“You’re not going to allow me to be ostentatious or pretentious, are you?” Amusement showed in his eyes.
“You’re the head honcho of the Dollar Bin empire and one would think you know the value of a lean, mean operation.” She studied him in his handmade, pin-striped suit that had “private English tailor” written all over it. He flaunted his money and his power, albeit discreetly, which she could appreciate. “I’m assuming you want to talk to me about the changes you intend to make to Bennett’s. I would be happy to listen to anything you have to suggest in making this store more efficient and profitable without damaging our customer expectations.”
He said nothing for a moment as though considering her words. “I would like to settle in before I make any drastic changes. Seeing the running of the store on paper and observing it from the outside isn’t quite the same as walking my new territory. My people did have a few suggestions, but I prefer to wait.”
She wondered what he considered drastic and what did his people think needed to be changed? His new territory! She swallowed hard, exerting every bit of self-control she had not to grab him by his three-thousand-dollar tie and yank it tight. She had to play this cool, the last thing she needed was for him to see her unnerved, which she could see he was trying to do.
* * *
“I should think Simon might have objected to your dispossessing him of his office.”
“I hate to speak ill of the vacationers, but my stepfather didn’t care what I did as long as it improved the bottom line.” She tried to act modestly, but sometimes thinking about her stepfather sent her anger into overdrive.
His lips quirked, and she watched him fighting not to smile. He found her amusing and she could use that somewhere down the line.
“My stepfather,” she said, “tended to use the store as a huge ATM machine, and as long as I made sure the ATM kept running, he didn’t care.”
He nodded and gave her a small, indulgent smile as though talking to a child. “I can understand the idea of the day care, but how do you see it helping the store?”
“Number one, it cuts down on absenteeism. It’s free to employees’ children up to the age of twelve. We offer after-school programs as well as day care. Customers who want to use the facility pay for the privilege. People who don’t have to shop with their children shop longer and buy more things. The day care center will be a self-sufficient entity that will pay for itself by the end of the Christmas season and possibly show a profit. I thought I was quite clear with your lawyers about the day care center.”
“I did read the projections on the day care center, I just wanted to hear you say it,” he said, his eyes thoughtful as he studied her.
She tried not to grind her teeth. He wasn’t going to make things easy.
Her stomach suddenly growled, surprising her. She glanced at her watch, barely an hour had passed since the store opened and she hadn’t had breakfast yet. “Can I offer you breakfast in the employee cafeteria?”
* * *
Eli didn’t want to eat breakfast with her. He wanted to find a way to convince her to sell him the land the store was on, get her packed up and moved out before she could disarm him again. She was too charming, too smooth, too much all the things he was attracted to in a woman. He didn’t need her distracting him from his mission. He needed her gone and Bennett’s completely in his hands from the ground up.
Darcy’s late father and Eli’s father had been competitors in a friendly manner for most of their lives. At least until the “thing” happened. That’s what Eli’s father had called it. In the matter of a few months, Eli’s father had gone from a prosperous department-store owner to a bargain-basement store owner.
Eli was never certain what had happened, since his father refused to tell him anything other than the fact the friendly competition had turned to intense hatred —hatred that had broken Eli’s father. By the time Eli had taken over the failing store two months after his twenty-first birthday, his father had turned into a bitter, broken old man and somehow Darcy’s family was at fault. And somehow, a bit of the anger stayed with Eli. He had loved his father and hated to see him just give up after so many years of struggle.
As he followed her down the hall, he couldn’t help but admire the way she looked, from her delicate heart-shaped face and coffee-colored skin to the graceful sway of her hips beneath her skirt as she walked. She had wide eyes that reminded him of Bambi. She was curvy in all the right spots, yet tiny, with a fragile air about her that he just knew covered a core of rock-hard titanium. What had seemed like an easy campaign on paper to get her gone was looking to be a lot more difficult. Especially when she made his blood race and his fingers ache to touch her skin. He mentally shook himself. Darcy Bennett was off-limits.
“Shouldn’t you be out on the floor overseeing the festivities?” he asked.
She glanced back at him. “Everyone knows their jobs. We’ve been doing this for years.” She had an air of smugness about her that irritated him.
“Morning, Ms. Darcy,” a man with a pail and mop said as he wiped down the tile floor. He gave her a sincere smile that reminded Eli of that guy in the elevator. Everyone seemed truly happy to see her. His own employees never looked at him that way.
“Mr. Austin, let me introduce you to John Cook,” Darcy said.
Eli stared at the man, wondering why she would introduce him to the janitor. “Good morning.”
“Morning, sir,” Cook said with a deferential tilt of his head. “Welcome to Bennett’s.”
“John has been the senior maintenance engineer here for fifteen years,” Darcy said in a chatty, casual tone. “We couldn’t keep this place clean and running properly without him.”
Eli tried not to frown. What did he care who kept the place clean, as long as it was clean?
They walked another ten feet and someone else stopped her and again Darcy introduced him, this time to Lisette, a beautiful blonde woman with wide-spaced blue eyes and a thin smile.
“Bonjour, ma petite,” the woman said as she kissed Darcy on one cheek and then the other. She started rattling something off in French and Darcy waited patiently for the woman to take a breath.
Eli tried to be polite, but Lisette continued to rattle on as though Darcy had nothing more important to do than listen to her. When Darcy replied in French, the blonde woman flounced off with a frown, marring her attractive features.
“You’ll have to forgive Lisette, she’s a little excited today. She’s our wedding consultant. The governor’s daughter is marrying a country-and-western singer, and they’re coming in today to file their registry and do some wedding planning as well as their Christmas shopping.”
“I noticed you had a wedding planner on staff,” he said. “She’s an extravagant expense.”
“You’ve looked at the numbers. Ninety percent of the weddings she arranges use our catering service, register with us, rent their tuxedos, purchase their wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, and book the receptions with several banquet rooms that pay us a commission. We even did a theme wedding in the toy department last summer. It was a tremendous success.”
“What are you trying to do, be all things to all people?” His philosophy was to do one thing and do it well.
Darcy shrugged slightly. “In this economy you have to diversify. Bennett’s is an institution in Atlanta.”
“I’ve seen your profit margin. You have diversified too much.”
“Our profit margin is fine.” Maybe not great, she thought, but nothing to be ashamed of. “And by attempting to make the entire process as painless as possible,