by Debora Ryan
The details of her midnight excursion returned to her. Will’s arm crossed her breasts, draped lazily around her torso, and his hand rested possessively on her far shoulder. He had curved his body around her, fitting himself to her contours. She could feel every breath he took and every beat of his heart. Not an inch of her escaped contact. She snuggled back against him.
The slight movement woke Will. He removed his arm and ran his hand down the length of her.
“Good morning, sunshine,” he murmured. His hand returned, and she felt her hair move moments before his cool lips burned her neck.
It took all of her willpower, but she finally squirmed away from him and headed for the bathroom without apology. In the privacy of the large room, and with the help of some cold water on her face, she brought her breathing under control.
Leah wrapped a large, soft towel around her body and returned to the bedroom firmly resolved to get dressed and go to work.
Will watched as Leah picked through the clothing Anne had brought. “What are you looking for?”
“Anne didn’t bring work clothes,” she said. “I’ll need to stop by my apartment before we go to work.”
“We’re not going anywhere.”
“I feel fine.”
He sat up. The sheet pooled in his lap, but the chiseled expanse of his chest tempted her to climb back beneath the covers. “You slept all day yesterday, Leah. You might feel fine now, but you’ll be tired in a few hours. I already told Eliza you’d be out until Tuesday at least.”
“Tuesday?” She wondered how he arbitrarily came by that day.
“You have a doctor’s appointment on Monday. If he releases you back to work, then you can go. Otherwise, you won’t.”
Leah stared at him, stunned by his audacity. “You are dictatorial,” she said. “I can’t do that. I don’t have that many sick days.” Not to mention she needed to save most of them for Cecelia, who suffered from sundry health problems relating to the accident.
“I’ll be whatever it takes to make sure you take care of yourself,” he said quietly.
Leah debated arguing with him, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. She settled for food. “What’s for breakfast?”
“Pancakes?” She nodded, and he pulled on a pair of sweats.
Breakfast was a quiet affair. Leah took a nap afterward without admitting to Will that he had been right to insist she stay home to rest. She woke an hour later in a better mood, and she dressed in jeans and a short-sleeved shirt.
She emerged from his room to find him cross-legged on the living room floor facing the wall and muttering under his breath. Puzzled, Leah crept up behind him slowly. When she was close enough to see over his shoulder, she rolled her eyes. It was a cleverly-hidden wall safe. He was sorting through some papers.
She kissed his neck, startling him. He pulled a pair of earbud headphones from his ears and smiled up at her. “I didn’t hear you. Did you have a good nap?”
Leah nodded. “I don’t suppose I should be seeing this,” she said, indicating the safe’s location.
His eyes crinkled and said, “Honey, if you need some money, all you have to do is ask.”
Her face turned to granite. She moved stiffly across the room to sit on the larger sofa where she had fallen asleep on Will only last night. Her stiffness was not due to lingering soreness from the accident, it was due to the fact that his statement was a slap in the face. She did need money, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to ask him for it.
Will closed the safe and spun the dial, then replaced the panel that covered the safe. When he was finished, Leah could not find so much as the suggestion of an outline to show where it had been. He came to sit next to her, desperation marking his features.
“Guess what the combination is.”
Leah’s arms were firmly crossed over her chest. “I don’t want to know what your combination is.”
“Oh, come on, guess,” he prodded.
Leah was losing patience with Will. She threw out a guess to appease him. “Your birthday.”
“Nope. Guess again.”
“Your father’s birthday.”
A shadow of disgust passed behind his eyes, surprising Leah with its honesty. She knew he didn’t like his father, but she hadn’t thought the venom ran that deep. Will’s voice had lost some of its playfully cajoling tone. “No.”
Leah’s tone was somewhat gentler when she spoke again. “I don’t know, Will, and honestly that’s something I don’t need to know.”
“What if something happens to me and you need to get in there? You should know.”
Her brows drew together. “If something happens to you, then I’m sure your family would find a way into your safe, if they even know about it. Otherwise, your things can stay put for all eternity.” Leah uncrossed her arms and leaned her elbow against the back of the sofa as she turned to face him. “If you dislike your father so much, why did you leave a successful career to come all the way back here to work for him?”
His head flopped to one side, facing her, but he didn’t otherwise move. “It’s temporary. I didn’t actually quit my job. I took a leave of absence. I have every intention of returning at the end of six months.”
Leah took heart from his revelation. At the same time, her heart broke a bit. Six months. This thing between them was finite. “Does your father know this?”
Will’s expression turned mordant. “Yes. He’s having trouble managing his employees. I told you more than six million dollars have disappeared. I’m supposed to find it.”
Leah ground her teeth. “I didn’t take six million.”
“I know you didn’t, but the trail leads back to you. That’s why I was put in your department. I’ve been trying to find out who is setting you up, but I haven’t been successful.”
A frightening thought occurred to Leah. “Your father thinks I took six million dollars?”
He sat up slowly, uncertainly, and didn’t look at her. “I haven’t shared my suspicions with him.”
That was a relief. She waited impatiently for him to continue.
At last he cleared his throat. “The night we met.”
After a silence, Leah prompted him to finish his thought. “What about the night we met?”
“That’s the combination. The date we met. You were right in thinking it was an important date. It’s not a birth date, though. It’s the date we met.” He looked at her expectantly.
“I don’t understand. Why would you tell me that?”
“Because I trust you. We’re two halves of a whole, Leah.” His warm brown eyes pinned her in place with their intensity. “I knew when I met you that we were destined to be together. I wanted to kill Trevor for pulling me away from you. I knew you thought I was hitting on Anne. I planned to explain, but you left. I went back to that place for the next two nights. I probably would have gone every night hoping to find you again. I did toy with the idea of hiring a private detective to find you.”
He reached out and touched her face. Leah fought the urge to turn into his hand so that he was touching her more fully. “Imagine my surprise when you walked into that office. It only confirmed that our meeting was fated.”
“You didn’t know?” Her voice was a whisper.
“How could I? I hadn’t started at the company.” He slanted his lips over hers, kissing her tenderly. Something frozen thawed and unfurled inside Leah. She wanted so badly for things to work with him.
“So, someone is making it look like I have six million lying around?”
“It would seem so.” Will frowned. “You don’t seem to have any enemies. Is there anything I don’t know about? Someone you dated and it ended badly? Someone who you passed over for promotion? Someone who resents you?”
Leah shook her head. “I don’t think I would notice anyway. I’m a very busy person. I don’t really date. I’ve never dated anyone at work. I am focused on my job when I’m there, but I don’t think about that petty stuff at all. Is your father angry with me?�
�� The last part came out a lot more nervously than she had intended.
Will looked at her in surprise. “Why would you care?”
“I care what he thinks.” Leah’s reply was defensive, but she didn’t care.
He laughed. “You know, one of the things that cemented my attraction to you was the fact that you didn’t care what he thought.”
“But that isn’t true.”
“Leah, you came into your office to find your boss waiting to have a scheduled meeting with you, a meeting for which you were an hour late. You made no excuses. You didn’t even acknowledge him until he said something to you first. I know Eliza had to have told you we were waiting for you.” His smile widened. “You didn’t apologize at all. Instead, you took him to task for asking a favor from you. I like your brashness and your fearlessness.” He took her hand in his and caressed it gently.
Leah was quiet for a minute, enjoying his touch and thinking over their conversation. With a sudden sigh, she confessed, “My car wouldn’t start. I had to change the spark plugs and wires. I ignored your dad because I was mad about being late, and I was mad that I had a grease stain on my skirt. I wanted to find my spot remover pen to take out the stain. I was embarrassed. It actually had very little to do with the fact that I didn’t want to take you under my wing.”
“But you got a ten thousand dollar bonus for doing it.”
She grinned. “I should have asked for more.”
“He probably would have given it to you. My mom is really upset about the missing money.”
“Your father told her about it?”
Will shook his head. “My mother found it. She’s the one who asked me to come, otherwise I wouldn’t have.”
“I didn’t know your mother was involved with the business. I’ve never seen her.”
Disgust once again descended on Will’s face. “That’s because my dad is a jerk who doesn’t think my mom should worry about business matters. Plus, he’s afraid someone might recognize my mom and realize that all the money isn’t his, that he married an heiress, and that she actually owns all the assets.” His gaze slid back to the ceiling as he continued. “She loaned him the money to start his business and every time it’s been in danger of failing, she comes through with the cash to keep it going. Everyone thinks Thomas Dannaker is a brilliant business man, but he is nothing more than a regular guy who was lucky enough to marry a Greek shipping magnate’s daughter.”
Greek. That explained his dark hair and olive skin and incredibly prominent cheekbones. “You do resent him.”
“I resent that he pretends to be something he isn’t. She made him, and he gives her absolutely no credit. And she doesn’t seem to care.”
“He is very proud,” Leah agreed. “Perhaps your mother understands that. Maybe that’s why she lets him get away with it.”
He shrugged. “I gave up trying to explain their relationship years ago. There is no rational explanation. I have no idea what she sees in him.”
The topic was becoming uncomfortable. She didn’t want to know that much about his family’s dynamics. “So, you have no idea who is taking the money. When are you leaving?”
“I have ideas about who is taking the money. I haven’t been able to find their money trail. It all leads back to you. And I happen to know you haven’t taken anything since I told you to stop.”
“You can’t know that for sure.”
“I’ve been watching you more closely than you think.” He slid closer still, but turned to lay his head on her lap at the last moment, never letting go of her hand. “I’m scheduled to return to work in Manhattan the third week in August.”
Leah blinked. That was only a month away. She thought knowing the date might make things easier, but it didn’t. A perverse pain clenched at her heart, causing her to close her eyes. She didn’t want him to leave. Swallowing the pain, she looked down at him. His eyes were closed, but his fingers continued to move, caressing her hand and stroking lightly up her arm.
Leah brought her free hand to his face and touched him there. She luxuriated in her exploration of him and in the expression of pure pleasure on his face. A comfortable silence settled between them until Will broke it. “You changed your own spark plugs?”
“My car runs, or ran, I should say, through a set of spark plugs every six months or so. The engine was in a bad spot. Rain and snow could get in fairly easily.”
“I’m impressed that you know so much about cars.”
“Because I’m a woman?”
“No, because I have no clue about any of that stuff.”
“Let me guess. You take your car in whenever there’s a problem with it.”
“I do,” he admitted. “Does that make you respect me less?”
“No.” Leah knew she would have someone else do that kind of work if she could afford it. Although if she could afford it, she reasoned, then she would also be able to afford a car that didn’t require constant attention. “I think you could learn it if you tried. If I can learn it, anyone can.”
“Who taught you?”
“My dad.”
Will reached up to touch her face. “You know, that’s the first time you’ve ever mentioned your father. I was beginning to wonder if you had roots.”
“Everyone has roots.” Her hand traced a trail down his neck where she caressed the exposed areas of his chest. Her gaze dropped from his eyes to his lips and her mouth began to water for the taste of him.
A strange chirping sounded from somewhere behind Leah. “That’s your phone,” Will said.
Leah remembered the phone she had tossed onto the table behind her the previous day. She reached for it and turned the thing round and round, trying to figure out how to answer it. Will saw her dilemma and slid it open for her.
She smiled her thanks. “Hello?” She hadn’t looked at the caller ID to see who it was before she answered. She figured it was Anne because she didn’t know who else had that number.
“Hey, girl. Did I wake you up?”
“No. I’ve been up.”
Will flipped onto his stomach and lay back down on Leah’s lap. His face was turned toward her, and one arm snaked behind her. He lifted her shirt in back and slid his hand underneath to touch her skin there. Shivers ran up Leah’s spine, and she inhaled sharply.
Anne’s voice came through the line loud and clear. “I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“I’m fine,” she said. “I’m not very sore at all. My head still aches a little, but it’s annoying more than anything else.”
“Sunshine Acres called me. You might want to give them your new number. Anyway, they are moving Cece home today. Are you going to see her tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Leah said. “I feel bad about not seeing her yesterday or today. I know this hasn’t been easy for her. Will you take me?”
“Yeah.” Anne sounded reluctant. “What time?”
“I have to be there at nine. You know how she is.”
Will placed his hands on either side of Leah’s hips and, in one swift movement, pulled her underneath him. The heat of him penetrated her clothing. Her body responded to his touch, arching toward him. His lips found the tender places on her neck. Her breathing instantly became erratic.
“I can take you,” he murmured close to Leah’s ear.
Anne heard him. “Has he met Cece yet?”
“No,” Leah said. “Can you pick me up by eight-thirty?”
“Yes,” Anne said. “Look, I have to go. I’ll call you tonight, okay?”
Will took the phone and tossed it onto the thickly-carpeted floor. “I can take you.”
“Aren’t you golfing tomorrow?”
“Not if you need me.” He kissed the sensitive skin below her ear.
A soft moan escaped from between her lips. “Cecelia isn’t ready to meet you. She doesn’t do well with new people, and after what she’s been through, it’s not a good idea to spring this on her.” Especially since Cece had suddenly decided she wanted a boyfriend and
a baby. Leah could imagine the fighting that would ensue if she knew Leah was involved with anyone.
His lips traveled down her neck as his hand pushed her shirt up to expose her stomach, then slid beneath it.
The sudden need to kiss him was overwhelming. As if he knew what she wanted, he found her mouth and ravaged it. As it ended, he shuddered and froze. After a moment, he buried his face in her neck. “Are you ashamed of me?”
Leah was confused. “What?” she breathed.
He leaned back to look her full in the face. His eyes slid away from hers and he played with a lock of her hair as he thought. Finally, he looked back at her. “Are you ashamed of me?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Leah said as she reluctantly released the hold her legs had on him.
“You want to keep this out of the workplace. Fine. I understand that. But you haven’t introduced me to a single member of your family. You don’t talk about them at all to me, and I’m guessing they don’t even know I exist.”
Thunderstruck, Leah said, “You haven’t exactly introduced me to your family, either.”
“You’ve met my father.”
“He introduced us.” Her sarcasm was unmistakable.
“You aren’t interested in meeting the rest of them.”
“I’d be willing to bet they know nothing about me, either.” She wasn’t upset about it, but she didn’t have anything else to say in her defense. A strong protective urge prevented her from telling him anything about Cecelia.
“They know I’m seeing someone. My dad’s already guessed it’s you. No doubt he’s told my mother all about you. Come to dinner with me on Monday. I’ll introduce you to them all.”
Leah sighed and closed her eyes. “You know I can’t. Your father won’t like it, and Cecelia won’t understand.”
“She holds you prisoner.”
She really didn’t want to have this conversation. “No, you hold me prisoner. She needs me.”
Will’s face fell. They were at an impasse. Leah pushed at Will and tried to squirm out from beneath him, but he refused to move.