Chapter 25: Chapter Twenty-Five
“Good morning, Audrey.”
“Kennedi, great timing.” She tapped the button on her headset. “I was just ringing your store. Mr. Shaw has been asking for you every ten minutes.” Audrey leaned in and whispered, “He’s been kind of snappy this morning. I hope everything’s okay with the company.”
Kennedi found that odd, considering Trenton had seemed in good spirits when he’d left her home in the dawn hour, after giving her another of his most mind-blanking orgasms with his mouth and fingers. They didn’t get much sleep. That could be the cause. “Snappy, huh?”
“Yes.” Audrey smacked her palms together and smiled, her eyes lighting up like night stars. “The most beautiful bouquet of flowers arrived for you a couple of hours ago. They’re huge and must’ve cost a fortune. Maybe Mr. Shaw doesn’t approve of personal deliveries at the office. That would be a bummer. My Jim loves to send chocolates on Valentine’s Day. I tell him not to get me anything, but the candy arrives like clockwork. I actually like it.” She grinned. “One year he ordered me this beau—” The desk phone rang, cutting off her narrative, and she tapped the headset. “What can I do for you, Mr. Shaw?”
From the serious look on her face, Trenton’s words must not be pleasant.
Audrey mouthed silently to Kennedi, Go, then answered, “She’s here and on her way to you now.”
Kennedi entered the office to find Dominic seated on the couch. “Hi, Dominic.”
The smile that crossed his lips appeared almost cheeky in a way, as if he held a secret that he couldn’t wait to spill. “Kennedi, how are things?”
“Pretty good.” She returned his white-toothed grin and circled the desk to Trenton, resting a hip against the edge beside him, her body still feeling the effects of his sexual prowess. “You left these at my place,” she said quietly and handed him his cuff links. He looked up with tiredness about the eyes as he slipped the weighted platinum into his inside suit coat pocket, his lukewarm expression the polar opposite of his brother’s. “Sorry I kept you up.”
“Those came for you.” He flung a gesture with his pen at the large bouquet of pink daylilies across the room, situated upon the small round conference table, then resumed scribbling on the papers in front of him.
She went over and plucked the card from the floral stem. “They’re from Alan Lange. A little something to brighten your day and to say I enjoyed getting to know you.” The air was perfumed by the delicate scent. “They’re beautiful and smell so good.”
“Looks like you left a lasting impression.”
To Trenton’s comment, she shrugged. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Kennedi, he’s manipulative. You’re to stay away from him, understand?” His tone grated sharply.
Throwing her hands up, she could feel her frustration growing. He damn sure knew what buttons to press. “There you go, telling me who I can and can’t see.”
“We’re not doing business with Lange, so there’s no reason you need to be in contact with him.” His tone was a bit more level. “If this is going to work between us, I need you to heed what I say.”
She wasn’t sure if he meant business or personal. “That would only happen if what you said made sense.”
“I guess we won’t be discussing these.” Dominic held up a stack of papers.
Kennedi flashed a looked between the men, who shared a silent exchange, one they’d apparently mastered as close brothers would. Dominic read his brother’s command and stuck the papers into the portfolio on the table in front of him.
“After last night…” She chanced a fleet look at Dominic again and found his concentration now centered on his cell phone, yet he wore a slight grin. The guy always seemed to be laughing at her on some private level. Turning back to the infuriating man in front of her, she couldn’t decide whether to choke him or kiss away that harsh expression. “The flowers, I’m sure, were just a gesture to say thanks for lunch.”
Trenton came to his feet. “You keep believing that. I have work to do at my office. I expect you at my place at eight thirty tonight.”
Bristling at the clipped directive, she whirled, her glare following his stroll toward the door. “Your place? We’re not having the conference call here at the office?”
“I told you I have another meeting scheduled before our meeting. Had you not been so wrapped up in seeing Lange last week, you’d know that.”
“I did hear you say you had another meeting, but I didn’t know it was at your home.”
“Well it is, and I expect you there.” He opened the door and looked back at her, those steely blues somehow hot and cold at the same time. “Or I’ll handle it without you.”
When the door closed, Kennedi looked over at Dominic. “Are you kidding me? Flowers? He gets this worked up over measly flowers? I could strangle your brother. You know that, right?”
Dominic stuck his phone in his pants pocket and came to his feet. “It’s not so much about the flowers.” His head tilted. “Well, it is about the flowers too. Alan Lange has been on my brother’s ass for years. He hates Trent and will do anything within his means to cut at him.”
“Why?”
“There have been business opportunities that Lange lost out on, and he claims Trent somehow rigged them in his favor through dark buy-ins.”
“Did he?”
His lips twitched and he shrugged, slipping hands into the front pockets of perfectly tailored navy-blue slacks. “Like you with your father’s company, Trent took over Shaw Enterprise from his father when it was close to tanking and turned it into the empire it is today. I believe Lange sees Trent as having a silver spoon in his mouth. But he’s so far off base. Trent’s my brother through and through, but he wasn’t born a Balaska. He’s had to work hard.”
“What do you mean?”
“That’s a story for another day. Anyway, business is business. It’s never one hundred percent squeaky clean.”
She lifted her chin in objection. “Well, it should be. Whatever’s going on with Trenton and Alan is between them. I have nothing to do with it.”
“I beg to differ. You now sit at the very center. I haven’t seen my brother this worked up over a woman since…” He trailed off and picked up his portfolio. “Look, Trent’s into you, and Lange knows it. He’ll use it any way he can.”
Kennedi sensed he was going to say Claudia. “And I’m into him,” she easily admitted. “This beef between them is ridiculous. I told Alan that we wouldn’t be doing business with him. I even declined his invitation to dinner. Trenton knows this. I can’t control if Alan chooses to send me flowers. Your brother can be so damn bossy.”
“I’ll head over to Shaw Enterprise. Maybe he’ll have cooled by the time I get there.”
“He damn well better before our conference call this evening. You be sure to tell him I said that.”
Dominic chuckled with a look over his shoulder.
She planted a firm hand on her hip. “You heard me.”
“Yes, madam.” He saluted.