The Billionaire's Masquerade (The Friendship Series) (10 page)

Rachel walked over to the limousine and peered inside. “Get in,” he snapped at her.

As soon as she was seated, the driver pulled away from the curb. “Where are we going?” she asked, still clutching her purse and laptop to her chest nervously. This wasn’t a man she recognized. He was still awesomely attractive, but in a completely different way.

He looked over at her, enjoying the lush beauty of the woman even as he acknowledged her growing fear. “My plane is standing by to take us to Manhattan. We have several meetings to attend this afternoon and a charity dinner tonight.”

“A charity dinner?” she asked weakly. “Why would we go to a charity dinner?” She’d been hoping to get him alone so she could figure out what was going on. “And why did you call yourself Emerson? Can you explain all of this to me?”

He turned ever so slightly, his eye glancing at her briefly before looking back out through the window. “Simply put, I am Emerson Jackson Watson. You went up to Maine three weekends ago to find me and you succeeded.”

Her heart was starting to hurt at his words. “You mean you tricked me?” She felt betrayed somehow.

He watched her carefully, seeing her confusion slowly turn to anger. She had to learn to hide her emotions, he thought. He didn’t want her hurt and letting someone else know that they’d scored. That knowledge would only reveal her weaknesses to her enemies. She’d have to toughen up. “I never lied to you, if that’s where your mind is going. I simply didn’t tell you the whole truth.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?” she demanded, becoming angry now. He’d played her for a fool! Even Molly had known what was going on…and all those people at the bar and around town! They all knew who Jack was. And what she’d been doing there. She’d been a complete fool! And he’d initiated every humiliating part of the process!

As all of those thoughts swirled around in her brain, her anger built up to monumental levels. All that time, all those special moments, he’d only been laughing at her, probably joking with his friends at the bar after she’d left, laughing about how gullible she was. “Damn you! You lied to me!”

He wasn’t going to let her get away with that one. He’d never lied. He might have not told her the whole truth, but he wasn’t going to apologize for what he’d done. In the end, hopefully she would understand. She was hurt now, but if he could show her…

He shook his head, refusing to let his mind go down that road. “No. I didn’t lie to you. And if you think an omission is a lie, then you’d better toughen up right now because where we’re going, omissions are a part of every conversation. Read between the lines, figure out what people aren’t telling you. Figure out the whole truth even when it isn’t written out for you in plain English.”

She wiggled uncomfortably in the plush, leather seat of the limousine, glaring right back at him. “Is that your first lesson?”

He looked down at her carefully, aware that her cheeks were flushed and she was fighting back tears. He refused to give in to those tears, to relent in any way. She had to go through this. She had to choose. Because he couldn’t go back to that life. And he desperately wanted her to come back to his. He wanted her in his life! He’d just have to show her how difficult the life was that she thought she wanted.

And if she chose that life, he would have to deal with that as well.

“No. You’ve already had several lessons. If you can’t keep track of everything I’ve already taught you, then you need to head back to your old office now. I can’t repeat the lessons once they’ve been taught.”

His phone rang at that moment and he slipped it out of his pocket to answer it. The person calling was one of his longtime adversaries but they chatted amiably, the other man already having heard that Emerson was heading back to Wall Street. “Of course, Gerald. I’d be happy to be there for dinner. And give my thanks to Wendy for inviting us. We’ll be there after the gala tonight.”

Rachel stared at the stranger sitting beside her, still not comprehending everything that was going on. She understood that Jack had lied to her, laughed at her and that he was really the elusive Emerson Watson, but everything else just didn’t make sense. “What’s going on?” she asked warily, not sure she really wanted to hear but unable to restrain the question.

“We are flying up to New York in,” he glanced at his watched, “fifteen minutes. At which point, I’ll introduce you to my staff and we’ll get to work. At seven o’clock, there is a gala to benefit underprivileged children in Somalia, then a dinner party at Gerald Warrick’s house. His wife’s name is Wendy. He has two children. My assistant will give you backgrounds on all four of them plus several people at both parties. Memorize everything before tonight.”

She was once again startled by the hardness in his tone and in his eyes. This wasn’t the man she’d lo…cared for, she corrected miserably. “Why do I need to memorize biographies? Why can’t I just talk to them and get to know them tonight?”

Emerson looked out the window, gauging the distance to the airport. “Because this is what you wanted. And you don’t get to know people at social events in this world, Rachel. You use these events to further your knowledge of business issues. Every conversation is dissected for possible clues to your enemy’s intentions. Don’t ever enter a room, either social or business, without knowing as much as possible about the other guests and especially your host and hostess.”

The car drove right out onto the tarmac and Rachel noticed a large, private plane standing by with a staircase pushed up to the doorway. “We’re not going in that, are we?” she asked, her breath catching in her throat. A large plane was scary. The luxurious plane on the tarmac wasn’t small, but it wasn’t a seven-forty-seven.

“That’s the most expedient way to get to where we’re going,” he said and stepped out of the limousine, almost before it even stopped. Rachel guessed she should be relieved that at least he waited outside the vehicle for her, but when he grasped her hand to help her out, all those crazy feelings that always hit her when he touched her happened again. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to pull away because the man holding her was now a stranger and she felt betrayed by his lies, or if she wanted to throw herself into his arms and beg him to make love to her like he used to, and ask him to explain what all of this insanity was about.

Emerson looked down into those incredible, green eyes of hers and knew she was hurt and confused. He wanted to hold her, to tell her that everything would be okay. But he couldn’t do that. He didn’t know what she would decide about all of this. His instincts were telling him that she’d hate all of it, but it had to be her choice. He couldn’t make this decision for her. “We’re going to be late,” he said, clearing his throat and looking away from her. “Let’s go.” He didn’t drop her hand like he should, but instead, led her onto the plane. Nodding slightly to the crew, he brought Rachel to one of the large, leather chairs. “Take off as soon as possible,” he told the pilot who efficiently nodded and ducked back into the cockpit.

Rachel saw a moment’s hesitation, a calm amid the storm that she’d been pulled into only thirty minutes ago, and she leaned forward. “Jack…”

“You can call me Emerson now. I’m only Jack to everyone in Cape Elizabeth. Here in New York, I go by Emerson.” He didn’t acknowledge her in any other way, picking up a file folder that was stuffed with papers. “Here, read through this information on the flight up. You’ll need it.”

Rachel took the papers and looked through them. “These are statistics on various businesses.”

“Exactly. You’ll need to give me your analysis on which businesses to invest in by noon.”

Rachel’s mouth dropped open and she looked at his dark head as he bent over some other information. Was he serious? There were probably forty companies in this folder! How was she supposed to evaluate all of them in…she looked down at her watch…two hours?

Good grief.

He could easily guess where her thoughts were heading. “You’d better get busy. We have meetings scheduled for the rest of the afternoon.”

Rachel didn’t bother to argue with him. She squared her shoulders and stiffened her spine, refusing to give in to the heartache that was threatening to choke her. If this was the way he wanted to play, she could hang with the big boys. She looked down at the reports, her mind sifting through all of the information. But she couldn’t do this on her lap. Moving over to another chair, she decided to spread her information out on the table by the corner.

“We’re cleared for takeoff,” the flight attendant said to Emerson, then disappeared again.

Rachel looked up, her startled eyes looking out the windows. She clasped the file folder tightly to her chest and buckled her seatbelt, her heart pounding hard.

Emerson looked back just to make sure she had her seat belt buckled. She was looking out the window and he thought she looked a bit too pale, but he suppressed the urge to go to her. No comfort yet. Once she’d made the decision about which life she wanted, then hopefully he could comfort her. Until then, she had to understand it all.

The plane taxied down the runway, picking up speed. He didn’t want to watch, didn’t want to help her in any way. If she chose this life, she couldn’t show any weakness. He had to protect her by letting her be strong by herself. But when the plane lifted off of the ground and he saw the fear in her eyes, he couldn’t take it any longer. Emerson cursed under his breath, unsnapped his seatbelt and, in two strides, was right next to her, lifting her out of her seat and holding her in his arms. He held her tight, trying to give her strength through his arms and hands. He kissed the top of her head and told her that she was going to be okay.

When the plane leveled off, he felt her take a deep breath and knew that the worst of her terror was over. He wanted to tell her that they would never have to fly again. But the truth was, they might need to fly out to Denver tomorrow morning and then out to Seattle tomorrow night, depending on what he found out in the meetings this afternoon.

“Read the reports,” he told her, more gently than he’d intended as he stood up and put her back into her seat alone. “We’ll talk over lunch.”

With those words, he moved back to his seat and picked up his own reports. But he couldn’t absorb any of the information in them. His whole mind was focused only on the woman who slowly spread the reports out across the table, her fingers shaking as she worked to overcome her fear of flying.

With her head bent low, Rachel made notes in all the margins of issues she found with each company. She didn’t look up, didn’t hesitate and didn’t even communicate with Emerson or Jack or whoever he wanted to be today. She focused only on the reports, trying to come up with an investment strategy. She had no idea what he might be looking for, but she was more than willing to put her own insight into the companies.

By the time the plane touched down, she was back in control and had several ideas in her head about the company profiles Jack, or Emerson, had given to her to review. “What’s next?” she asked as efficiently as her nervous mind could muster.

“Next, we go meet my staff. We have three meetings before lunch.”

Rachel looked at her watch, not sure how he would get three meetings in before noon but she followed him reluctantly out of the plane and into the next waiting limousine. This one drove them out of the airport and right into downtown Manhattan. Rachel could feel her excitement growing as the car moved throughout the mid-morning traffic. She could instantly feel the pulsating energy of the city, knew that this was exactly where she belonged. And if it meant putting up with an obnoxious, irritating and lying bastard like Jack, or more accurately, Emerson, then she would do it. She could ignore the hurt that was pounding through her at all the lies he’d told her throughout the past several weekends. If he was going to play hardball, she could do the same.

She told herself that over and over again throughout the next several hours. She followed Emerson from one meeting to another, listening, taking notes, observing how he treated some people versus others. He seemed to be kinder to the support staff while his managers were treated with almost contempt. Nothing was good enough for him where they were concerned but, thankfully, she managed to impress him over their lunch by recommending three of the companies from the batch he’d handed her on the plane. Unfortunately, by the end of their meal, he’d shot down every one of them, telling her in painful detail all the issues she’d missed with each company and why her three choices were bound to fail.

As the waiter took their plates away, Rachel stared at him, hurt and confused. She tried very hard to hide it, but she could tell by the hardening look in his eyes that he’d grasped her emotions. She sat up straight, refusing to be intimidated by his reaction. “But none of your points were in the information you gave me!” she defended herself, feeling like a fool but trying to imitate his hard-hitting body language.

He wasn’t immune to the pain in her pretty green eyes but he shook his head mercilessly. “A good lesson to learn, Rachel,” he said softly, his blue eyes boring into her green ones. “Never count on someone else to give you all the information you need to make a decision. There’s always more. There’s always a hidden agenda.”

She didn’t have time to figure out what his hidden agenda was because they left the restaurant at that point and hurried into more meetings. In every meeting, someone was asking Emerson to invest in their company, spouting statistics about revenue histories, profit projections, marketing concepts, commodities prices and so many numbers Rachel’s mind seemed to be floating in a haze of bewilderment.

At one point, she glanced over at Emerson, trying to see if he was feeling what she was, but he looked supremely confident, nodding at every point, tossing out questions, challenging their assertions. Several of the people who were presenting stumbled over his questions. They looked dumbfounded that he knew so much – their corporate secrets, supposedly secret problems with a distribution vendor, or a multitude of other issues. Of course, the presenters didn’t want any of these things revealed. Those people left with their tail between their legs, having gotten an impressive verbal lashing from Emerson.