by Cherrie Lynn
Whenever Brian called, she answered, like he’d said she would. But surprisingly, he didn’t push her. He talked about how Dermamania V2, as he called it, was coming along. She could tell how excited he was to be reopening soon. He and his employees and Evan had been working every day cleaning up the place. Kara and Marco had come down to lend him any equipment he needed until he got his own. Candace was disappointed she didn’t get a chance to see them, but she was determined to stay away for now.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out his strategy. His way of chasing her was giving her the space she’d demanded. It was working better than any flowers, gifts, candy or stalking techniques he could ever have employed, because she missed him like crazy.
She wanted to run to him, and knew she couldn’t. Not yet. There were so many reasons: for herself, for her family where things were slowly getting back to normal. For the fragile relationship with her parents, who seemed to be looking at her in a new light. Despite everything, she found she needed and wanted their support. In the beginning it had been much like walking on eggshells, but now she and her mother had been getting along better than she could ever remember since she was a kid. Seeing Brian again so soon might only tear it all down again.
And then there was her brother to deal with.
Jameson was an entirely different story. He’d sported two black eyes for days. She visited her parents quite often, and he was always there, as if he was hiding out. He might as well move back home, for the way he lingered. It was one more thing that added to her suspicion.
He was scared. A ringing phone or a knock at the door could make him jump out of his skin. But damn if she could get him to crack, no matter how many knowing smiles she sent his way. Her very existence had become all about torturing him.
“It’s only a matter of time before they catch the guy,” she told him ominously one night at dinner when her mom and dad left the room for a moment.
And the next evening: “The investigation is moving right along. Evan says they’re closing in.”
“Who cares,” he would growl every time.
And she’d return with some variation of, “Doesn’t it bother you that vandals are running loose through town? Although it’s funny they haven’t hit any other businesses, don’t you think? Just Brian’s. I wonder why.”
There were times he would get up and leave the room.
He was so freaking guilty. And there was nothing she could do about it…except make his life hell, as Starla had said.
Nothing she could do about it…until one very shocking phone call.
Macy sounded funny from the moment Candace answered. It was extremely odd for her to ask how things were going with Brian, but it was one of her first questions.
“They’re…okay,” Candace told her. “We’re just talking, letting things cool off. I think all I needed was to step back and catch my breath. Now I’ve caught it, and everything is clear, and I don’t feel right without him.”
For some reason, that made Macy dissolve into tears. “I’m so sorry.”
Dumbfounded, Candace muted the volume on her TV and sat up straight on her couch. “Mace, what’s the matter?”
“I’ve got something to tell you,” she sobbed. “You’re going to hate me.”
What in the hell? Candace spent the next two minutes trying to calm her friend down, assuring her there was nothing she could do to make Candace hate her. Although, given the girl’s reaction, that still remained to be seen.
“I was at Dermamania the night it was vandalized. I saw Jameson’s SUV drive by once, really slow. The only reason I even noticed it is because it looked so much like his, and I wondered if it was him and what he would be doing there. When I left later on, it was parked in a lot a couple of blocks down. I thought surely I was mistaken. But now, after what happened between him and Brian…”
Candace’s pulse was pounding in her ears. Seeing his car go by…was that enough? Dammit, she wished she had Evan’s phone number. “Why were you there, Macy?”
Dead silence on the other end for at least ten seconds. “I met Ghost there late that night.”
Ho. Lee. Shit. “Ghost? How did that happen? I never gave him your number.”
“Did he ask for it?”
“Yeah, on the way to Dallas. I thought there wasn’t any way you could be interested.”
“We ran into each other at the sushi bar. It was the evening you guys got back from the concert. We talked, and he got my number. He called after he got off that night and asked me to meet him there.”
“Macy, I don’t know which has shocked me more…”
“I know, okay? I didn’t want to get Jameson in trouble, and I was scared. But it was him, and it’s not fair that he’s getting away with it. I haven’t talked to Ghost about this at all.”
“He must have not seen anything, or Brian would have been all over it. Where were you?”
“We were sitting in the parking lot in my car. I figure James was waiting for us to leave, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t know what had gone down between James and Brian and I had no idea he was about to trash the place, you know?”
Candace remembered she hadn’t talked to Macy that night. Macy really hadn’t known to look for anything suspicious. “I would ask what you were doing in your car, but obviously not much if you noticed my brother driving by.”
“It did not go there,” Macy said adamantly. “We just talked.”
“Uh-huh, and are you still talking?”
“Talking. Yeah. That’s all.”
“I can’t even imagine carrying on a serious conversation with that guy, but whatever.”
“There’s something about him…”
“Hey, you don’t have to explain. I’m not going to torture you over your decisions like you did me.”
“I’m so sorry,” Macy wailed.
“I’ll tell you what. If you’ll go tell this to the police, all will be forgiven. I’ll go with you, if you want. James was angry and lashing out, and he’s my brother, but you didn’t see Brian and how heartbroken he was. James owes him, big time. Maybe I can talk Brian into not pressing charges if James pays him for the damage. Maybe an I’ll-drop-mine-if-you’ll-drop-yours deal.”
“I would feel so much better if he did that.”
“I can’t promise it, and that’s up to him. But no matter what, Macy, you have to follow through.”
Macy sniveled. “I know.”
“In fact…do you want to go and talk to him now?”
“Not particularly.” Candace could definitely understand that. The thought of seeing him set off flocks of what felt like hummingbird wings in her own belly. “He’ll hate me too for not coming forward sooner. It’s been almost three weeks, but it’s been eating me up.”
“I’m pretty sure he’ll be so happy to finally get some closure that he won’t even mind all that much.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Candace hadn’t realized the parlor was open already. When she and Macy pulled in, it looked good as new, and upon entering the only difference she could see was the flat screen TVs hadn’t been replaced yet.
Janelle greeted them with a big smile, coming forward to give Candace a hug. Ghost looked up from the tattoo he was working on and met Macy’s stare with a lascivious grin. Candace couldn’t resist giving her a hidden nudge with her elbow. Love was indeed a strange thing.
She didn’t see Brian anywhere, but his truck was parked outside.
“Is he here?” she asked Janelle quietly.
“In his office. I daresay it would be fine for you to go on back.” She winked at her.
Taking a deep breath, she tore Macy away from the object of her desire and steered her toward the back.
Brian looked up from his laptop as they entered, and the yearning that filled his expression when he saw her was all she needed to know how hellish these past weeks had been on him. It was a fight to keep the burn of tears out of her eyes. He rose out of his
chair as if pulled by puppet strings and crossed the room to wrap her in his arms. “God, it’s good to lay eyes on you,” he murmured, his lips near her ear.
The familiar warmth and solidity of his body was something she didn’t want to release. Ever. She buried her face in his shirt and inhaled his scent as deep into her lungs as she could. “I miss you.”
“I just…fuck, I don’t know what to say. I didn’t expect to see you.”
Candace glanced at Macy, who was biting her lip in apprehension. “I’ll be glad to talk, but right now, Macy needs to tell you something.”
Brian looked at the other girl as if he’d forgotten her presence. “Oh, hey, Macy.”
“Hi. Um…I’m just going to blurt this out.”
He gave a perplexed chuckle. “All right.”
“I can place Jameson at the scene the night this place was trashed. I was in the parking lot. I saw him drive by, and he also parked a little ways up the street.”
“Holy sh— Are you sure?” He looked as if he wanted to grab her in a bear hug and twirl her around. Candace noticed she left out the details of why she’d been here, and he was beyond questioning it.
“As far as seeing a face, or a license plate number, no. But it was a black SUV with a sticker on the back windshield, right where his Baylor sticker is.”
“Son of a bitch.” Then he winced, glancing at Candace. “Sorry, I know that’s your brother.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“I need to call Evan.” He turned and headed for the phone, but stopped dead in his tracks when Candace placed a hand on his arm.
“I need to ask you something, Brian. I understand you’re angry. And I have no idea if this will work or not, but I thought we should approach you first. If Jameson would agree to drop his charges against you and pay you for all of the damages, would you not press charges against him?” For a second, disbelief filled his expression, and she rushed on before she could lose him. “It would do nothing but help our situation. You’d both get out of trouble, you’d get compensated, and…it might help relations between us and my family.”
His brows dipped low over his eyes. “Yeah, and what about that? Are you saying I’m out of the picture if I don’t go along?”
She swallowed and shook her head. “No, I’m not. I’ll understand if you need to do this. It’ll hurt watching you tear each other apart, because the fact remains they’re a major part of my life, but so are you. I can’t turn my back on either of you. I need you to all coexist without driving me to drinking, and this is the only way to make that a possibility. Like I said, I haven’t talked to Jameson and I don’t even know if he’d be susceptible. But if he’s confronted and told his ass is about to go down, I think he’d do just about anything to get out of it. He’s scared to death.”
“Good,” Brian grumbled. “But you don’t seem to realize how hard it’s going to be for me to let this go. I’ve been through hell these past three weeks, Candace. We’re all still exhausted from getting the place open again. Accepting payment for my troubles and turning my back…it’s going to feel like he’s buying us off, when what he needs is to suffer like we have. It’s not just me. It’s all of them out there too.”
“I understand,” she said quietly, thinking that she loved him more at that moment than she ever had before. He was so sincere and devoted to them. There was no question in her mind he would be that way with her, too, if she would let him. “I’m not trying to push you. I was just throwing an idea out there.”
“I’ll do whatever you need me to,” Macy said to him. “I feel awful about this.”
Brian frowned at her. “Wait a second. What were you doing here?”
“Can I plead the Fifth on that? For now, at least? I wasn’t vandalizing anything, honest.”
Candace grinned. “Yeah, except maybe for Gh— Ow!”
He couldn’t believe she was here. Any second now, he expected to wake up with his face smashed to his keyboard, having finally succumbed to exhaustion. But so far it hadn’t happened. She was here and she’d just told him news he’d been waiting to hear for weeks.
And she was asking him not to do anything with it.
He couldn’t make a decision about that now, because it wasn’t only his to make. As he’d told her, it was about all his artists who’d busted their asses for weeks helping him get this place cleaned up, who hadn’t deserted him to find other jobs. It was even about his brother, who’d argued cases all day long and then shown up here in the evenings, taking time away from his wife and son to roll up his sleeves and get dirty with them. It was about Kara and Marco, whose equipment he was still using for the time being. There hadn’t been time to get his own yet, but he would be taking care of that in the next few days.
But on the flip side, it was also about Candace, whom he’d realized he loved more than his own soul. It was about giving her what she needed to be happy and stable and to balance the scales in her life.
Macy had left them alone. Candace sat in the extra chair in the office while he perched on the corner of his desk, letting his gaze roam over her. Shimmering blond hair, catching the overhead light in every strand. Downturned blue eyes, as if she was too shy to meet his gaze now that they were alone with their intimate memories of each other.
He cataloged every detail of her, from the slightly accelerated rise and fall of her shoulders as she breathed to the pulse jumping so, so faintly in her throat. He wanted to put his mouth there, feel it throb against his tongue. Feel it race as he touched her.
Without a conscious thought to do so, he went down on his knees in front of her, grasping both her hands. If she wouldn’t look up at him, she could look down at him.
Her tiny, surprised intake of breath caught in the air between them. He lifted her knuckles to his lips, aching so hard to touch some part of her. “Being away from you has been…hell. I could wax poetic and tell you it’s been like being torn away from my own soul, or missing a shard of my heart, but in the end it’s been absolute torment. I’m missing all those things if I’m not with you.”
“I love you so much,” she whispered. “So many times I’ve wanted to break down and run to you, but I’ve been doing well. I’m afraid…afraid to—”
“I realize it’s important to you to try to make your own way. I’m so sorry if I jeopardized that and scared you off. That was never my intent. You tried to tell me, but I kept on bullying you, telling you it would be okay, when you weren’t okay. I know you’ve never felt this way before, and I shouldn’t have pushed for so much so fast. I should’ve given you plenty of time to get used to me. I’m fully aware I can be an unendurable bastard sometimes. People make sure to remind me of it pretty much on a daily basis.”
“You’re a good guy, Brian. The people who know you best know that.”
“Not good enough for you. But I’ve pretty much made peace with that fact.”
“Well, that’s good. Too much angst gets tiresome after a while.”
“I’ll try to remember that,” he said, wanting to laugh but unable to force the sound out. Her face held him mesmerized, he was so intent upon reading her emotions. And again, he didn’t want to push. He needed an answer from her, something concrete, or hell, even a hint of what the future she foresaw might hold. If she wasn’t ready to give it, he was simply screwed.
“I just don’t know right now.”
What don’t you know? Tell me and I can make it right. Those were the words that crowded up in his throat, but if he spoke them, she would only bolt, grab her friend, and leave him again. This was requiring a delicate touch he didn’t have. Naturally, he only wanted to break something.
She went on, her voice high and cracking with emotion. “I can’t be the reason you’re punching people out and my brother is running around committing felonies. I can’t go on hurting people because this wildness you make me feel is so irresistible that I would forsake them all to be with you. I can’t be in the middle of this anymore. I don’t want to be the
cause of all this strife. I won’t be.”
There was such fierceness in her eyes that he knew trying to persuade her to give him another chance would be a lost cause. She was broken, but she was determined.
“Please don’t look at me like that,” she said.
“How am I looking?”
“Like your heart is breaking.”
“It is, sunshine.”
“Brian, don’t!” Her face dropped into her hands, and she took a long breath. He reached over and pushed the door closed in case anyone ventured back their way, then simply sat, watching her and stroking her knee. Afraid if he opened his mouth, he might shatter the fragile mood.
Suddenly, she pitched herself forward, wrapping her arms around his neck as amazement swept through him. He held her, breathing in her scent as if it were the antidote to a poison in his veins. Her lips trailed gently over his cheek, seeking his own, finding them, melting into them. Warm, whisper-soft and searching. So fucking sweet. Every sense he possessed exploded, the surge of arousal practically supernatural as he resisted every urge to throw her down and get inside her. Her hands sank into his hair, her body slid forward to join him on the floor.
“Oh my God,” he rasped, trying to catch his breath around her hungry, fevered kisses. She whimpered and shuddered against him, pulling him closer as if she was trying to crawl through him. Her tongue teased its way past his teeth, her mysterious, delicate flavor flooding his mouth. He plundered hers in return, desperate for more of it. He didn’t think this thirst for her would ever be quenched, but he was damn sure dying to attempt it.
That’s why it took every atom of his self-control to reach up and seize her wrists and push her back.
She stared at him as if he’d just left a blade stuck in her heart, wounded astonishment churning in her blue eyes.
“No,” he whispered. “Not with all this uncertainty between us.” That delectable bottom lip trembled. “Trust me, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. But for your sake, for ours, I’m going to do what you asked me to do. I’ll lie here on the floor and hold you all night, if you need me to. But if I touch you any more than that, I’ll lose my mind.”
