by J. A. Coffey
He grabbed his cell, and punched in his sister's number. "Get us on the next flight to home. And get the family together. We need to talk."
No matter how you sliced it, Matteo Brandt may have just risked his family's security on a guaranteed lie.
Chapter Eleven
She should have seen this coming.
She hadn't allowed herself to get hurt...not since Stan. After that, Jess had been too afraid to let anyone get close enough to hurt her...until Matt. Or Matteo, she supposed she should call him. Her heart ached. She was just so furious. How could she have let him get close to heart, let alone her body? She should've known better, should've seen this coming....
She haphazardly packed her clothes, ignoring the stab of regret when she trashed her ivory silk blouse, the one ruined on the first day stormy interlude. The first time she'd let him touch her. Damn that man. She didn't care what his reasons were, he'd lied to her. Jess snatched up her betraying files and stuffed them deep into the folds of her briefcase. Her door slammed with a satisfying thunk as she left.
In the lobby, she plunked her luggage onto the rack near the hotel shuttle podium and turned, just in time to run directly into Rex Stanton.
"Looks like our breakfast date is out?" Rex smiled politely.
"Mr. Stanton." Jess felt her cheeks grow warm. "You could say that." She bit her lip. Honestly, she had the worst luck in the world when it came to men.
"It's a shame, Ms. Barlow. You were definitely one of the more promising clients in this little adventure. I was hoping to draw you out a little more and see what's underneath all that pretty packaging."
His compliment was like a slap in the face. So, even Stanton didn't feel like he'd scratched her surface? She didn't know why she couldn't just open up and let things go. She never had, actually, except for the past two days. With Matt.
"I guess sometimes things don't work out as well as we had planned," she replied, swallowing a stab of painful regret. She would not cry over Mr. Hot Fudge. Not in front of Mr. Vanilla Bean.
Rex stared at her sympathetically. "They rarely work out as intended, Ms. Barlow. But how we deal with them makes life interesting. Don't you agree?" He touched her arm gently in farewell and moved away, giving her the space to check out of the lodge and resolve to clear her head of all things related to love or LoveLines.
She would not cry.
When the hotel shuttle for the airport pulled up, she shoved in her things and scooted to the far end of the back seat, away from the driver. Grabbing her cell, she called Suze on the way to the airport.
"Hey, hon," her best friend answered the phone. "How's things in Montana?"
Jess burst into tears and laid the whole sordid story out for her.
Suze gave a low whistle through her teeth. "Now what?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. Max is sending me to Dallas to finish the investigation. I'm not sure if I handle this." She felt so out of control. Of her tightly reined emotions, of the demands of her heart.
"You can and you will. Maybe you can talk to Matt...er...Matteo?" Suze asked hopefully. "Explain how you really feel?"
No way. "He lied to me, Suze. Just like Stan." Jess was miserable.
Suze was quiet. "I don't know about that, hon. I mean, we all saw Stan for what he was...but you were so blinded by his charms...once you had your heart set on him, we couldn't talk you out of it."
"I just wanted the happily ever after, Suze. Was that too much to ask?" Jess hiccupped.
"If anyone deserves to be happy, it's you. You've sounded better than I've heard you in years. Must have been some trip. I'm not wrong about this? You were happy with Matt, weren't you?" Suze asked.
Jess bit her lip. "More than I ever expected. But he lied."
And left, she finished in her head.
"Seems to me you both were there under false pretenses. It's not like you found him boning someone else. Both of you were just trying to do your job. If anything, you are just as guilty as he is."
The realization hit her like a thunderclap.
She'd lied.
Maybe not outright, but a lie of omission was still just as false. If she was so concerned about being completely honest, she should've told Matt from the beginning that she was investigating LoveLines. Maybe then, they could've avoided this mess. Maybe even avoided each other. The thought burned away her anger, until she was left with only regret.
If she'd never met him, her life would be tidy and predictable again. There would be no surprise sex on riverbanks, no passionate up against the wall interludes, no...heat. Even now, she missed him. His citrusy scent, his touch, and his voice...the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled. The way he made her feel beautiful and desirable. Did he feel the same way? Deep down, she just couldn't believe that everything they'd shared together had been business.
No, based on his visceral reaction, his blatant hunger for her, the way he captured her soul with his touch...this was something much more personal.
It might even have been the beginnings of love.
"Jess," Suze sounded strained. "Look, I hate to lay this on you right now, but there's something you need to know. It's about Stan. I think Caro is up to something with him."
If Caro was about to unleash her pent up fury on Stan Kendrick, that was his problem. She didn't care what her ex was up to, and she didn't have any brain power to waste thinking about him. Not when so much of her thoughts were occupied with Matt and her upcoming mediation for LoveLines. She was feeling confident again, and the only man that could make her feel that way might be slipping through her fingers because of a technicality. Did she dare blur the lines, even for him?
"Later, Suze. We'll talk, later. Right now, I have to finish what I started." She wasn't sure if she could escape the memory of Matt's lips on her body, but she had to try.
"Oka-a-ay," Suze agreed slowly. "Good for you. Go get 'em, hon."
"I just might." Jess grabbed the files from her briefcase and threw her fraud investigation into overdrive. "I just might."
*****
"And you're sure the matching software didn't work, Bro?" Seneca asked worriedly.
They were all sprawled in the large common room of the Smoking Brandt Ranch house. His familia, the people who relied on him. Seneca, various cousins and a few of their close friends. Even his Abuela Tina had put in an appearance, her bronze earrings hanging to her shoulders and bangles clattering as she walked.
"I answered all the questions with her profile right next to me. It should have worked." He shook his head. Were they so incompatible that a thirty-one point matching system couldn't find enough common ground to give them a chance?
"You're a good boy, Matteo." Abuela Tina said, pinching his cheeks like he was still a scruffy schoolboy. "But you know nada about the heart." She laughed heartily.
"I know women, Abuela. That should be good enough."
"Bah," she downed a shot of tequila and smacked her lips. "What you know wouldn't even fill this!" She held the shot glass high. One of the cousins tittered behind her hand. "You think love can be distilled into a science? Like tequila?"
"I used to," he muttered. He just couldn't believe the system wouldn't match him to Jess. Every fiber of his being said he belonged with her. "Just put the right combination of ingredients together, for a perfect recipe."
"You're a smart man, Matteo. Maybe too smart for your own good." She eyed him, knowingly. "You'll figure this out and do what's right."
"Don't I always? Everything I've done has been for the good of this family. You, Seneca, the cousins...the Smoking Brandt depends on me and this business succeeding."
Abuela waved her hands, her bangles jingling. "What's 'right' may not always be good, Matteo. And what is good may not always be right for you."
"It's not me, I worry about. Abuela. It's the rest of the family."
Abuela Tina made a sympathetic noise. "My daughter raised a good boy. Now, be a good man."
"I thought I was." He shook his head miser
ably.
"You cannot be when you have half a heart. Go to her."
"She won't see me. She doesn't trust easily and I broke what little faith she had in me."
"If it's meant to be, she will forgive you. Just as you have forgiven her. Do you really see this woman in your future?"
Matteo smiled. "As if it was written in the stars, Abuela."
She nodded sagely. "Then I cannot wait to meet her. The family," she announced giving them all the evil eye, "all of us, will do what we can."
"So, what's next?" Seneca asked. "Is there anything we can do for the investigation?"
"The mediation hearing is set for Monday." Matteo exhaled noisily. "Jessica is set to arrive at a Dallas hotel this afternoon. Tomorrow, she's set to visit our headquarters."
"Huh." Seneca barked a laugh. "Headquarters? You mean here?" Her hand swept around the ranch house.
"The thought had crossed my mind." Matteo ran a palm over his face, trying to suppress the desire to see Jess astride one of the Smoking Brandt Ranch horses. Or riding atop him. "Nothing in my little office downtown but paperwork. I'll copy my office files on a flash drive. Until then, I think it's best if we answer her questions thoroughly. She's going to want to review all our paperwork, especially the legal language of the guarantee. Give it to her. Give her anything she needs."
"And what about you, Bro?" Seneca asked with a wicked smile. "You gonna drop by and give her what she needs?" Abuela Tina laughed as she cleared away their plates.
As closely knit as their family was, sometimes Matteo wished he had a little more privacy when it came to his personal life. Still, it was nice that they cared so much.
"Maybe." Matteo ruffled Seneca's hair like he hadn't done since they were kids. "I didn't realize my love life was anyone's business."
"Ha!" Seneca jerked her head out of reach and fluffed her dark bangs out of her eyes. "Someone's got to keep their eyes on you!" Seneca snatched up her glass and followed Abuela Tina to the kitchen.
Matteo bit his lip. The 'someone' he wanted was probably taxing down the runway from Atlanta to DFW right now. She may refuse to see him, if he just popped over to her hotel, but, he had to try. He owed her an apology and an explanation, even if she never wanted to see him again. He meant to give his failed test results, however dismal, to her.
One way or another, he'd get to her and make her understand. Jess deserved to know that for once, Matteo Brandt didn't give a damn about what his precious software dictated as truth.
Chapter Twelve
The Dallas-Fort Worth airport was a nightmare and the rest of the trip looked just as promising. It was far too easy for Jess to fall back into her pit of worry and self-doubt. She couldn't believe that Matt would go to such lengths to thwart an investigation—or that he'd been so attracted to her that he'd succumbed to her womanly wiles. Neither scenario was probable and both left her with a sour tang in the back of her throat that tasted of disbelief.
After a hasty conference with Max, she hopped a direct flight under orders to meet with the company execs at LoveLines over the weekend before the scheduled legal mediation session with the plaintiff on Monday morning. While Max wasn't thrilled that she'd had an affair with a man who was now known to be the defendant, the fact that Matt admitted the system hadn't matched them only added fuel to the fire. Heck, the guy wasn't even a client! She fumed. At least she hadn't had to describe the gory details of their affair to Max. Jess had packed her most business-like attire, refusing to even consider how Matt might like it.
Her cell rang while she took the shuttle to her downtown Dallas hotel.
"All ready to see Mr. Hot Fudge again?" Suze asked.
Jess gulped. She wanted to see Matt more than anything, but she absolutely dreaded it. "Hardly." She steeled herself. "I just have to finish this case, and then I'm out of here."
"Listen, hon. I know this is shit timing and all, but I have to tell you. You're my closest friend...you're like a sister to me."
Jess frowned. Suze wasn't normally this cagey. "What's up?" she asked.
"Well, I'm on my way back from Barbados. Early." Suze hedged in an entirely un-Suze manner. She was typically bold and brazen.
"Just you? Where's Caroline? Isn't she with you?" Suze had booked the trip with her pretty cousin, when Jess hadn't been able to take the time off.
"Well, yes, I mean, she was. She isn't anymore." Suze paused and then blurted out. "I saw Caro coming out of Stan's room the day before yesterday. At two in the morning, so you can draw your own conclusions," she emphasized. "I couldn't believe it. I mean, she's always been a man killer, but...with Stan? Your ex? She always hated him, even in college."
Caroline? With...Stan? Jess felt numb. "Did you talk to her?"
Suze sighed, and Jess could sense her embarrassment. "Yeah, I confronted her. She got all defensive and told me to mind my own business."
"Huh." Jess exhaled noisily, surprised that she didn't feel angrier. It was a surprise that after the Montana trip, betrayal from someone she considered a friend paled in comparison to her raging riot of emotions of losing Matt. "Well, it has been a year," she said. "I just don't understand it. Why would she get involved with Stan. She hated him most of all. Always called him the worst of womanizers."
She didn't want to believe Caro would deliberately sleep with her ex-husband, but even more surprising was the fact that Jess found she wasn't fuming.
In fact, she didn't feel anything at all, except minor irritation.
Suze, however, was ready to explode.
"I just can't believe Caro would do something like that!" Suze exclaimed. "Anyways, I packed it in. I'm at the airport now, on standby for home." She sniffed. "I'm really sorry, hon. She's practically the only family I have left. I never dreamed we'd run into Stan here, or that Caro would be such a...."
"It's fine, Suze. Really, it is." And, Jess realized with a jolt, it was.
While Caroline's betrayal irked her, it was nothing compared to the hurt she felt from Matt. She felt more regret over losing him than she had in years of unfaithful treatment with Stan or Caro's alleged seduction of a man she no longer cared about.
"I just thought you should know." Suze brightened with relief. "You want to get lunch when you get back to Atlanta, hon?"
"Of course," Jess promised. "I have to run now. I'm heading to the hotel. Need to put on my game face."
"Kisses," Suze said. And the line cut off.
Twenty minutes later, Jess felt more steady and primed to go over the allegations from entertainment exec Alicia Lange. She resolved to put aside her feelings for Matteo Brandt until the trial was over, when she would have the chance to sift through them like clues.
After a short flight, it was amazing how little time one needed to freshen up when there was no chance of a hot hookup. She washed her face, pulled her hair back, and dialed a quick call for room service, ordering a snack without anything chocolate or decadent.
She wasn't playing the part of a LoveLiner anymore. Now, she was back to being 'just Jess'. She dumped her briefcase, powered on her laptop and changed into a grey tank top, a black yoga wrap and matching lounge pants, before settling in for a long boring evening.
Though it was bound to have little impact on her case, Jess couldn't resist doing an internet search variations of Matteo Brandt, his ranch and LoveLines for any media coverage or insight. What she found were a few mentions, mainly in entrepreneurial magazines. And an obituary, showing Frank and Maria Brandt reportedly killed in a vehicle accident almost two decades ago. So, the death of his parents wasn't an exaggeration. Poor guy really had lost his parents early. The obit cited surviving family as a teen son, Matteo, a younger sister Seneca, and maternal grandmother Destina DeVera. Matteo's Abuela Tina. So, LoveLines truly was a family affair. Then, the other name caught her eye again. Seneca.
Seneca Brandt.
Her personal love consultant was Matteo's sister.
Jess felt like such a fool, which only fed the conviction that her
seduction was nothing more than a carefully crafted lie on the part of Matteo Brandt. She'd been duped by the supposedly confidential questioning of her love consultant, who no doubt fed her answers to Matt in order to set her up. No wonder they'd connected so easily! The one thing Jess couldn't fathom is how they knew she was a plant for investigation. Seneca had been her consultant from the first, long before Jess had ever been assigned the case.
She rubbed her forehead. It just didn't make sense.
A knock on the door heralded her food. Thank god, she was starving. Jess scooted to the door and flung it open.
Matt stood just outside, his expression guarded.
"You can't be here," she blurted out, trying to bar the space with her arm.
"We need to talk," he said. Though he didn't move, he seemed to take up all the space in the hall.
"I have nothing to say," Jess leaned against the doorjamb. Why didn't she just slam the door in his face? Hours of mental toughening up from here to Atlanta should've made her immune to the fact that he looked just as delicious now as he had in Montana.
"Then let me do the talking." Matt spoke softly, his whole body radiating tension.
She shouldn't. She really, really shouldn't.
Jess exhaled noisily. "Fine." She checked the empty hallway. "But only for a minute. I have some research to do." It galled her how much leeway she was willing to give him—something she would never do for any man.
"I can imagine how busy you must be." A wry smile quirked the side of his lips and then faded. "I want you to know that I never meant to hurt you. What happened between us...." He shook his head. "I've never felt anything like that.
"So?" Jess folded her arms over her chest. She refused to let him know how much he affected her. "So what?"
"So, after I left you that morning, I knew it was a mistake. You see," he paused. "I still want you. Want us. I mean, I want things to work out between us."
"I hardly think that's possible." she asked, skeptically.
Matt continued as if she wasn't giving him the cold shoulder, plowing through his words in a way that made her wonder if he'd done some rehearsing on the way to her hotel. "In fact, I went back that day to prove it. I...uh...I took the test." His eyes dropped to the floor and she noticed that he carried a manila file folder tucked into the back of his jeans.