Beyond Temptation (Forged of Steele #3)
Wendy had already left for the day and the office was quiet. Although Lena tried concentrating on the listing of new homes she had in front of her, she found her focus wasn’t what it should be. One part of her was absorbed with anger for a certain group of people—those who thought they were influential enough to dictate how people should live their lives and with whom. Then another part of her knew that bowing out was the best thing. It had nothing to do with pride, confidence or self-esteem but everything to do with making a sacrifice for the man she loved. Under any other circumstances, she and Morgan might have had a chance to make their “marriage of purpose” work, but now entering into such an agreement with him would serve no purpose. He needed a different type of woman to be by his side and have his baby, and that woman wasn’t her.
She glanced up when the phone on her desk began to ring. She picked it up. “Yes?”
“It’s Morgan.”
Lena’s throat suddenly felt tight. She swallowed past the lump before saying, “Yes, Morgan?”
“I’m outside at your office door. Let me in.”
When she heard the click she pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it a few moments before hanging it up. The last person she wanted to see right now was Morgan. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and slumped back in her chair. If he had given her time, she would have told him to go away because she couldn’t see him now.
Not bothering to slip back into her shoes she stood and headed down the hallway toward the door. She could clearly see Morgan through the glass front. As usual, he was dressed immaculately like the businessman he was. He was wearing a navy blue suit, a light blue shirt and a printed tie that coordinated perfectly.
She turned off the alarm and unlocked the door and then stepped back as he entered and watched as he raised a brow and searched her face. “Are you okay?”
She wondered if he’d found out about her conversation with Cassandra and her nasty-girl squad but then figured that he couldn’t have. “Yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her. “You tell me. We had a dinner date and when I arrived one of the waiters said you had been there but left, and that you’d left a message that something had come up and you had to leave. Of course the first thought that crossed my mind was that something had happened to Odessa. I tried calling you at home and she picked up. When I asked for you she said you were at the office working late. So what was the big emergency, Lena?”
If only he knew. But at the moment she didn’t plan on telling him anything. “There was no big emergency, Morgan. I figured there were some things I could be doing here and figured our talk could wait. No biggie.”
He continued to stare at her and then gestured to the hallway leading to her office. “Do what you were doing before I got here while I bring everything in.”
She arched a brow. “Everything like what?”
“Dinner.”
“Dinner?”
“Yes, dinner,” he replied. “Have you eaten?”
“No, but I didn’t expect you to bring me anything.”
“No, what I expected was to have dinner with you at McIntosh’s. So I got takeouts.”
Her brows arched a little higher. “McIntosh doesn’t do takeouts.”
“They do if you know the right people.”
At the moment that wasn’t what she needed to hear. She threw up her hands. “Yes, you’re right,” she all but snapped. “It’s all about connections, isn’t it?”
He frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing,” she said and quickly turned away from him. After taking a deep breath she turned back toward him. “I’m just not in a good mood at the moment.”
He nodded as if he understood when he honestly didn’t have a clue, she thought. “Look, I have a tray table around here somewhere. I’ll go dig it out.” And then she walked off, leaving him standing there.
By the time Lena had located the tray table, Morgan had brought in all the bags of food, and a delicious scent filled her office. If she wasn’t hungry before, she was certainly hungry now. She also noticed that Morgan had brought in his briefcase.
“Need help with anything?” he asked.
She glanced over in his direction. He had removed his jacket and looked rather comfortable in her office. “No, I don’t need help. Thanks for asking.”
“No problem.”
She continued what she was doing as she drew in a deep breath. She and Morgan were virtually acting like strangers and not like the two people who had mated like rabbits yesterday. A part of her wished she could remove what happened yesterday from her mind. And then there was the chat they’d had online last night. How can you move from a high level of intimacy to a lower one that was basically nonintimate?