"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."
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 sha
rp 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."
"Really?" she mused.
"I would have been disappointed if I hadn't been allowed to participate. But I wasn't worried. It's a tradition that the eldest son take over the company when his father resigns." He slowed the car to take a turn, and checked his rearview mirror to make sure he hadn't lost Dennis, following behind in his rental car. "But I didn't walk straight into the CEO's job."
"No?" She loved to hear him talk. He had a rich, mesmerizing voice.
"I had to go to college, get a business degree, then work my way up through the ranks. I love what I do." He looked at her, and she could see in the way his eyes gleamed with life that it was true.
"What about the rest of your life?" she asked. "When you're not working."
"Not much time for hobbies."
"That's not what I meant," she said gently. "You once told me you wanted a family."
"I do, with the right woman, when the time is right."
He turned once more, this time into a long driveway of crushed oyster shells, and pointed ahead at an ornate wrought-iron gate inscribed with the familiar D&D emblem. "This is it, Crofthaven."
She had expected a big house. Something spacious—graciously Old South, or maybe Nouveau Plantation. Katherine wasn't prepared for the grandeur of the beautifully landscaped grounds, tastefully lit by electric lanterns and hidden floodlights, or for the house itself when it came into view.
The mansion was of the Georgian style, popular in Savannah as well. Tall white columns graced a lofty front portico. Although additions might have been built onto the back of the house to expand it, the original main house must have been over a hundred years old, perhaps had even survived the Civil War. She could imagine dozens of beautiful, period-furnished rooms inside—formal parlors, dining room, ballroom, a library and many private bedrooms on upper floors. Even lit only by moonlight, the place took her breath away.
"The staff will have retired to their quarters for the night. But Cook usually leaves something good in the refrigerator for unexpected guests," Ian said as he stopped the car and Dennis pulled up behind them.
"I'm not very hungry," she said.
In fact her stomach was in a turmoil. Seeing her brother and Ian locked in mortal combat earlier had shaken her more than she'd realized at the time. She longed for simple comfort food. Something warm and soothing.
"Well, maybe a cup of hot chocolate?" she thought out loud as Dennis joined them.
"Done," Ian said as he lifted from the car's trunk her overnight case, hurriedly packed with toiletries and a change of clothing. They'd stopped by her apartment for a few things on their way.
"I'll be good until breakfast," Dennis assured him as he trailed after them into the foyer of the grand house.
Her brother looked around, eyes narrowed critically, but she could tell he was impressed and a little taken aback by the Southern opulence. The house they'd grown up in, overlooking a vast desert, was roomy and casually comfortable in the Southwestern style. Their mother had decorated with an eye to preserving elements of her husband's Native American heritage. But the rambling ranch-style home, even with its pricey, modern fixtures and appliances, wasn't what anyone would call an estate.
Ian led them up the stairs to a second floor and down a long hallway lined with closed doors. He passed by several then opened one on his left. "Dennis, I think you'll find this comfortable. There's a private bath off to the side, and the morning sun warms up the balcony outside the French doors. The desk has a phone and the line is Internet ready if you want to plug in and check your e-mail. I notice you have a laptop with you."
"This is very generous of you, Ian," Dennis said. "Most employers wouldn't go to such lengths." Katherine began to relax a little at her brother's slightly friendlier tone, although he did sound curious about her relationship to Ian. "I take it my sister—"
"Will have a proper room of her own directly across the hall from yours," Ian supplied quickly. "I'm the first door on the right after you came up the stairs, in case either of you need me."
Was it her imagination, or had he added that last bit for her benefit? She intentionally avoided his eyes even as she felt herself blush.
"Cook usually has coffee on and croissants or bagels available by six in the morning. I'll leave a note for her to arrange a full breakfast in the dining room by seven-thirty. But sleep in if you feel like it. I expect, after your sister-hunting adventures, you're pretty tired."
"It wasn't the hunting that knocked the wind out of my sails." Dennis touched his swollen lip.
Katherine wanted to say he'd deserved getting slugged but thought better of it and just gave him a good-night kiss on the cheek. After all, maybe her family couldn't help seeing themselves as her protectors. It was going to take some reeducating to convince them she didn't need someone looking over her shoulder every minute of every day.
She followed Ian across the hall. He said nothing, just opened the door to the room she was to stay in and turned on the light.
A gasp slipped between her lips. The bedroom was decorated in shades of pearl-white, buttery cream and ivory with textures ranging from sateen-smooth to rich, deeply woven brocades. The only touches of color were an occasional whisper of pink in bolsters on the bed, tiebacks for the draperies, and a collection of delicate crystal perfume bottles and atomizers on the dressing table. The effect was of sun-warmed ice. She loved it.
"Whose room is this?" she asked.
"It was to be the nursery," he said simply.
Her heart stopped. She just didn't know what to say. "Oh, Ian." It took her a moment to recover. "It doesn't look like a baby's room at all."
"No. You see, my wife and I were going to live at Crofthaven, since my father was away more often than at home. But after— After the miscarriage, I hired an interior decorator to come in and—" he gestured, as if erasing painful memories with one sweep of his hand "—just paint it all white, I told her. Get rid of the primary colors and zoo animals."
She went to him, took his hand and held it to her heart as she faced him. "I'm so sorry. You didn't have to bring me to this room. I can stay in another. Really."
"No," he said, "I wanted you to see it."
"Why?" She couldn't imagine.
"I guess … I guess I just wanted you to know how hard it was to let go of the idea of being a father. I'm not sure."
She shook her head. "You're still a young man. You can marry again." Her throat closed behind the words. She didn't want to imagine Ian with anyone else. She took time to really study him. His features were so strong and fine—his children would be beautiful.
"As they say," he muttered, "it takes two to tango."
He started to turn away, bu
t she reached out and held him there, his right fist enclosed in her two hands like the center of a flower within her petals. He looked down at her. "What are you trying to do to me, Katherine?"
"I'm not sure. I just want you to know you can trust me. I'm sorry I lied to get my job. I'm sorry I misled you about my family life." He tried to turn away, but she stepped into his new line of sight. "Please listen to me. I took my college roommate's name because she suggested it. She's working in Europe for a year, and said I could have her apartment and borrow her name just long enough to get away from my family and start a life of my own. It seemed the perfect arrangement at the time. I know now it was wrong of me not to contact them. But you see what happened when they found me."
"Your brother said he just wanted to talk to you. I doubt he'd have hauled you back to Arizona against your will."
She laughed. "You don't know the men in my family. Oh sure, the Fortunes love their wives, daughters and sisters, but being males, and even more naturally pigheaded than most—"
"I'm offended!"
"—they believe they're always right. They run their own lives and everyone else's by their rules."
It was the first smile she'd been able to coax out of him in far too long a time. "And some people say I'm a control freak."
"Well…" She widened her eyes at him in gentle accusation.
He laughed and lifted her comforting hands to his lips, and kissed each of her knuckles separately. "I don't drag my women home by the hair like a caveman." His smile melted away. "Maybe I'm just as bad, though. I did force a woman to keep a baby and talked her into marrying me. That wasn't right."
"I don't suppose it was," she said. "But that doesn't mean you're a bad man. And it doesn't mean it wasn't the right decision at the time."
He paused a moment, then stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her. She sensed the embrace was as much to console himself as to hold her for the sensual pleasure of it.
"The one thing I learned from that tragedy is that there's nothing more important than love and trust. There can't be one without the other."
"I agree," she said.
"If Lara and I had truly loved each other, we might have stayed together, tried again. But I spoiled everything by forcing her to make decisions about marriage and children before she was ready. I often wonder if she had a premonition, of sorts, that our baby wouldn't live. Maybe that was why she didn't at first want to keep it."
The Boss Man's Fortune Page 11
