His Captive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers Series) (17 page)

Instead, she was standing, rather unsteadily, beside his car and looking at him with triumph.  “What are you so proud of?” he asked, taking her hand and leading her into his house. 

“Just being firm about everything!” she said, then ruined her triumphant moment by tripping and falling into his arms.  She gasped with the contact and Ash didn’t even move his hand once he realized that it was on her breast. 

She straightened up again and took a step backwards.  “You are not a gentleman.”

Ash laughed softly and looked down at her.  “And you’re drunk.  How about some coffee?” he suggested.

She shook her head.  “I’m not drunk and I can’t drink coffee this late at night.  I’ll never get to sleep,” she said. 

He fixed two cups of coffee anyway and handed her one as she wandered about his home.  She didn’t even argue with him, just started sipping the coffee as she poked and prodded at the various books on his bookshelf.  “Have you read all of these?” she asked, glad that her eyes were actually starting to focus more easily now. 

“Yes.”

She was impressed.  “You’re pretty smart then.”  She turned to grin at him. “But I guess you already proved that, haven’t you?”

Ash was sitting in his big leather chair and he’d already turned on the fireplace which was now crackling with the gas logs licking at the top of the firebox.  “I kept you out of jail.”

She turned to face him, her smile bright and luminous once again.  “You did, didn’t you?”

“And you left my office when I told you to stay put.”

She laughed and nodded her head.  “If you want someone to stay put, get a dog.”

“But I want you.”

“No you don’t.  You want a dog.”

He threw back his head and laughed.  “I guarantee that I’m not marrying a dog, Mia.  You’ll have to get over that and just accept your fate.”

She took another sip of the coffee, impressed with how quickly it really was sobering her up.  “You’ll have to find someone else.  I won’t marry a man who doesn’t trust me.”

He sighed and stood up, coming over to loom over her with the fire lighting her features with a soft glow.  “Mia, let’s get this out in the open and hopefully you’ll remember this so we won’t ever have this conversation again.  I might not have trusted you that first morning, but we were going through a lot of issues then.  By the time I took you out to lunch and you wouldn’t eat anything because you didn’t have your wallet with you, that pretty much clinched it for me.”

“What are you talking about?” she demanded, embarrassed by that lunch event all over again. 

He pulled her close, taking her coffee cup out of her hand.  “A true criminal wouldn’t have tried to pay for her own meal.  Real criminals do everything they can to get someone else to pay for their lives in one way or another.  So from that moment on, I was sure of your innocence.”

She pulled back slightly, not sure if she should trust him.  She’d done so before and where had that landed her?  In a bar drinking margaritas with friends.  Not exactly where she’d planned to be tonight. 

But at least she wasn’t in jail! 

“What about all those times you pulled back?  All the times you looked at me with horror on your face?  As if you’d just done something horrible?”

He pulled her closer, his hands smoothing up her back.  “I had done something horrible!  You were my client!  I was taking advantage of your worried state and that wasn’t fair.”

She bit her lip.  “Was that illegal?” she asked, worried for him now.

He sighed but wouldn’t let her move away from him.  “Not illegal, but it violated my personal code of ethics and probably all other lawyers’ as well.”

She cringed.  “Okay, so all that backing away after kissing me or touching me, that was just….guilt?”

“Hell yes!”

“So…what does that mean now?”

He lifted her into his arms and carried her back over to where he’d been sitting several minutes ago.  “It means that we’re getting married now.  You love me.”

“How do you know that?’ she asked, but her arms went around his neck.  Could she trust what he was saying?

“Because you gave yourself to me last night.  And you said it with the ladies earlier in the evening.”

She gasped and pulled back, trying to push against his chest but he wouldn’t let her off of his lap.  “I did not!” she denied vehemently. 

“You did.  I have several witnesses.  And what’s more, I’m in love with you.  I probably was in love with you from the moment Autumn told me you saved earthworms,” he told her. 

She laughed but rolled her eyes.  “You’re going to have to forget that.”  Then she hesitated.  “Wait a minute, Autumn told you that even before you’d met me.  You couldn’t have been in love with me then.”

He shrugged.  “Okay, so maybe love is too strong of a word.  But I was fascinated by anyone who would be so worried about a species that has a brain only large enough to survive and can’t really experience pain or anxiety over drying out in the hot sun.”

She was already shaking her head. “You can’t know that.  And just put yourself in their position.”

He kissed her to stop her argument.  And when she was soft and compliant in his arms again, he lifted his head and looked down at her.  “I’m still not going to argue about worms,” he told her, sliding his hand up her back and causing her to wiggle deliciously. 

She grabbed his hand to stop him and refocused on his statement.  “So if you were so convinced of my innocence, why did you leave my bed this morning?”

“A combination of my guilt over sleeping with a client, even when I knew I was going to marry said client, and an aching need to protect you, keep you from going back to jail and a sixth sense that something was going to pop up this morning.  I knew something was wrong and was racing against the clock.”

“Is that why you ignored me in the office?  Because you were trying to work?”

“Did I hurt your feelings?” he asked, using his other hand to touch her cheek gently. 

“Yes.  I thought you were angry with yourself for giving in and making love to me.”

“I was furious with myself for violating my code of ethics and determined to fix it so I could still be in your bed tonight without the guilt.”

She smiled brightly.  “So today was all about making sure I would be in your bed?”

“Exactly.  And that you would agree to marry me,” he said, moving his head closer to her neck and nuzzling the sensitive skin. 

“I haven’t said I’ll marry you,” she contradicted, but she tilted her head, letting her own hand slide up his chest. 

“You will,” he said and bit her earlobe gently but with enough pressure to make her gasp. 

“I might not,” she countered.

He slid his hand underneath her sweater.  “I have ways of convincing you.”

She laughed and grabbed his wrist again.  But he wasn’t going to allow that.  In one swift move, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her over to the sofa where the soft throw blanket was already draped over the back.  He pulled it down and set her on top of it, then covered her body with his own.  “You’re mine, Mia Paulson.  And the sooner you accept that, the better because I’m not letting you out of this house until you agree to marry me.”

With that threat looming over her, she smiled and snuggled up to his chest.  She was more than happy to have him keep her here.  Maybe if she refused him over and over again, he would make love to her over and over again.  She definitely wouldn’t mind that scenario. 

“If you insist,” she said with a huge grin. 

“I love you,” he said as he bent to kiss her. 

She sighed, wrapping her arms around his neck.  “I love you too, you gorgeous man.”

Excerpt from “His Unexpected Lover” coming mid November 2013

“I can’t do this,” she whispered to herself.  “I thought I could, but it’s simply too painful.”

Kiera’s shoulders slumped and she tried to find the answers within the depths of her martini.  Unfortunately, the liquid only mocked her, small circles forming on the top and quickly dissipating as if to say, “You never should have come here.”

Or maybe the glass was only telling her that a heavy-footed person was walking by.

She held her head up with her forehead, trying to figure out what to do.  She’d only been at her new job for a less than a week and already she loved it.  The people were fun, hard-working, extremely smart…that all added up to an ideal workplace where she was challenged to excel and stand out, but what was even better, she respected her peers.  Instinctively, she knew that The Thorpe Group encouraged competition but, unlike other law firms, didn’t condone the backstabbing and win-or-get-out pressure on cases.  Oh, they won cases!  Clients came to The Thorpe Group for legal advice from all over the country, all over the world even, because they knew that The Thorpe Group would deliver.  The difference was that their success was due to a brilliant legal team versus barely ethical legal tactics. 

There were other law firms out there with a similar reputation, although none as glamorous as The Thorpe Group.  Gaining a few years at this firm on her resume would set her up perfectly for success wherever she wanted to go as a next step. 

No, the work and the workers weren’t the problem. 

Even the location was great.  Chicago was a fabulous city with excellent museums, a thriving art community, tons of shopping and a wide range of people with which to interact. 

Nope, all of her issues were personal.  She’d foolishly convinced herself that she would be able to deal with this problem but, after only a few days, she knew that the issue was bigger than she could handle. 

Axel Thorpe.

She’d seen him in the hallway earlier today.  And that one sighting, just the glimpse of the man as he walked into a conference room, was why she was here, trying to drown her problem in a martini.

Unfortunately, she realized after ordering that she didn’t like martinis. 

She also didn’t like her body’s reaction to seeing Axel Thorpe again.  She’d almost embarrassed herself when she’d seen him.  She didn’t think he’d seen her trip thankfully.  Nor had any of her co-workers which was at last something.  She’d had to catch herself by grabbing onto a chair which probably looked ridiculous, but at least she hadn’t fallen on the floor.  She might have passed off the accident as just a fluke, but she’d almost fallen over the conference room table.  Not something most people trip over because of its size and obvious placement in the room.  But then again, most people hadn’t just seen the love of their life after so many years. 

Kiera sighed and took another sip of her martini.  Maybe she just needed to plow through the drink.  Keep forcing it down.  Eventually, the alcohol would keep her mind from replaying the scene.  She would eventually feel nothing.  Maybe that was the way she should handle Axel too.  Just keep running into him until her body was numb from the reaction. 

Perhaps today’s sighting and the humiliating aftermath was just a fluke.  Maybe if she just went up and spoke to him, greeted him and asked him how his day was going, she wouldn’t be so flustered when she accidentally saw him.  Sort of like taking an allergy shot every week to build up one’s immune system. 

She sighed and took another sip of her martini, her face squinching up ridiculously as she tried to swallow the foul stuff.  And she had to acknowledge the stupidity of her idea.  Being around him hadn’t diminished his appeal or the impact he had on her when she was in college.  Every time she’d seen him, she’d been floored.  Just like today.  Her knees went weak, she had trouble breathing, her whole body started shaking and she was unable to speak coherently. 

Maybe it was just an allergy!  

She almost giggled to herself and looked down at her drink.  Was she reaching the giggle stage after only a few sips of the martini?

She pulled a file folder out of her leather bag, intending to get some work done.  She wouldn’t think about Axel.  She would simply push him from her mind every time he entered.  And if she saw him in the hallways at work?  Well, she’d known that would happen when she’d accepted the position at The Thorpe Group.  The man was one of the co-owners, for goodness sake.  She would have been a fool to think she’d never see him.

But after so many years, she’d hoped that she was over him. 

She shook her head with derision.  Did one ever get over someone like Axel?  He really was one in a million.  She remembered the first time she’d seen him, laughing in a bar just like this one.  She’d been a sophomore at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and he’d been clerking for a Supreme Court justice. 

He’d been magnificent, she thought with a smile.  So tall, so handsome and one could just see the charm and charisma oozing from the man’s smile. 

Six Years Earlier….

“This place is too crowded,” Kiera pointed out, peering through the windows of the upscale bar in Georgetown.  “Why don’t we go back to our usual hangout?”

Debbie just grabbed Kiera’s hand and pulled her deeper into the crowd, obviously eager to be here for some reason.  “Because Brian will be there,” Debbie replied, referring to her ex-boyfriend, almost yelling over the noise of the bar.  “And I really don’t want to run into him again.  He’s still angry about our breakup last week.”

She quickly shifted out of the way of someone who almost spilled beer on her.  “This place is a bit rowdier than the places we usually hang out,” Kiera cautioned.

Debbie looked around and smiled.  “It’s nice!  I like trying out new places and meeting new people.”

Except that Debbie had invited all of their old friends here so they probably wouldn’t meet anyone they didn’t already know.   “I’m not sure I’m all that adventurous tonight, Debbie,” Kiera cautioned.  It wasn’t so much that she wasn’t into trying new things, but she preferred less crowded conditions than this place that had wall to wall people. 

“Just pretend for one night,” Debbie laughed back, pulling Kiera up to the bar and ordered two beers. 

Kiera shook her head but followed her friend, not sure this was such a good idea.  “Fine,” she agreed and tried to hide the weird feeling that had come over her suddenly.  Midterms had just finished and she had a bit of breathing room before her next paper was due so it wouldn’t be a bad thing to relax for a few hours.  “But we’re not staying late.”  Was she being too cautious?  Probably, she told herself as she slipped between a couple that was heavy into a debate on the latest political wranglings.  It was hard to avoid those kinds of discussions in a Georgetown bar.  Not only were they mere miles from the heart of the federal buildings, the area was teeming with history.  The streets were mostly cobblestones from the colonial period and even a small townhouse would cost well over one million dollars.  The cobblestones were ballast from the rum trade but the political debates were due to the proximity to the federal government.  She suspected that many of the people here were either international studies students, political science majors or were interning for a senator or representative.