by Katie Dowe
“I seem to be doing that a lot. Look, I like this job in spite of the disadvantages and I promise to try and curb my tongue the best way I can. Is that okay?”
His lips curved into a slight smile and he nodded. “Yes.”
“Good. If you need anything else just holler.” She inclined her head and then turned and left.
Peter took up the cup and sipped the excellent coffee, his expression contemplative as he stared into the direction she had gone. She had spunk, he thought grudgingly. She was beautiful and spunky and he wanted her like he had never wanted another woman before!
*****
“I am sorry I am a little late!” Leah hurried over to where Edward was sitting, a little breathlessly.
“I just got here a minute ago, my dear.” Edward’s lined face creased into a wide smile as he looked up at the vibrantly beautiful girl. Leah took her seat next to him, barely glancing at the screen. The place was a little packed than when they had been there last and she had a feeling that people were sheltering from the extreme cold. “How are you?”
“Very good now that you are here.” He reached over and clasped her hands. “You look well. How long do you have?”
“Three whole hours,” Leah told him with a smile. “We can talk about anything you like and make fun at that couple sitting over in the corner. I think they are fighting.”
He laughed softly at that and relaxed, feeling better than he had done in a while. “I think so too. They were here when I got here and I heard the woman saying to the man that she was sure that he is cheating on her.”
“Think we should go closer to them?” Leah asked him wickedly.
He laughed at that and prepared himself to enjoy the rest of the time with her.
Chapter 6
The engine turned over and stopped abruptly. Leah tried again and again but with the same result! Grinding her teeth in impatience, she tried again and nothing happened. She figured that her battery had probably died! She reached for her phone to make a call to the automobile service and realized that her cell phone battery had died as well! “Great!” she groaned and placed her head on the steering wheel. She had lingered inside the aircraft doing paperwork and had told Reginald that she would be fine. Now it was a quarter past six and very dark! She grabbed her jacket and got out, taking up her pocketbook. God, it was cold, she thought drearily as she wrapped her jacket around her. She looked around and it was then she noticed that his car was still there. With a frown, she walked over to where it was and to her surprise she saw him sitting in the back with his head bent as if he was reading something. Before she could knock on the glass, it slid down and his dark blue eyes met hers. “Ms. Grant?” He looked at her with a frown.
“My car died.” She shoved her hands inside the pockets of her jacket. “I thought you left.”
“I sent the driver to pick something up.” He leaned over and opened the door for her to get in.
Leah hesitated and then slid into the soft leather seat. “I am going to need to borrow your phone to call the auto club.”
“I will ask Lenny to take you home.”
“I don’t want to put you out of your way,” she protested.
“I would not have offered if there was any fear of that happening,” he told her coolly. “When you get home you can call the service and have them drive your car home.”
“Thank you.” She slid further into the seat and he went back to what he was doing.
Leah sat there not knowing what to do or how to feel with him being so near to her. She had done her very best to avoid being near him when they were on the aircraft, but this was a small space and she found it very confining. She was acutely aware of his presence. She was not aware that she was fidgeting restlessly until she felt his eyes on hers.
“Am I disturbing you?”
“Yes.” His blue eyes wandered over her face and stopped at her parted lips. Suddenly, the entire atmosphere in the car shifted. Leah felt her breath backing up inside her throat and her skin felt clammy. She had taken her coat off and placed it between them.
“I think I should-” Whatever she had been about to say was aborted as he pulled her into his arms abruptly. She put up a token resistance but her eager body curved towards his and her arms went up and around his neck as his mouth met hers. Fire sparked between them and the air the car became crisp and heated as their tongues battled each other before settling on some sort of rhythm that had them shuddering from the force of what was happening between them! Peter devoured her! There was no other name for it! As soon as his tongue touched hers, the desire slammed inside him and he forget where he was or who she was! It took a supreme control on his part not to tear the clothes off her, so much was the animal instinct that had taken over for him. He pushed her away from him and with his breathing ragged he stared down at her, his eyes taking in her swollen lips. He moved further away from her as the driver made his way to the vehicle and opened the driver’s side.
He opened the partition and handed Peter a package, his eyes swinging to Leah.
“Ms. Grant’s car is not working. I have offered to take her home.” Peter’s voice was cool and informal and if it had not happened to her she would not have known it was the same man who had ravished her just a few minutes ago!
“Of course, sir,” the man said with a nod. He slid back the partition and started the vehicle which took them out of the lot. Leah sat up straight and waited for him to say something and when he did not she spoke.
“Are we going to pretend that did not happen?” she asked him.
“No,” he told her briefly. “Obviously, there is something between us, but I am not going to follow up on it.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t screw my employees.” His voice was so offhanded that it felt as if he was discussing the weather.
Leah bristled angrily. “Screw?” she asked him sweetly. “For a man with so much education, you are very short on vocabulary, aren’t you?”
His eyes flared at that as he looked at her. “It would be a mistake and I am not prepared to make it.”
“So, we are going to continue groping each other and leave it at that?”
“What do you want, Ms. Grant?”
“For starters, the fact that you had your tongue down my throat for the second time gives you leave to call me Leah.”
“Ms. Grant,” he stressed the name deliberately. “What happened between us happened and I am not going to deny that I feel a certain attraction for you, but I am telling you that it stops right here. I am not going to ask you to forget what happened between us, but I am telling you that nothing more can happen.”
“Try and convince yourself of that, Peter,” she stressed his first name and his eyes narrowed as he looked at her. “What we shared both times is the start of something and we both know it.”
He did not respond but went back to the document he had in front of him. She settled back and stared outside, vastly relieved when they arrived at her apartment building.
“Thank you.” She turned to him as the vehicle stopped and the driver hopped out to open the door for her.
He inclined his head without saying anything. Leah picked up her jacket and pocketbook and stepped out. She smiled at the driver and made her way into her building. Peter watched her as she went inside, his expression brooding. She was right! After tonight, he was not going to be able to avoid her!
*****
“I was so surprised when you called, Peter! I have not heard from you in several days.” Candace could not keep the delight from her voice. He had called her that night and asked her out to dinner. It had been short notice but she had gladly gotten ready and was waiting when he sent to pick her up. She handed her wrap to the coat check girl and wrapped her hands around his arm as they made their way to the table.
“I thought we could have dinner.” He forced the smile on his lips. He had to do something to get her out of his mind. He was treading in dangerous territory and he had to pull back! He pulle
d the chair out for her and when she was seated he went to take his seat. The Maître D hurried to their table with an ingratiating smile. The order was placed quickly and a bottle of champagne was brought to their table.
“Now, darling, tell me about your day,” she urged as she sipped her champagne.
He looked at her with raised brows and a slight smile. “Really?”
She laughed at that. “I know. We never seem to really talk. You are not the most open person in the world, darling. I never know what to bring up where you are concerned.”
He drank his wine and looked at her critically. She really was a beautiful woman and would probably make a suitable wife for him. Maybe he should consider it.
“You are right.” He leaned back against the chair and stared at her. “What would you like to talk about?”
“Us,” she said immediately, fluttering her lashes and immediately reminding him why he was not into her. “Don’t you think it’s time you took me out of my misery and made our relationship official?”
“Are you proposing to me?” he asked her sardonically.
“Darling, you don’t seem to want to make the first move,” she protested. “I really like you, Peter, and I think we have a lot in common. We have known each other for years and I would make the perfect wife for you.”
“You like me?” he asked her softly with a tinge of amusement in his tone.
She shrugged elegant shoulders. “You know what I mean.”
“Actually, I don’t. So why don’t you tell me?”
She waited until their meal was served and the waiter had moved away before she spoke. “I am attracted to you and in time I know I could fall in love with you. I have feelings for you that I never had for another man.”
“And you think that that is grounds for marriage?”
Candace’s green eyes searched his expressionless face. “People have been married for a lot less,” she said with a breathless laugh.
“My parents certainly did,” he told her with a cool note in his voice. “My father married my mother for her money. She thought she could handle it and I suppose she did for a time, but then I came along and I suffered throughout my childhood because my father used my mother to get what he wanted and my mother bottled up whatever she felt for him inside her. I never want that for any child of mine.”
“It would never be like that between us,” she said hastily. He had delivered the speech in an unemotional tone but she could hear the pain there. “We have feelings for each other-”
“And that’s not enough for us to make that kind of commitment,” he interrupted her.
“Darling, we have to try.” She reached over and touched his hand. Suddenly, he leaned forward and took her lips with his in a rough kiss! Candace was startled and slightly revolted by the animal-like way he took her lips, but she pretended to enjoy it. He pulled back abruptly and drank down his glass of wine. “Darling, that was something!” she purred as she stared at him.
Peter felt the revulsion coursing through him and detested what he had tried to do! Leah Grant was before him like a barricade!
******
“Are you sure you are okay? You have been awfully quiet,” her father said to her as he handed her a sandwich. She was off today and had decided to come and spend the day with him to find out how he was doing. She had been called this morning and told that Mr. Schulz would not be traveling today again. It was becoming a habit.
“I am fine, Dad.” She forced a smile to her lips as she nibbled on the sandwich. He looked so much better and rested that she felt extreme relief. He had been given the go ahead to start dabbling in his indoor garden and he had been doing so. “I just feel as if I am coming down with something and I am thinking what we could do for Christmas.”
“You were not around for Thanksgiving so I am hoping you will be for Christmas.” He came and sat next to her on the worn sofa and reached for his steaming cup of hot chocolate. “I am even thinking of going into town to rustle myself up a tree,” he said with a smile.
“Dad, don’t you think we have outgrown that tradition?” she protested.
“That’s something we can never outgrow, honey,” he told her firmly. “Remember how you used to make a big deal about Santa Claus and insisted on leaving him cookies and milk?”
Leah laughed at that. “I remember sneaking downstairs to see if I could catch him coming through the window.”
“You used to tell me that I should put in a chimney and that’s the reason why the jolly fellow was not visiting us.”
“And the cookies and milk would be gone in the morning.”
“You found out I was the one eating it when you crept down and saw me. You cried and told me that I had ruined it all for Santa.”
Leah shook her head at that. “I was so mad at you and when Naomi proceeded to tell me that there was no such thing as Santa and the Easter Bunny I did not speak to her for a week.”
Daniel reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “That should have been my job, but I did not want you to think that you were losing all over again,” he said referring to her mother.
“I had you, Dad,” she said softly. “And even if it does not make up for not knowing Mom, it was a lot.”
“Thank you, baby girl,” he told her softly as he squeezed her hands gently.
*****
Leah prowled the length of her bedroom three times before she plopped down on the sofa in front of her bed and put her head back and closed her eyes. She was supposed to take a shower and go to bed but her mind was too active. She kept thinking about Peter. She had no idea what was going to happen where they were concerned but she knew it could not just be business as usual between them! She pulled her hair out and combed her fingers through the long thick strands before getting to her feet to go into the kitchen. She had a half bottle of merlot that she had started drinking the other night while she was taking her bath. She had eaten at her dad’s so she was not hungry. She poured the wine into a glass and took it with her into her bedroom. The kiss; she shivered a little as she remembered how his lips had felt on hers. It was like she had been drowning in quicksand and nothing could save her! She did not want to be saved anyway! She drank down the rest of the wine to soothe her parched throat. How was she going to act around him? What if he brought her with him? How was she going to react to that? She was always told that she had a very expressive face! What if she portrayed what she was feeling for them to see? The last time Candace Lovelace was there, she had felt like scratching the woman’s eyes out, which was ridiculous because it was not like Peter Schulz was hers! With an impatient sigh, she headed to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for bed.
*****
“Please, have a seat.” With a wave of his hand, he indicated one of the chairs in front of his massive desk. His secretary had called and told her that he wanted to have a meeting with her last evening and ever since Leah had been on edge. She had hardly managed to sleep last night and had gotten up early and gotten dressed to come to his office. She had been there once before, but had been interviewed in one of the conference rooms and had not come this far up. The company took up the entire three floors and took up an entire block. His office was on the top floor.
Leah perched on the edge of the chair with her pocketbook clasped in her hands as she waited for him to say something. He looked so formidable with his thick black hair brushed back from his forehead and his face freshly shaved. He had on an exquisite and obviously expensive silver grey jacket suit with the jacket carelessly flung over one of the sofas in the office. He looked up suddenly and their eyes met. “I won’t be needing your services on my private airline again, but I will be transferring you to the commercial flights with the same salary package.”
“Why am I not surprised?” she asked him bitterly.
“Excuse me?”
“You are taking the easy way out, Peter.”
“It’s Mr. Schulz,” he told her tightly.
“Real
ly?” she asked him sweetly. “Do you want to give me the reason you are transferring me or should I hazard a guess?”
“I don’t have to give you a reason. You work for me.”
“Worked.”
“What?”
“Worked as in the past tense. I left a commercial airline because I wanted to go private. I am not going to allow the fact that you cannot keep your libido in check for you to be shipping me off. Go to hell!” She got to her feet and turned but did not quite reach the door before his hand, like a steel band, fastened around her arm and pulled her around to face him.
“I should have fired you the first time you opened your mouth to argue,” he told her harshly.
“Why didn’t you?” she asked him defiantly. Her breathing had accelerated as she stared into his dark blue eyes.
He pushed her away from him and stepped back with his fingers curled into tight fists. “Take the job, Ms. Grant.”
“No thanks.” She took a deep breath to calm the trembling of her body. “Goodbye, Peter.”
His hands slammed against her head and his body effectively trapped hers. “Don’t you get it?” he whispered hoarsely. “I cannot take the chance of seeing you everyday. It’s coming to the point where I am finding it very difficult to resist you.”
Leah stared up at him in shock! The words had been forced out of him and the look of torture was on his face. “So don’t,” she whispered. Her hands came up and touched his face, smoothing the hard lines before touching his lips. That did it! With a low groan, he bent his head to hers and met her willing lips. Leah opened her mouth beneath his and melted into his body, her fingers gripping the pearl grey shirt he was wearing. Peter’s control slipped away dangerously from him as his fingers dug into her small waist! He explored her mouth with a hunger that was new to him and he felt himself hardening to aching proportions as he deepened the kiss. The sound of the intercom on his desk broke through the fog of desire and it took him a minute to realize where it was coming from! He broke off the kiss and shook his head before looking down at her. The ringing persisted and with his hand still around her waist, he walked them to the desk.