Kenzi looked across to her father who held her gaze steadily. He wasn’t going anywhere. Taffy padded over to stand beside Kenzi. She met the dog’s eyes. “Well, do you have any idea how to get out of this? No, me either.”
A slim woman kept giving Dax looks as they rode up in the elevator together. He ignored her. He had a bouquet of assorted flowers in one hand, a gift bag in the other hand, takeout being delivered soon, and a big happy grin on his face. In a few minutes he’d step into Kenzi’s apartment and pull her into his arms. Nothing else mattered. The other woman exited the elevator a floor before Kenzi’s with one final lingering stare. Dax shrugged dismissively.
Taken.
The word was still echoing in his head when he stepped out onto Kenzi’s floor. The woman in the elevator had been beautiful, but he hadn’t felt anything when he’d noted that. Women had always come to him. Money did that. He was used to picking and choosing as he pleased. What he wasn’t used to was the growing realization that there was only one woman he wanted. Kenzi.
Kenzi opened the door to her apartment and, still holding the gift bag in one hand and the bouquet in his other, he pulled her to him and kissed her with all the passion that had been building within him during their short separation. Although it had only been hours since he’d seen her, their reunion felt as if it had been much longer. He couldn’t get enough of her. He stepped forward and kicked the door closed behind him.
The presents could wait. Well, most of them could. He had stopped and bought an intimate one he thought she might enjoy. He didn’t know if she used toys, but in his experience most women did and the idea of watching her orgasm again and again while he watched had him sporting a painful hard-on.
He dropped the flowers and the gift bag. She felt so damn good against him. To his surprise, after kissing him deeply at first, she pulled back—somewhat frantically. He instantly worried that he’d come on too strong. “I’m sorry, Kenzi. I lose my head around you.”
She was breathing as heavily as he was, but she had her hands on his chest pushing him back. “My father’s here, Dax.”
“Your what?” He raised his head and looked behind her. There was indeed a very pinched-faced man watching them from the other room. If looks could kill—
She turned and picked up the items he’d dropped. “My father. He dropped by.” She smiled and smelled the flowers. “They’re beautiful.” She held out the bag. “Is this for me, too?” She saw the dog bone inside and pulled it out. “Taffy, your first present.” Taffy came over and took the bone delicately, as if she couldn’t believe it was for her. “Is this for her, too?” Kenzi reached for the small, wrapped box still in the bag.
“No.” Dax grabbed the bag from her and placed it on the floor beside the door. “You can open that later. Your father looks impatient to know who just mauled his daughter right in front of him.”
Kenzi took his hand in hers. “I told him about you.”
Dax looked down at her quickly.
“I said we’re friends.”
Dax met the other man’s eyes. Friends. Kenzi’s father looked far from believing that story. A thought occurred to him and he asked, “Is he here because he found out about yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Kenzi smiled up at him in the way that always sent his thoughts scattering. “And it’s good. Better than I thought it would be. We talked. I’ll tell you later.”
“I’m glad.” Dax was. He wasn’t sure how Kenzi’s happiness had become linked to his own, but it had. He didn’t care what her father thought of him or would say to him as long as his visit had been what Kenzi needed.
Dale Barrington wasn’t a powerful man on his own, but he was connected to the most influential families on the East Coast and his sons had become influential players in several financial fields. Most men would tread carefully for those reasons alone.
Dax wasn’t most men. A potential clash with the Barringtons on a personal or professional level didn’t intimidate him. Since meeting Kenzi, Dax had looked into her family extensively. He knew about the scandal that had cost Dale his political career. A man like Dale was no better than his father—weak and lacking in integrity. Dale had stayed with his wife, but he hadn’t been faithful. Dax didn’t personally have much respect for him, but he was Kenzi’s father.
With Kenzi at his side, Dax walked over and held his hand out to Dale. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
There was no warmth in Dale’s eyes but he shook Dax’s hand. “Marshall.”
Kenzi stood beside Dax, watching them both. “His name is Dax, Dad.”
Dale kept his attention on Dax. “I’d like to speak to Dax alone for a minute.”
Dax nodded once. Bring it on.
Kenzi’s hand closed around Dax’s. “Whatever you have to say, Dad, say in front of me.”
Dale pressed his lips together in a line of clear displeasure, then he said, “I’d rather not.”
Dax felt the tension coursing through Kenzi. If she were confronting anyone but her father, he would have threatened the man, but Kenzi didn’t need his protection just then. Dax didn’t consider himself good at family issues, but if there was one thing he’d learned by being, however temporarily, part of so many it was that people needed to define their own relationships with each other. If handled by someone else, the conflict returned as soon as the enforcer of the peace stepped away. Dax gave Kenzi’s hand a squeeze and kept silent.
Kenzi squared her shoulders. “Dad, do you trust me?”
Dale held eye contact with Dax. “You, yes.”
“Then trust that I’m intelligent enough to know who is good for me and who isn’t.”
Dale directed his question to Dax. “What would you say if you found out a daughter of yours was dating someone like you?”
“Dad,” Kenzi said in protest.
Several cutting comebacks flew to the tip of Dax’s tongue. He could easily fire back that a father might think the same about a man with Dale’s track record, but Dax kept his temper in check. Kenzi was puffing up protectively, defending him to her father, in a way that only one person in his life ever had. He’d take a bullet for Clay, and in that moment he realized he’d do the same for Kenzi. Even if the bullets that day were not so subtle insults from Dale. “I don’t have a daughter so it’s hard to say.”
“Then let me help you. I know why you came to Boston, and I don’t like it. I don’t want you around my daughter or my family.”
Kenzi said, “Dad, stop.”
Dale looked at his daughter. “Did he tell you why he’s here? He’s after the Henderson’s company. The biggest favor you could do Dean is to stay away from the man who is probably using you to get information about him.”
“That’s not true.” Kenzi spun to look at Dax. “Tell him it’s not true, Dax. You’re not after Poly-Shyn.”
&
nbsp; With anyone else Dax would have walked away. As a rule, he didn’t explain himself. “I told you there was a project here that was complicated. The company was initially for sale, but it was stable and the price was inflated. I wasn’t interested. Recently confidence in the company has been shaken by indecisiveness at the top. Its value is spiraling downward. I looked into acquiring it. Right now it’s a deal that’s difficult to pass on, but I’m not moving forward with it.”
“Because?” Kenzi asked.
“You know why,” Dax answered gently.
Kenzi nodded slowly. “Because of Dean.”
“Because of you,” Dax corrected. It was an easy admission to make. He didn’t believe in forever, but he did believe in honesty. He met Dale’s eyes and said, “And because very few men impress me. I won’t be the reason Dean Henderson loses his father’s company.”
Dale didn’t conceal his disbelief. “You expect me to believe—?”
“I don’t expect anything from you,” Dax said, cutting him off as his temper rose. “Sir.” He added the tag, but it also came out too aggressively to be respectful.
Kenzi gave Dax’s arm a tug. He looked down at her, and the anger that had swept through him dissolved as quickly as it had come. She believed him. His heart swelled in his chest when she said, “Thank you.”
Despite how her father was looking on, Dax pulled her against his side and kissed her forehead. He didn’t have the words to articulate how she made him feel, so he didn’t try. He just held her there for a moment and breathed in the sweet scent of her.
When he finally looked back at Dale there was a guarded expression on the man’s face. The cold rejection of earlier was gone.
Kenzi turned back toward her father. “Dad, emotions are running high right now. I don’t want to fight with you, but I also don’t want to pretend or lie anymore. Dax and I are friends. I need you to respect that. If we’re more than that, it’s our business. All you really need to know is that I care about this man, and I trust him. He’s been good to me.”
