Winner Takes All (20 page)

“So I understand,” he said. “I suppose cutting the seller’s rate commission had a lot to do with that.”

Ah, so we are going to talk about that.
“It was a necessary step and the only way for us to be taken seriously as a contender.”

“Yes, so my father had told me,” he said.

His tone was even, but Eva thought she could detect a hint of temper, although she couldn’t be sure. His voice was always clipped. “Naturally, I would have consulted with you, but you were en route to Barcelona at the time and I’d promised Mr. Hammond that I’d confirm the discount immediately.”

“No need to explain,” he said pleasantly. “I understand completely what happened. It’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about—the Hammond collection, I mean, not the seller’s rate commission. Are you free for dinner?”

The question blindsided Eva. “Dinner?”

“Yes, dinner. I’ll have Maryanne make a reservation at Le Bernardin,” he said, rattling off the name of an expensive French restaurant a few blocks from the office. “Shall we say seven-thirty?”

Eva thought quickly. Thanks to Cole’s interference this afternoon, she’d intended to stay late at the office to catch up on some work. But this
was
work. “Seven-thirty is good.”

“Excellent. Why don’t you come up to my office and we’ll walk over to the restaurant together?”

Seeing nothing wrong with this plan, she agreed quickly. He said good-bye in his clipped way and hung up the phone abruptly. Eva put down the receiver and tried to figure out what this meant. Not another promotion, of course, as she’d just gotten a significant one a few months before. Perhaps a raise or a corner office. Or maybe she was just being treated as a member of the executive team. Ben went to dinner with Ethan and some of the other higher-ups regularly. Maybe this was her entree into the inner circle.

It was an exciting idea and made her feel like her future at the firm was bright and promising. All she had to do was lock down the Hammond sale to make her membership permanent.

***

Le Bernardin was crowded, but as soon as Eva entered the dining room she saw Cole. He was sitting at a table with four other men in exquisitely tailored business suits. Eva faltered for a moment, and Ethan, who was leading her to their table with a hand on the small of her back, asked her if everything was all right. She assured him everything was fine.

The waiter held out a chair for Eva, which she accepted gracefully, even though she’d rather sit on the other side. She didn’t want to turn her back toward Cole. She wanted to face him so that he might see her and come over. Or she could go over there, she thought and then quickly reconsidered. He was obviously in the middle of a business meeting, and she didn’t want to interrupt something important. Besides, he would come over there when the time was right.

Pretending to admire the elegant dining room, Eva turned her head around and her eyes met Cole’s. She smiled and fought the urge to wave like a giddy high school girl in the stadium bleachers. Now he’ll come over, she thought, and say hello. Then I can introduce him to the Wyndham heir himself.

But Cole didn’t come over. He only stared at her with hot, seething eyes. His gaze was so intense she couldn’t look away.

“Eva?” Ethan said, drawing her back to reality. This wasn’t high school; this was work and she wouldn’t sully her first executive outing by sighing over a silly crush.

She turned to her dining companion. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

“Yes, I suggested we order a bottle of wine. After all, this is a celebration of sorts, is it not? Is white all right?”

Eva nodded, relieved again that he wasn’t going to chastise her for undercutting his signature policy. Although she didn’t know him well at all, she couldn’t help but feel his graciousness was out of character. “White would be lovely, thank you. I’m very pleased to be here,” she added, gesturing to the restaurant. She could feel Cole’s eyes burning a hole in her back, and she had to fight the urge to fidget.
You are a professional
.

When the waiter finished taking away their salad plates, Ethan raised his wineglass. “I’d like to make a toast to Wyndham’s most promising—and most beautiful—employee.” He clinked his glass with hers and took a sip, keeping his eyes trained on her face the whole time.

Although disconcerted by the toast, Eva lifted her glass and drank.

“You know, I’ve been watching you for some time,” he said, his usually clipped tone suddenly soft and intimate.

Eva wasn’t sure how to respond. This evening certainly wasn’t turning out the way she’d expected. First, Cole hadn’t come over to say hello, and now her boss was speaking seductively and calling her beautiful. What the hell was going on? “Really?”

“Yes, I remember the first time I saw you. I had been in the New York offices for about a week and you had a meeting with Tom Sherman. I’d dropped by his office to give him reports and you were sitting there in a black skirt with your legs crossed looking stunningly gorgeous.”

Now Eva really didn’t know what to say. Ethan didn’t expect a response. He reached across the table and took her hand. Eva was too shocked to do anything but let him.

“You have very beautiful legs,” he said, pressing his lips against her hand as Eva watched in silent horror.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” a cool voice said over her shoulder.

Eva stiffened in her chair and immediately pulled her hand free. Even though she hadn’t done anything wrong, she knew she looked guilty. Her face was flushed, and all she could manage was a stuttered greeting. Cole pretended not to notice as he asked her for an introduction to her dining partner.

Ethan didn’t wait for her to comply. He stood up and offered his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said. “Eva was just telling me about your relationship. I understand that the matter of the Hammond collection is all but decided. I knew my Eva would be able to convince you. She has a special way about her.” He looked at Eva with an intolerable air of familiarity.

Eva watched the scene unfold with a growing sense of horror. There was nothing between her and Ethan. She had never thought of him as anything other than the boss’s son until this very awful moment, but Cole didn’t know that. He had seen the proprietary arm on her back as they entered the dining room and the soft kiss on her hand and drawn his own conclusion.

And Ethan knows it too, she thought, disgusted by the gleam of triumph she saw in his eyes. He thinks he’s got one over on the irresistible Cole Reed Hammond.

Eva opened her mouth to protest—Ethan made it sound as if he’d sent Eva out to seduce Cole into giving them his business—but she shrunk from the look Cole gave her.

“Actually, the decision is my mother’s, so she’s the one you’ll have to convince. Perhaps you sent the wrong man to do the job,” he said with a mocking smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have business to conduct.”

He walked away and Eva watched, feeling helpless. She didn’t know what to do. Her instinct was to run after him and explain everything. But she didn’t know what exactly she would be explaining. Ethan’s behavior was completely insane—how
could
he imply that she’d used her feminine wiles to get a commission?—and thoroughly out of character. What game was he playing? Eva could scarcely believe that he was motivated by jealousy or a hitherto unacknowledged desire for her and yet there it was: all the proof she needed. No rational businessman would offend a client so thoroughly unless his mind was clouded with lust.

As Eva tried to make sense of Ethan’s behavior, she acknowledged another reason why she didn’t go after Cole: She didn’t
want
to explain. She shouldn’t
have
to explain. There was nothing going on between her and Ethan, and Cole should damn well recognize that. The evidence was damning, she knew that, but she didn’t care. She was too hurt by his actions to be reasonable and understanding. How could he do that to her—stand in her apartment at three
A.M.
and say he felt
compelled
to know her and then walk away with complete indifference a few days later? She thought of her conduct that morning in his mother’s front parlor. Nobody had ever made her behave so recklessly.
It’s probably better like this. The way things were going, Cole would only have continued to charm me until it was too late and then he would’ve walked away. That’s what always happens.

Feeling calmer and in control, Eva turned around in her chair and faced Ethan. She might have lost Cole—lost Cole, her mind mocked her, you never had Cole—but she still had a job at Wyndham’s and Ethan was still her employer. She would have to treat this situation carefully and forcefully to make sure nothing remotely similar happened again.

Ethan was silent as she thought about what to say. He was leaning back in his chair, looking pleased with himself. At that moment, Eva hated him more than any other person she’d ever met.

“I want to make one thing very, very clear,” she said in her most professional, most composed voice, the anger only a thin underlying thread, “I’m not interested in any sort of relationship with you that’s not strictly professional.”

He nodded. He hadn’t lost one bit of the smug look, but he nodded amicably in agreement. Eva, who had been prepared for him to issue threats and for her to have to say something about seeing him in court, was amazed.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he explained, almost self-deprecatingly. “I’ve been given to understand that I’m attractive to some women. If you’re not one of them, then nothing more has to be said.”

Eva was skeptical, but she wasn’t prepared to push him further. She knew now that this evening wasn’t about inviting her into the inner circle. No, this evening was about something far more intimate, and she was disgusted and appalled. The men in the organization got wined and dined, but all the women got was propositioned. The anger she felt was intense and she pictured the look of absolute horror on the director of human resources’ face if she stomped into her office tomorrow morning and accused Ethan of improper behavior. The poor woman often found herself overwhelmed by simple questions about health insurance; she would have a stroke if she had to deal with a sexual harassment claim.

Even as Eva imagined the sense of satisfaction she would feel, she knew she would never go through with it. For one thing, it would irreparably damage her career at Wyndham’s. For another, Ethan had taken her rejection graciously. Rather, she felt like she should make a claim of incompetence against him because his unprofessional behavior had imperiled an important sale. How could this man have gotten so far in the auction world if he let his hormones rule his head? It was one thing to desire a personal relationship with an underling and quite another to let that affect a potential blockbuster sale. What his younger brother had once laughingly said was true: Ethan Wyndham was a rather inept businessman. And now she knew from firsthand experience that he was a rather rotten human being as well.

The rest of the meal was uneventful. They discussed more business—Ethan ran through the figures of his five-year plan—and then talked about people in the London home office whom Eva had never heard of. He didn’t bring up the topic of the Hammond collection and he never once asked her opinion on anything.

Ethan Wyndham proved to be exactly the man she’d thought him before this afternoon’s unexpected telephone call. He was rude and self-centered, and while he might have meant the compliment about her legs, she very much doubted he meant the one about her work. He seemed too involved in himself to notice anything someone else did. If he weren’t the boss’s son, she would have walked out on him hours ago.

Eva suffered the rest of the meal politely. She even smiled and accepted a cup of coffee when it became obvious Ethan was inclined to linger. There was nothing about her behavior that suggested she was irate and uncomfortable and distracted. In her mind the scene with Cole kept replaying itself, but no matter how many times she watched it, the result was always the same inevitable one: him smiling coldly and walking away.
It’s for the best,
she reminded herself as dangerous ideas started floating around her brain.
Don’t give in. Don’t call tomorrow and explain. This is don’t ask, don’t tell: If he won’t ask what’s between you and Ethan, then you’re certainly not going to tell him.

By the time Ethan finally requested the check, she was exhausted. The evening had wrung her dry—stressing over Cole and hating Ethan had taken everything out of her and all she wanted to do was climb into bed, pull up the covers and hide.

When Ethan’s Lincoln town car pulled up in front of her building a half hour later, Eva could not hold back a sigh of relief. Finally, the end was in sight.

“Thank you for dinner,” she said stiffly, because she was determined to be the professional.

Ethan smiled and held out his hand. “It was my pleasure.”

That smug look bugged the hell out of her, but she took his hand and shook it. Even though he disgusted her, he was still the boss. She would have to be deferential and respectful whenever she saw him in the hallway or at a staff meeting. It would be an effort but she could do it. Eva opened the door and got out of the car. Her street was unusually lively for a Tuesday night, and she had to pass through a group of people to get to her front door. The town car pulled away before she was inside.

Eva climbed the five flights of stairs to her apartment slowly; she was too tired for anything else. Her head was throbbing badly and there was an odd pain in her lower back, as if she’d held herself too stiffly for too long. Perhaps she would take a long, hot, soothing bath before she hid under the covers.

But it wasn’t to be. Not now. Not yet.

When she got to the fifth floor, she saw him. He was standing by her door. He was leaning against the beige wall with his hands in his finely tailored pockets and his legs loosely crossed. He seemed casual enough with his patient air and indifferent smile, but Eva wasn’t fooled. It was in the line of his shoulders, in the angle of his head, in the waves of anger that were radiating from every pore: Cole Hammond was spoiling for a fight.