“Wise woman,” Richard admitted, grinning.
“Her or me?”
“Both of you, in fact, but not half as smart as I was to go along with the plan in the end.”
Melanie kissed him, which momentarily served as a rather effective distraction.
“Want to know what I think your problem is?” Melanie asked eventually.
“Sure.”
“You don’t like the fact that she’s the one who came up with the idea.”
Richard scowled at her implication. “Don’t be ridiculous. I am not jealous of my own aunt. That would be childish and immature.”
“Yes, it would,” she agreed readily. “And I’m not suggesting that, but you can’t deny that it is nagging at you that she apparently has enough insight into what makes William Harcourt tick to come up with a plot like this.”
The explanation resonated with him a little too clearly. “You could be right,” he admitted slowly. “I don’t like anything I don’t understand, and Destiny has never been forthcoming about just what this man meant to her. I’m beginning to get the nasty feeling that he was quite important to her once, more important than any of us have suspected.”
“And if he was?”
“Then he’s a real danger to her and to the company,” he said.
Melanie regarded him with shock. “You can’t honestly think she would ever betray Carlton Industries.”
He heard her scandalized tone and tried quickly to explain that he didn’t doubt Destiny’s honesty or integrity. “I don’t think she would do anything intentionally,” he began carefully. “But people who think they’re in love do all sorts of crazy things they might not do if they were thinking clearly.”
“Like us?”
“This is nothing like us,” he protested. “There was never any conflict of interest with the two of us.”
Melanie stood up, her disapproval plain. “I suggest you not repeat your concerns to Destiny,” she told him quietly but emphatically.
He stared at her blankly, not quite getting why she was suddenly seething. “I have an obligation to the company. Why the hell shouldn’t I say something if I think she’s putting our interests at risk?” he demanded.
“Because your implication is insulting, and frankly, if I were Destiny, I’d slap you silly. I’m very tempted to do it myself on her behalf.”
She stalked off then, obviously every bit as insulted as she insisted Destiny was likely to be.
Richard stared after his wife in consternation. Give him a complex business situation to resolve anytime, because if he lived to be a hundred, he would never understand the women in his life.
Copyright © 2004 by Sherryl Woods
ISBN-13: 9781459294028
Treasured
Copyright © 2004 by Sherryl Woods
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