Lace-Covered Compromise Read online

  “Can I just tell you what Nate has done?”

  She laughed.

  The sound warmed me. I was so lucky to have Valerie to listen to my rants. “Sometimes I think it would be a lot of fun to be married to you.”

  She set a tray down on the coffee table and joined me on the couch. “You think wrongly. I would’ve killed you within the first few weeks.”

  “Probably.”

  She handed me a cup. “Now talk.”

  I filled her in on Nate’s proposal and how it was all a trick because he already had a plan written up.

  “I don’t think that qualifies as tricking you. Besides, his plan is unlikely to work since he didn’t know the company was in trouble.”

  “But it’s a start and now I have a tight deadline.”

  “If you knew how bad things were, why didn’t you already have a plan?”

  Why didn’t I?

  You were too busy being pissed at your father.

  “Your point is?”

  “You’re pissed off that Nate’s more prepared than you.”

  I tried to drink some tea but it was too hot. “Remember how I said I like that you don’t sugarcoat anything?”

  “Yes.”

  “I was lying.”

  “No you weren’t. Now do your genius bit and come up with a plan.”

  “I’m fucking trying.”

  She delicately sipped her tea, not appearing the least bit ruffled. “Talk it through with me. That’s what you called me for, after all.”

  At least she’d dropped the confession idea. I started describing some possibilities to her, going around in circles at first, throwing out anything I could think of, and then slowly, things began to fall into place. I ended by saying, “It’s daring, but I think I can pull it off.”

  Valerie looked at me like I’d lost it. “It’s insane.”

  “Insane may be what we need. My father was holding me back.”

  “Your father made some mistakes—” She held up a hand when I started to interrupt. “Plenty of mistakes, but he would’ve been right to question this plan.”

  “While spending all our money on safe companies that don’t make us any profit.”

  “True, but—”

  “I’m going with this. I’ll just have to be at my most convincing, but I’ve seduced the board before.”

  Valerie raised her brows and gave me a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look.

  Was my plan too crazy? No. No more doubts.

  “Let’s go out and celebrate the win,” I suggested. “I haven’t taken you to my new favorite cocktail bar.”

  Valerie shook her head. “It’s too late. You should be in bed. I think you may have gotten delirious.”

  I glanced at my phone. “Shit! It’s 2 a.m.”

  Valerie nodded.

  “You probably meant to go to bed long before now.”

  She stood and kissed my cheek. “I’ve never minded missing sleep for you.”

  “Thank you. Not just for this, but for . . . understanding.”

  “You mean well even when you’re being an ass.”

  “What was all that about my ‘relationship’ with Nate?” Why was I probing that? The last thing I needed was Valerie on my case about wanting him, and yet I couldn’t stop myself.

  “It’s late and that’s a long conversation. Let’s have it after you beat his ass at the board meeting.” She slipped her shoes back on.

  “Will I?” I asked as we walked to the door.

  “Maybe or perhaps you’ll actually learn how to compromise.” I started to argue but she laid a finger over my lips. “Good night.”

  “Good night,” I mumbled, closing the door behind her.

  “So, if we’re the first ones to get this to market then the proceeds will be enough to get us back on track.”

  There. My whole plan laid out. I exhaled and sank back into my chair.

  No one said a word. Nate’s mouth was hanging open. I guess I did get a little manic.

  I glanced at the faces of the board members. Their expressions were just as stunned.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” I asked.

  “Is this a joke?” the board president Marsha asked. “We don’t have time for jokes.”

  “What? No. If we want to bring in more money, the answer is innovation. If we use our Research division as we should—to develop new products for our businesses to produce—we can turn things around.”

  “A flying suit? We’re not a comic book studio.”

  “It’s not for a superhero. It’s for recreational use, and—”

  “You actually expect us to consider this outrageous suggestion?”

  “Consider it. Approve it. Send me off to get working on it.”

  Marsha just glared at me.

  “You’re not entertaining his plan, are you?” I gestured toward Nate. He’d already given his proposal, which included a long list of cutbacks, changing timelines, selling off some of our recent acquisitions to cut overall expenditures. “It won’t work. The severance packages he wants to offer would break us.” I sneered at Nate. “Did you even take math in school? How could you—”

  “Enough.” Marsha’s tone said not to push her further. “Nate’s plan has a lot of good points, but it’s financially unviable. We can’t feasibly develop your . . . radically innovative ideas nor enact his warm and fuzzy ones. Cuts must be made, and we need to focus on obvious money makers.”

  “Yes, like my—”

  She shook her head. “Look, both of you are incredibly talented though in different ways.”

  “Unlike Mr. Thomas, I can do math.”

  Nate glared at me and Marsha held up her hand. “Work together. Come up with a joint plan before we meet again in two weeks. Take it seriously this time.”

  “I’m very serious,” Nate said. “I’m not laying people off and sending them—”

  Martha shook her head. “This is the real world and we can neither fly nor can we make everyone comfortable and happy. Give me a plan that can work.”

  I grabbed my bag and left without saying another word, because everything I had to say was profane and a lot of it would permanently burn bridges.

  Valerie was right. They thought I was crazy. “Goddamn it!” I slammed my fist against the wall as I stomped down the corridor.

  Wow! That fucking hurt. At least the pain gave me something to think about other than the fucking idiots on the board.

  I pushed open the door of my office and threw my bag onto a chair, not caring if my laptop survived the rough treatment. I had plenty of funds to replace it. If Kingston collapsed, I would hardly starve. I had money from my mother, money my father couldn’t give to Nate. But no matter how well off I was financially, failure wasn’t an option. If I lost Kingston, I’d no longer have a purpose, and the people I worked with, the researchers I’d brought in who shared my vision, they’d all lose their jobs.

  Then make a realistic plan.

  I wish to God I could.

  I dropped my head into my hands and tried to block out everything.

  Breathe. In. Out. In.

  Fuck! I needed to get drunk, high, thoroughly fucked, to make it all go away.

  That is not the answer.

  It’s the only one I’ve got.

  “Mr. Kingston?”

  It was my assistant, Brad. The worry on his face told me he wanted to help. He seemed sincere, but I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

  “I’m fine.”

  He raised his brows. “Can I get you anything?”

  “No, leave me alone.”

  He glanced down at the tablet he was carrying. “Should I reschedule your next meeting?”

  “Reschedule all my meetings today.”

  “Are you—”

  “Just do it!”

  He took a step back. “Yes, sir.”

  Fuck! I hadn’t meant to take my anger out on him.

  Brad returned to his desk outside my office and I slumped into my chair, dropping my head int
o my hands. What the hell was I going to do now?

  I don’t know how long I sat there with figures, innovations, and new product ideas whirling in my head, but eventually the door banged open. I jumped and looked up.

  “Stop!” Brad yelled. “Mr. Kingston isn’t available.” He appeared in the doorway behind Nate.

  Nate’s hands were fisted like he was ready to punch something, maybe me. Was that what I needed? A fight? A long, punishing fight that maybe ended in . . . Hell no! No fucking the enemy.

  Brad glared at Nate as though contemplating whether he should physically drag him from my office. I held up a hand. “It’s okay, Brad. I’ll deal with him.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I gave Nate my best imperious look. “I’m not available now. If you’d like to make an appoint—”

  “Stop the bullshit, and tell me what the fuck you were doing in that meeting.”

  Impressive. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Nate that angry. “I was trying to save this company.”

  Nate shut the door, whether for privacy or to kill me wasn’t clear.

  He started to say something and then shook his head. “This really isn’t going to work, is it?”

  “What? Us working together? I said that from the beginning.” Was he even listening to me?

  “Then we should figure out the most humane way to dissolve Kingston.”

  “Fuck, no. You should resign.”

  Nate raised his brows. “You planning to buy me out?”

  “Are you for sale?”

  He glared at me, pure hatred in his eyes. “Fuck you.”

  That might be a good way to blow off steam. I came far too close to saying that out loud.

  Nate suddenly sighed. “What are you going to do if I leave? Fire the board and bring it all burning down around you?”

  I ran a hand through my hair. “I don’t know.” Even though my plan was too radical, I had no other idea how to fix this shit, but I hadn’t meant to confess that to Nate.

  “Yeah, well I don’t know what to do either.”

  We stared at each other until I grew uncomfortable as my mind wandered to things way more pleasurable than arguing about Kingston. It didn’t help that Nate looked like he wanted exactly the same things that were racing through my mind, which made no sense.

  I tore my gaze away from Nate and looked down at the stack of papers on my desk. “I’ll write up a compromise plan tonight and I’ll send it to you. First thing tomorrow, we’ll hash through it.”

  “A compromise? From you?”

  Couldn’t he just take the peace offering and go? “Do you have a better idea?”

  “Yes, the plan I presented.”

  I shook my head. “We can’t afford it.”

  “But you thought we could fund your absurd flying suit?”

  That did it. “I’m so fucking tired of everyone thinking I’m some kind of freak because I have ideas no one understands. I’m tired of fucking pricks like you thinking I don’t care about anything—”

  “As far as I can tell, you don’t.”

  “For years, I’ve busted my ass trying to keep this company innovative. I barely sleep, some days I forget to eat. I took the research department and made it count, and you know what else I care about?”

  “What?” Nate asked.

  “I care about getting you the fuck away from my company.”

  Nate’s eyes narrowed and he took a step closer. He was angry, way fucking angry. And well built and— Oh shit. He looked ready to tear me apart.

  “I. Am. Not. Walking. Away.” He jabbed a finger at me to punctuate every word.

  Whoa. As much as I wanted to focus on the problem at hand, angry Nate was fucking hot. And so close. I took a few steps backward. Since when was I the one who retreated?

  I shoved him and he stumbled. “Are you going to fight me for Kingston? Is that your plan?”

  He fisted the front of my shirt and drove me back until I hit the wall. “You think I can’t take you down?”

  “Finding out might be fun.”

  Something like lust flared in his eyes for a second. He let go of my shirt, but he leaned in, pinning me to the wall. Anger pulsed around us. Was he going to beat me or fuck me? Did I even care?

  “Is that what you really want?” he asked. “A fight?”

  I couldn’t breathe. I was half hard. Part of me wanted to kiss him, but my brain told me to push him away and run. I shook my head.

  He smiled but it didn’t soften his expression at all. “I didn’t think so.”

  I’m not sure which of us moved first, but suddenly we were kissing and God it was good. Nate’s mouth was warm, his tongue slick as it slid along mine. He cupped my face to keep me where he wanted me, but getting away was the last thing on my mind, because apparently my desire for him wasn’t as one-sided as I’d thought.

  I grabbed his ass and pulled him closer. He fit perfectly in my hands, and his muscles were so fucking firm. How much time did he spend working out?

  I should’ve broken away and told him to stop, told him I didn’t want anything to do with him. But my cock was too fucking hard for me to deny what I was feeling, and I was too into the pleasure of the moment to voice any bullshit excuses. Nate seemed just as far gone. He rubbed against me and his firm body, all of that power, had me ready to beg.

  Then Nate pushed at my shoulders and my head hit the wall. He stared at me, as he sucked in big, ragged breaths.

  I couldn’t get any air at all. Nate fucking Thomas had kissed me . . . or kissed me back. Either way I could hardly believe it.

  His expression hardened. “You know my secret, and now I know yours. Don’t fuck with me again.”

  He turned and walked out.

  I brushed my thumb over my stinging lips as I stood there, watching him go. “So much for you being the nice one.”

  What the fuck did he mean? Had he kissed me just so he’d have something on me? Did he not want me after all? That was a fucking humiliating thought. Would he really out me if I didn’t go along with his plan?

  Fucking bastard!

  I’d been sure Nate hated me so I shouldn’t have been surprised by his threat. But his kiss told me he wanted me too, as badly as I wanted him. He hadn’t been faking that.

  As if things hadn’t already been bad enough, knowing we wanted to fuck each other as much as we wanted to fight wasn’t going to help us compromise.

  And now I was supposed to write up some plan we could both agree to. If I’d known how to do that, I would’ve presented it to the board today.

  Maybe we should spin off the Environmental division but include some other areas I didn’t deal with directly. If we ended up with two more profitable, easier-to-manage, smaller companies, would Nate agree? This plan would lower overhead for Kingston, and I’d get Nate out of my hair. Financial recovery and independence: exactly what I wanted. So why not?

  As my idea coalesced, I began frantically typing up notes. Moments turned into hours, and I stayed up most of the night working on my proposal.

  He’s never going to go for it.

  It’s not like he’s got a better idea.

  I considered calling Valerie, but she would just tell me this was another fake compromise. Was it though? Nate would get an awesome deal by having his own company, right?

  Hopefully he would agree. One way or another, we’d see the next day.

  I was sitting in my office late the next morning, staring at a model of the flight suit I wanted to work on, but not really seeing it. Columns of figures flashed through my mind, the ones that told me we were losing money so fast we wouldn’t be able to keep afloat for long. I’d spent most of the morning on the phone, talking to various division presidents, none of whom had any good news for me.

  More fuck ups. More delays. Should I fire everyone and start over? I sighed. What was I going to do? I was in way over my head. My dad had been right, and I hated admitting that, even to myself. I didn’t have the business background I needed to run th
e company. I was a scientist and that’s what I wanted to be.

  You could actually listen to the board and do what they suggest.

  But they never say things I like to hear.

  You’re so fucking spoiled.

  I had nothing to say to my conscience about that. I was, and that wasn’t likely to change.

  My phone rang. It was Nate. I braced myself before answering.

  “Adam Kingston.”

  “How the fuck is the Enviro division supposed to work without the resources from Corporate Research?”

  “No greeting? Not a simple hello or good morning?”

  “Answer my question,” he demanded. “While our own researchers might take care of our short-term development, we rely on the Research division for our long-range innovation and the equipment that doesn’t fit our budget.”

  “You’ll find a solution or you’ll hire the work out.”

  “With what capital?”

  Why was he so fucking exasperating? “That will be for you to decide.”

  “This proposal is nothing but bullshit. Do you even know what a compromise is?”

  “Compromise my ass. You do that shit to me and walk out, and you think I’m going to work hard to make you happy?”

  “Do that? You mean kiss you? Don’t act like that wasn’t mutual.”

  I snorted. “I’m not the one who walked away.”

  “Fine, you won’t talk to me. I’ll just come up with a better plan.”

  I rolled my eyes. “As if you can.”

  “I’ll have it to you by the end of the day.”

  Nate got a proposal to me as promised, one that I was never going to agree to. He hadn’t reserved enough funds for innovations and had made only slight cuts in our unproductive areas. I spent all day and into the evening altering his plan. I accepted about twenty-five percent of it, barely able to stomach that, and then sent it back.

  I expected to hear back from him quickly, probably a tirade about what an ass I was. I didn’t care that it was now close to ten thirty. If I was working, Nate could be too. Patience has never been one of my virtues, and I’d waited long enough, so I called him. He didn’t answer his phone. Was he blowing me off? Hell no, that was not going to happen.