Business or Pleasure? Read online

  “Yes,” he said, never taking his eyes off Daisy.

  “I’d love to meet her. It looks like she makes you very happy.”

  “We were just on our way out,” he said, hoping to cut this charade short. “So maybe another time—”

  She dropped a hand onto his arm to stop him. “I want to apologize, Alec.”

  Apologize? His mother wanted to apologize? He swiveled his gaze toward her. “For what?”

  She glanced at the other guests seated around the table and then, apparently satisfied that they had good manners enough to mind their own business, she took a deep breath. “For being the world’s worst mother,” she said in a rush of hushed words. “For leaving you with nannies while I went to Europe, for sending you to boarding school, for never coming to your crew races or your graduations or awards ceremonies. For never, ever being there when you needed me.”

  Barbara closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she looked like she might cry, which was impossible because his mother never cried. Ever.

  “I can still remember the look on your face,” she whispered, “when I told you I was going to miss the party for your seventh birthday. In my mind, I can still see the smudge of dirt on your cheek and the little scrape on your forehead. And I can still see your sadness and how hard you tried to fight back the tears. I’ll never forgive myself for that, Alec.” She gripped his arm a little tighter. “But I hope someday you can.”

  Alec felt the old anger flare bright and hot inside him. He was the only child of his parents’ farce of a marriage. Once they’d divorced, he’d had little contact with his disinterested father and had seen the door close behind his beloved mother more often than not as she left for parties and trips and, later, for the never-ending work at the auction houses. As an adult, he’d opted out of relationships with both of them. Until a few years ago, it seemed to work for everybody.

  Apparently, his mother had suddenly had an attack of conscience. About thirty-five years too late.

  He stared into her eyes, the same eyes he saw every morning when he looked into the mirror. And for one brief moment he let himself wonder what it would have been like to be a part of a real family, to live with people who loved him, people he could count on. He’d thought about it often as a child, but never as an adult…until recently, anyway. He cast another glance at Daisy, then turned back to his mother.

  “What happened?” he asked. “What’s bringing this on now?”

  She looked down and flipped her slim, expensive purse around in her hands for a moment. “I sold my business a few months back,” she said and her voice was low and measured, calmer than he remembered. “Now that I have more time on my hands, I can see that I’ve been running in circles for decades. I can see that I’ve treated work like my family and my family like work.” She looked up, her eyes glistening, and her composed façade began to crumble. “In the process, Alec, I’m afraid I missed out on one of life’s greatest relationships.”

  He stared hard at her, blinked away an itch behind his eyes. “Well, thank you for the apology,” he said when he found his voice. “But I’m not sure what else to say.”

  She reached out and squeezed his arm again, and he looked down at her hand, still cool and smooth just as he remembered. “You don’t have to say anything now. But maybe we can have dinner later this week.”

  “I don’t know—”

  “I know you’re busy,” she said, and patted him awkwardly. “I’m staying with the Baldwins for a while. You can find me there.”

  When Virginia and Daisy came back to the table a few minutes later, introductions were made, desserts were enjoyed, coffee was consumed. Later, when everyone moved to the casino’s gaming rooms to gamble away enough money to fill the coffers of Virginia Baldwin’s pet charity for another year, Alec and Daisy quietly made their exit.

  “Virginia told me about why your mother came here,” Daisy said as soon as they stepped out into the cool, damp night air. “Are you okay?”

  “Of course,” he answered but he wasn’t sure it was true. In fact, his mother’s apology had triggered something more troubling, something that was making him think that his relationship with Daisy wasn’t going to be as easy to walk away from as he’d planned. “Sort of a too-little, too-late thing as far as I’m concerned.” As they strolled along the boardwalk, he took her hand in his, twining his fingers around her long, graceful ones.

  “Oh,” she said. It was only one word, one syllable, but he couldn’t fail to notice that it conveyed disappointment.

  “I don’t need my mommy anymore,” he said, and his voice was a bit too loud amidst the dinging buoys and the lapping waves and the soft music of the Paloma harbor. “But I’m glad she got it off her chest.”

  She stroked his thumb with her own. “You know what, Alec? This is that arm’s length thing again.”

  “Oh, God,” he groaned.

  “And I understand why you do it,” she said, ignoring him. “I really do. But this is your mother.”

  “She hasn’t been much of a mom. Ask her. She’ll tell you.”

  “Life is terribly short, Alec. And fickle.” She paused and was quiet for a while before she said, “You never know how long someone you love will stick around.”

  She grew silent after that, and he was pretty sure he knew where her thoughts had gone. She’d lost her mother long ago, but the pain was still fresh in her voice.

  He lifted her hand to his lips as they walked. “Okay, Daze. I’ll accept her invitation and have dinner with her. You can even come along if you want. Make sure I behave myself.”

  “Oh, no,” she said, and her voice was infinitely lighter than it had been just a minute earlier. “You need this time alone with her so she can get to know her marvelous son.”

  He smiled into the sweet, quiet darkness that surrounded them and pulled her closer to his side. “You like me, don’t you?”

  She laid her cheek against him and sighed. “It’s true,” she said. “I really do.”

  They walked back to the hotel, laughing softly in the moonlight and whispering the wicked deeds they had planned for each other when they were alone. But when they got back to their room and Alec took Daisy into his arms, felt her soft skin against his and breathed her sweet scent, wickedness was the last thing on his mind.

  All he could think of as he took her mouth in the lightest of kisses was that he was, without a doubt, happier than he had ever been in his life.

  “Amazing,” he said, pulling back to see her.

  She smiled up at him and nodded and he felt his heart twinge one last time before it expanded and grew heavy with the weight of his overwhelming need for her.

  He wanted to tell her something that would make her understand how he felt, to share the tremendous burden of this unfamiliar sensation. But then she dug her fingers into his hair, pulled him closer and kissed him with an intensity that shook him. The heaviness lifted, and all that was left was her, there in his arms.

  He fell into her and melted into her pure, incredible heat before he scooped her up in his arms and laid her gently onto the bed. He sank down beside her, traced a teasing line down the side of her body with his fingertips and asked, “Anything you need?”

  “Anything?” she asked, her expression growing serious.

  Then it was his turn to get serious. “I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t do for you, sweetheart,” he said, rolling just far enough away to gain access to her full, round breasts, to the warm skin of her stomach, to the hot, wet heat at the vee of her thighs.

  As his hand moved over every smooth curve of her body, he could feel her trembling, could feel the vibration moving between them, sweet and seductive and unstoppable. And then she moaned, begged for more and he gave it, even as his own arousal pooled low and deep in his stomach like a wave of desire, pulling him under its powerful force.

  She gasped as he stroked her, arched into his hand like a contented cat, twisted her hips to invite him further inside. �
��I want you right…here. Don’t stop,” she begged as his fingers played in her damp curls, then dipped in again and again to explore her sensual folds.

  “I won’t—”

  “Ever,” she finished.

  “Ever,” he agreed, and then she rolled on top of him, took him inside her, and it was his turn to beg her to stay right where she was, doing exactly as she was doing.

  He whispered his need for her in gasping, halting, incomprehensible words, and she sighed in a kind of surrender before she leaned over and kissed him, using her tongue to tease and soothe in turns as she moved and rocked, making the world spin around them with the exquisite motion of her body on his.

  The tension built, higher and higher, gathering in his muscles and his mind and his heart, until every fiber of him reached out to the very essence of her. Then, suddenly, she straightened above him and he saw her face, eyes closed, lips parted, brow furrowed. Lord, what was this feeling? he thought as he let his hands roam down over her delicious, insanely sweet body to the delicate curve of her hips, helped guide their rhythm to an intense, spiraling, endlessly perfect place until finally, blissfully, she contracted around him, cried out his name in a sound of anguish, of hope, ecstasy and love.

  Her release exploded inside him, and everything within him that yearned for her rolled and swelled and burst into countless tiny, sparkling fragments. He gasped, cried out her name, then thrust up one more time, taking her to the end of herself, to the end of him, to an unspoiled place where they could dwell together for as long as the fates allowed.

  Daisy was fantasizing again.

  She knew it wasn’t good for her peace of mind, but she couldn’t help herself. Somewhere between slipping into that slinky dress and slipping between the soft, cool sheets with Alec last night, something…no, everything had changed between them. And against her better judgment, she now found herself thinking that this thing with Alec might just work out, that Alec’s feelings for her might be deepening to the point where he might be ready to let her inside his traditional arm’s length.

  But that was just a fantasy, she reminded herself as she sat up, stretched and yawned. And her fantasies had never done her any favors in the past, so she struggled back to reality and the events that were happening in the real world. Here. Safely outside her overactive imagination.

  She glanced at the clock and realized with a start that Alec had left to visit the job sites over an hour ago. And that meant that Daisy only had thirty minutes to get ready and meet Nikki at the dock.

  Their receptionist, for all her gossipy ways, was a very nice girl. In fact, she’d been the first to volunteer to deliver a handful of overnight packages that had been shipped to the main office by mistake, which saved them both the cost and delay of having them redelivered.

  Daisy didn’t want to be late, so she showered and dressed and ran down to the dock. She got there just in time to hear the ferry’s horn as it arrived. Nikki was one of the first people to get off the boat and she didn’t look as if she’d fared particularly well on the two-hour trip. When Nikki reached the top of the gangplank, Daisy could see that her knuckles were white where they clutched the packages, that her skin was an unhealthy mix of yellow and green, that her cropped red hair looked as if she’d pulled her fingers through it about a thousand times.

  Daisy gave her a light hug when she stepped onto terra firma. “You okay?” Daisy asked even though she could see the answer in the way Nikki swallowed repeatedly, her jaw pumping and grinding.

  “God, no,” she said, and Daisy led the way back to the hotel and got Nikki settled into a chaise lounge on the patio with a cup of Earl Grey tea. While Nikki recuperated, Daisy opened the packages and dealt with their contents, then puttered around the office a bit before returning to check on her guest.

  “Thank goodness that’s passed,” Nikki said, looking pinker and healthier than she had earlier.

  Daisy laughed. “Thanks for making the trip.” She looked out over the harbor. “It’s worth it just for this view, isn’t it?”

  “It’s gorgeous,” Nikki said, then immediately leaned in for the kill. “So tell me. How are you and Mr. Mackenzie doing?”

  Daisy paused for a moment, then lasered her gaze on Nikki. “What do you mean exactly?”

  Nikki shrugged to convey the innocence of her question. Daisy had seen her do it a million times. It was the steely glint in her eyes that gave her away. “I only meant that you guys seemed a little snippety with each other before you left.”

  Daisy relaxed. Only she and Alec knew what had transpired since then. Their secret was safe from little Miss Scuttlebutt for now.

  “And I guess,” Nikki went on with another quick shrug, “everyone was just wondering how you felt about the client forcing him to hire you back.”

  Forcing… Daisy’s smile staggered. “I’m sorry,” she said finally. “What was that?”

  “You know,” Nikki said with a dismissive wave. “Joseph Baldwin called and you were gone and he told Mr. Mackenzie that he had to hire you back or no contract.” Nikki looked out over the harbor and the part of town they could see from their patio. “Word has it Mr. Mackenzie fought it like a wild man, but I bet he’s glad he knuckled under now. I hear the client’s really happy with the firm. And this place is great.”

  “Yes, it is,” Daisy agreed mechanically as she tried to put order to her chaotic thoughts, to understand why she suddenly felt so cold.

  “Anyway,” Nikki went on, oblivious to Daisy’s distress. “The office grapevine is buzzing about this job being a real make-it-or-break-it thing for Mackenzie professionally so he’s real lucky you decided to come back.”

  Nikki’s commitment to rumor, hearsay and scandal was the stuff of legend, and usually her information was as trustworthy as the World Almanac. But something was wrong with this picture.

  “You know, Nikki, I think you have this one all wrong. Everybody knows that Alec can’t be forced to do anything. And, anyway, the Baldwins didn’t even know I was coming to the island.”

  “All I know is,” the girl said with a crafty smile, “someone in legal said the client put it in the contract that you’d be on-site, and they wouldn’t sign it if you didn’t come. They were so determined, they said they’d find another firm to handle the job if Mr. Mackenzie couldn’t get you to come back.”

  Daisy’s head was pounding so relentlessly she was unable to take a moment to appreciate Virginia and Joseph’s loyalty to her. A loyalty, she realized, that was far stronger and more resilient than Alec’s own.

  Her heart squeezed painfully and somehow it must have shown because Nikki leaned forward again and touched Daisy’s cold hand. “I guess you got it worse than ever for him, don’t you sweetie?”

  Daisy didn’t answer right away because her throat was threatening to seal up entirely. Clearly, everyone at Mackenzie Architectural knew that she’d been nursing a serious case of unrequited love for Alec. Soon they’d know just how blind that love had been. And then her humiliation would be complete.

  Winning is what matters, Alec had said to her on the golf course. Winning is what mattered to Alec Mackenzie. And boy, look what he’d been willing to do to win this time.

  The memory of the electricity that had arced through her when he’d taken her hands in his and begged her to come back to work, of the earnestness on his handsome face when he told her how much he needed her. She knew now that when he’d told her he needed her, it had given her hope that he might someday feel more for her, something more like love. But he hadn’t wanted her to come back to work at all. He’d just been lying to get what he really wanted: money, recognition, power, accolades…. Whatever it was, he’d lied to her and she’d believed every word.

  The realization that everything else that had happened between her and Alec was also a lie settled over her like a cold mist. What a fool she’d been, she thought as her heart crumbled to dust. A stupid, hopeless, heartbroken fool.

  Daisy tucked her hands beneath her to hide
their trembling and pasted on a happy face for Nikki. “Oh, that,” she said, rolling her eyes for effect. “I’m so over him.” Then, in an effort to distract Nikki from giving her more details that she really didn’t want to know, she added brightly, “Now, tell me all the news from the office,” and settled in for a nice, long, one-sided conversation.

  Eleven

  Alec looked at his watch. Half past two. By now, Nosy Nikki would be back on the ferry and headed for home, so he locked up the construction trailer, jumped into his golf cart, pointed it toward the hotel and stepped on the accelerator. Hard.

  He and Daisy had agreed that because of Nikki’s eagle eye for scandal, he should make himself scarce this morning. She was sure to get a whiff of something juicy if she saw the hunger in his eyes when he looked at Daisy or if she heard how Daisy’s voice dipped and softened when she spoke to him. So even though he’d hated to leave Daisy and their warm bed this morning, he’d departed early and gone to one of the job sites to hole up in the trailer and work on some drawings until it was time to go home.

  He checked his watch again as he sped down the hill. He had a vague sense that he was doing some pretty serious speeding because the other drivers—especially the ones he was passing—were giving him sour, disapproving looks. Too bad, he thought. He had somewhere to be.

  Alec had no problem admitting that he was driving like a maniac because he was anxious to get home and spend the day with Daisy. The thing he was more reluctant to admit was that she’d gotten under his skin in a way no one ever had. He didn’t know what that meant—hell, his heart had been buried so deep for so long, he wasn’t even sure it could be resurrected, even by someone as amazing as Daisy—but he was pretty sure he was ready to get out the pickaxes and start digging.

  And for Alec Mackenzie, that was pretty big talk.

  He smiled to himself and whistled an off-key little ditty as he pulled to a stop outside their hotel. They’d talked about going hiking through the island’s interior or renting a sailboat this afternoon. Of course, the way things had been going around here lately, he thought as he opened the front door, he wasn’t sure they’d even make it out of the room. And that was just fine with him.