Читать книгу Some Kind of Incredible - Katherine Garbera - Страница 8

Late again, Lila Maxwell thought as she hurriedly closed the door to her third-floor apartment. She loved her home. It wasn’t much, a four-room apartment in an older but nicely kept building. She’d spent the last two years carefully decorating each part until her flat of rooms had become her dream home.

She ran down the stairs at a rapid pace because she liked the exercise. As an administrative assistant at Colette, Inc., the world famous jewelry company, Lila spent most of her time sitting. The early morning was dark and Lila longed just for a minute for the warmth of her native Florida. Youngsville, Indiana, had a great community, but the weather was sometimes too cold for this Florida girl.

“Lila, can you stop for a cup of coffee?” her landlady, Rose Carson, asked, stopping Lila in her tracks.

“Rose, I wish I could, but Nick’s due back today and I’d like to be in the office before he gets there.” Nick Camden was her boss. And the man of her dreams.

Not the girlish fantasies she’d entertained of a white knight who rescued her from the small government-subsidized duplex she and her mother had shared, but womanly fantasies of dark passion with a man who saw her for more than a nice collection of body parts. She flushed a little and hoped Rose didn’t notice.

“I have something for you. Wait here for a minute,” Rose said.

Lila loved her landlady. She was kind and caring and had made her feel at home when everything around her was very foreign. Rose’s apartment took most of the bottom floor. Warm and inviting, it made whoever entered feel that a caring, successful woman lived there. Lila hoped to create that for herself some day.

“Here it is, Lila.”

Rose handed her a beautiful piece of jewelry. A brooch made of amber and precious metal. It was almost heart-shaped and, though the term seemed inappropriate in the presence of something so precious, it was pretty. As Lila fingered it gently, she knew she shouldn’t wear it. “I can’t take this.”

She handed it back to Rose, but the woman refused to take it.

“Just borrow it for luck.”

“Thank you, Rose, but no. This is too valuable.”

“I want you to wear it. It needs to be on a pretty young lady.”

Rose brushed aside Lila’s coat and fastened the brooch to her suit jacket. Lila loved the brooch but she knew better than to take something this valuable. She tried to remove it, but Rose’s hand covered hers.

“Lila, it would mean a lot to me. It brought Mitch and me together. I like to think it brings love to the lives of those it touches.”

Rose got that misty look she often had when she spoke of her deceased husband, Mitch. Though her black hair had a few shades of gray, Rose was still attractive. Her figure was slim but slightly rounded, giving way to a more matronly style of dress. Unwilling to upset her neighbor, Lila decided to keep it for today and return the brooch tonight.

“Thanks, Rose. It is lovely. I have to go,” Lila said with a glance at her watch.

Rose nodded, and Lila hurried out into the cold. The sun was breaking over the horizon. It was nippy but not too cold for a walk to work. She lifted her face to the sun and pretended the high for today wasn’t only fifty degrees.

She loved the parks and trees full of fall colors. Yellows, browns, oranges and reds filled every space. Halloween, her favorite holiday, was right around the corner, she thought, attributing the extra bounce in her step to excitement.

Usually she had some company on her walks to work. Sometimes Jayne and Sylvie walked with her, but Jayne had recently gotten married and hadn’t been up so early in the mornings. And today she was too early for Sylvie.

Lila liked the fact that she had good friends here. It was as if she’d found the surrogate family she’d always been searching for. She really loved her life in Youngsville.

Not wanting to be late on Nick’s first day back, she hurried. In her purse was the banana bread she’d baked last night. In fact, she’d spent every night for the last week baking.

Lila always felt in control in her kitchen. She was the executive there and she knew her way around. It was easy for her to fool herself into believing that Nick Camden hadn’t almost kissed her while she was kneading dough and making sheets of sweet rolls.

A car slowed behind her. The low purr of an expensive machine told her it wasn’t one of the other Colette, Inc. secretaries offering her a ride. She kept her head down and walked. She wasn’t prepared to face Nick outside the office. In fact, he’d passed her a hundred times this summer and never once stopped to offer her a ride.

Men want only one thing from women like us, Lila. Her mother’s warning echoed in her mind. Her ex-boyfriend, Paul, had proved her mother right. She didn’t glance toward the car despite the warmth emanating from the open window.

“Want a lift, Lila?”

“No, thanks, I’m enjoying the crisp morning.” If only she could stop shivering.

“Liar,” he said, not unkindly.

He was right, she was lying. But that didn’t mean she was going to admit it. A car honked, and Nick waved the driver by. Lila wasn’t getting in the car with him, because after last week she didn’t trust herself. She’d spent all of her time in Indiana adjusting to the new community and her home, learning to be proficient at her job and making some casual friends. But she hadn’t been prepared for Nick Camden’s sexy gaze when he had turned it her way.

She’d dreamed of him kissing her and touching her, but when he’d leaned closer to her last week in the office, she’d frozen. Paralyzed with the fear that she would disappoint him, she’d backed away. But he had a gleam in his eyes that said retreat wasn’t possible.

Damn him. She tried to give him a reassuring smile and walked on. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Suit yourself, Florida girl, but it’s a cold morning and my car is warm and comfortable.”

He was temptation. He hadn’t been when she’d first started at Colette. But lately she’d been looking for a man who’d be serious with her. A man who wanted kids and a nice house. A husband who understood the importance of family.

Nick didn’t even register on her scope because he changed women every week. He wasn’t a playboy, but he never seemed content to stay with one woman. He was like a hungry wolf eating his fill and moving on. Lila wasn’t interested in being his next meal. If she thought there was even a remote possibility that Nick would stay with her, she’d give in to him.

But there wasn’t.

Almost two years ago she’d decided that Indiana was a place for fresh starts. She wasn’t going to get involved with any man unless she knew for certain it was right. Which meant no Nick Camden. No matter how heavy he made her blood run.

“Lila, I’ve been out of the office for a week. I need you to brief me on what’s been going on.”

Maybe she’d misinterpreted his intentions. She shrugged, and finally gave in. “Okay.”

She prided herself on being a good secretary and before the episode last week she’d never have hesitated to get in his car. He didn’t scare her on a conscious level, but her mind warned her to be wary of him. There was something about this very sophisticated man that wasn’t very civilized.

She slid into the plush leather seat and hurriedly fastened her seatbelt. She closed her eyes, letting the heat seep into her bones. A warm masculine scent surrounded her and she imagined Nick leaning over her. His breath brushing her lips.

Wait a minute!

Her eyes flew open and Nick’s face was a scant inch from hers. There was something electric in his eyes. Something that made her pulse race and her breasts tingle. Something masculine that called to every female instinct buried deep inside her. Made her want to indulge senses she kept firmly under lock and key, let them out and experiment with this very experienced man.

“Nick, what are you doing?” God, she could barely speak. She wanted to lean forward and taste him. To see if the sin his wicked mouth promised was as delicious as her fantasy assured her it would be.

“Fixing your seatbelt. It’s twisted.”

She couldn’t breathe as his fingers brushed against her breast. Her nipple tightened and she wanted to thrust her chest out so that he’d have to do more than accidentally caress her hungry flesh, but instead she bit her lower lip.

“There we go,” he said.

He pulled his hand away slowly and she wished she could see his eyes behind those dark sunglasses he wore. Nick was a master at seeming in control, but his eyes always gave him away.

Her pulse was still racing and she wanted to pull him back to her, wanted to feel his hard body pressed to her own softer one. Maybe Rose’s pin was working its magic, spinning a spell around Lila and her dream man.

Lila shook her head. If Nick wanted her it was for business and not in the way a man wanted a woman. He was too savvy to mess up a winning partnership with old-fashioned lust.

Nick put the car in gear. Sweat broke out on Lila’s body but it had nothing to do with the heat coming from the car. It had to do with the man sitting next to her. A man that she’d decided was off-limits. A man, she suddenly realized, who’d decided she was his next meal.

Nick knew that he’d unnerved Lila, but he couldn’t just drive by and not stop for her. It bothered him that he’d probably passed by her this summer without noticing. But not that much.

He’d never paid much attention to her as a woman except to note that she complemented him nicely, being blond and built. She made them look good when he had visitors or when they attended meetings together. To him, Lila represented the perfect office assistant, someone who knew her job but was also pleasing to the eye.

All of that had changed after he’d returned from Paris in early September. Lila had seemed softer somehow. She’d chatted with him casually before taking a memo and he instantly knew something was different. Actually he knew exactly what had changed.

His reaction to her.

He’d gone on point like a hunting dog scenting prey, and he’d been unable to shake this damned attraction to her. And she seemed oblivious, which made him want to get a reaction out of her even more.

“You were going to tell me about your trip,” she said.

Yeah, Camden. Now that you blackmailed her into your car, talk business. “I need you to prepare a presentation for the domestic guys with last quarter’s financials. I have the data in my briefcase.”

“I’ll clear my desk and work on it first thing.”

Nick nodded. Silence built in the car, and he realized he knew too little about Lila outside of work. He had no idea how she spent her free time. Lila was so homey sometimes he was amazed she’d chosen a career over a family. But she had. And now he wanted—no needed—to know why.

“You live at Amber Court, right?”

“Yes, why?”

“No reason. Do you like it?”

Oh, God, he sounded like an actor in a bad sitcom. He’d never tried to get to know someone he already knew. It seemed his MO needed a change but his focus on Lila was now purely physical.

“It’s nice, but I’ve dreamed of owning a two-story house with—”

“A white picket fence, right?”

She bit her lip and stared out the window.

He knew he’d sounded sarcastic, hell, he couldn’t help it. Reality was hard and cold when you spent most of your time in the dream world. And it seemed Lila Maxwell did a lot of dreaming.

Bothered that he’d hurt her, Nick changed the subject. He was not in the business of fixing hurts. He’d learned not to care after Amelia had slipped away from him into a drug-induced coma that was her only escape from the pain her cancer-ridden body felt—24/7.

“How was the office while I was gone?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

At first, he thought she wasn’t going to answer. She glanced over at him. She fingered her scarf with her pearl-pink colored nails and the image of those fingers on his thigh imprinted itself in his head.

“Not busy. A few more rumors than usual.”

Focus, man. “What kind?”

She smiled, and his inseam felt tight. Damn, but she caused a reaction that was close to nuclear in him.

“Oh, you know, the ones where we’re all booted out the door.”

“You think they’re unfounded?” Nick asked. He’d been hearing similar things overseas.

“I work close to the top and we haven’t heard anything substantial, have we?”

Nick sighed and grunted. The turn into Colette, Inc. was busy with employees all arriving at work, and though it didn’t require his full concentration, Nick gave himself to the task. He didn’t look at Lila again until he’d pulled his Porsche to a stop in the spot designated as his. He hoped for once that Lila’s sharp mind would miss his non-answer.

A quick glance at her showed she hadn’t. He pulled his keys from the ignition and reached for the door handle, but her hand on his arm stopped him.

“Have we, Nick?”

Lying went against the grain. Nick believed that life’s little lessons were best served cold. But Lila’s heart was in her big brown eyes and she looked scared. Though it had been a long, long time since he’d wanted to protect any woman, he suddenly didn’t want to shake Lila’s world.

He faced her and leaned close.

“Not yet.”

“That isn’t a no,” she said quietly.

The confines of the car put them so close together that he could feel each inhalation of air she took as she breathed. Staring at her pink lips, Nick wondered idly if his breath was now filling her lungs, filling her body with life, and he had the urge to fill her with something more real. He didn’t want to be satisfied with the fact that their appearance impressed vendors and visiting executives in the office. He wanted them to be together, physically.

Nick knew on a basic level that he was trying to hide from the fact that his safe haven, Colette, Inc., had turned into a battleground, but it was more than that. He leaned closer to Lila, not stopping until he could taste the air she was breathing, her lips softening under his, her hand on his arm clutching helplessly at his sleeve.

He knew that he was in for a world of hurt if he pursued her this way. But the world had gone crazy, and the carefully sheltered life he’d built for himself was crumbling. The only thing that looked solid was Lila Maxwell.

Lila moaned deep in her throat and opened her mouth under his. All thoughts of keeping things light and simple vanished. His blood roared in his ears, and his body screamed for more. Her mouth was soft, warm, wet…welcoming on this cold October day.

She clung to him as if the moment had taken her by surprise, too. Her tongue responded shyly to his. It had been forever since a woman hadn’t thrust her own tongue into his mouth before he’d even wanted her there.

Nick pulled her closer, groaning when the gearshift ground into his hip. He pulled away. “Damn.”

Lila stared at him as if she’d never seen him before. Her lips were swollen and her face was flushed. Tendrils of her perfectly styled hair surrounded her heart-shaped face. She was mussed and he wanted her more so.

He wanted that glorious hair spread on his navy pillowcase, those rosy lips swollen from his spent passion. He wanted his sweat and hers drying on their bodies. But he knew he couldn’t put the car in Reverse and take them both to his home where they could spend the day in his king-size bed.

“Damn.”

“You already said that.”

“Some things need repeating.”

Her hands trembled as she tucked the escaped strands back into place. “What happened here, Nick?”

“I want you, Lila.”

“Because of work?” she asked, not looking at him. Instead, she pulled her compact from her purse and repaired her lipstick.

Her armor was back and the dewy woman who’d been next to him just a minute before was gone. In her place was his ultra-efficient secretary. And he resented that. He couldn’t pull out a mirror and makeup and smooth away signs of passion as easily as she had. “Because of you.”

She gulped. “I’m not ready for this. I still think of you as my boss.”

“Well, start thinking of me as your man.”

He opened his door and got out. The air was cold but didn’t cool the heat flowing through him. He wasn’t going to be able to focus on anything in the office except that his wide cherrywood desk was big enough to support the weight of one slender blonde.

Lila met him on the sidewalk and brushed past him. He stopped her with a firm hand on her arm.

“What’s the hurry?”

“I don’t want anyone to see us coming in together.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. At least five people saw me pick you up this morning. And even more saw us pull into the parking lot.”

“True. But I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression.”

“Are you really that concerned with what others think?”

She nodded.

“Don’t be. They aren’t worth your time.”

“You only say that because it’s always the woman who comes out sounding like she’s easy.”

“Trust me, Lila, the last thing you are is easy.”

“I know that, but other women…”

“If anyone says anything to you, tell me and I’ll silence them.”

She smiled. “Like Hannibal?”

“No. Like Dirty Harry.”

“Death?”

“Intimidation.”

“You’re not as scary as you think you are.”

“Neither are you.”

“I’m not trying to scare you,” she said and walked quickly inside the building.

But you are, he thought. Because a part of him was afraid she’d mean more to him than any of the brief affairs he’d had since Amelia’s death two years ago, and that wasn’t in the cards.