The Boss Man's Fortune (Dynasties: The Danforths Book 5) Read online

  “Because,” he bellowed, “I want to be with you, dammit!”

  She stared at him, trying to grasp the meaning behind words that sounded so unromantic when screamed at her.

  What was the man really asking for? A relationship meant different things to different people.

  She took a deep breath, trying to feel her way along, and spoke quietly. “Obviously, I’m attracted to you, Ian.” In truth, she ached for his touch even now, in the midst of their arguing. “But I don’t want to get seriously involved with anyone right now. And that’s what you’re asking me for, isn’t it?”

  His face flushed, as if she’d slapped him. “But you’d be open to a fling, is that it? An affair that means nothing?”

  “That’s not what I said!” He was twisting her words, making them sound cheap, and she was furious with him.

  The simple fact was, getting involved with Ian Danforth, as in committing herself to a long-term relationship, could only mean trouble. He was a high-profile personality in Savannah. The press kept track of men like that, knew where they dined, and with whom.

  As far as she knew, she’d successfully avoided photographers at the gala. If a reporter found out they were a couple, her photo would suddenly pop up in a dozen society columns across the country. She still wasn’t sure that Jasmine hadn’t recognized her.

  “I just don’t want a man thinking I’m his possession,” she tried to justify herself, which was part of the truth.

  He shook his head, staring in disbelief at her. “I’m not like that, Katie.” Ian reached out and took her arm, pulling her back toward him. “Give us a chance to get to know each other better.”

  She shook him free and stepped away, staring at the floor, unable to meet his eyes. She desperately wanted to tell him the truth, ached to fall into his arms and let him make all the decisions. But if she did that, her newly found freedom would be lost.

  “I’ve been smothered by caring people all of my life,” she murmured. “I’ve had enough.”

  She spun away from him, dashing for the door. He didn’t try to stop her this time.

  The lump in her throat made it impossible for her to swallow. Salty tears, coming in great sobs, racked her body. All brave talk, she thought wildly, hopelessly. But in her heart, she didn’t want to leave Ian. She needed his touch, longed for his strong arms. It was just that there were too many strings attached to being his lover.

  Katie stopped with her hand on the doorknob, overwhelmed by sadness, letting the tears fall.

  “You know,” she whispered, “if any man ever just let me be myself, I might fall in love with him.”

  She flung open the door and started through it, but strong hands seized her from behind and pulled her back into the office. Into his arms.

  “Dammit, Katie, you confuse the hell out of me!” Ian shook his head violently, as if words didn’t suffice for emotions so strong. His lips covered hers. He held her fiercely to his chest.

  Katie clutched fistfuls of his suit jacket, tugging until it slid off his shoulders. He shrugged out of it. She pulled out his shirttail and slipped her hands up under the crisp fabric to feel the warm, crinkly mat of chest hairs and underlying muscles.

  Ian moaned between her lips and began undressing her. She felt her skirt descend over her hips and fall to her ankles. His hands smoothed over her hips, tucked beneath the sheer silk of her panties, and cupped her bottom, pressing her up and into his hardness.

  She felt herself go liquid, hot and tickly inside.

  It had been a long time since she’d slept with a man. The two lovers she’d ever had were hardly more than boys.

  Ian was no boy.

  He lifted her off her feet and easily carried her across the room. Not for a moment did he stop kissing her, and she could only guess that they were headed for the leather couch at the far end of his office. He placed her on it and immediately stretched out on top of her. The heat of his body seared through her remaining clothing, her blouse, bra and panties.

  All concerns for her independence melted away. If, moments earlier, being with Ian had seemed threatening for any reason, now she couldn’t imagine not being here, like this, with him.

  Katie raked her fingers through the fine, short hairs up the back of his neck, and pressed his head closer, making his kiss harder against her mouth. She felt alive. Dizzy with feminine power and passion so thick she imagined scooping it up with a spoon and relishing it as she would a rich dessert.

  The ridge of his erection—so very hard and long—told her that he must want her very badly. She opened her mouth to ask if he had protection when the sound of a door opening and closing intruded on her rapture.

  Ian’s body tightened on top of her, his breathing thin and rapid in her ear.

  “Who is it?” he called toward the outer office.

  “Ian, you in there?”

  “Who?” Katie asked hoarsely.

  “My brother, Reid!”

  He pushed up off her. In two strides he reached the door and turned the button lock in the knob. A heartbeat later, the knob jiggled.

  Katie sat up, hurriedly buttoning her blouse. She cast Ian a look of pure panic but didn’t dare say anything.

  “Hold on, Reid,” he called through the door. “I’ll be right out.”

  “Yeah, sure,” a puzzled voice came back, followed by a laugh. “What’s with the lock? You got a hot babe in there with you, big brother?”

  “Of course.” Ian winked at Katie. “Just like any other workday.”

  “Stop that!” she hissed, stooping to pluck skirt and shoes from the floor.

  Ian grinned and handed her a tangled mass of panty hose. “Hey, it’s okay,” he whispered. “I’ll get rid of him. Sit tight.” He unlocked the door while Katie stood with her clothing clutched to her chest. He slipped through as narrow a crack as possible into the outer office.

  Katie gasped for breath and pulled on her skirt, trying to manage the button on the waistband with trembling fingers.

  Was the man mad?

  More to the point, had she lost her own mind? What was she doing sprawling half-naked on her boss’s couch? Rebelling against her parents? Or had she simply lost the ability to behave rationally?

  Hastily she finished dressing then let herself out of his office through a side door that connected to the fifth-floor conference room. She could hear Ian and his brother on the other side of the common wall. They were laughing.

  The exact source of their humor, she could too easily guess. But wasn’t that, in a way, her own fault? Hadn’t she told Ian she wasn’t looking for anything serious? And men just naturally interpreted a statement like that to suit their own needs.

  As he’d said…a fling…an affair.

  Her head pounded and her throat felt raw with tears she had no time to shed.

  Katie peeked through the conference-room door that led directly into the corridor. The coast was clear. She ran for the rear stairwell and shot down five flights to the street in no time at all. Not until she reached her apartment building did she stop running, and then it was to buzz a neighbor, asking to be let in. Because her purse with her keys was still sitting in her desk. And no way was she going back for it tonight.

  Seven

  Ian looked up from the investment prospectus his cousin Imogene had given him to study before they met that morning. Unfortunately, his mind wasn’t on business.

  He glanced at the clock on his desk: 8:45 a.m. Katie was late. After their rushed parting the night before, he wasn’t even sure she’d turn up today. He’d tried to call her last night, but she hadn’t picked up her phone.

  He closed his eyes and swore at himself, at Katie…at the female sex in general. Relationships were so damn complicated. And Katie was just about the easiest woman in the world to spook. She was keeping secrets, but whatever might be haunting her, she wasn’t telling.

  He wondered why she wouldn’t confide in him. What could be so terrible that she didn’t dare share the truth with him?
Just considering the possibilities tore him up inside. Dammit. He had the power to help her—money and influence to protect her if she was in trouble.

  The metallic sound of file-cabinet drawers opening and closing in the outer office snapped him out of his gray funk.

  Ian launched himself at his door, swung it open.

  Katie jumped back from an open drawer. “Jeez, don’t do that! You scared me to death, popping out like a big jack-in-the-box.”

  He scowled at her and all his carefully prepared tactfulness flew out the window. “Where the hell did you go yesterday?”

  “Home,” she replied, flipping through files with great purpose.

  “Why?”

  “Wasn’t that obvious?” She slanted him a withering look. “You and your brother were having a good male chuckle over our tussle on your couch. As the object of your humor, I chose not to hang around.”

  “We weren’t laughing at you,” he groaned. “In fact, I was being discreet in trying to get him to leave. But he was all jazzed up about a joke he’d heard from one of the sales reps. I couldn’t get him to leave until he’d told it.”

  “Right,” she said.

  “It’s the truth! If you’d stayed another five minutes, we’d have been alone and…” He moved in closer, touched her gently at the waist. “We could have finished what we started.”

  She stiffened, although her eyes took on a smoky haze. He was reassured; she wasn’t immune to him. “I had second thoughts,” she murmured. “It’s just not possible, Ian.”

  “Why the hell not? You acted as if anything was possible before Reid showed up.”

  She started to turn away but he stepped around her, forcing her to face him. “You know I wouldn’t hurt you, Katie. What are you so afraid of?”

  “Nothing.” She refused to meet his eyes.

  “No,” he insisted, “it’s something important. You go out of your way to avoid connecting with me on any level but professionally, except that every once in a while you slip. Your heart steps in, overrides your head, and your body begins to talk to me.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Is it? What about yesterday on the couch? Are you going to claim I seduced you, or forced you?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then how did that happen if you aren’t interested in being with me? And what was that crack about falling in love, if you don’t want to get serious about a relationship?”

  “Don’t shout,” she said, sounding frustrated and close to tears.

  “I’m not shouting!” he shouted, then winced at the harshness of his own voice. “I’m trying to make a point,” he said, making the words softer. “You send me mixed signals, Katie, one minute to the next. You want to be with me, but you seem terrified of being seen with me in public. I know next to nothing about you. Who are you and what is this all about?”

  “I’m nobody,” she sobbed. “I just want to figure out who I’m supposed to be, find out what I’m good at and be on my own for a while. Is that too much to ask?”

  He frowned at her. “I respect your goals. They’re all worthy.” He thought for a moment. “Do you realize, when I first met you, you seemed the most self-assured young woman I’d ever met. You blew in here, a veritable tornado of energy, and took over everything—me, the office decor, the business of the day.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” She smiled weakly.

  “Yes. You also took my breath away with those saucy green eyes and that tumble of red curls and—” he let his eyes drop the length of her body “—the rest of the package. You made me want to try again. You made me want to take risks.”

  She blushed and blinked up at him but said nothing.

  “Listen,” he went on, “I respect your right to experiment, to discover yourself, if that’s what you think you need to do. But I don’t understand why you can’t let me into your life while you’re doing it. And I wish, just once, you’d give me a straight answer to one simple question. Who has frightened you so badly?”

  She sniffled and swiped at tears drying on her cheeks. “I honestly can’t tell you.”

  “Do you think I’d give you away? Don’t you trust me?”

  “I do, Ian.” Her eyes were the deepest, loveliest emerald, all the brighter for her tears. And they broke his heart. “It’s just that…that you might not see things my way. If you sided with them, you’d feel compelled to do something. I’m not ready to face that moment yet.” She laid a hand on his. “Please. Give me time to work things out my way.”

  He stared at her, then shook his head and walked back into his office. He shut the door behind him, putting up a physical barrier in addition to the emotional barricade she’d erected between them.

  To hell with work, he thought. It just wasn’t going to happen.

  Katie walked into D&D’s on the first floor, craving her morning cappuccino break. She drew up short at the sight of Ian seated at a table near the counter with Imogene Danforth. She hadn’t realized, when the two had left the office half an hour earlier, that they’d be meeting here, on what she’d come to think of as her turf. She often came to D&D’s on breaks to relax in the cozy coffee shop with other employees.

  She tried to pass by them unnoticed, but Ian spotted her and waved her over.

  Imogene handed Ian an annotated prospectus they’d obviously been reviewing together and snapped shut her valise. “Well, that’s about it. I recommend that portfolio of bonds as a hedge against the current volatile stock market. It’s a sound investment for Danforth’s.”

  “Looks good to me. Thanks, Imogene,” Ian said.

  “Great, so we’ll go ahead with the agreed-upon purchase?”

  Ian nodded.

  Imogene glanced vaguely in Katie’s direction, standing behind Ian’s chair. “Can you run upstairs and photocopy these documents for us, dear?” She didn’t even meet Katie’s eyes as she shoved papers into her hands. “Fax me copies this afternoon.”

  Imogene checked her gold designer watch then turned back to Ian. “I have another appointment in fifteen minutes. Gotta run, cuz.” She pecked him on the cheek. “Wish Abraham good luck for me. I understand he’s off again campaigning.”

  Ian nodded. “The man has more energy than I do.”

  Imogene let out an appreciative laugh but was already halfway out the door.

  “I’ll go do this right away,” Katie murmured.

  She didn’t appreciate being treated like the hired help. Her Fortune pride rebelled. But, she rationalized, this was her job and she had no real grounds for complaint. Except, if she were in Imogene’s executive shoes she would at least say please when asking employees for a favor, and give them a smile of thanks.

  Still, in a way, she admired Imogene. She was an independent woman with a great career as an investment broker, an air of self-possession and super clothes. She mentally calculated how many paychecks it would take a lowly clerk like her to afford such a smashing silk suit.

  “Wait!” Ian barked.

  Katie swiveled round to see him still seated at the table. She felt nauseous at the thought of deceiving him any longer. Very soon she would have to straighten out her identity.

  The real Katie O’Brien would eventually move back to Savannah. Holly had her real Social Security number; Katherine knew enough about the law to realize she could get into real trouble by falsifying income and tax records. It was only a matter of time before Holly, overwhelmed with work lately, caught the mismatch between the social security number on her application and her adopted name.

  Slowly Katie walked back to the table and Ian.

  “Listen,” he said, pulling out the chair beside him for her. “I need to apologize.”

  “No, you don’t. With what your family and company has been dealing with you have to be careful. I’ve been behaving in ways you can’t possibly understand, and it worries you.” She shrugged then looked directly up into his dark eyes. “Please believe me, Ian, my problems have nothing to do with the Danforths. I’m not a
danger to your company or your father’s campaign, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “I’m mostly thinking about you. If you’re in trouble—”

  She held up a hand to stop him from going on, but he ignored her.

  “I want to help,” he said firmly. “Let me.”

  She shook her head. “It’s my problem. I have to deal with it.”

  He reached over and took her hand. Despite her resolve to keep an emotional distance from him, his touch was comforting. “Don’t run away from the truth. If it scares you, facing it down is the only way. No matter how bad it might seem.”

  She laughed. “You sound as if you think I’m some kind of criminal on the lam.”

  He quirked a dark brow at her. “Are you?”

  “Not even close.” She sighed, aching to tell him but knowing he’d disapprove. After all, he was close to his own family. He thrived within the Danforth clan’s circle of business and social contacts. He’d never understand someone who saw her own family as the enemy. “Listen, I need to get back to the office. I have a ton of work.” She smiled mischievously. “And a tyrant for a boss.”

  He grinned at her. “Is that what the hired help thinks of me?”

  She tossed her head, sending vibrant curls flying. “Actually, if you heard the gossip around the water-cooler, you’d blush.” She eyed him speculatively. “Maybe not. Maybe you’d just get a swelled head.” She leaned toward him as she stood up from the table, and whispered, “You’re on the single woman’s most-wanted list.”

  He blinked in surprise, then laughed out loud and stood up to follow her from the shop. She walked quickly across the lobby with Ian striding to keep up with her.

  “All right,” he said as they waited for the elevator, “just promise me if you’re ever desperate and change your mind about wanting help, you’ll come to me.”

  “I will,” she agreed, and stepped into the elevator car.

  Just then, a movement across the crowded lobby caught her eye. A set of wide shoulders. A flicker of a familiar profile. She stared at the man in western-style suit, just as he turned and focused on her face through the narrowing space between the slowly closing elevator doors.