The Merger Mogul (14 page)

“Are you
satisfied now?” he asked once he was in the car, not even sure who he was
talking to.

In spite of his
physical discomfort, a sweet emotion erupted in Daniel’s heart and he knew he’d
done the right thing. He’d put KT’s feelings above his own desires. Is this
love?
he
wondered.

KT locked the
door in a daze and leaned back against it.  One minute Daniel was here and
the next he was gone.  She couldn’t believe she’d let him take such
liberties with her, touched her in places that no-one ever had, kissed her as
no one ever did!  She was mortified when she recalled how she had kissed
him back. What was worse was the fact that he was the one who stopped, not her.
She felt so ashamed.

“Oh Lord, I’m
so sorry.  I’m so ashamed! Forgive me.  Help me to do things your way
and not to let you down or let myself down.” Soon she felt at peace and knew
that her prayer had been heard and that she was loved in spite of her
weakness.  Then she headed to the bath to shower away the evidence of her
date with Daniel. She wished it was as easy to erase from her mind.

The telephone
rang just before 10 o’clock waking up KT.

“Hello?” she
said in a gravelly voice.

 “KT, what
were you doing out with The Merger Mogul last night?  Are you crazy? 
That man is the biggest womanizer alive.”

“Paul is that
you? What are you talking about?” mumbled KT to her brother.

“Let me read
you this trash that my dear wife brought in from the supermarket bright and
early this morning. There’s a big picture of you and Daniel Tennant in the “Out
on the town” section and it says:

Merger Mogul Back on the Town

Daniel Tennant, aka The
Merger Mogul, seems to have fully recovered from his near death experience
following the discovery of his brain tumor last September. He was seen at
Manhattan’s newest and trendiest restaurant, The Black Pearl, last night with a
sexy but mysterious Vanessa
Williams
lookalike…  

KT’s eyes flew
open. He now had her attention.

“I’m in the
tabloids with Daniel? Oh, no,” moaned KT. “Some photographer sneaked a photo of
us last night but I didn’t really think it would show up in a newspaper.”

“Be thankful
that Dad doesn’t read this garbage. So what is the story?”

“There’s no
story,” denied KT. “Daniel was a patient of mine and he invited me out for
dinner now that his therapy is over. That’s all.”

“I hope so, KT
because I don’t trust Daniel Tennant as far as I can throw him and definitely
not with my baby sister. Stay away from him! He’d swallow you whole and not
even get indigestion.”

“Oh, Paul,
don’t be so dramatic. Daniel’s not like that anymore, he’s changed.”

“KT, people like
Daniel Tennant don’t change, they deceive you into thinking that they have and
when you believe them they show their true colors.”

That sounded
familiar to KT. In fact it sounded exactly like what Daniel said when she was trying
to convince him that people could change. He and Paul were two of a kind.

“Maybe I should
give him a call,” said Paul.

“Don’t you
dare, Paul
Taylor!
  That would be so
embarrassing!  I’m 25 years old. I can take care of myself.  I don’t
need my big brother protecting me anymore.”

“OK.  No
need to get so hot!  I’ll back off, but I hope I don’t hear anything about
you and Daniel Tennant going out again. Stay away from him KT. I’m sure your
innocence is appealing to a man like him.  That is if he hasn’t taken it
already!”

“Paul! You know
I’m not like that.” KT was glad he couldn’t see the guilt all over her face
when she thought about how close he had come to the truth. “I know you love me
but please stay out of my business.  I can handle Daniel. Bye Paul.” But
could she?  If last night was any example, she’d just better stay away
from him.

Within minutes
of hanging up the phone it rang again.  It was Connie Haskins.

“Kathryn Taylor, you dark horse!
  Whatever happened to
‘I’m not interested in Daniel Tennant, he’s not my type and I’m not his?”
demanded
Connie.

“Hi Connie.
Have you been reading the tabloids too?  No
wonder those newspapers make so much money. It was just a date.  There’s
nothing going on.”

“I’m sure
there’s no such thing as ‘just a date’ with the Merger Mogul.  Be careful,
KT.  You’re so innocent I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt. He’s not over
there is he?”

“Of course not!
Thanks for your concern, Connie but I’ll be
fine. Bye.”

KT pulled the
pillow over her head and groaned.  She really didn’t want to get up and
face the world.  She definitely didn’t want to talk to, far less see,
Daniel Tennant. She knew that he’d be nothing but trouble from the start.

Daniel wanted
to call KT but he knew that she would probably be embarrassed and wouldn’t want
to speak to him.  He’d had a rough night, thinking about her and the way
she’d responded to him.  She was a volcano waiting to erupt and he wanted
to be the one to make her blow.  He couldn’t believe he’d walked away from
that. What was wrong with him? He tried not to think about the voice that he
had heard the night before.  It couldn’t have been God because he didn’t
believe that God talked to people, especially not to people like him.  So
maybe his conscience had been stirring. Not one to leave things unfinished,
except for last night, he mocked himself, he picked up the phone and called KT.

KT was pouring
a bowl of cereal when the phone rang.  She froze. Instinctively she knew
it was Daniel.  She didn’t know how but she just knew it was him. 
She let the answering machine pick up.

“Hi KT,
it’s
Daniel.  I know that you’re probably at home and
you just don’t want to talk to me or even see me again but please give me a
ring.” He hung up.

KT put down the
cereal box as feelings of deep shame came over her.  She felt that she
wanted to crawl into a hole and hide for the rest of her life. She groaned. Why
did she agree to go out with Daniel when she knew how attracted to him she
was?  He probably thought that she was a hypocrite.  Just a few
minutes before she was telling him that she didn’t sleep around and next thing
you know she was all over him like a hussy and worse yet, it was he who
stopped.  She groaned again.

The phone rang
again and she let it go to the answering machine for the second time.

“KT if you
don’t pick up I’m driving over there.  Would you prefer …?”

KT picked up
the phone. “Hi Daniel,” she said quietly, cringing all the while.

“Hi KT.
  I just wanted to apologize for coming on to
you last night so strong especially after what you’d just told me. All I can
say is that I lost my head. I’m sorry.”

KT stood there
in amazement.  Daniel was apologizing for last night? It wasn’t as if
she’d tried to stop him, far from.

“Daniel, please
don’t say anymore, I’m mortified at my behavior and quite frankly I don’t think
we should see each other again, at least not alone.”

“OK, if that’s
what will work for you, we can hang out with other people, but I don’t want to
stop seeing you KT. I’m beginning to really care about you.  Why do you
think I stopped last night?  And believe me it was the hardest thing I
ever did.”

KT felt a
thrill at Daniel’s words.  It was true, he did stop when he could have
pushed her to forget everything but what he was making her feel, but he
didn’t.  Could she really believe that Daniel seriously cared about
her?  She felt a surge of hope.

“Thanks
Daniel.  Maybe we could meet at cell group on Wednesday night if you want
to.”

“Great! I’ll
see you there. I hope you haven’t forgotten the cocktail party on Friday. 
Will you still come with me?

“Ok,” KT agreed
reluctantly.

“I’ll be on my
best behavior,” promised Daniel.

“Where have I
heard that before?” asked KT wryly.

Daniel hung up
with a satisfied smile. At least KT was speaking to him and he’d see her on Wednesday.
He’d prove to KT that he could keep his hands off her if, in fact, he could.

KT hung up the
phone and immediately called her friend Des.  As soon as she picked up the
phone KT said:

“Desiree
Rodriguez, you obviously haven’t been praying for me as you promised!”

“KT, what’s
happened?  I must admit that I haven’t been praying as much as I ought
to.”

“Well that much
is obvious.  I went out on a date with Daniel last night and almost ended
up in bed with him!  My bed!  The only reason we probably didn’t is
because he stopped!”

“KT, you’re
kidding!”

“I kid you
not,” replied KT.

‘You said that
he
stopped? That’s amazing. Maybe my prayers did work,” added Des smugly.
‘Seriously though, if he has that effect on you, you should avoid being alone
with him.”

“Tell me about
it. Des, he actually said that he’s beginning to care about me,
that’s
why he stopped.”

“Wow! 
Maybe God is doing something.”

“I hope so,”
confessed KT.  “I really hope so.”

KT made sure
that she arrived at cell group early on Wednesday so that she would get there
before Daniel, if he actually showed up.  She was both looking forward to
seeing him and dreading it. 

Richard opened
the door and greeted her with a hug.  She handed him the chips she’d
brought to contribute and headed to the living room where she began to help Ann
arrange the furniture for the night.

“Hi KT, you’re
very early.  Isn’t Daniel coming tonight?”

“I’m not
sure.  If he is, he’ll drive himself.”

“I thought you
two would come together.”

“We decided
that it would be best to have some space between us,” said KT. “Things were
beginning to get a bit intense.”

“Oh,” said Ann
understanding. “By the way, where is Daniel spiritually?”

“I’d say pretty
far from God.  He said that he believes that God is out there somewhere
but he’d never given him much thought before his surgery.”

“OK.  Well
you know he’s welcome any time. We’ll just love him as he is and let God do the
rest.”

The members of
the cell group began to arrive a few minutes later. Every time the door opened
KT tensed, waiting to see if it would be Daniel.  At about 8 o’clock
everyone was there and still Daniel hadn’t shown up.  She didn’t know if
to be glad or disappointed.

“We’d better
get started,” said Ann as she put on a CD.

Just then the
doorbell rang and Richard went to answer it.

“Welcome
Daniel,” KT heard him say in the hallway.

“Hi, Richard.
Here’s my contribution; some sushi
rolls.  Getting them made me a bit late. Sorry”

“No
problem.  We’re going to be spoiled tonight!” exclaimed Richard. “Daniel’s
here,” he announced leading Daniel into the living room, “and he brought
sushi!”

KT didn’t hear
the cheers and enthusiastic greetings.  Her heart had started racing and
she tried all she could to avoid Daniel’s eyes but she felt his compelling
stare on her. Eventually she could withstand it no longer and she met his eyes.

“Hi KT,” Daniel
smiled gently at her.

“Hi Daniel,”
she replied, relieved that his face bore no indication that he remembered
Friday night.

“OK everyone,
let’s get started,” said Ann turning up the CD again.

Daniel went
over and sat next to KT on the two-seater couch.  She was acutely aware of
him.  He looked very attractive in black jeans and a black sweater and she
could smell a hint of expensive cologne on him.  His thigh brushed against
hers and she withdrew a bit more to her side of the couch.

“How’ve you
been?” he whispered to her taking her hand.

“Fine,” said KT
attempting to take her hand back.

Daniel resisted
and kept her hand clasped in his, resting their joint hands on his thigh. 
KT had to admit that it felt right.  Daniel squeezed her hand slightly and
fought the urge to bring it to his lips. He tried to focus on what Ann was
saying.

“Does anyone
have anything they want to share, anything that happened this week?”

One of the
guys, David said: “Yeah, I do.  I just want to thank you guys for praying
for me about that advertising campaign I was working on. As I told you I
couldn’t get a handle on the campaign and no ideas were coming to me. Well, on
Saturday at about 2.30 in the morning, I suddenly woke up and ideas began to
flow.  It was as if a tap had been turned on. I couldn’t even get them
down on paper fast enough. I put together a basic Power Point presentation over
the weekend and showed it to my boss on Monday and he loved it.  Our
clients came in and saw it today and they were blown away! It was exactly what
they wanted.  That was totally God!”

Everybody
started to congratulate David and to say how awesome God was. Daniel looked
around at them curiously. He glanced at KT beside him to see her reaction and
found her examining his face as if to see what he was thinking. He raised his
eyebrow slightly at her as if to say: That was God? She smiled and turned her
attention back to the group where another guy was about to share his story.

“You guys know
that I can’t start my day without a Starbucks right?  Well, I always go to
the same one every day before I go to my office.  Last Thursday I had this
feeling to go to one a block further away so I went.  Well when I was
waiting for them to call my name I looked around and saw a guy I went to
college with.  I haven’t seen him for a few years so we got to talking and
exchanged business cards.  It turns out that his family has a big construction
company.  He looked at my card and told me that this was a real
coincidence because he was just about to tender the supply and installation of
the air-conditioning system for a building they’re going to be putting up
soon.”