Making You Mine – the Bradens & Montgomerys (Pleasant Hill – Oak Falls)

by Melissa Foster

  “Great repertoire you’ve got going there, bro. Did the media threaten the inn in some way? What the hell is going on?”

  Landon gritted his teeth, seething. “Let it go, Knox.”

  “No. I care about Aubrey, and she cares about Charlotte, which makes this important to me. I deserve to know why you give a damn about something like this. Some prick hits on you and you go off the deep end? I don’t believe it. You’ve been hit on by a million guys. What happened, Landon? Did you hit on him and he turned you down? Because that’s sucky, but it’s not—”

  “I was in love with Carlos!” Landon snapped, red faced, nostrils flaring. “Jesus, you just can’t leave well enough alone, can you? You’re such a fucking bulldog.”

  Knox was stunned into silence. Landon paced like a caged tiger, muscles flexing against his suitcoat. Knox tried to find his voice. “Landon…”

  Landon glowered.

  “I’m genuinely sorry, man. Did he know?”

  Landon continued glaring at him.

  “But he was getting engaged. He’s bisexual? I’m not being an ass. I’m just trying to understand what happened. I’m racking my brain, and I can’t remember ever hearing about Carlos Ruiz with a guy.”

  “He wasn’t out. I was an idiot. He’d vacationed here eight months before that media nightmare, and we got together. We saw each other often after he left, but we kept it quiet.” He sank into the leather couch across the room and buried his face in his hands.

  “Your trips to L.A. and Sacramento.” It was all falling into place. “His dirty little secret. I’d like to kill the motherfucker. What were you thinking? You’ve been out forever.”

  Landon looked up at the ceiling and said, “I wasn’t thinking.” He leaned his elbows on his thighs and cocked his face toward Knox. “I was so into him, I didn’t care that he was closeted. It was stupid and reckless.” He scoffed. “Something you would do.”

  “I’m sorry, bro.” Knox sat beside him, his heart aching for Landon. “So, what went down? How’d he end up engaged?”

  “He found out the media had pictures of us. We were so damn careful, never doing anything in public. But one night we were having a few drinks on the lawn, and I couldn’t help it; I reached for him, and he didn’t fight it. They got pictures of us kissing, hands all over each other.”

  “Aw, fuck.”

  “I forgot, or maybe subconsciously I thought he’d come around and see we could be together publicly. I don’t know. I’ve asked myself a million times if I did it on purpose. But I swear, Knox, all I remember was how great it felt to make out with him out in the open, even if it was dark and I didn’t think anyone could see us.”

  He put a hand on Landon’s shoulder and said, “I get it. You don’t have to explain. Love’s a powerful driver.”

  Landon nodded. “Do you love her? Aubrey?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. I know I care more about her than I ever have about any woman, and it’s different with Aubrey. It’s like we’re the same stubborn person. I can’t get enough of her, and I know that’s never going to change.”

  “I know that feeling. Careful, because she nearly choked at my wedding comment.”

  “She nearly choked at the word date.”

  They both laughed.

  “I never saw any pictures of you and Carlos,” Knox said. “Did you pay off the paparazzi or something?”

  “Hell no,” he said adamantly. “He did. He paid them to run the engagement pictures instead. It was all a farce to save his Hollywood reputation. He said he’d never get romantic roles if he was openly gay.”

  “He told you he paid them off?”

  Landon nodded.

  “Guy’s got big balls.”

  “That’s when I ended it. The media came sniffing around again after that, and thank God I didn’t have the pictures of us that they had. I was so hurt and angry, I probably would have paid the guy to run them.” He laughed and said, “Not really.”

  “No shit. That’s not your style.” Knox sat back, glad Landon was letting him into his life and wishing he’d been there when it had all gone down. “Are you really worried about Paige and Raz?”

  Landon shrugged.

  “You have my word about Paige, but I have faith in her strength. I think she’s too invested in being happy to let herself get lost in some guy.”

  “Maybe you’re right. She doesn’t know about any of this, and neither does anyone else. I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “Of course. We’ll just let them think you have a hair up your ass about paparazzi. You going to be okay?”

  “Eventually…”

  “I might be a stubborn ass, but I love you,” Knox said honestly. “You know that, right? I’m here for you. And when I’m not physically here, I’m a phone call away. Got it?”

  “Sure. Thanks.”

  “You know what happened between you and Carlos has nothing to do with Aubrey using the inn for the movie, right?”

  He nodded. “But I still don’t want a movie filmed here. Movie stars and media…It’s all a bad memory. Isn’t there anywhere else she can go?”

  “She’s been looking for a long time. On the way here she said she was trying not to get excited but that she had her heart set on this place. You don’t think you’re making this too personal instead of thinking about what it could do for the inn? It sounds to me like you need a good publicity push now that the ski resort opened.”

  “Aren’t you making it too personal?”

  Knox exhaled loudly. He wasn’t willing to give up. His brother was a smart man. Eventually he’d come around and realize it would be good for the inn, for Aubrey, and even though Knox wasn’t always his favorite person, Knox knew Landon loved him. He hoped seeing how much this would mean to him would also help change his mind.

  “Maybe we’re both wrong,” Knox admitted. “But I’m a stubborn dick driven by emotions that are bigger than me, so I’m going to suggest that we both give it some time before writing it off and see how we feel in a couple weeks.”

  Landon shook his head. “You coming to Mom and Dad’s Gratitude Ball in two weeks? I’m sure you got the save the date and the invitation.”

  “Not a chance, and yes, I RSVP’d. So, a couple weeks, then?”

  “You always have to push the limits.”

  Knox rose to his feet and smiled as he said, “And you always have to live within them.”

  Landon moved to stand, and Knox said, “Relax. I can let myself out. Couple weeks? Then we’ll circle back, talk it over?”

  “We can circle back, but you know what my decision is going to be.”

  “We’ll see about that.” Knox pulled open the door and said, “They don’t call me the closer for nothing.”

  “If you close deals as well as you nail down a commitment from your girlfriend, I’m in the clear.”

  His brother’s snickers followed Knox out the door.

  PAIGE GAVE AUBREY a tour of the inn, and with every spacious room they explored, Aubrey became even more certain that the Monroe House was the right location for the movie. The inn had staircases with intricate iron balusters instead of elevators, exquisitely carved moldings throughout, and attention given to the smallest of details, like monogramed soap dishes, romantic canopy beds, and antique furniture in the suites. The inn also boasted several elegant terraces, just like the Sterling House.

  As they crossed the hardwood floors in one of the ballrooms, Paige said, “I know books and movies differ, but remember that scene in the book where the heroine made that romantic sheet fort under the stars? The dreamscape? Will that be in the movie?”

  Aubrey remembered that scene well. It was one of her favorites. Charlotte had told her that she’d created a dreamscape for Beau, and it had been a changing point in their relationship. “Yes,” she said. “Char would be devastated if it was cut.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. We have the perfect grouping of trees for it.”

  She pointed out the terrace doors over ac
res of crisp manicured landscape beneath the winter-white sky. Flurries danced in the frigid air, dusting the ground.

  “See where the property dips just beyond that cluster of bushes? It evens out just down that hill, and there’s a clearing with a big oak tree and several other trees with low branches. Knox hung a swing from the oak when they were kids, and boy did he get in trouble. He snuck out and did it during one of my parents’ parties, came back with bloody hands, his nice clothes dirty and torn up from climbing the tree. He was a mess, but he smiled like he’d just done the greatest thing in the world. And to me he had. My parents were renovating the wine cellar at the time, and he’d stolen some expensive wood, cut it up—cut his hand in the process. There was blood everywhere. But he made the swing, and then he sat out here on the terrace during the party until he saw me walk by. He said he felt like he’d sat there forever but was afraid to go inside looking like he did because I wouldn’t get a chance to see the swing. He motioned for me to come out, and then he took me down there.” Her gaze softened, and the sweetest smile appeared on her lips. “I loved that swing so much. Still do. I go down there to get away sometimes. And that was so typical of Knoxy, to risk getting in trouble for me.”

  “Knoxy?” Aubrey warmed at the endearment and went all soft and gooey inside knowing he’d done something so special for Paige.

  “Oh gosh, I know,” Paige said softly. “Don’t you dare tell him I let that name slip. He only lets me call him that when no one else is around.”

  Paige was so enthusiastic. Aubrey guessed her to be twenty-three or -four to Aubrey’s thirty. She remembered what she’d been like at that age, bold and bubbling with excitement at every new thought and adventure. She was still bold and excited over new endeavors, but she’d been hardened by the cutthroat business world. She’d felt the changes taking place over the years, but never had it been more noticeable than it was as they toured the inn and Paige’s love for the property, and her family, came out in droves through her effervescent sharing of their history. The world hadn’t yet slayed Paige with cynicism, and Aubrey realized Knox came across just as optimistic and trusting. He might have blazed his own path away from his family businesses, but he obviously cared deeply for them.

  “My lips are sealed,” Aubrey reassured her. “Were you two always so close?”

  “For the most part. We went to the same prep schools, but he’s older than me, so we had different lives. But he always made time for me, searched me out to make sure I was okay and wasn’t getting into trouble.”

  “Bet that was fun, trying to date with him around.”

  Paige fiddled with the ends of her dark hair, her smile fading a bit. “I didn’t date, but not because of Knox. Or Landon for that matter. Landon was off to college by then, but he still kept tabs on me. I missed family, being home. So I never thought of my brothers’ attention as a bad thing. Besides, while my friends were into boys as teenagers, I was a late bloomer. I was just glad to have girlfriends who included me in their lives as if I were their family.”

  There was sadness in her voice, and just as Aubrey opened her mouth to ask about it, Paige lifted her chin, exhaled loudly, and smiled as she said, “The truth is, dating wasn’t part of my life until I became a model, and even then, there wasn’t romance as I had envisioned there would be. My life was crazy all the time, between traveling and keeping up with my parents’ events. My mother, ever the matchmaker, was always setting me up with these prominent, wealthy men—all too stuck-up for me. And then there were the model groupies—the guys who thought they could bang us because we sometimes modeled lingerie. I swear true romance doesn’t exist in the modeling world.”

  Paige sighed and said, “I lived and breathed the business, and I thought I was on top of the world. Thank God for Knox. You know how pushy he can be. He’s been my savior more than once. So…?” She leaned closer, touching Aubrey’s arm like she was sharing a secret. “What’s really going on with you guys? He’s never brought a woman home. Not even a business associate.”

  Paige was so open and warm, it was easy to share with her, and though Aubrey quickly weighed the pros and cons of revealing any of her heart, the truth came tumbling out. “We’re close, have been for a couple years. He’s special.” He really was, she admitted to herself. Oh God, here I go again, waxing romantic. Nipping that slippage in the bud, she said, “But we’re not dating, though he’d like to be. I’ve just got so much on my plate right now with the new movie channel and the rest of the business. I don’t want to get caught up in anything that might thwart my attention from where it needs to be.”

  “I totally get that,” Paige said as they headed out of the ballroom. “Relationships take effort, and being with Knox, well, that’s like strap on a seat belt and get ready for a wild ride!”

  Thinking of how wild Knox was in bed, Aubrey felt her eyes widen and quickly tried to wipe the grin off her face.

  “What?” Paige asked innocently. “I know my brother, and he’s drama personified. He’s relentless.”

  She thought about the gifts he’d sent and the fact that she was standing in the Monroe House, exactly where he’d wanted her to be. “You can say that again.”

  “He’s just so darn passionate about every project he takes on—don’t think you’re a project, because that’s not what I mean. The fact that he’s here asking for a favor shows just how far he’s willing to go for you because my brother does not ask us for anything. Ever. He’s the giver when it comes to me and Landon, but he’s never a taker.”

  Aubrey swallowed hard. Why hadn’t she realized that earlier? She knew how hard he’d worked to separate himself from his family businesses. “I appreciate Knox going out on a limb for me, but please don’t feel like you have to agree to it just because he’s family.”

  “Are you kidding? I want to do this because it’s exciting. And…Duncan Raz! I’d have to be a crazy woman not to want to meet that tall glass of champagne. But I’m not the one he has to convince.”

  She glanced down the hall and smiled. Aubrey followed her gaze and saw Knox standing and talking with a gentleman.

  “Before he steals you away, can I just say something? I really like you, Aubrey, and you know I love Knox. I wish you wouldn’t close the door between being close and dating too fast. He’s a really good guy, and yes, he’s passionate and not quiet about his opinions. But you’ve done so much with your career. You’re obviously dedicated and want to continue building LWW, which is so admirable. I’m in awe of you. But please be careful. I know you seem happy with your life as it is, but being that focused on work can hinder people in ways they don’t realize. A person can actually be unhappy when they think they’re at their happiest. I’m not saying that you are. I’m just saying maybe there’s room in your life for a little more happiness.”

  “You sound like you have experience with that,” Aubrey said softly.

  “Don’t we all?”

  Aubrey watched Knox striding toward them, his gaze shifting from Paige to her. His friendly smile morphed to one of desire, and Aubrey felt her cheeks heat up.

  Paige nudged her and whispered, “That blush is happiness, too. Just a different kind.”

  Chapter Five

  “YOU COULD HAVE clued me in about you and your family owning this place,” Aubrey said to Knox on their way to her suite a little while later. “That’s more than having an in with the owners.”

  “An in is an in,” he said with a bite to his tone.

  “Are you okay? I didn’t mean I don’t appreciate it.”

  “I’m fine,” he said a little softer. “Family stuff, that’s all.”

  “Because of me wanting the inn?”

  Knox smiled and said, “No.”

  “Did you think I wouldn’t come with you if I knew you were a part owner?”

  “Would you have?” he asked as she used the keycard to open the door.

  “I don’t know. I want the inn for Char’s sake, but I know how hard you worked to distance yoursel
f from your family’s business enterprises. Why did you offer to try to change their minds?”

  He followed her into the suite and said, “Because Char’s important to you.”

  “Still…” She tossed her keycard on the dresser, trying to ignore how deeply that touched her. She rooted around in her suitcase for jeans and a sweater to wear on the way home. “Thank you, Knox. I appreciate you going to bat for me. That was very generous. I like Landon and Paige. They seem nice and like they miss seeing you. Is it true that you haven’t seen them since before you went to Belize? Don’t you miss them?”

  His arms circled her waist as he said, “Shh. We’ve got this gorgeous suite all to ourselves.” He eyed the bed. “We could make good use of this bed before we leave.”

  He kissed her neck. His tongue slid along her skin, bringing rise to goose bumps. He continued tasting and taunting, and Aubrey mentally debated a quick tryst before their drive home.

  “I love how sweet you taste,” he said as he groped her ass, holding her tight against him.

  “Knox,” she said wantonly, and closed her eyes, reminding herself to be careful. He was too easy to get lost in, and now she was even more curious about the rest of his life. She was usually so good at compartmentalizing their togetherness. But everything he was doing—asking his family for a favor, getting her a suite of her own, taunting her with his wicked mouth—made her want to step outside the compartment and explore.

  “Hm?” Kiss, kiss. Lick.

  “I don’t trade sexual favors for business favors,” she said half-heartedly.

  He drew back, brows knitted, eyes serious. “That’s what you think this is?”

  “No,” she said honestly. “I’m just trying to keep my head on straight. You haven’t even told me how it went with Landon.”

  “It’s going to take some time and finesse, but he’s thinking about it.” A smile rose in his eyes and he said, “Don’t worry, beautiful. I’ve got this. Landon and I go way back.”

  “Like to birth,” she teased. “It seemed like things aren’t great between you two.”