In His World (For His Pleasure, Book 28) (8 page)

“I’m not sure how much appetite I have at the moment,” Chloe said.

“You’ll eat,” her mother replied, taking her by the hand. “You always eat.”

And as they walked inside the house together, Chloe felt a surge of gratitude that she had two people in her life she knew she could count on no matter what.

Although along with that feeling of gratitude, another emotion still swirled. The feeling of sadness and deep loss at Brody Hawk having decided he no longer wanted anything to do with her.

Chloe knew that it was crazy to feel this sad over what amounted to a one-night-stand, but nonetheless the feeling was surprisingly real and powerful.

While her mother finished making dinner, Chloe went upstairs and took a quick shower, changing into some of her old clothes that had been left in her old room. Putting on a pair of jeans and a light sweater, she felt a little more herself.

And she did manage to eat.

Her mother was a great cook, always had been.

Today, she’d made pasta—baked ziti—as well as a large, fresh salad. And there was always warm bread, butter, and plenty of cheese.

They ate, with Dana happily doing the heavily lifting in the conversation department. She was very close to graduating law school, and her life was consumed with thoughts of jobs, and the offers were plentiful.

Chloe smiled as she ate and listened to her sister talk about the plethora of choices that were laid out in front of her.

“You should go where you think you’ll be happiest,” Chloe’s mother said, after listening to Dana listing all of the various pros and cons of salary, hours, benefits, and prestige of the various firms that were looking to employ her out of law school.

“Where I’ll be happiest?” Dana laughed, holding her fork aloft, with a piece of cheesy pasta falling off the tines. “Mom, lawyers don’t think about happiness. It’s not part of the equation. We think about billable hours and making partner.”

“Well, I think that’s ridiculous, honey,” her mother retorted, holding a crumpled, sauce stained napkin. “Happiness in life is everything. Otherwise, why do any of this?” she asked. “You want to build a happy, vibrant life full of love and stability and accomplishments.”

Dana rolled her eyes. “I want to build a client list and hopefully become an asset to a good firm.”

“I can’t say I understand it,” their mother sighed, shaking her head and finally turning her attention to Chloe. “Do you?”

Chloe shrugged. “I don’t know. I suppose I’m not as motivated as Dana.”

“You just need more confidence,” Dana said. “You’re way smarter than me, Chloe.”

“Don’t patronize me,” Chloe said sharply.

“I’m not,” Dana said. “Jeez, what’s your problem? What happened that made you so…bitter?”

Chloe thought about Brody as he’d left his apartment that morning, telling her that he would have to rethink the job offer. After the closeness of the night before, he’d turned so cold and callous at a moment’s notice.

“I got dumped,” she said, finally admitting the truth to them.

Dana gasped.

Her mother grabbed her hand. “Honey, you had a break up? Who was he?”

“You never even told anyone you had a boyfriend,” Dana said, sounding slightly wounded.

“It wasn’t anything that serious, I guess,” Chloe muttered. She pulled her hand away from her mother and took a roll, buttering it to have something to do with her hands. “I thought I could keep things in perspective. Be casual or whatever.”

“Casual sex?” her mother said, sounding horrified.

Dana giggled a little and Chloe shot her an annoyed look.

“I’m sorry,” Dana said, proceeding to drink water while trying to hide her smile. “So what’s his name? This mystery man?” she asked, after taking a sip of water.

“It doesn’t matter…Brody.” Just saying his name made her heart flutter.

Her mother frowned. “I’m very sad to know that this happened to you. But you will feel better. If this man was trying to convince you to be casual than he clearly isn’t a man of much character.”

“No, I guess not. And I’m stupid because somehow I…I started to fall for him.” Chloe blinked, wondering how it happened so quickly. Brody Hawk had used his charisma, his charm, his sex appeal to conquer her defenses and gain entrance to her heart in a matter of hours. She had been a cheap, easy victory. A conquest that he had notched on his belt and walked away from the way he might walk away from a hotel room on the road, or an opponent knocked unconscious on the canvas after one of his boxing matches.

Like she was nothing.

“Men can do that to a woman,” her mother stated flatly, as if from personal experience.

“I know. I just didn’t expect it to happen to me like this.”

Dana was watching her quietly. “Did you love him?” she said softly.

Chloe was about to quickly say no, but for some reason she hesitated.

Her mother’s eyes widened again. “You loved this man?”

“No, I didn’t say that,” Chloe told her.

“But you didn’t deny it,” Dana reminded her.

“Always the lawyer,” Chloe said, dropping her piece of bread and pushing her chair away from the table. “I can’t talk about this right now. I can’t do this.”

“Please, don’t be mad,” Dana told her.

“I’m not mad. I just…I need some time. Can I go to my old room, Mom?”

Her mother nodded. “Of course. You know that.”

“I’m staying over tonight, too,” Dana said.

“Do whatever you want,” Chloe said.

* * *

S
he went
up to her old room and lay in bed reading one of her old Anne of Green Gables books. She’d read it more times than she could count, but holding the book in hand and paging through those well-remembered lines of text was comforting, just as her mother and sister had comforted her.

Even though both of them also sometimes infuriated her.

They were all so close and knew one another too well sometimes.

It was hard to get distance, especially when she simultaneously craved their support. The problem was that she couldn’t keep failing and falling back to her childhood ways.

How long would she keep running home to mommy every time something went awry in her life?

Meanwhile, Dana somehow had managed to craft a life that made sense to her, that grounded her.

Chloe was floating at sea, directionless, lost and alone.

She put the book down and tried to sleep, but every time she shut her eyes,
he
appeared behind her eyelids—his face floated, his eyes boring into hers.

The vivid memories of what he’d done to her surged back, and her body responded almost painfully to the thought of him.

A couple of hours passed and she finally roused herself from her vague drowsy depression. Getting out of bed, Chloe walked downstairs and found Dana and her mother both sitting in the living room, watching an old episode of Seinfeld and laughing wildly.

Chloe had never been able to appreciate the goofy humor of the show the way her mother and sister had. She stood in the doorway and sighed to herself.

Then, just as she was turning to go and rummage around in the freezer for some ice cream or some other soothing snack, she caught sight of a shadow in the rippled glass next to the front door.

The doorbell rang, startling her.

Chloe’s mother turned. “That must be my delivery—I ordered a dehumidifier for the basement.”

“I’ll get it,” Chloe told her, walking to the door.

It was only as she was opening the door that she realized something was off—there was no delivery truck out front, and the man standing on the doorstep was not a Fed Ex delivery man either.

Her breath caught in her chest and she took a step back, gasping.

Brody Hawk was standing there, wearing a dark leather jacket that hugged his muscular frame, hanging open to reveal his white shirt. His pants were brown, and the belt buckle was gold.

He looked as if he’d come to pose for one of his magazine photos.

Chloe’s mouth opened and closed.

Brody gestured to the storm door, which was still shut. She remained motionless, stunned at seeing a ghost turn up on her mother’s doorstep.

After a moment, Brody opened the storm door himself with a slight grin. “I know this is a bit of a surprise,” he said.

“Is someone there?” Chloe’s mother screamed from the living room.

Chloe grabbed Brody’s arm. “You have to go,” she said softly but urgently. The idea of her mother seeing him in there and peppering him with questions—let alone Dana, a lawyer…

But it was already too late. Dana emerged from the living room and into the front hallway. Her eyes immediately widened and her jaw dropped. “Hey, that’s—that’s that guy…” She pointed at him in disbelief and then her eyes got even wider as she looked at Chloe. “Oh my God.
This
is the Brody you were talking about?”

Brody’s eyes shifted to Chloe and his grin returned, more mischievous now. “Oh well,” he said, shrugging. “Too late to turn back now.”

Chloe swallowed a lump in her throat. “I can’t…I can’t do this here. Not now.”

“Look,” Brody said, walking closer and lowering his voice. “I have to talk to you—“

And then her mother and Dana descended upon them, peppering Brody with questions as she’d known they would.

“Excuse me, what’s going on here?” her mother asked, looking anxiously from Chloe and then back to Brody.

“Hi, Miss…”

“You can call me Ellen,” her mother replied curtly.

“Hello, Ellen, I’m Brody—“

“I know who you are,” she said, her eyebrows lowering.

“Okay then,” he said looking to Dana.

Dana’s cheeks flamed red. “I…I still can’t believe you’re standing here…oh my God!” she said.

Chloe was surprised to see her normally levelheaded sister behaving like a star struck fan.

“Yeah, well, I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of time,” Brody said. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I have a plane to catch and I wanted to speak with Chloe for a moment.”

Chloe was shaking. “Oh,” was all she managed.

“I don’t think now is the time for this conversation,” her mother said sternly.

“Mom, let Chloe decide for herself,” Dana said, rolling her eyes.

“I don’t mind talking for a second,” Chloe muttered. She felt flushed and confused and also a little excited, truth be told.

He’d come to her
mother’s house
. Even though he had a plane to catch, he’d clearly gone out of his way to see her.

Brody scratched his cheek and waited.

Chloe turned to her sister and mother and asked if they could give them a moment to talk in private.

“Of course,” Dana said, grabbing her mother’s arm and pulling her away, back toward the living room. “Nice meeting you!”

“You do realize they’re going to listen to every word we say,” Chloe told him, once they’d gone.

“I don’t give a shit,” Brody replied. His eyes had focused just on her now. “I’m here to tell you that I want you with me on this trip, Chloe.”

She blinked, trying to take in this new information. “But your friend from Zanzibar called me just a few hours ago and said you requested they hire me.”

Brody ran a hand through his perfect hair and somehow the tousling of it made it somehow more sexy and perfect. “I know that I’ve been jerking you around a little bit today,” he admitted.

“More than a little bit. And I don’t like it.” She bit her lip and reminded herself not to cry. “Everything was fine, and then out of nowhere you completely changed. All because you overslept a little bit,” Chloe continued. “It was so cruel and ridiculous, the way you treated me.”

His eyes narrowed. “I have a very busy life,” he said. “A very intense life and I can’t afford distractions.”

She could smell him, she realized. The scent was mostly cologne, but it was also masculine and earthy, like he’d just come from a workout, which she supposed he had. Her nipples stiffened despite her attempt to just act like this was a normal occurrence in her life.

“I don’t want to be a distraction,” she said. “All I know is that everything was fine and then you just ran off and basically took back your offer to hire me.”

“I never took anything back,” he said.

“Then why the call from Zanzibar?”

Brody’s eyes flickered past her. “I thought maybe it would be better for everyone if you took a different position…”

“You thought it would be better for
you
,” Chloe corrected him.

His lip quirked up at the corner. “I told you, I don’t do distractions.”

“Then why are you standing here right now? Isn’t this pit stop distracting you from your flight to L.A.?”

“Maybe I decided to make an exception.”

“Well, I don’t want to be a distraction or an exception,” Chloe told him. “I don’t like being treated this way.”

Brody stepped closer. “Let me make it up to you,” he said, taking her hands in his.

She liked the way his hands felt too much and jerked hers away from his grasp. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Come to L.A. with me,” Brody told her. “Let’s try this again. I think last night was pretty successful, was it not?” his grin became wolfish.