Living With Lies Trilogy (Books 1, 2, and 3 of The Dancing Moon Ranch Series) (40 page)

"I didn't think," Brad said. "I was only going to be gone a few minutes."

"Well, you have a child to raise so you'd better start thinking," Justine said. "Now please go. I have to be up early to start packing."

Brad reached for her, but she shrugged off his hand and said, "Turn off the light when you leave," then turtled under the covers and pulled them up around her face.

A few moments later, the light went out and the door closed behind Brad. And Justine knew her stay on the ranch was over. But now she couldn't leave soon enough. That glass ceiling had finally opened for her to go through, and she would. But the victory was bittersweet.

CHAPTER 15

The following morning, Justine closed the trunk of the Jaguar and headed for Brad's cabin. She wanted to explain to Sophie what was happening, but knew she'd leave behind a very sad little girl. But there was nothing she could do about it. Things were as they were.

As she approached the cabin, she saw Brad look out the window. He opened the door, and said, "I'm glad you didn't drive off without telling Sophie goodbye."

"You know I wouldn't have done that," Justine replied, walking past him, when she wanted to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him. But it wasn't only ties with Sophie that had to be broken. If she'd spent the night in Brad's arms, she might have begged him to take her with him to San Francisco, then lived in regret. She had enough regrets. She didn't need to feel regret over forcing herself on a man with a child, and dragging her past along with her.

"Actually no, I had no idea what to expect from you," Brad said. "I sure as hell didn't expect you to stay in the lodge our last night together, but that was before your ex-lover slithered into your life again."

"He's not in my life," Justine corrected. "He offered me a business deal."

"He's offering you the keys to his condo, but before he gives you those, he's offering you whatever it takes to get you there."

"There's nothing Sean Elliot can do to get me to move in with him again," Justine said. "If he wants me back, it will be on my terms."

"What if he offers more?"

"There is no more. He offered me partnership in the company, I tossed in the condo and sleeping alone, and he all but agreed."

"I know. I was there."

"Where?"

"In the room. I heard it all. I also know the man was looking at you differently."

"Differently how?"

"Like he was seeing a woman he might want to take home to Mama."

"Sean Elliot wanting to tie the knot with Justine Page? Ha! That's rich. I assure you, that was the farthest thing from Sean's mind. He's definitely not the marrying kind."

"Neither were you before you came here."

"And now you think I am?"

"You said you'd marry me if it weren't for Sophie."

"I would."

"And if Sean Elliot asked you to marry him? Would you consider it?"

Justine studied Brad's serious face. He'd presented a very unlikely scenario. Men like Sean didn't ask women like her to marry them. "It's a moot point because hell would freeze over before Sean would ask me to marry him."

"I think you might be surprised," Brad said. "I saw the way he was looking at you."

"Look, I'm going to Seattle to see if there's anything to what Sean offered. If there is, I'll accept, but it will be on my terms or not at all, and I will sleep alone, which precludes marriage to Sean or anyone else. Are you satisfied?"

"I'm concerned. I don't want to see you hurt."

"I already am," Justine said, "but there's nothing I can do about it. Now, I'd like to see Sophie and try to explain what's happening, and then I need to leave. It might be good if she's allowed to get letters from me on occasion, at least until she's settled with you."

"She's just lost one mother," Brad said. "This will be like her losing another."

"I know," Justine replied. "This might come as a surprise to you, but I'm pretty torn up about this too. I liked being called Mommy, and I liked having Sophie's little body curled around me and hearing her laugh. I'm worried you might not find the right woman to help raise her, and I'm afraid you'll be so concerned she might turn out like me you'll be too strict with her, and she'll rebel when she's a teenager and run off with the first guy she can, just to cut you loose from her."

"Mommy!" Sophie exclaimed, and rushed up to Justine with her arms out.

Justine caught her in a hug. "Hi honey," she said. "Did you sleep well?"

"Where were you?" Sophie asked, ignoring Justine's question. "You told me you'd tuck me in and read to me but you didn't come."

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but I had to pack my things, so I stayed in my room at the lodge," Justine said. "I've only been staying with your daddy to help him learn how to take care of you, but now he knows how, so I'll be leaving and going back to my job."

"Then you can tuck me in bed tonight," Sophie said.

Justine looked at Brad for input, but his face was blank. She moved to the couch and lifted Sophie onto her lap, and said, "No, honey. I can't tonight."

"Then when?" Sophie asked, looking at her with expectation.

"Well, maybe not for a long time," Justine said. "We'll have to wait and see."

"Nooooo!" Sophie cried. "I want you here tonight!"

"Sophie," Justine said. "You and your daddy will be leaving here too, and you'll go to school and have playmates, and when you learn how to write you can write to me and I'll write to you. That'll be fun, and you can send me a picture, and I'll send you a picture. We'll be pen pals."

"No," Sophie whined. "I want you to be my mommy. Why can't you be?"

"Because I'd have to be married to your daddy."

Sophie slid off Justine's lap and stomped over to stand in front of Brad, and looked way up at him, and said, in an accusatory voice, "Why won't you marry Mommy?"

Brad drew a long sigh and let it out slowly, then crouched on his heels, and said to Sophie, "I'll get you a mommy someday, honey, I promise." Then he picked up Sophie in his arms and stood, and said, "You want to give Justine a hug before she goes?"

Sophie shook her head then buried it against Brad's chest.

When Justine went to take her, Sophie shook off her hand and shoved her away, then shrugged away from Brad, forcing him to let her down. She immediately grabbed her bear and blanket and crawled under the table and glared at Justine.

Justine crouched down and kissed her hand and put it on Sophie's cheek, then walked to the door, but before she could open it, Brad pulled Justine into his arms and kissed her long and hard and held her against him, and said, "We could meet here sometime."

Justine shook her head. "No, it needs to be a clean break. Sophie doesn't need me wandering in and out of her life, and you need to find a mother for her and a wife for yourself, and get on with your lives." She let herself out and shut the door behind.

After telling Grace and Jack goodbye, she found Sean waiting by her car. "I'll see you in Seattle," she said.

"No," Sean replied, "We'll be going together. I just made arrangements to have the rental car picked up here." He opened the passenger door for her to get in.

"You're not running the show anymore," Justine said. "I may allow you accompany me to Seattle, but you sure as hell will not be driving my car."

But before she could move around the car to the driver's side, Sean pulled her to him and kissed her soundly, and said, "Welcome home, baby. It's good to have you back."

Justine glared at him, and replied, "Don't ever do that again," then walked around the car and got in behind the wheel.

Sean smiled and climbed into the passenger seat. As the car pulled away, he said, "I've been thinking about that partnership, baby, and I kinda like the sound of Elliot, Tarlow and Elliot. What do you think?" He looked at her and waited.

If Sean Elliot asked you to marry him would you consider it?

"Is that a proposal?" Justine asked.

"It's whatever you want it to be, baby," Sean said. "You're in the driver's seat now."

And Justine realized Sean was offering her the glass ceiling, and respectability.

It was a tempting thought.

***

Justine looked out the glass wall of her office at the Seattle cityscape with its Space Needle and rotating restaurant atop spindly legs, and graceful bridges, and stately buildings, and the confusion of freeways and overpasses and traffic and humanity twenty stories below, a scene that once sent adrenaline pumping through her, making her pulse race with excitement, because she was at the center of things in a city she loved. But now it had lost its glamour. She was also upset that she'd started her period, so she knew she wasn't pregnant, though trapping Brad would have been troublesome…

"So, what did you think of that last condo?" Sean asked, coming up behind her and peering over her shoulder.

Justine saw, from his reflection against the glass, that his hands were in his pockets, but he wasn't looking at the scene beyond. He was looking down at her. He was also too close. In her private space, his breath wafting against the side her face.

She turned and walked over to stand behind her desk and folded her arms. "Maybe it would be okay," she replied. Okay, to describe a four-bedroom condo with an Italian marble fireplace in a living room that could accommodate a couple dozen corporate heads and their spouses or significant others, a kitchen Martha Stewart would die for, and French doors that opened onto a balcony that overlooked Puget Sound.

Sean meandered over to stand in front of her desk, facing her, his fingers toying with the small bronze figure of a child perched on her toe, a little girl caught between a run and a leap, while chasing a butterfly that touched the tip of her finger, a piece that reminded her of Sophie, and which she'd admired on a day she and Sean ducked into an art gallery while on their way to check out a condo. Sean said nothing then, but went back later and bought it for her.

He'd been different ever since she returned to Seattle. Treated her differently. But she was different. More like Grace, she told herself, and wished Brad could see her now, all corporate businesswoman, no innuendo, no sexual banter. She was Justine Page, soon to be Justine Page, of Page, Tarlow and Elliot... Unless she accepted Sean's marriage proposal, when it would instead be Elliot, Tarlow and Elliot.

Sean made the offer again the night before, but that time it was in all seriousness, over a six-course dinner, in a glass enclosed restaurant at the peak of one of Seattle's tallest buildings. He'd had the ring with him too—an emerald surrounded by cut diamonds...

"I want you for my wife," he'd said, while peering across the table at her. He'd stopped calling her baby halfway between the ranch and Seattle, when she'd reminded him that she was not his baby, she was not his bimbo, and the last place she wanted to find herself would be in his bed, unless there was a ring on her finger. She was certain he'd get the message. Apparently he did, but not the way she'd expected.

Sean moved around the desk, his hands still in his pockets, and peered out the glass wall behind her desk. "I've loved you for a long time," he said, to the view beyond the window.

Justine edged away from him, putting a little space between them. "You had an interesting way of showing it," she said, "giving me a week's notice to get out of your bed, out of your apartment, out of your business, and out of your life."

"Like I said, I was a prick."

"That's the problem," Justine said. "That prick of yours takes priority. Men like you can't be faithful. It's not in your nature. It also might surprise you that I want children."

"You what!?" Sean exclaimed.

"I'd like to be a mother," Justine replied. "I discovered, while I was with my sister at the ranch this time, that children and the sincere love of a good man are what have been missing from my life."

Sean looked at her in amusement. "This is a test, isn't it? You're wondering if I'd go along with it if we got married and you got pregnant."

"Actually, I never gave that a thought," Justine said. "I already know you'd make a lousy father."

"Then you don't know me very well bab... umm... Justine," Sean replied, face sober. "I could be a good father. I've just never thought about it. It might be okay." He looked at her thoughtfully then, and asked, "What made you suddenly want to do this?"

Justine shrugged. "A little girl at the ranch. She called me Mommy and I decided I liked the sound of it."

"Whose little girl?" Sean asked, eyeing her curiously. "Your sister only has boys."

"The little girl was the daughter of a guest. You wouldn't know him."

"Brad Meecham," Sean stated.

Justine looked at Sean with a start. "How did you know?"

"Meecham asked where you were going when you started up the stairs to your room," Sean replied. "I knew then you'd been sleeping with him, but I can overlook that. I was sleeping with someone else too. I just didn't know how much I missed you until after you'd gone, and what an ass I'd been, and how much I wanted you back. I can give you everything Meecham can. A home on the Puget Sound, built to your design. Partnership in the company. Kids if you want them."

"Yes, but you left out one thing, and that you can't give me," Justine said.

"What then?" Sean asked.

"An orgasm," Justine said. "All the time I was with you, you never gave me an orgasm. No man ever has, except Brad."

"Maybe I never took enough time getting you ready," Sean replied. "Like you said, this prick of mine takes priority, but I can focus on you and your needs. I've been insensitive."

"There's nothing you can do," Justine said. "Brad makes it happen because I'm in love with him, and that makes all the difference."