Always Mine (The Barrington Billionaires, Book 1) (27 page)

“I didn’t say you were unattractive,” he growled. “You’re just not reed thin like the women I’m used to.”

That’s it
. She put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows in a silent challenge.

Time suspended as their standoff continued. His look of annoyance was steeped with an expectation that she should try to appease him some way. She simply met his glare with her own, giving him time to replay his choice of words in his mind. He looked away first, a slight flush reddening his neck.

“Okay, that came out wrong.” He ran a frustrated hand through his thick black hair, leaving it slightly awry and sexier . . . if that were even possible. He was already a twelve or thirteen on her one to ten scale, even after she deducted a few points for lack of social skills. A glint of fascination lit his dark eyes as something occurred to him. “Did you just tell me that I stink?”

There was nothing tired about the way he leaned down until their lips almost touched. The scent of him mixed with the dash of liquor and the combination was heady. He was all male, untamed and interested in more than her answer to his question. No man had ever looked at her with such intensity. His sexual energy demanded a response that her body seemed all too willing to deliver.

Abby fought down the urge to close the short distance between them. She’d lost too much to believe in anything that felt this good. She took a half a step back and raised a placating hand. “I wasn’t quite that harsh.”

The corners of his mouth twitched in amusement. “Do you have any idea who I am?” he asked, somehow making the question sound more curious than pompous.

Perhaps his tragedy had brought him a bit of notoriety, but Abby wasn’t one to watch much TV and, as usual, Lil had given her just the information she absolutely needed in a brief, stilted conversation that typified how strained their relationship had become.

“I’m hoping you’re the man who owns this brownstone, otherwise I’m going to get in trouble for letting you in,” she said with some forced humor.

He didn’t laugh. “You really don’t know, do you?” His question sounded oddly hopeful.

Abby shrugged, but the hairs on the back of her neck tingled. What kind of man was relieved not to be recognized?

A criminal.

Crap.

Nice clothes meant nothing. His suit might have become disheveled during a tussle with the actual owner of it. She shook her head at the thought. “You do own the place, don’t you?”

At his lack of a response, she scanned the area for something to toss at him if she needed to dash for the door. The closest object was a large, brass lamp. If he made any fast moves . . .

All coherent thought fled when he smiled down at her while lightly running his hands up both of her arms. “Yes, I’m the owner.”

Her heart really shouldn’t be pounding in her chest just because the man was preparing to restrain her if she attacked him with deadly, brass force. It wasn’t like she’d never been near a man before, but even her prior intimate relationships had been cautious endeavors. No man had ever brought to mind the words
carnal abandon
like this one did. When he looked at her, no one and nothing else existed.

“Before you clock me, would you like to see my license?” he asked while his thumb traced the edge of her collarbone rhythmically. Hypnotically. “Would you?” he prompted in response to her silence.

“Yes,” she said breathlessly, unable to concentrate on anything beyond the way her body was responding to his touch. Her skin burned beneath his light caress. Her stomach quivered with an anticipation she had previously only read about.
Yes, to whatever you’re asking.

Her state of arousal was not lost on the man towering above her and the answering pleasure in his eyes shook her out of her daze. She stepped back, away from his touch and gave herself a mental shake. This kind of passion had no place in the life she’d built for herself. “I mean no. No, I believe you. You were right. I should go. I can finish everything tomorrow.”

His lids lowered slightly, making his expression unreadable.

“Do you know what I’m thinking?” he asked.

Unless he was also imagining the two of them naked, rolling around on the thick area rug in the living room, she was pretty much stumped. “No,” she croaked.

“I’m starving and I hate to eat alone. I’d be grateful if you joined me for a meal.”

That wouldn’t be wise.
There were at least a hundred, maybe a thousand, reasons why she should leave now before she made a fool of herself. Yet, she was tempted.

It was more than the athletic span of his shoulders, more than the strong line of his jaw. She couldn’t even blame the sadness in his eyes, because the exhausted man of earlier had been replaced by a virile male who knew exactly how to get what he wanted—and right now he wanted her.

Every sensible cell in her body urged her to turn tail and run, but wasn’t that what she always did when life offered her something she considered too good to be true? She chose safety and certainty over less reliable dreams and desires.

Just this once she wanted to sample what she’d been missing. Just this once she wouldn’t run.

Well, not immediately, anyway.

She’d share a meal with the near god before her, enjoy the way he made her skin tingle with just a look, and leave before anything happened. He wouldn’t have to eat alone and she could have an hour or so of pretending any of this was real.

“Any problems with Chinese?” she asked as she mentally reviewed the local places she knew would deliver.

The question seemed to jolt him. “Chinese what?”

“Food?” she added helpfully.

“Oh,” he visibly relaxed. “Takeout.”

“Yes, there is a good place right around the corner that I know delivers—unless you’d like me to try to find something else.”

“No.” He shook his head at some private joke. “Sorry, for a minute there I forgot.” Hands in his pockets, he rocked back on his heels, still looking highly amused by his thoughts.

“Forgot what?” she couldn’t help but ask.

With unexpected tenderness, he slid one of her wayward curls behind her ear. “That you’re exactly what I need.” Before she could catch her breath, he stepped back and handed her far too much money, no matter what she ordered. “Order some food while I take a shower.” His knock-’em-dead sex appeal returned as he chuckled and sauntered away, tossing over his shoulder, “I’ve heard I need one.”

Abby fanned her red face with the bills as she watched him climb the stairs two at a time. Not quite shaking herself free of the mental image of Mr. Armani naked beneath the steamy spray of the shower, Abby went in search of her purse and cell phone.

A man that sexy is just trouble.

Luckily it was unlikely that she would ever see him again after today. They would share one quick meal and then she’d head back to Lil and reality.

Back to the quiet, predictable life she’d built for herself.

That thought held less appeal than usual.

Gio Andrade:

Rich, powerful, sexy. A man who thinks he has everything . . . until he meets Julia.

Julia Bennett:

Sweet, spontaneous, and desperate to sell her jewelry line in New York City. She takes a night job as a security guard to pay the rent.

Sparks fly when she mistakes her boss for an intruder.

He can’t get her out of his head. She can’t find the strength to deny him.

Will lies bring them together, or tear them apart forever?

The Andrade family has had a special place in my heart since they first appeared in
For Love or Legacy
. I’m the youngest of eleven children. Although we didn’t have money, I based the Andrades on what it was like for me to grow up with so many relatives.

My parents are no longer with us, but they were happily married for almost sixty years. My mother was the storyteller in our family. She was notoriously funny. My father was much more reserved, but he loved her sense of humor. Even when they were in their eighties, if my mother told a joke, my father would look on with a smile.

Our dining room table was a long L-shaped counter that was actually purchased from a local diner that had gone out of business. With so many children, one would think that my parents wouldn’t allow us to bring friends home with us for meals, but they believed the exact opposite—friends were family to us. I often had meals with twenty or more people. For those who have read the Legacy Collection, that’s where I got my philosophy that love is a fountain—where there is always enough for those who have stayed and those who return to it.

My parents taught me that family and friends are what matters the most, children should always be valued, and forgiveness is the greatest kindness you can give one another. I miss them every day, but I like to think that they live on through how I am raising my own children.

No family is perfect.

Gio, Nick, Luke and Max are on a difficult journey that will test what they think they know about loyalty and love. I hope you enjoy this series. I’ve fallen in love with these lost Andrades and the story of how they find their way back to their family.

I
f you want
a dose of reality, come home a day early.

Gio Andrade walked through his secretary’s empty office and into his, shaking his head with disgust as he went. He double-checked the time on his watch. Barely seven o’clock. She should still be here. Someone should be here. Rather than call her, he sank into the antique leather chair placed behind the custom Carpathian elm desk that had sat in this office for generations.

Perhaps it was the combination of three weeks of travel and spending so much time in hotel rooms, but he was tired. Bone tired and in a foul mood. He’d gone on site in northern Canada to make sure the project met its deadlines, and it did—something that normally would have energized him. Instead, he felt distracted.

He didn’t consider himself an emotional man. Ever since he’d taken over the family’s company, his success had come from his ability to remain detached. Cogent Energy Solutions had been born in the oil wells of Texas, but Gio had taken it in a much different direction. He was an investor, not a developer. He found potential energy sources—like the Utica Shale veins recently discovered in North America—that others considered economically unfeasible to reap, financed the breakthrough technologies that would make harvesting them possible, contracted with companies who needed those sources, made a huge fortune, and then got out before the environmentalists even knew his name.

Clean.

Calculated.

Satisfying.

Until this past trip.

What is wrong with me?

His cell phone vibrated in his breast pocket. He checked the caller ID and groaned. It was his cousin Madison Andrade. Again. Her calls were becoming more frequent. He’d answered the first couple. Forwarded the next few to his secretary, Rena. Now he let her calls ring through to voice mail. Part of him was beginning to admire her tenacity, even as he remained unwilling to consider her request.

He placed the phone down on his desk and started sifting through the large pile of mail that had accumulated in his absence. Rena had opened and dealt with most of it, but one square ivory envelope was still sealed. He picked it up and turned it in his hand. He already knew what it was. Madison had told him to expect an invitation to Stephan Andrade’s wedding.

An Andrade wedding.

What a joke. We may share the same last name, but that’s all we have in common.

Gio crushed the invitation, still unopened, into a ball and threw it in the wastebasket beside his desk.
My mistake was reopening any communication with that side of the family. I have Luke to thank for that.

Gio didn’t speak to Luke often, but that lack of contact had more to do with their schedules than anything else. Of his three brothers, Luke was the easiest to get along with. He was a respected doctor and someone who never asked for anything, so Gio had been hard-pressed not to accept his request to join him at a high-profile function a few months earlier.

The event ended up being an engagement party for a couple he didn’t know, much less care about. The unpleasant bonus had been the presence of two uncles he’d spent nearly a decade avoiding. He’d left as early as he could without seeming rude, and had made his excuses while interacting as little as possible with any of his extended family.

I should have told Luke I was out of the country that week.

I should have lied.

Gio’s phone beeped to announce the message his cousin had left.
By going to that party, I mistakenly gave some family members the wrong idea.

Now they think I care. I don’t.

The days when what they do or say have any relevance to me are long gone.
He would have said as much to Madison, but she had done nothing to him. As the frequency of her calls increased, however, he began to feel pushed into an uncomfortable situation. No one likes to shove a puppy away, but when it starts humping your leg, you have to.

Gio covered his eyes with one hand at the image.
Oh, my God. I am tired.

Still too tense to consider heading home to bed, he loosened his tie and strode over to the office bathroom. His office was his home away from home, and the shower and assortment of clothing in its large closet was evidence of that.

He changed from his Kiton suit into his workout clothes and running sneakers. He’d had a full gym installed on the top floor of the Cogent Building, and he’d made it available to all his employees.

Not that anyone would be taking advantage of it that night, since the building was apparently empty. He took that irritation to the treadmill and started running, welcoming the initial discomfort as his tight muscles were pushed to stretch and perform.
Pain is weakness leaving the body. Best to work through it.