A Date With a Billionaire

by Julianna Morris

  As for being beautiful…her subtle beauty had hit him straight in the gut when she opened the door. It was hard to be sensible when she wore something so provocative, especially with the way damp silk clung, outlining the hard points of her nipples and the curves of her bottom.

  He’d nearly had a heart attack at the sight.

  “I…uh.” He cleared his throat, struggling with his self-control. “You should have better sense than to answer the door wearing a bathrobe.”

  Her shoulders lifted in a shrug and his gaze was glued to the sensual glide of her body inside the silk. “Normally I don’t, but I was expecting my partner in the store.”

  Something inside of Kane twisted and he tried to remember if any of the recent newspaper articles had said whether Beth’s “partner” was a man or woman. “Your partner?” he asked carefully. Jealousy was not a pleasant sensation, nor was it something he knew how to handle. He’d never been jealous before.

  “Emily Carleton,” Beth said, seeming not to notice his tension. “She sold me a half interest in the business after her daughter was born. I have the week off—unless she goes into labor with her second baby—and she comes over to talk before opening the store.”

  A woman.

  Kane forced himself to relax. He didn’t have any right to be possessive, especially after reminding himself that he couldn’t marry Beth or have an affair with her. Really, he ought to have better sense.

  “Uh…I left the coffee and Danish in the other room. I’ll get it.”

  He took several deep breaths before returning. This confused rush of feelings wasn’t what he’d planned for the morning, but with Beth he never knew what was going to happen. He’d avoided chance for so long, it was a surprise to discover he liked unpredictability, at least when it came to Beth Cox.

  Back in the kitchen he found Beth rereading the paper with grim concentration. For Pete’s sake, he’d never known a woman more prickly about compliments. She might not be Miss Universe, but who said Miss Universe was all that great? Besides, Beth had something even better then a huge bustline…she had a heart. And a soul that was perfectly lovely.

  A woman like that deserved someone terrific, a man who could focus on her a hundred percent. Kane knew he wasn’t that man, and no matter what she said, he wasn’t convinced her dead fiancé had acted the way ordinary men acted. It might be her basic kindness making her exaggerate the other man’s failings. Still, she had a wonderful gift for making him feel alive and special.

  “Coffee?” he asked, pulling a cup from the bag. “I didn’t know what you like, so I got latte and cappuccino.”

  She regarded him for a long minute, then sighed. “Cappuccino.” Taking the cup, she sampled the contents and munched on a Danish. After a long minute she looked at him and sighed. “You aren’t going away, are you?”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  “But that article is going to get lots of publicity and listeners for your brother’s radio station. We don’t need to keep pretending.”

  “I’m not pretending about being friends—I’d really like it. So we’ll have a few more dates, and let everyone believe it’s a romance, when we really know we’re becoming friends.”

  Beth blinked.

  She was more confused than ever. Kane didn’t have time for friendship with someone like her, any more than he was interested in a real romance. She had a mirror, she knew what she looked like. Besides he’d thoroughly explored her not-so-generous curves, so they weren’t a mystery.

  “It won’t work,” she said slowly. “I don’t even know why everyone believes you could fall in love with me.”

  “Maybe the question everyone is asking is how could you fall in love with me,” Kane suggested. “You’re a terrific lady, while I’m just a guy with a lot of money.”

  He sounded so sincere that Beth stared. He didn’t mean that, did he? But she was starting to wonder, he’d said so many things about his money being the only thing he had to give.

  “Don’t give me that, you’re a wonderful man,” she said, exasperated. “You’re brilliant, you take care of your family, you’re a great employer, you give to charity and pick wildflowers for your mother because they’re the ones she likes. You might be old-fashioned when it comes to women, but it’s kind of sweet, too, in an annoying way. On top of everything else, you’re the handsomest man I’ve ever seen!”

  Oh, God, did she really say that?

  His smile grew. “Then why don’t you want to be friends?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “So we can be friends, but romance is out,” he said thoughtfully.

  She screamed inside, wanting to shake and kiss him at the same time. Most of all, she was scared from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Kane could tear her life apart again. He wouldn’t do it deliberately, but it could happen just the same. The way he was making her feel was too frightening, too wonderful. She’d only end up hurting again.

  “We can’t even be friends,” she said, trying to sound reasonable. “Think about it. We live on different sides of Puget Sound—”

  “That’s what I thought, then I realized that’s why they build roads and have car ferries.”

  “You’re a wealthy man,” she continued through gritted teeth. “While I own half of a clothing store—kid’s clothes and maternity dresses. That kind of thing.”

  He nodded. “It’s great, we’re both businesspeople. It gives us extra stuff to talk about, though we’ve hardly run out of things to say.”

  Beth let out a muffled shriek. “You’re not listening.”

  “Now, that isn’t true. I’m hearing every word and simply explaining what you’ve missed.”

  “I haven’t missed anything. I’ve never had a family, you’ve got gobs of family. You’re a morning person, I hate morning.”

  He gave her a lazy, sensuous smile. “Bet I could make you love it.”

  Drat.

  The suggestion made Beth lose her concentration, mostly because it was such a hot idea that she couldn’t think about anything else for a minute. Not that she thought he was serious about teaching her to love morning, but the way he could teach her was an image too distracting to ignore.

  Of course, he wasn’t serious about any of it. He wanted to help his brother, and that was all. So how could she refuse? She might have never had a family, but that only made her appreciate them more.

  “How about it, Beth?” Kane asked softly. “Let’s spend some time together. Everyone else can think what they want. We’ll just be ourselves.”

  That’s what worried her. Kane O’Rourke was too much of everything. Temptation incarnate.

  “Oh, all right. But no more kisses,” she added hastily.

  “I can’t promise that.”

  “Why not?” she demanded.

  Kane drew his finger down the inside line of her wrist. “Because I don’t break promises, and that isn’t one I can be sure of keeping. So, you go get dressed and we’ll talk about what to do today.”

  “I was thinking about getting a kitten,” she said without thinking.

  “Great.” Kane pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll give my assistant a call. There must be some good cat breeders in the area. Did you have a particular breed in mind?”

  Beth shook her head. “Yeah, a mutt cat.”

  An adorably confused expression crossed his face.

  “A mutt cat?” he repeated carefully. “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “You know, a Heinz 57 kitten. A little bit of everything. An alley cat who needs a home,” Beth emphasized.

  She didn’t know how she’d decided to get herself a cat, maybe it was wanting a purring feline to cuddle up with her in the hammock, but the idea had burst out without any conscious plan. She loved animals and wasn’t sure why she’d waited so long.

  “Where do you get alley cats? I’m not taking you to some back street alley,” Kane said, sounding appalled. “Wild cats can be dangerous. I’ll trap one and get it tamed.”<
br />
  A giggle escaped Beth, though she tried to control it. “You really do live in a different world,” she teased. “Kane, you adopt alley cats at the local animal shelter. The one in Crockett is a no-kill shelter and it’s really nice.”

  “I suppose it’s one of your charities.”

  “I’ve baked a few cakes for fund-raisers,” she admitted. “They need a new building and it’s expensive to keep a veterinarian on retainer. All the animals are tested for disease and get their shots and stuff.”

  Kane shook his head and fought the urge to hug Beth. She was the most tempting woman, with a heart so big it made him ache.

  “All right,” he agreed. “Get into some clothes, then let’s go to the shelter and pick out your mutt cat.”

  She hesitated for an instant, then hurried out the door. Kane sipped his rapidly cooling latte, smiling at himself. Once upon a time he would have understood “mutt cat.” When had he moved from adopting a needy pet at an animal shelter, to thinking only of expensive purebreds?

  Beth was good for him in so many ways, though being friends wasn’t sensible when he wanted her so much. Compared to Beth, other women lacked something—women with far more superficial beauty. Yet none of them had her radiant smile and sweet, giving, independently stubborn nature. Or the way she had of making him want to be a better man than he knew himself to be.

  That was the kind of friend a man needed. He didn’t have to have her for a lover.

  Right?

  He pondered the thought—and his reluctance to agree—all the way to the animal shelter. It was filled with dozens of cats and dogs with eager faces pressed against their cages.

  Kane groaned when he saw Beth’s eyes fill with tears at each enclosure. She obviously wanted to adopt them all. Though she’d said she wanted a kitten, she’d already picked out an enormous gray cat who hung in her arms and purred so loud it practically made the lightbulbs rattle. The tag on the cage had said his name was Smoke, and he’d been at the shelter for over a year, waiting for a home.

  “I’ll put the word out at my company,” he said quickly. “Ask everyone to consider coming over to adopt a pet. I’ll pay all the fees and everything. They can even come over on work time if they want. Whatever it takes.”

  “You will?” The hopeful look in her eyes turned him into mush. He would have offered the moon to make her feel better.

  Just then a paw insinuated itself through the bars and snagged a clawful of Beth’s hair.

  “Merooow!” the kitten demanded. I want to go home with you. Right now.

  Beth turned and smiled at the insistent scrap of fur and milk teeth. It was tiger-striped with long tufts of fur sticking up from its ears and between its toes.

  “What do you think, Smoke?” she asked the cat cradled in her arms. “Can you deal with a little brother?”

  The gray cat yawned and tucked its head inside her elbow. He was the mellow type. Food, a lot of love and a warm place to sleep were the requirements of his life.

  Before Beth could be targeted by another feline con artist, Kane hustled her and the two cats into the lobby where he insisted on paying the adoption fees. The scrappy little kitten didn’t appreciate going into the cardboard carrier or the car, but the adult settled into his box and promptly went to sleep. Insomnia plainly wasn’t one of Smoke’s problems.

  The distress in Beth’s expression grew with each siren scream of the kitten until she popped the carrier open and let it climb into her lap. Once freed, the animal settled down and proceeded to give himself a bath.

  “You darling,” she murmured, rubbing under his chin with her forefinger.

  For the first time in his life, Kane envied a cat. Those two felines were going to be loved, petted and adored. They had it made. He cleared his throat. “I suppose you need food and litter and stuff?”

  Beth winced. “That’s right, I forgot. There’s a vet’s office down the street that probably carries supplies. If you don’t mind stopping, I’ll go in and get it.”

  He gave her a smile. “No problem, but I’ll get what we need.”

  “Well…there’s money in my purse, I’ll get some out.”

  “It’s just some cat food,” he chided, swinging his legs from the car. “You just stay here and keep the kids out of trouble.”

  Keep the kids out of trouble.

  Beth had trouble breathing at the ordinary way he’d said that. It was the danger of being around Kane, he was every woman’s dream—tall, strong, sensitive, and so handsome that she wanted to tear his clothes off just for smiling. And she definitely had the urge to make a baby with him.

  “Well, I don’t need a baby. I have you, don’t I?” she whispered to the spider-legged kitten cleaning his rump on her leg. It was an inelegant posture, but it helped rouse Beth’s sense of humor. “You’re a boudoir cat, right?”

  Yawning, the kitten fell over on its side and went to sleep.

  The sound of the trunk opening caught Beth’s attention and she waited as Kane and one of the veterinary assistants made several trips in and out of the office. It seemed like an awful lot, so when Kane slid behind the steering wheel, she frowned.

  “What did you get?”

  “Just a few things you and the kids might need.”

  “ Kane, you can’t just buy—”

  “Beth,” he said, mimicking her exasperated tone. “I can buy anything I want, and if I want to get some gifts for my new godchildren, I’m allowed.”

  “They aren’t your…oh, pooh.”

  “How articulate.” He tapped her nose and laughed. “I like being with you, Beth. There’s never a dull moment when we’re together.”

  It seemed to her it must be awfully dull for a man like Kane. She’d dragged him to work at the crisis center where he’d slapped paint on walls for nine long hours. Now he’d seen the glamorous interior of an animal shelter and vet’s office. Sure, the excitement never ended in Crockett.

  Not that she thought it was dull, but she couldn’t see Kane enjoying such ordinary things. She liked her life, or at least she had before he’d come around and upset everything. Actually she still liked her life, but now there was a nagging sense of something missing. The worrisome part was wondering how she’d feel after things settled down and she was in Crockett, while Kane returned to his world in Seattle.

  Back at the house she was even more put out when she saw that he’d gotten everything from a mountain of gourmet food to cat beds, toys, flea products and two electric “self-cleaning” litter boxes.

  “They said these things are great,” Kane murmured when she protested. He was sitting on the floor, reading the instructions. Before long he had them both assembled and filled with litter. “Where do you want them? You’ll need a place with an outlet.”

  Beth shook her head in disgust and directed him to the spare bedroom. It would keep the smell from the kitchen and her own bedroom, and give the cats some privacy while doing their business.

  Never, in her wildest dreams, could she have imagined Kane O’Rourke putting a litter box together. He’d seen something that needed doing, and had done it. No fuss or protestations, or even an expression of distaste for something beneath him. It was strange. For a man with a lot of money, he didn’t mind getting his hands dirty.

  But the strangest part of the whole day was when they all fell asleep on the hammock, with Smoke curled up on Kane’s stomach and the kitten nestled in her hair.

  Since there was nothing relaxing about Kane, Beth could only suppose it was due to them both being tired.

  Chapter Eight

  The next morning Beth’s curiosity got the best of her and she tuned into the KLMS radio station. The first thing she heard was a drum roll and the dramatic announcement, “O’Rourke Marriage Watch.”

  She shook her head.

  Did people honestly believe Kane would fall for someone like her? She was a nobody, and he was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. Most people didn’t believe in fairy tales, and that’s exactly wha
t the radio station was trying to sell.

  “Listen up, folks,” said the disc jockey. “Things are looking hopeful for Kane O’Rourke ending his lonely bachelor existence. A little bird tells us that he and the charming Miss Cox picked out two cats at the Crockett Animal Shelter yesterday. While it isn’t a station wagon, two kids and a dog, it’s not a bad sign.”

  The DJ went on to extoll the animal shelter and its good work, an addition Beth was certain had come from Kane’s prompting. He was a nice man and would be a perfect husband for the right woman. But she wasn’t the right woman, and a pang went through Beth when she wondered how it would feel to hear he was getting married for real. And he would, eventually.

  She’d never been a celebrity watcher. Famous people had never interested her. But it would be different with Kane; he’d kissed her, touched her, laughed and teased and made her feel just a little bit beautiful.

  A springy ball of fluff leaped onto the windowsill and stared out at a crow, preening his blue-black feathers in the sunshine.

  “Merroow.”

  Beth laughed and tugged the kitten’s tail. She’d named him “Razzle” to match his dizzy personality.

  “I don’t think you’re going to tackle him—he’s twice your size. You need to stay inside unless I’m with you.”

  Razzle kept watching the crow and Beth looked at the clock for the tenth time in the past hour. She’d already worked in the garden, swept the entire house and taken a shower…all because Kane had said he’d “stop by” around ten. As a result she’d been awake since dawn, wondering if he’d really meant it.

  “It doesn’t matter if he didn’t,” she whispered.

  It really didn’t.

  But all her protestations weren’t worth a lick when the knock came on the door, making her pulse jump.

  Kane smiled when she answered and held out a potted plant that Beth didn’t immediately recognize. “I brought something for the kids. Do you think they’ll like catnip?”

  “They’ll love it—almost as much as those jingle jangle balls you got them,” she added dryly. “Did you know kittens never sleep at night? They don’t even stand flat on their feet, they just dance around on the tips of their toes.”