Only Pleasure(64)

His lips tightened. "Look, I know you and Rebecca had a hell of a falling out, and whatever she did, I'll apologize now."

She raised her hand. "This has nothing to do with your wife and everything to do with your projections. If you'll sit down, we'll discuss them."

"You haven't been in this office in five years and you think you can walk in here and know everything we do as though you never left?" He stared at her incredulously. "Where the hell do you get your nerve?"

Timothy Rutherford opened the door silently as Marion Harding's question exploded into the room. His brows lifted. Two days, and already his senior sales associates were screaming? He wanted to smile as she glanced toward him before shooting Marion a warning look. That was his girl. All teeth. She'd been a hell of a worker before that damned Drew Stanton convinced her to quit.

"She gets her nerve from my side of the family, I believe," Timothy said as he closed the door behind him.

Marion flinched before straightening slowly and turning toward him. His jaw clenched and a flush of anger worked over his cheeks.

"Timothy" He nodded shortly. "You didn't warn me Kia was coming in here to tear our accounts apart."

"Kia's been tearing accounts apart since the day she left," he informed the other man as he moved to his daughter's desk. "Just because she didn't hold the title didn't mean she wasn't going over accounts, Marion."

He laid the file he carried on Kia's desk before turning to face the other man. "Are you going to have a problem working with her?"

Marion's lips were a taut, thin line. "My projections on that account are excellent, Timothy, and we both know it. You and I went over them ourselves. She hasn't been here two days and now she's moving everything around?"

Timothy nodded shortly. "Expect it. Are you going to have a problem with it?"

"Dad, this is the wrong time," Kia said quietly. "Marion and I can work this out."

Timothy restrained the urge to fire Harding on the spot.

"I asked you a question, Marion."

"If she's going to start nitpicking my accounts because of her problems with my wife, then you're damned straight. We're going to have problems," Marion shot back.

Marion was a good man, but that wife of his made Timothy wonder at her parents' parenting skills.

"Excellent. We have no problems then." Kia leaned forward. "You can leave now, Dad."

He glared down at her. "I want to sit in on this meeting."

"Too bad." Her eyes narrowed back at him. "We had a deal, remember?"

Damned girl. Her and her deals. He shot Marion a warning glance. "Fine. But we'll discuss this later."

"Later suits me." Kia hid her smile as her father stalked from her office. She turned back to Marion. "That wasn't wise. Daddy isn't nearly as neutral as I am where the damage Drew and Rebbecca caused before the divorce is concerned. Do you think I fought him for six months to preserve your and Drew's positions and reputations in this company so you could blow it all to hell by challenging my father now?"

She rubbed her hands over her face before pushing back from the desk and rising from her chair to glare back at him.

"Rebecca can take a flying leap into hell for all I care, Marion. Right along with Drew. I wouldn't have fought my father over Drew's position if I meant to walk in here and threaten yours." She flattened her hands on her desk now. "You can work with me or you can walk out that door right now and we can turn this into a feud. We worked well together once, Marion. Surely we can again."

They glared at each other before he eased back and narrowed his eyes, and, for just a second, a reluctant smile tipped his lips.

"You have teeth," he finally grunted.

"A full set." She flashed them at him.

"Dammit. I busted my ass on those accounts." He finally threw himself into one of the chairs in front of her desk. "You're kicking the hell out of my pride."

She shook her head. "Fresh eyes, remember? Those accounts are your babies, not mine. I can look at them with greater detachment and that's what I've done. Now, would you like to discuss how we can solve the problems?"

He narrowed his eyes back at her. "Would it do any good? If I disagree, your father's just going to make sure you get your way."

At that Kia breathed out roughly. "Five years ago you called me an arrogant upstart over another account. Told me I didn't know my ass from a hole in the ground. Do you remember that, Marion?"

He winced.

"You showed me where I was wrong, and I listened, and I learned. I'm willing to do so again. If I'm wrong, prove it."

He watched her for long, silent moments. "You know, Kia, it's getting damned hard to imagine you letting Rebecca do what she did to you two years ago when I see you here." He waved his hand around the room. "Would you like to explain how she survived it?"