Page 74 of Forty, Flirty & Fired

"You turn me on." He demonstrates this fact thoroughly, his eyes darkening with desire. "Everything about you. Including the part that made me a better CEO."

I should feel exposed. Should feel vulnerable about him knowing my secret, about being here, about all of it.

Instead, I feel... free.

“I’m proud of you, you know,” I whisper into the quiet, the words carrying all the weight of twenty years of being too much, too strong, too everything. "Not just the CEO who's changing things. Not just the man who breaks pacts for me. All of you. The way you see both sides of me. The way you never ask me to be less."

His breath catches. For a moment, the only sound is the crackling fire and the soft fall of snow outside.

"Mac." His voice roughens as he shifts to look at me properly, green eyes alit under the orange-amber glow. "I've spent twenty years building walls to protect myself from exactly this feeling. Telling myself that love and success couldn't coexist. That I had to choose." His hand curves around my jaw, his hold tender. "Then you threw champagne at me and called out everything wrong with my company, and suddenly all thosewalls seemed pointless. Because you... you're both the hurricane that broke them down and the shelter I never knew I needed."

"Alex..." I reach up, one fingertip trailing along his jawline.

He grabs my hand.

"I love you, Mackenzie Gallo,” he continues, voice thick, words slightly slurred. "The critic and the champion. The warrior and the woman. Every brilliant, impossible, perfect part of you. And I'm done choosing between success and love. I want both. With you."

Tears prick my eyes – happy tears, overwhelming tears.

"Even the part that throws drinks at CEOs?" I manage, though my voice wavers.

"Especially that part." He kisses me softly, reverently, his lips warm and soft against mine. "Though maybe we switch to cheaper beverages. That Sassicaia was actually quite good." His eyes sparkle with amusement, his dimples deepening.

I laugh through my tears, the sound mixing with his softer chuckle, and suddenly we're both laughing and crying and kissing, all the walls finally, completely down.

Snow falls harder outside, but we're warm in our bubble of truth and trust and really excellent sex.

Until my phone buzzes from somewhere in the trail of clothes leading to the bedroom.

"If that's Keith's revolutionary ski patrol," Alex mutters against my neck, his voice a low rumble filled with amusement, "I'm buying the entire mountain just to keep him off it."

"Such a tech bro solution."

"You love it."

"I love…something, alright.” My gaze hangs to the sturdy appendage making itself known between his thighs.

"Prove it."

So, I do.

Several times.

As we make love again and again, I can't help but admire every inch of him, from the sharp edges of his jawline to the soft curves of his lips, from the dark intensity of his eyes to the playful sparkle in his smile.

He is, quite simply, the most beautiful man I have ever seen. And I am completely, utterly in love with him.

22

BOARD GAMES

ALEX

The Monday morning after our mountain getaway dawns crisp and clear in Seattle, the kind of December day that makes the city look like it belongs in a movie. Perfect weather for facing down a board that's increasingly obsessed with unmasking an anonymous blogger who happens to be the woman I spent the weekend falling deeper in love with.

"The board meeting starts in twenty minutes," Emma announces, dropping a stack of reports on my desk. "Gerald's already called three times about the 'concerning social media situation.'" She eyes my slightly rumpled appearance. "I take it the weekend was... productive?"

"The weekend was private." But I can't quite hide my smile, remembering how Mac had looked in the early morning light, snow falling outside while she wore nothing but my dress shirt...

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