lying rat.
It hurt less to think about the threat to the company. In the dating world, she’d suffered her share of disappointments, but this one with Alex hurt down to her toes. Promising relationships weren’t easy to find and she’d hoped Alex was different.
Lots of rich men gave millions to charity. The tax deduction was incentive enough. He might have a conscience when it came to sharing his wealth, but apparently that didn’t extend to how he earned the money.
Had he come to the AIDS charity event looking for her? He must have. How would he have struck up an acquaintance if he hadn’t be so lucky as to come by when she was being mugged?If that hadn’t been part of the set-up….
Eden replayed the sequence of that night over in her head. Shit! How very convenient for him to have come along right when she was being robbed. And the mugger had “dropped” her purse!
A short, hard laugh escaped her. Alex drew the line at stealing a woman’s purse, but apparently her job was fair game, the son-of-a-bitch.
Leaning her head back against the chair’s headrest, Eden briefly allowed herself to remember his kisses and the heated feel of his hard body next to hers as they danced.
He’d have been a terrific lover. She didn’t trust him, but that didn’t change the heat generated between the two of them. Still, he was just as much a threat to her as was Wendi. More really, because Alex was smarter.
What the hell was she going to do? She had to meet him in six hours, had to act like nothing was wrong, like she hadn’t confirmed her suspicions that he was a weasel. And when they met, he’d greet her with an open-mouth kiss as he pulled her into full-frontal body contact, like he always did.
Her heart rate kicked up at the thought. The guy knew how to kiss.
He would also be expecting her answer to his supposed solution to “her” problem here at work.
A grim smile eased on to her stiff face. What would he do if she said she didn’t care to get revenge? That she’d decided Michele was right, she wasn’t ready to run the company? Just the thought of saying those words made her throat close up in protest, but she could force herself to say them if necessary.
Even if Alex didn’t believe her, he couldn’t very well come out and challenge her decision. That would mean he’d have to confess and be direct about his agenda.
Damn him. Like everyone else, he had his agenda and his was a doozy.
The bitter disappointment in her chest made breathing more difficult. She hated caring so much that he’d used her.
Stiffening her backbone, Eden got up and crossed to her coat closet. Inside a small refrigerator contained her stash of chocolate milk, the electric cord slithering under the door and around to the nearest outlet. A plant hid the cord nicely. She’d never felt it necessary to share her weaknesses with the world. If nothing else, corporate life had proved that to her over and over again. Alex was doing the same.
She should have suspected him of something like this immediately when she realized who he was. Corporate raiders weren’t known for their ethics.
But he’d seemed different. Decent and honest somehow. She’d have nominated him for sainthood if she’d found out about his donations for low-income breast cancer patients without finding out he was playing her.
Silently, Eden scoffed at herself. Her ideals had died a hard death and, all the way around, this situation was shoveling the dirt on top of them.
With the chocolaty richness still soothing the back of her throat, Eden tried to calm the fury in her chest. Taking another swallow, she made herself focus. She felt battered and bruised in the cardiac region, but this wasn’t just about her heart. Alex Holt had his sights set on her company, and he’d get it, too, with the way Michele and Wendi were running things.
Damn Michele and her elderly lothario!
But what the hell was Eden going to do to prevent the death of Michele Cosmetics and her
It hurt less to think about the threat to the company. In the dating world, she’d suffered her share of disappointments, but this one with Alex hurt down to her toes. Promising relationships weren’t easy to find and she’d hoped Alex was different.
Lots of rich men gave millions to charity. The tax deduction was incentive enough. He might have a conscience when it came to sharing his wealth, but apparently that didn’t extend to how he earned the money.
Had he come to the AIDS charity event looking for her? He must have. How would he have struck up an acquaintance if he hadn’t be so lucky as to come by when she was being mugged?If that hadn’t been part of the set-up….
Eden replayed the sequence of that night over in her head. Shit! How very convenient for him to have come along right when she was being robbed. And the mugger had “dropped” her purse!
A short, hard laugh escaped her. Alex drew the line at stealing a woman’s purse, but apparently her job was fair game, the son-of-a-bitch.
Leaning her head back against the chair’s headrest, Eden briefly allowed herself to remember his kisses and the heated feel of his hard body next to hers as they danced.
He’d have been a terrific lover. She didn’t trust him, but that didn’t change the heat generated between the two of them. Still, he was just as much a threat to her as was Wendi. More really, because Alex was smarter.
What the hell was she going to do? She had to meet him in six hours, had to act like nothing was wrong, like she hadn’t confirmed her suspicions that he was a weasel. And when they met, he’d greet her with an open-mouth kiss as he pulled her into full-frontal body contact, like he always did.
Her heart rate kicked up at the thought. The guy knew how to kiss.
He would also be expecting her answer to his supposed solution to “her” problem here at work.
A grim smile eased on to her stiff face. What would he do if she said she didn’t care to get revenge? That she’d decided Michele was right, she wasn’t ready to run the company? Just the thought of saying those words made her throat close up in protest, but she could force herself to say them if necessary.
Even if Alex didn’t believe her, he couldn’t very well come out and challenge her decision. That would mean he’d have to confess and be direct about his agenda.
Damn him. Like everyone else, he had his agenda and his was a doozy.
The bitter disappointment in her chest made breathing more difficult. She hated caring so much that he’d used her.
Stiffening her backbone, Eden got up and crossed to her coat closet. Inside a small refrigerator contained her stash of chocolate milk, the electric cord slithering under the door and around to the nearest outlet. A plant hid the cord nicely. She’d never felt it necessary to share her weaknesses with the world. If nothing else, corporate life had proved that to her over and over again. Alex was doing the same.
She should have suspected him of something like this immediately when she realized who he was. Corporate raiders weren’t known for their ethics.
But he’d seemed different. Decent and honest somehow. She’d have nominated him for sainthood if she’d found out about his donations for low-income breast cancer patients without finding out he was playing her.
Silently, Eden scoffed at herself. Her ideals had died a hard death and, all the way around, this situation was shoveling the dirt on top of them.
With the chocolaty richness still soothing the back of her throat, Eden tried to calm the fury in her chest. Taking another swallow, she made herself focus. She felt battered and bruised in the cardiac region, but this wasn’t just about her heart. Alex Holt had his sights set on her company, and he’d get it, too, with the way Michele and Wendi were running things.
Damn Michele and her elderly lothario!
But what the hell was Eden going to do to prevent the death of Michele Cosmetics and her
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