Something about the Boss...

Home > Romance > Something about the Boss... > Page 15
Something about the Boss... Page 15

by Yvonne Lindsay

Looking at her sister, Sophie couldn’t help but be aware of the massive gulf that lay between them. A gulf created by time and upbringing. By choices they themselves had no say over.

  *

  “I’m a monster.”

  “Anna, you’re not a monster. Not by any stretch of the imagination,” she hastened to reassure her sister.

  “I didn’t want him at first,” Anna said, assuming that air of detachment she’d had earlier.

  Was that how she coped, Sophie wondered, distancing herself from what had happened, from her feelings, until it all became too much and it overwhelmed her again?

  “I wanted a termination but Zach wouldn’t hear of it. We were already separating, I wanted out of that marriage as much as he did. He changed his mind. He said we could make it work, for the baby’s sake. For a while I believed him.”

  The tremors increased. Alarmed, Sophie guided Anna to sit on a bench beneath one of the spreading oak trees that dotted the expansive lawns. If Anna continued to become upset, she’d need to call for help. Maybe coming outside together hadn’t been such a great idea.

  “We don’t have to talk about this right now,” she soothed.

  “No,” Anna said, her voice suddenly firmer than it had been before. “I need to. I need you to hear it, from me.”

  “Okay, I’m listening.”

  “I loved him when he was born, but he terrified me. This tiny baby so dependent on me, and our marriage dependent on him. It was all wrong. So wrong.” Anna rubbed her arms, up and down, up and down. “I couldn’t cope and I couldn’t ask for help. Zach did what he could, but I became such a bitch to live with.”

  Anna got up suddenly and began to pace, still rubbing her arms, her movements jerky, haphazard. Sophie watched her with concern twisting her gut. Everything in her wanted Anna to stop telling her story, to stop torturing herself like this, but her sister had made it clear she needed to tell it. Sophie could only honor that wish and give her the attention she deserved.

  “I drove the car when I shouldn’t have, drove too fast on wet roads, and I was angry. Angry at Zach for not being there for me every second of the day, angry at myself for needing him so damn much—angry at Blake for being born. He didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of my chaotic emotions, neither of them did.

  “Zach and I married for all the wrong reasons. We were destined to fail. I saw Zach as a way out. I knew he wanted to get ahead at my father’s firm, so I used him. I convinced myself I loved him and that I would make the best wife in the world. After all, hadn’t I been the best daughter for most of my life?”

  Anna stopped pacing, stopped rubbing and instead wrapped her arms around herself. Sophie smiled a little, recognizing the very same action she did when she was unsure or unsettled about something.

  “Oh, Anna.” Sophie got up and put her arms around her sister, trying to absorb the misery and cynicism projecting from her every word.

  “No, don’t.” Anna pushed Sophie away. “Don’t make it all right. I have to take responsibility for my part in all this. It’s the only way I’ll ever get better.”

  Sophie took a step back. It was a harsh reality, but her sister wasn’t the little four-year-old who’d relied upon her for everything anymore. She was a grown woman. A woman who’d completed her education, married, had a child and then seen the death of that child and her marriage. Sophie had concentrated for so long on the young Suzie that she’d completely forgotten to rationalize that she had grown up, become a mature adult. They were contemporaries now, neither needing the care of the other but there for support, for friendship, for love.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t help wanting to make it all better for you. It’s the way I’m wired, I suppose,” she said with a small uncomfortable laugh.

  Anna stared back at her. “Even after everything I’ve just said?”

  “Especially after everything you have just said,” Sophie affirmed. “I’m here for you and our mom will be, too. For as long as you need or want us. I promise.”

  “Zach said the same thing. He’s a good friend. I don’t deserve it. Not from him. Not from you. Not any of it.” Tears began to track down Anna’s face. At first slowly, then faster and faster until she shook with sobs. She didn’t object when Sophie put her arms around her again.

  “You do,” Sophie said firmly. “You deserve our support and our love.”

  “I just feel so guilty. Not just for what I did, but for what I’m doing now. I’m holding him back. He’s so damn noble I know he’s putting me ahead of other things in his life, other people. I want him to move on, but I’m too frightened to do this on my own.”

  “You’re not on your own. We’ll all be here for you, with you. Trust me, Zach wants you well again, we all do.”

  She held her sister until the sobs calmed down, until she just gave a tiny hiccup every now and then. Sophie rubbed her sister’s back, trying to infuse her love and comfort into Anna’s gaunt frame.

  “I want to go back inside now,” Anna said plaintively.

  Sophie tucked her arm around her sister’s slender waist and walked her slowly to the main building. She accompanied Anna to her room, settling her in the easy chair near the window that looked out over the gardens.

  “Can I get you anything? Call anyone?” she asked, reluctant to leave her.

  “No. I just want to think.”

  “Okay, I’ll be going, then.”

  Sophie got as far as the door before Anna’s voice halted her in her tracks. “Will you come back?”

  “Sure, every day if you’ll have me. And you can call me, too, if you like. Here.” Sophie reached into her bag for her notebook and a pen and scratched her details down. “Anytime, okay? If you need me, or just want to talk—call.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “Me, too,” Sophie said softly, then let herself out of the room.

  Downstairs, she phoned Zach and waited outside for him to arrive, replaying her time with Anna over in her head. One thing kept sticking in her mind: Anna’s guilt over holding Zach back, together with her adamant statement that she and Zach were just friends. Her feelings about their marriage exactly mirrored what Zach had told her himself. Sophie’s head spun. Could she do it? Could she have it all? Could she have a new relationship with her long-lost sister and have the man she loved, as well? In time, could Anna accept that Zach and her big sister were a couple?

  She could only hope and pray it was so.

  Nineteen

  Zach drove carefully back from the clinic, his eyes flicking to Sophie sitting next to him then back to the road ahead. She hadn’t said much about her visit with Anna, only that it had been good to see her sister again and that she was looking forward to spending more time with her. He hoped against hope that maybe now she’d begin to see that there was no grand passion between him and his ex-wife—only a friendship based on all they’d been through together.

  They pulled up outside Sophie’s apartment and he walked her to the door.

  “Will you come in?” she asked.

  “Sure.”

  “I’ll get us something to drink. What would you like?”

  “Just iced water or a soda, thanks.”

  He watched her as she walked to her kitchen, unable to tear his eyes off her and biting his tongue hard to prevent himself from bombarding her with questions about her meeting with Anna. She returned with two glasses filled with ice and soda.

  “Thank you for taking me to see Anna today,” she said as she perched on the seat opposite him.

  “You needed to see each other. To reconnect. It’s been far too long.”

  “Yeah, it has. So much has changed.”

  She sounded wistful. Was that regret in her voice? Had he done the wrong thing?

  “You’re not sorry you went, are you?”

  “No, not at all. I’m just sad for all we’ve missed out on. We’ve grown up into such different people.”

  “You were bound to be different, whether you grew up together or not,” he po
inted out carefully.

  “I know.” Sophie shrugged. “But for so long in my mind she’s been my baby sister, you know? Someone I had to look out for.”

  “And now she’s all grown up?”

  “Yeah, she doesn’t need me like she used to.”

  “She still needs you, Sophie. But as an equal, I think.”

  She nodded and smiled. “I pretty much came to that conclusion, too. It’s a strange thing to have to admit that you’re not needed anymore when you’ve spent your whole life feeling guilty for not being there for someone, for not being able to do more.”

  “I need you,” he said simply. “I love you, Sophie, and I need you in my life like I’ve never needed anyone before.”

  “Even after everything I’ve put you through?”

  “After trying to seduce my secrets from me?” he asked. “More than ever. After being my right hand since Alex went missing? Like you could never know. After working your way into my heart and my mind until all I think about every day, all I want is you? Definitely.”

  “I don’t deserve you.”

  “Then we don’t deserve each other, but who says we have to? Can’t we just reach for what we want and love each other, for the rest of our lives? Do you believe me now when I say that Anna and are not in love with one another? Sophie, are you prepared to try again—to put the past behind us and to move on and build a future together?”

  His heart hammered in his chest as he waited for her reply. This was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do, this waiting. He’d known after what she’d told him on Saturday night that he’d have to prove to her that he and Anna were not a couple in a romantic sense any longer. That was why he’d spoken with Dr. Philmore and arranged for Sophie to meet with him. Yes, he and Anna would always be friends—you didn’t go through what they’d been through without forging some sort of lifelong connection—but that’s where they began and ended. The kind of lifelong connection he wanted with Sophie was another bond entirely. It was the kind of bond his parents had, the kind of bond he’d never dreamed he would be lucky enough to have with another person, especially after the disaster of his first marriage.

  Now everything lay in Sophie’s hands. His heart, his hopes, his future.

  “I—I would like to,” she said hesitantly, then her voice strengthened and she spoke with more conviction. “But I need to know something first.”

  “Anything, just ask,” he said, hardly daring to hope.

  “I can understand your grief over the failure of your marriage with Anna, over what it has cost both of you, especially with losing your son. And I could understand if you never wanted to take that step again, to have a family. I just need you to know that if you’re ever ready to be a father again, I want with all my heart to be the one to give you that gift.”

  Zach moved from his chair to kneel in front of Sophie. He clasped her hands in his and drew them to his lips.

  “Sophie, I couldn’t imagine a better mother for our children. Will you be my partner in life, in everything that matters to me? Will you marry me?”

  She gave him a tremulous smile. “Yes, I love you, Zach. I would be honored to marry you.”

  “Thank God,” he said, pulling her into his arms and closing his lips over hers.

  He held her tight to his body, loving the way she fit against him. Two halves of the same whole. She kissed him back with every bit as much fervor as he kissed her, their lips igniting a slow-burning fire between them. A fire he knew, after all they’d been through, nothing could extinguish. Zach pushed his hands through the silken strands of her hair to cup the back of her head as he deepened the kiss, as their tongues stroked and probed, retreated and returned again in a dance that made his blood sing in his veins.

  This was right in every way. She was right for him in every way.

  Their clothes seemed to melt from their bodies with the heat of their passion for one another and with each touch, each caress, they rediscovered each other’s bodies. Zach rolled onto his back right there on her living room floor and pulled Sophie on top of him. She straddled his hips, her hands tracing circles over his chest, his abdomen and lower.

  “I love you, Sophie,” he said again as she lifted her hips and positioned her body over his aching arousal.

  “I love you, Zach, always,” she answered as she slowly accepted him into her body and, he hoped, forever into her heart.

  She rocked gently against him and his hands gripped her hips, holding her in place as her hands braced on his chest. She increased her tempo, making his pulse rocket upward in increments. He reached up to palm her breasts, to roll her nipples between his fingertips and squeeze them gently. He could feel the tension building in her body, building in his, and then she tumbled over the edge with a cry, her body reaching its peak and dragging his answering response from deep inside of him.

  Their lovemaking had never been more perfect, more in sync. When she collapsed against him, he closed his arms around her and made a silent vow that she would forever be safe in his embrace, that she and any children they were lucky enough to have would always come first in his life, no matter what. He would never make the same mistakes again. This marriage would be based on love, pure and simple—not on duty, not on doing the right thing, unless doing the right thing was loving someone with your heart and soul for the rest of your days.

  Much later, after they’d made it to her bed and made love again, they lay in the encroaching darkness just holding one another and Zach admitted he’d never before felt such contentment in his life. Anna would get well again. He and Sophie would build a new life together. There was only one fly left in the ointment. Alex. Where on earth was he?

  As if sensing where his thoughts had traveled, Sophie lifted her head from his chest and met his gaze, tracing the outline of his brow with one finger.

  “Problem?”

  “Just thinking,” he said.

  She continued to trace the angles of his face and began to outline his lips with the barest touch. He opened his mouth and caught her finger gently between his teeth, laving it with his tongue. He felt her response as every muscle in her body tightened.

  “About Alex?” she asked, gently extricating her finger and leaning up on one elbow.

  “How did you know?”

  “Because not knowing where he is, that’s the only thing that stops the future being perfect right now.”

  He knew what she meant. It had felt strange accepting the TCC membership without his friend and sponsor by his side, and now he was embarking on marriage with the woman he loved without even knowing where his friend was.

  “Zach?”

  “Hmm.”

  “With Anna’s recovery still underway and Alex still missing, let’s not plan our wedding just yet. We need to be sure that Anna is going to be okay and I know how important your friendship with Alex is. Let’s wait until we have some idea if—when,” she corrected herself firmly, “he’s coming back.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. He’s your best friend and he means a lot to me, too, both as a boss and a friend. Somehow it doesn’t feel right to plan a date until we know more.”

  Zach pulled Sophie down against him, folding his arms around her. “How did I ever get so lucky as to find you?”

  “I’m the lucky one,” she argued back, reaching up to kiss him. “I plan to keep reminding you of that for the rest of our lives.”

  “And I plan to hold you to that.” He smiled in return, confident that the future would be a whole lot brighter with her in it.

  *

  TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: THE MISSING MOGUL

  Don’t miss a single story!

  RUMOR HAS IT by Maureen Child

  DEEP IN A TEXAN’S HEART by Sara Orwig

  SOMETHING ABOUT THE BOSS… by Yvonne Lindsay

  THE LONE STAR CINDERELLA by Maureen Child

  TO TAME A COWBOY by Jules Bennett

  IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT by Kathie DeNosky

  BE
NEATH THE STETSON by Janice Maynard

  WHAT A RANCHER WANTS by Sarah M. Anderson

  THE TEXAS RENEGADE RETURNS by Charlene Sands

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Nanny Trap by Cat Schield

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Desire story.

  You want to leave behind the everyday! Harlequin Desire stories feature sexy, romantic heroes who have it all: wealth, status, incredible good looks…everything but the right woman. Add some secrets, maybe a scandal, and start turning pages!

  Enjoy six new stories from Harlequin Desire every month!

  Visit Harlequin.com to find your next great read.

  We like you—why not like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks

  Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks

  Read our blog for all the latest news on our authors and books: HarlequinBlog.com

  Subscribe to our newsletter for special offers, new releases, and more!

  Harlequin.com/newsletters

  Sexy, contemporary romance stories

  for today’s fun, fearless female.

  The series debuts on August 15, 2013, with afterburn

  by America’s premier author of provocative fiction

  and continues with two Red-Hot Reads available in ebook format each month.

  On sale September 15, 2013

  Cake

  by New York Times

  bestselling author

  Lauren Dane Fearless

  by USA TODAY

  bestselling author

  Tawny Weber On sale October 15, 2013

  Everything You

  Need to Know by HelenKay Dimon

  Naked Sushi

  by Jina Bacarr

  Pre-order your copies today wherever ebooks are sold.

  One

  Sleek black limos were a common sight parked in front of St. Vincent’s, one of Manhattan’s premier private schools, and Bella McAndrews barely gave this one a thought as she knelt down on the sun-warmed sidewalk to say goodbye to her students. It was the last day of school; a procession of twelve kindergartners hugged her and then ran to waiting vehicles. She bumped her chin against their navy wool blazers, emblazoned with the St. Vincent’s crest, her chest tightening as each pair of arms squeezed her. The children were precious and unique and she’d enjoyed having every one in her class. By the time her final student approached, she could barely speak past the lump in her throat.

 

‹ Prev