Adversaries and Lovers (7 page)

Holding her gaze, Ben replied, “It’s been a long day. ‘

“Too much wine, women and song?”

Again that half-smile, and again it flattened. “Maybe too little.”

Kate felt the warmth of his bare chest radiating through the towel draped over her back and realized he’d moved closer. But he was no longer staring at her reflection in the elevator doors. Instead, he was looking down at her. He raised his hand, as if to touch her shoulder, and though it fell back, she could feel invisible fingers against her skin from the touch that never came. She had to fight the bizarre and unexplainable urge to turn and slip her arms around his neck and kiss him until she couldn't breathe. But the whole idea was absurd. The man meant nothing to her. Yet, the pull was unlike anything she'd ever known, and she had to remind herself that he was the one person she must not give her heart to. But as difficult as it was to remember he was her enemy, she knew it would be yet harder to dismiss from her mind the sight of his lean, muscular torso, and the masculine bulge beneath his sealskin suit. For twenty-four years she'd prided herself on her ability to guard her virginity for her perfect mate. But for the first time since she'd reached puberty, she felt her resolve seriously challenged.

CHAPTER FOUR

Kate stepped out of the elevator and into the pool enclosure, a huge space encircled by large windows that looked out onto a panoramic view of the city. Ben tossed both pairs of swim fins near where Kate stood and told her he'd be back in a few minutes, leaving her standing by the side of the pool. She looked around. In a wide area at one end of the pool were cabana tables, and beyond the tables was a cocktail bar and a line-up of bar stools. An attendant, dressed in Hawaiian garb, appeared to be closing the bar.

The sound of someone springing off a diving board caught Kate's attention. She glanced around to find Ben at the opposite end of the pool, twisting and tumbling in mid air before opening like a jack knife and slicing through the water with barely a splash. In near perfect form, he swam the length of the pool to where she stood, and lunged out of the water, then sat on the edge. “Are you ready?” he asked, reaching for one large fin.

Kate's gaze moved over his broad chest, now glistening beneath the overhead lights as droplets of water made their way over the hard contours, and as he fastened a swim fin onto his foot, she found herself captivated by the play of muscles in his arms. He looked up and caught her staring. She gave a nervous little laugh, and said, “Ready... yes, well... I suppose...”

“Then you have to drop the towel and put on your swim fins," he said, still without humor.

Feeling tightly bunched fists against her chest, Kate realized she was clutching the towel with both hands. She had no idea why she was reluctant to drop it though. She’d never been self-conscious about displaying herself in a swimsuit before, considering her figure above average. But the thought of Ben’s eyes on her, as she stood in front of him in her iridescent-green skin, made her body come alive in ways she'd never known.

She lowered herself to the edge of the pool and shrugged her shoulders, allowing the towel to fall away. Reaching for one of the swim fins that Ben had tossed there earlier, she slipped her foot into it. The V-shaped clasp on its strap was as peculiar as the fin itself, and while she struggled to fasten the legs of the clasp onto the connector on the fin, with nervous fingers, Ben pushed her hand aside, and with his palm cupping her heel, fastened the clip with no effort. Before releasing her foot, he stared at it for an inordinate amount of time. Then his thumb brushed over the delicate gold chain encircling her ankle, and he said, “I didn’t know women still wore those things.” His eyes were sober, his face cheerless.

“It belonged to my mother," Kate said, pulling her foot from his hand. "I’ve worn it since I was thirteen—” She stopped short of adding,
when my parents were killed in a car accident
. She reached for the other fin and slipped her foot into it, but this time Ben made no move to help her with the clasp. After fumbling with the thing until she'd finally secured it, she said, “Now what?”

Ben shrugged. “Swim around and get used to the feel of the fins, then we’ll talk about ad ideas and marketing strategies." He was all business again. No dark eyes scanning the length of her. No indication that he even noticed her at all. He pushed off, leaving her sitting at the edge of the pool feeling an odd sense of disappointment with his continued detachment. Which was absurd. He was, after all, her adversary.

For the next fifteen minutes Ben swam laps like he was in a marathon race, and Kate wondered if he was trying to rid himself of pent up energy, or maybe excessive testosterone—she had not missed the telltale sign plainly evident beneath his form-fit suit. But there seemed to be other issues. From the moment she'd arrived he'd been reserved. He was plainly disturbed about something. She'd assumed it had to do with their passionate kiss and his hasty departure. But maybe she was placing too much emphasis on herself, jumping to the conclusion that she meant something to him, which was absurd. She hadn't known him long enough for that. But there was no question that if he was not disturbed about her, he was disturbed about something.

Deciding she’d better get on with the reason she was there, she eased into the water and pushed off, then began kicking in short, choppy strokes. Water splashed like a paddle wheel in all directions, but she seemed to be going nowhere. Making her way back to the side of the pool, she gave another push. Again, she kicked up an eruption of splashing water, and again she barely moved. She had just turned to make her way back to the side of the pool when Ben said, “You’re working too hard. You need to move your legs slowly and let the fins do the work."

To her shock, he slipped his arm around her from behind, drawing her back and shoulders against his chest, and started kicking his legs in slow, easy movements. As he propelled them around the pool, she began to feel the cadence of his kicking, and she started moving her legs in sync with his. Together they glided through the water, as if one. Although she was aware of how intimately Ben was holding her, with his arm crossing in front of her and pressed snugly beneath her breasts, she didn't try to break the contact. It seemed right, like their bodies were designed fit together. Then she felt Ben's lips against her temple, and his arm beneath her breasts drew her tighter to him, as if he were trying to be yet closer to her. Almost overcome by their nearness, she went to move his hand so she could turn in his arms and face him, but when she did, his arm around her tightened and he said, in an ragged voice, “
Don’t leave... stay with me, sweetheart
.”

Every muscle in Kate's body seemed to go slack. She knew instinctively that the words had not been for her, though she didn't know why she felt that way. She also knew that moments before, as she'd glided with Ben through the water, she'd wanted to turn in his arms and press her body against his and spiral beneath the water with him in a kind of underwater dance of love…

Abruptly, he released her and said, “I think you’ve got the idea." He swam away, leaving her bobbing in the water and staring after him. He lunged out of the pool and sat on the edge, arms stiff,  hands braced on the rim, a grim look on his face.

All at once, everywhere his body had touched hers seemed cold, and Kate felt a chill rush through her. When she glanced over at Ben, he was watching her with an intensity she didn’t try to understand. She began paddling around, trying to act as if he wasn’t there, as if his presence had no affect on her. But whenever she chanced a look in his direction, his eyes were still on her.

Wanting to be away from the disturbing awareness of Ben’s open stare, she kicked her legs in slow easy movements. To her surprise, she glided effortlessly through the water. At the far end of the pool, she ducked beneath the surface and descended. As she hovered near the bottom of the pool, while moving her hands in languid circles to keep from rising to the surface, she felt an odd sense of tranquility. She wanted to stay in the peaceful refuge, suspended in her weightless world, a place, it seemed, where there were no uncertainties, only a quiet calmness. No uncertainties, that is, except for the fact that she was running out of air.

She was about to kick off the bottom when there was a rush of bubbles, and a strong arm encircled her waist, dragging her upward. The shock of it made her ingest water, and when they reached the surface and Ben lunged out of the pool with her tight against him, she started coughing and couldn’t stop. Cradling her in his arms, he kept saying over and over, “It’s alright now, honey. You’re okay. Just relax. That’s right. Cough it up, sweetheart.”

For the moment, all Kate wanted was to be held in Ben's arms while he mumbled endearing platitudes. But when she’d finally stopped coughing, he was angry. “What the hell we’re you doing in the deep end of the pool if you can’t swim? You almost drowned!”

Kate pushed out of his arms, and said, “I
can
swim! I didn’t start to drown until you grabbed me!” Rising to her feet, she marched toward the opposite end of the pool, the swim fins flopping against the concrete deck with each quick step.

“
I grabbed you because I thought you were drowning
!” Ben shouted after her.

Kate glanced over her shoulder, and shouted back, “And I’m the one who’s supposed to be too emotional?!
Hah
!”

Ben caught up with her, took her arm and turned her around to face him. When she looked at him in the mauve twilight of the enclosure she realized he was no longer angry. Instead, she saw concern in his eyes and lines of worry between his brows. “Maybe I did overreact,” he admitted, “but when I thought I'd lost—" he stopped.

When he said nothing more, Kate's anger began to fade, replaced by puzzlement. "When you thought you'd lost what?" she asked.

He stared at her for a few moments, then said, "Nothing. It was just a reaction."

Whatever he'd been about to say when he cut off his sentence, it wouldn't be now, nor would she press him for it. Before their heated kiss he’d been unshakable in his self control, impregnable as a fortress. But with this incident she’d come close to finding the chink in his armor. Although his behavior was disturbing, she hoped she could penetrate that armor before the zoning meeting. He released her arm. “We're done here," he said. "Let’s go back to my office and talk about marketing ideas.”

Kate said nothing. All she wanted was to be away from the pool and Ben's disturbing presence. In the elevator on the way down, Kate kept her eyes focused on the door directly in front of her, not wanting to look up and find Ben staring at her, but she knew he was, and she could not begin to analyze his behavior, but she found it both disturbing and arousing.

After changing back into her clothes, she met Ben in the conference room. He was all business again, calling in one of his employees to pitch ideas about the AirFlo motorcycle helmet ad campaign. Which surprised Kate. She'd expected to discuss swim fin ideas. The meeting ended when Ben dismissed Kate with the words, “See what you can work up on the swim fins and we’ll meet here a week from today.” He opened the door for her to leave.

And she realized then that all hopes she had of changing his mindset about the building site were dead. Their only option now was to try to stop the zoning change.

***

To Kate's surprise, the day of their scheduled meeting at Ben’s office, Ben called to say that he’d be coming for her the following Sunday instead of meeting at his office because he wanted to show her a location where they might be shooting some ads. She’d been so shocked to hear his voice that she’d neglected to ask if he’d be arriving on his motorcycle or in his truck. In any event, she wouldn't be caught in a skirt.

With numerous ad mockups for the swim fins propped around the room, she stood back and studied the illustrations, wondering what Ben’s reaction would be. He'd liked her AirFlo ideas, but that didn’t mean he’d like what she’d put together for the fins: a sequence of a man and a woman wearing the peculiar-shaped fins, whirling and spiraling in the underwater dance of love she'd imagined. She wished she'd had other ideas to offer him, but this was all she could come up with. Nothing else seemed to work. She picked up one of the drawings, and as she stared at the two figures swimming back to front as she and Ben had done, she could almost feel Ben's arm around her, drawing her close as they glided through the water...

 “That looks like the cover of a racy book,” Grandma said, peering over Kate's shoulder. “What’s being advertised anyway?”

Kate gave a nervous little chuckle. “Swim fins.”

“Well, that’s not what catches the eye,” Grandma said. “That woman looks like she’s wearing that skimpy green thing you have hanging in the bathroom.”

“Yes... well... I guess that’s where I got the idea.”

“Is Henry’s grandson coming around here anymore?”

Kate eyed Grandma with curiosity. It was the first time she’d referred to Henry by his first name, and without prefacing it with derogatory adjectives.

“Don’t stand there staring at me like that," Grandma groused. "I asked you a question. You gonna see Henry’s grandson again?”

Kate shrugged. “He's my boss, of sorts.”

Grandma’s eyes sharpened like a hawk. “He also means to see a block of fine old buildings leveled and the lot of us out on the street, and don’t you forget it. You shouldn’t be giving him the time of day much less your work. If he’s anything like his grandfather you’d better not hold him to his word because a Stassen’s word means nothing.”

“I’m only doing the ads in order to try and change his mind about the whole zoning issue," Kate said in defense. "If it wasn’t for that, I’d have nothing to do with the man." But she knew that was a barefaced lie. The fact was, she wanted to do the ads for the pure and simple reason that she wanted to be with Ben, wanted to penetrate that unsentimental exterior and learn the reason behind it, wanted to explore his hideaway and discover more of his eclectic whimsical artworks, wanted to be held in his arms with their lips pressed together in a passionate kiss...