by Debora Ryan
He smiled widely again, revealing the dimple that had mesmerized her only twenty-four hours ago. Now her stomach was twisted in knots of nervous anticipation. “If I stay here, do I get to do your job without you looking over my shoulder?” His tone was light, and he sounded excited.
She nodded. “I’ll be back this afternoon.”
Will stood up. “I think I’ll go with you next time. There are some things I want to do around here today.”
“Suit yourself.” After he left, Leah let out the breath she had been holding. She wondered what he had planned for the evening. He hadn’t given her any of the particulars. Were they to meet at his place, or did he expect to come to her apartment? Or worse yet, did he expect to meet in a cheap highway motel?
These thoughts plagued her all day long. She was absent-minded during the bulk of the meeting for department heads, which ran far longer than she thought. She didn’t make it back to her floor until the end of the day.
When she walked into her office, she found Will at her desk using her computer. He smiled brilliantly when he saw her. “I wondered if you had skipped out on me.”
If she thought she could have gotten away with it, she would have left without further contact. She strove to keep her face and her voice carefully expressionless. However, hope edged her question. “Would that have worked?”
“No,” he said, his smile fading. “I would have picked you up at six anyway. This way you know when I’m coming.”
Leah didn’t reply. The sudden ache in her stomach forbade any response. Instead she opened her closet to get her jacket. As he had done every time he had been present when she put on her jacket, he pulled it from her hands and slipped it around her shoulders. This time when his hands lingered on her, she knew it was on purpose. He was making a point. She belonged to him, and there was nothing she could do about it. Tears pricked at her eyes, but she kept her face away from him until she had her emotions under control.
“Are you going to give me your address, or should I ask Eliza for directions to your house?” His warm breath fanned against her neck.
“No,” she said a little too sharply. She whirled to face him. “Don’t ask Eliza anything. Keep this out of the office.”
“If you insist.”
She finished straightening her coat. Her voice didn’t shake when she said, “I insist.”
He studied her intently, but he didn’t say anything more.
Chapter 6
Leah changed her clothes six times. He hadn’t told her where he was taking her, but she knew they were leaving her apartment. He had said he would pick her up. That meant they were leaving, right? She tried on several pairs of jeans and discarded each. She toyed with the idea of staying in her work clothes, but she had worn a skirt and that wouldn’t do at all. She didn’t want to give him the idea that she wanted to sleep with him. As handsome as he was, as many times as she had thought about what it would be like to kiss him, it was all ruined now, tainted by this blackmail.
At least her embezzlement had been an impersonal crime. She needed the money for Cecelia. It wasn’t Cece’s fault that she needed so much medical attention. She hadn’t been driving the car. Will’s crime was personal. He was out to have her, to own her, to possess her, at any cost. She knew it was only because she had turned him down. Will Dannaker was not someone used to being told he couldn’t have something. She prayed he would tire of her quickly.
Will was prompt. Her bell rang exactly at six o’clock. She buzzed him in only because she wanted to make sure she was dressed appropriately. She had settled for something casual, but not too relaxed. It was something she would have worn out to dinner with her grandmother. She knew Will would tell her if she needed to change.
The knock on the door came too soon. Reluctantly, she let him in. He looked her up and down, but he didn’t comment on her conservative apparel choice. Instead, he smiled. “Are you ready? We have a six-thirty reservation.”
Reservation? Did motels care what time you checked in? Most had hourly and weekly rates. “For what?”
He frowned at her. “For dinner. You like Italian, right?”
Dinner? She hadn’t eaten, it was true, but that was because she knew her stomach was not currently compatible with food. However, it would delay the deed for a little while. The question was, could she handle spending even more time with him and did she even have a choice? She thought not.
When all was said and done, she remembered very little of the time between leaving her apartment and returning later that evening. She knew Will talked and that he’d tried to engage her in conversation. Her answers had been vague and monosyllabic. She ate none of the food on her plate. She had rearranged it a few times, but she couldn’t recall upon pain of death what she had ordered. Her wits seemed to return when he brought her home.
It didn’t surprise her that after he parked his brand-new SUV and cut the engine, he put his hand on her wrist and told her to stay put. He insisted on opening the door for her. She didn’t think to insist that it wasn’t necessary because it was. She wasn’t sure she was capable of opening or closing any door competently.
He helped her down from the heated leather seat and clamped his hand on her arm to guide her to the door. At least, that’s what it looked like from an observer’s perspective. Leah knew he wanted to keep her from bolting. When she fumbled with her keys, he took them from her wordlessly and opened the metal security door.
At the flimsy wooden door to her apartment, she turned to face him, desperately wanting to say something to keep him from coming inside. He unlocked her door, but he didn’t open it. He slipped the keys back into her purse.
“Leah,” he said. “I’m not coming in.”
She looked at him for the first time that evening. Surprise and relief flooded her body and she knew it showed on her face. “You’re not?”
He shook his head. “Not on the first date.”
That meant there would be more. Her face fell.
“Don’t look so excited,” he said gently. He brought his hands up to rest his fingers lightly on either side of her face. His lips met hers, brushing against them so lightly that she thought she imagined it. He lifted her hair and traced a trail down her neck that caused her to shiver before returning to press his lips firmly against hers. This time, he pressed her back against the wall and held her there with his hard body while his tongue licked at her lips, begging entry.
Without thinking, she opened to him and brought her arms up, wrapping her hands around his neck, and kissed him until they were both breathless.
“I’ll see you Thursday?”
Numbly, she nodded.
He released her and, opening her door, pushed her inside. “Lock the door,” he admonished before leaving.
* * * *
Will leaned his head back against the cool leather of his seat. The keys dangled from the ignition and a bell dinged to let him know he needed to fasten his seat belt.
The date had not gone as planned. He expected her nervousness. She was a woman used to being in control, and this date wasn’t happening on her terms.
But his charm hadn’t worked at all. He thought back to the first night he met her, and the way her initial wariness melted from her eyes as she relaxed into the conversation. She had flirted. She had enjoyed his company.
He wanted that back. He wanted to spend time with the woman hiding inside Leah.
Instead, he’d spent an evening with a woman in full body armor. She didn’t laugh or smile. She barely spoke to him, and she didn’t touch her food.
He didn’t want her on these terms, but he couldn’t just give up. She did like him, and she did find him attractive. The passionate response to his kisses hadn’t been faked.
Well, he wouldn’t force the issue. He would take it slow, give her time to accept what he had to offer. In ten years, they would laugh about this while cheering at their son’s soccer game. A few more dates would have the right woman in his arms.
* *
* *
She arrived at the office early the next morning and was nearly caught up with her email, which she had neglected the previous day, when he sauntered in. Shedding his jacket with confident movements, he parked himself on her sofa. Leah couldn’t rip her gaze from the muscles that rippled beneath the light blue cotton when he moved. She watched as he flipped through his notebook to a new page and began sketching furiously. Leah ignored him for the next hour as the floor filled up with people who wandered in and out of her office with the usual morning greetings.
She was absentmindedly berating herself because his presence had brought the taste of his kiss to her mouth, making her long for more, when Eliza burst into the room. Her round face glowed with excitement. She sported a bounce in her step and a bouquet of flowers in her arms. “Leah, look what came for you!” She carefully placed the bouquet on Leah’s desk. “There’s a card.”
Leah’s gaze flickered to Will, who hadn’t looked up from his notebook or so much as hesitated in the movement of his pencil, then back to the flowers. She opened the card, shielding it from the prying eyes trying to steal a peek. The message was printed in the neat, impersonal cursive of a flower shop: Someday you’ll thank me.
This time when she looked over at Will, his eyes met hers. Without looking away, Leah picked up the bouquet and dropped it into the waste basket next to her desk. Will’s expression did not change. He stared at the flowers in the basket for a minute, and then he left the room without a word.
Eliza followed him, an expression on her face that promised the gossip would fly through the office. “I’ll close the door so you can mutilate the flowers in peace.”
Leah didn’t touch the flowers once. She did stare at them a few times. Each time, she had to banish pangs of guilt. Was last night really that bad? He had only bought dinner and kissed her goodnight. She could still feel the imprint of him on her wrist, her hand, the small of her back, the nape of her neck, everywhere he had ever touched her.
In fact, his manners had been impeccable. She conceded that most women would have been impressed. However, most women weren’t being blackmailed into a relationship they hadn’t wanted, either. A kiss that good couldn’t change her mind, could it? She didn’t understand why he hadn’t tried to sleep with her, and that unknown upset her even more.
Mercifully, Will stayed away for the remainder of the day. Her visit with Cecelia went well, mostly because Cece had accepted Anne’s explanation for Leah’s absence, even though Leah had never missed a visit before.
Cece spent much of the time showing Leah the painting she and Anne had made together. “Sometimes only Anne can come,” Cece said. “But that’s okay. It means she is my friend, too, and not just yours.”
Leah could hear Marian’s voice behind the words. Before she left, she stopped by to check to see how Cece had been on Tuesday for Marian to have told her that.
Marian was one of those people whose empathy oozed from their pores. Her face was just as lovely as her personality.
Marian laughed pleasantly at Leah’s question. “I didn’t come up with that. Cecelia did. Yesterday, she remembered some things she had done with Anne before the accident. You’ve all been friends for a long, long time, right?”
Leah nodded. Cecelia was eighteen months older than Leah, and Anne’s birthday fell between them. Though Anne had been in Leah’s grade, she was a friend they had shared. They each had so many memories of the three of them together. Her parents had often referred to Anne as their adopted daughter. Anne had frequently joined the Keenan family for dinners, sleepovers, and vacations. Anne’s own parents joked about their absentee daughter. And when it came time to choose a college, Anne followed Cecelia to State and into advertising just as Leah had.
Leah didn’t see Will until well into the next day, when she was checking in with several members of Anne’s team. Their date that evening was a replay of the previous one. Again, he left her breathless and wanting more.
Chapter 7
He warned her ahead of time that he was going to take her to the movies, but he didn’t ask if there was anything in particular she wanted to see. Leah didn’t care too much. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen a movie, and she had no clue what was currently in theaters.
The Chinese restaurant to which he took her smelled amazing, and the food delivered on the promise. She didn’t know if she was extra hungry from having skipped so many meals during the week due to the churning in her stomach or if they drugged the food. Nevertheless, she attacked it with gusto, finishing off everything on her plate without paying too much attention to Will.
She sat back, glancing up from the plate to find him staring at her with a bemused smile on his face. “I was beginning to wonder if you did, in fact, eat.”
“Everybody eats,” she replied.
“At any rate, I’m glad to see you have your appetite back. You should have told me you liked Chinese so much. I would have brought you here before tonight.”
If he had brought her here earlier in the week, she wouldn’t have eaten anything. “It isn’t the food,” she said. “It’s the company.”
“The company hasn’t changed,” he pointed out.
“I think I’ve mastered the art of ignoring you.”
He stiffened slightly, and his eyes grew even darker. Instead of replying, he proved he could ignore her, too. After they finished, he called for the check and helped her into her coat. When they arrived at the theater, he stayed in his seat instead of rushing around to open her door. He put a restraining hand on her wrist. “We have some time before the movie starts.”
Leah’s stomach tightened, and the food she had eaten threatened a repeat performance.
Will unbuckled his seat belt and turned toward her. “I know why you’re doing this, Leah. It won’t work.”
Her head turned slowly toward him, curious. “What is it you think you know?”
His lips were on hers before she realized he intended to kiss her. They were warm and insistent, moving over hers hungrily. The knot in her belly unfolded, and she felt herself swept up in the kiss against her will. She curled her fists around the hem of her jacket to keep from touching him. Then he was gone, fully returned to his seat as if he had never left it.
Leah stared out the front window. The heat from his lips had branded her. If she closed her eyes, she knew she would still be able to feel him against her. Alarm bells sounded with deafening clarity. He was blackmailing her. How could she crave his kiss so much?
She jumped when his words rent the silence between them. “I know you’re being nasty because you think it will make me change my mind about you.”
“Is it working?”
“No.”
“A normal man would give up.”
He laughed. “Then I guess I’m not normal.” He leaned his head back against the headrest behind him and sighed. “When I was six, I wanted a dog. My mother refused. Dad defers to Mom in anything that happens at home. He was gone so much that Mom informed him he didn’t have a say. I could see her point. However, I didn’t agree with her about the dog. I worked on her for two years. I kept my room clean. I did my homework without being asked. I took on extra jobs whenever I could, anything to prove I was responsible. It took two years, but I got a dog.”
She looked at him cautiously. “I’m not a dog, Will. I’m a person. I don’t care if your room is clean. I don’t care if you do your homework. I don’t care if you open doors for me. I’m not happy to be with you just because you want me.”
His laugh was self-deprecating. “I know. But when you threw away those flowers, you challenged me with your eyes.” He turned back to look at her in the semi-darkness. His eyes glittered darkly with reflected light. She felt his hand as it lightly covered hers. “If I wasn’t fully committed to this before, you changed that with one look. I will make you mine, Leah. I will make you admit you want me, that you enjoy it when I touch you.”
“Why me?” she asked quietly. All her life, she h
ad been overshadowed by Anne’s beauty and even by Cecelia’s charm and confidence. The one time she would have appreciated it happening, it didn’t.
Will studied her silently. She wondered if he was carefully crafting his response or just looking at her. When he spoke at last, his words were careful and deliberate. “Leah, you are the most beautiful, captivating woman I have ever met. When I turned around and saw that you were gone that night I wanted to kill Trevor. He’ll end up divorced again anyway. You can’t imagine how incredibly elated I was when you walked into that office.”
His hand, which had been resting lightly on hers, closed around it tightly as if he was afraid she might disappear again. “Fate has delivered you to me.”
“I don’t believe in fate.” Once, she had. Now she had no reason to believe in anything but herself.
Warm brown eyes roamed her face. “I believe enough for us both.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed each finger lightly. He pulled her closer and kissed her again.
Leah was torn. She did like his kisses, but she knew he would want more before the night was over, and she didn’t think she could go through with it. She hated herself for enjoying the feel of his lips as they moved over hers. She hated the way her body responded to him. Her heart beat faster, and her skin screamed with the need to feel him closer to her, and there was nothing she could do to make it go away.
Relief washed through her when he broke away, even though he rested his forehead against hers. He breathed fast and shallow. After a long time, he said, “We’ll be late for the show.”
The self-satisfied twist of his mouth was lost in the darkening of the theater lights that heralded the beginning of the previews. During the entire film, he held her hand, tracing patterns that sent shivers up her arm so continually that she was unable to concentrate on the movie. He touched her in some way for the rest of the evening, whether it was by placing a proprietary hand on her back or by casually slinging his arm around her shoulder. Each time, her body responded to him.
