His expression hardened. “I’m not stealing anything. FMJ is providing your failing company with some much-needed cash. We’re here to keep you in business.”
“Oh, really. How generous of you.” She buried all her trepidation beneath a veneer of sarcasm. As she always did. It was so much easier that way. “Since that’s the case, why don’t you just write out a nice hefty check and leave it on the table on your way out. I’ll call you in a decade or so to let you know if it helped.”
“A big, fat check might help if all you needed was an infusion of cash. But the truth is, Biedermann’s needs a firm hand at the helm and you can’t have one without the other. You know that’s not how this works.”
His words might have been easier to swallow if he’d sounded apologetic instead of annoyed. No, wait … there wasn’t really any way that anything he said could be easier to swallow.
“No. Of course that’s not how it works. You’ll go over the company with a fine-toothed comb. You’ll tear it apart, throw out the parts you don’t like and hand the rest back in pieces. In the end, everything my family’s worked for for five generations will be gone. All so you can turn a quick profit.”
“Tell me something. Is that really what’s bothering you?”
Of course it wasn’t what was really bothering her. What was really bothering her was that he was here at all. Her safe, what-the-hell-I’m-stuck-in-Texas fling hadn’t stayed where it was supposed to. In Texas. What was the point of having a fling with a stranger if the man ended up not being a stranger at all?
But she couldn’t say that aloud. Especially given the way he was looking at her. With his expression so intense, so sexual, so completely unprofessional, it sent a wave of pure shock through her system.
“W-what do you mean?”
“Come on, Kitty. This anger you’re clinging to isn’t about Biedermann’s at all. This is about what happened in Texas.”
She quickly buried her shock beneath a veneer of disdain. “Texas. I’m surprised you’d have the guts to bring that up.”
“You are?”
“Of course.” She strolled to the other side of the conference table. “I’d think you would be the last person to want to hash that over. But since you brought it up, maybe you can answer a question for me. Was anything you told me true or was it all pretense?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know. That whole charade you put on to pick me up back in Texas. That aw-shucks, I’m just a simple cowboy trying to make a living act.”
“I never said I was a cowboy.”
“No. But you had to know that’s what I thought.”
“How exactly was I supposed to know that?” His facade of easy charm slipped for a moment and he plowed a hand through his hair in frustration. He sucked in a breath and pointed out in a slightly calmer tone, “You weren’t exactly forthcoming about who you were, either.”
“I did nothing wrong.” True, she hadn’t exactly presented him with her pedigree when they’d first met, but surely it didn’t take a genius to see she didn’t fit in at that bar. If there had been an obvious clue he didn’t, either, she’d missed it entirely. She refused to let him paint himself the victim. “I don’t have anything to apologize for. I’m not the one who pretended to be some down on his luck cowboy.”
“No, you’re just the one who gave me a fake phone number instead of admitting you didn’t want to see me again.”
“If you knew I didn’t want to see you again,” she asked, “then why did you go to the trouble of hunting me down?”
“I didn’t hunt you down. What happened in Texas has nothing to do with FMJ’s offer.”
“Then how exactly did the offer come about anyway?” she asked. “If you didn’t go back to work and say, ‘Wow, that Kitty Biedermann must be really dumb to have fallen for my tired old lines. I bet we could just swoop in and buy that company right from under her.’”
His gaze narrowed to a glare. “You know that’s not how it happened.”
“Really? How would I know that? What do I really know about you other than the fact that you’re willing to misrepresent yourself to get a woman into bed with you?”
“I never lied to you. Not once. And despite the fact that you’re acting like a brat, I won’t start now.”
“Maybe you didn’t lie outright, but you certainly misled me. Of course, maybe that’s the only way you can get a woman into bed.”
Ford just smiled. “You don’t believe that. The sex was great.” He closed in on her, getting right in her face as if daring her to disagree.
God, she wanted to. That would serve him right.
But when she opened her mouth, she found the denial trapped inside her. Between the intensity of his eyes and the memories suddenly flooding her, she just couldn’t muster up the lie.
Instead she said the only thing that popped into her mind. “You can’t convince me that FMJ is prepared to buy Biedermann’s solely so you can get laid.”
He grinned wolfishly. “Boy, you think highly of yourself.”
“You were the one who brought up sex,” she pointed out.
“You didn’t let me finish. I was going to close with the suggestion that we both try to forget it happened.”
“Oh, I won’t have any trouble with that,” she lied easily, barely even cringing as she waited for the bolt of lightning to strike her down.
“Excellent.” He bit off the word. “Then you agree from here on out, it’s all business?”
“Absolutely.” Her smiled felt so tight across her face she was surprised she could still breathe. But she kept it in place as she crossed back to the door.
Jonathon and Marty were waiting in the office outside the conference room. If they’d picked up on the tension, neither commented. Thank goodness. She simply wouldn’t have had the strength to come up with any more lies today. Between the lies she’d told Ford and the lies she was telling herself, she was completely out.
“Everything okay?” Jonathon asked, more to Ford than to her.
However, she didn’t give the treacherous bastard a chance to answer. Instead, she dug deep and pulled out one more lie. “Mr. Langley was just assuring me Biedermann’s is going to be in great hands with you.” She held out her hand to gesture him back into the conference room. “Why don’t you come in and we’ll talk money.”
Kitty’s head was pounding by the time she finally made it back to her office alone. The simple truth was nothing could have prepared her for this.
She thought she’d been ready, but she hadn’t, really. Not to sit in a conference room and listen politely while strangers discussed her beloved Biedermann’s—while they calmly talked about compensation packages. While they talked about key positions in the company they’d need to replace.
Oh, they’d started by reassuring her that she would stay on as president of the subsidiary, but she knew she wouldn’t have control. Not really. She’d be a figurehead, at best. A pretty adornment to make things look good. It’d be pathetic if it wasn’t so sad. But the really pathetic thing was she would let herself be used that way.
She loved Biedermann’s. She’d do whatever it took to save it. Even if she had to sell her soul to the devil. Or in this case, Ford Langley.
Three
If she thought her day couldn’t get any worse, she was wrong. She ran into Ford in the elevator