Tender Touch (4 page)

“I’ve got another meeting, Bill.” Tavis
brushed at the lapels and sleeves of his wool jacket. His manner
conveyed he was bored with this conversation. “By the way, I
handled that problem you told me about the other day. It’s cool.
See you at the club later?”

Lang wore an amused expression at the look
of annoyance on Mike’s face at being dismissed with disdain. “Yes.
Dinner at six.” He watched Tavis stroll out past Mike.

“Who does he think he is anyway? If he
thinks Howard will be put off because some low-level bean counter—”
Testor fumed.

“Mike, nobody listens to Dave. He’s been
around for years, singing the same old song. That’s why he’s
shuffled away in that cramped cubicle, tracking obscure
statistics.” Lang chuckled.

Mike’s frown relaxed a bit. “Guess you’re
right. He has that slumped shoulder profile from bending over
stacks of computer sheets. Yeah, nobody listens to old Dave
anymore.”

“If they ever did. Now what have you heard
from Sherman Ortego?”

“Things are going well. He’s very pleased
with what we’ve done thus far.” Mike nodded.

“He should be,” Lang grunted. “Those rule
changes mean he can expand beds with new certificates. I’m looking
forward to my vacation to Cancun.”

“Ortego has rented a yacht to take us down
the coast. It’s a great trip.” Mike rubbed his hands in
anticipation.

“Hmm, I wonder if my new assistant would
like to go.” Lang stared at the door to his office as though
picturing her.

“Jade is one fine lady. She’s a
real...asset.” Mike actually smacked his lips.

“Ms. Pellerin to you,” Lang snapped. He
stood up. “Goodbye, Mike. I have work to do.”

Mike sprang from his seat. “Sure, Bill.
Didn’t mean to offend...I mean, the young lady is very attractive
is all—”

“Give me a call on that home health issue.
The board of nursing has been on my back about it for the last
three weeks.” Lang opened the door.

Testor shrugged and accepted the dismissal.
“Sure thing. Oh, Ja—Ms. Pellerin, how are you?” With his back to
Lang, he let his gaze wander down her body before looking at her
face again.

Jade nodded to him. The man was handsome,
but there was something about him that made her uneasy. She
wouldn’t like to be alone with him. “Hello, Mike. Here are the
reports you requested. If you need me to clarify anything, let me
know.”

“I’ll be sure and do that.” Mike flashed a
dazzling smile. “You’re so helpful.”

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary. Besides,
Ms. Pellerin will be tied up pretty much. Goodbye again, Mike.”
Lang gave him a pointed look.

“Bye, Mike,” Jade said. She wondered what
Mike had done to annoy the boss. Lang’s voice cut through her
musings.

Lang motioned her into his office. “Ms.
Pellerin, can we get to work on that report for Secretary
Chauvin?”

“Yes, sir, but I’m still waiting for legal
to give me the statute that applies. They promised to have it by
this afternoon at the latest.”

“That’s cutting it close, but I guess it
can’t be helped. That leaves the meeting with the Office of Public
Health. I’d like the report on laboratories.”

“Yes, Mr. Lang.” Jade got up to leave.

“Listen, let’s not be so formal with this
‘yes, sir—no, sir’ stuff. Besides, I feel like an old man when you
call me Mr. Lang.”

“Yes, sir, I mean...” Jade laughed.

“Come on, now—you can call me by my first
name,” Lang coaxed her.

“Okay...Bill. That will take getting used
to.” Jade shook her head.

“With as closely as we’ll be working for the
next four years, you’ll get lots of practice. I already think of us
as a working team, Jade.” Lang put a hand on her elbow.

“I see you’ve gotten settled into your new
office.” A petite woman gazed at them with eyebrows raised. She
wore an elegant fuchsia suit with black lapels. Her black leather
pumps and purse were stamped with a small gold design of a leading
fashion house. Her skin was the color of smooth cafe au lait.

“Hello, Kathy. This is my administrative
assistant, Jade Pellerin. My wife, Kathy.” He let go of Jade’s
elbow and moved away from her by just a fraction.

“A lovely name. Pleased to meet you.” Kathy
held out her hand in a regal manner.

Jade smiled at her tentatively. “Hello, Mrs.
Lang. Nice to meet you.”

“So how long have you been working here?”
Kathy’s voice was cool, but her question seemed to have some other
purpose.

“Almost twelve years now. I’ve worked in a
couple of the sections since I started.” Jade sensed that Kathy was
not pleased to see a female so close to her husband. “Mostly making
sure the bosses have what they need to run things.”

“And I’m sure you do an excellent job at
whatever you do.” Kathy eyed Jade in a less than complimentary
way.

“Thank you, Jade. You can go now.” Lang
stepped between the two women. He ushered Kathy ahead of him into
his office and shut the door with a firm thud.

Jade blinked at the closed door. Muffled
voices engaged in an intense exchange sounded through the heavy
wood. “Whoa! Honey, pull those fangs in.” She hurried to make
herself scarce.

“I see you met the First Lady.” Shaena
appeared from around a comer, carrying a stack of files.

“Miss Thang is something else. She all but
accused me of being hot for her husband.” Jade took some of the
folders that threatened to fall. “Let me help. Is any of this the
statute I so desperately need for Bill’s report?”

“Nah, Warren is still working on that one.
He’ll be through in about twenty minutes, he said to tell you. Back
to Kathy the Dragon Slayer.” Shaena followed Jade into her
office.

“She’s a piece of work.”

“Well, maybe she’s got cause.”

“I haven’t heard anything like that about
him,” Jade said in defense of him. “Bill has been nothing but
professional with me.”

“Saint William?” Shaena squinted. “I don’t
think so.”

“Oh, stop it. Besides, it’s none of our
business.” Jade shook a finger at her.

“Okay, but I have a feeling we’ll be hearing
more about this as time passes.” Shaena switched gears. “By the
way, Aline tells me a real honey was up here, and lucky you got to
meet with him. Damon Knight.”

“You know him?” Jade tried to keep her voice
matter-of-fact.

“By reputation.”

“Oh, a real woman chaser. It figures.” Jade
shut the file drawer with a bang. She should have known not to
trust her instincts when it came to men.

“No, I mean he was a track star in high
school and college. And his father has a string of carpet and tile
stores. The Knight family has been prominent for at least one
hundred years.” Shaena pulled out half a granola bar.

“Really?”

“Yep. Damon’s from an old Louisiana family
with money.” Shaena munched on the remains of the snack.

“Wait a minute. As in Hezekiah Knight?”
Jade’s eyes went wide.

Shaena nodded. “His great-great-grandfather.
Made a fortune selling hardware and with his own carpentry
business. He’s in the Louisiana history books for being one of the
most influential black men during Reconstruction.”

“Wow.” Jade remembered the way he walked,
shoulders back, head high. Damon Knight was from a family mentioned
in black history books on Louisiana. This intrigued her about the
man even more.

“Say, you’ve got a dreamy look on your face.
Yep, Dynamite Damon strikes again.” Shaena snickered.

“Get real. I am not bowled over by Damon
Knight.” Jade spoke sharply. She brushed a stray tendril of hair
from her face and turned away from her friend.

“Hey, stronger women of all ages have fallen
under his spell. That man is superfine, you must admit.”

“I’m through judging men by what’s on the
surface. I didn’t pay close attention to the man anyway.” Jade’s
voice cracked.

“Liar. You’re trying too hard to convince
me, and yourself.” Shaena gazed at her.

“You and Lanessa have overactive
imaginations.”

“Well, let’s consider the evidence,” Shaena
said. “When I mentioned his name, your eyes got that gleam in them.
Also, Damon Knight is one fabulous brother with beaucoup
charm.”

Jade waved her hand. “I hope you do better
defending some poor sucker in court. That is a pitiful case.”

“And most important, you haven’t been with a
man since Heck was a pup.” Shaena folded her arms.

“Like I said, pitiful. You’ve been out of
the courtroom too long. Even I could blow your case out of the
water.” Jade lifted her chin in defiance.

“Oh really? Go ahead then.”

“One, we were in a meeting discussing the
driest of topics for all of two hours, during which my attention
was on the business at hand.”

Shaena looked dubious. “I’ll bet.”

‘Two, Damon Knight is trouble wrapped up in
nice packaging— something I got my fill of with Nick.” Jade held up
two fingers.

“So because Nick was selfish and cruel, all
men are trash? Come on.”

Jade clenched her teeth in aggravation. “No,
but I could spot his kind a mile away. Damon Knight is too sure
that every woman he meets would crawl through jagged glass to get
into his bed. It’s written all over him.”

Shaena giggled. “Honey, he’d be right. At
least two dozen women in this town would jump at the chance. I’ve
met him a couple of times at social functions. He’s got a body that
won’t quit.”

“Yeah, and he knows it. You should have seen
the way he strolled around like he was some kind of king.” Jade
turned the memory of how his fluid movement sent shivers through
her into a negative, or at least she was trying hard to so as to
counteract the powerful attraction.

“Brother was steppin’, eh?”

“Sitting there with that I’m-too-cool look
on his face.” Jade remembered the strong set of his jaw. The way
those dark brows came together when he was deep in thought. His
lips looked like velvet milk chocolate. It would be so nice to see
if they were as sweet as... Jade shook herself to clear the hot
vision that had formed.

“Let me get this straight. You were with him
a short time, and your mind was only on business.” Shaena lifted an
eyebrow at her.

“You got that right,” Jade cracked.

“But you noticed his walk, his look and what
kind of expressions crossed his face.” Shaena sat back in her
chair. “Sounds to me like you were checking the brother out
and.”

“I was not—”

“And you liked what you saw.” Shaena looked
pleased with herself. “Prosecution rests your honor.”

“You’re hallucinating,” Jade snapped. She
got up to put away a large binder. What she really wanted was to
conceal how on- target her friend’s assessment had been.

“Hey, you ought to know better than to try
and fool me. We lawyers are trained to yank the truth out of
witnesses.”

“Don’t you have work to do somewhere else?”
Jade gave her a baleful look. “You have a habit of picking on my
nerves until I could strangle you.”

“Now, now—what are friends for?” Shaena’s
lips twitched with suppressed mirth. “Seriously, go on after the
man. You want to anyway, right?”

Jade was dumbfounded at how her bald
statement shook her. The phrase “want to” sent a delicious jab of
fire down her spine that spread to her hips. She needed to move
this conversation to a safer topic, and fast.

“The subject is closed, Shaena.”

“Fine. But after spending more time with
Damon Knight, we’ll see how long you can fool yourself into
believing—”

“Closed, I said,” Jade said with a waning
glare.

“I’m through with it.” Shaena held up both
hands in a gesture of surrender. “By the way, here’s the State
Register. We just finished it.”

The State Register announced proposed
changes in state regulations. State law required that before any
new rule took effect, a public hearing had to be held with notices
published in news-papers around the state.

“Thanks.” Jade put it aside.

“There’s a piece in there about hospital
beds. I thought there was a moratorium on issuing certificates.”
Shaena wore a slight frown. “Of course I’m only guessing at what it
means. Whoever wrote it sure emptied out his legal thesaurus.”

“Humph, you lawyers can turn an order for a
burger with fries into a ten-page brief. Bill said something about
a problem with one of the regs that limits the department from
responding to the need based on hospital use.” Jade flipped through
a stack of sheets with tiny black print on them. “Who can keep up
with all this paper?”

“You’ve got that right. Between executive
bulletins, written interpretations and stupid memos from bosses, I
don’t even pay attention to most of it anymore. Well, I better get
moving.”

“See you later for our usual Thank God it’s
Friday after work dinner?”

“You got it.” Shaena picked up the stack of
folders and headed off.

With a sigh, Jade buried herself in the
mound of paper they had just complained about. Quitting time would
not come soon enough.

* * *

“Moving up in more ways than one?” Kathy
Lang settled into the leather chair across from her husband. She
crossed her legs.

“What are you talking about?” Lang gazed at
her without expression.

“A great office with a lovely view and
another nice view right outside the office. Ms. Jade Pellerin is a
nice ornament to have around.” Kathy tossed back her thick dark
hair.

“She’s more than ornamental.” Lang’s voice
was tight with irritation.

“I don’t doubt for one minute,” Kathy said.
Her lips turned down in a slight sneer.

“Kathy, how many times have we gone through
this? If I slept with only a third of the women you’ve accused me
of, I’d be busy twenty-four-seven. Jade is my assistant, nothing
more.”