Almost Forever Read online

  I don’t want to love him, she thought in despair, but it was already too late. How could she not love him? His laughter as he rolled on the grass, wrestling gently with the four giggling, shrieking youngsters, undermined her defenses far more quickly than any attempt at seduction would have.

  She was still in a state of shock when Max drove her back to her apartment that night. It was almost ten o’clock, as everyone had been reluctant to let the day end.

  “I like your family,” Max said as he walked her to the door, rousing her from her thoughts.

  “They liked you, too. I hope all those questions didn’t make you uncomfortable.”

  “Not at all. I’d have been disappointed if they hadn’t been interested in your well-being. They love you very much.”

  Startled, Claire paused with the key in her hand. Max took the key, unlocked the door and reached in to turn on the light then ushered her inside with his hand on her back. “They think I’m an idiot and can’t do anything by myself,” she blurted.

  “That’s not what I saw,” Max murmured, cupping her bare shoulders in his warm hands. Claire’s pulse suddenly throbbed, and she glanced down to hide the response that she couldn’t control. “If you think your family is overprotective, I shudder to think how you’d react to mine. My entire family is so incredibly nosy that I sometimes think the mob would have more finesse.”

  She laughed, as he’d meant her to, and the way her face lit suddenly made his loins throb. He clenched his teeth, restraining himself from grabbing her and grinding his hips against her soft curves. “Good night,” he said, bending to press his lips against her forehead. “May I call you tomorrow?”

  “Again? I mean, of course, but I thought you’d be tired of my company.”

  “Not at all. I can relax with you. If you have other plans…?”

  “I don’t,” she said hurriedly, suddenly terrified that now he wouldn’t call at all. The thought of a day without seeing him made her feel bleak.

  “Then have lunch with me. Is there a restaurant close to your office?”

  “Yes, just across the street. Riley’s.”

  “Then I’ll meet you there at noon.” He touched her cheek briefly then left. Claire locked the door behind him, her eyes filling with unexpected tears and her throat clogging. She was in love with him, with a man who, by his own admission, wanted only the refuge of an undemanding friendship. What a stupid thing for her to do! She had known, by her unusual response to him, that he was a danger to her and the quiet, uncomplicated life she’d built for herself. By not making any demands at all, he’d taken far more than she would ever have offered.

  CHAPTER 4

  When Claire entered the office, she saw at once that Sam had spent the night there again. File drawers were open, the lights were on, and a pot of old coffee was scorching on the warming pad of the coffee maker. Wrinkling her nose, she poured out the old coffee and put on a fresh pot, then set about restoring order to the office. The door of Sam’s office was closed, but she knew that he would either be sprawled on the sofa or slumped over his desk. He spent a lot of nights in the office whenever he was working on a new alloy; his delight was in the development of new metals, not in the day-to-day routine of running the business he’d founded. For all that, he was a cagey businessman, and nothing escaped his attention for long.

  When the coffee was finished, she poured a cup and carried it through to Sam’s office. He was asleep at his desk, his head resting on his folded arms. A legal pad crowded with numbers and chemical symbols lay beside him, and five Styrofoam cups with varying levels of cold coffee was scattered around the desk. Claire set the cup of steaming coffee on the desk and crossed to the windows to open the curtains, flooding the office with light. “Sam, wake up. It’s almost eight o’clock.”

  He woke easily, yawning and stirring at her voice. Sitting up, he yawned again and rubbed his face, eyed the fresh cup of coffee with appreciation and drank half of it. “What time did you say it is?”

  “Eight.”

  “Almost five hours’ sleep. Not bad.” Five hours’ sleep was really a lot for him—he often functioned on less. Sam was something of an enigma, but she was fond of him and intensely loyal. He was lean and gray haired, and his face had lines that told of hard living sometime in his fifty-two years, making her suspect that he had quite an interesting past, but he never talked about it. She knew little about him other than that his wife had died ten years before and he still mourned her, having no interest in remarrying. Her photograph still sat on his desk, and Claire had seen Sam look at it with an expression of such pain and longing that she’d had to turn away.

  “Have you been working on something new?” she asked, nodding toward the legal pad.

  “I’d like to make that new alloy stronger, but so far all I’ve done is make it brittle. I haven’t hit on the right combination yet without making it heavier, too.”

  The challenge was to develop a metal that was both strong and light, because the heavier a metal was, the more energy was required to move it. The advanced metal alloys had practical applications more far-reaching than simply making a long-lasting I-beam for construction; the sophisticated alloys were used in space and opened up new opportunities in land travel. After an alloy was developed, ways had to be found to produce it cheaply enough that industry could use it. When Claire had first begun working, it had seemed like a routine job to her, like working in any steel mill, but she’d soon discovered her error. The security was tight and the research fascinating.

  She loved her job, and that morning she was especially grateful for it, because it took her mind away from Max and gave her some breathing space. He had occupied both her time and her thoughts since she had first met him Friday night, overwhelming her with his sleek sophistication and wry good humor, inserting himself into her life so neatly and firmly that even in her sleep she couldn’t quite escape from him. Claire had slept badly the night before, waking to tell herself over and over that she didn’t love him, she couldn’t love him, but then her traitorous mind would form his image in her thoughts, and her body would react wildly, growing warm and heavy, and she was afraid. Loving him was both reckless and foolish, especially for a woman who prized the secure, even tenor of her life and never again wanted to risk the pain of loving. It was even more foolish because Max had told her from the outset that he only wanted to be friends. How awkward it would be if he guessed that she was just like all the others, mooning over him like a starstruck teenager! Goodbye friendship, goodbye Max.

  Sam called her into his office late that morning to take letters, but dictated only a few. Leaning back in his chair, he steepled his fingers and peered at her over them, frowning. Claire sat quietly, waiting. Sam wasn’t frowning at her; he was lost in his thoughts and probably didn’t even see her. At last he roused himself and got to his feet, groaning a little as his stiff muscles protested. “Days like this remind me of my age,” he growled, rubbing his lower back.

  “Sleeping at your desk reminds you of your age,” Claire corrected, and he grunted in agreement.

  “I heard some rumors over the weekend,” he said, walking to the window to look down at the roof of his laboratory. “Nothing concrete, but in this case I tend to believe them. Some foreign interest seems to be interested in buying up some of our stock. I don’t like that. I don’t like it at all.”

  “A takeover?”

  “Could be. There’s no active trading in our stock, no sudden surge in demand or price, so the rumor could be groundless. Still, there is something else that makes me uneasy. Another rumor is also circulating, about the new titanium alloy I’m working with now.” His lined face was taut with worry.

  They stared at each other in silence, both aware of the implications. Sam had developed an alloy so superior to its predecessors in strength and lightness that the possibilities for its use were so far-ranging they were almost beyond belief, though he still wasn’t satisfied with the production process. That was still in the experim