The Satin Sash by Red Garnier Read Free Book Online Page B

this case it wasn’t business, but pleasure.
    Ahh yes. Pleasure.
    Pleasure with Toni.
    Falling back on the bed, he texted a short message. Just four words. Four little words that any second now would pop up in Grey’s cell phone.
    I want the sash.

Chapter Three
    “. . . Yes, Mr. Hawkins, I will deliver before Thursday so you can make a prompt decision. . . .” Puttering around the bathroom in her bathrobe,Toni tucked the phone to her ear and frowned at her reflection.
    Setting aside the towel she’d been drying her hair with while Mr. Hawkins repeated his wish list for her upcoming design, she braced a hand on the sink and leaned closer to the mirror. A red oval colored a patch of skin between her neck and shoulder. It was sensitive to the touch, triggering a not-unpleasant burn. A warm, delicious pleasure washed through her as she realized how it got there. Grey.
    “Elegant and bold. Make it clear we’re taking on the world. I’m counting on you to deliver,” Mr. Hawkins was saying.
    She brushed her damp hair, shifting the phone to the opposite ear. “And deliver I will, Mr. Hawkins,” she assured. “I’m certain you’ll be extremely pleased with it. I’m mixing gold, black, and a deep royal blue, and playing with a combination of fonts that will absolutely delight and shock you. Oh, and a very catchy slogan I’m working on.” If my lover can get his hands off me, that is . . . and if I can concentrate enough rather than think of him, his friend, and the possibility of fucking both of them....
    “Good. Good,” she listened to him say. “And I hear you have a shot at Viscevis. That true?”
    Viscevis.
    Her stomach gripped. She set down the brush, admitting, “It’s true.”
    She still could not comprehend how that happened. A multimillion-dollar merger, where the merging companies wanted to combine their existing logos into a new one.
    A task Toni continued to find daunting. A task she secretly suspected should be handled by a large firm, someone with more experience. A task that might just be a wee bit too much for her.
    One existing logo was sharp and elaborate; the other heavy and solid. Combining them in a harmonious fashion seemed impossible, and yet she desperately wanted to land Viscevis.
    Your work has heart, Miss Kearny. I like that....
    “The old man said your work had heart. He’s been promoting you.”
    “Well, I’m . . .” Shocked. “Pleased to hear that.”
    And dearly hoped “old man” Mr. Preston—already promoting her while she still had forty days to deliver her proposal—wouldn’t have reason to regret it.
    As soon as she and Hawkins finally hung up, she caressed her neck and got a fuzzy feeling in her stomach. Grey. She sauntered into the bedroom to rummage through her closet. His side was predictably in perfect order. Pants lined up by color, shirts and coats lined up by color, ties lined up by color. Her side was a mess, but somehow among that mess Toni had full knowledge of where she kept everything, and she refused to feel guilty about being a tad disorganized.
    In fact . . .
    Reaching into his side with a wide smile, she switched a black pant to the area of his gray ones, then brought a shirt from the top and stuck it between his jackets. “There we go, baby. Let’s get you a little messy.”
    She anticipated what he’d do tomorrow morning. The same thing he’d done yesterday and the day before. He wouldn’t say a word and quietly set his clothes back in order.
    When a morning came when he said something about it, any thing about it, she’d celebrate.
    Moving to her tangled section, she rummaged through her tops, thinking he was up to something. Something . . . wicked. Grey worked that way. He plotted and schemed and planned, and Toni knew, without a doubt, he had some plans for her sash.
    She didn’t know what to do.
    She knew he’d turned the possibilities around in his head while he’d twirled her sash around and come to a decision.
    There was no moving