Need You Now

by Yahrah St. John

  When Kayla didn’t speak, Ethan continued, “It’s why I think the entire perfume line should be something unique and distinct from the cosmetics division.”

  “I’m listening…what aren’t you saying?”

  “There will be a new spokeswoman for the perfume line,” Ethan stated.

  “Excuse me?”

  “The perfume line will have its own spokeswoman.”

  “Absolutely not!” Kayla stood up. “Courtney has always been the Adams Cosmetics spokeswoman. What are you trying to pull here, Ethan? You’ve already tying my hands. Are you trying to systematically get rid of every member of the Adams family out of Adams Cosmetics?”

  “That’s harsh, Kayla. I’m not getting rid of Courtney. I just think we should keep her on the cosmetics division.”

  “You should leave!” Kayla pointed to the door.

  “Kayla, we need to talk about this.”

  “I can’t talk to you, because you’re talking nonsense. I can’t believe you’d do this to my family.” Kayla sighed. “Just go.”

  “Kayla, I respect your right to disagree with me, but my decision on this is final.”

  Kayla laughed bitterly. “You promised to ‘consult me’ in Bora Bora. This isn’t consulting me, Ethan. This is telling me, but I guess since you’re the majority shareholder I have no vote, so we have nothing left to say,” she replied, and picked up her phone to make a call.

  “Is everything all right?” Daniel asked Ethan when he found him still working late at Graham International’s offices.

  When Ethan glared at him, Daniel knew it wasn’t, and closed the door behind him. He walked over to Ethan’s wet bar and pulled out a bottle of scotch. He poured him and Ethan a glass.

  He returned to Ethan’s desk and set the glass on his desk. Ethan grasped it and chugged it down in one shot.

  “All right,” Daniel said. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”

  “That woman is so infuriating.” Ethan ran his hands over his head.

  “Oh, really?” Daniel laughed. “Did something happen?”

  “Kayla pushed my buttons is what happened,” Ethan answered. “She planned an advertising meeting on her brother’s new fragrance line without including me.”

  “Isn’t that one of the reasons you bought Adams Cosmetics?” Daniel asked. “Aside from other reasons,” he added. He was no fool and knew Ethan was attracted to his wife.

  “Absolutely. Shane Adams is one of the best chemists out there and I know this fragrance will be a slam dunk if handled properly.”

  “And Kayla doesn’t agree?”

  “Not when I told her that any major decisions concerning AC need to be run by me first.” He should have made it clear to her sooner, but Kayla had to know that things wouldn’t continue at Adams Cosmetics as they had been before the merger.

  “Ah, there’s the rub.” Daniel rubbed his goatee thoughtfully.

  “She was even more furious when I told her that I want a new spokeswoman for the perfume line.”

  “What’s wrong with Courtney Adams? She’s a beautiful woman.”

  “Agreed.” Ethan nodded. “And she will still be the model for the cosmetics division, but I have someone else in mind for the perfume line.”

  “Oh, yeah? Who?”

  “Noelle Warner.”

  “The actress you dated? Do you think that’s a wise idea?” Daniel inquired. Noelle was one of Ethan’s many exes.

  “Noelle is the most celebrated actress on the planet after that Oscar this year, plus we’ve been through for a long time. She’s dating that NFL player,” Ethan commented. Noelle had always been one of the few women who understood the score when he said he wasn’t looking for commitment. “Noelle has the right amount of innocence and sexiness to pull off the advertising campaign we’ve discussed. Start the discussions with Noelle’s camp.”

  “Does Kayla know about you and Noelle?”

  Ethan shook his head. He and Kayla had never really discussed their past relationships. He only knew what was in the dossier, and it was better that way. If he had to think of another man touching his wife, he’d blow a gasket.

  “No. And why should it matter? Noelle and I were over long ago. Kayla couldn’t possibly be threatened by her.”

  “I have to strongly discourage you on this, Ethan. You’re playing with fire by underestimating an ex,” Daniel warned. “And you will get burned.”

  Chapter 11

  “He wants to take Courtney off the campaign?” her father said when Kayla came home after work instead of going to Ethan’s home in Tuxedo Park.

  “Yes.” Kayla nodded as the family sat down and shared a cocktail before dinner. She couldn’t bear to go home and sit down to a meal with Ethan. Not when she was still so furious with him.

  “Why would he want to do that?” Shane asked. “Courtney is gorgeous.”

  “He said he wants to separate the two lines and make them more distinct,” Kayla answered.

  “But Courtney has always been the Adams spokeswoman. How can he do this?” her mother asked. “Courtney will not be happy.”

  “What will I not be happy with?” Courtney stood with her hand on her hip from the doorway. She was jetlagged after having returned from a trip to a fashion show in Paris. She always kept the Adams Cosmetics name fresh in people’s minds. She’d even procured herself a walk in one of the designer’s shows while she was there.

  “Who’s going to tell her?” Her mother looked at Byron, then Shane.

  “Don’t look at me.” Shane shrugged his shoulders and looked at Kayla.

  “Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?” Courtney said, dropping her overnight bag on the floor with a thud and throwing herself in the oversize leather love seat across from Kayla. “Can someone fix me a cocktail? I’m parched.”

  “What no one wants to say,” Kayla began slowly, heading to the wet bar to fix her sister a drink—which she would need, “is that Ethan has made his presence known at AC.”

  That information piqued Courtney and she sat straight up. “Oh, really? What has he done?”

  Kayla fixed Courtney a cranberry and vodka and handed her the drink. Courtney took a quick sip and said, “Well, I’m waiting.”

  Kayla inhaled deeply and then just spit it out. “Ethan has informed me that all major decisions for AC have to be run past him and he has the final say. One of those decisions is he will be hiring a new spokesmodel for the perfume line.”

  “He can’t do that!” Courtney said. “That’s my area of the company.” She had been the spokeswoman for nearly a decade, since she’d turned sixteen.

  “He can and he will,” Kayla stated.

  “Why would he do this?” Courtney asked. “Does he think I’m not pretty enough?” She rushed over to mirror above the mantel to check her makeup. She turned from side to side, trying to find a flaw or a wrinkle, but she saw none. Even though she had brains to go along with her beauty, her face had always been the one way she could make a valuable contribution to the company. Hell, Shane had the lab and Kayla was the CEO. Where did that leave her?

  Kayla rose from the couch and came over to stand behind Courtney. “You are stunning. This is Ethan’s way of asserting his power of us, over me. This has nothing to do with you.”

  “How are you going to handle this, Kayla?” her father asked. He’d been surprisingly quiet about the whole scenario. She would have thought he would have been jumping up and down. Perhaps he knew it was a moot point.

  “Honestly, I don’t know, Daddy.” Kayla turned around to face her family. “Ethan and I are at impasse on this. Because I will never agree with him and turn my back on my family.” She reached over to squeeze Courtney’s hand.

  Kayla was quiet when she walked into the master bedroom hours later and found Ethan awake and perched against the headboard reading a book.

  “Hello,” Ethan said, but Kayla walked past him into her closet and began removing her clothes.

  The more she’d thought ab
out it on the drive home, the more she realized he must have had the idea for weeks, which is why he’d asked her to have his back with her family. But if this was his way of earning favor with them, he would be waiting a long time for their respect, much less their affection.

  When she’d changed into her negligee, she went into the bathroom and began washing off her makeup. She was startled when she looked up in the mirror to find Ethan standing behind her.

  “Is it your intention to give me the silent treatment, because you may have noticed I don’t respond well to being ignored.”

  “That’s too bad,” Kayla returned, reaching for a hand towel and wiping her face, “because I’m not in the mood to fight with you, Ethan. It’s been a long day.”

  “Neither am I, but I would like to know where you were this evening,” Ethan replied. “You never called me.”

  “I didn’t realize I had to tell you my whereabouts at every hour and every second of the day.” Kayla reached for her moisturizer, poured a generous amount in her hands and began rubbing it into her face.

  “God darn it, Kayla,” Ethan hissed, slamming the book he’d been reading onto the counter. “Must you be so obtuse? It is common courtesy to let your husband know where you are so I don’t have to worry.”

  Kayla turned to face him, her eyes clouded with fury. “I am not one of your acquisitions, Ethan. You don’t rule me.” She stalked out of the bathroom and headed toward the bed, but Ethan blocked her path.

  “Are you purposely trying to rile me up?”

  “I am not trying to do anything to you. Now move”

  Ethan reluctantly stepped aside. “Listen, I’m sorry you’re upset, but you must agree that we need to hash this out. We shouldn’t go to bed angry.” He didn’t want to lose the closeness they’d shared during their honeymoon. It had the meant the world to him that she’d opened her heart to him in Bora Bora. It meant they were finally making progress toward having a real marriage. And now he was seeing it go up in flames, just as Daniel had warned.

  “It will not be tonight,” Kayla said, turning her back to him and walking to the bed. She hopped inside, pulled the covers up to her shoulders and leaned across to turn the lamp out over the nightstand. “Good night.” Seconds later, her head hit the pillow, effectively ending their conversation.

  Knock. Knock. “Come in,” Shane said from the other end of the laboratory door. “Kayla, what are you doing here?”

  “I needed to get away from my office,” Kayla replied, pulling up a chair to watch Shane work.

  “What’s on your mind?”

  “Have you seen the new mock-ups for the ad campaign for Hypnotic, the new fragrance?”

  “I have,” Shane replied, stopping what he was doing. “They’re good.”

  “Yes.” Kayla was quietly contemplative.

  “So I take it things are no better on the home front?” Shane inquired, trying to read his sister.

  “If you call being polite to each other better, then yes, we’re doing great,” Kayla replied sarcastically. She and Ethan had shared the same bed every night as per the terms of their marriage, but they had barely spoken over the past week.

  Kayla had long since come to the realization that the decision of who was the spokeswoman was out of her hands. Adams Cosmetics was a subsidiary of Graham International now, and she had to answer to Ethan no matter how much she might dislike that fact. She’d had sacrificed her autonomy to keep the company solvent and she had to live with the consequences of her decision. She just didn’t know how to mend fences with Ethan and she wasn’t sure she should.

  Yes, she loved him, but if things continued as they were, he would have to see that their marriage was a farce and let her out. Sure, AC would still be his, but she could still save face. It was much too hard to sleep next to him night after night knowing there would be nothing between them other than sex.

  “One of you has to make the first move,” Shane said, knocking her out of her reverie.

  “Why should it be me?” Kayla asked.

  “Because Ethan had a point,” Shane offered. “Graham International did acquire us and we should have informed him. I guess we both were so used to running things our way that we left him out.”

  “You agree with him?” Kayla asked.

  “I see both sides. I don’t agree with him not allowing Courtney to continue as spokeswoman. Her face is synonymous with the brand, but yet we have to include him.”

  Kayla smiled. “Well, that’s good to hear.”

  “I just can’t imagine what it’s like with the two of you at war. Both of you are so stubborn neither one of you wants to give in. That house must be cold as ice.”

  “It hasn’t been a walk in the park,” Kayla admitted.

  “So tell him you’ll agree to disagree and call it a day.”

  Kayla hated that Shane made so much sense. She knew he was right, but she hated to give in first. Ethan should apologize. “Thank you, brother dear.” She slid off the stool to give Shane a kiss on the cheek and he pinched her nose.

  “I only want the best for you,” he said. “Go make up with your husband.” He patted her on the butt and nudged her out the door.

  “Mrs. Graham is here to see you.” Ethan’s assistant buzzed his intercom later that afternoon.

  Ethan’s dropped the pen he’d been writing with and his heart suddenly began pounding loudly in his chest. Kayla was here? He was surprised as hell. She’d been mad at him for well over a week and he had to admit it had taken its toll. He’d been snappy more than a few times at Daniel the last week, causing him to give him a wide berth. And he’d most definitely felt it in the bedroom, as they hadn’t made love since that second morning back from their honeymoon.

  The boardroom hadn’t been any fun, either. Kayla had sat across from him at the advertising meeting earlier in the week to discuss the campaign and Noelle’s involvement and she’d stared daggers at him the whole time. Ethan was sure everyone else in the room had felt her resentment, because he sure had. Now he wasn’t sure what to make of her surprise visit. She’d come to him on his turf. What did it mean? Was she ready to let bygones be bygones?

  Several minutes went by and his assistant rang him again. “Would you like me to send her in?”

  Ethan pushed down the answer button. “Yes, of course. My wife is always welcome.”

  Kayla came strolling in, looking stunningly beautiful with her hair swept up in a French roll, wearing a sleek ruffled cardigan that began at the waist and reached all the way to her neck along with a pencil skirt that showed her impressive curvy figure but barely reached her knee. It made Ethan instantly want to ravish her right there, to pull every pin out of her hair until it hung in waves down her shoulders and to unzip that cardigan to reveal the soft swell of her breasts that he knew were lying underneath.

  When Kayla reached his desk, Ethan exhaled. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath until she was standing in front of him. What was wrong with him? He hadn’t had this kind of strong physical reaction to a woman since…since…well, never.

  “Kayla.” Ethan nodded his head.

  “Ethan.” Kayla smiled hesitantly.

  They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity until Ethan spoke first. “What brings you here?”

  Kayla swallowed. “Well, I…” She’d come here for a truce per Shane’s advice, but she wasn’t necessarily sure of how to go about it. She looked down, twisting her hands.

  Before she could utter another sentence, Ethan jumped out of his seat and pulled her into his arms. Without preamble, he plunged his hand into herhair, tilted her head to the right angle and plundered her mouth with a kiss. He pressed his hips into hers until they were chest to chest, belly to belly.

  Kayla strained against him. He lifted her to meet his growing arousal, wanting her to be tight against him. Blood pulsed through Ethan and his temples pounded as fiery need coursed through him. Kayla smelled so good and tasted so right. Kissing Kayla supercharged all
of his senses, and Ethan couldn’t get enough.

  The soft sounds she made made him want to reach down under the hem of her skirt and feel the hot core of her at his fingertips, but he realized where he was and slowly eased away from Kayla. Her eyes were still closed and her mouth was still slightly open.

  “I’ve missed you,” Ethan whispered, brushing his lips over hers again.

  Kayla’s eyes popped open just then and she murmured, “I’ve missed you, too.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Kayla asked Courtney when her sister came down late one afternoon to watch Noelle Warner take some test shots for the new advertising campaign. They hadn’t spoken much in the past couple of weeks, and Kayla suspected why. Courtney must blame her for Ethan choosing Noelle.

  “Of course,” Courtney returned testily.

  “I know how difficult this is. And I’m sorry for any part I played in Ethan’s decision,” Kayla said with her arms folded across her chest.

  “It’s not your fault.”

  Kayla didn’t think so. It was a hard transition for her to have to run her decisions by Ethan. She’d run Adams Cosmetics for nearly five years since her father had retired and wasn’t used to having to answer to anyone.

  She and Ethan had settled on having a once-a-week meeting to discuss any vital AC business. It was her compromise on keeping him informed on day-to-day operations.

  Hiring Noelle was Ethan’s decision. She was a beautiful woman, Kayla was sure, but she wasn’t Courtney. She knew her sister was putting on a stiff upper lip, but it had to hurt having the one area where she made an impact on the company suddenly minimized by an outsider.

  “She is stunning,” Courtney admitted, looking at the actress. “I mean look at her bone structure. I could never have her figure unless I starved myself.”