The Billionaire's Triplets (A Steamy Contemporary Romance Novel) (11 page)

“Really?”

“Yes, the myth says that when the son of the sun God was killed, his mourning sisters became poplar trees and their tears became electrum—amber.”

“That’s sad,” she said.

“And you don’t believe a word of it.”

She shook her head. “You did say it was a myth.”

“But you don’t even believe that.”

“I’ll admit it’s a better conversation opener than asking my sign.”

“And you’d rather think I have a line like that for every type of jewelry a beautiful woman might wear?”

“That would show initiative.”

“I suppose.”

Her smile was inviting, and part of him wanted to continue this conversation that was clearly nothing more than flirting talk. She aroused him, but at the same time made him ache for Lissa. Lissa’s presence was in the room, and powerful. A mad affair would clear his head. Trying to do that with this woman, however, would complicate his thoughts.

“I’m afraid I have to leave. I have early meetings tomorrow.”

She pouted. “We were getting along so well. I hoped you’d buy me a drink.”

“Do you like irony?”

She smiled. “Another myth?”

“Sometimes something is the opposite of what it seems.”

“Sarcasm?”

“It can be. In this case, I just had dinner with a beautiful woman who looks much like you.”

“And you two didn’t hit it off.”

“We hit it off too well.”

“How can that be?”

“Sometimes good things can be too strong. Anyway, it isn’t going well.”

“And here I am.”

“Yes. The irony is…under other circumstances, it might be fun, you and I. At some other time and place. Right now I’d be seeing you, entirely unfairly, as a consolation prize.”

“Fairness might be overrated.”

“And you are a temptress.”

She frowned. “Obviously not a very good one.”

“If you really wanted a drink, I’d be delighted to buy you one before I leave.”

She frowned. “Don’t try to be gallant. It’s not in vogue. And the drink was not what I wanted.”

“Then I’ll leave you.” She started to speak, and suddenly something dawned on him, an insight. This woman looked so much like Lissa, and was here in the hotel bar after he’d had dinner with her. He smiled at the woman. “Tell Willa you tried.”

She started to protest, then as he stood, she stood and faced him, her hands on her hips, her shoulders back. “You sure you want to pass on this?”

He nodded. The woman sat down and rested her elbows on the bar and toyed with her amber around her neck. “That must be one hell of a woman you got.”

“She is.”

Carrying her second cup of coffee, Lissa got to her desk early. She let out a sigh, then switched on her computer. She’d tossed and turned that night. Julio had seemed so delighted to hold the babies. His joy seemed real. Everything she saw in him over dinner and at her apartment fit perfectly with her memories of the man she knew in Switzerland. Joan had been put off at first, and had kept her distance.

But the boys had seemed happy to see him, gurgling with delight when he bounced them gently and lovingly in his arms.

But then he’d announced that he needed to leave.

“What about dinner?”

“Raincheck,” he’d said. Then he added, “I need to confront Willa. I need to know why she made it seem like I didn’t want to communicate with you.”

“I have my IT person checking what went on in my office,” she told him. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

When she saw him to the door, letting him leave without even a kiss, it left her in a strange agony.

She hoped they could find out what had happened together. But his abrupt departure left her both hungry and wondering if he was making his side of the story up. Maybe he was just one of those men who told women what they wanted to hear when they were in front of him. Maybe he couldn’t wait to leave her apartment so he could get on a plane and get as far away as he could.

She’d been unable to sleep, and when the babies woke in the night, she was the one who went to feed them, change their diapers. She felt a comfort in being able to do such basic things and see a screaming child, who could cry like the world was about to end, transform into a contented baby, sleeping peacefully. It made her feel like she had some control. Even if the baby wouldn’t settle down quickly, knowing that holding him to her breast and letting her son feel her warmth, hear her beating heart comfort him, was good.

The outside world was more complicated than that, which made it both interesting and frustrating, just like wanting her babies to get to know their father and recognizing that she wasn’t sure who he really was anymore.

Despite being exhausted, Lissa turned on her laptop and with a mug of warm milk checked her email. The outside auditor she’d hired had sent her a report. She was relieved. Whatever else Tina had done, at least she hadn’t screwed with the accounts. She’d stolen clients and dealt her business some heavy damage, but at least she hadn’t embezzled funds. Tina wasn’t that stupid.

~ ~ ~

The next day at the office, Abby walked into Lissa’s office, smiling mischievously as she plopped down on the small couch. She had a few sheets of paper in her hand, and sat there like she expected Lissa to join her in the sitting area of her office.

Lissa hadn’t been able to focus on her work, so she got up from her desk and sat down across from her new project manager and started to lean towards the coffee table, trying to see what was on the papers. “What’s up?”

Abby pulled the papers to her chest, away from Lissa’s prying eyes. “Some very, very interesting stuff.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“This is the email from the tech guys. Did you know our servers were hit with a virus?”

Alarm shot through Lissa. “We’ve been hacked?”

She paid a lot of money for system security. Getting hacked and having vital confidential client information leaked could ruin her reputation and her business.

“Yes. Well, not exactly. Like I said, our servers were hit with a virus, but not a typical virus—a very unique one, according to this report. Let me read it to you.”

Lissa was starting to get annoyed. What the hell was Abby playing at?

“I’ve never seen a virus like this one. All it did, it appears, was search all systems for evidence of specific words, and when found, intercepted—”

“Intercepted which specific words? I’m confused.”

Abby continued, “In most cases, this involved intercepting all incoming emails and outgoing emails. Once intercepted, these files would be sent immediately to the trash.”

“What words?”

At this point, Abby smiled broadly. “Julio Torres.”

“What? Are you saying any email I sent to him would have been instantly trashed?”

“Exactly, and anything incoming from him—same result.”

“But, who, why, what the hell?” Lissa sank into her chair. She knew now for certain that he’d been telling her the truth. Why would someone bother to block his communications if he hadn’t tried to communicate with her? “But who did this?”

“They linked the initial attack file via access obtained using Tina’s password. My guess is that she probably hired a programmer to write the virus. You want me to set up a meeting with the IT guy? Maybe he can explain it better.”

A lump grew in Lissa’s stomach. She got up from the chair and walked to her bookcase. She faced her books, but she wasn’t seeing any of them. All she could see was the hurt look on Julio’s face when she accused him of cutting her off. Then she remembered the agony she felt when she’d believed it. She felt like a victim of a crime—hell, she
had
been. Her whole pregnancy, the birth—he’d been left out of it because she’d thought he’d wanted no part of it. But now she knew that he’d never had a chance to make that call.

She suddenly felt very sad. Tears welled in her eyes.

“Honey,” Abby said as she came up from behind her.

Lissa was crying now, her shoulders bouncing up and down as the sobs of both anger and relief poured from her.

“What’s wrong? I thought you’d be delighted.”

“I am,” she said as the wave of crying faded. She pulled herself together. “I’m actually very relieved. Julio didn’t know about the boys. He told me that last night, and I wanted to believe him, but part of me was afraid to believe him, afraid that he might just be telling me what I wanted to hear. Now, I’m crushed with relief, but also with guilt that I hadn’t trusted him.”

“Honey, give yourself a break. I’m sure he’ll understand.” Abby patted Lissa’s back and waited as her boss moved back to her desk, sat down, and idly adjusted papers on her desk as she tried to regain her composure. Finally, Abby spoke. “What do you do now?”

Lissa shook her head, almost imperceptibly. “I’m not sure. Not sure at all.”

# # #

“When will you drop your bombshell?” Willa lay on the bed, rubbing her sore wrists. Tom hadn’t been kidding about expecting her to do whatever made him happy. The games he enjoyed took their toll, and her ass burned from the spanking he’d given her. Spanking seemed to turn him on. She wondered what other crap he had in store for her. Well, he’d come through on giving her the job title. It was official. She had given Julio notice and officially started the new job in two weeks. In the meantime, Tom was enjoying himself.

“I’ll have to let her know soon. Very soon. There’s no point in giving her a chance to give him the benefit of any of her ideas. Even a legal action can’t undo any thoughts she shares with him. I just didn’t want to give her too much warning.”

“So, your lawyers will visit her?”

“I do like the idea of breaking the news myself. I want to see her face when she learns she’s…” he held up the rope. “Not as tight as you were, but tight enough.”

“What if Tina decides to tell the truth?”

“She won’t. That would mean she’d forfeit her payout, because that would violate her nondisclosure clause. Even if she were willing to give up all that money, she’d be admitting to fraud. That would be the end of her career, and maybe mean jail time. The worst thing that could come of it would be invalidating the contract, and that would take time. What Lissa Edwards doesn’t have is a lot of time.”

Moving with great deliberation, Tom carefully coiled the rope he’d tied Willa with. The look in his eyes made her wonder what was going on in his mind.

“You played these games with Tina,” she said.

“She’s weak,” he said. “She gives up far too easily. That’s why I don’t think she’ll be any trouble at all. You resist.”

“So does Julio. He’ll be submitting his suggestions soon, and we haven’t even studied the requirements.”

“I’ve read them. There’s nothing special in them. Besides, if they are about to change them, spending any effort in that direction would be a waste. It’s better to conserve your strength for the really tough part.”

The tone of his voice told her he wasn’t finished playing. He tossed the rope on the bed and sat down to put a hand on her warm ass. “How did your little trick with the hooker work out? If you got some photos of him with his pseudo-Lissa, I could drop off photos at the same time?”

“He saw through it.” Telling him a partial truth let her hold a few small cards.

“Shame.”

She agreed. Even if Tom had a pretty nice lever to wield over Lissa, it would have been nice to have pictures of Julio getting his rocks off with a woman who looked a lot like her. It would remind her how shallow and insatiable men were. It had been worth the gamble, though.

Tom slapped her ass. “I’ll tell you what. Give that girl a call and tell her to get that cute brown ass over here. I can think of some fun things the three of us can do this afternoon. Then tomorrow I’ll drop by and see Lissa. When she hears the news, I can watch her face and think about fucking the two of you.” He slapped her ass.

She looked at him. He thought that using women made him a big man, but it was his weakness. For the moment she fully intended to play to it. “She is a delicious piece.”

“I’m glad you think so, because I am going to enjoy watching you with her.”

Well, that was okay too. Sex was sex.

And Tom did like his games.

Suddenly, as she picked up the cell phone to call the girl, she saw the look in Tom’s eyes. She licked her lips. “You’re the one who wants the pseudo-Lissa,” she said.

“Actually, I want the real thing. Does that bother you?”

“Not particularly.”

It did, though.

# # #

Lissa was sorting the pile of recovered emails from Julio, looking at them with a mixture of disbelief and happiness, when Tom Acker walked in her office and stared at her. “You can’t work for Julio Torres,” he said. “I thought I’d drop by and remind you.”

That he’d come to her office unannounced was a surprise. Tom preferred to make people come to him. It gave him an edge, and Acker was all about gaining and keeping the edge in any situation. She never liked that about him.

In fact, she’d never particularly liked him, and now the dictatorial tone he was taking pissed her off.

She folded her hands on her desk and looked at him, noting the odd way he looked at her, as if he was seeing something else. “Of course I can, Tom. I can work for whoever I want.”

“Not for the Milan project.”

“Maybe especially that one. What makes you think you have anything to say about who I work with?”

“Because we have a contract. Naturally, it includes both nondisclosure and noncompete clauses. If you work with him, or anyone else, on the Milan project, I’ll sue your ass and take everything you’ve got.”

“What makes you think we have a contract?”

“We do.” He picked up his briefcase and put it on the desk. When he opened it, he took out a document and put it on the desk in front of her. “Here is your copy.”

When she looked at it, her heart sank. It was a standard consulting contract. “This is crap, Tom. I’ve never seen this in my life.”

He shrugged. “I suppose that’s because you were in the hospital at the time. It can take a while to catch up with things after you’ve been away.”

Flipping to the back, she saw Tina Peters’s signature, dated before the triplets were born. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Tom, but this is worthless. Tina has never been authorized to sign contracts.”

“You sent her to my office to negotiate. You called me yourself.”

“I asked her to find out what you might want or need, and to explore the possibility of us working together, but she never had the authority to obligate me or my company to anything.”

Tom smiled. “That’s a shame, because my lawyers tell me that because you allowed her to represent you, to discuss contract terms, makes it totally reasonable for me to assume she was authorized to sign off on the deal. If she exceeded her responsibilities and authority, you would have grounds for action against her. That doesn’t have anything to do with me, though. It doesn’t invalidate my contract.”

“Tom, if that were the case, I could pay one of your staff to sign a document saying that you were giving me your company and it would be legal. It’s totally bogus.”

He smiled. “That’s your opinion, and I’m not a lawyer. For all I know, you’re absolutely right. I mean, it sounds like a stretch to me too, but the lawyers need to earn their pay, so if you start working with anyone else on this bid, then I will get an injunction to stop you while the court decides if the contract is legit. I understand that the docket is quite full, and that could take some time.”

“Blackmail, Tom? I thought that was beneath you.”

“Blackmail? No, this is business, Lissa. I have a contract with you, and it’s in my best interest to enforce its provisions. You say it isn’t valid, but I say it is, and that is a disagreement. And while I can’t force you to work for me, I can take legal action to hold you to the terms otherwise, and withhold payment for nonperformance.”