Kirk had been listening intently to Gregory Leeds’ voice. Behind the words, Kirk detected something else, a faint echo of desperation, perhaps even hopelessness. Kirk understood that he was being asked to do was to baby-sit.
Yet, in the back of Kirk’s mind was the troublesome thought: if Leeds was sending anyone at all, even his inexperienced daughter, there must be a reason. Despite Leed’s compliments, he wondered, if the real reason was a dissatisfaction with Kirk’s performance at the ranch.
“As I see it,” Kirk began, choosing his words carefully, “I have no choice. You’re couching an order in the form of a request.”
“True, but I have a good reason.”
“Yes?”
“My daughter is one of the two most important people in the world to me, but I don’t want her pandered to. Kirk, we’ve only met a few times, but I’ve watched you since Leeds took over Twin Rivers. You didn’t come to me for your job; I went to you. Quite honestly, there’s no one in my organization who would stand up to her, or to me, the way you do. Which is why I chose Twin Rivers for Cassie.”
“How can you be certain I won’t…pander to her?”
“Do you want a raise?”
“When I earn it.”
“That’s why!”
“What happens at the end of the year if she wants to stay at Twin Rivers? Do I move on?”
Gregory Leeds’ face, sober until then, perked up. “No. You’ll have to trust me, Kirk, but I can promise you there’s absolutely no chance of Cassandra staying on. In fact, I doubt she’ll last out the year.”
Kirk, again hearing a strange undertone in Leeds’ voice, knew he had no choice other than to quit. “All right, Mr. Leeds.”
As if to emphasize the end of the conversation, Gregory Leeds’ intercom buzzed. Rising swiftly, Leeds went to the desk and pressed the button. “Yes?”
“Cassandra is here,” his secretary informed him.
“Send her in,” Gregory Leeds said as his eyes locked with Kirk North.
~~~~
Cassandra strode boldly into her father’s office, looking neither right nor left. She smiled, but her smile did not conceal the petulant set of her face as she stared at her father. “Is your cowboy here yet?” she asked sarcastically.
Cassandra’s father held his features immobile for a moment before favoring her with a knowing nod. “As a matter of fact, Mr. North is seated right behind you.”
Cassandra stiffened involuntarily but forced her suddenly taut lips into a shadowy smile as she turned. The smile froze the instant she recognized the handsome man who was gazing at her with deep brown eyes. Her heart seemed to stop beating; her throat refused to allow air into her lungs. She stared at him for endless seconds until, at last, she broke free of her trance. “You…” she whispered, unable to say more.
At her side, Gregory Leeds looked from Cassandra to Kirk, a clearly puzzled expression on his face.
“I guess this cowboy started his job a few hours early,” Kirk said, free now of his earlier sensation of loss, which these first crass words of hers had effectively shattered.
Taken by surprise when she had entered the office, he saw the woman he had never expected to see again. His body had gone tense with recognition, but the tension had changed into something else after she’d spoken. Before she’d turned to face him, he knew the attraction he felt was wrong. It was an attraction to surface beauty. Kirk realized Cassandra Leeds was too sarcastic and callow a woman for him to consider special.
Standing, Kirk cut off his thoughts and walked toward her. When he was three feet away, he extended his hand.
Cassandra watched him walk and felt the powerful aura that surrounded him. Unknowingly she had caught her lower lip with her teeth in a nervous gesture. When he offered her his hand, she slowly reached out to take it.
The instant their hands touched, Cassandra experienced a rushing flow of heat that spread upward along her arm before expanding to suffuse through her entire body. Their hands stayed together, and their eyes locked for a long drawn-out moment.
Only when he released her hand did sanity return. “I… Forgive me, Mr. North, I didn’t really mean what I said.”
“And I wish I could believe that. But I’ll accept a thank-you for what happened earlier.”
Cassandra could still feel the heat of his skin on hers, although her hand was free and hanging at her side. Moistening her lips with the tip of her tongue, Cassandra nodded her head. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Would somebody like to tell me what’s going on?” Gregory Leeds asked.
Cassandra glanced at her father, about to speak, but Kirk spoke first.
“Your daughter was having some trouble with a man downstairs. I helped her out.”
Cassandra saw the next question coming from her father and knew she did not want to get involved with that now. “It was nothing,” she told him. Then she turned back to Kirk. “I do hope you’ll forgive me for being so boorish. We’ll be spending a good deal of time together.”
“I’m well aware,” Kirk said tersely.
“Well, now that you’ve both been ah…formally introduced, may I suggest we get down to business?”
Both Cassandra and Kirk nodded and followed Gregory Leeds to the far side of the office, where three chairs surrounded a table already set with cups, saucers, and a coffeepot.
~~~~
Eight hours after meeting Kirk North, Cassandra sank into the steaming tub and tried to rid herself of worry and unease. Her bags were packed and waiting by the front door, but her mind was not yet ready for this next step in her life.
Resting her head on the gilded edge of the large tub, Cassandra forced her muscles to relax and allow the hot water to work its special magic on them.
Her eyes would not stay closed, however, because when they were, his face floated before her. His eyes burned deeply into hers with unspoken accusation as the memory of the afternoon’s fiasco rose fresh in her mind.
Her humiliation at the first meeting with Kirk North seemed hotter than the water she lay in, and she could still feel the way her cheeks had flamed from her initial faux pas in her father’s office.
She had entered his office in a cultivated mood of aggression and defensiveness. Cassandra had believed she needed to establish her authority immediately in order to survive the coming year. She had been foolish and careless in expecting to find a typical cowboy whom she wanted to impress with her power, especially after having read his personnel file. Instead she’d found the one person who had already proven he was far from her own preconceived notion of a cowboy.
Cassandra remembered her father’s funny smile after she’d made her thoughtless entering remark. He had liked the situation she’d put herself in. Cassandra knew he had sensed the first round of victory went to him.
Not yet, Father! she promised herself.
The rest of the afternoon had taken on the aspect of a marathon: Her father had gone over all the details of her new position so Kirk North would clearly understand whom she was and why she was going to Twin Rivers.
Whenever she’d glanced at Kirk, his face had been devoid of expression. In fact, after the first few words he’d spoken to her, his face had become an emotionless mask.
The most disconcerting part was the way he’d spoken to her. Whenever he referred to her, it was in the third person. She’d wanted to yell at him, but she knew better. Instead, she’d reinforced her determination to be strong.
Closing her eyes, Cassandra tried to think of something else but failed.
“I believe we’ve covered everything,” Gregory Leeds had said with a smile. “I’ll expect detailed reports monthly,” he had added to Cassandra.
“Of course,” she’d replied.
Then her father had turned to Kirk. “All the arrangements have been made for the new stud?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll be finalizing them on the way back. The papers have been authenticated and certified by the Appaloosa Horse Club and by the Breeder
s Association.”
“I expect good news at foaling time.”
“Plan on it,” Kirk had said. Then he’d stood and looked at her. “Ma’am, I’ll see you at the airport, seven fifteen.”
“I’ll be there,” Cassandra had said, forcing a perfectly formed but patently false smile to counter his all too intense gaze.
“I’m sure of that.” Then he’d turned back to her father and shaken his hand before leaving the office.
When the door had closed behind him, her father had fixed her with a withering stare. “That was a poor way to start things off.”
Cassandra, her defenses not rebuilt, lowered her eyes. “I know.”
“It’s not too late, Cassie. You don’t have to go through with this.”
Cassandra had raised her eyes, and a slow smile spread across her lips. Until her father had spoken, she’d felt extremely vulnerable, but his invitation to give up was the very thing she needed to strengthen her resolve.
“But I do, Father, and I will!” With that, Cassandra had stood. “Will I see you later, at home?”
“If not tonight, I will certainly be there to see you off in the morning.”
“As usual,” Cassandra said to the bathroom ceiling as she opened her eyes and chased away the afternoon’s memory. Her father had always been a busy man—too busy to give her the time she had always wanted, especially since her accident. She had wanted to spend her last night in New York with him and her mother, but as usual, Gregory Leeds was too busy to have dinner with his only daughter.
So, after she and her mother had eaten a quiet meal, she’d packed her bags. Afterward, she’d gone for a short walk, knowing she might not be back for a year.
Cassandra stood under the shower, the water cascading from her tall lithe frame like a waterfall. Fifteen minutes later, she was in a soft cotton nightgown, sitting on the edge of her bed.
Glancing at the clock, she saw it was almost one a.m. She knew she should try to sleep; she would have to get up in less than five hours. She didn’t feel the least bit tired.
Sleep and Cassandra had become flirting strangers since her father had made his decision. He won’t break me! she declared to herself, refusing to let herself dwell on the one aspect that frightened her more than anything else in the world—the one thing that would make this job an unending personal hell.
Forcing herself to stop thinking about horses, Cassandra lay down and turned off the bedside lamp. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but instead, Kirk North’s handsome face returned to haunt her again.
“No!” she yelled, sitting up and turning on the lamp. The low flood of gentle yellow light helped calm her down, but Kirk’s face would not disappear, nor did her body’s reaction. Again, as had happened in her father’s office, Cassandra felt the heat rising within her.
She remembered the way he had so easily handled Somner, and she remembered, too, the hard, tough way he had stared her would-be-fiancé down. The power radiating around him was dangerous, Cassandra knew, for she could feel its call even now.
And I have to spend twelve months with him. What will happen? Can I do it?
“I will make it,” she promised. Cassandra understood instinctively, she could not allow herself to fall under Kirk North’s mesmerizing aura. If she was to be his boss, she had to prove she could do the job better than he could.
Ranching is just another type of business, she tried to tell herself. She tried, but failed. What was a ranch without horses?
Cassandra shivered. She was nine again, riding along the beautiful green meadow in Long Island. The sun was warm overhead; the large, powerful Thoroughbred beneath her moved at a swift pace.
She remembered her father’s proud look, and then—“Stop!” she shouted, wrapping her arms around herself to keep from shaking, and to will an end to the memory.
Thankfully Cassandra was able to divert her thoughts away from the past, rescued from the horror by thinking about something no less dangerous but far less frightening—Kirk North.
When she had gone into the meeting with her father and Kirk, she had known Kirk was not just a cowboy, a fact she had chosen to disregard in making her first power play. She had read his personnel file. Kirk North was a well-educated man who had graduated in the upper ten percent of his class at the University of Arizona. She had been surprised, too, to learn that Kirk had earned three medals during his service in the Army.
No, Cassandra realized, Kirk North was no cowboy. At last, Cassandra’s tired and warring mind could fight no longer, and a few moments later, she fell into a light but troubled sleep.
Chapter Five
Cassandra stifled the yawn and gazed from the corner of her eye at the handsome man seated next to her. They had been together for five and a half hours, and in all, he’d spoken to her three times.
She sensed his dislike of her, tried to accept it, but could not. She had apologized to him yesterday and had been determined to make this work. Having belatedly realized one very important fact, she knew if she were to succeed in her quest for freedom and self-validation, Kirk North would play a major role. Without him and his knowledge, she would never be able to do her job.
His antagonism had flared as soon as she’d gotten out of the limousine at the airport. It wasn’t just his antagonism, there was ‘something else’ about him. As it happened yesterday, her entire being had reacted to him, and she’d forced herself to remain poised, her emotions hidden.
No sooner had the chauffeur begun to take her bags from the trunk than she’d seen his amused smile. “Have you ever lived on a ranch?” he’d asked.
“No.”
“There isn’t much call for a large wardrobe,” he’d told her, his eyes sweeping over the abundance of her luggage.
“Mr. North, I haven’t brought a large wardrobe,” she’d responded in icy tones.
“Yes, ma’am,” he’d said without losing his infuriating grin.
The next time they’d talked was when they’d boarded the plane. In the aisle, Kirk had nodded his head and offered her the window seat.
“How gallant,” she’d said. Only she hadn’t meant to speak the words aloud, just to herself.
“Not really,” Kirk had responded, “I need the aisle to stretch my legs.”
Nonplussed, Cassandra refused to look at him as she went to her seat. But as she tried to hide her embarrassment, a different type of warmth rose in her cheeks, sped on its way by the simple action of his hand touching the bare skin of her elbow, guiding her to her seat. With his touch had come a tingling, which, a half a heartbeat later, had engulfed her body.
She tried but could not control her reaction to that lightest of touches.
Thankfully, for Cassandra, the plane had taken off on schedule and breakfast served. Breakfast, as everything else had been since she’d gotten to the airport, was a silent affair with the silence continuing long after the food trays had been removed, and Kirk had opened the New York Times.
Two hours into the flight, Cassandra had broken the silence Kirk had imposed. “Could we talk?” she’d asked. She’d had to wait a full minute for his reply.
“About?”
“Our situation.”
“Go ahead.”
Cassandra had wanted to scream. For the two hours she’d been sitting next to him, the aura surrounding him like an all-encompassing umbrella had grated unmercifully on her nerves. Yet Kirk had seemed oblivious of her presence.
“I realize you don’t like me,” she’d begun, but he cut her off.
“You’re supposed to be my new boss, Miss Leeds, not a mind reader. You don’t know whether or not I like you.”
His voice had held the flinty edge of decisiveness. She had seen it, too, in the brown depths of his eyes when he’d turned to emphasize his words. Caught within his gaze, Cassandra found herself fighting the trap her emotions were leading her toward—a pitfall that could only end in disaster. Concentrating with all her might, Cassandra broke the spell.
“W
hatever...but it is my job to make sure Twin Rivers makes a profit this year. Without your cooperation—”
“I’m the general manager, Miss Leeds. As such, I’m paid a rather high salary to cooperate with you.”
“Then why are you treating me like this?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Like hell you don’t!” With that, Cassandra had turned from him to look out at the blue sky. She had felt, too, the first pangs of a loneliness she knew would only get worse. I will survive!
When the announcement of their landing came over the loudspeaker, Cassandra spoke again. “How long is the trip from Denver to Phoenix?” she asked.
Kirk’s brow furrowed for a moment. “About twenty-four hours.”
“What?”
“Miss Leeds, we aren’t going to Twin Rivers today.”
“We aren’t? … What are you talking about?”
“We’re going to Wyoming to sign the papers for a new stud.”
“Whose idea was that?” she demanded, thrown off stride by this news. “My father’s?”
“Arrangements were made two weeks ago. Weren’t you told?” he asked, surprised by her lack of knowledge and anger.
“Apparently not.”
“The ranch’s plane is at the Denver airport, and we’ll leave just as soon as possible. You know,” Kirk ventured thoughtfully, ignoring her hostility, “this will be a good opportunity to see one of the things I hope will help Twin Rivers show a profit.”
“Why can’t the papers be mailed and signed?”
Kirk almost succeeded in hiding his brief flash of annoyance. “They could have been, especially since I know and trust the breeder. I’ve never seen the stallion, and I learned a long time ago never to sign anything without seeing what I’m getting first. Sometimes, no matter how good a stud’s papers are, you can look at him and know he isn’t the right one. I think he’ll be fine. In fact, two of our ranch hands are meeting us there with a horse trailer to take him back to Twin Rivers.”
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