Melting the Millionaire's Heart (8 page)

He wandered to the window and began singing. Loudly. “Caleb, return to your seat please,” Kayla said. When he didn’t respond, she went to him and put her hand on his shoulder to reinforce her instructions. “Return to your seat and finish your art.” He ignored her and began singing louder. To her surprise, Ryan brushed past her to tap Caleb on his other shoulder.

“Hey, buddy. Listen to your teacher. You have to finish your art.” Impressed by the attention from a tall stranger, Caleb complied.

“Thanks,” she told him cautiously. “You were good with him.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice with my brother.”

“Ah.” Her eyes dropped. She remembered the last time they’d talked about his brother. “I’m sorry I accused you of lying about your brother’s autism.”

He took her hand and looked around the busy classroom. “Is there somewhere we can talk in private?”

“Sure,” she said with a jerky nod.

She gestured to get Carolyn’s attention. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Take your time!” Carolyn called after her. Kayla led him out of the room, noticing Pam giving her the evil eye as she did. Outside the classroom, she self-consciously let go of his hand. “Come on. There’s a work room down the hall where we won’t be disturbed.”

In the work room, she closed the door and turned to face him. Before she could say a thing, he kissed her, pressing her against the door with his long, hard body.

Just like that. With no preliminaries, no apologies, no questions. His daring worked. She closed her eyes and let him do it until finally she caught herself and pushed him away. Explosive chemistry, they had in spades. Their problem was a lack of trust, and they hadn’t mended that fence yet.

He stepped back, his lips shining from her moisture, gazing at her as if she was the most beloved sight in the world. Her heart turned over. A part of her longed to trust him, to give him another chance to ease this ache she’d lived with ever since New Year’s Day.

“I want you to know what’s at stake,” he said.

“At stake?” She frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about what’s between us. It doesn’t come along every day. I’m not going to give up on it just because I screwed up.”

Piece by piece, since she’d seen him in Dr. Dunne’s office, he’d chipped away at her anger. It was a good start, but she didn’t know if she could forgive and forget. “There is no ‘us.’ We had a tryst, remember?”

“What about second chances? I know you believe in them. You chose to work here because Horizons gives kids a second chance.” He leaned against the wall, watching her closely. “Will you do less for me?”

His words struck right to her core, the place in her that believed in fairness and justice. She paced to the other side of the narrow room and turned to face him. The fluorescent lights hummed in the tense silence. She took a deep breath. “At least I can say this. We need to stop being so angry with each other. After all, if you’re going to be involved with the school, we’ll be seeing each other.”

“I
am
going to be involved with the school, Kayla. I’m not one of those guys you hate so much, with a PR person on one side and a swarm of photographers on the other, just looking for a photo op. I’m going to be here a lot, meeting the kids and finding out what this school really needs, what these kids need. But that’s got nothing to do with why I kissed you just now.”

“Why did you kiss me, then?” Damn, she hated the plaintive note she heard in her voice. He’d ripped her heart out on New Year’s Eve. She’d spent New Year’s Day in misery, crying harder over him than she’d ever cried over Steve, which made no sense whatsoever. She’d known Ryan for one night. One night, in which he’d turned her life upside down. He’d shown her a glimpse of something wonderful, and then he’d betrayed a trust she hadn’t even realized she’d given him.

Carolyn thought she should forgive and move on. Here was Ryan, asking her to do just that. Could she do it? Should she?

“Like I said, I want you to remember what’s at stake. How good it can be between us.” The husky timbre of his voice went straight to the tips of her breasts, making them tingle. Her lady parts were going rogue again, trying to make the decisions for her.

“I don’t make decisions based on sex,” she said.
Liar, liar, pants on fire
.

“I’m glad to hear it, but I wasn’t talking about sex. Not entirely, anyway.” He moved toward her.

She stepped back, but the wall behind her brought her up short. “You weren’t?”

He took advantage of her immobility and slid his arms around her waist. He played dirty pool, dammit. She let her hands rest on his chest and felt the lovely curve of muscle there. A sigh escaped her. The heavy pulse in her throat matched the one in the softness between her legs.

“What we found together on New Year’s Eve was something that doesn’t come along every day. I’ve gone thirty years and never met anyone like you. I’ve never felt anything like what I felt that night. I’m not going to throw it away without a struggle. I won’t let you, either.”

She swallowed hard. “Those are pretty words. But how can I trust you?”

“I’m sorry for what I did. I’ll be sorry about that for longer than I can even say. But you made a judgment about my motives without ever having met me.”

She sighed as he bent his head to nibble at her neck, his untrimmed hair brushing against her cheek. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“You were quick to judge, Kayla.”

His words hurt, but they rang true, as well. “I know. I’ve met too many phonies in this job and I made the mistake of assuming you would be one, too. I wasn’t fair to you.”

“It’s all right. I understand why you did it. In a way, I did the same thing. I’ve met too many women who only cared about my bank balance and I assumed you’d be one too. I thought you couldn’t be trusted with the knowledge of who I really was.”

“Two wrongs didn’t make a right, but maybe this time, just this once, do you think maybe they canceled each other out?”

“Maybe. Can I make a promise to you?” Ryan asked. He cupped her chin and looked intently into her eyes. “If you give me another chance, I will never lie to you again.”

Hope lifted her heart. “Thank you for that. And I need to promise something, too. If you give
me
a second chance, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” She laughed as a thought struck her. “Maybe we both need work on our social skills. I can take you to Pam’s class for some tutoring in the importance of honesty, if you like,” she said, and then gasped as his hand slid up her blouse. Oh, Lord. She glanced at the work room door, willing it not to open.

“Um, no. Pam scares me,” he murmured against her ear. Kayla snickered. “Must be those dollar signs I saw in her eyes every time she looked at me. Besides, if any tutoring needs to be done, I want you to do it.”

“Me?”

“I have some fairly hot teacher fantasies, you know. I was homeschooled, so I missed out on that whole adolescent lusting-after-the-sexy-teacher thing.”

“Ah.” She slipped her left foot out of her flat and ran it along his calf. “You know what they say. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”

He chuckled into her shoulder and slid his hand even higher up her shirt. Kayla took a deep breath. “We can’t,” she said regretfully. “Not here.”

He removed his hand but didn’t release her. “I’m going to be in town for a few nights on business, staying at a hotel so I don’t have to keep driving back and forth. Have dinner with me?”

“Sure.” She dithered, not sure whether to speak her mind, and finally decided to go for it. “Where are you staying?”

“Some hotel downtown, with uniformed bellhops and a very ugly modern sculpture in the lobby.”

She laughed. “I’m not sure I can compete with that, but I’ll try. Would you like to spend the night at my place?” Her stomach fluttered as she waited for his answer.

His warm eyes darkened. “I think I’d like that.”

“You’re in town, what, two, three nights?”

“This time, yeah.” He brushed his hand down the curve of her hip to rest on her thigh. “You know, my house isn’t that far away from Indianapolis, especially if you don’t slide off the road during a snowstorm. I can see this thing between us really having some legs.”

He dipped his head to nuzzle at her neck, taking a tiny nip of her skin. Hmmm, that gave her chills. “Is that a fact?” she said, breathless.

“It is. You could drop by for a visit just about any time. Or I could swing by your place.”

“Just for one night?”

“Maybe,” he said, moving the collar of her shirt to one side to gain access to the spot where her neck met her shoulder.

She took a deep breath, willing her heated body to settle down. “I’ve realized I’m not the type.”

“I disagree. I see you very much as the one-night stand type.”

“You do?” She drew back a touch, surprised.

“Sure. And I think you should have all the sordid one-night stands you want.” He leaned in to kiss her, stroking his fingers along her cheek. “As long as they’re all with me.”

Her lips curved into a smile. “Now
that
, Mr. Langford, is the kind of thing I just might be cut out for.”

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Heather Howland for plucking my story out of the slush pile and seeing something worthwhile in it, and for many valuable editorial suggestions. Thanks to Tahra Seplowin for great edits, good humor, and a cheerful attitude through many rounds of edits and one superstorm. Thanks to Amanda Faris for her copyedits and to all those behind the scenes at Entangled who helped bring this book about.

About the Author

Linda Morris is a writer of contemporary and historical romance. She writes stories with heart, humor, and heat. She spends her days juggling family, writing, and acareer as a freelance editor. When she’s not writing, working, or mommying, she’s doing yoga, reading, working in her flower garden, or baking delicious things she probably shouldn’t eat. She believes that there are two kinds of people: pie people and cake people, and she is definitely one of the former. Her years of Cubs fandom prove she has a soft spot for a lost cause. A beat-up old copy of Kathleen Woodiwiss’s
Ashes in the Wind
that her mother bought for her at a garage sale many years ago was her gateway drug into the world of romance novels.

http://lindamorriswriter.blogspot.com