“I mean romantically.”
He cocked his head slightly, warm amusement on his face. “So do I.”
That wasn’t exactly what she had expected. Okay, yes. She knew he was attracted to her, but still. “I don’t want your daughters to be confused. If they see you do something again like what you did this morning, they may think there’s something more to it.”
“What did I do this morning?”
“You kissed my hand.”
He came toward her, and she had to dig her heels into the carpet to keep from backing away. When he stopped within a foot of her, she told herself she was glad he’d stopped.
“It’s a lovely hand.” Surprising her, he picked it up and kissed it again, this time slower, softer.
Rattled, she tugged at her hand, but he refused to give it back. “You can’t do stuff like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s…I’m not…” She huffed out a breath. “Like I told you last night. I do not want to get involved with you.”
There, she’d told him, succinctly, somewhat brutally, but it had to be done.
“Liar.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me. I don’t believe you. I think you do want to get involved with me, but you’re afraid to get hurt. I get that. I don’t blame you. Caring about someone else is a risk. But it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
She blinked in confusion. Where had this gone wrong? “No, I do not want to get involved with you. I just want to do my job. That’s it. And if you can’t honor that, I’ll have to quit.”
“Prove it.”
“Prove what?”
“That you don’t want to get involved with me.”
“And how do you propose I do that?”
“Kiss me.”
Her heart began a rapid gallop. “How would that prove anything?”
“It won’t, but I think it’ll prove something to you.”
Despite her best intentions, she backed away. She didn’t get far, though, since he still held her hand.
“Listen, Eli. You’re an attractive man. You could have any woman in the world you want, at any time.”
“I don’t want anyone else in the world. I happen to want you.”
“But why?”
“Kathleen, are you really so unaware of your own appeal?”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I think we established that I know quite a lot about you.”
“The things you know…that’s surface stuff. You don’t know the real me.”
“I know you better than you think. And what I don’t know, I want to learn. I want to know everything about you, Kathleen. Is that so hard to believe, to understand?”
Before she could answer, he said, “I walked to you, Kat. I’ve told you what I want. I was open and upfront. Now I’m asking you. Take one step forward, toward me. Show me that I’m not the only one feeling this way. Show me it’s not one-sided.”
Step back, step back, step back. The words were a rhythmic warning in her head. But the seduction of his words infused her entire body with heat, and her heart was whispering in counter rhythm. Take a chance!
Without even knowing she was going to do it, she took a step forward. The warm approval in his eyes sent heat shuddering through her before he even touched her. Lowering his head, he put his mouth on hers, and she remembered his taste from yesterday, warm rich flavors, like a good wine. She had expected passion, prepared herself to be drawn deep into the same vortex of heat and need she had experienced last night. She hadn’t expected tenderness. His mouth, soft as a whisper, made love to hers slowly, gently. This was a slow, sweet seduction. She told herself she could have fought the explosion of desire. But this… Oh, this just made her want to sink into him and let him take control.
Kathleen moaned as she stretched up on her toes, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and gave in to the need.
Even as tenderness swamped Eli for her bravery, desire consumed him. His hands cupping her bottom, he pressed her hard against his arousal, molded his body to hers, and let passion take them both. Every fantasy he’d ever had, every dream he’d ever wanted, was here in his arms. As their lips melded together and their bodies heated with desire, Eli knew this was a pivotal moment for them. He could take it further, make her burn even brighter, quench the need. But a quick fix wasn’t what he wanted from this woman. This was no short-term romance for him. He had forever in his mind. And she wasn’t ready to know that, accept that.
With the fiercest willpower he’d ever known, Eli did what his body told him was impossible. He pulled away from her delicious lips and stepped back.
She was breathing heavily, in panting little gasps that he’d probably hear in his dreams tonight. The fire in her eyes was more than he could have expected, and it took every bit of that willpower to keep himself from diving in again.
Holding his arms loosely around her, he touched his forehead to hers. “Have dinner with me again tonight. Just you and me. We’ll go out…someplace crazy romantic and seduce each other. I’ll take you dancing, or we’ll take a drive and make out under the moonlight.”
He had expected confusion, maybe a bit of shyness. He hadn’t expected anger.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“What?” He took a step back, shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
“You cannot and will not seduce me. You’re my employer and nothing more.”
“I’d say we were doing a fine job of seducing each other. Or did you forget you took that step forward?” Maybe it was wrong to throw that in her face, but dammit, he knew what she had felt, knew she wanted him. “Why are you denying this, Kat? What are you so afraid of?”
“Get someone else to guard your children, Eli. I’ll stay until you find a replacement. Until you do, stay away from me.” She whirled and headed to the door.
“Like hell.” Doing what he’d never done in his entire life, he refused to comply with a woman’s request. Instead, he strode quickly to his desk and flipped a switch, clicking the locks on the doors, keeping her from leaving.
Either she hadn’t heard them lock or she refused to believe he’d do something so arrogant. She tugged on the door handle, and when it didn’t open, she growled, “Open the damn door.”
“Not until we talk. Until you tell me what the hell’s the matter. I know you want me, dammit.”
She whirled again, and though her body was trembling, he was glad there were no tears. Tears from this woman would do him in. He’d do anything to prevent them.
Leaning back against the door, she whispered harshly, “Yes, you can turn me on. Yes, I’m attracted to you. But that’s it. Nothing more. I can’t get involved with you. I won’t. It’s not fair to your children to see you involved with a woman and have it go nowhere.”
“What makes you think it would go nowhere?”
“Because it can’t. We both know that.”
“No, we don’t.” He was tipping his hand a lot sooner than he’d planned, but what the hell? “You say I don’t know you…the real you. Well, dammit, you’re wrong. I do. And what I know, I’m crazy about. I don’t want short term. I don’t want an affair. I want long term. Maybe forever.”
Her flushed face went pale. Tears glimmered in her eyes. “No. Just no. Now open the damned door before I scream and your secretary calls the police.”
That would never happen, but neither did he want Kathleen to feel trapped as she so obviously did. But before he clicked the locks, there was one thing she needed to hear.
“I don’t know what’s got you so scared, but I won’t give up, Kat. You’re not a coward. You’ve proved that. With every adversity you’ve faced, you’ve overcome and triumphed.” Eli flipped the switch, and the door lock clicked open. “I sure as hell never thought you’d look at my feelings for you as an adversity.”
He saw a flicker of regret in her face, and then it went blank, much the way she’d looked
at her sister’s trial. “Any woman, anywhere, would be flattered and thrilled to have someone like you interested in them, Eli. You’re every woman’s dream. You just can’t be mine.”
She turned, opened the door, and walked out.
Chapter Twenty-six
Hiram Clemens State Correctional Facility
Enid, Texas
“This is getting to be a habit, Eli. Are you back for more advice from your big brother? What’s the matter? You finally figuring out you don’t have the smarts to handle the Slater holdings?”
It had been a few weeks since he’d seen Adam. Why had he thought the incarceration would make a difference to the asshole? If anything, Adam looked healthier and even more smug than before.
“Prison life seems to suit you.”
His brother swaggered to the table and sprawled back in his chair. “Three squares, plenty of time to exercise and read. It’s a great life. I really hope you get to experience it someday.” He grinned and pointed to Eli’s black eye. “Whereas you, little brother, look like warmed-over dog shit. Somebody finally beat the hell out of you like you deserve?”
Unfazed by the showy rhetoric, Eli said, “I know it’s you, Adam.”
“It’s me, what? Eli?”
“You’re the one who sent the emails threatening my family. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
“Oh, little brother. How sad you are. Here I am, locked in a cell, twenty-four/seven, eating shit I wouldn’t give a stray dog, listening to men fart, belch, and get off with their hands or with each other only a few yards away from me, and you come complaining about some stupid email? Daddy was right all along. You’re too soft. Don’t have it in you to be the head of the Slater family.”
“I’m through playing your games, Adam. You think listening to your fellow prisoners entertain themselves is unpleasant? You don’t know what the word means. I just met with the warden, and we had what you might call an enlightening conversation.”
Something like fear flashed on Adam’s face, but he quickly covered it up with a smirk. “You’ve got me shaking in my prison-issue loafers. What has my badass brother got cooked up for me? You going to take away my pillow and blanket?”
Eli realized he’d been wrong. There was worry behind the bravado. Adam was feeling the stress, the pressure. This was the perfect time to lay down the law.
“Here’s how it’s going to be. You’re going to tell me if you sent the emails threatening my children.” When Adam opened his mouth to speak, Eli held up his hand. “I’m not finished. You’re going to tell me the truth. If you do, I’ll believe you and will do nothing other than make sure you have no access to the Internet.”
“And how are you going make me do that? Truth serum? Lie detector?”
“Daddy once said you couldn’t lie your way out of a paper bag because you were too stupid. And since you are indeed one of the stupidest men I’ve ever known, I figure he was probably right. So tell me, Adam, did you send the emails?”
“Screw you, Eli. I’m not saying another damn word.”
“Fine. Not only will you be barred from any electronics, a camera will be installed in your cell. You’ll be monitored twenty-four/seven.”
“You think that scares me? Hell, a man can’t take a piss in this place without somebody getting splattered.”
“Then get ready, brother, because it’s about to get a helluva lot wetter for you. The warden will be adding someone to your cell.”
“He can’t do that. I have to have a cell to myself. I’ve got a doctor’s order. I’ve got a condition. Warden can’t change a doctor’s orders. I’ve got rights.”
“Funny, he couldn’t seem to find anything like that in your file. Guess that quack doctor didn’t come through for you, after all.”
Adam surged to his feet. Eli prepared for an attack. Instead of going after his brother, though, Adam began to pace.
“You don’t understand, Eli. I’m not like those other men. I have to have a place to myself. You put somebody in there with me, I’m going to die.”
“All you have to do is tell me the truth.”
“And you’ll believe me?”
“Yes.”
“Then, all right, yes. I sent a stupid note. It wasn’t anything more than a little smartass one-liner. Meant nothing.”
“Just one?”
Eli pulled out the small stack. He now had six. He thought he knew which one Adam had sent.
“Now wait just a damn minute. I’ll cop to one, but I didn’t send any others.”
“Show me which one you sent.”
Adam sat down and read each one, then pointed. “This is mine.”
“And what did you expect to gain from sending it?”
“It was a joke. You’re so friggin’ serious all the time.”
“Joking about my children’s safety is not amusing.”
“Yeah. I get that.” He looked down at the other emails, the attached photographs. “Who do you think sent the others? Could I be in danger here?”
Adam’s question didn’t even surprise him. The man had always had only one concern—himself.
Having endured his brother’s company as much as he could stand, Eli stood. “Good-bye, Adam.”
“You believe me, right?” Adam grabbed his arm. “You’re not really going to make me share a cell with anyone, are you?”
A strong wave of disgust hit Eli, but it was tempered by a dose of pity. His brother, the most spoiled of Mathias’s children, was also the weakest and least stable. Eli had figured the threat of sharing a cell would do Adam in. Had banked on that. When they were kids, Adam had pitched a fit if he had to share anything with his other siblings, most especially a room.
“You’ll keep the cell to yourself. And whatever other privileges you’re provided. I’m done with you.”
Eli walked out the door, hoping like hell he never had to come back here again. He gave a nod to everyone he passed but barely saw their faces. The air felt thick, and even though he figured much of it was in his head, the stench of the place roiled his stomach. His strides ate up ground until he got outside, and then he took in great, deep breaths, cleansing his lungs.
Wearier than he’d been in months, he got into his car and headed out of the parking lot. He’d gotten the answer he’d come for. Despite the evil that resided in Adam’s heart, Eli believed him about the emails. But they’d all come from the prison. Justice’s tech person had verified all of them had the same IP address. So if Adam sent only one, who had sent the others? And why from the prison? Was it to set Adam up? To make it look like his low-life brother was making the threats, and all the while someone else was out there waiting to hurt his family?
He hadn’t mentioned the incident from yesterday. Adam might be a sleazebag, but Eli didn’t believe his brother was behind the attempt on his life.
So where did he go from here? The answer was obvious, but he had hesitated taking the next step. Hadn’t wanted to make it. But now he had no choice. He needed to get his daughters to his mother and sister in France, away from immediate danger. As long as they were close to him, Eli knew he wouldn’t be able to concentrate, do what needed to be done.
And Kathleen? The image of how she’d looked when she’d walked out of his office haunted him. He had told Justice yesterday—just yesterday, dammit—that he wouldn’t push her. That he knew she was too vulnerable, wasn’t ready. And then what had he done? He’d damn well pushed her to the point of quitting.
But now what could he do? Get her out of his life until everything settled down? With Sophia and Violet going away, the job no longer existed. If he let her go, what would happen? He knew the answer. He wouldn’t see her again. She would take the opportunity to get out and stay out.
If he asked her to stay, to work with him, using her expertise to help hunt down who was behind the threats, would she? Or would her fear, her stubborn pride make her turn him down?
And if anything happened to her?
His mind whirled, arg
ued, and turned itself inside out with what he should do versus what he wanted.
Who was behind the threats? Were they really that serious? A few emails and a lame excuse for an assassination attempt? Was he making too much out of it all?
His foot lifted from the accelerator, easing his speed to take a hairpin turn. A glint in his peripheral vision caught his attention. He glanced over at the heavily wooded forest. What had he—
The instant his mind registered what he was seeing, he instinctively ducked. A loud pop sounded, the windshield shattered. Eli jerked on the steering wheel. Another pop, pop. Bastard had shot out at least one tire.
He slammed on his brakes and the car went into a wild, uncontrollable spin. Seconds later, he knew he was a dead man as the car went airborne, flying off the road and down toward a small valley.
Saying a quick prayer that his children would not lose another parent, Eli prepared for the bone-jarring impact.
Chapter Twenty-seven
For the second time in twenty-four hours, Kathleen’s feet flew down the hallway of the hospital. This time, there was no Eli heading toward her with a bruised eye and an eye patch to entertain his children. Instead, Grey was standing in front of the reception desk, his mouth set to grim, dark blue eyes sparkling with fury.
She skidded to a stop. “Is he okay? Where is he?”
“I don’t know. The doctors are still in with him. He’s alive. That’s all I know.”
Kathleen closed her eyes, relieved he was alive, but she knew from experience that there were different levels of being alive.
“Let’s sit down.” Grey took Kathleen’s elbow and led her to a chair. He sat beside her, his expression troubled.
“It wasn’t an accident, was it?”
“No. The police were here when I arrived. They couldn’t give me a lot of details on his condition other than he was able to tell them that he’d been shot at.”
Her heart stopped. “He was shot?”
“I don’t think so. At least, they said they couldn’t find any entrance wounds. The paramedics indicated the blood was from a head wound, not a bullet wound.”
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