by Holly Rayner
“He’s an attorney, actually.” That was new information. Nothing I’d read about him told me that. I wondered why.
“An attorney, interesting. Was he in private practice?”
“No, he was a corporate attorney. I was a kid back then; I’m not sure what made him want to go into business.”
“Wow, so a guy with a law degree and not a business degree took a fledgling business and turned it into a billion dollar industry? Impressive.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I suppose. Where do your parents live?” I shuddered at the question. I could tell he was changing the subject, trying to take the focus off of him and his family. That was fine; I’d already gotten a new piece of information that might be useful. I wanted to talk about my family less than he wanted to talk about his.
“My parents died in an accident when I was young. A family friend raised me from then on. She still lives in Queens. So… when was the last time you were on a horse?”
Seth seemed as relieved as I was to change the subject, but first he said sincerely, “I’m sorry to hear that about your parents. It’s hard to lose a parent.”
“Yes, it is. Thank you.”
He went on to tell me that it had been at least ten years since he’d been on a horse. I didn’t tell him, but I haven’t been on one since I was thirteen and was forced to sell mine. This day should be interesting, if nothing else.
~
CHAPTER NINE
~
We got to the stables and checked in. I had reserved a couple of horses and a picnic basket ahead of time. I was praying that riding a horse was comparable to riding a bike and you never forgot. The people at the stables were really nice. A young man named Sam selected a soft black bay mare for me and he asked me if I wanted to saddle her myself.
“Sure… I haven’t done it in a while. You’ll check it for me when I’m done, right?” He laughed and said he would. Seth stood and watched as I threw the blanket and then the saddle up on the horse and strapped and tightened the cinch. I lowered the stirrup and turned towards him and Sam. Sam was nodding and Seth looked impressed. I was proud of myself. Sam checked mine as his partner was leading out another horse, this one a dark gray gelding, for Seth. I heard the guide ask if he wanted to saddle her.
“I’d prefer it if you did it,” Seth said. I had the feeling that wherever it was he rode before, he had stable boys looking out for him and doing the grunt work. I tucked a toe into the stirrup and swung up into the saddle of mine as Sam held onto the reins. I watched as Seth mounted his and then Sam attached the picnic basket and a red blanket to the strap that would normally hold on the saddle bags. He gave us a rundown of “do’s” and “don’ts” and a map of the park and we headed out in the direction he pointed us in.
We rode along the trails that wound through the giant park. It never failed to amaze me how you could disappear into the park in one of the largest cities in the world and feel like you were a million miles from the concrete jungle. The season was changing and the harshness of summer was dying. The leaves on the trees were changing from light and dark greens to bright golds, oranges and reds. Some of them had already begun to drift to the ground and they crunched underneath our horses hooves as we pranced on top of them. After we rode for a few minutes, the skinny trail widened and Seth came up from where he had been behind to ride alongside me.
“You look good on a horse,” he said with a smile.
“So do you. I have to admit, I was a little worried about you back there at the stables.”
“I’ve never saddled a horse,” he admitted. “The last time I actually rode was at our house in Martha’s Vineyard. When my mother was alive we used to go there a couple times a year. We had stables and horses but we also had staff so if I wanted to ride, mother would call out to the stables and when I got there, the horse would be ready.”
“We didn’t have our own horses. My father used to take me riding at some stables up near where we lived whenever he had the chance. The man that owned the stables was really nice. He used to say you shouldn’t ride something you didn’t know how to take care of. He showed me how to saddle and bridle a horse and then how to cool them down and put them away when you’re finished riding.”
“You talk about doing things with your dad a lot. You had a good relationship with him?”
“Yeah, it was the best,” I said. I had to be careful here… I could feel the tears springing to my eyes and I had to fight them back.
“My mother and I had that kind of relationship.”
“But not your dad?” I asked.
“No,” he said, simply. The trail narrowed again and he dropped back. When we came to the little pond that wound through part of the park I stopped and slid off my horse. I forgot to anticipate how numb my legs were going to be. When I hit the ground it felt like there was nothing to hold onto me. I staggered back into my horse. The horse snorted at me, but held firm thank goodness. Her bulk kept me from falling to the ground on my butt.
Seth slid quickly off of his horse. “Are you okay?”
Embarrassed, I giggled and said, “Yeah. My legs went numb. I just got down too fast.” I stretched and walked around as the horses got a drink of water. We had stopped in a really pretty, secluded spot. The grass was thick and green underneath our feet and the trees formed a canopy of colorful leaves above our heads to block out the late season sun. “Do you want to eat here?” I asked him.
“Sure,” Seth said. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yeah, the feeling is coming back slowly.” Unfortunately as the blood began circulating I could feel how sore my muscles were. We had been riding for at least an hour and it was my first time on a horse in a decade. I stood underneath one of the trees, looking into the pond and worked the muscles in the back of my neck with my fingers. I felt Seth step up next to me as I slid my hand down and began to knead the places I could reach in my lower back. Then suddenly I felt his strong fingers on my neck. He was massaging the sore muscles and sending little jolts of electricity down my spine and arms as he did.
“Oh wow, that feels so good.” He didn’t say anything and he didn’t stop. A few seconds later I felt his hands move to my shoulders and I was practically comatose as they moved down my sides across my ribs and to my lower back. My body was like warm butter in his hands, delighting at his every touch. “You missed your calling,” I told him. “You should have been a masseuse.” I had my eyes closed when I felt him take me on either side of my waist and spin me around to face him. Then his lips came down to kiss mine and the electricity I had felt before sparked up and ignited. When we came up for air I said, “I take it back.”
“You don’t think I’m a great masseuse?” he said in a breathless voice, still kneading the muscles along my shoulders and upper arms.
“You’re a fantastic masseuse,” I told him. “But I think you’d make even more money as a professional kisser.”
Seth bent down and ran his tongue along my lips. In a voice that was low and husky he said, “Unless you want to pay for it, I wouldn’t make a dime. I’ve decided that I don’t want to kiss anyone else but you.”
My whole body shuddered and I could feel my limbs shaking with desire for this man who I was supposed to hate… who I was fated to destroy. I forced my eyes open and took a step back. With a shaky smile I said, “Do you want to have our picnic here?”
He had his head cocked to the side and he was looking at me curiously with those sexy blue eyes. “Sure. Did I say something wrong?”
“No, not at all,” I told him. It was me. I was feeling guilty about the one thing that had been most important in my life for over a decade. I forced another smile and then reaching up, I ran my hand alongside his beautiful face and said, “I’m just a little shaky from the horseback ride. Let’s eat and refuel. I’ll be as good as new.”
He took down the picnic basket and the blanket and we spread it out underneath one of the trees in the soft, green grass next to the clear little pond. I sat down o
n a flat rock and he took a seat next to me on the blanket. We spent the next twenty minutes feasting on cold cuts, cheeses and crackers. They had even put in a couple of little bottles of wine. I hadn’t been on a picnic since I was a little girl. The weather was beautiful and the air smelled like the flowers that bloomed in the gardens not far away. There was a bird in the trees above us that seemed to be singing a serenade as we ate and talked. We kept the conversation light and when I finished eating, I laid back on the rock and closed my eyes. The sun was so warm and it all felt so good on my sore muscles.
Embarrassingly enough, I think I drifted off for a few seconds or maybe longer. The next thing I consciously registered was the feel of Seth’s fingers gently twisting the curls around my face and then sliding them down along my jawline. I opened my eyes to look at him, squinting against the bright sun. He smiled at me and I felt my heart racing as once again he closed in for a kiss. When we broke it he smiled again and said, “Did you have a nice nap?”
“The best,” I said. “I should come out here and nap every day and then you can come out and wake me up just like that.”
“It sounds like a fine idea, but it’s a ways from the office. You’d need at least a three hour lunch… longer if you were going to get a good nap…”
Closing my eyes again I said, “If I were CEO everyone would get a nap. It would be mandatory.”
“Really? What else would you change if you were CEO?”
The name of the company. Damn! I let the conversation take a turn right back to where I needed to be, but didn’t want to go. I took a deep breath and said, “I wouldn’t have to change much else. The current CEO is doing a great job.”
I pushed myself back up to a sitting position as Seth said, “Why thank you. Our CMBO is pretty amazing herself.”
“Did you always want to go into business?” I asked him then.
He looked thoughtful for a few moments, like he was trying to decide how to answer that. Finally, with a pained expression he said, “I honestly never had a choice, not unless I was willing to walk away from my father.” My heart ached when he got that look in his eye. I was beginning to think that James Hunter had been as bad of a father as he was a human being. Wanting nothing more at that moment than to make it better, I wrapped my arms around him in a tight embrace. He held me like that for a long time. When I finally pushed back he said, “I’m so glad I met you, Erin Summers.” I had to wonder how glad he was going to be when he finally learned the truth.
~
CHAPTER TEN
~
As the days went by and then the weeks, Seth and I grew closer. I did my best not to tell too many lies when he would ask me about my past. It would be too easy to slip up and forget one later on. If he asked me a direct question about my past, I would answer it as honestly as I could. Otherwise I tried my best to just not let it come up at all. It wasn’t hard, Seth obviously was not interested in talking about his either. When the subject of his father came up, it was the only time I saw that self-assured, cocky mask that he wore slip and reveal the vulnerability that he hid so well.
At work we remained professional, except for the occasions when he would call me to his office and lock the door for one of our make-out sessions. They were getting hotter all the time and I wasn’t sure how much longer it would be before I couldn’t think of excuses any longer and I ended up in his bed. I had issues with that if I was going to continue this quest to ruin his father. I didn’t want to have to struggle with the idea that I possibly used my body to get ahead. It was contrary to every moral fiber in me, so for now, I resisted.
We worked well together, bouncing ideas off of one another and coming up with new ways to promote the company and entice clients to sign on with us. After work we often dined together and on the weekend we would take turns deciding what we would do. We went to concerts one weekend and then ice skating the next. We saw movies and took walks and we even spent an entire day at the zoo. I was falling for him, hard and fast and what I needed to do was getting all twisted up with my emotions… just like Grant had told me they would.
Seth and I had been dating for just under a month when one evening he came into my office and slumped down in the chair across from my desk.
“Hi,” I said, smiling.
“Hey.” He was staring at the desk, not even looking up at me. I could see worry or fatigue lines on his face.
“Are you okay?”
He finally looked up at me. I could see something in his eyes… hurt or anger… “Yeah,” he said at last. “Just a really bad day. I needed to see a pretty face to make me feel better. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I said. I looked at the clock; it was almost seven p.m. “I’m pretty much finished here. Do you want to go get a drink and talk about it?”
“The drink and the company sound great,” he said. “I’m not so sure that I want to talk about it.”
“Okay,” I told him, as I stood up from behind the desk. “Whatever you need.”
Seth did smile then and running his eyes from my head to my toes, slowly, he said, “Whatever?” His look was so hot that the roots of my hair and the tips of my toes even felt it.
“Within reason, but all subjects are open for discussion,” I told him, with a smile of my own. I slipped on my coat and grabbed my bag. “Are you ready?” He stood up but instead of moving towards the door, he moved towards me. Taking me into his arms, he nudged me back against the wall and kissed me… hard.
I was gasping for breath by the time he let me go. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes half open in a sexy, almost glazed kind of way as he said, “We definitely need to have that discussion.” I knew he wasn’t talking about his bad day any longer.
He got his coat and since the evening was a mild one we walked to a cozy little upscale bar nearby. After we ordered our drinks, we found a little booth in the back and sat down. His mood seemed to have soured once more so I said, “Are you sure that you don’t want to talk about whatever happened today?”
He picked up his drink, a whiskey sour and downed it in almost one gulp. Then he looked at me and with a small smile and said, “I’m okay. It was just a bad day. Family stuff. It’s over now.” As soon as I heard “family” I saw an opportunity. I was torn as to whether or not I should take it. I had mellowed out considerably about the company and taking it back. But that was all because I was falling in love with this man. Did I really want to manipulate him into telling me things that could bring financial ruin to his family? The truth was, I didn’t want to… but if I wanted to get back what was rightfully mine, I knew that I needed to. I waved at the waitress. Whatever inhibition that was holding him back just needed a little encouragement to loosen up. When the waitress came over I ordered him another drink.
Seth raised an eyebrow at me and I said, “I’ll drive you home. You seem like you need it tonight.”
He looked at me then with genuine gratitude and said, “Thank you for caring, it means a lot.” He might as well have stabbed an arrow directly into my guilty heart. I almost changed my mind until the waitress sat down the next drink and he downed that one too and said, “Nothing is ever good enough for him… nothing.”
I knew who “him” was and I knew I had to hear more. I ordered him another drink. Then to prove to myself I wasn’t a complete monster I said, “Are you hungry? Would you like me to order some food?” He shrugged so when the waitress came back I ordered us some sandwiches and fries. When she was gone I said, “When you say “him” you’re talking about your father?”
He nodded and took a gulp of the new drink. “He’s so worried about what people think about our family. His father was a success and his father’s father… so he had to be a success and now I do too.”
“But you are a success,” I said, honestly. “You’re the CEO of a multinational company and you do a fine job running it.” There was a time when I wouldn’t have been able to even imagine saying those words to one of the Hunters.
“Not accord
ing to him. I don’t want to talk about it…”
“Okay, you don’t have to,” I told him. Our food came and he picked at his, not eating much at all. I ordered him another drink. I felt like a horrible person trying to loosen his tongue and lower his inhibitions with alcohol, but at the same time it was the first time that I felt like I had a real chance at getting much needed information about James Hunter.
After he finished that one and while he was still picking at his sandwich I said, “So, you said your father was a corporate attorney? Did he buy this company because he didn’t think of what he was doing as being successful enough?”
He looked at me for a few seconds and I thought he was going to tell me again that he didn’t want to talk about it. Finally however he said, “Yeah. His father and his father’s father were both big on Wall Street and had investments all over the world. My father made good money as a corporate attorney, but not the kind of money they had made. My grandfather didn’t believe in trust funds and he always told my father that when he died would be when he would get his inheritance. When granddad died, he left most of his money to the church. My father felt like it was a slap in the face. He sold the property that granddad left him and he began to invest that money. Eventually he ended up with this business.”