Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology

by Anthony, Jane

  Feelings hadn’t been part of the deal.

  I’d accepted his offer to help Ronny, to save Pace. I hadn’t expected to want to help Aaron. And I certainly hadn’t expected to develop anything resembling romantic feelings for him.

  We had been spending a lot of time together. More time than I thought we would. When it was just the two of us, I was able to forget who he was and what was going on outside of our bubble. I had come to like Aaron, to see beyond the cold exterior and appreciate him for the person he was. Then, he had kissed me, and as much as I had wanted it to happen, it had freaked me out. Because it meant things were about to get complicated. I wasn’t sure I had the energy to deal with complicated.

  So, like a crazy person, I had run away and decided to cry myself to sleep.

  Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was crying about, but the tears kept falling. I let them run their course until exhaustion won, and I fell asleep.

  I awoke the next morning to my phone vibrating on my nightstand, Aaron’s name flashing on the screen. Without hesitating, I reached out, declined the call, and turned my back on the phone. Part of me wanted to go back to sleep and just ignore the world, but my brain had other ideas. It kept replaying our kiss, again and again, until I forced myself out of bed.

  I was an hour early for work. Ronny hadn’t even arrived yet, and, when he did, he gave me a surprised look but didn’t say anything. He had still kept to himself the past couple weeks, and considering how horrible I felt, for once, it didn’t bother me.

  Throughout the morning, I avoided two more phone calls from Aaron before he gave up. He was confident and cocky, sure, but he wasn’t pushy.

  “You okay?”

  I looked up from my lunch to find Caroline staring at me. “Yeah, I’m fine, just a little distracted is all.”

  “I noticed,” Caroline said. “I’ve asked you a question about three times now.”

  “Sorry. What was it?”

  “I asked how everything is going with Mr. Hot-and-Rich.”

  Caroline had been the first to approach me about my relationship with Aaron. I still remembered her running into the office brandishing a copy of the New York Times and shoving the picture of us under my nose.

  “Things are good,” I said, trying to keep my tone neutral. “It’s all still very new. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

  “Come on, you have to give me some details,” Caroline exclaimed. “This is a big deal.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “It is,” she argued. “You’re the first serious relationship Aaron Patterson has had in a long time.”

  “How do you know?” I asked, my voice sharper than I’d intended. “You don’t even know him.”

  “I know enough. Men like him don’t do relationships, and I know you’ve been spending a lot of time with him. This means something … even if you don’t think it does.”

  Of course it meant something, but not what she was thinking.

  “It’s all just so new.”

  “Yeah, you said that already.” Caroline laughed.

  “I know … but hear me out. This isn’t just about his reputation and who he is in the business world, this is about who he is as a person and who I am.”

  “You know, Aud, we’re all afraid of getting hurt,” Caroline noted. “That’s what makes it so rewarding in the end.”

  “Says the woman who’s been engaged three times.”

  Caroline rolled her eyes. “And each time, I took something from the relationship. Also, let’s talk about how I was smart enough not to go through with any of those weddings, thank you very much.”

  I laughed harder than I’d laughed in a long time. “So, you’re saying I should just throw caution into the wind?”

  “I’m saying, fuck caution,” Caroline said. “I’m saying, take hold of that man and ride him for all he’s worth.”

  “Figuratively, of course,” I teased.

  “Sure.” Caroline shrugged. “But I bet you’ll have more fun the literal way.”

  I got home that night to find a bouquet of flowers waiting outside my door. Delightfully surprised, I scooped them up, burying my face in the petals to inhale their fragrance.

  With a smile, I unlocked my apartment and slipped inside. I placed the flowers in the center of my dining room table, plucking the card from between the leaves.

  When you’re ready, call me.

  For someone who liked to take charge, Aaron certainly left a lot of decisions up to me. I fished my cell out of my purse, and, after a brief moment of hesitation, I called Aaron.

  “You got my flowers.”

  “I did,” I said. “Dinner tomorrow? No games, no deals, just an actual dinner together on an actual date.”

  “I’ll pick you up at seven,” Aaron agreed. “You should wear that dress you wore when we first met.”

  I sighed and rolled my eyes. “All right, if we’re going to do this, you have to stop policing what I wear.”

  Aaron chuckled. “But I like how it looks on you,” he purred. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  As I hung up the phone, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.

  9

  Aaron

  My problems with Audrey took a back seat the following morning as I met with Detective Mosedale. A tall, gangly man in his mid-forties, Mosedale had a head of unruly salt-and-pepper hair which he had tried to slick back. The bags under his eyes provided a glimpse into the stress he was under.

  His partner, however, was another story. Standing taller than my own six feet, Jacob Sawyer’s dark hair and sharp, calculating green-brown eyes made him an imposing figure. Rather than looking tired or stressed, he radiated calmness and had declined the seat I had offered him. He paced my office, taking in his surroundings while casting suspicious looks my way.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, detectives?”

  “Mr. Patterson, it is our understanding that you have a very strong hand in your company’s finances,” Detective Mosedale began.

  “Well, I am the founder,” I said. “Not much happens here that I don’t know about.”

  Mosedale nodded. “Are you familiar with a gentleman who works with you by the name of Hank Conyers?”

  “Yes, he’s one of my accountants.”

  “Mr. Conyers reached out to us after you had him look into some … anomalies with Patterson’s finances,” Mosedale explained. “It … concerned him that you hadn’t brought these inconsistencies to your board of directors’ attention or reported them to us yourself.”

  “I didn’t think there was a need to,” I said. “The discrepancies were nominal, and I have been handling it myself. I’ve already spoken to my sales force, and they’re compiling full records of their transactions.”

  “How is that working out for you?” Sawyer asked.

  I suddenly felt a sinking sensation in my stomach, and I leaned back in my seat to study their body language. “Am I under investigation here?”

  The detectives exchanged a brief look. “Your actions have raised some suspicions,” Sawyer admitted. “For now, we’re just looking into the possibility that someone at Patterson is taking a few liberties with your company’s finances.”

  “What makes you think that’s a possibility?”

  “We’ve had some evidence brought to our attention that has given us cause for concern,” Mosedale explained. “We’re only following the leads and trying to understand what’s going on.”

  I don’t like the sound of this at all, I thought. They’re purposefully being vague. What did Hank find? And why didn’t he talk to me about it before going to the police?

  Defenses on red alert, I remained calm as I addressed both detectives. “What can I do to help?” I asked. “I have nothing to hide and would be more than happy to provide you with the answers you need.”

  “We would like access to your financials,” Sawyer said with his arms crossed. “We have experts who can comb through them and find the inconsistencies you and Mr
. Conyers discussed.”

  “Do you have a warrant?”

  They didn’t respond.

  “Our files hold sensitive information,” I continued. “I’d be more than happy to share them as soon as you present me with a warrant.”

  “We could do that,” Mosedale said. “Or you could take it on good faith that we’re doing this in your best interest.”

  They didn’t have a case. Any half-decent detective would have come in with a warrant already in hand.

  I shook my head. “I’d rather you bring the warrant. My clients have a right to their privacy.”

  The detectives shared another glance before Mosedale sighed and got to his feet. “If that’s the way you want to play this, Mr. Patterson, we’d be all too happy to oblige. You’ll be seeing us again shortly.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  I watched them leave the room, mind racing. Part of me wanted to reach out to Hank and demand to know what the hell he had been thinking, but I decided against it. Anger built within me, and, before I could stop myself, I threw a punch at the nearest object—my computer. The blow hit the monitor and sent it flying onto the floor.

  A moment later, I heard a hesitant knock.

  “What?” I snapped.

  Devon poked his head in. “Everything all right in here?”

  It had been some time since I had been on a real date. Actually, the more I thought about it, the harder it was to remember when my last date was. Regardless, Audrey and I were giving this dating thing a chance, and I felt at peace with it.

  I already knew which restaurant I wanted to take her to. It wasn’t particularly fancy, but, then again, I thought the casual atmosphere might help us both.

  It was strange, but I felt nervous. I hadn’t felt nervous since my college days. Not to this extent, at least. Not over a simple dinner date. But, of course, nothing with Audrey was simple.

  I drove to Audrey’s apartment, and instead of texting, I walked right to her door and knocked. When she answered, I flashed her a smile.

  “Are you ready to go?” I asked.

  She wore a pair of tight jeans and a cashmere sweater which I somehow found infinitely sexier than the dress she had worn to the gala—or even the dress she’d worn the first night we’d met. Her hair fell in soft waves around her bright, smiling face as she nodded in answer to my question.

  “So, where to?” She stepped into the hall and closed the door behind her.

  I placed my hand on her lower back, and we walked down the hall toward the exit. “There’s a place close by I thought you’d like. We could do dinner and drinks. Keep things low-key.”

  Audrey’s smile widened. She leaned into my side, sliding an arm around my waist. “That sounds perfect.”

  Once we got to the restaurant, I noticed that, despite our recently developed comfort with each other, there was still a slight awkwardness between us. I was out of my element for the first time in years, and Audrey didn’t look like she quite knew what she was doing, either.

  “We’re a mess,” she said with a little laugh.

  “How so?”

  “We’re grown adults with full-time jobs—no, careers, we have legitimate careers—and we’re sitting here awkwardly staring at each other like teenagers.”

  I broke into a smile. I could always count on Audrey to hit the nail on the head. She was clever. “It’s a learning experience,” I said. “We’ll get there.”

  Audrey returned my smile, but she quickly became serious again. “What does this mean in terms of our deal? Because if we’re going to give a somewhat relationship a try, you won’t exactly need to hire me to stay with you anymore.”

  “I think we’re well past that,” I said. “We don’t have to put a label on it. Let’s just spend time together and see where this goes.”

  “It would help if we got to know each other,” she noted. “Right now, the only things I know about you are what I read in those articles, and we both know those aren’t the best sources.”

  I shrugged. “There’s not much to tell.” I tried not to shut down, fighting the reflexes I had cultivated after years of keeping to myself. I was never good at letting people know when I was going through something difficult. I had picked those skills up at a young age. “My parents were great, but we were broke, and they had to work a lot. It was the only way to keep our heads above water. I was usually in charge of Devon, so, a lot of the time, it was just the two of us.”

  “Sounds like a lot of responsibility.”

  “It was.”

  “At least you had someone,” she murmured. “A lot of people I know didn’t even have that.”

  “That’s true, but I wasn’t appreciative of it at the time. I was a couple years older, and I wanted to do my own thing without having to watch my kid brother.”

  Audrey nodded. “That’s not so bad. Most kids feel that way. That was a lot of responsibility to put on such a young person.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t make it easier.” I took a deep breath, debating with myself about how far to go with what I would tell her. In the end, I decided that honesty was the best policy. “I wasn’t the … cleanest teen.”

  “What do you mean?” She raised a questioning brow.

  “I found other ways to escape.” The memories, even though they were so long ago, still brought a sour taste to my mouth. I had learned to move on from the guilt, but the shame was much harder to shake. “Ways that weren’t healthy or legal. Unfortunately, my rebellion didn’t just affect me. It didn’t even just affect my parents.”

  “You don’t have to tell me this if you don’t want to.” Interest glimmered in Audrey’s eyes, but she was respectful as always. She wouldn’t push.

  “I do want to,” I said. “Because I want you to know where I come from and what I’ve done to be the person I am today.” I angled my body toward her, squaring my shoulders and meeting her eyes. “I got … heavily into drugs. Tame stuff at first, but then I would try anything you put in front of me. One night, I passed out at a friend’s house without meaning to. The thing was, I was supposed to be home watching Devon. When I woke up, it was the next morning. I was so freaked out. I rushed home and found out my parents had called the cops.”

  “Had something bad happened?” Audrey asked.

  “My parents thought something bad had happened,” I explained. “See, Devon had woken up in the night and had wandered outside looking for me. He was probably ten at the time. When my parents came home, neither one of us was there.”

  I hadn’t expected to share that part of my life with her, but there was something about Audrey that made me want to open up. Maybe it was because she had been so open with me from the beginning, and I felt I owed her some honesty in return.

  “Devon was fine, thankfully. A neighbor, an older woman who babysat for us when we were younger, had noticed him outside and had let him stay with her. My parents found that out as soon as they calmed down enough to check the answering machine. But it could have been much worse, and if it had been, I would have been to blame.”

  She reached across the table and placed her hand on top of mine. “You were young and stupid. You learned from your mistakes. That’s the important part.”

  I liked the way her hand felt on mine. I wanted to tell her about the investigation, about the meeting I’d had with the two detectives who were asking questions I didn’t have the answers to. But after she had reached out to me and asked me to talk things out, I didn’t want to draw the focus away from us. For once, I wanted to stay in the moment with another person. I wanted to focus on Audrey.

  “What’s your family like?” I asked, remembering she’d told me she had sisters. “I imagine with four children it was pretty chaotic.”

  Audrey groaned and hung her head. “It was exhausting.”

  I grinned at her reaction.

  “So many people in our house all the time!” she continued. “Everyone always had something to say, so you could never get a word in. I learned
very early on to speak my mind when I could; otherwise, the opportunity would just fly by.”

  “You? Speak your mind? Noooo!”

  Audrey slapped my hand playfully as she pulled hers away. “Hey, learning to speak for myself made me the woman I am today, and I’m pretty damned proud of her.”

  I could see why.

  Audrey was strong, smart, and capable, part of why I had been so drawn to her. She looked beautiful in the restaurant’s dim light, hazel eyes glittering from the candlelight on the table.

  I had kissed her without permission once before, and I didn’t want a repeat of her reaction, but I did want to kiss her again. It was all I had thought about since the last time.

  After dinner, I drove her home, and I knew as soon as I stepped out of the car to walk her to her door, that I was going to kiss her again. This time, she looked prepared for it. When my lips sealed over hers, she let out a soft sigh and melted into my arms.

  I didn’t want to let her go. I wanted to forget about that stupid self-imposed rule and shove her against the nearest wall and take her right there and then.

  Evidently, she had the same thought, because as we drew back, Audrey fixed me with a smoldering look. “Do you want to come in?”

  I grinned and swooped in for another kiss. “Open the door,” I ordered between nips and kisses.

  She shoved the key into the lock, and the next thing I knew, we’d tripped into her living room, fumbling to slam the door behind us. The second we did, I shoved her against it, running my hands up and down her body.

  She quivered a little underneath my touch, and a wicked smile crossed my lips. “You’ve wanted this for a long time, haven’t you?”

  Audrey pulled my lower lip between her teeth. “You just love to be right, don’t you?”

  I smiled, palming one of her breasts through her shirt. I squeezed, and she gasped, her mouth forming a perfect, inviting O. “That’s not an answer. Come on, baby. Tell me how long you’ve wanted me.”