Corporate Affair by Unknown

bitten her tongue. Red stained the tanned heights of his cheekbones as he reacted to the comparison of himself with the other man. His fingers on her wrist tightened bruisingly.
    Impulsively, without stopping to think, Kalinda lifted her hand to touch the side of his face with a placating gesture, her eyes soft and apologetic.
    "I’m sorry I said that," she whispered huskily. "I didn’t mean to imply you were anything like him. I know you’re not, believe me."
    She waited in an agony of suspense, watching the play of emotions across his features. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, hadn’t really stopped to think that he could be hurt. Not by her. He hardly knew her!
    "That," he finally said evenly, "was a rather low blow!"
    She winced, unconsciously sinking her teeth into her lower lip as she met his hard, accusing stare.
    "I know. I’m sorry." She didn’t know what else to say.
    He searched her face a moment longer and then appeared to relax slightly. "But maybe you weren’t so far off the mark," he sighed. "I suppose it must sound like sheer male ego talking when I tell you all I need is one night to put that man out of your head forever."
    Kalinda said nothing, but she didn’t deny his statement. His mouth twisted wryly. He raised his free hand and wrapped it around her neck under the fall of brown-blond hair. She felt him lightly massaging her nape and against her will her knees seemed to weaken. She didn’t understand his affect on her but she knew it was dangerous. Far more dangerous than any risks she might be running in her plot to avenge herself on David.
    "All I can say, sweetheart, is that it isn’t my ego talking, it’s that ‘perception’ you keep crediting me with," he half-smiled. "Won’t you listen to it?"
    "Rand, we aren’t meant for each other. Not even for a night," Kalinda said sadly. "Can’t you understand that? We’re two entirely different people. You need an easy-going, outdoorsy sort of woman. Perhaps someone who is also an artist."
    "And you’re a high-powered, competitive female executive who likes the good things in life, right?" he finished for her with a knowing look. "A woman who knows what she wants in a relationship and doesn’t think she’s going to find it in me. After all, I’m a lazy, good-for-nothing, ski-bum-fisherman who sells a few artsy-craftsy things on the side to keep the wolf from the door. Completely lacking in the good old American work ethic."
    Kalinda thought about the white Lotus and the expensively furnished home by the lake and refrained from inquiring as to the source of those things. She might not like the answer. The thought that she had met up with a professional gigolo and had almost let him make love to her was totally unnerving. She didn’t want to know which rich lady tourist had paid for the Lotus last winter!
    But even as she thought the worst of him, Kalinda knew she didn’t have all the facts. She barely knew him. She would try to refrain from judging him. He had his own life to live just as she had hers.
    "Rand, please, don’t put words in my mouth. Let’s just say we come from two different walks of life, okay? We should never have let ourselves get carried away like this on the basis of a simple physical attraction."
    "Well, at least you’re admitting we have got that much going for us!"
    She smiled weakly, shaking her head in exasperation. "I can’t very well deny that, can I? But it’s not enough. I’m not in the market for a weekend affair and that’s final. I think I’d better be getting back to the motel."
    "What about dinner tonight?" he countered coolly. "I’ve already bought the steaks and the wine."
    She looked at him helplessly. "And changed the sheets on the bed, too, I expect?"
    He stared at her for a second and then grinned that engaging, slightly feral grin which was so unbelievably attractive on him. "How did you guess?"
    "I have this strange feeling you’ve got the routine down pat!"
    "No," he denied at once,