She watched as the smile on Linc’s face suddenly vanished. He leveled her a cold look. The transformation happened so quickly she hadn’t had time to prepare herself for it.
“So, you’re one of those people who think it’s fun going around snooping into people’s lives and printing things that are untrue.”
Raven’s spine stiffened abruptly with Linc’s cutting remark and the unwarranted attack on her profession. An angry look flashed in her eyes. “I am not that kind of reporter, Linc. I happen to enjoy the work I do, and the company I write for is not some sleazy two-bit publisher. Augustan Publishers has never been malicious to anyone, and as a reporter employed by them neither have I. And I don’t appreciate you insinuating otherwise.”
“Raven,” Linc began, not knowing what he could say in the way of an apology, and knowing he owed her one as well as an explanation. But how could he explain to her that a magazine reporter had nearly destroyed his family last year?
Raven had no intention of putting up with anyone taking potshots at her profession. Although she had to admit the behavior of some journalists gave a bad rap to the others in the industry, she would not tolerate anyone questioning her integrity. She stood. “Since it’s apparent that you’re offended by what I do for a living, I think it would be best if you and I parted company.”
“No, please stay. I apologize for what I said, Raven. I didn’t mean to say it.”
His words of apology were incredibly soft and filled with regret. But at the moment they weren’t good enough for her. “Then why did you?”
Linc’s solemn gaze lifted to hers and his gut clenched at the look in her eyes. His words had hurt her. “Please sit down and I’ll explain.”
Raven hesitated a moment before returning to her seat. Her eyes, Linc noticed, were flashing fire. Even angry with him he thought she looked beautiful. The dark, fiery look in her eyes reminded him of another time her eyes were filled with dark fire. At that time, instead of conveying her anger it had conveyed her smoldering need while they made love.
“I’m listening.”
Linc leaned back in his chair. “I am sorry for what I said, Raven. It’s just when you said you were a magazine reporter it caught me off guard.”
Raven lifted a brow. “Why would it catch you off guard? You knew I was a journalism major in college.”
“Yes, but as a journalism major you could very well have become a book editor.”
Raven’s eyes narrowed. “What do you have against magazine reporters?”
Linc inclined his head to look at her. “A magazine reporter nearly destroyed my family last year.”
Raven was startled by his words, but looking at the grimness in his face she knew they were true. She also knew from the week they had spent together how close he was to his family. She leaned closer, struggling to deal with what he’d just said. “How?”
Linc stared at her, not really surprised by the care and concern he heard in her voice. “My father decided to run for public office as a judge. His opponent had a friend who knew someone who owned a publishing company. They decided to run a series of articles in a particular magazine accusing my father of various deeds ranging from spousal abuse to racketeering. All of them were untrue, but it wore all of us down denying every single charge.”
A regretful sigh escaped Raven’s lips. As a journalist she knew there was nothing anyone could have done to legally stop the slander. “Your father lost the election?”
“No, their plan backfired and he won. But the stress of dealing with such a negative campaign had gotten to be too much for him. He had a heart attack on election night mere moments before he was declared the winner.”
A deep lump formed in Raven’s throat. “Did he—”
“No, he survived and is doing fine now and is one of the best judges Memphis has ever had.”
Raven nodded. She was glad. “And how is the rest of your family doing after dealing with all of that?”
“We survived. Some better than others.”
Raven studied him, wondering if he was talking generally or specifically. She took a deep breath before asking her next question. During their week together in Daytona Beach, he had shared with her his dream to one day enter politics. “And you, Linc? How did you come out?”
“Bitter,” he said, his tone level. The look in his eyes was filled with disappointment. “What happened made me rethink my future goals. I don’t want to have anything to do with politics. Ever.”
The disheartened sound in his voice made the lump in Raven’s throat deepen. No wonder he had reacted the way he had when she told him that she was a magazine reporter. “I’m sorry, Linc. I’m truly sorry.”
Linc captured the gaze that was looking up at him. He wanted to reach out and smooth the sadness from beneath her eyes. Sadness that was there because of him. “It wasn’t your fault, and I had no right to come down on you the way I did just because you’re a reporter, too.”
“Thanks for sharing that with me. Now I understand.” In a way she understood far more than she really wanted to. His dream of one day becoming a congressman from his home state of Tennessee had been destroyed by the actions of someone in her profession.
Neither of them said anything for a while, then Raven glanced at her watch. “It’s getting late. I think Erica has forgotten we have to work tomorrow,” she added with a tired sigh.
“Did the two of you come together?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be glad to take you home if she’s not ready to leave yet.”
A flutter of nerves rose and twisted in the pit of Raven’s stomach with Linc’s offer. And at the same time, a caution warning nudged her. The last thing she needed was to share Linc’s company any longer than she had to. “That’s OK; I can call a cab.”
“I can’t let you do that. Besides, I’m ready to leave myself, but I don’t think Ben is. It seems as far as he and Erica are concerned, the night’s still young. I’ll be glad to take you home, Raven.”
Raven looked straight into Linc’s eyes. Again she wanted to refuse his offer, but she was beginning to feel tired. Usually she would be in bed by now. She had never stayed at Leo’s this late on a weeknight. She took a deep sigh. There was nothing wrong with Linc taking her home, she convinced herself. It would be up to her to make sure that’s all he did. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“I’m positive.”
Raven hesitated briefly before finally getting to her feet. “Thanks. I guess we should let Erica and Ben know that we’re leaving.”
Five
The sliver of moonlight that came through the car’s window illuminated Linc’s profile as he pulled his BMW out of Leo’s parking lot.
Even a side view of him had its merits, she thought, liking the way his shirt stretched tight across his broad chest. Both of his hands were on the steering wheel and unlike her gaze, which kept drifting in his direction, his vision remained glued to the road in front of him as he expertly maneuvered the vehicle around the curves heading toward her home, following the directions she’d given him.
Although soft jazzy music was coming from his CD player, a timeless silence hung in the car’s interior between them. The windows were lowered midway to take advantage of the October night’s cool breeze, and a gust of air that came through pushed Raven’s hair into her eyes. She reached up and pushed it back out of the way.
Linc had taken his eyes off the road when he brought the car to a stop at a traffic light. He saw Raven’s hair flutter against her face and watched as she pushed it aside. Even with windblown hair he thought she looked perfect.
“When did you decide to stop wearing braids?” he inquired softly.
Startled by the sound of his voice, Raven looked over at him and saw that he was staring at her with eyes that were compelling and seductive. Taking a deep breath before answering, she said, “Right after college. I had a new job and wanted a new look to go along with it.”
Linc nodded as he moved the car forwar
d again when the traffic light turned green. “I like the change, although I think you looked good before, too.”
“Thank you, Linc,” she said, trying not to sound as pleased as she actually felt at his compliment.
His body leaned slightly forward, and without taking his eyes off the road he slipped out the CD that was playing and put in another, one by Kenny G. Then he settled back in the seat while the stirring sultry sound of the man and his saxophone flowed around them. Linc placed his hand back on the steering wheel.
His hands, Raven thought, definitely knew how to operate. She suddenly felt heated when her mind remembered how those hands, big, strong, yet gentle, had operated on her.
“How’s your family?” he asked her, interrupting Raven’s thoughts and sparing her any further self-inflicted torture from memories. “I recall you mentioning that your mother lives in South Carolina and your two sisters live in New York.”
Raven leaned back against the seat. “Mama died a couple of months after I graduated from college.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Linc said, giving her a quick sorrowful look before returning his gaze back to the road.
“Thanks. That was a very difficult time for me and my sisters. We were very close to our mother. Her death was unexpected; at least it was for the three of us. She’d been diagnosed with a rare form of colon cancer the year before and didn’t tell anyone.”
Raven remembered the hurt and pain she and her sisters had felt upon learning that their mother had gone through that year alone while encouraging them to pursue their dreams. It had all made sense as to why her mother had encouraged her to go to Daytona Beach and enjoy her spring break instead of coming home like she usually did. Willow Anderson hadn’t wanted her around to get suspicious of anything.
“My sisters are doing fine,” she said after a few brief moments. “Robin, the one who’s a master chef, has been in Paris for six months studying at a renowned culinary school there. Falcon, the one who is a stockbroker, still lives in New York, doing what she does best with stocks and bonds.”
“Do you see them often?”
Raven smiled. “Not nearly as often as the three of us would like, since we’re extremely close. But we’re also extremely dedicated to our professions and know that with that dedication come sacrifices. Robin will be turning twenty-eight in two weeks and is returning to the States so the three of us can celebrate at my place. We always spend our birthdays together.”
When Linc stopped at another traffic light, he glanced over at her. “Are husbands invited?”
“There aren’t any husbands. Falcon and Robin are still single,” she said, thinking how John had almost swept Falcon off her feet and had come awfully close to changing that single status. “And with no marriage plans in their futures,” she added. “At least not until they fulfill their lifelong dreams.”
“Which are?”
Raven didn’t hesitate answering. “Robin wants to open a culinary school in New York, and Falcon wants her own brokerage firm one day.”
Linc slowed the car down to turn the corner to the street where her apartment complex was located. He took another quick glance in her direction. “What about you, Raven? What are your plans for the future? What are your dreams?”
Raven thought carefully about the answers to Linc’s questions. Not that she had to ponder what they were. Her mind was very clear and straight as to what her future plans and dreams were. She wanted to take her time and respond in such a way as to make certain that Linc would be clear and straight.
“My plans for the future are to continue doing what I’ve been doing for the past few years, and that is staying focused on my main agenda and working my way up to the top of my profession. More than anything I’d like to write that special exposé that could earn me a shot at a Pulitzer Prize. In the meantime, I’m learning all I can to be ready to start my own publishing company in a few years.”
Linc pulled into the driveway of the Eagle’s Nest Apartments and brought his car to a stop in front of her building. He turned off the car’s ignition and shifted around in his seat to look at her, capturing her with his eyes. “And what role does John Augustan play in all of this?”
Raven gave him a confused look. “John’s my boss.”
Linc nodded. “You also mentioned when you introduced the two of us that he was a good friend of yours.”
Raven dipped her head, trying to remember everything about that night when she’d seen Linc in Leo’s that first time. The only thing she remembered with absolute clarity was how good he looked. Any conversations she’d had were totally unclear in her mind. “Yes, he’s a good friend of mine.”
“How good a friend is he?”
Raven raised her head and looked at Linc, surprised at the tone of his question. His gaze pinned her in place, forcing her to understand exactly what he was asking. Her stomach muscles quivered at the intensity of his gaze as he waited for her answer. She could lie and tell him that she and John were intimately involved and effectively put an end to any ideas he might have of renewing any sort of relationship between them. But then a part of her knew that lying to him would be the coward’s way out. She had to believe in her ability to handle every aspect of her life, even someone she didn’t particularly want in it at the moment, like Linc. He would be a threat not only to her peace of mind but also to all her future goals and plans. She had to be strong enough to keep her priorities straight around him, and she believed that she could be. She’d been shown too early in life what could happen if she didn’t.
She met his gaze head-on when she finally answered him. “John’s a very good friend. He’s a very close friend.”
Raven studied Linc’s features to see what impact her words had on him. She watched as his eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened. A part of her body inwardly reacted to the thought that her involvement with another man bothered him.
“But,” she continued, “he’s an even closer friend to my sister Falcon. At least he was before she turned down his marriage proposal.”
Linc frowned. It took him a few moments to catch on to what Raven was telling him. “He asked your sister to marry him?”
“Yes. John loves Falcon very much, and I know she loves him just as much.”
Linc’s frown deepened. “Then why did she turn down his marriage proposal?”
“Bad timing. She has dreams yet to fulfill.”
He lifted a brow, certain he had not heard her correctly. “Are you telling me that your sister loves John Augustan, but she turned down his marriage proposal because he asked her to marry him before she could fulfill her dreams?”
“Yes.”
“Is this the sister who wants to one day own her own brokerage firm?”
“Yes.”
The right side of Linc’s mouth curled up into a half-smile. “Any reason she can’t have both, the man and her dreams?”
“Yes. No woman should get seriously involved with anyone until she’s fulfilled all her professional dreams. The most important thing that a woman can do is have a career and take care of herself and not have to be dependent on a man.”
Linc stared at Raven. He could only assume those words were coming from the lips of a true-blue women’s libber. “And you actually believe that?”
“Yes.”
“And your sisters? They believe that as well?”
“Of course.”
Linc chuckled and shook his head. “Whatever happened to the idea of finding a balance and having both a personal and a professional life? What’s wrong with pursuing them both?”
“You can’t have both because there is no such thing as a balance. Someone is always expected to compromise and usually it’s the woman. We’re the ones who’re asked to put our careers on hold, to follow our man from pillar to post or wherever his career may take him. We have the responsibility of raising the children and are expected to turn a house into a home for our family. Instead of being our own individual, we become our husband’s other half.
And if the man decides to up and leave one day, we’re the ones who are left with nothing—no future, no career, no dreams. He will have stripped us of all of that.”
Linc looked at Raven as lines of confusion showed up on his forehead. “Is there a particular person you know firsthand that this happened to?”
He saw her expression and knew his question had taken her by surprise. He watched as she drew in a sharp breath before slowly nodding. Looking away from him, at an object outside the car window, she answered, “Yes.”
“Who?”
She looked back at him. “My mother. My father left her with three kids all under the age of five without ever looking back. She had given up her future, her career, and her dreams for him and he walked away and left her with nothing.”
Linc studied Raven for a while and watched how the pain of her father’s abandonment shone clearly in her eyes. “No, he left your mother with something. In fact, I believe that he left her with the most precious gifts he could ever have given to her, Raven. He left her with you and your two sisters. And I refuse to believe that at any time in your mother’s life she would have preferred having a future, any dreams, or a career without the three of you being a part of it.”
Without saying anything else he got out of the car and walked around the vehicle to open the door for her.
Six
A long moment of silence stretched out between Linc and Raven as he walked her to her door. He hoped her silence meant she was thinking about what he had said. He knew it would not be easy to change her views or how she felt, but if he could give her some food for thought, that would be enough for now.
The problem he saw with Raven Anderson was that the woman was too independent for her own good. There was nothing wrong with wanting to be successful, but the key was being successful on your own terms, without having to make unnecessary sacrifices.
“Thanks for bringing me home, Linc.”
Raven’s soft voice broke the quietness and invaded his thoughts. His gaze was drawn to hers, then slowly dropped dead-center to her lips, as he remembered the heated bliss he’d found there more than once. Thinking about those hot and heavy kisses sent a ripple of pleasure up his spine. Pure unadulterated male pleasure. He cleared a suddenly tight throat and said, “Anytime.”
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