by A. C. Arthur
“Not just like me. I hope he has your heart and your courage, as well.”
Felicia turned in his arms. “I want him to have your sense of loyalty and dedication. And your business sense.”
Ty frowned and Felicia was instantly worried she’d said something wrong.
“He doesn’t have to be in the business I’m in. I don’t even want him to feel pressured about that.”
“Is that how you feel? Pressured to be a businessman?” She watched as a muscle in his jaw clenched.
“I’ve always felt compelled to succeed. At times it’s been a very heavy burden. One I don’t want my son to carry.”
“Harmon didn’t seem like the type of father to put pressure on you.”
“No. He didn’t verbally. It was just known.” Ty moved away, getting closer to the stream. “Braddocks did not fail. He’d been a successful D.A., then he led a successful campaign and became a congressman. He did great work for his constituents and his family. It was a tough act to follow from the get-go.”
“Nobody said you had to follow him.”
“It didn’t have to be said. It was implied. Malcolm went to college and he went to law school. Up until a year ago, he’d done everything my father wanted him to do. I, as the second son, the middle child, could afford to do no less. I had my own goals but I felt as if I had to make them as high as my father’s so that I’d at least meet him on that level.” He shook his head. “You couldn’t understand the pressure I felt and still feel.”
“But is it pressure that you bring on yourself?” Felicia asked tentatively. “I know I came in as the outsider, but all I ever saw was Harmon’s undying love for his family. He and your mother seemed to have wanted the best for you and Malcolm and Shondra, whatever that was.”
“You’re right, you were looking in from the outside.”
Felicia’s heart ached for the turmoil she could see on Ty’s face. How had she managed to be married to him for so long and not realize how a large part of him was unhappy? Now, ten years later, he was finally opening up, showing her a side of him she would have never guessed existed.
If there was one thing she knew for certain about Ty, it was that failure, in his eyes, was an abominable sin. If Ty was carrying guilt over somehow letting Harmon down and not being able to reconcile it before Harmon died, then it was definitely eating him up inside. In that moment she pitied the boy who feared he’d disappointed his father, but still loved the man who would push on regardless.
“I think Harmon was very proud of the man you became, Ty. Regardless of what path you took to get there.”
Ty didn’t speak, so Felicia wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her cheek against his back. “I’ve always been proud of the man you became.”
He lifted his hands to cover hers. “I’ve always loved you, Felicia. At first, my desire to succeed was rooted in my father and proving myself to him. But when I met you, when I knew you were the one for me, I had to do it for you, too. I had to show you I could be the man to take care of all your needs.”
She was shaking her head although she knew he couldn’t see her. “I never doubted that, Ty. I never needed you to prove that to me. I just needed you to let me in.”
His body tensed as her words struck a corner of his heart with painful clarity. “I did what I thought was my job. I was the husband that I thought I should be.”
“You treated me like a business deal. Once it was closed, you didn’t work as hard.”
He could feel her shifting behind him, as if he wanted to break free of their embrace. He kept a hold of her hand as he turned to face her. “Felicia, sweetheart, you know I love you. You know I never stopped loving you.”
She raised her head to look at him, and Ty’s gut clenched at the sight of unshed tears in her eyes. “For once, that wasn’t enough.”
“I don’t understand,” he admitted. Ty had thought if he loved and cared for his wife, his marriage and his life would be perfect.
“I needed you to do more than love me. I needed you to trust me with things like you just told me, to pay attention to what I was feeling.”
“I let you down,” he said solemnly. “For that I am truly sorry. It was never my intention to ignore you. I just wanted to provide for us. Working and building the business was going to make our lives so much easier.”
She looked at him sadly. “Working and building the business took away the life we could have had.”
Felicia pulled away from him then, and Ty panicked. He grasped her hand tighter, pulling her into his arms. “No. It’s not too late for us, Felicia. I can fix this. I will fix this.”
“Ty—” she started to say, and he stopped her words with his lips on hers.
Enthralled, Felicia savored the sensual slide into Ty’s passionate kiss and followed his lead. Acutely aware of his lips on hers, his hands going around her waist then down to cup her bottom, Felicia’s mind whirled in the sensational feelings.
He mastered her mouth, pulling for the moans and sighs that forced her to plaster her body to his. Her arms twined around his neck, holding him close, never, ever wanting to let him go.
He’d read her mind, Felicia was certain because, when he broke the kiss, he whispered, “Come back to me, Felicia. Come back to our home. I cannot live without you.”
“And I no longer want to be without you.” Her answer was honest. Pure and true. Tyson Braddock was and would always be the love of her life. She would not deny that, nor would she deny herself the happiness they shared together.
Felicia now had better insight into what Ty was going through and wanted desperately to help him get past his insecurities. Her mind was made up, despite what had happened in the past. She was going back to her husband, to their home and the family they would build together.
Chapter 8
It was Sunday and Felicia rose earlier than she had the day before. She wished she could enjoy her serene surroundings one more time before they were to return to the city. Instead she sat on the cool bathroom floor with her stomach churning and Ty holding a cool towel against her forehead.
Morning sickness was for the birds or anybody else who enjoyed this torture. For her, pregnancy was not supposed to be like this. Complaining was pointless. This she already knew. Still, when she’d finally been able to stand and rinse her mouth, Ty had carried her back to bed. She’d glimpsed at the clock, only to moan as she saw it read four-forty in the morning.
She must have immediately fallen back asleep, because when her eyes blurrily focused on the clock again, it was after eleven. Moving slowly, she’d gotten out of bed and walked through the cabin looking for Ty. Once again, he was nowhere to be found. Deciding that he might have gone for another walk since she had been sleeping the morning away, Felicia grabbed some clothes and headed into the bathroom to shower. They were supposed to be leaving that afternoon, so she wanted to be ready whenever Ty returned.
Ty was cutting it close. Felicia would probably be up by now and he hadn’t gotten back to the cabin yet. It was only about ten minutes away now, he thought as he walked. Even the thought of Felicia questioning him could not bury the fact that he’d just landed one of the biggest investors of his career. Brentwood was going to put his funds in Ty’s more-than-capable hands. He was ecstatic. He only hoped his wife would share his joy.
Shifting gears, Ty began to think more about his wife and this new life they were embarking on. She’d said she wanted a house. Well, he was taking care of that. She’d agreed to move back to the penthouse with him and he was more than thrilled about that. She’d told him she would always love him—there were no words for how that made him feel. For all intents and purposes, his life seemed to be on the right track.
Just as he walked into the cabin, his cell phone rang. Ty immediately answered it. He’d said only a few words before Felicia walked in.
“I thought this was a work-free weekend,” she said tightly when he’d ended the call.
“I never said that,” he replied
frankly.
She sighed. “That’s a likely excuse.”
“Come on, Felicia. You can’t expect me to quit my job. I’ve been doing everything you’ve asked of me. We’ve spent more time together in the last few weeks than we have in the last few years. I’m really trying, but you need to cut me some slack.”
Because there was a smidgen of truth to his words and she really didn’t want to argue in the last few hours of their trip, Felicia backed down. Yesterday at the creek she’d agreed to move back in with him. And last night, as they’d made love in front of the fire, she’d known without a doubt that she’d made the right decision. She refused to start this new day with the same old doubts and worries.
“Fine. What was so important that Marsha had to call you up here?”
“She was returning my call. I needed to tell her that we’d landed Brentwood and what things to get ready for me tomorrow.”
Felicia smiled. “The infamous Tyson Braddock strikes again,” she said. Then she crossed to him, going up on tiptoe to kiss him briefly. “I’m very proud of you and your business accomplishments. I always knew you would be successful.”
He drew her to him then. “My success means nothing to me if I don’t have you by my side. Do you understand that?”
She nodded, the weight of his words too much for her to speak.
Less than an hour later they were packed and in the car, on their way back to the city.
“So what’s going on with the investigation into your father’s death?”
“What?” Ty asked, taking his eyes off the road for a minute to look at her. “Who told you there was an investigation?”
“First of all, you should have been the one to tell me. And it was Shondra. We had lunch last week and she mentioned it. But I knew something was going on from all the whispered conversations you were having with her and Malcolm.”
“There is no investigation and nothing is going on.”
“Don’t lie to me, Ty.”
He exhaled, slamming his palm on the steering wheel. “I don’t want you worrying about this. We don’t even know if there’s anything to worry about.”
“Shondra says it might not have been an accident.”
Ty cursed. “I’m going to sew that girl’s mouth shut.”
Shifting in her seat so that she was now facing him, Felicia quipped, “I’d like to see you try that one. Besides, I’m family, too. Why shouldn’t I know what’s going on?”
“Because you’re pregnant and you don’t need to be dealing with a lot of stress. You need to be focused on taking care of yourself and the baby.”
Felicia had heard this before, from her doctor. But she had assured Dr. Franz that things were going to be better for her now that she and Ty were back together. The stress of wondering if she’d be raising her baby alone had been alleviated. So why had the cramping continued?
As she’d laid in the bed that morning, she’d felt that something might be wrong. Fear and denial made her push that out of her mind and turn back to her husband. “The baby and I are fine. I’m not a piece of china. I’m not going to break into pieces if you throw something hard at me. So tell me what’s going on.”
Ty hesitated for what seemed like eons. “We don’t really know. It just seems like there’s a lot of loose ends surrounding the accident. Like Dad made a call to this woman who works at Stewart Industries.”
“Isn’t that where Shondra’s boyfriend works?”
“Yeah. Shondra actually met him while she was trying to gather information for us.”
“An office affair. That’s my girl,” Felicia chimed and laughed when Ty frowned at her. “I’m sorry. Go on.”
“Connor talked to the woman but didn’t get a lot of answers. But he has the sense that there’s something going on. And that it’s somehow connected to my father. And Dad made arrangements to travel to D.C. on the day he had his accident. Gloria always booked his travel, but she knew nothing about this last trip. Plus with the break-in and all…”
“Wow. That does sound strange. This is too much.”
“I know. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“No. I mean, it’s just too much to believe that something like this happens in real life. Schemes and plots to kill are usually only in the movies or in books. You never imagine that they’ll happen to you or someone you know.”
“I don’t want to think that my father was murdered.”
She reached out a hand and touched his knee gently. “I know you don’t, baby. But you owe it to Harmon to find out what happened for sure.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
“Shondra wants to hire a PI to look into it.”
“She told you that, too?” he asked, flabbergasted. “Is there anything she left out?”
“Well, she didn’t mention that my husband was being the rock supporting his siblings and his mother through this horrible time. I figured that one out all by myself.”
“I’m not doing anything special.”
“Come on, I saw how Harmon’s death affected Malcolm. He’s the oldest and he didn’t know which way to go. Shondra was falling apart and you kept them both steady. You never wavered. Nobody would have ever guessed the struggle you went through.”
“You were there, so my struggle wasn’t as hard.”
Felicia held her head down, remembering the night she spent with him after his father’s funeral. The night their child was conceived.
Chapter 9
Joe Dennis had been Harmon Braddock’s personal driver for years. He’d been with him before his election to office and through the years before his death. And in that time Joe had learned much more than he’d ever bargained for.
People usually forgot that drivers had ears, too, so they talked around him. Said things that were most definitely private and didn’t really take a second to think what Joe might do with the information.
As much as Joe liked Harmon Braddock, he had known the man’s term in office was coming to an end. Things were about to go down and Joe needed to make sure that when they did, he would still come out on top. So he’d begun to pay more attention than usual. Listening and watching, keeping names and faces in his mental safe until the time was just right.
He’d taken Harmon to more than one meeting at the home of Judge Bruce Hanlon, but this time when they’d met, he went inside. It wasn’t hard to bribe one of the housekeepers; everybody had a price.
Joe had stood outside the door of Judge Hanlon’s office listening to the conversation between him and Harmon. What he heard only confirmed the plan he had already put into place. The plan he’d executed with the greatest of care.
After listening to the information Joe had, Hanlon was quick to negotiate. And once Joe proved his value, Hanlon had paid up. But now, with Braddock’s children getting a little itchy about the accident, Joe knew he could make so much more.
So he’d called Hanlon once again, offering Old Blue Eyes one last chance to keep his name clear.
“Half a million,” Joe had said without blinking an eye.
Hanlon had thrown back his head and laughed. “You’re out of your mind. I’m not giving you that type of money. Braddock is dead. Nothing you have can hurt me that much.”
Joe had smiled along with the stupid old man. “I have the key.”
Hanlon’s face had gone pale, just as Joe expected.
“Now, when can I expect my money?”
That had been about a week ago, right after Joe had overheard another conversation between Malcolm Braddock and Gloria Kingsley. He had gone back to Harmon’s office to pick up some paperwork for his personnel file, and they were there.
After hearing only a few words of Malcolm and Gloria’s conversation, he knew he needed to be worried about more than the police, especially since the police, as far as anyone knew, had ruled Harmon’s death an accident. Unfortunately, Harmon’s offspring were just as tenacious as their father. They knew something wasn’t right.
Now
Joe sat in his recliner, waiting for the phone call. The one that would say, The money is in your account. But as of yet, it had not come.
Instead, he heard a knock at the door.
Now back in the penthouse, Felicia stepped out of the shower. She and Ty had been back from Lone Star for three days. During that time, they’d had dinner with Shondra and Connor, gone back to work and moved all her things from her apartment back to the penthouse.
So she was back in the penthouse, sleeping in the bed she and Ty had picked out at a sleek new furniture store just south of Houston years ago. Yet, once again, she was there alone. At least until almost eleven-thirty Wednesday night when she’d heard Ty’s key in the door. He’d come in as quietly as he could have, moving through the darkened bedroom so as not to disturb her.
Again, Felicia tried her best not to go down this road. She’d talked to her mother earlier in the day, telling Lydia of her decision to move back in with Ty. Her mother had been pleased because, in her eyes, Felicia and Ty belonged together. Still, Lydia had been quick to warn her not to expect overnight changes. The fact that Ty was willing to try was a first step.
Felicia agreed and knew that she would take her mother’s advice. She would give her husband a chance to prove to her that things would be different this time. So she’d rolled over onto her side and kept her mouth shut. When Ty was out of the shower, he climbed into bed beside her, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her back close to his front.
He placed featherlight kisses on her shoulder, then her neck. Content with his presence in their bed, Felicia sighed into his embrace.
When his palm moved upward lightly, cupping her breast, she moaned. How was it that he knew just how to bring her pleasure, just where to touch and what to do? No man before him had mastered this.
His erection pressed persistently into her bottom, causing her to quiver with need. Then his hand slipped down her torso and stopped over her mound. She quietly acquiesced to his silent command by opening her legs slightly. His fingers eagerly slipped inside, parting her now-damp nether lips. He brushed past her tightened rosebud, and she bit her bottom lip. Then his fingers plunged inside her opening. Her entire body trembled, convulsed, then shattered into a million pieces.