“Sarah asked me to.”
His words were a slap of reality. Of course that’s why he’s here. Did I think he’d met me because he couldn’t stay away? A man like him can have any woman he wants. He’s not pining for a woman like me. Get a grip.
As they passed the baggage claim area, Charles asked, “Do you have everything or did you check a bag?”
A bag? The cookies. Melanie came to a sudden halt and realized she didn’t have them in her hands. She frantically searched her backpack. I left them on the plane. Oh my God. I’m not in New York fifteen minutes and I’ve already lost something I can’t replace.
What if it’s a sign that I could lose Jace here, too?
I can’t do this.
She turned on her heel to head back the way she’d come, but was blocked by a wall of suit that stepped into her way. “What’s the matter?” Charles asked.
Everything. Shaking her head as she waved a frantic hand in the air, she blurted, “I left a bag of cookies on the plane.”
He looked away and then back at her as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. “You’re upset over a snack?”
“Jace made them for me,” she said sadly. How could I begin to explain to him why they matter?
Without letting go of her arm, Charles placed the luggage beside his leg, took out his cell phone, and made a call. A moment later he nodded and returned the phone to his pocket. “The plane has already been cleaned. Anything they found went in the trash.”
It’s just cookies. I’ll buy some that look just like them for when I video chat with Jace. He’ll never know. This doesn’t change anything. Hold it together. Melanie took a deep calming breath and said, “Of course.” She pulled her arm free and squared her shoulders. “Thank you for checking for me.”
“If there was anything that you need with the cookies, we can have them search for it.”
“No,” Melanie said, still trying to shake her panic off, “some mistakes can’t be undone. You just have to face that you made them and go on. No matter what happens. You have to deal with the consequences.”
In a move that took Melanie completely by surprise, Charles pulled her into his arms and simply hugged her. She had denied herself the luxury of physical contact with a man for so long that at first she stood rigid, unresponsive in his arms. With her face pressed against his shirt, she breathed in the scent of him and almost shuddered from the pleasure of it. In his strong arms, she felt protected from the past, safe from whatever the future held. She gave herself to the moment and wrapped both arms around his waist. Right or wrong, in that moment he was offering her comfort and she didn’t have the strength to refuse it.
A slow growing embarrassment began to spread through Melanie. Poor Charles, sent to the airport to pick up a woman he doesn’t really know, only to have her become a basket case.
Melanie pulled herself out of his arms. She kept her eyes glued to the lapel of his jacket and the white shirt beneath it that she’d wrinkled. When she reached to smooth it, she felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest and pulled quickly away.
Without breaking eye contact, he picked up her luggage again and began guiding her toward the exit. Just outside the door, a driver in a black suit met them. Charles handed off her bag to him. The man offered to take her backpack, too, but Melanie shook her head.
“He’ll put it inside the trunk for you,” Charles assured her.
Melanie held it tighter beneath her arm. “I don’t mind carrying it.” The driver opened the rear door to the town car and Melanie slid in, not stopping until she was sitting on the opposite end of the seat. Charles kindly made no mention of the large space her action left between them.
“Where are you staying?” Charles asked.
Information that Melanie had memorized earlier flew out of her head. She swung her backpack around and opened the front pocket. A ticket. Lip gloss. A napkin she thought she might need later. No itinerary. She unzipped the second pocket. A magazine. A phone. More napkins. Some wet wipes. God, I’m such a mother. Shit. “I know where I’m staying,” she said angrily.
Charles watched her wordlessly.
“I have it all written out on an itinerary: the reservation number, the address. Everything.” Her hands shook and fumbled with one of the fastenings. How the hell am I going to find Jace’s father if I can’t even fucking find my hotel? Stop. Breathe. “It’s in this bag somewhere.”
He placed a hand on her thigh and she nearly shot through the roof of the car. Her eyes whipped up from her backpack and riveted to his. “Take your time,” he said smoothly. “No rush.”
His voice was husky and deep. Melanie’s breath caught in her throat. She felt her cheeks warm with a raging blush that was half embarrassment and half a heated response to his touch. She shifted away from him and turned her attention back to her search. A moment later, in the third section she opened, she found the piece of paper with the hotel address on it.
Charles took the paper from her hands. “Would you like to . . .”
“I can’t stay with you,” Melanie said in a rush. “I’m not staying with you.”
Both of his gorgeous eyebrows rose, but his tone remained neutral. “I was going to ask if you wanted to stop anywhere for anything you might have forgotten.”
Melanie sank into the leather seat and covered her face with one hand, wishing she were anywhere but there. “Thank you, no. I have everything I need.”
Charles told the driver the name of her hotel and they pulled out into traffic. As they drove into the heart of the city, the streets were crowded with people. If she had been there for any other reason, Melanie would have appreciated the differences between the rural lifestyle she’d been raised in and the bustle of the city streets.
But New York didn’t matter.
The man beside her didn’t, either.
There was too much at stake to worry about what Charles thought of her. “Sarah said this is your first trip to New York City.”
Melanie nodded but didn’t turn away from the window.
“How long will you be here?” he asked.
“Maybe a day. Maybe a week.”
“Is there anything you’d like to see while you’re here? A play perhaps? I could have my secretary procure tickets to almost anywhere. It doesn’t matter if the event says it’s sold out. Everyone keeps some tickets on the side.”
For just the briefest moment, she imagined he was offering to go with her, but quickly decided not to make a fool of herself yet again and simply shook her head no.
“Normally I would offer to take you to dinner this evening, but I didn’t know you were coming. I have plans that are, unfortunately, impossible to change.”
How polite. How utterly civilized and the polar opposite of the way he’d been in Texas. She thought back to the first time they met. He’d been furious with the idea that his sister was shacking up for the summer with the cowboy. He’d walked onto Tony Carlton’s ranch like he’d owned it and gone head-to-head with a man most wouldn’t have had the nerve to tangle with. He’d been cold and dismissive—and more than a little insulting even to her. At least until she had thrown a glass of lemonade in his face and told him what she thought of him and how he was treating his sister.
Sarah said that, despite how he appeared, Charles would do anything for his family. Well, he was certainly proving her right. For Sarah’s sake, his attempts to make Melanie feel welcome were unwavering.
And I’m being rude by not even looking at him while he makes polite conversation with me. Why? Because despite how tough I look on the outside, I am not. I’m scared, and I don’t want him to see it in my eyes.
The car pulled up in front of her hotel. The driver opened the door. Charles stepped out and offered a hand to Melanie, but she ignored it. The less she touched him, the better. Her body wasn’t on the same page as her brain for this trip. It wanted to fling itself into his arms and beg him to come inside with her. Lust and loneliness were a powerful combination.
/>
If I threw myself at him, would his rejection be as polite and awkward as our conversation has been?
I should be grateful he’s not attracted to me. This trip is already complicated enough.
The bellman took her bag. Charles stepped aside for a moment to speak with someone in the lobby while Melanie checked in.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Charles said when he returned. His deep voice sent ripples of pleasure through her.
Melanie’s breath caught in her throat. Is there anything about him that isn’t above average? Her eyes dropped to his crotch instinctively and she blushed.
Stop. I don’t even like men in suits.
Well, not most men. Charles had an air of power that made his clothing choice irrelevant. Men and women alike stopped to watch him, and not only because he was a classically handsome man with broad shoulders and a square chin. No, he had what her friends back home would call the “don’t-fuck-with-me” attitude. It gave his polished exterior an edge. People stopped and stared at him, sensing he was important even if they weren’t sure who he was.
“You don’t have to call me.” Melanie looked down at her worn jeans and hugged her backpack tighter. “I may not even still be here.”
He took out his card and wrote on the back of it before handing it to her. “If you need anything, this is my cell phone number.”
Melanie stashed it in her backpack, then raised her eyes to meet his. Her heart beat double time in her chest. She had no intention of calling him.
He waited for her to say something. Melanie shifted her feet awkwardly and buried her hands in her front pockets. “Thank you for the ride.”
He glanced at his watch and swore. “I hate to leave, but I’m late. Do you have everything you need?”
Melanie nodded even though nothing could’ve been further from the truth. She fought back the desire to call out his name when he turned and strode across the foyer and back out to his car.
As he walked away, Melanie sank into one of the chairs in the lobby and covered her face with her hands. In a moment she would head up to her room, put a huge smile on her face, and video chat with her son. She would thank Sarah for sending someone to meet her and tell her again how grateful she was for everything.
Yes, she would look brave, happy, and appreciative.
In a minute.
She took a deep breath and kept her hands over her face.
Or maybe two.
Charles navigated the award ceremony on autopilot. Despite this one being held in Manhattan, many of these events were reruns of prior ones. The same people. The same conversations. People came to them either because they cared about the cause or they wanted people to think they did. He didn’t waste his time trying to sort out which category any of them fell into. He supported the causes the same way he supported his family—financially and from a distance.
He smiled graciously as he received the award and posed for the cameras. He shook hands with all the right people, inquired about their families, and walked away from them, instantly forgetting each interaction as soon as it ended.
He was debating how soon he could leave the event, even while the mayor was telling him about his last golfing trip and some mishap that was supposed to be amusing. Charles listened just enough to smile at the right times, but couldn’t have been farther away in his head.
Just before he’d exited the hotel, he’d made the mistake of glancing back at Melanie. The sight of her with her hands over her face in despair haunted him. I should have stayed with her.
And then what?
She needed a friend, not a lover. And Charles didn’t do friendships with women.
He didn’t get involved.
His cock countered with an opinion of its own. It didn’t care why she’d come to New York. Just the thought of having her in the same city was enough to keep it in a constant, throbbing state of arousal.
Stand down, nothing is going to happen. She’s not my problem. She’ll call Sarah if she needs a sympathetic ear.
Still, he couldn’t shake the image of her in the hotel foyer. What had brought her to New York and why was she so sad?
If she wanted my help she would have asked for it.
I was right to leave.
I don’t get involved with women who have children.
I don’t date them.
I don’t fuck them.
Children have always been and will always be a deal breaker.
Sarah often called Charles overprotective, but in reality, when it had counted, he had failed to protect the one who had most needed him.
And that was something he could never forgive himself for.
Something he’d never put himself in a position to do again.
“Charles, if I can have a moment?” Mason broke in to the conversation between Charles and the mayor and pulled his friend away. Together they walked to a small landing that looked out over the throngs gathered for the event.
Frowning, Charles asked, “What do you need?”
“Me? Nothing. You need to stop smiling while the mayor tells you about the issues he’s having with getting funding for his latest project.”
“Shit, I wasn’t paying attention.” Charles looked back at the mayor, who was talking to his wife and waving his hands around as if reenacting their conversation. “I thought he was still talking about his golf trip.”
Mason’s eyebrows snapped together in consternation. “Hey, I can cancel my plans for tonight. Let’s go for a drink. You look like you need one.”
Charles shook his head. “No. I have work waiting for me. And a long day tomorrow.”
“Something is bothering you. I’ve never seen you like this.”
“Like what?” Charles asked impatiently.
“Guilty?” Mason said slowly. “Like you’re holding in a secret that’s eating at you. You didn’t embezzle money or anything, did you? Is that why your company has been doing so well lately?”
“Don’t be a fucking idiot.”
“We’ve been friends long enough you can be honest with me. I know some awesome lawyers.”
“I didn’t steal anything.” When Mason looked like he was going to ask another question, Charles said, “I didn’t kill anyone, either.”
Mason took a flute of champagne from a passing server and downed it. He made a face and handed the glass to the next server who walked past them. “I’ll never understand why they can’t serve good beer at these events. Now, spill. What’s going on?”
“It’s been a long day. I rushed from work to pick up someone at the airport, then came straight here. I’m tired, not guilty.”
Mason winked at a woman across the room and then continued, unconvinced. “Who flew in?”
“Melanie.”
Mason choked, gasped for air, and asked, “The Melanie? She’s in New York?”
Charles nodded, then looked away.
“No wonder you can’t concentrate. What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I couldn’t not show. I was the main speaker.”
“But you could leave now.”
“I told you, there is nothing between us. My sister asked me to meet her at the airport when she landed and I did. That’s all that happened. That’s all that is going to happen. There is no reason for me to see her again before she leaves.”
Mason put a hand on his shoulder. “This is so pathetic it’s adorable. I may have to hug you.”
Charles shrugged his touch off. “You’ve spent way too much time in California with your touchy-feely friends. Keep your damn hands to yourself.”
Mason laughed. “Hopefully, that’s not what my date will tell me tonight.”
Charles looked at his friend and gave him a reluctant smile. “She will if she has any sense.”
With a shameless grin, Mason said, “I can’t help it if women lust for me. It would be wrong for me to deny them what they crave. I’m not cruel like that.”
“Are you ever going to grow up?” Charles asked.
r /> “Not unless I find a good reason to.” He covered his heart with one hand dramatically. “Maybe someday I’ll meet my Melanie and reform my ways. But tonight it’s Danielle and maybe Tina if they’re interested in that possibility.”
Charles rolled his eyes.
Mason laughed again. “You’re such a prude. Is it the cold weather that does it? Makes you all uptight out here? You’ve got to learn to relax.”
“You relax enough for both of us.”
They stood shoulder to shoulder watching the crowd below. Suddenly serious, Mason said, “I can’t believe the woman you have the hots for is in New York and you’re going to piss away the opportunity.”
Charles frowned. He saw her in his mind again as vividly as if she were sitting before him. “I suppose I should call to confirm that she settled in okay.”
Clapping a hand on his friend’s back, Mason said, “Whatever you need to tell yourself, Charlie.”
Chapter Three
Tucked into her hotel bed, Melanie closed her eyes with relief when the local news station finally began to highlight the weather. She was used to sleeping to the quiet country sounds of nature and had been a light sleeper since the day she’d brought Jace home from the hospital. The walls of her hotel were thin enough that she heard the occasional conversation and one woman’s repeated high-pitched laugh. She’d turned on the television hoping the noise would help her sleep better. That didn’t happen.
She’d just finished watching clips of Charles receiving an award for his philanthropic donations to a long list of charities. Sound bites of his speech aired again and again along with images of him shaking hands with prominent members of government and visiting famous people.
In his tuxedo, he looked every bit who he was—a member of New York’s wealthy elite. She cringed as she remembered how he’d held her in the airport. No doubt shuttling his sister’s friend around was the last thing he wanted to be doing before his big event. A weepy hot mess of a friend at that.
She flipped off the television and rolled over onto her side. Stop thinking about what doesn’t matter. Tomorrow is going to be tough enough without losing sleep over someone who has probably already forgotten I’m here.