“Thank you, Brant,” she whispered tearfully as she stood, giving him a hug. Pulling back, she asked, “Could you please not tell anyone, even your family? I . . . just don’t want people looking at me like my parents did.”
“Of course.” He was just dropping his arms from around her when the door burst open. He saw the smile quickly slipping from Emma’s lips as she stood in the doorway. As she started to turn away, he said, “Emma, come on in.” She stopped uncertainly as Alexia turned, looking toward the door. “Emma, this is a friend of mine, Alexia, and Alexia, this is my . . .”—fuck what do I say here?—“assistant, Emma.” Both said hello. Maybe it was his imagination, but the moment seemed awkward as hell to him.
Alexia picked up her handbag. “I’ll see you later on, Brant.” With a parting smile to Emma, she walked out the door. If he had thought things were awkward before, it was doubly so now. He found himself wanting to squirm under Emma’s unwavering stare. He was just helping a friend. He really hadn’t done anything wrong. Maybe he needed to stop acting so damn guilty then.
“Good morning, Emma.” He walked over to shut the door behind her. “I’ve been waiting for you to get here for hours it seems.” Real good, now it sounds like you’re chastising her for being late to work. “I mean, I got here early, so you’re not late.” Yeah, that was much better.
“It looks like you found something to occupy your time. Did you need anything?” she asked over her shoulder as she turned to leave.
Grabbing her hand, he pulled her back against him. “She’s just a friend who came to me because she needs some help.” Looking down at her formfitting black dress, he groaned, “God, you look good today.” Just as Emma softened and moved closer to him, the door burst open yet again.
“Bro, was that your ex I just passed in the hallway?” Declan asked. Brant closed his eyes briefly as Emma stiffened and pulled away. Declan grimaced, noticing for the first time his arm around Emma. “Um, shit, sorry about that. I was just . . . surprised to see Alexia. Maybe I was wrong; it didn’t look anything like her.”
This was just going from bad to worse. He was afraid of what Declan would say next in an effort to pull his foot from his mouth. “It’s fine,” Brant said, “and, yes, it was Alexia.”
Emma pulled her arm away, saying, “I’m going to my desk now,” without making any further eye contact.
When she closed the door behind her, Brant turned to his brother. “Thanks for that.”
Declan took a seat in front of the desk, giving him a wry grin. “That wasn’t one of my smoothest moments. What’s going on here? It sure seemed like I walked in on something.”
Brant took his seat, running a hand through his hair in frustration. He had never been comfortable talking about his personal life, even with his family. He was sorely in need of some moral support, though, and knew that a newly married Declan was more likely to provide that than his sister. “Things with Emma have gotten . . . interesting.”
“Interesting?” Declan asked. “Could you be a little more specific?”
Finally Brant blurted out, “Interesting as in I want her now more than I want to choke her.”
Declan’s eyes widened before he started chuckling. “I always knew that if you two ever stopped all the bitching, you would probably be all over each other. No one argues that much if they don’t give a damn.”
“Yeah, well, suffice it to say, I can’t get her out of my head. I could probably have saved myself a few stomach ulcers if I had parted ways with her after our first verbal sparring match, but that, as they say, is history. Now thanks to her walking in on me while I was hugging Alexia and you announcing to everyone in a three-block radius that she’s my ex, Emma is probably ready to run.”
“Sorry about that. Not cool at all on my part. What is Alexia doing here, though? I didn’t think you had spoken with her in years.”
“I haven’t,” Brant agreed. “She’s in a bit of a bind and needs my help.”
“What kind of help?” Declan asked.
Brant shook his head. “It’s private and I’ve promised her not to tell anyone. It’s going to make it difficult with Emma though.” Before his brother could dig further, he decided to change the subject. “So how’s the whole family thing working out for you?”
The old Declan would have cringed over a question like that, but the new one just grinned. “It’s all good. Ella almost burned the place down last night when she attempted to make homemade manicotti. Evan and I had to wear towels over our faces for an hour. When the smoke detector went off, she started crying. It was a damn mess there for a while. I told her there was no shame in picking up take-out. Without people like us, restaurants would go out of business. It’s a fucking hormonal minefield at our place right now. You make one wrong step and you go from hero to zero in the blink of an eye. Thank fuck that Mac was smart enough not to mention the smell when he got there for his well-done dinner.”
Brant chuckled, trying to picture the scene Declan was describing. It sounded absolutely terrifying, but his brother seemed perfectly content. “You’ve got a few cooking skills; why don’t you help Ella out?”
Declan gave him a rueful smile, saying, “I’ve tried, but she is craving all this stuff right now that is beyond both our skill levels. I usually just have her call in what she wants and I pick it up on the way home. She thinks on the nights that Evan is there, though, that he should have home cooking. I finally had to tell her last night that the kid is better off with McDonald’s than smoke inhalation.” Looking down at his watch, Declan stood, saying, “Man, I got sidetracked, but I came by to tell you that Jason has called a meeting for ten this morning. He has his eye on another company that he is thinking of acquiring. We need to head out to the fifth-floor conference room.”
He followed his brother out on their way to the conference room, with Emma refusing to make eye contact, but Brant heard Declan chuckle under his breath when she called him Mr. Stone on the way out the door. He would take her to lunch today and explain as much as he could without breaking his promise to Alexia. He wished for a moment that they were still in Florida without the stress and interruptions of their everyday life. Things had been simpler then. How could a morning that had seemed so promising only hours ago have gotten off course so fast? Playing the love-struck boyfriend had been like second nature when they were together in Florida. A large part of him knew that it hadn’t been acting at all; it had been acceptance of what had always been between them.
Chapter Thirteen
Emma sagged back against her chair as Brant followed his brother out the door. She was extremely grateful to have a moment to herself. In her eagerness to see Brant, she had made it to work ten minutes early, knowing he would already be there. She had burst through the door of his office only to come to an abrupt standstill at the sight of him standing there with a beautiful woman wrapped in his arms. At first, she thought she must have been imagining it. In all the time she had worked for him, Brant had never had a woman in his office who wasn’t a business colleague. But something about the familiar way he held this woman had signaled something very different between them.
The woman had been friendly enough. There had been only curiosity in her gaze as she greeted Emma. Brant, though, had looked decidedly uncomfortable. Declan had walked in only minutes later, supplying the missing piece to the puzzle. This woman was Brant’s ex. The only question was his ex what? Girlfriend or wife? Had he been married before? She had never heard anything along those lines. Suddenly, though, her position in Brant’s life seemed very precarious. Was their time together in Florida truly just a weekend fling? She had always assumed that Brant didn’t have a life other than work, but now she knew that he had been involved and that the woman was very much in his life.
She realized there was only one thing you could do when you were in this much turmoil: Call the girls.
Emma walked from the elevator toward the lobby of the main floor of the Danvers building. She was relieved to be meeting
her friends for lunch but depressed that Brant hadn’t returned before she left. Suzy, ever punctual, was the first to arrive. She embraced her, glad to have a moment alone with her before the others arrived. She pulled back, still holding Suzy’s hand while she asked, “How are you? I wanted to call and see how everything went for you with your . . . procedure, but I didn’t want to pry. So, yeah, now I’m obviously prying.”
Suzy gave a small laugh, squeezing her hand. “Things went just fine. Gray was proud to have thousands of swimmers who had the speed of Olympic champions.”
Emma could only imagine that the very suave and handsome Grayson Merimon would have been absolutely appalled to have his sperm count discussed in the lobby of their workplace. Luckily for him, though, they were in a deserted corner with no one in sight.
Emma grinned. “Hey, I wouldn’t have expected less. I don’t think there could be anything to do with his body that isn’t perfect.” Emma wanted to groan as she realized what she had just said. Her friend probably didn’t need to know that she had checked out her husband so thoroughly. “Er . . . I mean, he seems to stay in shape.”
With a wink, Suzy said, “I gotcha and you are quite right.”
Curious, Emma asked, “So when will you know if it worked?”
Suzy looked down, fidgeting with the strap on her purse. “I’m not sure, probably soon. You never know about these things.”
Emma was sure that it took only a few weeks to find out if you were pregnant the normal way, but maybe things were different when you went another route. God, she hoped Suzy hadn’t had bad news already. She was acting a little evasive about the whole thing. When Claire walked in the door, Emma was grateful to let the subject drop. Better to let Suzy talk if she wanted to and not because she was being badgered.
Claire pulled them both in for a hug. “I’m so glad to see you! I love my daughter, but it’s great to escape potty training hell for a few hours. Our washing machine has been running around the clock since I started trying to train Chrissy. Jason says we should just buy stock in Pull-Ups and admit defeat.”
As they were laughing, Beth and Ella stepped from the elevator and started waving. They had decided to walk next door to the sandwich shop and avoid having to drive in the Myrtle Beach lunch rush hour. When they settled into their table, Emma noticed Beth pull out an iPad and start watching what appeared to be a video.
“Oh good grief,” Suzy grumbled. “Give me that thing. How can we talk about men, sex and whatever else while you’re over there stalking your nanny.”
Beth held on to the iPad for a moment before grudgingly giving it to her sister. “I can’t help it. I’m not used to leaving him at home all day. Janice is great, really. Nick’s parents know her family and she comes highly recommended, but still . . .”
Claire put her hand over Beth’s in sympathy. “Trust me, honey, I understand. There are times that I’m so ready for a mommy break that I’m standing at the door waiting to hand Chrissy off to the paperboy if it will get me five minutes of peace, but when I do have a sitter other than my mom and Louise, I’m a nervous wreck.”
“So wait a minute,” Emma asked. “You have a nanny cam?”
“Well, it’s not really a nanny cam, since she knows about it. Nick had it installed because we hated to miss so much with Henry while we were gone each day.”
“I think the thought was that you would check in occasionally to see what Hermie was up to, not stalk poor Janice every hour of the day,” Suzy added. Everyone laughed at Suzy’s continued insistence on calling Henry by his nickname of Hermie. Beth and Nick had long ago given up the battle to change it. Emma had even caught Beth calling him that on occasion. Turning to her sister, Beth said, “You just wait until you decide to have one of your own. You will probably terrorize your sitter.”
Emma wanted to cringe for her friend. She knew that Beth would be horrified to learn what a blow a casual comment like that was to her sister right now. The smile that Suzy gave in response to Beth’s comment looked strained, so Emma jumped in, trying to save Suzy from the current line of conversation. “So, something happened while I was in Florida.” Well, shit, maybe some weather comment would have accomplished the same thing. All eyes were on her now as she gave a weak smile of her own.
Suzy squeezed her arm briefly in what she suspected was gratitude before asking, “Does this involve sex? God, I hope so!”
Emma now wished she had just kept her mouth shut. Could she really tell them about her weekend without it being blatantly obvious that she was in love with Brant? Maybe if she distracted them with her airline disaster, they might be too busy laughing to pick up on the rest.
“Well, let me start off by saying I ended up getting a last-minute root canal before I left, had a pretty major reaction to the painkillers and accidentally took my vibrator in my carry-on bag.” As everyone’s eyes bugged out, she continued. “My pain pills spilled out in my bag, stuck to the vibrator, and were detected by a drug-sniffing dog at the Miami International Airport. Brant was almost arrested because he was carrying the bag.” There was nothing but silence at the table for a full minute.
“No fucking way,” Claire whispered. Everyone’s head swiveled to her since it was rare to hear Claire use the F word.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself, Claire,” Suzy added, while Beth nodded in agreement. “You have got to explain the whole story.”
Emma went back from the beginning and by the time she was finished, there wasn’t a dry eye at the table. Ella laughed so hard that she finally had to excuse herself; she was terrified that her weak pregnancy bladder was going to cause her to pee on herself.
“Oh my God,” Suzy gasped out. “I wonder if we could get a copy of that security footage. I can just picture you on the floor wrestling a dog for your vibrator.”
“And can you just imagine Brant’s face?” Claire laughed. “I’m surprised he survived the experience.”
“The only way this could have possibly been any better was if Brant had ended up on the front page of the paper in cuffs standing next to Fido, the vibrator-sniffing dog!” Beth added.
“So how was the reunion?” Claire asked. “Things must have been pretty anticlimactic after the airport incident.”
Emma fidgeted in her seat, trying to decide how best to answer when she noticed Suzy watching her with interest. “Maybe you’re a little off on your spelling, Claire. Instead of climactic, maybe it’s more climax.”
Ella chose that moment to return from the restroom. “Who had a climax?” she asked. Emma felt her face redden along with Ella’s when she realized how loudly she had spoken. “Oh crap,” she murmured as she slid into her seat. “I didn’t mean for that to come out like that.”
“I don’t think anyone heard you,” Beth offered.
“Oh totally.” Suzy smirked. “At least a few people in the kitchen missed it.” Turning back toward Emma, she said, “So-o-o . . .”
This was it, Emma thought. She either lied to her friends or admitted the truth. Ah, good grief, she had never been big on hiding things, so why start now? “I slept with Brant a few times while we were gone.” There, the Band-Aid was ripped cleanly off; the truth was out there.
“No shit,” Suzy drawled. “Well, it’s about time! There was so much foreplay going on in that office, I left there hot and bothered a few times. You two should have gotten it on ages ago.”
“Boy, is that the truth,” Claire agreed. “I don’t see how you made it this long. It was obvious you two had some major chemistry. I have never seen two people more opposite, but more perfect for each other.”
Emma looked around in surprise to see both Beth and Ella nodding their agreement. “Am I the only one at this table who didn’t think I was hot for Brant because I have to say, I just really didn’t see it. I mean, I realize now that I have been in some denial about being attracted to him, but it truthfully never hit home until this weekend.”
“So . . .” Beth said. “How was it?”
?
??Freaking amazing,” Emma sighed. “The first time was like a fast explosion, the second time, I kind of attacked him and the third time was a joint outdoor venture.”
Raising a brow, Suzy said, “So this wasn’t a one-ride kind of thing?”
Beside her, Claire giggled. “I’d say there was definitely more than one ride there, Suz.”
Emma felt her face flush. She really wasn’t used to having her sex life front and center. She did need their advice, though, and to get that, she needed to be honest about what had happened. “It was . . . wow, for someone so reserved, Brant is amazing in bed. He throws his whole textbook mentality out the window and just . . . feels. I didn’t think he could possibly be any better after the first time, but it just got hotter. He’s also so . . . well, tender and adventurous. It wasn’t just like a one-night stand kind of sex; he was really caring afterward. Like he couldn’t get enough of touching me, even in a small way.”
“Oh wow,” Ella sighed dreamily. “I just love that. It must run in the family because Declan is the same way. He can be wild during sex, but then so loving afterward. Sometimes it’s hard to believe one man can be so many things.”
“That’s Jason, too,” Claire added. “He’s so completely focused and intense during, but afterward he just can’t stop touching me in some way. I’ll be falling asleep and he will still be running his fingertips up and down my arm, my spine and anything he can reach. It’s very sensual.”
Nodding her head, Suzy agreed. “I have to admit, that used to freak me out about Gray in the beginning. His need to always have some kind of physical contact with me. I never really had that with anyone before. My ex-fiancé just turned over and went to sleep afterward. I thought that was the way it was for everyone. It was almost as if Gray was invading my personal space the first few times. I loved having him close, but at the same time I wasn’t truly comfortable being the focus of that much attention. Now, it centers me. I wouldn’t know what to do without it.”