by Jill Sanders
Things had taken a turn for the worse after that. Trina had shown up on her doorstep hysterical in the middle of the night. Tommy had been asleep in his mother’s arms.
Trina had walked around Marina’s apartment rambling about how Brandon was threatening to take Tommy away from her. Apparently, the congressman’s current wife wanted her to have a paternity test on Tommy. If the test was negative, they were threatening to sue her for spreading rumors that he was the father. If the test was positive, they threatened to take him away from her, claiming that she was an unfit mother.
First thing in the morning, Marina had called her lawyer. The conversation had left her feeling discouraged. Money could apparently buy you anything and the Hughes family had enough money to get what they wanted, or at least enough to make her sister suffer for the rest of her life if she decided to fight against them.
A month later, Marina had woken up to find a note on her countertop from her sister. Trina had devised a plan and had outlined it in a four-page letter.
Marina would watch Tommy for one year while Trina laid low. After all, Brandon Hughes wouldn’t come looking for Tommy with Marina since she worked for the paper and had connections.
It wasn’t a safe plan or even a smart one and, at first, Marina thought about calling social services. But within three days of being with the little boy, her heart had melted. After seeing a photographer following her and Tommy at the grocery store, Marina had packed up her belongings and moved into her current apartment under a different name.
Her new landlord had assumed she was running from an ex and had taken the cash deposit and rent with few questions in the last year. No one living near her knew the whole story; at least she didn’t think they had guessed it.
Tommy called her Mari and no one seemed to question why. She thought that maybe he was too young to really remember his mother, so she made sure to talk about her often.
Looking down, she realized she’d been zoning long enough for her computer to fall asleep again. Punching a few buttons, she logged into her email and started scrolling through her inbox.
She stopped at one titled, “I know where you are.” Her fingers shook as she clicked it open.
I know where you are and what you’re doing. You can’t keep him. He’s mine. I will do everything in my power to stop you.
She felt light-headed and stood up to pace. How had the Hugheses found her and Tommy? Sitting back down, she checked the email address and did a little research. The email address was apparently a temporary account.
There wasn’t a signature or even a hint that it was Brandon Hughes or anyone who worked for him. She’d run into the man several times before Trina had finally gone into hiding. He’d threatened to sue Marina as well, but back then she’d had little invested in her sister’s situation and in the little boy who would steal her heart. Now, just the thought of losing Tommy made her palms sweat.
A million thoughts went through her mind. Had Brandon found her through her job? No, Reggie had promised to keep her secret, and she’d known and trusted him for years. Then how had he found them? An image of Trent flashed into her mind. Could he have something to do with this? It was interesting that Trent had shown interest in her one day out of the blue. But she had seen him running for almost a year. It couldn’t be him.
Then who? How? Maybe he had hired a private investigator? After all, she wasn’t an expert at covering her tracks. The paper had her social security number. The school had a copy of Tommy’s information. They had assured her they wouldn’t share it with anyone, but still…One couldn’t hide forever.
For the rest of the day, she worried about what she should do next while she nursed Tommy back to health. By nightfall, she’d worked herself into such a state, she felt a fever coming on.
Chapter Seven
Trent sat on the bench outside of Marina’s apartment and wondered if he should just go up there and knock on the door. When she’d called to cancel their morning meeting, he’d wondered what her game was. He’d gone for his morning jog and had ended up outside the address Ethan had given him.
It was an old stone building that looked like it had seen better days. He knew she was on the second floor, but didn’t know which windows were hers.
He found a bench across the way and sat down to watch and see if she’d come out. He was far enough away that he could easily duck down an alley before she’d see him. After he’d been sitting there a while, he realized that the same black sedan had gone around the block a dozen or more times. The windows were tinted and he could only make out enough to tell that it was the same person driving it. He continued to watch as the sedan passed up parking spot after parking spot. It was going slower than all the other cars and had even stopped once in front of Marina’s building.
He pulled out his cell phone and snapped a picture of the car and plates just out of curiosity. Maybe Ethan could look into who owned the car. Could this be her contact? Could this be the person paying or blackmailing her to destroy his business?
Ethan had given him some homework for the next time they talked. Trent had to come up with a list of people who might want to destroy Manhattan Nights. So far, the list was short; he only had four names written down, none of whom he could imagine would go this far to destroy him or Manhattan Nights.
When the sun started to go down and he hadn’t seen Marina leave her building or seen the sedan in a while, he got up and jogged back to his place. He wanted to text her to make sure everything was all right with Tommy, but didn’t want to feel like a stalker. Even though he had just spent the better part of his day watching her building.
As he jogged the outside steps, he thought about the last time he’d been with her. He didn’t understand what was so appealing about her, but he knew he had the desire to be with her again. He enjoyed the way she felt in his arms, how her lips felt under his. The way she smiled and laughed made his heart skip.
After showering, he was happy to hear his phone chime with a text message.
-Sorry about today. Tommy’s feeling better. Can we try for tomorrow morning?
-Sounds good. I missed seeing you today.
It took a few minutes for the next text to come, but he couldn’t help but smile after reading it.
-I missed you too. Goodnight.
He walked downstairs to his home office and sent his list and the photo of the car to Ethan.
When he walked into Manhattan Nights, he was happily surprised to see that the place was packed. He loved it when the restaurant was booked for a party. Most of his staff was on hand that night so he stood back and watched each one to see if there was a hint of who might be the mole.
Ethan was running an extensive background search on everyone who had recently been hired or fired. He said it would take a few weeks to get any results. Trent doubted he’d find anything since he’d run the standard search on everyone he’d hired. The only employee he could remember having an issue with was Shane Cato. The ex-employee had been caught drinking, and when Trent had confronted him, the man had gotten violent enough that he’d had to call the police to have him physically removed. But that had been almost a year ago and Trent hadn’t heard or seen him since. Regardless, he’d put his name down on the list he’d sent to Ethan.
By closing time, Trent had a list of notes he’d taken after carefully watching each employee. Before letting anyone leave for the night, he called a meeting in the main dining hall.
“Thank you, everyone, for staying a little late. I promise this won’t take long. As you all know, we’ve been getting some bad publicity. But after tonight, I’m reassured that Manhattan Nights is a finely oiled machine. However, I did want to call out a few items I think we can improve on.” At this point, a few people groaned, but he ran through his list quickly and even had a couple employee’s make suggestions about what they thought could be improved. Several of the ideas were good enough that he implemented the changes on the spot.
Two of those ideas had been made by
Angie. Trent was happy to see her stepping up again.
When he finally dismissed the crew, he walked to the back office and looked over the schedules, making a few changes here and there.
The lights were shut off when he walked back into the kitchen. He was shocked to see Angie waiting for him in the parking lot.
“I thought you would have gone already,” he said as he started walking towards her.
“No, just thought I’d wait around for you to see if you wanted to grab a coffee.”
He sighed and thought of his early meeting with Marina.
“Wish I could, but I have an early meeting in the morning.” He looked down at his watch and cringed knowing he’d only get a few hours sleep. “I’m already a few hours shy of sleep.”
She smiled. “I understand. How’s the second site coming along?”
He smiled. “Great. You should swing by sometime. They’ve just put in the walls. Mind you, there’s no ceiling yet.” She smiled.
“Maybe you can show me around sometime.”
He nodded. “I guess it would be helpful to have your thoughts on the kitchen.” He planned on letting his employees decide which site they wanted to work at once Manhattan Nights II was finished.
“Well, I’d better let you get some rest.” She opened her car door. “Good night.” She stood there for another second then got behind the wheel.
When his alarm went off the next morning, he was feeling under the weather. When he stood, everything spun and he had to sit back down. He hated being sick. He took a little longer in the shower, downed a couple aspirin, and pulled on a long-sleeved shirt to ward off the chills that were shaking his body.
When he arrived at the coffee shop, he was drenched in sweat. Marina sat in the corner and frowned when she saw him.
She stood and reached up to feel his forehead. “You’re burning up.” She reached down and grabbed her bags. “Why on earth didn’t you call me and cancel?”
He frowned. “I wanted to see you. You canceled yesterday and this is the last time I can see you before you leave.”
She tugged him out of the coffee shop. “Well, that’s sweet.” She looked up at him and smiled. “But I’m taking you home right now and putting you to bed.” She started pulling him down the street then stopped. “That came out wrong.”
He smiled for the first time, which almost caused his head to explode. He groaned and grabbed it. “How can this hurt so bad?”
“It’s going around. It took Tommy all day yesterday to finally start feeling better.”
He groaned, thinking of spending a whole day sick in bed. Then he remembered what she’d said—she was coming back to his place with him. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.
When he unlocked his front door, she marched him upstairs to his room. He watched her glance around quickly.
He’d spent a lot of money on the interior decorator and the place had come out perfect. It was a great mix of modern meets wood. It wasn’t too masculine that a woman wouldn’t feel comfortable staying over. Yet, he didn’t feel like he was living at his mother’s place.
“Nice space,” she said as she motioned for him to sit on the bed. “Now, did you take something?”
He nodded his head and closed his eyes when the motion made him feel off-balance.
“Try not to move around. Tommy got sick every time he did.”
“Great.” He groaned and leaned back against the headboard.
She bent down and removed his tennis shoes. “You rest here and I’ll make you some tea.”
“Tea?” He groaned again.
“Hmmm, maybe not yet. Rest.” She pushed him back lightly against the headboard.
“It might help if you crawled up here with me,” he said smiling slightly.
She smiled back. “Later. Rest now. I’ll just go make up some soup for later.”
He closed his eyes and groaned again at the thought of food. He fell asleep for a while, and when he woke, his stomach was doing turns, and there was a coat of sweat over his skin. He lunged out of bed and made it into the bathroom just in time to lose the contents of his stomach.
After showering, he started feeling a little better. He could smell something cooking and smiled when his stomach didn’t revolt at the thought of food.
Taking the stairs quietly, he walked into the living room and was happily surprised to see Marina resting on his couch. She’d removed the silver heels she’d been wearing and had tucked her legs up underneath her skirt. Her arms were crossed, causing her breasts to push up higher and making him wish he could feel them against his chest. Her dark eyelashes looked sexy as they rested on her cheeks. Her lips were in a slight pout as she dreamed. Leaning down next to her, he ran his fingers over her check as he pushed a strand of hair away from her forehead.
He knew she might be the reason his business had been suffering the last few months, but he couldn’t deny the attraction he felt for her. She was something more than he’d ever experienced, he just didn’t know what, yet. But he was sure of one thing—he wanted more time to understand what was growing between them and the first step was right in front of him.
Marina was finishing her dream from the previous night. The soft sand was pushing against her back, and Trent’s hands were roaming over her body as she moaned with the pleasure he was giving her. His mouth was hot on hers and when she opened her lips, she tasted the minty zing of his tongue against hers.
His fingers ran through her hair, holding her still as he explored her lips and mouth. She felt his body come over hers as he moved slowly against her. She could feel the hardness in his jeans against the softness of her stomach. She wished that their clothes would disappear like they always did in her dreams, but for some reason she couldn’t will it so.
It took her foggy mind a few moments to realize why—she was no longer dreaming. Opening her eyes slowly, she smiled when she saw his blue eyes smiling back down at her.
“Hello.” He pulled back, using his arms to hover over her.
“Hi.” She smiled. “Did you sleep well?”
He nodded. “You?”
She nodded.
“You could have come up and crawled in bed with me,” he said, running a finger down her cheek.
Her smile faltered.
“We can’t fight it for long.” His smile fell away as his eyes ran over her face. “This attraction we have.”
She nodded, not sure if she trusted her voice. She’d had something for him for too long to deny it—seeing him run almost every day, the nightly dreams she’d had about him undressing her slowly. She felt like she was the one burning up now.
“Marina, let me take you upstairs.” He leaned down and kissed her again. “Let me peel that sexy dress from your body and worship it for hours.” He ran his mouth down her neck and she felt herself shiver at the excitement.
She couldn’t help but moan when his hands ran down her shoulders and cupped her slight breasts gently.
“Is that a yes?” He chuckled as he continued to kiss her. She couldn’t stop herself from nodding.
He pulled back and smiled at her, then pushed himself off the couch and leaned down to pick her up.
“I can walk.” She felt light-headed as he easily carried her towards the stairs.
“Where’s the fun in that?” He chuckled. By the time they got to the top of the stairs, he was breathing hard.
“Maybe I’m still a little weak from the flu.”
She nodded. She’d been breathing hard as well, but it was the anticipation of what was coming up next that had her breath hitching.
He carried her back into his bedroom, stopped just inside the door, and slowly slid her down until her feet rested next to his. She realized then that she no longer had her heels on and that he towered over her. She liked looking up into his crystal blue eyes. She could smell the fresh shower on him, but saw that he hadn’t shaved. The dark stubble on his chin made his light eyes stand out more. She ran her hands in his damp hai
r as he kissed her. When he started moving back towards the bed, she ran her hands down until she gripped his shirt and started tugging it over his head.
“I want to see you,” she said against his lips. She’d dreamed about running her hands over that sexy body since the first time she’d seen him running without a shirt on.
He stepped back and yanked his shirt off over his head. Her eyes raked over him, leaving out no detail. He was beautiful.
When he stepped towards her, she felt a flash of nervousness.
“My turn.” He smiled and started to open the buttons on her white silk shirt. She wore a tank top underneath. He slowly started pulling it up over her head and smiled when finally she stood before him in only her white bra.
They looked at one another for a while, and then he reached out his fingers and brushed the back of his hand over her shoulder and down her chest until he cupped her. Her eyes slid closed and her head fell back with delight.
“So soft. So beautiful.”
When his hand fell away, she opened her eyes, then stepped closer to him and reached out to touch his chest. His skin was soft over his hard muscles. His pecs and lats were impressive; she could spend the entire day exploring him. When she reached for his jeans, he chuckled and took her hands in his.
“Let’s go slow. We have time.” He stepped up to her again and placed soft kisses along her chin.
