Love & Secrets

by Elizabeth Lennox

  Bart bounced out of the kitchen and Charlotte looked down at her faithful companion. “Hey there, sweety. Why didn’t you come greet me earlier? Do you have…?”

  Charlotte stopped when Betty rushed around the corner, grinning at Charlotte. “Betty? What are…?”

  That’s when she smelled it. Something cheesy and yummy! A moment later, Oz stepped out of the kitchen, a spoon in his hand. “Here. Taste this and let me know if it needs more garlic.” With that, he offered her something that looked decadent and cheesy on the end of a wooden spoon.

  Charlotte blinked, her mind trying to catch up to what was going on in her house. Oz was here? He’d cooked something for her? “Garlic? What is this?”

  He lifted the spoon up again, a hand underneath to catch any possible spills. “Just taste it.”

  She opened her mouth and tasted, then closed her eyes as the savory taste of cheese and wonderful spices filled her mouth. “Oh my!” she sighed, her shoulders relaxing slightly. “Oh, that’s amazing!” she told him, licking her lips as she smiled up into his marvelous, green eyes.

  “Good,” he replied and leaned down to kiss her gently. “Come on in. Wine is open and ready for you.” He took her hand, leading her into the kitchen. There, he handed her a glass already filled with red wine. “Go upstairs and soak in the tub. I just finished putting that vanilla stuff into the water that you like so much. It is still hot. Give me thirty minutes and dinner will be ready.”

  Charlotte wasn’t sure what to say. She opened her mouth and the words, “I love you” almost tripped out. Only by force of will did she pull back. He didn’t want those words, she thought. Oz…she knew that he wasn’t the kind of man to marry and fall in love.

  “A bath sounds wonderful,” she whispered, the pain of her afternoon rolling over her in a fresh wave of sadness.

  He saw the glimmer of tears and cupped her cheek gently. “Go upstairs and soak for as long as you need, honey. I’ve walked the dogs. Dinner is ready whenever you are and you can talk about your courthouse meeting tonight, or not. Whatever you need.”

  Again, she wanted to tell him how she felt. Instead, she turned around and headed up the stairs, slowly, as if lead weights were attached to her feet. The bath looked amazing. Not only had he filled up the tub and added her favorite scent, he’d even put a bouquet of roses at the end of the tub and turned on soft music, lit some candles, and turned off the lights.

  With a sigh, she set her glass of wine on the counter and stripped off her clothes. When she sank into the warm water, Charlotte closed her eyes with relief. For a long time, she didn’t move. She didn’t allow herself to think about the day, about Linda or Bethany. They would be fine now. They would find their way. Throughout all of this, Charlotte noticed Linda growing stronger, more protective. She had a good job and great skills that could easily transfer to another city, as well as a lot of potential. Hopefully, Linda would take Bethany to a new life, a new city. There were bad memories in their house. A fresh start would help both of them. And it would get them away from that monster!

  Sipping the wine, Charlotte focused on the homey sounds of Oz in her kitchen. But every time she started to wonder what it would be like to have him like this forever, she stopped herself. Oz was temporary. Oz was a good man, not a liar or a cheater like her ex-husband. But he wasn’t a man she could hope to be with forever.

  She heard his steps coming up her wooden stairs, marveling at how such a large man could move with such stealth! If she hadn’t been listening for the sound of his steps, she wouldn’t have heard him.

  He paused in the doorway, leaning one of those delicious shoulders against the wood frame. “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  “What’s for dinner?”

  He winked at her. “Comfort foods. Mac and cheese and then chocolate cake for dessert.”

  Her eyes widened. “You made me chocolate cake?” she asked, sitting up slightly. She noticed his eyes move lower, but ensured that her breasts stayed under the water line. Not that he couldn’t see what was under the water. Her breasts were visible. But she wanted to tease him, so she kept herself just barely visible.

  When his eyes moved higher, she noticed that they were narrowed with suspicion and tried to wipe the taunting smile from her lips. Obviously she failed, if his knowing expression was any indication. But instead of coming towards her with intent, he picked up the towel and held it open for her. “Dinner. Then I’ll help you forget about your day any way you want.”

  She sighed her acceptance and stood up, turning to face him as he watched the water run down her body. “Really?” she asked. “In that order?”

  “In that order,” he told her firmly, but she noticed that his eyes were on her breasts, his jaw clenching when he noticed that her nipples were already tight and ready for him. “Come on, beautiful. You need food. Carly told me that you’d barely eaten lunch before you received the phone call. And Nancy said that you spent the afternoon at the courthouse. So you’re going to eat. Then we’ll see what else you need.”

  She pulled the towel around her, irritated by his logic. He might be right, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

  “Fine. Dinner. Wine. Lots of wine.”

  He laughed softly. “I have several bottles ready for you.”

  “Good man.”

  He held up her robe and helped her slip her arms into it, even reaching around her to tie the belt loosely at her waist. “Come. You’re going to love my comfort food.”

  She grumbled slightly, but followed behind him, grabbing her empty wine glass as she went. As soon as they reached the kitchen, he took her glass and filled it up, then pointed to the chair. “Sit. I’ll serve.”

  She sat down at the table, her mouth watering. As soon as she took her first bite, Charlotte closed her eyes. “Oh, this is good!” she sighed, taking another bite. “Very good. I’m making you my stress cook!”

  He laughed and brought his plate over with twice the amount of mac and cheese, then sipped his own glass of wine. They talked and ate, drank a whole bottle of wine. Correction, he had one glass and she had the other three. By the end of the meal, she was sleepy from the wine and warm bath, not to mention the heavy, fat-laden carbs.

  Oz stood up, taking their plates over to the sink. “Leave the dishes. Go into the living room and sit down. I’ll clean up in here and will be there in a few minutes.”

  She smiled sleepily at him but followed his orders. Thinking about Oz taking her into his arms and making love to her, she curled up at one end of the couch, fluffed one of the pillows, and waited.

  Oz stepped into the living room after loading up the dishwasher and found Charlotte sound asleep on the couch. Walking over to her, he pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes, looking down at her with a tightness in his chest. Taking care of her tonight had been nice. Different, but really nice. Yeah, she’d wanted sex earlier. But it wasn’t really sex that she’d needed. She’d wanted to forget. If she’d still been awake now, he would have taken her into his arms and given her that forgetfulness. But Oz didn’t wake her now. Sleep was more important. Whistling, he called to both dogs and took them outside. He threw the ball for Betty and Bart, praising them when they brought the ball back. Betty could run farther because her legs were longer. But Bart still liked the game and didn’t seem threatened by his lady-love’s longer stride.

  Inside, he checked their bowls for water, checked all of the windows and doors to make sure they were locked, then turned off the lights. With a smile, he lifted Charlotte into his arms as gently as possible. She woke up ever so slightly, arguing that she could walk up to bed herself. “Shush,” he ordered, enjoying being able to take care of her. She was always so strong and capable. This vulnerable side of her was fascinating. Oz knew that she’d be back to normal tomorrow. She’d be strong and ready to help all of her patients. But tonight, she needed him and that was a really great feeling.

  Chapter 15

  Two months. It had been two months of mind-blowing se
x and an ever-increasing understanding of the complicated man that was Oz. Charlotte glanced at her calendar, stunned by the changes in both herself and her life now that Oz was in it. Every day, the man startled her with some new revelation, some aspect of his personality she hadn’t discovered. It might be the way he touched her or a debate over some issue, but he was an amazing man.

  So, what was bothering her? She was being silly, she told herself. There wasn’t anything to worry about. Things were good. Life was good.

  So why did she feel like trying to pick a fight with Oz?

  Charlotte ignored the sensation, dismissing the anger building up inside of her. There was nothing wrong, she repeated to herself.

  But with every patient, Charlotte felt her anger building up. At one point, a patient was talking about how angry he was with his wife’s crafting efforts and Charlotte set up a whole argument with herself in her mind about Oz being irritated with her about a craft project. But Charlotte didn’t do crafts! She didn’t have any craft materials in the house! So why was she mentally picking a fight with Oz over crafts?!

  After lunch, her phone rang and she smiled when she saw his name pop up on the screen. “Hi there,” she answered, turning away from her laptop to stare out the window.

  “Hi Gorgeous! I wanted you to know that I have to go out of town.”’

  Instantly, her good mood evaporated. “Out of town? Where are you going?”

  There was a long hesitation and Charlotte’s heart clenched with dread.

  “I can’t tell you, honey. That’s one of the downsides to my job.”

  Charlotte straightened in her chair, a tight feeling in her stomach, making her feel…she wasn’t sure. It was such a strange sensation, but she knew that she didn’t like it. “Do you know when you’ll be back?” Another hesitation and she closed her eyes, that feeling morphing into dread. And pain. Betrayal? Or crushing disappointment? “Forget it, Oz. You don’t have to tell me.”

  He sighed and she pictured him rubbing his forehead. “Charlotte, it isn’t that I don’t want to tell you. I can’t.”

  Secrets! More damn secrets! “Right. Okay.” The pain roared through her. “Okay, well, I guess I’ll talk to you when you get back.” From wherever it is that you’ve gone and whenever you might be back, she added silently. Was that a helicopter in the background? Surely she was mistaken!

  Oz’s voice lowered. “I will. Talk to you soon,” he said and hung up.

  Charlotte tossed her phone onto her desk, not exactly sure what to say or do. Oz was gone? She’d just been sitting here thinking about how long they’d been together, reveling about how much fun he was, and how much they had in common. Now he was…gone! He couldn’t say where he was going. He couldn’t tell her why was leaving, and he couldn’t tell her when to expect him back.

  Secrets! Damn it, she hated secrets! Secrets ruined relationships! They ruined friendships, marriages, and even work relationships!

  Nancy shot her a message that popped up on her computer monitor, reminding her that her next patient was here. Charlotte glared at her phone, but knew that she couldn’t dwell right now.

  Focusing on the present, on the things that she could control and knew and understood, she forced her lips to smile, then stood up to greet her next patient.

  For the next several hours, she maintained the image of a professional therapist. She smiled and listened and advised. Bart was great, nuzzling everyone, including herself, and just being his cute, cuddly self. She smiled at Nancy, telling her goodnight when her assistant left. Then Charlotte wrote up her notes, transcribing everything onto her laptop, refiled all of the patient files, locked up the office, and stepped out into the darkness.

  She took Bart for a short walk, not nearly as long as he’d like, but it was completely dark now and she wanted to get home. She wanted to slip into a bath and drink a glass of wine and…No. she couldn’t do that because Oz had done that for her. No bath! No wine!

  Okay, that was crazy talk. Definitely a glass of wine. Or maybe not. Driving home, tossing her keys onto the table as she grabbed Bart’s leash. “Come on boy,” she called to him, then walked through the leaves, letting Bart sniff and pee on twenty bushes.

  With a glance through the trees towards his huge, beautiful house, she wondered what Oz was doing. Who was walking Betty tonight? For some reason, the fact that Oz hadn’t asked her to take care of Betty seemed very significant, although she hurt too much to fully analyze why that was a sticking point.

  Unfortunately, nothing in her fridge looked good, so she slammed the door closed, grabbed a bottle of white wine and plopped down in front of the television. Flipping through the channels, she poured herself a tall glass of wine, refusing to contemplate Oz and his mysterious departure. She wasn’t going to worry about him. She wasn’t going to worry that he might be in a dangerous situation. Nope! If he was, then he could just get himself out of it!

  A second glass of wine, and Charlotte settled in with The Housewives of Beverly Hills on Netflix. “Oh honey! You can’t wear that out of the house!” she yelled at the television. Taking a sip/gulp of wine, she scratched Bart’s ears. “Seriously? You’re fighting over that?” She looked down at Bart. “Why would they fight about what to serve at a party? Do they not have anything more important to worry about?”

  More wine and Bart snuffled her palm, begging for attention. “Sorry, honey,” she replied to her dog, reaching for his floppy ears but then another woman walked into the argument on the television. “No! No!” She laughed. Speaking to her dog, “Bart, they are going to rip each other’s clothes!”

  Bart wasn’t overly impressed and sighed, nuzzling her hand again with his snout.

  Her phone rang and she glanced at the caller. Oz. “I’m not answering that!” she told Bart who lifted his head in confusion. “He’s gone. It was going to happen sooner or later, so why not sooner,” she told her faithful dog. “He couldn’t tell me where he was going or when he’d be back in town. That’s fine with me! He can have all the secrets he wants, but I’m not going to live in a world with secrets.” She petted his scruffy head. “Nor should you! You deserve to know what’s going on in your world!”

  The phone stopped ringing and Bart glanced at it, licking his nose before laying his head on her knee with a sigh.

  Charlotte yelled at the ridiculous television show, going from one episode to the next. She knew that she was in big trouble when she started crying over an argument between two of the main characters. If it had been a marriage breakup or something important, she might have dismissed her response. But it was midnight, she’d finished off a whole bottle of wine, and she was crying over two women fighting about a necklace.

  Okay, so she wasn’t crying over the necklace. She was crying over the loss of Oz. Because Charlotte knew she couldn’t be in another relationship with a man who kept secrets. She just couldn’t go through it again. The worrying, the anger, the betrayal….the feeling that she’d done something wrong when, in fact, it had been Darin who had cheated on her, lied to her.

  Maybe Oz hadn’t lied to her. But he was doing secret things in secret places with secret people.

  “Come on Bart. Let’s go to bed.”

  Bart jumped down to the floor, but Charlotte didn’t follow. Instead, she pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and just…tipped over. A moment later, she was sound asleep. Bart stared at her for a long moment, sighed, then jumped back up, snuggling in closer until Charlotte put her hand on his back.

  Chapter 16

  Oz felt as if he wanted to tear someone’s head off! He’d been gone for six days. Six days without Charlotte and, yes, he’d gotten all of the hostages out safely. Yes, they were all healthy, at least physically. Mentally, that might be a whole different issue. Thankfully, the tyrant who had threatened to shoot one of the hostages every hour until his demands were met was now in a prison cell.

  But…he knew that Charlotte was hurt. He hadn’t been able to say anything to her about where he was
going or why. He’d never discussed his work with her, only telling her that he helped to provide security for various clients. If she ever knew where he was, she could be in danger, and there was no way in hell he’d ever put her in danger!

  He knew that Charlotte was hurt over that issue. She was angry that he hadn’t told her where he was going, couldn’t tell her when he would be back or what he was doing. In a way, he got that. If she’d ever left the country and hadn’t told him what she was doing, he’d be furious and terrified for her safety.

  Hell, Charlotte didn’t even know what he or his company really did. He’d mentioned “security” but that was such a broad, ambiguous term and he’d never clarified. He didn’t mention that he was trained in a lot of other areas, including hostage rescue. Not negotiation! Oh no. By the time The Solutions Group was called in, negotiations were no longer possible. In this case, the guy holding the people hostage was certifiably nuts. Probably not the diagnosis that Charlotte would provide, but it was close enough.

  Now all he wanted to do was talk to her, see if she was okay. And hold her! Damn, he wanted to hold her in his arms and feel her breath against his skin. To be refreshed by her touch, her words, and the way she looked at him.

  The helicopter flew him over the trees, landing on the roof of The Solutions Group and he jumped out before the treads had even touched down. Seconds later, he was racing through the doors and down the stairs, out the building. He’d already texted Ryker, Jayce, and Carly, letting them know that he was okay and everything was good. Carly congratulated him on another successful mission while Ryker and Jayce just said, “Welcome back. Get to work.” As if he’d been on a vacation!

  And yet, their words indicated that they had confidence in his abilities and he appreciated that.

  So he didn’t stop to chat. His car was exactly where he’d left it, although someone, probably Ryker, had filled it with gas because he had a full tank now, while he’d left it with only a quarter tank before.