During those few seconds, the tension could have been cut up and deep-fried, and Byron almost smiled at knowing he was getting under her skin. She got beneath his thick hide so easily that it was more than fitting that he got to her as well. Turnabout was fair play.
“Did you forget that we own this company together?” Blake asked, clearly irked at Byron’s attempt to shut him out.
“Of course not, but I’m the one who’s over the accounting department,” Byron said, hoping that would be enough to get his brother to back the hell off.
“Since when did we ever say something like that?” Blake asked, though he didn’t look angry — he seemed more curious. That was worse.
“I’ve just been under a lot of stress,” Byron told him. “I spent too much time away from the offices and now it’s catching up to me.”
“Hmm.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Byron fumed.
“You seem awfully upset,” Blake said, and gave him an assessing look.
“I’m not some damn specimen for you to place underneath a microscope, Blake!”
“I’m not the one getting upset over nothing, Byron.”
“Don’t you have work to do?” Byron practically yelled.
Blake was quiet for several moments, and for the first time he could remember, Byron felt like squirming in his seat. What was wrong with him? But Blake’s next words absolutely infuriated him.
“So, I’ll ask you this question again; Why is McKenzie working here?”
“I already told you that we needed to have the position filled.”
“She runs her accounting company. She doesn’t fill in personally,” Blake pointed out.
“Well, the job called for her and only her,” Byron said. He was getting sick of defending himself.
“You’re playing with fire, Byron. You will get burned,” Blake said, a knowing smirk now on his face. “Badly burned.”
“She’s just filling in for a job, Blake. Why don’t you stop trying to look any further than that and stop trying to play the shrink with me? We promised years ago that we wouldn’t pull that crap with each other.” Byron was fuming.
“Just don’t play games with her, Byron. She might put on an act that she’s strong and independent, and she certainly isn’t weak, but she has some wounds, some deep wounds, and you do have the power to break her,” Blake told him.
“Why don’t you stop worrying about her? Just worry about your own life, you’re your own woman,” Byron snapped, very done with this ridiculous conversation. He didn’t even realize that the way he’d worded that would suggest that McKenzie was his woman.
“I understand now. I can see that you’re struggling with the way you’re feeling, so I won’t take offense over what you just said. But be warned, brother, that she’s a friend of my wife’s, and if you put her through hell, I’ll be forced to step in and knock you down a peg or two.”
“I would love to see you try, Blake. It’s been a while since I’ve had a good brawl.”
“All right, then. We’ll talk about this later.”
Before Byron could reply, Blake walked out into the hallway, and then Byron found himself grinding his teeth together when McKenzie’s sweet laughter drifted in through his open office door. She never laughed around him, but maybe that was because he never tried to make her laugh. Making her happy wasn’t on his agenda.
He waited a while to be sure his brother had returned to his own side of the building. Then he decided to make the woman — that maddening woman — wait even longer. He wasn’t in the proper mood to work with her right now. So he tried to push McKenzie from his mind by digging into other projects on his computer.
It was much easier thought than done.
Chapter Six
When Blake left her desk, McKenzie didn’t know what to do. Byron had said he wanted to bring her in to discuss the Idaho files, but twenty minutes passed and he still wasn’t calling her in. She felt flustered and out of sorts, but she wasn’t the type to sit around and do nothing. She needed to pull herself together.
The last few days had been almost surreal. Yes, she knew that Byron’s demanding she work at his company was his way of trying to control her, trying to punish her. He didn’t actually believe his irrational allegations that she had ruined his brother’s life…or did he? Business was business, and she’d come in Monday morning, gotten her assignment from him, and then he hadn’t brought up anything personal — not once. He confused her, and she wasn’t easily confused.
A few times when they were working together she would look up to catch his piercing gaze focused on her, but she almost thought she was imagining it, because the second he noticed her looking, his face grew unreadable. Not a trace showed of what he was feeling or thinking — if he felt or thought anything at all, that was.
That was fine with her. She didn’t want to dance this particular dance from his perverse playbook. She just wanted to run her business, make a new start for herself, and let her past life go.
Byron wasn’t making that easy — not one little bit.
There was a darkness about Byron that called to her on some basic level, whether she wanted to hear the call or not. Inside, she was just as messed up as he was, and there wasn’t a chance that anything could ever work between the two of them. Even knowing this, though, she wondered what it would be like with him in the bedroom. Strange —sex was not something she would ever enjoy. But just being alone with the man sent jolts of electricity all through her body. And that kiss…
Oh, that kiss had melted her inside and out. McKenzie was sure he was a phenomenal lover — but all in self-interest. The woman never got the same pleasure from the dirty deed. But none of that mattered. Nothing mattered but survival. And no matter what people thought of her, she wasn’t a whore. Yes, she’d run a business where she sold women to the highest bidder, but she’d done so to protect them. And that story was none of Byron’s business.
And since Byron had not an ounce of empathy in his entire body, she was certain that he wouldn’t care to hear her story anyway. He’d deemed her evil before he’d even met her, and he was inflicting his own method of punishment on her. But here was the thing —even though she was exhausted working what looked to be sixty-hour weeks for him, and then putting in as many hours as possible at her own business, he was actually helping her, because in the end, when she could show that Knight Construction was a client of hers, she would have people pouring in through her own business’s doors.