Brandy didn’t bother apologizing to Lica. She could see the anger on his face, and she didn’t want to deal with it today. She’d not lied when she said she was having a terrible day. What she didn’t say was that he’d been the one that had put her in it. She didn’t want to deal with him on one of her good days either. But he would need to get his sex thing over with so that she wasn’t forever thinking what a colossal mistake this has been agreeing to be his mate.

  By the time all the men for the meeting had shown up, she was worked up again. This time, it was her nerves and had nothing to do with Lica. He was keeping his distance, for which she was grateful, but it didn’t help that there were fifty-four men in her conference room. Forty-one of them were attorneys, and they were all screaming at her to answer their questions first and foremost.

  The shrill whistle came from her left. Looking at Lica, she could tell that he was as frustrated as she was with the men. Neither of them had gotten a word out of welcoming before they started yelling.

  “Now. The next person, I don’t care which side of the table you’re from, ours or theirs. If you say a word, I’m going to have you escorted out of this building. If you think for one moment that I’m kidding or that you don’t think I can do that, then try me. I’m in just as shitty mood as my wife is. Do you, quietly and with a raise of your hand, understand what it is that I’ve said to you?” Everyone raised their hands, and she nearly laughed when one man on the other end of the table from them raised his hand and frantically waved it at her and Lica. “You’ll have your turn to speak in a moment. Unless the building is on fire, put your hand down and be quiet.”

  “What is the meaning of this man talking to me like this?” While she told Mr. Green that Lica was her husband and her partner so he could say what he wanted, Lica said he was calling security. “I’m in charge of this meeting, and I demand respect.”

  “No, we’re in charge of this meeting, and you’ll sit there and do as you’re told, or this meeting is finished. I told you from the very beginning that I wasn’t going to put up with your shenanigans around here, Mr. Green. I’m working with you, but I will quit, and you know that I don’t lie when it comes to this company. I will have you tossed out of this building, and we’ll never do any business again.” Mr. Green stood up. The attorney on either side of him pulled at the older man, trying to get him to sit down. “Do it, Mr. Green, and this will be—”

  “I’m not going to allow you to bully me around. This is my company until I say differently.” She asked him what he meant. “I’m going to show you how to run a successful business, and you’re going to shut up and sit down. I have the terms I’m willing to work with all written out. Now, be a good girly and sign where you’re supposed to, and we’ll get this finished with or without your help.”

  “Lica.” That’s all she had to say that got him moving. He stood behind Mr. Green’s chair and pulled it from the long table. The two attorneys stood up, began gathering the things they’d only just sat out, and were talking to the people around them. Security asked Mr. Green if he wanted to be standing when he left or if he wanted to be carried out. She was not fucking around today. Apparently, neither was Lica.

  “You’re bluffing. There is no way that you can afford to turn me down for business.” Security, with the help of Lica, started pulling Green and some of the people who simply followed him out toward the doors. “I’m going to own your business by the end of the day, young lady. You see that I don’t.”

  “You can’t even keep your own company afloat, how do you think that we’re going to take you seriously that you’ll be taking this one. My wife has been running this business in the black since she opened the doors. She pays her taxes on time, her employees’ retirement accounts are all up to date, and she’s not spent any money on doodads like you have in order to keep up with the neighbors. You’ve been running in the red since the year your father-in-law turned the reins over to you when you married his daughter. I bet that Mr. Bierut has regretted it since. Mr. Green, as it stands right now, we’re not going to help you with a loan or the expansion. I know for a fact that you’ve been turned down by four other institutions since you’ve been caught not paying into your employees’ retirement accounts.”

  “Where did you get that information? You’ve no right to be snooping around in things that are of no concern of yours. For all you know, I was going to pay that back with some of the money that you are going to loan me. You and that ditzy wife of yours.” She didn’t even see Lica move, but she knew that it had to have been him that hit the man. Mr. Green’s head slammed back into the wall behind him, and blood splattered all over the men in front of him. “You’ve hit me. My god, you’ve broken my nose. Did any of you see that? Did you see that he hit me? I told him I was going to own him, and now I am.”

  “I didn’t see anything, Green. Perhaps on your way home, you should make an appointment with your eye doctor. You tripped, that’s all.” One of the attorneys looked at her. He was smiling. “Mrs. Frazier, if you don’t mind, I’ll be calling you later. Ms. Green, Mr. Green’s daughter has taken over the company as of the moment her father left the building. Mr. Fraizer was correct. Mr. Bierut was regretful of his son-in-law taking his company. He posthumously handed it over to her when she turned twenty-one with all kinds of money to keep the business from falling apart. She would like to get with you and your husband to help her set up a business plan that will work for years to come. Thank you too for the day.”

  After they all left, she sat down in her office. Brandy wasn’t the least bit surprised when Lica joined her by sitting across the desk from her. Smiling, she asked him how he knew about the employee funds and the daughter.

  “His daughter, Elisa, called to speak to me last evening, and she’s been helping me with information that we could use against her father. I guess he doesn’t believe women, and this is solely on him, are strong enough to run a company, much less deal with money.” Lica stood up where her secretary brought in a tray with a pot of tea and two dainty looking cups and saucers on it with several kinds of cookies on a plate. He sat it on the edge of her desk after taking it from her secretary. “She has known since she was ten that she’d be taking over the company. That’s about the time that he was messing with the retirement funds. She’s been learning everything she could about the company from her grannie. Who ran the company with her grandda before her father did.”

  “Thank you. For the information, help, and the cup of tea.” She sipped hers quietly and closed her eyes. “I’ve been stressed out for the last few hours. Mr. Green started calling my home around seven last night and didn’t stop while I drove to work. I was going to turn him down anyway, but this was so much slicker.”

  If Lica answered her in anyway, she didn’t hear him. At some point, he told her that she should rest, and she thought that she objected, but her tea cup was taken away and a warm blanket wrapped around her. That was all she remembered of the meeting. Brandy thought that if she could rest for a few minutes, she’d feel much better.

  ~*~

  Lica knocked on the door. He had thought about just walking in, Brandy had told him that his name was on this house, too, but that felt wrong somehow, so he knocked a second time. He was thoroughly surprised when a man dressed in a livery of the same blue as the shutters on the house were opened the door.

  “Mr. Fraizer, I presume.” He told the man that he was one of six of them. “Yes, she showed us pictures of all of your brothers but for yourself. She didn’t have a single one, I’m afraid. Come in, sir. Mrs. Fraizer is upstairs. There was a bit of a snafu this afternoon, and she’s up there now trying her best not to fire a few people.”

  “I’ll go see if I can help. I need to speak to her anyway.” Taking the stairs two at a time, he was surprised at not just the elegance of the house but the sheer expense of everything. And he’d only entered the front of the house. The handrailing alone would cost more than he’d made in the last year. It was a double-wide staircase that dropped you off at a landing as big as his living room. Then, it split into two to go to either end of the household by way of a long, wide hallway. He heard her voice down the right hallway and made his way there.

  She was indeed into something. While he didn’t know exactly what was going on, he knew that someone was going to be fired by the time it was finished. The towels, there had to be two hundred of them were lined up in piles along the wall in stacks of four. There were other things, too, such as hand towels and what he thought were some kind of finger towels. He’d never read up on what towels were used for when he’d been made aware of just how much money Brandy had and what sort of dinners they might host. Thank god for her father was all he could think about. She saw him about the time he was nearing the end of the towels.

  “Do you see this? This is what happens when I’m stressed out.” He told her she was very stressed. “Are you making fun of me? I’ll let you know that I’m in a rotten mood, and you teasing me isn’t the thing to do.”

  “I’m not teasing you at all. But you’re not the only one that is stressed.” He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to the five women and one man who were standing against the wall behind her like they were lined up for a firing squad. “Who is responsible for the towels? I’m assuming that it’s what has you stressed.”

  “I am.” She didn’t move, but he continued holding her shoulders to start massaging them. “I ordered them. And for the life of me I don’t know why I’m taking it out on these nice people.”

  “I would think that it’s fine, right?” He nodded, and each of the others nodded, too. “Where are these towels supposed to be going?”

  “There should have been a different color for each bathroom. But they’re all this light gray.” He asked the young man what the problem was then. “The missus, Brandy, your missus usually has a different color for each room. But they’re all this color and none to put in the other bathrooms.”

  “Okay. Good information.” Brandy turned in his arms and laid her head on his shoulder. There weren’t many women who could reach his shoulder, so he was thrilled—he didn’t know why—to have her there. “Let’s do this so we don’t have to send them all back. Each bathroom will now have gray towels. That way, I’m assuming that they won’t have to be divided by colors all the time to be put away. Correct?”

  “That’s what your missus said she was going to do.” Brandy nodded but didn’t lift her head off his shoulder. “She said that it would make it easier to sort things. We were agreeing with her when you showed up. But then she started to cry, and it threw us off. Ms. Brandy never cries. I think she might be ill.”

  “I think that she’s been under a lot of strain, and I’ve not helped. I can be depended on from now on to take over some of her load. If you guys could point me in the direction of the master bedroom and then take care of this little issue, I’ll talk to her about things.” They were very eager to help, and just as he was opening the door to the bedroom with her at his side, the towels were cleaned from the hallway, and he’d bet nearly sorted to each bathroom. As soon as he pulled the door shut behind him, she moved across the room to the furthest wall.

  “I didn’t handle that very well.” He laughed. She was— “Why does me admitting to you that I fucked up funny to you every time? Or do you get your jollies when you find out that I’ve fucked up again?”

  “No. What I think is funny is that you are the only person in the world that admits freely that you’ve fucked up. And to me, ordering the wrong color towels? That’s not anything that would be considered a fuck up. More like a…Like a fortuitist mistake. They’ll be easier to sort like you said, and so much easier to order the next time. Why are you suddenly out of towels anyway?” She told him why she’d ordered towels. “Oh. You know, that makes good sense. Ordering new towels every four years would certainly keep them thirsty and new-looking. To be honest, I don’t know that I’ve ever used a brand-new towel. Are they thirstier, you know, so that the water on your body is gone rather than having to scrub hard to make them absorb?”

  “Thirstier? You know, I’ve never thought of that before but that’s when I get it in my head that the house needs new towels. Sort of a reminder.” She cocked her brow at him, and he found himself wanting to see her do that more often. It was sort of sexy. “I’m sure you didn’t come here to talk to me about towels. Did I have an appointment with you or something?”

  “No. We didn’t have anything scheduled, no. But we could. A date of sort.” He asked her if they could talk in here or if they needed to go to an office. He also had business things to talk about. “I called several of the camera places to get an estimate. I handed it all to…I didn’t catch his name when I came in. But I gave them to him.”

  “We don’t have to go to the office, but I was about to have lunch. Would you like to join us?” He asked who would be joining them as they made their way down the hallway. “Dad usually comes over and we have like a power lunch. It’s to catch up on the day before and talk about business meeting. By doing it at lunch, which I love, by the way, we can still take care of things that need attention in the same day and not have to talk about it at dinner. No business at dinner unless it’s important. It’s usually just him and me for dinner, and I don’t want to miss dinner with him if you don’t mind.”

  “You mean if I were to move in here.” She nodded. “Moving in with you, just moving in, is on my list as well. I have about a dozen things that I need…well, I really need to talk to you about. There are a few things that aren’t all that important, but I think we need to clear them up. Lunch, if that’s what I smell, is what we’re having. I am thrilled to eat with you and your father.”

  As if he’d summoned him, Alan came into the kitchen with them as they were sitting around an old but well-loved table. After giving him a huge hug, he told him that he was glad to see him. Donald, the butler he was told, brought him the file he had and he was as ready to join in conversations as they both were. He noticed that both Brandy and Alan had a list to tick things off of, and he pulled his own out. Glad not to be embarrassed for being old school and not pulling out a computer. Donald brought in several boxes and laid them between him and Brandy, and she said they were for him.

  “The larger box is for you and your brothers. They’re cell phones. I know you can talk to just about anyone you wish without one, but this will help when a client needs to get in touch with you. I was also thinking that instead of having the pack reach out to you when they need you if they were to use the phone to do that, it might well save you some time. You could ignore them too if you’re busy with something else. But that’s entirely up to you.” He said he liked that idea. “Like I said, it’s only a suggestion. Also, being delivered to the ranch house are computers. I wouldn’t have gone ahead and ordered them if I wasn’t certain that the six of you have been sharing the same computer for the last eleven years. It’s going to be better if you all can work independently instead of waiting until your turn.”

  “Thank you. That actually knocked several things off of my list, too.” She smiled at her dad, and he laughed. “Something wrong?”

  “No. She told me that you’d want to come to this century, and I thought you’d not want to spend the money.” Lica laughed too and said he hadn’t looked up how much computers cost but knew that they were expensive. However, he knew, too, that they did need them. “Good man. I love working with you and your family.”

  They talked about what was on each of their lists. There wasn’t any kind of order to what they talked about, nor was any subject on all their lists taken care of. He was going to go with the middle bid on the cameras for the ranch, and he was told to order the cattle from Texas to increase the herd that he had now. He was actually excited about being a huge landowner and ranch owner.

  Alan left at two, telling them that he had things to do for his wife. She didn’t join them for this meal, but she was usually there when they had lunch. Most nights, too, they would come to dinner. He was told that when his brothers could make it, they’d really like to have them nightly for dinner, too. It sounded good to him. After her dad left, he waited to see what she’d bring up next. She had asked him to stay for a bit longer.

  “Two things that I want to bring up to you. Your mother has been pestering the household. Nothing they can’t handle, but she seems to think that since you’ve married into money, you can put some cash into her account. I asked what that meant, and it was things like toothpaste and essentials that she would need to have shipped to her, or she could get them out of the prison store. I hope that it’s all right, but I told the attorney to not help her out in any way and to demand that the prison not allow her to call here again.” He thanked her and told Brandy that was just what he would have done. “Thank you for that. She will have to get a job, which the prison warden thought was a good idea as well.”

  “Great.” She got up and poured herself some more tea, and did the same for him. He didn’t know why, but he thought that she was like that all the time, fending for herself even though she had a full staff to take care of her every whim. “I’d like to move in here.”

  Just like they’d been told to do so or something, every other person in the room left them there. He asked her if he’d said something wrong. Shaking her head, she asked him if they could go to the office. She had some things to go over with him, too.

  As soon as they were in the office, she closed the door behind him. He had no idea why, but he felt the need to kiss her, taste her. Pulling her into his arms, she turned her head away from his kiss, and no matter what he did, she wouldn’t allow him to kiss her. That pissed him off so much that he wanted to pound his fist into the wall beside her.

  “Do you love me?” He said no, too fast, he realized when she ducked under his arm to walk across the room. She kept her back to him so he couldn’t see her face. “You said that kissing was too intimate for you. That you didn’t love me, so you said there would be no kissing.”