The Broken One

by Cardello, Ruth

  She didn’t say I was giving up too easily, because we both knew I wasn’t. I hadn’t received so much as a text from Sebastian.

  And that was okay.

  I was haunted by what Rakesh Bhatt had said about Sebastian. He lacked empathy? That wasn’t my impression of him, but then again, I didn’t actually know Sebastian very well.

  Being attracted to him, indulging in a few sexual fantasies of what it would be like to be with him . . . some while I was awake . . . some in my dreams . . . didn’t make us close. It meant I was a woman in my prime. Maybe the reason he was sent to me was to remind me I wasn’t dead from my waist down.

  Do I really want a man whose response to hearing a heart-wrenching story of a father dying is to head off to Italy? I feel your pain; pass the pasta.

  No. I want a man with more heart than that.

  “Knock, knock,” Teri said. “Looks like you have another visitor. Do you have time to see him?”

  I stood and stretched. “Sure. Who is it?”

  “He said his name is Rob Smith?”

  “Never heard of him. Send him in.”

  I met Rob at the door of my office. A young, nervous man, he was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt. We shook hands, and I asked him to come in, but he stayed where he was.

  “Miss Ellis, I’m here to take you to Mr. Romano.”

  I checked to see if Teri had heard the same thing I did. Her eyebrows arched in surprise, and she looked about to back away, but I implored her to stay with the same look Ava used on me. “I’m sorry, what did you say you were here for?”

  Rob cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. “I’m Sebastian Romano’s driver.”

  “And?”

  “And he sent me to retrieve you.”

  I laughed, more from nerves than humor. “Retrieve me?”

  Sweat beaded on his forehead. “I’m sorry. I’ve never done anything like this before. I thought Mr. Romano called me in to fire me. This is my chance to get back on his good side. I’m supposed to look professional and not tell you where we’re going.”

  “Why would I get in a car with you, someone I don’t know, especially since I have no idea where you’re taking me?”

  He nodded and started patting his pockets. “Hang on. I have a note for you.” He pulled one out of his trouser pocket and read it aloud. “Pick up flowers on the way.” He grimaced. “Shit. I forgot the flowers.”

  I exchanged another look with Teri while Rob continued hunting through his pockets.

  “He’s not going to be happy. This was supposed to be romantic. Hang on. I really do have a note from him somewhere.” Rob looked more and more nervous as he searched his pockets for a second time. Eventually he stopped and met my gaze. “I could take a good guess at what it said.”

  “No, thanks—” I started. I was already confused enough.

  “Please do,” Teri said, cutting me off. “I think we should hear what Rob believes Mr. Romano wrote in his note.”

  Teri was enjoying watching the poor young man squirm. He went white, then red.

  Rob rubbed his hands together as if warming them and said, “Dear—”

  When he hesitated, Teri interjected, “Heather.”

  He started again, “Dear Heather. It would be my . . . pleasure . . . if you accompanied my driver to an address he’s not allowed to share with you because I made him swear he wouldn’t, so please don’t ask him for it.”

  This time I did laugh. “And then you were supposed to hand me the flowers?”

  “Yes.”

  Teri put a hand on one hip and said, “A tempting proposal—right up there with ‘I have beer in my trunk, want one?’”

  “I could totally go for a beer right now,” Rob said, then stopped and went bright red again. “But I would never drink and drive.”

  At a loss for how to respond, I looked across at Teri. “I’m not getting in a car with, no offense, Rob, to go somewhere he won’t tell me. How do I even know you were sent by Sebastian?”

  “That’s a good point,” Teri concurred. She wagged a finger at Rob. “You are not allowed to abduct my boss. I love my job.”

  I smiled. “You do? You love it? Not just saying that?” I really could never tell.

  “You’re funny,” Teri said. “Even when you don’t mean to be. I leave here smiling every day. I’d never find another job like this again.”

  I turned to Rob. “See why you can’t abduct me? I’m a great boss.”

  Rob opened and closed his mouth as if he were struggling for what to say next. “I have to take you with me.”

  Now it was my turn to put a hand on my hip. “Do you mean he didn’t give you a plan B in case I said no?”

  Rob shook his head.

  “He just assumed I’d hop in any car he sent for me? Oh, that’s a little overconfident, wouldn’t you say, Teri?” I looked around. “Teri?”

  The phone on my desk beeped. I picked it up. Erica. “Although I appreciate Teri looping you in, I don’t need your advice on this one. There’s no way I’m getting into that car.”

  Erica went off for the next few minutes without taking a breath—if I wanted to have romance in my life I needed to embrace it when it appeared. She went on to assure me this was an incredibly sexy move on his part.

  Still holding the phone to my ear, I said, “I guess I’m going with you, Rob.”

  “Before you do, though, make damn sure you take a photo of him and send it to me.” I took out my cell phone and did just that.

  Erica cooed. “Oh, he’s so cute and looks so scared. He’s not a killer.”

  “I’m going to text Sebastian.”

  “No, you’re not,” Erica said firmly. “Don’t suck the fun out of this for you or for him. For once, don’t plan—just go.”

  “Just go,” I repeated, then told Erica I’d see her either at dinner or soon after. “I think.”

  She assured me Ava would be fine and said she couldn’t wait to hear about my date.

  After ending the call, I grabbed my purse out of the drawer. One handle got stuck. I pulled harder. It came flying out, and the box I’d stuffed inside it flew up in slow motion before coming to a tumbling stop on the floor before Teri and Rob.

  I scrambled to get it but couldn’t think of a single way to explain it.

  To Rob, Teri said, “Do you see why I can’t lose this job? It gives me so many great stories to share with my friends.”

  I shot her a glare, but she was laughing, and I couldn’t keep a straight face while holding a box of a hundred condoms. “Erica gave them to me, and Ava found them. I couldn’t leave them at my house.” I groaned. “I should leave them here. I can’t take them with me.”

  “Unless you say they’re a gift,” Teri said, laughing so hard she had to wipe tears from her eyes.

  “I wish every woman I knew brought me some.” Rob’s shoulders shook with laughter he was holding back, and he looked away.

  “You’re both jerks,” I said with no bite. I stuffed the box of condoms back in my purse and walked toward the door of my office. The prepper in me wouldn’t let me go to Sebastian unprepared. Teri returned to her desk.

  Rob hovered behind me.

  “Jerks,” I said again.

  They both burst out laughing.

  A few minutes later I was in the back seat of a Bentley as we pulled out into traffic. “Hey, Rob?”

  “Yes?”

  “Do you know what type of bouquet it was?”

  “Something lavender, I think.”

  I smiled and settled back into my seat. Lavender was my favorite color.

  With a start I remembered something and texted Teri: Clear my afternoon.

  Teri sent me back a string of emojis, which I interpreted as “Okay.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  * * *

  HEATHER

  About twenty minutes later Rob pulled up to a large gate between two stone pillars. The gate opened, and I tried to not look as nervous as I felt. I didn’t do m
uch breathing as we made our way up a long, tree-lined driveway.

  The trees fell away to reveal a towering three-story mansion with two massive chimneys and enough ivy climbing the stone facade that I felt transported back in time. Scenes from historical movies where a woman was brought to meet the wealthy hero she would fall for flashed through my mind. Had Elizabeth felt this way when she’d first arrived at Mr. Darcy’s manor? I had assumed that Sebastian had money, but my house could have fit into this one about six times—more if the footage of the three-car garage was included.

  No leagues, my ass.

  Rob parked and rushed around to open my door, offering me a hand, with a much more professional air than I’d seen from him so far. I glanced up at the door of the mansion and saw why—Sebastian was coming down the front steps.

  I started to move away from the car but stopped when Rob called my name. “Your purse,” he said, handing it to me with a straight face but a twinkle in his eyes.

  “Thanks,” I said with a slight smile. When I turned back toward the house, Sebastian filled my vision . . . all six feet something of broad shoulders, expensive suit, glorious black hair that shone in the sunlight, and a look in his eyes that made my thighs quiver in anticipation.

  Oh yes.

  He looked me over as if he were as hungry to be alone with me as I was to be with him. Unlike me, though, he didn’t appear anxious about it.

  Me. Sebastian. And a hundred condoms.

  I didn’t know whether to turn and run home or race him to the nearest bed.

  Okay, no way in hell was I going home.

  “You can go, Rick,” Sebastian said in a curt tone.

  Rob didn’t correct him. “Should I come back in an hour?”

  When Sebastian’s expression darkened, Rob quickly added, “I’ll stay in the area, ready for your text.”

  Sebastian nodded once, then turned his attention back to me. “How did you like the flowers?”

  I hated to lie, but I felt real sympathy for Rob. No wonder he was afraid he was about to be fired. Sebastian looked completely annoyed with him. “They were lovely,” I said with enthusiasm. “A beautiful touch that convinced me to come.”

  Rob let out an audible sigh of relief.

  Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “And my note? Did you like it?”

  It was a strange question to ask in front of Rob, but I found the second lie came easier than the first. “Yes. Who knew you were such a romantic?”

  Even before Sebastian reached into his jacket pocket, I knew what was coming. I saw it in his eyes.

  “I’m so glad both pleased you, considering the flower shop called to say no one had picked up the bouquet. Oh, and I found this on the floor of my office.” He held a folded note in the air before stuffing it back into his pocket.

  My temper rose.

  He was totally ruining my fantasy.

  “Stop, Sebastian,” I said, propping my hands on my hips, which banged my heavy purse against the side of one leg. “You’re scaring Rob.”

  “He should be scared. I have no tolerance for incompetence.”

  My chin rose. “He might do better at his job if you bothered to learn his name.”

  Sebastian’s eyes flashed with irritation and something more.

  I stepped closer, going nose to nose with him. “Before you tell me it’s none of my business, let me make something very clear . . . this house? I couldn’t care less about it. I love my home. I’m not awed by wealth. I love my life. I don’t need to be saved, and I’m not even sure I want to be retrieved. I came to see you because I like you, so don’t be a jerk.”

  “A jerk? You just lied to me,” he said, still not looking happy.

  He had a point, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. “Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but I didn’t want you to fire him. Can we move on, because I’m beginning to question if coming here was a good idea?”

  Sebastian held my gaze. “Because I hold my employees accountable?”

  “No, because you’re not kind while you do it. You can reprimand someone and leave them with their dignity.”

  “What she said,” Rob chimed in, then flushed when we both turned to look at him. His hands went up. “My bad. I’ll be in the car.” He stopped before walking away and nodded to me. “I won’t leave until I see you go in the house. You know, in case you change your mind.”

  “Thank you,” I mouthed. Unless I saw another side of Sebastian soon, there was a chance I might take Rob up on the offer to leave. I could picture this Sebastian refusing to help Rakesh Bhatt when he asked for a short reprieve. Amazing in bed or not, I would regret sleeping with such a man.

  The man I wanted was the one who had bent down and let Ava hug him as long as she needed to. The man who had fallen asleep in the chair beside me because he didn’t want to leave while I was ill. Where was that man?

  Alone, Sebastian and I stood there, glaring at each other. “This isn’t how I imagined today going,” I muttered.

  “Me either,” Sebastian said, a wry smile curling one side of his mouth. “I’m an ass.”

  “You are, but they say the journey back begins when you acknowledge it,” I joked to lighten the mood, then winked for good measure.

  His expression sobered. “I’ve been angry for so long I don’t know if I’m capable of anything else.”

  Goose bumps.

  This was the connection I had sensed, the one that kept drawing me back to him. He wasn’t an arrogant man looking to control me; he was a man who’d lost his way and wanted to be the kinder person I’d glimpsed in him.

  This wasn’t all about sex.

  What he’d said about not being the man he was before finally made sense.

  He’s afraid to care again. He’s not sure he can.

  I knew that feeling. When a social worker had met with me at the hospital to ask me if I was willing to take on the responsibility of Ava—I’d said I was, but I’d been scared. Not of the legal process that followed, but of myself. My own mother had walked away from me. What if I was like her? What if I took Ava home and discovered I was incapable of truly loving her?

  I’d learned, though, that as scary as it was . . . love always won if given the chance. I wasn’t my mother. My past, my pain, had not destroyed me—nor did it have the power to scare me anymore.

  No matter what life threw my way, I now would always choose love.

  I prayed Sebastian found his way to that same place.

  Filled with compassion, I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a tight hug. Resting my forehead on his strong chest, I breathed in his pain.

  His arms came around me, and I felt a shudder pass through them; then he kissed the top of my head. “Every time I think you can’t surprise me again, you do—in ways that make me wonder what the hell you see in me.”

  I tipped my head back so I could look into those beautiful, tormented gray eyes of his. “You don’t have to wonder. I see me. We’ve walked different paths, but I know what it’s like to be angry about something I could do nothing about. I’ve asked myself the same questions you’re probably asking yourself.”

  “And what conclusion did you come to?”

  I caressed the side of his proud jaw. “That I am not a quitter. No matter what happens, I won’t let it change me. I won’t let it win.”

  He nodded slowly. “Ava is one lucky little girl.”

  I smiled. “I know.”

  He chuckled. “So humble.”

  Still tucked against him, I joked, “Why deny the obvious? I’m a catch.”

  “Yes, you are.” This time he swung me up into his arms. I cried out only because the move surprised me. Rob popped out of the car and called out for confirmation that I was okay.

  I waved him away.

  Please, if there is a God in the heavens, could I have this moment go uninterrupted?

  Sebastian took the steps two at a time, swung the door of the house open, then slammed it shut behind him with his foot. The foyer was proba
bly impressive; I couldn’t say. The moment his mouth claimed mine, we could have been anywhere.

  I dropped my purse. He lowered me almost until my feet hit the floor, then hiked my skirt up to my waist. No further encouragement needed, I hopped up and wrapped my legs around his waist while digging my hands into his hair.

  Utter abandon. His hands gripped my ass and ground me against him. I opened my mouth wider for him and writhed against him.

  My back hit the wall, and I gave myself over to the sheer joy of his touch, his scent, the way he bent me to his will while adoring me at the same time. As he kissed his way down my jaw, I closed my eyes and arched closer, loving how hard and ready his cock was as it strained to be freed. So big. So needed inside me.

  There was no gentleness, and I loved the roughness.

  He pulled my blouse free from my skirt and yanked it over my head rather than unbuttoning it. My pretty little bra hit the floor seconds later. But, oh God, I did not miss either. His tongue was sinfully talented. He teased my breasts, licking, circling, nipping at them gently until I thought I might orgasm from that alone.

  One of his hands slid forward, pushed beneath the lace of my panties, and dipped inside my folds. I was wet and ready, but he wasn’t rushing. He moved up and down, deeper into my slit until his fingers found my clit.

  If his tongue was talented, his fingers were pure magic. Classes should be taught on this subject. Really, men would get a lot more time behind the wheel if they knew how to drive like this. When I thought it couldn’t get better, he slipped a finger inside me, so, so deep inside me, and did some circular motion with it that sent a wave of heat through me.

  “Open your eyes for me, baby. Look at me when you come.”

  Our eyes met, and I gasped for breath as one of his fingers swirled inside me while his thumb teased my clit. He raised his head from my breasts and kissed his way back up to my mouth. Our tongues intertwined. My sex clenched around his finger, and the strongest orgasm I’d ever felt rocked through me.

  “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” I cried out as I climaxed.