Who's on Top? by Karen Kendall Read Free Book Online Page A

charming to her one moment and then insulting the next. And if there was one thing he hated, it was not being sure. Dominic had built a career on his confidence. And it was genuine—because he knew he was good. He wasn’t simply a cocky poseur; he was the real thing.
    Right now it didn’t matter if he was good or confident, however. He was being knocked off balance by a woman who didn’t play according to any rule book or ethical standard familiar to him. Arianna made up her own version of morality, and Jane was her puppet.
    Dom drummed his fingertips on the taupe leather seat. If he didn’t figure out how to beat these women at their own game, that leather seat wouldn’t belong to him for long. He’d be fired and lucky to be behind the wheel of a hot-dog cart.
    He got out of the Jag and stood in the rain, pondering the situation from every angle. The image of Jane’s mortified face as she’d settled her glasses onto her nose brought a smile to his face.
    There was no doubt in his mind that she was as attracted to him as he was to her. And if that was her Achilles’ heel, well, then…he intended to nibble on it. Among other things.
    See Jane squirm. See Jane moan. See Jane beg.
    If those two women could play dirty, then so, by God, could he. Dom tossed his keys in the air, palmed them again and hit the Jaguar’s lock button by feel. Then, with a tuneless whistle, he sauntered across the parking lot and inside.
    Â 
    A RIANNA D U B OSE WAVED AT J ANE as she walked by her open door. She held up a finger, as she was on the phone, but motioned Jane to come in and sit down opposite her desk.
    As she waited for the female vice president to finish the call, Jane took stock of her one more time. She’d met Arianna a few times at business functions. She’d spoken at the local Kiwanis Club, and they’d sat next to each other at the last Executive Women in Business luncheon. She vaguely remembered that Arianna ate nothing, absolutely nothing, but meat.
    Arianna was exceptionally well groomed and studded with diamonds at her ears, fingers and neck. Each rock was at least a carat of success and brilliance. She sported a platinum wristwatch, blood-red nails and lips and black helmet hair.
    Jane caught a glimpse of black lace under the woman’s business blouse—interesting—and told herself not to be bitchy when she noticed that the VP’s bustline seemed unnaturally firm and unforgiving. If Arianna had been surgically enhanced, it was none of her business.
    Jane didn’t deliberately listen to Arianna’s conversation, but she couldn’t help picking up a few tidbits.
    â€œNo, Harold, that’s not acceptable. Absolutely not. I don’t care what the excuses are—you’re meeting that November deadline, whether IT comes through or not. If you have to go door-to-door and fill out the surveys by hand, then so be it.”
    â€œHarold. Harold, don’t even think about threatening me. You quit now, I’ll make sure you never work in pharmaceuticals again. Got it? Good.” Arianna hung up the phone with a snarl but immediately downshifted it into a warm purr for Jane’s benefit.
    â€œJane!” She surged from behind her desk and grasped both of Jane’s hands in her cold, dry ones. “How are you?”
    â€œFine, thanks. How are you?”
    Arianna waved in irritation at the phone. “Oh, just working out a few kinks with marketing on a new product. These guys are like a bunch of slow toddlers, for God’s sake! I can’t keep wiping their noses for them. They know what the market demands and they know what it takes to keep our competitive edge. Idon’t want to hear their pathetic whining about how they can’t make deadlines.”
    Jane nodded in sympathy.
    â€œMen fall into two categories,” Arianna expounded, “toddlers or teenagers. The toddlers whine and cry and are generally incompetent,