Boardroom Proposal

by Way, Margaret

  Belatedly, Eve tried to retrieve the situation. “As a matter of fact I admire you greatly. I couldn’t ask for a more inspiring boss. I thoroughly enjoy working for you. It’s a challenge. I don’t think we should continue this discussion, my tongue is running away with me.”

  “I should ply you with wine more often,” he replied dryly. “Now perhaps you can direct me from now on. I’m lost once we get past this bridge.”

  They arrived outside Eve’s apartment block at the same time Ben swung into the driveway.

  Ben saw Eve and the well-known Drew Forsythe standing beside a beautiful late-model Jaguar and swung towards them in his friendly fashion.

  “Hi!”

  “It’s my brother, Ben,” Eve said as Ben approached.

  “Good. I wanted to meet him.”

  Eve made the introductions and the two shook hands. “It’s good of you to drop Evie home,” Ben said. “I don’t suppose you heard the story of her Laser?”

  “As a matter of fact I did.” Drew Forsythe flashed his heart-stopping white smile. “I think we can run to a work car, especially when overtime is part of the job.”

  “Say that would be great!” Ben said, his tone amazed. “Look, can I get a job there?”

  “Eve tells me you’re studying medicine?”

  “In between stints at McDonald’s,” Ben laughed. “I’ve got a few years to go yet, but I’ve wanted to be a doctor ever since I can remember.”

  “With Eve by your side I know you’re going to make it. Well, time to go.” Drew lifted a hand, moved back to the driver’s side of the Jaguar. “Nice to meet you, Ben. Early start tomorrow, Eve.”

  “I won’t be late.”

  “Gosh, isn’t he bloody something,” Ben marvelled after Drew had driven off. “I mean, I’ve seen him, but the whole package!”

  “Pretty impressive,” Eve agreed dryly.

  “I wonder what he made of our humble abode?” Ben turned to look back at the apartment block.

  “He’s not a snob. I’ve seen him being utterly charming to the cleaning ladies.”

  “Now that’s class.” Ben dropped his hand on his sister’s shoulder, turning her towards their ground-floor unit. “Did I hear him right, offering a car?”

  “Probably he’s thrilled to have me for an assistant,” Eve joked. “Executive assistant. Actually, we had dinner.”

  “You what?” Ben stared down into his sister’s face. “My girl, you’d better guard your virtue with your life.”

  “Now why do you say that?” Eve walked ahead, taking out her door keys and inserting the master key into the lock. “You were the one who defended him, remember?”

  “I was only having a bit of fun, Eve. Lighten up. All I meant is, he’s one hell of a guy. So you got to go to dinner. What else?”

  Eve put her handbag down on the hall table close to the front door. “I met his ex-wife.”

  “That was pretty cool.” Ben locked the door behind them. “You mean, they’re still friends?”

  “On the contrary she’s a beautiful tortured soul. Wait until I get changed and I’ll tell you the rest.”

  “Thanks, but I can’t wait,” Ben called after her. “You mean, there was drama?”

  Eve turned back, reliving the moment. “Actually she inferred Drew and I were lovers.”

  “Gawd!” Ben moved to a sofa and flopped into it. “I’d like to have been there.”

  “Talk about a shock.” Eve divested herself of her jacket and sat down beside him.

  “I’d better brace myself,” Ben said wryly. “There’s more?”

  Eve bit her cushiony underlip. “He was upset after. A little on the dark side. She didn’t have dinner with us. Jamie was supposed to come, but a phone call from his mother sent him packing. The ex-Mrs. Forsythe was dining with friends. Her birthday, from what I can gather. She stopped at our table on the way out.”

  “What an enterprising thing to do,” Ben remarked. “Seems like she upset you, too.”

  “She did.” Eve nodded her head. “I felt sorry for her. She still loves him.”

  “Of course she does.” Ben gave a long sigh. “Hell, she’ll probably love him until the day she dies, but obviously it didn’t work out.”

  “It couldn’t have been her fault,” Eve said grimly.

  “There speaks the little feminist. Matter of fact, a guy I know, when I told him you landed the job at TCR, told me she’s a real bitch. All her pals are in. All the rest of us are out of it. Kevin Carson is her dad. You know, Carson Constructions. Word is he’s not a terribly nice guy.”

  “But filthy rich.”

  “Yes, isn’t it awful, but not top drawer like your Drew. Though as it turns out, he’s not so different to the rest of us. He makes mistakes.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  TO EVE moving dreamlike in Drew’s and the forest ranger’s wake, it was like being alive at the dawn of creation. The noon sun was blazing on the rainforest canopy but one hundred and fifty feet below on the forest floor it was like a shadowy green ocean filled with the most beautiful soft sea grasses, trillions of exquisite little ferns that sprouted from everywhere forming a delicate almost translucent carpet.

  Dressed in yellow jeans with a sleeveless white top lightweight sneakers on her feet, Eve kept to the narrow path, doing her level best to obey their guide’s instructions not to touch anything. Easier said than done where one had the irresistible urge to stroke a particular fantastic leaf or cup a waxy white orchid in the hand. The atmosphere in the forest was very warm, very humid very green. Greenness clung to her nostrils. That and a kind of primeval woodiness. It seemed to come not so much from the forest giants as the preponderance of enormously thick vines that hung down from the treetops like giant ropes.

  Tarzan would have had the time of his life here, Eve smiled to herself and began fanning her heated face with her wide-brimmed straw hat. Her whole body was dewed with sweat, it was that humid. So pervasive was the atmosphere she felt if she stood in place she, too, would start sprouting ferns and the beautiful epiphytic orchids that gave this ancient holy place its special atmosphere Some of the most beautiful orchids, the lavender, the purple, the soft yellow, lime green, orange and white grew very high up cascading their strongly scented flowers in spectacular six-foot drifts.

  The plant life was overwhelming. There were distinct layers of secondary trees, all thrusting ever upwards to the great energy source: the light. Tree ferns rivalled these saplings for height, spreading their great feathery crowns. Cycads abounded, luxuriant coiling vines, mosses, lichens, areas of the most extraordinary fungi, exotic fleshy white objects growing out of the rich dark humus. There wasn’t a square inch that wasn’t covered in plant life. From these plants medicines could be developed. The aborigines had known for thousands of years the curative, hallucinogenic and deadly properties of certain trees, plants and shrubs. They had developed their own oils and potions. This wondrous diverse plant life could be used for the benefit of man. Their project filled her with excitement, never more so than here in the great rainforest. It was a project she could believe in and run with.

  Up ahead, dressed in similar fashion to herself, jeans and a bush shirt, his sleek dark head uncovered, Drew was in deep conversation with the ranger. They had arrived by charter flight that morning, booking into their bungalow-style resort before catching up with the tour she herself had organised. Behind her, fascinated by the great size of the staghorns and elkhorns was Jack, who Eve now regarded as a friend. Jack had sent her copious material assembled by his staff and somehow Eve had managed to wade through it, always a quick study, absorbing a great deal of information in a very short time. Something that pleased Jack enormously, so he began to see himself as mentor, she his disciple. Even Drew, who Eve had found worked longer and harder than any of his staff, had taken time off to congratulate her. Though she would never had believed it if someone had suggested it that first day, an inner communication had developed between them that had a depth far beyond the spoken
word. Although in a sense Drew Forsythe, through the sheer strength and vibrancy of his personality, had invaded what Eve thought of as her private space, it had been a truly exciting and rewarding experience. She was, she realised, beginning to lose her “fears” about him.

  It was astonishing in its way. Years and years of building defences. A few short weeks to knock them down.

  Fifteen minutes on, Drew and the ranger came back to her, the ranger responding to Jack’s excited call.

  “How’s it going?” Drew allowed his dark eyes to rest on her lovely heat-slicked skin, that somehow contrived to give her a very sexy look. Her high cheekbones were touched with peach bloom, her eyes as fresh and green as the leaves, gold hair pulled up and away from her face. Her hairline, like his, was dewed with sweat. She looked a vastly different girl from the one he had first laid eyes on. More alive. More vibrant. Above all, relaxed, as though inside of her emotional fronds were unfurling.

  “It would take a couple of lifetimes to see all this,” she said, raising her arms to encompass the green world around them.

  “And we’re in for another adventure,” he said lightly, “Gary is taking us back through the forest margin where all the butterflies hang out. The lantana there grows in great sprawling masses. Apparently the butterflies just love the nectar. They get drunk on it.”

  “That would be something to see.” Eve glanced briefly at her watch. “Don’t forget you have your appointment at two-thirty.”

  He nodded. “And time gets away. Look at Jack. Isn’t he in his element.”

  Well ahead of them now, Jack was enthusiastically pointing out a rainforest phenomenon known as cauli-flory where flowers developed all over the trunks and the thick branches of the trees. The forest giant he was admiring was decorated with large bunches of white flowers for easily fifty or sixty feet of the giant trunk.

  “I’ve enjoyed this trip enormously.” Eve gave a sigh of pure satisfaction. “The whole feel of the place, the essence No wonder Mrs. Garratt is a great lover of the land. And its our job to convince her we mean it no harm.”

  “Of course not.”

  Drew smiled and touched her shoulder. “Better move on, I suppose. I’d like to get a bite to eat before I meet with Will Dawson. I need him on site to reopen our old copper and gold mine at Mount Maratta.”

  Resigned to the fact it was time to go, Eve moved along the narrow track startled and delighted by the abrupt flight of a brilliant blue, orange and scarlet bird. It darted out of a giant fig, throwing a brilliant splash of colour in the green gloom before becoming invisible again in the dense leaves.

  “What was that? A kingfisher?” Eve turned a rapt face to him, throwing out a hand. In the next instant she was caught up from behind, her shock enormous as Drew’s strong arms locked around her dragging her back against him. “Lord, that was close!” His tone was uncharacteristically harsh.

  Eve couldn’t cover up. She couldn’t even move. To be in his arms paralysed her. Didn’t he realise one of his hands was almost caressing her breast?

  She couldn’t seem to catch her breath as multiple sensations began to whip her round, tearing at her flesh like sharp little hooks. She was beginning to have feelings. Such feelings that had never been there before. Feelings like she was dissolving in a mix of raw longing and terror. She could smell the wonderful masculine scent of him, feel his clean breath brush her skin, the warmth of his flesh, thighs and strong legs. She couldn’t handle this any more than she could staunch the violent flow of emotion. She wasn’t accustomed to hot rushes of feeling. She who had been so numb for so long.

  Drew, too, felt the fiery jolt of their close body contact. Shocked, as desire cut into him with the sharp thrust of a knife. Experienced as he was, he was fighting the compulsive urge to run his hands over the exquisite contours of her breasts, so clearly visible through her light clingy top. He had glimpsed this urge in him before. The urge to touch her. This young woman who was known and unknown to him. This clever girl as innocent as a novice. This Eve who for some reason was weeping inside.

  He gave a brief laugh that seemed to work. “Even in this wonderful place there are hazards,” he pointed out, releasing her before she bolted like a wild thing. “That plant you almost touched is the Stinging Tree. See the leaves and stems? Those stiff little hairs are full of poison. They break off at the slightest touch, injecting the skin. The result is a lot of pain and effects that can last for up to a month. As it happens, I need you on deck.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” Eve shuddered in a kind of release.

  The effort she made to appear normal after that moment of unbearable intimacy was touching and gallant. It made him admire her. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  “No.” She dropped her eyes. Even more terrible, his protective grasp had opened up some great cavern in her letting in brilliant light.

  “I know what we’ll do.” His beautiful dark eyes almost embraced her. “I’ll walk ahead and you follow me. That’s right.” He glanced back at her with approval. “By the way, you missed an amethyst python a few yards back.”

  Spontaneous in her reaction, Eve pitched forward to clasp him around the waist. “What a horrible time to tell me.”

  “I like it when you go all feminine.” He grinned at her, little brackets of amusement at the side of his disturbing mouth. “You can hang on until we get out of here, if you like.”

  “I can’t believe what a tease you are,” Eve said. Then miraculously, with a smile, “All right. I will.”

  On the forest margins they delayed for ten minutes watching the gorgeous display of butterflies that flitted in great numbers in and out of the great masses of flowering pink lantana in a kaleidoscope of colour and beating wings. Introduced from South America, the plant had gone wild in the tropics, dominating the edges of the forest in near-impenetrable towering cascades. Glorious iridescent blue Ulysses delighted the eye, spectacular red Lacewings, common jezebels with their vivid undersides, orange cruisers, the giant male Birdwing with its eight-inch wing span. They were there. Too fragile. So beautiful. “For some reason the birds leave them alone,” Gary, their guide explained. “Funny that, when most birds hunt all manner of insects.”

  “Maybe it has something to do with the rapidity of their flight,” Drew suggested. “The zigzag pattern.”

  “Maybe as beautiful as they are they don’t taste so good.” Eve smiled, her big straw hat shading her green eyes. Such happiness was spreading through her it scared her.

  “Well, the spiders love them,” their guide answered laconically. “It’s hot, isn’t it?” He ran a hand through his thick thatch of hair staring up at a cloudless peacock blue sky. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t have a corker of a late storm.”

  While Drew went off to his meeting and Jack took the opportunity to visit a friend, Eve walked to the village to do some sightseeing and maybe a little shopping. Even in late February with one minor cyclone after another forming in the Coral Sea, holding for a few days then mercifully blowing out to sea, she found the whole experience tremendously exciting. and bred in subtropical Brisbane still hadn’t prepared her for the extraordinary brilliance of the landscapes north of Capricorn, the marvellous juxtaposition of the sea, the wonder of the Great Barrier Reef, the luxuriant jungles and river valleys.

  No predatory tigers had stalked them in the rainforest but up here the armoured monsters that had survived the dinosaurs, the crocodiles, made their presence felt in rivers and creeks. Then again much of the atmosphere had to do with the volatile mix of races, the Italians who had made such a tremendous contribution to the sugar industry, the Spaniards, the Greeks, her own people of British stock, the Scandinavians, the Yugoslavs, the Chinese and the descendants of the Kanakas cruelly blackbirded in the previous century from their Melanesian homes to work the sugar fields. Not so visible, seeming always dwelling on the fringe, were the original inhabitants of the continent, the aborigines like dark gentle souls moving in and out of the large
r society waiting for the day when there would be full recognition of their rights.

  The light, too, was mystical, magical, rolling over the lush landscape, the endless variety of greens lit by all the glory of the flowering trees and shrubs. No wonder so many artists came to live here, Eve thought. It would be a kind of ecstasy to be surrounded by so many landscapes, seascapes, and subjects to paint.

  The tropics was a place where life seethed. Even the birds shrieked in abandon, not hiding themselves as they did in the forest but extraordinarily visible and tame. Eve had expected a flock of brilliantly enamelled lorikeets to take to the wing as she neared them but they remained in place picking the choicest grass seeds.

  For an hour or more she wandered around the village, admiring the arts and crafts that were on display, visiting a marvellous little boutique that specialised in resort clothes and glowing hand-painted sarongs. Just the thing for around the pool. This thrill of happiness was new to her. Working for Drew Forsythe had opened up a new world. In a way it was like a thread of destiny. An unbreakable thread, it seemed. The more she tried to remain inside her own skin the more she was drawn to him. There was something utterly captivating about him as tough and masculine as he undoubtedly was. A charm, an animation, the dry deep vein of humour that made everybody laugh. She had never laughed with her old boss at Pearce Musgrave. The occasion had never arisen.

  Complete with a few purchases, she was returning to the bus that would take her back to their resort when she noticed a frail-looking, beautifully dressed, elderly lady having trouble with her frisky little King Charles spaniel. Always ready to come to a needy person’s aid, Eve quickened her pace. The lady, short silver hair, dressed all in white, white linen trousers and a loose matching shirt, was speaking firmly to the exuberant little dog, trying to call it to order.

  “Stay, Suki,” she said. “Stay.”

  Suki had no such intention. He had come into the village with his mistress, now he intended to have a good time. Although the lady tightened her hold on its lead, it scampered free, racing merrily along the colourful lined footpath before deciding to check out across the road.