Romantic Acquisition (12 page)

Carlo understood what she was struggling against.  “Yes, I’m the enemy.  Now, so are you.”  He had a very satisfied look on his face. 

Suddenly, Jeff clapped his hands.  “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I have a demanding boss who expects me to work early in the morning.  I need to get some shut eye,” he said and stood up.  “Sarah, I’ll drive you back to the office so you can get your car.”

“Thanks,” she said and stood up, rushing out of the penthouse. 

Kate watched in astonishment as Sarah, her wonderful and supportive Sarah, quickly walked to the door.  As the doors shut on the two of them, Kate caught a snippet of intimacy between the two.

“Well, I’ll be…” Carlo said, shaking his head as he too, watched the two of them leave. 

“They’ve only known each other for a day!”

Carlo looked at Kate’s lovely face.  “We’ve known we were meant for each other ever since the first moment we met.  You’re just putting obstacles in our way,” he said and moved closer to her.

Kate didn’t want to start that again.  It was too hard to think when he was so close.  “Can you drive me back to my car?” she asked.

“Is that really what you want?”

“Yes,” she said and didn’t look up at him.  She took her purse and waited for him. 

Carlo sighed deeply.  “Okay.  Enough for one night,” he said and took his keys off the table.

They drove back to the office in silence.  Kate was caught up in her confusion and inability to understand how two people who had just met could be so non-challant about starting a relationship.  What was wrong with her?  What was she missing? 

Kate didn’t want to think.  She didn’t want to feel.  Thinking meant considering that she was inadequate in some way.  Feeling meant confusion and frustration.  She settled for numbness. 

Carlo drove her to her car but as she reached for the door handle, he stopped her with a simple touch.  He didn’t say a word but placed a very soft, very gentle kiss on her lips. 

Kate stared back at him for a full minute.  The kiss was devastating.  What did he want from her?  What did she want from him? 

She didn’t want to think.  She pulled the door open and got out, then almost fell into her own car, driving home in a trance. 

“We’re flying out to Houston today,” Carlo said through the phone. 
“
Pack a bag and meet me at the airport in an hour,”
With those terse words
he hung up the phone.

Kate stared at the dead receiver
, confusion on her face
.
  What had he said about
Houston
?  Why were they going to
Texas
?  Weren’t the reports he needed right here in the headquarters office.  She sat up and tried to focus but her mind took its own sweet time in coming together. 

Once the message sunk in, she let her head fall back onto her pillow and she stared up at the Kelly green ceiling.  “What am I doing?” she said and pulled the lime green sheet and yellow comforter over her head. 
“I can’t go to
Houston
with that man,” she groaned
, burying herself in her comfortable, warm bed
.

After a few minutes, she realized that her curiosity was keeping her from going back to sleep so she threw the covers back. 
With a heavy sigh
, she pulled herself out of bed and forced her feet to carry her to the bathroom.  It was still dark outside, but that wasn’t unusual.  It was the beginning of autumn so the mornings were pretty dark anyway.  She didn’t think too much about the time and ignored her now constant state of fatigue.  Kate wasn’t sleeping well anyway.  She stayed up late either trying to finish up her own work by answering e-mails
,
sending out instructions to her staff, or she was sleepless thinking about Carlo
and the way his kisses made her feel
. 

Last night was a combination of
the last two
.  She
’d
come
home and logged into her e-mail in an effort to get her mind off of Carlo’s last kiss.  There were over three hundred unanswered e-mails with questions ranging from a price quote on the latest line for a designer to videos of the newest fabrics.  

Once she’d gone through over fifty of them, she decided she was tired enough to go to sleep without thoughts of Carlo swirling through her mind.  She was wrong.   As soon as her head hit the pillow, her mind relaxed and thought back to that last kiss.  It had been so tender, so undemanding.  What was he trying to say to her? 

Kate was definitely confused.  She wanted to ignore him.  Each day, she thought of new ways to either avoid him, ignore him or convince him to let them just be friends. 
But he just wouldn’t let any of her options happen.  When she avoided him, he sought her out.  When she ignored him, he asked business questions that forced her to speak to him, acknowledge him and interspersed with the business issues, he’d pop in a personal question.  She found herself answering those as well, simply because she found that she enjoyed talking to him too much.  And the two times she’d asked him to not pursue a physical relationship with her, he’d kissed her.  That was the worst thing he could do since any sort of touch from that man had her body betraying her mind.  She turned to putty in his hands, then into a demanding woman, needing more. 

She let the hot spray of the shower ease the tension from her body and finish the job of waking her up.  She worried about how she was going to get through the day, in close proximity to him on a plane. 
If it weren’t for this silly attraction she felt for him, she was sure she could convince him that friendship was the best route.  She had dozens of male friends.  Some of them she’d even met as boyf
riends but when things didn’t work out, she’d convinced them to remain as friends.  Why wouldn’t Carlo accept that she wasn’t dating material?  Why couldn’t he leave her alone?

Because she didn’t want him to, she told herself honestly
, stepping out of the shower and toweling herself dry
.  She wanted a physical relationship with him but was terrified of any unintended consequences. 

What would he do if they had sex and she accidentally got pregnant?  She knew there were ways to prevent that, but nothing was one hundred percent. 

Did he want to have children?  She doubted it.  Why would a man who had everything, his freedom, tons of money and his pick of any woman around, want to be tied down to one, scared-of-intimacy woman who ran from everything she could? 

Kate pulled on a red sweater dress, black tights and black patent-leather pumps.  She added a floral scarf around her neck and piled her hair onto her head, letting small tendrils fall along her ears. 

Did she need to pack a bag?  Were they coming back to
Washington
,
D.C.
tonight or would they stay over in
Texas
? 
She didn’t want to pack. She hated traveling.  It was exhausting and she hated fly
ing.  But if the potential boss-
man said she had to fly, she packed her bags and got ready for flying.  She assumed she’d only be gone for one night, possibly two if he wanted to visit the
Dallas
store. 

She sighed as she zipped her
small carry-on bag
closed. 
It was more of an overnight bag than a carry on.  She didn’t think she’d need anything else for one night, just a simple change of clothes.  She worried about the flight.  Although she didn’t have a phobia about flying, she didn’t really like the feeling of not being in control while at high altitudes. 
At least they could drive to the
Dallas
store from
Houston
.  It was only an hour’s drive away. 

Kate got into her car and drove to the airport.  She had no idea what airline they were flying
on
and no idea what time their flight was. 
She guessed that Carlo would be waiting at the terminal somewhere.  At least she hoped so. 
She had just reached the parking lot
for daily charges
when her cell phone rang. 

“Where the hell are you?” Carlo demanded before she could even say her name.  “The plane is prepped and ready to fly, we’re just waiting on you.”

Kate was still too tired to be nice when he snapped at her like that so she snapped right back. 
“What do you mean?  What time is it anyway?” she asked, wondering why it still wasn’t light outside.

“It’s five minutes after
five o’clock
.
  Why don’t you know what time it is?  Don’t you have a clock?
”

“
Five o’clock
in the morning?” she almost yelled. 

“W
hat time did you think it was?  Any where are you?”

She gritted her teeth, striving for patience. 
“No.  I couldn’t focus
,” she explained slowly, trying not to yell at him but desperately wanting to give this rude man a piece of her mind
. 
“
I was too tired
when you called
.  I just knew it was dark and my alarm hadn’t gone off
so it was not time to get up
.”

Carlo laughed at her explanation. 
“Kate, you continue to astound me.  I’ve never known anyone who didn’t look at their clock when they wake up in the morning.”

“I’m sure you’ve witnessed several people, many women I should say, as they climb out of bed in the morning.  But I’m guessing it isn’t the first thing they look at.”

Carlo chuckled.  “What a dirty little mind you have, Kate Avril.  I’m curious to know what you think their first view is in the morning.”

Kate didn’t respond
but she knew that her face was flaming with color.  She was glad she wasn’t standing in front of him so he could witness her
embarrassment
.  “Look, obviously, I’m not where I’m supposed to be.  How about if you tell me where I should be and let’s forget about this conversation?  Shall we?”

She gritted her teeth while she waited for Carlo’s laughter to die down.  Meanwhile, she was shivering in the cold next to her car with her trunk open, about to pull her suitcase out of the trunk.

“You’re probably in the economy parking lot, right?” At her agreement, he went on, “Go out
of
the parking lot and look for signs
directing you to
Terminal T.  There’s private parking there.  Once you get there, you’ll see me.”

Kate groaned but slammed her trunk shut. 
“Fine.  How long will
it take?  I’ll call you when I get lost again.” 

“Are you not very good at following directions, Kate?” he said softly.  There was more curiosity in his voice than teasing. 

Her anger evaporated.  It was too early for that much emotion anyway.  “No.  Not usually.  I can get lost going to the grocery store, just for the record.”

He laughed again.  “Okay.  Thanks for the forewarning.  If you’re not here in five minutes, I’ll call you again and direct you over here.  Sound easy enough?”

“Yes,” she said and got back into her car.  “See you in five, hopefully,” she said and hung up her phone. 

She drove out of the parking lot and followed his directions. 
Sure enough, four minutes later, she found Terminal T easily. 
She parked her car again and looked around.  There wasn’t much to see since everything was still dark outside.  The area was very busy with people rushing around, stocking private jets and fueling them up. 

She got out of her car and
stood by her
trunk again, not sure if she was in the right place.  Then Kate
turned around and saw him.  He was walking towards her with his normal aggressive stride
, looking incredibly handsome in another boring suit, this one black with a maroon tie with little paisleys on it
.  She wished she’d stayed in bed this morning and ignored the ringing phone.  Kate had a very bad feeling about this day. 
No man had the right to look that dashing and attractive this early in the morning, she thought.