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Joel Blackwood stalked through the comfortable lounge area at Club Risqué, oblivious to the many admiring glances he garnered with his leanly muscled physique and brooding good looks. His attention centred solely on Connor Griffin, who followed swiftly on his heels as they threaded their way through the heaving Saturday night crowd towards the bar.
"My father wants her!" Joel confided as he signalled one of the bartenders. Connor cocked a questioning eyebrow and Joel chuckled. "Not in the biblical sense."
Connor hadn't really thought as much, but they were in the middle of a sex club. An uncompromising, unrestrained, BDSM sex club, at that, for all its trappings of wealth and luxury. In an environment like this, there was usually only one way for a comment like that to be taken, and the age gap between a thirty-year-old woman and a fifty-eight-year-old man sure wouldn't be seen as an issue in this place where it was a case of pretty much anything goes. Not that Joseph Blackwood was a member, of course, but Connor was pretty sure that he was aware of his son's and some of the other board members' proclivities. The man hadn't risen to where he was today by being oblivious to that which surrounded him.
"He's tried headhunting Desirae Harper several times over the last couple of years, but she's not having any of it. Sometimes, I think that's his real motivation behind this takeover bid." Joel tipped the glass he'd been served towards Connor before taking a sip.
"Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to just to gain an employee, and I don't think he'll get her by painting her into a corner," Connor surmised, swirling the amber liquid in his own tumbler.
"I guess we both know it's not just about that." Joel clapped his friend on the shoulder. "It's a sound proposition. We'll get to trade off of their humanitarian reputation, we'll establish ourselves more firmly in the East, and our overall position in the marketplace would become unassailable."
Connor nodded. "I'm pretty sure they'll fight us all the way, though. The mood was pretty hostile while I was over there, and I didn't even get the chance to sound out Ms. Harper and she's the one who'll be handling everything."
He huffed out a breath as they made their way over to the quieter members only area from which guests were excluded. "I hope your dad's prepared for disappointment. I get the feeling Joseph has seriously underestimated them. They're a major corporation, just like Blackwood, and they're big enough to challenge the position indefinitely. They might have a benevolent reputation, but they certainly aren't pushovers!"
"Dad sees this as the final part of the jigsaw, and once she's in place and Universal Holdings is in the bag, he's decided he can embrace full retirement. This is his end game."
Joseph Blackwood had been semi-retired for several years, sharing an unusual but oddly successful joint CEO position with Joel while the balance of power and responsibility gradually shifted from father to son.
"So, what's she like?" Joel asked Connor as they settled themselves in a couple of comfortable armchairs in the luxurious seating area. He wasn't too proud to admit he was curious about the business woman his father was so fixated with.
Connor chuckled and shook his head "Woman's an enigma," he replied.
Joel raised a questioning eyebrow as Connor leaned back and stretched his long legs out in front of him.
"She's a looker, that's for sure. Thirty-years-old, so younger than any of us expected. Dynamite body, petite and curvy…single…" He gave his friend a sidelong glance, aware that was Joel's favoured type, but his friend didn't rise to the bait. "But she's severe with it," he continued after a beat. "No nonsense, strictly business. Aloof. Doesn't fraternise with the staff." Connor rasped his palm along his stubbled jaw as he contemplated. "Hard to read…you wouldn't want to risk playing poker with her. Got a bit of a rep as an 'ice queen' and she's certainly not a soft touch."
Joel looked over and quirked an eyebrow. "Ice queen? Isn't that a bit cliché?"
"What can I say…if the shoe fits." Connor shrugged. "I only managed to turn up one dude whom she'd had a relationship with. And I use the word relationship in the very loosest of terms. Apparently, he claimed she was completely frigid. Told the guy I sent to dig around that when he fucked her, she was like a mannequin. Didn't move, stayed completely silent…she probably didn't come." Connor added his own interpretation, "Although he didn't admit that much."
Joel huffed out a laugh, momentarily mystified by why a man wouldn't want a girl who was still and quiet, his personal dream. But then, most Doms didn't share that particular idiosyncrasy, never mind your average Joe.
"More likely, the idiot is just crap in bed and doesn't know how to pleasure a woman!" He shook his head to shake off his musings and looked out across the club at the men and women in various states of undress, tuning in to the sounds of sex. Leather slapping flesh, screams of delight…and erotic pain. No one knew better than them how diverse the sexual appetite could be.
"You said, yourself, that she wasn't a pushover…not the type to be coerced, so then, if she was there, she must have wanted something from him. Sounds like she wasn't getting it!"
"I don't know." Connor took a sip of his drink. "I reckon she'd be a hard nut to crack…and I don't just mean in the bedroom! You'll have your work cut out for you with this takeover plan; I can guarantee it."
Joel just grinned. "Good job I love a challenge, then."
"You should have seen her rip John Williams a new one when he as good as told her that she should hire Eric Oliver as her financial manager. She wasn't having any of it, CEO or not!" Connor chuckled.
Joel scowled at the mention of his old housemate's name. "She's obviously got exceptional judgement, at least. No one in their right mind would hire that prick!"
Connor nodded. "Yeah, but his exploits aren't exactly common knowledge. Williams would have hired him if it was up to him. Even demanded that Harper reconsider when she told him the job had been offered to someone else. Of course, Eric managed to burn his bridges with her, despite the info she dug up on him. She said he didn't look above her neckline for the entire interview."
"Good old Eric, still treating women like objects. He never did have any respect…don't suppose he ever will!"
"She was ready to throw in her job if the CEO overruled her, and I don't think she was bluffing." Connor continued. "And I'll tell you what else she knew." He paused in consideration. "She knew that you and Eric used to share digs at Uni. She suggested to John that Eric might be a corporate spy for Blackwood's, ready to take Universal down from the inside."
Joel choked on the last of his drink and slammed the glass down on a side table. "Jeez, she thinks that little of us?" he wheezed.
"Well, she did comment that she expected us to send someone with a little more competence, if that makes you feel any better."
Joel took a deep breath and cleared his throat as he recovered himself. "So, she knew that Eric and I used to house share, but she doesn't know that we haven't been on speaking terms for over ten years. Interesting."
"Maybe she just doesn't trust that information. She knew that Blackwood bought the Olivers out on the strength of his father's friendship with yours, and she wasn't very impressed with the machinations of the 'old boys' network', as she called it."
