Employed by the Boss (Managing the Bosses 7)

She pulled herself to her knees, and he pulled her leg over until she was kneeling above him. He tipped his chin up and flicked his tongue over her clit. Danni dug her fingers into her own thighs again and tossed her head back with a moan. Mark licked her again.

One of his hands rested on Amanda’s thigh, feeling the flex of the muscle as she lifted herself and slid down again. The other stroked the length of Danni’s spine and the curve of her buttock, then slid underneath her so that he could press two fingers inside, her body opening easily for him, wet and wanting. She gasped and writhed above him.

Pleasure wrapped itself around Mark, pulling slowly tighter as Amanda’s rhythm grew more frantically needy. Danni’s hands had moved to the headboard, her body bent over his as she rocked on his fingers and against his tongue. He pressed his mouth more firmly to her. She gasped his name, her moans rising in pitch.

Mark didn’t pull back to ask her if she was going to come. He could feel it in the tremble of her thighs, hear it in the breathless little sounds she was making. Another roll of her hips, and then she was shuddering, whole body gone tight and shaking with the moment of release. Amanda followed her over with a groan, and Mark let himself go, orgasm sending electricity dancing along his nerves.

Fuck. He needed to make sure he got these girls’ phone numbers before they left.

Chapter 9

“It’s not quieting down, Alex,” Jamie said, dropping a magazine on the counter as she returned to the room after checking on the twins. “I picked this up at the grocery store today.”

LACEY RIKER STILL PERSUING PATERNITY, the headline read.

She dropped down to sit at the kitchen table. “We’re going to have to deal with it.”

“I am dealing with it,” Alex said, not looking up from the tomato he was slicing for sandwiches. “She can’t speak to us without my permission or a court order, and I’m not going to let her have either one.”

“I don’t think you can decide who does and doesn’t get a court order, Alex,” Jamie pointed out.

“No,” he agreed. “But a judge does, and I have an excellent legal team. Anyone she can afford isn’t going to get past them.”

“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Jamie said, standing up from the table again because she was too full of nervous energy to sit still. “Eventually a judge is going to hear her case, and they’re probably going to just tell you to take a paternity test anyway. If they don’t just tell you to pay up because you’re so rich, they don’t care if he’s actually your kid or not; they just know that you have the money. Child support is big business. You need to take the test now and nip the whole thing in the bud.”

“It’s not that big a deal, Jamie.” Alex finally looked up, and he wrapped a hand around her bicep to pull her gently in close to him. “Really.”

Jamie looked up at Alex’s handsome face, and thought about all the trouble they’d gone through with the press in the first year of their relationship. There was no reason to have to deal with all that again. And while she was a little relieved that no one was calling her a gold-digging whore again, she wasn’t going to just stand by and let them smear Alex.

“It is that big a deal,” she said, and when Alex just looked at her she pulled away from his touch. “I mean it,” she said. “You have to get the test.”

He opened his mouth to answer, and was interrupted by the sudden sound of crying through the baby monitor. It was about time to feed the twins. Jamie sighed and went to get them. If he wasn’t going to listen to her, what was she supposed to do? Steal some of his hair while he was sleeping? That seemed a little too creepy, even for someone who was married to the person they planned on stealing hair from. Besides, she didn’t know how a paternity test actually worked, aside from the obvious. Maybe they needed a swab from his cheek or something like they were always taking on cop shows, which she wouldn’t have been watching except that the twins were keeping her too busy to get any real work done, and Christine hadn’t really been up to babysitting since their mother’s unexpected return to town. Jamie was starting to worry a little.

She stepped into the nursery, and heard Alex’s footsteps behind hers. At least she didn’t have to try to pick up both of them on her own. They were getting so big already that it was nearly impossible anymore. So Jamie leaned in and picked up Benton, leaving Lillianna to Alex. She was going to be a daddy’s girl through and through; it was already completely obvious.

“I’m not getting the test,” Alex said calmly, and Jamie turned to face him. “I’m not going to play into this woman’s delusions. She can’t

possibly think that child is mine; we were far too careful for that. If she’s not conning everyone, including those newspapers and magazines, then she’s completely out of touch with reality. Either way, it’s better not to give her anything at all.”

“If you don’t take it they’ll make you,” Jamie warned, and stalked back down the hall toward the kitchen.

Why did he have to be so stubborn? If he would just listen to her for one minute they could stop the whole thing. But of course he wouldn’t, even though she’d been right the first time when it had happened with Annette. That seemed like a good reason to actually take what she had to say into consideration.

She settled Benton into his highchair, and went through the jars of food in the fridge, deciding which one to feed him.

If Alex chose to be completely ridiculous about this whole thing, that was his choice, but she wasn’t going to support such a terrible idea. He was going to have to deal with it by himself.

When it wasn’t one thing, she thought, lifting the first bite free of the jar to offer it to Benton, it was another. And with Alex and Reid Enterprises, usually it was both.

He was lucky he was worth it.

Chapter 10

“Are you sure not taking any kind of test is the best option?” Mark asked, dodging one of the catering staff as the uniformed man hurried past with a tray of appetizers. “Jamie might not be completely off base, you know.”

“Jamie doesn’t understand how these things work,” Alex said. “She’s not stupid, but she’s new to the way that things go in a world where money is no object. She assumes that this woman will be able to get to us somehow, but she won’t, and giving in to her only means that she wins.”

“Just like Annette couldn’t get to you?” Mark asked.