“Then you are definitely a master at the game.”
Two minutes on the phone with Brian and Toni’s confidence restored itself. She was in control and flirting wildly. She even agreed to meet him for drinks for happy hour.
“I look forward to seeing you again,” Brian concluded. “Who knows-maybe we’ll even pick up where we left off?”
Toni shrugged with a smile. “Yeah. Who knows?”
Startled silence greeted Jonas the moment he entered the main conference room at T&B Entertainment. All eyes followed him as he walked toward the head the table where Marcel and Solomon perched.
“I guess I missed the memo regarding this morning’s staff meeting.” He glanced down at one of the attractive staff members. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all, Mr. Hinton.” She stood and offered him her chair.
“Thank you.” He eased into the comfortable leather chair while smiling at his two partners. “I hope I didn’t miss much.”
Marcel and Solomon looked as though they wanted to leap at his neck.
“Not much at all,” Marcel seethed. “We are discussing possible new artists and artists’ development strategies. You know: things you don’t know anything about.”
A few nervous titters erupted around the room.
“One thing you’ll learn about me, Mr. Taylor, is that I’m always happy to learn.” He turned away from his partner’s heated gaze to glance around the room and was thrown off guard when he saw Ophelia and Diana sitting together.
“Oh, I was under the impression this was strictly a staff meeting.” He smiled at his ex-fiancée. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“Actually, I am here on business.” Ophelia smiled. “Diana and I have started our own management team and T&B have expressed interest in signing one of our artists.”
Jonas’s brows crashed together. “Have we now?” His eyes darted to his partners. “I don’t think so.”
“Excuse you?” Marcel blinked.
“What do you mean?” Ophelia asked in alarm.
Jonas laughed. “C’mon. I can’t be the only one in the room thinking it.” He looked again and caught a few amused faces before they thought to hide it. “Are your artists being signed for talent or because you’re married to the owners of a record label?”
“Hinton,” Marcel barked. “You’re out of line.”
“Am I?” he asked innocently. “I have an equal investment here. I have every right to question the validity of our artists i.e. are they talented or just well-connected?”
Ophelia’s face darkened in anger. “You can’t just come in here-”
“Oh, but I can.” He smiled serenely and enjoyed, perhaps a bit too much, successfully getting under her skin.
Ophelia and Diana looked to their husbands while the room’s tension thickened.
“This meeting is adjourned,” Marcel announced, his jaw line as hard as Stone Mountain.
The announcement was like a starter pistol shot into the air, judging by the way the staff members bolted out their chairs and raced from the room.
“Well,” Jonas said, leaning back in his seat. “I hope it wasn’t something I said.”
Solomon leaned his elbows against the conference table and dropped his head into the palms of his hands. “One...two...three-”
“What the hell is he doing?” Jonas asked.
Marcel stood from his chair. “I’d say that he’s trying not to kill you.”
“Or at least letting me have the honors,” Ophelia said, climbing out her chair as well. “How dare you embarrass me like that in front the staff! You have no idea how hard and long Diana and I have been working with SisterSol.”
“Good Lord.” Jonas frowned. “Is that their name? What are they—a seventies retro band?”
“Those girls earned their record deal,” Diana hissed. “How dare you suggest otherwise!”
Jonas tossed up his hands. “Whoa. Whoa. I’m sensing some hostility here.”
“Damn right you are,” Ophelia shouted. “You are supposed to be a silent partner. Do I need to get you a dictionary so you can look up the word silent?”
He shrugged. “I changed my mind.”
“You have no experience in this industry. You’re completely over your head.”
“Me? The last time I checked you were in the medical field. You mean to tell me twenty months married to a music executive you’re qualified to manage artists?” He looked to Diana. “Weren’t you just a secretary before you married Marcel?”
“Enough,” Solomon barked; his counting did little to calm him down. “We’re going to have to have some ground rules around here. You’re taking this revenge crap too far and I’d rather close the damn doors before I let you come in here and destroy everything we’ve built.”
“Close the doors, eh? Don’t tease me.” Jonas stood. “I want to see this SisterSol group perform before I agree to any kind of record deal.”
“Before you agree?”
“If they are as talented as you claim, then what’s the big deal?” He headed toward the door. “If they’re not, you’ll have to shop them to another label.”
“Asshole!” Ophelia snapped.
Jonas opened the conference-room door. “You know, I’ve been told that a lot lately.”
“How did it go?” Michelle asked when Jonas returned. “About as well as you can expect?”
“Well, at least you made it back without a busted lip. I’d say that’s an improvement.”
Jonas laughed. “I was thinking the same thing on my way over.” He winked as he headed to his private office.
“You have a visitor waiting, by the way.”
“Oh? Female or male?” he asked before he opened the door.
“Female—as usual,” she said, shaking her head. “Lock the door, if you’re going to be doing something I shouldn’t know about.”
“Will do...or you could knock.”
“Actually, I’m about to go to lunch.” She grabbed her purse. “Your next appointment isn’t until three.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
Jonas opened his office door, hoping to see Toni, but was thrown off guard when to see his attorney, Patsy, looking up from a stack of paperwork.
“Ah, there you are.” She glanced at her watch and then stood with a smile. “You’re going to love me, baby.”
“Oh?” He closed his office door behind him. “I take it you have good news for me?”
“Great news.” Patsy beamed. “You were right not to settle this claim with Ms. Gibson. This is not the first time she has sued an employer for sexual harassment nor is it the second or third time.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“I don’t kid about things like that.”
Jonas’s head snapped up.
“What?”
“Oh.” He waved it off. “Nothing. Someone else I know says that a lot.” His thoughts wandered as he walked over to his desk.
“Well?” Patsy asked. “Aren’t you pleased?”
Jonas jolted from the memory of Toni’s long legs and seductive curves. “I’m sorry. What?”
Patsy folded her arms with an amused smirk. “You’re not thinking about business.”
He almost denied the accusation, but he knew better than to try and pull the wool over Patsy’s eyes. “You caught me. Sorry.”
“That’s all right.” She glided saucily behind the desk. “We were both probably thinking about the same thing.” She eased down onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “What do you say we go out for drinks and then do a little celebrating tonight-either your place or mine?”
Jonas chuckled under his breath while he thought about a tactful way out of the proposition. “I would, but, um...I sort of have plans,” he lied.
“Cancel them,” Patsy said, leaning in and stealing a kiss.
Jonas wrapped his arms around her waist. Maybe this is what he needed to get his mind off Toni’s dark skin and sinful body. He deepened the kiss and Patsy moane
d softly.
“So what do you say?” she asked, pulling back. “Is it a date?”
I ain’t missing you at all...
Chapter 18
“I’ve missed you so much,” Brian said, stretching his hand across the table. “Why haven’t you called me?”
Toni smiled but her gaze remained locked on the ice cubes floating in her glass. “Well, I’ve been busy. I’m trying to get my practice up and running. It’s a lot of work.”
Brian’s smile broadened across his handsome features and caused an old memory to rise to the surface.
“We were great together once,” he whispered.
When he squeezed her hands, she pulled them back and rested them in her lap.
Brian heaved a dramatic sigh and eased back into his chair. “What’s wrong? You’re not behaving like yourself this evening.”
Toni brightened her smile though the effort nearly killed her. “Nothing,” she lied.
Brian didn’t pretend to believe her. “What’s his name?”
Her heart squeezed and the smile vanished. “I’m sorry, Brian, but maybe I should go home.”
His eyes glossed with restrained tears, but then his pride kicked into gear and within a blink they were gone. “You know...I still love you.”
Toni’s nodded sadly. “Yeah. I know.”
The club’s music and low hum of chatter and laughter filled the silence between them. Toni went back to sipping her Coke and watching him nurse a glass of ginger ale. Years ago, she would have never dreamed such awkwardness would exist between them—but that was before she was introduced to his demons.
“I’ve been sober for eight months.”
“And I’m happy for you. Truly I am...but I can’t do it. I can’t go back.” She sucked in a breath and could feel the pain of her childhood creep back into her heart. A childhood she had tried desperately to forget. Nothing this man could say would get her to travel down the same rough road as her mother.
Toni lost count of the number of black eyes, broken arms, ribs and busted lips her mother sustained all in the name of love. When Rosalind Wright finally summoned enough courage to leave, her husband decided that if he couldn’t have her then no man would.
On the morning of Toni’s fifteenth birthday, a drunken Anthony Wright tracked his wife and daughter down at an Atlanta woman’s shelter. When Rosalind spotted her husband in the parking lot, she’d convinced Toni to leave her side and run. Just when Toni had made inside the building and shouted for help, she heard a gunshot. Toni jumped, pivoted toward glass doors. Her mother lay sprawled on the black asphalt. She glanced up at her father just as he stuffed the gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.
That day changed her life forever.
“I had hoped that one day we would get-”
“You said you had some business you wanted to discuss with me?” she asked, hoping to successfully change the subject.
“Yes, but I was hoping we could-”
“Brian,” she said firmly. “It’s over. There is no future for us. You have to get that through your head.”
A vein twitched against Brian’s left temple-a sign she recognized from her father when he was close to exploding.
Toni squared her shoulders prepared for anything-even in this crowded place. “I didn’t come here to play games, Brian. Do you have business you want to discuss with me or not?”
Jonas arrived at Club Secrets with Patsy clinging and smiling on his arm. He dropped his name to the bodyguard at the velvet rope and was ushered past the long line and then up to the VIP section on the top floor. No sooner had he and Patsy taken their seats, did Jonas’s gaze zoom to a table downstairs near the dance floor.
The woman’s long crossed legs and smooth ebony shoulders caused the blood in his body to heat. What was it about Toni Wright that got under his skin? Why couldn’t he stop thinking about her?
“Jonas?” Patsy touched his arm and captured his attention.
“I’m sorry. What?” He looked at her and saw a waitress standing at their table.
“I asked if you wanted to order a bottle of champagne?”
“Sure.” He waved. “Whatever you want.” He returned his gaze to Toni’s table and for the first time, he noticed the man sitting with her.
Brian Olson.
Jonas clenched his jaw and flexed his hand into a tight fist. What the hell were they doing here together? Agitated, he shifted in his chair and continued to watch the couple closely. After a few minutes of reading the couple’s body language, Jonas’s jealousy waned and his curiosity grew.
Leaning forward, he tried to get a better view of Toni’s face. Her straight shoulders, her firm profile-everything screamed that she was uncomfortable with being there.
“You know,” Patsy said, standing from her chair to ease into his lap. “It’s considered impolite to ignore your date.”
With his view of Toni blocked, Jonas heaved an impatient sigh, but collected himself in time to ease on a smile. “You’re right.”
“Of course, I’m right.” She fingered his open collar as she leaned against his chest. “Gosh, I can’t believe how long it’s been,” she whispered in his ear. “When I get you back to my place, I’m going to give you a night you’ll never forget.”
“Sure, baby. It will be great.” Jonas swiveled his chair to the right so he could recapture his view of Toni and Brian.
“Your champagne, sir.” The waitress returned to their table with their requested bottle chilling in a silver bucket of ice.
“Well, I see you finally made it.”
Jonas sighed at yet another interruption. Turning, he glanced up to see a glowering Solomon standing near his table. Unable to stop himself, Jonas laughed. “Jesus, man. Smile. I’m beginning to think marriage doesn’t agree with you.”
Without waiting for an invitation, Solomon took a seat. “Don’t worry about my marriage. It’s solid.”
Jonas shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.”
Patsy shifted on his lap. “You know, I think I’m going to just visit the ladies’ room while you two talk.”
The men ignored the announcement and Patsy popped out Jonas’s lap with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “Try not to miss me.”
Jonas stole a quick glance to Toni’s table and relaxed when he saw she was still there.
“What will it take to buy you out?” Solomon asked with menace.
Jonas coolly quirked a brow. “Don’t tell me I’ve worn out my welcome.”
“Do you really need me to tell you that?”
Smiling, Jonas leaned back in his chair. “I’m not interested in selling. I have a feeling you boys are going to make me a lot of money.”
The house lights blinked a few times and the club’s volume dimmed considerably. In the next second, Ophelia took the stage in a beautiful aqua blue dress that reminded Jonas of the blue diamond he’d bought her as an engagement ring.
“I always thought she looked good in blue,” he whispered.
Solomon promptly stood up from the table and left.
Jonas snickered behind his back. “Geesh. Can’t pay some people a compliment nowadays.” He reached over for the bottle of champagne and then glanced down at Toni’s table.
She and Brian were gone.
Jonas’s heart quickened as he bolted to his feet. Where did she go? Did she and her ex leave together? And if so, where are they going now?
An unbidden image of Toni sighing and moaning beneath the pencil-pushing geek had him rushing from the VIP area and navigating through a throng of people.
“Welcome to the stage: SisterSol,” Ophelia announced, and the crowd responded with a thunderous applause.
Jonas reached the door, pulled the bouncer aside and gave a brief description of Toni.
“Yeah. I saw her,” the beefy man admitted. “She and some dude just left about a minute ago.”
“Did they leave in the same car?” he demanded with his hands balling at his side.
&n
bsp; “Sorry. I can’t help you out on that. I didn’t notice.”
Jonas muffled a curse and then slipped the man a bill. “My car.”
The Bouncer peeked at the hundred dollar bill. “Yes, sir.” He rushed toward the valet and a few minutes later, Jonas was in his car and peeling away from the club.
A lone voice in the back of his head tried to calm him, but Jonas’s raging emotions silenced it. At the moment, he didn’t want anything to do with reason. He didn’t want to hear about how he had no right to be jealous or had any say on who Toni saw, talked to or even slept with. He just knew that Brian Olson needed to keep his grubby paws off his...what?
Jonas shook his head-not wanting to get mired down with labels or lack of labels. He just knew that he was going to punch Brian’s lights out if he was at Toni’s. Screeching through Toni’s subdivision, Jonas’s whipped his Mercedes up the circular drive and braked in front of the front door.
Incensed, he had no memory of actually getting out of the car or even bounding up the stairs. However, he was aware of pounding the door and determined to knock it off its hinges, if need be. “Open up, Toni! I know you’re in there!”
Feel The Fire (Unforgettable Series) Page 11