A Clandestine Corporate Affair

chapter Eight

Nathan sat in his office the next morning, feeling more relaxed and all around happier than he had in a very long time. Eighteen months, to be exact.

Only problem was, that happiness never lasted.

His life would be going really well, and he would start to think that things were different, that her love had changed him, then something would happen to flare his temper and he would realize that nothing had changed. Wasn’t it better to get out while it was still good? Because the last thing he wanted to do was hurt Ana. This situation, their relationship, was supposed to be about Max and what was best for him, yet lately it seemed to be more about Ana and Nathan. Letting this go any further would be a mistake. So, the next time she tried to put the moves on him—and knowing Ana, there would probably be a next time—he would nip it in the bud. He would be the rational one. Whether she wanted to believe it or not, he knew what was best for her.

His secretary buzzed him. “Mr. Blair needs to see you in his office.”

He shoved himself up from his chair and headed down the hall to Adam’s office.

“They’re waiting for you,” Adam’s secretary said, gesturing him through the open office door.

They? Had he forgotten a meeting? His mind hadn’t exactly been in the game the last few days, but that was what his secretary was for, and she hadn’t said anything.

Adam sat behind his desk, and Nathan was surprised to see Emilio standing by the window. If it was a scheduled meeting, Jordan wasn’t there yet.

“Shut the door.” Adam said.

“What about Jordan?”

“I sent him to the refinery.”

There was only one reason why Jordan would be excluded from a meeting. There had been some sort of news about the explosion.

He shut the door and took a seat across from Adam’s desk. “So I take it there’s been a development.”

Adam and Emilio exchanged a look, and Emilio said, “Something like that.”

He wasn’t sure he appreciated the fact that Adam would discuss it with Emilio before him. Until the CEO position was filled, they were supposed to be on a level playing ground.

Nathan sat straighter in the chair, looking from one to the other. “Whatever it is, I see you’ve already discussed it without me.”

“We have a few questions for you,” Adam said, looking so solemn that Nathan had to wonder if he’d done something wrong. They couldn’t possibly know about Max and Ana.

“So ask,” Nathan said.

“I know you and Jordan aren’t very close,” Emilio said. “But do you know anything about his personal finances?”

“We don’t exactly share stock tips. Why?”

“Are you aware of any reason he would have to deposit or withdraw any large sums of cash?”

They were looking into Jordan’s personal finances? Had they been checking Nathan out, too? Despite all the animosity he had toward Jordan, that ages-old instinct to defend his brother worked its way to the surface. “Are you accusing my brother of something?”

“A week before the accident someone deposited two hundred thousand dollars into Jordan’s account, and a few days later he wired thirty thousand dollars out.”

“To whom?”

“I’m afraid we don’t have access to that information,” Emilio said.

“But what you’re saying is, you think he’s responsible for the sabotage?”

“You can’t deny it looks suspicious.”

He looked from Adam to Emilio. “You think that someone paid him, and he paid someone else to tamper with the equipment?”

“That’s one possibility,” Adam said.

“Why?”

“Jordan is ambitious,” Emilio said. “It happened before everyone learned the CEO position was opening up. Maybe he felt he’d hit a ceiling.”

“His commitment to this company and his dedication to the men at the refinery has been exemplary,” Nathan reminded them. In fact, it was truly remarkable, despite the social and economic differences, how deeply the workers at the refinery respected and trusted Jordan. Not only was he the man in charge, but when he was among the workers, he was one of them.

“Maybe someone made him an offer he couldn’t refuse,” Emilio said. “But expected something in return first.”

“Ambitious or not, I can’t see him putting anyone’s life in danger to further his career.”

“Maybe no one was meant to get hurt, but something went wrong,” Adam suggested. “You have to admit, he was the one hit hardest by this. Maybe he feels guilty.”

“If he got a better offer, why is he still here?”

“To avoid suspicion? Or maybe now that the CEO position is opening up, he has a reason to stay.”

“Or maybe,” Emilio offered, “since there were injuries, it killed the deal.”

“Look, you know that my brother and I don’t have the best relationship, but I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this.” Or maybe he just didn’t want to believe that his own brother could be responsible, that he could be that self-serving. Maybe he didn’t like that what they were suggesting had credibility.

“Believe me, we don’t like it either,” Adam said. “But we can’t ignore the possibility. If he were involved somehow, and it came out later that we had proof and did nothing about it—”

“You could confront him,” Nathan said.

Emilio laughed. “This is Jordan we’re talking about. If he’s guilty, do you honestly think he’ll admit it?”

Good point. Jordan would just as soon slice off a limb than admit he’d made a mistake.

“His secretary will be starting her maternity leave in a few weeks and the investigation firm has suggested we place an undercover operative directly into Jordan’s office,” Adam said. “He’ll just think she’s a temp.”

“If he finds out, he’s going to be pissed.”

“So we have to make sure he doesn’t find out,” Adam said. “And we have until then to find another way. Maybe you could try talking to him. Maybe he’ll let something slip.”

“Honestly, I’m the last person he would confide in. We don’t talk. Ever. If nothing else, that would only raise his suspicions.”

“If not for Jordan, this company wouldn’t be where it is today,” Adam said. “If he’s innocent, I don’t want to risk losing him.”

“We took a chance trusting you with this,” Emilio said. “I have brothers, so I know it’s a lot to ask. But we can only do this if you’re behind it one hundred percent.”

He knew they were right, and he hated that underneath the need to defend his brother, there was a nagging suspicion that maybe it was true. Either way, they needed to know.

“I’m in,” he said.

He knew he was doing the right thing. Still, it felt like a betrayal. But with Jordan’s career on the line, maybe this was the best thing he could do for his brother.

Although it got him wondering, as he headed back to his office, if they were investigating Jordan, did that mean he was under investigation as well? But why would he be? He could count on one hand how many times he had actually been in the refinery, and the men who worked there were strangers to him. But if his relationship to Ana and Max were to get out, it could not only hurt his chances at the CEO position but cast doubt over him as well.

He was leaning toward the idea of making Max a permanent part of his life, but at this point it would undoubtedly complicate things. Ana hadn’t been pushing him to make any decisions, but he knew it was only a matter of time before she would expect an answer from him. They couldn’t go on living in limbo this way. Especially after what happened last night. Which, the more he thought about it, the more he realized what a mistake it probably was. It was clouding his judgement. Making him forget that there were other issues to think about, like whether or not he even deserved to be someone’s parent. What if he was destined to repeat his own parents’ mistakes? What if he turned out to be like his father, harsh and judgmental? Or, even worse, like his mother? Too absorbed in his own life to care that he had a vulnerable and confused kid desperate for his attention. And if he did lose the CEO position over this, or even his job, would he end up resentful and bitter?

If he could hold Ana off just another few months, until he’d had time to really consider what he was doing, at least until the CEO decision was made…

He’d left his cell phone on his desk, and when he got back to his office there were two missed calls. One from a number he didn’t recognize, and one from Ana. Neither left a message. Maybe Ana had decided that they needed to have that talk after all. He was half-tempted to wait and call her back later, until he considered the possibility that her call may have had something to do with their son. What if he was sick or injured? His pulse skipped at the thought.

He dialed her number and she answered on the second ring. In the background he could hear Max babbling happily, and the sudden gush of relief he experienced nearly knocked him back in his chair. In barely over a week, the little runt had managed to weasel his way into Nathan’s heart.

The question was, did he deserve Max’s love?

“You called?” he asked Ana.

“Yeah. Sorry to bother you while you’re working, but I had something I wanted to ask you. Have you got a minute?”

“Sure.”

“I sort of need a favor, but I want to say right up front that you are under absolutely no obligation to do this. I can ask Jenny. I just thought maybe you would want to do it instead.”

“Do what?”

“Babysit Max Saturday night. I was invited for a girls’ night out with Beth and some of our friends.”

“Babysit as in just him and me?”

“Yeah. I thought you might like to get some quality time together. I wouldn’t be leaving till seven-thirty, and he goes to bed at eight-thirty, so he’ll be asleep most of the time.”

The fact that she trusted him to be alone with Max rendered him speechless for several seconds.

“If you don’t want to—”

“It’s not that I don’t want to. I just…I’m a little surprised that you would ask me, considering my vast lack of experience with kids.”

“Well, Max adores you, and you know his bedtime routine. Besides, he’s pretty easygoing. I can’t imagine that he’ll give you any trouble. And if you do decide to be a permanent part of his life, you can’t keep coming over here and just visiting him forever. You’ll have to get used to being alone with him. Sometimes overnight.”

The idea both intrigued and made him nervous as hell. He would have to baby-proof his apartment, buy toys and baby furniture. With two extra bedrooms he definitely had the space. These just weren’t things he’d taken into consideration before.

“But like I said, if you’re not comfortable watching him, it’s okay. I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to push you into something you’re not ready for.”

“No, I’d like to do it,” he said, and realized, for all his doubts, he really did.

“Great! Can you be over at my place around seven-fifteen? That will give me time to show you where everything is before Beth picks me up.”

“I can do that.”

“I don’t know what you’re doing tonight, but Max and I were going to decorate the tree around seven.”

With a dinner meeting scheduled for six-thirty with his team, there was no way he was getting out of work before eight tonight. So he might see him for ten minutes before he went to bed. Meaning he would be going over there to see her, not Max, which he didn’t think was a good idea after last night.

“I just can’t swing it tonight, but maybe I can stop by around lunchtime tomorrow.”

“Sure. That would be great.” She paused, then asked, “By the way, did you get anything in the mail from Beth and Leo yet?”

“I don’t know.” He’d brought a pile of mail with him to work this morning but hadn’t had time to go through it yet. “Hold on, let me look.”

He grabbed the pile and rifled through it until he saw the greeting-card-sized envelope with Beth and Leo’s return address. He tore it open, but it wasn’t a card. It was an invitation to their annual New Years Eve party. Nathan went every year, except last year, and only because he figured he would run into Ana there. He’d known she was expecting, and the idea of seeing her, pregnant with another man’s baby…hell, for all he knew she would bring the father with her. Had he known it was his kid, he might have felt differently.

“I take it you got an invitation too?” Nathan said.

“Yeah. I wondered if you were planning to go. I wanted to, but with us both there…well, it might be a little weird having to pretend we don’t like each other.”

“We can’t stop socializing just because we’ll run into each other. That’s not fair to either of us.”

“I guess not. So you’re going to go?”

If only to prove that this thing between them didn’t have to be a big deal. “Yeah, I’m going.”

“Then I am too,” she said.

They talked for a few more minutes about Max, and though Ana never once mentioned what had happened last night, it hung between them unspoken. He could hardly believe he was thinking this, but maybe not talking about it hadn’t been such a hot idea after all. Not if it was going to make things awkward. He would probably feel worse if he had been the one to make the first move. Not that he couldn’t have told her no. But that would have left her feeling dejected and hurt.

In other words, he slept with her to spare her feelings? How philanthropic of him. Why couldn’t he just be honest with himself and admit that he slept with Ana because he wanted to? He still wanted to. It would take a hell of a lot more than one night to get her out of his system. Maybe a lifetime of nights. And if she came on to him again, good idea or not, he wouldn’t be pushing her away.

He would just have to hope that she didn’t.

Only after he’d hung up with Ana, and checked his schedule for his next meeting, did Nathan realize the mistake he’d just made. He was supposed to go to Adam and Katy’s holiday get-together Saturday evening. That was what he got for not checking his schedule before committing himself. He’d been so enticed by the idea of spending some real quality time with his son, he hadn’t even considered he might have another obligation.

Damn it. Emilio and his fiancée would be there, and he knew his brother would never miss an opportunity to score a few brownie points. Leaving him the odd man out. He could call Ana back and tell her he couldn’t make it, but something told him that wouldn’t go over really well.

He knew going into this that being a parent would require sacrifice. Besides, Adam had assured him it was okay if he didn’t come, that he knew it was last-minute.

Nathan just hoped he meant it. He’d come too far, was too close to getting everything he wanted to throw it all away.



Everything was going to be fine.

Ana sat on the couch, one eye on Max in his exersaucer and one on the clock. Nathan was due there any minute to babysit. And though she was maybe a tiny bit nervous about leaving him and Max alone for the first time, she was crazy nervous about Nathan being here. Their lunch date Thursday—using the word date in the loosest of senses—had fallen through, so she hadn’t actually seen him since they slept together Tuesday night. They had talked on the phone a couple of times, but that wasn’t the same as seeing someone face-to-face.

So much for her brilliant theory about sleeping with Nathan to get him out of her system. All that did was make her want him more, make her fall just a little more in love with him. But what was the point of being in love with someone who didn’t love her back?

Easy. There wasn’t one.

What had she expected? That sleeping with her was going to make Nathan suddenly realize that he loved her and couldn’t live without her? Clearly that wasn’t going to happen. She didn’t doubt that he cared about her, and desired her. Just not enough to want to spend the rest of his life with her. She was fun in the short term, just not marriage material.

Wasn’t that the story of her life?

He may have been her one true love, but obviously she wasn’t his. And even if he were willing to settle for a life with her and Max, she wanted more than that. She had no illusions about who she was and what she needed from a relationship to be happy. With all her insecurities, she needed someone who adored her. Someone who put his love for her above all else.

Nathan would never be that man. Not for her, and probably not for anyone else. He was too independent, too focused on his own life to devote himself completely to someone else.

The only exception to that rule seemed to be Max.

The bell sounded and she shot up off the couch like a spring. Jeez, Ana, relax. She forced herself to walk slowly to the door, glancing at her reflection in the foyer mirror. She didn’t get out much these days, so she’d really taken her time getting ready. Usually by this point in the evening she was a disheveled mess, but even she had to admit that she looked pretty hot. Who knows, maybe she would meet someone at the bar tonight. She had wanted to devote her life 24/7 to Max when he was an infant, but he was practically a toddler now, and old enough that she could start thinking about dating again.

If she could just get her mind off of Nathan. She only hoped when she saw him, there wasn’t any of that morning-after awkwardness. Even though technically it was more than four mornings after.

Heart in her throat, she pulled the door open. Nathan stood on the porch, looking windblown and sexy as hell. He usually dressed casually when he came to see Max, but this time he was still wearing his suit.

He looked her up and down, taking in her clingy black cashmere sweater, leggings and knee-high, spike-heeled boots. His eyes widened and he said, “Wow, you look great.”

She both loved and hated the warm glow of satisfaction that poured through her veins.

“Thanks,” she said, stepping back so he could come in out of the cold. Only when he was inside did she realize how tired he looked, as though he’d been up for several days straight.

“Sorry I’m a few minutes late,” he said. “A meeting ran long. I didn’t even have time to go home and change.”

“You look exhausted.”

He shrugged out of his overcoat. “It’s been a long week. We’re about to go into production with a new ad campaign. Everything that could go wrong has. Thankfully we’ll be shutting down for the holidays. I need a break.”

From across the room Max let out a squeal and jumped excitedly as he spotted Nathan.

“Hey buddy.” Nathan crossed the room to greet him, lifting him out of the exersaucer and hugging him. “I missed you.”

Ana’s heart melted. “He had an extra long nap today so he might stay up a little bit later for you. Just make sure he’s in bed by nine. We have to be up early to get ready for breakfast at my father’s house.”

“You do that often?”

“A couple of times a month. My father is pretty busy most of the time, but he likes to see his grandson.”

“And you, I’m sure.”

“No, it’s pretty much all about Max. My father and I barely say two words to each other. Unless he’s lecturing me on how to raise Max, then he has plenty to say. But it’s a one-sided conversation.”

“Sounds a bit like my mother,” Nathan said. “She loves to hear herself talk. Is your dad single? Maybe we should set them up.”

“So you could be my stepbrother? It would be fun explaining that one to Max.”

Nathan laughed. “Good point.” He gestured to the Christmas tree. “It looks nice.”

“We decorated it Wednesday night.”

“We?”

“Me and Max, although admittedly I did most of the work.”

This wasn’t so bad. They were both being incredibly polite, but that beat having nothing to say at all.

Ana glanced at the clock. “Beth is going to be here soon. Why don’t I show you where everything is, so I don’t have to make her wait.” Although the idea of staying home with Nathan and Max was far more seductive right now. But as Beth had implored on the phone the other day, Ana needed to get out and have fun. And she would. She would force herself.

Nathan had already been through the bedtime routine several times, but she showed him where the clean diapers and wipes were, and the pajamas in case Max dirtied the ones he was wearing.

“I left instructions in the kitchen on how to make a bottle, but you’ve seen me do it before,” she told Nathan. “You have my cell number, so don’t hesitate to call if you need anything.”

“I’m sure I can manage,” he said. “Although lately I’ve developed a healthy respect for parents with young children. People don’t realize what a daunting responsibility it is. And you’re doing ninety-nine percent of the work.”

“It’s twice as hard for single moms,” she said as they walked back into the living room. “I’m fortunate that I have the financial means to raise my son however I choose. There are so many women who struggle on a daily basis, working two or three jobs to keep up. I’ve seriously been considering starting a local foundation for single mothers.”

“To help financially?”

“Financially, emotionally, whatever they need. We could offer job-training programs and legal help to get support from the deadbeat dads who refuse to own up to their responsibility.”

“It sounds like quite an undertaking.”

“Which is why I’ve only talked about starting it. For now at least, Max comes first.”

“I think you should do it,” he said.

It was definitely part of her long-term plans. And she couldn’t deny that the idea of being responsible for something so big and important was a bit intimidating. She didn’t even know for sure if it would be well received. Especially from someone like her. Despite having changed her ways, the press still liked to perpetuate the “party girl” persona. What if no one took her seriously?

She wouldn’t know until she tried.

Outside, Beth laid on the horn.

“That’s my ride,” she said. She pulled on her coat and grabbed her purse from the foyer table. She considered giving Max a kiss goodbye, but with Nathan holding him it might be a little weird. She blew him a kiss instead and said, “Bye, baby, I love you.”

“Have fun,” Nathan said.

“You too.” She forced herself to walk out the door and down to Beth’s car.

“So,” Beth said a she climbed in. “First time leaving Nathan and Max alone?”

Ana fastened her seat belt. “Yep.”

“Are you nervous?”

“A little, maybe. But I’m sure they’ll have fun.”

“How about you?” Beth asked with a mischievous smile. “Are you ready for some fun?”

Not just ready, she was long past due.