“You have one anyway,” he informed her, his voice dark, hard.
He had been like that since they awakened. Darker than normal, more arrogant, if that were possible.
“Daddy can give me security if I’m putting you out. I’m sure you have things to do.” She kept her voice cool. If he didn’t want to be there, then she’d be damned if she wanted him there.
“If you put me out, you’ll be the first to know.”
His hand was riding at the small of her back. Behind her, he stood tall, broad. She could feel him, could feel the feminine eyes that followed him as they passed the cubicles.
He was a hell of a male statement in dark dress slacks and the long-sleeved white cotton shirt he wore beneath the black jacket.
The gun he had strapped on beneath that jacket was a hell of a statement as well. One that had stolen her breath when she watched him strap on the shoulder holster.
Shaking her head, she opened the door to her outer office. Her secretary was already in place behind her desk. Liza Ison’s eyes widened in surprise as she jumped up from her desk.
“Ms. Rutherford. Mr. Rutherford said you might be late.”
The rounded, grandmotherly face never failed to give Kia a sense of balance as she walked in. That balance was knocked askew at the sight of the Christmas tree in the corner of the office, though, and the two little presents beneath it.
Chase hadn’t mentioned putting a tree up at the apartment. But should she really expect him to?
“Kia.”
She turned at the sound of Marion Harding’s voice as he rose from the comfortable chairs at the side of the corner office. He glanced behind her at Chase a bit uncomfortably. “I have the projections we were working on before you were attacked. Are you sure you feel like going over them? It can wait.”
Behind his glasses, Marion’s brown eyes were faintly concerned.
“I’m fine, Marion.” She nodded. “Come into the office and we’ll get started. Liza, I need some fresh coffee. Plenty of it. And please let Dad know I’ve arrived. He wanted to go over some files this afternoon. I need to know when he wants to do that.”
“Yes, Ms. Rutherford.” Liza, like Marion, cast Chase a strange look as they passed.
“Chase, stop looking as though you’re going to hit someone,” she informed him. She didn’t have to see his expression to know he was intimidating Marion as well as Liza.
“I have no intentions of hitting anyone, Kia.” There was the faintest hint of amusement in his voice.
She turned to look at him as she moved behind her desk. He, of course, took a position of authority. He pulled one of the more comfortable chairs across the room to a position beside her desk, turning it so he would have a clear view of her as well as the door.
Marion watched silently, taking a seat in front of her desk as she moved to her own and sat down.
“How did the projections come out?” Kia pulled the file toward her and opened it, frowning down at the analysis he had laid out of the warehousing, shipments, and deliveries of the product.
“Not quite where you forecast,” he told her coolly. “But you were right about the change in warehousing affecting the total cost.”
Kia looked up at him. He didn’t appear angry, or, at least, not angry with her.
He shook his head. “I hadn’t anticipated several of the shifts in consumer awareness that you found in your analysis. If we move the product to the east and south warehouses and ship from those, then we can maintain a more cost-effective outsourcing for the client.”
Kia nodded and went back to the files.
“What about the warehouses shipping into L.A. and San Diego? I think we’d more effectively supply those two areas as well as the Nevada, Iowa, and New Mexico customers if we also had the product in our Nevada warehouse. We’re losing ground there.”
“There are a few exceptions.”
Chase watched as Marion rose from his chair and went to the front of the desk to point out flaws in her argument in the file. Marion wasn’t a threat. Chase knew how to identify threats, and Harding wasn’t one.
The only threat in that damned room at the present was Kia herself, to his self-control.
Watching her walk out of that elevator in front of him had caused his cock to nearly split the zipper of his slacks.
Damn her. That little black skirt was killing him. It had stretched over her ass like he wanted to cup it with his hands. And that little flip of fuller material that ran down the back had been like a dare. A challenge to lift it and reveal the sweet, soft flesh he would find beneath.
He’d had her the night before, more than once. But he’d found that the more he had her, the more he wanted her. And he wanted her damned bad.
“I think we need to rethink this shift then,” Kia stated as she rose from her chair. Chase had to clench his teeth as she moved to the side of the desk, bent just a little, and pointed out something on the file as she turned it so it was right side up for both of them. “Sales and quicker delivery to the area could increase the productivity and gain that bonus Dad got into the contract for higher shipments into the area.”
Marion moved closer, causing Kia to lean in more.
Chase swallowed tightly. Damn her. Damn her to fucking hell and back, he hadn’t seen her put on those stockings that morning.
He had assumed the soft silk covering her legs was pantyhose. He had convinced himself they were. Hoped and prayed they were, because stockings on Kia’s legs were a particular weakness of his.
And these stockings had a delicate lacy edge that had the tips of his fingers itching to touch them, to caress the smooth skin above them.
Hell. He shifted in his chair, trying to drag his eyes from her ass and focus somewhere else. He just happened to meet Harding’s gaze and saw the glimmer of amusement in his eyes as he obviously caught Chase looking.
Kia straightened then and moved back around her desk. When she sat down, she turned sideways just a bit, crossed her legs, and there was that peek at stockings again. Chase let his eyes narrow, retaliation rising up inside him as arousal began to bite into his balls.
What the hell was it about her? He should have been past the first, hard surges of lust where she was concerned and moving into that place where the sex wasn’t that important. It was a normal progression. He’d been through it several times over, hadn’t he?
The need for the sex dimmed simply because it was readily available. He’d had her last time until he was pumping his cum inside her with a force that left him exhausted. Yet he woke just as hard, just as hot for her as he had been the first time he had taken her.
“Alright, I’ll get these ideas back to my office and rework the projections.” Marion sighed. “You’re killing me on this one, Kia.”
“Don’t feel bad. I had several e-mails from the rest of the sales force informing me of the same thing.” She smiled as she leaned back in her chair and watched Marion walk to the door.
“Yeah, now I remember why we breathed a sigh of a relief when you left five years ago,” he grunted. “You’re a slave driver.”
The door closed behind him.
Chase turned back to Kia, catching that smug little feminine smile she tried to hide when he caught her watching him.
His lips were parting to inform her of just how much trouble she was in when the door to the office slammed open.
Chase was on his feet, in front of her desk, his hand on his weapon jerked from the holster and leveled on the other man. Drew slammed to a stop and stared at the handgun with wide eyes, his face paling. Behind him, Kia’s cry warned Chase of her shock, her fear. Her warning that he wasn’t to go after Drew. He wanted to go after the son of a bitch right now.
Instead, he slid the gun carefully into its holster and taunted the other man. “Want something, Stanton?”