Three
Abby sat in a conference room on the fifteenth floor of the swanky office building where Jameson Industries was located. A glass wall with the glass door fronted the room, facing into the hall. The room was reserved for relatively few people in the company because it connected to Jackson Richards’s office next door. He used it. Derrick used it. Today, she used it.
She looked at the stack of papers in front of her, then to her laptop, then across the small round table to Jackson. He was Derrick’s right-hand man and the most accessible person on the management staff. He was also tall and lean with a runner’s body and, if rumors were correct, the one every single woman in the office named as the most eligible and interesting man in the office. There hadn’t been an actual poll, to her knowledge, but she got asked at least a few times a week if he was dating anyone. Not that Abby saw him in a romantic way. She didn’t.
She considered Jackson one of her closest friends, if not the closest. After a relatively solitary existence growing up—just her and her mom and the apartment manager who watched her when her mom worked the night shift at the diner—dating here and there, keeping attachments light in case she needed to get up and go, Jackson acted as a lifeline for her. They even lived in condos next door to each other, which was more of an accident than anything else. But when you heard about a good deal on a downtown DC property with a doorman and reasonable monthly fees, you jumped on it. Jackson sure had.
But right now she was at work and out of patience. She beat back the urge to knock her head against the table. “If I have to read one more email from Rylan, my brain will explode.”
The man sent her the most mundane emails. The status check today, which he sent a day earlier than he said he would, was to tell her nothing had changed. Yeah, she guessed that much. But with emails clogging her inbox and her mind on constant wandering mode these days, she needed something solid. Jackson was it.
“Good thing we have good health insurance here,” Jackson said as he closed the file he was reading.
She snorted. “I’m pretty sure head explosion isn’t covered.”
“He is persistent.” Jackson glanced at the conference room door as it opened. “Speaking of which...”
“Hello.” Spence stepped inside. He didn’t make a move to sit down. He stopped and rested his palms on the back of the chair nearest to him.
That fast, the oxygen sucked out of the room. The easy banter with Jackson gave way to suffocating tension. It pressed in on Abby, proving what she already knew. Seeing Spence grew harder each time, not easier.
Jackson smiled as he moved some of the files and papers around to make room in front of an open chair. “Hey, Spence.”
As far as Abby was concerned, all of that accommodating was unnecessary. She had no interest in sitting there, explaining her projects to Spence. She had a file made up with the relevant information and emailed him the rest. She’d done her part to keep the machine running.
“Right.” She shut her laptop, careful not to slam the cover down, and stood up. “I’m going to head back to my office.”
“I need to talk to you for a second.” Spence’s gaze moved from her to Jackson.
Jackson sighed. “Why are you looking at me? I’m supposed to be in here. I’m not leaving.”
“Help me out,” Spence said.
Jackson shook his head as he stood up. “Did you not hear my dramatic sigh?”
“It was tough to miss.”
“That’s because I spend half my life rescuing Jamesons from certain disaster.” Jackson ended the back-and-forth with a smack against Spence’s shoulder.
Some of the tension drained away as Jackson and Spence fell into their easy camaraderie. That sort of thing always amazed Abby. Men could argue and go at each other, but if they were friends or related, they seemed to have this secret signal, heard only by them, that triggered the end of the battle. Then all the anger slipped away.
She wished she possessed that skill.
She glanced at Jackson. “You deserve a raise.”
“Hell, yeah.” Jackson winked at her as he walked out of the conference room through the connecting door to his office.
A second later, Spence slid into the seat Jackson abandoned. He flipped through a whole repertoire of nervous gestures, none of which she’d seen from him before. He rubbed the back of his neck. Shifted around in his seat. Put a hand on the table then took it off. But he didn’t say a word.
After about a minute, the silence screamed in her head. “You’re up, Spence. You’re the one who wanted to talk.”
Fight was probably more accurate. They couldn’t seem to be civil to each other for more than a few minutes at a time since living in the same town again. They verbally sparred. Every conversation led them back to the same place—he believed she came on to his father. The idea made her want to heave.
He let out a heavy sigh that had his chest lifting and falling. “We got off on the wrong foot.”
“When?”
He frowned. “What?”
“Now or back then?” She was having a hard time keeping up, so he was going to need to be more specific. “Maybe when we were starting to go out and had plans for our first official date that Friday. You left on Thursday without a word.”
The memories flashed in her brain and she blinked them out. She refused to let the sharp pain in her chest derail her. This close, right across the table, she could see the intensity in his eyes, smell that scent she associated with him. A kind of peppery sharpness that reeled her in. In the past. Not now. She wouldn’t let it happen now.
“You are determined to make this difficult.” He had the nerve to look wounded.
She pushed down her anger and lifted her chin. “Do you blame me?”
“Actually, yes.” He sat back in the chair. The metal creaked under his weight as he lifted the front two legs off the floor. “You kissed my father.”
And there it was. The only point he could make, so he did it over and over until it lost its punch. “So you’ve pointed out. Repeatedly.”
“Okay. Enough.” A thud echoed through the small room as the front legs of his chair hit the floor again.
“I agree.” She stood up. Her vision blurred. She struggled through a haze of anger and disappointment to see the stacks of documents and folders in front of her.
“Please, sit.” His hand slipped over hers. “I know you think I’m an ass, but I’m here because I am worried about Ellie and the baby. The chance of my big brother running himself into the ground is really good. He may be acting cool, but he’s a panicked mess.”
Part of her wanted to throw his hand off hers. The other part wanted to grab hold. Her life would have been so much easier if she could have hated him. She begged the universe to let that happen.
Instead, she slipped her hand out from under his, stopped moving her things around and looked at him. “Of course he is. He loves Ellie.”
Spence’s gaze traveled over her face. “You like Derrick.”
All the blood ran out of her head. “You’re not accusing me—”
“No!” Spence held up both hands as if in mock surrender. “I mean, respect. Friendship. Deeper than a boss, but not romantic.”
Her heartbeat stopped thundering in her ears. It was as if he opened his mouth and her body prepared for battle. The whole thing gave her a headache. “That’s fair. Yes.”
“Any chance we could get there? I’d like us to be friends.” His hand rested on the table, so close to hers.
She stared at his long fingers. She’d always loved his hands. They showed strength. Seeing them made her wonder what they would feel like on her.
She pushed the thought away. “No.”
“Abby, come on.”
“I have that level of trust and understanding with Derrick because there is nothing else in the way. Nothing else between us because I don’t have any other feelings for him.” The words echoed in her head. She closed her eyes for a second before opening them again, hoping she’d only thought them. But no, there he was. Staring at her. Clear that he heard every syllable.
His eyebrow lifted. “But you do feel something for me?”
The look on his face. Was that satisfaction or hope? She couldn’t tell. Didn’t want to know. She never meant to open that door. Thinking it and saying it were two very different things, and she’d blown it. Now she rushed to try to fix the damage. “Did. That’s over.”
“Is it?”
He stood up then. Took one step toward her. Not too close, but enough to cut off her breathing. To make her fight not to gasp.
“I want to kiss you.” He put his hands on her arms and turned her slightly until they faced each other. “Tell me no if you don’t want me to.”
They’d kissed before. Gone to dinner, stolen a few minutes in closed conference rooms now and then. But this one was lined with windows on one side. She looked over his shoulder, thinking someone would be out there. That her brain would click on and common sense would come rushing back. For once, no one rushed up and down the hall.
She opened her mouth to say no, sensing he actually would stop. But she couldn’t get the word out. Not that one. “Yes.”
With the unexpected green light, he leaned in. His mouth covered hers and need shot through her. The press of his mouth, the sureness of his touch. His lips didn’t dance over hers. They didn’t test or linger. No, this was the kind of kiss where you dove in and held on.
His mouth slipped over hers and her knees buckled. She grabbed on to the sleeve of his shirt. Dug her fingers into the material as desire pounded her. Her brain shut down and her body took over. She wanted to wrap her legs around his and slip her fingers through that sexy dark hair.
Voices in the hallway floated through her. She heard laughter and the mumbling. The noise broke the spell.
“Stop.” She pushed away from him. Still held on but lessened her grip and put a bit of air between them. “Don’t.”
Her gaze went back to the glass wall. She heard talking but didn’t see anyone. Not unusual at this end of the hall since only Derrick and Jackson had offices there. But she took the sound of voices as a warning. Forcing her fingers to uncurl, she dropped her arms and stepped back another step, ignoring the way the corner of her chair jammed into the side of her thigh.
“Sorry.” Spence visibly swallowed. “I know I’m your boss and it’s weird.”
She looked at him then. Really looked. Saw the flush on his cheeks and his swollen lips. That haze clouding his eyes. He had been as spun up and knocked off balance as she was. It was tempting to shut it all down and let him believe this was about Human Resources and office rules, but it wasn’t. Employees could date and this wasn’t about that.
“We both know this isn’t workplace harassment. You asked permission and I said yes. I know my job doesn’t depend on kissing you. There’s no big power play here.” She laid a lot of sins at his feet, but not that one. His father? Yes. But not Spence.
“I guess that’s something.”
“You hated me and ran away but never threatened my job. You’re not that guy.” She waved a hand between them. “But this—us—we’ve proven it doesn’t work. We’re miserable around each other.”
“I never hated you.”
No way was she going to dissect that and examine it. “Okay.”
“And are we? You make me feel a lot of things, Abby. Miserable isn’t one of them.”
And she was ignoring that, too. She had to. Believing, even for a second, that he might trust her, that he might get what he did when he sided with his father months ago, was too dangerous. He’d been clear about what he thought of her back then. They needed to stick with that and stay away from each other.
She grabbed her laptop. Almost dropped it. “I need to prep for another meeting with Rylan.”
Spence watched the fumbling. Even tried to help when the laptop started its dive, but when she pulled it all together, he stepped back again. Slipped his hands in his pants pockets. “When is it? I’ll come with you.”
“To the meeting? Do you think I can’t handle it?” He really was determined to babysit her. Thinking about that killed off her need to unbutton his shirt and strip it off him. Mostly.
“That guy’s interest in you is not entirely professional.”
Her brain cells scrambled. She didn’t understand what he was saying or why now. “And you’re worried I’ll kiss him, too?”
“I’m concerned he won’t know where the line is. I don’t want you to be put in an untenable position.” Whatever he saw on her face had him frowning. “What?”
“Where was this Spence months ago?” She would have done anything to have him stick up for her then. To be on her side.
“What does that mean?”
She retreated back behind her safe wall. Her mother had taught her to be wary. She’d learned the hard way from the man who never stuck around to be a dad. Then her mom taught the ultimate lesson when she died in that diner shooting. Abby had to be stronger, smarter. Always be ready. Always be careful.
“I’ll be fine.” Somehow, she made her legs move. The shaking in her hands had her laptop bouncing against her chest from the death grip she had on it. She ignored all of it, and Spence, as she walked out.
But that kiss she would remember.
* * *
Spence couldn’t forget the kiss or that look on Abby’s face. It was as if she expected him not to believe her, not to stick up for her. Then his mind slipped back to another office. Another kiss. He’d walked in and his life had turned upside down. All that hatred for his father manifested itself in one horrible second, and he’d taken it out on Abby. She knew about his father’s charm and his effect on women. He’d just hoped she would be different.
That realization brought him to Derrick’s office. Spence didn’t want to talk, but hanging out with Derrick generally calmed him. He was a reminder that the Jameson men could turn out to be decent. Their grandfather was a disgraced congressman. Dad was considered a big-time successful businessman who always had a beautiful woman on his arm. Spence and his brothers had spent too much time in the public eye as props for family photos and public relations schemes.
But Derrick was the real thing. He didn’t see it, but Carter and Spence did.
As soon as Spence walked in, Derrick motioned for him to take the seat on the other side of his massive desk. Without saying a word, Derrick opened the top drawer and took out a large envelope. “Here.”
Spence wasn’t exactly looking for work talk but he sensed that’s not what this was anyway. “Do I want to know what this is?”
“It’s from Dad.”
The damn agreement. Despite all of Derrick’s hard work, Eldrick owned the majority of the company. He promised to turn it over, but not before he put his boys through another set of tests. It was his way of holding on to power and exerting control.
Derrick had been given a specific time to clean up his reputation. He was also supposed to lure Carter and Spence home, which proved easy enough once Derrick admitted it to them. But he did more than that. He managed to run a multimillion-dollar company, expand its holding, meet their father’s conditions and land the best woman for him.
For Derrick—easy. For anyone else? Likely impossible.
Spence hated to guess what his task was. “Lucky me.”
Derrick dropped the envelope on the desk. “Rip it up without opening it.”
The suggestion didn’t make sense. “What?”
“Walk away from this.”
“Isn’t this my stipulation, the things I have to do? The way you explained it to me before, Dad only turns over the business if we all do his bidding. You had the biggest part and finished. Now it’s my turn.” Still, Spence couldn’t bring himself to touch the envelope.
“Don’t let him do this. It’s manipulation.”
It was. No one debated that. Not the lawyers who drew up the documents. Not Jackson, the only person outside of the family who knew other than Ellie. The requirements were personal and not likely to be legally enforceable, but with controlling interest, dear old Dad could sell the company and take the company that meant everything to Derrick away from him at any time. Spence refused to let that happen, even if it meant staying and working there.
“You deserve to run the company. You saved it.” To Spence, it was that simple. He’d talked to Carter, their younger, California-living brother. He agreed with Spence. Whatever it took to beat the old man and get Derrick the business, they would do it.
Derrick shrugged. “I’ll find another way.”
“I’m thinking it’s time I stepped up and took responsibility.” Something even Spence had to admit he should have done before. Stopped running long enough to help.
“Are we only talking about the job?” Derrick smiled as he asked the question.
“This isn’t about Abby.” It was infuriating how she was the first thing that popped into his mind—always. Spence couldn’t kick that habit.
“Right, Abby.” Derrick made a humming sound. “Do you notice how you brought up her name, not me?”
Spence was not touching that. He knew he had a weakness for her. There was no need to pretend otherwise. “I was talking about being more engaged here, at work.”
Derrick sat back in his chair. “I can’t say I hate that idea.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get excited. I might suck at it.”
This time, Derrick laughed. He’d so rarely done that in the past, but he did it now that he’d found Ellie. “I like the positive attitude.”
Spence never had one of those before. Maybe it was time he tried. “I’m being realistic.”
“I’ll take whatever I can get.”