Fair Game (4 page)

Today, however, the drive up to Santa Rosa gave Kyle time to reflect. He didn’t have to attend the quarry tour tomorrow. First of all, the sand plant was over an hour and a half south and the trip would chew up half the day—and that after he’d just been thinking how tired he was of traveling. Second, Todd was perfectly capable of conducting a tour of the facility he’d been in charge of for ten years.

The simple fact was that Kyle wanted to go because of Josie. She was, therefore, correct—that constituted mixing business with pleasure. It was a slippery slope. Yet his instincts said she was worth it, and he could keep his head about him.

Contrary to what Josie implied, he didn’t indulge willy-nilly in office liaisons. Case in point: Kisa. She’d obliquely offered. He’d pretended he hadn’t understood the signals she was sending out. It was the only polite way to handle it. No sense hurting the girl’s feelings.

However, of all the women that could have stepped onto that elevator, it was Josie. He wasn’t a new age freak, but he did believe people came into your life for a reason. There was also a reason she’d played with him in the elevator. Why him? Why her? She was forward, but it was a good thing. He loved a woman who felt comfortable with her own sexuality. He had a gut-deep need to explore it with her.

Life could change in a flash, or it could transform itself with a slow degradation. He’d been divorced for five years, and the last two years of his seven-year marriage had been hell. The painful breakup hadn’t soured him on women or relationships in general; it had soured him on
bad
relationships. Josie, it seemed, wasn’t looking for a commitment. She had her career to build. They could come to a mutually satisfying personal agreement with no strings attached, and for now that would be great. Whatever the outcome in the long run, though, this thing with Josie Tybrook was a compelling opportunity he’d regret missing if he failed to act on it.

He’d use the drive on Tuesday to convince her she didn’t want any regrets, either.

 

 

 

JOSIE closed Ernie’s door behind her, then slipped into the chair across the desk from him. The office was fairly small, with only the one extra seat. “I’m sorry I didn’t notice something was wrong.”

“I didn’t want to admit anything was wrong myself.” He leaned back, his chair creaking. The bags under his eyes were darker, and there was a deep sadness in his gaze she’d never noticed before.

Correction. She’d never bothered to look closely enough. “I apologize for being such a snarky bitch lately.”

“You’ve been the same as always.”

Yeah, she was probably always a snarky bitch, but she knew Ernie didn’t mean it derogatorily. “I was even going to read you the riot act about not making the meeting today.”

“And I deserved it.”

“No, you didn’t. But I wish you’d told me so I wouldn’t have been making such an ass of myself so much recently.”

“You’re always hardest on yourself, Josie, expecting the most out of yourself. And you’ve been just fine to me, even lately, so forget about it.”

She swallowed with difficulty. “Isn’t there some treatment or something?”

He held up his hand, and she noticed the wrinkles in his palm, as if he’d stuck his hand in water for too long. “Don’t make me talk about it, okay?”

That was the thing; nobody liked to talk about dying. All she’d wanted to do was get in here and get it over with. “God,” she sighed, “that’s actually kind of a relief.” Then she heard how it sounded, and . . .

Ernie grinned, a real honest-to-God one. “That’s what I’ve always liked about you, Josie. You just say it like it is.”

“Bull in a china shop, according to my mom.”

“Your mom could take lessons.”

Everyone knew her mom. Dora Tybrook, who was a board member of Castle only by virtue of marriage to Josie’s father, Preston, never missed a board meeting or an expense write-off if she could help it. Of course, she’d gotten her dander up last year when Connor said her spa was not a business expense.

But was Ernie complimenting her or her mom?

“Thanks for recommending me for the job.” She didn’t say
his
job.

“I think you’ll be the best at it.” He’d had four other program managers to choose from.

It was her dream. Oh, not just managing the department, but moving up in Castle, being VP of FI&T, then CEO. Why not? She could do it. Not now, of course, but eventually, with experience, starting with department manager.

“Thanks, Ernie.” He’d never really expressed his confidence in her before. She just wished it wasn’t coming this way.

“I’ll call a meeting tomorrow to tell everyone. I want to get through today first.”

“That’s fine.” She could understand how hard it must be. “You want to go over the open projects now or save that for tomorrow, too?”

The poor guy was probably wiped. She was noticing all sorts of other things about him, such as how thin his skin seemed, like parchment paper, his veins blue and prominent beneath the surface. He’d never been a body builder type, always on the thin side, tall but gaunt, yet now, he seemed a shadow of a man. How could she have missed that something was terribly wrong?

“Let’s do it now.” He tapped a folder on his desk. “We need to start recruiting to fill your position, plus decide who’s going to take over your projects.”

Kyle’s was the biggest, the most important. “I can pass on the other stuff, but I’d like to keep SMG. All the setup work is done, now it’s just coordination. And it’s local, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Giving it to someone else at this point would be counterproductive and mess up all the continuity.” She realized she was making too many excuses. Plain and simple, she
wanted
the project. It was her baby, the biggest opportunity to come her way. She couldn’t just give it away.

“That’ll probably work,” Ernie agreed.

“Cool.”

She didn’t want to give up Kyle, either. Without allowing herself a moment to think, her gut said to keep him. It. The project. She didn’t know where the whole thing might be heading, but just as Kyle had said he didn’t want to miss a wonderful opportunity, she wasn’t ready to let go. Maybe it had something to do with the shock of Ernie’s leaving. The why of it, she’d think about later. Right now, she had a new skill set to learn.

Of course, the three hours she was in Ernie’s office with the door closed raised plenty of eyebrows around the bullpen. An unnatural quiet settled over the cubicle area when she walked out at about four thirty. Whispers buzzed like angry hornets when Ernie locked his office door and left. Ernie never went home before five. She ignored the flashing question marks in the gazes of her coworkers. Ernie wanted to do the meeting tomorrow. It wasn’t her place to say anything today.

She hadn’t had the courage to ask how his family was taking it. One thing she did know—Connor was a stand-up guy, and whatever the company could do to help Ernie and his family, Connor would get it done.

Her first order of business was to let Kyle know her change in status wasn’t going to affect her dealings with his project. She didn’t want him to hear it on the grapevine and think she was giving him short shrift.

It wasn’t an excuse to talk to him, of course. She’d give the same courtesy to any customer.

He hadn’t returned her call before the end of her workday, which was normally somewhere close to seven if she wasn’t out at a project site. By staying late she could catch up on her spreadsheet work after most people had left for the day. Then she recalled the meeting Kyle had up in Santa Rosa, which was why they’d had to schedule their meeting in the San Francisco office. He probably hadn’t come back to work.

Her cell phone rang on the way home. Stopped for a light, she glanced at the number and didn’t recognize it. That wasn’t unusual since she used the cell for work as well as personal and most of her minutes were work-related. Tapping her Bluetooth, she said hello.

“Congratulations on the promotion.”

Kyle. Her heart actually started to beat faster. “Thank you. The announcement will be made tomorrow, but I wanted to give you a heads-up.” She didn’t tell him why she’d gotten it. She couldn’t talk about Ernie now.

“That was a big sigh. Something wrong?”

She hadn’t even heard herself. “Everything’s fine.” Except that she felt like she had one foot on Ernie’s back when he was down. It wasn’t right. She couldn’t be happy with it. This time she managed to keep the sigh out of her voice. “I look forward to the challenge of the new position.”

He waited a beat, as if deciding whether to let it go or not. “Since you’re not my program manager anymore, we can date.”

Obviously he wasn’t willing to let go of the sex thing. She hadn’t anticipated the impact his voice would have on her over the phone, like buttercream frosting sliding over her tongue. Sweet, leaving her wanting to lick another dab off her fingers. She followed the flow of traffic through the light. “I said in my voice mail that I was still going to manage the project.”

“No, you said that Castle was still going to provide the same level of expertise despite the change in management.”

She wasn’t usually so obtuse, but yes, that’s how she’d phrased it. “Well, what I meant was that
I
would be providing the same level of expertise.”

“So no casual sex?”

She laughed. “And no dating.” Why didn’t she find his persistence annoying? Duh. She liked the attention. “That would be unprofessional.”

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t let your sexual performance affect my judgment about your professional performance. You fuck up this project for me, and your bosses will hear about it in no uncertain terms.”

It was a challenge. Even if he didn’t mean it that way. He could control his emotions, split himself in half, but was she capable of doing the same? Damn straight, she was. That wasn’t the point, however. “No matter how it shakes down, it’s my job on the line, not yours. I think you’re better off with Little Miss Snowflake.”

“You know,” he said, “she does have this hot pair of thigh-high leather boots she wears with the shortest damn skirt she can get away with.”

“Then go for it. You’ll have her eating out of your hand.” Yet there was an odd little hitch in her chest even contemplating the two of them together.

“I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

She smiled. “Any time.” Somehow, she’d slipped into an easy familiarity without even realizing it. It didn’t bode well for keeping him at a distance.

“But,” he added, “somehow I don’t think Kisa could separate business from pleasure.”

And she could? As in, she came off as more heartless? Or . . . Why in tarnation did this man make her question everything? She
was
heartless and glad of it. She’d had her heart trashed once, and thankfully it wasn’t something she ever had to put herself through again. Besides, Ian, her college lover, was also her professor, and she’d learned hard and fast about the rule regarding mixing business with pleasure. He’d stolen her senior project, called it his own, and published it in a trade journal. When she confronted him, he actually said most of the work had been his, and he
believed
it. She could have sued him, but it was easier to let it go, move on, start over.

“Dump the project,” Kyle said, voice low, seductive. “Give it to someone else.”

“I can’t.” She wouldn’t. She’d put her blood into getting everything together on Coyote Ridge. No way was she going to let someone else screw it up. Nor was she going to risk losing everything again and having to start over.

He paused long enough for her to think they’d lost the connection. “You’re right,” he said. “Unfair of me to ask.”

“Don’t worry.” She might think dirty thoughts about him, fantasize, but she was
not
crossing that line. But the dirty thoughts were oh-so-fun. She could handle it, handle
him
, keep her thoughts separate from the job. After all, no one had to know about her little fantasies, not even Kyle.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow, as planned.” He paused. “And don’t forget the short skirt.”

She huffed out a breath. “I am not wearing a skirt and heels to a quarry.”

“You don’t need heels. Wear your steel-toed boots with the skirt.” She was sure that was a groan from his end. “Now that would be really hot. Girlie, yet dominant.”

“Forget it. I’ll get dirty and dusty.” Since when had dirt and dust bothered her? His idea made her hot all over.

“Just do what I tell you, Josie.” This time the dead air was real.

He was getting to her. Letting her imagination go wild, she fantasized about all the sexy things she could wear to give him heart palpitations. It left her with an odd, giddy sensation fluttering in her chest.

If she didn’t watch herself, Kyle Perry just might make her break her own rules.

 

 

 

THAT was asinine. Kyle shut down his computer and started packing up his briefcase. Why the hell had he asked her to give up the project? Way out of line. It sure as hell didn’t sound like keeping business and pleasure separate. Where was his head?

Oh yeah. In his pants.

He shut off the lights and locked his office door. The meeting in Santa Rosa had run late, and the commute traffic sucked, but he’d needed to get back into the office to check a few things. And he’d listened to her voice mail. There’d been something in her voice, both in the message and later, on the phone. He could have sworn she wasn’t happy about the promotion. But why? She was all about the job, her career.

Damn, but his whole body revved up when he’d thought she wasn’t going to manage the project. Which made her free.

Then he’d compromised himself, and her. They both had a job to do. What went on outside of those parameters was fine. But he’d asked her to take herself off the project. After all her prep work and all the knowledge she’d gained, losing her was bound to affect the scheduling. He hadn’t cared.