Page 42 of Some Like It Scandalous
Padding barefoot down the hallway, she glanced in the kitchen and living room before traveling across the hardwood floors and rich Venetian rugs to the archway that led off into an unexplored wing of the penthouse. Charlie kept an office in the suite—he must, because twice this week he retired to that office to take calls. He never invited her back to it. But with a bottle of wine in one hand, two wineglasses in the other and her courage on her sleeve, she planned to invite herself.
What if he tells me to get out? Again.
She slid to a halt. Grumbling about her own lack of courage, she pushed onward. Better to know than to wait, wonder or hope. She’d waited for ten years—she hadn’t meant to, definitely hadn’t planned to or even realized—until he railroaded himself back into her life. If she didn’t want him here, she wouldn’t have agreed to stay, to work so closely to him, and she sure as hell wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him.
At the door to his office, she raised her hand to knock. Deciding against that, she juggled the wine bottle and glasses and opened the door. He sat behind his desk and his gazealighted on her immediately. Pleasure flared in his eyes and his mouth parted, but she held up a finger to halt his words.
“We need to talk—and by that, I mean really talk. No more dancing around it, no more polite deflections.” The carpet in his office was like silk against her feet and the cool air brushing her legs reminded her she was hardly dressed professionally, but she plowed onward. Setting the wine bottle and glasses down, she flattened her hands against the desk. “I propose that for the next twelve hours we each give the other a pass. We can ask anything we want, answer it all—honestly—no harm, no foul. We clear the air between us.”
Charlie leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers together. His eyebrows lifted in silent inquiry.
“Yeah, that’s…it. That’s my proposal.” She chewed her lip, the nervous fluttering in her belly turning into a full-fledged stampede.
The moment of truth…
“Okay. Richard, if you wouldn’t mind excusing us…” Charlie looked around her. Mortification flamed through Anna and she straightened up, her current state of undress adding to the embarrassment. Turning slowly, she found Richard standing at the minibar in the office, a tumbler in his hand.
“Hello, Richard.” She gathered together the shreds of her dignity. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were there.”
“Clearly.” The droll humor in his smile didn’t make her feel any better. “And I agree, Armand. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
He sailed toward the door in three quick strides, pausing long enough to give her a reproving look. “It’s good to see you again, by the way. Cut the big guy some slack…”
Lifting both brows, she kept the mild irritation at his advice in check. “Tell me, Rick. When did he tell you?”
Richard cut his glance from her to Charlie. She didn’t turn to follow the purely silent pulse of communication transmittingbetween the two. Whatever he saw in the prince’s face satisfied him. “End of freshman year.”
“Okay, so three years before I found out and he actuallytoldyou.” She let him chew on that.
“But I didn’t run.” Rick’s voice went low and it was damn near a murmur.
Anna sucked in a breath. “No. He also didn’t ignore you.”
Behind her, she could hear Charlie shifting at his desk, but neither she nor Richard spoke any louder. “No, butIdidn’t ignore you either—you could have called me.”
True. She could have and maybe Richard could have helped—Charlie, her, someone. “I’m sorry I didn’t call, but it wasn’t about you. He and I should have been able to do this without you running interference. So…”
“So I’ll shut up and mind my own business. Give him hell, Anna. But don’t run away from him this time.” Richard’s sober expression gave way to a quiet smile and he glanced around her to Charlie, raising his voice at the same time. “You’re on your own, buddy.” And with that, he was gone.
“He always was the smart one.” She turned back to Charlie and pursed her lips. “Sorry for bursting in, I should have knocked.”
“No—you shouldn’t have. You were beautiful in your determination. Fierce… I liked it.” But he stayed behind the desk, so she grabbed a chair and pulled it forward. The fabric seat was cool against her bare legs.
“And my proposal?”
“It’s dangerous, Anna.” Charlie sat forward now and reached for the wine bottle. He studied the label but made no move to open it. “You want us to—how did you phrase it? Stop dancing around? Be honest?”
“Yes.” The nerves curled through her again, but her little sister was right and it was time—and frankly, she wanted it to betime. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to. You know, maybe I won’t understand it, but I will respect it. But I can’t keep kissing you, crying over you, and having all these questions and feelings and memories and wondering what we’re doing or why we’re doing it.”
His jaw tightened when she said cry, but she held her ground. “What if you hear something you don’t like? Or I do?” He didn’t challenge the premise, instead clarifying the terms. She could appreciate that.
“No walking out. No walking away. We stay here—we check our tempers at the door and we talk.” Scooting to the end of the chair, she put her hands on the desk.
“And if we fight?” His gaze shuttered, his expression turning remote. She courted not only Charlie, but the prince who’d dismissed her earlier.
“Then we fight. But a fight doesn’t mean the end—we used to be able to fight and not hurt each other.” She chewed the inside of her lip. “Not like you hurt me when you ordered me out of that room. Not like I hurt you when I didn’t fight for you in Norway, and I walked away. I accept that I did that—but I’mherenow.You’re here. Let’s…try?”
Charlie exhaled and rolled his chair back before standing. He gathered the wineglasses and gestured to the door. “Let’s find someplace more comfortable, then.”
