More Lipstick Chronicles

by Emily Carmichael

  “Parker, I—”

  “Shh.” His thumb swept her lips. “Shh,” he repeated. Grasping her shoulders, he backed her up against the wall and braced his arms on either side of her.

  She was speechless at his nearness. He smelled good, like the outdoors. She swallowed hard. His hand went to her throat.

  His beautiful tawny eyes darkened. His wide shoulders tensed. His whole body seemed to melt into hers. Without another word he grasped her chin gently, tipped her face up to him.

  And then he took her mouth, in a slow sensuous kiss. It was pleasant, warm . . . stirring.

  Big hands found her shirt and she felt him release the buttons. Separate the flaps. Slide warm masculine fingers to her rib cage. Drawing back, he breathed sexily, “Elyssa.”

  The one word stopped her in the act of winding her arms around his neck. She froze with her hands on his shoulders. Joe called her “Lyss.” This wasn’t Joe.

  Oh, my God, she thought, panicking. What the hell am I doing?

  She placed a hand on Parker’s chest in an effort to put the brakes on what was about to happen. “Parker. Wait.”

  He stilled, and then pulled back fractionally.

  “I can’t do this.” Her voice was sandpapery.

  “Why?”

  “I love Joe. This isn’t right.”

  His face bore traces of real hurt. He leaned his forehead on hers and sighed.

  It was then the door to the living room opened. At the sound of jangling keys, Quest stepped slightly away from Elyssa, giving her a clear view of the doorway.

  There stood Joe, a silvery bag in one hand, the keys Elyssa had given him months before in the other.

  And an utterly stunned look on his face.

  The images clicked into focus one at a time. Elyssa backed up against the wall. Her shirt open and one of his favorite black lacy bras peeking out. And Parker Quest’s hands still lingering on her waist.

  “Well, it looks like I was right all along.” Joe’s face showed fierce, black anger.

  Too late, Elyssa and Parker sprang apart like illicit lovers. Now other things came into focus. Both were in socked feet. Quest was shirtless. His hair was disheveled. Frankly, he looked like a man with a good chance of getting laid in the very near future.

  And if I hadn’t interrupted, the man would have gotten laid by the woman I love, the woman who said she loved me. Joe couldn’t contain the ugly thought.

  He turned abruptly and strode out the door. At the building exit, he heard Elyssa call to him from above. He didn’t stop. He had to get out of here. Flinging open the outer door, he hurried into the night. He halted, disoriented. Where was his car?

  She caught up to him then. “Joe, wait.”

  He didn’t respond; instead he wracked his brain to remember where he’d parked. He’d driven in from the airport, but it was after ten o’clock and hard to find a space. He’d had to park far away.

  He’d been so anxious to see her, he’d jogged the block quickly.

  She grasped his arm. Shaking her off, he started walking, dimly aware she was following him. He increased his pace until he reached his restored Mustang, which was parked at the beginning of the next block.

  He still held his key ring clutched in his hand. Using the remote, he unlocked the car, circled around the back fender and yanked open the driver’s side. When he slid in, she opened the passenger side and jumped in, too.

  Steeling himself against her, he gripped the wheel, staring straight ahead while the misting rain clouded his windshield. He thought about how he’d rushed home because he couldn’t wait to see her. All day long, and on the crowded flight here, he’d had visions of being with Elyssa. But someone else had beat him to it. “Get out,” he hissed.

  “No. I need to explain.”

  His teeth gritted. “Nothing you have to say is of any interest to me.” He wouldn’t look at her. “Get out of my car. And out of my life.” He spoke each word distinctly, lest she misunderstand.

  “No.”

  “Fine.” He stuck the key in the ignition, started the engine and pulled wildly out into traffic. Horns blared. He ignored them.

  By the time he reached his own building, he was just barely able to contain his rage. He swerved too quickly into his driveway and the front bumper of his Mustang hit the garage door with a thud. He didn’t care. He was out of the car, at his front door, and had it opened in seconds. She followed him in. He didn’t want to look at her. In his mind he kept seeing her pale skin, her black bra and Quest’s hands on her. I wonder if she bothered to button up her shirt?

  He headed straight to the sideboard and poured himself a scotch. He drank it in a gulp, then poured another, which he also downed. As it burned his stomach, he finally turned around.

  She looked terrified. And she had reason to be afraid.

  Crossing his arms over his chest, he watched her, waiting.

  She came toward him, tentatively. “Please, listen to me,” she said when she reached him. “I love you, I . . .”

  He moved like lightning, grasping her arms hard enough to leave bruises. “Don’t tell me you love me. Don’t you dare tell me you love me when minutes ago you let another man touch you. When you touched another man. When you were about to go to bed with him.” His voice broke on the last words. He squeezed harder and she winced. He let her go.

  “I wasn’t going to bed with him,” Elyssa answered quickly. “I . . . I . . . I’m sorry about the kiss. I made a mistake.”

  “A mistake? You call this a mistake?” He laughed; it was an ugly sound, even to his own ears. “I’ll tell you what’s a mistake. You. Me. Us. I made the mistake of thinking there was some meaningful future for us. In fact, this whole ridiculous situation has been my mistake.” He closed his eyes and shook his head.

  “Joe, it’s not what you think. I got caught up in the moment. I—”

  “I don’t want to hear this,” he roared. “I don’t care how it happened. I just care that it did. And that it would have gone further if I hadn’t interrupted.”

  Unable to bear the sight of her, of what she’d done to him, he turned away. She snagged the sleeve of his suit. “No, Joe, you’re wrong. It wouldn’t have gone further. Please, give me a chance to convince you. To apologize.”

  He whirled around. “You don’t get it, do you? Nothing you can say could possibly make any difference.”

  She summoned Elyssa Wentworth, CEO. “I’m not leaving until you talk this through with me.”

  “No?” He wanted to hit her; he wanted to kiss her; he wanted to bury himself so deep inside of her and make her tell him what he’d seen wasn’t real. But it was real, all too real. “Then I am.”

  Grabbing his keys from the sideboard, he strode to the door, whipped it open and stalked out. He heard her call his name but he didn’t stop. He got in the car and tore out of the driveway. From his rearview mirror, he saw her watching him from his stoop.

  Chapter 5

  For two weeks, Joe worked like a demon during the day and then at night retreated to his house like a hermit. He talked to people only when necessary, and in no time, everyone was giving him wide berth. He lived in an emotional limbo and preferred it that way. During the third week, he hit the bars and clubs by himself, then escorted Bethany, who happened to be around a lot.

  He absolutely refused to see or talk to Elyssa. She phoned several times, but he never returned her calls; he deleted her e-mail messages without reading them. She’d come over to his house twice; he ignored the doorbell the first time and the second, he let Beth answer it, which seemed to get rid of her. She hadn’t come to his house again. And of course, she never tried to contact him at the office; separating the personal and professional was paramount to Elyssa Wentworth. Except where Parker Quest was concerned, apparently. Damn it!

  Managing to avoid Allheart was tricky since Red Door had made formal inquiries about a possible buyout; still, he hadn’t been to Elyssa’s offices once. However, today he was unable to avoid the o
fficial Highwire board meeting to decide whether to respond to the bigger company’s overtures. She would be there, of course.

  Joe was scrutinizing his library, searching for a book on buyouts, when he heard a knock on his open office door. Not much caring who was there, he pivoted around. Parker Quest stood in the entryway.

  Suddenly, Joe’s rage from that fateful Thursday evening returned. All of the anger and the despair of the last few weeks coalesced in one moment and without thinking about it, he lunged across the room. Catching Quest by surprise, Joe landed a quick upper right on Quest’s smug mouth and the younger man slammed back into the wall. He went down, rattling the thousand-dollar pictures that hung there. From the floor, Quest stared up at Joe. “Okay,” he said after a minute. “I deserved that.”

  “Screw you.”

  Quest sat up, then came to his feet. Working his jaw, he wiped a bit of blood off his lip. The punch had diluted the red haze that had overcome Joe, and he studied the other man. He was a down-home boy, the type Elyssa obviously preferred. Today he was dressed in pressed jeans, a T-shirt and a lightweight sport coat.

  The guy kept his distance but cut to the chase. “You’re gonna lose her, man.”

  Joe didn’t play coy. There was only one thing he and this jerk had in common. “She was gone the minute she let you touch her.” Saying it conjured the images of Quest’s hands on Elyssa and it tore at Joe’s insides. His father said he was causing himself an ulcer over this. Which was why he refused to think about it.

  “You never make a mistake, Monteigne?”

  “Not like this one.”

  “Oh, sure, I believe that.”

  “What makes you think I give a shit what you believe?”

  “She made a mistake. We got too close, but when push came to shove, she stopped it. She told me she loved you and to back off.”

  Joe rolled his eyes.

  “You’re not gonna budge, are you?”

  “Not an inch.”

  “Then you don’t deserve her. Maybe I will go after her now.”

  “Yeah, well, just be careful she doesn’t screw the next guy she does business with.”

  “We didn’t screw. I kissed her. She told me she wasn’t interested!”

  “I don’t want to hear this.” He enunciated each word carefully.

  “You arrogant, self-righteous bastard. You know, anyone else in the world—anyone in their right mind—would forgive her. People get caught up in situations. They make mistakes. I’d forgive her and then keep her so happy she wouldn’t look at another guy.” He straightened. “She’s worth it.”

  Parker Quest strode out the door.

  Joe watched him leave then crossed to his desk, picked up the book he’d found and threw it after the guy. It hit the wall with a thud.

  He was still in a vile mood from the encounter with Quest when he entered the conference room two hours later. Already his partners were there along with the woman of the hour and her attorney, Patrick O’Hare. Joe knew she’d dated O’Hare before he and Elyssa had gotten together. Briefly, he wondered if she’d been sleeping with him, too. God he’d been such a fool. “Sorry I’m late, gentlemen.” He nodded to Elyssa. “Elyssa.”

  He tried not to notice, but he couldn’t help it. She was wearing a classy moss green linen skirt and a one-button jacket, but she was noticeably thinner. With grim satisfaction he noted that he never liked skinny women. But it was her eyes that got to him. They were vacant. So she’d pulled the emotional robot routine, too. Whatever.

  Highwire’s board chair, Martin Stanton, began the meeting. “We’re here to discuss the desirability of selling Allheart to Red Door. Though Elyssa has the majority voting stock, our contract doesn’t allow her to sell the company without our approval.” He looked to Elyssa.

  She gave him her CEO smile. “I wouldn’t want to do that anyway, Martin. I value Highwire’s input.”

  Joe almost snorted. They’d fought like cats and dogs about control of the company and a myriad of other issues in running it. Until Quest, Joe had had fun going head-to-head with her.

  “Let’s start there, then. Do you want to sell?”

  “I’m open to it. Patrick thinks we should investigate it, in any case. So do my accountants.”

  The men and one woman around the table smiled. Everybody knew the sale of a hot company like Allheart would make them all a decent bit of money.

  Martin looked at Joe this time. “Joe, since Allheart’s your baby, let’s hear from you.”

  Carefully, he folded his hands and refused to even glance at Elyssa. “I’m not sure this is the right time to sell. Allheart’s record is so good I’m predicting the company will be worth more in six months. The upshot is, if this was my decision alone, I’d probably wait.”

  Sam Roncone sat forward. He was a doctor at Georgetown Medical School, on the board of Highwire. “That’s unlike you, Joe. You’re usually a strike-while-the-iron’s-hot man.”

  “Yeah, well, having been burned a few times”—now that was an understatement—“I’m becoming more conservative.” Even to his own ears, his rationale sounded weak. And somewhere in his quick businessman’s mind, he knew selling Allheart was definitely a good option. So why was he balking?

  “Joe could be right.” Martin rarely contradicted his favorite partner. “His instincts usually are.”

  Not lately.

  “But I see no harm in letting Red Door investigate a buyout of Allheart.” This from O’Hare the lawyer. “As Allheart’s chief attorney, I say we give Red Door enough information to let them at least decide if there’s interest. If we get it, then we can determine to go forward or not.”

  The rest of the board agreed. Joe knew in cases like this it was common courtesy to go along for consensus. He stood and picked up his folder. “Fine by me. We can revisit this later.” He nodded to the group and strode out the door. Absolute quiet behind him, but he didn’t care. He needed to get out of there before he made a complete fool of himself in front of his partners. He’d already hit bottom personally, and he’d be damned if he’d ruin his professional reputation, too.

  Martin Stanton followed him to his office. Joe had just sat down at his desk when his friend and colleague came in. “What’s going on, Joe?”

  “Going on?”

  Martin angled his head over his shoulder to the boardroom. “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen you behave capriciously. You can’t really think selling Allheart is a bad idea.”

  “We won’t know that until we investigate.”

  “Exactly. Which is why we should go forward a bit.”

  “I agreed, Martin.”

  “Under duress. Why?”

  “I have reservations, that’s all. It seems too soon to me.”

  Too soon for what, Monteigne? Too soon to lose all that’s left of a connection to Elyssa?

  “Joe, does this have anything to do with you and Elyssa?”

  “No.”

  “I hope not. You assured us your personal relationship wouldn’t affect business.”

  “It’s not. It hasn’t.”

  Martin stood. “I’ll take your word for that.” He stared down at Joe. “As your friend, can I say something?”

  “Of course.”

  “You’re about as miserable as any man I’ve ever seen and she doesn’t look any happier. I’d try to work it out if I were you.”

  He didn’t deny his mood. Only a moron could miss his surly attitude lately. “Life’s complicated, Martin.”

  “Not unless you let it be.” His friend turned and walked out of the office.

  Joe sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. God he was tired of this. Of keeping his emotions at bay. Of fending off the well-meaning attention of people like Martin and his father.

  Were they right? Was he being foolish? But God, how could he ever trust her with his heart again?

  “Joe?” He opened his eyes. And there she stood. Looking so fragile, so sad that he wanted to pull her to him and make the last
few weeks go away. He said only, “Come on in, Elyssa. Close the door.”

  Elyssa heard Joe’s cold tone and watched his gaze turn flinty, but it was better than being kicked out, so she took it as a good sign that he invited her into his office. On shaky legs and four-inch heels—she’d changed her outfit several times getting dressed this morning—she strode into his office. She hoped on the outside she looked confident and in control, because on the inside, her stomach was so rife with anxiety that she was afraid she’d be ill.

  “Sit down. Before you collapse.” He didn’t smile.

  “Do I look that bad?”

  “Yes.”

  He only looked more handsome to her. The cleft in his chin stood out in stark relief, and though his shoulders were tense, they were big and wide. Wearing a lightweight Italian suit of heather blue, he was still the most attractive man she’d ever met. How could she have let Parker kiss her when she had Joe Monteigne?

  “Do you want to discuss Allheart and Red Door?” he asked with absolutely no inflection in his voice.

  “No, I want to discuss us.”

  He arched an arrogant brow. “On company hours? Isn’t that going to blur the lines for you, Elyssa?”

  She tried to ignore the barb. “Are you ever going to talk to me about this thing with Parker?”

  “No.”

  She lifted her chin. “Then I want to know outright. Is it over between us?”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched. “To be honest, I don’t know.”

  Well, that was better than three weeks ago when he said he never wanted to see her again.

  “Is there anything I can do to make our relationship right?”

  He tented his hands as if he was making a corporate decision. “I don’t know.”

  She’d grovel if she had to. After all, she was the one who’d screwed up. “Can we try?”

  “What do you suggest? That we pick up where we left off?” His icy demeanor was getting to her. And he knew it. First the rage, now this cold calm.