The Tycoon's Defiant Southern Belle (9 page)

“When did your parents pass away?” she asked gently, standing in the heat, her heart
melting at the idea of this large, gentle giant of a man being alone. 

“When I was a kid.”

“How old were you?”

He shrugged and looked behind her slightly.  “Ten years old.”

She smiled at the idea of Angelo being a ten year old boy with black hair and dark
eyes, looking solemn and intelligent.  “And who took you in after they died?  An aunt
or uncle?”

He shook his head and moved closer.  “Jade, I know you like to see the world with
rose colored glasses, but that’s not how life really works.”

“I know that.  Things haven’t been wonderful for me all my life either.  I remember
the pain after my own father died so I can’t even imagine what you must have gone
through to lose both of your parents.  Life was pretty rough.”

“So you can understand when I explain that my aunts and uncles couldn’t take me in.”

“Where did you go?” she asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.  Her stomach
tensed, her heart beating rapidly as she thought about all the horrifying possibilities. 

“The state had to take me in.  I lived in an orphanage for about five months and then
I was transferred to the foster care system.  Can we go now?” he asked.  “I really
don’t like those people in my house without you there to supervise them.  You know
what you’re doing but they aren’t as careful.  Who knows where holes in the wall might
end up.”

Jade looked at him for a long moment.  She’d known from the start of this conversation
that she wouldn’t like where it was going.  But the idea of Angelo living in an orphanage,
all alone without any mother or father to give him hugs and kisses, to tuck him in
at night and explain how life worked, was heart wrenching.  In theory, she knew that
there were thousands of kids who went through that every year.  But she didn’t know
those kids.  And she didn’t recognize their genius like she did with Angelo.  He was
awe-inspiring and she hated the idea that he’d raised himself without any kind of
love or affection. 

“Jade?” he prompted. 

She snapped out of her thoughts, realizing that he didn’t want to talk about this
subject any longer.  “Yes.  Of course,” she stammered.  She looked down at the sidewalk
and forced her feet to move forward.  Just one foot in front of the other, she told
herself. 

They arrived back at his house five minutes later and he disappeared into his office,
a room he’d set up all by himself with another contractor who had run wires and wireless
thingamabobs all through the room.  Despite the heavy door, she heard his deep voice
talking throughout the afternoon, but she didn’t venture into his domain.  When the
work day was finished, she ensured that the workers had cleaned up their current projects
then slipped out one of the side doors.

When she was standing in the still hot twilight, she looked back at the house.  Should
she check on Angelo?  What was he going to eat for dinner?  He didn’t have a working
kitchen and it hadn’t ever occurred to her that he needed food.  Of course, that was
silly since the man had to eat.  He was enormous and obviously worked out pretty hard
in order to maintain all those amazing muscles. 

She looked through the courtyard where some workers had started putting in landscaping
now that the concrete had been repaired.  Should she offer to have him over for dinner? 

No!  She needed to be away from him.  Every time they were together, she ended up
in his arms.  She gritted her teeth and forced her feet to keep moving forward, not
looking back even though her heart was aching at the thought of Angelo eating something
cold and all alone.

She reached her cottage and went into the kitchen, pouring food for Jasper and Rufus
and a bowl of cereal for herself.  Rufus came running, eager to inhale his food. 
But Jasper was nowhere to be seen.  The finicky feline continued to hide.  Or pretend
to hunt.  Or just decided that tonight he would be ornery because Jade had come home
later than normal.  The cat was very temperamental about his schedule. 

Because it had been such a crazy day, she pulled out a mystery novel she’d started
last week and tried to read the book with a glass of wine at her elbow.  She sipped
the wine, but the whole time, she had trouble focusing.  Her mind kept coming back
to the mystery of Angelo Donati.  How had he gone from an orphan to a foster child
to his current amazing success?  What had happened in his childhood that had pushed
him to such a level that he was this successful? 

And where was Jasper?  His fluffy head should have poked through the door by now. 
And his huge body should have plunked down on top of her book, demanding attention
since she was trying to read. 

Jade took another sip of wine and looked around.  Her comfy little sitting room was
the perfect size for her but she couldn’t imagine Angelo feeling comfortable in here. 
His enormous size would dwarf all of her furniture. 

Why hadn’t she ever pictured Dave in this room?  It struck her as odd that she was
already thinking of Angelo inserting himself into her life and her domain but Dave’s
presence hadn’t ever broken through.  She liked her space, but the idea of Angelo
here both disturbed her and excited her, even though he definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable
on any of her furniture. 

She sipped her wine, scratching Rufus behind his ears and smiling absently when he
growled with happiness, shifting his body so she could reach his tummy. 

An hour later, she stretched and looked around.  She hadn’t gotten very far in her
book, but it still bothered her that Jasper hadn’t come to even sniff at his food. 
Even if he wasn’t hungry, Jasper still sat beside his dish and stared at her, mentally
demanding that she change his food since it had been sitting there for more than he
deemed appropriate.  Jade never did, but that didn’t stop him from demanding.  In
his little cat mind, Jasper knew that he would eventually succeed in telepathically
demanding better kibbles. 

She continued to scratch Rufus, rubbing his ears and his belly while he slowly crept
onto her lap.  She was so caught up in trying not to think about Angelo and figure
out where Jasper had gone, she didn’t even notice that Rufus had pushed her book to
the floor as the canine was now draped over her lap and chair, blissfully enjoying
her attentions. 

She absently wondered what Angelo might have eaten for dinner.  Had he ordered something
to be delivered?  Or had he gone to a restaurant?  He probably had several associates
he could call if he needed dinner companionship.  That term brought another woman
to mind and Jade quickly rejected that idea.  She didn’t believe that Angelo would
take her to the ice cream shop, proposition her one more time, then call up a female
to have dinner with him.  No, of all the things that she didn’t like about the man,
the way he made her feel being at the top of the list, his fidelity wasn’t something
she would question. 

She couldn’t even use his business methods against him anymore.  Not after he explained
how he’d acquired two different medical companies in order to acquire two patents,
making both medicines safer and more effective.  Darn the man for taking away her
initial irritation with him! 

It didn’t matter, she told herself.  He’d already asserted that he would be a horrible
husband and she wanted to get married, have children.  She knew she wasn’t the type
of person who could be some man’s mistress.  It simply wasn’t in her makeup. 

And Jasper continued to remain absent!  So where was the little fluff ball?  Why wasn’t
he here?  He should be toddling around with his black and gold hair sticking out all
over his body, his huge tail twitching with curiosity or irritation that he can’t
catch the fly that was buzzing through her little family room.  The poor cat constantly
hunted about outside, desperately thinking he could catch flying or scurrying creatures
but never actually succeeding. 

Why wasn’t he here? 

She sighed and gripped her wine glass with suddenly shaking fingers.  Jasper wasn’t
here because…he was over at Angelo’s house.  The darn cat was prowling around, looking
for something that only he could see that was hiding over at Angelo’s place. 

She remembered that first night, finding her giant cat sitting on Angelo’s lap in
front of the fireplace.  “Not there,” she begged the ceiling.  “Please don’t let Jasper
be next door!”  The man had been in her mind too much tonight.  No matter how much
she tried to ignore him, his presence kept popping right back in. 

She walked out onto her deck, whistling in an effort to call Jasper home.  But there
was only silence in response.  Not even a rustle indicating that the giant, furry
cat was in the bushes fruitlessly trying to catch one of the lightning bugs that were
fluttering about. 

“I’m not going over there,” she told herself, pacing back and forth on her small deck. 
“I’m not going to do it.”  She took a long swig of wine and resumed her pacing.  “Jasper
can just spend the night there.  I don’t care!”

She prowled the deck, her eyes glancing through the night in the desperate hope that
Jasper would come bouncing through the woods, his tail twitching and his ears moving
back and forth in irritation that he hadn’t caught whatever he was hunting for. 

Nothing!  Just stillness interspersed sporadically with a flash of a lightning bug. 

With a growl of frustration, she set her wine glass down on her deck table with a
clink and walked through the pathway.  It was dark but she still didn’t have trouble
getting through the bushes since she’d walked the path so many times.  “I’ll just
go over to the edge and call him again but I’m definitely not going into the house.”

No one commented on her pronouncement but it still irked her that she had to go find
her silly cat.  She reached the edge of her property and stared at the enormous, silent
house.  There were very few lights on, probably because Angelo was in his office working. 
Or maybe he was in his bedroom reading, getting ready for bed just like she should
be doing. 

“Jasper can just rot, for all I care!” she said and traipsed back and forth at the
edge of the tree line.  “If he doesn’t want to eat, I’m not going to get him.”

She moved a bit closer to the edge of the patio, peering through the new bushes into
the darkness.  “Jasper!” she whispered harshly.  “If you’re out here, come home now!”

Silence.  Again! 

“I’m not going in there!” she said, pacing some more.  She stepped up onto the now
smooth stones of the patio.  Thankfully, the chipped and broken concrete had already
been replaced by field stone that looked much more elegant.  So there wasn’t anything
for her to trip on in the darkness.  “I’m not going in.  I’m not going to do it! 
That cat is just trying to play match maker and I’m simply not going to fall for his
ridiculous tricks!”

She heard Rufus behind her.  His heavy, clumsy feet could be heard crashing through
the underbrush as if there was some sort of stampede to the barbeque.  Wasn’t he supposed
to be a hound dog?  And hound dogs were hunting dogs!  Rufus definitely didn’t fit
the character traits of a hound dog but what could one expect?  He was just a sweet,
gentle giant of a goofball.

With a sigh, she stepped closer to the house.  And there he was.  Just like the last
time, Angelo was sitting out on his new patio, a bottle of wine at his elbow but this
time there were already two glasses next to the bottle.  And it didn’t appear to her
that he’d poured any of the wine yet. 

“Are you going to join me?” Angelo’s deep voice came through the darkness, sending
those now familiar shivers down her body. 

“I’m still trying to decide.”

Angelo laughed and stood up, lifting the cat to his shoulder before he walked to where
she was standing.  “If I promise to behave, will you join me for wine?”

She bit her lip, wanting to just sit with him and enjoy his company.  But she knew
it was too dangerous.  Hearing that he was an orphan had made the man more human. 
She definitely couldn’t offer him comfort and sympathy, but she was shockingly more
attracted to him than she had been before their earlier conversation. 

“What do you consider ‘behaving’?” she asked. 

Angelo chuckled softly, the feeling smoothing over her skin like warm chocolate. 
“How about if I promise not to touch you until I walk you home?”

She bit her lip.  “I’ll walk myself home,” she countered.

Another smile, but he nodded.  “Deal.”

She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the table.  “What did you eat for dinner?”
she asked.

“I had a business meeting with one of my new managers,” he explained as he poured
both of them a glass of wine.

Jade was very conscious of the fact that she’d already had one glass of wine tonight
so she sipped this one carefully.  But it was very nice to just sit with him, conversing
about his newly acquired companies, her hobbies, each other’s preferences in books
and movies…it was a wonderful, sweet evening and she laughed more with him that night
than she had in a long time with Dave.  She even learned about his two best friends,
Dominic and Zayn, who were coming down for a visit to see his new house as soon as
it was finished.