Katherine Avril said, extending her hand to the tall, handsome man waiting in the lobby Chapter 3 “We’re flying out to Houston today,” Carlo said through the phone. “Pack a bag and meet me at the airport in an hour,” With those terse words he hung up the phone. Kate stared at the dead receiver, confusion on her face. What had he said about Houston? Why were they going to Texas? Weren’t the reports he needed right here in the headquarters office. She sat up and tried to focus but her mind took its own sweet time in coming together. Once the message sunk in, she let her head fall back onto her pillow and she stared up at the Kelly green ceiling. “What am I doing?” she said and pulled the lime green sheet and yellow comforter over her head. “I can’t go to Houston with that man,” she groaned, burying herself in her comfortable, warm bed. After a few minutes, she realized that her curiosity was keeping her from going back to sleep so she threw the covers back. With a heavy sigh, she pulled herself out of bed and forced her feet to carry her to the bathroom. It was still dark outside, but that wasn’t unusual. It was the beginning of autumn so the mornings were pretty dark anyway. She didn’t think too much about the time and ignored her now constant state of fatigue. Kate wasn’t sleeping well anyway. She stayed up late either trying to finish up her own work by answering e-mails, sending out instructions to her staff, or she was sleepless thinking about Carlo and the way his kisses made her feel. Last night was a combination of the last two. She’d come home and logged into her e-mail in an effort to get her mind off of Carlo’s last kiss. There were over three hundred unanswered e-mails with questions ranging from a price quote on the latest line for a designer to videos of the newest fabrics. Once she’d gone through over fifty of them, she decided she was tired enough to go to sleep without thoughts of Carlo swirling through her mind. She was wrong. As soon as her head hit the pillow, her mind relaxed and thought back to that last kiss. It had been so tender, so undemanding. What was he trying to say to her? Kate was definitely confused. She wanted to ignore him. Each day, she thought of new ways to either avoid him, ignore him or convince him to let them just be friends. But he just wouldn’t let any of her options happen. When she avoided him, he sought her out. When she ignored him, he asked business questions that forced her to speak to him, acknowledge him and interspersed with the business issues, he’d pop in a personal question. She found herself answering those as well, simply because she found that she enjoyed talking to him too much. And the two times she’d asked him to not pursue a physical relationship with her, he’d kissed her. That was the worst thing he could do since any sort of touch from that man had her body betraying her mind. She turned to putty in his hands, then into a demanding woman, needing more. She let the hot spray of the shower ease the tension from her body and finish the job of waking her up. She worried about how she was going to get through the day, in close proximity to him on a plane. If it weren’t for this silly attraction she felt for him, she was sure she could convince him that friendship was the best route. She had dozens of male friends. Some of them she’d even met as boyfriends but when things didn’t work out, she’d convinced them to remain as friends. Why wouldn’t Carlo accept that she wasn’t dating material? Why couldn’t he leave her alone?
