Eli heard her but didn’t look at her directly. His eyes were focused on the stairs leading to the hotel’s entrance. Isa took them in, trying to see through his eyes. They must look like they climbed the side of Machu Picchu.
“Can we use the side entrance?” She pointed to a set of double doors she’d used on more than one occasion to slip out of Sawyer Financial parties unnoticed. “These shoes and stairs don’t go well together.”
She delivered the suggestion with a smooth, nonchalant tone, but Eli didn’t seem to buy it. His chest expanded and his entire body hummed with frustration.
His eyes flicked to her heels, then to her face, his expression stony. This strong, brave man didn’t want anyone to think he was less than capable. She’d be damned if she put him through his paces. He didn’t have to prove himself to her.
“Please?” she asked, her smile cautious.
She sensed he wanted to argue, to call her on her fib, but he didn’t. He accepted her offer with a tight nod of acquiescence and Isa let him lead her to the side door, pride flooding her chest that he’d granted her his trust.
The side entrance opened to a long hallway leading to the front desk, beyond which was the grand ballroom named the Toronto, where a fancy sign with ornate letters announced the Sawyer Financial Group had the room for the evening.
“Invitation only,” Eli read.
“Trust me. I’m on the list.”
He halted just shy of the entrance to the ballroom. She turned to face him, noticing the rigid set of his shoulders and the flat line of his mouth beneath his neatly trimmed scruff.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet,” she joked. “I need you in there.”
He thumbed her chin, eyes moving to her mouth a fraction of a second before he placed a kiss on the center of her lips. He didn’t explain, didn’t say it was his way of thanking her, but somehow she felt it was. Inside this luxury hotel, Eli in his tux, he looked as if he belonged. She’d seen him in jeans and T-shirts and wearing only a pair of shorts. What she couldn’t square was that no matter what he wore, he belonged.
Or maybe what she couldn’t square was how he belonged with her.
Eli tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and walked her to the door.
Before they crossed the threshold, Isa spotted her mother sweeping across the room in a sage green dress with delicate lace sleeves. Helena wore her skirts nearly as short as Isa did, and who could blame her? It’d be a shame to hide those legs. All the women on her mother’s side of the family were blessed with great legs.
“I’m guessing that’s your mother,” Eli said. “Green dress, right?”
“Good eye. Helena Sawyer in the ageless flesh.”
“You look like her.” He dipped his chin, then cast her an approving glance.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should.”
“My height is from my father’s side, though,” she said to fill the gap that hovered when Eli complimented her. She knew how to handle surly Eli, but the charming version was throwing her way off.
Isa looked at her seating ticket again, hoping the number on it was a mistake. But nope, there was a number eleven and table eleven was up front, directly in front of the stage. So much for slipping out early and avoiding the Sawyer Financial Man of the Hour.
A few corporate brass were sitting at the table already. Her parents were likely placed next to her at the table near the entrance of the stage, since one or both of them were speaking tonight. And Josh, of course.
It was no accident that Isa would be within babysitting distance. She let out a vibrating exhale that would make any yoga teacher proud.
“Were you assigned to sit next to someone you don’t like?” Eli murmured as they approached the table.
“Well, that’s a long list.” She smiled over at him and he put a comforting hand on the small of her back. “I was hoping for a table in the back so I could slip out.”
“That’s why you brought me, Sable. You don’t have to run or hide.” Eli slid his palm up her back and to her neck and she thought of the brief, yet flooring kiss outside this room. Her hair was up, so his fingers brushing the bared skin of her neck sent shivers through her.
She could count on him. As a steady, constant force.
She watched his lips as they came the scantest bit closer…Then her mother’s voice interrupted.
“Isabella?”
In the wake of her mother’s hoisted brow, Isa realized she hadn’t properly coached-slash-warned him of what to expect. Namely that her mother and father weren’t big fans of the “renegade” Cranes.
“Are you going to introduce me to your date?” Her mother’s smile was plastered on, but her eyes allowed her thoughts through clearly.
“Of course. Helena Sawyer, Eli Crane.”
Her mother’s expression slackened and her eyes traveled to Isa’s.
“Oh, really.” Rather than extend a hand for him to take, Helena brushed the pearl necklace at her throat. “I wasn’t aware Isa knew the Cranes…intimately.” Her hooded glare swept over to Isa as if to say, Aren’t we a little old for teenage rebellion?
“We are acquainted professionally as well,” Isa said, tucking herself closer to Eli.
“Josh will be disappointed”—her mother ran a judgmental gaze over Eli—“if you don’t congratulate him personally before we get started.” She took Isa’s wrist and gave Eli another fake smile. “If you’ll excuse us for a moment.”
“No, I don’t think I will,” Eli replied. Helena froze, scandalized. “We came together, didn’t we, Sable?”
Isa didn’t miss the sneer her mother shot her at the nickname, but Isa only smiled as she freed her wrist from her mother’s grasp and went to Eli. Since when had he become her safe space?
Helena’s mouth settled into a dissatisfied moue.
“Thank you,” Isa whispered to him as they followed Helena through the well-dressed crowd.
“You don’t have to play nice, you know,” he said as they followed.
“I do if I hope to blend with this crowd.” Everywhere she looked there were CEOs and corporate brass—and not just from Sawyer Financial. “I was hoping to make a good impression.”
“We will. But it doesn’t mean you have to adhere to the rules they set before you left. And you did leave, Sable.”
At the mention of the business she’d proudly built, she pulled her shoulders back.
“In fact, let’s have a cocktail before introductions.” Eli’s mouth played at the corners. “He can wait.”
“He can,” she agreed. And she liked the idea of making Josh wait for as long as they decided.
Eli shot Isa a full-wattage grin, his eyes on hers as he called, “Helena.”
When her mother turned, he announced, “We’ll join you in a few.”
Without clarifying or waiting for Helena’s approval, Eli turned on his heel and led Isa to the bar. She followed, liking that she had him to lean on. She had no problem battling her parents and had done it for years. But having him on her side was as surprising as it was amazing.
* * *
“You need to brief me before I talk to this guy.” Eli steered Isa away from her aghast mother, liking how he’d swept her out of there. What he didn’t like was that Isa didn’t tell him anything about Josh other than her parents wanted them back together.
“All you have to do is say ‘Nice to meet you’ and then we’ll go back to our table,” she said. “No briefing necessary.”
“I promise you, I will not say ‘Nice to meet you.’” He let out a noise halfway between a grunt and a snort. “How long did you date him?”
“What? Why?”
At the bar he released her to reach for his wallet.
“Champagne okay?” he asked.
“I guess.”
Since when did she not know what she wanted? He gave her his full attention. “Wine? Beer?”
Her eyes brightened. “I’d love a beer but that’s really inapprop—”
“Two Stella Artois,” he ordered, stuffing a bill in the tip jar.
“Frosted glass?” the bartender asked.
“Bottles.” A moment later, he turned and handed over her beer, a cocktail napkin wrapped around the iced-down bottle. “You don’t strike me as the type to conform in a crowd, Isabella Sawyer.”
“Being here…around my parents.” She shook her head. “I feel like a child around them—a misbehaving one.”
“So if I weren’t here, you’d choke down champagne you don’t want?”
“My mother says ladies drink champagne.” Her pronouncement brought her closer to his ear, the scent of her perfume wafting over him. The musky spice reminded him of cinnamon or ginger or some exotic flower. Maybe all three.
Eli took her hand and held her at arm’s length, encouraging her to spin in a circle, which she did. When she was facing him again, bright pink dress revealing legs a mile long, sweating beer in one hand, a glorious grin on her face, Eli couldn’t help smiling back. He tugged her closer, his hand low on her back sliding over the silk of her dress.
“Trust me, Sable. No one will mistake you for anything less than a lady. Even holding a beer bottle.” He felt eyes on them and noticed a few men watching her with bald appreciation. “I think you’re more of a catch with it.”
They parted and drank down a few swallows, their eyes locked.
“Now,” he said. “Let’s hear it.”
“Hear what?”
“Whatever I need to know about this Josh guy.” He regretted steering the conversation back to her ex the second he did it. Isa lost her loose composure and sucked in a deep breath that tensed her shoulders.
“What do you need to know?”
“Did you live with him?”
“No.” She practically spat the word. “Thank God.”
He’d second that motion. Living with Crystal had been a mistake. Especially when she’d announced she was leaving him when he shipped out. It was an added stress he hadn’t needed to leave—or come home to.
“Were you engaged?” he asked.
“Definitely not.”
“How long did you date him?”
“Are you writing a book?” she snapped.
“Journal entry, maybe,” he said, his tone even.
“Sorry.” She shifted, smoothing the skirt of her dress. “I’m beginning to regret coming here.”
“Why did you?”
She shook her head, seemingly at a loss for a reason.
“I don’t like going into enemy territory blind,” Eli said when she didn’t respond. It brought a smile to the edge of her lips, which he liked seeing there. “I’ve got your six, Sable.”
The second it was out of his mouth, the words settled in his chest like a weight. Being here with her had become about way more than making sure Isa didn’t date Zach. This wasn’t a trade for favors from a boss/employee. Isa had been in his and his family’s corner since the beginning—he wouldn’t fail her when she needed him the most.
“Josh and I dated on and off for five years,” she said. “We split around three years ago.”
“Five years.” He and Crystal had ended things around the two years and three months mark. It was a long time to be with someone, and Isa had more than doubled that with her ex. “And you want me here because…” She’d alluded to it, hinted at it, but never truly told him.
“Because I want both Josh and my parents to know I’m not going to date him again. He once delivered an ultimatum that I choose his dream or my own or we couldn’t be together.”
“So you left.”
No missing the proud arch of one of Isa’s dark eyebrows. “Actions speak louder than words.”
“So you’re saying you’re looking for some action.” Eli pulled her in again, unable to resist all that unbridled confidence and strength.
Her hand landed on his tuxedo shirt where she toyed with a button rather than push him away. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Well that’s what I heard.”
She tipped her head and smiled up at him. He smiled back. He liked her in his arms. He liked her relying on him. He liked her, period.
Over her shoulder he spotted Isa’s mother and the guy he guessed was Josh looking in their direction. He assumed he was her ex given the stiff posture and the look of complete disgust aimed directly at Isa.
He liked that, too. Liked Josh seeing what he could no longer have. Liked Josh knowing she wasn’t in a position to be given an ultimatum. It was time to deliver that message in person.
“Okay, Sable,” Eli said, hugging her against him with a possessive arm around her waist. “Let’s you and I go see this ex of yours.”
* * *
Isa inhaled a lungful of pure relief as Eli braced her against his firm, solid side. Having him here, and knowing he had her “six” was more than she’d asked for but exactly what she needed. She could face Josh alone. She just didn’t want to.
She’d been away from Josh for years, but since her parents brought him up regularly, he still felt like a part of her life. She couldn’t help wondering if they did the same with him—regaling Josh with Isa’s successes, which they probably recounted as failures, and then delivering a pitch for getting the two of them back together.
Until tonight, Isa hadn’t realized the way she fell into line in this environment. It was disheartening how the strong, sure businesswoman she’d become since she left Sawyer Financial and broke up with Josh receded behind her former accommodating self.
Eli had reminded her of who she was. She had the bottle of beer in hand to prove it.
Josh watched them approach, his eyes flicking between Isa and Eli. Josh recognized her date. She knew he did—Josh kept up with local gossip and the up-and-comers. He knew about the Cranes.
“Josh, look who’s come to congratulate you.” Her mother stepped in to gesticulate among the three of them.
“Hi, Bella,” Josh said with a nod. “Nice to see you again.”
His gaze settled on where her hand rested on Eli’s sleeve.
“Accompanying her is Elijah Crane.” Helena’s tight smile morphed into a frown when she spotted beer bottles in both Eli’s and Isa’s grips.
“Mr. Crane,” Josh said. “I read a piece in the Trib about you when you came home. Honorably discharged. Thank you for your service.”
Isa bristled. She had no idea how Eli would take Josh’s generic and borderline condescending greeting.
Eli gave Josh a chin-lift that could either be construed as a nod or a fuck-you, and Isa, in her own immature way, hoped Josh took it as the latter. He didn’t of course. The jackass.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Helena interrupted. “I have to go say hello to the Kitchers.” Like that, she was off, gliding through the crowd to torment another unsuspecting group of people.
“Bella, you look…” Josh paused, his eyebrows jumping slightly. “Very pink.”
“Gorgeous is the word you’re looking for,” Eli said, his tone gravel and dust.
Josh flicked him a peeved look. “Seemed an inappropriate observation to make since you two are together.” News he’d obviously just learned. Damn her parents. They’d primed Josh for Isa showing up as his date tonight. She’d bet her shoes on it.
“There was never a chance we’d get back together,” she told him.
Josh lost his air of politeness and clenched his jaw. “Still enamored with serving others, are you? Do you serve him?”
“We’re done here.” Eli’s voice, low and lethal, sent a shiver of pleasure down her spine.
With the hand resting on Eli’s elbow, she squeezed his arm gently. “We’ve both known for years we didn’t want the same things, Josh. Why would you want me back?”
“Your parents want you back, Bella. You left them high and dry. Their only child not taking over the business when they needed you most.” To Eli he said, “I understand what the two of you have in common.”
Eli’s glare turned murderous, eyes honed in on Josh like a pair of heat-seeking missiles. “You have two seconds to get the fuck away from us.”
Josh’s eyes flitted left then right, visibly nervous, but he stood his ground. “We’re in public, Crane. I’d hate to see you make the paper for an unbecoming reaction.”
“One.” Fists balled, Eli took a step closer and Isa felt his biceps flex beneath her palm. Josh had a few inches of height on Eli, but nothing in the way of muscles on his upper half. Eli would mop the floor with him.
“Very well.” Josh held up both hands in a surrendering gesture. He stepped back from an advancing Eli and straightened his tie. “Enjoy the party.”
Josh turned and walked away, nothing in his demeanor suggesting he was riled.
“He’s good at that,” she told Eli. “Saying the right words to ignite your temper, then walking away cool as a cucumber.”
“What did you see in that asshole?” Eli grumbled, his intense focus now on her.
“I wish I could remember. I was a different person when he and I dated. He’d rage and I’d step down.”
“What kind of rage, Isa?” Eli’s voice gentled as he lifted a palm to her jaw. He searched her face, his expression a mixture of hurt and concern. “Did he ever…Did he hit you?”
“Eli. No.” She shook her head vehemently. Josh was a jerk but had never crossed a line. He was all show. “Nothing like that. He delivered an ultimatum when he wasn’t successful at getting my compliance. That’s it.”
“That’s enough.” Eli swept his thumb over her lip. When his eyes returned to hers there was more concern swimming there. “This scar?”
“I fell out of a tree when I was eight.” She smiled. He’d noticed that tiny silver mark on her lip. He cared. She liked how Eli’s intensity had focused to a finite point—her.
“You don’t want to be here, do you?” he asked.
She shook her head and then told him the truth. “The only good part about being here is being with you.”
Eli dipped his head and covered her mouth with his, a claiming, delicious kiss she hoped her mother and Josh and everyone in the room witnessed. She hummed, feeling warm and relaxed and happy.
Against her lips, he made her an offer she didn’t want to refuse. “Then let’s get the hell out of here.”
* * *
As Eli pulled from the valet station, he had an uncomfortable realization. He’d put Isa in a similar situation at work as Josh had when she’d dated him. Eli had been the one pushing her and challenging her at every turn. Hell, he’d fired her several times.
For a second he’d worried that Josh had hit her. He’d never believed someone could actually see red until the crimson veil washed over his vision. Josh was lucky Eli believed her, because if he’d sensed that Isa was fudging the truth even a little, Eli would have beat the other man unidentifiable.
There was never an excuse to physically harm a woman, which made him wonder if he’d crossed a line of his own.
“I cut the buttons off your shirt,” he said in the quiet air of the car, shame coating him.
“Uh. Yes. I remember.”
“You weren’t scared of me then?”
“Of course not,” she said so easily, he turned and looked to where she lounged in the passenger seat. Elbow on the edge of the window, she twirled a loose piece of her hair, giving him a smug smile.
“Because I’m so cuddly?” he asked. She put a hand over his and the pressure in his chest eased. She didn’t see him the way she saw her ex—as overpowering her. If anything, she’d overpowered Eli—and his sensibilities.
“When I was with Josh, I was different. I didn’t know what I wanted. Now I do…”
She let her voice trail off and Eli wondered if she’d been about to admit she wanted him.
“Josh never loved me for me. He loved the idea of our partnership. Like my parents, he was enamored with the dollhouse style of our coupling.”
Eli could relate. When he and Crystal had dated, she’d gone on and on about having a family and a house and a sizable yard. What she’d failed to see was that he wasn’t the kind of man who wanted a house with a yard to mow every weekend.
“It’s hard to be with someone who doesn’t know you,” he said in a rare moment of openness—again. She drew the truth from him without even trying.
Isa opened her mouth, maybe to ask more questions, but Eli cut her off before she compelled him to answer.
“Do your parents know the real story behind why you and Josh split?”
“No. They think I went rogue and dumped him along with Sawyer Financial. They thought it was a phase.”
“Oh, right. The start-your-own-business phase.” He let out a dry chuff, then thought of his own business he was starting. If his brothers knew what he was doing, would they think Eli was going through a phase? Hell, for all he knew he was. He hadn’t shared with them yet, and as he thought about it now, the reason was probably so he wouldn’t have to explain.
“My family and Josh’s family go way back. The Lindens have been friends with the Sawyers for generations. My parents fear ill will and a bad reputation over all else.”
“So you show up to your ex-boyfriend’s ceremony with Eli Crane?” He stopped at a traffic light.
“You were a last resort, so you can’t possibly feel used.”
“Thanks. That’s touching,” he said, humor in his tone.
Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. “I…That came out wrong.”
“It’s okay,” he said. He thought he’d meant it, but the gaffe did sting. Just enough to remind him he hadn’t earned her trust. Yet she’d been earning his for a while now.
Way to go, Crane.
He accelerated through the green light. After a few silent minutes, she spoke again.
“To Josh, I was a yellow-brick road leading to the wizard. Haven’t you had someone date you because of who you were?”
He thought about that a moment, then shook his head.
“I guess that makes sense. You’re not exactly using your family’s name to advance, are you?”
“Neither are you,” he pointed out. “Sable Concierge isn’t tied to them in name, and I assume you didn’t borrow a hefty loan from them to start it.”
“Not from them. Not from Sawyer Financial.” The strength in her voice was undeniable. Isa didn’t want a handout. She took the hard road. She chose the hard road. Look at him. He wouldn’t even know her if he hadn’t gone through her staff like disposable cups.
“Isabella Sawyer.” He turned off the main drag, an idea sparking. And it was a far better one than dropping her off at her place.
“Yes?”
“Would you join me for dinner?”
“At this time on a Saturday night? We’ll wait two hours for a table.” The streetlight overhead illuminated her smile of pure excitement. He hadn’t earned her, but this could be a start.
“You underestimate my reach. Don’t you know who I am?” he teased. Then he lifted his cell phone and punched in a number as he edged into heavy traffic. “This is Eli Crane,” he said into the phone. “I have a standing reservation.”