by Leanne Banks
“Welcome home, Mr. Grant. Would you like a cocktail?” she asked.
Leo glanced around, frowning. “Where’s the dog?”
“Oh, Mrs. Grant took him with her,” she said.
“Excuse me?” he said, his gut tightening.
Meg nodded. “Mrs. Grant left this morning. She said she didn’t know when she’d be back.” Meg paused. “Shall I tell the chef to prepare your meal?”
He shook his head. “Just a sandwich will do. I’ll be in my office.” Feeling a sense of dread, he walked to his office. He’d been hard on her last night. Too hard? He wondered if she’d decided not to stay. He punched out the number to her cell phone, but it went straight to voice mail. No message, no note. Where had she gone?
The sense of dread in his gut grew to a large knot. Calista was gone. Tami was gone. Pooh was gone. And Calista wasn’t answering her phone. Leo did the math and suspected Calista had left him for good.
The thought made every cell inside him hurt. The sensation shocked him. He hadn’t believed he was that vulnerable. But maybe he was.
He swore underneath his breath. Leo had always told himself not to count on people, including Calista. He’d clearly failed. From the first minute he’d seen her, he’d wanted her. Aside from her obvious physical assets, she’d had a charm about her that made him feel warm inside. Just by her presence, she’d made everywhere they were together feel like home.
She’d made him want to open up to things he’d closed himself to in the past. She’d made him want to be the man she needed. The man who would take care of her and her sisters financially. The good man she could count on in an emergency. He’d seduced her and married her, but he couldn’t give her what she’d ended up wanting and needing from him. The one thing he hadn’t thought he would ever experience. Love. The biggest grifter scheme of all. Even though she’d known about his past, known that he was a con man, she’d made him feel like a real man.
Leo climbed the stairs to his bedroom, dreading entering it again. Once inside, the subtle remnant of the scent of her perfume haunted him. The possibilities he’d felt with her haunted him. He tried to push thoughts of her from his mind, but it was impossible. Images seeped inside him like smoke under the door. He wondered if he would ever be the same again. Did he want to be?
Everywhere he looked, he saw her, heard her laughter, felt her silky skin and warmth. He couldn’t stand the memories. He had to get out of here.
George drove him to a hotel in downtown Philadelphia. “Is there something wrong with the penthouse?” he asked.
Only that Calista had been there and he needed to go somewhere she hadn’t. It was the only way he could escape his thoughts about her. “No,” Leo said, but added nothing.
“Are you meeting someone?” George asked.
Leo frowned at his longtime sparring partner. “God, no. I just need a different environment.”
George glanced in the rearview mirror. “When is Mrs. Grant supposed to be back?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her,” Leo said, staring out the window into the night.
“It’s not my place to interfere,” George said.
“That’s right,” Leo said. “It’s not.”
“But you could go after her,” George said. “If you want her.”
Leo narrowed his eyes, feeling as if his insides were being torn apart. He knew. He sensed it deep inside him. He’d smashed her overtures repeatedly. “It’s too late.”
Two days later, Leo felt like death warmed over. He hadn’t slept more than a couple hours each night. Taunted by need for Calista and unanswered questions about his past family, he’d found no rest or peace. Staying at the hotel hadn’t helped one damn bit. Now he just imagined he could smell her and hear her voice.
He cloistered himself in his office. He must have looked frightening. Even his assistant appeared reluctant to approach him. He received an odd text. Mr. Grant, your housekeeper called. There is a problem at your home in the country that needs to be addressed immediately.
Leo picked up his phone and paged his assistant. “I’m busy. What kind of problem?” Leo asked.
“I’m not certain sir. I only know she sounded upset when she called, sir,” his assistant said.
Leo heard an odd nervousness in his assistant’s voice. “Call her back and get specific information.”
“I’ve already done that, sir, but there was no answer.”
Leo frowned. “What the hell,” he muttered.
“I’m very sorry for the interruption, sir. Shall I page George?”
“Yes,” Leo said tersely.
His mood, which had already been nasty, deteriorated with each passing mile. As George drove inside the gates to the large home, he spotted a stretch limousine parked in front of his house. “What’s going on? Don’t bother with the garage. I’m getting to the bottom of this.”
Leo strode up the steps to the front door. The house was completely silent. For once, Meg didn’t greet him. He walked four steps into the foyer and Calista appeared.
Leo felt as if he were viewing an apparition. God knew, he’d seen her in his dreams and mind every other minute during the last few days. “What are you doing here?”
She met his gaze and took a deep breath. “I’m about to piss you off.”
Confusion rushed through him. The apparition spoke. “What are you talking about?”
“You know the old saying, If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, then the mountain must come to Mohammed?”
“Yes,” he said, starting to realize that she wasn’t a figment of his imagination. “Where have you been? Why did you leave?”
“I had to. I had to do it. If I really loved you, there was no other choice.”
He felt as if she’d just punched him. “You’re making no sense. Are you here to stay or not?”
“You might be throwing me out in a few minutes,” she muttered. “I took Tami and Pooh to my cousin’s house then flew to Atlanta to visit one of your brothers. They’re waiting to meet you in the living room.”
His heart stopped and his jaw dropped. “All of them?”
She gave a shaky laugh. “Once they heard you were alive, nothing would have stopped them.” Her eyes filled with emotion. “You may not think you need them, but you do. And for them, you’re the missing link.”
Leo found that difficult to believe, but he couldn’t resist the love shining from Calista’s gaze. She’d made this trip out of love for him even though he’d brushed her hopes aside. How had he gotten so lucky? How had he managed to find the one woman who would see beyond his detachment with the world and burrow her way into his heart? Looking at her, he felt the magic of possibility again. She made him feel as if he really was better than his past.
“Come here,” he said, staring at her in wonder. “You are the biggest miracle of my life. Never leave me again.”
Calista’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Leo, don’t say that if you don’t mean it.”
“I do. I never thought I could love a woman like I love you.”
Her mouth dropped open in breathless surprise.
“Yes,” he said. “I love you.”
She let out a sob of relief and lifted her hand to touch his face. “I knew when I did this that you might never forgive me, but I had to take the chance. I realize this might be difficult, but if you want me with you, I’ll stay.”
“Forever,” he said. “All I want is forever.”
She closed her eyes then opened them again. “You’ve got me.”
He pressed his mouth against hers, needing to seal their promises to each other. Then he pulled back. “Time for me to meet my family,” he said and he walked with Calista into the living room.
Three men with hair and eyes that matched his looked at him and in the dark, shadowy edges of his mind, a visual flashed of all of them racing toward the dinner table. He could almost smell the scent of spices, meat, sausage, tomatoes and fresh pasta.
“I don’t have any
concrete memories,” he said, feeling compelled to break the news right away.
“They already know that,” Calista said and stepped away from him.
One stepped forward. Leo remembered him from the P.I. report. “We can fill you in,” he said and offered his hand. “Rafe,” he added.
“I know,” Leo said. “I read the report. I think I’ve memorized it.” He glanced up. “Damien and Michael.” He hesitated, an unbelievable whirlpool of feelings welling inside him. “My past isn’t pretty.”
“We don’t care,” Damien said, extending his hand. “We’re just glad you survived.”
Leo felt strange emotion form a knot in his throat as Michael walked toward him. There was turbulence in his eyes. “You need to know. You were on that train instead of me. If I hadn’t gotten into trouble, it would have been me on that train. I wished for it so many times.”
It struck Leo that he wasn’t the only one carrying around a load of guilt. It also struck him that fate had dealt a hand in his life, bad and good. “Fate’s a tricky witch,” he realized and glanced at his brothers and Calista. “I can’t be sorry for what I’ve gone through if this is what I’ve gotten in the end.”
Epilogue
On New Year’s Eve, the Medici brothers, all the Medici brothers, gathered at Michael’s house in Grand Cayman to ring in the new year together. Although they had kept in touch since their first meeting, this was the first time they’d been able to come together due to their busy schedules. Everyone was happy to escape the winter blahs and relax at the Caribbean island. Calista sat next to Leo, happily taking in the hustle and bustle of the celebration.
Rafe juggled playing with his son, Joel, and holding his new baby daughter, Angelica. His wife, Nicole, took Angelica from his arms. “Time for her nap. You can’t hold her all the time.”
“If she didn’t look like a miniature version of you, it wouldn’t be a problem,” he growled, taking his wife’s lips in a quick kiss.
“Rafe is going to end up with twelve kids. He’s a natural father,” Damien said with a knowing glance.
Nicole shot him a look of horror. “I think twelve is tipping the scales. He’ll be happy to enjoy some nieces and nephews.” She smiled at Damien’s wife, Emma, who was six months pregnant. “Just make sure you get them started changing diapers early on.”
Damien looked at Emma with a skeptical raised eyebrow. “Do you really think you can talk me into changing diapers?”
Emma lifted his hand to her baby bump. “You tell me.”
Damien’s hard gaze softened and anyone could see he would do anything for his wife, including changing diapers.
Michael, sitting next to Leo, lifted a beer. “Cheers to Damien and Rafe for taking on father duty. I’ll let you take the lead.” He patted his wife’s leg. “Bella and I are in no rush at all. Right?”
Bella shot him a pained look. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
Michael looked at her in confusion. “What?” he asked.
Silence fell over the tiled porch.
Michael’s lovely wife shot him a nervous look. “You know how we were afraid I’d gotten a stomach flu?”
Michael set down his beer. “Yes, are you okay? Is it something more serious?”
“Well, my condition lasts about nine months and you might need to bone up on changing diapers, too. I’m pregnant. Is that okay?”
Michael’s color drained from his face. “You’re pregnant. How did that happen?”
“The usual way, sweetie. You remember that time in the limo when we left the opera early….”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, realization crossing his face. Still stunned, he stared at her. “We’re gonna have a baby?”
She nodded. “Are you upset?”
He shook his head and pulled her into his arms. “How could I be? You and I made this together.”
Damien chuckled. “To Michael, uncle and father-to-be,” he said, lifting his beer.
Everyone lifted their drinks. “Hear, hear,” they chorused.
Lifting her own glass of lemonade, Calista felt a twist in her stomach. She wondered when she should tell Leo.
“Looks like it’s in the water,” Leo muttered to her as the group began to chatter with excitement. “We’d better be careful.”
Calista mustered her courage. “I think it may be a little late for that,” she whispered.
Leo swung his head around to stare at her. “Excuse me?”
“I wasn’t really sure until day before yesterday,” she said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked in a low voice.
“I couldn’t figure out the best time.”
“Are you sure?”
Calista was feeling more nervous with each passing moment. “I took three at-home pregnancy tests and was also tested at the doctor.”
“Do you want this?” he asked, his gaze intent and so focused on her they may as well have been the only ones around for miles.
“I do,” she confessed. “I can’t think of anything better than making a new life with the amazing man I love more than anything.”
He took her hand and this time his hand trembled. “You keep making me happier than I’ve ever dreamed I could be.”
Her heart expanded in her chest so much it hurt. “You keep doing the same to me.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. “Don’t stop.”
“Never,” he promised.
“Hey, Leo, take a break from your lovefest with your wife,” Rafe said. “Do you shoot pool?”
“Yeah, I do,” he said. “But I think we may need another round of drinks. Calista and I are going to have a baby.” He shot Michael a stunned look. “Looks like you and I may be on the same daddy schedule.”
Michael gave a half smile and moved toward him, extending his hand. Leo rose and shook his brother’s hand. “This is one trip we can finally take together.”
“To Leo and Calista,” Damien said.
“Hear, hear,” the families chorused.
“And to Aunt Emilia for pictures and encouragement,” Michael said.
Leo toasted the aunt he’d met through his brothers’ letters and photographs then pulled Calista against him. “Thank you for giving me all this,” he said. “But mostly for giving me you.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4997-8
SECRETS OF THE PLAYBOY’S BRIDE
Copyright © 2010 by Leanne Banks
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