The Game (19 page)

“This is an important project for all of us,” Carmichael said.  “
I think we have the right team to pull it off.”  Damon wasn’t entirely sure if that was the only objective Carmichael had by pulling this particular group of team members together.  Not that he wouldn’t do his best, he achieved his aims and he would do so with this project, inconsequential attraction or not.

Damon didn’t start on the project for a couple of weeks, but his inclusion changed things immediately.  Anything tricky, they had to wait until Damon came so he could make the decisions.  It got to the point where Jane was too tied up to move until Damon came and released the breaks.

A desk had been prepared for him in their project office.  They had moved their informal meeting table out and replaced it with a desk.  Before long, he would be here every day all day, sitting across the room from her, infusing the room with his masculinity and cologne. 

It turned out that he had been seconded to this project and would return to his normal role at
Contil-Symax when he was done here.  They would only have gotten him through Edmund’s persuasion, and likely with the proviso that Contil-Symax would be a part of the eventual build.

Then the morning came when he
started.  He was there in the office when Jane arrived shortly after eight.  She knew he was there even before she saw him.  It just felt like the energy had changed in the office, and she knew exactly who was responsible.  She gave him a quick nod as she walked in.  He was on the phone and he gave her the barest nod back.  Jane tried to block him out as she concentrated on her emails.

“I need the project plan, Jane,” he said
when he got off the phone.

“I will
email it through.”  She did as he asked feeling a bit annoyed as she was handing over her plan to him.  She knew she was out of her depth now, but it still felt like she’d been deemed incompetent.  Intellectually she knew it wasn’t true, but her irrational fears crept in.  If it was anyone other than him, she would be excited about someone more experienced coming in, but with him she just couldn’t help seeing it as a personal reflection on her abilities.

Sam did a double take when she arrived, then gave Jane a meaningful look.

“Has he got your project plan?”

“Yep.”

“Doesn’t waste any time, does he?  What is he like to work with?”

Hateful, Jane wanted to say, but she had been an imposter on his team.  He was generally good to his
team; he expected hard work and tolerated nothing less.

“He knows his stuff and he expects you to know your
s.”

“Bit of a task master?”  Jane didn’t want to talk about him.  “Never mind, I will find out soon enough.  Your lack of enthusiasm is quite telling.”

“It’s not that, we just have a bit of a history not being on the same side.”  It was only part of the reason why she was less than excited about him being her project lead.  She was certainly never going to tell Sam about the other.  She was never going to tell anyone and she was pretty sure Damon wasn’t the type to brag.

“Jeez, I’m running late.  I’m meeting with the town planners,” Sam said and quickly gathered up her things. 
“I have got so much on today, I’m not sure I am going to get a chance to sit down.  I just forwarded you an email.  I’m really sorry, but can you do me a huge favor and print ten copies and send them down to legal.  I am just not going to have time.”

“No problem,” Jane said and opened the email.  Sam was gone by the time she look
ed up.  Jane didn’t know who wanted the copies in legal, but she would just have to ask around.

“
I guess that just leaves you to fill me in on the state of the project and the work that’s been done so far,” Damon said.  Jane cursed Sam and then looked up with a smile plastered on her face.

“Of course.”
 

“Let’s get a coffee.”  He grabbed his suit jacket and put it on.  He didn’t put it like a question, it was an order. 
“After you.”  Jane had to hop to it to catch up as he was already at the door.

She started telling him about the project on the ride down, instantly dismissing any thoughts
about the last time they had been in an elevator together.  She was going to be strictly business, she decided, and she was going to ignore anything that wasn’t complete professionalism.

There was a coffee place in the lobby of the building and
they sat down at one of the table after ordering and she talked through the project in the most systematic way she could think of.  His eyes would completely unnerve her if she let them; he just seemed to study her.  His eyes moved to her lips whenever she smiled, sometimes to her hands when she made gestures.  It was unnerving.  He was listening intently, and sometimes he would intervene with pertinent questions.

“I thought you’d be in Singapore,” she finally said when she had finished with the project debrief.

“I thought you were in Sydney.”  It sounded a little like an accusation.  He looked away after a moment.  “I was,” he continued, “the project is up and running, so I handed it over to the implementation guys.”

“You didn’t want to see it
through to the end?”

“Implementation is not what I do.  I get the business, what we do after I get it is up to others.”  She knew full well what he did, she just hadn’t expected him to be so blasé about the project that he’d lived and breathed for months.

The conversation seemed to have run out and she didn’t have anything else to say.  He didn’t seem to need to break the silence, but she couldn’t bare it.

“Perhaps I should get back,” she said.

“Not yet,” he said.  “I want to talk to you about what we do now.”  For a second she had an overwhelming fear that he was talking about the relationship between them, but he started talking about the project.  There was a part of her that was sorely disappointed and she hated that there even was a part of her that still had hopes that things would return there.  He had been abundantly clear in that he had never wanted that, but there was that stupid part of her that forever hoped that a man like him would be seriously interested in her.

Luckily he was out for the rest of the day and Jane could focus on work.  He came back close to five.

“Have you got plans tonight?” he said.  Her head shot up.

“I was going to go home.”

“The Minister for Energy is having dinner in town and we have been invited to drop by.”

“Oh,” Jane said, again cringing at the idiotic part that had assumed that he was
asking her out.  Meeting the Minister was a big deal.  If she’d had plans, which she didn’t, she’d be obliged to cancel them.  “That is fortunate.”

“Not for another hour,” he said and sat down at his desk.  Jane watched as he focused his attention on his computer.  She tried to work, but it was a lot harder when he was in the room.  The hour passed slowly, but he event
ually turned off his computer and Jane followed suit.

“We’ll take my car,” he said as walked out of the room.

“As opposed to my bus ticket,” she said to herself as she grabbed her handbag.

His car was parked in the garage under the building.  He got a car park, which was only for General Managers and the CEO, but he got one.  He opened the car with his clicker.  On closer inspection it was a champagne
colored Aston Martin.  She didn’t dare think how much the car was worth.  The seats were indented when she sat down, obviously with such a fast car the seats needed to stop them from sliding around inside and ruining the expensive leather trimmings.  It was one of those cars that she was sure men dreamed off.  The sad thing was that the makers probably had someone just like Damon D’Arth in mind when they designed it.  It roared to life as she clicked her seatbelt in place.  There was nothing out of place in the car, not a coin or receipt on the floor.

“Is your house this clean?” she asked before she could stop herself. 

“Yes.” 

Jane wondered if he was a clean freak.  His car kind of suggested it. 
Another reason why she shouldn’t be salivating over a man like him.  She wasn’t a pig, but at least her house looked like someone lived there.  She again wondered at how different they were.

He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d asked Jane to come with him that evening, he didn’t need her to be there.  It had been an impulse and once it had come out of his mouth, he couldn’t take it back, neither could she say no.  He was incredibly angry with himself, this was exactly what he had done in Singapore and it had landed him in a position he shouldn’t have been in.  Now she was sitting there right next to him, her skirt gently riding up her thighs, distracting him.  She wasn’t the first girl he’d had in this car.  He’d had lots of gorgeous girls with tanned bony thighs.  Seeing their thin thighs just didn’t seem to bypass his brain and go straight to his groin the way Jane’s milky slender thighs did.  He needed to stop or he would have a raging hard on.  He needed distraction, something unpleasant.

“So I take it Carmichael brought you on the project,” he said.  Carmichael manipulating him was the least sexy thing he could think of.

“Yes.  He offered it when my contract in Sydney was over,” she said.  It wasn’t working, but luckily they would be at the restaurant in mere minutes.  It was time to perform and that did distract him.

Jane followed Damon into the restaurant.  They were shown to the Minister’s table by the window looking out over the harbor.  Two seats were found for them as they were introduced.

“Is this your wife?” the Minister said when it came time to introduce Jane. 
Jane paused with the unexpectedness of the question.  It was strange to think anyone would assume she was his wife.

“A colleague,” Damon said. 
The Minister seemed to think nothing of it and they started talking about the proposal.  Damon did his thing, he was spectacular.  Everything he said was assured and valid, but Jane knew that everything was also calculated.  He was leading the Minister through the ideas he wanted and enforcing his point with gentle hints at the implications for the Government and its objectives. 

Jane sat back and just watched him.  Her input wasn’t needed.  Damon certainly didn’t need any
help; he knew exactly what he was doing.  She had never seen him with a client or other important external stakeholder like this before.  Watching him, he really did deserve his reputation.

The Minister’s odd assumption also returned.  She wasn’t sure how she felt being thought of as his wife.  She’d never actually imagined him with a wife, it seemed so far removed from the way he was.  If he had a wife, she would likely be a bit more impressive than her.  More like the woman he’d been with when she had to chase him down at the Hyatt for Edmund.

She also couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be his wife.  He was just so accomplished.  Everything about him was perfect.  He was gorgeous, ambitious, and proficient.  He seemed to demand and deserve the best of everything, which was probably why he should marry someone equally gifted.  A ridiculously gorgeous couple who would grace the world with equally gorgeous kids, raised by nannies and enrolled in the most exclusive schools.  The best of everything.  She just didn’t see love.  There was nothing close to love anywhere around him, and she couldn’t see it in the couple scenario with Miss Perfect either.  It was all about winning the competition, not about love.

The realisation hit her as she sat there watching him.  As perfect as he was, she would take love over his lifestyle any day.  She wo
uld rather have some guy who drove an old car, worked for an NGO for a pittance and loved her to bits over everything Damon had.  The realisation washed over her giving her goose bumps.  She wasn’t sure why, but this was important.  He seemed to notice a change, because he stopped his conversation for a second and looked at her before returning to the conversation he was having with the Minister.  It was like the world had shifted in a heartbeat and he’d subconsciously noticed the change, but not the meaning.  Not that he would, this was all in her head.  It had nothing to do with him and his perception of the world.

The Minister was happy, he was impressed and Damon had achieved what he
’d set out to.  Jane was proud of him.  Her little shift in perception had cleared the uneasiness and jealousy she felt toward him, and that allowed her to view his accomplishments for what they were.  They all said goodbye with a handshake.

“That went well,” she said as she walked out the door of the restaurant.

“I’ll have to follow up down in Wellington next week, but it went as I hoped it would,” he said.  It was dark outside and it was getting cold.  He would be driving back to the city centre where he lived. 

“I’ll drive you home,”
he said as they walked to the car.

“I can take the train from town.”

“It’s late and it’s dark.  The train station would be deserted this time of night.  I’ll drive you.”  As touched as she was about his slightly irrational concern for her safety, she was a big girl and she thought about pointing that out.  On the other hand, at this time of night the trains didn’t run that often, she could be waiting an hour for the train.