Free Insecure by Ainslie Paton

aircraft. Jacinta had her eye firmly on the prize and not one of the other leadership team members had the ear of the board or was close to being anointed in Malcolm’s stead.
    Mace squeezed her foot. “But you work for him?”
    â€œShocking human being. Great businessman.”
    â€œYou admire him?”
    â€œI...why am I telling you all this? You work for him too.” Though were it not for Mace being seconded to the takeover project and everything going bad yesterday, he’d never be in the same airspace as Malcolm, let alone close enough to hear him shouting.
    He dragged his knuckle down her instep and she closed her eyes. She was telling him because she liked what he was doing and it was oddly comforting to have someone to talk to other than Jay, and because Jay knew Malcolm she didn’t talk to him about this stuff.
    â€œNo. I don’t admire him. Objectively I respect what he’s done, what he’s achieved, but he’s a deplorable person and there is nothing to admire in his lack of basic human decency.”
    Mace’s hands moved to her calf. Those clever fingers knew what they were doing. “What do I get if I keep talking?”
    His thumbs rolled in small circles across the muscle. It was answer enough. “It’s complicated. I do hate him, but I have to respect what he gets done. When I take over I’ll do it differently, but I’m not naive enough to think it’ll be easy. There’ll be sacrifices. There won’t be much of a personal life. But I’m okay with that. It’s a small price to pay.”
    â€œYou think that’s small?”
    â€œYou think that’s ridiculous.”
    He shook his head.
    She sat upright and almost pulled her leg away from his hands. He couldn’t possibly understand what drove her, or the thrill the business gave her. “Tell me—you think it’s insane, don’t you?”
    â€œWhy do you care what I think?”
    She settled back with a laugh, but she did care. She cared what the odd geek from IT thought about her, which was worse, so much worse, than wanting him to drag her into the bedroom and go caveman on her body. The latter was simply physical.
    â€œSo, yesterday?” he said.
    He wanted to know how much she had riding on the shareholder meeting. He’d heard the shouting, it was a fair question. If Wentworth shareholders had approved the takeover, the company would’ve leapt from fifth biggest in the league banking table to third. So yes, she’d had a lot riding on that meeting, since she’d convinced the board to launch a takeover of their nearest rival in the first place. No meeting, no vote, no approval, no offer. The target company accepted an alternate bid. There were no prizes for coming second.
    â€œI’ll have a couple of weeks of being in the doghouse with Malcolm and the board, but there’s always Plan B.”
    She got fingers dancing closer to her knee, and the eyebrow.
    â€œOh, you didn’t think I had a Plan B?”
    He moved so suddenly she started. He planted a hand on the sofa near her hip and a knee level with her thigh. His other hand went to the curve of her ear. He squeezed.
    â€œOw! That hurt.” She put her hand to her ear, rubbing the sting he’d caused. He was back on the other side of the lounge before she’d scrambled to a sitting position. “What did you do?” He hadn’t squeezed that hard, but her ear still smarted.
    â€œI’m listening to your body.”
    â€œWhat’s that supposed to mean?”
    â€œPlan A, Plan B, Malcolm, they make you tense, Princess.”
    â€œAnd you can tell that from pinching my ear.”
    He gave her his moustache-twirling grin. It made her forget about her ear and her tense toes. Made her wonder what miracles his fingers might wrought unleashed on the rest of her tension. He was right, she was always tense. It was one of the sacrifices. Like working