by Holly Rayner
“Ended up with?” I asked. “It was already an operating business, right… a successful one? Did the owner retire or…”
“No…” Seth looked genuinely sad as he said, “He died.”
“Oh. So then your father bought the business from his heirs?”
Seth picked up his empty drink and looked into the bottom of the glass. This time he signaled for the waitress and ordered another. He didn’t say a word while he waited, he didn’t even look at me. I was beginning to wonder if that was it and he was finished talking. After his drink came and he’d emptied it he said, “I don’t know the exact details. I was away at school. When I came home he already had the business. But I heard things that disturbed me about the acquisition of it. I tried questioning him but if you knew my father, you would know how much easier said than done that was. Over the years, Harlan has filled me in on some of the details. I actually got to the point where I asked him not to tell me anymore. My father pushed and pushed me to get a business degree and take over this company. I didn’t want to work there knowing certain things…”
I raised an eyebrow. I was trying to look confused as I said, “Are you telling me he obtained the company illegally?”
Seth was intoxicated, but not so much that he didn’t realize the implications of what I had just said out loud. He looked around to make sure no one was listening to us and then he said, “No! He was an attorney… a good one. What he did was totally legal. I just have concerns about the ethics of it.”
“What did he do?”
“I don’t know the details, Erin. I just wonder sometimes that since I continue working for him… details or not… am I as bad as he is?” He looked so distressed by that thought that the woman in me who wanted to ruin him was completely over-ruled by the one that wanted to love him. I reached over and took his hand and squeezed it.
“Whatever he did, it sounds to me like you were just a kid at the time. How can you blame yourself for that?”
“I don’t,” he said, squeezing my hand in return. “But I do worry about continuing to amass millions when… when I’m not even sure if we should rightfully be where we are today or not. I’m pretty sure the fact I keep going in and sitting in that CEO chair every day makes me as guilty as he is.”
I was touched that he had opened up to me. I wanted to take him in my arms and make it all better… and I had to remind myself that he was right… If he knew they didn’t deserve what they had, then he had to know someone else had lost out or suffered because of it. He was guilty at least of being selectively ignorant. He lived with James Hunter… he ran his company… he had every opportunity to find out exactly what his father did, so why didn’t he?
~
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
“So he admitted that he knew his father was doing business… unethically?”
Grant and I were sitting on our couch sharing a pizza and having a beer. It was three days after the night Seth had opened up to me. I was still torn about whether or not he had actually admitted that he knew anything. The bottom line to me was that he had a complicated relationship with his father. He knew that James Hunter was not a good man… but he was his father. That had to be a terrible position to be in.
“He admitted that he suspected it. I don’t honestly think he really knows anything. I doubt that James Hunter is the type of man to come right out and admit to anything, even to his son. Seth says that how the family looks outwardly is overly important to him.”
Grant took a bite of his pizza but as he chewed it, I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. After he swallowed and took a swig from his beer he said, “Are you sure that the feelings you have for this guy are not clouding your judgment just a little bit? I mean, he’s the CEO of this company. Don’t you think it would be next to impossible for him to represent, run and maintain this business having no idea where it came from?”
I hated it when Grant expressed the private thoughts I had but didn’t want to even hear myself. “Next to impossible… maybe. But if he really didn’t want to know, I guess he could just close his eyes to that part of it.”
“Then doesn’t that make him guilty still?”
“Guilty of what?” I asked. I knew the answer but I felt so compelled to defend him.
“You can be guilty by a lot of acts, honey. The act of omission, feigning ignorance when others are being hurt by something someone else is doing… looking the other way…”
I looked at Grant and for the first time, I spoke the truth out loud, “I don’t want him to be guilty of anything. I want to find out that it was all James and Seth knew nothing about a little girl whose inheritance was stolen away.” I was crying now and as the tears rolled silently down my cheeks I went on, “If he knows something and he didn’t do anything about it… then I’m falling in love with an unethical man.” I was sobbing and Grant put down his beer and held open his arms. I moved into them and we sat there on the couch for a long time with me sobbing and him petting my hair and shushing me and telling me it was all going to be okay. I didn’t believe him. How was it going to be okay? Either I was going to lose everything I’d worked for or I was going to lose Seth.
***
SETH
I woke up Sunday morning with the same thought on my mind that I’d had every day for the past two months: Erin. I couldn’t get her out of my mind and the strangest part of all was that I hadn’t even had her in my bed yet. For me, that was an oddity. Erin was the first woman I’d ever met that I had found worth waiting for. I typically met women who were ready for my bed as soon as they heard my name. The Hunter name carried a lot of clout in New York’s circles of high society. Any number of women were eager to get close to me. It brought them one step closer to my name and my father’s money. That was how I thought of it… my father’s money. The money I made as CEO of the company I spent without qualms. I worked hard and I felt deserving of it. The money in the trust fund that my father set up for me and allowed me access to on my twenty-fifth birthday was his money, not mine. I had yet to touch it.
I got out of bed and shook off thoughts of my father, replacing them with the much more pleasant ones of Erin. I took my shower and dressed in anticipation of the day we were going to spend together. This was my weekend to choose and since she’d had an obligation with her roommate on Saturday night, I had chosen tennis at the country club on Sunday. It would afford me an entire day with her and if things went as I hoped, a room at the club would be waiting for us when it was over.
I picked up Erin outside of her apartment at ten a.m. I found it strange that I still hadn’t been inside her apartment, or that I hadn’t met the roommate she talked with such fondness about. I didn’t get the feeling that she was hiding anything sinister. It was almost as if whatever she hadn’t shared with me was too painful and it kept her from crossing that final line that would bring us together as a couple. I had some painful secrets of my own, however so I wasn’t in a position to demand answers. I was certain of how I felt for her, however. All I needed to do now was make sure she was certain of how she felt about me.
I started to get out of the jaguar and open the door for her, but by the time I was halfway out, she was already sliding onto the passenger seat.
“Hi,” she said, with that trademark smile of hers that I’d come to love. I realized then and there that I would probably do anything to see that smile. So far, she had made that easy. Erin wasn’t looking for money or a family name that would take her to the top of the high society crowd. She seemed to be happy just being with me and although that was a new feeling, I was quickly becoming accustomed to it.
“Good morning. Look at you. You look like a tennis professional.”
She laughed. “I haven’t played tennis since I was in middle school.”
“Why?”
She shrugged and I knew she was going to leave it at that. Her background seemed so strange to me sometimes. It was like she had a life of privilege where she rode horses and pl
ayed tennis and attended grand parties and once she was grown, she had literally done nothing except work towards her future. I respected that greatly, but as a child of privilege myself, I found it odd.
“I just haven’t had the time. I was too busy working towards my degree, and then just plain working.”
“Hmm,” I said.
“Hmm, what?”
“Have you had any fun at all over the last ten years?”
She looked at me with a look that left me smoldering and said, “I’ve had lots of it in the past two months.”
For the time being, that answer was good enough. The conversation turned to light discussions of the agenda for tomorrow morning’s executive meeting and as we turned onto the tree lined street that led up to the Country Club my family had belonged to for ages, I basked in the simple comfort that spending time with her gave me.
When we got out of the car at the club Erin’s green eyes filled with joy as she looked out across the gardens. They were filled with blood red roses and lavender lilies. The fragrance from them wafted across the parking lot and I just stood there for a few minutes watching her breathe it in. I walked around and when she saw me her attention was refocused. “This place is beautiful,” she said.
I took her hands in mine and looked into her dark jade green eyes and said, “Not as beautiful as you.”
She smiled, “You probably say that to all the girls.”
I leaned in so that I was so close to her ear that when my mouth moved, my lips brushed up against it and I said, “Not anymore. I’ve finally found the only one I want to say it to.” I felt her shiver and when I looked at her face; her eyes were wide like she didn’t believe what I had just said. I knew that she thought I was a player and when she first met me that was true. Something about knowing Erin had changed me. I didn’t want to be that man any longer. I wanted to be a better one. I wanted to be the only man that she wanted.
“So, are we going to play tennis, or what?” Erin said, in a little shaky voice.
I smiled, “Of course. We can’t have that crisp, white… and if you don’t mind me saying, incredibly sexy, tennis dress going to waste.”
“No we can’t,” she said. She flipped that long red hair that drove me mad over her shoulder and turned to walk towards the entrance of the club. I had done my best once I realized she was different from most of the women I knew to hide the pervert that dwelled at my core. But with that sexy little flip and the V-neck, starch white dress that accentuated every one of her delightful curves… It was on the verge of being unleashed.
ERIN
I could feel Seth’s eyes on me as I pranced along in front of him on the way into the club. He brought out a playful side of me that I had all but forgotten and I loved it. When we reached the door I felt him reach around me to open it. “You look so damned hot, I almost forgot my manners,” he said. I shivered for the second time that morning. The feel of his warm breath against my neck was sending signals to just about every part of my body. In a playful voice I said, “Is there any chance you’ll be distracted enough not to notice how rusty my game is when we get out on the courts?”
He laughed and said, “At the very least I’ll be polite and pretend not to notice.”
“Thanks,” I said with a grin. He took me into the pro shop where I thought he was going to rent or borrow a racquet for me since I’d told him I didn’t have one. Instead, five hundred dollars later he’d bought me a top of the line one and two cans of tennis balls.
We went out to the clay courts and took our places on opposite sides of the net. “We’ll just warm up,” he said. Then I watched as he bounced a ball in front of him and his sexy biceps flexed against the cotton material of the polo shirt he was wearing as he pulled back his tennis racquet and let it fly. I let it fly too… right past me. He laughed hard and said, “I forgot to tell you that you’re supposed to hit it back.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Hit me with another.” He did and again, I watched it go by. Laughing myself now I said, “Maybe we could start out with me hitting one to you.”
“Sure,” he said with an amused expression. He tossed me one of the balls and I tried to look confident as I bounced it up and down with my racquet before at last turning loose and lobbing it over the net. He hit it back; I’m positive with much less force and finesse than he would have against a real opponent. I hit it back and when it cleared the net I jumped up and down and squealed loudly. I was so happy that I forgot we were still in a volley and the ball landed in the center of my gut. I let out an, “Oomph!” as it did and within seconds, Seth was at my side.
“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
I was looking at him like he was a magician. “I’m fine. How the heck did you get here so quickly?”
“I came over the net,” he said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“You jumped over the net?”
“Yes, why is that so odd? I thought you were hurt.” He looked so concerned, I felt both bad and impressed that he cared so much. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
“It’s not odd, it’s sweet,” I said. “Thank you. I’m a dork, but I’m fine.”
Laughing, he said, “You’re not a dork. Here, let me just show you a more efficient stance.” He stepped behind me and wrapped his arms around mine. The warmth of his body pressing against me and his breath on the side of my face was making me dizzy. He slid his hands down my arms sending goose bumps scurrying in every direction. Then he slid one of his knees in between mine to reposition my leg and I went weak in my own.
“Shift this outer leg over like this,” he said. His mouth was closer to my ear then and my arms and hands were shaking so badly that I actually dropped my racquet. I felt him smile against my face. The arrogant son of a…. His lips were on the bottom part of my ear and then started sliding down my neck. My body was convulsing now. We were in public, he needed to stop.
He took his sweet lips from my neck and turned me around to face him. He was looking at me with pure desire in his blue eyes and I was rendered speechless. Then I felt the warmth of his lips on mine and the soft touch of his hand against my cheek as he pulled me in for a kiss. Our tongues found each other and intertwined as we lost ourselves. For that moment I once again forgot that people were watching. It was just he and I, the only two people on the earth. When he at last let me up so that I could breathe I said in a ragged, forced breath, “We should stop, people are watching.”
“Or… we could get a room,” he said, in that sexy, throaty, seductive voice of his. Any small piece of willpower I had left was left melted on that clay court and I stepped right over it as I took his hand and followed him back inside.
~
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
I fell asleep in Seth’s arms after we made love and woke up hours later disoriented and confused at first. As soon as I looked over and saw his face that warm, delicious feeling he gave me returned and I snuggled back down against him. I lay there in the silence of the plush, up-scale room and listened to the sounds of his breathing and the rhythm of his beating heart. I let myself revel in it for a while before allowing the seeds of self-doubt to slip back in.
I thought about making love to him and I knew deep in my heart that it wasn’t wrong… everything about it had felt right… everything. His touch was gentle and warm and rough and possessive all at once and I’m not lying when I say that I’ve never felt anything even closely akin to it. But then I had to ask… what about my task? What about my father’s company… my company? Was I, now that I had consummated my feelings for this amazing man, still willing to destroy his family? Could I do what I had to do without destroying him… without hurting him?
I felt Seth stir and I looked up at his face. He still had his eyes closed and his long, light-brown eyelashes lay across the tops of his cheeks as he breathed in and out. I reached up and touched his face and when he felt my touch, he smiled.
“Hi beautiful,” he said.
“Hi gorgeous.”
He stretched and then used his strong arm to pull me back into him. He held me against his chest, stroking my back lightly with his fingers. He kissed the top of my head and said, “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” I said, with a smile.
“I wasn’t just talking about the sex,” he said. “Although, many thanks for that… I was talking about you. You make me feel like I can be a better person.”