IF YOU WANTED THE MOON (7 page)

The man who met their plane was introduced to Tori as Karl Brennan, one of Ethan’s “advance” men, whatever, Tori thought, that meant. This Brennan, nonetheless, began giving Ethan a long, drawn

out weather report on Florida in general and a history, in a nutshel, of the entire island. Tori stood with the men, listening only mildly, her hair blowing briskly in the heavy summer winds, her skirt ramming against her skin as if it wanted out too. This was Florida, the sunshine state, and it was beaming al over the place with bright blue skies and not a drop of rain anywhere in sight. She looked at Ethan, who wore dark shades with his Italian silk suit, who didn’t flinch in this Florida sun, and she smiled. He looked like either an FBI agent who had no choice but to keep his appearance as professional as possible, she thought, or a very smooth operator who refused to let the bothersome sun bother him.

But it was bothering Tori. So much so that she grabbed her sunglasses from her purse and, after placing them over her squinted eyes, decided that she’d seek to find a more shaded area by taking a look around the place. Not that there was much to see. Just a smal fleet of single engine planes and a few men working on a helicopter in the hangar. But just as she began to move from Ethan’s side to take a closer look at those aircraft, or maybe even to find an office with AC she could ease into, she tripped on an unseen stump in the ground and stumbled.

Ethan, however, had been watching her move away from him and as soon as her smal body began to lose its balance he reached out his big hand and grabbed her by the arm. It was a move so swift it

startled Tori more than her stumble, and when he puled her against him, with a jerk so violent, as if he was snatching her away from some imminent danger, she didn’t know what to think.

“You okay?” he asked her, sounding genuinely, if not overly concerned, she thought, and she nodded, as she was more embarrassed than harmed. She fuly expected him to then release her arm and

perhaps even move as far away from her as he could, since he sometimes acted as if she disgusted him, but he didn’t release her at al. He, in fact, moved his big hand from her arm and clasped it into her smal hand. She looked at him, figuring this had to be some kind of a joke, but he didn’t even return her gaze. He simply continued listening to the talkative advance man, nodding and putting in his two cents where he could, al the while clasping his hand tighter and tighter around hers.

Even when his car arrived, a pearl-colored, brand new Lexus, and they began walking across the expanse towards it, he did not let go of her hand. It seemed almost comical to Tori at first, that Chandler would suddenly feel so protective of her, but she was wound up too tight to laugh at anything about Chandler or this trip. He’d already warned her back in Chicago that al she had to do was make one more false move, her tardiness being her first one, and she was out. Out of a job. Out of her parents good graces. Out of luck. For her to then start trying to understand why this impossible to understand man would suddenly feel this need to hold her hand, would overload her already overloaded brain. Al she wanted to do was get out of Dodge and get back to Mayberry, stil alive and employed she hoped,

where at least she knew who her true friends were.

Ethan held her hand until he was opening the passenger door of his automobile and she was getting inside. She watched him, as he moved around to the front of the expensive vehicle and began again

conversing with Brennan. His suit coat was open and his hands were on his waist, revealing, to Tori’s amusement, a slightly protruded bely that seemed to indicate that his obvious workouts were weakening as he neared forty. It was amusing to Tori only because it made him look less perfect than she had thought, although she stil couldn’t get his sweet scent out of her nostrils or the wonderful feel of his heavy as he neared forty. It was amusing to Tori only because it made him look less perfect than she had thought, although she stil couldn’t get his sweet scent out of her nostrils or the wonderful feel of his heavy hand on her smal arm. If truth be told, she thought, she’d been touched more times in the few encounters she’d had with Ethan Chandler than by any other man in her entire life. Except for that two-timing Bobby Rogers, of course. And for Tori it was an equal parts charming and alarming revelation. It was charming because of the implication, that maybe Chandler doesn’t hate her after al. Alarming because if Chandler was now at the top of her list in terms of men in her life, her life was in dire straits.

Not that it wasn’t, she thought, as she looked at his soft hair glistening in the sun. Bobby Rogers had been her first serious beau, a successful banker she had thought she would marry and live happily ever after with. The man of her dreams. Until she started paying attention. Until those women she thought were only friends of his turned out to be friends “with privileges.” She didn’t find this out, unfortunately, until she was so head-over-heels in love that the news could do nothing less than rock her world.

And the idea that he would just show up at her home, after months of almost nothing from him, asking if they could talk,
talk
, made her angry. Her life didn’t have much going for it, even she knew that, and she believed in forgiving people and mending bridges. But for him to think that she would be so desperate as to even consider giving a cheating dog like him another chance, was a bridge too far.

But even beyond Bobby and his mess, her life stil felt off track. In every area. She had two parents who, if truth be told, realy didn’t want to have anything to do with her unless she gave them things.

She had two friends who believed that the high standards she set for men made her a shoo-in for spinsterhood. She had a job she loved although many questioned how she got it. And she had a boss who was so complicated, so inexplicable, that she was now convinced that these dog days of summer in these Florida Keys were going to be the most wrenching, the most trying days of her entire life.

It was a slow drive through a slow town and Tori leaned her head back in Ethan’s Lexus and tried to appreciate the view. But she couldn’t. The scenery was nice enough, as everything, from the large, frame-styled homes to the shops along the square, were backed up against the expansive Gulf waters, but her mind, as usual, was on Ethan. She loved that side of him that was on display when he laughed on the plane, and when they landed in Cedar Key and he grabbed her and wouldn’t let go. If he could only stay that way, if he could only shed that business facade of his for just a few days, she thought, then this little trip could prove more interesting than she ever thought possible. Even now, as he drove through town talking to one of his business associates on his car phone, he looked far more relaxed, it seemed to Tori, than he ever seemed in Chicago. He was even smiling as he talked, his thick arm leaned on the armrest, his entire light mood making hers feel light too.

She kept glancing at him, al-work white man, who twice already had to catch her from faling (or, in one case, from slipping from his lap), and once again she began feeling an odd connection to him. Did he realy hate her, she wondered? Was this trip realy about revenge? He seemed too busy, too above pettiness, to bring a sister al this way to Florida just to fire her. On her job interview he was ready to fire Lassiter on the spot just for being late with some report - and Lassiter hadn’t nearly kiled him. But he brings Tori to Florida with him just to get rid of her? She couldn’t buy that. He had to show her more than what she’d been seeing to buy that.

Of course, she wasn’t buying Macy’s explanation either. Macy believed that Ethan Chandler loved her and that was why he chose her for this trip. Fat chance, Tori thought, as she kept looking at him.

Ethan Chandler loved no-one but Chandler Development, Inc., he even said so in
US News
, and she just knew a man like that wasn’t about to change his very nature for somebody he barely knew, could probably barely stand, somebody he needed in his life like he needed a hole in the head. Macy was a romantic, always looking for that silver lining. Tori was a pragmatist, always wel aware that silver linings were as elusive for her as a good man in her life.

Ethan’s car stopped in front of a beach home lifted from the sand on high stilts, a white, frame-styled structure with a massive, wraparound deck within fifty feet of the ocean. Tori looked around as she stepped out, wondering if this quiet beachfront neighborhood was the area Ethan planned to buy out and build up, when it was gorgeous just the way it was with its’ row of houses al in perfect oneness with the beach, but she quickly realized that that wasn’t it. He began getting the luggage out of the car’s trunk, making it obvious that this was no potential development site but was his home, or at least the place where he would be staying during their visit.

She was, however, a little surprised when he removed her luggage along with his, as if he wasn’t the only one who’d be staying here, but she wasn’t overly concerned either. She was his assistant during this trip, after al, and it would stand to reason that he would want her at his disposal day and night, although, admittedly, she couldn’t imagine what kind of land he’d be scouting at night. But it was a big house, with four or five bedrooms at least, she suspected, it would be like living in a hotel with him.

house, with four or five bedrooms at least, she suspected, it would be like living in a hotel with him.

At least that was what she tried to force herself to believe. But as she watched his massive muscles pulsating under his suit as they walked toward the home’s entrance, she knew she was kidding herself.

A hotel wouldn’t be private enough to keep her from wanting this man. For months she’d been thinking about him, now she was in Florida with him? In a big house possibly alone with him? Only the fact that she wasn’t that kind of girl, that she could get fired, that her Christian faith necessitated restraint, kept her from jumping his bones right in the bright light of this conservative Florida sun.

Because the house was on stilts, the home’s entrance was up a ful flight of stairs. Ethan stepped aside and alowed Tori to walk ahead, her every movement calculated on the thriling proposition that he was checking her out. She worked hard to look good for this trip, to have every hair in place. She was a little disappointed that he hadn’t noticed, but it was early stil, she thought.

“Hungry?” he asked her as he unlocked the front door of the house, his deep-tanned skin sparkling against the bright sun. “I didn’t feed you on the plane.”

“I think I am a little, yes,” Tori replied as she moved her lovesick soul past him, moving slow on purpose. “Now that you’ve mentioned it.”

“Okay,” Ethan said as he entered in behind her and sat the luggage against the wal of the foyer. “I’ve got to make a couple of cals. Why don’t you look around the place, familiarize yourself with the layout, then we’l go into town.”

“I didn’t know you had a home here,” Tori couldn’t resist saying. She read in
Business Weekly
that he had homes al over the country, but they never mentioned Florida.

“I recently acquired it,” Ethan replied, seemingly not at al fazed that she was getting a little personal with him. “I’l probably unload it once the resort is up and running.”

“It’s beautiful,” Tori said, looking around at its understated but charming appeal.

“Thank-you,” Ethan replied as if he wasn’t comfortable with flattery. “Make yourself at home. I won’t be long.” And then he disappeared in the room Tori could only assume was the study.

She smiled. This was going far better than she could have ever imagined. He’d been nothing but kind to her since they left Chicago, as if the change in scenery changed his entire mood, and she could only hope he’d stay this way. Of course she wasn’t laying bets. She remembered how he behaved in Chicago, the way he out and out scolded her for being a little late, as if the fact that there had been a traffic accident had nothing to do with how late she was. He could be a bastard when he wanted to, a veritable monster, just like every one of her coworkers had warned her. Despite his new leaf attitude, despite her fanciful, wishful thinking, she’d be wise, she reminded herself, to never forget those warnings.

She looked around. The house, though big, was hardly extravagant. It was comfortable, quiet, a nice example of simplicity. Ethan Chandler had very practical tastes, she thought, as she looked at the sparsely furnished livingroom where al things leather abounded; at the narrow galey kitchen with oak wood cabinets and a smal, attached breakfast nook; outside at the massive, wraparound deck that

extended al the way from the front of the house to the back, it’s view of the Gulf waters breathtaking. There was a second deck above her head, one coming off from the bedroom she surmised, so she

reentered the house and hurried to see what the bedrooms would uncover.

To her shock, where shock was not an understatement, there were no bedrooms. Just one bedroom. Just one huge room with a large bed and bath, and with tal, bay windows that swept into a

panoramic, almost surreal view of the splashing beach waters. It was the only room upstairs. The only bedroom, unless there was one in that study Ethan had disappeared into, in the entire home.

Tori couldn’t believe it. Did he expect her and him to
share
this room? Was Mr. Business suddenly Mr. Player? She couldn’t believe it. Those magazines never mentioned this. He had his women, he always had some woman in his life, but from how those articles read they were always chasing him.

A part of Tori was interested in him, too, but he didn’t know it. As far as he knew she hated him as much as he hated her. Besides, wanting somebody in your dreams, at night, in the privacy of your own home was a far cry from what some of those women did to wrangle him. One woman, according to
Hunk
magazine, paid a belboy hundreds of dolars to sneak her up to his room. Another one, a businesswoman from Cleveland, picked up the phone, caled him, and asked him out on a date after only seeing his beautiful mug on a magazine cover.