Kostas's Convenient Bride: Kostas's Convenient Bride / Desert Prince's Stolen Bride

CHAPTER TWO

A COUPLE OF hours later, Kayla was lost in the code of a program they’d scrapped the year before as unfeasible when a hand landed on her shoulder. She knew immediately whom that hand belonged to. “I’m busy, Andreas.”

“You’re not on a development team right now.”

“I’m the director of research and development. That means I get to choose what projects I work on.”

“So, what are you working on?”

“A program that will make Sebastian Hawk another hundred million if I can get it working.”

“We haven’t sold our company yet.”

“But we are selling it.”

“I don’t know, are we?”

She spun around to face Andreas. “Don’t play games with me, Andreas.”

He sighed, running his fingers through his jet-black hair, his green eyes troubled. “Yes, we’re selling.”

“When were you going to tell me?” She wanted to scream, to rail at him and demand answers to how he could rip everything out from under her on one go, but she wouldn’t.

For one thing, he wouldn’t understand. The fact they were standing here having this conversation at all told her that. For another, if she let out some of the pain, it would all come out and she wasn’t about to let that happen.

“After our meeting with Miss Patterson.”

“Why did you pull me into that?”

“She wanted to ask you some questions.”

“Why?” Kayla did her best to stop that one word coming out sounding like the pain-filled cry it was, but she could hear the ragged edges to her voice if he couldn’t.

Andreas winced. “You’re my closest friend.”

“And she interviews your friends?” How invasive was that?

“Yes.”

“What happened to separating personal from business?”

“We’ve managed to stay friends.”

They had until today.

Did he have any idea how arrogant he sounded, or how hurtful his words were? No, of course he didn’t. Andreas was so far removed from human feelings, it was scary sometimes.

“We’re such good friends, you didn’t bother to tell me you wanted to get married. That you’d hired some high-priced matchmaker to make it happen. You didn’t talk over the plan with me, much less the plan to sell our company. Yeah, we’re great friends.” The sarcasm was so thick in her voice there was no way even Mr. Clueless himself could miss it.

“I did tell you about Genevieve.” He frowned, completely ignoring the issue of KJ Software. “Today.”

Kayla felt a headache coming on behind her left eye. “Friends talk about that kind of thing before they do it.”

“How would you know?”

“I just do.” She might not have a lot of friends, but she had more than he did. “I know how to be a friend.”

His green gaze narrowed. “Are you saying I don’t?”

“Unless it comes to throwing money at a problem, I’m going to go with no on this one.”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that because I am aware you are upset over the sale of the company.”

How magnanimous of him.

She rubbed her temple. It didn’t help the growing headache. Only one thing would. Ending this conversation. “Bradley would have told me.”

“I pay him well, but not enough to hire Genevieve Patterson’s services. It would not have come up.”

“He doesn’t need them.” When Bradley decided to settle down, he would do things the old-fashioned way. He’d look for someone he loved.

“Is that relevant?”

Her hand tightened around the stylus she’d been using to take notes. “To you? Probably not.”

“Bradley is not my friend. He is my employee.” Andreas grimaced.

“He’ll figure that out right away when he finds out you’re selling the company and making his position redundant.”

“I plan to take Bradley with me.”

She wasn’t surprised, but looked into Andreas’s green gaze for confirmation of his words. Her trust factor was at an all-time low with this man right now. “Into your venture capital firm?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” She wanted Bradley to be okay. And he worked well for Andreas.

Andreas smiled, that winner’s grin. The one he used when he was sure things were going his way. “You’ll have enough from the sale of the company to participate materially in the new company.”

“No.” She’d made plans for the money going public would give her. Changing the source of that windfall to an outright sale wouldn’t change her plans.

“We make a good team.”

“No.”

For the first time, Andreas looked disconcerted. “You haven’t even heard me out.”

“There’s nothing to hear. I’m not interested in changing careers. I love what I do and I plan to keep doing it.”

“You’d start a new business in competition with Hawk? Do I need to remind you that business is not your strong suit?”

Oh, if she were a violent woman! He’d have a hand-sized print on his cheek right now. Just to take that smug look off his face. “No. If I wanted to start my own software development company, I’d find a partner. But I don’t see any reason to leave this one. Sebastian Hawk respects my abilities and I’m sure he realizes that without me, the software development department would be crippled.”

Especially if she took the team with her.

“You have a high opinion of your abilities.”

“You used to too.”

“I still do.”

She didn’t reply to that. In fact, she was done talking. Kayla turned back to her computer and changed a line of code before inserting the new series she’d written over the last hour.

“Kayla.”

“Go away, Andreas.”

“Genevieve wants to meet with you.”

“I don’t know why. Anything she needs to know, she can send me an email.”

“I thought we could meet together.”

Because that went so well the first time around. “Go away, Andreas.”

If she kept saying it, he would eventually obey. Everyone did. Even Andreas.

He said her name again. She ignored him, putting in her earbuds and turning on her favorite work playlist. She began typing.

He stood behind her a lot longer than she expected, but after the second song, he was finally gone.

Kayla’s shoulders sagged and her heart hurt in her chest.

She looked at the computer screen that had been designed to be unreadable by anyone not directly in front of it. It was filled with a series of lines that all said the same thing. “I need you to go away.”

She carefully deleted the dozens of lines saying the same thing, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not get back into programming mode.

She needed to know what her future held, now that she realized it wasn’t going to have Andreas Kostas in it.

She left her development station with the computer with no conduit to the internet and moved to her desk and tablet. It was a lot easier than she expected to find a flight to Sebastian Hawk’s headquarters the following day.

Kayla marked herself as out of the building the next day, canceled the one meeting she had to attend and sent off two emails requesting coverage for the others she wouldn’t be at.

* * *

Andreas swore as he read the gushing but uncompromising email from Genevieve telling him he had to fill out the entire personality and interests form before their next consultation. He’d thought the intake form had asked everything pertinent.

Apparently, the matchmaker did not agree.

If Kayla wasn’t pissed at him, he could have asked for her help. As awkward as she could be socially because of her overly literal mind, she got stuff like this with surprising understanding.

The meeting between her and the matchmaker could have gone worse, but he wasn’t sure how. Both he and Genevieve had gotten Kayla’s back up.

It had been a couple of years since she’d tuned him out with earbuds. But when she did it, there was no point trying to communicate with her.

Kayla had a stubborn streak that could outlast his own when the issue mattered to her.

She was angry he’d decided to sell the company, that she’d learned today in the meeting.

Telling Genevieve his plans to sell before talking to Kayla had been a mistake. He could see that now.

He owed his partner more respect than that.

It was also clear that she believed as his friend, he should have talked to her about hiring the matchmaker ahead of time too.

He didn’t see it.

If anything, Kayla should have realized this was the next step. She was the only person he’d ever shared his plans with, but he had shared them.

A long time ago, when their friendship had included sex and no business partnership.

He didn’t like knowing she was upset with him. Kayla Jones was the only person whose opinion really mattered to him.

Breakfast apology éclairs might be in order tomorrow.

Hell, why not deal with it tonight and take her to dinner at that Vietnamese place she liked?

Kayla wasn’t in the computer lab when he got there and didn’t answer her phone when he called.

She was still ignoring him.

Too bad for her, he wasn’t in the mood to be ignored.

He’d just go by her condo. It wasn’t exactly a trip, a few floors below his penthouse that was double the size of her small one bedroom. At least she’d moved into his building and out of the hopeless apartment in an unacceptable part of town.

Forty-five minutes later, he sent a short text. Where the hell are you?

When she didn’t reply in five minutes, he sent another one. I can keep this up all night until your damn phone’s batteries die from all the alerts.

He was surprised when she didn’t reply after that one. Andreas didn’t make idle threats, though. He proceeded to blow her phone up with texts every five minutes, even more shocked when the first few did not elicit a response and moving into downright worried by the time his phone rang forty-five minutes and eight texts later.

“Stop!” Anger and exasperation warred in her shout.

More than a little annoyed himself, he demanded, “Where are you?”

“You’re not my keeper.”

Knowing he did not have to be worried for her safety allowed him to ratchet back on the irritation. He went for calm, rational. “We need to talk.”

“Maybe you should have thought of that little thing before this minute, you think?”

“We would have talked this afternoon if you hadn’t thrown a hissy fit and stormed out of my office.” Okay, maybe not so calm.

“That? Was not a hissy fit. I do not lose my cool, storm anywhere and I never throw fits, hissy or otherwise.” Oh, hell. Her voice had gone cold and devoid of emotion, like it did when she was protecting herself.

He didn’t like thinking she felt the need to protect herself from him. “Be reasonable, Kayla. You’re blowing this all out of proportion.”

“What exactly? The fact you’re planning to take my home away because that wife pimp says you need to?”

“I’m not doing anything with your condo.”

“Don’t play the idiot!” Kayla’s shout stunned him into silence.

She was right; she didn’t lose her cool. The only time he’d ever heard her raise her voice was when they used to sleep together. And no matter how good a lover he was, the times she let herself go enough to scream were few. Allowing himself to remember their sexual past was not productive, as he had learned early on after taking her on as a business partner.

He could not afford that kind of distraction from his goals.

Right now, his goal was figuring out what was going on with his best friend. “Kayla?”

“I’m taking the day off tomorrow.” The even tone of her voice after that primal scream of pain was almost worse than the shout itself.

“Why?”

“I have things to do.”

“What things?”

“How did your wife pimp put it? None of your business, Andreas.”

“Kayla, stop it. I don’t know what has gotten into you—”

The low beep that indicated the call had been ended interrupted Andreas. Damn it. She should know he wouldn’t sell the company without an after plan for both of them.

He hadn’t expected her to want to go into venture capitalism herself, not really, but she was brilliant at computer code and not just that related to security. Kayla would be a stellar value add as an adviser and contributor of modified or original programming for any company he might be interested in investing in.

Once she calmed down, she’d see that.

Until then, he should probably make sure she got both “I’m sorry” éclairs and coffee from her favorite bistro in the morning.

He’d drop them off on his way to work. Maybe he should reorganize his morning so they could spend a couple of hours together.

They hadn’t had off time together in a while.

It was just that spending time with her away from work came with temptations he had to fight. The uncontrollable passion they’d once shared had to be kept locked up tight. That kind of attraction didn’t lead to anything good. It was exactly what had been his mother’s downfall and the reason his father, whom even Andreas could acknowledge was generally an honest, if bullheaded man, had an illicit affair.

Keeping their past firmly in the past should have grown easier as the years progressed, but the opposite was true. Andreas found himself admiring Kayla in a very personal, very sexual way at the least convenient times.

But he could not allow his own weakness to damage their friendship. He’d worked too hard to find a place in his life for her more permanent that bed partner.

* * *

Kayla turned on her phone as she stepped off the commercial flight into the tunnel leading to the JFK airport. One long beep indicated multiple text messages and another different tone told her she had at least one voice mail.

She looked for someplace to step out of the flow of busy foot traffic and spied an area set aside for business travelers to work. Making her way across the wide hallway, Kayla barely missed bumping into a woman pushing a stroller at a faster clip than Kayla usually jogged.

A man in sweats and sandals bumped into Kayla, knocking her right against a wall. She waved away his hurried apologies, more bothered by the idea of having to talk to a stranger than the sore spot on her shoulder from hitting the wall.

Kayla hated traveling alone and missed Andreas’s commanding presence that always seemed to create an opening, no matter how many people crowded the walkways. The traitor.

Kayla’s phone buzzed as she reached the relative safety of the business area. She grabbed it and was relieved to see Hawk Security. She’d emailed Sebastian Hawk the night before, but hadn’t heard back and wasn’t even sure he’d be able to work her into his schedule.

Kayla answered quickly. “Hello.”

“Miss Jones?” a female voice asked.

“Yes, this is Kayla Jones.”

“I’m calling for Sebastian Hawk.”

Her gut clenched with both hope and trepidation. “Yes?”

After telling the secretary that Kayla was in New York now, she learned Sebastian Hawk wasn’t, but was expected back that night. And while he always spent his first day back from any business trip with his family, he could fit her in for a lunchtime meeting the day after.

“That would be great.” She made no effort to curb the enthusiasm she felt from showing in her voice. She was grateful and she let it show. Her home was on the line and even if Sebastian Hawk didn’t know it, Kayla did.

“If you’ll give me your email address, I’ll send you the calendar invite.”

“Thank you.” Kayla recited her particulars, thinking Sebastian Hawk’s secretary might actually be as organized as Bradley.

Kayla ended the call and looked around the airport, wondering what she was going to do with two days of no work and for the first time in six years. Deciding to check her other messages, she discovered that Andreas had texted her multiple times. Bradley had texted her twice and there were three voice mails. At least one of those was from someone besides Bradley and Andreas.

Kayla listened to the voice mail from the project lead on the revamp of their school security software. Ten seconds into the message, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry.

Not that Kayla cried anymore. Crying never changed anything and it gave her a headache.

Her project lead was calling on behalf of Bradley, who was basically begging her to save his sanity by calling Andreas.

Kayla shook her head, but she dialed Andreas’s private number.

He picked up on the first ring. “Where the hell are you?” His voice boomed across the line, laced with a heavy dose of worry.

“I told you I was taking the day off.”

“You weren’t home this morning when I stopped by.”

“So? Maybe I spent the night in someone else’s bed.” She wasn’t sure why she said it, but she didn’t regret the words.

Dead silence met her words and Kayla even checked her phone to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

“Andreas?” she finally prompted.

“You don’t sleep with strangers. Hell, you don’t even talk to them.”

“Casual sex doesn’t require a long conversation.”

“You would know this how?” he demanded.

“You sound like a jealous lover.” And while they might have been lovers at one time, he’d never been jealous.

He’d been very careful to explain that while he expected monogamy, it wasn’t because they were in a romantic relationship. It had been a matter of health safety.

“I sound like a concerned friend.”

“I’m an adult.”

“Who won’t tell me where you are.”

“You don’t need to know my every move.”

“You are being obstinate.”

“I’m—” was all she could get out before Andreas interrupted her.

“What the hell are you doing in New York?”

“How do you know where I am?”

“I used the locator function on your phone.” Which he hadn’t been able to do while she’d had it off on the plane.

“I didn’t give you the code so you could track me like an errant child.”

“I did no such thing.”

“What would you call it?”

“A concerned friend and business partner.”

“Well, now you know where I am.”

“But not why you are there.”

“Why do you think, Andreas?”

“You’re meeting with Hawk?”

“Yes.”

“But he’s out of country.”

“Until tonight.”

“You only took one day off.”

“I’ll be taking the rest of the week off.”

“What? You can’t do that!” The genuine shock in Andreas’s voice was laughable.

The fact he was shouting would have alarmed her if she wasn’t numb. “In fact, I can.”

“You never have before.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

“What are you going to do with Hawk out of town?”

“Whatever I want. I’m taking a page out of your book.”

“I don’t take time off without notice.”

“You’re selling the company, that’s the biggest abandonment I can think of.”

“I’m not abandoning anything. Part of the purchase agreement between Hawk and myself is a guarantee of employment for the current employees, provided their performance continues to meet expectations.”

“How nice.”

“You didn’t need to meet with him to confirm that,” he said, sounding hurt.

“I’m not meeting with Hawk to make sure the other employees have jobs on the other side of this buyout.”

“Then why are you meeting him?”

“To make plans for my future.”

“I already have plans for your future!”

“How interesting, since you haven’t brought any up to me.”

“I did. I want you to go into business with me again.”

“No.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do.” She’d never meant anything more.

He must have heard the conviction in her voice, because Andreas didn’t come back with an instant rejoinder.

“You’ve made plans for your future and your bride pimp is so right. They are not my business, but my future and the plans I make for it are mine.”

“She was wrong.”

“Maybe you should have told her that and I would believe you.”

“I do not lie.”

“You just keep things from me. Important things.”

“I told you, I was going to talk to you about it.”

“If my opinion, much less my feelings, mattered, you would have talked to me before you talked to Sebastian Hawk.” Before he hired Genevieve.

“Is that why you insist on meeting with him? Paying me back?”

“I’m not that petty. This is about my survival.” As the words came out of her mouth, she realized how very true they were.

Andreas wouldn’t understand. As hard as it had been to lose his mother, as much as he despised his father’s hypocrisies, Andreas had never been without a home to call his own. He had not been a three-year-old little girl left in the bathroom of a truck stop. He didn’t know what it was to have his entire world ripped out from under his feet, not once, but twice before reaching the age of eighteen.

If he did, he wouldn’t be selling the company that gave Kayla her first sense of belonging and security since the death of the foster mother who had coaxed Kayla back to speech.