Romantic Acquisition Page 0,15

died that day as he spoke his venomous words. That afternoon had been a turning point in her life. Kate remembered standing in the man’s apartment and shivering with the realization that she’d made the same mistake her mother had made, trusting in a man who she didn’t really know. Kate had stumbled out of the man’s apartment that afternoon and gone home. Luckily, her monthly cycle had started later that day but the fury in the man’s eyes had never left her.

Since then, she’d never taken that kind of a chance again. She’d never been willing to experiment with a sexual relationship after that, not able to find a man who made her feel anything more than mild pleasure when he kissed her and definitely no one she wanted to worry about a possible pregnancy situation again.

Kate knew that she made friends with her boyfriends instead of risking a physical relationship with them because of her fear of a repetition of that scene.

Unfortunately, she found herself staring at Carlo occasionally when no one else was looking. She wondered what it would be like to experience a kiss with him. Were his lips as hard as they appeared, she wondered? Or would they be soft, gentle?

Kate was staring at him one afternoon about three and a half weeks after Carlo’s team had taken over the conference room. Her finger was rubbing her lips as her imagination took control. It was a long time before her eyes focused and she realized that Carlo was staring right back at her!

She snapped her attention back to her computer, hoping her face didn’t look as hot as it felt.

Jeff and Peter had gone through their previous reports and were now asking other questions which she had to research to get the answers. She was also pulling previous accounting reports for them to review, tax reports and purchasing files. Kate was amazed at the level of detail they wanted to get into but since she’d never been through this kind of operation. Having worked for Jamison’s since she was a teenager, she wasn’t sure what to expect.

It was almost eight o’clock before Jeff and Peter left. Kate hadn’t seen them leave since she was busy dealing with some purchasing issues that came up and Matt had ignored. When she finally cleaned those up, she came back to the conference room to find Carlo sitting back in his chair reviewing a report.

“Ah…Do you need anything else?” Kate asked, wanting to leave. She was worried about being alone with him.

Carlo put down his report and eyed her across the table. “Why so wary?”

Kate tried to relax. “I’m not,” she lied.

Carlo ignored her obvious lie and shook his head. “I don’t need any other reports tonight. Thanks for your help,” he said.

Kate picked up her purse and rushed out of the room. “I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she said and waved to him behind her.

Kate made her way to her car and jumped in. Turning the key in the ignition, she was eager to get home and relax. It had been a difficult day. But nothing happened when she turned the key.

“Oh no!” she groaned. She looked at her gauges and none of them moved when she turned the key.

She noticed her headlight switch at that point. “No! Please tell me I didn’t forget to turn off my lights this morning,” she said to the dashboard.

Obviously it didn’t reply but she was able to push the button and it moved to the ‘off’ position. “Shoot!” she said and opened her car door again.

“Car trouble?” a deep voice said from behind her.

Kate jumped and turned around to face Carlo.

“No. Nothing’s wrong,” she said immediately as Carlo stopped a foot away from her.

“Forget something?” he asked.

Kate latched onto that excuse. “Yes. I forgot my purse,” she said, it was the first thing that came to mind.

Carlo looked past her and raised his eyebrow. “Isn’t that it sitting on your passenger seat?”

Kate sighed. “Yes.”

“What’s wrong, Kate?” he asked, putting his hands into his pockets.

Defeated, she admitted her problem. “I left my lights on this morning. Now my battery is dead.”

Carlo nodded. “Do you have jumper cables?”

She shook her head. “No. I have a car service though. I’ll call them and wait for them to jump the car.’

Carlo shook his head. “I’m not letting you stay here alone tonight.” He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. “Hey, Jim. I have a dead battery. Can you come over and fix