Pleasure My Lustful Heart: A Romance Novella (11 page)

“The company is too far gone to be saved. It’ll soon be in bankruptcy, and we’ll all be out.”

“If we are, the court will make you give the money to our creditors.”

“Maybe. I’ll take my chances. Sorry.” He leaned forward to kiss me on the cheek, but I turned and walked angrily back to Pa’s office.

I had expected Gregg to call all morning, but I’d heard nothing from him. When I phoned his office at noon to give him the dreadful news, they told me he hadn’t come in yet. I was about to try his cell phone number, when he walked into the office, all smiles.

“I think we have a chance,” he said. “I’ve been on the phone all morning trying to find what’s the least amount of money we’d need to do the Higginson deal. I think if we put the Porteous cash together with the Superior cash, we just might be able to show him we can play with the big boys. And if creditors know we have a good thing going, they'll give us more time.”  

I couldn’t let him go on. I had to tell him. His smile faded in an instant, and as I told him what had happened, he slumped into a chair as though in slow motion. “Just can’t seem to catch a break,” he said. “I’m all out of ideas.”

I closed the office door to give us some privacy. “I have an idea. Two ideas, actually.” Gregg stared straight ahead as I talked. He looked beaten. “First, I’ve decided that Pa shouldn’t make decisions, the way he is. He signed that check for Uncle Aaron yesterday without even knowing what it was for. I have his power of attorney, and I’ll try to get that money back. But whether I do or not, I’ll approve the merger myself. I know Pa is dead set against it, and scares me to death, but I’ll do it. It’s my responsibility now.”

“Without the money, there’s no sense trying to merge,” Gregg said.

“Here’s my other idea,” I told him. “This one is for you. You own the cabin, and all that waterfront, on Lake Wiley. You told me people keep trying to buy it from you. It’s worth a lot, right?”

“Sell the property?” he said. “I promised my
dad I’d never sell it. It’s his legacy.”

“Your uncle isn’t here any more. You’re in charge now. You have to make the decisions.”

“It was a deathbed wish. He trusted me.”

“What would he say about it if he were here today? If there was a chance to save his company, don’t you think he’d take it?”

“I can’t go back on my word.”

I was astonished. Here was the man who swore he loved me, and was ready to move heaven and earth to make his plan a reality. Now he says he has to keep his promise to someone who’s dead and buried. Yet he has no reservations about asking me to do precisely what my father said not to do. “Do you want the merger to happen?” I said. “I do.”

“We’ll find some other place to get the money.” The way he said it, I could tell he didn’t believe it. He believed we were at the end of the road.

I sat behind Pa’s desk. I wasn’t ready to give up, not just yet. “Do you remember telling me about you and your men getting ambushed that night in Afghanistan, and what a frightening situation you were in.”

Gregg glared at me. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It was desperate. It took courage to take charge and get your men out of there alive.”

“So what are you
saying ?”

“I’m saying let’s see some of that courage now. Do what has to be done.” I was sorry I said it as soon as the words were out of my mouth.
Bad idea, wrong words. I was questioning his manliness, which was a stupid thing to do to the man you’ve been sleeping with. I tried to make it right, but I made it worse. “What I mean is that if you’ll only try —“

“I know what you mean,” he said. He stood and left the office, never looking back.

CHAPTER 14

Yes, I regretted what I’d said, but I was angry, too. I’d earned the right to say what was on my mind. I’d been working with Gregg to make the merger happen, right from the beginning.  Now I hurt his feelings? He’d have to get over it. I didn’t go after him as he left Pa’s office. Let him think about it on his own.

I felt I had to tell Pa what was happening, even though
I wasn't sure he'd understand it in his condition. After all, he’d invested his whole adult life in Porteous Limited, and the company was about to disappear. I wanted him to know I’d do my best to save it. I told him Uncle Aaron had lied to him, and taken money fraudulently, and I’d try to get it back. And so far as my relationship with Gregg was concerned — that was my decision to make, one way or another. I’m a grown woman, damn it, with my own life to live. Only I wouldn’t say damn it to Pa.

At the hospital, I sat by Pa’s bed, trying to lay it all out for him.
His eyes were focused on me as I talked, and I was certain he understood what I told him. When I said we were still trying to put together a last-minute merger, he nodded his head. "Do it," he managed to say. He'd been lying there thinking for days, now. He understood he couldn’t manage the company any more. He was telling me to make the decisions.

I may have won the battle, but lost the war. Gregg didn’t call me, and I couldn’t reach him.
His cell phone was taking messages, and nobody at Superior Apparel seemed to know where he was. He had to realize I'd be trying to reach him, but there was no contact for two entire days. I kept leaving messages, but there was no response.

Was it my fault? I’d done everything he asked of me. I’d loved him completely and honestly. As the hours passed, I allowed my
restless brain to consider seriously the possibility that Gregg was indeed after the company, not the boss’s daughter, and that the hot loving was just a ploy to win me over, to brainwash me. He was the bait, and I fell for it. Me — the pathetic love-starved woman who managed the sewing department in her father’s business. Just another in Gregg Monsell’s long string of conquests. Could it be true?

I knew I stood to lose my
lover and my company. But unless I heard from Gregg, and soon, there was nothing I could do about either sad mess.

I was desperate.

Our employees were edgy because there were no new jobs coming into the shop, and I had nothing good to tell them. They knew what had happened to Pa, and now they looked to me for all the answers.

Creditors were dunning us, and threatening to close us down.
If we declared bankruptcy, our lawyer told me, they'd have to leave us alone, at least for awhile. Bankruptcy — that would be admitting we'd failed. No, I decided, not yet. Not till my last gasp.

Pa was doing
as well as Dr. Sabin said I should expect, and they moved him out of the intensive care unit into a standard patient room. I couldn't bring myself to tell him the merger plans were disintegrating. I kept my visits short, and avoided the bad tidings.

Returning to my apartment, I discovered
what I thought was yet another reason to worry. There was a letter waiting for me from Lucien Goodhue, mailed from Birmingham. Would you believe it? After being knocked cold on my bedroom floor, he had the gall to start harassing me again. I ripped open the envelope and unfolded the letter. There were only two words scrawled on a sheet of notebook paper:  "Sorry," and "Goodbye."

Thank goodness.
One problem solved, I thought, but where is Gregg?

I
hadn't prayed since I was a little girl, but when my cell phone began playing its tune, I thought it would be a good time to start again. As I dug for the phone in my purse, what I prayed was:  Please, let it be Gregg.

And
it was.

"
Where have you been?" I blurted out.

"I'm on my way back from Lake Wiley," he said.  "You know, where
I used to own all that waterfront land."

"Used to? You mean you don't own it any more? You sold it?"

"I'm about twenty minutes from your place," he said. "I'll tell you the whole story when I get there."

I wasn't about to wait
to buzz him in. I took the elevator down and went outside to wait. I felt my heart thumping in my chest.

I started running toward his car
as soon as I saw it turn into the driveway. Gregg parked and ran to meet me, holding his arms out for a long embrace. It was a kiss to remember, a kiss of victory, and of love — a kiss that told me I was wrong ever to doubt him.

The first thing he said after
our epic smackeroo was, "You were right. Dad would have sold the land and saved the business. He'd be proud of me." He took me by the arm, and we headed into the building, as he related what had happened. "At first I was devastated when you told me Aaron took the money. I just couldn't deal with it. I knew you were right about selling the property, so I called everyone who had ever asked to buy it — the ones I knew, and the ones Dad knew. I said I'd decided to sell it. Everyone I talked to wanted it. Right away there was a bidding war going on. Turned out the place was worth much more than I thought."

"But doesn't it take time to close on a property? What will we do till you get the money? "I said.

"I told the buyer why I needed the money, and that he'd have to make a down payment of twenty percent. He went along with it because he knew I had other buyers lined up." We were in the elevator when Gregg reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out a folded bank check, and handed it to me. "I just got this." I unfolded it. It was made out to him for two hundred and thirty thousand dollars.

"That means the
whole price was — let's see, twenty percent of — uh, help me out with the arithmetic," I said.

"One million one hundred fifty thousand dollars."

"Say it again."

"One million one hundred fifty thousand bucks."

"Fabulous," I said. "Have you told your friend Higginson?"

"Don't have to. He
thought I always had it."

"A little white lie, then."

"Possibly. But you know what they say: 'All's well that ends well.'"

"One thing I have to ask you," I said. "Why didn't you let me know what was going on?"

"I wasn't sure about any of it, not till I had the check in my hand two hours ago," he said. "You've been so great about going along with this whole plan, I just couldn't build up your expectations and then have it fall through. But it didn't fall through. We're going to build a new business, together, you and I.  I love you, Kit. What do you say to that?"

I looked into his eyes.
"I say I think we should go out to the cabin tomorrow."

"Why?"

I couldn't resist it. "Because it could be our last chance to go skinny-dipping,"

Uncle Aaron? He knew he couldn't stay after taking the company's money, and went to live in Arizona. He returned half the money he took, with the understanding that we wouldn't chase him for the other half. I knew it was wrong for him to take money, but I felt sorry for him. Life hadn't been good to him.

And w
hat happened to Pa? He didn't recover fully, and he never tried to go back to work again. He recognized he could no longer think clearly. At first he was unhappy walking with the gold-headed cane I gave him, but after a long while he came to think it made him look distinguished.  And he loved to brag about his smart son-in-law, Gregg Monsell.

THE END

This is entirely a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual names, characters, places and incidents is purely coincidental.

FROM THE AUTHOR:

Thank you for reading this novella. I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it.  Please take a moment to leave your review on Amazon —
http://amzn.to/10q0ssd
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and share your opinion of my book with other readers.

Again, many thanks.

Geena
Maxon