Come Home Again (The Donovans)

by Nana Malone

  She blinked up at him. Was he for real? “You’re going to have to take no for an answer.”

  “The position I have open is a full time gig. It includes every night and every weekend. I’m not the easiest client. I’m a huge pain in the ass, and I will screw up. Sometimes, I won’t even see how I’m screwing up until it’s all over. I need someone who gets me to keep me on the straight and narrow.”

  He met her gaze directly and the pitiful resolve she held onto started to crumble. Delilah cleared her throat. “I’m not taking on new clients. Besides I need my clients to be dependable. I need them to communicate with me. I need them to trust me.”

  He stepped into her space, and she resisted her first inclination to wrap her arms around him. Then she battled the second inclination to back out of his reach. Instead, she met his gaze.

  “Everything I could have ever wanted, I have because of you. Now all I need is you. What do you say? Let me show you that I can do this. Trust me with your heart. I promise to cherish it. I love you, Lila."

  She loved him. God she loved him. “Well, I’m very expensive.”

  His grin, slow and sexy, spread across his face. “I hope my heart is enough, because truth be told, I’m sort of unemployed.”

  She looked up at the man she'd always wanted. She couldn’t walk away from him again. Running from him meant running from herself. And she wasn’t willing to run anymore. She locked her gaze with his.

  She smiled up at him. "I love you too, Nate. I'm yours.”

  Epilogue

  "Man, you certainly know how to keep shit entertaining, don’t you?" Chase asked.

  Nate laughed as Delilah sashayed onto the balcony and handed them both drinks. She kissed him distractedly, but he dragged her in for a proper kiss. When he finally released her, his blood rushed in his skull.

  Despite her heavy lidded gaze, she shook her head. “You’ll have to forgive him, Chase. He’s forgotten how to act when company’s around.” Quickly, she scooted out of the way and avoided a swat aimed for her bottom. “I’ll just leave you two to it. I need to make some calls for a client anyway.”

  As she left them both on the balcony, Chase grinned at him. “You actually look happy, man. It’s a good look for you. Even if it did take you some false starts to get here.” Chase had been home for exactly half a day but had insisted on meeting up first thing.

  "I saved the day, didn't I?" Catching Chase up had taken an hour, but now his friend knew everything.

  Chase took a drink of soda water. "But at what cost?” When Nate scowled at him, he held up a hand. "I'm grateful as hell. And I know I had no right to ask. Hell, I don't even have the words. Thank you doesn’t seem like enough. But you nearly lost everything. Your anonymity, your girl. Somehow I don’t think it was worth it to save my sorry ass."

  Nate nodded. "Well, your ass is sorry. But I didn't come this close to losing everything because of you. My world nearly crumbled around me because I needed to stop running a long time ago. As for my anonymity, well, I chose to hide. I thought I needed it to survive. Turns out, the only thing I was hiding from was my potential. And as for Delilah...” He couldn’t contain his grin. “I’m never letting her go again. I almost lost her because I was a dumbass, and I had the chance to tell her the truth, a million times."

  "Wow, are you sure you didn't start going to therapy while I was gone? Having weekly chats with Oprah or something? You’re all enlightened and shit."

  "Yeah, well." He shrugged. “So how are you feeling?"

  Chase inhaled, then blew out a long breath puffing out his cheeks. "Today, I feel good. A little terrified, but good."

  Nate couldn't help but worry. In the last two months, he'd started to think of the company as his. There was a burning in his chest every time he thought of handing the reins back to Chase. But it's not yours. You didn’t build it. You’re a placeholder. "What’s that they say? One day at a time? I'll help you with the transition. I think you'll find less resistance than when Steven was here poisoning the well. I've got some new initiatives going with the engineers. It’ll help you source fresh new ideas to help innovate and keep the guys engaged and feeling like they are contributing to the bottom line."

  Chase grinned at him, and Nate looked around surreptitiously. "What the hell are you staring at, man?"

  Chase gestured toward him. "You. I mean look at you. And I don't mean the hair and the clothes. You're thinking like the leader I knew you could be. What a difference a couple of months make."

  Nate toyed with the key fob in his hand. "Yeah, I guess so."

  "Nate, you and I both know this is hard work."

  Nate frowned. "Look. You can do this. If you think you're slipping again, you need to call me first before you do anything stupid."

  Chase smiled ruefully. "It's funny how you always see yourself as separate and without family, but yet I call you, and you come running, no questions asked. That’s what family does."

  "I owe you."

  "Well, I'd say we're more than even now," Chase said. "That’s why I want you to think carefully about what I'm about to say to you." He drew a deep breath. "I don't think I have what it takes to run Synth as the front figure."

  A knot of tension curled in Nate’s gut. "What the hell are you talking about, Chase?"

  "Let me finish. I’ve given this a lot of thought while I've been gone, and the actual running of the company doesn’t make me happy. It stresses me out. But I keep doing it because I get these major hits of adrenaline every time I acquire a company or launch a new product line. I knew as soon as I started treatment that coming back to the same role wasn't going to be a possibility."

  Nate’s brain spun. What did it mean for him? Shut up and let the man talk, and you might get what you've wanted. "What are you saying?"

  "I’m saying, I can’t be CEO of Synth Games. If I am, I'm a liability. I'll take bigger and bigger risks to get the high, and eventually, I'll topple this place."

  "Your family built this place."

  Chase nodded. "They did. And I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to retain my voting shares on the board, but I need someone else to be CEO. Someone who can make level headed decisions about building and innovating without taking the kinds of risks I was taking."

  Nate's palms began to sweat. "Look, Ch—"

  "I want you to stay on as CEO, Nate. I want you to remove the interim from your title. But I know it's a big decision. One I don’t want you to take lightly."

  Nate couldn’t hear himself think because of the blood rushing between his ears. "But what happens to you?"

  "I take on one of those BS titles like Evangelist or something. I’ll help you evaluate decisions, but I don’t have to make them. We can iron that out, but I’ll stay here, with you at the helm."

  "So now I'm Picard, and you’re Number One?"

  "Geek humor. Funny. What do you say?"

  I want this. And he did want this, it would take some juggling with his own company and games, but he was going to do this. "I’ll do it."

  Chase grinned. "I’m really glad you said yes, man. I didn’t exactly have a back up plan. I need to work out a couple of things, but we’ll make it official on Monday. For now I need to get out of here. I got plans tonight.”

  Nate raised an eyebrow. “Man, only you would have a date for the day you leave rehab.”

  His friend grinned. “That’s because I’m a baller. Besides, I want to give the lovebirds some proper alone time.”

  The moment his friend left, Nate scooped Delilah off the couch and carried her into the bedroom.

  She squealed. “Jesus, Nate, I’m working here.”

  “Well, I have a very important problem. I need your help resolving.” He nuzzled her neck.

  Delilah’s laugh rang clear. God he loved that sound. Now he had everything he’d ever dared wish for.

  “Well, I am a fixer. Why don’t you show me what you need my help with?”

  Nate took her hand and placed it over his heart. “You�
�ve already fixed the most important problem.”

  “You never needed fixing. You were perfect just as you were.”

  “Then how about making me even more perfect? Delilah Donovan, will you marry me?”

  Her eyes filled with tears, which she blinked away rapidly. “I’ve always been yours. I’d be happy to make it official.”

  Nate kissed her softly. She was finally his and he’d never been happier.

  THE END

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  About Nana Malone

  USA Today Bestselling Author, Nana Malone’s love of all things romance and adventure started with a tattered romantic suspense she borrowed from her cousin on a sultry summer afternoon in Ghana at a precocious thirteen. She’s been in love with kick butt heroines ever since.

  With her overactive imagination, and channeling her inner Buffy, it was only a matter a time before she started creating her own characters. Waiting for her chance at a job as a ninja assassin, Nana, meantime works out her drama, passion and sass with fictional characters every bit as sassy and kick butt as she thinks she is.

  Nana is the author of four series. The Love Match Series includes sassy contemporary romances: Game, Set, Match and Mismatch. The In Stilettos Series includes ultra-sexy and fun multicultural romantic comedies, Sexy in Stilettos, Sultry in Stilettos and Sassy in Stilettos. The Protectors series includes dark and sexy superhero romances, Betrayed (A Reluctant Protector Prequel), Reluctant Protector, Forsaken Protector, and Wounded Protector (Coming June 2014.) The Chase Brothers Series includes sexy, Interracial New Adult Romances, London Bound (Coming April 2014) and London Calling (Expected release October 2014). She also writes sizzling erotic novellas as Q. Malone, Corporate Affairs, Exposed, and The Flirtation.

  The books in her series have been on multiple Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble bestseller lists as well as the iTunes Breakout Books list and most notably the USA Today Bestseller list.

  Until that ninja job comes through, you’ll find Nana working hard on additional books for her series as well as other fun, sassy romances for characters that won’t leave her alone. And if she’s not working or hiding in the closet reading, she’s acting out scenes for her husband, daughter and puppy in sunny San Diego.