Truly Madly Deeply Boxed Set

by Carly Phillips

  “I think we did, but there’s always a way to make up for lack of sleep.”

  “How?”

  Reaching for her, he said, “Spending the rest of the day in bed.”

  He wanted her again... as much as he wanted to avoid rehashing last night’s nightmare. Whether she understood his dual need or not, he couldn’t say. But she didn’t argue. Instead she leaned over and kissed his lips, then playfully smacked at his wandering hand.

  “Bed sounds good, but I can’t put off my work any longer,” she said.

  “How much do you need to do today?”

  “Well, I need to begin some sort of organizing for the book. And I need to sort through the letters that my editor forwarded for one or two new summer columns. I think one month of reruns is enough, don’t you?”

  “Not really. I could rerun last night with you over and over and never get bored.” He brushed his fingers over her breast in a lazy circular motion. “What about you?”

  Was it his imagination or did she stiffen at his touch. “I think we shouldn’t go overboard.” She grinned, but the smile seemed forced. “The work won’t disappear, so I’m kicking you out.”

  Her backing off didn’t surprise him and he decided to tread carefully. “Can’t kick me out when I have nowhere to go,” he reminded her, deliberately playing on her good nature.

  “True. But I can bribe you to disappear for a while.”

  Her attempt at easy banter relaxed him somewhat, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that she obviously needed to escape. And given her admitted fears, that need probably had more to do with their newly discovered intimacy and passion than with her need to work. Since making love had cemented an already strong bond, one he’d be forced to break, he decided to let her have her way.

  “I’m a man easily bribed. What did you have in mind?”

  “I’ll make you breakfast and then you disappear for a few hours. Get lost. Go take pictures somewhere.”

  “Pancakes?” he asked. “You know you can’t get pancakes in the places I’ve been hanging out lately.”

  “I think I can handle that,” she said wryly.

  “Bacon?”

  “Okay.”

  “Fresh-squeezed orange juice?”

  She grinned and poked him in the chest. “Now you’re pushing your luck.”

  “Deal, then.” With the subject off sex and onto food, Carly seemed completely at ease. Or did she just have him fooled? Before he left, the one thing he wanted more than anything was to help her get on with her life and put her painful past behind her.

  “I’ll get things started. Meet me in the kitchen in a few.” She tossed off the covers and started to rise.

  He reached for her, then changed his mind and let her go. Mike knew avoidance when he saw it. Hell, he was an expert on that subject. She’d helped draw him out last night. He owed her the same. Just because Carly had escaped his bed this morning didn’t mean he’d let her elude her demons as well.

  * * *

  Carly removed the necessary breakfast ingredients from the refrigerator. She didn’t want to analyze how much she’d enjoyed waking up with Mike beside her, or how relaxing she found making breakfast and knowing he’d be there to share it. Neither one could last.

  More than once she stopped to pull down the blue oxford she had pilfered from Mike’s closet. He had wrestled her for it, and of course he had won. Which was why she now wore nothing beneath the denim shirt. She yanked at the hem, but it still only reached as far as midthigh.

  Once she began the pancakes, she was grateful for the activity that took her mind off last night. Not only making love but the revelations. Everything about the dark night had inadvertently served to strengthen the emotional bond between them.

  She cared for him deeply. When he left her, she would be hurt in a way she hadn’t believed possible. As much as she tried to convince herself that his departure was necessary for them both, the more time they spent together, the harder it was to believe.

  Mike entered the kitchen to the delicious aroma of home cooking. The places he normally frequented lacked such a treat. Not only did the kitchen smell good but it felt good, too. Too good, too comfortable. “I guess you can cook.”

  “You were worried? I should be insulted. Sit.” she waved a spatula in his direction.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He grinned.

  “Mike?”

  “What?”

  She glanced in his direction, a serious glint in her eyes. “You told me why you’re in the Hamptons, but how’d you end up here? At the house?”

  “On a hunch, I went to see your father at the office. I asked him for motel names.”

  “I see.”

  “He showed me a picture of your family. Taken here, I think.”

  She turned her head. Her expression was unreadable.

  Mike pushed on. “He keeps it on his desk.” The sound of oil in the frying pan drew their attention to the stove, and Carly turned to work on breakfast.

  “Nice of him,” she said. “I wonder if it reminds him of happier times.” Sarcasm was evident in her voice. So was the hurt. Hurt he’d also seen in her father’s eyes.

  He recalled the photo and the pained look in Carly’s young eyes. Happier times? He doubted it. He wanted to broach the subject without her declaring it off-limits. And maybe help her, as she’d helped him, to at least discuss the source of her fear. “He asked about you.”

  “What did you tell him?” She flipped three pancakes over and transferred them to a dish beside the stove.

  “Nothing. But he was concerned.”

  Her snort of laughter seemed forced. “He’ll get over it. He’s still got his top associate, even if Peter won’t be his son-in-law.”

  “Unfair, Carly. He told me he wanted to dump Peter on his partner-climbing ass. You talked him out of it. He seemed genuinely concerned about you, not Pete.”

  She had finished the pancakes and added bacon to the frying pan. Her jerky motions were at odds with the casual air of indifference she tried to maintain.

  “Tell me about it,” he urged.

  Silence reigned until finally she spoke. “Remember what it was like being a kid?” she asked. “When life was one big illusion?”

  “After my parents died, reality killed any hopes of that. Do you?” he asked.

  “Yes. One day we were a happy family, no major problems that I knew of. The next we’re front-page news. Scandal of the year.” She plucked the half-cooked bacon off the pan and stacked it next to the pancakes. He didn’t see any reason to point that out. “Breakfast is served.” She executed a mock curtsy and placed his dish before him.

  “Thanks.”

  She smiled. “No problem. And because I like you, I caved in.” Opening the refrigerator, she pulled out a large pitcher. “Freshly squeezed. Never say I don’t accommodate you.”

  “Who me?” he asked. “Never.”

  He waited until she had seated herself across from him before continuing his questioning. “What kind of scandal?”

  Her dark eyes met his, and though they beseeched him to drop the subject, he wanted her to unburden herself, to trust him enough to share her pain. “Well?”

  “You should have been a cop,” she muttered. “You never give up.”

  “I’m the next best thing to a journalist. What did you expect?”

  She groaned and paused to eat something before beginning. “We lived in a small town in upstate New York. Everyone knew everyone else and gossip ran rampant. So when Roger Wexler, district attorney with political aspirations, hit the news he did it in style.”

  She flicked her bangs out of her eyes and looked at him. He waited for her to continue in silence. “Want to take a guess?” she asked.

  He shook his head.

  “My dad carried on an affair with his secretary for one year. Until the woman forced him to choose between her and his family. In political terms, that’s your lover or your career. Take your pick.” She toyed with her pancakes, staring at th
e now cold stack.

  “He chose your mother?” Mike asked.

  “Yes, but that doesn’t make the man a saint. I have no illusions that his decision was politically motivated. And I guess he thought his choice was the end of it.”

  “But it wasn’t.”

  She shook her head, her pained gaze meeting his. “The woman killed herself, Mike. But not before leaving a suicide note and mailing it to the local paper. She was pregnant.”

  Mike sucked in a breath, wishing he had never forced Carly to resurrect these memories. But he had... “Then what?” he asked, knowing he had to hear the end.

  “Life went on. Dad’s political career was in ruins, but he never let it get him down. After a while we packed up and moved to the city. Dad hooked up with some old law school buddies and started his own firm.”

  “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “How did all of this affect you?” he asked.

  “I was fifteen. Your friends are your friends so long as there’s nothing to laugh at. I went to school surrounded by gossip and laughter. I got used to it.”

  “I doubt that.”

  She shrugged. “Eventually we moved and I finished up in private school.”

  “But how’d you survive? Being a teenager is tough by definition. Add your problems...”

  “I kept busy. Joined the teen crisis hot line. It kept me out of the house after school so I didn’t have to go home where talk of our family problems was prohibited. I couldn’t watch my mother pretend life was fine.”

  Bingo, Mike thought. Carly’s problems weren’t with her father alone. She resented her mother’s behavior as well, and she’d closed them both out of her life. “So that’s how you got started helping teenagers,” Mike said.

  She nodded. “I did similar work in college, majored in psychology, and eventually it translated into my column. End of boring story.”

  “You never forgave him, did you?” he asked, thinking of the distraught older man he had seen days earlier.

  “Not in here.” She placed a hand over her heart.

  “Your mother did... or appears to.”

  “That’s debatable. Mom’s tough. She believes in handling your private pain in private. I got no support from her because she refused to admit we...” She gestured around the room, the house she’d visited as a child. “We as a family had a problem. I don’t agree with how she chose to live her life, but I can’t fault her for her coping mechanisms.”

  Mike disagreed. Carly blamed her mother every bit as much as her father but hadn’t come to terms with her relationship with either one of them. But now wasn’t the time to push her further.

  “I’m not as big a person as my mother... you’ve seen that. She stuck by her man. I didn’t stick with Peter. But my parents taught me one important lesson in life.”

  “And what’s that?” he asked, sensing this was the key.

  “I discovered firsthand what a destructive force passion can be and I’ll never allow it to rule my life,” she said with a vehemence that would have once shocked him.

  But after experiencing her extreme reactions to their intense physical attraction, he now understood. She obviously believed she could separate their physical relationship from the emotional and thereby never repeat her father’s mistakes.

  He glanced across the table. Carly had begun clearing their half-eaten meal. When he had arrived in the Hamptons, Mike had feared he needed the safety Carly represented and not the woman herself. As he watched her clatter the plates into the sink, he realized how very wrong he had been. And how very much a part of him she had become. The truth frightened him almost as much as it obviously frightened her.

  Carly turned from the sink with tears in her eyes.

  He held out his arms and she sank into them. Burying his face in her hair, he comforted her the best he could and pushed aside all questions about the future.

  NINE

  After their emotional discussion, Carly tossed Mike out. Pushing the morning’s events out of her mind, she set about organizing her columns into broad topics. Family, Friendships and Male-Female Relationships seemed like perfect headings, and hours later she had three distinct piles.

  Family was a logical starting point but not a topic she was anxious to delve into yet. The same could be said of Male-Female Relationships, she thought, recalling her night with Mike. She set those piles aside. Friendship seemed like a safe place to begin. From there she would progress to Male-Female Relationships and ultimately Family Relations. The last two topics caused a distinct and unwelcome freezing in the region of her heart.

  She sighed. How could she give advice when those areas of her own life were so complicated and unsettled? For years she’d walled off her emotions for fear of facing them. Thanks to Mike, she couldn’t put off facing her personal life much longer. But first she had a deadline to meet. As a professional she had learned to separate her personal feelings from her career. Anything less now and she would lose all objectivity.

  She stood and stretched, each cramped muscle protesting her prolonged period of sitting in one position. The rumbling sounds of her stomach echoed in the empty room. This morning’s breakfast had filled the garbage disposal more than it had her stomach. A late lunch would help, she decided, and headed for the kitchen.

  The light tap on the side door startled her. This exit led not to the main drive but to the beach. She wasn’t expecting company, and Mike wouldn’t be so formal as to knock before announcing his presence. Pulling back the curtains, she found herself face-to- face with her ex-fiancé. He’d given her no warning and she found herself unprepared for any sort of confrontation.

  “It was a long drive, Carly. Will you let me in?”

  Stunned, she stared through the glass. “Sure.” She opened the door and Peter walked into the kitchen. Dark circles surrounded his eyes and razor stubble covered his normally clean-shaven cheeks. He looked tired, she realized. And a lot more casual than the formality she’d grown accustomed to seeing. She took in his rumpled khaki chinos and a burgundy T-shirt and shook her head. She barely recognized him.

  “This was a long drive.” And he could have just used the telephone. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  He ran a hand through his neatly trimmed hair.

  “I needed to straighten out a few things.” His gaze traveled the length of her body.

  Too late she remembered that she wore nothing but the blue oxford shirt and a pair of satin bikinis. After her shower, the button-down had seemed like the most comfortable item of clothing to work in. And, she grudgingly admitted, after the morning’s painful revelations, she took comfort in something that smelled so much like Mike.

  Embarrassed by her lack of clothing, she retreated behind the center island and immediately felt more protected. “Everything already makes sense to me, so you wasted the trip.” She didn’t want to get into a discussion of why he’d felt the need to cheat on her with Regina. She already knew and didn’t need to hear how she’d fallen short with him in the romance department.

  Peter cleared his throat. “I think you have the wrong impression.” He shook his head. “No, you probably have the right impression.” He let out a groan.

  “Let’s make this easy. I’ve done a lot of thinking since I’ve been here,” Carly said. “We’re both at fault. I certainly shouldn’t have given in at every turn or let you think I was happy when I wasn’t.”

  “And I shouldn’t have...” He flushed, a deep red against pale skin.

  “No, you shouldn’t have.” But she couldn’t suppress a laugh. She much preferred being around Peter now that they were no longer engaged.

  “I wanted to apologize in person. We were good friends once.”

  “I know.” Her voice softened. “And I hope we will be again. We lost that somewhere along the line.”

  He shoved a hand into his front pocket and started across the kitchen. “We were good together for a while, and then... I stopped thinking a
bout you and took advantage. Thanks for sticking up for me with Roger.”

  At least he’d admitted his mistakes. And maybe even learned from them. He deserved to be happy and she wished him the best, as long as it wasn’t with her. “You’re a good attorney. You never needed me as leverage.”

  He stepped up beside her.

  “Nothing’s happened to change your position... has it?” she asked, wondering if her father had acted out of belated parental concern.

  “Actually, yes.”

  “I’m sorry. My father promised he’d be fair.”

  Peter grinned. “He was. You’re looking at the newest litigation partner.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s great news.”

  His smile never reached his eyes. Instead he brushed a strand of hair off her cheek. “I never meant to hurt you.” His hand came to rest on her shoulder.

  She’d liked Peter, and he wasn’t the only one who’d made mistakes. “I know that.”

  “Work time’s over, Carly. Time for a little fun.” Mike’s deep chuckle and footsteps reverberated throughout the small house.

  The sounds stopped abruptly. “I had no idea we had company.”

  “Mike...”

  “I know you’re my brother and she’s your ex, but I’d appreciate it if you’d take your hands off her.” The cool control in Mike’s voice startled her.

  Peter obeyed his command, releasing her immediately. No doubt it was the shock of Mike’s sudden appearance that had him responding so quickly. Taking advantage, she took a few steps backward.

  Peter’s gaze ping-ponged from Carly to his brother. Mike stood, arms crossed over his bare chest. Fresh from a shower, his hair was damp and his jeans were zipped but unbuttoned. He looked settled and comfortable, a man who had a rightful place in her home.

  The intimacy of the situation couldn’t have escaped Peter. “Well,” he said, “I see I’m not the only one who was fooled.” The hurt in his voice was unmistakable. “While I was working, giving you free rein over my fiancée, you took advantage.” He glared at his brother.

  “It wasn’t like that,” Carly said, hoping to prevent irreparable harm between Mike and Peter.