Romance in Dallas - Tycoon! (2 page)

"It really has no lumbar support. Plus,
you're slouching."

Looking at her sharply, he said, "Just the
way I sit."

Stiffly, she replied, "As I said. You'd have
to be cooperative or the whole thing would be no good."

Rubbing his face with both hands then holding
them over his eyes momentarily, his gaze caught hers as his hands
came down. The emotion was back, a hot intensity searing into
her.

"What I need," he said finally, "is a person
to travel with me as I go to my hotels. They are numerous and
circle the globe. At first, I thought the global exposure was a
good thing, but that was a few years back, before..." his voice
trailed off, and then he continued, "Well, I have a lot of pain.
I'd thought of a masseuse but then Warren suggested your service. I
understand you are freelance then?"

"Yes. I worked at the hospital for a while
but then my friend Natalie opened her own service and I joined her.
It's worked out well for both of us."

He nodded. "What's the best and worst part of
your job?"

Looking thoughtful, she said, "I think the
best part is knowing clients cope with pain more effectively after
I've worked with them. And the worst part is when people are
temperamental and wishy-washy about their participation. As I've
said, a person has to agree to the program. Do their exercises,
that sort of thing."

"And, you've got nothing to hold you back? No
children or jealous boyfriends?"

She thought of Ralph and cringed inwardly,
although her face didn't show the change. She'd walked in one day,
into their duplex, and found him with another woman. Soon after,
she'd divorced him, and quit the hospital so she wouldn't see him
again. Natalie, Jacine and two other therapists, Ann and Lee, built
their own business, now a successful one. And Jacine felt grateful
for this on a daily basis.

"No," she told him firmly, "no children, no
attachments."

He studied her carefully for a long minute.
"So, what's step number one?"

"Your doctor?"

"Seth Truman."

"A very good choice. He's the best." She
thought of the doctor, older, grey-haired with thick black glasses
and an attitude. Deservedly so.

"I always try to get the very best, darlin,'
whether it be surgeons or physical therapists." His look pierced
her now.

She was silent, still unsure of him, unsure
whether she had the job or not.

The grey-haired woman stood at the doorway
and said, "Warren is here for lunch. Would Miss Lombard like to
stay, then?"

Now smiling warmly at Jacine, Ram said,
"Would you like to stay for lunch?"

"Oh," Jacine replied, "no, thank you. But
before I leave I wanted to ask you whether I have the job or not."
She hated to be so blunt, but if she did have it, she'd need to
pack if they were traveling and let Natalie know about the
assignment.

His look grew serious. "Of course. I just
told you. I only hire the best. We leave two days from now, Friday.
First stop Honolulu. Be sure to bring a bathing suit," he added, as
his eyes roved over her body a bit blatantly now, she thought.

"Do I...do I need a passport eventually
then?"

"Not on my plane. Not this trip."

"All right," she said as she rose to leave,
"tomorrow I'll see Doctor Truman on your test results. Then I can
assess you in Hawaii."

"Sounds interesting," he drawled, as a smile
quirked his lips, and he rose to shake her hand. "See you Friday.
Nine o'clock sharp, here." He then handed her one of his business
cards after he wrote his cell number on the back.

Warren strolled in just as Jacine was
leaving.

"Holy shit," he said to Ram when she was out
of earshot, "that's your physical therapist?"

Ram laughed and gingerly sat again, as Warren
plunked down in a wing chair. "Yeah. She's assessing me in
Hawaii."

"Lucky dog." He paused. "She looks pretty
young, my man. I wonder if she's on birth control."

"What a thing for you to wonder about,
Warren. Besides, that's why God made condoms," Ram said quickly.
Too quickly.

"You know, Ram," Warren began, "your sex life
sucks. What are you saving it for? A rainy day?"

But Ram didn't answer that. Too personal, he
thought.

"Me, on the other hand, I'm with a different
woman every night."

Ram grinned and kidded him, "The internet
doesn't count."

Before she took to the freeway, Jacine
stopped her car and called Natalie at the agency. "Got the
assignment," she told her.

"Girl, have I got some news for you."

And Jacine could picture Natalie with her
feet up on the desk, her black face smiling, her feet wiggling
around, now a bit breathless from her daily run.

She continued, "Ramsey Knowles is just so
damn hot. I looked him up on the computer, and he is a babe."

Jacine thought of his many expressions, his
hair brushed carelessly back from his face, his tremendous, unusual
turquoise eyes staring a hole in her, his physical impact, like a
tiger lying in wait. "Yes, I noticed that," she said dryly.

Natalie said, "Lots of the pictures on the
net are of him and his wife at fundraisers, or should I say dead
wife."

"Yes, his housekeeper said something about an
accident."

Natlie sighed. "You should see the pictures
of the car. I'm surprised anyone made it out of that alive. He's
one mighty lucky man."

"I had the definite impression he doesn't
think of himself as lucky by any stretch of the imagination."

"None of that, now. You know better. It will
cloud your judgment and really get in the way."

The 'that' Natalie spoke of, Jacine knew, was
too much sympathy, too much empathy. A therapist could really get
sucked into a morass with it, and Jacine had seen it happen. No
good for the patient, no good for the therapist. A lose-lose
proposition.

"At any rate," she told Natalie, "it seems
like a long term assignment. A lot of travel involved. You'd better
warn Lee and Ann. They'll be busier."

"That's good, right?" Natalie paused. "So how
was he honestly?"

"Really nice looking, tall, and totally
depressed."

"You know if he's taking anything for
it?"

This was also an important factor in the PT
trail. "I'm going to try to get in to see Doctor Truman tomorrow.
He'll let me know."

"Terrible Truman? Oh, sorry about that
sweetie. I didn't know."

Jacine laughed, and started her car engine.
"I'll survive."

"Call me."

"You got it."

Chapter 2

The next day, Jacine looked around her small
house, and tried to figure out whether her plants would be better
off with her neighbor Tessa. Ramsey hadn't really told her how long
they'd be gone.

She reluctantly punched in his personal
number, while feeling stupid for not getting the information from
him the day before.

"Hello, darlin,'" he answered slowly, "what
can I do for you?"

Feeling strange stirrings at his words and
accent, and she found herself momentarily speechless.

He waited.

Finally, she said, "I just called to find out
how long we'll be gone from Dallas. I need to plan."

"Depends."

Now she waited. Somewhat impatiently.

"Can you firm that up a bit? For instance,
should I have a neighbor take care of my plants?"

He chuckled into the phone. "Thought you
didn't have any attachments, Miss Lombard?"

"Call me Jace. My name is Jacine, but my
friends call me Jace."

"Friends. I like that."

It seemed like he was playing with her now,
and she grew annoyed. She wasn't one for games. "And, the length of
our stay will be?" she repeated.

"Hard to say. I'd leave your plants with a
neighbor or arrange something. What else?"

"That's it," she said crisply. "See you
tomorrow then."

The phone went dead and Jace looked at it.
"Whatever happened to good-bye?" she muttered.

In the afternoon, after she tried to pick out
appropriate clothes for the Hawaii climate and her role as physical
therapist, including a bathing suit, she called Doctor Truman's
office and booked an appointment to see him.

It seemed as if there were just too many
things she had to do before she left, and she raced into his quiet
office late in the afternoon.

After waiting in an exam room for him, he
finally came in and said, "I thought I was bad. You're further
behind than I am. Late as usual."

"Sorry about that," she told him
sheepishly.

"So my nurse told me about the situation
here. You'll be traveling with Ramsey, then?"

She nodded, while he pulled an x-ray up on
his monitor. Leaning in to see it, her face fell. "He's how
old?"

"I know. I couldn't believe it either. He's
thirty years old."

"Looks like a jigsaw puzzle someone put
together wrong," she breathed.

The bones in the spine, she saw, were
crooked, with very few spaces between the vertebrae. Where there
should have been an arch, there was barely anything.

"Why?" she said, looking at the doctor in
amazement.

"He has the bones of a sixty year old. And,
although we put him on calcium, vitamin D and a bone-building
prescription, we just couldn't fix him. So, when he says he hurts,
believe it."

"So there's nothing surgically that you can
do?"

"No. Believe me, I'd do it if I could. It
might even get worse for him if I mess around in there." He peered
at her. "You're his therapist?"

She smiled ruefully. "I'm the one."

"Well, he's very lucky then."

She realized this was the closest she'd ever
come to a compliment from him. "Thank you. And if you think of
anything else that might help him out, you'll let me know?"

He nodded and left the room abruptly. But,
he'd left the x-ray on the screen. "God almighty," she whispered,
"good luck to me."

After she ran some errands, patching up some
loose ends in her life, paying bills, giving her poor neighbor
detailed instruction on each plant and how to take care of all of
them, she came in to her house breathlessly, and answered her cell
phone. "Yes? This is Jace. Can I help you?"

"Maybe," his drawl was unmistakable.

"What can I do for you, Mister Knowles?" She
threw her purse on the kitchen table.

"You can call me Ram, remember?" And that
made her think of his handsome face, his physical impact on
her.

"Ram, then. What can I do for you?" While she
grew warm from just his voice, she thought this would be a
difficult assignment for her. Romantic attachment. The worst thing
to happen to a physical therapist. It was such an intimate sort of
job to begin with.

She noticed he paused before saying, "You saw
Seth today?"

"Doctor Truman? Yes, I did."

"So how did that go?"

Thinking back with a sinking heart, at the
horrible x-rays, she tried to sound cheerful. "Well, I think I can
help you, Ram. But it could be, also, we'll have to face the fact
that surgery can't help you."

She heard him sigh.

"But," she continued, "I don't want you to be
discouraged. Are you still taking your prescription and calcium,
vitamin D?"

"Oh, they're around here somewhere."

She frowned at his attitude. "You must take
them. It's critical. You've got osteoporosis, Mister Knowles."

"Ram," he said softly.

"Ram, you must face facts."

"I guess that's where you come in."

Trying to change the subject, she asked him,
"What time tomorrow again? I'm sorry, in all the confusion it
slipped my mind."

"Nine o'clock."

"Okay, see you then."

Friday morning found her trying to cram more
into her already filled suitcase. Plus, she sighed as she realized
they'd have to check the thing.

Or, had he said he had his own plane? She
just couldn't remember.

After dressing in jeans and a t-shirt, double
checking the door, she hurriedly left her house.

Ellie came into Ram's den. "Not here yet?"
she asked him, as she saw he was staring out at the garden
again.

"No," he snapped, "and I'm not impressed. I
told her nine sharp. How can I keep on schedule now?"

"Sometimes schedules are made to be broken,
Ramsey," she said softly.

"Only by me, and my permission."

Just then Jace screeched to a halt in front
of the mansion. A taxi sat, with its motor running.

The old woman let her in, put a finger up to
her lips, and gestured her hands wildly in the air to let Jace know
Ramsey was not happy.

Jace rolled her eyes as they walked down the
hallway. Nine-thirty, not really too bad she thought.

After leaving the two in the room, with Ram
still looking out at the garden, he said, "Y'all are late."

Now she wasn't sure exactly what to say. "Um,
I do apologize for that, sir. I hope I haven't inconvenienced you
in any way."

He turned around slowly. His eyes roved over
her quickly. She thought she was looking fairly good, with her hair
pulled back, wearing a white silky blouse, beige pants and beige
shoes. His eyes lingered on her breasts then moved to her face.

"My pilot's on the runway right now, wasting
fuel. Are you ready then?" His eyes were half closed as he fixed
her with a steely look.

Never again, she thought, would she be late
with this man. "Yes, sir."

"Call me Ram." He strolled around the desk,
limping a bit, she thought, and brought his hand to the small of
her back. The intimate gesture, as he led her into the hallway,
caught her unaware.

"My suitcase is right here," she said,
pulling away. "Do you have someone to lift it into the car?"