Undisclosed Desire (The Complete Box Set

by Falon Gold

  Once the contacts adjust on my eyeballs, I get an up close and too damn personal view of the wall that I’m also pressed into face first, by a body that’s pressing into mine from behind. Warm breath fans the back of my neck. It’s impossible to turn over, to see who had broken into my room during the night and climbed into bed with me, though the room is full of morning light.

  Shit! How did I sleep for the rest of the day and night instead of a couple of hours? And Derek is probably already on his way here. Why didn’t I cancel breakfast with him before I went to damn sleep? One more stupid move for the books, Malisa.

  However, I have an idea of who committed the stupid move of violating my bedroom. I glimpse over my shoulder and get a side shot of the tip of Blake’s shoulders in his wrinkled sheriff’s uniform, just as my mother’s voice rings out in the hallway, on the other side of the closed door.

  “Blake,” I call grumpily.

  “Dammit, Lisa Poo,” he responds before rolling over then settles right back into a sound sleep, like I expected him to.

  Finding him in my bed or on a thick pallet beside it isn’t unusual. I should’ve known that he’d get in this room one way or the another. As a child, he was always in here, instead of in his, which is one room up from mine. But we’re not children, or even teenagers for that matter, and I’m still pissy about what he did to me yesterday. Yet, it’s almost impossible to wake him in the morning, or stay completely angry with him.

  I climb out of the wall to a sitting position and push my hair out of my face in time to see the doorknob turn. I sit and wait for my mother to walk in, so she can find Blake in my bed, then get him out of it. She’s one of the only two people who can.

  The door opens, finally. Lydia materializes in the doorway with Derek and Apollo standing behind her with different emotions ranging in their faces. My mother appears smug, Derek amused, and Apollo, well, he just seems pissy.

  I gasp, surprised. My stomach drops into my abdomen. My heart stalls out. Then I panic, shut my eyes, and begin to pray that I just saw people who aren’t really there, even while the image of Apollo is crystallizing on my brain. If I wanted another shot of getting back with him, well, that’s been shot all to hell now, and he’s still too damn beautiful to look at.

  “Malisa and Blake,” my mother calls sweetly. “It’s eight o’clock and time to get up.”

  If she’s really here, so is Derek and Apollo. Together. And both are too damn early.

  Oh my damn! I should’ve left last night.

  But it’s too late for that, so I open my eyes. Suddenly, the room is much bigger, or maybe it’s just my eyes that are bigger.

  Why do I feel like I’ve been caught cheating?

  “Hey… everyone,” I mutter under my breath, brave enough to make eye contact with only my mother.

  Blake sits up beside me, looks at everyone standing in the doorway, and grins. I can only imagine what Derek and Apollo are thinking. At least I’m fully clothed, and that’s my only consolation on this day that is starting out just plain wrong.

  Derek covers his mouth with one hand, but it doesn’t contain his quiet laughter. “You’re adorable when you wake up, Malisa.”

  I cringe inwardly. “I’m sure you’re the only one that thinks so, Derek. By the way, why is everyone standing outside my room?”

  Apollo shifts his weight, drawing my attention. He steps around my mother, and then inside the room.

  “Is that better?” he asks sarcastically. His eyes cut me wide open.

  I know that look well. I've touched a nerve, and that’s never a good thing to do with Apollo. I seem to be doing all the wrong things concerning him lately, and it started the minute I allowed him to become more than my boss.

  I swallow hard, before answering, “Actually, it’s not better, Mr. Ford. How did you get here?”

  “I drove,” he deadpans. “With Derek calling shotgun. I didn’t want to bother Sheriff Powers at the station or your family when I had a perfectly good GPS system in my rental. And Derek was at the airport waiting for you to pick him up. I couldn’t exactly leave him standing beside his plane on the tarmac, now could I?”

  Apollo’s explanation takes me by surprise. He has to be absolutely secure within himself to give a ride to a man that wants to date the same woman as he does. It’s going to be interesting when he realizes that Blake and Sheriff Powers are one and the same, and in the bed beside me. However, I’m more interested in the part where Apollo said he drove here. I’ve never seen him take time to drive a ball down the golf course, even less a car. And since when does he wear casual white, Polo shirts and dark blue jeans with designer bleach spots on the thighs, with white hiking boots?

  They fit him just as beautifully as his suits do.

  “I didn’t know you could drive, Mr. Ford.”

  “Doesn’t mean I can’t do it. It’s hard to do when you and I are going over details for my next piece of business, isn’t it? That’s why I have a full-time driver.”

  That makes sense.

  “Well, you probably need to make finding my replacement your next piece of business, because I need you to let me out of my contract early, please.”

  My heart still can’t imagine working with him without being with him, even when my mind knows that’s probably the best thing for everyone involved, especially my heart. Whether it wants to accept it or not.

  “Not a chance, Malisa,” he spits from low in his throat. “The contract between us is there for a reason, so my assistant for the next nine months is right here… sleeping with another man.”

  I suspect he’s gritting his teeth, too, still angry as hell with me… and possibly jealous. This just makes me angry. He doesn’t have the right to be anything, when he pushed me a whole state away.

  “Be glad that’s all we were doing, Mr. Ford. You should enjoy the next nine months, because I’m done being absorbed into your life and missing out on mine. And for the record, the other man is my emotionally-demanding, adopted brother, Blake. Blake meet Apollo and the grinning jack behind mama, Derek.”

  Blake sniggers. “I’m a cop, Lisa Poo. I got all that already. Now what’s for breakfast?”

  My mother and two men just walked in on us in the same bed together, albeit fully-clothed, and he wants breakfast, when the new reason for Apollo being angry with me is all his fault. I reach behind me, grab a pillow, and swing it at Blake’s head, which he easily blocks with his forearm and gets to his feet.

  “Seriously, do you ever do anything besides harass me, muck my life up, and eat, Blake?”

  He’s still a walking parasite on two legs that consumes everything edible.

  “Nope,” he responds casually, and then tucks the stray tails of his shirt into his slacks, making the situation even more awkward, at least for me. “Harassing you, Lisa Poo, mucking up your life, and eating are the most important things in this world to me. But not necessarily in that order. Mama O, I’m hungry, and Lisa Poo just assaulted a cop. Spank her. Where’s Pop?”

  Lydia points behind her with a thumb thrown over her shoulder. “In his den with the other family, and breakfast will be cooked by Malisa. I’m taking a break today.”

  I scoff, “In other words, you’re going to be all up in my business.”

  She grins. “Yep, so get up, baby girl. Shower, dress, and please comb your hair. It’s everywhere. Apollo and Derek, follow me.”

  She turns on her heels and walks away. Derek and Blake trail her out of the room. Apollo stands his ground, while eyeballing me while I undoubtedly look a mess. I raise my hands to my head, to cover up at least the sides of my bedhead. His intense stare makes heat spike in my blood, which is already rushing through my veins and creating its own warmth. I’m destined to always be too hot around this man, and I should just get used to it.

  “You’re beautiful, my Lisa,” he whispers, and adds a little more heat to my system. He is sure to put emphasis on the word my.

  “That’s not…” I pause, thinking it would be r
ather rude and ungrateful to throw his compliment back at him. That’s how we got in this mess in the first place.

  I exhale, wishing for a cool breeze, and let my hands drop to my knees. He’s already seen the bird’s nest on my head, but I’m wondering why is he still here, in my bedroom.

  “Thank you, Mr. Ford. Now what can I do for you?”

  He wastes no time replying, “Talk to me.”

  I know that’s exactly what we need to do, even if he just needs to smooth things over with his best employee. I won’t be after my contract is up.

  There’s nowhere to have a private conversation at my parents’ house about anything.

  “I would talk to you, if we were somewhere else. Privacy is but a dream around here. My mother will be back at any second, to interrupt. She doesn’t like when her commands are ignored.”

  Lydia materializes in my doorway, as if I’ve summoned her with magic. “You’re right, baby girl, and I’m already back, interrupting.”

  Apollo glances back at my mother, before retraining his eyes on me, again. “Just promise me that’ll you hear me out before we leave for Utah.”

  I can certainly hear him out, but leaving today isn’t going to work for me.

  “Mr. Ford, I need to use some of my vacation time to just take some time for myself. At least a week… or two.”

  His shifts his weight to one foot and drops his suddenly tightly-clenched fists to his side. “I can’t agree to that, Malisa. If you want me to hire another PA, you’ll have to start training her right away. You practically run my company singlehandedly, and it’ll take the next nine months, if not longer, to find someone who is as capable as you are in the office. You can take your vacation time off the back end of your contract. You have two months’ worth.”

  I find it hard to believe that he’s willing to reduce my sentence by two months and taking my advice about hiring a second PA, finally, but at least something’s changed between us. Even the catch-22 that I’ve lived in on the edge of his world has morphed in conditions; I’m not secretly loving him anymore. He knows it now. It didn’t work out, and yet I still have to work with him. I’m still damned if do, damned if I don’t, and it’s true that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I no longer see the point in trying to fight the system that Apollo’s put in place around me. It doesn’t seem to do me any good.

  “Fine, I’ll fly out tonight… if I can, and be at work bright and early tomorrow, to put the word out that you’ll looking for a new PA.” I agree to this, because I have the feeling that my heart won’t heal until I do.

  “Thank you, Malisa. See you downstairs.” Apollo takes a step toward me then stops, and just stares. His eyes darken. His gaze intensifies until a ball of pressure emerges in my core then discharges as ripples that encompass my whole body and impact my lungs. I visibly tremble from the force of the alien energy moving through me, and then it settles between my thighs as a steady throb.

  What the fuck was that?

  My chest heaves, as I suck up all the air to replace what suddenly went missing from my lungs. Apollo smiles with just one side of his mouth then turns away, but the magical exhibition he performed with just a look sticks with me.

  Chapter Twelve

  My mother and I watch him walk toward her, pass by her in the doorway, and then vanish in the hallway. When I think he has arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Lydia takes a seat on the bed.

  “Mama, why did you bring them up here?” I ask, while still reeling from the effects of Apollo’s visual attack on my body. “You had to know Blake was in the bed with me.”

  Not much gets by her in her house, and she’d stuck me in the most uncomfortable of positions. She and Blake don’t seem to care what everyone else will think when they find out what just happened, but I sure as hell do.

  She smirks. “I knew exactly where Blake was. Apollo needs to be taught a few lessons, like other men will quickly fill his shoes if he doesn’t stick around to wear them himself.”

  I close my eyes and grumble, “Is there such a thing as privacy around here anywhere? You heard for yourself, mama, that we are not getting back together.”

  Sympathy rolls through her face like an incoming hurricane taking over a city. “How do you feel about that, baby girl?”

  “I still want him,” I mumble without thinking, my heart speaking for me.

  “Then make him work for it, Malisa. Don’t just give up, but don’t give in to him too easily, either. If Apollo loves you like I think he does, he’ll give you what you need just to keep you. Lord knows he can afford it with the two billion dollars sitting in his bank account.”

  One bushel of advice down, and only God knows how many more to go.

  I drop back on my hands and roll my head on my neck. Tension steadily rises, along with the uncomfortableness of this conversation that I didn’t want to have with my mother. She’s about to find out why her daughter hasn’t been home. I don’t want to see the disappointment in her eyes.

  “I said I still want him, mama, not that I’m taking him back. Being with him for one night nearly cost my everything.”

  My heart lost it all.

  “I know that’s how you feel now, baby girl. But even if you had Apollo for one night or one eternity, the love of our lives has a way of making us change our minds, and it doesn’t mean he’ll give up on you just because you’ve given up on him. I wouldn’t count him out just yet, either. From what I heard from just the short conversation between you two, he’s doing things that he normally doesn’t do, and he’s doing them for you. He seems like the kind of man that gets what he wants when he decides it’s the right time for him to have it, too. And I doubt if obstacles will keep him from what he wants. I can tell that just by looking at him. But if you don’t want him, all you have to do is say the word. Now…”

  She pauses, to grip my hands tightly in hers and pull me face to face with her. Her eyes aren’t filled with disappointment or judgment like I expected them to be.

  “I’m going to cook, Malisa, since I’m hungry and you’re still in the bed. Blake will cook if we don’t, and nothing he makes will be edible. You take all the time you need to get ready. I got a ski suit that’ll fit you if you decide to take a walk later, if you want it. You will, because Apollo will insist on taking a walk. Privacy is nonexistent around here.”

  Her observation of the ‘having one’s space’ shortage pulls a giggle from me, and I never said Apollo was worth two billion dollars.

  “How do you know he’s wealthy?"

  My family is already starting to smother me, with love.

  “The internet is available to everyone, not just the young people,” she snipes.

  I giggle.

  God, what’s with the giggling?

  “You’re forty-five, mama, not old. But if you can work a computer so well, how about you track my packages for me? My new, clean clothes should be arriving today, or I’ll be walking around naked at work tomorrow. I’ll take you up on that ski suit for later and the use of your washer and dryer.” I’ll need the walk, even if Apollo doesn’t.

  “I’ve already washed your clothes that were in your duffel bag. I got them after Blake picked your lock last night. We both wanted to make sure you were okay. They’re in the top drawer of your dresser under the window. Nice dresses, by the way. And your new, clean clothes came a few minutes before I came up. They’re outside your door. Apollo brought them up.”

  I shake my head and laugh. I should’ve known she’d be standing right beside Blake when he broke in my room last night. The Apollo I’ve gotten to know this weekend would’ve insisted on bringing up my clothes when I couldn’t step in and stop him.

  Lydia’s fingers begin to fiddle with mine. “I told Apollo that Blake was in here with you before I opened the door, by the way. And then, I told him that him Blake is your brother by choice, not blood. Apollo wasn’t happy about any of it, completely jealous.” Then she breaks out in guilty snickers.

  I
guess I’m not crazy; Apollo was jealous, which only makes me laugh harder.

  “My own mother set me up while most of the family is here, giving them something to speculate about. Did they ever go home last night?”

  “I set Apollo up. You and Blake just got caught in the crossfire, but I don’t see any bullet holes in either of you, so I think you’re both good. Yes, the family went home. But everyone came back as early as they could, after getting their kids off to school, to see the fireworks here. Big mouth Blake told everyone about the two men who would be showing up this morning.”

  “You are ruthless, mama! I’m starting to believe daddy when he claims your father was a mob boss. I should’ve just called home yesterday, instead of coming here.”

  She raises one eyebrow and tilts one corner of her mouth up, a devilishly grin if I’ve ever seen one. “You have no idea how ruthless I can be, baby girl. And my father was—”

  “Where are the eggs, Mama O?” Blake yells up the stairs, interrupting.

  Several loud denials of eating anything he cooks if he can’t even find the eggs follow right behind Blake’s yell. Uncle Tommy is the loudest of the bunch that’s probably running from the formal dining room attached to the left side of the kitchen, wanting to remain living.

  My mother releases my hands to stand up. “I have to go, baby girl. Blake knows what he’s doing. Threatening to burn my house down will get him what he wants. Breakfast!”

  I flop backwards on the bed and let the expanding amusement in my chest rise out of my mouth. “Mama, you have completely spoiled and ruined that man for any woman.”

  “That’s her problem,” Lydia chirps back then bends over me and pecks me on the forehead. “I love you, baby girl.”

  “I love you too.”

  She moves toward my bedroom’s doorway. I follow her into the hallway littered with three big boxes lined against the wall, which I have no hope of carrying into my room. Instead, I bend at the waist and peel the tape back on the first one, and then take the first pair of whatever is fit for Colorado’s weather off the top. It happens to be an off-the-shoulder brown, crochet sweater, black skinny jeans, and brown wedge-heel boots. What I’m missing is a coat that can keep the wind and cold from molesting me, but that’s nothing a trip to town or the coat to my mother’s ski suit won’t cure.