For Her Son's Sake (3 page)

“I think it is, too,” Cari said. “Who’s doing the coding?”

Emma had studied computer programming in college so she had a rudimentary knowledge of how to code. “I have. But it’s very basic. I wanted to play with it myself and see if it would fly before I put our staff to work on it.”

“I’ve got two guys coming off a project this week. I could allocate them to you,” Cari said. As head of development it was her job to keep all their staff working.

“I don’t have a budget yet. I need to put something together for the next board meeting and once I get approved I would love to have your staffing help.”

“I’ll get Allan to help you with the budget,” Jessi said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am. If he says no, he’ll answer to me,” Jessi said.

Emma felt surrounded by the love of her sisters and realized that even though she’d felt alone and isolated earlier, they were here for her. They had her back and always would.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’m a little too used to handling everything on my own.”

“We know. It’s your own fault because you made it too easy for us to just do our own thing and not really have to help you out. But this merger has been tough on all of us,” Cari said.

“And if we’ve learned anything, it’s that we need each other,” Jessi added. “We got your back, big sis.”

When her sisters left her office, Emma pretended that the only real concern she had was her upcoming presentation to the board. But she was lying to herself. And she knew it. She couldn’t stop thinking about Kell and how his hands had felt on her body. The ache deep inside of her reminded her that she wasn’t going to be able to forget that for a long time.

Three

S
ammy sat off to one side of the other kids and looked down at the tablet in his hands at the childcare center on the Infinity Games campus in Malibu. It worried Emma. He wasn’t antisocial, but he only engaged when he wanted to. She’d considered lecturing him on it or trying to correct his behavior but Helio’s mother said he used to do the same thing when he was growing up.

There were times when Emma missed Helio so much. They’d had a whirlwind courtship and a glamorous marriage in Dubai before he’d started the Formula 1 racing season. Then he had the accident that ended his life, and it was all over. So they hadn’t really ever lived together. It was moments like this when she saw him so clearly in her son that she felt the emptiness.

“Your secretary said I could find you here,” Kell said, coming up next to her.

“Why are you looking for me?” she asked, blinking to clear away any lingering emotion from her eyes before turning to look at her nemesis. He hadn’t lost all his hair overnight as she’d hoped. Or developed a big potbelly. Instead he was just as handsome as he’d been yesterday in the elevator. And if the way her pulse quickened was any indication, she still wanted him.

“Allan came by this morning with some financials on your new idea and I thought it might be a good time to discuss it,” Kell said.

“Why did Allan bring my numbers to you? I was planning to present them tomorrow.” She’d been working almost nonstop on the business plan for the foundation. Now that she didn’t have to concentrate on keeping Infinity Games in the black she felt sort of free. And the foundation had been a dream of hers for a long time, one she’d never been able to talk her grandfather into pursuing.

“They’re better than you expected. Allan and Dec have recommended we skip tomorrow’s meeting and let you get on with the project,” Kell said. “If we can go back to your office, I have some new targets I’d like to discuss with you.”

That was good news. She glanced back into the nursery and noted that Sammy was watching her where she stood in the doorway. She smiled over at him and he put down the tablet and got to his feet in that awkward toddler way of his.

“I can’t go back just yet,” she said. “Sammy and I have a morning appointment for a snack.”

“This might be why your company failed,” Kell said. “You’re on the clock.”

“I started working at six a.m. so I think a ten minute break is acceptable.”

“It might be, but business should always come first.”

“That you think so might be why you’re all alone,” she said quietly. “It’s only for ten minutes and I’m sure even the great and powerful Kell Montrose can wait that long.”

The look he gave her was frosty and hard. But underneath it she could see that she’d hurt him. She had to remember what she’d learned yesterday—beneath his all-business exterior Kell was a real man. She remembered what he’d said about his mother and thought that maybe because he hadn’t had a bond with her, he didn’t realize how important it was.

Before he could say anything though, Sammy came over to them where they stood just inside the doorway by the coatrack.

“Mommy,” he said, launching himself at her.

She scooped him up in her arms and hugged him close. Then she kissed the top of his head and set him back on the ground. He kept his tiny hand in hers.

“Hi,” Sammy said, looking up at Kell.

The two had met before. Since Jessi and Cari were both moms now and engaged to Kell’s cousins, their families had spent time together. And Emma actually liked both Dec and Allan. But they were nothing like Kell. He’d always seemed out of place and uncomfortable around the new babies and around her son.

“Hiya,” Kell said. “What were you doing on the tablet?”

“Playing a game.”

“One of ours?”

“Mommy didn’t make it,” Sammy said. “It’s snack time.”

“I heard,” Kell said. “Can I join you?”

What?
She looked over at him and he raised one eyebrow at her in response.

“Yes. Mommy made enough for me to share,” Sammy said.

They followed him to a table where three other children were already seated. The chairs were tiny and as the nursery teacher brought over a chair for Emma, she looked at Kell. There was no way his big frame was going to be able to perch on this tiny chair.

He just sat down cross-legged on the floor at the head of the table. Sammy sat next to him in front of his
The Avengers
lunchbox and opened it up. He took out a package of raisins and placed a few in front of Kell and then couple in front of Emma.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Thanks,” Kell said. “What game were you playing again?”

“Music,” Sammy said.

“It’s a program that teaches kids to play simple melodies. They can sing along with it and follow a little bouncing grape on the keyboard.”

“What can you play?”

“Can’t take it away,” Sammy said, popping a raisin into his mouth. “It’s Mommy’s favorite.”

“Is it?” Kell asked, glancing over at her.

“Yes. He means ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me.’ I like old jazz so he is sort of growing up listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Plus it’s a duet and we sing it at night before bedtime, don’t we?”

Sammy nodded. “Uncle Dec plays me rap so that I’m not—what’d he call it?”

“Stodgy,” Emma said.

“Sounds like Dec.”

She could tell that Kell had more questions but Sammy started talking to the little girl, Anna, next to him. They were trying to swap snacks.

Kell turned to Emma. “I have more questions.”

“I know, but he’s three and it’s snack time,” she explained.

“After snack time then. I want to know why he likes his game,” Kell said. “Do the other kids play with tablets as well? I recently read an article about kids in Estonia who are learning to program robots at the age of seven. Your idea for the reading app is right on trend.”

Great. “I bet you’re glad you didn’t just fire me outright.”

“Don’t get cocky. You still have to prove you can make it work.”

Of course she did.

* * *

As far as mistakes went, this was one was colossal. He’d told himself he’d come to the Malibu campus of Playtone-Infinity Games to meet with Emma about her idea. But he knew that was a lie. As soon as he’d entered the building he’d felt a zing of emotion go straight through him.

He’d thought of nothing but how she’d felt in his arms the day before. He hadn’t slept or been able to concentrate on his five-year plan as he’d gone for his run that morning. Instead he’d thought of all the ways he wanted to make love to her.

For a man who’d been focused on revenge and corporate takeovers for most of his adult life, it had been unnerving to say the least. So he’d driven here to talk to her. To prove to himself that he’d remembered it all wrong. That she hadn’t changed him by falling into his arms.

But that wasn’t the way this was going.

Instead he was sitting at the kiddie table listening to the babble of three-year-olds and realizing two things. One, that if this was they were going to launch a reading app for this market, he was going to have to find a lot more patience for dealing with his future focus groups. And two, he was still just as attracted to Emma as he’d been the day before. In fact he might be even more so than he’d previously thought.

Never before had the way a woman nibbled a breakfast snack turned him on. But it had today.

“Is that okay?” she asked.

No, he thought. Then realized she had to be talking about something else. There was no way she could possibly know that she’d rattled him. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“I asked if you’d mind if Sammy and some of his friends played with the prototype and then gave us some feedback.”

“That’s what I was going to suggest,” he said. He glanced around the table and noticed that the kids had finished their snacks and were putting away their lunch boxes. It was just he and Emma sitting there.

He popped his last raisin into his mouth and then pushed up to his feet. He was more than ready to get out of the nursery. He hadn’t been around this many kids since he’d been one himself. The merger and the relationships that had sprung up from it were making his life a mess, Kell thought. There were babies everywhere. Which made him think about things he’d never really considered before. Like the future.

Emma stood up as well, brushing her hands down the sides of her pantsuit and tucking the tail of her blouse back into the waistband where it had come out. Her long hair hung around her shoulders. His palms tingled with the remembered feel of its silkiness and he wanted to touch it again. Touch her again. He didn’t know how he was going to keep his word that he wouldn’t pursue her.

It was all he wanted.

It made no sense. He felt like an idiot. Why was he here? He should be running in the other direction instead of stopping by her office.

“Kell?”

“Yes?”

“You okay?”

No, he wasn’t okay. In fact he to admit, he’d never been okay. He’d always been just a little messed up. And part of that was due to his mom. He saw the way Emma was with Sammy, and couldn’t help thinking that his own mom had never come and had a snack with him at school.

No matter how many times he’d told himself he hadn’t expected her, he’d always sort of hoped she’d show up at something. But she never had.

Sammy was lucky to have Emma. And Kell knew that probably the best gift he could give the kid would be to make sure that Emma’s job didn’t take up too much of her time. He should fire her now, get her out of his life, give the kid his mom full-time and—

Pretty much piss off the only family he had. There were really only two people in the world that he’d always cared about, and they were Allan and Dec. If he fired Emma they’d be furious.

He was stuck.

It didn’t matter that it was common sense to avoid the mess that was this five-foot, five inch, one-hundred-thirty-pound woman with reddish-brown hair and eyes that made him forget she was the granddaughter of his sworn enemy and the only person still alive who’d witnessed his greatest humiliation.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just realized that a focus group with kids is going to be very interesting,” he said, trying to bring his mind back to business.

“I agree. I think we should give it to Jessi’s team and see what they can do with it,” Emma said with a grin.

“Your sister already doesn’t like me, despite Allan’s best efforts to change her mind. I think if I suggested that she should head up focus groups with three-year-olds she’d go ballistic.”

Emma laughed. The sound was full and infectious and he couldn’t help almost smiling. The fact that he never smiled was the only thing that kept him from doing it now.

“We can work out those details in your office,” he said.

He wanted to get away from her son and this environment. He was seeing Emma as a person and not simply an employee in a company he’d taken over. She was no longer looking like collateral damage but like a woman. His woman.

No.
She’d never be his and that was the only way it could be. And after today, he wasn’t coming to the Malibu office.

He’d make Dec deal with Emma and her transition from now on. Kell had to keep his distance before he did something he’d totally regret like pull her back into his arms and kiss her yet again.

* * *

Emma took the stairs up to her office, not wanting to risk getting trapped in the elevator with Kell. Not this morning, when she was seeing him in the new light that had started yesterday. It was one thing to say their behavior in the elevator had been a fluke but to see him this morning, sitting on the floor and talking to her son, had made Kell seem like a regular guy. And that had put images in her head that she had no business believing. Images that made it seem as if maybe she could kiss him again and more.

Which was absolutely insane. He was still Kell Montrose. A man who was ruled by the past and determined to eradicate her from the face of gaming.

Was that his play?

Had he kissed her yesterday to set in motion the ultimate revenge? Make her fall for him and then either break her heart or get her to give up the Chandler legacy?

She groaned.

“You okay?” Kell asked as he trudged up the stairs behind her.

“Yes, just thinking about the huge task in front of me.” Which was going to be twice as hard since she was dealing with these new ideas about Kell. It was easier to plan for her future without him in the picture as anything other than her mortal enemy.

Now everything was muddled.

The same way it had been when she met Helio. He’d swept her off her feet in a way that Kell never would or even could. But Helio had shaken up her neat little world and made her realize that all the truths she’d always held were fallible. And that scared her.

Helio’s death had sent her scurrying and hiding in Infinity Games. She couldn’t risk anything like that happening again. She had to remember that.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but I have the feeling you like that,” he said, as they reached the executive floor and stepped out into the carpeted hallway.

“I do,” she admitted. “Plus there’s the fact that you kind of expect me to fail. I’d love to prove you wrong.”

“Would you?”

“Yes. I like winning,” she said. “Your takeover knocked me down but I’m more than ready to get back up and go for it again.”

“Good. It’s no fun going into battle with an opponent you know you can beat.”

“Truly? You thought you could beat me? Didn’t dealing with Jessi show you anything?” she asked as she led the way to her office. She walked around behind her big walnut desk and started to sit down, but Kell had followed her and stood by the plate glass windows that overlooked a view of the Pacific Ocean.

“Jessi was unexpected,” he admitted. “But you’re more civilized.”

“On the surface,” she said. She’d learned early on that she accomplished more when people assumed she was agreeable and malleable; it had served her well in her career up to this point. But underneath she was just as determined and willing to go to any lengths as Jessi was. Jessi had courted a Hollywood producer and gotten them exclusive rights to develop a game based on his upcoming action movie. She just went about it in a different way.