full attention. That is why I paid you such a high retainer. I explained that I had a business emergency.”
“Since your Director of R & D is there, can’t she handle the emergency?”
“We are handling it together.”
“I’m sure—”
“That you will take care of your business while I take care of mine.”
“Part of my business requires your participation, Andreas. Had you forgotten the makeover? I suppose I could fly out there and do it in New York.”
“No. There will not be time.” Andreas didn’t feel in the least guilty putting Genevieve off. “I will call you when I return to Portland.”
“What about the questionnaire? Will you have some time for that?” she asked, trying to sound ingratiating, but only managing to be annoying.
“I will get to it when I can.” Andreas allowed his growing irritation to leak through.
“I can’t help feeling you’re not as committed to this as you originally led me to believe.”
“Genevieve, you will learn that I do not like being questioned.” He allowed his displeasure at the continued questioning of the parameters he had already set to ice his voice over. “I will speak to you when I return to Oregon.”
He set his phone down and noticed Kayla standing in the doorway to her room, her expression no longer all narrow-eyed anger. Andreas wasn’t exactly sure what that particular look meant, however.
“Was that Genevieve?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her to stop calling and texting me?”
“I told her to remove your number from her files.”
“If I was home, I could take care of that myself.”
He had no doubt Kayla could do exactly that. You didn’t become a world-class designer of security software without being able to circumvent it. “You scare me sometimes.”
“Nothing scares you.”
Nothing he was going to admit to. “How easily you get into other people’s computers and phones is going to get you into trouble.”
“It’s a natural by-product of designing the best security software.” She stretched and yawned, her breasts pressing enticingly against the silk of her pajama top. “I’m going back to bed.”
“What about breakfast?”
She shook her head at him, a barely there smile playing at the edge of her lips. “Nothing is stopping you from ordering.”
“But you are going back to bed. How long will you sleep?”
“As long as I want, I’m on vacation.”
“But if we are not at the pier in in an hour, we will miss the harbor cruise.”
Kayla’s generous lips thinned. “Harbor cruise.”
“I thought you’d like to see a little of New York while we are here.” She kept harping about being on vacation.
“Jacob was going to show me the city last night.”
The unnecessary reminder set Andreas’s teeth on edge. “He wanted to show you his bedroom.”
“Maybe it had a great view.”
Andreas stood up, suddenly too restless to sit. “Maybe if you want some good views you should get in the shower and get dressed so we can make the harbor cruise.”
“I never said I was going with you.”
“Don’t be stubborn for stubborn’s sake.”
She frowned. “I was going back to bed.”
“You can sleep later. Right now, we have sights to see.”
“No wonder you’re not wearing a suit.”
He’d put on slacks and a button-down shirt, no tie, no jacket. He was dressed down. For him.
“You still look like a power broker.”
“I am a power broker.” And it would do her little actor friend well to remember that.
Andreas Kostas might not recognize Barnabas Georgas as family, but there was no denying the bastard’s blood ran through his veins, as did his ruthless nature.
Kayla sighed. “I didn’t plan on staying here in the hotel with you.”
“Where would you go?” Andreas demanded, not liking the sound of her plans at all.
Kayla got harebrained ideas in her head and sometimes she stuck with them. It had taken him three years to convince her to move into his condominium building and only after he persuaded the complex to offer her a unit at a significant discount that he secretly subsidized the purchase of. She could never find that out, or she’d move out of spite.
The woman had an independent streak a mile wide.
“A hotel without you in it.”
“Am I really so abhorrent to you?” he asked, hurt in ways no other person would be able to cause.
Her mouth twisted and she stepped away from the door, toward him, like she couldn’t help herself. “Of course not. It’s just...” She looked up at him, appeal in her big gray eyes. “This is hard for me, Andreas.”
“ME SELLING THE COMPANY?” Andreas asked.
“All of it.” Kayla bit her lip, her body taut, her arms wrapped around herself, like she was protecting herself. “I feel like I’m losing you and the company all at once.”
“You are not losing me.”
She shook her head, her expression saying he just didn’t get it.
“Kayla, you persist in seeing family in a way that neither you nor I have ever experienced.” He frowned down at her, stepping closer to her to make his point. “In a way I do not intend to live. My wife will not supplant your place in my life.”
“My place in your life. As your friend.” She said the word like it left a bad taste in her mouth. Was his friendship something she preferred to leave behind?
That was not acceptable.
She belonged to him. Kayla was part of Andreas’s life and she was not leaving it.
“Yes.”
