Page 25 of Landry
“To say that I adore you.” Taking her wine, Kady sat at the counter and took her first sip.
“Cut it out.”
“Okay, fine. I met with Landry tonight.”
“And?”
She sighed, staring moodily into the glass. “We kissed.” The silence that accompanied that explosive statement stretched on until she started fidgeting.
“Kyle?”
“Well then, I guess I should congratulate you. When’s the wedding?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“I’m being ridiculous?” he asked derisively. “What happened to keeping things on a professional level?”
“It just happened.”
“Well then, I suppose it’s all right. Are you out of your damn mind!”
“Stop shouting,” she murmured with a wince.
“If you didn’t want to hear shouts, you should have kept that piece of information to yourself. That man twisted you inside out and the minute you’re alone with him, you’re ready to take off your clothes. Or did you?”
“No,” she bit out. Now that she heard his reaction, she had no intention of telling him that it had been twice or that she had almost begged him to take her on the conference table. God knows she had spent the thirty-minute ride home berating herself.
“Well, he’s your boss, so I suppose he ordered you to lay your lips on his and you just had to.”
“You’re being nasty.”
“I’m being realistic. And telling you that you’re a moron.”
“Kyle-”
“I’m not finished, damn it! I was there to pick up the pieces when he left you broken and bloodied. Me! And the minute he comes waltzing back, you fall into his arms like a ripe plum. What now, Kady? Are you going to sleep with him and let bygones be bygones?”
“No. Of course not.” She sounded unconvincing even to her own ears.
“I have to get some sleep. Ten minutes tops since you interrupted five minutes of it.”
“I won’t go back, Kyle,” she insisted.
“If you say so. I’m hanging up now.”
“Please don’t hate me.”
“You idiot! I can no sooner do such a thing than refuse to treat a patient on my table. Christ!” he muttered. “I damn well love you. Goodbye.”
She hung up with tears in her eyes. She felt teary and emotional and could lay the blame at his door. Damn him! What had she been thinking, suggesting they hold the meeting at her place of work? And why did she allow him to touch her?
Gulping the rest of the wine, she sat there, staring at the darkened window, her thoughts in a turmoil.
***
He couldn’t settle. He had started the ride home with the constant security personnel trailing behind him and switched directions. He did not bloody care if the man was annoyed at the unprecedented move. He just could not bear to go to his place and sit there brooding. He had a lot to process.
He rounded the bend in the road and did not stop until he came to a deserted side road. Pulling off the main road, he stopped under a sprawling redwood tree and shut off the engine. In the mood he was in, he almost wished someone would come after him; it would give him the greatest satisfaction to beat him to a pulp.
