by Debora Ryan
“I know you have plans tomorrow with your sister.” She closed her eyes and braced for the invitation. “And I checked with Anne. You don’t have plans tonight or on Sunday.”
She sighed and scratched at her forehead, irritated at him but taking it out on her skin. “We’ve been over this, Will. It’s getting old.”
“This is the last time I’m asking.” His voice held a note of finality. She believed him. He approached her desk and wrote something across the top of the page on which she was making notes. “This is my cell number. It’s on all the time. If you change your mind, let me know. The ball is in your court.”
She stared at the numbers. For once, she didn’t want to be rude and she didn’t want to be mean. Sarcasm was a way to keep men who wanted something more from her at a distance. It worked beautifully, but it was a habit that wasn’t easily shed. Gently, she said, “Don’t hold your breath.” It didn’t come out sounding nearly as resolved as she wished.
“I won’t,” he assured her. “But I am an optimist. I know our futures are linked. It’s only a matter of time.”
Linked. That sounded entirely too enticing. Leah’s defenses rose to high alert, but she couldn’t manage to not sound defeated. “Did you ever stop to think that’s because one day you would be running this company and I’ll probably still be working here?”
He shook his head. “Are you always such a pessimist?”
Her voice remained gentle. “We aren’t right for each other. We come from two completely different worlds.”
“You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who lets artificial things like that stop her.” He paused with his hand on the door. “Don’t let something like this pass you by because you’re too afraid of getting hurt. Live a little, Leah.” Then he was gone.
Leah sat back and rocked in her chair for a while, pondering the sense of loss she felt. True to her word, though, she didn’t call him. She thought about it. The type of challenge he had thrown her kept her up at night. Threads of unspoken conversation played themselves out inside her head over and over. She wondered if he was looking at his phone, willing it to ring or swearing at it for not ringing. Still, she managed to survive the entire weekend without giving in to the urge to call him.
He made no allusion to their conversation for the entirety of the next week. Another weekend passed, and still she did not call him. She knew the invitation remained open. It was in the looks he gave her when he thought she wasn’t aware of him. It was in the way he said her name and in the gentle pressure of his hand on her back when he guided her through a door he opened for her or the million excuses he found to touch her.
Over the course of the week, she began to encourage him to take the lead in the informal meetings she held with the members of her department. By the end of the week, she was impressed by how much he knew about the ins and outs of each project. She called him into her office at the end of the day on Friday to let him know she wanted him to run the Monday meeting.
He seemed surprised. “Why?”
“I think you should know what it’s like to be in that position at least once. I plan to move you to a team next week so you can actually work on a project.”
He considered this for a minute. “It doesn’t bother you to hand over power like that?”
She laughed. “Not at all. It will be a nice change to watch instead of direct.”
“I assume you’ll be critiquing me.”
“You assume correctly.”
“I wonder if my ego can handle it.”
“Your ego will survive. I think it’s pretty sturdy.”
He thought about that for a minute, but he didn’t mention the way she trampled all over him. “Which team?”
She shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet. I’ll have to see where they are Monday. Ideally, you’ll join one at the inception stage of a project.”
He nodded. As was usual lately, his mind seemed to be elsewhere.
“Are you ready for it?”
“How much preparation do you need to do to listen to a status report?” he asked. “I mean, you keep track of everyone without really letting them know you’re checking up on them. It’s pretty ingenious, yet simple.”
“You have to know the new assignments.”
“What new assignments? None of your people court new accounts.”
“That’s my job.” She indulged in a rare moment of pride.
“I haven’t seen you court new accounts.” The look he gave her made her think he felt like he should know every move she made. The thought made her shiver with guilt she immediately repressed.
“Then you haven’t been watching closely.” She laughed. She picked up three file folders and tossed them onto the desk in front of him. “One new account and three new projects.”
Will thumbed through them, brows raised. “Most people are vocal about the accounts they land,” he said. “You haven’t said a word.”
“This way no one can keep track of my win-loss record.” She was in an exceptionally good mood, and she had no idea why. Yes, she did. Training Will meant she wouldn’t have to embezzle money for a whole year.
Will frowned. “You present these to your teams as if they were handed to you. Why don’t you take credit for them?”
Leah matched his expression with some confusion of her own. “What would be the point of that?”
“So people would be aware of exactly how much work you actually do.”
She shook her head. “The people who need to know my accomplishments are aware of them.”
He tapped the folder in his hand. “I think they under-appreciate you.”
“I like it that way.”
“Why?” The line between his brows was back.
She sighed, suddenly tired. More attention meant more attention. Being ignored worked well for her right now. She settled for a safe-but-true response. “When people know how much you do, they ask you to do more. I’m maxed out.”
“You could probably milk this for a promotion.”
Her smile didn’t quite form. “I have a sneaking suspicion that you’ll still be my boss.”
“Does that bother you?”
She shook her head again, slowly.
“Is that why you’re showing me this?”
“No. I’m showing you this because you need to assign it on Monday. If I wanted to brag, there is a lot more I could tell you.”
“So tell me.”
“It’s five o’clock.” She stood and gave up fighting the smile that wanted to manifest on her face. Being with him romantically could be so good, but too many obstacles stood between them. “I’m going home.”
* * * *
Images of Leah invaded Will’s mind every time he didn’t force himself to think about other things. He couldn’t remember a time when a woman occupied this many of his brain cells.
She was an interesting person. Intelligent, meticulous, hard-working. His father didn’t pay her nearly what she was worth. When he lost her as an employee, the company was going to take a definite hit, financially and morally.
Leah might bristle and use her mental armor to attack a little too often, but she didn’t seem to use her defenses until she felt threatened.
Will made her feel threatened. As soon as he left the next move up to her and backed off, she changed completely. Her manner remained businesslike, and her conversation was limited to work, but she relaxed around him now.
She smiled and laughed, though he did sense an underlying sadness, a grief that made her seem fragile and vulnerable. It brought out his protective instincts at the worst possible time.
Though he had yet to find a complete money trail, all the evidence he had found led straight to Leah. What in the world had she done with six million dollars? Why had she taken the money in the first place? In all other respects, she was an honest woman with more integrity than anyone he’d ever met.
Why would she do something like this?
And why couldn’t he just report his fin
dings to his father and wash his hands of the entire investigation?
He had a life in New York. His job and his apartment sat dormant, waiting for him to return.
Maybe Leah would go with him.
Maybe he stayed because he felt he owed her something. If she was innocent—if she was being set up—she didn’t deserve the fallout this would necessitate. Her career would be over.
He rubbed his hand down his face and sighed. His mother had asked him to find the money, not merely to find who took it. As much as he wanted this to be over, his job wasn’t finished.
Chapter 5
Will conducted the Monday meeting nearly flawlessly. She watched as he commanded the undivided attention of the entire group with his confident, charismatic style. Leah found she enjoyed listening to him speak. The cadence of his words, the movement of his sensual lips, and the sparkle in his eyes drew her to him more than ever before, and it irritated her to no end. Perhaps his lassaiz faire strategy of courtship was beginning to pay off. She would need to gain better control of herself before they met alone today.
At the close of the meeting, he gave Leah credit for landing the new account. “I don’t know how many of you realize this,” he said, “but these accounts come from somewhere, and it’s not my father.”
Leah felt her cheeks burning under the curious and admiring glances of her employees. She was going to kill him for this later. He assigned the new account to Anne’s team, as they were nearly finished with their current project. After the room cleared out, he turned to Leah and smiled broadly, revealing a tiny dimple in his left cheek. She tore her eyes from it to pay attention to his words.
“Well, boss, how did I do?”
“Let’s discuss this in my office.” Maybe her icy response wasn’t exactly called for, but she couldn’t let this slide.
“This won’t be good,” he muttered as he followed her from the meeting room to her office. Closing the door tightly behind them, he twisted the lock for good measure.
She whirled on him, furious. And her heart fluttered a bit at the turning of the lock. “How could you do that?”
“I assume you are questioning my decision to give credit where credit is due.” His voice was level. In her pique, Leah dismissed the underlying warning in his voice. Besides, she could barely tear her eyes from the way his jacket accented the broadness of his shoulders.
“I made it clear how I wanted this done and why.”
He flopped down onto her sofa and patted the seat next to him. “Sit, Leah. We need to talk.”
The newly authoritative tone caught her attention. She sat next to him and looked him over curiously. Something felt off. She rested her elbow on the back of the sofa and perused him openly. “Why are you really here?”
“To learn.”
She didn’t move or repeat her question. She waited for him to continue.
“And because almost six million dollars has disappeared from your department over the last four years.”
She remained frozen for a different reason. She had taken forty thousand, not six million. How had someone embezzled even more without her knowledge? Careful to give nothing away, she said, “What?”
“Six million dollars is a lot of money, even for the Dannakers.”
She looked away, wondering if he suspected her of anything. She knew a likely sentence would include jail time and restitution. Cecelia would end up back in the care of the state if she lost her job. Her medications would be given sporadically, and her physical therapy, which had given her so much freedom at Sunshine Acres, would come to a halt.
“I’m not going to turn you in.”
Leah’s eyebrow rose of its own accord. “What?” she repeated, conscious that in the tumult of her thoughts, it was the only word she had verbalized in the past five minutes.
“I’m not going to turn you in,” he repeated. The grim set of his mouth didn’t offer any hope. “But there is a price.”
“I didn’t take six million dollars.” Fear dried her mouth and thickened her tongue, yet the words came out just fine anyway.
“No, but I have evidence that you’ve taken some.” He traced a precise circle on his leg.
“What do you want?” As soon as she said it, she knew it was a mistake. She closed her eyes against the answer.
“I want you to make yourself available to me.”
Startled, she gasped. A large part of her couldn’t believe he would stoop this low. All this time, she thought he had accepted her rejection and moved on. Perhaps he had been hopeful or cautiously optimistic, but he hadn’t appeared to be stewing. He had given no indication he hated her or bore her ill-will. It appeared he wasn’t that magnanimous where his ego was concerned. “Is that all?”
He ignored her sarcasm. “No. You have to stop taking money from the company.”
She broke away from the hypnotic eyes that had held her captive for so long. “I have plans tonight.” Bitterness laced her voice, and she didn’t bother to hide it.
“Cancel them.”
“I can’t,” she said. Cece would never understand, and she had already let her sister down enough for one lifetime. “Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. I spend those days with my sister. It’s the only time my free time matches her visiting hours. That’s non-negotiable.”
He watched her silently. She knew he was trying to make sense of her statement, and she wasn’t about to help him. He wanted to sleep with her, so be it. But that didn’t give him entrée into her personal life.
“Tomorrow, then,” he said finally. He reached out to cup her face in his hands, drawing her closer.
Leah acquiesced to his silent demand. His lips slid slowly across hers, sending sparks shooting throughout her entire body. She kissed him back, responding to him against her will. How could she react this way to the man who was blackmailing her?
“Are we finished with this?” she asked tightly when he released her. The heat warming her body was equal parts shame and desire.
“For now.”
* * * *
Will didn’t know whether he wanted to kick himself or pat himself on the back. He hadn’t meant to force the issue. In his mind, the meeting was supposed to happen entirely differently.
To begin with, Leah’s bottomless brown eyes weren’t supposed to darken with guilt and profound sadness. The color wasn’t supposed to leave her face.
She was supposed to jump to her feet, a ruddy tone staining her cheeks as she paced the room and demanded answers. That reaction would have vindicated her completely.
He had planned to quell her well-placed ire with reassurances that should have led to close bodily contact and a kiss that didn’t leave him feeling like a snake.
Instead, he had turned into a man he didn’t know, a man who abused his position of power to get what he wanted from a woman.
One date, he promised himself. He would dazzle her with how charming and gentlemanly he could be. He would sweep her off her feet and then the story of how they got to that point wouldn’t matter because she would be madly in love with him.
* * * *
Anne noticed her agitation that evening on the way to visit Cecelia. “What’s wrong, Leah?”
“It’s nothing,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“Leah, you know you can’t see Cecelia when you’re like this. You know she’ll pick up on it and it’ll take her a week to work her way back to normal.”
Leah sighed. “I know. I know.” She parked her car in the lot next to the large, friendly building that housed her sister. Tears stung the insides of her eyelids. Deep down, she did want to go out with Will, and that desire made her hate this development all the more. “Maybe I shouldn’t go in.”
“Maybe you should unload all of your problems on your best friend.”
Leah shook her head. Some burdens weren’t meant to be shared. “This is something I need to work out on my own.”
Anne studied her friend for a minute. She knew when to back off. It was just one of the th
ings Leah loved about her. “Then you’d better work through it pretty quickly. I’m going in. She’ll go crazy if we’re too late. You stay here. I’ll tell her you had to work late.”
Tears coursed down Leah’s cheeks, and her shoulders shook. This kind of weakness made her feel like a fool. “You’re such a good friend.”
Anne reached over and hugged Leah. “You let it all out. You keep these things in too much. It was only a matter of time before you lost it completely.”
Her words had the desired effect. Leah laughed through her tears.
“I gotta go,” Anne said. “I’ll look for you on the inside.”
Leah never made it in to see Cecelia. Her ire rose, alternating with fear, and culminating in sobs every time she thought she was calm enough to go in. She hated when she got this upset. It always took her far too long to regain control of her emotions. No doubt she would be on edge the entire day tomorrow. After all, that’s when her career in blackmail prostitution would begin.
That night, Leah tossed and turned. Instead of finding the calm escape sleep could bring, her nervousness and fear grew. She slept fitfully, and she was more tired when she awoke than when she went to sleep the previous evening. Caffeine saved her that morning. She sipped her third cup of coffee when Will strode into her office as if nothing untoward had happened the day before.
He set yet another coffee on her desk before folding himself into the chair across from her. “Good morning.” He was especially chipper. He held all the cards in their relationship now. Anything she said or did that upset him could potentially send him to his father with evidence of her embezzlement, and Cecelia would suffer for her actions.
Leah decided to proceed as if nothing had changed. “I have meetings upstairs this morning.” She set a folder on his side of the desk and indicated he should look through it. He picked it up and flipped the pages over slowly as he scanned them. “I’ll give you the choice of whether you want to be present at the meetings or not. It’s not imperative you take that active of a role in this training.”