Loving Mr. July (7 page)

“We went through recipe by recipe. I helped
him make them better.”

“If what you’ve been feeding me for the last
week is better, I’d say stick with marketing.”

Cynthia made a face. “Like I said, I’ve been
cooking from the before recipes.”

Kurt looked at her in surprise. “Why would
you do that? You’ve had to eat this crap too.” He narrowed his
eyes. “Or have you been eating the good stuff?”

“Sadly, no.” Cynthia pulled a few bunches of
fresh herbs from a shopping bag. “But tonight, we’re both going
to.”

Kurt snagged a piece of mint, leaned against
the counter, his face inscrutable. “Mind telling me why you decided
to torture us with that cardboard food?”

“Same reason you decided to torture me with
workouts.” Cynthia moved to the refrigerator, took out a package of
chicken.

Kurt burst out laughing. “And why didn’t I
even consider that? I should have known better. I’ve been up
against you before.”

Cynthia grinned. “I did do better for Sharon
than you did for Blake during their land contract dispute, didn’t
I?” She waved a sprig of thyme at him.

Kurt gave her an enigmatic smile. “You’re
good, I’ll grant you that. But Blake pretty much tied my hands on
that one. My marching orders were to give you guys whatever it took
to let your business continue, because he was so crazy about
Sharon. I was told not to screw things up.”

“At least it ended well,” Cynthia said. “A
happier couple I haven’t seen.”

“It all worked out,” Kurt agreed. “But I had
some serious explaining to do to my board of directors. They
thought I was an idiot.”

“Poor baby.”

“Was hard on my ego,” Kurt acknowledged. “And
there are not many people besides Blake that I would have done
something like that for.”

He gave the chicken the evil eye. “We are NOT
having chicken again tonight.”

“Then you’re cooking.” Cynthia scowled at the
kitchen in general. “Because I’m sick of this place.”

Kurt got up, put his arm around Cynthia. “I
don’t blame you. And I have a confession to make too.”

Cynthia jumped a little at the unexpected
contact. She craned her neck up to try to see Kurt’s face. Damn it
was annoying being so short sometimes. “About?”

“I never expected you to cook. Was actually a
little surprised when you came over with the bags of food. And it
was so awful, but I didn’t have the heart to tell you after you
worked so hard making it. I’ve got to admit the results are pretty
dramatic.” He patted his stomach. “But my office staff is about to
shoot me, because I’ve been such a bear these past couple of
weeks.”

Cynthia took a deep breath, and moved away
from his arm. Whatever product he used for soap or cologne, the
source of that heady scent, put her hormones on overload. The stuff
shouldn’t be legal. She wondered what he’d do if she suddenly
turned and started licking him. “I’ve heard rumors.”

Kurt raised an eyebrow.

Cynthia shrugged. “I have my sources.”

“I’ll bet.” Kurt picked up the chicken and
put it back into the refrigerator. “We’re going out. My treat.”

Cynthia looked up in surprise. “I thought you
wanted to be all hard-body for the photo shoot?”

“At the rate I’m losing weight, I’m going to
be a skeleton. I want some beef.” He gave her workout shirt a
little tug. “You’ve got anything to wear besides spandex?”

Cynthia looked down at his long fingers
pulling on her neon green halter top. Who knew that such an
innocent touch could set her pulse racing? But it means nothing to
him, she reminded herself. “I haven’t even showered yet.”

“No rush. Lucky and I will catch some sun on
the deck while you do.” He poured himself a glass of iced tea,
grabbed some treats for Lucky and ambled out to the deck,
whistling.

Cynthia stared at him. So was this a date?
Wouldn’t seem so, seeing as he hadn’t exactly asked her out. More
like told her, which maybe she should have taken offense at. But
what the hey? Wasn’t every day she got to go out on the town with
an uber-eligible bachelor. And she deserved it after all that
cooking, right?

Now if she could just have had access to her
wardrobe at home instead of the handful of garments she had grabbed
for the short stay at his house.

~ ~ ~

Kurt took a sip of his Cabernet and gazed at
Cynthia, while she talked animatedly to the waiter. She apparently
knew him too. Was there anyone in this town she didn’t know? And
why didn’t he get that sort of response? With him, there always
seemed to be a wall up. Of course, he thought, given the fact that
he’d sort of coerced her into being around him pretty much
twenty-four/seven whether she wanted to or not probably didn’t
help. Still, there was a level of friendliness around everyone else
that he didn’t receive. It was puzzling.

“Another admirer?” He asked when she finally
turned back to him.

Cynthia’s face lost a little of its
animation, a bit of the wall coming back. “Client.”

“At Grandma’s Antiques?” The thought of the
burly waiter frequenting his sister-in-law and Cynthia’s antique
emporium amused him.

“A marketing client,” Cynthia said. “Of my
consulting business I run on the side.”

Kurt’s ears perked up. RentBro could use an
infusion of new ideas. His marketing director had a lot of good
qualities, but thinking outside the box wasn’t one of them.
“Grandma’s not keep you busy enough?”

Cynthia shrugged. “Sharon’s a good friend.
Has been for years. I work there, because otherwise she would have
no business. She’s an artist, not a business woman.”

“But it’s not enough.” Kurt recognized drive,
and he was beginning to realize Cynthia possessed it big time. “And
yet you’re too loyal to quit.”

Cynthia looked him in the eye, her posture
softening a bit, nodded. “You get it, don’t you?”

Kurt angled his wineglass toward her. “Kind
of in the same boat.”

“But RentBro’s huge compared to Grandma’s.
And you and Blake already had two successful startups, didn’t
you?”

“Checked up on me, did you?” Kurt smiled to
take any sting out of the words.

“More that I checked up on Blake when he and
Sharon were negotiating their deal. Had to know the opponent and
all.”

“And it certainly helped.” Kurt took a bite
of his Caesar salad, waited a bit before answering. “It’s not the
money, although that’s nice.”

“You do have some pretty awesome perks,”
Cynthia said. “Like that beach house, for one.”

“Lucky and I like it,” Kurt acknowledged.
“For me it’s the challenge. The creating something new, thinking of
new angles, bringing a product to market that’s game changing. Life
changing. That’s what does it for me.”

“And RentBro?”

“Is a good, solid company, don’t get me
wrong.” Kurt waved away the waiter who wanted to pour more wine for
him. “But let’s face it, our products don’t have that sexy factor.
They’re just the background industry work horses.”

Cynthia thought of the racks of
communications equipment Kurt’s brother, Blake, had once shown her
on a tour, and nodded. “Yep, didn’t do much for me.”

“So lately, I’ve been restless.” Restless in
more ways than just at work, he thought. Cynthia disturbed his
equilibrium too. And he had yet to figure out why. It was a little
strange seeing her dressed up after the daily workout outfits. She
wore a red dress tonight that did some sort of complicated wrap
thing around her amazing breasts. He had a hard time keeping his
eyes away. She wasn’t a tiny woman, by any means, but she certainly
knew how to dress to her advantage. She looked good. Damn good.

And she was taller tonight, on account of the
ridiculously high heels she wore. A rather loud purple, they were
kind of hard not to notice. How she walked in them, he had no idea,
but evidently, she was used to heels.

“So you want sexy, but you stay because of
Blake.” Cynthia wiped her mouth delicately with her napkin.

No, I want sex, and with you, Kurt thought,
as he watched the napkin move across her full lips. Geez, where had
that thought come from? It must be the starvation diet. He set his
salad aside, tried to focus on the conversation. “And the other
younger shareholders, the workers at the company who have a stake
in the success. I’m not going to walk away.”

“You’re a good man, Kurt.”

“Don’t let it get around.” Kurt made light of
her words. “Would hurt my negotiating power.”

The smile suddenly left Cynthia’s face.
“Excuse me a minute. I’ll be right back.” With that abrupt line,
she got up and hightailed it for the back of the restaurant.

What set her pants on fire? He thought they’d
been starting to connect in a deeper way. The woman was going to
drive him crazy.

A man’s grating voice from the back of the
restaurant sounded familiar. Kurt turned to see the guy from the
gym, the one who had been practically pinning her to the wall a
couple of weeks ago before he’d intervened, in an animated
conversation with Cynthia near the restaurant bathrooms.

She gets up and leaves me mid sentence to go
get cozy with that guy again? The hell with that, Kurt thought. He
stood up, started making his way toward them, purpose in every
step. It was only when he got closer that he realized the guy had
his hand on Cynthia’s breast, and she was trying very hard to
remove it.

Kurt saw red. He closed the remaining
distance in short order, determined to bean the guy. But when the
man looked up and saw Kurt, he dropped his hand in a hurry and
ducked into the restaurant’s kitchen area.

Cynthia put a hand on his arm to restrain him
before he followed the guy. “Let him go, Kurt, please?”

“Give me one good reason.” Kurt looked down
at the arm on his sleeve, and back up to her face. “The guy had his
hands all over you. And it didn’t look like you wanted it. Or did I
read that wrong?”

“I didn’t!” Cynthia became visibly
distraught. “And would you please keep your voice down?”

“So why did you come running over her to meet
him?”

Cynthia looked down, miserable. “Because I
didn’t want him to come to our table and make a scene.”

“Get your stuff.” Kurt knew he was coming
across as an ass, but he was too angry at the moment to care. “I’ve
lost my appetite.”

Cynthia turned away, but not before Kurt saw
the tears coming to her eyes.

Shit.

~ ~ ~

Kurt couldn’t sleep.

And Cynthia’s face kept coming to his mind.
She’d said nothing during the drive home about her encounter with
the guy from her past, although she had seemed more than a little
upset. In fact, she had not wanted to stay at his house for the
first time since they’d started the intense workouts. But it was so
late, and she’d had a fair amount of wine for her height, so he had
insisted on her staying in one of the guest rooms. And she had been
too tired and miserable to argue.

His stomach rumbled, complaining about the
pittance of food it had received. He hadn’t felt like eating the
steak the manager had packaged for them. At this rate, he
was
going to be a skeleton by the time those photos were
finally taken. If he survived that long.

Screw it, he thought, it was a night for beer
on the deck. Maybe even two.

He headed toward the kitchen, when an odd
sound coming from the living room caught his attention, and he
turned to investigate. The light from the full moon illuminated the
room enough that he could see Cynthia huddled in a corner, one arm
draped over Lucky. A huge container of ice cream sat melting on the
side table, half eaten. While Cynthia sobbed, Lucky whimpered and
licked at her face.

Kurt walked over, put one hand on Lucky’s
head and the other on Cynthia’s shoulder. “Cynthia?”

She burrowed deeper into the couch and
sniffled. “Go away.”

“What’s going on?”

“Just go away.” The sobs resumed in
earnest.

Kurt sat on his haunches in front of her. “I
don’t think so.” There was crying and then there was heartbreaking
despair. Kurt had lived long enough to know the difference. And
this wasn’t just crying.

His response instinctive, he moved next to
her on the couch, and brought her into his arms. She resisted at
first, but eventually gave up.

Kurt stroked her arms and back in slow
movements. After a long while, she stilled, and the sobs became
hiccups. And the hiccups turned into silence.

He handed her some tissues and waited while
she blew her nose, wiped her eyes. When she made a move to get up,
and remove herself from his arms, he tightened them.

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong.”

Cynthia remained silent so long, Kurt
eventually turned her to see if she’d fallen asleep. But she
hadn’t. She looked up at him with the saddest eyes he’d ever
seen.

“I’m a total loser.” Her eyes flicked to the
ice cream carton, her face full of self-disgust.

He gave her a quick hug and starting stroking
her arms again. “Just tell me what’s wrong.”

Cynthia let out a deep, shuddering sigh.

Another long silence ensued. Kurt waited it
out, continuing to stroke her arms.

“That guy, in the gym and in the restaurant
tonight?” Cynthia looked straight ahead, not waiting for his
response. “I knew him in high school. I’ve changed a lot since
then, but he apparently doesn’t think so. It’s important that you
know I didn’t encourage him.”

“Okay.” Kurt tried to look her in the face,
but she stared resolutely ahead.

“In fact, both tonight and at the gym, he was
trying to pin me to the wall, starting to try to feel me up.”

“Son of a bitch.” Kurt tensed, then forced
himself to relax his arms when he realized he was probably hurting
her. “Why didn’t you let me take care of the guy?”