His Instant Heir(4)

"I want more than dinner," he said.

"That was obvious," she said.

"I've never been subtle. Kell says with this mug I can't be," he said, gesturing to his face.

He wasn't classically handsome, but there was something about that  strong determined jaw and those dark brown eyes that had made it hard  for her to look away from him in the past, and now. "You use that to  your advantage."

He shrugged. "I figured out early in life that I had to play to my strengths."

"Me, too," she said. "I was never going to be as strong as Emma or as rebellious as Jessi. I had to find my own way."

"You've done well from what I can see. Everyone I talked to about Infinity Games said you are the heart of the company."

She closed her eyes and wished her staff had said she was the ballbuster  of the company. That would make it easier for her to deal with him.  What could she say about that? She genuinely cared about her staff and  had made it her purpose to make sure they all worked to their maximum.  "You're the axman of Playtone Games."                       
       
           



       

"So I'm the Tin Man then and don't have a heart. Is that what you're saying?" he asked.

She caught her breath at the flash of pain in his eyes. Just as quickly  it was gone, and back was the determined suitor. She still wasn't sure  what he really wanted from her, but she was determined to know this man  better. She had until dinner to figure out the best way to tell him  about DJ. She had until tonight to figure out if there was a way to use  him to save as many of her staff as she could. She had until tonight to  find a way to handle everything he threw at her.

She had a bad feeling the latter was going to be much harder than any of the others.

* * *

Dec had always felt like he wasn't the same as everyone else. The adult  in him knew it had everything to do with him being adopted. His mother  had insisted he be treated like the other Montrose heirs, but inside Dec  had always known he wasn't a true heir. And that had affected him.

Normally he didn't give a crap about that. He knew he'd been called a  shark. Cold and heartless when it came to his approach to business. A  man who coolly cut staff, sent them packing and didn't apologize for it.  That was business. Usually the people who complained were the ones who  didn't make the cut. But hearing Cari say he was heartless had given him  pause.

"Tin Man, really?" he asked when he realized she wasn't going to respond to his comment.

Ah, hell, he thought, pushing his hands through his hair. "Well, Cari?"

"I didn't mean it that way," she said, but he noticed she bit her lower  lip and didn't lower her arms. She in fact did mean it that way.

"I'm not here to hurt you or your company," he said. "In fact, as a  shareholder I'd think you'd be happy about the takeover. Despite the  enmity between our families, you are going to be a very rich woman when  this is all over."

"Is money the most important thing to you, Tin Man?" she asked teasingly.

"I'm not a Tin Man."

"Sorry. I didn't say it to be rude," she said, then nibbled her bottom  lip. "Well, maybe a little. I'm trying to figure you out."

It was there in her tone. She was hiding something, or maybe just hiding  from him. Maybe she'd discovered that it was going to take more than  one kiss to get over him. He sure as hell was winging from the embrace  they'd just shared.

"Good luck with that," he said. "I have enough money to make life comfortable. It's a nice goal, though. Most people want more."

"That's true. Is that the reason most of our stockholders sold to you?"

"I didn't talk to them, so I can't say. But profit is why they invested in Infinity Games."

"I know. I just hate change."

Change didn't bother him and never really had. He knew that life was one  constant change. People who got comfortable in a situation found  themselves …  Well, like Cari right now. "I'm not heartless when it comes  to staff. Is that your biggest concern?"

She shook her head and fiddled with the ring on her right hand.  "Everything about you raises red flags, Dec. I wanted to be cool and  sophisticated this morning. Instead I let you kiss my socks off and  stumbled into a door."

"I like you the way you are," he said.

She gave him that half smile of hers that had originally drawn him  across the Atlanta convention space to her booth. It was inviting and  sweet and made a man want to do anything he could to keep her smiling.

"Good, because I'm too old to change."

He laughed. She was young enough and innocent, as well. Despite the fact  that she was the spawn of his family's hated enemy, there was nothing  malicious in Cari. "If you're old, I must seem ancient."

She tossed her hair and let her arms fall to her sides as she studied  him. "Not old, but there is something ageless about you. I know you have  work to do. My assistant will work for both of us … unless you have one  who will be joining you here."

"No. I don't need an assistant and it's a cost savings to just utilize  existing staff." He'd had an executive assistant a few years ago, but  the man had become a liability when he'd started to get too chummy with  the staff of the company they were dissolving. It hadn't been easy, but  Dec had fired him. Not everyone was cut out to work in mergers and  acquisitions. It required a person who could compartmentalize. And he  was the king of that.

"Cost savings … is that how you always look at the business?" she asked.

Her tone said she didn't approve, but that didn't bother him at all. If  she'd asked him something like this about their personal life, it might,  but this was business. There was no place for emotions in the  workplace. If something was losing money it had to be cut, and Infinity  Games had made too many poor decisions. Perhaps leading with the heart  instead of the wallet. It had left them vulnerable to a takeover and now  Dec was here to clean it up. And he would.                       
       
           



       

"Yes, how else would I view it? It's all about the bottom line. That's how we were able to take over your company."

"I'm not a driven-by-the-bottom-line type of COO. I like to see my staff working and being productive."

"Maybe you should have been more focused on the bottom line," he  suggested. She hadn't argued when he'd called her the heart of the  company. In his experience, that meant the emotional one. He had the  feeling that she had an open-door policy and never said no to any of her  staff. He would love to be proved wrong, but he seldom was. That meant  they were going to be at odds at work. Mentally, he shrugged.

What he wanted from Cari had nothing to do with business. He'd do his  job and he intended to get to know her, as well. The two things were  separate in his mind.

"I don't know. I mean of course I understand that profit has to be a  driving force, but I always think about the people behind it. They need  to feel safe to work at their best."

"It will be interesting working with you. I have the feeling I don't know you at all, Cari," he said.

"I'm sure you don't," she said. "Most men only see what they want to when it comes to women."

"Interesting thought," he said. "Whereas you see me as I really am?"

She flushed. "Sorry. I just hate the thought of you looking at a piece  of paper and saying we need to cut head count when I know that head  count means a person. A person who has a life that they are trying their  best to balance."

"I'm not going to randomly reduce staff. We need to see where you are  losing money, Cari. You have to know that your company isn't as  profitable as it could be."

"Yes, I do. As you said, we'll have to work together to make it  profitable again," she said. She reached for the door again and he had  the feeling that she wanted to get away from him. Who could blame her?  He'd given her two things to think about this morning.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. Because he hadn't meant to reenter her  life this way. Well, to be honest, he hadn't really meant to reenter it  at all. She wasn't the kind of woman with whom he could have an affair.  Even if there wasn't a decades-long feud between their families.

It wasn't just that she was the heart of the gaming company, she also  was caring and compassionate and, he knew, worlds too soft for Beau and  Helene Montrose's adopted son. The boy they'd fought over and  eventually, when his mother had lost the argument, handed over to Thomas  Montrose to be honed into a weapon to be used in this war against the  Chandlers.

"This was never going to be easy," she said.