Page 35 of Hawk and the Cougar

Hawk stepped inside and led her to the queen sized bed. He grasped her shoulders, bent, and brushed his lips against hers. Liz stilled, unable to deny she was glad for the warmth of his mouth against hers and the pressure of his fingers in the flesh of her shoulders. She suddenly realized she wanted him, needed him. Before she could respond, he pulled away and drew back the covers. When he eased her onto the bed, her heart thumped even harder.

He tugged the covers up over her and sat on the edge of the bed. “You need some rest.

“Rest?” she repeated.

“Rest.” He smiled. “You expected something else?”

She flushed.

His brows rose. “Maybe you were hoping for something else?”

“Emma’s here,” Liz said in a whisper.

He nodded, and she couldn’t tear her eyes from his face.

“Later.” He kissed her forehead again, then left.

She stared at the closed door, uncertain she could let him walk away so easily. Then she closed her eyes.

* * *

“You tell GFW they can make payment on time or talk to our lawyers.” Liz spoke into the phone at her home office to Ben Dixon, CFO of GFW, Leland Industries’ largest buyer the following morning. “You received the product, Ben. We expect the final payment in five days—per our contract.”

She shifted and winced when butt muscles screamed. She’d slept through dinner and clear through the night, which probably hadn’t helped. A tremor radiated through her stomach. Was it the run or the hard workout Hawk had given her that had her body sore?

“Liz.” Ben’s voice dragged her back to the present. “We’ve done business too long for there to be this kind of animosity.”

“And we’ve done business long enough for me to know when I’m being stonewalled,” she replied. “I read the Wall Street Journal. Leland Industries isn’t about to finance GFW’s merger with Suyama Industries.”

“One month, Liz. That’s all I’m asking,” he pleaded.

Her assistant Karen walked in and pointed to her watch. Liz nodded. She had a conference call with a new start-up design company in five minutes.

“Tell you what,” she said into the phone, “you give Leland Industries the interest you’ll make on keeping our money in your bank, and you’ve got a deal.”

Silence.

“Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?” she asked.

“Liz—”

“No,” she cut in. “You’re asking us to lose money so that you can make money. We won’t do it, Ben.”

He sighed. “I’ll talk to Anderson. Maybe he can offer some sort of incentive.”

“Five days,” she repeated.

“You sure you won’t come over to the dark side and work for us?” he asked.

She laughed. “You make this offer every time you get tired of arguing with me.”

“Hell, yeah,” he agreed. “But I mean it.”

He’d meant it every time he said it over the last ten years. Ben wasn’t a bad guy, but today was a perfect example of how GFW did business, and she didn’t like it.

“I’ll talk to you later, Ben.”

“Think about it,” he said. “Seriously.”