Silken Threads (5 page)

Cassandra could not brook any distractions. She had to prove her abilities, not only to her father, but to herself as well. The stranger would be much more than just a distraction.

Work! Get to work! she told herself. Rising from the couch, Cassandra went to her desk and sat down. For an endless time, she stared at the sheets of figures laid out before her, but her eyes would not focus. Then she glanced at her watch. It was two o’clock. In another hour, she would be going to her father’s office to meet the general manager of the ranch.

Knowing this, she reached across the desk and picked up the file folder Personnel had sent over the day before. The tab of the folder had two words on it—Kirk North.

Opening it, Cassandra began to read the detailed history of the man she would be working with for the next twelve months. A man she knew would resent her presence, and her involvement.

After the unexpected encounter in the lobby, Kirk had gone for a walk to cool off. He’d never thought himself the hero type, but when, coincidentally, he’d seen the woman from the restaurant trying to get away from the man, he had been unable to stop himself from helping her.

Even now, a half hour later, as he waited for the elevator to reach his floor, he could not rid himself of the vision of the beautiful woman. The man had been angry, but when Kirk had stared into his eyes, he’d seen the anger fade. When Kirk had released him, he’d stood silently until the man turned and left the building. Then he’d done the same thing.

He’d walked for twenty minutes, clearing his mind and preparing himself for his meeting with Gregory Leeds. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he could not erase the image in his mind of her face as she fought the man. There had been no fear on her features, only anger. Kirk had liked that, too.

He’d liked everything about the woman he would never see again.

When he got out of the elevator, he found himself before a large Plexiglas reception desk, complete with a pretty receptionist.

“
Did you have a good lunch, Mr. North?” she asked.

“
Unusual,” he replied with a slow smile.

“
But interesting?”

“
To say the least,” Kirk added dryly.

“
Mr. Leeds is waiting. He said to send you in as soon as you returned from lunch.”

“
Thank you,” Kirk said as he strode past her desk and through the wide entrance to Leeds International’s executive offices.

He walked directly to the end of the hallway and knocked on the frosted double doors before opening them and going inside.

“
Good afternoon, Mr. North,” Leeds’ secretary, Elizabeth, said, rising and motioning him toward yet another door. “Mr. Leeds is expecting you.” Saying this, she went to that door and opened it.

Kirk nodded and entered Gregory Leeds’ office. As it had on his three previous visits here, the opulence startled Kirk. The office was huge. It was a corner office with two full walls of windows looking out on the city. A large teak desk dominated the center of the office, and Gregory Leeds sat at it.

Off to one side was a gleaming chrome and wood wet bar, and strewn in an almost casual fashion were several chairs and a couch.

“
Hello, Kirk. Enjoy lunch?” Gregory Leeds asked as he rose from his chair and went to greet Kirk with a firm handshake

Rather than get into what happened, Kirk nodded. “Very much.” It was true, too, he realized; very true.

“
Care for a drink?”

“
No, thank you. What I need is to find out what’s going on.” While he spoke, he held Leeds’ stare with his own.

“
At least we didn’t offer you a raise this year,” Leeds only half jested.

“
I had expected to be fired.”

Gregory Leeds nodded his head thoughtfully. “I can appreciate that, Kirk. I have a large number of employees working for me. Some are good, some aren’t. But there are a few who are better than good. Those people are the ones I call the achievers. They’re loyal and strive to do not only the best, but more.”

When Leeds paused, Kirk held back his reaction to the flattery.

“
You’re one of the men in that category. Kirk, I’ve built a large business on my ability to pick the right man for the right job—”

“
And the right man will be overseeing me?” Kirk cut in, not wanting to hear any more whitewash.

For a second after he’d spoken, Kirk saw his boss was uncomfortable.

Gregory Leeds laughed: a good clean sound that caught Kirk off guard. “I deserved that. Kirk, you are doing the best job possible at Twin Rivers. Murray already told you so, but I’ll reiterate it for you. I am extremely pleased with your handling of the ranch—period; nothing more can be added.”

“
Mr. Leeds, may I ask you a question?”

“
Fire away.”

“
If you’re satisfied with my work, even though Twin Rivers is running in the red, why is a vice president of Leeds International coming to look over my shoulder?” Although he knew better than to be this blunt, Kirk didn’t really care. He wanted at least one answer to what was becoming a giant-size crossword puzzle.

“
You don’t pull punches, do you? Very well,” Gregory Leeds said, “have a seat.”

Kirk went to the nearest couch and sat as Leeds did the same in a chair across from him. When they sat, Leeds crossed one leg over the other.

“
The vice president I’m sending with you is my daughter. Kirk, I find myself faced with a rather unique problem. My daughter, Cassandra, has decided she wants to be a business executive.”

“
That’s not unusual today,” Kirk replied after recovering from his initial shock.

“
No, it’s not, except for the fact that Cassandra turned twenty-seven two weeks ago and has never worked a day in her life.”

Kirk tried to keep his face expressionless but could not stop the sudden arching of his eyebrows. “And now she wants to work?”

“
It was a perfect match! Perfect! She was supposed—” Gregory began but stopped himself. “But she picked up this…bug about wanting to prove herself. She wants to work for a year. At the end of that period, well, I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said offhandedly.

Kirk was even more confused than before. Powerful men like Gregory Leeds do not unburden themselves to their employees, not without good reason. “So you made her a vice president?”

“
In a manner of speaking. She has no experience. I couldn’t let her work in a position of any importance without experience. But she is my daughter, and she wants to prove herself.”

“
And Twin Rivers is unimportant enough to let her do that?” Kirk asked sarcastically. “I’m sorry, Mr. Leeds, but I take my work seriously, even if you think the ranch is a toy.”

A momentary flash of anger showed on Leeds’ face, but he managed to control himself. “I’ve fired people for less than that,” he warned.

“
But not for failing to make a profit?” he asked dryly.

“
That too, if the failure was because they didn’t do their jobs properly: you, on the other hand, besides having a tricky temper, do your job well. And I do not regard Twin Rivers as a toy. In fact, I regard the ranch as a very important part of Leeds International.”

Kirk eased off. Something about the way the chairman of the board spoke made him retreat a little. Sitting back on the couch, he waited silently, ever wary.

“
May I get back on track?” Leeds smiled as Kirk nodded. “I intend to have Cassandra spend a year at Twin Rivers, getting firsthand experience and learning about business. I expect you to continue on as you have been, running the ranch and doing your usual excellent job.”

“
You’re saying your daughter will be a figurehead, a vice president in name only, and I will continue to make all decisions?”

“
Basically. You would make the majority of decisions, especially on important matters. Cassandra would be the nominal head of the ranch, as a vice president of Leeds International.”

Kirk had been listening intently to Gregory Leeds’ voice. Behind the words, Kirk detected something else, a faint echo of desperation, perhaps even hopelessness. Kirk understood that he was being asked to do was to baby-sit.

Yet, in the back of Kirk’s mind was the troublesome thought: if Leeds was sending anyone at all, even his inexperienced daughter, there must be a reason. Despite Leed’s compliments, he wondered, if the real reason was a dissatisfaction with Kirk’s performance at the ranch.

“
As I see it,” Kirk began, choosing his words carefully, “I have no choice. You’re couching an order in the form of a request.”

“
True, but I have a good reason.”

“
Yes?”

“
My daughter is one of the two most important people in the world to me, but I don’t want her pandered to. Kirk, we’ve only met a few times, but I’ve watched you since Leeds took over Twin Rivers. You didn’t come to me for your job; I went to you. Quite honestly, there’s no one in my organization who would stand up to her, or to me, the way you do. Which is why I chose Twin Rivers for Cassie.”

“
How can you be certain I won’t…pander to her?”

“
Do you want a raise?”

“
When I earn it.”

“
That’s why!”

“
What happens at the end of the year if she wants to stay at Twin Rivers? Do I move on?”

Gregory Leeds’ face, sober until then, perked up. “No. You’ll have to trust me, Kirk, but I can promise you there’s absolutely no chance of Cassandra staying on. In fact, I doubt she’ll last out the year.”

Kirk, again hearing a strange undertone in Leeds’ voice, knew he had no choice other than to quit. “All right, Mr. Leeds.”

As if to emphasize the end of the conversation, Gregory Leeds’ intercom buzzed. Rising swiftly, Leeds went to the desk and pressed the button. “Yes?”

“
Cassandra is here,” his secretary informed him.

“
Send her in,” Gregory Leeds said as his eyes locked with Kirk North.

~~~~

Cassandra strode boldly into her father’s office, looking neither right nor left. She smiled, but her smile did not conceal the petulant set of her face as she stared at her father. “Is your cowboy here yet?” she asked sarcastically.

Cassandra’s father held his features immobile for a moment before favoring her with a knowing nod. “As a matter of fact, Mr. North is seated right behind you.”

Cassandra stiffened involuntarily but forced her suddenly taut lips into a shadowy smile as she turned. The smile froze the instant she recognized the handsome man who was gazing at her with deep brown eyes. Her heart seemed to stop beating; her throat refused to allow air into her lungs. She stared at him for endless seconds until, at last, she broke free of her trance. “You…” she whispered, unable to say more.

At her side, Gregory Leeds looked from Cassandra to Kirk, a clearly puzzled expression on his face.

“
I guess this cowboy started his job a few hours early,” Kirk said, free now of his earlier sensation of loss, which these first crass words of hers had effectively shattered.

Taken by surprise when she had entered the office, he saw the woman he had never expected to see again. His body had gone tense with recognition, but the tension had changed into something else after she’d spoken. Before she’d turned to face him, he knew the attraction he felt was wrong. It was an attraction to surface beauty. Kirk realized Cassandra Leeds was too sarcastic and callow a woman for him to consider special.

Standing, Kirk cut off his thoughts and walked toward her. When he was three feet away, he extended his hand.

Cassandra watched him walk and felt the powerful aura that surrounded him. Unknowingly she had caught her lower lip with her teeth in a nervous gesture. When he offered her his hand, she slowly reached out to take it.

The instant their hands touched, Cassandra experienced a rushing flow of heat that spread upward along her arm before expanding to suffuse through her entire body. Their hands stayed together, and their eyes locked for a long drawn-out moment.

Only when he released her hand did sanity return. “I… Forgive me, Mr. North, I didn’t really mean what I said.”

“
And I wish I could believe that. But I’ll accept a thank-you for what happened earlier.”

Cassandra could still feel the heat of his skin on hers, although her hand was free and hanging at her side. Moistening her lips with the tip of her tongue, Cassandra nodded her head. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“
Would somebody like to tell me what’s going on?” Gregory Leeds asked.

Cassandra glanced at her father, about to speak, but Kirk spoke first.

“
Your daughter was having some trouble with a man downstairs. I helped her out.”

Cassandra saw the next question coming from her father and knew she did not want to get involved with that now. “It was nothing,” she told him. Then she turned back to Kirk. “I do hope you’ll forgive me for being so boorish. We’ll be spending a good deal of time together.”

“
I’m well aware,” Kirk said tersely.

“
Well, now that you’ve both been ah…formally introduced, may I suggest we get down to business?”

Both Cassandra and Kirk nodded and followed Gregory Leeds to the far side of the office, where three chairs surrounded a table already set with cups, saucers, and a coffeepot.

~~~~

Eight hours after meeting Kirk North, Cassandra sank into the steaming tub and tried to rid herself of worry and unease. Her bags were packed and waiting by the front door, but her mind was not yet ready for this next step in her life.