Katherine smiled drowsily, turned over and drifted back to sleep.
That night, Saturday, and the next day, Ian spent at Katie O’Brien’s borrowed apartment. They spoke openly of their families, their dreams, their needs.
They made love.
Katherine had never been happier, and Ian smiled more than she or, she suspected, anyone else had ever seen him smile.
When Monday came, he told her, “Stay home, rest.”
“But I have to be at the office,” she objected.
“There will be nothing for you to do today. I have meetings all morning and most of the afternoon. I’ll transfer my calls to the cell.”
“You’re sure?” she asked. She admitted to herself that she was exhausted. Where did the man get his stamina? He was amazing!
“I’m sure.” He gave her a look she couldn’t interpret. “Stay home. Tonight, we’ll talk more.”
“All right,” she agreed, and kissed him goodbye, only too happy to snuggle in bed for a few more hours.
There would even be time to tidy up the apartment and do some serious window-shopping along River Street, she thought dreamily.
Holly looked up from her desk and frowned as Ian walked into her office. “You’re sure you want to do this?”
“I’m sure,” he said.
“She’ll be very disappointed. Katie told me she really wants to stay with Danforth’s.”
“I know, but I’ll explain everything to her tonight. She’ll understand why I need to do this.”
“Tonight?” Holly lifted a neatly waxed brow in surprise.
“None of your business,” he snapped good-naturedly, then laughed. “Not yet anyway.”
Everything would be put straight in good time. His personal and work life had always been kept separate, because that was how he liked it. Katherine had said she understood this.
Of course, that was just after they’d made love, when she’d lain in his arms, as mellow as a daisy in the summer sun. He wasn’t sure how closely she was following his words as she nodded in happy compliance.
He leaned over Holly’s desk to sign the papers faxed, at his request, from the temp agency.
“So, let me get this straight,” Holly said as she gathered them up into a neat stack. “You don’t want me to inform Katie that you’ve asked for her removal.”
“Right.”
“And when she comes in this morning—”
“She won’t be in today.” He chucked her pen into the ceramic jar on her desk, feeling in full control now that this detail had been resolved to his satisfaction. “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine with this.”
She shook her head as she stapled the sheets together. “If you say so.”
Ian arrived at the apartment armed with champagne and roses. As the day progressed, he had begun to worry, mildly, about telling Katherine what he’d done. But he reassured himself that his plans for their future were what she wanted, too.
Since she needed to feel she was making important decisions, too, and he understood that a woman’s engagement ring was important to her, he hadn’t yet bought a ring. He would take her to the best jewelry store in Savannah tomorrow, let her choose anything she liked. As big a diamond as a goddamn apple! Fine with him.
He found her apartment door ajar, as if she’d seen him through the window and unlocked it for him. As soon as he walked in, the aromas of frying onions, sizzling beef, and a heady blend of spices struck him.
“And she can cook, too?” he called out.
Katherine peeked around the corner from the kitchen into the living room. “Authentic Southwestern chili, with homemade tortillas.”
“I’ve died and gone to heaven,” he groaned. “Does champagne go with Mexican?”
“Champagne goes with anything!” She freed the bottle from his left hand.
He brought the roses out from behind his back with a flourish.
She gasped. “Oh, my!” Her eyes sparkled as she cradled their tissue-wrapped blooms and breathed in their scent. “If this is what Tex-Mex earns, what will filet mignon produce?”
“Chocolate…for dipping.”
“What do we dip?”
“For starters, how about you?” He shot her a wicked grin.
She laughed. “Sounds like I’ll have to be careful of what I cook when we have company.”
He glanced toward the kitchen. “What can I do to help?”
“Set the table?”
“I can do that,” he said, and pitched right in.
Katherine placed a steaming bowl of chili in the center of the little kitchen table, beside a vase for the roses. Next came a salad of mixed field greens drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Warm tortillas were stacked on a platter beneath a damp cloth to keep them from drying out too fast.
They sat side by side, rather than across the table from each other, and Ian felt as close to her as he had felt in her bed. Two people, sharing food, sharing their bodies. Life was good.
Ian helped himself to a plateful of food and dove in with relish. “I don’t think I’ve ever tasted chili better than this.” He sighed.
“An old family recipe.”
“Really?”
“My dad and uncles are chili fanatics. They also roast a mean pig.”
“Sounds like your family eats well.”
Her eyes took on a distant look. “We…they do.”
“You miss them?” he asked.
She gave this some thought, and he watched as a series of emotions played across her soft features. “I didn’t think I would, but I do.”
“Why don’t you take a week or two and go visit?”
“I don’t know. Won’t you need me at the office?”
It was the opening he’d been hoping for. He laid down his fork and leaned back in his chair. “Actually, I wanted to speak to you about that.”
“The office?”
“Yes.” He rushed on, wanting to get to the best part. “You see, I stopped by Personnel today and arranged for the temp agency to withdraw you.” Her expression tightened, but he smiled reassuringly. “It’s necessary, darling. There’s no way we can work together. Even before I slept with you, just seeing you reduced my gray matter to sludge.”
“But we make a great team!” Her cheeks flushed nearly as bright as her roses. “You said so yourself, after the gala.”
He held up a hand, and her eyes snapped to it as if he was raising it in threat. “You don’t understand,” he said quickly, worried because the conversation seemed to be slipping away from him.
“I do understand.” Her voice crackled with emotion. “You’ve pulled rank. Made a totally unilateral decision.”
He opened his mouth to object, but she raced on.
“You have completely disregarded my feelings. There’s no written law that bans me from your office or working for Danforth’s in any way, just because we’re having an affair!”
“An affair?” He nearly choked on the words. “Is that what you think this is?” He couldn’t have been more shocked or hurt.
“We’re two single, consenting adults who are having sex. What do you call it?”
“It’s not like that at all,” he said miserably. If she didn’t understand the commitment he was about to make to her…Suddenly the words he’d thought would come so easily wouldn’t come at all.
“What is it like, Ian?” Green eyes flashed defiance. “I’m allowed in your bed but not in your place of work? Is that what you meant the other night about keeping your personal and work life separate?” She stood up from the table, backing away from him when he reached out for her. “I just don’t get it. I thought we were on the same wavelength this weekend. Have you been planning all along to push me out of the job I love?”
She was close to tears, he could tell, but fighting them.
He shoved back his chair and started toward her, but she was already backpedaling, brushing him away.
“If being your girlfriend is going to cost me my freedom to choose w
here I work and who I work for, maybe this whole thing is a mistake.”
“I never said I wanted a girlfriend!” he ground out, seizing her by the arms, giving her a good hard shake to make her listen. “Or an affair.” What he wanted was a wife, a woman to love forsaking all others, like in the vows they’d take. He wanted forever.
He had wanted Katherine Fortune. And no one less would do.
Tears came in a flood to her fiery emerald eyes. He was desperate to explain.
Dammit! Why hadn’t he bought a ring? He could have whipped it out of his pocket. Dazzled her. Made his feelings clear to her.
But now he wasn’t even sure he wanted to see his ring on her finger. He didn’t like being told he was wrong. Liked even less being scolded.
Ian withdrew his hands from her arms and stepped back, glaring down at her. “Maybe this is for the best,” he muttered thickly.
Katherine stiffened. “I suppose so.” She drew a deep, shuddering breath and stared at the floor, as if it were a thin sheet of ice and she was surprised it was still holding her weight. “You’d better leave,” she whispered.
He concentrated on containing his anger. I wanted us to be married, he thought. I wanted you to have my babies.
But he wouldn’t say those words. Not to a woman who was so centered on her own needs that she couldn’t give him ten minutes to explain why he’d needed to do what he’d done.
Ian turned and walked out.
Staying away from Ian and the Danforth Building was the most difficult thing Katherine had ever done.
Somehow she found the inner strength to not pick up the phone and call him. She reminded herself, again and again, that she had every right to be furious with the man.
Hadn’t she made it clear that she wouldn’t put herself in another situation like the one she’d just run away from—a male-dominated, family-dictated life?
If she had toyed with the possibility of going home to visit, now she dismissed it out of hand. All she’d be doing was throwing herself back into the role of her parents’ daughter at a time when she was most vulnerable. Once back in their house she’d succumb to the wish to be comforted. If she couldn’t stand on her own now, she never would.
She called Holly just to make sure what Ian had said was true.
“I’m so sorry, Katie. I really am. I thought you were doing a great job. Everyone here will miss you.”
“I’ll miss them, too. Everyone except Ian Danforth.”
Holly hesitated. “If I’m not asking too personal a question, what did you do to make him turn on you like that?”
I loved him, she thought sadly. “Dunno,” she said.
“It’s just not like him,” Holly mused, sounding troubled. “He’s not an easy boss, but he’s always been fair.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” Katherine said.
She thanked Holly for her help, and assured her she’d be fine. Then she called Execu-Temps and got herself a new job.
Katherine accepted a job working for a bank in the stockholder’s department, typing correspondence and answering the phone. It was easier than working for Ian, but a lot less fun.
Two weeks later, she had straightened out her identity with the temp agency and moved on to a clerical position with an insurance company. After three days they asked her if she was looking for something permanent. Sure, she said.
Ian didn’t call her or come to her apartment.
She was glad, she told herself. Absolutely thrilled to be rid of a controlling, arrogant, bossy…
Oh, hell, she thought, who are you kidding?
She’d loved him. Still loved him. But there was a difference between loving a person who was good for you, she told herself, and loving a person who was not. She would just have to be strong and get over him. Somehow.
Ian looked the FBI agent in the eye and asked, “Are you sure it was her?”
“Yes, sir.” The man leaned forward in the chair opposite him. The agent had shown up late that afternoon with troubling news about the cartel’s activities. “They’ve been keeping a low profile, but two of their men have been following the woman who was your assistant. Katherine Fortune, is it?”
“Yes.” Katherine. It hurt just to hear her name again. “You’re sure they’re connected with the cartel? Her family has been after her to come home, but I thought that was all settled.”
“We don’t make mistakes like that,” the agent said dryly, then cleared his throat. “I guess you fired her? Mind telling me why?”
“I didn’t fire her, I just asked for a replacement for personal reasons.”
The agent nodded. “Personal reasons.” He wrote something in his notebook. “It’s possible the cartel believes she’s still connected with you in some way. Perhaps these personal reasons?”
There was no doubt in his mind what the man was implying. “There might have been a time,” Ian said. “But there’s nothing between us now.”
“I see.” The agent nodded. “But the question is, do they know that? It’s our theory the cartel might try to use someone in or close to your family to get to you.”
Terror sliced, razor sharp, through Ian. “You think she’s in imminent danger?”
“We’d rather be cautious at this point. Is there any way you might influence her to leave town for a while? Go somewhere she might be safe?”
Ian raked his fingers through his hair. There wasn’t a chance he could talk Katherine into doing anything now, he thought grimly. She probably wouldn’t even take a call from him.
Even if he called Dennis, and her family contacted her, she might refuse to leave Savannah on the grounds they were bossing her around again.
Stubborn, stubborn woman.
Her green eyes and sweet face appeared before him. His heart soared, then just as quickly, plummeted. He’d lost her through his own fault. Worse yet, no matter how many times he’d told himself that he was over her, he wasn’t.
“Mr. Danforth?” the agent said. “Can you help us out here?”
Ian looked up out of his misery, and in that moment a solution for at least one problem came to him. “I think I have a plan.”
Katherine walked down the street, past the Danforth Building, making a point of not looking at its gracious facade or the distinctive D&D insignia she’d so often admired, scrolled across the doors. The time she’d worked behind those doors had been the most exciting weeks of her life.
But she wouldn’t think about that now. It was over. The job. Ian. It was all over.
The spring morning was gorgeous, and she wouldn’t let mooning over a man spoil it for her. She’d left early for work so the sidewalks weren’t at all crowded. She enjoyed feeling as if the city was hers alone.
She crossed Congress Street, checked out a wonderfully jaunty hat in a display window. But as soon as she started to walk again, she sensed a car moving slowly along the street as if it was pacing her. She intentionally stopped and turned to look in a jewelry-store window, hoping the vehicle would keep on going. All the talk about cartels and bombs in weeks past was evidently playing tricks with her imagination.
The sapphire bracelet resting on a white velvet cushion was lovely, but her nerves suddenly pricked at the sound of a car door opening. Reflected in the plate glass, a tall figure came up behind her.
She bolted. Strong fingers wrapped around her arm. “Come with me,” a deep voice said. “Now.”
With a gasp, she spun around, ready to scream. But the cry died in her throat and all that came out was a whimper of surprise and irritation at the sight of Ian.
Katherine glared at him. “You scared me half to death.” She tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip.
“You’re in danger. I’m taking you someplace safe.”
She laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. I have a job and I’m going there now. Let me go. And don’t bother calling. I won’t even listen to your messages.”
“That’s why we have to do this my way,” he growled.
; “You just don’t listen, do you?” She tried jamming her fists down on her hips in a show of defiance, but he wouldn’t let go of her arm. “Ian, manhandling a woman is no way to convince her to stay with him. I’m my own w—”
He pulled her roughly to him, kissed her firmly on the mouth then heaved her over one shoulder much as she imagined he would have a sack of coffee beans.
“Put me down!” she screamed.
The few people on the street stared at them, as though unsure what to do.
“Lover’s quarrel,” Ian mumbled cheerfully at a couple walking past. “She adores makeup sex.”
The man laughed, but the woman didn’t look reassured.
Ian dumped her into the driver’s seat of his car and climbed in after, shoving her over with his hip. The car’s engine was idling.
He hit the child safety lock before she could reach for the door latch. “Uh-uh,” he cautioned, immediately pulling into traffic. “You don’t want to throw yourself out the door of a moving vehicle. Only in movies do people get up and walk away.”
Katherine pressed her back against the black leather seat, arms across her chest, and glowered at him. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“What do I have to do to prove that I don’t want my life run by parents, brothers, a boyfriend or husband?”
“Have you considered the option of having no life at all?”
He was watching the traffic ahead. She couldn’t see his eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“The FBI says you’re being followed, and they’re pretty sure your shadows are cartel thugs.”
“Following me? Why? I have no influence over Danforth business policies.”
“No, but they must think you and I—”
“Oh, please—”
“Shut up and listen to me,” he ground out. “You saw the way Hernandez looked at you that day in my office. He figured you were my mistress.”
She started to object, but he reached out and grasped her hand, gave it a warning squeeze. “These people are desperate, Katherine. They might try to use you to leverage me into a decision in their favor.”
The Boss Man's Fortune (Dynasties: The Danforths Book 5) Page 14