“It is with
great pleasure that I introduce Madeline Holland, our new Chief Operating
Officer, based in Sydney.”
As the
smattering of polite applause died away, the acting chair peered over his
specs down the table at her. “Please tell us a little about yourself, my dear.
I know you spent many years with Global Hospitality...”
Madeline
returned his smile, smoothed the skirt of her smart burgundy skirt and started
to rise.
Suddenly the
door flew open and banged against its stop with a crack. All eyes swiveled to
assess the intrusion. Beside her, Madeline felt her best friend Kay tense and
prepare to rise. Kay was regional manager of the three Premier Hotels here in
Queenstown, so security came under her domain.
A
tall, lean, impeccably dressed man stood framed by the doorway, holding a
stack of glossy files. Half-standing, half-crouching, Madeline’s eyes flicked
to his face, and her throat snapped shut. Dear God, it was him! Her fantasy
lover of the night before.
The punch of
adrenalin rocked her all the way to her heels. Her smile froze as she stared
at his longish dark blond hair, the model stubble along his jaw, his aquiline
nose and sharply cut upper lip. She closed her eyes, remembering mesmerizing
sea-green eyes, hazed over with passion but now thankfully hidden by
sunglasses.
No, no, no...
Her breath
came back in a strangled gasp and she eased her rump back down in her seat,
praying the floor would open up and swallow her. Had he known who she was? As
she’d writhed in his strong arms during the night, had he even then been
thinking about crashing this closed meeting today?
She shrank in
her seat.
The man gave
a cursory all-inclusive glance around the boardroom table and moved forward
into the room. “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lewis Goode.”
He commenced handing out files while Madeline kept her eyes resolutely
lowered. Would he acknowledge her? Would he smile, smug in the knowledge that
he’d seen her sans clothing, inhibitions, coherence? Her heart pounded against
her ribcage.
His hands now
empty, he strode to the front and offered his hand to the Acting Chair, who
smiled broadly and took a seat at the side of the table.
Lewis Goode
took off his sunglasses, slipping them into his inside pocket, raised his head
and surveyed the table. “Some of you here will know me.”
He gave a
brief smile at the six places on both sides closest to him, made up mostly of
the Directors of the Board. Then he lifted his head to take in the rest of the
Executive Committee.
Madeline
hunched even lower, her fingers gripping the table edge lest she lose her
nerve and bolt. She shouldn’t even be here since she was not a member of the
Executive Committee. Neither was Kay but as she’d organized the annual
conference here in Queenstown, she had asked for permission to attend and
bring Madeline along to be introduced as the newest member of the team.
“For those
who don’t know me,” the man said, “I am now the majority shareholder and new
Chief Executive of Premier Hotel Group.”
A collective
gasp rose up from Madeline’s half of the table but most of the directors up
front did not look surprised. Madeline, however, fought against covering her
mouth lest she groan out loud.
She had slept
with her new boss.
“Yesterday
morning,” Lewis continued, “the Australian Securities and Investments
Commission approved the corporate takeover I initiated a year ago. For those
of you on the Board who supported me, I thank you. For those who didn’t,” he
paused ominously as the assembled guests cast surreptitious glances toward the
top of the table, “there is nothing I admire more than loyalty – to me. If you
cannot commit to that, then you only have to make your position known and I
will see that you get a fair termination package.”
All
eyes scrutinized the implacable faces of the directors of the board.
“As with any
corporate takeover, we are embarking on a settling-in period,” Lewis Goode
continued. “There will be reviews and all executives will be required to
re-apply for their jobs.”
Her friend
Kay turned to her, a look of dismay and apology on her face. Kay didn’t
realize it but she had more to apologies for than persuading Madeline to give
up a perfectly good job to apply for the Premier position. She had also
unwittingly provided the magical setting for Madeline’s indiscretion last
night.
But at the
time, it had felt so uncannily right...
“Except,”
Lewis went on, “for the man I’ve replaced, Jacques de Vries, whose contract is
terminated immediately.” Again, a gasp went around most of the table. Jacques
de Vries was iconic, the founder of this massive global hotel company. “And,”
Lewis paused and looked straight at Madeline, sending her nerves jangling in
panic. “Madeline Holland, who will take up her position as COO, Australia and
New Zealand division, as planned.”
Madeline’s
breath huffed out and she tore her eyes from his face. Kay’s somber expression
lightened considerably, her relief evident that she hadn’t persuaded Madeline
to return to the Southern Hemisphere after twelve years away, only to be made
redundant.
Madeline
envied her friend her ignorance. How, she wondered, agonizingly close to
tears, could she ever live this down?
Her gut
jumped again as she realized Lewis Goode’s eyes still bored into her face. Get
me out of here, she prayed.
Lewis smiled
thinly, as if he could clearly see the path of her thoughts. “Your reputation
in operations and administration precedes you, Ms Holland. Your first job will
be to relocate the Head Office of Premier from Singapore to Sydney. I look
forward to working closely with you on that.”
Kay nudged
her, smiling, but Madeline was still reeling by the force of his gaze and his
smile; the inflection he placed on the word ‘closely’ – and by the fact that
he had just given himself away. Your reputation precedes you... so he
had known exactly who she was last night.
Somehow she
pasted a semblance of a smile onto her mouth and held it there, but confusion
and a slow-burning anger nipped at the heels of her panic.
Finally Lewis
took his eyes off her hot face. “I look forward to getting to know all of you
over the next few days while we enjoy the annual Premier conference in this
beautiful part of New Zealand’s South Island. But now, I would like to talk to
the Board of Directors, so if everyone else would kindly excuse us.”
A flurry of
chairs scraping and excited whispers ensued while everyone not at the head of
the table rose and collected papers and briefcases. Madeline kept her head
down and forced herself not to push as she made for the door. Thankfully, once
outside, Kay was diverted by several colleagues, giving Madeline a chance to
regroup and compose herself.
The delegates
huddled around Kay. “Did you know about this?”
Kay shook her
head. “I’ve heard rumors but I don’t think
anyone expected it so soon.”
Madeline
leaned against the wall, the conversation largely washing over her. Everyone
wanted to know how this could happen, or more importantly, how the powerful
Jacques de Vries could have allowed it to happen.
Madeline
couldn’t care less about the former CEO. She wanted to know what the new CEO
had been thinking of when he’d whisked her to bed last night. Unbidden, her
mind bombarded her with myriad images of well-honed muscle and sinew over
tanned skin, the feel of him wedged deep inside her body, his lips pulled back
in a grimace of ecstasy.
She pressed
against the wall, her nipples tingling with the memory. Twenty-eight years old
and she hugged a wall, feeling ashamed and insignificant. She was transported
back twelve years to another episode of her own making, the one that
instigated her decision to leave her mother, friends and home town. Madeline
had worked tirelessly to erase the insecure, inhibited girl she’d been. And
she thought she’d been successful.
Oh, why had
she let Lewis Goode seduce her last night?
Kay broke
away from the group and turned to her. “I could use a drink,” she muttered.
“My office or the bar?”
Madeline
pushed away from the wall. “Office.” Anywhere, she thought, away from people.
“I’m sorry,
hon. I didn’t see this coming.” Kay stopped at her secretary’s desk and looked
at Madeline. “Is chardonnay okay?”
Madeline
nodded and Kay requested a bottle and two glasses be brought up from the bar.
They
continued on into Kay’s office.
“I should
have warned you this was a possibility.”
Madeline
shrugged. How could she be anything but grateful to her old school friend?
While she’d been relentlessly climbing the corporate ladder, it was Kay who’d
kept an eye on her mother, who notified her of the old woman’s slide into
Alzheimer’s Disease, who’d persuaded Madeline to apply for a job closer to
home. She’d even organized her mother’s move into the retirement village.
Kay plopped
down behind her desk, gesturing for Madeline to sit. “But I honestly thought –
we all did – that Jacques was way too strong to let something like this
happen. He started this company, you know.” Kay raised her cell phone and
began to text expertly. “Obviously the board of directors thought
differently.”
Madeline had
never met the former CEO but his name was legend in the hotel industry.
Premier Hotel Group was largely Australasian but there were a smattering of
hotels in the United States, where her old company, Global Hospitality, was
based.
Kay’s face
brightened. “You must be relieved not to have to reapply. I wonder if that
applies to regional managers.”
“Your guess
is as good as mine,” Madeline murmured distractedly. “Tell me about Lewis
Goode.” After all, she only knew the little stuff, like the naked desire in
his eyes as he’d slowly undressed her, the heat of his skin when she touched
him. His clever hands and mouth...“I’ve heard his name, I think...” Not
last night, she hadn’t... “But I didn’t realize he had anything to do with
the hotel industry.”
“He doesn’t,
to my knowledge.” Kay waved her fingers vaguely at the coffee table behind
Madeline where she kept her stash of business magazines. Madeline rifled
through a couple.
Her
heartbeat kicked up when Lewis Goode’s handsome, somber face stared up at her
from the second magazine. She obviously read the wrong business publications.
The face was unforgettable.
“He owns a
lot of companies, notably Pacific Star Airlines,” her friend went on. “Bought
it for a song about five years ago and now it’s the second biggest airline in
the Pacific.”
Madeline
stopped poring over the photo and flicked to the article, justifying her
ignorance by acknowledging the geographical distance. After all, she’d been
based in the States and came home rarely. And she’d only applied for the
Premier job less than a month ago.
How did he
know who she was? And why didn’t he disclose his identity? Never mind that in
the surreal ambience of the Alpine Fantasy Retreat, the scene of last night’s
unexpected rendezvous, they’d playfully decided not to divulge any personal
details to each other, including their names. What was he hoping to gain,
apart from a cheap thrill? Madeline wasn’t in a position to assist with the
corporate takeover.
She was,
however, in an unenviable situation. “Hopefully he’ll play with his planes and
leave the hotel business to those who know it.”
“From what
I’ve heard, he’s sharp, a hands-on boss,” Kay commented.
Oh if only
you knew,
Madeline thought.
