Want Me (17 page)

She was glad she’d been able to watch him through that speech. He meant every word. She didn’t have to worry about Nate. Not a bit. “Okay,” she said.

“You do know the rest is all going to work out, don’t you?”

“Eventually.”

“Sooner than you think,” he said, right before he captured her mouth in another searing kiss. His hands went to the sides of her face to hold her steady as their kiss went from hot to torrid.

She wouldn’t have minded if that’s all they’d done. Yes, she was aching with want, and yes, every time he rubbed his chest against hers it sent shivers all through her body. She pressed against his thigh, riding him, and it was almost as good as being filled, of being as close as they could possibly be. And then it wasn’t enough.

“More,” she whispered. “Please.”

Tearing himself away, he rolled over, grabbed a condom and was back before she finished her exhale. “More. Yes. Everything. God, I want you.” His hiss told her he was ready, and she grabbed the pillow she wasn’t using, placing it in the general area of her hips before she lay back.

He moaned as he followed her, kissing whatever part of her he could—the inside of her elbow, her nipple, the side of her neck. Random sizzling sparks all over, everywhere his lips and tongue landed.

When he was above her, braced on his arms, she could see his desire for her in his dark eyes. Even when the lights had been on at night, she’d never seen so much of him. The crazy sleep hair that made him look adorable. He’d shaved, of course she’d known that somewhere because she hadn’t felt his beard, but he’d had to have shaved
fast
because he hadn’t been gone long. Lucky thing he hadn’t cut himself. She touched his jaw, his chin, making sure. All she felt was smooth, warm skin. When he dipped down and captured her finger in his mouth, she gasped again. He was so good at that.

She spread her legs for him. “Please,” she said again. “Come inside me. Fill me up. Make me forget about everything but you.”

He pushed into her slowly, his gaze unwavering. “Oh, Christ, how you scared me. When I thought I’d never see you again, I couldn’t think what to do.” His eyes clenched as he seated himself all the way. Both of them were breathing harder now, faster, their chests rising and falling in perfect synchrony. “Promise me you’ll never run like that again.” He pulled out and pushed back in. “Promise.”

She wanted to tell him she wasn’t the one who was running away. Instead she ran her hands down his back and looked him straight in the eyes. “I promise I will never run from you. Ever.”

17

N
ATE
STARED
AS
STRANDS
OF
Shannon’s silky hair slipped through his fingers to fall on the pillow. She was dozing, still tired after such a grueling night, and then they’d made love. His gaze went from her hair to her face. Her eyelashes were red. Red. He should have noticed that by now. Maybe she wore dark mascara on them, because how could he have missed the wonder of her red lashes?

He didn’t know what to do. She’d suffered last night, and even if everyone in the city told her she was forgiven, he doubted she would believe it. Not until she’d made the amends she felt she must. After that? She was sensible, she’d go on with her life, but the memory would always hurt her.

He couldn’t add to that. He didn’t want to be part of anything that would always hurt Shannon. That was unacceptable, and even though it would be turning his back on the family who’d loved him best, he had to tell them that he wouldn’t help. He’d rather cut off his own arm.

The air slipped out of his lungs as reality hit him anew. He had fallen in love. The impossible thing had happened. He was no longer the same man. Shannon had changed everything.

He got out of bed, and when he heard her squeak as she stretched, he smiled at her. “I was going to go shower. But I can wait if you’d like to go first.”

When she shook her head, she looked at him as if nothing were wrong, as if last night had never happened. “Go ahead. But you’d better not use all the hot water.”

He tightened his robe, then kissed her softly. “I won’t be long.”

“Good.”

As he walked down the hall, the ripples of his new awareness started expanding. At the center was Shannon. Everything flowed from there. He had decisions to make.

* * *

S
HANNON
HAD
DRESSED
FOR
work, although she doubted she would make it to the plant. It was almost two o’clock, and she was about to face her family.

Nate was right behind her as she walked down the stairs. They both stopped at the living room entrance. “You’re all here.”

“Brady’s at the plant,” her dad said. “Paula and Alice have gone to work.”

She wasn’t sure what it meant, that they’d stayed. Support? An intervention? “I hope there’s some coffee.”

“Danny, go get them some coffee,” her mother said.

Danny didn’t even make a fuss.

Shannon was growing more concerned by the moment. Her mom was wearing one of her company dresses. Not going-out-to-the-theater nice, but a cut above the norm.

“There’s been a number of phone calls this morning,” her father said.

Shannon winced. “Sorry. I’ll certainly be saying that a lot today.”

Danny came back with two mugs and put them on the coffee table. Coincidentally, there were two seats open on the couch. Shannon and Nate went to sit down, although her stomach was so tense she couldn’t even think of drinking at the moment.

“I don’t see why you should have to apologize,” her mom said. “On the other hand, that reporter fellow needs to be tarred and feathered.”

Nate threaded his fingers between hers where they lay on the couch.

“Well, I think what happened last night was a good thing,” Danny said. “We all needed a little shaking up.”

“What?” Shannon asked, appalled. “What part of that horror show was good?”

“For one thing, Fitzgerald and Sons is getting a lot of publicity.”

“That’s not the sort of publicity we want.”

“Depends on what the objective is, doesn’t it?” Danny gave her a lopsided smile.

Shannon leaned forward, wondering if she were still asleep and having one hell of a weird dream. “What are you talking about?”

Looks were exchanged. None of them with her. Nate scooted closer to her.

“First of all,” her mother said, “we love you, and we have no quarrels with you using the plant for your own projects. It’s your company, too.”

“And?” Shannon said, her voice quivering.

“And we all agree you’ve done a wonderful job at the plant. We would have closed a long time ago if it wasn’t for your efforts.”

“We appreciate that,” her dad said. “I’m being a hundred-percent honest here. Every one of us knows you’ve worked yourself to the bone keeping us in business.”

“But,” Myles said, “we think that the days of Fitzgerald and Sons are over.”

Shannon felt as though she’d been punched in the gut. If it wasn’t for Nate’s steady arm slipping around her, she’d have crumpled into a tiny ball. “Oh, God. I’ve ruined everything. I knew it was bad. I didn’t think—”

“Wait, wait. You didn’t ruin anything.” Her mother came closer, sat down across from Shannon. “Sweetheart, listen to me. This isn’t your doing. The truth is your father and I are getting on in years. We’re tired of worrying about that old plant. We’ve been talking about retiring.”

“In Florida,” Danny said. “Tell her, Ma.”

“That’s right. We’re also very tired of the snow. If I never see another flake…”

“You’ve been talking about it?” Shannon asked. “For how long?”

Her mother took in a deep breath. “For a while, Shannon. A while.”

“The land’s worth a fortune,” Danny added, and damn him, he sounded excited. “That’s prime territory. We’re talking millions.”

She could barely believe what she was hearing. They wanted to sell the plant. Move to Florida. Retire. She looked at every single member of her family, and each one was looking more abashed then the next. Except for Danny, of course. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because you were working so hard,” her mother said. “Although, to give us some credit, you do realize I’ve been telling you for years that you should find your own dreams.”

“I thought you were talking about a husband.”

The doorbell rang, and her brothers all made a dash out of the room as if it were a fire drill.

Shannon turned to look at Nate, and he seemed just as disconcerted as her folks. “Did you know about this?”

He nodded.

She pulled her hand free, feeling gut-shot. “How could you…?”

“I didn’t want to tell you even though you needed to know. I’m sorry. I thought I was doing you a favor waiting until you’d had your interview.”

“But why did you know before me?”

He winced, then took hold of her hand again. “Because your family loves you, and no one wanted to hurt you. They thought it would be kinder coming from me.”

“I see.”

“They didn’t know I couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t. I also know that you deserve a chance to find out who you want to be. You’re amazing, Shannon. You can be anything you want.”

“I thought I wanted to keep my family together,” she said.

“Sweetheart,” her mother said, looking right into her eyes, “we’re still going to be a family. That will never change. No matter where we live, or where we work.”

“Shannon.” Tim motioned with his chin. “You’ve got some people here.”

Dizzy with too much information, she rose on shaky feet. Nate got up, too, and together they went toward the foyer.

Shannon stopped when she saw Rebecca and Bree, along with Katy and her cousin Ariel standing inside the door. As if she hadn’t had enough battering for the day. “I was going to call all of you,” she said. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“For what?” Rebecca asked.

“For putting you in such a horrible position. Everyone from the lunch exchange.”

The women approached, none of them looking as if they’d been crying, or even upset. “There’s been a lot of explaining,” Bree said. “But no one’s mad.”

“Jake said he was flattered as hell. Grateful to you for getting us together.”

“We’ve been on the phone all morning,” Katy said. “Letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak. So far, everyone’s been cool about it.”

Shannon turned to Bree. “Charlie?”

“He’s fine.” Bree shrugged. “Quite amused, in fact.”

“He’s more than fine,” Rebecca said. “Between his attorneys and mine, we will own that TV station. There’s going to be a press conference tomorrow morning where Grant Yost is going to make a very public apology. You’re going to be famous, but for all the right reasons. The trading cards are brilliant. Whether the men are in on the game or not.”

Danny popped up between Nate and Ariel. “Brady’s on the phone,” he said, speaking to Shannon. “He needs to speak to you. Now.”

She took the phone, wondering what bombshell Brady was going to drop.

“Shannon?”

“What’s going on?”

“The phones are going crazy. I haven’t had a second to do anything else. People are insane.”

“What people?”

“Women. Men. From all over the damn country. First it was local, then it started spreading west.”

“Excuse me?”

“They want the trading cards. Women want to start their own clubs and men want to be on the cards. It’s nuts.”

Shannon pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it, sure there must be something wrong with it. “He says people are calling. To do their own trading cards. Women. Men.”

Nate helped her bring the phone back to her ear. Brady was saying something she didn’t catch. “What was that?”

“Not just the trading cards,” he said. “But that literary publishing house in SoHo?”

“Yeah?”

“They want us to be their printer.”

“I called them weeks ago.”

“They’re not the only ones. We’ve had three new orders placed, all from your cold calls.”

It was too much. Shannon couldn’t take in anymore. She handed the phone to Nate as tears filled her eyes. That wouldn’t have been so bad if she weren’t having so much trouble breathing.

“Shannon.” Ariel came over and hugged her. “What’s wrong? This is good news, isn’t it? That everyone can see what a great idea you had? How many people you’ve made happy?”

Shannon nodded, but she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t stop crying, either. Then she was being shifted from one pair of arms to another—to the right pair. Nate held her close and tight, rocking her gently. “It’s going to be okay, sweetie. You’ll see. It’s just overwhelming right now. Breathe, okay?”

“The only thing is,” Rebecca said, “we can’t figure out how WNYC found out about the trading cards. No one in the group would want this. We were all enjoying it too much.”

Shannon sniffed, wiped at her face as she stepped away from Nate. “It wasn’t anyone in the group. I’m pretty sure it was someone at the plant.”

“Who?” Danny’s eyes blazed.

“Never mind that,” she said. “I’ll take care of it.”

“I hope whoever it is will be happy on unemployment.”

“Danny, you don’t know the situation. You’re always so quick on the trigger.”

“You okay?” Nate asked.

“I will be. Once I sort things out. I don’t understand half of what’s going on.”

“Right. Executive decision.” He looked at the women in front of him and the family behind. “I’m taking Shannon away for the night. For two nights, in fact. We’re going to pack her a bag, and then we’re leaving. She needs time to think, and so do you all. We’ll see you again at the Easter egg hunt, where I expect all of you to donate as much as possible.”

Shannon stared up at him. “But—”

“We need to talk. I have some calls to make, which I’ll do while you’re packing your bag. Make sure you’ve got your Sunday things with you. Now go on upstairs. I’ll be with you as soon as I can.”

She sniffed again and smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”

Then he kissed her. Right in front of everybody.

* * *

T
HE
FIRST
THING
HE
DID
WHEN
he got Shannon inside their room at the Gramercy Park Hotel was order dinner. Nate knew she’d barely eaten a thing, and that the past twenty-four hours had turned her world upside down. He also knew he was going to be adding yet another layer of improbable to the mix.

They’d ordered nothing more extravagant than pasta and salad with a good bottle of red wine. He liked the idea that they were staying at the hotel where they’d first danced together. That so much had happened since that wedding was difficult to believe, but he was used to that. It was a wild ride, this life, and things happened at breakneck speed. The trick was to be holding on to the reins, not the tail.

His poor Shannon wasn’t quite in saddle yet. She hadn’t spoken much, but he could see by her eyes that she was sorting and sifting and working hard to get her bearings. He was ready to help, but he needed her more stable before he got to the main event.

Luckily, room service had believed him about the extra tip, and he made good on his promise when the food arrived. The waiter set them up on the table in the room, the pasta steaming hot, the salad crisp and the wine excellent.

For the first ten minutes or so, there was just eating. Getting the hunger under control had been vital, and now that they were both slowing down, he felt ready to begin.