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She shifted on his wrinkled coat, propping on her elbow, a gleam in her eye.
“You think? Okay. Let’s talk philosophy. Tell me again why you want to be CEO?”
He groped for his dress shirt, shook it out with one hand and draped it over her. “The corner office.”
“You already have a corner office.”
“Yeah, but this one’s on the twenty-third floor.”
“Weak, Daniel. Very weak.”
“You’re making more of this than actually exists.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not. Your father told you to fight for the CEO job.”
“And I’m fighting because I want it. Not because somebody told me to want it.”
But even as he made the argument, he felt a crack in it.
Had he ever thought about becoming CEO before his father had issued the challenge? He’d jumped right in, along with his three siblings, but he’d never stopped to analyze the decision.
Amanda continued to challenge him. “Tell me the last thing you aspired to that wasn’t suggested by someone else.”
He focused on her earnest face. “Changing the employee manual.”
Amanda made a negative buzzer sound. “That was my idea.”
“Not specifically.”
“But generally. You remember prom night?”
He tucked his shirt closer around her. “In detail.”
“You remember your adventure magazine plan?”
“Of course.”
She traced a fingertip along the ridge of his bicep, and suddenly his body was awash in heat. “That was you, Daniel. That was all you.”
He nodded, thinking she was proving his point rather than her own.
“What happened to that?” she asked.
What a crazy question. “Bryan happened to it. You happened to it.”
“You ever think about where you’d be if you’d done it anyway?”
Daniel shifted his gaze past the top of her head to the black cliffs and the faint lights of the mansion. “No,” he lied.
“Never?”
He shrugged. “What’s the point?”
She curled into a sitting position, his shirt falling to her lap. “There’s every point. I wonder all the time what would have happened if I’d told Patrick to take a flying leap.”
“A flying leap to where?”
She flipped her damp hair back. “You know. Told him to bugger off. Gone to court over Bryan, and sent you off to Africa or the Middle East.”
A chill formed deep inside Daniel. Gone to court?
“Maybe he was bluffing.” She got a faraway look, and Daniel pushed into a sitting position.
A sense of dread crept along his veins. “Bluffing how?”
Amanda bit her lower lip, a bleak vulnerability coming into her eyes. “You think a judge would have taken a baby away from its mother? Even back then?”
Daniel’s throat went dry. He shook his head, sure he couldn’t be hearing what he thought he was hearing. “Patrick threatened to take Bryan away from you?” he rasped.
“Yeah…” Her brown eyes darkened. She squinted at Daniel. “You didn’t—”
He shot to his feet and paced down the sand before pivoting on his heel and raking a hand through his wet hair. “My father threatened to take Bryan away from you?”
She stood up. “It was a long time ago. I thought you…”
His hands tightened into fists as every muscle in his body clenched. “You thought I knew?”
She nodded. Then she shook her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.
You’re right, there’s no point in discussing what-ifs.”
Daniel forced himself to take three deep breaths. It wasn’t Amanda’s fault, nothing was Amanda’s fault. She’d been forced to marry him.
This answered so many questions. All those years, she’d let herself be kept hostage for the sake of her children. It was a wonder she’d lasted as long as she did.
In an instant, Daniel knew Amanda was right. Patrick was more insidious than he had ever imagined. What else had he done? How much manipulation went on in the Elliott family?
Did Daniel want to become CEO?
He had nothing against being CEO. But was being CEO where he wanted to put all his effort, all his energy, all his time?
Not a question he could answer at the moment, and not one he had any intention of pondering while Amanda was shivering on a beach.
He drew a cleansing breath and moved toward her. “I’m the one who’s sorry,” he said, gently drawing her into his embrace. “My father should not have done that.
I had no idea you’d been blackmailed.”
She shivered in his arms. “It was a long time ago.”
He nodded against the top of her head, kissing her sand-gritty hair. “It was a long time ago.”
She tipped her chin to look up at him. “Can we do spontaneity again sometime?”
He stroked a hand over her hair. “Anytime, anyplace.”
Her lips curved into a brilliant smile.
Daniel gritted his teeth as he crossed the twenty-third floor to his father’s office at eight o’clock on Monday. He would have confronted him last night, but he didn’t want to do this in front of his mother.
“Hello, Daniel,” Patrick’s secretary greeted.
“I need to see him,” said Daniel. “Now.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
“Take a good look at my expression. Now.”
Mrs. Bitton pulled her glasses down the bridge of her nose. “Take a good look at my expression.”
Normally, Mrs. Bitton intimidated the hell out of Daniel, but not today.
“Pull him out,” said Daniel.
An unexpected grin tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Bad idea.”
“I really don’t give a damn what he’s doing.”
“He’s at thirty-thousand feet over Texas.”
Daniel paused. “When does he get in?”
“He’ll be here at two. But he’s meeting with the art director.”
“Rebook.”
“Daniel—”
“Look into my eyes, Mrs. Bitton.”
She paused. “I can put it off until two-thirty.”
Daniel gave her a sharp nod. “Good enough.”
Amanda knew it was barely twelve hours since they’d left the beach. But Daniel had said anytime, anyplace. Plus, now that she’d wedged the door open a crack, she was determined to drag him out of his regimented little world.
She paused at Nancy’s desk, holding up the bag of Buster Burgers. “Is he free?”
Nancy’s eyes lit up and her lips curved into an amazed smile. She pressed her intercom button. “Mrs. Elliott to see you.”
There was a silent pause. “Fine,” said Daniel, his voice abrupt.
Amanda hesitated, but Nancy waved her toward the door. “Don’t worry about it.
He’s having a tense morning. You’ll cheer him up.”
Amanda headed across the outer office. She sure hoped she would. Slipping through the door, she flipped the lock behind her.
Daniel glanced up from his desk.
His eyes widened, and he drew back. “Amanda?”
“Who were you expecting?”
He shook his head and stood up. “Nobody. Nothing.” He rounded the wide, thankfully empty desk. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Good. I brought lunch.”
He looked down at the bag, and his eyebrows shot up. “Buster Burgers?”
“Ever tried one?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
She dropped the bag on his desk. “They’re to die for.”
His glance strayed past her. “You locked the door?”
She sidled up to him. “I locked the door.” She ran her fingertips down his silver silk tie. “You did say anytime, anyplace.”
His jaw dropped, and his hands closed over hers, stilling them. “Amanda.”
She grinned. “This is anytime. This is anyplace. And I’m here for spontaneity.”
“Yeah, right.”
She shook her head and freed her hands, going to work on the knot of his tie.
“Are you nuts?”
“No.”
“What if somebody—”
“Have a little faith in Nancy.”
“But—”
She ran her tongue around the rim of her lips and gazed deeply into his blue eyes. “I’ve been wanting to do you on the desktop since the first time you walked into my office.”
His jaw worked, but no sound came out.
She pulled off his tie and started on his buttons.
“You want burgers first?” she asked, leaning forward to give him a hot, wet kiss on the chest. “Or you want me?”
He made a sound that was half groan, half curse and his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. He kissed her hair, murmuring her name over and over.
“We can be quick,” she assured him, kicking off her shoes. “I’m alfresco under this skirt.”
He dipped his head to kiss her mouth.
She opened wide, and liquid desire poured through her system. She pushed his shirt out of the way, reveling in the feel of his hot skin against her fingertips.
He held her close, while one hand snaked its way up her thigh.
He groaned when he reached her bare buttocks. Then he turned her and lifted her onto the desk, pushing her skirt out of the way without breaking their kiss.
He slipped his hands over her thighs, sensitizing her skin. Then he reached around to caress her bottom.
“What you do to me,” he murmured as he massaged and kneaded, making her squirm against the smooth wood.
