“So I think Julian Lodge can fuck himself,” she replied righteously.
“You can rage against that machine, Ms. Jones, or you can look at your options and play this smart.” Ian moved to the receptionist desk where Yasmin sat watching the whole scene play out with wide eyes.
“I haven’t shown myself to be smart in any way,” Vanessa said with an unamused chuckle.
“Then let me show you how to play this to your best advantage,” Ian replied. “Julian is currently in the doghouse. It’s not a position the man is used to. He’s also not used to feeling guilty. Let me broker a truce for you. You have enemies, one in particular. You can’t scare or intimidate your stepson, but I assure you Julian can. I can. You want that man out of your life forever, let us take care of him.”
Vanessa hesitated. “In exchange for what?”
“In exchange for nothing,” Michael assured her. “I’ll help you. I’ll hire Ian to help you. Baby, that was always my plan. I knew very shortly in that you were innocent.”
She ignored him. “In exchange for what, Mr. Taggart?”
“Well, there’s the not suing me part,” Ian began. “You go back to working for Dani. She’s very angry at the thought of losing you.”
“I don’t know that I can.” But it was easy to see she was starting to waver.
“And you give Michael a chance,” Ian finished. “Look, I’ve been dealing with numbskull operatives for over twenty years, and I can tell you how this goes. You can punish him for a while or you can let him grovel and get it over with so you can move on. Unless you didn’t care about him, and then he’s going to have to live with that for the rest of his life because he’s the dumbass who didn’t confess fast enough.”
“I was going to tell her tonight.” His boss was going to make this worse. “I wanted the plan from Hutch and then I was going to tell her. I also needed that report from Phoebe. If she’d taken the money, I was going to pay it back to Julian and get her out of trouble.”
“That’s where you made your mistake.” Ian shook his head. “You got sidetracked. Now, why don’t we find Ms. Jones some clean clothes, cater in some lunch, and talk about how to get everything she possibly can out of Julian before he forgets he’s human and fallible again. A twenty-five percent raise is only the beginning.”
For a second, he thought she would take Ian up on his offer. Her expression lost the blankness, and he saw a longing there. She wanted to forgive him and go on. She wanted everything he’d offered her before she’d found out what a shit he was.
“I don’t care about Michael. He was a means to an end.” Every word that came out of her mouth was steady and cold. Calculating. “I quite like having rich men around. If you think I can get Mr. Lodge to help me with my stepson, then I don’t need to sleep with Michael anymore. I find D/s distasteful. I agree to your other terms.”
Liar. She responded beautifully to D/s, and the instinct to prove that to her and everyone around them rode him hard. He might have if he’d thought for a second she meant a word of it. But he knew when she’d taken on a role. She was playing to type, pulling on the jaded, bombshell seductress like armor around her. She was trying to go to a place where nothing could touch her.
“Vanessa, you don’t have to do this.” He wasn’t going to get pulled into this scene. “I know you, and despite the fact that I’ve been a massive asshole, you know me. You are not this woman. You did not use me. You opened yourself up to me, and now that feels like a mistake. But I promise you, we’ll get through this. And I won’t hide you. I’ll stand right beside you. My whole family will. I’m so sorry I wasn’t smart enough to lay my heart down the minute we met. It’s what I should have done, but I’ve been hurt before, and you were way too good to be true.”
“Yes, far too good to be true.” Bitterness dripped from her tone. “Because what you always wanted was a societal outcast. You were desperate for a woman you can’t bring home with you.”
“My mother is crazy about you.” She’d called him twice since the day she’d met Vanessa, asking when he would bring her out to the ranch. “I told you. My family won’t care about your past, but they will fight for our future.”
“We don’t have a future.” She huffed and turned. “Mr. Taggart, I’m ready to talk.”
“Are you sure? Because I’ve been through this enough to know that you’re only putting off the inevitable. Not that I don’t think you should make him beg. Like go for it, girl. But I know how these things go, and someone’s going to show up with a gun at some point, and it’s easier if the two of you have your shit together,” Ian said.