His Billion-Dollar Dilemma

by Alexia Adams

  On the way to the airport, she’d informed him that rather than fly to New York with him and then on to San Francisco, she was going to fly to Boston and then travel west with Liam in his private jet. Liam and Lorelei were on the East Coast, meeting Lorelei’s father, who was on parole.

  Helen checked her bag and they walked arm in arm toward the security gate. Their flights were departing from different terminals, so he couldn’t even wait with her in the lounge. With each step he slowed the pace, wanting to delay the moment as long as possible. He wanted to beg her not to go, to give him another week. “Are you sure you have to go back to San Francisco right away?”

  A wistful sigh escaped her lips. “I’m giving the keynote speech at an engineering conference in L.A. at the end of the week, and I haven’t even written it yet. Plus, I have to get back to work and prepare for the wrap-up of Bertram, help my friends find new jobs…” There was no animosity in her statement, just a regret that she couldn’t stay with him longer.

  He was desperate to tell her about his idea to jointly run a new company with her, funding it from his private wealth so they didn’t have to answer to the board. But to avoid a conflict-of-interest situation, he had to complete the Bertram deal first. And if he told Helen, she’d undoubtedly tell her colleagues; then there would be no keeping the plan secret. Hopefully he’d have better news for her by the end of the month. And if Sylvia managed to clear his schedule, he’d be able to tell her in person.

  But he couldn’t just leave things in the air. As much as it terrified him to completely open up, he had to tell her that he loved her. The last woman he’d said the three words to, he’d then found in bed with Edward Halliday. Helen wasn’t Lisa. It was highly unlikely she’d immediately go off and find another man. Still, it made him pause.

  He stopped walking and put his hand on her cheek; her blue eyes met his, and he sucked in a breath. Damn, she was so beautiful. “Helen—”

  “Simon!” A man’s voice called out.

  He froze. Helen peeked around him. Turning, he kept his arm around his woman and came face-to-face with his father. Of all the bloody times to show up…

  “Yes?” Simon had no idea what to say. The man who stood before him was more of a stranger to him than the one who shook his hand eight years ago and wished him luck in America.

  “I know you weren’t expecting me, and probably don’t even want to see me. But I had to have a word with you.” His father’s tone was almost pleading, the most emotional Simon had ever seen him.

  “Helen, this is my father, Philip. Father, this is Helen Winston.”

  “So pleased to meet you, Helen,” Philip said as they shook hands. Unlike his mother, there seemed genuine warmth in his father’s greeting.

  “I think I’ll get something to read on the flight. I love British celebrity magazines.”

  “You don’t need to go.” Simon tried to forestall her departure. They only had half an hour; he didn’t want to spend it talking to his errant parent.

  “I’ll be back in five minutes. Talk to your dad.” She kissed him on the cheek and then headed toward the newsstand across the concourse.

  “She’s a beautiful woman,” his father said when Simon stared after her.

  “Yes. How did you know I was here?”

  “Lester Duffield saw you in the restaurant last night. Then Tina used to work at British Airways and still has lots of friends who work for the airline. She found out which flight you were booked on.”

  Lester Duffield was his father’s golf buddy. Simon hadn’t seen him last night. However, he’d been rather distracted. He didn’t want to get into this with his father right now. He had his own emotional entanglements to try to sort out. He glanced toward the shop where Helen had disappeared. “This isn’t really the best time. What do you want to discuss?”

  “I wanted to talk to you about Helen.”

  “Helen?” Simon instantly went on the defensive, his fists clenching at his side. He’d done his best to ignore his mother’s gibes about Helen’s suitability due to her recent trauma; he wouldn’t put up with the same from his father.

  “When Lester said he saw you with a woman at the restaurant, I had to come and see her for myself, ensure you don’t make the same mistake I did.”

  “I’m not making a mistake with Helen.”

  “I hope not. Marry a woman you’re passionate about, Simon, a woman who’s passionate about you.”

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but there’s plenty of passion in our relationship.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. I’m sorry if I’ve interfered. I couldn’t stand by, though, and let my son end up like me.”

  “Are you happy now?” He felt a twinge of empathy for his father. After all, living with his sexless mother for the past thirty-five years couldn’t have been easy. He could barely contemplate a week apart from Helen.

  “Tina has terminal cancer. They think she may last six months, a year at most. I’ve wasted so much time. I’ve been a complete hypocrite, living a double life. I was afraid of the social condemnation if I left your mother. And in the end I’ve let everyone down, especially you. I wasn’t there for you, and I am truly sorry.”

  He didn’t know how to reply to that. Since meeting Helen, the idea of being in a loveless, passionless relationship was unthinkable. He caught a glimpse of her exiting the newsstand. She hesitated as she saw his father still there, until Simon gestured for her to join him.

  “Before you go, I have one question.” He put his hand on his father’s arm.

  “Yes, son?” Philip put his hand over Simon’s. It was the most touching moment they’d shared. Thirty-three years too late. In true Lamont fashion, Simon shut down the surge of emotion.

  “Do I have any half siblings?” The thought had bugged him since he heard of his father’s decades-long affair.

  “No, Tina couldn’t have children. But she knows all about you. I shared your every success and achievement with her. If you come back to the UK in the next couple of months, Tina would love to meet you. If you’re willing, that is…” A sheen of tears appeared in his father’s green eyes.

  Simon gave him a tight smile. He barely recognized the emotional man in front of him as the distant father of his childhood. “I’ll let you know. At the moment my focus is elsewhere.” He was having enough difficulty dealing with Helen’s imminent departure. He wasn’t ready to get involved in his father’s affair.

  Helen approached them with a hesitant smile, her eyes darting between the two men as if trying to gauge their mood. She put her arm around his waist and gave him a gentle squeeze. Simon kissed the top of her head.

  “It was a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Winston. I hope to see you again soon.”

  “Thank you,” Helen said as they all shook hands once again.

  When his father walked away, Helen put her hand on Simon’s cheek. She stood on tiptoe and kissed him. The passion that his father had been worried about flared instantaneously. It was going to kill him to let her go.

  “My flight will be boarding soon. I have to go,” Helen whispered as they pulled apart.

  “Helen—”

  She put a finger on his lips. “Tell me when we meet again.”

  After one more quick kiss, she turned and walked away. With his heart.

  …

  Helen stared straight ahead and walked as fast as her legs would carry her. She couldn’t glance back, couldn’t stop, couldn’t turn around for one last look at Simon’s handsome face, because then she wouldn’t have the strength to take another step. She didn’t know if she had the strength to take another breath. Invisible bands tightened around her chest, squeezing her heart until it could barely beat.

  She was about to use a private, confidential conversation for her own gain. She was no better than Simon’s ex-fiancée, Lisa, even if Helen’s motive was slightly more altruistic. With proof that Simon had military contacts, she now had the legal case to get the licenses back on her patents.

&n
bsp; The dilemma she now faced was whether to tell Simon what she was going to do. If she did, she’d never know if she was more important than the deal to him. She’d talk to her lawyer tomorrow and see what they could work out so if Simon made the wrong choice he didn’t lose anything. Anything but her. How she’d cope knowing she was less important than money wasn’t something legal counsel could advise on.

  She stumbled onto the plane, her eyes too blurry to see much. As soon as they took off and the seat belt sign went out, she reclined the seat and pretended to sleep. At least she’d be able to hide her tear-ravaged face from the other first-class passengers.

  She was pretty sure Simon had been about to tell her that he loved her. But she wasn’t sure if he’d still feel the same when he found out what she was about to do, and she didn’t want him to say words he’d later regret.

  Simon would be furious to know she’d undermined his deal. The question now was whether it would cost her his love.

  It was the hardest decision she’d ever made. She’d feared it would come down to this—Simon or her colleagues. But she couldn’t let her friends down because she had it bad for the pirate. Man, did she have it bad. It hurt to even breathe without him.

  She must have dozed off, because the next thing she knew the flight attendant was calling to her. “Excuse me, miss, but we are preparing to land. Regulations require that your seat be upright for takeoff and landing.”

  “Yes, of course.” She tried to repair her makeup so Liam and Lorelei wouldn’t question her endlessly about what had happened. At least with the couple of hours of sleep that she’d managed on the plane, the bags under her eyes had lessened.

  After making love in the office last night, they’d gone for a repeat of the previous night’s shower experience. Then she’d tossed and turned for the rest of the night wondering what to do with the information she’d inadvertently learned. Thankfully, Simon had slept “the sleep of the just-boinked” and hadn’t noticed her turmoil.

  The five minutes she spent fixing her face obviously didn’t help much, because as soon as Lorelei saw her she gave Helen a big hug.

  “He’ll come around, honey. You wait.”

  Helen didn’t have the heart to tell her that she’d been the one to screw things up. Instead she’d given her friend a fake smile and once they were airborne, pleaded a headache, took a couple Tylenol, and fell asleep.

  …

  Simon shifted in his desk chair. Every time he sat down, he flashed back to Helen seducing him in what used to be his father’s office, and the incredible way her touch set off electric shocks within him. And that was nothing compared to the memories he had of showering with her. He grabbed his cell phone off the desk and checked again for any message from her.

  They’d emailed back and forth a couple of times and had one brief phone conversation. He knew she was busy, but it was almost as if she was avoiding talking to him. If he didn’t have a huge leveraged buyout to negotiate, he’d be on the next plane west. At least Sylvia had been able to clear his schedule for next week. So as soon as he wrapped up this latest deal, he could fly out.

  The specter of Lisa no longer haunted him. Helen was nothing like his ex-girlfriend. Lisa had always had her eye on the game, always talked about the future as though it was something to be conquered, not enjoyed. Always wanted more. Highly competitive, she had encouraged him to reach for greatness not for his sake, but for hers. Helen would support and inspire him not to achieve commercial success but to become the best man he could. The man she deserved.

  Lisa deserved Edward Halliday. Edward hadn’t even blinked when Simon had confronted the two of them. Evidently the other man didn’t mind his woman hedging her bets on who would become the richest. For the first time he was damn glad he hadn’t won that particular contest.

  Screwing Edward Halliday was no longer on the agenda. Making Helen love him was.

  He hadn’t even read the latest reports on the Bertram buyout because every time he saw Helen’s name he’d remember her beautiful smile and his concentration would be gone. He had too much work to do to spend hours reading dry reports when he could get full disclosure on the recent results from her voluptuous lips in a few days’ time. If, and when, he was done kissing them.

  “Simon, the lawyer from the Bertram deal is on the phone again. He sounds panicked,” Sylvia said, her exasperated tone coming through the intercom.

  “All right, I’ll take his call. Let me know when my two o’clock gets here.”

  “Will do. Line three for the lawyer. His name is Dustin Edwards.”

  Simon pressed the line in question and put his feet up on his desk. Next week couldn’t come soon enough.

  “Mr. Lamont, there is a huge potential risk in the Bertram deal,” Dustin began without preamble, probably worried that Simon would cut him off again.

  “And what would that be?”

  “Miss Helen Winston, the chief design engineer, is in a rather unique situation.”

  There was a lot unique about Helen. For instance, the way her blush started at her throat and went in two directions simultaneously. Probably not what the lawyer was referring to.

  “Go on.”

  “Her employment contract offers her the option to redeem the licenses for the patents where she is named the principal inventor in the event they are about to be sublicensed to a company with military connections. I’m not sure if Lamont Holdings has military contracts, but I thought I’d better alert you to the possibility that you could be buying basically a worthless company if she does pull back her patents.”

  Ice formed in his veins and he lowered his feet back onto the ground. Helen wouldn’t do that to him. Besides, he kept his military contracts very secret. Except he’d mentioned the one to her when they were in his father’s office, just before they’d made love. Surely she would have said something if she was even considering exercising the option in her contract. Helen wasn’t Lisa. She wouldn’t screw him, especially after he’d told her what Lisa had done.

  “Thank you for letting me know, Mr. Edwards. I don’t believe this will be a problem. Continue with the buyout.”

  “Very good, Mr. Lamont.”

  The dial tone in his ear as the call cut off sounded like his heart flatlining. Thank God he could trust Helen. He couldn’t wait to suggest they start a company together. Then she could hire all her cronies and have complete control over the direction of her inventions.

  He picked up the phone again to call her when Sylvia’s head appeared around his door. “Simon, your two o’clock appointment is here and your three o’clock called to say he was running fifteen minutes late.”

  He gritted his teeth. In order to get away next week, his schedule was full with back-to-back meetings until six, when he had a dinner, then a conference call with some investors in Asia at ten. He’d hoped to have ten minutes to call Helen, but if he ran late…

  “All right,” he said, rising to go to the conference room. “If Helen Winston calls, though, come and get me.”

  He didn’t need to look at his PA to know she had a huge smile on her face.

  Roll on next week. I’m more than ready for you.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Simon stepped into the hotel room, able to breathe freely for the first time in ten days. It had taken longer than expected to clear his schedule in New York. But now he was in San Francisco, with nothing but Helen on his agenda. If he found time to scout out a new head office for his company, that would be a bonus. There was no longer any point living in New York when his heart was in San Francisco.

  It had also been five days since he’d spoken with Helen. She’d been tied up with her conference all weekend, and then he’d been in constant meetings during the week. That was the past. In less than an hour they were to meet where it all began, at the Mandarin Oriental.

  The only question that remained was whether he should shower and wait for her, or wait for her to shower. He’d also have to try to remember not to crush her to him w
hen he first saw her. The last thing he wanted was to spook her.

  His cell phone rang and he thought of ignoring it. First holiday in ten years, he was going to do his best to forget the corporate world and concentrate on the human one. But waiting for Helen was driving him batty. He might as well take one last call.

  “Mr. Lamont, this is Dustin Edwards again. I was preparing to relicense the patents from Bertram Industries into Lamont Holdings, but most of them have already been transferred elsewhere.”

  “What do you mean? The patents were registered under Bertram Industries and I acquired the rights to all the assets on Monday.”

  “If you’ll recall, Mr. Lamont, in our telephone call last week, I told you there was a clause in Ms. Winston’s employment contract that allowed her to retract all patents where she was named the principal inventor in the event the new licensee had military contracts. I assumed you had spoken with Ms. Winston directly. There are still a number of patents that didn’t involve Ms. Winston. Would you like me to proceed with them?”

  Bloody hell! His board of directors was going to have a field day. Not only had he told them he wouldn’t vote on the Bertram merger because he was personally involved with Helen. Now that personal involvement had cost the company twenty-five million dollars. A hell of a lot of money for some shoddy equipment, lease on a useless building, and employment contracts on a bunch of people he knew would follow Helen to whatever company she chose to set up to capitalize on her patents.

  She’d played him. Kept him so wrapped up in her luscious body he couldn’t see her for the corporate spy that she was. His stomach fell from his body and rolled under the bed, a bed that wouldn’t see any action. At least not from him and Helen.

  “Mr. Lamont?”

  “I’ll be in touch.” Simon disconnected the call.

  There was a knock, and Simon strode across the room, nearly pulling the door off its hinges. The romantic reunion he’d dreamed about had dissipated like a morning fog under the heat of his anger.