"All we know is that it"s one big baby. No triplets for us," Bas added jokingly. Donovan understood the punch line. Their cousin Cheyenne had given birth to triplets nearly nine months ago. The first multiple birth ever recorded in the Steele family.
His conversation with Bas easily s.h.i.+fted into details about the race that past weekend. Everyone was happy about Bron"s win and the positive exposure it had given SC. It was good advertising dollars at work.
"Do you know what our meeting this morning with Chance is about?" Donovan asked, knowing if anyone knew it would be Bas. As company troubleshooter, he kept well informed of anything and everything that happened at SC.
Bas shrugged. "Chance will tell you everything you need to know soon enough."
Donovan rolled his eyes, wondering why he"d even bothered to ask. When it came to sharing SC"s business with anyone, Bas always developed a case of locked lips.
"Well, I"d better get to my own office. I have a lot to do," Bas said standing.
Donovan inwardly smiled. It would be just like Bas to put distance between them for fear of him trying to pump him for more information.
"Okay, then. I"ll see you at the meeting," he said when Bas turned to leave. Donovan lifted a brow wondering what suddenly had Bas so nervous.
Natalie sipped her coffee trying to decide when would be the best time to call Donovan Steele. She and her aunt had worked on the schedules, and after s.h.i.+fting a couple of customers from Friday to Thursday-with their consent, of course-they had come up with a workable solution to accommodate Mr. Steele"s request.
She was working on the inside today, from the office set up in her aunt"s home, doing payroll and ordering supplies, and had been, for the time being, successful in talking her aunt into taking it easy and getting some rest.
Checking the clock on the wall once again, she figured Mr. Steele should be in his office by now and decided to give his business number a try. Taking a deep breath, she picked up the phone, glanced at the business card her aunt had attached to his file, and punched in the numbers. It didn"t take long for his secretary to answer.
"The Steele Corporation. Donovan Steele"s office. May I help you?"
"Yes, may I speak with Mr. Steele?"
"Who may I say is calling, please?"
"Natalie Ford."
"Please hold on, Ms. Ford."
Natalie pushed away from the desk to glance out the window, trying to get her mind off the fact that in a few moments she would be hearing the sound of Donovan Steele"s voice again. Maybe she was suffering from a case of concentrating too much on work and not enough on the opposite s.e.x. Why else would the sight of a good-looking man with a s.e.xy voice have her mind flipping around like a fish out of water?
It wouldn"t take much to close her eyes, recall and visualize yesterday"s encounter with Donovan Steele. After leaving his place, driving over to her next client"s home had been difficult. She"d been overheated. Blatantly hot. If she could have gone somewhere and stripped down to her panties and bra she would have been tempted to do so.
And the sad thing about it was that her body"s high temperature had had nothing to do with Charlotte"s weather. It had been a hot day in July, true enough, but not a scorcher. She could now attribute her fever yesterday to Mr. Steele.
Mr. Steele.
He had tried several times to get her to call him Donovan, and she had refused to do so-would continue to do so. To call him by his first name sounded too personal, and she didn"t want to have that kind of relations.h.i.+p with him. She refused to have any sort of a relations.h.i.+p with him.
Her thoughts snapped back to the present when she heard the phone click in her ear and then..."h.e.l.lo, this is Donovan."
Immediately, her heart began pounding, and even though she didn"t want it to, her body began heating up, similar to the way it had yesterday. The man had such a s.e.xy voice.
"h.e.l.lo."
At the sound of that voice again, she suddenly realized that she had not responded to his first greeting and quickly said, "Yes, Mr. Steele, this is Natalie Ford from Special Touch Housekeeping Agency."
"Yes, Natalie, what can I do for you?"
His words flowed across her body like a stroke of some explosive fluid to a simmering brushfire. She"d never concentrated on the sound of a masculine voice before, especially not to this degree. And the sound of one had definitely never even come close to giving her a s.e.xual thrill. For her to come this unglued meant she had gone without male company too long. What had it been now? Five years?
"Natalie?"
She sighed and pushed a lock of hair back from her face while trying to ignore the way he said her name. His sensuous tone stroked something within her that so far no man ever had stroked fully before.
Pa.s.sion.
While growing up she"d known about her mother"s wild and reckless ways, and had gone through life determined not to make the same mistakes Lorene Ford had made when it came to men. As a teen, instead of letting the pursuit of boys occupy most of her time, Natalie had found solace in her books.
And when she"d gone off to college, being younger than the other students had been challenging. That"s when she had met Karl Gaines. Like her, he had been totally absorbed in his books...or so she had thought. She had found out the hard way that he"d been just as cunning, controlling and manipulating as he"d been brilliant.
And he had been cruel. He had eroded her confidence as a woman and her ability as a mate to keep the man she loved satisfied s.e.xually. He hadn"t minced words when he"d talked about her lovemaking abilities, or lack of them.
Even with the disappointment of that brief affair with Karl, Natalie truly believed that somewhere deep inside of her an intense amount of stored-up fire was just waiting to be released. But she was determined to keep it under lock and key, although a part of her yearned to set it free.
"Yes, Mr. Steele," she finally said, determined to keep things on a professional level between them. "I"m calling to let you know that Special Touch will be able to accommodate your request to have one of our employees-"
"One of your employees?" he cut in sharply to ask.
Natalie knew why he"d done so and modified her words. "I will be there every Friday, and when my aunt gets back on her feet, she will resume her duties as your personal housekeeper." will be there every Friday, and when my aunt gets back on her feet, she will resume her duties as your personal housekeeper."
There. She hoped he was satisfied. She s.h.i.+fted, uncomfortable in her chair suddenly, feeling as if she"d just placed herself at his beck and call for six weeks. She shrugged off the idea, thinking that she would probably be in his home no more than two to three hours each week.
"That sounds better, Natalie. A whole lot better. Thanks for calling to inform me of the change. It says a lot for your aunt"s agency to try and work with her clients this way."
Natalie rolled her eyes. "We aim to please," she said tartly and immediately saw the error in doing so when he replied.
"Aim to please? Um, that"s good to know. Goodbye, Natalie."
"Goodbye, Mr. Steele."
Natalie hung up the phone thinking at least she had gotten through the conversation relatively unscathed and not feeling as if she"d been stripped naked. But for some reason she had been left with the impression that she wouldn"t be so lucky the next time around.
Donovan leaned back in his chair after ending his call with Natalie. It somewhat amused him that she still refused to call him by his first name: but all that would definitely change after they shared their first kiss. After that, not only would she say his name but she would be purring it.
He closed his eyes to recall some of the finer details of yesterday. He moved past the episode of discovering her in his bed-but only because that segment had consumed his entire mind most of yesterday and the majority of last night. Instead he chose to fast-forward to when he"d come downstairs to find her in his laundry room bending over while loading his sheets into the washer. He was surprised he was still breathing. Never before had a pair of legs seemed so in sync with a lush behind. He had immediately grabbed a beer out of the fridge. It was either use the cold drink to cool off or take the chance of burning to a cinder. He remembered too when he had stood in front of her, right before she"d made a fast exit for the door. He"d had come close to leaning in and kissing her.
"Mr. Steele, your brother phoned to remind you of the meeting in his office at nine."
Upon hearing his secretary"s voice, Donovan opened his eyes, and his gaze immediately landed on the clock on his desk. It was ten past nine. "Let Chance know that I"m on my way, Sandra."
He quickly stood, and before reaching the door grabbed his jacket off the rack. It was unlike him to be late to a meeting. How could he let fantasies of a woman who was playing hard to get totally swamp his thoughts?
A profound edginess flowed through him as he made his way down the hall toward the elevator. He refused to let Natalie Ford turn his entire life topsy-turvy. No sooner had he made that vow when he felt heat suffuse his body at the thought of all the wild s.e.x he planned to have with her once he seduced her. Just thinking about those legs that he liked so much being wrapped around him while he made love to her seemed to boost his energy level.
He stepped into the elevator thinking next Friday couldn"t get there fast enough.
"So where do you want to go Friday night?"
Natalie resisted the urge to tell Farrah nowhere. Although she much preferred staying in and curling up with a good book, she knew she and Farrah needed to get together. They hadn"t seen each other since Christmas, the last time Natalie had returned to Charlotte. Besides, Friday would be exactly a year to the date that Farrah"s divorce from Dustin had been final. That wouldn"t have been so bad if Dustin had felt any remorse for cheating on his wife. Instead, once Farrah had confronted him with her suspicions about his extramarital affairs, he hadn"t tried to deny them, nor had he apologized for breaking his marriage vows. Instead he informed his wife of four years not to waste time forgiving him since he wanted a divorce to marry the other woman-the woman who"d had his child. And he"d done just that-less than a week after his divorce had been final.
"Natalie?"
Natalie blinked and stared down at the speakerphone on the desk, realizing she hadn"t answered Farrah"s question. "Doesn"t matter. Wherever you want to go is okay with me."
"Um, in that case, Nat, I want to go somewhere there will be a lot of men."
Natalie could only shake her head while thinking that Friday would be one of those nights. Last July she and Farrah had met in New York for the weekend to do some shopping and take in a play. She had let Farrah talk her into going to this nightclub in Harlem, and the two of them, along with several very handsome men, had danced the night away. Her feet actually ached at the memory. She smiled when she remembered the disappointed faces of the men who"d thought they would be getting more from her and Farrah than a few dance moves.
"That"s fine. You pick the place," she decided to say, s.h.i.+fting her gaze to the flowers that had just been delivered to her aunt. They were from Donovan Steele. She could tell her aunt had appreciated the man for being thoughtful enough to send them.
"Um, what about the Racetrack Cafe?"
Farrah reclaimed Natalie"s attention with her question. She had heard about the Racetrack Cafe but had never been there since it had opened up after she left town for college. From what she"d heard, it wasn"t your typical sports bar and grill. She understood the food was good and the atmosphere friendly. And usually there were more men there than women because on occasion a well-known race-car driver would drop by.
"The Racetrack Cafe sounds like a winner to me as long as you don"t plan to dance all night."
Farrah"s laughter came through the speakerphone. "I promise I won"t."
"Glad you could join us, Donovan."
Donovan couldn"t help but smile at his oldest brother. Even if Chance hadn"t been born the oldest, he would still be the perfect one for the CEO role. He was a born leader, and Donovan would admit grudgingly that Chance was one of the few people who could keep him in line. Most of the time. Bas and Morgan knew it was a lost cause.
"Sorry, I got somewhat detained," he responded entering the room and closing the door behind him. As he took a seat, he glanced at the others already there-Bas, Morgan and Vanessa-who no doubt had been on time. Unlike his two brothers who were staring at him, Vanessa had chosen to pa.s.s the time by messing with her BlackBerry.
She"d only been married a year, and if he were to guess by the way her thumbs were working, she was sending her husband, Cameron, a dirty little text message. The way her lips tilted at the corners in a devilish smile all but confirmed he was right; whatever message she"d sent had been hot and sleazy. He of all people knew just how that part of a person"s mind worked.
Since she had been too busy texting to notice he"d arrived, he said, "I"m here now, Vanessa, so you can stop texting Cameron those p.o.r.nographic messages."
She snapped her head up, glared at him and then opened her mouth as if to deny that was exactly what she"d been doing. And then as if she"d thought about it for a quick second, she closed her mouth and the glare slowly vanished from her face. She tilted her head at an angle and lifted her chin. "Doesn"t matter. We"re married now," she said haughtily.
"Thank G.o.d."
That had come from Morgan and understandably so. Cameron was his best friend, and he of all people knew how long it had taken Cameron to win Vanessa over. As far as Donovan was concerned, it was too long. It was his opinion that no woman had been or currently was worth all of that.
"Now that we"re all here," Chance said, before anyone else could make a comment. "I"m turning the meeting over to Morgan. Since he heads the research and development department, he will bring us up to date on some information we received this weekend regarding Gleeve-Ware."
Donovan s.h.i.+fted his gaze to Morgan. Not for the first time he wondered how Morgan did it. He was a father-to-be, worked hard for SC and in addition to that, he was a political figure in town. He had won a council at-large seat last year. Where did the man get all his energy?
"I wanted to bring something to your attention," Morgan was saying. "I got a call from Juan on Sunday morning. Someone tried to break into the lab Sat.u.r.day night. The alarm sounded but nothing was taken. He just wanted to make us aware that someone is interested in what we have going on with Gleeve-Ware and will probably stop at nothing to get the formula."
Donovan nodded. Morgan had gone to college with the chemist, Juan Hairston, they had hired to head the Gleeve-Ware project. "What do you need from us to make sure that doesn"t happen?" Donovan asked.
"All the appropriate steps have been taken to protect and maintain the secrecy of the chemical process formula, but still, I"m encouraging everyone to keep your eyes and ears open and report anything suspicious to Bas since he"s our troubleshooter working with security," Morgan said.
"And, Vanessa, I suggest you get with Holly Brubeck in HR to make sure we"re doing periodic security checks on any employee with access to our trade secrets, and to make sure all employment applicants sign confidentiality agreements. The last thing we want is to hire someone whose goal is to steal the formula for Gleeve-Ware right out from under our noses."
Vanessa nodded. "Is there anything else you want me to do from a PR standpoint?"
"No, but don"t be surprised if we suddenly start getting painted with a negative brush," Chance responded to say. "If the culprits can"t get the information they want, they might resort to smear ads or negative accusations."
"Like they did a couple years ago when they put out the rumor we were outsourcing," Bas added, reminding everyone.
The meeting lasted for another half hour when other business matters were discussed. Right before Chance closed the meeting, Donovan spoke up. "Just an FYI. I will be working from home on Fridays for the next few weeks."
Bas raised a brow. "Is there a reason why?"
Donovan smiled at everyone who was looking at him. "No reason."
But he knew his brothers knew him well enough to know such a move probably involved a woman.
And they were right.
But they had no idea that he was meticulously planning the intimate seduction of one Natalie Ford.
Chapter 4.
"If you need to reach me, Donovan, just give me a call on my cell phone," Kylie Steele threw over her shoulder as she quickly headed for the door. "You probably won"t get many customers, and most of them will be phone orders instead of walkins. See you later." And then she was gone.
He chuckled as he took the stool behind the counter and watched his sister-in-law pull out of the parking lot. He"d covered for her before and knew what to do. He had an hour or so to kill until she returned so he might as well make the best of it, and with the flat-screen TV on the wall directly behind him, at least he wouldn"t get bored.
To kill some time, he took his BlackBerry out of his pocket and scrolled through his text messages. Most of them were from Joanne Summerville, the woman he"d met at the races this past weekend. He hoped she wouldn"t start making a nuisance of herself. He could definitely do without that type of woman.
A half hour later he had put his BlackBerry away and his attention was concentrated on the television, namely CNN, thinking it was a d.a.m.n shame Soledad O"Brien was a married woman. He was about to scoot the stool closer to the television for a closer view of her when the jingle of the bell above the door alerted him that he had a customer. He glanced up and saw an elderly woman with a cane stop in her tracks when she saw him.