Leo turned to Erik. “It looks like we have a lot to talk about this weekend, after all. I was ready to sign, but now I’m having sudden misgivings.”
Erik had been listening with interest. This wasn’t the first time a deal had come this close to being finalized and had fallen through…if that’s where this was going. He had learned to roll with the punches. “I’m sure we can work something out that will be agreeable to both of us. We’re not in the business of trying to force anyone to sell. We only approached you because you had decided that selling might be an option out of your financial crunch. However we’re willing to work with you. If you want to remain the company’s CEO and train Julianna to eventually replace you with us as an investor, you can go that way. It’s your decision. We like Barone Shoes and we think you can once again be a major competitor in the shoe market.”
Leo regarded his wife. “Do you think we can postpone our months-long tour of Italy a few more years until Julianna’s ready to assume control of the business?”
Teresa in turn regarded Julianna. “Baby, you’re only sixteen. How can you be so sure you want to run the business one day?”
“Because it’s my family,” Julianna said firmly. “I’m a Barone. Like Grandpa and Dad before me. Plus, I feel a connection with Leo, Jr.—as if we’d be doing it together. I know I never knew him, but I love him anyway.”
Teresa had tears in her eyes when she told her husband, “Okay, I can wait a few years. Give her a chance.”
“Let’s talk about taking you all on as investors,” Leo said to Erik and offered him his hand across the table. Erik took it and firmly shook it.
“I’m sure we can work something out,” Erik agreed.
After lunch, Erik and Leo, went into the family library and hammered out a deal that would give Whitaker Enterprises a quarter interest in Barone Shoes in exchange for a healthy loan. Erik felt confident that Whitaker Enterprises had made a good investment. And Leo felt he could trust Whitaker Enterprises to support them, but not interfere in the day-to-day running of Barone Shoes. However, Erik made one stipulation: Barone Shoes had to submit to Whitaker Enterprises’ efficiency experts and accountants in order to insure that the company was being run in the black from now on. Whitaker Enterprises didn’t invest in a losing proposition. They wouldn’t be the powerhouse they were today if they did. Leo wholeheartedly agreed.
The two men stood and shook on it. “Since that’s settled, Ana and I should be getting back on the road,” Erik said.
“No, please stay the night,” Leo said. He grinned. “We had planned a party for you tonight and invited some of the employees so they could meet you, the new owner. Now they can meet the new investor. Stay, won’t you?”
Erik would like nothing better than to spend the rest of the day and the weekend with Ana. After last night, he was looking forward to some alone time with her. However, Ana had been promised a weekend in Connecticut and he hated disappointing her. Plus, it might be a good idea to meet some of Leo’s employees. “All right,” he said. “I’d like that.”
Chapter 3
“Are you disappointed things didn’t turn out as you thought they would?” Ana asked Erik when they were alone on the common balcony of the guestrooms Teresa had shown them to after Erik’s talk with Leo. Earlier Teresa had discreetly asked Ana if she and Erik wanted to share a room and Ana had told her their relationship hadn’t advanced that far yet, to which Teresa had smiled and said, “How refreshing.”
“It’s never wise to anticipate the outcome of a deal,” Erik said, his smile denoting he wasn’t that broken up about it. He closed the space between them and pulled her into his arms. Ana smiled up at him and said, “It’s cold out here.” She snuggled closer and breathed in the enticing male scent of him, which was like an aphrodisiac to her senses. Looking into his eyes, she said, “If I’ve appeared a bit distant all day, it’s because I can’t forget that kiss last night.”
He’d taken her home after dinner and had come in for coffee. Among the things they had in common was an addiction to caffeine. Neither was bothered by sleeplessness if they indulged before bed. Ana had gone into the kitchen of her loft to make the coffee and Erik, as he often did, followed her. While she was tiptoeing to reach the container of beans on the top shelf of the cabinet, he was admiring her backside. Ana turned around and caught him looking. “Is that something you do often or is it a new development?” she asked playfully.
“It’s pretty much a habit,” Erik confessed.
Ana set the container on the counter and faced him, her expression aghast. “You mean to tell me that for the last three years you’ve been looking at my bottom without my knowledge?”
“Oh, I think you knew,” Erik said as he slipped his arm about her waist and pressed her to his muscular chest, smiling all the while. He lowered his head and inhaled her unique fragrance. She’d noticed that he liked doing that, as though the smell of her skin gave him sensual pleasure. It turned her on, too.
Her body immediately reacted to his. Her nipples grew hard, and she became moist between her legs. It was a heady, all-too-erotic sensation that was so delicious she let out a soft sigh. She looked at his lips. He was smiling and his white teeth, coupled with those juicy lips, looked so inviting that she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Erik didn’t need any further provocation. Her lips were soft and her mouth so sweet that before he knew it he had lifted her body and her legs wrapped around him in a bid to get even closer. Their tongues danced gently at first and found the encounter so pleasing that the kiss deepened and soon they were both sounding as though they were consuming something extremely tasty as, no doubt, they were. Erik, as the one who had most of the physical strength between them, knew that he had to back off before things got out of hand. Ana wasn’t ready for things to go any further than a kiss but it was their first real kiss and, heaven help him, if her kisses were this good, what would sex be like with her?
It was Ana who came up for air first and looked him in the eyes. She pressed her cheek to his. “Why haven’t you kissed me before now?”
“I’ve been a fool,” Erik said, and kissed her again.
Ana pulled his shirt out of his waistband so that she could run her hands over his hot skin. Another new experience since friends didn’t routinely touch one another’s naked bodies. Her feverish mind thought back. Yes, she’d seen Erik in a swimsuit on a couple occasions. Once when they had flown to Barbados for the weekend with his sister, Belana, and her husband, Nick, and another time when they’d taken a dip in the pool at his parents’ house in Connecticut. He was in great shape. Cut from all the running and weightlifting he did on a daily basis. Ana was not nearly as disciplined. She liked running with Erik on Saturday mornings, but walking was more her taste. All this was going through her mind while the man of her dreams was kissing her, and she thought she must be neurotic to be thinking of anything other than the taste of his mouth and the warm, solid feel of his body touching hers. It was fear of change that stood in the way of her truly enjoying Erik.
What would she do if he made love to her and lost interest, just as that actor who would remain nameless had done? It would kill her—she realized at that instant in her kitchen, she adored this man. She loved him in a way she had never thought to love a man, completely. Until Erik she thought of men as enigmas whom women were doomed to never fully understand. However Erik had proved that theory a lie. She understood him. She knew, for example, that even though he denied it he had an abandonment issue with his mother. It’s true that his mother had come back into his life briefly last year, but by that time
