Tame Me: The Macintyre Brothers: Book Three Read online

  Tame Me

  The Macintyre Brothers: Book Three

  S. E. Lund

  TAME ME

  THE MACINTYRE BROTHERS SERIES: BOOK THREE

  * * *

  COPYRIGHT 2019 S. E. LUND

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Ella

  2. Josh

  3. Ella

  4. Josh

  5. Ella

  6. Josh

  7. Ella

  8. Josh

  9. Ella

  10. Josh

  11. Ella

  12. Josh

  13. Ella

  14. Josh

  15. Ella

  16. Josh

  17. Ella

  18. Josh

  19. Ella

  20. Josh

  21. Ella

  22. Josh

  23. Ella

  24. Josh

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by S. E. Lund

  1

  Ella

  I always loved Christmas in New Hampshire.

  Over the years, our family had spent time in tropical locations during the Christmas and New Year's holidays, but I always loved when we stayed in town. I loved the snow at that time of year. It felt more like real Christmas, especially with the lights decorating the streets and the big Christmas tree in the city plaza. The annual Christmas parade was something I always looked forward to as a child.

  So, I usually anticipated Christmas with a great deal of excitement.

  Unfortunately, this year, I dreaded it because I knew that my father, The Governor, would be grilling Josh like he was a prime catch of the day.

  Which, of course, he was.

  My mother was in seventh heaven at the thought I was engaged to one of the wealthiest bachelors in all of America. She actually held her hand over her heart when I told her about our engagement after our weekend at Josh's beach house in Montauk.

  "Oh, my God, I think I'll faint," she said when we Skyped the following Tuesday after I got back into town. I could see tears forming in her eyes. "You're engaged? To Josh? My goodness, that was fast. And here I thought that you two were going to break up!"

  "I know," I said. "I thought we were going to as well, but I was wrong. When Josh explained what happened with Penny, I had to kick myself for being so quick to think he'd cheated on me."

  "Old wounds leave a scar," she said, wiping her eyes and smiling. "Sometimes, it makes it harder to trust, but it often makes us that much stronger. What doesn't kill you, right?"

  With Christmas was just a few days away, it was time for Josh to meet my father and hopefully, quell all the questions he had about Josh's dad.

  I hoped so. I didn't want any hard feelings between them, especially over the holidays. We had ten days off -- ten glorious days -- and I wanted them to count. We were going to spend a few with the parental units before flying to California so I could finally meet David. Josh's brother insisted that we come out for a few days and stay with him at the mansion, and Josh had asked me if I'd be willing.

  "Of course," I said and smiled enthusiastically when Josh asked. "I'd love to meet your family. All your brothers."

  "They're going to LA to stay with David, so it will be a real family get together. I don't want to miss it and I want to be with you. I’m greedy that way.”

  "I'm all yours," I said. "We'll spend two days with my mom and dad, and then we'll go to LA. You're the boss."

  He tickled me. "Don't say that," he said. "Makes me feel guilty, like I'm taking advantage of my power over you as your employer."

  "You're not paying me, so I don't think it matters."

  "Oh, so that's the solution, is it? Hire beautiful women and seduce them but make sure not to pay them? Is that how it works?"

  He pulled me into his arms, and we kissed. I loved it when we teased each other. He laughed so easily and was a bit of a rascal.

  He was fun to be with.

  Jerkface had been so serious, so focused on his career, and moving up the corporate ladder that I always felt like an interloper in his life. Like he'd made this small space for me to fit into and made sure I didn't impinge on the rest of his carefully arranged life.

  Josh was the opposite. He was very busy, of course, as the CEO of MBS, and all its subsidiaries, and of course, his hands-on management of the Chronicle, but I felt totally integrated in his life. A priority.

  That meant a lot to me. I wasn't just an add-on, and I wasn't a means to a business end, the way I had been with Jerkface.

  So, I approached the holidays with a mix of happiness and trepidation. How would my father treat him?

  "Mom, you have to tell Dad not to interrogate Josh about the business back with Mr. Garner," I said when we were on the phone talking about our plans. "Josh had nothing to do with it."

  "I know, dear," my mother said. "I'll give him the word."

  I could almost see her pointing her finger at my father and telling him to be nice and respectful to Josh and not to pester him about Josh Sr's history with his former business partner. She was no shrinking violet.

  "My Josh had nothing to do with all that intrigue and scandal," I added. "It was long before he was even out of high school so if there's any guilt, it's not on my Josh's shoulders."

  "He knows that, dear, but it's hard for him to forget what happened. Don't worry. He'll be on his best behavior. I promise I'll have him whipped into shape by Christmas."

  She laughed and I had to smile, although I wasn't entirely sure she was right. He had a mind of his own and was a man of power. He was used to getting what he wanted, and I knew he'd never felt as if Josh's father paid any price for what happened.

  Frankly, I didn't really know what happened, except that the nightly investigative news show that was the pride of Macintyre Broadcasting Corporation did a hard-hitting exposé of Mr. Garner that led to a criminal investigation and in the end, his incarceration for fraud. If he hadn't been guilty, I felt certain that the courts would have let him go. The fact that he went to jail satisfied me that whatever role MBS had in the affair, the sentence was warranted.

  Anyway, Josh was in school when it all happened so there was no way he had anything to do with it. My father would just have to forget it and move on.

  On his part, Josh spent the night before we went to Concord on his computer, while I spent it watching Oliver!, a movie he said he and his brothers and father always watched at Christmas and eating popcorn.

  "Josh," I called out from the living room of his apartment. "Come and watch. I thought you said you watch this every Christmas."

  "I do, I do," he replied. "I just have a bit of work to finish up before I can feel comfortable taking the rest of the holiday off and join you. Go ahead and watch without me."

  I shrugged, and pressed play on the remote, wanting to watch with him, but I had to realize he had a very responsible position with MBC and the Chronicle. I couldn't begrudge him trying to finish up work before taking a vacation.

  I watched for an hour before I got up for a pee break and passed the office. Josh was bent over his laptop, reading some kind of document online. When I was finished, I stopped in and leaned over him, kissing his neck.

  "What are you working so hard on?" I asked. I checked his computer screen and saw an old news clipping that looked like it was on microfiche.

  VP of Centaur Corp Indicted on 15 Charges of Insider Trading, Going to Jail

  I squeezed his shoulder. "Josh," I said and leaned my chin on his shoulder. "You said you had work to do. This isn't work."

  He turned around and pulled me onto his lap. I giggled when he tickled me, squirming out of t
he way, but he was stronger, and I couldn't escape.

  "Au contraire, ma petit, this is real work. This is understanding the case well enough that I can face your father and answer all his questions about it when I meet him this weekend."

  "I don't want you two talking about the case," I said. "I want peace between you. It's off limits, okay?"

  "You know he'll say something about it," Josh said. "I have to be able to answer."

  "Seriously, no," I replied and pushed his shoulder. "Be a good boy, okay? My mom will work on my dad to keep his mouth shut, too. We want a peaceful happy Christmas."

  On his part, Josh kissed me to silence my protest and I was momentarily lost in his arms and to his very passionate kiss. I knew it was just a ruse to distract me from what he was doing.

  I pulled away and squeezed his shoulder. "Don't try to use your sexy body to distract me," I said and narrowed my eyes. "If you think you can manipulate me with your hunky muscles and passion, you're wrong."

  "Ha!" he said and squeezed me. "It worked last night when you asked me about it. It worked again this morning when you tried again. I figured it would work again tonight."

  "You think I'm that easy, do you?" I asked, mock-upset.

  "I count on it," he replied and smiled at me in this totally seductive way. I couldn't help but smile back.

  "I have this weakness for you," I said. "Don't condemn me."

  "I know, and I intend to exploit that weakness as often as I can."

  We kissed again and then his cell dinged, interrupting us.

  He glanced over at his cell. "I have to answer this," he said and picked it up, reading the message. "It's from my legal team. They're sending me some files on the case, so I understand all the ins and outs."

  "Josh, you shouldn't feel like you're going to an interrogation. It's Christmas. We're going to go spend two days with my parents, open presents, have Christmas dinner and try to have a nice time. My mother's been working on my father to keep his questions to himself -- at least for the holidays. I'm sure you two will talk about it at some point, just to clear the air, but please. Not at Christmas..."

  "I don't want to talk about it, but I know it will be on your father's mind and I want to be ready. It's my business now. I want to know what happened. Your father deserves a straight answer and some evidence to back it all up."

  "Bah, Humbug," I said and pouted. "If you two do talk about it, I don't want it to ruin the time we have together."

  "It won't," he said and squeezed me again. "I promise."

  I stared into his blue eyes, taking in a deep breath, and deciding that I could trust him to finesse things with my father if the issue came up.

  "Will you come and watch the rest of the movie with me?" I asked, giving him my best pout. "You said it was your favorite..."

  "I will as soon as I read over the messages and reply. Okay?"

  "Okay," I said, and we kissed again. Finally, I left him to his cell phone and messages with his legal team and went back to the living room and Oliver!

  I grabbed my bag of microwave popcorn and snuggled into the sofa, pressing play on the movie, and waited for him to come and join me. My father's history with Josh's father was the only issue between us that caused me any concern. We had cleared the air about Penny's treatment and the need for Josh to keep in touch with the facility and with Penny, but he included me in on that whenever he got an email or phone call about her progress. She had a few weeks left on her treatment schedule and would be getting released in the new year. I hoped that would be the end of it and she'd be sober and could move on with her life. I hoped that Josh's involvement in her life would end at that point, but I had a feeling that no matter what, he would be responsible for her in some way.

  She sounded like a very needy person to me. Someone who saw Josh as a cash cow that she could milk for more money when she needed it. It was sad but true that people with a lot of wealth often had to suspect other people's motives. They never knew whether the friendship or romance was due to the money or to themselves as a person.

  At least with Josh and I, he knew from the start that I liked him before I knew he was one of the wealthiest men in America. I liked him before I knew he was my boss. He liked me because I didn't know who he was because he could trust that I liked him for him. Not his money. He liked me despite not needing my father's power and influence to get him anywhere. Josh was his own man and didn't need anyone else's help to succeed.

  Sure, he had all the benefits of an upper-class upbringing, but from what I had read and what Josh told me, the boys were expected to work and support themselves, although they always had access to their trust funds for investment purposes. Their father had supported them in their various ventures, but he had expected them to put in public service in the military or national guard in return. It made me respect him even more, if possible. Any of us with Joshua Sr's money would have done the same and provided the best upbringing possible. At least their father had tried to impart a work ethic in his sons, and they weren't spoiled brats, living the high life without responsibilities.

  I knew that when the time came, Josh would be an excellent father. He'd had a wonderful role model. I could tell that by how decent and hard working all the sons were -- even David, the rocker, was a self-made man, starting out in garage bands in high school and working the bar circuits with his band before they hit it big. He didn't buy his way onto the radio waves.

  I checked my watch. Another hour had passed, and Josh was still in his office, poring over the documents his lawyers had sent.

  "Josh Macintyre Jr," I called out. "Get in here, now, or you'll have a very unhappy girlfriend..."

  I turned back to the television and before I could pick up the bag of popcorn, Josh vaulted over the back of the sofa and plopped down beside me. He stretched out his legs onto the coffee table and grabbed the bag of popcorn.

  "You mean fiancée. I thought I'd upgraded you from girlfriend to soon-to-be-new-bride."

  "Your soon-to-be-new-bride wants you at her side."

  "I'm all yours," he said and stuffed a handful of kernels into his mouth, which was currently grinning.

  I smiled and reached for the bag.

  "What are we watching again?" he asked, a playful expression in his eyes. "Something about Oliver Cromwell?"

  I pushed him with my shoulder. "Be quiet and hand over the bag."

  For the next two hours, we watched the movie and spent our first Christmas together following one of his family traditions.

  I felt so happy saying that -- his family traditions that I was now a part of.

  It felt good.

  2

  Josh

  I thought my research would just help me understand what happened so many years earlier with my father and Ella's father. What it did was alarm me, for it seemed that Henry Garner wasn't the only one involved in the insider trading.

  Ella's father had been as well.

  How he escaped getting caught up in the scandal, I didn't know.

  Frankly, I wasn't sure I really wanted to know.

  What happened was old news. Garner did his time in a cushy prison for white collar criminals, and then lawyer Emmet Carlson went on to do very well in state politics.

  Finished. End of story.

  Except... not.

  There was some reason Emmet himself wasn't charged. There was no record of him being charged and pleading down in exchange for his testimony against Garner. He just was never even a target of the investigation. That didn't make sense to me. He was the man's business partner. They'd invested together but for some reason, only the partner was charged.

  I wracked my brain trying to figure out why Carlson escaped justice, but Garner didn't.

  What I came up with was nothing. Zip. He was just never a suspect or charged with any crime in connection to Garner's financial wrangling so he either was innocent, or there was another reason he got off scot-free.

  I should have just let it go at that. Justice was se
rved. The state had its chance to charge Emmet Carlson and had not chosen to do so.

  That was it.

  But it nagged at my brain...

  I sat staring at the computer screen and then typed a response in to Ted, one of the lawyers who worked for MBS.

  JOSH: Why did he get off when Garner didn't? Any thoughts?

  TED: Your guess is as good as mine. The insider trading had to do with stocks from a foreign corporation. Either Carlson had a friend in the justice department, or he was somehow working at a higher level and got immunity in return for his evidence. It's unclear how Garner got caught. Who can say?

  JOSH: I don't suppose I can just ask Governor Carlson why. Wouldn't that be a great topic of dinner conversation the first weekend I meet my soon-to-be in-laws...

  TED: I wouldn't recommend it. Something was up with this case. Either Carlson is a mole working for the Fed's FinCEN network, or the system itself is corrupt and he paid someone off and Garner took the fall. I can ask around and see what turns up if you'd like.

  JOSH: Hold off on that for a while. I'm not sure I want to turn over this stone at this time.

  ED: You're the boss. I can make very discreet enquiries in case you're worried.

  JOSH: How about we put this on hold until after the holidays and revisit in the new year?

  ED: Sounds good. Let me know.

  JOSH: I will. Thanks for your discretion and have a great holiday.

  ED: You as well.

  * * *

  I exhaled and rubbed my eyes, feeling like I'd stumbled into something I probably should have just ignored for my own personal good, but I couldn't. I worked in military intelligence when I was in the service and my mind worked in a way that I couldn't just shut down at will. My biggest concern was how I would broach the issue with Ella. I didn't want to say anything to her about my suspicions before I knew more because it would really upset her for no reason if there was no 'there' there. If there was any substance to my doubts about the case, I would tell her the truth. Until then, discretion was the better part of valor, or so they say. I had to hope that I would find nothing out about Emmet Carlson that might make me regret looking in the first place.