think as she looked into his eyes, her heart racing. But she had to get him to commit. She’d wanted him her whole life, and this past six months had been pure torture. Always, he’d been the only man for her. Sure, she’d fooled around at college, but no one could hold a candle to Robby. She wanted more…
“Honey,” she began, her voice a soft drawl, her heart hammering harder as his legs fell between hers. She could feel the heat and power of his erection now, touching her through the sheet that had tangled between them.
He rested on an elbow, a hand beneath his cheek and flashed a bad-boy grin. “Yes, honey?”
“I want to ask you something.”
“Anything.”
“When are we going to tell my dad?”
“Tell him?”
“You know. About us.”
They were at a crossroads. Daddy Eddie was retiring in just one more week, and he’d already told her he was naming her head of the company. President, she thought now, with a sigh of happiness. It was more than she’d dreamed possible. Robby aside, running Lee Polls had always been her dream, too. The venerable company had been housed in Banner since 1898, and a Lee had always been at the helm. Never a woman, of course.
Until now. That was mostly due to the fact that none of Ellie’s brothers had possessed an interest in facts and figures, nor the knack for math that it took to analyze statistics. By contrast, Ellie could eat and breathe mathematics. And so, it had been she, not her male siblings, who had spent hours visiting her dad at work.
By age five, she’d picked out her own office, right next door to Daddy Eddie, and on her tenth birthday, he’d placed a gold plaque on the door, engraved with her name.
“How ‘bout that, Ellie girl,” her dad had said. “One day, all this really will be yours.”
Now that same office was stacked high with statistical manuals and files of client information. Soon, as her father had always promised, that old plaque would come down and the new one would replace it. The one that said, “President.”
“Daddy’s retiring in a week,” she suddenly whispered in a rush. “We don’t have much time, Robby. I want him to know…how things are between us.”
Dammit, why was she so spineless? So closemouthed? Why couldn’t she just say she really wanted to get married? After all, her best friend, Susannah, had been married for six years now, even if her and J.D.’s road had turned a little rocky. And yet…even though she was a modern woman it wasn’t really a woman’s place to ask a man for his hand. Hell, she was going to be the president of a company by this time next week, but there were still some things in life a man had to do.
Besides, there was another uncomfortable fact, in that Robby was going to report to her. As macho as he was, she could only hope he wouldn’t have trouble dealing with that. Certainly, they’d traded a lot of jokes about the possibility. And he didn’t seem to mind…
Why should he? she thought now. The company had been in her family for a century, and she’d grown up under the strict tutelage of her father. Oh, Robby was good, of course. Better than she at some aspects of the job, in fact. Maybe he was even completely on a par. But the bottom line remained. Having a Lee in the top spot was an unbroken tradition. “Really,” she began again. “We need to talk to Daddy.” She started to continue, but something in his eyes stopped her, and instead, she squinted and said, “What?”
“I…I have something to ask you.”
Her heart pounded against her ribs. He was going to ask her to marry him, she realized. Right now. In this very instant of time. Inadvertently, her lips parted and she breathed in deeply, bracing herself. She wanted to savor this moment, so she could remember it always. “Yes?”
“Would you mind terribly if…”
Her cheeks heated, her heart bursting with feeling. He was such a guy. A man’s man. Of course it wasn’t easy for him to ask…“If?” she encouraged.
“If your dad gave me the job?” He paused. “You know, running the company.”
Everything froze. For a second, all thoughts were vanquished from her mind. Surely, she hadn’t heard right. “What?”
“He…pulled me aside last week.”
“Last week!” That was impossible. Daddy Eddie had pulled her aside last week.
“I know you’re going to be mad, but just hear me out. I think he knows, or suspects, or…”
“Suspects what?”
“That we…”
Barely aware of her actions, and working on sheer revulsion, she squirmed out from under him and got up, taking the sheet with her. “That we were sleeping together?” she managed, whirling to face him. Not that she knew why, but just now, he’d become a stranger before her very eyes.
“I think it’s possible,” Robby said, reaching and trying to grab her hand, which she snatched away. “Oh, c’mon, don’t be a spoilsport,” he teased.
“Spoilsport?” she could only echo, turning on him, then leaning to gather her clothes. Quickly, she slipped a knit dress over her head and shoved her feet into ballet flats, not bothering to find her panties as he rose from the bed and closed the distance between them.
Two large hands clamped on her waist, and against her will, she shuddered as he drew her against him. She might hate him at the moment, but his body was hard, hot, male and naked, and he’d left her half aroused. Suddenly, she ached for him.
“Your dad and I talked about it,” he said firmly.
Didn’t he understand that he might as well have slapped her in the face? That this was the ultimate in the loss of trust? “Whatever we’ve done here…” she managed to begin, her voice raspy, altered by the horrible sting of betrayal. “In this bedroom, and at my house…”
“I didn’t tell him anything, Ellie.”
“That’s not the point.”
“And the point is?”
“Look, we never talked about it. But mixing business and pleasure was a really bad idea. I see that now,” she managed.
His grip tightened. “Liar. You know how serious this is,” he muttered, sounding stunned.
“Well,” she defended. “I guess I did feel we had an understanding…that you and I were a couple.”
“We are.”
“But we were going to tell Daddy about us. You and me, Robby. Together.”
Dammit, this was par for the course. Like when her dad and brothers created their own little club. Her mom had tried to turn her into a girly girl, but Ellie had inherited her father’s talent and knack for business. And now…she was nowhere.
Left out in the cold. If the job was really Robby’s…she could never look at him again.
Her
