by Claire Adams
“It was good,” Andrew said, nodding. “We're well ahead of our internal production goals for the month, and we're on track to return record profits.” I could tell that there was something more to those record profits, but he didn't expand on it. Instead, he watched Emma for a moment, a smile on his face. “Emma, darling, would you mind if I stole Mommy away for a night?”
Emma looked curiously between the two of us and then frowned. “Why?” she asked.
“Because I thought that you and Janice might want to decorate some cookies and surprise us,” Andrew said, winking over at me.
Emma gave him a long-suffering look. “Daddy, it's not a surprise if you already know about it,” she said matter-of-factly, and I had to stifle a laugh.
“Indeed,” Andrew said, grinning over at me. “Then I guess you're just going to have to think of a new surprise with Janice.”
“Okay!” Emma cried, jumping to her feet and tearing out of the room.
I raised an eyebrow at Andrew. “You're stealing me away for the night?” I asked.
“I figured it had been a while since you'd had some time off from Emma,” Andrew said. “And it's been a while since I did something that wasn't work or hanging out with you and Emma. So, I thought that, just maybe, we might both benefit from an adults-only fun night.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering exactly what he was suggesting. We had barely touched since the night we'd slept together again, and I wasn't sure how to bridge the space that seemed to lurk between us. I wasn't sure what Andrew was thinking, if he didn't want to bridge that space or if he also wasn't sure how. It seemed like he had plans for us tonight, though.
“I made dinner reservations,” he finally elaborated. “It's nothing quite as fancy as our first date. I just wanted something a bit more relaxed. I hope that's okay.”
“That sounds great,” I said. I looked down at my jeans and the old t-shirt that I had on for painting with Emma earlier in the day. “I guess I should shower and get changed.”
“You have plenty of time,” Andrew promised. “Our reservation isn't until seven.”
“Cool,” I said, pushing myself to my feet.
I showered and then stared into my closet, wondering what I should wear. Andrew had said casual, but I knew that when he said “casual,” he didn't mean the sort of casual I would have meant in the same situation. A casual date for him meant that I didn't need to wear a full-length gown, but it definitely didn't mean jeans would be okay.
Fortunately, he'd handed me a credit card and sent me shopping a couple weeks ago, claiming that all my clothes made me look like a homeless person or a college student. That wasn't the kind of role model he wanted for Emma.
I'd been defensive about my clothing at first, but when he pointed out that nearly everything I owned was stained and/or had holes in it, I'd had to admit that he was probably right. I could use a few new outfits. I still felt weird about the outing, but Misty and I had had a lot of fun trying to figure out what kinds of clothes would be appropriate for my style makeover, so I couldn't really complain.
I finally settled on a lacy white shirt and flowing, knee-length green skirt. The skirt hugged my curves, and I figured the outfit as a whole would be appropriate for whatever we were about to do, especially paired with that soft tan cardigan that Misty had picked out and the matching tan oxfords that I'd had forever.
I clipped back my hair and then I bit my lip as I looked at myself in the mirror. I could hardly recognize myself, but it wasn't a bad thing. In fact, I kind of liked it. I only hoped that Andrew was appreciative of my efforts.
When I came hesitantly downstairs, Andrew was waiting in the front hall. His eyes widened as he took in my appearance. “You look really cute,” he told me, pulling me into his arms.
It was the first real touch that I'd had from him in a few days, and I leaned into the hug, smiling easily at him. “Thanks,” I said. “You look good, too.”
And he did, dressed in his khaki shorts and a plaid, button-down shirt, his hair tousled to perfection. The outfit did nothing to obscure the muscles that I'd seen on him the other day when I'd walked in on him. For a moment, I wondered if we even had to go on a date, or if we should just go upstairs and have our way with one another instead.
But Andrew pulled away from our hug and held open the front door for me, leading me out and to his car. We had a nice dinner at a seafood restaurant on the lake, and as promised, the place was nowhere near as fancy as that first date we'd gone on. It was still nice, and the food was great.
It was what came after dinner, though, that really shocked me.
“This isn't the way home,” I commented, looking out the window and then looking quizzically at Andrew.
“No,” he agreed. “Emma's probably already in bed, so there's no reason to head home already. Janice is all right with watching her until midnight.”
I frowned. “What are we going to do until midnight?” I asked.
“You'll see,” Andrew said mysteriously.
We pulled up at the airport, and I raised an eyebrow at him. “You wanted me to learn the history of the Boeing Company?” I asked him.
Andrew laughed. “We're not here for the museum,” he said. “Come on.”
He led me past a line of hangars and out toward the runway, his hand warm at the small of my back. He stopped us in front of a sleek silver jet. “There are some perks to being a billionaire, and this is one of them,” he told me, smiling up at the plane.
I blinked. “You have your own jet?”
Of course, it made sense. I knew that he went to business meetings all around the world. But I supposed I'd picture him flying first-class on standard commercial flights.
“I have my own jet,” Andrew agreed, nodding. “I generally only use it for short-haul flights or for vacations, though. Let me show you inside.”
We climbed up into the plane, into what felt more like a living room than the interior of a jet. I shook my head, still marveling at it. I wondered why he had brought me here. Was this just another obnoxious display of his wealth?
Andrew knocked on the door leading to the cockpit and then opened it, leading me up there. “Captain Phillips and Mr. Daniels, good to see you,” he greeted warmly, shaking hands with the pilot and co-pilot. Then, he beckoned me forward. “This is Lexi Jordan. She'll be accompanying me on this flight tonight.”
“Very good,” Captain Phillips said. “I trust the two of you can get yourselves all ready for takeoff? The bird's ready to go whenever you are.”
“Excellent,” Andrew said, nodding. “I appreciate that.” He led me back into the living room area. “We'll need to be strapped in for takeoff, but I'll show you the rest of the plane once we're in the air. How does that sound?”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
As much as I liked the spontaneity of this date, at the same time, I couldn't help thinking about Emma, back home in Andrew's mansion. I knew, of course, that she'd be fine with Janice, but I'd never left her alone overnight before.
“Don't worry. Like I told you, we'll be back by midnight so that Janice can go home to her family,” Andrew said, accurately sussing out my worry, but not answering the question that I'd actually asked.
“But where are we going?” I repeated.
Andrew shrugged. “Just for a flight,” he said. “Trust me.”
“Okay,” I said, settling back against my seat and buckling my seatbelt. Sure enough, this is just another display of wealth. I sighed internally, barely refraining from rolling my eyes.
Once we were airborne, Andrew unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up, holding out a hand for me. I followed him toward the back of the living room area. What could be beyond the door leading into the rear of the plane? Not that I really cared. There was probably just a mini bar or a party room or something. A place to entertain his dates.
It turned out that I wasn't very far off with that one. In the room, a large bed took up most of the available space. I burst out lau
ghing.
“I figured that as a billionaire, I should be able to offer at least one novel place to have sex,” Andrew said, grinning at me as his fingers traced my side. “Unless, of course, you're not interested.”
My laughter died quickly as he pulled me snug against him, his hand firm against my ass. I whimpered involuntarily as he kissed me heatedly.
“Please,” I begged in a whisper as he pulled away.
A smile broke out on his face, and he took a step back, slowly beginning to strip. I hurriedly followed his lead.
“Don't worry about making noise,” he told me. “There's soundproofing between the cockpit and back here. Plus, the engines are noisy to begin with.” He looked at me with eyes already gone lusty and dark. “I want to hear you.”
I made a soft sound at that, unable to help it. Andrew smiled encouragingly and tipped me back onto the surprisingly soft mattress, before crawling up to join me.
From there, he began to tease me, working me slowly over into ecstasy. It seemed that his hands were everywhere at once, stroking along my sides and swirling across my breasts, fingers finding their way between my legs and then dancing nimbly away again.
Even when he finally breached my folds, he moved with agonizing patience, manipulating my pleasure zone until I sobbed wordlessly with the need for something more.
He fucked into me with the same slow movements. No matter how I clung to his hips, no matter how I rocked my own hips into his, no matter what I did in my attempts to spur him on, he continued to move with measured restraint.
“Please,” I begged.
“Louder,” he growled, kissing my neck and bosom.
“Please,” I repeated, louder this time.
But it evidently wasn't enough to satisfy him. He continued to move maddeningly slowly, although his thrusts became harder, until I could feel the fullness of him throbbing in every inch of my core, impaling me on its hot length.
“Please, please, please,” I sobbed. “Andrew!”
As though that were the key to unlocking my pleasure, he began to thrust into me with earnest, all restraint forgotten. I could barely breathe from his powerful motions, but I didn't protest. Instead, I clung to him, my fingers digging into his skin, no doubt leaving desperate marks there. Neither of us cared just then.
I rocked with him, lost in a world of desire and pleasure. Sparks of lust sizzled through my blood. I hovered right on the edge of orgasm for what felt like an eternity, helplessly calling out a litany of pleas, intermixed with awe-filled cries of his name.
I wasn't sure who orgasmed first, whether it was me or him, but we finally stilled, caught up in shimmering bliss. Andrew gave a few final, slow thrusts as almost an afterthought before he pulled out and collapsed next to me. He pulled me close, gently smoothing down my hair and then kissing me.
“Wow,” was all I could say.
Andrew chuckled, but he sounded just as blown away as I was. “Yeah,” he said, shaking his head.
I grinned, proud that I'd been able to get him to sound like that.
Andrew continued to hold me there in the bed for the rest of the flight, until we had landed at the airport, even though I was sure that we were probably supposed to put on our seatbelts once we began our descent. All too soon, it was back to reality. But I clung to the memories of that night, from the dinner-date to the “dessert.”
Maybe things with Andrew and I would work out after all.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Andrew
I drummed my fingers on my desk, running through the meeting's agenda and mentally preparing myself for the questions that I knew would be coming. I sighed and pushed back my chair, making myself a quick cup of tea before I went into the conference room. Everyone was already there.
It's going to take a while before they quit expecting to be fired over every little thing, I thought, knowing that they were probably all here early because they were afraid that if they showed up after me, I'd fire them on the spot. That wasn't the plan for today, though.
“Good morning, everyone,” I greeted them, sitting at the head of the table. “Let's get started. Now, I know that many of you are wondering why we've gathered here today. Don't worry; we're not here to discuss the mid-quarter numbers, although they are looking very impressive. I can see that you are all thinking about those internal goals and about everything that we talked about in our last meeting.”
There was a murmur of assent around the table.
“As some of you may have noticed, I've been working from home a lot more lately,” I continued. “I've decided to begin changing my management strategy.” I could see looks of surprise around the table. “It's come to my attention that I've micromanaged this company for far too long. And although that has obviously yielded results, I think it's time for me to begin to take a step back from things.”
One of the men seated to my left frowned at me. His name was Tom, and he'd been with the company since my father had started it, way back when. He asked the question that I knew they were all thinking. “Are you retiring?”
I laughed. “I'm too young to retire,” I told him. “What would I do with myself? That would be a lot of time to kill. Besides, I don't have someone to take my place at the moment. Although I appreciate all that each of you does for the company, you all work in your own departments more often than not. The person who will eventually replace me will be someone who has experience bringing together the work of all those different departments.”
There were some nods around the table, and even though I knew most, if not all, of my employees feared me, there were a number of them who looked relieved. They were probably worried that if I left the company, there would be layoffs and other big changes to the company structure, more than anything else.
“The thing is, the more I micromanage you, the less you have the opportunity to show me that this company could, in fact, exist without me,” I said, folding my hands in front of me. “The reason why you've all been working in your own specific departments is because that's the way that I've forced you to work. You're all very talented, but I haven't given you the opportunities to prove yourselves.”
“You make it sound like you're going to pit us head-to-head with one another and award the company to the last man standing,” someone quipped.
I smiled as there were a few nervous chuckles around the table. “That's not the plan,” I promised. “However, I am planning to start scaling back my hours, effective immediately. I will continue to work from home some days, but there will also be days when I don't work at all.” I paused. “I don't plan to drastically cut back on how much I'm working, but I will be giving you all a lot more independence, and I'll need everyone to step up to the plate.”
There was silence around the table. Everyone looked like they were processing this news.
“And if we don't step up to the plate, we get fired?” Jack asked.
I remembered that he was the man who had almost gotten himself fired in the previous meeting, and I barely managed to suppress a smile.
“That's not what I'm saying,” I told him, looking around the table and meeting everyone's eyes so that they'd see how sincere I was. I shrugged. “We'll try this out for a little while, maybe just one quarter or maybe for a few quarters. We'll see how it affects our numbers, if at all. If things don't seem to be working, I'll step back in. But we'll discuss that, as a team, when we get to the point.”
The emphasis on “as a team” shocked them.
“So essentially, you are planning to retire soon?” Bob asked. “You just want to make sure the company will be all right without you when you do?”
“That's not it,” I said firmly.
“Then why?” someone asked, sounding absolutely baffled.
I shrugged. “As I said, I feel as though I haven't given you the chance to show me what you can really do, to achieve your full potential,” I told them. “That's all there is to it.”
That wasn't all there was to it, of course. Not
by a long shot. What it really boiled down to was that I wanted to spend more time with Lexi and Emma. That was why I'd begun working from home more and more. The more I worked from home, and the more I spent my lunches with them, the less motivated I felt to go back to work for the afternoon.
And it would be nice to leave the office early once in a while so that I could go home and have dinner with the two of them, or take Lexi on dates in the evenings without making Janice stay over too late.
But of course, I wasn't about to tell that to my executive board. They would think that I was getting soft, or that I was putting my personal life ahead of my work. I couldn't have them thinking that.
Even though the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that really was the truth of it. For the first time in my life, there was something that I cared about more than my work or making more money. I wanted Orinoco to continue to thrive, but I also wanted my relationship with Lexi and Emma to thrive.
I stood up before they could ask any more questions. “I trust that you'll all let me know if you have any troubles with the new arrangement,” I told them, even though I had a hard time believing that they actually would. I had never strived to be an approachable boss, and that could come back to bite me in the ass now.
So let it, I thought. If things went bad, we'd reassess in a few quarters, just like I'd told them we would. We'd figure out where to go from there. But for now, it was time I did something for me.
I nodded at them and adjourned the meeting. I returned to my office just in time to receive a call from Katherine.
I smiled as I picked up the receiver. “Hey, sis.”
“Hey!” Katherine said, sounding surprised. “You sound happy.”
“So do you,” I countered.
“I'm in Paris; what's your excuse?” she asked. I could practically hear her rolling her eyes.
“Actually, I just told my executive board that I'm going to be working fewer hours, and that they're going to have to start managing on their own more often,” I admitted, knowing that she'd be pleased to hear that.