Tender Kisses (11 page)

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed her clenching her fists and suspected he might be pushing her too far. Justin reached for her hand. “For the record, both facets of your personality turn me on.”

She didn't respond and he dropped the subject, not wanting to spoil the mood. Sooner or later, he'd find out who or what made her this way.

Chapter 11

S
iobhan was still laughing when Justin drove up to her house and shut off the engine. “Justin, I can't thank you enough for these last two days. It's been a long time since I've had such a great time.”

“See, I told you being kidnapped wasn't all bad.”

“Yeah. I don't think many people have had such a pleasurable abduction.”

“Then we'll have to do it again. Maybe you can kidnap me next time.” Justin leaned close to her ear. “I'll even let you tie me up.”

Her pulse leaped, and a rush of images from last night and this morning flashed across her mind. “You never know.” She checked her watch and sighed. “I'd better go. I'm supposed to be at my parents' by now.”

He got out of the car, retrieved her bag from the trunk and came around to her side. Taking her hand, he walked her to the door and waited while she unlocked it. “Thank you for spending the weekend with me.” He set her bag down just inside the door.

She tilted her head for a kiss, and he didn't disappoint. He placed feather-like kisses along her jaw and the corners of her mouth. Her lips parted, and his tongue found hers, making sweeping, swirling motions in her mouth and driving her crazy in the process. His arm came up around her and he pulled her closer, their bodies pressed tightly together. Justin continued his intense exploration, unhurriedly. Siobhan broke off the kiss and sucked in a deep breath. “I have to go.”

“I know,” Justin said with a hint of reluctance. “I'll call you later.”

She nodded and watched him lope back down the walkway to his car. She threw up a wave and closed the door. Smiling, she picked up her bag and hummed Michael Jackson's “You Rock My World” on the way to her bedroom.

Siobhan noticed the blinking red light on her answering machine and pressed the button.

“Siobhan, call me as soon as you get this.”

She frowned upon hearing Brandon's solemn tone. The next message played.

“Where the hell are you, sis? I tried to call your cell and it went straight to voice mail.”

She dug out her cell and powered it up, going directly into panic mode and thinking something had happened to one of her parents or siblings. There were two missed calls from Brandon, the first one similar to the ones left on her home phone. She listened to the second message.

“Shit, Vonnie. Everybody's worried about you. We got a call from Legal. Somebody is filing a lawsuit alleging one of our products failed and injured his wife. Call me as soon as you get this.”

“Oh, no.” Her stomach dropped, and guilt immediately surfaced. She should have stayed in town. And she shouldn't have let Justin talk her into turning off her phone. Her dad was going to be so disappointed and upset. Snatching up her purse, she rushed out to her car and sped over to her parents' house. She recognized all of her siblings' cars, along with Malcolm's motorcycle. She wished he wouldn't ride that thing. She let herself inside and followed the voices to the family room.

“Oh, Siobhan. Thank God.” Her mother came to her feet quickly and engulfed Siobhan in a crushing hug. “Baby, are you okay?”

“I'm fine.”

Brandon was across the room in a flash. “Do you know how many times I called you?” he yelled, towering over her. “Somebody's trying to ruin the company, and you're off doing who knows what. You should've been here.”

“I had my cell turned off.”

“Since when do you turn off your phone?”

Siobhan planted her hands on her hips. “Since yesterday,” she shot back.

He took a step toward her.

Her father rose to his feet. “Brandon, sit
down
! Your sister doesn't need you jumping all over her.”

“Who knows what this man is planning? We need to get on top of this now.”

“Brandon,” her father warned. “Siobhan, honey, is everything okay?”

“Yes, Daddy. I was out with a friend and lost track of time.” He didn't need to know any more details of her weekend.

“A friend? Perhaps a nice gentleman?” her mother asked hopefully.

“Yes, Mom.”

“Well, why didn't you invite him to dinner?”

“It's not like that. Anyway, what happened?” Siobhan caught Morgan's smile.

Morgan mouthed, “I want all the details.”

“We don't know much right now,” her father said, taking his seat again. He shot a look at Brandon. “We'll meet first thing tomorrow morning with Legal to get the details, then set something up with the media.”

“I can set up a press conference as soon as we're done,” Siobhan said.

“I called Gordon and asked him to start pulling information from newspapers and online. I want to know what's been said.”

She scrubbed a hand across her forehead and dropped down on the sofa next to Malcolm. Not Gordon. “Daddy, I could have done all that.”

“This couldn't wait,” Brandon said.

Khalil threw up his hands. “Will you give it a rest, Brandon? You act like there was something she could have done. Didn't you just hear Dad say we're meeting
tomorrow
?”

Knowing all this still didn't ease Siobhan's guilt.

“I know, Siobhan,” her father continued. “But you can't do it all, sweetheart.”

Malcolm patted her knee. “Dad's right, sis. You're the boss. Delegate.”

The conversation flowed around her, but she tuned it all out. The only words she heard were the ones in her head that told her she'd let her family down again.

Her mother held up a hand. “Nolan, there's nothing left to do about it today except pray. The rest will have to wait until tomorrow. Siobhan, you and Morgan come on in the kitchen and help me finish dinner.”

Siobhan and Morgan followed their mother into the kitchen.

“Baby, don't you let Brandon get to you. You're entitled to your life.” She opened the refrigerator.

“Thanks, Mom.”

She glanced over her shoulder. “I do hope we get to meet this young man sometime soon.”

Siobhan rolled her eyes. As much as she'd enjoyed this weekend, she had to cool it with Justin. She had more pressing matters.

Morgan giggled. “I hope so, too.”

Siobhan ignored them and busied herself with seasoning the chicken.

She didn't talk much throughout dinner and excused herself to leave early. Justin called later that night, but she let it go to voice mail and tried to tamp down her desire to be with him. Not that it would work. At this point, nothing would satisfy the yearning that intensified by the minute...except more of him.

* * *

Justin hadn't felt this energized in a long while. The weekend with Siobhan had gone better than he'd planned, and he was still smiling about her excitement during the show. He enjoyed her open and playful side, and every time he remembered how she rode him, he was tempted to drive back to her house and try to coax her into one more round.

He left his bag on his bed and headed straight for his office. Justin worked on his slides for the next two hours, ensuring he had included all the pertinent details of his system and statistics of how the current models fared in the market. Once he was satisfied with the presentation, he took a break to call Siobhan. It went to her voice mail, so he pushed down the uncharacteristic longing and set up the demonstration he'd planned and tested it. Instead of the typical movement demo, he'd decided to show one of the temperature features—the one that currently worked. Although the system could tell the temperature inside the house and adjust it remotely if necessary, he continued to have some difficulties getting it to distinguish between people, pets or appliances. But by the time it came to market, he would have it figured out.

Justin tossed and turned all night. Between his excitement about the presentation and images of Siobhan's naked body atop his, he doubted he'd got more than three hours of sleep. He went for his usual run, which helped to clear his mind, made a stop at the bank and picked up some necessities from the grocery store. After putting the groceries away, he sent Siobhan a text and started gathering his equipment.

He pressed the button on his answering machine to listen to the messages he had put off from yesterday—two telemarketing calls that he promptly deleted. He went still in the middle of wrapping a cord when he heard the third message.

“Good morning, Mr. Cartwright. This is Gloria Avery calling from Gray Home Safety. There's been an emergency, and Mr. Gray will be unable to see you today. Please call me at your earliest convenience to reschedule. He sends his deepest apologies.” She left a number, and he jotted it down.

“Damn,” he muttered. He dropped the cord on the desk and picked up the phone. Ten minutes later, Justin hung up and released a deep sigh. The first available appointment wasn't until the following week on Thursday. Although frustrated, he hoped nothing serious had happened. It would, however, give him more time to work on the heat sensor problem.

And work on Siobhan.

* * *

Monday morning Siobhan was up and in her office by six. Her father had called Gordon and he'd be flaunting it in her face soon enough, but she planned to be ready for him. His resistance to use social media would work in her favor. Two hours later, she'd printed out stats and conversations from the various sites, placed them in a folder and made her way to the conference room. Just as she'd predicted, Gordon entered and came directly to where she sat. She'd give anything to be able to slap that smirk off his face.

“I see you dropped the ball again, Siobhan.”

“How do you figure that?”

“If you were doing your job and not
unavailable
this weekend, your father wouldn't have had to call me to pick up the slack.”

“He called you to start with the tasks usually assigned to the media
technician
, not the media
specialist
.” Siobhan had to choke back a laugh at the man's stunned expression.

“Just because you're the boss's daughter doesn't give you the right to talk to me that way,” he snapped. “I'm still your elder, and you will show me some respect.”

She narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. “Respect is a two-way street,
Gordon
. When you figure out how to do that, let me know. Until then, stay out of my way.”

Before Gordon could reply, another member of her team passed by. Richard Harper had worked as the company's graphic designer since Siobhan was a teen and could pass for a middle-aged Ken doll.

“Morning, boss. Gordon.” He winked at Siobhan.

“Good morning, Mr. Harper.” She'd purposely used Richard's last name as a gesture of respect.

Gordon looked as if he would explode at any moment. He gave them once last glare and stormed off.

Richard chuckled and took the seat next to her. “I see he's still at it.”

“Always.” They shared a smile.

Minutes later, Mr. Whitcomb called the meeting to order.

“Nolan will be here in a moment, but let's get started. Legal, what are we looking at?”

Siobhan listened and found out that a man whose wife fell and was injured in the shower when one of the company's handrails broke had filed the suit. He detailed the woman's injuries and mentioned that the man planned to call one of the local TV stations to air his grievance.

Her gaze strayed to the doorway when her brothers and father walked in. Although Malcolm and Khalil didn't work directly for the company, they had seats on the board and attended most of the meetings.

She waited until he paused then asked, “Do we know how long the rails had been installed?”

“Best information we could gather so far indicates a day or two.”

“Were the original packaging and materials recovered?” Brandon asked.

“Yes. We've also asked for a receipt and medical records.”

“Gordon, what did you find out?” her father asked.

Gordon shot Siobhan a smug look then walked to the front of the conference room.

She shook her head. Every other person had spoken from their seats, but not him. He clearly thought more highly of himself than he should have. He finished providing the information he'd gathered from mainstream media and sat.

“Nicely done, Gordon,” her father said.

“I took the liberty of searching social media to see what types of conversations were being had,” Siobhan started, “and found that one particular article had been shared forty-seven times on Facebook, with an average of ninety-one comments. Roughly seventy-five percent of those comments expressed confidence in our products. On Twitter, I found thirteen different articles, but less than fifty comments, mostly positive. I issued a general statement on both sites.”

“Brilliant move, Siobhan,” Mr. Whitcomb said. “We've got to keep up with the times and go where the people are.”

“Thank you, sir. I feel it's important that we utilize all platforms to communicate with the public.” She curbed the urge to make eye contact with Gordon.

“Siobhan, when can we have a press release ready?” her father asked.

“In an hour. I'll stop by your office first.”

He nodded. “Morgan, I want you to take the lead on this case.”

The shocked look on Morgan's face was priceless. Morgan had recently confided to Siobhan that she didn't want to be an attorney for the company, but rather a sports agent.

Her father stood. “Thank you for your hard work. The meeting is adjourned.”

On the way to her office, Siobhan's cell phone buzzed. Her steps slowed upon seeing a text from Justin.

Hey, Siobhan. Hope your week is off to a great start. I enjoyed this weekend and can't wait to do it again soon.

Just reading his words sent heat spiraling through her. Pocketing the phone, she continued to her office. She couldn't deal with him right now.

By seven o'clock that evening, Siobhan was still sitting at her desk. She rested her head against her chair and closed her eyes. The press conference had gone off without a hitch, and all the releases had been distributed as scheduled, but she was exhausted. Her cell rang, and she didn't have to look at it to know it was Justin calling. She
had
dropped the ball last weekend and didn't want to think of what could have happened if it had been something more immediate, or worse, if one of her family members had got hurt again.