I Remember Page 16

  Dana lay down on the lounge chair, her legs out in front of her. Emery could see her breasts heaving up and down from the exertion, and she unconsciously did the same. Her mind flashed back to other times and events where their breathing matched a similar frenetic pace, and the tightening in her groin kicked up a notch.

  Dana finally stood, and when she turned around and bent over to pick something up off the ground, giving Emery a perfect look at her backside, Emery dropped her glass. The breaking of the glass on the cement balcony was loud and shattered the spell she was under. “Shit,” she exclaimed, at the mixture of glass, ice, and brown liquid scattered at her feet. She glanced back to Dana, who had looked up at the noise.

  Their eyes locked and she felt the power of Dana’s magnetism. Her body came alive simply from Dana’s gaze. She was too far away to read what was in Dana’s eyes, and she was glad Dana couldn’t see hers either. It was getting harder to maintain a professional distance when every time she looked at Dana her heart flipped and memories of their time together flashed in her brain like a kaleidoscope and through her body like a hot iron.

  Only once did she see a similar thought cross Dana’s face. That was during their first meeting after the cruise, and she had immediately shut it down. Dana seemed to be much better at controlling her emotions than Emery. Or at least it looked that way. She felt herself blush at being caught watching and was grateful she was too far away for Dana to see her. Dana finally broke eye contact, gathered her things, and, after covering her body with the robe, walked back across the pool deck toward the doors.

  Emery cleaned up the broken glass and made herself another drink, this one stronger than the last. She downed it quickly when she heard the muffled sounds next door, indicating Dana had returned to her room.

  Emery was a mess. She was fighting the voice in her head that told her to open the connecting door and the other voice that told her to stay away. Her body was on fire. She wanted to touch Dana, smell her unique scent, hold her as she trembled with desire in her arms. Dana was a passionate, engaged lover, demanding that Emery satisfy her.

  Against her will she walked to the door, unlocked it, and opened her side. She put her ear to the door and heard rustling sounds on the other side. She couldn’t make out exactly what they were, but the sound of running water in the background was unmistakable.

  She felt like a fool. Here she was, a successful, rich, and powerful businesswoman, and she had her ear to the door like a kid trying to hear what her parents are saying in the next room. She moved her hand across the door as if caressing Dana’s body. God, she was pitiful.

  The water stopped and she waited a few minutes. Her heart was pounding, her clit throbbing, and the voices in her head warring against each other loudly. She felt weak and slightly dizzy as the sensations blasted through her body. She turned slightly, her forehead pressed against Dana’s door. All it would take was one knock. One discreet rapping of her shaking hand on the door and she could release the tension that had been growing in her body for months.

  She and Dana could be together again. Who would know? No one. It wasn’t like there was a card reader on this door that recorded who went through it and when. Even if it had, what was to say they weren’t simply having a discussion about the meetings today or planning their strategy for tomorrow? What a bunch of crap. She wanted Dana and she wanted her bad.

  She hesitated. She needed to be strong, to resist the urge that her body was demanding be satisfied. She could do this, she said to herself, in direct contrast to the fact that her knuckles on her right hand were resting on the door just waiting to rap. She remembered another time she’d tried to resist this pull.

  EJ knocked on the door, harder this time. It sounded louder than it probably was in the quiet hall. It was one fifteen in the morning, and it had been over an hour since she’d seen anyone. Unable to sleep, she’d taken a walk around the main deck. Actually, she’d made several trips, hardly paying any attention to the deck chairs lined up in neat rows or the towels stacked high with razor precision on the shelves. The night was warm and, unlike EJ’s insides, the wind relatively calm.

  She and Dee had agreed that tonight they would sleep in their respective cabins. Lord knew they both needed a good night’s sleep after several days of snorkeling, scuba diving, and long walks on beachfronts. During their nights, and sometimes in remote places during the day, they explored each other to the point of exhaustion. After the movie she had walked Dee to her cabin and, after a semi-chaste kiss on the lips, returned to her own.

  So why was she here, standing outside Dee’s door? She was agitated, her nerves almost raw, and her mind was jetting around in a thousand places. She wanted Dee. She wasn’t just horny. She desired Dee, yearned for her touch, craved the taste of her. Not just her body, but everything about Dee turned her on. She was confident in her sexuality, which EJ found overwhelming. There was something exciting about a woman who took off her own clothes because she wanted you to touch her, knew she was going to give her body to another person, wanted to be touched.

  When Dee took control of her own needs EJ was completely lost. She couldn’t describe how it made her feel when Dee met her halfway for a kiss or pulled her to her or took her hand and put it exactly where she wanted it. She had never felt this way with a woman. She always found women sexy, but never in a basic way like this that made her absolutely crazy.

  Her legs were shaking and the seconds dragged by. She debated with herself if she should knock again or go back to her own cabin. She knew she wouldn’t sleep without Dee beside her. Berating herself for being so out of control she turned to walk back down the hall, then heard the door open.

  “EJ?” Dee asked, confusion in her voice.

  She turned around and felt like a complete fool. She was acting like a teenager who couldn’t control her impulses. She was a grown woman, for crying out loud. An important businesswoman with the responsibility of thousands of employees and millions of dollars, and she couldn’t even keep her pants on. At that moment she almost hated herself.

  “Couldn’t sleep?” Dee asked softly. She was leaning on the doorjamb, her robe tied loosely at the waist.

  “No.” She shifted her weight from foot to foot, burying her hands in the pockets of her pants to keep from reaching out and touching Dee. She refused to pressure Dee to change her mind about spending the night apart.

  “Me either.”

  Dee slammed the door and pressed her against it. Dee’s hands dispensed with her belt in two seconds, and Dee was working on her zipper when she grasped her wrists, stopping her.

  “Hey, slow down. We have all night.”

  Dee’s breathing was quick, her heart beating hard. “I don’t care. I want you now, I need you like this. Let me, please.”

  She kept hold of Dee’s hands and gently kissed her. Dee tried to deepen the kiss but she pulled away and looked deeply into Dee’s eyes.

  “I can’t say no to you,” EJ admitted.

  Emery shuddered at the memory, her legs shaking badly as she stared at the nondescript door in front of her. They both had too much to lose. She had worked too hard to throw it all away for one night. And it wouldn’t be enough. One night in Dana’s arms would be only the beginning of her wanting, no, needing even more. She couldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it.

  She closed the door silently so that Dana would not be aware of just how close she had come to giving in to her desire.

  Emery stood back and took a deep breath. Much, much more than a door separated them now.

  Chapter Twenty

  Emery watched Dana sleep. She was almost more beautiful when she slept. Her face was relaxed and her eyes twitched ever so slightly. On the cruise Emery had watched her sleep, the deep sleep of sexual exhaustion. Even then she was radiant, the telltale signs of good sex flushing her skin and giving her a sensuous glow.

  The week had been exhausting. She and Dana had traveled to over a dozen Stephenson facilities around the region, and by the time
they were on the plane headed back to the US they had met with over six thousand employees, had twenty-four meetings and countless dinners. Dana was exhausted and Emery was hoarse.

  She detected the fine lines of exhaustion and tension around Dana’s eyes and felt guilty for having put them there. She never wanted to do anything that would put a mark on Dana’s flawless skin, but this week had.

  She couldn’t deny the consuming attraction she felt for Dana. She had stopped trying and had shifted tactics to simply manage it. Simply—what a joke that word was. There was nothing simple about it.

  During the entire week she’d known exactly where Dana was. She’d sought her out when she was onstage speaking to the employees crowded in the auditorium, known if she was in the large room, and felt her presence down the hall in the hotel.

  She had no idea how Dana felt about her. She felt like she was as transparent as a window, but could never quite get a read on what Dana was thinking. Dana was certainly upholding her end of their agreement. Was their relationship over for her? Had she been able to move it to the file that held her cruise pictures and other souvenirs?

  Emery sure as shit hadn’t.

  *

  “Dana, how are you?”

  Angst gripped Dana when she heard Sharon’s voice coming from the doorway to her office. She had spent all week trying to catch up on the work that had piled up while she and Emery were in Hong Kong. She braced herself, smiled, and looked up. She kept her pen in her hand, hoping Sharon would see she was working and not stay long.

  “I’m fine, Sharon. Good to see you again. Is the board meeting over?” It was the first Monday of the quarter, the regularly scheduled day for board meetings.

  “Yes, I was just headed out for some dinner. Would you like to join me?”

  Shit. Dana had no desire to have dinner with Sharon but knew she had to. In the corporate world when a board member, in this case also known as the boss’s boss, invites you to dinner, you go. As simple as that. It was political suicide not to, even if you had previous plans.

  “I’m sorry, Sharon, I’d love to, but I can’t get away tonight.”

  Sharon’s face showed her surprise at Dana’s refusal. Sharon studied her for a few moments before she stepped into her office and closed the door behind her.

  Fuck.

  “Are you trying to avoid me, Dana?”

  “Of course not,” she replied quickly. “I just wasn’t expecting you, or anyone else for that matter, this late and I—”

  “Can’t get away tonight.”

  “Yes, I am sorry,” she said carefully. She saw the disapproval on Sharon’s face. “I can put it on my calendar for next quarter,” she said, hoping Sharon would accept the alternative. She reached for her BlackBerry.

  “Have you given any more thought to our conversation?”

  Sharon didn’t have to provide any details as to which conversation she was referring. It was never far from Dana’s mind.

  “Sharon,” she said, sitting straighter in her chair. She still held her favorite pen, a kind of security blanket. “With all due respect, this conversation makes me uncomfortable. Emery is my boss, and not only that but I respect her tremendously. What she has done to turn Martin around in such a short period of time is amazing. The employees have a very high opinion of her and are putting forth the extra effort we need. The issues that Martin had in the past are virtually nonexistent because of her and her leadership team.”

  “I know all that, Dana.” Sharon waved her hand as if dismissing her comment. “But I don’t trust her.”

  She was determined not to fidget or break eye contact first. She believed everything she’d just said about Emery and wanted nothing to do with Sharon’s behind-the-back spying. “Sharon, shouldn’t you be having this conversation with Marcus? He’s the chairman of the board. If you’ve lost faith in one of the members of the leadership team, he’s the one you need to talk to.”

  “He’s in bed with Emery.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Not that way,” Sharon said dismissively. “And that’s something else that concerns me, but we’ll get to it in a minute.”

  Her antennae rose a little higher at that statement.

  “He thinks the sun rises and sets in Emery. He is anything but objective.”

  “What about one of the other board members?” She could not believe she was counseling Sharon.

  “They’re all the same. I told you it was still an old-boys club and that we girls need to stick together. Now as for the other thing.” Sharon leaned forward in her chair and looked over her shoulder as if to check that no one was listening. “Did you know Emery is a homosexual?”

  She bit back a laugh. Sharon was so serious it was comical, but this was not the time to correct her choice of labels or add her name to the list. “What Emery does in her personal time is none of my business.” And as long as it doesn’t affect the company it shouldn’t be any of yours either.

  “But doesn’t that bother you? I mean you have to travel with her, spend a lot of time with her.”

  “Emery is always a complete professional with everyone around her. She would never do anything that would jeopardize the reputation of Martin Engineering, and that includes any inappropriate behavior.”

  “I just don’t like it. It’s not natural.” Sharon pursed her lips together tightly.

  “Why did the board hire Emery?” Sharon looked at her, obviously confused at the change of topic. “You hired her because she was the most qualified to turn this company around and restore shareholder confidence. And she’s done that. Exactly what you hired her to do. If she’s not doing that, then as a member of Martin’s board you have an obligation and fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders to take action. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” She stood and walked around from behind her desk and toward her door. “I really do have to finish a few things tonight.” She opened the door, effectively ending the conversation.

  *

  Emery was amazing. Just watching her made Dana’s heart pound a little faster and her breathing shallow. And she was able to simply look at her without being afraid of getting caught ogling her boss. She, Emery, and a few of the Martin Engineering senior staff were attending a conference of engine manufacturers in the convention center the first week in March. Emery was one of the speakers, and the room had filled beyond capacity at least fifteen minutes before she was even scheduled to appear.

  As she watched Emery speak, she was amazed at Emery’s calm, engaging manner onstage in front of hundreds of people. She had them laughing at the right places, on the edge of their seats in others, and spent over forty-five minutes after the session answering questions. No wonder she was a fabulous and successful CEO, a change agent, a leader. She had charisma, energy, and a way of connecting with everyone she spoke to.

  Since coming to work at Martin, she had had many opportunities to see Emery in action. She never lost her temper, never raised her voice, and never swore. She was professional without being cold and, from the hallway chatter Dana overheard, had the respect of the employees at Martin.

  She sat back in the chair and couldn’t help comparing the woman on the stage with the woman she’d met on the Seafair. EJ had a great sense of humor, laughed a lot, and approached each day with a carefree manner and absolutely no plans. EJ was charming, entertaining, and fascinating. She practically oozed sensuality and had an air of confidence and mystery that was captivating. Her telltale signs of stress had visibly lessened every day. No wonder she was ordered to rest. Keeping herself in check had to be absolutely exhausting.

  Emery was more subdued, her movements clearly thought out and at times almost scripted. She was charismatic and people were naturally drawn to her. She was professional, brilliant with numbers, and undeniably in charge. The signs of stress grew more pronounced every day.

  After the speakers were done for the day and before the social hour, Dana managed to escape for a few minutes of peace and quiet to go next door to
the King Tut exhibit. Slowly she strolled through the maze of rooms, each holding a myriad of artifacts that had been discovered with the boy king.

  As she read the information card under a chipped chalice, she felt eyes watching her. She had had this same feeling for the past few minutes and turned around to see a woman looking at her. She smiled politely and headed for the next area of the exhibit.

  The woman followed her from room to room, and Dana saw that she wasn’t paying any attention to the items on display but appeared to be totally focused on her.

  “I’m sorry, do I know you?” She was fed up with the woman who had not so subtly followed her throughout the exhibit hall. The woman kept staring at her and she felt like she was under surveillance. More surprising, she didn’t even try to evade Dana as she walked across the room and stopped in front of her.

  “We were on the same cruise several months ago,” the woman replied, her eyes running up and down the length of Dana’s body. She was sitting on a bench, her legs crossed.

  Dana was shocked at the double hit the woman casually tossed her way. First was the blatant cruising. She had been the object of such appraising looks before, but none felt as slimy as the one that just came from this woman. Second, and more important, was her reference to the cruise. Had she seen her and Emery together? If she had, what was she going to do with that piece of information? Did she have any idea who she or Emery was? Was this going to be a problem?

  All of these thoughts shot through her head in the second it took her to put a confused expression on her face. “I’m sorry?” Dana said, deciding not to immediately confirm that she was, in fact, on the cruise. She needed to see just how much this woman knew.

  “The cruise…to the southern Caribbean. Two thousand lesbians in bikinis. Ring a bell?”

  Thanks to years of training Dana remained outwardly calm. Inside, however, her heart was racing and her throat very dry. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that no one was near enough to overhear their conversation. Thank God for that small favor.