Читать книгу Shut Up And Kiss Me - Sara Orwig - Страница 7

What other weird thing will Special Forces get me into? Michael Remington wondered as he glanced around the elegant law office that was located on the main street of San Antonio, Texas.

Dark wood walls, polished oak floor, comfortable leather chairs, and the attorney the most decorative part of all. He looked at her silky blond hair, hair that shouldn’t be confined in the twist at the back of her head. From the first few moments, when she’d stood in front of her desk, he’d noticed that the lady had fabulous long legs. Besides her legs, she had a face and figure that made a man think of the bedroom—until he looked into her big blue eyes, cold and icy as a Nordic fjord.

He barely listened while she waded through legalese, reading John Frates’s will. Mike’s best buddies from Special Forces were seated beside him: tough Jonah Whitewolf, a Comanche, one of the best bomb experts Mike had ever known; and next to him, Boone Devlin, chopper pilot deluxe.

Not long after their rescue of John Frates, the three of them had been split up, and they hadn’t seen one another until today, the first week of April. Mike was looking forward to their dinner together tonight. A reunion would be a blast, and they could thank John Frates for accomplishing the get-together. Only, John Frates and his wife were no longer living—both had died in a boating accident off the coast of Scotland. It was odd as hell to get remembered in a will simply because you did your job, Mike thought. They had rescued John Frates when he was held hostage in a Colombian jungle, but it had all been part of the mission.

When he heard his name read, Mike’s attention returned to the attorney. She was a looker, but the minute he’d walked into her office, they’d clashed. Although he knew there were plenty of female attorneys, he had assumed from her letter, signed S. T. Clay, that she was male. But S. T. Clay was very much female and she had resented his mistaken assumption. If it meant that much to her, she should sign her letters as Savannah Clay. There was no wedding ring on her finger, and Mike wasn’t surprised. She might be gorgeous, but she was none too friendly.

“‘To Michael Remington,”’ the attorney read in her brisk, no-nonsense voice, “‘to whom I shall be forever indebted, I leave my most precious possession, the guardianship of my baby daughter, Jessie Lou Frates.”’

A jolt shot through Mike with the impact of a current of electricity. Stunned, he stared at Savannah Clay. He couldn’t get his breath, he broke out in a sweat, his ears began to ring and he was unable to hear anything else she said.

Jessie Lou Frates? A baby? He was bequeathed the care of a baby girl? John Frates had called him about a will, but he hadn’t said anything about a baby. As far as Mike knew, there hadn’t been a baby at the time John called him.

Mike knew absolutely nothing about babies. He’d never wanted to be tied down that way. In his military career he had been through all sorts of life-or-death situations, and he had never felt as light-headed or as nervous as he was right now.

He barely heard the rest of the reading of the will, nor the questions the others asked when it was done. Finally Savannah Clay looked at him.

“You’re very quiet, Colonel Remington. Any questions?”

He gazed into those crystal-blue eyes—fabulous eyes, he thought fleetingly. “Yes, I have a lot of questions. If you have a few moments, I’ll stay when the others leave so I don’t take up their time.”

The guys protested, but with a wave of her hand Miss Clay silenced them.

It was another thirty minutes before she closed the door behind them and turned to him. When she did, he rose to his feet to face her across the office.

“I’m not taking any baby,” Mike declared. “John Frates never said anything about a baby.”

“I understood that he did call you,” she replied smoothly.

“Several years ago he called me and said he had recently married and they were writing wills and he wanted to leave something to me, but he didn’t say one thing about a child,” Mike repeated stubbornly.

Savannah Clay studied Mike with a look that made him think she didn’t believe him. “When Jessie was born, John and his wife rewrote their first wills.” The attorney crossed the room to return to the seat behind her desk, and in spite of the shock he’d just received, Mike could not help noticing the sexy sway of her hips as she walked. She motioned to him. “Please sit down.”

“I can’t be responsible for a baby,” Mike repeated, wondering how long it would take to get through to her.

“You’ll be completely provided for by this will. You’ll have the Stallion Pass house, a trust fund for Jessie, a trust for daily living and a million and a third dollars goes into your account tomorrow,” she replied as if explaining something simple to a small child.

“Don’t put anything into my account,” Mike snapped. “Aren’t you listening? I’m not becoming a guardian to this child.”

“The Frateses don’t have any relatives,” Savannah stated. “There is no one else to take her. She’s only five months old.” The color that heightened her cheeks only added to the good looks he was trying to ignore. She spoke slowly and firmly, as though he was hard of hearing or just too dense to get what she was trying to explain to him. “She’ll become a ward of the state otherwise.”

“I’m sorry, but she’ll have to become a ward of the state,” he replied tersely. “It doesn’t change how I feel. There are a lot of children out there that are wards of the state, but I’m not taking any of them, either.”

Fire flashed in the depths of blue ice as Savannah’s eyes narrowed. “John Frates had the very highest opinion of you, and he placed his faith and trust in you. He praised you beyond measure.”

“That’s certainly flattering, and I appreciate his opinion, but the guy was grateful because we rescued him. It doesn’t change my decision.” Mike’s tone was forceful.

“Look at this.” She shuffled through papers and yanked out an envelope, then came around the desk. She turned a chair and moved close beside him, and he caught a whiff of enticing perfume. When she crossed her legs, his attention was briefly distracted, caught and held momentarily by her long, shapely legs.

Savannah pulled out a picture and placed it on his knee, and the slight contact caused a different kind of jolt, one that settled in a region below his belt. “This is Jessie,” Savannah said.

He looked at a picture of a smiling, dimpled baby with curly ringlets of black hair, twinkling blue eyes and rosy cheeks.

“She’s adorable, but I’m not changing my mind.”

“May I ask why?” Savannah twisted to face him. Their knees were almost touching, and he was aware of her as a very appealing woman, if an annoying one.

“I’m single. I value my freedom and I don’t know anything about kids,” he replied.

“Maybe it’s time you learned.”

His annoyance rose a notch. “No, this isn’t the right time for a baby in my life. I’m getting ready to join the CIA. I’ll be traveling. I can’t be encumbered with a baby.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That’s incredibly selfish of you, Colonel Remington. You’re turning down a generous income, a home, a precious baby, simply because you value your freedom?”

“You’re getting it now,” he said. The woman had the bluest eyes he’d ever seen and the most fabulous legs. And he couldn’t wait to get away from her and this unwanted legacy.

“Have you already joined the CIA?” she asked.

“Not yet, but that’s beside the point.”

“You’re single. Is there a woman in your life?” she persisted.

“Not at the moment.”

“I’m not surprised,” she said coolly, and Michael’s temper boiled over.

“Look, Miss Clay, you’re not exactly a bundle of warmth yourself. Obviously you’re single, and I’m not surprised by that, either.”

To his amazement, she laughed. Beautiful white teeth, a sparkle in her eyes. More appealing than ever. He wanted to gnash his teeth. Attila the Hun packaged as an alluring woman. “Ah, I’m getting to you,” she said with cheerful satisfaction. “You’re losing that cool control. It means your guilty conscience is at work.”

“It means no such thing,” he said, watching her dazzling smile. It took his breath away.

Glancing at her watch, she said, “It’s late. Come have a drink and dinner with me, and we can discuss this issue further,” she announced, standing.

“No thanks,” he replied as she shed her suit jacket, unclipped her hair and shook her head. Blond hair cascaded over her shoulders and fell onto a creamy silk blouse clinging to curves that made him momentarily forget his animosity. She had a waist he could easily span with both hands.

“Do you often turn down a woman’s invitation for a dinner date? Or are you scared I might win you over to my way of thinking?” Savannah asked him.

He arched an eyebrow and wanted to give that cute fanny a swat. If he had any sense, he would answer yes and get the hell out of her office and life. But she was standing there with golden hair falling over her shoulders, a challenging gleam in her blue eyes and a figure that would make most men forget all the problems in the world.

“No, I don’t turn down offers from beautiful women,” he said quietly, standing and placing his hands on his hips. “I’m not scared, but you’ll never win me over to your way of thinking on this.”

“Never is a long time, Colonel.”

“All right, since we’re going to dinner, let’s drop the formalities. It’s Mike, Savannah.”

“Fine,” she said, granting him another one of her dazzling smiles. “Sit down, Mike. I’ll only be a few minutes.”

She gave orders as casually as a drill sergeant. Far more polite, but with that same authority and absolute expectation of being obeyed. Mike walked around the office, not really curious about the place, but simply being obstinate because she had told him to sit. As she disappeared through the door, he glimpsed a leather sofa and a wet bar. She must have a very successful practice.

While he studied a painting, he called the hotel where he and his two buddies were staying to talk to Boone. “I need to talk to this attorney tonight about my inheritance,” he told him, “and I’m going to have to cancel our dinner. This is crazy. I can’t deal with a baby.”

“You looked like you’d been shot,” Boone said.

“I felt like it,” Mike admitted.

“I think all three of us are a little in shock, Mike. None of us expected this. Let’s get together another time—how about breakfast, eight o’clock, hotel restaurant?”

“Great,” Mike replied. “See you then. Tell Jonah for me, would you.”

“Sure.”

Shutting off his phone, Mike continued to stroll around Savannah’s office, reading the spines of the law books lining the shelves, studying oil paintings of seascapes and all the while remembering the first few moments of his arrival. A few hours ago, he had entered the one-story brick building with gold lettering over the doors that read Slocum and Clay, Attorneys at Law.

Mike had walked through the front doors into a spacious waiting room and told the attractive brunette receptionist that he had an appointment with S. T. Clay. She had told him to go right in, that he was expected and it was the first door on the right.

He had walked down the hall to the door, knocked lightly and went inside. The tall blonde that turned to face him had smiled. Her blue eyes were riveting, the color of tropical seas.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for the office of S. T. Clay. Are you his secretary?”

“I’m S. T. Clay,” she replied, crossing the room and extending her hand. “Savannah Clay.”

His brows arched. “Oh. I expected a man.”

“Instead, you’ve got a woman,” she replied coolly. “And you must be Colonel Remington.”

“How’d you guess?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.

“John Frates gave me brief descriptions of all of you. He said you were a direct, take-charge type.”

Mike could feel a clash of wills already. He shook her hand. He expected a hard grip, and she didn’t disappoint him.

“I’ve been direct,” he replied quietly, amused. “I don’t think I’ve begun to take charge yet.”

“And you won’t in my office,” she replied just as quietly, giving him a faint smile, and again he experienced the silent clash of wills. “Please be seated. I’ll be with you in a moment.” She’d left the room and he’d walked to one of the leather chairs, thinking that he could tell the lady a bit about herself from this first encounter. He suspected no one was more of a take-charge type than she was….

Mike brought himself out of his reverie, knowing that from the first he’d gotten off on the wrong foot with the woman. Still, the evening might be interesting. He wondered if kissing her would be like kissing an ice sculpture…or was there a real woman there beneath the ice?

You’ll never know, he told himself silently.

And then Savannah returned and he rose to his feet, his recollections forgotten. “Sorry to take so long. I had to make a few calls,” she said. They left her office. As they walked through the hallway, a tall, blond, deeply tanned man stepped from his office with an attractive redheaded woman beside him.

“Troy, Liz, I’m taking a client to dinner,” Savannah said. “This is Colonel Remington. Mike, this is my partner, Troy Slocum, and one of our associates, Liz Fenton.”

Mike shook hands with them both. Troy Slocum, dressed in a dark blue suit and exuding success and self-confidence, said, “So you’re the fantastic Colonel Remington, the man John Frates thought so much of.”

“I don’t believe ‘fantastic’ fits, but that happens sometimes when you save someone’s life. I was only doing my job,” Mike replied, slightly wary of Troy. He wondered why, since he had never met the man before. But his instincts were seldom wrong.

“If you two will excuse us, Liz and I have a conference call,” Troy said abruptly.

Savannah and Mike said goodbye and turned away.

“Did I do something to him?” Mike asked.

“Pay no attention to Troy. Even though he has no reason to be, he’s jealous of other people’s success.”

“How many partners and associates?” Mike asked, dismissing the incident from his mind as they walked to the door.

“Troy is my only partner, and we have one other associate besides Liz—Nathan Williams.”

Enjoying watching Savannah, Mike followed her out and motioned toward the rental car he was driving.

“I’ll drive,” she said, jingling keys. “I know where we’re going.”

He wondered if she was going to rush ahead and hold the car door for him, but she didn’t. While he held her door, she slid inside, giving him another glimpse of shapely legs. He went around and slid into the passenger seat.

“Tell me about your life, Colonel,” she said after they had turned into the street.

“Mike, remember?”

“Mike, tell me about your life.”

“I recently got out of the military, so my life is changing. I suspect you already know some things about me.”

“Right. You’re thirty-six, born in Montana and went to the Air Force Academy before joining the military. You’re single, very smart. You have a younger brother, Sam, who lives in San Jose. You have another younger brother, Jake, who lives in West Texas. Your parents have moved to California. That’s about it. Your history leaves lots of blanks.”

“Not so many,” he said, turning to watch her drive. To the eye she was a gorgeous babe, but the moment she opened her mouth, the lawyer was revealed, and what was really beneath all that pretty packaging—an aggressive, tough, no-nonsense woman.

She drove fast and competently with her window open and the wind blowing her golden hair. She knew he was watching her, but it evidently didn’t disturb her. What was it between them that made the sparks fly? That made him feel repelled and attracted at the same time?

“So, how about you tell me about you, Savannah? I don’t know anything, except you’re the Frateses’ attorney.”

“I went to Stanford for my undergraduate degree, and then to Texas University for my law degree. I have three brothers and three sisters.”

“A big family.”

“I suppose we are,” she replied.

“And you’re the oldest?”

She smiled and shook her head. “Why did you guess oldest?”

“You’re a take-charge type.”

“Actually, I’m the fourth child. I’m was born in Stallion Pass.”

“The same place John Frates is from,” Mike said.

“That’s right. That’s how I knew him,” she said, growing quiet while she concentrated on driving. In minutes they parked and entered a restaurant with checkered tablecloths, candles on the tables and the smell of fresh-baked bread filling the air. “I should have asked—do you like Italian?”

“Of course,” he answered as he held her chair.

When they were seated and had given their dinner orders, Mike studied her. “Now, tell me more about you and Stallion Pass, Texas. You don’t seem like the small-town type.”

“I’m very much the small-town type. I love Stallion Pass. John Frates’s family businesses have really made Stallion Pass the town it is. Well, there are other businesses and families that contribute to it, but the Frateses did a lot. He had the oil company, Frates Oil, which he sold last year. He remained as CEO so they will simply replace him, and that wasn’t part of the will. He had the home that you received, the quarter-horse ranch and the cattle ranch—”

“Two ranches?”

She gave him a quizzical look. “Didn’t you listen as I read the will?”

“Actually, no,” Mike admitted. “After you announced I was inheriting a kid, I went into shock and didn’t hear anything more you read. I wouldn’t even think that kind of thing’s legal.”

“Of course it’s legal to appoint a guardian. John might not have told you about it, but I know he intended to.”

“Well, tell me what the other guys got, then. Did it occur to you that one of them might take little Jessie?”

“We’ll get to that,” she said, her cool, I’m-in-charge voice returning. “Jonah Whitewolf got the cattle ranch. He can do with it whatever he wants—sell it, keep it or lease it.”

“I’d guess Jonah will sell it. John Frates should have discussed all this with us in more detail.”

“I don’t think he dreamed that anything would happen to both him and his wife. Boone Devlin inherits the quarter-horse ranch—it’s famous nationwide for its horses.”

Mike shook his head. “Boone and a horse ranch. He grew up on a farm and wanted to get away from it. The flyboy is nuts about planes. He won’t leave his air-charter service. John Frates should have talked to all of us and talked to others who would have been better choices for these inheritances.”

“Once again, you’re making snap judgments.”

“Maybe, but I know these guys as well as I know myself. We knew Frates was worth a lot, but not this much.”

“The Frates family was enormously wealthy, and when John sold the oil company, he received a lot more.” She leaned forward, candlelight flickering in the depths of her eyes. For an instant, Mike was drowning in blue. His gaze lowered to her mouth, and he wondered if there was a woman beneath all that pushy, do-it-my-way exterior. What was she like in a man’s arms? He leaned closer.

“Ever been in love, Counselor?”

If the question surprised her, she hid it well. She gave him a smile. “Maybe once in college, but not since.”

“No steady guy now?”

“No,” she replied, looking amused. “Going to ask me for a date?”

He smiled at her, and they both laughed. “I didn’t think so,” she said. She caught his wrist and the touch was electrifying to him. He took a deep breath, surprised at his reaction.

“Tell me something.”

“Whatever you want to know,” he said in a husky voice, beginning to wonder what it would be like to have a real date with her.

Those blue eyes nailed him. “If John Frates had called you and asked if you would be little Jessie’s guardian, what answer would you have given him?”

Startled, all Mike’s erotic thoughts vanished. He was staring into eyes that probed, accused and demanded an answer. What if John Frates had called and asked him to take his baby?

“I can’t answer that, because he didn’t call,” Mike replied.

“You won’t answer my question because if her father had called and asked you, you would have agreed to become her guardian,” Savannah said in a voice dripping with satisfaction.

“I damn well would not have,” he snapped, moving his wrist away from her grasp and leaning back in his chair. “Don’t put words in my mouth. Are you a trial lawyer?”

“Occasionally,” she answered, and Mike could imagine her nailing a witness and using that same satisfied tone. She looked down at her purse and whipped out the picture again. “Look at this little baby. How can you refuse? You would have all the money in the world and could hire five nannies for her if you wanted.”

“You think a dad who hands a baby over to nannies all the time is better than a foster home?”

“Yes! In foster care, she’d be shuffled around. If you had her, you’d care and you’d be responsible,” Savannah answered heatedly, her eyes flashing. “Underneath that selfish exterior, there must be some heart—John saw that in you. I’ve known John all my life, and he was a good man and a very smart man. He didn’t misjudge people.”

“Give it up, Counselor. I’m not taking that baby,” Mike replied, wondering how many times he was going to have to refuse.

Savannah put away the picture and leaned back while he drank some wine. He wished he had ordered something stronger. When their dinners came, he ate golden, cheese-covered lasagna in silence, thankful she had stopped badgering him but still annoyed with her for calling him selfish.

As soon as they finished, she picked up the check and drove him to his hotel.

“You gave it your best shot,” he said before he stepped out of the car. “Sorry, but you can do something else with that inheritance.”

“It’s not that simple. Can you come by my office in the morning while we work out details?”

“Sure.” He sat staring at her, thinking she was a beautiful woman sitting only a couple of feet away. His gaze dropped to her mouth, but he knew better than to try a kiss. “Night, Counselor.”

“I don’t know how you’ll be able to sleep, or even look at yourself in the mirror.”

“I’ll sleep just fine, thank you. Do you always butt into people’s lives like this?” he asked.

“Of course not—this is a big exception,” she said, studying him intently. “I still think John saw something in you that I’m not seeing.”

“I hauled his ass out of the jungle—it was a job. The man was grateful to have his life back, but gratitude can blind people.”

“Not John. He told me about spending weeks with you guys because the escape didn’t go as planned. He said that, in the life-threatening circumstances all of you were in, you really get to know someone. He said he knew he could depend on you completely.”

“Well, too bad he’s not here to know how much I’ve let him down. Good night and start thinking of someone else for that particular inheritance.”

He climbed out of the car and closed the door, leaning down to speak to her through the open window. “Thanks for dinner.”

She glared at him, put the car in gear and drove away. He stared after her and still wondered what it would be like to kiss her. His flight back to D.C. didn’t leave until three o’clock tomorrow afternoon, but when it did, he would be on it, and he wasn’t coming back to Stallion Pass or San Antonio, Texas, again. He had to see the lady lawyer one more time and then it was goodbye forever.

Savannah took a deep breath, exhaling slowly and trying to cool her anger. “Stubborn, selfish man!” she snarled aloud, gritting her teeth and thinking about the adorable little five-month-old girl who needed a guardian. Savannah glanced in her rearview mirror and saw Mike Remington walking into his hotel. Too handsome for words. She hated to acknowledge that, but he exuded sex appeal with his rugged good looks, raven hair and thickly lashed, dark-brown bedroom eyes. He had too much confidence, and she suspected he was accustomed to having women melt whenever he was around. A few times tonight when they’d touched, she’d hated that she’d gone all tingly; she hoped she’d been able to hide it well. She didn’t want him to make her tingly. She wished to remain aloof and frosty with him, so why hadn’t she?

There had to be a way to persuade Mike Remington to take Jessie. John Frates was never off the mark in his assessment of other people—not like this. John had seen something in the man that had made him think Mike was the right man to take responsibility for little Jessie.

Whatever John had seen, Savannah knew she wasn’t finding it. Mike Remington seemed almost hostile, and totally wrapped up in himself and his own life. He wasn’t going to be charitable or generous. And he was going to walk away from a million-dollars-plus inheritance. What kind of man did that? She couldn’t figure him out at all. She knew what John had said about him—that he was tough, fearless and intelligent. Now she could add selfish and stubborn to the list. Yet, how many truly selfish people would pass on a million and a third dollars?

Of the three men in her office this afternoon, Mike Remington seemed the least likely man to be the guardian of a child.

Maybe when Mike slept on it, he would change his mind. She knew better than to really believe that, though.

Savannah drove to the redbrick condo she owned in San Antonio. On weekends she went home to Stallion Pass, but during the week, it was easier to stay in the city.

She parked in her garage and entered through the back door, going in the short entryway to her kitchen. As she got herself a glass of water, she paced around her empty, lonely kitchen. She finally set her empty glass on the tile counter and went through the living room to her bedroom. As she readied herself for bed, her mind was still on Mike Remington. She couldn’t seem to get him or the problem out of her thoughts.

An hour later she sat up in a rumpled bed, staring into the dark and still thinking about Mike and Jessie. She had been conscious of Mike as an attractive man from the start. When she’d touched him, she’d felt the shock of that contact to her toes. She suspected he had that effect on most females.

She’d told him she needed to see him again, but that had been desperation talking. She prayed she could get the state caseworker to cooperate tomorrow. Surely there was some way to melt Mike Remington’s hard heart.

As Savannah sat there in the dark, she was chilled by a deep, unsettling hurt that she hadn’t experienced in years, and she knew what was making her fight so hard for little Jessie.

She recalled her family, her mother and father, her six siblings. All of them, except the three youngest children, were adopted. When she was four, her blood father had walked out. Then when she was five, her mother had abandoned her, as well, sending her to a neighbor’s house and not coming back for her. That old hurt had dimmed, but she could remember the incredible pain and panic, the shock. The number of foster families she had been shuffled through for more than a year and a half—until Amy and Matt had adopted her and taken her into an unbelievably warm and loving home. Savannah shivered and rubbed her arms until old fears and hurts vanished.

In spite of trying to put Jessie and Colonel Remington out of her mind, Savannah slept little and was up before the sun.

Bathed and dressed for work by eight o’clock, she studied herself in the mirror as she smoothed her navy suit. She wore simple pearl earrings and a pearl necklace. Her hair was in a twist on her head. She thought she looked quite businesslike. Her thoughts jumped to Mike and the way he’d looked at her yesterday when she’d taken her hair down and removed her suit jacket. Her pulse jumped at the memory and she frowned, shaking her head. Glancing at the clock, she rushed to the phone to call the caseworker. Savannah knew it was only two hours till her appointment with Mike Remington. This would be her last chance with him, so she needed to make it count.