Nicola passed Katie one of those woman-to-woman smiles Ian detested, because they were almost always a portent of trouble. He tried to catch his father’s eye to form up a male conspiracy of their own.
But Abraham was watching the two females with an amused smile. “You may have something there, Miss O’Brien,” he said. “Thank you for your insight.”
Ian rolled his eyes and gave up.
“That was some coup you pulled off at the club,” Ian muttered as he steered through the historic district on their way back to Danforth & Danforth.
“What do you mean?” Katie asked nervously.
She had noticed Ian’s irritation with her speaking out to his father and Ms. Granville. She hadn’t meant to overstep the boundaries of her position, but it seemed impolite to refuse to stay when Abraham Danforth himself had requested her presence.
“I mean—” Ian made every syllable weighty “—I can count on one hand the people capable of charming my father and have fingers left over.”
“Oh, please. I hardly—”
Ian let out a sharp laugh. “Don’t pretend you didn’t notice. You smiled, and the man melted faster than ice cream on a Georgia sidewalk in July.”
She shrugged. “I just made a few suggestions, that’s all. Actually, I’d say it’s Ms. Granville who has your dad’s rapt attention.”
“Nicola?” Ian huffed. “Of course he pays attention to her. She’s his camp—”
“I know…I know, his campaign manager for the senatorial race.” Katie turned on the leather passenger seat to face him as he drove. “But didn’t you catcha…I don’t know, an electric thing-y going on between them?”
“No.” He was shocked at the very thought.
“Just a little?”
“Listen, Nicola’s a pro. She wouldn’t get romantically involved with a client. And my father, like many retired military officers, is obsessed with his next battle. This time it will be political, not military. But he won’t waste his energy thinking about women. Believe me, I know.” He failed to mask the bitterness in his voice. “Nothing distracts the man when he has his mind set on a goal.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time politics and women ended up in the same bed.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ian grumbled. “Nicola and Dad…that’s just insane.”
“If you say so.” Katie turned to look out the tinted glass in the passenger window so Ian wouldn’t see her smile.
It was so easy to get his goat, as her grandpa used to say. And so much fun. Almost as much fun as taunting her brothers when they were kids. At least now her prey wouldn’t steal her dolls from her as punishment.
Katie cast a speculative glance at Ian in the driver’s seat. He was a tall man, obviously strong. She guessed he must work out to keep in shape.
Her father had been an athlete in his youth; he’d told her about his days on college football fields. And he’d continued to lift weights even after he met her mother and they’d started having kids. Tyler Fortune had designed a fully equipped gym in the house he built for her mother on the edge of the desert, overlooking sacred Indian land where they’d fallen in love.
She vaguely remembered something about a legend, and a mystical cave where lovers became one in spirit. And, she guessed, in body as well. It had all sounded so romantic.
She wondered if Ian had a single romantic bone in his entire body. He was an appealing man with his wavy brown hair and shadowy eyes. His mouth was full, sensitive, and drew her eyes to his lips, as if something wonderful might come unexpectedly from them. Maybe words that would change her life in some mysterious way.
She felt suddenly light-headed and turned back to the window hurriedly.
“Well, it’s a shame there isn’t anything romantic going on between them. They’d make a handsome couple.” She sighed.
“Never mind that. Your job was to record the meeting. As soon as we get back to the office, please type up your notes and give them to me. I want to take them home with me to think more about Dad’s campaign in light of all that’s been happening.”
Katie tipped her head to observe him. “You really do look like him, you know.”
For a moment she wondered if his silence meant he was angry with her. Then his expression softened. “You think so?”
“Mmm-hmm. Around the eyes. And your build. Some gestures, too.”
He laughed. “Don’t know how I picked up on those. Didn’t seem he was around often enough while I was growing up for any of his habits to rub off.”
“He traveled a lot with the military?”
Ian nodded. “And after. My uncle pretty much raised us kids. Good old Dad packed us all off to boarding school after my mother died. Holidays were nearly always spent with my uncle’s family.”
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.
She couldn’t imagine being without a close family. Without her mother, in particular. Yet here she was, intentionally separating herself from those she loved and who loved her. Strange, she thought, because she really did value them. But something deep inside her drove her to seek a life of her own.
“That must have been rough, being without your parents.”
He shrugged, but his eyes had dimmed with pain. “All in the past now.”
But is it, Ian? she thought.
“Besides, we had some great times—my brothers, sister and our cousins. To this day, when we all get together, we’re like one big, loud family.” He smiled, as if to demonstrate how okay he was with the past.
“Good,” she said, deciding she would say nothing more on the topic. Let him keep that cheerful image. Even though she knew it was a poor substitute for the bond he’d sought but never found with his own father.
As soon as they were back in the office, Ian left Katie to type up her notes. He walked down two floors to Personnel. Holly looked up and smiled when he stepped through the open door to her office.
“Well, how’s she working out, Ian?”
“Mixed reviews.”
She looked surprised. “You don’t like Katie? She seemed very personable, and smart, too.”
“It’s not that.” He dug for a reasonable-sounding excuse. “I think she’s overqualified for the job.”
Holly leveled gray eyes at him. “A lot of college grads temp for a while, to feel their way into the work force.”
“I know that.” He raked fingers through his hair and paced in front of her desk. He couldn’t explain the desperate need he felt to put space between himself and Katie. “Maybe it’s just a personality clash. She doesn’t act like…like an employee. She changes my requests and does things her own way. She even handed out advice to my father over lunch today!”
Holly laughed. “Wish I’d seen that.”
He couldn’t help the smile that teased his lips. “It was something to behold. What else do you know about her?”
“Aside from what’s on the copy of the application I gave you?”
“Right.” He propped both hands on her desk and leaned over the file she pulled in front of her from one corner of her desk.
Holly flipped pages. “Nothing of special interest. Graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English. Worked a few summers for a construction company as a girl Friday, then as an occasional fill-in receptionist.”
“Where?”
“Arizona, looks like.” She scanned the form. “The temp agency might have more information on her.”
“Nothing on her family? Where she grew up?”
She frowned up at him. “Why would you want to know that?”
“I don’t know. It’s just that something about her isn’t right. It’s been bothering me since yesterday. She doesn’t act like a wet-behind-the-ears college grad from some hole-in-the-wall southwestern town. She’s too poised, too sure of herself.”
“You mean, you don’t like that she doesn’t jump when you say boo?”
Ian gave her a nasty look. “Do you have a sister, Holly? And is she sitting in my offi
ce at this very minute?”
She grinned. “Thank goodness you have a sense of humor or I would have lost my job long ago.”
“Not a chance.” He straightened up with a sigh. “You’re too good at what you do for us to ever let you go.”
She closed the folder on her desk and tapped it thoughtfully. “Tell you what, if you’re really uncomfortable with Miss O’Brien, I’ll step up our efforts to find you a permanent EA. That way, if we tell the temp agency her services are no longer needed, it won’t reflect badly on her. We contracted to keep her for a month or less, dependent upon our filling the position.”
“Good,” he said. “The sooner she’s out of here the better.”
But even as he said those words, he doubted them.
Yes, she was annoying. Yes, she was difficult and made him restless in ways he couldn’t understand. But she also challenged him, set him to thinking in new directions, with fresh energy.
Worst—or best—of all…she was damn good to look at. Maybe too good.
But all of that aside, there was something mysterious about Katie O’Brien. Something that deeply worried him even though he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
She would be trouble somewhere down the road, of that he was sure. She was a loose cannon aimed straight at his company and family. Her behavior at lunch today had proved at least that much. The Danforths had enough trouble without her making it worse.
Four
Cursing softly, Ian hung up the phone, hit the interoffice pager and pushed himself back from the polished ebony desk so large the delivery team had had to disassemble it to get it through his office door. He told himself to breathe. He focused on the smoky glass pane overlooking the Historic District pulsing with spring activity, willing away his black mood.
Delicate, creamy camellias and vivid crimson, pink, and lavender azaleas bloomed in profusion in a wash of Monet-like hues along the streets. Through the nearby park he could see Spanish moss lazily draping live oaks that had been around before he was born. Magnolia and sassafras trees reached gracefully for the sky. Traffic that roared and screeched in other cities merely hummed here. Cars were barred from some streets altogether and speeds were kept low on others to avoid the occasional fringe-topped carriage pulled by the original horse power. A golden sun radiated goodwill in an azure Southern sky.
Life could be good…would be good again, he reminded himself. Someday.
“Sir?”
He looked up to see Katie poke her head anxiously around the corner in response to his buzzing her. “What did I do now?”
She was still with him after a week. Personnel had failed to find an executive assistant that suited him. It wasn’t that Holly hadn’t tried. She’d sent three candidates up to him for interviews after she’d screened dozens of others. None of them had seemed right to him.
He wondered if he was unconsciously seeing faults in the candidates that didn’t exist. Yet he’d been so sure he wanted Katie out from underfoot. She was turning his world upside down.
She made it impossible for him to concentrate on important decisions. He was always too aware of her body—the way she settled one hip lower than the other when she was retrieving a file for him. The way she sat, so very straight, which tended to emphasize her small, nicely shaped breasts. The way she ran the tip of her tongue along her top lip as she took notes.
How was a man supposed to concentrate? He’d never had this problem with clerical help before!
“It’s nothing to do with you, Katie. This time.” He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
She let out a long, laborious sigh he half expected was for show. “That’s a relief.”
But when he looked up to find a decidedly guilty look on her face he wondered what she’d done that he hadn’t yet discovered. Three days ago, she had rearranged every stick of furniture in his office…all by herself. Even the massive desk. She’d shown him the plastic slider contraptions, like little sleds, she’d used under the furniture legs. Katie told him the arrangement was now much more feng shui.
And just yesterday she’d brought him an English muffin with jam instead of his usual bagel and cream cheese with his coffee. Less fattening, she’d claimed. As if what he put in his body was her business! Who knew what she’d dream up next.
“Did you call me for a reason?”
“Yes.” He stood up and paced the carpet, vaguely remembering an old game he’d played with his cousins…stepping only on the Aubusson’s flowers, avoiding the leaves. Fell in the drink! they’d all shout when one of them slipped. Why was he thinking of silly childhood games now? “Maybe there’s something you can help me with.”
“Really?”
He winced at her exuberance. He’d pretty much avoided giving her anything important to do for him because she seemed compelled to tackle every task in a dangerously creative way.
“Yes. Come in and sit down.” He waved her to a chair, then found his gaze locked on her long legs as she crossed the room. She wasn’t a tall woman, but she gave the impression of height because she possessed a slim torso and limbs that seemed breathtakingly endless. He looked away. “I’m in rather a jam.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Tonight at Twin Oaks, my father’s country club, there will be a banquet to benefit the homeless of Savannah and the surrounding region. It’s been planned for months. My attending…well, the entire family making an appearance is crucial to my father’s campaign. Nicola feels that a show of solidarity is in order, and I agree.”
“So?” Katie crossed her legs. His heart stopped.
“So—” He cleared his throat and turned toward the window, away from the accidental glimpse he’d gotten of the little wedge of shadow between her thighs. But he broke a sweat. “So, my date for the evening has just called and canceled.”
There was a long pause that forced him to turn back to her. She was frowning up at him as she tugged at the hem of her skirt. The same straight, black cotton skirt she’d worn nearly every day.
“Are you asking me to go with you? To be your date?”
He laughed nervously. This was a bad idea, he thought belatedly. “Well, not so much date as escort, you see—to round out the table.”
Her eyes darkened to the deepest jade, and he sensed a storm coming on though he felt helpless to predict the reason.
She said, “This is a formal sort of bash?”
He hesitated, cautious. “Yes.”
She pursed her lips. “And you’ll be wearing—?”
“A tux,” he supplied impatiently. “Look, can you come with me or not?” He tried to lighten the mood. “Hey, it’s a free meal.”
She stood up and took three long-legged, unconsciously sultry strides directly toward him. She placed her hands on his shoulders and leveled him with a solemn gaze. “You have enormous nerve, Mr. Danforth.”
He staggered backward. “All I did was ask you to accompany me to a very respectable party!”
“Men!” she huffed, her eyes glowing, cheeks afire. “Men like you with money and important positions, you think you can run everyone’s life.”
Now where was this coming from? Clearly, his invitation wasn’t the real reason for this emotional outburst. Who had set her on edge this way?
He tried a conciliatory smile on her. “Ms. O’Brien, I didn’t intend to offend. I just thought you might enjoy—”
“You thought I might like tagging along after you in your spiffy designer tux, me in my thrift-store polyester. Is that it?”
He was astonished. “I’m sorry. I guess I don’t quite understand.”
“Of course you don’t.” She flashed him a look of extreme annoyance. “How can you ask one of your employees to dress for society on what you pay them?”
“Technically, I don’t pay you at all,” he said. “The temp agency pays you.”
She waved this off, lifted a finger and aimed it at his chest like a pistol. “Which is even less than your full-time clerical, I’ve check
ed. That’s not the point. You expect a woman earning two dollars over minimum wage to shell out a couple thousand for a gown to wear for one night?”
He didn’t stop to think where she might have shopped to see four-figure price tags. He was too busy with his defense. “That doesn’t seem fair,” he admitted. “I’m sorry. Really, Katie. Forgive me. Forget I ever asked.”
She blinked at him then let her eyes drift down to the carpet and ran a toe across a peony. “No big deal.” Instant meekness. “How much are they getting a plate?”
“A thousand.”
“Pretty good. I hope they raise a lot of money. No one should be without a home.” She started out of his office, then seemed to have second thoughts. “And I hope you find someone who can afford to go with you.”
Before she could reach the door to the outer office, he came up behind her.
“Wait.” He touched her shoulder.
When she turned and looked up at him, a river of heat flowed through his body. It was so unexpected, so unwanted, yet potent and paralyzingly real, he couldn’t speak for several seconds.
“Yes, sir?”
“I…wait just a minute, will you? Let me make a quick call.”
Ten minutes later he was off the phone, having booked an appointment at the poshest dress salon in the city, took Katie by the arm and was guiding her toward the elevator.
“This is ridiculous,” she moaned.
“It’s all for a good cause,” he responded. “I’m buying.”
Besides, the idea of Katie in a clingy strapless number was definitely an intriguing one—and not to be missed, whatever the cost.
Katie strolled into Twin Oaks ballroom on Ian’s arm and looked around nervously. It wasn’t as if appearing at a party attended by hundreds of the socially elite was new to her. What terrified her were the photographers wending their way through the glittering crowd. All it would take was one wire-service photo that made its way back to Arizona, and she’d be found out. A change in hair color and style wouldn’t be enough to fool her family.
The Boss Man's Fortune (Dynasties: The Danforths Book 5) Page 4
