Joe,
If you’re reading this, it’s over for me. To be honest, it’s been over for a while now. I invested too heavily these past years, and the price is high. All my assets will go to my investors-except CompuSoft, which was always yours in heart anyway.
Make sure you give Caitlin that job we talked about. It’ll be all she has-there’s nothing left to give her. She will have to learn to take care of herself now, and there’s nobody in the world who can do that better than you.
Teach her, Joe. I know you’ll resent this intrusion, but I also know you’ll help show her what I couldn’t. Please, for my sake, don’t tell her how stupid I’ve been. Let me have that at least, but help her.
She’ll need you.
Best always, Edmund.
Sick to the depths of his soul, Joe had lain awake all night. Edmund had faced financial disaster, and he hadn’t known. Caitlin had been suffering because of it, and he hadn’t paid attention. She’d even proved herself over and over, and he had closed his eyes to it.
All those times he’d been so rough. So cruel. She’d given everything she had in the first adverse situation of her life, fighting like a trooper to survive, and he’d done little but groan about the trouble she’d been. Edmund would have been ashamed of him, and Joe had never felt so disgusted in all his life.
“Joe?” Caitlin was looking at him expectantly. “Why are you here?”
“You’re letting that Chastity woman take everything, every possession you have, rather than accept my help,” he said in a very controlled, very soft voice. “I hate that, Caitlin.”
“Do you?”
Gently, he pushed his way in, his mood darkening when he saw the scores of boxes lining the place.
“Why didn’t you didn’t let me help you?”
“Maybe I wanted to do it myself.”
He looked so startled at that, Caitlin had to laugh. “What’s the matter? Didn’t think the spoiled brat would be able to do it?”
“No,” he said with brutal honesty, meeting her steady gaze. “I didn’t. But that was before I knew you. I’m beginning to realize you’re capable of just about anything.”
“I am.” Unable to stand there looking at him and not remember her dream, that delicious, perfect dream where he’d touched her with those big, warm hands and sent her to heaven, she turned away.
“Is that what you’re wearing to move in?”
She glanced down at herself. Her ribbed, shocking-pink tank top was appliqued with a huge happy face on the chest. She felt comfortable. Definitely fashionable. But just not quite tall enough… “Yes, it is, but just a sec,” she exclaimed, and ran up the stairs.
“Sorry, Chastity,” she murmured, and reached into one of the ten huge boxes of shoes she’d agreed to sell. “You’ll have to do without these.”
After she had the clear, high plastic platform sandals on, she felt better. Much better. She left her room, grabbing the porcelain kitty filled with rose petals, deciding on the spot she wasn’t giving that up, either.
At the top of the stairs, she smiled down to an impatiently waiting Joe. She thought she was hot stuff now. Really, really untouchable.
As she reached the second stair, the heel of her right shoe caught. Without warning, she bounced down the stairs on her butt. Rose petals rained down as they spilled out of her porcelain kitty.
When she hit bottom, Joe was right there, on his knees, face grim. “You okay?” Rose petals shimmered in his hair, on his shoulders. “Caitlin! Answer me, dammit.”
The only thing hurting at the moment was her pride. Well, and maybe the rug burn she’d just gotten on her tender backside. “I’ll live.”
He looked so ridiculous with that fierce expression as rose petals fell off his nose, but she didn’t dare laugh. She nearly choked holding it in, then she exploded.
He scowled at her laughter. “Are you sure you’re not hurt? I know you couldn’t have broken that hard head of yours, but…”
She kept laughing, unable to stop.
His frown faded; he bit his lip. Then he started laughing, too.
“You’re unbelievable,” he said when he could talk. “Take those damn heels off before you kill me.”
“Kill
“Yeah.” His voice had gone deep and husky.
She followed his gaze.
Her skirt was hiked up indecently high, exposing a long length of thigh and even a peek at her panties.
She shoved the skirt down, face suddenly hot.
Just like his eyes. “They match,” he said unevenly.
Puzzled, she glanced down at the black-and-yellow happy face sewn on the front of her can’t-miss-me pink tank top. She thought nothing could embarrass her more than her pratfall down the stairs, but she’d been wrong. Her brilliant pink panties also had happy faces on them, and remembering her graceless slide down the stairs with her skirt up around her ears, she imagined Joe had gotten quite a view of them.
Revenge was simple enough.
When Vince, Tim and Andy showed up, she put them all to work along with Chastity and the men she’d brought.
“This is perfect,” Caitlin said casually several hours later.
Tim, Andy and Joe moved by, each staggering under the weight of a huge box. Joe stopped, breath huffing, muscles straining in all sorts of interesting ways. “What’s perfect? That we’re doing all the work, or that you’re the boss for a change?”
She grinned, her revenge complete. “Both!”
LATER VINCE PULLED her aside. “You really okay?”
“Hey, I’ve got four studs at my beck and call.” She took in his designer sweats, and compared them to the jeans of the other men. She had to laugh. “Well, three studs and one really finely dressed man. I can’t think of one reason why I shouldn’t be just peachy fine.”
“Because you’re losing everything,” he said gently, running his hand up her arm.
“Thanks for the reminder.” Why wasn’t his touch causing goose bumps? Making her shiver with desire? He was perfect. Any normal woman would have told her so.
But she wasn’t normal.
“Are you sure about this, Caitlin?” Vince asked, clearly concerned. “Are you sure you didn’t pick too hastily?”
It took her a minute to realize he was talking about her choice of apartment, not the man she’d fallen for.
“I looked up your new address on the map last night, and I don’t think it’s such a great neighborhood.”
Caitlin knew it wasn’t, but she hadn’t had much to work with. And she was doing her darnedest not to obsess or dwell, since she hated to do either. But it was getting increasingly difficult to stay cheery with Vince reminding her of everything she’d been trying not to think about. “Well, at least my car won’t get stolen.”
“Why?” He looked blank and she sighed.
“Because I already got it repossessed. Remember?”
He frowned, for a moment reminding her of another man. The man who was at this moment grappling with a large box, for her, sweat making his skin glisten, exertion making his arms bulge.
Her darn knees went weak and she wasn’t even wearing those platforms; Joe had tossed them with great ceremony into the Dumpster.
“Caitlin?” Vince looked at her. “You could come with me. Take your time and find something better.”
“I don’t think so,” Joe said lightly in a voice of steel as he came back inside.
Tim, clearly sensing the sudden tension, clapped his hands and announced cheerfully, “Well, we’ve got everything you want to bring, Caitlin. I vote we stop for a pizza on the way to the new apartment.”
“A vegetarian one,” Andy said. “With anchovies.”
