His Corporate Claim

by J. D. Fox

  To the left of the desk, an arch led to the company workroom. I’m familiar with the design because Lucius had showed it off at a family gathering. He’d designed it— or said he had, though it was beyond Lucius’s skill to design the offices. He insisted an open workspace encouraged collaboration. My experience told me it inspired gossip and a lack of productivity; but it was his office, gifted by our father so Lucius could pursue his dream of building an online advertising empire.

  Lucius had bought his dream at a price. He’d created the business from the ground up with financing from our father, but our dad had thought it best (based on Lucius’ past behavior) to make Palmer Media a division of Palmer Corporation and subject to the company’s strict financial controls. All money earned got funneled directly into Palmer Corps’s general fund, and all expenses got paid out of Palmer Corps’s accounts payable. The profits funneled directly into Palmer Industries, not Palmer Media. This had left Lucius without direct access to his own company’s cash, and this should have stymied potential money problems with Lucius running any of Palmer Corporation’s businesses.

  But it didn’t.

  Palmer Media’s problems centered not on productivity, but on a lack of cash flow to the corporate office. I was here to find out why, which made me feel like shit. At least I cared for Lucius’s welfare, which was a rare thing in my family. Lucius had burned plenty of bridges within the Palmer clan during his teenage and college years, and my father’s patience with his firstborn wore thin. Me? I remember the older brother who played with me and had my best friend up to the teenage years when he went wild. But I understood; living with my hard-boiled father was difficult.

  My luggage wheels made a hollow noise as I dragged my bag over the plank-wood floor, and I walked into the workroom toward the staircase leading to the second floor. I glanced around for the best place to leave my luggage since I didn’t want to haul the bag up the stairs.

  “Can I help you?”

  I turned and met an entrancing pair of hazel eyes with green highlights set in a face with high cheekbones and a regal aquiline nose. Her brunette hair shone with reddish glints under the harsh glare of the office’s lights. She inspected me as if trying to figure whether I was a thief or the devil. Her piercing gaze sliced into my soul as if to divine the secrets within it, and my breath caught. I was entranced or bewitched, and not quite sure which. This was the first time a woman had stolen my attention in a long time.

  She was a little shorter than me. No— even shorter than that, I realized as I glimpsed the three-inch beige heels, which matched her skin-tight beige dress that hugged every curve. I knew that this type of dress was the usual business attire for an aspiring business woman these days. Still, her luscious curves, from her breasts, her hips, and her shapely legs raced more dangerously through my head than my Ferrari on an Aspen mountain road. Then I spotted the ostentatious ring on her left finger. That rock had to be at least two carats on its own, with another carat in small stones around it. But what man wouldn’t lock up this gorgeous woman? I was jealous of the lucky stiff, whoever he was.

  “I’m here to see Lucius.”

  “Who shall I say is here to see him?” She whipped out her iPhone.

  Hmm, Miss Efficiency had an officiously tantalizing air of Miss Librarian; one of my favorite fantasies. I wondered if she had some favorite book stacks where she did naughty deeds. Did she hide a delicious streak of ‘bad girl’ behind her “all business all the time” persona?

  “I’m expected,” I said. I tipped the handle of my luggage to her. “If you could put this away.”

  “Excuse me?” she said. She arched an eyebrow that informed me that she did not “do” luggage. “We accommodate our clients when we can, but Mr. Palmer is busy. Have a seat in reception and I’ll inform Mr. Palmer the person he expected is here.”

  I resisted the urge to laugh. She’s feisty, and I couldn’t help wondering how much of that fire she brings to the bedroom. It’s too bad I’d never know, but I could see where Miss Feisty will figure in my future fantasies.

  “Reception?” I pointed to the entrance.

  “Yes, please.”

  “I’ll wait there,” I said.

  “Thank you,” she said with obvious relief.

  I sat cooling my heels while I waited for my brother to finish with his important business, which for Lucius could be anything from talking to his bookie to double-booking a date for tonight. A quarter hour later Lucius bounced into the wide room. He smiled broadly and held out his hand. “Sam, what are you doing out here?”

  His firm handshake radiated confidence and wrath, which was standard Lucius. Despite the terrible reason I was here, I was glad to see my brother again.

  “One of your staff said I had to wait for you here.”

  His brow crinkled in consternation. “Who?”

  “5’ 8” not including the three-inch heels, brunette, skin-tight beige dress.”

  Recognition spread over his face. “Oh, yes. Talia is exceptionally efficient. I’ll introduce her to you later. Let’s do lunch.”

  “I’m still on New York time. Dinner?”

  “Perfect. Then it’s time for cocktails.”

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. When was it not time for cocktails on Lucius’ schedule?

  “Fine,” I said.

  “The best place is down the street. I’ll lead the way.”

  I’m sure you will.

  We walked into the unrelenting Denver summer heat and down the street. My dark lightweight wool suit, always suitable in Boston, was obviously out of place here in the mountains. Sweat beaded on my brow as Lucius asked briefly about Father, our aunts, Rose and Lily, and the cousins. He chatted gayly and without a care about life in Denver on the short walk to the restaurant, without adding anything informative. As usual, he didn’t ask for a single detail of my life. The last I’d heard from him was a card at my graduation from Wharton, which had been two, almost three months ago. When things had changed—when we grew apart—I couldn’t place, but things had certainly shifted as Lucius had gotten older. Was it too much to hope that we could recapture our youthful closeness during this visit?

  “I’ve forgotten how hot it is here,” I said as I took off my suit jacket. I remembered Christmas vacations in Aspen but rarely hung around Colorado in the summer. This heat was threatening to stab my bones and take up permanent residence.

  “It’s a dry heat,” he said. “You’ll get used to it. The summer months can be hot, but it’s changeable. Winter days can be anything, from cold and rainy, to a dusting of snow, to seventy and comfortable. But I suspect you won’t be here that long.” He paused. “Will you?”

  I shrugged because I didn’t know. Much of my stay revolved around finding out from where the leak in the finances was coming from. That could take time to discover. And after that? Who knew how long it would take to clean up the mess.

  “What? Looking to get rid of me already?” I spoke as if I was joking, but he frowned at me just the same before breaking into another of his trademark smiles.

  “What are you talking about? It’s time the Palmer brothers tore up a town again. I’m just not used to sharing my apartment. You might want to get your own if you are staying for any length of time.”

  “Afraid I’ll cramp your style with the ladies?”

  An unreadable expression crossed his face, and I wondered what he was thinking.

  “We’ll talk about that in a minute, but first let’s get ourselves situated.”

  My brother was acting stranger than usual and I wondered what was up. Did he suspect the real reason I traveled across the country? Did he have any clue how serious my visit was?

  Lucius had to be a regular patron at this place called Milio’s, because the hostess called him by name, and Lucius introduced us.

  “This my baby brother, Sam. He’s in town for... how long, Sam?”

  “For the duration,” I said with a smile.

  “Excellent,” he said c
heerfully. But his eyebrows scrunched together, which is a sign he’s not pleased he can’t pry the information out of me he wants.

  A waitress arrived at our table at once. “Your usual, Mr. Palmer?”

  “Yes,” he said with a nod. “And whatever my brother wants.”

  “Your brother?” said the waitress. “You two don’t look like brothers.“ Her hand shot to her mouth. “Excuse me, I shouldn’t have—”

  Lucius shrugged. “Don’t worry, Delany, we get that all the time when we’re together.”

  It’s true. I’m as dark-haired as he is light.

  “I’ll just have water, with lemon,” I said.

  “Super,” said the waitress. “I’ll be right back.”

  “So,” said Lucius. He focused his blues eyes on me. “How have you been?”

  “Fine. Dad’s had me at corporate, working with the officers—” I stopped, looking at Lucius’s narrowed eyes. And then I realized my mistake. Dad never brought Lucius to work at the corporate offices. The waitress bringing our drinks broke the uneasy silence. I must have stared when the waitress lined up three drink tumblers in front of Lucius.

  “What?” he said. “It’s busy here, and it keeps them from running back and forth. It’s a busy restaurant.”

  “I can see. Still— that’s your usual?”

  “Don’t judge. I need something to help me relieve the stress.”

  “There’s always yoga,” I said. “I hear it’s very popular around here.”

  The corner of Lucius’s mouth twitched. “In the land of the Lotus Eaters? Sure. But I make more business connections at the golf club. If you stay long enough we could go hit a few rounds on the links.”

  There it was again; Lucius probing for the length of my stay. Too bad. If I told him I’d have to tell him why I was here, and that will defeat the reason for my business. Whoever was stealing money would pull back and hide, and it would be doubly difficult to find the source of the problem.

  The waitress appeared at the table as suddenly as she had left.

  “Are you ready to order?” Delany said. “Or do you need more time?”

  “I’ll have my usual,” said Lucius.

  Another usual. Just how often did he visit here? How many liquid lunches did he ingest?

  “Okay, one steak for you. And the other Mr. Palmer?” She flashed her brown eyes at me and smiled. Another time I might have smiled back, but not today. My mind wandered to the woman, Talia, whom I’d barely met and how her luscious curves filled her dress. I frowned as I scanned the menu.

  “Chicken Piccata, but go easy on the pasta. And I’ll have a salad. No bread.”

  “Great,” Delany said. She smiled and hurried toward the kitchen.

  “Good service here,” I said.

  Lucius smirked. “Kicking the carbs?” he said.

  “Not everyone has the Roadrunner metabolism you do. And since Dad’s heart attack after Christmas, I’ve reevaluated my eating habits.”

  Lucius frowned. “Heart attack?”

  Wow. I knew things were bad between Dad and Lucius but at least Dad could have told him. I would have, except Dad had asked me not to talk about it. The Board of Directors had made a big deal about it and even talked about replacing Dad. That had shaken him, but he bore up and rallied the support of the board. But even if he hadn’t wanted me to tell anyone, he should have at least called his eldest son.

  “You didn’t know?”

  “No one told me.”

  “That’s Dad,” I said. Damn it. Dad always acted like such a putz to Lucius. “He didn’t even let me come home from school. I only found out because I called home and Jenny told me.”

  “At least the housekeeper told you,” he said sourly.

  “Do you call home?”

  Lucius shrugged and stirred his drink.The ice clinked as beads of water slid down the sides. “It’s pointless, isn’t it, Sam? Its obvious that Dad favors you. He’ll probably leave you the whole company.”

  “Not true.”

  Lucius took a deep swallow of his drink to finish it and picked up his next one.

  Slow down there, bro.

  “Sure it is. But no hard feelings. You’ve always been the perfect son, and I admittedly have not. But I’m turning things around. I used to be angry at dad, but hey, my mom screwed up big time there, so who can blame him? I’m concentrating on playing it straight. I work hard at the agency, and you’ve seen how sales have grown.”

  “I have,” I said. Lucius was not lying here. The sales this year had outshone projections. That wasn’t the problem.

  “And,” he beamed, “I’m getting married.”

  “You are?” You could have hit me with a hammer and it wouldn’t have shocked as much as this announcement. Lucius’ womanizing was a well-worn joke among the family and no one expected him to marry.

  “Don’t sound so surprised. It’s time I settled down.”

  “I, um. Well, congratulations. Who’s the lucky lady?”

  “You met her briefly. Talia.”

  “Talia?” I said stupidly. But of course, he’d pick the most beautiful woman he could find. And though I should be happy for him, a heaviness clutched my chest, and I wanted to knock him on his ass. Now, why the hell had that thought crossed my mind?

  “Sam, are you okay? Because you look like someone took away your favorite toy.”

  “You would know. You did it often enough.”

  Lucius chuckled. “I did. I loved teasing you. But I’m not playing you now. Talia’s my girl.”

  “Congrats,” I choked out. I took a sip of my water. “She’s great.”

  “She’s the best,” said Lucius with a great shining smile and for a second I almost believed he was in love.

  Almost. This was now another thing I needed to investigate.

  Chapter Three

  Talia

  Tuesday

  “Your hand glitters like a movie theater marquee,” smirked my former best friend forever, Eva. She was my FORMER best friend because she had not stopped teasing me about this damned ostentatious ring that Lucius had given me. I wished she’d stop going on about it, because I do not want other people in the office to gossip about it— especially since Lucius hadn’t made the announcement of our fake engagement yet.

  “Quit it. It does not.” I scanned the workroom afraid someone would overhear, but everybody was out to lunch, leaving no one around to eavesdrop. I was nervous about this fake fiance´ business, and wanted to hide safely in my office when the other employees arrived from lunch. I have no clue on when Lucius planned to tell the staff about our faux engagement, and I spent the morning a nervous wreck worrying about the fall-out about this arrangement.

  Hell. My employees thought I was enough of a slave driver; I didn’t need them to speculate whether I “slept” my way to the top. That was pointedly not true, and I was very proud of what I’d accomplished from my own efforts. I will not be undercut at work because of the jealous titters of other employees.

  I suppose that’s why I was so heavy-handed with the client that Lucius took to lunch. My behavior had embarrassed me so much that I slunk back into my office and gnawed at my knuckles instead of a sandwich. When did I become the office cop? What made me pounce on that poor, delicious looking man, even if he walked around like he owned the place? Surely I could have been more gracious? What’s worse I wasted the better part of an hour pondering the square cut of his jaw, and his warm chocolate eyes, and how handsome he looked in his dark wool suit.

  I mean, who wears a gray wool suit in Denver? Practically no one, except lawyers, but it’s not just the novelty of that. He was drop dead sexy in that suit.

  Get a grip, Talia.

  Someone that gorgeous has a girlfriend or a wife. So why did it intrigue me that he wore no wedding ring?

  The only thing that kept me halfway sane was that I had a mission. I’d made arrangements to move my mother to the new extended care facility. The process had swallowed my attention for hours
. After the last phone call, I’d looked at the clock and realized the company mandated lunch was about to end as my stomach growled. I poked my head out of my office and, seeing Eva, ventured to Eva’s desk to beg any extra food she might have.

  “Here,” she said. “I planned to eat healthy today, but at the eleventh-hour rabbit food did not appeal.” She pulled a square plastic box filled with salad and handed it to me. That’s when she’d made the crack about the ring—again.

  Eva had not let up on me since I’d gotten home last night and told her what happened. Her snarky remarks annoyed me and, for the first time since I’d met her, Eva approached ticking me off.

  “I was about to thank you, but now I’ll just take your rabbit food, sans my good regards.”

  “Come on, Talia,” scoffed Eva. “What man gives a woman a rock that huge and not want anything?”

  “I gave you all the details,” I huffed. “Once the engagement is off, I’ll return it to him.”

  “You watch too much Judge Judy. In Colorado, giving back the ring depends on who’s at fault for the broken engagement. And considering Lucius can’t keep his dick in his pants, looks like you own a rock, honey.”

  “I’d give it back anyway.”

  “Why would you return a fifty-thousand dollar ring?”

  “It’s not worth that much.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Fine, we’ll have a jeweler appraise it after work.”

  “No, we won’t.”

  “Are you welching now?”

  “We haven’t set terms for a bet.”

  “Fine. Loser washes dishes for a month.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.” She spun one turn in her swivel chair gleefully. “And when I win I plan on making the messiest Italian meals, filled with ricotta and oozing mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan cheese. Impossibly sticky, coagulated, compressed, ripened milk curd will crust the pans and you won’t be able to do anything about it. You’ll waste all the dish soap and ruin the sponges to clean the dishes.”