Chapter 15
As soon as Larry had closed the door, Jed took his hand off Edythe's mouth.
"Jed. how could you? We are not engaged! We are not going to be married in August! And where did you get that date! August twentieth! I'm not going to marry you on August twentieth or thirtieth or fortieth or-"
"Want to bet?" said Jed. "It sounds like a nice date, easy to remember. I pulled it out of the air. Let's go home and talk about it."
"I am not going to talk about it," she stormed. "You take too much for granted! I don't like being bossed! And I plan to buy some of Russell's stock! You can't have it all! If you think you can get a majority of the stock and run everything your own way, you're mistaken! I may not know everything about the trading stamp business, but I'm learning!"
So was Jed learning. This was no pliant, gentle sweetheart, willing to let her man decide everything for her. Edythe was an adult, well-schooled in a bitter post-graduate school of experience. Her father had tried to dominate her and bend her to his will. An Italian lover had used her and deceived her. Russell Thorpe had charmed her, then ripped off his mask to disclose a frightening, ruthless bully.
Edythe was willing to fight it out then and there. Jed had other plans.
"I would prefer not to quarrel where we can be overheard," he said stiffly. "Shall we go somewhere-your apartment, perhaps? We have a lot to discuss."
She paused in her tirade, the flush dying in her cheeks. "Oh ... No, Greggie would be upset. I suppose it would be better...." she hesitated.
"To go to my place? Okay," he agreed, concealing his delight. "I stocked up on food, so we won't starve-in case you stay for dinner," he hastened to add.
"I don't plan to stay," she said sternly. "We must discuss several business matters, then I'm going to leave. We can't go on and on with an affair-"
"Do you want the whole office to hear you?" he interrupted. "Architects don't build thick walls much any more, you know."
"Oh, very well! Let's go." She stalked out ahead of him. She insisted on driving her own car over to his apartment, so she would be able to leave whenever she was ready.
Evidently the weeks that they had been apart had hardened her resolution to go her own way. But remembering the hidden passions in Edythe, Jed did not anticipate a great deal of trouble in persuading her to stay all night. The problem would come in persuading her to marry him.
Going up the elevator from the garage to his apartment, he studied the cool profile of the woman he loved. To look at Edythe one would not guess she was so ardent a lover as he had discovered. And she could be as stubborn as she was fiery. He would have his hands full managing her.
In the apartment, Edythe sat down to talk. Jed went to the kitchen.
"No wine for me!" she called after him. "And I won't stay long!"
He grinned to himself wickedly, and got out the ice bucket, the bottles of champagne and two glasses. When he brought them back to the living room, Edythe frowned.
"I said I don't want anything!"
"I don't know about you, but I feel like celebrating," said Jed. He popped the cork. "I've been worried for months about what Russell Thorpe was going to do to me. Now that we've licked him, I'm celebrating."
He poured a glass slowly. The cool champagne bubbled, frosting the glass. He saw her watching, fascinated, wanting some, yet dreading the effects that wine had on her inhibitions.
"Just a sip?" he suggested, holding out the glass.
She hesitated, then accepted it. "Well-all right. One glass, no more!"
"Don't worry. I could drink the whole bottle." He began to laugh. "When I think of the look on Russell's face as he finally realized we had fooled him! All his fine schemes bursting like balloons! He turned purple, completely purple."
"I thought he would have a stroke," Edythe shuddered. "Oh, I'm glad that's over. Right up to the last minute,-I was afraid he'd pull something horrible."
Jed raised his glass. "To our victory!" he toasted themselves.
She smiled. "To our victory." She sipped, added meditatively, "It was really your victory, Jed. Russell had Larry and me hypnotized like a bunny rabbit before a snake."
"What would you have done if we had merged, with Russell in full control?" He added more champagne to her glass, then filled his, and sat down on the couch beside her.
"I suppose I would have stuck around for a while, then sold out at the best price I could get. And Russell would have had the works, at a very cheap cost to himself."
"I'll talk to the company lawyers again tomorrow and make sure Russell doesn't issue any orders before they find out Russell no longer is in control."
"Can he do anything more, Jed?" She gulped the rest of the drink. He filled the glass, and she did not protest. "It still scares me, the way he came so close to taking everything."
"From now on, I'll be on my guard. And I'll follow the advice Mavis gave us-we'll keep things in the family. No more little stockholders from outside. They don't care enough and know enough about the business.
Another Russell Thorpe could fool them."
"That reminds me. Our warehouses have barrels and boxes of your merchandise." Edythe made a final attempt to be business-like, though she was lolling back on the couch and the skirt of her sheath dress was riding up on her sleek legs.
"Dan Foust can go over and figure things out. I'll speak to him tomorrow." He was feeling a little woozy himself, from the hot July day, the excitement, the cool champagne, and Edythe within his reach for the first time in weeks. He refilled the glasses.
"You're ... getting me ... drunk," she accused, her dark blue eyes trying to focus on him.
"We deserve to celebrate," said Jed. "After all those weeks of fighting and waiting. Waiting was the worst. I kept expecting the roof to fall in on me. Weren't you worried while you waited?"
He put his arm around her with seeming casualness. She stiffened, then relaxed and put her blonde head on his shoulder.
"Horribly worried. I hate waiting. Sitting around, wondering what he was up to, if he would discover ... about us ... and figure out ... we were ... together." She yawned the last words, and nestled against his side.
He moved his hand coaxingly up and down her side, pausing at the leg, pausing at the soft breast. "When we were together," he murmured, "it never seemed so bad. But when we were apart, the hours crawled, the weeks were years." He kissed the top of her head.
"Oh, Jed. Don't try ... to boss me," she said, "I hate ... being pushed around...."
"I don't want to push you around, honey," he said, his hand stroking slowly over her leg. "I just want us to be happy ... together ... always together...."
"Afraid of marriage. Men change," she said, cuddling closer. Her skirt rode up farther above her knees.
He set down his glass and devoted himself to arousing her sensual desires. His left hand slid over her smooth knees, back and forth, against the sleek flesh. His right hand went to her breast and cupped it, as his right arm held her tightly. Her breathing was faster. His left hand moved daringly.
"Don't-"
"You want me, too," he said. "You want me. All your lovely, long length of body wants me. All your sleek, soft, silky body wants me." His hand sought, coaxed, commanded.
Presently he was able to press her back on the couch. His hands slid up the hem of her sheath dress to her waist, then eagerly pulled down the sheer panties. She was bare to the waist, lying lax and sleepy-eyed on the couch cushions.
He stood up, pulled off his trousers. Then he lay down beside her, his body reaching greedily for hers. She shifted to lie flat against him. He fitted himself smoothly to her and moved hungrily.
She was warm and ready, loosened by the champagne and her strong desires. All her being seemed to expand to embrace him.
"Oh-Jed-oh-Jed-Jed-" Her soft refrain was beginning. He looked at her face, smiled with satisfaction at the tightly closed eyes, the open red lips. Her red tongue licked her lips. Her head turned sharply to one side, then the other, as he went on.
He twisted his hips, swung them slowly, tantalizingly. A cry burst from her. She was eager, as eager as he was.
He held her and worked fast, brought them both to the peak of pleasure. Then, suddenly, the storm broke over the mountain. Lightning ripped through them, they shuddered in the ecstasy of the heat waves thrilling their bodies, and then the soft warm rain flooded them.
He lay beside her, holding her, thinking how he had won again. Edythe simply could not resist his direct appeal to her flesh. That they were in the same work, loved the same music, danced perfectly together, and wanted children-those were extra added attractions right now, as far as Jed was concerned. This came first, the way they reacted to each other's flesh, the way ecstasy was built between them in a few minutes.
Edythe's voice came to him as a shock. "Jed, you're a devil," she said angrily. She tried to get up. He held her, his arms tightening around her in the limited space of his couch.
"Why? Didn't you like it?" he reproached. "I thought it was perfect."
"Let me get up! Jed, you just use me! You boss me around as much-as much as any man ever did! Just because you're charming and subtle doesn't hide the fact. You-you manipulate me!"
"Is this what you mean by manipulation?" Jed teased, his hand on her body. She tried to push his hand away, tried to wiggle away, but failed.
"No-I mean-Jed, stop that! I mean you try to get your own way-Jed! I won't let you! You want to be president of the company and you'll do anything to-Jed!"
He closed her mouth with kisses. Later on tonight, after she was tamed and tired, he would explain his position and what he wanted. And much later, when they were married, she would gradually find out that he intended to run the company with Larry's help. He had another position in mind for Edythe, as wife and mother. He fully intended for that to be a full-time job for her.
But he had his hands full. And he would always have his hands full with her, he realized, as he tried to coax her to make love. It took more champagne and more kisses and more manipulations before she went with him.
However, it was worth it, he decided, stripping off his clothes, eyeing Edythe's willing body stretched before him on the bed. The future looked exciting, promising.
Life with Edythe would not be dull. She would battle him sometimes. But as long as they could meet each other this way and make up all their differences, he would be satisfied.
He made ready for the next round of their battle.