LITMIR.BIZ

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Just stay out of my way.”

      She gaped at him. “I’m the president!”

      “You’re an interloper,” Elias said flatly. “Why’d your old man stick you in here anyway?”

      Tallie coloured, certain she knew the real reason. But it wasn’t the one she gave him. “Because I can do the job!”

      That was the truth, just not all of it.

      Elias snorted. “You don’t know a damned thing about the marine business.”

      “I’m learning. I read every report my father sent. I researched AMI in journals and business weeklies. I spent the morning reading the financial statements you put in my office. And I told you I have some concerns—”

      “Which are not necessary.”

      “On the contrary, they are. If Antonides Marine is going to move out of strictly boat building, I think we should be considering a variety of options—”

      “Which I have done.”

      “—and we need to examine the whole marketing strategy—”

      “Which I have done.”

      “—before we make a decision.”

      “And I will make a decision.”

      Once more they glared at each other.

      “Look,” Tallie said finally, mustering every bit of patience she could manage. “We both agree that I can’t leave—for our own reasons,” she added quickly, before he could speak. “So I’m staying. And since I am, I’m getting involved. I’m president of Antonides Marine, whether you like it or not. And I won’t be shunted aside. I won’t let you do it.”

      Elias’s jaw worked. He glowered at her. Tallie glowered right back. And they might have gone right on glowering if the phone hadn’t rung.

      Elias snatched it up. “What?” he barked.

      Whatever the answer was, it didn’t please him. He listened, drummed his fingers on the desktop, then ground his teeth. “Yeah, okay. Put her through.” He punched the hold button and looked at Tallie. “It’s my sister. I have to talk to her.”

      From the look on his face, Tallie didn’t think she’d want to be Elias Antonides’s sister right now. Or any other time for that matter.

      “Fine,” she said. “Go right ahead.”

      She needed time to come to terms with the things she’d learned this morning, anyway. It was far worse than she’d thought—the bet, the house, the deal, the arrogant unsuspecting Greek god her father had his eye on as a prospective son-in-law, not to mention said Greek god’s “file your fingernails” attitude about what her role should be at Antonides Marine. Oh, yes, she had her work cut out for her.

      She stood up. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

      “Yeah, that’ll happen,” Elias muttered.

      She shot him a hard look, but he was already back on the telephone with his sister.

      “No,” Elias said.

      It was what he always said to Cristina. It wasn’t the bead shop this time. As he’d suspected, that had been a momentary whim. But this conversation wasn’t going any better. Whenever he talked to his sister Cristina, they ended up at loggerheads. Usually it happened sooner. Like within a minute.

      This time it had taken ten, but mostly because he was distracted, his mind still playing over the frustrating encounter with Ms President while Cristina rabbited on about how she’d been out sailing off Montauk last week, and wasn’t it beautiful at Montauk this time of year, and on and on.

      Waiting for her to get to the point, Elias had tried to think how he could have handled the irritatingly sanguine Ms Savas differently. Surely there had to be some way to convince her to leave well enough alone and not meddle in Antonides Marine affairs. But he couldn’t think of one.

      She’d flat-out said, “I don’t follow directions well,” and then she’d pretty much proved it. Annoying woman!

      “It was a beaut,” Cristina enthused. “You’d love it. You should come with us next time.”

      Elias dragged his brain back from Tallie Savas long enough to say, “No time.”

      “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Elias. Get a life.”

      “I have a life,” Elias said stiffly, even though he was sure Cristina wouldn’t consider working seventy hours a week on Antonides Marine and another thirty or forty renovating the building much of a life at all.

      “Sure you do.” Cristina sniffed. “Come on, Elias. Mark would love to take you.”

      So she was still with Mark? After what—two months now? Elias supposed it was some sort of record.

      “You could bring Gretl,” she suggested enthusiastically. “We saw her this weekend, Mark and I. I don’t know why you dumped her.”

      And he wasn’t going to tell her, either.

      When he’d met Gretl Gustavsson at a South Street Seaport bar one night, she’d just broken up with her boyfriend and had no interest in getting serious again anytime soon. As Elias had no interest in getting serious at all, they’d enjoyed each other’s company.

      Their relationship, which Elias didn’t even want to describe with that word, had gone on for the past two years—until Gretl started acting as if there was more to it than there was.

      “I’ve wasted two years on you, Elias,” she’d told him a couple of months ago.

      Elias hadn’t considered them a waste, but if that was the way she wanted to look at it, so be it. He’d said goodbye, and that was that. He hadn’t seen her since.

      “She’s so sweet. She asked about you.” Cristina waited hopefully and got no response. She sighed. “Well, if you don’t want Gretl, fine. We’ll find you someone else.”

      “No, you won’t,” Elias said sharply. “I don’t need you setting me up with a woman. Besides, I’m busy. I’ve got work up to my eyebrows. And it just got harder. In case you haven’t heard, we have a new president of Antonides Marine.”

      “Daddy told me. And it’s a woman!” Amazement didn’t even begin to cover Cristina’s feelings about that. She giggled. “Do you think he’s setting you up?”

      “No, I damned well don’t!” Though the thought had certainly occurred to him. Still, his father was rarely that subtle. Aeolus took a more shove-the-woman-in-his-face approach.

      And the truth was, Tallie Savas would never be his father’s choice in a woman.

      Aeolus loved his wife, but he had never stopped ogling tall, big-busted Nordic beauties. He’d thought Gretl was stunning, which she had been. But Elias had never fantasized going to bed with her. Because he’d gone to bed with her, he told himself. There had never been any speculation. Never any mystery with Gretl.

      Whereas with Tallie Savas and her miles of wild curly hair—

      “Maybe I’ll come and check her out. What’s she like?” Cristina said eagerly.

      “Nothing special.” Elias made sure his tone was dampening. Then he cleared his throat. “She’s an MBA. A CEO. All business.”

      “Battle-ax, hmm?”

      “Pretty much.”

      “Oh.” Cristina’s disappointment was obvious. “I wonder what Daddy was thinking then.”

      “I doubt he was thinking.”

      Cristina laughed. “He’s not that bad, Elias. He likes Mark.”

      “Which proves my case.”

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