Kate Carlisle – How to Seduce a Billionaire (страница 4)

“Tell me what I can do to help.”

Kelly regarded him with interest. “You mean it?”

“Sure.” He was willing to do almost anything to get things back on track. If Kelly felt secure, she’d be able to do her work and stop worrying about this clown Roger. Then, once Roger was gone, she’d go back to behaving like the Kelly he was comfortable with. His universe would once more be in alignment.

“That would be wonderful,” she said with enthusiasm. “I could really use advice from someone like you.”

“Someone like me?”

She smiled and he was struck again by how beautiful she was. Damn, how blind had he been all these years?

“It’s just that the two of you are so much alike,” she said. “You and Roger, I mean. It would really help to get your perspective on things.”

“What do you mean, we’re alike?”

“I mean, both of you are strong and handsome and arrogant and ruthless and, you know, type A all the way.”

Huh. That was accurate enough, although he’d always thought he was fairly laid-back compared to his two brothers. He did appreciate the strong and handsome part of her description, though.

Kelly had stopped to ponder what she’d just said, then added softly, “Wow, no wonder Roger didn’t think I was enough for him.”

Brandon bristled. “Enough for him?”

She sighed. “You know what I mean. I wasn’t attractive enough for him.”

“What makes you say that?”

“He told me so when he broke up with me.”

For some reason, Brandon felt an irresistible urge to pulverize something. Like Roger’s face. “You’re kidding.”

“No,” she said wryly. “I’m really not. But you saw what I looked like before the makeover, Brandon. Plain, wholesome, unremarkable. Not exactly supermodel material.”

A twinge of guilt pinged inside him as he realized that was exactly how he’d always felt about her. But he’d considered that a good thing. Now he was just glad he’d never mentioned it out loud.

“But I understood where Roger was coming from,” she continued. “He is very special, after all.”

“Special? He sounds like a jackass.”

She tried to stifle a giggle but didn’t quite succeed. “Oh, he is, but he can’t help it. His family has a very strong influence on him. His mother’s ancestors came over on the Mayflower, you know.”

“Members of the crew, were they?” Shaking his head, he said, “Listen, Kelly, do you want me to have him killed? Because I know someone who knows someone who could—”

Kelly laughed. “That’s a sweet offer, but no. I just want to make him regret what he said when he broke things off, that’s all.”

He studied her for several moments. “He hurt you.” She shook her head. “No, no, he told me the truth and I have to be grateful for that.”

“Grateful? Why?”

She smiled tightly. “Because he helped me see things more clearly.”

“What kinds of things?” Brandon asked warily. “My own shortcomings.”

Once again, his fists were itching to punch something. Roger’s stomach, maybe, since he’d already mentally broken the jerk’s nose.

She smiled brightly. “So that’s why I’ve decided to get him back.”

“What? Get him back?” Why in the world would she want that scumbag back? Hell, Brandon didn’t even know Roger and he already hated him.

“Yes.” She spread her arms out. “And that explains the makeover.”

And with that, she made a show of checking her watch, effectively ending the conversation. Probably a good idea.

“So,” she said, changing the subject, “do you want me to order lunch from catering?”

He wasn’t finished talking about this, but clearly Kelly needed a time out. So he’d let it go. For now.

“Yeah, that would be great. I’ll have the steak sandwich.”

“Sounds good. I’ll call it in.”

He leaned forward in his chair. “Listen, Kelly, if you need any help or advice, anything at all, you’ll come to me. Promise?”

“Really? You mean it?”

“Absolutely.”

She studied his face as if she were weighing the depth of his sincerity. “You’re sure?”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t.”

She seemed to carry on a short debate with herself, then said, “Okay, there is one tiny thing you could help me with. If you wouldn’t mind.”

“You name it,” he said, reaching for his coffee mug.

“I’ll be right back.” She rushed out to her desk and was back in less than twenty seconds, holding a shopping bag from a well-known and expensive lingerie shop. Taking a deep, fortifying breath, she pulled some wispy scraps of sheer material from the bag and dangled them for him to see.

“Which do you like better, the black thong or the red panties?”

Two

He choked on his coffee.

Dismayed, Kelly ran around and pounded his back. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” he managed to say. “I’m fine.” He’d be even better once she backed off and her curvaceous breasts were no longer rubbing against his arm. He was only human, for God’s sake. And hard as granite.

He’d been tackled by some of the biggest linebackers in football history, but nothing had ever rendered him apoplectic before now. As he took a deep breath and let it out, the thought entered his mind that maybe she was trying to kill him. Could Roger have treated her so badly that she was going to take it out on every man she knew?

It wasn’t enough that she’d changed the playing field with her hot new look, but now she was shoving her panties at him. Didn’t she know that those little scraps of silk would be forever imprinted on his fragile male psyche? Now he would be forced to spend the next millennium imagining her in that black thong. Was she really that clueless?

“I didn’t mean to shock you,” she said. “But you said you would help.”

“Didn’t shock me,” he insisted, his voice sounding as if a frog had taken up residence in his throat. “Coffee went down wrong. Just… give me a minute.”

She finally moved back to her side of the desk and quickly shoved the bits of lace into the shopping bag.

“They’ll work just fine,” he said softly, not trusting his voice yet.

Her eyes glittered with hope. “Really?”

“Believe it,” he said with a nod. “Any normal guy would be grateful to see you in either pair.”

“You mean it?” Her eyes cleared and she smiled. “Thank you, Brandon. Oh, and I apologize again for springing them on you.”

“No problem.”

“To make this work, I really need to know what guys consider sexy.” She frowned, then admitted, “Roger never thought I was.”

“Never thought you were what?”

“Sexy.”

Brandon sat forward in his chair. “Does Roger have some kind of learning disability or something?”

She laughed. “Thanks for that. I’ll go order lunch now.”

“Good idea,” he said, thankful his voice had returned to full volume. “Oh, and Kelly?”