Sea of Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens, Book 4) Contemporary Romance (12 page)

Dane stood and extended his hand across Fred’s desk. “It’s been a pleasure, thank you. I look forward to a mutually beneficial business relationship.”
And so much more with Lacy
. He turned to leave and extended the same handshake toward Lacy with just as professional of a tone in his voice. “I’m driving to Chatham this afternoon. Would you like to ride with me?” Dane couldn’t imagine his life without Lacy in it, and he wasn’t leaving anything to chance. He knew that Lacy would worry about being pressured into being intimate with him, and he’d already come up with a plan to help her feel more at ease. He would assure her that he would not fall any deeper in love with her. She didn’t need to know that he already felt as though he’d fallen to the center of the earth.

 “I have a car, thank you,” she answered with an icy stare.

“I’M THE WRONG person. I’m afraid of sharks. I have too much other work to do. Please give it to Tasha.” Lacy had been trying to convince Fred that she was the wrong person for the job for five minutes, and she felt like she was banging her head against the wall.
I’ll kill Dane
. Why was he doing this? He could have any woman he wanted. Why her?
I’m not anything special.
Even as she thought the words, she knew it wasn’t about her being special. It was about how what they had together was special. She knew that because she felt it, too. It was too powerful to deny, which was why she bolstered her resolve to ignore it.

“I have faith in you, Lacy,” Fred said. “This is a major account for World Geographic, and I expect you to treat it with the same diligence and professionalism as you would any other assignment. Your job depends on it.”

Fred had supported her vehemently in the five years since she’d worked under his supervision. He’d pushed her to work harder and reach her potential at times when she thought she already had done just that. He urged her down the right path to secure the promotion she’d been working so hard toward. Was he really going to pull that out from under her? He had to believe this stupid ruse was what would seal the deal for the promotion, or he wouldn’t threaten her.
Damn it
. “My job depends on it? Are you telling me that you’ll fire me if I don’t take this assignment?” Lacy broke out in a sweat.
Lose my job?

“No. You’re a valuable employee, Lacy. But we both know you have higher aspirations than account manager, and you’ve proven that you have the skills and the dedication. If I give this to Tasha, you could be swept under the rug for that senior account rep promotion you’ve been vying for.”

“This account is that important?” Lacy asked.

“This account will bring in an enormous amount of revenue for us. Lacy, senior account rep will mean that you call the shots. You decide who you take on as a client and when. You’ll have underlings to do your research and administrative work. This is big, Lacy. Besides, going to Chatham for a week or two? Not a rough way to earn a living. Dane Braden seems nice and professional. He’s agreed to an excessive travel budget for you, too. You’ll be well taken care of,” Fred assured her.

I bet I will. That’s what I’m afraid of
. She couldn’t afford to lose her chance at the promotion. She’d worked too hard to maintain a lead in the running—and she’d missed out on seeing Dane for all those months. She silently groaned inside. As much as the idea sent her heart and her head into fits of confusion over working with Dane, she reluctantly relented.

“Fine,” she said. “Thank you for the opportunity.”
The opportunity to fight my freaking urges to smack Dane upside his head and follow it up with a kiss on those luscious lips. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

Lacy grabbed her cell phone and stormed out of the building. She dialed Danica’s number, pacing the parking lot, feeling as though fumes were coming out her ears.

After Danica’s voicemail picked up, she left a message. “He was here, Danica. He showed up at my work and hired my company, and now I have to go to Chatham and work with him or I’ll lose my chance at the promotion. Damn it. Where are you?” She lowered the phone and then quickly put it back to her ear. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to rant. I’m just so frustrated. Call me? Please?” Lacy ended the call and stared at the building. Too angry to return to work, she stalked to the edge of the parking lot and continued pacing off her frustration. She stepped to the side to let a car pass, and when it stopped beside her, she spun around.

Damn it, Dane
.

He sat in the car with a smile on his lips. “Sorry,” he said with a shrug.

“Sorry? You come into my office and demand that I follow you to Chatham, and all you can say is sorry? What do you think is going to happen, Dane? That I’ll be swept off my feet? Nothing’s changed. This was a big mistake.” She planted her legs in a determined stance and crossed her arms, willing the tears in her eyes not to fall.

“That’s kind of what I’m hoping for,” he said.

Lacy groaned. “Not happening. You can’t buy your way into someone’s heart.”

“A heart that can be bought is not a heart worth pursuing. Lace, I’ve experienced your heart, and I’ve never seen anything so pure.”

“Stop it,” she said.

“What?”

“Being so damn nice to me.”

Dane smiled again. “We should really talk about the details of the assignment, don’t you think?” Dane parked the car and opened the door.

As soon as his foot hit the pavement, her heart skipped a beat. She dragged her eyes down his body, remembering the feel of him on top of her. Inside of her.
Don’t. Don’t. Don’t
. Lacy took a step backward.

Dane reached into his pocket and handed her an envelope. “This has the address of the cottage I rented for you. It’s right in Chatham, so you won’t have to travel far each day. It’s nice—right on Cockel Cove. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

She took the envelope
. You rented me a cottage? On a cove?

“Directions to the marina are in there, as is a list of local restaurants, stores I thought you might enjoy, and the address of where I’m staying in case you need anything. You have my cell number, so…I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning at eight?”

Lacy stared at the envelope. This was all happening too fast.
I’m going to Chatham with him. He rented me a cottage
.

“Eight,” she said. Maybe she should be alarmed at his assumptions and his planning, but she had just the opposite reaction. Dane was right there. He’d not only come for her, but he’d made all of the necessary arrangements to ensure they’d spend time together. After fifteen months of hoping he’d do just that, now that he finally was, it was hard for her to turn away from it. She felt her eyebrows return to their rightful places. The tension in her jaw released.

“There’s an itinerary in there. I’m not going to pressure you, Lacy.”

 “Like this isn’t pressure?” Lacy rolled her eyes.

“This is a nudge in what I hope is the right direction. But don’t worry. While I might nudge you to spend time in my presence, I’ll never pressure you with regard to anything physical. In fact, let’s make a pact, Lace.” He smiled, his eyes dancing over hers.

Oh God, I love when you say my name like that
.

“Let’s agree not to fall madly in love with each other. Okay? Because that would just be too much pressure,” Dane said.

“Not too…”
No pressure. No falling in love. God, I already love him.

“Yes, I think it’s best. Let’s just see if we can be friends. I felt something up on that dune that I still don’t understand, and last night? Last night was hell. I’m so used to hearing your voice at night, even if by phone, that it was awful. I kept hearing the elevator doors shut and picturing your face, so upset, so angry.” He reached out and ran his finger along her cheek. “I don’t want to lose your friendship.”

“Friendship.”
Jesus, get a grip. Say something intelligent
.
Do you really just want to be friends?
She was too confused to decipher if he was doing this as a safety net so she wouldn’t feel pressured, or if he truly wanted to hang on to their friendship above all else. Either way, she was going to agree to whatever he asked because being near him only made her want to see him more. “Okay.”
Ugh
.

“Okay?” His eyes lit up. “Okay, you agree not to fall in love with me?”

Lacy felt a smile push its way across her face. “I agree not to fall in love with you, but it’s a two-way street. No falling in love with me, either.”
What am I doing?

“Deal,” he said.

She watched him pull away and dialed Danica’s number again, leaving another message. “You’d better call me. I think I’m in trouble.”

“SO LET ME get this straight. You’re in a cottage that he rented for you, in Chatham, and you’re going to do what? Follow his itinerary for the next few days? And your boss let you go?” Danica asked.

It was nine o’clock in the evening, and Lacy was sitting out on the deck of the cottage that Dane had rented for her, the sound of waves breaking and the cool air coming off the water, sending memories flittering through her mind.

She pressed her cell phone to her ear. “Yup,” she said. “He’s got really good taste, too. This place is amazing. There are two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and—”

“Lacy,” Danica interrupted.

“Yeah?”

“You left me a message like you were in real trouble. What am I missing?” Danica asked.

Lacy sighed. “I can’t decide if this is all crazy. I mean, am I ignoring all sorts of red flags? Who does this type of thing? Rents a house, arranges for a week or two away from the office—and pays for it—for someone they like?” She walked down the steps to the beach and ran her toes through the sand. “I can’t decide if this is incredibly romantic or insanely postal.”

Danica laughed. “If it were a guy from any other family, I might agree with you, but the Bradens tend to do things all the way. Remember my wedding? The spa morning? The
island
, for God’s sake?” Treat had arranged for Danica and Kaylie to have exclusive use of an island for their wedding.

“I guess. Yeah, you’re right.”

“Lacy, tell me what you’re thinking. This morning you wanted nothing to do with him, and now you’re down in Chatham. I know you had to go in order to save your promotion, but what does your heart tell you? What about the other women you were worried about?” Danica asked.

Lacy sat on the bottom step and buried her feet in the sand. She’d been thinking about that very same question all afternoon, and no matter how many times she put Dane’s face with another woman, it never stuck. It didn’t feel real. Sure, she felt a tiny pang of jealousy, and she’d love to know if he was with other women up until the day of the wedding, but in her heart she knew that even if he were, he’d made it clear that she was all he wanted now. She’d used the other women as an excuse, an easy way to end their relationship.

“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about what you said. Everyone has a past,” Lacy said. “Am I being stupid? You can tell me if I am. I can take it. And I’m not saying that I want to jump into bed with him, either. I just feel like maybe…” Lacy didn’t know what followed
maybe
, but she felt something there, and it felt a lot like hope.

“What about your fear of sharks?” Danica asked.

Shitshitshit
. “Ugh. You’re right. There are too many obstacles. Signs. Whatever.” Lacy climbed the stairs back up to the deck and watched a man walking toward the water. She settled into a chair and kicked her feet up on the railing.

“That’s not what I’m saying. The therapist in me thinks you need to keep all of your worries in the forefront of your mind so you aren’t driven by your emotions and you can make a rational decision. The sister in me wants to jump up and down, hug you, and celebrate the intense romantic nature of the whole thing. I’m riding a fine line here, Lacy,” Danica said.

Her admission made Lacy smile. “That’s exactly what I’m feeling.”

“Listen. One thing you should think about is that phobias are usually irrational fears,” Danica said. “Your case is different, of course, after what happened when you were little, but you can still manage that fear. When you feel that prickling of anxiety, you can remind yourself that you’re fine and that you’re in control, assuming you’re in a safe place, of course, like on a boat. You have the power to control that anxiety. It might not feel like it right now, but you really do.”

“The thing is, I know all of that. I get it. But when that panic attack hit, there was no talking myself out of it,” Lacy said.

“I know, but you can still try. I also think you should take stock of your emotions. If you think about it, fifteen months of buildup leveled itself last weekend, and that, too, probably heightened your anxiety. Even if you don’t think it did, I’d put my money on it. And to some extent, the only way to overcome your fears is to face them.”

“Face my fears. Do you mean with sharks or with Dane?” Lacy asked.

“That’s for you to decide. My gut says both,” Danica answered.

“Maybe you’re right. I don’t know,” Lacy said.

The man who had been walking sat in the sand, looking out at the water. She went to the edge of the railing and looked more closely. Her pulse sped up. She sat back in the chair and whispered into the phone. “He’s here.”

“Who?” Danica whispered back.

“Dane. He’s here, on the beach. He’s sitting in front of the house.” Lacy peeked at him through the slats in the railing.

“Are you sure?” Danica asked.

“Damn sure. Creepy or romantic?” Lacy asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe he saw you on the phone and decided to wait until you were off. Where’d he come from?”

“I don’t know.” Lacy put her hand around her mouth to keep the sound from carrying. “Is he a stalker?”
Yeah right. It’s my heart that I don’t trust
.

“You’re so weird. No, Dane Braden is not a stalker.” Danica laughed. “Go out and say hello.”

“Okay, thanks, Danica. I’ll call you later.” Lacy held the phone by her side and walked tentatively down each step to the sand below, then approached him. Dane leaned back, supported by his palms, his feet outstretched before him, crossed at the ankles. Her hands sweat despite the cool breeze coming off the water.

“Hi, Lacy,” he said.

“Hi.” Goose bumps raced up her arms.

Dane cocked his chin to the side, and the sweet look in his eyes softened her nerves. “Want to sit down for a sec?” Dane asked.

Yes!
Lacy contemplated Danica’s advice.
Keep all of your worries in the forefront of your mind.
She still felt pressured to be there, but as she looked back at the cottage and then at Dane, she couldn’t maintain her anger.

Dane stood. He was wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and a thick cardigan sweater. He reached for her, then pulled his hands back. “Lace,” he said. His eyes caressed her; his voice soothed her. “I’m sorry that I’ve upset you. I just couldn’t let us go that easily.”

Us.

“I’m not here tonight to pressure you any further. I tried to call you several times, and when you didn’t return my calls, I thought I’d just come over and make sure you got in okay.”

“I…I’ve been on with Danica for a while, and before that I was showering, getting groceries. Sorry I missed your call.” She chided herself for not checking her voicemail.

“No worries. Did you find the grocery store okay? Do you need anything?” he asked.

“I’m fine.” She looked away, trying to ignore the pull in her stomach that was drawing her toward him. He’d forced this situation on her, and she struggled to remember that, to use it as a crutch to lean on when she felt herself being wooed by him.

“I know you’re probably mad at me for pulling the whole thing with your boss, Lace, but I couldn’t think of any other way to get you to even talk to me. You ignored all of my attempts to reach you, and I don’t blame you. I mean, I know you’re worried about the panic attack, and I know you’re worried about what I said about other women.”

Lacy’s legs became weak. Fear crept up her limbs. “I don’t want to talk about them.”

“I know, but I do.”

No, no, no
.

“Can we sit? Please?” Dane motioned to the sand.

Lacy’s heart was beating so fast that it stole her ability to think. She lowered herself to the sand and wrapped her arms around her legs.

“Lacy, if I were a woman and met a guy like me, I’d probably run the other way. I know I look like a player. Hell, maybe I was one. I don’t know. But I never thought of myself that way. I’m a guy who couldn’t settle down. I’ve never had any interest in settling down. But things have been changing over the last few years. I’ve been changing. And when I met you, it was like I ran face-first into a brick wall. For the first time in my life, I stepped back and took a good look at my life. And I wanted to change, Lace. Because of you.”

“I don’t know what to say to that.” In an effort to keep herself from falling into his arms and kissing him until she couldn’t breathe, she said, “It seems rather convenient.”

“Convenient?” He laughed. “Nothing about our relationship has been convenient. Look, I guess you’ll either accept me for who I am…as a friend…or you won’t. I was
that
guy. The keyword being
was
,” Dane said.

“What does that even mean?” Lacy asked.

“It means just what you think it means. I was the guy who powered a boat into a new port, found a ready, willing, and able woman for a day or two, and then never looked back until the next trip. I can’t change what happened in my past. I can only try to be the person I want to be moving forward,” Dane said.

“I didn’t know you were like that when we were talking for all those months. I wondered, but I didn’t really know.” As much as she thought she was past being hurt by that, once again she felt sick just thinking about him and other women.
What is wrong with me? Let it go!
She didn’t want to have this conversation, and now she was stuck in it, and her frustration came out in her words. “That’s just gross. How could you be like that?” Lacy asked.

“I don’t know. I just was. But, Lacy, the last few months as we were getting closer, things changed,” he said. “I’m not proud of what I did, but if we’re going to move forward, even as friends, you have to accept all of me, the shit along with the shine. I’m not that man anymore, Lacy, and had I met you ten years ago, I probably never would have been that man. You’re the only woman who has ever had this effect on me. But this is me, Lace.” He drew her chin up so she was looking into his eyes again. “The man who wants nothing more than to explore what’s between us—even if we’ve agreed not to fall in love. I’m still the guy you talked to all those months. I’m the one who sang to you in an off-key voice when you didn’t feel well and the guy who laughed with you while we watched
Young Frankenstein
on your television together on Skype.”

Lacy dropped her eyes. Everything he said made her want to embrace him. She needed to forget about those other women. She cared about what she and Dane had, and what they had was turning out to be too big for her to walk away from.

“Look at me, Lacy. Please.”

She met his gaze.

“It’s me, Lace. I’m the same guy.”

He was pouring out his heart and soul, and it dawned on Lacy that what he was doing wasn’t easy. He looked at her with tenderness, and all those months of falling for him, phone call after intimate phone call, came rushing back and gripped her heart.

THE LOOK ON Lacy’s face stopped Dane cold. She furrowed her brow, and her mouth was stuck in a half smile, half worried upturned line.

“That’s who I was, Lace. Then I met you, and then those other nights, well, they became few and far between,” Dane said.

“Okay. Can we change the subject?” Lacy asked.

“Yeah, I didn’t come here to make you feel uncomfortable. I can go.” He pushed to his feet again.

She looked up at him. “No, you don’t have to go. I just don’t want to talk about you and other women. Even if we’re agreeing not to fall in love with each other, I don’t want to be the friend that you tell about your…trysts.” The pain in her eyes was palpable, and she shivered against the cold.

He slipped off his sweater and draped it around her shoulders. “Fair enough,” Dane said. “I just want to be honest.”

“Thank you,” she said, pulling the sweater around her.

“Want to go inside to warm up?” he asked.

“Not really. I like it out here, but maybe we can move to the deck. A glass of wine might be nice. I bought some earlier,” Lacy said.

They made their way up the deck, where they filled their glasses and settled onto the deck chairs. Dane felt like he was doing a balancing act. He’d restrain his desires to hold her, to touch her hand, or stroke her face if that’s what it took to spend time with her, but he’d be damned if he wouldn’t try to get her to look past who he had been and see him for the man he was now, or the man he intended to be in the future.

“You know, you made a big mistake bringing me here. I’m not going to watch you catch sharks,” Lacy said.

The defiance in her voice startled Dane, until he caught sight of the tease in her eyes.

“If you’d looked at the itinerary, you’d have seen that there is no shark catching on it. Tomorrow we’re going to the library,” he said.

Lacy finished her wine and Dane refilled her glass. “You’re not getting me drunk, either. At least not drunk enough to do anything I’ll regret tomorrow.”

Dane’s stomach sank. “You regret being with me?” he asked. He expected a lot of things, but regret for their evening together was not one of them. “Lacy, maybe I made a mistake bringing you here. I never imagined that you felt that way.”

She tucked her feet beneath her on the chair. “I don’t regret that evening,” she said. “I’m just not going to jump into bed with you again.”

“That’s fair. We’re not heading that way anyway. No falling in love, remember? And I don’t sleep around anymore, so…” Dane said with a smile.

“I have to admit, I did miss talking to you last night,” Lacy said. When she looked up at Dane, the moonlight caught her big baby blues.

“I did, too.” He needed a safer topic to talk about. Talking about missing each other and jumping in bed together made his body crave her. He needed to talk about something that didn’t make him think about what her lips tasted like or the way her eyes fluttered closed when she came. “Fred seems like he’s a pretty nice boss.”

“Yeah. He’s great.” Lacy laughed under her breath. “He’s so smart, but really nerdy in that endearing sort of way. I can’t believe you were able to rope him into sending me on a vacation.”

“Oh, is that what you think this is? A vacation? You, my dear, are mistaken. This trip is to immerse you in the life of a Brave Foundation employee. This trip is to show you what we do, so you can sell us to the world.”
And hopefully you’ll find me irresistible along the way
.