back the way they had come. As soon as he was out of sight she seated herself on a couch, then took a minute to inspect the office. Everything she saw seemed efficient and streamlined, modern, with all the latest equipment enabling Jared to conduct major business from his house.
His house. She clenched her jaw to ward off the anger that once again threatened to override her attempt at maintaining a calm demeanor. She had never given the land or the Stevens family compound much thought until Jared’s attorney had approached her about the promissory note. Until that moment she had considered the entire land swindle history, something that had a serious impact on her father’s life but did not involve her. Now she found herself reluctantly thrown into the middle of the generations-old feud.
And it all felt very personal.
Her gaze made another sweep of the office area. It was the opinion of most of the people in town that Jared was nothing more than a playboy squandering the fortune he had inherited, that he was merely a figurehead providing a family member as president of the corporation. The real work was undoubtedly done by qualified people who were dedicated to their jobs. So why had he gone to all the trouble and expense of constructing an office wing, and what kind of work could he possibly have for her to do?
A frisson of apprehension darted through her body, an uneasy feeling telling her she might have made a bad bargain for herself in accepting his offer to work off the debt. She closed her eyes, and a mental image of Jared immediately popped into her mind. Once again the intensity of his green eyes and his devilishly sexy smile assailed her senses. A little tremor of excitement told her Jared Stevens was the cause of her apprehension, not the Stevens–Donaldson feud, as she wanted to believe.
“I’m glad to see you’re on time.”
Jared’s smooth voice sliced through her wandering thoughts and startled her to attention. Her eyes snapped open. The sight that greeted her did nothing to dampen her aroused senses or stop her errant musings. He stood framed in the doorway of what appeared to be an inner office beyond the reception area. A shortness of breath caught her by surprise. He might not be the handsomest man in the world, but at that moment she couldn’t imagine who would win out over him. With his head cocked to one side, his arms folded across his chest and his hip leaning against the door jamb, he looked like someone she wanted to get to know much better.
She took a steadying breath, then shoved the disturbing thoughts from her mind. True, she hadn’t been dating anyone lately and had no special person in her life, but Jared Stevens was the last man she needed to be having desirous thoughts about. His family was responsible for the ruination of her grandfather and the bitterness that had controlled her father’s life for as long as she could remember. Jared Stevens was the enemy. She could never let herself forget that.
“I try to always be punctual, Mr. Stevens.” She wanted to kick herself. The words sounded far too strained and definitely way too nervous. That was not the impression she wanted to convey, not the way she wanted to start the first day. She squared her shoulders and stood up. She had to project confidence, an image that said he may have coerced her into this ridiculous situation but he was not going to control her.
He leveled a sharp look at her, briefly making eye contact. “Call me Jared. Mr. Stevens was my father.” He chose to ignore her tone of voice and her blatantly obvious attempt to be disagreeable. If that was the game she wanted to play, she would find that she had more than met her match.
He straightened, slowly crossed the room and perched on the edge of the desk without taking his eyes off her. He had hoped she would have somehow changed since he had seen her so her presence wouldn’t continue to pull at his senses, but no such luck. His pulse jumped and raced as he forced his breathing under control. She was every bit as beautiful as he had pictured her over the past few days, every bit as desirable as he feared she would be and definitely a huge temptation. He took a steadying breath. He had a busy workday ahead of him and needed to keep his mind on business. He didn’t have time for personal thoughts of lust—at least, not at the moment.
He rose from the edge of the desk as he gestured toward the coffeepot sitting on the credenza against the wall. “Grab yourself a cup of coffee if you want, then I’ll give you a quick tour of the office complex before we start work.” Kim poured herself a cup of coffee as Jared waited.
“This—” he walked over and opened a door that went to the outside “—is the entrance to this wing of the house and is used for the business offices. It’s the door you’ll use from now on rather than the front door to the house. As you can see, there’s a driveway from the side street that goes past the garage and there are parking spaces right here by the door.” He handed her a key card. “This will open the side gate.” She stuck her head out the doorway and took a quick look around. He closed the door and headed in the direction he had come from a few minutes earlier, explaining as he walked.
“This room is the reception area where my summer assistant works. This—” he waved his arm as he stepped into a smaller room containing a table and six chairs “—is used as a conference room.” He continued through another door into the innermost room of the office wing with Kim right behind him.
“This is my office.” He reached across the desk, grabbed some papers and quickly shoved them into a file folder. Until—or maybe that would be if—such time as he could trust her with the details of his business dealings he wanted to keep certain papers away from her observation.
Kim surveyed her surroundings. It was a large office with a double set of French doors leading out to a patio, allowing him to come and go without anyone in the conference room or reception area seeing him. She stepped through the French doors. A chain link fence separated a large yard from the rest of the property. A doghouse just off the patio said it was a place where a pet could have lots of outdoor space without interfering with the rest of the property. About twenty feet away were windows that looked into a kitchen and another door into the house.
On the other side of the fence along the back of the house was a large deck next to a swimming pool and a hot tub. Beyond that the property sloped down to the beach and was enclosed by the same type of tall brick wall that surrounded the front of the property. A flower-lined path wound leisurely through the yard and past several trees to a gate leading to a private dock. Moored at the end of the dock was a gleaming white sailboat with bright blue canvas covers over the furled sails. Everything spoke of money and prestige, of a life filled with ease and comfort.
And it had all been stolen from her grandfather by Jared’s grandfather. It should have been in her family.
“This is very nice, certainly quite luxurious.”
“Thank you. I only wish I could spend more time here rather than at my town house in San Francisco, but that’s where the company offices are and where I need to be most of the time.”
She clenched her jaw to keep her negative thoughts from turning into words as she returned to his office. She spotted the file folder on his desk. His furtive attempt to hide the papers had not escaped her notice. Were the papers something personal or business? A little wave of disgust rippled through her. It was probably another of the many shady business deals the Stevens family had been involved in over the years. She tried to muster her determination. One thing was for sure—there was no way she would be party to any of his underhanded dealings. If he thought—
“Do you get along with animals?”
His words grabbed her attention. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts she hadn’t realized he had been talking to her.
“Uh…animals?”
“Yes. That’s the first item on the list of things
