When we got downstairs, a man wearing dark denim jeans and a pressed, black dress shirt stood beside Elijah. The sexy guy oozed success, privilege, and power. This was no pizza delivery man; it was Theodore Rutledge. I recognized him from the Google search I performed after learning of his existence. Elijah had his methods, and I had mine.
“I started to think you weren’t coming, Mr. Rutledge,” I said, walking toward him.
“Please call me Theo. I’m very sorry for all the delays and even more appalled I didn’t call first. I can see you’re very busy.” His eyes swept over the women who came down the stairs behind me, jerked to a stop then swept back the other direction. His piercing blue eyes widened in surprise then narrowed, but not in a menacing way. I turned around to see who’d caught his attention and saw Vanessa was blushing and refusing to meet his eyes. Vanessa didn’t blush. Who was this man to garner such a reaction from her. Then it hit me. Oh. My. God! Her weekend-of-wild-sex must’ve been with Theodore Rutledge because I knew everyone else Vanessa had hooked up with or dated. “Hello, Vanessa. It’s good to see you again.” I looked at my friends to see if I was the only one who noticed the man’s voice drop a few octaves? Their wide-eyed expressions said they’d noticed too. I expected he used the same voice to get her back to his condo and keep her there all weekend long.
Van squared her shoulders, lifted her head, and boldly looked into his eyes. “It’s good to see you too, Theo.” Then her eyes perused his tall, muscular body from top to bottom. When she finished, she aimed a man-eater smile at him.
I turned my attention back to Theo and said, “Would you like a grand tour?”
He finally peeled his eyes off my friend and focused on me. “Are you sure? I could come back another time perhaps.”
“Don’t be silly,” I said, dismissing the idea. “Let’s get started in the back of the house where the library is located.” And the furthest away from Vanessa so she could retreat if she wanted. “I have several of your grandfather’s items on display there.”
“It sounds like the perfect starting point.”
I was glad Elijah and his knuckle-dragging mentality followed behind Theo and me, hoping it would discourage our guest from asking me personal questions about Vanessa. Ha! He wasn’t the owner of a Fortune 500 company because he waited for the appropriate time to do something. He was successful because he seized every opportunity to get what he wanted.
“I didn’t expect to see Vanessa here,” Theo said casually.
“How do you know Van?” Elijah asked before I could respond. My man crossed his big arms over his broad chest and gave the billionaire a don’t-fuck-with-me look. Oh lord, he was fucking hot.
“I’m not sure it’s your business,” Theo returned, not looking the least bit intimidated by Elijah.
“It is my—our—business when you come into our home and start probing for information about one of our friends.”
Theo’s mouth tilted up on the right side in a wry, half smile. Elijah’s protectiveness seemed to relax him even if he was the one Elijah was shielding Vanessa from. “I only remarked that I was surprised to see her here. I forget how small this world truly is sometimes. What are the odds the lady who bought my grandfather’s home is friends with the woman who…” His words trailed off, and he looked truly surprised about what he had revealed or almost said. “Anyway, I’d love a tour then I’ll get out of your hair.”
“This is the coolest place to start,” I told him. “Look at the incredible craftsmanship that went into building those floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.”
“Incredible,” Theo agreed. He walked over to one of the shelves where I displayed several pictures of the family I’d found in frames.
“I think you resemble him greatly,” I said. “You have the same square jaw and aristocratic nose. It’s hard to tell what color his eyes were since the photos are in black and white, but it’s obvious they were a light color like yours.”
“I’ve been told I have the Bliss blue eyes.”
“You look taller and broader—” My words died off when I smelled pipe tobacco.
“Are you implying I should hit the gym more often?” Theo asked with a quirked brow. He stilled when he smelled the invisible smoke drifting through the air. He looked around the room and saw no one in the room was smoking a pipe. “I don’t believe it,” he said in awe. He held up his right arm and the dark hair on his arm was visibly sticking up where he’d rolled his sleeve to reveal thickly muscled forearms. “Oh, that’s fucking weird.”
“Good of you to join us, Anthony,” I said. “This is your grandson, Theo.”
“You talk to him?” Theo whispered, making Elijah snort.
“He doesn’t answer back,” I assured him. “Unless you count him slamming a door upstairs or romping around in the attic.”
“He was very demonstrative when we picked out paint colors during remodeling,” Elijah told him. “Maegan gave in every time he expressed his displeasure.”
“He loved this house, and at the time, I thought he’d be here long after I died,” I said with a shrug. “Happy ghost, happy life.”
“I don’t think that’s how the saying goes, Freckles.” Elijah then looked at Theo once more. “The logic applies just the same though.”
“Do you really believe in all this?” Theo asked me then shook his head. “You’re talking out loud to him, so you obviously believe.”
“I knew there was something special about this house when I rode by it on my bicycle as a kid. I also knew someone truly special resided here too. I couldn’t explain it then, and it sounds ridiculous to say as a grownup, but this place just felt like pure magic to me.”
“It was the turret,” a new voice said, entering the library. I turned and raised a brow at my brother. “She was obsessed with fairy tales, fair maidens, and dashing princes. The turret represented a tower where the fair maiden was locked away until her dashing prince showed up to rescue her.”
Elijah puffed out his chest reminding me of Gaston fromBeauty and the Beast.“I’d say the fair lady did well for herself. She has her castle and her dashing, heroic man.” His deepened, dramatic voice made me giggle.
