"No, sir. Are you ill?"
He couldn"t help but chuckle and said over his shoulder. "No, in fact I couldn"t be better."
"That"s good to hear because your brother called, and he didn"t sound like he was in a good mood."
Donovan stopped before opening the door to his office to ask, "And which brother is that?"
"Mr. Morgan Steele. And he wants to see you right away."
"Okay. Let him know that I"m here."
Donovan entered his office, tossed his briefcase on the leather loveseat and immediately walked over to the window. It was a beautiful day because the last five days had been perfect, beginning with Friday night.
Never had he made one woman the focal point of his weekend. And he couldn"t recall, if ever, when he"d drifted off to sleep with his body still inside of one, connected in the most intimate way. He could only blame it on that negligee he had bought her. She had looked s.e.xy in it, just like he"d known she would. Blue was definitely her color.
He chuckled, remembering how he"d tried making love to her in every single room in his house and, he thought smugly, he had succeeded.
In addition to Friday, Natalie had spent Sat.u.r.day night with him, as well. She had left for a short while on Sunday and returned on Sunday evening when they had prepared dinner and watched a movie together, first a chick flick and then one of his action movies.
She had left late Sunday night, and he had missed her like crazy. Luckily he"d been kept busy at work on Monday but had looked forward to seeing her in the evening. He hadn"t been able to talk her into staying over on Monday, but last night she had succ.u.mbed to his powers of seduction without much of a fight. The results, although he"d been late for work, had been most rewarding.
"Mr. Steele, Mr. Morgan Steele is here," his secretary interrupted his thoughts by saying over the intercom.
"Thanks, Sandra, please send him in."
Donovan turned from the window, and the moment his brother walked in he could tell there was trouble. "What"s going on, Morgan?"
Morgan slumped down in the nearest chair. "There is a spy somewhere, Donovan. Devons.h.i.+re Manufacturing Company knows too much about Gleeve-Ware not to be getting information from someplace. In Bas"s absence I"m ordering a detailed security report on everyone who has access to the formula. This is serious."
Donovan nodded. Yes, it was serious. SC had a major product breakthrough on their hands, and others were trying to be the first to claim it before it reached the market. Troubleshooting was Bas"s specialty, but he would be out of the office this week to spend time with his wife and newborn daughter.
"You still have your copy of the report, right?" Morgan asked, reclaiming his attention.
"Yes, but all those formulas are Greek to me."
"Well, destroy the copy you have since everything has practically been revised, thanks to Juan. We"re keeping an updated version under lock and key, and only the four of us and Juan will have access to it."
"No problem."
Morgan turned to leave and then paused and said, "And just so you know, we like Natalie."
Donovan chuckled. "Thanks, Morgan. I happen to like her, too."
"So when are you going to tell Donovan what you really do for a living?" Farrah asked at Natalie from across the table. The two had met for lunch, a promise Natalie had made when she"d canceled their plans for the weekend to spend time with Donovan instead.
Natalie shook her head, remembering this past weekend when he"d walked in on her in his office. "I"ll see him later tonight, and I"ll bring it up then-especially since I need to tell him I"m leaving to return home to Princeton tomorrow."
"Considering how those other guys acted once they discovered you had a working brain, do you think Donovan will have an issue with it?"
Natalie had thought about it a lot. In the beginning a part of her wasn"t sure what his reaction would be, so she had kept the information to herself. But now after spending time with him and getting to know him better, she refused to believe he would feel threatened by her achievements like all the others had. "I really don"t think so."
a.s.suming she was a housekeeper, he hadn"t placed much importance on her profession before introducing her to his family. Donovan, she believed, was a man comfortable in his own skin and would have no reason to be intimidated by her career.
"Do you think he"ll be upset that you haven"t been completely truthful to him?" Farrah asked, taking a sip of her tea.
Natalie shrugged. "I don"t know why he would be. I began feeling deep emotions for him the first time we made love. He was so different from Karl. I couldn"t help but acknowledge those differences to myself, but I refused to admit I was falling in love with him."
"Why?"
"Because in my mind that was a one-night stand, so I didn"t want to put my emotions out there on a lost cause. Karl, as well as those others who felt threatened by my academic achievements, made me wary."
Farrah reached across the table to take Natalie"s hand in hers. "I like Donovan, and I could tell that night at the cafe how much he was interested in you. I truly believe things will work out between you two, although I don"t know how he"s going to feel knowing you"ll be returning to Princeton for good in a few weeks."
"Now that"s the part that scares me," Natalie said. "I"m not sure he"ll be interested in a long-distance affair." She inhaled deeply. "We"ll find out his thoughts on everything tonight."
The Product Trade Show couldn"t get here fast enough, Donovan thought, entering his home that afternoon. He, Chance and Morgan had met with Juan Hairston for a demonstration of Gleeve-Ware, and they"d been amazed at how much progress had been made. In addition to the wear-free tires, he envisioned a number of other ways the products could enhance the lives of consumers.
It was late but Natalie had agreed to drop by. The moment he went up the stairs and stepped into his bedroom, memories of the past few days came flooding back. He still wasn"t sure how it was possible to feel so happy, and a part of him was afraid he would pinch himself to find it was all a dream.
After taking a quick shower, he slipped into a pair of jeans and went into his office to get some work done before Natalie arrived. Settling into the seat behind his desk, he noticed a small notepad on the floor and recalled it was the same one he"d seen Natalie scribbling something in Friday night when he had awakened to find her missing from the bedroom and in here. He reached down and picked it up, wondering if she had a penchant to doodle like he often did.
He opened the notepad and frowned. The first page was filled with several chemical equations that looked similar to the ones Juan had been sharing with them on Gleeve-Ware for the past eight months or so. Why on earth would Natalie have a notepad filled with various formulas?
At this stage of the game, you basically can"t trust anyone. Your compet.i.tor will pay top dollar for someone to steal the formula right from under your nose, using any technique they can and anyone they can.
Juan had spoken those very words to him, Chance and Morgan during their meeting today. Now those same words came down on him like a ton of bricks.
He wanted to believe that this was a coincidence, but there was a big GW on the first page above the list of equations. GW for Gleeve-Ware. And his mind was flas.h.i.+ng one question: Why would a cleaning lady spend her time writing formulas?
He closed his eyes as several reasons came to mind-none of them he liked. That night he"d found her in this room, had she been copying the formula from the papers he had locked in his desk drawer? It would have been easy to get the key off his key ring, and he would be the first to admit she had acted rather strangely that night.
At that moment he felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. Pain of intensity he"d never felt before chilled him to the bone, and time stood still as he sat there and stared at the notepad, trying to come up with reasons she would have it. He tried like h.e.l.l not to jump to conclusions.
But the more he thought about it, the more his mind was doing just that. By the time he heard the doorbell, intense anger had replaced desire.
Natalie knew something was wrong the moment Donovan opened the door, and stood back to let her enter and then all but slammed the door shut behind her.
"What"s wrong, Donovan?"
"You left something behind the last time you were here," he said in a hard tone, holding up the notepad for her to see. "Out of curiosity, I thumbed through it and couldn"t help noticing it was filled with formulas, something I wouldn"t expect from a person claiming to be a housekeeper. Why is that, Natalie?"
She swallowed hard, wis.h.i.+ng she had told him Friday night like she"d been tempted to do. "Because I don"t do housekeeping for a living."
"Evidently." He rubbed a hand down his face and then looked back at her. "So, how much were you paid?"
Paid? "Excuse me? What are you talking about?" "Excuse me? What are you talking about?"
"I"m talking about the fact that this notepad is filled with Gleeve-Ware formulas."
"Gleeve-Ware? I don"t know what you"re talking about, Donovan."
Donovan inhaled deeply, trying to quell his anger. How could she stand right in front of him and claim she didn"t know what he was talking about when he had the proof right in his hand? Anger mixed with the pain of betrayal and he wanted her out of his sight now before he said or did something he would regret.
"Here," He offered the notepad back to her. "This is really useless to you since those equations are outdated. The Steele Corporation was one step ahead of you."
She refused to take it. "Donovan, I have no idea what you"re talking about, but if you just listen to me for a second, I"ll be able to clear-"
"The only thing you can do right now, Natalie, is leave and don"t come back. You got what you came for. Funny thing, though, it was a wasted effort on your part."
A cruel smile then touched his lips. "But not on mine. My goal was to get you back in my bed, and I succeeded in doing that."
"Donovan, I-"
"No! Please leave now, Natalie. I don"t want to ever see you again."
Natalie knew that in his present state there was no way she could get through to him, so she turned and walked out the door.
"Let me get this straight. Donovan thought your notepad with those chemical equations on global warming had something to do with this project his company is working on?"
Natalie wiped the tears from her eyes. "Apparently."
She had left Donovan"s house and had gone directly to Farrah"s, nearly colliding with Xavier, who just happened to be leaving when she was arriving. And with Farrah still in her bathrobe and naked underneath, it didn"t take a rocket scientist to guess what the late-night visit had been about.
"He actually thinks I"m a corporate spy. Can you believe that, Farrah? Just how crazy is that? And what hurts more than anything is that he didn"t give me a chance to explain. How could he so easily a.s.sume the worst about me after all the time we spent together?"
Farrah regarded her carefully. "So, what are you going to do, Nat?"
Natalie lifted her chin stubbornly. "Nothing. Eventually he"ll see he made a mistake."
"And then what?"
Natalie inhaled deeply. "And then, still nothing. I refuse to love a man who can think the worst about me."
"But you already love him," Farrah pointed out.
Fresh tears appeared in Natalie"s eyes. "I know, and that"s why I"m hurting so bad."
Donovan paced the confines of his living room. His pain was almost unbearable, and he fully understood why.
He had fallen in love with her.
h.e.l.l. Him? The playa of all times? The man who swore no woman would ever have his heart? Yeah, well, one had definitely gotten it.
He didn"t even try to figure out how and when it had happened. He was far from being a romantic, but he would guess it had been the day he had found her asleep in his bed. Something inside of him had cracked the moment she had awakened and he had gazed down into her honey-brown eyes. From that moment on, he had wanted her like he"d wanted no other woman.
And now that woman had betrayed him.
He would have to meet with his brothers in the morning and tell them everything. He could just imagine what they"d think to discover the one woman he had brought around had been nothing more than a corporate spy.
He glanced at the clock. It was past midnight but more than likely Chance was still up. He dialed his brother"s phone number.
"h.e.l.lo?"
"Chance, I need you to call a meeting with everyone in the morning."
"Why? What"s going on, Donovan?"
"I"d rather not say right now."
There was a pause and then Chance said, "All right, I"ll arrange the meeting."
"And it would be a good idea if Juan was included."
Chapter 16.
"Okay, Donovan, what"s this all about?" Chance asked his younger brother when everyone had arrived for the meeting that they decided to hold in the lab. Even Bas had decided to come in, refusing to be left out of anything of importance when it came to the Steele Corporation.
Donovan stepped forward. "It"s about this," he said, holding up Natalie"s notepad in his hand.
Morgan lifted a brow. "What is that?"
"Something Natalie left at the house."