Love Under the Mistletoe

by Anthology

  The second shot was front-on. Laughter lit up her face brighter than the Christmas tree that added flashes of colour behind her. Her hair was mussed and her lips were full and swollen from their lovemaking. She had made some ribald comment about his cock and the Energizer Bunny. She’d made him promise to delete the image, saying she didn’t like her picture taken. He promised her he would. All that only seconds before he tossed the BlackBerry aside and took her again. God, he couldn’t get enough of her, and there was no way he was letting her walk out of his life. Afterwards she had forgotten about the picture, and he’d not been able to bring himself to delete it. He knew he shouldn’t be sharing it, but he’d do whatever it took to find her.

  Perkins looked up at him. ‘Can I get copies of these?’

  ‘Sure. Of course. I’ll print them out.’ He held the PI’s gaze. ‘Though you may think I’m being foolish, I assure you I expect your full and complete attention to finding her. Money’s no object, Perkins. I want her in my life. And if you can find her for me before the New Year, I’ll make it very well worth your while.’

  ‘I assure you the case will get my full attention, Mr. Jasper, and if I can’t find her, she can’t be found.’

  ‘She can be found,’ he said, a little more desperately than he intended. ‘She must be.’

  The man reddened slightly around his receding hairline and closed his notebook with a snap. ‘Of course. We’ll find her. If I could, I’d like to begin by talking with your maid and butler. They may remember something else I can use.’

  ‘I’ll have the photos printed for you before you leave,’ Gerard said with a twinge of guilt.

  He showed Perkins into Terrill’s office, where Terrill and Twyla were waiting. Once introductions were made, he returned to his study, pulled up the pictures, and hit print. It was then that he noticed a new message from Howard Hailey at the Valentine Corporation agreeing to the noon meeting Gerard had demanded. After stewing over the counter- proposal Hailey had sent before the holidays, he had decided it was the final straw. He was tired of dancing with the VP, and it was time to go straight to the top. He was not so stupid as to believe Hailey was calling the shots, even if he put on a good show for the rest of the world. Gerard was way too intuitive to fall for that shit. He had insisted on meeting with R.M. Valentine himself and though Hailey emailed back that Valentine had agreed, Gerard would believe it when he saw it. It wouldn’t be the first time he had been stood up by Valentine, whoever Valentine was.

  Moira hadn’t been inside Valentine Towers in over a year. She’d made it a point of living outside the limelight, letting Howard take all the kudos for the Valentine Corporation’s huge growth and success in the past few years. With Howard’s help, she had kept R.M. Valentine’s identity a secret and a mystery. Oh, there were rumours – most involving a reclusive, invalid son, one who resided in a private sanitarium so that he could get the care he needed, safe from prying eyes. Popular opinion was that he was nothing more than a figurehead. Everyone knew what a total bastard her father had been, and no one doubted that any child of Arlington Harrison Valentine’s would have serious issues as an adult. They got that right, she thought. Nevertheless, the cover-up had held nicely all this time, and as far as Moira could tell, no one was even the slightest bit suspicious that R.M. Valentine was a woman and running the entire show from behind the scenes.

  As usual, Howard’s secretary offered her a kindly smile and motioned her on into his office. The woman had been with him forever and was as tight-lipped as she was efficient. Though Moira wasn’t sure even the trustworthy Margie knew who she really was. When Moira did make the rare visit to Valentine Towers, Howard always made sure as few people saw her as possible and she always arrived under a pseudonym. But this morning he wasn’t expecting her. In fact she wasn’t entirely sure why she had decided to make the pilgrimage. For some reason she just wasn’t in the mood to return to her usual isolation away from the thriving office.

  She knocked and pushed her way into his suite without preamble, just as she had always done.

  ‘Moira! What are you doing here?’ Howard seemed more than a little surprised to see her, and the man was hard to surprise.

  ‘Remember me? R.M. Valentine – closet CEO? I came because of Gerard Jasper.’

  The VP gave a startled blink, glanced down at his watch, and then at the door. ‘Seriously?’

  ‘Seriously, Howard. Why else would I be here? Jasper’s the big issue on the table at the moment, isn’t he? And it’s about time we put the man in his place and let him know he can’t push Valentine around, don’t you think?’

  The man stuttered, gave a couple more startled blinks, and jerked his tie like it was choking him. What the hell was the matter with him this morning? ‘Well, yes, of course. That’s what I think, but really, Moira, you don’t have to be here. He’s not calling the shots and for him to think he can give us that kind of ultimatum, well, it’s just bluff. That’s all, just bluff.’ Howard palmed his laptop shut and gave another glance at the door.

  She plopped down in the chair opposite his desk and glared at him. ‘Well then it’s about time we called his bluff, isn’t it? Are you okay, Howard? You look a little pale.’

  ‘I just … well I wasn’t expecting you to … take part. That’s all.’

  ‘You know R.M. Valentine is never far from the action,’ she said, offering him a smile. ‘So, what have we got?’ she asked, reminding herself that just because Gerard had shown Moira his soft underbelly at a difficult time, certainly didn’t mean his approach to the Valentine Corporation would soften any. He didn’t know who she was and she absolutely didn’t want the deal to be made with his dick. Christ! Maybe she was just as bad. Maybe she was letting what happened between them over the Christmas weekend affect her thinking. Nothing had changed, she reminded herself. She really had come down here for nothing. The fucking truth, as much as she hated to admit it, was that she had come down so she could ask her VP questions about Gerard Jasper, like some stupid teenage girl with a crush. She forced her attention back to what Howard was saying.

  ‘Moira, you know we’ve got a working plan. Your plan. And it’s a great plan.’ He looked down at his watch. ‘And frankly I don’t see how you meeting Jasper in person is going to change that.’

  Her stomach dropped. What the hell was he talking about? Had he found out about her weekend with Gerard? Christ how could he? Before she could say anything, he glanced again at his watch. ‘If you insist on doing this in person, then just remember, if he knows who you are, everyone else will know soon. You can’t expect him to keep that secret.’

  Oh God! She knew she shouldn’t have used her real name, but no one knew. No one! How could Gerard have figured it out? She racked her brain, going back over her memories of the Christmas weekend trying to think how Gerard might have guessed her true identity.

  A wave of Howard’s hand in a negating motion drew her attention back to the VP. ‘Moira, you know my thoughts on you going public. I’ve told you from the beginning you should be leading this company front and centre for all the world to see, but you need to remember, if you go before Gerard Jasper, if you choose to confront him as R. M. Valentine, then once the cat’s out of the bag, there’ll be no going back, and the firestorm from the press will be like nothing you can imagine.’

  ‘But I don’t … I never intended to –’ Before she could say anything else, the secretary buzzed and Howard picked up the phone, then nodded.

  ‘All right then. Send him in.’

  And suddenly the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Gerard didn’t know who she was. He was here for a meeting with Howard and her timing just really sucked. That was all. But before she could do anything more than offer a couple of fish gasps, and bolt to her feet, the world suddenly switched into slow motion as Howard’s office door opened and Gerard Jasper himself stepped in, looking like he belonged on the cover of Forbes magazine. Like a scene from her worst nightmare, Howard moved forward and shook his hand the
n turned to Moira. ‘Jasper, I’d like you to meet R. M. Valentine, the brains behind the Valentine Corporation and this merger that’ll benefit both of our companies.’ To her horror, the man sounded almost like the proud father she’d never had, like she was the little girl who had pleased him. Christ! Father issues always chose the worst possible time to rear their ugly heads. God, she hoped the reddening of her face wasn’t as visible as it felt. She hadn’t had to worry about a poker face before, and she hadn’t planned to need one today. How could she have let this mix-up happen?

  For a long moment it felt as though the room and everything in it had been freeze framed. Gerard stared, Moira stared, and Howard looked from one to the other trying to figure out what the hell was going on. The first movement Moira noticed was the sweat trickling down between her breasts and the tight twitching of the muscles along Gerard’s right jaw. Then, with his face completely unreadable, Gerard extended his hand. ‘Ms Valentine.’

  ‘Have a seat, Jasper, and we can get started,’ Howard said. ‘I think we have a lot to –’

  ‘I need to speak to Ms Valentine,’ Gerard interrupted without taking his eyes off her. ‘Alone.’

  Once again, Howard looked back and forth between the two of them. ‘Moira? Moira, what’s going on?’

  The twitch was back along Gerard’s jaw. ‘Do you really want to do this with an audience?’ he said, holding her in an icy glare.

  Howard bristled ‘Moira? What the hell is he talking about?’

  ‘It’s all right, Howard. I’ll handle this.’ She was surprised that her voice sounded so calm when the rest of her felt like it was imploding. Since she had no office of her own, she motioned Gerard to follow her to the small conference room connected to Howard’s suite. In truth, she felt lucky to make it that far the way her knees were shaking. As she pushed open the door, for one horrible moment the room spun in front of her and she feared she’d pass out. This was so not the way she wanted her next meeting with Gerard to go, but there was nothing for it now but to plough forward. Once they were both inside, she shut to door carefully and just stood there like a coward, prepared to bolt if she had to. No doubt her father was laughing in his grave.

  Gerard stood only inches away, seeming no more anxious to settle at the table than she was. The muscles along his jaw were doing double time, and his dark eyes were black-ice cold. ‘I suppose I should be flattered that the fearless R.M. Valentine felt it necessary to fuck me in order to secure the best deal in this merger.’

  If he had twisted a knife in her gut, it couldn’t have hurt more. ‘I didn’t know it was you,’ she said, slowly, carefully, holding her hard-earned self-control by a shoestring. ‘And once I found out, it was too late to do anything about it. I didn’t intend –’

  He huffed out a laugh that was anything but humorous. ‘You expect me to believe that? You’ve been playing hardball ever since we first broached the idea of a merger, what was the plan? Go through my drawers, check out my computer, maybe take pictures of me in compromising positions and blackmail me?’

  Every word was like another twist of the knife, driving it deeper into her heart.

  ‘Well you got way more than you bargained for, didn’t you?’

  Her effort to swallow was wasted against the desert of here dry throat. ‘The deal on the table is still the deal on the table. It hasn’t changed since before Christmas and, as far as I know, you’re here to counter.’

  ‘What? Did my insisting you be here call your bluff?’

  She struggled to hold her shoulders square. ‘So that’s what Howard was talking about. I didn’t know,’ she said.

  ‘You didn’t know what?’

  ‘That you would be here. I don’t work here. I never come here. I work from home.’

  ‘What? When you’re not naked and tied up in someone’s flat, you mean?’

  She exploded. ‘You know nothing about me, Gerard Jasper – nothing! Don’t you even claim to judge me or the choices I make or to think for one second that I have any more of a fucking life than you do, because you have no idea! You have no goddamn idea!’ She spun around and jerked the door open. Damned if she was going to cry in front of him.

  ‘You can’t just walk away from me,’ he said, following on her heels.

  She turned so quickly that he practically ran into her and they both nearly ran into Howard, who had been clearly waiting outside the door. ‘I can and I will,’ she said, standing nearly nose to nose him. ‘It’s my fucking company! Mine! And it’s twice the company my father left to me. You know goddamned good and well that you’re getting the deal of a lifetime no matter what happened over Christmas, so if I were you, I would ask myself, Mr Jasper, just who is fucking whom?’ Her voice broke and she fled nearly plowing over poor confused Howard, but then she stopped at the door and turned to her second in command. ‘Give the man what he wants, Howard. It’s a win-win deal and he knows it.’ Then, with as much dignity as she could muster, she left the building, managing to hold back the flood until she was once again tucked inside the limo and the privacy window was closed.

  To say that Howard Hailey was furious was an understatement. Seems the man wasn’t above listening through the keyhole, and once Moira had practically ripped the door off the hinges, there was no being subtle about the situation. The man threatened to call security if Gerard didn’t sit his ass down and tell him what the hell was going on. That the VP was fiercely protective of Moira got Gerard’s attention far more than the threat of security. When he finally stood to leave the man’s office an hour later, reeling from the information Hailey had given him, the VP had stopped him at the door. ‘Both companies will benefit from this merger, Jasper, and she’s just given it to you on a silver platter. Don’t expose her.’ When Gerard turned back to face him, his gaze was pleading. ‘I’ve never wanted it this way. I’ve always believed that she should get all the credit she deserves. You have no idea how brilliant that woman is, or the mess her father left her to clean up. But he did a number on her. No one even knows he had a daughter, and she’s convinced that this company runs better if everyone thinks there’s a man at the helm. Don’t expose her. Whatever happened between the two of you, between two lonely, fucked-up people, she doesn’t deserve that.’

  On the way home, Gerard had called his PI with all the information he had about Moira and, with stop and go traffic to midtown, he had a good chunk of information waiting for him in his email box by the time he got home. In his study, he stripped off his jacket and tie, poured a stiff whiskey, and read all about Rachel Moira McCarran Valentine.

  Chapter Seven

  ‘That greedy, arrogant bastard!’ Moira exploded. She glared down at the email from Howard saying that the deal was off the table unless Gerard could meet with Moira personally that night to iron out certain unacceptable details. Then she quickly typed back. I’ve all but given him carte blanche. What does he want me to do, open a vein? And on New Year’s Eve! No good deed ever goes unpunished, she thought. Not that she had plans, though she had lied to her mother about a party and friends and celebrating in Times Square. But really, she just didn’t have the heart for it, and Sadie was away in Tuscany for the New Year. No doubt this was Gerard’s way of rubbing her nose in the fact that she’d blown it majorly with him, but she’d never have thought him to be vindictive.

  Still, she should have known better. She had long ago gotten used to the fact that sex for one was the only sure way to keep her identity safe, and now it was just a matter of time before he spilled the beans. In fact, she supposed he pretty much had her by the short hairs. Still, it was less the threat of her identity being exposed than the fact that the first man she had met in a long time whose opinion of her really mattered now thought of her as little more than a glorified whore, and a dishonest one at that. After a quick shower, she donned a black power suit that she nearly changed out of because it made her look too much like a dominatrix. Then she changed her mind. That was just her father speaking, the man who thought no woman in t
he office was fit to do more than secretarial work. Give a woman power and she’d abuse it. She ignored the voice. Gerard already thought she got what she had by sleeping around, so what difference did it make what she wore.

  The limo fought its way through traffic to the Jasper building, only just arriving as she got a message that Gerard had been caught in a meeting in midtown. He said one of his drivers, who knew all the back routes, was waiting to take her to an address she didn’t recognize right off Times Square. She cursed. It was going to be a real nightmare to get there. Howard must have given him her email address because the message was clearly from Gerard. She felt a dull ache around her heart as she recalled his invitation to share the New Year with him in his flat above Times Square. She had almost convinced herself to join him. If he was rubbing salt in the wound, he was doing a fine job of it.

  Amazingly enough, the driver knew the alleyways like the back of his hand. He parked the limo and helped her out. In order to avoid the crowds still swelling in Times Square, he took her up a service elevator in a building she couldn’t identify from the back. All the while she seethed and fumed at Gerard’s nerve to put her through this on New Year’s Eve, for fuck sake! The elevator opened on what was clearly the penthouse and the driver escorted her to a door, opened it and stepped back. ‘Mr Jasper is expecting you,’ he said. As he shut the door behind him leaving her in a darkened hallway, she nearly tripped over the red velvet ribbon. One end of it had been tied into a large droopy bow that was taped to the inside of the door at eye level. The other trailed to the floor and disappeared down the hall. Her heart did a drum roll as she followed the ribbon past several rooms from which the ambient light of the celebrating city poured in just enough to give the grey shadows a faint tinge of colour. It quickly became evident that the place was an apartment and not an office. She ignored the other rooms, eyes focused on the ribbon that led the way, her steps slowing as her pulse sped up. She followed the ribbon into a large open space. The profusion of plants and the smell of growing things told her it was a solarium big enough to feel like a jungle. Just beyond the foliage, the ribbon led to Gerard Jasper. She stopped in the shadow of a large feathery fern, unable to move, barely able to breathe. He stood with his back to her dressed, from what she could tell, in a dark suit much as he had been wearing for their disastrous meeting in Valentine Towers. For a second, she fought the urge to turn and run. If this was a joke, it wasn’t funny. If it was a dream, then surely this was the part where the floor gave way from beneath her feet and she found herself in a dark cellar with centipedes and spiders. And if it were real? Dear God, how could it be real? But it was too late. He knew she was there.