Compromising Positions (Invested in Love)

by Bayley-Burke, Jenna

  “My dad wheeled himself in and explained to my friends his mother had dark curly hair and blue eyes, that sometimes things skip a generation. Which my friends bought. But I knew she didn’t. I passed her picture in the hallway a half dozen times a day. After my friends left, I asked him about it, and he said, ‘I’m your father. That’s all you need to know.’”

  “Daphne was already away at college, so I couldn’t go to her. I assumed I must have been adopted, but as I looked through family albums there were pictures of my mom pregnant with me, pictures in the hospital when I was born. So I asked her. She refused to discuss it. It was an awful thing to sit and wonder about.

  “After Dad died, she explained she had a brief affair with one of the lawyers at her firm. She was fifty years old at the time, and she’d had such a hard time having Daphne she’d never even considered the possibility of getting pregnant. She made it halfway through the pregnancy before she realized what had happened. My dad already had cancer by then, and there was no way I could be his, and when she told him, they decided to work through it and never tell.”

  “And what about your biological father?”

  “He knew about me, but he and his wife never wanted children. They both died in a car accident when I was a baby.” She’d researched him as best she could, not liking the person she’d found. But then she’d always been a daddy’s girl. No one could really measure up to the man who’d taught her to believe she could be anything she wanted.

  “Why is it still such a big secret?”

  She felt her body stiffen. “Daphne can’t know.”

  “She’s an adult. There’s no need for you to have to hold on to something for her.”

  “No. Daphne idolized my parents, and they her. They’re dead. They can’t explain or defend their choices. I swore to my mother I’d never tell Daphne, and I won’t.” And she wouldn’t let him, either. “Don’t you wish there were things about your dad you didn’t know?”

  She felt him nod as he tucked her head beneath his chin. “Yeah, I guess so. That’s why you don’t lie?”

  “My whole life was a lie. I have a hard enough time keeping that one straight, I won’t add any more.”

  “And that’s also why you’ll need to have babies.”

  That wasn’t why at all, but she let that hang, not wanting to hear another argument against them being together, or against him holding her right now.

  Chapter Thirteen

  A bloodsucker. Nothing else could describe that short-sighted troll. Expecting them to be able to absorb a rent increase every six months. As if any business could withstand that.

  Sophie’s feet pounded the sidewalk as she marched away from the real estate development office and the disastrous meeting with their landlord. She clutched her briefcase as she made her way down the block. Just how was she supposed to fix this?

  She made it three blocks before she realized she was headed in the wrong direction, deeper into downtown and the office building she used to work at, farther from Working It Out. She tilted her head back and stared up at the skyscrapers. Her problems were taller than any of them. Daphne had been willing to trust her with a child, and yet she couldn’t even keep their club alive.

  She tried to run her fingers through her hair, but it was locked up tight in a bun at the nape of her neck. She looked about her, watching the people rushing by. In and out of the buildings—to work, to shop. Spying Moonstruck Chocolate’s store across the street, she smiled. She deserved a little comfort right now.

  The smell inside the chocolate café warmed her. She stared up at the menu board, her mouth watering. Cakes and cookies, truffles and candies, espresso drinks and hot chocolate. Craig wouldn’t condone a single item on the menu.

  She wrapped her fingers tighter around her briefcase. Had David meant it when he’d offered to help the other day? Daphne would kill her if she found out, but he did know more about running a gym than either of them. But she didn’t know if they were together enough to ask this big of a favor.

  She bought the largest box of chocolates that Moonstruck had, two of each of the twenty flavors. Maybe if he had enough of a sugar buzz he’d agree to look at the books and see something she’d missed. There had to be something.

  As she stepped back out into the cool morning air, she clutched the blue box against her. When would she see him? She didn’t really have any plans to see him until Thursday night for the class. The guilt would eat her alive by then. And the truffles wouldn’t make it, either.

  She started back toward work but stalled outside the glass enclave of Strong Gym’s downtown location. How people could get a workout with passers-by staring at them, she’d never know. Maybe because everyone in the kickboxing class on display looked like a fitness model.

  The corporate offices were here. She could leave the chocolates with his secretary, and he’d have to call to say thank you. She’d been there before, but that had been on a Saturday when the office had been sparsely inhabited.

  Making her way to the receptionist’s desk was easy enough, but leaving the box seemed to get more difficult at every turn. Odd security rules wouldn’t let her drop it off—as if she were trying to bomb the man into oblivion. Trying to back out seemed to cause even more trouble, so she pressed on until she made it to David’s floor. There, three secretaries questioned her at once. It was way too much hassle just to drop off a bribe.

  “And who have we here?” A booming voice she almost recognized spoke from behind the fuss. She turned, her eyes widening as she looked up at the man. He had to be David’s father. Older, and with blue eyes instead of brown, but the resemblance was still startling. She blinked quickly to keep from staring.

  One of the women explained her story at the speed of light. She swallowed hard, wanting to make sure she could speak.

  “Sophie?” the man asked, extending his hand.

  She took it, balancing the box and her briefcase and hoping her handshake wasn’t too weak in light of the fiasco she had created. “Yes. I just wanted to leave the box, that’s all.”

  “Nonsense.” He pulled her closer, walking her toward David’s office. “You might as well say hello as long as you’re here. I’ve been trying to get him to introduce us for weeks.”

  Her eyes had to be bugging out of her head as he pushed her into the room. He’d talked about her with his father? Was that good? Bad? Ugly?

  David looked up from his desk as they entered the office. “Sophie? Dad?” He closed the file he was working on, shuffling it to the side with the others. He looked at his father. “What are you doing here?”

  “Tessa wanted me to check the office before she had it cleaned out.”

  He rose and crossed to them. “Did you?”

  “I’m sure it’s fine. Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

  She watched David’s lips press into a straight line. He grudgingly made the introductions. She smiled in acknowledgment and then stared at the floor. She should’ve thought this through. He was obviously upset she was here. She knew he had a rule about talking business with women he dated, and showing up unexpectedly was definitely off-limits.

  Lance clapped his hands together. “We should all go to lunch.”

  “No.”

  She jumped at the forcefulness in David’s voice. She held tighter to the box and briefcase. Maybe if she just ran…

  His tone was calmer when he began again. “We’re not retired, Dad, we have jobs to do.”

  Lance nodded, his shoulders sloping slightly. His hand rested briefly on her arm. “I hope we’ll have a chance to talk at the party.” She watched Lance leave, felt David retreat back to his desk.

  She took a deep breath, ready to apologize and leave. There was no way he’d be doing her any favors now. Turning, she watched as he rubbed his face, staring at the collage of photos on the wall at the side of his desk. They hadn’t been there when she was here before. She set her briefcase on the floor and stepped closer to present her bribe turned peace offering.r />
  “A sugar high can cure lots of things. Including me showing up and causing a ruckus. I’m sorry.”

  His eyebrows rose as he turned and looked at her, a smile slowly crossing his face. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

  “What?” Intrigued by the pictures, she walked around the desk and stopped behind his chair to study them. David, in every stage of life. There was only one photo he wasn’t in—the one with a man and a pregnant woman beaming at the camera.

  “That”—he swept his hand at the door—“with my father. He can be a bit intrusive.”

  Her hand rested on his shoulder as she leaned closer to the picture. “You have her eyes.”

  “I wouldn’t know. We never met.” His shoulder squared beneath her hand.

  “Never?” The word came out before she could stop it. Craig had mentioned David’s mother was dead, but she didn’t know more.

  “Aneurysm. Less than a week after that picture, actually. They say it’s a miracle I survived.”

  “I’m sorry.” Her arms slid down his neck, pulling him as close as she could with him in the chair. Was that why he didn’t want children? She knew his childhood hadn’t been easy, but was it pregnancy that scared him?

  “Don’t be. You can’t miss something you never had.”

  She couldn’t talk, didn’t want to betray her tears in her voice. She just squeezed him harder and let him have his lie.

  …

  Sophie flipped a switch somewhere inside him whenever she walked into a room. Emotions he usually kept in check easily bubbled up. She touched him, and every sense intensified, forcing him to recognize feelings he’d rather leave buried.

  Looking at the picture felt different with her here, her arms wrapped firmly around his shoulders. His father’s words thundered in his ears. “That brief moment of being loved is worth any pain you have to endure at losing it.” How could that possibly be? He was in too deep to let her go now. If she got pregnant and he lost her… He pried her fingers away. That could never happen. He simply wouldn’t allow it.

  He’d scheduled and rescheduled a vasectomy three times in the last five years, but some emergency had always come up and pulled him out of town. He’d call as soon as she left and make the appointment. Not using condoms was an indulgence neither of them could afford to get used to, anyway. He’d start using them now. He swallowed her hand in his own. Maybe immediately.

  They just needed to burn out whatever was happening between them, and she would move on. He wasn’t really a person to her anyway, just a fantasy. She already knew he would never give her what she wanted. Soon, she’d tire of the game. They’d disappoint each other, and it would be easy to walk away.

  He pulled her around the chair and down onto his lap, really looking at her for the first time since she’d leaped from his imagination and into his office. She appeared so serious with her hair pulled back and a business suit on. Tired, determined, defeated.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come. I really thought I could drop the box off and leave.” She nestled her head against his shoulder and her fingers played with his tie.

  She’d been in his head all morning, and when she’d arrived, it hadn’t even surprised him. He never had personal visitors at work, because he didn’t have personal relationships. His friends from the investment club only came here for consultations. Craig worked at SGI, so didn’t count as a visitor, and Kelly refused to even enter the building lest the family company draw her away from medicine.

  Sophie was an anomaly in his life. A person who crossed so many of his boundaries he didn’t know how to categorize her anymore. Friend, colleague…girlfriend? He hadn’t had one of those since junior high. Even in high school he kept to older women and one-night stands.

  “What did you bring me?” Still holding her, he scooted the chair closer to the desk and untied the gold ribbon on the box there. Lifting the blue lid, he stared down at heaven. “How many did you get?”

  “It’s their biggest box.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “Two of each of the twenty truffles.”

  “Two? Are you trying to teach me to share?” The chocolate tempted him, but she was so close and smelled even better.

  Her hair tickled his chin as she shook her head. “No, they’re all for you. I planned on bribing you into a favor, but now I’ve made such a mess of things, consider it an apology.”

  Sneaking two fingers beneath her chin, he tilted her face up. His eyes focused on her lips, and he couldn’t deny himself a quick taste. “For what?”

  Her eyes stayed closed as she smiled. “For breaking your no-business rule.”

  He shook his head. “It’s a little late in the game for you to start respecting my rules now. Besides, I broke it first when I asked for help with the accounts.”

  Her eyes shot open. “I keep forgetting. You should check all the other joint accounts you have with your father for activity you’re unaware of.”

  “What do you mean joint accounts?”

  “Two-party accounts. Like the one he deposited the money into.”

  What the hell was she talking about? “I thought you told me the money went into his personal account.”

  “Yes. A personal joint account. A trust if I remember right. I gave you the account number.”

  His head rolled back on the chair as he processed what she was saying. He’d taken over his own finances when his trust fund started paying at eighteen. The trust was the only joint account left. Or had been, until he had emptied it to pay for his father’s buyout.

  “Son of a bitch.” David’s hand hit the intercom button so hard Sophie jumped on his lap. “Is my father still in the building?”

  …

  Two days without so much as a phone call, box of chocolates, oranges…anything. Sophie hadn’t heard from David since she’d left him pacing in his office. She fingered the engraved invitation to Lance Strong’s retirement party, brought by messenger that morning. For Friday night. It was Wednesday. Obviously an afterthought, but whose? Did he want her there? Lance had mentioned something about a party. Was he inviting her because he’d realized David hadn’t?

  Other excuses for calling him were spread across the kitchen table—the cards for tomorrow night’s class, and the Working It Out operating statements for the last few months. She really did want his advice about the business, and they’d never gotten around to the homework he’d suggested when he was over last. Glancing at the clock, she let out a frustrated sigh. Even David wouldn’t be at work this late.

  She marched back to her bedroom and threw open her closet. If she showed up at his condo, he might feel obligated to review the books with her. Fear niggled deep in her belly. What if he was with someone else? What if that was why he hadn’t called?

  Her breath grew hot as she reached down and grabbed the highest heels she owned. Thigh-high, size-four black patent-leather boots she’d gotten when she dressed as a vamp one Halloween. The heels were so spiky that if he wasn’t alone, she’d impale his foot and make him wish he had been.

  Checking her face in the mirror, she realized the steam from the bath she’d taken earlier to try and relax had curled her hair more than usual. Her eyes were wild. She had plenty of excuses for wanting to see him, but her eyes betrayed the real reason. She wanted him.

  She licked her lips the entire drive to his condo, letting out a relieved sigh when she pulled in next to the Corvette. If he hadn’t been here, she’d been willing to try the office.

  She clutched her briefcase as she navigated the stairs carefully in the stilettos. Standing before the door, she realized she was obsessed. Who in their right mind hunted down a man at midnight? He would guess what she’d come for. She knocked with her gloved hand and held her breath. The entire world seemed silent. She couldn’t hear a thing. She removed her glove and rapped again. She’d wake him if she had to.

  …

  David’s head spun as he sank naked onto his bed. He had done no
thing but work for the last three days. Work and try to get his father to call him back. Bastard’s voicemail claimed he was on vacation. Lance had probably realized his twisted plan had been uncovered when he saw Sophie. She’d been the one to find him out both times.

  Sophie. She wouldn’t be happy to find out he was the new landlord for Working It Out. Exactly how could he possibly explain everything without having that evil monster that lived inside her show up? When his team had approached the property management company about buying, they’d been very forthcoming with information about their tenants, especially Working It Out. A magician couldn’t stay in the black with rent that high, no matter what she charged for classes. He could give the building to her, but she’d never take it. Probably accuse him of manipulating her with money again.

  He rubbed his hands over his face. He needed to shave and get his mind on something else so he could get to sleep. He sat back against the pillows and grabbed for the remote. The television rose from the cabinet at the foot of the bed, and its forty-inch plasma screen illuminated the dark room.

  He loved the TV. The way it rose up boxed him in, tuning out the rest of the world. The digital cable provided him with anything he cared to see on demand. He pressed buttons until he found program guide. Sports, news, movies, and the old standby ready to help him relax—adult. A list of movies came up. They all sounded pretty tame but still guaranteed to take his mind off the mess rolling around in his head. He selected one because it was part three in a series of six. Must be good if they made more.

  As the music and opening credits rolled, he heard knocking. Great soundtrack. Nestling into the pillows, he heard it again. He checked the alarm clock. It was almost midnight. He jumped as the knocking grew louder, more insistent. He grabbed a pair of sweats from a drawer and made his way to the front and checked the peephole in the door.

  What the hell? He opened it quickly. “Sophie? What are you doing here?”

  She ducked under his arm and into the dark condo. “Is that peephole too low for you? Because I know someone who can have it fixed.”