known of me. You haven’t really known me. And I haven’t known you.” He gave her a slow smile. “We’ve been like ships passing in the night, existing side by side, but hardly paying any attention to one another. We need to get to know each other a little more intimately.”
There was something in the way he said that which caused her to take a quick step backward. From her new position of security in the corner of the elevator car, she gazed at him levelly. Was this all part of his plan? Was he trying to subvert her the way he’d done with the rest of the people around here?
“I don’t think we need to know each other better at all. We’ve got a nice, cool working relationship. Professional and businesslike. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Is that really what you think we have?” he asked innocently. “I thought we had a thing going where I was the boss and you were the recalcitrant, embittered employee who was always second-guessing her management.”
That about nailed it, she had to admit. She lifted her chin defiantly. “Is that a problem for you?”
He laughed. “No, it’s not a problem. A diversion, perhaps, but not a problem.” His expression changed. “And I guess it gives you the illusion of keeping the flame going on our families’ blasted feud, doesn’t it?”
She wasn’t going to answer that, and he knew it. Instead of prodding her, he opened a new topic.
“So tell me, Jodie. Why did you come back?”
She knew what he was asking. It was a question everyone who moved back to Chivaree got at one time or another. Most people were astonished that someone would come back to this dusty town after having made good their getaway. She decided to be frank about it.
“I came back because Matt showed up on my doorstep one day and told me that I had to.”
Matt was her brother, the oldest in her family. He was even a few years older than Kurt.
“Had to?” he echoed back to her in disbelief. “And you did what someone else told you to do without a qualm?” He shook his head in wonder. “I’ll have to ask him what his secret is.”
She lifted her chin. “He made a compelling case.”
He nodded slowly. “I see. And then you showed up in Chivaree, arrived at the office to go to work and found out you were going to have to work for me, at least for the short run.”
“Yes.”
“That must have been one of your darker days.”
She turned and glared at him, stung by the way he was continually making fun of her. “Will you stop? It’s not permanent. I’ll be moving on to some other department in a month or so.” It was her father’s brilliant plan that she should sample each area of the business to get a solid foundation in the company. “In the meantime, I can handle it.”
“Can you?” An expression of wary skepticism crossed his handsome face. “You give every indication of hating every minute of our precious time together.”
“I do not.” She bit her tongue. If she wasn’t careful, this could turn into a silly shouting match. A new tack was called for. She took a deep breath and started on one. “But you left town before I did. Why did you come back?”
She’d heard the cover story, that his wife had died and left him with their baby, so he’d returned to where his extended family could help him take care of the child. But she had her doubts. And wasn’t he hunting around for someone to baby-sit his daughter? That pretty much gave the lie to that excuse.
No, Kurt McLaughlin had an agenda. She was pretty sure she had a clue what it might be, too. And she could bet it had something to do with ruining things for the Allmans. After all, that was the pattern set over a hundred years ago by their great-grandfathers. The McLaughlins were always supposed to win, and the Allmans were always supposed to end up with their faces in the dirt.
“Okay, I’ll tell you why I came back,” he said slowly, turning his face and staring at the wall. “Believe it or not, I came back because I love this old town.”
“What?” She gaped at him.
Chivaree was not one of those adorable little towns people wrote songs about. Things had improved lately, but it was still a windswept, dusty place that the interstate bypassed years ago. People didn’t flock to Chivaree. People cashed in their chips and headed out for brighter lights as soon as they could scrape together the carfare.
From what she’d heard, he’d spent a good number of years in New York City. She’d noticed that his voice still had a nice Texas drawl, but it was subtle. So he hadn’t gone completely citified.
“It’s true,” he went on, his voice low and gravelly. “And when things seemed to fall apart for me out there in the big world, the only thing I could think of was coming back to Chivaree. Coming home.”
Coming home to heal was the feeling implicit in his voice.
For just a moment, she believed him. He sounded so sincere, and there was some sort of emotion in his face, a hint of pain, deep down. For just a flash, she bought it.
But she stopped herself quickly. He was smart, all right. He was giving her exactly the story that was most likely to touch her heart and make her believe. He was playing with her heartstrings in a very disturbing way. She had to get out of here before she fell for this stuff.
He’d turned back, and was pulling off his tie and loosening the neck of his shirt, pulling open buttons as though they were snaps. Darkly tanned skin with just a hint of chest hair appeared before her horrified gaze.
“Is it just me,” he said huskily, his eyelids drooping, “or is it getting hot in here?”
Her pulse was racing. One moment, he set out the emotional trap. Now, the physical one was laid out in front of her, just waiting for her to step into it. And darn it all if her own traitorous body wasn’t swooning like a lovesick puppy, even as she disdained the obvious way he was approaching her.
Turning away abruptly, she quickly changed the subject. “I’m not hot at all,” she said with an emphasis he surely couldn’t miss. “But I am hungry. For food,” she added quickly. Glancing back, she was chagrined to see that his eyes were gleaming wickedly.
“Are you?” he responded.
She turned back to face him, chin-high. “Desperately. I skipped lunch to get those preliminary sketches out to the art department.” She grimaced. “I wish I had my purse.”
“Why?” He pretended to look about the car. “Is there a food machine here I missed?”
“No, I’ve got a candy bar in it.”
“Hmm.” He plunged a hand down into the pocket of his crisply tailored slacks. “Look what I found. A roll of peppermints.”
“Oh.” She looked at them longingly. She really was hungry, and her mouth was so dry.
“Here.” He offered the roll to her after he’d popped one into his own mouth. She hesitated, but hunger overcame her inhibitions.
“Thanks,” she said shortly,
