Tangled: Contemporary Romance Trilogy

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Bastardo,” My father whispered. He turned on his heel and stomped out of the house.

  I puffed out my cheeks and exhaled long and slow. “That wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”

  “Mijo, what happened?” My mother came down the steps with Lena close behind. “Where did your father go? Didn’t he want to see the upstairs? It’s so beautiful!”

  “Dad wants to go.” I handed my mother the keys to their car. “Give these to Dad. Tell him that Lena will give me a ride back to the garage. That’s where I left the car I’ve been driving.”

  “Why?” My mother blinked and looked confused. “I don’t understand what happened!”

  “Dad is angry with me, Mom.” I figured it was better just to leave it there. “Can you just let him tell you why? I think it will be better that way.”

  My mother stood on tiptoe to kiss my cheek as she snagged the keys from my hands. “All right, mijo. You call me real soon and tell me when we should have a party to celebrate the new house!” She looked momentarily distracted. “Oh my, we need to have the priest bless your home too. You need that for sure. My bad boy. Never goes to mass, this one!”

  My mother was still muttering about my immortal soul as she left the house for the driveway. I didn’t have long to wait before I heard their car go roaring out of the driveway. Hopefully they wouldn’t get lost on their way back to Fenton. But if they did, I’m sure they would just call Valentino for help. He was the good son after all.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lena

  I hear a lot of real estate agents talk about de-escalation techniques and spending an incredible amount of time trying to negotiate agreements between family members that really have nothing to do with the actual property deal. Maybe that’s why I didn’t freak out when I heard tires squealing their way out of the driveway in front of the house. I just looked over at Damion and offered him the biggest smile that I could find.

  “So. Was there anything else you wanted to look at with reference to the inspection reports?” I was holding my breath. I wasn’t sure if he could tell though. It had been seventy-two hours since Karl Kitson and Trinity Moberly had made out up against the plate glass windows in front of my office. Maybe I was foolishly hoping that he didn’t know about that. I don’t know.

  Damion swung around to look at me with the strangest expression on his face. For just a moment I thought we were going to go ahead pretending that nothing had happened. Then he shot that one right out of the water with his next statement. “Can we just talk about the fact that your ex and my ex are using the city as their boudoir.”

  I just about choked. Boudoir? Who used that word? I cleared my throat. I did a little shuffling sidestep. My skirt today was shorter than I usually wear to work, but I hadn’t been expecting to meet clients. Now I felt the urge to start pulling it down to cover my knees. Did he think I was trying too hard? Wait. We were talking about sicko exes!

  “I think,” I began slowly, “that I was kind of hoping you hadn’t actually found out about that.”

  “Really?” Now he looked irritated. He shook his head and walked toward the windows overlooking the pool deck. “Is there some way for me possibly to miss that? I think I see those two whenever I turn around. They’ve become America’s Most Wanted with the security company at my office building. I think Karl Kitson is paying off the rent-a-cops because my secretary has to keep calling down there to make indecent exposure claims.”

  “Indecent exposure!” I squeaked. I nearly choked. “Are they actually naked? Oh God!”

  “Not naked. But I will say that Trinity has a thing for those seriously obscene short shorts.”

  “Ew. You mean the ones where the only thing covering the important bits are the pockets hanging out of the jeans?” That was so low class. I couldn’t even begin to imagine wearing something like that myself. “I thought that was a style only worn by people in their early twenties who haven’t been introduced to corporate America’s habit of trolling social media for reasons to terminate their employees.”

  He actually laughed. “We do that. I mean with our recruiting practices. We check out their pictures and affiliations on social media. You’d be surprised how many people we don’t hire because we’ve got no interest in having someone on the payroll who might be so stoned or hung over on a Monday morning that they can’t walk much less be effective at work.”

  “I’m sorry about Karl and Trinity.” I pursed my lips. That wasn’t true. “No. I’m not sorry. I think it’s funny. It’s gross. And there is something so fundamentally disturbing about two people who would actually start having a relationship because they have mutual hatred in common.”

  “Yeah. It’s pretty sick.” He agreed. Then he gestured to the pool. “Can we go down?”

  “Oh. Of course!” I hurried to head down the atrium stairs in front of him. I wanted to make sure that the deck doors were unlocked properly. It was part of my job I guess. Or maybe it was a control freak thing. I don’t know. “Here you go!”

  The September day was still very warm. We were towards the end of the month now, but it didn’t seem to matter. The heat wasn’t going away and I was starting to think that we were all going to be wearing shorts and sandals for Christmas this year.

  “You know,” I murmured as I stepped out onto the pool deck. “This actually isn’t bad. There’s a really nice little breeze here. The trees are kind of close. That’s going to be a pain in the ass when the leaves are falling into the pool, but if you hire a maintenance company it’s not really your problem. And the trees keep it cooler here than you might expect when you’re outside and it’s horribly hot.”

  “I like it out here.” He seemed to be relaxing. That was good. Then he took a seat on one of the lounge chairs.

  I wasn’t sure what to do so I sat down in a chair beside him. We weren’t that far apart. Our knees were almost touching. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him what his parents had been angry about. But it wasn’t my business so I just kept quiet.

  The silence stretched from seconds to minutes. Somehow my brain started to calm down too. Of course, that meant I suddenly became very aware that I was sitting out here beside a pool with Damion Alvarez.

  He smelled good. That was a weird thought, but he did. The man smelled like sandalwood and something else that wasn’t really a scent. It was just him. He was a good looking guy. It should have been normal for me to find him attractive. No big deal. Right? Except it was totally a big deal.

  “What are you thinking about?” He leaned toward me and whispered the words as though he were asking me to divulge a secret.

  I smiled. Honest. Right? “I was just thinking that you smell good. I think it’s probably your aftershave. Sandalwood. But there’s something else in there too. I think that part is just you. So, I was sitting here sniffing it and thinking to myself that I will always remember that scent.”

  “Wow.” He drew back and there was an incredible smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Oh my! The man was killing me here! “I can safely say that I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “Sorry.”

  “No. Don’t be.” He seemed to be trying to decide whether or not to say something. Finally he heaved a little sigh. “I have a therapist.”

  “Okay.” Was this where he told me that we needed to add a padded room in this house and a place to hang his straitjackets?

  “It’s not a big deal,” he said quickly. Then he made a face. “Wow. That was really slick. Right? I’m sorry. I was just saying that to give you background. I go to therapy because I have a bad habit of saying things out loud to people that would better be said in a private context where others can’t hear it.”

  “That actually makes sense.” I thought of the conversations that I sometimes have with Eleanor. “That’s usually something that you have with a close family member or a really good friend. But if you don’t have one of those then I would guess a therapist could do the same thing.”

  “Exactly.”
He frowned. “Are you saying I don’t have any friends?”

  “Men don’t usually have that kind of friend,” I clarified.

  He considered this. Then he got up, took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his slacks, and sat down on the edge of the pool to put his feet in the water. To say I was shocked was a massive understatement. I didn’t know what to do? Should I join? I wasn’t wearing socks or panty hose. It was theoretically a lot easier for me to join him. So, I did.

  “Now.” He looked over at me. “My therapist was asking me about you because I told him about the whole Karl and Trinity thing.”

  “Right.” I shook my head. What would a mental health professional make of that behavior? It was a valid thing to wonder in my opinion. Those two were crazy. Just totally crazy!

  “My therapist mentioned to me that everything I described to him about you were things that any intelligent individual would want in a relationship partner.”

  I had to have heard that wrong. We weren’t in that kind of relationship. Not even a little. At least that was my perception of this thing we had going on between us. Right? “What are you talking about?”

  “Just that we aren’t romantically involved, but that I respect you. I think you’re hilarious. You have the most amazing sense of humor and I really enjoy spending time with you. I think about you all the time when you’re not around. I want to be with you. I never feel like I have to fill the silences when I’m with you. It’s incredibly relaxing. And all of those things are the stuff that I should be looking for in a woman that I want to be with in a romantic, intimate relationship.”

  I snorted. I couldn’t help it. “I’m sorry!” I said quickly. “It’s just that when you say it like that you sound like my sister. She’s got it into her head that you and I should be a couple. I believe she told me that I’m just enough of a disaster to be irresistible to someone like you and that I should take advantage of that. But I don’t want to take advantage of anything. I like you. I think you need to get your shit together because I totally understand what it’s like to be in one of those horrible relationships where someone uses and abuses you emotionally.”

  At least he didn’t seem offended by what I said. I wiggled my feet. The water felt really good. It was cool and my toes were wiggling and making it all swirl around my calves. I focused on this. How did I feel about him anyway? I hadn’t really considered it. I liked him. A lot. And I was attracted. But that should have been the absolutely last thing on my mind. Attraction was dangerous.

  “Lena?”

  I turned my attention away from the pool and looked up at him. That was when I realized he had leaned in really close to my face. His lips were only centimeters from mine. And before I could do the right thing and pull back, he pushed them forward.

  The second our lips touched I thought someone had lit me on fire. It was that instant and that consuming. My toes curled in the water. My fingers clenched around the lip of the pool. And my eyes closed as I met him second for second. Our mouths meshed together. His tongue skated over my closed lips and I parted them because how could I not? I felt as though he were wrapping me in a gossamer web of arousal and heat and desire. It was so strong that I felt my chest constricting as I struggled to breathe.

  His hand cupped the back of my head. I felt his fingers sifting through my hair. He was touching me and kissing me and making love to me with his mouth. Our bodies began to incline toward each other. And then all at once my brain surged to the front. It was clamoring for me to stop even though I didn’t want to.

  His tongue swept into my mouth. It rubbed against mine and lightly stroked the back of my teeth and the insides of my lips. I tasted the spiciness of his flavor and I knew that I wanted more. This man was making my head spin and I loved every second of it.

  “We have to stop.” I pulled back suddenly.

  He pressed his forehead to mine and I realized that both of us were breathing raggedly as though we had just run a race. He stroked my face. The touch of his hand was so incredibly gentle. Had anyone ever touched me like that before? I could not remember it if they had.

  His eyes were beautiful. I gazed into them and felt as though I were lost for a moment in their depths. Then he nuzzled my nose and made me smile at the silliness. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time, Lena Schulte. I don’t want to mess this up.”

  He didn’t want to mess this up? Mess what up? Was this where he suggested we go and try out all the beds in the house? I hoped not. It would have seriously changed my opinion of him. But I couldn’t deny that I would have been fascinated by the possibility.

  “Was I really rude when I told my parents that you would give me a ride back down to Fenton?”

  Wait. What? The sudden change of subject made my head spin. No. My head was already spinning. The question just brought me back to earth with a resounding kind of crash that made me wonder if I was losing my mind. I had just kissed Damion Alvarez! No. Wait. I’d let Damion Alvarez kiss me! Eleanor would have approved, which should have been enough to suggest to me that this wasn’t a good thing.

  “I don’t mind.” Yes. That was an answer that made sense. Right? “I don’t have a reason to go back to the office this afternoon. And I don’t care to risk driving into my parking lot and seeing two haters making out and grinding against our front windows.”

  “You know, maybe they’ll just stay together and forget about us,” he suggested with no small amount of hopefulness in his voice.

  I got up and shook my feet off. The water on the pool deck puddled because the atmosphere was so damp with humidity that there was no more room for moisture. My legs felt drippy, but I shoved my bare feet back into my sandals anyway. “I suppose we can always pray that happens.”

  “Lena?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you. For everything. And just so you’re clear?” He paused and got up to shake off his own feet. He looked as though he were going to roll on his socks and to hell with the dampness on his legs. “My parents loved you. They really did. And that’s a pretty big compliment. They’re picky as hell. Be careful though.” He actually winked at me. “It might mean they’ll try to set you up with their favorite son, Valentino.”

  “I don’t do well when people try to set me up on dates, but you can tell them thank you anyway.” Actually, I wasn’t supposed to be looking for anyone to date. At all. Period. End of story. So why was I kissing a rich and good looking bachelor who could make me weak in the knees and apparently brain dead? Was I angling for another failed romance?

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Damion

  I am not the kind of guy who rides shotgun in someone else’s car. Ever. I’m the guy who has his own car. Several of them. I like driving. I hate riding. I’m probably just enough of a control freak that the idea of putting my safety in the hands of a friend who might not have the same skills or standards that I do just isn’t the way that I do things. Besides, I started driving somewhere around the age of ten because that was when my brother and I were considered old enough to help out around the garage by moving cars around the yard. I’m sure there are laws against that kind of thing these days. There are laws for pretty much everything. It’s stupid.

  Lena glanced over at me as she took the freeway exit that would send us south to Fenton. “Once Bob gets a few of those inspection issues ironed out, we’ll be ready to close. Do you have a moving company lined up?”

  Moving company. Right. I hadn’t actually thought about that. “Now that you mention it, I’m thinking that it would just be easier to purchase new stuff and have the delivery companies handle it.”

  “That’s one way of doing it.” I gave her credit for not freaking out or being totally sarcastic. She sounded rather nonchalant actually. “Or you could just hire one big delivery company to do all of your packing for you.”

  “Pack my stuff?” Somehow this thought was totally unacceptable to me. “I don’t like the idea of other people touching my stuff.” />
  Now she laughed. The air conditioner was blowing pretty hard at the moment to try and catch up with the temperature she had set on her center console control. The air was gently tossing the loose hair around her face and neck. She had pulled the rest of it up as soon as we got into the car using one of those hairbands women seem to think the gearshift was designed to hold. When she laughed her eyes turned a particularly fetching shade of aquamarine and her lips looked so full and so kissable that I almost could not help myself.

  “You know,” she told me in a conspiratorial tone of voice. “I have to say that I’m glad you feel that way. I’ve always been a little leery of the idea of someone coming and emptying my drawers into a box. I would feel like I had to clean them out before someone could pack them so I might as well just do it myself.” She bobbed her head as though she were agreeing with her own statement. “It’s like the idea of having a cleaning lady. Why would I do that when I would feel like I needed to clean before someone could clean for me? It would be too embarrassing to have anyone just come into my house and pick up after me.”

  “You’re brilliant,” I told Lena. How totally convenient actually. “I can just have my cleaning lady pack my stuff.”

  “Cleaning lady?”

  I snorted. “Do I look like the kind of guy who would clean his own place?”

  “I don’t know. You seem kind of OCD.” She lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug. “I would have figured you didn’t want anyone to pack your stuff and accidentally run across your porn drawer or something.”

  Wait. Was she being serious? “I don’t have a porn drawer.”

  “Internet. Yeah. That’s always a good idea these days. You can keep a veritable porn library online in the cloud.” There was a smile tugging on the corner of her mouth. “So much easier to organize that way too. I mean, can you imagine if your girl on girl got mixed up with your three way collection?”