Just the Man She Needs (2 page)

“She says I get too smart sometimes.”

“I imagine you do. Remember to obey her and to be respectful at all times. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir, but she talks so much I don’t listen.”

He put Teddy on his shoulders and went to find Eartha, his housekeeper. “Is everything all right?” he asked her.

“We been just fine, Mr. Ash, except Teddy has started to use tricks on me. I want you to teach him that blackmail is punishable by law.”

He put Teddy on his feet and hunkered in front of the boy, careful not to show his amusement at the child’s latest crime. “You are not to bargain with Miss Eartha. If you do, I’ll punish you. Got that?”

“Yes, sir, but that means I’ll have to eat spinach and stuff.”

“Spinach and stuff are good for you.” He went to the stove, poured a cup of coffee, added milk and sat down to drink it. “What did you do yesterday?”

“I painted in my book.”

“Good. What did you do that was bad?”

“I wouldn’t eat my dinner till Ms. Eartha told me I could watch Dipsy and Doodly on TV.”

“That was blackmail. If you do that again, you’ll be punished.”

“Yes, sir. You told me.”

Ashton raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t comment. As a child, he also hadn’t liked being told the same thing repeatedly. “I have to get to work. Be a good boy.”

Teddy followed him to the door, reached up for a kiss and, as he thought back to his rocky relationship with Karla, Ashton couldn’t help being amazed at the joy he found in his son. He wondered how he would explain to Teddy that Karla hadn’t wanted to be pregnant or to have a baby after she became pregnant, and that she’d agreed to deliver the child only after he swore in writing that he would raise the child himself, without any assistance from her. All she asked at the divorce hearing was a ticket to Rome, Italy, and one thousand dollars for pocket money, in case she ever got broke. He hadn’t heard from her in over four years, and though he bore her no ill will, he had no desire ever to see her again.

He walked down to west Sixty-eighth Street, got the crosstown bus to Second Avenue and Forty-eighth Street, and walked a block to his office at Third Avenue. In spite of his other concerns—his child and the fate of his companies—his mind invariably shifted back to Felicia Parker. The woman impressed him at a deep level, but he hoped it would prove to be a temporary fascination.

After Ashton left Felicia, she went inside her room, turned on the light, walked over to the window and looked down on Pennsylvania Avenue. A solitary figure crossed the empty corner, bringing to her mind that she’d never seen such desolation in a business area of New York City where lights flashed and human beings paraded twenty-four hours of every day. She didn’t see Ashton Underwood, but perhaps he’d left by the Fourteenth Street entrance. What had she been thinking? Nobody told her that she had to wear a ball gown; a simple evening dress would have sufficed. But once she had the dress, going to the gala in the company of an eligible man was an absolute must.

“I’d give anything if I’d had the guts to go to bed with him,” she admitted to herself, “but then, where would I be?” Vowing to forget about Ashton Underwood, she took out her laptop, wrote her story of the affair and faxed it to her wire service. Then she crawled into bed, too exhausted, too aroused and too excited to sleep, and flipped on the television. A local cable news station ran its story of the gala, and she had a chance to see herself with Ashton, to observe from afar his unbelievable good looks and the attention women paid him, his courtly manners, charisma and the way in which he showered her with attention.

“It’s a wonder I didn’t wilt right on that dance floor,” she said out loud as she stared at herself moving her body to the beat of his rhythm. Undeniably, they made a striking couple. She didn’t remember ever having met a man and wanted him on sight…until that night. She longed to see him again but had no intention of calling the escort service and asking how to reach him. For all she knew, he’d used an assumed name.

Felicia returned to New York Saturday around noon. While walking through the terminal at La Guardia Airport, she bought a copy of the
Brooklyn Press
for the purpose of reading that paper’s society column written by Reese Hall, her rival.

“Your fangs are showing, girl,” she said out loud when she read the first paragraph of Reese’s column. Finding herself the subject of the gossip columnist’s acid pen surprised Felicia, for she rarely rated mention. But Ashton had piqued Reese’s interest and her speculation as to why the handsome stranger was in the company of Felicia Parker annoyed Felicia. She knew that Reese wouldn’t stop digging until she discovered Ashton’s identity.
God forbid she should learn that he’s a professional escort!

At home, she found the red light blinking on her answering machine. The phone rang, startling her. “Hello, this is Felicia.”

“I would ask how it’s going,” her brother’s deep masculine voice said, “but from what I saw of you on TV this morning, I expect you’re feeling no pain.”

“Hi, Miles,” she said, sat down and kicked off her shoes. “You saw that on the local station?”

“No, ma’am. I saw it on ABC. Who’s the guy? He makes quite a figure.”

Being questioned by Miles was tantamount to an interrogation by a prosecuting attorney. A professor of law, Miles had a habit of carrying his profession over to his personal relations, at least with respect to her.

“I’m not sure you want to know who he is,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to put your avowed liberalism to the test.”

“If he isn’t an alcoholic or a crackhead and didn’t vote Republican, I can probably handle it.”

“You don’t ask for much,” she said while she decided how little to tell him. “I met him last night.”

“You’re joking! The two of you danced as if you’d done nothing but that for the last decade, and the way you looked at each other suggested something that’s not my business.” But that wouldn’t stop him. “Where did the two of you go after the gala?”

“I’ll fix him,” she said to herself. To Miles, she said, “To my room.”

“What?” he yelled. “Didn’t you just tell me you met that man last night?”

She buffed her nails on her skirt. “Uh-huh. I sure did.”

“Stop playing with me, Felicia. You didn’t…That’s not like you. I mean, you wouldn’t be that foolish.”

“No, but I can dream, can’t I? He took me to my room and left me at the door. I’ve been kicking myself ever since.”

“Oh, come now. I admit he could win a prize in a room full of men, but—”

It had gone far enough. She interrupted him. “He’s more than what you saw. I’ve waited a long time to react to a man as I did to him, but I’ll probably never see him again. That’s life.”

“I’m sorry, sis. I’ve been there, so I know how you feel. You’re doing a column on that gala, I presume.”

“Yes. I haven’t seen the paper, yet. Reese Hall wrote a piece on it, too, but a good quarter of her story was about me and my date. She can bet I wouldn’t give
her
that much coverage.”

“I don’t want to read it. Reese is too bitchy for my taste.”

“It’s not too bad, except she doesn’t seem to think I deserve a date with that kind of man. I didn’t see her. Maybe she got her information from the television. I wouldn’t put it past her. By the way, why weren’t you at the gala?”

“Have you forgotten how I hate those things? Nothing bores me quicker that small talk with strangers.”

“I know. Talk to you later.” She hung up and wondered why she hadn’t told her brother that she’d used an escort service. She pondered, too, the awful emptiness that she’d never felt before. He couldn’t call her, because the service rules probably forbade it and wouldn’t give him her number. How she wanted to talk with him, to see him again, to assure herself that what he sparked in her wasn’t real and would quickly pass!

Ashton had hardly settled in his chair when problems forced his thoughts away from Felicia. He had once faced the possibility of bankruptcy, and the lesson he learned from it was the importance of diversification, of owning more than one product and different kinds of products. Underwood Enterprises had bounced back from the brink of financial disaster when its flagship company, Dream, a cosmetics company, produced a popular, fast-selling, makeup for very dark women. Within a year, the company catapulted him into the ranks of multimillionaire. He and his two brothers added to their holdings a riding school that catered to the rich and an intracity sightseeing bus line. A few weeks back, he began negotiations to acquire a family of newspapers. Although it was of no relevance then, he wondered now if he wanted to own the Skate newspapers, in as much as Felicia’s column appeared in one of the papers. He shrugged it off; the chance of his seeing that woman again was practically nil.

He knew that Felicia didn’t connect him to the owner of Dream, for he was known in business circles as John Underwood. Ashton was his middle name. With an M.B.A. from Harvard, his management skills had made him a wealthy man, and he felt secure in his ability to oversee a group of unrelated companies, although his brothers served as managers of all but Dream. That one was his baby. He pulled himself out of his musings and answered the phone.

“Underwood speaking.”

“This is Damon. I just got some news that you won’t like. That is if it’s true. A client told one of my escorts that Barber-Smith is planning to take over Dream.”

“
What?
Who was this client?”

“Kate Smallens. She’s Smith’s mistress, and he’s promised to give the company to her.”

“Yeah? Over my dead body! That’s all I need right now. Just as I’m about to clinch that deal with Skate newspapers, I get this. Not to worry, though. I’ll handle it.”

“Sure thing,” Damon said. “Did you speak with Cade today? He told me he’s going to Houston to a big conference and that he’s giving a workshop. How about that?”

“He’s working it, all right. I’ll call him.” He hung up and called Cade, the middle of the three brothers.

“Underwood speaking.”

“Hey, brother,” Ashton said, “get it through your head that
I’m
Underwood. Damon said you’re going to Houston. What’s your lecture about?”

“Ashton! What’s up, brother?”

“Just checking on you.”

“Right! I need that. After all, I’ve just learned how to get along without diapers. Thanks for your concern. China’s churning out new chips. It’s all about the competition, and believe me there’s plenty of it. Who was that honey you were with last night? Man, she’s a knockout, and when she looked at you, she definitely liked what she saw. Way to go!”

Ashton didn’t want his brother’s hopes raised. Ever since his disappointment about Teddy’s mother, both of his brothers had hoped he would find a woman who suited him. He wouldn’t mind their meddling, if they weren’t so transparent with it.

“Nothing there, Cade. All I know about that woman is her name and occupation.”

The sound of his brother’s laughter always amazed him; if you didn’t know Cade was amused, you wouldn’t guess it from his laugh. “Get busy and do some research then. I have a feeling that you don’t want to pass that one up, Ashton. At least not until you’ve sampled the goodies.”

Ashton shifted in his chair, uneasy with that level of talk about Felicia Parker. But why? He and his brothers always joshed each other about women. “Listen to who’s talking,” he said, aware of the lameness of his response.

“Whoa. Like that, is it?” Cade said. “Forgive my loose tongue. You’d better get to work on it.”

Ashton closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. From their childhood onward, Cade had been able to read him correctly, and to interpret his moods and manners with ease. First his parents and then their grandfather, who raised them, would ask Cade, “What’s wrong with Ashton?” and he would invariably give him the correct answer. Yet it was to Damon that he felt closest. But then, everyone seemed to feel close to Damon. He reflected upon Cade’s astuteness about people, thinking that that talent made him successful in everything he undertook.

“Aren’t you going to pursue this relationship?” Cade asked him. “I sure as hell would.”

Ashton explained to Cade how he happened to meet Felicia. “If I’ve got a problem, I can thank our brother. But I don’t think this merits discussion. It’s history.”

“That’s not the way I read it. How’s Teddy?”

“Growing and getting clever. He’s begun to match wits with Eartha, and he has her thoroughly charmed.”

“Like father, like son,” Cade said. “Damon told me about Dream, and I figure we’re in for a rocky ride. It wouldn’t hurt to have a nice soft and supple cushion to relax on. A warm, sweet woman can make the flu seem like a treasure, if you get my drift.”

“Oh, I get it, all right.”

“I hope I’ll have some good news for Underwood Systems when I get back from Houston. Our software business is primed to take off. Incidentally, are you going down home this weekend? I’d promised Granddad I’d see him, but this conference came up and I can’t afford not to take advantage of the opportunity to hold a workshop and spread the name Underwood.”

“You’re right. I’ll call him, and if possible I’ll be there at least Sunday.”