by Carla Fredd
"Well, if we could go to your office, I'd like to discuss something with you." He looked over her shoulder to the receptionist at the desk. Robyn quickly lowered her head.
Pam followed his gaze and smiled. "Yes, right this way."
They walked down the hall to an open door. Sitting on her desk were a spray of roses in every color . . . the roses that he had sent to Holly. She motioned for him to have a seat as she closed the door, then sat behind her desk.
"What can I do for you, Mr. Williams?"
"Mike, please."
"Mike," she nodded her head in acceptance. "Please call me Pam."
"Pam, there seems to be something wrong with my alarm system."
"Oh." She reached for a tablet on her desk. The mischievous expression was gone. Pam was all business. "What's the problem?"
"I don't know. I want somebody from your company to go to the house and check it out."
"Of course, I'll have one of the technicians go out today ..."
"I don't want just anyone." He held her gaze and watched as her expression changed from confusion to comprehension. He sat quietly in the chair while Pam studied him. He gave an inward sigh of relief when he saw the faint smile on her face. She would be an ally.
"Did you have someone in mind, Mike?"
"Yes."
"What would happen if that person couldn't go to your house and we sent someone else?"
"I'm sure that the problem would get worse and I would have to call and report the problem." He paused and folded his arms across his chest, then said, "... every single day."
Pam cleared her throat. "I'm sure that won't happen. However, if anything should happen to hurt that person, you should know that I will make it my own personal duty to see that whoever hurt my friend would regret the day he moved to Atlanta."
He had to admit, the lady was cool. The smile never left her face, but he knew he had been threatened and she would do her best to carry out her threat if the situation came about.
"I think I know your position, Pam, and I'll keep that in mind."
There was a brief knock on the door before it was opened.
"Pam, do you have— oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt." Holly stopped abruptly in the office. She wore a dark gray suit and a prim white shirt. The color and style of the suit were all wrong for her, he thought. The short-waisted jacket and long calf-length skirt made her look extremely tall and skinny.
"Come in." Pam quickly walked over to Holly and guided her into the room.
They are like night and day, he thought. Pam was the fantasy that most men dreamed of, but Holly ... Holly had a subtle sexiness if you looked past the dull clothing.
Mike rose from the chair. "Hello, Holly."
"Mr. Williams. How are you?" She looked at him with a questioning expression. "Is everything all right with your alarm system?"
"Yes, the system is fine. Now, you . . . that's a problem," he said.
"Me?" Holly asked, pointing to herself.
"Yes, you. I have tried and tried to make up for the trouble I've caused by changing the floor plan of my house but do I get a chance to do it? No."
"Mr. Williams, you really don't have to do anything," she said crisply.
Her pointed statement made him smile. "Call me Mike." He continued to speak despite the skeptical look on her face. "I know I don't have to do anything, but I want to do something. Now, you don't want to irritate a paying customer, do you? You know the customer is always right."
"He's got a point, Holly," Pam said, her amusement showing on her face.
"Yeah. I've got a point. Thank you, Pam."
Holly frowned at them both, then looked at Mike with suspicion. "What do you want, Mike?"
"I would like to take you to dinner. You and the technician . . ." He raised an eyebrow in question.
"Wanda Johnson," Pam said, and smiled at Holly and Mike.
"I don't think that's really necessary."
"Why don't we ask Wanda? She might have a different opinion." Mike turned to Pam. "Is she here?"
"Yes, she's just down the hall." Pam walked out the door. Mike smiled at Holly and gestured toward the door. Holly tightened her lips in anger before she turned and walked out of Pam's office. Mike walked behind the two women down the hall to one of the rooms at the end. The room was sectioned off, with office cubicles taking up the majority of space. A small conference table separated a tiny kitchen area. Five people were around it. Coffee cups and manila folders cluttered the surface of the table. The people looked up when they walked in.
"Wanda, you remember Mr. Williams?" Pam asked. Wanda blinked once, then twice.
"Hello, Wanda." His voice was deep and masculine.
"Mr. Williams would like for you and Holly to join him for dinner."
"Tonight, if that's okay," Mike asked.
"That sounds great. I'd love to." Wanda saw the frown on Holly's face, then added, "If that's all right with you two."
"Sounds good to me," Pam said, and turned to Holly. "How about it?"
"Well ... I don't have a problem with Wanda going out to dinner."
"You're included in the invitation, Holly. If there's a problem with dinner tonight, then we can set it up for another time."
"Let me look at my schedule and call you," she said in a cool tone of voice.
"I've got my calendar with me." He held up the burgundy portfolio. "Why don't we check your schedule while I'm here."
He smiled when he saw the irritation in her eyes. Checkmate. "As a matter of fact, I'd like to invite your employees to the show Friday night. I'll supply the transportation and backstage passes while we're at dinner." The rest of the employees talked among themselves as the mood of the room changed and an air of anticipation swept through the group.
"I'll have to see how my calendar looks this evening."
Pam, Wanda, and the rest of the employees looked at Holly. There was no mistaking the looks of disbelief on their faces.
"Holly, I'll take over some of your appointments this evening. Go ahead and have dinner. We can take care of the business for a couple hours."
Mike saw the resignation in her eyes. "So where would you two like to go for dinner?" he asked.
Wanda looked at Holly. "Where do you suggest?"
Holly hesitated. "How about the Private Room?"
The Private Room was crowded. Everyone from clerks to powerbrokers dined here. It was also one of the few restaurants that didn't allow the press inside its doors. For that reason, the famous and infamous came here for a quiet meal.
She tried to smooth out the wrinkles in her gray skirt as she stood in front of the doors of the restaurant. She deliberately hadn't changed clothes when she got home. This is a business meal, she told herself, and her suit was perfect for a business meal. Holly had turned down his offer to have a car sent to her house and had insisted on driving herself.
She entered the foyer of the restaurant. Italian marble lined the walls, a black iron railing curved along the second-story balcony, and floral arrangements filled with colorful flowers surrounded the podium, where a tuxedo-clad maître d' stood.
"May I help you?" he asked.
"No, I'm waiting for someone, thank you." Holly moved to the plush settee next to the wall. She looked at her watch and grimaced. She was just a few minutes early. Hopefully, Wanda would show up soon, she thought, as she looked toward the doors. She felt conspicuous waiting in the foyer.
She wouldn't be here if it weren't for Mike Williams. He had disrupted her thoughts since the night they'd danced together.
As much as she wanted to ignore him, he wouldn't be ignored. She'd found herself reading last month's Atlanta Magazine when there was an article about him. She'd stayed up until 12:30 A.M. two nights in a row to watch his program and then scolded herself the next day when she was tired from not getting enough sleep.
Holly looked toward the doors when they opened and felt a tingle of excitement when Mike walked inside. He wore a charcoal-gray suit an
d a bright red tie. He smiled when he saw her waiting in the foyer.
"Hi," his voice was low, deep, and utterly sexy.
"Hello." Holly cleared her throat. "Did Wanda come with you?"
"No, she said she'd drive here." Mike looked at his watch. "I'd better let the maître d' know that we're waiting for our table." He walked to the podium and talked with the man, then went back to Holly.
"Wanda left a message. She can't make it tonight."
"Is this some kind of joke?" She looked at him with suspicion. This sounded fishy.
"No." Mike looked at her, then shrugged his shoulders. "If you don't believe me, you can call her yourself."
"Well." She slowly stood and strapped her purse over her shoulder. "I guess we'd better reschedule this for another time."
"Why? We're here. We might as well eat."
"No, I . . ."
"Holly, why waste the reservation? Give me a chance to apologize."
Holly worried the strap of her purse. She was already here. He stepped closer to her. "This is the only time I'll get to eat a decent meal since I fired the chef."
"You fired your chef? What happened?"
"She decided that I needed to eat healthy and started making food like tofu burgers and alfalfa fries."
"Tofu burgers?"
"And alfalfa fries. Fried pieces of green grass."
Holly laughed. "Why didn't you tell her not to cook that stuff?"
"I did. The next day she made meatless tuna salad."
Holly raised her eyebrows. "What's wrong with tuna?"
"I don't know," Mike shook his head. "Tuna wasn't in the stuff that she made, and I didn't eat it."
"It won't take long for you to find a replacement. I'm sure that you can cook your own meals for a couple of days."
"Hmm."
Holly looked at him. "You do know how to cook?"
"I can cook . . . sort of."
"Sort of?"
"I can cook a baked potato."
Holly smiled. "That's not cooking."
"So have pity on me and let's eat here."
Holly studied his face for a moment and smiled. "Why not?"
Chapter 4
It was too bad that Mike Williams was a really nice man, Holly thought as the waiter served their entree. Why couldn't he be vain and self-centered? She could resist that type of man. She was having trouble resisting Mike.
For a few moments, they ate in relaxed silence. Then he broke the silence.
"How's your dinner?" he asked.
Holly pressed a white linen napkin to her lips, then answered, "Wonderful. I'll have to order the chicken and penne pasta again." She placed the napkin on her lap and picked up her fork. "How's yours?"
"It tastes great. It has meat in it and I know what it is."
She smiled in amusement. "There's not much you can do to disguise a steak and a baked potato."
"Don't tell that to Amy. She made meatless tuna salad. I wouldn't put it past her to make meatless steak."
Holly laughed at the disgusted look on his face.
"I'm going to have to replace Amy," he said with regret, cutting a piece of his steak. "You don't happen to know a good chef looking for a job?"
"No, but my stepmother, Jean, might be able to help you. Do you want me to get her help?"
"Yes. I don't know how much longer I can handle my own cooking."
Throughout the rest of their dinner, he engaged her in conversation, ranging from the food on the menu to the state of the U.S. economy. They held the conversation to nonpersonal topics. She should have felt at ease with him, but she wasn't. Her heart raced every time she met his dark sensuous gaze. She'd nearly dropped the butter dish when they'd both reached for it during dinner. Her fingers still tingled from his brief but warm touch.
He never once mentioned her previous engagement. People sometimes felt free to ask probing questions about her personal life. Mike didn't ask those types of questions, but what he did ask concerned her.
"We've completed our business dealings, haven't we?" Mike asked, as the waiter served them coffee.
Holly took a careful sip of coffee before answering. "If you mean that you won't see another employee from Security Force in your home, then the answer is yes. Another company monitors your alarm system, so you'll be dealing with them, now that the system is repaired." She looked at him curiously. "Why do you ask?"
"I want to be sure that any contact we have with each other from now on is personal, not business related."
The waiter returned with the receipt and credit card. Mike signed the receipt and placed the card into his wallet. He couldn't have meant it the way it sounded, Holly thought, as she drank the last of the dark, rich coffee and returned the cup to the saucer. She found him watching her. A shiver of awareness raced through her body. She was letting her emotions get the best of her and that wouldn't do, she thought, placing her napkin on the table.
"Are you ready to leave?" he asked.
As they walked to the parking lot, the smell of the honeysuckle that clung to the high stone-walled fence surrounding the restaurant filled the warm, humid air. The muffled sounds of evening traffic pierced the inky black darkness of the summer night.
"This is my car." She stopped beside a Honda, then searched inside her purse for her keys. She opened the door and stepped behind it, then smiled. "Thanks for dinner."
"You're welcome." He stared at her face. She could see his stern, serious expression clearly under the halogen lamps in the deserted parking lot. His gaze shifted from her eyes to her cheeks, to rest finally on her mouth.
Her heart beat a little faster with anticipation. He's going to kiss me, she thought. Resisting him was the last thing on her mind. It didn't matter that he was a celebrity and she wanted out of the spotlight. What she wanted more at this very moment was to feel his lips upon hers.
He moved closer to her until the only thing between them was her car door. She could smell the subtle, masculine scent that was uniquely his, mingled with the humid, honeysuckle-perfumed night air.
She shuddered in anticipation at his touch. Mike tilted her chin and slowly, slowly leaned down until their lips were just a whisper apart. Her lips parted slightly to release tiny gaps of breath.
"Holly," he said softly, his voice dark and sensuous.
"Uhmm?"
"I don't kiss on the first date."
Mike gripped the steering wheel of his Ford Explorer. He'd planned to have dinner with Holly and Wanda to make up for his previous behavior, but as the evening wore on, he couldn't think of anything but Holly Aimes. Holly Aimes and how her dark brown eyes seemed more mystical in the candlelit restaurant. The sweet sound of her laugh and her southern drawl had aroused him all evening long. He maneuvered through the evening traffic to his studio a few miles away.
Tonight, he had no doubt that Holly wanted him just as much as he wanted her, and he would have her. He would discover the Holly Aimes that she kept hidden, the Holly that he had seen a brief glimpse of at dinner. She would come to him freely, without reserve or doubt.
Mike stopped at the guard station of the studio and slid his identification in the electronic lock. As the gate opened, he wondered if his assistant had found out anything new about Holly. He wanted to know everything about her, but first he would see if Trey Christian wanted to appear on his show.
She couldn't concentrate. Holly set aside the financial report and leaned back in her chair. She had been trying to read the report for the past hour, but she'd never gotten past the first paragraph. Since she was a little girl, she'd had been able to focus completely on her assigned task.
The months that she'd spent in hospitals and at home in her bed, recovering from pneumonia, had taught her to finish what she started because she never knew if she would have the energy to finish them the next day or the next hour. As she regained her strength, she learned to block any pain or fear and concentrate on playing with her dolls or reading a storybook.
Today, that skill
was beyond her reach; her mind wasn't on business. She was surprised that she'd made it to her office today because she couldn't remember any part of her drive to work. Mike had totally dominated her thoughts. "I don't kiss on the first date," she muttered in disgust. She turned her chair to observe the view of a dense patch of pine trees in the rear of the office buildings.
Last night wasn't a date, no matter how much it felt like one. "I'm glad that we didn't kiss." Her voice broke the silence of the room. If she believed he really meant what he said, she'd have been grateful. She didn't believe it. It was a deliberate action on his part, and she didn't like it at all. Deep inside, she knew that she was lying. She had hungered for his kiss last night. In fact, she had wanted him more than she had ever wanted Trey during their most intimate moments together.
She put aside the memories of the awkward and sometimes disappointing attempts at lovemaking between her and Trey. The premiere of the movie starring Trey and her brother Robert was three weeks away. When possible, every member of her family went to the premieres of her brother's movies. She would definitely not go to this one, when Trey and her brother Robert would be in the same room. The last time they were together, they'd had a fistfight at the movie studio. Luckily, reporters weren't allowed at the studio. After news of the fight had leaked out, several reporters had showed up on her doorstep, requesting her response. It was almost certain that they would come after her again after the premiere.
All the more reason to study that financial report, she thought, turning back to her desk. According to the balance sheets and cash flow statements, Tamp Security and Alarm Company looked fiscally sound. The preliminary information she had received three months ago contained most of the information contained in this report, but she and Pam had wanted more information before making a decision on purchasing the company.
Of the five companies they'd considered buying, Tamp Security and Alarm was the most financially stable. It had a management style similar to their own. It was the attitude of the owner that had impressed them both. The owner, a sixty-five-year-old former Marine, interviewed them to see if they were the kind of owners who would take care of his employees and customers after he was gone. He wanted to work another year before he retired, and the asking price of the company was fair. The information they'd gathered about Tamp Security and Alarm and the trip to Seattle would be wasted if they didn't win the Milton Group bid.
