Chapter Fourteen #2
Lexie jolted. She couldn’t listen to this, not while she was wearing his clothes.
The silk blend of his shirt was caressing her skin, tickling her thighs and sensitizing her nipples.
She still wanted him, but she now knew the price she’d paid to have him.
She spun around, desperate to get away, and suddenly found herself nose to nose with the crystal paperweight on the mantel.
It was in her hand before she knew it.
And it left it just as quickly.
She heaved the crystal as hard as she could.
It flew over the sunken living room and across the foyer before smashing into the wall beside the front door.
The sharp edges punctured the drywall, creating a jagged hole, before the crystal fell.
Almost in slow motion, the heavy piece of glass dropped to the floor and shattered.
Pieces scattered everywhere, reflecting the light from the lamp in a rainbow of color.
As pretty as it was, the beauty was broken.
And as loud as the crash had been, the silence that followed was even louder.
Cam’s head snapped back towards her, surprise clear on his face. Lexie couldn’t look at him. All she could do was stare at the damage she’d done. She hadn’t been able to do that when Julian had betrayed her.
“Lexie,” Cam said softly.
She turned towards the bedroom. She had to get away from him. This betrayal was cutting deeper than the others had.
He caught her arm before she could take a step. “Stop running. That’s what you always do, run away and lick your wounds. Keep fighting.”
She tried to jerk her arm out of his grip, but it was like a manacle.
“Fight for us. Damn it, stop and listen to me.”
She met his gaze, and the air practically snapped.
“I’m not stealing your idea,” he said, voice gritty as sandpaper. “I’m building on it.”
Latching on to her hand, he pulled her back across the room. He sat her down on the sofa and, when she started to bounce right back up, held her down by the shoulders.
“Look,” he demanded. He grabbed the battered proposal and dropped it in her lap. Snatching up a fistful of other papers from the sofa, he pushed them in front of her face too. “Take the time to actually read my notes.”
He perched on the edge of the coffee table and watched her steadily.
His face was dead set with frustration and something else.
Anxiousness? Impatiently, he reached out and opened the proposal in her lap.
When she finally looked down, he pulled his hand back and settled it against his knee.
The way it clenched into a fist drew her attention more sharply that the words he was trying to get her to read.
His knuckles were white. He was worried.
Lexie tried to slow her breaths. Her adrenaline was pumping hard, but she forced herself to skim over the notes in the margins of her work.
Business was the last thing on her mind, but he couldn’t hide his intentions when they were spelled out in black and white.
She would not, could not be betrayed again.
The first series of notes, though, confused her. Instead of implementing her plan, he was taking her idea in a different direction. But why?
She flipped to the next page. “Storefronts? What is this?”
“It’s a business plan.”
Her eyes narrowed. So he and Julian were working on a spin-off? Blaire had warned her they were working very closely. “How is that any different? You’re still starting with my concept.”
“It’s different because it’s not for Underhill.”
So he was already working on his next deal? He had a new client waiting in the wings?
“It’s for us.”
Lexie looked at him blankly. Us?
“I think we should start our own company.”
The papers wrinkled in her grip, but she refused to let her thoughts run away from her. She’d been excited about this concept before, only to have the bottom drop out. She was tired of getting burned.
“Why didn’t you show it to me before now?” she challenged. “Why work on it in the middle of the night?”
“Why did you hide it from me in the first place?” Springing up from the coffee table, he walked around it.
Pacing about naked to the waist, he seemed almost primal.
“You were going to present it to the entire company at the quarterly meeting. Why couldn’t you run it by me before that?
” He let out a growl of frustration and raked a hand through his hair.
Lexie went still on the sofa. She’d seen him confident and persuasive before, but this was different. His muscles were tense, and his steps were clipped. That strong, powerful smoothness was missing.
He was invested in this. He was serious.
She looked down at the proposal in her lap. Her fingers shook as she turned another page. He’d done nearly as much work on it as she had.
“When you dropped your things in the boardroom that day, you left a copy of your presentation on the floor. I was curious about what you’d put together, so I read it.”
She licked her lips nervously. “So you think it’s a good idea?”
“Good? It’s brilliant.” He grabbed another document on the table, the one he’d been carrying when he’d walked into the room.
He slid it towards her with a whoosh. “Here’s a preliminary market study.
Toys make up a considerable chunk of the money parents spend on their children.
Today when a child gives up a toy, it’s usually handed down, sold at a rummage sale or thrown away.
Your idea to buy and sell used toys could give consumers another option and bring business back into the sector, educational and otherwise.
If we move fast enough, we could position our company to provide that service to all the big players. ”
Folding his arms over his chest, he faced her. “Like Underhill Associates—or I should say, like Teach Me, Inc.”
His feet were spread wide, and his jaw was rock solid. “That’s the deal I’m working on with Julian. Underhill is in the process of being acquired.”
Lexie’s mouth dropped open. Teach Me was the industry leader in educational games. They were huge, but the idea of her father selling the family company? That was even bigger. “Teach Me is buying UAI?”
“As long as Julian can get out of his own way long enough for it to happen.”
She didn’t know what to say. It was all too much. “I can’t believe it.”
“The draft offer is right there in front of you. We’ve been sitting on it for a while.
I would have told you, but I’m still trying to work out one issue.
” A muscle ticked in Cam’s jaw, but he met her gaze.
“Teach Me has a strong marketing division. They might be able to take on a few more people with this acquisition, but I don’t know if I can save your team. ”
Lexie sat there, stunned. That was what he’d been keeping from her?
“As a start-up, we wouldn’t be able to hire them either,” he said bluntly.
Tears stung her eyes, fast and hot. She felt for her employees—she felt it all the way to the bottom of her gut—yet she was more ashamed of what she’d suspected of him.
She’d accused him of going behind her back to hurt her when he’d been trying to shield her from so many different things.
Her father, the upheaval at the company, potential layoffs…
It wasn’t the behavior of a so-called hatchet man, especially one who had no room for emotion in business.
She smoothed her shaking fingers over the paper. A start-up company. For them. Was it even possible? Would he really be able to change his life like that? Could he leave behind the travel? The glamorous destinations and the spine-stiffening reputation?
“Why did you hide what you were working on from me?” she asked.
“You were dealing with too much as it was.”
“But this was important to me. You knew that.”
“I was trying to improve my odds.” His eyes turned stormy. “I couldn’t let you say no.”
“Why not?”
“Why do you think?”
She shook her head. She wasn’t going to make any more assumptions. “You already have a great career.”
“But I don’t have a great life.” He shrugged with his arms still crossed.
“You’ve made me see that. I’ve worked so hard and for so long that I forgot that there was anything else.
But in these last few weeks—” He cleared his throat.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I’m tired of breaking companies apart or fixing weak links.
I want to start something from the beginning and build it into something strong.
But if you can’t trust me…or if you don’t want to partner with me… ”
“I do.”
The market study slipped to the floor. She pushed herself to her feet, but her legs were shaking so hard, she was afraid to take a step towards him. “I should have trusted you, Cam, but you should have trusted me too. I want this.”
“I can’t keep proving myself to you, Lexie. You’ve got to let me in if this is going to work.”
“I have let you in.” She pointed across the room in the direction of the broken crystal.
He should know what it meant. He’d wanted her to throw the paperweight when Julian had nearly destroyed her, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it.
When she’d thought that he’d betrayed her, though…
Well, it may as well have been her heart splattered across that floor.
She hoped they hadn’t done too much damage to piece it back together.
His gaze swept over the mess. When it returned to her, it was filled with heat. It was the same kind of heat she’d felt in the elevator whenever his look had turned her way, the same kind of heat she’d felt when she’d danced for him in their dimly lit bedroom.
She licked her lips. “Have you let me in?”
Their gazes locked.
“I love you, Lexie.”
Her weak knees nearly gave way.
He shrugged stiffly, and his voice dropped. “I love you.”
Her heart squeezed, but her legs finally found strength. She began moving towards him, her heart thudding with every step she took. He looked just as big and imposing as he had all those times when she’d turned the other direction at Underhill.