Chapter Seven
Siobhan ignored Joaquin’s order to rest and spent the weekend Christmas shopping.
She even made a point of watching children who were blinking in wonderment at toys and pausing to listen to a choral group singing before a massive decorated tree, trying to remind herself why she used to love Christmas so much.
It cheered her a little, but she couldn’t seem to shake a leaden feeling in her limbs.
No actual sniffles or cough arrived, though.
She wasn’t running a fever or even feeling achy.
She was merely tired and her stomach was a little unsettled so she stuck to bland foods and skipped coffee and wine, hoping to feel better by Monday.
She didn’t, but she wasn’t any worse so she didn’t feel justified calling in sick. There was still so much to do and she didn’t want to let Joaquin down.
She didn’t want to miss a chance to see him. That was the real reason.
You could make this easier.
She’d been deeply stung when he had rebuffed her remark about his engagement.
All she had been able to learn online was that it had been announced a few weeks before his brother passed and was called off shortly after.
But he was right. It was very personal and none of her business.
She shouldn’t have brought it up at work or anywhere else.
She had been deeply surprised by his reason one million for not wanting children, though.
It had struck a pang of distress in her because she wanted children someday.
She didn’t really believe in fate, either, but the way she and Joaquin had come together so coincidentally after parting in San Francisco had made her secretly wonder if greater forces were conspiring to throw them together.
His aversion to children told her they weren’t as sympatico as she’d hoped. Not that she should have any hopes where he was concerned. Even if he was physically attracted to her, his remark in the elevator told her he didn’t want to be.
She wished she had his Teflon air of aloofness. It was taking all her effort to hide her crush on her boss while he looked through her half the time and, when he did acknowledge her, put up barriers so quickly afterward, it was like walking into a glass wall, halting her in her tracks.
Despite that, she inwardly jumped for joy when she picked up an email from him, addressed to her and Oladele.
I’ll be meeting with investors all week. I don’t want any delay in responding to my father’s legal action. My assistant has instructions that I can be interrupted at any time if you need my signature or authorization to keep things moving.
Twice that day, Oladele handed Siobhan a folder and asked her to run upstairs. Twice Siobhan gave strangers an apologetic smile while she patiently waited for Joaquin to skim the paperwork and sign off.
“I’m confused,” she told Oladele when she returned the second time. “Why is he meeting investors individually? It doesn’t seem very efficient. Why doesn’t he hold a conference call and be done with it?”
“My educated guess is that these are his own investors in ProFab. Lorenzo is trying to undermine him, suggesting Joaquin took on too much debt by purchasing LVG. Lorenzo wants them to pressure Joaquin to back off, but he’s reassuring them instead, and doing it in Lorenzo’s office, which is a nice touch. ” Oladele’s mouth quirked.
Siobhan had to admire the power move. “I guess coming here shows them what he’s purchased, too.”
“The personal touch will have a ripple effect. Word will spread,” Oladele added.
It was the sort of tactic Siobhan’s brother-in-law would use. Why host a press conference if a whisper campaign was more effective?
She started back to her desk, then paused.
“Can I ask… How did you meet Joaquin?” That wasn’t really what she wanted to know.
“Through Fernando. Joaquin sometimes came to the parties he and Zurina hosted.” Oladele gave her a circumspect look.
“If you’re asking if I conspired with Joaquin to oust Lorenzo, I did not.
I could tell the board was leaning toward handing things to Joaquin, but Zurina spearheaded that.
Lorenzo left me a voice mail the morning it happened, asking why the board was meeting without him.
I didn’t know it was happening until it was. ”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t implying that you acted improperly. I know you wouldn’t,” Siobhan assured her.
“I don’t think you would act improperly, either.” Oladele held her gaze for an extra millisecond, allowing the significance of her statement to sink in before she switched back to work mode. “Can you get Senora Perez on the phone for me?”
“Of course.”
Oladele knew, knew there was more to Siobhan’s relationship with Joaquin than either of them admitted to. Should she confess that their romance had lived and died before she got here?
Tuesday was more of the same. As Siobhan was searching through old records, Oladele handed her a folder.
“Upstairs?” Siobhan guessed.
“Sí, por favor.”
Siobhan hurried to the elevator with too much eagerness. She waved the folder at Joaquin’s assistant, who nodded at her to approach the inner sanctum. She moved down the hall, past the empty boardroom and paused when she found a bodyguard stationed at Joaquin’s door.
It was the first time she’d seen one here, but it was a fairly normal sight to her because Cinnia and all of her in-laws employed them.
That was how Siobhan knew Killian. He handled all the security for her sister’s family.
Siobhan had taken self-defense classes with one of his instructors when she’d been a teenager and still practiced on a regular basis.
She showed her work badge to the man, but before she could knock, the door was pulled inward.
Joaquin’s voice was saying, “—appreciate your making time—”
He cut himself off as he noticed her.
“?Firma, por favor?” She waved the folder as an explanation and stepped back to allow his guest to exit. Her cheeks warmed with pleasure at how arrested Joaquin had seemed by the sight of her, though.
“Give my best to your family,” Joaquin said absently.
“I will,” promised a male voice as a strange man stepped out.
Siobhan had conjured a polite smile for Joaquin’s guest, but it fell off her face. He wasn’t a stranger at all. The handsome man in his forties was very well-known to her.
“Dorry,” he said with surprise.
“Ramon.” Siobhan breathed the name with shock and enough familiarity to raise Joaquin’s hackles.
He’d started to open the door and found her unexpectedly outside it. In that millisecond of being hit by the sight of her, he’d been taken aback by how beautiful she was. By how pleased he was to see her.
Today she wore a thick gray knit dress that fell to the tops of her knee-high boots. A chunky belt of square silver links nipped at her waist, and its neckline draped like a scarf. Nothing about it was particularly sexy or daring, but she made it look runway chic.
Then Ramon Sauveterre stepped out and hugged her.
A deeply regressive emotion exploded through Joaquin. He clamped down on it, but the atavistic taste for blood stayed on his tongue.
Because Siobhan hugged Ramon back. And she offered the other man a bemused, untampered laugh. Not the kind she muted as quickly as it formed, the way she’d been doing around here, if she suddenly realized he was watching her. This was natural and lovely and full of genuine affection.
“It’s good to see you.” Ramon hung on to her arms, continuing to smile fondly at her. “I knew you’d taken a job in Madrid. I didn’t know it was here. I’ve already sent the family south, but I wanted to take this meeting.” He glanced at Joaquin with bemusement.
Whatever was in Joaquin’s face erased Ramon’s good-natured humor. He pulled his brows together. The temperature in the corridor dropped several degrees.
“I do work here.” Siobhan’s tone grew reproachful. “And everyone here knows me as Siobhan.”
“Oh, hell.” Ramon gave his jaw a rub then held out his palm. “My bad, but when have I ever had to call you that?”
“Today. Right now. This is the moment you were supposed to call me that.”
They shared a look of laughter and apology and history. So much history it made Joaquin want to pull Siobhan into his office and lock out everyone else, most especially his too-suave business partner.
Joaquin had never been a jealous person. He hadn’t been allowed to be. He’d had a taste of it with his assistant last week and learned the emotion didn’t sit well with him. At all.
“How are you two acquainted?” he asked coolly.
“Oh. Um.” Siobhan folded her arms and flickered a look between them.
“I’ll let you fill him in.” Ramon gave her shoulder a squeeze. “My plane is waiting. Do you need a lift? Should I wait for you?”
“No, I need to work, but thank you. I’ll see you again soon.”
Ramon kissed both her cheeks, needling the green monster within Joaquin before he gave Joaquin a last thoughtful look and left with his bodyguard.
Joaquin opened his door wider and jerked his head at Siobhan to enter.
“What—” he said as he pushed the door closed with a hard click “—was that?”
“Someone I know.” She shrugged it off, avoiding his gaze as she set the folder on his desk.
“Oladele is waiting for this. Do you mind? I have a lot of work that needs to be finished by end of day, and the big boss is looking for any excuse to fire me.” She delivered the facetious remark with a distant smile that could have come from his own arsenal.
He hated it.
“Tell me.” He approached the desk and closed his hand over the pen she held out, capturing her fingers in his grip. Not tightly. Just enough to hold her full attention. Just enough to hold her and convince himself she was, in some small way, his. For now.