by Judy Angelo
The perfect wine didn’t just titillate her taste buds, though. With each sip she took, the tension that had made her sit up straight in her chair now flowed out of her and in its place came a mood so mellow that she didn’t even flinch when, out of the blue, Ryder asked her a question about Jerome.
“So how did you end up in business with a man like your partner, someone who would betray you like that?” He wasn’t just looking curious. He actually looked puzzled.
She took another sip of wine to fortify herself then gave him a wan smile. “It’s a long story,” she said. “Got the time?”
He cocked his head to one side. “I’m all ears.”
Blake drew in a shallow breath and then she began. “I met Jerome at a cocktail party. One of those meet-and-greet affairs. You know, you’re in business, trying to network, so you show your face at these events.”
“Sure, that’s part of doing business.”
“ Jerome was at one of those events and he walked up to me and said he was a huge admirer of my work.” She gave him a rueful smile. “He started laying it on real thick and I guess after a while I began to believe a little bit of what he was saying.” She shook her head. “Silly me, but you live and you learn.”
Ryder’s gaze narrowed. “Meaning?”
“Meaning, it went from that simple conversation to a meeting at my office to an invitation to go out on a date.” She grimaced. “It turned out that he wasn’t so much interested in my work as he was in me. At least, at first.” She bit her lip and then she spoke again. “Jerome was a real charmer, going out of his way to surprise me with gifts and doing cute little things, unexpected things, things that made me begin to like him.” She gave a hollow laugh. “One time he even made me leave the office to go out with him for the afternoon for a picnic and a ride in a hot air balloon. He was so spontaneous.” She glanced over at Ryder but in the dimness of the room she could read nothing in his eyes. And he wasn’t saying anything. He was quiet and he was watching her, waiting for her to go on.
She let out her breath. “To cut a long story short, it took only a few months before I fell in love with him and when he asked me to marry him I said yes.” Her lips tightened. “Soon after that he started paying close interest in my business and then one day, out of the blue, he said we were a couple now so it would only make sense for us to be business partners.”
“You were okay with that?”
She shrugged. “After I got over the initial shock I said yes.” She gave a soft snort. “Little did I know it was the worst decision of my life.” She grimaced. “Well, maybe the second worst. Agreeing to marry him would probably take that prize.”
Ryder raised an eyebrow. “Your second worst decision, because?”
“Because although he said we should be partners I was the one undertaking most of the risk. His financial contribution was sort of…sparse, to put it generously. He said his main contribution would be his vast network of clients, both private and corporate.” She sighed. “It was more a promise than anything tangible but I guess by that time I was too involved to object. I talked myself into it, telling myself that clients were the key success factor in any real estate business.” She reached for her wine again. After a slow sip she continued. “But that, I could have lived with. What killed me was when I found out, three months after we’d formed the partnership, that he’d begun writing checks to a company I’d never heard of, called Evergreen Enterprises. When I checked into it, it was to find out that he was the owner.”
By this time, no matter that the lighting was weak, Blake could see that Ryder’s face had darkened into a scowl. “The bastard. You reported him to the police, right?”
Blake looked down at her hands then she shook her head. She opened her mouth to speak but she couldn’t. A huge lump had formed in her throat. It took several seconds before the words could come out. “I didn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t believe what he’d done.” She raised her gaze to Ryder’s face. “This was the man I was going to marry. I found this out a week before our wedding day.” Despite herself, her mouth began to tremble and she bit down on her bottom lip. When she spoke again there was a tremor in her voice. “That was why I just left. I had to get away. I found out I couldn’t trust Jerome, the man who swore he loved me so much he couldn’t live without me. After what he did to me…he’s made it hard for me to trust any man again.”
Ryder was staring back at her, looking like he wanted to say something to reassure her, but then he nodded slowly. “I understand,” he said, his voice low and gentle. “You were in shock. And I know exactly what you mean about not being able to trust again.”
She tilted her head as she gazed back at him. “You do?”
He drew in a big breath and as he did his nostrils flared. Then he nodded. “There was a woman I almost married…until I found out she was pregnant for my best friend.”
CHAPTER TEN
Blake sucked in her breath. “What did you say?” The words came out in a whispered rush. It wasn’t even that she wanted him to repeat the words. The shock was that Ryder had a story that sounded like it was even worse than hers. “She was...pregnant?”
Ryder gave her hand a squeeze and then he got up and walked over to the sideboard, his back to her. “We’d been together four years. We were engaged and planning to get married next year. Then she got pregnant.” Ryder stopped and for a long while there was silence. He was so still it looked like he wasn’t breathing. Then he shook his head. “I can’t believe I was over the moon when she told me.” Another silence then his shoulders sagged. “Until two days later she worked up the courage to tell me the baby wasn’t mine.”
“Oh, my God.” The whispered words slipped out before Blake could stop them. She didn’t have to guess at Ryder’s devastation. She could see it in the way he lowered his head and in the way he gripped the edge of the sideboard. Ryder was hurting and it tore at her heart to witness his suffering.
Not even pausing to give it thought, she got up and went to him and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. She didn’t say anything. Sometimes words were not enough. With her touch she was telling him that she was there.
The strange thing was, once she’d heard of Ryder’s pain her own feelings of hurt and loss slid into the background and all she could feel was a new protectiveness toward him. It really wasn’t her affair but she just wanted to make things better.
“Let’s go for a walk,” she said softly. “I think we’d both do good with some fresh air.”
Ryder nodded then turned and took her hand. His face looked surprisingly calm but Blake was not fooled. Beneath that placid surface a storm of emotions raged. The pain reflected in his eyes said it all.
They walked in silence, out of the house and into Peggy’s backyard garden. After the intense conversations in the dining room it was the right place to be. Peggy had filled the yard with shrubs, herbs and abundant flowers of a variety of hues and fragrances. The soft breezes of the Texas night stirred the leaves of the trees that stood sentry at both ends of the back porch and lined the outer edges of the garden.
Blake and Ryder walked slowly along the garden path, still holding hands, drawing in the soothing sensations and giving themselves over to the spirit of the garden. They made it to the concrete bench at the bottom, to the arbor, and there they sat down under the outstretched branches of an old oak tree.
It was only when they were sitting that Ryder finally released her hand. “Sorry,” he said with a crooked smile. “I didn’t mean to crowd you like that.”
“You didn’t.” She smiled back and then she tilted her head to look up at the deep, dark velvet of the sky above. Her smile widened. “We’ve got a crescent moon tonight,” she said. “They call it the waxing crescent, which means we should have a full moon in about three or four weeks. And look at the stars.” She sighed. “There’s nothing so beautiful as a starry night in Texas Hill Country.”
His body relaxed against the arm of the bench, Ryder tilted his head to follow
her gaze. “I see Ursa Major,” he said, “and Leo Minor.”
“Where?” She turned to glance at Ryder and then peered back up at the sky. “How can you figure them out?”
“I was into astronomy when I was a kid. I even joined the astronomy club in high school.” He reached up to point at a blur of stars on the other side of the sky. “And over there’s Cygnus.”
“Cyg…what? Where?” Blake was frowning now. She couldn’t see a thing. No forms, no patterns, nothing. How did Ryder make them out? She got to her feet so she could get a better look. “Where is it?”
Ryder got up, too, and came to stand right behind her then he took her hand, raised it to the sky and used her finger to point. “It’s right over there, a constellation of four brilliant stars, standing together. Do you see it?”
He was standing close, his body almost touching her back, and the warmth of his nearness was too distracting for words. She was having a hard time breathing. “I…don’t know,” she said, her voice breathless. “I’m…trying to see it.” She swallowed, her nerves jangling, her heart pounding so loud she began to fret that Ryder could actually hear it. “Is it those stars over there?”
Ryder’s arm circled her waist and he tilted her back against him, making her gaze fall farther north. His arm was still stretched out along hers and he shifted her hand and her pointing finger ever so slightly. “It’s right there,” he said. “Do you see it now?”
Jesus, she was leaning back against him, her body pressed against his, the muscles of his torso imprinted on her back. How the heck could she concentrate on constellations and stars and the heavens when all she could see, all she could feel, was Ryder Kent? “Yes,” she whispered desperately, “I see it. I see it now.” Which, of course, she didn’t. She just wanted him to bring his arm down so he could wrap both of them around her. She wanted him to turn her around and kiss her and make her see stars…not the ones in the sky but the ones that shot off like fireworks when you touched lips with that special someone who could make your body turn electric.
And then, like he’d read her mind, or maybe he was feeling it, too – the sparks of electricity that were making her gasp – he did turn her around, to gaze down into her eyes. “May I kiss you?” he asked, his voice soft and low.
She drew in her breath, her eyes half-closed. “Yes,” she whispered back. “Please, yes.”
And when he lowered his head she was ready. He touched his lips to hers and the electric sparks ignited into a fire that made her reach her hands up to cling to him.
As if her reaction was the permission he’d been waiting for, Ryder tightened his arms around her and his tentative touch now turned insistent. He molded his lips to hers, tempting her, teasing her until her lips parted with a soft sigh and she gave him entry. It was what she’d wanted all this time. It was what she craved. More than that, it was what she needed.
Blake gave herself over to Ryder’s kiss, melting in his arms, feeling like this was where she was meant to be. As he kissed her she held nothing back. It didn’t matter if her response revealed her deepest secret. She didn’t care if he could feel her longing to hold him close, her ecstasy that she was now in his arms. She just wanted his kiss to last forever.
But all good things had to come to an end and soon, much too soon, Ryder was releasing her lips and lifting his head to gaze down at her flushed face. Thankfully, he did not release her from his arms. “Thank you,” he said, his voice quiet and his face serious, “very much.”
Now how do you respond to that? No man had ever thanked her for a kiss. Not knowing what to say she just gazed back at him and when he smiled she dropped her eyes and rested her cheek against his cotton-covered chest. It felt so good that a tiny shiver ran through her body.
“Cold?” Ryder ran his warm hands up and down her arms, making her shiver again. He had no idea that her shivers had nothing to do with the evening air.
“Come on, let’s get you warmed up inside.” He put a hand on her shoulder to turn her toward the pathway and as they walked toward the house he rested his arm gently around her waist.
Blake leaned into him, reveling in his warmth and his strength. Maybe it was because they’d both shared their stories of trauma and betrayal. She didn’t know what it was and she would not question why. All she knew was that it felt so natural to be with Ryder, to have him there by her side.
As they stepped onto the porch he released her and held the door open. “You go in and relax,” he said. “I’ll do the cleaning up.”
Blake could only smile. He was such a gentleman, almost too good to be true. He’d made her get past all the baggage she’d thrown out on the table and now she was at peace.
But then his next words threw freezing-cold water on her mellow mood.
“We’ve got to head back to Beaumont’s soon,” he said. “I have to hit the road early in the morning.”
And although she’d known he would be leaving, it was a reminder she could have done without.
After what they’d shared tonight, how could she bear to let Ryder go, knowing she might never see him again?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Cut them off,” Ryder said, his voice cold. “If they want tough we’ll give them tough. I’m not in the mood to play games.”
“You’re sure you want to do that? That’s a couple of million we stand to lose if we cancel the deal.” Phil Bennett, Ryder’s second-in-command, gave him a look tinged with doubt. “Maybe we should give them more time.”
Ryder flashed him a glare of impatience. “We had an agreement. We signed on the dotted line. I’m a man of my word and if I committed to taking the supplies from those dairy farmers I’ll honor my commitment. But I’m not going to sell their stock to a retail chain that suddenly decides they’re going to jack up prices because they can. We agreed on an intro price so consumers could try the new brand. If they’re going to back out of our agreement then forget them. I’ll sell my dairy products elsewhere.”
Phil tightened his lips. “It’s only like three cents, Ryder. Surely you can overlook that. The consumer won’t even feel it.” Then he shook his head. “I mean, come on. It’s not peanuts we’re talking about if we lose a couple mill.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m no fool. I’ve got alternative markets already lined up.”
Phil heaved a dramatic sigh. “Don’t scare me like that again.”
Ryder grinned. “You should know me by now, Phil. When have you known me to be rash? Now ruthless, I can do that when the situation calls for it, but rash? Never.”
Phil chuckled and began to get up to leave but then he paused. “By the way, there’s something I should tell you.” He cleared his throat, looking slightly embarrassed. “Something of a personal nature.”
Ryder frowned. “Yes? What is it?”
Phil sat forward in his chair as if he wanted to get close enough so he wouldn’t have to speak loudly. “It's Miss Ebbinghaus. She came by while you were away.”
Ryder’s frown deepened. “Karin? Did she say why?”
Phil shook his head. “No, but she said it was very important that you call her upon your return. She didn’t say anything else.” Phil cleared his throat again. “I don’t get it. Why didn’t she just call you? Is something wrong?”
The man was fishing now, prying into matters that were none of his business. He knew that Ryder and Karin were involved and his curiosity was getting the better of him. It didn’t matter that Ryder had known him almost twenty years, from the days when Phil used to work for his father. When it came to his personal life, that was where the conversation would end.
He jerked his head toward the door. “Thank you, Phil,” he said, his voice cold and his look just as frigid. “That will be all.”
Without demure the man got up and left the room. As he closed the door behind him Ryder expelled his breath and sat back in his chair.
So Karin had come looking for him. By now she should have heard through the grapevine that he was back in town. She
would be back, he was sure of it. If there was one thing he knew about Karin Ebbinghaus it was that she didn’t stop until she got what she wanted.
But what the heck she could want from him when she was expecting another man’s child, he had no idea.
It was a question for which he had no desire to get an answer.
***
“Don’t you ever do that again, staying away so long. You leave town and you send me a postcard? Your own mother? What ever happened to a good old phone call?” Magdalena Kent gave Ryder a disapproving look and then she spoiled it when she opened her arms wide and gave her son a broad smile. “Come give your mama a hug, you wicked boy, you.”
Ryder was only too happy to oblige. He walked into his mother’s arms and when she gave him a fierce squeeze he groaned in exaggerated agony, hoping he would make her feel just a little bit guilty. He didn’t. She squeezed even harder and then she stepped back to peer up into his face. “You look well,” she said, looking satisfied, and then she cocked her head to one side. “Are you?”
“I’m fine, Mom.” He gave her a quick nod then stepped back before she could corral him and drag him off to some place where she could grill him properly. Mother Kent was famous for digging the deepest secrets out of her four sons and Ryder wasn’t up to the challenge. Not today. It was Sunday and all he wanted to do was relax and enjoy the quiet peace of Westside. It was one of the tiniest towns in Iowa and his parents had decided to leave the busy bustle of the city and retire there. They loved it, being in a town where everyone knew everyone else and it wasn’t hard in a population of just over five hundred.
Ryder glanced over his mother’s head and down the hallway. “Where’s Dad?”
“He’s in the den, playing with our brand new grandbaby." Mother Kent was beaming as she said the words.