A cold shower had helped calm his raging hormones, but seeing Amanda dressed in a tank top and jeans had sent his libido into orbit all over again. No wonder the woman hid herself in those boxy looking suits. If she dressed in anything formfitting at work, none of her male colleagues would get any work done. Not with those curves.
Funny, but he could swear he knew the weight of her breasts in his hands. Wishful thinking, no doubt.
He ran into Jacob as he headed down to the gym.
“Dinner at six.”
“Okay, but we haven't even had lunch yet.”
“Warning you in advance.”
“You mean it's not stew tonight.” Jacob occasionally warned Simon when he planned to make a meal that would spoil waiting for Simon to come out of his lab.
“Right. Thought I'd make something special for our guest.”
Simon was still having a difficult time believing Jacob had invited her. “Did you really ask her to stay?”
“Told her staying would be the only way to catch you long enough to talk.”
Simon didn't want to discuss the merger, but he didn't mind spending more time with the intriguing woman. She was such a mixture of confidence and reticence. She was completely confident in her guise of career woman, but when it came to simply being a woman, he sensed that she was not nearly so sanguine.
“I assume you entertained her while I slept the afternoon and night away.”
“You did a fair job of that yourself, from what I saw.”
Simon stopped walking and turned to Jacob. “What do you mean?”
“Came upstairs to check on you. To make sure you made it to the bed all right.”
Simon had been known to collapse on the floor in sleep after a work fest like the one he'd just finished. “And?”
“And you were wrapped around a living, breathing teddy bear.”
“
What
?”
“She said you fell on her when you got up to your room.”
Simon didn't remember anything past the vague recollection of Amanda helping him up the stairs. “I fell on her?”
“Yeah. You were snug as bugs and both sleeping when I came to check the first time.”
He couldn't believe it. He'd slept with her, collapsed on top of her in fact. No wonder she'd seemed a little nervous out on the deck. He wondered why she hadn't said anything.
“I assume you checked again.”
Jacob's smile was smug. “I thought she might have wanted some dinner.”
“I'm sure she appreciated your concern. Was she still asleep?” He wasn't sure he understood how she'd fallen asleep in the first place. It seemed very out of character for a woman with her professional demeanor.
Evidently he'd dragged her down to the bed when he fell asleep practically standing up, but why hadn't she gotten up immediately?
“She was trying to get out of bed without waking you up.”
“Obviously, she succeeded.” He hadn't even known she'd been in his bed.
“Some might say you succeeded too.”
The cryptic comments were getting irritating. “In what way?”
“Had your hand inside her blouse.
Her unbuttoned blouse
. I don't think she minded though. She had her hand up under your shirt.”
The scene Jacob was describing had Simon almost bent over double with desire. He'd had his hand on her breast and had been too unconscious to appreciate it.
“Could have been worse, sir.”
“How is that, Jacob?”
“You've been known to strip completely naked when you fall asleep in your clothes like that.”
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Simon positioned Amanda in the correct position for the
poomse'
s third step. “Snap your arm like this.” He moved her through the correct motion.
“Okay. I think I've got it.”
They went through the entire form together and he cursed the clever mind that had come up with this idea. Watching her body move through the
poomse
's steps after what Jacob had told him was driving Simon right to the edge of his control.
His hand had been on her breast.
One of the two fleshy mounds that moved so enticingly under the oversize T-shirt she'd put on to exercise in. She probably thought the thigh-length shirt masked her body's attributes adequately. She was wrong.
The Lycra shorts came down about two inches below the hem, leaving the rest of her perfectly formed legs bare. She had such beautiful curves, totally unlike the emaciated look popular among so many women.
He wanted to ask her why she'd stayed in bed with him, but had a sneaking suspicion it could have been his fault. If he'd fallen on her, he could have held her pinned to the bed with his unconscious body. It was just as likely that the tableau Jacob had described finding them in had been Simon's fault as well. His dreams had been vivid.
They finished the form.
Amanda swiped the moisture from her temple with the back of her hand. “That was fun.”
“I'll show you some one-step sparring.”
Her Hershey-brown eyes lit up. “Like what you were doing the other day when I played your dummy?”
“A little less advanced.”
“Let's do it.”
His phallus reacted immediately to her words, disregarding the fact she was talking about martial arts form, not bodies melting into bodies in wild abandon.
He willed his libido to take a vacation.
Sex was completely out of the question right now, maybe ever. He wasn't going to make another mistake with a woman. And sex muddled a man's ability to reason. Amanda wanted a merger between their two companies, something he was determined to prevent. He couldn't afford to let his hormones put doing what he knew to be right at risk.
His body might disagree with his decision, but he'd learned to control his sexual urges after his disastrous years in college and the lessons they'd taught him about women and making love.
She caught on to the one-step sparring very quickly. “You're good at this, Amanda.”
“Thanks. You're a lot more patient than my Tae Bo instructor. She thinks I'm a dead loss.”
“Your Tae Bo instructor is a woman?”
“Sure.” She worked through the series of one-step sparring techniques he'd shown her without a single mistake. “Simon?”
“Yes?”
“Can we try some sparring? I'm tired of doing everything in order.”
“You don't know any kicks yet.”
“Sure I do. I haven't been going to Tae Bo classes for a solid year for nothing.”
“All right.” He was careful to temper his abilities to hers, but what she lacked in skill, she made up for in enthusiasm.
Soon they were both sweating.
She made a reckless move with her leg that was probably supposed to be an axe kick. He pivoted, avoiding contact completely. She lost her balance and pitched forward, her center of gravity thrown off by the kick.
He caught her, instinctively pulling her into his body.
Her palms landed against the sweat-slicked skin of his chest with a loud smack. “Ungh!” she grunted.
“You okay?”
She nodded, her gaze locked with his. “Thanks for catching me.”
“No problem.” He had to let her go, but his fingers weren't listening to the message his brain was sending. They were too busy enjoying the feel of her silky smooth skin, hot from exercise.
Her lips looked hot too, all red and swollen. The small pink tip of her tongue darted out and wet the fullness of her bottom lip.
Physical sensation coursed through him with an ache that could only be assuaged one way.
He started to lower his head.
Her lips parted on a soft puff of air. He could smell her sweat. It was different from his. Female. Sweet. His body twitched in primordial response to the olfactory message his receptors were getting.
She came up on her tiptoes, her head tilted, her mouth reaching for his. “
Simon
.”
His name on her lips was like an aphrodisiac. He could already taste the ambrosia of her lips, could imagine how good it would feel to rub their two sweat-slicked bodies together. He could picture them writhing on the floor mats in exercise totally unrelated to martial arts.
Sexual energy vibrated between them until his body was tight with it.
Her eyelids slid shut, making her look both vulnerable and ready for his kisses. His mouth was centimeters from hers when the last thread holding him to sanity asked him what he thought he was doing?
He said a silent four-letter word that perfectly described what he wanted to do to her and stepped back.
“I think you could stand some work on your axe kicks.”
Her eyes flew open and she landed back on her heels from her tiptoes with a double-thud. “Axe kicks?”
“Yes. You don't want to fall flat on your face when you miss your opponent. You need to work on your center of gravity.” He dropped one of her arms and used his hold on the other to pull her over to the kicking bag. He let her go and demonstrated an axe kick. It wasn't his best, but he was still hampered by aching stiffness below his waist. “Try a few of those.”
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It took Amanda several seconds to accept what had just happened. She'd been prepared for the kiss to end all kisses and he'd been thinking about her center of gravity.
Humiliation crawled along her skin, burning and prickling like overexposure to the sun while rejection pulsed through her with the impact of an invading army. She'd wanted him to kiss her and he'd wanted to improve her kicking form.
It hurt. She felt like his foot had connected with her breastbone instead of the sandbag.
Her chest muscles tightened until pulling in air was an Olympic event. How could she have been so stupid? Hadn't she had her undesirability indelibly stamped on her consciousness by her ex-husband? Did she really need a refresher course in that particular lesson?
The questions spun through her mind, along with a far more humiliating one. Did Simon realize she had wanted him to kiss her? Was he aware she had wanted it so much she'd gone up on her tiptoes to meet him halfway? She'd learned to avoid the degradation of rejection by not initiating sex somewhere in the second year of her marriage. So the fact that she had been so close to initiating the kiss both shocked and horrified her.
She forced herself to search his face for pity.
He wasn't looking at her. He was looking at the kicking bag. He executed another perfect axe kick.
Thwap
. The sound could have been her heart slapping against her chest in mortification. The bag moved.
“Are you going to try it?” He turned toward her, but his gaze was fixed somewhere over her shoulder.
Oh, he knew all right. And was embarrassed by it.
She desperately wanted to run away, to find someplace safe to hide and lick her wounds, but she had to brazen it out. If not for the sake of her own pride, for the sake of him.
It wasn't his fault a pathetic, sexually starved creature like her had fixated on him as fantasy fulfilling material.
She kicked the bag. “Like that?”
She knew it had been a pathetic attempt, but he didn't criticize her.
“Try it again.”
She did. She forced herself to perform several more kicks. She even asked him to demonstrate a snap kick and copied him before telling him she thought she'd had enough and was ready for a shower.
She managed to hold it together until she got under the spray of hot water. Then she let the tears fall.
Chapter 7
S
imon forced himself not to watch Amanda leave the gym, but focused his energy on a series of dragon kicks. They did nothing to relieve the physical frustration of his body. He wanted her, damn it. But she was off limits for too many reasons to count.
So, he'd backed off from kissing her and she'd followed his lead, pretending like nothing had happened.
She was probably relieved.
The more he got to know of her, the more convinced he was that she wouldn't intentionally use sex to try to convince him of the merger. She simply didn't seem like the type of woman to make a practice of sleeping with her business associates.
She wouldn't have thanked him for taking their relationship to an intimate level. It would probably make her feel like she'd let herself down professionally. He knew the type. Brant Computers had its own share of serious career women.
The computer industry was changing, but there was still a certain amount of prejudice against women making a career in the hi-tech field. Female employees often fought harder for respect in their industry and were less apt to risk their professional standing by engaging in a meaningless sexual fling.
Are you sure it would be meaningless?
He ignored the taunting words in his head. Amanda clearly had her life mapped out and it didn't include making room for a man who spent more time in his lab than he did talking to other people. She'd never give up her job to come live on his island and he couldn't see himself living the fast-paced lifestyle of Southern California.
He was still interested in her friendship. She fascinated him even more now, but he had no clue how to make room in his life for a long-term relationship with a woman; had nothing of value to offer a wife.
Hadn't Elaine made that clear five years ago?
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Amanda came out of her room after her shower to discover that Simon had disappeared into his lab again. No matter how much she needed to talk to him about the merger, she couldn't help feeling thankful for the respite from his presence.
The only thing that could make her situation worse would be for Jacob to tell Simon about finding her in bed with him. He would surely think it had been the act of a woman desperate to seduce him.
“He'll be out for dinner, though.”
“How can you be so sure?” she asked Jacob after that pronouncement. “From what I can tell, food is no bigger a draw when he's working than people are.”
“The boss invited Mr. Eric Brant and his wife to dinner.”
“Eric's coming?” Relief swept through her. Maybe Simon's cousin could help her convince the stubborn man about the merger. Then she could get herself back to California before she made an absolute fool of herself doing something stupid like climbing naked into Simon's bed and completing her humiliation.
At least she had a positive prospect to report to Daniel when she returned the call he'd made while she'd been busy in the gym with Simon.
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“You spent the morning working out with him instead of going over the proposal?” Daniel's scathing tones lacerated already taut nerves.
“I told you. He wasn't about to discuss anything until he got his exercise in. He's almost as dedicated to his martial arts as he is to his work.”
“I thought you were dedicated to Extant Corporation.”
This was not going well. “I am.”
“Yet he went back to his lab without you discussing one word on the merger with him.”
Guilty as charged. “Yes.”
“What's he working on?”
“A fuel cell alternate energy source.”
“What? That's got nothing to do with the next generation of computers.”
“Simon is an inventor. He works on more than one project at a time. Evidently only some of them are for Brant Computers.”
“So, what's he working on for Brant right now?”
“I have no idea.” Did Daniel really think Simon was going to share that kind of information with the competition? And until the merger went through, Brant Computers and Extant Corporation were direct competitors.
“You don't seem to know a whole lot about anything of value right now.” Daniel's sarcasm hurt.
She was good at her job. It wasn't her fault that Simon was being so recalcitrant about discussing the merger. And the idea she should know what he was working on for Brant was ludicrous. “I didn't get sent up here to be a corporate spy, Daniel. Frankly, if Simon did drop proprietary information, I wouldn't pass it on. It wouldn't be ethical.”
“I suppose not.” But he didn't sound convinced and that worried her. “You said Eric Brant is coming to dinner tonight.”
“Yes. He and his wife.”
“Well, let's hope he can accomplish what you haven't and get Simon to listen to the merger proposal.”
She fumbled in her purse for an antacid, but couldn't find one. She started digging through her briefcase, her cell phone pressed to her ear. “I'm trying my best.”
She found a tablet and popped it in her mouth.
“Your best isn't cutting it.”
The words sliced through her like a well-sharpened blade. She'd spent so much of her life being judged and found wanting that her reputation as a professional was incredibly important to her. The only place she had ever excelled had been first as a student and then as a career woman.
She couldn't screw that up.
It was the one thing she had left that stopped her from shrinking away to nothing like she did in the nightmare that plagued her.
“Have I ever let you down before, Daniel?”
“No.” It was begrudging.
“Then trust me now.”
“Don't make me sorry I did.”
She was shaking as she hung up the phone. Two weeks ago she'd been on the fast track to success at Extant Corporation and now she felt like her job was hanging by a thread.
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Eric and Elaine arrived for dinner before Simon came out of his lab.
“Are you having any success discussing the merger with him?” Eric asked her over drinks in the great room.
Jacob had served them and then said something about fetching Simon.
“I've gotten to tell him the marketing estimates for the merged companies and we discussed the combination of design engineering power.” She didn't elaborate on that, as the discussion hadn't been a rousing success.
“Simon can be very stubborn.” The blond Elaine relaxed elegantly against the sofa's cushions. She had delicate features and was boyishly slender, even with her obvious pregnancy. Her chic mint-green silk sheath made Amanda feel oversized and dowdy in her black pleated skirt and lightweight houndstooth sweater set. “And when he's not being stubborn, he's simply ignoring the rest of the world in favor of his experiments.”
She smiled at Amanda. “I don't envy you the task of trying to hold his attention long enough to convince him about the merger.”
“I have to admit his antipathy toward the merger surprised me.” Eric took a sip of his scotch. “Half the time I think he doesn't even realize Brant Computers exists.”
“His biggest concern seems to stem from the jobs that will be lost.”
“I can see that being the case. Simon has a tender heart,” Eric said musingly.
“You should see him with our little boy,” Elaine added, “he's a total pushover for Joey.”
Amanda could picture Simon teaching a little boy basic Tae Kwon Do moves and she smiled. He'd be an interesting father, but a good one. “He should have children of his own.”
She had no idea why she said it. She didn't know the Brants well enough to make comments like that.
Elaine's eyes widened. “I can't see him noticing a woman long enough to marry her, much less manage to father a child.”
“I can't complain about Simon's absentminded approach to relationships. If he'd been more attentive, you might have married him instead of me.” Eric's warm regard for his wife left Amanda in no doubt how he felt about the slim woman.
“You silly thing. I loved you almost from the moment I met you. Even if Simon and I had been engaged, I would have ended up with you.” She smiled wryly. “That makes me sound awful, but love has its own rules.”
“You and Simon dated?” Amanda asked.
“Yes, but dating a genius inventor isn't all it's cracked up to be, let me tell you.”
Amanda could not imagine dumping Simon for Eric Brant. It wasn't that Eric wasn't an attractive and powerful man, but Simon was ultra-attractive and ultra-powerful in his masculinity. He was simply ultra-everything.
“So you rightly decided to cut your losses and let my cousin convince you to take a chance on him.” Simon's voice sent Amanda's heart skittering.
She schooled her features and turned to him. “Hi, Simon.”
He nodded at her.
Elaine got up and went to Simon for a hug. “Hello, stranger. You need to come and see Joey. He's wondering where his Uncle Simon has gone to.”
Simon wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek. “Tell him I'll be by to see him next week sometime.”
Seeing Simon in an embrace with his former girlfriend caused a jealous reaction in Amanda that she had no reason and even less right to feel.
Elaine stepped back. “All right, but a three-year-old's concept of time isn't that precise. He's going to badger me until you come.” There was humor in her voice when she said it, so Amanda assumed Elaine didn't really mind.
Simon and Eric shook hands. “How are the experiments coming along?”
Simon shrugged. “I'll let you know when I have something concrete.”
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“So, what do you think of Amanda's proposal?”
Simon had been waiting for the question since coming downstairs to discover Elaine telling Amanda why he was a bad relationship risk.
“She hasn't finished presenting it.”
Eric laughed. “Well, my money is on Amanda. Any woman who would brave moving in with an old curmudgeon like Jacob and a total eccentric like you has got the moxy necessary to get the job done.”
The warm pleasure reflected in Amanda's eyes at Eric's compliment irritated Simon. “I said I'd listen to what she had to say, not that I would agree with her.”
“But, Simon, it makes sense.” Elaine smiled appealingly. “Extant and Brant together can compete with the bigger companies for market share in a way Brant could never do on its own.”
“Market share isn't the only consideration worth looking at.” There was so much more to the company than how big a chunk of the market they commanded.
“But it is a big consideration.” This was from Amanda.
Simon turned his attention to her. The way the thin fabric of her sweater stretched across her breasts had been distracting him all evening. “That depends on how you look at it.”
“Why don't you tell us how you're looking at it,” Eric said, throwing the ball firmly back into Simon's court.
“Extant Corporation is our competitor, not to mention a publicly held company. The only way we could merge would be to go public ourselves. That's not a consideration I dismiss lightly.”
“I haven't dismissed it either, but times change, Simon. If we want to stay competitive, Brant Computers has to change with them.”
Simon shook his head. “You're not talking about gaining a competitive edge. You're talking about changing the face and direction of our company. No offense, Amanda, but it's a lousy idea.”
She looked at him and her expression revealed almost anguished disappointment, but she didn't say anything.
Eric wasn't so reticent. “It's a natural progression for Brant Computers. Your job won't change. You can still do your research and development at home, in your preferred isolation.”
“You're assuming I will continue to work for Brant.”
He watched as the shock from his words changed his cousin's expression from exasperation to chagrin.
Elaine gasped. “Of course you'll still work for Brant. You're family. You couldn't even consider selling your designs to another company.”
He turned to the woman he'd once considered marrying. “Why not?”
“Because it would be betraying your family!”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, taking in the others at the table with his gaze. “Not if Brant Computers is no longer a family held company.”