The Boss and the Beauty

by Donna Clayton

  The attention she was getting for some of these guys hadn’t hurt. In the last twenty minutes since Mr. Barrington had announced their Days of Knights idea a success, Cindy had received two invitations to lunch, one request for a dinner date and yet another for a night out on the town. The old Cindy had never experienced such ardent fascination from men before. The attention she was getting was inducing such... confidence. More than she could handle, it seemed.

  And it wasn’t as if she’d plotted and planned the looks she’d given Kyle. She’d simply glanced up, found him looking her way and wham, the next thing she knew the two of them were engaged in a bout of silent yet heated flirtation. Spontaneous seduction. That’s how she’d describe it.

  Heck, she didn’t want to think about the “whys” and “how comes.” She hadn’t felt this uplifted, this alive, since those awful, dreary birthday blues had taken hold of her days ago. She was having too much fun to examine her actions too closely.

  The room was thinning out now. Mr. Barrington and Mildred had already bid Cindy a good day, congratulating her yet again on the successful birth of a truly great idea. The two remaining execs were taking a final opportunity to shake Kyle’s hand. Cindy’s heart was pounding as she lifted a farewell hand to them as they took their leave. Finally she was alone in the conference room with Kyle.

  He stood by the refreshment table, just looking at her, an unreadable expression in his mahogany eyes. Moistening her suddenly dry lips, Cindy prayed that he would come to her because she seriously doubted that her shaky knees would support her weight if she tried to walk.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Kyle set down his coffee cup and slowly made his way across the room. The silence seemed deafening, and the giddy feeling in her stomach increased with every step he took. The oxygen in the air seemed to grow more compact, more difficult to breathe, the closer he came.

  He stopped when he was just a tad closer than arms’ reach.

  “I want to congratulate you.”

  His voice was rich and smooth, like warm velvet caressing her skin. Of all the felicitations she’d received, Kyle’s meant the most. To know he thought she performed well during her portion of the presentation meant the world to her.

  A slow smile pulled at her mouth, and she didn’t fight it.

  “I mean,” he continued, “I really—”

  He reached out and encircled her forearms with his fingers, the heat of him penetrating the fabric of her suit.

  “—really—”

  Cindy’s breath caught in utter surprise as he pulled her against his chest, bundled her up into his arms until his face was a hairbreadth from hers.

  “—want to congratulate you.”

  Before she had time to think, to inhale, to close her eyes, his mouth was on hers.

  Hot, needy, demanding.

  Her mind was under attack; total chaos fought back all thought, scuffled with logic, clashed with reason. So Cindy did the only thing she could. She surrendered to the turmoil. Totally.

  Snaking her arms around his neck, she splayed her hands on his back. If she thought her knees had been weak before, now they were wobbly as warm rubber. But he was strong, and she held on tightly.

  The feel of his hard body against hers was everything she’d ever dreamed it would be. Better, even, if that were possible.

  The heated, woodsy smell of his cologne filled her nostrils, her lungs, sending sparks flying inside her—sparks that flashed and glittered bigger and brighter than any fireworks display she’d ever seen in her entire life. She wanted to touch him. To feel his skin against her.

  Drawing her arms downward, she let her fingers trail over his jaw, down his neck and, farther still, to his chest. She felt his heart beating under his dress shirt, the furious thud driving her deeper into the chaos that reigned in her mind.

  Parting her lips, she invited him to deepen the kiss. And he accepted her silent request. His tongue tasted and teased, and Cindy was barely able to suppress the whimper of need gathering at the back of her throat.

  With a groan, Kyle pulled himself away from her.

  Disappointment struck her like a slap and she actually gasped. She looked at him, her fingers lifting to touch her still-moist lips.

  “I guess I should apologize, but...”

  Kyle’s words trailed, his ragged whisper infused with the obvious desire still pulsing through him.

  “I don’t know what you did.” He reached up and took a golden curl between his fingers, lifted it to his nose, then to his lips. “But you’re damned beautiful.”

  Cindy’s eyes widened at his statement. Humiliation, as cold and heavy as a wet wool blanket, fell on her shoulders. She dropped her hands to her sides.

  Why are you hurt? a tiny voice silently asked. Didn’t you allow yourself to be painted up and preened over? Didn’t you get fitted for contact lenses? Didn’t you choose a brand-new, short and daring outfit?

  Didn’t you do all of these things just to capture Kyle’s attention?

  She had no other choice but to murmur her thanks. His compliment should have made her happy. Should have overjoyed her. It’s what she’d been wanting to hear from him for months. Well...it was almost what she’d been wanting to hear.

  Yes, his appreciation should have pleased her. But it didn’t. And she knew exactly why.

  She felt an awkwardness slither and coil between them and she wondered if Kyle noticed it.

  “The meeting went well,” she said, hoping to spur some praise from him for her part in the presentation.

  He nodded, but remained silent. Had he even heard what she’d said? Or was he too preoccupied with noticing all the changes in her?

  The backs of his fingers were warm as he slid them down the curve of her jaw, and Cindy had to fight the urge to tilt her head into his touch.

  When it looked like he was about to kiss her again, Cindy nearly panicked. She wanted to step away from him. She wanted to put a little space between them.

  Are you insane? the voice shouted at her. This is what you wanted To be in Kyle’s arms. To feel his hands on you. His lips on yours.

  “Not like this.” Her breathy whisper was barely audible and she felt tears prickle her eyelids in tiny pinpoints of pain. But she wouldn’t cry.

  “What?” he asked softly, his eyes still roving slowly over her face, her hair.

  “Nothing,” she quickly answered. Then she repeated, “Nothing at all.”

  Suddenly she was absolutely frantic to know that he thought she was smart. That he thought she was creative and talented. That he thought she was a viable, important part of their team of two. Cindy just had to hear that he appreciated her for more than simply the makeup and glitter she wore.

  A test! The desperate thought barreled into her brain with all the gusto of a runaway locomotive. She needed to test him. What she needed was to force him to tell her what she meant to him. In a purely professional sense.

  She stepped away from him, and she saw a shadow of frustration cloud his eyes. He looked like a little boy who had just had his brand-new toy swiped right out of his hands. Something inside her froze, and she was more determined than ever to make him admit her professional value.

  What better way to discover his opinion of her significance to him than to force him to think about losing her? Immediately, the rumors of the Third coming to Phoenix echoed into her brain. Before she could even fully formulate the idea churning into her head, it was spilling off her tongue.

  “I’ve been wondering,” she said in a rush. “If Mr. Barrington’s son does take over the corporation, I’m sure he’s going to need a personal assistant of his own. Do you think I’d be a good candidate for the job?”

  She felt her face flush hot with anxiety. Surely he would tell her she was an excellent personal assistant, and that he’d hate to see her leave the New Products division.

  Kyle’s gaze turned cold and a muscle in his jaw tensed as he clenched his teeth together. If she didn’t know better, she’d s
ay he looked angry, and that confused her.

  “So that’s what this is all about?” he said.

  Her brow creased with a frown. He was angry. But why?

  “Wha—”

  “You go out and get yourself all dolled up,” he said, “with a little rouge and a little lipstick, and you think you can entice me to recommend you for a job promotion.”

  Cindy shook her head, her newly cut and curled tresses swinging against her cheeks. “No, Kyle, that’s not—”

  “And how dare you jeopardize my presentation,” he plowed ahead, growing more furious by the moment, “by confronting Mr. Barrington about his successor. I can’t believe you used my meeting as a platform to help you climb the corporate ladder. You don’t ask about rumors and innuendos in a room full of executive heads. Your self-serving motives could have endangered the entire project.”

  His presentation, was it? Cindy raised her chin a fraction as red-hot anger glowed inside her like burning embers. His meeting?

  Again his jaw tensed. “We’re just lucky that Mr. Barrington didn’t rise to your bait. We’re damned lucky he liked the idea.”

  Cindy narrowed her eyes at him. “Kyle...” She let the rest of her thought fade. She paused long enough to take a deep, shaky breath. She didn’t think she’d ever been so furious in her life.

  How dare she? he’d asked. How dare he? How could he accuse her of using the presentation to further her career?

  “We’re just damned lucky,” he said, “Mr. Barrington was good enough to overlook your blunder and give Days of Knights the thumbs-up.”

  Swallowing around the hot, hard lump in her throat, Cindy picked up the file folder that held her presentation notes. Then she glared at him.

  “Luck—” she ground out the words through gritted teeth “—had absolutely nothing to do with it. You—and I—worked hard on this idea. And it was a good one. No, it was a great one. That’s why Mr. Barrington liked it. And if you had the smallest inkling of who I am, you’d know I’d never use a business meeting to—” She couldn’t even finish the sentence. “You have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.”

  Without wasting another second, she pivoted on her brand-new spiked heels and marched out of the room.

  Chapter Four

  Cindy stared out her office window. The landscape surrounding Barrington Corp., the same one she usually found serene in its stark beauty, today seemed quite desolate and barren. Loneliness seemed to palpitate from the sunlit, sandy surface. She knew the difference in her feelings regarding the Phoenix desert vista was all due to her state of mind.

  In all the time that she’d worked with Kyle, a harsh word had never been spoken between them. Now she felt afraid as she thought about their acrimonious exchange. She couldn’t really call their angry dialogue an argument as, thank goodness, she’d stormed from the conference room before it had escalated to that level. However, she was frightened that, in that moment of quick retorts, their relationship had been forever changed.

  And it was all her fault.

  Why had she become so bent out of shape by his attentive behavior? Lord, the mere memory of his kiss still made her heart ka-thunk in her chest like the persistent beat of some sensual, primeval drum. If only she’d remained coolheaded about his seductive manner. If only she hadn’t been so blindsided by his kiss, his compliments. If only she hadn’t panicked....

  She groaned under her breath, laying her forehead against the thick glass window. Why had she felt the need to test him? Why had she insinuated that she was thinking of taking another job? For Barrington Corp.’s new president, no less. Had she completely lost her senses?

  Yes came a swift and silent answer. But then, Kyle seemed to do that to her lately.

  All her silly challenge had accomplished was to make him feel threatened. And worse than that, he’d misconstrued the whole situation. Kyle had added together the change in her outward appearance, her question to Mr. Barrington regarding his successor and her idiot-minded suggestion that she might consider taking the position as the new president’s personal assistant, and he’d come up with an equation that couldn’t have been more wrong.

  Her makeover had been a gift from her friends, plain and simple. Her question to Mr. Barrington had been for the good of the new project, nothing more. And her stupid intimation of a promotion had only been a ploy to get Kyle to admit what he felt about her—a ploy that had backfire abominably.

  Cindy absently tapped the palm of her hand with the eraser of a pencil. She could kiss goodbye any thoughts of a personal relationship with Kyle. Heck, if his cool treatment of her over the past couple of workdays since the presentation was any kind of gauge, then it looked as if she had pretty much destroyed the wonderful working alliance they had shared up until now.

  She wished she could explain. She wished she could make him see that he misunderstood what had happened at the meeting.

  The windowsill came into sharp focus when she blinked several times. Sudden excitement slammed through her like a bolt of lightning. Of course! That’s exactly what she had to do. She had to explain. Tossing the pencil onto her desktop, she made for the door.

  Cindy barged into Kyle’s office without even knocking. He was dictating a letter into his voice recorder, and Cindy knew the tape would later be sent to the typing pool to be keyed into a computer and printed out. Kyle had never liked the idea of having a private secretary, preferring instead to answer his own phone calls and file his own papers. That way, he’d said more than once, if a document became misplaced or a phone call was mishandled, he’d have no one to blame but himself. However, papers were never mislaid in his office. He was much too obsessively organized for that. And contacts and business associates who called were always given top priority. Kyle was too much the professional to treat people any other way.

  Placing her palms flat on his desktop, she leaned toward him. “We need to talk.”

  She knew everything about her body language expressed urgency—from her stiff, square shoulders, to the nervous tension she felt framing her mouth, even her wide eyes. She wanted to relax, to remain calm, but too much depended on her getting this right. Too much depended on her making him understand.

  Kyle’s gaze never wavered from hers as he snapped off his voice recorder. He didn’t move. He simply sat there, silent and listening.

  For an instant, and an instant only, his mouth was the sole object of her attention. She remembered his knee-melting kiss and the heated desire he had sparked to life in her. But she quickly and efficiently shoved the memory aside.

  She thought she detected a wariness in his deep brown eyes. But she was too full of steam to ponder for long what he might be feeling.

  “I need to talk,” she clarified. “And I need for you to listen.”

  He continued to stare at her, motionless—seemingly emotionless—and she felt a startling trepidation creep over her skin in a wave, like an army of scampering mice. However, she ignored her anxiety. She had to press on. Her very career could hinge on what she was about to say.

  “I want you to know,” she began, “that I never had any intention of taking another job. Promotion or no promotion.”

  No response.

  “I’m happy right where I am.” She nervously raked her fingers through her wavy curls, the action only causing one tendril to bounce right into her line of vision. Swiping at it, she continued, “I’m content doing exactly what it is I’m doing.”

  Working with you. The words whispered through her mind, but luckily she successfully suppressed them. That kind of confession had no place here.

  “The New Products division is right where I want to be,” she stressed.

  His statuelike countenance made her stomach more jittery than ever.

  “I insinuated that I’d consider a new position because—” she faltered “—because—” She pressed her lips together.

  Because I wanted to force you to admit that you enjoyed working with me, she thought. I tested you be
cause I needed to know that your behavior toward me, your kiss, was due to more than merely my new outfit, my new hairdo, my new look.

  She couldn’t say that! She’d be a fool to admit that He’d laugh her right out of his office.

  A reason. A reason. She needed a rational explanation for what she’d done. For the things she’d said.

  Her mind whirled a mile a minute. Then an idea came to her.

  “I mentioned the new personal assistant’s position,” she said, setting up her little white lie, “because I was really pushing you for your opinion regarding my work. I knew you’d be filling out my yearly review this week, and I wanted to know your appraisal of me. You know,” she quickly added, “as an employee.”

  As soon as she’d used her yearly review as a justification she realized how very flimsy her story sounded. Well, it was only a small lie. She was due for her review. And she was interested in his evaluation of her career accomplishments.

  Kyle rested his elbow on the arm of his leather chair, then he settled his chin on top of his crooked fingers, perusing her all the while. What was he thinking? she mused. What was going through his head? Did he believe her?

  “You flirted with me.”

  His words were slow and deliberate, not an accusation as much as a simple statement of fact.

  Awkwardness stiffened the air, and Cindy averted her gaze self-consciously. She couldn’t deny the blatant truth. She had teased him from across the conference room. But she blamed her makeover. The new clothes, the new makeup, had made her...indiscreet. Not just indiscreet, she decided suddenly. Her makeover had made her outrageously bold.

  No, she couldn’t deny her behavior, couldn’t deny her flirtation, but she didn’t have to acknowledge it, either...so she said nothing.

  “You’ve come in here,” he continued, “to explain that you didn’t flirt with me the other day in order to get my recommendation for a promotion. That you’re not interested in working as the new president’s personal assistant.”

  “Exactly.” Relief flooded through her. She was so glad that he seemed to understand her after all.