by Layla Hagen
My eldest siblings built an empire from the ground up—Bennett Enterprises is one of the largest jewelry producers. Joining the family company was always an option, but I knew it wasn’t for me. If I spend too much time behind an office desk, I become restless. I like being outdoors, which is why I set up an adventure center, and I’m out in the field with groups as much as possible. My family cheered me on when I announced I’d strike out on my own. I want to make them proud.
I’m on my way to the basement of the building where we keep the equipment when I receive a message.
Caroline: Hey! I can bring you Summer’s shoes on Monday if that’s okay?
Daniel: I’m out with a group on Monday, but I’ll be back in my office at six o’clock.
Caroline: Six works. Or I can just drop them with someone at your office.
Daniel: And risk Summer’s wrath? :-) She set us up, the least she’s expecting is a face-to-face meeting.
Caroline: One of these days we should make up a wild story, set her straight. I’ll come by at six, give you the shoes PERSONALLY :-)
My imagination is already running amok. We were wild... and so good together. So damn good that I still beat myself up over letting her go.
Shoving the phone back in my pocket, I cook up a plan. My sister might have set this up, but I plan to take thorough advantage of my time with Caroline.
Chapter Three
Caroline
The next evening, I pull in front of Dad’s house fifteen minutes too late for our dinner. He lives in the same modest two-bedroom unit where I grew up, in the Excelsior district. I’ve always loved my parents’ house. When Mom was alive, the boxes under the bay windows were adorned with cranesbills. In their absence, an air of sadness hangs over the house, the chipping light-green paint standing out. It doesn’t help that the sky is terribly gloomy, even for a late-September day.
The door swings open before I even ring. “Here’s my girl. Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry I’m late.” Stepping inside, I hold up the bag of donuts. “Left the school too late and took forever to make these.”
“I made stew,” Dad informs me as we make our way to the dining room. He already set the table. Placing the donuts at one end, I fill both our plates with stew before sitting down.
“Followed your mother’s recipe to a T,” he says with pride.
Yeah... except Mom’s had tasted delicious, and this one reminds me of the canned soups I ate in college. But I dutifully eat the entire plate. I offer to bring dinner as often as possible, but don’t have the heart to tell him his talents don’t lie in the kitchen. He already has a hard time looking after the house and running the bookstore by himself. I don’t want to make him feel as if he can’t even get this one little thing right.
“How are the renovations coming along, Dad?”
“We’re ahead of schedule. I’ll be able to open up much quicker than I thought.”
Between the popularity of online shopping and the competition from large chains, my parents’ bookstore has been struggling for some time. It didn’t help that the place had looked new around the time when Bush senior was in office. A few months ago, Dad finally agreed it needed a thorough makeover. He’s adding a small coffee shop too, the idea being to offer customers an experience, not just a point of transaction. We came up with this plan with the help of Dad’s bank adviser.
“By the way, I’ve asked Daniel to look over the business plan.”
“Daniel Bennett?”
Dad smiles. “Don’t know any other Daniel. And the man’s got a brilliant business mind. He made some good points. He says the improvements will turn things around, bring more of a profit.”
Daniel is running a successful business. If anyone’s advice counts, it’s his. My talents lie in teaching little kids, not running a business, though this didn’t keep me from committing most of my savings to the bookstore’s renovation.
Daniel was close to my parents while we dated. He was always attentive—bringing flowers to Mom, chatting with Dad about his favorite soccer team. When Mom died last year, Daniel was here for us, and so was the rest of his family. I grew close to them again, especially his mother and sisters. I was friends with them back in college, but I pulled slightly away after we broke up. I had no idea he and Dad were still in contact.
Hmm... I could ask Dad more on the topic, but he’s been channeling the Bennett sisters lately, throwing not-so-subtle hints about Daniel and me. I’ll just ask the man himself when I see him.
We talk about my brother next. Niall lives in Dublin, practicing neurosurgery. He’s the only family member who isn’t Daniel’s fan, possibly because he had a front seat at a few of my post breakup crying sessions.
I first met Daniel and Blake in our freshman year at college. The twins and I had an almost instant friendship over our dislike of the campus food and people who called San Francisco “Frisco.” We bonded over endless talks about our families. The twins were sort of a substitute for my brother, who I missed like crazy. Blake at least. Daniel... eh, different story.
I wasn’t immune to his charms from the very beginning. My pulse raced a little too frantically, my skin flushed too much when I was around him, and I put more stock in his compliments than anyone else’s. In the beginning, I tried to convince myself it was a normal reaction, because well... Daniel was tall, strong, and exceptionally good-looking. But Blake was all those things too, and he’d never affected me that way.
I can remember exactly the moment things between Daniel and me shifted from the friendship zone. The three of us were headed to a party on campus at the beginning of our senior year, and the boys had come to pick me up. Neither of us had a date, but upon entering my apartment, Blake immediately started charming my new roommate, convincing her to join us.
Daniel and I waited in the doorway, sizing each other up.
“Looking sexy tonight,” he said.
“You clean up well too.”
We’d exchanged similar words maybe a million times before. But it was the millionth and first time that did it. Maybe it was the way Daniel had leaned in when he’d said it; maybe it was the way I’d drawn a sharp breath, bit my lip, Daniel’s eyes following my every reaction. Then he’d leaned in even closer, so close I could smell him. Sandalwood and sea. It was the cologne I’d given him the previous Christmas.
“Maybe I should be your date tonight,” he whispered, his hot breath landing on my cheek.
“Maybe I want you to.” I said it in a playful tone and added a gentle jab with my elbow to his stomach. He winked, pulled away, but we both knew the game we were playing. We both pretended we were joking, but we both knew we were not.
He watched me dance the entire night, and there was no mistaking the heat in his eyes. But he didn’t make a move, not even when he walked me home at four o’clock in the morning. In front of my door, he kissed my cheek. He lingered with his lips on my skin, his fingers splayed on the side of my rib cage, digging slightly into my flesh. I burned with yearning for him the entire night.
I was torn between wishing he made a move, and wishing he wouldn’t. Torn, because I’d wanted Daniel for almost three years, but Daniel... well, he was like any other college-aged man surrounded by single women. He liked his variety, didn’t want to be tied down, and I wasn’t a big believer in changing people. I knew how to be Daniel’s friend, but I didn’t know how to be anything else. And I valued the twins’ friendships, and his family’s. I’d grown close to the Bennetts and wasn’t sure that venturing into the shallow waters of nonfriendship was advisable.
My best intentions were blown to smoke when we returned from yet another party. It was November, and the air was chilly. Daniel gave me his jacket because mine was so flimsy it was like having no jacket at all. We had to cross the entire campus to get to my building, and that meant almost twenty-five minutes of walking.
Despite his jacket, I was shivering.
“You’re still cold,” he remarked.
; “My feet are freezing.”
I pointed to them. I was wearing flat shoes, but no socks. In November. Daniel stopped in his tracks. The lighting was dim, and at first I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing, but then he was taking off his shoes and socks, handing the latter to me.
“Here. Put these socks on.”
“I—thanks.”
For some reason—possibly the three-year long crush and weeks of hot dreams about him—the gesture touched me deeply. When we reached my door, I wasn’t ready to say good night. My roommate was gone for the weekend, and Daniel was shivering.
“Do you want to come in? I can make you some tea.”
“Sure.” He answered so quickly, it was clear he didn’t want to say good night either. Two cups of tea later, he was still shivering. I regretfully gave him the socks back, scrambling for an excuse to make him stay longer. Resigned that I wouldn’t come up with any smart ideas at four o’clock in the morning, I simply asked, “Do you want to sleep here? The couch is a pullout. Your apartment is a good distance away, and cabs aren’t easy to find at this hour.”
I’d said this all very fast, playing with the empty teacup in my hands. We were sitting side by side on the couch.
“If you want me to stay, I’ll stay.”
“Only if you want to as well.”
I was really winning it, sounding like I was playing a game of chicken. The corner of his mouth quirked up.
“I’m staying.”
“Okay. I’ll find you some sheets.”
When I returned with the sheets, Daniel was pacing around the small living room. He still looked frozen. I had to do something to make him more comfortable. I was the reason the cold had seeped into his bones after all. Monopolized the man’s jacket and socks. I had brought him a blanket, but would that be enough? My imagination immediately supplied a more efficient solution. Skin-on-skin contact would warm him up in no time. I could use that as a pretext to snuggle against him on the couch, under the cover....
I shook my head, feeling silly, but my head pounded quicker just imagining touching his hard body, feeling his taut muscles against me. When I caught him sizing me up, heat crept up my cheeks. I looked away, afraid he could read my mind, but not before noticing his eyes were a little hooded.
“You don’t mind if I sleep commando?” he asked.
The heat in my cheeks intensified. My brain went numb at the thought of a naked Daniel in my living room. “No, whatever makes you comfortable. You might be cold, though.”
I gulped, not daring to look at him. But I could feel him watching me. The air around us seemed to have thickened with tension.
More to diffuse it than anything else, I asked, “Do you want a hot bath? It would warm you right up.”
“That’s right, you have a tub. Still can’t believe it.”
I grinned. “One of the reasons I moved in here. Small place, but it has a bathtub. I love it. Use it at least once a week. Want me to prepare one for you?”
“Only if you join me.”
If I thought there was tension in the air before, I could hardly breathe through it now. He didn’t try to pass it off as a joke, as we’d done so many times before when we were skirting too closely on the flirting line. In fact, he didn’t say anything else, merely closed the distance to me, flattening me against the bathroom door. He looked down at me, brought his hand under my jaw, and traced the contour up my cheek to my ear. His other hand was on my shoulder, fingers on my sweater, thumb on my clavicle.
“Join me.” It was a thinly veiled command, and my lower body reacted so strongly, I clenched my thighs. “You want this. Me. Us. You want this as badly as I do.”
“Yes.”
He smiled. “Yes, what?”
“To all of that. The bath, wanting you. Especially the wanting you part.”
It had been a memorable weekend. We’d made love in the tub, on the couch, in my bedroom, the kitchen. Many more similar weekends followed. We were inseparable. What I thought would be just fun in college turned into so much more. Daniel and I just clicked. We understood each other on all levels. I gave him my heart without any reservation. We were so good together.
Right until we weren’t.
Things started to fall apart when it was time to decide about grad school. I had received a full scholarship from my first choice, the University of Washington. It was a two-year program, and the first one was in Dublin. I wanted to spend my time with my brother, who’d moved there five years before, and get to know the city I was born in better. Plus, the program was top-notch.
Daniel was going to Stanford for business school. The closer we came to the deadline for confirming our places, I was getting cold feet. I didn’t want to be so far away from him. I’d only received a partial scholarship to Stanford, but I could swing it if I waitressed on the side. Daniel didn’t like my idea at all.
“But Washington is your first choice. The one you want,” he argued every time. “Don’t settle for anything less than what’s best for you.”
I felt him pull away from me with every conversation. So, when he showed up at the bar where I was working, at the end of my shift, I knew that was it.
“Caroline, I thought about this a lot... and it won’t work out. Long distance is so complicated, and you’d miss out on a lot of experiences if you spend half your time on a plane. Same for me. The best place for you is the University of Washington, with the year abroad. Don’t settle for me.”
We parted ways amicably. Our breakup conversation was very adult. No fighting, no shouting. Daniel did most of the talking. I just nodded and held my breath every time I felt like crying. I held my breath so often during that conversation I was half expecting to pass out. In theory, it all made sense; it was the best for both of us. But part of me knew we could have made it work. I was going to Dublin for a year, and spending the second one in Washington, not starting a colony on Mars.
Chapter Four
Caroline
“Hot date tonight?” Karla asks as we rise from our chairs. The school is empty except for the two of us, but we always stay later on Mondays to go over administrative issues.
“No, just meeting a friend.”
She winks, shrugging. “A lot of effort for a friend.”
I look down at my outift: dark blue dress tight around the waist, showing just a hint of cleavage, and a red jacket covering said cleavage.
“I like dressing up from time to time.”
I could argue it’s how I usually dress up when I go out with a friend, but the truth is, whenever I’m about to meet Daniel, I go out of my way to appear put together. Maybe it’s a general rule that you don’t want an old flame to see you looking anything but your best. Except it can’t be too general because I couldn’t care less what other exes think, but when I’m about to meet Daniel? Ohhhh yeah, baby. I bring out the big guns every single time.
We walk out together and I bid Karla goodbye, heading to the parking lot behind the school. Once I’m in my car, I kick off my shoes, curling and stretching my poor toes. Driving barefoot is frowned upon, but if a policeman stops me, I’ll gladly ask him to drive wearing my five-inch heels. See how he does!
I arrive at the address Daniel texted me forty minutes later, pulling my car in front of a three-story building with the sign “Golden Escapes Adventure Center.” I’ve never been to his office. Putting my heels back on, I climb out of the car and walk up the front steps. The sliding doors open when I approach and a friendly blonde greets me from behind a reception desk.
“Welcome to Golden Escapes. What can I do for you?”
“I just have to drop this off with Daniel.” I hold up the paper bag containing Summer’s shoes and a gift I bought for the youngest Bennett offspring.
“Miss Caroline Dunne, right?”
“Yes.”
She points to the right. “His door is at the end of the corridor.”
Nodding, I head in that direction, my palms growing a little sweatier as I approach the door.
Shaking my head, I chastise myself. Still, I can’t help the flutter in my stomach as I knock at his door, or the knot low in my body when he replies, “Come in.”
Wow, his office is huge. Plenty of light comes in, and the large desk is positioned so he can look straight outside. At the moment, though, he’s looking at me, and hot, hot, hot damn.
Stalking toward me, Daniel looks every bit as irresistible as usual. This mountain of a man is about six feet three. That he works out regularly is clearly visible by the way his black shirt hugs his torso. The contour of the muscles lacing his arms is visible on the upper part of the sleeve. He’s rolled the lower part of the sleeves up to his elbow, and I have a clear view of the muscles and veins cording his forearms. Always been a sucker for strong forearms. And a dark stubble.
“Caroline, hey.” Leaning forward, he kisses my cheek, grazing my skin lightly, one hand on my waist. He ignites my skin at every point of contact. As skillfully as possible, I step away and look around.
“I love the view. You don’t spend a lot of time in here, though, do you?”
“No. I like being outdoors, in the middle of the action, but I do need an office for meetings and paperwork, so naturally I took the best room in the building.”
I grin. “Naturally.” Grinning, I hold up the bag. “Here’s the delivery. Your sister’s shoes and a gift for baby Maddox.”
He takes the bag from me, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb.
“How’s dinner sound? Give us time to catch up, and I’m starving. There’s a restaurant serving delicious enchiladas just around the corner.”
My grin fades as I consider this. On the one hand, I love enchiladas. On the other hand, being around Daniel is dangerous.
Daniel leans in closer, bringing his hand to the small curve in my lower back. I wish he weren’t so touchy-feely. And I wish I didn’t enjoy it so much. “You love enchiladas.”
“I do,” I admit on a sigh, my mouth watering just at the thought of a juicy enchilada, and all those flavors exploding in my mouth.