Natural Blond Instincts Read online

  It didn’t come. Something else, another feeling entirely, came instead. It’d happened without his realizing it, but it had happened. He wanted to be with her.

  He reminded himself they were too different. She was whimsical, fanciful. Happy to just…be.

  He was driven, hungry and ambitious.

  And full of crap.

  Fact was, he’d never had a good handle on Kenna. She might be fanciful and whimsical, but she worked hard, too. And she had plenty of drive and passion.

  He had the Teen Zone memories as proof of that.

  So did he…had he actually, maybe fallen—

  “Wes?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I didn’t sleep with you so you’d put our reports together.”

  He laughed.

  She didn’t.

  With a sigh, he looked into her face. “If I’d thought so, we wouldn’t have done this.”

  “I just wanted to say it.”

  “Well…thank you.”

  She sat up. “I’ve got to go get ready.”

  But he wanted round two. “So…later, then?”

  She looked startled. “Later what?”

  “Later…more.”

  “Oh. Um…”

  He ignored his heart shriveling, along with other parts of him as she bent for her clothes, her cute, edible little butt wiggling as she shimmied into her panties. “I’ll take that as a no.” He got to his feet, thinking he should have stuck to his usual routine after sex and gone to sleep.

  She found her blouse, swore when she remembered the torn buttons. Tossing it down, she went into the bathroom and the bag he’d dumped on the floor, rummaging until she came up with one of his shirts. Shoving her arms in, she hauled her skirt over her hips, shimmying a little to get everything tucked in, belatedly finding her bra. That got stuffed in her pocket. “Wes…”

  He looked into her eyes and saw a surprising amount of nerves. “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Hell, no. “Absolutely.”

  She headed toward the door, in his shirt, for the second time in an hour fully dressed to his being completely naked.

  “See you at the meeting,” he said. “I’ll bring the reports.”

  She looked back at him. “You don’t have to bring mine.”

  “Shut up, Kenna.”

  “I just meant that this—” She gestured to the bed. “And that—” She looked at the report she’d left on his dresser. “They’re not all tied up together or anything.”

  “Look, I know that this—” He jerked his chin to the bed. “And that—” And then the report on the dresser. “Aren’t tied up.”

  She nodded in relief and left.

  And then he was alone, wondering how the hell was it that he’d been ditched, when he hadn’t even known he wanted both this and that in the first place.

  WELL, SHE’D DONE IT, hadn’t she? She’d finally caved in to the attraction between her and Wes, and what had it gotten her? A perfect orgasm.

  Two, in fact.

  In her own room she showered and dressed, then stalked downstairs with moments to spare before the board meeting. The conference room was set up with food and drinks, but she’d lost her appetite.

  What had she done? She’d mixed business and pleasure, and how. That’s what she’d done. How in the world had this happened? She felt…so misdirected. Lost.

  Alone.

  Stupid.

  “Kenna.”

  Whirling, she faced the man who only a little while before had had her whimpering and begging him to finish her off.

  He was solemn now, his mouth tight, his eyes tired and tense behind his glasses.

  He was holding her report. “You okay?” he asked.

  She started to nod, then slowly shook her head. “I feel…a little mixed up.”

  “Like you were hit by a truck?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yeah, I felt the same way. Until I thought about it.” He looked at her for a long moment. “We started out pretty adversarial, didn’t we?”

  “Pretty much, yes.”

  “But it didn’t stay that way,” he said. “I’d like to think we’ve built a mutual respect, even a friendship.”

  “What just happened wasn’t about respect or friendship.”

  “But it was good.” He smiled, and her heart tipped on its side.

  Thank God she’d finally gotten it right and worn waterproof mascara.

  “It doesn’t have to be so complicated, Kenna.”

  Right. It didn’t.

  He held out her report. “Let’s start here, only because we have to. Are you ready for this?”

  “Why? Do I have something to do in there other than be Mr. Mallory’s daughter?”

  “You don’t like being your father’s daughter?”

  “Sure. Outside the boardroom.”

  His gaze caressed her face. “Your report is good. Go for it in there.”

  She looked around to make sure no one was listening. “Are you sure that’s not the sex talking?” she whispered.

  He looked shocked. “What? I thought you said these were two separate issues.”

  “Just checking. I mean, if you say the report’s good, then…you get more sex later, right?”

  He grinned. “Would that actually work?”

  She had to laugh. “I’m not too ashamed to say yeah, it would work, but tell me it’s not so anyway.”

  “It’s not.” He lost the grin and went serious. “Do it, Kenna. Go in there and do your thing. You’re good at it.”

  “I am.” She looked at the food spread. There were chocolate doughnuts. Good. She needed one. Two. This was definitely going to be a two-doughnut meeting.

  17

  THE ENTIRE TIME Wes spoke in front of the board, the only person he was aware of was Kenna. Everyone appeared to be listening, nodding, whatever, but he didn’t really care…except about what Kenna thought.

  Would she do it? Stand up and get what she wanted?

  “Excellent, Roth,” Mr. Mallory said when he’d finished and everyone had applauded. “Thank you. The newest addition is coming along better than I had hoped, and we know we owe that to you.”

  “I didn’t work alone.”

  Mr. Mallory looked at Kenna. “Yes, my daughter. I’m thrilled she’s been able to help you.”

  Kenna’s smile didn’t falter, but then again, she was a Mallory. Tough. Resilient. “She more than helped me,” Wes said. “And she has a report as well.”

  Mr. Mallory lifted an eyebrow and looked at his daughter.

  Kenna stood, and with a perfectly calm voice and steady hands, told every board member what she thought of the bonuses that had gone to executives instead of being trickled all the way down the line to the employees who needed it more, what she thought about the lack of available child care for their thousands of employees. She told them what she thought about their nonexistent programs for maternity and paternity leave, and what she believed was a far more fair package. She discussed costs and suggested alternatives.

  Then her father stopped her. “Expensive ideas.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “But if you look at the financials, worth it. Especially considering that in the long run, some of these things are cheaper and have a bigger payoff than the executive bonuses.”

  Her father nodded. “I’ll think about it. Thank you, Kenna. Next on the agenda?”

  Her expression carefully blank, Kenna sat down.

  Wes waited for her to look at him so he could smile at her, anything to make her look…happy, but she didn’t.

  Mr. Mallory moved the meeting along, not addressing his daughter again, not even when the meeting was over.

  Wes supposed that’s when he realized his loyalty had shifted.

  Maybe, if he was being honest, he’d felt it shift way back on that very first day he’d met her.

  KENNA DIDN’T go to Wes’s room that night. She intended to soak in her tub and