The Merger Mogul (10 page)

He picked up
his phone, scrolled through his contacts and selected the number for Luke
Wellington. The connection was made after two rings.

“Luke
Wellington’s office, may I help you?” said the receptionist.

“This is Daniel
Tennant.  Is Mr. Wellington available?”

“You’re in
luck, Mr.
Tennant,
he just came back from
surgery.  Hold the line please.”

The call was
transferred and Luke Wellington came on the line.

“Hi Daniel, is
everything OK?”

“Yes, I’m
fine.  I was just wondering if you could help me out with something.”
Daniel went on to explain the situation.

“I discovered
that there’s a teenager who needs therapy treatment and an electric wheelchair
but can’t afford either.  I’d like to make an anonymous donation to the
patient but I don’t know his name or who to contact to arrange it.”

“That’s very
generous of you Daniel. Call Mark Hubert.  He’s the head of
Physiotherapy.  He’ll know who the patient is and he’ll be able to arrange
to get the chair and organize the therapy sessions.”

“Thanks a lot,”
Daniel replied, ending the conversation.

Luke Wellington
hung up the phone and looked thoughtful.  He’d figured Daniel Tennant for
a somewhat arrogant, self-centered type. He never would have imagined that he
would care about another patient, far less pull his pocket to help them. 
Maybe his brush with death had changed him.

KT was
restless. She’d been home for over an hour and she couldn’t seem to settle at
anything.  Daniel Tennant was occupying her mind. She kept replaying their
conversation in her head.  ‘And what if I want more than what you’re here
for?’ he’d asked. Was he seriously interested in her or was he just flirting to
pass the time until he was well enough to get back into his circle? What should
she do? What she always did in a crisis. She went to the phone and dialed her
friend and confidante Desiree Rodriguez. She’d known Des since high school and
in fact it was Des who had invited her to the Youth Group meeting that had
changed her life and given it new meaning.

“Hel-lo!”
greeted Des in her upbeat voice.  KT rarely heard Des sounding down.

“Hi Des, are
you busy or can I pop by for a chat?”

“Sure, come on
over KT.  What’s up?”

“I’ll unload on
you when I get there.”

“Sounds
serious,” said Des.

KT made the
short drive to Des’ apartment, thankful to see a car pulling away from the curb
and leaving a space for her to park. She knocked at the door and Des opened
after just two knocks.

“Hi, darling,”
said Des and they hugged each other.

“Hi, Des.”

Desiree was
shorter than KT by about three inches but her effervescent personality made her
hard to overlook.  That and her black hair that was currently cut in a bob
to her neck with the front bleached white blond.  Her look and personality
were perfectly suited to her job at an advertising agency. However, in spite of
her punk look and her somewhat zany personality, Des was actually a great
listener and had a lot of compassion.

“Shall we
retire to the therapy room?” she asked leading the way to the kitchen. “I have
some chocolate chip cookies and milk with our names on them.”

“Sounds great!”
said KT. She pulled out a chair and sank into it with a sigh.

“
Des
, I’m in trouble!” she burst out.

“Whatever it is
can’t be that bad and more importantly I’m sure it’s not unforgiveable.”

“Thanks for the
vote of confidence Des.  It’s about one of my patients! His name is Daniel
Tennant. He’s recovering from brain surgery and has been assigned to me for
therapy. Connie Haskins, one of the other therapists, said that they call him
the Merger Mogul in the business world and she warned me to beware of him,”
shared KT.

“That sounds
intriguing! Why is he called the Merger Mogul?”

“He’s a merger
consultant and the CEO of Tennant Consulting which apparently is very
successful.  I’ve also heard that he has a lot of women in his life but
none seem to stay there for more than a few months.”

“Oh, now I
see.  Did he hit on you?”

“Not really, although he has made suggestive comments.”

“Well why don’t
you ask the hospital to transfer him to another therapist?”

“That’s just
it!  I don’t want him transferred.  Des, this is the awful part, I’ve
only just seen him twice but I’m very attracted to him. And he did come onto me
a bit today and wanted to know if I ever get involved with my patients. He’s
probably just bored because he’s still recuperating and not seeing anyone at
the moment, as far as I know. I’m not even his type, if the photos on the
Internet are anything to go by, and our lifestyles and values are poles apart
so I don’t even know why I can’t get him out of my mind. Without sounding vain,
lots of guys have come on to me but I’ve never been attracted to any of them
like this before.  What makes it worse is he’s very cynical about marriage
and has made it clear that he’s just about making money.”

“Let’s Google
‘The Merger Mogul’ so that I can see what all the fuss is about for myself,”
said Des eagerly heading for her laptop in the sitting room.

“Don’t you
think this is like snooping?” asked KT guiltily.

“Well it sounds
like you’ve already
snooped
my dear.  But I don’t
see it as snooping, I prefer to call it research,” said Des. KT smiled. 
That was Des for you. She felt much better after that confirmation.

A few minutes
later Des whistled.

“So that is the
Merger Mogul.  I’m sure I’ve seen him before.  He’s hot KT!” she
exclaimed as they looked at the images displayed for Daniel Tennant.

“I’m sure all
the women in the pictures think so too!” KT commented drily.

“So now I
understand your predicament. What do you want to do about this? More
importantly what do you think God wants you to do?  Maybe you’ve been
brought into his life for a reason.”

“Maybe.
  I hadn’t thought about that,” admitted KT.

“Well pray
about it.” 

“Thanks
Des.  I’ll do that. You’re a woman of wisdom and a great friend as
well.  Pray for me too, especially that I’ll be able to resist his
charms!” said KT heading for the front door.

“You bet!” said
Des giving her a hug.

Daniel tossed
his cane into Claire’s car and climbed in the passenger seat. He’d moved back
to his house over the weekend since he was now feeling better, having finished
with the radiotherapy three weeks ago. Today was to be his third physiotherapy
session and he was looking forward to it.  Actually he was really looking
forward to seeing KT again.

“Hi, Claire.
  Thanks for coming to take me to therapy.
I really didn’t want Margaret to have to drive all the way to my place and,
since you’re not that far away, I hope you don’t mind.”

“No problem,
Daniel.  I’m glad to see that you’re feeling better.”

He supposed he
should ask about the office but his interest was not really there. It was funny
how a few months ago work was all he lived for and now it seemed so
unimportant.  Getting healthy again was his priority now.

“So how is the
therapy going?” asked Claire as she negotiated the traffic.

“Therapy is a
pain in the neck and everywhere else.  I hate it but I can’t wait to get
there.”

“What do you
mean?”

“The exercises
are hard and learning to get my balance back is very frustrating and I can’t
believe how weak I feel! But my therapist KT is great.  She really
encourages me.  She’s also very beautiful and very sweet.  So that
helps.” He added with a smile. “She’s a bit old fashioned though.  One day
I made a joke that I thought was fairly harmless about being sweaty after
several hours of passion and she was not impressed.” Daniel smiled at the memory.
“Actually she told me off.”

Claire raised
an eyebrow, now very interested. “You said her name is Katy and she’s sweet?”
She had never heard Daniel talk so much about a woman. And she’d definitely
never heard of a woman who told off Daniel.

“Her name is
Kathryn Taylor but everyone calls her KT.  And yes, she’s sweet.”

“Daniel they
must have taken something else out of your head because I’ve never heard you
refer to a woman as sweet before.  In fact you probably don’t
know
any sweet women. What’s going on here, boss?”

“Nothing’s
going on Claire,” denied Daniel. “It’s a strictly professional
relationship.  Besides, she’s not my type; she’s too good and it would
take too much effort to convert her. You know I’m into bad girls.”

“Well maybe
it’s time you started to like good girls, Daniel Tennant,” Claire suggested as
they pulled into the hospital’s car park.

“You don’t need
to come up with me Claire and I can get a cab back to my place after therapy,”
Daniel insisted.

“What and not
meet the amazing Kathryn Taylor? No way, boss.  I’ll see you in.”

Daniel shook
his head. “That’s what I was afraid of,” he said. “Now be on your best behavior
Claire.”

Daniel pushed
open the door to the Therapy department and KT turned around immediately as if
she was eager to see him. Today her face lit up with a smile and Daniel’s heart
responded by picking up speed. The smile faltered when she saw Claire,
immaculately made up and elegant in a black power suit, next to Daniel.

“Hi Daniel,”
she said as she walked towards him, her gaze shifting between him and Claire.
“How are you today?”  And how dare you get one of your women to bring you
to therapy?
she
thought jealously.

“Much better
now,” insinuated Daniel.

“I thought an
old pro like you would have a lot more lines,” said KT drily. “You used that
one last time.”

Was the man
serious?  He was going to blatantly flirt with her in front of his current
flavor of the month?

“Me, an old
pro?” protested Daniel innocently. KT raised her eyebrows skeptically. Claire
could feel the attraction between them and could see that they only had eyes
for each other. She cleared her throat in a less than subtle hint and Daniel
tore his eyes away from KT to glance her way.

“Oh, by the
way, this is Claire Morgan, one of my senior consultants and today my
driver.  Claire, Kathryn Taylor.”

“I’m pleased to
meet you, Miss Taylor.  Daniel’s been singing your praises.”

“Call me KT.
Daniel’s been singing my praises?” She threw Daniel a skeptical look. “I find
that hard to believe.  Last time he was here he accused me of being
related to the Marquis de Sade.”

“Really?” said
Claire mischievously. “He told me that you were sweet.”

“Sweet?”
KT laughed. She felt a lot better now.  This
couldn’t be one of Daniel’s women if he told her that she was sweet.

“OK Claire,
time to get to the office,” suggested Daniel before Claire could say anything
else.  He wasn’t sure if she was helping his cause or hindering it. What
was his cause anyway?

“See you KT,”
she said. 

“Bye,” replied
KT.

“You said I was
sweet?” Claire heard KT ask as she closed the door behind her.  She wished
she could hear Daniel’s reply but it was muffled by the closed door.

Claire pushed
the button for the elevator. Wow! KT was not what she expected.  Daniel’s
type was usually some glamorous blond or brunette, expertly made up and
expensively dressed.  KT was of mixed race, wore her hair in a pony tail
with the minimum of make-up on and just a long white coat over jeans. She was
not exactly glamorous in her work clothes but was certainly beautiful enough to
catch Daniel’s eye. Claire smiled to herself.  She wondered if she could
catch his heart as well. She hoped so. It was time that Daniel Tennant got
himself into a permanent merger.

“OK
Daniel.  Today we’re going to do some exercises to improve your
balance.  Are you ready for that?”

“
Anything
for you,
darlin
’,” joked
Daniel.

“Better not be
too quick to say that,” warned KT. “I might ask for something you can’t give.”

“I’d be happy
to give you anything you want, KT” said Daniel. He realized that he meant it.
He wanted to spoil her. Somehow KT was beginning to arouse something in him
that went beyond the physical, although he wanted her in the worst possible
way. He actually liked and respected her.  He hadn’t even made any suggestive
jokes since that first day, although he did like to provoke her every once in a
while with a little flirting.

“Anything?”
replied KT reminding him of what he’d just said.

“Scout’s
honor,” said Daniel, “Although I should warn you that I never was a boy scout.”

“Why am I not
surprised?” said KT drily.

“So what do you
want?” pressed Daniel. “Diamond earrings, a necklace,
a
vacation in Hawaii…?”

“I don’t want
anything Daniel,” smiled KT. “I have everything I need.”

“You can’t
possibly have everything you need,” protested Daniel.

“OK, probably
not, but I’m content with what I have.”

“Well you must
be the first woman I’ve ever heard say that!” declared Daniel, still not
believing her.

“What kind of
women do you hang out with anyway?” asked KT half jokingly.  She really
didn’t want him to answer that question.

“None like
you.”

“I wonder how I
should take that,” KT replied thoughtfully.

“In the best
possible way, my love,” suggested Daniel.

KT shook her
head and rolled her eyes.  Daniel was such a flirt.  Could he change?