by Kylie Brant
“Do I have all my teeth?” she asked somewhat tartly.
“What?” His gaze jerked up to meet hers. At her expression, he grinned. “Sorry. I was just thinking.” In the stubborn silence that followed, he inquired, “Don’t you want to know what about?”
Kate clutched the stem of her wineglass more tightly in her hand and shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Unabashed, Derek offered, “If you made most of the suggestions for this place, you’d be pretty comfortable here. Surrounded by things you liked, things you picked out with Michael.” His grin widened when her eyes narrowed. “Hey.” He gestured with his glass. “It only occurred to me that maybe things between you two were getting serious. Most couples pick out china patterns before furniture, but Michael has always been a little unconventional.”
Shock straightened her spine. “I never—I haven’t—” Impatiently she shook her head. “Go away,” she said clearly.
“So that’s how it is,” he murmured, and then began to chortle. “Oh, this is rich. Don’t tell me Michael managed to choose the one woman in the world not anxious to wrestle him down and pin him to the marital mat.” He shook with silent laughter.
Rather than throwing it at him, Kate swallowed some of her champagne, then contemplated the bubbles in the glass. “I’m so glad you find us amusing.”
With effort, Derek sobered. “No, not at all. Michael and Chloe are two of my favorite people. I knew what he needed, even before he did. I’m just glad he found it.”
She cocked her head at him. “Somehow I don’t see you as someone who celebrates happily-ever-afters.”
“They’re fine.” He grinned. “For other people. But if Michael succeeds in convincing you to marry him, well—” he toasted her with his drink “—that’s one more reason for me to envy him.”
Kate watched Derek melt away in the crowd before shaking her head in bemusement. The man made an unlikely cupid, but he did seem to think highly of Michael and Chloe.
Chloe. Her head snapped up and she scanned the crowd. It had been several minutes since she’d last seen the little girl. Automatically, she began moving through the throngs of people. The man Michael had following her wouldn’t necessarily be able to head her off before she could find mischief. Kate felt a lot better when she was able to keep Chloe in sight.
Pushing the kitchen door open, she peeked inside. Chloe was sitting on the counter, humming and kicking her feet. The caterers worked around her, paying her no attention.
“Miss Rose!” The little girl’s face lit up.
Kate crossed over to the counter. “What are you doing—hiding out?”
She nodded. “Don’t tell Daddy, but his party is kinda boring. Do you think I should show everyone how I can whistle?”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Kate said. The little girl’s shoulders slumped.
“When will this be over?” she wanted to know.
“I’m not sure. Maybe an hour or so.”
Chloe swung her feet harder and leaned back on her hands, staring at the ceiling morosely. “That’s forever.”
“I know this isn’t much fun for you, but I’ll bet your dad is real proud of the way you’re acting so grown-up tonight.”
Chloe’s eyes brightened. “I am?”
Kate nodded.
“I haven’t been doing somersaults or anything in the house,” Chloe assured her. “There’s no room with all the people around, anyway. And when I don’t like the food, I just spit it out in a napkin.”
Hiding a smile, Kate said, “That’s very mature.”
Chloe nodded happily. “I guess I will go back for a while. I like those little cheeseball things. And those puffy white thingees with the meat in the middle.”
Laughing, Kate accompanied her from the room with the admonishment, “Better take it easy on the snacks, kiddo.”
Chloe skipped away while Kate looked around for Michael. Her eyes immediately honed in on his large, broad form. He looked up then, caught her gaze on him and smiled. It really wasn’t fair, she mused, that all he had to do was look at her to make her blood turn molten, her limbs go soft and weak. She thought she could read impatience and polite boredom in the civilized manner with which he was listening to the man beside him.
She watched him excuse himself and make his way over to her, stopping to greet people and flash that charming grin. Men seemed to like him, admire him. And the women…he had an even more predictable effect on them, she thought wryly as she watched the furtive looks that followed him.
“Hi.” He came to a stop beside her and looped an arm around her waist. “Are you bored to tears yet?”
She shook her head. “I’m afraid Chloe is, though. I just brought her back from the kitchen.”
He frowned and looked over her head in search of his daughter. “Maybe I should tell her it would be okay to go to her room and play.”
“Yes, I’m sure the security man you’ve had following her around all night would be grateful for the rest.”
He stiffened, then shot a look at her bland face. “Can’t get anything past you, can I?” he murmured. “I didn’t think it would hurt anything. You know how fast the little sprite can disappear.”
“I felt better knowing someone else had an eye on her, too,” she admitted, and he relaxed.
“Chloe’s not the only one who’s bored,” he said in a low tone. He lowered his face, his gaze heated and intent. “What do you say you and I disappear somewhere and neck?”
She pretended to consider it. “I don’t think so,” she finally said. “Trask and I just returned from the storage closet, and I’ve already reapplied my lipstick.”
He stifled a laugh. “I’d believe that if he was running for his life across the lawn instead of circling the crowd the way he is.”
She punched him lightly on the arm. “Are you saying I’m frightening?”
“I’m saying that Trask would have a heart attack if a woman propositioned him, and he’d die a thousand deaths before he actually spoke to one of his own free will. Why, I remember one time when he…”
Kate missed the rest of his sentence. She was staring past him in shocked recognition. He followed the direction of her gaze and his features hardened abruptly.
“You’ve got to give the arrogant bastard credit, don’t you? He does have style.”
Something in his tone diverted her attention from the silver-haired man twining through the crowd toward them. “Did you know he was coming?”
“He wasn’t invited, if that’s what you mean. But they paged me from the gate. I told them to go ahead and let him in.” His mouth crooked with something that bore no resemblance to humor. “I’d rather be able to see him than to have to defend myself from a sneak attack.”
Kate eyed him carefully. His choice of words made it sound as if he were preparing for war. Which, she supposed he was. Another battle in a never-ending string of skirmishes where no clear victor emerged. “What do you suppose he wants here?”
Michael lifted a shoulder. “He wants to do what Jonathan Friday does best, I imagine,” he said grimly. “Spread a little misery around.”
“Well, Michael, it seems you’ve done it again.” Jonathan nodded to the display nearby featuring the new home security system. “A nice little program, actually. You’re going retail with it, I assume.”
Michael inclined his head slightly.
“Of course. Should do quite well, too.” He raised his glass of champagne in Kate’s direction. “Miss Rose, isn’t it? So pleasant to see you again.” Her lack of response didn’t seem to faze him in the least. “And that—” he turned slightly to indicate Chloe across the room “—must be my granddaughter.”
Kate quietly slipped her hand in Michael’s and laced her fingers with his in an unconscious sign of support. His body was rigid, the muscles taut, and the air about him became lethally charged. “She’s not your anything.” His voice was smooth and cool as silk, but the flame in his eyes would caution th
e more wary. “Blood doesn’t mean everything. You taught me that.”
The man raised his eyebrows in amusement. “I wonder if the courts would agree with you. Some interesting test cases these days on grandparents’ rights, don’t you think?” He let his words sink in before turning and strolling away.
“Unbelievable,” Michael said in a low voice. His still, careful control was more telling than a shout. The tension was all but coming off him in waves. As she watched, he tucked that awesome fury back into the mental pocket where he kept it. Kate wondered if he knew how close to the surface it lingered.
Her fingers tightened in his. When he brought their clasped hands to his lips to kiss her knuckles, she released a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding. “And here I was thinking these things were dull.”
He slanted a look at her. “Stick with me, kid,” he said wryly. “I’ll liven up your life.”
Looking away, she saw Jonathan on the other side of the room with one of Michael’s security men close by. “Why don’t I find Chloe and take her upstairs.”
Michael gave her a grateful look. “Would you? I’d feel better knowing Jonathan couldn’t get within ten yards of her.”
Nodding, she turned and went in search of the little girl. She finally spotted the tips of small blue kid shoes peeping out from beneath one of the tables that had been set up in the dining room. Kate bent down and lifted the edge of the tablecloth out of the way. “Pretty good hiding place, Chloe. I almost couldn’t find you.”
The little girl nodded but didn’t respond. She was unusually quiet and pale.
Kate peered anxiously at her. “Chloe, are you feeling all right?”
“My stomach is doing cartwheels,” she confided in a thin voice. “I don’t like Daddy’s party.”
Kate held out her hand, and Chloe wiggled slowly out from beneath the table. Her heavy-lidded eyes and pinched mouth were more telling than her words. “I think you must have overdone it on the appetizers, honey. You don’t look too good.”
She felt the little girl’s clammy forehead, then lifted her in her arms. “You and I are going to go upstairs and get you ready for bed, how’s that?” When Chloe nodded listlessly, Kate felt a small pang of alarm. She knew the child well enough to know that bedtime usually didn’t come without a battle.
Upstairs she helped Chloe change into her pajamas and brush her teeth, and then, when her condition worsened abruptly, she held her head while she was sick. Afterward Kate put her to bed and stayed beside her while she slept.
It was a couple of hours before Michael appeared at her side. “She’s asleep?” he murmured, kneeling beside the bed. “How’d you manage that?”
Kate pushed back the blond strands from Chloe’s face. “She didn’t feel well.” At Michael’s instant alarm, she said soothingly, “A stomachache, I think. She was sampling the food pretty freely, and some of the hors d’oeuvres were rich.”
“Does she have a fever?” Michael’s hand went to his daughter’s forehead, relief crossing his features when he felt her coolness.
“No, but she was sick once already. You might want to have something nearby in case she wakes in the night and feels ill again.”
“If she wakes up, I’ll be here.”
Kate’s heart turned over. Her hand went to his shoulder and massaged soothingly. “I know you’re concerned, but it isn’t necessary for you to wait up all night.”
“Oh, it’ll be okay. I can bring a rocker in here, maybe catch a few winks.” His gaze caught hers then, and his expression was charmingly rueful. “You think I’m nuts, don’t you?”
Her lips wanted to tremble, so she pressed them together and shook her head. That sweetness could still take her unaware, slip under her defenses and stir everything soft inside her. “Couldn’t you just use the monitor?” she asked unsteadily, indicating the one that sat on Chloe’s dresser.
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. At least, that’s why I bought it. I can turn it on and hear her from my room.”
“That will save you a stiff neck.”
“I just hate this, you know?” he whispered. Their voices were pitched low to avoid waking the sleeping child. “Every time she’s sick I get such a helpless feeling. Maybe it’s even worse with her, because she’s normally so darn active that seeing her lying still scares the hell out of me. I guess I’m just a typical overreactive parent.”
“Not typical,” Kate contradicted softly. Her voice was filled with the emotion that was gripping her heart. “Never typical.”
His hazel gaze met her blue one, and he brought her hand to his mouth and pressed a soft kiss there. “This isn’t exactly the ending to the evening I had planned.”
She smiled and gave in to an impulse to run the back of her hand along his jaw. He’d shaved before the party and his skin was still smooth, a hard, sensual glide. “There will be other evenings.”
He caught her hand in his, trapping it against his cheek. “You can count on it.”
“Michael.”
Both pairs of eyes jerked to the doorway, where Trask stood. He gestured with the cordless phone he held and, with an eye on the sleeping child, tried to pitch his voice lower. It came out a gravelly rumble. “You better take this. Trouble at the company.”
With a quick glance at Kate, Michael rose, taking the phone and stepping out into the hallway. Kate had time to do no more than raise her eyebrows questioningly at Trask before Michael was back. He gestured to both of them, and they followed him out of the room.
“That was the fire department,” he said without preamble.
“There’s been an explosion at our office complex.”
Chapter 15
Michael raised a hand, squelching their questions. “I don’t have any details, but we have to get down there right away.” Then he stopped and looked worriedly toward his daughter’s door. “Someone needs to stay with Chloe.”
“I’ll do it,” Kate said. “You go ahead. I’ll plan to stay the night.”
Relief lit his eyes. “Thank you,” he muttered, brushing a kiss across her forehead. He showed her how to work the monitor, then led her to a bedroom down the hallway. He stood there a moment, looking torn. “I’m going to take some of the men with me, but I’ll leave one in the house and one outside.”
“We’ll be all right here,” Kate murmured. When he reached for her, she went into his arms and laid her head against his chest. “Be sure and call me when you know something.”
He gave her a quick, hard hug and turned to leave the room.
When he got to the door, she said, “Michael? Please be careful.” He exchanged a long, level look with her before turning away toward Trask. She could hear the urgent tones of the men as they hurried down the hall.
She looked at the bedroom that was to be hers for the night, and an unwilling smile tugged at her lips. This was the room where Michael had put the antique bedroom set that she’d told him about. Walking over to the dresser with its oval mirror and ornate knobs, she trailed a hand over its smooth, glossy surface. He’d done more than just buy the set, she noted. Despite his protests that he was incapable of doing so, he’d managed to furnish the entire room. Against one wall was a wardrobe with burled walnut on the doors. On either side of the bed were tables with scrolled legs, on top of which sat matching lamps with leaded shades. She crossed to one of them and with a finger sent the shade’s beaded fringe dancing.
The bed was piled high with pillows. He hadn’t draped it in romantic lace. Instead it was covered with an antique quilt. When she recognized the pattern, her eyes misted. The colors in the wedding ring design were muted by time, but age gave a richness to its beauty. The symbolism of the pattern was unmistakable, the pairs of entwining circles constant and infinite. Just as a pair of lives entwined. Just as hearts did.
Taking a deep breath, she turned away jerkily, seeking a distraction. She’d need something to sleep in. She didn’t relish the thought of wearing her lingerie to bed, especially since she might need to rise
and go to Chloe. After a moment’s thought, she went in search of Michael’s room and found it, located across the hall from his daughter’s.
He’d spared no attention for his own bedroom. As Chloe had told her once, it was empty, save for a bed. A huge one, she noted, before tearing her fascinated gaze away. There was nothing in the space that spoke of Michael, no stamp of his personality. She went toward the closet and opened it, revealing an endless expanse of suits and shelving. It was from one of the shelves that she plucked a T-shirt to wear.
She checked on Chloe before returning to her room. The little girl hadn’t changed position and seemed to be sleeping soundly. Although her cheeks were a little flushed, her skin was cool, and Kate was satisfied that her diagnosis had been correct. An upset stomach caused by too much unfamiliar, rich food had probably caused Chloe’s discomfort. Chances were she’d be back to her turbocharged self by morning.
Kate undressed, draping her clothes across the foot of the bed. As she slipped the T-shirt over her head, she fancied she could smell Michael’s scent on the soft, worn cotton.
Pulling the bedcovers back, she slipped beneath them. The feather mattress was heavenly, the pillows soft. It was the kind of bed that could make going to sleep an exercise in decadence. But slumber didn’t lure her. Worry teased at her mind; she wouldn’t sleep until Michael came home safely.
It was ridiculous, really. There would be police and firefighters present at the scene. They would prevent any bystanders from getting hurt. She moved restlessly, the sound a murmur of cotton against cotton. Surely he wouldn’t be foolish enough to try to enter the building.
She frowned in the darkness of the room, wishing she knew a little more about his holdings. In a company that dealt with software security, she couldn’t imagine what would cause an explosion. She wondered if Michael had any clue, then berated herself for not asking him before he’d left. Not that his answer would have made the hours pass any easier.
She’d never been one to enjoy waiting, although it seemed as though she’d spent most of her life doing so. But waiting for her parents to change, for life to be different when she was a child couldn’t compare to the worry-filled hours she had ahead of her tonight. The darkness had a way of mutating anxieties into full-fledged nightmares. Lurid imagination made a distressing companion at this time of night.
