Corporate Affair

6

The chattering, happy crowd seemed to recede into the distance as Kalinda forgot about everyone else in the room and stared, appalled at her uninvited guest.

„Are you saying you’d blackmail me into an affair?“ she finally whispered.

He continued to regard her with that incredibly ruthless expression, everything about him hard, unyielding, and determined. Rand said nothing. He didn’t need to say anything. The message was plain.

Shakily Kalinda reached out to steady herself with a hand on the edge of the white table. „I… I would never have thought you capable of doing anything like this.“

„Perhaps In the short time we spent together you didn’t get a chance to know me as well as you might have,“ he suggested coolly.

„No,“ she got out, her words barely a thread of sound as she tried to think what to do, how to handle him. „No, perhaps I didn’t.“

„Now you’re seeing another side of me. Do you believe this side is capable of a certain ruthlessness?“ he persisted.

„Yes.“ It was the truth and he must have seen it in her eyes.

„Good,“ he nodded, the hardness in him fading away on the instant as he turned to reach for another interesting tidbit „I think I’ve still got the old shark instincts and talents.“

Kalinda heard the wry satisfaction in his words and blinked, confused more than ever. „What’s going on here, Rand? Are you telling me you were teasing me just then? That you were faking that… that threat?“

She put a hand on the sleeve of his jacket, urgently demanding his attention. His head swung back to her, the white teeth flashing in a reassuring grin that made her want to kick him.

„You believed me, didn’t you?“ he countered pointedly. „For a minute or two you thought me fully capable of blackmailing you into an affair.“

„You sound proud of it!“ she accused, cheeks staining with annoyance and growing embarrassment at her obvious gullibility.

The grin faded into a self-mocking grimace. „No, Fm not proud of it. But it is a useful business skill, Fm sorry to say.“

„What’s a useful business skill? Blackmail?“ she raged heatedly, having difficulty keeping her voice down.

„The skill of being able to make people think I'll stop at nothing when it comes to getting what I want,“ he explained kindly, soothingly. „I just wanted you to have a small demonstration so you can introduce me to your…“

„Introduce you as what?“ she gritted.

„The outside consultant you’ve hired to direct the defenses of Brady Data Processing,“ he retorted easily. He appeared about to add to that when his glance went suddenly to a point beyond her head. The hazel eyes gleamed warmly. „Hey, you really did like the pot, huh?“

„Your conversation is getting more and more difficult to follow,“ Kalinda muttered and turned to follow his gaze. The lovely, wide-mouthed bowl she had bought that first day in his gallery sat in a prominent position at the far end of the table. It held long loaves of sliced French bread which guests had used to build small sandwiches.

He glanced down at her, looking enormously pleased. „I’m glad you didn’t try to forget me completely. I’ve still got a token of your short visit, too.“

„What token?“ she asked warily.

„The earrings I took off you that first night.“

„Oh.“ She’d forgotten about those.

„You shouldn’t have run away that morning after we made love, sweetheart,“ he went on, dark voice turning slightly husky as he regarded her a little hungrily. „Although I understand why you did.“

Kalinda flicked an uneasy glance up through her lashes. „You do?“

„Of course. You thought there was no future for us, didn’t you? You thought I wasn’t the kind of man you should be giving yourself to so completely. And it was completely, honey. You came to my bed without any reservations, didn’t you? For a little while you stopped thinking about the fact that I was an unmotivated, unambitious, undynamic wastrel who had no further goal in life except to fish and seduce bored tourists!“

Kalinda felt her blush deepening and she could no longer meet his eyes, even through the partial veil of her lashes. She remembered her unwise surrender only too well. What really worried her now was the flash of pure happiness she’d experienced when she’d opened her door a few minutes ago and found him standing there.

„You have to admit we do come from two different worlds, Rand,“ she managed a little grimly.

„Which is a polite way of saying you don’t admire my lifestyle,“ he retorted dryly. „I’m here to change all that I’m going to prove myself to you, sweetheart And your ex-fiance has put the tool I need right into my hands. You admire successful, dynamic, aggressive businessmen? Okay, I’ll show you I can wheel and deal in your world with the best of them. Don’t worry, Kalinda, you won’t have to be ashamed of our affair. You’ll be giving yourself to a man who can out-shark anyone on the business street!“

„Rand! This is crazy. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I certainly have no intention of… of continuing what should never have been started up there in the mountains. I do not routinely indulge in affairs, for heaven’s sake! I haven’t been even remotely serious about any man since my engagement with David ended.“

„Except me,“ he pointed out, smiling. „Or are you going to stand there and tell me you weren’t perfectly serious that morning in the mountains?“

Kalinda glared at him, aware that he was deliberately goading her and still too confused and upset by the combination of the day’s events to think clearly enough to flatten him verbally.

She was desperately trying to concoct a suitable response when Harold Sebastian and his wife emerged from the crowd with pleasantly expectant expressions.

„Kalinda, my dear, you must introduce us to your new guest“ Tall, stately, and silver-haired, Harold beamed complacently down at her. While she was his superior at Brady Data Processing, his long association with her father had given him a decidedly paternalistic air toward the new president of the firm. It was an attitude Kalinda encountered from many of the longtime employees of the firm. They gave her their loyalty and even admired her ability, but they never quite let her forget they all considered themselves honorary uncles and aunts.

„I’m afraid my arrival was something of a surprise for Kalinda,“ Rand said smoothly, thrusting out a polite hand. „I’m Rand Alastair.“

„Harold Sebastian. This is my wife, Edna,“ Harold said genially. „Alastair,“ he repeated with a thoughtful look. „That name sounds familiar. Have we met?“

„No, I don’t believe so. But I can assure you the name is going to sound a lot more familiar in the future. I’m going to be working for Kalinda.“

Kalinda froze as Harold’s inquiring, interested gaze switched to her. „I see. In what capacity?“

„I’ll, uh, be explaining Mr. Alastair’s role to everyone tomorrow morning,“ she got out weakly, feeling trapped. „He will be with us in a very limited, short-term capacity,“ she added spitefully as Rand shot her an amused look.

„Well, well, I’ll look forward to having you with us, Rand. You won’t find a nicer boss in town!“ Harold assured him with a vast chuckle.

„Like father, like daughter,“ Edna Sebastian added warmly. „Everyone at the company is delighted that she took over the reins two years ago. Just ask anyone in the room!“ Edna waved gaily at the crowd behind them.

„I’m sure I shall thoroughly enjoy my association with her, also,“ Rand said glibly, his eyes still on Kalinda’s studiously composed face.

He grinned down at her as the Sebastians faded back into the crowd. „You seemed to be well-liked by your staff,“ he drawled.

„It’s positively feudal at times,“ she sighed, acknowledging the truth. „We’re a publicly owned company but somehow everyone still thinks of it as a family firm.“

„How long ago did you go public with your stock?“ he asked, suddenly serious.

„Almost as soon as I took over. We needed capital and we needed it badly. I had to convince everyone that it was a clear turnaround situation, make investors think that they could get in on the ground floor of a company that was about to make a big comeback. I’ve never worked so hard in all my life!“

„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. *

His tongue, moving with hot aggression in her mouth, slowly withdrew as Rand gently, reluctantly broke the kiss.

„Take me into your bed, Kalinda. I swear I’ll be as loyal as any of your faithful band of employees. I’ll keep the marauding sharks away from your door for you.“

She turned her head into his shoulder, felt his damp, arousing kisses on the vulnerable, sensitized skin behind her ear and then on her throat.

„I thought it was yourself you called a shark,“ she reminded him shakily, trying to think straight and knowing it was hopeless.

„It takes one to fight one, sweetheart.“ He trembled against her, eliciting that seductive feeling of female power that she had known before with him. It was power combined with the illogical desire to satisfy. It made no sense to Kalinda but it seemed to make perfect sense to her body.

„Are you really a shark?“ she whispered, ripping her head back to meet his eyes searchingly.

He sucked in his breath, his hands tightening around her waist.

„Yes,“ he said with heavy honesty. „But you can control me, darling. I’ll only work for you, never against you. Please believe me!“

She shook her head, dazed. „But I don’t understand, Rand. If you know all about the ruthless side of the business world, if you have those abilities, what were you doing for the past year and a half in the mountains?“

He hesitated, as if uncertain how to explain himself. „I was running away from what those abilities had made me. I was running away from the shark I had become. A year and a half ago I took a good look at myself, sweetheart, and decided I didn’t like what I saw. I needed time to think, time to discover another side of life. So I went to the mountains.“

Kalinda saw the naked, vulnerable look in his eyes and knew in that moment that he’d never told another soul what he’d just told her. Before she could stop to think, she lifted her palms to either side of his harshly carved face.

„And now you think you want to come back to the life you left behind? What makes you believe it will be any different this time, Rand?“

„This time I have you. This time I have something more important than building an empire.“

In spite of the tension of the moment, Kalinda’s lips twitched. „I’m supposed to be a civilizing influence on a shark?“

„I seem,“ he observed, sweeping her up into his arms with an easy movement, „to be fated to serve as a source of amusement for.you!“

„I wasn’t laughing at you,“ she protested, clinging automatically as he began striding out of the kitchen.

„Yes, you were,“ he said beguilingly. „But I know how to wipe that smile out of your lovely eyes!“

When he turned unerringly down the hall to her bedroom, Kalinda’s head fell back against his shoulder, her lashes drooping softly to flicker on her cheeks.

Her implicit surrender made itself felt Rand held her with fierce passion as he walked into the bedroom at the end of the hall. With a glance around the room, he made his way to the bed and settled her gently down on it.

The green and apricot color scheme had been reversed in this room; the apricot in the carpet, the verdant green in the bedspread and chair. In her red and gold and peacock blue silk, Kalinda was a splash of vibrant color as she lay on the green spread.

„You look like some exotic creature from a harem lying there waiting for me.“ Rand stood beside the bed, pulling free the satin bow tie and dropping it onto the carpet.

„Your harem?“ she asked throatily, her gaze trapped by his.

„Definitely,“ he smiled, his fingers on the buttons of his white shirt „But it’s a harem of one.“

Kalinda felt herself melting beneath the heat of his gaze and when he had finished undressing himself and reached for her, she shivered violently with the emotion his touch aroused.

„Kalinda, my gentle, passionate Kalinda,“ he rasped, pulling her into his arms and finding the fastenings of her dress with fingers that shook ever so slightly. „I couldn’t believe you had left me when I awoke that morning. 1 couldn’t believe you hadn’t found in my arms what I had found in yours. You credited me with good perception but you were wrong. I would never have guessed you would have left like that…“

„I saw so little future for us.“ She stirred as the coolness in the room bathed her skin. He removed her dress with deftness and a sensual touch that was a caress in itself. She lifted appealing eyes to his intent face. „And I’m not sure there’s any more of a future now than there was before. Why did you follow me, Rand?“

„Hush, darling,“ he whispered, bending to kiss the nipple of her breast as it hardened beneath his hand. „Stop trying to put obstacles in our path, We need each other tonight Let that be enough for the time being.“

Under his possessive, exploring touch, Kalinda had no choice but to put the doubts and fears aside. What he offered at that moment was too important, too wonderful to turn down. And he knew it He was using that fact to seduce her as surely as he used his lips and fingers and the strength of his hard, lean body.

Cradling her against him, Rand rested on one elbow, his free hand trailing exciting patterns down the length of her side to her thighs. He felt her response and slowly built the tempo of the random patterns until she moaned and turned her mouth into his chest.

Finding the male nipples with her quick, gentle teeth, Kalinda returned the mounting excitement, glorying in his reaction. She felt him shift his legs, inserting one foot between her own. Then his circling, feathering hand went to the inside of her thighs.

„Oh!“ The sob of desire was muffled against his skin but he heard it and growled her name against her shoulder.

„My God, Kalinda, you make me wonder how I ever got along without you in my bed!“

She raked her nails convulsively but lightly along his back, down to the sensitive point at the base of his spine and beyond. He arched into her, his hand moving exquisitely at the point where her thighs joined her body.

She felt the arousing, passionate sensations take her beyond the edge of reasoning thought All that mattered was Rand. She wondered how she could ever have survived without knowing this powerful emotion again. In the back of her mind, Kalinda acknowledged the truth. She would have eventually gone back to the mountains looking for him.

„I would have come back, Rand,“ she confessed huskily. „I told myself I had to get over you, that there was no future for us. But I know now I would have come back.“

Gently he turned her on her back, his leg thrown heavily across hers. „I couldn’t wait, sweetheart I had to follow you. I had to know if I could make you need me as badly as I needed you!“

He strung fiery little kisses all down her throat, across her soft breasts and along the curve of her stomach. She surged beneath his questing hands, unable to hide her desire.

„Do you have any idea what it does to me when you ignite like this in my arms? I couldn’t stand the thought of you coming back to Denver and finding someone else! You’re mine, Kalinda. I made you mine last weekend. I swear you’ll find me worthy of your sweet surrender.“

Kalinda gasped at his progressively intimate demands, her eyes tightly shut as her head fell back over his outstretched arm. „Such a risk, it’s such a risk--“

„No,“ he whispered forcefully. „I’ll take care of everything. You don’t have to worry about getting pregnant!“

And Kalinda, who had been too far gone in the dazzling world of sensation he had created to even think about that particular risk, gave up trying to tell him her real fears.

He soothed her body with his hands and lips, finding the secret places he had discovered once before and reforging the bond he’d created then. Even as he made love to her, tuning her body to his, Kalinda realized the strength of the link he had bound her with that morning in the mountains.

He knew her so well, she thought wonderingly. She had called him perceptive, but even she hadn’t realized the depths of that perception. He had known he could show up on her doorstep tonight and reweave the magic they had found once before.

Her own instincts had been more confused on the issue but under the impact of his desire they homed in on the truth.

When she thought she could stand no more of the teasing, exhilarating lovemaking, when she thought it must surely drive her insane if he didn’t stake the final claim, Rand came to her with a fierce and gentle power that left her no option but to respond in kind.

In the darkness she clung to him as she had that morning by the lake, knowing an almost violent satisfaction at the knowledge that this time she couldn’t run away when it was over.

The driving force of his need took them both into a timeless world of sensuality that left no room for the unbidden questions a portion of Kalinda’s mind still asked.