Love Imagines (Sully Point, Book 6) (11 page)

He pulled back a bit from her. "I could kiss you
all night."

"I like that idea," Rose said and leaned in toward him.

"No, I don't think so," Ben said and moved further
away from her.

"You don't?" She felt confused and shook her head
a bit to clear her mind.

"This thing with Suzanne...I don't think we should
get serious. It could put you in danger, Rose, and I couldn't bear the thought
of something happening to you because of me."

"Didn't we already have this conversation?"

"I know, but then...I kissed you. I could really
fall for you, in a major way. Not just some vacation fling, but the real deal."

Rose smiled at him and raised a hand to caress his
face. "I know. I have feelings for you, too. And I don't think we should let
what Suzanne does control what we do."

"What are you saying?" he asked in a
deeper-pitched voice. He moved closer to her again and kissed her jawline up to
her ear. "What do you want, Rose Carter?" he whispered.

"You. What do you want, Ben Sterling?"

"I want to make love to every inch of your
beautiful body."

"Come on," she said, standing up and holding out
her hand.

He took it, and then wrapped his arms around her
and kissed her.

"Wow, you're making me weak in the knees."

Then he stunned her by picking her up and carrying
her into the bedroom. She had thought men only did that in the movies.

Laughing at her expression, he dropped her on the
bed with a bounce.

"Ben!"

She watched as he began to unbutton his shirt. As
his muscular chest was revealed, she turned and made sure her alarm clock was
off. It was going to be a very long night.

Chapter 5

William Christopher was waiting in his office at
nine in the morning, to see Suzanne Hardtman and her agent. He'd been surprised
to find out that her agent was in Sully Point with her. As he was wondering
about that, a short nervous-looking man walked in. He had thinning black hair
on top of his head and eyes that appeared to be in a permanent squint.

"Hello, Mr. Christopher," the man said, thrusting
his hand out. "I'm Nelson Spoffard, Suzanne's agent."

William stood up and shook Spoffard's hand. He
motioned to a chair for the man to sit down. As William resumed his seat he
raised an eyebrow at Spoffard who immediately started talking.

"See, I didn't know. She just told me she wanted
to understudy because of you Mr. Christopher. I didn't know Ben would be here,
I swear. I know she has a...problem when it comes to him. I'd never have
encouraged this if I'd known, believe me."

"She can't remain here," William said, elbows
resting on his desk and fingers coming together in a point. "It was clear in
one meeting with Ben that she's still drawn to him. I asked for her to show up
here this morning so that I could let her go."

"You're firing her? But she has a contract! You
can't just fire her without cause. She hasn't done anything."

"Yet, Spoffard. She hasn't done anything yet. And
I have no intention of giving her the chance. I'm willing to pay the penalty
for breaking the contract."

"That's a bit of money, sir," Spoffard said.

"It will be well worth it. I can't have her around
the play or the actors. What I want is for her to leave town, but I have no way
of making her do that."

"I'll talk to her. Not that it ever helps, but
I'll try, I swear."

Suzanne walked through the door.

"You'll try what?"

William looked at her carefully. She was pretty,
there was no doubt about that, but if you really watched her eyes, you could
see something. Something...off.

"Ms. Hardtman, please sit down," William said.

He waited until she was seated and then sat down.
"I'm afraid I have bad news. I won't be requiring your services as understudy
for the play after all. I will be paying you the penalty money. But I have to
let you go."

"What?" she asked blankly. "What did you say?"

"Suzanne, he's going to pay the fine. So you'll
get paid, sweetheart. Time to move on and come back to L.A. with me," Spoffard
said.

"You can't let me go. Nobody fires me!"

"It's done, Ms. Hardtman," William said firmly. "I
have a check here for you."

As he held the check out to her, she slapped it
out of his hand.

"I don't want your money. I want to be around
Ben!"

Spoffard exchanged a quick glance with him, and
William knew he was worried that she'd come right out and mentioned Ben.

"Suzanne, you know you can't be around Ben. He
told you he'd get a restraining order the last time," the agent said.

She smiled sunnily. "Oh, he didn't mean that. He
never got a restraining order did he? He was just mad, that's all. Didn't you
see, Mr. Christopher, how he watched me yesterday when I arrived at the
Playhouse? He couldn't keep his eyes off of me. I know he's forgiven me."

William felt a growing sense of dismay at hearing
her words. She sounded like she completely believed what she was saying.

"I want to be clear, Ms. Hardtman. You are no
longer employed by me. You have no part, nothing to do with the play. I am
giving you the penalty money for breaking your contract. Do you understand me?"

She looked at him with a slight frown. "All right.
I don't have the understudy job." He saw her face clear and a rather eerie
smile appear. "That will just give me more time to be with Ben! And I'll have
the money to stay here. Thank you, Mr. Christopher!"

Spoffard said, "Suzanne—no, you can't stay—"

But Suzanne picked up the check off the desk and
waltzed out of the office.

Spoffard said, "Well, I did what I could."

"No, you didn't. You need to follow her and
convince her to leave town."

"You saw her. You heard what she said. She's lost
it, man. I won't be able to convince her of anything."

"Please. At least, try, okay? And call me
afterwards to let me know how it went."

Spoffard nodded, taking the business card that
William handed him.

"Sorry about all this. If I'd known Ben was
here..."

William watched the little man walk quickly out of
the office and wondered if he would even attempt to talk to Suzanne. Probably
not, he realized. He sighed, and then picked up the phone to call Ben. There
was no answer, and William moved on to calling Ed Carter. The detective would
need to know just how badly things had gone.

* * * *

Rose woke up with Ben's arm around her waist, his body spooning hers. She
moved slightly and he didn't budge. Gently, she lifted his arm up and slid out
of her side of the bed. He mumbled something and rolled over onto his stomach,
still asleep. She smiled down at him, thinking of the previous night. They'd
stayed up until four in the morning. It was no wonder he was still not awake.

She glanced at her clock on the way to the shower
and discovered it was nearly ten. She pinned her long hair up on top of her
head for a quick shower, deciding to wait until afterwards to wake Ben. It was
hard to decide whether she should just go to the Bakery for breakfast food.
Rose wasn't usually into eating pastries, but perhaps some muffins or scones
would go well with the coffee. She wrapped her robe around her body and walked
quietly into the kitchen to make coffee...and discovered Ben standing in front
of the coffee machine and staring at it.

"Good morning! I was just going to make myself
some coffee. Do you want some?" she asked.

He turned to look at her, a smile slowly spreading
across his face. "Coffee would be utterly fantastic."

She saw that he'd pulled on his trousers from the
night before. Seeing him shirtless and barefoot, hair rumpled, she wanted him.
She walked toward him, her gaze on him intense, and Ben backed up.

"Now, Rose, let me have coffee and I swear we can
do whatever you—what the hell," he said and he reached out to pull her toward
him until she was pressed against his body.

They kissed softly, and then his hands were moving
and so were hers, until they both heard a loud knocking on the front door.

"Rose? You okay? Open up if you're there."

"It's my father," she whispered.

"Rose! Damn it, if you can hear me get to this
door."

She pushed away from Ben and ran to the front
door. As she flung it open, Ed came barreling through.

"Is she here? Are you okay? Why didn't you answer
your phone—oh. Hello, Ben."

"Hello, Mr. Carter. We both turned off our phones
last night," Ben said as he walked into the living room.

"Yeah, Dad. What's the big deal?"

"Come sit down you two."

"I'll be right there, just let me get a shirt,"
Ben said.

When he walked into the bedroom, Ed gave his
daughter a look.

"I'm not a kid anymore. That look won't work on
me. It just happened. End of discussion."

Ben rejoined them wearing a shirt and shoes this
time. He and Rose sat on the sofa and Ed sat in the brocade chair.

"First, no more turning off cell phones from now
on. Second, William fired Suzanne this morning. He gave her a check paying the
penalty for breaking the contract. Her agent was there. Suzanne was upset, but
then realized she could use the money to stay in Sully Point so that you could
spend time with her."

"What?" Ben said blankly.

"She believes that your rejection of her in L.A.
was just you getting mad at her, but that it's over now and you still want her.
She's staying. And we have no legal way to make her leave town."

"No. This is nuts! You don't know what she was
like. She'd pop up everywhere. What the hell am I going to do?"

Ed shook his head. "First, we have to figure out
getting you home from here without anyone noticing. Is your car in the parking
lot downstairs?"

"No, I parked by Lucretia's and walked here last
night after we left the beach house."

"That's exactly what you should have done. When you're ready, I'll go down and
scout around first, to make sure nobody is out there. Then you can walk down
the stairs and head off to your car. Maybe stop at the Bakery so if anyone sees
you, they'll think that's why you were over here. Yeah. That works."

"We haven't even had coffee yet, Dad," Rose said.
"And what the hell are we going to do about this woman?"

"Right now, all we can do is wait. Wait for her
to make a move. Sam's already spoken to the security service he used in the
past, and they are sending men. They should be here within the hour. Once they
arrive, you don't go anywhere without them. They'll try to be unobtrusive, but
whether they are or not, don't leave home unless they are with you."

"This seems so extreme," she said.

"After I listened to William's description of her
reactions, I became more worried than I had been last night. She's completely
delusional. There is absolutely no way to predict her behavior at this point.
In a case like this, we overdo security until we see what action she will
take."

"I'm glad you're on the case, Ed. This nearly
drove me nuts before, and I don't know what's best to do. I'll follow your
instructions. Can I have a few minutes to say good-bye to Rose?"

Ed nodded. "I'll be in the kitchen, Rose."

Ben turned to her and looked so sad that she
reached up and held his face between her hands.

"It's going to work out. I know it will," she
said. She leaned in and kissed him and he kissed her back, but pulled away
after a few seconds.

"Your father is right there," he whispered.

She giggled. "I know."

"Rose Carter, you're going to get me in trouble."

She stood up and he got up and hugged her tight
before letting her go.

"Okay, I think I'm ready."

They watched through a slit in the curtains as her
father walked around the parking area. Then he gave a thumbs up without looking
up at them.

"My turn. I'll call you later, okay?" Ben asked.

"You'd better! Don't forget to turn your phone
back on."

"Right."

He kissed her one more time, in a way that left
her breathless watching him go down the stairs. When she could no longer see
Ben, or her father, she shut the door and locked it. Now that both men were
gone, she could give in to her feelings of fear and worry. She made coffee and
sat at the kitchen table thinking.

Even her father, as a police officer, had probably
not seen as many disturbed people as she had in the E.R. She knew that what he
had described of Suzanne's behavior could lead to nothing—or it could blossom
into violence. Her concern was not about Suzanne coming after her, but more
about Ben's safety. At least he would have bodyguards.

She found herself remembering last night and how
wonderful it had been. He was so passionate, so giving, and yet, so in charge.
She wasn't sure if she'd ever felt as relaxed with, and trusting of, a person
as she'd been with him. As she dressed for the day in white capris, white
sandals, and a tangerine and white sleeveless top cut close to the body, she
worried about Ben. She thought that if Suzanne were to find out about their
relationship, she could very well go off the deep end. They would have to keep their meetings
completely secret. If only there was a way to spread the word that they weren't
dating, so that Suzanne would find out...Maelynne.

Her family had told her the stories about gossipy
Maelynne. What Ben needed was to have a story planted with the town gossip. A
story about how Rose hadn't been interested in him, about how they hadn't
gotten along. That might be just the thing to keep Suzanne calm.

Rose put on sunscreen and some make-up, slipped on
her white bracelet and gold hoop earrings, and looked in the mirror. She'd
braided her hair so it hung in a long plait down her back. Nodding firmly to
her reflection, she dropped her phone into her straw purse; made sure she had
her sunglasses, and left the apartment, locking the door securely behind her.