"So she won't be a key player on your team? I didn't imagine she could convince you that she was more than second rate in that capacity."
"Without tipping my hand, I will say she can be useful at organizing and motivating people who are far more talented than she is."
"The foreman for her intellectual slaves?"
His roar of laughter was hearty. "Oh, I like that. It's perfect. You must know Tina well."
"Well enough. She is clever and treacherous, but not particularly useful to you in the current situation."
Acker looked steadily at her for a moment, then grinned. "All pretty women can be dangerous. Sometimes I think the prettier they are, the more deadly they can be." He raised his empty glass to catch the waiter's eye. "Of course, without danger, where is the real pleasure?"
"You are surprising, Tom Acker."
"Because I know how the world works? I've been in it a lot longer than you."
"Not because you've learned how it works, but because you enjoy it the way it is. So many people crumble when they realize that the reason cost-benefit analysis is so useful is that because both costs and benefits are real, and they are both relative."
"And when you analyze them, those costs and very real benefits, what, exactly, are you analyzing, my pretty, dangerous Willa Gruber?"
She smiled. "Why, the possibility of getting out from behind a throne without sacrificing power, Tom Acker."
The drinks came, ` and he held his up. "You aren't as transparent as this fine Scotch they serve here, but I think you are being truthful."
"For us, there is only one current event, Tom. It all comes down to the Milan project. There won't be anything like it for a time, not that you and I would be running. Most things on the horizon of any magnitude are either dull government jobs with more restrictions than possibilities, or self-aggrandizing projects of sheiks who want opulence. These don't offer chances to innovate, to create a showcase for your abilities."
"That seems likely."
"This one does, and I want a seat on the front row."
"In front of the throne?"
"I'm willing to pay for that seat."
"In stolen shekels."
"Simply in information, random ideas, thoughts of what other contenders might have in mind."
"All valuable things … potentially. And you want my promise that I'll have you in that front row?"
"Of course not, Tom. How shabby and low rent an idea. I want an iron-clad contract."
"My, that is serious."
"You'll need my help. If I'm right, you'll be coming up against the combination you fear: my old boss and Lissa Edwards. I can tell you some things that will let you undercut their first move."
"Even though they haven't agreed to work together yet?"
"I think they will, and my information will let you preempt them."
Under the table, she felt the warmth of his hand on her knee. She looked at his face and gave him a smile, letting him know she didn't mind.
"Actually, I think I have eliminated that possibility entirely," he said.
"The two of them are having dinner together tonight."
He smiled. "I'm happy for them. May they find true love and happiness and all that. My little insurance policy has nothing to do with what they might want to do." His hand moved up her leg.
"If it's real, then that's impressive."
"I'm flattered. I don't think you are easily impressed. Now, I assume your sudden desire to negotiate with me is related to this dinner you mentioned."
"It is."
"Even if she isn't working with him, your insights into how Julio works might be of real value to me. Also, you know the consortium better than I. That's always helpful. And then, dangerous women do make the game far more interesting-I think you might prove enjoyable."
"Then can we strike a deal?"
"No negotiating. Seats in the front row are expensive and scarce."
"I suspect that Tina's is available."
"That was never in the front row. No, I've got a different role in mind for you, Willa. I think it would be interesting to see you as the project manager."
Her heart pounded. That was perfect. "Yes."
"And it would have the added advantage of rubbing it in Julio's face. If you want it, then all you need do is show me that you are willing to do what is necessary to make me happy."
She'd expected they'd get to this point, and she was glad that they had cut to the chase. She stared into his eyes. "Absolutely."
His smile was slightly twisted. "Then after dinner we will put that promise to the test. But first you mentioned a tidbit of information that I might or might not find useful."
"It would be useful whether Lissa works with him or not. He intends to submit a fairly substantial request for revisions to the specs."
Tom Acker laughed. "That sneaky son of a bitch. He shows them problems they hadn't thought of and offers his solutions, and meanwhile his designs already take them into account."
"That's right."
"I assume you have a copy?"
"He hasn't finished preparing it yet. He was hoping to have Tina work with him to complete it. Of course, we learned how hopeless that was. I do have the current draft." She put her hand on his and moved it up towards her crotch. "I can get it for you in the morning."
"You have some other activities in mind for this evening?"
She opened her mouth slightly. "I do. You mentioned games that make you happy. I'll admit to being curious. And I did promise."
"Would you like another drink?"
"I would love one." He started to raise his hand to summon the waiter, but she grabbed it. "I thought we might have that drink somewhere private, if it's all right with you."
He looked at her. "My thoughts exactly. I was just going to ask him to bring the bill."
With all the confusion running through him, with all the mixed emotions caused by perceived or real wrongs, when he saw Lissa sitting at the table, the thing that struck Julio was that she was more stunning in real life than in his most erotic memories. And his memories of her were erotic-agonizingly so, since he had touched her skin, kissed her lips, and tasted love, and then lost it all. He pulled himself together, tried to banish remembered feelings so that he could face the real woman, the one who had let him think he was adored and then abruptly disappeared.
The feelings couldn't stay submerged entirely. Or perhaps at all. He looked into her dark brown eyes and felt his soul being sucked into them, just as it had been a year ago.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Memories. I look at your face and remember you with your hair pulled back," he said. "The businesslike bun at the back."
She smiled and ran her hand over the twists she wore her hair in now. "Back in Switzerland? A woman likes to change."
But so dramatically as to go from lover to phantom?
He sat opposite her. "It's strange to see you, to suddenly be across the table from you. I thought I'd never see you again, much less share a meal."
Her smile intrigued him, puzzled him. "I feel that way too, perhaps even more than you."
"Why?"
She scowled. "Your long silence. You turned your back on me."
"Because I left Switzerland? It was a business emergency, and you urged me to go."
"Not to Mars or wherever you disappeared to."
"Disappeared? I don't see sending flowers and requests to be together as disappearing."
"What? No, if you had, things would be quite different."
He was puzzled more than ever now. "Can we forget the recriminations for a moment? I want to talk about the children."
"What about them?"
"I've assumed they are mine."
"Of course they are. I told you that."
"You told me?"
"Well, I told your assistant. Willa said you didn't want to talk, but she would pass along my message."
The knot that seemed to form in his stomach every time he thought of Lissa, of the situation, had never been harder, more painful. "You talked to Willa?"
"I had to. You blocked my calls and never answered my messages. Even though I was furious with you, I hoped you'd come for the birth of the triplets."
"I don't even know how to block a call. And I got no messages. Willa told me she couldn't get any response from you at all. I got no response to my messages."
"Your messages?"
"Dozens of emails. I didn't have your cell number. I emailed Tina Peters to get it, and never got a response. I asked Willa to … Well, it seems that anything I sent in that direction went into the abyss. But I sent you emails, some wanting to know where you were, and some about business ideas, and nothing. Dead, cold silence."
"Why would your assistant work so hard to keep us from communicating?"
"Jealousy? I'm not certain. Somehow you, our relationship, must have made her feel threatened. But why didn't Tina Peters reply or pass along my proposals?"
"Another kind of jealousy. The bitch was trying to steal my clients and ruin my business reputation. She started a rumor that I had a drug problem."
Julio nodded. "The big one-that you were in rehab under your sister's name."