It had taken McKenzie a while, but she’d now admit that Jewell was a friend. Most certainly. And she smiled at the thought, but her lips quickly turned down into a frown. When she’d met Jewell in that cold, rat-infested building last year, McKenzie had thought she’d been saving the young woman.
Had she known at the time that Jewell was so innocent — a virgin in fact, and an idealistic one — she never would have brought her to Relinquish Control. Luckily, it had all turned out well, for Jewell at least, since she was now married to a wonderful man — well, a recently changed and now wonderful man. Plus, Jewell was now three months pregnant, and McKenzie had never seen her happier.
Not only didn’t McKenzie get into girl bonding in the usual way, but she’d never been a baby type of gal, either. She’d never wanted to hold them, had never felt her biological clock ticking, and had never wanted a white picket fence, kids, pets, and the whole American Dream. Some said that made her abnormal. She chose to believe that it made her focused on what really mattered.
But she couldn’t deny that she was excited at the thought of meeting Jewell and Blake’s first child. He or she was surely going to be as beautiful as the two of them were. McKenzie had even found herself shopping with Jewell for baby clothes the week before.
They had run into Byron.
That memory sent a shudder through her just as she pulled up to a red light. She hit her brake pedal a little too hard, locking her seatbelt against her and making her unable to move for a moment.
“Byron Knight,” she growled.
That man had been running through her brain constantly for the past three months — hell, he’d taken up shop there — ever since the night he’d shown up at her door, accused her of ruining his brother’s life, kissed her senseless, and then disappeared as quickly as he’d come in.
She’d been furious when the whole disaster began, and she’d even lifted up her phone to call the police. When he started kissing her, her first impulse was to claw his eyes out. Then, after a few seconds, she’d melted against him. When he pulled back, the cocky look in his eyes — the arrogant bastard! — had made her claws come out again. But before she could strike, he was gone.
She hadn’t seen him again until last week, and the look in his eyes when their gazes collided had sent strange sensations traveling up and down her spine. Absurd. Why was this man even a blip on her radar, let alone at the controls of what she felt? And what were these feelings?
No, she wasn’t a fool. She knew that people enjoyed sex. Some of her “ladies” had even told her that they didn’t always have to fake their orgasms when they were on the job. But for McKenzie, her one and only sexual partner had been…horrific. She shuddered even thinking about it.
But why was she thinking of Byron Knight and sex in the same sentence? Just because his kiss had heated her blood didn’t mean a thing. She’d been around overconfident men for years, and they did nothing for her.
Byron Knight made no difference in her life, and he never would. Though she might be a friend of the intolerable man’s sister-in-law, McKenzie would run into him only rarely. Certainly not at her new accounting business, which would open its doors on Monday.
He wouldn’t know where those offices were, and a man in his income range would have no need for an accountant like her. Big boys like him swam in another pool altogether. With any luck she’d never see him again. So what if she was attracted to the man — where had that come from? She hated herself for feeling that way.
Out of sight, out of mind. That was her philosophy. If she didn’t see him, didn’t think about him, didn’t talk about him, then she would soon forget about him. It wasn’t as if he were hanging out with Jewell — he rarely showed up at Jewell and Blake’s place. So McKenzie was just fine.
The stoplight changed to green — finally — and she made it to her street, pulled into the driveway, and walked inside her home. It didn’t matter how many times she shut and locked her front door. When she turned and looked at her modest living room, peace washed through her.
It was her house, a house that she’d paid for completely. No bank could come and take it away like they had her mother’s home.
Yes, McKenzie’s life had been difficult, but the baptism by fire — okay, baptisms in the plural — had made her stronger. She was who she was because nothing had been handed to her. She was strong and independent and there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do.
It was time to put the finishing touches on her business plan. Next week, her life would change forever.
Chapter Two
I think we’re officially in the black.”
McKenzie took a break from staring at her computer screen and looked up at the smiling face of her business partner, Zach Sinclair. It really was too bad that she wasn’t attracted to the man. He was intelligent — one of the most intelligent men she knew, actually — and he could make her laugh. On top of that, he was single.
Didn’t matter. She felt nothing but friendship for the fellow. Maybe she was broken. She was twenty-nine years old, hadn’t been in a serious relationship for ten years, and hadn’t been interested in being in one, either.
There were plenty of men who had asked her out, but she turned them away. Her ex, whose very name still turned her stomach, had left quite a mark on her. She didn’t need a psychoanalyst to tell her that, and knowing when and how she’d been messed up couldn’t change how she felt.
Oh, yes. They were in the black. “Did you ever doubt we would be?” she asked.
“No. But most businesses don’t make a profit in the first two months. It usually takes years,” he replied as he propped himself on the edge of her desk. Their doors had been open officially for two months this coming Friday, and business was good — or better than she had pictured at this point.
“That’s why we save for the rainy days, Zach. But we still bust our asses so we don’t have to rely on those savings.”
“Well, don’t get too excited, sweetheart. We’re only in the black by a very small margin. We need to land more clients pronto.”
“We’re new. It will take time for big clients to trust us, and to feel that we are not only competent, but better than all the other accounting firms. Until then, we have a lot to smile about, though, because we already have ten full-time employees and six part-timers. We’re doing better than most.”
“Yes, that’s true. And I have meetings with potential clients every day this week.”