Dare to Desire

by Carly Phillips

  “I know that,” Ian said, surprising Alex.

  “You do?”

  Ian leveled him with a long stare that reminded Alex of their father at his sternest. “Do you really think I hired you just because Riley begged me to?” The edge of his mouth curled up in a smirk.

  “That’s a trick question. On the one hand, yeah. She’s got you wrapped.” He raised his middle finger and wiggled it around.

  “Nice,” Ian muttered.

  “On the other hand, no. You’re a shrewd businessman. You do what you think is best for the company.”

  Ian lifted his drink in agreement.

  “However, you do like to keep your woman happy.”

  “I hired you because I knew your work ethic from watching you with the Breakers. I know if you leave, you’ll make sure things here are smooth first.”

  “So you wouldn’t hold it against me?” He leaned against the polished wood counter.

  Ian shook his head. “I wouldn’t begrudge you an opportunity. I’m not that big of an ass. But I did want to discuss the PR campaign you shot down so quickly.”

  Alex’s cheeks burned at the mention of the embarrassing photograph and billboard. “Tell me you’d let them plaster you all over at your lowest, weakest point?”

  Ian drummed his fingers on the counter. “I think I’d look at it from a different angle. Or maybe I’d need someone to tell me to do it.”

  Alex gestured for another drink. “I’m listening.”

  “You’re a known name. People liked watching you play. They recognize your talent.”

  Alex stared, having a hard time reconciling the man shooting him compliments with the one who couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge him a short while ago.

  “Anyone with half a brain knows it took guts to walk away before you became a vegetable or paraplegic from another hit to the head or the wrong vertebra.”

  A wave of nausea overtook him with the blunt description of the choice he’d faced.

  “My point is,” Ian went on, unaware, “parents and kids look up to you.”

  Alex’s mind immediately went to Jake in the wheelchair.

  “I believe you can change lives by allowing people to see you then and now. So what if you were knocked down? You got back up, right?” Ian shrugged and slugged down the end of his drink.

  “I get it but—”

  “I heard how you charmed the kid in the hotel,” Ian said. “Madison told Riley you called your publicist and had them send you a picture and a jersey with your number on it so you could personally sign and send them to a teenager in a wheelchair.”

  Alex swallowed hard and looked away. He didn’t do those things for acknowledgment.

  “Imagine the good you can do for other players and injured kids whose coaches are pressuring them to play or to sign pro before they graduate college. You’re a role model, if you want to be.” Ian slammed his glass on the table. “By the way, nobody said it’s full time or nothing on our end. Let me know if you want to take the TV gig, and we can make this work too.”

  “I don’t know what to say.” This wasn’t the Ian Dare that Alex hadn’t gotten to know for all those years. This was a different man. One who was treating him with respect. Almost like a family member.

  Ian rose. He slid his hand into his pocket, but Alex shook his head.

  “That’s twice. Next one’s on me then,” Ian insisted.

  “Quit counting.”

  “If we’re through here, I am going to get home to my wife.”

  “You’re assuming Madison’s finished with her.”

  “I’m picking Riley up on my way home.” Ian grinned. “She’s finished when I say she is.”

  Alex rose to his feet. He’d already given his credit card, so their tab was settled. “I’m going to head to my place. I think Madison and I could use some space from each other. She needs to get her head on straight and decide what she wants. This push-pull is killing me,” he muttered.

  “She can’t help it. And until she can, you need to decide if you can stick it out with her, because I can tell you that if you bail this time, you’re not going to get another shot.”

  His gut cramped at the thought. “Yeah. I’m not going anywhere. Just giving her a night to think. Tomorrow’s the hearing about her foster mother’s care and holdings. I’ll be there.”

  Ian nodded. “We all do what we have to do. Riley came around,” he said, his expression suddenly showing the pain he’d been through during that time. Just as quickly, he regained his usual stoic composure. “Keep me posted on things.”

  “Will do.”

  “And if you want to run things by someone…” He left the rest unsaid, but Alex heard the unspoken offer.

  “I just might do that,” he said, grateful he’d been given a shot at something more than working for his half brother.

  Now if Madison would just give him the same opening, maybe he could prove himself worthy of her trust as well.

  * * *

  Madison hadn’t slept well, not that she’d expected to. She’d grown accustomed to Alex and his big body huddled around hers. Whether in her queen-sized bed or his king, they slept wrapped together. Yet she understood his need for a night apart. In truth, she’d needed it too. But last night, alone in her empty bed, she’d tossed and turned. Unfortunately, she couldn’t resolve anything in her mind, not when so much in Alex’s life was open-ended and uncertain. As far as she was concerned, right now it wasn’t about trust, it was about facts and seeing how things played out for him. And where.

  The trust thing she would have to come to terms with later.

  This morning, she needed to focus on the hearing ahead of her. Alex called and insisted he’d pick her up. Not wanting to face this alone and grateful for his support, she agreed to wait for him to get her.

  He rang the bell before she could grab her purse and meet him at the car, pulling her in for a kiss before either of them could speak. It didn’t matter where they differed, right now they were a united front, and for that she was grateful.

  “Are you ready for this?” he asked as they walked toward the courtroom.

  She nodded. “I have nothing to hide.”

  He held open the heavy wooden door to the courtroom, and she stepped inside. He clasped her hand on the walk down the aisle. Eric and his attorney hadn’t yet arrived, but Jonathan waited for her at the table. Alex took a seat directly behind her.

  He squeezed her shoulder just as Eric and his attorney walked in. She had to give it to her foster brother, he cleaned up well, wearing a gray pinstriped suit and red tie. He might have passed for a banker, the way he’d slicked his hair back and held himself with an air of authority and confidence. But it was the Visine bottle he pulled out of his jacket pocket so he could add drops to his eyes that gave him away, at least in Madison’s mind.

  “Remember,” Jonathan said, redirecting her attention. “When you’re up there, you answer only if his attorney asks you a direct question. Inflammatory upsetting statements? Ignore them,” he instructed her in a lawyerly voice, but his eyes held a glint of empathy. He’d seen her history. They both knew today wouldn’t be pretty.

  The only good thing was that Alex hadn’t been with her when she and Jonathan had gone over testimony. Jonathan had wanted her alone and able to concentrate on his instructions, and she’d been grateful. A part of her wished Alex wasn’t here today, but there was no stopping him, and she hadn’t bothered to try.

  She glanced toward the other table, where Eric and his attorney sat conferring the same way Madison and Jonathan just had. Eric glanced up, met her gaze, and shot her a direct glare mere seconds before the judge and his court clerk and deputy walked into the room. The next minutes passed in a blur of formalities handled by the lawyers.

  Of course it was up to her foster brother to prove his case, which meant he paraded witnesses attesting to his close relationship with his mother, his stellar character—before he began an attempt to assassinate hers.

  Pe
ople Madison hadn’t seen in years came before the judge. Her first foster mother claimed she’d stolen personal things from the house and she’d had to send Madison back. More like she’d pawned the items in an attempt to pay for the alcohol addiction she hid from her husband and the state. Even at twelve years old, Madison had been familiar with the signs. From there, her case worker from years ago, aged and gray now, took the stand, elaborating reasons Madison hadn’t lasted at each foster home.

  Nausea filled her at the unfairness of it all. The truth was, as Jon did his best to counter, the woman couldn’t possibly remember Madison with all the other kids in and out of the system over the years. She was relying on a folder of printed information that included none of the underlying circumstances or Madison’s truths.

  As a social worker herself, she understood how little time most put into keeping up-to-date records. She’d struggled day and night to keep up with the caseload when she’d worked with abused women, and paperwork was done in between visits with victims. More than once, Jonathan rose and objected to the other lawyer’s insinuations or attempts to discredit Madison, questioning the reasons for the character assassination. He offered an excuse of laying groundwork, and the judge agreed to humor him a little while longer.

  The morning marched on with more of the same, and Madison was beyond embarrassed that Alex had to hear her sordid youth, which she never discussed and preferred not to remember.

  “Your Honor!” Jonathan rose again, his voice filled with frustration. “Is there a point to this? It’s up to Mr. Grayson to prove his claims that Ms. Evans used undue influence to gain access to her foster mother’s power of attorney. So far I’ve heard nothing of the sort.”

  “Good point, Mr. Ridgeway.” His Honor, Judge Collins, a kindly looking, balding older man, turned to Eric’s attorney. “Mr. Newcomb?”

  “Just laying the foundation, Your Honor,” he repeated in a sickeningly placating tone. “But we’re happy to move on. We’d like to call Madison Evans to the stand.”

  Her stomach cramped, but she’d been prepped for this moment, something Jonathan leaned close and reminded her. Alex placed a soothing hand on her shoulder, but she couldn’t focus on him now. She couldn’t even look at him.

  Rising, she walked to the small witness box and took her seat.

  Alex took in the stiff set of Madison’s shoulders and the way she wouldn’t glance his way or meet his gaze so he could offer reassurance. He leaned forward in his seat, every muscle in his body tense and prepared to strike. Not that he could do a damned thing but sit and watch. There was nothing he hated more than feeling utterly useless when she needed him.

  More than once this morning, he regretted not putting his personal feelings aside and staying with her last night. Once more in his life, he’d let ego get in the way of common, rational sense.

  After some preliminary easy questions, her step-brother’s lawyer went for stabbingly painful questions. “How many foster homes were you in, Ms. Evans?”

  “Five or six.”

  “Actually, it was seven.”

  “It’s not something I like to remember.”

  “No, I suppose not, given that nobody wanted to keep you.”

  “Your Honor,” Jonathan said, rising.

  They’d been advised that since this was a hearing and not a trial, formal objections wouldn’t apply.

  “Move it along, Mr. Newcomb. All this has already been established and is in the records.”

  The other lawyer nodded. “Then you ended up with the Graysons, and things changed for you.”

  Since it wasn’t a question, Madison didn’t answer. Good girl, Alex thought.

  “Were you told why the Graysons, who were an unusual type of foster family in that they didn’t need the money provided by the state for your care, wanted to take you in?”

  Madison nodded. “Franny couldn’t have kids after Eric, and she’d always wanted a daughter.”

  “And they had money,” the bastard lawyer said.

  Again, no question, and Madison merely stared at him.

  “Were you and Mrs. Grayson close?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “She took you shopping, bought you clothes?”

  “Yes.”

  He rested an elbow on the witness stand. “And you had your own room, unlike your last six … no, make that seven foster homes, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  Alex saw the tension, the toll this was taking on her. His hands were fists at his sides.

  “Had you brought any clothes with you from the home before?” the man asked.

  “A few.”

  “Personal things?” he clipped out.

  “I didn’t have any,” she said softly, her jaw trembling along with her voice.

  Alex gripped the stainless bar that separated him from Jonathan, leaned forward, and whispered, “Do something or I will.”

  “Shh. I can’t and you know it. This has to play out.”

  Alex bit the inside of his cheek, his jaw aching from the effort of clenching his teeth to keep quiet.

  “Is there a problem, Mr. Ridgeway?” the judge asked.

  Jonathan partially rose. “No, Your Honor.” He lowered himself back into his seat.

  “So after your mother took off and your father abandoned you in a shopping mall,” the other attorney asked as he paced in front of Madison, “after seven unsuccessful foster placements, you landed with the Graysons. In a big house in a wealthy neighborhood, in the best school district for miles. You were bought new clothes, given your own room… Be honest, Ms. Evans. You saw the gold pot at the end of the rainbow, didn’t you? An easy target in an older woman who couldn’t have more children, who wanted a daughter … You knew it would be better to suck up to her than to cause trouble like you had in your other homes, isn’t that right?”

  Madison’s jaw worked back and forth before answering. “No. I loved Franny.”

  She folded her arms across her chest, a protective gesture Alex knew well. He also knew how hard it was for her to admit to those feelings, and it took all his willpower not to launch across the room and drag her into his arms and out of there.

  But the lawyer wasn’t finished demolishing her pride. “Mr. Grayson testified you were always spending time with his mother when you weren’t in school. Sucking up to her, putting thoughts in her head as you got older about how much better you’d treat her than her own son when she got sick. From there, it wasn’t difficult to assume Daniel Grayson would include you in his will. And ultimately, you gained Franny’s power of attorney, where you could put her in a home, sell her house from beneath her, and put the proceeds toward a rec center.”

  “That Franny wanted! She wasn’t interested in destroying the land with overdevelopment. Eric, you know this. You know your mother better than that.”

  “You lying bitch!”

  Alex rose to his feet, but the judge banged the gavel hard. “Silence.”

  “Your Honor, there are no questions being asked here!” Jonathan said loudly.

  Eric’s lawyer looked at the judge, acting contrite and sorry. “I apologize. I was just trying to establish undue influence, Your Honor.”

  The judge rapped his gavel. “You’ve more than made your point.”

  Hopefully the judge felt sorry for Madison and understood the true dynamic of her relationship with Franny Grayson, Alex thought. It was obvious how much she’d needed a mother, even if she hadn’t said as much.

  But as the next group of witnesses testified, things didn’t get any better. Parents of Eric’s friends backed up the amount of time Franny spent with Madison, who they all agreed hadn’t gone out of her way to make friends in her new school. They all said they admired Franny for taking in a difficult child but wondered why she chose her over her own son, the implication of undue influence on Madison’s part clear. Said it wasn’t like the other woman, who valued her blood relatives dearly.

  Although the hearing was supposed to last just one day, Eric�
��s lawyer had drawn things out, and by the end of the day, everyone was exhausted, and it was too late for Jonathan to present Madison’s witnesses to Franny’s intent and state of mind. Or Jonathan’s terrorizing his own mother at the nursing home.

  The hearing would continue tomorrow. When, according to the message Alex played during a recess, he was scheduled to fly to New York.

  * * *

  By the time the long day ended, Madison’s entire body trembled from exhaustion. Outside the courtroom, they parted ways with Jonathan, who promised to meet her at nine a.m. tomorrow.

  Alex was quiet on the way back to her apartment, and Madison didn’t have anything to say either. He stopped for food, and they ate it in silence. He allowed her the space she needed to decompress. Once again, she was amazed at how well he knew what she needed. Even last night’s argument took a back seat to today’s drama, and she was too wiped out to even think. He parked in a guest spot at her building, and they walked inside and up to her place.

  She sat down on her bed and pulled off her heels, groaning as she stretched her feet. Alex walked past her into the bathroom, and she heard the sound of running water.

  “What are you doing?” she asked as he walked out.

  “Running you a hot shower so you can relax.” He shot her a smile and headed for her dresser, pulling out her favorite lounging pants and camisole.

  “Alex?”

  “I’m serious. You need a breather. I want you to take one.”

  Her heart melted at his thoughtfulness. “Under one condition.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “You take one with me.” She didn’t care what had kept them apart last night; she needed him now, and clearly he was here.

  “I’m glad you asked.”

  They undressed in silence. Nothing erotic or sexy about her exhausted movements, she thought. And as she stepped into the shower naked along with him, the hot water streaming over them, she didn’t think anything had ever felt better.

  She let out a long sigh of appreciation as she tilted her face up and let the spray wash away the stress of the day. She refused to let her mind replay the embarrassment, mortification, or painful memories, concentrating instead on letting each tight muscle relax.