After giving herself a talking to, Kate toweled off as the water drained. She applied her nightly facial serums and creams. Her grandmother’s voice spoke in the back of her mind. “Spread it on your neck and down to your décolletage. You don’t want to have tennis chest.” As she spread the cream down her chest, all she could imagine were Grant’s hands on her.
“Forget about him!” she hissed at herself. What was wrong with her? Afterthe incident, she had sworn off falling for men. She was concentrating on building her professional reputation. That was her goal, and sleeping with her boss’s son did not meet that objective at all.
She slipped into the four-poster bed with the softest sheets imaginable. Normally, she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, but she tossed and turned all night. By the time the early hints of sun peeked through her window, she wasn’t feeling any more rested.
“I’m going to stop trying to sleep and accomplish something productive,” she said. She went down to the gym on the first floor of the house and lifted weights, then she jumped in the pool for a swim. After working out, she felt slightly more balanced. She dressed then waved to her grandmother, who was already dressed and breakfasting in the solarium.
“I’m off!” she said cheerily.
“Do bring the young Mr. Holbrook to the club, Kate. We must show him off!”
“Bye, Grandma!” Kate said.
“I hope you put on nice underwear just in case!”
Kate ignored her grandmother and took off at a brisk walk to the Holbrook estate. She greeted Stefan, the butler, at the door.
“Grant is taking his breakfast on the terrace,” he told her, “if you would like to join him. I’m sure you need to go over the day’s itinerary. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.”
“Of course. Thank you,” she replied and went out to the back of the house.
She paused for a moment, looking at the scene before her. Grant was sitting on the stone terrace, his chair half turned toward her, the morning sun bathing his skin. He was wearing sunglasses that Stefan had pilfered from Walter’s collection. He looked as if he belonged, surrounded by all the elegant surroundings. She could see him smile as Gus ran around the table. She walked over to him, her heels clicking on the polished stone. Grant propped his sunglasses on his forehead to look at her.
“Good morning,” he said. She gave him a professional smile and took some of the eggs and toast from the serving platter.
“Did you sleep all right?” she asked him.
“It was fine.”
“Great!” she said too brightly, trying not to look at him and catch the hungry look in his eye. “I’d like to go over the itinerary for the day, if you don’t mind.”
Chapter 6
Grant
Grant did not want to go over an itinerary. The only thing he wanted on his schedule for that day was to take Kate up to the room and finish what he’d started the previous night.
After she’d run off, he finally caught Gus and took the corgi upstairs with him. He had splashed cold water on his face, but it didn’t do any good. Even though he was exhausted, Grant hadn’t been able to fall asleep. He lay in the too-soft bed and tried not to think about Kate. But her smell and the softness of her skin burrowed into his consciousness and wouldn’t leave him. Gus didn’t help matters. Every time Grant thought he was about to fall asleep, the puppy would whine, needing to take a trip to the little boy-dog’s room.
In the very early morning, Grant finally managed to grab an hour of sleep after lying down on the floor. He had been awakened by Stefan’s knocking on the door. The butler had interrupted Grant’s vivid dream of Kate straddling him and lazily moving her hips. The knock had jolted him out of the fantasy, and he had jumped up as he heard the door open.
“Rise and shine,” Stefan had announced, opening the curtains.
“I’m up,” Grant told him.
“Very good! You have a busy day today.”
Grant had taken an icy-cold shower to wake up and then did two hundred pushups and some core exercise routines. After taking a slightly warmer shower to wash the sweat off and dressing in his biological father’s old clothes that were hanging in the closet, he had gone down to the terrace for breakfast.
“Kate will be joining you shortly,” Stefan had told him as he set out the food in steaming polished silver containers.
Gus got his own bowl, and Grant ate, listening to the sounds of a happy corgi munching. He steeled himself, however, as he heard Kate’s voice echo through the French doors leading out to the terrace. He wondered what her reaction would be when she saw him.
Calm professionalism,he decided after listening to her talk about the itinerary.She’s just going to pretend like it didn’t happen. And you should do the same,he thought.
“We’ll go for a brief walk around the grounds and then into town,” she said brightly.
Grant nodded then asked, “Aren’t you going to change your shoes?” He pointed to the expensive-looking stilettos on her feet.
