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"My pleasure. Those women are doing excellent work.'
"I agree."
Wade tapped his fountain pen on the desk thoughtfully when he was alone. He had not called her, but at least he knew she was okay. She had left the shelter with the others and they were now seated at Luce's having lunch. He could stop worrying now and get on with the business at hand.
His intercom sounded.
"Yes?"
"Your conference call is ready."
"Put it through."
*****
"I cannot believe you got through to those boys." Stacey gave her an admiring look. "Christian almost had a heart attack when I told him where I was going."
"Did he try to stop you?" Remi asked her curiously. She felt as if she had accomplished a great deal.
"Of course, he did. But seeing as he is several thousand miles away in Italy, that was not going to happen. And I am interested in this particular charity. It spoke to me. There was no way in hell he was going to prevent me from going."
Remi poked at her salad. “I accused Wade of suffocating me when he said pointedly that he would not allow me to go.”
“Oh crap.” Kelly uttered a rueful laugh as she reached for her drink. “I can just imagine how that went.”
“He told me in that coldly remote way he has sometimes, that it would not happen again and left our bed.” She lifted her shoulders.
“I have no idea why I am telling you this. I am not used to baring my soul. In the past, I kept things to myself, only telling David. I did not have friends, because that would mean inviting them over and that was never going to happen.”
Leesa reached over to touch her hand lightly. “We are an eclectic group. The women who are involved with these powerful men. We are called a clique, black women who are involved with white men. But we are so much more than that.
We have formed our own club; indeed, we are making marks and now I sound like a damn newspaper report.”
Remi grinned and felt the warmth spreading over her. It had been a very good afternoon and a productive one. Wade had not called and she was feeling more than a little bereft, but right here and now, she felt as if she was part of a family.
“It sounds about right. But what I want to find out is this – how do you do it? You are married to these very powerful men who are used to giving orders.
I love Wade but he has this idea that I am one of his employees and I am supposed to fall in line and do exactly what he says. I am not used to that and as much as I love that man to death, I refuse to jump when he says.” She blew out a breath.
“And saying all of that, I might have to eat crow and say I am sorry again. That has been happening for the last few months.”
Kelly looked at her curiously. “You don’t want to do that.”
“What?” Remi gaped at her. “He is not speaking to me. He usually calls to find out how I am doing, how my day is going and nothing. And he has never slept away from me before.”
“Kane stayed away from our bedroom for a week.” Kelly admitted as she cut into her rare steak. “It was when we first got married. Our relationship was tempestuous-“ She cast a glance at Leesa who nodded.
“He had certain rigid standards and resisted me every step of the way until finally he came to the place where he had to face the fact that we belonged together.
I had decided to hang up my bikinis, but I was doing a charity thing and I had to model this skimpy lingerie. Mr. Kane Takahashi, the absolute love of my life, took it upon himself to point out that I was married to a respectable businessman and what I used to do before would not be appropriate.”
Remi stared at her in fascination. “What did you say to that?”
“Nothing. I went ahead and asked for something skimpier. He was so furious that he was more taciturn than ever. He did not speak to me and I in turn did not talk to him. He moved into another suite and I endured the cold wall of silence and further pissed him off by flying to the Bahamas to do a photoshoot.”
Leesa doubled over with laughter. “It was not funny at the time, but the cold war between them was interesting to watch and Brad and I were caught in the absolute middle.”
“I was complaining to Leesa and Kane was to Brad. And in the meantime, we were avoiding each other like the damn plague.” Kelly shook her head.
