It wasn’t as if we’d have marathon sex sessions every night forever.
Besides, I wasn’t looking for forever.
With my hair dried and secured in a low ponytail, minimal makeup, and wearing a long sweater, soft stretch pants, and warm socks, all covering any marks Van had left behind, I reached for my laptop bag. As I did, I saw the note.
Julia,
There’s no rush. Feel free to relax all day. After all, you (and I) were rather active last night. I’m not sorry I woke you. You’re so damn responsive, I couldn’t help myself.
Warmth crept up my cheeks.
I had thought that was a dream. Unlike the other times, during the night, our middle-of-the-night connection was slow and sweet, the lovemaking phase after the fucking. The memories returned as I’d held on to him as we both reached our peaks and floated back to earth.
I continued to read:
The information I promised you to use to write the memoir is now in the library. Feel free to make that room your study or office. I’ll try to be home at a decent hour. After all, we have a line to erase, or was it discuss?
I can’t recall. I’m having trouble concentrating on this note with you in the next room.
Have a good day,
Van
I picked up the laptop bag and stuffed his note inside. Opening the door of the suite, I was off to find a late breakfast and the library. Maybe Mrs. Mayhand or Margaret could help.
Van
My thoughts continually circled back to the beautiful woman I’d found in the freezing snowstorm. I wasn’t a man who saved people or did anything without the promise of reciprocation. That knowledge alone had me questioning myself and my motives.
What do I want?
Do I want to keep Julia?
Do I want her to see me as others don’t, as someone who saves instead of destroys?
Or is the attention I’ve given to Wade Pharmaceutical not about Julia McGrath but because of her?
She’d brought the vulnerability of Wade and of Marlin Butler back into my sights.
Speaking of Butler, I’d had my private eye do a run of Skylar Butler’s credit cards. His last charge was at a gas station in Madison around ten thirty last night. I couldn’t help but compare our dissimilar situations. He’d been pumping gas, and I’d been pumping my cock in and out of Julia.
It was thoughts like those that brought a smile to my lips.
I was between meetings with my concentration on the information on my computer screen.
The fifteen percent of Wade Pharmaceutical stock not owned by McGrath, Butler, or me was distributed between eight entities. That meant one of two things.
One, the investment was considered so low and unsubstantial that the owners wouldn’t panic sell.
Or two, the investment was so low and unsubstantial that they’d jump at the chance to sell, especially at a price higher than the environment demanded.
The ring of my phone pulled my thoughts away from the list of Wade stockholders. The entities and names were unfamiliar, but I’d have my people do some digging. Even privately held stock was public record.
Picking up the telephone receiver, I clenched my jaw as Connie announced the caller, Lena Montgomery. I wasn’t surprised that she’d called my office. A part of me wanted to be irritated. After all, I’d avoided Lena’s calls for the last twenty-four hours. A larger part of me was impressed with her diligence.
I knew Lena too well to think that she’d simply give up.
“Put her through,” I told Connie. I waited as the lines connected.
“Van.” My shortened name rolled off Lena’s sugarcoated tongue. “Nice of you to take my call.”
My lips curled at the confection-filled bitchiness of her tone.
Lena Montgomery was the kind of woman who would smile her brightly painted lips, bat her lush long lashes, and distract men and women with her combination of class, curves, and deceptions. And then she’d take what she wanted. Hell, sometimes they willingly handed it to her.
In the world of wolves, we’d found one another.
“I thought it was,” I replied. “You know how I like to be considered nice.”
“No need to worry. I won’t tell a soul.”
“Your secrets are safe with me, too.”
She hummed. “Maybe your cell phone isn’t working.”
“No, Lena, it’s working. I’ve been busy.” My thoughts returned to Julia, who I’d left under the blankets wearing nothing but my shirt.
“I should have said I was too busy to help when you called.”
She was right to point out that she hadn’t.
Lena continued, “I’ve spoken to Jeremy. He said you were able to secure the stock.”
I leaned back against my chair, turning away from my desk and the large computer screens and toward the tall windows. The tempered glass lessened the sun’s reflection on the white paradise. Some people would detest the frozen scene before me. I didn’t. I appreciated the isolation brought on by Mother Nature. “That is correct. Thank you, Ms. Montgomery. Your help was priceless.”
“Oh, come on, you know nothing is priceless.”
“Everything has a price.”
“And everyone,” she added. “I’ve been racking my brain since you called the other night, trying to figure out your endgame. Now that you have the stock, tell me what you have planned. I know you hate Marlin Butler as much as I do, but damn, you just paid too much for a company that’s bound to end up as a footnote on a pharmaceutical giant’s portfolio. I’ve done some follow-up and with Marlin’s son’s—Skylar’s—fiancée taking off before their wedding, the value of Wade has begun to tank. Is watching Butler falter not good enough for you?”
“Lena, you know me better than that. Having Butler fail isn’t enough. It never will be enough. Was it enough for you when you fucked Logan?”
Logan was Marlin’s brother.
For the record, I intended for the verb to have multiple meanings.
Lena’s story was complicated. Her parents died tragically in an accident that netted her and her sister a handsome payout. She ended up in a relationship with a divorced attorney who offered to help turn their settlement into more. He did make it more, just not for her or her sister.
At that point, the two of us had yet to meet.
Finding herself in need of financial help, Lena agreed to a one-year assignment. It covered her housing and food and paid exceptionally well, allowing her to help her sister. The company was by referral only and was headquartered in New York. When she signed the contract, Lena agreed to be available to the person who held her contract for the year. It was explicitly explained that while sex was implied, this wasn’t a sexual agreement and being that she came from a good family, everything was confidential.
Nearly twenty years ago, Lena was paired with a man who was planted as a decoy by Logan Butler, the same attorney who took her money. The arrangement settled a debt for that man. It also landed Logan, the man who stole her and her sister’s future, back in Lena’s life.
Not long after she signed the contract, the two of us met, introduced by Lena’s sister.
My friendship with Lena was conceived by a mutual desire to bring down Logan and the company that imprisoned her for a year, Infidelity. Once we were done, so was Infidelity. No one else would be subjected to what Lena had been. Our actions weren’t pure or selfless in intent. We both walked away with a sizeable payday. A company like Infidelity will pay an exorbitant amount to keep its clients’ names safe.