The Texas Millionaire's Runaway Wife (2 page)

Suddenly unable to hold back anymore, she stood. “Look, I shouldn’t have to wait out here for Stephen to decide it’s a suitable time for my presence. Whether he’s ready or not, I’m going in.”

Gayle leaned forward. “Sit down,” she said in a voice that broached no argument.

Cassie sat.

“You may go in when Mr. Sands says you may go in. No, more so, you may go in when I say. Until then, you will sit there and you will wait.” She went back to typing, then as if to complete an unspoken thought said, “I don’t know why you’re here, but if you say or do a single thing that so much as upsets Mr. Sands even slightly, I’ll have security up here and have you out the building so fast even your shadow will feel roughed up.”

“Why I’m here and how he reacts is not really your concern, is it Gayle?” There. That felt good.

She huffed and resumed stabbing the keyboard with her fingers. The other girl, seeming to sense the drama over, at least for now, went back to working in earnest.

Glancing at her watch again, Cassie wondered how long it would take to get back to the Northside after this. There was plenty of time, she didn’t need to be there until four o’clock, but with every ticking minute came another moment of panic. Another thought came—of what Stephen might say when she asked for his help. Of how he might laugh, or worse, what if he refused her entirely? Stephen was literally her last hope and if he said no, that meant she would have no choice but to sell the bakery. She’d spent every bit of her inheritance buying it, it was the only thing of value she had. Her entire future, really. But Annie meant more to her than anything and if she had to sacrifice her future for her niece, so be it.

Sacrifice. Now that’s a word Stephen Sands had never known.

How she hadn’t recognized him that first day boggled her mind. Then again, she hadn’t expected the son of a millionaire tycoon to be sneaking into a wedding through the kitchen, either. Plus, she was a baker. She went to work with the sun still down and spent all her free time concocting new recipes in the kitchen. She rarely noticed much beyond her nose, much less took the time to deconstruct someone’s lies.

It was only after they’d married that he told her the truth—that he had no plans of letting anyone know who she was. The shame made her cringe. She wasn’t the most beautiful girl in the world, but to be hidden, to be treated with such dismissal made her feel truly ugly. Not something she’d ever felt before.

So she’d left.

And then he was everywhere. His picture graced billboards all over the city, “Sands Enterprises, Building a Better Tomorrow, Today.” It didn’t seem fair that he got to be Fort Worth’s golden boy and Cassie a smudge from his past.

Golden boy, more like Greek God. Broad shoulders, a strong Nordic jaw, aquiline nose, full lips, liquid blue eyes. And his hair. He had a devastatingly gorgeous full head of black hair. She’d spent months imagining their children with that hair as they’d lounged around her place, or during some of the long road trips they’d taken on the weekends. Little curly headed girls with his black hair and her green eyes. Or perhaps boys with their father’s blue.

The memory hurt.

She gave one of her auburn curls a tug and brushed a fleck of lint from her blouse. Briefly glancing at the security camera she wondered if he might be watching her right now. Such an unnerving thought. Playing with the tennis bracelet he’d given her for their six-month anniversary, she started when the phone on Gayle’s desk buzzed.

“He’s ready to see you now,
Mrs. Sands
.”

****

The door looked like it should weigh a ton but it pushed open effortlessly under her hands. Which left no other barriers between Cassie and Stephen. Eyes cast down, she didn’t want to be the first to speak. Not that she had to worry.

“Hello, Cassandra.”

She shut the door and let her eyes travel upward. His brown leather wingtips gave way to tailored navy slacks. Arms crossed over a pinstripe white on satin shirt and a red and white foulard tie. Then his face. He looked sharp, alert. Was it too much to ask that he might at least be a little sleepy or perhaps have some three o’clock shadow or something? And what about those eyes? Those liquid blues framed with kohl black lashes. They used to make her melt as they caressed up and down her body. Now they held so much contempt that for a moment Cassie wanted to bolt.

She couldn’t bolt. “Hello, Stephen.”

He uncrossed his arms and stepped behind his desk. He motioned for her to sit.

Stepping farther into the room, she ran into a wall of his scent. Not just the Clive Christian cologne, but the musky, spicy smell that lingered on Cassie’s pillows long after Stephen was gone. The smell she still inhaled from at least one t-shirt in the back of her closet, the one she’d worn the last day they were together.

Sometimes, she’d close her eyes, hold that t-shirt to her face and inhale, imagining him still there. Sometimes she wore it just to help her fall asleep at night.

His was a scent that had seeped into her pores and hadn’t worked its way out even after everything that happened.

Her insides ached for him. Her thighs danced at the thought of his long fingers traveling in lazy circles as the two of them lay entwined in bed.

Memories flashed faster than she could stop them.

Then the pain. “Don’t tell anyone about this. No one can know we’re married.”

He’d gone on to explain that his father would consider the marriage a sham, that they’d be the butt of late night jokes, that no one would accept their relationship. That she had to be a secret or they’d lose everything.

She’d only wanted him. And with those words, she couldn’t even look at him any more.

Now, he motioned for her to sit.

It took every ounce of self-control to keep from running away again. She sat in the chair across from his desk and felt tiny in the overly-large office.

He did not sit. “What can I do for you, Cassandra?”

“Cassie. You know I hate being called Cassandra.”

His eyebrow quirked up. “Or should I call you Mrs. Sands?”

He looked angry. Not outwardly, but the sparkle that used to light up his eyes was not there. The laugh lines around his lips had faded as well. And he still did not sit.

“Cassie is fine. I was never really Mrs. Sands, now, was I? Or don’t you remember wanting to hide me from the world?”

He stared out the window behind his desk and said, “So, I assume you’re not here to make small talk and correct me on your name.”

“No. I’m not.”

He finally turned back to her. “What is it?”

Blunt. Painful, but at least direct. “I need your help.”

That brought a laugh. Not bitter, angry or annoyed. More bemused. “That’s rich, Cassie. I don’t really have a lot of time, nor patience for you.” He flipped through a book on his desk and his finger landed on an entry. “I have another meeting in less than a half hour. So…if you’re through wasting my time?”

She stood. “We’ve not even started.”

“We finished the day you left, Cassandra.”

“You won’t even hear me out?”

His lips quirked. “Why should I?”

Anger and frustration peaked. “Because I’ll expose you if you don’t.”

She hadn’t thought about it before that minute, had wanted to ask for help, for Annie. But on seeing him, all the bitterness, all the anger for how he’d treated her, came rushing out.

How it would hurt his family and especially his place of respect as the oldest. How he would be mocked on national television, the tabloids. How
he
would be the one having to hide from the world.

It hadn’t occurred to her before the words slipped from her mouth, but if the marriage had been a sham then, surely finding out about her now would be equally devastating.

That wiped the little bit of a smile right off his face. “Expose me?”

“You wanted to keep me a secret. Surely that hasn’t changed.”

He didn’t blink, which gave her the answer she needed.

“You could have filed for divorce by now. So that makes me think there must be some reason you didn’t.”

His eyebrow quirked. “What reason is that?”

“You think your father would cut you off completely if he knew you’d gotten a quickie marriage.” She took a breath, sat down and continued, “He’d probably do more than that. Probably take away your position here at Sands Enterprises, take away everything you have. Do you have anything of your own, Stephen? Do you really want to become the poor man you pretended to be for me? It’s one thing to slum it up with the help for a while, another completely to wonder if you’ll have grocery money from week to week.”

His lips leveled into a dangerous and thin line. “Exactly what are you driving at?”

Her heart beat so hard it felt as if it might break her ribs. “If you don’t help me, I will tell your father, the world, everything.”

The smile returned, but didn’t meet his eyes. “What makes you think he or anyone else would listen?”

Stomach churning, she opened the clasp on her purse and removed a box from which she pulled the ring. She’d brought it as a peace offering, a thanks for his help. Now, she held it as ransom.

God, when had she become this person?

Cassie had always been the good girl, the sweet woman at the bakery who gave away free cupcakes to the homeless people outside the shop. The woman who brought her day-old bread to the soup kitchen and then stayed to ladle soup.

Now she was an extortionist. How had this gone so bad?

“I might not have our marriage certificate, but I have this. And I can get the certificate if I need to.”

His eyes darkened as he reached across the desk.

“No.” She drew back.

He finally sat and tented fingers in front of him. “You kept the ring, then.”

“Your grandmother’s ring. That’s what you said when you put it on me. At the time I’d been so proud, couldn’t believe you had intentions to marry me all along.” Her throat clogged with emotion that she quickly swallowed back. “A ring your father would recognize and believe every word I tell him.”

It was an opal surrounded by tiny emeralds. He’d said it reminded him of her eyes. It was old world, a piece his grandmother wrapped in a handkerchief for safe keeping and carried with her when she’d immigrated to America from Spain as a little girl. Or at least that’s what he’d told her as he placed it on her finger.

Of course, everything else had been a lie. For all Cassie knew, that could have been, as well.

Quietly, he said, “You’re the one who left.”

She shook her head. “You only thought you wanted me.”

Thoughts of their children passed fleetingly through mind. She put the ring back in the box and replaced the box in her purse. Her eyes collided with his and with nowhere else to look, she felt pinned under his gaze. Prickles of heat warmed her cheeks, fanned painfully beneath her skin. “I need your help, Stephen.”

Their gaze broke. He looked away.

“It’s Annie.”

“Your niece.”

“Her school kicked her out. She has times where she can’t control herself.”

“I’m familiar.”

She took a breath. “You once told me that if Annie ever needed help, Magnolia Bransford was the place to take her. That you had an
in
there. All I had to do was ask.”

He’d promised.

“I know you’re on the Magnolia Bransford board. Last week my sister Liz showed me a brochure with your name on the back. Stephen, Liz can’t afford tuition and Annie’s scholarship was denied. She has nowhere else to go.” Her throat constricted as she squeezed out the rest. “Family services is threatening to put her in a home for autistic children if we can’t find a school for her.” She stopped. All she needed was his word. One word to save her niece, to save her family. He promised her. He couldn’t take that back, not after everything.

Cassie had never hurt another human being in her entire life. This felt so against her nature that she had to practically anchor herself into the chair to follow this through. She may never forgive herself for stooping this low. Still, she knew she would hate herself forever if she didn’t do everything possible to save Annie.

Awareness shifted on his face. Somehow as she’d spoken, the tables had turned. He smiled, genuine this time. Chilling. “Sounds as if you need me more than I need you.” He stood. Leaning back, his arms crossed over his chest and he grinned. “I’ll help your niece.”

Maybe she’d read him wrong. Relief flooded and emotional fear released its tight hold on her heart. “Thank you, Stephen. Thank you. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to come across like that, I’ve just been so worried, I—”

“I’ll help her, but it’s going to cost you.”

Chapter Two

Every ounce of courage Cassie had dredged up to come into Stephen’s office drained at the utterance of those little words
.
Beads of sweat broke on her upper lip and she wiped them away. “Cost me?”

He smiled and cocked his head to the side. “You come into my office, threaten to blackmail me and expect me to take it?”

Words were never spoken so coldly.

“No. Nothing like that. I hadn’t wanted to do that, I just...” Her words faltered. Regardless of what she’d wanted, she
had
done just that. And with his grandmother’s ring, no less. Then she made the fatal error of telling him about Annie.

She pictured her niece and knew immediately she would do anything to get her what she needed. She couldn’t lose Annie.

“Cassie.” His voice tightened around her name like fingers tightening around her hair as they made love. No one before had ever made her feel quite so alive by the simple utterance of her name. “There is an easy solution to this whole problem.”

She leaned forward. Nothing with Stephen Sands was ever easy. A trip to Vegas, even, had not been easy. “What is your solution?” An involuntary shiver snaked down her spine and she fought the urge to rub away the goose bumps now raised on her exposed arms. All warmth from the room had been plucked away and her nipples budded in response.