Quentin shrugged. “Don’t know. He was already gone when I got here. It was kind of spur of the moment to stop by and pick up something for dinner for Avery and me. How’s my girl?” Quentin pulled Sage into a big bear hug.
“I’m good.” Sage disengaged herself. “I caught a break on Ian’s lawsuit and should have it wrapped up in a few days.”
“That’s great,” Quentin said. “Then you and Mr. Playboy can finally move on.”
“Q…”
“Don’t Q me,” he replied. “I know you, Sage, and I can see that you’re still in pain.”
Sage’s smile waned. “I guess I had forgotten how much this love stuff hurt. With James, it had been easy to throw myself into my career maybe because I didn’t love him as much. But Ian, Ian snuck up on me when I wasn’t looking and stole my heart.”
“I know the feeling,” Quentin replied. “If you remember, that’s how it was with me and Avery.” He thought back to over a year ago when he’d first met the love of his life. “I was a ladies’ man and proud of it. But along came Avery and everything changed.”
Sage remembered all too well. Quentin had been willing to toss aside a long-standing brotherhood with Malik by not publishing negative photos of Avery’s biological father, Richard King, all to make Avery happy.
“That’s how I feel about Ian. I wasn’t looking for love. Didn’t want it. Didn’t need it. But when I met Ian and stopped long enough to let myself feel again, I fell hard. He made me want more. Want a future. Want an ‘us.’ I even wondered what it would be like to start a family with him. Can you imagine me pregnant?”
Quentin rubbed his goatee. “Actually, no.”
“Hey!” Sage nudged him in the middle. “That wasn’t nice.”
“I was kidding.” Quentin laughed. “I think you will be a great mother one day. And you’re going to make an even better godmother.”
“What?” Sage stared back dumbfounded.
“Yes, Avery is pregnant, but no one knows and she would die if she knew I told you.”
Sage was surprised. She couldn’t imagine that the pregnancy was not planned; Avery was usually so detail-oriented.
“When did you find out?”
“A couple of days ago.” Quentin beamed with pride. He’d never been happier than he was at this moment and he couldn’t wait to make Avery, his baby’s mother, his bride. “She’s not very far along. You have to vow you won’t tell a soul.”
“I promise.” Sage crossed her heart. “And Q?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you. You just gave me something more to smile about.”
Ian was surprised when Sage walked into his office the following morning. When his assistant told him she was waiting outside, Ian felt as if his heart leaped in his chest among other body parts. He’d stalled so he could gain his composure, but as she stood in front of him in a corporate two-piece Chanel pantsuit and alligator pumps, Ian realized just how much he missed her. There were nights he’d physically ached for her, but Sage had made her intentions clear: she wanted more, more than he could offer and she wouldn’t settle for anything less.
“Sage…” Ian began to rise as she walked forward.
“Don’t get up.” Sage motioned for him to sit down. “I have good news.” She pulled a document out of her briefcase. “I have an affidavit from Bruce Hoffman stating Lucas and Gia concocted this harassment suit so that they all could get back at you.”
“So he was in cahoots with them?” Ian asked, settling back in his chair. “How did you convince one of my most-hated enemies to come clean?”
“In exchange for you not prosecuting,” Sage continued, “he agreed to sell you his shares in Lawrence Enterprises.”
“You’re kidding.” Ian jumped up out of his seat.
Sage shook her head. “It’s no joke. I took the liberty of drawing up the papers to make sure they were ironclad.” She pulled the document out of her file and threw it on his desk. “Signed, sealed and delivered. You now own fifty-one percent of Lawrence Enterprises.”
“Sage, this is wonderful.” Ian rushed toward her, lifted her off her feet and swung her around.
“Ian, put me down!” Sage laughed.
“You’ve no idea how happy you’ve made me,” Ian replied. He slowly set her down on the floor, but as he did their eyes locked and it took all of Ian’s strength not to kiss Sage senseless. To remind her how good they were together. How good they could be again if given the chance. But what would that do? They would only end up back in an untenable position. He wanted a casual relationship and she wanted a committed one.
“Ian.” When Sage said his name and looked up at him with those big brown eyes, it made him want to risk it all to take her right there and love be damned. But instead, he pulled away.
“Sorry about that,” he apologized.
Sage gave a weak smile. “No apologies necessary.” She turned away from eyes as dark as night and inhaled. Oh, how she’d wanted him to kiss her and how good it would have felt to be in his arms again. Thankfully, he’d exercised restraint. “I’ve set up a meeting at my office with Lucas for later tomorrow morning. Rest assured, I will end this lawsuit.”
“I have no doubt you will.” Ian had never met a more determined woman.
“Okay…well…I guess…” Sage fumbled to find her words as she picked up her briefcase. “I will call you later with an update.”
“I look forward to it.” As Sage found her way to the elevators, she didn’t see Ian standing in the doorway or the wistful look in his eyes as he watched her leave.
Chapter 15
Lucas Johnson and his attorney, Brock Campbell, walked confidently into the conference room of Greenberg, Hanson, Waggoner and Associates later the next afternoon.
“Gentlemen, please have a seat.” Sage motioned to the conference table.
“I assume this meeting is because you’re ready to admit defeat,” Brock replied.
“Quite the contrary,” Sage returned. “I’m prepared to take this to trial, a criminal trial.” Sage watched as a shocked expression spread across both men’s faces.
“What are you talking about, Anderson?” Brock asked.
“If this went to trial, your client would have to commit perjury.” Sage narrowed her eyes on Lucas Johnson. “And therefore, the state would have grounds for a criminal trial.”
Brock turned to Lucas. “What is she talking about?”
Just then, her assistant led Gia into the conference room.
When he saw her, Lucas nearly jumped out of his seat. “What are you doing here?”
“I have no idea why I’m here,” Gia replied haughtily. She looked ever the sophisticated executive with her designer suit and purse tucked underneath her arm. “Would you care to explain, Ms. Anderson?” She glanced in Sage’s direction. “I was summoned by your office.”
“Of course.” Sage opened up the file she’d brought with her to the conference room. “Brock, your client and his lover—” she inclined her head toward Gia “—conspired to defraud my client of millions of dollars.” Sage pulled out the incriminating photos of Lucas and Gia that Patrick’s firm had snapped and threw them on the table.
Brock reached for them and flipped through them. “Lucas, what is this?” He turned to his client. “Who is this woman to you and what does she have to do with this case?”
“What you have proves nothing,” Lucas replied and stared coldly at Sage. “Gia and I are an item, so what?”
“He’s right, plus those photos could have been doctored,” Gia responded. “I’ve been abroad.”
“No?” Sage inquired, raising a brow. She’d gotten them both unaware and knew when to go for the jugular. “How about this?” She slid a photo of Gia and Bruce Hoffman together at an L.A. charity event along with Bruce’s affidavit toward Brock. “A sworn statement by your alleged harasser stating Lucas and Gia concocted this entire scheme to defraud Ian Lawrence of millions. In return for the harassment, Mr. Hoffman would receive a third
of the proceeds. Now if that isn’t evidence enough, I don’t know what is.” Sage leaned back in her chair. She smiled as Lucas and Gia’s handiwork began to unravel in front of their eyes.
Brock shook his head in disbelief. “So you made this up?” He cocked his head to one side and stared at Lucas. “Did you honestly think you’d get away with it?”
“I’d like to know the answer to that question.” Ian’s towering presence loomed at the conference room doorway.
“As a matter of fact, I did,” Lucas returned, standing up.
“Lucas!” Gia grabbed his arm. “Sit down.”
“No, Gia!” Lucas snatched his arm away and strode toward Ian.
Sage wasn’t sure she liked the crazy look in Lucas’s eye; he looked as if he was on the verge of crossing the line. Sage reached for the phone in case she needed to dial security.
“For once, I thought I’d finally come out on top,” Lucas returned. “After years of being on the bottom.”
“How did you figure that?” Ian asked. He was amazed that Lucas felt he was the wronged party. He was the one being sued for millions and having his name dragged through the mud.
“I worked like a slave for your father and he returned that favor by making you CEO on his deathbed,” Lucas hissed.
“I was his son,” Ian stated bluntly. He stood face-to-face with Lucas and stared him dead in the eye.
“And I’d earned it.”
“Like I hadn’t?” Ian inquired. “Like you, I was in the trenches working my way from the bottom up. All to gain the respect of a man who barely tolerated me and only acknowledged me when it was convenient.”
Sage listened and got a firsthand glimpse of what it was like for Ian growing up with a father as cold as Myles Lawrence.
“And Gia?” Lucas replied, pulling her to her feet and circling his arm around Gia’s waist. “Your father manipulated her when she was young and inexperienced.”
Ian cast a glance at the woman at the center of this mess. “Gia was no ingenue and she damn well knows it.”
“I know no such thing,” Gia replied smoothly. “Myles Lawrence was a perverted old man who got his jollies off by having a sweet young thing at his side and I was a poor woman in need of financial assistance. Your father used me for his own gain.”
“Oh, please,” Ian huffed. He took a step away to gain his composure. “You knew exactly what you were doing. You saw a rich older man and jumped at the chance to snag him. Unfortunately, my father died before you could marry him and take him for all he was worth.”
“You would say something so crass.” Lucas snorted.
“And you’re being naive. She’s the manipulator.” Ian pointed to Gia.
“Was I being naive when I saw you making a move on your father’s girlfriend, weeks after he died?” Lucas asked, pushing Gia behind him as he faced Ian. “Your behavior was deplorable!”
“That’s right.” Gia pushed Lucas aside. “You remember that time, don’t you, Ian?” Her voice turned soft and seductive. Sage could see just how easily she could wrap a man around her finger. “You tried to comfort me after Myles died.” She laid her purse on the table and came toward him. “You acted so supportive of me and told me you would always be there for me.” She laughed derisively. “What a joke that was. At the first chance, you came on to me, but I resisted your advances. That’s when I slapped you and ran.” She turned to Lucas. “That’s when I came to your room distraught because I couldn’t believe Myles’s own son was trying to take me to bed.”
Sage was surprised at what an actress Gia really was.
“Of course, you would have it all backward.” Ian recalled the incident that Gia was mentioning, but he remembered it differently. “I invited you and Lucas for an extended stay at the mansion after my father’s death because the old house was too creepy for me by myself. It was haunting living in that man’s shadows, so the three of us stayed up talking and drinking half the night to help me forget. But you—” he pointed to Lucas “—couldn’t stand your liquor and eventually stumbled up the stairs to bed leaving me and Gia alone. That’s when Gia made her move.
“She told me it was me she’d always wanted, but I was too busy being a player and workaholic to notice her. So she hung around as my friend until my father showed an interest in her. That’s when she realized it would be an opportunity to get closer to me.”
“You’re a liar!” Gia yelled at Ian.
“Am I?” Ian circled Gia. “I don’t think so. You know what I’m saying is true.” Ian searched Lucas’s face for some sign that he was finally hearing the truth after all these years.
“She kissed me days after my father died. I spurned her advances. There was no way I’d sleep with a woman my father had bedded. Does any of this sound like the truth to you, Lucas?”
Lucas shook his head. “I don’t believe you.” He turned and walked to the window.
“Yes, you do.” Ian walked over and stood behind him. “Deep down you know that Gia came on to me. Said she’d always wanted to be with me. But I didn’t want her. I never did.”
Lucas turned around to face him. “Because you had enough women chomping at the bit to be with the rich playboy, right?” Lucas was tired of being in Ian’s shadow. He didn’t know how Jeffrey did it day in and day out.
“No. How could I be with a woman my father had been with?” Ian responded. “Now this lawsuit finally makes sense, Lucas. You’ve harbored this anger toward me for all these years. And for what? Because my father passed you over? Because of Gia and some perceived wrong against her?” Ian glanced at Gia. “Lucas, that deceitful woman isn’t worth it.”
“That’s what you’d like me to believe.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Well, I think you’re a liar. I love Gia.” Lucas walked over to Gia and clutched her arm. Sage noted that he seemed afraid to let her go because if he didn’t have his anger, what would he have to hold on to? “She wouldn’t lie to me.”
Ian shrugged. “Believe what you will, but I know the truth and nothing happened that night between Gia and me. However, none of that matters anymore because what you both pulled is ten times worse. You tried to defraud my company and its investors of millions of dollars.”
“So you’re giving me the credit for this debacle.” Gia laughed derisively. “Oh, please, if I were truly behind it, Ian, you would have never seen me coming.”
Ian chuckled. “And you might have gotten away with it, if it hadn’t been for this woman.” His eyes landed on Sage’s and her heart nearly stopped. He had a way of looking at her that left her breathless. “You didn’t count on her.”
Lucas glared at Sage. “So what now, Ian? Are you going to press charges against me?”
“No, he isn’t,” Gia stated matter-of-factly as she picked up her purse. “I doubt Ian wants his dirty laundry aired on the six-o’clock news.”
“I could and I very well should,” Ian replied. “Against you and Gia.”
“Is there a ‘but’ in there?” Brock finally spoke. “Because although there was intent, no money has exchanged hands.”
“Yes, there is a ‘but,’” Ian returned. “I will not press charges against either of you. I’m tired of this whole business, but know this. In exchange I want you and your lying girlfriend out of my life and out of my business for good.”
“That is very generous, Mr. Lawrence,” Brock replied.
“Generous?” Lucas yelled. “He’s letting us off the hook so he can blackball us.” Lucas wrapped his arm around Gia. “Blackball you,” Gia said, extricating herself from Lucas’s grasp. “I have a job. I don’t work for L.E. You see, Lucas, you are and will always be a loser and I don’t date losers.”
“Gia, what do you mean?” Lucas asked, his voice rising slightly. “We’re in this together.”
“It means you and I are through,” Gia replied. “This ship has sailed.” Gia headed toward the door. “See you next lifetime, Ian.” She inclined her head toward him and seconds later,
she was gone.
“She left me.” Lucas sagged into a nearby chair and shook his head. After everything he’d done to avenge her, she’d just walked out on him. “I can’t believe she left me,” he whispered to himself. “Are you happy now?” He glanced up and asked Ian bitterly, “Now that I have nothing?”
“Look at it this way, at least you have your freedom,” Sage stated.
“There will be no blackball,” Ian said. “I just want you gone.”
“As you wish,” Lucas said snidely. He quickly rose from his chair, turned on his heel and strode out the door.
“Sage, needless to say I had no idea they’d concocted this ruse,” Brock replied.
“I know, Brock.”
“No hard feelings?” He extended his hand. Gone was the bravado he’d walked in with and instead it was replaced with humbleness.
Sage smiled. “None.” She shook his hand and Brock bowed on his way out of the conference room. Once they had gone, Sage spoke her mind. “I can’t believe you did that. You could have easily sent Lucas and Gia to jail.”
“And what purpose would that serve?” Ian asked, closing the door.
“I’m proud of you.”
“Me?” Ian’s voice rose. “I didn’t do anything. It’s you who should be proud. You were magnificent!”
“Magnificent. That’s a bit much.” Sage chuckled. “I was just doing my job.”
“Was that all it was to you?” Ian asked, walking toward her, his eyes never leaving hers. “Just a job?” His large hand grasped her small one.
“Ian, don’t.” Sage slowly withdrew her hand, one finger at a time. She’d love nothing better than to celebrate this victory with him, but not this way. She’d gone too far to turn back now.
“Why, Sage?” Ian asked. Although her eyes were hooded underneath those gorgeous long lashes, he could still read them and he saw desire there. “I can see it in your eyes. You still want me as much as I want you.”
If You So Desire Page 16
