In Bed with Beauty (13 page)

“I have a job you might be right for,” she said.

He pivoted. She ran her hands over his arms, testing the resilience of his biceps. Unable to help himself, he flexed his muscles. He worked out twice a day usually and this morning he’d coaxed Sarah into joining him in the weight room.

“You should do. I need a studly man like you.”

He raised on eyebrow at her. “I aim to please.”

Kicking the door to her office shut, he took her in his arms. Lowering his head to hers, he took her mouth the way he wanted to take her body. Quick and deep. She moaned deep in her throat. He slid his hands around to her backside and lifted her more fully into contact with his aching body.

“Stop.”

“Why?”

“I’m at work,” she said, pushing away from him. She grabbed the hairclip from her desk and bound her hair back up.

“No one will know.”

“Everyone will know. I never close my door.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“I was teasing you. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not upset,” he said. And he wasn’t. There’d be plenty of time to make love to Sarah later.

“I need a favor,” she said, opening her office door.

Harris noticed one of the prep chefs watching the door with a smirk on his face. He made a mental note to have a word with the young punk before he left Taste of Home today. Sarah shouldn’t have to put up with any teasing from her staff.

Sarah was wringing her hands together. What was making her so nervous?

“You can tease me any time you want,” he said, feeling very indulgent where Sarah was concerned. He dropped a kiss on her forehead to mask his own emotions and turned away. “Now, name your favor.”

“Can you help me move my desk?” she asked, after a few minutes had passed.

The room they were in didn’t have a lot of space. “This is probably the best place for your desk. You should think about getting a smaller one.”

“Thanks for the advice but this is all I can afford. I don’t want to move my desk, I dropped something back there and can’t reach it.”

“What’d you drop?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “My Magic 8 ball.”

“Can’t live without that, huh?” he asked, unable to imagine this savvy business woman consulting a child’s toy for advice.

“Hold the smart remarks. I noticed you checking your pager every five minutes for stock market updates.”

“That’s hardly the same thing.”

“It’s exactly the same thing. You can’t change the course of the market but it makes you feel better to watch it.”

She made an odd kind of sense. Not that he’d ever share her opinion with any of his colleagues. They’d think he’d gone off the deep end. And maybe he had. Maybe that was why he felt the way he did. “So the Magic 8 ball makes you feel better?”

“Yes.”

“Then by all means, let’s get it.”

“I tried but my arms aren’t long enough.”

“Where’d you drop it?”

“Back there.”

Harris sat on her desk and reached down between the wall and the office furniture but he couldn’t grasp it. He grabbed the bottom of her desk and pulled it out from the wall. The black ball dropped to the floor and Sarah scurried under his legs to grab it. Harris waited until she was out from under the desk to shove it back into place.

She shook it glanced at the answer window and set the ball down on her desk.

“What’d you ask it?”

A flush covered her cheeks. She wasn’t going to tell him. Intriguing…what could Sarah be unsure about? Suddenly he realized there was probably a lot she wasn’t sure of and most of it involved him. But he was feeling good today and didn’t dwell on the future.

“Mind if I give it a try?” he asked.

“Be my guest.”

He took the ball and asked, “Would Sarah like me to make love to her on her desk?”

It is decidedly so.

He handed the ball to her and watched her flush as he once again closed her office door. Cleared a spot for her on the desk and lifted her up.

“Harris,” she said.

“Yes, honey.”

“What’s gotten into you today?” she asked.

“You.”

“Me?”

“Me and you,” he said, bending to kiss her tenderly. The feelings she evoked in him were both sweet and savage. He gentled himself. “I’m not going to trust a child’s toy. Do you want me?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving a kiss he’d die remembering.

The knock on her door sounded just as Harris climaxed. She felt the pulses of his completion on the heels of her own. She was shivering and shaking and not sure where they were. Harris cursed savagely under his breath. Pulled out of her body leaving her feeling empty and alone and zipped his pants.

“Just a minute,” Sarah called. “Oh my God. I knew we shouldn’t do this here.”

Harris calmly smoothed her skirt down and brushed his lips over hers. “Calm down. You look fine.”

“I don’t feel fine.” She was a bundle of nerves and fire. Confident that she’d found a lover who understood her and who was more than her match—she realized her power as a woman.

“You don’t?” he asked, teasing her with a look that made her want to throw him on the desk and ravish him.

“No, I feel like a live wire. Is my hair all in the clip?”

“Yes. But your shirt isn’t buttoned properly.”

She quickly fixed her buttons. This had never happened to her before. If it had been any other man but Harris she would have been embarrassed. But Harris had changed since their conversation last night and she felt like finally they were heading toward a real relationship.

He’d said he’d stay with her and it wasn’t business holding him in Florida. But their relationship. A little more time, she thought, was all she needed to convince him that forever wasn’t a bad thing.

Everything was just about perfect, which should worry her. That always meant something big was coming. Something was going to happen. But not today, she thought.

Roger was waiting for her when she opened the door. He smiled apologetically. “This just came.”

She opened the envelope Roger handed to her with shaking hands. The return address was The New Deal Developers. She had a sinking feeling before she looked at the note.

“Let’s hope the rent isn’t too steep,” she said.

“Whatever it is, we’ll figure out how to make it work,” Roger said.

She scanned the letter—twice before the words sank in. How could this be? It wasn’t a rent increase but an eviction notice. She felt her stomach sink and she thought for a minute she might throw up. Oh, God. How was she going to keep her parents’ dream alive without the restaurant?

“Sarah, is everything okay?” Harris asked, wrapping his big arm around her shoulders and offering her comfort. She felt reassured with him by her side. He wasn’t Paul. He wasn’t going to leave her when things got rough.

His business might call him away but a part of her believed he’d come back to her. Home to her. And that was just as important to her as keeping her parents’ dream alive.

“No. Nothing is okay. Can you believe this? We’re being evicted. They don’t give us much time. Just two weeks.”

“Those are the terms of the lease?” Roger asked.

“Yes. They are. I can’t believe this. I’m so angry.”

“Me, too,” Roger said. “We’re going to need to talk to the employees soon. The whole mall is abuzz with the news. It’d be better if they hear it from you.”

“Okay. I’m going to call the developer and get all the details. Call everyone in for a two o’clock meeting.”

Roger left and Harris said nothing. “Do you think you could help me out here?”

“No,” he said, quietly.

“Why not?” she asked. She had that odd sinking feeling in her stomach. She knew that Harris had told her last night about evictions and buyouts but surely he didn’t have anything to do with this one. Surely he would have said something to her if he did.

“It would be a conflict of interest,” he said.

She knew even though he didn’t say the words. She needed to hear it. She needed some proof that the man she’d been falling in love with didn’t care enough to tell her she was losing her business. “Because we’re involved, right?”

“No. Not because we’re having an affair. I helped New Deal negotiate their buyout.”

Sarah tried to hold onto her temper. She knew that Harris didn’t really understand what went into a healthy relationship. She knew that he battled the past and what he knew of love each time he took her in his arms. But that didn’t matter. One time she wanted to be involved with a guy who she could count on when the chips were down. “What? Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

“Business is confidential.”

“Business? We don’t have business between us.”

“That’s exactly my point.”

“This stinks. You don’t trust me at all. I thought we were building toward something lasting.”

“We are. New Deal has nothing to do with us. You couldn’t afford the rent even if they’d let you stay. Your profits aren’t high enough to make you competitive with the other companies that are coming in here.”

“Am I deadweight, Harris?”

“Stop making it personal. You, Sarah Malcolm, aren’t deadweight. However, Taste of Home is.”

“There’s no way to make this not personal. I am Taste of Home. And I thought you were part of my family. I invited you into my home. I showed you what loving another person can mean and…”

Harris came closer to her. He reached out to take her in his arms and she flinched away. She was beyond angry and the thought of Harris touching her was abhorrent right now. “You are more than this restaurant. It’s not even your dream.”

“My dreams? Please don’t try to tell me this is about my dreams.”

“I’m only pointing out facts. If you’d calm down you’d see this is a blessing in disguise.”

“All I see is the last connection I have to my parents is gone.”

“It is not. You have your memories and your siblings. That’s far more concrete than this building.”

“Please tell me the man who has no human connections isn’t telling me that family means more than anything else,” she said. The Harris she’d come to know would always put his business in front of personal relationships. He’d just proved it.

“Just because I don’t have what you do doesn’t mean I don’t recognize its worth.”

“I wish I could believe that,” she said, as reality began to creep into the happily-ever-after tapestry she’d been weaving in her head for her and Harris.

“Why can’t you?” he asked. He reached for her but she shrugged away.

She didn’t want him touching her. Not now when she still felt vulnerable and betrayed. “Because contrary to my recent behavior, I’m not stupid.”

He let his hand drop back to his side. “I never thought you were stupid.”

“Just convenient,” she said, thinking about how easily she’d gone to him. She’d wanted to believe that he could be her forever man. She wanted to believe that after all those years of being alone and lighting candles for a man to come into her life that finally the right one had.

“Not particularly. You’ve made me uncomfortable since the moment we met.”

Somehow that didn’t reassure her. She wanted to hear words of love from him. She wanted an apology. She wanted something that she realized Harris was incapable of giving her. For the first time she understood their relationship from his perspective. “I guess I really was just a vacation fling.”

“How can you say that? I’ve given you more of myself than any other woman.” He shoved his hands through his hair.

“I’m flattered, really, I am.”

“Sarcasm doesn’t become you.”

“It’s either this or losing my temper,” she said. Remembering her rude comments from last night she knew she’d better keep hold of her temper.

“Go ahead. I can handle it.” He closed the space between them, lowering his hands to her shoulders.

She shivered under his touch. Was it only a few minutes ago that everything had felt so right?

“I can’t,” she said. She needed to get away from him. She pivoted around to face her desk. She remembered Harris sliding into her on the desk. Remembered the completeness she’d felt and the sense of rightness. More fool she.

“What was that earlier? One last quickie before you leave town?”

“I told you I’d come back,” he said.

“Sorry if I don’t believe you,” she said.

“Don’t do that. What we have…I can’t describe it. I wouldn’t have stayed for anyone else.”

“Later when I’m not angry I might feel good about what you are saying. But right now all I feel is betrayed. I trusted you, Harris.”

“I’m not in the wrong here, Sarah. When you calm down enough I think you’ll see that,” he said. He leaned against her desk, crossing his arms over his chest.

He sounded so calm and controlled and she felt like she was about to explode. A million different feelings roiled around inside her and she wasn’t sure which way to turn. “Harris, there isn’t enough time in eternity to make me forgive what you’ve done.”

“I don’t see why this changes anything.”

“Then you’re not the man I thought you were,” she said softly. “Please leave.”

“Okay. Can I see you tonight?” he asked.

“No, Harris.”

“This is it, isn’t it?” he asked.

There was coldness in her eyes now that surprised her. She nodded and looked away. Couldn’t look at him now when she had too much to deal with. She didn’t even want to think about her heart breaking.

“You said you loved me earlier, did you mean it?” he asked.

She didn’t want to remember her words. Just once she wanted to be the strong one. Instead of the needy one but it was too late. Too late to call back the words, too late to protect herself.

“Yes,” she said softly.

“Isn’t that reason enough to try to work this out?” he asked.

She wished it were. But she didn’t see how it could ever work between them unless he loved her. And she refused to ask him how he felt about her.

“There is no way to work this out…unless you could talk to The New Deal people,” she said.

“I won’t,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Wrapping her arms around her waist, she said, “Then I guess it’s over.”

“I knew it,” he said.