“You’ve already said we’re captive for tonight and I never said the time together was a bad thing. I’m just trying to make it better by removing some of the remnants of the family feud for a few hours. We can always return to swords’ points.”
She laughed softly. “Deal. At least we can try. We’ll see how long it lasts.”
“Excellent,” he said, smiling at her. Again, there was a flicker in the depths of her eyes and his insides tightened. She was responsive to him, willing to flirt. She wanted to kiss, he was sure of it, but he was determined to wait until the right moment.
“So, Caitlin, tell me about professional photography. Do you have a studio somewhere?”
“Yes, I do in Houston as well as galleries in Houston and in Santa Fe. I have homes both places.”
“Impressive.”
She smiled as she peered over the edge of her drink at him. “You’re not really impressed. I like my work. Actually, I love my work.”
“And what kind of photography do you do?”
“Don’t sound as if I’m playing marbles for a living,” she said, her smile taking the bite out of her words. “I take pictures of people, families, children, celebs, pets. I specialize in black-and-white photography of people and children. I already know about you—the CEO of Benton Energy, Inc. Your father is retired now and you run the company. Your brother Gabe is CEO of Benton Drilling.”
“Right. Before hunger sets in, I’ll fire up the grill for steaks. I’ll put potatoes in to cook.” He went to the refrigerator to remove the steaks and put them on the grill.
While he cooked, she helped him get salads and water on the table. When she was finished, she perched on the bar stool nearest him to talk to him. “This is a wonderful patio. You can sit outside, yet you’re protected from the elements here.”
“I enjoy it when I’m here,” he said, glancing beyond the patio at the pool that was splashing as raindrops hit the blue surface. “No swimming in this weather.” Lightning streaked the sky in a brilliant flash. “If the lightning worries you, we can go inside.”
“I’m fine.”
“So what does worry you, Caitlin?”
“Losing the property, not being able to help the people who worked for Grandmother through the years.”
“I walked into that one.”
“So what worries you, Jake?”
“Business failure. My dad’s interference in my life.”
“You’re a little old for your daddy to interfere, especially since you’re running a large company,” she said and he detected the amusement in her voice.
“Oh, no. I have a manipulative father. At least he tries and I resist. It’s not quite the same for my brother. Sometimes I think Brittany dated Will out of rebellion against Dad’s constant attempt to dominate her life.”
She laughed. “That’s mind-boggling. You are definitely not the type to have someone try to control you.”
He grinned, turning from the steaks to sit near her for a few minutes. “I like your smile, your laughter. When you laugh, it’s a sunny spring day.”
“Thank you. That’s a nice compliment,” she replied. “Too bad you’re not Jake Smith and I’m not Caitlin Jones. The night might be incredibly different.”
“For tonight, we can try to be Jake Smith and Caitlin Jones. We’ve already agreed to forget business. Just stretch it a little more and pretend we don’t have family histories.”
“That’s a giant stretch with pitfalls all along the pathway, but it would have been nice,” she added and sipped her water.
He leaned down so his face was closer to hers and her eyes widened. “Try. You have an imagination. See me as someone you just met,” he urged, thinking she had the greenest eyes he had ever seen. Her perfume tormented him and her mouth was a constant temptation.
“While it’s an exciting prospect, it’s the way to disaster. Impossible,” she answered breathlessly and he was certain she felt the attraction, too.
“Coward,” he teased with a faint smile, wanting to lean the last few inches and kiss her. She tilted her face up another degree.
“Wicked man,” she replied, smiling to make light of her words.
It would be so easy to close the mere inches of distance and kiss her and she wanted the kiss as much as he, but he resisted. He wanted her to be eager to kiss with no hesitation. The tantalizing moments were building his desire. Hopefully, hers, too.
“Your steaks may be crispy now,” she remarked.
He hurried to flip the steaks. He turned, catching her studying him. “Now, wine with dinner?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you,” she replied and he moved behind the bar to get a bottle of Shiraz.
In a short time they were seated near the fireplace with dinner in front of them. She was a dainty eater, telling him about her gallery in Santa Fe while he mentally peeled away the blue Western shirt. His appetite for steak diminished. To his surprise, he wanted to see her again beyond tonight and he wanted to take her dancing so he could hold her in his arms.
Common sense told him to forget both things. As a Santerre, when they got down to business, she was going to be unhappy with him because he didn’t want to leave a Santerre house standing. The people who had worked for her grandmother could retire or find other jobs, he was sure. He would look into hiring them himself.
Out of sentiment Caitlin wanted the house she grew up in, but she spent little time here. She could move everything out of the house into another home elsewhere. He saw no valid reason to sell the place back to her and several reasons to turn her down. He didn’t want Santerres left in the county. He didn’t want to have to worry about Caitlin and that old house sitting in the center of his property, leaving part of the property out of his control. If Gabe struck oil, it would be even more important to own the land. While he had mineral rights, he didn’t want to have to drive around Caitlin’s holdings.
Was he being uncooperative because she was a Santerre? So what? It was his property, legally purchased and he couldn’t help if her half brother had not informed her about the sale or her father hadn’t included her in ownership. From all he’d heard, her father never had involved her in anything in his life. It was solely the grandmother who had adopted Caitlin to give her a Santerre life.
“Your grandmother has been gone now—what—five years?” Jake asked, trying to recall when he heard that Madeline Santerre had passed away.
“Yes. You have an excellent memory because I know that wasn’t a date that meant anything to you,” Caitlin replied, looking away. “I loved her with all my heart,” she added quietly. Her emotional answer indicated she probably cared so much for the people who had worked for her grandmother because she didn’t have anyone else. Her father and half brother had rejected her all her life. So had her birth mother in giving her up for adoption. “The minute Grandmother heard my mother planned
