“Let me guess. If you avoid making decisions while hungry, then business and pleasure don’t mix.”
“Hunger is a chemical reaction in the brain. So is sex. As a rule, I avoid mind-altering stimulants in business.” And he needed to keep that thought front and center. This was a business meeting. Not a prelude to wrapping her legs around him and evoking more of those moans.
Her gaze landed on his beer. He picked it up and took a swallow. “Alcohol is a social lubricant that puts many people at ease. I know my tolerance, so I’m able to observe the common niceties.”
“Of course,” she deadpanned. “Please, go on. You broke it off with Irene.”
“And that was that. Until I sought growth opportunities for the company.”
She frowned. “I’m not following.”
“Ruby Hawk needs additional investment if we want to meet our benchmarks.”
“I thought you were successful.”
“We are. Very much so. But to fully reach our potential, we need to hire new staff, invest in new equipment. I’ve spent the last year researching investors or potential mergers. Then I received a call from Irene’s father, Nestor.” He frowned at his beer. He wished his tolerance weren’t so high. It would be nice to have the edges filed off the jagged memory. “Ruby Hawk developed a revolutionary way to apply biofeedback technology to consumer entertainment. The Stavros Group is seeking to increase its global domination in the video-game industry. Incorporating our patents into their games would give players a whole new way to experience virtual worlds, while our R&D engineers would put them miles ahead of the competition. It’s a slam dunk, businesswise.”
Her eyes narrowed to a suspicious squint. “If it’s a slam dunk and her father came to you, why is Irene blackmailing you?”
How to explain the twisted game his family and Irene’s had played for decades? “I said blackmail was the closest word. It’s not the most accurate.”
Danica put her pen down. “I can’t help if you aren’t straight with me.”
“This isn’t just about me and Irene. It goes back at least a generation, maybe more. It’s not a secret my mother is a Durham.”
Her face was blank. “I don’t know what that means.”
“The Durhams were one of the first families to make their fortune in San Francisco during the gold rush. They helped rebuild the city after the 1906 earthquake. For a profit, of course. But by the time my mother was born, the Durham fortune was gone.”
“Then why do the websites make a big deal about—” she waved a hand in the air “—y’know.”
“My money?”
She nodded, shrugging her shoulders in an apology.
“My great-grandfather on my father’s side. He founded a chain of department stores. The chain failed. He also owned the land under the stores, and that was valuable. Very valuable.”
“Got it. Where does Irene come in?”
He briefly looked up at the ceiling. Nestor’s trap still prickled with the sting of ten thousand red-hot pins. “My mother was engaged to Nestor Stavros. She broke it off with Nestor the night before the wedding and ran away with my father. See, Nestor hadn’t made his money yet, but my father stood to inherit millions. However, he wasn’t invited to join the right country clubs. She restored the Durham bank account and he got to play golf where he wanted.”
Danica’s mouth had been hanging slightly open. She closed it with a snap.
“Irene and I knew the family history.” He laughed. There was no amusement in it. “It was probably what initially attracted us to each other. And Nestor didn’t seem to care. I even interned for him when I was an undergrad at Stanford. When he approached me about acquiring Ruby Hawk, it seemed like the rational answer to both our businesses’ needs.”
“But it wasn’t,” Danica said softly.
His mouth twisted. “No. He wants to take my company away from me. Like my father took my mother away from him.”
It hurt to say the words out loud. He’d worked so hard to distance himself from the toxicity that surrounded him growing up, the constant stream of new stepparents and stepsiblings appearing and disappearing. He threw himself into writing code, the static language reassuring even as he manipulated it to do new things. To have control of his legacy be threatened thanks to a marriage that barely survived his birth... He took a deep breath and returned his focus to his companion.