“We’re adults.”
Lecturing. Great. Just what she wanted from him. “One of us is.”
With that, she turned and walked out. She’d reached her maximum load on Jameson testosterone for one day. She needed her shoes off and her feet up. Some wine. No Spence.
A Spence-free zone. The idea made her smile as she walked down the hall then closed the front door behind her.
* * *
“She’s not wrong,” Derrick said as he slowly walked down the stairs.
“You want to clue me in here?” Because Spence felt deflated and empty. The gnawing sensation refused to leave him. He’d blown out of the office all those months ago. Traveled around. Helped out on random building sites across the east. Lived a life so different from the spectacle he’d grown up in. All that competition. How his father pitted the three of them against each other. How Derrick always tried to protect them from Dad’s wrath, especially Carter, the youngest.
They lost their mom to cancer. Their father didn’t even have the decency to let her live out her life in peace. No, he moved her to a facility then marched in there one day and demanded a divorce so he could marry his mistress. He thought she was pregnant but she wasn’t, so he quickly dumped the mistress, too. Then he ran through others. He was on wife number four and insisted this one had changed him. Yeah, right. The man treated women as disposable and his sons as property.
All that playing, all that acting at being a Big Man, and he let the business slide. Derrick had stepped in and saved it years ago. They all had to work there from the time they were teens. It was a family requirement, but Derrick was the one who rescued them all—including their father—and restored the family checking account when he took over the day-to-day operations four years ago.
That incredible turnaround was one of the reasons Spence stood on Derrick’s first floor now. He owed Derrick. He also loved Derrick and wanted to help. That meant sticking around. Worse, it meant facing his demons and dealing with Abby.
Spence wasn’t good at standing still. He’d always been the brother to keep moving. Go away to school. Go farther to a different school. Try to work somewhere else. Delay full-time work with the family as long as possible.
The Jameson name choked him. He didn’t find it freeing or respectable. Forcing his feet to stay planted was taking all of his strength. He didn’t have much left over to do battle with Abby.
“Are you admitting you’re clueless? That’s a start.” The amusement was right there in Derrick’s voice.
At the sound, some of the churning in Spence’s gut eased. He had no idea how to handle Abby, but he could do the fake fighting-with-his-brother thing all day. “Don’t make me punch you while your fiancée is on bed rest. She shouldn’t see you beg and cry right now.”
“Are you quoting from a dream you once had? Because that’s not reality.”
They’d physically fought only once. It was years ago, over their mother. Spence had been desperate to keep her in the house with nurses. Derrick, barely in his twenties, had tried to make it happen but couldn’t. Spence had needed an outlet for his rage and Derrick was right there. The perfect target.
There was an almost three-year age difference between them, but Spence still got his ass kicked. And he’d deserved it because his anger really should have been aimed at his father. Spence was thirty-three now. In theory, he knew better.
“Spence, she’s one of the best we have.” Derrick sat down on a step a few from the bottom and started counting out Abby’s attributes on his fingers. “She can multitask and oversee projects, keep things moving. She’s smart. She’s a great negotiator.”
It was an impressive list, but Spence already knew it by heart. Every time he tried to run through her sins in his mind, the image of her face would pop up and his thoughts would stumble. “I feel like you’re reading her résumé to me.”
“Don’t scare her away.”
There was no amusement in his tone now. Spence got the message. “You do understand she screwed me, right?”
“I don’t know what happened back then because you bolted and when I tried to talk with her, in part to make sure we weren’t going to get sued, she refused to say one single negative thing about you.” Derrick threw up his hands before balancing them on his thighs again. “Hell, I can name twenty bad things just sitting here and without thinking very hard, but she protected you.”
“She sure has no problem listing out my faults now.”
“Do you hear what I’m saying?”
“That you’re nosy as hell.” Spence dropped down on the step two down from Derrick and stretched out sideways so he could look at Derrick. “What’s your actual point?”
“Maybe you got it wrong back then.”
Spence leaned his head back against the staircase railing and stared up at the ceiling. “I saw her kissing Dad.”
“Right, because our father never set anyone up or did anything to mess with us.”
That got Spence’s attention. His head lowered and he looked at Derrick. “I don’t—”
“When rumors were going around about me in an attempt to convince Ellie to dump me, Abby’s name came up.”
“What?”
“Some people think the two of us had a thing. There are whispers, none of them true, but they’re out there.” Derrick shrugged. “Ellie heard, wanted to apologize to Abby for dragging her into our personal mess, they met and, honestly, it’s like they’ve known each other for years.”
Derrick and Abby. Fake or not, there was an image Spence never wanted in his head. But Abby and Ellie? No one was safe if those two put their powers together. “That’s just great.”
“For you, no. Abby is going to be around here for Ellie. And she’s a big part of the managerial team at work.” Derrick dropped his arm and touched the step right by Spence’s shoulder. “I want you here and I will do anything to keep you in the office and in town, but even I can’t work miracles. You have to fix this because I can’t.”
“I’ve never heard you admit that before.”
“You’re going to run into her.”
Derrick sounded so serious. Spence wanted to make a joke or ignore the whole conversation. He knew he couldn’t do either. “I can handle it.”
“I’m wondering if the rest of us will survive it.”
Suddenly, so was Spence.
Three
Abby sat in a conference room on the fifteenth floor of the swanky office building where Jameson Industries was located. A glass wall with the glass door fronted the room, facing into the hall. The room was reserved for relatively few people in the company because it connected to Jackson Richards’s office next door. He used it. Derrick used it. Today, she used it.
She looked at the stack of papers in front of her, then to her laptop, then across the small round table to Jackson. He was Derrick’s right-hand man and the most accessible person on the management staff. He was also tall and lean with a runner’s body and, if rumors were correct, the one every single woman in the office named as the most eligible and interesting man in the office. There hadn’t been an actual poll, to her knowledge, but she got asked at least a few times a week if he was dating anyone. Not that Abby saw him in a romantic way. She didn’t.
She considered Jackson one of her closest friends, if not the closest. After a relatively solitary existence growing up—just her and her mom and the apartment manager who watched her when her mom worked the night shift at the diner—dating here and there, keeping attachments light in case she needed to get up and go, Jackson acted as a lifeline for her. They even lived in condos next door to each other, which was more of an accident than anything else. But when you heard about a good deal on a downtown DC property with a doorman and reasonable monthly fees, you jumped on it. Jackson sure had.
But right now she was at work and out of patience. She beat back the urge to
knock her head against the table. “If I have to read one more email from Rylan, my brain will explode.”
The man sent her the most mundane emails. The status check today, which he sent a day earlier than he said he would, was to tell her nothing had changed. Yeah, she guessed that much. But with emails clogging her inbox and her mind on constant wandering mode these days, she needed something solid. Jackson was it.
“Good thing we have good health insurance here,” Jackson said as he closed the file he was reading.
She snorted. “I’m pretty sure head explosion isn’t covered.”
“He is persistent.” Jackson glanced at the conference room door as it opened. “Speaking of which...”
“Hello.” Spence stepped inside. He didn’t make a move to sit down. He stopped and rested his palms on the back of the chair nearest to him.
That fast, the oxygen sucked out of the room. The easy banter with Jackson gave way to suffocating tension. It pressed in on Abby, proving what she already knew. Seeing Spence grew harder each time, not easier.
Jackson smiled as he moved some of the files and papers around to make room in front of an open chair. “Hey, Spence.”
As far as Abby was concerned, all of that accommodating was unnecessary. She had no interest in sitting there, explaining her projects to Spence. She had a file made up with the relevant information and emailed him the rest. She’d done her part to keep the machine running.
“Right.” She shut her laptop, careful not to slam the cover down, and stood up. “I’m going to head back to my office.”
“I need to talk to you for a second.” Spence’s gaze moved from her to Jackson.
Jackson sighed. “Why are you looking at me? I’m supposed to be in here. I’m not leaving.”
“Help me out,” Spence said.
Jackson shook his head as he stood up. “Did you not hear my dramatic sigh?”
“It was tough to miss.”
“That’s because I spend half my life rescuing Jamesons from certain disaster.” Jackson ended the back-and-forth with a smack against Spence’s shoulder.
Some of the tension drained away as Jackson and Spence fell into their easy camaraderie. That sort of thing always amazed Abby. Men could argue and go at each other, but if they were friends or related, they seemed to have this secret signal, heard only by them, that triggered the end of the battle. Then all the anger slipped away.
She wished she possessed that skill.
She glanced at Jackson. “You deserve a raise.”
“Hell, yeah.” Jackson winked at her as he walked out of the conference room through the connecting door to his office.
A second later, Spence slid into the seat Jackson abandoned. He flipped through a whole repertoire of nervous gestures, none of which she’d seen from him before. He rubbed the back of his neck. Shifted around in his seat. Put a hand on the table then took it off. But he didn’t say a word.
After about a minute, the silence screamed in her head. “You’re up, Spence. You’re the one who wanted to talk.”
Fight was probably more accurate. They couldn’t seem to be civil to each other for more than a few minutes at a time since living in the same town again. They verbally sparred. Every conversation led them back to the same place—he believed she came on to his father. The idea made her want to heave.
He let out a heavy sigh that had his chest lifting and falling. “We got off on the wrong foot.”
“When?”
He frowned. “What?”
“Now or back then?” She was having a hard time keeping up, so he was going to need to be more specific. “Maybe when we were starting to go out and had plans for our first official date that Friday. You left on Thursday without a word.”
The memories flashed in her brain and she blinked them out. She refused to let the sharp pain in her chest derail her. This close, right across the table, she could see the intensity in his eyes, smell that scent she associated with him. A kind of peppery sharpness that reeled her in. In the past. Not now. She wouldn’t let it happen now.
“You are determined to make this difficult.” He had the nerve to look wounded.
She pushed down her anger and lifted her chin. “Do you blame me?”
“Actually, yes.” He sat back in the chair. The metal creaked under his weight as he lifted the front two legs off the floor. “You kissed my father.”
And there it was. The only point he could make, so he did it over and over until it lost its punch. “So you’ve pointed out. Repeatedly.”
“Okay. Enough.” A thud echoed through the small room as the front legs of his chair hit the floor again.
“I agree.” She stood up. Her vision blurred. She struggled through a haze of anger and disappointment to see the stacks of documents and folders in front of her.
“Please, sit.” His hand slipped over hers. “I know you think I’m an ass, but I’m here because I am worried about Ellie and the baby. The chance of my big brother running himself into the ground is really good. He may be acting cool, but he’s a panicked mess.”
Part of her wanted to throw his hand off hers. The other part wanted to grab hold. Her life would have been so much easier if she could have hated him. She begged the universe to let that happen.
Instead, she slipped her hand out from under his, stopped moving her things around and looked at him. “Of course he is. He loves Ellie.”
Spence’s gaze traveled over her face. “You like Derrick.”
All the blood ran out of her head. “You’re not accusing me—”
“No!” Spence held up both hands as if in mock surrender. “I mean, respect. Friendship. Deeper than a boss, but not romantic.”
Her heartbeat stopped thundering in her ears. It was as if he opened his mouth and her body prepared for battle. The whole thing gave her a headache. “That’s fair. Yes.”
“Any chance we could get there? I’d like us to be friends.” His hand rested on the table, so close to hers.
She stared at his long fingers. She’d always loved his hands. They showed strength. Seeing them made her wonder what they would feel like on her.
She pushed the thought away. “No.”
“Abby, come on.”
“I have that level of trust and understanding with Derrick because there is nothing else in the way. Nothing else between us because I don’t have any other feelings for him.” The words echoed in her head. She closed her eyes for a second before opening them again, hoping she’d only thought them. But no, there he was. Staring at her. Clear that he heard every syllable.
His eyebrow lifted. “But you do feel something for me?”
The look on his face. Was that satisfaction or hope? She couldn’t tell. Didn’t want to know. She never meant to open that door. Thinking it and saying it were two very different things, and she’d blown it. Now she rushed to try to fix the damage. “Did. That’s over.”
“Is it?”
He stood up then. Took one step toward her. Not too close, but enough to cut off her breathing. To make her fight not to gasp.
“I want to kiss you.” He put his hands on her arms and turned her slightly until they faced each other. “Tell me no if you don’t want me to.”
They’d kissed before. Gone to dinner, stolen a few minutes in closed conference rooms now and then. But this one was lined with windows on one side. She looked over his shoulder, thinking someone would be out there. That her brain would click on and common sense would come rushing back. For once, no one rushed up and down the hall.
She opened her mouth to say no, sensing he actually would stop. But she couldn’t get the word out. Not that one. “Yes.”
With the unexpected green light, he leaned in. His mouth covered hers and need shot through her. The press of his mouth, the sureness of his touch. His lips didn’t dance over hers. They didn’t test
or linger. No, this was the kind of kiss where you dove in and held on.
His mouth slipped over hers and her knees buckled. She grabbed on to the sleeve of his shirt. Dug her fingers into the material as desire pounded her. Her brain shut down and her body took over. She wanted to wrap her legs around his and slip her fingers through that sexy dark hair.
Voices in the hallway floated through her. She heard laughter and the mumbling. The noise broke the spell.
“Stop.” She pushed away from him. Still held on but lessened her grip and put a bit of air between them. “Don’t.”
Her gaze went back to the glass wall. She heard talking but didn’t see anyone. Not unusual at this end of the hall since only Derrick and Jackson had offices there. But she took the sound of voices as a warning. Forcing her fingers to uncurl, she dropped her arms and stepped back another step, ignoring the way the corner of her chair jammed into the side of her thigh.
“Sorry.” Spence visibly swallowed. “I know I’m your boss and it’s weird.”
She looked at him then. Really looked. Saw the flush on his cheeks and his swollen lips. That haze clouding his eyes. He had been as spun up and knocked off balance as she was. It was tempting to shut it all down and let him believe this was about Human Resources and office rules, but it wasn’t. Employees could date and this wasn’t about that.
“We both know this isn’t workplace harassment. You asked permission and I said yes. I know my job doesn’t depend on kissing you. There’s no big power play here.” She laid a lot of sins at his feet, but not that one. His father? Yes. But not Spence.
“I guess that’s something.”
“You hated me and ran away but never threatened my job. You’re not that guy.” She waved a hand between them. “But this—us—we’ve proven it doesn’t work. We’re miserable around each other.”
“I never hated you.”
Reunion With Benefits (The Jameson Heirs Book 2) Page 3
