His Girl Friday
“No, it wasn’t. And I got the lesson, honey,” he said shortly, then sighed heavily. “I’m used to jaded, experienced women who take everything a man does for granted. I’ve never had any experience with shy, fascinated virgins who make it all seem new and exciting.” He managed a wry smile at her blush. “Just for the record, Miss Marist, have you ever kissed a man with your mouth open?”
She went beet red and averted her face. “That’s none of your business!”
“In other words, you haven’t,” he mused, chuckling gently. “All right, chicken, run for it.”
“I don’t need teaching!” she threw at him as she wrestled the car door open.
“Oh, but you do,” he replied softly, his hand preventing her from jumping out. “You don’t know what I’d give to be your teacher,” he added with narrowed, glittery eyes. “But that would be disastrous for both of us. I’m too jaded and you’re too pure. The best I could offer you would be a few hours in my bed, and I wouldn’t insult you with that kind of proposition. You need a good, steady man to cherish you and give you children.” He shrugged heavily, staring at the glowing tip of his cigarette, and for a few seconds he let down his guard. “That would require a kind of trust I can’t give a woman. I don’t want to be vulnerable, Dan.”
“Nobody’s asking you to be!” she said angrily, so embarrassed that she could hardly sit still.
He caught her eyes. “Are you vulnerable?” he asked quietly. “Was my father right? Don’t you have a flaming, king-size crush on me?”
“No!” she cried.
There was a world of experience in his slow, knowing gaze. “Then why didn’t you fight me?” he asked in a tone as smooth as warm honey.
She darted out of the car and into the building so fast that she could barely breathe when she reached the office. The first thing she planned to do was type out her resignation. But when she opened the door, Eugene Ritter was sitting impatiently in the waiting room, looking like a thundercloud.
“What have you done with my son?” he demanded belligerently.
Danetta stopped short, her hair disheveled, her mouth red from the hard pressure of Cabe’s thumb, out of breath and almost shaking from what he’d said to her in the car.
“On second thought,” Eugene murmured thoughtfully as he studied her, “what has my son been doing to you?”
Cabe came in the door behind her, looking smug and so damned arrogant that she could have thrown the typewriter at him.
“Hello, Dad,” Cabe said absently. “Need something?”
Eugene stared at his son, looking for traces of lipstick probably, Cabe thought amusedly. The older man’s face fell. “Not really,” he said. “I wanted to know if you’re coming to our anniversary party tomorrow night. Nicky’s expecting you.”
Nicky? Danetta had heard that name once or twice. Was it a man’s name or a woman’s? Probably a woman’s, she thought miserably.
“I’m busy tomorrow night,” Cabe said shortly. “I’m taking Karol to the ballet,” he added, with a long, silent stare at Danetta’s averted face.
“So that painted woman is more important to you than I am,” Eugene said angrily. “And what about Cynthia? Is she going to suffer for the rest of your life because I had the audacity to marry again?”
Cabe turned on the older man, his eyes dangerous. “She’ll never be my mother, and Nicky will never be part of my family! Damn you, I loved my mother! You couldn’t even get her in the ground before you had Cynthia in front of a justice of the peace!”
“That’s a lie and you know it,” Eugene said in a surprisingly calm tone. “Cynthia did work for me while your mother was alive, but it wasn’t until after her death that we fell in love. Nicky was a delightful surprise, not an accident, and I won’t apologize for him. My God, boy, he isn’t taking anything away from you! He doesn’t even inherit anything except a share of my total estate. Cynthia and I agreed on that from the start! She’s got money of her own to settle on him, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“I’ve forgotten nothing,” Cabe told his father in a tone like shattering ice.
Eugene started to speak and then just shrugged, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “It wouldn’t kill you to spend one night with us, all the same. It hurts Nicky that you ignore him.”
“I owe him nothing!”
The older man grimaced and turned away.
Cabe slammed his fist down on Danetta’s desk, startling her. She’d put away her coat and was just sitting down to work. “All right,” he said angrily. “Damn it, I’ll come for the night.”
“That’s my boy,” Eugene said with an infrequent tenderness. He looked past Cabe at Danetta, who was trying to be invisible. “Why don’t you leave the brassy blonde at home and bring that one with you?” he mused. “She keeps an iguana. Nicky would love her.”
Danetta actually gasped. “How did you know about Norman?” she asked.
Eugene grinned. “Ask Jenny.” His eyes went back to Cabe. “Your secretary here looked pretty flustered when she walked in. I thought maybe you’d—”
“We just came from Harry Deal’s oil field,” Cabe said with uncommon venom. “She and Harry got into it.”
“I hope she won. He’s hell on the nerves,” Eugene said with a disappointed sigh. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow night,” he muttered. “Brassy blonde, God knows how many men—”
“Get out!” Cabe said shortly.
Eugene knew when to quit. He waved at Danetta and walked out without another word.
Danetta was fumbling with the computer, trying to turn it on. Considering how well she did it normally, it was rather disturbing to look like a rank amateur. It had been an upsetting morning.
She smelled cigarette smoke. Cabe came closer with a cigarette in his fingers and stood over her, his pale eyes watchful, his dark, wavy hair falling rakishly onto his broad forehead. He had one hand in his pocket and his chiseled lips were pursed as he looked at her openly and with pure male appreciation.
“I don’t have a crush on you,” she said, trying to appear calm.
He lifted the cigarette to his mouth and took a long draw from it. “I’m thirteen years older than you,” he said quietly. “From a practical standpoint, you don’t even have a yardstick to measure me against. Your life is a blank slate.” He blew out wispy smoke. “No, I’m the last complication you need in your life, kid,” he said shortly. “So no more close encounters. Let’s get to work.”
He went back into his office with that quick, measured stride that meant he was in a temper. She should have been relieved. But she wasn’t. It was like the end of something that hadn’t even begun.
She loaded the computer, her heart around her ankles. If he didn’t want complications, why did he touch her that way in the car, saying those things to her? Her brows drew into an angry frown. He couldn’t resist a little mockery, she supposed. But she wouldn’t let him get away with it twice. From now on, she was immune. Or at least, he was going to think she was.
She wondered vaguely who Nicky was. It sounded as if he was a relative, and why would he like Danetta just because she had an iguana? She sighed. Her whole life seemed to be one big question these days.
She started the word processing program and began to type out the routine letters that Cabe had scribbled answers on before they left the office.
Chapter Three
Danetta sighed over her boss’s new and distant attitude in the days that followed. He didn’t offer any more conversation that wasn’t absolutely necessary, he didn’t talk to her unless it was about the job. He didn’t even treat her like a younger brother anymore. She had become a piece of office equipment, and he barely looked at her. She’d gone back to her sedate way of dressing, but it probably wouldn’t have mattered if she’d come to work nude. He’d said they weren’t going to complicate their relationship, and boy, was he keeping his word!
She felt alone, even more than she had when she moved here to stay with her cousin Jenny over two years ago. She’d wanted to be independent, to live her own life, and her parents had supported that need. But now she missed the family. She missed Jenny, because her cousin was a good listener. Jenny was still off in the southwest on some hush-hush assignment. She wished she’d thought to ask Eugene last week if he’d heard from Jenny, but it hadn’t been a good time.
She needed someone to talk to because she hadn’t realized until now how big a part of her life she’d allowed Cabe Ritter to become. She looked forward to coming to work because he was somehow bigger than life to her. His smile made her tingle, his vibrant masculinity challenged and excited her, his dry wit made her laugh. Just being around him made her feel more alive than she’d ever been before.
She’d had erotic dreams about him ever since that morning in his big Lincoln when he’d woken all her senses with his ardor. But that morning might never have been, because his new attitude was so determinedly business. And Karol was very much in evidence now. Cabe almost seemed to flaunt her, as if he wanted to make sure Danetta didn’t get any romantic ideas about him.
She finished the letters she’d been typing and put them aside, her slender fingers lightly resting on the stack. Perhaps he was even trying to freeze her out of his office. The thought made her uneasy. She’d gotten used to his moods and his tempers, and she didn’t like the idea of working for anyone else. But if that was what he wanted…
He came in even as she was formulating distasteful plans for her future, and she jumped at the opening of the door.
“Nerves?” he commented. “That’s new. What’s wrong?”
She handed him the letters with a hand that shook.
“For God’s sake!” he burst out. He put down his attaché case, laid the letters aside, and pulled her out of the chair, still holding her hand. “Let’s have it. What’s wrong?”
“Do you want me to quit?” she asked, her voice uneven.
Every trace of expression left his face. “Do you want to?” He threw the ball back into her court.
She lowered her eyes to his nice white shirt. “It’s a good job,” she said stiffly. “But if you’d rather I left, I will.”
“I don’t know what I’d rather,” he said heavily. He’d tried not to be aware of her, he’d tried being cold, but it was backfiring. He’d hurt her again, and he felt terrible at her vulnerability. Why couldn’t he forget that look on her face when he’d started to kiss her? Why couldn’t he find any solace in Karol’s company?
With a long sigh, he brought her slender hand against his chest. Under the thin fabric of his shirt, Danetta could feel his chest, the warmth of his body. Cabe was silent as he pressed her fingers against him and he fought the need to do much, much more than that.
She felt herself melting inside. His broad chest felt hard and warm under her hand, yet it felt soft there, too, as if he had hair on his chest. She’d never seen him stripped to the waist, but suddenly she wanted to. She wondered what he looked like under his clothes, and how it would feel if he put his arms around her and kissed her the way he kissed his women, the way he’d whispered to her that he would that morning at Harry Deal’s rig.
She drew in a slow, shaky breath. She couldn’t seem to breathe properly anymore, and now she knew her mind was going, too. Only a crazy woman would allow herself to be curious in that way about Cabe.
His fingers stroked her neat nails, smoothing over their silky tops. He heard her breathing change and marveled at the way she stood against him, so docile and quiet. It had flattered his ego when Ben Meadows and his father had suggested that shy young Danetta had a crush on him, then it had floored him when he’d made that involuntary pass at her in the car. He hadn’t counted on her effect on him, any more than he’d expected her contempt for his life-style—or rather what she thought was his life-style. He’d often wondered what Danetta would do if he made a real pass at her. He’d been tempted a lot in the past few weeks, thanks to his father’s constant remarks about Danetta, bringing her vividly to his attention. She was pretty and she’d begun to disturb him physically. He’d tried ignoring her, but that only made it worse. Now he was touching her, and he knew even as he did it that it was his most regrettable mistake to date.
“Your fingers are like ice,” he commented, his voice deep and husky because she smelled of lavender and her softness made such a contrast to the women he’d filled his life with in recent years. Women chased him, but their very aggressiveness irritated him. There was nothing aggressive about Danetta, and she was innocent. Her innocence made his head spin with exquisite fantasies about teaching her the mystery of intimacy. He couldn’t forget the look in her eyes when he’d whispered how he wanted to kiss her….
“It’s a little chilly in the office,” she said. Was that really her own voice, sounding so breathless? “I’ll turn the thermostat up.”
“Yes, you do that.” But he didn’t let go of her hand. He pressed it closer and moved it a little, and she could actually feel his heartbeat.
His hand moved to her throat and his thumb pushed under her chin, raising her mouth. He looked down at the soft pink bow of it, at the soft silkiness. His fingers stroked her cheek and his thumb moved lazily to her mouth. He brushed his thumb over it, first gently, then with a rough, abrasive motion that was like a delicate kick in the heart. It was exactly what he’d done before, and it provoked the same shocked delight in her eyes as she looked up at him and a tiny sound worked its way out of her throat.
He liked that sound. He liked even more the shocked sensuality in her eyes as he played with her mouth. She was becoming aroused, much more than she had before. The fascination in her gray eyes spoke for itself. His thumb grew more insistent and her lips parted on a shaky breath. His free hand went to her nape and cradled it firmly, holding her head where he wanted it as he watched her intently.
“This is where the playing stops,” he said roughly. “Once my mouth covers yours, there’s no going back.”
Her gasp was audible. It almost broke the spell. But his eyes were relentless, like that maddening thumb against her mouth, like the helpless trembling of her legs. “It’s not fair,” she moaned. “Like going fishing with a stick of dynamite…”
“Yes,” he agreed softly as he began to lower his head. His eyes shifted to her trembling mouth. “That’s how it’s going to feel, too. Like dynamite going up. I like it rough,” he breathed as his lips parted a breath above hers. “I like it hard and rough. Like this….”
She felt his hand contract at her nape and tasted his warm, smoky breath mingling with hers as she stood there, helpless, all too willing to give him what he wanted.
But even as his lips dragged roughly against hers in a whisper of sensual promise, in the briefest hint of contact, the harsh jingle of the telephone exploded into the tense silence and broke them apart.
Danetta was shaking as if she’d been thrown to the ground. She stared up helplessly at Cabe, oblivious to the source of the loud, irritating noise. He stared back at her, only a little less rattled than she was. Still watching her, he jerked up the receiver and answered it.
“Ritter.”
“Cabe, can you take an extra hour off this afternoon to attend a charity dinner with me?” Karol asked him in her soft, cultured voice. “It’s to benefit the new children’s hospital.”
“This afternoon?” he repeated absently. “I suppose so. I’ll pick you up at five.”
“Lovely! Thank you, darling. See you later.”
She hung up but Cabe didn’t put down the phone. He was still watching Danetta’s shocked eyes.
The silence between them was every bit as explosive now as it had been three minutes ago, but before either of them could speak, Ben Meadows came in the door with a file folder in one hand.
“Sorry to bother you, but I need some copies made,” he whispered to Danetta, obviously thinking Cabe was on the telephone.
“I’ll…I’ll do them.” Danetta took the folder with shaking fingers and rushed away to the room where the Xerox machine was kept. Cabe hung up the phone belatedly and took Ben into his office. Danetta did the copies and went back to work as quickly and efficiently as she could.
For the rest of the day, she held her breath, but Cabe didn’t come near her again. She wasn’t sure if she was glad or sorry, but their relationship had changed forever in those few minutes.
She went home to her lonely apartment, wishing her cousin were home. But the older woman, a ravishing blonde, wasn’t due back for a while. Jenny spent most of her working life on expeditions to rustic places, and Danetta knew that it occasionally became dangerous. A man had followed Jenny home once and tried to trail her. Later they’d learned that he was actually an enemy agent, of all things, trying to get information on the geology report Jenny had submitted to Eugene Ritter’s company. Those strategic metals she prospected for were important to a lot of people, and not all of the interested parties were Americans.
Even now, Jenny’s letters home were full of intriguing innuendos about her job, and Danetta worried about her. She had once secretly envied Jenny that exciting, gypsy existence, but the longer she was around Cabe, the less the life-style appealed. Just lately, the thought of leaving her job was disturbing. She refused to consider why.
She opened the door and there was Jenny, tanned and blond and exuberant.
“Dina!” she exclaimed, hugging the younger woman as she used the childhood nickname she’d always given Danetta. “Oh, how good to be home again!”
“You’re not supposed to be here!” Danetta cried, her face showing her surprised pleasure. “But, oh, I’m so glad you are! You look great!”
And she did, too. Her long blond hair fell in soft waves, and her white pantsuit gave her an ultrasophisticated look. Her dark blue eyes sparkled with life as she laughed. Danetta watched her and thought, if only I looked like that. She actually sighed as she put down her purse and kicked off her shoes.
“How long can you stay?” Danetta asked as she went into the kitchen to cook something for supper.
“Overnight,” Jenny said, laughing at Danetta’s expression. “I’m sorry, love, but I’m en route to a new site. And that’s all I can tell you, so don’t pry. Nothing to worry about. Except the lounge lizard there.” She grimaced, glancing toward the radiator where Norman had draped himself, looking like a small green dinosaur. “Norman keeps staring at me like he wonders how I’d taste.”
“He’s not a meat eater. He’s a vegetarian,” Danetta reminded her. She explained the same point every time Jenny came home, and had for the past two years, ever since she’d talked Jenny into letting her bring the small pet into the apartment. Things had been fine until Norman began to grow. But he was undemanding company, house-trained and a walking deterrent to criminals. There had been one attempted break-in, and the perpetrator had run screaming from the apartment, almost colliding with Danetta in his terror. Norman had stood in the doorway with his mouth open, presenting his whip of a tail to lash at the intruder. When he was a few years older, that tail would be a rather dangerous weapon, too. But at the time, Danetta had never been more proud of him. Despite his prowess as a watch-lizard, he was something of a trial to poor Jenny, and he’d frightened away one of her prospective boyfriends who had a terror of saurians.
“What happens if he takes a bite out of me and likes it? Remember Captain Hook and the crocodile?” Jenny mumbled.
“Norman’s never had a taste of you.” Danetta grinned. “Anyway, he likes you!”
“Does he?” Jenny frowned. “How can you tell?” she mused, watching the lizard’s habitually blank expression.
“I can read his mind.” Danetta studied her cousin. “I know you love your job, but is it really necessary, all this cloak-and-dagger stuff?”
Jenny laughed delightedly. “Indeed it is. I think of this as a patriotic service to my country. Maybe even to the world, who knows? Now enough about me. Tell me all about you.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” Danetta said with a grin. “I’m not beautiful like you.”
“I’m not, you know. I just make the most of what I’ve got. In fact—” she studied her younger cousin “—so could you. You’d be an absolute dish if you tried. What is this compulsion you have to emulate potted plants and curtains?”
Danetta glared at her. “I am not imitating inanimate objects. I’m just into self-preservation, that’s all.”
“Knowing your dishy Mr. Ritter, I can understand that,” Jenny said with a dry glance. “He’d turn on a brick. But he isn’t the only man on earth, Dina. And you’re nearing twenty-four already. Don’t bury yourself in that office and spend your life eating your heart out for your handsome boss,” she added gently.
Danetta’s lips parted suddenly. “I’m not eating my heart out for Cabe Ritter!”
“Aren’t you?” Jenny got out mayonnaise and bread and put them on the table, pausing to set it with silverware and plates and napkins before she sat down to watch Danetta wielding a knife at the counter. Her blue eyes were soft and concerned. “He’s all you ever talk about when I’m home. You haven’t dated anyone for over a year, remember.”
“I don’t want to have to fight off men,” Danetta faltered.
“That isn’t it. You’re besotted with Mr. Ritter.”
“That’s ridiculous!” she laughed nervously. “Here, have some ham.”
Jenny’s eyebrows rose as Danetta picked up a plate of cake she’d already sliced and absently offered it to her cousin.
“Uh, Dina, that isn’t ham,” she said.
The younger woman frowned, glancing from the ham she was slicing to the cake she’d handed her cousin. She could feel her face flaming.
“It’s my dull life making me crazy,” Danetta sighed. She took back the cake and offered the sliced ham. “Maybe I do need to kiss Norman and see if he turns into a prince.”
“That’s frogs, not iguanas,” Jenny corrected. “But you could use a prince,” her cousin added. “A nice tall one who’ll treat you like royalty. You’d look right at home in a cottage with a white picket fence and pretty little girls playing around your skirts.”
“We both used to dream about that, remember?” Danetta recalled with a smile as she paused long enough to heat up some spinach quiche for Norman and put it in his dog dish. She wondered if anybody made bowls for iguanas. She glanced at Jenny, noticing the withdrawn, sad look on the older woman’s face. “Jenny, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Jenny said quietly. “I’m just tired.” She caught the other woman’s curious look and smiled. “Nothing’s wrong, really. How are Uncle Rob and Aunt Helen?”
Danetta allowed herself to be sidetracked, reluctantly. “Mom and Dad are fine,” she said. “They’re organizing a youth program back in Missouri that caters to teens on the edge of drug addiction, and they said that your mom is taking up break dancing.”
Jenny laughed. “So she wrote me. I hope she doesn’t break anything doing it. It’s so nice to be home, Dina,” she sighed. “Even if it’s only for a night.”
And it was barely a whole night; when Danetta woke, Jenny was already gone. The twin bed where Jenny had slept was neatly made, and there was a note on it, a very brief one, saying that Jenny had to catch an early flight and would write.
Danetta fed Norman some bananas and avocado and leftover spinach quiche and went to work worrying. Something was going on, and judging by Jenny’s look and distracted presence, it was something big.
Jenny had worked on that hush-hush project for the past few months. Her mother, who was Danetta’s Aunt Doris, and Danetta’s own parents had been uneasy about her taking the job. But Jenny wasn’t a homebody, and she seemed to thrive on the excitement.
The thing was, nobody knew or understood what Jenny did. And maybe it was better that way.
Danetta had an office full of people as the day began, which gave her the advantage of not having to spend any time alone with the disturbing Mr. Ritter. After yesterday, she had every intention of walking wide around him. She could have choked herself senseless for letting him get that close, for letting him see how vulnerable she was.