But the present was different now. He was no longer alone in it. The present meant Katy.
He had not felt this good in a long time, Luke realized. Hell, he had never felt quite like this. Not even with his beautiful witch of a wife. Sex had been terrific with Ariel, but there had never been this sense of peace afterward. There had never been this feeling of completeness. It occurred to Luke that with Ariel he had always been hanging on the brink of uncertainty. Life had been exciting but wearing.
With Katy there would be moments like this one, moments of peace and tranquility. Serenity and calm without having to be alone. It was a novel thought.
The present definitely meant Katy.
It also meant problems.
His mind drifted freely for a time, touching briefly on many things. He reran the meeting he had held that afternoon with the management team of Gilchrist Gourmet. Then he moved on to his most recent conversation with the computer investigator he had hired to ferret out the embezzler.
For a time Luke’s mind hummed softly like any good computer. Automatically, almost effortlessly, he compiled data in his head, analyzed it, processed it, searched for patterns.
Then his thoughts shifted again. He frowned in the darkness.
“Is something wrong, Luke?” Katy’s voice was soft and slurred with sleep. She did not open her eyes.
“No. I was just thinking.”
“About what?”
“A lot of things.”
“You’re thinking about the company, aren’t you?” she accused softly.
He smiled faintly. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.” She touched him reassuringly. “It’s going to be all right, Luke. You’ll put Gilchrist, Inc. back on track.” She snuggled closer and yawned. “I have complete confidence in you.”
“Is that so?”
“Umm-hmm.”
“What would you say if I told you I didn’t give a damn what happens to Gilchrist, Inc. in the long run?”
“I wouldn’t believe you,” she mumbled. “You’re a Gilchrist. You took on the job because you’re a part of the family, and you’ll do your best to save the company for the family.”
“You’d better understand something, Katy. I didn’t take on the job, because of family loyalty. I took it on because of you.”
“Me?” She opened her eyes at that. The glow of the night filtering in through the window revealed her expression of confusion. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“You heard me.” He looked down at her, willing her to understand. “I’m here because of you.”
“I don’t believe it.” No one had ever done anything like that for her in her entire life. She was not the type of woman for whom men did such things.
“Believe it,” he advised softly. “I didn’t understand it myself at first, but I realized the truth soon enough. I wanted you. A part of me knew I wouldn’t stand a chance of getting you unless I agreed to take over the company. So I made the bargain.”
Her mouth opened in astonishment. She closed it quickly. “A bargain? Is that how you see it?”
“We have a deal. It lasts for six months.”
Katy gasped. Clutching the sheet, she levered herself upright and curled her legs under her, tailor fashion. “This is crazy. I don’t understand. Are you telling me that when you forced me to agree to stay on for six months you were making some sort of bargain with me to be your lover?”
“Right the first time.” Luke studied her with lazy hunger. He realized it gave him a deep satisfaction to know that she had experienced her first climax in his arms.
He had not needed Justine’s comments on the subject to know that Katy’s experience with sex had been extremely limited. He had guessed the truth of that the first time he touched her that night in his cottage. Her startled surprise tonight when she had shuddered in his arms had confirmed it.
Luke savored the knowledge that he was the man who was going to spend the next six months introducing Katy to her own passions. His body began to harden again at the thought.
Katy was glaring at him, but the expression did not affect the sexy picture she made. Her hair was in soft, tangled disarray, and the sheet she held so tightly to her breasts was barely covering the most interesting points.
“Luke, this is utterly outrageous. You can’t mean it. People don’t do things like that. Not for me, at any rate.”
“Like what?” Luke reached and twisted his fingers lightly in her hair. He loved the texture of it. It was like silk.
“They don’t take on monumental tasks like saving Gilchrist, Inc. simply to get a chance to have a six-month affair with a woman they barely know,” Katy sputtered.
Luke smiled. “But that’s exactly what I did.”
“I don’t believe it,” she stated again. “I’m not the sort of female who inspires that sort of reaction in a man. Especially a man like you.”
“You don’t know your own power, lady.”
Her eyes narrowed with speculation. “What if I hadn’t let you seduce me so easily? What if I had managed to resist you for the entire six months? What would you have done?”
“Suffered mightily.” Luke used his grip on her hair to tug her down across his chest. She felt warm and soft against his hardness. The scent of her created a new wave of gathering excitement in him.
She lay gazing up at him, wide-eyed. “Is this whole thing just a source of amusement for you? A challenge you accepted on a whim?”
His hand tightened briefly in her hair. He moved, rolling her onto her back. Then he sprawled on top of her. “Believe me, I am not amused by the problems of Gilchrist, Inc. Nor am I amused by Justine and the others. I wouldn’t have gotten involved with them after successfully avoiding them for all these years just because I felt I had to respond to a challenge.”
“Then why?”
“I told you. I wanted you.” He kissed her slowly and deeply. When he lifted his head he was fully aroused. “And I still do.”
She touched her tongue to her lower lip. “For the next six months?”
“Yes…”
“That’s not very long,” she whispered.
“It is for me.” He did not know how to explain to her that after three years of an eternal present, six months sounded like forever. It was as far into the future as he could see.
But he knew how to tell her of his desire for her.
Luke stroked Katy from breast to thigh, reveling in her firm curves and smooth, satiny skin. He edged between her legs and moved his hand down over her soft stomach to find the tightly curled hair that concealed her humid secrets.
“Luke?”
“Hush, love,” he muttered against her breast. “I don’t want to talk about the future. I want to concentrate on the present.”
A long time later Katy stirred and turned on her side. She was not accustomed to sharing a bed with another human being. She noticed that Luke took up a great deal of it.
She resettled herself and felt his arm close warmly around her again. It was quite pleasant to sleep with Luke. Rather comforting, in fact.
She did not really believe he had taken over Gilchrist, Inc. on account of her, but she would worry about that later. Tonight she was too pleasantly exhausted to lie awake fretting about it. She yawned and started to drift back down into sleep.
“Katy?”
“Hmm?”
“What did Darren want from you?”
She was too sleepy to pay much attention to the question. She answered automatically, without stopping to think. “A loan.”
“How much?”
Katy blinked, roused back to partial wakefulness by the sharpness of the question. Sensing trouble, she tried to stall. Unfortunately, her brain was still clogged with sleep. “Well, uh, a certain amount.”
“How much?
“A hundred and fifty thousand,” she heard herself say.
“A hundred and fifty thousand dollars?” Luke sat up abruptly. “He wanted you to loan him a hundred and fifty grand? Christ, I’ll kill that son of a bitch.”
Katy belatedly realized she had unleashed a whirlwind when she was in no condition to contain it. “Now, Luke, calm down.”
“Calm down?” Luke tossed aside the covers and surged to his feet. Seemingly unconscious of his own nakedness, he began pacing the room. “That bastard asks you for a hundred and fifty grand, and I’m supposed to calm down? I’m going to break every bone in his body. How the hell did he expect you to come up with that kind of money in the first place?”
Katy sighed. This would have been a lot easier to deal with over breakfast, but she knew Luke was not going to let go of the issue now. She sat up slowly against the pillows, holding the sheet over her breasts. “He knows I don’t have that kind of money. He had a plan.”
“Yeah, I’ll just bet he did.” Luke stopped pacing and came to a halt beside the bed “What kind of plan? He wanted you to go to Justine, didn’t he?”
She sighed at how swiftly he had leapt to the correct conclusion. “He wanted me to ask Justine for a start-up loan for Pesto Presto.”
“And once you got the money from her you were supposed to turn it over to him. Shit. I’ll throttle the bastard.”
Katy winced. Luke had certainly grasped the essential facts of the situation very quickly. She was not surprised. The man was good when it came to money. Very good. “That’s about the size of it.”
“Why does Darren need a hundred and fifty grand?” Luke demanded.
Katy bit her lip. “Well, I think he’s in some sort of trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“I’m not sure. Something to do with a real estate development partnership that’s gone sour. The purchasers are apparently clamoring for their money. The man who organized the deal says Darren will go to jail if he doesn’t come up with the hundred and fifty.”
Luke chewed silently on that for a few seconds. “So why didn’t Darren go to Justine himself?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. He couldn’t possibly go to Justine. He’s in this mess because he was trying to prove himself to her. The last thing he can do is go to her or his parents. They’ll all think he’s a complete failure.”
“He’s a goddamned idiot, that’s what he is. He’s also a damned fool if he thinks he’s going to get away with using you like this.”
“Now, Luke—”
“Just what in hell did you think you were going to do to bail him out of this mess?”
“Well, I came up with a plan. Sort of.”
“Sort of.” Luke rammed his fingers through his hair. “I don’t believe this. All right, give it to me straight. What did you plan to do? Ask Justine for the loan?”
“No, of course not. I knew that would never work.”
Luke slanted her a speculative glance as he resumed his restless pacing. “Why the hell not? She’d probably have given you the money.”
“Yes, she probably would have. But I could never lie to Justine like that, not even to protect her from finding out that Darren had gotten into trouble.”
“Yeah, you’re the loyal type, aren’t you?” Luke said. “And you think you owe her. So what did you plan to do?”
Katy decided there was no point putting off the inevitable. She had intended to do this after she’d had time to think about it some more, and she had certainly intended to do it at a more opportune moment. But she was trapped now.
“I planned to turn the whole problem over to you,” Katy explained.
Luke came to an abrupt halt. He swung around to confront her. “Me? You were going to come to me about this mess?”
“Yes. Darren is your cousin. This is a Gilchrist family problem. For the next six months you’re responsible for Gilchrist problems.”
“The hell I am. I’m responsible for putting Gilchrist, Inc. back on its feet,” Luke roared. “I am not responsible for solving all Gilchrist family problems. There’s a difference.”
“No, there isn’t,” Katy said calmly. “Gilchrist, Inc. is the family, and the family is Gilchrist, Inc. You are now head of the family. The way I see it, Darren’s problem is your problem.”
“Christ. You want to know how I’ll solve Cousin Darren’s problem? I’ll let the idiot go to jail. That’s how I’ll solve it.”
Katy smiled. “You’re angry because Darren came to me for the money, aren’t you?”
“Angry? I’d like to tear his head off his shoulders and use it for a bowling ball.”
“That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?”
“No. It’s not extreme. It’s only the beginning.” Luke leaned over the bed, planting his hands on either side of her. “No one uses you and gets away with it.”
Katy touched his clenched jaw. “Luke, he was desperate. Can’t you find it in your heart to understand what it’s been like for him? Justine wouldn’t even consider him as a successor. She wouldn’t give him a chance. He only wanted to prove himself in the business world.”
“He proved he’s an ass. And no, to answer your question, I can’t dredge up one single drop of understanding for the jerk.”
“Well, you’re going to have to do something to help him,” Katy said.
“Give me one good reason.”
“I told him you would.”
CHAPTER NINE
If she had been any other woman, Luke thought— any other female on the face of the earth—he would have sworn he had been deliberately manipulated. But it was hard to blame a guardian angel for doing what came naturally.
Besides, there was no getting around the fact that he had seduced Katy, not the opposite. Under the circumstances it would have been a little difficult to accuse her of employing her feminine wiles with the goal of manipulating him.
The situation he was in was of his own making. Luke swore under his breath. He had to admit that even if he had known last night where it was all going to lead, he would still have taken Katy to bed.
Damn, but it had been good. He was getting hard just thinking about it. Even allowing for the fact that he had been without a woman for a long time, it had been an incredible experience. Unlike anything he had ever known. She had made him feel so alive. He had felt so damn good afterward. At least until she had dropped her bombshell.
Christ. He still could not believe he was doing this.
Luke, dressed in his customary uniform of black jeans and a black pullover, lounged against the lobby wall of the downtown athletic club and smoldered silently while he waited for his quarry.
The club was located near the Pike Place Market. Its upscale clientele arrived in business suits and changed into brightly colored sweats that carried designer labels.
Outside on the street a long string of vans and trailers occupied a row of prime parking spaces. Luke idly noticed that the vehicles were all white and unmarked. Another film company was shooting on location in Seattle.
The vans contained portable dressing rooms and lighting and sound equipment. Cables, folding chairs, and large black boxes sat on the sidewalk. There was even a catering truck parked nearby, although the crew was shooting scenes on streets that contained some of the city’s best restaurants. One of the establishments being thus immortalized on film was the Pacific Rim.
Luke frowned thoughtfully at the sight of the restaurant, his mind switching briefly to what he had learned in yesterday’s series of meetings.
“Luke, what are you doing here?”
At the sound of Darren’s startled, wary voice Luke groaned silently. He unfolded his arms and straightened away from the wall. “I want to talk to you.”
“Yeah. Sure. What about?” Darren had obviously just finished working out. His hair was still damp from his shower. H
e was dressed for work in close-fitting black slacks and a black shirt and tie. He carried a black jacket over his arm.
“Not here.” Luke started toward the glass doors at the front of the lobby. “Let’s go someplace quiet.”
He pushed open the doors and went out onto the sidewalk. Darren followed, his expression one of caution.
“Is this about business?” Darren asked as he reluctantly fell into step alongside Luke.
“You could say that.” Luke turned at the corner and walked a few paces uphill to get out of the busiest section of the market. Halfway up the block he turned again and started down a quiet brick-lined alley. The noise and bustle faded.
“Come on, what the hell is this all about?” Darren demanded.
“I had a long talk with Katy this morning.”
“Shit.” Darren was silent for a few seconds. “She told you?”
“She said you were involved in a real estate scam.”
“Goddammit, that’s not true,” Darren flared. “It wasn’t a scam. It was a legitimate partnership deal that went sour, that’s all. I just need a little cash to help pay off the initial purchasers.”
“A hundred and fifty grand?”
“Jesus, Luke, that’s not much. Not when you’re talking real estate deals. You know that.”
“But it’s more than you have on hand.”
“Well, hell. How many people have that kind of money sitting in the bank?” Darren muttered.
“Katy doesn’t, that’s for damn sure.” Luke halted and turned to confront Darren. “You had no business even approaching her about this.”
Darren stopped. “It wasn’t like I was asking her for the cash. Didn’t she explain?”
“You wanted her to lie to Justine in order to get it.”
“Christ, I could hardly go to the old witch myself. She’d have had my head. Katy understands the situation. She knows what Justine is like.”
“You tried to use Katy to get what you wanted,” Luke said.
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