Blindsided (17 page)

No, that wasn’t being honest with herself. She’d been dying for him to get back from his latest project, and like some adolescent,
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Kate Watterson

hadn’t wanted to wait to see him.
Couldn’t wait
to see him would be more accurate, or she wouldn’t have rearranged her schedule and dropped everything to drive to Chicago unannounced.

“He’s in a meeting.” The receptionist eyed her with discreet curiosity. “I’m not sure how long it will be, but I can take your name and see if he can perhaps arrange some time after lunch. I’m afraid he has a rather busy day as Mr. McCutcheon just returned from South America.”

Kerin decided to play what she hoped was a winning card. “Yes, I know. He called me from the Houston airport.”

There was a slight readjustment to her status, which is what she’d hoped for. “I see. Was he expecting you, then?”

“No, I wanted to surprise him if possible. My name is Kerin Burke. I think I’ll just go ahead and wait, and if he can fit in a few minutes to see me after lunch that would be fine.”

“I’ll let him know you’re here, Ms. Burke.”

Kerin didn’t bother to correct the form of address. She had colleagues who did that and it irritated her no end. She chose a comfortable armchair and picked up the latest copy of
Architectural
Digest
. She was lost in gorgeous Spanish Mission style homes in beautiful California valleys when she heard the sound of voices, one of them familiar, a light laugh sending a shiver down her spine.

A door to what must be a conference room to the left of the receptionist’s desk opened and several men came out, all of them in business suits, one of them in particular drop-dead gorgeous with his glossy dark hair longer than she had last seen it and a fine tan from the Venezuela sun.

Jesse.

He was shaking hands with one of his associates when he caught sight of her sitting there, the magazine suspended in her hands. The smile that lit his face assuaged all doubts about her reckless decision to make the impromptu four hour drive up from Indianapolis. Kerin heard him say, “I’ll get everything to you by next week. Can you
Blindsided 131

please excuse me, gentlemen?”

She really wasn’t aware she’d stood up, but she must have, for when Jesse walked across the waiting area, and took the magazine from her hands, she was on her feet. “Hi,” she managed to say in a very breathless voice.

“Hi.” His smile was more than sexy. It made her stomach do a strange twist. “This is a very nice surprise.”

“I hoped it would be.”

He dropped the magazine on the table. “You read my mind. I didn’t want to wait all week to see you either. I almost tried to rearrange my flights so I could end up in Indy instead.”

“We’re on the same page, apparently then.” Kerin felt that flutter again in the pit of her stomach. There must be some medical term for it, but if there was, she didn’t know it off the top of her head.

“How’s Rob?” Jesse’s dark eyes held concern.

“Recovered, at least almost completely. He still has to do some physical therapy, but he’s doing well and back in Virginia. He has a rather interesting friend who came and stayed with us for a while. I take it Thea was somehow involved in the whole cover-up mess, but whatever evidence there was against Henderson and Donovan must have been convincing because there was just a perfunctory hearing and I’ve heard nothing else.”

“Sort of an internal problem that resolved itself?”

Kerin had a feeling he was right. Certainly as the investigation progressed, Rob seemed to become less and less anxious about it all.

Jesse’s hands touched her waist, pulling her the fraction close enough so he could lower his head and whisper in her ear in a gesture as intimate as if he’d kissed her in front of their amused audience.

“How about we go into my office? After we say hello, I can take you to lunch. And dinner. And in the morning, breakfast. We have a lot to talk about.”

“Talk?” She managed a small smothered laugh. He smelled fabulous, like light crisp cologne and a special scent that was his
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Kate Watterson

alone.

“Some talking,” he clarified, with a slightly wicked grin as he looked into her eyes, “among others things. If you missed me half as much as I missed you.”

“I missed you twice as much,” she said in a shaky voice.

“It can’t be.” His hands still lingered at her waist, his voice soft. “I love you.”

I love you
. He’d whispered it in her ear before he’d climbed in his truck and left for Illinois, but hearing it again months later when she’d had time to adjust to everything that had happened made her throat tighten.

“If you think for a moment
I
don’t love
you
, you haven’t been paying attention,” she countered, her voice hoarse.

He laughed, the sound light, familiar…perfect. “Is this a contest?

If so, do you want to continue the debate in my office like I suggested?”

The impulse to drop everything and come to Chicago to see him had been even a better idea than the flight to Wisconsin that had brought them together in the first place and that was saying something.

Kerin leaned against him. “Absolutely.”

THE END

www.katewatterson.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Watterson loves crafting suspense novels with a tantalizing dose of heat. She also writes historical erotic romance as Emma Wildes and futuristic as Annabel Wolfe. Please visit her at www.katewatterson.com

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com