eyes flashing.
“But I—”
She got a hand between them, waved it in his face. The rows of diamonds on the watch he’d given her the other day glittered in the light from the crystal chandelier overhead. “Just stop,” she commanded in a hot whisper. “Just listen.”
Fine with him. “Okay. What?”
“Let go of me.”
He didn’t want to let go. He never wanted to let go. He had a feeling she was only going to turn and stride away from him on those incredible long legs of hers. And he was fed up with waiting for his chance with her, tired to the bone of biding his time, of keeping it cool with her, when all he wanted was to take her down in flames.
“Let me go, Fletcher.”
Reluctantly he took his hands away and dropped them at his sides.
She didn’t run. Instead she drew herself up, straightening those fine shoulders, pointing that pretty chin high. “It’s this way, okay? I’m nuts for you. I can’t stop thinking about you. I keep trying to forget you but it’s not working. I broke up with Danny—or, I mean, Danny broke up with me. Because of you, because of … us. Because he saw us together Monday and he knew. He’s the best guy I’ve ever known, he’s the kind of guy I’d always dreamed about. And now he’s gone. Because of you.”
All this sounded pretty damn good to Fletcher—well, except for the part about the blue-collar boyfriend being so damn special. He asked wryly, “This is a problem?”
“Oh, very funny—and just tell me this. Tell me now. Have you got someone else, someone who loves you and thinks it’s just you and her?”
“Absolutely not.”
She blinked. “Well. That’s something, I guess.”
“Cleo, there’s no one.”
Her sweet lower lip quivered. She bit it to make it stop. “You know, even your sisters-in-law aren’t so sure about you—well, except for Celia. She told me to go for it. To take action. And look at me now. I guess that’s just what I am doing.”
“Action is good. Action is exactly right.”
“Oh, well. Yeah. You would say that.”
“You’ve been talking to Celia—and Jillian and Jane?”
“Yes, I have. We did lunch. Just now, as a matter of fact, up at Celia’s place. There was a very nice Chenin Blanc and I bawled my silly eyes out and told them everything. What do you think about that?”
He thought he wanted to touch her—everywhere. Now. But they were standing in a public hallway. A couple of plump tourists—a man and a woman in matching blue plaid shirts and khaki pants—had paused near the wall to take in the show. And a maid had stopped to watch, too. Fletcher only had to flick a glance at the maid and she scuttled off down the hall. The tourists, however, stayed right where they were. And there were others, strangers and one or two of his employees, striding past, not pausing but giving them way-too-interested glances as they went.
Cleo noticed their audience, too. “People are staring, you know that? We’re making a spectacle, you and me.”
Enough of this. He grabbed her hand. “Come on.”
Wouldn’t you know it? She dug in her heels. “To where?”
“My apartment.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. And don’t you have some meeting you just have to go to?”
“Nothing that can’t be rescheduled.”
“Well, this is pretty sudden, and I’m not sure if we should just—”
He moved in a little closer. A hot burst of something that might have been triumph blasted through him when she didn’t cringe away. He pitched his voice low. “Cleo, it’s not the least sudden. We’ve been moving toward this for a month, since that first meeting in my office, and I have counted every damn endless day. It’s too late to back out now. You’ve made your move. Now it’s my move. Will you please let me make it?”
She shut her eyes, shook her head. And then her eyelids popped open and she glared straight at him. “Tell me this isn’t really happening.”
“I can’t tell you that. Because—at last—it is.”
He led her along one hallway and then another, holding tight to her hand, pulling her onward, giving her no chance to stop and think it over, no chance to change her mind.
Cleo didn’t object. What was the use? In spite of all her doubts, she wanted this, she burned for it. Her blood sang through her veins and her belly felt hot and hollowed-out, hungry for the pleasure she knew he would bring her. She followed along, letting him lead her, until they reached the bank of elevators that included the one to his penthouse. He ushered her in ahead of him.
She went, in a sort of walking swoon of surrender. Once the car was swooping upward, he took out his cell phone and auto-dialed a number. “Marla,” he said. “Reschedule with Thacker. Cancel my five o’clock. I’ll reschedule that myself later … Yes … No.” He disconnected the call and instantly made another. “Celia?” Oh, God. “Yes. That’s right. It’s Fletcher. I’m with Cleo … Exactly. Will you pick up Ashlyn from preschool and keep her with you for a while?” And what was going to happen for a while? As if she didn’t know …”Thanks … Yes. I’ll pick her up by six.” He flipped the phone shut and slid it back into the inside pocket of his suit coat.
By then, they had reached the penthouse floor. The doors whooshed open. Fletcher took her arm again. The contact—the absolute command in his touch—made her knees go to jelly. They stepped out into the hallway side by side. She tried not to cling to him, not to sway against him on her wobbly legs. She tried to show a little pride in this … total sexual capitulation, for crying out loud. Light from the skylight above made the gorgeous inlaid floor beneath their feet seem to glow.
He punched a code into the box by the wide doors to his suite and then he led her into the foyer, where a pleasant-faced middle-aged woman greeted them.
“You won’t have to pick up Ashlyn, Mrs. Dolby,” Fletcher told her. “Celia will take her for a few hours.”
“Good enough, Mr. Bravo.” With a sweet smile, she turned and left them.
Fletcher still had her arm. “This way.” He guided her to the right, past the kitchen and the dining room and the family room where she had first met his daughter.
It seemed years ago somehow, that other day he’d brought her up here, the day she’d said yes to his plans for KinderWay. Forever ago. When she had still been able to tell herself that what was happening right now wouldn’t happen, when she still believed that she would stay with Danny, that he was the right man for her.
She had no such illusions now. Now she understood that this attraction between her and Fletcher was too powerful to deny. It was exactly what she hadn’t been looking for, but it was also something she could no longer escape.
He released
