Shawna Delacorte – At The Tycoon's Command (страница 3)

“If you have this proof, then I want to see it now.”

“Of course.” His manner was almost condescending as he smiled at her again, a smile that spoke volumes—a smile that said he had not been bluffing.

Jared opened the file folder and handed her copies of a signed contract and a signed, notarized promissory note for twenty thousand dollars. She fought to keep her hand from shaking as she stared at her father’s signature. She carefully read both documents. It all looked legal and binding. A sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. All her bravado crashed as the cold chill of reality sank in.

“I, uh, I want Gary Parker to look over these documents.”

“Is that your attorney?”

“Yes.”

“No problem.” Jared stood, picked up his attaché case and walked to the front door. “I’ll contact you in a couple of days to finalize the arrangements for the payment of the debt.”

Kim watched from the window as Jared returned to his car and drove away. It had been a very unsettling meeting, caused as much by the way he made her senses tingle as by the stressful outcome of their conversation. Why had her father insisted the debt didn’t exist when he had obviously signed a contract and a promissory note? She knew he couldn’t have already paid out the twenty thousand dollars to settle the debt. As executrix of his estate, she had been over his finances.

A hint of despair settled inside her as her gaze drifted around the living room of the old house, the house where she had grown up, the house where she had lived until seven years ago—the house where just yesterday mourners had gathered following her father’s funeral. Her father’s sudden death at the age of fifty-five from a massive coronary had come as a shock to her. She had always thought of him as being in good health. He had never mentioned anything about heart problems, but her conversation with his doctor before the funeral told a different story. Her father had known of his heart condition but had chosen not to follow his doctor’s orders.

She looked around the room again. It seemed like such a long time since she had moved from Otter Crest to accept her first job as an English teacher at a high school in San Francisco. In reality it had been only seven years, but it had been a very eventful seven years.

She had firmly established her career and earned the respect of her peers for her hard work and dedication to her teaching. She had twice been voted the most popular teacher by the student body of the school. The only downside had been her ill-fated engagement to Al Denton, a man whose idea of commitment to a relationship turned out to be that she was the one with the commitment and he was the one who could continue to date others.

Several months prior to the wedding, he’d changed. He had become overbearing, demanding, argumentative and controlling to the point where he made her life miserable. Whatever love she had felt for him quickly disappeared. She had broken the engagement, put the unfortunate experience behind her and gotten on with her life.

And now the past, in the form of Jared Stevens, had intruded into that neatly organized and smooth-running life.

She wandered into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of iced tea. How in the world could she ever pay off the debt, assuming it was legitimate? She didn’t even know the exact amount. All those years worth of interest on twenty thousand dollars would make the debt even more insurmountable.

She returned to the living room and sank onto the corner of the couch. She took a sip of her iced tea, then set the glass on the end table. Her stress level had already been up due to her father’s death, and now Jared Stevens had pushed it even higher. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. A vivid image of Jared popped onto the screen of her mind—his handsome features, the sexy grin and the intensity of his eyes. She felt the overwhelming magnetic pull of his presence even though he was no longer there. Her heart beat a little faster, and her breathing quickened.

Kim’s eyes snapped open, and she sat up straight. She didn’t like the very disconcerting effect he had on her senses or the idea that there was something about him she found very appealing. Their families had been at odds for three generations. He was the last person on earth she should be having sensual thoughts about and definitely the last person she wanted or needed in her life.

Jared had spent an uneasy two days wrestling with his impression of Kim Donaldson. Thoughts of her had managed to intrude on the date he’d had following their meeting to the point where he had become distracted and couldn’t concentrate on his stunning and willing companion of the evening.

Kim was not at all what he had anticipated and certainly not his type. After what his attorney told him about the meeting with her, he had fully expected to run into a disagreeable female hellcat. But much to his surprise, what he found was a beautiful and desirable woman who had instantly grabbed him in a way no other woman ever had. She set his pulse racing and definitely stirred his libidinous desires. But there was something else about her, something he couldn’t identify. And it was that unknown quality that he felt sure was going to cause trouble of a kind having nothing to do with business.

He had given careful consideration to the fact that the debt might be beyond her means. If Paul Donaldson’s house was any indication of his financial status at the time of his death, then Jared doubted that there was enough money in the estate to satisfy the debt plus several years of accrued interest. The small house was neat and clean, but the structure and its contents did not have much value on the open market. And being a schoolteacher meant Kim Donaldson was not in an income bracket that would allow her to easily assume a debt of that magnitude without having planned for the expense.

With a sigh of resignation and more than a little confusion about how to proceed, he gathered the appropriate paperwork and walked to his car. He had phoned and told her he would be there at 5:00 p.m. He knew he should have had her come to his summer office suite at the Stevens compound. That would have been more businesslike, more appropriate for the situation. But he hadn’t suggested it. He chose to drive to her father’s house even though it put the meeting on her home ground and on a more personal level. And he wasn’t sure exactly why he had made that decision.

A low level of anxiety pushed at him as he drove to the Donaldson home. For the first time in his life he experienced a brief moment when he wanted to turn around and retreat from a problem. But that was not a practical solution to the issue. He toyed with the notion that it was Kim Donaldson who had caused his apprehension rather than the circumstances of the business matter. The possibility made him nervous, something very unusual for the always-confident Jared Stevens.

As he climbed the steps to the porch, Kim opened the door. On more than one occasion over the past couple of days he had visualized the beautiful barefooted woman in the shorts and T-shirt—her slightly mussed hair giving her an earthy look, her full lips revealing a sensuous mouth, a flash of emotion sparkling in her blue eyes even though that emotion had been anger.

A little pang of disappointment jabbed at him when he saw the conservative way she had chosen to dress for their appointment. Unlike the first time he had arrived at her father’s house, she wore a simple white blouse, charcoal gray slacks and low-heeled shoes. His realization of that disappointment said more than he wanted to know. In their one brief meeting she had managed to capture his undivided attention and hold on to it. She was as much of a puzzle as she was a fascinating woman, far more complex than the women he usually associated with.

Kim stepped aside as he entered the house. At that moment he regretted his decision to set the appointment away from his office. This was one business meeting that he wanted to have over as quickly as possible. A little shiver darted up his spine. He had a strange sensation of upheaval, almost like a premonition that his life was about to take a strange detour from his intended course.

He sat on the couch, making a concerted effort to appear casual. He wasn’t as sure about how to proceed as he had been two days ago when he’d confronted Kim Donaldson. He gathered his determination. The debt wasn’t a personal matter, it was a company financial transaction and as such needed to be resolved.

“Has your attorney looked over the documents?”

Kim nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other, then finally sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the coffee table. For the previous hour she had been rehearsing what she wanted to say when he arrived, but now that he sat across from her, that confidence started to erode. He looked so calm and in control, as if he didn’t have a worry in the world, while in contrast her stomach churned in knots.