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  Copyright © 2013 Suzanne Steele

  Alpha Boss Series © 2013 Suzanne Steele

  Published by Suzanne Steele

  All Rights Reserved

  Thank you for downloading this e-book. This book is a work of Fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author.

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  Edited by Gypsy Heart Editing Literary Editor

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  This e-book is rated 17+

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  THE HIT MAN - PROLOGUE

  THE GOVERNOR - PROLOGUE

  BATTLE OF THE DOMS - PROLOGUE

  OTHER SUZANNE STEELE TITLES

  ABOUT SUZANNE STEELE

  CHAPTER ONE

  Hello, my name is Angel. Yes, I know, quite humorous isn’t it? It sounds like a dog, or better yet a stripper.

  In fact it is one of the reasons that when I am conducting business I lie and use Angelica. I am an entrepreneur for lack of a better term. Really, what I truly am is what I term an ‘every woman.’

  I wear various hats and I am doing fine financially. I am what could be defined as upper middle class. I work a lot but I have the fruit of it to show for my efforts.

  Many of my contracts involve working with words. I write well in the sense that I am able to take a person where I want to take them with my words.

  It is not so much that I am some great author but I am a great story teller. Thus, I tend to get a lot of jobs writing commercials for new products that come out, or new sales concepts for products that are not doing well.

  I do well enough that a local ad agency has set me up a nice office in their building. I come and go as I please because much of what I do can be done from my computer at home.

  When I come to work in my office I am strictly business. I am dressed and armed with an attitude nothing but professionalism.

  I have this attitude because I do not confer with those that are employed here—as I said—I am in and out at will and my work speaks for itself.

  I am always cordial and polite, but I never let down my guard as far as my professional attitude. This is a multi-million dollar company and I am expendable, they can find someone else to sell their clients products.

  It is mandatory that I keep on top of my game as far as producing results for them.

  This day would be a day that I should have been more perceptive and discerning…

  CHAPTER TWO

  I was on the phone and I had five or six windows open on my laptop as I usually do when I am working or writing.

  The door to my office was open and I heard someone walk in and saw that it was the delivery man with a package for me. I impatiently waved him over and all but snatched the package out of his hand.

  I continued my phone call, if you call navigating the different annoying voice prompts an actual phone call. Why is it so hard to get ahold of a real person?

  I really just wanted to talk to a human and why was this delivery boy not going away? I looked up to view him with both of his hands palms down and on my desk glaring at me.

  His tousled curly brown locks and striking blue eyes held more intensity and depth than what I was accustomed to. The fact that they never broke their gripping gaze of holding onto my visage was not going to break through my shell of professionalism on a day like today, or any other day.

  “What. Do. You. Need?” I drew out the words as if speaking to a five year old child.

  “I need you to sign for the package that you all but jerked out of my hand, Miss High and Mighty,” he calmly replied.

  The little shit was making me mad now.

  Once again I drew my words out, as if speaking to a child. “Did you not see the lady sitting at the desk out there? She is called a receptionist, now run along and have her sign it,” I stated, shooing him away.

  He never moved his firmly planted palms or his cold gaze as he called out over his shoulder, “Mrs. Taylor, could you come here please?”

  “Certainly,” the receptionist responded making her way in.

  By now we had locked gazes and were engaged in a full blown staring match. This guy was beginning to really bug me.

  “Mrs. Taylor,” he calmly stated, never removing his gaze from me. “Miss Hanesley is demanding that I take this form to you to have it signed, what do you think about that?”

  I looked up to view Mrs. Taylor in the door wringing her hands and muttering, “Oh dear.”

  The delivery boy was still standing his ground. “I said to sign the delivery statement. Do as I asked you to do and sign it,” he calmly stated never breaking his gaze.

  I scrunched my lips and squinted my eyes. Once again looking over to view Mrs. Taylor in a mild case of panic still wringing her hands.

  I grabbed the paper signing it and all but threw it at the little smart ass as I hissed, “The only reason I’m signing it is for the state of her health. She looks as if she may have a heart attack.”

  He smirked as he turned walking away. “Well, I would say that you have caused enough problems for one day young lady.”

  I picked up the phone to dial the irritating automated message machine again and looked up to view Mrs. Taylor still wringing her hands and saying things like, “Oh dear” and “Oh my,” over and over.

  “What is your problem?” I asked, thoroughly exasperated after having to deal with the irritating delivery boy.

  “Oh my.” She shook her head. “That is not the delivery boy. He is the owner of the company.”

  “Oh shit,” I muttered under my breath. “I think that I just lost my job.”

  I calmly hung the phone up, hoping that she would tell me that this was all just some bad joke—but knowing in my gut that it was all too real. It was clearly evident that I had dug myself into a hole by the worried look on her face and the constant wringing of her hands that was beginning to annoy me.

  “Mrs. Taylor,” I spoke, maki
ng sure to keep a calm voice and demeanor. Needless to say at this point was not easy but it was definitely necessary.

  “He appears so young. Does his father own the company?”

  She shook her head no and made her way to my desk, as if she was about to tell me a secret.

  “Please, have a seat,” I invited, waving her towards the chair across from my desk.

  At this point I didn’t care if I had to order her gourmet coffee and rub her feet, I needed answers.

  After all, I thought, anyone that works for a company knows that the receptionist knows everything. She is in the thick of things so to speak.

  I didn’t want to look too desperate for information. I was on the verge of panic and could already see myself with no office space. Moving my office most certainly didn’t fit into my schedule at this stage of my life. I was going to have to attempt to bail my ass out from my mouth getting me into trouble yet once again. I would need all of the information I could possibly get, but I also wanted to backtrack with some of my dignity still left intact.

  “Well,” she began, “this is of the strictest confidence.”

  “Absolutely,” I answered.

  Though I could be a hot head at times, I was great at keeping a secret.

  “Rumor has it that his father left his mother when he was just a boy. Sad really, they went from having it all to being penniless. The Father deserves what he got if you ask me,” she sneered.

  “What did he get?” I questioned, as I tightened my grip on the arms of my office chair.

  “Well,” Mrs. Taylor answered, “what was coming to him of course. Little Billy grew up and bought daddy’s company and sold it off piece by piece, as he watched his daddy squirm.”

  I literally sunk in my chair as I thought, Oh great, a powerful man who knows how to bide his time on getting revenge. What was the old adage? Revenge is a dish best served cold…

  As if my day was not going badly enough, Mrs. Taylor jumped up heading back to her desk to answer her phone.

  My heart literally felt as if it had fallen somewhere into my stomach when she informed me that my boss was requesting my presence in his office.

  Great, he is not going to wait to exact my pound of flesh.

  I tried to gather my wits.

  I have no idea where Billy’s office is.

  The exaggeration in my mind came on the tail end of the thought that he had to be at least ten years my junior, if not more.

  I quickly checked my lipstick and humbly asked Mrs. Taylor where his office was located. If I was going to get fired then damn it—I planned on looking good while doing it.

  I sat on the other side of Bill Covington’s huge antique desk with my head hung, while he sat expressionless staring at me with his fingers interlocked behind his neck.

  He finally spoke and when he did, my blood pressure sky rocketed.

  “It has been my experience that women who act in a juvenile manner such as you, need to be treated as such.”

  “Excuse me?” I cautiously asked, looking up through my eyelashes.

  “You heard me, if you are going to conduct yourself as a child, then you should be punished as one.”

  “And just how do you plan on doing that?” I asked calmly through clenched teeth.

  Without missing a beat he stated, “Go stand in the corner.”

  “Like hell I will!” I screeched.

  He leaned in and chuckled, “Well I could take my belt off and turn you over my knee, but we don’t know each other that well. Yet… I’m waiting.”

  “Well you will be waiting until hell freezes over!” By now I was not only meeting his gaze—I was flat out challenging it.

  Who the hell did this little twerp think that he was anyway?

  He innocently eyed me. “I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that you don’t need this job and that you can make it on your own.”

  I was shaking my head in agreement. If he thought I was going to go stand in the corner he had lost his mind.

  “You’re right, you may be able to get by without this account. But by the time that I get done with you, you won’t be able to get a job anywhere in this town.”

  By now his countenance was looking much more serious and almost scary to be honest with you.

  He leaned over the desk and his eyes went an ice cold arctic blue. “Get your little high and mighty ass up out of my chair and over into the corner now!”

  Before I had a chance to argue, he leaned in and hissed through gritted teeth, “I’m not going to ask again!”

  I made my way to the corner. If this guy was half as powerful as Mrs. Taylor had said he was, I didn’t need to be on his bad side anymore than I already was.

  I stood, and stood, and stood, while he made phone calls and worked on the computer as if I weren’t there.

  Finally, after what seemed like forever, the little weasel walked right up behind me placing his palms against the wall and pinning me in.

  He leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Have you learned your lesson, little girl?”

  “I am at least ten years your senior.” I made certain to speak in a very level and monotone voice.

  All I wanted was to walk out of this office and never coming back again.

  “I asked you a question little girl.”

  I could feel heat in my chest and the hives breaking out from the humiliation of being made to stand in the corner.

  “Hmm, maybe I should take my belt off.” He nuzzled my ear and said, “Do I need to take my belt off?”

  “I have learned my lesson,” I blurted out, scared that he would make good on his threat.

  He was whispering right into my ear and I could tell my breathing was getting raspy—I needed to go. His cologne wafted up alluring my senses and dulling my anger while his warm breath on my neck was making it a challenge to concentrate.

  He looked like a young college kid in jeans and a Polo shirt—a very hot college kid in jeans and a Polo shirt. This couldn’t be happening. I was a responsible, established professional and things like this didn’t happen to me because I didn’t allow things like this to happen to me.

  In the matter of one afternoon this stranger was chipping away at all of my professional barriers and I didn’t like it one damn bit.

  Suffering the humiliation of standing in the corner was bad enough. I did not want him thinking that my body would react to him.

  He wasn’t done toying with me though. “Say ‘I have been a bad girl, sir and I won’t be rude anymore.’”

  “I have been a bad girl and I won’t be rude anymore,” I blurted out.

  As quickly as he had walked up on me, he backed off.

  As if shooing me away he stated, “Go.” Then calmly sat at his desk.

  I almost tripped over my feet trying to get out of his office and right as I got to the door he stated, “You better have your little high and mighty ass here and in your office by eight tomorrow morning. Or I will come get you and bring you right back here and turn you over my knee.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Bill Covington chuckled as he watched Angelica almost fall out of his office door in her hast to escape him.

  He was humored, but more than that Angel had stirred something in him, he was in no way finished with this issue.

  He could still smell the scent of her perfume lingering through the air, as he pushed down on the hardening in his jeans.

  He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was something about her. So Bill did what he always did when he needed answers—he began to research the tempting woman.

  Bill picked up his phone. “Mrs. Taylor, I am sure that Angelica is gone for the day.”

  “Oh yes sir, as soon as she returned from her meeting with you she left.”

  Bill chuckled. “Mrs. Taylor, what I am getting ready to tell you is to be between the two of us.”

  “Yes sir,” she answered.

  “I want everything that you have on Angelica Hanesley in my office by
end of day, do you understand me?”

  “Yes sir. Absolutely, sir.”

  “Very well,” he stated as he hung up.

  I knew that Mrs. Taylor would not be able to help but be curious about what had gone on in that office. I also knew that never in a million years would she have guessed that little Billy was quite the force to be reckoned with in his personal life—as well as his professional life.

  I was getting ready to find out that this was no ordinary man. I had sorely underestimated the man that I had believed to be a mere delivery boy.

  I sat on my bed doing what I always do when I don’t have the answers—research of course.

  Yeah Billy boy, you may have the resources to find out what you need to know, but you have no idea how my curiosity will drive me to turn over every single rock to find out what I need to know.

  Over and over, I pushed the humiliating memory of that little shit making me stand in the corner out of my mind.

  I had one thing on my brain and that was how I was going to get away from Billy boy. I thought up his new nicknamed in my angry state of humiliation.

  It’s amazing what a girl can find out with today’s technology. It was not by any means making me feel better about the situation I had gotten myself into though.

  Just as Mrs. Taylor had stated, Billy’s Dad had left him and his Mother virtually penniless when he exited their lives with no warning for another woman.

  Billy had gone from being in high society, to food stamps literally over night.

  I found my heartstrings tugging for his childhood. Until I thought about having been made to stand in the corner. I had no mercy for a man who would go so far to humiliate me like that for a mere mistake. Granted, I had been rude but couldn’t he have just asked for an apology and been done with it?

  I had one thing and one thing only on my mind and that was how I was going to get away from Billy boy!

  “Little shit,” I hissed, as I continued my research.

  I told myself that it was time to get past the frustration and humiliation of what he had done to me. I needed to figure out how I could outwit him. I needed to just get away from him with all of my accounts still intact.