Double-Cross My Heart Read Free Page B

his respect, but he was most won over by the straight-arrow truth in her. Unlike a lot of people, she held to an ethical standard. Even as he acknowledged the thought, Alex recognized the irony. He liked her ethics…and he was here to get her to do something he knew would be contrary to her ethics. At least, that’s how she might see it.
    Hopefully, she’d take a bigger view. If she could see that business was business and his taking over Michele Cosmetics was simply a good money decision, she might not go postal on him.
    Alex very much wanted to stay connected to her. He enjoyed her company more than any woman he’d dated and he wanted her with a fierceness that left him aching. He normally didn’t sleep much, but with her there next to him, he wouldn’t mind the waking hours in the night.
    Eden shook her head slowly, not answering Alex’s direct question. “I’m not going to work for my uncle. There are…conflicts. Problems there that are not be solvable.”
    Swirling the liquid in his glass, Alex said, “This past month you’ve given Michele the time to realize her screw-up in appointing Wendi as her successor, even if she is sleeping with Wendi’s uncle. You’ve also tried to find other jobs in your line of work. What’s next?”
    “I don’t know,” she admitted tiredly, her chin sinking into her cupped hand.
    Alex waited, his brain almost unwillingly alert to every nuance of her expression. Normally at this moment, he felt his senses grow razor-sharp, sensing his opponents wavering. How long had he been in this business of making a profit on other people’s failure? It had grown to be a familiar role.
    Eden looked up then, smiling at him. “Let’s not talk about my shitty boss or my revenge fantasies anymore. Tell me about your niece’s basketball game last night. Did she win?”
    “They lost six to eight,” he told her, resisting the impulse to haul her over the table and make hot, hungry love to her. Distraction was a good thing, he’d found. But instead of making a scene for Emiliano’s customers, he said, “Tell me about your revenge fantasies.”
    Her smile grew lopsided. “You must be tired of hearing about the crap at my work.”
    Alex said honestly, “No. I’m interested in things that affect you. Besides, you never know where a fantasy might lead you….”
    He grinned. “Tell me how you’d revenge yourself on Michele Broussard.”
    Eden’s face lit up in answering laughter and then grew more somber. “I’ve had chances over the years to sell her formulas. We’re a small, niche company compared to the cosmetics giants, but every now and then I’ve been approached to ‘assist’ other companies by giving them access to Michele’s proprietary information. But I wouldn’t do that.”
    “Selling her formulas,” he mused, nodding. “That would be one way to pay her back. How else could we make her feel your pain? Talk to me. It’ll be therapeutic.”
    She sighed, a somber expression on her face. “Like I said. There aren’t a lot of good options. The straight-forward method would be taking a hit out on her and Wendi, but I don’t think I can hide the cash trail.”
    The tone of her voice was flippant enough to tell him she’d never use violence, but he saw the grim light in her eyes. For a moment, he wished he were just her boyfriend. Simple and uncomplicated. In that scenario, he’d whisk her off to his apartment, take her in his arms and make love to her until dawn—no thought of business, no need to tempt her into anything more than sleeping with him.
    Eden said, almost to herself, “The board would have to appoint me CEO then, and I don’t think they’d hesitate because there’s no one else at the top who could possibly do the job. Sol Klineman knows my work. He and Sarah Briggs and A. R. Reynolds. Michele would find herself ousted from the company she founded.”
    She fell silent then, her gaze brooding on the glass in front of her.
    Watching Eden, Alex knew