by Bryce, Megan
“We had a deal, if you remember. You agreed to give the Beaumonts time to get their money together. A few years too late but you can still help Tanner.”
His stomach rolled at the reminder. She wasn’t going to forgive him for that, no matter what kind of a deal they’d made. Never let him forget. He snarled, “How?”
She shrugged, scooting to the side of the bed. “Give him what he wants. A piece of some pie.”
“Should I give him a piece of the pie I was just going to give to you?”
She grabbed for her skirt, turning from him and shaking it out.
He headed for the bathroom and she choked out, “Yes. Give it to Tanner.”
He stopped, turning back around to stare at her back. He cursed the small space and sat back down on the edge of the bed so he could get closer. He grabbed her around the waist, turning her towards him, pulling her between his legs. Her jaw was clenched and he said, “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to make something right. I owe him.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Are you being selfless?”
She looked down her nose at him. “It’s not an affliction.”
“It is to a Caldwell. It is to a cold-blooded competitor.”
“I’m not a cold-blooded competitor. I’m fair. I’m a lady.”
He snorted. “Oh, baby. You’re no lady.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your mother was a lady. Your sister is a lady. You. . . are your father’s daughter and he was no gentleman.”
“You don’t think my father would have tried to right a wrong? A wrong against someone he loved?”
It hit Cole and his head snapped back, his stomach churning.
He stared at her, knowing he couldn’t keep it off his face.
She leaned down toward him, saying softly, “He’s my brother-in-law, family. I love him like that.”
She rested her forehead against his. “Only like that.”
She’d loved Tanner back when, hadn’t seen what he really was, had been blind when it came to him. Which wasn’t to say that Tanner was worse than anyone else. It was just Maggie had strict rules, rules that Tanner didn’t even know existed. She couldn’t love someone like that.
Couldn’t love someone who didn’t play fair.
Cole closed his eyes. He hadn’t played fair, he’d broken their contract. And he wanted her to forgive him, when that went against everything she thought the world should be like.
He said softly, “You haven’t forgiven me yet, have you?”
She didn’t say anything, didn’t move, and he opened his eyes to find her looking at him.
She pulled away. “I’m not going to just give you my forgiveness, Cole. You have to work for it.”
“I didn’t realize I was going to have to bend over for it.”
She sat on his lap, wrapping her arm around his neck. “I’m not asking you to bend over.”
He murmured, “I like you in my lap but it makes me nervous.”
She murmured back, “Good. To both.”
“You’re not going to drop this, are you?”
“He needs help, Cole.”
He said, “And are you going to wait for me out here until I’m done with him?”
“No. I’m going into town. I have a meeting.”
“No, you don’t. I have enough pies for the both of you. You’re going to be too busy for other partners for quite some time.”
She raised his chin so he was looking in her eyes and not down at her chest. “And you’re not talking about sex here, right?”
“That, too.”
She nodded at him, standing back up, stepping into her skirt.
She said, “I owe you a kick in the balls. For calling me baby.”
“Put it on my tab.”
“We’ll have to settle eventually.”
“And I will put it off as long as I possibly can.”
She smiled a ball-shriveling smile at him. “And I will save it for when I’m really mad at you.”
He ran his hand down the back of her skirt, began pulling the bottom of it up.
He said, “You know I like it when you’re scary.”
“I know you have Tanner waiting.”
“He can wait another minute or two.”
Maggie said, “He’s been waiting twelve years. And I have a meeting to cancel.”
“You sure you didn’t plan this with Tanner?”
“I’m really trying hard here not to be insulted.”
He sighed and pushed her away. “Okay. I’m going before you put another kick on my tab.”
She grabbed his shirt, pulled him back to her. “Thank you, Cole. For Tanner.”
“Those aren’t the words I want to hear.”
She kissed him, smoothed out the wrinkles she’d put in his shirt, and said, “I know.”
Cole found Tanner waiting for him, looking ashy and a little shaken. Cole waved him into his office, not saying a word.
Paul said under his breath, “Sorry, boss.”
“If she needs anything, get it to her,” and Paul nodded.
Cole closed the door, sat down behind his desk.
He was going to have to work with Tanner fucking Beaumont. Cole had a feeling Maggie knew his balls were wrapped around her finger, ring or no ring.
Cole said, “I think we need to get something out of the way.”
Tanner nodded, took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
Cole tapped his desk. “For what?”
“For jumping you. Getting you expelled.”
Cole nodded slowly. And then he started laughing. He turned his chair around to look out the window, to hide the epiphany he’d just had.
He’d never hated Tanner for the beating. That had put fuel on the flame but it had started before that. Tanner watching his friends jump Cole and beat the shit out of him hadn’t been anywhere near the first shot.
Because Cole had already hated him. Hated the way Maggie looked at him.
Hated that she’d never looked at Cole like that. That she never would.
And now that she didn’t look at Tanner anymore, that driving need to squash him was gone.
He was still a pompous shit, though. They weren’t ever going to be best buds.
Cole said, “Right. Consider it forgotten.”
He kept looking out the window, fighting himself, not wanting to say those words back.
“Tanner. . . what I did. To your family.” Cole cleared his throat. “I wish I could change it. Go back and choose differently.”
He turned back to find Tanner looking confused. Cole stood, walking around the desk, waving Tanner at him.
Tanner froze, then said, “You want me to take a swing at you?”
“It’s overdue.”
Tanner threw a hand in the air. “Well, now I don’t want to. You just ruined it for me. I’ve been waiting years to slam my fist in your face and you just ruined it.”
Cole said, “Are you drunk?”
“No.”
Cole looked down at Tanner’s hand, at the shaking. Tanner closed his fist, put it back in his lap.
“High?”
“I’ve quit drinking.”
Cole raised one eyebrow. “Since Friday?”
Tanner nodded, closing his eyes. “Got to start sometime, right? Got to change something.”
Cole thought that starting after a big bender was probably a hard way to do it but maybe there was no easy way.
He grabbed a cold bottle of water from his mini-fridge, handing it to Tanner and leaning against the bookcase, crossing his arms.
Tanner looked at the bottle and slowly said, “Thanks.”
Cole cut to the chase. “I know why you’re here and I’ve got bad news for you. I’m not working with Harwood for any reason.”
Tanner looked back up and Cole said, “Saw him last night at the gala.”
Tanner nodded.
Cole said, “And I don’t care if he’s printing money. I don’t want to see the man,
hear his name again, ever.”
Tanner’s shoulders drooped slightly. “Well. Then.”
He looked into the water bottle, the silence lengthening, then straightened in his chair. “And what about anybody else?”
Cole had to give the man credit. He just kept getting back up.
Cole thought for a minute and then he smiled. “You know what? I do have business with Harwood. I need a go-between.”
Tanner leaned forward in his chair, excitement clear on his face.
Cole shook his head. “I’ve seen the contracts you signed for Caldwell Holdings. I’m not giving you any authority to go out on your own. First time you overstep, you’re out.”
Tanner nodded.
“I’ll tell you exactly what terms I want. If you can get better than that, you can keep the difference.”
Tanner’s brows knitted together. “Why? Why would you do that?”
“One, because I hate Dallas. Hate everything about it and if I never have to rub shoulders with any of those sharks again I will die a happy man. You’re one of them, don’t think I don’t know it.”
“Maggie, too.”
“It has not escaped my notice.”
Tanner chuckled. “Ginny asked why I didn’t stand up for Maggie. Protect her. I told her there was no need. Maggie can take care of herself.”
No, there was no need. But there was want. Cole wanted to protect her, smooth her path.
That she was going to give him shit for doing it wouldn’t stop him.
He paused, wondering just how mad Maggie was going to be when she learned of this, and said, “This is confidential. Specifically from Maggie.”
Tanner sat back. “I can’t tell Maggie?”
“I’m going to buy her loans from Harwood. I don’t want her dealing with him again. I don’t want to deal with him again.”
Tanner nodded slowly. “She’s going to be mad?”
“Pretty mad.”
“At you.”
Cole laughed. “You think that’ll distract her from you? Two men in her life moving the pieces around behind her back? She’ll have enough anger to spread around.”
Tanner thought for a second, then said, “I’d prefer it if my role in this wasn’t ever disclosed.”
Cole smiled. “Me, too. But I have little hope I can keep myself out of it.” He nodded. “I can keep you out of it. But it does mean you’ll probably have to keep it from Ginny as well.”
Tanner shook his head. “No, we’re in this together. She’s already planning on going with me to see Harwood. She won’t tell Maggie if I ask her not to.”
“Women don’t have secrets, Tanner. They talk about things that would make a man shrivel up. If Ginny knows, Maggie knows. Maggie will know you did it. Maggie will know we did it before we’re done.”
Tanner looked out the window a long time, finally turning back to Cole. “I’d like to help you with this, Cole. But I can’t keep it from Ginny. Is there anything else we could work on together?”
Cole looked at the certainty in Tanner’s eyes. At the acceptance that no matter the cost, he wouldn’t keep a secret from Ginny.
“You love her that much?”
“I’ve always loved Ginny. Who wouldn’t?”
“Personally I prefer a little fight in my women but to each his own.”
Tanner smirked, looking pompous, and Cole tried not to sneer at him. Could the man even help it?
Tanner said, “Must be why you’ve always liked Maggie. She’d said she worked out a deal with you. Back then. That you’d give Father some more time, that we would be okay. She trusted you. So I trusted you, even though I knew better. I thought that maybe your plan was to ingratiate yourself into society. Since your father’s way was so obviously not working.”
And Tanner had sat there, the sun shining out his ass, because he’d thought a last-minute pardon was coming. Ensuring his own destruction.
Cole said, “You didn’t even know Maggie loved you, did you?”
Tanner sighed. “I knew. But I couldn’t give Ginny up. I wouldn’t give Ginny up just to save Maggie’s feelings.”
Cole nearly laughed again. Tanner obviously had no clue that her love for him was where Cole’s rage came from, obviously still had no clue that his thoughtlessness of Maggie’s feelings made Cole want to smash his face in.
Tanner said, “I owe them. They tried so hard to save us. Tried so hard to keep the Beaumonts from feeling the sting. Carried us for far longer than they should have. They sacrificed for us and now I will sacrifice for them.”
“By working with me.” Cole shook his head. “What is it with you people? Always sacrificing. Maggie sleeping with me so I wouldn’t bankrupt your family. Now you swallowing your pride to save them.”
Tanner blinked and his eyes widened. He set his water down on the desk and stood. “You blackmailed Maggie into sleeping with you? That was the deal? She trusted you because she’d let you into her bed?”
“I take it you didn’t know the details.”
Tanner’s fist whipped out, slamming into Cole’s jaw. He stumbled across the bookcase, binders flying out, his own fists raising.
Tanner shouted, “And now you’ve blackmailed her again? She’s sleeping with you again to save us all from bankruptcy? You bastard!”
“No.” Cole gingerly fingered his jaw. “And yes.”
“Which is it?”
“Yes, I’m a bastard. No, she’s not sleeping with me to save you from bankruptcy.”
Tanner jabbed a finger at Cole. “The biggest shark in Texas is you.”
“Probably. Doesn’t mean I like swimming with the others.”
Tanner shook his head in disgust, heading for the door, and Cole said, “There’s a two, Tanner. Why I’m doing this.”
Tanner turned back around and Cole said it fast, ripped it off like a band-aid. “Because I am sorry. Because that’s who my father was, what my father did, and I don’t want to be him.”
Tanner looked at Cole as if he was trying to see inside his brain. Tanner opened his mouth, then closed it.
Tanner said, “Why do you want to buy the loans from Harwood?”
Cole sat down behind his desk, looked at his feet and said the truth. “Because he hurts her. Because every time he opens his mouth, she bleeds. She thinks it’s business and it’s not.”
Cole didn’t look up until Tanner said, “I can’t keep Harwood a secret from Ginny but I’ll ask her not to tell Maggie. It’s the best I can do.”
Cole sighed, nodding. “Just until it’s done. She’ll find out eventually; it just has to be a done deal.”
Tanner said, “You did say you liked a little fight in your women.”
“I did. You might want to tell Ginny that the only way Maggie will know you two were involved is if she tells her.”
Tanner smiled. “Might give us enough time to get it done. Ginny doesn’t like to be on Maggie’s bad side, either.”
“Will she even agree to do it?”
Tanner looked at him and said, “I think she will.”
When Cole opened the door, he found Maggie sitting at Paul’s desk. She looked up, her eyes flicking to Cole’s jaw, Tanner’s hand. She raised an eyebrow at Cole and he said, “We worked it out.”
She closed her eyes, shaking her head. “Men.”
Tanner nodded at her. He held his hand out to Cole and they shook.
Maggie watched, waited for Tanner to leave, then said, “Did you hit him back?”
He cupped his jaw, moving it side to side. “No.”
She stood to walk around the desk, softly fingering the bruise that was forming, kissing his cheek gently.
He said, “A kiss is nice. Do I get any ice?”
“You can get your own ice. You know how to move out of the way of a punch.”
Paul came out, carrying an ice pack, and Maggie took it from him, holding it to Cole’s face so softly he couldn’t feel it at first.
He closed his eyes and whispered, “Are you going to tel
l me I’m an idiot?”
She whispered back, “Yes. How many times am I going to have to do this for you?”
He opened his eyes, found her so close, her eyes swirling, and wanted to say a thousand times more. He wanted to feel her soft hands and hear her sharp voice every day until he died.
“This isn’t the way to deter a man, Maggie.”
“No?”
Paul backed out of the room and Cole thought he might just have to give the man a raise.
He leaned against Paul’s desk, pulling her between his legs. “Did you cancel your meeting?”
“Yes. What did you give Tanner?”
“Harwood.”
Maggie’s eyebrows hit the ceiling and he let her think he was talking about the deal. He said, “So you’d better make it up to me.”
“Were you going to give Harwood’s deal to me?”
“No.”
She laughed at the heat in his short answer and he said, “Stay tonight.”
“I can’t. I have work back in Dallas.”
“I’ll find some work for you here and you can get started.”
She turned around, fitting her bottom right in his crotch. “And I don’t have a toothbrush.”
He smiled, wiggling her around until she was in just the right spot. “There’s a Walmart in town. They’ve got everything you could need.”
He could tell she was thinking about it and he whispered into her ear, “Need my credit card?”
She shook her head, trying to push away from him. He kept a tight hold on her, turned her back around to smack his lips against hers.
She looked at his grin and said, “Always pushing it.”
“You love it. You’d be bored otherwise.”
“It does make me want to stick around and punish you.”
“Mm. Yes. Please.”
She leaned into him, sighing. “Well, now I have to stay. If you’re going to beg.”
“I’ve got your number.”
She smiled at him, tight between his legs, happy with him, and he thought he’d beg everyday to keep her like that.
But then she’d get bored with him, so he said, “Buy some boots so you don’t break an ankle.”
She laughed, finally getting away from him and heading for the door. “You’d better make staying worth my while.”
“Don’t I always?”
He watched until the door shut behind her, then went into his office and watched her pick her way to her car.
