Power Play: A Novel

by Steel, Danielle

  “I used to model. I’ve been a personal assistant for the last year. I’ve been thinking about going to art school.” She was all over the map, but Marshall didn’t care. She had long dark hair that framed her face and hung down her back. She was a very pretty girl, and she looked at him with wide eyes. “What do you do?” she asked innocently.

  “I run a company,” he said, smiling at her, as she moved a little closer to him, without even realizing that she had. He could see the delicate sweep of her white throat, and the shadow of a breast and a lacy bra inside the Balenciaga jacket she had left partially unbuttoned.

  “That must be exciting,” she said, smiling at him.

  “Sometimes,” he acknowledged, wondering what it would be like to kiss her. It was more exciting knowing that he could have her if he wanted, or any woman on the plane once they knew who he was, what he did for a living, and how much they paid him to do it. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. It was so easy.

  He talked to her for a while, and then he closed his eyes and slept, and when he woke up, she was watching a movie. He gazed at her for a while, and then with the slightest gesture, as though by accident, he touched her hand, and she turned and smiled at him, and took her earphones off.

  “I’d love to see you in Boston,” he said softly. “Maybe we could have dinner sometime.”

  “I’d like that very much,” she said, feeling breathless. And a few minutes later she handed him her mother’s number on a slip of paper, and her cell phone number. He nodded and slipped it in his pocket.

  “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he promised. “Would you like a ride into town?” he asked her as an afterthought, and she nodded, wide-eyed again. “I have a car and driver waiting.”

  “I was going to take a cab.”

  “You don’t have to do that. I’ll drop you off on my way. I’m staying at the Ritz Carlton.” He gave her his card then with his cell phone number on it. And she put it in her purse and went back to watching the movie.

  They talked while they were having dinner, and when they landed, she followed him off the plane. It happened just the way he had expected. He helped her with her bags at the baggage claim, and his driver took them from her. And moments later they sped away, and she had stars in her eyes as she looked at him. He was the most exciting man she’d ever met. And to Marshall, she was just another pretty girl, easy prey, and a nice way to begin his life in Boston.

  She thanked him profusely when he dropped her off at a nice house in Beacon Hill. She was a girl from a good family with a little money. She would be just right for the beginning, and maybe for a while. He would call her, and take her to dinner. He called her on her cell phone before he got to the hotel.

  “I miss you already, Sandy,” he said into the phone, and he could hear the catch in her voice when she answered.

  “Thank you, Marshall.” She sounded as though she had won the lottery, and she thought she had, for a man as impressive looking as he was to even notice her and want to take her out.

  “See you tomorrow night?”

  “I’d love that.” She sounded as though she meant it.

  “I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty,” he promised. And after dinner, they would go to his hotel. And when she woke up in the morning, she wouldn’t believe that it had happened, that a man like him wanted her. It was so easy to begin it, and much harder to end it, but he didn’t have to worry about that now. It was all a new beginning. Boston, the job, the girl, his new plane. He smiled to himself as they arrived at the hotel. The manager was waiting outside, and he was treated like royalty. Boston Technology had reserved the penthouse suite for him, and when he looked around, he knew it was exactly what he deserved. And he could already imagine the girl from the plane in it. Sandy. It was perfect. And all he needed for now. His new life had just begun.

  * * *

  Liz had reserved the freight elevator for four hours on Saturday, so she and Lindsay and the boys could bring the rest of her boxes into the apartment in the city. The movers had been there for two days with her new furniture, and everything looked just the way she wanted. She had used a decorator to help her, and there were rooms for Lindsay and both boys, for whenever they came home. The building was on Nob Hill with a view of Huntington Park, the Fairmont, and Grace Cathedral, and from her bedroom, there was a view of Alcatraz and the bay. And as she and the boys carried in the last of her clothes from the house in Ross, they set them down in her large, sunny new bedroom. And Liz smiled as she looked around her.

  Her children were there, and everything in the apartment was new. She had sold everything else at auction.

  “Wow, it looks great, Mom,” John said as he looked around. It was the first time he had seen the new apartment. And they were there in time for the holidays. It was a fresh start for his mom and Lindsay. She had been on good behavior since the summer, and she and her mother were actually getting along. She loved her new school in the city and was getting decent grades. She had been commuting since September. And Lindsay loved the idea of living in the city, and so did Liz. Liz had gotten a new haircut and looked better than ever. And she was talking about volunteering at a legal project for the homeless. She had done everything she could to embark on a fresh start.

  John finished unpacking in his new room and told his mother that Alyssa was coming over that afternoon to see them. And Lindsay groaned as he said it.

  “Crap. I promised Mom I’d do my Berkeley application today. I’d rather hang out with you two.”

  “Berkeley application?” he teased her. “What happened to your gap year?”

  “I guess I’ll just settle for getting a tattoo.” She didn’t have the heart to upset her mother after everything their father had done. And they were all relieved to know that he had moved to Boston the month before. None of them had seen him before he left, and had no plans to anytime soon. He had already told them he wouldn’t be there for Christmas, he was going to Aspen. And if they wanted to see him, they’d have to come to Boston, which they didn’t intend to do. They didn’t want to leave their mother alone over the holidays, and had even less desire to see him.

  Tom liked his new room too, although he wouldn’t be there often. He had his own apartment in Berkeley, but it was nice to feel welcome. And he brought in the last boxes and released the elevator when he was through.

  “Thanks, guys, for helping me,” Liz said with a broad smile. “It looks good, doesn’t it? What do you all want for dinner?” There was a restaurant across the street at the Huntington Hotel, which she and Lindsay had already tried, and an assortment of places at the Fairmont, a block away. And they’d been ordering takeout on most nights since they had started moving in two weeks before. Lindsay had given up being a vegan, which was a lot simpler. And Liz hadn’t cooked dinner since the summer, and wasn’t sure she would again. Her days of slavery were over, waiting for Marshall to come home every night, and waiting on him hand and foot. She didn’t miss it. Or him. It was as though he had been erased from her life. And she was doing all she could to wipe Marshall out of her mind and heart.

  While Liz was unpacking boxes, Alyssa dropped by as she had promised, and she loved everything she saw. She thought it was prettier than their house in Ross, and she was happy to see John’s mother looking better. There was a spark in her eyes again.

  In the end, they ordered pizza and Chinese takeout, and sat in the kitchen. Everyone was talking and laughing, as Liz watched them. She was smiling, life felt good again, they had landed safely, and she was home.

  The same weekend that Alyssa visited John at the Westons’ new apartment on Nob Hill in the city, Logan was doing a reverse commute, and brought a car full of his belongings from his apartment in the Upper Haight to Fiona’s house in Portola Valley. Fiona had assigned him half of one closet, and he was trying to fit everything into the allotted space, without success.

  “That’s it? That’s all I get?” he asked her with a disgruntled look. “You can’t do better than that, in thi
s whole house?”

  “That’s it!” she said, not budging an inch, and suddenly he burst out laughing. He had just remembered what she had said in the beginning. She had warned him, and he had forgotten.

  “Now, I remember,” he said, sitting on the floor, surrounded by his running shoes, of which he had brought too many, but he thought he’d use them here. “You told me you had all the closets and you liked it that way. As I recall, that was one of your main reasons for not wanting a relationship. I got your body. Now I want your closets.”

  “You can’t have both,” she said, laughing with him, as she sat down on the floor next to him with all his shoes.

  “You should have fallen in love with a nudist. Can we negotiate this? We need closet counseling,” he said as he pulled her down on the floor with him and lay beside her. He still wondered how he’d gotten so lucky, to find a woman like her. She was a real woman, and had become his best friend as well as his lover, even if she was a closet hog.

  “Why don’t you give away your clothes,” she suggested, “and we can stay in bed all the time? We never get out of bed anyway. You don’t need running shoes.”

  “Good point.” The honeymoon feeling that had started in New York hadn’t worn off yet, for either of them. They were happy together, and everything in their lives seemed to work better now that they were a couple. He had been thinking about marriage lately, but Fiona didn’t seem to care either way, and he didn’t want to spoil what they had. But he was glad they’d be living together now, if only she would give him someplace to put his clothes.

  She finally agreed to give him a few more feet of floor space, and to put some of her older business suits downstairs.

  “If you were a stripper or a cocktail waitress, your work clothes wouldn’t take up so much room,” he pointed out to her. “Maybe you should stop wearing suits to work.” He liked her better in the clothes she wore at home or when they went out, but she had an image to maintain at work, and she was strict about it. He had finally gotten her to wear the red dress he loved, that she had worn in New York, to dinner in the city, but she had complained all night about feeling overdressed. And they were planning another trip to New York. She had a meeting there, and had invited Logan to come along. “Does that make me a corporate boyfriend?” he asked her. “Like a corporate wife. Is that what I am?” He didn’t have a title. What they were to each other didn’t seem to have a name, but the one thing that was clear to both of them was what he had hoped in the beginning. Whatever it was, it worked.

  Geoff took Ashley and the girls to the Biltmore in Santa Barbara for one of the last warm weekends in October. The weather was perfect, they went to the Coral Casino and built sandcastles on the beach. It reminded Geoff and Ashley of their childhood, when they had done the same things. And now they were doing them with Kendall and Kezia. It was hard to believe that their own childhood was nearly twenty years ago.

  Ashley was painting again, furiously, for a gallery show in the spring and Geoff’s TV show was going well. The ratings were great, and his scripts were being well received. It was a huge amount of work, but he enjoyed it. He was spending more time in Malibu than West Hollywood. And he loved taking them away on weekends whenever he could.

  “Why don’t we move here?” he asked her as they walked down the beach, with the twins running far ahead, and she looked surprised at the idea. “I don’t have to go to the office every day. I could work here, and so could you. Why don’t we rent a house here and try it for six months?” Ashley liked the suggestion, she had never thought of it before.

  “I like the thought of something new,” she said, smiling up at him. The house in Malibu felt haunted to her. She had too many memories of Marshall there. And she wanted a new life with Geoff, and a new place, and they had happy memories here.

  “Why don’t we look at some houses tomorrow before we go back?” he suggested, and she nodded, as she heard the sound of hoofbeats in the sand behind them, and they both turned to see a rider on a white horse gallop by. And they both thought of the same thing at the same time. “You know what that means, don’t you?” he asked her with a look of mischief in his eye.

  “No. What?” she asked innocently.

  “It’s good luck. Remember what happened the last time we saw a white horse on the beach?” And before she could answer, he kissed her, just as he had the first time, when she was twelve. “I love you, Ash,” he said after the kiss.

  “I love you too,” she whispered. He kissed her again then, as the girls doubled back to find them. Ashley and Geoff had lagged too far behind.

  “I want to be with you and the girls forever,” he said quietly. “Will you marry me?” he asked, before the twins could reach them, and she smiled at him, and looked just the way she had as a girl.

  “Yes.” He wanted to have more children with her, and adopt the ones she had, if Marshall would let him. And if not, he was their father now in all the ways that mattered. Marshall was making no effort to stay in regular contact with them and was only interested in his own life and work. She couldn’t imagine him seeing them more than once or twice a year for a vacation now that he’d moved to Boston. And Ashley’s only contact with him was through attorneys, on practical matters, which suited her just fine. Geoff and the girls were all she needed, and whatever other blessings came along later. She was grateful for what she had, and that Geoff had come back. He had come at the right time. She wouldn’t have been ready for him before.

  They looked at houses the next day, and found one that was perfect for them, within walking distance of the beach. They rented it for a year, and as they drove back to Malibu on Sunday afternoon, he thought of the question he had asked her on the beach, and her answer, and he smiled at her, as the girls chattered in the backseat.

  “Don’t forget that you said yes,” he reminded her in case she had forgotten, or hadn’t really meant it. But she had. And she remembered it as well as he did.

  “What was that question again?” She teased him.

  “I’ll ask you again later, just so you don’t forget. On bended knee if you like.”

  “That would be very nice,” she said, and leaned over and kissed him. She had gotten her “happily ever after,” after all.

  To my beloved children,

  Beatrix, Trevor, Todd, Nick, Sam,

  Victoria, Vanessa, Maxx, and Zara,

  May the surprises in your lives always be good ones.

  And may the people in your lives treat you kindly and fairly.

  Any may the choices and sacrifices you make in your lives be the right ones for you.

  May you be blessed in every way, and happy in your lives.

  I love you with all my heart,

  Mommy/d.s.

  By Danielle Steel

  POWER PLAY • WINNERS • FIRST SIGHT • UNTIL THE END OF TIME • THE SINS OF THE MOTHER • FRIENDS FOREVER • BETRAYAL • HOTEL VENDÔME • HAPPY BIRTHDAY • 44 CHARLES STREET • LEGACY • FAMILY TIES • BIG GIRL • SOUTHERN LIGHTS • MATTERS OF THE HEART • ONE DAY AT A TIME • A GOOD WOMAN • ROGUE • HONOR THYSELF • AMAZING GRACE • BUNGALOW 2 • SISTERS • H.R.H. • COMING OUT • THE HOUSE • TOXIC BACHELORS • MIRACLE • IMPOSSIBLE • ECHOES • SECOND CHANCE • RANSOM • SAFE HARBOUR • JOHNNY ANGEL • DATING GAME • ANSWERED PRAYERS • SUNSET IN ST. TROPEZ • THE COTTAGE • THE KISS • LEAP OF FAITH • LONE EAGLE • JOURNEY • THE HOUSE ON HOPE STREET • THE WEDDING • IRRESISTIBLE FORCES • GRANNY DAN • BITTERSWEET • MIRROR IMAGE • THE KLONE AND I • THE LONG ROAD HOME • THE GHOST • SPECIAL DELIVERY • THE RANCH • SILENT HONOR • MALICE • FIVE DAYS IN PARIS • LIGHTNING • WINGS • THE GIFT • ACCIDENT • VANISHED • MIXED BLESSINGS • JEWELS • NO GREATER LOVE • HEARTBEAT • MESSAGE FROM NAM • DADDY • STAR • ZOYA • KALEIDOSCOPE • FINE THINGS • WANDERLUST • SECRETS • FAMILY ALBUM • FULL CIRCLE • CHANGES • THURSTON HOUSE • CROSSINGS • ONCE IN A LIFETIME • A PERFECT STRANGER • REMEMBRANCE • PALOMINO • LOVE: POEMS • THE RING • LOVI
NG • TO LOVE AGAIN • SUMMER’S END • SEASON OF PASSION • THE PROMISE • NOW AND FOREVER • PASSION’S PROMISE • GOING HOME

  Nonfiction

  PURE JOY: The Dogs We Love

  A GIFT OF HOPE: Helping the Homeless

  HIS BRIGHT LIGHT: The Story of Nick Traina

  About the Author

  DANIELLE STEEL has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 600 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international best sellers include Winners, First Sight, Until the End of Time, The Sins of the Mother, Friends Forever, Betrayal, Hotel Vendôme, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; and Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved.

  Visit the Danielle Steel website at daniellesteel.com.