Hammered (2 page)

Hold it, asshole. This is a business meeting. And what
adult man falls in love in five minutes? We just met, for crying out loud.
She’ll think I’m a nut.

But just as he mentally kicked himself in the ass he noticed
that Livy was giving him the same kind of slow assessment. Her eyes took in his
body the same way he’d looked at hers. A hint of humor tugged at the corners of
her mouth before something else flashed briefly in her eyes. He realized with a
shock that she was affected, too, and doing her best to cover it with humor.

Holy shit!

“I suppose we should get down to business,” she said,
breaking the thick silence. The smile still played around her lips. “That is
why you’re here, right?”

“Yes.” He shook himself loose from the inappropriate
thoughts banging around in his skull and put on what he hoped was his formal
business face. He pulled out the same yellow pad and pen from his briefcase
he’d used in the meeting and looked across the polished cherry at Olivia.
“Where do we begin?”

* * * * *

“How did it go? What do you think?”

“What are they like to deal with?”

Alex had called as soon as he pulled out of the Concordia
parking garage to tell them the meeting had gone well and he’d give them
details when he got back. But Josh and Tyler were waiting for him in the
reception area and followed him to his office, attacking him with questions. He
laughed as he tossed his briefcase and jacket on the low table against one
wall.

“What is this, third grade? You’d think we never had a
chance to bid on a job before.” He dropped into the chair behind his desk,
rolling up his sleeves.

“Not one like this,” Josh reminded him. “Is it a project I
can sink my teeth into?”

“Oh yeah. You’ll love this one. Everything went well. They
loved the presentation and they want us to take it to the next step.”

And I think I fell in love.

They waited impatiently while Alex dragged out his yellow
pad then listened intently as he went over his notes.

Josh’s eyes flashed with excitement. “Blending the
contemporary with the historical and basing it on the West. Holy shit!”

Alex could see him mentally rubbing his hands with glee.

“I say we celebrate,” Tyler said. “Man, this is the cream of
the crop.”

“No celebrating yet,” Alex reminded him. “We haven’t gotten
the contract. Only an invitation to bid and show them what we can do.

“And I need to get going on some research,” Josh added. “We
all do.”

“I’ll get these notes typed up and review them tonight.”

“If you want to come by my place I’ll defrost some steaks
and we can brainstorm,” Tyler told them. Josh, you think Ness would let you out
for the night to play with us?”

Josh made a face. “I’m married, not in prison. Not with my
sweet wife.” His mouth curved in a foolish grin and eyes glazed over. “As long
as we don’t run too late.”

Six months ago Josh had married Vanessa Bowen, Vice President
for Marketing and Public Relations for a large electronics company. No one had
ever expected a major player like Josh to settle down but he and Ness were a
well-matched pair and definitely in deep love. Both had come to the
relationship with baggage, which they’d somehow managed to unpack and get past.
Even now they were still in their honeymoon phase, Alex mused.

He wondered if he’d ever find someone like that. Josh had
definitely been anti-marriage before Ness but Alex not so much. He’d reached a
point where he really wanted that one forever relationship. But somehow all the
women he dated were too focused on their careers to think about settling down.

“I think we need to at least understand the concept and lay
out the basics of the timeline,” Alex told him. “They’ll want to see our Letter
of Intent and proposed schedule before they even decide to proceed with us. And
we have a month to get it ready.”

“Okay.” Tyler pushed himself out of his chair. “I’ll provide
the steaks. Alex, you can bring the beer. And Josh can bring his artistic
brain. Seven o’clock?”

Josh nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

When his brothers had cleared out of his office Alex sat
back in his chair and let the events of the morning play through his mind. He
tried to concentrate on the people he’d met at the meeting and on the important
overview Dan Tuturo spent an hour explaining to him. He’d taken copious notes
and needed to review them, have them firmly implanted in his mind before he met
with his brothers later.

But the only thing he could seem to focus on was an
auburn-haired temptress whose hips swayed in a smooth rhythm and whose lips
promised all kinds of temptation.

* * * * *

“Go on in, Mr. Vincent,” Livy heard her assistant say.

When she looked up Frank was breezing past the outer office
into hers and dropping into one of the comfortable armchairs opposite her desk.
She turned from the computer where she’d been updating a report and chuckled,
knowing exactly what he wanted. Her take on Alex McMann. What she thought about
him.

I think he could break down all my shields and find the
heart I buried years ago. I think I’d like to take a long sabbatical until this
is over so I don’t get hurt. Like it used to be.

But she knew that wasn’t even close to the realm of
possibility. She had a talent Frank had come to depend on. A sixth sense. A
knack for reading people, wherever it came from. Seeing what was behind the
business mask. Once she started giving him her opinions of people and they
turned out to be on the money—saving him from a few bad deals—he began coming
to her each and every time.

“Well?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I hardly know him, Frank. I saw him for two
hours, one of them with the whole staff. I can’t give you a read yet.”

“You can fix that. You always do. Take him to dinner.
Coffee. Whatever. Work your charm on him. Get him to talk about himself. You
know how to work that.”

“I know you did your due diligence on the McManns before you
set up the appointment,” she pointed out. “Was there something in there that
you want followed up?”

“No, not at all.” He shook his head. “Their record is
spotless and their references can’t say enough good things about them.” He
shifted in his chair. “But I want the measure of the men. Who and what they are
as people. They’ve been very close all their lives. Alex is the oldest and I
think if we get a good read from him the others will be the same.”

She tilted her head. “I have a feeling Alex McMann is a
different kettle of fish than we’re used to. At least in the development
industry. You got the folder on the company. They all have advanced degrees,
they’ve won multiple awards both for design and construction as well as overall
projects. They’re so clean they squeak.”

“A report is just words on paper. You’re my best people
barometer, Livy. You know I depend on you to tell me what kind of vibes you get
from someone. I want to know what kind of man he is. What’s inside his head.
Does he play well with others.”

Livy couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Frank, you must
think I have some kind of psychic magic.”

“Not hardly.” He rubbed his hand across the back of his
neck. “You’ve always been my measuring stick, Livy. Your judgment of people is
spot on. I rely on you more than all the investigators and research I can
hire.”

Olivia fiddled with a pen on her desk. “All right. I’ll
figure out how not to make it contrived. But aren’t you afraid to turn me loose
with such a sexy, attractive man?”

Frank laughed. “I don’t think so. Business is your love,
Olivia. And one that’s done very well for you. I think it would take a very
strong man to make you take a different path.”

“You don’t think Alex McMann is that person?” she asked. The
problem wasn’t whether Frank did but whether
she
did.

“I think I can trust you to keep your head screwed on
straight and your eye on the prize.” He paused. “You know that partnership slot
is coming open soon.”

Livy grinned. “Why, Frank Vincent. Are you trying to bribe
me?”

“Only if I thought it would work.” He smiled back at her and
pushed himself out of the chair. “He’ll be back here in a month. I’d like your
feedback before then, okay?”

“I’ll do my best.” She winked at him.

But after he left Livy sat quietly at her desk, thinking.
Getting a read on Alex McMann might be tricky. Not because he was a complex
person but because he had awakened responses in her just by sitting in the same
room with her. Responses she usually kept a tight leash on because they brought
up painful memories of her childhood.

Long ago she’d had to make a decision. Her life growing up
might have looked glamorous to an outsider. Something to be envied. After all,
she came from wealth with all its trappings.

But on the inside it was a shambles. Her mother died when
she was ten and her father filled the space in his life with a succession of
women, many of whom he married and divorced. Livy seemed to hold no more
importance for him that the servants he hired or the succession of tutors that
came and went. It was as if she reminded him too much of her mother and loving
her was too painful for him. He shut off all real emotion where she was
concerned. For too long she was the little girl begging for scraps of love,
wearing her loneliness on her sleeve.

Not so with the male steps and halves, particularly Jonathan
who came full-grown with wife number three. Jonathan was perfection, an
accomplished businessman, a social darling with all the appropriate graces.
Everything he did was perfect. Praise for Jonathan was doled out with a
generous hand. Next came the other males in the family. Livy couldn’t quite
break into that golden circle but she got the message—men ruled the world.

It was a mixed blessing when her father finally sent her off
to a Swiss boarding school. After the first vacation when she was all but
ignored by the others she never went home again. No one seemed to miss her.
When she told her father she was applying to college he told her where they
should send the bills and that was that. Only the few friends she made saw her
graduate. Her father and the assorted other step- and half-siblings sent their
regrets.
Sorry, Livy, but something’s come up. You know how it is
.

Oh yes, she knew exactly how it was. Jonathan was having a
major business event that drew everyone’s attention.

She did, however, focus on one thing. If perfection was what
it took, that’s what she’d strive for.

“Making your mark at the top tells people who you are,” her
father told her in one of their few brief conversations.

She’d do that, and compete with them on their own playing
field. She got the best grades, completed the best projects, graduated at the
top of her class. By the time she had both her undergraduate and graduate
degrees she could speak five languages fluently, was a whiz at math, and with a
near photographic memory could recite information about global businesses at
the drop of a hat. She would become as driven as men like her father and
Jonathan and the others. She’d swim with the sharks and not get bitten.

She was proud of herself for working her way up the
corporate ladder at Concordia. Her job had a lot of responsibility and because
of the financial nature of it, spread into other areas. She’d won the respect
of the business community because she balanced her femininity with her business
attitude and acumen. She wanted that partnership in Concordia that Frank kept
dangling in front of her, and the power that went with it. That was her
ultimate goal.

It was obvious that she was battling some of the men on the
executive staff for that spot. And she knew at the end of the day they were all
just little boys sitting around a table with a ruler measuring to see who had
the biggest dick.

She kept her private live just that. Private. She didn’t
have time for a permanent relationship with a man. Not now. Too distracting.
Too dangerous. She’d never allow herself to be that lonely little girl again.
She chose her playmates very carefully, usually men as driven as she was who
knew how to be discreet and who kept their mouths shut. When it was over it was
over. Emotion played no part in her life. Love could only destroy you. Opening
her heart to someone was dangerous and she never wanted that kind of pain
again.

But she had an uncomfortable impression Alex McMann was
going to be a disturbing factor in her life. He already stirred feelings in her
she kept under iron control. If she was going to be spending time with him
she’d have to give herself a stern lecture. Or wear a steel corset. Or both.

She pushed the button for her assistant.

“Jo?”

“Yes, Livy.” The woman’s voice was soft and well-modulated.
She could soothe the most irate client or supplier.

“Get out your detecting kit and find out where Alex McMann
has breakfast, lunch and dinner. Where he gets his car washed. What he does on
the weekends and where he does it.”

“Sure thing.”

“Good. And Jo?”

“I know, I know.” The woman laughed softly. “Keep everything
under my hat.”

Chapter Two

Alex checked the time on his watch, slowed his pace and
finally stopped, bent over, hands on knees as he drew in great lungfuls of air.
Fingertips on his pulse, he counted his heartbeats, still doing his deep breathing.
He was about to resume jogging at a more leisurely pace when a body crashed
into him. He staggered slightly, then turned to see who it was, what idiot
wasn’t paying attention.

He recognized the auburn hair at once, although today it was
straggling from a ponytail, not shimmering in soft waves. And the perfect oval
of a face was devoid of makeup, although looking at it Alex wondered why she’d
ever bother using it. Even though she was dressed in shorts and a tank top
rather than office attire, he still recognized Olivia D’Angelo. And his heart
rate speeded up just like the first time he saw her.

Men my age don’t fall in love at first sight.

Yeah? Tell that to someone who believes it.

“Oh!” She stopped and backed up. “I am so sorry.”She brushed
at the stray wisps of hair. “Alex, right? McMann?”

Had she forgotten him so easily? The thought irritated him
more than it should have. After all, he was sure he was just one of many people
she interacted with during any given day. But he’d been so positive they made
an invisible connection that day.

He took a step back and let his gaze roam over her, nearly
swallowing his tongue. In business clothes she’d been a delightful, tempting
package, perfectly balancing the personal and professional. But in a tank top
and running shorts, ponytail bouncing as she jogged in place, there was nothing
businesslike about her at all.

The thin fabric of her top barely concealed the sports bra
beneath it. Alex would bet that under the restraining material her nipples had
hardened peaks. The shorts were cut high, revealing toned, shapely thighs. The
pulse at her throat was beating rapidly from exertion. He wished it were
beating from some other cause. And he wondered wildly if he’d sound crazy if he
said the scent of her sweat was turning him on.

Stop it, you idiotic jerk. This is business, not pleasure.

“Yes. Olivia.” Two could play at this game.

The corners of her mouth tilted up in that mischievous grin
that he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind.

“Livy,” she reminded him.

“Right. Livy.” He frowned. “I didn’t realize you lived
around here.” Alex had a path he ran as often as he could, starting at his
house and winding through the older residential streets to a small park.
Sometimes he stopped at the Starbucks in the quaint little shopping center
about four blocks from his house.

She swiped her forehead with her hand.

“Actually, I don’t. A friend of mine has a house three
streets over from here. She’s out of town for the weekend so I’m dogsitting.”
She looked around. “Is this your street?”

“No. I live on San Juan.” He grinned. “Near the Starbucks.”

“That makes us practically neighbors for the weekend,” she
pointed out. “And speaking of Starbucks, can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”

Livy laughed. “I’m not much into gender boundaries. Would
you feel better if you paid for the coffee?”

Alex smiled at her. “Not at all. I’ll let a beautiful woman
pay for my coffee any day.”

Watch it, buddy. Take it slow. Maybe you misread her the
other day. No sophomoric love crap. She’s the key to the biggest deal of your
life. Don’t kill it before it even gets out of the gate.

“Good. Then lead the way.”

He really wanted
her
to lead so he could watch the
sway of that beautiful ass. He was just glad his t-shirt was long enough to
hide his semi-erection that he was trying to wish away.

Livy knew his eyes had taken in every detail of her body.
Her nipples had puckered under his scrutiny and there wasn’t much she could do
to hide them. She suddenly felt completely exposed in her jogging shorts and
tank and wondered if she should have worn something less revealing. The idea
was to loosen him up without seducing him and she definitely didn’t want to
give him the wrong impression. She wanted him to feel comfortable. To talk to
her about himself and his brothers.

And to keep those pesky emotions back where they belonged.
This could be the boost she needed for that partnership if she handled
everything right. Love or whatever had no place in her life. At least right
now.

Jo had done a great job digging out the bit about the
jogging, along with the when and where. It had cost her a gift certificate to a
spa for the weekend to get her friend Lois to go along with the charade but it
was worth it. She’d managed to “run into him” in a casual manner.

“You jog a lot?” she asked as they walked along the shaded
sidewalks to Starbucks.

“Whenever I can. At least three times a week. Keeps me alert
and in shape for a lot of the long hours we work.”

“So you put in a lot of late night work?”

He nodded. “Don’t you?”

“Part of the process,” she told him.

They’d arrived at Starbucks and he held the door open for
her. At the counter she ordered a skinny mocha latte, half cafe, no whipped
cream. Alex ordered a Columbian roast with a double shot of espresso.

“High octane,” she commented. “Like you.”

“Why, Ms. D’Angelo. Are you flirting with me?” He winked at
her.

“Just a little Saturday teasing.” She grinned.

But flirting with him certainly wasn’t out of the question
at a later date. He was exactly the type of man she enjoyed—focused on
business, not looking for a long-term commitment, great between the sheets. The
last two she guessed at but she knew his type. Definitely. When she got to know
him better he’d prove her point.

They decided to split a banana muffin and took it and their
drinks to a corner table.

“So,” she began, “how did you all get into this business,
anyway? Family?”

“Lord, no.” He took a swallow of the hot liquid. “Our
parents own a restaurant. They’ve lived and breathed food for as long as I
remember. Until my dad had a heart attack. A pretty bad one.”

She sobered at once. “I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, he’s doing great now. They sold the restaurant and
moved to Arizona, to a seniors community where some of their friends live.” He
laughed. “He organizes barbecues and picnics on a regular basis and insists on
doing all the cooking. You can take the guy out of the kitchen but you can’t
take the kitchen out of the guy.”

Livy sipped her drink. “None of you wanted to take over?”

Alex threw up his hands. “Are you kidding? It was my
father’s greatest disappointment that none of us could boil water. It wasn’t
until we were all living on our own that we discovered the importance of
preparing food. Eating out and nuking food can get old really fast. Anyway, in
the beginning it was more of an economic necessity.”

“Did you all move out at the same time?”

He looked at her over the rim of his cup. “Is this Twenty
Questions?”

She shrugged as casually as possible. “Just getting to know
the personal side of you a little. It always helps when I’m working with
someone.”

She was getting a picture of Alex McMann that unsettled her.
A family man who came from a background of love and affection. Her own might
have taken place on another planet. Maybe playing games with him wasn’t the
best idea after all. Most of her lovers were like her, committed to nothing but
business.

“And this project is the most innovative one Concordia’s
done yet so you want to make sure you don’t have a bunch of screwballs messing
it up.”

She couldn’t help laughing. “You’re anything but a
screwball, Alex. I promise you that. You’d never have gotten the letter of
invitation for that first meeting if you were.”

He peeled the muffin very carefully and used the plastic
knife to split it precisely into two parts. Then he set hers on a napkin pushed
it toward her.

She broke off a tiny piece, popped it in her mouth and
chewed on it thoughtfully, letting the flavor linger on her tongue. “You still
didn’t answer my question about moving out.”

Now it was his turn to laugh. “I don’t know what this has to
do with getting the job, but okay, I’ll play. My folks made it real easy for us
to live at home while we were building the business. It didn’t matter where we
lived, anyway, because we spent so much time either in that first office we
rented or on the jobs. Sometimes we just slept on one of the cots we kept in
the office.”

“You’ve come a long way,” she pointed out.

He chased a bite of muffin with his coffee. “Yep. And we did
everything by the book. That’s something our folks always taught us. Don’t cut
corners. Always keep your word. Those things are very important to us, no
matter how many projects we work on or how big they are. It may sound corny but
our word is our bond.”

Olivia felt something turn over inside her. Alex McMann was
a well-respected businessman. He and his brothers had built an extraordinary
company. Yet they hadn’t lost any of the sincerity they’d brought to the
business in the beginning. Livy had a bullshit meter that dinged when anyone
was snowing her. There was no snow—or bullshit—around this guy.

She felt something else, something she hadn’t expected.
Envy, for him and his brothers and their family. Deliberately she forced it
away. She couldn’t let herself be distracted by wishing for something unreal.

“I’d offer to drive you home,” Alex said. They’d finished
their coffee and muffin and Livy was disposing of their trash. “Only I don’t
happen to have a car handy.”

“No problem. It’s a nice walk.” She held out her hand. “Nice
running into you. Thanks for the coffee and muffin.”

He laughed. “My pleasure. Thanks for the third degree.”

Heat crept up her face and Livy knew she was blushing. “Was
I that transparent? I must be losing my touch.”

“Not at all. It’s just a technique my brothers and I use
ourselves to make sure our client is solid. It isn’t just the money that
attracts us to a job.”

He was still holding her hand. The contact sent tingles up
her spine and skittering over her skin. Oh, not good. Remember the rules.

“I’ll be sure to tell that to Frank. He’ll be impressed.”

She started to pull her hand back but he curled his fingers
around it. “Since I can’t drive you home, how about if I take you to dinner
tonight.”

She frowned. “Dinner?”

“Nothing fancy. Just casual.” He studied her. “Or is that
against the rules?”

“Against the rules?” She felt like an idiot.

“This can be a business dinner.” He winked at her. “You can
finish questioning me.”

Her head kept shouting
No!
but her body was screaming
Yes!
“Uh, sure. Okay. I mean, thanks. That would be nice.” Why was she
stammering like an idiot? “What time?”

“Seven o’clock.”

She borrowed a pen from the barista and wrote her address
and cell number on a paper napkin. “See you then.”

She hurried out the door ahead of him, waved and jogged off,
wondering if she was about to make a huge, huge mistake.

* * * * *

”I think she wants to know everything including whether I
wear boxers or briefs,” Alex said to his brother.

Tyler had stopped by on his way home from a job site and
caught Alex just after he’d come back from his jog. The two of them were
relaxing on Alex’s rear deck with ice cold beers.

“She sounds like a barracuda,” Tyler commented, taking a
long pull of the icy liquid. “At least that’s the word on the street.”

“Oh?” Alex lifted an eyebrow. “I didn’t think her streets
and yours intersected.”

Tyler clapped a hand dramatically over his heart. “You wound
me, my man. Just because I look like I live in a dirt pile doesn’t mean I don’t
get gossip from polite company.”

Alex chuckled. Tyler was the supervisor on all their jobs
and dressed accordingly. Women who saw him in his grubbies were shocked when
they saw him in his hand-tailored Italian suits.

“So what do you hear?”

Tyler took a long pull on his beer. “I told you. Barracuda.
Shark. Great packaging but she eats men alive.”

“Are you speaking of business or pleasure?”

Tyler shrugged. “Either one, the way the word on the street
is. She’s a serial dater. When you’ve served your purpose you’re done. But no
one wants to piss her off because it’s well known she’s the power at Concordia.
Frank Vincent depends on her very heavily. For a lot of things.”

Alex frowned. “You mean—”

Tyler cut him off at once. “No. Uh uh. No hanky panky All
business. People who know say she’s the best mind in this business.”

“Interesting.” Alex stared off into space, his brother’s
words spinning in his mind.

“If what they say is true she’s definitely not my cup of
tea. Or yours.”

“She’s a very astute businesswoman, covering all her bases,”
Alex said straight-faced.

Tyler burst out laughing. “Well, look at you, Mr.
Stick-up-his-ass Businessman. ‘Astute businesswoman’?”

“Okay, okay.” Alex looked across his feet propped on the
railing to the expanse of lawn and thick trees at its edge. “But I’ll tell you
this. What you hear is spot on. I don’t know about the maneater part but she is
sharp as a tack, damn good looking, and she uses every weapon in her arsenal. I
wouldn’t want to cross her. Ever. I have a feeling her opinion will have a lot
to do with whether we get this job or not.”

“So I gather you won’t be seeing her socially?”

Alex tilted his bottle to swallow some beer. “Actually I’m
taking her to dinner tonight. Nothing fancy,” he hurried to assure his brother.
“Just a casual dinner out. If we end up working together it would help to have
a good relationship. Not adversarial.”

“You watch yourself, big brother. She could be setting you
up.”