by Ciana Stone
But even as the thought appeared, he dismissed it. No man in his right mind would pass up a kiss from this woman. So, he put his hands on her hips to pull her up tighter to him then moved one hand on the back of her head and imprisoned her in a kiss that went from zero to sixty on the heat index in about two seconds.
Kalvin knew the moment her lips parted, there would come a day when they'd share more than a kiss. He also knew she was the most dangerous woman he'd ever kissed. Cici Walker was, without a doubt, that rare woman; able to compete in a man's world and most likely win more than she lost. And at the same time, a woman who made a man long to conquer and claim her. He wasn't sure he was that man, but he'd damn sure like to be.
When the kiss ended, she stayed pressed against him for a few moments. “I've wanted to do that since I was eight,” she whispered.
“So, you do remember me.”
“Happy New Year, Mr. Burton.”
“Happy New Year, Ms. Walker.”
She stepped back, gave Edward a smile and then turned to walk away. Kalvin watched her leave then looked at his friend. “Well, that was unexpected.”
Edward laughed. “She's nothing if not surprising.”
“Oh? You've—”
“No, absolutely not. She made it quite clear that she never gets personally involved with a client.”
“Then maybe I should think twice about hiring her.”
“Or consider it your next mission impossible?”
Kalvin grinned. “Excellent suggestion.” He snagged a glass of champagne from a passing server and grabbed a second for Edward.
“Here's to an interesting year.”
As they clinked glasses, Kalvin's mind was already considering options on how best to conquer the challenge of Cici Walker. Perhaps, his first move was to hire her, and then get her tied to his next project.
Kalvin's thoughts returned to the present, and he swiveled his chair around and picked up his phone to place a call. It rang three times before there was an answer.
“Well, good evening, Mr. Burton. I thought you'd changed your mind.”
“About?”
“Calling me.”
“Hardly.”
“Okay, so what prompts this late call?”
“Is it?” He smiled as he pictured her. “Late, I mean.”
“Late for some. What can I do for you?” Her voice carried a hint of amusement.
“Meet with me.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Can't. I'm booked solid.”
“The day after, then.”
“Not available then either, sorry.”
“Okay, when are you available?”
“Friday night, the 8th.”
“What time?”
“Ten.”
“And you thought this call was late? That's a bit late for a business meeting.”
Cici laughed softly. “Oh, that's not our business meeting. We won't have that until Monday morning.”
“Then what happens Friday night at ten?”
“The beginning of our weekend.”
Kalvin was surprised. “We're having a weekend together?”
“Yes, we are.”
“To do what?”
“Get it out of our system before we start working together.”
He wasn't sure what surprised him more, that she'd issued the invitation or that he had gone from flaccid to erect in nothing flat. “You think that's going to do the trick, Cici?”
“Don't you?”
“I don't know. I guess we'll have that answer Monday morning, won't we?”
“Most definitely.”
“Where do you want to meet?”
“I've wanted to get a look at your penthouse at Burton Bay ever since I saw that spread in Vanity Fair.”
“Then I'll expect you at ten on the 8th.”
“See you then.”
Kalvin put his phone on the desk and stared at it. He'd trusted his gut instincts his entire life, and right now his gut was telling him that this weekend was going to have a profound effect on his life. He just wished he knew if that was an omen for good or something quite the opposite.
Chapter Two— February 8, 2019
“No, I don't understand, Cici. This gathering has been planned for some time. Additionally, I expected you to bring the contracts on the sale of the horses, so we could move forward on Monday.”
Russell stood at the window in his office, looking out as he talked. His youngest had the uncanny knack of being able to piss him off with little to no effort. Cici had always had a control issue, and he'd watched her play her games with others. He wasn't about to tolerate her trying that with him.
“Well, damn Dad, excuse me for having a life.”
“Don't play that crap with me. You said you'd be here and you're not. So, this is what's going to happen. Either you're going to have those contracts to me this weekend or I'll find someone else to handle the legal affairs of Heritage.”
Someone tapped on the door of his study and he looked over his shoulder to see his oldest son, Mace, standing there with a package. Sometimes looking at Mace or Mace's twin, Nash, was like looking into a mirror from the past. As his stepmother said about Russell and his first set of twins, “those apples didn't fall far from the tree.”
“This just came for you.” Mace held a special-delivery document package. “From Cici.”
Russell motioned for Mace to bring the package. Once it was in his hand, he looked at Mace. “Thank you. I'll rejoin the family shortly.”
“Sure thing.”
“You were saying?” Cici asked, and then added. “Come on, Dad, you said you needed the contracts there. Not me.”
“Smart ass. But I tell you what. The next time I tell you there's a family gathering, business or not and you say you’ll be here, then you get your ass here. You get it?”
He could tell by the silence that his statement gave her pause. His children didn't work the family business for nothing, including Cici. She was paid handsomely for what she did, enough to afford her lavish lifestyle.
He walked over to the desk and took a letter opener from the drawer to slice open the package. Russell had no qualms about her ability and would continue to use her as legal counsel as long as she remained loyal to the family. But he'd also cut her loose should she prove disloyal because loyalty to family was paramount and every one of his children understood that.
“I'm sorry, Dad. I promise I'll be there next time.”
“I'll talk to you soon.” He wasn't really angry but had learned a long time ago that control often was exerted in simple ways, such as not allowing others to know what you were thinking or feeling.
“Okay, bye Dad.”
Russell set the phone on the desk and thumbed through the documents. It was all there. Good. He'd have Naomie and Nash give them a look, and if everything was to their satisfaction, they'd meet with the other party next week and sign the contracts.
Then they were on go for five more horses in their breeding program. Russell slid the papers into the envelope and put it in his top desk drawer. He then made his way onto the back patio where the family was gathered. For a moment he merely stood there, appreciating the scene.
Heritage land stretched beyond the boundary of the lawn, as far as the eye could see, rolling pastures, grasslands with grain that waved in the breeze almost as if alive, and deep woods that beckoned with the promise of cool.
Add to that the sight of his children, his one grandson and his parents, all laughing and talking, and it was as close to paradise as a man could get. At least in Russell's mind. All that was missing was more grandchildren, and perhaps someone to ease his lonely nights.
“'Bout time you wandered out,” a male voice boomed, interrupting his thoughts.
“Hey Dad, how long you and Mama been here?” Russell asked his father, Robert who sat beside his third wife, and the woman who'd raised Russell, DeLyn Myers Walker.
“You were yakking o
n the phone when we got here. You're as bad as these damn kids, always got a phone stuck to your head or those puds shoved in your ear holes.”
“Ear pods or earbuds, Gramps,” Rusty, Nash's son corrected.
“Buds, pods, whatever. Damn people might as well have the phone surgically attached.”
“Don't pay him any mind,” DeLyn, or GiGi as she was called, said as she got up to give Russell a hug. “How're you doing, Russ?”
“Well as can be expected,” he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. This was the woman who'd made him feel that he wasn't alone when he was a child. Russell knew his father loved him and his twin brother, Richard, but Robert had trouble comforting a child or demonstrating affection. He believed in people standing on their own two feet. Even if they were five.
Robert's first wife, Delores, died from pneumonia-related complications when Russell and Richard were three. He’d been married to his Delores for ten years without having children and when he discovered it was not because they were incapable, but that she didn’t want children, he gave her a big cash settlement and divorced her.
Maisey, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to be a mother and the twins were born eleven months after she and Robert married. Her death was hard on the boys and on Robert. Not because Maisey was the love of his life, but because he wanted his boys to grow up with a mother.
Just weeks after the death of his wife, Robert hired a young woman, DeLyn Myers to be the boy’s nanny. She brought laughter and happiness back into the home and erased the frown that seemed a permanent fixture on Robert's face. A year later, Robert proposed to her.
When they married, Russell and his twin brother, Richard finally had a mother, someone who was happy to hold them if they were afraid, quick to praise their every accomplishment and just as fast to give them a smack to the head when they acted out. She'd been the mother he and Richard had always wanted, even if she was just twenty years old when she became part of the family.
“How're you, Mama?”
“Any better and I'd need a manager.”
Russell smiled and released her. It never failed to amaze him that DeLyn had fallen for his father. Not only were they night and day in temperament, but she was seventeen years younger than Rob. At seventy-two, she was still vibrant and strong, and it was easy to see the remarkable beauty she'd been in her youth.
“How you want your steak, Gramps?” Rusty asked from where he stood at the built-in grill with his father.
“Same as always. Not mooing.” Robert answered.
Russell smiled at the sight. Rusty's mom had hit the road when the child was four months old, leaving Nash to raise him. In Russell's opinion, Nash had done a hell of a job so far. At ten-years-old, Rusty could ride and rope as well as many of the cowboys working the ranch, was smart and polite and just a damn good kid.
Russell did wish there was a female figure in Rusty's life. Every boy needed a mother to add a bit of gentle to the mix. So far, Nash had adopted a no-marriage policy he claimed he took from his father, so Russell had a hard time giving him down-in-the-country about it.
He understood. Nash was a rancher, through and through. Like most of the Walker men before him, he was as connected to the land as a human could be. He didn't give a hoot in hell about politics, and less about legalities. The family, land, crops, and animals were what mattered, and he did a damn good job of acting as co-overseer with Mace. Under the aegis of Russell's power, they helped to manage the operations of Heritage across seven states.
He and Rusty lived on the homestead of Heritage since he spent a good deal of time traveling. They had their own place, but if Nash had to be gone, Rusty had a room at the main house, and Russell made sure he got to and from school and had someone to sit down to dinner with or talk about his day.
Mace, Nash's twin brother, walked from the bar to where Russell stood and handed him a cold beer. “I figure you could use one after talking to Cici.”
A confirmed bachelor by his own claim, Mace was as bad as Russell for not committing to a relationship, and Russell figured it was as much his own fault as it was Mace and Nash's mother who'd abandoned them as children. Russell grunted, accepted the beer and lifted it to his lips for a drink before commenting. “I think it's time we rein her in. Call a meeting of the Board for tomorrow afternoon. I want all of you there. No exceptions and no excuses.”
“Pushing her buttons?”
“Exercising executive privilege. No-shows are no-mores on the Board.”
“Okay Dad, uou got it.”
That was one of the things Russell liked best about Mace. He never questioned, he just did as asked and kept things rolling along smoothly. Not everyone had that talent, but not everyone was as grounded as Mace.
As devoted as Nash, but with a more deliberate manner, Mace's seemingly calm demeanor masked a temper that was slow to boil but once ignited was damn near possible to extinguish. If there was a hard decision to be made, Mace was the man for the job. He'd weigh the options, choose the path that wreaked less havoc and then have at it and God help anyone who stood in his way.
“I know this is family time, but I got some information on that property bordering Heritage to the west.”
“Oh?” Russell turned his attention from the vast expanse of lawn, where his sons Dillon, Riggs, his daughter Delaney and Dillon's wife, Josie were competing to see whose golf drive was the longest.
“Kalvin Burton bought it.”
“Kal?” That surprised Russell. “Really? And his intention?”
“Have you heard about his resort cities?”
Russell bit back a curse. “Don't tell me that's what he has in mind?”
“Afraid so. And the way I hear it, he has plenty of backing. He just needs permits and the study to come back from environmental and conservation proving that he won't be interfering with or endangering any animal or insect species on the protected list, and won't be contaminating the groundwater or any streams, along with keeping in line with air pollutant regulations.”
Russell nodded. “Let's talk more about this tomorrow after I've had a night to think about it.”
“I'm betting there's at least one form of life on that land that's on the endangered list.”
That brought a smile to Russell's face. “Reading my mind, son.”
“We should get Naomie to look into it. She's a genius about damn near everything.”
“Isn't that the truth? We'll talk to her about it the first of the week.”
“Speaking of Naomie, why isn't she here?”
“Because this is a family gathering.”
Mace shrugged. “Your call, but I doubt anyone would object. The whole family likes her. Hell, Gramps would adopt her if he could.”
“She does seem to have that effect on people.”
“Yeah, she does.”
Russell felt a sharp stab of annoyance at the fact that Mace's tone provoked a feeling of jealousy. “Are you interested in Naomie?”
“What man on this ranch isn't? Everyone figures you've got dibs on her, but if that isn't the case, let the rest of us know because that's one special lady.”
How pathetic was it for a man his age that Russell was happy to be spared having to respond by his grandson running over to him with a golf club in each hand? “Come on, Pop. Let's go show 'em how it's done.”
“You bet.” Russell took the offered club, set down his unfinished beer and headed out to the lawn where the rest of his kids were gathered. He didn't look back at Mace but did feel ashamed of the way he'd run from the question.
And he had to ask himself why. He'd made no bones about it to Naomie. She and he were never going to get involved beyond that one kiss. So why did it matter if Mace was interested?
Could it be because Russell still hadn't forgotten that damn kiss?
Chapter Three — February 8th, 2019
It was not at all what she'd expected when Cici answered the intercom that announced her visitor. There was someone in th
e lobby claiming to be Kalvin’s driver.
“I'm assuming you have identification and credentials?” She'd been taught to be cautious. The Walkers might not be a family recognized world-wide, but they also did not go unnoticed. The man pulled out his driver's license and held it up in front of the camera.
“Fine, but that doesn't prove you work for Kalvin.”
“He told me to expect this. Hold please.” With that, he took a cell phone from his jacket and placed a call. “I'm here sir.”
“Excellent.”
Two seconds later her phone rang. “Hold on,” Cici said to the man on the intercom then hurried to get her phone. The caller ID revealed Kalvin's image. She smiled as she answered. “Hi.”
“My driver is there to pick you up.”
“I thought I was meeting you at your place?”
“You do have to get here, don’t you?”
“Yes, but you couldn’t pick me up yourself?”
“As much as I wanted to, no, I got tied up. I'll meet you for dinner, okay?”
“Fine. Where are we having dinner?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“What if I don't like surprises?”
“You'll like this one. See you soon.”
“Fine.” She gave in, ended the call and returned to the intercom. “I'll be down shortly.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
Cici made a quick trip to the restroom, then gathered her purse and overnight bag and took the elevator down to the lobby where she found Kalvin's driver waiting with the doorman.
It didn't take long to figure out where they were headed, but the why of it was still a mystery when the limo stopped, and the driver got out and opened the door for her. Kal appeared in the opened hatch of the jet sitting on the tarmac and started down the steps.
“You look amazing.” He reached for her hand and moved in to give her a kiss on the cheek.
“So do you. Where are we going?”
“To play.”
“Doing what?”
“You'll see. Come on.”