His Girl Friday (7 page)

Cabe stood rigidly watching them leave, his mind whirling with new complications. He'd inadvertently shoved her right into Ben's waiting arms, and he knew things about Ben that she wouldn't. He wanted to stand in the middle of the floor and curse. He'd have to nip that situation in the bud, and quick. But how?

He sighed angrily, jamming his big, lean hands into the pockets of his gray slacks. Life had been so simple and rewarding until he'd started to kis Danet a at Christmas. His body had given him hel ever since, and Eugene had escalated things with his running commentary on Danet a. Now he was torn between desire and nobility, and Ben was running off with the girl. Ben, who was a shady character at best where women were concerned. He felt guilty because he knew Danet a would never have gone out with Ben if he hadn't pushed her into it. But his motives had been honorable, damn it. He didn't seduce virgins, which Danet a certainly was. The thing was, Ben wouldn't be as concerned about Danet a's chastity. Like most modern men, his sales manager felt that al women were fair game and to him casual sex was part of his life-style. He'd think nothing of seducing Danet a if he could, and he wouldn't understand her guilt or shame, because that wasn't part of the game. Cabe's eyes darkened angrily as he saw the whole horrible mes develop in his mind. Wel , Ben wasn't leaving Danet a pregnant and alone, not if Cabe had to load his .30-.30

and point him toward a minister. Then he thought about Danet a, living miserably with a man who had no sense of morality, and mental y put the rifle back in the closet. No, that wouldn't do. He'd take care of her himself, and the baby. He pursed his lips, thinking about a pret y lit le girl in a fril y dres . He could buy her things. Or if it were a boy, he could roughhouse with him in the yard and teach him about the oil busines . A lit le boy would be very nice____

". . I said, do you want me to have Mr. Samples cal you back, Mr. Rit er, or do you want to speak with him?' Ben's secretary was asking him politely from the doorway. The vacant smile fel from his lips and he scowled, wondering how Ben's secretary had gotten into the fantasy he'd been having of the house with his adoptive child. He cleared his throat as he realized he'd been daydreaming.

"Sorry. I'l take the cal ," he said absently and went back into his office. Just as wel that Danet a's lit le boy was only a fantasy, he thought as he reached for the telephone. He didn't real y have time right now to play with kids.

Four

Danet a had never been inside such a fancy restaurant except once with Jenny's mother and father years ago. The decor was exquisite, and the menu was liberal y sprinkled with French words that Danet a barely remembered from her high-school French clas . She chose a chicken dish that wouldn't be too hard on Ben's pocket and watched, amused, while he opted for steak and lobster and a bottle of imported white wine.

"Only one glas for me," Danet a insisted with a smile when they were through with their meal. Ben had refil ed his glas and started to pour more into her glas as she covered it with her hand. "I don't have the head for even mild forms of alcohol."

"Oh?" Ben grinned. "I'l have to remember that."

"You devil," she teased. She sipped the dry wine, liking its delicate flavor. "It was nice of you to invite me out."

"I'd like to make a habit of it," he replied, searching her face with purely appreciative eyes. "I thought you'd never say yes."

"I don't date very much," she confes ed. "You see, I'm not a liberated girl."

He lifted both eyebrows. "Real y?" he teased, obviously taking her remark with a grain of salt.

"Real y."

He studied her for a long moment and actual y laughed. "If that's true, then you're unique, and I salute you," he said, lifting his glas in a toast. "But you're the first of Cabe's secretaries who could make that claim. Not that he's a bad man. He isn't. He just likes women."

She sighed. "So I've heard," she replied. "But he doesn't like me; not in the way you mean, anyway."

"He's blind," he said, smiling gently. "You're a dish."

She flushed. "Thank you."

He pursed his lips and studied his glas . "Any more like you at home?" he asked with an odd inflection.

"I'm an only child." She grinned. "I've got a beautiful cousin, but she doesn't spend much time at home."

"Why not?" he asked very casual y.

She proceeded to tel him why, her tongue loosened by the white wine. But after a few minutes, she became aware that she was babbling. "Sorry. I gues the wine went to my head."

"Everything about you fascinates me, as it happens," he said quickly. "And your cousin sounds like a real y interesting lady. Too bad she can't put down roots."

"That's what I think, too,"

"I gues you like sharing an apartment with her," he murmured, "since you've got it to yourself most of the time."

"Yes, I real y do. She was home earlier in the week, but only overnight." She laughed and put down her glas . "Gosh, Ben, that stuff is potent!''

"So they say." He pursed his lips again, studying her quietly. "I'd like to get to know you, Danet a Marist, if you're on the level, and the corporate wolf doesn't have your name in his book. I don't want to step on Mr. Rit er's toes."

"I don't belong to Mr. Rit er," she informed him. She frowned. "I never realized people thought! did."

"Not people," he said. "Just me." He shrugged. "I'm new in the company. Al I know about people is what I hear."

"Where did you work before?" she asked with a smile.

"In California," he said, and abruptly changed the subject. "Tel me about this geology stuff. That's old man Rit er's company that your cousin works for, isn't it? I thought Cabe Rit er had an interest in it when I came to work here, but he doesn't seem to."

"Oh, no, he and his father don't get along." She shook her head. "I gues he'l inherit it one day, but he's strictly in the equipment busines right now. I doubt he even knows what Eugene's doing."

Ben said something under his breath and took a sip of wine. For a minute he looked distant, then he studied Danet a again. "Wel , I gues your cousin leads an exciting life. Does she ever tel you about her jaunts?"

Something about this sounded odd, but she was too dizzy to consider it.

"Not a word, it's al hush-hush, like James Bond." Danet a chuckled, liking her lit le joke. "But she draws strange pictures of things." She frowned. "She had this geology map that she traced and marked on. She forgot it, too. I'l have to put it in the mail to her tomorrow."

Ben brightened. "Map, huh? I'd love to see a real geology map."

"Oh, I couldn't show you," she said with an apologetic smile. "She'd be mad. Why did you think I was having an affair with the boss?" she added curiously.

"No reason, real y," he murmured absently. "Just the way he looked at you the other day. But there's Karol Sar-tain, of course," he said, smiling indifferently. "So he may actual y be caught this time," he chuckled. "From what I hear, Karol doesn't sleep around. If he's got it bad for her, he'l have to marry her first. That's a lady with a first-clas brain," he added absently. "Very thorough. She'l go far in the busines world. I've known her for a couple of years. She dated an uncle of mine once." Danet a didn't want to talk about Karol. In fact she felt sick. She moved her wineglas and saw her hand shake on the stem. It was ridiculous to feel so miserable. She knew that Cabe Rit er was a playboy, and she knew he'd dated nobody except Karol for weeks. Why should she care, anyway? Ben liked her.

"You okay?" Ben asked, frowning.

"Of course. The wine's gone to my head. I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm not used to it."

"No problem. I'l guide you back to the office." He chuckled. "I'l even carry you up the elevator shaft if you like."

"You're a prince, Ben," she told him warmly.

"I wish the bos paid me like one," he sighed. "Salaries around here are the pits, Danet a. Okay, if you're ready, we'l go."

"I enjoyed lunch," she told him, smiling wanly.

"We'l do it again," he promised, and held her waist firmly as he guided her toward the counter, to keep her from wobbling. Ben got her to the office and put her inside, smiling at her worried look. "Don't let him upset you," he whispered, hearing Cabe moving around in the next room. "You're over twenty-one. You can drink at lunch if you like."

"Yes, I can," she agreed. "See you later. Thanks again."

He winked and left, closing the door firmly behind him.

The sound brought a worried, irritated Cabe out of his office to meet her, his eyes cold. "You took your sweet j time," he said shortly. He'd been pacing for an hour, snapping at people on the phone. And here she was look-j ing as if Ben had drowned her in wine. He had a bad feel-1 ing about the whole thing. He hated the posses ivenes she i aroused in him, the protective instinct. He'd never felt that before.

It had been a long time since she'd seen him bristle that much. He could be intimidating when he liked. He was al j muscle, and those blue eyes could burn like ice when he wanted them to. They were doing it now. With his slightly! wavy hair disheveled and down on his scowling brow, his dark, hard face drawn with anger, he made Danet a uncomfortable.

"It's only five minutes until one," she mumbled, putting down her purse. The wine made her face hot, and prodded her temper. She glared back at him. "I wonder how many people in the building think I'm sleeping with you?" she blurted out, stil irritated by Ben's as umption , that she was Cabe's lover. He couldn't have looked more surprised if someone had hit him in the back of the head with a tire iron. "I beg your pardon?" he asked.

"Ben thought you were sleeping with me. He said youi had a great track record with your secretaries." He glanced toward the door with blazing eyes. "Damn Ben," he said shortly. "I'l break his neck." Danet a was afraid he meant immediately, so she got in front of him, regret ing her impulsive outburst. Now he'd kil Ben and she'd go to jail as an acces ory to murder.

"You can't," she said. Her voice sounded funny. Slurred. She cleared her throat. "You can't go around kil ing people during the lunch hour, there's nobody to clean up the mes ." The anger seemed to leave him. He stopped just in front of her, so close that the clean fragrance of his body fil ed her nostrils seductively. He looked down at her quietly, his eyes reluctantly appraising her, registering her soft, blatant femininity that stirred his body to anguished life.

"I don't sleep with my secretaries," he said. "As you yourself ought to know after two years." He leaned closer, his eyebrows rising. "You reek of white wine. How much did you have?"

"I don't reek," she said indignantly. "I only had one lit le big glas of the stuff." That sounded funny and she giggled. "Sorry." She wiped off the smile. "One big lit le glas , I meant."

"You don't drink, you young idiot," he muttered. "You'd bet er go home."

"I'm not drunk! Look, I can even walk a straight. . oops, sorry," she muttered when she bumped into him. He swung her up into his arms and she sighed, clinging to his neck as he turned and carried her back into his office, kicking the door shut behind him. He was as strong as she'd imagined, her weight seemingly inconsequential to him. She stared up at his hard face with helples fascination, because only once had she been this close to him. She would start remembering the way he'd kis ed Karol, she thought miserably as her gaze fel to the chiseled perfection of his sensuous mouth. She loved being carried by him, and she wanted him to bend and kis her the way he'd threatened to once, hard and rough, and with his mouth open—

He felt that stare and wanted to groan out loud. She was half lit. He couldn't take advantage of it, despite the fact that her dres outlined every soft curve of her exquisite body and fired his blood so suddenly that his own arousal startled him.

"What are you going to do with me?" she asked in a husky whisper.

His darkened blue eyes met hers as he stopped at the long leather couch. "Don't put any ideas in my head," he said stiffly. His chest rose and fel heavily. "I had in mind stretching you out here until the effects of your lunch wear off. I'l make some coffee."

"I can't lie down in your office," she protested as he leaned over to put her down gently, let ing her head rest on the padded arm of the sofa.

"Why can't you?" he asked.

Damn the sofa arm, he thought angrily, because it tilted her head at just the right angle to make her soft bow of a mouth look enticing. He poised above her trying to think, trying to make his body listen to his brain while her soft arm remained curled around his neck.

"Do you sleep with Karol?" she whispered.

He did groan. His hand slid into her hair and grasped a soft handful. "You can't ask me questions like that," he ground out.

"Why not? You say al sorts of outrageous things to me!"

His eyes slid over her relaxed body, lingering helples ly on the soft, sweet curves that the dres did not disguise. He wanted to ravish her where she lay. He wanted to take off her clothes and have her, right there, and glory in the pleasure her body would give him. He clenched his teeth. "No, I don't sleep with Karol," he said harshly. His hand bit into her waist, holding her stil . "You need coffee," he said firmly, emphasizing every single syllable because that kept him from thinking how it would feel to strip her naked and bury himself in her. He had to remember that she was a virgin. "I'm going to make a pot of coffee, right now."

"Why?" she asked, her body moving helples ly on the leather as she looked up at him, her soft gray eyes so sensuous that he went taut al over again.

"Because, God help me, if I don't, I'l have you where you lay," he muttered to himself with feverish need in his strained voice. "Now stay put!" He dragged himself to his feet and turned away from her, moving toward the smal kitchen area in one corner of his elegant office. His body was throbbing painfully, but he forced his feet to move. Coffee would solve al his problems right now. Certainly it would. Everything would be fine if he could just keep himself from looking over his shoulder where Danet a was sprawled like a virgin sacrifice.