A Solitary Romance: Book 1 in the Only Love Series (4 page)

"Please tell me you're not ill, Mr. Dodd."

"If you must know, Katrina, my wife is divorcing me.  It's going to get nasty and I want some time to take care of my assets before the battle begins.  I also want to see my children and grandchildren on the east coast.  You'll be in the capable hands of Mr. LaSalla."

"Apparently, I already was," she mumbled.

"What?  Try to speak up, Kate."

"Nothing, Sir."

"I'm sorry if I was testy today.  This is a tough situation and it's getting the best of me.  I plan to finish the week out and then leave.  Of course, I can always be reached by phone.  You can call me, Katrina, even if it's personal."

"Thank you, Mr. Dodd."

"Now, do you feel up to moving?"

"Yes, Mr. Dodd."

"Good!"

Her boss barked orders into the phone at Kiki.  Soon, both the receptionist and Robert LaSalla appeared outside the office.  Her friend stepped inside to fuss over Katrina, but Robert held back, his large frame filling the doorway.  Kate was positive she detected a woodsy scent that did not belong to the managing partner.  From the corner of her eye, she saw her new superior place one hand high against the door frame and lean against the jamb.  She reverted to her old ruse of ignoring the man.

Kiki took her hand, but before she could aid Katrina, Robert said, "Allow me."

The man's alacrity astounded her.  One second, he filled the doorway. The next, he lifted her from the chair and placed her arm through his.  He bent his elbow and guided her hand against his forearm, placing his own atop hers with a gentle pat. 

"Now you hold on tight right there, Kate, so you don't fall, or would you like for me to carry you?"

She felt her face flush red.  The carpet occupied her full attention.

"No, I can walk," she muttered.

"You grip my arm good and tight then.  We don't want to risk a fall," he said in a low rumble.

The man seemed concerned . . . or was he amused?

Slowly, they made their way to the parking garage with Kiki trailing behind.  When the receptionist left to get her car, Robert placed Katrina on a bench and sat close beside her.  She was aware that his thigh touched hers and felt the same electricity as that in Mr. Dodd's office.  This really was too much.  Didn't the man have any sense?  Maybe
he
was the reason she fainted. 
Gracious
!

Soon, Kiki's sports car peeled around the corner and screeched to a halt in front of them.  Robert wrapped an arm around Kate's waist and helped her into the low seat.  He waved goodbye as they drove from the garage.

"Oh, my God, Kate!  That's him, isn't it?  He's why you fainted, isn't he?"

"Of course not!  You heard the ambulance man.  I have a fever and am dehydrated."

Kiki's short but shapely leg barely reached the accelerator pedal as she pulled onto Temple Street.  The Pacific Island beauty caught the attention of almost every man in their building.  Long, straight, shiny black hair framed beautiful brown eyes, a delicate nose and pert lips.  The petite receptionist had a busy social life, but her sweet, vivacious demeanor didn't fool Kate.  She had all the makings of a dragon lady.

"Pish!  I'd know him anywhere by that description you wrote.  Now fess up, Katrina.  What's your past?  You called him the man of your dreams, if I recall."

Kate closed her eyes and tried to relax.  Her head pounded as if someone used a sledge hammer to escape her skull from the inside.

"We have no past.  We worked together on and off for two years and shared office space.  That's all.  He had a retinue of female admirers coming and going the entire time.  I just tried to keep my distance and do my job."

She didn't bother confessing that it had taken all of her mental powers to ignore the man, avoid making eye contact, and pretend she didn't notice the way he looked at her.  Hiding her jealousy of the attention he received from every female within miles also taxed her strength.

"Then what's all this
man of my dreams
business?" Kiki demanded.

Katrina drew in several long breaths and took her time exhaling.  She could still feel her skin burn where he'd wrapped his arm around her waist, and she felt a shiver remembering the low tenor of his voice.

"Katrina, answer me!"

She shook herself from her musings.  She had to stop fantasizing about Robert.  His kind would never be for her.  Chuck Manning proved more her speed, as depressing as that seemed.

"You've seen him, haven't you?" Kate snapped.  She continued, "I just got carried away after running into him.  He told me he was unemployed.  I'd never have written that piece if I thought he'd show up at Dodd and Company!  Thank goodness no one knows I'm Violet Sparks."

Another worry popped into Katrina's brain.  Bernard Bronson had probably read that foolish blog about Robert.  She turned red just thinking about it.  How could she have been so stupid?  That post made her appear unprofessional and immature, to say the least, and she so wanted to impress the director of the museum.

"You know, you really don't look well at all, Kate."

Kiki placed the back of her right hand on Katrina's forehead, startling the auditor and forcing her eyes open.  Katrina gave her friend a dirty look.

The receptionist continued, "Yep, you've got a fever all right, and you're red all over.  You need to get straight to bed and drink lots of fluids."

Kiki accelerated onto the freeway while Kate dug her fingers into the car seat.  Automobiles moved at a good clip since going home traffic hadn't begun.

"I'd hardly call that hunk unemployed, Katrina.  Do you want to hear the skinny on him?  I got it straight from William," her friend said, shooting a sly smile at her friend.

Kiki Tam often referred to their boss by his first name, unless trouble appeared on the horizon.  Then she called him Mr. Dodd or Sir.  The receptionist almost always knew the inside scoop at the company.

"Go on," Katrina said in a whisper.  Fading fast, she thought she might fall asleep before they reached her apartment.

"Robert worked with a big international firm, then he took a position with his dad's company.  The family decided to sell the business, and the hunky Mr. LaSalla traveled the globe for the next two years, before coming on board with us.  I bet he acquired that tan on the beaches of Thailand."  She licked her lips.

"I don't like that look of lust in your eyes, Kiki.  Before you ask,
no
, it would not be all right if you dated Robert LaSalla since I'm not interested in him."

"Well, I never!"

"You would if you could.  Pick anyone else you like.  It's not as though you don't have a smorgasbord of men at your feet every day.  In fact, I'll offer up Chuck Manning to you right now, no questions asked."

"Thanks a lot.  Hey!" she exclaimed, as if an idea had just occurred to her.  She continued, turning her head towards Kate. "You know I gave up meeting that attorney at Barstow's by driving you home!" 

Kiki pulled the car to the curb below Kate's building.  Katrina knew the Hawaiian yanked her chain.  Too tired to tease or feign not to care, she remained adamant about her friend not going after Robert.  She folded her arms across her chest, dropped her chin, raised her eyebrows with what was left of her energy, and glowered at the saucy Asian.

"All right, all right already.  Let's get you inside," the receptionist said with mock exasperation.

After wrapping Katrina in a blanket and commanding her to lie on the sofa and watch television, she prepared a can of chicken noodle soup and poured her friend a glass of ice water.  She then peeled an orange, found a box of old saltines that had outlived their expiration date, and served her friend a light meal.

"You're not much of a cook, are you?" the receptionist said.

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

Both girls managed a giggle.  The two had had quite a bit of fun over the past few years, cementing their friendship after work at dance clubs, restaurants, and shopping malls.

"Want to hear my big news?"

Even though exhausted, she wanted to share her museum story with someone.

"Do tell," her friend encouraged.

"The director of Special Collections and Exhibits at the Heller called me today."

Kate paused to see her friend's reaction and it didn't disappoint.  Kiki slid across the sofa, her eyebrows raised into sharp points and her almond eyes growing wide.  It occurred to Katrina that if her friend wore pigtails and ditched the makeup, she could pass for a grade schooler.

"Did he find out about your collection?"

Katrina often dragged her friend along to yard sales, second hand stores, and antique shops in search of vintage costume jewelry.  Kiki felt certain the collection would be worth serious coin one day.

"No.  It's better than that," Kate replied, her voice rising. She continued, "He had me come in for a meeting.  That's why I was M.I.A. at the office this afternoon.  We shared lunch in his office, and he asked my opinion on an upcoming show featuring treasures of the Romanov family.  He found me through my blog, and wants me to continue giving advice on the exhibit."

"Oh, Katrina!  That's amazing.  I'm so happy for you," she gushed with true enthusiasm.

"I know. It's a dream come true."

The girls chatted for another fifteen minutes before Kiki left, satisfied that her friend would fall asleep within the hour.  She drifted off on the sofa, where she spent the night, dreaming of beautiful large diamonds.

Chapter 4
-A Changing of the Guard-
 

Katrina dragged herself into the office Thursday morning at her usual early hour.  She rode out her fever at home the day before.  Still not up to par, she couldn't imagine missing her boss's last two days at the office.  When Kiki called to check on her, she shared information about Friday's going away party, to be held after work at a posh restaurant on the ground floor of a neighboring high-rise.

Surprised to find some of the lights already on, she glanced around the floor looking for co-workers, but saw no one.  She preferred starting the workday at six a.m., nine on the east coast, before anyone else arrived.  It helped when tracking stock prices or other monetary exchanges or contacting people in New York, and the quiet allowed her to accomplish much, without interruptions.  Sometimes she even drove in earlier.  Today, she took a cab, since her car had been left in the garage on Tuesday.  Every so often, she rode the bus to and from work.  She hated Los Angeles traffic with a passion, and would do anything to avoid it—another perk of arriving before dawn and going home in the early afternoon.  This morning, lights controlled by motion detectors left the office half-lit.  She'd flip the rest on later.

Convinced she was alone, she put her jacket on the back of her office chair and went in search of the prior day's business publications.  She needed to catch up on anything she may have missed while out sick.  Kate leaned over a low cubicle partition to reach a stash of yesterday's papers.  Wiped out from whatever bug she'd had, Katrina wasn't about to walk around the large bull pen to reach the journals.  She balanced on the toe of one high heeled pump and stretched, bending over the barrier at the waist, to reach the dailies.  Someone had scooted them to the far left side of the desk.  Aware her pencil skirt inched up the back of her thighs during the maneuver, she still wasn't willing to walk around the divided work spaces to grab the materials.  Besides, she had the office all to herself.  The fingertips of her right hand grazed the edge of the newspapers.  Just a fraction of an inch more, and she'd have it. 

She pushed her foot about an inch off the ground and propelled her frame farther into the cubicle, the sturdy barrier supporting her entire weight now.  Katrina, bent at the hips, stretched her right arm as far as it would go. She grasped the journal and used her abdominal muscles to lift her torso, attempting to rock her body out of the stall and allow her feet to reach the floor again.  Realizing she had slid too far into the desk area, she kicked her legs to help right herself.

As she teetered, a small noise from behind, akin to a mere shoe step on the carpet, caught her ear and triggered a burst of adrenaline in her.  Simultaneously, she felt the iron grip of a large hand clamp down hard on her left shoulder.  A reflex scream escaped her lips as Katrina kicked her left leg, hoping to land a sharp heel against her attacker's shin or groin.  Pulled backwards and now completely off-balance, the girl let loose a blood-curdling howl and flailed her right arm in the air, attempting to regain some control.  Pages of the business journal, thrust high in the air,  began fluttering down about her.  She determined she would not go down without a fight and attempted to turn on her assailant, perhaps to scratch his eyes out with her long fingernails.

Self defense classes taught her that if attacked from behind she shouldn't pull away from the aggressor, but rather move into him.  Finding the floor with her feet, she screamed again, and with a nimble, quick twist freed her shoulder from her assailant's grasp and propelled her body in the direction of the intruder, spinning towards him.  At the same time, she thrust a splayed hand in the air, her fingers curled and ready to dig into the face of the fiend.  She'd guessed at his size during the brief tussle and knew him to be tall as well as strong.  His face would be well above hers.  Speed of movement would make the difference in her defense.

Katrina's hand felt the hard jaw of her attacker's face just as he seized her wrist with the force of a vice.  Before she could lift her eyes to see the man, he'd spun her back around, slamming her small frame against his hard chest.  He wrapped his free arm around her waist like a steel band and lifted her off the ground, trapping her other hand. The girl winced in pain at the pressure he exerted on her wrist while she kicked at him with all her might.  The struggle brought her feet back to the floor, and she attempted to stomp his foot with her heel.  The attacker grabbed her again, this time, allowing no wiggle room between them.