“I—”
“Consider…The words of that gossiping pair distressed you and yet you know them to be false. Your father has no need to buy you either a husband or a lover.” He accentuated his words with a small squeeze of her shoulder. “You are lovely and gentle, a woman any man would be lucky to claim.”
Now she’d forced him to fabrication to get out of the sticky situation. She made herself smile. “Thank you.” she said.
The stunning angles of his face relaxed in relief and he returned the smile.
Good. If she could convince him she was fine, he would let her leave and she could find someplace to lick her wounds in private.
No one else would notice if she disappeared from the party. Well, perhaps Edward, her colleague from the women’s shelter would notice. Only she had left him thoroughly engrossed in a debate ov
Tess pulled a white business card for the women's shelter from the top drawer of the escritoire in the small study attached to her suite of rooms.As she turned to head back downstairs, she realized it was less than ten minutes before midnight. The party would be over soon. She stopped and stared at the ornamental desk clock, biting her lip.She had to admit she was enjoying this little time with Dash Black. She had always admired him... From a distance of course. Like everyone else, Dash hardly took any notice of her, and she had been very surprised when he had spoken to her and even asked her to keep him company.He was very handsome and she was sure women threw themselves at him. Her stomach tightened at the thought of watching Dash with some gorgeous woman. And there were plenty of them downstairs.Rich businessmen attracted beautiful women who had a chic she envied and could not hope to emulat
He would kiss her gently, nothing too involved.He did not want to frighten her, but he owed her this small concession for having made her cry. Buying furniture for her women's shelter would not cut it.That was money, but the insult had been personal and this was personal atonement.His lips touched hers and she trembled. He gently tasted her with his tongue.She was sweet and her lips were soft. They were still parted and he decided to go a step further. He wanted to taste the warmth and wetness of her mouth. So he did.And it was good, better than he would have thought possible.Her tongue tentatively brushed against his and heat surged through his male flesh. He wanted more, so he took it, moving one hand to her back and pressing her into him. She went completely pliant against him, molding her body to his like molten metal over a cast figure. Using the hand on her back, he lifted h
She was fairly certain the whole thing had started as a pity kiss, but somewhere along the way, he’d actually gotten involved. So had she, but that was not so surprising.She’d wanted to kiss the tycoon for the better part of three years. It had been an impossible fantasy…until tonight. Then a combination of events had led to a kiss so devastating, it would haunt her dreams for years to come.She plopped down onto the side of her bed and grabbed a throw pillow, hugging it to herself.He had tasted wonderful.Had felt hard and infinitely masculine against her. Had smelled like the lover she desired above all others.And then he had thrust her from him like a disease ridden rodent. She punched the cushion in her lap. He had been enjoying the kiss. She was sure of it, but then her father had interrupted and Dash had acted embarrassed to be caught kissing her.
Neal Patchett tossed a report on the desk. “Read it.” he said.Dash hid his mounting fury as he crossed the room and then lifted the report to read. He did not sit down, but flipped through the pages while still standing. Outraged pride grew with each successive page and coalesced into lava like fury when he read the final page.It was a recommendation by Neal Patchett to merge with Black Shipping’s number one competitor. If that were not bad enough, it was clear that while the other company would maintain their business identity, Black Shipping would cease to exist.He tossed the report onto the gleaming surface of the walnut desk. “You are not trying to buy your daughter a husband, you are trying to blackmail one.” he said angrily.Neal shrugged broad shoulders, not even slightly stooped by his more than Sixty three years. “Call it what you like, but
“Not anymore you don’t. You’re out of here.” Lamar said.Savannah paled and stared at him as panic rolled through her chest. “You’re firing me?” she asked, dreading his reply.“You walked out yesterday during our busiest time. No word, no nothing. You didn’t come back. What the hell did you expect? And now you’re back here this morning and I have a diner full of pissed-off customers because you don’t have your head on right. You did the same thing two weeks ago and I decided to ignore that.” Lamar hissed.She took a deep breath and tried to steady her nerves. “Please Lamar, I need this job. Yesterday… Yesterday I got sick, okay? It won’t happen again.” She said.“Damn right it won’t. I never should have hired you back in the first place.” He curled his lip
Neither of them said a word as Matt drove to her apartment. Which was fine with Savannah. The last thing she wanted was to have any kind of conversation with him. The earlier she got away from him the better.She was glad she accepted the ride home though. She felt tired and emotionally drained, but she wasn't going to tell him that.As soon as he parked the car in front of her apartment she got out and slammed the door shut. Then she proceeded to go into the apartment."You are welcome" Matt said sarcastically as he got out too. Wondering how her getting fired was his fault. He hadn't even seen her for two weeks. He couldn't bring himself to leave though, so he followed her into the apartment.It annoyed him that her door wasn’t locked. Anyone could just walk in. He pushed it open to find her on her hands and knees, peering under the rickety recliner. She made a sound of frustration and then pushed hers
“If that’s what you want to call it. I really don’t care. You need a job. And a better place to live. To be honest I'm glad you don't work at that diner anymore. They don't pay you enough and I know you wanted to finish your classes back then. I don't know if you still do, but I want to help. I'm not sure why, but no matter what has happened between us, I still care about you and I want to help you”Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You just want to help? Just like that.”He nodded, not bothering to tell her that there wasn’t any opening at his firm and he planned on creating one just for her. After what she did to him, he knew he was the biggest idiot on the face of the earth for wanting to help her but he couldn't help it. Dash was right. He was an idiot.Savannah hesitated for a while. Working for him was not a good idea. She was sure of that. She could barely stand seein
Surprised by the aggressive tone in her friend’s voice, Tess said, “Yes. He’s a business associate of my father's.”“He looks more like a don in the Mafia to me.” David replied.“Well, he is not,” she teased, “he’s a tycoon, not a loan shark.”“Is there a difference?” David asked.She didn’t get a chance to reply because Dash had started walking toward them the moment David stopped and he arrived at her side just as David finished speaking.Regardless of her wish to never see the man again, her eyes hungrily took in every detail of his face, the strong squarish jaw, the enigmatic expression in his dark brown eyes and the straight line of his sensual lips.“I have come to take you to dinner,” he said without preamble or indeed even the semblance of having aske