She's Got Dibs (31 page)

Tessa selected her spoon, vibrantly aware of the weighted tension saturating the air. With a wink at Dibs, she tipped the soup to her lips.

“Parry and thrust,” Marcus whispered, gleefully rubbing his palms together.

The door opened to reveal a pretty girl, her thick blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders as she entered. The sparkling angora sweater she wore over white woolen pants at once reminded Tessa of the icy white snow on the mountain.

She beamed and rushed forward, throwing her arms around Dibs’s shoulders “Dibsy! I can’t believe you’re really here.”

“Hi, Bunny.”

“I’ve got so much to tell you.” She passed him and pecked Mr. Brenner’s cheek. “Hi, Daddy.”

“Hello, Pumpkin.”

“Daddy, we really must discuss the plans for my birthday.” She tugged the empty chair from the table and sat. “Absolutely everyone has been asking about the details.”

“It’s funny you should mention that, Pumpkin.” Mr. Brenner dipped his chin toward Tessa. “Ms. Adams is an event planner. Perhaps we could talk her into helping out with your upcoming soiree.”

“Of course.” Tessa smiled at the girl she assumed was Dibs’s sister.

“Caroline, this is Tessa Adams, David’s new girlfriend.” Mrs. Brenner blithely flipped her hand in Tessa’s direction. “Ms. Adams, please meet our daughter, Caroline.”

The disappointment crumpling Caroline’s brow suggested she would rather have been cornered by a ferocious pit bull. “Nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure is mine.”

“I’m afraid my husband may have misspoken,” Mrs. Brenner announced. “You see, Ms. Adams, I usually handle our family celebrations. After all, it’s not very difficult to plan a party.”

Like some demented tennis match, every head in the room swiveled to Tessa…because, of course, her business held absolutely no value.

“I believe what my mother meant is it’s not very difficult to plan
our
parties.” Marcus smiled, but his pleasantness appeared forced.

“Oh, I wasn’t
offended. You see, my company doesn’t plan parties. We plan events. Big difference.”

He nodded, gifting her a genuine smile.

Tessa lifted her spoon for a second sip. Dibs shook his head, the muscle ticking in his jaw a sure sign he was about to pop his cork. Time to play it very, very cool.

“So, what were you talking about before I came in?” Caroline swept her spoon over the rim of her bowl, darting her eyes about the table. But the poor girl had no idea what she was doing.

“We were just discussing how David and Ms. Adams met.” Mrs. Brenner offered.

“How
did
you two meet, exactly?” Marcus planted an elbow on the table and swung the bottom of his glass toward Dibs.

He locked onto Tessa. “At LaGuardia Airport, during the ice storm several weeks ago.”

“And?” Marcus asked.

She innocently lifted her brows.

“And what?” Amusement danced across Dibs’s lips.

“And then what happened?”

He sat back in his chair, sizing up his younger brother. “And then I saw her and I knew.” He zeroed in on Tessa from across the table once again. “So I took the seat beside hers and bothered the heck out of her until she started paying attention to me.”

“I’m sure that didn’t take very long.” Caroline grinned at Dibs.

He shot her a skeptical frown. “It took two weeks.”

A laugh blurted past Tessa’s lips, and when every head wrenched back to her, she quickly stared into her soup.

“So, now that you’re dating, may I ask what your plans are?” Mrs. Brenner’s question held a bitter tang in contrast to Tessa’s laughter.

Dibs sprang forward in his seat.

Wait…what just happened? Tessa hesitantly glanced between them. “I really…don’t…have any plans.”

“Surely you must realize whom you are dating.”

“Mother,” he gritted between this teeth. “That is enough.”

Mrs. Brenner placed her hand on the table. “I don’t see any reason why a mother can’t ask after someone’s intentions when they are dating her eldest son.”

“For Christ’s sake, Mother, that is none of your business.”

“It most certainly is my business. Everything you do is my business, David. You’re my son.”

“I’m also a grown man.” He jabbed a finger at the table. “And fully capable of making my own decisions.”

“Like divorcing Margaret?” she scoffed. “That was a terrible decision on your part.”

“You have no right to bring that up.” He shoved his chair back. “Your scheming is what got me into that mess in the first place.”

“The only one who created any mess was you, David.” She peered down the table at her husband. “How much did that fiasco cost us, Benjamin?”

“I am sick and tired of you laying the blame for that disaster at my feet!” He threw his napkin to the table.

“Well, the blame
was
yours, David.”

“How can—”

“Just stop it!” Tessa shouted.

Every person in the room flinched in their seat, but she didn’t care. The situation had spiraled completely out of control.

Maybe if she laid her cards on the table…if she spoke from her heart they would see, they would all realize the relationship she shared with Dibs
wasn’t
a silly game to her. “You asked what my intentions are, Mrs. Brenner, and I would like to answer your question.”

Dibs opened his mouth as if preparing to argue and she glared at him from across the table. Did he really think not to let her state her case in front of his family? He snapped his mouth shut and briskly rubbed a palm across his forehead before tossing that same hand in the air.

“My intentions are these.” She gathered her thoughts, folding her hands in her lap. “When David is sad, I intend to make him happy. When he is ill, I intend to make him well. When he is angry or upset, I intend to listen and find the words to make him feel better. When he is depressed, I intend to bring him joy, and when he is hurt, I intend to find the source of his pain and take it away from him.”

She bridged the distance to Dibs’s devoted gaze, and radiant love crested the last barricade surrounding her heart. “You see, Mr. and Mrs. Brenner, I’m in love with your son. But I don’t want
anything
from him. You don’t need to worry because my only intention is to give to him. That’s the way it’s supposed to be when you love someone, isn’t it? To think only of their needs, instead of your own?”

She broke off from Dibs and faced his mother. “Those are my intentions, Mrs. Brenner. I hope you find them satisfactory.”

A dangerous edge formed along Vanessa Brenner’s jaw. She glanced around the table, at last settling on Dibs for a long, quiet moment. With a slow pivot of her head, she aimed a defiant eyebrow at Tessa. “Pretty words…from a pretty girl…wearing a pretty bracelet.”

“Enough!” Dibs slammed his fist on the table.

Caroline started at the same time Tessa jumped in her chair. But Mrs. Brenner chose to stare the length of the table at her husband.

The woman had just declared war.

Tessa stiffened when Dibs’s fierce gaze landed on her. A heavy silence blanketed the room, everyone waiting for him to make the next move.

“We’re leaving,” he said quietly. “Right now.” He stood.

“Don’t go, old man,” Marcus wearily voiced under Caroline’s whine of, “Wait, I just got here.”

What a disaster. What a complete and utter disaster. Tessa placed her napkin on the table.

“I’m sorry you feel you must go, David,” Mrs. Brenner said. “But I believe one day you will come to understand why I do the things I do.”

He pushed his empty seat to the table, rounded his mother’s chair, and offered Tessa his hand. “I stopped trying to figure out why you do the things you do a long time ago, Mother. I will not sit by while you consistently insult someone who is very important to me.”

Tessa grasped his hand and stood. “I’m very sorry,” she whispered, and walked at his side through the door.

****

Holding his hand, keeping pace with his long, brisk strides to the master suite, Tessa repeatedly glanced at Dibs from the corner of her eye…but she didn’t say anything. The dark set of his brow, the tension in his shoulders, told her to keep quiet. Whatever she did say would probably be the wrong thing.

Never had she had imagined dinner would go so badly. Those tense moments replayed in her mind—all the mistakes she’d made, compiling one on top of the next. Why, in God’s name, hadn’t she just kept her big mouth shut? She’d played right into Vanessa Brenner’s hands, traded quips with her at Dibs’s expense. Stupid…stupid, stupid. But from the onset, she wanted his family to know her for who she truly was. She desired their respect, to be treated as an equal, and she would never gain their acceptance by acting like some shy little girl who was afraid to stand up for herself.

Regardless, one thing had been made abundantly clear. Mrs. Brenner was terrified of her. She assumed Tessa had worked her wiles on Dibs, tricked him into offering her a life filled with status and luxury. Yes, he was the eldest child of a very wealthy, influential family, and as such had been afforded a type of American royalty, but his social status had never been important to her. In fact, based on the attitudes and actions of his family, spending any more time with them ranked right up there with undergoing a root canal.

What a mess. What an infuriating mess. Their conversation that first night in the hotel bar sprang to mind, when Dibs had told her how his relationship with his parents never worked. Now she finally understood. His mother’s opinions regarding his personal life…witnessing how none of his family members aided his defense…God, what she wouldn’t give to march straight back to that dining room and deliver the whole lot of them a swift, sharp kick in the shins. And what’s worse, their disapproval tore Dibs apart. As if the frustration emanating from each tread of his gait wasn’t proof enough.

Oh, no…
Shit!
Her stomach plummeted to her feet. What effect, if any, would this dinner have on the working relationship between BFG and TNT? Perhaps she’d been too forceful, too opinionated. But she’d simply been given no other choice. The Brenners would never have any confidence in her abilities if she rolled over at the first sign of a threat. Presenting herself as a woman who knew her own mind had been the right thing to do. Just as long as Dibs wasn’t upset with her. Hopefully, he would understand. She’d done her best, regardless of the outcome.

Nearing the bedroom, she said a silent prayer and crossed the threshold. The moment the lock clicked into the latch, he shackled her wrist in his fingers and dragged her to his chest. The room spun, and he drove her back against the wall, pinning her hands over her shoulders. She sharply inhaled when he crushed his lips to hers.

Relief flooded in. He wasn’t angry. She’d done the right thing.

He severed their kiss, grasped the side of her throat. His smoldering eyes filled her vision, a simmering hunger swirling inside their piercing stare.

“Say it,” he breathed, not waiting but kissing, her lips, her neck and chin, again her lips. “Tell me.”

There could be only one thing he needed to hear. “I’m in love with you.”

He seized her sides and lifted, pressed harder, the chiseled muscles of his chest holding her fast to the wall.

“Say it again.” He plundered her mouth. Their tongues danced. He ran his palms past her waist and squeezed her bottom, parting her from behind. Desire pulsed deep inside. Arousal pooled and she became enthralled.

“I love you,” she whispered. Nothing but the resistance of the wall held her in place, the tension in his arms, the urgency of his kiss, and the rock hard strength of his thighs.

“Oh my God, Tessa, I’m so in love with you.”

Her heart missed a beat at his words, when he uttered her name with such conviction. He gripped the backs of her thighs and she clung to his shoulders when he boosted her higher. His hands moved in under her dress. His fingertips swept the smooth skin of her valley, triggering a heated gush to dampen the triangle of her thong. His lips found hers through the rough stubble on his chin. Their worlds collided. There was no turning back. They now shared a promise, despite what the future might hold.

She rolled her head to the side, her breathing ragged. “Wait, Dibs.”

He devoured her throat, his mouth gliding down her skin, fingers following, jerking her jacket from her shoulder. He braced his hand on the wall, his body bowed into hers, and rocked, hot and rigid against her aching folds.

Ecstasy throbbed and swelled. “Dibs, wait.”

“What?” he rasped. His breath washed her neck. He wedged his hand higher inside her dress, caressed her breast with his thumb. “I want to feel you.”

“Look at me.” She gasped when he yanked her forward, smacking her body against his. Intense need tightened her core. She ran her fingers through his hair and tugged him away from her. “Dibs, look at me.”

He placed his forehead against hers, swayed back and forth. The force of his erection nearly propelled her free falling over the edge. “I love you, Tessa. Whatever it is, you can have it. It’s yours.”

He rushed back to her lips, but she tightened her grip on his shoulders, maintaining the space between them. “I’m trusting you with my heart, Dibs. I’m trusting you more than I’ve trusted anyone in a very long time.”

“I won’t break it. I promise you, Tessa, I won’t break it.”

His kiss met her lips with such intensity, a breath caught in her chest. The zipper on her dress lowered, he buried his face in her skin. She yanked his shirt from his belt. The tension in his ribbed sides quivered beneath her trembling hands. He pressed her jacket from her arms and jerked off his tie. The buttons of his shirt clattered along the dresser when he grabbed the tails and tore them apart.

They slammed back together. Her dress pooled at their feet. His musky essence detonated on her tongue when she tasted his shoulder, his neck, bathed in the scent of his skin. She unfastened his pants, coaxed them from his hips. His erection sprang free and with one finger she swirled a circle around the bulbous head, squeezed him in her palm and bore a tight path down to the nest of dark hair. He moaned into her mouth, wound a finger inside her thong and wrenched the material to the side. With two hands gripping her hips, he pushed her to the wall, lifted, and thrust in one motion.