by Debra Webb
Before she could make those very observations out loud, Doug was out of the car and opening her door.
As Eddi emerged, the massive front door opened and a tall, well-dressed man, probably in his late sixties, descended the steps, paused at the bottom and executed a sort of bow for her.
“Miss Harper,” he said in a voice that was both refined and perfectly modulated, “we’ve been expecting you.”
“Douglas Cooper,” Doug said, taking the pressure of a response from Eddi.
The man acknowledged his introduction with a nod. “James Montgomery. Someone will see to your car, Mr. Cooper. Now, if you don’t mind, Mrs. D’Martine and Mr. Thurston are waiting.”
Mr. Montgomery promptly turned on his heel and led the way up the steps. Doug leaned down and whispered, “The butler.”
Eddi absorbed the information and chastised herself for not thinking of that. A house this size and a family this wealthy would have a full household staff. Maids, cooks, butler, the works.
Inside, Eddi barely covered her mouth before a gasp escaped. The foyer was incredible and huge! Marble floors and paneled walls. A double, sweeping staircase unfolded like welcoming arms and flowed onto a second-story landing. It rivaled any other she’d seen in the movies or in magazines. Vases of fresh flowers sat here and there and exquisite artwork adorned the walls. But the one thing that made her pulse skip was the huge family portrait that hung on the wall midway up one side of the staircase. Directly across on the opposite side a grouping of smaller, individual portraits hung, but it was the massive one that mesmerized her.
Before she could study the details more closely, Mr. Montgomery paused near a closed set of rich mahogany double doors. “I’ll be along with tea, sir. Please join Mrs. D’Martine in the library.”
“Thank you, Montgomery,” Doug said in a tone that was every bit as refined as the butler’s. Without further explanation he opened the doors and stood back for Eddi to enter before him.
Had Doug been here before? Or were all mansions built on the same floor plan? He sure seemed to know all the right moves.
The library turned out to be a cross between an office and a den…only bigger than any she’d ever seen.
Mr. Thurston stood near a grand fireplace that dominated the far wall.
“Ah, Miss Harper, Mr. Cooper, you’ve arrived.”
Well, duh, Eddi mused. Why was it everyone around here liked to state the obvious?
“Mr. Thurston,” Doug said without offering his hand this time.
Eddi was pretty sure she’d picked up on some bad vibes between the two men when she first met them. Doug didn’t appear to like Mr. High-and-Mighty Attorney.
“Edwinna.”
Eddi looked up at the sound of her name. A woman stood next to Mr. Thurston now. She’d evidently been seated in the high wingback chair facing the fireplace and keeping her hidden from view. But Eddi could see her now. Her breath hitched again as her eyes took in what her brain was so slow to accept. The woman standing only a few feet away was maybe in her seventies, but still looked fit. She was of average height and rather thin. Her manner of dress was impeccable. But none of that was responsible for Eddi’s runaway pulse. The woman looked so very much like Eddi, only older. Pictures just didn’t provide the full impact. A small shock rocked through her and she had to close her eyes then look again to be sure she wasn’t imagining things.
“Dear God,” the older woman murmured. “She is just as you described, Brandon.”
The attorney nodded, then said to Eddi, “Miss Harper, may I present to you your grandmother, Solange D’Martine.”
When Eddi stood there, rooted to the spot, Solange took the initiative and moved toward her.
“Thank you for coming, Edwinna.” She smiled and took Eddi by the arms just long enough to press one cheek to hers. “I am so happy to have you home,” she added when she drew away.
“Eddi,” she insisted tightly. “Call me Eddi.” The heart that only moments ago had been racing now flopped jerkily in her chest.
Solange acknowledged the request with a vague smile. “I hope your trip was pleasant.”
“Yes. It was fine,” Eddi assured her. What did she say now? She prayed Doug would rescue her.
Thankfully he didn’t have to. The doors opened and the butler entered carrying a tray. Without a word, he placed it on a nearby table, executed another of those small bows in Solange’s direction and made his exit as efficiently as he’d entered.
“Shall we sit?” Solange suggested in a voice that still held just the slightest glimmer of a European accent. “I’m sure you’re exhausted and in need of refreshment.”
Eddi was more than certain that she could not drink anything at the moment. Her stomach was tied in a thousand knots. It took all her resolve not to wring her hands. Trying not to stumble over Doug who, thankfully, prepared to sit beside her on the sofa, she could scarcely take her eyes off her grandmother.
Solange had the same strawberry-blond hair, though it was mostly gray now, and the streak of pure white was exactly like Eddi’s. And the eyes…sweet Jesus…the blue eyes were duplicates of her own.
Solange settled in an elegantly tufted satin chair and studied Eddi with the same curiosity. Finally, she said, “I’ve considered at length where we should start and I believe that it is in our best interests to speak openly and honestly.”
Eddi nodded her agreement, then shook her head at the attorney when he offered her a cup of tea. Totally at ease in the environment, Doug accepted the offer of refreshment, which postponed the conversation a few seconds. Eddi tried to calm herself…to slow her respiration, but her efforts were useless.
“You are the daughter of my one and only son, part of his flesh, his blood flows through your veins,” Solange announced quietly and determinedly. “That alone makes you more valuable to me than anything else on earth.”
Eddi swallowed or attempted to. Emotion had closed her throat, but she managed a jerky nod. A verbal response was out of the question.
“My only request is that we take the next few days and get to know each other and then you can make a decision as to whether you would choose to accept what is rightfully yours.”
“I don’t understand.” Eddi shook her head. “What is it that you believe is rightfully mine?”
Solange D’Martine focused that eerily familiar blue gaze on Eddi’s and said without hesitation, “All that I possess.”
“SHE CAN’T BE SERIOUS!”
Doug waited patiently for Eddi to calm down, but it didn’t appear that was going to happen in the near future. She paced the lavish room she’d been provided like a caged lion.
“I mean, I know I’m the only heir and that she doesn’t have anyone else, but, jeepers, why would she say such a thing? She doesn’t even know me. I could be some sort of con artist. Well, she did have me investigated, I imagine.”
“Is that a rhetorical question?” Doug mused. He smiled in consolation. “After all, you did answer the question even before you asked it.”
She wheeled on him, shooting daggers at him with those sea-blue eyes. “You know what I mean.”
He knew a number of things. Like the fact that the soft pink slacks and matching sweater looked fantastic on her. Anyone who wondered if there had been a womanly figure hidden under those overalls wouldn’t have any questions now. Womanly and enticing. He resisted the urge to shake his head at his poor judgment and total lack of discipline. Keeping his perspective was supposed to be easier now.
She spun around and paced the length of the room again, giving him a gut-wrenching view of her very, very fine derriere. Not only had those overalls been hiding her figure, they had, apparently, camouflaged her ability to walk like a temptress. How could anyone so innocent move so sensually?
The precise reason he shouldn’t be having these thoughts, he reminded the part of him that refused to see reason.
“What am I supposed to do with all this?” She waved her arms magnanimously. “I’m a plumb
er, not a…a whatever she is.”
“Eddi, don’t get so bent out of shape just yet,” he suggested in a far calmer tone than he had justification to possess at the moment. “Do as Mrs. D’Martine suggested. Take a few days. See what she’s offering and then make your decision.”
“You’re no help!” She puffed out a frustrated breath. “You sound just like them.”
A new kind of tension slid through him. Time to shift gears a bit. He stood and joined her in the center of the room where she momentarily hovered, looking ready to burst into tears or to start stamping her foot in frustration.
“Listen to me,” he suggested gently. “Solange is agoraphobic. She never leaves the house. I’m certain she fears for the empire her husband’s family spent generations building. Admittedly she has a loyal board of directors and a top-notch CEO, but that’s not quite the same as having the personal touch from a true member of the family. I’m thinking that she desperately wants you to take up where your ancestors left off. In her eyes, it’s your birthright…your duty.”
“Ohhh.” Eddi took her head in her hands. “But I don’t need another duty. I told you that before.”
“You also told me,” he reminded a tad more firmly, “that you wanted to help your real family.”
She made a weary sound and wrapped her arms around her middle. “I do. But…” She shook her head. “This is all too overwhelming. How can I make a decision when there’s so much to consider. I don’t know anything about any of this.”
He smiled down at her and wished he could take her in his arms and comfort her the way he longed to. “You’ll know all you need to in a few days. Trust yourself, Eddi. You’ll make the right decision.”
Before he realized her intention, she leaned into him. Rested her forehead against his chest. Doug told himself not to move…not to respond, but he couldn’t help himself. His arms went around her.
“I’m afraid,” she murmured into his shirt. She knotted her fingers there and moved in closer, aligning her body with his until he thought he would groan with the pleasure of it.
“What are you afraid of?” he whispered, his lips nestled against her sweet-smelling hair.
“I’m afraid I’ll lose myself.”
Doug understood exactly how she felt. There had been a time not so long ago that he’d lost himself. No one who hadn’t been there could possibly understand just how frightening the prospect was. For that reason, and that reason alone, he held her. Held her until she felt strong enough to stand on her own again. Held her closer than he’d ever held anyone else before, until she was ready to let go.
DOWNSTAIRS, JUST BEFORE dinner, Eddi was introduced to a dozen members of the household staff, including maids, cooks, gardeners and her grandmother D’Martine’s private secretary who had come for dinner just to meet Eddi.
As Doug had promised, he stayed close by. Eddi looked to his lead for each course that was served. He never let her down, not once. Warmth spread like wildfire through her each time she thought of the tender way he’d held her this evening when she’d all but come undone. He’d held her for as long as she needed him to and not for a second had he allowed it to turn sexual. He just held her until her fears passed.
Not that she was no longer afraid, but she did feel more prepared to face what lay ahead of her.
Since he occupied the room directly across the hall from hers, she felt comfortable and safe. At least as safe and comfortable as she could this far away from home.
A stab of homesickness plunged deep into her chest when she thought of her parents and how worried they were. They tried to hide it, but she knew. She’d called to let them know she had arrived safely and she could hear the worry in her mother’s voice. This was so hard on them.
And she didn’t want that.
Realizing her grandmother was speaking to her, Eddi jerked back to the present. She mentally scrambled to catch up with the conversation.
“You’ve had a lot with which to cope today, I’m certain,” Solange was saying. “Taking that into consideration, we won’t make any plans for this evening. But tomorrow I’d like to begin your proper introduction to the family history and all that your birthright entails.”
Uncertain of herself even to make an appropriate response, Eddi looked to Doug. He nodded once, giving her the go-ahead. Her courage bolstered, she smiled and replied, “I’d like that.”
Her response appeared to please Solange thus providing Eddi with serious relief. She scanned those seated at the enormous dining table and wondered if they ever looked around and asked themselves how it was possible for one person to have amassed such wealth.
Eddi supposed not. Thurston and the others were likely used to this sort of thing. They would consider her life back home in Meadowbrook meager and meaningless. Doubt twisted inside Eddi once more. Of course, she found all of this incredibly exciting on one level, but the fear she had shared with Doug haunted her on a dozen others. What if she allowed herself to be lured into this world of glamour and glitz? There would be no room for the Eddi she had always been.
She had to hold on with both hands and pray that insignificant little Edwinna Harper, plumber extraordinaire, didn’t get lost in the shuffle. She glanced around the elaborately decorated and furnished room that was larger than her whole house. Getting lost in all this would be far too easy. Her gaze sought Doug. He was her anchor. Her rock. All that kept her steady. She could count on Doug.
DOUG SHOULDERED OUT OF his holster and weapon and tossed both onto the bed. He hoped he wouldn’t have to use excessive force in this assignment. He didn’t want to think about Eddi being caught in the line of fire. Now or ever. But the precaution was, unfortunately, necessary considering the tragic D’Martine history.
Solange D’Martine was one determined woman. She made no bones about her intentions. She fully anticipated Eddi’s becoming an integral part of her family as well as her business dealings. If Doug had his guess, she’d expected to do that even before meeting Eddi. The whole situation definitely warranted the feelings of being overwhelmed that Eddi suffered.
Eddi was caught between the love for the parents who’d raised her and the desire to learn about her biological father and the heritage he had left her. Right now Eddi didn’t want to admit any such desire, but it was there. Doug could feel it. She wanted to know…to be a part of it on some level. But her loyalty to Millicent and Harvey Harper would hold her back.
Not for long, Doug would wager. Eddi, like her grandmother, was far too determined to pretend away all that had been offered to her. Conversely, Doug didn’t doubt for a second that she would always take care of her parents. But this was bigger than her and it had already done a hell of a job of swallowing her up. She simply hadn’t owned up to it just yet.
Doug could only hope she would have the required tough exterior to handle one of the less-than-pleasant aspects of wealth and instant fame—the media. She would learn very soon how cruel the wielders of the mighty pen could be.
He couldn’t protect her fully from that, but he’d try to prepare her for it. That way it wouldn’t come as such a shock. They had talked about the various celebrities who had been hounded by the press in recent years. The Duchess of York, the late Princess Diana, the Kennedy children.
Readers thrived on learning what the rich and famous were up to. Doug didn’t really have a problem with that. What annoyed him was the false reporting. The kind of reporting that had lost him the one woman he’d loved in this lifetime.
His playboy reputation, which was grossly overstated, and the fact that he was the last male member of the Cooper-Smith family who wasn’t wed, had been played to the hilt. When his fiancée could handle the innuendos no longer, she’d dumped him and walked away without looking back once. His whole world had been shattered. For the first time in his life, Doug had realized he didn’t even know who he was. He worked in his father’s Wall Street office. He played in the same social circles as his siblings and he did all the things expected of him. At
tended the right school, dated the proper female candidates. He focused so completely on doing everything right, he forgot one important thing—himself.
When his fiancée rocked his world by walking out, he realized that he didn’t even know who he was. Never had, not really. So the journey had begun. To his family’s dismay, he bowed out of the limelight and devoted himself to a smaller part in the world. One which allowed him to feel as if what he did really mattered in the final scheme of things. Slowly but surely he’d found the man he wanted to be.
This—he looked around the lavish room—was no longer the place for him.
A light rap on his door dragged his attention back to the present. He knew by the hesitation and lack of authority behind the soft knock that it was Eddi. That aside, all it took was one glance at the small monitor positioned next to his bed to know she’d left her room. He quickly turned the monitor off since he wasn’t sure Eddi would approve of her grandmother’s security measures.
When he opened the door she stared up at him, already dressed in her lovely new silk negligee, and blurted, “I can’t sleep. Do you mind if I hang out with you a while?”
Doug told himself not to but his eyes appeared to have a mind of their own. He slowly, thoroughly surveyed every single detail of how the peach-colored silk lay against her skin.
“Yeah, sure,” he said at last when he’d stared as long as politely possible. It was a mistake, but he stepped aside and allowed her to enter his room, the silk whispering against her flesh as she moved.
For a while she simply stood there in the center of his room. She declined to sit when he offered and insisted she wanted nothing to drink. But, she wanted something, that much was clear. His entire body reacted to her presence…to the unspoken need emanating from her.
Finally, she looked up at him and said the last thing he’d expected to hear, “Doug, I know this is above and beyond the call of duty, but would you mind kissing me?”
