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Tyson stared down at him. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Very.”
Tyson nodded then walked over and sat on the other end of the bench. “Then here’s what you do…”
CHAPTER SIX
Meg drew in a deep breath then let it out slowly. She picked up the leather briefcase from the seat beside her, pulled her coat tighter around her, then got out of the car. “Well, here goes,” she whispered under her breath.
This would be her first appointment with Drake since their dinner and that awkward conversation and she wasn’t looking forward to the meeting. She still couldn’t believe the man had asked her to marry him. What if he brought up the subject again? Heavens, she hoped he didn’t. If that first time had been uncomfortable then this time she’d just die from embarrassment because…she didn’t have an answer for him.
She honestly didn’t know why she was even worrying herself about it. The logical answer was no. First, he’d hurt her terribly – however unintentional – and second, there had been a ten year gap between their brief encounter and now. Who ever heard of picking up where you left off…ten years later?
Meg sighed, her head full of questions for which there were no answers. But although her mind was in total turmoil she kept her face bland. She had a job to do and she was going into Drake’s office, the perfect professional. When he saw she was all about business and nothing else he wouldn’t dare bring up that contrary topic again.
But later as she sat across from Drake to interview him on a particularly risky business venture Meg couldn’t help but wonder if she hadn’t done too good a job in projecting a no-nonsense image. If she thought she’d be cool and businesslike, Drake was even more so. He almost seemed aloof, his face not showing a flicker of emotion, his tone clipped and curt. It was as if Saturday night had never happened. Where was the man who had begged her to marry him? Well, maybe ‘begged’ was too strong a word, but he’d asked. She hadn’t dreamed the whole thing. Meg frowned. Or had she?
She shook her head, distracted and frustrated all at once, and trained her eyes and her attention back on Drake. The heat rose in her face as she saw his sardonic smile. He knew she was perturbed by his behaviour. He knew she’d expected him to continue where he’d left off. But he’d done the exact opposite.
When the hour finally came to a close she slipped her notes back into her case and zipped it shut. “Thank you,” she said, her voice as formal as she could make it. “I’ll be back next Thursday to wrap up this section.”
“Sounds good,” Drake said with a nod. “I’ll see you then.” Then he got up and walked her to the door and that was that.
Wow. Meg sat in her car and stared straight ahead, trying to figure out what had just happened. It was like she was in the presence of another man. She let out her breath slowly and started the car.
Well, so much for wanting to marry her. It was obvious that right now that idea was the farthest thing from his mind. She could just kiss that dream bye-bye.
The following week when Meg showed up at Drake’s office she was better prepared for his cool reception. She’d steeled herself to accept it but no matter how strong she thought she was it was still hard to think that he could have gotten over her so easily. As she sat in the chair in front of Drake she swallowed then took out her notepad and slid her recorder out of her bag. She frowned as she struggled to focus. Buck up, woman, this is work and nothing else. It’s what’s feeding you and Jessie right now so be happy. After that personal pep talk she forced a smile to her lips and got the interview going.
To her surprise, at the end of the session as she rose to leave Drake stopped her with an unexpected question. “How is the little princess?”
“Jessie?”
“Of course, who else?” he said with a smile.
“Oh, she’s…fine. She’s at Kids' Club right now. It’s a special art program where they learn to paint and sketch.”
Drake raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like fun.”
Meg relaxed her rigid pose for the first time since she got there. “Well, she certainly thinks so. She loves all the activities.”
“That’s great,” he said with what looked like sincerity. “Tell her I said hi.”
“I will.”
This time when he walked her to the door the air didn’t crackle quite so much with tension. It was definitely an improvement to their previous meeting. Not exactly the kind of attention she’d been expecting since his interest seemed to be only with Jessie but she could live with that.
The following week, to Meg’s chagrin, she had to cancel. She’d totally forgotten about the parent teacher conference at Jessie’s school. She was a volunteer and one on which the PTA had come to rely heavily so, as far as the association was concerned, her absence from the meeting was not an option.
She’d considered disappointing them anyway, but when she called Drake and explained the clash he very graciously offered to postpone his session with her. If she should admit it to herself, she had to say that she was a little disappointed that he hadn’t even tried to convince her to still come in. It was great that he was flexible but was she the only one doing the missing?
Holy Moses. She’d just admitted to herself that she missed – as in M-I-S-S-E-D – Drake Duncan. Okay, now she knew she was really in trouble. What kind of a crazy woman would be missing a man who only saw her as a note-taker, scribe, writer of memoirs, whatever, but not how she wanted to be seen – as an attractive woman he couldn’t stop thinking about? Stop it, Meg. Stop it this instant. Missing Drake is absolutely out of the question.
But it was easier said than done. Over the several weeks that she’d been seeing him, although on a professional level, he’d grown on her, her perverse heart pounding each time she thought of seeing him again.
By the time the following Thursday came around she was so jittery that she dropped her pen twice before she got to Drake’s floor of the building. She stopped outside his office door and drew in a deep breath. How old was she again? Was it thirty, twenty or was she a silly teen? Sadly she was acting like the last of the three. And all because she hadn’t seen him in the space of two weeks.
She picked up her courage from where it had fallen on the floor and tucked it into her pocket. There. Ready to roll. She tapped on the door.
At the sound of his voice she pushed the door open and entered the now familiar office with its wide glass windows and impressive view of the city below, the shimmering blue lake as its backdrop. Her eyes quickly scanned the expansive room and then settled on Drake who had been sitting at his desk but was now rising to greet her.
She was pleasantly surprised to see that today he was more casual than usual, wearing a navy sports jacket with pale blue shirt open at the collar. His hair, too, was different. He seemed to be growing it longer because today it curled at his neck in a disturbingly sexy sort of way. She almost groaned. Sheer torture.
Torture that she couldn’t just drop her briefcase on the floor, walk up to him and reach out to slide her fingers through that glossy blond hair. Torture that she couldn’t grip the back of his head and force it down till those lips met hers in a kiss so hot and hungry that it would make her forget her own name. Torture that she couldn’t shove him back into his chair and…
Jesus, Meg, get a hold of yourself. You’ve been celibate for too long.
“…feels like it’s been a month,” he was saying.
Meg blinked. “Pardon me?”
Drake smiled, a delectable smile that had her heart speeding up. “I was saying that it feels like I haven’t seen you for a month, not just two weeks.”
A month, he said? Try a year. The way her body was reacting to him it was like she’d been craving his touch for a long, long time.
And when he did connect with her, just to shake her hand, she knew what the romance novels meant when they said the girl melted at his touch. Heck, she'd even written that into her own stories. Now she knew exactly what it felt like.
When he let go she sank gratefully into the chair he’d pulled out for her then, surreptitiously, she drew in some breaths to clear her head.
“We’re almost there,” he said with a smile so warm that it caught her off guard. So where was the iceberg that had greeted her those last two meetings? In its place was a man so relaxed and cordial and gorgeous that she was having a hard time keeping her eyes off him. “After this interview I guess your focus will be on converting all those notes into a story.”
“Correct,” she said, glad he’d started a conversation. She needed the distraction. “After today I’ll be spending the next several weeks working on the first draft.”
“A lot of work and creativity,” he said as he gave her a look of admiration. “Don’t worry. I won’t be calling every few days to ask how far along you are. I’ll just leave you to do what you do best.”
