“Pardon me,” he said. “I see a few white clouds around that I want to turn dark and stormy for the company.” He turned to Kiara. “Ms. Martin, I hope I’ve made clear the nature of your team’s purpose.”
“Quite clear,” Kiara said. “I’ll pass the information on.”
“Good.”
They shook hands. He gave me a curt nod, then slid over into a table of round, old white men, not far away.
“I like him,” Kiara said, eyes glazed as she watched him work.
“Just how much exactly?”
She laughed. “Are you feeling threatened?”
The crystal promise of her laugh washed the tension out of me like a hit of opium. My grandfather had offered me a puff of his old pipe once, and I'd never taken another. He hadn't been an addict, but he had far more discipline than even me. Stone Holdings had grown to its current size thanks to him. My father only managed to keep it stagnant in his short tenure.
Kiara was proving to be far more addictive than any drug though, now that she was relaxed. The purpose of all this must gotten through to her.
“I’m not threatened,” I said. “Just contemplating the cost of a hitman.”
“I’m surprised you two haven’t sent one after each other already.”
“Ah it'd be too much of a mess if it didn't work.”
“Really?”
Her smile had dimmed. Did we look that bad?
“Relax,” I said. “We’re not feuding royalty. None of us is going to end up penniless as long as this company stands.”
“But the company means a lot to both of you. It's not just about money.”
She had that right. I chuckled without much humor. “Aren't you an accountant?”
“Only in business. And I think that ended when your brother walked away.” She shrugged. “Guess we're back to networking.”
It should have made me laugh, but my mood was falling swiftly under the clouds.
Networking was mostly Jesse's domain. I won my friends through strength. Even Trey kind of feared me at times.
But fear would not let me keep this company. Making money might, but it still didn't earn me any respect. My father may have written me into his will, but I had no doubt he died loathing me.
We were Texan royalty and I had never quite been satisfied with that. After I refused to accept my reserved family spot at Rice University, he had even said, “You may be my blood, but you are no real Stone.”
So why give me the company?
In a way Kiara had revealed his true purpose. Nothing brings a man greater despair than giving him what he wants before ripping it away. Deep down, I always knew that I was just warming the CEO seat for Jesse to grow up a little.
“I'm kidding,” Kiara said. “It's just our joke right?”
Our booth was dark and murky. Her heat seemed to burn brighter in it. I edged closer like a plant seeking the sun.
“Sorry darlin'. I think I'm showing too much of my hand today. Are you satisfied that I didn’t just orchestrate this whole gig to get you in my lap?”
She glanced down at my legs, her gaze itself warming me as much as a touch. My mood swung up as quickly as it had fallen.
“You’re awfully optimistic, but yeah, at least this part of your little scheme worked.” She tipped in on an elbow, just a tip of the head away from my mouth. “Did you really just bring me here to prove you hadn’t made up this job?”
“For starters,” I turned in towards us. “Feel better about this whole project then?”
She sighed upwards. “Maybe, but I’m still not forgiving you.”
“I was actually hoping this meeting might give you the appetite for something more than forgiveness.”
Her eyes went wide. “You are way too bold for your own good. You know that?”
“You call it boldness. I call it being honest. And honestly, I’m sorry that I trapped you with this project. But I don’t regret bringing you closer to me.”
“Well.” Her breath tickled my lips. “I’m still angry at you.”
“Would a trip to Abu Dhabi on a private jet tip the scales in my favor?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that would look great to the rest of my team.”
“Let them think what they think,” I said. “You don’t want to be caged, fine. First place to start is freeing yourselves from the opinions of others. It’s true in business. It’s especially true in pleasure.”
Her eyes flared wide. Her full lips parted, but no words came out. She eyed my mouth, but didn’t budge.
She wasn’t going to listen to her own desires? Fine. I could be the one that took us back over the edge. The country club frowned on PDA, but what use was money without freedom?
I dipped in.
“Deacon. I heard you were here.”
My lust shattered at the shrill voice. I snapped up, and saw my mother’s lined, grey face scowling at me. She was dress in tennis whites, along with another large man who heaved at her side.
Demetri had told me she’d be here. It was always a pleasure to flaunt a wrong woman in her face, but this look…well, this felt much darker.
“I didn’t realize you were preoccupied,” she said.
“Just a casual meeting is all.” I spread my arms out along the booth, forcing myself to keep the heat from my face. Kiara glanced up, flustered like a frightened mouse.
“I just wanted to bring over our frontrunner for the Republican gubernatorial primary,” she said. “Mr. Roland Tarly.”
“Pleasure to see you again,” the round man offered a sweaty handshake, which I had no choice but to accept. It certainly evacuated the last heat from my groins.
“Nice to see you too,” I managed to get out. “Frontrunner, now, huh? That’s fantastic. I’m glad we’ve got you on our team.”
Tarly pudgy face grew tighter. “I agree. Your brother says you are abandoning us, though.”
Shit, what madness was this? He must be talking about the solar project. Jesse wasn't even in sight anymore.
“I'm abandoning no one,” I said.
“Your family and mine have worked together for generations,” Tarly said. “We could continue for another one or two more, but it seems you'd rather shift your company from oil to solar.”
“Sir, I assure you this is not the case.” I glanced at Kiara. “Tell them how small a deal this is for us.”
She had shrunk back into her seat, but she straightened a bit. “Uh, it's less than a percent of Stone Holdings.”
“Hmph,” Tarly said. “Everything big starts off as a small thing.”
I could hardly argue that looking at his round frame. Luckily, he simply wandered off to the bar.
“And who is this girl?” Mother blinked furiously at Kiara.
“Ah, this is Ms. Kiara Martin.” I glanced warily at Kiara. “Kiara, my mother, Mrs. Grace Stone.”
“It’s an honor, Mrs. Stone,” Kiara shot out a hand.
“Charmed.” She shook it limply. “And what are you doing with my son?”
“I’m an outside consultant, Mrs. Stone.”
“We were just having a business meeting,” I said. “Jesse was with us until a moment ago.”
“Yes, he was the one who told me you were around.”
“Fantastic,” I beamed, grinding my teeth to dust. “Well, nice to see you both.”
“Oh, so good to see you too dear.” My mother gave Kiara an icy smile. “It's nice to see that my son is not alone as he runs the family reputation into the ground.”
She turned and walked off towards her big friend. Were they together? I honestly didn't give a damn.
“What the hell was that?” Kiara whispered at me.
“The thorn in my paw,” I said. “Welcome to my family.”
She shot me a look that made it clear just how welcome she felt.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kiara
Sleep mugged down on my eyelids as we touched down in Abu Dhabi International. After convincing myself we weren't going to crash, I shut my eyes for a last few precious moments of rest.
My phone buzzed. Guess I'd forgotten to set it in airport mode.
Leo gave me a stern look as we taxied to our terminal. He couldn't exactly pull off 'menacing' with his curly ginger hair, but I got the hint. Accountants tended to be heavily on the risk averse side, even with little things.
I checked the phone. There was just a text from Mira:
Land safe, sugar mama?
Cute. I'd need to be clear with her that my sugar was on limited supply when we got back. I had enough juice until she could get her footing – no more. Sure, I owed her my life for freeing me from the grip of my own parents, but she shouldn’t just tie herself to me either.
At least, she couldn't protest about the full time cat sitting duty this assignment placed on her. Snowflake sure didn't mind.
I read her message again, then, on a whim, went down and checked for any other new ones. Deacon’s message chain lay exactly where we’d left it:
You’ll come around, darlin’.
What more did I expect? He’d spent Sunday night texting me and trying to recover the moment his mom had stolen, and I had dampened expectations. I wasn’t exactly upset. Sure I'd left after the run-in with his mom, but that hadn’t been a storm-out.
I scrolled up to the first text he’d sent:
Didn’t plan on you meeting the family so soon. That’s skipping right past the good parts.
I smiled. Seeing his family actually made me feel a whole lot better. Sure, his mother looked at me like I was Mary Magdalene. But once my heart stopped beating from that, Deacon seemed downright tame in comparison. Between her breathing down on him and his brother trying to slip me into his suit, it was no wonder he’d become a guy who went hard for what he wanted.
But that didn’t excuse his behavior. It certainly didn’t make almost kissing him any less a mistake. Good thing his mother had cut in at the right moment.
The seatbelt light came off. Our team rose from our business seats up front and starting passing down trim roll-ons from above. We'd be going back and forth for the next few weeks.
Despite the project size, seven people was still a small team. Yet, I barely knew more than their names. Avoiding Deacon all last week had somehow isolated me more than being with him would have. Well, I was going to be completely professional here.
And ignore the dreams about Deacon that had kept me restless the whole plane ride.
“Get enough sleep?” Leo asked. “You looked like you had a rough trip.”
“I'm ok,” I said, rubbing my face.
“I can have a shuttle pick you up from the hotel a bit later,” he said. “You could nap for an hour.”
I snorted. “This isn't my first assignment, Leo. I don't need kid gloves.”
“No kid gloves. You're presenting after me, and I need you sharp. You're bringing the scalpel with your questions.”
“No other reason?”
He gave a flat smile. “I am trying to use you well, Kiara. That's all. I don't care if you're family friends with the Stones.”
Family friends -
That
was the rumor? I barely kept from laughing. The only connection between my family and Deacon’s was that they were both uniquely messed up.
“Well, fine then,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”
We disembarked and went out through the gate, through immigration. The booths were modern and gleaming with white light, but a strange stone and dust smell filled the air. It was a foreign smell, completely unlike Houston, unlike anywhere I'd been in the US.
I was in the Middle East. It finally hit me through my tired haze. I was away from everything I knew.
I glanced around and saw other lines. I fixed on one family: a man, two girls and...a woman entirely shrouded in a black burka. Maybe she could see me, but I stared, completely stunned.
Many other Arab women were not completely covered. Some even wore normal designer clothes, but I could not lift my eyes from the woman in black all through the line.
That’s what I’d be wearing if my family had been Muslim and not Christian. I didn't want to know what the punishment would be here for defying it. I'd gotten it hard, but I'd never feared for my life.
It couldn’t be the law if other woman dressed freely. Someone made her wear it. Maybe that someone even made her think it was her choice. It was probably the man who claimed to love her, who told her it was the right thing.
The guy who would show her no mercy if she didn't give him what he expected.
My anger rose and fell like a flash flood. I couldn’t fix that. I had to save my energy for what I could fix. Spreading solar was at least a noble goal. Maybe by doing that, somehow, some of that sunlight would reach that woman.
A shuttle took us downtown towards our hotel on the corniche - the beachfront part of the city. I'd been on assignment in New York before. The Abu Dhabi skyline gave Manhattan a good run in parts. The waters on our right were turquoise and royal blue, a perfect eighty-five degrees this time of year, our driver said.
The city seemed like a playground. It would be a dream to explore. But I couldn't forget about the woman imprisoned in her own clothing.
The hotel was a beige skyscraper that tore into the sky like a giant anthill. We each had our own rooms.