Corporate Affair (16 page)

A million retorts flashed through Aiden’s mind. He quieted them all with a sip of coffee and replied, “If you mean Trade Winds has a bid in for a merger with ChatDotCom, then you’re correct. It’s no secret.”

The two men extended their hands across the table. Aiden shook them reluctantly.

“May I sit down?” Fenton didn’t wait for Aiden’s nod. He and Tate pulled out chairs and sat.

Aiden was silent. He was not going to initiate any discussion with Fenton.
Let him take the
first step
, thought Aiden.

“Tate and I have been discussing the situation with ChatDotCom.” Fenton paused, waiting for a reply, but Aiden remained silent, leaning back in his chair, watching the two men. Fenton cleared his throat and continued. “Yesterday, ChatDotCom turned down Fenton Industries’ offer for a buyout. Ms. Fitzgerald, who, I’m sure you know, is heading the company in Gene Palmer’s absence, informed me of her decision. I assume she is steering the company toward a deal with Trade Winds—a merger if you will. Is that true?”

Aiden set his coffee cup down carefully. Although people had often commented on how his features, as well as his calm personality, reflected the attributes of his mother, Aiden was his father’s son, too. He would try to avoid a confrontation, but he would never back down from one. He looked hard at Christopher Fenton. “It’s not my habit to discuss Trade Winds business with a competitor,” he said.

Fenton leaned forward over the table, his pale eyes flashing. “That’s what I’m talking about,” he hissed at Aiden. “I’m suggesting we not be competitors. I’m suggesting we work together. Just listen to me.” Aiden sat, silent, and Fenton continued. “Look, you’ve got the girl in your pocket. She wants to do the deal with Trade Winds. Fine. We’ll let her. Go ahead and do the deal. What ChatDotCom won’t know is that you and I, Trade Winds and Fenton Industries, have made a deal also. The second Palmer’s signature is dry on the dotted line, I’ll hand over ten million to Trade Winds. I’ve got an arrangement with a couple of the biggest communications and tech companies in the country to break up this territory. We’ll sell a portion to each one, each portion for more than we’ll pay for the whole company. Then Trade Winds and Fenton Industries will go sixty-forty, and we’ll both win. The five year clause for Jordan Fitzgerald? Well, we can do something with that, too. We can put her somewhere for five years. Or not, and she can sue the offending party, if she can figure out who it is!” He laughed, reached into his breast pocket and pushed a folded sheet of paper across the table to Aiden. “I took the liberty of drawing this up. Read it; let me know what you think. You can reach me at the number at the bottom of the page.”

It took Aiden only a moment to answer Fenton. “Not interested,” he said, pushing the still-folded paper back across the table to Fenton.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? You want to see more numbers? You want fifty-fifty? What do you say?”

Aiden cleared his throat in an effort to remain calm. “I say I’m not interested.” He stood and turned away from the two men. He heard their chairs scrape the floor as they also got up from the table.

“I know you’re screwing the girl,” Fenton taunted. “That kid she’s got is Palmer’s. She didn’t tell you that, did she? Think about it, Stewart, that’s why all the funny business with the contract and the five-year thing. Palmer’s bought her off so she can’t sue the estate after he’s dead. All I have to do is go to Palmer and let him know that she screwed him out of the best deal he’ll ever get just because you’re fucking her. You better watch yourself, or she’ll have you on the five-year plan too. Stewart, this is crazy. You’re a business man! Do business!” Then Aiden felt Fenton’s hand on his arm.

Suddenly, the hot head that had made Gordon Stewart’s reputation as a young man won out over the calm and careful demeanor Aiden’s mother had tried so hard to instill in her son. Aiden whirled around, shaking free of Fenton’s clammy grasp.

“Take your stinking hand off me!” He was seething. “Take your stinking hand off me, or you will regret the day you were born until the day you die!” He put a pointed finger in Fenton’s face, causing the man to back up.

Neither Aiden nor Fenton saw where she came from, but Susan Noyes materialized, seemingly out of nowhere. Her normally friendly face was dark with anger. She spoke sharply, “Put an end to this, gentlemen. Right now.” She held up her cell phone. “See this? I can press just one button, and John Giamo will be here in two minutes. Two minutes. John Giamo is our chief of police and my first cousin. Don’t push me to call him. This is not the Wild West; this is the twenty-first century. We may be a small town, but we’re civilized, and I for one won’t tolerate this behavior. Now go your separate ways.” She glared at the three men.

Aiden stepped back from Fenton and his colleague, turned, and walked back inside. In a blind rage, he returned to his room. He slammed the door behind him, locked it, and sat down on the bed. Then he started to shake. He couldn’t ever remember being that angry at somebody.

He ran his hands through his hair, recalling Fenton’s parting shot. Palmer was the father of Jordan’s child. No wonder she was so close-mouthed about it. Aiden felt sick. The range of emotions he was experiencing over these last few days was dizzying. Right now, he was having trouble keeping it together. He looked at the clock to see it was nearly one o’clock. Jordan would be at her office now, getting ready for their meeting with Gene Palmer. Aiden buried his head in his hands. As if it mattered who the father of her child was. It didn’t change his feelings about her, his attraction to her. It didn’t alter his memory of the night before, lying with her in his arms, her skin like silk against his, the intoxicating aroma of her hair.

It was time to talk to someone. It was time to talk to the two people he trusted most. He called his father’s cell phone.

“Is the deal signed?” His father skipped the formalities of a greeting.

“Put the phone on speaker, Dad. I need to talk to both of you.”

There must have been something in his voice, because Gordon said quietly, “Aiden, are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Dad.”

“Nellie, how do you put this thing on speaker?” Aiden waited as they fumbled with the phone, and then he heard his mother’s voice.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, Mom. I need to talk to both of you.”

“Go ahead, Aiden,” said his mother, “we can both hear you.”

Aiden began to talk, generally at first, and then in more detail. Soon he was telling them everything, about the deal, about Jordan and the way he felt about her, and about his altercation with Fenton. “I’m going to Gene Palmer’s house this afternoon with her to sign the papers,” he concluded. “I’ve never felt like this about anybody before.”

“Good job, son,” said Gordon. “I like the way you handled Fenton! Left no room for misinterpretation.”

“Dad, what am I going to do about Jordan? What’s going on with me? What about the baby?”

Aiden heard his father make some sort of huffing and puffing noise, but it was his mother who spoke. “Aiden, you are an honest and good person. Just follow your heart. Whatever will happen between you and this young woman will happen. Does she care for you also?”

“I think so, but why doesn’t she tell me about Palmer? Fenton said he was the father of her child.”

“Think about this logically, Aiden. Fenton told you. Now I’ve never met the man, but according to you and your father, he’s bad. Just plain bad. He’s dishonest, an opportunist, and he sought to do that girl harm. Do you think he is a trustworthy source?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m saying he might be lying.”

“Why would he do that? How could he even think that up?”

“Oh, Aiden. He did it to pull the rug out from under you. He did it to manipulate you and throw you off course. And what if he’s not lying? Think about what that might mean to you. Does that fact change the way you feel about her? Certainly the baby is not at fault. Don’t forget, the truth will come out. You just tend to your business on the business side and follow your heart for your personal happiness. Things will work themselves out. And Aiden, this girl seems to mean a lot to you.”

“She does.”

“There can’t be love where there isn’t trust. They go hand in hand. As long as you feel this strongly about her, you’ll just have to ask her outright.”

Aiden sighed.

Gordon finally spoke. “Listen to your mother, son.”

Aiden had to smile to himself. “Yes, Dad. Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad. Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll call you right after the meeting.”

Aiden paced the room, thinking about what his mother had said. Fenton could be lying, but what he said sounded perfectly logical. Was Jordan the person he thought,
he hoped
, she was? And what if she wasn’t? What if what Fenton said was true and she had used the baby as a bargaining chip to trap Palmer into providing for her financial security? Aiden knew that everything his mother said was true. There couldn’t be love where there wasn’t trust.

As was his habit, he ran his hand through his hair. He would have to play this out, a step at a time, trusting his instincts all the way. He just wished he had as much faith in his instincts as his mother did.

Jordan drove straight to the Inn on the Green, not bothering to call ahead of time. She ran up the wide front steps. The lobby was deserted; the tourists weren’t back from their afternoon soirees yet, and it was too early for the regular dinner crowd. Jordan crossed the large room quickly, passing an unattended front desk, and ran up the stairs. She hurried down the hall to Aiden’s room and knocked on the door, longing to feel the comfort of his arms around her, to feel the pressure of his lips on hers.

Aiden opened the door and immediately took her hand, leading her into the room and then closing and bolting the door behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her upturned face. He kissed her eyelids, her forehead, her cheeks, but he lingered on her lips. She savored that sweet, almost imperceptible sugary taste, reveling in the softness of his kiss, remembering the night before when his lips had traveled down her body, kissing, caressing, exciting her until she was crazy with desire for him.

“I missed you,” he whispered.

Jordan opened her eyes and smiled. “How could you miss me? I’ve only been gone a few hours.”

“Too long,” he said. He backed up, sweeping her along with him, and pulled her down onto the bed. They seemed to have a narcotic effect on each other, and there was nothing they could do about it. Fenton could wait. Palmer could wait. All the questions in the world could wait. Aiden’s kisses told her that all he wanted now was to be with her.

Despite her own desire, Jordan knew they had to focus on business, not pleasure, and she gave a little laugh. “Let me go,” she said. “I’ll get all messed up!”

“I’m already messed up,” he said. “Look what you do to me.” He took her hand and guided it down his taught abdomen. She felt the buckle on his belt and then the bulge underneath. “I can’t help myself,” he said. She caressed him through his slacks, feeling the thrill as the embers of her passion leaped into flame at his touch. He rolled her gently over on her back and stood up. She started to stand, but Aiden held his finger to his lips and smiled, whispering, “Stay where you are.”

She lay there and watched as he slipped out of his clothes. The sight of him was intoxicating. She reached out, but he shook his head.

“Don’t move,” he said. He bent over her and kissed her tenderly on the mouth, parting her lips with his tongue.

Then he put a hand on each of her hips and slid her down to the edge of the bed. Slowly he lifted her dress up around her waist, revealing her. He leaned down, kissing her belly, letting his tongue roll over her navel. She moaned and arched her hips as he kissed her along the top of her lacy panties. She felt his fingers pressing through the lace against that most sensual part of her. He straightened up again and slowly slid her panties down to her knees. She felt exposed, vulnerable, but her heart beat with longing and expectation. She strained against the offending panties, seeking to give him access to that hot, wet place that begged for him, but suddenly, he took both her legs in one strong arm and lifted them up, resting them on his shoulder. He reached underneath with his free hand, squeezing her round buttocks, while she twisted and moaned, wild for relief. He found the spot and slipped his fingers into her. She cried out with desire as he stroked the secret folds between her legs. She struggled again to open her legs, but he held her tight, teasing, tantalizing until she thought she might burst with pent up emotion. She gripped the bedclothes, twisting them in her fingers.