LILA MAXWELL’S TO DO LIST

  Set up crucial meetings for Nicolas Camden—my boss…and the man of my dreams.

  Try to get the memory of what happened between Nick and me on his desk out of my head.

  Discuss the future of Colette, Inc., with Nick—leave our personal future out of it.

  Take home-pregnancy test…just in case.

  Return “magical” brooch to Rose—tell her she may have been right about its powers of love, although only time will tell.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Silhouette Desire, where every month you’ll find six passionate, powerful and provocative romances.

October’s MAN OF THE MONTH is The Taming of Jackson Cade, part of bestselling author BJ James’ MEN OF BELLE TERRE miniseries, in which a tough horse breeder is gentled by a lovely veterinarian. The Texan’s Tiny Secret by Peggy Moreland tells the moving story of a woman in love with the governor of Texas and afraid her scandalous past will hurt him.

The exciting series 20 AMBER COURT continues with Katherine Garbera’s Some Kind of Incredible, in which a secretary teaches her lone-wolf boss to take a chance on love. In Her Boss’s Baby, Cathleen Galitz’s contribution to FORTUNES OF TEXAS: THE LOST HEIRS, a businessman falsely accused of a crime finds help from his faithful assistant and solace in her virginal embrace.

Jacob’s Proposal, the first book in Eileen Wilks’ dynamic new series, TALL, DARK & ELIGIBLE, features a marriage of convenience between a beauty and a devastatingly handsome financier known as the Iceman. And Maureen Child’s popular BACHELOR BATTALION marches on with Last Virgin in California, an opposites-attract romance between a tough, by-the-book marine drill instructor and a free-spirited heroine.

So celebrate the arrival of autumn by indulging yourself with all six of these not-to-be-missed love stories.

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

Some Kind of Incredible
Katherine Garbera

www.millsandboon.co.uk

KATHERINE GARBERA

lives in Central Florida with her husband and their two children. She wrote her first book to prove to herself that she could do it and to have something to read at work! She believes firmly in fiction that reflects the reality of her life and the lives of those close to her. She is a past recipient of the Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award. She loves to hear from readers, and you can write her at P.O. Box 1806, Davenport, FL 33836 or e-mail her at kgarbera@yahoo.com.

To secretaries everywhere who do an impossible job

with very little thanks, but especially to those I work

with at Disney Event Productions:

Gina McTigue, Joyce Campos, Adele Swearingen,

Eva Artimovich, Mary Leppich, Mary Baker,

Becky Latourelle, Karen Satre and Kelly Darden.

Also a special thanks to those women who mentored me

when I was young and green! Vita Charles,

Cindy Michener, Shirley Colebank and Jackie Mathews.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

One

Late again, Lila Maxwell thought as she hurriedly closed the door to her third-floor apartment. She loved her home. It wasn’t much, a four-room apartment in an older but nicely kept building. She’d spent the last two years carefully decorating each part until her flat of rooms had become her dream home.

She ran down the stairs at a rapid pace because she liked the exercise. As an administrative assistant at Colette, Inc., the world famous jewelry company, Lila spent most of her time sitting. The early morning was dark and Lila longed just for a minute for the warmth of her native Florida. Youngsville, Indiana, had a great community, but the weather was sometimes too cold for this Florida girl.

“Lila, can you stop for a cup of coffee?” her landlady, Rose Carson, asked, stopping Lila in her tracks.

“Rose, I wish I could, but Nick’s due back today and I’d like to be in the office before he gets there.” Nick Camden was her boss. And the man of her dreams.

Not the girlish fantasies she’d entertained of a white knight who rescued her from the small government-subsidized duplex she and her mother had shared, but womanly fantasies of dark passion with a man who saw her for more than a nice collection of body parts. She flushed a little and hoped Rose didn’t notice.

“I have something for you. Wait here for a minute,” Rose said.

Lila loved her landlady. She was kind and caring and had made her feel at home when everything around her was very foreign. Rose’s apartment took most of the bottom floor. Warm and inviting, it made whoever entered feel that a caring, successful woman lived there. Lila hoped to create that for herself some day.

“Here it is, Lila.”

Rose handed her a beautiful piece of jewelry. A brooch made of amber and precious metal. It was almost heart-shaped and, though the term seemed inappropriate in the presence of something so precious, it was pretty. As Lila fingered it gently, she knew she shouldn’t wear it. “I can’t take this.”

She handed it back to Rose, but the woman refused to take it.

“Just borrow it for luck.”

“Thank you, Rose, but no. This is too valuable.”

“I want you to wear it. It needs to be on a pretty young lady.”

Rose brushed aside Lila’s coat and fastened the brooch to her suit jacket. Lila loved the brooch but she knew better than to take something this valuable. She tried to remove it, but Rose’s hand covered hers.

“Lila, it would mean a lot to me. It brought Mitch and me together. I like to think it brings love to the lives of those it touches.”

Rose got that misty look she often had when she spoke of her deceased husband, Mitch. Though her black hair had a few shades of gray, Rose was still attractive. Her figure was slim but slightly rounded, giving way to a more matronly style of dress. Unwilling to upset her neighbor, Lila decided to keep it for today and return the brooch tonight.

“Thanks, Rose. It is lovely. I have to go,” Lila said with a glance at her watch.

Rose nodded, and Lila hurried out into the cold. The sun was breaking over the horizon. It was nippy but not too cold for a walk to work. She lifted her face to the sun and pretended the high for today wasn’t only fifty degrees.

She loved the parks and trees full of fall colors. Yellows, browns, oranges and reds filled every space. Halloween, her favorite holiday, was right around the corner, she thought, attributing the extra bounce in her step to excitement.

Usually she had some company on her walks to work. Sometimes Jayne and Sylvie walked with her, but Jayne had recently gotten married and hadn’t been up so early in the mornings. And today she was too early for Sylvie.

Lila liked the fact that she had good friends here. It was as if she’d found the surrogate family she’d always been searching for. She really loved her life in Youngsville.

Not wanting to be late on Nick’s first day back, she hurried. In her purse was the banana bread she’d baked last night. In fact, she’d spent every night for the last week baking.

Lila always felt in control in her kitchen. She was the executive there and she knew her way around. It was easy for her to fool herself into believing that Nick Camden hadn’t almost kissed her while she was kneading dough and making sheets of sweet rolls.

A car slowed behind her. The low purr of an expensive machine told her it wasn’t one of the other Colette, Inc. secretaries offering her a ride. She kept her head down and walked. She wasn’t prepared to face Nick outside the office. In fact, he’d passed her a hundred times this summer and never once stopped to offer her a ride.

Men want only one thing from women like us, Lila. Her mother’s warning echoed in her mind. Her ex-boyfriend, Paul, had proved her mother right. She didn’t glance toward the car despite the warmth emanating from the open window.

“Want a lift, Lila?”

“No, thanks, I’m enjoying the crisp morning.” If only she could stop shivering.

“Liar,” he said, not unkindly.

He was right, she was lying. But that didn’t mean she was going to admit it. A car honked, and Nick waved the driver by. Lila wasn’t getting in the car with him, because after last week she didn’t trust herself. She’d spent all of her time in Indiana adjusting to the new community and her home, learning to be proficient at her job and making some casual friends. But she hadn’t been prepared for Nick Camden’s sexy gaze when he had turned it her way.

She’d dreamed of him kissing her and touching her, but when he’d leaned closer to her last week in the office, she’d frozen. Paralyzed with the fear that she would disappoint him, she’d backed away. But he had a gleam in his eyes that said retreat wasn’t possible.

Damn him. She tried to give him a reassuring smile and walked on. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Suit yourself, Florida girl, but it’s a cold morning and my car is warm and comfortable.”

He was temptation. He hadn’t been when she’d first started at Colette. But lately she’d been looking for a man who’d be serious with her. A man who wanted kids and a nice house. A husband who understood the importance of family.

Nick didn’t even register on her scope because he changed women every week. He wasn’t a playboy, but he never seemed content to stay with one woman. He was like a hungry wolf eating his fill and moving on. Lila wasn’t interested in being his next meal. If she thought there was even a remote possibility that Nick would stay with her, she’d give in to him.

But there wasn’t.

Almost two years ago she’d decided that Indiana was a place for fresh starts. She wasn’t going to get involved with any man unless she knew for certain it was right. Which meant no Nick Camden. No matter how heavy he made her blood run.

“Lila, I’ve been out of the office for a week. I need you to brief me on what’s been going on.”

Maybe she’d misinterpreted his intentions. She shrugged, and finally gave in. “Okay.”

She prided herself on being a good secretary and before the episode last week she’d never have hesitated to get in his car. He didn’t scare her on a conscious level, but her mind warned her to be wary of him. There was something about this very sophisticated man that wasn’t very civilized.

She slid into the plush leather seat and hurriedly fastened her seatbelt. She closed her eyes, letting the heat seep into her bones. A warm masculine scent surrounded her and she imagined Nick leaning over her. His breath brushing her lips.

Wait a minute!

Her eyes flew open and Nick’s face was a scant inch from hers. There was something electric in his eyes. Something that made her pulse race and her breasts tingle. Something masculine that called to every female instinct buried deep inside her. Made her want to indulge senses she kept firmly under lock and key, let them out and experiment with this very experienced man.

“Nick, what are you doing?” God, she could barely speak. She wanted to lean forward and taste him. To see if the sin his wicked mouth promised was as delicious as her fantasy assured her it would be.

“Fixing your seatbelt. It’s twisted.”

She couldn’t breathe as his fingers brushed against her breast. Her nipple tightened and she wanted to thrust her chest out so that he’d have to do more than accidentally caress her hungry flesh, but instead she bit her lower lip.

“There we go,” he said.

He pulled his hand away slowly and she wished she could see his eyes behind those dark sunglasses he wore. Nick was a master at seeming in control, but his eyes always gave him away.

Her pulse was still racing and she wanted to pull him back to her, wanted to feel his hard body pressed to her own softer one. Maybe Rose’s pin was working its magic, spinning a spell around Lila and her dream man.

Lila shook her head. If Nick wanted her it was for business and not in the way a man wanted a woman. He was too savvy to mess up a winning partnership with old-fashioned lust.

Nick put the car in gear. Sweat broke out on Lila’s body but it had nothing to do with the heat coming from the car. It had to do with the man sitting next to her. A man that she’d decided was off-limits. A man, she suddenly realized, who’d decided she was his next meal.

Nick knew that he’d unnerved Lila, but he couldn’t just drive by and not stop for her. It bothered him that he’d probably passed by her this summer without noticing. But not that much.

He’d never paid much attention to her as a woman except to note that she complemented him nicely, being blond and built. She made them look good when he had visitors or when they attended meetings together. To him, Lila represented the perfect office assistant, someone who knew her job but was also pleasing to the eye.

All of that had changed after he’d returned from Paris in early September. Lila had seemed softer somehow. She’d chatted with him casually before taking a memo and he instantly knew something was different. Actually he knew exactly what had changed.

His reaction to her.

He’d gone on point like a hunting dog scenting prey, and he’d been unable to shake this damned attraction to her. And she seemed oblivious, which made him want to get a reaction out of her even more.

“You were going to tell me about your trip,” she said.

Yeah, Camden. Now that you blackmailed her into your car, talk business. “I need you to prepare a presentation for the domestic guys with last quarter’s financials. I have the data in my briefcase.”

“I’ll clear my desk and work on it first thing.”

Nick nodded. Silence built in the car, and he realized he knew too little about Lila outside of work. He had no idea how she spent her free time. Lila was so homey sometimes he was amazed she’d chosen a career over a family. But she had. And now he wanted—no needed—to know why.

“You live at Amber Court, right?”

“Yes, why?”

“No reason. Do you like it?”

Oh, God, he sounded like an actor in a bad sitcom. He’d never tried to get to know someone he already knew. It seemed his MO needed a change but his focus on Lila was now purely physical.

“It’s nice, but I’ve dreamed of owning a two-story house with—”

“A white picket fence, right?”

She bit her lip and stared out the window.

He knew he’d sounded sarcastic, hell, he couldn’t help it. Reality was hard and cold when you spent most of your time in the dream world. And it seemed Lila Maxwell did a lot of dreaming.

Bothered that he’d hurt her, Nick changed the subject. He was not in the business of fixing hurts. He’d learned not to care after Amelia had slipped away from him into a drug-induced coma that was her only escape from the pain her cancer-ridden body felt—24/7.

“How was the office while I was gone?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

At first, he thought she wasn’t going to answer. She glanced over at him. She fingered her scarf with her pearl-pink colored nails and the image of those fingers on his thigh imprinted itself in his head.

“Not busy. A few more rumors than usual.”

Focus, man. “What kind?”

She smiled, and his inseam felt tight. Damn, but she caused a reaction that was close to nuclear in him.

“Oh, you know, the ones where we’re all booted out the door.”

“You think they’re unfounded?” Nick asked. He’d been hearing similar things overseas.

“I work close to the top and we haven’t heard anything substantial, have we?”

Nick sighed and grunted. The turn into Colette, Inc. was busy with employees all arriving at work, and though it didn’t require his full concentration, Nick gave himself to the task. He didn’t look at Lila again until he’d pulled his Porsche to a stop in the spot designated as his. He hoped for once that Lila’s sharp mind would miss his non-answer.

A quick glance at her showed she hadn’t. He pulled his keys from the ignition and reached for the door handle, but her hand on his arm stopped him.

“Have we, Nick?”

Lying went against the grain. Nick believed that life’s little lessons were best served cold. But Lila’s heart was in her big brown eyes and she looked scared. Though it had been a long, long time since he’d wanted to protect any woman, he suddenly didn’t want to shake Lila’s world.

He faced her and leaned close.

“Not yet.”

“That isn’t a no,” she said quietly.

The confines of the car put them so close together that he could feel each inhalation of air she took as she breathed. Staring at her pink lips, Nick wondered idly if his breath was now filling her lungs, filling her body with life, and he had the urge to fill her with something more real. He didn’t want to be satisfied with the fact that their appearance impressed vendors and visiting executives in the office. He wanted them to be together, physically.

Nick knew on a basic level that he was trying to hide from the fact that his safe haven, Colette, Inc., had turned into a battleground, but it was more than that. He leaned closer to Lila, not stopping until he could taste the air she was breathing, her lips softening under his, her hand on his arm clutching helplessly at his sleeve.

He knew that he was in for a world of hurt if he pursued her this way. But the world had gone crazy, and the carefully sheltered life he’d built for himself was crumbling. The only thing that looked solid was Lila Maxwell.

Lila moaned deep in her throat and opened her mouth under his. All thoughts of keeping things light and simple vanished. His blood roared in his ears, and his body screamed for more. Her mouth was soft, warm, wet…welcoming on this cold October day.

She clung to him as if the moment had taken her by surprise, too. Her tongue responded shyly to his. It had been forever since a woman hadn’t thrust her own tongue into his mouth before he’d even wanted her there.

Nick pulled her closer, groaning when the gearshift ground into his hip. He pulled away. “Damn.”

Lila stared at him as if she’d never seen him before. Her lips were swollen and her face was flushed. Tendrils of her perfectly styled hair surrounded her heart-shaped face. She was mussed and he wanted her more so.

He wanted that glorious hair spread on his navy pillowcase, those rosy lips swollen from his spent passion. He wanted his sweat and hers drying on their bodies. But he knew he couldn’t put the car in Reverse and take them both to his home where they could spend the day in his king-size bed.

“Damn.”

“You already said that.”

“Some things need repeating.”

Her hands trembled as she tucked the escaped strands back into place. “What happened here, Nick?”

“I want you, Lila.”

“Because of work?” she asked, not looking at him. Instead, she pulled her compact from her purse and repaired her lipstick.

Her armor was back and the dewy woman who’d been next to him just a minute before was gone. In her place was his ultra-efficient secretary. And he resented that. He couldn’t pull out a mirror and makeup and smooth away signs of passion as easily as she had. “Because of you.”

She gulped. “I’m not ready for this. I still think of you as my boss.”

“Well, start thinking of me as your man.”

He opened his door and got out. The air was cold but didn’t cool the heat flowing through him. He wasn’t going to be able to focus on anything in the office except that his wide cherrywood desk was big enough to support the weight of one slender blonde.

Lila met him on the sidewalk and brushed past him. He stopped her with a firm hand on her arm.

“What’s the hurry?”

“I don’t want anyone to see us coming in together.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. At least five people saw me pick you up this morning. And even more saw us pull into the parking lot.”

“True. But I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression.”

“Are you really that concerned with what others think?”

She nodded.

“Don’t be. They aren’t worth your time.”

“You only say that because it’s always the woman who comes out sounding like she’s easy.”

“Trust me, Lila, the last thing you are is easy.”

“I know that, but other women…”

“If anyone says anything to you, tell me and I’ll silence them.”

She smiled. “Like Hannibal?”

“No. Like Dirty Harry.”

“Death?”

“Intimidation.”

“You’re not as scary as you think you are.”

“Neither are you.”

“I’m not trying to scare you,” she said and walked quickly inside the building.

But you are, he thought. Because a part of him was afraid she’d mean more to him than any of the brief affairs he’d had since Amelia’s death two years ago, and that wasn’t in the cards.

Two

The buzz around the office was that Colette, Inc. had a new board member who was planning on making some changes at the top. Lila returned from a quick clerical meeting led by Suzy, the Administrative Assistant in Human Resources, not feeling as upbeat about her job as she had a day ago.

She stowed her purse and tried to concentrate on her work, but the presentation she was creating couldn’t hold her attention.

Dammit!

“Can you come into my office and take a memo?” Nick asked. Anger seethed around him in a cloud. He looked dark and menacing, not like the man who’d been keeping her at arm’s length all day.

Lila saved the file she’d been working on and nodded. She tried not to glance at him as he hovered near her desk. The spicy scent of his cologne surrounded her and she breathed deeply to inhale his scent into her bones.

Bracing his big hands on her desk, he leaned over. His deep-blue eyes usually held boundless energy, but today anger simmered in their depths. She felt it radiating off him in waves. Concerned, she started to rub his hand, to offer him the most basic of human comfort, but then pulled back.

She watched as his eyes left hers to stare at her small hand now only a few inches from his right one on the desk. He’d spent the entire afternoon with the board of directors and, if his body language was correct, then the rumor that Colette was the object of a hostile takeover was true.

Colette, Inc. had proven a safe place for her to build her career and save the money she needed to buy her dream house. The rumored takeover reminded her how much she hated change.

When she’d packed up and moved to Youngsville it was with the intention of staying here forever. First, Nick had started acting like she was the most scrumptious woman he’d seen in years, and now her job was threatened.

It wasn’t so much her role in Colette she worried about losing. It was her apartment. The homey place at Amber Court had given her the grounding she needed to find her own feet, to shape her own image away from her mother. And suddenly that looked as if it might be taken away.

“What’s up?”

“I’d rather not discuss it out here.”

Her stomach clenched, and she felt much the same as she had on that day in high school when the guy she’d been waiting for three years to be asked out by had told her that he’d only done so because she was considered easy.

“I’ll be right in.”

Nick straightened and then deliberately brushed his fingertip over the back of her knuckles. Her breath caught as electric tingles pulsed through her body. She’d spent so many hours at her desk wondering if she’d just imagined his attraction to her, but now she knew it wasn’t a fantasy.

For a tense moment they stared at each other. Lila’s breasts felt full and her lips were suddenly dry. She licked them. Nick tracked the movement and started to lean closer to her.

Down the hall an office door closed loudly. Nick stood and walked into his office without another word.

“Oh, my God!” Lila said. She had to transfer out of this office before she completely lost all of her common sense. She fingered the brooch Rose had given her before she left for work. It was beautiful, and Lila had found herself taking it off to look at it several times today. In fact, it seemed to glow a little more brightly whenever she touched it. Rose had said it had always brought her luck. Lila had the feeling she needed more help than this brooch could bring her.

She signed out of the local area network, or the LAN, and removed her laptop from its docking station. Nick’s office overlooked Lake Michigan. Tonight, the view was dark and menacing. Being a Florida girl she didn’t care for all the cold weather, but the changing leaves had been beautiful. After a year and a half here, she still hadn’t acclimated herself to the Indiana weather.

Lila set her laptop on the corner of Nick’s desk. He was hunched over his own computer, probably checking e-mail, she thought. Tension radiated from him, and she wanted to touch him, to massage those broad shoulders until he leaned back in his big executive chair and smiled at her.

Of course, he never really smiled at her. Sometimes when they’d completed a really tough project, he’d give her one of his half-smiles, and she’d feel a deep longing inside to make him really happy. But she never did. Sleeping with the boss was the one thing she’d never do. Except this morning things between them had changed. Her dreams were slowly becoming reality. The actions she’d always longed to take were now presenting themselves to her.

“Ready, Lila?”

She swallowed and blocked her train of thought. “Almost.”

She powered on her computer. “Should we close the blinds?”

“Why, afraid someone might see us alone together in here?” There was a biting edge to his words.

“Not afraid exactly.” She’d never been afraid of any man since most of them turned and ran when life got tough. She knew she was strong and could take all they had to give. But she always tried to keep a part of herself secret. And Nick was harder to hide from than anyone else.

“Trust me, Lila. Everyone knows your reputation. Anyone who might see us will know we are only working.”

Stung, she busied herself at the computer, pulling up the company memo template and readying herself to do her job. His words shouldn’t have hurt, she thought. After all, their relationship was that of boss and secretary. But the words did hurt.

“I’m ready, Nick.”

“Lila…”

She glanced up, hoping he’d attribute the tears in her eyes to the late hour.

“Never mind.”

They’d been carefully treading around one another since that night two short weeks ago when Jayne had interrupted a moment that had almost gone too far. She’d wanted so badly to taste his lips on hers. To feel that rock-hard body that he worked at keeping in shape pressed against her own. To experience for once in her lonely little life the touch of real passion.

“The memo should go to all staff in the Marketing Division.”

“Just our team or domestic, too?”

“Domestic, too. I’m handling this announcement.”

“Promotion?” she asked hopefully.

“I wish it were.”

“Subject?”

“Grey Enterprises,” he said, pacing across the room and stopping in front of the Zen rock garden that he adjusted every day or so.

Uh-oh, she thought. Nick’s deep-blue eyes reflected the frustration and anger in his tone.

“Dammit,” he said under his breath.

“Nick?”

“Have you heard the rumors of a takeover, Lila?”

“Yes, but I’m sure they are unfounded.”

“They aren’t.”

Shock rumbled through her, and for a minute she saw herself back in that duplex she’d grown up in. The government-subsidized housing that had been her world until she’d gone to trade school and accepted this job. She saw herself back in that world she’d struggled so hard to get out of. She saw her dreams slowly dying and vowed that she’d do whatever it took to prevent that from happening.

“What the hell should I say to the staff? Don’t worry, we’re not going to let you lose your job?”

“I don’t know. Is that true?”

“Hell, I wish I knew.”

Lila’s hands started to shake and she realized that this wasn’t just change happening around her. This was the sky falling in. This was—

“Don’t worry, Lila. Clerical staff is hardly ever let go. VPs on the other hand…”

“No one’s going to fire you, Nick.”

“Lila, sometimes you are naive.”

She wanted to argue, but knew that to a suave sophisticated man like Nick Camden, she must seem a little small-townish. “But the board loves you.”

“We might have a new board member.”

“Grey Enterprises?”

“Yes. Marcus Grey, their CEO, has bought eight percent of the common shares on the market. He is now the fourth-largest stock holder.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Whatever we can to survive. I’ve worked too damn hard to give this up without a fight.”

He still stood with his back to her, searching, it seemed, for answers in his Zen garden. She stood, set her laptop on the chair and crossed to him. All her protective instincts told her to cradle this man in her arms. To comfort him and draw strength from the comfort he could offer her.

She knew it was dangerous, though. Nick held her dreams captive, what would happen if she gave him the keys to her reality?

“What can I do to help you?”

He pivoted on his heel and faced her. His deep-blue gaze brushed over her, and when he spoke his voice was huskier than usual. He moved a few paces closer. She could feel his body heat and started to back away. But something in his eyes challenged her to stay where she was.

“For me personally?” he asked.

For work, she wanted to say, but knew that wasn’t true. Her words caught in her throat and she could only nod.

“Let me hold you.”

She wasn’t sure he’d really spoken. It was just like the dream she’d had the night before, in which he’d asked her to come into his office and then made passionate love to her.

“What?”

“I know all about sexual harassment and this has nothing to do with your job.”

“Just hold me?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

She waited.

“I’m going to kiss you, too.”

She didn’t hesitate to close the gap between them. She knew he was reaching out, as everyone in the office had been today. Just searching for some comfort in this time that had become troubled. But deep in her heart, as he lowered his head, Lila hoped it meant something more. Just a little bit more to him.

Nick knew that he was manipulating the situation, taking advantage of Lila because she was weak and vulnerable right now. But he’d wanted her for a long time. He didn’t look too closely at himself because he didn’t want to admit he had any of those feelings. The last time he’d felt this shaken was when Amelia had been diagnosed with cancer.

He brushed her lips lightly with his. She tasted like a bittersweet fruit and he wanted more. She sighed as his tongue slid past the barrier of her lips and teeth, learning the inside of her mouth.

Her hands clutched at the back of his neck and all semblance of control vanished. His groin hardened almost painfully. He clutched Lila’s hips in his hands and held her closer to his lower body, feeling her move slightly. He thrust against her, sharpening the sensations in him.

He knew that Lila wasn’t like the women he’d dated in the past, other executives from outside firms who were hardened by life and more cynical. No, Lila was different. She baked bread for the office when morale was low. She offered life, he realized, and though he knew he couldn’t have it forever, he wanted a small slice of it for himself. He needed to believe for a few moments that he wasn’t alone in the world.

Nick wanted to be a tender dream lover, but his body was on overdrive and he held on to his control by a string. His hands shook with the need to touch all of her. The low lighting in his office cast the room in a comforting glow. He loosened the buttons on her blouse, and met her clear gaze with his own.

No matter how badly he wanted this, he wasn’t going to push Lila to move too quickly. He didn’t analyze why.

“Okay?” he asked, dipping one finger beneath her collar.

She nodded.

He released another button. Her skin was smooth and creamy, like the finest satin sheets. He leaned down to drop kisses on the flesh he’d exposed.

She shivered, her fingers tunneling in his hair and holding him close to her. He quickly opened the remaining buttons and stood back. Taking her wrists in his hands he held her arms away from her body. The bodice of her shirt fell open. A scrap of red satin and lace covered her breasts.

It enraged his senses the way nothing else ever had. It wasn’t right that a bra meant for sin should be on her sweet body, but at the same time it was perfect. There was no other undergarment that could do this body justice.

He deftly opened the front closure of her bra. A quick intake of breath was her response. Deliberately, he bent and took the edge of the right cup between his teeth and slowly pulled the fabric away from her skin.

The stubble on his jaw scraped against her skin and she lifted her chest slightly. Her hands weren’t as subtle, directing him to her nipple.

“Please,” she said.

“Hell, yes.”

He nibbled on her hardened flesh before suckling her deep in his mouth. She held him tight to her body and blood engorged his sex, making him so hard and full he thought he’d explode before he moved on.

The slow pace he was trying to set evaporated. He took Lila’s mouth as he planned to take her. Hard, swift but with infinite care, and he lifted her, carrying her to the cherrywood desk. He set her on its surface and slid his hands under her skirt.

He cursed when he found her warm, wet and wanting. Damn. He needed to fill her. To feel that humid heat on him. To revel in the fact that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

His tongue thrust deeper into her mouth. Needing to deeply embed her essence on every one of his senses, he pulled her panty hose down over hips and legs. He wrenched his mouth from hers.

Urging her to lean back on the desk, support her own weight on her elbows, he spread her before him like a sensual feast. Her blouse fell away from her body exposing her flushed breasts with their hardened tips. Her skirt bunched at her waist revealing panties that matched her bra. His pulse jumped higher, and he couldn’t breath until he’d tasted her intimately.

He sank back in his big leather chair and surrounded her hips with his hands. She glanced down at him, passion still in her eyes, but something else there, too.

“May I taste you?” he asked.

She nodded again.

He bent forward, resting his cheek against the lace and satin that covered her mound. Then he slowly turned his face until he was surrounded by her scent. He couldn’t wait any longer; standing, he ripped her panties from her body and carefully opened his fly.

Lila freed his long erection from his pants and brought him closer to her. The head of his manhood brushed against her and she moaned deep in her throat. She thrust against him, but Nick used his grip on her hips to slow the movement.

He slid carefully into her, slowly savoring each pulse around his hard length. She was small and tight, fitting him like a velvet glove. She tried to rush his possession, but he wouldn’t let her. He was the master here. In her body he’d found the place where he should always be.

He seated himself to the hilt and paused for a moment.

“Keep going, Nick.”

“Oh, I will,” he said, but didn’t move. Instead he bent to take her nipple into his mouth, sucking strongly until he felt her hips moving between his hands, felt the tiny tightening of her muscles against his manhood. Then he pulled out of her and started to thrust. Lila met him thrust for thrust, clutching his buttocks and pulling him to her.

The tension built inside him. He couldn’t hold on another second, but he had to. He waited until he felt Lila’s body clench around his, felt the extra warmth that hadn’t been there before, and then let himself go. Let his release take him to the stars and carry this sweet woman there with him.

He wanted to collapse against her but knew he couldn’t, so he lifted himself away and sank back into his office chair. Eventually his pulse slowed and sanity returned. He zipped his pants and felt the stickiness of their joining. Damn, he hadn’t used a condom.

Lila’s descent to reality seemed to take a little longer, however. Nick knew the moment it happened because she grasped the edges of her blouse together and refused to look at him.

Some mistakes were the kind that took you years to realize, Lila thought as she fought to rebutton her silk blouse. And others stared you in the face from the moment the actions were taken. What had felt so right minutes earlier now felt horribly wrong.

Her heart ached and her stomach churned like a hurricane in the Atlantic. She tried to act calm but having had only one other lover in her life hadn’t given her a lot of sophistication to call on in this type of situation. She slid off the desk and decided she could go home without panties or hose on because she sure as heck wasn’t rooting around under his desk to find them.

With a calmness that she knew had to be some sort of protective shell, she smoothed her skirt, tucked her hair behind her ear and walked away from the man who’d just tilted her neat little world. First with the announcement that the safe predictable life she’d built at Colette was in danger, and then with the soul-searing intensity with which he’d made love to her.

Part of her thought the whole thing entirely romantic, but the forbidding look on Nick’s face told her he wasn’t going to get down on one knee and confess his undying devotion to her.

This heartache’s on me, she thought, knowing that her fantasies about Nick had precipitated their love-making. She wanted to play it cool, but she was afraid if she tried to talk her voice would come out in a high-pitched squeak.

“Lila,” Nick said. His voice was low and calm, washing over her like a warm breeze on a summer’s day. She wanted to go to him and wallow in what he had to offer, but she knew it was a mirage.

“Yes,” she said, picking up her laptop and preparing to leave, still refusing to look at him.

“We have to talk about what just happened.”

Not if she lived to be a hundred would she ever want to discuss this with anyone. And certainly not with Nick. She made a noncommittal sound. Let him take that for whatever he wanted, she wasn’t up for a post mortem right now.

She heard his footsteps and refused to glance at him. His body heat reached her in waves, and now that she knew how strong he was and how right it had felt to be in his arms, he was even harder to resist.

“Honey.”

“Don’t,” she said, her voice cracking, as she’d feared it would. The way he’d pulled out of her body and sat in his chair waiting for her to recover told her more than words ever could. He did not think of her in an affectionate way, and she’d tolerate no lies from him.

“Lila, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen but it did and nothing can change the fact that neither of us was prepared for it.”

She became aware of the stickiness between her thighs. She knew immediately that he wasn’t only concerned about health issues but about pregnancy. How careless could she be? she asked herself. Hadn’t she learned anything growing up with her unmarried mother?

“I’m not on the pill,” she said. She was one of the small percentage of women who were allergic to it. It had never bothered her because she wasn’t swept away by desire. In fact, she had found the entire male-female lust-at-first-sight phenomenon to be highly overrated…until tonight.

“Well, hell,” he said, then turned away from her to utter something profane and succinct.

His words cut straight to her heart.

“Yes, hell. This isn’t the end of the world, you know.” Chances were she wasn’t pregnant.

Now he was the one avoiding eye contact. “It is for me.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because I made a vow never to marry again.” His words affected her in a way she didn’t want them to, and dashed her secret hopes once and for all. She’d been dreaming of Nick Camden for so long that she’d put him on a pedestal, and here he was revealing his very real clay feet.

“I don’t recall asking you to marry me, Nick Camden.”

His laser-sharp gaze pinned her to her spot. He didn’t say anything in response to her sarcasm.

“If you’re pregnant we can discuss the choices to be made.”

“What are you insinuating, Nick?”

“That we will have to make some decisions once we know the full details of the situation.”

“This sounds like the verbiage for a damned memo. This isn’t about the job, you know. This is about life.”

“My job is my life, Lila.”

Truer words were never spoken.

“How soon until you’ll know if you’re knocked up?”

“Jeez, now that I’ve seen your charm I know why you’re so popular with the ladies.”

“Dammit, Lila—”

“Yes, dammit, Nick.”

She walked out of his office and grabbed her purse from the bottom desk drawer.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

She sighed. She knew how dogged he could be when he set his mind to something. “A few days maybe. I’m not real regular.”

She shut off her desk lamp and felt the heavy weight of his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll drive you home.”

“No, thank you.”

“It wasn’t an offer.”

“Was it an order?”

“Tell me you’re not planning to walk home in the dark.”

“I’m not planning to walk home in the dark,” she said, feeling an edge that she normally tempered with lots of baking and a call to her mother.

“Smart-ass.”

“Look, this is Youngsville, not Chicago. I’ll be fine.”

“You’re not going without me and that’s final.”

“Okay,” she said.

He grabbed his coat from the rack and reached around the corner to hit the light switch. Lila’s discarded undergarments were under his desk. He stopped and pocketed them without a word. Then he closed and locked his inner office door. He took her elbow and escorted her down the darkened hallway.

Lila felt the emotions inside her swirling like a black mist and rising so quickly she couldn’t control them. She knew she had to keep her mouth shut but somehow the words wouldn’t stop.

“So I guess I shouldn’t ask if it was good for you?”

Three

Nick had been at some low places in his life but never had he felt like this. The night was pitch dark and he was thankful that Lila was silent as they drove. He didn’t think he could take much more conversation from her at this point. In his mind’s eye he was surrounded by an image of Lila’s wide brown eyes brimming with a sheen of tears.

Though his mind screamed for him to back away his body relived the incredible rightness that their joining had brought. And he knew that he should regret that he hadn’t used a condom when they’d made love, but deep inside he was glad he hadn’t. His groin still throbbed at the remembered feel of her around him.

Lila had been the fulfillment of his dreams, of what a woman could be. But she was his assistant, dammit. How could he have let this happen?

But he knew once hadn’t been enough. In fact, as he came to a stop in front of her building, he knew that he wanted to come up tonight and mate with her again. To cement what was between them so that she didn’t have to react with her sharp tongue.

“Well, thanks for the ride,” she said and then a bitter laugh escaped her. “I meant the car ride.”

“Lila, stop it. I’m sorry for the way that our first time happened, but I won’t let you think it meant nothing to me.”

“I’m sure you say that to all the girls, Nick.”

“I don’t have a stock of lines I pull out for the appropriate moment.”

“I’m relieved.”

She looked at him, but her expression was indiscernible in the feeble light of the street lamp. He knew his reaction earlier had made his comments seem, well, like a lie, but truer words had never been spoken. Lila meant more to him than the faceless ladies in his past and she deserved better than a burnt-out executive whose only emotion was cold, hard lust.

Except it hadn’t felt cold or hard when he’d been with Lila. Buried in her sweet warm body he’d felt like he’d found the home he’d been forcing Colette, Inc. to be for years.

“Are you feeling better?”

She shook her head, the silky length of her blond hair was illuminated by the light of the moon. He wished he’d taken his time with her. He wished they’d had all night to learn each other’s bodies instead of a hurried explosion in his office. He wished that he could go back to the moment he’d pulled away from her and lie against her breast and comfort them both.

“I can’t do this right now. I’m achy and not myself,” she said.

“That’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I’m feeling mean, Nick. And I want to hurt you so deeply that you’ll still feel it weeks from now.”

“If it would make you feel better.”

She looked out the window, and when she spoke again her voice was so soft he had to lean in to hear it. “My mother gave birth to me when she was only sixteen. I’ve never met my father.”

Simple sentences. Simple words that summed up a life that was anything but simple. He hadn’t realized how complex the situation was, but now he did.

“We’re not in that situation.”

“No?”

He wanted to do the right thing, to say he’d marry her if she found out she was pregnant with his child, but he knew he couldn’t. The low points in his life were manageable because he’d found a way to guarantee they never happened a second time. He’d made the vow never to marry again because Amelia’s death had cut through the layers of who he was and left him a quivering mound of insecurity. If there was one thing he wouldn’t tolerate it was weakness.

“Well, you’re not sixteen.”

She reached for the door handle and Nick hit the locks.

“Let me out of the car.”

“I can’t.”

“Don’t be silly. You run a multimillion-dollar division for a large corporation, this should be a cinch for you.”

“I want you to tell me that you’ll stop beating yourself up about this. I seduced you.”

“I had no idea you were this bossy in your personal relationships,” she said, whipping her head around to face him. She leaned in close and he could taste her breath as it brushed across his face.

The leather seats and her scent teased his mind, tempted him to pull across the gearshift as he had this morning and kiss her until she was too exhausted to talk.

“You didn’t seduce me.”

He had. He knew he had. He’d been feeling out of control and had called on the one thing he could count on. Lila. She’d soothed him and comforted him and taken him out of his skin to a place he’d never really been before.

And he’d repaid her by possibly impregnating her. God, his technique could use some work. Except with Lila all those practiced moves didn’t work.

“I’m not about to debate this with you. Thanks for bringing me home.”

She manually unlocked the door and opened it. The chilly evening air swirled inside. It swept through the warmth and seeped into his clothing.

She closed the door and walked away without a backward glance. He watched the fluidity with which her limbs moved, while surrounded by the scent of her perfume and the chill of the autumn evening. The pain in his soul was unexpected but no less sharp than a knife to the gut.

Lila Maxwell already meant more to him than she should, but watching her walk away hurt. And knowing that he’d brought her pain added to the hurt that was layering through him.

Lila was tired by the time three o’clock rolled around. She’d been up since five in the morning baking pies and breads, which she’d dropped off at the Youngsville Nursing Home on her way to work. The route had taken her twenty minutes in the opposite direction, but she hadn’t minded. She’d needed the therapy that baking had brought.

She’d tried leaving Rose’s brooch at home but hadn’t been able to. It complemented the deep-brown silk shirt she wore with a long black skirt.

Longingly, she fingered the piece of jewelry, then dropped her hands to her keyboard and forced herself to get back to work.

Nick had been out of the office all morning, which meant she’d fielded a lot of calls from concerned staff on both the international and domestic teams. Lila didn’t mind the extra time on the phone because it kept her mind busy. And busy meant away from that open door leading to Nick’s office.

The phone rang as Nick returned to the office. Lila scheduled an appointment for Nick for the following week and pretended that he wasn’t standing on the other side of her desk staring at her. Pretended that he was still just a casual acquaintance. Pretended that last night had never happened.

She concluded the call but didn’t move. She was an efficient secretary until Nick walked into the room.

“Aren’t you going to look at me?” he asked, taking the handset from her grip and depositing it in its cradle.

“Sure,” she said, smiling up at him. All business, she reminded herself. “You need to sync your Palm Pilot. There are three urgent messages and an update to this afternoon’s calendar.”

“I’ll do it right away. I’d like a few minutes of your time,” he said. He was tired. He rubbed the back of his neck and loosened his tie. She wanted to pull him into her arms and offer him comfort. But couldn’t.

She glanced at her day planner. Of course the afternoon was empty. But she wasn’t ready to accommodate him. In the middle of the night as she lay in her bed staring at the cracks in the ceiling she’d realized that life gave you what you sought out. And she was seeking more than a man who couldn’t commit to her.

“I’m in the middle of a proposal. Maybe later?” she suggested, knowing his afternoon was booked.

Suddenly she realized why people advised you not to get involved with someone at work. It made the atmosphere very tense and uncomfortable. Before, they’d been a team, and Lila had felt that she had his respect. But not anymore.

He put his hand on hers. It cut to the core. His big, warm hand surrounding her small one. Protecting, cherishing. His forefinger moving in a slow sweep from wrist to knuckles. “Lila…”

Not fair, she thought. But she nodded and stood, reluctantly tugging her hand from under his. “I only have five minutes.”

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