“How can I help you?” the woman asked, her nasal voice matching the way she looked down her patrician nose at us.
“My friend here needs a new wardrobe. ASAP. And she has an unlimited credit line on her credit card.”
The saleslady’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Well, then, follow me.”
She led the way to a back room that was clearly reserved for special customers. There was a long couch and a lovely bar in one corner, and a raised platform where models could come in and show off the latest fashions. I felt like I’d fallen into a bad chick flick. The only thing missing was the appropriately aloof hero with the credit card between his fingers.
“I would guess you’re a size four?”
“Six.”
Her eyebrows rose, but she turned and left the room. A few minutes later, she was back, a handful of garments over her arm and a couple of models moving around the platform.
I wanted to scream.
Theresa was loving it. She made comments about each outfit, stuff about the material and the cut and… I had no idea. They all looked basically the same to me. But she picked out four different dresses, a couple of pantsuits, and two formal dresses that probably cost more than I made in a month. Once the clothes were selected, they made me try them on, but they didn’t just send me to a dressing room. They made me strip right there in front of them so that they could help with zippers and buttons, and so the seamstress could adjust any hemlines that didn’t fall where they was supposed to because of my limited height. I thought the saleslady might faint when she saw my basic cotton bra and belly-hugging granny panties.
“We really ought to take a look at some new lingerie, too,” she said in that nasally voice of hers.
“No one’s going to see my underwear.”
“You never know what might happen.”
So, somehow, I ended up buying three sets of push-up bras, two thongs, and a whole handful of some things called ‘boy short panties’.
But, I had to admit—rather grudgingly—I was impressed with the image in the mirror when I slipped into a black gown that had a heart-shaped bodice and a tight waist, but fell into a silky skirt. It made me look like a whole different person.
The saleslady came up behind me and scooped my hair up into a little twist at the back of my head.
“Look at that lovely neck,” she said. “That’s an Audrey Hepburn neck.”
That made me smile. My mother was a fan of Audrey Hepburn’s movies. We used to watch them late at night while we were waiting for my father to come home from work. I know now that she let me stay up late and turned on the movies to distract her from her fear that he wouldn’t come home. But it was still a fond memory. I still watch the movies myself when I need a little comfort.
“Thank you.”
“But we really need to do something about your shoes. Do you own a pair of heels?”
“Absolutely not. I don’t do heels.”
“But you must. Heels are the perfect accessory to a dress like this one.”
I shook my head so adamantly that she lost her grip on my hair and it began to fly around my shoulders like I was a madwoman.
“Adrienne,” Theresa said, “you should at least try a pump. They’re not that high. You could probably master them fairly quickly.”
I shook my head again, but no one seemed to notice. And the saleslady disappeared only to return with a pair of pumps in her hands. That was the last straw. I was not doing heels.
“No. I’ll wear that fancy underwear, and I’ll pay a fortune for these fancy dresses. But you will not get me into those shoes. No way in hell!”
But, of course, one pair of pumps was shoved into the top of my bags as I paid for the clothing and followed Theresa out of the store.
Chapter 5
Lucien
I was picking at a bowl of potato salad, trying to create a bite that didn’t include the sweet pickles Jacob always forgot I didn’t like. He was droning on about the new advertising campaign for one of our lines of vitamins. It was called Belite, a vitamin that was chock full of B-vitamins to help with energy. It was a strong seller, providing nearly half our yearly revenue. But sales had started to dip, so we were trying to find a new angle that would catch the attention of consumers who were easily swayed by that sort of thing. Normally I’d be right on top of it. But my thoughts were elsewhere today.
“Father called this morning,” Jacob suddenly said, changing the subject.
“Oh?”
“He wants us to come out to the beach house tonight. He said Rachel’s coming home from school for the weekend, and he’d like the whole family to be there.”
“Is she?” I slipped my cellphone out of my pocket, pulling up the calendar. “Spring break isn’t for another couple of weeks.”
“Yeah. That’s probably why they want the whole family there.”
“You think she got kicked out?”
“Or flunked out. And you know how Elizabeth will react to something like that.”
Of course I knew. My mother panicked each time it seemed that Rachel might not be living up to expectations. And those expectations were set pretty high for the daughter of an oil baron with two overachieving sons.
“I’ll call Mother later and talk to her about it.”
Jacob nodded and seemed about to say something else when the door opened in time with the soft tap that alerted us to Jaime’s—my assistant—presence.
“Security just called up. There’s a woman at the front desk who’d like to see you, Lucien.”
Right on time.
“Who is it?” Jacob asked.
“Someone named Adrienne Garcia?”
Jacob shot me a dark look. But he kind of waved his hand even as he turned back to his own bowl of takeout potato salad.
“Tell them to let her up,” I said. “And show her in as soon as she gets here.”
“Yes, sir,” Jaime said as she slipped back out the door.
“I thought you didn’t know if you were going to see her again.”
“I didn’t say that. I just asked what you thought of her.”
“Did you invite her to come here?”
“Am I not supposed to have a personal life?”
“No.” Jacob glanced at me. “I just prefer that you keep it out of the workplace. Besides, doesn’t she have a job?”
I shrugged. “Maybe she had a day off.”
Jacob picked up his food containers and crossed to the trashcan. “You have a meeting with those people from the ad agency at four. Try not to be late.”
“Yes, Daddy,” I said with a little salute just as the door opened and Adrienne stepped through.
She was wearing a subtle blue dress that just sort of hung from her shoulders and flowed over her curves like a bedsheet might do. Her hair was pulled back into a classic ponytail, the soft waves she’d displayed in her hair the night before making the ponytail look like a collection of ocean waves. She was wearing a subtler array of makeup this afternoon that highlighted those intense blue eyes, and a dainty pair of gold earrings adorned her ears. The only flaw in the beauty of the picture was those bright silver flats.
She smiled with genuine delight as she took us in. But I’m not sure who brought that warm expression to her face, me or Jacob.
“Hi,” she said somewhat breathlessly.
“It’s lovely to see you again, Adrienne,” Jacob said as he approached her, his hand held out quite politely.
“You, too, Jacob,” she said, that smile not fading a single iota.
“Hey, don’t you look beautiful,” I said, moving up beside my brother.
She immediately let go of Jacob’s hand and moved in to me, tipping her head back to accept a kiss. I was sure she expected just a casual peck, and that was probably what it should have been. But I couldn’t resist drawing her close and taking advantage of the knowledge that she enjoyed my kiss. I pressed my lips to hers firmly as I slid a hand around her waist, urging those gorgeous, full lips apart. She sighe
d as she moved in to me, her body molding to mine, accepting the kiss she knew she had no choice but to endure. She seemed more receptive to it today, less stiff than she’d been in the car last night. And, I had to admit, that made me want to push to see just how far she’d allow me to go.
She was so tiny. It was a little awkward, bending so low to pull her closer to me. But it also brought out something inside of me, made me want to wrap myself around her and hide her from the world. It was a sort of caveman idea, that mine, mine, mine sort of mentality. And, as she was mine, I so desperately wanted to possess every inch of her.
“Don’t forget that meeting, Lucien,” Jacob said, breaking through the little cloud I’d lost my head inside of.
Adrienne broke the kiss and pressed her face against the front of my shirt. I slid my hand over the back of her head as I straightened and focused on my brother.
“I won’t. But I think I’ll show Adrienne around beforehand.”
Jacob glanced back at me. “I don’t need to remind you of the rules regarding visitors, do I?”
I groaned. “It’s my company, too. You don’t always have to treat me like I’m a child.”
Jacob actually smiled at that.
“It was nice to see you again, Adrienne,” he said before slipping through the door and pulling it closed behind him.
The moment we were alone, Adrienne pulled away.
She walked around me and started checking out my office like a nosy guest at a dinner party looking through the medicine cabinet. But the serious expression on her face and the methodical way she went about it made me feel uneasy.
“What are you…?”
She held up a finger and gestured for me to be quiet. She walked behind my desk and ran her fingers under the edges, then pulled open the top two drawers, sticking her hand inside to feel the underside of the desk top. Then she pulled something out of the dainty purse she’d been carrying over her shoulder, studying it for a moment before she waved it around the room. Then she walked, pausing here and there, before she finally sighed and slid the device back into her purse.
“Okay. It’s safe to talk here.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“We’ve had cases like yours that were as simple as someone placing a bug in the CEO’s office so they could overhear every conversation he had. But there doesn’t appear to be anything here.”
“You’re sure?”
“As positive as the latest technology can make me.”
I was kind of impressed. She was not what I’d imagined.
“My father has some of our people checking out the people on your team. We should know soon if there are any irregularities in their bank accounts that might suggest they’ve been talking to someone about your device.”
“Do you think someone might have already made some sort of payment?”
She reached up like she was going to rub her eyes, but then she stopped and dropped her hands to her side, holding them stiffly, as if she were trying to remind herself how to behave.
“It’s possible,” she said, her eyes moving around the room like she was still looking for something off.
“If that’s true, then we could be in real trouble.”
“This thing is really important, isn’t it?”
“It is. I could make life for a child with diabetes so much easier. Diabetes is a difficult condition to live with. Adding five to seven shots a day to it is a nightmare for a child who cries when the doctor wants to give them the occasional vaccination.”
Her expression softened as the scenario I’d described registered. And that flash of deep sadness that I’d noticed twice at the bar passed through those intense eyes. Again I wanted to ask her what that was about, but then she began walking around the room again.
“Tell me about you support staff,” she said.
I glanced toward the door, an almost automatic reaction whenever I thought of Jaime.
“Jaime—you met her out at the elevators—is my personal assistant. She’s been with the company since its inception. She and Colin—Jacob’s assistant—were the first two people we hired. Even before the first team of scientists.”
“You trust them.”
“Of course.”
“Would they know about the projects you’re working on here?”
“They know only what they need to know to do their jobs. We’re very careful about what we put down on paper, what we say in front of help staff. There is a protocol in place to keep secrets secret.”
She walked over to the couch set intentionally on one side of the room to present a cozy place to have meetings. She kicked off her shoes and pulled her legs up underneath her, sitting like a teenager making herself at home. I followed, taking a spot on the other side of the couch.
“We’ll have to check them out, just to make sure something hasn’t slipped through your protocol.” She scratched her head just above her brow, her eyes again moving around the room. It seemed like she always had to know what was going on around her, what threat might suddenly pop up. It must be difficult living like that, believing that there could be danger around every corner.
“What about the rest of your staff? You have, what, three floors here?”
“Four.”
“Four?”
“The labs are in the basement.”
She nodded. “Is it just you and your brother up here on this floor?”
“Jacob, me, the head of human resources, the head of research and development, and the head of accounting.”
“And the second floor?”
“Support staff. Accounting. The secretary pool. Legal.”
“You have your own in-house legal department.”
“We do. They work on patents and other legal issues that have, or may, come up with our products.”
“Does anyone in legal know about this device?”
“Shit, yeah,” I said, realizing I’d missed one person when I was thinking about the people who could have leaked information on the device. “Sharon Potter. She’s the one who worked on the patent application with me.”
“We’ll have to check her out. Do you think you could introduce her to me when you give me the tour?”
“Sure.”
“Anyone else?”
“Not that I can think of. But I’ve already given your father a list of employees. He said you’d be checking most of them out.”
“We will. But we need to know who to concentrate on the most.”
I sat forward and buried my face in my hands for a moment. All this was becoming somewhat overwhelming. I was beginning to wish I’d only been paranoid. That this was all some sort of hoax that would disappear. But I knew it wasn’t because of what I’d found in my email inbox when I got to work this morning.
“There’s something I should show you,” I said.
Adrienne was watching me, her expression unreadable except for this little spark that seemed to be alive in her eyes. I couldn’t tell what it was. The excitement of the case? Or being this close to me? Or maybe something totally unrelated to it all.
I crossed the room to my computer and pulled up the email. She moved up beside me, moving in front of me as she moved closer to read. Her ass was just right there, pushing back against me. I couldn’t help but touch it, running my hand slowly along the curve of her hip to the long line of her outer thigh.
“When did you get this?”
I almost had to ask what she was talking about.
“This morning.”
She was chewing on her lip, eating off the lipstick that had been there. She straightened up and, because we were standing so close together, pressed back against my chest. I slid my hand around her waist, helping her catch her balance. She stood there for a moment, clearly not disturbed by my touch. But then she pulled away and walked back toward the couch.
“That reads like a death threat.”
I don’t think she wanted a response from me. She pulled her cellphone out of that dainty purse, clearly a
nnoyed with it when the phone caught on the purse’s lining. She tugged roughly at it, and I was pretty sure I heard something rip. I had to bite back a chuckle. This was a serious situation, after all.
Very serious. But it was going to be a lot of fun, too.
Chapter 6
Adrienne
My father answered his phone on the third ring, his voice thick with sleep.
“What?” he mumbled.
“It’s me, Poppy. There’s been a development in the case.”
“What?” he repeated, but his voice was clearer, the sound of drowsiness quickly disappearing.
“Lucien Montgomery got an email this morning that reads like a death threat to me. It says he should be more careful about who he talks about. That the device has been compromised, and if he knows what’s good for him, he should just let it go.”
My father was quiet for a long moment.
“I’ll call Robert, have him trace the email back to the origin IP.”
“Okay.”
“Stay with him. It might be an idle threat, but it could be real. You need to stay with him as much as you can until we figure out just how high the risk is.”
I glanced over at the desk where I’d left Lucien. He’d moved over to the small table on the other side of the room and was gathering his abandoned lunch trash. He wasn’t looking at me, but I got the impression he was listening just the same.
I covered my mouth and the bottom half of the phone.
“I don’t know if I can do that, Poppy. You know this role playing stuff isn’t really my thing.”
“I’m aware of that. But you’ve already begun. He knows you. If we suddenly introduce someone else into the equation, the guilty party will get suspicious.”
“I know, but surely—”
“You’ll do as you’re told, mija.”
“Okay.” I dropped my hand back to my side. “I’ll call you later with any other developments.”
I disconnected before my father could say anything else. My cheeks were burning, and I felt like a chastised child. Which, I supposed, I was.
LUCIEN: A Standalone Romance Page 4