“Axis Management gave ten thousand dollars to the Firefighters’ Foundation. This dinner is to thank their top donors.”
“And ask for more money,” Xander grumbled.
“Naturally. We’ll get through it, then you can play Zombies till dawn.”
“Outriders,” Xander mumbled.
“Go get dressed,” Harper said, closing the door on him.
“Top donor? That means I need to give a speech?!”
“There’s a full bottle of Xanax in the top drawer of your dresser, in the closet.”
“Meet you outside in five,” Xander said.
Harper finished her hair and slipped on the gown, running a checklist in her head of everyone she knew who was going to be there, trying to prepare for the evening, including a plan to get Xander out of there as quickly as possible.
Many competitors and journalists would love to know that Xander Montague, the powerful Prince of Darkness of the Business World, had a severe anxiety disorder. Harper did everything in her power to keep that contained only to people whose fingerprints could open these rooms. Xander was her rescuer and her protector. She owed him a lot, keeping his secrets was an easy task.
Before she left her suite, she admired how the dress fit in the mirror. Xander always chose right. The dusky purple brought out the olive tone in her skin, highlighting her green eyes. The bodice hugged her breasts snuggly. The longest part of the skirt hit just below her calves, showing off her long legs. She touched thexpendant at her throat. It was another mark of Xander’s protection he had given her. Thisxwas a broadcast in certain settings, that to talk to her, one had to talk to Xander first. And while only those in the BDSM scene might know what a protection collar meant, it was her touchstone, another way of reassuring herself that she was safe.
She shut off the lights and through the doors back to the main executive area. Before she left, stopped by her assistant Claudia’s desk, leaving her a few notes for her meeting with Team Tech and telling her she would be in around eight o’clock the next morning.
At the side door of the building, she found the co-CEO of Axis Management, as most of the world knew him to be, pacing back and forth and speaking rapid French into his phone. His raven hair was in its trademark braid, hitting the centre of his back. He had a pair of sunglasses on. He was decked out in a black, light wool suit, with a faint, but present, red pinstripes. Underneath the suit jacket, he wore a high collar black shirt, his black boots shone to a high gloss. His expression was stoic, with no signs of the humour and playfulness that in private, she knew well. A few feet away from him, were the bodyguards for the evening, Asher and Soren both decked out in black suits; the job was to keep the press away from Xander.
As Harper came beside him, she heard him utter a curse involving a holy sacrament that never translated the same to English. He slipped his phone into his inner suit jacket pocket and stared ahead.
“That good?” Harper asked.
Xander looked at her. Harper stared back, unflinching. “Benoit thinks he has what I want, but he won’t give it to me yet.” Harper couldn’t help but gasp. Xander had been working with their technology competitor for months, searching for information that would lead to figuring out who was responsible for an attack on Team Stealth back in June.
“What does he want?”
“He wants access to the information we might have on upcoming government contracts. I’m not good at sharing.”
Harper kept her expression neutral, but her mouth went dry, and her heart thudded hard against her ribs.
“We know that.”
She often wondered if he could share if he would. But Xander was a person-to-person type of guy. He kept his inner circle tiny, his outer circle small. Axis Management might be worth billions, but they were a small operation run on threads of loyalty.
“I don’t have anyone who I can send to him to soothe his feelings.”
Xander paced for a moment, Harper waited with her phone out.
“Laurent. Get him in my office first thing tomorrow. He’s also the least scary person we have to send.”
As the limo pulled up, Carli, their driver, opened the door and two bodyguards got into their vehicle, going on ahead. Xander often had a team of their bodyguards follow them to any public appearance he made. Harper settled into the seat while leaving a message for Nick Laurent, a member of Team Stealth, or as the team was better known, Bandit Brothers. Xander slipped in beside her and looked at the ceiling.
“I hate these things.”
“It will be over before you know it.”
“You’re gorgeous in that dress.”
Harper smoothed out the skirt of her gown as she looked down. “Thanks.”
Xander wasn’t the only one who wanted the evening to be over. It was getting harder to hide how she felt about Xander. Harper knew he still thought of her as the not quite legal enough to drink girl she’d been when he rescued her.
