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“And three kids.”
“By working with him, I think we could do an amazing job.”
“The idea that it’s backdated is just a theory, right? I mean, it’s a notarized document.”
“By his secretary.”
“What does Tina say?”
She winced. “Probably something along the lines of ‘fuck off.’”
“You haven’t talked to her? But if she’s been cut out, maybe she’d be willing to make a deal.”
“There is a gray area there, making a deal with her to tell the truth.”
“True.”
“So I’m open to other ideas,” Lissa prodded.
Tyler steepled his fingers and sat back in his chair. “All this wheeling and dealing is rather outside my area of expertise, unfortunately. You need to talk to Julio, and probably to Tina.”
“So that’s your advice?”
“I did tell you to marry me.”
“Yes, you did.”
“I could try and talk to Tom, but I think he is out for blood.”
“To cripple the opposition.”
“I told you to throw Tina out the window. You should be taking my advice more seriously.”
“Throw Tina out the window and marry you.”
“Except that it’s too late for the Tina part.”
She stood up. “I love talking with you, Tyler. It seldom accomplishes much, but it makes me feel better.”
“Another reason to marry me.”
“As if you needed another reason.”
“Maybe I should ask Joan to marry me. You might have gotten all the stubbornness allocated to the family.”
“You’re welcome to try.”
CHAPTER TEN
Once again she came home to the strange and wonderful sight of Julio with his children. He beamed as he fed the children dinner, helped bathe them, and then tucked them into bed.
The boys seemed to respond well to him, and settled right down. “You have kid magic,” she told him when they left the children sleeping and returned to the living room.
“I’ve been around babies enough to admit that this was beginner’s luck. Don’t expect a consistent result from me.”
“You love them.”
“You sound surprised. Did you think I was a baby hater?”
“I thought you were a jet-setting billionaire.”
“They aren’t supposed to be mutually exclusive. That’s not the way my contract reads.”
“Speaking of contracts, a problem came up today. It’s a big one.”
“I’m good with problems. And I’m exploring a new strategy where I wrap them in dirty diapers and toss them out.”
“That doesn’t sound environmentally friendly.”
“Perhaps not. Well, great ideas often need refinement.” He put the baby monitor on the table and sat on the couch. “So pour me a drink and tell me the contract woes.”
“Tom Acker showed up in my office waving one in my face that has Tina’s signature on it. It’s dated prior to the birth of the triplets, and supposedly gives him exclusive rights to my services on the Milan bid.” He nodded. She was certain he understood the ramifications, but spelled them out anyway with him listening carefully.
“So it’s one of those ‘if you won’t work for me, you won’t work’ deals?”
“For the Milan project, at least.”
“And you aren’t sure it’s real?”
“I think it might have been back-dated. Tina was reporting to me while I was in the hospital, and something was definitely up. But her angle was to take my business. She knew I’d catch onto her game sooner or later, so she was stringing things out in talking with Acker, wanting to be able to get the business for herself. No way would she want to sign a contract with him, not even one this bad.”
“Unless he insisted on getting both, or had her sign the one with you as insurance to keep you from working with me. He might have been unsure about her. After all, if she was sleeping with him to get the business, she knew that her qualifications were sketchy.”
“I can’t imagine her agreeing to that. First, it would hurt her pride to admit that keeping me out of the game was necessary. She really thinks she is good enough to take me on head-to-head. She has an entirely different concept of the business, so she’d want a chance to prove herself against me. Also, she is a political creature, and she’d see that having two contracts meant Acker was in control. He might persuade me to work for him, and Tina would believe that I’d work for the highest bidder, and then she’d be out on her ass. She’s far too clever in that sense to give him a club like that.”
Julio rubbed his chin. “Then what happened?”
“When Willa came along and forced her out, I imagine that they told Tina they’d cancel her contract based on some excuse that would be close enough to the truth to hold up in court. I’m sure they could find ways to claim it was because of her incompetence or some fraudulent claim she’d made. Then they suggested that if she went along with this, signing a back-dated contract, then Acker would pay her off.”
“So it would be the lesser of the evils? She’s still out of the game, but has the money to move on to other projects and other clients.”
“And she moves on with no black mark to her name. That makes sense.”
Julio picked up his glass and sat back. “What’s your assessment, oh sexy one?”
She pointed a long finger at him. “No flirting until we sort this out.”
“Then we must sort quickly.”
Lissa sucked in a breath. Her body was ready to stop talking business and get down to business, but she forced her tone to remain on topic. “Julio, I can’t risk getting involved in a legal hassle with Acker. He’d tie me up in knots, and the squabble would be public. He’d make it seem like I didn’t keep my word. That would alienate clients.”
“That seems likely. He has expensive legal people who will know all manner of snares and traps that we mere mortals can only imagine and shudder at.”
“So I suppose I need to talk with Tina. If I’m right, I need to persuade her to give me a signed statement.”
“That would mean you’d win the case, but it would still be too late for the project. We need to move now.”
“But, if I’m right, and this contract is fraudulent, which I’m pretty sure it is, even his high-paid lawyers won’t want to be caught using it to browbeat me.”
“And failing that? If Tina won’t be helpful?”
That wasn’t the direction she wanted her thoughts to go in. “I don’t know. I guess I’m shafted.”
“Willa working with Tom Acker… I never thought that would happen, but then I apparently didn’t know her as well as I thought. Well, you see Tina, and I’ll get some people doing research, and we will find a solution.”
Lissa’s head fell, and the next thing she knew, Julio was beside her, pulling her to him. He looked into her eyes.
“We’ll get this sorted, I promise.”
His tone was comforting, but not as comforting as the feel of his mouth on hers.
They kissed for a long moment, and the months of loneliness and the pain from rejection that had never occurred faded away.
She opened her mouth to him, and passions took hold, taking the blood from her brain and erasing all other thoughts.
Without another word, they moved to her bedroom and locked the door.
They made love urgently, quietly, not wanting to wake the babies or alert Joan to their activity. When they’d reached the point of a mutual climax, as he spilled his seed into her even as his fingers swirled frantically over her swollen clit, she couldn’t stop the cry of pleasure that broke from within her. He bent down and swallowed most of her sounds with his kiss as their bodies rocked together.
Breathing heavily, Julio pulled out of her and positioned his body to face her on the bed. “I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered as he placed a soft kiss on her cheek. She closed her eyes and he moved his hot mouth to her eyelids.
She groaned as her body seemed to melt from his heat.
