How To Seduce An Heiress: The Reluctant Heiress / Pride After Her Fall / Project: Runaway Heiress

Eight

On the sunny Saturday afternoon, Sophia heard a car motor and looked out to see Garrett park in front and hurry to the front door. With a final touch of her hair that was tied back by a white scarf, she glanced briefly at her image. Her gaze ran over her white crepe dress and high-heeled white pumps,

When she opened the door, Garrett smiled. “Hi.”

When Sophia told Garrett hello, her heart missed beats. She still had mixed feelings about what Garrett had done, about seeing the Delaneys, about accepting her legacy. But she had the same intense, instant reaction to him, stronger now than ever. She ached to be in his arms.

An uncustomary nervousness disturbed her over meeting the Delaney sons. She was glad to have Garrett at her side even though she continued to deal with her smoldering anger at his betrayal. However, she had to finally agree he was right. The Delaneys could not help who fathered them any more than she could. And she had never knowingly hurt anyone in her life the way she had been about to hurt all the Delaney principal heirs.

“I’m glad you agreed to come with me,” she said quietly. “I don’t expect to be in Dallas beyond this weekend, so I only have this bag.”

“I’ll carry it,” he said, taking it from her to put it on his shoulder. His fingers brushed hers and a tingle sizzled through her. She continued to have the same volatile physical reactions to him, maybe more so because of being away from him.

He drove to the airport where they boarded a waiting private jet. Even though she was intensely aware of him beside her, she sat quietly looking out the window below at a long bayou lined on one side by tall pines. When they were at cruising altitude, she turned to find him watching her.

“You’re doing the right thing.”

“I suppose, Garrett. I’m nervous about it,” she admitted, looking into his fascinating gray eyes. In spite of all that had happened, she still thought he would be incredibly interesting as a subject for a portrait. She had to struggle to keep her mind from imaging what it would be like to paint him, how intimate it would be …

“Why?” he asked, his eyes widening. “There’s no earthly reason for you to be nervous.”

“I suppose it’s another carryover from childhood. My father also intimidated me. If and when he paid any attention to me, he would fire questions at me about how I was doing in school. I never seemed to give him the right answer.”

A faint smile played on Garrett’s face. “Argus Delaney could be intimidating. I know what you’re talking about—I was grilled in the same manner. ‘What are your grades this semester, Garrett? Why did you just make a 98 on a test instead of a perfect score? Your dad tells me you don’t want to take a third year of Latin. Why not?’” Garrett said, imitating her father in what seemed an accurate portrayal. She had to smile.

“You sound the way I remember him. Didn’t your dad work for him?”

“Oh, yes. So why did Argus quiz me about grades? He took an interest in my dad, therefore he took an interest in my life. My dad was happy to have Argus on my case as well as himself, so I was caught between the two of them, which I viewed as totally unfair. My dad never quizzed Will or gave him a hard time and I resented Argus for working me over when I wasn’t his son.”

“That sounds like him,” she said, finding it difficult to imagine the commanding, decisive man seated by her as a boy who was intimidated by the same man she had been. “Was he hard on his sons?”

“Yes. If he was around. Frankly, a good deal of the years they were young, he probably ignored them as much as he did you. They went to boarding schools and Argus traveled.”

“Yes, to see us,” she said bitterly.

“Usually, Argus wasn’t a lovable man—an exception was your mother. Maybe with women he was lovable, but in his other relationships, I doubt it. Intimidating, domineering, he got people to do what he wanted them to do.”

“Are any of his sons like him in that manner? If so, it would have been better to bring my attorney to this meeting.”

“I don’t see it, but I’ve grown up knowing all of them. Will is my age, Zach and Ryan are younger. Will is as kind as can be with Caroline. She had a lot of problems after her father died. She shut herself off in her own world. She wouldn’t talk to anyone. Will tried everything he could think of—doctors, counselors, tutors. Finally, he found a teacher who got through to Caroline and she opened up and became the child she was when her father was alive. Then Will married the teacher.”

“Caroline looked like a happy little girl in the picture you showed me.”

“She is now.”

“I suppose I expected all three sons to be like Argus and my reaction to them to be the same. And I wasn’t looking forward to encountering three carbon copies of my father.”

“You won’t, I can promise. The Delaney brothers are charming and delighted to meet you. They’ll be as nice as they can be to you.”

“My mother always said my father could be charming. I never saw that side to him.”

“You’ll see it in Will and that’s what his dad was when he wanted to be. Frankly, I never found Argus to be charming. I was raised to call him Uncle Argus. I was quite delighted to learn that he was not my true uncle and that that was merely a title of respect. I didn’t want to be related to him, probably any more than you.”

“You surprise me. I wouldn’t have guessed. If I had known that from the first—”

She broke off, remembering she had had no clue that Garrett had known her father, and that Garrett had had no intention of telling her.

“Do you understand yet why I did what I did?” he asked quietly.

“I suppose I do, because I wouldn’t have seen you if you had told me you were sent by my half brothers,” she said, looking into his gray eyes and trying to ignore the current of desire that simmered steadily. In spite of the division between them, she found him as appealing and sexy as ever. She had missed him and didn’t want to look too intently at how strong her feelings ran for him. She was forgiving him easily, the same way her mother had always excused Argus and forgiven him. She was falling into the same trap her mother had, doing everything her mother had done—having an affair, forgiving the man, losing her heart to him no matter how he treated her. A chill ran down her spine. She was doing all the same things. Would she end up in the same situation as her mother—or worse?

He leaned close and she felt as if she were drowning in depths of misty gray. His fingers brushed her cheek. Tingles spun outward from the contact while she felt consumed in his direct study. She wondered whether he could hear her drumming pulse.

“Do you forgive me, Sophia?”

Her heart lurched. How easy it would be to say yes and go back to where they were before, but she couldn’t do it. “Maybe. It isn’t quite the same yet. That hurt, Garrett.” The words came out sounding more sharp than she intended. Yearning showed in the depths of his eyes, stirring too many vivid memories.

Watching her, he slowly leaned closer. She couldn’t get her breath. Her lips parted and her heart thudded. Garrett’s gaze drifted down to her mouth, heightening her longing. He had to hear her heart pounding. He placed one hand on her knee and his other hand went behind her head to hold her as he continued to lean closer.

She could back off, tell him no, move away, refuse him. Instead, she leaned forward and closed her eyes.

His mouth covered hers, opening hers wider to give him access. He pulled her closer while her heart slammed against her ribs. Blazing with a need for so much more of him, she couldn’t help but kiss him in return.

“When we get off this plane—” he whispered.

She shook her head. “I didn’t intend for that to happen,” she said. “Slow down. You’re still going too fast.”

“I missed you,” he said. “Stay over longer to go out with me, even if it’s only one evening.”

She inhaled deeply, knowing she shouldn’t while at the same time wanting to more than anything else.

“Sophia, I did what I had to. And it will give you an inheritance worth several billion dollars. That’s not the same as deceiving you to hurt you. If you go through with this, you’ll give the Delaney brothers what they want and set up money for Caroline so she will never have a worry. You saw the charities and how much they’ve given. So this is different—vastly different from deceiving you to do something underhanded or hurtful. I know you can see the difference whether you admit it or not.”

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