For Her Son's Sake. Katherine Garbera
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“That’s what I was going to suggest,” he said. He glanced around the table and noticed that the kids had finished their snacks and were putting away their lunch boxes. It was just he and Emma sitting there.
He popped his last raisin into his mouth and then pushed up to his feet. He was more than ready to get out of the nursery. He hadn’t been around this many kids since he’d been one himself. The merger and the relationships that had sprung up from it were making his life a mess, Kell thought. There were babies everywhere. Which made him think about things he’d never really considered before. Like the future.
Emma stood up as well, brushing her hands down the sides of her pantsuit and tucking the tail of her blouse back into the waistband where it had come out. Her long hair hung around her shoulders. His palms tingled with the remembered feel of its silkiness and he wanted to touch it again. Touch her again. He didn’t know how he was going to keep his word that he wouldn’t pursue her.
It was all he wanted.
It made no sense. He felt like an idiot. Why was he here? He should be running in the other direction instead of stopping by her office.
“Kell?”
“Yes?”
“You okay?”
No, he wasn’t okay. In fact he to admit, he’d never been okay. He’d always been just a little messed up. And part of that was due to his mom. He saw the way Emma was with Sammy, and couldn’t help thinking that his own mom had never come and had a snack with him at school.
No matter how many times he’d told himself he hadn’t expected her, he’d always sort of hoped she’d show up at something. But she never had.
Sammy was lucky to have Emma. And Kell knew that probably the best gift he could give the kid would be to make sure that Emma’s job didn’t take up too much of her time. He should fire her now, get her out of his life, give the kid his mom full-time and—
Pretty much piss off the only family he had. There were really only two people in the world that he’d always cared about, and they were Allan and Dec. If he fired Emma they’d be furious.
He was stuck.
It didn’t matter that it was common sense to avoid the mess that was this five-foot, five inch, one-hundred-thirty-pound woman with reddish-brown hair and eyes that made him forget she was the granddaughter of his sworn enemy and the only person still alive who’d witnessed his greatest humiliation.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just realized that a focus group with kids is going to be very interesting,” he said, trying to bring his mind back to business.
“I agree. I think we should give it to Jessi’s team and see what they can do with it,” Emma said with a grin.
“Your sister already doesn’t like me, despite Allan’s best efforts to change her mind. I think if I suggested that she should head up focus groups with three-year-olds she’d go ballistic.”
Emma laughed. The sound was full and infectious and he couldn’t help almost smiling. The fact that he never smiled was the only thing that kept him from doing it now.
“We can work out those details in your office,” he said.
He wanted to get away from her son and this environment. He was seeing Emma as a person and not simply an employee in a company he’d taken over. She was no longer looking like collateral damage but like a woman. His woman.
No. She’d never be his and that was the only way it could be. And after today, he wasn’t coming to the Malibu office.
He’d make Dec deal with Emma and her transition from now on. Kell had to keep his distance before he did something he’d totally regret like pull her back into his arms and kiss her yet again.
* * *
Emma took the stairs up to her office, not wanting to risk getting trapped in the elevator with Kell. Not this morning, when she was seeing him in the new light that had started yesterday. It was one thing to say their behavior in the elevator had been a fluke but to see him this morning, sitting on the floor and talking to her son, had made Kell seem like a regular guy. And that had put images in her head that she had no business believing. Images that made it seem as if maybe she could kiss him again and more.
Which was absolutely insane. He was still Kell Montrose. A man who was ruled by the past and determined to eradicate her from the face of gaming.
Was that his play?
Had he kissed her yesterday to set in motion the ultimate revenge? Make her fall for him and then either break her heart or get her to give up the Chandler legacy?
She groaned.
“You okay?” Kell asked as he trudged up the stairs behind her.
“Yes, just thinking about the huge task in front of me.” Which was going to be twice as hard since she was dealing with these new ideas about Kell. It was easier to plan for her future without him in the picture as anything other than her mortal enemy.
Now everything was muddled.
The same way it had been when she met Helio. He’d swept her off her feet in a way that Kell never would or even could. But Helio had shaken up her neat little world and made her realize that all the truths she’d always held were fallible. And that scared her.
Helio’s death had sent her scurrying and hiding in Infinity Games. She couldn’t risk anything like that happening again. She had to remember that.
“It’s going to be a challenge, but I have the feeling you like that,” he said, as they reached the executive floor and stepped out into the carpeted hallway.
“I do,” she admitted. “Plus there’s the fact that you kind of expect me to fail. I’d love to prove you wrong.”
“Would you?”
“Yes. I like winning,” she said. “Your takeover knocked me down but I’m more than ready to get back up and go for it again.”
“Good. It’s no fun going into battle with an opponent you know you can beat.”
“Truly? You thought you could beat me? Didn’t dealing with Jessi show you anything?” she asked as she led the way to her office. She walked around behind her big walnut desk and started to sit down, but Kell had followed her and stood by the plate glass windows that overlooked a view of the Pacific Ocean.
“Jessi was unexpected,” he admitted. “But you’re more civilized.”
“On the surface,” she said. She’d learned early on that she accomplished more when people assumed she was agreeable and malleable; it had served her well in her career up to this point. But underneath she was just as determined and willing to go to any lengths as Jessi was. Jessi had courted a Hollywood producer and gotten them exclusive rights to develop a game based on his upcoming action movie. She just went about it in a different way.
“Stop it,” he said.
“Stop what?”
“Getting more interesting. Could you please go back to being the all-business Emma—the woman I had never kissed and pretty much never thought of except for crushing you in the business arena.”
She looked over at him and tucked this new tidbit away to use later. She wasn’t ruthless...she honestly didn’t believe all’s fair in love and in war, because in those cases someone always got caught in the cross fire. But she did believe in using everything at her disposal to her advantage.
“You think I’m interesting.”
He closed the gap between them in two long strides and put his hands on her waist. His touch was light, but his body language was aggressive, and she had the feeling that she’d just pushed him too far. Another tidbit she should tuck away.
She felt perfectly safe with him like this. She knew that he’d