Blown Away (10 page)

“And you think
the best way to do that is by letting her fix me up?” That was the
stupidest idea he’d ever heard. He didn’t want other women. He
wanted Ava.

“She told me
she’s really hands on with her business. She does all of the intake
and follow-up interviews. She contacts both parties after each date
to find out how things went. Think about it. It would be the
perfect opportunity for her to learn more about you and what you’re
looking for.”

“What makes you
think she’d be willing to take me on as a client? I’m not her
favorite person right now.” Brent couldn’t believe he was desperate
enough to consider it.

“You have to
convince her it would be good for business. Remember, you’re the
most eligible bachelor in the state.”

Brent scowled.
He hated that title. “Don’t remind me.”

“If you find
the love of your life, you could tell them
Lasting
Connections
hooked you up. Money can’t buy that kind of P.R.,”
Keith said, grinning.

The love of his
life… Brent was afraid he’d already found her and driven her away.
Again. His brother’s idea made sense, but he wasn’t convinced Ava
would go for it. “What if she says no?”

“Use your charm
to convince her.” Keith stood and rapped his knuckles on the desk
top. “Let me know how it goes.”

***

Ava was alone
in her office when Brent walked in. Damn it. She’d forgot to lock
the door when Tara left. Ava was working late again, hoping she
would be too tired to think about the man she was trying to avoid
by the time she fell into bed.

“I have nothing
to say to you,” she said, walking down the short hallway to her
office. Of course, he followed her.

“I’m not here
to talk about us.”

The way he said
that reminded her of the intimacy they’d shared, making it
difficult to focus on anything else. “Then what do you want to talk
about?”

“Finding a
wife.”

She grabbed the
edge of her desk when she felt her legs tremble. “Excuse me?”

“I want you to
help me find a wife.”

Thankfully, her
swivel chair was nearby and she sank into it without betraying her
weakness. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing--”

“No game. I
want to get married. I did my research, and it seems you’re my best
option.”

“I can’t help
you.” Just the thought of finding the perfect woman for him made
her queasy. How could he be so insensitive?

“Why not?” He
sat across from her and pulled a leather-bound checkbook out of his
pocket. “Whatever your usual fee, I’ll double it.”

“No.” She
closed her eyes, praying for strength when he loosened his gray
silk tie and pulled a gold pen out of his pocket.

“I’ll triple
it, quadruple it. Whatever it takes. Please, don’t say no,
Ava.”

His quiet plea
wreaked havoc with her vow to remain defensive. “Why are you doing
this?”

His hand
gripped his pen tightly when he said, “You helped me to realize I
don’t want to be alone anymore.”

Her heart did a
little somersault. “You don’t need my help to find a partner,
Brent. I’m sure women are lining up for a chance to date you.” She
cleared her throat, forcing herself to look him in the eye. “Women
like Kelly.”

“I don’t want
just any woman. I want the one woman made for me. Someone who loves
me in spite of my flaws. Who understands why I’m so damn
possessive, who trusts that when I fall in love with her, I’ll be
all in. For life.”

A little shiver
she hoped he couldn’t see moved through her. “I wish I could help
you--”

He reached for
her hand. “You have to help me. You were the one who convinced me
this is what I need. I’m tired of the parties and the social scene.
I’m tired of going home to an empty apartment, sleeping with women
who don’t matter--” he brought her hand to his lips “--and losing
the ones who do.”

Agreeing to
help him could be the biggest mistake she ever made. “I can refer
you to--”

“I need you.”
He released her hand. “We were friends once, Ava. I wasn’t such a
bad guy, was I?”

She knew Brent
was a good guy. That’s why she’d asked him to be her first lover.
“No, you weren’t.”

“Then please,
say you’ll help me.” When she didn’t respond, he said, “I’m sorry
if I hurt you or disappointed you. I get that we’re not right for
each other, but you could help me find someone who can put up with
me, right?”

We’re not
right for each other.
Those words felt like a sucker punch.
Until then, Ava had been convinced Brent was using her business as
a ploy to convince her to give him another chance, but he had
clearly given up on her. He was ready to move on, and he was asking
her to help him. Helping him may cost her emotionally, but at least
her pride would remain intact.

“Fine, let’s
get started,” she said, firing up her computer.

***

Brent felt like
a louse as he watched Ava input his information. They’d made love
one short week earlier, and he was asking her to help him find
someone new. It felt like the ultimate betrayal, but if he ‘fessed
up, she would ask him to leave. At least she was speaking to him,
agreeing to see him again.

Once she’d
input the information from his initial assessment, she turned to
him and said, “Tell me about the kind of woman you’re looking for.
Describe her, so if I met her, I’d know.”

He closed his
eyes briefly. Maintaining the façade would be harder than he
thought. “Beautiful.”

“Naturally,”
she said, rolling her eyes.

He ignored her
taunt, focusing instead on the qualities he would use to describe
Ava. “Intelligent. Passionate. Focused. Determined.” He smirked.
“Maybe even a little stubborn. I like a woman who refuses to give
up or give in.”

She laced her
hands on her desk. “Really? I’m surprised. I always thought you
liked submissive women.”

“You thought
wrong.” He looked her in the eye, hoping she could read the truth
in his eyes. “I don’t want a puppet, I want a partner. I need a
woman who understands what it means to pour your heart and soul
into something and pray it’ll work because if it doesn’t, you have
nothing left.” She remained silent, but he saw she was starting to
see the side of him he’d hoped she would. A side only the two
people closest to him knew existed. “I need a woman who realizes I
didn’t build my business to feed my ego. I built it to feed my
family, so we’d never have to go hungry again.”

“I had no idea
things were that bad for you growing up.”

He shrugged,
even though revealing the truth hurt more than he would admit. “I
had it better than a lot of kids. At least I had my old man. He
cared about my brother and me. He did the best he could to keep a
roof over our heads and food on the table, but sometimes it wasn’t
enough.”

“That’s what
drove you to succeed?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah.” He
wished he could look anywhere other than in her eyes. He despised
pity almost as much as he resented weakness. “I didn’t want to end
up driving truck like my old man. He made an honest living and I
respect him for that, but he was never happy. He went to work
because he had to, not because he wanted to. He always worried
about paying the bills. I wanted more for him. When I excelled in
school and got scholarship offers, I realized that could be our way
out.”

“So you worked
hard to make it happen.” She smiled. “I’m impressed.”

“I’m not trying
to impress you, Ava.” He wanted to earn her respect because of the
man he was, not because of how many millions he had accumulated. “I
just want you to understand where I came from so you can help me
get where I want to go.”

“Where was your
mother?” she asked, crossing her legs as she tipped her chair
back.

She was wearing
a short black skirt and high heels. Brent wouldn’t have been a
healthy, red-blooded male if he hadn’t noticed the smooth expanse
of bronze skin and remembered how it felt. “She left when I was
eight.”

His mother had
arranged visitation for a few years after she left, but when Brent
and Keith told her they hated her and didn’t want to see her again,
she accepted their decision without a fight. The boys were eleven
and five. Apparently she thought they were old enough to decide.
She told their father she didn’t want to traumatize them further,
but Brent knew the real reason was her new husband. He couldn’t
stand Brent and Keith and didn’t want
his
child with
his
wife to be influenced by her
other
children. So
she gave up on them, and Brent would never forget or forgive her
for that.

“That must have
been difficult.”

“It was
probably a blessing.” His mother was the one subject he considered
off limits, but if baring his soul was necessary, he would show her
his emotional scars. Brent just hoped she wouldn’t judge him for
the hatred he still felt for the woman who’d given him life. “She
was miserable with us. She always had one foot out the door. She
finally found a man who could keep her the way she felt she
deserved to be kept, so she left.”

Ava nodded.
“That’s where your need for control comes from. That’s why you’re
afraid to trust your lovers, because you think they’ll leave you…
like your mother did.”

He stood up. He
needed to get out of that room. The walls were closing in on him.
He couldn’t stand to be psychoanalyzed anymore. First his brother,
then Ava. “Do you know of someone suitable for me?”
You,
maybe…

She looked
surprised by the change in conversation. “Um, I think so. Give me a
day or two to make the arrangements. If you could email me your
schedule for the next month, that would help.”

“I’ll have my
assistant take care of it in the morning.” He scrawled his
signature on the bottom of a check, tore it off, and handed it to
her. “Fill it in. I don’t care how much it costs.”

She stared at
the slip of paper without accepting it. “Does it make you feel in
control, being able to do that? You throw your money around as if
you believe it can buy you anything you want.”

“It can.”

“You’re wrong.
It can’t buy you love, Brent. It can buy you sex, affection,
appreciation, maybe even respect, but it can’t buy you love. The
woman who’ll eventually complete you wouldn’t care whether you had
a dime. That’s real love… the only thing that matters.”

He didn’t know
what to say. He wanted to scoff, but he couldn’t. He so desperately
wanted to believe someone could love him even if he lost it all.
That she wouldn’t walk away if he could no longer buy expensive
trinkets that made her smile.

“You’re an
optimist, Ava. I think that’s sweet.” He’d intended to patronize
her idealized version of the world, but he couldn’t. He saw the
sincerity in her eyes and so desperately wanted to believe she was
right.

“If I didn’t
believe in the power of love, I couldn’t do what I do. I would be a
fraud, just doing it for the paycheck. Bringing people together,
helping them find their other half, that’s the reason I get out of
bed in the morning.”

“Then help me
find my other half.”
Please, God, let it be you.

“That’s the
goal.” She glanced at the check on her desk. “But I’m not doing
this for you for the money. I’m doing it for the challenge.”

He had to
smile. “The challenge?”

“I’ve always
wondered what makes you tick, why you are the way you are.”

He braced his
hands on the desk and leaned forward. “Then you have thought about
me over the years?” That gave him hope and a renewed sense of
purpose. No matter what it took, he was determined to convince Ava
he was the man for her.

“A girl never
forgets her first lover, Brent.” She grinned. “God, I remember the
way girls used to throw themselves at you back in college. It was
embarrassing, even more embarrassing to admit I was one of
them.”

He grinned, not
because he had fond memories of college but because he loved to see
her smile. “I didn’t really notice. I was too busy keeping my eye
on you.”

“You’re such a
liar.” She laughed before covering her face with her hands. “I
still can’t believe I propositioned you like that. I can’t imagine
what you must have thought.”

His smile
slipped because he knew that may be his only chance to tell her the
truth. “I thought you were the sweetest, sexiest, most amazing
woman I’d ever met. I was honored and humbled to be your first
lover.”

Ava blushed. “I
wasn’t fishing for a compliment.”

“And I didn’t
dish them out because I expect something in return. I just wanted
you to know how I felt. You left so soon after we made love, I
never got to tell you.”

“I’m sorry
about that,” she sighed. “I think I kind of panicked. I wasn’t
ready for a serious relationship, and when you started talking
about…” She broke eye contact. “Well, you know…”

“I know.” Brent
couldn’t help but wonder if things may have turned out differently
if he hadn’t come on so strong. “And I made the same mistake again.
I’m sorry.” He’d never regretted anything more. He could chock up
the first mistake to being young and inexperienced, but as a grown
man, he’d simply been a fool who hadn’t learned the first time
around.

“You shouldn’t
apologize for being who you are.”

His lip curled
in a half-smile. “And how am I… exactly?” He could tell by her
mischievous grin that she would let him have it. He loved that. She
didn’t kowtow to him the way most people did. When she thought he
needed to be put in his place, she was always happy to take him to
task.

“Bossy,
arrogant, opinionated, domineering.” She pressed a coral fingernail
against her lips. “Shall I go on?”