by Raine Miller
I didn’t want to let go of her hand when Isaac delivered us at the curb in front of the restaurant. It was just the touch of hands—hers and mine intertwined. Just a touch. But not enough. The Smashing Pumpkins understood my pain.
So, as soon as we were under the awning and out of the rain, I took her hand again and didn’t let go until we were inside and seated across from each other. The freedom to rove my eyes over Brooke to my heart’s content was amazing. She was beautiful, of course, and I loved looking, but having her complete attention directed at me was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. She hadn’t pulled away when I’d held her hand. She hadn’t clung for more, either. Brooke was not desperate for my attentions. She just accepted it.
“I hope this is okay,” I said, looking over my menu. Boscono’s on the Hill was a new Italian place in Beacon Hill. “I’ve never been here before. My PA suggested it actually, after I told her I wanted somewhere quiet with great food and a decent wine list. I figured you liked Italian because of your picture the other night.”
“It’s perfect, and I already know what I’m ordering.”
“Even I know what you’re ordering, Brooke.” Some variation of something with meatballs, no doubt. I loved her humor. “What kind of wine do you like?” I asked.
“Something on the sweeter end of the scale. I hope that’s okay,” she said quickly.
“I like it sweet,” I said softly, and then watched her blush again. Fucking hot.
As the waiter came to take our orders and deliver the most expensive Lambrusco that existed at twenty-eight dollars a bottle—and that was probably including a thirty percent markup for the restaurant—I had to appreciate her lack of interest in my wealth. It was refreshing.
I remembered how I’d pressed my lips against the softly scented skin of Brooke’s cheek in greeting her at the design studio. I’d wanted to lick my way down her neck instead, pull her in against me, and suck on the place where her neck drifted into her shoulder. I wanted to feel and experience her response to me. What would she look like when I had my lips on her body? How would she sound? What was she like during sex? Did she taste sweet like this wine we’d been served?
This dinner was going to test my control, but I had to remember to keep things low-key. Coming on too strong would not be the right move with Brooke.
She studied me for a moment before saying, “Just right now you reminded me of someone I know on the island.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, my nan’s fiancé.” She shook her head and smiled. “Gosh, that sounds so strange but I have to get used to it because the wedding is in a month, and I’m planning it.”
“Congratulations to the happy couple.” I couldn’t help wondering who Mrs. Casterley was marrying in her golden years. I’d bet she was still as lovely as I remembered—pretty, kind, and very British, ruling over the house at Blackwater, making sure everything was as perfect as it could be for our imperfect family. I remembered a great deal of patience on her part, especially when we got into trouble and made huge messes as children do.
“I just thought of this, but Herman will be my grandfather once he marries Nan.”
Herman? The back of my neck tingled. Herman was not a common name. I could safely predict that the only Herman living on the island was my uncle. “Herman Blackstone?”
“Are you related to Herman?”
“He’s my uncle. So, Uncle Herman is getting married. Wow. That is awesome.” I’d have to come clean to Brooke about Blackwater. There was no way to keep that secret going. “Have you seen the guest list for the wedding?”
She shook her head in disbelief. “No, they’re still working on it.”
“Well, I imagine my name will be on there when you do.” I was thrilled for him. Herman deserved some happiness after the shit deal he’d been saddled with the first time around. Aunt Cynthia had not been a nice woman. In fact, she was remembered fondly as a fucking hydra. My mother would be beside herself when she heard the news. Imagine a former servant marrying into all that money. I could hear her moaning the words over her chardonnay. I’d be lying if the thought of my mom’s distress over Herman’s news didn’t amuse the goddamn hell out of me.
“So your father and Herman are brothers?” She frowned. “I thought he just had one brother—”
“He did. My father, John William, or JW as he was known, was his only brother and ten years younger than Herman.”
Her expression grew compassionate and I figured she had now finally made the full connection. Such a smart girl.
“Oh, Caleb, I am so sorry for your loss. It happened right before I came back to Boston to help Nan. She thought the world of your father and was heartbroken to hear that he’d passed away.”
“Thank you. I miss him every day.” I took some comfort in knowing his passing had been relatively peaceful with all of us right beside him when he died.
She studied me thoughtfully for a moment, focusing on my eyes mostly. “Caleb, I assume you’ve figured out my nan was housekeeper at Blackwater. Why—why then did you hire me for your renovation after those terrible things I said to you and the hideously disrespectful way I spoke about your family?”
She blinked several times as if she was trying to hold back tears. So tenderhearted.
“Brooke, please let it go.”
“But I don’t understand. I don’t know what you’re doing here, Caleb. With me. The flowers, the job offer, the fifty thousand dollars of damages you paid on my behalf for destroyed suits.” She turned toward the window and stared out at the rain. “My old boss stopped in to deliver my final pay and to thank me in person for having my boyfriend pay for the extensive damages.”
She turned back from the window to hit me with her blazing amber eyes. Sensuous eyes I fantasized about at night when I was alone in my bed—how it would be, having them locked on me while I was buried balls-deep inside her. And I had no doubt it would be fucking spectacular.
“You didn’t even know me that night, Caleb, so why did you do all that for a stranger?”
I reached across the table and took both of her hands in mine. I caressed the back of each one with my thumbs, admiring the delicate bone structure. You’re a banquet for my starving soul. My brother believes I love you. You’ve completely owned me since I first laid eyes on you. “I don’t know why. That is the honest-to-God truth, Brooke. I do not know why I offered to pay the damages, or why I followed you outside to see if you were okay, or why I listened in on where you told your cab driver to go, or why I sent you flowers the next day, and then purposefully gave you my number. I don’t know why I did any of it, except for the fact I wanted to help you . . . when you so obviously needed some kindness from another person. I couldn’t stop thinking about you and needed to know you were all right the following day. You intrigue me, Brooke. I feel like it was fate meeting you, especially now with Herman and your grandmother getting married. We will be connected by their marriage from now on anyway. What are the odds of that happening? I don’t want to think too hard about it; I just want to give fate a fighting chance here.”
“But after I was so horrible to you on the phone?”
“You know what? You were right about everything you said to me. It took me a bit of time to find out the truth. I had no idea Blackwater had been shut down and all employees terminated. No one told me, and possibly even went out of their way to keep me ignorant of that fact.” I didn’t want to say it was my own mother who’d done it, but once Brooke met Mom, she’d understand much better. “But please know I am working on fixing it. Your grandmother and everyone else will be compensated for absent wages and benefits since they lost their jobs. That is a promise.”
“Oh . . .” She trailed off uncertainly. “But you don’t have to do that because of me. Ah, I get it now. You must’ve thought I had figured out who you were when I called to apologize, hmm?”
“Actually I didn’t. Brooke, you surprised me with your phone call, yes, but don’t forget I had already retained y
ou for my renovation before you reached out to me, so I would have hired you for the job anyway. I only found out last Friday who you really were and how our families are linked. I haven’t visited the island in nearly a decade, until just this past weekend. My brother Lucas filled me in on a lot of what’s been going on. I wanted to keep Blackwater out of . . . us,” I waved my fingers back and forth between our bodies, “until I could assess how best to move forward, reclaiming the property and fixing the giant mess made by my own family.”
“I did not know who you were, Caleb.” She brought her hands up to curl beneath her chin. “I never dreamed it was your family who owned Blackwater. I am so horrified right now, just so you know.”
“Well, you look beautiful even when you’re horrified, Brooke. You keep surprising me at every turn. I didn’t want to tell you that it was my family who owned Blackwater until I’d had a chance to right the wrongs.” I really hoped she believed me.
“I want you to remember what I said to you about how it’s not how much money you have, but how you choose to use it. I meant it. You are trying to fix something you had no knowledge of, and I admire your integrity for doing so, but I really hope you aren’t doing it for me, or for the promise of something you might want from me.”
Like having you in bed with me every night? We were speaking the same language at least.
“I’m doing it for me, Brooke.” But I do want you in my bed.
She blushed. I saw her color darken as the blood traveled up her neck and face. I wanted to see that happen when she was naked and in my arms.
“It would have been one big surprise if you showed up at the wedding with neither of us knowing all of this,” she said.
“Like I said before, it feels more like a twist of fate to me.”
“My nan has known you since you were born, Caleb. I just can’t believe it.”
Seeing Brooke so animated in conversation, I wanted to kiss her breathless. “Ask her if she remembers the tomato launchers I made at Boy Scouts when I was twelve. I’m betting it will be a yes.”
She laughed. “I am envisioning an epic tale of squashed tomatoes and the terrifying scolding from my nan that came along with it.”
EVEN watching her eat was entertainment. She’d ordered pasta with a giant goddamn meatball that she then proceeded to cut into tiny pieces and savor one by one. I liked the fact she seemed to enjoy normal food and didn’t care if a lettuce wedge with half a cherry tomato for garnish and a slice of lemon for taste was only thirty calories. Christ, or how filling that crap was to eat. It was all bullshit, and I’d had enough of those types of dinner dates to last me a lifetime.
“Can I ask you a question, Caleb?”
“You just did, but yes.”
“Do you even need your Back Bay penthouse renovated?”
Yes indeed, she was a smart one. Made me hard every time she reminded me of that fact, too. “I’ll let you be the judge once you see it.”
“What if you don’t like my interpretation of your vision for your home?”
“This is why I’ve hired you, Brooke. I need your ideas because I don’t really have an opinion on décor or a particular vision for the place other than transforming it into something more family centered than it is now.”
That got me an eyebrow raise. “Are you planning on starting a family soon?”
I went there in my mind. Yes, I fucking did. I could not stop myself from doing it, either. The image just appeared in my head as if its place was predestined, completely natural and what I envisioned for my future—Brooke holding a baby in her arms, and knowing both of them were mine. Holy. Hell. My heart started throbbing again. In march step with my dick. I was falling in too deep with her to pull myself back out again. And I knew it. There was nothing I could do differently with any of this evolving situation with her. The emotions and feelings of attachment to Brooke just kept piling up bit by bit, growing stronger by the day.
“Ah . . . eventually I will.” Not a lie. Truth.
She cracked a grin that only curled up on one side, making her look sassy and sexy. “And you feel you should be prepared in advance for this future family?”
“Yes, Brooke, I am always prepared. Did I forget to mention that I am an Eagle Scout?” I winked and watched her blush for me again.
“YOU said you only came back to Boston five months ago when your grandmother had her accident. Where were you living before?”
I saw her eyes flick down and sensed discomfort. I was willing to drop the topic—anything to make her smile at me again—but she blew me out of the water with her answer.
“I was living in LA with my husband.” What the fuck?
Not what I was expecting her to say. I looked at her left hand. No ring. And I would have known if she’d worn one the first time I laid eyes on her. I always check for wedding rings.
“You were married?” So very young . . .
A flash of pain filled her eyes, and then a sort of resignation before she answered me. “Yes, for a short time. He died in a car accident nearly a year ago, and our baby—I was in the car, too—was born too early to survive after the trauma from the accident put me into labor.”
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
No wonder I’d recognized such sadness in her. And here I’d just joked about filling my penthouse with a family. I felt like an asshole.
“I am so sorry, Brooke.” I picked up her hand and stroked over the top of it. “Fuck. Devastating. I can’t imagine your pain. Your . . . sadness.”
“Ah, yes my relationship with my friend Sadness is quite solid.” She toyed with her wineglass as she spoke, and then after a long moment she looked up again.
I tilted my head in question, not getting the joke. I was probably in shock at what she’d just told me. She’s been married. Lost her husband and baby in a car accident. I was reminded that when we meet people as we go through our daily lives, we really have zero understanding of what painful shit those poor souls have had to endure. No fucking idea at all. Thoughts of how Aldrich treated her that night made me want to kill the bastard now. I should pay that cocksucker a visit very fucking soon to enlighten the piece of dog shit on the matter of just who he had assaulted at a business reception.
“The movie, Inside Out? It’s a wonderfully insightful animated Disney film about our individual inner emotions and how we need all of them working together in order to function properly. Sadness is my go-to girlfriend.”
“I’ve never heard of that movie.”
“I’m sure it’s not your cup of tea, but perhaps you might watch it one day. You’d get it then.”
“Will you watch it with me?” I asked.
“Maybe,” she said shyly.
“You are very brave.” I pulled her hand up to my lips and kissed the back of it. “That is all.”
“I don’t always feel brave, but I do try to be,” she said, looking down at her wine again.
DINNER evolved into a nearly three-hour affair. Dessert, coffee, conversation that was interesting to the point I was really goddamn disappointed when we had to leave so she could make the 8:30 ferry. I actually hated the thought of her riding that ferry at night. Fucking hated it. But I held my tongue because I was certain she would tell me to mind my own goddamn business.
I had nothing to do with the worse-than-usual traffic. Monday Night Football at Gillette Stadium could take credit for that one.
And the steady rain.
And the four-car pileup that closed the main road down to the harbor.
I could sense Brooke getting more and more anxious as Isaac did his best to get her there in time.
But I am a filthy bastard, and as the minutes remaining until she missed the last boat to Blackstone Island ticked away, I fucking rejoiced silently in my seat beside her.
“No, no, no, Will, you left without me,” she cursed against the window, looking very frustrated and utterly tantalizing sitting inside my car. We could all see the boat had pulled away from its berth and was already movin
g into open water. Nope. Brooke wouldn’t be going home tonight. She would have to stay the night with me at the penthouse. I think my teeth were in danger of cracking from how hard I was grinding them together to hold back my victory yell.
I chose not to mention I owned a helicopter that could get her to the island in fifteen minutes. Nah, I wouldn’t say anything about my helicopter to her, because I wanted her to stay.
I wanted her to stay with me more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.
Brooke
You are welcome to stay at my place tonight. I have three guest rooms for you to choose from.”
I knew Caleb would make the offer before he said the words. I could feel his eyes on me, burning at my back as I watched my ride home float away. A shiver rolled through my body as a feeling of impending change came over me—something big, and something over which I had absolutely no control. It was being set into motion right this very minute. And it scared me.
The partition drew closed with a quiet hum, giving us privacy from his driver. Another shiver shook me.
“Are you cold?” Caleb put his hand on my shoulder and gently pulled me closer.
“No.” I turned away from the window and toward him. “I just—this was the very last thing I expected to happen.”
He smelled so good. I had to fight the urge to fall into his arms just so I could breathe in more of the delicious sexy-man-scent thing he had going on. I was well aware my hormones were screaming, “Yes, bitch, do it now, please!” as they slapped me across the face.
It had been so long since I’d been held with any kind of tenderness. I was tempted to accept his invitation. His presence was commanding up against me on the seat, but he pulled it off without being the slightest bit threatening. Something I’d had ample experience with to know exactly how that felt . . . unfortunately.
