Double-Cross My Heart (8 page)

“Yeah,” Jess mused, “you’d have to find a way to keep Alex quiet while you secretly got the board of directors behind you.”

Eden sat at her desk, the phone pressed to her ear as her friend’s words sank in.

Was there a way to do that?

“I’d have to keep Alex from leaking my family connection,” Eden said slowly. “And find a way to pull the company into better financial territory. Of course, the anti-aging cream is our best shot at increased revenue. But how do to stall Alex?”

“Well, sure, if you could. Then you’d have some time to go around Michele and get the board to appoint you CEO,” Jessica said. “But from what Greg told me, this Alex guy is pretty tenacious. How are you going to distract him from his plans?”

“I don’t have to distract him from his plans,” Eden said, the flicker of excitement taking hold in her head. “I just have to buy some time to get my own in place.”

“So, how are you going to do that?” Jess asked patiently.

“By sleeping with him.” The words were out of Eden’s mouth as they formed in her brain.

“The sex slave angle? I don’t know,” Jessica said doubtfully. “I’m sure you’re good in bed, but he’s a tough businessman. You might have to have sex with him six or seven times a day to get him distracted enough to forget a take-over this big. That may not be much of a sacrifice, but you never know.”

“Not the sex slave angle,” Eden said with growing exhilaration. “The ‘relationship’ angle that he’s already set up! What if I told him I was taking him up on his generous ‘revenge’ suggestion—made him think I was going through with his plan to get control of the company for him to dismantle. But, while he thinks I’m working with him, I’ll actually be working for
myself
—and every other employee at Michele. I know all the board members, Jess. I’ve pretty much been acting-CEO for the past year or so. It would also give Bergere time to get his research done.”

“Well,” Jessica’s voice was dry. “You certainly
know
Dave Sanders and he’ll go along with anything you ask him to so you won’t be tempted to tell that wife of his what he’s been up to. Who thought something good would come out of being lied to by a man?”

“Yes!” Sitting forward in her chair, Eden said, “I also know and work well with the management team.”

Jessica laughed. “Except for Joe Garcia. You and Joe always knock heads.”

“I can handle that situation,” Eden replied. “I can work with Joe. He doesn’t hold grudges. He just needs to know he has respect. And Dave doesn’t just fear my telling his wife about our interlude, he respects me, too. He pretty much said that two months ago, after the last board meeting.”

“He’s still thinking with his penis,” Jessica commented cynically. “He hopes you’ll get over his being married.”

Eden laughed. “Maybe he hopes so, but he knows there’s no real chance of that.”

“So you’d actually make a play for the board to give you the job? Now? Before Michele agrees to retire?” Jessica said. “Can you get the rest of the board behind you?”

“I guess I could make some allies by underlining the product profitability information,” Eden said, a sense of breathless enthusiasm mingling with the tension in her chest. She spared a brief moment of regret about Michele herself. The woman had mentored her for several years, but now it was a self-defense thing: eat or be eaten.

She continued quickly, “You know revenue has been down on the Golden Youth and Healthy Me lines and they’ve been our biggest money producers in the past. We need this anti-aging cream. At the last meeting, the board was really concerned about our place in the market slipping. I think with a little…maneuvering, I could convince them to make a move and appoint me Chief Executive Officer in Michele’s place even if she isn’t voluntarily retiring. I’d have to really hustle, you know, work some people, get Dave’s and Sol’s support, but I might could stir up enough shit about Michele’s uninvolvement in the business that the board will back me to take over now.”

Jessica said, “Life isn’t worth anything if you can’t take a gamble now and then.”

Looking at the fax on her desk, Eden said slowly, “It may not be as much of a gamble as it seems.”

“Well, you are good at what you do,” her friend said.

Eden hesitated, startled and a little shocked at what she was thinking. “I think I have an ace that no one knows about.”

“What?”

“I just received another fax from Roberte Bergere. He’s having some amazing results with his latest formula for the anti-aging cream. It’s looking really good…and I haven’t told anyone.”

“That’s great,” Jess said, “and this helps your situation how?”

“Michele talked about hoping the new anti-aging cream to pull us out of the slump…but I’m the only one who knows what Roberte Bergere is doing. No one else sees the reports before me. Up until now, his efforts haven’t yielded any positive results. But the latest one—the one I got this morning—shows some promise.”

“And only you know this,” Jessica said.

“Yes.”

“So, you’ll show Michele and Wendi the earlier reports and keep back the later, good report to make Michele think the product isn’t worth much?”

“Yes. I’ve also shown the early reports to several of the board members. You know, keeping them informed. They’re concerned that we’re not seeing anything positive. But in those reports, I’ve recommended we stick it out with Bergere. He’s done some amazing things in the past. I’ve also slipped in various suggestions I have on changing the way the company is run.”

Eden hesitated. Like everyone else, she knew when to slant the truth, but double-dealing on this level had never seem attractive before. “Michele has told me she’s might discontinue her funding for Bergere’s work since he hadn’t developed anything we could market. At the time, I told her it was too early to pull the plug. If I hold back this report, though, she’ll recommend to the board that we end the funding. I, however, can continue to recommend staying on course. Then, right before the decision is made, I can pull out Bergere’s report about his increasing success. The board will then have reason to trust my instincts over Michele’s.”

“Wow.” Jessica’s single word held respect. “You’ve got balls, girl. You’re getting as good at playing the game as Wendi. Didn’t I tell you years ago that you’d have to abandon all those scruples of yours?”

“My scruples are fine. I’m just dealing with a different kind of situation,” Eden said, annoyed and trying not to feel defensive. “Why should I wait for Michele to hand the company over to Wendi Williams? By that time it’ll be in Alex’s hands and he’ll dismantle it. The board has been uneasy for the past three quarters and I’ve been the one attending the board meetings, I’m the one handling the results of Michele’s marketing decisions. I think most of the board members know I’ve had my hands tied in making the decisions that need to be made to get the company jumpstarted. Maybe the board would be open to another option.”

It would require some strategy, a little back-scratching, maybe, but it was do-able. If Michele wasn’t willingly going to hand over the reins, then Eden could wrest them from her before Alex waltzed in and did his thing, killing the company.

“What if Alex gets wind of this new product? What will you say to him?”

Eden shrugged, determined to ignore the stab of anger and hurt that came with each thought of Alex. “I’ll tell him the same lies I’m telling Michele. That way he’ll think the business is going to continue to fail.”

“Okay, but exactly how are you going to work this plan when everything comes out in the open?” Jess asked. “And aren’t you going to be screwed when Alex realizes what you’ve been up to? He’s sure to make sure the board knows about your tie to Beauty by Georgette.”

Feeling as if her brain was finally firing on all cylinders, Eden said, “I’ll have to tell them before he can. As soon as it looks like they’re shifting my direction, I can make a big confession. Confessions are always powerful. If I introduce my biological relationship to George Thompson, I can then point out that Beauty by Georgette has never come up with any of our products. I haven’t been leaking information to George. I can make them see my track record with this company.”

“And to get to that point,” Jessica said, “you’ll have to buy stock, won’t you? Secretly?”

“It would be a good idea to have more stock,” Eden agreed, getting more excited as the plan developed in her head. “And with my personnel involvement, I have the perfect cover should Alex find out I’m buying. I’ll just say the purchases are for the employee pension fund.”

“Okay, that might work,” her friend agreed. “If you hold Alex off with pseudo-information, then you can hustle your hardest to get the board members to back you instead of Wendi. Think you can do that?”

“Well,” Eden said slowly, “I’m thinking about getting Dave and Sol to see how I can save the company and then…cozying up with Jolly Hampton. I could play racquet ball with Sarah Briggs. It’s really a matter of convincing them I can improve the bottom line.”

“You haven’t played racquet ball since college. You always say you’re allergic to sweating!” Jessica’s voice sounded odd.

“I know, but getting control of the company would be worth a few sweaty racquet ball games, if I can remember how to play. I think I can get the board to work with me. I’ve got to try.” Eden knew the company inside and out. Her tenure as Michele’s heir apparent had left her with solid ideas about where the changes needed to be made. She looked down at the fax that had just come in on her personal fax machine from Bergere’s lab.

“I think I can run this thing better than it has been run in a decade. Particularly if this new product is all Roberte Bergere thinks it is.”

“Wow.” Jessica’s voice sounded unusually subdued. “You’ve always hated this part of the job. The game-playing.”

“I know,” Eden fiddled with the stuff on her desk, flipping open another sample jar and sticking her finger into the pink tint. “But I’m not giving up everything I’ve worked all these years for. I’m not a loser and I don’t give up easily, no matter what Uncle George thinks about genetics determining a person’s capabilities. It’s shit. And I’ll be damned if I’ll let anything keep me from proving that. If winning this thing means playing hardball…I guess I’ll have to get better at hardball.”

“Okay, but exactly how—other than sleeping with Alex—are you going to keep him from giving you up and getting you fired before they appoint you CEO?”

“I’m going to let him think I’m working with him,” Eden said, her brain still firing furiously, her heart picking up its pace in a combination of fear and excitement. “I’m going to double-cross them all.
”

CHAPTER FOUR

Alex drew Eden closer as the music wafted around them. She fit against his body with excruciating erotic perfection. On all levels, this evening was going very well. Throughout dinner, she’d talked openly about her frustration at Michele Cosmetics.

Sliding a hand up her bare arm, he savored the warm smoothness of her skin. She felt taut and firm, soft and womanly, the scent of her hair teasing at him.

He knew he had to close the deal. The part of his mind that wasn’t clouded by his desire for her reminded him that no concrete plans had been resolved. Of course, she was going to work with him. He wouldn’t let himself consider the alternative. She wouldn’t have kept their date this evening if she hadn’t decided that, he suspected. Certainly, she wouldn’t have sat at dinner, pouring out her frustration at being told this afternoon that she now had to “run everything past Wendi.”

But the words had to be said. If only so they could get beyond this. He could no longer fool himself that he didn’t regret his actions in deceiving Eden at the start, but as far as he was concerned, that was behind them. He’d come to realize she might be the only woman for him.

Now the music throbbed through the club and Eden was so close he thought he might lose his mind before the song ended. Alex splayed his hand over her back, moving in rhythm. This wasn’t the time to think about sleeping with her, being with her, but he struggled to wrench his mind back on track.

“It’s so…nice,” she said quietly, “being here like this with you.”

“What has Wendi been up to now?” he questioned, teasing. “Has she been after you to do her pedicures? Does she even come into the office anymore? Or has Michele completely lost her mind and having a Jacuzzi installed in her office so her and her elderly boyfriend can get it on?”

Eden laughed, as he’d intended her to do. The trouble dissolving from her face as she chuckled, Alex registered a deep satisfaction. He liked making her laugh.

“Don’t you think Carl fell on his arthritic knees and thanked the Lord when he first snagged Michele’s interest? Really, the man must feel like he’s died and gone to heaven. And getting her to hire his lazy niece is like winning the lottery twice!”

Laughing at his silliness, Eden buried her face in his shoulder, as they danced.

“Stop!” she begged, still laughing. “You’re talking about a woman I once respected!”

“Well,” Alex said, his smile softening. “It’s sad that’s all in the past. I don’t ever want to have you say you ‘once’ respected me.”

As he said the words, he realized how true they were. He was coming to love this woman and she didn’t need to ever know how calculating he’d been in arranging their first meeting. How could a woman understand his actions had been “just business” until he’d come to know her?