The Bachelor Pact (29 page)

"Whoa, bachelor-pact signs?"

"Remember how I told you that Chase and my brothers had made a "bachelor forever" vow when they were younger? Well, it turns out they renewed the pact a month ago. I still can't believe they are so immature! Anyway, they all signed a sheet of paper vowing to be bachelors forever. And Chase hung copies of that juvenile sign in every room of the house as if he wanted a constant reminder not to get involved with anyone. And then Lance showed up—"

"Lance showed up?"

"Yeah, this morning." Maddie blew into her tea to cool it. "I didn't know what to do."

"Did he say anything about me?"

Maddie squinted at her friend. "Why would he say something about you?"

Sophie shrugged, a forlorn expression on her face. "I don't know. I suppose he wouldn't."

"Sophie, is there something you're not telling me?"

Sophie thumbed a strand of hair behind her ear, her tortoiseshell earrings clinking. "We had dinner last night."

Maddie pushed to the edge of her seat. "You have been holding back, girl. Come on, I want all the details."

* * *

Chase struggled to remain upright, wincing with every movement. He'd tried not to take the pain pills because they made him groggy, but his whole body felt like Gingsu knives were stabbing at his skin, and he was either going to pass out from the pain or float through the meeting with a goofy grin on his face. He'd figured the latter was the best choice. Only now, he felt dizzy again, and the room kept slipping in and out of focus. Sometimes there were two Lances, sometimes Reid was upside down...

"So, Mr. Holloway, you've agreed to stay on with the project if we decide to expand?" Thornton Wainright leaned his bony face on his bony hand, and Chase decided the man reminded him of an ostrich. An anal, uptight, bony ostrich. He couldn't help but laugh at the image.

"Chase?" Lance's growl cut through his blurry euphoria.

"Yeah." Reid scowled, and Chase tried to sit up straighter. "Uh, yes, sir. I plan to stay on."
If I can just hold my head up.

"And you're familiar with the lay of the land, the price range, the type of clientele we're targeting."

Chase nodded, gripping the desk with white knuckles when the room swayed.

Lance picked up the conversation. "You can look at the homes Chase has designed so far and examine our work, and you'll find we've used top-notch materials and come in with a fair price."

"Yes, well..." Mr. Wainright shuffled his dark glasses down on the bridge of his nose, glaring at Chase. "I have heard rumors about problems on-site. And we all know Mr. Holloway is fairly new at this business. As you gentlemen are."

"We can handle the project," Lance said. "Check out our work for yourself."

"And I've dealt with the contractors we were having problems with," Reid assured him. "Everything's back on track. We should have the first set of homes ready for the tour next week."

Wainright tilted his head sideways, studying Chase. "Are you all right, Mr. Holloway?"

Chase leaned in the same direction, trying to focus on Wainright's face.

Wainright's eyes bulged in his head. "Mr. Holloway, have you been drinking?"

The pain pills must have been stronger than he remembered. Or had he taken two instead of one? Let's see, Maddie had given him one before she ran out, then he'd taken another one when that one hadn't worked....

Lance's hand tightened around his arm. "We're sorry, Mr. Wainright. Mr. Holloway threw out his back last night and is taking pain medication."

"Oh, I see," the man said, disapproval still edging into his voice.

Chase pivoted to apologize himself but lost his balance. The room spun like a Ferris wheel, and Chase saw black just before his head landed in his soup.

* * *

"I'm afraid there's nothing to tell." Sophie blinked, and Maddie realized her friend's eyes looked suspiciously moist. "Your brother simply doesn't like me. I think it's time I accept it and—"

A rattling at the door interrupted Sophie. Someone was knocking.

Maddie rose and opened it, surprised to see Lance and Chase standing outside.

"Come on in," she said, her teeth clenched at the thought of her brother hurting Sophie.

Lance gave her an odd look, then ducked his head and climbed inside. Chase wobbled in none too steadily, a sickly pallor to his face. She instantly gave him her chair and ordered him to sit. He didn't argue, but dropped into it, a testament to his pathetic state of health. Or was he yellow from being a coward—too afraid to tell Lance about the two of them?

"What are you doing here?" Maddie asked Lance.

Lance's gaze flashed to Sophie, the tension palpable between them.

"I came to drop these off." He handed her the keys to the Victorian home.

"How did the meeting go?"

"Fine until Chase passed out."

Maddie frowned and saw Chase sink lower in his chair as if he were a child being reprimanded. She wondered if he'd mentioned their relationship and was waiting for the ball to drop. Instead Lance turned on Sophie.

"What are you doing here, Miss Lane? I thought we understood each other last night."

Sophie twisted her hands on top of the small table.

"I understood you perfectly, Mr. Summers. But Maddie's my friend."

His scowl said it all.

"Lance, what in the devil is wrong with you?" Maddie asked, suddenly furious at the entire male race. "I've never seen you be so rude to anyone in my life!"

"I don't like nosy busybodies."

Red flashed on Sophie's cheeks.

"Of all the nerve!" Maddie swatted her brother.

Sophie stood, her small fists on her hips. "I'm not a busybody, Mr. Summers. I bring the news to people, provide entertainment—"

"And—"

"That is quite enough, Lance Summers." Maddie pounded her fist on the table. "I think you'd better leave."

She glanced at Chase who'd remained suspiciously silent. The big chicken. Obviously he hadn't told her brother about them, or Lance would have said something.

She didn't know whether to cry or to hit him. She spied a carpet sample and almost reached for it. Maybe she could beat some sense into both of them. But Lance was already backing out of the van. Sophie folded her arms and stared after him, anger flashing in her vibrant eyes. "Under the circumstances, I think it would be better for all of us if I took my business someplace else, Mr. Summers."

"Fine." Lance dropped to the ground and stalked toward his car.

"Don't worry, Soph." Maddie wrapped her arm around Sophie. "We'll find another builder to help you. And we'll go down to that voodoo shop on River Street and buy a Lance doll and stick pins and needles in it tonight."

Chase stood, weaving sideways, and clutched the door to climb out, pausing to stare at her. Maddie's gaze caught his, questions thrumming through the air. Was he going to tell Lance about the two of them? Was it over between them before it had really even started?

Then the moment was lost, and he staggered out of the van, leaving all of the questions behind.

"Make that two voodoo dolls," Maddie muttered. "One for each of those stubborn, dumb men."

Chapter 21

That night Chase took a muscle relaxer and crawled in bed with a heating pad, determined to banish the horrible day from his mind. Seeing Maddie after they'd made love, after the humiliating experience at the hospital and the meeting, had his emotions skittering in a dozen different directions.

And seeing Lance had brought on the guilt. His best friend trusted him and he'd let him down. No question about that.

The bigger question now—what was he going to do about his deception?

Break things off with Maddie? Never touch her again?

He groaned in misery and twisted in bed as the erotic images from their lovemaking taunted his mind. Even in pain, his body hardened with want at the memories.

Why Maddie? Why couldn't he have felt this kind of heat with Daphne? Or some other anonymous woman who simply wanted sex with no strings and no relationship. A woman he wouldn't have to face at work, a woman who wasn't connected to Lance and Reid, a woman who wouldn't mess up his life...

A woman who wouldn't eventually want all that romance garbage. How did she stand all those flowers in her little van anyway; they'd made him nauseous.

Finally the pills worked, and he floated into a restless sleep. But the next morning, he woke, feeling irritable and disjointed, the dreams that had dogged him all night haunting him. Dreams of Maddie.

Maddie's pleased smile when he'd praised her work. Maddie's spunk and determination to succeed. Maddie's struggle to be independent in spite of the odds, in spite of her brothers' overprotectiveness. Maddie's sexy eyes whispering erotic promises to him in the dark, telling him he was wonderful. Maddie loving and giving herself to him, climbing on top of him, offering her virginity...

Him being smothered by a truckload of those damn roses.

He bolted upright, a sickening realization dawning. Maybe he was actually falling in love with... no.

Not Chase Holloway. He was a man who liked to be alone, a man who needed no one and wanted no one to need him. A bachelor forever.

A man who literally owed his life to Maddie's
brothers.

The rest of his dreams rushed back to slap at him, knocking some much-needed sense into his befuddled brain. The horrible fight his parents had had the night before his father had gone berserk and killed that man. The day the sheriff had carted his father off to jail for murder. The night his mother had dropped him off at the orphanage. The way she'd coldly walked away and never looked back. The day he'd gotten into a fight at school and wound up on the bottom of ten boys. The ugly names they'd called him. Lance and Reid dragging the boys off his battered body, defending him.

Feeling weary and confused, he crawled from bed, climbed in the shower and dressed for work, deciding he needed a firm wake-up call. He'd drive by the orphanage today to help himself refocus. Seeing where he'd come from would put where he was going back into perspective.

A half hour later, he drove down the long winding drive, parked in front of the ancient cold structure, and stared at the building that had been his home more than ten years. The house he'd shared with sixty other homeless, faceless, boys whose parents had either died and left them without relatives or anyone who wanted them, or abandoned them because they didn't care. Painful memories rushed back. His father and mother fighting, his dad in a rage, ruining his life because he'd been obsessed with Chase's mother, his mother saying she'd grown tired of them both...

He couldn't become that obsessed with Maddie. He couldn't let his emotions and feelings and lust for her control his future.

And he refused to give in to his emotions and feel sorry for himself because of his past.

Instead he let anger at the circumstances, at the other kids who'd been cruel to him, drive him forward. He'd planned to prove to them he could be somebody, and he damn well was going to do that. The company, his business was the key.

His determination renewed, he shifted into gear and headed toward the subdivision. First, he'd meet Maddie and explain that any kind of physical relationship was over. She'd certainly understand—after all, he couldn't imagine her telling her brothers that she'd slept with him. They'd both let the moment—the atmosphere with that damn decadent rug, the wine, the close proximity in which they'd been working, the mood—get out of hand. Their libidos had done the talking.

But not anymore.

Now, common sense would bulldoze right over those hormones.

Yes, he'd tell Maddie it was over, then he'd find Lance and Reid, apologize for passing out at their meeting the day before, tell them Maddie had the decorating thing under control so they needn't worry and pour himself into drawing plans for the next phase of the development.

After all, in the cold light of day, Maddie was probably thinking the same thing.

* * *

Maddie shivered, surprised at the chilly spring morning. Unusual. Normally by 11:00 a.m., the temperature in March had risen to the sixties, maybe seventies.

Or maybe her anger at Chase and Lance was making her cold.

Angling her clipboard on her hip, she breezed through the Greek Revival mansion, checking off the furniture and accessories she'd ordered, making sure everything was in place. Only a few more days until the tour. Excitement bubbled inside as she imagined a stream of people admiring the exquisite homes and the furnishings she'd handpicked herself. Wall coverings, window treatments, antiques... She was proud of the results.

She hoped her client list would explode after the tour. Then she could pay off her loan and retrieve her mother's pendant without her brothers learning she'd used it as collateral.

Determined not to neglect a single detail, she tagged the items to indicate where they'd been purchased in case a potential buyer expressed interest in acquiring an item with the home. The task had taken her the entire morning. Just as she was winding up in the downstairs exercise room, she heard footsteps above.