Billionaire's Contract Engagement(29)

Though it was well past seven, she dragged herself down six flights of  stairs just on the off chance any stragglers were in the elevator. She  was pathetic and spineless but she didn't care. She'd face them all when  she had some semblance of control over her emotions.

She drove to her apartment with her fingers curled tightly around the  wheel. She battled bouts of fury and the impulse to break down into  tears. By the time she reached home, she was mentally exhausted.

To make matters worse, Evan was waiting for her by the door. He wore a deep frown, and his brow was creased with concern.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded. "I was worried. We were supposed to meet here an hour and a half ago."

She couldn't even meet his gaze as she jammed her key into the lock. She  shoved the door open, and went inside, allowing the dark to swallow her  up.

"Hey, Celia, what's wrong?"

He flipped on the light, and she winced. He was in front of her  immediately. He grasped her arm and tilted her chin up with his other  hand.

"What the hell? Have you been crying?"

She closed her eyes and tried to pull away, but he held tight.

"Talk to me, dammit."

"We can't see each other for a while," she blurted out. "Okay? We need to cool it. Things are crazy. My life is crazy."

Her words did what she hadn't been able to do. He let go of her arm and took a step back.

"Want to run that by me again? In a way that I understand?"

There was a wary look in his eye that warned her this wouldn't be easy.  But then he didn't give a damn about what people thought. He wasn't  ruled by the opinions of others. As she had so many times before, she  wished she could be like him.         

     



 

Instead of answering him, she rummaged in her bag for the stupid gossip  rag and then she thrust it at him as if it was self-explanatory. And it  was in a way.

He glanced over the paper and then looked back up at her. "So? What's the problem?"

She knew he'd react that way. Positively knew it, and it drove her  crazy. She wanted to scream and rail at him, but she'd come across as  some hysterical banshee, and then he'd never take her concerns  seriously.

"That's not all," she said stiffly. "It's all over the Internet. An  advertising community site has it on their blog along with some snotty  little line about how I got the account after the announcement of you  signing with Maddox."

He looked blankly at her. "I fail to see what the big deal is, and I  damn sure don't see why it's any cause for us not to see each other  anymore."

She gritted her teeth. "You fail to see. Well, I don't, Evan. This is my  career we're talking about. My reputation. Which I might add is in  shreds now. Everyone in my office saw that. Everyone in the advertising  community saw it. Everyone knows, or thinks they know, just how I got  you to sign with Maddox. It doesn't matter if it's true. It's what  everyone thinks. Our announcement of our agreement will be posted in  Advertising Media. Right on the heels of those pictures. Do you know how  that looks?"

She stopped and swallowed back the damning sob that welled up in her throat.

"How am I supposed to go out on my next client call? What if the client  is male and what if he expects the same favors I granted you? Or maybe  he'll agree to sign with Maddox if I sleep with him."

"I'll kick his ass," Evan growled.

"You can't be there to kick everyone's ass, Evan. That's what I'm trying  to tell you. The best thing you can do for me is to back off until the  smoke clears."

He blinked and then his eyes went cold and hard. "Is that what you want, Celia? What you really want?"

She was afraid to answer, afraid to confirm after that terrible look that had come over him. But she wouldn't lie.

"Yes," she whispered.

His lip curled in derision. "I won't be anyone's dirty little secret,  Celia. I'm tired of running around like two people having an affair  behind their spouses' backs. I made the mistake of settling once. I'll  never do it again."

"Evan, please, it's not like that. I just need some time," she pleaded.

"It is like that, Celia. It's very much like that. It's apparent to me  that I'm definitely not first on your list of priorities. Or even second  or third. There's a hell of a lot of things that rank higher than me. I  don't give a damn who knows that we're sleeping together. And I damn  sure won't continue to sleep with someone who does."

He turned and stalked toward the door. He flung it open and caught it with one hand, turning as he stepped out.

"If you change your mind, don't bother to come crawling back. I think you've made it abundantly clear what I'm good for."

The door slammed, and Celia's heart shattered into tiny little pieces.  She stared numbly, hoping, expecting that he'd come back and tell her  they could work things out, that he'd wait.

Minutes passed, and the sickening realization hit her that he wasn't  coming back. Not only had she lost her reputation, and possibly her  career, but she'd lost the one man she loved enough to have risked it  all in the first place.





Eighteen


Tuesday morning, Celia took the coward's way out and called Brock to  schedule vacation time for the rest of the week. He didn't like that she  was hiding. It was no way to face the issue, but after hearing how  horrible she sounded, he didn't argue the matter further.

The rest of the day she spent moping around her apartment, alternating between anger and fits of upset.

Wednesday, she packed a bag and headed for the one place she knew she could lick her wounds in safety. Her dad's house.

He took one look at her and held out his arms for a giant bear hug. She  needed it. Never had the comfort of home felt so good to her than now.

He sat her down and cooked her a huge breakfast, because in his book,  there wasn't anything that couldn't be cured by a big, home-cooked  breakfast.

All the time she ate, he sat beside her, eating his own food in silence.  He didn't pry or demand answers. It was what she loved most about him.  He never intruded into his children's lives. No, he didn't have to. He  just waited for them to come to him, and then he'd move heaven and earth  to make everything right again.         

     



 

Only this time he couldn't fix it.

She spent the afternoon on the couch, watching television with him. He  babied her endlessly, fixing her a snack in the afternoon and even  baking her favorite cookies. Chocolate chip with no nuts.

By the time evening rolled around, it was obvious her father had spent  the afternoon on the phone with her brothers. They arrived, one at a  time, and made it a point to shower her with lots of hugs and endless  pampering. Or at least Adam and Dalton did.

When Noah showed up, he took one look at her and demanded to know what  the hell had happened. She burst into tears which prompted Adam, Dalton  and her dad to threaten to dismember him for upsetting her.

"Well hell, Dad, I didn't upset her. It's obvious that someone did, but  it sure as hell wasn't me!" Noah protested. "Hasn't anyone asked her  what's wrong yet?"

"We were waiting," her father said gruffly.

"Waiting for what?" Noah asked in exasperation. "For her to cry?"

Celia wiped at her eyes and tried to stop the sniffling. She knew her brothers hated it when she cried. Especially Noah.

Noah turned to her, his eyes softening at the signs of her distress. Then he sat down on the couch next to her.

"This doesn't have anything to do with Evan Reese, does it?"

Despite her vow to cease and desist, his question spurred another round of tears.

"Good going, bonehead," Adam growled.

"Anyone ever tell you that your skill with the opposite sex sucks?" Dalton asked.

Noah put an arm around her and squeezed comfortingly. "What happened, Cece?"

"Oh God, Noah, it was awful. The paper printed these horrible pictures  and this blog said horrible things. My career is shot to hell. My  reputation is in shambles and Evan doesn't want to see me anymore  because I asked him to back off until the smoke cleared. He thinks I  think he's my dirty little secret, and he hates it. And me."

She dug her palms into her eyes and rubbed until it felt like she was  scraping her eyelids across sandpaper every time she blinked.

"Whoa," Adam said. "Did any of that make sense to the rest of you?"

Dalton and her father exchanged helpless looks.

Noah sighed. "Maybe you should back up and start with what the newspaper  printed and what the blog said and why your career and reputation have  been dragged through the mud."

"It's a long story," she muttered.

"We've got all night," Dalton offered.

She sighed and once again poured out the whole story from start to  finish, not leaving a single detail out. Except for the sex. Her  brothers had a hard time seeing their baby sister as anything other than  their baby sister, and telling them about her sex life would only make  them turn a sick shade of green. And then they'd probably go after Evan  with one of Noah's baseball bats.