by Dani Wade
“Trinity, I only have one more question,” he said.
She tilted her chin back to meet his look, mask once more in place, even though every line in her body spoke of a weariness he knew had to go bone deep. “Yes?” she asked.
“Will you forgive me?”
She shook her head as if to clear it. “I don’t understand.”
Rhett felt awkward and juvenile and humbled. He’d made assumptions based on his past and hers that he shouldn’t have. Why should he expect her to understand? He wasn’t sure how he’d make it right but he refused to let himself skate through this.
“I told you, once before, that I’d been betrayed. By a woman.”
She nodded, the blank mask she’d adopted softening with curiosity. Seeing that genuine emotion told him he was on the right track.
“Well.” His throat tightened as he grew more reluctant to give up his secrets. But it was only fair, as much as he had refused to discuss this in the past. Only two other people knew: his partner and his father. But after what he’d said to her, she deserved an explanation rather than living with the belief that this was all her fault.
“My ex-fiancée... I found out quite by accident that she’d decided to marry me not for love.”
Trinity remembered his earlier words about his ex-fiancée and her quest for riches. “Oh, Rhett. I’m sorry.”
He shrugged, though his feelings on the matter were far from casual. That one incident had changed the course of his entire life. “I’m sure there are any number of men who would have been happy with that arrangement if they’d have known about it up front. I was not comfortable, nor happy. She had targeted me and come into the relationship knowing that’s all she wanted, but spent months convincing me her feelings were much, much deeper. So I broke our engagement in quite a cold fashion.”
“What happened to her?”
“She went on to marry a man within our social circle...twenty years her senior.”
Trinity gave off an air of growing awareness, as she seemed to grasp the similarities between the situations. “I see.”
“He was a retired military man. Quite well-off. Once she became pregnant, I simply couldn’t handle even chance meetings. I embraced my—work—and was grateful to be away on travel more often than not.”
He’d wished that their encounters hadn’t bothered him, that he’d felt nothing at all. Instead every time he’d seen her, the barbs had sunk deeper. Which in turn fueled his passion for his work. Though he’d never accused anyone of going after money without proof, he had to wonder now if he’d missed something along the way.
He certainly had with Trinity. Or rather, he’d lost his own ability to sniff out the truth.
“It’s not an excuse. Rather, an explanation.” Hopefully one that would help her feel better when the time came for her to know the whole truth.
In this moment, he realized he wasn’t going to be able to hide who he really was from Trinity. She deserved better. And for this to move forward—whether just toward healing or an actual relationship—he would have to be honest. Only he didn’t know how to do that yet.
He glanced back at her, only to find her gaze brushing hastily over his chest. Because it was bare? Did that part of him, any part of him, still attract her?
Heat pooled low in his belly, urging him to return to the sweetness of their first encounter.
Her first encounter.
His heartbeat sped up. He shouldn’t. But he wanted to. Then her gaze lifted to his and he saw the spark there also. She still wanted him. But was he doing the right thing? Or the selfish thing? Could he walk away and let Trinity feel rejected by yet another person in her life who should care for her?
For the first time in this whole situation, Rhett led with instincts alone. “I lied. I actually have one more question.”
“What’s that?” Trinity asked, caution drawing out the two words. He didn’t blame her. But he could show her another way.
“Will you let me stay with you?”
* * *
Trinity called herself every kind of fool for even entertaining the idea. But her body remembered. Her body wanted. She’d never thought she’d be the type of person who could give her body without letting her heart be fully involved, but for just once in her life, she considered risking the heartache to have this one moment with him. Could she wall off her heart for a little while so she could have this memory of him?
A moment she might never have again.
She tried to let reason prevail, just as she had her entire life. “I’m not really sure that’s a good idea,” she said, though she didn’t even sound convincing to herself. It wasn’t a good idea. Things between them were already messy and complicated. He was probably doing this out of guilt.
“I know, and that’s my fault,” he said, confirming her thoughts. “I want to make it up to you.”
Her body went cold at his words. She didn’t want someone who felt like he had to be with her. But he had wanted her earlier. She might be innocent, but she wasn’t naive. Rhett had wanted her.
Could he want her again?
Out of the corner of her eye, she looked him over once more. His button-down shirt hung open, leaving his sculpted chest and abs in partial view. Her mouth watered. Remembering the feel of him against her didn’t help keep her on the straight and narrow.
Half-dressed and his hair askew from running his fingers through it, Rhett was the sexiest man alive. In this moment, there was only one thing that would keep her from indulging.
She forced her chin up once more, took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “I don’t want this to be about me.” She swallowed hard, forcing the words out despite her churning emotions. “I would want it to be about us.”
It took a minute for her meaning to hit him, but she could see a visible change when it did. His body relaxed for a moment, then every inch of him tightened. Those gorgeous gray eyes and wide smile lit up the darkened room. He looked like she’d given him a gift.
The last thing she wanted was for this to be about making up for his judgments. That wasn’t how she wanted to remember it. Because she knew without a doubt that soon a memory would be all she had.
Suddenly the air in the room changed, as if it had been electrified. Rhett reached out a hand to her. She wasn’t sure what he had in mind. A moment of panic contracted her lungs. But she couldn’t stop herself from reaching out, from taking what she truly wanted.
Tears burned against her eyes as he helped her to stand facing him. She would do this and keep those emotions tucked deep inside. There was no way for her to eradicate them. She’d always been emotional. But she’d had a lifetime to perfect how to hide them. She only hoped that skill served her well today.
Rhett rubbed the back of his knuckles right beneath her jawbone, then tucked his hand down along her neck. The feel of him against her sensitive skin made her shiver. His fingers slowly worked her top buttons open.
Her reaction this time was just as aroused as before, only mixed with anxiety over what was to come. She mourned the loss of that pure excitement, but willed away the sadness with each brush of his knuckles against her skin.
Once all of the buttons were undone, he slipped the shirt back and off her shoulders, leaving her in her skirt and bra. She expected him to go straight for that front clasp. Instead he traced her shoulders with his palms, then trailed them down her arms to her hands, igniting all of the nerves along the way.
After a moment, he lifted her hands to the opening of his shirt.
Startled, she glanced up. He watched her through a hooded gaze that sent her temperature soaring upward, but he gave no verbal directions. She grasped each lapel and squeezed tight. Could she do this?
The citrusy smell of him mixed with the smell of fresh-fallen rain from outside. The scent filled her head. She tightened her grip. There was no way she could give up
on this, even though there was no future in it for her. There couldn’t be.
But she blocked that out and focused only on the moment. On slipping her hands beneath the panels of his shirt. On the smooth texture of his skin stretched across taut muscles, except where a sprinkling of hair broke the heated expanse. Trinity let her eyes close, concentrating on the feel of him beneath her palms. She brushed her fingers along the edge of his waistband, then down the front of the cotton boxers.
How she had the courage to cup the hardness of him, she wasn’t sure. His groan echoed in the air. It was a music her entire body was attuned to. She wasn’t sure if she would melt or tense when he touched her, but she was very sure the heaviness growing low in her belly was all for him.
When he put his hands on her, all hesitation ended.
A trail of fire traveled over her skin, led by the touch of his hands, then his arms, his chest, then there wasn’t a single part of them that didn’t touch. Bare skin pressed against bare skin was more intoxicating than she’d ever imagined it could be. And when he laid her down on the bed, his muscled body covering hers, she thought she’d found heaven.
There was barely a hint of pain this time, just an unfamiliarity as his body stretched hers. She lifted her hips, eager to be wholly a part of their coming together. Not passive or accepting. She couldn’t keep her hands still. Instead, they pulled him closer, tracing the muscles of his arms and back as he worked over her body.
The feel of him moving with her, her minute responses to his every movement, left her breathless. He buried his mouth against her throat. Every nerve ending in her body went electric. She heard herself cry out. Her nails dug into his back.
As his own cries filled her senses, she knew she’d just created the memory of a lifetime.
Sixteen
“Son, only you could find yourself in this situation. I’ve always told you this line of work would come back to bite you.”
It was so easy to picture his father on the other end of the phone, with his head full of silver hair, seated in his favorite armchair before the fire in Seattle dispensing those words. Rhett would have grinned at the fond indulgence in his father’s voice, if he wasn’t in some serious need.
“I chose this line of work, as you call it, because I wanted to help people.”
“You mean help expose people? People like your ex-fiancée, and your stepmother, and—”
“Dad,” Rhett interrupted in a warning tone.
“It’s a legitimate question. You don’t need to work. So why would you do this day in and day out? Why would you do something that just keeps you mired in suspicion and lies?”
Because I’m good at it. Or rather...he had been.
“Well, this would definitely be the moment you’ve been predicting for years,” Rhett conceded, but he wasn’t ready to give in completely. “But I would like to point out that I’ve never been wrong before.”
“There’s always a first.”
“This is a pretty unique first,” Rhett said, his brain distracted with thoughts of the woman he’d left working in the office at Hyatt House and the unusual challenge he’d found in her.
“I’d say,” his father agreed. The story had just come tumbling out as soon as Rhett had found a safe space, and a safe ear, to talk.
“I just...” He hated to admit this, but he didn’t see that he had any choice. He couldn’t see where to go from here. His usual strategic plans had failed him. “I know Trinity is hardworking and doing her best to take care of both the charity and the employees of the companies. I’ve seen it in her dedicated study and brainstorming and conscientious work. I have no doubt I could win her case in an instant if I testified to everything I’ve seen. But—”
“But?”
“You and I both know that her being a virgin would be a damaging piece of information in a court case over her dead husband’s inheritance.” Tell me I’m making the right choice. Was he looking the other way because he wanted to be right? Because he wanted Trinity to be innocent? “At the very least, once the public got ahold of that information, it could be used to sway the board against her.”
“It could.”
He let the silence play out for a minute, not wanting to ask the question outright. But he finally gave in and said, “Am I missing something?”
“You’ve seen evidence of her true character with your own eyes?” his father asked, no-nonsense and able to zero in on the essence of the problem just as Rhett had known he would.
“I have.”
Rhett thought back over the past few weeks, trying to look beyond the looming memory of last night. He knew he was being swayed by the intensity of becoming Trinity’s lover...her first lover. “I believe her to be a good person. A person who’s trying to do what’s right by the charity and the businesses.” Unlike the Hyatts.
“Then trust those instincts.”
“But—” Hell, he couldn’t actually love her... Could he?
“Trust them. I’m learning to.”
What? “Dad, what have you done?” Slight panic sliced through him as he wondered what his father had gotten into while he’d been halfway across the country.
“I’ve found Candy.”
“Really, Dad? A woman named Candy?” He shouldn’t be biased against a name, but considering his father’s choices in the past...
“Yes, sir. And my instincts are leading me true.”
He’d be the judge of that. Taking care of his father had always been his job. “I’ll decide that when I get home. Do not sign anything.”
“No, you won’t. And I don’t need to. She has her own money.”
That’s what they all wanted them to think. “Dad—” There was no one else to step in. He had to protect his dad’s heart from being crushed yet again.
“Rhett, it’s time for you to let go.”
There was no force in his father’s voice. No harsh directive. Only a calm acceptance that Rhett couldn’t quite grasp.
“What are you talking about?”
“Son, despite our family’s history of unfortunate encounters, there is still happiness to be had in this world. I’m ready to have it, rather than holding it at arm’s length because I’m afraid.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“I beg to differ. Otherwise, why would you be calling me for an opinion? You’re a strong, decisive young man. You don’t need me to tell you what to do. Your instincts will lead you.”
They hadn’t been helping so far. Rhett felt like this whole case had been one challenge to his instincts after another.
“Now, as for this young lady of yours... She’ll be tried in the court of public opinion, regardless of what the judicial system says.”
He’d known his father would get it right off. “Exactly.” And Rhett did not want to watch her go through that. But how did he warn her without coming clean about himself?
He would do whatever he could to prevent the Hyatts from getting the information he now knew. But what about the rest? “I don’t know how to protect her.”
“You can’t.”
“But knowing what she’ll face alone...”
“You can’t stop the reality from coming to her.” His father sighed. “We both know that. When she chose to help her friend, like you said, she chose what she would face. You can only stand beside her. Guide her. Uplift her. But you can’t protect her.”
But he wanted to. For the first time in his life, he wanted to protect someone from the consequences of her actions, rather than expose them. Thinking about the soft, sensual woman he’d held last night being vulnerable to Richard and Patricia Hyatt as he’d come to know them turned on a fierceness Rhett didn’t know how to handle. And knowing that he’d been part of the plot to destroy her made him feel ashamed.
“I don’t want her to find out about me.”
“You know it
will never stay a secret.”
“I do know that.” The question was, would he lose her over it? He deserved to, but that didn’t keep him from wanting to fight to keep her.
* * *
Trinity frowned at Rhett as he sat at the small table across the room from her desk. He wasn’t working. Instead he stared out the window at the sunshine that had finally decided to make an appearance.
She didn’t care that he was slacking off. It was the infernal tapping of the pen he held against the papers in his other hand. Tap. Tap. Tap. Whatever he was thinking so hard about had him oblivious to the noise that Trinity couldn’t ignore.
“Are you okay?” she finally asked, her voice a little louder than she intended in the quiet office.
With a start, Rhett glanced her way. “Yes. Why?”
She dropped her gaze to the pen, which he’d stopped tapping. “Just wondering.”
He didn’t acknowledge her look, but she knew he got her point because he gripped the pen in his fist. Still he didn’t say a word. So as much as she didn’t care for confrontation...
“Plus, you’ve been acting weird all day.” She cleared her throat, not sure where she got the courage to say the rest. Why did adult relationships come with so many difficult conversations? “You know, if you regret yesterday, it’s okay. I won’t hold you to any implied commitment.”
His raised brows indicated a surprise almost as big as hers for having said anything in the first place. Then a smile spread across his sculpted lips, offering a hint of relief to her growing angst. “No, Trinity. It’s nothing like that.”
“But it is something, right?”
Busted. She almost laughed at the consternation in his face and the way his body tightened up. If there was one thing she was good at in her life, it was reading people. Rhett wasn’t hiding the signs very well.
Before she could tease him, the door to her office swung inward.
Of all the people she’d expected, Patricia and Richard were not the ones. She tensed.
Jenny rushed in after them. “I’m sorry.”