When at last he lifted his head to gaze forbiddingly down at her helpless face, Kalinda sagged in his arms.
He let her bury her face against his shoulder, holding her with bonds of steel.
For a long moment they stood silently. Kalinda knew she was trembling with reaction. Not just to the kiss, itself, but to all the male implacability that lay behind it. He did want her. Regardless of his other reasons for following her out of the mountains, he wanted her. Would that ever be enough?
„Don’t fight me, Kalinda,“ he finally got out on a hoarse thread of sound. „Please don’t fight me!“ He turned his lips into her hair, kissing her gently now, almost apologetically. She felt a tremor go through him and knew he was shaken by the moment.
„Is that a warning, Rand?“ she managed, her words muffled by the fabric of his jacket „Are you saying I’ll get hurt if I don’t go along with what you want?“
His grasp on her tautened. „I would never hurt you, honey. But I can’t let you go, either. I need you too much!“
„Rand…“
She wasn’t sure just what she was going to say under the tension of the moment, but whatever it might have been died in her throat as he gently set her a little ways from him and forced a quirking smile.
„Don’t say anything more this morning, sweetheart For both our sakes, I think we’d better get back to business. Come on, let’s go find ourselves some breakfast“
Without waiting for a response, he tugged her gently down the path.
The rest of the day passed much as the preceding one. Rand was constantly on the phone to banks, old acquaintances who owed him favors, and people who knew an astonishing amount about the inside workings of David Hutton’s fledgling empire. When he wasn’t using her telephone, he was going through the endless paperwork generated by a thriving enterprise such as Brady Data Processing.
„You know, this whole thing is turning out to be quite an education,“ Kalinda observed truthfully at one point as they munched sandwiches and prepared once more to stay late at the office. „I’m going to be a much more aware businesswoman when this is all over!“
He smiled, a genuine flash of humor. „That’s one thing that can be said about a company that gets caught up in a merger battle. Management is never quite the same thereafter.“
„A matter of facing reality, I suppose,“ she nodded seriously.
He took her home that night around ten o’clock and he didn’t try to invite himself inside. Kalinda thought he looked rather preoccupied, in fact, and wondered at his almost casual good-night kiss. But she didn’t argue with it She knew she needed the time to herself.
But she came to no revealing conclusions as she lay alone in her bed. Instead, she found herself dreaming that Rand was beside her. When she went into work the next morning, she didn’t try to deny her own eagerness to see him again.
He was there ahead of her, already on his second cup of coffee apparently and he looked up inquiringly as she sto6d in her doorway.
„I give up,“ he smiled. „Why the frown?“
„You’re drinking too much coffee,“ she said with automatic concern as she walked into the room and seated herself behind the mahogany desk.
He glanced down at his cup in surprise. „An old habit, 1 guess.“
„A little caffeine goes a long way. I think you should switch to tea.“
He studied her determined expression for a long moment and then pushed aside his half-finished cup. „Whatever you say, boss.“
That made her grin. „There’s nothing quite like a truly deferential, obedient employee!“
„I’ll make a bargain with you. I’ll be deferential and obedient on the job if you’ll be deferential and obedient after hours!“
„Facetiousness and flippancy in employees, however, is not condoned in the offices of Brady Data Processing!“
„I’ll try to remember that. Now, suppose you pour me a cup of tea?“ he suggested smoothly, eyes gleaming.
She thought about that. „If I do you’re liable to get the notion you can manipulate the boss.“
„The only time I intend to manipulate the boss is in bed,“ he growled, leaning forward with just enough menace to make her sit back in her chair.
„You have been up in those mountains too long,“ Kalinda complained, jumping to her feet and striding quickly over to where a pot of hot water simmered on a hot plate alongside a pot of coffee. „You’ve forgotten your office manners!“
„I’ll rely on you to keep me in line,“ he chuckled as she returned with a mug of tea. He accepted it with a smile but there was something in his eyes that told her he’d meant what he just said. He’d rely on her to keep him in line? That didn’t make any sense.
„What's the battle plan for today?“ she questioned in a decidedly businesslike voice, eyeing him pointedly.
„Today we plan dinner,“ he announced, sipping the hot tea and watching her interestedly over the rim.
„Dinner!“
„Dinner at the restaurant where David Hutton will be dining tonight,“ he amended casually.
She stared at him. „But why?“
„Financial maneuvering is only half this battle,“ he explained calmly. „Psychology is a critical aspect, too.“
„You want him to see you out with me?“ she hazarded as his line of reasoning clicked in her brain.
„By now he knows I’m involved with Brady. Tonight he’ll find out just how much.“
„But why?“
„So he’ll see that there’s no point in trying to subvert me,“ Rand told her carelessly.
„Subvert you! Good lord! Rand, are you telling me he might try buying you off?“
„He already has. I got the call last night after I’d taken you home.“ Rand appeared totally unconcerned. „It’s a logical step. I didn’t talk to Hutton directly, of course, I just received a feeler from one of his higher-ranking employees.“
„My God!“ Kalinda shook her head, unable to believe it. „What… what did you tell the person who called you?“ Somehow she had never envisioned such a ploy on Hutton’s part. She knew such tactics were used but they had never impinged on her world. Kalinda found herself wondering for the first rime if sharks could be bribed.
„What do you think I said?“ Rand muttered gruffly.
She stared at him, assessing, remembering, analyzing and finally came up with the only possible conclusion. „You told him no, of course.“
„Why ‘of course’?“ he demanded interestedly, watching her intently.
„You would never break your word to us,“ she replied positively, relaxing slightly as she realized it was the simple truth.
There was a tension-filled moment as they sat regarding each other in silent understanding and then Rand smiled gently.
„Thank you, Kalinda.“
She shrugged. She trusted him. There was nothing more to say on that subject „So why are we having dinner in the same restaurant tonight?“
„Because he’ll try upping the offer again and again, thinking he only has to find the right price. I want to squash that notion flat I want to start closing doors on him as rapidly and as solidly as possible so that he begins to panic.“ Rand spoke intently, a frown of concentration creasing his forehead. „If we can turn the tables on him quickly enough, I think we can get him to withdraw the offer. He has to know we’ve got a whole series of options and we’ll use every damn one of them until he’s out in the cold.“
„Have we really got a whole series of options?“
„Yes, but most of them are expensive. It would be nice if we can kill his interest before we have to resort to them.“
„What’s the worst possible case?“ Kalinda asked bluntly.
„A friendly merger with another company,“ he told her, not shielding the truth.
She groaned. „I was afraid of that. A white knight?“
He nodded, tossing down the stack of papers he had been reading. „That’s what the ‘friendly’ company is usually called in cases like this. It can be done, Kalinda. I have contacts. We can find a friendly suitor for Brady Data Processing who will agree to merge with us on our terms. It’s better than turning everything over to Hutton!“