Chapter 3 In the flames of past and present

The men were each lost in thought for a good few seconds as they took in the wise counsel that Alexa had proffered from her lovely lips during her presentation. Each board member had a serious expression on his face and was thinking independently. They were all dressed in the standard shining black or grey suits. Alexa did her best to avoid making eye contact with her ex-husband, who throughout the presentation appeared to be happier somewhere else but whose eyes never once left her.

"So, is that all you have gathered for us so far, Miss Allen?" John asked. He was Alexa's immediate superior and she only man who looked less serious or as she would rather put it, hard faced, compared to every other man in the room. Alexa noticed him ogling her while she made her presentation but she knew he couldn't approach her or make her feel uncomfortable by pushing whatever feelings he had been developing towards her, so she chose not to dwell much on his creepy ways of staring at her. However, it bothered Alexa that her ex-husband's heated stare didn't creep her out. She blamed it on the heat of having to be the only woman sitting in a room full of rich, influential men. The testosterone level was too high.

"Yes, sir. That is all and thank you. Please throw your opinions if you have any so we can make the final draft," she replied him and took her seat while applause went around the room.

"We thank everyone who participated in this honorable meeting and hope all the misunderstandings have been cleared with regards to who'll head the branch in London. The engineering department has sent the new sets of machine sketches and the finance department has also delivered their reports," John further stated. Some of the men mumbled to each other while Alexa made the needed jottings down.

"Is there an agenda we haven't pushed forward?" he asked her, caressing his lower lip with his thumb. Michael noticed the way John Waters was shamelessly ogling Alexa. His left eye twitched.

"We're all good, sir," Alexa replied to John after going through everything on the list.

"Now, does anyone have anything to add before we do the final conclusions?" Michael adjusted in his chair and raised a hand. If not for the particular woman in the room who had taught him that little bit of information a few years back, he would have spoken without signifying. He didn't care about being formal. "I would like to adjust two errors I noted in Mrs-"

"Alexa Allen. Miss Alexa," John finished for him, a proud smile on his face as his eyes roamed slowly over Alexa's form, the same oblivious Alexa who was trying to look unconcerned before her ex-husband.

"Yes, Mrs. Alexa's evaluation," Michael repeated after him, a tight and burning glower fixed on John's face.

Michael's jaws flexed with each word and Alexa found it hard to take her eyes off those sculpted jaws. Those jaws she had pressed her two palms over when they ate her out and sucked on her intimately years ago. The image played in her head and she squirmed to keep herself from getting affected in the nether region, but it was of no use. When she started, it was hard for her thoughts to stop running where he was concerned. She had just regained her composure from the encounter at the elevator, so she shook her head to ward off further thoughts about him.

"The first one is that, the Thomas Company isn't being affiliated with the Petsmoni's as she might have been made to believe. It has been bought...by us."

All heads turned to face each other and they nodded, their facial expressions of approval growing on their faces. Alexa's eyes widened In surprise.

She hadn't been told this important piece of information and now she partially felt like a fool for all the errors that could possibly exist in her presentation. Her immediate boss and the managing director of Petsmoni industry, John Waters, and the overall boss and CEO, Daniel Sullivan both kept quiet, a glum expression on their faces. It was as if talking about the company being sold shamed them in some way.

"Number two is that the name, which John had earlier called you," he pointed at Alexa with a hard expression, "isn't your name and as long as I am agreeing to save the reputation of this company, you will bear your real name."

The silence that fell between them wouldn't match that in a cemetery.

"What do you mean, Sir?" John spoke.

Alexa's mouth dried up for the second time in a day, and it was only ten twenty AM. Partially, she wished the earth would split in a small amount and swallow her alone. The room felt hot, as if it had closed in on her. She suddenly realized she badly needed a good amount of caffeine in her system, or it might shut down!

"Her actual name is Monica Barry, no longer O'Brien. It hasn't been O'Brien for four years." He gritted out.

Alexa felt flustered that he would dare say such a thing in the presence of so many business associates, though she knew half of them, having gotten introduced to them over time in the company.

That still wasn't the case at hand. The meeting was a professional one and should be handled thus.

"That has nothing to do with the issue on the ground." She spat with a flared nose.

"It has everything to do with it. Also, John, this is a formal gathering. Never address her as Alexa but Mrs. Barry, ever again!" Michael ordered sternly, ignoring the scowl on his wife's face.

"What is it to you?" John demanded from Michael with a contorted expression.

Alexa kept quiet and wondered where the discussion was going. Michael had royally ruined her day, despite the several plans she had gone through to make it a success, that too in the presence of two representatives from other companies, some board members, and her CEO.

"She is my wife." The man spoke straightforwardly. The other board members began to murmur amongst themselves again.

"Was!" Alexa corrected him with a growl.

Her head was getting hotter by the minute. Her bosses were looking at her with both shocked and incredulous looks.

"Al- Mrs. Alexa, is this true?" John asked with a red face. Obviously, the information was too much for him and it put him in a tight spot. He'd been flaunting her office familiarity with him around and speaking to her so casually so other company officials would think they were an item.

As Alexa looked at John, she couldn't tell if the redness on his face was due to anger or embarrassment, after all his generosity towards her. He probably thought he had a chance with the woman.

"I can explain, Sir. This man was my husband four years ago." She spat. She didn't know why she was even explaining herself.

"Still is. And you don't need to explain yourself to anyone." Michael spoke, the aura emitting off him slowly warning Alexa to be careful. She eyed him with so much anger and hoped she would refrain herself from doing something like stabbing him with a pen in one of his luscious thighs.

"Alright. Gentlemen, we are really sorry for how this meeting will be ending, and I won't let it ruin the minute. The meeting has come to a close now, and we'll keep working according to the plan." Mr. Sullivan finally spoke.

The silence stretched in the room before the men began to get up one by one and shake hands. They left, and Alexa was remaining in the room with John and Michael.

"I would like to be alone with my wife." Michael told John, who was lingering around. He opened his mouth to object but then swallowed and nodded, taking his leave.

Alexa felt the tears of anger gathering in her eyes, but she blinked rapidly and willed herself not to cry. She was more than embarrassed, especially with how her ex-husband dared to act in a meeting. The cocky bastard wasn't worth her tears, and she would be damned if he thought he was.

"You already did your worst. This is nothing." She managed to say, making sure her emotions were in check. She had stayed away from him, but the son of a gun had to ruin her day on their first meeting after four solid years.

"I didn't come here to ruin anything, and I didn't ruin anything all those years when you left me too."

"You didn't? Then who did? Was I the one that ruined things then? Tell me!"

"It is hard for you to accept the blame, so you push it on others." He snapped darkly. Alexa felt the stab in her heart, anger flaring deep inside her with his words. He had no right to say that after what he did. Anger burned in her chest and begged to be unleashed on the ignoramus fellow sitting across the conference table from her.

She left her seat and made her way to him, raising her hand to strike him on the cheek but he caught it easily with a hard expression. The furious look in his eyes turned Alexa on in a way that baffled her, and she rested her lower self on the conference table for support before her legs would give out on her.

"Wh-why have you come here, Michael? What do you want?" Her breathing became ragged due to the close proximity between them. Looking intently at her with his brown orbed gaze, Michael gently picked her hand and brought it to his lips to trace lingering kisses on each finger. He couldn't resist the urge to feel her skin against his palm. Her breath intake increased rapidly, and her eyes became clouded with desire as she stared at his chin.

Memories of how the light-growing stubbles tickled her when they made love had her pressing her legs together desperately.

This should stop! She hated how her body reacted to his touches.

"I have come for you." At this, Alexa threw her head back and laughed softly. Then she sobered.

"We both know that is impossible." She said slowly. Her voice sounded strange in her own ears. Like she needed to carefully explain to Michael how absurd he sounded.

"Is it?" The challenge in his eyes was fierce.Placing his palms on her waist, he pulled her closer to him, and her breath hitched. Paralyzed with the familiar feeling, his touch sent jolts of electricity through her skin.

Alexa's eyes weakly darted to his lips as his intense brown eyes bore into her. She had been trapped. She knew she was no match for the man she thought she had moved on from because at the end, her heart was still in his palms whether he knew it or not. Still, she'd be damned if he ever found that out.

"I think we've spent enough time talking."

"Talking isn't what I want with you, my love."

Michael said with slightly dilated pupils. She knew what that meant. He was turned on.

"Don't do that, Michael. I'm not your love. And you need to let me go because I have other things to tend to. More important things-" In a split second, his lips were on hers.

"What do you think you're doing?" She asked against his lips, even though her words were muffled by his lips on hers. Michael's left arm went around her, pulling her flush against him, while his right hand fisted the back of his head. He kissed her. Raw. Hungrily. With fire.

She tried to pull away, but when he thrust his tongue into her mouth and used a finger from the nape of her neck to caress the spot behind her ear, Alexa found herself losing the fight. That spot was her weak spot, and the idiot knew it. She glared at his shut eyes even as they kissed. When she tried to bite his lip, Michael moaned against her lips and broke away to mutter how kissing her was still so addictive, and then he was kissing her again. Her heart beat frantically against her chest.

He was enjoying this, matching the fury in his eyes as their lips moved against each other. She couldn't restrain herself from the brute man, she yielded to his touch. Sighs were swallowed with closed eyes, and Alexa fought her body's urge to press itself into his chest when he pulled her closer impossibly to himself. His left hand slowly traced her side to cup her left breast, sending shock rippling through her nipples.

No one ever touched her right before him, and after she left him, she hadn't gone on dates, let alone being intimate with any man. Michael's other hand firmly hoisted her up the long conference table, and she wrapped her legs around him in desperation to reduce whatever space was left between them.

He traced the same hand over her skirt without taking his lips off hers, and she easily parted her legs to give him more access as her skirt gathered up to her waist with his tugging. The fact that they might get caught didn't register as she allowed him to trace his hand towards her sex and feel how excited she was.

"Goodness babe, I've missed this." ...Michael whispered out of the ongoing pleasure and they both had intimacy. "Come back to me." He muttered and pressed his lips down on hers again.

She pushed him off her and got to her feet, adjusting the creases of her skirt and top. Then she packed her things and tried to look as unaffected as believable even with her sleekness still smearing between her thighs. "If you're think what we just did qualifies us to be more than exes, then you're delusional.

After what happened between us, I'l let you know that this means nothing. It won't change the fact that we might please each other sexually but that doesn't mean we're ever going to be an item again. You were only a means to an end. Have a nice day, Ambrosia."

She grinned at the businessman when she noticed the tick in his jaw, relishing the fact that she had the upper hand and, for once, rendered the man mute.