“Okay,” Lincoln conceded. “I get it.”
“Just looking out, bro.” They pulled up to the curb in front of Lincoln’s townhouse. “You having a mid-life crisis?”
Lincoln laughed. “No. I’m not.”
Brady looked at Lincoln’s house out the window of the car.
“I have to admit, it’s a nice place. Not exactly uptown like your dad’s place.”
“Not quite as high-rise as yours.”
“Well,” Brady scoffed. “There isn’t anywhere in the city that’s as good as my place.”
Sadie had the front door open for him when he pulled up to her house, which was good because he had bags and bags of takeout. He hadn’t been sure what she might like, so he’d ordered a bit of everything. She stood at the front door, one shoulder propped against the jamb with the light shining from behind her. She was wearing her usual shorts and T-shirt, her feet bare, looking more appealing than ever. Her hair was down, falling around her shoulders, sadly covering her breasts from view.
Too bad, but she still made a gorgeous picture. What did that say about him? That Sadie, dressed down and completely covered, did more for him than any woman willing to throw herself at him?
He’d never been one for easy women—it took all the fun out of it, but Sadie was not only a whole different ballgame, she was a completely different sport on another planet. She was everything he’d ever wanted without knowing why, while at the same time, everything he could never have.
“Hey,” she said with a smile as he made his way up the simple, concrete front steps. “Did you bring all the takeout in Boston?”
“You didn’t tell me what you like,” he told her. “So, I got a bunch of stuff.”
“Do I get to keep the leftovers or are you planning to take them?”
She followed as he headed directly to the kitchen.
Lincoln stopped in his tracks. “What’s missing here?” He looked around his feet. “Where are the dogs?”
She smiled, continuing to the kitchen. “They’re in the pens out back.”
“Why?”
“My girls like to rest in there some nights. They get to be outside after a long day and I don’t have to worry about where they are. We can go get them in a minute. I thought you might want to come in first without getting bowled over.”
He put the bags on the counter and turned to face her.
She stood just in front of him, arms crossed, eyeing the bags.
For some reason, his eyes were drawn to her bare feet and he found her lack of shoes, her inherent casualness sexier than any lingerie or designer clothes he’d ever seen.
“I wouldn’t mind being bowled over.”
“I can go let them in,” she offered with a half-smile.
“I wasn’t talking about the dogs.”
Though her smile faltered a bit, she didn’t back away. Instead, she looked him steady in the eye.
It wasn’t a show, like the kind she used to put on to prove her mettle. Her unflinching gaze was part of who Sadie was, proof that she was no Mercedes Charles.
He’d been attracted to her back then, when she’d been little more than a beautiful, hardened shell of a person. Now, when her beauty was nothing more than accessory to her personality, he was well beyond simple attraction. He was fascinated.
He was enchanted.
Which sounded stupid even to him, but there was no other word.
“Is that why you came with dinner?”
“No. Dinner was a deposit on my payment for your services,” he reminded her. “It didn’t occur to me to barter with sex.”
He felt a flare of heat in his chest when she let out a bawdy laugh.
“Well, now there are all my girlish dreams wrapped up in one statement. Lincoln Greene, offering me dinner and sex.”
“That was all you ever wanted from me?”
“To be fair, I never wanted to negotiate the sex, but yes, that was the gist of it.”
He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Now I feel dirty.” He didn’t, but their banter was worth the pretense.
“Isn’t that how you’re supposed to feel?”
She laughed and reached around him to grab the food, putting it on the table.
“No.” He felt compelled to argue, even if she was kidding. “It’s not how it’s supposed to feel.”
She looked up at him, her brows drawn down, a frown on her face. “Huh?”
“It’s not supposed to make someone feel dirty, Sadie.”
She waved him off as she put the food out. “I know that, Lincoln. We were just joking.”
He stepped up to the table and sat where she set a place for him. In silence, they sorted through the food, filling their plates and settling in to eat.
After a few bites he felt compelled to say, “I’ll never forget the look on your face. That day in your dad’s library.”
Clearly, he’d surprised her. She snapped her head up to look at him, her cheeks turning pink.
“That was a long time ago,” her voice was quiet. “I think I’ve got it figured out since then.”
Suddenly, he felt silly, like he’d taken things in a strange direction. Something about the way she’d asked if that was how it was supposed to feel had brought that moment back to him. Her staring at him as Caleb zipped up his pants, a smirk still on his lips.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he shook his head. “I didn’t mean to be weird. You know, sometimes I forget what it’s like to talk to real people in the real world and not investors or brokers. Guess, I’m rusty.”
“Well,” she sent him a half-smile as she changed the subject. “The summer season is upon us. Before you know it, you’ll be weekending on the Cape and you’ll be up to your eyeballs in real-world conversation.”
Without realizing it, his lips turned down in disgust.
“What’s this? Lincoln Greene, the grandson of Mr. Cape Cod, Winston Robert Greene, isn’t excited about summering down the Cape.”
“I love it,” he admitted. “It’s the people I hate. Don’t people go away for the weekend to actually get away? What’s the point if everyone is there?”
She laughed. “You make a good point, I suppose. The point is to be seen, isn’t it? Not so much about the actual getaway.”
“Do you miss it? Going out to the beach house?”
Mark and Lori had one of the oldest estates on Martha’s Vineyard. The old Mercedes had loved the Cape and the beach. Being seen just for the sake of being seen had been very important to her and she’d exploited it every chance she’d gotten.
But Lincoln had seen Sadie a time or two with her toes in the water at sunset, arms wrapped around herself, almost contemplative and alone.
Those were the moments that withstood the test of time in his heart where Mercedes Charles was concerned.
He’d convinced himself long ago that she was far more than she ever showed her family or friends. She was far deeper than she let on and felt emotions in a way none of them could fathom. Her vulnerability, when it surfaced, was raw, and even decades later still sent a pain lancing through his chest.
No matter the mistakes she made, and there had been many, she’d been wounded deeply somewhere along the way.
Maybe it was time he asked how.
“I still like to go,” Sadie said, drawing Lincoln’s eyes back to her face. She’d lost him there for a second, though she wasn’t sure how. “I make the trip a few times in the summer.”
He pushed his plate away and leaned back, crossing his muscled arms over his chest. He was wearing a gray polo shirt and a pair of jeans, despite that it had been the hottest June on record. He had to be hot but she was sure he felt shorts were too casual.
Growing up in the world they did was a strange thing to explain. There were so many arbitrary rules, some spoken and some not. Rules about what brands or clothing to wear or what style ruled their lives.
“I never see you there,” he mentioned.
Sadie leaned bac
k and mimicked his pose, challenging him.
“I don’t generally want to be seen.”
Though she’d thought the thrill was lost long ago, it would seem that taunting Lincoln Greene still sent a tingle down her spine. His eyes narrowed as he watched her carefully.
“Sadie Charles, have you been avoiding me?”
“I’ve been avoiding everyone,” she answered vaguely.
His lip twitched at her non-answer and he changed tack. “Has there been a time when you’ve avoided me, specifically?”
“Am I under oath, Mr. Greene?”
“Merely a casual discussion,” he said with a nod of his head.
“There may have been a time, while I was actively avoiding running into people, that you were present.”
“Interesting,” was all he said.
She raised her brow and leaned over to whisper. “There may have been a dinner I skipped when someone brought a certain heiress turned shoe designer as a date.”
Her tingle turned into a full-blown shiver when his eyes widened and he shot forward. So far forward that his face landed just a few inches from her own.
“You were in the house?”
Her smile turned mischievous, eyes bright, as she trilled a fake laugh that was eerily similar to the one Lincoln’s date had let loose that night. Fingers feathered over her chest and she let out another horrible giggle. “Oh, Linky, you know I’m keto. Would it be too much trouble if I send everything back to the kitchen to ask for something else?”
Lincoln looked embarrassed and with good reason. His date had been a complete nightmare. Lori had talked about what a horrible guest she’d been all summer. Sadie was sure he’d been set up by his parents. No one would go on a date with that woman willingly.
“You were not there,” he insisted. “You just heard that from Lori.”
“I ate the salad she sent back.” Sadie laughed. “And the cheesecake you didn’t eat.”
He scraped both hands through his hair. “I cannot believe this. Brady didn’t say anything about you being there. I never would have brought her over there. Hell, I wouldn’t have brought her anywhere if my parents hadn’t sprung her on me last minute. I didn’t want to take her out in public and Brady offered for us to come to dinner. He didn’t say anything,” he repeated.
“Brady isn’t supposed to tell anyone when I’m around. He was just doing what I asked.”
“I would have rather eaten dinner with you than her, any day of the week. And twice on Sundays.”
“Don’t tell her that.” Mercedes began cleaning up their plates. “Convicted felons aren’t supposed to be suitable dinner companions in your world.”
Lincoln stood and brought his glass to the sink, standing far taller than she did. “You know, I hate this ‘my world, your world’ shit.”
Sadie shrugged. “It’s just the way it is. You know it just as well as I do. That’s why I live out here.”
“So you can be alone?”
“Because I already torture myself about my mistakes every day. I don’t need to go back to your world to have other people do it for me.”
“Is that how you see me? As part of that world?”
“You certainly aren’t part of this one.” She wiped her hands on a dish towel and made for the back door. “Let’s go get Gordon. He’ll be happy to see you.”
“Sadie,” he tried to get her attention as she headed out the door but she didn’t turn around.
Lincoln meant well. He was trying to give her some business by letting her train Gordon. She appreciated that, even if her brother had a hand in it, and she needed the work. Most of her energy went into nonprofit aspects of her business. Getting a paying gig was always a good thing.
But Lincoln would never understand her point of view. He’d never know what it was like to lose everything or to build yourself back up from nothing.
She was lucky. Her mother had left a trust that made money a non-issue in her life. If she didn’t have that backup, she didn’t know where she’d be.
But the truth was, she’d been broken. When her conviction had come down, when she’d walked into that prison, she’d been nothing more than an empty shell.
Lincoln would never understand. Whether he wanted to accept it or not, they lived on two separate planes of existence.
“What did I say to make you so mad?” He jogged after her.
“I’m not mad,” she argued.
But, she was just a little mad. Frustrated, if she let herself admit it. She wanted Lincoln. She’d always wanted Lincoln. But when she’d been in that circle, he hadn’t wanted her. Now that she was off-limits, he was here sending her heated looks and she knew, deep inside, she wasn’t nearly good enough for him.
Lincoln had the balls to laugh as she stalked past the pool and to the dog pens.
Gordon barked.
“I know mad. You’re mad. What did I say?”
She whirled around, more mad at herself than anything, and found him a few paces behind her.
“You’re the one who said I’m not part of your world. Aren’t I the one that should be offended?” he asked, hands on hips, sandy hair wild on top of his head.
He was right. Not that it calmed her down any but it was the truth.
“You know what I think?” he asked.
Sadie shook her head.
“I think you’ve got yourself all worked up about something and you’re thinking yourself in circles. I’ve got just the thing to cool you off.”
Without any more warning he charged, scooping her up in his arms and plunging them both into the pool.
Sadie’s arms automatically wrapped around his neck as she let out a laughing squeal before the cool water swallowed them whole.
She surfaced a few feet away from Lincoln, a smile on her face and a laugh in her throat. His hair was slicked back, his blue eyes brightened by the pool lights, as he laughingly swam toward her.
“Feel better?” he asked.
She nodded, her hands automatically finding their way around his neck again as he glided his body into hers. As if it took no effort at all, he wrapped her up in his arms and swam them through the deep water, ending with Sadie’s back pressed against a wall.
“I didn’t mean to make you mad.”
His nose was no more than an inch or two from her own, his breath fanning her face. Their eyes were locked and she stared, memorizing the flecks of green around his irises.
“Sadie,” he whispered.
She looked down at his lips and back to his eyes, then back again.
She’d imagined being this close to Lincoln hundreds of times, maybe even thousands. Fantasies like this one helped her make it through her teen years and kept her sane. By the time she got to prison she’d left such girlish dreams behind, choosing to focus on making herself happy but her old desires, at the very heart, survived. It seemed so foreign that this dream that she’d imagined so many times was actually happening outside of her mind.
“Please tell me I’m not imagining this,” she said, her voice nearly lost to the sound of lapping water.
“God, I hope not,” he answered, shaking his head.
He was so close, she could see a droplet of water trickle from his hair, down his cheek, and fall into the pool below. His fingers flexed, having found their way under her top which was floating around her. His palm was hot on her back, even in the cool water, as he kept the front of their bodies skin to skin.
“I’m going to kiss you,” he told her.
“That’s a terrible idea.” She said the words, but felt herself lean that much closer, her eyes flicking down to his lips again. They looked wet and there was almost nothing that would stop her from tasting them.
“I don’t think so,” he said, his voice quiet as he closed the distance between them.
Sadie wasn’t sure what she’d expected. Possibly a rush of heat or the ignition of instant passion surging through her.
The press of Lincoln’s lips against her own was neither of
those things. It was soft and warm in a comforting way she hadn’t been expecting. More often than not, her previous encounters with men had been mostly fabricated on her part, her exuberant sexuality a variation of a persona she used to play. It was easy to act aroused or even wild but she’d vowed to never play those roles again.
She wanted to live her life as herself, without the influence of expectations.
The results, she found, were glorious.
Instead of a false explosion of excitement there was a kindling inside of her. As Lincoln’s mouth tasted hers, his tongue gently swiping her lower lip, her belly quivered, and her hands threaded through the hair at the nape of his neck. His fingers squeezed her sides, her knees lifting to wrap around his hips as he held them at the pool’s edge.
When their tongues met, Sadie’s appetite grew without having to talk herself into it or force it. She wanted Lincoln, in a way she’d never wanted him before.
Honestly. As herself.
She jumped and let out a startled squeak when a large body splashed into the water next to their heads. Gordon surfaced a moment later, a big smile on his face as he paddled over to them.
The moment lost, she and Lincoln both prepared for impact. Gordon bee-lined straight for Lincoln, who lovingly accepted the dog into his arms.
“How did he get out?” she wondered aloud, still baffled by his ability to open locks of all kinds. The lock to the outdoor pen was high up on the door on the outside. It made no sense.
She let the pair have their reunion and waded out of the pool, her clothes dripping across the pool deck.
Lola, Aggie, and Cocoa were all still in their pens, watching with varied reactions from excitement to boredom, the door to the pen shut tight. She looked at the sheer height of the fence and tried to imagine how Gordon could have made his escape.
Hands on hips, she shook her head, let her own dogs out, and returned to the pool to see Gordon and Lincoln getting out of the water.
“He’s a magician,” she said plainly. “That’s all I can guess. He must be descendent from circus dogs.”
Gordon happily pranced around her feet and then headed straight for Cocoa. Lola wandered to the house and dropped down on the back porch, waiting to be let inside. Aggie joined Sadie on the pool deck and sat at her feet.
No Love Left Behind (Boston Billionaire's Club Book 1) Page 7
