For Her Protection: An Alpha Romance Read Online Free

last squeeze. “He can make your life more difficult than he already has, if he really wants to.”
    Charlie rose from her chair, and flashed Melanie a small smile of her own. “Not for long.”
     
    “Uncle Frank.” She pushed open the door to the CEO’s office, then stopped.
    Her uncle stood in the doorway, pulling on his jacket.
    “Charlie, I was just coming to you.” He gave her one of his Frank Halifax smiles. The trademark smile enemy’s of Halifax Technologies would see right before their fate was sealed. Or doomed. Depending on what kind of mood he was in.
    “Did you leak the closures?”
    Frank simply raised one refined silver eyebrow. One thing she’d learned about her uncle was that the direct approach was the only approach.
    “I spent forty-years building this company, the last thing I want is to see it fail.”
    She matched his cynical brow movement. “If that was really true you’d be my mentor and not my opponent.”
    “I will happily be your mentor. Your mentor who’s your boss not your subordinate.” His smile flattened. “If you don’t like that you can leave, Charlie. You’ll live very well on what I’ve offered.” His voice dropped a notch. “Maybe you’ll discover your true passion instead of pursuing this useless quest to satisfy your father.”
    She took a jolting step back. That was the thing that made him such a formidable opponent. He knew how to find a weakness and strike a person right in it.
    “You should know by now that Halifax men are never satisfied.”
    Hurt blazed through her chest but she sucked it in and met his gaze again. “So I’m learning.”
    They stared at each other. They both new the bogus lawsuit he’d launched for her father’s  controlling shares, would only last so long.
    Eventually Charlie would be in charge no matter who disapproved.
    If she could last until the time came that was.
    “Come.” He moved out of the door. “I’ve scheduled a meeting in your office.”
    They moved down the hall to her office. Bob stood talking to the front side of a broad, suit-clad body. A tall, suit-clad body that filled out every corner of the fabric with wide, wide shoulders that tapered to narrow hips.
    They approached the pair.
    Rich, spicy cologne entered her lungs with the same achy satisfaction as inhaling from a glass of whiskey. She stepped closer, ready for another hit.
    He turned.
    Freaking Barbarian!
    She froze. Damn her eyes, they drank in every inch of him—no subtlety possible, they gorged—feasted on him. His snug grey jacket hung open above a starched blue shirt. His top two buttons hung open, drawing her gaze to his tanned skin.
    Her lips opened. A fine patch of dark hair dipped below the button of his shirt. Her gaze stuck there, her mind filling in the gaps. The way that patch would form a trail between his pecs, down his belly toward his—
    “Charlie?” Bob asked.
    She coughed and glanced up, looking straight past her car-lifting-barbarian-hero to Bob. “Sorry, Bob, I wasn’t expecting you.”
    “Charlie, may I present Mr. Connor Crowe, of Crowe Security.”
    Connor—he had a name.
    He moved in her peripheral vision. She forced herself to look at him as if all her blood wasn’t coursing straight to her extremities—and other more sensitive places.
    How fitting he worked in security. How bizarre was it that his would be the firm they’d called. His grey-flecked, violet eyes met hers, captured hers, made her want to either disappear or run toward them. She wasn’t sure which.
    “Actually we’ve met.” She extended her hand. Yes they had. When he’d kissed the breath out of her in a bar.
    Saved her life.
    Driven her home.
    What were the freaking odds?
    Connor reached forward and clasped her hand in a mock-professional handshake. Mock, because when his fingers closed around hers he showed her the strength of his grip—showed her with restraint—and rubbed the skin on the back of her hand with his thumb.
    Her cheeks went warm,