Want to read more about Ethan Westbrooke?
Mara Simmons knows two things for sure: her instincts are always right and Trent Townsend is The One. So when she starts to suspect his frequent business trips have nothing to do with business, she knows what she has to do. Trust her instincts.
Trent Townsend is living a lie and his worlds are on the verge of colliding. He's done so much to separate his new life from his past that he can't tell what's real anymore.
Investigating sets in motion a chain of events bigger than Mya can imagine. And on top of it all, her boss Ethan Westbrooke makes her wonder if Trent is really The One after all.
Soon she'll have to make a choice. Stand by her man or… watch it all fall apart.
Warning: This book contains brazen lies, meddling sisters, encounters with the one percent and really hot, domineering billionaire bachelors. Just saying...
Excerpt of Say You Will
© August 2014 M. Malone
MARA SIMMONS WOULD have never described herself as a badass. But to her coworkers at Lawson, Westbrooke & Hyde, she was a vigilante. A fearless crusader. Either that or they all just thought she was too stupid to be afraid.
“I really appreciate this. He keeps asking for these files, and I’ve been making excuses until you got here.” Her coworker, Lanie Roberts, hovered outside the door to her boss’s office with a frightened look on her face.
Ethan Westbrooke had everyone in the company terrified of him. The only person he couldn’t intimidate was Mara, which was how she’d gotten stuck working for him. Usually he went through executive assistants at an alarming rate. The woman before Mara had lasted only three days before calling down to HR in tears, asking to be reassigned.
Mara had been with him for a little over a year.
“It’s okay, Lanie. I’ll take them in to him. I was just going in to bring him his coffee anyway.”
“Mara! Where are the contracts Lawson sent up?” Ethan’s loud bellow carried through his office door.
Lanie wrung her hands as Mara took the folder the girl had been holding in a death grip. “Okay. I’ll just, ah, wait out here.”
Mara smothered a smile. Then, after a perfunctory knock on her boss’s door, she pushed it open with her hip.
“Here’s your coffee and those contracts you’ve been waiting on.” Mara set the folder she carried on the edge of his desk and his coffee to the right of the report he was currently reading. He barely glanced up, just answered with a muffled grunt. The only thing visible was his perfectly styled dark hair. She held in a sigh. Grunting was better than growling. He was in a decent mood today. That was something.
As soon as she left the office, Lanie appeared at her elbow. “Did you give it to him?”
“I did. Now that he has the contracts, he shouldn’t need anything else for a while.”
Lanie visibly relaxed. “Thank you so much. I almost cried this morning when you weren’t here. You’re the only one he likes.”
“He doesn’t like me. He yells at me too. I just don’t listen,” Mara replied as she settled into her desk chair.
“Anyway, I was thinking we should do happy hour tonight. Or maybe a movie? I need to get away from Jesse. He’s driving me crazy.”
Mara chuckled. She’d heard all the ins and outs of the saga of Lanie and Jesse. Those two had enough drama to fuel a reality show. But she couldn’t handle that tonight. She had her own drama to deal with.
“I can’t. I have a family dinner tonight. Plus I want to stick close to home. Trent’s been traveling a lot lately.”
Lanie smiled knowingly. “Say no more. I get it. You need a little quality time with your man. Take care of business at home.” She winked and walked back to the elevator bank to go back to her floor.
As soon as the elevator doors closed, Mara’s practiced smile fell. If only it were a night of hot sex waiting for her. Lately Trent had been so distant and too tired to do much after work. He was also traveling more than ever. Except he was strangely closemouthed about the projects he was working on and what he was doing during the time he was gone. There was no one thing she could point to that was off, but Mara just knew.
He was lying to her.
“If you’re done gossiping.” A deep voice interrupted her thoughts. She was so startled that she jumped and knocked over her own coffee cup. The dark liquid quickly spread across her desk, snaking under her keyboard and soaking the pad of sticky notes next to her phone.
“Damn it.” She hopped up, unsurprised to see a dark stain on the front of her pale pink skirt. She inched the material up her legs, holding it away from her body. “This is just great. There’s no way this stain is coming out.”
When she looked up, Ethan stood as still as a statue, his dark eyes locked on her legs. Then he looked up at her. A muscle in his jaw tensed.
Stunned by the feral look in his eyes, she immediately dropped her skirt. “Mr. Westbrooke. You startled me.”
Normally he would have had some cutting remark to make or chastised her for stating the obvious and wasting his billable hours. Instead, he just blinked at her. Then he said in a deceptively soft voice, “These contracts don’t contain any of the changes I requested. Find out why.”
He ran his fingers through his hair, sending the dark strands into disarray. With one last piercing look, he retreated back into his office.
* * *
LATER THAT DAY, Mara raced around her living room, straightening the pillows on the couch and collecting stray items of clothing she’d discarded in her frenzy to get to work that morning. Trent had originally been scheduled to fly in late, but she’d gotten a text right before leaving work that he’d be home early.
Just as she finished, she heard the front door open. Anticipation quickened her steps as she trotted down the hallway. Trent looked up when she entered the living room.
With a squeal, she flung herself into his arms. “I’m so happy to see you!”
He fell back slightly until he hit the wall, accepting her noisy kisses all over his face. “I’m happy to see you too. I really missed you, baby.”
The low rumble of his words spread through her. It made her heart soar to hear him say the same thing she was feeling. She looked at his suit in surprise. Usually he just wore slacks and maybe a tie. Since he was such a casual guy, he probably wouldn’t like it if he knew how arousing she found his corporate look.
“I missed you too. And I’m really looking forward to having you home for a while.”
“Come with me while I unpack. I just want to look at you.”
She followed him into the bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed, and in that moment, she could see how exhausted he was. It was all over his face, in the tight line of his lips and the pinched skin around his eyes. He looked awful.
“Why don’t you take a shower? I can help you unpack.”
A smile lifted the edges of his lips. “I think I’ll do that. Thanks. You’re the best.”
He stood and yanked his shirt over his head. She followed him with her eyes, enjoying the flex and play of the muscles in his back as he disappeared into the bathroom.
She turned back to his duffel and unzipped it. Layers of clothes sprang from the bag. With a muffled curse, she forced them back inside and tried to arrange them in some semblance of order. The sight of the jumbled clothes reminded her of the conversation they needed to have. Trent was usually a neat freak. It was confirmation of what she knew instinctively.
Something wasn’t right.
She folded the clothes as the sounds of the shower filtered out of the bathroom behind her. By the time the water turned off she'd created three neat piles, one for underwear, another for his dress shirts and another for casual clothes.
“Hey baby.”
Trent stood in the doorway to the bathroom, a towel tucked snugly around his waist. Even as her mouth watered, she had to remind herself of her plans. Dinner first, then they needed to talk. She was determined to keep her head on straight so they could have a conversation. It wouldn’t do to get lost in passion and ignore the lingering tension between them. So Trent and his mouthwatering abs would just have to wait for a few hours.
“Matt and Penny are coming over for dinner. I have to go to the store to pick up a few things. If I’d known you were coming in so early I would have done it last night.”
“That's fine. You. Go. On.” He punctuated each word with a mind-drugging kiss. By the time he was done, Mara was ready to rip his towel off. Especially since his skin was appealingly warm and still slightly damp from his shower.
“I'm going to get some work done while you’re gone then I can give you my undivided attention tonight. Actually, can you bring me my laptop case? I must have left it on the couch up front."
He pulled her up on her toes to meet his kiss, anchoring her against him in the way that never failed to turn her to mush. He was so handsome with his sun-kissed blond hair and those piercing blue eyes that always made her melt.
By the time he released her, she could barely remember her own name let alone what he’d asked her to do.
Grocery store. I’m supposed to be going out.
“Okay, I’m going. I love you.”
She hugged him tighter, suddenly overcome with emotion. It was easy to assume the worst when he wasn’t here but she just couldn’t believe the emotion he showed toward her was feigned. No one had ever treated her the way he did or so openly showed his affection. There was probably something bad going on with work which would explain why he was suddenly traveling so much.
Guilt tightened her belly. She’d been stewing in her own insecurity this whole time and assigning him false motives when he was likely just trying to keep from losing his job. Trent had always had weird hang-ups about money. Her brother had given her a sizable loan to buy the townhouse and when Trent had found out about it, he’d been furious.
Like a lot of men, he seemed to think that if he couldn’t financially support her, then she wouldn’t love him. But Mara didn’t need that from him. She’d been supporting herself since she was old enough to work.
Trent pulled her closer and kissed her forehead the way he always did. “Be careful out there. You know I love you more than life.”
A smile on her face, she left the room and headed back down the hallway to the living room to grab her handbag.
When she spotted his laptop bag and suit jacket on the chair, she remembered that he’d asked her to bring his stuff. The jacket was one of her favorites on him, a pale gray pinstripe that brought out the intense color of his eyes. She folded it over her arm carefully. Something bulky poked out of the fabric.
With one hand, she slung the laptop case over her shoulder and then reached into the inner pocket. Her hands met what felt like rough cardboard. She pulled it out. It unfolded in her hands, showcasing the bright colors of what was obviously a child’s drawing.
But that wasn’t what turned her heart to ice. It was the childish scrawl at the bottom right above a painstakingly written name.
Travis.
Quickly, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and took a photo. Her hands shook as she refolded the drawing and tucked it into the inner pocket of the jacket where she’d found it. She dropped the laptop case and coat jacket back on the chair and then grabbed her own handbag. Her mind was in a whirl as she let herself out, locking the door behind her.
Different scenarios ran through her head as she drove through the familiar streets of New Haven. She soothed herself with the sight of the cheerful red awnings of the businesses on Main Street and the graceful arch of the trees that bordered the road.
It wasn’t until she pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store that she spoke the words aloud that had been screaming through her brain for the entire drive.
“Trent’s middle name is Travis.”