and vainly attempted to keep her voice from shaking. “I…I just can’t believe it.” She averted her face from his intent study.
Kane propped her chin between his fingers and let his thumb rub it caressingly while tracing the line of her jaw. “You were very close to him?” he asked gently.
Erin shook her head faintly and bit her lip. “He’s been a good friend to me.” Her eyes were shining with unshed tears when she looked up at Kane’s face once more. “He…he helped me through a very difficult time in my life…” she explained, and gave in to the urge to lean against him. His arm wrapped securely around her, and for a moment Erin forgot everything other than Kane’s comforting presence. This couldn’t be the same coldhearted man who had fired Mitch, could it? Had Mitch really stooped to thievery?
“The difficult time,” he whispered. “The divorce?”
She nodded mutely against the smooth fabric of his jacket.
A knock resounded on the thick mahogany door, and before Kane could respond, the door swung open. Olivia Parsons, with all of her self-assurance and poise in place, breezed into the room with only a brief apology.
“Excuse me, Mr. Webster…Erin.” She included Erin out of courtesy. Her cool green eyes swept over the intimate scene before her, and although they reflected a glimmer of interest, her professional aplomb never wavered. Erin moved away from Kane with as much grace as was possible, but she was sure that Olivia hadn’t missed the tender embrace between employer and employee. “I didn’t mean to disturb you, but your secretary indicated that you needed these financial statements before the board meeting this afternoon.” The tall brunette with the svelte figure and sleek Halston original dress handed Kane the stack of papers that she was carrying. The confident smile that she was wearing never left her face.
“You must be Miss Parsons,” Kane surmised, his eyes traveling appreciatively over the neatly typed pages.
“Please call me Olivia,” she responded. She gave Erin a fleeting head-to-toe appraisal, as if seeing her for the first time. Turning back to Kane, she continued. “I really didn’t know that you were busy,” she apologized again, and Erin felt a tide of crimson creep steadily up her neck.
“No problem,” Kane assured Olivia, and escorted her out of the room. “Thank you for taking the time to bring the reports by.”
“Anytime,” Olivia suggested in a voice so throaty that Erin barely heard it.
Once Olivia had made her exit, Kane closed the door and deliberately turned to face Erin. His back was pressed firmly against the polished wood grain of the door, as if he were using his own body as a barricade against another intrusion. His body had stiffened, and all of the familiar fondness had escaped from his features. His face had become a mask devoid of emotion, and his words were no longer tender or caring. They were brittle in the air.
“I don’t think that my office is the place to continue this discussion,” he said tersely.
“I think it’s a perfect place to discuss Mitch—right in the middle of his office!”
“Is that how you still think of it, as Mitch’s office? If so, you had better change your mind. Mitchell Cameron is gone. He was an embezzler—a thief—and he’s no longer with Consolidated Finances. I hope that fact doesn’t hamper your work.” He strode across the room to the desk. “We can discuss this later…tonight if you like. But right now I’m very busy.” He sat at the desk and started reading the reports that he had received from Olivia.
Erin watched him with disbelieving eyes. How could he change so rapidly? It was as if he were a kind, considerate gentleman one moment and a heartless bastard the next. He looked up at her and flashed a perfectly condescending smile at her, but she knew it was an act. She had been with him enough to recognize the cool distance in his gray eyes.
“You’re the one who called me in here,” she reminded him, and waved the green personal memo in the air. “Just what was it that you wanted to discuss?”
The petrified smile fell from his face and a darker, more volatile expression took over. “I wanted to ask you to dinner tonight.”
“You’ve got to be kidding! First you call me in here. Then you nearly throw me out. And now you expect me to go out with you?” Sarcasm dripped from her words. “Not a chance!”
“Why not?”
Erin sighed wearily, tired of the argument. “For the same reasons that I spelled out to you yesterday.”
There was a pool of darkness in his eyes. “You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?” he suggested, and then continued. “Or is it yourself who scares you?”
“It has nothing to do with fear, and you should know it! It’s just that I don’t think it would be good for either of us, professionally that is, to be the subject of office gossip or speculation.”
“Don’t you think that you’re putting the cart before the horse?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she sighed.
“In order for there to be any gossip, there’s got to be a glimmer of truth. Someone has to start the rumors, and since I’m not one to ‘kiss and tell,’ I’ve got to assume that you are. Otherwise, there would be no cause for concern, would there?”
“You don’t understand,” she accused with a vehemence that interested Kane. “Gossip…it can be vicious—ugly! It can ruin your life!”
“Only if you let it—the same as anything else. Now, why don’t you be honest with me—no, make that honest with yourself—and tell me what’s really bothering you. I can’t believe that a little innocent speculation about what you do after-hours is all that traumatic. For God’s sake, Erin, you’re a thirty-year-old divorcée, not a whimpering virgin! What kind of lily-white reputation are you trying to create?”
Her eyes narrowed and she planted her hands firmly against her hips. “The point is that I like to keep my personal life just that—private! And even though you and I won’t go around telling anyone that we’re seeing each other, believe me, the word will get out.”
“And everyone will just naturally assume that because we’re dating we’re sleeping together, right?” he surmised, elaborating on her logic. He threw the neatly stacked reports down into an unruly pile on his desk and covered the floor space that separated them in long, swift strides. He didn’t touch her, but he was close enough that she could feel the delicious warmth of his breath as it fanned against her hair. She stood her ground, not moving an inch, but every nerve ending of her body was rigidly aware of him and his nearness. “And even if some of the people around here think that we sleep together”—his fingers touched the silken skin of her cheek softly—”what’s so bad about that? What do you care what other people think?”
Erin’s lips thinned into a white line. She tried to control her temper and ignore the warm feelings that Kane was commanding from her. She pushed herself away from him in order to think clearly and avoid the compelling magnetism that seemed to surround him. “I’ve worked very hard to get where I am with this bank, and I don’t need the frustration of knowing that coworkers think that I sleep with the boss to promote my career.”
“Would you mind it if they thought you slept with the boss because you wanted to and not for career reasons?”
“You
