Love & Secrets

by Elizabeth Lennox

  Charlotte blinked, stunned by her words. Were they true? The issue about trust and secrets…well, she was right there. It was scary that Carly was so right!

  “I’ve never thought about it like that,” Charlotte whispered.

  Carly waited a heartbeat. “Will you think about it like that now?”

  “Yes,” she promised.

  Carly stood up and walked to the doorway. “Good. Think about it fast. Because I don’t know how much longer Oz will wait.” She laughed, shaking her head. “Oz is a man who fixes things, Charlotte. He makes the world a safer place. He’s been pretty good about giving you space, but I think he’s ready to take action.” She hesitated in the doorway, but then stepped back. “One more point,” she started.

  “What’s that?” Charlotte asked, almost afraid of what the lovely woman might say next.

  “Secrets and trust aren’t always the same. When Oz got sick, he trusted you. And when you needed Oz when that little girl was hurt, Oz was there for you. The two of you took care of each other. You trusted each other. Secrets can be bad or they can be good. They don’t have to destroy a relationship. But if a couple doesn’t have trust, if two people aren’t there for each other when things are tough, that will to destroy the relationship.”

  Charlotte’s heart felt as if it were about to burst out of her chest. Was Carly right? About everything?

  Before Charlotte could respond, Carly slipped from the office. For a long time, Charlotte stared into space, working through everything she’d just heard. Was she running away? Was she pushing Oz out of her life for fear of being hurt again? That didn’t seem right, since she was hurting so badly at the moment. But…she sort of was doing that to herself, apparently.

  And secrets versus trust. Secrets destroyed trust, right? If one had secrets, then how could one have trust? But Carly had been right. That day when Bethany had been admitted to the hospital, Oz had heard that she was upset and…he’d simply dropped everything and come to her. He’d taken care of her that night, giving her everything she hadn’t even known that she needed. He’d been so sweet and gentle, even going so far as to carry her up to bed and holding her throughout the night.

  Before Charlotte could figure out what that all meant, her office door burst open and Oz stormed in, slamming the door behind him. “I have a question for you, Charlotte. Tell me about your patient this morning. The one that arrived at nine o’clock. What’s his problem?”

  She pulled back, offended that he would even ask. “I can’t tell you about my patients!” she gasped.

  “Exactly!”

  Charlotte blinked, trying to follow his line of conversation, while drinking in the sight of him. He looked amazing! Was he bigger than before? His muscles looked bigger. He must have been working out. While she’d stopped eating, he’d intensified his workouts!

  Focus, she told herself. His buffness wasn’t relevant at this particular moment. He was saying something about…this morning or a guy or…?

  “What exactly are you trying to say?” she asked. Was she trying to avoid being hurt? Was she pushing him away with irrelevant excuses?

  He leaned his hands against her desk, his green eyes glaring at her now. “You can’t tell me about your patients. But I trust you, Charlotte.”

  “And?” she prompted when he stared back at her.

  “And,” he replied, “I can’t tell you what I do. But you damn well can trust me.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. Carly’s comments slowly morphing into a bright light of understanding. Trust…secrets…they were different! Completely different! Finally, she nodded. “You’re right.”

  He opened his mouth to say something else, but he stopped, obviously not sure where to go now. He stood up, staring down at her with confusion. “I’m right?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. You’re right.” A surge of happiness hit her and she was almost light headed from relief. Happiness and excitement and…love! Goodness, she loved him and Carly had been so incredibly right!

  He nodded as well, a sharp jerk of his head. “Damn straight! I’m right and we’re getting married!”

  Charlotte laughed, leaning forward. “Oh yeah?”

  Once again, he leaned his fists against her desk, meeting her halfway. “Yeah,” he replied, his voice husky, his eyes taking in her tear ravaged features. “You are so beautiful.”

  She beamed up at him. “You need to shave.”

  He laughed, but leaned in closer. “I love you, Charlotte.”

  Those words sent a bolt of fear and happiness through her body. She opened her mouth to tell him the same thing, but…she choked on the words. “I’m scared.”

  “We’ll take things slowly,” he promised. “Can we be married next week?”

  She burst out laughing, shaking her head. “What happened to taking things slowly?”

  He reached out, pulling her forward. “I’m not flying us out to Vegas tonight, so next week is pretty damn slow.”

  She couldn’t reply because he was kissing her.

  Nancy sighed happily from the doorway, and discreetly pulled the door closed. As she stared at the person in the waiting room, she shook her head. “I think that the doc is going to be a bit delayed.”

  The couple waiting for their session laughed. “I think we should probably reschedule.”

  Nancy agreed. From what she’d just seen, there was going to be a lot of rescheduling going on with this afternoon’s clients!

  Epilogue

  Charlotte looked out at the people gathered around, sitting on the bales of hay. Because she and Oz had first met in the woods, they’d decided to promise their lives together in the woods between their houses as well. It seemed like the perfect spot, although Jayce and Ryker had helped clear out most of the underbrush, giving the guests easy access to their “seats”.

  Carly, Deni and Nancy were Charlotte’s bridesmaids and she beamed when Jayce rolled his eyes at his sister as she walked down the aisle. There was a moment when Charlotte thought that Carly might stumble as she walked towards Ryker, who stood next to Jayce, the two men looking striking as Oz’s groomsmen.

  There were only about fifty guests, but everyone was special. And everyone cheered when Betty carried the flower petals down the aisle, then clapped, laughing when Bart trotted down to deliver the rings. Oz had worked on that trick for weeks and he was very proud of the two dogs’ perfect execution.

  Then it was time for Charlotte. She stepped out and smiled, looking for the one man who meant everything to her. Trust, she thought as the music changed and she stepped forward, walking towards Oz. He still scared her, but she trusted him. There were so many secrets between them, but so much trust, love, and happiness. The secrets were necessary. The trust absolute.

  Yes, it still scared her when Oz left suddenly. But he was here now. She refused to put her life and happiness on hold because she was afraid that he might not return. All the more reason why she should embrace him now and experience being with him to the fullest.

  When she stepped up to take his hand, she looked up into his green eyes, still amazed at how much she loved him.

  “I love you,” he whispered down to her.

  “I love you too.”

  Jayce leaned forward. “You’re supposed to wait, idiot.”

  The crowd chuckled but Oz and Charlotte ignored them, moving closer as the minister began the ceremony.

  Continue Reading for an excerpt from the next book in the series His Baby Deal

  Excerpt from His Baby Deal

  Book 6, The Diamond Club Series

  Release Date: August 16, 2019

  Click HERE to Get “His Baby Deal”

  Something was wrong.

  It wasn’t so much a gesture that told Jayce that his beautiful neighbor was upset about something. It was more just…a feeling or perhaps her body language. Maybe it was the way she held the wine glass up to the sunlight? Perhaps it was because the glass was filled to the rim. Or maybe it was the tension in her shoul
ders or the odd way she held the glass tonight. Nothing overt. Just…slightly off.

  For a moment, Jayce Cole watched her, drinking in the sight of her dark brown hair and smooth, tempting skin.

  But just for a moment. If something was wrong, he wanted to know what it was. He moved through his house, although he continued to watch her. Whipping his tie off and tossing it, along with his jacket, over one of the chairs, he grabbed a beer from the fridge and pulled open the back door, stepping out on to the stone steps of his patio.

  His house was about the same size as the one his brother Oz had built and was now busy furnishing with his sweet wife, Charlotte. But Oz preferred the isolation of the woods. Jayce wanted to be near the water and he loved this old Victorian. He loved the traditional lines as well as the connection to the past.

  Jayce was slowly restoring the old house to its former glory. Room by room, he sanded, painted, and repaired. Everything good that had happened to him in his life had happened on the water, so when it had come time to settle down, he’d found this old Victorian on the lake and decided on restoration instead of building something new.

  Hell, since leaving the Navy and his SEAL team a few years ago and starting up The Solutions Group with his older brother, Oz, and best friend, Riker Thune, he could afford just about anything he wanted. His bank account was embarrassingly large and growing. Even better, he was doing something that he believed in, helping others and doing things that the various governments around the globe couldn’t, or wouldn’t, accomplish. As long as the mission was legal, moral, and ethical. He was good at his job and he loved the danger, the excitement of it all.

  But he also loved coming home to this. Jessa was a beautiful brunette with mile-long legs and a smile that could light up the sky better than the sun. She was also a brilliant writer with an incredible imagination. He’d read every one of her books, thoroughly enjoying the sex scenes in particular. And the plots! But yeah, those sex scenes had given even him some fabulous ideas! There were things in those books that he hadn’t even tried, and he’d thought that he’d done it all.

  Looking at Jessa, he wouldn’t have thought that she was that creative in the bedroom. His initial impression of her had been that she was shy, introverted, and quiet. It had taken several months to get her to just speak to him. But now, whenever he was home, they would sit out on the stone patios of one of their houses, or on the dock on the edge of the lake, and talk well into the night.

  Moving down the steps of his stone patio, that feeling of unease, the sensation that something was wrong with Jessa’s world, intensified.

  “What’s wrong?” he demanded as he walked through the grass, moving closer to her. He’d built this deck specifically for nights like this, wanting a place to come home to, a retreat. A place to sit down and relax in between missions or after work. He loved his sister Carly, but she was a demanding manager, organizing everyone on the staff, and ordering him around. He’d fought her initially, but slowly, he’d learned that she was right. She was extremely good at her job, knowing what needed to happen before anyone else did. She was the anchor that kept him and his brother centered. They hadn’t known about each other growing up, their bastard of a father had spread his seed, then beaten whatever child had been so unfortunate to live with him. Oz had been the man’s first victim, but Oz had grown up and, by the time he was fifteen, he’d gotten out. Fortunately, Oz had gotten one good punch in before leaving that night.

  Several years later, Oz had learned that another woman had given birth to the man’s offspring. The woman had passed away from cancer and social workers had dumped five year old Carly into the monster’s household. If it weren’t for Oz learning of their half-sister, then swooping in to rescue her, she would probably be dead by now.

  It was a freakish occurrence that Jayce knew about either of them. He’d been a Navy SEAL on a mission in Malaysia. Oz had been a member of the Army’s elite Delta Force team, there to rescue Ryker Thune, another Delta Force member, from a rebel prison. Jayce and Oz had started talking, realized there were too many similarities in their past and their facial features, then discovered they were half-brothers. They’d been together ever since.

  The four of them, Oz, Jayce, Ryker, and Carly, had built up The Solutions Group, a black ops organization that specialized in getting the tough jobs done neatly and quietly, completely under the radar. They’d also branched into personal security, training, and hostage resolution, which was a nice way of saying The Solutions Group would find the hostages and rescue them, especially in situations in which the victims’ government or a foreign government…or a corporation…couldn’t resolve the situation through normal channels. Everyone employed by The Solutions Group had special skills that couldn’t easily be put onto a regular resume.

  But that world was far away at the moment. When he was there, working in the corporate office, he was a boss, a manager, and a trainer. He trained and worked with the teams, ensuring that they were ready for whatever might be asked of them. And if the asking wasn’t up to the standards of The Solution Group, they passed. Ryker, Jayce and Oz were firm that they weren’t unethical mercenaries that could be hired to do anything anywhere. Nope! After getting out of their military positions, they now had the freedom to pick and choose their missions.

  Right now, he was less concerned with world affairs and more focused on what was worrying his lovely neighbor.

  Sitting down in the plush patio chair, he watched and waited. Yep, Jessa was upset. He could see it in the pressure of her lips. And she wasn’t smiling. Normally when he joined her out here, she smiled up at him. They were friends. Good friends. If he sometimes wondered what it would be like to peel away her clothes and discover what made her gasp with pleasure, well, that was just an aberration.

  An aberration that seemed to be happening more and more often lately, he thought, then pushed that issue out of his mind. Jessa was upset about something and he didn’t like that. In his world, he fixed things. That was his job and he was damn good at it. So whatever was wrong in Jessa’s world, he’d fix it. Period.

  “Jessa?” he prompted when she continued to stare blankly into the wine glass.

  When she lifted her eyes, his gut clenched. “He was cheating on me.”

  “Brian?” he confirmed, referring to the ass that Jessa had been dating for the past six months. He’d never met the guy, but from what Jessa had told him, Jayce hadn’t liked him. Jayce ignored the fact that he probably wouldn’t like any guy who got to touch Jessa’s beautiful, soft skin. But that was an issue for another day, he reminded himself.

  “Yep. He got sick of me waiting to be sure about starting a physical relationship and…” she shrugged, “started having sex with someone else.”

  Jayce absorbed that information, coming up with ten different ways to make the ass disappear forever. No one would know, he thought. He was that good.

  “How did you find out?” He didn’t bother to ask if she was sure. Jessa was sweet and smart and not a fool. If she said the ass was cheating, then she knew that for sure.

  “I called his office and was told that he was out sick for the day. So I made some soup and brought it over to him.” She looked over at him, her lips twisted with self-derision. “We’d been fighting a lot lately.”

  “You mentioned that.”

  She sighed and lowered the glass of wine, staring out into the deepening darkness. “So I went over to his house, wanting to do something nice for him.”

  Something tightened in his shoulders as he waited.

  “I have the key to his house, but I didn’t need it. The door was already partially open. I walked in, calling his name. But I only heard moaning coming from the bedroom.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “I walked into his room, worrying he was really sick and that I might need to call an ambulance.” She turned and looked at him. “Imagine my surprise when I found him bent over a blond bimbo.”

  Immediately, Jayce thought up a few more ways to get rid of the guy, bu
t these methods were a bit more painful. They would take longer too.

  “What did you do?” he asked. Knowing Jessa the way he did, he was positive that she hadn’t simply walked away with her tail between her legs. He liked her tail, a lot, and it was always proud and perfect! Never tucked away.

  The slow smile that formed eased some of the tension in his shoulders. “I ‘accidentally’ spilled the chicken soup all over his bed and his carpet.”

  Jayce threw back his head and laughed. “Perfect!”

  She laughed a bit as well. “I thought so.”

  “I hope you had a lot of vegetables in the soup.”

  She grinned. “Well, I’m a very good cook. And yes, I put a lot of vegetables in the soup but, because I thought he was sick, I amped up the broth as well.”

  “So you soaked his mattress, huh?” he finished with another chuckle. “Good thinking.”

  “I thought it was rather ingenious under the circumstances.” She sighed and looked out across the water. “Unfortunately, I don’t think they knew I was there. They were pretty in the moment. And it took them a moment to figure out what had happened. By then, I was already out of the house. All I heard was a muttered, ‘What in the world?!’ and I was gone.”

  “Even more impressive,” he praised.

  Another sigh, her laughter gone. “Yeah. Well…”

  “What are you really upset about?” he asked, sensing there was a whole lot more to this story than her boyfriend cheating on her, which, granted, was bad enough. But there was more. He could feel it in the tension surrounding her.

  She smiled slightly as she looked at him. The sun had sunk behind the tree line now, so it was almost completely dark. But he’d looked at her features often enough to have them memorized. Perhaps he even watched them in his dreams. When she was…uh…doing things that friends shouldn’t be doing to each other.