Managing Supervisor
Noelle returned the report to the folder and leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. She visualized Larry, restless and tormented, married to a woman he did not love, caught in a trap baited with his own weaknesses.
His new job with the airline might slow Noelle’ s plan down a bit, but she had patience. In time she would bring Larry to her. Meanwhile there were certain steps she could take to move things along.
Ian Whitestone was delighted to be invited to lunch with Noelle Page. In the beginning he had flattered himself that she was attracted to him, but all of their encounters had been on a pleasant but formal basis that let him know that he was an employee, and she was an untouchable. He had often puzzled over what Noelle wanted of him, for Whitestone was an intelligent man, and he had the odd feeling that their random conversations meant something more to her than they meant to him.
On this particular day Whitestone and Noelle drove to a small seaside town near Cape Sunion, where they were having lunch. Noelle was dressed in a white summer frock and sandals, with her soft blond hair blowing free, and she had never looked more beautiful. Ian Whitestone was engaged to a model in London and while she was pretty, she could not compare to Noelle. Whitestone had never met anyone who could, and he would have envied Constantin Demiris except that Noelle always seemed more desirable to him in retrospect. When Whitestone was actually with her, he found himself slightly intimidated. Now Noelle had turned the conversation to his plans for the future, and he wondered, not for the first time, whether she was probing on Demiris’ orders to find out whether he was loyal to his employer.
“ I love my job,” the pilot assured Noelle earnestly.“ I’ d like to keep it until I’ m too old to see where I’ m flying.”
Noelle studied him a moment, aware of his suspicions.“ I’ m disappointed,” she said ruefully.“ I was hoping that you had more ambition than that.”
Whitestone stared at her.“ I don’ t understand.”“ Didn’ t you tell me that you’ d like to have your own electronics company one day?”
He recalled mentioning it to her casually, and it surprised him that she had remembered.
“ That was just a pipe dream,” he replied.“ It would take a lot of money.”“ A man with your ability,” Noelle said,“ shouldn’ t be stopped by a lack of money.”
Whitestone sat there uneasily, not knowing what Noelle Page expected him to say. He did like his job. He was making more money than he had ever made in his life, the hours were good and the work interesting. On the other hand he was at the beck and call of an eccentric billionaire who expected him to be available at any hour of the day or night. It had raised hell with his personal life, and his fiancée was not happy about what he was doing, good salary or no.