he had.”

  “Yes, I remember StratCast almost went into bankruptcy. Probably would have if they hadn’t had the cable technology.” His fingers played along hers.

  She knew she should pull back but couldn’t bring herself to do it. “Obviously StratCast owned the patents. Most companies would have rewarded the designer, but my father fired him a few years later because he had terminal cancer and couldn’t work anymore. Oh, he made it all look like poor job performance, but Dad was good at that. Herb would have come into an enormous amount of stock if he’d gotten to retirement age. He died in a nursing home. I paid for his burial because he didn’t have anyone else. He was brilliant. He changed the world for the better, and he died alone and penniless because my father is excellent at screwing people over.”