Hot to Touch

by Valentine, Layla

  My mouth went dry. “No, it’s never coming to that. I think you know that much about me by now. When I say I’m done with something, I’m done.”

  “Two days is pretty damn fast to just declare that,” she mused.

  “I’ll prove it.”

  I knew I had hoops to jump through, though part of me resented it. I didn’t like jumping through hoops for anyone.

  But Naomi wasn’t just anyone, and that was the whole point.

  She digested this for a few seconds. “Look. I wish we could just pretend like what happened didn’t, but I can’t. I simply cannot. I’m done at Archimedes Gears, Ace. Because the case involves violence, I can’t even clean out my own office. My assistant has to do it for me. I can’t set foot on the property.”

  Those fucking bastards.

  “What happens now?” I asked.

  “I’m on a leave of absence for a week while they decide my fate. I know basically what’s going to happen is that they’ll include a letter of censure in my file, kick me out, and relieve me of all benefits such as stock options.” She sounded resigned. “Then, once I recover, I take the file I’ve been building since they started causing me trouble, and I bring them to my legal team.”

  “Are you going to sue them?”

  “I’m going to pull access to my patents, require that fees be paid on any use of my inventions, and provide the Orloff brothers with any information that they need about the mishandling of their project. I don’t have to sue them.” But she sounded too vehement, too angry. I could suddenly hear the unshed tears in her voice.

  “Naomi.”

  She was very quiet for a few moments, then said softly, “You know what the absolute worst part of all of this is? If my father was alive…he would side with them. With the board, with Ian.”

  “Against you? Jesus, I’m sorry, Naomi.”

  “Yeah.” Her voice was tiny and fragile, and I suddenly wished I was right there with her just so I could hug away what she was going through. But then she pulled herself together some, and said firmly, “I don’t need you fighting my battles for me, Ace. Not those kinds of battles.”

  I had a brief wrestling match with my pride before fully grasping what she was saying. There were battles she would need me for. But the corporate boardroom and its extensions were her territory.

  I focused instead on something else: my opening. I took it. “Then what do you need?”

  “I need…I don’t know. I have to think. I’ve got until next Tuesday morning to prepare myself for basically being kicked out of my father’s company.” The anguish in her voice got me even more pissed off at these guys. She had to pause, sniffling briefly.

  “Okay, well, that’s a big chunk of time. Have you talked to your lawyer?”

  “Uh-huh.” She was already calming a little. “We’re meeting tomorrow morning. She says there’s not much chance of protecting myself if they go forward with a suit, so most of what I’ll be doing will come after that meeting with the board. But I’m…I mean, I made the call.”

  “See? You’re already handling it.” I hadn’t ever met anyone who underestimated her own strength as much as Naomi did. But being a cheering section wasn’t much work.

  I heard the creak of her leaning back in her desk chair. “I know I can figure out how to handle what they throw at me next week, but not while I’m sitting around here being depressed.”

  “Come see me, then.” I grinned with relief: that was an easy problem to solve. “I’ll spend a week getting your mind off this shit until you’re ready to think about it. And if you need to unload, I’m all ears.” It was a little bit of a pain in the ass to be a shoulder for someone who was falling apart; I always felt kind of useless just reassuring people and listening.

  But Naomi was different. She didn’t just suck up support and never do anything to fix the problem. She was stuck on Archimedes Gears, but that wasn’t the same. She still got up and dealt with the problem after each knockdown. She used encouragement as fuel.

  “I might. But I think I need the distraction more. We’ll have to find something to do in Aspen on short notice.” I heard her tapping away at her keyboard.

  “What, besides screwing each other silly?” I half-joked. It had only been a few days, and I already missed fucking her like I missed warm days in winter.

  It wasn’t until I heard her small, giddy little giggle in response that I knew she would be all right. She was stressed, and I had added to it, but she was still giving me the opportunity to fix it. And that was all I needed.

  The question of whether we would be all right, and whether she was really all right with me long-term, I would need to figure out later.

  “Yeah, besides that. And taking Benny to the doggie park.” She took a drink of something.

  “The doggie park? Oh, that ride leaves daily after work.”

  “Good. Because I never had a dog growing up, so I never, you know, did the doggie park. It’s stupid—”

  “It’s not stupid,” I said sincerely. “I don’t just go there for him.”

  “Oh.” She took a shivery breath. “Dad hated pets. He wouldn’t even let me have a goldfish. And then I got away, and got my own place, and my own money, but somehow here I am past thirty, and still living by his rules.” She sounded shaky again.

  Stuck. That was the word that came up when I thought of Naomi’s problems. They didn’t have her by the mind; she knew she had a problem. They didn’t have her financially or in any practical way; instead, they had her by the heart. And that was a sticky one, and dealing with it was complicated and painful.

  She’s trying to impress a dad who isn’t there anymore. Sounds like he was never there in any real way anyway. She’s used to disappointment.

  “I can make sure you have a good time in Aspen,” I promised.

  “I don’t doubt it,” she murmured. “The problem is coming back to Denver to deal with all this.”

  “Naomi…you know you’ve got another option, right? Besides going there next week and eating even more of their undeserved shit?” The words burst out of me, because it hurt to hear her like this.

  “What option?” She sounded almost annoyed at the idea there was something she hadn’t already weighed in her decision. Something she had neglected to think of. But there was: her own feelings and needs.

  “Naomi, you’re as close to being free to do as you please as anyone I have ever met. You’re worth over a billion dollars free and clear from what you’ve told me, on top of your real estate and patent holdings. You could literally wash your hands of all of Archimedes Gears, take your patents and the stuff you need, and never speak to them again except through your legal team. You don’t have to face any more struggle or humiliation, baby.”

  “I—” she started, but I plowed on.

  “No, please, look. I’ve never met anyone as accomplished as you who thought so fucking little of herself, Naomi. You’re way more successful than your dad ever managed to be, and you’re a better person, too. I’m sure you’ll be a better parent, as well. But because a bunch of biased, incompetent guys from Archimedes Gears don’t respect you—”

  “Ace, please.” Her voice shook. “It’s Dad’s company. I can’t just detach emotionally like that.”

  “I’m sorry, baby,” I said hastily. “I get it. But the company’s not what it was when you were growing up. Or if it is, only the worst parts survived. I won’t be surprised if some of their engineering team leaves with you. You deserve so much better.

  “Seriously, you’re propping them up. You even said that yourself last week. You could start your own company and see more success than Archimedes Gears ever did. You could take the Hawaii job as your flagship project.”

  She had gone quiet aside from her ragged breathing. I wrapped it up, worried that I sounded like I was lecturing her.

  “You don’t have to play by their rules, Naomi. You can walk away and make your own. Just…think about it, okay?”

  “Um,” she said, soun
ding a little stunned.

  I laughed awkwardly. “Sorry. That was a lot, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” Her answering laugh was short and weak. “It kinda was.”

  “It’s easy to tell you to walk away from things that are important to you. I’ve done that multiple times, and I’m about to do it again. But you haven’t exercised those muscles. The first time’s always the hardest.” I wished there was some gentler way of getting this across. “You’re strong, though. You can do it.”

  She sighed slowly. Her chair creaked again. “Ace…meeting you was life-changing for me, and I don’t just mean the baby.”

  “Or the sex?”

  She snorted. “Or the sex.”

  “Okay, just checking.”

  That small laugh again, a bit stronger. “Don’t get a big ego about it, hot stuff.”

  “Don’t need one. As long as you’re coming back for more, I know I’m doing something right.”

  I tried to ignore the flood of delicious memories that I had of that now: from her first, startled scream to the soft croons she let out when I completely wore her out. It wasn’t just a matter of pride to please her. It turned me on to even think about it.

  “Well, we were just talking about my coming back for more,” she teased gently. But then she went quiet, and I felt the tension gathering in her again.

  “It’s not just going through things as if Dad was still here,” she said finally, a wistful sadness in her voice. “If it were, I think I could walk. But no. I don’t want those bastards to see me running away with my tail between my legs, instead of facing what’s happening with some grace.”

  “What does it matter what they think of you, though? They can take any impression they want of you, it’s not like they can do much once you’re gone. And besides, I get the impression that they’re heading off a cliff anyway.”

  “Maybe that’s part of why,” she clarified. “They’re headed off a cliff for being unprofessional. I’ll be professional, to the bitter end, even with them, and not because of wanting to influence what they think. I’ll do it because that’s who I am. And then I’ll walk away and help the Orloff brothers destroy them, because they deserve it.”

  I laughed softly, impressed. “Okay, well, I guess thinking about what they’re headed for should help get you through.”

  She chuckled at that. “Yeah,” she said hopefully. “Maybe it will.”

  I heard her take another swallow of her drink and then the rattle of ice cubes as she put it down. “You understand, then? The professionalism thing. Going through with it all to keep to the standard they’re forgetting.”

  “Well, it makes you look a lot better, and thanks to me, I guess you need some of that in the business community right now. I just hope the clip of my pasting that guy doesn’t go viral.” I was mostly joking…though I kind of wished I had that moment on tape for my own review.

  “Not unless the guys reviewing the security tapes decided to make us Internet famous. But I’ve done a few sweeps, and so far, so good.” She hesitated. “One of the board secretaries told me that at least half of them thought I was the one who hit Ian anyway.”

  I scoffed. “Are they blind?”

  “No. I was just closer to Ian, and you moved really fast.” She sounded quietly impressed. “Hell, for a second there, I wondered if I’d finally lost control.” She let out a little laugh. “Believe me, nobody’s going to believe that I didn’t take a shot at Ian if they hear the story, he’s had it coming for years.”

  “So violent,” I teased very gently. “Though that’s the thing—when I said it wasn’t calculated, I meant it. I lost it. I was pretty outraged at him by then.”

  “Me too, and I had more reason to. In fact, one reason I’m not madder at you for punching him is that there have been bets laid on who between me and the Engineering lead would do so first.” She didn’t even sound resentful, just…bemused.

  That’s when it clicked for me. “That’s why you knew taking the fall for this would stick, even with video evidence available.”

  “They would just argue I convinced you to do it anyway,” she pointed out. “They made it pretty clear when they expected me to fold.”

  “I don’t know how these fuckers go home to their families at night,” I said in exasperation.

  “They go home, they’re nasty to their families or ignore them, and if they feel so much as a twinge about it or anything else, they drink themselves to sleep. When they get bored, they cheat or go golfing. That’s if my father’s any indication. Or his surviving friends on the board.” She huffed in irritation. “I always hoped he would grow out of it, but you can guess how well that went.”

  “And you’re going to help the Orloffs destroy them.”

  I was looking forward to it. I really wanted to be a fly on the wall when Ian and the others learned just how fucked they were.

  “I haven’t decided yet,” she admitted. “Just like I haven’t decided about lawsuits or any of that. But I don’t really have to help them much anyway. All I really have to do is sit back and watch it happen.”

  I smiled, relaxing a little more. “I’ll bring the popcorn.”

  Chapter 14

  Naomi

  No matter what I had told Ace, who seemed a lot more worried about me than I was used to, I was still pretty depressed when I got off the phone. He might have screwed up, but he wanted to fix it, and he listened when I needed him to. That was as novel an experience to me as the good sex had been.

  It helped through the next day, until I could get my schedule clear enough for a flight over to Aspen. My conversation with my lawyer had only clarified what I’d already guessed: the board and Ian had me in a corner, they knew it, and they would want my resignation.

  I couldn’t even remember the paperwork now, though I had made sure to take copies. Thinking back on that as I sat in my business class seat waiting for the plane to finish its taxi to the runway, I mostly remembered my emotions. The sense of disappointment, bitterness, and defeat.

  When I came back into town, I would walk into that board meeting, say what Helena had coached me to say, provide the paperwork we had filled out and my letter of resignation, and walk out. They would probably have some nastiness, maybe a paternalistic lecture, to spew at me as I left. Or maybe they would demand that I explain myself.

  Don’t make any excuses, Helena had advised. Don’t volunteer any information. And don’t tell them about the Orloffs planning a lawsuit. The more self-control and grace you show in this situation, the less actionable things happen, the more it will anger them. They want an excuse to humiliate you further.

  I didn’t plan to give them one. But right now, left alone with my thoughts, I wondered how I had ended up in such a bad situation just by trying to be someone my dad would be proud of.

  Bashed my head against the same brick wall for too damn long, I guess. There’s no wearing a hole through, you’re just left bleeding and looking stupid.

  I watched us turn onto the runway, eager for the sensation of rocketing forward, and the liftoff pushing me into my seat a little.

  Aspen, here I come.

  Somewhere, beyond the meeting next week and any legal fallout, past healing up my hurt pride and learning to move on, lay a chance at a new life free of all this dramatic garbage. A life with my daughter, with new business prospects, maybe even a life with Ace and his silly dog. He certainly seemed into the idea for a guy I had only started seeing a few months ago.

  Part of that’s probably the baby. I’m just glad he’s decided to take responsibility, no matter how close we end up as a couple.

  The plane started its takeoff, the engines cycling up, and I squinted slightly as I watched the straggly landscaping beside the runway start whipping by. Would it be so bad, I wondered, to have a closer relationship with Ace? Was what we had now a sign of good things to come, and not just good sex and fun bathed in the rosy glow of new relationship energy?

  I guess we’ll have to see. A week to
gether should give me a better taste of what he’s like day-to-day.

  I hoped he didn’t mind my newfound napping habit. The urge had started up a few days ago. I couldn’t tell if it was pregnancy-related, or just my need for more self-care. I had never been pregnant before, so I had no base for comparison.

  But any woman would have been worn out in my shoes.

  I closed my eyes as the plane took off in Denver, and opened them again when touching down in Aspen. My heart lifted as I spied the familiar landscape. I had hated leaving on such bad terms last time. But that hadn’t exactly been my fault anyway.

  Hopefully, Ian didn’t get any more wild ideas and find a way to follow me. If I saw him outside work, I would be the one who punched him in the face. Or maybe I’ll just have him arrested for stalking.

  After last visit’s theatrics, Ace was avoiding the airport lobby. He picked me up outside instead, hopping out of his truck to grab my suitcases and stow them behind our seats.

  “Did the trip over go all right?” he asked cheerfully as we buckled our seatbelts.

  “Yeah,” I shrugged. “It’s pretty tough to ruin a one-hour flight.”

  The drought finally looked like it might be ending as we drove back toward his house. Heavy gray clouds, promisingly wet-looking, loomed over the mountains, blocking out more and more of the sunlight as we drove. As we turned onto his street, I heard thunder.

  “Come on, rain,” Ace said. “If all we get is heat lightning, there will be more fires.”

  Fires would drag him away from me for a while. It had been days without him already.

  I scowled at the prospect. “Yeah,” I echoed. “Come on, rain.”

  We got nothing but dry, far-off rumbles of thunder all the way to his house, making me a little apprehensive. Colorado heat lightning was a hazard to everyone, and I sure couldn’t ask him not to go if something got touched off, but…I was already running out of tolerance for things going wrong. Just give me a break until I have to face that damn meeting, okay?