Slade pulled her in for another kiss, this one deeper than the last. “You are never a complication. Work will always come second to you. That’s why I’ve been down here late each night. It’s over tomorrow. I was hoping you’d come join me for themeeting.”
She regarded him carefully. The slow way her eyes appeared to be searching his face revealed her hesitation. “You don’t want to come withme?”
“That’s not it, Slade. Businesswise, I don’t want to get caught in the middle of whatever this is between you and your father. Your company, your father, is a powerful man. I don’t want to make an enemy ofhim.”
“Mandisa, after tomorrow, you won’t have to worry about it. Our deal will still stand, and if you decide you want to work for Logan, Bull won’t be able to interfere with any of that. Please, come withme.”
She touched soft fingers to his face, sparking a warm sensation that spread throughout his chest, into his limbs, stoking his need to touchher.
“I’ll be there, Slade. But I can’t walk into this meeting blind. I need to know what the real issue is between you and Bull. I haven’t asked, because I wanted you to come to me in your own time. But, Slade, if this affects my business, or our ability to do business with one another, I need fulldisclosure.”
He’d known it would come to this. He’d hoped to never have to recount these details, but realistically, he knew he’d have to come cleansomeday.
Slade took a breath, digging deep to pull up memories from a lifetime ago. Moments he’d fought like hell to bury so deep, he had to wonder sometimes if they’d actually happened. But just the sight of Macy at that dinner, clinging to his father while still flirting with him, brought the entire sickening ordeal to thesurface.
“About ten years ago I fell for this cute flight attendant I met coming home from a business trip. She was sweet and fun and catered to every one of my whims. My oversized ego told me it was love. So, after dating and living with her for a couple of years, I proposed toher.”
“That cute flight attendant was Macy, wasn’t she? So, you lived with her here on theranch?”
Slade shook his head. Thanking God yet again that Macy had never set foot on his ranch. She would have tainted it, prevented him from enjoying the land heloved.
“No, this happened just before I bought the ranch. At the time, Bull and I were still cordial to one another. I harbored a lot of resentment toward him for how he treated my mother when she was ill. Instead of being home with his dying wife, he was cheating on her with any floozy that showed interest in him or the things he couldprovide.
“Even though I didn’t think he was worth a damn, I don’t think I hated him at that point. It wasn’t until I found him screwing my fiancée at our engagement party that my loathing of Bullbegan.
“I remember that moment clearly. I’d walked into the bridal suite to get Macy and found my father bending my fiancée over a damn table, fucking her from behind, and the two of them smiling at me through their reflections in the mirrored walls. I watched that disgusting whore come on my father’s cock while I stood there paralyzed in the opendoorway.”
Slade closed his eyes as the memory flooded his mind. The smiles they were both wearing, their lack of shame, Slade’s inability to react—all of it pressed to the forefront of his mind. By the time Slade had regained his ability to move, Bull was done riding Macy, and Slade’s stomach contents were traveling up histhroat.
Slade could still remember the taste of his own bile as he rushed through the wait-staff and stumbled into a private bathroom. He didn’t realize he was heaving in the present until he felt Mandisa’s familiar touch on hisface.
“Slade, it’s over. You’re not there.” She leaned down and kissed him, pressing her body into his personal space, using his senses to pull him out of the traumatic hold of his memories. “You’re here with me, not withthem.”
He raised his hands to her arms, touching her, verifying her statement, making certain the right woman was in front of him before he opened hiseyes.
“That was the moment I hated my father, Mandisa. The moment I watched him take another thing I loved from me. First my mother, then my company, then Macy. I knew then that if I didn’t fight him, he’d steal it all away, and I’d have nothingleft.”
Mandisa rubbed her fingers through his hair, her nails scratching lightly against his scalp, soothing the tidal wave of emotion that threatened to take himunder.
“None of what your father has done to you is your fault, Slade. And if Macy was willing to betray you like that, you dodged a bullet. You are a wonderful man, one that deserves so much love, because you give it so easily. You’re the man I fell in love with from the first time he called me darlin’ and made me tremble with his beautiful southerndrawl.”
“You loveme?”
The question seemed to surprise her. He allowed quiet to remain between them as she appeared to contemplate his question. He wouldn’t hold it against her if she rescinded her declaration. It wasn’t logical that she would feel love for him yet. But Slade had no doubt if given the opportunity they were headed in thatdirection.
Everything from the way Mandisa held onto him at night when they slept to the way she treated his mama made Slade feel at ease, at home. When you’d grown up with so much hell and mistrust, security was something you didn’t dare reach for or expect. But Mandisa made him foolishly want to believe in the cradle of security that only love couldbring.
“The day after we made love, Kandi asked me why I was so hesitant to take you up on your offer. She wanted to know if something bad had happened between us in your hotelroom.”
That first night she’d shared herself with him had been heaven. He’d known from those few hours tangled together in his bed that one night wouldn’t beenough.
He’d been secure in his assumption Mandisa felt the same. After all, she’d followed him to Texas forty-eight hours later. It never occurred to him that she might not have been as overjoyed about their first time as hewas.
Slade swallowed the slight weight of fear that was attempting to settle in his throat. It would just about kill him to know that night had been a disappointment for her. He let his eyes fall from hers, not wanting to see it if she didn’t feel thesame.
He felt the warmth of Mandisa’s touch radiate from the gentle fingertips she’d placed on his chin throughout every cell in his being. It quieted the growing uneasiness in his belly and called to him, giving him the strength to face her, even when his fear told him to shyaway.
“I didn’t understand why, but I told her the truth. I felt loved. It was a crazy notion considering you and I had only spent a handful of hours together. I didn’t, and still don’t understand how that could be, Slade. But in the three weeks since I met a handsome stranger in a lounge, I can’t seem to remember what life was like before he called me darlin’ for the firsttime.”
