Intimate Seduction - Brenda Jackson [65]
It was late but Natalie had agreed to drop by. The moment he went up the stairs and stepped into his bedroom, memories of the past few days came flooding back. He still wasn’t sure how it was possible to feel so happy, and a part of him was afraid he would pinch himself to find it was all a dream.
After taking a quick shower, he slipped into a pair of jeans and went into his office to get some work done before Natalie arrived. Settling into the seat behind his desk, he noticed a small notepad on the floor and recalled it was the same one he’d seen Natalie scribbling something in Friday night when he had awakened to find her missing from the bedroom and in here. He reached down and picked it up, wondering if she had a penchant to doodle like he often did.
He opened the notepad and frowned. The first page was filled with several chemical equations that looked similar to the ones Juan had been sharing with them on Gleeve-Ware for the past eight months or so. Why on earth would Natalie have a notepad filled with various formulas?
At this stage of the game, you basically can’t trust anyone. Your competitor will pay top dollar for someone to steal the formula right from under your nose, using any technique they can and anyone they can.
Juan had spoken those very words to him, Chance and Morgan during their meeting today. Now those same words came down on him like a ton of bricks.
He wanted to believe that this was a coincidence, but there was a big GW on the first page above the list of equations. GW for Gleeve-Ware. And his mind was flashing one question: Why would a cleaning lady spend her time writing formulas?
He closed his eyes as several reasons came to mind—none of them he liked. That night he’d found her in this room, had she been copying the formula from the papers he had locked in his desk drawer? It would have been easy to get the key off his key ring, and he would be the first to admit she had acted rather strangely that night.
At that moment he felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. Pain of intensity he’d never felt before chilled him to the bone, and time stood still as he sat there and stared at the notepad, trying to come up with reasons she would have it. He tried like hell not to jump to conclusions.
But the more he thought about it, the more his mind was doing just that. By the time he heard the doorbell, intense anger had replaced desire.
Natalie knew something was wrong the moment Donovan opened the door, and stood back to let her enter and then all but slammed the door shut behind her.
“What’s wrong, Donovan?”
“You left something behind the last time you were here,” he said in a hard tone, holding up the notepad for her to see. “Out of curiosity, I thumbed through it and couldn’t help noticing it was filled with formulas, something I wouldn’t expect from a person claiming to be a housekeeper. Why is that, Natalie?”
She swallowed hard, wishing she had told him Friday night like she’d been tempted to do. “Because I don’t do housekeeping for a living.”
“Evidently.” He rubbed a hand down his face and then looked back at her. “So, how much were you paid?”
Paid? “Excuse me? What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that this notepad is filled with Gleeve-Ware formulas.”
“Gleeve-Ware? I don’t know what you’re talking about, Donovan.”
Donovan inhaled deeply, trying to quell his anger. How could she stand right in front of him and claim she didn’t know what he was talking about when he had the proof right in his hand? Anger mixed with the pain of betrayal and he wanted her out of his sight now before he said or did something he would regret.
“Here,” He offered the notepad back to her. “This is really useless to you since those equations are outdated. The Steele Corporation was one step ahead of you.”
She refused to take it. “Donovan, I have