Stolen: Business or Pleasure (Contemporary Billionaire Romance) (5 page)

SETH

I’d been dreading the meeting with Liz all week. At the beginning of the week I’d had hope that maybe Adele and I would be okay again and as soon as I spoke to Liz and smoothed this all over, I could go pick her up and we could celebrate. I knew she’d had as bad of a week as I had. We almost connected on Thursday. She seemed to at least want to talk to me. I should have apologized then for what I’d said about her and Grant. If I really looked into my heart, I didn’t believe she was cheating on me. But, it seems my life lately was a lot of “should haves” and “could haves.” I didn’t talk to her and when Liz showed up on Friday night and started talking, I got the distinct feeling things were going to get a lot worse before they got better.

She breezed into the office looking like she’d just stepped off of a fashion runway and reeking of Chanel. She kissed my cheek and then immediately said, “I cannot wait for us to start working together.”

I took the seat opposite her and said, “Liz, you need to hear me when I say this; Adele is the senior partner of this company. She is not going to approve this merger.”

She leaned in towards me and I almost choked on her perfume. “Then we just won’t ask her,” she said.

“You’re not making sense.”

“I’m making perfect sense if you’ll just listen, Seth. Remember what I told you? Daddy has things ready to go, and I know that your business is struggling. We are prepared to walk in here and take over. I am prepared to finish buying the stock as soon as I walk out of this office.”

“Why, Liz? Taylor Corp. is doing fine from what I hear. Why do you need to try and control our company as well?”

“I don’t need to… I want to. You and I never really ended things, Seth. You were still sewing your wild oats and that was fine. You’re a rich, sexy man; you had to get the slumming out of your system. Now that you have, you need to start thinking about your future. Your future is not with a fledgling company. Your future is not with a desperate woman trying to claw her way to the top. She’s going to fail and she’s going to fall far when she does. Your own father is not going to let her win, Seth. You have two choices: You can join forces with me, both personally and professionally and we can continue to build on the legacies that our fathers meant for us, or you can fall with her.”

I was sitting there listening to her in disbelief. She was so used to getting whatever she wanted that she really thought she could come in here and demand mine and Adele’s company, bad mouth the woman I loved to boot, and walk away with what she wanted. I stood up to stand my ground.

“I thought you and I could handle this amicably, Liz. I can see that’s not going to be the case. I’d like you to go now.” Her lips twitched and she stood up too. What she did next blew me away. She leaned in and kissed me. I was frozen for a few seconds with shock before I took her by the arms and pushed her back. When I did I said, “Whatever happens between our businesses you need to know that I love Adele Morgan with my entire being. I will always love her and I have no intentions of leaving her for you or anyone else. Now again, Liz… I’d like for you to go.”

She narrowed her eyes and said, “You will be sorry.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “But that’s my choice to make. Now go, or I’ll have security walk you out.”

Liz grabbed her purse and as she left she tossed one more barb over her shoulder, “Whatever it takes, Seth, I will be sitting in that chair behind your desk, and soon. Your little red-haired girlfriend will be out on her ear and you’ll be left with no other choice at that point. I’m guessing you’ll beg me to reconsider. You better hope I’m in an amicable and forgiving mood at the time.”

As I watched her go I wondered if I’d made a grave mistake by not telling Adele about this. I had wanted so badly to do something to prove to her that she could trust me. I wanted more than anything for her to know that both she and this company came above anything else in my life. But now Liz Taylor was pissed and Taylor Corp. was in a position to punish me for her unhappiness if they chose to. I had a feeling my good intentions had just gone awry. 

~

CHAPTER SEVEN

~

ADELE

The poor cab driver looked as distraught as I was by the time I got back to the house. I was sobbing so hard by that point I could hardly speak. I somehow made my way up to the apartment through my tears, but by the time I got there, I couldn’t seem to see straight enough, or stop shaking long enough to get the key in the door. I dropped the keys and cursed loudly and that was when the door was pulled open by a tired and confused looking Grant.

He saw my face and didn’t ask any questions. I fell into his arms and he closed and locked the door and led me over to the couch. We had a repeat performance of earlier as I sobbed into his chest and once again, flooded the front of his shirt. I don’t even know how long we sat like that but when I could finally speak, the first thing I said was, “Oh God, Grant. I’m so sorry. I don’t know why you put up with me.”

He reached over and took a tissue out of the box on the table and handed it to me. After I’d dried up my face he said, “Because you’re hot.”

I laughed and snot came out my nose. “Stop it,” I scolded him. “Don’t make me laugh.”

“I don’t know why you’re laughing, I was serious. All the guys at work are so jealous of me they can hardly see straight.”

I punched him in the arm and said, “You should be jealous of them. They don’t have a pathetic roommate that’s always falling apart on you.”

He turned serious and took my face in his hands and tilted it up towards him. “What happened baby?”

“I’m so stupid, Grant.”

“Stupid? You? No way. You’re one of, if not the smartest, person I know.”

“I went there all dressed up to tell him I was going to move in with him. I was going to give up another measure of my independence, and to a Hunter, no less.”

“And what happened when you told him?”

“I didn’t get that far. I stepped off the elevator and found him kissing another woman.”

Something flashed in Grant’s dark eyes. “He was kissing someone else? How did he explain that?”

“I didn’t give him a chance to explain. I was mortified. I just left.”

“You were mortified?”

“Yes, I’m so embarrassed. I’m this pathetic woman who was going to offer herself to a man who so obviously doesn’t want her. When did I become that?”

“Now you need to stop. You didn’t “become” anything. He tells you he loves you and most of the time, he acts like he does, right? What are you supposed to believe? If anyone here is stupid, it’s me. I told you to stop listening to your head and follow your heart. Maybe your head knew best after all.”

I nodded, “Maybe it did. I forgive you.”

He laughed and pulled me back into his chest. “I’m so glad,” he said. He kissed the top of my head and held me like that until I cried myself to sleep. I woke up the next morning still in my dress, but he’d tucked me into my bed. Sometimes I wish that I would have fallen in love with Grant. Why does your heart always want to do things the hard way?

I got up and showered on Saturday morning and went for my run alone. I needed to clear my head. I thought back to what I’d seen and every time I pictured it, the anger would well up and I was compelled to go find Seth and confront him. But then the part of me who was so in love with him would present her argument.
Maybe it wasn’t what it looked like. Maybe she kissed him. Maybe you should have stuck around and watched what happened next.

By the time I got back to the house I hadn’t come to any final conclusions. I of course wanted to believe the best case scenario; that being that she kissed him and after I left, he protested. But then the question of who is she and what was she doing in the office after hours had to be answered. That’s the first question I needed to ask him. After all, from the outside looking in, it would be easy to look at Grant and me and suspect that there was more to us than friendship, but I know that’s not true and it hurt me when Seth accused me of it. Maybe I needed to just take the weekend to let things settle and then on Monday I can check the security logs and find out who she was. From there, I’m not sure, but I felt better being up on my feet and not in a puddle of tears and making a decision.

I started to step into the shower when my cell phone began ringing. I went over to the dresser and picked it up. It was Seth. I considered answering it to just get it over with, but I didn’t. I silenced it and sat it back down. I was too emotional to deal with this right now. I needed to come at it from a different place like the smart, capable businesswoman that I know myself to be. I need to gather my facts and then I’d have the talk with him and he could present his.

Grant and I ordered pizza for lunch and we spent the day playing board games and watching movies. I finally turned off the ringer on my cell. That warranted a raised eyebrow from Grant, but he didn’t say anything. On Sunday he went out and got us croissants and specialty coffees and we had breakfast on the terrace. I was on my way into my room to take my shower when the apartment phone began to ring. It startled me because it rarely rang. We both used our cell phones almost exclusively and that one was only there in case of an emergency. Grant looked at me like he was as startled by it as I was. He picked it up and said, “Grant and Adele’s house phone, how can I help you today?” in one of his playful voices. I saw the change in his face right away. At first I thought something was wrong, but then I heard him say, “Hi Seth. How are you?” I shook my head back and forth. I still wasn’t ready to talk to him. “No, I’m sorry, Adele’s not here. I can’t really say when she’ll be back… I think she said she’d be gone all weekend, so maybe later…” I was shaking my head furiously. “Probably late… really late tonight. I’ll tell her you called though and I’m sure you’ll see her tomorrow at work.” I watched his face as he furrowed his brow. Then he flinched and looked at the phone before hanging it up.

“What did he say?”

“Um… I don’t recall the exact words, but he insinuated that he thought I was covering for you so that I could have you to myself and then he slammed the phone down, hard.”

“I’m sorry, Grant.”

He grinned then and said, “What are you sorry for? It’s good for my reputation for people to think I’m sleeping with you.” I rolled my eyes.

“I’ve been so selfish lately. What’s going on with that girl you were seeing? Juniper, was it?”

“Yeah, well, that didn’t work out.” That was all he said. “I’m going to go for a walk.”

“Yeah, okay. Are you okay?” Grant suddenly seemed pensive and it made me wonder what happened with Juniper and why he hadn’t talked to me about it. I felt terrible, thinking that it was probably because I was so selfishly wrapped up in my own drama.

He had his smile back in place again and he said, “I’m fine, baby. I’ll see you in a bit.” I watched him go out the door and for some reason, I felt really sad.

***

Monday morning on my way into the office, I stopped at the security booth. “Hi Sam,” I said to the officer behind the little plexi-glass barrier. He stood up and smiled.

“Good morning, Miss Morgan. What can I do for you?”

“I was wondering if I could look at the sign-in logs for Friday afternoon.”

“Of course, they’re your logs,” he said with a grin. Turning serious as he looked through the files in his desk he said, “Was there a problem?”

“No, I just had a question about something. Things are fine though, no worries.” I wished that I believed that as much as it sounded like I did when I said it.

“Okay, good. Here you go,” he said, handing over the log. I looked at it and let my eyes run down to after five in the evening. At five-forty-five a “Liz Taylor” signed in. There was no one after that as far as visitors went. That had to be her.

“Thank you, Sam,” I told him. I forced another smile for him and handed back the log. When I got upstairs and passed Seth’s office, the door was closed. I went straight to my own office to prepare for the Monday morning staff meeting. When I went back by his office, the door was open, but he wasn’t at his desk. His assistant was however, so I stopped and said good morning to her and then I asked, “Do you know if Mr. Hunter had a late meeting scheduled for Friday?”

“Not that I know of but he was so kind and let me leave early, so I could be mistaken. Do you need me to ask him, Miss Morgan?”

“Oh no, it’s fine. I just had some paperwork about a woman named Liz Taylor and I wasn’t sure what it was for. I’ll ask Seth, thank you.”

“Liz Taylor? That’s Rick Taylor’s daughter?”

“I’m not sure… who’s Rick Taylor?”

“He owns Taylor Corp. You know the investment firm?” I did know it. What was Seth doing meeting with his daughter?

“Oh yes. Maybe she’s an old flame,” I said, trying to sound breezy about it. His assistant looked up at me and I could see that she was suddenly aware of what I was trying to do. She knew about Seth and me… everyone here did. We hadn’t tried to hide our relationship. She knew I was digging for information. He could be proud to know that his staff was very loyal.
She suddenly clammed up, saying only, “I’m sorry Miss Morgan; I wouldn’t really know anything about that.”

“I was only joking,” I said. I headed on down to the meeting, hoping she wouldn’t say anything to Seth about me asking. Seth was in his spot, but he barely glanced up at me when I walked in. I took my spot next to him and said my good mornings to everyone before we began with the weekly production reports. Seth was polite and professional and very, very cold. I guess I had that coming for not taking his calls. Or maybe, he was just cold because he’d already moved on without me.

After the meeting adjourned, Seth headed right back to his office. Harlan was getting himself another cup of coffee and a muffin. Harlan had been around for a really long time…

“How are you doing, Harlan?” I asked him.

He turned to look at me and smiled. “I’m doing well, Adele. How about you?”

“I’m hanging in there,” I told him.

He sat down next to me and said, “I hope you didn’t let that debacle with the shareholders last week get you down too much. They’re all such staunch supporters of James… I can’t figure out why. But the facts are that you and Seth are doing a fine job with this company and James is out. Sooner or later they’ll have to accept that and if they don’t want to lose their investments here they’ll have to let you move forward with your vision for this company without blocking you at every turn.”

Harlan made me feel warm inside. He was such a kind man. “Thank you, Harlan. I hope that you’re right. Can I ask you kind of a strange question?”

He laughed and said, “I’m a CFO, strange questions are what I do best.”

“It’s kind of on a personal note about Seth. Before I came into the picture, did you know any of his girlfriends?”

Harlan chuckled and said, “Adele, before you, Seth didn’t even comprehend that word. He came to every event with a different woman and sometimes he left with another one. He was the true definition of a playboy until you. We can all see the way he looks at you. He loves you deeply and that, more than anything, was what threatened James so much, I think.”

I had to smile at that and thank him again. “Do you know who Liz Taylor is? Did Seth ever date her?”

Harlan raised a bushy gray eyebrow and said, “Yes, Liz is the daughter of Rick Taylor, founder of Taylor Corp. There was talk between James and Rick a few years ago about a merger. I know Seth and Liz were well acquainted because of all of that but I honestly don’t know if they dated. James was really pushing the merger and the shareholders weren’t going for it. Finally, it just went away and I’m not sure what happened. I do know that for a period of time afterwards, James was extra disparaging to his son. He insulted him at every meeting we had. Finally, Seth just stopped opening his mouth. That went on for months and then things went back to normal and then Seth took over. It wasn’t really my place to ask what had happened.”

The wheels in my head were turning. Was Seth dating Liz and then because that didn’t work out, neither did the merger? What was she doing back now? “Thanks Harlan,” I told him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “I appreciate you so much, I hope you know.”

“I’m glad,” he said. “You’re doing a great job, Adele.”

I smiled at him. “Thank you,” I said. “So are you.”