Tender Triumph Read online

  Katie nodded.

  "I think you've lost your mind, but at least you have sense enough not to resign and burn all your bridges behind you. In four weeks, or much less, you'll regret this insanely romantic—and utterly ab­surd—impulse. You know I'm right or you wouldn't be asking for a leave, you'd be resigning."

  "It isn't insane and it isn't an impulse," Katie said, her eyes pleading with Ginny to understand. "Ramon is different—"

  "I'll bet he is!" Ginny agreed disdainfully. "Latin men are impossibly chauvinistic."

  Katie ignored that because she already knew that Ramon was very Latin and very chauvinistic. "Ra­mon is special," she said, embarrassed at trying to put the way she felt about him into words, "He makes me feel special, too. He isn't shallow or self-centered like most of the men I've known." Seeing that Ginny was no more convinced than she was before, Katie added, "Ginny, he loves me; I can feel that he does. And he needs me. I—"

  "Of course he needs you!" Ginny scoffed. "He's a small-time farmer who can't afford to pay for a cook, housekeeper and bedmate. Therefore, he needs a wife, who for the mere cost of her room and board will be all three." Instantly, Ginny held up an apologetic hand. "I'm sorry Katie, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't impose my own views of mat­rimony on you. It's just that I honestly feel you could never be content with that sort of life, not when you've had this."

  "This isn't enough for me, Ginny," Katie said with quiet assurance. "Long before I met Ramon, I felt that way. I can't seem to be happy devoting all my time to me—my career, my next promotion, my future. It isn't that it's a lonely life, because I'm not lonely at all. It's an empty life; I feel useless and meaningless."

  "Do you know how many women long for exactly what you have? Do you know how many women wish they had only themselves to think about?"

  Katie nodded, uncomfortably aware that she was indirectly rejecting Ginny's way of life, as well as her own. "I know. Maybe it would be right for them. It isn't right for me."

  Ginny glanced at her watch and regretfully stood up. "I've got to hurry, I'm due at a meeting down­town, and I won't be back until after you've left. Don't worry about calling me within two weeks. Give yourself all four of those weeks. If you decide to resign, I'll simply put this in your file and say that you gave it to me in advance. It's bending company policy, but what are friends for?" She skimmed the letter and smiled at Katie's reason for resignation. " 'To accept a better position,'" she quoted. "Very nicely done."

  Katie stood up, too, her eyes aching with senti­mental tears. "In that case, I guess this is goodbye."

  "No, Katie," Ginny said with a laugh as she began shoving papers into her slim briefcase. "Two weeks from now you'll begin getting bored. Four weeks from now you'll miss the challenge of your career. You'll be back. In the meantime, have a nice vaca­tion—that's all you really needed, anyway. You're just a little tired. I'll see you in a month—or sooner.''

  At 5:05 Katie plunged through the revolving glass doors and dashed across the pavement to where Ra­mon had pulled the car up at the curb to wait for her. She slid into the seat, bravely met his inquiring look and said, "I took a month's vacation instead of resigning."

  His jaw tightened and Katie twisted in her seat to face him. "The reason I did was that—"

  "Not now!" he snapped curtly. "We will discuss it when we get to your apartment."

  They walked into her apartment together, neither of them having spoken a word during the thirty-five-minute ride home. Katie's frayed nerves stretched taut as she put her purse down, shrugged out of the navy blazer, and turned toward him. Aware of his smoldering anger, she asked cautiously, "Where do you want me to begin?"

  His hands shot out, gripping her arms. "Begin with why," he ordered harshly, giving her a shake. "Tell me why!"

  Katie managed to keep her fear-widened blue eyes on his. "Please don't look at me this way. I know you're hurt and you're angry, but you shouldn't be." Reaching out, she ran her hands up beneath the soft material of his gold golf sweater, her palms flat­tened against his muscular chest, trying somehow to soothe and gentle him.

  The gesture backfired. Ramon jerked her hands away. "Do not try to distract me with your touch, it will not work. This is not a game we are playing!"

  "I'm not playing games!" Katie shot back, pull­ing her hands from his grip with a strength that was fortified by her own simmering anger. "If I wanted to play games with you, I would have lied and told you that I had resigned." Stalking away from him to the center of the room, Katie stopped and whirled around. "I decided to request four weeks off so that I could resign from Puerto Rico for several very im­portant reasons.

  "In the first place, Virginia Johnson is not only my boss, she is someone whom I like and respect immensely. If I resign without notice, I'll make Ginny look like a complete fool."

  Katie's chin lifted stubbornly as she continued her angry, impassioned speech. "And what about the men? If I quit without notice, it gives them all a per­fect reason to feel vindicated and superior because men don't run off to get married. I absolutely refuse to be a traitor to my own sex! So.. .when I resign from Puerto Rico with notice I will say that I am leaving to 'accept a better position.' Which I happen to think being your wife is!" Katie finished defiant­ly.

  "Thank you," Ramon said almost humbly. Smil­ing, he started walking toward her.

  Katie, who had worked herself into a fine temper, began backing away. "I haven't finished yet," she said, her color gloriously high, her eyes stormy with hurt indignation. "You told me you wanted honesty from me at all times, and when I was honest you bullied and intimidated me. If I'm supposed to be completely truthful, I have to know that no matter how bad the truth is, you aren't going to get angry with me for telling it to you. You were unfair and unreasonable a few minutes ago, and I think you have an impossible temper!"

  "Are you finished now?" Ramon asked her gen­tly.

  "No, I'm not!" Katie said, all but stamping her foot. "When I touched you, I was only trying to feel close to you. I wasn't playing games and I hated the way you treated me!" Having now exhausted her complaints, Katie glowered past his shoulder, refus­ing to meet his gaze.

  Ramon's voice was coaxing and deep. "Would you like to touch me now?"

  "Not in the least."

  "Even if I say that I am very sorry, and that I want you to touch me?"

  "No."

  "You no longer wish to be close to me, Katie?"

  "No, I don't."

  "Look at me." Ramon's fingers touched her chin, turning her face up to his. "I hurt you, and now you have hurt me back, and we both ache. We can either strike out at each other in our pain until our anger is spent, or we can stop now and begin to teach each other how to heal our hurts. I do not know which way you want it."

  Gazing up into his intent eyes Katie realized that he meant that literally; he wanted her to decide whether to turn their battle into a war that would last until their tempers were exhausted, or else tell him what to do or say to soothe her. Katie stared, the gracefully feminine curves of her face vulnerable and uncertain, her eyes deep blue with confusion. Finally she swallowed and bravely said, "I—I would like you to put your arms around me."

  With aching gentleness, Ramon drew her into the circle of his arms.

  "And I would like you to kiss me."

  "How?" he breathed softly.

  "With your lips," Katie answered, confused by the question.

  His mouth brushed hers sensuously, his lips warm but not parted.

  "And your tongue," she clarified breathlessly.

  "Will you give me yours?" he asked, beginning to tell her how he wanted his hurt soothed.

  Katie nodded, and his mouth opened hungrily over hers, their tongues tangling and caressing. His hands stroked restlessly over her shoulders and back, then down her spine, forcing her hips hard against his pulsing thighs. His mouth devoured hers as he pulled her down onto the sofa to lie across his lap, his fingers fumbling with the tiny buttons on her silk