Romancing My Love(8)

“I don’t mind picking you up at your place.” He touched her cheek. “I know you’re used to doing everything yourself, but it’s okay to let your date do a few things, like pick you up.”

Not for me it’s not. “I know, but I have things to do, and my place is kind of a wreck right now.” That part was true. One glance inside her car and he’d see her stuff piled up on the floor in the backseat. God forbid he opened the trunk. Her whole life was in there. She’d sold her landlord the few pieces of furniture she and her mother had owned in order to pay the last of their utility bills.

He furrowed his brow. “Okay. You’re not married, are you? Because I don’t date married women.”

She laughed. “Definitely not married, and since it’s been a few years since I even kissed a man, I think if I were married, he’d have grounds for divorce.”

His smile gave away his relief. “Five forty-five, then? In the lobby.” He pressed his big hands to her cheeks, tilted her face up, and gazed into her eyes.

She’d never bought into the moment in movies when a woman gazed into a man’s eyes and fell into his arms, willing to do whatever he wanted, but there she was. And God help her, she’d go and do anything he wanted her to. It should be illegal to look at a woman like that. She craved his lips, his touch, his…

He kissed her forehead. “Thank you for a lovely night.” He pulled open the driver’s side door and waved a hand for her to climb in.

Please let my legs work. Please, please.

She felt his hand on her back as she climbed into the driver’s seat and snagged a piece of paper. She scribbled down her number and handed it to him.

“Sleep well, Rebecca Rivera.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek.

She doubted she’d be doing any sleeping tonight. She had a big day tomorrow of getting her life a little more in order, and the way her heart was racing as she watched Pierce walk away, she wondered if she’d be able to function at all.





Chapter Four


PIERCE WOKE UP groggy eyed and pissed off. It took him a minute to figure out where he was. He owned several private residences in addition to casinos and other resort properties. Though he usually liked the convenience and luxury of staying at the resorts, there were times when he wanted to escape the scrutiny of the staff, or just plain wanted to have some time alone. Last night was one of those times. By the time he’d left Rebecca, he was not only turned on, but his brain was taking all sorts of winding turns into his past, and those turns eventually led him back to the present. He’d driven out to his estate and spent the night thinking about Rebecca and wrestling with the unfamiliar feelings she’d stirred within him.

What was it about her that made him talk about his father? Christ Almighty, Buddy wasn’t a guy Pierce wanted to give any of his emotional or mental time to, and there he was, telling her about when Buddy had left. As if Buddy mattered, when in reality, Buddy leaving had been the best goddamn thing that could have ever happened to their family. The guy was a low-down thief, the way he came back twice asking their mother for money. And she’d given it to him at first. The Braden family wealth had been handed down for generations. He and his siblings had significant trust funds, though they’d each made their own careers separate from those funds. The measly twenty-five grand Buddy had demanded from his mother was a pittance, but it was the demand of money in exchange for his children that had Pierce breathing fire. Pierce didn’t know the whole story, but his uncle Hal had intervened and finally put a stop to Buddy’s coercion for good. The truth was, he didn’t care how his protective uncle had done it; he was just damn glad he had, because Buddy was more than a thief. He was a cheat to boot.

That skeleton in his closet was what had him running faster than normal on his morning run, as he circled back down the private road that led to his modest, stone home. He couldn’t outrun his past, no matter how hard he pushed, and thinking about his past threw him into a tunnel of introspection. Pierce wasn’t a one-woman man, never had been. And although he’d had moments of wondering what he was missing out on as he watched Luke and Wes fall madly in love with Daisy Honey and Callie Barnes, until last night, he’d almost been proud of that fact that he was, for lack of a better term, a player. There wasn’t a woman alive who he believed could make him think twice about giving up the freedom to enjoy the company of whomever he pleased. Relationships took time and attention, but more than that, they took heart. A person had to care to be in a relationship, and sure, he’d cared about women in the past. He just hadn’t cared enough to want to put that kind of effort into them. He wasn’t a low-down, dirty bastard. But last night all of that surety came tumbling back at him, and he began to pick it apart.

There was something in Rebecca’s eyes that took what he’d thought he was proud of and twisted it into a knot of clarity. She’d woken up that sleeping heart of his, and he’d spent the rest of the night mulling over the real reasons he enjoyed his bachelor lifestyle. He might have only been six when Buddy left, but his six-year-old mind was sharp, and he had a painfully accurate memory. He’d watched his mother’s heart break, and even though his father hadn’t been the best father on earth, and even though he’d hurt their family and abandoned them all, Pierce’s heart had been broken, too. Hell, he’d not only seen his mother’s heart get crushed; he felt the earth shift beneath them when his father left.

Pierce knew all about calculating risks and valuing effort. Love was a gamble, and he knew the payoff could be astronomical, or it could be devastating. That was a risk he wasn’t willing to take. And if he didn’t take the risk of falling in love, there was no risk of being hurt.

By the time he reached his house, he was out of breath and dripping with sweat. And he had no better answers to what it was about Rebecca that made him question what he’d always believed.

After a grueling weight workout in his fully equipped home gym, he headed to the casino. At seven thirty he was driving through the parking garage, slowing as he reached the fifth floor, and remembering the hunger of Rebecca’s kiss and the way she’d clutched at his shirt. He’d behaved himself last night, and he knew damn well that keeping things casual tonight was going to be hard as hell. Who was he kidding? He was getting hard just thinking about kissing her again.

Inside the Astral, Pierce passed the elegant, handcrafted furniture in the lobby and paused at the reception desk to greet Patricia, an attractive brunette who ran the front desk.

“Good morning, Patricia. How’s Larissa?” He made a point of getting to know his staff. He didn’t like the idea of being known as that Braden guy who owns the place. Pierce liked to be more hands-on, and he knew Patricia had been out last week for two days because her five-year-old daughter had been sick.

“Good morning, Mr. Braden. She’s much better, sir. Thank you for asking.” Patricia smiled as he passed on the way to the executive elevator.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

He rode the elevator to the tenth floor, where Kendra Peterson, his executive assistant, stood by the reception desk in her superbly fitted Chanel suit. She held a day planner in one hand and had a pen tucked above her ear.

“Good morning, Pierce. You just missed a call from Treat. He said he tried your cell but was unable to reach you.”

Pierce pulled his cell from his pocket. “I forgot to turn the ringer on again. I’ll call him now. Thank you.”

Kendra shook her head, and her dark eyes filled with a look he’d seen too often in his mother’s eyes.

“You really need a woman in your life, Pierce. Women remember to take care of things like that.” Kendra was in her midfifties, as tall as Iman, with skin as smooth and rich as melted chocolate. She’d been married for twenty-five years. Her efficiency was unmatched, and her pushiness in the relationship department was relentless. Pierce’s mother, and his older, engaged or married cousins, had also joined in on the push-the-relationship wagon recently. Luckily, Pierce was adept at ignoring their efforts.

“Thanks, Kendra, but I think I can handle it.” He held up his phone and showed her the volume bar spreading across the screen.

She shook her head in that way that said, You don’t get it.

After spending just a few hours with Rebecca, she had him viewing his thoughts on all things women related differently. He wondered if maybe all women weren’t just looking for an easy step to wealth. Pierce knew he was an easy ladder to climb, which was one of the many reasons why he kept a wall between his heart and what lay between his legs.

He dialed his cousin Treat’s number on the way into his office. Treat was a few years older than Pierce and was also in the resort business. Like Pierce, he was a keen negotiator with a nose for bullshit. Treat, his wife, Max, and their daughter, Adriana, lived in Weston on the property adjacent to Hal Braden’s ranch. Treat was the oldest of Hal’s six children.

“Pierce, I just called you five minutes ago.”

It was good to hear Treat’s familiar deep voice. People who knew them often wondered if they were competitive, since they were both in the resort business. Pierce’s standard answer was, Not with each other, while Treat’s standard answer was a hearty laugh. They, like all Bradens, were fiercely loyal to their families, and when properties came up for sale, they often consulted each other first, to ensure they weren’t bidding against family.