“Weird?” Evan frowned. “This is the first I’m hearing about that. Why?”
“They were small things,” she replied, “things that aren’t terribly meaningful on their own. You’d have said it was paranoia or ridiculousness if I’d brought each one up, and you’d have been right. But even alone, this would be disturbing.”
“It is,” he agreed. “Get me a list of everyone who knew about this. I don’t care how high or low they are. If they had access to the information that broke this deal, I want to see them.”
“Right, boss. On it.”
Mary left, closing the door behind her softly, and Evan leaned back in his chair, staring out sightlessly over the city. The loss of the deal was not a huge blow. The board would be displeased by it, but that was nothing new. However...
There had been one other person who had known about the deal and how far Evan was willing to go with it, wasn’t there?
Evan spent a lot of idle moments thinking about the first time that Anna had fitted him with his new suit. It was a treasured memory—the first time he had kissed her. Now, though, he remembered talking on the phone to Jones. He remembered how much he had said.
For a moment, Evan wanted to call Anna. He wanted to demand that she tell him if she had sold that information to foreign investors and whether she had meant to do more. Just the thought of accusing her left him with a sick feeling in his stomach. He shook his head.
He cared for Anna. Perhaps he even loved her. He couldn’t accuse of her something like that without more evidence.
So, he didn’t call her after all. Instead, he went back to work.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Anna
Anna was delighted to be going to the opening of the fiber arts exhibit at the museum, but she was also secretly relieved that she was there with Evan.
She wasn’t sure what to think. He had been oddly distant for the past week or so. When she came over to his penthouse, when they met for lunch, there was something distracted about him. Sometimes it was like he seemed to look right through her.
He told her he was busy at work, and that there were many things that needed to be taken care of, but she had the idea that there was something else going on. Anna pushed aside her doubts. He was a busy man, and when they were in bed together, everything still felt right.
And even if he was distracted, on nights where he did something like this, taking her out to something that she cared about so very fiercely, she could feel his affection.
I think I love him.
The thought came to her all unbidden as Evan examined a medieval tablecloth that was on display.
“I’m glad you’re here to tell me about all of this,” he said with a faint smile. “I’m afraid I would think it’s all prints and silly furniture.”
“Well it is printed fabric and silly furniture, but what you need to do is to look closer, to look at who made these things and why. There’s no such thing as extra detail, not when everything was so costly to produce...”
Anna could talk about textiles for days, but instead of cutting her off, Evan wanted to know more and more about each piece, which made her fall that much deeper in love with him, for understanding that fashion was more than a job for her.
They paused in front of a sapphire-blue gown with wide skirts and a luxurious silken sheen to it. It was scattered with diamonds, and the luxurious embroidery, the placard told them, was pure gold. Evan raised his eyebrows at it.
“Well, that’s some impressive conspicuous consumption, and that’s coming from me!”
Anna smiled. “When you are marrying a man and you want to impress him, it makes sense.”
Evan looked at her curiously. “It’s a wedding dress? It’s not white, though.”
“White wedding dresses are a Victorian thing,” she explained, “specifically a Queen Victoria thing. She got married in white, and then everyone thought that looked so neat, they did the same. Soon enough, it became a tradition. It never originally meant that the bride was a virgin or anything like that.”
“Hmm. And you’re not…is that why you always wear black lace?”
It was uttered so casually that Anna almost missed it, but then she looked at him with a blush, glancing around.
“We’re in public!” she murmured, and with a grin, he leaned closer to her.
“You really love black lace when we’re in the bedroom. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
“It’s... it’s what I look good in,” she whispered. When he put on that silken, soft voice with an edge of steel underneath it, it stopped mattering who might be listening or what they might think of her. All that mattered was pleasing him, because when she pleased him, he would make her feel oh so good.
“Oh, I know you look good in black. You look so exquisite, actually, that it’s all I can do to stop myself from ripping each lacy thing off your perfect body. I don’t destroy every last garment because I know you love the damn things.”
I don’t love them. I love you, she wanted to say, a full shudder going through her body, and her hand tightening on his arm. His lips were next to her ear. To the people looking on, it might have looked as if he was whispering a secret to her.
“I love you in black, Anna. But I think I might want you in white next. I want you to find the most elegant white lacy underthings you can—tasteful, expensive—maybe the whole white virginity thing came with Queen whatever’s gown, but you’re pure whether or not I’ve taken you a hundred times. You’re so goddamn pure, Anna, that I can barely stand it sometimes. I want to spread you out on my bed as if you’ve never had a dirty thought in your life, and I want to just mess you up...”
Anna almost trembled at his hungry words, barely resisting her urge to yank him into a ferocious kiss that would prove for sure that there wasn’t much ‘pure’ about her when Evan Sheffield was standing so close to her that she could feel his arousal against her stomach, and she could more than match it with her own damp, hungry heat.
“I’ll wear whatever you want, Evan.”
He smiled and stepped away then, and it was as if time had restarted. She was back in the museum, and no one walking around them had noticed that anything strange had happened at all.
“White, sweetheart. For my eyes only.” He touched her cheek, the heat in his eyes receding to a deep, tender warmth, and she smiled.
“For your eyes only.”
They were about to continue walking around when a man she had never met before ran up to them. Evan scowled, putting his body between the stranger and Anna. Then his eyes widened with recognition.
“Peters? What in the name of God are you doing here?”
“Sorry, boss,” the man said apologetically. “I came as soon as I could. Mary sent me.”
“Why?” Evan demanded. “She knows better than to cut into my time with Anna.”
“Because the board is forcing a vote. Tonight. It’s going to take place…” Peters’ eyes widened as he glanced at his phone. “Oh God, I got here as fast I could, but it’s in about half an hour or so. They are taking the chance to vote you out, sir.”
Anna was confused about what was going on, but she didn’t have to understand to see Evan’s face go white with rage.
“Those sneaky sons of...”
Evan shook his head, and to Anna it looked as if he were shaking off the rage that had possessed him for a moment. She could see the anger drain away, and underneath it was the cold and calculating businessman who had won his fortune before he was twenty-six. She shivered a little. She cared for Evan deeply, and she knew deep in her heart that that this care was turning into love, but at the end of the day, there was a core of coldness to him that made her shiver.
“Where is this happening?”
“The boardroom downtown. It’s a physical meeting—it’s in the charter—it has to be.”
“And of course, they’re counting on me not being able to get back for it because no one ever told me it was happening. All right. I can make that,
but I need to leave now.” Evan nodded at Anna. “Take her back to my place, Peters. I need to move fast.”
“Evan...” Anna said uncertainly, not comfortable with leaving with a man she didn’t know.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry to cut the evening short, darling, but I need to take care of this.”
“I...just be careful, all right?” She had no idea what might hurt him at a board meeting, but there was something dangerous and charged about Evan now, something that felt more like a fighter than a civilized CEO.
“Always. I’ll speak with you tonight.”
He leaned in to kiss her, and where she had expected something soft, what he gave her was hard and almost dirty. When he pulled away, Anna knew that her lips were red and her eyes wide. With nothing more than that, Evan strode off for the car, and Peters stepped forward. Anna was grateful that if he had an opinion about her relationship with his employer, he kept it to himself.
“Come on, I’ll take you home,” he said, and she nodded.
As they drove, Anna told herself that everything was fine. Whatever happened at work didn’t touch them at home. She decided that when Evan got home, she would do her best to be soothing, to let him rest after what sounded like what might be an ordeal.
She wanted to take care of him, she realized, and the thought opened inside her like a flower made of fire.
CHAPTER NINE
Evan
When the last board member left with a chastened look on his face, Evan finally let himself collapse into the chair at the head of the long boardroom table. His head ached, and he couldn’t seem to let go of the adrenaline that was still pumping through him.
He had almost lost his company.
The thought echoed in his head like a bell. This company that he had built from the ground up with long nights, insane risks, and so many contracts and deals, he had almost lost it all. He would still have a great deal of money, but the work of his life would have been gone.
Now that the problem was dealt with and the board members reminded of what he did for them and how tied they were to him, he could feel the rage that had bubbled up at the thought of having what was his taken away from him.
Someone was responsible for this, and the suspicions he harbored since they lost out on the big deal to the Moroccan investors bloomed into livid fire. Someone had known that they could not afford to go higher in the Islington deal. And now, tonight, someone had known that he was going to be distracted and not around to defend his position.
Some part of him wanted to deny it. Anna surely couldn’t have betrayed him like that, but when the pieces were all spread out in front of him, they began to click together with a distressing completeness. Evan took care of his employees and his partners. They had never betrayed him before. But Anna was new. Anna, he had no previous history with.
Anna…was a girl with nothing except the wage he paid her. Could she have betrayed him for a chance at something even better? His stomach turned over, and the rage that had been simmering ever since the museum boiled over.
***
When he arrived home to the penthouse in Manhattan, the lights were dim and candles were lit. He wondered sardonically if she had been ready to ‘comfort’ him after the loss of his own damn company.
“Anna? Where the hell are you?”
She appeared immediately from the bedroom, her eyes dark in the dim light. He raked her up and down with a scathing glance that made her wince. Even in his fury, he could see how beautiful she was wrapped in a silk kimono. It was one he had bought for her, and it draped sensuously against what he knew was bare skin.
“Evan?”
“Save it,” he snapped. “Your little ploy didn’t work.”
Her eyes widened, and he wondered how hard she had worked on her expression of wide-eyed surprise. Had someone told her the coup had failed and prepared her for disappointment?
“What ploy?” she asked, her innocent act further infuriating him. She had no right to wear white, damn her—if that’s what she had on under the silk. There was nothing pure about this woman. She was a snake. And he’d fallen for her act.
“Don’t play innocent with me,” he snarled. “You set me up. You told the board when I would be unavailable, didn’t you? You nearly lost me my goddamn company.”
“Evan? Stop this!” Anna cried, her eyes so wide with shock that he almost believed her dismay. Almost, but not quite. “I have no idea what you are talking about!”
Suddenly he found that he couldn’t stand to listen to her protestations. On the ride over, Evan had thought about drawing it out, making her confess and making her at least acknowledge what she had done to him—to the both of them. He had wanted to find out if she was sorry, and if she’d cared even a little about him, as he’d come to care for her.
To his disgust, Evan realized that somewhere in the back of his mind, he needed her to be sorry. If she had told him what she did, if she swore that it would never happen again, he would be willing to forgive her. He would keep her and forget about what she had done—even love her, still.
Evan snorted a hard laugh, shaking his head.
He would say that she had turned him into a fool, but it seemed as if he had always been one.
“Get out of here,” he said. “Make it quick. I’m not going to turn you out in that robe, but if you stick around too long, I might change my mind.”
Anna didn’t seem to know when to give up. She ignored his ominous warning, instead crossing the floor towards him. She was shaking, but she still did it. If she had been anyone else, if this was any other situation, he would have said she looked brave.
“Evan, stop this, please,” she said softly. “I don’t understand. Tell me what’s happening. Please. You can’t do this to us without letting me...I don’t know…defend myself. I don’t know even know my crime! Please.”
Evan thought that he was going to hang on to his temper, and he thought so right up until the moment she touched him. Her hands on his arm sent that familiar shiver of want and lust through him, and he couldn’t take it. He knew her hands so well. He had touched them, caressed them, showed her how to move them over his body and her own. He knew how clean and short she kept her fingernails, and how she had earned every callous from meticulous hand-sewing. When she touched him, it felt as if something had snapped in his mind.
Instead of pushing her away, he grabbed her by the lapels of the kimono, dragging her against him. He almost kissed her with all the fury and rage he felt, but somewhere deep in his mind, Evan knew that he would never be able to send her away if he did that.
“Get out,” he snarled. “You lost, Anna. You lost, and I never want to see you again. Get the hell out before I forget that I’m a gentleman and force you out just as you are. Pack up, get out, and leave that apartment I paid for by the end of the week. You no longer work for me. Every perk is forfeited.”
He saw the fear in her eyes, and grimly satisfied, he let her go. He turned towards the window, looking out over the Manhattan skyline. He didn’t look back until he heard her soft steps move from the bedroom to the door. She hesitated before she opened the door, and for a moment, Evan wanted to call her back, to figure out why she had decided to betray him.
Then the door opened and shut, and it was over.
Evan felt the rage ebbing away, and underneath it, there was only grief. He had never thought that his life was empty before Anna, but now that she was gone, all he could feel was a vast and aching loss. It made no sense.
When she was gone, Evan could see that Anna had changed something essential in him. Now he had to figure out if he could survive her loss while so changed.
CHAPTER TEN
Anna
In the cab ride back to her apartment, Anna felt numb, as if she were seeing the whole world through a layer of thick glass. She flinched a little when she thought of the fury on Evan’s face and the leashed violence in his hands when he had grabbed her. It was strange. When he grabbed her by the kimono lapels
, she had been afraid, but it was not a physical fear. She was not afraid of what he might do to her. Evan would never hurt her physically. Of that, she was sure. But emotionally…he’d destroyed her. And the worst part was, she had no idea why. Everything had been so good, so right, and then…what had happened? What could have made that tenderness in his eyes turn to such hate in less than a day?
It was too big for Anna to even wrap her mind around. Instead, all she could do was hang on to the door handle while the taxi driver talked about the terrible New York weather and the other drivers on the road. She felt as if everything was far away. Nothing could touch her.
She over-tipped the driver and walked up the two floors to her apartment. It wouldn’t be hers for much longer, but for at least a few days, she had somewhere to stay. She had saved enough from her absurdly high salary that she wouldn’t be destitute. She could start over again. Somewhere.
But as she reached the door, she felt tears threatening all over again. She didn’t want to start over, damn it. Not without even knowing what went wrong!
Once she walked into her apartment and locked the door behind her, however, all she could do was sit on the couch, letting helpless tears fall from her eyes. Eventually, she changed into a comfortable pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, gently folding away the kimono to return to Evan after dry cleaning, but there was nothing she could do to stop the slow seepage of tears and grief.
She looked up from what felt like hours later when she heard the soft knock on the door. Though she knew better, Anna couldn’t help but hope that perhaps it was Evan, come to his senses. She took a deep breath, had a moment to regret what she was wearing, and went to the peephole.
Instead of Evan on the other side of the door, however, it was the unpleasant man she had met weeks ago: Jones. He stood on her doorstep with a faintly nervous expression.
“What is it?” she asked without opening the door.
“Sheffield sent me,” he said. “He has a message for you.”
The Virgin’s Dance_Older Man Younger Woman Romance Page 29