“Megan, we can share a bed and not have sex.”
She swallowed a sad laugh. “We never have before.”
“Sure we have.”
She stood and brushed her hands on the skirt of her dress. “Only if we’d already worn ourselves out somewhere else.”
“That can’t be true.” From the puzzled look on his face she saw he really believed it.
“If you can give me one instance, I’ll follow you right now.” She met his gaze and held it, knowing the truth with full certainty.
His brows knit together as she watched him try to think of a solitary time they’d managed to keep their hands and bodies to themselves. His face fell and his eyes closed as he realized there weren’t any.
He shook his head as he looked up at her. “I’m an asshole.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “To be fair, I didn’t show up if I wasn’t interested. And there were times it was the reason why I showed up. I think sex calmed my insecurities about myself, about us.” His concerned expression showed she wasn’t lightening the mood as much as she’d hoped. “Cheer up. It’s not every day closet nymphomaniacs find each other.”
“Megan, it’s not funny.”
“Okay.” She drew out the word and twisted her hands in front of her. Brandon rose and wrapped her in his arms so quickly that she wouldn’t even have had time to squirm away if she’d wanted to.
“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have let it go on like it did. I just took what you offered and never stopped to think about why. I was immature and selfish and wrong. Just wrong. I should have stopped the game years ago. I just thought that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, but that’s what broke us. I never once stopped to think what it was doing to you. I took you for granted and I’ll make it up to you. I swear.”
Warning bells sounded in her head. He was saying everything, everything she’d ever wanted him to. And still she questioned why. She tried to break free of his hold, but he kept his arms around her. “You’re getting me sweaty and it will ruin my dress.”
“You didn’t even remember you owned that dress two days ago.”
She pushed firmly at his chest, and this time he let her step back. “Yeah, what’s with that? Have you been collecting my clothes?”
He crossed his arms over his bare chest. “You leave your clothes on the floor, housekeeping has them cleaned, and my closet is full.”
“My lingerie used to be in your closet. Was that the only thing you wanted me to wear?”
“This is where I’m supposed to say no, right?” His dark eyes twinkled as he grinned.
She returned his smile, relieved to have lifted the mood. “We agreed you were done lying to me, so best to play it straight. Besides, with as much money as you spend on lingerie, you either like it, or you wear it when I’m not around.”
His laugh warmed her heart, but the way his stomach muscles rippled heated her body. Which was not a good idea because he would take any move in that direction as confirmation that she believed him and wanted to be with him, permanently.
“You should go to bed. I’m sure you have a busy day scheduled. I need to email Ava an inventory of the handbags, but I’ll wait on the pictures for now. Can I use the computer up here?”
She watched him stiffen at the question and ice once again clogged her veins. She’d been right to hold back. He obviously still didn’t trust her.
“What do you think I’m going to do, Brandon? Email my father from your computer? Call up dear old dad with some tidbit I lift off your hard drive?”
“That’s not it, Meg.” He looked like he had more to say, but she didn’t care to hear it.
“In case you haven’t noticed, my parents don’t care what happens to any of their daughters. I know you can’t wrap your head around that, but they stopped paying attention to what we did a long time ago. My family isn’t like yours. There was never a whole lot of substance behind the public image. Neither of my parents have contacted any of us, and I doubt they will.”
Fear niggled at her that she was speaking the truth. She could do without her father, but the idea of never hearing from her mother again made her jaw tremble, so she clenched her teeth together.
He reached for her and she recoiled, not wanting to get sucked into believing things would ever be normal between them again. She crossed to his desk and snatched a few sheets of paper from the printer. Intent on finding a pen, she tugged on the desk drawer only to find it locked. She cursed and looked up at him.
“Why do you even want me here if you feel the need to lock everything up? What was your plan when you leave for work? Do I get a babysitter to keep from stealing from you? I’m good enough to share your bed, but God forbid I might want some office supplies.”
He cursed under his breath and clenched his jaw as he stalked towards her. Her shoulders tensed as he neared, but she didn’t want to run. She’d suspected he was hiding the truth for months, and now that she’d caught him again, she didn’t want to give him time to think up yet another alibi.
“Are you just saying what you think I want to hear? Trying to get me to trust you so that you can use me as some kind of bait to lure out my father? Well, you’ve got the wrong daughter for that. I doubt he’d cross the street for me.”
Brandon reached out and wrapped his hands around her upper arms. Her whole body clenched as she closed her eyes and held her breath, sure he was going to shake her like a rag doll. He pressed her down into the leather executive chair that rolled backwards under the force. She gripped the armrests as it knocked back into the wall.
“Not another word,” Brandon said through clenched teeth. He fired up the computer and then lifted the keyboard, pulling off a key that had been taped there. He jammed the key into the lock, turned it and jerked the drawer open so fast the pens and pencils inside shook. He plucked out two small robin-egg blue boxes and slammed them onto the desktop before banging the drawer shut.
If she hadn’t been holding her breath, she would have gasped at the sight. Instead, she made a choking sound and closed the mouth she hadn’t realized had dropped open. Brandon cocked his hip against the desk and cut his gaze between her and the computer monitor and back again. The whir of the machine and the drumming of his fingers on the desktop sounded as loud to her ears as an airplane preparing for takeoff.
Her picture lit up the screen as the desktop loaded. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a snapshot of her eyes peeking out from behind the duvet of his bed. The day they’d had a little too much fun with the camera flashed in her mind and heat flickered throughout her body.
The confusion of the moment, of her life lately, crashed around her mind. Her fingernails dug into the arms of the chair, trying to find some way to center herself in the real world.
“You said you deleted those pictures. I watched you do it.” Her pulse pounded in her ears, fear warring with excitement. They’d played with the camera, but it was never meant to be more than that, never supposed to be something either of them would look at later.
“Oh, for God’s sake Megan.” He grabbed the camera she’d taken from the closet off the desk and turned it on. Icons popped up on the computer, freckling her photo but not blocking it completely.
He held out the camera to her and she pulled back involuntarily. She didn’t need pictures to remember what they’d done.
“Look for yourself. They’re all gone except that one. Not everyone would recognize you with most of your face covered, so I saved it. I get to be reminded of us and you get to keep your privacy.”
She didn’t take the camera. “Other people have seen it?”
He shrugged and set the camera down. “Probably not. I rarely hold meetings up here. Still, sometimes it’s called for and you never know who might walk behind you when you’re working, so I figured it was safer than these.” He leaned towards the computer and worked the mouse until a f
ile popped up, displaying dozens of pictures of her.
Megan closed her eyes, not wanting to see her former life in thumbnail shots. Her mind spun faster than a tilt-a-whirl and she was struggling to tell reality from illusion. She wasn’t strong enough to suffer another blow like she had on her birthday.
With her entire soul, she wanted to believe he wasn’t playing her for a fool, but the risk of being wrong would shatter her. It might not technically be a fatal wound, but with as tenuous as her grip on her old self was, it would kill the girl she used to be.
“There you go.” The keyboard clicked under Brandon’s fingers and she opened her eyes to see him staring down at her. He pursed his lips together and pushed a long breath through his nose. “If you don’t want it, don’t want me, you should go. You can take whatever you want, but do it quickly. I won’t follow you. I’m all in, Meg. I don’t have another hand to play.”
He turned on his heel and bounded down the stairs, leaving her alone with two ring boxes and a computer folder with her name on it. She leaned closer to the monitor, reading the names of the files until they ricocheted around in her head.
Pictures.
Gift ideas.
Proposal.
Wedding.
Honeymoon.
Chapter Thirteen
Brandon braced his hands on the slick marble tile and hung his head, letting the spray of the showerheads pound his body. His throat ached, his eyes throbbed behind closed lids, and his chest was tight with anxiety.
He’d lied to her. Again.
He’d been so exposed, instinct had him trying to protect himself. He wouldn’t want to follow her if she fled, but he wouldn’t be able to let her go. He’d probably chase her for the rest of his miserable life. Nothing would ever be able to stop him, not even the embarrassing awareness that she knew exactly how much he wanted her, how much time and effort he’d spent planning a life with her. But of course, most of that had been done while he was oblivious to what an asshole he’d been to her for the last seven years.
Until a few hours ago, he’d always thought he was good to her. Now he saw that he was good to himself, never thinking Megan might need more from him to feel secure and loved. He’d taken her at her word that she wanted a fun, private affair, and in so doing he’d taken advantage of her. If he really knew her as well as he thought, if he truly loved her unselfishly, he should have seen that she needed more a long time ago.
And now she wouldn’t even let him make it up to her. He’d hurt her so badly, so deeply that everything he did seemed to reopen the wound. He couldn’t see a way out of the mess that he’d made of both their lives unless she was able to forgive him. It was the only way he’d ever be able to forgive himself.
The glass shower door clicked and adrenaline shot through his veins. He lifted his head to see Megan holding the door open, as bare to him as he was to her. Relief washed over him with the warm water and his heart went all hot and gooey like one of those molten chocolate cakes she liked so much.
He held her gaze for a long moment, time slowing as his world tilted back into place. Uncertainty twined with lust haunted the blue depths of her eyes. He took a step forward, reached for her and lifted her off her feet as he pulled her beneath the spray with him. She fit perfectly within his embrace, her arms wrapped around his waist, her head nestled against his heart.
“Brandon?” He barely heard her whisper over the sound of the shower. “I can’t be wrong about this.”
He threaded his fingers through her damp hair, tilting her head up to look at him. “You’ll always be right by me.”
Closing the distance between them, he brought his lips to hers and brushed a quiet seduction against her mouth. Her lips parted on a long, passionate sigh, welcoming him back home. He’d wanted the kiss to be tender and sweet, but before he could help himself he was sliding his tongue into her mouth and teasing her to join in the play.
He checked himself, pulling away slowly and smoothing his hands over her shoulders and down her arms. He twined her fingers in his and moved their hands between them. He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a quick kiss before he noticed her bare fingers. His stomach sank as he sought her gaze.
She must have recognized his searching expression because she gave him a weak smile. “I didn’t open anything. It looked like you had a plan and I didn’t want to ruin that, too.”
His brows knit together. “You didn’t even look at the ring?”
She shook her head. “I think I’d rather have the proposal.”
His cheeks lifted in the biggest smile he’d had in months. “That’s because you didn’t see the ring.”
“I haven’t been waiting for something you picked out at a store. I only wanted to know that you love me.” Her breath caught and her eyes flooded, but she didn’t look away, allowing him a glimpse at the depths of her vulnerability.
Megan, who hid so much from everyone, was letting him in. Just as he’d been the only one to ever share the beauty of her body, she was giving him entry to her soul as well. As amazed as he had been by the gift of her virginity all those years ago, he knew that this was far more intimate, far more delicate, and the only time she’d ever give anyone a chance.
He wanted to argue that he’d told her he loved her before, but he figured she’d call him on a technicality the way she had about asking her to marry him. They made love every chance they could, and so it would no longer surprise him if that were the only times she’d heard it.
“I love you, Megan.” He framed her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers.
…
Brandon passed the folders around the boardroom table, hopeful the other members of Gibbons investment group would understand why he’d gone after Carlton International as well as recognize it was a sound investment. Not as lucrative as he usually handled, but profitable none the less.
Pages flipped as he took his seat and looked over the other men at the table and the two videoing in. There hadn’t been this many of them together at once for years. Only half came from family money, every year two new members joining the fray. Now, most of them superstars in the business world, but a few were outliers Professor Gibbons had seen potential in. Whether an architect or a CEO, each vote carried equal weight.
“Leo and Dylan, you with us?” He looked to the screens set up against the far wall.
“Barely, Leo answered. “It’s midnight in Venice and who knows what in Greece where I was yesterday. Not to mention no one is delivering pizza to me after.”
“Right, because staying at luxury resorts is exhausting,” Dylan answered with a laugh.
“Smells better than ranching,” Leo offered with a grin.
“Bitch on your own time. Some of us work for a living.” David Strong, fitness mogul and one of the early members of the group cleared his throat. He’d never declared himself the leader, it fell that way naturally. The guy was built like a wall and had the empathy of one. Or he used to. He’d been dead on about Megan not wanting him to give her the business.
“Dude,” media phenom Ryan Hendrix shrugged out of his zip-up hoodie. “Don’t be an ass and hulk out just because you’ve got your dick in a knot.”
“Don’t write checks your ass can’t cash, little man,” David said without a hint of inflection.
“I didn’t realize we were in a junior high locker room.” Brandon narrowed his gaze at Ryan. Kid needed to shut his mouth. Poking the bear hadn’t worked out well for anyone, in this room and out of it. “Updates and then new business, just like usual. I’ll start with the Carlton project.”
“Can we not?” Real estate mogul Curtis Frye slid the folder to the middle of the table. “I hate watching you be an idiot.”
“Says the man who bought his fiancée an island.” Better to get this over with as soon as possible. “We’ve found buyers for all of the Carlton subsidiaries, includin
g Leo.”
“That wasn’t me,” Leo said with a grimace. “My uncle handles volume and transit hotels. You should have told me you were in negotiations.”
“That seems to be a family matter.” No way would he step into that battle, especially since it was set to get ugly. “I do need to discuss with you the opportunity of folding the high-end Carlton hotels into the Luxe brand. If you all would turn to page five, you’ll see a list—”
“I’m only interested in four of them. Alexandria, Marrakech, Istanbul and Moscow.”
As expected. Leo already had resorts in many of the other locations. “If you want four, buy all thirty.”
“Leo, I know why Moscow thinks your grandfather is an ass, but what did you do to piss off Africa?” Curtis Frye gave a short laugh. “They still won’t let you in?”
Leo shook his head. “Says the man who’s international properties are all in England.”
“I can work a deal for them,” venture capitalist Cameron Price offered.
“That’s some loyalty you have there, Cam.” Leo crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’ll accept proposals from you both, and hopefully finish this project before our next meeting.” He slid the folder through his hands, tapping the bottom on the table.
“And then stay out of the hotel business. Stick to reconfiguring assets in companies you have at least a passing knowledge of.” Architect Jake Tolliver had no filter on his opinions. Ever.
In for a penny... “My interest in Carlton International was personal, and the project will be profitable. Just like Curtis with his new interest in botique hotels, and David opening the women-only fitness centers, sometimes others inspire our choices.”
“Not you, too.” Luke finally participated in the conversation. “Which sister?”
He fought the urge to have them guess. “Megan. She runs the family’s women’s homes.”
Ryan looked genuinely disappointed. “So, not the sex tape one.”
Poor Ava. He hoped the world wouldn’t define her that way forever.
The Billionaire's Private Scandal Page 18
