“I need to find out what's going on with Extant.”
“Call him.” Simon picked up his coffee cup and took a long sip, his steady regard a little unnerving.
“I'd rather talk face-to-face.” Lance lied too easily and too well. She needed all the extra help she could get and seeing his face when he answered her questions would be a step above tonal qualities over the phone lines.
“I don't want you alone with him.”
“Don't be ridiculous. I've had to meet with Lance on several occasions since the divorce. Besides, that really isn't a decision for you to make.”
His expression said otherwise. “I'm not trying to make the decision for you.”
Right. “Like you weren't trying to make the decision for me when you kidnapped me on the island and blackmailed me into staying?”
“I lured you into staying. I didn't blackmail you.”
“Semantics.”
“I know he treated you like the untouchable woman while you were married and I can't pretend I'm not glad for that after what you told me last night, but he wants you now. Men recognize lust for their women in other men.”
“Am I your woman?”
“Haven't we had this discussion already?”
Was he referring to their talk regarding her status as his girlfriend? She guessed he was. Only one didn't seem quite as serious as the other and she desperately wanted to know how serious about her he was.
She hadn't been so lost to passion the night before, that she hadn't noticed his silence in the face of her avowal of love. No answering declaration. No mention of it whatsoever, in fact.
“Even if he is lusting, and to be honest I think your perception is biased, I don't want him. So there's no problem.”
“Problem is the boss doesn't want you alone with the guy,” Jacob inserted.
She turned to frown at him. “I've got enough to deal with here. I don't need your interference.”
“Gettin' sassy, ain't ya? See what a makeover will do for a woman?”
She let out an exaggerated sigh. “I'm not made over anymore.”
“You're wearing your hair down and your face looks different. You're made over all right.”
“Let me clue you into something, Jacob. I could have my hair in a bun and a bag over my head and I would still object to both your and Simon's interference in my plans.”
“I want to spend the day with you and I don't want your ex-husband or your job to take any part of that away from me. Is that so much to ask? It's Sunday, Amanda. Most people take Sundays off. You don't see me headed home to my lab do you?”
No, she didn't. “Would you be if I wasn't here?”
He shrugged. “Probably. I'm working on something pretty important right now.”
But spending the day with her was more important. “All right. I'll deal with it tomorrow.”
Simon's smile was full of male satisfaction, but she couldn't work up any resentment because his eyes reflected a relief that touched her. He cared. He might not love her, but he cared in a way no one but Jillian ever had.
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Sailing back to the island during the day turned out to be everything that Amanda imagined it would be. She loved standing at the rail, Simon behind her, surrounding her with his arms and the warmth of his body as the cold breeze off the ocean made her skin sting with awareness. The views were spectacular. They even saw whales in the distance and Jacob slowed the yacht to a crawl so Amanda could watch them play in the water.
She forced herself to forget her worries and to concentrate on being with Simon.
And true to his word, when they got home, Simon didn't disappear into his lab. He didn't disappear at all. His focus was entirely on her and she couldn't help wondering what it would be like to spend the rest of her life with this man. Late in the afternoon, he talked her into a sparring session, insisting she needed more work on her form. He touched her a lot more than was strictly necessary, but now that she did not have to hide her reaction to the brush of his body against hers, the Tae Kwon Do sessions were sheer pleasure.
He made love to her gently and slowly that night, keeping her on the brink of completion until she shouted his name and her love. He didn't return the words, but he was so gentle with her as he prepared them both for sleep that warm tears leaked out of her eyes.
He kissed them away and pulled her into his body to hold her through the night like he'd done every time they slept together since the first bout of passion they had shared.
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“You said Jacob would take me to the ferry if I wanted to go into Port Mulqueen.” Simon wasn't being gentle now. He was being stubborn and she wasn't having any of it. “I'll walk to the ferry terminal if I have to.”
Stormy gray eyes narrowed. “It's six miles.”
“Do you doubt I could do it?” In her current mood, she could jog the distance in her sensible pumps.
He leaned back against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms. “We agreed you wouldn't be alone with him.”
“We agreed I would deal with it today and that's what I'm doing.”
“What's the problem with calling him?”
“It's a meeting that needs to happen face-to-face.” She had questions she wanted answers to, answers that would come more than just from the words Lance might say.
Simon didn't say anything, his expression set in grim lines.
She sighed. “Look, if it helps, we're meeting in a restaurant. We're not going to be alone.”
“But you insist on meeting him?”
She couldn't read anything from Simon's voice. “Yes.”
He straightened. “Then I guess I'll get Jacob to drive you.”
He turned to go, but she reached out and touched his arm. “Simon, this has nothing to do with us.”
He spun to face her with the grace and speed he showed in the gym. “That's what I'm afraid of.” He grabbed her and kissed her hard, then set her away from him before leaving to get Jacob.
She stood there in bewildered surprise for several minutes until Jacob's impatient summons started her moving toward the front door.
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She had a forty-five-minute ferry ride in which to think about Simon's reaction. He was really worried about Lance and she couldn't imagine why. She wouldn't let Lance touch her with a barge pole. He was a poisonous spider under those California golden looks and she had no desire to ever again spend time in his sticky web.
Her mind was still engaged with thoughts of Simon and what his overprotectiveness could mean in terms of emotional commitment when she walked into the restaurant to meet Lance. He was sitting in a booth by the window overlooking the pier.
Sliding into the seat opposite him, she offered a polite nod, but no smile. “Hello, Lance.”
“Amanda. Back to the business persona, I see.” He looked her over like a buyer for a used car, his expression saying there were plenty of flaws even if he hadn't found them yet. “The night before last was certainly a departure from your normal style.” His gaze fixed directly on her chest in a way that it had rarely done when they were married. “That red dress had sex written all over it.”
The implication was nauseating. “I'm not here to discuss my taste in clothes and I have absolutely no interest in your opinion of how I dress.”
“Are you sure about that?”
She pushed her napkin and cutlery aside, and signaled to the waitress for a cup of coffee. “Very sure. The only thing about you that interests me is an explanation of what you're doing on my project and why I wasn't told you were in Port Mulqueen.”
He grimaced, the perfect looks of his face marred by lines of distaste. “You're such an abrasive person, Amanda. Talking business does not preclude observing the social niceties.”
“There is nothing nice about you Lance. It may have taken me a few years to figure it out, but all my blinders are off in regard to your character.” She would not let him sidetrack her with his critical attitude. “Now answer my question.”
She didn't care if he thought she was a female version of Attila the Hun; she wanted details.
He took a long draw on his ice tea, purposefully drawing out his answer.
When she merely sat there, silent and staring, he gave in. “You weren't getting the job done.” He stopped and did that measuring thing with his eyes again. “It's easy to see why now, even if a bit difficult to believe. I never would have thought you were the type to put her personal life ahead of the job.”
“Are you trying to imply that I'm somehow responsible for Simon's adamant desire to keep Brant Computers privately held?”
“Please.” Lance's tone patronized her. “Your career is hinging on this deal. You want it to go through all right, but the problem lies in the fact you're obviously more concerned about getting boinked than getting the job done.”
The crude accusation annoyed her, but she didn't buy it. Nothing short of a miracle was going to convince Simon Brant that Brant Computers was better off merged with its competitor, Extant Corporation. She'd tried and her failure had not been due to lack of business acumen or effort.
She relaxed against the booth. “We aren't all controlled by our libido and it's no use you trying to judge me by your standards. They don't mesh with mine.”
His eyes narrowed and she knew he'd gotten the implied insult.
“If I wasn't getting the job done to Extant's satisfaction, why wasn't I told?” It really bothered her that her boss would go around her like this.
“You were left to deal with Simon, which seemed to be your preferred method of pursuing the merger.” Lance's voice dripped innuendo. “Daniel thought someone else would be more effective at shoring up support from Eric Brant for the merger.”
“That doesn't explain why I wasn't told.”
“You didn't need to know.”
“How can you say that? It's my project.”
“But it's Extant's merger. You're a cog in the wheel, Amanda, not the driveline.”
The waitress laid a platter of appetizers in front of them.
Amanda ignored the food, but Lance took a sautéed mushroom and popped it in his mouth. “I don't know why you're complaining. You weren't taken off the project and you weren't required to pursue a line of inquiry other than the one you chose to do.”
“I was the initial negotiator with Eric Brant and his opinion was not the one holding up forward momentum on the merger.”
“The management team felt that a more aggressive approach needed to be made to him.”
“So they sent you?”
“I often work in a similar vein for my clients. You know that.”
Lance did have experience in negotiations, but he still wasn't an employee of Extant. He was usually brought in when his clients were looking for more than a smooth negotiator. Why had upper management decided to bring in legal muscle at this juncture?
“How does Daniel think you'll succeed where I've failed?” There was a plan and she wanted to know what it was.
Lance waited to answer, taking time to eat another appetizer before talking again. “I'm working on showing Eric Brant what a visionary move the merger will be and convincing him to go ahead without Simon's endorsement.”
She'd been afraid of that, knowing in her gut that a man who thought she should use sex as a manipulative tool wouldn't balk at starting a family war. She had hoped Daniel would be held back by Simon's threat to go elsewhere with his designs if the merger went through.
Apparently, her hope had been in vain. “So, what are you using to convince Eric of the âvision'? Smoke and mirrors?”
“Not at all. Your initial proposal and subsequent number-crunching were sufficient basis to begin my talks with Eric. Your analysis wasn't bad, by the way, but the presentation was too generic. I improved on it, of course.”
“Daniel gave you my reports without talking to me about it?”
Her proposal had not been in the company's public domain. Those numbers and supposedly boring analysis belonged to her. Corporate common courtesy dictated that Daniel asked before using them for his own work, much less giving them to someone outside the company.
Lance gave her a pitying look. “You didn't expect him to ignore their potential just because you were too busy shacking up with the competition to use them, did you?”
She ignored the comment about shacking up. For all intents and purposes, that was what she'd been doing and she could hardly take offense at the truth. However, she did not accept that her relationship with Simon had prevented her from doing her job. “I already presented that material to both Eric and Simon Brant. The potential wasn't being wasted.”