The rest of the day miraculously goes according to plan.
Rylee cooperated completely and our lawyers have convinced the SEC to let the matter drop. Because the
emails were staged—with information that was confirmed to be addressed to a person who doesn’t exist and was
never seen by anyone exc ept the CEO of Sanderson Fitzpatrick, who already knew it was either a hoax or
something that was going to get him into very hot water if he acted on the information contained in the email—
there was no actual case of insider trading.
At Tex’s request, I begrudgingly agreed not to press charges. The detective was highly entertained by the
“crime of passion.” Rylee was fined ten thousand dollars for attempted fraud and the case is in the process of being
closed.
Rylee submitted her resignation and signed a Cease and Desist agreement to never contact me again exc ept
through my lawyers. She’ll finish out the week. Even if her crime does follow her around for a while, I have no
doubt she’ll land on her feet. She’s wily enough to bend the system in her favor. Which is fine with me as long as
she’s doing it far away from us.
Noah posted a press release on the company website that addressed the circulating rumors. Since then, we’ve
had more than 17,000 new subscribers.
Done and dusted, so it would seem.
I insisted Tex stay by my side during most of the meetings. She takes the edge off my fury. Without her gentle
insistence, I would never have agreed to be so lenient with Rylee, but I can agree that the compassion my Texan
girl radiates has made the proceedings much smoother. First of all, she cracked the case. Second, if it had been just
myself and my three brothers dealing with Rylee, somewhere down the road we probably would have regretted
ruining her life and possibly throttling her.
According to Tex, our Karma has remained intact. I watch her now, her long hair loose over her shoulders.
The curves of her body under her dress. Even here in the boardroom, with its dark wood, steel-rimmed windows
and hard lines, she looks so soft. So outrageously beautiful. She glows with health and sunlight, like she absorbed
all that Texan sun and carries it inside her, lighting up the overcast room.
Without the fiasco hanging over our heads anymore, I feel like I can see more clearly. She’s not just gorgeous
and sexy as fuck, she’s everything I’ve ever wanted. Everything I never thought to wish for, because I was too
busy working.
She’s the most exquisite thing I’ve ever seen, inside and out. I’m not just obsessed with her, I’m in love with
her. Absolutely, ridiculously head over heels. I want her in my life for the rest of time. I want to wake up with her
every morning and to wrap myself around her beauty every night. She doesn’t look real, she’s so stunning.
She catches me watching her and smiles lightly. She stands, excusing herself from the table. “I’ll head back
down to the office now,” she says. “Evan said we have a team meeting at four.”
Every eye in the room is glued to her. Alexander has stuck with us today, more for moral support than
anything. Colton and Noah are seated on the other side of the huge table, flanked by our lawyers as we go through
the last of the paperwork.
I’m tempted to lunge at them all as they take in the perfection of her. Mine. I need her to know that. I need the
whole fucking world to know that. The sooner I get a ring on her finger, the better.
“Wait for me downstairs,” I tell her. “I’ll come get you.” She doesn’t answer, and I’m fully aware that she’s
wary of the office rumors. Outside this boardroom, no one knows about us yet and I get the feeling she wants to
ke ep it that way.
I have other plans.
“Great work today, Dusty,” Noah tells her. “If it wasn’t for you, we might not have dodged the Rylee bullet so
easily. I’m recommending to the CEO that we move you into a more senior role. There was also a reward for
information about the accusation, which we’ll make sure you get.”
“I just did what anyone would have done,” she says, her face lightly pink under the scrutiny.
“Not necessarily,” Colton points out. “Not everyone would have chosen to be honest when they had
something to lose.”
“I could never have k ept that from you all. You needed to know the truth.”
“We owe you one and it’s a doozy, Dusty Rose.” Noah’s sincerity gets my attention. But he’s right.
Watching her leave without following her requires a Herculean effort. You’ll see her in an hour, you asshole. I
don’t know if it’s because I want to make up for lost time, with all the failed attempts at past relationships. Or if
I’m just being a clingy bastard because she completely lights up every room. It’s cheesy as fuck to even think it
but she does: she lights up my life.
Already, it’s unbearable to imagine my future without her. I realize that maybe I never felt even the tiniest
glimmer of love for anyone else because she’s the one I’ve been waiting for all along.
Even now, as she sends me one more quiet glance before closing the door behind her, the storm clouds outside
the windows seem to darken. Without her, my mood instantly goes surly.
“Only a few more things to go through here, Ace,” jokes Noah. “Then you can chase after her.”
“Ace is whipped,” laughs Colton. He’s not fucking wrong. “Let’s get this over with.”