An Executive Decision (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-eight

Ellis took the elevator from the tenth floor, all the while fighting the urge to go back and wait for Dee so they could finish what they started. It would only take a minute for him to clear up the misunderstanding, that’s all. He should have known Stacie couldn’t leave well enough alone. Her intentions were good, but the road to hell was paved with them, wasn’t it? One minute Dee had been in his arms, open and vulnerable, and the next she had been the stone maiden with all deflector shields up. Under the circumstances, how could he expect anything else? She was his executive assistant, and she behaved as such. Once again, he wished she wasn’t quite so good at playing the game.

When he was out on the freeway, Ellis headed home without bothering to call Stacie. In truth, he hadn’t even looked at the card she’d given him. Surely she didn’t really expect him to come to her in her hotel room? He had no intention of meeting her. He didn’t owe her an explanation. He didn’t owe her anything. And he couldn’t imagine what she might have to say to him that was important enough for her to ruin his weekend. He’d planned to ask Dee home with him for dinner and a quiet evening. He didn’t like the tension between them, and he’d hoped tonight they’d be able to straighten things out. Now, thanks to Stacie, he’d be alone – not a first for him by a long shot, but he found it much more difficult when he knew Dee would also be alone.

He stared out the windshield at the lights from thinning traffic and wondered if Dee would spend the evening cooped up with the Scribal files. He should have talked to her. But how could he explain Stacie without digging up a chunk of the past he’d rather not be reminded of, and about which he certainly preferred Dee knew nothing. He wondered what she did in the evenings. Did she play piano? Did she sing? Maybe she had a lover he knew nothing about. The thought made him queasy as he pictured the conversation in his head.

“So how was it at the office today, honey? Your boss did you on his desk? How unoriginal is that?”

Surely it was ridiculous to even consider. He couldn’t imagine her agreeing to the Sex Clause if she were in love with someone else. She wasn’t that kind of woman. And certainly no man who was lucky enough to merit Dee’s heart would want to share her with anyone. Then there was Daniels. She always brushed any mention of the man aside, but he was persistent, and he knew exactly what he wanted. Ellis knew exactly what he wanted too, and that’s what worried him.

At home, Harold met him at the door and took his computer bag. ‘Anything I need to know about?’ Ellis asked.

‘Only that your brother arrived an hour ago,’ the butler said.

Just what he didn’t need right now; both Stacie and Garrett in the same state with him. He swallowed back his frustration. ‘Garrett’s here?’

Harold fell into step beside him. ‘Not at the moment, no. He went into town. But I think he plans to stay a while. I had his things delivered to the guest suite.’

Concern replaced the surge of anger Ellis felt at his brother’s part in the mess with Stacie. Garrett hadn’t been to visit in three years. ‘Is he all right?’

‘He’s thin, and he looks tired.’ Harold gave a knowing nod. ‘Love problems again, I assume.’

‘Isn’t it always?’ Ellis undid his tie and slid out of his jacket, both of which Harold gathered from him. ‘I thought he and Amy had worked out all their problems. But things change fast in the world of love.’

‘True.’ The butler draped the jacket and tie neatly over his arm. ‘Dinner at 9.00?’

Ellis looked down at his watch. ‘Make it 9.30. I want to swim a few laps to work out the kinks.’ He rotated his shoulders and stretched his neck. ‘Then I’ll take a peek at the sky.’

‘Ah yes, the Perseids. I hear it’ll be good viewing this year.’

‘Oh, and Harold, if Garrett comes back before too late, let me know. Maybe we’ll watch together.’

Ellis headed to the pool. For him, time was always tight, and he’d given up almost everything that wasn’t Pneuma Inc., but the swimming he held on to.

He had the Perseids to look forward to tonight. It was usually one of the best meteor showers of the year. He might not be able to avail himself as regularly as he had in the past to the wonders of the universe, but he still knew the cycles like he knew his own heartbeat. These days, when he indulged in the beauty of the night sky, it was a solitary affair. It had taken years of encouragement from Beverly before he could even face that without the pain of the past and the shame that went with it.

Beverly had told him repeatedly that it wasn’t his shame, but he still felt it, and he had never, in all the years since he left Caltech, shared his passion with anyone else. He had hoped to share it with Dee tonight. Perhaps there would be another time.

Once changed, he did a few brisk warm-up stretches at the end of the pool and executed a perfect racing dive into an easy crawl stroke. By the third lap, he relaxed into his pace. His mind was clear of all else but the movement of his body slicing endlessly through the water. By the fifth lap, his brain had settled and cleared itself so he was focused. He’d call Dee when he was finished swimming. No law said he couldn’t. If she was busy, she was busy, but if she wasn’t he’d send Jeffries for her, whether she was at the office or at home, and he’d have her here within an hour. Better yet, he’d go get her himself in the Jeep and he’d drive her up on the back side of Mount Hood. He’d have Galina pack a couple of sandwiches and a couple of warm blankets. That would be a far better place to watch the Perseids, and then … He smiled as he imagined watching the spectacular meteor shower under a clear sky, wrapped around Dee, keeping her warm with his body while he gave her a tour of the night sky. And when he had shown her as much as they could see with the naked eye, when she had been dazzled and amazed by the fireworks display of the Perseids, he’d see if the two of them could generate a few fireworks of their own.

‘Why aren’t you with Dee?’ He looked up to see Stacie barefoot at the edge of the pool. He had been so focused on his plans for Dee that he hadn’t seen her come in.

‘It’s not really your business how I spend my evening, Stacie.’ He continued swimming, hoping she’d go away, but knowing she wouldn’t.

After the last lap, he pulled himself up to the edge of the pool next to her, but didn’t get out.

Stacie wore a blue sundress that buttoned down the front and belted at the waist. Her hair was gathered in a loose ponytail. With one bare foot, she kicked at the water splashing him playfully, then giggled. ‘I hate you, Ellis Thorne. You’re the only man I know who looks great in a Speedo without gyms, or personal trainers. Me, I have to spend a fortune on both.’

He moved back slightly, out of splashing range. ‘How did you get in here? Harold knows better than to let strangers wander through the house.’

‘I’m hardly a stranger, Ellis, and just because Harold left me to wait in the sitting room doesn’t mean I’ll wait. You know how tenacious I am. If I want to see you bad enough I’ll figure out a way.’

Just then, as though he had heard his name, Harold appeared at poolside. ‘I’m sorry, I left Ms Emerson –’

Ellis raised a hand. ‘It’s all right, Harold, there are some things even you have no control over.’

‘Right.’ The butler’s eyes might have sparkled, but the rest of the face remained completely neutral as he turned on his heels and left.

With a feline stretch of her neck, Stacie looked around the pool area. ‘So I’ll ask you again, Ellis, why the hell isn’t Dee here with you? She can swim, can’t she? And even if she can’t, there are other things you could do together in a pool.’

When he didn’t give her an immediate answer, her face softened to something nearing empathy. ‘She wouldn’t come with you? Because of me? Oh Ellis, I knew I should have stayed and made things right.’

The alarm bells always went off in his head when Stacie or Garrett suddenly had the overwhelming desire to make things right for him. ‘It’s none of my business what my executive assistant does on Friday night, Stacie. When she’s not on Pneuma time, she does as she pleases.’ And he wanted her to do what she pleased with him, but he sure as hell didn’t want Stacie to know that.

Stacie nodded as though she completely understood now. ‘She thinks you’re with me.’

‘No! Maybe. I don’t know, I didn’t ask her.’

‘Well why not, Ellis? Why didn’t you make sure she knew? Why didn’t you just tell her that I wish you both the best? I’m absolutely elated that you found someone as brilliant as she is who’s hot and sexy and interesting enough for you to implement the Executive Sex Clause. Garrett and I have been saying all along that this is exactly what needed to happen; for you to find someone and get off your abstinence kick.’

Ellis bristled. ‘Who said anything about abstinence?’

She shrugged. ‘Well not now, obviously, but pre-Dee Henning, you were much sought after and totally unavailable. Some of my friends even thought you were gay. I set them straight on that, of course. And speaking of abstinence, you did hear that Garrett’s little ballerina cut him off, didn’t you?’

‘No, I hadn’t heard. Harold said he showed up here earlier this evening. But he decided to go into town. I haven’t seen him yet.’

She scooted closer to the edge of the pool. Ellis knew this was the bit where Stacie imparted the latest gossip, and since she had a better relationship with Garrett than he did, he moved closer and listened. ‘I phoned him a little while ago. Apparently she feels he’s interfering with her dancing – no time for both love and career. It’s the tragedy of the modern world, as you and Dee well know.’ She clucked her tongue. ‘Too bad he wasn’t able to work out some sort of Executive Sex Clause with her.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Ellis said. ‘I liked Amy, and Garrett seemed happy.’

‘Mmmm, me too. I liked her.’

‘I’m glad you could be there for him, Stacie.’

‘You know I’m always happy to do what I can for the Thorne brothers,’ she said. Then she changed the subject in the usual abrupt Stacie Emerson way. ‘Garrett says you’re in love with Dee.’ She leaned close to him, and nearly lost her balance. ‘And I think he might be right.’

He grabbed her arm and righted her before she could topple over the edge. ‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘Right.’ She shook her head and looked down at him like he was a naughty child. ‘Now are you going to call her and make things right, or shall I?’ She pulled her iPhone out of the pocket of her dress.

‘You have her number?’ Ellis felt panic rise in his chest. He grabbed for her phone, but she jerked her hand out of reach.

‘Of course I have her number. It wasn’t that hard to get, not when I was surrounded by the Trouvères reps at Marston’s party and they all worship her.’ She began to punch the keypad.

‘Stacie, don’t. Stacie, I’m warning you …’ He grabbed for her wrist but, she when she pulled away, the iPhone flew from her hand and went skittering along the tiles of the pool. Stacie lunged to retrieve it, caught her foot in the hem of her dress, and toppled over the edge. With a wild splash and a yelp of surprise, she landed in Ellis’s arms.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Fixing Stacie’s afternoon flub-up in Ellis’s office hadn’t been in Garrett’s plans for the evening, but it was something to keep him busy, and keep his mind off Amy. And maybe with him and Stacie scheming together, at least one of the Thorne brothers could have a nice, romantic weekend.

He had Ellis’s limo driver take him to the Pneuma Building when he’d gotten Stacie’s call. He was in the neighbourhood anyway. He was Ellis’s brother, and technically he worked for Pneuma, Inc. Though it was just a part of his ne’er-do-well cover-up, it would still get him into the building and into an empty office that Ellis had reserved for him, not without lots of complaining and nagging at him to stop the masquerade and come clean. But Garrett wasn’t ready to do that just yet. Having nothing expected of him made for interesting observations of people who did have things expected of them, and it was their lives that inspired most of what he wrote. In the back of his mind, he was already imagining how he could turn Dee and Ellis’s story into fiction without his brother recognising either of them as characters and promptly committing siblicide. But if Ellis hadn’t murdered him by now, he figured he was pretty safe. Besides, he was a good writer. Neither Dee nor Ellis would recognise themselves when he finished with them.

Garrett wasn’t sure how long he stood at the open door of Dee’s office, but it was long enough for him to observe her unnoticed, long enough for him to be convinced that she was definitely the perfect heroine for his next novel. Her face was sculpted in concentration and haloed in the incandescent lighting that staved off the night rapidly encroaching through the window behind her desk. She sat head and shoulders above heaped open files and three-ring binders, chewing on the end of a pen and twisting a strand of hair around her finger.

No doubt she was every bit the professional his brother bragged about, but after spending time with her at the bar in New York, he was certain those skills, no matter how savvy, were only the surface of a deep wellspring. There was an unpretentiousness about her that finally urged him across the threshold, as he knocked on the jamb of the open door to announce his presence.

The smile she offered was transparent, playful, and though for a moment he desperately wished it might be otherwise, clearly not intended for him. She realised her mistake with a startled intake of breath and a subtle shifting of boundaries in the expressive angles of her face, a distancing he felt as physically as if she had pushed him away with her hand. ‘Garrett! For a second I thought you were Ellis.’ She came from behind her desk and gave him an enthusiastic hug. He was relieved Dee’s boundaries were semi-permeable, and warmth won out over reserve. Even if she were only being kind to him because he was Ellis’s brother, these days he’d take what he could get.

He returned her embrace with his own enthusiasm, born more out of need than politeness. Before he could make too big a fool of himself, he stepped back, straightened his denim jacket, and lied. ‘Sorry to bother you, Dee, but I’m looking for Ellis.’

‘He’s gone for the day.’ Her mouth softened with concern, and he could tell by the darkening of her eyes she wouldn’t be fooled into thinking all was rosy in paradise. Ellis was the one who kept his feelings hidden away. Garrett, for the most part, never really tried. ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’

He dragged up a sigh from the gaping abyss he felt beneath his sternum and leaned against the wall, feeling suddenly as if he hadn’t enough energy to stand. ‘I should have known better than to come without calling.’ Oh, he was good, he thought, really good. Maybe he should have been an actor rather than a writer. Then again, he wasn’t really acting, was he? ‘Did he say where he’d be?’

‘I think he’s meeting someone at the Hilton.’

Just then his iPhone chimed a text. It was from Stacie.

Ellis is at hoooooo
, it said. He knew Stacie wasn’t the best with technology, but it wasn’t hard to figure what it meant. It was exactly what they expected, and that being the case, he knew what he had to do.

He quickly recalculated the situation, and bluffed. ‘Stacie said she was meeting him. I thought she was kidding.’

Her relaxed smile didn’t change at the mention of Stacie’s name. She motioned him to the chair in front of her desk. ‘I take it you know her too.’

‘Oh, I know her all right.’ He flashed a wicked smile. ‘Stacie’s always kind of capricious. You never know what to expect from her. But she’s great fun at a party.’

‘So I gathered.’

Garrett was glad he didn’t have to face Dee across the negotiating table. Still, a little probing might be fun, though he was already dead sure what it would reveal.

‘She and Ellis and I, we go way back. I’m talking junior high way back. We used to be close friends, the three of us.’

‘Oh really?’

He offered her his best confidential smile. ‘Of course as the younger brother, half the time Ellis and Stacie viewed me as a pest. Things got a little better when I got older.’ He held her in a weighty gaze. ‘Then they got a whole lot worse.’

‘Should I be hearing this?’ God, she reminded him for a minute of Ellis, always the stickler for private lives remaining private.

‘Oh, it’s no big secret. We all went off to university together, and while Ellis wasn’t looking, I married her.’

‘You married Stacie?’

It did him good to see the surprise on her face. She was no more immune to surprises of the heart than his brother. ‘You probably guessed by now it wasn’t exactly happy ever after. It was a very short marriage, and certainly not good for any of us.’

‘For any of you?’

‘Stacie would be the first to tell you she never could decide which of the Thorne brothers to choose. When she was engaged to Ellis, she wanted me. When she was married to me, she wanted Ellis. Me, I’m a pushover. Me, she could have whenever she wanted. Ellis, however … Well, Ellis wasn’t quite so easy.’

‘Apparently they must have worked that out.’ She said it like she had just told him the weather forecast – maybe a little too much like the weather forecast.

He leaned forward in his chair. ‘Does that bother you?’

She leaned forward, mirroring his posture. ‘Should it?’

With a keen-edged stab of memory, he recalled why he was in Portland in the first place. His effort at a laugh felt bruising. ‘Well, don’t worry. Now that she knows Amy’s not seeing me any more, Stacie’ll be sure to make plenty of time for me in her busy schedule.’

‘God, Garrett, you broke up with Amy?’ Her gaze turned stormy, and the voice that had been so neutral up until now was weighted with tenderness.

‘Seems I’m not a good career move for her. She’s got the opportunity to dance as a principal dancer, and doesn’t have time for a love life.’

‘Garrett, I’m so sorry.’

The lump in his throat surprised him. Dee didn’t play by his brother’s rules. His brother would have listened to his sad story and, not knowing what else to do, would have been embarrassed by Garrett’s display of pain. But Dee didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. He hadn’t expected someone who was so skilled at negotiating deals to be equally skilled in the fine art of empathy. He stood and paced the floor in front of her desk. ‘I knew it was coming; in fact, I was in New York hoping we could make everything right again. I thought we were going to make it, Dee. I really did.’

‘She seemed like such a nice person.’

He stopped pacing and plopped back into the chair. ‘Oh, she is. She’s a wonderful person, but she dances. That’s her passion. She says she’s got a few good years at best. It’s now or never. There’ll never be another chance.’

Dee closed the file in front of her and, with a few deft movements, prevented the threatening landslide of the rest. Then she stood and came to sit in the chair by his side. ‘I’m sorry, Garrett, but I understand how she feels.’

‘I understand too. That makes it harder. I can’t even claim she’s a jerk and let it go at that. I respect the woman and her choices too much.’

She touched his hand. ‘It’s hard these days. It’s hard for all of us. I’m sorry you missed Ellis.’

‘I’m not. He’s not nearly as nice to talk to as you are.’ He closed his hand around the warmth of her palm and ran his index finger over her knuckles. ‘Not very nice of my dear brother to leave you chained to the desk on a Friday night. I’ll have to talk to him about that.’

She extricated her hand and sat back. ‘Well, actually, I just lost track of time. If you’d like to talk to Ellis, I can give you his cell phone number.’

‘I have it, but I wouldn’t dream of interrupting.’

She made no response to his hints at what might be going on between his brother and Stacie. She definitely was good. He could almost believe she really didn’t care. But he was the romantic in the family, and something in his gut told him that wasn’t the case.

‘I’ll see him soon enough anyway. I’ve decided to stay at Ellis’s a while. He doesn’t know it yet, but I dropped my things off there before I came back into town. Great guest suite.’ He raked her with a suggestive grin. ‘One thing I can say about my brother, he’s got good taste.’

She met his gaze with a hint of a smile and not a trace of a blush. ‘Yes, your brother does have good taste.’

It was then he remembered the reason Stacie had sent him there. The best way he knew to get Dee to Ellis’s house was to ask her to join him for a meteor shower. She didn’t have to know where he was taking her. ‘What could be more fun on a Friday night than a little morose brooding under a cascade of meteors?’ he asked.

‘Sounds intriguing. You’re in luck. I have an opening in my social calendar.’ She gathered her belongings and the two of them left the now deserted building and headed for the parking garage.

‘I hope you don’t mind driving,’ Garrett said. ‘I had Ellis’s limo driver drop me off thinking I’d just ride back with him.’ Jeffries was actually on stand-by, but a discreet text while Dee gathered her things had sorted that. Garrett buckled himself into the passenger side of her Audi and sat back against the sigh of leather seats. ‘Nice car. Payments must be a bitch, though.’

‘It’s paid for.’

‘Graduation gift? Inheritance? Don’t tell me you won the lottery?’

‘I bought it for myself with the bonus money from my last year at Jasper and McDowell.’

He let out a low whistle. ‘You do all right for yourself, Ms Henning.’

‘Yes, I do, Mr Thorne.’

In the darkness he could just make out the sparkle in the corner of her eyes. The rest of her face was bathed in shadow, but the woman didn’t have to be seen to be appreciated, and Garrett was a man who lived through his senses. He sensed the brush of expensive clothing pressed between the leather of the seat and the pliant curve of soft flesh. At the end of the day, deodorant and soap had acquiesced to female scent that was just barely a scent, almost a taste at the back of his throat, a hint of something rich and fine and sensual that made him understand completely why his brother was so enthralled.

He fiddled with the radio until he found a jazz station where a suggestive saxophone purred music that was positively copulatory. ‘Tell me, Dee, just how much of your leisure time do you spend at Pneuma Inc. anyway?’

‘Not enough, probably.’

‘Wow, Ellis wasn’t kidding when he said the two of you had a lot in common.’

She shot him a quick glance as they merged on to the freeway. ‘He said that?’

‘I have my doubts if the man knows the difference between leisure time and work, and it doesn’t look like you do either.’

‘That’s how you get things done in this world. You can’t let yourself be distracted.’

‘You sound just like Amy.’

‘I’m sorry, Garrett, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.’ Compassion melted the edges of neutrality, and he would be the first to admit he was enjoying the warming trend.

‘It’s OK. Stacie always said that I was in love with being in love, and Ellis …’ He shot her a surreptitious glance, now that his eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness. ‘She said Ellis was incapable of love.’

Her face remained unreadable in the slow pulse of headlights on the freeway, and when she spoke, her voice had once again cooled to neutral. ‘Sounds like the three of you have quite a mottled history.’

‘You could say that.’ He waited, giving her every opportunity to ask any of a plethora of questions he knew she must be dying to ask. And he – unlike his brother – would be more than willing to answer in detail. The saxophone made seductive suggestions in the darkness. Garrett sat poised to shock and titillate with the lurid tale of two brothers, but Dee simply didn’t ask.

When she finally did speak, it was not to question. ‘As far as Amy’s concerned, Garrett, I can’t imagine any job demanding more of a person’s time and energy than being a ballerina.’

‘Except maybe yours?’

‘Except maybe mine.’

‘If you were in Amy’s shoes, would you do what she did? Would you give up love for your career, or would you throw caution to the wind and go for it?’

In the soft glow of the dashboard he could see her mouth soften into a cautious smile. ‘I can’t really answer that question, Garrett. It’s been a long time since I’ve had anything even remotely resembling a relationship.’

‘Get off at this next exit.’ He switched off the radio, leaving the car awash in silence. ‘What about Ellis?’

‘What about him?’

‘The two of you certainly seemed to be doting on each other last week at the hotel, and I haven’t seen my brother dance in years.’

‘It was probably temporary insanity on both our parts.’

‘That simple?’

‘That simple. Where are we heading anyway?’

‘To Ellis’s place.’

Though her recovery was quick, it wasn’t quite quick enough. Garrett didn’t miss the flash of alarm in her eyes at the revelation of their destination. He was certain of it now. The lady was smitten. Just how smitten remained to be seen. But he hoped, for his brother’s sake, very.

He motioned her down a narrow gravel drive flanked by woodland on either side. At the end of it was a huge house with simple lines that fit the landscape as though it were a giant bird settled into just the perfect nest. ‘Ellis didn’t buy this place because it was fabulous and opulent, and green,’ he said. ‘Of course, it is all those things, but my brother’s so single-minded he’d have happily lived in a cardboard box if Beverly hadn’t intervened. Beverly picked this place out for him, actually. The two things Ellis wanted, it had. He wanted a pool because he swims, and he especially liked this place because there’s almost no light pollution on the back bit of the property. Perfect for sky watching. He bought up all of the acreage behind to make sure it stayed that way. I guess you could say Ellis has his own private wildlife reserve, which doubles as an observatory at night.’