“Don’t judge. You don’t know me.”
He’d known her once and she was an open book. Sweet and innocent. Generous and loving. There’d been no cynicism in her then and the fact that she had it now was another black mark on his soul. Another sin to lay at his feet.
However, he couldn’t deny that the idea of trouble in paradise was damned appealing. “Should I read anything into the fact that you kept the details of our venture to yourself?”
“You can jump to any conclusions you want. I can’t stop you and you’re quite good at it.” Her look challenged him to deny the statement.
Okay. Battle lines drawn. She was on the offensive so that’s where he’d go, too. “What exactly did you tell him? You must have said something. He’s bound to notice that you’re not around. I certainly would if you and I were involved.”
Every day for the last ten years he’d noticed that she wasn’t there.
“I told him that I was going to be very busy.”
He couldn’t tell whether it was guilt or defiance in her tone. A little more pushing couldn’t hurt because he’d already damaged her and he had little left to lose. “Too busy to see him?”
“Yes.”
“And he’s okay with that?”
“I’m so lucky. Chandler is a sweet, understanding man. He’s supportive of my career.”
“A real saint.”
He knew couples made compromises. His mother and Hastings compromised the truth about Linc for their relationship. But unquestioningly letting the woman you loved fly to Montana with another man, even one she was divorcing, seemed wrong to him.
Come to think of it there was something else he wanted to know. “Is Chandler aware that you’re a married woman?”
“Oh, please. I’m not—”
“Don’t deny it. We’ve already gone over this. There’s no divorce, so technically we are still married.” He folded his arms over his chest and couldn’t quite keep the “gotcha” out of his voice. “You didn’t tell him.”
“I don’t remember you being this annoying, either.” She stared at him and must have realized he wasn’t backing down because there was a lot of resignation in her sigh. “No. I never told him about the marriage.”
Why? he wanted to ask. Was she afraid that would destroy their relationship? A man who truly loved her wouldn’t give a tinker’s damn about this. Linc remembered how it felt to love her. In the same situation, if she’d dropped this bombshell on him, he’d have hired the best divorce attorney on the planet to dissolve the union so he could marry her. Making her his was more important than anything. Correction: it would have been, if he was Chandler.
“On the upside,” he said cheerfully, “since he doesn’t know about the marriage it saves you the trouble of having to break the news that you’re not divorced.”
She huffed out a breath. “Not only are you annoying, you’re a smart-ass.”
“Is that any way to talk to the man who’s funneling work your way?”
“We both know you’re not the typical client. Other than my expertise on decorating you have an agenda. I haven’t figured out what it is yet but we both know there is one.”
“You’re even more creative than I knew.” He knew how smart she was and shouldn’t have been surprised she’d guessed. “I look forward to seeing what you come up with for my condo.”
“Do you take anything seriously?”
“Of course.”
“Like what?” she demanded.
“My business.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. What about your family?” There was a gleam in her eyes now. “Come to think of it, I have no idea what you’ve been up to and you know an awful lot about me.”
“Because you’ve been very generous in sharing details.”
“My mistake,” she said. “Let’s even the playing field. Tell me about your personal relationship.”
“What makes you think I have one?”
She gave him an “oh, come on” look. “I guess a specific question would be better. And before you give me an evasive answer, consider that there’s still a lot of flight time left and I can be persistent.”
“Okay, I’ve been warned. What would you like to know?”
She gave him a thoughtful look for several moments. “Since you left me, have you been close to needing a marriage license?”
“Since you, marriage has not once entered my mind.”
He’d never let a woman that close because it wasn’t fair to lead anyone on. Marriage wasn’t a step he would ever take again.
“Hmm. That brings up more questions than it answers.” Rose tucked a long strand of shiny dark hair behind her ear as she studied him. “Is that because of what happened with your parents?”
“Hastings isn’t my father.”
“He still parented you with your mother. Is it that? Or was marriage to me so bad? Did I break you, Linc?”
Leaving her did, but that wasn’t her fault. It was the only way he could think of to protect her from the mess that was his life. Eventually he had put the pieces back together and if they didn’t quite fit, that wasn’t on her.
“You know better than anyone, Rose, that I’m a bad risk.”
“At least you’re taking responsibility.” There was a flash of what looked like sympathy on her face before she shut it down. “But ten years is a long time. I don’t quite know what to make of the fact that you’re alone.”
“Let’s just call it a public service.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he said, “Want a drink? The bar is stocked. Let’s go check out the galley and see what we can find.”
“Don’t think I didn’t see how you just tried to distract me from your love life. And I’ll admit it worked, but only because I’ve never been on a private plane before.”
“I’d never have guessed, what with your cool, sophisticated demeanor.”
“Don’t let that fool you. On the inside I’m giddy with curiosity and excitement.”
Until this moment Linc hadn’t realized how much he’d missed teasing her. And her honesty. He didn’t know any woman who wouldn’t have pretended that a lift on anything but a commercial flight happened every day. Her excitement at a new experience was charming and brought back memories of his eagerness to introduce her to all the pleasures life had to offer.
Including sex.
He’d given up the right to her body and the tempting curves in front of him now. Settling for drinks and hors d’oeuvres on a jet paled in comparison but that was all he could hope for. And the remainder of the flight passed quickly with a bottle of wine and snacks that had Rose moaning in ecstasy while he questioned how much pain he could handle on the road to redemption.
The Gulfstream landed at the recently opened Blackwater Lake Airport. A Mercedes SUV was waiting and he stowed their luggage while Rose let herself into the passenger seat. He got behind the wheel and drove into town, pointing out the highlights along the way.
“This is a very small place,” she commented, sounding less than thrilled.
“You’re observant. I always said that about you.”
“Oh—” She