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“No!” Angelica’s voice trembled. This wasn’t the way this meeting was to have gone! What of her presentation? Her charts? “No,” she repeated. She took a step toward him, her face flushed, her hands balled into fists at her sides. “You can’t fire me this way! You—”
He laughed. “Of course I can. Please, Miss Gordon, don’t waste my time. Pack your things and get out.”
“I demand a meeting with Charles Landon. Or with Victor Bayliss. He’s Charles Landon’s righthand man, isn’t he? Well, I want to talk with him. He’ll understand my situation.”
Cade’s smile turned grim. “You’re out of touch, Miss Gordon. My father is dead and Bayliss has retired. I’m the one you have to answer to now.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Angelica frowned. “I mean, I’m sorry about your father, but—”
“Thank you for your commiseration,” he said coldly. “I’m touched. Deeply. But I still want you out of here today.”
Angelica drew herself up. “Listen here, Mr. Landon! This company was my father’s! Do you have any idea—”
“OK, you’ve got a point there.”
“You mean—”
“I can see where you might feel entitled to—let’s say six months’ severance pay. After all, as you point out, you did have a very personal connection to this place.”
“You—you bastard!”
Cade’s brows lifted. “Such language, A.H. I’m stunned.”
“You-you-”
He laughed. “Next time, sweetheart, think twice before you decide to kick somebody out of your office.”
“I refuse to believe you have the authority to do this!” Angelica slapped her hands on her hips. “I’m not packing and I’m not vacating my office and it’ll take more than the likes of you to make me!”
She gasped as Cade reached out and caught hold of her shoulders.
“You want proof that I’m in authority here, lady?” His eyes—blue, she thought incongruously, so blue they were almost bottomless pools—glinted dangerously as he pulled her into his arms. “Well, then,” he growled, “here it is!”
Angelica cried out and tried to turn her head away, but he was too quick and too strong. His mouth came down on hers, his lips harsh and cool, his hands slipping to her face and holding it fast.
“Don’t,” she gasped, twisting hard against him, but he only laughed.
“What’s the matter, A.H.? Haven’t you ever been kissed before?”
“Bastard,” she hissed, just before his mouth descended on hers…
… And, suddenly, Angelica felt a flame flicker to life deep within her. She made a little sound, not quite a whimper and not quite a moan, and Cade answered with a sound from deep in his throat. His arms tightened around her; his mouth opened hungrily over hers and she rose on her toes, her arms closed around his neck and she lifted herself to him, heart racing…
Cade thrust her from him and stared at her, his eyes blurred. What in hell had just happened? Anger, he thought, that was it. Yeah. Anger could be one hell of an aphrodisiac.
“You see?” he said. His voice was cool—a miracle, he thought, considering that every muscle in his body felt knot-hard. “I am definitely in charge. here, Miss Gordon, whether you want to admit it or not. And, since I am, I’ll be generous.” He smiled tightly and leaned back against the desk, arms folded over his chest. “A year’s pay, A.H., and you have until tomorrow to get out.”
Angelica looked at him. She was trembling and it seemed difficult to draw enough air into her lungs—but that was understandable, given what she’d been through in the past few minutes.
This smug, insolent, overbearing cowboy whose shoe size was probably greater than his IQ had barged into her office, insulted her, bullied her and treated her with a macho contempt so unbelievable that she’d come close to being immobilized—for surely that was the only reason he’d been able to get away with kissing her.
She smiled, although it took enormous effort.
“That is indeed generous, Mr. Landon,” she said. “Very generous.” Her smile grew dazzling. “But I keep trying to tell you, you can’t fire me.”
He sighed. “A.H.,” he said wearily, “aren’t you tired of this little game?”
Angelica cocked her head. “Don’t you know about the agreement?”
Cade frowned. “What agreement?”
She smiled again, and the lie tripped off her lips as if it were the greatest truth the world had ever heard.
“Why, the one that grants me the right to remain head of Gordon Oil for so long as I wish,” she said. She watched his handsome face whiten and it was all she could do to keep from laughing. “Which pretty much means,” she said sweetly, “that I’m going to stay on forever.”
CHAPTER THREE
THERE were three telephones in Cade’s suite, one in each of the two bedrooms and one in the sitting room. In the short time since he’d checked into the elegant hotel, he’d come to hate them all.
He knew it was crazy to feel anger for lumps of white plastic. It was just that the damned things sat there, silent and smug, almost as smug as A.H. Gordon had looked when she’d dropped her bombshell on him a couple of hours ago.
Cade muttered a short, sharp oath, yanked off his tie and tossed it after his already discarded jacket.
“Dammit, Grant,” he said as he undid the button on his shirt, “what’s taking you so long?”
He’d called New York hours ago. Surely Grant had been able to check the Gordon contract by now.
Not that there was much point to it. A clause granting Hank Gordon’s daughter control of Gordon Oil could exist nowhere but in the woman’s scheming brain. Charles Landon might have been out of touch with things at the end, but he’d sooner have made a chimpanzee head of the company than her. Cade had told her as much—after he’d finished laughing.
A.H. Gordon had just stood there, her green eyes growing even colder, not backing down an inch, and Cade’s laughter had given way to anger. If only she were only a man, he’d thought, his fists clenching.
But she wasn’t. She was a woman and, all at once, he’d wanted nothing so badly as to take her in his arms and kiss her until she remembered that.
Without another word, he’d walked out of her office, climbed into his rental car and driven to this hotel, where the desk clerk had taken on
e look at his face and said yes, certainly, there was a suite available even without a reservation.
And then he’d telephoned Grant—who should damned well have called back by now.
Cade leveled another furious look at the telephone.
“Ring,” he said through his teeth, “or so help me, I’ll pull you out of the wall by your cord and—”
The phone rang. He made a diving grab for it and jammed the receiver against his ear.
“It’s about time,” he snarled.
“’Hello, Grant,’” Grant said mildly. “’Thanks for walking out on your dinner date and getting back to me so quickly.’”
Cade’s eyes narrowed. “Dinner?” he said. “What in hell is dinner? Does it have anything to do with eating? It’s been so long since I had a meal that I can’t be certain.”
His brother sighed. “It’s past eight here, Cade. I had to contact Colorado, have them fax me a copy of the contract and—”
“And?”
“And, just as you figured, it’s a standard buy-out agreement.”
Cade sat down on the sofa. “Meaning, there’s no reference to Hank Gordon’s daughter running the show.”
“Exactly.”
A smile eased across Cade’s mouth. “Goodbye, A.H. Gordon,” he said softly.
“It’s Angelica.”
“What?”
“Her name. It’s Angelica. I don’t know what the middle initial is for, but—”
“Angelica?” Cade laughed. “Sorry, pal. You’ll have to try again. Katherine the Shrew, maybe, but—”
“I caught Bayliss as he was cleaning out his office and I asked him if he could think of any other info on the deal. He couldn’t—but he remembered her given name.”
Cade shook his head. “Man, if ever there was a misnomer, that’s it. There are lots of things I’d call this broad, but Angelica is definitely not one of them.”
“Tell me again what she said about the agreement that supposedly puts her in charge.”
“Grant,” Cade said patiently, “I appreciate your wanting to make sure there are no loose ends, but you’ve just told me, it was a standard buy-out deal. Now, it’s late, and I wasn’t kidding when I said I haven’t eaten in—”
