by Karen Docter
Dan glanced at his mother, sitting next to his aunt, before looking at the distinguished, silver-haired man beside him. "Don't let Aunt Mary put you off, Frank. Insanity only runs on my father's side of the family." He'd inherited all of it if his recent actions were any indication.
"Nothing will put me off now, son." Frank took his fiancée's outstretched hand. "Besides, I already heard that story from Sarah. Why do you think we're all traveling to the wedding together?"
Dan’s mother winked at Frank. "Mary has a point though, Daniel. If you'd told me this earlier, I would have shipped you right back to California. Fighting for the woman you love and who loves you is more important than giving me away. It's not like I haven't walked down the aisle before."
"I never said Tess loved me."
"She's practically turned her life inside out for you. A woman doesn't go to such lengths for a man she doesn't love desperately."
Frank agreed. "I'm sixty years old and, before I met your mother, I never met a woman who'd face her natural fears to be with me. The first time Sarah got into a small plane with me, despite her fear of heights, I knew she loved me. Before she could get to her seat, I proposed."
She sighed. "It was so romantic. We never made it into the air. He got so flustered when I said 'yes' he backed up and fell out of the plane. We celebrated our engagement in the emergency room."
Frank leaned forward to plant a tender kiss on Sarah's lips, and then tapped the glass between them and the chauffeur. "Pull over."
"What are you doing?" Dan pulled up the cuff of his tuxedo and frowned at the watch he’d finally unpacked. "You're going to be late for your wedding."
"You're the only one who's going to be late, dear." His mother grinned. "In fact, I think you're going to miss it altogether. Frank's kicking you out of the plane."
She caught his hand and pulled him to her for a kiss. "Go, Daniel. Now. Frank and I expect to hear about a grandchild for our first anniversary present."
Aunt Mary blew him a kiss. "I'll see you in three weeks after these two lovebirds come back from their honeymoon. We'll have a combination engagement, bon voyage party before I move out of my condo in San Francisco."
Dan's head spun. "Are you sure you don't mind turning the west coast operations over to me?"
"It was our plan all along. Now, get out of here before you make your mother more than fashionably late for her own wedding."
He gazed into the twinkling green eyes that reminded him so much of his father. "Don't get your hopes up, Aunt Mary. I don't have a wood shed."
"You'll think of something, Danny Boy." She grinned. "You're not a McDonald for nothing."
***
"I know it's not exactly how we expected this to play out," Harry Rollens said Saturday after their meeting with the Thorgram Group directors. "But I'd think you'd show a little enthusiasm. You'll finally get to do all those things you've dreamed of doing around here."
Startled out of her reverie, Tess jerked in her office chair and looked at her soon-to-be-ex boss. "Will I?"
"It was one of the conditions of the sale, Tess. Weren't you listening?"
Of course, she was listening. She heard the promotion she’d worked so damned hard for went to the president's cousin, after all. On the heels of her realization nepotism would always be the strongest thread holding the company together, she heard they'd sold the mall out from under her to the investment company she'd worried about months earlier.
She was to keep her job, with a disgustingly high salary and benefits package and the opportunity to renovate and expand. It’s what she always wanted. It was too good to be true. There was a catch somewhere, but she couldn't wrap her sluggish brain cells around the problem.
"Surely, you're not thinking of turning it down," Harry exclaimed. "I hate to admit it, but you've topped out with this company. You've seen the statistics on H.T.H. Enterprises. It's one of the fastest growing investment companies in the nation. Your potential for career growth is staggering."
So why did her triumph, if that was what this was, taste so bitter? With her father's surgery no longer on the table, the money didn't matter anymore. And since Dan flew away with her heart in his hand, her enthusiasm for everything else had waned. She'd completely lost her sense of direction. Finally, she could pull all those 'To Do' lists out of her bottom drawer and start checking off each item, one by one, and she could barely drum up one hooray.
"Tess! Hello?"
She pulled her thoughts together. "Harry, have you ever looked up the definition for the word ‘obsession' in the dictionary?"
He looked like she'd asked him to dance buck-naked through China Town.
"I have. The definition of obsession is the compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or unwanted feeling." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Do you know what's the worst thing you can do to an obsessive person?"
Harry frowned. "Is this a trick question?"
Her smile held no humor. "The worst thing you can do to a compulsively obsessed person is remove her goal and watch her flounder around trying to discover why she thought it was important in the first place."
"You're not making sense."
"There isn't much in my life right now that does make sense," she murmured.
She picked up a pen and forced her mind around how all this would affect Harry. "What about you, Harry? Are you okay with this? I know the last thing you wanted to do was hand your job over to Jeff McNamara."
He shrugged. "I'm glad it's finally over. I'm needed at home. Donna's treatments are scheduled to accelerate over the next few months and I don't want her to face them alone." He tapped the wooden arm on his seat. "With any luck, I'll have her on a Mexican beach by winter."
Harry loved his wife so much it made Tess's heart ache to watch him deal with her illness. "I'll miss you, Harry," she blurted. "I can't tell you how much your advice has meant to me over the years."
"So, come see me after we get settled, and I'll dole it out poolside."
"Yeah. Right. Like I'm going to drop everything and fly down to Mexico."
Harry's shrewd blue eyes fixed on her. "Tess, I'm going to give you one last piece of advice before I go. If you don't want to work for this new company, tell them to take a hike. You're young and have a full life in front of you. Don't let any job suck up your best years and make you regret the choices you've made."
He held up his hand before Tess could lie and say she didn't have regrets. "It took Donna's illness to kick me in the teeth, and it was almost too late. Take my word for it, it's not worth it."
"Thanks, Harry," she shifted in her chair, "but it's already too late for me."
"Is it? If you could have anything for the asking, do you know what would it be?"
Oh, yeah. She'd jump back one week and wind her time with Dan into an eternal loop to be lived over, and over, again. She'd ask to have the man she loved waking her up each morning, filling her empty life with excitement and color and laughter. She'd beg for a different ending to their parting last week.
"I'd ask for two weeks off. Right now. Today." The words slipped out before common sense raised its ugly head. "But, that's wishful thinking. The board wouldn't buy it."
"They're not your bosses as of tomorrow."
Her heart skipped at the thought. It really was too late. Wasn't it? She'd been brutal when she cut Dan out of her life.
"Do whatever you need to do to bring the sparkle back to your eyes, Tess. If you're waiting for a better time, you'll never find it."
Harry's image swam in front of her eyes. Before she could consider the movement, she picked up the phone and pushed the intercom. "Em? Book me on the first available flight to Chicago."
Her secretary didn't miss a beat. "Okay. But could you come out here first? There's a delivery for you."
The only delivery Tess could focus on was herself to Chicago, but she had to walk past Emily's desk anyway on her way out. With a teary, goodbye hug for Harry, she dashed from her office.
&nbs
p; Her secretary was already on the telephone talking to an airline ticket agent, but Tess didn’t have to ask her where to find the delivery she’d mentioned. It wasn't difficult to spot the huge rectangular confectionery box sitting in the middle of Emily’s desk. Slipping her nail under the gold foil seal on the lid, Tess flipped it up.
Her heart stopped when she looked down on a perfect licorice replica of the bridge where she and Dan first met. Marzipan boats floated in the sea of blue-tinted white fudge around it.
"Isn't that cute?" Emily held her hand over the phone receiver, clearly indicating she’d been put on hold, and peered over the lid. "There are two little gummy cars on the bridge."
"It's one gummy car and one gummy truck." Tess lifted the unsigned business card tucked in one corner of the box and read the bold script scrawled across one side. Sailing at four o'clock. Meet me halfway to heaven? Flipping it over, she read the company name. H.T.H. Enterprises. Sweet mercy!
"Forget the plane ticket, Em," she said, a peculiar catch in her voice, "and tell Harry I'll call him when I get back."
"Wait! Where are you going?"
Tess broke into a run for the front door. "With any luck, halfway to heaven and back!"
***
"She's not coming, Colby." Dan stepped around his pet and tossed the leash to the empty deck chair.
The German shepherd barely paused in his habitual snuffling search of the boat planking, his first order of business whenever he jumped aboard. The dog seemed a little more intent on his mission than normal, but Dan had a feeling Colby's behavior was prompted by his own unrest.
What if Tess didn't get the package? What if she wouldn't speak to him, let him explain? What if you get a grip, Danny Boy?
He knew she'd received his package because he'd called the shopping center office before landing in San Francisco. Emily told him Tess bundled everything up and rushed out the door. That was three hours ago. The woman had disappeared.
He'd personally rechecked her office and apartment. He'd called her parents, twice. "Maybe it really is over," he muttered, remembering the look on her face the last time he saw her.
Dan paced the deck. Did he imagine the love growing in her eyes these past few weeks? If he didn't imagine it, did she love him enough to overlook his interference?
He cursed. "I'll find her, Colby, and when I do I'm going to do what I should have done the minute I first saw her." He'd drag her off to his cave for a year or two and make love to her until she forgave him. The concept had worked well enough for his father. Though it was his Aunt Mary who’d locked his mom and dad in the wood shed.
The shepherd scratched at the door leading to the galley below. "I fed you, you voracious beast," Dan growled. "Go lie down."
The animal walked over and butted his leg so hard he stumbled against the captain's chair. "Dog, I'm going to throw you over—"
A tendril of something familiar wafted past Dan's nose, stopping him in mid-warning. He closed his eyes to savor the scent that would haunt him the rest of his life. Tess. She'd been sitting in this chair. Recently. Expanding his senses, he realized the fragrance had been there all along wafting in and out on the sea breeze.
"If she's down there, Colby," he followed the shepherd back to his post at the door, "I owe you a lifetime supply of cheese."
Opening the door, he slipped down the three steps. The galley was empty. As were the head and two guest cabins. Dan came to a halt outside the captain’s cabin and took a deep breath.
Opening the door, he stopped breathing altogether. He'd found Tess. Sound asleep in his bed, all tousled and flushed, unaware he'd been combing the peninsula for her. Relief warred with anger. Elation battled irritation. Hesitation crept around his determination. Now he had her where he wanted her, he was tempted to sail away. Before she could escape.
But then he saw the smudges of exhaustion marring the silky skin under her eyes, the fragility of her slender fingers pressed together under her cheek. This past week had not been easy on her either. It had to mean something that she'd come to him.
Half-naked.
He watched the steady rise and fall of her soft breasts threatening to spill out of the scarlet bustier she wore. His favorite. All curled up on his bed, the material of her matching lace panties had crept up to expose the sweet curve of her backside.
His response was immediate. Intense. Hunger tore at his senses, tightened his body until he ached with longing. But, he couldn't allow his physical response to run away with him. In any case, she already had company.
"Colby!" he hissed as the dog sidled alongside Tess and dropped his muzzle on the pulse of her exposed neck.
Tess squealed and scrambled across the bed. She didn't look back to identify her assailant until she was firmly caught in the nearest haven, Dan's arms. "Sweet mercy! Isn't there any way we can heat up his nose?"
Dan shook his head, mentally chalking up a few dozen T-bones to go along with his lifetime cheese supply for the mongrel. "I think the pattern's set now. I have to say, though, I don't blame him for his choice of nose-warmer."
His face in the crook of her neck, he inhaled deeply. "Nope," he whispered. "Can't blame him a bit."
Forcing himself to release her, Dan took a step backwards. Then, he reached behind him to close and lock the door.
"What are you doing?"
"Locking the wood shed."
On her knees in the middle of the bed, Tess crossed her arms over her breasts. "What?"
"I'll explain later." Now he had Tess where he wanted her, he was at a loss how to proceed. "At thirty thousand feet, I knew exactly what to say to fix things between us."
"I'm the one who has to mend bridges, Dan, not you." Tess's magnificent curls tumbled around her naked shoulders. Her eyes closed briefly, then opened.
"I'm sorry for the terrible things I said," she said softly. "You did a wonderful thing for my parents and I was selfish and self-centered and unfair. I'd understand if you don't want to accept my apology, but I hope you will."
He saw her fists clench. "It's important I accept?"
"Extremely important."
"Why?"
Tess sat back on her heels, a lone tear tracing a path down her cheek. "Because there's an emptiness inside me only you can fill." A second tear followed the first. "I was doing fine by myself until you came along and rescued me. At least, I thought I was until I opened my eyes on the bridge and there you were with your sexy green eyes and cocky grin, making me crazy.
"You invade my dreams and question everything that matters to me. You make me laugh and carry silly stress cards. You made me love—"
Dan climbed onto the bed, pushed his dog to the opposite corner, and pulled her into his lap. "Love?" he prompted shamelessly.
"Your dog!" Tess straightened indignantly. "Who did you think I meant?
"I'd hoped you were talking about me."
"Sort of a reverse, love my dog, love me, thing? You only come as a set?"
"I'm afraid so." He nuzzled the sensitive skin below her ear. "I come complete with a stinky dog, an empty house, a lonely boat and a job hawking ladies underwear. I don't suppose you'd be interested in hiring on as my personal lingerie model, would you? It would take a big load off my mind."
Tess grew still. "What about your charter business?"
"Think you could break down and sail with me on the occasional weekend with some of my old colleagues from Chicago instead?"
"You want me even if I'm obsessive and blind and stubborn and—?"
He cuddled her close and kissed her hair. "Yeah, I want you, maybe because of all those things."
"Despite those things," she corrected, pursing her lips.
The invitation was too hard for Dan to resist. They were both breathless by the time the kiss ended. “Because of those things,” he admonished. “One of the things I love about you, Tess Emory, is your tenacity. When you feel strongly about something, you throw yourself into the fray with a fierce passion that amazes me.”
Tess ran a hand along his jaw. “I set impossible goals and hate to lose control. I don’t trust myself outside the lines.”
“I’ve been playing outside the lines for a year. We’ll find a middle ground.”
“I’m too linear for you.”
“You’re my balance.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you to distraction.”
“I love to distract you.”
“Dan!”
He grinned. “Okay, I’ll behave.” He looked down at the scarlet bustier that was all that stood between him and the end of this conversation. “Two minutes tops.”
Dan brushed back her tumbled hair. “I love the way you challenge me and pull me in directions I’d never considered.” He kissed her. “Marry me, Tess.”
“Okay.” She put up a hand. “Wait! Who am I marrying? The retailer? The sailor? The investment consultant? My new boss?"
He sighed. "That information wasn't supposed to be released until tomorrow."
"You should have told me you were H.T.H. Enterprises. You knew I was worried about the rumors that were flying around the center."
"I meant to. It never seemed the right time to bring it up. Then, I was going to tell you everything that morning before I left, but—"
She slipped the top two buttons of his shirt. Her hand dove inside. "Do you have any more surprises?"
Dan hesitated, groaning when her fingers brushed over his nipple. His mouth curved around the shell of her ear as he jockeyed them down in the bed. “What do you think about twins?"
She smiled. “I think you’ll have to teach me more about coloring outside the lines,” she murmured, pressing her lips against his heart. “Later.”
With a heavy thunk, Colby climbed off the end of the bed. Then, he curled up on the swaying floor near the two lovers and closed his eyes with a sigh.
Join Karen Docter on the dark side of danger and romance with Killing Secrets, the first in her Thorne’s Thorns romantic suspense series. Coming soon!
Excerpt
Killing Secrets By Karen Docter