Chapter 3 #2
Until he’d seen it that morning, he hadn’t realized how often she pinned her hair up or just how much of it she possessed. The sensuous length made him think of a sunshine waterfall, all shimmering gold, shot through with tawny streaks of flax.
“I handed you those contracts yesterday.” He hadn’t shared any of the details of his meetings with Armand until he’d been ready to have the grand duke finalize them. Following their meeting the afternoon before, they’d returned to the office and he’d handed her the copies to enter digitally.
All U.S. based parties would be in his office Tuesday morning to authorize signings, ensure notarization, and then transmit to the office of his Brussels’ counterpart for signatures in Europe.
Coordination and discretion were the two weapons they had in their arsenal to make sure the deal went through smoothly.
News would break in the European business markets first and ripple across. It would be a hell of a week, but they’d worked through mountains of regulations on both sides to create the perfect soft entry for Spherecast. Voldakov had the knowledge and the skill to take that lead and run with it.
And Armand gets to protect his cousin’s interests at the same time and maybe absolve his personal guilt over her orphaning.
Though he wasn’t to blame for it, Armand took Alyx’s time in foster care personally. He wanted to do everything he could to make up for it whether it was his fault or not.
The man didn’t know how to draw personal lines when it came to the lives of those he loved. His devotion to family was an admirable trait, but it bordered on interference at times.
“Richard?” Kate’s voice held a sharp note and he jerked a glance toward her, then the road.
“What?”
“You missed your turn for the club back there.” She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder and he slowed down enough to glance back.
“Son of a bitch—sorry, I was distracted.” He swung into the right-hand lane and completed a series of turns to head back to the golf course.
“Apparently, and yes, you handed me the contracts yesterday. I made sure they were scanned in and correct before we left the office. They’re in the passcoded dropbox so we can access as needed.”
“And you read them? Enough to recognize the names?” That counted as impressive even by the standards she’d performed since hiring her.
A shrug met his inquiry and she pointed at the gated drive for the club. “Don’t miss it again.”
Richard followed the drive and found his parking slot. Putting the car in park, he turned in the seat, curious as hell, to look at his assistant. “Spill.”
Her attention wasn’t on him, however. Instead she scanned the club parking area, not that there was much to see, though the parking lot was over half full.
A lot of the locals preferred the earlier tee times before the Hollywood types hit the greens.
She pushed up her sunglasses to rest on top of her head and swung her gaze back to him at the order. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” He searched her face. He had the oddest sensation of seeing her for the first time.
Her soft brown eyes were actually hazel in the morning sun, with hints of gold and deeper green.
She didn’t wear cosmetics beyond a gloss for lipstick and a hint of eye shadow.
“Spill. Speed reading? Eidetic memory? How are you picking up all of this so fast and remembering it so clearly?”
“Reading is a fairly basic skill. I learned that in kindergarten.” Her lashes swept down, then back up. The corner of her mouth curved with the barest hint of a smile. And there she went, trying to manage him again—by misdirecting his attention. “One I apparently excel at.”
It was damn subtle and, as much as it amused him, he still wanted an answer. “A five-year-old couldn’t process one seventy-five-page contract, much less three in the two hours you had them prior to the dinner we attended.”
“What makes you think I wasn’t reading them at dinner?” Challenge flared in her eyes.
Richard snorted. “I would have noticed your digital tablet and that green dress left you nowhere to hide it.”
Her smile grew and she held up her right hand. Her phone faced him and the contract appeared when she swiped her thumb across the screen. “But I had my phone.”
“Damn.” He hit the steering wheel. “So that’s what you were doing when I asked you to dance.” Her attention had been on the plate of salad, though he could have sworn she watched the room more than looked down. She always seemed to be aware of everything going on around her.
“It’s merely a matter of dividing my attention.” Another careless shrug. “As for the memory, I’m trained in observation. I’d hardly make a worthwhile assistant if I couldn’t identify, assess and remember key details.”
“Like names?” He nodded slowly. “That makes sense.” But he wasn’t buying it. Kate Braddock presented him with an enigma. “So how long do you retain these key pieces of data? I mean you worked with Anna for months. Can you name the top donors for the scholarship fund?”
He shut off the engine and opened the car door, stepping out into the sunshine.
Unsurprisingly, she exited immediately and circled the car to meet him.
She was good at that too—he’d thought it was because he’d been coming off his convalescence, that she always kept a step ahead of him.
But he’d begun to suspect it was left over from traveling in Anna’s security detail.
“I could.” She slid her phone into the back pocket of her jeans and adjusted her purse on her shoulder. She carried a very practical bag, nothing frilly, but the one time he’d picked it up to hand it to her the weight had impressed him.
“And they are?” He motioned to her to proceed, then opened his trunk to retrieve his golf clubs.
“I said I could tell you, not that I would.” The corners of her mouth turned up into an amused grin and she glanced around.
“It’s hardly privileged information. I could look the names up.” He represented the fund.
“I was under a nondisclosure agreement that remains binding whether I work for Miss Novak or not.” She spared him another wry look. “A nondisclosure I believe you drafted.”
“Hmm, hoisted by my own legal acumen.” Richard set his club bag on the ground and closed the trunk. “Well played, Kate. Well played.”
“Thank you, sir.” She grinned and that twinkle gleamed in her eyes.
Loosening the handle on his club bag, he tugged it along and motioned her to move ahead of him as she would likely do anyway. “I said well-played. You haven’t won yet.”
“Oh?” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Are we keeping score in this game?”
“We are now.”
They managed the first five holes in relative peace and quiet, addressing only the most pleasant of topics.
Bing, as it turned out, was not someone Richard knew at all.
He’d expected an attorney or financial advisor and instead Bruno Bing turned out to be an actor and the brother-in-law of Kravitts—and wholly uninterested in the game.
Bing never took his attention off Kate.
“The problem we’re running into with this latest set of regulations from the EU is narrowing the market share.
” Walsinger walked a half circle around the tee, his gaze on the hole 192 yards away.
The man could never just take a shot. He had to cozy up to it like a woman he wanted to pick up in a bar.
“First, it was just the German trades. Now France and Spain are adding in changes and adjustments. Belgium suggested three more and the U.K.—they’re proving intractable on Atlantic crossover. ”
This wasn’t Richard’s first rodeo. Walsinger wanted Richard to talk to Armand and grease the wheels for him.
Bing stood off to the right, his mouth moving and his hand on Kate’s shoulder.
To her credit, she glanced at the actor once and moved a half step away forcing his hand to drop off of her.
She didn’t seem to pay him any attention, instead she watched Walsinger and his shot and then looked over the landscape.
What the hell is he talking to her about?
Bing did all the talking. Kate hadn’t said anything that Richard’d noticed.
Kravitts folded his arms. “Just take the shot, Harvey, so the rest of us can play. We’ve got folks two holes behind us and they’ll be asking to play through if you take much longer.”
Walsinger paused to give Kravitts a baleful look and then positioned himself, lining up his club, but he was nowhere near ready to swing.
Richard ignored the theatrics of the shot to check on Kate.
Bing touched her, again. Irritation flared along his nerve endings and he locked gazes with his assistant.
He hadn’t brought her with him to be pawed by that clown.
Brows up, he flicked a look to Bing and back to her. The corner of her mouth curved and she crossed her eyes, but gave a subtle shake of her head. She didn’t need him to intercede.
“Don’t you think our long-standing history should count for something? My company has maintained three factories in Germany since 1947,” Walsinger continued to grumble and twice he worked his arm, testing his angle.
Richard waited a beat for him to play before replying. “I think reminding the oversight committees that your company took advantage of post-war rebuilding to get a financial foothold in their country that funneled money out instead of in wouldn’t be prudent.”
Scowling, the older man pointed his golf club at him. “That’s not a particularly generous description of how my company does business.”
“It’s not a particularly generous market, Harvey, and you are free to take the advice or not.” He didn’t flinch at the anger in the other man’s eyes, no matter how irrational. Harvey Walsinger knew how to cut a deal; temper tantrums were not typically a part of them. Something else was up.