by Melody Anne
Still, she didn’t want to push him — not with the way he’d been acting around her. And not with the weakness she seemed to suffer from when in his presence. She’d surely lose any major fight they got into.
“I’m going out with Jewell,” she told him, and the sharp look in his eyes faded. Hmm. Interesting.
“Where’s Blake?” he asked, though she was sure he knew. Then again, maybe he didn’t.
“This is a ritual for us. At least twice a month we meet up, unless a natural disaster occurs. So Blake uses it as an excuse to have a boys’ night, or do whatever it is that men do when their wives aren’t home,” she said.
“A boys’ night?” he said before his lips turned up. “Please tell me what a boys’ night consists of.”
“I don’t know. I just…I just said something. I have no idea what he does when we have our dinners. I just know that he doesn’t complain about it, because he’s not over-the-top possessive.” She really wanted to get around him and go to dinner.
“Invite me to join you.”
“What?” Had she heard him correctly?
“It’s rude to make someone repeat themselves, McKenzie.”
“You’re calling me rude?” she gasped. “You just tried to invite yourself along to a girls’ night. You are probably the most insanely rude person I’ve ever met?”
“I didn’t call you rude; I said it was rude to make someone say something more than once, which you’re making me do again.”
“Ugh.” She threw up her hands in frustration. “I’m leaving now.” She finally braved walking up to him and brushing past. He stepped back and their gazes collided as she moved around him.
A shiver racked her body as she turned away and began walking toward the elevators. His devilish eyes, rock-solid body, and kiss-me lips had her stomach churning, and it would be disastrous for her to remain in his presence for too long. So why was she suddenly feeling guilty that she hadn’t caved in and invited him to dinner? It was ridiculous.
She had absolutely nothing to feel guilty about. He’d gone beyond rude when he asked her to bring him to dinner with her girlfriend. But she couldn’t shake from her mind the millisecond when it had looked like disappointment was clouding his eyes.
He wasn’t really disappointed. He just wanted to interrogate her — that was all. If Byron wanted a dinner companion, he could open up his little black book and find a thousand people to go out with him. Heck, a thousand was a gross understatement. A man like him had to have a million dates on call.
So when she found herself turning around and moving back toward his office, she wanted to slap herself. What in the world was wrong with her? She’d made a clean escape. All she’d had to do was to hit the down button on the elevator and then be free of Byron for the rest of the night.
Instead, she found herself in his doorway, and she was for once the one to look in on him without his knowledge. He was leaning back in his chair, and for one brief moment he looked so vulnerable to her, so different from the hard man he always presented himself as, that she couldn’t stop herself from saying words she didn’t want to say.
“Would you like to come to dinner, Byron?”
He seemed startled as he turned her way, and just like that, any traces of vulnerability disappeared. “I thought you’d never ask,” he said, standing and picking up his coat.
Grrr. Yes, she was a fool. Why in the world had she locked herself into a social setting with this man? Obviously she’d just done exactly what he wanted her to do. When they stepped into the elevator, a space that was always sufficiently roomy when she was traveling up and down it with anyone other than Byron Knight, she felt claustrophobic.
After only a couple of weeks of working by this man’s side, he was messing with her head in a way that she’d never allowed a man to mess with her — not even Nathan, who was the scum of the earth. She could blame what had happened with Nathan on her youth and inexperience. What in the world could she blame her erratic feelings for Byron on? Nothing came to mind.
Just when she thought the silence couldn’t get any louder, Byron spoke, waking her up out of her reverie, and she focused on the steel doors in front of her. “I’m going to the Boise offices next week. I need you to be there.”
Every instinct in her body told her she had to get out of this. “I already gave you all the information you would need for this trip. My presence isn’t necessary.” There. That had come out without emotion. She was good.
“You can’t read faces through a picture, McKenzie. You’re the one who has narrowed this down to a few individuals. Now, we need to finish it and get the Boise offices running the way they should be.”
That had almost sounded professional, all business and nothing more. She might have bought into that if it weren’t for the earth-shattering kiss the two of them had shared — and, of course, his confidence that she would end up in his bed.
“Honestly, Byron, I don’t think I’d do anything other than slow you down. I’m great with numbers, but not so great with people,” she said, though it was a lie. She could read people well, which is why Relinquish Control had been successful.
“I think you’re being too modest. I won’t force you to go, but I will let you know that if we can solve this matter quickly, it would look much better for our company…and, of course, the reputation of yours.”
Ohhh, that was a low blow. Her job performance had been flawless up till this point. She wanted to question him, find out what he meant by that statement, but she also already knew. Or did she? The Knight brothers were always honest, even this one.
So, when she found herself nodding at him, agreeing to go with him, she began to wonder about her own motives. Did she want to be alone with him? “Okay, I will accompany you. It’s only a day trip, correct?”
The elevator doors opened and he placed his hand against the door while she walked out. Then he followed her. “If all goes well, McKenzie, we can be in and out of the offices in a few hours,” he said.
That hadn’t been what she’d asked him, but when he put his hand on her shoulder as they exited the building, McKenzie forgot all about what she’d been planning to ask him next.
Never before had a man had the ability to silence her when she wanted to speak — not without drugging her first — but, with Byron, she seemed to be in a constant daze. This so wasn’t where she wanted to be. Not where she wanted to be at all.
If she didn’t pull herself together, and soon, she’d be in deep trouble while working and playing games with Mr. Byron Knight.
Chapter Twelve
The air was cold, as usual, as McKenzie and Byron made their way down the busy Seattle sidewalks. “Was it your idea to walk?” Byron grumbled as they turned a corner.
“You aren’t going to melt from a little bit of moisture. It’s ridiculous to take a cab or drive a few measly city blocks,” she said, huddled up beneath her coat.
She’d been so flustered leaving the offices, she’d forgotten to grab her gloves, so she stuffed her hands into her pockets There was no way she was going to admit to Byron that she was in the least bit cold, though. Not after calling him a wuss. She would, however, pick up the pace a little bit.
When she stopped in front of a dingy-looking place, she caught Byron’s eyes before she stepped up to the door.
“Here? Seriously?” he asked.
“Look, buster, you’re the one who weaseled a dinner invite out of me. Now, if you want to join us, you’re stuck eating where we like,” she said, reaching out to open the door.
Byron jumped forward right before her fingers connected with the handle, and he opened it for her. Noise from inside blared out, and McKenzie had to smile. Although it wasn’t exactly posh, she had eaten at the place many, many times, and the food was one of the best-kept secrets of Seattle. The head chef was a personal friend of hers now, as she probably ate there more often than the owners did.
“I’m fine with this place,” Byron said as she went past him, mumbling
a thank-you because he’d opened the door.
“You don’t appear to be fine with it,” she pointed out, her stomach dipping the slightest bit when her body brushed his. He had purposely left her hardly any room to get by him.
“I was just thinking we’d be going somewhere a little more quiet.”
“Ha! You mean you were hoping to go to a place a lot more fancy.”
“You’re putting words into my mouth,” he said before leaning down, leaving her zero personal space as his eyes bored into hers. “If I want something in my mouth, you’ll be the first person I tell.”
She was frozen as his breath washed over her face. The noise, the crowded front area, the people — everything disappeared except for him and those irresistible lips.
McKenzie was grateful when a group of college kids came up behind them, bumping into Byron and pulling McKenzie from the spell she’d been under. She’d been just about ready to let him kiss her right there in a crowded room full of strangers and servers who knew who she was. She really needed to pull herself together or she wasn’t going to last even a few more days, let alone two more weeks in this man’s presence.
“This way,” she told Byron, and she began moving through the crowd. Jewell would already be there, guarding their favorite table, and with luck she’d have a drink ready and waiting. McKenzie really needed that drink if she planned on getting through this dinner in one piece.
The back corner of the place offered almost a measure of privacy — almost, not quite — and there, Jewell sat, a virgin daiquiri in front of her and a cold mimosa on the opposite side of the table. Thank goodness!
“Sorry I’m late, Jewell,” McKenzie said.
Her friend gave her an easy smile before her eyes widened as she took in Byron.
“Um, no problem…,” Jewell replied, leaving the words trailing off.
“Good to see you, Jewell,” Byron said easily. “McKenzie took pity on me since we were working late tonight and I haven’t had a thing to eat all day.”
Byron leaned against McKenzie so he could reach around and pull out a chair. As her blood raced, she lost her thoughts again, and almost plopped down into the chair instead of sitting down properly.
When Byron sat next to her, she had to bite her lip. Had she been thinking, she would have slid in next to Jewell on the side of the table with a bench, giving herself some much needed space away from Byron. But then, of course, she would have been forced to look at the man during the whole meal. She wasn’t sure which setup would be worse.
She looked at Jewell and could see a myriad of questions in her friend’s eyes, but Jewell compressed her lips and then gave Byron a gigantic smile.
“It’s good to see you, Byron. You work so much, and your brother complains that you don’t come over more often.”
“I’ll have to change that,” he said.
Just then, the waitress, Marsha, appeared, notepad in hand and eyes glued to Byron. “I haven’t seen you in here before,” she said, her cheeks flushed slightly.
McKenzie made eye contact with Jewell and rolled her eyes just a bit. What was it about good-looking — okay, incredible-looking — men that turned normal women into drooling messes?
“Well, if the food turns out as good as it smells, I’ll have to become a regular…Marsha,” Byron said, after looking at her name tag. He practically beamed at the waitress, irritating McKenzie even more than she’d already been at the whole ridiculous situation.
Marsha giggled, actually giggled, making McKenzie roll her eyes again. But as Byron turned to give the waitress his full attention, his leg brushed against McKenzie’s, and her agitation turned into raging hormones. She tried to pull away from him, but he just pushed a little closer, and she couldn’t find an escape.
“What can I get you to drink?” the waitress finally asked, as if knowing she’d been staring for too long.
“I’ll take a Jack Daniel’s, straight up,” Byron replied, and the waitress practically fluttered her eyes before rushing away to fill his order.
“It must be nice to fluster people like that,” Jewell said with a laugh, and Byron turned to her with his eyebrows raised. “Oh, come on, Byron, you had to have noticed the way our waitress was drooling all over you. And she’s normally sane.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, but McKenzie knew he was very aware of his effect on people — on women in particular.
“I’m starving,” Jewell told them, “so please figure out what you want to eat. We should get our orders in before the rest of the people now piling through the doors.”
They were silent for a few moments as McKenzie stared at her menu, not seeing a thing on it. Thankfully, she was a creature of habit and already knew what she wanted for dinner, so she wouldn’t be required to use her brain for a few moments.
When Byron set his menu down, he captured Jewell’s attention. She threw him back an amused look that McKenzie had no doubt was meant to irritate her. It worked.
“So, Jewell,” he asked point-blank, “are you going to tell me what’s going on with McKenzie? What is she so desperate to hide from me?”
McKenzie gasped in outrage. “There’s nothing going on,” she told him before Jewell could say a word. She then looked sternly at Jewell before turning back to Byron. “And if there were something going on, Jewell would remain loyal to me and not spill my secrets.”
From the mischievous look on Jewell’s face, McKenzie had a sinking feeling that her friend wasn’t above selling her out. She’d been with Jewell when one of Nathan’s calls had come in, and though she’d tried to cover it up as much as possible, she was shaken up, and Jewell voiced her concern. At least he hadn’t shown up at her door.
“I know you women like to stick together and all, but if McKenzie is in trouble, don’t you think it would be in her best interests to have as many people helping her as possible?” Byron asked, reaching across the table and patting Jewell’s hand.
McKenzie wanted to punch him. “I will repeat that nothing is going on,” she practically growled.
“I think your friend likes to keep secrets,” Byron remarked to Jewell. Then he turned and looked at McKenzie, first making her want to squirm in her seat, then ticking her off. He was making her feel like a scolded child.
“She isn’t sharing with me either right now, Byron. If she were, and if I felt that she needed help, I would have to agree with you,” Jewell told him, surprising McKenzie.
“Okay, I can accept that,” Byron said, before he got a mysterious look in his eyes and turned back to Jewell, a megawatt smile suddenly on his lips. “Is she dating anyone?”
Both women went silent for a moment when that question came out. McKenzie was the first to recover. “Don’t you dare answer that, Jewell,” she ordered, but it was Byron she glared at. “I am working for you right now, Byron, for some strange reason, and I care about doing a good job. But my personal life is none of your damn business.”
He shifted again, his leg completely glued to hers, and though she wanted anger to remain her main emotion, it wasn’t. He leaned down close, way too close, his expression unchanging, and he spoke only when he knew she was completely tuned in to him.
“I want to get to know you more, learn every…little…thing about you. This thing between us is personal. If you can’t take the heat, I suggest you walk away right now,” he warned her.
It took a moment for McKenzie to say a word, and then her shoulders came back and she glared back at him. “And if I do?”
He was silent for so long that she didn’t know if he was going to answer, but then his lips, which had tightened with his last words, turned up again, this time in a far more conquering smile, which scared her. Be my guest, McKenzie. I’m not forcing you to work for me.”
She hesitated a moment and then glared at him again. “Yes, you are. You completely bullied me into the job.”
“I’m a businessman, McKenzie, and I know how to get what I want.”
“And if I walk away now?”
“You have free will,” he told her. “Do you want to walk away?”
McKenzie forgot that Jewell was sitting there across from them as she looked into Byron’s eyes. Did she want to leave? That was the million-dollar question. She should want to leave, want to get as far away from him as she possibly could. But is that what she really wanted?
She couldn’t say the words that might set her free. And she didn’t understand why not.
“I didn’t think so. You’re just as curious as I am about what in the hell is going on between us,” he said before turning his attention back to Jewell. “So, tell me, when was McKenzie’s last relationship?”
He went on as if they hadn’t just had a spat, a tense moment, or whatever in the hell they’d had. McKenzie was so much in shock at his interrogation of her friend, she didn’t protest this time.
That mischievous light returned to Jewell’s eyes. “I honestly don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t ever seen McKenzie with a man.”
Byron’s hand came up and rested on McKenzie’s leg, and though she wanted to remove it, she also loved the way it felt there.
McKenzie had good reason to hate all men — she actually prided herself on feeling that way. And even though she knew Byron’s intentions were far less than honorable, she couldn’t shake the pull she felt toward him.
She was in more trouble than she could handle. And it seemed that it only got worse each new day. Her thoughts were interrupted when the waitress came and took their food order, then disappeared again after flirting, of course, as much as possible.
Luckily, Marsha soon returned to bring refills on their drinks, and the tension was broken. The conversation turned to more neutral topics.
Byron was giving McKenzie a reprieve.
But McKenzie knew the reprieve wouldn’t last.
Chapter Thirteen
Byron could see the tension rolling off McKenzie in waves. This was exactly where he wanted her, wasn’t it? So why did he find himself backing away? He should be going in for the kill, but instead he found himself sitting back, eating away at his pasta Bordelaise and sipping on a good red while McKenzie talked to Jewell and slowly calmed down.