It Happened in Manhattan: Affair with the Rebel Heiress / The Billionaire's Bidding / Tall, Dark & Cranky

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That’s what.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she stammered.

She pressed a palm to her stomach as if to still the fluttering in her belly. He grabbed her by the wrist and held her hand out between them. “Look at you. You’re shaking.”

She jerked her hand away and thrust it behind her back. “So what if I am? Those things make me nervous.”

“Yeah. I noticed. But that’s no excuse for letting that reporter walk all over you.”

Kitty glared at him. “What was I supposed to do?”

“You were supposed to defend yourself.”

“How could I defend myself? She was badgering me with questions. There was nothing I could do.”

“Kitty, I’ve watched you go toe-to-toe with a drunken rancher twice your size. Hell, every time we meet you try to rip me a new one. You know how to hold your own in a fight. That ninety-pound reporter shouldn’t have had a chance.”

She turned away, obviously searching for an explanation that would placate him. Finally she said simply, “That reporter was telling the truth.”

“About us?” he asked. “We agreed what happened between us is nobody’s business but our own. If you had a problem lying in a press conference, you should have told me that before—”

“Not about us,” she interrupted. “About me.” Again she turned away from him, but this time he sensed it was because she couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze. “All those things she said about me were true.”

“Kitty—”

“About me being ‘woefully unprepared.’” There was a disparaging sneer in her voice. “About my gross incompetence. It’s all true.”

He stared at the stiff lines of her back, barely comprehending her words. She looked like someone waiting to be hit.

For a moment he could only stare at her while he sorted through his confusion. “What do you mean? You’re not incompetent.”

“You only think that because I do such a good job hiding it. But I don’t know what I’m doing. I wasn’t prepared to run Biedermann’s. The board never should have named me CEO.”

“Kitty, being a CEO is a difficult job. People are rarely prepared for it. In your situation it was worse because your father’s death was so unexpected and you were grieving for him. I’m sure it feels overwhelming. But that doesn’t make you incompetent.”

She glanced over her shoulder, sending him a watery smile. Where those tears in her eyes?

“You’re not listening to me. No amount of preparation would have been enough. I’m just not smart enough.”

And then he made his biggest mistake. He laughed.

She flinched. Exactly as if she’d been slapped. She was facing the windows again, so he didn’t see her expression, but he would bet those tears were spilling down her cheeks by now.

He wanted to cross the room to her, take her in his arms and offer her comfort, but he knew that stubborn pride enough to know she wouldn’t want him to see her crying. He wouldn’t add insult to injury by making her face him.

“Kitty, I’m sorry, but the idea that you’re not smart is ridiculous.”

“Ford—”

“I’ve listened to you verbally skewer just about everyone you talk to. You can work a crowd like no one I’ve ever seen. Anyone who can hold their own in a room full of wealthy socialites could not possibly be stupid. If you weren’t smart, believe me, I’d have noticed by now.”

She shot him an exasperated look. “Why are you arguing with me about this? When my father and grandmother were still alive, they protected me the best they could. When my father died unexpectedly, I should have had the sense to step aside. But I was selfish. I love this company more than anything. I thought that would be enough. But I only made a mess of things.”

She seemed so dejected, so unlike her normal self, he reached out a hand to her, but she deftly slipped out of his reach.

“You mentioned at the press conference that you’d be doing some restructuring. If you really intend to do everything in your power to ensure Biedermann’s is financially viable, then you’ll fire me.”

Nine

“What the hell is up with Kitty?”

Ford cornered Casey looking for some answers. Casey glanced up from the pot of coffee she was making just as Ford shut the door to the break room.

Casey slanted him a look from under her shaggy bangs. “Do you mean, like, today? Or ever?”

The previous times he’d spoken to Casey, she’d impressed him as being little more than a surly reprobate. He’d wondered how such a girl had gotten a job at Biedermann’s, let alone kept it. Nevertheless, the best way to get the dirt on someone was through his or her assistant. Besides, she seemed to be the only person Kitty might confide in.

So Ford flashed Casey a sympathetic smile. “Kitty must be pretty tough to work for, huh?”

The girl’s characteristic frown darkened to a full-fledged glower as she shoved the coffeepot onto the heating element and flicked the on/off toggle. “If you’re just looking to talk trash about Kitty, you’ll have to find someone else. I’m not into that kind of negative bonding. This job’s too important to me.”

He held up his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I was just trying to be sympathetic.”

“You were just trying to dig for information,” Casey said shrewdly as she pulled a clean coffee mug from the cabinet.

“Maybe I was,” he admitted, more than a little surprised by Casey’s show of loyalty. Since the negative bonding Casey had accused him of obviously wasn’t going to work, he decided to take a different tack. “Kitty’s not always the most forthcoming person. I’m trying to figure her out. That doesn’t make me the enemy.”

Casey shot him a suspicious look, but said nothing as she poured cream and then sugar into the mug. She sent an equally dark look at the coffeemaker, which was gurgling slowly. Poor girl was obviously torn between her need for caffeine and her desire to storm out in a huff.

“I’m trying to help her. But I can’t do that unless I understand what’s going on. Something’s—”

“You’re trying to get her fired.”

“I’m not.” Hell, that was the last thing he wanted. Keeping Kitty employed and well taken care of would at least minimize his guilt. “I’m trying to save her job. But she’s not giving me anything to work with. She’s—”

“She’s too proud,” Casey said quietly, without meeting his gaze.

“Exactly.” Encouraged by the lack of belligerence in Casey’s tone, he pressed on. “Do you have any idea why she would think I should fire her?”

“She said that?” Casey’s voice held a note of panic.

Wasn’t that interesting. “You’re really worried about her losing her job.”

“Hey, I know what people around here think. That she’s such a b—” Casey broke off and seemed to be considering the hazards of cussing in front of the man who was ultimately her boss. “Such a witch—” she corrected “—to work for that I’m the best she can get. But it’s not like that.”

Ford said nothing. He’d wondered himself how exactly a surly, semicompetent girl like Casey had landed a prime job like the assistant to the CEO of a major company.

“She’s the best boss I ever had,” Casey continued. “And if I lost this job, I’m guessing I’d lose the scholarship, too.”

“The scholarship?”

“Yeah. The scholarship that pays tuition for community college for all Biedermann employees. ‘Cause there’s no way I could pay for college on my own. I’d have to drop out of HCCC.” “Oh. That scholarship.”

He’d read just about everything on Biedermann company policy, and he’d never heard of an employee scholarship. Which made him think Kitty was paying for this girl’s college out of her own pocket. Kitty, who’d had to sell her home and had auctioned off family heirlooms, was paying the tuition of this ill-mannered, unskilled girl.

Was Kitty … softhearted? It was easier to imagine the Dalai Lama sponsoring an Ultimate Fighting match.

But what other explanation was there?

He shoved a hand through his hair. Damn it, why did she have to be so full of contradictions? Why did she have to be fragile one moment, all bristly defenses the next? Why couldn’t she just be the manipulative witch that everyone thought she was? That would make his life so much easier.

If he ever wanted to be free of Kitty and all the complicated emotions she stirred up, he was going to have to find a way to save Biedermann’s. And save Kitty’s job.

And apparently Casey’s job, too.

“Look,” he said to Casey. “I’m trying to do the right thing here. Not just for the company, but for Kitty, too. If you help me out, if you help me understand what’s going on here, I’ll make sure you don’t lose your job. Or your scholarship.”

Even if he had to start paying the girl’s tuition himself. And wouldn’t that be just great. ‘Cause all he needed in his life was one more woman dependent on him.

Casey pursed her lips and studied him. “What do you want to know?”

“Kitty told me her father never expected her to run Biedermann’s. Do you know why?”

Casey shook her head. “No. I never met the old man, ‘cause I was hired after he died. But office gossip is he always wanted her to marry someone who’d take over as CEO. You ask me, it’s why that skeezie Marty is so mean to her.”

“You think Marty expected to be made CEO?”

She shook her head, pouring coffee into her mug now that the maker had finally stopped dripping. “Haven’t you noticed that icky way he looks at her? Like she’s his golden lottery ticket or something. I think he wanted to marry her himself.” Casey jabbed her coffee with a spoon and gave it a brisk stir. “That guy creeps me out.”

Ford felt a sucker punch of jealousy. He struggled to bury it. Kitty’s love life wasn’t his business. Or so he kept telling himself. Still, he found himself asking, “Did she and Marty ever go out?”

That was not him giving in to his curiosity. If Marty was smarting from a broken heart, that might be motivation enough for him to make things unpleasant for Kitty. He might even be leaking information about Kitty to Suzy Snark.

“Naw.” Casey waved her hand, dismissing the possibility. “Kitty wouldn’t stoop that low.” But then Casey tilted her head to the side, considering. “But Marty isn’t, you know, smart about women. And you know what Kitty’s like. Marty might have thought she was hitting on him.”