Mistaken Identities (6 page)

Aunt Linn stroked her hair a couple times and then drew away. She settled on her pillows and shut her eyes. Tonya started, alarmed that she had upset the woman.

“Maybe I should go…” She began to rise, but Aunt Linn raised a hand.

“No, it’s fine, dear. I just have to conserve energy. Let’s have a cup of tea together. I’ve gotten into the herbal stuff lately, but I have all kinds. I’ll get Betty my nurse in here.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll make it.” Tonya stood and started for the door. Aunt Linn called for her to add pastries to the menu, and Tonya affirmed she would. After she rattled around in the kitchen looking for supplies, she made the tea and set a plate of cheese Danishes on a tray with mugs and spoons. With everything ready, she returned to Aunt Linn’s room and served the two of them. They sat in silence for a few moments, eating and drinking. Tonya hoped the whole uncomfortable conversation part was over, but for the life of her, she couldn’t think of anything else to talk about.

Aunt Linn took a sip of her tea and then set the cup down. Her hands trembled, and she nearly spilled the contents before Tonya hurried to help her. “Thanks, sweetie. I guess without this silly sickness, I was already getting up there.”

“You’re still beautiful, Aunt Linn. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.”

The older woman smiled, but then her expression grew serious. “I am blessed. I have my Roman to look out for me and Grayson too. You were out there alone. Grayson said he found you in Los Angeles, not Texas like we had thought.”

Tonya fidgeted in her seat. “Yes, I found a position I liked there. Grayson said you asked him to find me.”

Aunt Linn nodded. “I offered to pay for a private investigator, but he refused. Wouldn’t take a dime. I just wanted to see you one last time before I go.”

Moisture started a second time in Tonya’s eyes. “Don’t talk like that, Aunt Linn. You’re going to be with us awhile.” She prayed it was true. “Grayson was always like that too, tossing his money out at the drop of a hat. I never knew if it was a generous heart or him setting the rest of us in our place.” At her bitter words, she put a hand to her mouth. She hadn’t meant to let her anger at the man come out to Aunt Linn, who must love him just as much as she loved Roman.

“Will you consider maybe Grayson truly thinks he saw you?”

Tonya’s spoon rattled into her saucer. The question took her by surprise. “I… I refuse to believe that. He smiled at us and gave us a generous gift, but he hated Roman and me together. Maybe he felt I wasn’t good enough for Roman.”

“You know that’s not true, Tonya.”

“You don’t know it isn’t.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. The last thing I want to do is upset you.”

Aunt Linn, in her usual way, just continued with the next topic that interested her. “How is your cousin, dear? I know he’s the only family you had left after your parents died in that plane crash and being an only child. I hate the thought of you alone on the other side of the country.”

Tonya placed her teacup and the saucer she had used for the Danish on the tray. She had meant to rest her hands flat in as casual a pose as she could, but winded up clenching her fingers together instead. “He’s fine, I guess. I didn’t stay with him long. Like I said, I found a good position in Los Angeles.”

Aunt Linn seemed to read the tension building between Tonya’s shoulders. The woman’s pleasant gaze never wavered from her face as she sat there waiting for Tonya to elaborate. Tonya sighed.

“We were never close. I knew of him through my father and had met him a few times over the summer from the age of fourteen until I was sixteen. He was kind enough to let me stay with him after I left Charlotte, but well, he wanted more gratitude than I was willing to give.”

Aunt Linn’s eyes widened. She leaned over and squeezed one of Tonya’s hands. “Your life hasn’t been easy, has it?”

“It’s been decent, good at times. I’m happy in Los Angeles. As deeply as I loved Roman, I know now I don’t want to be that sold out on a man again. Not that I don’t want love. I do. I just don’t want to be that vulnerable.”

“So you’re over him?”

Tonya studied Aunt Linn’s face. She didn’t think there was hope, did she? Tonya blamed Grayson for his lie, but Roman’s position was far worse. She was to be his wife, and he should have trusted her above all others. He hadn’t given her a chance to speak. He’d accused her, and that was it. No, any feelings she had for him were killed the day he turned his back on her, and now, after all this time, even her broken heart had healed.

“Yes, I’m over him. What we had was a fantasy in both our minds, and now it’s over. I’m a different person, and I imagine he is too. Besides, I hear he’s married with a son.”

Aunt Linn nodded. “Abigail.”

Wow, no liking there.

Tonya smiled. “Well, I better let you get some rest, Aunt Linn. I promise to come by often while I’m in town. I love you, and I’m so glad I decided to come back.”

“I am too, dear.” She submitted her cheek for Tonya to kiss, and Tonya took up the tray to go wash the dishes.

Later, Grayson arrived to pick her up, and Tonya recalled what Aunt Linn had shared, that Grayson paid a private investigator to find her. What else had he learned? She thought about the life she had lived after leaving Charlotte and realized there wasn’t that much to find out. She had been telling the truth when she said her cousin came onto her, and when she came to the conclusion he wouldn’t take no for an answer, she had set out once again with nothing. Placing blame didn’t change the past. She was stronger for her experiences. She’d avoided what might have turned out to be a bad marriage. Gratitude should have been on her lips when she saw Grayson again. What she didn’t expect was to focus on his lips and his body, especially his big hands.

“Let me take you to dinner,” he offered when she folded into his low-slung car.

Tonya blinked at him. “Why?”

“You have to eat.”

She clicked her seatbelt into place and faced forward. Unfortunately, she could think of nothing that appeared natural for her hands to do. “There’s a restaurant at the hotel, and there’s room service. I don’t need to go out.”

“So you’re going to stay a prisoner in your room until it’s time to visit Aunt Linn?”

She scowled at him. “As if I’ve done anything to be locked up for.”

His brows rose, but he said nothing.

“You keep goading me.”

“And you keep assuming I’m trying to bully you.”

“Aren’t you?”

He shifted gears, and her mouth watered seeing his bicep flex. “No, I’m not. It’s a simple dinner invitation.”

“Nothing is simple, but fine. I’ll go. I can pay my own way.”

“No, actually, you won’t.”

She started to argue, but let the matter drop. Common sense told her she would not win, and nowadays she picked her battles. Besides, fighting with Grayson would sour her mood and sap her energy. She preferred to look at the positive aspects of life. That had been her motto from the day she set foot in Los Angeles. Sometimes she forgot the promise to herself to keep her head up, but when she remembered, she plowed on. Grayson Porter would not bring her down no matter how hard he pretended not to try.

After he dropped her off at her hotel with the promise to pick her up at six, Tonya rifled through her clothing once again. A couple hours later, she settled on a rust-orange sleeveless mini-dress with crisscrossing straps exposing her back. The material clung to her figure and was cut low enough at the neckline to show off the swell of her breasts. She spent the rest of the day napping and then going over some paperwork for her job. Two hours before it was time for Grayson to pick her up, she showered and started on her makeup and hair. By the time he called from the lobby, she was ready, and she didn’t keep him waiting.

Tipping across the lobby toward the entrance, she caught his eye and was gratified to see the interest in his expression. He straightened from leaning on the side of the car when she walked through the doors. His gaze swept her from head to foot, and he held out a hand. She took it, suppressing a shiver at the touch.

“You look incredible,” he said, and opened the car door for her.

She lowered her lashes. “Thank you. You look nice yourself.” He did, in his dark slacks and crisp burgundy shirt. He had foregone the suit jacket and tie. The shirt lay open at the neckline, flashing a bit of tanned, hairless skin. When they sat in the car together, the heady cologne hung in the air, waking her senses and giving her cravings. She licked her lips. “Um, where are we going?”

“Wait and see.”

The restaurant turned out to be a beautiful, quiet place with soft lighting and fine art decorating the walls. Tonya moved ahead of Grayson at his guiding and followed the host to their table. She allowed him to seat her, a chill racing down her back when he dared rest a hand at the base. She agreed to wine when he offered and perused the menu.

“Tell me how you have been, what your life is like in Los Angeles.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Do you want to know?”

“Of course.”

“I love my job. Mostly, I run the day to day, oversee scheduling for training classes and the like, but every now and then I instruct one of the classes.”

“Certifications?”

She nodded, warming to her subject. “I handled the boot camp for the CCDA exam prep and had something like twenty guys and one other woman. At first they underestimated me. They tested my knowledge of Cisco network architecture and came up with bogus questions about routing protocols.” She shook her head. “Please, I don’t know who they thought they were dealing with.”

Grayson grinned. “I bet you set them straight?”

“Of course. I know my stuff, and I love networking.”

“Why did you settle for a manager’s position?”

When their wine arrived, she took a sip of hers and shrugged. “I needed money to live, but once I had my foot in the door, I found out I love teaching. It’s rewarding helping others understand what I know.”

“You’re not married or involved.”

The words were a statement, not a question, making her again wonder about all he had learned from the PI. “Don’t you know? After all, you had me checked out.”

“To find you. I thought risking your anger at the invasion was worth it rather than you show up one day to find Aunt Linn gone and no one looked for you to tell you. I know you love her.”

“Yeah, but you don’t—” She cut off what she’d intended to say and changed directions. “What about you? No prospective wife or babies on the way?”

Regret clouded his gaze, and she shifted in her seat. “No. Not yet.”

“Running a company takes a lot of time. Just managing a smaller one is a huge challenge. I have to check in online while I’m here along with phone calls since I didn’t have a lot of warning about leaving. My assistant is pretty good with everything as well, so I’m not too worried.”

“Is that what you want?”

She blinked at him. “What do you mean?”

“Do you want to spent all of your time working, leaving so little personal life available for a family?”

Tonya was surprised at the inflection in his tone, as if what she answered was important to him. She wasn’t about to tell him how sometimes the loneliness set in so sharply it felt like she couldn’t breathe. Family meant a lot to her, but she had none and no close friends. She could have started over in her personal life, but hadn’t developed the level of courage to do so.

“If the time comes, I will make the decisions that are right for me.”

He appeared to accept the answer, and they moved on to other topics. When her salmon arrived, consisting of Carolina brown rice, veggies, and squash, she tucked into the meal with relish. Grayson sat in silence for a few moments, watching her eat.

“What?” She licked a bit of sauce from her lip, and his gaze rested there.

He cleared his throat. “Do you always eat so healthy?”

“Man, please.” She grinned. “I love food. Don’t even get it wrong, but if I eat crazy all the time, I’ll be as big as a house. I can’t have that.”

“From what I can see, you have nothing to worry about.”

She blushed and covered her rising temperature by pointing a fork at his plate. “You can’t convince me you eat fried chicken every day.”

He leaned back and patted flat abs. “I workout hard so I can indulge.”

I bet you do.

Light conversation continued, and Tonya found herself relaxing in his presence. When he tried, Grayson could be entertaining. He had no trouble carrying on conversation, and as long as they kept away from discussions of Roman and the past, they were okay. At the end of the evening, he drove her back to her hotel and stopped in the driveway.

“Good night. Thank you for dinner.” For some reason, her voice sounded breathless, and she chided herself on the reaction to him. She reached for the handle to open the door, but he laid a hand on hers. Her heart hammered, and she licked her lips, glancing over at him.

He said nothing, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t look away. He drowned her in those eyes that she had always loved.
This is ridiculous. Get out of the car, Tonya.
Her body refused to obey the mental command, and then she knew what would happen. Grayson restarted his car and drove into the parking garage. He found a spot, parked, and unfolded his long form from the deep seat. While he walked around to her side of the car, she stared at him in the rearview and then the side mirror.
This is a mistake. This is a
serious
mistake!

He opened her door and held out his hand, and she placed a trembling one in his palm. They strode up together to her room.

Chapter Seven

Tonya’s hands shook too much to get the key in the lock, and Grayson took over. He held the door wide and waited for her to pass by him. She hesitated, but taking him in, his intoxicating scent, his body—lips, chest, hands, abs, even his legs—the entire package drove her nuts. If only once, she craved to touch him, to feel him above her or behind her, driving his dick into her pussy.

She stumbled by him and walked into the room. The click of the door shutting resounded loud, but not much above the rushing blood in her ears. He moved behind her and rested his hands on her arms. She jumped and darted away. The bed loomed, threatening and giving her lusty ideas.