“Kayla, stop it. I don’t know what has gotten into you—”
The low beep that indicated the call had been ended interrupted Andreas. Damn it. She should know he wouldn’t sell the company without an after plan for both of them.
He hadn’t expected her to want to go into venture capitalism herself, not really, but she was brilliant at computer code and not just that related to security. Kayla would be a stellar value add as an adviser and contributor of modified or original programming for any company he might be interested in investing in.
Once she calmed down, she’d see that.
Until then, he should probably make sure she got both “I’m sorry” éclairs and coffee from her favorite bistro in the morning.
He’d drop them off on his way to work. Maybe he should reorganize his morning so they could spend a couple of hours together.
They hadn’t had off time together in a while.
It was just that spending time with her away from work came with temptations he had to fight. The uncontrollable passion they’d once shared had to be kept locked up tight. That kind of attraction didn’t lead to anything good. It was exactly what had been his mother’s downfall and the reason his father, whom even Andreas could acknowledge was generally an honest, if bullheaded man, had an illicit affair.
Keeping their past firmly in the past should have grown easier as the years progressed, but the opposite was true. Andreas found himself admiring Kayla in a very personal, very sexual way at the least convenient times.
But he could not allow his own weakness to damage their friendship. He’d worked too hard to find a place in his life for her more permanent that bed partner.
* * *
Kayla turned on her phone as she stepped off the commercial flight into the tunnel leading to the JFK airport. One long beep indicated multiple text messages and another different tone told her she had at least one voice mail.
She looked for someplace to step out of the flow of busy foot traffic and spied an area set aside for business travelers to work. Making her way across the wide hallway, Kayla barely missed bumping into a woman pushing a stroller at a faster clip than Kayla usually jogged.
A man in sweats and sandals bumped into Kayla, knocking her right against a wall. She waved away his hurried apologies, more bothered by the idea of having to talk to a stranger than the sore spot on her shoulder from hitting the wall.
Kayla hated traveling alone and missed Andreas’s commanding presence that always seemed to create an opening, no matter how many people crowded the walkways. The traitor.
Kayla’s phone buzzed as she reached the relative safety of the business area. She grabbed it and was relieved to see Hawk Security. She’d emailed Sebastian Hawk the night before, but hadn’t heard back and wasn’t even sure he’d be able to work her into his schedule.
Kayla answered quickly. “Hello.”
“Miss Jones?” a female voice asked.
“Yes, this is Kayla Jones.”
“I’m calling for Sebastian Hawk.”
Her gut clenched with both hope and trepidation. “Yes?”
After telling the secretary that Kayla was in New York now, she learned Sebastian Hawk wasn’t, but was expected back that night. And while he always spent his first day back from any business trip with his family, he could fit her in for a lunchtime meeting the day after.
“That would be great.” She made no effort to curb the enthusiasm she felt from showing in her voice. She was grateful and she let it show. Her home was on the line and even if Sebastian Hawk didn’t know it, Kayla did.
“If you’ll give me your email address, I’ll send you the calendar invite.”
“Thank you.” Kayla recited her particulars, thinking Sebastian Hawk’s secretary might actually be as organized as Bradley.
Kayla ended the call and looked around the airport, wondering what she was going to do with two days of no work and for the first time in six years. Deciding to check her other messages, she discovered that Andreas had texted her multiple times. Bradley had texted her twice and there were three voice mails. At least one of those was from someone besides Bradley and Andreas.
Kayla listened to the voice mail from the project lead on the revamp of their school security software. Ten seconds into the message, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry.
Not that Kayla cried anymore. Crying never changed anything and it gave her a headache.
Her project lead was calling on behalf of Bradley, who was basically begging her to save his sanity by calling Andreas.
Kayla shook her head, but she dialed Andreas’s private number.
He picked up on the first ring. “Where the hell are you?” His voice boomed across the line, laced with a heavy dose of worry.
“I told you I was taking the day off.”
“You weren’t home this morning when I stopped by.”
“So? Maybe I spent the night in someone else’s bed.” She wasn’t sure why she said it, but she didn’t regret the words.
Dead silence met her words and Kayla even checked her phone to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.
“Andreas?” she finally prompted.
“You don’t sleep with strangers. Hell, you don’t even talk to them.”
“Casual sex doesn’t require a long conversation.”
“You would know this how?” he demanded.
“You sound like a jealous lover.” And while they might have been lovers at one time, he’d never been jealous.
He’d been very careful to explain that while he expected monogamy, it wasn’t because they were in a romantic relationship. It had been a matter of health safety.
“I sound like a concerned friend.”
“I’m an adult.”
“Who won’t tell me where you are.”
“You don’t need to know my every move.”
“You are being obstinate.”
“I’m—” was all she could get out before Andreas interrupted her.
“What the hell are you doing in New York?”
“How do you know where I am?”
“I used the locator function on your phone.” Which he hadn’t been able to do while she’d had it off on the plane.
“I didn’t give you the code so you could track me like an errant child.”
“I did no such thing.”
“What would you call it?”
“A concerned friend and business partner.”
“Well, now you know where I am.”
“But not why you are there.”
“Why do you think, Andreas?”
“You’re meeting with Hawk?”
“Yes.”
“But he’s out of country.”
“Until tonight.”
“You only took one day off.”
“I’ll be taking the rest of the week off.”
“What? You can’t do that!” The genuine shock in Andreas’s voice was laughable.
The fact he was shouting would have alarmed her if she wasn’t numb. “In fact, I can.”
“You never have before.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
“What are you going to do with Hawk out of town?”
“Whatever I want. I’m taking a page out of your book.”
“I don’t take time off without notice.”
“You’re selling the company, that’s the biggest abandonment I can think of.”
“I’m not abandoning anything. Part of the purchase agreement between Hawk and myself is a guarantee of employment for the current employees, provided their performance continues to meet expectations.”
“How nice.”
“You didn’t need to meet with him to confirm that,” he said, sounding hurt.
“I’m not meeting with Hawk to make sure the other employees have jobs on the other side of this buyout.”
“Then why are you meeting him?”
“To make plans for my future.”
“I already ha
ve plans for your future!”
“How interesting, since you haven’t brought any up to me.”
“I did. I want you to go into business with me again.”
“No.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.” She’d never meant anything more.
He must have heard the conviction in her voice, because Andreas didn’t come back with an instant rejoinder.
“You’ve made plans for your future and your bride pimp is so right. They are not my business, but my future and the plans I make for it are mine.”