by Ellen Lane
To let half the world read.
I wanted to be an actual reporter with every fiber of my being, but I didn’t know if that was enough to expose Rhett like I did in the pages I’d written. Turning in something like this...it made me no better than the gossip columnists I despised.
So, I stared at it. Agonized and stared at it some more. I remembered seeing Rhett for the first time after twelve years of separation and feeling something in me click, hard as I tried to fight it. I had never believed in fairy tales or second chances, but when life dumped something like this in your lap, what the hell were you supposed to do?
After an entire morning of beating myself over the head, I finally threw the damned thing in the trash. It hurt, knowing what I was giving up, but I felt secure in the fact that I wasn’t as heartless as I’d once aspired to be.
Christ, the irony was suffocating. I’d been lured into this assignment with only the prospect of a promotion to keep me going and now I was forgoing said prospect for the subject himself.
Dear God, I was the world’s foremost cliché.
When my body bid me to sleep again, I did. Jetlag was funny that way, and, having no experience with it, I let it have its way with me. I woke up around six that evening to the sound of the intercom ringing. Normally, I’d have let Rhett answer it, but the incessant ringing made it clear enough that he wasn’t home yet.
I dragged myself from bed to answer the call, surprised when the doorman told me that there was someone there demanding to see me, but he couldn’t buzz them in without Rhett’s approval. My nose wrinkled in confusion. As far as I knew, no one besides Jim was even aware that I was staying with Rhett. “Who’s here to see me?”
“Says his name is Jebediah Warner, Miss.”
I was immediately wide awake. “Jeb is here?” Of course, the doorman had no idea who he was, but I sure as hell did. I’d gotten a few emails from Jeb over the past few weeks and even a handful of missed calls. He liked to drop in unexpectedly, and I liked to make sure my schedule made it hard for him to do so.
But, apparently, it was too late for that. I tried not to think what his knowing I was in Rhett’s penthouse might mean. “Would you like to speak to him?”
“No! I mean…” Jesus that sounded incriminating. “Yes. Put him on.”
“Certainly miss.” The two seconds that I waited to hear Jeb’s voice were some of the most nerve-wracking in recent memory - and that was considering that I’d jumped out of a plane two days ago.
“Cece, what the hell are you doing up there?” I winced a moment before my anger flared. It had been years since I’d been under Jeb’s thumb and he was still treating me like I was a child.
“Jeb, what are you doing here?” I fired back, my eyes narrow. “You didn’t even tell me you were coming.” He never did.
“I left you a few voicemail messages. You probably didn’t get them seeing as how you skipped the goddamned country.” I swallowed a groan. Though things had gotten better between Jeb and I over the years, I still considered him largely insufferable - and this was one of the reasons why.
“I was working,” I hissed, reddening at the notion that the doorman was overhearing this entire tirade. “Which you’d know if you paid any attention to my schedule at all.”
“Cece, just come down here,” he insisted in the steely, firm tone that had worked so well when I was a teenager. “We need to talk.”
“I can’t imagine what about,” I returned, annoyed. “If you really wanted to talk, you’d call my cell like a normal human being.”
“You’re in Rhett fucking Wilder’s penthouse! I came to get you before you do something you regret.”
The phrase was enough to rankle me. How many times had I heard those exact words as I was growing up? Jeb was always convinced that he knew what was best for me, though the fact of the matter was that he barely knew what was best for himself. He thought that having a job and finally being self-sufficient gave him license to check up on me whenever he liked - and I was sick of it.
“Jeb, last time I checked I was almost thirty. I don’t need a babysitter. Go back to your hotel and we can talk about this tomorrow.”
“Don’t make me come up there, Cece.”
My answer came laden with dry humor. “I’d like to see you try. I’d be willing to bet Cecil isn’t too happy with you jamming up his intercom.”
Cecil being the doorman. He wasn’t your ordinary run of the mill, elderly man who opened doors and made children smile. Rhett owned the building, and he had hired Cecil with the express intent of keeping out non-tenants and anyone he didn’t want inside. The dark-skinned man was over six and a half feet tall, with a booming voice and an imposing demeanor. Of course, beneath it all, he was a softie, but no one had to know that.
“Cece, this-”
“I’ll call you tomorrow, Jeb.” With that, I walked away from the intercom without looking back. It was, the first time in my life I’d managed to avoid Jeb’s influence completely. Usually, I let him guilt trip me into doing some semblance of what he wanted, just because I didn’t want him to feel neglected. Since our parents had gone abroad, all we had was each other - and Jeb had used that fact to exploit me for so long I had almost forgotten what my life was like before that guilt.
There was a two or three minute period, after I returned to my room, that I regretted my actions. I couldn’t remember the last time I had told Jeb no, but I remember being wary of him for the entirety of my early adulthood. There was a part of me that wanted to run back and apologize...and there was another part of me that could give two flying fucks. Owing to my newfound confidence and security in the fact that Jeb couldn’t get to me in the penthouse, I afforded myself the luxury of a breath of relief.
I could talk to Jeb and get this entire thing straightened out tomorrow. For now, there was only one person I wanted to talk to.
I did my best to make myself presentable. For some inexplicable reason, I found myself nervous. With as much time as I’d been spending with Rhett - as intimate as we’d been - there was no need for me to worry about seeing him when it had only been a couple of hours.
But in those few hours, something had changed. I admitted to myself that I didn’t want what was between us to end. I told myself that Nepal was the last hurrah - that I would do what I had to do for the sake of my article and then get the hell out of dodge.
It was no small wonder that things had blown up in my face.
I had been so ready for the new Rhett Wilder to disappoint me. I turned my nose up at his money and his success, telling myself that funds didn’t make a man...but Rhett was far more than just funds. He was adventure - kindness and empathy. He was still the sweet boy I had known as a child...and so much more.
So, the question was: where did we go from here? I didn’t know if he’d be able to answer it any better than I could…. but I hoped so.
I did the best I could to make myself presentable. Truth be told, a trip back to my apartment across town would be welcome at this point. I needed to do laundry and wished I had my entire plethora of beauty products at my disposal - but for now, I’d make do with what I had.
I slipped into the sundress Rhett had fawned over during our first interview before pinning my hair atop my head loosely and putting on my favorite lipstick. I was in the process of spritzing myself with perfume when I heard the front door unlock - and my heart leapt into my throat.
“Cece?” He called my name the moment he closed the door behind him, the low baritone echoing through the entryway of the apartment. “Are you awake?”
“I’m here.” I hurried from the bedroom out into the hallway and stopped, my tongue suddenly stuck to the roof of my mouth.
I had never had any difficulties giving Rhett a piece of my mind, and suddenly, all at once, I was tongue-tied. He was quite the sight to behold in his three-piece suit, hair smoothed back from his brow, a few days’ worth of stubble dotting his jaw. I remembered how that stubble felt scraping across my chin wh
en he kissed me - the raised red flesh it left on other parts of me when he was so desperate for me that we lost ourselves in each other.
“Hi.” I finally managed, my fingers curling around the edge of a nearby doorway for purchase. I realized, in that moment, that there was a panicked look about him. Almost as if he’d come through the door expecting to find me gone. The moment his eyes landed on me, that panic melted away and the corner of his mouth kicked up in the handsome smile I knew so well.
“Hey.” He tossed his briefcase onto a couch in the living room. “Sorry I’m so late. I know you probably want to finish up the interviews so I tried to get back as early as I-”
I ran to him. I couldn’t help it. Rhett’s expression turned surprised a moment before he enclosed me in his arms and I molded my mouth hungrily to his. He tasted like coffee and booze...a flavor I could easily get addicted to. The kiss was lazy and indulgent, and I gripped him so hard I had to be hurting him, but Rhett uttered not one word of complaint. When I finally released him, he gazed down at me for a long moment, his eyes full of some emotion that made my heart oddly soft. “Whoa. What a greeting. Not that I’m complaining.”
“Can we…” I hesitated for a moment, wondering how to proceed. I’d played the fool so many times that, deep down, I wasn’t sure if I could express myself properly. And even if I could, how would Rhett respond? “Can we worry about the interviews later?”
He arched a brow in surprise. “Taking a break from work?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?” The wry response spilled from me automatically and the man holding me smirked.
“Fair point. Alright, we’ll worry about the interviews later. Though I do worry about your deadline.”
And there the prospect hung, heavy with the weight of possibility. Technically, I needed to wrap the project up in a week or two, and that would be the end of things. Funnily enough, however, in the past few weeks, impulse had gotten into the habit of trumping technicality on my end. Rhett had that effect on me. “Well...I was thinking...maybe we could talk more after the deadline.” I don’t think I’d sounded so tentative since giving a report in the fifth grade. “Off the record, you know. Just us.”
It was the best I could do. I just hoped he understood.
Looking back, I was foolish to doubt him. Rhett couldn’t have gotten to where he was in the world without a keen sense of business intuition.
“Cecily Warner...are you asking me out on a date?” His tone was just teasing enough so that I glowered at him, even as my heart swelled in my chest.
“You should be so lucky.” I managed, before rising onto my toes to kiss him again. This time, Rhett lifted me into his arms, stemming all my protests with deft strokes of his tongue as he carried me down the hall towards his bedroom.
I’d been in bed all day, but, somehow, I didn’t mind the direction the evening was taking. After all, with deadlines out of the equation, we had all the time in the world.
Chapter Fourteen
~ Rhett
Though my body woke me the next morning at the usual time, I lingered in bed. I was tempted to call out of work altogether and lie next to Cecily until she woke up. Then, it would just be a matter of how long I could convince her to sleep in with me.
The notion was enough to make me grin as I glanced down at the woman nestled against my chest. I wasn’t sure what happened while I was gone, but all at once, Cece wasn’t hiding anymore. She had all but admitted what was between us went beyond her assignment...and that it would continue after it was done.
I assumed that getting Cece to admit we were right for one another would be like pulling teeth, but instead, I’d been pleasantly surprised. Atop that, I assumed that Jeb would call her the moment he left the office and try to sway her to his side - but Cece hadn’t mentioned him at all. It seemed I was on a lucky streak.
One I had waited twelve years for.
Sure, having money was all well and good, but you grew used to the success after a while there was only so much of a rush one was afforded from buying a new suit or staying in a hotel’s most expensive suite. Though my success had, in a way, liberated me from the demons of my past, it had never given me what I truly wanted.
I had to track Cece down for that. Now that I had, I felt there was nothing we couldn’t tackle together - even Jeb, if it came down to it.
Lowering my head, I brushed a kiss across the warm skin of her shoulder, my heart stuttering in my chest when she sighed contentedly, snuggling closer against me. I could certainly get used to this.
I had to wonder, somewhat amusedly, what effect our new relationship would have on the article she was supposed to be writing. I was always painted as the world’s “Foremost bachelor” - a symbol of sex and success for women to salivate over. Only now, I was off the market, and I couldn’t see the woman in my arms encouraging other women to come after what was hers. The thought made me chuckle as I buried my nose in her hair, inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo.
If I stayed for much longer, I’d lose the day. The goal was to finish work early so I could plan another trip for us. Now that I’d found someone willing to indulge me all my death-defying hobbies, I had a lot of lost time to make up for.
I rose from bed slowly, careful not to wake Cece. I had about an hour to get to work - which was just enough time for me to get in a workout, a cup of coffee and some e-mails. When I realized that I’d left my laptop at work, however, I scowled.
My desktop didn’t have the documents I was looking for, which meant that I’d have to get the hard copies. All my paperwork had long since overtaken the boundaries of my office and I now had a small file cabinet tucked away in every room for storage purposes. The documents I was looking for were probably in the one at the back of Cece’s closet.
Though I was loathed to leave her, I put a strong pot of coffee on and made my way down the hall to her room. She hadn’t brought very much with her, and what she did bring was still packed away from our trip. That meant that my guest room didn’t speak very much of the woman in my bed - which was perfectly fine with me. That would make it easier to convince her to simply stay in the master suite.
On my way to the closet, I nearly tripped over the trashcan she’d pulled up near the desk and cursed lowly as its contents spilled over the floor. Luckily, the only things inside were a few candy wrappers and... a notebook?
I eyed the worn blue cover with interest surely Cece hadn’t meant to throw it away - it was filled to the brim with notes and loose sheets of paper. Considering she had an article due soon I thought it much more plausible that it had fallen from the desk and into the wastebasket by accident.
Cece had always had an eye for detail, but the amount of writing in the small notebook was slightly mind boggling. Two or three interview sessions had given her that much? Curiously, I flipped the book open to scan a few lines, wondering just how much she’d paraphrased.
And stopped cold.
For a long beat, I couldn’t actually believe what I was reading. I read the page several times, my chest clenching tighter and tighter each time the words burned themselves into my brain.
He’s rough. Though he can be gentle - all that playboy passion that people have always expected from him, Rhett can be rough. He can be wild - fuck you with this abandon that makes you feel as objectified just as much as it makes you feel needed.
And he DOES need. Maybe more than any man I’ve ever met with far less. He’s more vulnerable than I could ever have imagined, and I can only hope that one day, the heartache of a childhood of abuse will start to heal.
I tossed the notebook onto the nearby desk as if it had burned me.
Cece’s interview questions had been about my company. My hobbies - all the thrill seeking and adventure capitalism I participated in. She hadn’t once implied that she might be writing an expose as intimate as what was on those pages.
All at once, it was hard for me to breathe.
Up until recently, she’d done her b
est to keep her distance from me. We’d fallen in bed together but Cece never wanted to talk about what was between us. I had always imagined it was because she was embarrassed, or that things between us were complicated. I never stopped to contemplate that maybe it could be because there was nothing between us.
The moment the seed was planted in my mind, the idea spread like poison. Everything fell into place. Cece wrote for a gossip magazine. Of course, she slept with me, even despite her reticence. Of course, she stepped out of her comfort zone and did everything I did. She spent time with me because she wanted to write the most scathing, invasive article that had ever been published about me.
I could only imagine how much something like that would be worth.
My head was suddenly pounding, and I sank down into the chair Cece so often used when she wrote. Dear God, how could I have been so blind? This had almost been the perfect ploy. Sending someone - one of the only people I’d ever connected with -in to do the dirty work of the paparazzi. Making it seem like I was being given a second chance, when really, I was being exploited.
I had long been done with being exploited, and like hell if I was going to let it happen again.
“Rhett?” When Cece’s voice, soft and curious, floated into the room, I flinched like she’d struck me. Turning slowly, I saw her standing in the doorway, wrapped in only the sheets from my bed and the silken, dark length of her hair.
My body betrayed me even as my rational mind began to shut down. She’d come back into my life - all that fiery, gorgeous beauty. All the lies she’d told and the things she’d let me believe...When I left Georgia, I had never imagined something could hurt me as much as the blight of my childhood.
But I was wrong.
“What’s this?” My voice was dangerously soft when I held up the notebook, and immediately, Cecily paled.