Chapter 39

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Diana

My alarm rings at five thirty a.m., and for a moment I don’t know where I am.

I’m not under my covers, and I’m naked except for the tatters of my tank top still around my shoulders.

I can’t think about any of that now or what it may mean.

I have to get ready for work.

Figure out how to talk to Rod about the issue with the mountaintop resort plans.

I walk into the bathroom and notice the redness on the tops of my breasts from where Dragon slapped me last night.

It was a strange sensation. Painful, yes. But also…

It was like I felt I was giving him something. Something he needed, and something I needed as well, though I didn’t realize that.

I don’t know what it all means, but I think we both took what we needed last night.

I would’ve liked for it to have lasted longer, but those three orgasms that sent me into a slumber like no other were certainly wonderful.

Ugh. All this time I was so looking forward to this job, so hoping I’d be assigned to this project.

Yesterday, all my dreams seemed to be coming true.

But today…

What am I going to do?

I could ask one of the other architects on the project rather than go straight to the boss.

Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.

I dress quickly today, choosing a black pencil skirt and my black, mid-heel patent-leather pumps.

A crisp white blouse completes the picture. I’m not as comfortable as I was yesterday, but I look a little more professional, and I need to be taken seriously today.

When I walk out my bedroom door and head to the kitchen, I can’t help but notice that Dragon’s door is closed. He’s probably still sleeping. Not that it matters to me. Not that it should, anyway.

I boil some water in the microwave for my French press. Then I add spoonful after spoonful of my special Jamaican Blue Mountain blend. If there was one thing my mother taught all of us, it was to enjoy a cup of strong black coffee.

She’s a coffee snob, and she turned me into one as well.

I pour the boiling water into the pot and let it sit for a moment before slowly pressing the grounds all the way to the bottom.

Then I pour myself a steaming cup.

I take some fruit out of the refrigerator and eat it with my cup of coffee. Then I grab my jacket—black leather blazer—and quietly leave the penthouse to walk to work.

I own a car, and it’s in the garage in the basement of the building, but living and working downtown, I rarely need to use it. I enjoy the walk to work, even in my heels, because it’s not that far. Not as comfortable as the cowboy boots I was raised in, but when I left the ranch behind, I learned to adapt.

When I get to my office, I slide my brand-new ID into the reader in the elevator and go to the top floor.

“Good morning, Ms. Steel,” the receptionist greets me.

“Please, call me Diana.”

“All right. Diana.” She smiles. “How was your first day yesterday? I didn’t see you leave.”

“No, I stayed late. It was good. Thank you for asking.”

She smiles and goes back to work.

I head to my workstation.

I’m trying to decide which of the architects on the project I should approach when one of them walks through my doorway.

“Hey, Diana,” Marcus Luttrell says. “Just so you know, a client sent over a huge spread of bagels and pastries. It’s in the small conference room if you want some.”

“Oh, sounds amazing, but I already ate this morning.”

He laughs, swallowing a bite of bagel. “Hell, so did I. But I never turn down free food.”

I laugh lightly.

Marcus is about to leave, but I stand up. “Marcus, can I ask you something?”

He walks in my office and sits down across my desk. “Shoot.”

I take a seat. “Tell me if I’m being too picky, but I was looking through all the paperwork on the mountaintop project yesterday, and I found something that bothered me.”

He cocks his head. “What’s that?”

“One of the pipelines.” I pull out the blueprint and trace my finger along the proposed pipeline. “Maybe I’m reading the design wrong, but it seems to be a little too close to one of the?—”

He gestures me to stop talking as he swallows another bite of bagel. “I know what you’re talking about. Ledbetter and I have had words about it. Then I was told to shut up.”

I frown. “So you agree with me. It could be a problem.”

“I did some research on it.” He looks over his shoulder and lowers his voice. “Yeah, it could be a problem. But it probably won’t be.”

I gesture to the pencil tracing I made yesterday. “But with some minor adjustments we could eliminate the possibility altogether.”

He holds up a hand. “I know. But those adjustments will increase the budget by about two million dollars, Diana. And that’s the problem.”

“I don’t think the firm is hurting for money,” I say.

He presses his lips together. “No, but the more money the firm has, the better our bonuses are at the end of the year.”

“Marcus, this is a huge project. People will be paying top dollar to go to this mountaintop resort for the time of their lives. They deserve to be safe and comfortable.”

“And they most likely will be.”

I shake my head. “This firm has to have tens of millions of dollars in reserves. I don’t understand why this is such a big issue.”

He rolls his eyes at me, and already I know what’s coming.

I was raised with money. A fucking ranch heiress. Of course I don’t think it should be an issue.

So I’m surprised when he says, “If it makes you feel better, Diana, I agree with you. But I also need my job. The firm is well protected with liability insurance.”

“Any liability would be a PR nightmare.”

He doesn’t reply.

I sigh. “Besides, don’t we have a fiduciary obligation to design the best structure possible for our client?”

“Depending on how much they pay us, yes.”

“Oh, come on. You can’t tell me they’re not paying top dollar for this.”

“No, I can’t tell you that. Because we associate architects don’t get to look at the books. I don’t know how much we’re being paid for this project. All I know is that Reynolds won’t put in the extra money to tighten it up. That’s what Ledbetter told me.”

I shake my head. “I don’t like this at all.”

“None of us do, Diana, but it is what it is.” He shrugs. “This is business. Corners get cut. Money is everything.”

“Money should never be everything.”

He narrows his eyes. “Maybe not to someone who has an unlimited amount of it.”

There we go. I should’ve known. I open my mouth to respond, but he holds up his hand again.

“I apologize. That was out of line.”

I cross my arms. “You may think I’m some spoiled little brat, and I suppose part of that is true to the extent that I’ve never had to worry about money. But I don’t take it for granted.”

He grins. “Maybe if you offer Reynolds a couple million out of your trust fund, he’ll make the adjustments.”

I cock my head a moment.

“Diana…I was kidding.”

“I know that,” I say, flustered.

I actually didn’t know that, and for a split second I was considering it. I can have two million wired into the firm’s account within five minutes.

But that’s not really the best way to start this project.

“If you’re worried about liability?—”

“No. I’ll be the least liable of anyone. I’m the newbie here. But this was my dream project. I didn’t expect to find any issues with it.”

He frowns. “There are issues with every project, Diana. We have to weigh the pros and cons, and one of the biggest pros—usually the biggest—is how much money we’re going to get out of it. One of the biggest cons is how much money we’ll lose.”

I sigh. “Fine. I’ll keep quiet for now. But this is eating at me, Marcus.”

“Yeah, it’s eating at me too. It’s not the first time I’ve seen Reynolds cut corners, but this is the biggest project I’ve seen him do it on. I was taken aback when I realized it.”

“Does anyone else know?”

“All of us on the project. Even Lopez. But we’re all keeping our lips sealed.”

“I guess you’re suggesting I do the same.”

He takes a long breath in before continuing. “Far be it from me to suggest anything to you. I hardly know you, Diana. Whether you carry the Steel name or not, I do know that this firm wouldn’t have hired you if you didn’t know your stuff. They hire only the best here, which means you’re one of the best.”

I sigh. “Part of being one of the best is building the best structure possible.”

“You’ll get no argument from me. In fact, I considered leaving over this. But they pay me a shit ton of money here, and my wife is pregnant with twins. So there you go.”

I nod. I could easily quit. I don’t need this job. But I want this job. I want to work on this dream project.

“Don’t be a fool,” he says, standing. “Chances are nothing will ever happen, and none of it will matter.”

“Yeah.”

“Besides,” he continues, looking over his shoulder before he walks out the door, “you can follow every rule in the book, dot every I and cross every T, and a building could still have issues.” He walks away.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, rubbing the sides of my forehead. Marcus isn’t wrong. In school, I studied myriad projects that went wrong for no foreseeable reason.

But this is foreseeable.

And everyone knows it.

I sigh and pull up my calendar for the day.

Great. At ten o’clock I have a meeting with Rod. Don’t recall seeing it yesterday. He must’ve just put it on my calendar.

I may need a doughnut for this. I get up and head to the small conference room where the spread is set out. A great big glazed doughnut with pink sugar icing.

Perfect.