Pendelton Manor (18 page)

Heading downstairs, she heard the guys voices joking in the kitchen, another aspect of living here that she realized she had grown accustomed to hearing, that she actually looked forward to each morning without realizing it.

“Good morning, Sophie,” Ash greeted her before turning to automatically pour her coffee, a little ritual he had recently gotten in the habit of doing and one she had missed the few days he had been out of town.

“Thank you.” Taking the cup, she noticed that a rash spread across his forearm. “What’s that from? Poison Ivy?” The rash looked red and raw and went from the back of his hand up to his elbow.

“No,” he answered, his mouth quirked ruefully, his blue eyes lit with chagrin. “That’s what I get for listening to everyone harping on me to be nice to that damn cat. When I got in Sunday, she was out by the garage and I reached out to greet her. The little bitch hissed and scratched me before running off, as usual.”

“That was on Sunday? That’s the last day I saw her also. Has anyone seen her since?”

“It usually takes several days for my allergic reaction to kick in and I haven’t seen her since that evening. You guys?” Ash questioned Adam and Adrian.

Adrian saw the worry she was trying desperately not to show and hoped Sammy hadn’t decided to disappear on them again. It had been obvious Sophie had grown attached to her, and secretly he was pleased someone had taken an interest in Nicole’s pet.

“Now that you mention it, she hasn’t been around all week,” he said, the sadness in Sophie’s blue eyes pulling at him in a way he didn’t want or appreciate. Other than fucking her last weekend, he treated her much the same, as if she was no more important to him than any other good, valued employee. Which he knew but constantly refused to acknowledge was a lie.

“I saw her out front Sunday afternoon when I was seeing Nora off, but I haven’t seen her since either. Don’t worry, Sophie, she often takes off exploring for days at a time, but she always comes back.”

That helped ease her worry and Sophie smiled gratefully at Adam. “Thanks. That helps and I’ll try not to worry about her. I’ve never had a pet and know nothing about animals, as you can probably tell.” Sipping her coffee laced with cream and sugar just as she liked it, she noticed the three of them had already finished something to eat and were ready to leave. Turning to Adrian, she asked the same thing she asked of him every morning. “Do you need me to do anything extra or special today? Anything I’ve missed?”

“If you’ve missed something and I haven’t noticed it, then it’s probably something that doesn’t need attention right now. No, you’re doing a good job, as I’ve told you before.”

She refused to blush at the cool rebuke. Was it her fault she had to constantly ask if there was anything she was missing that he wanted done since she got no feedback from him unless she asked for it? Of course, if her bank account was a reflection on her job performance, she supposed she was doing an outstanding job.

“Then I better get started. Have a good day,” she said, her look including the three of them.

Adrian swore silently as her look of hurt and the fact that she wanted away from him fast enough to forego breakfast had him feeling guilty, an emotion he was unaccustomed to and didn’t like.

“Sophie, take time to eat. You shouldn’t work all morning on an empty stomach.”

Sophie smiled back at him as she realized that was his way of apologizing for being an ass. “Thanks. I’m just going to start a load of laundry then I’ll grab something quick.”

“You need to praise her more often and do so nicely,” Ash told him as the three of them headed to the garage. “She does work hard around here and it shows in ways it hasn’t with anyone before her. Would it hurt to let her know that?”

It wouldn’t, he knew, but he didn’t appreciate Ash’s advice about Sophie any more than he had about Nicole when both of his cousins had tried to dissuade him from marrying her. Unfortunately, he was no more inclined to listen now than he was eight years ago, despite knowing marrying Nicole had been a colossal mistake.

“I appreciate the advice, cousin, but how I handle my employee is my business.”

“Her pay comes from the business account, which, last time I checked, had all our names on it,” Adam said angrily as he jerked open the door to his SUV angrily.

“But the house belongs to me and how I run it is my business and mine alone,” Adrian returned in a cold voice as once again his suspicions reared their ugly head. “And you resent the hell out of that, don’t you? Both of you,” he added as he cut a glance towards Ash’s scowling face.

“We’re not going down this road again with you,” Ash retorted as he moved towards joining Adam in his vehicle. “You’ve refused to listen to us and to reason for well over a year now. You can sink or swim with whatever relationship you have, or don’t have with Sophie, on your own.” Sliding into the passenger seat, he glared up at Adrian and added before shutting the door, “Just how long do you think she’s going to continue to spread her legs for you on weekends only to be treated as if she meant nothing more than your previous housekeepers during the week?”

Anger at his crude remark and the way his barb struck a nerve filled him, but since Adam simply got behind the wheel, and, with a glare towards him, put the car in gear and pulled away, he didn’t get a chance to vent in return. Then again, he thought as he pulled away from the garage and followed them slowly, what the hell could he say? Because, truth be known, they were right. His dreams every night this week had been filled with erotic scenes of him fucking Sophie in every position imaginable, in every way imaginable, until he woke up so hard and aching he had to fist his cock until he came in an attempt to rid himself of the lingering pictures in his mind. Even as he had greeted her with his usual indifference each day, he had been silently looking forward to and planning how he wanted to fuck her this weekend, with or without the presence of the others. And that, he admitted, was unfair to her.

As usual, by the end of the day, both Adam and Ash had put aside their animosity and as they joined Adrian in the kitchen for dinner, Adam was ribbing Ash about the latest woman he had added to his entourage of out of town liaisons while trying to include Adrian.

“Tell him, big cousin,” he said with a wide grin as they entered to see Adrian setting down plates. “Tell him what a man whore he is. Son of a bitch now has two women he keeps on a string in Portland. Does Kim know about whatever her name is?” he asked Ash who was attempting to ignore him.

Shrugging nonchalantly, Ash answered, “Don’t know, don’t care. If one or both of them turn me down, there’s always another willing to take her place.”

“Nora and Rachel would call you a gravy sucking pig and I’d have to agree with them,” Adrian chimed in, more than willing to let the morning disagreement slide for now. He had spent the day in a foul mood, one he had taken out on a few employees who were slacking but didn’t deserve the tongue lashing he gave them. He could no more help his suspicions of his cousins than he could prevent the sun from going down in an hour, but he could wait until he had proof before sealing the fate of their dissolving relationships. He was still on the fence about how to proceed with Sophie. He freely admitted she deserved to be treated with more pleasantries but he still shied away from taking their relationship beyond fuck buddies and employee, and he knew she was of like mind.

“And they would be right,” Adam said with a laugh as he withdrew three beers from the fridge and moved to the table where another wonderful smelling casserole awaited them. “Damn but that smells good. I wish Sophie would join us, especially after going to so much trouble to see we have something decent to eat every night.”

“I’ll run up and see if I can coax her down,” Ash offered.

“No, I’ll do it,” Adrian surprised them and himself by offering. “Go ahead, I’ll be right back.”

Handing out an olive branch wouldn’t hurt, he thought as he swiftly ran upstairs, ignoring the sense of expectancy filling him as he neared her room and knocked lightly on her door.

“Adrian, is something wrong?” Sophie was surprised to see him at her door especially after the cool way he had dismissed her this morning. She had found it very disconcerting as she worked then went for her walk that she was beginning to be bothered by the way he continued to delegate her to nothing more than an employee after the weekend. While she still didn’t want any emotional entanglements with anyone, especially him, she wouldn’t mind if they were on friendlier terms.

“Yes, there is,” he answered sternly but with a small smile. “I’m tired of Adam and Ash giving me a hard time about you not sharing the great dinners you fix with us. Will you please come down? Dinner only,” he added in case she thought he was issuing the invitation as a prelude to sex.

Sophie was pleased by his offer and took it as a good sign that he was thawing slightly. “Thanks, really, but I just finished and was going to return my plate shortly. But, I’ll come down in a few minutes and have a piece of cake with you, if you want.”

“Cake? We have cake?”

“Don’t get excited, it’s just a box mix, but it did turn out good.”

“We’ll see you shortly then.”

The emphasis on ‘we’ wasn’t lost on Sophie and she could’ve reassured him again that she had no more desire to become emotionally involved than he did, but, as the saying went, actions speak louder than words and she figured only time would reassure him of that.

By Friday afternoon there was still no sign of Sammy and Sophie couldn’t believe how much she missed tripping over her and feeling her curled up in her lap or against her in bed. It had taken her longer to clean Adrian’s floor than usual because she had taken down the curtains on the French doors and stripped the linens on the bed to wash. By the time she had everything laundered and put back in place the sun was already lowering on the horizon, the day cooling down from its mid-sixties high.

After stopping on the second floor and grabbing her jacket, she went downstairs and was glad the guys weren’t home yet. Since dinner was ready, all she had to do was slip it into the oven and she still had enough daylight left to go look for Sammy again. She would miss sharing dinner with them, something she had enjoyed last night very much. It still amazed her how easy it was to be around them after all the sexual exploits of the past few weeks, how their friendly, easy going manner eliminated any awkwardness she felt, their nonchalant acceptance of her as one of them made it fun to tease Ash about his women and give Adam a hard time about coming clean how he felt about Nora. And seeing Adrian in a new light, smiling and joking right along with them only reinforced her attraction to him, adding to the constant hum of lust coursing through her as she anticipated being with him again tomorrow night.

But she’d gladly miss dinner, or delay it, if it meant finding Sammy and reassuring herself she was all right. Slipping out the kitchen door, she headed toward the cliffs, calling her name.

Adrian’s day had gone to hell in a wheelbarrow starting with delays in shipments then having to fire a long time employee who was caught doing drugs during lunch before ending with the call from George Wojik who had checked out the generator for him and found no malfunction that looked suspicious or that could have caused the connection for gas to become unhooked without help, but there was a slight chance it could have happened just by someone bumping the generator by accident. His immediate thought was Ash had been out of town last Friday, but the generator could have been tampered with days, even weeks before that last storm and by anyone who had been on their property. Besides, he tried to rationalize without jumping to conclusions, what purpose did preventing the back-up generator from kicking in during the power outage serve? From his perspective, he couldn’t see what either of his cousins gained from that sabotage.

Trying to shrug off his suspicions as well as his bad mood, he remembered how much he had enjoyed Sophie’s company last night at dinner, how he had found pleasure in just hanging out with her and was looking forward to doing so again this evening. But when he entered the kitchen and saw only Adam and Ash waiting for him, he was disconcerted at how disappointed he felt.

“Where’s Sophie?” he asked as casually as he could considering the irritable depth of his anticipation and now his disappointment.

“Don’t know,” Ash replied as he scooped a heaping spoonful of food onto his plate. “I checked her room, but she wasn’t there.”

“She’s probably still out on her walk. I’m sure she’ll be in anytime.” Adam joined Ash at the table as he lifted an inquiring brow at Adrian’s scowl.

“Walk?” Adrian grabbed a plate and helped himself to another mouthwatering dish as he feigned an indifference he didn’t feel. What else did she do during her day that he didn’t know about?

“She walks the cliffs every afternoon when she’s done working. Are you the only one who doesn’t know that?” Ash held his hands up in mock surrender when Adrian glared at him. “Okay, okay, don’t snap at the informer. Anyway, I agree with Adam. I’m sure she just lost track of time and she’ll show up soon.”

Adrian wondered where Sophie found the energy to go on a vigorous walk after working all day in this place. He was well aware how big his home was and the effort it took to keep it looking as good as she did. Just one thing he admitted to himself that he admired about her.

Two hours later, Adrian’s mood went from sour to volatile when Sophie still hadn’t returned from wherever she had traipsed to. It was now dark outside and he had specifically told her not to be out on the cliffs after dark. Visions of her small, curvy body smashed on the rocks wouldn’t leave him and pacing his office while he cursed the worry she was causing him wasn’t helping. Adam and Ash had opted to stay in tonight and were in the solarium enjoying the heated pool, but Adrian couldn’t seem to relax enough to join them. After another thirty minutes passed and she still hadn’t returned, Adrian’s anger and worry sent him heading back to the kitchen with the intent of going to look for her, only to come up short as he met her coming in.