Guided Tour

A full day has passed and I’m still angry. In fact, I think today I want to kill him even more than yesterday, especially because it’s his fault I didn’t sleep a wink. And not everything my treacherous mind imagined was pleasant.

However, as I head back to the factory, I remind myself that I’m a professional and that I’ll know how to handle the situation.

Pleasure and work must never mix. That’s the only thing I need to remember while I’m there.

But, as I feared, it’s Haven who greets me and my resolve wavers for a moment at the sight of him.

He’s so handsome it takes your breath away, but I channel my anger. That will help.

His father, also as expected, hasn’t deigned to appear—a silent protest against my presence, I assume. The man is racking up points fast for me to remind him of a few truths he won’t like but that might open his eyes. At least, I hope so.

For now, I’ll deal with his son, who’s looking at me with puppy-dog eyes, as if it’s my fault we’re at odds.

“Let’s begin,” I tell him, ignoring the rest.

Mandy isn’t at reception, so I don’t have to bother greeting her politely as I pass through on my way to the corridor Haven led me down yesterday, before I chose to end the meeting so abruptly.

I only stop when I don’t know which door to take.

I wait for him with my arms crossed and a hostile attitude I hope is sufficient for him to understand I’m not in the mood for more games.

“Debra…”

“If it doesn’t have to do with the company, don’t say it.

” I stop him—I can tell from his tone where this is going.

“We’ll stick to business. You’ll show me all the facilities and answer my questions with complete honesty so I can get an idea of what you have and what you need.

Then I’ll review the account books and put together a proposal. You can—”

“I’ve always been honest with you,” he interrupts.

I glare daggers at him and he raises his hands in surrender.

He opens the door at the end of the hall and we enter what appears to be the design room, which surprises me because I had no idea they also had their own clothing line.

It’s not very large, but I couldn’t expect anything more from a family business.

I wander between the tables and glance at the half-finished designs.

I don’t understand fashion beyond what I like and what I don’t, but I have to admit some of these are quite good.

It’s clothing I’d wear to work and feel comfortable in.

Then I run my fingers over the fabrics hanging on the mannequins—they’re good quality and the colors are very on-trend.

It looks like they’re preparing something big, and I wonder where they plan to get the money to finance it when they’re practically bankrupt.

However, that’s not the question that comes to mind when I see this room:

“Why is no one here?” I look at him to ask, though I’d rather not have to because he’s still wearing that sad look meant to soften me up.

“My father gave them the day off when he found out you wanted to tour the facilities.”

“I told him I intended to speak with the staff as well. It’s part of the process.” That man is determined to exhaust my patience.

“Well, you’ll have to schedule that for another time. Right now it’s just the two of us.”

My alarm bells go off when I hear that. I’m starting to suspect it may not have been the father who planned this, but the son.

I look at him warily, but he doesn’t flinch, though he does take a step toward me.

The fact that he seems cautious now when before he was always so decisive surprises me, but I place a table as a barrier between us before continuing:

“Nobody mentioned you had your own clothing line.”

“It’s a relatively new project. My father wants to support Matilda in—”

“Right,” I interrupt, understanding. “More dead weight for the company. Look, Haven, your father has a very good heart—except when it comes to me, of course. I admire his affection and devotion to the people in town, but you can’t live on good intentions.”

“Matilda is good at what she does,” he protests.

“I’m not going to argue that. It’s not like I know much about fashion, but I recognize good work when I see it and this is it,” I affirm, looking at some of the sketches again.

“But that’s not the issue. You’re practically in the red.

I don’t know where he plans to get the money to launch a fashion line.

And even less so from this location. Maybe in the eighties, when you had the backing of the top designers of the era, it was feasible, but that won’t be the case today. ”

“We’ll find the money.”

“It’s not just about money, Haven. You’re short on resources and contacts. In recent years, competition in the fashion world has grown exponentially. Even if the clothing line were gold, you’d go unnoticed without the right exposure.”

“And what do you propose? That we sell it to you so you can pocket the profits? Your father wants to absorb the company, not help us, Debra.”

“My father has bought as many businesses as their owners have allowed him to,” I counter.

“The rest he’s offered partnerships. And yes, he becomes the majority partner, but he’s also the one putting up the money.

Believe me, he won’t mind investing large sums if he believes in the company’s future, because he’s done it quite a few times already. ”

Haven says nothing and I decide to press on with my arguments.

At least he seems willing to listen, unlike his father.

If I convince him, I’ll be halfway there and maybe I can get him to help me talk some sense into the old man.

I list every advantage of letting my father control the majority stake, and I can see from his expression that he doesn’t like all of them, but he stays quiet, so I don’t stop.

“It’s not me you need to convince,” he says at last.

“But you’re the one who can help me with your father.”

“You don’t understand,” he shakes his head.

“Explain it to me.”

“My father won’t back down because…” He hesitates between telling me and keeping it to himself. “Because this company is his life.”

“That’s nothing new, Haven.”

“You don’t understand,” he repeats.

“Most of the people I deal with believe their business is their life,” I explain. “They think they’ll be nothing if they lose it. In the end, they realize that if they don’t accept help, they’ll go bankrupt and everything they fought for will be lost. Besides—”

“You don’t understand,” he interrupts me again.

“That’s the third time you’ve said that.” I put my hands on my hips, irritated. “Explain it to me without beating around the bush and, please, be honest. If you don’t tell me what’s going on, I won’t be able to help you.”

For a moment, everything goes quiet and I feel he’s not going to tell me anything. Disappointment is settling over me until he begins to speak:

“The company wasn’t actually his idea…”

“Your mother was an equal partner.” It’s my turn to interrupt, and he looks genuinely shocked. “I do my homework, Haven.”

“Not as well as you think, because they weren’t partners. The company was entirely my mother’s. It was her dream, not my father’s.”

I think I’ll need to have a serious talk with the research team because that detail didn’t appear in any of the reports they gave me, and it’s critical.

Now I understand the man’s reluctance to sell.

It doesn’t mean his dismissive behavior suddenly bothers me less, but I can grant him my forgiveness.

Still, I won’t stop insisting they need our help to preserve the company—now more than ever.

I promise myself I’ll have more patience with Mr. Odell from today on.

“If he wants to preserve it in memory of your mother, he shouldn’t reject what my father is offering.”

“My father has no idea how to run a company like this,” he continues, as if I hadn’t spoken.

“It was my mother who handled everything, the one who loved this world, the one who wanted to make it in fashion. My father just wanted to see her happy. He wants to keep the company for her. He believes he owes it to her.”

“And you don’t want to.” I deduce correctly, from what I see in his eyes.

“This place is full of memories of my mother. I grew up within these walls—there isn’t a single corner here that doesn’t bring an image of her to mind. Being here hurts me more than it helps,” he finally confesses, “but my father is so attached to this company that all I can do is support him.”

Perhaps the sadness I saw in his eyes a while ago was about this place and not about my pulling away. After what he’s said, that would be entirely possible. And although I admire his willingness to support his father no matter what, it only makes things worse.

“Your loyalty is admirable, Haven,” I say, “but misguided in this case.”

“My father believes that if he sells, he’ll be turning his back on my mother’s dream.” He leans against one of the tables and looks so dejected that I can’t help moving closer. “But I don’t feel I can spend the rest of my life here, bearing my father’s pain on top of my own.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” I admit. “It’s not healthy for either of you, Haven. You should talk to him and explain how you feel.”

“I can’t do that to him.”

“What you can’t do is carry all of this alone,” I insist. “Everyone has to deal with their own grief.”

“My father deals with his by keeping Odell Textiles alive at all costs.” He looks at me with eyes glistening from tears he’ll never shed. “If he loses it, it’ll be like losing my mother all over again.”

“And what about you?” I dare to ask. I’m just inches from him, but I can’t bring myself to hug him, even though I know he needs it.

“How far are you willing to go to avoid disappointing your father? Will you let your life pass you by in a place that only brings you pain so his heart won’t break? Won’t you fight for what you want?”

“Surviving the memories was my only priority,” he assures me, looking straight at me. “Until now.”

Before I can process his words, he takes my hand and pulls me into his arms. I try to break free, but he won’t let me. He searches for my mouth and, when he finds it, I forget every reason why we shouldn’t be doing this again. I’m incapable of resisting him.

I wrap my arms around his neck and feel him squeeze my ass until the hardness between his legs presses against my belly.

I moan and his kiss turns more voracious.

He spins us until I’m sitting on the table, then sweeps the papers to the floor without a care and lays me back on it.

His weight on me makes me shudder. A part of me screams that I need to be strong, that I can’t sleep with a client, but his caresses beneath my clothes silence it.

There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him in this moment, and he knows it.

“I can’t be near you and not touch you,” he whispers in my ear. “I want you all the time. You haven’t left my mind since the first moment I saw you, Debra. You say I should fight for what I want. You are what I want.”

He kisses me again to keep me from talking and, by the time he releases my mouth, the protests have vanished from my mind once more.

I want him too, here and now. I stand to prove it by undressing him and running my eager hands over his body.

I hear him gasp when I take him into my mouth and begin to suck with abandon.

My tongue wreaks havoc on his self-control.

I can tell because his hands grip my head firmly, urging me to take more and more.

“I won’t last long,” he says, nearly begging. “Pull away.”

But I don’t. And I don’t let him push me away when he comes either. I swallow his release and savor it. When I stand, I lick my lips and his eyes follow my movements as if hypnotized.

“You’re pure lust,” he says before kissing me fiercely.

It doesn’t take long for him to be ready for another round and he enters me in a single thrust, tearing a scream of pleasure from me that echoes through the entire room.

The table rocks with his thrusts and ends up slamming against the wall, but we’re not aware of it until we’ve had our fill of each other.

“They’ll think the factory was raided,” I say while getting dressed, ashamed of my weak willpower.

“They won’t be far off.” He wraps his arms around my waist, preventing me from putting my blouse back on. He leaves soft kisses on my neck before speaking again. “It was a full-on assault.”

“An assault that shouldn’t have happened.” I pull away and finish buttoning up. “Remember what I said when you asked how far I was willing to go to close the deal?”

“You never mix business with pleasure,” he repeats my words.

“Exactly. And this was a mistake,” I say, putting distance between us so he can’t trap me in his arms again. “It can never happen again.”

“Never again?” He frowns at my words.

“There’s an important contract at stake, Haven. I can’t let feelings interfere. I—”

“So you admit you have feelings for me.” He looks encouraged again and steps closer.

“Haven’t you noticed?” I won’t admit it’s much deeper than just sex, because Haven seems like the type who doesn’t give up easily. “I can’t resist the attraction between us.”

“Is that all you feel? Attraction?”

“Do you feel something more?” Every word I utter is designed to push him away.

And it’s not that I want to—it’s that I have to.

I can’t let this become more personal. I may sound like a cold-hearted woman, but I can’t think of anything else to keep him at bay.

“You’re the one who started this game, so you shouldn’t be surprised that I’m ending it.

As they say—it was fun while it lasted.”

“You don’t mean that.” He looks at me with a furrowed brow.

“I have everything I need for now.” I don’t answer his question. “I’ll be back tomorrow to review the books. Tell your father I need the employees here so I can interview them. Goodbye, Haven. Have a good day.”