Pure Seduction

by Frank, Ella

  Seeming to sense the shift in my mood, Noah nodded and stepped aside. “Of course, sorry. Take your time. I’ll take care of this while you’re gone.”

  I glanced at the uneaten food and nodded. I knew I was acting strange. I’d gone from hot to cold in the blink of an eye. But I just needed a few minutes on my own to regroup. To remember exactly what my plan was. Because no matter how good this date had been—and it had been great—it could never happen again. Ever.

  27

  Laurel

  LATER IN THE evening when I pulled into my drive and cut the engine, I was still coming to grips with everything that had happened tonight. From the sensual high to my crash back down to reality, there was no way to deny the delicious lethargy in my body. I pushed open the car door and pulled Noah’s jacket around me tight.

  Ever since Noah’s return, I’d been taut as a tripwire, tense, and on edge. His sudden reappearance had wreaked havoc with my internal wiring. But after that initial shock had passed, a different kind of tension altogether had settled in.

  Well, he’d certainly taken care of that tonight, because the satisfied hum now coursing through my veins guaranteed I’d get the best sleep I’d had in weeks. Hell, maybe even months.

  I headed up the stairs to my front door and, luckily for me, no one was around to witness my late-night return. The last thing I needed was for people in town to start whispering about me. But tonight, I’d allow myself to bask in the moment alone. I’d wrap myself up in the scrumptious memory that was Noah’s mouth, hands, and body all over mine, and enjoy the best date I’d been on in years. Before I put it in the memory bank, never to think of again.

  I unlocked the door and stepped inside, then kicked out of my heels. I tossed my keys on the foyer table and was about to head down to my room.

  “I didn’t know you were going out tonight.”

  I gasped and clutched at my chest, then whirled around to see Jake sitting on one of the couches in the dark. He was supposed to be at Caleb’s tonight, and the shock of seeing him there automatically erased my relaxation from seconds ago and replaced it with motherly concern.

  “Jake?” I switched on the light to make sure he was in one piece, and when I couldn’t see anything out of the norm, my breathing calmed and my heart began to beat again at a normal rhythm. “What are you doing home? I thought you were spending the night at Caleb’s?”

  “Yeah, that’s pretty obvious.”

  The judgmental tone was so unlike Jake that it immediately made my hackles rise. I straightened my shoulders, and when Noah’s jacket slipped down my arms, I quickly reached for it, knowing the dress I had on underneath was not something Jake was used to seeing me in. Something that wasn’t lost on him.

  “Whose jacket is that?” he asked, getting to his feet.

  “Excuse me? I’m the adult in this house, and I believe I asked you a question. What are you doing home? You told me you were spending the night at Caleb’s.”

  “So? I changed my mind. You wouldn’t care if you weren’t trying to sneak in in the middle of the night.”

  Right, that was it. I knew the two of us needed to talk after today’s blow-up at the baseball field, but I was just about done with this new attitude. I stalked across the room and jabbed him in the chest.

  “Listen to me, young man. I know we’re pretty casual around here and have a different kind of relationship than most. But that doesn’t give you the right to be disrespectful or rude. What’s gotten into you?”

  Jake narrowed his eyes and looked me over in a way that made me cross my arms over my chest. That niggling feeling from earlier started again in the pit of my stomach.

  “What’s gotten into me? You’re the one acting completely different these days.”

  Wow. He was clearly pissed off, and that was something we needed to discuss. But no matter how angry he was, or how much he did or didn’t know, I wasn’t going to stand here and be talked down to by my teenage son.

  I turned around and stalked off toward my bedroom.

  “Go to bed, Jake. We’ll talk about this in the morning.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it then.”

  I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me as I flicked on the kitchen light and spun around. “Well, that’s too bad. I don’t want to talk about it now.”

  “Whose jacket is that?”

  Knowing this was not going to end unless I told him, I placed a hand on the back of the kitchen chair and braced myself. “The jacket belongs to Noah. We had dinner tonight.”

  Jake scoffed. “Dinner, huh? Is that why you’re creeping around at—”

  “I’m not creeping anywhere,” I shouted, much louder than I’d intended. But at this stage I was finding it difficult to temper my annoyance.

  “You’re not? Looked like it to me.”

  “I don’t care how it looked to you. Plus, you aren’t even supposed to be home.”

  “Which is why you went in the first place. You wouldn’t have to be home at a respectable hour.”

  “Just who do you think you are? The dating police? It’s not a crime that I decided to finally go out, you know? And weren’t you the one telling me I should?”

  Jake’s jaw clenched and the expression that crossed his face could only be described as furious. “That was before. I worked it out, Mom. Your little secret.”

  And there it was. My stomach dropped as my suspicions were confirmed. The certainty of those words cleared up any question of why he was so angry.

  As I stared across the kitchen at my son, my heart beat so hard that it was a miracle it hadn’t flown out of my chest. Then Jake took a step forward, and I steeled myself for whatever he was about to say next.

  “It’s him, isn’t it?”

  I sucked in a shaky breath and gripped the back of the chair. Jake glared me down, waiting for a response. But all words had left me. I didn’t know what to say. The lie I’d told so many times reared its ugly head and demanded that I finally tell the truth.

  “Mom.”

  “Jake—”

  “Answer me. It’s him, right? Noah? He’s my dad.”

  My eyes blurred as the enormity of those words being spoken out loud for the first time hit me with the force of a shock wave. I felt like I was going to be sick.

  “I’m gonna take this bullshit silence as a yes. Is that why he left? Because of me? The rumor was he was a one-night stand. Something you never denied. But it’s not true, is it?”

  No, it wasn’t. I stood there trying to think of a way to explain my reasons for doing what I’d done, but came up with nothing.

  Jake snatched his coat from one of the chairs and headed for the back door.

  “Jake…” My voice cracked as I watched him storm out without a backward glance. As the door slammed closed behind him, the silence that followed mocked me.

  Oh God. God. What had I done?

  A racking sob left me as tears fell down my face. I barely managed to pull the chair out before I collapsed into it.

  I wiped at my cheeks, but it was no use—the tears kept coming as I was thrust back into a different time and place, when the only option available was to take what the devil had offered…

  28

  Laurel

  I STOOD OUTSIDE the black iron gates of Chamberlin Winery, and had never felt more intimidated in my life. The hot August sun was beating down on the back of my neck, but it still wasn’t enough to make me head inside and out of the sweltering heat.

  I was nervous. No, nervous wasn’t the right word. I was terrified. But there was no way around what I was here to do, and I’d promised my mom I wouldn’t leave until this was done. So I took in a deep breath, pushed through the gates, and made my way up the gravel drive to the entrance. When I reached the front door, I stopped for a minute and tried think of any way out of this. But when nothing came, I went up the couple of stairs and knocked.

  A warm breeze ruffled the hem of my dress, and just as I was about to try again, I heard, “You don�
��t have to knock. It’s a business. They want you to go in.”

  I turned to see Noah’s brother Ryan standing behind me in mud-caked boots, jeans, and a t-shirt.

  “Uh, hi.” I gave a quick, self-conscious wave, and he smiled. I hadn’t had much contact with Noah’s family when we’d dated, but I knew Ryan from school, and he’d always been kind. He also bore a striking resemblance to Noah, which made it really difficult to look at him right now.

  “Hi. Seriously, just go on in. Mom’s in there somewhere.”

  “Oh, I’m not looking for your mom. I’d like to speak to Harry—I mean, your father.”

  Ryan frowned but gestured to the side of the main building. “He’s out the back, down at the production facility. Do you want me to show you?”

  I looked over to where Ryan indicated and worried my lower lip with my teeth. The last thing I needed was an audience. I had no idea how Harry was going to react to what I had to say.

  “Uh, thanks, but that’s okay. I’m not going to take long. You said it’s just behind the house?”

  “You mean the villa?”

  I glanced up at the double-story Spanish-style building and nodded.

  “Yep, just go around the side there. It’s the big, shed-like thing down the back. You can’t miss it.”

  “Okay, thanks again.”

  I was about to walk off when Ryan stepped forward and said, “Hey, Laurel?”

  “Yeah?”

  “He didn’t want to go. Just so you know.”

  My breath caught, but I didn’t have it in me to say Noah’s name out loud. These past few months had been difficult for so many reasons, and the only way I’d managed to survive was to lock him in a box and forget that I ever knew him. I didn’t want to seem rude, though, so I forced a smile and hoped that would be the end of that.

  When Ryan said nothing and moved aside, I sent up a quick prayer and hurried off to find his father. The sooner I got this over with, the better.

  I made my way around the back, and Ryan was right—there was no way to miss the mammoth “shed.” I twisted my hands in front of myself. Okay, it was now or never. I needed to get this over and done with so I could move on. I had too much on my plate these days to have a cloud of guilt this big following me around.

  That final pep talk had my spine straightening and my feet moving. But when I got to the open door of the shed and spotted a man’s boots sticking out from under a tractor, I thought about making a run for it.

  I didn’t, though. I cleared my throat, and the dirt-covered boots dug into the ground and crawled the man out on a flatbed creeper. He had a wrench in one hand and a spanner in the other, and the frown on the tanned, leathery face said he was clearly unimpressed by my interruption.

  Great. This was off to a fantastic start.

  I was about to introduce myself when the man sat up and tossed his tools into the toolbox with a loud clang. Then he reached for the rag stuffed in his pocket and began wiping the grease off his hands.

  “Did you take a wrong turn, miss? There’s no tours this afternoon.”

  It didn’t surprise me that he had no clue who I was. We’d never met before, and I certainly didn’t run in his family’s circles. The only communication I’d ever had with him was over a phone, and it had been brief to say the least.

  “Are you Harry Chamberlin?” I knew he was, but it was important that I had the right person before I did what I’d come here to do.

  “I am.”

  Harry got to his feet, and I suddenly wished he’d stay seated. If I’d been intimidated before, his height—at least six three—was not helping my confidence any now. But I wasn’t about to run. I’d come too far for that.

  “If you’re Harry, then I’m not lost. I’m Laurel. Laurel Anderson.”

  The minute I said my name, a flash of recognition lit his eyes.

  “I see. And what is it that’s brought you to my place of business today, Miss Anderson?”

  If it’d been up to me, I never would’ve set foot in his place of business. But that wasn’t an option anymore. “I want to know where Noah is.”

  A cruel smile curled Harry’s lips as he tossed the dirty rag on top of the toolbox. “And why would I tell you that?”

  I angled my chin up and reminded myself that Ryan had seen me come in here. I had nothing to fear. It wasn’t like Harry was going to off me and no one would ever see me again.

  “Because I have to talk to him.”

  “About?”

  “That’s between us.”

  Harry chuckled, sending a shiver up my spine. “The last time I checked, there was no us when it came to the two of you, and that’s how it’s going to stay.”

  I ignored his dig, having prepared myself for the kind of man he was. But he was just getting started.

  “You see, Laurel, Noah is fifth-generation Chamberlin. This town—the place you live in—is his namesake. He’s my oldest boy and I want great things for him, the best he can possibly get, and you, my dear, are just not it.”

  The pain of hearing those words out loud cut deeper than I’d anticipated. They were like a physical blow. I was so stunned by their callous nature that I couldn’t seem to send a message from my brain to my feet to move.

  “Noah is destined to be with someone of his own stature. Someone who will fit in around here and help run a world-class winery and wow the industry with the Chamberlin name. So any romantic notions you’re still clinging to? I suggest you let them go. He’s not coming back for you, and I’m not telling you where he went.”

  The bitter taste of bile rose in my throat, and I shuddered. I was well aware of the class differences between Noah and myself. I had been from the minute we’d started dating. But Noah had never once looked down on me for what I didn’t have, so the only person projecting that opinion was Harry.

  I clenched my fists and reminded myself why I was there. I didn’t owe this man anything. I was here for me. I was here to do the right thing, and I was done listening to him talk me down.

  Taking my silence as acceptance of his disgusting diatribe, Harry dismissed me by turning his back and rifling through his toolbox. But I wasn’t done just yet.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Harry froze, and I prepared myself for an ugly response. But when he finally turned to face me, his expression was…inscrutable.

  “And you’re telling me this because you think it’s—”

  “I don’t think anything. I’m pregnant and Noah is the father.”

  When Harry’s gaze landed on the billowy fabric of my dress, his jaw clenched. That’s right, do the math, sir. Three months in and I was just beginning to show. And it was three months exactly since his eldest son was a no-show.

  Harry scratched at his stubbled cheek. “I suppose you think that’s going to make me change my mind about all of this? That I’m going to call Noah up and tell him the good news?”

  That might’ve been my assumption at first, yes. But I was starting to see that as naïve.

  “Wake up, girl.” Harry scoffed. “This just proves the point I was making all along. You are everything I don’t want for my boy.”

  I’d expected that, the insults. Hell, this guy had thought I was no good when I was nothing more than a name to him. But the idea that he wouldn’t call Noah? That he wouldn’t tell him what I’d just revealed? That made my stomach heave.

  What kind of monster would keep this kind of information from his own son?

  “You’re not going to tell him?”

  “Noah? No. And you’re not, either.”

  “Good luck trying to stop me.” I might not know where Noah was right this second. But as soon as I left this nightmare of an encounter, I would do everything in my power to find him.

  I stormed toward the door and was about to get the hell out of there, when Harry said, “Your mother is Debbie Anderson who runs the salon, yes?”

  My spine stiffened. Then I turned back to face him. “She is. What’s that got to do with an
ything?”

  When Harry got within a couple feet of me, he stopped and pulled a quarter from his pocket. He flicked it in the air, caught it, then flicked it up again, and as I waited for him to talk, I could feel the blood rushing around my head.

  “I heard she wasn’t doing so well. Cancer? Is that right?”

  It was. But how he knew that, I had no idea. I hadn’t told anyone about my mother’s cancer diagnosis, and I knew she wouldn’t have told anyone Harry knew.

  “That must be hard,” he said when I didn’t answer. “Cancer always is. The pain, the fight, the expenses…”

  My eyes began to blur as all of the stress and suffering we’d been through over the months slammed into me. But not about to talk to him about it, I gritted my teeth and somehow managed to say, “That’s none of your business.”

  “What if I make it my business?”

  Just about done with him and this conversation, I shook my head. “I’m leaving.”

  “You can, of course, but you might want to hear me out first.”

  “No offense, but I’m pretty much done listening to you.” I backed away, determined to leave this time.

  “Even if it means helping your mom?”

  My feet froze, and while my mind screamed, Don’t listen to him, I couldn’t bring myself to leave.

  “What if I told you I could have her admitted to the best cancer facility in California? That I could have all of her expenses taken care of? Are you trying to say that something like that doesn’t interest you?”

  I paused for a second, unbelieving of what I’d just heard, but then I quickly turned to make sure I hadn’t imagined it. Of course what he’d just said interested me. But I wasn’t stupid. Harry Chamberlin was a ruthless businessman. He wasn’t the kind of person who handed out charity, and this sounded a lot more like blackmail.

  “I’m going to make you an offer, Miss Anderson. One I want you to listen to very carefully and think about. Your mother’s health and treatment in exchange for your denial of everything Noah when it comes to this child.”