An Executive Decision (17 page)

‘Beverly had 30 years of experience on you, Dee.’

She stopped dancing, and glared at him. ‘And my lack of experience gives you the right to treat me like a naughty child?’

He pulled her back into the dance, holding her closer. ‘I wouldn’t have to treat you like a naughty child if you didn’t act like one.’

‘You started it.’

‘I didn’t start it. Daniels started it.’

‘He kept the evening and possibly the whole alliance from ending in disaster.’

‘Did he really? I’m inclined to believe he manipulated the situation just to get you to himself.’ Daniels had deserted the Scribal rep and stood once again on the edge of the dance floor with Yvette Rousseau, his full attention on Dee.

‘If he doesn’t quit staring at you,’ Ellis growled, ‘I’m going to break his arm.’

Dee gave a glance in the direction of the Trouvères contingent. ‘So now you’re mad at him for looking at me? I haven’t heard, Ellis, has Marston declared that a crime as well?’

‘Don’t be naïve, Dee. Where you’re concerned, this whole mess was just the opportunity Daniels has been waiting for.’ In a flood of possessiveness, Ellis pulled her close, forcing a startled rush of oxygen from her lungs. She made no attempt to re-establish proper dance posture as the anger between them dissipated to something much more intriguing.

He was just about to apologise, make his excuses to Marston and whisk Dee away to somewhere quiet and intimate, when the music stopped, the band took a break, and Dee was pulled away by several of the Scribal party. He was about to follow when his BlackBerry rang. It was Wade, calling from Portland. Sometimes days went by with Ellis not hearing from Wade, but the one thing the man didn’t have was a sense of timing, so if he thought he had something to say, he’d call anytime, day or night, and when he did, it was usually important. Ellis exited to the balcony for a little privacy. Twenty minutes later, he returned to the party.

‘You’re looking for Dee, right?’ A breathless Stacie met him at the French doors. She grabbed Ellis’s hand and led him toward the marble staircase.

‘You know where she is?’

‘Of course. Come on. I’ve been trying to get a minute with her since the last set. Alan got pulled away for an important phone call in his study and I couldn’t seem to pry her away from the French contingent. Oh Ellis, I’m just dying to get to know her a little better.’ She pulled him up the wide, spiralling steps, taking them two at a time. She’s just gone up to the ladies’ room up here and I thought maybe –’ Stacie missed the last step, turned her ankle and, with a loud yelp, practically fell on top of Ellis, who would have gone over backward if he hadn’t been holding on to the rail.

‘Ouch! Oh damn it! I knew I shouldn’t have worn these shoes,’ She crumpled against Ellis and he half carried, half dragged her to a furnished alcove directly across from the closed door of the bathroom. The hall was dimly lit, and the alcove even more so.

‘Jesus, Stacie, when are you gonna learn to be careful? You know you can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. How many times have I had to cart you off to the emergency room?’

‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Ellis. It’s just that I’m so excited.’ She sucked a harsh breath between her teeth. ‘Oh shit, that hurts.’

He seated her on the small love seat and knelt to ease off her shoe. ‘OK, let me look at it. What did you do?’

She lifted her skirt. ‘Ellis, I think I sprained my ankle. It really hurts.’

‘Here, let me see it. Just relax.’ He knelt in front of her and eased the shoe off. ‘It looks like it’s already swelling. Damn it, Stacie, if I hadn’t been there to catch you, you could have broken your neck. God, it’s black and blue clear up your shin. I hope you didn’t break it.’

Stacie gasped and shifted in the chair. Her eyes watered from the pain. ‘Oh! Oh Ellis, oh God. Ah!’

And that was how Dee found him when she came out of the bathroom, on his knees between the hiked skirt and open legs of his ex-fiancée, who was moaning and writhing on the loveseat in front of him.

Ellis had no doubt as to what it looked like to Dee. For a brief moment, their eyes met.  The whole débacle lasted seconds, but to Ellis it seemed as though he were freeze-framed on perpetual display – a reluctant participant in Stacie’s eternal clumsiness. As long as he’d known her, Stacie had been an accident waiting to happen. He’d have preferred an unpleasant scene with scorching reprimands to what happened next. In fact, he would have preferred almost anything to what happened next. Dee let him off the hook. She simply turned and hurried noiselessly past and down the steps.

He sat stunned, half nauseated, remembering again why he avoided Stacie.

‘Oh God, Ellis,’ Stacie whimpered. ‘Oh God, I’m so sorry. I know how that must have looked. If you just let me talk to her, I’m sure I can sort everything out.’ She tried to stand, then winced and crumpled in agony.

‘Jesus, Stacie, you’ve done enough already. Just leave Dee alone, all right? And you need to stay off that ankle. I think I saw Marston’s doctor downstairs. They play golf together. I’ll get the maid to send him up.’ He lifted her from the chair and found an empty guest room. When he had her settled on the bed with the already swollen ankle elevated on a pillow, he asked one of Marston’s staff to fetch the doctor, then he headed downstairs to find Dee.

‘There you are. Marston’s been looking for you.’ Daniels came to his side. ‘He’s just called Dee and Yvette and me into his study. You’re the only missing lamb. He didn’t look happy.’

‘So what else is new?’ Ellis said, falling into step with Daniels, skirting the dance floor where the guests were now doing a disco set.

Daniels looked down at his watch. ‘I hope whatever it is doesn’t take long. I know this lovely place I was planning to take Dee to listen to French poetry and drink expensive wine as soon as I can drag her away from Marston.’ He continued as though he was oblivious to deadly look Ellis unabashedly levelled at him. ‘I’m not much on French poetry, personally, but the company would be exquisite, and who says we have to listen?’

‘I’m curious how your wife would feel about that?’ Ellis said.

Daniels shot him a quick glance. ‘Oh, Lydia and I are separated. The divorce’ll be final soon.’

Daniels was getting a divorce. How convenient. Ellis wondered why Dee hadn’t told him this. He’d given her ample opportunity while they were dancing. Surely she didn’t return the bastard’s feelings? But then, Ellis reminded himself, they had both agreed they were free to see other people if they wanted to. Had he just missed the clues? Dee was always so adamant that she wasn’t interested in Daniels. Ellis’s fist ached from his sudden desire to bury it in the man’s smug face, and after what had already happened this evening, the veneer of civility was wearing very thin.

In Marston’s study, they were all seated on two heavy sofas of burgundy leather on either side of a large coffee table, drinks in hand. Marston’s ample backside was overflowing the seat of a ladder-backed chair at one end. When everyone was present and the double doors were closed behind them, he shifted nervously in the chair and unbuttoned the jacket of his tux.

He took a deep breath and said, ‘Terrance Jamison just offered me a birthday present I’m afraid I can’t refuse.’ The room was deadly silent. He tossed back the whiskey he had switched to at some point in the evening and ran a thick thumb around the top of the glass. ‘It appears there’s considerably more forest in that tract in Valderia than what he first offered me, and the increased acreage means a lower price.’

‘Clear-cut,’ Ellis said. ‘Al, you can’t be considering clear-cutting virgin forest, surely?’

Marston drew his lips tight around his teeth and nodded. ‘Yes, clear-cut, Ellis. It’s not ideal but I have a lot of people whose jobs depend on my choices, and five years will buy me the time to maybe consider something innovative with Trouvères here. By then maybe you’ll have ironed out your personnel problems –’ he nodded to Dee ‘– and you’ll have someone who knows what they’re doing to present me with the facts.’

Dee’s back stiffened, and Ellis’s stiffened in sympathy. He didn’t know if Marston knew French or not, but he knew enough himself to know what Yvette said under her breath was not complimentary. She laid a supportive hand on Dee’s arm.

He was just about to launch into Marston when Dee said, way more calmly than he was sure he could have managed in the circumstances, ‘May I have your napkin, Mr Marston?’

He handed it to her, too surprised by her request to question. Maybe he though she was going to tear up and cry. He got that one way wrong, Ellis thought. He was about to intervene, then changed his mind. Damn it, the woman deserved her say. She took a pen from her bag and began to write furiously on the napkin. For a long second no one said anything. They just sat there and watched Dee scribble. Then Marston shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ‘Really, Ms Henning, I think you’d just –’

She held her hand up, and he fell silent. For another endless second she continued to write. Ellis, who found himself unconsciously leaning over her shoulder, could see that it was mostly figures.

‘Ms Henning, what in the hell are you doing?’

‘Let her finish,’ Ellis said. ‘You owe her that much.’

She filled the napkin, grabbed a second from Yvette, and filled that too. At last she spoke. ‘Mr Marston, you wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t listen to me, wouldn’t give me a chance to prove to you that this project would mean way more to you than five years of destroying virgin forest. You’ve abused me, you’ve insulted me, you’ve done everything in your power to make my life miserable, you’ve treated me like I was some unethical gold-digger, but I’ve put up with your bullshit because I believe in this project, because I know it’s good for your company, and because Beverly believed in you. Beverly considered you a worthy and loyal friend.’ She slapped down the pen and shoved both napkins in his direction. ‘And up until now, I believed Beverly was never wrong.’

She stood and walked out the door as calmly as if she’d just left the dinner table.

Ellis grabbed the napkins and scanned them, then let out low whistle. ‘Jesus Christ,’ he whispered.

‘
Mon Dieu
!’ Yvette leaned over Ellis’s shoulder. ‘Did you know this? Does Monsieur Crittenden know this?’

He shook his head. ‘Wade might. I certainly didn’t.’

‘What the hell is it?’ Marston said.

‘Dee’s just written out the 10 – no, wait a minute –’ he strained his eyes at the corner of the napkin, ‘make that 15-year projections of how an alliance between Scribal, Trouvères, and Pneuma would benefit Scribal, taking into account improvements in technology over time, money spent for upgrading as needed and inflation at 2 per cent.’

‘And the benefits for Trouvères as well,’ Yvette said. She clucked her tongue. ‘Oh Monsieur Marston, you are a very foolish man. A very foolish man indeed.’

Ellis shoved the napkins at Marston and stood. ‘Happy Birthday, Al.’ At the door he turned back. ‘Two things you need to know. I’ll fight you tooth and nail if you go through with this deal to clear-cut virgin forest. If there’s a way to stop you, I will find it, and I’ll make damn sure that Trouvères benefits in the extreme for their alliance with Pneuma Inc. And second, if you’d bothered to ask, I would have told you that Beverly hand-picked Dee as my executive assistant before she went off to Brazil.’

He left without closing the door, pushing his way past the dance floor and past the doorman, his heart racing in his chest. He had to catch Dee.

Chapter Twenty-five

The taxi was just pulling away with Dee in it when Ellis got outside Marston’s building. He caught the next one. Immediately he called his lawyers and turned up the fire under their asses to find out anything and everything they could about loopholes, laws, regulations, whatever might thwart Jamison. It didn’t take him long. He talked, they listened, assured him they were on it and hung up. And then, all the rest of the way to the hotel, he replayed, in his head, everything that had just happened in the past few hours. Dee was brilliant! She was bloody brilliant! He knew she was good, but he was completely stunned at just how good. Beverly had known, though. Beverly truly
was
never wrong.

And in spite of everything that had just happened, in spite of the pending disaster with Marston, and with the forest in Valderia, by the time Ellis paid the taxi in front of the hotel, the only thing on his mind was Dee. The day had been a nightmare on all counts until her brilliance had put everything in perspective. Their work was cut out for them, but right now, this moment, it was her he needed, and he wanted her with an ache that was almost physical. He wanted to apologise, he wanted her to forgive him, he wanted to tell her that she was amazing. But, most of all, he just wanted her.

When he opened the door to their suite, he found her on her BlackBerry, pacing the sitting room floor, still dressed in that outrageously sexy gown, still wearing those shoes he wanted to fuck right off her. And the sight of her made him want her even more. He motioned to her to hang up. When she saw him, she nodded her greeting, said her goodbyes and disconnected. ‘Ellis, that was –’

He crossed the room in two strides, took the device from her hand, and tossed it on the over-stuffed chair. Then he took her mouth in a hard, brutal kiss, feeling her teeth against his tongue, biting her lip and tasting the sweet flavour of her breath. When he finally pulled away, gasping, she said, ‘You’re angry.’

‘Hell yes, I’m angry. Aren’t you?’

‘Of course I am. Furious, but –’

‘I want you, Dee,’ he said, feeling her chest expand against him, forcing her breasts more tightly to him. ‘I want you so damned bad I can’t stand it.’

Struggling to breathe, she pressed a hand to his sternum, putting distance between them that he didn’t want, distance that deepened the ache which now felt like it would split him in two. ‘Ellis.’ She spoke his name carefully, as though she were afraid she might damage it somehow. She studied him for what felt like an eternity, and if he hadn’t wanted the rest of her so badly, he could have gotten lost in the depths of those eyes. ‘Ellis.’ Her voice was barely more than a breath. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Jesus, Dee –’ He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. ‘I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. You have to know what happened between Stacie and me, what you saw, it wasn’t what it looked like.’

She shook her head and closed her eyes. ‘I don’t need to know, Ellis. I just need to know you’re sure that this … That the Sex Clause …’ She suddenly seemed at a loss for words.

‘I’m sure, Dee.’ He kissed her and worried her bottom lip between the tug of his teeth and tongue. ‘I promise you, I’m sure.’ Then he took matters into his own hands. He didn’t want a discussion; he just wanted Dee, here and now.

She let out a little whimper of surprise as he turned her bodily and bent her over the bare top of the cherry wood desk. He moved in close behind her so his aching cock pressed through his trousers against the silk-sheathed crevice between her buttocks. Then he rested splayed hands on each of her shoulders and ran them along the sides of her spine, his tongue and lips and teeth taking the middle route along the vertebrae, causing her to shiver and gooseflesh as he worked his way down. ‘I had no idea it was possible for a woman to have such an outrageously arousing back,’ he said between kisses and nibbles. ‘Jesus, Dee, you had me hard all through the damned party, I wanted to touch this back so badly.’ He pressed a kiss to the base of her spine where the gown barely covered the intimation of the cleft of her ass. She groaned, and her hips rocked forward then back to press her bottom against his chest.

‘Lift your skirt for me, now,’ he ordered. ‘I know what you have under there and I want it.’

She was already obliging before the words were out of his mouth. He made quick work of his fly and shoved his trousers and boxers down over his hips. ‘Jesus, Dee, you’re not wearing underwear?’

‘There wasn’t any room under the dress,’ she hissed. ‘Besides, I was in a hurry.’

‘Fuck! If I’d known there was nothing between the dress and you, I’d have completely embarrassed both of us right there on the dance floor. I never know what to expect with …’ His words trailed off. In fact, he pretty much forgot how to speak as she eased the skirt up over the rounded pillows of her butt, and slowly, tortuously, revealed the soft, moist press of her slit, little more than a swollen suggestion peeking from between the demure clench of her thighs below the deep cleft of her buttocks and the dark knot of her anus. He eased her thighs apart with one hand, and suddenly he couldn’t breathe at the sight of the slick, tender pout of her. The rocking of her hips had grown more insistent, and he could smell her arousal, reminding him of the sea in the heat of summer. He slid two fingers down over her perineum, in between her heavy lips, and she gripped him with a little sigh that nearly sent him over the edge.

She sucked breath, then whispered, ‘Do it, Ellis. I need you to fuck me. Please don’t keep me waiting.’ With one hand on her left buttock, she pulled herself open to further emphasise her need, which only inflamed Ellis more.

He rested a palm on the small of her back, just above the tangle of silk, and with the other he guided the leaden reach of his erection to part her, entering her slowly, feeling her yield grudgingly, deliciously. Jesus, she felt better than anything! Then he thrust hard, running his hands over her spine, kneading her, palming her, shoving up against the ridges of her vertebrae with the heel of his hand, feeling her give and shift and undulate beneath him, all supple and soft and hard at the same time.

She reached behind her neck and undid the hooks that secured the top of her dress in place. With a serpentine arch of her body it fell away, and she grabbed his hands and guided them around to cup the sway and bounce of her heavy-nippled breasts.

‘Dee, I can’t hold out much longer.’ He spoke in harsh gasps against her ear.

‘Me neither,’ she whispered.

Then it had to happen. He slipped one hand down over her belly and gave her clit a hard stroke with his thumb just as he thrust. She growled and bucked back against him, her orgasm tightening her already exquisite grip around his cock still further, and he gave in, convulsing in wave after wave inside her, feeling a visceral sense of release that, if he’d had the wit left to think about, he would have suspected might be far more than just the relief of sexual tension.

Suddenly, in what felt like serious déjà vu, Dee’s BlackBerry rang. She shoved him off her and scrambled for it.

He cursed at the jarring sense of disconnection. ‘What is it with that damn thing and coitus interruptus.’

‘It wasn’t interruptus,’ she said, struggling to catch her breath. ‘Besides, this is an important call from my Uncle Gustavo.’

She answered it in French.

‘You’re talking to your uncle? That’s it. I’m gonna toss the fucking BlackBerry out the window,’ he growled under his breath. He yanked off his bowtie, and was giving some serious contemplation to the demise of the offending device when Dee switched to English. ‘OK, I’m putting you on speakerphone now, Uncle Gustavo. I know Ellis will want to hear this. Give me a second.’ She turned to Ellis and nodded for him to pull up his trousers.

‘Why would I want to talk to your uncle?’ he said, jerking his boxers up.

‘Because he’s the undersecretary for the Valderian Department of Natural Resources.’

Before Ellis had time to do more than make a couple of shocked fish-gasps, Dee was introducing him to Gustavo Rojas.

‘Mr Thorne, my niece has made me aware of your situation,’ came the greeting in perfect English. ‘I don’t have much time, but for Deirdre, I’d do anything, she knows that.’ Before Ellis could mumble even a thank you or a greeting, the man, clearly used to the no-nonsense approach, continued. ‘Though the sale and management of mineral and timber rights are not my jurisdiction, I am able to throw my weight around a little, so to speak. I can make sure there’s a bit more red tape involved. That’s not unusual when certain hands think they haven’t yet been greased adequately, if you get my meaning. I’ll do my best to generate a few delays to slow Terrance Jamison’s progress and perhaps buy you a little more time. Sadly, the contracts have already been signed. All that remains are formalities, I’m very sorry to say. If that were not the case, I might have been able to be of more help to you.’

‘Of course I understand that, sir.’ Ellis sat on the sofa next to Dee. ‘How much time are we looking at?’

‘Perhaps a week, maybe two if I’m lucky. But sooner or later, you must understand, the right hands will be greased and the situation will be beyond anything I can do. I am sorry.’

Ellis glanced at Dee and found her watching him. He held her gaze. ‘Then we’ll have to work fast, won’t we?’

‘If there’s anything else I find out or anything else I can do, I’ll be in touch. And please don’t hesitate to call me. And Deirdre, darling, it’s lovely to hear you. But next time, perhaps you will call for something less distressing and we may have a proper chat.’

Dee blushed that lovely blush that Ellis took way more pleasure in than he had realised until just now. ‘Thanks, uncle. The next time I call, I promise I’ll bore you with way more information than you’ll ever want to hear.’

‘You could never bore me, my darling. But now I must go. I’m late for a meeting. I wish both of you the best of luck.’

Dee reached across the coffee table and disconnected the BlackBerry.

Ellis sat stunned, open-flied, shirt untucked, staring at his executive assistant. ‘Your uncle is the undersecretary for the Valderian Department of Natural Resources?’

Dee sat holding the top of her dress over her breasts, still staring thoughtfully at her BlackBerry. ‘Well, he’s not really my uncle. He’s my father’s sometime lover.’

‘Your father’s gay?’

She offered him a warm smile. ‘My father’s versatile, and he and Uncle Gustavo are kindred spirits. They had to keep their relationship pretty low-key, of course, but back then Uncle Gustavo was only a low-ranking civil servant, and no one paid much attention. It was easier for them then.’ Ellis watched while she booted her laptop, absently clasping the halter of the dress back behind her neck. ‘My visits to Paris to see my father were always best when Uncle Gustavo was there. I never had a real uncle. Both my parents are only children.’

There were so many questions he wanted to ask her, so much he wanted to know about the mysterious young Deirdre running around Paris with her opera-singing father and his secret diplomatic lover. Suddenly he found himself wishing Beverly had gathered more information about Dee, so much more. She sat down next to him and plopped the computer on the coffee table where they both could see it. ‘I’ve been doing some research.’

He zipped his fly and scooted closer so he could see the monitor, struggling to concentrate on something other than the scent of their blended sex which was all over her. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘I’ve got my lawyers on it, and I think we should give Wade a call, meet with him as soon as we get home. You OK to take an earlier flight?’

‘I’ve already made reservations for the first flight out.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘For both of us?’

‘I figured you’d think this was important enough to merit a quick return home. Besides you, only stayed on to placate Marston.’

He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. ‘Jesus, Dee, where have you been all my life?’ He leaned over and kissed her hard on the mouth, pulling away far more quickly than he wanted to, but knowing if he didn’t he’d have her again right there on the sofa, and that would have to wait. ‘OK, we’ve got a week, maybe two, to prevent a disaster. Let’s use it wisely. I’ll have room service bring up sandwiches and coffee. Lots of coffee.’

‘And some iced tea.’ She was already pulling up maps of the Valderian forest slated to be clear-cut.

Several hours and a lively conference call with Wade in Portland later, Ellis took off his glasses and laid them on the coffee table. Then he raised his arms over his head and stretched, arching upward over the back of the sofa until his navel peeked from beneath his untucked shirt and the waistband of his trousers. At the sight of him doing something so ordinary, so unassuming, Dee’s stomach did the little clench it always did when she had been totally pulled in by the man’s genius only to be pulled back out again by the his animal physicality. They were still in their worse-for-the-wear party clothes, him rumpled and only partially buttoned, her barely concealed in silk that crinkled and clung and smelled of sex.

‘There’s not much more we can do here, Dee. Wade will have more for us in the possible techno-bribery department when we get back to Portland.’ He palmed her laptop shut, and his dark gaze was suddenly locked on her. ‘I need a shower, a long, hot, steamy one. Would you care to join me?’

Everything in her felt somehow softened and warmed as he offered her his hand and helped her up from the sofa. When she stood, she felt the heated wetness of his semen from their earlier lovemaking against the inside of her thigh, and the smell of him aroused, him angry, him impatient, him brilliant hugged her like a second skin. She wasn’t so anxious to wash away that scent, but she was pretty sure washing wasn’t really what he had in mind, and that made her own scent thicken with anticipation. He led her to his bathroom, where he stripped out of his shirt and regulated the water in the big sandstone shower. She stood watching, still struggling to get her head around the idea that Ellison Thorne,
the
Ellison Thorne, who she had admired, practically worshipped from afar for so long, was flesh and blood and lust and passion and all of those things her fantasies were made of. All of those things had moved her, inspired her long before she knew him personally, but when he was like he was tonight, irritable, vulnerable, needy, human, smelling of their sex and about to shower in her arms, he moved her most of all.