Jack was Laurie’s employee. That made her strictly o -
limits.
Jack probably didn’t see it the way Laurie did. For her, their little interlude the night before had likely been nothing more than a way to blow o steam. Jack was impulsive and clearly enjoyed a hint of danger now and again, like breaking into the tech o ces to play a few games of ping-pong. How else did Jack know the back door was busted? More than likely, for Jack, giving in to the forbidden attraction between her boss and herself would have provided a similar thrill.
It wasn’t like they had any real feelings between them, so what more could Jack be getting from it than that? Under other circumstances, the act would be harmless. But the lack of emotions was what made the possibility of them being intimate again dangerous. If Jack had no feelings for Laurie, it gave her all the power in the relationship. Blackmail material. It wouldn’t be the first time something like that had happened. Never to Laurie, of course, but she’d heard stories. Plenty of people would do anything to bring down a woman in power.
Before Laurie’s thoughts could travel any further down that path, Jack began to stir, straightening her legs and arching her back as she stretched her body as far as the couch would allow. Finally, her eyes opened halfway.
“Hey, there.” Gravelly without being croaky, the woman’s morning voice was sexy as hell. Like her tousled hair, and the bright blue polish on her dainty pointed toes, and…
Laurie tore her eyes away. She needed to tamp down those thoughts, along with her galloping heart rate. Right here.
Right now. Never had Laurie found herself with so little control. Her throat was dry. Her palms were as sweaty as a nervous teenager’s, for heaven’s sake. What was wrong with her?
Seemingly unaware of the inner turmoil she was causing, Jack rolled onto her back, her shirt clinging to her body, making it obvious the woman wasn’t wearing a bra. Laurie’s mind flashed to the moment the night before when her fingers had unclasped the hooks, recalling in vivid detail those fleeting but precious seconds when she’d held Jack’s nipple in her mouth, caressing it with her tongue.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
“Co ee,” Laurie snapped. Her tone was unforgivably bossy, even for her, but she wouldn’t apologize. Brusqueness
was about the only thing holding Laurie back from making a monumental mistake.
Jack sat up but didn’t move right away. Their eyes locked, and the younger woman’s face settled into an expression that Laurie couldn’t readily identify. Her stomach tightened.
After last night’s brush with intimacy, this was the first time Jack could see the reality of Laurie’s age in the harsh morning light. The crow’s feet around her eyes and the wisps of gray hair that started to creep onto her head mere seconds after leaving the salon. Was Jack repulsed by what she saw?
She didn’t seem to be. The intensity building in those deep blue eyes showed no signs of harsh judgment. Laurie was overwhelmed by how reassuring that was. Immediately, she scolded herself for it. Better for both of them if their attraction evaporated. It simply couldn’t happen again.
Didn’t I ask for co ee? Laurie was certain she had. Why hadn’t Jack moved? Laurie grabbed a ceramic mug from her desk and held it out. “Do I need to repeat myself?”
“No,” Jack mumbled, reaching for the cup.
Just then, the elevator pinged down the hall. Laurie’s heart skipped a beat as she realized it was Monday morning.
They no longer had the building to themselves.
“What time is it?” Jack asked, frowning. “Is that Marian already?”
Laurie shook her head. That ringing sound they’d heard hadn’t been the regular elevator but the lower-pitched bell that belonged to the executive one. “Not Marian.”
There was only one person who would be arriving via that elevator at this hour, and he was the last person Laurie wanted to walk in on this little scene. Laurie’s eyes panned the area with growing panic. Her o ce looked like a cross between a war zone and a frat house after a keg party. A dozen Chinese cartons, with noodles and sauce splashed all over, marred the co ee table’s usually pristine surface.
Throw pillows and blankets had been taken from their storage baskets and sat rumpled on the couches.
And then there was Jack. Even if the evidence suggested they’d spent the night in separate spots, her very presence looked oh so bad. What CEO hosted a sleepover in her o ce?
Other than the ones in porn movies, that was?
“Marian!” Toby’s voiced boomed, his footfalls getting closer.
Laurie squeezed her eyes shut, as if somehow that would ward o the approaching disaster.
“Is that Mr. Emerson?” Jack demanded in a harsh whisper.
Laurie’s eyes flew open. “Hide.”
As Jack dove for cover, Laurie frantically tossed all of Jack’s used bedding on top of her own, doing her best to erase any trace of a second individual. Of all the evidence, that was the most incriminating because it raised so many inappropriate possibilities that Laurie preferred to leave unquestioned.
From the corner of her eye, Laurie saw Jack cowering behind a chair near the conference table on the other side of the double doors in her o ce. It was a smart choice, close to the open side door that led to the supply room, but well-hidden as long as Laurie kept Toby from entering too far into her o ce. She could manage that. If the opportunity arose, Jack could slip out without being seen and gain access to the vestibule through the supply room’s other door. Laurie prayed the woman had come to the same conclusion.
Toby stopped in the doorway to Laurie’s o ce, sni ng through a deeply wrinkled nose and following it up with an exaggerated gagging sound. “What died in here?”
“Don’t you knock?” Pulling herself up to her full height, which happened to be almost an inch taller than Toby,
though he would never admit it, Laurie gave her stepson a heavy dose of stink eye.
Toby edged into the room, his beady eyes soaking in all the signs of debauchery. “What’s going on here?”
“It’s called pulling an all-nighter, Toby. You may have heard of it?”
He made a tsking sound as he stared at the mess on the co ee table. “Binge eating is one of the top signs of depression, Lors.”
Laurie bristled at the hated nickname, which came not from any sense of a ection but simply because he was too lazy to utter more syllables than he deemed necessary. How Toby could possibly have been Bonnie’s son remained a mystery. When it came to working, her wife had been a machine and utterly brilliant. Neither of which could be ascribed to Toby.
“I wasn’t binge eating.”
“Sure. This is totally healthy portion control.” Toby broke into evil laughter as he approached the co ee table and poked at the half-empty boxes. “Careful, or you’ll stack the deck against yourself even more. God knows, no one, not even dykes, want to screw a fat old lady.”
“Good thing I’m neither.” Her hands clenched to control her anger at his rude choice of words. She wouldn’t let him see any chinks in her armor. In fact, Laurie was impressed at how matter-of-factly her words came out, considering inside she was still chastising herself for almost sleeping with a woman so much younger.
“You’re as old as my mother was when she married you, although I always assumed at her age, sex wasn’t a requirement
for
the
relationship.”
He
shuddered
dramatically.
“I’m two months younger than you, Toby, so I’m really not getting whatever point you’re trying to make. Surely it
can’t be relationship advice. You’re on, what, your third marriage, or is it the fourth? It’s hard to keep up.” She didn’t have to feign indi erence because she had no desire to be a part of his family life.
“Do you know what it’s like, having a stepmom who is the same age as you?” He slurred his words enough that Laurie caught on to what was fueling his anta
gonism, which, even for Toby, had reached a level of belligerence that was a bit on the extreme side this morning. The man was drunk.
She’d missed the telltale signs in her earlier panic, but they were all there—the disheveled clothing and the pink tint to his eyes. He’d obviously taken advantage of the free cocktail service on his flight home.
Laurie crossed her arms.“You know, as you age, it gets harder to handle your liquor. Something you might want to keep in mind.”
“Everyone knows men and women age di erently,” Toby pontificated, glossing over the insinuation that he’d had too much to drink. “We get more attractive and mentally stronger. I wish the same could be said for the weaker sex, but my mom taught me never to lie to an old lady.”
Laurie bit her tongue. From experience, she knew Toby craved arguments, especially when intoxicated, thinking he was so much cleverer than he actually was. It also made him twice as likely to spill secrets, which was a constant worry when he went out with clients or competitors alike. She wanted desperately to ask him if he knew what it had done to his mother to have such a screwup for a son, but she refrained. It wouldn’t have been respectful to Bonnie’s memory to be that cruel, even if it was true. She hugged her arms tightly to her body as if she needed to physically restrain herself from further engagement with the man.
“What’s the matter, Mommy Dearest? You look flushed.
Having a personal summer?” He mimicked fanning himself,
implying she was experiencing a hot flash.
Oh, she was hot all right, but not because of menopause.
Flames of rage filled Laurie’s body, but she refused to take the bait. She’d already played too much into Toby’s hands and regretted her weakness. It was time to reassert her control of the situation and to remind her stepson who was in charge.
“You never did say what brings you to the o ce so early. I assume you gathered some actual business-related information, before that extended golf outing you treated yourself to, and are eager to fill me in?”
“Why would I want to fill you in?” Toby asked with a smirk.
“Because I’m the CEO of this firm. That makes me your boss.”
“The hell you are.” Toby’s nostrils flared. “Mom left me in charge.”
“Until I came back from my sabbatical. Well, guess what.”
Laurie spread her arms out wide, stopping short of doing jazz hands. “I’m back.”
“Yeah, but it hasn’t been a year yet,” Toby countered.
“Which means I’m still the interim-CEO, unless I decide to relinquish said position, which I do not.”
“Still doesn’t mean you’re in charge,” Laurie said, keeping her tone even as she tilted her head enough that she could look down the bridge of her nose at Toby. He hated when she did that. He’d once said it made her look like a stern librarian, and it also emphasized Laurie’s height advantage. Double win. “We’ll have to agree to work together. Do you think you can do that?”
“Maybe.” A smile spread slowly across Toby’s face, the type he got when he was too proud of himself not to share. It happened frequently. “I have news about the billionaire.”
“Othonos?”
“That’s why I went to the U.K.” Toby strode to one of the couches and plopped himself onto it, pushing aside a couple of Chinese food containers so he could rest his shoes on the co ee table like a graceless oaf. The fact it was the one Jack had slept on annoyed Laurie to no end, though there wasn’t any rational reason for it. As he settled in, Laurie darted a look to the chair Jack had been hiding behind, but there was no sign of her. Smart girl. She seemed to have made her escape. Laurie breathed a sigh of relief that Toby had been too thick to catch on.
“Yes, I guessed you were after Othonos when you jetted across the Pond hours after I called with the news about him.” The intensity of Laurie’s stern expression increased exponentially, the bulk of her ire directed toward his shoes.
Seriously, had he been raised in a barn? “You never should have flown o , half-cocked. That’s not the way to win over a man with a reputation for precision. I still can’t believe he agreed to meet with you on such short notice.”
“He didn’t.”
“You and your team were gone for two weeks. I don’t get it.”“That’s because you don’t understand men.” Toby snorted, shaking his head. “I mean, not surprising, considering.”
As he made a rude pantomime that Laurie could only assume was supposed to suggest something sexual—God, no wonder he’d gone through so many wives if that was what he envisioned women enjoyed—she cocked her head to one side, resting a hand on her hip. “What don’t I understand about them, exactly?”
“Men like to unwind. You focus on his investing habits, I look at where he goes for leisure, which happens to be a golf resort in Scotland. So I booked some rooms for a few weeks for me and my boys and waited for him to show.”
“You sat on your ass and hoped he’d drop in? Don’t even think of trying to write o your golf holiday as a business expense.”
“I don’t see why not. Thanks to that trip, I know for a fact we have an exclusive shot at the account. Silv and I have become good buddies.”
Silv? Laurie prayed Toby had the good sense not to call him that to his face. “I assume you got that in writing?”
“He’s going to have his assistant send something. Bottom line, he wants a presentation in June.” Toby tossed Jack’s pillow onto the floor, and Laurie briefly contemplated kicking him in the face. “That’s why this company needs me in charge, because I can go mano a mano with the highfliers.”
“Meanwhile, I’ve spent the past two weeks actually working to come up with the start of a proposal perfectly tailored to his needs and—”
“Don’t you worry yourself with this any longer,” Toby interrupted.
Laurie’s body turned hard as stone. “You don’t understand—”
“Stay in your lane. I hear some makeup heiress is looking for a money manager.” His eyes went to her hair, which Laurie belatedly realized must look a fright since she hadn’t brushed it since waking up. “Maybe she can give you beauty tips.”
“You have no idea who you’re dealing with. Othonos won’t take kindly to a show of your blundering brand of toxic masculinity.”
“He already has,” Toby boasted, clearly zeroing in on the word masculinity and missing the surrounding insults. “Were you not listening? We’re golf buddies. The nineteenth hole is where ninety-nine percent of business deals are signed, sealed, and delivered.”
“God dammit, Toby! You never learn.” She swiped the back of her hand over her eyes, suppressing the desire to kick him in the nuts.
“Oh, I learned a lot when you fled to your private island, sipping piña coladas and tanning that hide of yours after Mom died. I learned you don’t understand business. I’m having to clean up your mess. It’ll take years, but I’ll steer this ship to success.” He pantomimed grasping the big wheel of a ship, or at least Laurie thought that was what he was trying to convey. He looked more like a kid pretending to pull on the horn of a big rig to get a passing truck driver to honk.
“Are you joking?” Laurie’s volume increased at the same speed as her outrage. “I’ve had a look at what you’ve been doing while I’ve been away. You’re on a collision course with an iceberg.”
His eyes darted upward.
“June fifteenth. That’s when he wants to hear our proposal. Maybe you should go back to your island. Let the grown-ups handle things.”
“I swear to God, Toby,” Laurie took a step in Toby’s direction, no longer wanting to kick his face but now eyeing a softer target further down on the misogynist jerk, when there was a knock on the o ce door. Laurie and Toby swiveled their heads toward it like a pair of synchronized swimmers.
Laurie’s eyes widened to see Jack standing in the open doorway with a co ee carafe and accoutrements on a tray.
“Co ee?”
The woman looked amazingly put together
considering she’d been asleep on Laurie’s couch maybe twenty minutes before. She’d changed clothes, smoothed her dark brown locks, and even managed to smear on a little bit of tinted lip gloss, in addition to brewing a pot of co ee. Had Jack missed the entire battle with Toby? God, Laurie hoped that was the
case. She didn’t want to contemplate how weak she must have looked trying to duke it out with her spoiled frat boy stepson. It was humiliating. Unfortunately, something in the way Jack looked warily from her to Toby and back made Laurie think she’d heard it all and felt it was time to come in and try to break things up before they escalated.
“You’ve hired a new co ee wench?” Toby slapped a hand on his thigh. “And you think I’ve been wasteful.”
Laurie’s hands itched to throttle him, but to Jack’s credit, she didn’t take the bait. Instead, she fixed two cups of co ee, splashing whole milk into Laurie’s the way she liked it.
“And you, sir?” Jack said with a tone of deference that would have been believable to anyone but Laurie, who knew the woman better than that. “How do you take it?”
“Bent over.” Toby gu awed.
“Enough!” Laurie snapped. “He can pour his own. Thank you.”
Seemingly unfazed, Jack gave a quick nod and left.
“Why are you so insistent on destroying the company?”
Laurie demanded through gritted teeth once Jack was gone.
“The last thing we need at the moment is a MeToo situation.”
Considering the situation, Laurie couldn’t help but give herself a little pat on the back for getting those words out without choking on the irony. Toby poured a cup of co ee like nothing improper had transpired. He sat back again, his bottom burrowed into the spot where Jack’s head had rested.
It was too much. Laurie couldn’t stand to have his contamination spilling into that part of her life.
“Out of my o ce.”
“I haven’t finished my co ee,” Toby argued, looking so stupidly clueless Laurie wondered how he could function.
Heart of Ice Page 14
