FOREVER MINE(24)

“You didn’t? Why not?”

Kimara’s lips parted in surprise at his question. “Because in six months . . . maybe less . . . I’ll be moving back.”

A frown settled on Kyle’s features. For some unexplainable reason, he didn’t like her reminding him of that.





Six




Kyle studied the woman sitting across from him in his private jet. “Is it safe to assume you’re no longer on the pill?”

Kimara lifted her head from sipping champagne and met Kyle’s gaze with a smile of tightly held anger. Evidently he thought she was sexually active if he asked such a question. She decided not to waste her time telling him that she had never used any type of birth control. There was never a reason to do so. Unlike him, she didn’t believe in engaging in casual affairs. Over the years, her mother’s preaching of first you wed, then you bed had stuck with her. Instead of replying to Kyle’s question, she decided to ask one of her own. “Can I assume you’re sexually safe? One can’t be too sure, especially since you have such an active sex life.”

Kyle lifted a brow. “And just what do you know about my sex life?”

“Only what I read in the papers and magazines like everyone else. If I remember correctly, according to one reporter, you’re one of those rare men who honestly like women. You like them so much that you have the uncanny ability to work them into your busy schedule wherever you go. They are known as Kyle Garwood’s women.”

Kyle’s jaw tightened. If she would have taken the time to read articles that printed more truth than hearsay, she would have learned that over the past year the wild life he’d been known for had lost most of its appeal. He had begun zeroing his time and energy less on the fast life, and the women that went along with it, and more on Garwood Industries’ numerous corporations. In fact, he’d been finalizing a business deal in Paris when he’d received word of his grandfather’s sudden heart attack, and not in some secluded French chateau with a woman, as one newspaper article had claimed. He didn’t see the need to defend himself to her or anyone. What he’d done before their marriage did not concern her. However, he wasn’t about to let the question of his infidelity hang between them.

“If what you say about ‘my women’ is to be believed, Kimara, as my wife, don’t you feel threatened with my squalid reputation?”

Kimara shrugged, and then gave a mirthless little laugh. “Me feel threatened? Not at all. Our relationship is strictly business. Your relationship with those women, I imagine, is purely pleasure. However, I do expect you to put your squalid reputation on hold for the brief period that you are married to me. As I said earlier, I assume that you’re sexually safe, and while we’re sharing a bed, I expect you to remain that way.”

Kyle’s gaze delved deeply into her, his expression serious. “The only thing you’ll get from me is a bundle of joy, hopefully, in about nine months from now. I give you the Garwood word of honor that as long as we are husband and wife, I’ll make love only to you,” he said in a deep, husky voice.

Kimara broke eye contact and placed her attention on the objects beyond the plane’s window that glittered below in the darkened sky. She believed him. The same thing had occurred when they had held a joint meeting with their attorneys to draw up a prenuptial agreement. She and Kyle had sat there while the two attorneys bickered back and forth about what should or should not be included in the agreement.

Each man was determined to protect his client’s interest. She had met Kyle’s gaze from across the table, and strange as it may seem, she had read his thoughts. There had never been a question of trust between a Garwood and a Stafford before now. Trust was one thing that had always existed between the two families. That trust had been passed on from generation to generation and had continued with their fathers, who had been the closest of friends. And now it appeared that the last remaining Garwood and Stafford were about to destroy that trust with a piece of paper.

She had not been at all surprised when Kyle finally stood, bringing the conversation between the two bickering attorneys to a sudden halt. It was uncanny that her and Kyle’s thoughts had been on the same wavelength. They’d both been thinking that although they hadn’t seen each other in years, and were virtual strangers now, there would always be a certain degree of mutual trust between them on some things. And this was one of them.

Without letting his gaze leave hers, he said, “There will not be a prenuptial agreement drawn up between me and Kimara. We don’t need one.”

Kyle’s attorney had looked at him as if he’d lost his mind, and her attorney had swung his gaze to her, fully expecting her to disagree. Instead, she said, “I agree with Kyle.” She knew that on that particular issue their decision was something no one other than another Garwood or Stafford would understand.

Feeling Kyle’s gaze on her, Kimara brought her wayward thoughts back to the present. “When will we arrive at Special K?”

Kyle checked his watch. “We should land at the airport in less than thirty minutes. A chopper will be there to fly us to Special K, and we should arrive there before nine o’clock tonight.”

She took a deep breath. She didn’t want to think about the night that lay ahead.

“It will be late.”

“Yes, late for some things, but right on time for others,” Kyle replied in a soft voice. He regretted his words when he saw just how jittery they made her.

“Look, Kimara, I know this has been a trying week for you, as well as one hell of a day for the both of us,” he said in a deep voice. “How about if we just relax a little and try getting reacquainted. Until I saw you again last week, I hadn’t seen you since our parents’ funeral eight years ago. What have you been doing over the years? What made you decide to start a catering service?”

Kimara took a deep breath, grateful for Kyle’s thoughtfulness in trying to get her unruffled. She relaxed back in her seat. “I had been accepted at Howard before my parents’ death, so I continued with those plans.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you that day. You look different,” he said.

Kimara smiled. “I took some nutrition classes in my sophomore year and learned how to eat all the right things and how to do without the others. Putting what I learned into practice as well as self-determination, I shed a lot of what my parents always referred to as baby fat.” A smile touched her lips. “I painstakingly discovered it wasn’t what you ate but how much of it that you ate. I also found out the importance of exercising.”

“Your efforts are astounding, Kimara. You’re beautiful,” Kyle said in a husky voice.

Kimara’s heart lurched at the thought that Kyle thought her beautiful. As a child, she had never thought her weight was a problem because no one around her acted like it was. Her parents had sheltered her and had gone out of their way to make her feel beautiful. It was only when she’d turned sixteen and had experience her first broken heart did she take a good look at herself, and she began wondering if her weight had been one of the reasons Kyle had never noticed her.

“After graduation I left D.C. and came home to your grandfather,” she continued. “He was the only family I had, and I think I arrived just in time. He was going through his own living hell not being able to accept our parents’ death. I moved in with him for a while and went to work for Stafford Publishing Company.”

“Doing what?”

A smile touched Kimara’s lips. “A little bit of everything. I wanted to learn all there was to know about the publishing industry from the bottom up. But it became apparent that my presence was causing a lot of undue problems around the office. Some of the employees could not reconcile with the idea of the president of the corporation doing clerical duties or getting dirty by helping in the printing room. And I really wasn’t happy working there. So after six months, I left.”

Kyle laughed, a rich, deep, throaty sound. “I can see how your being there and doing those types of jobs could cause somewhat of a problem.”

Kimara was suddenly filled with that warm feeling of two old friends chitchatting.

“I knew I wanted to do something else with my life, but at the time I didn’t have a clue as to what. By then Poppa Garwood had begun to get his life back in order, and one day he approached me with an idea. He had noticed how much I like spending my time in his kitchen, working alongside his cook, trying out different recipes. He asked if I would be interested in going to New Orleans to study under the renowned Chef LaFranco DePetionne. It just so happened that one of his executives at Garwood Industries had a daughter who was also interested in going.”

“Nicky?”

“Yes, Nicky. She and I hit if off immediately, packed our bags, and spent a year and a half at The DePetionne Cooking School. We both graduated with honors and returned to Atlanta ready to take on the world.”

“And from what I understand, the two of you have done just that. According to Mason, the Golden Flame is doing exceptionally well.”

Kim smiled proudly. “Yes, it is, but we can always use new business, so be sure to keep us in mind if you’re ever in need of catering services.”