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She caught it. “What if Rhea wants clarification, or to negotiate?”
“It’s completely unambiguous, but she can call if she has a question. As for negotiation, she’s got nothing I want.”
“You said you wanted me.” After the mind-blowing sex they’d shared the night before, she knew that was still true.
“On your terms, not hers.” He settled back onto the bed beside Chloe, his fingertip tracing the edge of the sheet covering her breasts. “If you have stipulations, I will listen to them.”
She pushed his hand away, unable to think while he was doing that. “Are you going to keep Dioletis Industries as its own concern?”
It wasn’t a stipulation. She was just curious. More so than she’d thought she’d be. Again she thought Ariston might know her better than she’d given him credit for, maybe even better than she knew herself in some instances.
“The company will retain its name, but will become a subsidiary of SSE. I will be requiring a much bigger block of shares this time around. Major restructuring will have to take place to make the company profitable again.”
“Rhea said as much.”
He nodded. “I can’t guarantee all the employees will keep their current positions, but I will keep as many within Dioletis Industries as possible. Those that lose their places entirely will be put in my company’s job reassignment program. Eighty percent of the employees placed in the program find new employment within Spiridakou and Sons Enterprises.”
“Thank you.”
He shrugged. “It is what you came to me for, isn’t it? To keep people employed.”
“Yes.” But mostly for Rhea, though Chloe was aware that made her every bit as self-serving as the next person. “Will Rhea retain a position within the company?”
She couldn’t make it a condition of the agreement, not with so many people’s livelihoods, not to mention Rhea’s own future, riding on Ariston’s goodwill. However, Chloe couldn’t help hoping he would show her sister more mercy than her own father had ever shown either of his daughters.
“She will be CEO, but the job will alter significantly with the takeover. She’ll work with a team, her own duties more specific than they are now. Just like my other top management, she’ll be required to take courses in not only team management strategy, but efficient delegation and work life effectiveness as well.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“I’m glad you think so. Ultimately, she will also answer to me, as all my other top management does. The survival of the company will no longer rest on her shoulders.”
No, it would rest on Ariston’s and Chloe had no doubts that not only could her tycoon husband handle the added pressure, he would guide Dioletis Industries into the modern global economy with great success.
“Thank you.” It was far more than Chloe had expected.
He shrugged. “I prefer you content with our arrangement. It is give and take.”
“But not with Rhea.” Chloe indicated the proposal that he’d said was nonnegotiable.
“My policy has always been to limit my negotiations with principals only.”
And despite the fact that Rhea was now the majority stock controller in Dioletis Industries, from Ariston’s viewpoint she was not a principal.
As he’d said, Rhea had nothing he wanted.
He didn’t consider Chloe an unwitting pawn to be used at his discretion. In that way, at least, Ariston was definitely not like her father.
“Takis always said you lived in a black-and-white world, while the rest of us existed with shades of gray,” she said, rather than revealing any of her tumbling thoughts.
“Perhaps in some things. Others I am willing to compromise on. Like I would prefer to have you in my bed from tonight forward, but I will wait until your sister accepts the terms of my offer.”
“I can’t make a permanent move that quickly!” This impatience was one of the few things she hadn’t missed about Ariston. “I’ve got a business.”
“The small art supply store and gallery in Oregon.”
She didn’t take small to be a pejorative term. Her shop and gallery were literally small in both store size and business conducted. She could live off the proceeds, but nothing like as lavishly as she had done with him, or even growing up with her father. “Yes.”
“You cannot run a business on the West Coast and be my lover.” There was no particular edge to his tone, but there was no give either.
“I know.” Just as she couldn’t be a student and his wife. “The gallery is just starting to thrive, though.”
The art supply shop had been a success from the start. She’d done her homework and discovered that though there was a thriving artist community in the town she wanted to settle in, they had to drive nearly an hour for decent supplies. Now she drew both the amateur and professional artists from up and down the coast because she carried what they liked, what serious artists looked for in the way of charcoals, paints and other supplies.
