by Lexi Ryan
Reese snapped her head up to see Halie standing in the doorway. She’d deliberately avoided the woman.
She was angry at Halie’s presumptiveness, yes, but Reese couldn’t make herself regret the changes she’d made in the last months.
She loved her job, loved being the new Reese—a woman who made people listen and take note, not just a wallflower so easily ignored and forgotten.
But that didn’t excuse Halie’s actions.
Reese crossed her arms on her desk. “I thought we would wait to talk until after the masquerade ball.”
Halie frowned. “That doesn’t sound good.”
Reese shrugged. “I don’t think anything I have to say will come as a surprise to you.”
“I called Ben this morning,” Halie said. “Tried to get him to reconsider about the Manor remodel.”
“How’d that go?”
“I don’t think he’d complain if tomorrow’s news held a report of my body being recovered from Lake Michigan, but he’s not ready to commit the act himself just yet.”
Not a bad analogy, considering the magnitude of her crimes. “Do you always handle your clients this way? Asking the men in their lives to get involved—bribing them to take the women on dates, to have sex with them?”
Halie’s cheeks flushed a dark pink. Reese hadn’t ever seen her flush. “Sometimes. More lately. I might have let my own relationship problems escalate my need to assist others’ relationships.”
“And by assist you mean control?”
She gave a sad smile and toyed with the pearls at her neck. “It’s been brought to my attention that I might have some control issues.”
For the first time, Reese noticed the woman’s large engagement ring was gone. “Your fiancé left you?”
“I left him.” She seemed to realize she was fidgeting and dropped her hand to her side. “It was time.”
“I’m sorry.”
Halie waved away Reese’s words. “It’s over. You were asking about how I usually run my business, and I want to have this conversation. I want to hear your thoughts—your honest feedback.”
Reese leaned back in her chair. “No, I’d rather you still be speaking to me at the event this weekend.”
The woman’s shoulders dropped. “That bad?”
“No. Not all bad.” Reese pushed herself up from her chair. “Look at the results.”
Halie shrugged. “I do know where to shop.”
“It’s not just the clothes, Halie. It’s me. I really, truly feel better about myself than I have in…” She trailed off, trying to remember a time she’d possessed the confidence she did now. “Never. I’ve never felt this good.”
“But?”
Reese walked around her desk and perched on the front of it, choosing her words carefully. “But I think your program is two things at once. Half of it is this wonderful, progressive look at women’s identities and self-esteem that allows them to really examine what they want for themselves and go after it in a way that is both healthy and ambitious.”
“That sounds good,” Halie said cautiously.
“It is!” Reese said. “If it were that alone, I’d send my niece to you. You know, once she’s forty or so.”
“But the other half?”
Reese shook her head and crossed her arms. “The other half is this tired cliché, helping women find their worth through the eyes of men.” She shrugged. “I’m not saying it can’t be about feeling sexy. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with finding pleasure in being desirable. I understand all that. But if women can’t leave it feeling good about themselves without you bribing men to flirt with them, woo them, sleep with them? Well, if that’s the case, it’s not much of a program at all, is it?”
Halie took a step back, her eyes wide. “I guess you told me,” she said, and Reese could practically see her walls going up.
“That’s just it, Halie. I don’t think your program needs it. You’ve built something amazing, but your own lack of faith is corrupting it.”
Reese’s phone beeped on her desk, a meeting reminder. She grabbed her purse. “I have to go down to the venue to check on everything before tomorrow night.”
Halie gave a sharp nod. “That’s what I pay you for.”
Reese sighed. “It’s okay if you’re angry with me, but think about it.” She squeezed Halie’s arm, hoping the woman could see the irony in the situation. If Sex Goddess 101 didn’t work, Reese would have never had the courage to criticize it.
***
Ben had never hit a woman, had never wanted to, but when Halie McCormack pulled onto his job site on Friday night, his found his hands balling into fists.
“Good to see you,” she called.
“I don’t remember extending an invitation.” Yes, he was being an ass, but this was the woman who had pitted two brothers against each other in the name of her program. She’d taken the sexiest woman he knew and destroyed his relationship with her to “make her sexy.” Yeah, he was being an ass, but he figured he’d earned the right.
“Want to tell me when you’re going to get started on the Manor?”
“I don’t want the job,” Ben said, his voice low. “Not at any price,”
Halie tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Mr. Hawk, if looks could kill, I’m pretty sure they’d be making arrangements for my funeral.”
“If you want Hawk Construction to do the job, you’re going to have to go through my brother.”
“Not interested,” Mark’s voice came behind him.
Ben turned, surprised. Mark had been working the Granger job all week, but in the old days when Mark took time away his post as ‘The Hawk’ to play business owner, he’d been the last in and the first out, taking any excuse to get out of work. This week, Mark had put in longer hours than Ben every day. It was a change Ben hadn’t adjusted to yet.
“We’re not just about money,” Mark said, tucking his hands in his pockets. “It matters to us how people do business.”
Ben locked eyes with Mark. They hadn’t spoken much this week. What was there to say? They loved the same girl. But here Mark was, getting Ben’s back.
Ben nodded to his brother. As peace offerings went, it wasn’t very flashy, but he knew Mark saw it for what it was.
“I’m not the evil person you’re making me out to be,” Halie said.
“You screw with people’s lives.” Ben turned back to her, ready to battle.
Her shoulders dropped. “I get people to acknowledge what they want. Sometimes they don’t even know, but I try to help them figure it out. Reese didn’t know she wanted you. She wasn’t ready to admit it.”
“Right. And to figure out what they want, women need men? They need lingerie shopping and phone sex? They need brothers fighting over them? Isn’t that all a little anti-feminist?”
Halie sighed. “You can save yourself the lecture. Reese beat you to it.”
That warmed him a little. Good girl.
Then Halie shocked him by laughing.
Mark was staring at him, brow raised. “Phone sex?”
“I don’t know about the phone sex,” Halie said. “But I don’t think you’re grasping the significance of that date with Mark. Don’t you wonder why she didn’t just go on a date with you?”
Only a few hundred times. Ben lifted a shoulder.
“The step was to go on a date with a man she would never marry.” Halie looked at Mark and winced. “Sorry.”
“What?” Ben turned to Mark.
Mark shrugged. “Reese told me that. I was just a means to an end.”
“Shit.” Ben ran a hand through his hair. “This is such a mess.”
Halie narrowed her eyes. “Did she tell you phone sex was one of her steps?”
Ben crossed his arms. “Yes. She said—” He dropped his arms. Fuck. “She asked what I would do if phone sex was her next step.”
Mark grunted. “I guess you gave her your answer, didn’t you?”
Ben tilted his head back and looked at
the gray October sky. He missed her so damn much. Two weeks and she wasn’t taking his calls. Not that he could blame her.
Reese had been right. He’d been afraid. Terrified. He hadn’t been enough for Lisa, his first love, his first heartbreak. And the idea of Reese sleeping with Mark had sent that old terror through him. Not being enough. Not measuring up.
“Are you going to win her back or not?” Halie asked.
“She won’t take my calls,” Ben grumbled. Damn. He sounded like a whiny little shit.
Mark was looking at him, that expectant eyebrow raised.
“Maybe I can help,” Halie said.
Ben glared at her. “You’ve helped enough.”
“Just hear me out?”
And because he had no better ideas aside from staging a sit-in protest at Reese’s condo, he listened.
By the end of the conversation, Mark was grinning and Ben was feeling something in his chest he thought might have been hope. The feeling scared him enough that his fingers shook slightly as he sent the text to Reese.
I won’t be able to be in your auction on Saturday. I’ll get Luke to come in my place.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Ben scratched a few more notes about McCormack Manor as he made a final tour. His crew would start work here as soon as they finished the Granger job.
“She’s a beauty,” someone said from behind him.
Ben turned around to see his father standing in the old mansion’s musty ballroom, Mark behind him.
“Dad? What are you doing here?”
His dad shoved his hands in his pockets, his shoulders hunching slightly. He seemed smaller somehow, as if he’d suddenly aged fifteen years. Had Ben just not been paying attention?
“Mark brought me,” his father said, his voice creaking like the wooden hallways of the Manor. “He thought I should see the kind of job you’ve been getting Hawk Construction.”
Ben looked to Mark.
Mark pointed his thumb to the front of the house. “I’m going to wait out front.”
Something tightened in Ben’s chest as his brother winked at him then turned to go.
“I don’t want you to give you the wrong impression, Dad,” Ben said when Mark was gone. “This may be the only job like this we ever get.”
His dad nodded. “Yeah, but you’re going for ’er. You’ve got that in you. Not afraid to try for something better.” He rocked back on his heels. “Me? I was always too scared to lose what I had to go after something better.”
Ben’s throat grew thick and he thought of Reese, thought of how he’d lost her to Lance, thought of what might have been if he’d given her more of himself five years ago. “I get scared too,” he said. “I like to think it’s never too late to try for something better.”
Was that his voice? It sounded small and vulnerable. Like he was a little boy again, trying to get his father’s attention over his louder, bigger, more boisterous older brother.
The old man looked to the picture window that looked out into the gardens. “I’m proud of you,” he said, the words sounding awkward off his dried lips. “You might think Mark’s the favorite, but I love you both. That boy just needs help finding himself. Always been a little lost. A little too worried about fitting in to make the best choices. You? You’ve always had it figured out. Always had your priorities straight.”
Thaddeus Hawk wasn’t the type of father who’d taught his boys it was okay to cry, so Ben didn’t let himself speak. Instead, he took four steps and pulled the man into a hug.
His dad patted his back. One pat. Two. Three—the sign of true accomplishment. “Enough of that now.”
Ben pulled back. “Can you imagine what we could do here?”
“Sure can.” He looked at Ben expectantly, then, “You gonna tell me your plans or not?”
Ben grinned. “Let me show you around.”
***
Mark looked at the gorgeous brunette in his arms and felt all the old emotions Reese’s face inspired—the softness, the hope, the love, the guilt. “Thanks for the dance,” he said hoarsely.
“Well, we better keep it short or face the wrath of that line of women here to get their hands on The Hawk.” She smiled, but even through her feathered mask, he saw the sadness in her eyes.
“The place looks amazing,” he said, pulling her closer. The masquerade ball was packed with Sex Goddess 101 graduates and hopefuls, their dates, and the men hoping to be their dates. The night had just begun, but by all accounts it was already a success.
“Thanks,” she said. “I almost can’t believe we pulled it off.”
“Think Ben will show up?”
She lifted her shoulder. “He bailed on the auction, so he better not show his face.” She was silent for a minute, then said, “Can you tell me something?”
“I can try.”
“Why were you interested in me? Before the makeover, I mean? All those years ago.”
The question took Mark by surprise.
“Was it just a rivalry thing between you and Ben?”
Mark stopped dancing and looked down at her. “You want a drink?”
“That would be good.”
Mark led the way to the bar and ordered a whiskey for himself and a glass of red for Reese. “I’m a total fraud,” he admitted, handing the glass to her.
“What are you talking about?”
He lifted a shoulder. “The Hawk, I pretty much hate that asshole.”
She relaxed a little. “He is kind of a chauvinist.”
“Kind of? He’s a selfish bastard.”
Now she smiled for real. “Maybe a little, but it’s just a persona. That’s not who you really are. The Hawk’s an ass, sure. But Mark? He’s a good guy.”
He studied the amber liquid in his glass. “Maybe I’m a little bit of both. The guy who slept with you even though he knew you had a thing for his brother? Even though he knew his brother had a thing for you? That was the asshole.”
“Don’t.” She set her wine on the counter and rubbed her bare arms. “It was a long time ago, and Ben had no thing for me. He made it painfully clear that he wasn’t interested.”
“Reese, if he hadn’t been in love with you back then, he would have slept with you.”
She wrinkled her brow, looking thoroughly unimpressed by his assessment. “Want to try another one?”
“I wish I had handled it differently, but I didn’t. The guy who still likes you after all that time? The guy who just wants you both to be happy, despite that jealousy clawing his chest? That’s the man I want to be, and I’m telling you now, my brother’s an idiot, but he’s only an idiot because you’re the most important thing in his world.”
She looked away, her eyes moist. “This sucks. It just does.”
“Yeah,” Mark said. “Agreed.”
“Reese!”
Mark and Reese both turned to see Halie McCormack, all long legs and sparkle in her glittery silver dress and mask.
“Reese, it’s time for step ten,” Halie said, a grin stretching across her face.
“You’re hilarious, Halie, but as impressive as I am at multi-tasking, I won’t be completing step ten in the middle of an event.” Reese frowned and shook her head. “And besides, I never completed step six and you never gave me a step nine.”
“My steps don’t work like that. You’re ready.”
Reese looked at the stage. “It’s almost time for the bachelor and bachelorette auction.”
Halie pulled her mask away from her eyes. “Exactly.”
***
Reese stood at the back of the stage, her stomach flipping as their Master of Ceremonies auctioned off the first bachelor.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Luke grumbled next to her.
“Buck up, soldier,” Mark said. “It’s for a good cause.”
“Easy for you to say,” Luke whined. “You haven’t had that old lady making eyes at you all night.”
“What old lady?” Reese asked, desperate for Luke’s st
ory to soothe her nerves.
“That old lady from the Senior Center? Proudly touts herself the first senior citizen Sex Goddess?”
“Mrs. Wisenowitz?” Reese said with a shriek.
“Ladies,” the emcee announced, “our next bachelor is a Chi-town native and the owner of the PitStop Bar and Grill.”
“Shake it, boyfriend,” Reese commanded.
On cue, Luke pulled on his mask and stepped onto the stage.
“Can we start the bids at fifty dollars?”
“Seventy-five,” Mrs. Wisenowitz called, pushing her walker toward the stage.
Luke strutted down their makeshift catwalk, shimmying his tux jacket off his shoulders.
The women in the audience screeched in response, followed by rapid-fire “One-hundred,” “One-fifty,” “Three-seventy-five.”
“Five-hundred dollars,” Mrs. Wisenowitz called.
Luke cast a desperate look over his shoulder, and Reese lifted her palms helplessly. Almost Home needed the money, he could suffer through one night as Mrs. W’s boy toy.
“Sold for five-hundred dollars to the beautiful young woman in the powder blue suit,” the emcee said, ushering Luke off the stage.
Luke kissed Mrs. W on the cheek and the crowd applauded.
Reese turned to Mark. “Think you can match that?”
Mark waved a hand. “Easy.”
“Good luck,” she said softly.
“Maybe I’ll meet the woman who can help me mend my broken heart.”
“Give a warm welcome to The Hawk,” the emcee was saying.
As Mark strutted to center stage, the crowd cheered. The bids started before the emcee could ask.
Reese was trying to calm herself by counting her breaths when she heard a woman’s voice call over the crowd’s cheers, “One-thousand dollars.”
Was that Masey? Bidding on Mark?
Reese swung around and, sure enough, Masey stood near the front of the stage in a hot pink poodle skirt and pink sequined mask, looking voluptuous and glamorous. And determined.
“Sold to the blond beauty for one-thousand dollars!”
Masey crooked her finger at Mark who looked a little perplexed as he joined her.