by Kylie Brant
“Two furnished rooms?” Kate put her hand to her heart.
“You should have prepared me for the shock.”
“I sometimes work from my home, so I needed to get this room ready. Actually, as soon as I get a few more things cleared up at the office, I’m going to be spending quite a bit of time in here. My company was just awarded a big contract, and I’ll be doing most of the work from my den.”
“Why would you do that?” she asked. “I mean, don’t you need…I don’t know, special equipment or something?”
“All I need is a high-powered computer, and the rest is all up here.” He tapped his temple with his finger. “Actually, this computer will be a lot safer than the ones at my office. No one will have access to it but me.”
“Sounds secretive.”
“It’s a security system to keep NASA’s computer files safe. There’s lot of competition out there. That’s why I’ll be working alone.”
Michael closed and locked the door and caught Kate looking at her watch. “I’ve kept you out too late?”
She smiled regretfully. “I keep pretty early hours on school nights.”
“Then I better get you home, hadn’t I?”
He had her accompany him to the attached four-car garage and seated her in his sports car. As the car moved down the long drive with a powerful purr, Kate said, “I should have driven myself and saved you a long trip taking me home.”
“I don’t mind. I’ll be going on in to work for a while anyway.”
“At this hour?”
“I don’t need much sleep. And I have a lot to take care of in the next few days before I can afford to leave the office for a while.”
“Sounds like you’re going to be busy.”
Michael took a few moments to reflect on her words. “I haven’t been too busy to have done some of that reading you recommended.” At Kate’s quick glance, he said, “Wasn’t that what you were going to bring up?”
“Eventually,” she admitted sheepishly. “But I would have given it a few more miles before broaching the subject.”
“Tactful to the end, huh? Well, to save you from asking, I’ve looked over the material on Attention Deficit Disorder that Trask put together for me.”
“And?”
“I’ll admit that some of the stuff sounds like Chloe. She’s certainly active, and she can be unpredictable. But a short attention span? The kid can spend an incredible amount of time drawing and painting. That just doesn’t seem to fit.”
“That in itself is not so unusual for ADD kids,” Kate said.
“They are often able to attend much better in one particular area that’s of great interest to them.”
Michael guided the car around the curves on the narrow roads with ease. “I’m a long way from considering consulting a doctor. Even if I did believe she has ADD, I don’t think I could ever go along with medicating my daughter. The things I’ve been reading about some of the drugs they prescribe to control the behaviors is enough to turn any parent’s blood to ice.”
Kate touched his hand, which was clenched on the gearshift on the console between them. “I can appreciate how difficult a decision that would be. But you’re getting ahead of yourself. She hasn’t been diagnosed yet, and even if a physician recommended medication, the choice would remain yours. If you decide you don’t want Chloe on medication, at least you have a heightened understanding of her behavior. That can be very helpful in learning to deal with situations that arise at home.”
He was silent for a long time. When he finally responded, his voice was low. “I’m not ready to make a decision yet.”
“I’m not trying to push, Michael. I just wanted to make you aware of the issue.”
“Believe me,” he said grimly, his eyes on the winding road ahead of them, “some days it’s all I can think about.”
When they reached her condo, he insisted on walking up to her door with her. “Go ahead and open the door,” he instructed.
Indulging him, she did as he asked, and then had to stand aside as he did a walk-through of her home. When he met her back at her front door, her eyebrows were raised.
“Satisfied, Detective Friday?”
“You can’t be too careful, Kate.” All hints of humor were absent from his voice. He was dead serious. “A woman living alone has to be damn cautious. You could use a good security system for this place.”
“Are you trying to scare me, Michael?”
“No. I’m trying to get you to agree to let me do a little work on this place, to make it more secure for you.”
She seemed speechless at his offer. He pressed his case. “It’s the least I can do after you were so kind to Chloe tonight. And it wouldn’t take long.”
“No, thank you,” she said dismissively, once she’d found her voice again. “I can call a security company if I think I need further protection.”
He regarded her with amusement. “Kath-er-ine,” he said, drawling the syllables of her name out. “What do you think I operate?”
She blinked at him. “Well, you’re computer security, aren’t you? I mean, passwords and codes and whatnot for computer files.”
“We’re into all sorts of security. I designed the high-tech security system for my property,” he informed her. “As well as the one protecting my den. It would be no trouble—”
“Thank you, but no,” she said with finality. “I’ll take care of it myself.”
He regarded her from beneath lowered brows, but she returned his gaze steadily. “Stubborn, aren’t you?”
“You, Mr. Friday, could have invented the word.”
There was no reasoning with the woman, he saw that at once. Quiet, reserved Kate Rose was as implacable as steel when she had her mind made up. There was pride hidden beneath that lovely exterior, and a will that would rival his own for sheer stubbornness.
His lips curved. He never had learned to resist a challenge.
“Well, would you at least allow me to—”
“No, Michael, no. There’s nothing—”
“Allow me to thank you,” he concluded. He’d succeeded in stopping her flow of words. “It was very generous of you to join Chloe’s birthday celebration this evening. You made her day for her.”
“I enjoyed the evening, too.”
He savored her words and the light of sincerity in her eyes. He moved closer to her and cupped her face in both of his hands. Her skin was soft beneath his fingers, tempting them to linger, to stroke. There was a brief moment when logic could have fled, to be replaced only by instinct. But then he recognized the flicker of panic in her eyes and contented himself instead by brushing a kiss across her forehead.
“Thank you again, Miss Rose,” he murmured huskily. Then he turned and went through her door before logic vanished completely.
The night was still fairly early, at least by Michael’s standards, so he headed back to the office. But even as he sat behind his desk, faced with the mountain of file folders he had piled on it, his mind insisted on wandering to the woman he’d just left. He stared blankly at Derek’s analysis report of the computer program he’d completed, the words jumbling together meaninglessly. He didn’t want to rush his fences with Kate. She was a wary little thing, and she was nowhere near trusting him yet. She’d bolt at the first sudden move he made. Still, it was hard not thinking about the moves he’d like to make. He hadn’t met a woman who interested him in a very long time, and he didn’t think he’d ever met a woman like her.
His office door pushed open then, interrupting his thoughts. “Michael, I didn’t know you were coming back tonight.” Derek ambled into the room and dropped into a chair in front of Michael’s desk.
“You’re working late.”
“Carla’s been after me to get her a date for the completion of that new security system I’m working on so she can start planning the marketing blitz.”
“Carla’s still here?”
“Just left. Say, how was Chloe’s birthday? Did you get together with D
eanna?”
Michael shook his head. “She’s got something planned for this weekend. Trask and I took Chloe out for pizza. Along with her teacher.”
“Her teacher?” Derek shot him a surprised look. “Why was she there?”
“Because it was Chloe’s party and she wanted her invited. She’s very attached to Miss Rose.”
“I had a teacher named Rose once,” Derek reminisced.
“Actually, it was Sister Mary Rose. She wore long black-and-white habits and shoes just like the ones Bernie always wears.” After a moment of reflection, he added, “Looked a lot like Bernie, as a matter of fact.”
“I can guarantee you that Kate Rose looks nothing like Bernie,” Michael said wryly. “She’s actually quite…intriguing.” Yeah, that would explain the amount of time he’d spent thinking about Kate since they met. He was intrigued by her. She was gorgeous, sexy and strong-willed. There was a sensitivity about her that lent her an air of vulnerability, but the lady had made it clear that she called her own shots.
And she had his hormones kicking into overdrive every time he got within ten feet of her.
Derek let out a chuckle. “Oh, my friend, if you’re finding yourself intrigued by a schoolteacher, you have definitely been alone too long. Why don’t you come with me some night and we’ll find you some real reasons to be intrigued?”
“No thanks. That scene wore thin quickly.”
Derek shook his head in bemusement. “There’s no accounting for taste. How long are you going to be here? Do you need help with anything?”
Michael shook his head. “I got that bug worked out of the system we were stumped on. It’s ready for you to take over. I’m just going to finish up a few more things here, and then starting tomorrow, I’m going to be working at home on FORAY. Anything you need, you can reach me there.”
Derek nodded. “I’ll do that. And I’m going to be working on something else for you, too, Michael. I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I’ve decided that you need to get out more. I’m going to find someone perfect for you. A real nice, old-fashioned girl.”
Sending his vice president a jaundiced look, Michael noted, “I’ve seen your dates, Latham. You don’t know any nice, old-fashioned girls.”
“Well, no, not personally,” Derek agreed cheerfully. “But I do know lots of women. Who know lots of other women…” He waved a hand carelessly.
“Don’t bother,” Michael advised him. “I don’t need any help.”
Derek’s parting chuckle still rankled long after he’d left the office. Michael jammed papers into file folders and then placed them in some sort of order in the file cabinet located next to his desk. He didn’t know why he was being treated like some pathetic date dork lately, but his recent absence from the frenetic social scene was by choice. Since Chloe had come to live with him, he’d been busier than ever. Settling into their life together had taken up all his time, and now that they had some sort of routine worked out, casual dating didn’t seem worth the effort. Besides, he hadn’t met a woman in the last few years who could hold his interest for more than a few minutes.
Except for one. His hands stilled and he leaned against the file cabinet reflectively. Kate Rose had definitely sparked his interest, among other things, from the first second he’d laid eyes on her. Even at the school, when he’d been angry, even when he’d been focused on having her removed from her job, he’d been aware of her in a way that hadn’t been totally comfortable.
He slammed the file drawer shut. One arm was still draped over the edge of the cabinet, and his fingers drummed against the front of the drawer restlessly. She was a mouthwateringly attractive woman. Not beautiful like the coolly remote faces that graced magazine covers. But much more real. More approachable. More touchable.
His fingers tingled at the thought. Because he did want to touch Kate. Very much. She had everything he’d ever thought he wanted in a woman. Looks, brains and a good sense of humor. And the icing on the cake was that she already cared about Chloe. Really cared about her. She knew how to talk to children like they were people, not the way some adults talked down to kids as if they were alien life-forms.
He dropped down in his chair. As he’d told Derek earlier, he found Kate intriguing. Had from the start. He’d already half planned to pursue her, but he could see now that wouldn’t be a good idea.
No, he mused, tipping back in his chair and perusing the ceiling, pursuing Kate Rose wasn’t the answer. Dating her was out. He’d been crazy to even consider it. He didn’t want another casual relationship in his life. He didn’t want anything casual with Kate at all.
Bernie and Derek had been right all along. What he needed was a wife.
He examined the idea. Instead of the amusement he’d felt when Bernie had first mentioned it, and his irritation with Derek’s harping on it, the idea now seemed…right. Now that he was considering Kate for the position.
It was perfect. The chair came upright with a loud squeak, and he slammed his hand on his desktop. No, it was better than perfect, it was ingenius. He’d marry Kate Rose. She was exactly what he needed in his life, exactly what Chloe needed. And the fact that she torched his hormones by merely entering the room was a sweet little side benefit.
He considered the matter from every angle, with the fierce concentration he usually reserved for the minuscule details of preparation for a hostile takeover war. He’d have to approach her very cautiously, of course. He’d have to take it slow, win her trust. And then, of course, her love.
The thought filled him with a surge of heat. The idea of being loved by Kate Rose fired currents beneath his skin like warm rivers of electricity. He was more convinced than ever that he’d just come up with the most brilliant idea he’d ever had.
Fingers drumming on his desk, he plotted and polished his strategy, much as he did when he was readying for corporate warfare.
The thought of failure never even entered his mind.
Chapter 5
“Well, of course I agree that you need to work on FORAY from a secure computer,” Derek allowed. “I’m just saying it’s damn inconvenient. Especially now with the takeover deal heating up.”
“Jake has things under control,” Michael said calmly. Jake Winslow, the firm’s lawyer, could be counted on to handle all the details as they came up.
“How often will you be in the office?”
Michael shrugged. “Whenever I need to be. You can keep things running there, can’t you?”
Derek grinned. “You know it. Bernie is in seventh heaven at your absence.”
“I think it’s been the best two weeks of her life. She’s got my number for the times when she feels the need to reach out and nag someone. Which she does,” he added wryly, “on a regular basis. She thinks I’m playing hooky.”
“Which you’re not, of course.”
“What do you think?”
“I think,” Derek announced, rising from his chair and strolling around the room, “that the deadline for FORAY is a killer, and you don’t have a minute to waste.” Contrary to his words, he slouched against one of Michael’s bookcases, clearly in no hurry to leave. With his hands in the pant pockets of his Italian suit, he resembled a GQ advertisement for CEO wanna-bes.
“Which makes it difficult to justify prolonging this conversation with you.” Nodding at the sheaf of papers on the table beside him, Michael said, “Take those files back to Carla and tell her things are a go. She can start a marketing strategy for promoting the new home computer security system. You did a good job on it, Derek.”
“Thanks. If you need any help on FORAY…”
“I’ll let you know.”
Derek gathered up the papers he’d brought for Michael’s signature and placed them back in his briefcase. “Shouldn’t Chloe be home by now?”
“She’s upstairs,” Michael said. “Every day for the past week and a half she’s been holed up in her bedroom after school. She’s redecorating.”
Derek’s eyebrows rose. “Alone?�
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“She has help,” Michael said cryptically. Glancing at his watch, he added, “Shouldn’t you be getting back to the office? Maybe you can catch Carla before she leaves for the day.”
“I’ll just go up and say hi to Chloe on my way—” Derek’s sentence was interrupted by the sound of small feet running down the hallway.
“Daddy, Daddy!” Chloe burst into the room. “We finished painting. And now my wallpaper can go up, and then the carpeting will come, and my room’s gonna be awesome!” She stopped for a breath before adding, “Hi, Mr. Latham.”
“Hi, squirt. What’s this I hear about you redecorating your room?”
Chloe nodded enthusiastically. “I had to get help, because Daddy’s hopeless.”
Derek chuckled. “So I’ve often said.” In an aside to Michael, he asked, “Which of those interior design businesses that I recommended did you decide to go with?”
Before he could answer, another voice asked, “Michael, do you have some place I can rinse out these brushes?” Kate peeked into the room. Her hands were full of brushes and a paint can. She was clad in jeans and an oversize man’s shirt. It was one of his, and the sight of her had satisfaction curling through him. She hadn’t wanted to wear it, but he’d insisted, citing a worry about her with Chloe in an enclosed area with fresh paint. The solution he’d suggested had been too practical for her to refuse. But practicality didn’t explain his reaction. He liked the sight of her wearing his clothes, liked it very much.
As a matter of fact, he liked the sight of her, period. Wayward strands had escaped the hasty knot she’d confined her hair in and now curled around her ears, across her forehead. A smudge of paint decorated one cheekbone. She looked capable, efficient and faintly mussed. She was adorable.
“Well, well, no wonder Michael’s so content to work at home,” Derek murmured, his eyes gleaming. Stepping forward, he said, “Hello, I’m Derek Latham, Michael’s vice president.”