Double-Cross My Heart (19 page)

“Hey,” she said, tipping her head back and glancing sideways up into his face, “it just occurred to me—do you have employees? I mean, besides Bryan and your secretary, Rosie.”

“Of course, I do.”

“I didn’t know how much staff it takes to do what you do,” she said. “I mean, it’s not like you produce anything. It must be different from other companies.”

“Not that much different,” Alex said. “We have a research person who has a staff of three. There’s a legal department, an acquisitions department and a sales department to sell the various assets from each project.”

“So you run how many people?”

“Approximately fifty,” he replied, starting to wonder what was going on in her head. The woman wasn’t long distracted from her principle interests. Hopefully he’d secured himself in the top five of her interests. He wasn’t an impatient man. He didn’t mind having to work for the top spot.

“Fifty people,” she said softly, “all bent on the disintegration of companies that thousands of employees built.”

Alex didn’t respond. He knew she regretted the fact that her employees would be laid off when they disassembled the company, but what they were doing was for the best. Like a forest fire, his role in the business world helped deal with corporate dead wood.

He didn’t really want to think about any of it now. She felt so good in his arms, he just wanted to keep on holding her.

Eden turned again, looking up at him with a speculative gaze. “How many companies have you acquired?”

Kissing her temple, he said, “Large corporations—three. Medium-sized companies—maybe thirty. We don’t really bother with liquidating small holdings now, but we started off handling a few of those.”

“That’s a lot of companies,” she said slowly, her face still hard to read. “Were they all pretty much in one industry?”

He shook his head. “No, but most of them had a technology slant.”

“It just seems like it would be…unsatisfying to me,” she said after a moment.

“What do you mean?”

“Haven’t you ever seen the movie
Pretty Woman?
Richard Gere eventually finds fulfillment in building things rather than taking them apart?”

Alex was aware of a small spurt of annoyance. How many men had to defend a hugely successful business? He’d made himself a hell of a lot of money.

Sometimes he just didn’t get her. If it weren’t for the fact that she had thrown her lot in with his, her words now might have worried him. She didn’t like what they were doing, but there wasn’t any other way. Wendi was squeezing her out. He knew Eden was struggling with what she saw as a betrayal, but the larger betrayal had been done to her.

Alex didn’t want to ruin the morning with business-talk, anyway.

“Yes, I’ve seen
Pretty Woman,”
he said, deciding to play it light, “but I always thought I’m better looking than Richard Gere. Besides, if a guy’s got destructive urges, how better to use them? Right? And I’m pretty much unmatched in that area. I perfected my destructive skills as a teenager. Ask my sister.”

Cuddling Eden closer, he bent down and blew a raspberry on her naked shoulder. “You’d better watch my wicked ways!”

“What?” she asked, laughing a little at his silliness as he’d intended her to. “More wicked than last night? And this morning?”

“Hey, lady,” he chastised, relieved to have moved past the awkward moment, “last night was nothing! We’ve got a whole lot more wicked to get to!”

“Oh, my,” she said, amused. “I’m definitely going to have to start taking vitamins.”

“Hey,” Alex said, leaning down to kiss her again, “you want to get out this morning? We could bundle up and walk in the snow. Or we could catch and early movie and makeout in the theater.”

“I don’t know,” she said with an answering smile. “Both ideas have potential. Snowball fights or popcorn fights.”

“I have no idea what you’re referring to,” he said, trying to moderate his innocent tone so it had a chance of being believable. He made a killer snowball that hit with a
pouf
and left maximum snow debris.

“Okay,” she said, throwing back the covers. “Snow first, then popcorn.”

“Great.” He followed her off the bed, his gaze fascinated by her firm rear.

Eden turned, looking back at him with a curious expression. “Have you ever wanted to…keep one the companies you acquired?”

“What do you mean?” he asked following her into the master bath.

“You’ve bought maybe a hundred concerns. Has one of them ever seemed so interesting, such a challenge, either in production or management, that you found yourself wondering if you could run it any better than the people before you?”

Giving the question some thought, he responded, “Most of the companies I’ve bought have had severe liabilities.”

“But not all of them,” she guessed.

“No, not all of them.” He frowned, her words triggering several past merger-acquisitions to pop up in his head.

She turned, sitting on the edge of the whirlpool tub. “So there have been one or two you might have been able to bring out of financial disarray?”

“One or two.” Resigned to the fact that she needed to talk about work, he adjusted a towel on the heated towel rack.

Eden looked over to where he stood. “And neither one of those companies made you think about…maybe keeping it intact and seeing what it felt like to create a success?”

“I feel like I create successes every time I find a good deal we can use to make a strong profit,” he said simply.

“Oh,” she said, continuing to study him. “I guess that’s where we’re different. I like the useful part about what we make. We make things that contribute to other people’s lives, to some degree.”

He raised his eyebrows. “And I just make money?”

“Yes,” she said with a wry smile. “Not that I’m opposed to making money, you understand. I’m wholeheartedly in favor of making money.”

“Me, too,” he agreed, reaching out to draw her to her feet. “But right now, I think we should make something else, right here, right now. Shower or tub?
”

CHAPTER NINE

“Yes,” Alex said, grinning at Isabel, his eight-year old niece. “You can use my desk chair to race Kelsey but make sure you don’t run over anyone.”

“Thanks, Uncle Alex!” Belle hugged him tightly around his waist before making a flying leap for his chair. Lowering the chair height with the ease of long-experience, she sat down, trundling out the open door of his office to where her sister waited.

Sitting in an over-stuffed seat by the windowed wall, Lauren said severely, “You spoil them like crazy. Your employees’ lives are at risk with those two racing in the halls.”

The girls’ high-pitched giggles wafted through the open door accompanied by the sounds of chair casters speeding down the marble corridor.

Flopping onto the couch across from Lauren, Alex laughed. “Where’s the fun in life if there’s no risk?”

His sister shook her head. “I hope your insurance premiums are paid up and that your employees share your love of danger.”

“Don’t worry,” he recommended. “If my people aren’t used to the kids messing around here, they haven’t been paying enough attention the last seven or eight years.”

“I guess so. Anyone can see this is not your average company. Is your research guy still bringing his dog to work?”

“No, Nacho’s wounds have healed and he’s spending his days frolicking at home with Robert’s other lab.”

“I’m glad. Most employers would tell him to handle his dog crisis on his own time. But not you.”

“No. What kind of employer would I be if I didn’t care about my employees’ crises? We’re a tight-knit bunch here and we’re all a little crazy. Where do you think the girls learned how to do chair races?”

“From you, of course. They’ve learned all their wilder behavior from an example very close to home,” she said meaningfully.

“Excuse me, Alex,” said Rosie. His secretary stuck her head around the corner. “I have several messages. You told me you wanted to know when the Worthington contracts were couriered over. I confirmed that you’ll be able to make the Miriam Foundation board meeting about the fundraiser. Also, Robert just brought me the full report you requested of the Michele Cosmetics board member, David Sanders.”

“Thanks,” he said. “You can leave it with the contract on my desk.”

It may have been unnecessary, but he didn’t trust that Sanders guy. The last thing Alex needed on the Michele Cosmetics deal was a surprise. He couldn’t dismiss the possibility that Eden had a history with Sanders, but even though he disliked the idea, she had a right to her mistakes.

“Okay,” Rosie agreed, crossing the room and placing several envelopes on the broad rosewood desktop. “I’ll get the contract couriered back when you’re through with them.”

Sudden high-pitched squeals in the hallway mingled with the deeper tones as a man could be heard laughingly excusing himself for walking onto the raceway.

They all looked toward the door, drawn by the giggling.

”Don’t think,” Lauren said with mock severity, “I don’t know the demoralizing effect you have on discipline.”

“So not true,” Alex denied, getting up to open the couriered contract. Leafing through the pages, he scrawled his barely legible signature across the appropriate line. “I am a highly-respected, successful, perpetually-disciplined businessman. Right, Rosie?”

“Gotta plead the fifth,” his secretary said immediately as she left the office.

“Don’t try to kid me,” Lauren scoffed. “You’ve always been allergic to discipline. Rules, in particular. Even with my girls. Like the time you taught Isabel to crawl under the stool I set up to barricade her from the kitchen.”

“Hey, how long would it have taken the kid to realize she could just go under the thing?”

“She was a year old,” Lauren said firmly. “She didn’t notice the stool wasn’t blocking the entire door until you crawled under it to show her the way.”

“You love me anyway.” Alex grinned at the memory. The shrieking laughter out in the hall grew louder as the girls whizzed past the office door.

“It’s a good thing you lease the entire floor,” Lauren said with resignation.

“Yes, it is,” Alex agreed, punching a cushion more comfortably under his elbow as he stretched his legs out in front of him. “So, how’s your class doing? Kids getting all antsy for their Thanksgiving break?”

“Always. As soon as November arrives,” she replied calmly. With one Dockers-clad leg crossed over the other, the red flecks in her navy sweater matching her small red cat earrings, she looked neat and contained, as usual.

Alex’s smile widened as he looked across at his sister. Two years younger than him, she’d always seemed reliable and mature, even as a child. It was an aspect of her he knew their mother’s early death had strengthened.

“Speaking of Thanksgiving,” Lauren said, “Are we going to have the pleasure of Eden joining our family meal?”

“Good grief,” Alex said, “I thought you wanted me to find a woman and settle down. If Eden meets Uncle Marty and his kids…”

“She’ll forgive you a few loony relatives,” Lauren stated with conviction. “Everyone has one or two nuts in the family. Besides, she strikes me as the kind of woman who doesn’t scare easily.”

Alex looked at his sister, considering.

“How else did Eden strike you?” he asked, conscious of a strong hope that she shared his opinion of the woman he was coming to care for.

Lauren pondered a moment. “I liked her. She seems friendly and down-to-earth, although I got the impression…I don’t know. She seemed like she had something on her mind. But she was nice. Really nice to come watch a bunch of little girls chase a basketball around in that random way. And she seems to have an appreciation of you, crazy as that is.”

Grinning, he asked, “Did she say something about me?”

“Nothing I can quote,” his sister retorted. “She seems adult enough not to gush over you, but she did sit and watch you for the entirety of the game.”

“I’ve been told I’m very watchable,” Alex claimed with a satisfied smirk.

“Don’t get too pleased with yourself,” his sister recommended.

“Excuse me.” Bryan appeared in the doorway. “Alex, Rosie said you have the Worthington contract in here?”

Pausing inside the room, he seemed to spot Lauren and gave a slightly-too-rehearsed start. At least, it seemed so to Alex.

“Oh, hi, Lauren,” Bryan said, sauntering forward to where Alex and Lauren sat.

“Hi,” she responded with a self-conscious smile that was a shade reserved.

“I saw the girls playing in the hall—I foolishly walked onto their racetrack.” Bryan indicated the hallway with a tilt of his head. “But I didn’t know you were here with them.”

“It seems best,” Lauren told him, glancing at her brother. “Someone has to keep them in control.”

At that point, chair casters could be heard rolling to a stop outside Alex’s door.

“Mom?” Kelsey leaned forward in her chair, peering through the doorway. She whispered “Have you see Bella?”