She spoke quickly, as clearly as she could despite the tears. "The thing is, you come from money. When someone close to you is in trouble, you step in like some kind of superhero and try to fix it."
"And this is bad?"
She punched him halfheartedly in the chest. "Well yeah, if you never let people deal with life on their own."
Ian caught her fist between two hands before she could withdraw it. "And you're saying I've done that to you?"
"Not yet," she admitted. "But it's there … inside of you." She tapped his chest with their linked hands. "If we stayed together, it would happen, in time."
"Maybe, since I've been made aware of your need for independence, I'd make an effort not to bully you."
She studied his eyes, so serious. Could she trust him with her life? With her entire future? "Is it even possible, Ian? I mean, you said with Lara, you forced her to do what you wanted. Is it possible for a person to change?"
"Maybe it's not so much changing as learning. Every relationship is different, Katherine. We've been tiptoeing around ours, trying to figure out if there's a chance it could work for us. As soon as I indicate that I want a family, you give me one of those terrified looks. As soon as you start running, I back off."
"It's true," she admitted sadly.
"We have to call a truce." He was holding her now, stroking her back softly, speaking into the wisps of hair at her cheek. "We have to stop reacting to our fears, if we're going to figure out what we really want."
Back in Arizona, she'd thought she knew what she wanted—freedom to do whatever she chose. But with freedom came responsibilities, and complications she hadn't foreseen.
"I like working for Danforth's, even if it means hard work and not making a lot of money. But my loyalty to the company got all tangled up with my loyalty to you, Ian."
"Maybe it's just an old-fashioned crush on the boss?"
She shook her head vehemently. "It's more than that. I like being close to you, and I respect what you're trying to do. Protecting your employees, your father and family. I want to be part of what you are and what you do. I just haven't figured out how." That was as clear as she could make her thoughts for the time being.
He nodded, as if willing to accept this much on faith.
"What about you, Ian?" she asked, her voice sounding thin and unsure to her own ears. If he told her to go away now, after she'd poured her heart out to him, she'd have to leave Savannah. It would break her heart to see him in the offices or around the city, and not be able to be with him.
"Heaven help me, but I've wanted you, Katherine, from the moment you walked into my office." He kissed her then, tenderly but thoroughly. He kissed her as if he'd been thinking about doing it for a very long time. But when he drew back and he looked at her, she could see that he still wasn't sure of her. Of them.
"If it was just the sex, it would be easy," he said. "I can have that with other women, but I don't care about them the way I do you. I want children, a wife I can love and who will love and nurture our children. And a home life that's good and healthy. And after the children are tucked in bed, I want passion. I want it all, Katherine. But if you can't promise me you'll be there for the whole show, I won't risk courting you."
Her throat ached with longing at his words. Ripples of need crested within her.
Could she be this person he envisioned? What would she do in Lara's place? What would she decide if she got pregnant?
The question came at her suddenly, demanding an answer. Demanding the truth.
She reached into her soul. "If I became pregnant … I'd love my baby. Our baby." She felt warmed from inside at the admission from her heart.
He studied her face, still cautious. "I'm not interested in being a single parent. Or a dad who visits on weekends. It's all or nothing with me, Katherine. I can't be any plainer."
"I understand," she said. But he still hadn't actually said he loved her. However, what they'd said this night was a start, a sharing of dreams, of ideals. "My mother says that all love is a risk."
"Some love is more so than others," he said.
She gazed up at him. "From where I stand, I think you're worth the risk."
He seemed to shudder from within, then his eyes darkened with a desire that she felt as physical vibrations between them. Tremors of passion, invisible but no less potent than an earthquake. "And you're worth the gamble, my darling," he said throatily. "But I'm going to have to do a few things to protect our mutual declaration of trust."
"Hire a bodyguard?" she asked, grinning as she wriggled suggestively in his arms.
"Not on your life. You can do anything you like with my body."
"Oh, I can, can I?" She ran a finger down the center of his T-shirted chest. Lower down, his briefs revealed a sudden tightness of fit.
"Mmm-hmm. Do with me as you will. As long as you leave me in one piece when you're done."
"I promise."
"And breathing."
"That, too?" She pretended to pout.
With a lusty growl he swept her off her feet, carried her three steps south and plopped her down on the bed. "To hell with breathing!"
She laughed, but only until his mouth covered hers, hot, demanding her full attention. She closed her long fingers around the back of his neck and head, pulling him still closer to deepen their kiss. His hands roamed her body, slipping beneath clothing, caressing responsive flesh, discarding whatever apparel stood in his way.
Her hands were no less busy, moving up under his T-shirt to tangle her fingers among the luxuriant, coarse hairs across his chest, rubbing her palms over his nipples until they tightened to hard masculine nubs. She slid her hand behind him to knead taut muscles the length of his back, down to his narrow waist, then pressed beneath the elastic top of his briefs to mold his male bottom.
She moaned with pleasure as his mouth caressed her breast. Liquid heat rushed through her as he alternately teased and sucked, lips and tongue driving her nearly insane with pleasure.
"I … oh, Ian! Please!"
"What?"
"Now. In me!" She gasped, barely able to breathe, opening herself to him, curling her fingers into his rock-hard shoulders now gleaming with sweat.
"You're the boss."
The seconds it took him to provide protection seemed far too long. She couldn't bear to lose touch with him. She cupped him from beneath, delighting in the weight of his sex in her palms as he slid the smooth latex over his erection.
He pressed her back down on the bed, wedging apart her thighs with his knee. As if he knew she had been ready since the first moment he touched her, he slid hard and fast and fully into her. She let out a cry of intense satisfaction, glorying in his size. She arched her back and lifted her legs up around his hips, encouraging him deeper still.
He thrust, and thrust, and thrust again … until she felt crazed with the heat and the wetness. She clung to him, wrapping herself around him as his deliciously slick, male rigidity pressed into her again and again. Coaxing from her eager body wave after wave of delicious, satisfying pleasure. She blazed. She sparkled.
Then the world blew away, leaving only this man and this moment, and nothing else at all.
* * *
Ten
« ^ »
Pleasures given and taken. Physical and emotional highs soaring ever higher. That was how the night passed. Just when Katherine thought her body had spent every ounce of its desire, when she had given all that she could, Ian came to her again, demanding more of her and of himself, pleasuring her beyond imagination.
When daylight finally coaxed Katherine from her dreamless slumber, she turned, naked in the twisted sheets, and looked across the pillow, expecting Ian to be there.
A note rested on his pillow beside a single red tea rose, undoubtedly clipped from Crofthaven's garden.
Urgent business. Leaving you with immense reluctance. See you tonight? Ian.
Katherine smiled drowsily, turned over and drifted back to sleep.
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 where 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 For
tune. 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?"
The Boss Man's Fortune Page 13