the first thing you’ve said that makes any sense. Zephyr is a very busy man. Why would he take even a few minutes from his jam-packed schedule to besmirch your company’s vaunted reputation?”
“Ask him! All I know is that Très Bon is on the verge of bankruptcy and it’s all that bastard’s fault.”
“First, don’t you ever insult Zephyr Nikos in my presence again. He’s a hundred times the man you are, or could even hope to be. Second, if you’re on the verge of bankruptcy, it has more to do with the way you run your business on the edge of overextension and always have done.”
“His smear campaign has cost me business!” Art insisted.
“Campaign? Now I know you’re lying. Zephyr simply would not waste that much time on you.”
Zephyr enjoyed Piper’s staunch defense, but it was time to step in. “For a man in my position, it only takes a comment here and there,” he said as he walked around the personalized paint chip display that blocked his view of Piper and Art.
Piper’s expression lit up as she unfolded her crossed arms and gave him a bright smile. “Hi, Zee. I didn’t know you were stopping by.”
“I got word Arthur Bellingham was in Seattle.” He gave the other man a once-over, not impressed with what he saw. Piper had been married to this? “I had a feeling he’d come crying to you rather than be a man and face me himself.”
“Be a man?” Art asked in outrage. “I’ve never even met you, Mr. Nikos. How would I get an appointment?”
“Did you try calling my secretary?”
Art checked as if the idea had not occurred. “No.”
“She has instructions to put your call through.”
“You’ve given your secretary instructions about Art?” Piper asked, clearly attempting to assimilate that knowledge with her heretofore stated belief Zephyr had nothing to do with the shift in Très Bon’s reputation. “You had some kind of travel alert set on him, too?”
Zephyr shrugged, not as relaxed as he wanted to appear. “I am a thorough man.”
“You’re a petty tyrant, is what you are,” Art said, blotchy color rising in his face.
The man was every bit the idiot Zephyr had thought him. “Calling me names isn’t the best way to try to get on my good side.”
“Once you’ve set a course of action, you don’t change it. There is no getting on your good side,” the dissipated-looking designer huffed.
“I almost have to respect your foresight in not trying the rational one-businessman-to-another approach.”
“Once I realized you were the man behind the fall of my company’s reputation in the international development community, I did my research. Words like stubborn, highly intelligent, ruthless and deceptively charming are used to describe you. Reasonable is not.”
“But I am a reasonable man.”
“You always have been with me,” Piper agreed with a smile.
“Of course you would say that,” Art sneered. “You two are obviously having an affair.”
“We are engaged to be married,” Zephyr said in dangerous tones the other man would do well not to ignore, “not having an affair.”
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