and looked well-kissed, her lipstick was missing in action. And her hair...Kylie winced. It was in tousled disarray. She looked like she’d been doing exactly what she had been doing—indulging in a hot sexual tryst on the office sofa!
Moments later, she heard voices in the office, Cade’s and another man’s, presumably Noah Wyckoff, whose untimely appearance had interrupted the most impassioned episode in her life. The stupidest episode in her life, Kylie silently amended, reassessing the encounter through a critical, analytical eye.
Though she had been swept away, Cade had not been over-powered by that same wild abandon. And now, viewed in retrospect, his passionate advances seemed calculated, his recovery too quick and complete.
Kylie trembled. It hurt that his seemingly spontaneous burst of passion had actually been premeditated, a means of controlling her. He had seen her attraction to him and decided to use it to his advantage. Seducing BrenCo’s major stockholder would be a real coup for the company president, bent on using her to further his own arms.
Her cheeks flamed. It was difficult enough to admit that she had lost her self-control and been ready to surrender—aching to surrender!—to a man she’d known less than an hour. But acknowledging that he had been playing sexual games with her, that she had been alone on that passion-drugged cloud, carried her to new heights of mortification. And outrage.
Her uncles had warned her that Cade Austin was ruthless and would stop at nothing to get his own way. It seemed that they were telling the truth.
Determinedly, Kylie worked on putting herself together until the mirror showed the reflection of an ummaculately groomed woman, as cool and untouched by passion as she’d always believed herself to be. She pulled open the bathroom door and entered Cade’s office.
The tall, wiry, bearded man talking to Cade started visibly at the sight of her. “I—didn’t realize you had company, Cade,” Noah Wyckoff murmured, glancing from Cade to Kylie, then back again.
“Ms. Brennan isn’t company, Noah. She owns the company,” Cade said. “I’d like you to meet—our boss.” He completed the introductions.
Kylie noted sourly that unlike herself, Cade hadn’t required a sojourn in the bathroom to eliminate any telltale evidence of their hot little interlude. She had needed a mirror, makeup, a comb and a vital rearrangement of her clothing to look as unruffled and undisturbed as he did—after no ablutions at all!
“Noah and I go back a long way,” Cade said smoothly, filling in what could have been an awkward silence. “We were college roommates at MIT, three years in the dorms, one in an apartment that almost got condemned by the health department.”
Noah chuckled at the memory. “Those were the days.”
“How very interesting,” Kylie managed to choke. She was seething. Cade spoke with the easy assurance of a host making small talk at a cocktail party. Another strike against him, for she was still too rattled to carry off a semblance of conversational patter.
She decided Cade Austin was as slick as an oil spill, which brought her to the unhappy conclusion that she had almost succumbed to the practiced charms of a smooth operator. Another appalling realization in a day that seemed to be filled with them. And it was only lunchtime!
The tension in the office was palpable. Noah cleared his throat. “Will you be joining us for lunch, Ms. Brennan?” he asked politely.
“No,” Kylie said, more sharply than she’d intended. She had nothing against Noah Wyckoff but the prospect of spending another moment in Cade’s company was intolerable.
“I have an appointment.” She swept from the office without looking back.
“I’ll be in touch, Kylie.” Cade’s voice followed her into the corridor.
A promise or a threat? Kylie mused cynically, deciding it must be the latter. Well, he was in for a surprise the next time he got in touch with her because she was prepared for him now. She knew the lengths to which he’d go to influence her, to control her. All her defenses were on alert and ready for their next encounter.
She could hardly wait.
Three
“That one is an entirely new Brennan prototype, one we haven’t seen before,” Noah remarked after Kylie’s departure. “The Ice Queen. I swear the room temperature in here rose twenty degrees the moment she walked out.”
“You think she’s cold?” Cade gritted through his teeth, staring at the door through which Kylie had just exited.
“You think she’s not?” Noah gave a short laugh. “With her around we won’t need to build an autoclave to dispose of medical waste, she can freeze it with a single glance.” He flopped down onto the sofa and sighed. “Of course, we won’t be building anything if she sells BrenCo.”
“Which Artie and Guy Brennan are desperate for her to do.”
“She won’t listen to them, will she?”
“I have no idea what Kylie Brennan will do.” Cade stared sightlessly at the intricate patterns of the Oriental carpet at his feet. He felt disoriented, as if he’d been flung from a whirling carousel. Yet he was supposed to stand here, still and steady, without displaying a trace of the disequilibrium that had him reeling.
Though Kylie had left the office, she remained so firmly ensconced in his head that the images running before his mind’s eye seemed more real than Noah’s actual presence. Cade pictured her face, softened with passion. He could taste the sweetness of her mouth and feel the sultry heat of her body pressed to his.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so affected, so consumed by a kiss. He had learned early on that a kiss was simply a preliminary, a means to the climactic end. But kissing Kylie had been so exciting, so arousing, it was an end in itself.
And then he pictured her breasts, so round and full and milky white, the nipples a dark dusky rose. He remembered the way she had responded to him, how she’d clung to him, moaning her pleasure as his mouth closed over those sensitive little buds.
It had been so good and he wanted more, much more. They had barely begun when they’d had to stop, and now his body was tense and throbbing with all those unmet needs she’d aroused in him.
Cade groaned.
“We have to think positively,” Noah said, misinterpreting the cause, though not the source, of his old friend’s apparent agony. “Gene named her his heir, so he must’ve seen something in her that set her apart from the rest of the clan. I mean, imagine what we’d be facing if he’d left Guy those shares! BrenCo would be sold as fast as you can say ‘Lauretta wants an in-ground swimming pool, a fur coat and a fancy vacation to brag about.’”
“She said she had an appointment.” Cade began to pace the office. “Who with? One of the uncles?”
“I got the impression she just said that to blow us off,” Noah said frankly. “She seemed like she was in a big hurry to get out of here.”
“Yeah,” Cade agreed, frowning. “She couldn’t wait to get away.”
From him. That rankled. He remembered the way Kylie had looked at him when she’d emerged from the bathroom, appearing as perfect and untouched as a porcelain doll that had never been removed from its box. He’d had to exert considerable willpower to keep from snatching her into his arms and transforming her back into that passion-mussed creature who had lain beneath him, warm and soft and hungry for him.
But the cold disdain in her blue eyes had served as an effective restraint. She’d glared at him as if he were some kind of unspeakable substance she’d accidentally stepped in. Cade read her loud and clear...she didn’t want him to come anywhere near her.
He knew if they had been alone, he would have handled things differently. He would’ve tried to convince her that not only did she want him near, but she wanted him deep inside her. And judging