Читать книгу The Boss, the Baby and Me - Raye Morgan - Страница 8

The man had to go.

Jodie Allman glared at Kurt McLaughlin, head of the marketing department of Allman Industries, as he went on talking earnestly to Mabel Norton. Office hours were long over and Mabel was on her way home, her handbag slung over her shoulder. Kurt didn’t glance Jodie’s way as he conversed with the director of Hospitality Services, but she knew that he knew she was standing there across the office floor, waiting for further instructions.

“One…two…three…” she whispered to herself, tapping her foot as she counted. Counting to ten was a primitive but well-honored way of keeping control of her temper. It was probably time she moved on to more sophisticated methods—such as finding a way to get the man out of her life.

“It’s such a simple thing,” she told herself for the hundredth time that week, pushing her thick, blond hair back behind her ear in a gesture of impatience. “My father owns this company. Why the heck can’t I get him to announce one particular layoff?”

Of course, she hadn’t actually tried. Thinking about having Kurt thrown out on his ear was infinitely satisfying. But actually watching him pack up his meager belongings in a cardboard box and carry them sadly to his truck while the female support staff sobbed helplessly and shot daggers at Jodie would be another thing entirely. She wasn’t nearly the tough-as-nails independent woman she would like to pretend.

The frustrating thing was, it really seemed that no one else could see through Kurt McLaughlin the way she could. Even the others in her family didn’t seem to take the threat he posed seriously. And all her coworkers around here adored him. The fact that he was over six feet tall with a build right out of a woman’s fantasy and a face handsome enough to turn heads in the cafeteria didn’t hurt. The auburn hair that always looked a little wind-ruffled, and the green eyes that seemed to scan a woman right down to her heart and soul, were added attractions that muddied the waters for most females. They were so busy being bowled over by his admitted charms that they didn’t notice what he was up to.

She’d only been back in town and working for him for a few weeks, but she’d gotten his number right away. Once you realized what his game was, it was just so obvious.

Suddenly she noticed he was looking up at her, though he was still talking to Mabel. And to her astonishment, he was crooking his finger in her direction. Crooking his finger!

Well, that did it. There was no way she was dashing up, like a little, woolly dog, to a man who crooked his finger at her. She wasn’t going to wait around any longer, either. It was way past time to go home. The three of them were probably the only people left in this ancient building, as it was. With one last baleful look in his direction, she turned on her heel and strode for the elevator, heading back up to her office to get her things.

“Hey.”

It took her a moment to realize he was coming after her. Quickly, she jabbed at the Close Door button, and the doors began to move. But he was too fast for her, stepping into the elevator, and reaching across her to jab at the “stop” button. She hit the Close Door button again, just for emphasis, and he turned to grin at her as the doors opened, closed and opened again, before finally grounding together with a screeching of gears.

His grin faded fast.

“Uh-oh,” he said, turning to look at the control panel.

The elevator shot up a dozen feet or so, then shuddered to a stop, complaining loudly.

“Uh-oh,” Jodie echoed, agreeing with him for the first time in recent memory.

An eerie silence reigned while they both stared at the control panel, hoping for a sign of life. Then Kurt sprang forward and tried one button after another, getting absolutely no response. Alarmed, Jodie stepped forward, as well, and did the same, pushing every button twice. There was absolutely no indication that the buttons were connected to anything.

“Look what you did,” Kurt muttered darkly. “We’re stuck.”

“What I did?” she responded, throwing him a smoldering glare. “You’re the one who forced your way onto my elevator ride.”

“I had to do that. You were trying to escape.”

“Escape!” she choked, as she fought back the retort she was tempted to make. She took a deep breath.

Calm. We must remain calm. This is, after all, your current boss. Such as he may be.

“I was standing there waiting for you, trying to catch your attention for ages, but you were talking away to Mabel Norton as though it was the most important thing you’d done all day.”

“It was. The most important thing in my world, at any rate.” His face softened. “I was getting some advice on finding child care for Katy.”

“Oh.” She winced, knowing only too well how he felt about his young daughter.

“I’ve been having some trouble finding someone to care for her during the day.” His look sharpened. “You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who might like a baby-sitting job, would you?”

She backed away, hands out. “Sorry. I don’t know much about babies. Or about those who like to care for them, for that matter.”

“Yes, I realized you weren’t big on babies from the first,” he said dryly.

That startled her a bit. She didn’t know what she’d done to give him that impression, and something about the unemotional way he’d put it made her uncomfortable. But let’s face it, babies made her uncomfortable.

Still, that was hardly the point. They had larger problems at the moment. Here they were, caught together in an old elevator in a building that should have been torn down years ago. But it was considered a historic landmark by the mavens of this Texas cow-country town of Chivaree. Things like this just didn’t happen. Did they?

It seemed they did. But everything had been a little out of whack ever since she’d returned to her hometown after an absence of almost ten years and found a McLaughlin in a position at Allman Industries that she never would have expected a McLaughlin to have. And then she’d been told she’d be working for him. That had certainly gone against the grain.

She’d grown up thinking of all McLaughlins as the elitist enemy, the rich people up on the hill, looking down their noses at the Allmans and their ilk. Yes, “ilk” had been a word she’d heard used about her family. She’d never been too clear on what it meant, but she did know it was a way of being condescending toward her kind. And she knew enough about some pretty unsavory incidents in the far past that had poisoned relations between the two clans—and probably always would.

Throughout her childhood, the Allmans had always been scrambling for pennies while the McLaughlins were happily buying up the entire town. There had been times when her family might even have skimmed the edges of the law just a bit here and there. But knowing that had only hardened the resentment she’d felt when others in this town whispered that the Allmans were a shiftless rabble always out for a fast buck.

And now, miraculously, the tables had turned. Her father, Jesse Allman, had somehow managed to make a go of a business, to the surprise of even his own children. In fact, his winery had grown so quickly, it was now the major employer in town. Not many people insulted him to his face these days but prejudices weren’t easy to overcome. She had a good idea what the folks of Chivaree really thought about her family.

And she thought she knew what Kurt McLaughlin’s true agenda was, since she’d found him happily ensconced in the management of her father’s company when she had returned. Of all people—why did it have to be him? She turned back to look at the man and found him on the intercom, trying to find help.

“Hello. Hello! We’re stuck in the elevator.”

They both listened for a long moment, but there was no answer. He turned and looked at her. “There’s no one in the utility room,” he said, frowning.

“Obviously,” she agreed, trying not to think about the fact that there was probably no one at all left in the building but the two of them. Mabel Norton would have headed for the parking lot the moment Kurt dashed off toward the elevator. And everyone else had gone long ago. Their only hope was to find a way to communicate to the outside world. “Isn’t there an alarm?”

“An alarm. Of course.” He reached for it, pulling the lever out. Nothing happened.

“Maybe you pulled it too slowly,” she said, starting to feel real apprehension seeping in. “Try it again. Give it a good jerk.”

He tried again then turned to her, the lever dangling from his fingers. “Oops,” he said.

She bit her lip and forced back the comment that would have been only natural at a time like this. “Well then,” she said carefully, avoiding his gaze. “Since neither of us seems to have a cell phone handy, I guess we’ll just have to wait.”

“Wait?” He ran a hand through his thick, auburn hair, staring at her as though he thought she might really know the answer. “Wait for what?”

“For someone to realize we’re missing.”

He turned away impatiently, then turned back and met her dark gaze with his own brilliant one. “Everyone’s gone home,” he said gruffly, as though he’d just realized that fact.

She gulped. He was right. They could be here for a long time. This was not good.

“We’re stuck here until someone tries to use the elevator and it doesn’t arrive,” he said, making the obvious deduction. “It’s just you and me, kid.”

In her wildest dreams, she’d never imagined a more unexpected scenario. She reached out to steady herself against the side railing. Suddenly the air seemed too thick, and his shoulders seemed too wide, looming in her way as they filled the elevator car. And in his well-tooled cowboy boots, he seemed even taller than his normally imposing height.

“This is your worst nightmare, isn’t it?” He appeared to be a mind reader among his other annoying talents, though he’d said it with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said primly, concentrating on the inspection certificate on the wall. The official-looking document claimed all was well with this horrible machine. The document was lying.

“Don’t you?” He laughed softly.

She risked a look at him and immediately regretted it. “Are you trying to tell me that you enjoy being stuck in an elevator?” she demanded.

He considered her question for a moment, one eyebrow raised. “That’s not as easy to answer as you might think,” he told her. “Circumstances could be the deciding factor. After all, if I was stuck with Willy from the mailroom, he’d whip out a deck of cards, and we’d be playing gin so hard we would forget about the time. Or if it was Bob from Accounting, he’d be telling me fascinating stories about his time in the Special Forces during Desert Storm. And Tiana from the art department might give me a demonstration of the new belly dancing classes she’s been taking.”

Jodie made a sound of impatience, hoping to keep him from going on with this. “Yes, but you’re not stuck with all those wonderful, interesting people. You’re stuck with me.”

“Yes, you.” His white teeth flashed in an impudent grin, and his gaze ran up and down the length of her, making her wish she hadn’t worn the snug, blue sweater and tight, denim skirt that showed off her figure with maybe just a bit too much flare. Then he challenged her teasingly. “So what are you good for?”

She wanted to turn and flounce off, but that was impossible under the circumstances. A flounce like that would land her smack up against the opposite wall. So she settled for trying to look bored with it all.

“Nothing, I guess,” she said, letting a tiny hint of sarcasm curdle her tone.

When he leaned his long, muscular body against the wall, her gaze was magnetically drawn to the sleek slacks molded tightly across his thighs.

“Come on, Jodie,” he said. “Don’t sell yourself short. The way I see it, you’re certainly good for a laugh.”

That startled her, and she looked at him quickly, ready to resent whatever he had to say. “What are you talking about?”

He shrugged. “Your stock in trade, of course. The McLaughlin-Allman feud. You carry it around on your shoulders as though it were still 1904, and I just stole your father’s favorite broodmare.”

She drew herself up. Now he was really treading on her territory. “It’s the Allman-McLaughlin feud,” she said, correcting him icily. “And I have no idea why you think it’s a factor in my life.”

“Oh, yes, you do.” His gaze hardened and he moved restlessly. “You’re one of the few, you know. Most around here have given up on it.”

“That’s what you think.” She wished she could recall the words the moment they left her lips. Because the trouble was, she was afraid what he’d said might be true. She did seem to be one of the few who remembered the feud. What had happened to it, anyway? When she’d lived here growing up, it pervaded life in this town like nothing else had.

“So that’s it, isn’t it?” he said. “That’s what’s had you treating me like someone you need to watch around the silverware. You just can’t get past the whole feud.”

She gave up all pretense. “Neither can any of us,” she said stoutly.

“That’s not true. Look at me.”

She didn’t want to look at him. Looking at him was likely to get her into a lot of trouble. But she did it anyway.

And for the first time, she really saw him as the others did—not as an underhanded opponent in a quarrel that had its roots in her ancestral background, but as a man who had a really engaging grin and a dynamic presence crackling with potent masculinity. And her body reacted so intensely that her heart started to race and a quiver snaked its way down her spine. When their eyes met for a beat too long, she had the unsettling feeling he really could see inside her heart and soul.

“So you think you’ve changed everything?” she said, hoping he didn’t notice the breathlessness in her voice.

“No.” He shook his head. “No, I didn’t change everything. When you come right down to it, your father was the one who changed everything.”

“By hiring you, you mean?”

“Sure. I guess you know they weren’t exactly cheering him in the street at the time.”

He said it as though he admired Jesse Allman for crossing the line. Jodie looked up at him in consternation. Did he really think her father had done that out of the goodness of his crusty ole heart? Was he really that clueless?

No, that wasn’t it; he wasn’t stupid. But neither was she. She’d known from the first that Kurt had an agenda of his own. Why else would he be here, working at Allman Industries, charming the heck out of everyone in sight? He could pretend all he wanted that the past was the furthest thing from his mind. She knew better. She knew McLaughlins. It had been a McLaughlin who had almost ruined her life. But that was another story.

Still, knowing what McLaughlin men were like meant she knew she had to get away from Kurt’s influence. Taking a step into the center of the elevator, she put her hands on her hips and looked around her.

“Enough of this. I think we ought to concentrate on how we’re going to get the heck out of here.”

He watched her lazily. “Get out of here, eh? Great idea. What exactly do you suggest?”

“Well…” She scanned the walls and the ceiling, then saw something interesting. “Look up there. Isn’t that a trapdoor to the top of the elevator unit? Maybe we could open it. Shouldn’t you climb up there and see?”

She looked at him expectantly. He gave her a quizzical look, still lounging against the wall, giving every indication of being perfectly content to stay right where he was. “Me?”

“Why not you?” she asked a bit impatiently. “Don’t men always do that in movies?”

He looked up at the supposed opening, which was more than two feet over his head, and nodded. “Sure. In movies.” Looking back down, he favored her with a caustic look. “Just exactly how do you picture me getting up there? Am I supposed to sprout wings, or pull out my suction shoes for wall-walking?” He cocked an eyebrow when she didn’t answer. “Pole-vault, maybe?”

She licked her lips and frowned. “I don’t know. How do those men in the movies usually do it?”

He shrugged. “I could try climbing on your shoulders,” he suggested mildly. “Other than that, I don’t see a way up.”

She didn’t bother to roll her eyes, though she certainly felt like doing so. “There must be some way,” she muttered, frowning as she gazed about for inspiration.

He went back to looking at the small trapdoor. “And once I got up there,” he mused, “who knows what sort of electrical wiring is lurking on the other side of the door, just waiting to fry the unsuspecting adventurer.” He turned to look at her with amusement. “Tell you what. I could probably lift you up to the opening. How about you climbing up there and seeing what can be done?”

“Are you crazy?”

He shrugged as though he were disappointed in her response. “Give the woman a chance to be a hero, and what does she do?” he murmured.

“We don’t need a hero,” she retorted. “What we need is some competence.”

“Ouch. I suppose you consider that a direct hit.”

“No. A glancing blow, maybe.” She sighed, shoulders sagging. Verbal jousting with the man was all very well, but it wasn’t going to get her out of the situation. “Look, I know climbing up out of this thing is probably not doable. But it’s just so frustrating being stuck here. Can’t you think of anything?”

His green eyes flickered with something she couldn’t quite identify, but he spoke calmly. “I believe in trying to make the best of any given predicament,” he said. “So I look at this as worthwhile. It’s a good opportunity for us to get better acquainted.”

“Better acquainted!” She gaped at him. “I don’t need to be better acquainted with you. I’ve known you all my life.”

He shook his head. “Not true.”

She threw out her hands, palms up. “What do you call knowing you from birth?”

“You’ve known of me. You haven’t really known me. And I haven’t known you.” He gave her a slow smile. “We’ve been like ships passing in the night, existing side by side, but hardly paying any attention to one another. We need to get to know each other a little more intimately.”

There was something in the way he said that which caused her to take a quick step backward. From her new position of security in the corner of the elevator car, she gazed at him levelly. Was this all part of his plan? Was he trying to subvert her the way he’d done with the rest of the people around here?

“I don’t think we need to know each other better at all. We’ve got a nice, cool working relationship. Professional and businesslike. Let’s leave it at that.”

“Is that really what you think we have?” he asked innocently. “I thought we had a thing going where I was the boss and you were the recalcitrant, embittered employee who was always second-guessing her management.”

That about nailed it, she had to admit. She lifted her chin defiantly. “Is that a problem for you?”

He laughed. “No, it’s not a problem. A diversion, perhaps, but not a problem.” His expression changed. “And I guess it gives you the illusion of keeping the flame going on our families’ blasted feud, doesn’t it?”

She wasn’t going to answer that, and he knew it. Instead of prodding her, he opened a new topic.

“So tell me, Jodie. Why did you come back?”

She knew what he was asking. It was a question everyone who moved back to Chivaree got at one time or another. Most people were astonished that someone would come back to this dusty town after having made good their getaway. She decided to be frank about it.

“I came back because Matt showed up on my doorstep one day and told me that I had to.”

Matt was her brother, the oldest in her family. He was even a few years older than Kurt.

“Had to?” he echoed back to her in disbelief. “And you did what someone else told you to do without a qualm?” He shook his head in wonder. “I’ll have to ask him what his secret is.”

She lifted her chin. “He made a compelling case.”

He nodded slowly. “I see. And then you showed up in Chivaree, arrived at the office to go to work and found out you were going to have to work for me, at least for the short run.”

“Yes.”

“That must have been one of your darker days.”

She turned and glared at him, stung by the way he was continually making fun of her. “Will you stop? It’s not permanent. I’ll be moving on to some other department in a month or so.” It was her father’s brilliant plan that she should sample each area of the business to get a solid foundation in the company. “In the meantime, I can handle it.”

“Can you?” An expression of wary skepticism crossed his handsome face. “You give every indication of hating every minute of our precious time together.”

“I do not.” She bit her tongue. If she wasn’t careful, this could turn into a silly shouting match. A new tack was called for. She took a deep breath and started on one. “But you left town before I did. Why did you come back?”

She’d heard the cover story, that his wife had died and left him with their baby, so he’d returned to where his extended family could help him take care of the child. But she had her doubts. And wasn’t he hunting around for someone to baby-sit his daughter? That pretty much gave the lie to that excuse.

No, Kurt McLaughlin had an agenda. She was pretty sure she had a clue what it might be, too. And she could bet it had something to do with ruining things for the Allmans. After all, that was the pattern set over a hundred years ago by their great-grandfathers. The McLaughlins were always supposed to win, and the Allmans were always supposed to end up with their faces in the dirt.

“Okay, I’ll tell you why I came back,” he said slowly, turning his face and staring at the wall. “Believe it or not, I came back because I love this old town.”

“What?” She gaped at him.

Chivaree was not one of those adorable little towns people wrote songs about. Things had improved lately, but it was still a windswept, dusty place that the interstate bypassed years ago. People didn’t flock to Chivaree. People cashed in their chips and headed out for brighter lights as soon as they could scrape together the carfare.

From what she’d heard, he’d spent a good number of years in New York City. She’d noticed that his voice still had a nice Texas drawl, but it was subtle. So he hadn’t gone completely citified.

“It’s true,” he went on, his voice low and gravelly. “And when things seemed to fall apart for me out there in the big world, the only thing I could think of was coming back to Chivaree. Coming home.”

Coming home to heal was the feeling implicit in his voice.

For just a moment, she believed him. He sounded so sincere, and there was some sort of emotion in his face, a hint of pain, deep down. For just a flash, she bought it.

But she stopped herself quickly. He was smart, all right. He was giving her exactly the story that was most likely to touch her heart and make her believe. He was playing with her heartstrings in a very disturbing way. She had to get out of here before she fell for this stuff.

He’d turned back, and was pulling off his tie and loosening the neck of his shirt, pulling open buttons as though they were snaps. Darkly tanned skin with just a hint of chest hair appeared before her horrified gaze.

“Is it just me,” he said huskily, his eyelids drooping, “or is it getting hot in here?”

Her pulse was racing. One moment, he set out the emotional trap. Now, the physical one was laid out in front of her, just waiting for her to step into it. And darn it all if her own traitorous body wasn’t swooning like a lovesick puppy, even as she disdained the obvious way he was approaching her.

Turning away abruptly, she quickly changed the subject. “I’m not hot at all,” she said with an emphasis he surely couldn’t miss. “But I am hungry. For food,” she added quickly. Glancing back, she was chagrined to see that his eyes were gleaming wickedly.

“Are you?” he responded.

She turned back to face him, chin-high. “Desperately. I skipped lunch to get those preliminary sketches out to the art department.” She grimaced. “I wish I had my purse.”

“Why?” He pretended to look about the car. “Is there a food machine here I missed?”

“No, I’ve got a candy bar in it.”

“Hmm.” He plunged a hand down into the pocket of his crisply tailored slacks. “Look what I found. A roll of peppermints.”

“Oh.” She looked at them longingly. She really was hungry, and her mouth was so dry.

“Here.” He offered the roll to her after he’d popped one into his own mouth. She hesitated, but hunger overcame her inhibitions.

“Thanks,” she said shortly, taking a mint and sighing as the sparkling sugar did its work.

“You see?” he said softly, as he watched her. “I’m even willing to share my last meal with you.”

She started to say something. It was surely going to be a scathing retort, something that would knock him back on his heels for good. Unfortunately, the words themselves were lost to history, because the breath she took in to help facilitate her clever words shot what was left of the peppermint right down her throat. Now, instead of putting him in his place, she was choking.

“Here.” A man of action, he took matters in hand immediately, giving her a couple of sharp thumps on the back. When that didn’t seem to dislodge the little intruder, he turned her quickly and wrapped his arms around her from behind for the Heimlich maneuver.

“Hey,” she protested with a cough, before he got in a good thrust. “Stop! I’m okay.”

He relaxed, but for some reason his arms didn’t remove themselves from around her waist. “Are you sure?” he said, his voice just a bit husky, and his face so close to hers, she could feel his warm breath on her neck.

“Yes, I’m sure.” She pushed against him, but he didn’t release her. “Kurt, let go!”

Turning her head, she met his gaze. And then something magical happened. It wasn’t just that she suddenly noticed the golden flecks in his green eyes. It wasn’t even the electric sizzle that began to spread everywhere his body was touching hers. But suddenly she was filled with a longing so deep, so overwhelming, it took her breath away. She wanted to be kissed. She wanted to be kissed by Kurt McLaughlin.

“Oh,” she said softly, like a woman in a trance, her gaze fixed on his generous mouth. She tilted her head, her own lips parted, a yearning coursing through her. And for just a moment, she was sure it was going to happen.

And then he was pulling away, leaving her tottering off balance and feeling as though he’d thrown cold water on her. Feeling like a fool.

At least he didn’t laugh at her. Shooting back his cuff, he looked at his wristwatch, suddenly all business.

“Oh, dammit, it is getting late. I’m way overdue for picking Katy up. We’d better get some help so we can get out of here.”

Reaching behind her, she steadied herself with a hand on the railing. What was he saying? “Get some help?” she asked him, still breathless and embarrassed. “What are you talking about?”

Flipping back the tail of his suit coat, he pulled out something that had been attached to his belt. Staring openmouthed, Jodie saw a cell phone in his hand.

“I’ll just make a call,” he said innocently. “Hope the battery is still good. If so, we’ll get out of here in no time.”

She shook her head and blinked to clear her mind, then gave a sound of outrage. “You mean you’ve had that with you this whole time?” she cried. “Why didn’t you say so when I asked?”

“You never actually asked if I had one—you just assumed I didn’t,” he murmured. He opened the phone and began punching in a number. “Hi, Jasper? Sorry to bother you, but we’ve got a problem here at the office. I’m going to have to ask you to come back in and help me get out of the elevator.”

Murder. That was what was called for here. Something quick and painless, when he wasn’t looking. No jury in the world would convict her. Groaning, she closed her eyes and clenched her fists at her side. If she hadn’t despised him before, she now had plenty of reason to start.

But that was his plan, wasn’t it? Abruptly, she opened her eyes again and glared at his pleased smile. Something had to be done about this man!