by KB Winters
“What?” I asked softly. Blake’s expression softened before he leaned over and kissed me softly.
“Nothing,” he replied. “You’re just beautiful like this.”
“You mean naked and on your couch?” I joked.
Blake chuckled. “Yes, that too. But I meant beside me. I could have you beside me every day and never get tired of looking at you.”
A feeling of warm fuzzies spread inside of me and I ignored the next knock at the door in favor of kissing him again. When I pulled back, I palmed his cheek and smiled. “I—”
“Taylor! Open this door!”
“Oh my God,” I gasped as the familiar shrill voice reached my ears. Blake’s expression tightened and I knew right then he remembered exactly who that voice belonged to. “Blake, I—”
“It’s fine,” he bit out gruffly. He stood up from the couch and I quickly followed. I lifted my hand to touch his shoulder, but hesitated before contact was made. I couldn’t help but panic a little.
What if he doesn’t want me to touch him? Shit! I knew he hated drama and I knew my mother was nothing but. I’d forgotten about her arrival and now that little lapse of memory was going to come back to bite me. The feeling of a larger hand gripping my own brought my attention back to Blake. I looked up at him, relieved when I saw his expression.
“Baby, it’s fine.” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. “I know where we stand, okay?”
I nodded, surprised by his response. “Are you sure?” I asked—still needing reassurance.
He looked at me squarely. “Are you? Are you sure you want to give up marrying the type of man your mother seems to want for you and all the prestige that comes with it?”
My answer had no hesitation. “Absolutely.”
Blake nodded. “Then I’m sure.” He squeezed my hand again before pulling me in the direction of the bedroom. “Though, I suggest you put on some clothing for this little confrontation. I don’t care if it’s just your mother, I don’t want anyone else to see you like this but me.”
I shivered at his words. “Feeling a bit possessive?”
He glanced back at me, his eyes full of heat. “Baby, you have no idea.” I shivered at his rough words as he guided me towards the bedroom. “Plus I know a little about family confrontations and I doubt you want to start one with my jizz leaking out of you.”
I felt my face heat at the reminder of his slick heat sliding down my legs. Getting up from the couch meant that what was in me had begun to come out thanks to gravity and I tucked a hand between my legs to keep the carpet from getting splattered. Blake chuckled at my motions and pushed me into the bathroom.
“Wash up, baby, and put some clothes on.”
I eyed him. “You could get in and join me. Or just wear my scent on you all day.”
“Sounds good to me! Plus,” he said leaning into me. “If I get in there with you, we won’t be coming out for a while.” The sound of another round of knocking and loudly yelled words made us both wince.
“I’m sorry about all this.” At Blake’s raised eyebrow, I quickly elaborated. “Well, not about this, us, about this, my mom. I definitely do not regret you and I at all.”
He smirked. “Good to know. Shower,” he said pushing me again slightly. “I’ll go tell your mom you’re busy, but that you’ll meet her in the lobby in a few minutes.”
I nodded, though I was worried about Blake and my mother being alone together without me to act as a buffer. “If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
I swallowed hard, before nodding again and stepping into the bathroom. The door shut behind me, and I rushed over to the shower intent on taking the fastest shower possible. The water drowned out the sounds of anything other than the washcloth against my body, and I cursed not being able to hear what was going on. I worried about my mom saying something to anger Blake and sped up my motions even faster. By the time I finished my shower, I was practically vibrating with the need to get out there, but the silence that greeted me once the water was turned off worried me.
I opened the door to the bathroom and was dismayed to realize I was alone in the bedroom. Blake’s clothing from the night before was still on the floor, but the man wasn’t in the room. I quickly rushed over to my clothes and pulled them on ignoring the water still lingering on my skin.
“You shouldn’t go outside when you’re still wet like that.”
I yelped and missed the leg hole in my jeans. My jerking motion caught me off balance and if not for the strong hands at my waist, I’d have fallen flat on my face. I whirled around in relief as soon as I was steady on my feet and was greeted with Blake’s amused expression. “Did you think I’d left you?”
“No, of course not,” I exclaimed before pulling on my pants correctly. I looked down not wanting to meet his knowing gaze and reached for my sweater. I slid it over my head and let him help me slide my arms into the sleeves. I flicked my slightly damp hair out of my shirt and turned to look at Blake fully. His expression was still amused as he gazed down at me. “Okay, maybe. Not because of you though, but because my mom is pushy and kind of a bitch sometimes.”
He chuckled. “Really? I wouldn’t have guessed,” he replied sarcastically.
I glanced at the open doorway. “Where is she anyway? It’s too quiet out there.”
“I sent her to the lobby, remember? She’s probably annoying my uncle as we speak.”
I nodded. “Right. Well, I’ll go down and talk to her. Will you be here when I get back?”
Blake scratched his chin. “Probably not. I have to run some errands and then go check in with the rangers to make sure no one else sighted that bear from yesterday, but take your mom to Anne’s and I’ll catch up with you guys there.”
I swallowed thickly at the thought of taking my mother anywhere in public, but nodded. “Okay.” I leaned up and wrapped my arms around Blake’s shoulders. His arms slid around my waist and he lifted me until my feet were no longer touching the ground. The kiss he gave me was soft and sweet and it made me feel much better. When he set me down, my smile was back. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
Leaving the bedroom was hard enough, but leaving the apartment was even harder. I didn’t want to go see my mother, though I knew the confrontation needed to happen sooner rather than later. As soon as I stepped foot in the lobby and saw her familiar face, all of the good feelings I’d been wrapped in flew away.
“Taylor!” Davis’ shout was startling and before I knew it, I was swept up in a tight hug.
“Davis? What are you doing here?” I reached up and hugged him back before pulling myself from his arms. He looked as good as I remembered—but I still felt nothing other than friendly fondness at his presence.
“What are we doing here?” He asked in surprise. “We thought you were hurt or something. The news said something about you fighting off a bear?”
“No, I didn’t actually fight anything. There was just a lost little boy and I—”
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” my mother’s voice rang out. “You lied to me about going to Seattle, and I had to hear about it on the news?”
I turned to her. “What I was doing is none of your business, Mother.”
“The hell it isn’t. You leave your fiancé alone to go gallivanting off to some godforsaken town in the middle of Alaska—”
“Wait, fiancé?” Davis asked looking at her.
“—and we have to hear about it on the news.” Beatrice continued ignoring his words. “You have jeopardized our family’s reputation even more than when you allowed that drug dealer to steal millions from the company.”
“I did not!” I exclaimed. I could see Davis’ dumbstruck expression from the corner of my eye. “He wasn’t a drug dealer mother, and I had no idea he was going to do any of that.”
“You had no idea?” Beatrice asked, her voice shrill. “Of course you had no idea, all you cared about was getting fucked by the most disgusting human available and now you do it al
l over again.”
“Now, wait a minute,” Uncle Bob said trying to cut in. My mother was having nothing of it and continued on with her damning words.
“You have bankrupted the company, shamed our family, and caused your father’s death. Have you no shame?”
Silence reigned as her final words rang out in the stillness of the lobby. Everything I’d been feeling finally was too much. I couldn’t do this anymore.
“No.”
Beatrice blinked in disbelief at my words. “No?”
I widened my stance. “No,” I repeated. “I have no shame about falling in love with someone. I have no shame about following my heart and wanting to be with someone because I loved them, not because of their bank account.” My voice grew stronger with every word. “I have no shame about coming here and finally convincing one of the best men I have ever known to take a shot at loving me.”
“Unbelievable,” she bit out crossing her arms. “I don’t know where I went wrong with you and your brother, but both of you have never ceased to disappoint me with your selfishness. Your poor father must be turning over in his grave right now.”
“Stop it!” I shouted. “Enough is enough. Stop using my father’s suicide as some type of…of rope to latch me to you. Not once have you ever stopped to ask me how I felt knowing the person I loved drove my own father to end his life.”
“How do you feel?” Davis asked. I looked over at him to see an expression of understanding and like that, the floodgates released.
“I feel guilty.” I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “I feel like a fool for not realizing sooner what was going, on and I feel stupid for not questioning whether my feelings were truly reciprocated. And I feel responsible for my father paying the price for that.”
“That, your father’s suicide, was not your fault, Taylor.” Davis’ hand squeezed my shoulder, and I looked up dismayed to realize tears had been rolling down my cheeks. His other hand came up and gently brushed them away. “You fell in love with someone who used you. That isn’t your fault either. Money has a way of bringing out the worst in people,” he said looking over at my mother. “I understand that more than you know.”
“But it’s my fault,” I whispered. I clenched my fists at my side.
“It isn’t.”
I looked up in surprise to see Blake standing in the hallway. His gaze looked back and forth from me to Davis before landing back on me.
“Blake,” I whispered. He walked over to us and nodded at Davis. I was surprised to see no angry expressions passed between the two of them. Davis’ smile softened and he stepped back and away from me with a nod.
“Your father was the one responsible for his own actions and instead of facing up to them, he took the cowards way out.” Blake looked down at me. “Regardless of what had happened, he should have stayed with you and explained that it was not your fault. The bastard who did that to you is the one who should feel shame and guilt for his own actions as should your mother for not talking to you about this.”
“How dare you,” Beatrice said. “How dare you speak about me in that way? You are nothing but a poor lumberjack who probably has less education than a common dog.”
“Mrs. Vanderfelt, that’s not—” Davis hissed. Blake clapped a hand on his shoulder with a small smile surprising Davis and me both.
“It’s fine, man,” Blake cut in. He wrapped an arm around my waist. “Look. I get that you don’t like me,” he said looking at my mother. “That’s fine, because I don’t much like you either. You’re rude and pretentious, and you obviously care more about money than the well-being of your daughter. The sad part is…if not for my parents dying I might have grown up with people just like you.”
“Blake,” I uttered softly. I’d wondered where his family was, but I didn’t want to find out like this. “You don’t have to explain.”
He looked down at me with affection. “No lies anymore, remember?” Blake turned his attention back to my mother who was standing there looking equal parts incensed and confused. “My father and uncle were heir to the Matherson hotel chain—you might have heard of it.”
I blinked in surprise before looking over at Uncle Bob. “What?” Bob looked back at me with a crooked grin. “I don’t understand. I thought your last name was Cunningham.”
“It is now,” Blake replied. “I changed it when I turned eighteen before I joined the Navy. I didn’t want to have anyone treating me differently because of my name. At the time I just wanted to get out of the weight of my family’s name and do things my own way.”
I looked over to see Davis nodding. He looked up at Blake. “I thought you looked kind of familiar.” At my surprised look he shrugged. “My dad used to do business with Blake’s and there’s a picture of him at the office. Despite the long hair and beard, Blake looks a lot like him.”
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” I asked Blake. He turned his sharp gaze down towards me. “Is that why everyone kept talking about an inheritance?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Because of my dad’s death, everything went to my uncle when my grandparents died and I was fine with that. I have no desire to run hotels other than the one we’re in right now.”
A light bulb went off in my mind. “That’s how you got on the website and down to L.A. You had such a nice room because—”
“Because I own the hotel. Yeah,” he finished. “I have that suite there for if I ever need some warm weather, and I stay there whenever I meet with my photography agent since he’s based there.” Blake turned until he could pull me more fully into his arms. “I didn’t tell you about all of it because it has nothing to do with me. Bob owns the company right now and the only inheritance I care about is the lodge we’re in.”
“But what about if, heaven forbid, your uncle passes away?” Davis asked.
Blake’s gaze didn’t leave my face. “Everything goes to me since he doesn’t have kids, but I still don’t care about running things. There’s a board that handles things on the day to day, and I’d only have to check in if something requires an executive signature.” He brought a hand up and cupped my cheek. “I just want to simply live my life and be with the beautiful lady I love.”
My heart thumped quickly at everything he’d just revealed. Blake was rich—richer than Davis’ family! It was almost too hard to comprehend, but despite everything—the only thing that mattered, was that I loved Blake.
“I don’t care about the money.”
“What?” Beatrice’s voice rang out shrilly. A hard grip on my arm jerked me out of Blake’s embrace. I turned my head and saw her furious expression. “You destroy your father’s company and my life and you don’t care about money? I raised you and this is how you repay me?”
I jerked my arm out of her grip and took a step back. My muscles were tense and for the first time in my life, I felt the need to really strike someone with the intent to injure. “You destroyed your own life Mother—but I won’t allow you to destroy mine.” Familiar arms wrapped around my waist and I breathed out as a hard chest pressed comfortingly against my back. I felt bolstered by Blake’s warmth and even by Davis’ friendly presence. “I love Blake,” I said firmly, looking up at her. “I loved him when I thought he was broke—and I’ll love him regardless of what he does when he’s not.”
“You insolent—”
“Stop.” Davis’ voice rang out. I looked over to him in surprise. His expression was set and determined. “It is obvious Taylor has made her decision, and I think it is a perfect one.” He looked at Blake and me with a smile. I could feel Blake’s body relax further behind me. “They love each other and that’s really all that matters.”
“I agree,” Uncle Bob chimed in. I looked at him with a grateful expression. “I didn’t know what I was getting my nephew into when I gave him my ultimatum, but I’m glad for it. He met someone who fits him well and doesn’t take his shit.” That got a softly huffed chuckle from Blake. “I can rest assured my father’s legacy is in more t
han capable hands.”
“Uncle Bob.”
He put his hand up stilling Blake’s words. “Now, now, none of that. Nobody lives forever, but I’ve still got some years left in me and I hope to see some grandnieces and nephews before my time is up.” Blake squeezed me and I felt warmed. “But until then, I’ll sleep easy knowing that my nephew found the girl he always wanted—and needed, thanks to my brilliant idea.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “You are shameless, Uncle Bob.”
He grinned. “And don’t you forget it. So why don’t you all take this down to Anne’s so I can check on some customers.” Bob walked around the front desk and came to stand beside my mother. I felt a mean little thrill at the lost expression on her face, but didn’t comment on it. Bob took her elbow gently. “Let me show you to one of our newly renovated rooms ma’am. I’m sure you had a long flight and need to rest.”
Mommy Dearest looked up at him with a startled expression and I sighed. As much as I wanted to say something biting—she was still my mother and that just wasn’t me. “Go with him Mother and relax. Maybe being here will help you find some manner of peace.”
“I…” she trailed off gazing at me with a torn expression—vulnerable in a way I’d never seen her. Unbidden, a small kernel of hope rose within me. Maybe the mother I used to know, the one who was warm and kind, was actually buried in there somewhere and we could salvage what was left of our relationship.
Only time would tell.
“I have to get to those errands I mentioned before, baby,” Blake said. I titled my head back so I could look at him. His expression was soft as he gazed down at me and he moved to place a kiss on my slack lips. “Why don’t you take Davis to Anne’s for some breakfast and then we can meet up later.”
I bit my lip. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” he replied glancing over at Davis. “We’re cool.” He stuck out a hand. My eyebrows canted up in surprise as Davis reached out and shook Blake’s hand before giving me a lopsided grin.
