Her Alpha CEO

“I love it! It’s just like playing Ark’s Roses when we were kids, but better!” Nina grinned at him in delight, and Brian felt the thrill of excitement at her reaction.

They’d been playing New Moon Rising for most of Saturday morning, and Nina’s response to the game had been better than he’d hoped for.

Cautiously, Brian decided to play his trump card. “Would you like to visit Guidice Games on Monday? See what we do there?”

Nina looked at him in delight. “Really?”

“Really. You’ve had some great ideas about this game, and even though it’s too late into development to work it in, there are other projects on the go that you’d be great at. We — I’d — love to have your input on them.”

Nina squealed, launching herself at him, making him laugh with delight.

*****

Monday morning arrived in a whirl of anticipation for Nina. She’d spent the weekend with Brian, and they’d had lunch with Jen on Sunday.

When they arrived at the office building which house Guidice Games, Nina gasped. He took her on the grand tour, and she was so excited that she could barely think straight.

It was on their way to the cafeteria for lunch, that she felt Brian tense next to her and looked up to see a man approaching them. He looked familiar, but it wasn’t until Brian stepped into his path, and greeted him that Nina realized who he was.

“Tristan. What are you doing here?” Brian’s voice was flat and unwelcoming. Tristan smiled, his expression smug.

“I’m here to put you in your place, Brian. You took what rightfully belonged to me, and now I’ve finally succeeded in proving our father wrong. I do have what it takes to manage a company and make it a success. Knight Gaming has finally overthrown you, the way I always knew it would.”

“Only because you succumbed to corporate espionage. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”

“He did no such thing, Brian!” The words came from a woman who up until then had been standing slightly behind him. She held a clipboard, stepping forward to slip her hand into Tristan’s, her gaze defiant.

“Sabrina. I see you and my brother have become an item.”

Beside him, Nina gasped, her hands coming up to her face as she stared at her sister.

“S-sabrina?” the woman looked at Nina as though she was in a state of shock, and after an inarticulate cry, she turned and hurried away from the three of them.

“What the hell?” Tristan looked torn for a minute, then turned and hurried after her, leaving Brian and Nina staring at each other in surprise.

“Sabrina’s your sister?”

“You know her?”

Nina looked as though she was about to collapse, and Brian wrapped his arm around her shoulders, leading her swiftly to an empty meeting room. She collapsed in a chair.

“We were involved, briefly, a few years ago. I hired her to do some work on a game. It didn’t last long,” he hastened to assure her, but Nina shrugged off his reassurance.

“I need to see her. I need to talk to her, explain that what happened, that it’s in the past. I just want my sister back.”

Brian nodded. “I understand. I’ll speak to Tristan. See what we can arrange.”

“Thank you.” She stared at him, her dark eyes clouded with shock and determination. “It’s time for us all to make things right with our families.”

Reluctantly, Brian had to agree with her. He wasn’t sure what Tristan had meant by proving himself to his father, unless it was the way they’d always been pitted against each other, even as children, but his growing feelings for Nina required that he put aside his desire to rub his success in Tristan’s face.

He was determined to reunite Nina and Sabrina, even though he knew now that the reason Nina had seemed familiar when they first met, was due to his past with her sister. They were nothing alike, of course not, and Brian appreciated Nina for who she was.

It was just that somehow, things between them had grown even more complicated and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

“Nina, you do realize that any relationship you build with your sister now, may be built on her desire to find out about Guidice Games?”

“What?” She glared at him in an expression so similar to Sabrina’s when he’d accused his brother of corporate espionage, that he winced.

“I have evidence of corporate espionage by Knight Gaming.” He held up a hand to silence her protest. “I’m not saying it’s Sabrina – it could be Tristan. But regardless, you’re going to need to be careful.”

“I’m not an idiot, Brian. I won’t give away any of your work secrets to your ex-lover.”

Her voice was venomous, and Brian sighed. This was going to take some careful planning to avoid becoming nasty.