Ian lifted and lowered her again and again as her fingers curled into the working muscles of his shoulders for support. She imagined she cried out his name but couldn’t be sure. A vision of a cave in the Arizona desert appeared to her. The place where lovers’ souls melded. This office was their cave. Their place to become one.
Eight
Ian rolled to his side, wrapping himself around Katie on the couch, sheltering her nakedness with his half-clothed body as the final pulses of masculine release and deep pleasure consumed him. The intensity of such an experience, he warned himself, would never be duplicated. What he’d just felt with her was unique, though impossible to describe.
How could a man come away feeling vanquished after ravishing a woman? Yet that was how it seemed. As aggressively as he’d taken her, he was the one left shaken to his very core.
Ian eased his hips back, withdrawing from her, then aligned his body with hers on the generous cushions. He cradled her against him, her long bare legs looping over the couch arm, her head pillowed on his chest. His chin settled into the auburn curls as he stroked her, calming her until the afterquakes of her climaxes subsided.
He was so moved by her hunger for him, by his own response, he couldn’t find his voice for the longest time.
When he was sure he’d regained a near-normal ability to speak, he whispered into her ear, “That’s why we can’t work together.”
Katie let out a low throaty laugh. “You win. How about separate offices?”
“On different floors…but even then.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’d come prowling for you.”
“We could go to your place or mine for lunch every day.”
He choked on a laugh. What did the woman think he was made of? “I’d die of exhaustion within a week.”
“We don’t want that.” He felt the muscles of her cheek twitch into a smile, as if she, too, was pleased by his delight in her.
“Not that I wouldn’t thoroughly enjoy lunch in bed with you every day.” He tried to find a rational way of fitting what had just happened between them into the rest of his well-ordered life. “There’s just so much happening now that I have to take care of. Business comes first.”
She sat upright as she reached for her blouse on the floor and began pulling it on, although her bra remained looped over the back of a chair. “I see. Business.” Her tone was brisk, hurt.
“Katie.” He turned her to face him. “I’m not brushing you off. This isn’t a one-time thing. I want you in my life. Do you understand?”
“How in your life?” she asked warily.
He sighed. “If tonight is any indication…” He released her, suddenly confused. How much of what he was feeling now was her magic, the lingering passion that clouded a man’s mind and made him promise more than he could deliver? “Maybe this discussion should wait. I have a lot to figure out, and you still have issues to sort through.” What they were, he still had no clue.
“True,” she agreed, but couldn’t seem to meet his questioning eyes.
His gut knotted. He retrieved her bra for her, and she held it in her lap as if she’d forgotten where it belonged.
“Don’t worry,” he said quickly, “I’m not asking for explanations you’re not ready to give just because we’ve become lovers. But I do want to help you any way I can. And I want you in my arms however often we can manage.” He took a deep breath. “Just don’t walk out of my life because you’re frightened of something. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it.” He hated her silence, the thoughtful pout of her lips. “Agreed?”
“Yes.” Her eyes regained some of their sparkle. She kissed him lightly on the cheek.
“Come on, get dressed.” He stood up to tuck in his shirt and buckle his belt. “I’ll give you a lift home.”
She smiled at him as she headed for the outer office. He followed, watching her drop her bra and shredded panties into her purse. A devilish lick of lust set him wondering if he was already capable of another—
She touched his arm, interrupting his thoughts. “Ian, if you don’t mind, I’d rather walk home.”
“Alone?” He was disappointed, then concerned. “It’s late.”
“I know. But the historic quarter is perfectly safe, and I need time to do some thinking. Really, I’ll be fine.”
“If you’re sure,” he said. But he felt compelled to take her in his arms one last time, and after a sweet, lingering kiss, he let her go.
Ian stood alone beside her desk, thinking of her as he heard her steps fade down the corridor, smelling her on his shirt. After a while he began going through the mindless routine of shutting off the office equipment, locking away important files, turning out lights.
The drapes in his office, luckily, had been drawn across the smoky sweep of glass overlooking the city while they made love. At that thought, another trickle of lust. She, spread out naked along beige leather. He, coming down over her.
He closed his eyes to better hold on to the image. It slowly faded, but not without leaving him wanting her, eager for the next time they’d be together like this. And there would be a next time, he promised himself.
But for now he let go of the thought and routine took over. He liked to come into his office in the morning to see the sun slanting through the windows, so he went to them now to open the heavy draperies.
As if he knew she’d be there, he looked down to the street. Katie stepped out from the front entrance of the Danforth Building into a shaft of light from a streetlamp.
He smiled, feeling as good as he’d ever felt. Better! At one time he’d believed he would never find a woman to fill his emptiness, to chase away the ultimate loss of his child’s life.
Was it possible he’d been fortunate enough to find the ideal woman to teach him to feel joy again? To heal him and give him hope?
He started to turn away from the window when, from the shadowed alley that ran beside the building, a figure stepped out in front of Katie. Ian’s heart stopped. His mouth went sand-dune dry. He stared down five stories as she spoke to the man. Someone she knew?
Then, as Ian watched in horror, the stranger grasped her arm and started pulling her toward a car parked at the curb.
With a curse and a surge of adrenaline, he spun away from the windows and raced for the elevator. His heart hammered within his chest as he dove into the elevator, punched the lobby button. Interminable seconds later he was racing through the empty lobby, bursting between glass doors into the street. He ran toward the two figures struggling on the sidewalk.
“Get away from her, you bastard!” he shouted.
From the little he could see in the dark as he closed in on them, Katie’s attacker seemed to be the same man who had sent her in a panicked run the other day. He wore a Stetson, western boots, and had Katie by the wrist.
She dug in her heels, trying to resist his progress toward the car.
In the split second before Ian rammed into the guy’s gut with his shoulder, the man looked up with an expression of shock and dismay. The next moment they were both flat on the pavement, scrambling and swinging at each other. Ian rolled just far enough away to get to his knees, seize the man by the knot in his string tie and punch him in the face.
From somewhere in the background came a strange wailing sound. Then fists were pounding on his back.
“Don’t, Ian! Oh, God, don’t hurt him. Stop, stop it now!”
Confused and distracted by her pleas on behalf of her assailant, Ian didn’t see the left hook coming. Knuckles like steel ball bearings smashed into his jaw, set his head spinning. He came back with a fist to the guy’s gut, which resulted in a low moan as the man collapsed onto the sidewalk, gasping for breath.
“Go call the police!” Ian shouted over his shoulder at Katie, who was still, inexplicably, pummeling him and sobbing for him to stop. He staggered to his feet. “What?”
“Ian,” she choked out, “please don’t kill my brother.”
He stared at her. “Brother?”
It took a while for her words to make any sense. Ian glared at the young man who had managed to make it as far as his knees though he was still fighting for breath. When the fellow looked up at Ian with eyes as vividly green as Katie’s, a trickle of blood escaping a split lip, Ian swore and held out a hand to help him to his feet.
“I thought you were being kidnapped!” Ian growled at Katie.
“Well, I was. In a way.” She shook her mussed hair out of her eyes. “Dennis tends to take my parents’ requests a bit too literally.” She made a face at her brother. “When they told you to drag me back home, I don’t think this was what they had in mind, Den.”
The two men faced each other. Neither was smiling or offered a hand to shake.
“Care to further explain the little drama I witnessed from my office window?” Ian asked, brushing grit from the knees of his pants.
Katie stared at the sidewalk, looking dismal.
Dennis touched fingers to his lip and winced. “I was trying to convince my sister to come back to Arizona, that’s all.”
“You were forcing me into the damn car!” she shot back. “You have no right! None at all—”
“Mom and Dad have been worried sick about you!”
“That doesn’t give you the right to—”
“—to do what’s best for you?” Dennis interrupted angrily.
“The right to run my life!” Katie was in tears now. Fists on her hips, she stomped her foot at him. “It’s not fair. I’ve never been allowed to do what I want to do. Never—”
Her brother’s expression softened. “Katherine, it’s only because they care.”
“Katherine?” Ian stepped forward.
They both looked at him—Katie with terror in her pretty eyes, Dennis with suspicion.
“Katherine Fortune,” the younger man said. “That’s her name. If you’re her boss, you’d know that.”
“I am her boss. But that’s not the name I know her by.” He turned to her looking shocked and angry. “You’re the missing heiress?”
Katie winced as if she’d been slapped. “I guess I should explain a few things.”
“I guess you should,” Ian agreed.
Katie led the way back into the CEO’s suite, her stomach tied in a knot as big as the state of Georgia. This was her worst nightmare come true.
It had been bad enough, the anticipation of having to tell Ian she’d deceived him. But at least if it had happened as she’d planned, perhaps over a cozy dinner for two, the news would have come from her. Calmly. Rationally.
She’d have found a way to make him understand why she’d left home. Why she’d used her friend’s name to secure a job and start a new life on her own.
But this? She felt sick to her stomach. This was bad. The truth coming from her brother, in the middle of the night. Two men brawling on the street. She dared not consider what Ian thought of her.
Like a condemned prisoner, Katie walked straight through the reception area and into Ian’s office. She dropped into the first chair she came to. She lowered her face into her hands and wept.
A moment later someone sat down on the arm of the chair and put a hand on her shoulder. When she peeked between her fingers, she was surprised to find it was Ian.
“Suppose, Katie…Katherine, you explain the situation a little more clearly.”
“What’s to explain!” Dennis ranted, a handkerchief pressed to his torn lip. “She ran away from home without a word of explanation to anyone. Nothing to indicate where she’d gone. No phone number. No address in case we needed to reach her.”
“Right!” she huffed at him. “Like, that’s what people do when they escape from their smothering families. Leave a forwarding address.”
“Think of Mom and Dad, Katherine! It would have saved them a ton of grief if you’d at least let someone know you were all right.”
“I left a note in my room.” She sighed. “I told them not to worry about me. They’d have used whatever little piece of information I gave them to hunt me down.”
Dennis took a step toward her, but Ian moved between the siblings, as if unsure who might strike the next blow. “Enough,” he barked. “I doubt that—” he stumbled a second time over the unfamiliar name “—that Katherine would have taken such drastic measures unless she felt she had no other options.”
She looked up at him in amazement. Was he taking her side?
Dennis shook his head and dabbed at his bloody lip again. “It’s unforgivable. For all we knew, she’d been kidnapped or murdered. We might have never known what had happened to her.”
Ian turned to her. Now it was her turn.
“I was going to call them,” she said. “Soon. I needed to get a permanent job and, if I could, my own apartment. I’ve been using a friend’s.” Dennis opened his mouth as if to interrupt, but she faced him down and plunged on. “I had to prove I could survive on my own, make my own choices. Good choices.”
Dennis shook his head. “You don’t understand them. They were just protecting you.”
“I’m twenty-two years old!” she shouted. “When are they going to start trusting me?”
“Well, you certainly haven’t shown good sense by pulling this stunt!” Dennis snapped.
Ian held up a hand as tears filled Katherine’s eyes. “Hold on there,” he said. “You’re not being fair to your sister. She obviously did what she felt she had to. Whether or not you agree with her methods, you should respect her desire for independence.”
Katherine stared at Ian as a wave of gratefulness swept over her. Dennis was always so sure he was right. Just like her father. Her mother had learned to hold her own against the males in the family, but even Julie Fortune, in her own way, had controlled her daughter’s life. Most recently, her efforts to match her up with sons of her well-to-do friends had become totally unbearable.
“Well,” Katherine murmured, “at least now you know where I am, and that I’m safe. You can go home and tell everyone.”
But she knew that wasn’t how it would work. She could see from Dennis’s expression that her big brother knew it, too.
“Sure,” he said. “I’ll go home without you. Then who’s going to catch hell? And Dad will be on the next flight out here.”
Ian stood up and looked at the two of them. She wished she knew how much he hated her at this moment. Although he seemed to be hiding it awfully well.
After a long silence, Ian scowled at the scuffed toes of his imported leather shoes. “May I make a suggestion?”
“I’m not leaving Savannah,” Katherine said quickly.
“I haven’t said you should.”
“But—” Dennis began.
Ian lifted a hand that commanded silence. “Dennis, are you staying in town?”
“At the Hilton.”
Ian nodded. “Crofthaven, my family’s home, is temporarily vacant. My father is off campaigning for the Senate. Why don’t you join me there. If she likes, Katherine can come, too. It will give the two of you a quiet place to discuss family issues, and I can play referee. Maybe you’ll come to some kind of understanding.”
“We can do that at the hotel,” Dennis said, “just the two of us.”
“No,” Katherine glared at him, “you’d just try to bully me again.”
“Good grief,” Dennis complained, “I was trying to get you to come with me to the car so we could talk.”
“Right.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Next thing I knew, we’d be crossing the Tennessee border.”
“Now children. Bickering won’t help.” Ian smiled at her, and she was suddenly grateful that he was there, trying to lighten the mood.
She turned to her brother. “It’s not that I don’t ever want to see them, Den. It’s just that I need a little time. To be me. Without their interfering. If you like, we can talk about it.”
&nb
sp; He looked unsure. “All right. I can go by the Hilton, check out and pick up my things. If you think it’s not too late to show up unannounced at your folks’ place.”
“Not a problem. There are always plenty of guest rooms, all made up. I’d ask you to my place, but there’s not as much space.” Ian turned to her. “It’s going to be hard, for a while, getting the name right.”
She blushed. “I’m so sorry, Ian. I intended to tell you everything. But for a long time I worried that if you knew, you’d contact my parents.”
He smiled. “I might have. I can only guess how concerned they’ve been.”
She shrugged, but she couldn’t deny he was right. “I know. And I feel awful about that part.”
“I’ll call them in the morning and tell them I’ve found you,” Dennis said.
“No.” She gave him a sharp look. “I’ll call them and apologize. And tell them I’m staying right here.”
Dennis shot a frustrated look at the ceiling. “You have no idea how Dad’s going to blow up if I come home without you.”
She felt a twinge of compassion for her brother. “Oh, yes, I do.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her brother to take her to Crofthaven. Katherine chose to drive with Ian because she wanted to speak with him in private.
“Thank you,” she murmured as he drove out of the city toward the estate. In the dark, the live oak trees along the highway looked like hulking giants, their graceful limbs and shrouds of moss only showing as deeper patches of darkness against the night sky.
“For what?” he asked.
“Standing up for me and for my dream.”
“I just thought of how I’d feel if my family tried to force me to do or be something I didn’t want.”
“You work at your family’s business,” she pointed out. “You don’t resent having your life predestined?”
He kept his eyes on the road, hands firmly on the steering wheel. “I always wanted to run Danforth’s, or at least have a big part in the future of the company. Even when I was a little kid, before we added the coffee shops to the import part of the business, I loved hanging out at the docks, watching them unload the beans.”
The Boss Man's Fortune (Dynasties: The Danforths Book 5) Page 11
