Truth and Humility

by J. A. Dennam

  Her eyes popped open. The room was bathed in the morning light that poured through the windows.

  This isn’t my room, she realized in the breadth of a second. It’s late, she realized the next. She sat upright on a gasp and clutched the top sheet close to her chest. I’m not wearing any clothes! Then she looked down. Well, at least she was still wearing her pink top, even though the ties were undone and her cleavage was showing through the gaping fabric.

  But this was definitely Austin’s room and she was definitely in his bed and she was definitely scantily clad. At least she was alone, but what the hell had happened between the time she’d fallen asleep in the library and now?

  “Well, good morning.”

  Danny jumped and clutched the sheet even tighter, focused on the direction from which the voice came. Her eyes zeroed in on the person in the doorway. “Ruth?” she observed in utter horror.

  The woman who shared Austin’s dark coloring and height smiled knowingly and proceeded to the closet with a handful of dry cleaning. “I knew you weren’t just a member of the crew.” Her dark eyes sparkled as she glanced over her shoulder. When she noted the look of deep horror on Danny’s face, she was quick to sooth. “Oh, gosh, don’t be embarrassed. I’m tickled to death. Poor guy’s been positively dreadful to deal with since his fiancé was killed.”

  Ruth closed the accordion closet door and disappeared into the adjoining bathroom.

  Well, at least the woman hadn’t mentioned her brother. Danny threw the covers aside and searched desperately for her clothes. Where the hell were they? Not on the floor, not in a chair, not anywhere! What about the library? When she moved across the hall to check, the door was locked solid. Panic gripped at her insides and she decided to get out of the hall before she ran into anyone else in nothing but her shirt and panties. Ruth was still in the bathroom. On her way to the closet, Danny caught sight of a framed photograph on the tall dresser by the bathroom. As if in a trance, she moved closer, eyes scanning the photo in earnest. It was placed front-and-center among an assortment of hair clasps, lipsticks, a large jewelry box and perfume bottles.

  Framed in gold, it was a close-up of Austin and a striking black-haired woman, lying on the ground almost nose-to-nose. They lay facing each other on their stomachs in inches of thick green grass, their adoring looks spelling out a fantastic kind of love.

  So, this was Rena. Holy-moly, the woman was almost too beautiful. Danny reached up and moved a card from behind the frame with her finger. It was a wedding invitation with the same photo adorning the background, only in black-and-white. Softly filtered and glowing behind strategically placed words of commitment.

  “So, how long have you two been together?”

  Again, Danny jumped out of her skin. In an act of sheer desperation, she flew to the closet. She was in her underwear, rifling through a man’s clothes – a man who –outdidn’t belong to her – with a Cahill breathing down her neck. Panic put an edge to her voice. “Oh, we are definitely...not...together.”

  “Oh.” Ruth shrugged and moved to sit on the end of the bed while Danny tugged on a thick brown terry-cloth robe. “Nothing wrong with a casual fling, either.”

  A hysterical laugh broke through a look of wide-eyed incredulity. Danny tightened the belt around her waste, ran fingers through her hair while she tried to make sense of it all. “Ruth, you may not believe this, but nothing happened between me and your brother last night.” At least she thought. Could she have been drugged again?

  The woman raised her brow, then gave up and shook her head. “Whatever. You could do worse, you know.” Then she stood up and headed toward the door. “Nice to see you again, Danny.”

  Somehow, Danny felt as if she’d insulted Austin’s sister with her denials. It was quite a predicament. If the woman only knew who she was, she wouldn’t be so quick to push them together.

  After waiting a few minutes to let Ruth clear the hall, Danny made her move to escape. She took the stairs on the balls of her feet, cautiously scanned the family room then made a mad dash for the kitchen.

  And collided violently with Torsten.

  “Whoa!” the man yelled, stunned by the impact. Then his eyes changed when they passed over the length of her. “Whoa…” he said again and looked from her to the stairs then back to her.

  A light came on.

  Danny watched in complete dismay as his face morphed from shock to lecherous delight. The sexual innuendo was coming next.

  “Don’t even…”

  “Why, Danny Bennett.”

  “I fell asleep in the library…”

  The jerk didn’t even pretend to listen. “You and the boss do some plumbing last night?”

  Her face ignited. Of all the people to run into. “I said,” she ground out through clenched teeth, “I was in the library.”

  “In Boss’s bathrobe.” Torsten clicked his tongue and strutted to the counter where he deposited the glass tumbler and half-empty bourbon bottle he’d carried in. “Yeah, well I wouldn’t use that one if I were you, Monkey. Boss never lets anyone in the library.”

  “Torsten…”

  “Hey, none of my business what you two do off-hours, I’m just passing through.” On his way out again, he delivered one last gem. “Gotta say, though, you look mighty fetching in that robe.”

  The monstrous housecoat was comiecoGottacally large on her small frame. Danny blinked as her mind whirled. This wasn’t happening. With Torsten heading back out to the yard, the entire crew would know what he’d seen. Word of mouth traveled fast and Torsten had the biggest mouth of all. The entire crew would think she’d slept with Austin.

  Panic of the worst sort began to set in. Was this a trap? Was this what Austin had in mind when he took her upstairs last night? Was his supposed olive branch really a tactical move to make Derek believe he’d carried out his ultimate revenge?

  Of course it was. The feud came first. And Danny, the ultimate fool, had played right into it.

  “Take it up! Easy!”

  Diesel fumes and engine noise permeated the air as Austin gave the signal to lift. The backhoe whined as it bore the weight of the mammoth steel racks from the Minerva plant, lifting them from the trailer on which they’d just arrived. Hydraulic oil emitted a smell much like that of bad body odor, but the “yellow bitch” (as she was now referred to) was still in one piece, still running, and still pulling double duty while the forklift was down.

  As the racks slowly pulled away from the trailer, Austin heard a loud whistle from behind. He turned and did a double take.

  “Holy shit,” he murmured under his breath, his eyes going wide. Danny was marching toward him through the dirt and dust in cut-off shorts and the same pink shirt she’d worn the night before. Her work boots had been hastily donned, the tops flared open, shoelaces untied. Her hair was messy, and as she approached, he could sense every thought going through every man’s head that watched.

  Tools were dropped, mouths fell open, work came to a screeching halt. Danny Bennett, in all her tumbled, furious glory emanated raw sex appeal in an environment of testosterone-crazed fools.

  What the hell was she thinking?

  Once he was able to reel in his own tongue, Austin jumped from the trailer and turned to face her. Her fist impacted painfully with his jaw. It took him a precious moment to recover from the shocking thunk between his ears, but when he was finally about to, he was treated to another one.

  Did she really just hit him? Twice? Sympathetic “ooh’s” trickled through the yard indicating she had.

  This time he knew better than to wait and his hand reached out, snatched her wrist as it came around for another dogged shot at putting him down.

  “Would you stop!” he shouted, and in answer her other fist swung out. He caught that one, too, having done this a few times. Fighting was one of his strengths...but not with a woman, dammit. A quick glance told him his crew had no interest in interfering, in fact was about to break out the popcorn. Lowering his voice he hissed,
“What the hell is wrong with you?”

  inp width="48">Danny bared her teeth, her rage coming out in radiant waves. She jerked her hands free, rubbed her aching knuckles. “I know what you’re up to you evil snake, and I won’t let you get away with it!”

  “Danny, just calm down…”

  “Olive branch my ass. Distraction from work, my ass! You are a liar and a fake, Cahill!”

  “What are you talking about?” Their audience didn’t seem so important to him anymore...until she turned around to address them.

  Loudly, so she could drive her point home, she yelled, “I want all of you to know, especially whoever’s spying for my brother, that I did not sleep with this man!”

  Instantly Austin snatched her by the upper arm and forced her into a fast dash for the office. Danny was out of control and if he wanted answers, he’d have to regain control of her. As they marched, she continued to hurl insults at him a mile long. If her hell-and-glory appearance didn’t stop production, her mouth surely did.

  The door flung open. Sue dropped the phone.

  “Get out!” Austin yelled.

  One look at Danny, fuming, disheveled, manhandled, Sue wondered if she should. But one look at Austin...

  Hell.

  Without another word, she placed the receiver in the cradle and obediently vacated the room.

  The door slammed shut behind her.

  Back in the yard, Frank eyed the evicted assistant who stared shell-shocked at the closed door. He elbowed the new kid beside him.

  “Two-to-one odds, Boss gets lucky.”

  Austin slowly turned toward the furious woman behind him. “Jesus, Danny!” he barked, clearly at a loss. “Do we need to do this again?”

  Her finger singled him out. “And we’ll keep doing it as long as you fight dirty, Cahill! How dare you put me in your bed...take-my-clothes-off! Then leave me there with nothing!”

  “I what?”

  “You sick…twisted son-of-a-bitch! Derek was absolutely right about you! You’ll do anything to get back at him! Anything!” Her voice lowered in a mocking impression of what he’d said the night before. “Take a chance, Danny, that’s what your good at.” Eyes blazing she mocked her brother. “Well, ha-ha! Rimshot please, because the joke’s on me, isn’t it you rotten pig!”

  Slowly, reservedly, Austin slid the hardhat from his head, let it drop to the floor and advanced a step. Danny instantly became wary of the danger and backed up to keep the distance.

  His voice was like a splash of cold water. “Tell me something, Danny…when you woke up this morning, did you notice that my side of the bed was untouched?”

  “I was on your side! I could smell you!” But she wasn’t talking now, he was.

  “And did you consider the possibility that you removed your own clothes thinking you were headed to your own bed?”

  “That’s impossible!”

  “Are you absolutely sure? Because I watched you do it.” Her look called him a liar. “Marched yourself right across the hall in your pretty pink panties and crawled right in.” He knew at the time she’d been asleep on her feet. He also discovered that toothpaste didn’t go down the windpipe too well.

  She opened her mouth to protest, but her wheels turned for a moment, worked up another time when she’d put herself to bed in a similar, sleep-hazy fashion. Exhaustion was what did it to her, but no way in hell would she confuse Austin’s bed for hers...would she?

  As the first seed of doubt crept into her countenance, he continued to back her through the door of his office, “If that’s true,” she said hesitantly, “why did you lock the library to keep me from getting to my clothes?”

  “You see that’s something I didn’t do, either. In fact, I left that room open to you. Exposed to you...for you...and nobody else.”

  Oh, God. She believed him. After all, Ruth had been up there...Austin’s sister could have locked the library door. But Danny had been too bushwhacked to ask the woman.

  Dread seeped in as the impact asrary of what she’d just done hit home. Acted on impulse, through blind rage, and thusly caused far more damage than anything Torsten could have.

  Austin saw it hit her like a cast-iron pan. Too late. He’d passed the boiling point long ago and continued to strategically steer her toward the chair. “And while you were working yourself up into this...riotous rage of yours, did you even consider where I slept last night? Well, it sure as hell wasn’t in my room because I now had to somehow deal with this image burned into my retina of your half-naked ass warming my sheets.” The backs of her knees hit the chair and she came to a startling stop. “So, to be a gentleman, of course, I spent the entire night in this office, tying one on in order to drown the urge to climb into my bed with you!”

  Since his close proximity didn’t put her down, he reached out, gave her a push. As her butt hit the seat, her eyes flared with some kind of lingering indignation. Was he impressed by that? Maybe a little. Turned on? More than he’d ever been in his life.

  Before she could attempt an upheaval, he effectively boxed her in, placed his hands on the edge of the desk behind her, trapped her between two very large, jumping biceps.

  “So, now that we’re ‘communicating,’ mind telling me why you felt you could march onto my yard looking like that,” his hot gaze slid down and up the length of her, “with the intent to inflict bodily harm and announce very loudly to my crew that you had just spent the night in my bed?”

  Her eyes were wide, filled with a heady mixture of anger and humility. “I was trying to set things straight. Torsten saw me, your sister saw me!”

  “Oh, I see. There were witnesses to this big conspiracy. And instead of giving me the benefit of the doubt, you jumped right behind your brother. As always. Assumed I had an evil agenda behind my very sincere attempt at a truce.”

  Her voice came out small. “Truce?”

  “Now, if I had a real agenda in mind, I would have taken you up on your tantalizing offer Friday night.”

  “I was drugged!” To her horror, it came out a panicked shriek.

  One eyebrow cocked in challenge. “Or...I could have thrown you do th slwn in the showers yesterday and had my way with you then.”

  Danny balled her fists, flinched as his indignant face hovered over hers. “I was messed up and you knew it.” Pathetic.

  “Maybe so, but you wanted me every bit as much as I wanted you, regardless of drugs or trauma. You don’t think I know that? You don’t think I sense it every time we’re together or think about it when we’re not?” He was getting angrier by the second. “But your brother stops by, throws a bunch of agenda crap in your face and you’ve been itching for a fight ever since! Well, fuck that!”

  Suddenly he dipped way low and his hot breath warmed her parted lips. “If I’m such a liar and a fake, then why shouldn’t I just take what I want?”

  Crouching, his shoulders seemed to double in size. There was no room for thought, not when his larger-than-life body consumed every inch of space around her. Blood pumped in crazy patterns through her system and she picked up his heat, his scent...the sexual energy that arced between them more now than ever. She needed to look away. At anything but the challenge in those dark, turbulent eyes...

  “And if you’re worried about it, stop me.” But you can’t. I can see it. “Go ahead and stop me. Because if you don’t, you know as well as I do...you...are...mine.”

  Oh, but the decision had already been made. Time to let her stop him was something he was unable to offer her because he was tired of the games, tired of waiting.

  Austin heard her sharp intake of breath, cut off by the demanding pressure of his mouth. No weak-hearted attempt could have stopped him if she tried. Finally, her lips were beneath his again, just as responsive and hungry as his.

  For her it was the first taste of him and her mouth opened wide when his tongue insisted. He was ravaging her, taking what he wanted...but, by God, she wanted it, too.

  Closer. He needed her closer. They we
re fighting for the same air, both starved of oxygen, but he plundered deeper. Not enough.

  His arm snaked around her middle and he roughly yanked her up so he could feel her body against his. She gasped at the violence of it, but was clinging to him with equal vehemence.

  Oh, God, he was so demanding, so hungry. They were arched over the chair, her back bowing over his arm and her head fell back. Air!

  Frantic with need, Austin kicked the vacated chair away, sprawled her out on his desk. There was barely enough room and anything close by, including the nameplate, was swept aside. Now, with the support of the flat surface beneath her, Danny th Twas able to meet his mouth again. But this time she was the one pushing back with the force of her need.

  This time he was the one breaking away for much needed air. He took her earlobe between his teeth, at the same time ground his pelvis against hers in slow, forceful strokes. Her audible breaths were laced with shock, desperation.

  “You better figure out what you want fast, Bennett,” he rumbled, “because this is happening whether we like it or not.”

  You mean she still had a choice?

  Feeding a mean streak, she pushed at him hard, let him think for a hair’s breadth that she might change her mind. Didn’t work. His eyes told her the decision was no longer hers to make. Good. “Shut up, Cahill,” she breathed, and clawed at the row of snaps covering his chest. They ripped open, exposing a hairless, tanned display of muscles that stoked the raging inferno between her legs.

  He straightened only long enough to shrug out of the denim shirt, then immediately attacked hers. The need to see her was so intense, he had to tame the urge to tear. As she soaked in the sight of his powerfully built torso, she lifted for him, raised her arms. He yanked so fast, the pink cotton fell apart.

  Damn, but he didn’t mean to do that. Fuck if he cared.

  Soon her bra straps were down by her waist and his eyes drank in the sight of her exposed breasts. So firm and ripe, begging to be suckled...perfect in every way. Tan lines indicated she’d spent a long hot day outdoors in a cropped strappy thing that he’d kill to see her in. The thought others had stoked a jealous fire like none he’d ever contended with before. Then there was the bruise...a painfully huge rainbow of color that covered much of her right side.