Bringing Down Sam (26 page)

“Yes, Eve, God, baby, yes,” he cried, his fingers digging into her hips, his mouth on her throat.

One more twist and plunge and she came, hard, crying out his name. Sam thrust into her once, twice, then exploded inside her.

She collapsed on top of him, boneless, breathless, totally fulfilled and happy. Sam held her close, kissing her gently, making no effort to disengage. She didn’t want him to leave her, loving the feel of his flaccid cock, still warm and wet within her. 

Her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes, knowing she could easily fall asleep like this…and suspecting that when she woke up he would be hard inside her again.

“You want to show me where your bedroom is before you drift off?” he said with a chuckle.

She waved a hand toward the hallway. Sam—so strong, so powerful—rose off the chair, holding her, and carried her back to her bedroom. He followed her down onto the bed, still wrapping her in his embrace, still inside her body.

“I love you, Sam,” she said right before the sated lethargy washed over her.

She fell asleep hearing him whisper, “I love you too, Eve. And I always will.”

When they woke up from their brief nap, Eve launched into a hundred questions, all of which Sam tried to answer.

She was primarily concerned about him quitting his job. Sam wasn’t. He had other options, his books being enough to support him just fine for now. He could freelance, he could sell another book, and he could probably pick up the phone and have a position with another men’s periodical within a day if he wanted one. No, the job thing wasn’t worrying him at all.

His family situation? Well, that was a little more difficult.

“Come on, let’s go have something to eat,” she said, finally rising from the bed. “I was making a salad when you got here.”

“If you’re going to keep having your wicked way with me, I think I’m going to need a steak,” he said with a grunt.

“Wicked?”

He leered. “Oh, yeah. Most definitely wicked.”

They worked together in the kitchen to prepare dinner, then sat at her small table, eating a meal by candlelight, drinking red wine and making plans for the future. Good plans. Great ones. Plans that included him moving here, or her moving to the city…them living together being the most important part.

Finally, once they’d finished eating and sat back to finish the wine, Eve licked her ruby-red lips and said, “I’ve been meaning to ask, how did you find out, anyway?’

Not understanding, considering she’d left the papers right on the coffee table for him to find, he replied, “I saw the article. Didn’t take much to put together who’d done it.”

“Saw it where?”

Now really confused, he replied, “On the table at my place…where you left it.”

Eve’s eyes rounded into circles and she slowly lowered her wine glass. “
What?
”

“On the coffee table.”

She still seemed astonished. “It was on the coffee table? Are you sure?”

“Yes. I probably got home not long after you left and figured you’d torn out of there in a hurry. I do wish you’d left me a note, though. I was really worried.”

“But I did!”

Now it was his turn to be confused. “Huh?”

“I would never have just taken off like that without a word. I swear to you, I left a note that I had to leave unexpectedly and asked you to call me in a few days.”

Huh. Strange. “Maybe Quigley…”

“Did Quigley also go to Kinko’s and make a copy of that article?” she asked, her tone seguing from confusion to suspicion.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Sam, I did not leave that article in your apartment.” As if needing to prove it, she got up, went into the other room and came back carrying a manila envelope. “This is the only copy I had, and I most definitely took it with me.”

Sam leaned back in his chair, staring at her, knowing the cogs in her brain had to be whirring just as hard as his were. Certain something strange was going on, he asked, “Where, exactly, did you get that article, Eve? Who gave it to you?”

She didn’t hesitate before replying, “Robbie. Your cousin.”

Robbie? Had he been playing henchman for Sam’s father? If so, why hadn’t he said anything when Sam had run into him at work that morning? Sam had told the other man he’d resigned  and that his father’s schemes were to blame. Robbie hadn’t actually come right out and admitted he knew about the blackmail thing, but he’d sure hinted at it broadly enough, confirming Sam’s suspicions about what had happened. 

“He asked me not to tell you,” she admitted. “Said he didn’t want to get caught in the middle.”

“Too late,” he snapped, his anger rising.

He heard her emit a tiny gasp as something occurred to her. “Sam, did you ever get your key back after Robbie cat-sat for you when you were on your book tour?”

He thought about it, remembering his cousin had come in every day for a week. “No, he kept it in case of an emergency. I have one to his place, too.”

Eve crossed her arms tightly over her chest, rubbing her hands up and down, as if she were cold. “Then it had to be him. He must have had two copies of the article.” Sounding bemused, she mumbled, “He
wanted
you to know. He pretended he didn’t, acted like he didn’t think I should tell you, but that’s what he really wanted me to do all along. He figured I’d have a wronged-woman reaction, that I’d melt down and demand that you defend me against your father.”

“How did he know you didn’t?”

“He must have been watching the apartment. When I hurried out of there with my bags packed, he went back inside using his key, saw that I hadn’t left the article behind, and planted it there for you to find.”

“And took your note to make sure I was appropriately furious as I pieced it all together,” Sam said, the whole thing coming together in his brain like a movie scene.

“Right.”

That made sense, logistically. But he just couldn’t think of a reason behind it. He’d never had any problems with Robbie. Sure, there’d been some childhood jealousy, a few arguments. His cousin had once laughingly admitted he thought it was unfair that Sam was considered the golden child when Robbie, the one who always stayed right there by his father’s side, was overlooked.

But would that be enough to set this whole thing up? To make sure Sam saw that article, but not the note?

“Oh, my God, Sam…”

“Yeah, I’m right there with you,” he admitted, concern churning inside him. “If he went this far, maybe he was the one behind the article in the first place.”

“Exactly. Isn’t Robbie in line for that job your father wants you to take? And if you don’t take it, if you cut your father out of your life for good, doesn’t Robbie slide right in and take your place?”

His heart pounding, he slowly nodded. It sounded crazy, and was incredibly manipulative. Not to mention risky. So many things could have gone wrong with the plan. “Did he really think I wouldn’t find out that you’d left a note, or that you hadn’t left the article?”

“I suspect he was desperate,” she said, her brow crinkling as she thought it over. “He was sweating and stammering, so nervous he could barely speak. I’d bet this was a wild, last-minute scheme born out of desperation and he wasn’t considering all the things that could go wrong.”

That sounded like Robbie, who’d never been great at long-range planning.

Eve went on. “He was hoping if you got mad enough, you’d just cut your father off without ever speaking to him again.

He winced. That was essentially what had happened.

“By the time anyone figured it all out, and you two got back together to compare notes, months could have gone by. Or years. Your father’s not a young man, Robbie might have thought you would never find out. Maybe he was even hoping to get some kind of inheritance your father would otherwise leave to you.”

That, Sam knew, wasn’t far-fetched. Because Robbie had said something like that once. Robbie’s late father, Sam’s uncle, had been a gambler who’d gone through his half of the Kenneman fortune when Robbie was still a kid. His cousin had bemoaned that fact more than once.

“He’s been playing dutiful nephew for a long time. When it looked like my father and I might reconcile, and I might take the job he wants…”

“He sabotaged you.”

Sam sighed deeply. “Even worse. It worked.”

She reached out and put a hand on his arm, stroking him tenderly. “You couldn’t have known.”

Thinking of the brief, angry conversation he’d had with his father, he mentally kicked himself again. “I should have given my dad the chance to explain.”

“Yes, you should have, but you can’t be too hard on yourself. His track record was enough to make you believe the lies Robbie was telling. Your father’s trick with the magazines, his strong-arm tactics designed to make you do what he wanted, they all primed you to believe the worst.”

Yes, they had, which made him incredibly sad.

He and his father hadn’t been close for several years, but he should still have offered him the benefit of the doubt, even with all the other things that had happened.

“I need to talk to him.”

“Definitely,” she said with a nod.

He glanced at the empty wine bottle, knowing he couldn’t make the drive back tonight. As much as he wanted to have the conversation in person, he knew he couldn’t, and he didn’t want to wait until tomorrow.

“I’ll be in the bedroom,” she said, as if reading his mind. “Take as long as you need.”

Nodding, Sam grabbed her hand as she rose from the chair. He pressed a kiss on her palm, murmuring, “One more thing to thank you for, sweetheart. I wouldn’t have figured this out if not for you.”

She bent to brush a kiss on his lips. “It’ll be fine. I know it will.”

He hoped so. He also hoped he’d find the right words to not only apologize, but also to tell his father that a trusted family member had done everything he could to completely destroy their relationship.

Eve had fallen asleep by the time Sam came back to the bedroom. He hadn’t turned a light on, apparently not wanting to wake her, and she heard him mumble a curse as he bumped into her dresser in the dark, unfamiliar room.

“Hey.” She cleared her throat. “What time is it?”

“Almost midnight.”

He’d been on the phone for at least two hours. She hadn’t heard his raised voice in all that time, which, she hoped, meant the conversation had gone well.

Moving over in the bed, she flipped the covers back for him to join her, watching him unfasten and drop his pants to stand naked in the moonlit room. Her heart did that flippy thing it always did when she saw him naked, and her mouth went dry. He was just so incredibly beautiful to look at—so virile, male and strong.

And hers, miraculously. All hers.

He crawled into the bed beside her, their warm, naked bodies moving together on the cool sheets. Passion exploded between them, as always, but she knew they had talking to do before they could get back to what they’d been up to a few hours ago.

“Is everything all right?”

“Probably more all right than it’s been in a long time. I apologized, told my father what I believe really happened and then stayed on the line while he conferenced Robbie in.”

“Oh, sprung a trap, did you?”

“Yeah.” Sam’s mouth twisted in disgust. “Once Robbie realized we had figured it out, he confessed the whole thing. It’s hell finding out somebody you thought was your friend—your family member—has been jealous of you all your life and wants everything you have.”

“Including your father’s love?” she speculated, having thought of that while Sam was in the other room.

Sam slowly nodded as he thought about it. “I suspect so.”

Sad. As furious as she was at Robbie for what he’d done, she couldn’t help pitying the man, at least a little. “Then what happened?”

“Dad told Robbie he’d deal with him later, then, once it was just the two of us on the line, we talked—really talked—for the first time in several years.”

She noted that, for the first time she could recall, Sam had called his father “Dad.” She smiled inwardly, though she doubted he was even aware of the subtle change. “Was he upset?”

“Oh, absolutely. He was shocked, horrified at what Robbie had done to you and asked me to please tell you how very sorry he is.”

“It wasn’t his fault.”

Sam draped an arm across her bare middle, his fingers trailing over her hip as he kissed her temple, his warm breath brushing her skin in the air conditioned room. Eve quivered a bit, her nerve endings sensitive to his exhalations, the gentle stroke of his fingertips and his throaty whisper.

“We have a lot more talking to do. He’s finally accepted the fact that I’m not cut out to run the magazine.” Laughing a little, he added, “Your friend Diana might be heading for a promotion.”

“That’s wonderful!”

“Hey, I’d give her the job if only as a thank you. If it weren’t for her and your other angry friends, I’d never have met you.”

She hated to consider that, hated to even imagine that the bliss she and Sam had found together might never have occurred if it hadn’t been for a silly prank. God, to think she might never have met him, might never have known what it was to be with him.

She couldn’t think of a worse fate than having lived an entire lifetime not being loved by this man. 

“But we did meet. For whatever reason, we found each other, Sam.”

“Yeah, we did. And for that, I will be thankful every day for the rest of my life.”

Twining her arms around his neck, she lifted her face to his for a slow, tender kiss that said everything else they needed to say. 

“When you’ve found the right one, don’t let anybody talk you into waiting. Show her you’re in for the long haul by putting a ring on her finger and making her yours forever. There’s nothing more satisfying to a woman than knowing she’s deeply and truly loved.” –from Keeping Her Satisfied by Sam Kenneman

They got married at Christmastime.

Eve had always dreamed of a winter wedding, with snow carpeting the ground and red velvet bows and greenery decorating the church. The season of peace, joy and happiness had always sounded like the ideal time to begin a new life with the person you vowed to love until the day you died.