She was so terrific. He gave himself hell for taking the subversive route in getting involved with her, but if he hadn’t hired the guy to mug her, how would he have ever met Eden? He couldn’t regret that part.
The streets were getting worse, sleet turning into full-fledged snowflakes. Soon the windshield wipers batted at a steady flow of white.
He knew, however, that they needed to talk. Without saying anything to her, he turned toward his building. It was closer. They didn’t need to be out on the streets in this weather and, by God, he was going to get to the bottom of this. Whatever it was.
“Where are we going?” she asked sharply.
“My place.”
Eden swung around to look at him, anger on her face. “I told you I have to do that report.”
“Okay,” he said. “First we go to my place and talk. Then, if you want me to, I’ll drive you home.”
“That is ridiculous! We have to go to your place to talk about what?”
“I’d like to know what’s eating you,” he said grimly.
“Nothing is eating me,” she snapped.
He sliced a look at her. “Yeah. I’m not buying.”
Raising her chin, Eden glared at him.
Without making any further attempt to talk, he got them to her building, Eden sitting silent beside him with a low angry hum coming off her.
Stopping the car under the portico, Alex said, “Let’s go up.”
“Fine,” she said, the word jerking out. “It’s pointless, but you’ve apparently got something to say.”
“Yes,” he confirmed, not caring if his voice sounded grim. He’d never been a big fan of being left clueless in matters of importance to him. They needed to talk.
“Okay,” she said, after a moment, the chill in her voice again.
Together they crossed the lobby and got into the elevator, standing like strangers as they watched the lights on the floor indicator.
It pissed Alex off. All he wanted was to take her into his arms and kiss the mad out of her. He could have done it, too, but she hadn’t seen fit to tell him what the hell was the matter.
Following her down the hall to his door, he got out his key and opened it.
Eden followed him inside, swinging around then to face him, the door pushed open behind her.
“It’s not a big deal,” she started to say, her voice brittle. “I just have a headache.”
“I don’t care if you have a headache, the cramps and the mother of all strokes,” he said flatly, brushing past her into the condo. “You’re going to tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“Fine,” she snapped, as he went to flip on the lamps. Walking past him, she went into the living room.
“So,” he said, trying to keep his annoyance under control. He hated being shut out. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”
Eden rubbed at the spot between her brows. “I really don’t think this is a good idea—“
“Tell me what’s upsetting you.”
She dropped her hand to her side, her mouth thinning into a line. “What if I don’t want to talk about it now? What about that?”
“We need to talk about it,” he said, brooking no argument. He sat down on the couch, determined to get the truth out of her. She bottled things up too much. “Go ahead and tell me. We’ll both feel better.”
“What the hell do you know about me feeling better?” she snapped, shaking her head in mocking disbelief.
He frowned. “I thought I knew a lot about you and what makes you feel good, but I need some help in understanding right now.”
“You’re right!” She glared at him. “You certainly do need some help.”
“So help me,” he ordered her, getting angrier himself.
“I’m sorry,” she snapped. “I don’t know how to help someone like you.”
“Like me?”
“Yes,” she shot back. “I’d thought you had some understanding about people and business and women and what they face in the business world, but I was obviously wrong.”
“What are you talking about?” he demanded irritably.
“I’m talking about we women who don’t know how to
pay our dues
, apparently. I’m talking about women having the
nerve
to expect a fair shot at a job.”
Alex scowled at her. “Would you talk sense? Who said you haven’t paid your dues?”
“I’m fucking tired,” she declared, stalking over to the window, “of idiots who don’t have a clue about how to run a business—how to keep it alive in treacherous financial times—telling me how I should behave.”
“And I’ve done that?” he asked angrily, baffled by the entire conversation. But Eden’s distress was genuine and he felt his own anger subside a little to be joined by curiosity. Who the hell had riled up the woman tonight?
“I don’t know.” She paced the shadowed room. “I found out that jerkoff Keith whats-his-name inherited his position in his place of business, but he feels really okay condemning someone who’s apparently working her ass off to get ahead.”
“Keith? This is about Keith?”
“No! This is about you and how easily you declare that woman in his office to be ridiculous for asking for a damned interview for a damned promotion!”
The light was dawning, clearing up some of Alex’s confusion. “You overheard us talking about that woman who’s suing Keith because she didn’t get a promotion.”
“She didn’t sue him!” Eden yelled. “She just asked for an interview and you all acted like she was raping your bank accounts and killing your babies.”
“Calm down,” he said automatically.
“Go fuck yourself!” She glared at him, her chest rising and falling with her agitation.
“Okay, okay,” he said, tamping down his own frustration at being lumped in with Keith—Keith of all people. “Will you tell me exactly what you thought you heard me say? I’m just trying to understand.”
Eden was too lost at that moment, he could tell, to moderate her response. “You will
never
understand because you are too big a jerk to
get it!”
“What did I do, Eden?” he asked, his voice angry. He’d never, in all the time he’d known her and all the stress she’d been under, seen her this upset. She was normally the calmest, most reasonable of women.
“You sat there,” she practically spit the words out, “and agreed with that asshole that women are asking for too much to be considered equal partners in business!”
“I never said that.”
“Yes,” she glared at him, “you did. It’s like the last twenty years never happened!”
“I don’t think I said anything like that,” he said again, “but if it sounded like I said anything like that then I am an asshole like Keith.”
It killed him to say that. Keith had been a friend of his since high school, but that didn’t mean he was blind to the guy’s faults. Something, however, was really wrong with his woman and he had to figure out what.
“It takes more intelligence and more grit,” she declared, her words biting, “to keep a company going than to do what you do. You come in and kick it over, all the structure, the business, like a kid tearing down a sand castle—you don’t have the talent or the brains or the endurance—“ her words broke at this point and she sat abruptly on the loveseat opposite him.
Alex waited, his nerves stretched. She was important to him and he’d take some temporary abuse if he could just understand what she was struggling with now. It wasn’t really about him, he knew.
Tears thick in her voice, her hand covering her eyes, she said, “It’s scum like Keith and Wendi who sweep into situations on their damned DNA. They inherit positions. Other people have to earn them! We learn to build something for ourselves.”
Aching to go over and gather her into his arms, he forced himself to sit wordlessly on the couch while she sat opposite him, vibrating with rage and hurt. He knew he was likely to lose a hand if he tried to touch her now.
Finally, he said, “I didn’t inherit anything, honey. I’m not Keith or Wendi.”
“If I thought my company was going to exist more than a year,” Eden said, not responding to what he’d said, “if I thought I had any power to help, I’d call that woman at that jerkoff’s business and offer her a job.”
“And if she was smart,” he said immediately, “she’d take it. You’re a damned good boss.”
“It just pisses me off,” she said, angrily wiping at the tears on her cheeks, “that some of us work so fucking hard and don’t get where we want to be. Where we
deserve
to be.”
Alex got off the couch and went to crouch in front of where she sat.
“Eden, I don’t remember exactly what I said to Keith tonight, but it was just bullshit. He was whining about some woman employee, I said something like ‘yeah, yeah. How about them Bears.’ I’ve known him a long time. We went to high school together. He’s a goofball and a dork who desperately fears he’s not good enough. We’re all used to that. It’s just Keith. We kind of feel sorry for him, but I don’t agree with him not giving any employee a job interview—man or woman.”
“Well, that’s not what you said.”
“No,” Alex said with honest regret. “If I remember correctly, I shot off something about her needing to earn her promotion. I probably sounded like as big a jerk as Keith.”
“Yes.”
“I was just responding to his being upset. I didn’t pay attention to the details of the situation. I do that with Keith sometimes, but, you’re right. I shouldn’t have agreed with what he said tonight.”
Eden looked at him for a long moment, the anger on her face wavering. She bent her head, covering her eyes with her hands, soft muffled sobs escaping, her shoulders trembling.
“If I’ve ever said anything that sounds like I don’t believe in you,” he paused, his throat tight, his gut feeling punched at the sight of her tears, “I’m an asshole, honey, and I’m sorry.”
She sobbed harder.
Edging closer, he rubbed her knee with a finger, wanting to comfort her but not wanting to upset her further.
“I’m sorry,” she gasped, wiping at her face. “Stupid. I don’t know what’s the matter with me. I never cry.”
“You’ve been under a lot of pressure,” he said, glad she wasn’t spitting fury at him anymore. What he’d said earlier to Keith had been dumb. He’d never had a problem admitting when he was wrong.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized again, her words muffled.
“It’s all right,” Alex told her, sliding on to the loveseat next to her. “You’re dealing with a lot right now.”
She gasped back a shuddering breath. Her voice husky, her hand still shading her face, she said, “I hate all the lying I’m doing lately.”
“I know. Michele has seemed to be a good friend to you all these years. It sucks that she’s put you in the position to lie to her now.” He put his arms around her, tucking her head in the shelter of his shoulder. Spinning situations for his best interests had never bothered him before, but he was beginning to see how dishonesty led to an anxiety that stained a relationship.
“I’m glad you told me what was upsetting you,” he said. “Don’t ever be afraid to tell me when I’m being a jerk.”
Eden took another shuddering breath, turning to bury her face against his chest. Drawing her closer, he savored the scent of her, the clean, soft smell of her dark hair tickling his nose.
“Sweetheart,” he said softly. “I think you’re the best damned thing that company has going for it. Never doubt that I believe in you. If you’d been at the helm these past three years, I wouldn’t be prowling around Michele Cosmetics as it teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.”
“God,” she muttered, “you say all the right things.”
Lifting her face to look up at him, she asked softly, “How do you say all the right things?”
“I’m glad I’m saying what you want to hear,” he admitted, “but I’m only saying the truth.”
That at least was honest, he thought, a little desperately. He was being honest with her now, anyway. Everything real between them was based on the honesty he felt. He cared for this woman.
Staring into her green eyes, he said, “You are amazing—intelligent, passionate and…beautiful.”
Seeing her tear up again, he bent and kissed her soft mouth, drawing her hard against his body.
This fierce, sometimes opinionated, determined woman just grabbed him by the heart. He’d met thousands of women in his life and been involved with his fair share. In business, he knew his power, knew he could strike fear in some hearts. Hell, he pretty much ruled his world. But not Eden. Not completely. She’d walked into his life and sucker punched him in the gut.
He’d never wanted so much to pull a woman close to his heart and shelter her there. She thought she was so damned tough.
Never before had he worried so much what a woman thought of him.
Now, lifting her face to him, she kissed him back, her soft tongue questing against his, the hunger springing into his flesh echoed by the tension in her. Tipping her head back, he plundered her sweet lips, drinking her in. He didn’t know exactly what it was about this woman. She tempted him, challenged him…hell, she stood up to his face and called him an asshole. And he still wanted her.
He needed her.
God, she kissed with enthusiasm. He loosened his hold on her to stroke her cheek, angling their faces better for their kiss. He took her moan into his mouth and held it, feeling her body move and heat against his, knowing she wanted him as much as he ached for her.