by Ann Major
Last night, when he’d promised he’d break it off with her sister, she’d never guessed the devious manner in which he’d planned to honor that promise.
She was still struggling to process everything she’d learned, when Quinn himself strode into the bedroom looking much too arrogant, masterful and self-satisfied for her liking.
“Good, you’re dressed,” he said in that beautiful voice. “You look gorgeous.”
Refusing to meet the warmth of his admiring gaze for fear she might believe his compliment and thereby lose her determination to escape him, she nodded.
“I made coffee.”
“Smells good,” she whispered, staring out the window.
“Do you have time for breakfast?”
“No!”
“Something wrong?”
If he was dishonest, why should she bother to be straight with him? “I’m fine,” she said, but in a softer tone.
“Right. That must be why you seem so cool.”
“Indeed?”
“And they say men are the ones who withdraw the morning after.”
She bit her lip to keep herself from screaming at him.
“Still, I understand,” he said.
“Last night is going to take some getting used to,” she said.
“For me, as well.”
To that she said nothing.
“Well, the coffee’s in the kitchen,” he said, turning away.
Preferring to part from him without an argument, she followed him into the kitchen where he poured her a steaming cup and handed it to her.
“Do you take cream? Sugar?”
She shook her head. “We don’t know the most basic things about each other, do we?”
“After last night, I’d have to disagree with you, darlin’.”
She blushed in confusion. “Don’t call me that.”
He eyed her thoughtfully. “You really do seem upset.”
She sipped from her cup, again choosing silence instead of arguing the point. Was he good at everything? Rich and strong, the coffee was to die for.
“For the record, I take mine black, very black,” he said. “Without sugar. So, we have that in common. And we have what we shared last night.”
“Don’t…”
“I’d say we’re off to a great start.”
Until I realized what you were up to, I would have agreed. She longed to claw him. Instead, she clenched her nails into her palms and chewed her lower lip mutinously.
The rosy glow from last night, when he’d made her feel so special, had faded. She felt awkward and unsure…and hurt, which was ridiculous because she’d gone into this knowing who and what he was.
Obviously, last night had been business as usual for him. Why not marry the Murray sister who’d practically thrown herself at him? Did he believe she was so smitten and desperate for affection she’d be more easily controlled?
Why had she let herself be swept away by his looks, his confidences and his suave, expert lovemaking?
Because, your stupid crush on him turned your brain to mush.
And turned her raging hormones to fire. Never had she felt so physically and spiritually in tune with anyone. She’d actually thought, at one point, that they could be soul mates.
Soul mates! It was all an illusion. You were a fool, girl, and not for the first time.
“Look, I’d really better go,” she said, her tone so sharp his dark head jerked toward her.
“Right. Then I’ll drive you, since you left your car downtown.”
“I can call a cab.”
“No! I’ll drive you.”
Silently, she nodded.
He led the way to stairs that went down to the elevator and garage. In silence, they sped along the freeway in his silver Aston Martin until he slowed to take the off-ramp that led to where she’d parked downtown. After that, she had to speak to him in order to direct him to her small, dusty Toyota with several dings in its beige body. She let out a little moan when he pulled up behind her car and she saw the parking ticket flapping under her windshield wipers.
He got out and raced around the hood to open her door, but before he could, she’d flung it open.
“You sure there isn’t something wrong?” he asked.
She snatched the ticket, but before she could get in her car, he slid his arms around her waist from behind.
He felt so solid and strong and warm, she barely suppressed a sigh. She yearned to stay in his arms even though she knew she needed to get away from him as quickly as possible to regroup.
He turned her to face him and his fingertips traced the length of her cheek in a tender, burning caress, and for a long second he stared into her troubled eyes with a mixture of concern and barely suppressed impatience. He seemed to care.
Liar.
“It’s not easy letting you go,” he said.
“People are watching us,” she said mildly, even as she seethed with outrage.
“So what? Last night was very special to me, Kira. I’m sorry if you’re upset about it. I hope it’s just that it all happened too fast. I wasn’t too rough, was I?”
The concern in his voice shook her. “No.” She looked away, too tempted to meet his gaze.
“It’s never been like that for me. I…I couldn’t control myself, especially this morning. I wanted you again…badly. This is all happening too fast for me, too. I prefer being able to plan.”
That’s not what he’d said on the phone. Quinn seemed to have damn sure had a plan. Marry a Murray daughter. And he was sticking to it.
“Yes, it is happening…too fast.” She bit her lip. “But…I’m okay.” She wanted to brush off his words, to pretend she didn’t care that he’d apologized and seemed genuinely worried about her physical and emotional state. He seemed all too likable. She almost believed him.
“Do you have a business card?” he asked gently.
She shook her head. “Nope. At least, not on me.”
He flipped a card out of his pocket. “Well, here is mine. You can call me anytime. I want to see you again…as soon as possible. There’s something very important I want to discuss with you.”
The intensity of his gaze made her heart speed up. “You are not going back on your word about marrying Jaycee, are you?”
“How can you even ask? I’ll call it off as soon as I leave you. Unfortunately, after that, I have to be away on business for several days, first to New York, then London. Murray Oil is in the middle of negotiating a big deal with the European Union. My meeting tonight in New York ends at eight, so call me after that. On my cell.”
Did he intend to propose over the phone? Her throat felt thick as she forced herself to nod. Whipping out a pen and a pad, she wrote down her cell phone number. “Will you text me as soon as you break up with my sister?”
“Can I take that to mean you care about me…a little?” he asked.
“Sure,” she whispered, exhaling a pent-up breath. How did he lie so easily? “Take it any way you like.”
She had to get away from him, to be alone to think. Everything he said, everything he did, made her want him—even though she knew, after what she’d heard this morning, that she’d never been anything but a pawn in the game he was playing to exact revenge against her father.
She wasn’t special to him. And if she didn’t stand up for herself now, she never would be.
She would not let her father sell Jaycee or her to this man!
Four
“You’re her father. I still can’t believe you don’t have a clue where Kira could be. Hell, she’s been gone for nearly three weeks.”
Shaking his head, Earl stalked across Quinn’s corner office at Murray Oil to look out the window. “I told you, she’s probably off somewhere painting. She does that.”
Quinn hated himself for having practically ordered the infuriating Murray to his office again today. But he was that desperate to know Kira was safe. Her safety aside, he had a wedding planned and a bride to locate.
&
nbsp; “You’re sure she’s not in any trouble?”
“Are you sure she didn’t realize you were about to demand that she marry you?”
Other than wanting Kira to take Jaycee’s place, he wasn’t sure about a damn thing! Well, except that maybe he’d pushed Kira too fast and too far. Hell, she could have overheard him talking to Habib. She’d damn sure gotten quiet and sulky before they parted ways.
“I don’t think—”
“I’d bet money she got wise to you and decided to let you stew in your own juices. She may seem sweet and malleable, but she’s always had a mind of her own. She’s impossible to control. It’s why she lost her job. It’s why I suggested you choose Jaycee in the first place. Jaycee is biddable.”
Quinn felt heat climb his neck. He didn’t want Jaycee. He’d never wanted Jaycee. He wanted Kira…sweet, passionate Kira who went wild every time he touched her. Her passion thrilled him as nothing else had in years.
The trouble was, after he’d made love to her that morning, he’d felt completely besotted and then out of sorts as a result. He hadn’t wanted to dwell on what feeling such an all-consuming attraction so quickly might mean. Now he knew that if anything had happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.
“I couldn’t ask her to marry me after our dinner. It was too soon. Hell, maybe she did figure it all out and run off before I could explain.”
“Well, I checked our hunting lodges at the ranch where she goes to paint wildlife, and I’ve left messages with my caretaker at the island where she paints birds. Nobody’s seen her. Sooner or later she’ll turn up. She always does. You’ll just have to be patient.”
“Not my forte.”
“Quinn, she’s okay. When she’s in between museum jobs, she runs around like this. She’s always been a free spirit.”
“Right.” Quinn almost growled. He disliked that the other man could see he was vulnerable and crazed by Kira’s disappearance. The need to find her, to find out why she’d vanished, had been building inside him. He couldn’t go on if he didn’t solve this mystery—and not just because the wedding date loomed.
His one night with Kira had been the closest thing to perfection he’d known since before his dad had died. Never had he experienced with any other woman anything like what he’d shared with Kira. Hell, he hadn’t known such closeness was possible. He’d lost himself completely in her, talked to her as he’d never talked to another person.
Even though she’d seemed distant the next morning, he’d thought she’d felt the same wealth of emotion he had and was running scared. But no—something else had made her vanish without a word, even before he’d told her she’d have to marry him if Jaycee didn’t. Thinking back, all he could imagine was that she’d felt vulnerable and afraid after their shared night—or that she had overheard him talking to Habib.
Then the day after he’d dropped her at her car, Quinn had texted her, as he’d promised, to let her know he’d actually broken it off with Jacinda. She’d never called him back. Nor had she answered her phone since then. She’d never returned to her tiny apartment or her place of employment.
Kira had called her friend Betty to check in, and promised she’d call weekly to keep in touch, but she hadn’t given an explanation for her departure or an estimation for when she’d return.
Quinn had to rethink his situation. He’d stopped romancing Jacinda, but he hadn’t canceled the wedding because he planned to marry Kira instead. Come Saturday, a thousand people expected him to marry a Murray daughter.
Apparently, his future father-in-law’s mind was running along the same worrisome track.
“Quinn, you’ve got to be reasonable. We’ve got to call off the wedding,” Earl said.
“I’m going to marry Kira.”
“You’re talking nonsense. Kira’s gone. Without a bride, you’re going to piss off the very people we want to reassure. Stockholders, clients and employees of Murray Oil. Not to mention—this whole thing is stressing the hell out of Vera, and in her condition that isn’t good.”
Several months earlier, when Quinn had stalked into Earl’s office with enough shares to demand control of Murray Oil, Earl, his eyes blurry and his shoulders slumped, had sat behind his desk already looking defeated.
The older man had wearily confided that his wife was seriously ill. Not only had Earl not cared that Quinn would soon be in charge of Murray Oil, he’d said the takeover was the answer to a prayer. It was time he retired. With Murray Oil in good hands, he could devote himself to his beloved wife, who was sick and maybe dying.
“She’s everything to me,” he’d whispered. “The way your father was to you and the way your mother was to him before she left him.”
“Why tell me—your enemy?” Quinn had asked.
“I don’t think of you as my enemy. I never was one to see the world in black or white, the way Kade, your dad, did—the way you’ve chosen to see it since his death. Whether you believe me or not, I loved your father, and I was sorry about our misunderstanding. You’re just like him, you know, so now that I’ve got my own challenge to face, there’s nobody I’d rather turn the company over to than you.
“Vera doesn’t want me talking about her illness to friends and family. She can’t stand the thought of people, even her daughters, thinking of her as weak and sick. I’m glad I finally have someone I can tell.”
Quinn had been stunned. For years, he had hated Earl, had wanted revenge, had looked forward to bringing the man to his knees. But ever since that conversation his feelings had begun to change. The connection he’d found with Kira had hastened that process.
He’d begun to rethink his choices, reconsider his past. Not all his memories of Earl were negative. He could remember some wonderful times hunting and fishing with the blunt-spoken Earl and his dad. As a kid, he’d loved the stories Earl had told around the campfire.
Maybe the bastard had been partially responsible for his father’s death. But maybe an equal share of the blame lay with his own father.
Not that Quinn trusted his new attitude. He’d gone too far toward his goal of vengeance not to seize Murray Oil. And he still believed taking a Murray bride would make the acquisition run more smoothly.
“I will get married on Saturday,” Quinn said. “All we have to do is convince Kira to come back and marry me.”
“Right. But how? We don’t even know where she is.”
“We don’t have to know. All we have to do is motivate her to return,” Quinn said softly.
Seabirds raced along the beach, pecking at seaweed. Her jeans rolled to her knees, Kira stood in the shallow surf of Murray Island and wiggled her toes in the cool, damp sand as the wind whipped her hair against her cheeks. Blowing sand stung her bare arms and calves.
Kira needed to make her weekly phone call to Betty after her morning walk—a phone call she dreaded. Each week, it put her back in touch with reality, which was what she wanted to escape from.
Still, she’d known she couldn’t stay on the island forever. She’d just thought that solitude would have cleared her head of Quinn by now. But it hadn’t. She missed him.
Three weeks of being here alone had changed nothing. None of her confusion or despair about her emotional entanglement with Quinn had lifted.
Maybe if she hadn’t been calling Betty to check in, she would be calmer. Betty had told her about Quinn’s relentless visits to the restaurant. Thinking about Quinn looking for her had stirred up her emotions and had blocked her artistically. All she could paint was his handsome face.
Well, at least she was painting. When she’d been frustrated while working at the museum, she hadn’t even been able to hold a paintbrush.
Since it was past time to call Betty again, she headed for the family beach house. When she climbed the wooden stairs and entered, the wind caught the screen door and banged it behind her.
She turned on her cell phone and climbed to the second floor where the signal and the views of the high surf were better.
Betty
answered on the first ring. “You still okay all alone out there?”
“I’m fine. How’s Rudy?”
She’d packed her cat and his toys and had taken him to Betty’s, much to his dismay.
“Rudy’s taken over as usual. Sleeps in my bed. He’s right here. He can hear your voice on speakerphone. He’s very excited, twitchin’ his tail and all.” She paused, then, “I worry about you out there alone, Kira.”
“Jim’s around. He checks on me.”
Jim was the island’s caretaker. She’d taken him into her confidence and asked him not to tell anyone, not even her father, where she was.
“Well, there’s something I need to tell you, something I’ve been dreadin’ tellin’ you,” Betty began.
“What?”
“That fella of yours, Quinn…”
“He’s not my fella.”
“Well, he sure acts like he’s your guy when he drops by. He’s been drillin’ the staff, makin’ sure you weren’t datin’ anyone. Said he didn’t want to lay claim to a woman who belonged to another.”
Lay claim? Kira caught her breath. Just thinking about Quinn in the restaurant looking for her made her breasts swell and her heart throb.
Darn it—would she never forget him?
“Well, today he comes over just as I’m unlocking the door and launches into a tirade about how he’s gonna have to break his promise to you and marry your sister, Jaycee! This Saturday!
“I thought it right funny at first, him sayin’ that, when he comes by lookin’ haunted, askin’ after you all the time, so I said up front I didn’t buy it. Called him a liar, I did.
“He said maybe he preferred you, but you’d forced his hand. He had to marry a Murray daughter for business reasons, so he would. Everything is set. He told me to read the newspapers, if I didn’t believe him. And I did. They’re really getting married. It’s all over the internet, too.”
“What?”
