by Melody Anne
“No. You’re right. I can’t stop it, but I saved a lot of girls. My escorts weren’t naïve, inexperienced little things. They were experienced and they chose to better their lives. None of them stayed more than two years. They saved their money, then moved on. Exactly like I did,” she said, lifting her chin, challenging him to call her a whore again.
“I…I…” Byron was at a complete loss for words.
“It’s fine, Byron. I get it. You assume that I’m a whore, that if I make my living a certain way, it’s because I’m insatiable. And to add to that, I didn’t make it exactly hard for you to get me into your bed,” she said, a humorless laugh escaping her lips.
“You were fourteen when you basically lost your sister, your mother and your father. I’m sorry if I’ve been harsh on you,” Byron told her.
He didn’t know what to think. He knew in his gut that she was telling the truth. But just because she’d been through hell didn’t mean that she was innocent. It just meant that she was a real person. That was something he could no longer ignore.
“I needed to make a lot of money. My sister’s care wasn’t cheap,” she said, laughing humorlessly again.
“Why didn’t you just let her go? By the time you opened the doors to Relinquish, she’d been in a coma for about ten years.”
She looked at him like he was a monster before replying. “You never give up on the people you love,” she told him sternly.
“No, but you can also forgive yourself for mistakes you made as a kid, and for making a mistake with this Nathan guy.”
“That’s really easy for you to say, Byron. You were born into wealth and privilege. Life hasn’t continually kicked you back down every time you tried to stand up again. In this world, you’re either a winner or a loser. After being attacked, I was determined never to be taken again, never to show weakness again, and especially never to be fooled again,” she said.
He read the message loud and clear. She wouldn’t play his games.
“Everything isn’t always as it appears to be,” he told her.
“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“We all have our pasts, and we all have our secrets.”
“I’m sure your secrets are about the maid forgetting to pack your lunch,” she said, instantly putting her armor into place.
He looked at her, sadness filling him. Did he really seem so cold? “What made you close the doors to Relinquish then?”
She paused for a moment before speaking. “My sister died. I no longer needed to make as much money and I wanted to finally live my dreams.”
“I’m sorry…”
“Don’t. I can’t stand generic apologies, or words that mean nothing. They are spoken so freely, so easily, and they are never meant.” She turned away again, and Byron knew he needed to think.
He turned and began walking toward the door.
“Why did you come here? Why did you ask this of me? Is it to prove that I’m worthless in your eyes?”
He could see she was close to falling apart. He should go to her, but he had to get his head clear. This was all too much. He’d learned too much today.
He turned back around. “I’m glad you told me, McKenzie. Sometimes you just have to trust.” How ironic that those words were coming from his lips. What a crock. He trusted no one, and he hadn’t for years.
“It’s fine, Byron. Go ahead and leave,” she told him.
Pain sliced through him at her words, but that’s what he was doing wasn’t it? He was leaving. It’s what he did best. Without another word, he slipped from her house. He’d made choices his entire life that affected him — and not in a good way. What was one more bad choice?
Chapter Thirty-One
McKenzie waited until she was sure Byron was gone, and then she broke down. Everything inside her hurt. She had warned herself not to fall for this man, but she’d gone ahead and done it anyway.
Why? Would she never learn? How could she care about such a cold man? Just because he’d shown her a few glimpses of a real person beneath all that armor, it didn’t make him honorable, didn’t make him worthy of her love. Maybe that was just it. Maybe she would never find herself worthy to love and so it was easier to love a man who could never possibly love her.
She just had to remember that this was simply one more roadblock on a road with many roadblocks. It wouldn’t hold her back forever. She just had to take another detour.
When she went to bed that night, no more tears fell, but not much sleep came either. Her life wouldn’t ever be simple, but then who wanted a boring life? It was better to have ups and downs than to just exist.
She’d get past this. She just had to be strong. And she would be.
So when she walked into her office and found Byron there instead of Zach, she wasn’t in the most receptive of moods.
“How did you get in here?” was her only question.
“Zach let me in and then split. I think the man might have a slight crush on you, by the way,” he said as if he found it amusing.
“Is it such a shock that a man might find me attractive?” she asked as she stood three feet away from him. Enough was enough. They could have it out and then be done with each other.
“I would find it more shocking if men weren’t attracted to you,” he offered with a laugh.
“I don’t find you very funny, Byron. Why don’t you tell me whatever it is that you need to say and then get the hell out of my office and out of my life?” Her bravery was going to last only so long before she snapped.
“Fine. Just like that?” he asked. “You want me to just blurt it out?”
“I don’t say what I don’t mean,” she grated out.
“I’m in love with you, McKenzie Beaumont. I can’t sleep anymore without you next to me. I can’t get you out of my thoughts. I can’t function like a normal human being. I’ve. Fallen. In. Love. With. You.”
This made no sense. Although McKenzie thought he had just told her he was in love with her, he was almost yelling at her. The words and the tone didn’t match at all.
“In love with me?” she finally asked, her voice low, as if afraid of spooking him. “Did you say that you’re in love with me?”
“Before you retreat, or run away, or whatever it is you do when you’re getting too close to someone, let me finish. We both spook easily. We both have trust issues. But I know you care about me. I can see it in your eyes, and I can feel it in your touch, in the way you make love to me. I know we have something and I think we would be fools to throw it all away because we’re scared.”
He began pacing, not looking at her as he delivered his speech. She didn’t know what to say, how to respond to him. Not that he was giving her a chance to talk. Right when she opened her mouth to say something, he started speaking again.
“I know I can be blunt, that I come across cold. But I feel different when I’m with you. I want to laugh, to smile, I want to lie beneath the stars and stay there until we’ve counted them all. I want to give you the stars…” He ran his hands through his hair as he spun back around and then moved toward her, determination in his every step.
“Byron…” She tried to speak again, but he reached her and cupped her face with his hand.
“I won’t be my father. I won’t cheat or lie, or abuse. I won’t be like my mother. They were terrible to each other and they turned something that’s supposed to be beautiful into hate and ugliness. I thought that if I felt love, I would behave like they did. But love is a choice, and I choose to love you.”
Tears choked her as she looked into his eyes and saw the love shining in them. It was the first time she’d seen such strong emotion on his handsome face, and she couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat, so instead of trying to talk right then, she wrapped her arms around him, took his lips with hers, and tried to show him how she felt.
He grabbed her, deepening the kiss for several long heartbeats before he drew back, a mixture of passion and adoration burning in his gaze. I
t was more than she’d ever hoped to see.
“Don’t distract me, woman. I need to know how you feel,” he said, though he didn’t release his grasp on her.
“I love you, too,” she told him. “I never thought I could love anyone. I thought I’d locked that part of me away from the world, and then you stormed in and messed up my so-called perfect life.” Her voice broke.
“I don’t want to mess up your life. That’s not how this is supposed to go, McKenzie.”
“Don’t worry. Don’t worry at all. My life was terrible. I just didn’t see it until I met you. I didn’t realize that I was living in a world of beige when just around the corner there were exquisite colors waiting for me to discover. You make me feel emotions I’ve never felt before — good emotions — and I don’t want to let that go. I don’t want to live my life in fear, or even worse, live my life without any emotions at all.”
“Then we will grow together, McKenzie. We will learn how to trust and how to love to the fullest,” he promised her. “And we’ll do it in each others arms.”
“I will take you up on that, Byron Knight.”
McKenzie gasped when Byron lifted her into his arms. “What are you doing?”
“We’re going to celebrate somewhere a lot more private than this,” he said, carrying her down the hall and out of the building.
“Mmm, then hurry…”
She kissed his neck as he rushed to his car. After setting her inside, he circled around quickly, jumped into the driver’s seat, and he pulled her back to him.
“As long as you never stop doing that, Byron, I’ll be a very happy woman.”
“I can only promise forever,” he told her.
And forever is all that she would ask.
Epilogue
Come back to my bed,” Tyler said, reaching for her.
Elena turned and smiled. “Do you want me, Tyler?” she asked, moving a little closer.
“You know I do, baby,” he said, a smile in place as he threw off the blanket, showing her how much he wanted her with his thick arousal waiting.
“Good. Are you hurting?” she asked, giving him her most seductive smile.
“Oh yeah, baby. I’m hurting,” he said, his tongue coming out and wetting his lips.
“Good. Then you’re exactly where I want you to be,” she said.
He froze, his smile slowly fading at the change in her tone. Her friskiness was gone, and in its place all the hatred she could show was being directed at him.
“What in the world is going on?” Tyler asked.
“Are you confused?” she asked, enjoying her little game.
“Yeah, just a little,” he told her as he sat up, pulling the blanket back over him. That was too bad. She’d been enjoying the view.
“You see, Tyler, I know exactly who you are. You’re a spoiled, self-righteous little rich boy who thinks he can have anything he wants. Now, that I’ve got you all worked up, you can think about the fact that sometimes, you don’t get everything you want.”
Turning around, Elena smiled in victory. When she’d vowed to take Byron Knight down, she hadn’t realized how easy it would be. Men like him should pay, though they rarely did.
This time though, this time, he didn’t get what he wanted. She stepped into the bathroom and almost had the door shut when it was thrust back open. Standing there, looking far from pleased was Tyler in all his naked glory.
“Don’t even think for one second that you are going to make a comment like that and then just walk away,” he said as he took a menacing step toward her.
Elena’s heart lodged in her throat. This game had just taken a direction she hadn’t been planning on.
If you enjoyed this story, please enjoy a preview of :
Unexpected Treasure
by Melody Anne
Prologue
I can’t believe the way the grandchildren are growing like weeds. Little Jasmine is already fifteen, and boy, is she a beauty,” Joseph said.
Sitting on the back deck with the morning sun streaming down upon them, Joseph and his brother George were enjoying light breakfast pastries and coffee while catching up on news about the kids and their week.
“I know, Brother. Little Molly is ten years old now. It feels like it was only yesterday that Trenton was fighting tooth and nail not to get married and settle down, and now he and Jennifer have a beautiful family with two kids. Not to mention their rowdy dog, Scooter, and feisty cat, Ginger.”
“Don’t forget that dang goose. Last time I was there, the rascal got me right in the tush. I need to take my hunting rifle with me the next time that I visit,” Joseph threatened.
“If you’d just bring him some cracked corn like I do, he wouldn’t chase after you,” George said, not even attempting to hide his amusement.
“I’m not bribing a damn bird, and I’m certainly not running from one!”
“Ah, simmer down, Brother. I have a feeling the goose won’t be the end of you — it’s not as if you have a fundamental problem here, and you haven’t hit bottom. So forget that cheeky critter and put the incident behind you” he guffawed, gleeful at making Joseph the butt of his joke. He tended to go a lot over the top when he found something so amusing.
Joseph mumbled something very unbrotherly under his breath, but he let go of his wrath against both George and the animals at his nephew’s home. He had far more important issues to discuss, such as what they were going to eat that night.
“What are the plans for today?” George asked. “With Katherine and Esther out shopping, we can sneak away. I’m sick of golfing. Why don’t we race go-karts again? That was a thrill.”
“I think you’re trying to kill me off, George. You slammed me against the wall the last time we went,” Joseph huffed.
“You’re acting like an old man, Joseph. We still have lots of life left in these old bones.”
“True, George, very true. Fine. I’ll give go-kart racing another try, though I hope that these old bones don’t become these old broken bones. Let’s see how many of the grandchildren we can gather up to go with us.”
The men continued their morning meal as George pulled out the newspaper and flipped to the business section. Though George’s son Trenton was now in charge of Anderson and Sons Incorporated, George still liked to keep up on what was going on in the Seattle area.
Joseph looked up just in time to see George gasp for air, his face white. Frozen with fear for a few endless seconds, Joseph felt his legs finally start working again and he jumped up to help his brother.
“George! What’s wrong? Are you choking? Is it your heart? Speak to me, Brother,” he urged as he leaned over to see what he could do. They’d had enough health scares to last them a lifetime and Joseph didn’t think he could handle another near-death experience in his beloved family.
Just as Joseph began moving to race for the phone, George gestured wildly at the newspaper. Joseph stopped in his tracks and read the largest headline and subheadline on the page: “Billionaire buys flailing computer tech firm: Richard Storm sells East Coast shipping business, brings thousands of jobs to Seattle.”
It wasn’t the article that had Joseph turning as white as his brother. It was the photograph of a man who appeared to be their age — and who looked almost identical to the two of them, just a different hairstyle, some added wrinkles around the eyes, and a short beard covering his face.
“What is this?” Joseph gasped as he sank down in the chair next to George.
“I don’t know. The picture just startled me — that’s all. I’m sure it’s nothing.” George tried to reason it away, but he couldn’t stop staring at the still eyes of the man gazing into the camera. It was like looking into a mirror.
“Well, read the dang thing,” Joseph nearly shouted as he regained his voice. He pointed to a paragraph in the middle of the first column.
“Storm, who was born in Seattle, moved to the East Coast with his adoptive parents when still a baby. He says he owes his hard-work ethi
c to his father, who was a doctor in Seattle for 25 years before moving his medical practice to Portland, Maine. Storm was orphaned at age 18, when his parents died in a boating accident, and he used his modest inheritance to become a shipper of historic relics, mainly hard-to-find European artifacts from the 15th century. By the time he turned 30” — the newspaper gave a date — “he was worth more than $10 million — almost $60 million in today’s dollars — and he continued to increase his fortune dramatically. Storm is a now a billionaire several times over.”
“He was born here on the same day as we were? This can’t be a coincidence.”
“Let me keep reading.”
“Go on then,” Joseph said, still looking at the picture.
“Apparently, he married young, had five children — four boys and one girl — and then their mother left them. He’s made the move here because he feels it’s the right thing to do for his family.”
“We need answers, and I want them now, George.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
The two men went inside to Joseph’s large den and looked through the bookcase containing old family albums. When they came upon the album from the year they were born, they sat with it in front of the fireplace.
Less than an hour later, both men were speechless with shock. Richard Storm’s adoptive father was the same man who’d delivered Joseph and George. Their mother even had notes in the album about her doctor, saying how kind he was and how sad she felt that he and his wife were unable to have children.
Only one conclusion appeared likely. This doctor must have seized the opportunity to give his wife a child, too desperate to care about the consequences of ripping another family apart.
“This man, Richard, may very well be our brother,” George gasped as he gazed at the pictures of their mother holding them for the first time.
“But how is it possible she had a third child without realizing it?” Joseph countered.
“You know how different times were back then, Joseph. They didn’t have ultrasounds, and Mother suffered complications during delivery. She’d lost a lot of blood and they had to put her under. Dad wasn’t in the room — back then, fathers didn’t belong there. The only other person in the room with the doctor was his nurse, who also happened to be his wife. They could have easily seen the third child and taken the opportunity to create their own family. Why else would they have moved away so suddenly?”