Close to midnight, Teri sat in bed, her iPad in her hand. Dylan was finally sleeping, something he hadn’t done since he’d gotten home on Sunday. Under great duress and her threatening to divorce him right then, he finally caved and took something she’d gotten from their doctor to help him sleep. He took the pill and crashed within twenty minutes. He’d been sound asleep ever since.
The lights were turned down low, only the lamp on her side of the bed was lit. She generally took this time to talk to Mark, but not tonight. The concern she had for Dylan took up all the space in her mind, because every single day he deteriorated a little further and that worried the hell out of her.
After talking through the latest round of contractual changes with Dylan this evening, she sat for hours with the new changes in hand. From the very first day Dylan had finally confessed to her about his weekend tryst, up until this point, every counter she made, they got with no argument. Wilder, Inc. agreed to every one of her requests within minutes of her emails. Dylan’s stock options had increased, his performance expectations lowered, and he had a firm ‘out’ clause, with no time limit for his future employment. Wilder, Inc.’s plans were actually incredibly good for Dylan. He must have gone there and impressed the hell out of them, because he got every negotiating point he’d wanted, with nothing taken away in the process. That never happened.
Teri had even found an added stipulation she wasn’t sure Dylan had seen. There was an extra five million dollar incentive by signing the contract within a fourteen day period and entering into the execution phase within thirty days. Again, Teri had never seen anything like this contract before.
Yet she still stalled on finalizing the deal.
No matter how good this might be for Secret Networks, Dylan was tanking before her eyes. He wasn’t eating right, he hadn’t run since he got home, and the kids were keeping their distance, which had never happened since he’d stopped drinking. She couldn’t let this continue. So in return she found contractual fault when there wasn’t any.
The problem with her current plan was every condition she fought, they gave in right away. That made no sense. Did guilt or emotion drive Wilder, Inc., because this certainly didn’t feel like business as usual.
On nothing more than instinct, Teri pulled up her email, did a quick reply only to Tristan, not his legal rep, and typed out a hurried message. Her gut said Tristan Wilder wanted Dylan, not just Secret Networks. This time she refused to talk herself out of the action because Dylan kept insisting that was how women handled things, reading more into a situation than what was truly there. She made her message short, sweet, and to the point.
I’ll look over these latest changes and get back with you next week.
Definitely not the message she wanted to send. She wanted to point out all of her husband’s attributes. Actually what she really wanted to say was… What the hell is wrong with you, but her message started a conversation nonetheless.
God, this is a killer, Tristan thought to himself. He took a long swig of the gin and tonic he’d just poured. It was Friday night, or perhaps a better way to mark the date, this was day five of not hearing a word from Dylan.
They had clearly connected—that last kiss was the most intense of his life. Dylan had to have experienced the draw between them. The way he clung to him, so reluctant to let him go. That kiss meant something. It was a game changer. Right?
Wrong. Tristan wouldn’t have gotten through the first forty-eight hours without having called him had Dylan not pushed him off on his wife, ending all communication between them. A monumentally symbolic gesture. Hell, he’d hounded his legal department, paid overtime to get that contract completed in order to send Dylan an email before he broke down and called the guy only to get a very clear message from Teri Reeves that she would handle their negotiations in Dylan’s place.
His phone vibrated for the fourth or fifth time in a row. Julian wasn’t taking a hint. Tristan palmed the cell, sent a text to Julian blowing him off, and looked up when his computer dinged. The email was from Teri Reeves. Tristan frowned and looked down at the time on his computer.
It had to be midnight in Dallas. He stared at the screen. He couldn’t stand seeing another cc’d exchange from his legal department to Dylan’s legal team. He’d given in to every one of their demands, but much like driving past a train wreck, he couldn’t help but look because it was currently the only connection he had to Dylan.
He opened the message from the person who got to sleep next to Dylan every single night. True resentment began to form.
Frustrated, he knew he had to stop this. Business wasn’t personal, yet that was all this was for him. He scanned the one line message. Another week? Everything drove him to urgently push this contract through, because, at its end, he’d get to spend time with Dylan, if even in a strictly business setting.
Lord, what did that say about him? Dylan wasn’t a fifty million dollar piece of ass like Landry referred to him. Pain sliced across his heart. He took another drink before he responded.
I’m afraid I’ll need things tied up early next week, Tristan typed back. He noticed this message was just between the two of them. That was a first. Maybe a mistake? And then another email came through.
He’s a good man. One of the best. That was all the message said. Eight little words. What did they mean? Weary of having this exchange on both a professional and personal level, Tristan paused before he typed a simple sentence back.
I’m very aware. Did those words reveal too much? He hit send and waited, staring at the screen.