An Executive Decision (25 page)

‘Dee, sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and go for it.’

‘That’s true, but right now, I’m not willing to do that.’

As she left with the flash drive tucked safely in her bag, she couldn’t keep from feeling like she’d just had a very narrow escape, and the urge to be home with Ellis was nearly overwhelming.

Inside the taxi, she was still struggling to get her head round what had just happened when her BlackBerry rang.

Dee, Al here.’

She tried to hide her disappointment She really could use a call from Ellis about now.

‘You still at Jason’s place? He said he was inviting you over for a drink. Did Ellis get hold of you? I told him you were there.’

Her stomach somersaulted and she nearly dropped the phone. ‘No. What’s going on?’

‘Oh nothing, really. I just called to see how things had gone in Spain. He said he couldn’t talk, was about to board a plane home, but gave me the two thumbs up. The man’s got balls the size of boulders, I’ll give him that. He didn’t sound very happy, though. Just jetlagged, I reckon.’

Dee’s clench on the phone was nearly painful.

Marston chuckled. ‘I hate international travel these days. Not enough comforts in the world to make jetlag easy at my age. Never mind that. Just wanted to let you know my driver’ll pick you up in the morning at seven and take you to the jet. I’ll meet you there and shuttle you on down to my neck of the woods to see the plant. You up for it, Ms Henning?’ He always called her Ms Henning when he was joking or being chivalrous, which, much to her surprise, he quite often was.

‘I’ll be ready’

When she hung up there was a text from Ellis.

Al says you were with Daniels. We’ll talk in Portland.

That was it. In spite of her efforts not to read anything into it, she felt unsettled and wished desperately she could hear his voice. But that would have to wait. She wouldn’t be home until Sunday, and no doubt he was in the air by now.

Chapter Thirty-five

‘Do you think Ellis really isn’t here or do you think he’s avoiding us?’

‘His secretary says he’s away in Spain, but he’s supposed to be home tomorrow sometime.’

‘For fuck sake, Garrett, you’re his brother, and you’re even staying at his house. How can you not know if he’s out of the country?’

Garrett? Garrett Thorne? Tally was suddenly at full attention. The booth she sat in was separated from the couple talking by only a thin trellis. She couldn’t believe her luck. If it hadn’t been covered with climbing foliage of some sort, the trellis would have reminded her of the confessional she used to go to every Friday night when she was a child. There she’d mumbled all of her sins across the wooden screen into the listening ears of the bored priest. She quietly scooted closer to the trellis and held her breath. Who knew, a confessional might turn out to be exactly what it was.

Through the trellis she could see Thorne handing a coffee to a woman she couldn’t get a good view of. Tally was stunned at how much he resembled his older brother. He spoke. ‘Well, he hasn’t been too interested in talking to me since Friday night’s disaster with Dee, has he?’

The woman giggled wickedly. ‘I actually thought he was going to hit you. In fact, I thought Dee was going to hit both of you.’

‘That’s not funny, Stacie. Ellis and I were just starting to get along again. Up until New York, every time I was in the same state with him, he remembered something he has to do in some third-world country.’

Stacie? Where had Tally heard that name before?

‘There, you see? Massive improvement. The man’s only gone to Spain this time.’

‘I was trying to be helpful,’ Garrett said. ‘I was trying to make sure my brother and Dee had a good weekend.’

The laugh again. ‘I think egging him on about the Executive Sex Clause wasn’t the best way forward if you were trying to be helpful. And telling Dee you knew about it didn’t win you her undying love either.’

The Executive Sex Clause? Tally sipped absently at her champagne. Wait a minute, she thought. Could it be? ESC? The Executive Sex Clause. Had to be. Still, what the hell was it?

Tally frantically pulled up the ESC files on her lap top.

Hire her, Ellis, then implement the ESC and you’ll have the best of both worlds.

That’s what Beverly’s email said. She wanted Ellis to implement the Executive Sex Clause. But how could a sex clause be a secret weapon?

Tally racked her brain. Almost as an afterthought, she pulled out her iPhone, set it to audio record and carefully placed it as near to the partition separating the tables as possible. This was too good to miss.

Garrett drummed his fingers on the table. ‘I can cope with her being pissed off at me. That I wouldn’t mind so much if she hadn’t decided to take it out on Ellis.’

‘Well, what the fuck did you think she’d do?’ Stacie retorted. ‘Did you think she’d be thrilled that his kid brother knows?’

Garrett growled. ‘I don’t think she was overly happy to find Ellis’s ex following him down the hall all wrapped up snug-like in his bath robe either, was she?’

Tally’s pulse accelerated. Stacie was Ellis’s ex? And she’d been caught in his bath robe? It just kept getting better and better.

‘Stop changing the subject, Garrett. My presence could have been easily explained away if you hadn’t made such an ass of yourself. What about Dee? Is she in?’

‘She’s in New York,’ Garrett said. ‘No chance of talking to her either.’

‘Wish I’d known that,’ Stacie said. ‘I might have caught her before I flew back to Portland.’

‘I’d at least feel better if I knew the two of them had talked it through and made up,’ Garrett said.

‘Me too,’ Stacie agreed ‘But I wouldn’t count on it. She was furious, and rightly so. What woman wants her work denigrated by the fact that she’s sleeping with the boss? Especially not when she’s as brilliant as Dee.’

Jesus. Tally could hardly believe it. Dee was sleeping with Ellis? She’d have thought Ms MBA too much of a tight-assed stickler to the rules for that.

‘I wasn’t denigrating her work, Stacie. I know she’s brilliant or Ellis wouldn’t have hired her. I was just trying to prove my point that even two people as focused on work as she and Ellis are can’t fight their hearts.’

‘Well announcing you know that sex is a part of her job probably wasn’t the best way to go about proving that point, Garrett.’

‘Sh!’ Garrett hissed. ‘Why don’t you just broadcast it to everyone?’

Suddenly Tally couldn’t breathe. She felt like the sun had just come out, and her luck was changing right before her eyes. She held her breath and listened carefully, as the two lowered their voices.

‘Oh for heaven sake, Garrett, we’re the only ones in here,’ Stacie said. Then she leaned across the table ‘So, do you think it worked? Do you think sex on demand has improved their productivity?’

‘With those two, it’s hard to tell,’ Garrett said. ‘And Ellis sure as hell isn’t going to put it in the monthly progress report, is he? Still, I can’t think they’d have implemented it if they didn’t think it would work. I know Beverly thought it would, but you know how Beverly was. I just doubt they expected the side-effects from the chemistry between the two of them.’

So the Executive Sex Clause was really just Ellis paying Dee to have sex with him. That was it? That was the secret strategy? Quickly, with trembling fingers, Tally scrolled back through the email exchanges between Ellis and Beverly before Beverly had gone to Brazil, and read the final email.

Dee’s exactly what you need on all counts. I know you think she lacks experience, but trust me, with the right training, given half a chance, she’ll be brilliant. Hire her, Ellis. Implement the ESC. Trust me; it’s the perfect strategy, a secret weapon that could make Pneuma Inc. even more successful than it already is. And if anyone could do it, you could. Do this for me and I can retire and enjoy my dotage.

Beverly

So Dee Henning got the executive assistant position because she was willing to spread her legs. Tally knew there had to be some reason Ellis chose the bitch over her. At last the truth was out, and Thorne’s secret weapon was just about to become her secret weapon.

‘What’s going on?’

Tally jumped at the sound of Jamison’s voice.

‘I’ve had the limo circling the block for ten minutes, and I find you here in the bar drinking –’

She placed a finger to her lips and silently shushed him. But it was too late; the couple across the trellis suddenly began to speak in whispers.

‘Don’t shush me, Tally. I’ve not had a good day and you keeping me waiting’s done nothing to make it better. Now come on. Let’s go.’

She stuffed her laptop into the bag, and grabbed up her purse and her iPhone as he hauled her out of the booth and escorted her out the door.

Garrett craned his neck at the couple just leaving. The guy had practically manhandled the woman from the booth next to theirs. They hadn’t even known she’d been there. ‘That’s Terrance Jamison, isn’t it?’ he said, nodding after the couple.

Stacie followed his gaze. ‘Sure looks like it to me. He’s got a lot of nerve, showing his face here in Pneuma territory.’

Garrett nodded his agreement. ‘He didn’t look too happy either. And it looked like that Tally chick from accounting with him. I wouldn’t want to be her about now. I don’t think he’s planning to wine her and dine her if that glare is any indication.’

‘Bastard,’ Stacie said watching as the two cleared the door and disappeared into the parking lot.

Once outside, Jamison hurried Tally into the waiting limo and the driver took off. Tally didn’t wait for him to ask what was going on, and she sure as hell didn’t want to endure his bad mood.

‘I have the secret weapon,’ she said. ‘The ESC? I know what it is, and it’s just about to become our secret weapon too.’

Jamison handed her a glass of champagne and sat back to listen while she pulled up the ESC emails between Ellis and Beverly and told him about her unexpected encounter with Ellis’s brother and his ex. The longer she talked, the more Jamison smiled.

Chapter Thirty-six

When Dee arrived at PDX, the last rays of sun were sinking to the west of the city. Instead of the Pneuma Inc. limo she was expecting, Ellis was waiting for her in the Jeep. She knew something was wrong when his greeting was barely more than a grunt. Without a word, he took her bag and put it in the back. She buckled into the passenger seat. In an ideal world, she would have shrugged off his mood and dozed until he was ready to talk about it. But this wasn’t an ideal world. It felt like a slap in the face after she had been so delighted to see him, after she had been looking forward to their reunion ever since he left. This was not what she was hoping for. The tiredness she felt dissipated with the clenching of her stomach and the tightening of her shoulders as she racked her brain, trying to think what she might have done to upset him.

When it was clear he wasn’t going to break the ice, she braced herself and smiled, acting as though she hadn’t noticed his mood. ‘I want to hear all about Valderia.’

He offered an enormous shrug, as if he couldn’t be bothered to reply. The muscles in her shoulders felt like they’d snap from the tension. ‘Jamison won’t be tempting anyone else with Valderian virgin timber,’ he said, not taking his eyes off the road.

‘Good. That’s good. Then everything went according to plan?’

‘According to plan,’ came his clipped reply. It was then that she realised they were heading out along the Columbia River Gorge at break-neck speed.

Ellis turned off I-84, away from the river, and took a series of steep roads upward into the wooded hills. At last, he exited onto a winding gravel road.

‘Where are we going?’ she asked, and the tension went up another notch.

‘Scenic route,’ he answered. ‘Hang on. It’s not for the faint of heart.’

She shot him a withering glance, which was swallowed up in the growing dusk. ‘Do you see any faint of heart in this vehicle? Now, you want to tell me what the hell’s going on?’

He glanced at her, then downshifted as he turned onto a dirt road that was barely more than a trail. It rose steeply until it twisted into a series of sharp hairpin turns. It was deeply rutted and strewn with rocks, an obstacle course that rattled teeth and bruised anything that wasn’t buckled to the seat.

‘Did you know about Daniels’s divorce?’

‘What? I just found out Friday night. Why?’

‘And as soon as you found out you went running to his apartment.’

‘What?’ Dee grabbed for the edge of the seat and stiff-legged the floorboard to brace against the bone-jarring ride. ‘What the hell’s that supposed to mean? I went to his apartment to get the flash drive he forgot to bring to Scribal.’ She slammed the palm of her hand against the dashboard just as Ellis hit a large rut and the Jeep rocked dangerously.

‘The Sex Clause doesn’t include Jason Daniels, Dee.’

For a heartbeat, everything stopped. For an instant, his words left her speechless. They felt like a gut-punch and hurt a hell of a lot more. Then anger filled the gap and the world swung back into real time. ‘Fuck you, Ellis! I work for you. I don’t have to take abuse from you. Let me out. Right now! Let me out!’ She undid her seatbelt just as they hit another deep rut that nearly sent her flying out of the Jeep.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ Ellis grabbed her arm and slammed on the brakes. Then he turned off the engine with her slapping and shoving at him.

‘Let go of me, Ellis, goddamn it! How dare you, how fucking dare you?’ She shoved open the door and was halfway out before he could scramble over the gear shift and haul her bodily back in, kicking and struggling. She pushed him hard, and he held tight. But when she jerked back against him, he overcompensated and unbalanced both of them, catapulting them out the open door onto the ground beside the Jeep with a hard, breathless thud. Dee was still punching and kicking like a wild woman. ‘How could you even think that of me? How could you even think it?’

‘Dee, I’m sorry.’ He took a knee to the upper inside of one thigh, dangerously close to his cock, before he finally rolled with her and subdued dangerous arms and legs beneath the weight of his body. ‘Christ, Dee,’ he gasped. ‘This is not the way I planned our reunion to be.’

‘Is that what you think of me, that because I fuck you, I’ll fuck anybody? You might as well have called me a whore, goddamn it.’ She bucked beneath him, nearly unseating him in her rage, but he held her.

‘Dee I didn’t mean it, I would never call you … I fucked up. I’m sorry. I was … I was jealous, OK. I was so damned jealous. I know how badly he wants you, and I couldn’t stand the thought that you might want him back.’

For a brittle moment, he sat astraddle her, both of them freeze-framed against the gloom, both struggling to catch their breath.

‘I didn’t fuck Jason,’ she breathed. ‘How the hell could I fuck Jason when I couldn’t get you out of my head?’ Suddenly, she was ripping at his fly like it was on fire, and he was hard enough that he was certain he could have burst the zipper without her help. He caught his breath at the none-too-gentle raking of her nails along the sides of his hips as she yanked at his boxers and jeans. She slapped his hands away from his efforts at her clothes. Then she wriggled and shifted until she’d shoved her skirt up and tore the crotch of her panties aside. ‘I fuck you, Ellis. You and nobody else. Surely you can’t be too stupid to figure that out.’

And Jesus, it was like she’d given his life back. The outrageous relief of it translated into raw animal need. He pushed and shoved his way inside her. Even in her rage she was slick; she yielded to him grudgingly, sheathing him in a grip that felt tighter than his own skin. He was furious at himself that he’d driven her to this, yet she was stunning in her anger. He didn’t have much time to contemplate before she rolled on top of him, ripped open his shirt, and bit him hard just above his left nipple. And fuck, it nearly made him come. When she bit him again on the soft pulse point of his neck, his brain engaged enough for him to realise that this was shaping up to be a very dangerous fuck.

He caught the driving force of her hips pressing him back against the ground, forcing his tender ass cheeks into an abrasive mix of grass and pebbles at the edge of the road, forcing the oxygen from his lungs in a startled gasp, which she swallowed back hungrily in a hard kiss. She savaged his mouth, the tension in her body tightening her like a fist around his cock, making him sure he would either die or come, or maybe both. He fought to focus on the fire of her anger, anger which he fully deserved, even wanted; anger so thoroughly infused with passion that it sizzled between them like heat lightning. Dee Henning making him pay, Dee Henning devouring him in her rage, Dee Henning inflicting punishment this exquisite was well worth dying for.

‘What I’ve given to you, do you really think I’d give to anyone else? The Sex Clause puts my career on the line. It’s bad enough that it’s not just between you and me. And then there’s your fiancée back in the picture.’

‘Ex-fiancée.’ He cried out as she rode him until bones jarred and joints wrenched. ‘And she’s not back in the picture.’

‘I didn’t sign on for a part in a damned soap opera, Ellis! And I didn’t sign on to be abused.’ He was certain if she were any closer, she’d be inside his pelvic girdle. ‘If you ever, ever pull that stunt again, I’m gone. Do you understand? Gone!’

‘Dee.’ He choked the words out from under another fierce, driving thrust. ‘I was jealous. I was stupid. I’m sorry …Oh my God!’ He was sure by now there must be gravel embedded in his ass, but it didn’t matter; he couldn’t get enough and he thrust up into her hard.

‘Sorry? You’re sorry?’ She gripped his shoulders hard enough to bruise, and her whole anatomy clenched. He held his breath – what little he had left to hold. ‘People will nudge you in the hall and pat you on the back for coming up with the Sex Clause.’

‘Dee –’ That was as far as he got before her tongue lapped up the rest of his words and emptied his head of all rational thought with another kiss that was delectably near fatal.

Then she pulled away, fists clenching tight at the open lapels of his shirt, her breath coming fast and furious. ‘But me, they’ll say I’m a slut.’ Her words were humid against his mouth. She bit his lip, then tongued his hard palate, making him squirm in the vice of her anger. ‘All the hours of sweat and research and hard work when I wasn’t fucking you.’ She thrust again, driving the breath from his lungs. ‘The hours that are already making Pneuma Inc. richer – they won’t give a second thought to.’ She fought back a sob. ‘All they’ll say is I fucked the boss and my career’s over.’

‘Dee, Dee! That’s not going to happen.’ He pulled her down to him and held her close, taking back as much control as physical strength would allow. For a second, he caught his breath and found himself moved by the glisten of tears on her cheeks.

‘I’m sorry about Garrett and Stacie, and I’m really sorry I’ve ruined our reunion by being such an asshole, but you have to believe me, I would never betray you, Dee, and no one could ever doubt your reputation.’ He took her face in his hands, and forced her to meet his gaze. ‘And if I’m jealous of you with Daniels, how can you really blame me for that? No one knows better than I do why he wants you so badly. And I don’t want him to have that, Dee. I don’t want him to have what you give to me. I want it. I want you all to myself.’

This time he took
her
mouth and she let him. It wasn’t a gentle kiss. There was too much passion between them for gentleness, but he felt her anger dissipate, and her body softened and conformed to the contours of his own as she moved, riding the tenuous edge between arousal and release. The next time she stiffened it was in orgasm, tightening and rocking against him until the friction and the tension sent him over the edge and he came too.

When they could breathe again, they found a more comfortable place not far off the rutted jeep trail, where the moss was soft and their view of the night sky was unobscured. There, they sat side by side. Ellis slipped his arm around her, and pulled her down onto the moss, cradling her head in the crook of his shoulder. ‘I was planning to invite
you
home to watch the Perseids with me when Stacie so rudely interrupted us, but we don’t need meteors to enjoy the view.’ He kissed the top of her ear and pulled her closer. ‘In fact, I’d say the view is breathtaking.’

For a long time, they watched the sky, silently clinging to each other with the smell of evergreens and wild flowers adding a rich background to the scent of pheromones and sex. Eventually, she became aware of his gaze. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked.

She nestled in closer. ‘I’m better than I was.’

‘That’s a start, at least.’ He slid an arm down to stroke her hip. ‘Garrett told you about Stacie, about the three of us?’

‘He told me, yes. And about Jamison.’

‘Everything?’

‘Pretty much.’ She rose on one elbow, looked down into his eyes. ‘Are you all right?’

His breath shuddered in a deep groan and he covered his face with his forearm. ‘All the things I didn’t want you to know about me, all the tender spots, all the ugly bits.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘I like you anyway.’

He threw his arm aside with a burst of laughter, and pulled her on top of him. ‘You have no idea how glad I am to hear that.’

Resting against the warmth of his chest, she studied him in the darkness.

‘What is it, Dee?’ He eased a hand up under her shirt to stroke the small of her back. ‘What’s on your mind?’

‘I can’t keep from wondering, Ellis, after everything that’s happened, all you’ve been through because of the two of them, why are you seeing Stacie again?’

He closed his eyes. For a long time he was silent, and she wondered if maybe she shouldn’t have asked. But at last she felt his chest expand against her in a deep sigh, and he spoke.

‘After everything that’s happened between Garrett and Stacie and me, the bond runs pretty deep. We’ve known each other for a long time, and in spite of all the pain that’s passed between us, there’s still some weird sense of loyalty. Whenever Garrett’s between relationships, if Stacie’s free, they get together.’

‘So now you’re between relationships, and she’s in town.’ Dee tried to pull away, not wanting him to sense how difficult this was for her, and not sure she could hide it. But he held her close and lifted her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye.

‘I’m not between relationships, Dee. I’m never in a relationship; I haven’t been in ages. And before Marston’s party, I hadn’t spoken to Stacie in three years.’

‘So, it was a reunion, then.’ She forced her voice to remain calm.

‘Nothing happened.’

‘Ellis, I’m sorry, this is none of my business.’ She tried again to pull away, but he held her.

‘Nothing happened, Dee. I meant it when I said things weren’t how they looked at Marston’s party. I didn’t fuck her – not Friday night and not at Marston’s. I know how it looked, but I swear to you, I didn’t. I didn’t want to be with her. I wanted to be with you.’ The moist heat of his breath brushed her throat, then her ear. ‘To be with you is all I ever seem to want these days and it scares the hell out of me.’ 

In spite of the late-night nature romp with Ellis, Dee was at Pneuma Inc. by seven. They had a breakfast meeting with Wade in the Dungeon. Harris was already in Wade’s boudoir, setting up to show some of his Valderian photos on Wade’s big scream. He swept Dee off her feet into a bear hug. ‘You got a little sun,’ she said, touching his face as he sat her down.

‘And you didn’t.’ he said, kissing her cheek.

‘My jungle was concrete and air conditioned,’ she said, stealing a glance at the new supply of freckles across Ellis’s cheeks from his time in Valderia. They made him look outdoorsy and even more Celtic. She fought back a wave of desire. Those sexy freckles had been pressed up tight between her legs just a few hours ago. The thought made her giddy and weak-kneed.

Against a backdrop of Harris’s stunning rainforest scenes, many of which included Ellis looking as relaxed in khakis and hiking boots as he did in Armani, Ellis’s debriefing sounded more like an adventure story. The Valderian people would benefit from the technology for new eco-friendly desalination plants to deal with water shortages. Pneuma Inc. would send engineering teams to work with their own engineers in the construction of the plants. In addition, the chance to develop the lucrative eco-tourism industry at someone else’s expense had sweetened the government toward Ellis and Pneuma Inc. even further, and at the end of the day, the sale of all of the access territory surrounding Jamison’s forest was a done deal, closed, sealed and delivered before Ellis and Harris landed on the tarmac at PDX. By 8.30, Dee had filled Ellis in on the details of the New York trip, and by 9 she settled in to her office to go over her Trouvères presentation one last time.