Taking Over the Tycoon

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Her eyes dark and imploring, she caught his forearm. She wasn’t ready to give up control. “Let me,” she demanded, her lips curving into a soft, seductive smile.

  Shifting upward so she was on top of him, her thighs straddling his hips, she slowly, provocatively lowered herself onto him. Hardly able to bear it, he sucked in a breath, wanting everything she had to give. And she wanted him, too. He could see it in her eyes as she arched and bucked, and tightened her body around him. Taking him into her, taking him deep, giving him everything he had ever wanted from a woman, everything he had ever needed.

  “Like this?” Connor whispered, wanting to please her as much as she was pleasuring him.

  “Exactly like this,” she agreed sexily, as she lowered her mouth to his.

  Lips locked together in a fierce, primal kiss, they continued merging bodies, merging souls, until for the first time Connor knew what it was to give—and take—without restraint. To love boldly. Proudly. He hadn’t known he could want a woman like this, he realized in amazement. Hadn’t known he could want Kristy so fiercely and completely. But he did, and those feelings, he knew, weren’t ever going to go away.

  REALIZING THEY WERE ravenous, they ordered in, feasted on Chinese food, made love again. By dawn, Kristy knew what she had only guessed at before. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with Connor Templeton because she was head over heels, irrevocably, wonderfully, impossibly in love with him. She wanted to marry him someday, be his wife. And he was…well, she wasn’t sure exactly what he felt about her. Enamored? Attracted to? Was this going to lead to marriage? Was he even the marrying kind? Should she even be speculating about it at this point in their relationship? Or should she be doing what he was apparently doing—just enjoying the moment?

  “You’re worrying again,” Connor said, as the two of them lounged about, she in his pajama pants and T-shirt, he a robe, eating a breakfast of croissants and fruit they had ordered in. His glance drifted to her breasts before returning to her face. “Are you still thinking about giving up the resort?”

  Kristy swallowed around the sudden tightness of her throat. “That was yesterday.”

  “I know.” Still eyeing her with a depth of male speculation Kristy found very disturbing, he shifted toward her. “I’m asking about today.”

  “To be honest—” Kristy put down her napkin and picked up her coffee cup “—I still feel pretty tired and defeated, but I also know it’s too early to be throwing in the towel. That there are other business approaches I could try.” With effort, she met his gaze.

  Connor sat back in his chair, the successful self-made tycoon again. “Want to discuss them with me?”

  Abruptly feeling every bit as inept and useless as she had the day before, Kristy replied as evenly as possible, “Nope.”

  Ignoring the flip note in her low voice, he asked seriously, “Why not?”

  Noting that he didn’t like being shut out by a significant other any more than she did, Kristy hesitated. She wasn’t sure Connor was going to understand her need to succeed or fail entirely on her own, for once in her life, but she had to try and make him understand nevertheless, because it was the only way she could succeed. She took a bracing breath as she fumbled with her mug. “Because I don’t know if any of my other ideas will work, and until I have time to figure out if they will or not, I don’t want to talk about them.”

  He looked so hurt that Kristy felt compelled to rush on, “I know you’re a very successful business person and you might have valuable input for me, Connor. And I know I more or less tried to get you to advise me yesterday, and somehow take responsibility for the decisions that need to be made now. So if it turned out to be the wrong decision in the end it wouldn’t really be my failure but yours. But I also know I started out determined to do this on my own or not at all, and I have to forge on despite the difficulties facing me, and keep to that.”

  Connor regarded her with respect. To her relief, he seemed to understand why she needed to do this her way, come what may. “Is that the only thing on your mind?” he asked softly.

  No, Kristy thought. I’m wondering if you really love me as much as you act as if you do. But unable and unwilling to put him on the spot about the exact nature of his feelings for her, she lifted her shoulders casually and said with an inner confidence she couldn’t begin to feel, “What else, beside the business problems facing me, could be?”

  KRISTY HAD JUST GONE into the bathroom to finish getting ready to go pick up the girls when a knock sounded at the door. Wondering who could possibly be coming by so early—it was barely nine o’clock—Connor went to get it and found Skip Wakefield standing in the hallway. He looked upset.

  “Where have you been?” Skip demanded, charging inside. “I’ve been calling you since yesterday on your cell, and out at the resort.”

  Connor stared at his business partner irritably. “I haven’t checked any of my messages.” Kristy had her cell phone on, in case the girls needed her, but Connor hadn’t been interested in getting any calls, and had turned his off and let his voice mail take them.

  “Why didn’t you pick up the phone here?” Skip demanded, looking even more aggravated.

  “Because I was busy,” Connor warned in a hushed voice. Not wanting to disturb Kristy, he took Skip by the arm and pushed him toward the door.

  Skip saw the pair of woman’s sneakers on the floor next to a handbag. Scowling, he glanced back at Connor. “Thanks to you, Bruce Fitts is threatening to sue us.”

  Connor kept his voice deliberately low. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Skip’s face tensed. “He says he didn’t have anything to do with those trees being uprooted on Paradise Resort.”

  “Oh, he does, does he?” Connor replied in a voice dripping with sarcasm. The lout obviously knew no bounds, if he was trying to pull this off! Especially in light of all the man had already done.

  “He said the storm did it,” Skip continued, in an upset tone. “And furthermore, he resents the heck out of you and Harlan Decker for going over there yesterday and trying to put the lock on him to pay for the damage.”

  “Obviously, he didn’t tell you the whole story,” Connor said with a sigh.

  “He didn’t have to.” Skip looked back at Kristy’s sneakers and handbag. “It’s obvious you’ve gotten way off track here. Or need I remind you of your original mission?”

  “I know what I was supposed to do,” Connor retorted gruffly. What he was always supposed to—and did—accomplish. Get everyone on the same page, and feeling good about it.

  “Then why don’t we have a signed agreement yet?” Skip demanded impatiently, looking as if he wanted to understand his best friend, but didn’t.

  “Because Kristy Neumeyer doesn’t want to sell,” Connor explained, dropping his voice to a hushed whisper and hoping Skip would do the same. The bathroom was on the other side of the loft. Normal voices would be muted, unintelligible, but shouting was something else….

  “Yeah, well, she might,” Skip pointed out, exasperated, “if you hadn’t been out there all week helping her out, free of charge.”

  Aware they were about to cross a line that shouldn’t be crossed, Connor scowled. “That was between her and me, Skip.”

  “Yeah?” Skip slammed his hands on his hips, pushing back his blazer. “Well, what about what’s between you and me and the rest of the consortium we put together?” His brows knit in a frown. “It’s a great opportunity, Connor, but it’s not going to be there forever unless we can get her signature on the dotted line. Darn it all, for all the time you spent schmoozing her, she should have agreed days ago!”

  The bathroom door opened. A fully dressed Kristy walked out. It was clear from the expression on her face that she had heard most, if not absolutely everything, the two men had said.

  So much for sound not carrying across the loft, Connor thought, swearing inwardly.

  She smiled at both of them tightly. “Unfortunately, I’m a stubborn cuss. Aren�
��t I, Connor?”

  Connor glared at Skip again, then looked at Kristy and lifted an imploring hand. “You weren’t meant to hear any of this,” he said quietly.

  Kristy plucked up her sneakers and handbag. “Gee. Now that’s a surprise.” She looked at Connor’s partner as if she had expected this all along. “Hello, Skip.”

  “Kristy.” Skip nodded at her politely. “Sorry for barging in,” he said sincerely, letting her know his quarrel was not with her, but with Connor.

  Connor tensed all the more as Skip turned toward the portal and Kristy held up a cautioning hand, stating icily, “Don’t leave on my account, Skip. We were all just getting to know each other.”

  Connor didn’t like that tone in her voice. The one that said she had already tried and convicted him. “I can explain.” He pushed the words through tightly gritted teeth.

  She released a derisive breath. “Oh, I’ll bet you can.”

  Another silence fell between them.

  “And you can start with your threatening Bruce Fitts,” Kristy continued calmly as she sat down on the sofa to put on her shoes.

  Connor swallowed, aware that about this much she might possibly have very good reason to be angry with him. “You heard that?”

  Kristy shrugged as she stood and squared off with them. “Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it.”

  Connor shifted his weight so he was standing with his legs braced apart, arms folded in front of him. “He’s been poisoning your palmetto trees with big jugs of weed killer. Harlan Decker, the private investigator I hired to look into it, is also an ex-cop. He and I visited Fitts yesterday morning and I gave Fitts twenty-four hours to make it right, or we go to the district attorney.”

  Skip blinked in total surprise. Kristy looked equally stunned by the revelation, though not nearly as surprised.

  “You’re sure about this?” Skip said.

  Connor nodded. “I have videotape to prove it.”

  “Geez.” Skip swore. He shoved a hand through his hair and began to pace. “I had no idea. I mean, the guy is a jerk, but that’s sick.” He turned to Kristy. “That’s not the way Connor and I operate,” he said firmly.

  “But you do double-team people,” Kristy said, elegant brow arching.

  Skip shrugged his shoulders indifferently, not about to apologize for his and Connor’s success. “I go in with the business pitch, the hard line, and get people thinking about what we want to do. Connor smoothes the way and mediates between both parties until we have an agreement.”

  “Which is what he was supposed to do with me,” Kristy ascertained dryly.

  Skip nodded. He turned to Connor. “But somehow he got off track this time, and started working on your behalf, instead of everyone else’s.”

  “Well, I can see how that would be a problem,” Kristy said, even more coolly. “Me being so hardheaded and all.”

  Connor turned to Skip. “I need to talk to Kristy alone.”

  “All right. I’ll catch you later. Kristy—sorry about your trees.”

  She nodded, accepting his apology, and Skip let himself out.

  Connor turned back to her. He wanted this to work with all his heart and soul. He had thought Kristy did, too. It hurt to realize she was ready to both think the worst of him and run at the first sign of difficulty. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he apologized calmly as he closed the distance between them. Only now did he see what a big mistake that had been.

  “Why didn’t you?” she asked quietly, the hint of tears adding a luminous quality to her dark brown eyes.

  Connor looked down at her. He knew she was upset. He didn’t blame her. He was upset, too. “I was trying to protect you,” he explained gently.

  She dragged a hand through her hair, pushing the dark, silky strands from her face. “Like I haven’t heard that one before.” She sighed wearily.

  Connor tensed, irritated that she insisted on thinking the worst. “If you’re comparing me to your late husband…” he began.

  Chin up, she slanted him a reproachful look. “One and the same.”

  “Our situation is entirely different,” Connor continued flatly.

  “Is it?” She folded her arms and turned tormented eyes to his. “Obviously, you didn’t trust me with your suspicions about Bruce Fitts.”

  Connor placed his hands on her shoulders. “You had enough on your plate.”

  Kristy blinked. “So you think I’m, what? Fragile and weak, or just incompetent?” she demanded irascibly, flattening both hands on his chest and shoving him away.

  His own temper flaring, Connor retorted, “Neither.”

  “Of course, I can see how you’d think I was a ninny.” Kristy paced back and forth. “I wasn’t exactly Super-woman yesterday afternoon, was I? Falling apart like that. Crying in your arms. Being so distraught you had to put me to bed.” She shook her head in disgust at her own vulnerability.

  Connor saw nothing to feel ashamed of and everything to be proud of in the way she had allowed herself to finally lower her guard and turn to him. “You were exhausted,” he reminded her gently. “You’d been working nonstop. You hadn’t had any sleep.” She had needed him to be there for her, and he had been glad to do so.

  Kristy scoffed and grimaced self-effacingly. “I could say the same about you, yet you coped just fine, Connor. Hell, you were even able to slip in a secret visit to threaten Bruce Fitts, without me or the girls knowing about it.” She paused and tilted her head consideringly. “When did you do that, by the way? Oh, I know!” She snapped her fingers. “It was yesterday morning, when you went out on that mysterious errand—to check on some pending business with a property, wasn’t it? Not that it matters in any case,” she continued, giving him no chance to reply.

  But it did matter, Connor thought. Just as they mattered and her dream mattered. And somehow he had to get her to realize that. “I was trying to help you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you put your whole heart into resurrecting Paradise Resort and making it all it could be,” Connor told her simply. And somehow, someway, in the process of him trying to understand her and see things from her viewpoint, her dreams had become his dreams.

  But Kristy obviously didn’t see it that way. Eyes flashing, jaw set, she continued accusingly, “Tell me something, Connor. What were you going to do if I was actually able to make a go of the place? Hmm? You must have been really happy when I told you I was ready to throw in the towel yesterday, that I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

  “On the contrary,” Connor retorted tightly, taking her into his arms once again. “I didn’t want to see you go down in defeat.”

  Tears filled her eyes as she looked at him. “Because that would have robbed you of the chance to mediate a solution in some clever, sunny fashion?” She swallowed hard and pushed on in a low, trembling voice. “Or was sleeping with me supposed to smooth away the rough edges and accomplish that?”

  Now she had crossed the line, Connor thought. He released his hold on her abruptly. “You can’t honestly think I made love with you to work out the fine points of a business deal.”

  But that, he realized sadly, was exactly what she did presume. “Romancing got you close to me.” She spoke as if he weren’t even there. “I guess I’m just a sucker, because those kisses felt so real—”

  “They were real!” Connor interrupted.

  “—that I began to trust you. So much that I confided everything to you.” She drew in another shaky breath, shook her head in obvious regret. “You know my financial situation, exactly how much longer I can hang on.”

  “Damn it, Kristy, I never asked you for that information!”

  She laughed bitterly. “That’s what makes it all so sweet! I volunteered it. Willingly. Stupidly! Naively. And now you have everything you and Skip need to take me down. With or without the nefarious Bruce Fitts’s help. All you have to do is wait a few months, and hell—I’ll be begging you two to make me a deal. You might even b
e able to shave a mil or two off the purchase price.”

  Connor regarded her stonily. “You really think I’m that low?”

  “What I think,” Kristy said, tears blinding her as she grabbed her shoulder bag and rushed for the door, “is that I’ve been a fool.”

  Connor moved to block her way. He’d lived a life of bitter accusations and no resolutions before, and he wasn’t doing it again. Wasn’t going to be with a woman who didn’t believe in his capacity to love. “Damn it, Kristy, if you leave like this, if you refuse to stay here with me and find a way to work things out, it’s over,” he warned roughly. “Do you understand that?”

  “Oh, Connor,” Kristy said wearily, “it’s been over from the moment Skip walked in that door.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Connor spent the rest of Thursday alternately moping around and trying—and failing—to be cavalier about the whole thing. It wasn’t as if he had ever expected to fall in love with and marry Kristy Neumeyer, after all. He had been there to simply mediate a solution and bring her around to his and Skip’s way of thinking, so Paradise Resort could be sold, torn down, an exclusive condominium built.

  By Friday he had tired of both approaches, and moved on to meeting with Skip and coming up with solutions to their current myriad of business problems.

  The entire time, he stayed close to the phone, thinking, hoping that Kristy would realize the error of her ways and call him or come to see him. She didn’t. And by Saturday morning, he had to admit to himself what he supposed the practical side of him—the side used to cutting his losses and moving on—had already known. That his time with her and her two girls had been like a dream. One that, however pleasant and inspiring, was bound to end.