Any Man I Want (11 page)

“You do that, son. You do that. Your girl is waiting on line two.” He smiled and walked out.

I sat back down and pressed the speakerphone. “Exclusively enjoying my favors, are you?”

Katrina's laugh rang out over the speaker. “You saw that, did you?”

“Indeed I did. You were looking right. I like the new designs.”

“I thought you might. Listen, I'm thinking about cutting out of here early.”

“You've already had quite a full day.”

“Haven't I, though? Maybe you've got some ideas on how to fill in the rest of my day.”

“Are you propositioning me, Kitty?”

“Trying my damnedest to get more of those favors of yours. Think you can help me out?”

I opened up my calendar on my laptop. I had two meetings this afternoon. Neither one was crucial. “I can be home in half an hour.”

“See you there,” Katrina purred.

“Bet.” I started looking for my keys.

“Oh—and Carter?”

“Yeah?”

“Hurry.” She put so much heated inflection into that one word.

“Already there.” I slammed the phone down. “Shawn!” I called out as I stuffed my laptop, tablet, and cell into my messenger bag.

“Yes?” He stood at the door and watched in surprise as I shoved my arms into my jacket and pulled my car keys out of the top drawer.

“I need you to have Irene sit in on my two o'clock meeting today.”

“Okay.” He jotted a note.

“And I want you to sit in on the four o'clock.”

Shawn paused in surprise. “Me?”

“Yep.”

“You want me to go to a meeting in your place?” The kid looked terrified.

“Shawn, all you have to do is listen and offer an opinion every now and then. Don't sign anything.”

“I wouldn't!”

I clapped him on the shoulder on my way to the elevator. “I know, Shawn. That was a joke. I have the utmost faith in you.”

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“No, why do you ask?” I pressed the down button and wondered what Katrina had on under those tight pants that she didn't have a visible panty line. I pressed the button again. She had told me to hurry. I did not plan to disappoint.

“I don't think I've ever seen you leave the office early,” he said in confusion.

“Well then it's high time, don't you think?” I flashed him a grin and stepped onto the elevator.

He put his hand in the door as it was about to close. “If something comes up, can I call you?”

I thought about it for a second and then shook my head. “No. I'll see you in the morning.” The door closed on his stunned face. I jingled my keys in my hand, watching the descending numbers. Getting a life felt pretty damn good.

Katrina—Tuesday, June 22—8:50 a.m.

 

 

“K
atrina, one second,” Danila requested as I swept past her office on the way to mine at BellaRich. The offices were near the fashion district and took up two floors of a converted manufacturing flat. Downstairs were our sales and display offices. This floor was designed like an open loft, with a wall of windows across the back wall that housed our conference rooms, larger offices to the right, and cubicles to the left. We'd recently updated the break room and made it into a small, full-service kitchen, break room, and lounge. I waved to a few people hovering near the coffee machines as I neared.

I pretended that I didn't hear Danila calling me.

“We have a small problem,” she announced, clearly expecting me to pop in there.

“I'm not trying to hear it!” I tossed over my shoulder, lengthened my stride, and kept moving down the hallway. I was in a happy place and planning to stay that way. My hot new boyfriend had me feeling good, our NFL designs were sold out, and there had been no more Kevin drama. Life. Was. Good.

We had filed suit against Kevin for defamation of character and we demanded that any other accusers either show proof or retract their statements. The only thing we hadn't been able to do was prove that Kevin planted cameras in my condo or determine if he was acting alone. I was content to ride out the last of the snide comments and questions to make the whole thing go away. The other night, I'd run into some people who I'd thought were friends of mine, but they were downright nasty and a little too thrilled that some dirt had been thrown in my direction.

I considered it a wake-up call. Not everybody who you are friendly with is necessarily your friend. This whole experience with Kevin let me know that for too long I'd let what other people thought of me define me. I also realized that there were very few people in the world who truly knew me. My family, my sisters-in-law, Yazlyn, and Carter. They knew the real Audelia Katrina. They'd seen me at my best and my worst and they were okay with me either way. So if Kevin being a complete dick meant that I was able to weed through fake friends to figure who was genuine, it was a small enough price to pay. So, yes, life was good and I was aiming to keep it that way.

“Katrina!” she called out again, leaping out of her chair to catch up with me. I smiled at Tara, the summer intern who was assisting me while my regular admin was on maternity leave. I pushed open the door to my corner office and set my laptop case down on my glass-top desk. I walked over to the small Keurig on the credenza and programmed my second cup of coffee for the day. Living with Carter had many, many privileges, but sleeping in was not one of them. Not that I was complaining. He had the most delicious ways of keeping me awake at night and waking me up in the morning. I languidly stirred creamer into my cup and reminisced over the amazing way he'd woken me up this morning. It involved an ingenious use of cherries and scarves and napkin rings.

Danila came running in behind me. I whirled around and flounced down into my chair with a sigh. “Fine. What's today's drama?”

“Just a second, Beau and Belle are coming.”

“Aw hell.” I kicked my feet up on the desk.

“Exactly.” She sat down at the small round table in the corner and flipped the cover open on her iPad.

I heard Belle and Beau coming down the hallway.

“Delaney Mirabella Montgomery, that is not what I said.” Beau's heated voice rose beyond polite levels. “All I said is that you might have mentioned that twins run in your family before we decided to scale bareback mountain.”

“Oh jeez,” I muttered, wondering not for the first time if working this closely with family was such a good idea.

“And I said that not only have you met my twin sisters, it was your damned idea to throw both caution and condoms to the wind. Literally,” she snapped back and pushed past him into my office. She gave me a kiss on the cheek, took a sip of my coffee, and sat down on my sofa with her arms and legs crossed. Beau stood in the doorway, looking slightly ill.

“Good morning, family!” I trilled with a wide smile. “Are we going to be designing a line of baby clothes?”

Beau blanched. “We don't wanna talk about it.”

“Then perhaps you shouldn't have been shouting in the middle of the workplace about scaling bareback mountain,” I suggested.

“Tacky ass.” Belle shot him a look.

I glanced back and forth between the two of them. This was not the first time I was stuck in between the two of them and their flare-ups. It didn't bother me. When two people were passionate about each other, it spilled over into a lot of different areas. Poor Danila, who was new to this, shifted uncomfortably in her seat, clearly wondering what side she was supposed to be on. “Newlyweds, chill. You both want kids. Whether it's two now or one later, you'll be great parents. Now, let's allow Danila to break the bad news. You're freaking her out.”

Beau went to sit next to his wife and slid his arm around her. He kissed her on the forehead. “Sorry, babe. Go ahead, Danila—what is it now?”

“Renee Nightingale.”

We all groaned. “What about her?” Belle asked with a frown.

“In addition to her public relations firm, she contributes to an online magazine about beauty and fashion.”

“Okay . . .” I prompted.

“Her article from last night is being picked up by the major media outlets.”

“Danila, you don't have to ease us into it. Just speak it plain,” Beau coaxed her.

“Okay, in the article she talks about how the Montgomerys are sexual predators.”

“
What?
” Belle shrieked.

“She said Roman corrupted Jewel, Beau seduced and discarded her, and Katrina only got and kept the Royal Mahogany campaigns because she was sleeping with the CEO.”

“Oh, for Christ's sake,” Beau cursed.

“The bad thing is, she does have people that corroborate her relationship with Beau. She says he sponged off of her until he got what he wanted and then moved on. Also, the CEO of Royal Mahogany is going through a divorce. His wife is claiming infidelity, but the other person wasn't named.”

“Madison Archeneaux is sixty years old. I mean, seriously? Renee tied together a bunch of unrelated speculative half-truths and called it fact,” I complained.

“Of course it is, but when you put it all together, there's enough smoke that it looks pretty flammable.”

“That vindictive bitch,” Belle ground out.

I punched on my speakerphone and hit speed-dial eight. Before he could say anything I told him, “You're on speaker.”

“Hey Kitty,” Carter answered.

“C—it's bad,” I warned.

“Okay.” He reacted calmly.

I ran down the latest for him. He was silent for a minute.

“Okay. Is there anything else?” He waited.

“Well, Belle might be pregnant,” I volunteered to lighten the mood.

“I have no idea what to do with that right now,” Carter said in confusion.

“Neither do I, bro. Neither do I,” Beau spoke up.

Exhaling heavily, Carter announced, “Here's what we're going to do. We've played nice and we've tried to do this politely, but it's time to shut all of this down and pull out the big guns.”

“We have big guns?” I asked curiously.

“We do. Beau, call Roman and meet me at Granddad's spot. Ladies, we got this.” Beau got up, pulled his cell out of his pocket, and headed for the door without a backward glance. Belle, Danila, and I exchanged astounded glances. What the hell?

“I beg your pardon?” My voice went up incredulously.

“Yeah, um—what just happened here?” Belle queried with a lift of her brow.

“Ladies,” Carter explained, “I'm not being a chauvinist. I promise I'm not. This just makes sense. BellaRich is your company. Your names are on the masthead. You need plausible deniability. The less you know about how we're about to fix this, the better.”

“It's legal though, right? You all aren't going to go all wannabe GI Joe–black ops, right?” Belle asked nervously.

Carter laughed. “You shouldn't need bail money.”

I didn't know about this. I was the target here and there was no way I was good with sitting on my hands daintily while the big, strong men rode in to save the day. “I don't think I'm okay with this. I'm used to fixing my own messes. If something needs doing, just tell me what you think I should do and I'll handle it for myself,” I argued.

“Not this time, Kit-Kat.”

“Carter . . .” I was deciding how much of a protest I wanted to make when he cut me off.

“Audelia Katrina,” he said sternly in a voice he generally reserved for our private time. “I said I got this.
I. Got. This
.”

Belle and Danila froze and waited for my reaction. Everything I'd worked for—my family name, my future in this business—it was all on the line. I was supposed to put the fate of everything I was into Carter's hands? I rocked back in my chair and thought about it. This was it. Make or break. Trust or not trust. Cut or run. Forward or back. Concede or fight.

“K,” he snapped, waiting for my response.

I looked over at Belle and a smile spread across her face. She leaned back and put her feet up on the coffee table, crossing her fingers together and resting them on her stomach. Her whole expression asked,
What are you going to do about this
? I glanced at Danila, who cleared her throat, covered her growing grin with her hand, and tipped on out the office door.

Like it or not, he could handle it. He had a point: I didn't have to be in. It was probably best if I wasn't. I closed my eyes with a sigh. “Fine.”

“Fine?” he repeated.

“Fine. You can handle it,” I conceded grudgingly.

“That's so kind of you to allow me to do so,” he bit out. “We'll discuss this at home later. You can bet on that.” The call dropped abruptly.

He was pissed. “Oh, damn.”

“Girlie, you in trouble,” Belle said.

“Don't I know it.” I kept putting the wrong foot forward where this man was concerned.

“Sugar, when a man like Carter Parks says he got you? Let him have you, okay?”

“C'mon, Belle.” I tried to get her to see my point of view. “You know how it is. Before you had Beau, weren't you used to handling things for yourself? Would you be okay with some random guy stepping in and taking over?”

“I don't miss my days before Beau.” She looked at me in confusion. “And what are you doing calling Carter Parks some random guy? Even if you haven't all but moved in with him, he's Beau's best friend and he's been a good friend to you for years.”

I sighed again. “I know. I'm just . . . stuff is moving too fast, too many things going on.”

She continued to glower at me and I felt about two feet tall.

“I was so happy this morning. I thought we'd turned the corner on all of this scandalous crap. I was feeling optimistic and just generally . . . good. I felt good. Carter and I had this incredible morning,” I reminisced.

“Do tell?” She leaned forward.

I flushed. “Oh my God, he took these scarves and . . .” I paused. “You know what? Never mind. I'm going to have to keep some things private.”

“Out of respect for Carter?” She quirked a brow.

I nodded. “Out of respect for Carter and our relationship.” It didn't feel right sharing every intimate detail. What Carter and I did together was our business and no one else's.

“See what you did right there?”

She lost me. “What did I do?”

“Just then, you put the sanctity of your relationship with Carter over some hot gossip between girls. You and I have shared plenty of girl talk over the years.”

“Yeah, until you started doing my brother. Took all the fun out of it.”

She smirked. “For you, maybe. My point is, what you and Carter have is special. Now before I continue lecturing you on the error of your ways, I'm going to say one more inappropriate thing.”

“Go ahead.” She was going to say it anyway.

“That voice Carter used when he said your full name? Sugar! Panty-melting.” Belle fanned her face with her hands.

“I know, right? He's so damn easygoing most of the time, but when he uses that voice and gets all strong . . . Woo. It just sends me.” I absolutely loved it when Carter went all alpha male, though I never would've known what a turn-on that was if he hadn't done it so well. Both in and out of bed, the fact that he was so strong gave me the freedom to just be. It was nice not to have to take the wheel and steer. In thinking that, I just realized why I gave them such a hard time about fixing this for me. I guess I was a little conflicted.

When you are used to driving, sometimes it's hard to sit in the passenger seat. And doubly hard not to navigate while sitting there. But for a man the likes of Carter, I'd figure it out. He was not a man who liked to be doubted.

“Um. Um. Um. Carter Parks, who woulda thunk it?”

My cell phone beeped and I looked down at the display. I waved Belle over to the desk and answered. “Hey, Jewel.”

“Hey. What's this macho bullshit the boys are pulling?”

“I don't know. Something about shutting it down and big guns,” I told her.

“Well, Roman rode outta here like he was the sheriff rounding up a posse. Please tell me Carter's the one with the plan, not Beau.”

“Hey!” Belle exclaimed.

“Oh, sorry, Belle. I love Beau like a brother, but you know your husband. He can be big on ideas and a little lax on execution.” Beau had stayed with Jewel and Roman for a few months back in his oat-sowing days, so Jewel had firsthand knowledge of some of his less stellar behavior.

“An-y-way . . .” I interjected. “The fellas are having some sort of testosterone tribunal.”