The Executive's Decision

by Bernadette Marie

Curtis stepped up to the bed. “Reg, they didn’t find anything that would indicate he raped you. But did he?”

  Regan crossed her arms over her chest and let out a sigh. “No. He never got the chance.”

  Zach saw the barely contained anger in her brother’s eyes—directed at him. Curtis scrubbed his hands over his face. “Damn it, Regan. I didn’t want to see you like this again. How is it I keep finding you lying in hospital rooms battered and beaten? Is this a way of life for you?”

  Her eyes held fire in them as she rose in her bed. She winced. “Curtis, shut up. This is not the place or time for this.”

  “When is? When I have to identify you in the morgue?”

  That socked the wind out of Zach, and he turned toward Curtis. “She protected herself. I don’t think upsetting her is helping her.”

  “Let me tell you what’s going to upset her and the rest of us.” He pushed out his chest and met Zach’s eye. “When we find her dead because of some asshole who thought he could use her for a punching bag.”

  “That isn’t going to happen. And Zach didn’t do this. It had nothing to do with him.”

  “Like hell, Reg. That man was trying to get to him by hurting you. A few more minutes and you would have been raped. A moment after that you’d be dead.”

  “I’m neither,” she argued.

  “No, but you can’t go through this again. Think about last time. Look at what you almost lost. Then we almost lost you. It wasn’t worth it.”

  Regan shifted a look from her brother to Zach. The fear was back in her eyes, and Zach felt like an outsider, confused at their anger and their conversation.

  Regan pushed down her sheet and pointed a stern finger at her brother. “One more word, Curtis Keller, and I walk out of this hospital.”

  He threw his arms in the air and stormed out of the room. Zach knew he blamed him for what had happened to her. He blamed himself. But they’d been fighting about more than this attack by Roger Byers.

  Zach sat quietly by her side. He stroked her hand, the traces of blood on her skin accusing him. “I’m sure they’ll let you go in a few hours. We’ll head out to my parents’ house, and I’ll take care of you. It’ll be a good place for you to rest. You need rest, Regan. In fact, I think you should take off next week. We’ve been working really hard. I’ve probably worked you harder than I ever worked Mary Ellen. I’ll make arrangements for a replacement for the week and then—”

  “Would you shut up too?” She lay back against the bed.

  “I’m sorry.” He just wanted to take care of her, more now than he ever had wanted to take care of anyone.

  “Just take me home,” she insisted.

  “No. I will take you with me. I will take care of you, and you will breathe fresh air and be safe in my arms this weekend.”

  She shook her head and covered her eyes with her arm.

  He didn’t understand why she was shutting herself away from him. “Damn it, Regan, I’m so sorry.” The calm had torn away, and tears fell freely down his face. “I am so sorry this happened.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “It is. He attacked you to get back at me for firing him. John said he trashed the office and snuck out while John was at the car with you. God, Regan, he hurt you, and that’s my fault.”

  She sat silently for a moment shaking her head. “But he didn’t get me. I’m fine. I’ll be fine in a few days and no worse for the wear.”

  “But look at you.”

  “I know.” Her voice was angry. Guilt filled him and he couldn’t push it away.

  He smoothed his hand over hers. “What was Curtis talking about earlier?”

  “My big-mouthed brother talks more than he should. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I love you, Regan. I have no intention of ever hurting you. You know that, right?” She nodded. “Then don’t hurt me by lying to me.”

  “I’m fine.” She turned away from him on the bed. “I just want to go home.”

  Zach wasn’t surprised when each of her family members called her the moment she’d been released from the hospital. He’d heard Curtis on the phone with Carlos only moments before Curtis turned to him and threatened to take him out to the parking lot and kick the crap out of him if she ever got hurt again.

  But he found Curtis wasn’t any more forthcoming with details than his sister was on their earlier conversation.

  Word sped to New York as Tyler and Audrey waited to meet Arianna after her show.

  Security had called Tyler Benson, since he still owned the building. He called Zach.

  Zach, who had stood firm in his insistence that Regan not be alone yet, drove up the road toward his parents’ house with her by his side. He adjusted his cell phone on his ear as he looked over at Regan. “She’s fine. She got knocked around by Roger Byers.”

  “I never did like that man working for us.”

  “Well he doesn’t anymore,” Zach assured him. “John took care of that.”

  But now, looking at Regan, he wondered at what expense. He should have never hired that man to run the project. One slip in judgment had almost cost him everything he cherished.

  The Bensons’ home was as warm and inviting as she’d remembered. Zach turned on lights as they walked through the hallway toward the kitchen. His hand was on the small of her back, and she was glad she’d come. She liked feeling him close by.

  “I’ll get you a drink,” he offered.

  “Just water.”

  Regan rested against the counter and looked out over the darkness of the acreage behind the house. She let herself out the sliding glass doors onto the porch. The air was warm and still. Stars sparkled bright above her, and she found a moment’s peace beneath them.

  A house on sprawling Tennessee land with a porch that wrapped around it was calming just in thought. Being here, she felt at home. If it were her home, there would be two rocking chairs, one for her and one for her husband, and children would run about the fields laughing and playing.

  She ran her hands up her arms and winced as she brushed the cuts. A soft breeze brushed over her face, against the tender skin on her cheek. At the hospital, she’d taken a moment to look at herself, and she knew she’d look worse in the morning.

  Curtis was right. She too was tired of seeing herself like this. This time it had nothing to do with her. Roger Byers was crazy. But the bruises would heal and the cuts were superficial.

  Nothing was lost this time.

  She ran her hands over her stomach and breathed in slowly.

  “Your water, my dear.” Zach joined her on the porch and handed her the glass. “You’re beautiful when you’re looking at the stars.”

  “Thank you.” She sipped the water and felt herself calm. “It’s so pretty here. I had thought of our weekend earlier today.” She moved closer to him, laying her hand on his chest.

  “And what did you think?”

  “I was thinking we could make love on that boulder in the creek, and your mother wouldn’t know.”

  “Oh, she’d know.” He laughed, then his eyes softened. “I had many plans too, but for tonight I want you lying beside me in my room. I want to hold you and protect you and know you’ll be there when I wake.”

  “I’ll accept your offer.” She rose and kissed him gently, pulling back quickly when her lip stung from the cuts. “I’m exhausted.”

  “I have the pills your brother sent for you. Do you need something?”

  “No. I’m okay,” she lied, because she didn’t want pills. She only wanted the arms of the man she loved to be wrapped around her and holding her through the night.

  Chapter eleven

  Zach spent the night holding Regan and keeping her safe, as he’d promised. He woke before she did and watched her sleep for an hour before the morning sun crept through the drapes, and her eyelids finally fluttered against the light.

  He brushed her lips with his and pulled her close to him as gently as he could. Her face now showed the signs of the struggle
she’d had the day before, and it wrenched in his gut like a knife. There wasn’t any part of what had happened that he didn’t personally blame himself for. He may not have been the force that physically hurt her, but he’d been behind it just the same. She should never have gone to the site with John. He should have fired Byers months ago and not waited until the situation came to a head.

  Things had never been like that before. When something needed tending to, he took care of it. He was shoveling off his duties. He was putting people in harm’s way, and why? Because he’d fallen in love, and his mind wasn’t focused on his business.

  When she shifted in his arms, the scent of her rushed through him. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of having her close. He’d never been in love before, never had the whole world slip from his fingers. But he had to be realistic. First, as much as he loved her and wanted to hear the words from her, they weren’t coming. Second, he had the L.A. project to think about. It would be the biggest build the company had ever acquired. He needed to be focused when it came down to it. Even his love for Regan couldn’t get in the way. There was too much at stake.

  When Zach felt the softness of Regan’s lips on his, he opened his eyes. She gazed at him solemnly, her hair curtaining her face. “It’s Saturday morning, and you are thinking too hard.”

  “You’re right. I was.” He touched her hair and then ran his fingers through it. “I’m starving.”

  Regan lifted her head, and concern shadowed her eyes. “Please tell me your mother keeps groceries in the house.”

  He pushed back his shoulders and considered. He hadn’t even thought about filling the house with food for the weekend after everything that had happened. “I… well, I don’t know. We’ll go look and see what we can find. We may be having caviar and champagne for breakfast.

  Regan fell backward onto her pillow and lifted the back of her hand to her forehead. “If we must,” she teased, and then she sat up and planted a warm kiss on his lips. His body temperature rose and so did other parts of him. Looking at her, her face dark with bruises, he couldn’t bring himself to touch her yet. The thought of hurting her sank into his gut and burned. He found her a robe made of silk, which would be soft against her skin. After crawling around on the floor, looking under his own bed like a dog, he found her a pair of slippers that, though unfashionable with the robe, would keep her feet warm on the cold tile floor. Then they headed toward the kitchen on an adventure to find food.

  Regan seemed pleased to find that Audrey had a stocked pantry as well as the refrigerator. She pulled out a carton of eggs, a package of bacon, and a container of cream. “Oh, a big breakfast. This is just what I need.”

  “I swear to you, if you don’t pour it into a bowl and add milk to it, I don’t know what to do with it.” He perched himself on the island counter and swung his feet carelessly, watching her and trying to be calm and normal around her when all he wanted to do was hold her and nurse her cuts.

  “I bet if your mother saw you right now, she would put you over her knee.”

  She couldn’t see her own face to know how it tore him apart to look at her. He watched as she moved about the kitchen, finding ingredients to make a meal as if nothing had happened. He admired her strength. “You know my mother all too well. And you know she could get away with it too.”

  Regan searched the cabinet under the stove for a pan. “She knew we were staying here, didn’t she?” She lifted her eyebrows at him as she set the pan on the stove.

  “Well, my father did. I would assume the fact that there are edible items in the kitchen was his doing.”

  “I love your father.” She moved to the counter, opened the eggs, and began hunting for a mixing bowl.

  This normalcy was such a farce. Didn’t she see what she was doing to herself? Zach jumped down from where he sat and reached for her arm. “Careful, Regan. You just might stumble on something.”

  “What are you talking about?” She looked down at where his hand gripped her arm, and he realized he was probably hurting her. He quickly let go.

  “So careless for you to use those words when you won’t tell me you love me.”

  He knew as soon as the words slipped out of his mouth, they’d hurt her more than if he’d hit her.

  “Oh, Zach, really.” She turned back toward her eggs, but he spun her around again. This time he crushed his lips to her, gathered her in his arms, then deepened the kiss. How was it he could hurt and be in love? He wanted to hear the words. He needed to know that the woman he loved, loved him back.

  “Tell me you love me,” he pleaded, but her eyes grew dark.

  “Zach…”

  “Either you love me or you don’t. You have to tell me one way or another.” She said nothing and he shook his head. “It’s not going to change how I feel, Regan. I love you, and I wish to hell you could tell me you love me too.”

  Her eyes were open wide, and he’d obviously caught her off guard with his bitterness. But he couldn’t help himself. Pure, raw emotion charged through him, and he didn’t know what to do with it. Never would he lash out at her physically, but because someone had, he would lose her.

  Before he could hurt her again with his words or demand more from her than she could give, he turned and walked out of the house through the patio doors.

  Regan stood in the kitchen and watched Zach pace the patio. Her heart raced from his words, and her body ached from the strikes she’d taken the day before. She lifted her fingers to her lips. They stung from the cuts on them. They had swelled from the blows Roger Byers had dealt to her face. Zach’s kiss should have soothed them, but it hadn’t. It had made her angry with herself for not giving him what he really needed, confirmation of her love for him.

  God, she did love him. She had come to grips with that. Why couldn’t she tell him? She lifted a hand to her aching head and closed her eyes. Her cheeks were sore from where Roger Byers had hit her. Her arms still ached from where he’d grabbed her and bruised her. The cuts were visible reminders of what had happened only the day before. All because she loved Zachary Benson.

  But nothing hurt as badly as her heart did when Zach stormed out the door. She saw him walking in the rose garden, and she took a deep, cleansing breath. It had been a year since Alexander left her for dead, just as Roger Byers had intended to do. It was time to put the pain of her past behind her.

  She rested one hand on her stomach and the other on her cheek. It had been a hell of a year. She needed to move on.

  A few minutes later, Regan walked to the entrance to the rose garden with a mug of coffee. Zach turned when he heard her, and she handed him the mug. “I made breakfast.”

  “Thanks.” He took the mug and held her gaze, but he said nothing else. Finally she walked back to the house. When he followed her, a seed of hope grew inside her.

  “It’s only eggs, bacon, and toast. But I think it’ll do.” She picked up the plates she had readied and set them on the table.

  They ate in silence.

  When he was finished eating he gathered the plates. “I think I’ll grab a shower. Feel free to make yourself at home.” Then he disappeared up the stairs.

  Regan cleaned up the rest of the breakfast dishes and pans. She refilled her coffee mug and headed out the back door, leaving it ajar so Zach would realize where she’d gone. It was time to show him she loved him.

  She strolled down the path through the rose garden and out into the pasture, her pulse drumming faster as she headed toward the creek behind the trees. The air was already hot and thick. To sit and listen to the creek roll past her as she waited for Zach would be heaven.

  Regan toed off her slippers and hiked up the robe as she stepped into the water. As it hit her ankles, a chill ran through her, but she braved it as she waded to the boulder in the center of the creek.

  She sat atop the large stone and listened to the babble of the creek below her. The sun warmed her aching body and felt soothing on her face. It had almost been a year since Alexander Ham
ilton had tried to kill her. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought two different madmen would attack her. It made her uncomfortable in her own skin.

  She wasn’t weak. She wasn’t fragile. But the attacks had beaten her down. It had taken almost a year for her to regain who she was after Alexander Hamilton had left his mark. She wasn’t going to let that happen again. She was in love with a truly decent man who wanted to take care of her for the rest of her life. There were no monetary promises. There were no one-sided conversations. Zach cared about her, and she wasn’t going to let what Alexander Hamilton or Roger Byers had done to her hold her back. Today was a new day, a day for her and Zach.

  Regan rested her head against the stone and basked in the sun’s warmth. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been there when she heard the sound of footsteps among the trees. Then there he was, standing on the creek bank, looking out toward her, his hair, still wet from his shower. The T-shirt he’d pulled on was old and faded. The hems of his jeans dragged on the ground, and his feet were bare. She laughed at the fact that he’d walked through the field without any shoes on. In his parents’ backyard he was absolutely at home.

  He gave her a nod. “You wearing anything under that robe?” He watched her as though he were waiting for permission to touch her, and it just might kill him.

  She loosened her belt. “Peeping Tom?”

  “Peeping Zach,” he said as he crossed the creek.

  “You’d better see for yourself, then,” she said, pulling one lapel down over her shoulder.

  Zach climbed up the boulder and lay next to her. He gently touched her cheek and shook his head. She knew the look of guilt, and she regretted that he felt as though he’d had any part in her attack.

  He slid his arm around her waist and gathered her in close. “I’m sorry for the way I acted this morning. It wasn’t right. Especially after yesterday. I should have—”

  “I love you, Zachary Benson.” It floated from her lips like a sigh. “I love you.”

  His mouth opened wide, and she watched his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed hard. “What?” His voice cracked like a teenager’s, and Regan grinned.