Who was she kidding? All other men looked anemic compared to that other man. Unlocking her door with more force than was necessary, she pushed that man’s physique out of her mind and forced herself to focus on David. Sam was nothing to her. And never had been. Just because they’d shared a few dinners while she was in college, one every few months when he flew into town, that didn’t mean that she was ruined for other men. So the evenings had been wonderful, leaving her knees weak and her heart pounding with her infatuation. It had also hurt horribly when she’d seen the society papers showing him with another woman the following night.
Every time, no matter where she was in the world, from the time she turned eighteen he’d called her up and invited her to dinner. At first, those nights had been magical. He was so witty, so fun to be with and amazingly handsome with his dark hair, tall, powerful stature and a five o’clock shadow no matter what time of the day it was. She’d always been proud to be on his arm.
But when she’d realized the pattern, that the second night he was in town he’d always go somewhere more glamorous with a stunningly gorgeous woman on his arm, clinging to him and usually smiling up at his handsome face just as the camera captured their entrance or exit, she started refusing his invitations. She’d gotten smart enough not to put herself in a position to be hurt by his betrayal.
It wasn’t even a true betrayal, which almost hurt more, because he would always preface every invitation with the comment that he wanted to check up on her for her dad. In the beginning, she’d assumed the excuse was just that, an excuse to see her. But when she’d consistently read about his exploits the next night, she had to accept that it wasn’t an excuse. Sam really thought of her as a kid no matter how many activities she joined or classes she took, and Sam really was just checking up on her. He would never see her as an adult woman, someone he might consider in a more romantic way. Chloe was destined to remain in the “kid sister” category to Sam.
A few years ago, she stopped accepting his invitations, ignoring the stunned silence when she explained that she was too busy, or too tired or whatever popped into her mind. And when that became too hard, she simply stopped answering his calls, stopped returning them and ignored her father’s comments that she should check in with him “because Sam cared” about her.
It was better all around when she cut off communication. A heart could only take so much, she told herself.
And now he was on her mind more, popping into her dreams, making her inefficient at work because she found herself thinking about him, wondering how he was and if he was still as successful as he’d been before she’d gone off to college.
It was only because of the phone calls and letters that she’d been thinking of him lately. As she opened her door, she quickly glanced down at the mail littering her doorway and cringed when she saw yet another letter with that bold, powerful scrawl.
Glancing at her voice mail, sure enough, she noticed the red light was blinking. Chloe ignored it for the moment, turning back to David and smiling. “I’ll make some coffee,” she suggested and slipped into the kitchen, depositing her meager stack of mail onto the small kitchen table that took up half the space in the tiny area. “Do you want decaf or are you working again tonight and need the full force kind?” she asked, hiding her face in the fridge, afraid that he might see the anger in her eyes.
Those letters did it to her every time, she thought furiously. Why couldn’t he just leave her alone? She didn’t understand why he was calling her. Their only connection, her father, was firmly ensconced in his cottage style house on the edge of Sam’s property. She knew they were friends but that didn’t make Sam her friend. As a kid, she had idolized Sam, had followed him around like a puppy every summer while she tried to learn anything there was to know about horses and was always impressed when she came back each summer to see more progress on his ranch. He’d done well over the years and she’d considered him a very good friend when she visited her father each summer.
Until the dinners he’d taken her out to while she was away at college. The pictures of his lady loves in the newspapers the following nights also helped her get a grip on her rampaging infatuation she thought miserably, pulling cream out of the refrigerator since she knew David liked his coffee more brown than black.
Turning around, she almost dropped the cream when she saw what he was holding. “What are you doing?” she gasped, seeing him with the letters in his soft hands. All six of them.
“Why would you be getting letters from Sam Marchant?” he asked, a confused look on his face as he counted the unopened envelopes.
“Sam is my father’s neighbor,” she explained and turned away to dump coffee grounds in the coffee maker. “I have no idea what he wants.”
David hesitated a moment as he looked down at the address on the envelopes. “There’s a Sam Marchant that owns half of Texas as well as probably five other states. He’s into just about every different kind of business around. Surely these letters aren’t from the same guy,” he stated, then his eyes glanced at the Texas return address and his expression became perplexed. And wary. “Are we talking about the same Sam Marchant?” he asked, almost whispering the name as if Sam might hear him from thousands of miles away.
Chloe gritted her teeth, her brown eyes sparkling with frustration. “Why does everyone refer to him in that manner? It isn’t like he’s royalty or anything like that.”
David chuckled. “He might as well be. He’s one of the richest men in the world.” David was shaking his head. “And why would he be sending you a letter he wrote personally? A man like that probably has dozens of secretaries to do all of his administrative work.”
Chloe shrugged, pretending like talking about Sam didn’t make her stomach clench with fear and frustration. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”
He raised his eyebrows at her defensive response but she didn’t see that, since she was concentrating on watching the coffee drip out of the coffee maker. “Why haven’t you opened the letters?”
She tossed the spoon into the sink, cringing when it made a loud noise in the small apartment. “Because I don’t like him. Whatever he has to say, he can…” she struggled to find words that wouldn’t be too revealing. “Well, I just don’t like him.”
David laughed but she could see the surprise in his face. “What’s not to like? From what the papers say, he’s wealthy beyond description, charming, the press are always quoting him with his humorous little quips and,” he took on a teasing voice as he said, “some women might think he’s handsome.”
“I don’t,” she said adamantly, then cringed slightly when she realized she might have been too loud in her refusal. “His hair is too dark, he’s irritatingly tall and he throws his weight around like he’s some sort of…” she struggled to find the right word, “jerk,” she finished lamely.
Chloe really didn’t want to talk about him. “As for his wealth, I think it’s a little bit crass to wonder about someone’s net worth, don’t you think? Does he own half of Texas? Who knows? Probably half of the country but I’m not interested in keeping track of him or his material assets.”
David wasn’t relenting on the subject. “How can he be your father’s next door neighbor? Doesn’t he run businesses all over the world?”
She couldn’t get him off the subject of the one person she hated talking about more than anyone else in the world. “David, I have no idea what he does or why he does it. Remember, I only lived in Texas during my summer breaks. All the rest of the time, I lived with my mom in Boston. My mom and dad never spoke after I was three years old, only communicating through lawyers. So what is in those letters, I have no idea. Nor will I ever know because I don’t need to read them. I’m not interested.”
David was obviously not convinced about the pointlessness of those letters. “Yeah, but Chloe, he sent them personally. I would think that one of the richest men in the world sending you something like that would arouse mild curiosity.”
She
turned back from him to pull two cups out of the cabinet. “Nope. I don’t care about him. I don’t trust him.”
David choked on his response. “Don’t trust him?” he parroted. “How can you not trust him? What on earth could be untrustworthy about the man? He’s a financial genius. He made billionaire status about ten years ago from nothing,” he explained, obviously in awe of the man. “Newspapers describe him as some kind of king of the financial jungle. He consults with governments before he moves his money because of the impact those kinds of changes could potentially make on their economies.”
“Again,” she said, becoming irritated with the subject, “what does this have to do with me?” she asked.
David just looked at her as if she’d grown a second and third head. He was so obviously horrified that she almost laughed. Almost. If it had been any other subject, she would have but Sam Marchant was not an amusing subject. “David, can we get back to our evening?” she coaxed, pouring him a cup of coffee with cream, just the way he liked it. “I don’t think anything in those letters is important enough to ruin our night together.”
She led him over to the loveseat, a sofa being too large to fit in her tiny apartment.
He allowed her to seat him, then turned to face her. “You’re right,” he said, a touch nervously. He took her coffee cup and placed it on the small table. Taking her hands in his, he put them on his shoulders.
Chloe watched with detached interest as David positioned her exactly as he wanted her. His head then slowly bent towards hers, his lips touching hers tentatively. When she didn’t pull back, he increased the pressure, caressing her lips with a practiced touch.
Nothing, she thought to herself. She felt no excitement, no joy. Nothing at all.
Chloe opened her mouth, thinking that perhaps she just needed a more intensified version of his kiss. Her tongue touched his gently and his reaction was instantaneous. He groaned and pushed her backwards, his mouth pressing against hers, his tongue searching and exploring.
She tried to get into the kiss. She closed her eyes and desperately tried to get into the spirit of the moment. But all she felt was a mild irritation that his tongue was inside her mouth. In desperation, she increased the pressure, pushing her body against his and almost jerked back when she felt his erection against her body. She wasn’t scared of it, she just didn’t want to encourage him in that way.
But he noticed her reaction and pulled away slightly, moving his mouth to her neck. “Don’t be afraid, Chloe,” he groaned against her skin while she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. “It’s just natural. We’ve been seeing each other for three months now and all you’ve allowed is a gentle kiss,” he said, laughing almost to himself. “The fact that you’re letting me touch you now makes me feel as if you’re ready for the next step,” he said, his hand moving from her back to her stomach, then slightly higher.
Reaching up, she pulled his hand away from its obvious path towards her breast, but didn’t stop his mouth. Instead, she pressed harder, willing herself to feel something, to stop thinking and just let go.
When the knock sounded on her door, she almost sighed with relief. David sat up and looked around, dazed. “Who would be coming for a visit at this time of night?” he asked, frustration obvious in his glare as he pulled himself up to a sitting position.
Something about the impatient knock made Chloe wary. It couldn’t possibly be….could it? Scoffing at her own silliness, she stood up and started walking to the door to answer it. It was just that they had been talking about Sam that he was on her mind. He wasn’t standing beyond the door waiting for her, she mentally chided herself. He wouldn’t fly all this way. The man was known for living on his ranch and rarely leaving it, forcing the rest of the world to come to him.
“It’s probably just Suzanne. She had a hot date tonight and probably wants to share,” Chloe forced herself to laugh. She was relieved to be out of his embrace but didn’t want him to know that. Wishing it were so wouldn’t make it, she told herself. If the past fifteen minutes had convinced her of anything, she accepted that she’d have to break up with David. He was too nice to waste his time on her when she didn’t feel anything other than mild friendship toward him. She had to be fair and let him go out and find someone that could make him happy and return his feelings.
“Well, get rid of her so we can get back to our hot date,” he teased as her hand settled on her door handle. Chloe glanced back at him, wondering if he could really be completely unaware of her lack of response to his kisses. When he wiggled his eyebrows at her, she knew that he was oblivious. Astonishingly, he had no idea that she felt nothing when he kissed her.
Her distraction over his comments made her forget to check through the peep hole before opening the door. If she had, she would never have opened it. As it was, she stood there, staring at the tall man blocking out the hallway lights with his enormous size.
Sam Marchant was here? In New York? What on earth? She closed her eyes and opened them again, hoping he would simply disappear. But he didn’t. In fact, one dark eyebrow went up in amusement at her attempt and that’s when Chloe knew he was real.
“Are you going to invite me in?” his deep voice asked. Instead of waiting, he simply pushed his way through the door, making Chloe plaster herself against the wall as he passed by since there wasn’t enough space in the tiny hallway.
“What are you doing here?” she breathed, following behind him, her mind unable to figure out a way to circumvent his invasion into her precious sanctuary. Her only thought was to karate chop him somehow that would knock him out, then she could drag him to the door and kick it shut, with him on the other side.
The only problem with that little scenario was that, number one, she didn’t know karate. And number two, if he fell onto the floor, he’d still be there when he woke up because the man was just too huge for her to drag. The top of her head barely reached his shoulder and he had muscles everywhere, adding bulk to his height. Not an ounce of fat, she noted silently. The man definitely kept in shape.
She arrived just in time for David to be rising from the loveseat, shock on his face as he registered who was now in front of him. “Sam Marchant?” David said, his voice filled with awe and reverence.
“Evenin’,” Sam said, his Texas drawl making the word come out more lyrical than normal. He stuck out his hand. “And you are?” Sam asked.
Chloe was confused. Was that hostility in Sam’s voice? Impossible, she told herself as she snuck around to stand beside David, wanting to show Sam that she’d moved on and he had no business coming here.
“Good grief,” David was saying, shaking Sam’s hand with embarrassing enthusiasm. “Chloe and I were just talking about you earlier.”
Sam looked down at Chloe, his expression unreadable. “Is that right?” he asked when she started squirming under his intense gaze. “What was the conversation about?” he asked.
“The letters,” David said, pointing lamely towards the counter where they were now neatly stacked.
“Nothing,” Chloe said at the same time, hoping to find out what Sam wanted and get him out of her apartment. She’d always thought it was tiny but with Sam in it, his broad shoulders and enormous height seemed to take up all the remaining space. He overwhelmed her with his presence and made her feel uncomfortable, irritated. “Sam, what can I do for you? I know you’re extremely busy and probably have to get back to Texas quickly, don’t you?”
“We have business to discuss.” He glanced at David and continued, “Privately.”
Chloe hated the way his voice felt on her skin. It was like liquid chocolate, melting and taking her breath away. Shaking her head, she said, “Sam, I don’t know what it is, but David and I have no secrets from each other.”
Sam’s gaze slid away from hers and focused on David who quickly got the message. “Um…Chloe,” he said, obviously nervous of Sam’s intimidating gaze, not to mention the seemingly threatening body language, “I’ll just call you tomorrow.”
He quickly picked up his coat from the chair where he’d thrown in earlier. “You obviously have things to discuss and I’ll just be in the way.” He bent down to peck her cheek, then hurried out the door.
As soon as the door closed, Sam pulled off his coat, then turned to face her, his arms crossed over his massive chest. “You’ve been ignoring me, Chloe,” he said. His voice was calm, soft even, but she heard the note of steel in his tone. He was reprimanding her and she bristled at the implication.
List of Elizabeth Lennox Books
The Texas Tycoon’s Temptation
The Royal Cordova Trilogy
Escaping a Royal Wedding
The Man’s Outrageous Demands
Mistress to the Prince
The Attracelli Family Series
Never Dare a Tycoon
Falling For the Boss
Risky Negotiations
Proposal to Love
Love's Not Terrifying
Romantic Acquisition
The Billionaire's Terms: Prison Or Passion
The Sheik's Love Child
The Sheik's Unfinished Business
The Tycoon's Seduction Plan Page 14