Just To Be With You

CHAPTER SIX

Every eye in the restaurant turned to them as they walked inside and Ian silently cursed himself for not having thought to change the reservation to a more private location. Because, while Tatiana barely seemed to be aware of all the stares and excited whispers, Ian knew it had to grate on her. Hell, it grated on him like crazy, and he wasn’t even the famous one. She’d told him she could take care of herself, but even if she knew some martial arts, she was small enough—and trusting enough—that Ian knew he could have her beneath him and helpless within seconds if he wanted to.

The thought shouldn’t have been so arousing, damn it, but fifteen minutes alone in his town car with Tatiana after five hours of breathing in her seductive scent in conference rooms had made it difficult for him to string a straight thought together, let alone put the brakes on his attraction to her.

“Ian, my boy, what a pleasure it is to see you.”

Ian shook George’s hand, glad that the man’s grip was just as hearty as ever. “Professor, it’s been too long.”

Ian had been looking forward to this meeting since they’d arranged it a couple of weeks ago. George Collingsworth had not only been his favorite professor at the University of Washington, he was also an expert on fuel chemistry and synthesis. When the opportunity had arisen for Sullivan Investments to become a major partner in a company that specialized in new fuel-replacement technologies, he’d asked George if he could meet to give him some advice.

His old professor looked just as he always had, his shock of white hair in complete disarray, the pieces of his suit put together in a seemingly random and color-blind way. There was one big difference today, however: His normally preoccupied expression had been replaced by a huge smile.

Tatiana had that effect on everyone, from young tech geniuses to professors who were usually lost in the wilds of their brilliant minds. Even, Ian had to admit, normally laser-focused businessmen like himself.

He was just about to introduce them when George declared, “You’ve brought your beautiful wife with you!” Clearly, Ian thought, they’d just come across the one person on the planet who had no idea who she was, which was further brought home when George said, “Tell me your name, my dear.”

“Tatiana.”

“I’m George, and I must say it is positively wonderful to meet you. What a beauty you are, and with such intelligence in your eyes. Truly, you remind me of my own late wife. It’s been fifteen years since she passed away, and I still miss her every single day.”

Her face had lit up the moment she set eyes on George. But now empathy moved across her features. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“That’s very sweet of you.” George’s eyes twinkled as he looked back at Ian. “You’re a very lucky man, Ian.”

From the moment he’d found Tatiana in his office on Friday, Ian’s world had shifted farther and farther off its axis due to his inability to stop wanting her. Now, George’s honest mistake threatened to shove it all the way off.

Of course, the way Tatiana turned to him with her own grin and twinkling eyes didn’t help one damn bit. Especially considering that he had to not only struggle to drag his gaze from hers...but also to keep from pulling her against him for a kiss that wouldn’t do a damn thing to disprove George’s incorrect assumption.

“We aren’t—” A breeze from the open door of the restaurant blew the vanilla scent of Tatiana’s hair to him, temporarily making him lose his train of thought.

In the end, she was the one who finally clarified things. “I’m really flattered that you think I could be Ian’s wife, George, but I’m just a friend.”

His old professor frowned, looking between them. “I know chemistry when I see it, and not just in the lab. If the two of you aren’t a couple, it’s a damned shame.” He looked between them again before seeming to make up his mind. He muttered something Ian couldn’t quite make out, but that sounded a heck of a lot like Just a matter of time.

Ian had never been a man pulled forward by fate, luck, or coincidence. He’d always made his own choices, forged his own deliberate path. But even as he silently denied that what his professor had just stated could ever be true, he suddenly couldn’t stop wondering if he really was as in control of his life—or his heart—as he wanted to think he was.

George pulled out a chair for Tatiana and after they were all seated and had placed their orders, he said, “Tell me about yourself, my dear.”

“I don’t want to take up too much of your time with Ian. I know he’s really been looking forward to speaking with you.”

“My wife wasn’t one to draw attention to herself, either, but just like you, she was too beautiful to hide in the shadows.” He gestured to the glass of wine the waiter had just poured. “Now drink up and start talking.”

Tatiana laughed, clearly delighted. “Okay, but I really am going to make it quick so that the two of you can get down to business.” She took a sip of the excellent dry white wine and made a small sound of pleasure that reverberated all the way through Ian’s system. “I’m an actress and Ian is helping me do some research for a new role I’ve taken on.”

“I once had dreams of the stage,” George admitted. “And I would have been perfect for the role of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Captain Corcoran...if only I could dance or hold a tune.”

Laughing again, Tatiana said, “HMS Pinafore is one of my favorites, too.” All it took was Tatiana softly humming a tune, and soon both of them were spontaneously singing a funny back-and-forth about monarchs of the sea and rulers of the Queen’s Navy and sisters and cousins and aunts.

At the end of their impromptu performance, Tatiana gave George a hug. “Thank you for making my day with a Gilbert and Sullivan sing-along. And now, since I know the two of you have important business to take care of, I’m going to excuse myself for a minute so that you can get started without my further distracting you.”

Both Ian and George stood when she left the table, and Ian nearly went after her to make sure she didn’t get hassled by an overzealous fan. When he finally made himself sit down, his professor said, “You can’t take your eyes off her.”

Knowing better than to try to deny the truth, Ian explained, “Tatiana told you she’s an actress, but what she didn’t mention is that she’s also very, very famous. Strangers get really excited about meeting her and often forget to keep normal boundaries. I didn’t think about how difficult it might be for her to come here for lunch.”

“Well, whether or not she’s famous and you’re worried about her fans taking advantage of her has nothing whatsoever to do with you not being able to look away.”

His old professor’s tone didn’t brook any argument, so Ian didn’t try. And when George pulled out a folder with the information Ian had sent him, he was glad to finally settle down to business. Only, Ian simply couldn’t concentrate while Tatiana was gone.

But when she finally returned and took out her notepad, though Ian should have finally been able to concentrate on what George was saying, the truth was that her nearness made it just as difficult for him as her absence had.

It was eight p.m. when Ian got home for the night. He’d dropped Tatiana off on the way and learned that she was renting a condo in a building just around the block from his. So close that he could practically look out his living-room window and see her.

She’d been barely stifling her yawns by the time they made it to the last of his meetings, but had blamed it on the Mexican food they’d had delivered to the conference room. He’d seen his female cousins eat plenty of times, so he knew not every woman picked at her food the way his ex-wife had, but he was still stunned by how happily—and thoroughly—Tatiana munched down her burrito. Chelsea had only dabbled at modeling, and yet she’d been terrified of ever gaining a pound. Tatiana didn’t seem to give it a second thought.

Not, of course, that she should, considering her figure was beyond gorgeous. And as he headed into his bedroom to take off his jacket, then loosen his tie and pull it off, he couldn’t help but wonder if she was also stripping out of her clothes.

Damn it, now that he was finally alone, he needed to rein in every last ounce of focus and get the work done that he hadn’t been able to concentrate on all day...not stand in his kitchen like an idiot and daydream about what color lingerie Tatiana was wearing beneath her clothes.

Most nights he went from his office building to his home office without a break. Work had always settled him down, even in the midst of his terrible divorce. Settling in behind the desk in his den, he took out the contracts he’d brought home and began reviewing them...but when he realized he’d been rereading the same clause on page three for the past fifteen minutes, he pushed back from his desk.

A workout, that’s what he needed. A really, really, really rough one that would obliterate every last thought of Tatiana Landon.

Though he was no slacker in the workout department, Ian pushed himself running sprints on his treadmill twice as hard as he normally did. Even better, by the end he was running so fast that he couldn’t think about anything but keeping his legs and lungs working in tandem. By the time he moved on to the rack of weights along the back wall of his home gym, he was finally starting to feel like his old self.

At the very least, two weeks of being shadowed by Tatiana were going to be good for his cardio.

Damn it, there she was again, creeping into his head. Turning on the TV, he figured multi-tasking by doing weights and catching up on the financial news he’d missed that morning would keep her out of his head. Only, instead of international stock market tickers coming up on the screen, he found himself looking straight at Tatiana’s beautiful face.

She couldn’t have been more than sixteen when the program currently being referenced by the financial analyst had been filmed. They showed her speaking only a few lines of dialogue, but that was all it took for him to see that her humor, and the emotional tug she managed to portray even in the midst of what should have been a silly scene in a high school cafeteria, was the glue that had held the show together.

He should have turned it off. But just as he’d been unable to stick to his No when she’d asked to shadow him in the office, he found that he couldn’t bring himself to look away from Tatiana on his TV, either.