Fall from India Place (On Dublin Street 4)

She glanced away from his lancing blue-eyed stare. “As you know, Kam can also be a bit . . .”

“Stubborn? Arrogant? Contemptuous?”

Lin cleared her throat. “Yes, all of those things.”

Ian nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Don’t worry. You’re not telling me anything I don’t know. He nearly goaded me into a fistfight last night at the Coffee Boutique.”

“What?” Lin asked, alarmed. Was this a result of what had happened in the cloakroom, or more accurately, her leaving without Kam? “You?”

“I know. It’s been like that since I first met Kam. He has the ability to rile me like no other,” Ian said before shaking his head in bemusement. “He really knows how to push some buttons.”

Against her will, the vision of Kam’s tongue burrowing between her labia as he looked up at her with that hot, quicksilver stare flooded her consciousness. Heat rushed through her at the graphic memory . . . at having such a charged, lascivious memory period, sitting here in front of Ian. Was her morning “distance” really so short-lived? For a few charged seconds, she couldn’t draw breath into her lungs.

“Something must have upset him after the Gersbachs left, since as you mentioned, everything went so glowingly well at the meeting,” Ian said.

“I suppose, yes,” she said, struggling to keep her voice even and her expression impassive. “I can’t imagine what.”

“You can’t?”

She shook her head, holding his stare, all expression carefully ironed out of her face. It took a monumental effort on her part.

“Because I got the impression he was very irritated by your leaving,” Ian said.

“Really?” Lin asked uneasily.

“Yes. He seemed concerned about you and annoyed by your absence.”

She couldn’t stop her blush. She felt like a bug under the microscope of Ian’s piercing stare. Suddenly, she couldn’t take it anymore. She stood abruptly.

“Lin?” Ian asked sharply, sitting forward in his chair. “Is Kam making you uncomfortable? Is he being . . . inappropriate in any way?”

“No,” she blurted out. “He’s not.” I’m the one who is being inappropriate by lusting after him because he resembles you, she thought wildly.

“Would you rather not continue to work with him?” Ian demanded.

She stood there, wavering in her heels, unsure of how to reply. This was her chance to back out. Ian could ask another Noble executive to support Kam during his stay in Chicago. Kam wouldn’t like that, though. She just knew it. He may have his own personal motives for agreeing to these meetings, but they did still make him uncomfortable. It would be unfair to toss him to someone else just because they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

“I want to keep working with him,” she said.

“You’re sure,” Ian prompted.

“Absolutely.”

“All right then.”

A flash of guilt went through her at his quiet show of complete confidence. Ian respected her decisions. She’d earned that respect from him. She prayed she wasn’t throwing his hard-earned trust to the wolves with this thing between her and Kam.

Whatever this thing was.

“Since we’re on the subject of Kam’s discomfort, he came to the penthouse with Francesca and me last night. Two things Francesca was able to . . . ‘pry out of him,’ as you put it, is that he’s very uncomfortable at the hotel, the other is that he misses his dog.”

“His dog?” Lin asked incredulously.

Ian nodded, his amusement easily read in his gleaming eyes. “Yes. Angus. Kam seems to imagine that Angus is a vicious guard dog, but in reality, Angus is a sweet golden retriever that doesn’t know an enemy and was happy to be a lapdog for Elise and Francesca whenever they visited Aurore. Angus also has the distinction of being Kam’s first and longest-standing test subject for his biofeedback timepiece. While we were at Aurore, Angus wore one of the most sophisticated, technologically advanced watches in the world around her left front leg. Even while Kam looked like the wild man of the Aurore Woods and forgot to eat because he’d get so caught up in his inventions, he kept Angus clean, extremely well-groomed, and gave her better food than he ever consumed himself. Yes.” Ian added when he saw Lin’s eyes widen in amazement. “The fierce Angus is a girl.”

Lin burst into choked laughter.

Well, she had said Kam never ceased to surprise, hadn’t she? Ian uncharacteristically joined her, chuckling quietly. The idea of scowling, primal Kam behaving so fussily about a dog that he imagined to be as intimidating as him was too priceless.

She was glad Ian had revealed this tidbit about his brother. The information made her less anxious about their next meeting, something she’d been dreading after her second instance of impulsive, rampant promiscuity with him last night.

A little less anxious, anyway.

It did her heart good to see Ian laugh. He really was fond of Kam, she realized in wonderment as their mirth faded. She’d guessed it before by his actions, but seeing his full-out smile as he recalled his brother’s idiosyncrasies really brought it home.

“There’s an available furnished apartment in my building,” Ian continued. “I’ve discovered the owner is agreeable to renting it out on a week-to-week basis until he gets a permanent lease. He’s also all right with a well-trained dog, so . . .”

“You’d like Kam to move there and have arrangements made for Angus to come to Chicago?” Lin finished for him. “Kam is interested?”