Pandora's Box (previously Worth the Wait, a Zebra print best seller) (9 page)

A tiny laugh mingled with a hiccup. “True. I can’t sleep now. You take the bed.”

“No. You lie down and I’m sure you’ll be asleep in minutes.” He gave her a hand up and held back the blanket as she crawled into bed. She curled around a pillow, holding it snugly against her body. He sat in a chair, watching while she tossed and turned for several minutes. Eventually exhaustion won out and she fell asleep.

He walked over to the bed and gazed down at her. Her eyelashes fluttered against her skin and a sigh escaped her lips. He pressed a light kiss against her cheek, ignoring the throbbing in his loins that the brief contact brought on. He would be patient. For reasons he didn’t yet understand, he was drawn to this woman as though she were his destiny. He needed to help her. It was more than a bad case of guilt. It was something he had to do, for Charlie and for himself. 

CHAPTER
SIX

Charlie awakened with a wicked headache. The clanging of pots in the kitchen intensified the pounding in her head. She peeked out from under the blanket and saw Damian at the stove, starting breakfast Her stomach growled in protest. Food, at this hour of the morning? Was he serious?

She glanced at the clock and let out a startled oath. Eleven o’clock? How had she slept so late? She had errands to run, studying to catch up on. The last thing she needed was a houseguest with a guilt complex, deciding it was time to play guardian. Especially after she had made a complete fool of herself last night.

“Go home, Damian,” she muttered as she rolled out of bed. He ignored her and continued working. She shuffled her feet across the carpet and came up behind him. To be sure she had his undivided attention, she pulled the pan out of his hand and slammed it on the stove.

“You’re not much of a morning person, are you?” he said with an annoying cheerfulness.

“Shut up!” She ran her hand through her tangled mass of curls and massaged her temples. Her body ached. In her present condition, she couldn’t deal with him. She went to take a shower and left him to play at the stove.

When she returned, she emptied her pockets on the counter and went through her tips of the night before. As she put the money in neat stacks, Damian slid the cookie jar toward her.

“The bank is open for business,” he joked.

She shot him a nasty glare and pulled the jar closer. “Don’t you have a girlfriend you could aggravate today?”

“No.” He held up two eggs in front of her face. “Sunny-side up or over easy?”

“Eggs Benedict, as in Arnold. Which reminds me, I’m going to mace Erik when I see him again.” She placed her money in a small white envelope with a bank deposit slip. What little extra she had, she dropped into the cookie jar.

“Sunny-side up is what you’re getting. It’s the only thing I know how to make. And don’t get mad at Erik. I would have found out sooner or later.”

“Dogs get mad. People get angry,” she quipped, tossing his words back at him. “And I would have preferred later. Like when I’d gotten a job in another city.”

He cracked the eggs into the sizzling pan and pushed the bread down into the toaster. “Doing what?”

Charlie looked up at him. “What?”

“What kind of job are you looking for?”

“Accounting.”

Damian laughed. “Are you going to use your cookie jar as a reference?”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “Did you ever think of leaving the insurance business and going into stand-up comedy?”

“You have less of a sense of humor than I do. Do you know anything about payroll?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I need someone to cover for our payroll clerk while she’s on maternity leave for three months. Are you interested? It would get you some experience and you could start right after graduation.”

Charlie shook off the offer as guilt rather than a serious interest in her abilities. “That’s nepotism.”

“We’re not related. It’s only temporary anyway. No one would question the boss.”

She shot a look toward the frying pan. “You’re overcooking those eggs.”

“And you’re changing the subject.” Damian took the spatula and deftly slid the eggs onto the plate. He removed the toast and set the food down in front of her. “Are you interested or aren’t you?”

“I don’t know. How much does it pay?”

“Right to the point,” he said admirably. “I like a woman with confidence. It would pay more than a junior accounting position.”

Charlie squared her shoulders indignantly. “I planned to start as a senior accountant.”

He grinned. “Ambitious, too.”

“Do I have to deal with you?”

“Only when it comes time to sign the commission checks. I’m away quite often on business. It’s not a regular insurance company. We’re a reinsurance company. We deal with big corporations, underwriting their very large policies.”

“I guess that blows any chance of getting a break on car insurance. I’ll have to pass on the red Ferrari.”

“I understand from Erik that you couldn’t afford new clutches every month.”

Charlie shrugged and took a bite of her eggs. Remembering her attempt at learning how to drive a stick shift, she smiled. “My baby brother has a big mouth.”

“You’re very fond of Erik.”

“Erik is the only person I’ve ever loved. Although I nearly killed him when he introduced himself. I was so angry when I found out he was . . .” She cut off her sentence and gave her attention to her food.

“Was what?”

“Nothing.” Foolishly, she was relaxing and letting too much slip. She took another bite of her food and let out sighs of approval. “The eggs are delicious.”

“I’m going to find out anyway. Eventually, I’m going to know about my little brother’s big sister.”

“Then he should tell you.”

“I’d like you to tell me.”

Charlie swallowed hard. She wasn’t sure how much Erik wanted him to know. “He pays my tuition. While I was attending Ohio State, I got offered a scholarship here. I thought it was strange since I hadn’t applied for one, but the dean told me that it wasn’t unusual because of my grades, so I accepted.”

“I wondered what he cashed those bonds for, but I didn’t ask.”

“How did you know he took the money? He said he didn’t tell anyone.”

“It showed up at income tax time.”

“I’m going to pay him back,” she said quickly and a bit too defensively.

“That’s not my business. It’s Erik’s money. That’s between you and him.”

“I don’t want you to think that I—”

He cut her off. “I don’t think anything, Charlie. You’re entitled to it.”

“No, I’m not. Peter Lawson never acknowledged me as his daughter and I don’t consider him my father. You were more his child than I ever was.”

“I’m sorry.”

Charlie shoved the plate away. “I’m not blaming you. I’m angry. With my mother. With your mother. Peter Lawson. You name ’em, I’m angry with ’em.”

“You can’t go around being mad at the world. I know you have good reason, but you’ll only make yourself sick.”

She paused and gave his words serious thought. “What do I replace it with? It’s the only thing I feel. If I take away the anger, then I feel nothing at all.”

“You replace it with trust.”

Charlie almost laughed. She had learned the hard way that it wasn’t worth the cost. “I don’t trust anybody but myself.”

Damian cupped her chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilted her head back. A single tear slid down her lovely face. Such beauty filled with so much pain. “It’s no way to live, Charlie.”

“It’s a way to survive.”

“Is that all you want?”

“It’s all I get.” Her soft words were uttered with heartbreaking acceptance.

She deserved so much more. What she had been through never should have happened. He wanted to give her the life she should have had all along. If only he could reach beyond the emotional barriers she had erected and free the guarded heart inside. “You’re wrong. You can have it all.”

“People like you get it all, Damian. And you never appreciate it when you have it.”

“I don’t agree.”

“What do you want that you don’t already have? Statistically, your life isn’t even half over and there’s nothing left you haven’t done. How much higher can you go in your company? You’ve traveled all over the world. Your car is something most people only dream of. What’s left?”

His suggestive grin sent a hot flush through her entire body. “I could name one thing right off the top of my head, but I wouldn’t want to make you blush again.”

“Be careful you don’t set unrealistic goals for yourself.”

“You’re the one who said I should have something to aspire to. The things you appreciate most are the ones you have to work for.”

* * * *

Charlie shook her head. Was it possible that Damian was truly dense? He couldn’t have failed to notice her behavior the two times he had touched her. “Are you some kind of glutton for punishment? Can’t you see what happens whenever you get too close?”

“You don’t let me get close.”

“I was talking about physically.”

“And I’m talking about emotionally. One will eventually follow the other.”

“I don’t know how to be close that way.”

“That’s not true. You have closeness with Erik.”

Charlie lowered her gaze. “That’s different.”

“Not completely.”

“He’s my brother.”

“You learned how to trust him; you can learn how to trust me, too. You just have to want to.”

“And you’re determined to make me want to, aren’t you?”

“I’ve got to have something to look forward to in my otherwise pathetic existence.”

“There’s got to be something more exciting to do. Why do you have such a desire to make me crazy?”

His face brightened with an enigmatic smile. “When you figure it out, let me know.”

“I’m not sure I want to work for you after all.”

“You can put that fear out of your mind. What does or doesn’t happen between us does not affect the offer of the job. In case you didn’t know, that’s against the law.”

She feigned disappointment “I guess that means there’re no free lunches after all.”

“Sorry, Charlie. You have to work as hard as anyone else. I’m a tyrant.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way.” She wasn’t looking for a free ride. Short-term solutions to long term problems never worked out in the end. That was one of the bitter lessons she had learned from being shuffled around in the foster care system.

“Would you like to go see the office today with me? I have a few overseas calls to make.”

“On the Sabbath?” She threw her hand across her chest in feigned shock. “You are a workaholic.”

“In some of the countries I have dealings with, Sunday is not considered the Sabbath. So bring your books to study. I’m not the only one who works on my days off.”

* * * *

As they entered the large Fifth Avenue offices, Charlie felt underdressed in her faded jeans and leather jacket Damian had assured her that they would be the only people in the office, so she could dress as she pleased. Of course, Mr. Conservative was wearing a suit and tie. With his arm draped loosely around her shoulder, they looked like an odd couple, even in a city full of oddballs.

Risk Management’s suite of offices took up the entire twentieth floor. The elevator doors opened to reveal a full-length etched-glass wall leading to the reception area.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Westfield. Working again today?”

Charlie jumped and whirled in the direction of the deep-timbered voice, her heart pounding wildly. As she got her bearings, she noticed that the man walking toward Damian wore the uniform of a security guard. She let out a visible sigh of relief. “Hello, Tim,” Damian said.

“Sorry, ma’am,” the guard said to her and then returned his attention to Damian. “Mr. Shapiro is in today, too. I wouldn’t want your friend to get another scare if you run into him.”

“My lawyer,” Damian answered her unasked question. “I have a couple of calls to make,” he said to the security guard. “Charlie might be walking around the offices, so it’s nothing to worry about if you happen to see her on the monitors.”

Tim nodded and continued on his rounds. Damian showed her around the elegant corporate offices, ending in the payroll department He turned on the computer and pulled up a training screen. “You can get the feel of the system without doing any damage to the current files. Do you want to play around with it for a while?”

“Sure, I love video games,” she joked, and slid into the seat at the desk.

“My office is right at the end of the hall if you need anything.”

A light tap on the door caught both their attention. As she started to stand, Damian put a hand on her shoulder. “Come in, Raymond.”

When he caught sight of Charlie, Raymond’s face reflected his surprise. “I thought you were alone.”