All That She Wants(13)

She took forever to say anything. If I were a cynical man, I would have said she was letting me roast in the fire for her own amusement. But that was probably just the last woman I was with, who used to do it all the time.

Besides, Lily seemed a little too sweet for that.

“I didn’t say stop,” she muttered. “Just… tone it down a little.”

HELL YEAH.

“Agreed,” I grinned. “Now let’s go look at those files, shall we?”





12





We threaded our way through the cubicles in silence.

I didn’t say anything because I was running through the various companies I needed to see.

She was quiet because she was nervous.

I could hear it in her voice when she finally spoke. She was trying to be sassy, though she didn’t quite pull off the breezy tone she was aiming for.

She was still challenging me, though, which I liked.

“You still haven’t said what’s so important about these files that you have to waste a perfectly good Friday night.”

I grinned. “Actually, I believe I did.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, that’s right – you’re thinking about buying the company. How about a real reason?”

I kept smiling, just to let her know I was playing around. “Well… if I were Klaus, I might say something about it not being any of your business. But since we’re friends, let me put it this way instead: there are things I’m not at liberty to talk about, but you could say I’m the… advance man on a very important business deal, and I wanted to check out some things before we go through with it.”

“The LMGK buyout,” she said, looking exactly like somebody in a film who’d suddenly puzzled out who the murderer was.

And here I’d thought it was all hush-hush. “You know about that?”

She blushed. “Everybody’s been whispering about it the last few weeks. And I’ve seen a few things.”

“Such as?”

“…such as things I’m not at liberty to talk about.”

Point for Lily. “Touché.”

She looked at me with distrust. “But what I haven’t seen is you before.”

Your CEO could take a few lessons from you on appropriate levels of suspicion, Lily.

“Now you have. In the flesh.”

She didn’t seem satisfied with my answer, but she didn’t say anything else.

We reached her desk, and she bent over and started looking for something.

At first I was just watching her ass – daaaaamn – but something plucked at my subconscious.

The word ‘Teramore’ on her computer screen.

Oh my God, this is too perfect.

“Hey – are those the numbers for Teramore?” I asked.

She looked around, looked at the screen – and then suddenly bolted upright in panic. “Those are confidential!”

I gave her a Give me a break look as I bent over her desk and started scrolling through with the mouse. “Remember, both Klaus and your CEO said you should give me anything I want – oh, wait, is that an inappropriate remark?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll file it under acceptable innuendos,” she said coolly.

I laughed. She was pretty damn clever, I had to give her that. “Acceptable innuendoes… that’s good…”

Then I turned back to the document.

LMGK had just completed an exec comp report for Teramore. In a little bit of back-channel negotiation, I had convinced Teramore to hire Exerton to do an identical report – as long as I footed the bill.

I’d already inspected the report from LGMK and run it past my own people, so I knew what the numbers should be –

And Klaus had gotten every one of them wrong.

The report was a travesty. Sloppy, incomplete, and inaccurate.

I got to a particularly idiotic recommendation and muttered “Bullshit” without realizing it.

“Excuse me?” Lily asked. She sounded shocked.

I looked up at her and pondered my next move.

I liked her. Okay, that was an understatement. I wanted to sleep with her – but this was a make-or-break moment. If I trusted her with this, and she gave me the wrong answer, I’d have to take a pass. I couldn’t compromise my reason for being here just because I wanted to take her for a roll in the hay.

But… she’d been honest with me about her feelings about Klaus.

And she was a whole lot smarter than I’d initially given her credit for.

Not to mention she had some spine.

Screw it.

High risk, high reward.

“Can I trust you with something, Lily?”

She blanched a little. “Uh… I guess…?”

Not looking good.

“Yes or no. I don’t want this getting back to Klaus.”