“Well, either that or you’re just way better than this other woman.” Beth clapped her hand over her mouth, seeming to realize how wrong her sentence sounded. “Damn, I didn’t mean it like that. You are better, of course, but there was nothing there to start with, so . . .”
Suzy interrupted her sister. “Let me put you out of your misery before you dig yourself in any further.” Turning to Emma, she said, “So everything is fine and if you want to continue with Brant, then there is no reason why you shouldn’t.” Then, drilling Beth with a look, she added, “Just please don’t do it in anyone else’s house like some people . . .” Beth responded with a grimace and Emma had to wonder what she was missing. “Hey, speaking of sex and exes, I have a new and interesting friend, Beth, with ties to one of your exes.”
Looking surprised, Beth said, “Really? Heck, I don’t have much of a dating past, so who could that be?”
“Well, you only went out with him a few times . . . but you remember Seth Jackson, right?”
“Oh my God,” Beth moaned. “That man had a front-row seat to one of the most embarrassing moments in my life. Please tell me he isn’t your new best friend now.”
“Hardly.” Suzy smiled. “But you’ll be happy to know he’s moved on . . . to someone very close to home.”
Beside Suzy, Claire smiled. “Oh yes, that’s right. I had forgotten that you went out with Seth.”
Holding up her hand, Emma said, “Whoa, let’s take this back a little for the benefit of those of us who don’t know. Who is Seth and what embarrassing moment did I miss?” Ella was trying to stifle a giggle under her hand, so Emma knew it must be a good one.
Beth took a breath and said, “I met Seth through a dating service. He works at the Oceanix.”
“He
owns
the Oceanix,” Suzy added. “Big difference.”
“Wow,” Emma breathed. “I’m impressed.” The Oceanix was the most elite resort in Myrtle Beach and that was saying something. Her parents had insisted on taking her there for lunch on their last visit. She probably wouldn’t have been able to afford more than a crouton without them paying.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t know he owned it at the time. He just said he was the manager there. Not that it would have made any difference to me. Seth was a great guy.” And wiggling her eyebrows, she added, “And very easy on the eyes. We had only been out a few times when things with Nick started to . . . heat up. I had a very bad and temporary lapse in judgment and
decided I was going to continue dating despite finding out I was pregnant.”
Suzy opened and closed her mouth. Emma had to give her credit for holding in whatever comment she had wanted to make.
“So, um, how did that work out?” Emma asked.
Beth started laughing. “Not very well. I met Seth for dinner one evening and Nick showed up. He introduced himself as the father of my child and also let Seth know he was living with me. When Seth asked me if it was true, I had no choice but to tell him that it was. Have you ever had a gorgeous man look at you like you were a complete and total train wreck? Let me tell you, it’s not a good feeling. It was completely humiliating and I have prayed that I would never see him face-to-face again.”
Ella squeezed her friend’s hand in sympathy, saying, “It could happen to any of us.”
Suzy laughed out loud before telling Ella, “Unless you are planning to start dating now, it’s probably not gonna happen to anyone at this table again.”
“I almost hate to ask,” Beth said, “but what were you saying about Seth?”
“Believe it or not,” Suzy said, “he’s dating someone at Danvers . . . again. With a little more success this time, though. She works in installations and her name is Mia Gentry. She’s actually pretty cool; I think you’d all like her.”
“Small town, small world,” Claire offered.
“Should make for a hell of a good Christmas party, though, right?” Suzy smirked.
As the other women gathered their things to leave, Emma was surprised when Ella pulled her aside. Ella gave her a shy smile before saying, “If Brant is what you want, then never stop until you get him. That whole family is so . . . closed off. Declan is better now, but he still has times when he wants to shoulder everything on his own. I’ve gotten to know Brant a bit since Declan and I got together. I can see that there’s a lot more to him than he lets most people see. Ava—she has been a bit tougher. I don’t think she’s ever gonna call me wanting to have a girls’ night. Evan is crazy about both of them, though, and they say kids are the best judge of a person’s character.”
Emma smiled her gratitude. “Thank you, Ella, and for what it’s worth, Declan is damn lucky.”
Brant was waiting for her near her desk when she returned from lunch. She looked at him uncertainly for a moment before putting her hands on her hips and breaking the silence. “What? Don’t tell me you wanted your slave to bring you back some lunch?”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise before a smile curved his gorgeous lips. “Now why would I want yet another sandwich that you had left sitting on the table for an hour before bringing it back to me? I’m sure you have been sorely disappointed that I haven’t succumbed to a bad case of food poisoning yet.”
Dropping her purse on the desk, she said, “It hasn’t been from a lack of trying on my part.” Suddenly Brant gripped her hips, pulling her bottom back against him. She felt his erection nudging against her and wiggled against it, eliciting a groan from him.
“God, you’re turning me on. One more nasty comment from you and I’ll have you lying on your desk with your panties on the floor and my cock driving hard inside you.”
Holy shit
! Emma felt the moisture pooling between her thighs as erotic images of the two of them together ran through her mind. As he reached up to pinch her taut nipples, she groaned, “You . . . have . . . an . . . appointment . . . soon.”
“Fuck.” Brant cursed against her neck. He kissed her ear before stepping unsteadily back.
“Let’s go to your place after work,” Emma whispered seductively. Was it her imagination or did he suddenly look uncomfortable?
“How about your place? I’m . . . having some work done at mine.”
Emma felt herself relax. Things had seemed so awkward for a moment that she had been afraid he was going to turn her down altogether. She knew that her apartment was still a wreck with luggage lying around the living room, but she didn’t care in the least. If they had to make out on a pile of laundry, it was something she’d have to live with. “Sure, that sounds good. Do you want to grab some dinner first?”
Brant smacked her sharply on the butt, something
he seemed to love doing, and said, “Have a snack this afternoon to tide you over. I can’t sit across from you in a restaurant without wanting to fuck you. After we’ve released some . . . tension, we’ll order a pizza.” Emma was more than happy with his plan since she didn’t think she could last much longer without feeling him against her. Being this close to him for the rest of the afternoon was going to be hell. She had never been so glad to have a full schedule; otherwise, she would have ended up doing something she never had: beg Brant to meet her in the supply closet before she exploded.
Brant had just walked back into his office when the owner of the company, Jason Danvers, walked in followed by Mark DeSanto, Brant’s next appointment. The DeSanto Group had been a partner in some projects with Brant’s previous company. Brant had maintained a friendship with Mark and wanted to introduce him to Jason. He thought there were some interesting possibilities for projects between DeSanto and Danvers.
“Emma.” Jason smiled, holding out his hand. Emma shook hands, returning the greeting. She had met Jason on only a few occasions and each time she found herself blushing like a schoolgirl. Claire Danvers had hit the jackpot and it had nothing to do with his wealth. He was tall, drool-worthy handsome, and what a body. What Emma found the most attractive, though, was that he didn’t use any of that to get what he wanted. He was like a gorgeous geek. After speaking with him on any subject for a few moments, it became apparent that the man was brilliant. With so many attributes to
admire, his intelligence had always been what really stood out to Emma.
Mark DeSanto gave her a look that was frankly appraising and appreciative as he dropped a kiss on her hand. Emma smiled at the gesture. There wasn’t a lot of hand kissing in Myrtle Beach. Mark had raven-dark hair and reminded her of a younger Andy Garcia.
When Brant walked out of his office to greet his guests, Mark took the opportunity to ask her if she would be interested in joining him for lunch one day. She could tell by the tightening of Brant’s mouth that he had also heard the question and didn’t like it. She didn’t think it would look good to Jason Danvers if he saw her making dates with their business associates. Just as she was trying to phrase her rejection nicely, the telephone rang and she jumped on it like a lifeline. Brant also took advantage of the call to usher Mark away from her desk and lead them all into his office, shutting the door firmly behind them.
As Emma was getting ready to leave for the day, the men finally came out. “Emma, Jason, Mark and I are meeting up with Declan, Nick, Gray and Ava for dinner. Could you possibly make us a reservation at Ivy for seven, please?” Ivy was a favorite among the executives at Danvers and as such, there was always a last-minute table available to them there. Emma smiled at him as Mark and Jason walked into the hallway and she picked up the phone. Brant leaned over her desk to sign some papers and whispered near her ear, “I’ll drop by your place after dinner, okay?”
“Er . . . sure,” she replied, suddenly feeling like more of a booty call than a date, which she knew was silly. Did she think that Brant was going to announce to the CEO of Danvers that she was his girlfriend and include her in the dinner arrangement? “Will any of the wives be joining you this evening?”
“Ah, yes, Em, thanks—please also include a plus-one for Jason, Gray and Declan. I don’t believe Nick’s wife can make it.” Emma couldn’t help but think that if Brant were still with Alexia, he would definitely have a plus-one for the evening. He brushed her hand fleetingly before murmuring, “I’ll see you soon.”
Emma quickly made the reservation before locking up for the evening. She was walking through the lobby when she saw Brant’s sister, Ava, staring at the elevator. Thinking that Brant may not have passed the dinner information along, she approached her. “Hi, Ava, were you looking for Brant?”
Ava gave her a look of surprise before answering. “No, should I be?”
Emma verbally kicked herself. She liked Ava fine, but she was now stuck delivering the required five minutes of small talk when she could have walked out the door and been on her way. “I just thought since you were meeting the rest of the team for dinner tonight that you might be riding together.”
“Oh . . . No . . . I’m just . . . I thought Mac would still be here and I was going to walk out with him.”
Like most of her friends at Danvers, Emma had wondered more than once about the relationship
between Ava and Mac. She knew he was an old friend of the family and that Declan had served in the military with him, but she had always thought there was something else there.
“Do you want me to check and see if he’s still in the building?” Emma offered.
Ava looked down at her watch and then back at the elevator as if willing Mac to appear. “No, that’s okay, I probably just missed him. Thanks, though.”
Emma couldn’t help but notice how sad the other woman looked as she walked away. Maybe they had more in common than she thought, because it appeared that they were both waiting on a man.
When Declan caught him looking down at his watch yet again, Brant tried to hide his guilty expression. It was already after nine and he knew that Emma was expecting him. As if taking mercy on him, his brother cleared his throat. “Ella and I are going to have to get home. She’s a bit tired tonight and needs to rest.”
Clearly, pregnancy did have its advantages, Brant thought. He shot Declan a grateful smile as the dinner meeting came to an end. He said a quick good-bye to everyone, noting absently that Suzy had been unusually subdued during dinner. She had also left the table several times, so Brant wondered if she was sick. Gray seemed to be thinking the same thing, as he kept a firm arm around his wife¸ leading her toward the door. When his cell phone rang as he was walking toward his car, Brant was momentarily surprised to see his home number on the caller ID. He had completely forgotten about Alexia.
He hit the
CALL
button, answering, “Stone.”
“Hi, Brant, it’s Alexia. I . . . er . . . just wondered when you were going to be home.”
He was a little surprised by the question. When he had invited her to stay at his home, he hadn’t imagined that he would need to check in with her. Although he supposed it was a common courtesy when you had a houseguest, no matter what the circumstances. It would be rude to burst in during the middle of the night and scare her. “I just finished a dinner meeting and I . . . have plans, so I’ll be late. Was there something you needed?”
Oh fuck, was that a sniffle he heard on the other end of the line?
“Is everything okay?”
After a moment’s hesitation, she said, “Oh sure, I . . . Carter called tonight and we had a fight. He wants to see me and I refused. I just . . . needed to talk, but it’s not important.”
Brant closed his eyes as he felt the guilt jumping up to choke him. Alexia was clearly upset and had been waiting for him to come home so that she wouldn’t be all alone. Sometimes he really hated his constant sense of responsibility because he felt an overwhelming obligation to go straight home and try to solve Alexia’s problems for her. It was nothing to do with love and everything to do with a—misplaced—sense of duty. On the other hand, he wanted nothing more than to be with Emma. All day long he had missed having her in his arms.
It hadn’t even been a full day and already the weight of helping Alexia was dragging on him. He needed to tell Emma that she was staying with him, even if he couldn’t tell her the reason why. There was nothing
going on that he should feel guilty about. He’d give her a call and then head home. “I’ll be there soon.”
“Really?” He could hear the hope in Alexia’s voice as he told her he’d be there in twenty minutes. Next, he dialed Emma’s number, putting it on speaker before turning his car toward home. A spark shot through his body when he heard her voice. She sounded so damn close he almost expected to see her in the seat next to him. “Hey, Em.”
Before he could go any farther, she said, “You aren’t coming, are you?”
He couldn’t keep the surprise from his voice when he asked, “How did you know that?”
Sounding tired but faintly amused, she said, “Because you’d be here now and not calling. Did you decide to hit a bar or something with the guys after dinner?”
God, how simple it would be to just agree with her and let it go for the evening. Sadly, though, he didn’t often take the easy way out in life and tonight would be no exception. “No, I’m on my way home now from the restaurant.” Letting out a breath he hadn’t been aware of holding, he said, “Em, I need to tell you something.” When there was nothing but silence from her end of the line, he quickly jumped in before he could chicken out. “The woman you met in my office this morning, Alexia, is actually my ex-fiancée and she’s staying with me for a few days. That’s why I didn’t want to meet at my house tonight. She’s . . .
having some problems with her current fiancé and asked me for somewhere to stay.” The silence continued so long after his revelation that he looked over at his phone to make sure the call was still connected. “Um . . . Em?”
“I’m here,” she answered, sounding perfectly normal. “Just out of curiosity, why would she ask her ex-fiancé? Did you stay in contact after your split or was it recent?”
“It was a few years ago and, no, today is the first time I’ve spoken with her since our relationship ended.” Brant thought she sounded more puzzled than anything now and he couldn’t blame her. When he thought about it in those terms, it seemed strange to him as well. He wouldn’t have sought Alexia out if the circumstances had been reversed. Of course, Emma didn’t know the whole story and that made a bit of difference.
“She is dealing with a family situation and doesn’t have any friends that she can . . . trust.”
“It still seems strange that she would come to you after so long in those circumstances.”
Brant was starting to wish he had just kept his mouth shut. This was becoming harder and harder to explain without telling her what was going on and he couldn’t do that.
“She has some other problems as well. I guess, due to our history together, she felt she could count on me for support. Our relationship was built on a friendship and she had nowhere else to turn.”
Emma’s only comment was “Hmmm.”
“So, I’ll see you tomorrow?” Brant asked.
“Um-hmm,” she replied absently.
“And we’ll make plans for tomorrow night?” Brant asked almost hesitantly.
“What? Oh sure, yeah, that sounds good. ’Night.” With those words, he heard a click. He felt uncomfortable with how the whole conversation had gone. He would have felt better if she had overreacted and accused him of something. As it was, though, she seemed almost distant from the entire subject.
Fuck, now I remember why it was a helluva lot easier to avoid romantic hassles. Right now I don’t know my ass from a hole in the ground, and that happens only when a woman is involved.
Emma looked down at her watch and hoped Suzy was still awake. She didn’t think she would have had time to make it home from dinner and already be asleep. She quickly found Suzy’s name on her phone and texted her:
Old bitch moving in on my man.
Her phone almost immediately signaled an incoming text:
What???
As she was typing in her reply, the phone rang. She saw Suzy’s name on the caller ID. When she answered, Suzy immediately asked, “What the hell?”
“Er . . . sorry about that. The last time I had man drama, I was a teenager, so I regressed back for a moment.”
“All right,” Suzy laughed. “So what gives?”
“Well, I found out tonight that Alexia is staying with Brant temporarily since she is fighting or something with her fiancé.”
“Pardon?” Suzy asked. “I don’t think I heard that right.”
“Oh, you did. Trust me, I had the same reaction when he told me. He said that they have been broken up for a few years and in that time have not been in touch with each other. Now, out of the blue, she’s back and needs somewhere to stay? Hellooo! Would you call your ex-fiancé if you and Gray were having problems and ask to stay with him?”
“Um, hells-to-the-no,” Suzy muttered. “I’d rather sleep in my car.”
“Thank you!” Emma exclaimed. “That’s pretty much what I thought. The whole thing seems strange to me. Do you . . . do you think she wants him back? Maybe she made up this whole thing about a fiancé and having nowhere to go.”
“Well, men are usually suckers for the whole damsel-in-distress act,” Suzy admitted, “so I wouldn’t rule it out. I think it might be time for a little R and R.”
“Rest and Relaxation?” Emma asked, thinking maybe Suzy had been asleep after all.
“Duh, no—Research and Reconnaissance. Know thy enemy and all that. I think it’s time to see exactly where Alexia came from and if there is another man in her life. I’ll see if I can get some information out of Gray and maybe Ella can talk to Declan discreetly as well. We’ll figure out if this is on the up-and-up or if someone
wants your man back.” They talked for a few more minutes before ending the call.
Emma felt better after talking to Suzy, but she had to fight the urge to kick off Operation R & R right then. She felt the need to do something completely juvenile, like drive by Brant’s house and peek in the windows. Didn’t they say that eavesdroppers never heard anything good about themselves? That probably went double for Peeping Toms then. To distract herself from doing something stupid, she flipped open her laptop and started on the research end of the mission. Thanks to Google, there were very few secrets in the world anymore.
After fifteen minutes of reading everything she could find on Alexia Shaw, Emma sorely wished she had remained in her ignorant bubble. Her family was mentioned tons of times in the different society pages. A younger Alexia stood next to her parents in many of the older pictures. Strangely enough, she had fallen off the radar in recent years. Her parents were still pictured at various events, but Alexia was nowhere to be seen. As Emma pondered what that could mean, she ran across a picture that caught her attention. It was a charity event for the Children’s Hospital and not only were Alexia’s parents in one of the photos, Brant stood with his arm around a beaming Alexia and damn it, he looked happy.
Well, what did you expect? They were engaged.
Maybe a part of her had hoped that the whole engagement thing was a mistake somehow. But if the hug
in his office this morning hadn’t convinced her, then the picture she was staring at did. It wasn’t just a friendly photo-op picture. Brant’s whole stance toward Alexia was possessive. He cradled her against his side protectively. Emma could only imagine how a photo of she and Brant as a couple might look. The photographs would probably alternate between one of them having their hands around the other’s neck to something a little more sweaty and graphic.
Yeah, researching your new enemy at night: not a good idea. Couldn’t Brant’s ex have been a homely, poor wallflower who didn’t have tons of hits on Google? Just for kicks, she entered her own name and while she got some hits, the only halfway interesting one was a college student named Emma Davis who went by the nickname Emmie-Pie and had quite a talent for tying things in knots with her tongue, as evidenced by all the video clips posted on her site.
Right now, even Emmie-Pie seemed to have a better shot at happiness than Emma did.
Brant rubbed the back of his neck, hoping that the drama with Alexia was going to die down soon. When he arrived home, tired and sexually frustrated as all hell after having to cancel his evening with Emma, he had found Alexia on the phone crying. When he asked her what was wrong, she thrust her phone in his hand and asked him to deal with it for her . . . please? What the hell? He put the phone to his ear, fully expecting to hear either her mother or father on the other end.
Instead, he ended up in a lovers’ spat. There was a man whom he soon found out was the fiancé, Carter, begging Alexia to listen to reason. “Um, Alexia stepped away for a moment.”
Great, that sounded fucking brilliant. Just the type of thing to reassure a man that he can work things out with his woman.
Dead silence followed before an angry voice boomed, “Who the fuck is this and where’s Alexia?” A smarter man would have ended the connection at that point. How screwed up was it that he wanted to help the woman who had dumped him two years ago to save her relationship with the irate man on the other end of the line?
“This is Brant Stone, a friend of Alexia’s. She’s—”
Before he could finish his sentence, there was what could only be called angry laughter from the other end. Brant could sense no real amusement in the sound. “You’re kidding me, right? I’m over here on my knees groveling and begging for forgiveness and she went straight back to you?” Brant didn’t know why he was surprised. Of course, if you were serious enough about someone enough to marry him, you would tell him about your past. He was naive to think that Carter didn’t know who he was. He actually felt a bit like an asshole for doing this to the guy. There was nothing going on with Alexia, but how was Carter supposed to believe that?
“It’s not like that, Carter. Alexia just needed a place to stay. I’m sure she told you that her parents have been less than . . . supportive.”
“What?” Carter asked, clearly having no idea what he was talking about. “I gather you know, but she already told her parents as well?” The concern in Carter’s voice was real and raw. Brant found himself feeling sorry for him.
Alexia was nowhere to be seen and Brant sat on a barstool in his kitchen faced with a decision. If she was going to place him in the middle of whatever was going on with Carter, then he wasn’t going to lie when asked a direct question. “Yeah, she did and it was . . . tough.”
Carter’s voice rose again as he asked, “What do you mean, tough?”
Sighing, Brant said, “Tough as in don’t expect any support from them. I think they pretty much made her feel like an outcast and she left. With things up in the air with you and them cutting her off at the knees, she was desperate. That’s the only reason she would have come to me after all this time.”
“Damn, she really didn’t need that after me being such an asshole about the whole thing.”
“I don’t really know much about Alexia now, but back when we were together, she had always had a man in her life making the decisions. First, it was her father and then me. I think she almost needs the comfort and familiarity now while she tries to get her life together. Especially if things are unsettled between you two. I suspect that’s the biggest reason she turned to me when her parents didn’t offer it.”
“Yeah,” Carter answered absently, “that makes sense.
I guess I have been playing that role in our relationship. I just . . . I’m so afraid of her falling back into that old crowd she was running with. I can’t stand to see her relapse after going through so much to get clean. She thinks it means I don’t trust her and that she’s just a burden to me. I know that she’s doubting our whole relationship no matter how much I try to convince her that everything is okay.”
Brant was starting to feel like he was a cross between Alexia’s father and a host on a dating show, but this stuff happened when you got involved in people’s lives—and he was in up to his neck in Alexia’s. “Just give her time, Carter. Let her recover from this fallout with her parents and then try again.”