Free At the Tycoon's Command by Shawna Delacourt

across her forehead. He’s had a lot of practice. He should have it down to perfection by now. But that didn’t excuse her actions or ease her guilt. Honestly, Kim, how did you get yourself in this mess? And how are you going to get yourself out of it?
    As much as Jared excited her, the idea of continued contact with him over the summer frightened her. Where it could lead scared her even more. Several times during the night she had allowed a fleeting thought of what it would be like to have Jared make love to her, a thought that embarrassed her and disturbed her.
    She had turned the problem over in her mind for mostof the night and had not come up with anything that resembled an acceptable plan of action. Everything came back to that letter of agreement she had foolishly insisted on, the one that said she would work for Jared to satisfy her father’s debt. If she refused to show up for work he could file that lawsuit against her father’s estate, and she couldn’t afford to have that happen. She felt truly trapped between what she had to do and her fears about where her attraction to Jared Stevens could lead.
    She checked the time, grabbed a quick shower, forced down some breakfast and dressed for work. Promptly at eight-thirty she drove onto the grounds of the estate and entered the office complex.
    To her surprise, Jared was at his desk with papers and file folders spread across the surface. She watched him for a few minutes. He seemed totally absorbed in work and not aware of her arrival. She thought of the previous day. Each time she had been in the office he seemed to be hard at work. Maybe she had been a little hasty in her assumption that he was nothing more than a figurehead who left all the work to others. The memos he had her type showed decisions coming from him rather than him asking for other people’s advice about what to do. Of course, they didn’t involve any serious business decisions, but still…
    The ringing phone interrupted her thoughts. She turned toward the desk in the reception area, intending to answer it, but Jared grabbed it before she could get there.
    â€œStevens.” After a brief pause, Jared’s voice turned angry. “I’m not going to discuss this with you on the phone. We have an appointment for ten o’clock. We’ll discuss it then.” He slammed down the receiver, then sat staring at the phone for several long moments before shoving back from the desk. He grabbed the carafe from his credenza and poured coffee into his empty cup, but only a couple ofswallows came out. Obvious irritation covered his face as he turned toward the open French doors in his office.
    â€œFred, are you out there?”
    Fred Kemper stepped into the office from the patio, a watering can in his hand. “You need somethin’?”
    â€œAre you busy? I seem to be out of coffee. Could you…”
    Fred emitted a soft chuckle. “Sure. I’ll fix up a new pot.” He cocked his head, glanced at his watch and stared at Jared for a moment. “It ain’t even nine o’clock yet and you’ve already gone through that much coffee? You must have a passel of problems on your mind this mornin’.”
    â€œI do. In addition to the labor situation at the Oakland plant, contract negotiations on the purchase of a small fabricating shop, a collection problem with a client who looks like he’s on the verge of bankruptcy and some shoddy merchandise from a new vendor we were trying out, I have one of our biggest clients pushing me to host some kind of a fund-raiser for his wife’s favorite charity.”
    â€œDon’t you have other folks who are supposed to be takin’ care of some of that for you?”
    A sheepish grin caught the corners of Jared’s mouth. “Yeah, I do…but sometimes I have trouble divorcing myself from the day-to-day and delegating to the proper department heads. It’s something I really