"For what?"

"For all of the times in the last seven days that you have made me smile." His lips covered hers in a warm, sweet kiss.

Katie realized that he had no intention of making love to her tonight, and she was grateful and touched by his restraint. She was emotionally spent and physically exhausted.

"What are your plans for tomorrow?" she asked a few minutes later, when he was leaving.

"My time is yours," Ramon said. "I had intend­ed to leave for Puerto Rico tomorrow. Since we will not be leaving until Sunday, the only commitment I have here is to breakfast with your father in the morning."

"Would you like to take me to work tomorrow morning before you meet him?" Katie asked. "It will give us some time together and you could pick me up afterward."

Ramon's arms tightened around her. "Yes," he whispered.

CHAPTER NINE

Katie sat at her desk idly rolling her pen between her fingers. Virginia was attending the Friday morn­ing operations meeting, which gave Katie until ten-thirty to make up her mind. An hour and a half to decide whether to resign her job or request two weeks' vacation and two additional weeks' leave of absence without pay.

She knew what Ramon wanted—no, expected— her to do. He expected her to resign, to make the break and sever all ties. If she merely requested a month off instead of resigning, he would feel that she was not committing herself wholeheartedly to him, that she was keeping an avenue of escape open to her.

Her mind drifted back to the way Ramon had looked at her this morning when he arrived to take her to work. His dark eyes had studied her face with piercing intensity. "Have you changed your mind?" he had asked, and when Katie replied that she hadn't, he had gathered her into his arms and kissed her with a mixture of violent sweetness and pro­found relief.

Each moment she spent with Ramon she grew closer to him emotionally. Her heart, for whatever reasons, kept telling her that he was right for her, that what she was doing was right. Her mind, how­ever, was screaming warnings at her. It told her this was happening too fast, too soon, and worse, kept tormenting her that Ramon was not what he seemed to be, that he was hiding something from her.

Katie's blue eyes clouded. This morning he had arrived wearing a beautiful loose-sleeved gold golf sweater. Twice before he had worn well-tailored business suits. It seemed so peculiar that a farmer, particularly an impoverished one, would own such clothes that Katie had bluntly asked him about it.

Ramon had smilingly informed her that farmers owned suits and sweaters just like other men. Katie had tentatively accepted that answer, but when she tried to find out more about him, he had evaded her questions by saying, "Katie, you will have many questions about me and about your future, but the answers are all in Puerto Rico."

Leaning back in her chair, Katie somberly watched the controlled bustle of activity in the per­sonnel reception area where applicants were filling out forms, taking tests and waiting to see Katie or one of her five male counterparts who all reported to Ginny.

Perhaps she was wrong to be uneasy about Ra­mon. Perhaps he wasn't being deliberately evasive. Perhaps this niggling, persistent fear was simply the result of her gruesome experience with marriage to David Caldwell.

Then again, maybe it wasn't. She would have to find out in Puerto Rico, but until all her fears were resolved, she could not risk resigning her job. If she did resign today she would be resigning without no­tice. If she resigned without notice, she would not be eligible for rehire at Technical Dynamics, nor would she get a good reference from them if she tried to go to work for another employer. Besides, Virginia would look like an absolute fool when she had to ex­plain to the vice-president of operations, who had just approved Katie's enormous raise that Katie, Virginia’s own protegee, had resigned without no­tice — like the most irresponsible transient who swept the floors.

Katie stood up, absently ran a smoothing hand over her elegant chignon, and walked out into the reception area, past Donna and the two other secre­taries who worked in personnel. Going into one of the cubicles where typing tests were given, she rolled a clean sheet of paper into the electric typewriter and stared at it, her hands poised indecisively over the keys, Ramon was expecting her to resign. He had said he loved her. Equally as important, Katie sensed in­stinctively that he needed her; he needed her very much. She felt disloyal merely taking a month off. She considered lying to him about it, but honesty mattered very much to Ramon and it was something that mattered a great deal to Katie, too. She didn't want to lie to him. On the other hand, after she had agreed last night to go to Puerto Rico and marry him, she couldn't imagine how to explain her doubts and misgivings this morning. She wasn't even cer­tain it would be wise to tell him how she felt yet. If she had told David that she suspected some hidden side to his character, he would have gone out of his way to conceal it and convince her otherwise. It seemed far better to simply go to Puerto Rico and give herself time to know Ramon better. With time, her doubts would either be resolved or her suspi­cions would be confirmed.

Sighing, Katie tried to think of a better excuse to give Ramon for her decision not to resign. It came to her in a flash of inspiration. It was the truth; it re­lieved all her feelings of disloyalty to Ramon, and it was something she would be able to make him understand. It was so obvious that Katie was amazed she had even considered resigning without notice.

Quickly and efficiently she typed out a formal re­quest to Virginia for two weeks' vacation beginning the next day, followed by two weeks' leave of absence without pay. Tonight she would simply ex­plain to Ramon that she could not possibly have resigned without notice in order to get married. Men did not resign without notice to get married, and if Katie did it would reflect badly on all the other women who were struggling so desperately for an equal opportunity to obtain positions in manage­ment. One of the most frequent arguments against hiring a woman in a management position was that they quit to get married or to have babies or to follow their husband when he was transferred. The director of operations was a closet male chauvinist. If Katie resigned without notice to get married, he would never let poor Virginia forget it, and he'd find some legally acceptable reason to disqualify any other female candidate Virginia wanted to hire for Katie's job. If, on the other hand, Katie resigned while on vacation in Puerto Rico, the two weeks re­maining to her as leave of absence would constitute two weeks' notice. That meant she would have only two weeks to resolve her fear about marrying Ramon.

Nevertheless, Katie felt tremendously relieved. Now that she'd thought about it rationally, she decid­ed that when and if she did resign while in Puerto Rico, she would not say that she was doing so to get married. She would say what men always said: she was resigning "to accept a better position."

Having decided that, Katie wound another sheet of paper into the typewriter, and dating it two weeks hence, formally resigned in order to accept a better position.

It was nearly eleven-thirty before Katie was finished with the applicants she was scheduled to interview. Picking up her vacation request and her postdated resignation, she walked into Virginia's of­fice, then hesitated.

Virginia was engrossed in recording figures on a huge ledger sheet, her dark head of short-cropped hair bent over the task. She looked, as she always did, businesslike and feminine. The Dainty Dynamo, Katie thought with affection.

Straightening her navy blazer and smoothing the pleats of her red-and-blue-plaid skirt, Katie plunged in. "Ginny, can you spare me a few minutes?" she asked nervously, using the nickname she ordinarily used only after business hours.

"If it's not urgent, give me half an hour to finish this report first," Ginny repl

ied without looking up.

With each second Katie's tension was mounting. She didn't think she could last another half hour. "It—it's rather important."

At the shakiness in Katie's voice, Ginny quickly raised her head. Very slowly, she laid her pen on the desk and watched Katie approach, her forehead creased with puzzled concern.

Now that the time had come, Katie couldn't think how to begin. She handed Virginia her vacation-leave-of-absence request.

Virginia scanned it, the vague alarm clearing from her forehead. "It's short notice to request a month off," Ginny said, laying the paper aside. "But you're entitled to the vacation, so I'll approve it. Why are you also requesting two weeks' leave of absence?"

Katie sank into the chair in front of Virginia's desk. "I want to go to Puerto Rico with Ramon. While I'm there I'll decide whether or not to marry him. In case I do decide to do that—here's my resig­nation. The two weeks' leave of absence can serve as my notice, that is, if you'll let me do it that way."

Virginia sank back in her chair and stared at Katie in astonishment. "Who?" she said.

"The man we talked about on Wednesday." When Virginia continued to stare at her incredulous­ly, Katie explained, "Ramon has a small farm in Puerto Rico. He wants me to marry him and live there."

Virginia said "My God."

Katie, who had never seen Virginia like this, add­ed helpfully, "He's Spanish, actually."

Virginia said "My God" again.

"Ginny!" Katie implored desperately. "I know this is sudden, but it's not that unbelievable. It's—"

"Insane," Virginia announced flatly, at last re­covering her brisk composure. She shook her head as if to clear it. "Katie, when you mentioned this man two days ago I imagined him as not only hand­some, but having a style and sophistication to match yours. Now you tell me that he's a Puerto Rican farmer, and you're going to be his wife?"

Tags: Judith McNaught Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net