Into the Fire (Bridge Book 2) (15 page)

I laughed despite a little part of me wanting to stay mad. “Don’t do that.”

He slid his finger down my nose. “Either that or I could just tattoo your name on my ass.”

The heavy weight that I’d walked around with all day slowly began to lift and I smiled. “You’re crazy.”

“You make me that way, Vanessa,” he whispered.

Then he kissed me—a soft soulful kiss, like the first note of a slow song. The world went still save the wild beating of my heart. It was just us. I wrapped my arms around him, rose on my toes as he embraced me. The kiss deepened until, breathless, we broke apart.

We weren’t exactly making a scene, but another few minutes and we easily could be. He feathered his lips over mine, restraint evident in his features.

“Come home with me.”

I would have said yes in an instant. Because I couldn’t manage to say no to Darren. But I also was in no position to say no to my employer.

“I can’t. I’m traveling tomorrow. I won’t be back for a couple days.”

His dark eyebrows knit together. “Where are you going?”

“I have to go to the Hamptons. My boss’s grandmother died unexpectedly, but we still have to work. So he’s bringing me with him.”

He rested his forehead against mine. “This isn’t going to be easy, is it?”

“Nothing worth fighting for ever is.”

“I’ll always fight for you.”

A
driver picked
us up at the jet way in East Hampton. I was even less thrilled about taking this trip than I was yesterday. We were scheduled to go to London next month, Hong Kong the month after, so travel with Reilly was going to be a part of my future. Like it or not.

Unfortunately, Darren was the only one on my mind. Every minute of the day I carried a bit of him around with me in my thoughts. The way I melted into his arms last night. The way he could make me laugh and send a long hard day away after a few minutes in his presence.

The town car brought us to Reilly’s summer cottage, which was far from rustic. We pulled up the long driveway to an expansive home with cedar shingles. Inside, tones of seaside blue and earthy browns set the tone of the decor against bright whites—trim, furniture, and linen. Top to bottom, the place was reminiscent of the few glossy VIP publications I’d seen from time to time that celebrated the homes and social lives of the elite society that could use “summer” as a verb. For the rest of us, summer meant a few trips to the beach, sunning on someone’s rooftop deck, or trying to stay cool in the unbearable city heat. Reilly and his family lived in a different world.

He dropped his keys onto the table in the foyer and shrugged off his suit coat. “I’ll be leaving for the service in an hour. I’ll be in my office in the meantime if you need me. There are several bedrooms. Pick whichever one suits you.” He gestured to the stairs.

“Thank you.”

He disappeared into the ground floor office, closing the pocket doors behind him.

I brought my bag upstairs and poked around. To think this place was just sitting here, waiting for summer. Every room was perfection, like an unmade bed that was begging to be jumped on. I found the master and briefly admired its view of the ocean. Figuring I’d leave that room to Reilly, I picked a room two doors down that featured a less impressive view, but one that still put my apartment view of my neighbor’s fire escape to shame.

A light rain had begun, and gray fog hovered over the rocky ocean waters. Perfect day for a funeral, though the patrons of said event might disagree.

I opened my laptop and worked through the afternoon. I started to get hungry for dinner and meandered downstairs. As I did, the front door opened and the sound of rain filled the large foyer, soft behind the loud noises of people’s voices.

I followed the noise and found Reilly, smiling ear to ear, beside three others. One I recognized immediately as his ex-wife, Cheryl. The others were men his age, dressed in suits.

“Vanessa. You’re here.” Reilly turned his broad smile to me, a sight so rare I was immediately caught off guard. “Bring us some wine. The cellar is that way, through the kitchen.” He pointed behind me.

I moved quickly in that direction. Cheryl’s footsteps clicked on the marble floors. I paused at the stairway as she approached. She moved easily in her tall heels, her body outlined in a tight black paneled dress.

She smiled when our eyes met. “Come on. I’ll help.”

Together we perused the dozens of bottles lining the cellar wall. I lifted out a bottle that looked dusty enough to be good, but truthfully, I had no idea what was what. “How about this?”

She wrinkled her nose and motioned for me to put it back.

“No, no. Let me see if I can find something special for today to honor David’s
nonna
.” She scanned the rows of wines, pulling out a bottle here and there. “It’s been ages since I’ve been down here. Oh, here. Lafite. He’s drunk enough to let us drink this one, I think. Let’s try it out.”

She led us to the nearby bar and took two delicate bulbous glasses off a rack behind.

“So…Vanessa.”

The way she said my name gave me pause. Maybe she didn’t remember me.

“We’ve met before. Briefly at the company party last year.”

She laughed softly and popped the cork from the pricey bottle. “Trust me, I’d remember a beautiful young woman working long hours next to my husband.”

I swallowed. “Ex.”

She smiled, with no hint of malice in it, and lifted her glass. “Cheers to that, darling.”

I clinked glasses with her, feeling a little guilty as I did. What it would be like to be free of a man like Reilly, to be able to start over, to start fresh? She had done it. Of course, she was starting over with the benefit of a fair portion of their wealth in her bank account. Rich people problems.

I took a sip of the wine. It was so smooth. Wine would never be the same for me after this. “This is exceptional.”

“David only ever wants the best.” Swallowing another mouthful of the delicious nectar, she stared at me over the rim of her glass.

Funny that Reilly so rarely spoke of her. She was stunning. Of average height, but full and thin in all the right places. Dirty-blond locks curved into a long bob at her shoulders. Her dark blue eyes seemed to see right through me—a feature that no doubt came in handy when maneuvering the intense social waters of New York’s mega-rich.

“I guess we should go up.” I stood awkwardly, hoping we could get back upstairs soon, though Reilly seemed like he’d already had one too many. I’d never really seen him drunk before, and I wasn’t really sure how we, or I, were going to deal with that.

Cheryl spun her wine glass by the base. “I’m not in a rush. This is a happy accident anyway. I wanted a chance to get to know you a little better.”

“Oh… I’m just his assistant.”

“You’re the one he left me for. I suppose I’m curious, that’s all.”

I coughed and set my glass down, peering at her with wide eyes. “What?”

She lifted her eyebrows, looking genuinely amused.

“Maybe I should have worded that differently.” She sighed and looked wistful for a moment. “I suppose technically I left him, but David would be furious if the world knew that. That was part of the agreement after all. Sometimes reputation management is more important than money. Thank God for that. So let the record state that we parted amicably, and mutually. Between us, I told him I wanted to move on.” She shrugged and paused to sip again at her wine. “I didn’t have anyone else exactly, but I’d had enough being married to a shadow, you know? He was either gone or perpetually unhappy. What’s the point in having all this money if you’re miserable all the time?”

Better to be rich and miserable than poor and miserable
, I thought, but I kept it to myself. None of that explained why the hell she thought Reilly would leave her for me.

“I’m sorry things didn’t work out between you two. I still don’t understand what any of that has to do with me, though.”

She offered a smile that I swore held a measure of sadness in it. “In the heat of the moment, when he was still intent on ruining me if I moved forward with the divorce, he admitted that he’d been falling for you, that it’d taken all his willpower not to act on it and make you his mistress. He was trying to hurt me, and at the time, it worked. Nothing should have surprised me or hurt me. Women like me, we’re thrust into this life of security and possession. It’s always understood that loyalty is a one-way street. No one expects us to be happy.”

She emptied the glass and refilled it, pouring a bit more into mine as well. “Anyway. If he wasn’t sleeping with you already, I figured it was only a matter of time. His words stung of course, but ultimately the truth gave us both another reason to move on.”

“I’m not sleeping with him,” I insisted. The mere thought of sleeping with Reilly made me faintly nauseous. I’d never see him that way. I was in disbelief that he could possibly want me that way. He couldn’t possibly.

“It doesn’t matter now.”

“But I’m
not
. I work for him. We work long hours, yes, but I swear to you he was never unfaithful to you, with me or with anyone else that I knew of.”

She flashed me a practiced smile. “I believe you. Thank you. Regardless, it’s over now. We’re friends, David and I. That will never change. I want him to be happy, but I don’t know if he’s capable of it, honestly. Maybe he can find that in you.”

I bit down hard on my bottom lip. Was she giving me her official blessing to be the woman to replace her? I wanted to yell out that I didn’t love her husband, that my only concern for his happiness was tied directly to my steady employment. I honestly didn’t know what to say, so when Reilly called down the stairs for us, much as I didn’t want to see him right now, I welcomed the chance to leave this conversation.

I grabbed some extra glasses, brought them upstairs, and quickly retired to my room. I wanted to jump in the car and drive straight back home, but I was here until the morning. With Reilly and this unspoken thing between us. Good God. I silently prayed that everything Cheryl had said was nonsense. Maybe she was only trying to bait me into admitting some imagined wrongdoing.

The noise downstairs died down after less than an hour, and footsteps shuffled up the stairs.

“Vanessa.”

I turned in my chair. Reilly was in the doorway, tie askew, lips dark from the wine. There was nothing hard and fierce about his countenance. Drunk, he looked like half the man he was on a normal day. He stumbled on his first step into the room.

“I want to talk to you. I have things I need to say.”

I stood and faced him, torn between wanting to help him stay standing and wanting to keep my distance.

“Reilly…”

“Call me David.”

He lifted his gaze. Seeming to gain some composure, he made his way to me. I swallowed hard and tried to look away.

“Look at me.”

I closed my eyes, a momentary escape from the nightmare I was certain was only just beginning. He put his hand on my cheek. I jerked away, his damp palm on my skin a shock and a violation at once. We so rarely touched.

“I want you to be mine, Vanessa. She was never really mine. I want to start over, with you.”

He reached for me again, but I backed away a few steps until I was up against the wall. He slid his hands over my blouse, his bleary gaze shifting there.

“God, I want you.”

I brushed his hands away and recoiled, panic prickling under my skin.

He reeked of wine and something else, a nervous odor that became more pronounced as he caged me in with his arms propped against the wall beside me.

“Stop it. You’re drunk.”

“Maybe. Doesn’t change anything. You’re everything I want.”

“You should get some rest.” I wanted to run, but I’d never seen Reilly this way. I had no idea what I was dealing with, and I didn’t want this to escalate more than it needed to. We had to face each other, one way or the other, in the morning. Already it was going to be more awkward than I could imagine.

“I don’t sleep. You know that. Unless maybe you come to bed with me. Take care of me. That’s what you do, you know? We’re perfect, you and I. I can give you everything you could ever want. You already give me everything I need. We’re just missing this one thing…”

His hand strayed again, finding its way to the place where my blouse split into a V at my chest. When I pushed him away this time, he held on and the fabric ripped.

He groaned and pushed me hard against the wall. “Give me what I want, Vanessa. Goddamnit, I can’t stop thinking about you. I need this.”

Adrenaline spiked, and I pushed him off hard. He stumbled back against the chair I was sitting on earlier.

“Get out! Get out, or I’m leaving.” I was trembling. How far would he push this agenda?

With some struggling, he found his way upright again. “Tell me you don’t feel the same way.”

“Reilly…David. You need to leave. We can discuss all of this in the morning. You’re drunk, and you need to go to bed.”

That perpetual need to get ahead of a potential problem propelled me out of my room, down the hall, and into his. I found a glass in the adjoining bathroom and filled it to the brim. Searching around the cupboard, I located some ibuprofen. I returned to the bedroom and Reilly had followed me. His face fallen, he dropped onto the bed. I pushed the glass and tablets into his hand.

“Drink. And go to bed. We can talk about this in the morning.”

I turned and shut the door behind me. I hurried back to my room and locked the door. I hoped against hope that he was too drunk to remember any of this in the morning. But even the possibility of brushing all of this under the rug wouldn’t stop the anxiety thrumming through me.

I stood in front of the window, my arms wrapped around myself. I waited for my heart to slow, for the panic to ebb away. Reilly was gone now, and I prayed I’d never feel him touch me that way again. Ever.

I stripped off the ripped shirt, wanting to rid myself of the evidence of his hands on me. I’d never had someone touch me that way. A few grabby guys in college but nothing I couldn’t handle. Nothing had ever felt this unwanted.

I was angry that he’d put me in such an uncomfortable situation. He was drunk, but he had no right. I riffled through my small suitcase and pulled on a T-shirt that Darren had worn on the island and I’d claimed for myself. Sinking into a chair that overlooked the darkening sky, I inhaled deeply. His familiar scent filled my lungs and some tension released in my shoulders. I closed my eyes, wishing Darren were here with me, taking all this madness away.

I picked up the phone, trying to still my shaking hands. I didn’t believe Reilly would really hurt me, but the entire evening had me rattled. Between Cheryl’s blunt admission and then his…

How could I have known he felt this way when he’d only ever been cold toward me?

I called Maya. I cursed when it went to voice mail. I hovered over Eli’s number and hesitated…

The phone rang, jolting me out of sleep. I’d drifted off between calls. Vanessa’s number came up on the screen, and I answered groggily.

“Beautiful.”

“Sorry for calling so late.” Her voice was small, like she was a thousand miles away. She wasn’t that far away, but it reminded me that she was farther than I wanted her to be.

I stretched, trying to ignore the wood I was sporting that would love some attention from my favorite redhead. “I miss you,” I said, not bothering to hide the suggestion in my tone.