Heiress Recon
Page 15
He released his hold on her arm. “We’ve been through a traumatic experience. I think once you get alone with yourself you’ll realize that what you feel for me is gratitude and the bond of a victim for a protector, but it isn’t real love.”
“Thank you for sharing with me how I feel.” She opened the car door and stepped out. “Have a nice life, Troy. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Half-blinded by tears, Brianna walked to the front door and rang the bell. The door hadn’t even opened before she heard the sound of him pulling out of the driveway.
She had tons of things to think about. She had seventy-six puppies that needed to be cleaned up and found homes, she had to make amends with Heather and go visit her father in the hospital. She’d be far too busy to waste another minute of thought on Troy and what might have been. That’s what she told herself as the housekeeper let her inside.
That’s what she told herself as she made her way up the grand staircase and into her bedroom. She threw herself on the bed and tried to convince herself that her heart wasn’t broken, that she didn’t care that she loved Troy Sinclair and he didn’t love her back.
THE NEXT TWO WEEKS flew by for Brianna. She arranged for her things in California to be packed up and moved back to Kansas City. From dawn until dusk, she worked at Precious Pets. With the help of a veterinarian who donated his time and half a dozen volunteers, they managed to get all the puppies washed, healthy and placed in either foster homes or with rescue agencies until they could be properly adopted.
Her father remembered little of his time imprisoned in the storage shelter. Mike had kept him drugged most of the time, providing just enough water and food to keep him alive. Mike had never intended to kill Brandon. He’d meant only to hold him long enough to postpone any work at the mall until he could move his operation someplace else. But before he’d made arrangements to do that, Brianna had let him know she was returning to Kansas City permanently. So she’d become an immediate threat that needed to be taken care of.
Heather graciously accepted Brianna’s apology for suspecting her, and Brianna thought that the two of them would remain friends long after Heather’s divorce from Brandon was finalized.
But as busy as she stayed, as warm and welcoming as friends and family had been following everything that had happened, her heart still held the shattering that Troy had left behind.
It was just after eight on a beautiful Saturday morning when she arrived at Precious Pets. Big Sam greeted her, bounding out to her car with enough tail wags to nearly lift him off the ground.
“Hi, buddy,” she said and patted him on the head as he accompanied her into the building.
Sandy greeted her with a bright smile. “Morning, boss,” she said. “I’ve got coffee made and three families scheduled this morning to come in about adopting.”
“Wonderful.” Brianna went to the back room to check on the animals. As she went from cage to cage, murmuring greetings and giving each pet a scratch behind the ear or a pat on the head, she thought of the new relationship she and Sandy were starting to build. It was one based on mutual respect and a growing friendship.
“If you can man the front for an hour or so, I’m going to bring that schnauzer that came in yesterday in for a bath and a groom,” Sandy said.
“Not a problem.” Brianna poured herself a cup of coffee and sat in the chair behind the desk. She sipped her coffee and stared out the window. As always when her mind had a moment of quiet time, her thoughts sifted through the events of the last two weeks.
Mike’s associate in California had been identified and arrested and would stand trial for the attack that had injured her bodyguard.
She’d met Kent for lunch and had explained everything that had happened. During that lunch date, she’d recognized that Troy had been right. Kent was in love with her, so while they ate, she made it clear that he would never be the man in her life, that it was time for him to move on and find a nice woman who wanted to share his life.
Funny, how you could break somebody’s heart when that wasn’t your intention. She never wanted to break Kent’s and she knew that it had never been Troy’s intention to break hers.
She supposed the next time she saw Troy would be at Mike’s trial, when they’d both be testifying against the man who had wanted them dead.
Would her heartache have lessened by then? Somehow she believed that part of her heart would always be damaged by loving Troy, that there would always be a broken piece that no amount of time, that no new love, would ever be able to heal.
The morning passed with a flurry of activity as the three families showed up to view the dogs and Brianna fielded phone calls. She had begun receiving applications from veterinarians and spent part of the time reading over those and looking for somebody who would be a good fit.
It was almost one when she sent Sandy to lunch. “I’m going to that chicken place off the highway. Want me to bring something back for you?” Sandy asked.
“No thanks, I’m not really hungry. I’ll just plan on an early dinner tonight,” Brianna replied.
“I’ll be back within an hour,” Sandy said.
“Take your time. I’ve got things covered here.” Brianna watched as the young woman left the building and got into her car.
She leaned back in her chair and opened the newspaper to the real estate section. At the moment she was staying with her father, but she hoped to buy her own house as soon as possible, a house with a big fenced yard for Big Sam.
“Here we go, buddy, a story and a half with granite countertops in the kitchen, a hot tub and a fenced yard.” She reached down and patted Sam, who lay on the floor snoozing next to her chair. “What do you think, Big Sam, does a hot tub float your boat?”
As she heard the sound of a car on the gravel road, she put the paper aside and glanced out the window. Her stomach clenched as she recognized the little sports car pulling up in front of the building.
She watched in disbelief as Troy climbed out of the driver’s seat, his buzz-cut blond hair sparkling in the sunshine. What was he doing here? Self-consciously she swept a hand through her hair, then realizing what she was doing, she quickly dropped her hand to the top of the desk.
Maybe she’d left something at the safe house and he’d come to return it. Or maybe something had come up about the case that he needed to discuss with her.
Still, she couldn’t stop the way her heart tattooed in her chest at the sight of him, the way she felt half-breathless and flushed as she watched him walk with determined strides to the door.
She didn’t know how long it took to heal a wounded heart, but two weeks wasn’t long enough. She steeled herself as he opened the door and walked in, bringing with him that familiar scent that twisted her heart even more.
“Well, well, look who’s here,” she said, pleased that her voice betrayed none of the emotions his presence evoked in her.
“Hi, Brianna. You’re looking well.”
“Thanks. You don’t look so bad yourself.” In truth, he looked amazing. As usual, he was clad in a pair of navy slacks that fit his long, lean legs to perfection. The short-sleeved white dress shirt he wore fit his broad shoulders and displayed the corded muscles of his arms—arms she wanted around her at this very moment.
“I’ve heard through the grapevine that you got the puppy thing all cleaned up,” he said.
She nodded. “I had a lot of help. People stepped up to volunteer and we managed to place all of them.” Frustration welled up inside her. She couldn’t stand it any longer. She got up from the desk. “What are you doing here, Troy?”
He stepped closer to her and she wished she could read the expression in his beautiful gray eyes, but she couldn’t.
“I’ve come to adopt,” he said.
She stared at him in surprise. “Oh.” He’d never mentioned wanting an animal before and it would have been so much easier if he’d gone to the pound. Why did he have to come here, to her, knowing how she felt about him, kno
wing how he didn’t feel about her. Thick emotion swelled in her chest.
She pulled an adoption form from the desk drawer, hoping she could get through this without crying. “What did you have in mind?”
“Blond,” he said. “Definitely a blonde. And she has to be complicated and with a touch of a stubborn streak.”
She stared at him, wondering if this was some sort of a cruel joke or if maybe she misunderstood what he was saying.
He took another step toward her. “She needs to like blue jeans and designer shoes, hot dogs with relish and caviar.”
Her. He was talking about her. Her heart sounded a drumbeat of joy. “I have one in particular that I think would be perfect for you,” she said. “But I think she might need a little obedience training.”
The corners of his mouth lifted in a smile that warmed her from head to toe. “Oh no, I’m crazy about her just the way she is and I can’t imagine my life without her….”
He got no other words out of his mouth before she launched herself into his arms. “You have to be talking about me because I know for a fact that all the dogs I have up for adoption positively hate designer shoes.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “I’m definitely talking about you.”
“What about that fantasy woman you’ve been carrying around in your head all this time?” she asked.
His smile faltered and he gazed down at her with love and tenderness as he tightened his arms around her. “You told me that you weren’t sure if it was fear or selfishness that kept me clinging to that fantasy. For the past two weeks, that question has haunted me.”
He stroked a hand through her hair, his eyes so warm, so inviting, she knew she could look at them forever. “Fear,” he said. “You scared me to death. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. I was terrified that you’d break my heart, but I realized over the last couple of days that my heart was broken anyway, because I’d pushed you out of my life.”
“I can’t change who I am, Troy,” she said softly. “There’s a little bit of Bree inside me, and she’s not going anywhere.”
He smiled again. “I love that woman. I love you, woman.” He kissed her then, and in his kiss she knew that Brianna Waverly had left Hollywood behind forever, because she’d found what she’d been looking for in Troy Sinclair’s arms.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3474-5
HEIRESS RECON
Copyright © 2009 by Carla Bracale
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