From Boardroom to Wedding Bed?

by Jules Bennett

  She pulled a red cotton sundress over her head and slipped into her brown, beaded flip-flops. No time for grooming or any other maintenance like hair, makeup. None of that truly mattered, not in the grand scheme of things. She wanted to get to the hospice center before they took her father’s…body.

  God, those words didn’t sound right even running through her head. This didn’t happen to her. Things like this happened to other people. Other people lost loved ones.

  Now she was truly all alone. There was no one else in her family.

  Tamera took a deep breath, grabbed her keys and purse and headed out to her garage. She couldn’t think about what she was doing in the middle of the night while the rest of Miami slept…or partied. Life went on even though her father’s had ended and her world would never be the same.

  She’d never hear his voice, never have a proud career moment she could share with him and get his nod of approval. Gone. He was just gone.

  Before she knew it, she was pulling into the parking lot. Another deep breath and she killed the engine and tugged on the door handle.

  She could do this. She had to. There was no one else.

  As soon as she hit the nurses’ station, Camille came around the desk and put an arm around her.

  “The folks from the funeral home haven’t arrived, yet. I’m so sorry, Tamera.”

  Tamera swallowed the lump of hurt. And while she appreciated the nurse’s comfort, Tamera knew if she broke down now, she may never stop. “I knew this moment was coming.”

  “But it doesn’t make it any easier,” the nurse said, guiding her down the stark white hallway.

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  Camille paused outside the closed door. “I’ll let you go in and have a moment to yourself.”

  Tamera nodded her appreciation, unable to express her thanks aloud for fear of losing it right here in the hallway.

  Once the nurse went back down the hall, Tamera opened the door. She didn’t know what she expected, but seeing her father lying on his bed didn’t bother her as much as she thought it would.

  He looked as though he were sleeping. Peacefully.

  On shaky legs, Tamera crossed the room and tugged the blanket up around his shoulders.

  Peace. He’d finally found it. Something about that fact put Tamera at ease as well. Yes, her life wouldn’t be the same without him, but it was selfish of her to want him back when he’d just been living in pain. He’d lived a happy, full life and done all the things he wanted to do.

  She knelt over the bed, kissed his forehead. Her lips lingered, not wanting to break any bond.

  “I love you, Daddy,” she whispered. “I forgive you.”

  Cole hung up the phone. He’d been calling every day since he and Tamera had their blowup to check on Walter. He knew when the old man passed Tamera wouldn’t confide in him, so he’d had to keep himself in the loop on his own.

  But now Walter was gone and Cole couldn’t bring himself to be remorseful.

  But Tamera had to feel all alone…she was alone now with no family left. Who would she turn to? Who would offer her a shoulder to cry on, lean on?

  Cole wished she’d come to him, but he wasn’t naïve enough to believe she’d trust him with anything, especially her feelings, ever again.

  And that was fine. Really. In the grand scheme of things, he didn’t have time for a relationship, especially one with so much baggage. They’d have to work doubly hard and he really didn’t have time or the patience for that type of commitment.

  He would send flowers to the funeral home, and a personal bouquet and message to Tam’s house. After that, their dealings would be in business only.

  Though he did feel as if he should deliver her flowers in person. If nothing else, to make sure she was okay and to defend himself for the final time. Victor’s party hadn’t given him the right opportunity.

  And there was one more thing. What he needed to do was catch her now, vulnerable and all, and make her see his side. Then perhaps he could persuade her to sell her father’s company and work for him.

  True, he didn’t want the relationship consisting of anything that remotely resembled the “L” word, but she was one hell of a worker and Cole wanted her on his team. So long as the rest of The Stevens Group went by the wayside.

  Cole pushed up from his sofa and went to dress. Tamera’s father had passed away in the middle of the night, and seeing as how it was now ten in the morning, Tamera should be back home.

  He quickly dressed, all the while running through his mind all he would and should say to her to sway her to see his point of view in the dealings so long ago and to get her to come over to his side.

  In the mood for something a little less “businesslike,” Cole grabbed the keys to his Jeep Wrangler. From his house on Star Island, it didn’t take long to drive to Tamera’s beachfront condo in South Beach, especially early on a Sunday morning.

  He pulled in behind her car along the street and got out. He prepared himself for whatever state she may be in. Angry, depressed, shocked, numb. He was ready to console her no matter the emotions she was dealing with.

  Cole rang the doorbell and waited. But when the door opened, he realized there was one emotion he’d overlooked. Emptiness.

  He didn’t wait for an invitation…not that he expected one. He walked through the door and put his arms around her.

  “No.” Tamera pulled back and turned away. “I don’t want you to console me.”

  Cole stood rooted in place. Tam’s rigid back and the steel in her tone concerned him.

  “Don’t be afraid to break, Tam.” He stepped closer. “Crying and getting angry are perfectly normal emotions.”

  She spun around, her eyes red and swollen, but dry. “How did you know?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “I don’t want you here.”

  “I’m sure you don’t,” he agreed. “But who else would you call to come be with you?”

  Her chin tilted. “Who said I was going to call anyone? I’m just fine, Cole.”

  So be it.

  “Good.” He crossed his arms because he wanted to pull her against him and assure her everything would be fine. Stupid on his part. He didn’t need to get tangled up anymore in this woman. “I assume the funeral will be this week.”

  She nodded, but her eyes remained fixed over his shoulder. She wasn’t listening, wasn’t comprehending what he was saying. She was running on little more than fumes and it wouldn’t take long for her to collapse on this wall she’d built out of sand.

  “If you need anything at all, call me. Don’t shut me out because of your pride.”

  “I’m shutting you out because of your pride,” she amended in a low, sad tone.

  “I’ve put my pride aside. Can you say the same?”

  “Put your pride aside?” She stood stone still. “You think by barging in here, hoping to catch me in an emotional meltdown, I’ll collapse into your arms and we’ll get past this?”

  He told himself not to let her stinging words hurt or deter him. She was aching, grieving. Not thinking straight.

  Or maybe her true feelings were just now coming out.

  “Honestly,” he began in a low voice. “I did want you to admit that you needed someone. And, yes, I wanted that someone to be me. I’m not asking you to deal with your father’s death and our past all at once. I’m not a jerk, Tam, but I’m also not going to beg.”

  Once again, she stared and said nothing as he showed himself out. He’d let her think about that for a while. Pride and lies had gotten them in trouble before, he didn’t make the same mistakes twice.

  If she wanted to keep everything from here on out businesslike, then he would go along with her wishes. But he wouldn’t make the process easy for her. Because he was finally coming to realize that maybe, just maybe, they did need each other in more than just the boardroom.

  Rain poured down and Tamera willed her wipers to go faster. She had no clue where she was driving this morning, b
ut she knew she couldn’t go home. Not right now. She couldn’t go into work, either. Not when her father’s memories still lingered and hovered in every corner on every floor.

  As her car passed over the bridge to Star Island, she realized what she was doing. She needed to do this. Now that her father’s funeral had passed, Tamera knew life was too short to hold grudges. She’d forgiven her father, now she needed to forgive Cole.

  With yesterday evening’s funeral replaying over and over in her mind, Tamera knew today had to be a new beginning.

  She pulled around the fountain in Cole’s circular drive and killed her engine. Leaving her keys and her purse in her car, she hopped out. No need to take her things with her. What she came to say would only take a minute.

  When she stepped from the car, rain pelted her skin, drenching her instantly. Her hair clung to her neck and shoulders.

  But she just stood there. Everything about her life played through her head. Her father holding her hand when her mother had passed away, her father teaching her to drive and dance. The moments when he’d taken time to show her his little secrets about the company she’d now inherited. The moment when the pallbearers settled her father’s casket onto the platform at the cemetery.

  The flowers and card from The Marcum Agency. Cole.

  “Tamera.”

  Tamera turned her head toward Cole’s voice. He stood in his doorway wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts.

  And in the second he saw her face, he must’ve known. Even though they’d severed their connection from years ago, he still knew her heart and her vulnerabilities. He came out into the rain and pulled her into his embrace.

  That was all it took. She wrapped her arms around his bare waist and clung to him, wishing she could draw strength from him. But all that happened was the meltdown that had been a long time coming.

  No matter what had happened with Cole, she still had feelings for him. He was the only man she’d ever loved and she needed him right now. She needed that shoulder to cry on and she didn’t care if he thought her weak. At this moment, she was.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She’d been hearing those simple words so much over the past few days, but for some reason, coming from Cole’s mouth, she believed him.

  He kissed the top of her head and eased her back to study her drenched face. “Come in out of the rain.”

  Her eyes darted to his moist lips as the rain continued to beat down on them. Desire like she’d never known coursed through her, fighting against the hurt and emptiness she’d been feeling for far too long.

  Maybe she needed him more than she thought. She eased up on her toes to angle her mouth toward his.

  “No,” he said over the downpour. “That is not what you need.”

  “That’s exactly what I need, Cole.”

  She framed his face with her hands and drew his lips down to hers. He didn’t resist.

  Cole’s arms came around her, lifting her up off the driveway and flush against his taut, wet body. Her moment of control over this situation, if she ever really had it, was long gone and in Cole’s hands. Which was fine with her.

  She didn’t want to think, didn’t want to worry about anything but taking the comfort Cole had to offer. Didn’t want to think about the actions and the events that led her straight to his door. Nor did she want to consider the reality that she was weak, vulnerable and Cole was the only rock in this storm she could cling to.

  When he turned to carry her into the house, Tamera wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck. Toying with the wet hair at the nape of his neck, she kissed along his strong jaw. God, she’d missed him.

  With a swift kick, he had the door closed and her pinned against it. But he kept his touch soft, light, as if he were afraid of breaking her. She couldn’t break anymore than she already had.

  “Don’t be gentle with me,” she demanded against his lips.

  “I’m giving what you need.” His husky tone and warm breath excited her even more. “Whether you know it or not.”

  “I need you. Only you.”

  He peeled the wet straps down her arms, she tugged free of them as he pulled the garment below her breasts. She arched her back as he slid a hand behind her to unfasten her strapless bra and toss it without a care to the tile floor.

  Reaching beneath the short hem of her sundress, he pulled at her bikini panties until they slid silently to the floor, leaving her bare for him.

  His mouth ran from her neck down to the slope of her breasts. Tamera clutched his wet, messy hair with her fingers.

  “Wait,” she panted. “Condom.”

  “Relax. I’ve got you protected. Always.”

  The meaning behind his words was so much more than here and now, but she couldn’t think about it, didn’t want to get false hope.

  Cole pulled her away from the door, took her hand and guided her up the wide, sweeping staircase. But Tamera didn’t want to follow. She bypassed him in a mad dash toward his bedroom.

  As soon as she crossed the threshold, she shimmied out of the dress, allowing it to fall to the tiled floor of his master suite with a wet slap. Cole’s eyes raked over her bare body, the muscle in his jaw clenching as he crossed to the bedside table and pulled out a condom.

  Tamera walked up behind him, kissed her way across his taut shoulders before falling back onto the bed in a provocative position. She raised slightly up onto her elbows, quirking a brow at him.

  Cole tossed the condom onto her stomach. “Cover me.”

  Once he was ready, she guided him into her.

  How could she ever think the two of them was a mistake? How had she not seen that she cared about this man more than she wanted to admit?

  Cole captured her mouth once again as her body started rising toward its peak. She wrapped her legs around him once again and climaxed just before him.

  Their bodies shuddered together as Cole placed a tender kiss to her lips. He lay on her body, chest to chest afterward, his fast, heavy breathing tickling the side of her neck.

  “I didn’t know where else to go,” she murmured, afraid of the words and what they meant.

  “I’m glad you came here.” He lifted up, rolled to the side and rested his head on his hand. “I’m also sorry you’re hurting.”

  Tamera didn’t want to diminish the afterglow of their lovemaking, but she had to face reality. She had to tell him what was in her heart, and hopefully salvage the best part of the relationship they’d had and rebuild a life from there.

  “I actually came to just tell you that I forgive you.”

  His eyes widened. “Really?”

  She turned to her side to face him. “I can’t live holding grudges and with Dad’s passing, I know that life is too short to stay mad. Besides, being on friendly terms with you has its benefits.”

  His eyes roamed down the dip in her waist and over the swell of her hip. “Yes, it does.”

  He pushed her onto her back once again and showed her just how beneficial their friendship could be.

  “I don’t think I can handle this.”

  Tamera hadn’t wanted to admit that to herself, much less aloud. But her fears were out in the open, in Cole’s darkened bedroom. His roman shades had dropped at the click of a switch just after they’d made love in the glow of the sunset. But resting was something Tamera knew wouldn’t happen for a long, long time.

  Cole rolled from his back to his side. “This as in us?”

  Tamera kept her eyes averted to the ceiling. She didn’t want to face him, not when she was voicing her waking nightmare.

  “Running the company without the guidance of my father.”

  Cole’s gentle fingers cupped her chin and turned her head, forcing her to look him in the eye. “Then sell it.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t stress yourself,” he told her. “If you feel like this is something that isn’t right for you, then get out.”

  “But I love what I do.”

  Sell her
father’s legacy? Something he’d worked so hard for? How heartless would that be to consider selling his empire not a full week after his funeral?

  “I know you love it,” Cole told her, a hint of a smile playing around his mouth. “Come work for me.”

  Tamera jerked up in bed, the sheet falling to pool at her waist. “Work for you? I can’t do that.”

  Cole sat up beside her. “Why not? We make a great team.”

  She’d already shown him her vulnerable side. Might as well lay it all on the line.

  “Working for you isn’t such a great idea, Cole.” She gathered her courage from deep within as she clutched the sheet to her breasts. “Let’s say I do sell my father’s company and come to work for The Marcum Agency. What happens if we don’t get along? You know how we butt heads.”

  “We’ll be fine. I argue all the time with Zach and Kayla. It’s just part of powerful people working together, but the outcome is amazing when our clients’ praise is heard worldwide.”

  He didn’t get it.

  “Let me put it this way,” she said, holding his gaze. “What happens when you decide you don’t want to be with me anymore?”

  “Who says that will happen?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “Happened before.”

  Cole closed the gap between them. “Not by my choice.”

  Tamera closed her eyes, not wanting to pull her father into this.

  “I’m not going to discuss blame,” he said as if he could read her mind. “But the reason I didn’t tell you all those years ago was because I didn’t want to come between you and your father and I knew his actions would drive a wedge between you.”

  She opened her eyes. “I didn’t want to lose you, either, Cole. Didn’t you know I would’ve done anything to be with you? That’s what hurts the most is that you didn’t believe in what we had enough to come to me. Obviously our relationship wasn’t built on the trust and honesty I’d depended on.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t,” he agreed. “I know I loved you then, but that point in time doesn’t even compare to what I’m feeling now.”