Grantham Global: Strictly Business: Dark Alley 2.1 (Dark Alley Season 2) Read online

That thought alone made her cheeks burn.

  Jason wasn’t as chiseled as a Greek god or the men on the covers of several books that were stashed on the book shelf in her bedroom, but he was well-trained and athletic. He was taking care of himself, which not only attested his physical form, but also his stamina.

  Alice bit down on her lower lip to stop her mind from going somewhere she couldn’t return that easily. At least not without Jason’s help. And that would be particularly difficult right now.

  So, she forced herself to return to that daydream of her showing up with Jason at the wedding. A Jason that wasn’t necessarily the J.J. Grantham.

  From his looks, Jason wasn’t a supermodel either, but Alice was rather fond of that. He was handsome, in a very unique way, more like the movie stars of old. Rather a man than some angelic, unearthly creature.

  Everyone would look, and whisper.

  And Alice wouldn’t care.

  Jason would only have eyes for her anyway. That she was sure of.

  He wouldn’t care about what others said either.

  Of course, she couldn’t help but imagine the reactions if everyone knew who he was. Alice couldn’t prevent her mind from picturing the reality. She probably would steal the show, at least for a while. And Alice didn’t want that. As tempting as the idea was to have Jason as a wedding date, it couldn’t happen in any reality.

  So, she would probably take Jimmy up on the offer to go with her, and that would be a little scandal, too, because he was so much younger than her.

  A little giggle broke from her throat thinking about that situation. Oh, she sure as hell would show up with Jimmy, only warning Bianca and telling her to take pictures.

  She was so damn lucky to have friends like hers.

  ♦ Jason ♦

  Knowing that Alice was on the other side of the door was now somewhat appeasing. Ever since Jason figured out what he would do to make the upcoming weekend as comfortable for Alice and him as possible, it was the very thing he stayed focused on, so that his mind wouldn’t wander off again.

  It wasn’t as easy as it used to be.

  Yes, he had fantasized about quite a few women in his 40+ years, but once he had decided to focus on the more important things, he had no trouble doing so.

  But with Alice, everything was different.

  Ever since he laid eyes on her, he had already known that. A woman wearing sneakers at the hottest place in town. Jason didn’t need to know more than that, to realize that this woman was a rarity. And then she had ordered Scotch.

  This and her obvious oblivion regarding her appearance and charisma had been his undoing. For the first time, he hadn’t cared that someone might connect him to the sex club he had founded so that Adele and he could find their sexual satisfaction without risking their carefully crafted reputation.

  His wife Adelaide was his second-best friend, and in addition to that, much more like a younger sister than an anything else to him. There was only one person whom he confided more in than his wife, and that was his driver and somewhat bodyguard Henning. They had met in Germany decades ago, when Jason had studied there and hit on the wrong girl.

  Still, Adelaide had always been the only woman Jason trusted blindly. They had grown up together, he had seen her naked more times than he could count and had never been aroused by what he saw despite her being smart, witty, and beautiful, just how he liked women – in exactly that order. No, thinking about having sex with her made him shudder with disgust. It felt like incest to him, and he knew she felt the same way. That being said, it meant the world to Jason that Adele encouraged him to go after Alice, after she had watched them at the Dark Alley.

  When it came to judging a woman’s character he always relied on Adele’s opinion. And it was the same the other way around. The three of them were a well-rehearsed team and with Henning, they were an unmatched triumvirate. Jason was lucky to have best friends like those two.

  Henning had given his silent approval as he made sure Alice would be safe after her ex-boyfriend was stalking her. Jason’s best friend hadn’t rest day or night until he had found the man, and made sure that this Gary stayed the hell away from Alice, forever.

  Henning hadn’t given the task to one of his trusted subordinates, who were tasked with guaranteeing the safety of Adele and Jason, and their entire estate.

  He had handled it himself, and that was all Jason needed to know. Henning wasn’t a man of words, but of deeds, and going through so much trouble for a woman he barely knew made it perfectly clear that he approved of her.

  Realization sunk deeper into Jason’s mind.

  Alice Boise might be the one.

  No.

  Alice was the one.

  The beautiful truth about this fact was that Jason was absolutely sure about her being open to his personal needs. He had already tested her affinity to his tastes when he had carefully prodded her behavior at the Dark Alley.

  Jason could be wrong, of course, but he seldom was. The only question left unanswered was how far Alice was willing to go with and for him.

  There was a huge difference between steering a big company holding, having countless employees doing his bidding with every business decision which was backed by the members of the company board, to having a woman submit to his personal needs and his absolute command. The latter was far more intimate, and far more emotional. People obeying him, because he was employing them, was so far away from a person bending to his will.

  Those were the two opposites of one scale.

  Both were by choice, yet one was because of survival and the other one was the purest form of trust.

  And there he found his mind wandering off again, when he had to focus on something else. It didn’t irritate him though, and it didn’t give him a hard-on either.

  This time it felt as if he finally had found something else to live for, to achieve, other than holding up and being his father’s son, then making sure that all the people who were dependent on his company and therefore dependent on him would have a salary to feed themselves and give them a roof above their heads.

  The only thing Jason was thinking about right at that moment was that he might have really found the woman that would give his life another meaning.

  Three

  ♥ Alice ♥

  It was almost surreal, again, and beyond that. It was just a few moments, and all of a sudden, the meeting was over. The board members were up and gone. Just like that. And, along with them, J.J. Grantham himself.

  Alice felt as if she had joined the ice bucket challenge without being informed first. She didn’t even get the chance to get up from her seat and see all of them off.

  Understandably, all of them wanted to get into their well-deserved weekends, but she hadn’t expected that Jason would behave just like the others.

  Of course, that had been stupid of her, and still she felt that piercing pang of rejection when he walked past her, like she was just another employee.

  Yes, she was, she had to be for all the other people accompanying him, still, Alice would have loved another wink of his to give her a little validation of their secret relationship.

  It was childish of her to hope for any sign, but still, it would have proven to her that her worries were absolutely unnecessary.

  Then again, she was an adult, beyond thirty, they had talked about this arrangement, and had been clear about its rules. At least those she had allowed them to talk about. She couldn’t expect him to risk his reputation. Especially not just to make her feel better.

  Alice hated how childish her own insecurity made her feel. This wasn’t the person she wanted to be. Too many times her own insecurities and self-doubts had turned her into a despicable person. She still hadn’t fully forgiven herself for how she had treated her best friend after Bianca had told her about her pregnancy.

  Of course, she was a human being and was allowed to have flaws, but there were some that were more disgusting than others, and she had sported them for a while, too.


  Alice didn’t want to be that person anymore. It had been her own dissatisfaction, and frustration regarding her not meeting those social standards others had pressured onto her with. It still wasn’t an excuse for her behavior, but it had become a motivation to her, for not turning into that person again.

  So, while forcing herself to not overthink everything, Alice walked into the primary meeting room and started gathering the notes and papers that had to be archived or destroyed, because they were top company secrets. Most of the papers had found their ways into suitcases or the board members had taken them.

  The few informative handouts and notes, which had stayed behind, would be locked away in a safe and archived there until they were due for destruction. All that wasn’t important was being thrown into a container.

  Alice could lock and then send to the disintegrator at the lowest level of the building, to be eventually burned into ashes, so that there was nothing left behind. It was Alice’s job to determine which paper would meet which fate.

  Like every time, Alice worked her way from the right end of the table to the left and then back to the right again. Jason’s seat was at the middle of the table with the window front in his back, facing the double doors, and because of that, she didn’t reach his seat right away.

  Jason never left a piece of paper behind, at least not in the time Alice had worked as the managing board’s second assistant. And because of that, she froze when she saw a white and blank piece of paper accurately lying in front of Jason’s chair.

  Hesitantly, Alice reached out, but let her hand hover over the paper before eventually touching it and turning it around. It was completely blank. Blinking in confusion, Alice took the paper and lifted it up, holding it against the light, assuming it might share its secret with her like that.

  There was nothing.

  Alice chuckled and shook her head.

  Of course, Jason wouldn’t leave her a message. Not if he didn’t want to risk anyone noticing and reading it. Still, leaving behind this blank piece of paper meant something.

  He was thinking of her. That was certain. Who knew what additional hidden meaning was behind this forgotten piece of paper.

  Were there too many blanks that needed to be filled? Alice knew that they still had a lot to discuss and agree on. But, maybe, he just wanted her to know that she was on his mind, that something was on his mind regarding her. Something, he couldn’t share.

  Alice bit on her lower lip. She knew Jason’s mind was much dirtier than hers. He had far more experience than her on the sexual front. There were so many possibilities.

  Maybe that was exactly what Jason wanted to point out. Alice felt a little silly, for putting a blank paper sheet of paper under her desk pad, but then again, it was some sort of important and yet sweet reminder. She had wanted a sign and Jason had given her one. That was all she needed right now to not drive herself insane with doubts.

  Just when Alice had finished up and gottengot her purse, her desk phone suddenly rang, making her jump. She took the call without thinking about it, answering it the usual way.

  “Alice, it’s Tom,” Jason’s assistant was on the other end of the call, sounding desperate and quite confused. “Mr. Grantham asked me to give him some notes from the meeting but I can’t find them in his folder. He said it should be on one single paper sheet. Did you – by any chance – find it? I know he usually doesn’t leave anything behind, but maybe it dropped out of his folder.”

  For a brief moment, Alice was stunned while her brain connected the dots.

  “Alice?”

  “Yes, I actually found one,” she answered honestly, and lifted up her desk pad, to pull out the empty blank. “I just couldn’t connect it to any of the other board members. I can bring it over right away.”

  “Would you?” Tom sounded relieved. “I would pick it up myself, but I am already late.”

  “It’s not a problem, really,” Alice responded, hoping that Tom wouldn’t be able to hear her ear-to-ear grin in her voice.

  “Thank you!” Jason’s assistant let out a long breath. “I owe you.”

  “No, you don’t,” Alice tried not to chuckle. “It’s fine. I was about to leave, I can bring it over right away.”

  “You’re a godsend,” Tom couldn’t help but point out which made Alice giggle and her cheeks flush with heat, because he had no idea why she reacted like that. “Talk to you soon.”

  “Yes, talk to you soon.”

  While she was hanging up, she pulled an envelope from one of her drawers and put the blank sheet inside it as if it was carrying some very important information.

  ♦ Jason ♦

  Jason almost felt bad about putting his assistant Tom through a stressful situation like a missing note with top secret information. Especially, since it didn’t exist.

  Jason had put the blank sheet on the table in front of his usual seat, knowing that he would ask for it as soon as he had settled in his office and ask Tom for it, when his assistant checked in with him one last time to inquire if he needed anything else. Jason was certain that Tom would ask Alice for a favor.

  The knock on his door felt like the confirmation that followed in audible form, after Jason told them to “come in.” The door opened and Tom stuck his head through the newly opened gap.

  “Sir, Miss Boise will be arriving shortly, brining you the note,” his assistant explained. “She found it, and not being able to correlate it with any of the board members. So that has to be your paper.”

  “Thank you, Tom,” Jason looked up from his desk. “Have a nice evening.”

  “Thank you, Sir.”

  As the door was closed again, Jason leaned back in his comfortable, huge, leather seat and dropped the pen he had been writing with. It was too late for changing his mind now. Alice would be heading over and arrive in a few minutes. And, they would be all alone. After all, he had the entire floor at the top of this tower for himself, which was just a few floors higher than the meeting room.

  Jason couldn’t lie to himself. He was far too old and even more experienced than going down that road again. He knew himself too well. Strictly business or not, as soon as Alice entered his office at this time of day, with no one else around, he couldn’t be a hundred percent sure that he could keep his cool.

  Alice had changed something in him, awaken a hunger he thought to be long lost, after being married to Adele for so many years and never being tempted. That one time, if he was honest to himself here too, didn’t count, because he hadn’t felt like he felt now. That one time he hoped that things would change if he tried hard enough.

  It had been another hard lesson to him.

  The one Jason never trusted was chance, or whatever other people called it: fate, coincidence, destiny. But when it came to such an irrational thing like love, he obviously hadn’t a choice. So, Jason had stopped looking and begun to come to terms with the arrangement he had with Adele: if they hadn’t found love by the time the contract allowed them to split, they would have kids together. The modern way: in-vitro. He still had this option.

  Although Jason didn’t want to go there, he knew he couldn’t put all hope in Alice. Even though sheer luck had dropped her in front of his feet, quite literally. He wasn’t even supposed to go to the Rabbit Hole that night.

  Still, Jason had caught himself hoping that despite their precaution that they would have a ‘happy’ accident. And that was so not like him. He wasn’t someone to risk years of planning and caution just like that. Before Alice, there were several security measures in place, since he couldn’t simply have himself temporarily altered. The tabloids would find out.

  Jason knew, he was going way too fast with Alice, but he also was certain that it had nothing to do that men of his age usually already had children in their teens, but his father had taught him not to care for these so-called social standards too much. Social sensibility was more important than standards. One could respect the first while breaking the latter, and Jason had outdon
e any family member or friend when it came to this. And had achieved that because of what his mother had taught him: respect, humility, and gratitude.

  Living up to his mom’s ideals was harder than leading a multi-billion company, but it was Jason’s way of keeping her memory alive.

  Thinking of his late mother, who had died when he was still a kid, he wondered if she would like Alice. Adele had been his mom’s godchild and she had adored the girl, since she had wanted a sister for Jason, but life had other plans.

  He realized that his glance had already wandered from the door towards the framed polaroid picture his mom and him, on which they were building a sand castle together.

  Like always, when Jason’s attention was drawn to that picture, he reached out and grabbed it to hold with both of his hands. This picture was thirty-seven years old. He had been seven, and it had been their last vacation together. Shortly after, his mom had been diagnosed with cancer. At the age of thirty-two. The same age Alice was now.

  Looking at the polaroid, Jason suddenly realized that Alice and his mother shared the same long, dark hair, and the same figure. But he didn’t frown noticing that. It made him smile. Jason knew that wasn’t the only thing that had drawn him to her, it was Alice’s character, too, which also had some similarities to his mother. It didn’t surprise him.

  Jason almost dropped the frame he was holding, when someone knocked at his door. As he recovered, knowing it only could be Alice, his smile quickly reappeared.

  “Come in,” he answered and the right one of the double doors opened.

  It was Alice, a grin hiding in the corners of her mouth. She stepped inside, holding a large envelope, as if it was containing something very important.

  Jason knew it had to be the blank sheet he left in the meeting room, as much as he could imagine why Alice was grinning.

  He loved the color she was wearing. This dark-lilac-lavender of her blouse gave her eyes and intensity that made Jason’s knees wobbly, despite it being partly covered by her black, knee length coat, that made her black stencil skirt vanish entirely. Luckily for him, he was still sitting in his chair, watching her as she approached him, slowly. Alice was enjoying him marveling at her.