The firmness in her voice wasn’t surprising.The only time I’d ever seen Valerie be impulsive was her relationship with me.We hit the sheets at the end of our first week after getting to know each other.We’d both been a bit reckless.
“I can live with that.I’ll wait until you tell me you’re ready.”It might kill me, but I was more than willing to wait.Valerie was worth it.
“Okay.”She squeezed my fingers.“On that note, I need to get moving.”
“What are you doing today?”I reluctantly released her hand.
“Cleaning, laundry, and cooking.”She picked up the empty mugs and stood.
“Need help?”
Her laughter floated through the air and made my dick jump.
Down boy, we may have cleared the air, but she’s drawn the line.Don’t cross it.
“I think it’s better I do these things alone.I remember how you helped around my apartment when we lived together.I never got anything done.”
“Oh yeah.”I grinned.Whenever she tried to clean the apartment, I had more fun chasing her around until I could tackle her onto the bed.“Have a good weekend.”
“You too.”
Standing at the top of the steps, I waited until she went inside and closed and locked the patio door.Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing to be alone today.I could start working on my plan to win Valerie back while assessing and minimizing the risks that might make her walk away.
Chapter Twelve
Valerie
By ten Monday morning, I knew the numbers were off, way off.I sighed, rubbing my temples to try and relieve the oncoming headache.I’d decided to go over the numbers once again before I talked with Lucas.They hadn’t changed.Why couldn’t I figure out why the numbers didn’t match up?The only pattern: One day, the figures didn’t jive, then the next day they did, but what happened in the ensuing twenty-four hours to make that happen?
“Problem?”Lucas prompted from across the room.
“Yes.”I turned my chair in his direction.“Can you tell me more about the company you want to acquire?”
“Sure.Why don’t you come over here, and I’ll show you the initial proposal Legal worked up.”
I got up and took the chair next to Lucas’ as he pulled out a thick file folder.He opened it.“A furniture company?”Why would they acquire a furniture company?How would that fit in with FI?
“Confusion is written all over you face.Maybe this will help.”He flipped the page.
My eyes went wide as I stared at the bed.It wasn’t like any bed I’d ever seen.Extra-large, with a metal frame spiral headboard, with handcuffs dangling from one of the spirals.“Umm, that’s very unique.”
Lucas laughed.“Oh Valerie, you’re so beautiful when you blush.”
I didn’t know about beautiful, but my body was reacting to what I was seeing.Some of the romances I’d read described kink furniture, but I’d never checked out pictures of actual furniture.I made a mental note to correct that in the very near future.For now, my imagination was going in all kinds of interesting directions.
“This is just one of the metal beds they offer.”
Fantasies, Inc.fulfilled fantasies.The company they were courting made kink furniture.Hand, meet glove.The perfect merger.
“I get it.A company that promotes a healthy sex life and fulfills fantasies merges with a kink furniture maker.Great fit, but again, why this particular company?”
“Let’s see if I can explain.Operations takes care of the fantasy the client has.Marcus is R&D, and there are a lot of items we can create and use for a client request, but more and more often, we’ve had clients asking for bondage beds, spanking benches, and other BDSM equipment to use in their fantasies and to purchase.We’ve been renting equipment where we can, but some things aren’t available for us to rent, usually because of liability issues, so we’ve been discussing buying a company that makes kink furniture so we wouldn’t have to worry about rentals.”
“But you mentioned that rentals were scarce because of liability issues.Wouldn’t that still be an issue even if FI owns the company that makes the furniture?”If people didn’t know how to use the equipment properly and injured themselves, the liability issue would still exist.Was FI going to provide instruction on how to use the furniture?How would that work?
“We have very detailed contracts that Miles and Legal draw up for the clients, but we didn’t think through the equipment issue.We will provide instruction on using the furniture.And we do have a release of liability clause that we’ve updated to include the rental of equipment.That doesn’t mean there haven’t be some issues.”
“Like what?”
