Janice Maynard: A Contract Seduction

Last night she had composed and revised a dozen versions. Resigning via a letter was cowardly. Jonathan deserved to hear her decision directly. But she couldn’t do it. She was afraid he would try to change her mind.

Her hands were sweating. Once she did this, there would be no going back. Just as she was ready to approach his desk and place her missive in a prominent position, a deep male voice came from behind her.

“Lisette. What are you doing?”

Rattled and breathless, she spun around, managing to stash the envelope in her skirt pocket. “Jonathan. You startled me. I thought you weren’t home.”

He cocked his head, giving her a quizzical smile. “I live here,” he reminded her.

“Of course you do.” She wiped her hands on her hips. “When you weren’t at the office, I thought I might come out to the house. You know. In case you needed me.” The lie rolled off her lips.

Jonathan barely seemed to register her awkward phrasing. For the first time she saw that his face was pale. And he seemed tense. Distracted.

“Jonathan? Is something wrong?” He couldn’t have known what she was about to do...could he?

He stared at her. “It hasn’t been a great day.”

“I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?” Maybe fate had saved her from really bad timing. This was not the look of a man who would take her resignation with equanimity.

“I don’t know.” He spoke the words slowly, almost as if he were in a daze.

Now his demeanor began to worry her. The Jonathan she knew was sharp and decisive, a brilliant boss who ran his massive company with an iron fist but was also scrupulously fair.

She touched his forearm briefly, mostly because she couldn’t help herself. “What’s going on? Did we lose the Porter deal?”

He shook his head. “No.” He shuffled a few papers on his desk. “I sent you some emails last night. Why don’t you handle those? Then I might dictate a few letters.” He winced and put a hand to his head, his pallor deepening.

Lisette knew about the headaches. She and Jonathan worked together closely, and she was well aware that he had been plagued by the pain for months now. “Have you taken anything?” she asked quietly. “I can see that you’re hurting.”

His grimace spoke volumes. “Yes. But not long ago.”

“Why don’t you go upstairs and lie down? You can forward your cell to the phone here. I’ll come get you if it’s anything urgent.”

Even hurting and not at his best, Jonathan Tarleton was handsome and charismatic. He carried an aura of absolute control. Seeing him so vulnerable was both shocking and unsettling.

“An hour,” he said gruffly. “No more. I’ll set the alarm on my phone.”

* * *

Jonathan climbed the stairs slowly. Reality began to sink in. This situation wasn’t going to improve. He could get another opinion, but what was the use? He’d been to multiple doctors. This last set of tests was the first time he had received a definitive answer.

In his large, well-appointed bedroom, he cursed beneath his breath and admitted to himself that he needed the pills. He had to think clearly, and right now his head felt like someone was using it for a bongo drum.

Once he was sprawled on his comfortable mattress, he lay very still and waited for the meds to work. Knowing that Lisette was downstairs helped. Though he didn’t doze, he let his mind wander. Slowly his body relaxed. Stress was a killer. The irony of that didn’t escape him.

Thinking about Lisette was both comforting and arousing. She had been a part of his life for a long time now. His personal, rigid code of ethics meant that he never acted on his attraction to her. They were work colleagues. Nothing more. He had regretted that at times, but now he should be glad. He was going to need someone in his corner who could be objective about what was to come.

Lisette was a soothing personality. Her competence and complete ability to handle any and every crisis were what had won him over in the beginning. He trusted her with any number of confidential work details, everything from high-level negotiations to financial secrets.

Some men might overlook her. Her brown hair and quiet personality were unremarkable. She had a feminine shape, but she didn’t dress to impress. Her sexiest trait was her brain. She challenged him, kept him on his toes. The truth was, she was as capable as he, though she was always careful not to overstep her position.

Jonathan wouldn’t have cared even if she had. He knew she could go to any company in the country or even abroad and land a prestigious job. For that reason, he had increased her salary in regular bumps to show her how much she was appreciated. And he had given her more and more responsibilities as she proved her loyalty to Tarleton Shipping.

Gradually the tension in his muscles began to ease. The pain in his head subsided to a dull ache instead of stabbing torture. As he began to feel more like himself, an idea bubbled to the surface.

What if he negotiated with Lisette to sub for him over the next few months when he wasn’t able to function? He never knew from one day to the next how he was going to feel. If Lisette was deputized to make unilateral decisions, Jonathan would be able to mentally relax.

Better still, what if she could be the one to save Tarleton Shipping for the next generation? She had the brains and the people skills. And he knew she cared deeply about the company.

It would also mean he could postpone telling his family for a little bit longer. The prospect of hurting the people he loved flayed him. How could he dump that kind of news on them? It might kill his father. Mazie and J.B. were struggling with fertility. They sure as hell didn’t need grief on top of that.

The doctor had said he might have longer than six months. Eating well and getting plenty of rest were supposed to be key. Jonathan was willing to fight, but the odds were definitely not in his favor. If a cure was out of the question, then all he could hope for was time enough to secure his legacy and the company’s future. The more he contemplated the next few months, the more he became convinced that Lisette was the key to it all.

At last he stood and raked his hands through his hair. After splashing water on his face, he studied his reflection in the mirror. He’d taken some hard knocks in his life, but this was the worst. Grimly he weighed the cost of bringing Lisette in on the secret. He couldn’t stand to be pitied or coddled.

There would have to be ground rules. And she had to know this new role was optional. If she said no, he would go it alone.

By the time he padded back downstairs in his stocking feet, almost two hours had passed. Both offices were empty. He found Lisette perched on an ottoman chatting with his father. She always went out of her way to make the old man feel special.

Gerald Tarleton had become a father late in life. Which was why Jonathan, at thirty-one, now bore the sole responsibility for running a mammoth enterprise. He strode into the room, watching both of their faces. Lisette’s was serene. His father tried to give him a hard time.

“Napping in the middle of the day, son? That’s my job.”

Jonathan ruffled his father’s hair and perched on the arm of the sofa. “I had a devil of a headache, but I’m feeling better now.”

“Are you really?” Lisette asked, her gaze troubled.

He nodded. “Really.” After a moment of chitchat about the weather, Jonathan stood. “You’ll have to excuse us, Dad. Lisette and I have a few things to wrap up before she goes home.”

“Of course. Besides, I’ve got to make sure the housekeeper has all the food ready. The boys are coming over for poker at six.”

The “boys” were all Gerald’s age. Jonathan was happy to see his father pursuing social interests. Both Mazie and Jonathan had been encouraging him to get out of the house more. He’d been depressed over the winter, but things were improving.