“Hanging tough, you know me. What about you?”
“I can’t complain. Just tired of working, that’s all.”
“I hear that.” Then Nikki paused. “Is he in?”
“He’s in, but he’s in a meeting.”
“Surprise, surprise.”
“But it won’t be long. They’ve been meeting all morning and the boss has to be somewhere in less than an hour.”
“Be where?”
“He’s got to speak at some conservative something or other downtown.”
“Conservative? Never mind. I was going to consider going with him.”
Whitney laughed. “You don’t be about nothing good, you know that?”
“I know.”
Whitney stood up. “You’re welcome to wait,” she said. And Nikki decided to do so.
Whitney left the office to take some copies of some important fax to other senior people, but when she returned some ten minutes later, Nikki was still sitting beside her desk.
“He’s not out yet?” she asked her, surprised.
“Not yet.”
“I would let him know you’re out here, Nikki,” she said, “but he told me to hold everything.” Whitney said this as she sat back behind her desk. Nikki nodded her understanding.
“I know,” she said. “But you said he’s been meeting with this person all morning?”
“All morning, girl.”
“Who is it?”
“I don’t know. Never saw her before.”
Nikki nodded. A female. That figures. But she wasn’t going to let it worry her. She stood up.
“I can’t sit around here all day,” she said. “I’m going to peep in.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Whitney said, but she wasn’t Nikki. Nikki peeped in.
What she saw was Daniel, slouched down on his sofa, with a woman seated beside him. “Hey,” Nikki said.
Daniel was surprised to see her, but he remained as he was. “I didn’t know you were out there.”
“I know. And I know you’re in a meeting, but I just dropped by to say hello.”
He stood up. “Come here,” he said. She came. Melanie stood up as she did.
Daniel placed his arm around Nikki’s waist. “Melanie, I want you to meet my lady, Nikki Graham. Nikki, this is Melanie Chandler.
“Hello, Nikki,” Melanie said, extending her hand. “How are you?”
“I’m good, thank-you,” Nikki said as they shook hands. “Nice to meet you.”
“She’s applying for a position here at Dreeson,” Daniel said to Nikki. “If all checks out I’m sure she’ll be an excellent addition to the family here.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Nikki said. “I thought Whitney said you were in a meeting. This is a job interview?”
“A very long interview at that,” Melanie said, walking over to the chair in front of Daniel’s desk. “I’ve taken up far too much of his time as it is.”
While Melanie went for her purse, Daniel looked at Nikki. “Where were you earlier?” he asked. “I phoned the Gazette. They said you weren’t on assignment, but they didn’t know where you were. And your cell phone went to voice mail.”
“I didn’t hear my cell phone. It probably needs charging.”
“Where were you?”
“I had lunch. With Luke.”
As she expected, Daniel didn’t like that bit of news at all. “I think Luke Finley has done enough, Nikki.”
“He’s my boss, Daniel.”
“He sent you to that law-breaking exercise at Oxidare, remember? I know you think the world of the guy. I know he’s as harmless as a flea in your eyes. But that young man is beginning to rile me.”
Melanie slowed her progression and took mental notes. Luke Finley. Who was Luke Finley? Could he become her counterpoint? Was he important enough to Nikki to be the distraction she needed to get Daniel’s undivided attention? Daniel was certainly acting perturbed with the fellow. But who was he? She pretended to be searching for her car keys inside her purse, and listened closely.
“He feels really awful about what happened, Daniel.”
“He ought to feel awful.”
“But he knows it’s a part of the job. He’s one of the good guys, I don’t know why you won’t accept that. He won’t intentionally do anything to put me in harm’s way.”
Melanie inwardly smiled. She already knew Nikki Graham would be an obstacle. She already knew that for some crazy reason Daniel seemed to just love that child to death. Now, she hoped, she had somebody who could keep Nikki out of the way. It was certainly worth looking into, and Melanie definitely planned to take that look.
“Well, Daniel,” she said as she pulled out her keys and headed back toward him, “I really appreciate you for taking so much time to explain the inner workings here. Thank-you so much. I’ll wait with bated breath to hear from you.” She again smiled at Nikki. “And it was very nice to meet you, Nikki.”
“You too,” Nikki said.
Daniel walked Melanie to the door and opened it. “You should be hearing something soon,” he said. “So don’t accept any other offers before then.”
“Oh, that makes me feel great,” Melanie said with a grand smile. “And don’t worry. Dreeson is where I want to be. Especially after my wonderful conversation with you.”
Daniel extended his hand. “Take care of yourself,” he said.
“Thank-you,” she said, gave him her best seductive smile, and left.
After she left, Daniel closed the door and then locked it. Nikki knew what that meant. She began to get that feeling, that tingle, that let her know something very special was about to go down.
“I really need to get back to my office,” she said half-jokingly as Daniel took her by the hand and led her to his desk.
“For real though,” she added, unable to suppress a smile as he sat her on the edge of his desk, pulled out her tucked-in shirt, and began kissing her.
“I miss you,” he said as he kissed her long and hard. He kissed her until her mouth opened, and his tongue slid in.
He lifted her slightly, pulling down her jeans and panties until they were down around her ankles, and then he continued kissing her. She wrapped her arms around him and relaxed to his passion. And when he knelt down and opened her legs, and began licking her with long, slow licks, she leaned back on her hands and closed her eyes. She hadn’t expected this, and she knew Daniel hadn’t expected to do this, but there was a look in his eyes last night that concerned her. Especially when he first met Luke at that hospital. It wasn’t jealousy, but it was close. It seemed as if he had an awareness that she and Luke connected. And he didn’t like it. And she wondered now, as Daniel licked her so aggressively, if this had something to do with that.
But when Daniel stood up, and unbuckled and unzipped his pants, and she saw that mammoth love machine come climbing out, she was no longer interested in wondering why. Because her need was too great. And as he entered her, as his tip touched her tip and he moved his fully aroused dick further inside of her, she grunted and clenched and lobbed her head back. It was the force. The force of his fullness alone. And it overtook her. And relaxed her. And enveloped her with such an alive euphoria that she opened wider and wider to take it all in.
Daniel took her all in, too, and he couldn’t stop staring at her as he fucked her. He needed her to feel him at this moment, every inch of him, greater than she had ever felt him before. And he pushed and he pushed, trying to slide into her deepest pocket, where the intensity alone would leave her speechless. And that feeling, so full and perfect, would wipe every memory of Luke Finley from her mind. He had to reassert his claim. That was why he stroked. Harder and harder. Deeper and deeper. With stroke after stroke after ever loving stroke he fucked her senseless. He could not lose her. Not to Luke. Not to anyone. And he had to let her know.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Two months after Melanie Chandler had that interview with Daniel, and six weeks after Daniel hired her as his execu
tive assistant, she entered the Gazette newspaper building at a time that she knew was optimum.
Luke looked up from the front page article he had been reading. The woman that stood in front of his desk reminded him of an older version of Kelly Rowland. The same curves, the same long, flowing, black hair, the same small but expressive eyes, and that seductive smile. “May I help you?” he asked.
“Your assistant said it was all right for me to come on in. I’m Melanie Chandler.” She said this and began removing her gloves. Luke remembered Nikki mentioning that a Melanie Chandler was Daniel Crane’s assistant and, as Nikki put it snidely, he thought, his right hand woman. Luke stood up.
“I’m afraid Nikki isn’t here,” he said.
“I know she’s not. That’s why I am. May I?” Melanie motioned toward one of the small chairs in front of his messy desk. He nodded and she sat down.
He walked around the side of his desk and sat down in the chair beside her. Nikki had a right to think a chick like her would have the hots for Crane. She was fly. Had it going on in every department. Looks, attitude, style. If anybody could shake up tight ass, Luke thought, it was this chick right here.
“So you’re Melanie,” he said.
“Sounds as if you know me.”
“I heard a little something about you.”
“And I about you.”
“What brings you to our house, if not to see Nikki? I know it isn’t to give any of my reporters an interview, since no-one at Dreeson ever does. On orders from your boss, I might add.”
He was ridiculous, Melanie thought, looking at Luke. But he was good looking. And young. And exactly somebody who could easily be Nikki’s type. She decided then and there that her suspicion, based on little more than the way Nikki said his name, was true. He had a thing for Nikki. And she, undoubtedly, had a thing for him. “You know my boss?”
“I wouldn’t call it knowing him. I know his lady.”
“That’s why I’m here. She mentions your name quite a bit. I wanted to see if it was possible.”
“If what was possible?”
“That she could be in love with you.”
Luke couldn’t believe she went there. “Now look lady. I don’t know what Crane told you or what you may be implying, but...”
“Close the door, please.”
Luke looked at Melanie with one of those check her out expressions. But he got up and closed the door.
When he sat back down, Melanie crossed her legs. She was ready to get down to business. “We don’t have a lot of time because I would rather not be here when Nikki gets back. So I’m going to get to the point. You want Nikki and I want Daniel.” She said this and leaned back. Luke couldn’t believe his ears.
“Excuse me?”
“You want Nikki. Or am I wrong?”
Luke didn’t know how to respond. “Where would you get an idea like that?”
“Am I wrong?”
“Did Nikki say something to you?”
“Yes, but not what you think. She merely said your name.”
Luke smiled. “Is this some kind of a joke? Some kind of a set up?”
“She evoked an emotion in Daniel when she said your name. Daniel doesn’t show emotions that way. But he showed a spark twice, and both times were at the mention of your name.”
“He hates me, and I’m not crazy about him either. I’m the liberal media he despises. Remember?”
“You’re the man who wants to take his lady away. Remember?”
Luke paused. “And you’re the lady who wants to take her man away.”
Melanie nodded. “Now you get it. Because that is exactly right. I want Daniel. I will tell it to you freely and deny it to the world if you tell it to anyone else. But I don’t make miscalculations very often, Luther. I’m a quick and usually accurate judge of character. You won’t tell a soul. You want her too badly.”
He leaned back in his chair. “And how badly do you want Crane?”
“So bad that I can taste it. He is everything a man should be. I love him and I want to spend the rest of my life with him.” She exhaled. “But there’s a problem.”
Luke nodded. “Nikki.”
“Right. And Daniel’s standing in your way.”
“But. . . I’m still not getting this. You’ve decided that I’m in love with Nikki based on the fact that she said my name a couple of times?”
“Because Daniel responded both times. That’s the issue. Daniel’s response. He’s as intuitive as I am. And he knows competition when he sees it. You’re his competition. And you’re young and handsome. He knows this.”
“So he doesn’t call her, stays away from her for days at a time sometimes, treats her like crap. But he’s worried about me?” Luke shook his head. “I ain’t buying what you’re selling lady.”
“I’m telling you what I know,” Melanie said. “He honestly believes that if Nikki ever got the courage to leave him for good, you’ll be waiting with arms wide open.”
“Me and about seven hundred other guys. No offense, but have you seen Nikki lately? I mean she’s it, she’s . . . the total package.”
“Have you seen Daniel lately? He’s very near perfection too. And I’m disinclined to use that word lightly.”
Luke looked at her. “There’s something between you and Crane?”
Melanie looked at him. “That’s none of your business.”
“I don’t know about that. You’re here. You admit you want him. That sounds like more than a professional relationship to me.”
“It’s more than a professional relationship, I’ll say that. But it will never be what I need it to be until Nikki Graham is out of the picture. You’ve got to get her out of the picture.”
“Me?”
“Yes. She cares for you and you love her. The two of you have far more in common and you’ll make a nice couple. You’ve just got to convince her that you’re more worthy of her affections than Daniel.”
“If the way he treats her isn’t enough to convince her, nothing I do or say ever will.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. When I first met Daniel I didn’t think it was possible to penetrate that wall of his either. But you’ve got to orchestrate your own event. You’ve got to make it happen. If you want her badly enough, it will happen.”
Luke was in. He had to be. He wanted Nikki just as bad as Melanie seemed to want Daniel. “What intervening episode? You have something in mind?”
This seemed to upset her. “What do you mean do I have something in mind? You can’t contrive it, Mr. Finley. Daniel, nor Nikki, is stupid. You have to pay attention to events and then pounce at that unsuspecting moment when it would seem impossible that you could have schemed up such a thing. I will give you the tools to pounce with, but you have to pick your moment. I can’t stress that enough. Nikki likes you now. She may even trust you. Don’t mess that up. Because if you do, and if she determines that it’s all selfish on your part, that will be the end of your chance. And I doubt seriously if she would ever give you another one.”
Besides, Melanie thought as she watched Luke absorb what she had just said to him, getting Nikki out of the way was just one of her jobs. Her main job was to get Daniel Crane at his own moment of weakness, where he would want her in the worse way. Then her job would be done. Because she’d pounce too. Only her pounce wasn’t going to bring Daniel closer to her, but bring him down where he belonged. And he was a big man. In every way. It was going to be a mighty fall.
Daniel was back at work and swamped in site audits when Phillip Grayson hurried into his office.
“Do I have some news for you,” he said with blatant eagerly.
Daniel was seated behind his desk, looking professorial, it seemed to Phillip, in his shirt sleeves and reading glasses. And Daniel’s chest appeared so muscular and hard that Phillip wondered why his own workouts never buffed him up like that. “Got a minute?”
Daniel glanced over his reading glasses and then looked back down at the papers before him
. “Just barely,” he said.
“You break my heart, Daniel. And all I do for you.”
“What’s up?”
“You aren’t going to invite me to sit down?”
Daniel looked at Phillip again. “Have a seat, Phillip,” he said. “Would you like some milk and cookies too, Phillip?”
Phillip laughed. “That’s more like it,” he said. Then he seemed to brace himself. “I just thought you should know that the board of directors of the Dreeson Corporation will officially ask for Wayne Murdock’s resignation today.”
Daniel hesitated, and then removed his glasses. Phillip smiled. “I thought that would get your attention,” he said.
“Today?” Daniel asked.
“Today,” Phillip said.
“You’ve confirmed this?”
“You bet your life I have. But there’s more. Much more. The board will then, later this same day, ask one Daniel Crane to become interim President and Chief Executive Officer of our beloved Dreeson, pending a replacement search and final decision.”
Daniel stared at Phillip. It was a shock if ever there was one. And then he leaned back. “Well. My goodness.”
“My goodness indeed! It’ll be your trial run up to the permanent placement and you will wow them I’m sure!”
“But no announcement has been made?”
“My spies are always right, Daniel.”
Daniel shook his head. “This is some news, Phillip.”
Phillip smiled. “I told you it was coming. Didn’t I tell you? I told you we were in. They never did it this way before. They usually wait and let the chairman’s people handle the CEO duties until they name a permanent head. This interim stuff is new for Dreeson.”
“I’ve got to prove myself.”
“You’ve already proven yourself. Our earnings are at record highs since you came onboard and those plants, even that antiquated Portland plant, are finally getting it together. Who do you think the board credits for this sharp turnaround? Murdock? Crazy Wayne Murdock? Please. The chairman knows what he’s doing. He wants you already in place should some rogue director try to sabotage your ascension. You’ve got it made, Danny boy, you’ve got it made!”
DANIEL'S GIRL: ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN Page 15