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‘You really can’t forgive and forget?’ She waved at the bare plot. ‘It could be a blank state. Start afresh. Rebuild it. You could do that. You could do anything.’
No, he couldn’t. Not with this. ‘It’s going to happen anyway, Skylar. If not me then it’ll be some other entity.’
Skylar was failing on several levels. To convince him. And to keep this ‘arrangement’ from sliding into something that meant more to her.
Maybe he was right about Helberg but she’d worked her whole life to get to where she was—and if she wasn’t here, then...where? She’d been on this one path her whole life. Not daring to deviate from the plan put in place by her father so long ago. She didn’t know what she was going to do going forward if it all ended—and she didn’t like that uncertainty.
‘You get out of HQ and come to empty plots of land quite often?’ he asked her.
‘I like getting about to see people on other sites. It makes me feel more connected to everyone within the company.’
‘Because it’s lonely in your office going from project to project?’
‘I like people.’
‘Yeah, I know all about how you help everyone, Bernie told me.’
‘You don’t think I should care about people, only profit?’
‘Without profit, those people you like don’t have jobs,’ he said. ‘That’s the rapidly approaching possibility for half of Helberg’s employees. Sure, some divisions are doing well, but some definitely aren’t. Study the numbers, Skylar. I know you can see this.’
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, parts were bloated and ineffectual. Divisions could be run better. Hell, she knew that better than anyone. She’d seen the senior management and their time wasting.
‘Decent management might be able to turn it around,’ she said obstinately.
‘You don’t think Reed Helberg was decent?’
‘Do you really have no respect for him at all? He built a massive company. He did good in the community.’
‘Heinheriteda successful company and proceeded to run it into the ground by focusing on expansion into luxury brands with little relevance to core business. He did limited charitable acts to buy praise and goodwill. To be seen as someone outstanding. But he was a selfish egotist. You know he was hardly in the office in recent years.’
She didn’t want to admit that Zane might be right on that either. She’d hardly seen Reed in the office. She’d heard that in the last months he cantankerously called in with instructions and commands that sent shivers through the finance department.
‘It’s still worth having someone come in and try.’ She drew in a breath. ‘People have invested more than their time in Helberg. They’ve invested their money.’ She tried to make him understand. ‘The old employees share scheme encouraged them to invest—it was considered a sign of loyalty.’
He stilled. ‘Did you invest?’
She shook her head. ‘That scheme was closed to new employees a few years ago. But some of the long-timers did. Now the share price has dropped and those loans aren’t repaid and...’
He inhaled deeply, cursed beneath his breath. ‘Bernie?’
She nodded.
‘Skylar,’ he said quietly. ‘Isn’t that all the more reason to let someone come in and liquidate where necessary and lift the price of assets to the best possible?’
‘People will lose their jobs.’
‘People are made redundant every day. We’ll do our best but the alternative is that it goes under completely and everyone loses their jobs.’ He looked at her. ‘You can’t guarantee security, Skylar.’
Yeah. She knew that. She just didn’t want to. And she still wished someone would try.
Zane drew a deep breath into his lungs, trying not to get distracted by her beauty again. But she came alive when she talked about her colleagues. She cared about those people passionately—her work family. And right now she made such a different picture to the wide-eyed girl he remembered silently watching the world from the top floor. The girl who’d all but crawled inside his shirt when he’d stolen a kiss from her.
He wanted another kiss now.
He liked to ensure his lovers were satisfied but his desire to satisfyherwas on another level. He didn’t just want her satisfied. He wanted her total surrender. He wanted her eyes glowing and her skin flushed and her as out of control as ever. With him. It was insane. Was it really just that interrupted kiss? That they’d not burned out their chemistry at the time, and her father’s rejection had ignited another determination within him? Did he want Skylar this much because he’d been told in no uncertain terms that he couldn’t have her?
But now he could. Was. Would some more. So he would get over it, right?