“At this point, I simply want to get to know my family again. I’m going to expect the press gives us time to accomplish that goal.”
Kate pointed to a reporter in the third row. “Mr. Harrison, what was your reaction when you saw your wife for the first time?”
“Shock.” He pointed to another reporter, obviously not wanting to elaborate or give them anything to go on.
“Ms. Alexander,” the man asked, “how did Mr. Harrison react when he found out you’d been remarried?”
How did the press know that? They hadn’t given any specifics about Jake or her marriage in that prepared speech. Kate saw Ryan’s jaw clench out of the corner of her eye. It was the only time through the whole press conference she’d seen him flinch.
“Ask another question,” Ryan cut in before she could answer.
“Ms. Alexander,” another reporter asked. “Have you filed for divorce from Mr. Harrison?”
Again, Kate watched Ryan’s jaw tighten, and she quickly answered before his temper kicked in. “At this point, we’ve hardly had time to digest the information, let alone make any decisions about the future.” She pointed to another reporter.
“Ms. Alexander, we understand you have a son. Have you had paternity tests run to verify if Mr. Harrison is his father?”
“We will not be discussing our children,” Ryan said before Kate could answer. “Any reporter who attempts to question our children will have to deal with me personally.”
Kate sensed his waning patience. “We’ll take one more question.” She pointed to a bald man in the fourth row.
“Mr. Harrison,” he began. “Considering California is a community property state, what legal action have you taken to protect yourself financially from Ms. Alexander and her lawyer from filing for divorce and seizing half your assets? It’s basically a foregone conclusion at this point. Isn’t it a nice little coincidence she waited until your net worth was at its peak to suddenly show up on the scene?” There was a hint of sarcasm in the man’s voice that said he couldn’t wait to see Ryan Harrison knocked down a notch.
“I’ll kindly remind you that you’re speaking about my wife,” Ryan snapped before Kate could step in and diffuse the question. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what conclusions you draw from the situation. Your freedom of speech doesn’t give you the right to pry into my personal life. This press conference is over.” He stepped away from the mike, grasped Kate’s hand, and pulled her behind him out of the conference room.
His assistant was already holding the elevator when they swept into the hall. Ryan let go of Kate’s hand as soon as the doors closed behind them. A muscle in his jaw twitched like it had a life of its own.
Kate swallowed, not quite sure what to say or do. When the elevator doors opened, Ryan yanked off his tie and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt. He tossed his jacket across the back of the couch and stalked into the adjoining bedroom. Kate let out a deep breath and closed her eyes as the door slammed shut.
That had gone about as well as a root canal. She couldn’t wait to see the papers tomorrow morning.
The door opened behind her, and a wave of suits filled the room. Hannah Hughes strolled in, slipped off her glasses, and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Well,” she said on a sigh, “that went well. So much for all the prep work we did with Ryan.”
Talking with Ryan’s VP of whatever wasn’t high on Kate’s list right now. She headed for the bedroom.
“I’d rethink that if I were you, Ms. Alexander,” Hannah said as she sat on a barstool and one of the other suits handed her a drink. “You’ll want to give him a while to calm down.”
“The hell I do.” Kate thrust the door open with her hip. It slapped closed behind her.
Ryan stood across the room with one hand braced high on the window frame, looking out across the bay at the waves of rain dousing the city.
“You really have a way with reporters, Ryan. I can see why the press loves you as much as they do.”
“Go away. I’m not in the mood.”
A half laugh, half yell bubbled through her. “I don’t really care what you’re in the mood for. You weren’t the only one in that room downstairs and if anyone should be upset it’s me. They didn’t sandblast your character or your intentions in this situation, just mine. They made me out to be some slut gold digger who turned up on your doorstep because she wants your money.”
When he didn’t respond, she stepped farther into the room, a little concerned he actually believed that bullshit they were throwing around down there. “Turn around when I’m talking to you. I’ve a right to see your face when we’re arguing.”
He spun around, and the enraged eyes and bulging vein in his temple told her his temper had reached its limit. “You’ve got no rights when it comes to me. You relinquished your rights when you walked out on me five years ago!”
“What the hell kind of statement is that? You’re blaming me now for this whole mess?”
“You were always too goddamned independent. I asked you not to go on that stupid trip, but you wouldn’t listen to me. You had to do just as you damn well pleased, like always, and now look at the fucking mess we’re in.”
Kate’s eyes narrowed. “You son of a bitch. How dare you bring up something like that, something I don’t even remember. As you so easily reminded me yesterday, I’m your wife, not some measly peon you can order around and treat like garbage.”
She turned to leave, but he crossed the floor, grasped her arm, and whirled her around before she could get away. “My wife? That’s a laugh. Yesterday you didn’t want to have anything to do with being my wife, and now, when it’s convenient and you can use it, you throw it in my face?”
“Take your hands off me.”
“Or what?” He backed her against the wall, his height a looming advantage, more than evident to her at the moment. “If you’re my wife, don’t I have the right to touch you? Or are you the only one with rights around here? There’s a whole slew of reporters downstairs. Why don’t you just run down and tell them what an ass I am. They’re looking for something else to print about me.”
The heat from his hands all but burned the skin of her arm beneath her jacket. A dark fire brewed in his eyes, a hint of danger. Her pulse quickened, her senses peaked when she caught a whiff of his musky cologne.
She wasn’t attracted to arrogant, domineering men. She wasn’t. Not at all.
So why was her heart thumping wildly in her chest?
“Let go of me,” she said with as much calm as she could muster.
His jaw tightened. His eyes locked on hers. Long seconds passed as he stared at her. And in the silence, that connection she’d felt to him in the park flared hot all over again, dousing her anger and filling her with regret.
“Damn it.” He let go. Turned away.
She grabbed his arm. “Ryan.”
His whole expression softened when he looked back at her. And something in that look shot straight to her heart—a feeling she wasn’t prepared for or even expecting.
“Oh, hell.” His hands tangled in her hair as he pulled her mouth toward his. Those tempting lips crushed over hers. His tongue, rough and hot, dipped into her mouth when she opened. She reached for him before she even realized what she was doing, grasped his arms at the elbows. Dark flashes of arousal coursed through her, erupted in her center, spread through every limb and nerve ending.
He pressed her back against the wall, changed the angle of the kiss, took her deeper. The contrast in textures blew her mind—hard and firm against her hips, soft and sensual at her mouth. Need pumped through her, shooting spears of heat through her entire body.
She didn’t think to push away, only wanted more. More of his touch. More of his mouth. More of his wicked body pressing into hers. She trembled when his hands combed through her hair, streaked down her shoulders and arms to grasp her waist. Her skin tingled with each touch, every caress.
Those delicious lips trailed the line of her jaw, pulling a moan from
her chest. She threaded her hands into his hair, the silky blond strands wrapping around her fingers. Dropping her head back, she offered him her throat. Shivered when his lips moved down her neck.
More, more, more. The words pounded in her brain, tightened her breasts, spread heat straight to her sex. An ache pulsed between her legs, one that needed to be filled. One that needed him to fill it. He fumbled with her jacket, thrust it over her shoulders, trapping her arms at her sides. The buttons on her blouse gave one by one; the front clasp on her bra popping open with little effort.
He eased back just far enough to look down, and a moan slipped from his lips. A moan laced with hunger. Kate’s skin tingled as he stared at her, and her nipples puckered when his hands moved over her breasts, teasing, molding, taking.
She wanted him. Needed this. When his mouth found hers again, she opened on reflex, drew him deep, tangled her tongue with his, and groaned when she felt the hard length of his erection press against her lower belly.
“I can’t believe how good you feel,” he murmured against her lips, his fingers rolling her nipples, sending shock waves of pleasure between her legs. “I’d forgotten what you taste like.”
She struggled against him, finally freed her arms and yanked the shirt from the waistband of his slacks. She needed to touch, wanted that sizzle of skin against skin.
“More,” she said against his lips, kissing him again and again. Common sense fled. Fire raced along her skin when he lifted her leg around his hip, when his hands hiked up her skirt, when his fingers brushed her mound.
Not enough. She had to have skin, needed heat.
He was wearing too many clothes. Dammit, she couldn’t get at him fast enough. She fumbled with his belt, then the button on his slacks while his mouth ravaged hers again. He stroked his fingers across her panties. His hips pressed into hers, his cock hard and pulsing against her. A promise of everything she wanted and needed and hadn’t realized she’d craved.
An irritating pounding sounded somewhere close.
She lifted her leg higher, rubbed against him. Moaned when tingles spread through her lower body.
“Kate?” Simone’s muffled voice echoed through the room. “Mitch is here with your parents. Is everything okay?”
No, dammit. Definitely not okay. Go away.
“Ignore her,” Ryan mumbled, kissing her jaw, her ear, her throat as he slid his fingers beneath the edge of her panties, so close to her heat.
“Kate?” Simone knocked again.
Dammit.
Kate’s head rolled back and hit the wall. Ryan’s hand stilled and his lips hovered against her neck. Long seconds passed in silence, then he dropped his face against her shoulder and let go of her leg, bracing his hands on the wall behind her.
She didn’t want to let go. She didn’t want to face reality. She trailed her fingers through his silky hair, trying to hang on to the moment.
“Kate?” Simone knocked once more.
“Answer her,” Ryan murmured.
Kate swallowed, struggling to breathe. “Yeah, I…I’ll be right out.”
“Okay,” Simone said.
“Jesus,” Ryan said. “I feel like I’m twenty-two again and your parents just walked in on us.”
“Did that happen?”
“More than once.”
“Oh, great. Now I’m going to have that in my mind when I meet them.”
His lips were but a breath from her skin, and as she felt his chest vibrate, she realized he was chuckling. It was a good feeling. A warm feeling. An I-didn’t-expect-this-but-I-only-want-more-of-it feeling.
But he pushed himself away before she could have more. And in his absence, her skin chilled with the reality of what they’d just done.
“Ryan.”
He stopped halfway to the bathroom, held his hands out to show her he wasn’t nearly as under control as he needed to be either. “I don’t think your parents need to see me like this.”
If his features hadn’t been cool and guarded once more, she might have laughed. Instead, her eyes slid shut as he closed the bathroom door. The room was suddenly too big, her skin too cold, and he’d just pulled up those damn walls again.
Had she really almost slept with Ryan Harrison after the way he’d just treated her? She cringed. No, sleeping with him implied something a bit more tender, a tad more intimate. What she’d almost done was let him screw her against the wall while his employees waited for him in the other room.
Way to go, Kate. So much for that resolve not to get sucked into combustible chemistry.
Considering her purse was out in the living room, she did the best she could with her appearance. She finger-combed her hair and wiped away her streaked makeup, then re-buttoned her shirt. Smoothing out her skirt, she checked her reflection one last time.
Her hair was one big tangled mess. Her lipstick was gone, and she had a sinking suspicion Simone would take one look at her and know exactly what had been going on in the bedroom while she and the other lawyers waited on the opposite side of the door.
Was she a complete moron?
Oh, yeah. It appeared so.
She ran her hands across her face, wished it would wipe away her stupidity. Unfortunately for her, it did nothing but remind her how sensitive her skin still was from Ryan’s mouth. She was fully aware of his reputation as a womanizer and a heartless bastard. And hadn’t he just proved it to her?
She smoothed out her hair one last time and lifted her chin. The key word in all of that was almost. Now that she was in control again, she could keep it from becoming an absolute foregone conclusion. Fate had stepped in and spared her this time. Next time, she’d be a little more cautious and a hell of a lot stronger against his advances.
Dammit. She chastised herself. There wouldn’t be a next time. She wasn’t going to become one of Ryan Harrison’s little bimbos, even if she was his wife.
Chapter Twelve
Kate was wrong when she assumed it was Simone’s wary gaze she’d have to avert. When she stepped into the living room of the suite, Mitch was leaning against a bar stool alone. His head came up when he saw her, his eyes as fiery as she’d ever seen them.
“What the hell’s going on?”
Lovely. This so wasn’t what she needed right now. Thankfully, the suits were gone and her parents were nowhere to be seen.
Kate held up her hands to stop him from going into the bedroom. “Mitch, let it go. I’ve already had to deal with one irate man today, I can’t take another.”
“He’s being an ass, isn’t he? We heard the press conference in the car on the way over, but it doesn’t give him the right to treat you like this.”
“I can handle Ryan. I’m not some wimpy girl. Where are your…my…our parents?”
“Simone took them in the other room so they didn’t have to listen to World War III.”
Kate’s eyes slid shut. Great. Just great. Their first impression of her would be her screaming at her husband.
“You did great today,” he said softly. “That’s part of the reason Ryan’s so pissed. You had those reporters eating out of the palm of your hand.”
She stifled a pathetic laugh. “Really? That’s not the impression Ryan gave me.”
The door opened behind her, and she sensed Ryan step into the room.
Mitch shot him a glare. “Are you done throwing your little temper tantrum?”
“Kiss my ass.”
Mitch took a step toward him. “I’d rather kick it. You’re being a complete jackass, and you know it.”
“You wanna take a swing at me?” Ryan huffed, throwing his arms out invitingly. “Go ahead. You aren’t the first Mathews’s to want to do that today.”
Kate pushed her way between the two. “Knock it off right now. You’re both idiots if you think this adolescent sparring’s going to help the situation at all. What is it about men that makes them think throwing a punch is going to make them feel better?”
Ryan’s gaze shot to her, and his face paled. “You�
��re bleeding.”
“What?” Kate touched her lip. “Damn. It’s just a bloody nose.” She tilted her head back and took the tissues Mitch offered, pressing them against her face.
The door across the room opened. Ryan grasped her hand and pulled her back toward the bedroom. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up before you have to see them. Mitch, run interference…please?”
Mitch frowned but nodded and headed in the opposite direction.
Ryan propped Kate up on the long marble vanity in the suite’s master bathroom. He handed her fresh tissues while she pinched the bridge of her nose to stop the flow of blood.
“Don’t look so concerned,” she tried to joke. “It’s no big deal. I get them all the time.”
“You do?” He took the bloody tissues, grimaced, and handed her a fresh one.
“Yeah, usually when I’m stressed. I think this whole day classifies as stressful.”
Ryan rested his hands on the counter, one on each side of her thighs. “I’m sorry. I was out of line yelling at you before. I’m not mad at you. I’m just frustrated with this whole thing. And now to have the press swarming… It infuriates me. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
Kate looked at him over the mound of tissues pressed to her face. “Did you mean it when you said this was all my fault?”
“No. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I have a temper.”
“Did you always?”
He pulled the tissues away and checked her nose. “No. I know you won’t believe this, but I was pretty even-keeled when we were married. I’m definitely not the same person I used to be.”
Her fingertips grazed his hand when he reached up with a washcloth to wipe the blood from her lip. “Neither am I, Ryan.”
His hand stilled, and his eyes locked on hers, eyes that seemed to be seeing a part of her no one else could touch. She felt herself being sucked back under, felt her heart thump rapidly, felt her skin tingle with that crazy need to be touched only by him.
This close, she could easily see why women were drawn to him. On the outside, he was hard and rough, seemingly untouchable. But underneath there was something soft and gentle struggling to break free. More than one woman had probably tried to crack through the icy exterior to free the passionate man underneath. Was it possible?
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