“Not exactly.” Grae smoothed the back of his hand across the dark shadow of whiskers on his cheek. “The moves you make are no longer any of my business, are they?”
The outright question put Tielle in her seat, yet she managed to make the move appear graceful enough.
“Faro says he wants to book the estate exclusively for one week. He wants to hold a Clegg family retreat.” She shared the explanation politely enough. Admirably, she subdued the wound his words had opened. She wanted to maintain eye contact. Sadly, all she could focus on, as Grae sat there stroking his jaw, was his sleek beard, which added an intimidation factor and needed no additional emphasis.
Those inky whiskers contrasted so richly against an otherwise flawless palette of light caramel. They felt like mink against her skin when he kissed her...wherever he kissed her—used to kiss her...
“He told you what prompted such a great idea?” he asked.
“Well, I don’t know, Grae. Maybe he thinks he can fix your family.” With a laugh, she stood and left the desk. Silently, she reiterated the conversation she’d just had with Faro. “I’m pretty sure a fast no is the right answer here. Listen, Grae, I have a meeting I’m already late for.” Hastily, she rounded the desk and began collecting her things.
Grae was blocking her way before Tielle even moved from the desk, causing her to swallow around her heart in her throat.
“I’d like for you not to do that, Tel.”
The urgency in the canyon depth of his voice gave Tielle pause. “Tell me why?” It was her chance to mask command in the form of a question.
Grae clenched his jaw, revealing the defeat he felt. “I honestly don’t know, Tel, but going through with this thing might bring it all out.”
Tielle dismissed the voice warning her not to ask and asked anyway. “Can’t Faro want to retreat for exactly what retreats are meant for? To fix things?”
Graedon smiled, but the gesture held no humor and very little softness. “Still blind when it comes to my brother,” he accused.
“So are you.” She smiled and shrugged. “I guess we’re a perfect pair then.”
“We used to be.” A more pronounced element filtered the bronze of his stare.
“Is it refusal or acceptance you want, Grae?”
When he smiled, Tielle wondered if he was confused about what she should have been refusing or accepting.
“Acceptance.”
Confusion crept in on her then. He was frowning in that way he did when seeking to relay the importance of what he was saying. Tielle refused to get lost in his very capable ability to spellbind her.
“Why would you want me to accept Faro’s request? Wouldn’t that make him a little too happy?”
“May be the only way to get to the bottom of what he’s really up to.”
“Grae...” Tielle rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “What does all this suspicion get you?”
“Not nearly as much as it’s lost me.”
“And yet you continue to pursue it.”
His jaw clenched again. “I pursue it so that I can crush it.”
A soft spurt of laughter rippled past her lips.
“What?” His eyes raked the length of her, focusing on Tielle’s bottom when she turned away.
She set her meeting materials back on the desk. “Just that your...pursuit might be self-defeating, is all.”
“Okay,” Grae prompted.
“It didn’t lose you anything. You did.”
Grae bowed his head and shook it as though he wasn’t surprised by her point of view. “He’s not what you think, Tel. He never has been.”
“It must be so sad to live your life only seeing the worst in everyone.”
“Not everyone, Tel. Just him.”
When she turned away with a submissive sigh, Grae came down off some of his anger. “Tel—”
“Don’t, okay? The quicker all this gets started, the quicker I get all of you out of my hair.” She distanced herself again. “I’ll give Faro a call after my meeting...”
Grae was barely listening. The reference she’d made to her hair had his eyes fixed upon the fluffy mass. Coarse-textured and flowing, it framed her round face like an enchanting dark cloud. He knew she usually tamed the wild tresses into a thick ball, only leaving it wild about her face when she was heading out for the evening or going to bed...
Who did she say she was meeting again? he wondered.
Something to do with business, but it mattered little. Tielle could capture a man’s eyes and stir his appraisal—no matter the venue. Her curvy proportions, untamed hair and baby-doll allure had anchored him with an invisible yet irresistible hook since the day he’d met her.
He was still anchored to her. Of course he was, with only his anger and suspicion to hold on to. She was right—what he’d lost, it was all on him.
“Grae?” Tielle waited until he’d focused on her. “Is that it?”
He watched her so meaningfully in that moment that Tielle was forced to glance down at her dress to see if it was still clinging to her body.
“For now.” He pushed off the arm of the chair. “Thanks, Tel.”
She managed to stay on her feet until he’d pulled the door shut behind him.
* * *
“I’m so sorry, Ti.” Laura offered her apology while adding more of the ginger dressing to her salad. “He was already here when I got in this morning.” Done with the dressing, she blew at a tuft of her bobbed hair. “And we must not forget our helpful man-crazy staff. They’d already given him your full itinerary for the day.”
“Our man-crazy staff?” Tielle gave Laura a look of mock reproach. “Are you trying to suddenly distance yourself from the bunch?”
“Well, hell, Ti, I mean, can you blame us?” Laura was crunching around a mouthful of salad by then. “Especially when it’s Graedon Clegg who comes a-callin’? What woman wouldn’t drop everything to...help him?” She closed her eyes over her word selection and winced. “Sorry.”
“No...” Tielle was giggling a mite helplessly. “I need the laugh.”
“So?” Laura pretended to be focused on the wide salad bowl she clutched. “You gonna tell me what happened in there? Every woman out here was falling all over the man when he got here. He was polite enough.” She shrugged beneath the lime-green cropped neck sweater she wore. “He really was pretty sweet, but he didn’t really come alive until you walked in. You were ranting so...didn’t even notice him following you to your office like you were dragging him along with a leash. Humph...pretty amazing to watch.”
It was pretty amazing to hear, and Tielle listened to the recap in awe.
“It’s been a year and I still can’t quite wrap my head around what happened.” A shiver touched her arm, and she began a slow rub to rush warmth to the limb. “We loved each other—wanted each other all the time.” Tielle let her lashes drift downward and swallowed with effort as emotion promised to close her throat while memories set her arousal mounting. She shook her head in a poor attempt to ward them off.
“What went wrong between us didn’t have to.” She looked out at the sunny environment beyond the long windows running past the tables in the staff cafeteria where she and Laura had their lunch.
“I’m