It wasn't until they reached the limo again that Gerald realized he stll held Kim's hand in a crushing grip. Poor woman, he must have dragged her down the hallway behind him during his grand exit. He let her go with more reluctance than he would have liked.

     He braced himself for the verbal assault he knew was coming. It was more than he deserved. What kind of idiot invites a woman he barely knows to share one of the ugliest moments of his life? She had every right to call him her full vocabulary of insults.

     Her silence beside him was as painful as any thrashing could have been.

     He wished she'd just say it and let it be done. He was a horrible human being, he knew it. An unspeakably poor example of a son, a disappointment as a brother, and a money driven monster in general.

     Kim was with him today only because he'd threatened her sister's job. He is a multi-billionaire who wasn't above blackmailing a school teacher. Doen't that just say it all?

     Was that what held her tongue? Was she trying to think of way to get out of the vehicle without incurring his wrath? During the construction of his financial empire, he'd bent his moral code more than he  cared to admit, but today was a new low, even for him.

     If only she'd just say it.

     "Where to sir?", the driver asked.

     Kim answered before Gerald had the chance. "We'll need to go shopping," she said. "There is a mall in North Edsa on Route 1."

     Gerald turned to Kim in surprise. If she were any other woman he'd assume that her own self-gratification had overshadowed her comprehension of the past hour. However, her brown eyes were b with a compassion he neither deserved nor welcomed.

      "It's time for me to get back to New York," he said to the drive. "You take Miss Chiu home. Stop at the mall on the way if she wants. Have any charges billed to me and call a second car to take me to the airport."

     "Wait," Kim said.

     The driver hesitated which gave a direction for some of Dominic's anger. "If you like your job, I'd make the call."

     The driver began to call in the order of the second car.

     "It's just a mall," Kim interjected as if issuing a dare.

     Gerald sat back and squared his shoulders. "I'm not in the mood for shopping."

     "Afraid?" she asked softly, so softly he almost missed it. His head whipped around. His sweet school teacher had an implish glint in her eyes.

     "Not interested," he lied. He was becoming more interested each time she surprised him.

     She crossed her legs slowly, fully aware that she had his attention once again and folded her hands over her exposed knee. She let out an actress like dramatic sigh. "Then you'll never know where I was going to take you after the mall."

     He shifted closer to her. "Are you sure clothes wll be necessary?"

     "Positive," she said. Her laughter just sent his blood pressure through the roof of the limo.

     Forget the plane. He instructed the driver to cancel the other car and head toward North Edsa. This was one merger he wasn't going to miss.

     Kim refused to start doubting herself now. If she hadn't wanted this throbbing, almost visible to return, she could have accepted his offer to end the day early. He would have let her go and that probably would have been the last she'd ever see him.

     The problem was, she didn't want the day to end. Yesterday, he had been two dimensional, gorgeousm amazingly arrogant ual fantasy.

     Today he was also a man. A complicated man who had escaped the misery of a controlling father only to hold himself in an even more painful vice grip of guilt.

     He wanted to run. She knew that feeling far too well. he'd spent most of her adult life running from the sadness of the loss of her parents. No, she hadn't gotten on a plane and flown away, but she had distanced herself emotionally so much from whom she had been that she barely knew herslf anymore.

     She wasn't the strict, rule following, penny pinching, starched shirt facade she'd hidden behind for years. No wonder Kam had rebelled. Kim had tried to force her sister to hide from life with her; afraid that if either of them stepped off the straight and narrow, tragedy would strike again.

     A plan for the day is formingin Kim's mind; a purely impulsive plan that she would have dismissed last week. Today, she gaave in to the possibilities. Kam was right, it is time to start living again.

     When they pulled into the parking lot of the mall, Kim gathered her purse to her side and announced, "This is a race. The first one back in the limo dressed in jeans, t-shirt and sneakers wins."

     The seriousness of the day fell aside and Gerald's predatory smile returned. "And what exactly will I win?"

     Overconfident billionare, Kim thought smugly. He might rule the business world, but when it came to shopping, she doubted he'd ever purchased his own clothes. That alone would slow him down.

     "The winner gets the right to decide how we spend the rest of the day." she declared.

     His eyes flared with interest. "I like the sound of that. I know just where I'm going to take you."