The Savvy Sistahs (13 page)

Grey raised a brow. “What changed things?”

A small smile touched the corners of Brandy’s lips. “A very wise old man by the name of Ethan Allen Bennett. My grandfather. He sat me down and told me that there were two ways to grow and change in life. You could either choose to grow and change or you could be forced to grow and change. He made me see that part of life is growth and everyone will grow because it’s the purpose of us being here. But the big question is how you will grow. Will it be willingly, joyfully, or with pain? I was forced to encounter pain to grow. All through life my mother, my father, and both sets of grandparents had sheltered me. I always thought I was all of that and no one, especially my cousins whom I didn’t get along with for years, had anything on me mainly because I was Valerie Constantine’s daughter, and my mother in her haughty splendor had convinced me I was better than everyone.”

Brandy took another sip of her wine. “It took growth on my part to realize that I wasn’t. That I was human and susceptible to pain and betrayal just like anyone else. During my forced growth I also learned that although I couldn’t stop the waves from coming in my life, that I could learn to surf. And that’s what I’ve done. I had to learn to let go and move on and not see every man as Lorenzo and every woman as Jolene. I had to learn to trust all over again. I’m cautious but not cynical. It took me over two years to get to this place in my life, Grey. Even if it’s proven that the person who wrote those notes is someone I thought I trusted, that’s fine. I’ll get over it just like I got over what happened in my life almost three years ago. What happened during that time was a lesson in disguise and I learned from it, and this time will be just the same.”

Brandy stifled a long sigh. It felt good getting all of that out. She’d done so at other times with her cousins as well as with Carla and Amber, but never with a man. A part of her wished Grampa Ethan had lived to see her growth, to see how she had taken the advice he had given her and made changes in her life. Good changes. Some not easy. But changes she’d had to make for peace of mind—to survive.

Grey took a sip of his wine, saying nothing. Brandy’s words explained a lot. The woman had gone through…and was still going through…a transformation of some kind, which was all well and good with him if that was her thing. But he still needed her to understand that nothing, and he meant nothing, could be accepted at face value. There were things that were meant to be checked out, scrutinized and eventually dealt with…like this mad, crazy person sending those notes.

And like the sudden heat of desire consuming him yet again.

He swallowed hard to keep his hormones from getting carried away, but watching her sit across from him, slowly drinking her wine, was an absolute turn-on. He cleared his throat. “Would you like to order dessert?”

Brandy shook her head. “No, thanks. I’m ready to leave.” The only thing she wanted to do was to go home and go to bed. She was tired, edgy, and she
had
noticed Thomas watching her more than usual tonight. And his gaze
had
seemed angry. Had he forgotten about their agreement to be just friends? Or like Grey had suggested, had Thomas told her what she’d wanted to hear but had inwardly harbored the hope that she would eventually change her mind?

A short while later Grey had taken care of their bill and was escorting her out of the restaurant.

After Amber left, Carla went into the kitchen to pour out the cup of coffee they had never gotten around to drinking. A part of her felt awful that she had not concentrated on everything Amber had shared with her like she should have, since her mind was boggled with Brandy’s phone call.

Could it be true? Was there a possibility that Jesse was in Orlando? And if he was, did it mean anything? She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stay calm, but the man Brandy had described sounded a lot like the Jesse she knew…or at one time thought she knew, at least for a night.

She stood and began pacing. What if it was him? Why was she nervous? She didn’t owe him any explanation about anything, including Craig. But chances were he wouldn’t want any, since he didn’t know about Craig and she hoped things stayed that way. And she hoped his visit to Orlando would be a short one.

The last person she wanted to see was Jesse Devereau. And she definitely didn’t want him to find out about their son.

Grey was busy making the sofa into his bed, tucking in the sheet as best he could, smoothing the comforter and fluffing the pillows. He had to admit that Brandy’s sofa didn’t sleep half bad. In fact, he thought it was rather comfortable. Once she went to her room each night and closed the door, she normally didn’t come out. And usually in the mornings he was awake long before she got up.

He had tossed the comforter back and had stepped out of his slippers, getting ready to slide underneath the covers, when Brandy’s bedroom door opened. The small light from her bedroom illuminated her form. She was standing perfectly still. He waited for her to say something.

“Grey?”

“Yes?”

“I’m thirsty. I need to go into the kitchen for a glass of water. Are you decent?”

Grey smiled. “Yes. I have clothes on, so you can come on through and turn on the lights.”

After a brief pause she said, “Thanks.”

He sat on the sofa as the area was bathed in bright lights and watched as she quickly crossed the room to the kitchen, heading straight for the refrigerator. She was dressed in a thick, powder blue, velour bathrobe and appeared buttoned up from her head to her toes. He smiled, wondering if she had taken the extra step to protect herself from him or to protect him from her. Whichever the case, it wasn’t working, since he could still see the gorgeous curves and angles of her body that the robe couldn’t hide.

He leaned back on the sofa and watched as she opened the refrigerator. At dinner she had said that over the last two to three years she had grown and had put behind her what her best friend had done to her, and he felt part of that was true, especially since she considered Carla Osborne and Amber Stuart very close friends. But if she had gotten beyond her ex-husband’s wrongdoings, then why wasn’t there a man in her life? For some reason he didn’t buy her story that she’d been too busy to date. There was another reason she had distanced herself from men. Didn’t she know anything about having balance? Most women that he knew, including his sisters, accepted that part of being a woman was including a man in your life. That didn’t necessarily mean you had to get all wrapped up in one. What it meant was that a woman was supposed to be able to enjoy a healthy relationship with a man. And it didn’t have to be about sleeping together either, although to a man’s way of thinking, that part of a relationship always sounded pretty damn nice.

He sighed deeply, thinking that he was in no better shape than she and was finding out the hard way what not having that balance could do. It had been nearly three years since he’d gotten laid and the result of that was now taking its toll. Brandy held the distinction of being the first woman in all that time that he wanted to take to bed…and in a very bad way.

His attention was then drawn back to her. She had gotten a water bottle out of the refrigerator and uncapped it. He watched as she tipped the bottle up to her lips and drank, sucking on the bottle like it was the one thing she needed to survive.

He swallowed hard as he watched her, getting turned on by how her mouth sucked on the bottle. Her lips were definitely made for kissing of the most erotic kind. That water may be saturating her mouth, but at the moment, everything about Brandy Bennett was saturating his thoughts, his needs, and his desires.

Since his wife’s death he had poured himself into his work, trying to make the investigative agency a success. Unlike Brandy, he couldn’t claim he’d been too busy to get involved with a woman. No man could ever get
that
busy. But he hadn’t wanted to become involved with any woman after Gloria’s death. The pain of her betrayal was too raw. Then later, after he’d gotten over what she’d done, he hadn’t been ready to become a part of the dating scene no matter how badly he felt like he needed a good lay at times. He didn’t have the time or the inclination to make sure women understood that he would want to make love and not make lifetime memories. But for some reason, a part of him felt, and a part of him knew, that if he ever made love with Brandy, there would definitely be lifetime memories.

She must have felt the deep intensity of his eyes on her for at that moment she looked up and met his gaze. Her brow arched slightly. “Do you want some water, too?”

His gaze continued to hold hers and he wondered if she could perhaps handle it if he were to tell her exactly what he did want. He quickly decided it was best not to find out. Instead he stood and slowly walked to the kitchen. He saw the wariness in her eyes that she tried to keep at bay. But what got his attention more than anything were her lips. They were wet from the water she’d drunk. Wet and delicious looking.

She moved aside slightly as she turned back to the refrigerator. “There’s another full bottle in here,” she said reaching inside to pull out another bottle of water.

“Don’t need that much to quench my thirst,” he said in a voice that he knew sounded deeper than usual. “I’ll just finish what you started,” he said, taking the water bottle from her hand. He tipped the bottle to his lips and drank what was left, doing an awful job of drowning the heat that was consuming his stomach. But then he was getting a fairly decent taste of her as he drank from the same bottle her mouth had touched. He knew it probably was nothing compared to the real thing, but at the moment he would take what he could get.

He met her gaze as he continued to drink and saw her shiver slightly. Not from cold, since to his way of thinking it was pretty damn hot in her kitchen right now. He knew her shivers were from the deep attraction they felt for each other. It was an attraction that had been there since that first day, one they had tried to avoid, and one tonight they were acknowledging.

And one that neither would do a thing about.

Grey took the bottle from his mouth and wiped his wet lips off with the back of his hand. “That tasted good.”

She forced a smile.“Water always does when you’re thirsty,”she said, breaking eye contact with him as she placed the unopened bottle of water back inside the refrigerator.

“Yeah, that might be true, but this tasted good because I got to savor you in the process and I like your flavor.”

Brandy’s gaze again met his. She pursed her lips, hesitated for a brief moment, then asked, “And what flavor is that?”

“Hot brandy.”

He watched the small gasp escape her. He watched another shiver pass through her body and watched as she remoistened her already wet lips. She took a step back. “I need to go back to bed. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Brandy.”

As he continued to look at her, she quickly crossed the living room to her bedroom and closed the door behind her. He leaned against the counter and wondered if she would have as hard a time sleeping tonight as he would.

Brandy turned furiously over in bed several times and pounded her pillow with a frustrated fist. She had made a big mistake in letting Grey get into her bed that morning, like he did every morning, to make the housekeeper think they were sleeping together. His scent was everywhere in the room and not just on her bed linens. And then, earlier tonight in the kitchen, that had been the last straw—it may not have broken the camel’s back but it had broken her resolve.

At least it had . . . almost.

Trying to bring a calmness to her body she lay staring at the ceiling for a long time. Every once in a while as much as she had gotten stronger over the years and as much as she had grown, she would still remember the hurt and humiliation of that day almost three years ago. For some reason tonight it had been hard to get beyond those feelings. Maybe it was because she had talked about them to Grey and her mind had relived that day. And it was only tonight while in the kitchen with him that she had to admit that all her talk had been cheap. She wasn’t completely over what Lorenzo had done. Hard work and success hadn’t completely eradicated his actions from her heart.

Oh, she didn’t love him, that was for sure. She’d lost whatever love she had for him the moment she saw that videotape. But for a full year after that she had lived for revenge. It had been revenge for a man who didn’t deserve the dirt under her shoe, and getting the hotel he’d prized so much had been sweet.

But now, almost two years later, why was she so afraid to get back into another relationship with a man? If nothing else, that episode with Grey in her kitchen had shown her just how afraid she was.

She shifted in bed, wondering if Grey was getting the sleep that she wasn’t getting.

Chapter 12

B
randy overslept.

And once she got dressed, walked out of her bedroom, and saw Grey, the first thought that came to her mind was that they both looked like hell. It was quite obvious that neither of them had gotten a good night sleep. That would have been all well and good if they’d spent the entire night making love, but that was not the case.

“Good morning,” she tried to say in a cheerful tone of voice.

“What’s so good about it?”

Brandy met Grey’s gaze. In spite of the fact that she felt like hell this morning and probably, although she’d spent a decent amount of time in front of her mirror, looked like it, too, she couldn’t help but smile. Men were rather funny when they needed to get laid. They just couldn’t handle things. Whereas she had a reason for being moody and agitated, since it had been nearly a full two years for her, and to be quite honest, she couldn’t even count that night with Thomas, since it had been so disastrous. She was sure it hadn’t been that long for Grey. Unless, however, he was still grieving for his wife and as a result had been celibate since her death almost three years ago. Brandy shook her head finding the very thought of that ludicrous. A virile man like Grey would not be able to go without sex for three years. There was no way.

“What’s so funny?”

She glanced at Grey and saw his deep frown. “Me. You. And the reason we didn’t get any sleep.”

Grey lifted a brow, evidently surprised at her honesty and candor. “And you find it amusing?”

“No, quite honestly I find it pathetic, but then at the same time I also find it refreshing. It’s good to know at thirty-two that I can still turn a man on.”

Grey leaned against the kitchen counter, the same spot she’d left him in the night before, but this morning he had a cup of coffee in his hand. He had a feeling that she would still be able to turn a man on at sixty-two. “Were you trying to turn me on?”

She tossed him a glance as she walked into the kitchen to pour her own cup of coffee. “No, and that’s what so nice about it. But then you should feel good, too, since you definitely got my blood heated up pretty darn good, so consider us even.”

His frown deepened. “I wasn’t aware we were competing.”

She lifted her head from pouring her coffee and smiled at him. “We weren’t. It’s this sexual chemistry thing. Trust me, I know all about it. I have parents who have a double dose of it for each other. They have never married but can’t stand to be in the same room with each other for a few minutes before they blow up in smoke. It’s not uncommon for them to just disappear for a while.”

Brandy chuckled when she recalled how at the age of sixteen she’d finally realized what was going on with her parents. “At times they act like they hate each other but then when people aren’t looking, or when they
think
people aren’t looking, they can’t keep their hands or eyes off each other.”

Grey set his coffee cup on the counter. “Why didn’t they ever marry?”

That question brought another chuckle from Brandy. “It’s depends on whose story you want to believe, so over the years I’ve come up with my own.”

She took a sip of her coffee before continuing. “Although both my mother and father would doggedly disagree with me, I think getting married was too easy for them. I believe that in the beginning my mother wanted my father to marry her since she was only sixteen when she got pregnant with me and doing so would have been the honorable thing for him to do. But I can see how right the decision was for them not to marry. While my father was in college at Morris Brown, he got a girl pregnant and her parents forced him to marry her. That meant he had to drop out of school and lose out on a football scholarship. As soon as Victor Junior was born the girl divorced my father and moved back to Ohio and finished her education at some other college and conveniently left her baby to be raised by my father and grandparents.”

Brandy shifted in her chair to get more comfortable as she continued. “Three years later my father met my mother. She had slipped into this nightclub claiming to be eighteen when she was only sixteen. Anyway, she met my father there and lied about her age. Since he didn’t know any different, he slept with her and she got pregnant. There were some who claimed she’d seen him around and had set her sights on seducing him and that he wasn’t her baby’s father, since she was known to be what everyone considered ‘a fast gal.’ However, any doubt that I was his child ended when I was born. I look too much like my father for anyone to claim otherwise.”

Brandy took another sip. “Anyway, I think Dad would have asked Mom to marry him but she pissed him off when she tried forcing his hand. He’d already been forced into one marriage and didn’t intend on getting forced into another. So he rebelled like hell and didn’t marry her. He joined the army instead and when he returned two years later he brought home a Japanese wife, Tokya, which only pissed my mother off even more.”

Grey shook his head, thinking her parents’ history was definitely colorful as well as cultural. “Did he and the Asian woman have any children?”

“No, and I even heard that she really didn’t like having sex, and that the only reason she married him was to get to America and to what she considered as a better way of life. Well, her plans backfired because my father is a man who strongly believes in having sex anytime, all the time, and when she continued to place limitations in their bed, they got a divorce and he sent her packing.”

Brandy decided not to tell Grey that she’d also heard that Tokya’s sister had come for a visit one year; one night after having drunk too much her father found his way into Tokya’s sister’s bed, the two had a night of wild sex and the woman had ended up getting pregnant. It was common knowledge within the Bennett family that her father had an Asian daughter living somewhere up north, and occasionally they would hear from her.

“But getting back to my parents’ story,” she said as she watched Grey refill her cup with more coffee. “Seeing my father with other women only made my mother angry and she was determined to show him just what a mistake he’d made by choosing those women over her. But in the process she forgot one major thing.”

“What?”

“My mother has an addiction to my father. She hates him but she can’t stand to be without him. I know that sounds rather crazy but it’s true. She can give him pure hell one minute—which can last for months—but then when he comes around and throws her that lethal Bennett smile and gives off this sexual chemistry that she can’t resist, she goes bonkers. But then the same thing happens to him. He’s as addicted to my mother as she is to him. No matter who he marries or what woman he’s with at the time, he never stays away from my mother’s bed for long. So to my mother’s way of thinking, she literally has him just where she wants him.”

Grey rubbed his chin that was in need of a shave. “Is your father married?”

“No, he’s been divorced now for almost three years, and there’s no doubt in my mind that as we speak he and my mother are somewhere together.” She signed heavily. “That’s sad isn’t it?”

“Not if your mother is satisfied with that sort of relationship.”

Brandy chuckled as she set her coffee cup down. “I think she is. Besides, I don’t think I could handle it if they got married.” She then glanced at her watch. “I have to make a quick call to Carla, then I’ll be ready to go.”

“All right. When you’re through, I’ll walk you down.”

“What did you find out, Brandy?”

Brandy heard the deep concern in Carla’s voice. “I checked a few things out when I got in from dinner last night and I hate to say it but this Jesse Devereau may be one and the same. I understand he’s a wealthy businessman from L.A. who’s here on business. It doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere soon since he has his suite booked for an entire week.”

Carla nodded, not liking what she was hearing. She shifted uneasily in her seat at her kitchen table. “Is he alone?” she asked.

“No,” Brandy said with a heavy sigh. “But if you’re asking if he’s here with a woman, the answer is no. He’s here with a man I assume to be a business associate by the name of Mike Kelly. They have connecting suites.”

“And you’re sure he’s not here with a woman?”

“Positive. My female employees have been going nuts since he’s been here and they watch his every move. The man is so fine. I can see how you were attracted to him the first time you saw him.”

“Yeah, but that was then and this is now. If he’s here on a business trip that’s fine, however under no circumstances do I want him to find out about Craig.”

“And you think he has?”

“No, I really don’t.”

“Then you don’t have anything to worry about, but to play it safe I would suggest that you lay low for a while and not visit me at the hotel.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Carla replied.

A short while later when Brandy and Grey walked off the elevator, her secretary gave her a big smile. “Why, good morning, Ms. Bennett, I thought you had decided to sleep in this morning.”

Brandy chuckled. “No, I just overslept.”

“Oh, I see.”

Brandy was sure the woman thought she saw more than there really was, since Grey was standing so close to her. “Did I get any calls, Donna? Do I have any mail?”

“No calls but yes, these are for you,” Donna said, handing Brandy a stack of envelopes. Brandy was surprised when Grey followed her into the office and closed the door behind them. She thought he’d only planned to catch the elevator with her to the administration floor.

“You didn’t give me your agenda today,” he said, taking the seat across from her desk.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right, I forgot. I was too busy giving you Bennett History Lesson Number One instead,” she said, flipping through the bunch of envelopes Donna had given to her.

Grey chuckled. “You mean there’s more.”

She looked up, met his gaze and smiled. “Believe me, I could write a book.” She then glanced down at one envelope in particular as she tossed the others on her desk. A frown suddenly marred her forehead.

“Something’s wrong, Brandy?”

She glanced up and met Grey’s gaze again. “I’m not sure but for some reason I’m getting a funny feeling about this one letter here. I’ve noted all the things you told me to watch out for. There’s no postage, no postmark and no return address.”

Grey stood. “Let me see it.”

She didn’t waste any time handing it over to him, and he quickly ripped it opened and scanned the contents. “Damn.”

“What is it, Grey? Let me see it.”

He hesitated a moment before passing it on to her. Brandy was visibly shaken while reading the letter.

As Carla swung her car into Osborne Computer Network’s parking lot, the conversation she’d had earlier with Brandy was still on her mind. She hoped what she assumed was right and Jesse was in town on business and nothing more.

Juggling her keys and briefcase in one hand she closed the door to her car, turned around, and froze in place. There standing a few feet away next to a Mercedes sports car was the one man she had hoped not to see…ever again.

Jesse Devereau.

And he was waiting for her.

Seeing him again made her realize that he was the one and only man who had ever touched her body. And even now she could admit he was the one and only man who had once gone so far as to touch her soul as well as her heart within forty-eight hours of meeting him. But that had been before she’d found out just what type of man he was.

Seconds ticked by and Carla was unable to move. She was surprised that she was capable of breathing. After the initial shock at seeing him she quickly surmised that he was still the most gorgeous man she had ever laid eyes on. But she didn’t want to think about that. What she wanted and needed to know was why he was here waiting for her.

Taking a deep breath, she walked toward him, his eyes holding hers.

He looked taller and darker, and his hair was longer and caught in ponytail at the back of his neck, Steven Seagal–style.

As she got closer she tried not to look at his mouth. She remembered that mouth well and how he had put it to use on her. All over. She moved her gaze from his mouth and met his eyes. Like his son’s they were hazel, darkly intense and contrasted starkly with his dark almond complexion. But then so did the straight hair. She again wondered what he was mixed with? White? Hispanic? Some other nationality?

Her attention slid past him to the entrance of the building. She saw Sam Barnes, Osborne Network’s security guard standing in front of the revolving doors, watching, looking, and making sure all was well and that the man waiting for her posed no threat and was safe.

For some reason she felt Jesse wasn’t safe, especially to her peace of mind. She suddenly felt angry, annoyed that he was there. If he didn’t know about Craig that meant he’d sought her out for another reason. Did he think she was willing to give him a repeat performance of what happened over two years ago? If he did then he had another thought coming.

Jesse’s gaze remained fixed on Carla’s face as she came closer. She was even more beautiful than he had remembered. He had thought about her often, sometimes thinking that the night they’d shared had not been real but a figment of his imagination.

He inhaled as a deep, primitive ache spread throughout every part of his body. What had it been about her that had drawn him to her like a bee to honey? They had only spent two days together, less than that if you were only counting hours; yet from the first there had been something about her that had touched him, entranced him. In his heart he had believed there wasn’t a pretentious bone in her body and everything he’d seen about her that night was real and genuine. She had made an impact on him like no other woman and he’d let his guard down, which was why finding out about her betrayal had hurt tremendously, tarnishing the special memory he’d retained of her. Receiving that anonymous letter had been like a knife twisting in his heart. He didn’t want to believe that she hadn’t tried contacting him to let him know she’d gotten pregnant—even if their encounter had been for one night.