Читать книгу Brides, Babies And Billionaires - Мишель Смарт, Rebecca Winters - Страница 106

Five

Of all the things he could have said, that was the last she’d expected. Sally felt the tension inside her coil up a few more notches. The condom broke? It kind of put her fear of redundancy in the shade, didn’t it? She became aware that Kirk was watching her intently, waiting for her reaction. She forced herself into some semblance of composure. He’d seen her at her absolute worst already today—she couldn’t afford to appear that weak to him again.

“Is that all?” She smiled tightly. “For a second there, I thought you were about to give me notice that you were terminating my job.”

“You thought I was going to terminate you? Hell, no. But seriously, Sally—the condom. You have to let me know if—”

“You really have nothing to worry about,” she interrupted him. She didn’t want to hear him verbalize the words that were on the tip of his tongue. Didn’t want to believe that pregnancy was a possibility, even though children were something she’d always desperately wanted. But not until it was the right time and, more importantly, with the right man. Certainly not with a man who would hide his identity and sleep with her while knowing exactly who she was.

“I’m on the Pill,” she continued. “We’re fine. Absolutely, totally and utterly fine.”

“If you’re sure?”

“One hundred and ten percent. Actually, no—just one hundred percent. One hundred and ten doesn’t exist, really, does it? Percent meaning per hundred, right? So how can you have one hundred and ten hundredths?”

Darn, she was rambling. Nerves, combined with a healthy dose of anger, often did that to her in one-on-one conversation with people she didn’t know well. It was a shame her phobia about public speaking didn’t extend to rendering her mute in a situation like this, too. Kirk gave her a gentle half smile that made her stomach do a dizzy little flip, and beneath the lace cups of her bra she felt her breasts grow heavy and her nipples harden. Her body’s helpless reaction to him served to stoke the fire of anger that simmered deep inside. He’d used her, she reminded himself.

“Okay then,” he said with a gentle nod. “We’re good. But if anything did happen, you’d let me know, right?”

“Of course,” she answered blithely.

To her relief, the appetizers arrived and she helped herself to a lettuce wrap. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk, and thankfully, now that Kirk had obviously gotten the business of the broken condom off his chest, he was far more invested in alleviating his hunger than indulging in idle chatter.

It didn’t take long, though, before he steered conversation to work matters. It took a while to warm up to the discussion, and he seemed far more interested in asking questions than answering them, but overall she was surprised to find that Kirk agreed with and supported most of the principles she was passionate about for the company—especially her pet project of steering the head office at HIT, or HTT as it was now, toward more sustainable energy technologies and policies.

She wasn’t certain if it was his skillful questioning or the energy burst she’d received from eating her first proper meal in twenty-four hours, but she found herself becoming quite animated as she delved deeper into her vision for the company.

“We could be leaders in this area if we do it right,” she said passionately. “And with the correct systems set in place, we could take that platform to our clients, as well.”

“Do it,” Kirk said concisely.

“Do it?”

“Yeah. Draw up the proposal for me. I can already see how it would benefit us, but I’m not the only person you have to sell the idea to, right?”

This idea had been her baby from the outset, and she’d had a bit of pushback from a few of the senior managers when she’d floated it before. But getting the green light from Kirk was exciting, even if he was a low-down, deceitful piece of—

“I’ll get onto it as soon as I can,” she said. “I have most of the data assembled already.”

“I look forward to seeing it,” Kirk said. “Now, I think we’ve covered everything and it’s probably time we headed home. You have an early start tomorrow, right?”

And just like that she hit the ground again. Her dad’s surgery. How on earth could she have forgotten?

“Sally, don’t feel bad. It’s okay to escape now and then. Orson will come through this. You have to believe it.”

Tears pricked her eyes, and she dragged her napkin to her lips in an attempt to hide their sudden quivering. After everything the last day had delivered, his unexpected compassion was just about her undoing. She blinked fiercely and put the napkin back down again.

“Thank you,” she said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get a cab.”

“No, I’ll see you home. It’s the least I can do.”

She accepted his offer because she was absolutely too worn-out now to protest. She gave him her address and he smiled.

“Isn’t that just a few blocks from the office?”

“It is. I like the building and it’s close to Downtown Park when I need a blast of fresh air.”

When they arrived at her apartment building, he rode the elevator with her to her floor.

“I’ll be okay from here,” she said as the elevator doors swooshed open.

“Let me see you to your door. It’s what your guy—Benton?” he asked and waited for her nod before continuing “—would do, isn’t it?”

She shrugged and walked down the hallway, hyperconscious of his presence beside her. Her hand shook as she attempted to put the key in the lock, and she almost groaned out loud at the clichéd moment when she dropped her keys and Kirk bent to retrieve them for her.

“Here, let me,” he said.

Kirk suffered no such issues with his coordination, and he handed the keys back to her the moment the door was open. She looked up at him, all too aware of his strong presence beside her. Even though weariness tugged at every muscle in her body, she still felt that latent buzz of consciousness triggered by his nearness—and with it the tension that coiled tighter inside her with every moment they stood together. Suddenly all she could think about was the scent of him, the heat of his body, the sounds he’d made as she’d explored the expanse of his skin with her fingertips, her lips, her tongue.

She made a small sound and tried to cover it with a cough.

“You okay?” Kirk asked.

“I’m fine, thank you. And thanks for dinner, too.”

“No problem.”

Silence stretched out between them, and it seemed inevitable when Kirk lifted a hand to gently caress her face. The moment his fingers touched her skin, she was suffused with fire. No, she told herself frantically. She wasn’t going down that road again. Not with him. She pulled back, and Kirk’s hand fell to his side.

“Good night,” she said as firmly as she could and stepped through the doorway.

“Good night, Sally. Sweet dreams.”

She closed the door and leaned back against it, trying to will her racing heart back under control. One more second and she’d have asked him to stay. She squeezed her eyes shut tight, but it was no use. The image of him remained burned on her retinas.

Sally opened her eyes and went to her bathroom, stripping off her suit and throwing it in a hamper ready to send to the dry cleaner. She took a short, hot shower, wrapped herself up in her robe and went to her bedroom. Perched on her bed, she opened her handbag, pulling out the blister pack of contraceptives she carried everywhere with her.

She studied the pack, then flipped it over to check the days. Her chest tightened with anxiety the moment she realized that somewhere along the line she’d gotten out of sync. Probably around the time a couple of weeks ago when she’d traveled to the small European kingdom of Sylvain for the christening of the baby of her best friend from college. With the time zone changes and the busyness of travel and jet lag and then getting back to work, she’d slipped up. Normally, it wouldn’t have been a problem—it wasn’t as if she was wildly sexually active. But it certainly was a problem now.

She couldn’t be pregnant. She simply couldn’t. The chances were so slim as to be nearly nonexistent, weren’t they? But the evidence of her inconsistency stared straight at her from the palm of her hand.

Sweet dreams, he’d said. How could she dream sweet dreams when every moment had just become a waking nightmare?

* * *

It had been four weeks since her father’s surgery, and despite a minor post-op infection in a graft site on his leg, everything had gone well. He was home now, with a team of nurses stationed around the clock to ensure his convalescence continued to go smoothly. Sally bore his daily grumbles with good humor—especially when, as each bland meal at home was served to him, he called her to complain about the lack of salt and other condiments he’d grown used to.

She was too relieved he was still alive and getting well again to begrudge him his complaints. He still had a way to go with his recovery, despite how well he was doing, but it was ironic that each day he seemed to have more energy, while each day she had less.

She chalked it up to the hours she was working. After all, what with juggling expanding the proposal for sustainable strategies she’d discussed with Kirk the night before her father’s operation and daily visits to her father on top of her usual duties here at the office, it was no wonder she was feeling more tired than usual.

She was no longer worried about the broken condom or the mix-up with her Pill. She knew people who’d tried for years to get pregnant. The odds of her having conceived after just that one encounter with Kirk...? No, she wasn’t even going to think about that again. For her own peace of mind, a couple of weeks ago she’d taken a home test and it had showed negative—to her overwhelming relief. She was just tired. That was all. Things would settle down after the presentation, she told herself.

It had become vital to her to make her presentation better than her best effort. She had no room for error on this. There were plenty of people in the office who were on the fence about the whole concept of energy technology and sustainability in the workplace. All it would take was a slipup from her and a damning comment from the chief executive officer, Silas Rogers—who she knew already disagreed with her on principle—and no matter how much support she had from Kirk, the concept would be dead in the water.

It had been interesting these past couple of weeks, watching people react to Kirk being installed as interim chairman in her father’s absence. There was a fair amount of wariness interspersed with the obvious suck-ups who wanted to ensure that their jobs would remain secure in the merger transition that would take place over the next twelve months. And maybe that was another reason she wanted to make this presentation flawless. If it went ahead, she’d be project manager, and her own position and those of her team would be secure, too. And maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to prove to herself and to her father that she had what it took.

Another week later and Sally was finally satisfied she had everything in place. She’d booked the conference room on the executive floor, she’d gone through her PowerPoint, tested transmitting it to her team’s portable devices and rehearsed her part of the presentation until she could recite everything forward, backward and in Swahili. Okay, so maybe not in Swahili, but she knew her stuff and so did her team.

For all that they were an information technology company, there were several diehards among the senior management who still preferred a paper handout to reading a handheld screen. After today she hoped to change that. She was so excited about seeing her team put forward the full development of their ideas. It could mean such wonderful things for Harrison Tanner Tech long-term that she hadn’t even had time to feel anxious about talking in front of a group. Granted, it wouldn’t be a huge crowd and she knew every person who would be there, but that hadn’t stopped her phobia from taking over before. This time, though, felt different. She felt as though she could really do this, and her veins fizzed with anticipation as opposed to the dread she usually felt.

Sally had taken extra care with her appearance that morning, choosing a dress she knew flattered her. Her hair was pulled back into its customary ponytail, and her makeup was perfectly understated. Kirk would be at the presentation. She felt a flush of color steal into her cheeks. She had barely seen him since the night they’d had dinner together, although they had spoken on the telephone. He’d said it was to check for updates on her father’s recovery, but she had a suspicion that it had more to do with his concerns about their failed contraception. Her notion was backed up when the calls stopped after she’d told him about the home test result.

She knew Kirk had been in and out of meetings and had spent some time back in California, finalizing things for his move to Seattle. It had filtered through the grapevine—not without a few remarks, both envious and full of admiration—that he’d bought a lakefront property here in Bellevue. She’d been relieved that their paths hadn’t had to cross.

A chime at her door told her that Benton was there to take her to work. As soon as she arrived in the HTT building, she went straight to the main conference room on the senior management floor. It was time to slay her demons. The last time she’d been here—for the video feed announcing the merger—she’d made a complete idiot of herself in front of Kirk, not to mention all the staff. She’d heard one or two comments, hastily hushed, as she’d gone by in the office. While some people knew she held her position here in her father’s firm purely on merit, there were a handful, including the CEO, who made their thoughts on nepotism perfectly clear.

She had so much to prove today. Normally, such a realization would have been daunting, but right now she felt completely in control. Sally looked around the room and silently approved the layout that she’d requested together with the screen that had been set up in readiness. She did a quick run-through with her tablet. Everything was working perfectly. She had this.

Over the next thirty minutes, the chairs slowly filled up as senior managers made their way into the room. There was a hum of activity when Kirk arrived, and Sally found herself holding her breath in anticipation as he walked toward her to say hello.

Her nostrils flared slightly as he neared, the delicious scent of him sending a tingle through her body. A tingle she instantly did her best to quash.

“Good morning,” she said, pulling together all the smoothness she could muster. “I hope your trip back to California was successful.”

“It was, thank you.” His eyes raked over her and her heart rate picked up a notch or two. “And you’ve been okay?”

“Just fine,” she replied with a smile fixed to her face.

“Tanner, good to see you back.”

Kirk turned to acknowledge Silas Rogers, who she knew couldn’t wait to see her fail. He’d never liked her, and she could see that despite the congenial look pasted on the man’s face, he resented Kirk’s presence here, too. After all, he would have been the natural fill-in for her father during his illness and recovery had it not been for the board’s appointment of Kirk.

Sally cast a glance at one of her team and gave them her signal to commence. She’d decided to keep her speaking role strictly limited to explaining the concept she wanted to see the company adopt in their head office and how it could be expanded over the next five years through all their branches. As soon as her second in charge, Nick, was finished with his spiel, she was ready to whirl into action.

A tricky little wave of nausea surged through her. Sally reached for her water glass and took a sip then breathed in deeply. Nick was beginning to wind up his introduction, and all eyes would soon be turning to her. Her armpits prickled with perspiration, and another wave of nausea swelled. Again she took a small sip of water then focused on her breathing. The sick feeling subsided. She let a sense of relief flow through her. She could do this.

“...and without further ado, here’s our team leader, Sally Harrison, to fill you in on why we’re all so excited about what this proposal will do for HTT now and in the future. Sally?”

She rose to her feet, tablet in hand, and started her spiel. If she kept her eyes fixed between the projector screen and her tablet, she could even pretend there were no other people in the room.

The first few minutes of her presentation went extremely well, as she explained why it was important for HTT to evaluate the energy technologies available to them, and the next stage started brilliantly as she showed how going paperless in the office was one small step on the ladder. She demonstrated how they’d implemented the change in her department alone, and the figures she quoted showed the significant savings this had brought—not to mention the diminished waste footprint left on the environment.

“So you can imagine the long-term impact this will have on an entire floor, the entire head office and especially each and every HTT office around the globe.”

There was a general murmur of assent from about seventy percent of the assembly. Sally took another breath and continued with her presentation.

“Small, consistent changes made on a wide scale is what we need. Can you imagine how something as simple as replacing the current management motor fleet with hybrid vehicles and installing solar panels on the rooftop of the HTT building to feed energy back into the grid would reduce the company’s carbon footprint? And while there would be some initial costs, in the end all these steps would significantly reduce our overall expenses.”

She was heading into the homestretch when a vicious wash of dizziness struck, and she faltered in her speech and put a hand out to steady herself. Kirk spoke from his position a couple of yards away from her.

“Sally? Everything okay?”

She pulled her lips into a smile and made her eyes flare open wide. Anything to stop the influx of black dots that now danced across her vision. She’d had her share of panicked reactions to public speaking, but this was new...and a little frightening. What was wrong with her? And would she be able to hide it until the presentation was complete?

“I’m fine,” she said, but her voice was weak.

She looked at the people sitting there, all of them with eyes trained on her. Saw the smirk on Silas Rogers’s face. And then she did the unthinkable. While she stared directly into Kirk’s face, her tablet fell and bounced on the carpet, and she followed it down, sliding to the floor in an ignominious and unconscious heap.