‘Back together? Who said anything about that?’
‘She was in your arms!’
‘Val’s a hugger. So what?’
‘Well’ She broke off. Began again. ‘You gave her a job and’
‘Because she needed one.’
‘You two were always together’
‘Because we’ve known each other since we were kids.’
‘So I thought you were reconciling.’
‘Not in this lifetime. She’s in love with Hunt,’ Alex finally said, watching Nikki closely. ‘Always has been. And he as much as he’s capable of, anyway is in love with her.’
‘But ’
Alex waited.
Nikki shook her head a little. Pushed herself up against the headboard, her movements stiff. ‘She was your wife,’ she finally finished.
‘I was a substitute for Hunter,’ he said flatly.
Her eyes widened. Her face went scarlet, then white.
When she pressed a sudden hand to her belly, he cursed himself. ‘Are you okay?’
She moistened her lips, not meeting his eyes. ‘Fine,’ she whispered.
The anger seeped out of him, leaving him feeling older than his years. What was Hunt’s hold on the women in his life?
And when had Alex begun thinking Nikki Day was a woman in his life?
The pillowcase full of her laundry was lying on the floor next to the bed. He picked it up. ‘I’ll get this taken care of,’ he said. ‘And find a masseuse to come out for you.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘A massage. That’s about the only thing I can think of to alleviate a stiff back, since you’re not climbing in a bathtub anytime soon.’
She looked bewildered. ‘But but that’s just extravagant!’
‘So?’
She pressed her palms to her face for a moment. ‘You have to stop spending your time and money on me, Alex. It’s going to take me forever and a day to pay you back.’
He realized he was staring at her abdomen, and looked away. ‘I wasn’t aware that we’d drawn up loan documents.’
She dropped her hands. ‘I can’t keep accepting your generosity, Alex. It’s not right.’
There was no way he would get into a discussion with her on what was right and wrong. ‘We’ve done this song and dance a few times already. It was out-of-date the first time.’
‘I don’t want a masseuse,’ she said, sounding close to tears.
‘Then I guess you’ll have to make do with me,’ he said after a moment.
The words were true on more levels than one.
Chapter Ten
‘All right. Where does it hurt?’
Nikki drew up her knees as far as they’d go, wrapping her arms securely around them. ‘Honestly, Alex. There’s no need.’
‘I told you I’d help work out your kinks.’
She swallowed, her glance flitting around the bedroom’s unsubtle interior.
‘Maybe I should rephrase that.’
‘Quite possibly,’ she agreed, not certain whether she was more embarrassed or amused.
‘It’s me or a massage therapist. Make up your mind.’
Alex was sitting on the side of the bed. She’d already managed to put him off for most of the evening. But dinner was a memory now, and his mind was obviously set.
Just as his mind was apparently set against reconciling with his ex-wife.
Another major shift in what she’d believed about him.
A substitute for Hunter?
Surely it would have been the other way around. Hunter wasn’t even a good substitute for Alex, as far as Nikki was concerned. There wasn’t one admirable trait she could think of in relation to Hunter. Yet Alex was filled with them. How could Valerie not have preferred Alex?
‘Really. I’m fine.’ Nikki stretched out her legs. Pointed and flexed her toes. ‘See? I’ve healed myself.’ And he didn’t need to prove the point that he wasn’t likely to be overcome with lust by putting his hands on her.
The kiss they’d shared was nothing to him but a momentary blip in judgment. It had not been a heartfelt craving for her. That was her problem where he was concerned, and hers alone.
‘Healed.’ He snorted and solved the matter simply, by closing his hand over her ankle.
By some miracle, she managed not to climb right out of her skin. He drew her foot onto his lap, his fingers kneading her arch through her thick white sock. Despite herself, she couldn’t prevent a groan.
His lips quirked. He kneaded a little harder and her head fell back against the pillow.
So much for willpower.
She willingly offered up her other foot.
‘Guess my technique isn’t so objectionable, after all,’ he said wryly.
‘It’s not polite to gloat.’
‘Yeah. But you know the worst about me. So what’s the point of politeness?’
She looked at him from beneath her eyelashes and sternly warned her clamoring hormones to back off. ‘The worst? And what exactly is that?’
He shrugged. ‘Take your pick. Demanding. Self-centered. Arrogant. Workaholic who puts the job at hand before everything and everyone.’
She considered that. ‘Well, you are demanding,’ she allowed. But he didn’t demand more of anyone else than he demanded of himself, and generally less. ‘And you can be arrogant.’ She supposed, given his background and all that he’d accomplished, he’d probably earned some of it.
The corner of his lip tilted and a dimple creased his lean cheek. ‘Gee, Nik. Thanks.’
Heat winged through her bloodstream when his thumb explored her anklebone.
‘It’s more like you’re completely confident in yourself,’ she stated, keeping her voice level with an effort. He was looking down at her feet, and she sucked in her lower lip, struggling for control. ‘As for being self-centered, or always putting work first, I’d think your presence here proves the fallacy of that.
You’re not getting anything out of this, Alex. And I’m painfully aware of that fact.’
‘I don’t know.’ His fingers massaged the back of her heel and he shot her an inscrutable look.
‘Maybe I have a thing for feet.’
She stared. But then his dimple deepened and she realized he was teasing her. She made a face and rolled her eyes and hoped it hid the fact that she was trembling inside.
‘It’s actually not bad here,’ he said after a moment. ‘Being away from the office hasn’t made me go stark raving crazy yet.’
‘It’s not exactly been a vacation for you.’
‘As close as I’ve been in a while.’ She could hear the smile in his voice. ‘Maybe I owe you.’
‘Please,’ she murmured dryly and he chuckled softly.
His kneading fingers worked their way up her calves, and she alternately cursed and blessed the fact that she was wearing jeans, because they were too narrow around her ankles to allow any contact with her skin.
Despite the denim, he was more than adept at finding all manner of tight muscles, though. ‘You’re pretty good at this,’ she finally acknowledged.
‘I do run a sports medicine clinic.’
‘You run several.’ She watched him awhile longer. He planted her foot flat on the mattress, his hand behind her calf, working up toward her knee. Nikki wanted to know what had happened to Valerie and the baby. She wanted to tell him she was sorry that his ex-wife had loved someone else. She wanted so many things that were increasingly impossible.
‘What do you plan to do about RHS?’ she finally asked. ‘You’re not really going to just depend on your cousin’s support, are you?’ The notion was completely out of character for the Alex she knew.
Thought she knew.
‘Depend on Hunter?’ His lips twisted and his expression darkened so much she wished she hadn’t brought up the matter.
But then he looked at her and his face smoothed again. His fingers began kneading once more. ‘I haven’t depended on him since we were eighteen. Instead of striking out with me like we’d plan
ned, that’s when he dutifully fell right in line with the family plans for him. What college. What studies. What wife. He bought into every last bit of it.’
‘You sound like you were close once.’ Despite Hunter’s occasional visits to Huffington, she hadn’t been under the impression that remained the case. Because of Valerie?
‘Why the sudden curiosity?’
Nikki avoided his eyes. ‘No reason.’
He found a knot in her calf and tarried there, working on it. ‘People didn’t just think we were twins because of the resemblance between us,’ he said after a while. ‘They thought we were twins because we were the same age and thick as thieves.’ He slanted a look at her. ‘You’re the one with a real twin, except you and Belle hardly resemble each other at all.’
She didn’t want to dwell on the physical resemblance between him and his cousin. That’s what had led her into trouble. ‘Belle got our father’s dark hair and eyes. I got our mother’s blue eyes and red hair.’
‘Auburn.’
‘On a good hair day.’ She would not put her hand to her hair the way she self-consciously wanted to do. She’d braided it that afternoon, but the waves never really wanted to stay contained, and lying around the way she was didn’t help matters any. She was also two inches taller than her sister, and even when Nikki wasn’t pregnant, she’d generally cursed the curves she’d been saddled with, while her sister, the fitness maniac, was as svelte as a racehorse.
‘Val’s dad was as entrenched in RHS as somebody not born a Reed could be. It was a foregone conclusion that she would marry into the family one day.’
And so she had. ‘You had already started up Huffington when you two married, though, hadn’t you?’
Which was a little odd, given that Alex had left the RHS empire by then.
He nodded, but didn’t seem particularly inclined to elaborate on that point. ‘My father raised me to be an independent thinker,’ he finally explained. ‘And then couldn’t understand why I wanted my own shop outside of the family. He cut me off when I didn’t toe the line, and I headed west. Hunt was supposed to come with me. But he didn’t.’
‘And you ultimately founded Huffington in Cheyenne,’ she murmured. The PR material on how Huffington began was clear in her mind. She was certain the details didn’t come close to the grueling reality of what Alex had accomplished, almost entirely on his own.
‘That’s where I was stuck when my funds ran out. Where I met Earl Huffington.’
‘He was the administrator of the old hospital, right?’
‘Yeah. He staked me to get my first clinic up and running.’ Alex’s hand paused, resting on top of her knee, his gaze turned to the past. ‘Died the same year I finally operated in the black.’
‘That’s a shame.’
He nodded. ‘Earl was a character. How he managed to keep the old hospital afloat was nothing short of a miracle. The guy was as much a rancher as he was an administrator.’
‘Did you know him before you arrived in Wyoming?’
He shook his head. ‘I was broke. Needed a job. Went to the only place where I had experience hospital administration.’ He shifted off the mattress. ‘And the rest is old news. Turn over and I’ll do your back.’ When she hesitated, he frowned. ‘Can you lie on your stomach?’
‘I know I look like an elephant, but I’m not that big yet.’ She rolled over, tucking a pillow beneath her to help even herself out.
‘You don’t look like an elephant,’ he assured her dryly. ‘Can’t even tell you’re pregnant looking at you from the back. What does that mean when a woman carries a kid all in front like that? That she’s having a girl or a boy?’
Nikki folded her arms beneath her face, bracing herself for the moment his hands touched her again.
‘Boy, supposedly.’
‘Do you know for sure?’
‘You know I’ve had ultrasounds. Not just here in Lucius, but back in Cheyenne. But, no. I don’t want to know for sure.’ The mattress dipped as Alex sat back down and reached over her. Her mouth parted and she hauled in a silent breath when his fingers curled over her shoulders, his thumbs working in deep circles along her spine.
‘Going to find out the old-fashioned way,’ he murmured. ‘That’s about what I’d expect from you.’
‘Is that supposed to be a compliment, or not? Oh. Lordy. Right there.’ He’d found the point midway down her back where it felt as if she had iron bands instead of muscle.
‘Just a statement of fact,’ he murmured. ‘Tell me if I’m pressing too hard.’
It was heavenly. ‘Don’t let it get out at Huffington that you’ve got hands like this, Alex. You’ll end up working in physical therapy if you’re not careful.’
‘I’ll leave PT to the experts, like your sister.’
Nikki turned her face to one side, trying not to groan with pleasure, and could see their reflections in the mirror across from the bed. His head was turned away from the mirror, though, focused on her. She couldn’t see his expression. Could only watch the angle of his wide shoulders, the way his lean torso was turned at the hips toward her.
Her mouth was dry. She lifted up a little, enough to reach for the glass of water that was forever ready on the nightstand. She swallowed down most of it before setting the glass back, relieved that he’d figure she was following doctor’s orders rather than trying to quench a thirst for him that was not ever going to be satisfied.
She was well aware that he still hadn’t said what he intended to do about RHS.
‘Does your father really understand what it’ll mean to Huffington if RHS nabs Macfield out from beneath your nose?’
‘Of course.’
‘But you’re his son.’
‘So? My father would be the first to say that family has no place in business. Ironic, considering he believes business is family. And he made it more than clear twenty years ago that if I’m not with him, I’m against him. He promised to live long enough to see my downfall.’
‘No.’
‘Miriam’s call this afternoon was to warn me he’s trying to track me down.’
Even more horrified, Nikki looked back until she could see him, not just his reflection. ‘Would he come here?’ Her voice was little more than a squeak, and she winced inwardly.
‘I doubt it. He’s never come to Wyoming. Can’t see him coming to Montana, either. He’s got no reason at the moment to do so. I talked to George Macfield after Miriam gave me the heads-up, and even if RHS’s board approves the acquisition, George is still on the fence.’
She propped her chin on her hand. ‘I just can’t imagine a family like you’ve described.’
‘Don’t try,’ he advised. ‘It’s too twisted. Might damage the baby before she even gets here.’
Nikki smiled a little, as he’d meant her to. But it didn’t last. ‘I’m sorry about your and Valerie’s baby.’
His hands seemed to hesitate, but maybe it was only her imagination. ‘She took it pretty hard. She was almost six months along.’
Nikki could feel sympathy for Valerie, just as she would for any woman who lost a baby. But her heart didn’t ache for the other woman. It ached for Alex. Who thought he was only a substitute for a man who wasn’t worth a fraction of Alex. ‘It must have been hard for you, too.’
‘Yeah.’
She pushed up on her elbows, looking at him over her shoulder. He seemed surprised by his stark admission.
‘Maybe it was better, though,’ he said after a moment, shaking his head. ‘In the end. Given the way we were all raised, maybe it was a reprieve for an innocent child not to be raised by any of us.’
‘Oh, Alex. That’s not ’
‘True?’ He gently nudged her back down, by flattening his palm against her spine. ‘We value business success over relationships. God forbid I’d have ended up being the kind of father I had.’
‘You wouldn’t have raised your child the way you were raised, because you do have a different value system than your father,’ she murm
ured, her face against her folded arms once more.
‘You sound pretty sure about that.’ His voice was suddenly husky.
‘Of course I’m sure,’ she said without hesitation. ‘You’re a good man, Alex. You’d make a good father.’
The silence following her statement went on just a little too long for comfort.
‘What about your mother?’ she asked quietly. ‘You haven’t mentioned her in all this.’
‘My mother is the ultimate society matron. Very well coiffed and well heeled to anyone outside the Reed fold. Ever since I can remember, she’s had an affair every summer with the new gardener.’
Shock rippled through Nikki. ‘How do you know that?’
‘Everyone in the family knows. My parents’ estate sees a new crop of gardeners every single year.
Always a litter of young, buff guys from which she can choose. But as soon as Labor Day is over, she’s back in propriety’s graces again. She’d no more screw the gardener after Labor Day than she would wear white.’ His tone was exceedingly dry. ‘And there’s an ugly peek into the world I inhabit.’
Nikki pushed herself up on her elbows again. His hands paused at her waist. ‘Used to inhabit,’ she corrected. ‘You were what eighteen? when you left. You’re forty-two now. You’ve been out of that world longer than you were in it.’
‘A person’s past can seem like a guest come to visit in the present, sometimes.’
‘A guest who’s outstayed her welcome.’ Nikki knew all about the hold a person’s past could have on the present. ‘That’s pretty much the reason I came to Lucius. Because I was finally determined to put my past with Cody into the past and keep it there.’
She’d realized she had to do something when she’d found herself marking off another anniversary of his death and feeling as if the wound was never going to heal. That had also been the day she’d realized Valerie had been back in Alex’s life for more than six months. Not that she’d needed any reminders, but on that day, the anniversary of Cody’s death, Valerie had gone breezing past Nikki’s desk into Alex’s office, gaily telling him they needed to celebrate their six-month anniversary.
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