Ellie ignored her assistant’s facetious remark. What went through Ellie’s mind was Blake’s fingers sliding down her back. Heat infused her from the inside. She tried to keep her features as bland as she could. But Darlene was perceptive.
“Is Katherine with him?”
She nodded. “Do you want me to show them to the conference room?”
It was on the tip of her tongue to take Darlene up on her offer, but Katherine deserved her attention. She’d deal with Blake in her own way. Unfortunately she didn’t know what that was at the moment. She’d have to take her cue from him.
“I’ll do it,” she told Darlene. “Is everything set up?”
“I checked it three times.”
Ellie got up and smoothed the skirt of her suit down. She took her portfolio with the foundation logo on it and, squaring her shoulders, headed for reception.
“Katherine.” She smiled. “Good to see you again.”
Both Katherine and her son stood. Katherine kissed her on the cheek.
“Blake, I wasn’t expecting you, but it’s good to see you again.” She offered her hand and he took it. His was larger and warm. Ellie felt as if she was being overly formal. When Katherine had come in previous years, Ellie had never felt anything but a little nervous. “We have everything set up in the conference room.”
Katherine had been there before and followed as Ellie led them back into the office. Blake looked around, taking in everything. Ellie wondered what he was thinking, and whether he was viewing the desk, chairs and artwork in dollars and cents.
“There are folders on the table with all the information for your review.”
As the assembly moved to chairs and took seats, Ellie pushed a button on the conference table and a screen dropped from the ceiling. At the same time, the lights lowered and Ellie began her presentation. She went over the current programs and their statuses, gave the financial standing of the foundation and then put up a display of the new programs they planned to begin in the next year.
Katherine asked a few questions, but Blake remained attentive and quiet. His lack of response unnerved Ellie, but she went on.
“The last thing is the fund-raiser from Saturday night,” she started. The foundation staff had spent all day Monday making sure everything had been accounted for, and they were ready for the meeting. Ellie pressed a button in her hand and the computer image on the screen changed.
A single page came up. The background matched the other slides of the presentation. This one showed the cost of the gala, along with the services donated by the various vendors.
“Wait a minute,” Blake said, speaking for the first time. He nearly rose out of his seat as she pointed to the screen. “You mean all the services were donated?”
“The mansion did not charge us for the use of the facility or their catering services. They donated that.” She used a laser pointer to highlight the item he questioned.
“Usually Ellie convinces a facility to donate their services,” Katherine explained. “They benefit from new clients who see what they can do at our gala.”
Blake glanced at Ellie, and she knew exactly what he was thinking. His look said, You could have told me.
Ellie turned back to the presentations. “These are the other vendors who donated products or services.”
“Was there anything that wasn’t donated?” Blake asked.
Ellie pressed her button again. “These are the expenses we had to pay for. Mind you, these numbers do not include any staff salaries or administrative costs.”
“You’d have those even if we had no gala,” Blake pointed out.
“Exactly,” Ellie agreed.
“Twelve hundred fifty-seven dollars and thirty-eight cents.” Blake’s voice showed his incredulity. “That was the only expense? What about Chantelle?”
“She’s on the donation list.” Ellie went backward and pointed out her donation to the foundation.
“I am impressed you could do all this for practically nothing,” Blake said.
“That’s one of the reasons I hired her,” Katherine chimed in. She smiled at Ellie.
“There’s one more slide,” Ellie said, pressing a button. “You saw the list of donations when I went over the financial information. These are the new donors and donations we took in on Saturday night.”
Blake whistled.
* * *
Blake stared at the phone on his desk. He should call Ellie and apologize. He’d misread her completely. From the presentation she made the previous day, she was clearly a wizard, and his family and the foundation were lucky to have her. Blake didn’t like charity events—too many people with their hands out. That was one of the reasons he avoided his own. However, he did sit on the board of several nonprofit organizations. On a whim, he’d gotten up in the middle of the night and looked at the finances of their events.
None of them held expenses down to any level close to what Ellie had done. He wondered how she could get so many businesses to totally donate their services. He remembered his brothers and how much fun they appeared to have at the gala. The other guests had clearly done the same, given the amount of donations Ellie collected that night alone.
A knock on the door brought Blake back to the present. Looking up, he saw his brother André pop his head through the door.
“Lunch?”
Blake looked at his watch. Had he been sitting there all morning, doing nothing? It was unlike him. It was rare for him to lose time while doing nothing but thinking about a woman. Especially a woman he’d met less than a week ago.
André stepped farther into the office. “Lunch?” he questioned again.
“Yeah,” Blake said, standing up.
“You appeared to be lost in thought,” André said when they’d walked the short distance to one of Blake’s favorite sandwich shops. “Who was on your mind?”
“Why do you think it was someone? I was working and thinking about a new program that one of the department managers suggested.”
André laughed, “No, you weren’t.” He gave Blake a knowing look. “Did it have anything to do with the beautiful executive director?”
Did the entire family see something that wasn’t there? He had no feelings for Ellie Hamilton beyond her work with the foundation. Even if she was a beautiful woman. There was no doubt about that.
Blake took a bite of his roast-beef sandwich before answering his brother. “It was the first time I met her.”
André glanced at him. “The first year I met her, I was attracted to her. I tried to get a date with her.”
Blake’s head came up and he stared at his brother.
“No go,” he went on. “She shut me down. Her voice was soft and she didn’t say anything that made me dislike her, but she was not interested.”
“I suppose that was a good thing,” Blake said, hiding the fact that he was glad she hadn’t dated his brother. “You hate the type who strings you along for what she can get from you.”
That had happened to André before, and while he dated a lot, he also scrutinized women to see if they were more interested in his money than him. So far he hadn’t found anyone who passed his test.
“We’re not talking about me,” André said, deflecting the conversation back to Blake.
“We both are in the same city. It stands to reason we’ll meet sometime. I wouldn’t want to be a stranger, but as for any attraction...” Blake shook his head, yet he knew there was more to his feelings than he was willing to admit.
“That’s your story and you’re sticking to it,” André teased.
“It’s not a story.”
André laughed again, giving Blake a Cheshire cat grin. “Maybe you should try to see if she’s attracted to you?”
“Can we get off this discussion? If I were interested, I know how to go about pursuing a woman.”
&n
bsp; André put his hand up in defeat. “Just checking. I watched David and Rose this past weekend, and the love between them is palpable. Maybe seeing them has brought out something in your subconscious, and you’ll finally be giving up on pushing every female away before they can get to your heart.”
Blake didn’t like the assessment of his character, but he couldn’t deny it, either. He kept most women at bay, breaking off any relationship before it progressed to an imaginary point he’d set.
“Believe me, there’s nothing between Elliana Hamilton and me.” As Blake said the words, he remembered how he had felt pulling that zipper down her back.
“All I’m saying is give it a chance. If it’s not Ellie, maybe it’s someone else. Just be open.”
André was perceptive, even if he did appear to be bulletproof, with comments and relationships easily bouncing off him. Blake knew that was false. His own experience had taught him that people kept secrets inside. They talked about them to no one. Good secrets were shared. They practically burst out of you. But the dark ones were suffered alone. Blake had his dark secrets, and because of it, he kept women at bay.
Ellie had gotten past the entrance, pulled his thoughts and emotions out of the jail where he kept them, but he’d wrangled them back in place, and there they would stay.
“I’ll give it some thought,” he told André, knowing he didn’t plan to think about it at all.
But Blake did give it some thought. In fact, he seemed unable to think about anything else.
* * *
Ellie had been born in San Francisco and lived in California most of her life. There was a short span of time when her family lived in New York State, but once her father died, she’d returned to California. Ellie was aware of the changeable weather patterns, the fog, the rain and the cold. But as she and Judi, who convinced her to go, walked into the House of Thorn’s restaurant, Ellie understood the true meaning of the cliché “skating on thin ice.”
The store was huge, its footprint taking up an entire block of the shopping district, and that didn’t include the parking garage across the street, with underground access to the store. Yet with all that square footage, Ellie felt she was only a step from running into Blake Thorn.
They were led to a table overlooking the huge windows, although Judi seemed to know where she wanted to sit. The windows were at the farthest point from the entrance, and that gave Ellie a slight bit of relaxation.
“You’ve got to try one of the desserts. The chocolate cake is to die for,” Judi said.
“Judi, you do know I’ve been here before.”
“Not in a while, and this cake is new to the menu.”
Judi was a shopaholic, and while Ellie liked clothes, she knew what she wanted and often found it fast and left the store. Except for special occasions like the gala, when she would shop for days before going to her sister and telling her she had nothing suitable. This was something she did sparingly. Whitney Hamilton was in high demand, and day by day, her star was rising higher.
Both Judi and Ellie bypassed food and went straight for the chocolate cake.
“I know I’m going to have to pay for this,” Judi said. “Chocolate goes straight to my hips.”
“We’ll spend more time in the gym tonight,” Ellie said. The waiter placed the hunk of chocolate cake in front of them. Her first taste of the confection had her eyes closing in ecstasy. “This is sooo good.”
“Told ya,” Judi said.
“Oh God, this is too good. I never want another slice.” She knew Judi would know what she meant. “And I definitely cannot take any of this home. It’s a good thing I do most of my shopping online.”
“I’m sure they’ll deliver it to you if you order it. Maybe you’ll luck out and find handsome Blake Thorn as your deliveryman.”
Could Ellie get away from people constantly bringing Blake’s name into conversations with her?
“Why do you think he would deliver something to me?”
Ellie spoke before she realized what the answer to that question could yield. And true to the conversation, Judi provided the expected response. “I saw the way he looked at you and the way you looked at him.”
“I did not look at him any differently than I did his brothers.”
Judi didn’t say anything, only took her time pulling the fork out of her mouth. She cut another forkful of cake and lifted it to eye level. She did not eat it, but rather scrutinized it. “Do you think that chocolate and men really have the same sexual effect on women?”
Judi might have spoken to the cake, but her question was double-edged.
“How do you feel about it?” Ellie tried deflection again.
“Oh, I believe they are one and the same.” She ate the bite on her fork.
“Does that mean you met someone Saturday night and you haven’t told me about him?”
“No, it doesn’t. I spent some time with André Thorn, but he lives a continent away. And he really isn’t my type.” She hunched closer to the table, as if the two of them were conspirators. To make matters even more intriguing, she whispered, “Not like you and that beautiful man who squired you around the dance floor.”
Ellie couldn’t help laughing. “Not my type, either,” she whispered back.
“Too bad,” Judi said.
“Why is that?”
“Because he’s on his way over.”
She sat back and Ellie froze. She didn’t look over her shoulder, so Judi looked for her, smiling so brightly, she could be in a toothpaste advertisement.
“Please tell me you’re kidding,” Ellie said, hoping her voice didn’t sound as if she were pleading.
Judi didn’t have time to reply. A shadow hovered over their table, and as Ellie raised her head, she looked into the handsome eyes of the manager of the House of Thorn. He was everything people had been telling her about over the past few days. Wearing a gray business suit that hugged his shoulders the way her arms had done when they danced, called to her for a repeat performance. Ellie placed her hands in her lap.
“Ladies,” he greeted.
Judi smiled up adoringly.
“Judi, right?” he asked.
“Good memory,” she said.
“Nice to see you both.” He included Ellie.
Judi slipped out of her chair and stood. “Ellie has to finish her cake. I’m off to the shoe department. They’re having a sale.”
“Judi,” Ellie said with a warning in her voice. “I’ll go with you.”
“Could you wait a moment? I’d like to talk to you.” Blake’s comment stopped her from rising. Judi’s thumbs-up was only seen by Ellie as her friend slipped behind Blake and headed out.
“Meet me in the shoe department,” she called.
Blake took the seat Judi had vacated and pushed the remnants of her cake aside. A waitress, not the waiter who was serving them, appeared and placed a cup of coffee in front of Blake.
“More coffee?” she asked Ellie.
Ellie’s throat had gone dry and she nodded.
When the woman left after refilling her cup, Ellie took a sip of the coffee. “You said you wanted to talk to me.”
“Something you said Saturday night has been bothering me.”
“I said a lot of things. Could you narrow it down?”
He looked down at the cup, then back at her. Ellie couldn’t help noticing that he had the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen. Her heart was beating a little faster than normal. What could he want to talk to her about?
“Have you been to my office today?”
That was a strange question. “We came to shop,” she said.
“So you came for the sale?”
“Not especially. Judi is the shopaholic. She brought me along.” She didn’t know where he was going with this, but decided to be straight. “Is this what you wanted to talk to me abou
t?”
“You said, unlike you, my office door was closed, or something to that effect.”
She remembered the comment. “And?”
“What did you mean?”
She looked him straight in the eye. “I was hired three years ago. Since there was a Thorn store here in San Francisco, I thought it was courteous to come by and introduce myself. Unfortunately you were always conveniently out of town or in a meeting that wouldn’t break for hours. I left a message, but never received a return call.” She paused, continuing to look at him. His face didn’t change. “After a while I got the message.” She raised and dropped her shoulders. “You weren’t interested in meeting me. Your absence at the galas drove home that conclusion. If your mother hadn’t insisted you come, we’d still have yet to meet.”
She waited for some reaction.
Blake raised his cup and took a drink. “I apologize,” he said.
Ellie waited for him to continue, but he said nothing. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say.”
“It appears I have no argument, no excuse.”
“Were you avoiding me?”
“I didn’t know you. I run a very difficult business here, and I was always legitimately away or in a meeting.”
“Why aren’t you in one now?”
“It’s my lunch hour.”
“And you regularly have lunch in the public restaurant?” She knew it was a rhetorical question. Blake did not answer it.
He leaned forward. Ellie felt as if she should move farther back, but she remained where she was.
“The real reason is I’m not a charity fund-raiser person.” He put his hand out to stop her from responding. “Don’t think I don’t believe in charities. I usually just write a check.”
“No, you don’t,” she disagreed.
“What?”
“The store donates. You have a department that handles community projects, and they make the decisions. I doubt you even see the amount as a budget item.”
Blake took a moment to rub his eyes, and Ellie knew she’d struck home.
“Why should I take an interest?” he asked.
Love in San Francisco ; Unconditionally Page 4
