Authors: Claire Adams
"This might
not be as bad as I thought it would be," I murmured to myself. "I can
manage this."
"Hopefully I can
make it a little easier for you, Mr. Yates," Leah Walsh said as she
entered my office.
I looked up and
saw the pretty little blue-eyed girl I'd kissed at my father's wake standing in
the doorway holding a clipboard and offering a warm smile. I had no idea how
old she was, but I guessed her to be midway to thirty. At the wake her hair had
been pulled up into a severe ponytail. But now the long dark waves framed her
face and with the splash of freckles across her nose and cheeks, she looked
even prettier than I had remembered. Her face looked friendly, but her body
knocked it out of the park. Unlike most of the women I'd met on my travels,
Leah was shorter and much curvier. I could see the outline of her figure under
her warehouse uniform and it quickly reminded me of the few moments I'd held
her soft body against my own. I quickly shifted my gaze back to her face as she
crossed the room,
"I'm Leah
Walsh," she said as she held her hand out.
"It's nice to
see you again, Ms. Walsh," I said as I stood and shook her hand.
She didn't say anything about the moment we'd
shared at the wake which left me wondering if she remembered it.
"It's nice to
see you again, too, Mr. Yates," she said, still smiling. "But please,
call me Leah. Your father did."
"Well, Leah,"
I said as I looked down into her bright-blue eyes and returned the smile.
"Then you'll need to call me Jack."
"All right,
Jack," she said as she looked down at her clipboard and then back up at
me. "Would you like to tour the facility with me?"
"I'd love to,
Leah," I said as I grabbed my jacket from the back of the chair.
"I'll follow you."
It took a lot of
control not to let my gaze settle on the gentle sway of Leah's hips as she led
me to the warehouse, and even more control not to let the images I had of how
it had felt to kiss her play in my mind.
CHAPTER
TEN
I
could feel Jack's eyes on me as I led him through the warehouse and explained
the various points of operation. I wasn't sure if he was sizing me up as part
of his team or if he viewed me as someone who would be an obstacle.
I had done a bit
of research on him when I'd found out that he would be taking over for his
father, and I found that he had a reputation as an international playboy. What
I read about him made it hard for me to take him seriously as a businessman who
would run Baby Steps the way his father had—responsibly.
"Over here is
the shipping and receiving area," I said, pointing to the offices in the
back of the warehouse where a group of workers were boxing orders that had been
gathered from the shelves.
"So, what
exactly is it that we do differently from the competition, Leah?" Jack
asked as he looked around. His face registered a low level of interest and a
high level of boredom, and I felt resentful that I was taking time away from my
duties to show him the ropes. I felt even more resentful that I found myself
wanting to stare at him, and more than that, I wanted to ask him if he
remembered kissing me in the parking lot at the wake.
Jackson Yates was
a man who drew attention. He was taller than his father had been and had
broader shoulders. And whereas Bernard had had a stern but warm face, Jack's
face radiated an intense sensuality that made him impossible to ignore. His
thick, brown hair was long enough to make girls want to run their fingers
through it, and his facial hair had been trimmed just close enough for him to
appear groomed, but rugged. His eyes were a warm shade of brown, highlighted by
gold flecks, and they radiated an intensity that made it difficult to look
away. I felt angry with him for being so handsome and so hard to read.
"We offer
high end baby products that are ecologically responsible and ethically
made," I said as I walked him back to the part of the warehouse where the
products were stored. Bernard Yates had made sure that everything in our
inventory was something that improved the lives of the people making it and the
lives of the people buying it. I stopped and turned around to look at him as I
continued, "But I'm sure you already knew that, didn't you?"
"Leah, I know
very little about my father's business," Jack said. I held his gaze longer
than I needed to, but I couldn't look away.
I cursed myself silently as a slow smile spread across his lips, and he
added, "But anything you want to tell me is something I'd like to hear."
"We do our
own packaging and mailing using Earth-friendly products," I said as I
tried to turn the conversation back to the business. "It's been quite
profitable, and it's given the company good press. I think we've garnered more
business as a result."
"Do you
now?" Jack said very close to my ear. Startled, I jumped. My head hit
something hard, and I heard him cry, "Oh fuck!"
"Oh my gosh,
Mr. Yates … Jack, are you okay?" I asked as I turned and saw him holding a
hand over his nose as blood slowly dripped out from between his fingers.
"Oh no! You're bleeding!"
"No shit,
Sherlock," he said as he pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to
stanch the bleeding. I ducked into the nearest bathroom and cursed softly as I
realized that we no longer had paper towels in our bathrooms. I rushed out and
headed down the hall yelling, "Hold on, I've got something to help!"
In the lunchroom,
I grabbed a towel from the dish rack where employees left their lunch dishes
after washing them and raced back down the hall to where Jack stood holding his
nose and looking up at the ceiling.
"Here, use
this," I said, shoving the towel at him. "It should help catch the
blood."
Jack took the
towel and held it over his nose as I led him down the hall to the lunchroom.
There was blood all over the front of his suit, and I felt compelled to try and
clean it up. I grabbed another towel, ran it under the faucet, and then dabbed
at the blood on his dress shirt.
"It's coming
out," I said as I slipped my fingers between the buttons and blotted the
stains. I could smell Jack's musky cologne, and as my fingers grazed his chest,
I suddenly felt a little lightheaded. I looked up and found him smiling down at
me with a lazy grin that simultaneously made me weak in the knees and pissed
off at his arrogance.
"You're doing
a great job, Leah," he purred in a way that made me think of big cats
stalking their prey. I, however, had no intention of being Jack Yates's next
prize.
"Here, you
can finish it up," I said holding the towel out and backing away.
"Don't you
want to finish what you've started," he said in a low voice that made me
shiver a little.
"No, I think
you can handle the rest," I said, shaking my head and backing up toward
the door. I was acutely aware of the fact that the warehouse staff was due to
walk through the door at any moment, and I didn't want to be caught in anything
remotely resembling a compromising position. I'd worked too hard to earn the
respect of my staff. To have them think that I was currying favor with the new
boss was not the way to ensure loyalty or respect.
"C'mon,
Leah," Jack said with a grin. "You know you want to."
"Mr.
Yates," I said in a voice that cut through the flirtation. "You are a
grown man who is perfectly capable of removing stains from his own suit. If you
have trouble doing that, I'd be happy to recommend a reputable cleaner who can
do it for you, but I'm not the maid. I believe our tour is over, so if you have
any other questions, I'll be happy to answer them, and if not, then I have a
warehouse to run."
"No, that'll
do," he said coolly, as he dipped the towel under the faucet and dabbed at
his suit.
I nodded before
turning and walking out the door. Once in the hallway, I walked a few steps and
then leaned heavily against the wall. I tried to catch my breath as I realized
that I had not only rebuffed Jack Yates, I'd put my new boss in his place. I
wasn't sure how this was going to play out, but I crossed my fingers and hoped
that this was enough to keep him at a safe distance. I had my doubts.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Once
I'd stopped my nosebleed and cleaned the blood off of my suit, I went back to
the office where I found Norma sitting at her desk eating a sandwich as she
sifted through a pile of papers and sorted them into smaller piles.
"What on
earth happened to you, hon?" she exclaimed as I walked through the door.
"You look like a drowned opossum!"
"You should
see the other guy," I said with a wry grin.
"No,
seriously," she repeated holding the sandwich halfway between the plate on
her desk and her mouth. "What happened to you?"
"Minor
accident," I muttered as I quickly moved toward my office. "Don't get
your panties in a bunch."
"Hon, I
assure you that my panties have never ever been in a bunch," Norma said as
she put her lunch down and picked up a stack of papers, following me into my
office. She shoved them at me as she said, "Well, if you're okay, then you
need to deal with these people who have been calling."
"Who are
they?" I asked as I took the stack and began shuffling through the sheets.
"Delivery
people, inventory trackers, bank representatives," she rattled off.
"Your father was in the middle of renegotiating some of the contracts when
he passed. So, some of these people are hanging in midair."
"I see,"
I said as I continued shuffling through the papers. I quickly realized that
despite the fact that I had built a business based on developer apps, and made
a lot of money selling my own technology, I really had no idea what it meant to
run a business. My company had been in its infancy when I’d sold it to a
mega-tech company that was now using it as a test lab for their own app
development, so I'd never spent any time actually running the business.
I didn't have a
clue how to negotiate contracts or deal with bank loans. All of this fell way
outside my realm of experience.
"What the
hell was he thinking?" I muttered as I looked over the paperwork and tried
to figure out who I could ask for help.
"You have a
visitor, Mr. Yates," Norma said in a formal tone that made me look up,
confused. I looked up to find Sloan standing in the doorway smiling at me.
"Good to see
you again, Jack," she said as she crossed the room. Both Norma and I
watched her, mesmerized by her fluid movements and undeniable beauty. She was
wearing a grey jersey dress that wrapped around her body like it had been made
for her, and it probably had been. I looked at Norma and nodded as Sloan took a
seat in one of the worn chairs across from my desk. Norma bowed out and shut
the door behind her.
"How have you
been, Sloan?" I asked as I eyed her warily.
"I've been
good, but the question is how are you?" she asked, smiling serenely.
I had known Sloan
since we were in high school. She'd been the first girl to show me any kind of
attention, the first one to crack open my outer wall of defensiveness, and the
one who'd taught me all about the mysteries of the fairer sex. She'd also been
the one who had stomped on my heart when she'd told me that whatever we shared
would be over once we both went off to college in the fall.
I loved her in the
way a teenage boy loves his first love, but she'd been far more practical and
realistic than I'd been, and I knew that the likelihood of us maintaining our
relationship while she was at Stanford and I was at MIT was pretty slim.
Looking back, she'd done me a favor by ending it when she did, but the pain of
being rejected still stung a bit. Even after fifteen years.
"I've missed
you, Jack," she said as she flashed me the smile that had first hooked me.
"It's been too long."
"We just saw
each other at the wake," I said, trying to sound casual as I swallowed and
looked down at my desk. I hated that she still had this effect on me, but there
was nothing I could do about it. Being around Sloan was like taking the best
drug ever, and when she smiled, it felt like the whole world opened up and
anything was possible. "What have you been up to?"
"Oh, a little
of this and a little of that," she said as she tipped her head and watched
me carefully. "I ran my father's Beijing operation for a while and then
came back to the states when he hired one of his golf buddies to do his
bidding."
"That must
have been a downer," I said, knowing that the relationship between Sloan
and her father had been almost as contentious as the one I'd had with mine.
That was part of the reason we'd bonded in the first place.
"It wasn't an
uplifting feeling," she laughed softly. "But you know how it goes
…"
"Why are you
here?" I asked bluntly. I knew that if I didn't cut to the chase quickly,
I would be tempted to allow myself to be caught up in the fantasy of Sloan's
world again, and I could feel my body responding to her presence even when I
was actively reminding myself of the ways in which she'd rejected me.
"Why I wanted
to see you, of course," she said in a tone that sounded vaguely hurt that
I'd assume she wanted anything but a friendly chat. "I was worried about
you after the wake and wanted to see how you're doing. And it's been such a
long time since we talked. I thought this was as good a time as any to catch
up."
"You want
something, don't you?" I said cutting through the sticky layers of her
emotional manipulations.
"Why on Earth
would you think that, Jack?" she said with a smile that didn't quite reach
her eyes.
"Because you
never do anything for the good of anyone but yourself, Sloan," I replied,
watching her closely. She shifted slightly in her chair, but the smile stayed
put.
"Do you
really think that little of me, Jack?" she asked softly. "Do you
really think that I'm the same girl I was fifteen years ago? That I haven't
learned anything, or longed for anything, or wished that I'd handled things
differently?"
"I don't know
what your game is, Sloan, but I trust you as far as I can throw you," I
said with a wry grin. She chuckled as she leaned back in the chair and crossed
one long leg over the other. I felt the blood flow away from my brain as I
recalled what those legs—and the rest of Sloan—had felt like in my hands.
"Jack, I
swear, I'm just here to invite you out to dinner and to find out how you're
doing," she said as she looked at me intently. She uncrossed her legs and
shifted forward in the chair, holding her hands up in mock surrender.
"That's it. I swear. No end game."
"I don't
believe you," I said, eyeing her warily. "But you do have great taste
in restaurants, so if you're picking up the bill, I'd be glad to join
you."
"Excellent,"
she smiled as she stood up. "Blue Water Grill at eight tonight. Don't be
late."
"It sounds
like you were pretty sure I'd agree to dinner with you," I said as she
headed for the door. I admired the way her hips swayed as she walked. Sloan
certainly knew how to get a man's attention.
"Oh
Jack," she smiled as she turned and caught me staring. "I know you so
much better than you think I do, darling."
And with that, she
was gone. I sat staring at the door for a long time, wondering if I'd made the
right choice in agreeing to meet her for dinner. I consoled myself with the
knowledge that if I changed my mind, I could always stand her up.
As I worked through
the afternoon, I told myself I could cancel, but as I breathed in the lingering
scent of her expensive perfume and recalled the way she'd looked sitting across
the desk from me, I knew I wouldn't.