The Corporate Wife

by Leigh Michaels

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Much later, Erin lay beside him, so relaxed that she could barely blink, and watched him sleep.

  The last of the rain clouds had floated by, and the moon was unimpeded. But though its silvery light poured in the tall windows at the far side of the enormous bedroom, glistening against a tabletop where a half-rolled set of engineering drawings lay, it cast only a faint glow over the big bed.

  Erin didn’t need more. She lay very still and looked at Slater, studying the arch of his eyebrows, the way his long lashes curled, the fine lines at the corners of his eyes.

  My husband. She tried the words out in her head and savored the unfamiliar feel of them, and wondered at the serenity she felt. He’d been more right than she had believed possible, in his conviction that they could be content with the partnership they were building. Except it was even more than that.

  They could be happy.

  She curled up next to him, thinking that she’d made the best choice of her life in marrying this man she loved…

  With an almost audible pop, all her sleepy contentment vanished.

  This man I love.

  “What a fool I am,” she whispered. Impossible as it seemed, she hadn’t recognized love until it had hit her between the eyes. Instead, she’d rationalized and justified and defended her decision to marry him. She’d told herself she was being –what was that list of qualifications Slater had cited? – solid and sensible and practical, when the truth was that she’d wanted nothing more than to be his wife. Because she loved him.

  No wonder she’d been so anxiously breathless in that moment, right after she’d told him that she’d marry him, when she thought that he might have changed his mind. No wonder, when he’d offered the option of a temporary engagement purely for her mother’s peace of mind, she’d found a way around it. No wonder, instead of continuing to be concerned about whether he found the woman who could show him the magic of love, she’d ended up grabbing him for herself.

  Even this afternoon, though she’d tried to make him promise that if he ever found love he’d tell her, she had to admit that she’d been relieved when he hadn’t given her what she’d asked for.

  She’d honestly believed, the night Slater had proposed and she’d turned him down, that she had no romantic interest in him at all. Had his proposal actually sparked her fascination, or only fed oxygen to an ember that had already been smoldering deep inside her?

  It didn’t really matter, she supposed. The results were the same. His offer had focused her attention on him, made her notice things she would have missed before. Things like his kindness and generosity, of course – but also his sheer physical strength and the way he moved, the splendor of his smile, and how good it felt just to be close to him.

  Little things – but together they had added up to be a knockout punch.

  The finishing touch, of course, had been his restraint. Erin hadn’t seen it at the time, but she could admit it now. There hadn’t been a day since his proposal that she hadn’t wondered what it would be like to make love with him. And the fact that he hadn’t even kissed her – that he hadn’t used physical attraction, much less force – in order to make his point had intrigued her. How ironic that without even touching her Slater had been infinitely seductive.

  This is one dangerous man, Erin thought. And there are a lot of women out there who aren’t morons like the worthy Cecile. Women who won’t just see a wallet but an intriguing, exciting, very sexy man.

  Could one of them make Slater feel the magic Erin had once promised he would someday find? And if there was such a woman... what about the magic Erin felt for him?

  Magic so often turns to melodrama, he’d said. He wouldn’t seek out love because of its uncomfortable side-effects; that was, after all, why he’d proposed to Erin in the first place, and she knew he’d stand by his plans. But what if, despite his lack of interest, love found him anyway? What if that special woman were to discover him?

  And the difficulty cut the other direction, too. What if his sensible, practical, solid wife fell in love with him and Slater ended up with all the uncomfortable side effects he’d been trying to avoid?

  Unfortunately for Erin, however, there was no longer a what if in that equation, and it was far too late to put it back.

  She couldn’t change what had happened. So she’d just have to be sensible, practical, and solid enough not to show it. Not to descend to melodrama. Not to watch every woman he encountered and wonder if this was the one he could love. Not to display jealousy even if it was turning her toenails green.

  The answer was obvious. But figuring out the solution was a great deal easier than making it work.

  *****

  Erin knew even before she opened her eyes that she had slept far past her normal time, but she was horrified when she sat up and looked at the clock on Slater’s bedside table to see that it was well past nine.

  The apartment was oddly quiet – but then of course it would be; Slater had said he was meeting with Bob Brannagan again this morning, so he must have been gone for an hour at least.

  Under different circumstances, she would have enjoyed the opportunity to putter around the apartment, exploring and familiarizing herself with her new home. But she was running so far behind schedule that would have to wait.

  In any case, she reflected, there wasn’t much to explore at this end of the apartment. The upper level of the entire wing was devoted to the master suite – the huge bedroom, an equally luxurious bath, and a couple of walk-in closets. Windows on two sides looked out over the skyline of St. Louis, and there were two entrances – a discreet stairway in one corner which led down to the hall near the guest bedrooms, and the door they’d come through last night from the library.

  She should have expected, she supposed, that Slater would have arranged these rooms for maximum convenience. Why should he have to go all the way downstairs and around if he wanted bedtime reading, when cutting an extra doorway was so easy?

  Efficient, she thought. Practical. Solid.

  The reminder of last night’s blinding moment of insight and the resolution which had followed made her stomach flutter. How could she look at him this morning and not let the love she felt show in her eyes, in her smile, in the way she touched him?

  It would help a little, she hoped, seeing him the first time in the office instead of waking up next to him. Nevertheless...

  In the green marble bathroom, Erin cast a longing look at the whirlpool tub and hurried through a shower instead. She sat down at the built-in dressing table to dry her hair, and couldn’t help wondering why such a deliberately feminine nook had been so carefully fitted into what was otherwise a very masculine bathroom.

  This is exactly what you can’t let yourself do, she thought. Of course there had been other women in his life – she could hardly pretend otherwise when she’d seen them for herself. But speculating about them would get her nowhere. Instead, she must concentrate on the fact that she would be the one who lasted, the one who spent her life beside him.

  Propped up against the mirror was an envelope bearing her name. It contained a key, the codes to the apartment’s security system, and a note. Eagerly, she unfolded the sheet of embossed notepaper.

  I’m going on to the office, Slater had written in the strong and spiky hand she knew so well. Take as long as you like, and give your mother my best. And he’d signed his name. That was all.

  Her heart was as flat as the paper.

  For Angela, he’d sent his best. For Erin, there was nothing... except permission to be late to work.

  What he was really offering her, she remembered saying the night he’d proposed, was a new job, not a marriage. A personal assistant with a very long-term employment contract – that was all she really was, despite the stunning passion they had shared last night.

  At least, Erin had felt passion. She had been stunned. And she had believed they were sharing equally. But what had Slater felt?

  She tried to blo
t out the trickle of doubt. “Get over it,” she told herself. “You accepted the terms. Now you’re going to have to live with them.”

  *****

  Sarah greeted Erin with undisguised relief. “Thank heaven you’re finally here. I’ve been calling everywhere I could think of.”

  Erin frowned. “I stopped by the hospital to pick up my mother, but she’d already checked out and gone home. What’s wrong?”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “The boss has created a whole new king of the tyrant reptiles. Every one he’s ever imitated before would turn tail and run if they met him this morning.”

  That was odd, Erin thought. His note might not have been the love sonnet she’d have liked, but it had been perfectly civil – precisely what she’d have expected of Slater. But if he was so unhappy he was threatening to bite anyone who crossed his path…

  Sarah said, “It’s the Universal Conveyer bid that went in just last week – for the control systems on that new assembly line.”

  How foolish, Erin thought, to think he might have been irritable because of me.

  “What about it? Was something wrong?”

  Did I overlook something? Put it together wrong? Mess up the numbers?

  Sarah shook her head. “He just got the word that MacDonald Associates underbid us.”

  “That’s impossible. They couldn’t be doing it for less, not unless they pared the bid to the bone. And why would they want the job if they can’t make money on it?”

  “Well, feel free to go tell Mr. Livingstone that he must have heard the news wrong, all right? I hope you don’t mind if I don’t follow you, but I’d prefer to stay out here and crawl under my desk to wait for the explosion.”

  “Sorry, Sarah. I didn’t mean... I don’t understand how they could do it, though.”

  “Well, just to make matters worse, it’s something like fifty cents less.”

  “As if they knew precisely what our bid was,” Erin mused. Her stomach twisted into a knot. Slater had been concerned last week about an information leak, but in that case the details had been wrong and the effects minimal. This case was obviously quite different.

  “And just to top things off,” Sarah went on, “the Senator’s secretary called.”

  Erin looked at her with foreboding. “Please tell me he’s not coming this week.”

  “Thursday. I’ve already checked on the ballet, but the series finishes up tonight, so that’s out. I don’t know how you’re going to entertain him, but you’ve got just about forty-eight hours to figure it out. Oh, and the secretary said he’s bringing his daughter.”

  “So what does that mean? I’m supposed to arrange child care, too?”

  “Hardly. She’s twenty-five.”

  “Then it’s good news – I don’t need an extra woman to keep the numbers straight at dinner. Of course that small blessing is balanced out by the fact that Jessup’s taking a few days off.” Erin rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ll think of something.”

  “Well, while you think, can you watch the office for a while? I’ve got to take the Brannagan drawings down to the copy center.”

  “What’s the matter with the machine behind your desk?”

  “It’ll feed one sheet of paper, quit, and need resetting. If I’m lucky the repairman will be along before the end of the year. In the meantime, since the boss wants seventy-two thousand copies, more or less—”

  Erin raised an eyebrow.

  Sarah grinned sheepishly. “Okay, he only needs fifteen sets. But since he’s being particularly touchy this morning about confidential information…”

  “For good reason, I’d say.”

  “I’ll have to stand over the whole mess to be sure there isn’t an extra copy slipped through.”

  Erin held up both hands in surrender. “Go. I’ll cover.”

  She considered moving out to Sarah’s desk, but unless the copy center two floors down was unexpectedly busy, the work shouldn’t take more than half an hour. Instead, she settled down in her own office, leaving her door open. From this angle, she couldn’t see Sarah’s desk, but she would hear anyone who came in. According to Sarah’s calendar, the only person Slater was expecting this morning was a supplier’s representative.

  Bad timing for that poor guy, Erin thought, when he walks in and meets a T rex in need of an attitude adjustment.

  A few minutes later, rustling from the outer office drew her attention, and she put her work aside and went out to greet the rep. The person in the outer office, however, was Cecile Worth, and the rustling Erin had heard hadn’t been a sales representative organizing his presentation but the papers scattered on Sarah’s desk as Cecile stirred them up.

  “Can I help you find what you’re looking for?” Erin said crisply.

  Cecile didn’t even blink in surprise. “I stopped by to see Slater.”

  “I doubt you’ll find him lurking under a manila folder on Sarah’s desk.”

  “But maybe she has a nail file,” Cecile said sweetly, and fluttered a hand to show off her scarlet polish. “Which I am desperately in need of. By the way, Erin, I understand congratulations are in order. So you listened to my advice and took a good long look at his wallet, hmm? Of course, even then – who would have thought you’d actually get the job done?”

  “Slater’s very busy today, Cecile. I doubt–”

  “—That you’ll try very hard to pencil me in. Well, I suppose if I can’t talk to him, I may as well settle for you. I’ll make it worth your while if I can meet the Senator this week, Erin. Being his dinner partner would be nice, but I’ll settle for sitting across the table.”

  Erin was furious at the woman’s gall, but even more, she was startled that Cecile so plainly knew that the Senator’s visit had been rescheduled. Last night, even Slater hadn’t known. Yet the worthy Cecile was very well-informed.

  “I’ll keep your wishes in mind when I plan the guest list,” Erin said. “But satisfy my curiosity, won’t you? What’s so attractive about the Senator?”

  “Oh, just that he’s very interesting,” Cecile purred. “And as for what I said about making it worth your while, Erin, maybe I should put it this way – if I don’t get an invitation, I’ll make your life hell.” She smiled coolly. “You know, now that I think about you and Slater, it should have been obvious. His idea of exciting pillow talk is no doubt discussing the profit and loss statement, and who better to do that than little Erin?”

  Despite her best efforts, Erin felt soft color wash over her cheeks. Balance sheets had been just about the last thing on her mind last night.

  Cecile smirked. “Was it that exciting? Or does it just take so little to thrill you? I’m pleased for you, darling. Those who don’t expect much shall not be disappointed.” She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and swept out.

  Erin muttered under her breath and started to straighten up the papers the woman had disarranged. She would have expected the worthy Cecile to carry a nail file everywhere she went.

  And even if she didn’t, why had she been podging around the trays on top of Sarah’s desk instead of in the shallow center drawer where such things would most likely be kept?

  What had she really been looking for?

  Surely her actual reason for coming couldn’t have been the Senator’s party. The woman wasn’t an idiot; she must realize that the likelihood of Slater inviting her to be his guest wasn’t much greater than the chances that he’d ask her to act as his hostess again – in other words, nonexistent. And Erin had even less reason to want the woman around. As for both Cecile’s threat and her promise, they’d been global and indefinite – hardly something to take seriously.

  So what had she wanted?

  Erin picked up a stray memo, a copy on Universal Conveyer’s letterhead, and slid it back into the proper folder. Careless of Sarah to leave it out – or had Cecile moved it?

  Her eyes narrowed as she wondered whether Universal Conveyer’s control systems had been mentioned at the dinner party where Cecile had playe
d hostess. It was quite possible. One of the engineers working on the proposal had been among the guests. And one of the accountants, too, because those same people were also involved with Bob Brannagan’s project.

  And if Cecile had been listening...

  Erin shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t imagine Cecile paying much attention to something she’d so clearly find boring, or realizing the importance of what she’d heard.

  Though, Erin remembered uncomfortably, she herself had reminded Cecile that the reason Slater’s parties weren’t held in public places was because the conversations had to be kept private. She might just as well have announced that information gleaned at those parties could be worth money.

  But even if Cecile had wanted to capitalize on her position, how would she have known what was important, or who would want to buy it?

  Unless someone at MacDonald Associates had discovered Cecile had been at that party. It wouldn’t have been hard to pick her brain clean of anything she did recall. And a shrewd operator, putting together bits and pieces, might be able to figure out just about what the bid would be.

  Erin had just finished straightening all the papers and gone back into her office when she heard footsteps leave the tiled corridor and stop just inside the door. Annoyed that she hadn’t been able to so much as pick up a pen, she went back out to greet the newcomer.

  Dax was standing near Sarah’s desk, and when he looked up she saw surprise flicker in his eyes.

  That was no wonder, Erin thought. Finding out the woman he’d been trying to date had abruptly married the boss must have come as a stunning surprise. She suspected that Dax didn’t shock easily – though of course that was mostly because he seemed impervious to hints and insensitive to anything which didn’t fit into his egocentric view of the world. So the impact of the announcement must have been staggering.

  “Erin,” he said. “I didn’t expect you to be here, with your mother ill.”