Shawna Delacorte – In Forbidden Territory (страница 3)

He nodded his agreement. “I’d put sailing at the top of that list, which is fortunate since the design and construction of custom sailboats is the business we’re in. Otherwise it sounds exactly like my choices.”

Angie took a couple of bites of her salad. “We’ve certainly talked about me long enough.” She shot him a quizzical look. “How about you? What’s your family like?”

Her memories of Tyler Farrell were from fourteen years ago. Even a ten-year-old could recognize an arrogant jerk with a roving eye for women. Judging by the way he had been looking her over for the past hour it was equally obvious that he still had that roving eye.

There was no question in her mind exactly what Ty was thinking. One glance at the devilish sparkle in his eyes and his wickedly tantalizing grin said it all. But there was more to Tyler Farrell than just the surface good looks. She sensed an honesty about him in direct contrast to the sexy gleam in his eyes and the playboy image he seemed to enjoy projecting. It was the type of honesty that said she would be safe from unwanted advances. He would probably make a pass, but he would accept no for an answer and not press her. And the same would be true even if she wasn’t his business partner and best friend’s sister.

Yes, when she was ten she had thought he was a jerk. A tingle of excitement heated her insides, telling her just how attractive she found him now. It had been six months since she had broken off her engagement to Caufield Woodrow III, a man her mother had kept telling her she should hang onto. A man who had everything—wealth, family position, social status and a guaranteed future. A man who could have given her everything she wanted. But Angie had disagreed. Maybe he could have given her everything material, but he had not given her any consideration for what she wanted out of life—it had been all about him and what he wanted…no one else.

And he didn’t know how to have fun. She had never laughed when she was with Caufield. She liked to laugh. Everything had always been so serious with him. Everything had to be planned out well in advance. He had needed two weeks’ notice to do something spontaneous. It had been a stifling relationship, one that had smothered her in a cloak of his creation. One in which she had finally realized she had been suffocated to the point where she could hardly breathe. She shook away the thoughts. It was old territory that she didn’t want to go over again. She was relieved to be out of the relationship.

“My family…” Ty took a deep breath, held it a moment, then exhaled. The word dysfunctional immediately leaped to his mind. He was an only child who had been raised with money and privilege, but it was not a substitute for the type of closeness Mac had with his family—the type Angie had just described. The predominant memory from his early years was the constant fighting between his mother and father. His parents had finally divorced when he was in high school, but it hadn’t stopped their ongoing battles.

And then there had been his disastrous two-year marriage shortly after he had graduated from college. Hardly a day had gone by without some sort of argument or at the very least enough tension to fill a football stadium. Family? A happy, loving marriage and close family was something he had never seen or experienced firsthand. It was something he would have said didn’t exist if it weren’t for the single exception of Mac and his family. But marriage and emotional closeness were things he would never know and he didn’t want to try to capture it with another attempt at a relationship—an attempt he knew would be doomed to failure from the beginning.

He extended what he hoped would be a confident smile. “I was an only child, born and raised in Seattle. My parents both live in the Seattle area, my mother in Bellevue and my father on Mercer Island. I think that about covers it.”

“That’s certainly succinct and to the point.” She returned his smile, letting him know she was not offended by his brief and evasive answer to her question even though she found it puzzling.

Lunch continued in a more comfortable vein. After the initial time of finding out a little about each other, the conversation turned to more casual topics and a surprisingly fun-filled two hours with lots of laughs. Each relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful day. Following lunch, they walked back to the offices.

“You know, Mac is going to be tied up for several days. My time is a lot more flexible than his right now so I’ll be happy to show you around—” his gaze locked with hers for an intense moment, sending a heated wave of desire through his body “—if you don’t mind the last-minute tour guide substitution.”

“No…” A sizzling second of eye contact told her more than she wanted to know about the sexual magnetism of Tyler Farrell. A little shiver of trepidation tried to work its way to the forefront. “I don’t mind at all.”

“Do you have plans for this evening?” The tightness returned, like a band pulling across his chest, making it difficult for him to breathe. “I could pick you up at Mac’s house at seven o’clock.”

“That will be perfect.”

Ty watched as she got in her car and drove away. He took a deep breath and held it for a moment. He slowly exhaled as he entered the building, crossed the lobby and walked down the hallway, but it did nothing to calm his inner turmoil. Angie Coleman had made a definite impact on his senses and he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

He paused at Mac’s office, leaning casually against the door frame. “I’m back from lunch.”

Mac looked up from his work, glancing over Ty’s shoulder. “Where’s Angie?”

“She left. I suppose she went back to your house.”

“Thanks for filling in for me and taking her to lunch.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mac.” Ty flashed his patented smile. “It was certainly my pleasure.”

“I’ll have to make it up to her tonight. Maybe take her out to dinner or something.” Mac glanced at the clock on his desk. “If I can get out of here at a decent hour.”

“No need for you to quit earlier than you want to just so you can rush home to an empty house. I’m taking Angie out tonight.” He cocked his head and tried to suppress his grin. “You know…pizza and a movie, just like you suggested.”

Ty noted the cautionary look on Mac’s face, but didn’t want to start a conversation about it. He didn’t want his business partner asking what his intentions were toward Angie. He didn’t want to think about what his intentions were, to define the disjointed feelings and sensations that had been floating around inside him from the moment he had seen Angelina Coleman framed in the office door.

Angie checked the clock. She still had about an hour before Ty would be picking her up. She had spent the afternoon working on her resume. When Mac had told her he was busy and wouldn’t be able to take her to lunch, she had been disappointed. She wanted the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with him, dig into the operational procedures of the company, create a viable niche for herself in the organization, then pitch the idea to Mac about hiring her.

She wanted a job with Mac’s company, but she didn’t want him to hire her just because she was his sister—to once again come to her rescue, to take care of her. She wanted to prove herself to him and earn a job based solely on her own merit. She wanted him to respect her as a capable adult rather than protect her like a child. She wanted his approval.

Then her thoughts turned to Ty. If she had an ally within the company she just might have a better chance of Mac paying attention rather than in essence telling her to run along and play—to not worry her cute little head about anything. That was what had happened six months ago when she had first broached the subject of a job with Mac’s company. She’d had her mother mention the job possibility to him. It was right after she had broken off her engagement. Her insecurities were at odds with her aspirations. She had been too scared and intimidated to approach Mac herself. All he had done was laugh and say how cute it was of little Angie to want to go to work for him. At that moment it was obvious to her that she needed to prove herself first if he was ever going to take her seriously.

Ty was not family. He wouldn’t have any preconceived notions about who she was or what she should be doing with her life, what predetermined category she should fit in. She furrowed her brow into a slight frown for a moment. At least she hoped Mac hadn’t put any preconceived ideas into Ty’s head. If she could enlist his help, she was sure the two of them could get Mac to listen to reason and shed his old notions.

Angie glanced at the clock again, then put away her work materials so she could get ready for her date with Ty. She paused a moment, a reflective mood coming over her. Date…it wasn’t a date. He was just being polite, seeing that she wasn’t having dinner alone while Mac worked on his deadline project. That was all it was. Nothing more. She closed her eyes and an immediate image of his dazzling smile and good looks popped into her mind. The same sensation she experienced when he had clasped her hand began to spread across her skin. Her breathing quickened and a tingle of excitement told her there was something very special about this man whether she wanted it to be that way or not.