Ian just stared at him, his mouth hanging open. “You fucking little bastard,” he said dazedly after a moment.

“I’m a fucking bigger bastard than you,” Kam muttered through his teeth.

A bark of mirthless laughter fell past Ian’s lips. He set his elbow on the mantel of the fireplace and put his forehead in his hand.

“I’m sorry if you feel that I’m doing this to spite you,” Kam said truthfully, feeling the tension ease between them. “I’m not. I don’t mean to sound belittling, but it’s got nothing to do with you. It’s just that . . .”

Ian looked over at him when he faded off. “It’s what makes the most sense,” Kam continued. “It feels right. Lin is precisely what I need. I think you even sense that. And she could use an opportunity like this . . . a place to be in the forefront, where she can shine at her fullest and reap all the benefits. Lin should be with me.”

“With Reardon Technologies?” Ian asked pointedly.

“Yes,” Kam replied without pause. He knew what Ian was angling at, but he wasn’t ready to discuss his personal feelings for Lin, especially when he hadn’t even had that discussion with Lin yet. “Of course, Lin might feel differently,” he admitted grimly under his breath. “Everyone knows how loyal she is to you and Noble.”

“So you haven’t spoken to her about any of this yet?”

“No,” Kam said. “I plan to talk to her about that when she gets back. She might suspect something. I’m not sure. She’s kind of hard to read sometimes.”

“She says the same thing about you. I agreed with her. You’ve certainly gone and proved us right in this case,” Ian said, frowning. He turned and faced Kam. “You care about her? You truly do? Because maybe I could start to accept this . . . maybe I could maybe even start to feel good about it if it’s what Lin wants and you assured me her feelings and her future are a priority for you.”

Kam met his stare unwaveringly. “You can feel good about it,” he said simply.

Ian held his gaze for several long seconds before he nodded once slowly. “Well, it’s not as if I haven’t had a sneaking suspicion something volatile was happening between you two. I’ve sensed something was about to erupt, but I didn’t guess this. I won’t deny that there have been many times I’ve regretted not being able to offer Lin more. Not money. She’s one of the top-paid executives in the United States. I mean more of Noble itself. She deserves more for all the work she’s done in the past.”

“I agree,” Kam said.

Ian’s eyes flashed in residual anger at Kam’s steadfast reply, but then he seemed to calm himself. “You have to understand. It’s not the wealth I don’t want to share. I don’t care about that. I’ve just never been good about sharing decisions when it comes to my company.”

“I’m not blaming you for the way you want to run your business, Ian. Lin wouldn’t, either. I heard her defending you to Klinf. She was sincere. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve more.”

Ian blinked and shook his head as if suddenly weary. “You’re right. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her at work,” he said hollowly.

I don’t know what I’d do without her. Period, Kam thought.

Kam shrugged and headed over to the sideboard, reaching for two glasses. They both could use a drink. “No reason to panic,” he told Ian, pouring some bourbon from a decanter. “The lady hasn’t spoken yet.” He walked over to Ian and handed him the glass. Ian just studied the golden-brown liquid for several seconds, lost in thought.

“To Lin,” Ian said finally, holding up the bourbon.

“To Lin. And her future,” Kam replied.

Lin thought a lot about Kam on her trip. She used his innovative device and thought of him and his brilliance. It was amazing, to learn about the rhythms of her own body, to come to understand how certain events, environments, and interactions made her respond. She started to feel more connected to her flesh than she ever had before, the biofeedback mechanism making her consider her physical being in a whole new way.

Lying alone in her hotel room at night, she could think of nothing but Kam and his challenging, intensely pleasurable lovemaking, his devilish smile, the knowing gleam in his silvery-gray eyes. She missed him so much.

They spoke on the phone on Monday night, Lin thanking him profusely for the gorgeous pearls and praising his device almost nonstop. A startling amount of people had noticed and commented on the watch, including many of her business associates in San Francisco. Lin had talked ebulliently about the mechanism, and saw firsthand the fascination and curiosity people immediately had for it. Kam had a future phenomenon on his hands. She asked him point-blank during a phone conversation if he planned to start up his own company sooner rather than later, and he’d admitted that it was his hope to jump right in versus waiting.

By the time she landed at O’Hare on Wednesday morning, she was feeling energized and excited, looking forward to the Gersbach demonstration that afternoon. She’d thought the device was fascinating before, but now that she’d become familiar with it on a firsthand basis, she was enthusiastic in a way she’d never before been about a product.

She was brimming with excitement for the Gersbach meeting because of the product, but she was ten times as thrilled at the idea of seeing Kam again.

Brigit and Otto Gersbach came for the demonstration in Ian’s office, but Lucien and, of course, Kam were expected to come as well. Lin was seated in her usual chair at the gleaming cherrywood conference table in Ian’s office, casually showing Ian, Brigit, and Otto the Reardon device, singing her praises without a hint of artifice. They were all fascinated. Everyone stood when Kam and Lucien entered the room.

“Hi,” Lin said breathlessly to Kam after she’d greeted Lucien.

“Hi,” he returned, as Otto Gersbach shook Lucien’s hand and they exchanged hellos. He looked wonderful to her, not to mention extremely handsome in a dark gray suit with crisp white dress shirt and black-and-silver striped tie. She met his stare, smiling when she saw that familiar knowing gleam in his silvery eyes as he looked down at her. Her lips brushed against his jaw.

“They already love the watch,” she whispered quietly near his ear.

“That’s because you’re making it look so good,” he murmured back before he lightly kissed her lips. It wasn’t a professional kiss, technically speaking. For the first time in her life, Lin could have cared less about professional appearances.

The demonstration went well. She explained to the group about her experience wearing the watch, telling them that once she understood what her stress looked like on the display screen, she could take proactive steps to lower the indicators on the bar graph. Her progress in controlling her body’s stress response grew exponentially with all the regular feedback. She showed them all in real time how she could control potentially negative stress responses by merely focusing on her breath or doing a brief centering exercise.

“It’s like having a constant mirror for your body,” Lin explained. “It’s hard to learn when things are invisible, but when you see your responses visually or audibly”—she switched the control panel to audio for a series of feedback beeps—“it becomes instinctive to understand and learn from the feedback. I had no idea how my body responded so adversely to landing in an airplane, and don’t even ask me about my response to two caffé macchiatos after a sleepless night,” she said, glancing at Kam fleetingly and repressing a small smile when she saw his knowing look.

Lin had never seen Otto so smitten and enthusiastic about a product. He insisted that Kam come to Geneva sometime soon in order to show the product to the rest of the Gersbach board of directors. After the demonstration was complete, Kam broke the news that he’d decided not to sell his product wholesale, but would consider a royalty use of his product by Gersbach. Otto wasn’t pleased about this development, but was starting to come around when he saw how steadfast Kam was on the topic.

Lin’s phone began to ring. “Excuse me for just a moment,” she said quietly when she saw the caller identification, getting up from the conference table and going to the far side of Ian’s extensive office.

The call was from Emile Savaur, Richard’s partner. Lin took it because she’d been worried by a conversation she’d had with Richard while she’d been in California. His “flu” was not getting better the way it should have if it were a typical bug.

According to Emile, Richard had gotten worse. Emile had taken him to the hospital, and much to his concern, they’d admitted Richard.

“I’ll meet you over at Northwestern Memorial as soon as I finish up with this meeting,” she said. Emile had tried to tell her it wasn’t necessary, but when she insisted, he’d sounded relieved.

“It was Emile calling about Richard St. Claire,” Lin told Lucien when she returned. Lucien was good friends with both Emile and Richard as well, having known the two men since his days in Paris. Everyone seated at the table quieted and listened to Lin. “Emile has taken him to the hospital and they’ve admitted him. They say he has pneumonia.”

“Is it serious?” Lucien asked, his brow creasing in concern.

“It sounds like it,” Lin said. “I’m going to head over to the hospital as soon as we’re done here. I won’t be back. I have class tonight,” she reminded Ian. Her gaze transferred to Kam, who nodded in understanding. Had he guessed that she hoped he’d meet her after her dance class like he had last week?

“I’ll go with you,” Lucien said.

“I’ll call you in a little bit,” Kam told Lin. She gave him a grateful glance. She hated having to leave when she hadn’t seen him for days, but it would just delay their personal reunion a few hours.