The Baby Bargain

Chapter 7: Alison

"What did you say?" Alison couldn't have heard Harker correctly. He wouldn't just give her co-ownership of Angel Face.

"You heard me." He took a sip of his drink. "I want to offer you partial ownership of Angel Face."

"I'd be part owner of my program?" Her heart raced. Angel Face was her baby, her creation. She'd never even dreamed this would happen. She'd just been happy being able to create something that might save women from being abducted and raped.

"Yes. You've done an excellent job and I believe in rewarding excellence."

"You do?" She had done an excellent job, but a tingle of suspicion danced in her head. Harker didn't praise; he barked orders and expected results.

"Yes." He sipped his drink. He wore his usual uniform—a white business shirt, and black slacks that matched his short, dark hair. He looked exactly like the rich urban businessman that he was. "I never praise anyone for a job well done. That's what I hire them to do and if they don't, I fire them. But you"—his dark eyes roamed up and down her body, making her insides tingle and sending that little suspicion in her head to a full-blown alarm—"have done much more than a good job and that calls for exceptional rewards."

"It does?" For one second, she was speechless but that didn't last. She could talk while puking. She'd done it many times in college. "Thank you. I didn't think you noticed or cared or...I'm just so happy." She smiled. "I always work hard, and Angel is such a great application. What we're doing...It's wonderful and I dreamt about being a bigger part, but I never thought—"

"Then you accept my offer?"

She grinned and started to speak but his words slipped past her happiness to her actual brain. "Offer? What's the catch?"

He smiled. It was slow and for some odd reason made her stomach flip and her pussy throb. Oh lord help her. If Gus Harker was turning her on, she really, really needed to get laid, but it wouldn't happen tonight. She glanced at her phone.

"Forget about your date."

"I can't."

"You can."

"I have to text Randy and let him know I can't make it."

"Go ahead. Text him." He flipped his wrist in a dismissive manner. "But then put the phone down."

"Fine." For co-ownership she'd stay and work tonight but she'd find a way to meet Randy tomorrow. She sent the text and slid her phone into her laptop bag. "Now, what's the catch," she repeated.

"I wouldn't call it a catch." He frowned.

"Of course, you wouldn't. You'd make up some business term or—"

"I do not make up business terms. I use them."

"Same difference."

His frown deepened, making creases in his cheeks where his dimples peeked out when he smiled. "It is far from the same thing."

"Says you. You twist things around to fit your plan."

"Everyone does that."

"Not me. I accept reality how it is. I don't try and change it." She'd learned in her pre-teens that wishing for something didn't make it happen. If it had, she'd have blonde hair and a perfect body. Some things weren't changeable and the things that were took a lot of work. She wiggled slightly. She should've been working on making her ass smaller instead of sitting in an office chair all day.

"You don't accept reality how it is."

"I do too." That was offensive. She took pride in that quality.

"You change everything the second you walk into a room or open your mouth."

"I don't talk that much." She knew she rambled. It annoyed almost everyone, but she couldn't keep the words inside her mouth. Her mother joked that her daughter didn't have a first word; she'd had a first soliloquy.

"Not that much?" He clamped his mouth shut and Alison was pretty sure she heard his teeth clank together at the force.

She should shut up. She shouldn't say a word. She should wait for him to speak but the words slipped out like always. "So, what's the catch. There has to be one. I can't believe you'd give me co-ownership because I did good...no excellent work. With you there has to be more than just a reward." She cringed as his eyes narrowed and his hand tightened around his drink. "Ah...you might want to be careful. I've never seen a glass shatter in someone's hand, but I think that'd hurt. All those shards of glass and—"

He put his drink on the table next to him before leaning forward and covering her mouth with one of his large hands. The other grabbed the back of her neck, keeping her in place. "There is no catch but there is more to the offer."

"Like what?" she mumbled against his hand as she pulled at his wrist.

He frowned again but let go of her and leaned back against his seat.

"I already work so much that I practically live here. I do want to be co-owner and I appreciate your offer, but I need some time off. I need a life. I'm done being your slave."