When she got home from work, she booted up her computer. She was going to send an e-mail to Michael dissolving their agreement. She would have to make other plans and take on some part-time position somewhere for additional income. She knew that whatever job she found could not possibly match what Michael had told her that he would settle on her, but it couldn’t be helped. She also hated what another job would mean. Work schedules were often inflexible. It would likely cost her time that she would normally spend with her daughter. Well, she would simply have to do with less sleep, she thought with a sigh.
Her gaze fell on her inbox, and she stiffened. There was an e-mail waiting for her. Michael had beaten her in the communication race. With a sense of dread, Cathy opened it. After she had read it, she settled back in her chair with a numb feeling. Her pulse beat heavy in her throat. It was the first of the month. He had emailed to inform her that he had deposited three thousand dollars into her bank account.
Cathy swiftly checked the account online. The money was there.
She shook her head. Somehow she had not quite believed he would adhere to the terms of their agreement, that he would simply continue doling out the hundred dollar bills each time they met.
It had not been difficult to decide not to accept the odd hundred anymore. It was quite another thing to look at that bank balance and visualize just what it could do in her finances—waiting there, in the account for her to use this month and the next and the next.
It bought her precious time to spend with her daughter.
Cathy covered her face with trembling hands. “Oh, God. I’m lost.”
It took her two more days of wavering and agonizing before she was able to shore up her resolve again. It was more difficult than she had imagined to compose the e-mail to Michael, but she finally did it.
Michael dropped onto the hotel bed with a deep sigh, reaching up to loosen the knot in his silk tie. It had been a long, grueling week filled with negotiations, but at the end of it, the company had gotten the contract. It was a valuable one from a major international corporation. He would have to set up the preliminary groundwork for the encryption program for the new client, but then he would be free to fly back home.
He had been too busy for days to check his emails. Now was as good a time as any while he waited for room service. Settling back against the padded headboard, he opened his laptop. He scrolled through the numerous business communiqués, his fingers clicking keys as he answered the most urgent. Then he opened his personal e-mail account. Almost instantly he zeroed in on a waiting message with a familiar address.
Michael narrowed his eyes, annoyed. Why would Winter attempt to contact him? He had told her that he would be out of town. He had placed the three thousand that they had agreed on into her account days ago. There was no conceivable reason for her to e-mail him while he was gone. He had stated his firm expectations of their liaison. Surely Winter was not going to be one of those clinging types. He sincerely hoped not because that would definitely be a problem.
He opened the message. As he read it, his brows slammed together. She was breaking it off with him. By e-mail!
“Oh no, honey. I don’t think so,” he grated. He grabbed his cell phone, but before the call was completed, he flipped the phone shut. No, confronting her long distance over the phone wasn’t the best way to handle this, especially when he was so pissed off.
Michael pushed aside his mingled disbelief and anger and bent his considerable powers of deduction to figuring out why Winter had taken this action. Why would she call everything off between them? They were extremely compatible, in bed and out. Was it that she wanted more money? He shook his head impatiently. With any other woman, he would have assumed the e-mail to be a ploy to get more out of him. But not Winter. Hell, she had offered to give back the three thousand that he had just deposited in her account!