Executive Decision: A Romance Novel

by Mandy M. Roth

  We sank down into his bed and the red down comforter acted as quicksand. Dale flipped me around to face him as if I weighed nothing and began his tickle assault again. I closed my eyes, trying to keep the tears from flowing and pushed at his torso.

  “En-ou-gh,” I said between shallow breaths.

  Dale stopped at the same time I opened my eyes. Instantly, I found myself staring into his emerald green eyes. He exhaled and his warm breath ran over my lips. I went forward a tiny bit. Dale did too. Our lips brushed and neither of us pulled away. Our eyes stayed locked for what seemed like eternity. I willed myself to look away. It didn’t work. I did the only other thing I could think of. I changed the subject.

  “You have a very bouncy bed,” I whispered.

  Dale’s eyes fluttered closed and I became very aware that he had an arm pinned between us that my breast was resting on and a hand on the back of my thigh. “Yes, very soft.”

  Soft? I said bouncy?

  “Dale?”

  “Mmmhmm.”

  “I can see why the chicks hand it out to you. I think you sprinkle aphrodisiac under your bed,” I said, smiling wide, trying desperately to fight whatever the hell the bizarre tug within me was.

  The corner of Dale’s mouth pulled into a half grin. He opened his eyes slowly and slid his tongue out partially over his lower lip. “That theory would make this a little less weird if it had ever been proven.”

  I slid my hand up and stopped when I realized it was on his inner thigh. “What ... err ... do you mean?”

  “You’re the first girl I’ve had in my bed.”

  I snorted and lifted my hand, forgetting it was where it was. Instantly, my fingers skated over his groin. Dale jerked and his jaw dropped a bit. I yanked my hand away fast. “Sorry, accidental brush by. Moving on. Are you trying to claim you’re a virgin because I’m going to need to three-way Paige to hear this?”

  Dale’s smug look made me want to smack him or at the very least push him off the bed. I did neither. “There is no way you’re including my sister in a conversation about my sex life and no. I am not claiming to be a virgin.”

  “Whew. I thought I was going to have to pretend too. I’m not that good of an actress.”

  Dale glanced a way for a moment as his smile faded. It suddenly felt a hell of a lot colder between us than it had seconds ago. I knew I should leave it alone. It was how it was supposed to be but I couldn’t.

  “You know.” I looked him up and down once. “I think it’s payback time.”

  “Huh?”

  Quickly, I went for Dale’s lower abs, one of only a few places I knew he was at least partially ticklish. He sucked his stomach in, trying to avoid what was coming. “Oh, no. Don’t try it. Take it like a man.”

  Pulling his shirt out of his pants, I went at them again. My fingers brushed over solid, rippled muscle, and I did my best to ignore how good it felt. It was Dale and I wasn’t attracted to Dale. Right?

  Noticing that Dale’s thick neck was still confined within his olive tie, I took a brief reprieve. “Time out. Wearing one of those never looks comfortable.”

  “Imagine what I think about the bras with all the underwire and extra gadgets.”

  “Oh, like the one I’m wearing. I’m almost thirty. I have phobias of gravity taking over while I’m not looking.” I laughed and he shook his head.

  “Liz, you don’t care what you say to anyone. I love that about you.”

  “Life’s too short to worry about things like that.” I had trouble getting his tie to give more. Pushing him onto his back, I went to work on it again. My angle was severely off as I tried to do it lying next to him. Giving up, I rolled onto him and straddled his waist. “You would make this difficult. How fun is payback that I have to work for?”

  Dale moved his hands over mine and chuckled. “How about I help before you strangle me? Though, I’m not sure how this tie is tied any different than the other ones you take off me just fine.”

  “I’m normally standing in front of you not trying to remove it from two separate positions on a bed, Einstein.” I wiggled a bit and sat up straight, doing my best to find a comfortable spot. When I did, I realized we were now groin-to-groin. Glancing down at Dale, I found him staring at me with a look I didn’t even try to guess at. I rolled my eyes. “You try finding a comfortable soft spot on you. You’re like sitting on stone. Do you really need to work out that much?”

  “I, unlike you, lil’ miss eat, eat, eat and never gain a pound, can’t not do it. I’d be tired all the time if I didn’t work out. Trust me, I’m better when I workout,” Dale said doing a slight double wink.

  My jaw dropped and I huffed. “Hey, I work out! I just don’t do it around you.”

  “I have known you for eight years and have never seen you working out.”

  Squeezing my thighs together tight, I did my best to cause him some discomfort. From the look on his face, I caused him something but not discomfort. “And you won’t see me work out if I have anything to do with it. No one, okay, no one but Seth has seen me working out.”

  Dale ran his large hands up my thighs and held me steady. “You’ve got to tell me now. You can’t drop a hint like that and pull it away.”

  “Swear you won’t laugh first.” I tapped his chest lightly.

  “I swear.”

  I chickened out right before I said it. “All I’ll offer is that half of my workout is jogging.”

  Dale’s forehead crinkled. “Jogging? When?”

  “You know how I like to ‘really’ keep up on our laundry, almost anally so? And I’m always downstairs for an hour and fifteen minutes? And you know how even though I leave a portable CD player down there, I still take my MP3 player and headphones?”

  “Yeah, why do I think I’m not going to like this?”

  “Well, you know how you tease me about sweatpants, t-shirts and baseball caps?”

  Dale tipped his head a bit. “Liz, are you telling me that you go jogging at five in the morning, by yourself and the whole time you tell me that you’re just three flights down doing laundry?”

  I grimaced. “Yes and no. Sometimes Seth goes with me. Usually twice a week because he freaked out about me being alone with headsets on and all that good stuff. So, see. I do try to take care of my body too. I would like a congrats from the body obsessed male below me now, thank you.”

  Dale ran his hand around to my backside and gripped my ass tight, pulling me down hard against his groin. “Dammit, Liz, I have a treadmill here and got you a membership to my gym. You know, the one I go to once you get back from doing ‘laundry’.”

  I thumped his chest hard with my middle finger. “Don’t take that tone with me. I do work on laundry too. I’m only gone thirty minutes. You know that the basement is huge and dry so I do other things.”

  “What juggle knives and swallow fire?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it now. Not until you’re done being an ass. Seth warned me you’d do that if you found out. He also told me he’d tell you if I dared waver off the route he mapped out for me.”

  Dale pinched my butt cheek hard and then gave it a swat. “You aren’t going alone again.”

  “Ouch, that hurt.”

  “Did it?”

  I nodded and looked away, waiting for him to say good. He didn’t. Instead, he rubbed the area gently.

  “Sorry. I didn’t think I’d get you that hard. Are you okay? I still feel bad about the rubber band. Liz, I honestly didn’t know you’d bruise. I’m sorry. I would offer to kiss your ass right now but you’d just hit me, so I’ll pass.”

  I glanced down at his torso and realized that I now had his deep green shirt completely unbuttoned. How did that happen? Worse than that, I was drawing lazy lines along the ridges of his muscles. Deciding to make an effort to save face, I flashed him a mischievous smile and went at his lower abs full on, tickling them like mad.

  Dale shifted back and forth slightly and jerked upright a few times. He had an amazing ability to
control just how ticklish he was and I envied that. “About done?” he asked, making his voice sound extra laid-back even though his stomach muscles were tense.

  “I’ll not surrender.” Sliding my body down his legs, I dropped my head down and pressed my mouth against his low stomach. I blew as hard as I could, not really caring how or what I sounded like. That did it. Dale was instantly laughing to the point he was gasping for air. I kept going, wishing he had at least a little loose skin so I could get him really good.

  Moving my way up his sides, I went for his neck. He wasn’t ticklish there so much as he couldn’t really handle having his neck touched. He’d been that way since I knew him. I went at the other side and he turned his head fast, blocking me. I went to move back and when I came down, I ran straight into his lips.

  My entire body lit as our lips touched briefly. His phone rang, breaking the strange vibe between us. We clearly had been putting in too many hours at the office.

  The phone rang twice more before the machine picked it up. I heard Dale’s deep voice greet the caller before it beeped. “Dale, its Renee. Just calling to tell you how bad I feel that you have the flu. I was looking forward to our date tomorrow night but I’ll take a rain check. Get better soon.”

  Date tomorrow? He told me he didn’t have a date.

  I rolled off Dale and got to my feet a bit too fast. Grabbing the edge of his bed, I steadied myself. Dale rose to his feet and sounded like it hurt him to do so. I put my hand out to him and smiled. “We better get a move on it before you get the chicken pox and can’t go to dinner with Paige and me.”

  Dale stared down at me with warm green eyes. I touched my lips and looked away. “Liz, have I ever cancelled something we plan?”

  Why was he asking me questions when my mind was mush?

  “I don’t know. Not that I can remember but we don’t really plan things so much as they just happen.” The second I said it, we both looked down at the bed and then back at each other. “Right then. Are you ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  Chapter Four

  “Elizabeth, can I ask you something?”

  I continued to walk up the last of the four flights of stairs and nodded, knowing I’d most likely not want to answer Dale’s question. I mean, really how many times does the question that follows that one turn out good?

  “Umm ... err ... is there something between you and Baum?”

  I thought he’d ask about what happened at his place. Charles hadn’t entered my mind.

  “No. Well, I mean we are friends, but that’s it. You aren’t buying into Walters’ smear campaign are you? Come on, Dale. I thought you were on my side.”

  “I am on your side, Liz. It’s just that Baum ... Charles watches you, when you’re not paying attention and there’s something in his eyes. It’s hard to explain but it isn’t just mutual respect. It’s more than that. I’d say it was lust but that doesn’t even sum it up. He looks at you like he knows your body well and that at any moment he’s going to leap across the table to take you. Trust me, I’m a guy and guys know these things. He’s got a reputation for being a heartbreaker, and I don’t want to see you get hurt. Plus, you work for him and that can’t lead to anything good.”

  “Pffft, don’t be ridiculous. He probably watches me funny because he’s scared of me. Remember the time I accidentally knocked the night janitor out? God, I still can’t believe the man thought it was okay to tap my shoulder while I had headphones on. I wonder what ever happened to him.”

  “He quit.”

  “Right. That reminds me. Did you know about two of our interns asking for a transfer?”

  “Umm ... well ... yes I did. I’d have told you but I was fairly sure you would have scared them to the point they never showed back up to work again.”

  “Which ones put in for the transfers?”

  “I plead the fifth, if for no other reason than to save two young men’s lives. But, this really isn’t what I want to talk about, Elizabeth.”

  Whenever Dale called me by my whole name, he was usually upset with me.

  The walnut floorboards creaked as I stepped into the hallway. I focused on the pale eggshell-white walls and not on Dale. Normally, I was fine with a few white lies. This guy seemed to make me want to polish my tarnished halo. First, I’d have to dig it out of the trash receptacle then I’d see how salvageable it was.

  Dale grabbed my hand, stopping my momentum. “Be honest, Elizabeth. I’ve known you longer than any of your girlfriends, yet you rarely confide in me when it comes to the men in your life. You’ve seen me at my worst. Talk to me. Be honest and maybe it will help the way you’ve been feeling.”

  “A Pez dispenser full of anti-depressants would be much better, not to mention fun at parties. Better yet, how about a gumball machine full of them. Now, that’s what I’m talking about. Put a penny in, get a day’s worth of relief out.”

  He rolled his eyes, tipping his head to the side. “Elizabeth, you’re doing it again.”

  Not wanting to hear another one of Dale’s theories on my life, I headed down the hall towards my apartment. My “shadow” matched me step for step. “What am I doing again, Dale?”

  “Hiding behind your sardonic wit.”

  It was my turn to roll my eyes. The man had obviously missed his calling. He had yoga instructor written all over him.

  “Christ, Elizabeth, let someone in. Stop being such a hard ass. You hold that little piece back from me. Why?”

  That did it. My ever-ready temper ignited. Spinning around, I glared at Dale. “You don’t need to know everything about me, Dale. In fact, you don’t know me as well as you like to think.”

  His green gaze raked over me. “If you say so.”

  “Ah, I thought I heard you, Elizabeth.”

  Turning, I smiled when I saw a head of shockingly blond hair that tapered on the top and led to longer sideburns. “Seth! I didn’t know you were back in town. How’d your shows go? Tell me you got autographs for me and I’ll be forced to kiss you.

  Seth adjusted his navy velvet Armani sports coat. The cotton blue, open collared shirt he wore beneath screamed money, as did most everything Seth owned did. The greatest thing about him was that he never came off as anything other than a caring, funny man who would do anything for you. Living in one of the six units on my floor, Seth and his partner Jeffrey made it their mission to “watch” over all the single women in the building.

  The idea of needing anyone to baby sit us was ridiculous, but they did it none the less. And they did it with style, poise, and a grace that I had yet to find in any other men.

  “The shows were great. Though, they’d have been better if two of my models hadn’t come down with the stomach flu. Luckily, Porsche, my new assistant, found me replacements or my head would have been on a chopping block. And I for one, do not want to know first-hand if Dolce & Gabbana have tempers or not.” He winked at me, knowing what a fan I was of them. “I finished up early so I caught a flight home. I can’t stand France. It was three weeks of straight hell. If we didn’t have a show with the same models coming up next month, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

  “Got any inside tips on what’s coming out? Preferably something on the lines of male underwear. Oh, and I’ll need you to model them for me. I may not be able to touch the goods but I’ve been dying to see them. If they’re half as good as the outside wrapping then women everywhere will be envious of Jeffrey.”

  “But of course.” Smiling, he embraced me tight, giving me a squeeze that cut my ability to breathe off for a moment. His scent was enough to make a woman’s toes curl, not that he cared. “Kid, I could photograph every article of clothing I saw there, label it, draw you a diagram, and you would still do whatever the hell you wanted when you got dressed in the morning.”

  “Not true,” I said, giggling softly. “I’m very fashion conscious.”

  His laugh reverberated through me. “I’m not sure I’d go as far as that. You’re not in a fashion coma either so I w
on’t complain too much. How you can pair a black tank top with a peacock on it with gold capris and not look hideous is one of the many great wonders of the world. Don’t do that around any of my friends or they might want to dissect you for the sake of fashion science. If they didn’t do that, they’d stand around dressing you in household goods and try to understand why nothing looks bad on you.” He pulled back from me and caught sight of Dale. “Do you think we have any chance of getting our girl here to embrace her inner New Yorker?”

  “Oh, she embraces New Yorkers all right. Especially the ones that view women as disposable, easy lays. She embraces those just fine.” Dale’s voice dripped sarcasm.

  “Great, let’s just toss that out for group discussion, why don’t we. Hey, I just finished menstruating. Want to share that too?”

  Seth raised an eyebrow, giving me a questioning look. I shrugged, doing my best not to spit the nails I wanted to at Dale. Suddenly, Seth’s eyes lit. “It’s high time you dumped that womanizing bastard and got together with Dale. I don’t know what took the two of you so long. The sexual tension between the two of you can clear a room. And it’s been that way for years. Since you met, really. How you ever held back is a mystery to me. We all had a pool you know. I can’t be sure but I think Megan might have won. Hmm, maybe Paige did. That doesn’t matter though. I’m so happy for the two of you.”

  Dale and I both tried to cut in to correct Seth. He wasn’t having any of that.

  “Does this mean that someday Jeffrey and I will be uncles? Oh, think about it, tiny versions of everything. I’ll have to see if Versace has a line for babies. And you have at least six built in babysitters in the building. The two of you will make the cutest babies.”

  This was not even funny. Dale and I were not a couple. “Seth, we....”

  Seth nodded. “You’re right. Your parents would want the two of you married first. That will be fun too. I want total control over the reception. I could arrange everything just the way you two would like it. And you know the girls would love helping.”