Silk on the Skin: A Loveswept Classic Romance (3 page)

Her jaw dropped, and she stared at him in clear astonishment. “Are you saying that Ned has been causing faltering profits?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are my dividend checks still what they’ve always been?” she shot back triumphantly. “If the company’s profits were falling off, that would be reflected in the dividends it pays out.”

“Because I think Ned is paying the difference out of what cash flow the company has to cover his mistakes. Certain things just aren’t ringing true at M & L.”

She set her fork down on her plate in a deliberate motion. “I don’t believe you.”

He dipped his head once. “I expected that. You know about the Basicwear line, right?”

“Yes,” she said in a near hiss. She was becoming defensive, and he was pleased by it. It meant she was unsure. “It’s a fairly new line that M & L is putting out for the discount department stores.”

This is where it has to count, he thought, then said aloud, “So you must also know that the company has poured a great deal of money into the line during the past year to get it off the ground. It’s barely surviving in the marketplace, because the goods are cheap. Not only in price, but in workmanship.”

“Ned said—”

“Ever hear of Lusty Lingerie?” he continued. “It specializes in leather nighties, black-lace corsets, and other items of that kind. I won’t bother to tell you the rest, as I’m sure you get the idea.”

“You mean …”

From the horrified expression on her face, it
was obvious she was envisioning lingerie that out-Frederick’s’ed Fredrick’s of Hollywood. And the damn stuff did, Dallas thought.

“Are you telling me,” she asked slowly, “that M & L makes Lusty Lingerie?”

“Yes. M & L started shipping it just after I came on board.” He leaned forward in his chair. “It was all done quietly. No announcements in the
Journal
, no hoopla advertising. But aren’t you wondering—just a little—why you, as a major stockholder, weren’t made aware of it?”

“I told you, I’m not involved in the day-to-day operation of the company,” she said. “I just happened to have some shares, that’s all.”

“You have 30 percent of the shares, and each share carries one vote,” Dallas said, pointing a finger at her. “That’s a little more than some. Ned Marks holds the same number as you, but with your proxy agreement he has a full majority over the other stockholders. And he’s been having a field day.”

“I’ll admit I’m not exactly crazy about … Lusty Lingerie.” She blushed bright red, then groaned. “Lord! What a name!”

He grinned crookedly at her. “That it is. You ought to hear the sales department on the phone pushing orders for Midnight Madness Peignoirs and Sinfully Scented Pan—”

“Please!” She held up a hand. “Trust me, Dallas. I don’t want to know. Personally, I don’t like it, but I know sex is big business—”

“For another company, yes,” he broke in, his grin fading. “Basicwear and Lusty are actually hurting M & L. One takes the quality out of the
company, and the other takes the class. Now Ned wants to start a national chain of Lusty Lingerie boutiques. And he wants to go public with stock to finance the expansion.”

She admitted it sounded a little risky to her, but she really didn’t know the exact situation at M & L. Still, going public could be good for growth. “Ned knows the business. I remember when I first gave the proxy to him, he was pushing for the company to make teddy lingerie. Teddies caught on shortly after. He has to know what he’s doing in this too.”

“That was Ned’s shining moment, Cass,” he said, disgust evident in his tone. “And he’s been riding on it ever since. BasicWear and Lusty were a mistake. His mistake, and he’s covering them up by keeping the dividends high. Also, if a company seems to be paying high dividends, then people will be rushing to buy its stock. Ned’s looking for the boutiques and me to create windfall profits. The boutiques are a fatal business mistake, and if they go through, I won’t be able to save this company. Nobody could then.”

“The Markses have always been the business heads of the operation,” Cass said, her voice low.

“David and Elias, yes,” he said, resting his elbows on the table. He made a steeple with his fingers. “Not Ned. And if you think that only the Markses had the savvy, then you didn’t know your grandfather very well.”

She straightened in her chair and snapped, “I knew him, Dallas. I know he never wanted the shares to be anything other than a gift. A nest egg, if you will, to keep one worry from the doorstep.
Ned’s been working for M & L since he was a kid, so he knows the business better than anyone else. If he thinks this is best …”

He glanced down at his half-eaten lunch for a moment, then said, “Some people, Cass, are excellent in certain positions and totally wrong in others. You’re a businesswoman. Go up to M & L’s offices in New York and find out for yourself.”

“No,” she said coldly. “I see no reason to question this, especially on your say-so. I’m just a stockholder who has enough sense not to interfere in something she doesn’t know or understand. My interests are strictly in WinterLand.”

“Really?” Dallas leaned back in his chair and smiled. In a ruthlessly soft voice he said, “Then why
are
you still a major stockholder in a company that holds absolutely no interest for you? Your father never felt an ancestral obligation to keep his stock, so why should you?”

She stared at him.

He casually flipped the fork in the air and caught it again.

“I believe, Ms. Lindley, that’s two for two.”

Still numb from the bruising conversation at lunch, Cass slowly walked through the door of her shop. It was empty of customers, and Jean Raswell, her assistant manager, immediately pounced on her.

“If I had known you were having lunch with such a gorgeous man, I’d have forced the details out of you before you left,” the plump, motherly-looking woman said, a gleam of anticipation in
her eyes. “Who is he, and does he have an older, equally gorgeous single friend? Spill the beans, Lindley.”

Cass smothered a sigh. “He’s Dallas Carter. Gorgeous is your opinion, not mine. And I have no idea whether he’s got a friend. He’s the president of M & L.”

“A big shot from Marks and Lindley?” Jean’s eyebrows rose in speculation. “Those lovely people who keep you rich?”

“Those lovely people.” Cass spied the day’s mail sitting on top of the counter. Knowing a great excuse when she saw one, she snatched the pile. “I think I’ll go in the back.”

As she headed for the storeroom, Jean called out, “At least tell me where he took you for lunch, Cass!”

“McDonald’s.”

Hurrying through the storeroom doorway, Cass shut the door on Jean’s snort of disbelief. The last thing she wanted to talk about was Dallas Carter. It was bad enough that she’d have to think about what he had said at lunch. She didn’t need to think about how “gorgeous” the man was too.

She walked over to the old scarred desk by the back door and tossed the mail on top of it. She sat down in the office chair, then leaned her head back and closed her eyes, hoping the peace and quiet would soothe her frayed nerves.

Immediately her mind was filled with the image of how he had looked at lunch. Lord, but that shirt had stretched so perfectly across his shoulders.…

She pushed the thought away, very annoyed
with herself for her attraction to him. Instead, she concentrated on their conversation. She knew she should have been prepared for Dallas’s question about keeping the stock. She groaned aloud as she remembered how she had stammered her way through a nearly incoherent answer. She should have just been honest and told him that she had this quirky thing about keeping the shares.

He’d sounded so positive and straightforward about problems at M & L, Cass thought. Despite her protest, she had found herself almost believing him, just for an instant, of course.

But could one person’s bad judgment be the sole cause of a company’s financial problems? No way, she answered herself sharply. Her dividend checks hadn’t fluctuated all that much since Ned had taken over the company. She guessed that Basicwear and Lusty Lingerie were projects designed to bring in fast profits to make the company look good before it went public.

She couldn’t help shuddering at the thought of M & L’s producing red-tasseled bras and zippered panties. What ever had happened to two naked people in a bed making old-fashioned love? It didn’t sound at all dull to her, especially if …

Pushing the disturbing thought away, she admitted that she couldn’t remember reading anything about the Lusty Lingerie line in the notices she received as an M & L stockholder. While she couldn’t imagine a horrible name like Lusty Lingerie not catching her eye, she had to have missed it. Maybe the announcement had come when she’d been getting WinterLand ready for its annual season
opening. She barely had time to read her gas bills then. Still, the line was bound to bring in big profits. But why Dallas would object to a broader retail base …

Cass straightened in her chair. No company executive worth his salt would object to that. In fact, it would be exactly what he would want. So what could Dallas Carter really be after?

An answer suddenly shot through her, rooting her to the spot. Dallas claimed Ned was not a good chairman. If she lost confidence in Ned and others followed, then the logical step would be to replace him. She took a real easy guess at who Dallas wanted that person to be. Himself.

“That filthy …” Biting off the rest of her words, she reached for the telephone, intent on finding out whether the other six stockholders had had similar conversations with one Mr. Dallas Carter.

Slowly she dropped the phone back onto the hook. She’d never called anyone before about M & L. She couldn’t even remember what the company’s number was!

“Dumb, Lindley. Very dumb,” she muttered, and pressed her fingertips against her eyes.

Maybe she was approaching this from the wrong direction, she thought. Who on the board would Dallas try to persuade first? Ned held another 30 percent, but he was out, of course. She remembered that Ned’s cousin, Sheila, held 10 percent. Four long-time employees had been given 5 percent each. The law firm that handled M & L’s account had another 5, and the presidential position held the last 5, so she assumed they were now Dallas’s. If she wanted to split a board, she
knew she’d go after the biggest holder first, before attempting to sway the others.

A thought occurred to her about board meetings, and, hoping to find a notice or letter from M & L about the upcoming one, she whipped open the drawers of her desk and riffled through the catalogs and paper work.

“Damn! This is what you get for being one of the uncaring masses,” she mumbled, as her search turned up nothing. The darn thing was probably mixed in with paper work at the house.

Deciding that the lost notice gave her a good excuse to call Ned, she flipped through the Rolodex she kept on the desk, until she found his office number.

As she dialed, she wondered how to explain having lunch with Dallas. It sounded so … cozy. Ned was probably under enough business pressure without worrying about her wavering in her loyalty. But she would feel him out about Dallas’s “concerns.”

After identifying herself to four different secretaries, she finally got through to him.

“Cassandra,” Ned said, although the surprise in his voice almost turned her name into a question. “How are you? How’s your little shop?”

“Business is fine, and other than a spill down the stairs, I’m fine, too,” she said.

“You fell?”

“The step was rotted through. I guess I should have had it checked,” she said in dismissal. She realized she hadn’t actually spoken to Ned for nearly two years, and that it had been even longer since she had seen him. How could she be telling
him about her stupid mishap with the step? she wondered with a silent groan. Immediately she asked after his family, and they chatted for a short time. Finally she said, “The reason I’m calling, Ned, is because I’ve misplaced some of the stockholder notices I get from the company. You know how the IRS is about paper work. They want to see everything from the cradle up.”

“Oh, ah, what ones do you need?”

“Well, that’s the problem, Ned. If I knew what I lost, I’d know what to ask for. Better send me everything since the first of the year.”

“I’ll have my secretary duplicate the notices and such and send them right off to you. Are you being audited?”

“Isn’t everybody?” Cass congratulated herself on her neutral reply. “I really appreciate it, and, believe me, I won’t lose a grocery list after this. You never can tell what they’ll want to see.” She hesitated for an instant, then said, “Out of curiosity, just when is the next board meeting?”

There was a momentary silence. “I’m checking my calendar.” His chuckle sounded odd. It was probably embarrassing for the chairman to have to look up a meeting date, Cass thought. “It’s a month from now, on the twentieth. Don’t tell me you are actually planning to come.”

She laughed. “What, and ruin my reputation as the perennial absentee? By the way, I was in a store down here the other day, and I saw the logo on a new line. Lusty Lingerie. Is that M & L’s, or is somebody ripping the label off, like they do with the designer jeans?”

Instead of a reply, she received silence. She wondered why he didn’t answer. What if Dallas were …

“Ned?”

“Sorry, something came up here. No, that’s our new line.”

“Oh, okay. Was that announced somewhere in the stockholders’ stuff?”

“You’ve definitely lost more than the last meeting notice.” Ned chuckled again. “And I won’t ask why you were looking at sexy nighties.”

Cass cleared her throat. She really should have thought about that question before she had asked it. “Well, thanks again, Ned. You’re a real lifesaver.”

After saying good-bye, Cass hung up the receiver and sat back in her chair.

She gave a loud sigh of relief. Ned hadn’t talked like a man trying to hide a line of merchandise from a stockholder.

It looked more and more as though Dallas were trying to settle his backside into the head chair of M & L.

Any way he could.

Three