The edges of his mouth fell. "Wow. That"s harsh. Not really sure I deserved that from you."
"It"s called planning ahead." The look on his face stabbed her heart. The power was hers, and she used it for him and in spite of him, convincing herself it was for the best.
Silence. He had nothing to say it would seem, which was best. What else was there to say? She"d made her peace. Of course he had to have the last word. But he was different. When he looked at her with those eyes, she was transported back to H Bar. To the Fabian who rescued her, who she danced with. "You"re wrong about me."
The intercom buzzed again. d.a.m.n intercom. "Miss Robuchon, may I send her back?"
"Yes." The silence echoed in her office. After all the things she said to him, she still managed to hate the fact that Camille was waiting for him in the lobby. "Your Camille is on the way."
"She"s not my Camille," he insisted again.
She scoffed in response. That was the way she knew how to deal with her feelings for him. Inside, she knew she was wrong. But she"d made her decision. When the knock at the door diluted the tension between them, she walked over to open it.
On the other side of the frosted gla.s.s door, Camille stood like some gorgeous Amazon with long legs coming out of tiny black shorts, feet adorned with strappy heeled sandals. Her dark hair was pulled to the side over one shoulder, and her face perfectly made up. No one could argue she was striking. She was d.a.m.n near perfect, and Toni felt a tinge of jealousy to think Fabian had shared the perfect Camille"s bed numerous times.
She wearily smiled up at Camille who was probably a foot taller than her, especially since Toni wore flats. "He"s all yours." She said it again ironically.
Camille"s narrowed gaze scanned the office until they locked on Fabian. "Hi, Fabes."
"You should have called first, Camille," Fabian said with a stern tone. Toni figured he talked to them all like that, especially when they just showed up unannounced.
"Fabian, take your guest into your office and don"t interrupt me for the rest of the day. Understand?" Toni placed a hand on her hip, emphasizing the point with a raised eyebrow.
He nodded, staring at her longer than he needed to before he strode to his office with Camille on his heels. Once the door shut, Toni released a sigh the size of Canada.
This is a disaster.
She retrieved her chair, sitting heavily in it. Her mother would kill her if she knew what she had done with Fabian-the a.s.sistant. Nothing about their relationship was professional anymore, and she would have to figure out how to restore the power balance between them. If it was possible.
While deep in thought, the phone rang a dozen times. Maybe more. Her first inclination was to let the call rollover to voicemail, but as she glanced at the caller ID, she jumped to answer the call. "Mom, are you okay?" Her heart pounded.
"Hi Antonia, dear. I got the most wonderful visit this morning." Surprised by her jovial voice, Toni smiled. Her mother hadn"t been that happy in months.
"From who?" Toni furrowed her brow.
"Stephan! He came by to say h.e.l.lo."
"What?" Her voice dropped an octave, her heart dropped too. "What do you mean he came by?"
"Don"t be silly, Antonia. You know very well what he came by means."
Toni closed her eyes. Not him. The Friday incident came to mind. If only her mother knew what Stephan did to her, she might not be so joyous. "What did he want? Besides to say h.e.l.lo."
"He just wanted to see how I am-"
She opened her eyes, focusing on the caller ID. "And did you tell him?"
"I did tell him I had been ill. I mean he could clearly see that I am not well."
Antonia shifted her gaze to the ceiling. "You didn"t want anyone to know, Mom. Why would you tell Stephan?"
"He was practically my son-in-law, Antonia. I knew him for many years until you..." She stopped.
"Until he left me for another girl?" Toni barked, not entirely surprised her mother seemed to take his side. She"d always liked Stephan, wanted him to be part of the family. A lump formed in her throat. She couldn"t forget her mother was ill and couldn"t take an argument. "I"m sorry, Mom. I didn"t mean to sound that way."
"We all make mistakes, dear. All of us." Toni always hated their unbearable silences. Judgments pa.s.sed in those silences. "He expressed wanting to reunite with you and our family."
"He what?" Toni"s mouth fell open. How dare he bring my mother into this!
"I think it would be a smart idea to let him redeem himself. The Bradleys really are the best suited to be a part of the Robuchon empire. It"s been a sort of understanding between the families. You know that. I don"t see a prospect for you right now. Especially if that useless Pallis kid is the only male contact you"ve had. I wish you would get out more."
"Fabian isn"t useless. He did very well at Harvard." She couldn"t believe she actually said the words.
"Dear G.o.d, don"t tell me you like that boy." Her mother spit, not hiding her disgust.
"No!" Toni said quickly. Calmer, and more contained, she added. "I think he"s a loose cannon and a chauvinist." She dropped her face in her palm. No way could she describe how she really felt about him to her mother.
"I"ve arranged a dinner with you and Stephan tomorrow night at L"Atelier for eight. I told him it would be the three of us, but you will have to make an excuse for me. I"m not feeling well at the moment. And I doubt I"ll get better by tomorrow."
"Of course you"re not, Mom. You"re in the middle of chemotherapy." The words choked her. Having dinner with Stephan would choke her as well. But how could she deny her mother? She hadn"t been that happy since before the cancer diagnosis. At least not how Helene Robuchon defined happy.
"Thank you for reminding me, Antonia." Her sarcasm shined through, just like the mother Toni had always known.
How could she tell her mother she didn"t want anything to do with Stephan? "Mom, I"m not sure about dinner with Stephan. I was really hurt. Don"t you remember?"
"You two were very young. Maybe he got cold feet. That isn"t unusual. But, after talking with him, I do believe he is ready to make a real commitment. He wants to make it with you. I think it would be foolish not to give him a chance. Both families are in agreement."
She sighed, eye closed tight. "So the families talked about this?" Behind my back? And when the h.e.l.l did the families have a chance to talk about it? It had only been a few days since she saw Stephan again.
"Darling, you"re doing this. It"s what you wanted before. You"ll see that now he is even more the man you could ever want."
More than anything she wanted to bring up Friday and what Stephan did. A zebra couldn"t suddenly change its stripes just as Stephan couldn"t suddenly be her knight in shining armor. That man probably didn"t exist. She hated her life so much then, but she did what she knew was expected. "Fine. I"ll have dinner with him."
Chapter Twelve.
Tuesday morning, Fabian wore his lucky black and white polka dot bowtie. He really needed it. Everything was weird with Toni, and he didn"t want it to be that way. Not with her. He"d stayed up all night mulling over what happened. In those moments on her desk, he knew she felt what he did. No denying it. Why was she determined to forget it? Act like it didn"t happen at all.
In the office kitchen, he slipped a gallon of organic milk he"d bought that morning into the refrigerator. Davina didn"t say much to him besides h.e.l.lo, which was fine with him. The only person on his mind was Toni. With the hope that Toni would soften toward him, he walked into Toni"s office holding her special coffee. Empty. Where was she? He glanced at his watch. She should be at her desk. He put the coffee down on her RI coaster.
He waited for several minutes, and she"d still not arrived. Being late wasn"t like her. Was she okay? Was she sick? He didn"t want to think the worst. Worst would be she didn"t want to see him. He should leave, or he"d spend the whole day waiting for her in that very spot. Reaching for a pen on her desk, he briefly thought about the note he intended to leave for her.
Miss Robuchon, Meet me in conference room C to discuss new findings with NeuRx. I think you"ll be pleased.
-F The night before he"d managed to research the neurostimulation product Toni had been pa.s.sionate about. He"d only done it to get her out of his mind. But what he found only made him think of her more. He couldn"t wait to share the game changing information with her. The executives would beg Toni to lead RI once she presented the new information. Hopefully, Fabian would be in better standing with his father once he found out how capable his son was.
"What are you doing in here?" Toni startled him.
"Hey," he said, fingers still pressing the Post-it to her computer screen. "I wanted to meet with you."
She crossed her arms over her red blouse. Her lips matched perfectly. "About?"
"NeuRx," he said it slowly, trying to gauge her mood. He couldn"t read her. "I"ve found some information you might be interested in."
Her arms dropped to her sides. "Oh?" Approaching her desk, she stopped a couple of feet in front of him.
"Yeah." He paused, his gaze sliding over her face. Dark circles rimmed her eyes. She looked tired. Restless. Had she not slept much the night before? Odd, she didn"t seem interested in what he had to say about NeuRx. Something else occupied her thoughts, troubled her. Was it him that made her restless and tired? He needed to know what was going on with her. "I was surprised that you weren"t here earlier."
"I-I had an appointment before work." She looked away.
He frowned, willing her to face him "Is everything okay?"
Sighing, she finally gazed up at him, her eyes empty. "Yes. Tell me about this new information."
"Here?" The office seemed too small somehow for the big news he had to share.
"Why not?"
He placed several sheets of paper on her desk he"d printed from home the night before. "I"ll need to use your computer..."
She dragged her guest chair to him, letting him take it from her. Their fingers touched, sending a shock through him. His heart fluttered, and for a split second he thought how much he wanted to put her on the desk again. In seconds they"d sit side by side, elbows touching. When they were, he reveled in the warmth her body gave him.
The scent of vanilla wafted off her body. Every time her arm brushed up against his, the material of her blouse caressed him. He imagined it was her skin on his. His temperature rose steadily the longer they sat so close. Images of his fingers inside her the day before came at full speed, making his body tense in all the places he was trying to stay relaxed. He desperately wanted to know if she was thinking of it too.
Somehow thirty minutes pa.s.sed with him losing his train of thought each time her blouse sleeve brushed against him. "So ... so you see, our compet.i.tor, CapInvest, is already backing a clinical trial for a product with similar technology. Except, that surgery will be much more invasive. Though NeuRx can find another investment company, CapInvest"s product will already be at FDA submission by that point and will most likely claim the US market by timing alone. We need to jump on this now."
She sat back, her blouse sleeve brushing against him again. "Wow. That"s impressive research. How did you come across this?"
He shrugged. He liked the way her dark eyes shined at him in that moment. "I read an article on biomedical technology investments last night."
"You did all this research last night?" Her fingers touched his bicep.
He gazed down at her fingers, warm sensations rushing through him. Don"t stop touching me. "I didn"t sleep a wink."
She"d become aware of her own hand on him. s.n.a.t.c.hing it away, she said, "Well it"s brilliant. You"re brilliant."
His heart stopped. No one had ever given him such a compliment. Not like that. Not with that look. "You saw an opportunity. Give yourself credit."
She shook her head, her voice softer than he"d ever heard it. "I don"t know why your father doesn"t make you partner."
How could he respond to that? She completely knocked him off kilter with her compliment. A one-eighty from the day before. Again, he replayed what happened between them, staring at her lips and hoping she didn"t notice. A long pause stretched between them. Neither spoke. Maybe a whole minute pa.s.sed before he said, "Let"s just say a week ago I wasn"t fit for partner."
"Now you are?" Dark eyes narrowed, lips curled slightly.
"Maybe I"m closer." She smiled at him, but it faded fast. He was compelled to tell her exactly what he felt about her. "I"ve never met anyone like you, Toni." She looked away immediately, the invisible walls coming up. He could see her disconnecting from him.
The distance between them grew. "Oh, I"m not that special."
"Then you don"t see what I do."
She looked him square in the eyes, a bit annoyed and angry. "Oh really? What do you see?"
"I see someone who"s misunderstood. Someone who wants to please, but maybe it comes at the cost of being vulnerable, which you have a hard time with." He wanted to go on because it was so easy to see these things. Things he saw in himself too.
"You don"t know me at all." She turned, but he knew there was truth to what he said.
"So tell me something then," he challenged her.
"Like what?"
He shrugged. "Anything."
Facing him, she rolled her eyes. "This is so stupid."
"Why? You said I don"t know you. Well, I want to know you. So tell me something."
She bit her bottom lip, chewing it. Fabian was quite amazed that she might actually tell him something real. They might have an actual conversation. After what seemed like an eternity, she said, "I want to be CEO. The real CEO." She stood, shaking from her revelation. "There, I told you something."
"Why can"t you be CEO?" He stood too.
"Apparently, I don"t have what it takes." She folded her arms over her chest.
"Bulls.h.i.t. I don"t buy that for a minute."
"You tell me something now." She changed the subject.
He laughed. "Like what?"
"Anything."
"Uh ... okay." He raked his fingers through his hair. What could he say out loud that he"d never said to another person? In a moment of complete vulnerability, which was uncomfortable for him, he realized something about himself that he"d never faced. He looked at her as she waited patiently, and he knew in his heart his words would be safe with her. "I"m afraid to become like my father. But I"m just like him. When I have tons of women in my life, there is no one to leave me. But someone always leaves. I leave. I don"t want to anymore."
G.o.d. The urge to walk away moved him. He"d been halfway to his office when she called to him.
"Fabian." She waited for him to turn. "I"ve never met anyone like you either."
Fabian didn"t say another word. His whole heart was on his sleeve for her alone, and it completely tore her apart. Fabian gets his way with women, but he got her with that. That admission changed what she thought of him. He wasn"t what he seemed, and she was ashamed to have pa.s.sed such harsh judgment on him. The playboy act was a front for his fear of being alone. And it made her sad for him.
Toni stood near the window, watching the cars and pedestrians on the street below. The view calmed her, soothed her mind. If not for the cell phone ringing in the background, she would have stayed there the rest of that day. Running to her bag under the desk, she grabbed the phone.
"Hi, Mel." She glanced at the clock. Eleven in the morning.