Donovans 02 - Jade Island

Kyle’s presence. Unconsciously she moved closer to him, so close she was standing hip to thigh.
    “The complete party animal,” Kyle said under his breath.
    “You’re half right,” she said quietly.
    “Animal?”
    “I’m afraid so.” It was the simple truth. Part of Lianne was afraid of Han Seng. She knew that he was a very important contact for the Tang family. If she insulted him, Harry would be furious.
    And if Seng made a hard pass at her, she would insult him and then some.
    A curt order from Seng had his assistant taking the boxfrom Lianne. The bodyguard stayed where he was, but he no longer watched Kyle with predatory interest.
    Chattering in Chinese, Seng grabbed Lianne’s arm and started down the hall without so much as a look in Kyle’s direction. Kyle didn’t mind the rudeness for himself, but Seng’s grip on Lianne was hard enough to leave dents.
    Just as Kyle started after them, she stumbled against Seng and caught herself in a flurry of hands and elbows. He made a whooshing sound, grabbed his stomach, and bent over. With a smooth motion Lianne recovered her balance and stepped beyond Seng’s reach.
    Before the bodyguard could get off his chair or Seng could straighten up, Kyle was standing between Seng and Lianne and she was apologizing in rapid Chinese for her clumsiness. Seng was too busy trying to breathe to listen.
    “While the boss is gasping and flopping like a beached fish, maybe his assistant wouldn’t mind showing us where the jade rejects are,” Kyle said. “This carton is getting heavy.”
    Seng’s cousin gave Kyle a glittering black look that suggested the man understood English a lot better than he spoke it. Seng barked something and gestured to Kyle.
    “He wants you and his assistant to take the jade to Seng’s suite. Then you’re to wait aboard your boat.”
    “What about you?”
    “Seng will personally show me his jades in the main conference room. He has everything set up.”
    “Where’s this party of his?”
    “Good question. I don’t have an answer.”
    “Do you want me to wait on the boat?”
    “No,” Lianne said distinctly. “It’s been a long few days. Very long. I want to wrap this up and go home.”
    “Sounds good to me. This way.”
    Kyle started down the hall as though the Hans and their bodyguard didn’t exist.
    “Where are we going?” Lianne asked.
    “To the conference room.”
    “Do you know where it is?”
    “Down the hall, turn left, third room on your right. Move it, sweetheart. The host is hell-bent on his own agenda, but I don’t think he’s prepared to be nasty about it.”
    Lianne didn’t need to ask what Seng’s agenda was. She had a very good idea. Too good. Despite all cultural bias, subtlety just wasn’t Seng’s long suit. It wasn’t even his short one. He had made it quite clear that she was expected to lick his feet and any other part of his anatomy he generously bared to her.
    Seng gave curt orders to his assistant, told Lianne with equal curtness that he had other matters to attend to, and turned on his heel. Lianne breathed a silent thanks that Seng was leaving and started after Kyle. Ju hurried to join them.
    “How do you know the institute’s layout?” Lianne asked when she caught up with Kyle.
    “Farmer is big on hands-across-the-water functions. One way or another, the Donovans have come to lots of IAC conferences here in the past four years. Dad even rated the executive pavilion. That was when we had more clout in China than Farmer did. SunCo was courting us at the time.”
    “What happened?”
    “Archer talked The Donovan out of an exclusive alliance with SunCo.”
    “Why? Wasn’t the corporate mix right?”
    Kyle was very aware of the assistant’s footsteps behind them, and the fact that Han Ju’s English was much better than he wanted his guests to believe. “He didn’t tell me.”
    “Did you ask?”
    “You met Archer, what do you think?”
    “You didn’t ask.”
    “There’s the conference room,” was all Kyle said. “The one with the solid gold lotus on the door.”
    Lianne beat the assistant to the door, opened it, and walked in. On a long, massive conference table, pieces of jade gleamed beneath muted overhead lights. An inventorysheet listing the number and characteristics of each artifact also lay on the table.
    “Put the carton over there,” she said to Kyle, gesturing to the table. Then she repeated the order in Mandarin.
    Impassively, Seng’s assistant put the second