Page 54 of Degrees of Power
I swallow, recalling the need to distract Vicenti, keep his penetrating gaze from seeing through my guise.
“He was starting to intimidate me, I needed a moment to clear my head and…”
“Shift the balance of control. In one small movement you completely threw his intent to intimidate you off course, and ensured that you had the upper hand for the conversation,” Chase says.
“I’m not sure about that,” I say.
“Baby, while I have to admit seeing red when I saw his desire for you pass over his eyes, you were impressive.”
“Chase, it was nothing. A spur of the moment thing to distract him,” I say.
“Katarina, nothing about the trip or that meeting was not thought out on your part, except perhaps intel and more in-depth security precautions that my team took care of.”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean by that,” I say, wishing the conversation had not shifted from him and my father to me.
“All of your clothes were hand selected by you. Seductive, hot, my ring on your finger, all intended to portray a certain image at the time they were needed. You anticipated that need and were prepared for it when it arose,” Chase says.
“You give me too much credit, Chase. I never put that much thought into it. I seriously didn’t have the time,” I say.
“It comes instinctively, Baby,” he says, gently kissing my lips, capturing my tongue gently with his own, allowing us to savor each other without rush. I experience the familiar tightening of my nipples underneath the cool satin sheets, but we are disrupted by his phone.
“Sorry, Baby, I need to take this,” he says, looking at me as if he wants to say something else. Instead, he gets out of bed completely nude, pulling on a pair of lounge pants and nothing else as he listens to the caller and heads downstairs, presumably to his study.
I am left alone with my thoughts about what has transpired over the course of the last couple days, but I push it aside, needing to hear Jenny’s voice.
I hit her contact button and she answers within a few rings.
“Hi,” I say.
“Hi Kate. I figured it would be you,” she says.
“Of course, your daily pain in the ass,” I say.
There is a pregnant pause on the phone and I wrestle with the need to fill the void with conversation or just allow the silence. I will my restraint, counting inside of my head, but the mere moments feel like hours. “Ty was at the grand opening,” she says, finally.
I audibly let out the breath I had been holding hoping that she did not hear it. “That’s what I understand, Jenny. I’m so sorry,” I say.
“He threatened me, said a lot of vulgar stuff and well… anyway, I guess it just brought it all to the forefront again,” she says.
“Was your counselor able to come over this afternoon?”
“Yeah, Brian had his men disguise her to get her into the building. The entire sky-rise is surrounded with paparazzi after all the pictures last night,” she says.
“Just glad she was able to see you. Did you have a good discussion?” I ask.
“Yeah, it was the longest and best session we’ve ever had. She needs to see me a few more times and run some other tests, but she thinks I may have post traumatic stress syndrome,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Jenny, after what you went through that would make complete sense,” I say, recalling her split lip and the harsh marks on her skin, evidence of the way she had fought against the ropes of her captor.
“She says that it can cause you to crawl into a shell of your own, pull away from the people that love you and cause you to become emotionally detached,” she says.
“Jenny that all makes complete sense. The sleeplessness and nightmares after it happened,” I say.
“Yeah, she said that seeing Ty and hearing his voice may have been a trigger and it could have all come flooding back. My mind may not have been able to cope with it so I just shut it out and well, you know the rest,” she says.
“I am so sorry. I contacted your mom when you were missing. She loves you so much and is really worried,” I say.
“Yeah, she’s been leaving messages. I called her after Dr. Worthing left to let her know that I was okay. She said you told her I was dealing with some stuff and that I may not be able to talk about it for a bit. Thanks for doing that, Kate,” she says.
