Beyond Temptation

by Brenda Jackson

  She made a face at him before saying, “Fine and counting. One more month to go and I’m free.”

  He nodded. He then crossed the room to Lena. She was standing alone near the sink. Remembering their last conversation he wasn’t sure how her attitude would be toward him. “Hello, Lena.”

  “Morgan.”

  “How’s your mother?”

  “She’s doing fine. Thanks for asking.”

  He nodded. “I told Vanessa I would make myself useful while I’m here. I’ll be outside trimming her hedges if you need me for anything.”

  She lifted a brow. “If I need you for anything?”

  He smiled. “Yes.”

  Lena stared at him, remembering what Kylie had told her just that morning. The only reason Morgan had hired her to sell his house was that he had wanted her, although she and Kylie had a difference of opinion of just what the word want actually meant.

  “I’m glad you came here today since I was going to seek you out tomorrow.”

  She watched the smile spread to his eyes. “You were?”

  “Yes. There’s something I needed to tell you, and if you have time, since the meeting hasn’t started yet, maybe I can do it now.”

  His smile widened. “Sure. Let’s go into Vanessa’s study for privacy.”

  Lena nodded and then glanced around the room at the other ladies, not surprised to find them staring at her and Morgan. Evidently there weren’t too many secrets in the Steele family. Had all of them known of his obsession to have her in his bed? “If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I need to speak with Morgan about something.”

  She followed Morgan to Vanessa’s study, and the moment the door was closed, she inhaled deeply, feeling angry and frustrated.

  He leaned back on Vanessa’s desk and smiled at her. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

  She crossed the room, trying to hold back her anger and the hurt she felt. “It has come to my attention that you hired me as your real estate agent for an indecent reason and I just want you to know that effective today, I quit.”

  Then without saying anything else, she turned and walked out of the room.

  Chapter 16

  On Monday morning Morgan was standing at the window in his office thinking about what Lena had told him on Saturday. Since the meeting had started he hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to her after that because as soon as the meeting was over she’d left.

  But then, what exactly could he have said? He couldn’t deny that he’d had ulterior motives for hiring her as a Realtor. But she was wrong about any of it being indecent.

  He was in love with her, but he knew he would have a hard time convincing her of that now. He had talked to Kylie yesterday and she had convinced him that the best thing to do was to just give Lena time to come around. Well, he didn’t want to give her time. He wanted and needed her like he needed his next breath.

  His secretary’s voice on the intercom intruded into his thoughts.

  “Yes, Linda?”

  “There’s a Ms. Jamie Hollis here to see you. She doesn’t have an appointment but indicated she’s Senator Hollis’s daughter.”

  Morgan rolled his eyes. Like he gave a flip, and he was ready to tell Linda to advise the senator’s daughter he was too busy to see her. But then he decided what the hell? He needed to set Jamie straight once and for all. “All right, Linda, please send her in.”

  A few minutes later Jamie walked in with her expensive perfume almost choking him. She was dressed in an outfit that probably cost a pretty penny, and she looked the epitome of a wealthy, sophisticated, aristocratic lady. He had to admit she was an attractive woman, but he was able to see beyond that beauty to someone he wouldn’t be attached to even for a billion dollars. “Jamie,” he said, with a forced smile, crossing the room to give her a formal handshake. “What can I do for you?”

  She smiled up at him as she took the seat he offered. “The question, Morgan, is what I can do for you. I’d like to make you an offer I don’t think you’ll be able to refuse.”

  He lifted a brow and leaned back on his desk. “Really, and what is it?”

  “A partnership between us.”

  He inwardly shuddered, wondering if that’s how he’d sounded that day he had offered Lena a business deal between them. If so, then he regretted every word he’d spoken. “What kind of a partnership?”

  “Marriage. I’ll be thirty this time next year, and Daddy thinks it’s time I do something.”

  Morgan crossed his arms over his chest. “Does he?”

  “Yes. And I was bred and groomed to be a politician’s wife, someone who’s going places. And I want to become a mother one day, with a nanny of course.”

  She shifted in the chair, and her smile widened and excitement shone in her eyes as she continued. “Everyone sees you as a top contender for Charlotte’s first black mayor in a few years, and who knows where that will lead? I could see you as the governor, even president one day. And I intend to be your First Lady all the way.”

  Like hell you will. He cleared his throat. Evidently she had erroneously thought things through. “I appreciate your offer, Jamie, but I thought you knew.”

  “Knew what?”

  “I’ve asked someone else to marry me. In fact we’ll be announcing our engagement sometime this week.”

  The spark in her eyes was replaced with a furious dart. “Really? Who?”

  “Lena Spears.”

  She blinked and then he watched a smile touch her lips before she waved her well-manicured, neatly polished hand in the air like his words had held no significant meaning. “Really? Morgan, Lena is not the woman you need, I am. In fact after our little talk last week with Lena, Cassandra and I were sure we had convinced her that if she cared anything for you she would get out of the picture.”

  He straightened. “Excuse me?”

  “I said we had a talk with Lena last week. We happened to run into her at McIntosh’s. She’s a very sensible woman who I believes loves you, but we made it quite clear that she wasn’t the woman for you. For a man of your caliber, you need a woman who possesses style, grace, pedigree, wealth and connections.”

  Morgan shook his head. “Let me get this straight. You actually said those things to Lena?”

  She smiled. “Of course. Someone needed to be honest and up front with her. And since the two of you hadn’t announced an engagement this weekend, I assumed she took our advice.”

  Morgan nodded. She had. No wonder she had given him that garbage that night in her office about not being the appropriate woman for him. He walked over to the chair Jamie was sitting in and leaned over, placing his hands on the arms and pinning her in. Anger, the likes he’d never known before, flowed through him.

  “Listen, Jamie, and listen well,” he said through gritted teeth. “There will never be a business partnership of any kind between us. When I marry, I will marry for love, and the woman I marry will be Lena Spears. And I will be marrying her for all the right reasons, and if I ever hear of you or anyone else spouting anything to her about not being good enough for me and my political future, you will have to deal with me. Do you understand?”

  “Are you threatening me, Morgan?”

  “No, I’m telling it like it is, and if you ever come back I will get on television and tell everyone about why it was necessary for you to take that trip to London for six months last year.”

  She blinked. “What are you talking about?”

  “You figure it out. But like you, I do have connections and mine talk and have all the proof we need. It would be an embarrassment not only for your father but also for the Tisdale family, who think so highly of their family name.”

  He’d said enough. Cameron, who made it a point to keep tabs on people who could either be a menace or someone useful to him in the future, had picked up wind of the senator’s daughter’s pregnancy and how she’d gone to London to give the child up for adoption. He had found it interesting and had passed the information on to Morgan
earlier that year.

  He stepped back, more than certain she was ready to leave his office and wouldn’t be coming back any time soon. Before she walked out the door he said, “And if I were you I would try and find a way to convince Cassandra to keep her mouth shut, too. There’s a lot she doesn’t want taken out of her closet as well.”

  He walked back to the window and didn’t even look around when he heard the door slam shut.

  After lunch Morgan placed a call to a friend from college who happened to be the top anchorwoman at the city’s leading television station. When Gail Winston came on the line he said, “All right, Gail, I promised you first dibs when I decided to run for office.”

  He laughed and placed the phone away from his ear when he heard her scream. “Yes, I’d like to announce it on your show Friday morning, but there’s a catch.”

  He knew that would grab her attention. “Listen up. This is how I want you to handle things.”

  Gail Winston smiled into the camera. It was Friday morning and in a few seconds another segment of her local morning talk show would begin. When the producer gave her cue, she began.

  “First, I want to thank our next guests who have joined forces with our local high schools to present a career fair that will be held next week. We have with us today Vanessa Steele, PR representative for the Steele Corporation. Lena Spears, a local Realtor from our area. And Jocelyn Steele, who will be the general manager of Cody Construction here in town. And it’s my understanding Cody Construction will be establishing apprenticeship training in the areas of bricklaying, air-conditioning and plumbing this fall for individuals who are interested in those occupations.”

  Putting an even bigger smile on her face, Gail said, “Good morning, ladies.”

  “Good morning,” the three women said simultaneously.

  And for the next ten minutes, under the direction of Gail’s intense questions, they talked to the television audience about the importance of the students in the area coming out and taking part in such a worthwhile event.

  After a commercial break, Gail came back on the air with the three ladies still sitting with her onstage in guest seats. “The reason I asked these ladies to remain is that two of them are members of the Steele family. And it just so happens that we have a surprise guest for everyone today. For years it’s been speculated that sooner or later one of this city’s favorite sons would enter politics, and today history is in the making. I have as our special guest someone most of you know because of his involvement in so many community affairs. Let’s give a warm welcome to Morgan Steele, director of research and development for the Steele Corporation.”

  The audience applauded when Morgan walked out onstage and took the extra guest seat, which just happened to be beside Lena. Lena’s heart almost stopped when he walked out. Impeccably dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and red tie, he looked like a movie celebrity rather than a businessman and easily took the breath away of any female seeing him.

  She tried to focus her gaze on the monitor and not on him, for fear of another heartbreak. She loved him, and wooing her had been nothing more than a game to him.

  Morgan settled into his seat. He hoped like hell this plan worked and had felt confident that it would, but now he wasn’t all that sure, especially with the tension he could feel radiating from Lena.

  Gail took control and pulled in his attention.

  “Morgan has been a guest on my show before to promote numerous community causes, but this time he’s here for another reason, right, Morgan?”

  He smiled into the camera. “Right, Gail. Today I want to officially announce my candidacy for the council-at-large seat here in Charlotte. However, there is one condition.”

  Gail leaned forward and smiled. “And what condition is that?” she dutifully asked.

  “I am a single man and there are a group of people who believe it’s important that I have a good woman by my side, and I agree. What I don’t agree with is the theory that I should choose a woman because the public thinks she and I will do well together politically as a team.”

  The camera angled in on him, and the intensity in his features couldn’t be missed as he continued. “The woman I will marry is a woman I trust, a woman I know will have my back no matter what, and a woman I know is capable of being everything I could ever want in a wife. She is also a woman I love. I don’t care if some people out there think she’s not what they want for me. She is the woman I want for myself.”

  He paused for a second, then said, “So many times when people are involved in politics, they marry for all the wrong reasons. They form a partnership instead of a real marriage, and that’s not what I want for myself. I could not understand the importance of the family and marriage dynamics if I didn’t have a real marriage of my own. I want to marry for love and nothing else.”

  Anyone listening to what Morgan had said, whether a romantic or not, had to have felt the deep emotions he’d just conveyed in his words. Even Gail dabbed at her eyes.

  “So, have you asked this young lady to marry you yet?” Gail couldn’t help asking since she knew her audience would want to know.

  “Yes, but at the time I asked her for the wrong reason. Now I want to ask her for the right one. I want her to know how much I truly do love her and that more than anything I want her to be my wife and the mother of my children. And whether I win this election bid doesn’t matter as long as I have her by my side and in my life.”

  Gail dabbed at her eyes again. “Do you think she’s out there watching the show and knows what you’re saying?”

  “It’s even better than that,” he said, smiling. “The woman I love just happens to be here onstage with us.” Then before anyone could blink, Morgan got out of his chair and on his knees in front of Lena, while pulling a small white velvet box out of his pants pocket.

  The cameras moved in closer, determined to capture the entire thing on film. Morgan took Lena’s hand in his and gazed up into her eyes and took a deep breath. “Lena, if there is anything such as love at first sight, then it happened to me the night of the American Cancer Society’s annual ball, when you walked into that ballroom. I can remember in full detail the dress you were wearing that night because you were such a vision of beauty in it that it took my breath away. And I knew from that night on I had to make you mine.

  “And I’m here before you, on bended knee, wanting to do that. I love you and I believe you love me, too. Otherwise you would not have cared what became of my future. But what you don’t know is that I truly don’t have a future without you. You are the essence of my very being. You are the woman I want to see when I wake up in the morning, and the last face I want to see before going to sleep at night. You are the only woman I want and need in my life. You are my perfect woman. You are my everything.”

  His smile wavered just a little when he saw all her tears. He hoped they weren’t tears of sadness but tears of joy. He opened the ring box and held the ring in his hand. “And will you make me the happiest man on earth, sweetheart, by agreeing to marry me? Will you marry me, Lena, and have my babies, to stick beside me for better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness and in health, until death do us part?”

  Tears continued to stream down Lena’s face. The man she loved more than anything was proclaiming his love for her for all to hear. It was only when everything in the studio got quiet, except for the sounds of more than a few sniffles, that she realized that everyone, especially Morgan, was waiting on her answer.

  She leaned forward and cupped his face in her hand. Meeting his gaze she said, loud and clear, “And I love you, too, Morgan, and yes, I will marry you and have your babies. And you will make me an extremely happy woman as well.”

  Morgan slid the ring on Lena’s hand, and of course the cameraman had to slide his camera over for the ultimate shot for the television audience.

  “Can you believe the size of that rock?” Gail exclaimed to everyone as the monitor continued to zero in on Lena’s hand.

  “Wel
l, folks, this is certainly a first. I don’t know of any other morning show where someone can officially announce their candidacy and do a marriage proposal in the same ten-minute segment.”

  Everyone heard her words, but most people were staring at Morgan when he stood to his feet and pulled Lena into his arms for one whopper of a kiss.

  Gail smiled brightly, knowing her ratings would soar. “Well, there you have it, folks. A man who puts love before any political career he might be seeking certainly will definitely get my vote. And remember you saw it live right here.”

  Lena smiled tremendously as she glanced around the room. “Are you sure this is the house you want, Morgan? Your other home was—”

  “My other home. I want to start somewhere new with you and Odessa. I knew when you showed this house to me that day that it would be perfect for us and our family.”

  She nodded happily as she walked into his outstretched arms. “What about your other home? Does Donovan still want it?”

  Morgan threw his head back and chuckled. “Honey, Donovan never wanted my house. I talked him into buying it as part of my plan to get you.”

  Lena shook her head. “And you were that desperate?”

  “Yes, for you I was that desperate. Plan A failed badly, but I was determined to make plan B a success. I hit a few bumps along the way but in the end I got you just where I want you, in my arms.”

  She cocked her head back and looked at him. “And not your bed.”

  He grinned. “Yes, there, too.”

  Lena moved closer and placed her head on her fiancé’s chest. Today had to be the happiest day of her life. “Thanks for making sure Mom and everyone at the adult day care center was able to see this morning’s show. She was so proud.”

  Morgan smiled. “And I’m glad. She’s a part of out family and I never want her to forget it.”

  Lena leaned back in his arms to look up at him. Tears shone in her eyes. “Thanks That means a lot to me.”