“I don’t know. I’ve never had an experience like this.”
“Do you feel satisfied? I know you had an orgasm, and a powerful one, too, but do you feel sated?”
“I feel wonderful. Can I have…I mean, can we do that again?”
“That’s what I like to hear, baby. Whenever you want me, find a way to let me know. I want you to need me and love me.” He got her nipple between his lips, eased his hand down her body and let his talented fingers work their magic. She realized that he’d learned what it took to reach his goal, for within minutes he had her ready to climb the wall.
“I’m ready. Stop torturing me and get in me.”
He tested her for readiness, and within seconds he began storming inside of her, claiming her, sure of his goal. She wanted to make it last, but he drove relentlessly until both of them erupted in orgasm. Totally spent. After a while, he separated them, rolled off her, wrapped her in his arms and slept.
Justin awakened the next morning groggy and not quite aware of his surroundings. He didn’t know when he’d last gotten home at four in the morning, and he rarely went to bed so late that he slept for only a couple of hours. He tried to fix his mind on the wonder of his experience with Deanna the previous night, but was deprived of that joy when his phone rang.
“Don’t tell me you’re still asleep, son. You feel all right?”
“I’m fine, Granddad.” He pulled himself up and sat on the edge of the bed. “How are you?”
“As sound as the US mint. Now I want to have a word with you before you start making changes in McCall’s. Butcher told me you’re planning to put third-line designer products in the store, and that’s not wise. Our clients won’t like that.” After an hour, during which he hadn’t had a drop of coffee, he said goodbye, although they hadn’t settled the matter.
For the first time in his life, he was at odds with his grandfather who he had idolized almost since birth, and he didn’t like it. But with only two department stores in Woodmore, the middle class needed more options and, with its monopoly, Burton’s overcharged them. He could offer higher quality at a lower cost to those customers.
The disagreement with his grandfather depressed him. Deanna was his one source of joy, and he couldn’t stay away from her. He didn’t want to. His attempts to reorganize the store failed to satisfy him, and he suggested to Deanna that perhaps going against his grandfather’s wishes had not been a good idea.
Lying on Deanna’s living room floor with his head in her lap—his favorite way of relaxing—he told her that he might have erred. “Granddad’s marketing instincts have made McCall’s what it is. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone against his wishes.”
“Would you like me to take a look at the new arrangement and the decorators’ work?”
He turned on his side, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her belly. “I can’t tell you how much I’d appreciate that.”
The next morning, she walked through the store from the second to the top level making notes and jotting down ideas. That afternoon in her study at home, she sketched out some changes, and telephoned Justin that she had some ideas for him.
“May I come over right now?” he asked her.
“Sure, but I don’t wear shoes when I’m working at home.”
“Wonderful,” he said. “I’ve wanted to get a good look at your toes.”
She decided to risk a provocative question. “Any special reason?”
“Mind your manners, woman. See you in a few minutes.” His laughter warmed her, and she’d found that nothing pleased her more than making him happy.
What a man he is! she said to herself as she hurried to make a pitcher of lemonade. I may be headed for trouble, but I am definitely going to enjoy the ride. Wait until he discovers that my biggest client, Netta Cross, has the hots for him. She’d learned that Netta had a big mouth, and everything the woman knew or imagined spilled out of it. The doorbell rang, and she raced to it.
He picked her up, swung her around and kissed her. She grabbed his hand and led him to her study.
“Hey,” he said and stopped as they passed her bedroom. “So, that’s what you wanted to do with those candles. Hmm. Interesting. I spent most of a night in there, and I didn’t see a flicker, much less a candle.”
“You came here to look at my sketches. They’re in my study,” she said, dragging him by the hand. “We’re not going in there.”
“You wound me. I only wanted to see what magic you made with those candles. What did you think of the way we rearranged the store?”
“I have a few suggestions that I think you’ll like. Check that out while I get us a glass of lemonade.” She handed him the sketches and went downstairs to the kitchen.
“This is great,” he said when she returned. “This way, most of the second lines will be on the seventh floor, and the remainder on a different side of the same floor as our regular lines.”
“Yes, and all will be displayed in the attractive and elegant McCall settings.”
“I won’t try to thank you for this, but you know what it means to me that you’re willing to help me. I want to go back and get started on this. Kiss me.”
When she opened her arms to him, he rushed into them and held her. “For the first time in my memory, I don’t feel lonely. My house still feels like an overfurnished mausoleum, but I no longer feel as if I don’t belong to anyone. My grandfather has been wonderful to me, but he’s from an age when there was rarely camaraderie between parents and children.” Her fingers stroked his cheek, and she kissed his chin, adoring him and unashamed of it.
“I’ll call you,” he said as he left.
Having already decided that she didn’t like her wealthy client, Netta Cross, she had to force patience with the woman.
“I want you to buy all of my furnishings at McCall’s, and you’re to let me see them before you purchase them. I’m talking everything. Do you happen to know what time Justin McCall is in the store? Well, you can find out,” she went on, not waiting for an answer. “Make my appointments to check the purchases at a time when he’s in the store.” She waved her left index finger. “And don’t forget to do that.”
Deanna took her copy of their contract out of her briefcase and read that portion of it that specified the conditions under which the decorator was to purchase furnishings.
“I consult Ms. Cross only if I have doubts,” she read, “and so far I don’t have any doubts. I buy wholesale, and I’m having many things made to order. The more you interfere, the longer it will take me. I don’t work with the kind of control you seem to want to impose.”
“Please! I don’t know a damned thing about decorating a house, which is why my place in Danvers is such a hodgepodge of this and that. But if you don’t choose the furnishings at McCall’s, I can’t think of any other way I can get to see Justin McCall. Our families have been as tight as concrete all my life, but he’s so detached. Like I’m not the only woman in this town who wants him, but my spies say he walks alone. And I don’t believe he’s gay, either.” She stopped pacing the floor. “But I’d take him even if I knew he was. He’s gorgeous.”
Thank goodness she talks so much that she doesn’t know I haven’t said one word. “I always complete the downstairs before I start on the upper floors, Ms. Cross.” Satisfied that she could proceed with her biggest account without interference, she went home and began sketching ideas. Netta’s passion for Justin hardly crossed her mind. She could imagine Justin with other women, but Netta Cross was not one of them. Besides, he had an appetite for her, and she meant to make certain that his hunger increased.
Two mornings later, Justin walked into his office at McCall’s minutes before his grandfather knocked on the door. “Come in. If you want an appointment, see my secretary in—” He looked up. “Granddad!” He rushed to his grandfather and embraced him. “It’s great to see you. Sit down. Would you like some breakfast?”
“You’re looking well yourself, son. In fact, you’re looking exceptiona
lly well, but we’ll get into that later. I see that you went ahead and changed things here, but I tell you it looks great. Spectacular, I’d say.” He crossed his knees and leaned back in the chair. “It’s going to make a difference. I’ve been through every floor from here on down.”
“I’m glad you’re pleased, Granddad. I didn’t want to go against you, but I knew this was right on principle. We just completed it last night.”
“Who’s plan is it? Yours or Duke’s? I can’t see Horton doing anything of this level.”
“Deanna Lawford did it. Duke and I tried it and made a complete mess of things. Deanna asked me if I minded if she looked at it, and a few hours after she saw what we did, she designed what you see.”
“Hmm. Who’s Deanna?”
“She was Burton’s decorator. Now she’s got her own business. She’s first class.”
“I’ll say she is. How about some fishing over on the sound this weekend? I haven’t taken the boat out but once this summer, and it’s getting close to Labor Day.”
“I’d love to, but I…made other plans.”
A smile creased the old man’s weathered face. “Hmm. So now you’ve got secrets from your old granddad, huh? Well! I can’t tell you how glad I am to see it. I expect you’ll let me meet her one of these days?”
“Why are you so sure there’s a woman involved?”
“First time I ever knew you to pass up a chance to take that boat out for a fishing jaunt. Nothing stays the same, son. The worst thing you can do is hold on to the past when it's time for a change. You just proved that with what you’ve done here in McCall’s.”
He phoned the dining room and asked a waiter to bring coffee, one with cup and saucer and the other in a mug. The coffee arrived with toasted bagels as he knew it would. He sipped the coffee, spread raspberry jam on his bagel and looked at his beloved grandfather.
“Yes, there is someone. We’re getting closer.” He told Robert McCall as much about the friendship as he wanted him to know. “Now that she no longer works for Burton’s, we have a chance.”
“Seems to me she has integrity.”
“Oh, she has that, and she’s tender and…and loving. She’s independent and strong-willed, too. I don’t know. There’s something about her.”
“Yeah,” Robert said. “And pretty damned clever, too. You left out that part. For the past five years, I’ve envied Burton’s showrooms.” He sipped the coffee and apparently enjoyed the toasted bagel and jam. “Success is being able to pick up the phone and tell somebody to bring you a cup of coffee. I’ll get Jim to go fishing with me. We can take his boat. I’ll be going.”
After he left, Justin sent an ad to The Woodmore Times announcing the changes in McCall’s along with a sale guaranteeing that his usual customers would put aside their antipathy to the idea. Robert McCall was a crafty man. As deeply as Justin felt for Deanna, their meeting would have to wait. When a man took his girl to meet his grandfather, marriage was the reason. He wasn’t there yet, and whether he’d get there was still in question.
Chapter 5
That weekend, shoppers clad in sneakers, T-shirts—many with baby carriages—crowded McCall’s department store. The majority headed for the seventh floor, but many did not. Justin walked through the store marveling at what he saw: his regular customers shopped in their usual designer boutiques and seemed to pay no attention to the large crowd or to shopping among people they didn’t usually meet.
“We’ve made some changes,” he said to a long-time customer, “but you’ll find Dior in the usual place.”
“Yes, I did, and I got some great T-shirts on the seventh floor that were exactly what I need for gardening. They didn’t cost much, so I bought them in different colors.”
He walked on, satisfied that he’d done the right thing. Monday morning, he telephoned his grandfather and reported the heaviest one-day sale that McCall’s had ever recorded.
“That crowd astonished me. Lines in the restaurant and at cashier stations on the first and seventh floors. I wish you could have seen it. How were the fish?”
“It rained over there, so the fish were really jumping. Looks like the changes you made were overdue. That’s great news.”
“Yes, but the place would have been a disaster if Deanna hadn’t reorganized it for me.”
“I expect you’re right. I want to meet that young lady. Invite her to lunch tomorrow. I ought to at least thank her.”
“I’ll ask her, Granddad, but she may have a lunchtime appointment. I’ll let you know.”
“McCall men have always known how to make women want to please them.”
“Well, I’ll be… Who would have thought it? I don’t play games with Deanna. She’s too important to me.”
“Then she’ll do as you ask because you’re probably equally important to her. I’ll see you at lunch tomorrow.”
Justin hung up thinking that Robert McCall must have been quite a man in his youth. He telephoned Deanna.
“Hi. I was right to change the store, and your ideas proved to be just what we needed. McCall’s had a rollicking success this past weekend. We’ve never had weekend sales like that. My grandfather wants to meet you and thank you. At least, I assume that’s why he wants to meet you. He’s a wonderful man, but I admit he can be cagey.”
“When and what time?”
“He suggested tomorrow at noon.”
“How old is he? In his eighties?”
“Eighty-seven.”
“Then what he actually said was closer to, ‘You bring her to meet me tomorrow at lunch.’ Right? A man of his age and accomplishments is more likely to dictate than to ask.”
He rested his head on the heel of his right hand and whooped. “Baby, you’ve nailed it. Will you come to the restaurant at twelve-thirty? Or I could be at your place at twelve and bring you to McCall’s. I’d prefer that.”
“I’ll be at the home of a client, so I’ll take a taxi and knock on your office door at around twelve twenty-five.”
“Thanks. How about meeting me for a drink around five-thirty today?”
“Justin, you’ve seen me every day for the past two weeks.”
“You don’t want to see me?”
“I do, but I gotta clean my refrigerator some time.” He told her he’d help her. “I’ll bet you’ve never cleaned a refrigerator in your life.”
“Well, I won’t lie; I don’t do it every day, but I have definitely done it.”
“Okay. I’ll let you help me. Where shall we meet and what time?”
Did he detect reluctance? “Well, if you’d rather not—”
“Hold it. If I’d rather not, you’d be the first to know. I’m longing to see you.”
“I wish I could hug you. See you later.”
That morning, Deanna debated the efficacy of looking feminine or businesslike for her meeting with the renowned Robert McCall. I am who I am, she said to herself and opted for a look somewhere in between. As a result, when she knocked on Justin’s office door wearing a three-quarter sleeve, dusty-rose linen suit with the skirt skimming her knee and revealing a pair of prize-winning legs, his sharp whistle split the air. She had added to the effect by combing her hair down.
“Man, is Granddad going to get an eyeful,” he said and wrapped her in his arms. “You’re just in time. He’s probably sitting at his favorite table in his private dining room.”
They walked a few paces down the hall to the elevator and rode two flights up. “This isn’t the dining room you took me to,” she said. “How many do you have?”
“That was the executive dining room. This is Granddad’s private dining room. He loves this place. See the balcony over there? That’s his flower garden. Come on in. He a stickler for time.”
The old man stood as they approached. If she had envisaged him as bent and toddling on a cane, she couldn’t have been further off the mark. Robert McCall stood nearly as tall as his grandson, slim and immaculately dressed. “This is a genuine pleasure, Miss Lawford. I’d
begun to think that Justin didn’t plan to introduce us, so I told him to bring you to me. Thank you for coming.”
She’d been right about one thing: the old man went after what he wanted, and he expected to get it. “Thank you for inviting me, sir. I’m bowled over. You’re iconic in these parts and a real legend. This is such a pleasure.”
Robert accepted the compliments as his due, called the waiter and they ordered their meal. “You did a great job with this store, Miss Lawford. It’s already paying off. I was against the entire idea, but that just proves that I should stay out of it now, and let Justin handle it. He’s CEO, and that’s his job. Fortunately, he ignored me. Right now, I want you to consider working for McCall’s.”
She couldn’t stifle the gasp. Why hadn’t she realized that getting her to work for McCall’s was the old man’s reason for wanting to see her? She pushed back the furor that threatened to ruin the luncheon and glanced at Justin, who sat forward with his gaze penned to his grandfather.
“This was not my idea, Deanna,” he said without glancing her way.
“I’ve just opened my own business, sir. I’ve already learned that the years I spent at Burton’s raised Burton’s status, but not mine. Unless I get very hungry, I don’t plan to work for anyone but myself.”
“Humph. You’re obviously first class, so I can’t blame you for wanting credit for what you do. Not to speak of the rewards in income. But you haven’t heard the last of me. If the two of you worked together, no competition within a few hundred miles could match you, and you’d be happy doing it.”
What on earth was he saying? A glance at Justin told her that he thought the old man had stepped over his bounds. She smiled her best smile and said, “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your opinion of my work, but I think we’d better leave things as they are.”
Yes, I Do Page 6