He picked up the bar of soap and used the cloth he’d grabbed before entering the shower. Building a thick lather, he placed the soap back into the vintage silver tray and began to wash the sweat from his body. Only each stroke of that warm and sudsy cloth over his skin had him aching more with need. After the first few seconds Gray wanted to drop that cloth and wrap his hands around his burgeoning length. He wanted to stroke and stroke until there was a blessed release. His eyes opened quickly with that thought as he gritted his teeth and fought like hell to keep his hands on any other part of his body aside from his throbbing arousal.
When she’d looked up at him he’d wanted to whisper her name.
Morgan.
Morgan Hill.
She was just a woman.
Just a woman that he wanted to sink so deep inside of that everything about this dismal small town and what it had done to his family would be washed from his mind, once and for all. Gray had no idea if that would work, or if he even wanted to bother. Morgan had children, which meant there was most likely a father to those children in the picture somewhere. That was another entanglement Gray did not have the time or the inclination to manage.
With jerking movements he continued to wash and then rinsed beneath the steamy water. Once his shower was complete he dressed and sat at the little desk that faced the window. The view was breathtaking, if one liked such a thing. Gray did not. A country setting, simple living—neither was for him. He reached into his leather bag and pulled out the files he’d brought with him. Without internet access in this room, he would have uninterrupted time to go over his most recent sales projections and R&D reports. There was no doubt that once he logged into his email there would be numerous issues for him to address. Even on a Sunday morning.
His mother used to love Sundays, Gray thought as he stared down at the papers, then up to the window. She loved walking in the sand and watching the tide roll in just outside the house they’d lived in on Pensacola Beach. That was the only time Olivia Taylor had looked peaceful, Gray recalled. The only time after his father had left them.
“Hello?” Gray answered his cell phone, which had begun to ring loudly, snatching him out of his thoughts.
“Hi. How’s it going?”
It was his sister Gemma. She was the oldest of the girls and the one Gray had been closest to since the two of them had taken care of the others when their mother began to get sick.
“Slowly” was his tired reply. “Apparently, the chamber of commerce doesn’t open on Sundays. Nothing in this sleepy little town does.”
“Weekends as a means of relaxation should be a crime,” Gemma replied with her ready humor. “This is the only day of the week that I have all to myself so I don’t want to hear one negative thing about it.”
Gemma was a hair stylist. She owned one of the largest and most reputable salons in Washington, DC.
“I’m not complaining,” Gray told her. “But I won’t lie, if I could get this taken care of sooner, rather than later, I’d be much happier.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen you happy, Gray,” his sister said softly.
Oh, no, Gray thought with a shake of his head. They were not about to have this conversation. Gemma was the only one of his siblings who believed in the fairy tale of love, even though she’d yet to find her knight in shining armor. The fact that their mother had nursed a broken heart until her dying day didn’t seem to matter to his sister. Gemma staunchly believed that love would always find a way. Gray usually allowed his sister her dream, but today he wasn’t in the mood to humor her.
“First thing tomorrow morning I plan to march into city hall and speak with the rep at the chamber of commerce. It’ll be good to get an idea of what the buildings are currently being used for.”
“Why? I thought we were just going to sell them,” Gemma replied. “You don’t need that type of information to put them on the market.”
Gray had thought of that last night as he’d left the community center. He hadn’t needed to personally come back to Temptation, nor did he need an escort to show him around the buildings, either. It would have been much simpler to call his attorney and let him deal with the Realtors and the sale, an action he could have easily taken from his desk in his Miami office. There was just one thing stopping Gray from handling this the way he would any other business deal.
His mother.
“She would have wanted to know,” he admitted quietly.
Gemma remained silent for a few seconds.
“She would have,” she eventually agreed. “She’d always wanted to know about the town and how it was doing after we’d left. One of her greatest heartbreaks was that the loss of the money from our show and how the scandal that had followed our departure would have a negative effect on the town. She would have been happy to know the buildings were being used for something good, and she might not want us to sell them if they are.”
Gray rubbed a hand over his forehead. “I’ve thought about all that, too. Garrek and Gen were on the fence about selling when I spoke to them,” he said.
“Gia’s trying to open another restaurant, so she says the money from the sale would come in handy,” Gemma added.
“And Gage,” Gray said before sighing as he thought about the youngest brother.
Gemma made a sound that mimicked his frustration with their brother. “He’s so busy putting in hours at the hospital that he barely had time to sign that paper you had me take to him,” she said and then sighed again. “It would have been a lot better if all of us could have gotten together and talked this through. Mama would not be happy knowing that it’s been years since we were all in the same place, at the same time.”
“We were born in the same place, at the same time,” Gray stated drily.
“Now you sound like Gen, hating the way we came into this world.”
Gray shook his head at that remark. “No, I don’t hate that we were born. I just don’t like all the attention that came afterward and the way this town that supposedly loved the Taylors of Temptation weren’t there for us when everything came crashing down.”
It didn’t matter, Gray told himself immediately. When his mother decided to leave Temptation, her grandfather offered his vacation home in Pensacola Beach for her and the children to live in. His father, in a rare moment of generosity, hadn’t contested the divorce or the spousal support and alimony payments. Eventually, years later, their family began to feel the benefit of Theodor’s successful business endeavors through higher monthly payments. It was apparently much easier to write a check to his wife and six children than it was to live in the same house with them. The bottom line was that they hadn’t needed anyone from this town back then and Gray definitely didn’t owe them anything now.
“Look, I plan to have this wrapped up in the next day or so. I’ll send a group email when the listings are up and then keep everyone posted on the sales.”
“Right,” Gemma said. “Business as usual. That’s fine, Gray. I’ll be sending out my gifts in the next couple of weeks, so be sure to check the mail at your condo.”
Gray resisted the urge to sigh again. Instead, he squeezed the bridge of his nose. “You send us all Christmas gifts every year like you’re our secret Santa. We’re not kids anymore, Gemma.”
“No,” she said adamantly. “We’re not. But Mama loved Christmas. She always had gifts for us under that tree no matter the circumstances. It’s the least I can do to keep her alive in my heart, Gray. I know all of you have your way of dealing with the hand we were dealt in life, but this is mine so don’t try to take it away from me.”
After a few seconds of silence Gray replied, “I wouldn’t think of it.”