She couldn’t give up! She had responsibilities that were bigger than her own problems. Once she had her degree and a full-time job she could cover the cost of her mother’s care herself. And maybe if she worked hard enough and long enough, she’d be able to forget the man she loved.
The man who didn’t love her.
He headed for his mother’s office, praying that Faith still was coming to work there twice a week. The shock on the face of the young receptionist at the front desk would have amused him at any other time. Today, all his concentration was focused on meeting with his mother.
He was directed to Eliza Smythe’s office, but as he strode down the hallway on the third floor, his mother came to meet him. “Stone! Welcome to Smythe Corp.”
“Thank you.” He realized abruptly how small she was. She had looked tiny and defenseless as she came toward him.
“I presume this isn’t a social call,” Eliza said briskly. “Come into my office and we’ll talk.”
Defenseless. Hah.
He followed her through a quietly elegant outer office to her own, a feminine mirror-image of his, with all the necessary bells and whistles softened by quiet colors and soft fabrics.
“Have a seat,” his mother invited. She seated herself in one of the wing chairs flanking a small glass table rather than behind her desk.
He took the other seat and inhaled deeply. He’d spent his life rejecting his mother. It wasn’t easy to ask for her help. “Faith has left me,” he said abruptly.
Eliza’s expression became guarded. “I’m sorry to hear that. I like your wife.”
“So do I. I want her back.”
His mother studied him for long enough to make him repress the urge to squirm in his seat like a schoolboy. “We don’t always get what we want. Why do you want her back?”
“Because.” He floundered, unable to force himself to say the words that would leave him vulnerable. “She’s my wife.”
“Well, that’s sure to sway her,” Eliza said. She leaned forward. “Why did she leave?”
“We had a…disagreement,” he said. “I came here to find out if she’s still working for you. I need your help to get her to talk to me.”
“Why should I help you?”
“You’re my mother!”
“Interesting that you should remember that now.” She was unmerciful. “Look, Stone, I made no secret of the fact that I thought your marriage was just a ruse to get your hands on Smythe Corp. But once I saw you two together…I was pleased. And as I’ve gotten to know Faith better, I think she’s perfect for you.”
“She is perfect,” he said. “I just didn’t figure that out until too late.”
“You wouldn’t just be trying to convince me of this because of our agreement regarding your inheritance?”
“There’s nothing I want less at the moment than this company.” And he meant it. “If it would bring Faith back, you could give it to the first stranger on the street.”
His mother’s eyebrows rose. “You’re serious,” she said, and there was pleased wonder in her tone.
“Very.” He sighed. “You weren’t wrong. Faith and I had a bargain. I married her to satisfy your conditions. She married me because in return I agreed to take care of her mother.”
“Which you were doing, anyway.”
He was startled. “Says who?”
“I did a little checking into your life before I made my offer,” she said coolly. “Imagine my surprise when I found out you were supporting the Harrell ladies lock, stock and barrel.”
“Faith was equally surprised,” he confessed. “She just found out a few months ago.”
“Ah. She confronted you, did she?”
Was his mother a mind reader? “All that’s history now,” he said. “I just want her back.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want to come back. What did you do to make her leave?” Eliza hadn’t gotten to be a success by dancing around the issues.
“I, um, let her think I didn’t love her,” he said. It was hard to admit it, much less say it aloud.
“I see.” She steepled her fingers. “And you want me to do what? Convince her that you do? Tell you when she’s working?”
“All I want,” he said, desperate and not caring anymore if he sounded it, “is a chance to talk to her. Then, if she still wants to leave, she can.”
“You would lose Smythe Corp.” Eliza reminded him, probing the depth of his sincerity.
“I don’t give a damn!” he shouted, finally losing patience with explanations. “Hell, I’d even sell Lachlan if it would bring Faith back.”
There was a moment of profound silence in the room. He glared defiantly at his mother. Eliza rose and walked around her desk. His heart sank. She wasn’t going to help him. It was poetic justice for all the times when she’d tried to be a part of his life and he’d shut her out.
Well, he’d sit in the street and wait for Faith to come out if that was what it took to track her down.
Eliza hit a button on her speakerphone. “Hallie, would you send Faith in here, please?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
A moment later, the door opened and Faith started through. His gaze was riveted to her. In the part of him that wasn’t absorbed in steeping himself in his wife’s presence, he was astonished. His mother must have sent for her when he’d arrived!
But then Faith saw him. She stopped in her tracks and her face was weary and wan, her eyelids puffy. She looked ill. After one quick glance, she ignored him and spoke to Eliza. “You sent for me?”
“There’s a visitor to see you,” Eliza said.
“There’s no one that I want to see.” Her voice shook and she bent her head, studying the carpet. He restrained himself from going to her and forcing her to acknowledge his presence, to grab her and hold her so she could never get away from him again. It was obvious that Faith was going to turn right around and walk out the door if he didn’t let his mother handle this. The irony didn’t escape him. How could it be that his mother, who had been absent for so many years when he’d have given anything for her attention, was the only person who could make his world right now?
“Faith.” The president and CEO of Smythe Corp. waited until Faith looked up again. “My son is a very smart man in many ways. But in others, he’s…a little dim.” She smiled fondly at him. “And since I contributed to his desire to protect himself and avoid commitment, I feel bound to try to repair the damage. Will you listen to him?”
“That’s all I want,” Stone said quickly. “Just listen. And then, if you still want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
She had swung her gaze to him when he began to speak, and he saw doubt, sorrow, hope, and myriad other emotions tumbling in her eyes before she made her face blank again. She shrugged. “All right,” she said in a barely audible voice.
Nine
“Why didn’t you just hire someone to find me?” she asked. She looked at the floor because she was afraid if she looked at him, the love she couldn’t banish would be written all over her face. She didn’t have any intention of letting him trample her heart more than he already had.
He shook his head. “It was my mistake. It was mine to fix.”
“You could have sent me flowers, or jewels, to ask me to come home.”
“Baby, I’ll shower you with both if that’s what you want,” he said huskily. “But those are things. Anyone could send gifts. I didn’t think that was the way to your heart.”
“I didn’t think my heart had anything to do with our marriage.” She couldn’t hide the note of anguish and her voice wobbled as she fought back tears.
He winced. “I didn’t, either, in the beginning,” he said quietly. “But I’ve found that your heart is essential, not just to our marriage but to my survival.” He started across the room toward her. “And I’ve also found that I have to give you mine in return, because it’s withering away without you.”
She lifted her head and stared at him, rejecting the words. The moment she
moved, he stopped immediately, as if he were afraid of startling her into flight. “You don’t have to tell me that,” she said wearily. “I’d already decided I have to come back and stay for the rest of the year.”
“How can I convince you that I love you?” he asked her. “How can I convince you that I need you to love me?”
“You don’t have to say that!” she cried. “I just told you I’ll keep my end of our bargain.”
“There is no bargain,” he told her, his gaze steady and warm with an emotion she couldn’t let herself believe in. “I told my mother she could give her company to someone else. I don’t want it if it means I can’t have you.”
Her heart skipped a beat, then settled into a mad rhythm that threatened to burst out of her chest. “You can’t do that. This company has always been in your family.” And part of your dream is to put your family back together.
“Watch me.” He rose and walked to the door, opening it. “Mother, would you please come in here?”
Eliza appeared in the doorway, her gaze questioning first one of them and then the other. “Yes?”
“What did I tell you before you brought Faith in here?”
His mother looked perplexed. “You mean about loving her or about giving up the company?” She turned to Faith. “Actually I believe his words were, ‘I’d even sell Lachlan if it would bring Faith back.’”
Faith’s face drained of color. Stone leaped forward, afraid she was going to faint as she groped for a chair. His mother went out again, closing the door behind her but he barely noticed. He gathered his wife into his arms, turning to sit in the wing chair and pulling her into his lap.
She didn’t even struggle, just lay passively with her face buried in his shoulder.
She was warm, smelling of the indefinable essence of her, a scent he would recognize anywhere, and he nuzzled his nose into her hair. “God, I’ve missed you.” His voice shook, surprising him as he savored the weight of her body pressed against him. She still didn’t move, didn’t respond, and he started to worry. “Faith?”
Slowly, she pushed away from him and sat up. “You think I’m too young to know the difference between love and sex.”
“No.” He shook his head slowly, holding her gaze, trying to communicate the depth of his feeling to her. “The truth is, I was afraid you were too young. I felt like I was taking advantage of you—you hadn’t known enough men to know whether you loved me or not. And whether or not I wanted to admit it, I was falling for you. I was afraid. Afraid you’d grow up and fall out of love with me, afraid to believe in forever.” He ran his palms slowly up and down her arms. “Now,” he said, “now I don’t give one flying damn if you’re too young or not, because I know the difference.” He swallowed, his throat closing up. “And what we have is love.”
He saw her face change, just a slight relaxation of the tense muscles. She believed him! “I love you,” he said again. “Forever.”
“Forever.” Her voice wobbled. “I love you, too.”
He sought her mouth, relief almost a painful sensation as she kissed him back. God, he’d been afraid he’d never know her kiss again. He lifted his head a fraction. “As long as we live.”
She gazed earnestly into his eyes. “It’s all right if you don’t want children. We’ll have each other.”
He considered her offer. “Thank you, but I’ve changed my mind about so many things I think I’ll change it about that, too.” He took her face in his hands. “I want to give you babies. I want to be there when they’re born, and every day of our lives after that. I want to see your mother’s face the first time we put her grandchild in her arms.”
“And your mother’s.” Tears glimmered in her eyes but she was smiling.
“And my mother’s,” he repeated. He glanced around the room. “I guess she’s going to be smug about this for the rest of my life.” But his tone was fond. Somewhere inside him, he’d discovered that he could accept his past. He knew he and his mother would have to talk, because she felt obliged to explain. But he also knew it wasn’t going to matter. She would be a part of his future.
Faith laughed. “How did she know to call for me?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say that little receptionist out front probably gave her the headsup. She looked like she’d seen a ghost when I walked in.”
“‘That little receptionist’ happens to have become a friend of mine,” Faith told him. “I’ve been staying with her.”
Another mystery solved. “I guess I have to thank her, then, for taking care of you.”
“We might have to buy her new pillows,” she said. “I’ve sobbed into all of hers so much they’re permanently soaked.”
He stroked her cheek, sobered by her words. “No more sobbing. Promise?”
She smiled tenderly, her hand coming up to stroke the back of his neck. “Promise.”
He kissed her again, pulling her close and the caress quickly turned to a searing passion as he stroked her body, unable to get enough of her after the days of worry. “I want you,” he said in a low voice. “I want to get started on making a baby right away.”
“Not here!” She straightened immediately, looking shocked.
“It is going to be my office some day,” he reminded her, loving the prim and proper streak that was as much a part of her as her love for him.
“Well, it isn’t yet!”
He laughed, intoxicated by the feel of her in his arms again. “Then let’s go home, wife, so I can show you how much I love you and need you.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0328-0
BILLIONAIRE BACHELORS: STONE
Copyright © 2002 by Anne Marie Rodgers
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*Butler County Brides
Billionaire Bachelors: Stone Page 15