„I’ll bet,“ he nodded assessingly. „The stock is now widely held?“
„Yes, I’m afraid so.“ She winced. „Not so long ago I was glad of that!“
„Now you realize that it just makes it easier for Hutton to buy up shares. You don’t have any large controlling blocks sitting in friendly hands.“
„You needn’t look so superior. I had no choice at the time! 1 couldn’t get the loans I needed from the banks. There was no choice but to raise capital by selling shares in the firm!“
„You don’t have to defend your actions to me, sweetheart,“ he murmured caressingly. „I understand completely.“
She fixed him with a narrow glance. „Just how much do you understand? Who are you, Rand? Why does Harold think he remembers your name? How do you come to have contacts high enough in the business world to find out what Hutton’s doing even before I do?“
„It’s a long story, honey. Remind me to tell it to you later. For now, though, I think we’d better circulate. People are beginning to notice that I’m getting your undivided attention!“
He put a hand firmly under her elbow and waded into the crowd. Kalinda felt herself helplessly swept along, her thoughts in a turmoil, her heart beating a little too fast and her nerves singing a tune on the ragged edge of an emotion she didn’t want to admit to feeling.
But she knew how to deal with a crowd of business-oriented people. By the time the last of the guests had regretfully taken his leave, Kalinda would have been willing to wager that none of them had guessed at her inner uncertainty and confusion. She was aware, however, that more than one knowing glance had absorbed the fact that Rand seldom left her side during the evening. She saw the assessing look in Colin Wayne’s eyes although he was cordial when he, was introduced. Rand paid him no particular attention, apparently oblivious to the querying glance in the other man’s gaze.
Kalinda was also conscious of the pleased speculation from the members of her own staff in the crowd and the curious, smiling looks from others. And some, like Harold, looked as if they could almost place Rand.
It seemed like forever before she gratefully closed the door on the last guest and turned to see Rand pouring himself a snifter of cognac. He had drunk very little during the course of the evening and he looked as if he were anticipating the nightcap with relish.
She watched grimly as he lowered himself into an apricot chair and put up his feet He saluted her briefly with the glass in his hand.
„I must thank you for an interesting evening, honey. I trust I didn’t embarrass you with my unsophisticated mountain manners?“
She started forward, not certain yet how she was going to deal with him but knowing she must handle matters firmly. „You know very well you fit in as if you’d been in the business world all your adult life!“
He took a tentative sip of cognac as she came to a halt in front of him, his green-and-gold eyes laughing up at her.
„To the manner born,“ he intoned. „Except for the past year and a half.“
She fit her hands to her hips, the silk dress soft beneath her fingers. „I would like an explanation, Rand. Is that too much to ask?“
„I would like to go to bed with you. Is that too much to ask?“
The sudden lazy desire in his words stopped her for an instant It also sidetracked her from her initial intent. Something far more immediately crucial was vibrating in the atmosphere between them.
She gathered her courage. „You’re not staying here tonight I meant what I said. Last weekend was a mistake and I don’t intend to repeat it.“
He surveyed her with a probing expression. „A mistake? Do you really think of it that way?“
„Yes, dammit! I do!“ The protest was a little too vehement and Kalinda was aware of it.
„Come here and let me change your mind,“ he offered deeply, extending invitingly upward to draw her down onto his lap.
Kalinda stepped away, trying vainly to cover her nervousness by scooping up a stack of glasses and heading for the kitchen. She knew he was following her, his footfalls soft on the thick green carpet.
She couldn’t retreat any further than the sink. Just as she set the glasses down with a clink Rand came up behind her, his hands gliding possessively, longingly around her waist.
„I want you, sweetheart,“ he murmured, his breath warm on her hair. „More than I wanted you that morning in the mountains and at the time I didn’t think anything could be stronger than that need.“
„Oh, Rand, please don’t do this to me! I don’t want an affair. I don’t want to be one of your weekend women…“
„There won’t be any other women, Kalinda,“ he promised with absolute conviction, his fingers sliding up to cup her breasts. „You are the only one I want Why do you think I followed you back to Denver? What we found together was very special, sweetheart Can’t you at least admit that much?“
She trembled as his lips touched the back of her neck. He kissed her nape and the curve of her shoulder as his fingertips gently circled the tips of her breasts through the material of the silk. She felt the need and want in him and it was like a drug, stirring her own responses even while she desperately tried to talk herself into a rational course of action.
„We… we had something very short and meaningless…“
„Meaningless!“ He swung her around to face him, a raw, demanding look on his face. „I’ll grant it was a little short,“ he said rightly, „but it sure as hell wasn’t meaningless! At least,“ he went on accusingly, „not to me. Are you trying to tell me you were using me, Kalinda? That you only came by my house on your way out of town to conclude a weekend fling with a man who amused you?“
„Don’t put words in my mouth! You know it wasn’t like that!“
Anxiously she frowned up at him, her fingers splayed across the finely woven material of his suit jacket. „I… I felt I had to see you again to tell you that you had succeeded in making me see reason where David was concerned. You were so worried about me.“
„With good reason, as it turned out The man’s trying to destroy you!“
„But I never intended to go to bed with you!“
„Then why did you?“ he countered with the trace of a smile.
„Because… because…“ She broke off, floundering for an explanation of the unexplainable.
„Because you wanted me as much as I wanted you,“ he finished for her, all sure, masculine triumph as he pulled her close. „And I’m going to see if I can’t make you want me even more in the days to come. Starting tonight.“
„No! All you want from me is sex. I won’t fall into that trap,“ she cried as he lowered his head to take her lips.
„You’re wrong, honey,“ he whispered seductively against her mouth. „I want something much more important from you. I want a commitment“
Kalinda struggled. Struggled to ask him what he meant by a commitment, struggled to free herself from his embrace. Both efforts failed abysmally as his kiss swamped her senses.
Just as it had that morning in his home by the lake, the potent desire in him reached out to trap her senses and send them reeling. It fed the desire in herself until Kalinda could barely sustain the futile struggle to control it.
He seemed oblivious of her hands pushing on his shoulders, his hold on her a warm, confining, unshakable thing that kept her gently, securely in his grasp. It lured her, seduced her, promised the stars to her and her traitorous body believed everything.
He groaned with relief and longing as he coaxed apart her lips, feeling them soften and yield beneath his own. His hands slid down her back, urging her body more firmly against tautening thighs.
Kalinda felt herself sinking against him, responding to his passion with a desperate craving of her own. A craving she had never known before she had met this man who mystified her. Reality spun away, leaving only the knowledge that he was here with her again. The emptiness she had experienced as she drove away from him that morning in the mountains was at last being filled. *