Nobody's Baby but Mine(105)
As he reached for the handle on the sliding glass door, he felt certain of only one thing. Jane had worked herself into a serious snit, and the best place to coax her out of it was under the sheets. But before he could get her there, he had some serious making up to do.
“Hey, Professor.”
Jane turned toward Cal’s voice and shaded her eyes with her hand. He was rumpled, sweat-stained, and gorgeous as he walked out on the deck. Something caught in her throat, something large and painful that made her feel as if she were choking.
He leaned on the rail and gave her a wolfish grin. “I’ve been working out, and I haven’t had time to shower, so unless you’re in the mood for some really raunchy sex, you’d better run upstairs right now and turn that water on for me.”
She pushed her hands in the pockets of her dress and slowly mounted the wooden stairs. How could he behave like this when he had done something so unforgivable?
“Brian Delgado called this morning.” She stepped onto the deck.
“Uh-huh. What say you get right in the shower with me so you can scrub my back?”
“Delgado sent you a report. I read it.”
That finally got his attention, although he didn’t look particularly alarmed. “Since when did you get interested in reading about my contracts?”
“The report’s about me.”
His grin vanished. “Where is it?”
“On your desk.” She looked him square in the eye and tried to swallow the bubble of pain that choked her voice. “You need to make a decision about me right away because you only have two days before the Preeze board of directors meets. Luckily, your attorney’s already done the initial work. He’s met with Jerry Miles, and the two of them have most of the sordid details sketched out. All you need to do is sign a check with lots of zeros.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you dare lie to me!” She balled her hands into fists. “You told Delgado to ruin me!”
“I’m going to call him right now and straighten this out. It’s a misunderstanding.” He turned toward the sliding doors, but she moved forward before he could open them.
“A misunderstanding?” She couldn’t hide her bitterness. “You give your attorney orders to destroy my career, and you call that a misunderstanding?”
“I never told him that. Just give me an hour, and then I’ll explain everything.”
“Explain it now.”
He seemed to realize she deserved something more, and he moved away from the door toward the deck railing. “Tell me what was in that report.”
“Delgado set it up with Jerry Miles, the director of Preeze, that you’ll give the labs a grant on the condition that they get rid of me.” She took a deep, unsteady breath. “Jerry’s waiting to hear from you before he fires me, then he’s planning to announce your generosity to the board of directors when they meet on Wednesday.”
Cal cursed softly under his breath. “Wait till I get hold of that son of a bitch. This isn’t the first time Delgado’s gone off half-cocked.”
“You’re saying this whole thing is his idea?”
“Damn right it is.”
Emotion stuck in her throat. “Don’t do this, Cal. Don’t play games with me.”
Outrage flashed in his eyes. “You know I wouldn’t do something like this!”
“Then you didn’t have him investigate me? You didn’t tell him to find out where I was most vulnerable and use it against me?”
He rubbed his chin with the back of his knuckles, looking more ill at ease than she’d ever seen him. “That was a long time ago. It’s complicated.”
“I’m very bright. Explain it.”
He wandered back toward the sliding doors, and her heart sank as she noticed he couldn’t meet her eyes. “You have to remember how things were between us when all this started. I’ve never been a man to let anyone get the best of me, and I wanted you punished.” He tucked one thumb in the waistband of his shorts, then pulled it back out again. “I did tell Brian I intended to get even, and I ordered him to have you investigated so I could strike back at you.”
“And what did your investigation turn up?”
“That you don’t have any dark secrets.” He finally looked at her. “That you’re brilliant and dedicated. And that your work means everything to you.”
“You hardly needed a team of detectives to figure that out.”
“I didn’t know that at the time.”
“So you decided to take my work away from me,” she said quietly.