For Her Son's Sake (5 page)

“Good choice.”

“Thanks,” Sammy said with a big grin. “Want to race?”

Kell glanced at Emma and she nodded. “He means around the house. Him in the car, you running.”

“Is there time for that?”

“As a matter fact, you can do one lap while I pour you a drink. What would you like, Kell?”

“What are you drinking?”

“Corona Light with lime. We’re having fajitas for dinner.”

“Sounds great. Where’s the start line?” he asked Sammy.

The little boy got back into his black two-seater coupe. It looked like a Mercedes; Kell recalled that Helio had driven for Team Mercedes. He also noticed that Emma had a device in her hand.

“What’s that?”

“Remote control. In case Sammy gets into trouble.”

“Mommy is the start line,” Sammy said.

“Maybe we should do a run through so...what do you want Sammy to call you? Kell or Mr. Montrose or Mr. Kell.”

“No,” Sammy said.

“What do you mean no?”

“Auntie Jessi calls him Darth. Like
Star Wars
.”

Emma turned three different shades of red. Kell, who’d heard a few of Jessi’s more unflattering names for him, wasn’t surprised by the Darth Vader reference.

“Kell is fine.”

“Good. Follow me and I’ll show you the route you’ll be racing on,” she said.

Sammy maneuvered around them and led the way down the wide open hallway into the kitchen, around the breakfast table into a great room and then back to the entryway.

“Think you got it?”

This was the last thing he’d expected to do tonight and it put all of his thoughts into perspective. It was hard to take yourself too seriously when you were faced with a competition with a three-year-old. As Emma dropped her hands and told them to go, Kell realized it was exactly the sort of experience that had been missing from his life.

Sammy drove quickly and expertly around the curves, impressing Kell. As they closed in on the final stretch and he saw Emma waiting and smiling, he realized that it didn’t matter if he won or lost, if this was smart or dumb. He was just glad he was here.

Five

A
fter they ate, Emma put Sammy to bed and rejoined Kell on the patio, where she’d left him. Dinner had been interesting and far more tense than she would have imagined it could be. Kell tried but was clearly out of his element with her son. Not only that: it was soon clear that she and Kell were opposites on everything that mattered.

Politics, books, movies, even games. There was no middle ground between them. They were both passionate about their opinions. She realized that their upbringing had to be one of their main influences and she wondered how their grandfathers—hers the financially driven man and his the high-concept dreamer—had ever put aside their different ideologies to start their own company.

“I guess I should be going,” Kell said when she rejoined him. He’d made a fire in the fire pit for them.

It was one of the things that she always struggled with. She just wasn’t good at it. And Kell seemed pretty good at everything he tried.

“I think so. I had no idea that we’d have nothing in common between us,” she said. She’d never been one to ignore the obvious and had a tendency to just state things even though it might be prudent to keep her mouth shut. She worked hard to keep the filter in place while she was at work but here at her home when the evening had gone so horribly not to plan, she didn’t feel like it.

“Me either. Interesting what we do have in common though—sex and video games,” he said.

“Sounds like the title of a bad movie,” she said. And that was all that it would be. She had seen him struggling with Sammy as the toddler got in and out of his booster seat. There were things that singletons would never really understand about parenting until they had a child of their own.

Sammy was so much a part of her life that she couldn’t have someone in it who didn’t understand him or his needs.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Me too,” she admitted. “It started out so well when you let Sammy win the race.”

“Let him? That kid has the makings of a fine driver someday. Did you see the way he instinctively accelerated out of the turns?”

“Unfortunately, yes. My father-in-law is already anxious to get him racing go-karts. But I don’t want that for him or for myself if I’m honest.”

“You’re a good mom,” he said out of the blue. “It would make me crazy to do what you do. I have no idea how you manage it all.”

“I don’t manage it very well. As you pointed out, I did lose my company,” she said.

“But given the handicap you were playing with...I’m not sure I would have gotten it so easily if Sammy hadn’t been in the picture,” Kell said.

“Thanks, I think. I’m glad I do have my son. He’s the reason I wanted Infinity Games to succeed,” she said.

“It will. Even if you no longer have a position in the company, your shares will still earn a nice profit. It will always be a part of his legacy.”

She walked around the patio, stopping to look out over the railing. The beach was dark, the sound of the surf a distant rolling sound. Legacy. That was the purview of men usually. But as she’d been the oldest Chandler it had fallen to her. She wanted to pretend it didn’t matter but she knew that was a big lie.

It mattered a lot.

It hurt her that she’d let her grandfather’s hard work slip from her fingers into the hands of his enemy. And with that realization came the fact that she’d made tonight into a nightmare by trying to find the ways they were different.

She didn’t want to have anything in common with Kell and the truth was she did have a lot in common with him.

“You okay?” he asked, coming over to her. He was an intense man but when he was quiet there was almost a peacefulness about him.

Considering he’d spent the better part of his life seeped in bitterness and questing for revenge, it was odd. “How come you’re almost normal?”

He laughed. “
Almost
being the key word, right?”

“No, I mean it. I’m facing the hard truth that I’ve been difficult tonight because I guess I’m a bit of a brat.”

“Just a bit?” he asked, with a teasing lilt in his voice.

She looked over at him, with his thick dark hair and fallen angel features, and understood why she’d put so many barriers in place between them. He’d be too easy to fall for. Not just because of his hot, sexy body, but because he was successful and driven and understood the time she had to spend at the office. Not many men would.

“Maybe more than a bit. But I wasn’t expecting you to be so....”

“Normal?” he asked. “That’s not exactly a compliment.”

“Who said I was trying to compliment you,” she said. “Your ego is healthy enough without me feeding it.”

“That’s true. No use pretending I’m not all that.”

She shook her head because he was being flippant and she couldn’t blame him. “When did you figure out that I was being difficult?”

“When you argued in favor of sparkling vampires. I get the fact that the
Twilight
romance triangle appealed to you but that you actually liked sparkly men...well, that was too farfetched.”

She laughed. “Sorry. I’m contrary by nature. I try so hard to be easygoing and get along with everyone else, but with you I always have to take the opposite viewpoint.”

“I noticed. It’s not the worst quality I’ve encountered on a first date,” he said.

She led the way to one of the padded benches and sat down. He followed and sat down next to her, stretching his arm along the back of the couch. “What was the worst?”

“The woman who asked for my social security number so she could run a background check on me before we left the restaurant. You?”

“No horror stories, really. Though in college I had a date who invited me to a wet T-shirt contest.”

“Nice. Why didn’t I think of that?” Kell asked.

“Um...I declined and poured my drink on him,” Emma said.

“I bet that would have been something to see.”

“I could dump my drink on you if you’re interested,” she said with a smile.

“I meant you in a wet T-shirt.”

And just like that she knew why she’d been pushing so hard for the distance between them. It hadn’t just been because of her contrariness but because she’d been running from this attraction.

* * *

The evening hadn’t gone according to plan. Emma was different than he’d expected. And it hadn’t been just the way she’d argued with him on every topic he’d brought up. Clearly she had been sending him a message that she didn’t want to get involved and he’d received it.

But he’d also seen the love she had for her son. Being a mother was important to her and that had touched something deep inside of him. A part of himself that he didn’t realize he’d even had. He had never really had any kind of female role model growing up. It had just been Grandfather and him. His aunt Helene had been bitter once she’d realized her dream marriage had been arranged so that her husband could access her inheritance. And Allan’s mom didn’t like her father so they’d never seen her.

But right now all of that seemed unimportant. Right now he was picturing full-chested Emma in a wet T-shirt contest. He applauded her long ago boyfriend for his idea even though it had cost him the date.

“Why are we so attracted to each other?” she asked under her breath, so he knew she didn’t expect an answer.

It was something that he’d pondered himself. There wasn’t a more inconvenient woman to be lusting after than this one. Everything about her was difficult from her last name to her circumstances. But he was fixated on her. And the more he uncovered about her, the more attractive she became.

“Fate?” he suggested. “The ultimate joke on our grandfathers and on us.”

“Really? What about free will?”

“The way you are putting up barriers, I’d say that free will is definitely one up on fate.”

“Nothing worth having comes easily,” she said.

“Which is why I’m still here,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

“Oh, is that the reason why?” she asked. “I thought it was because you were determined to have the evening go your way.”

“I am. But I’d never be so crass as to say it. I might not have grown up with a mom but I know better than that.”

She tipped her head to the side, staring at him with that intense gaze of hers that made him hope he was good enough. “What happened with your mom?”

“I can’t...I don’t want to talk about it.”

She nodded, then tucked one leg under her body and turned to face him. “When my parents died in the car crash I felt such a gaping emptiness and I almost gave into it. Then I noticed my sisters standing next to me at the funeral and they were lost, too, and I had to pull it together for them.

“If it wasn’t for them I don’t know how I would have coped. We had each other. Did you have anyone?”

He pushed himself to his feet and paced away from her. “I don’t want to talk about this. Ever.”

She came over to him and put her hand in the center of his back. There was something about her touch that calmed all the anger that his past always stirred in him. But he knew it was false. She was playing him.

She had to be.

Nothing else made sense.

He turned and pulled her into his arms. Then he brought his mouth down on hers, intent on showing that the only thing he wanted from her was physical. But as the kiss continued, anger drained from him and he was once again caught in the quagmire that was Emma. She changed him, and he didn’t want that. But there was no keeping her from doing it.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he lifted her off her feet by leaning back. He liked the feel of her body pressed wholly to his. Breast-to-chest, stomach-to-stomach, erection to the perfect softness of her body.

He knew now exactly why he’d stayed. What he’d wanted since the first moment they’d been alone and he’d been the clear victor. No more games or waiting. He had come here tonight because he wanted to move beyond the thought that this attraction was taking over his life.

Once he had her, once he’d made her his completely, life would go back to normal. He wasn’t hesitating anymore. He’d put up with a lot of nonsense from her and now it was time—

“Kell?”

“Yes?” he asked, lifting his mouth from hers and dropping nibbling kisses down the line of her neck.

“I—”

He groaned.

How many times was he going to be stopped by her conscience, and why was he so determined to keep going after her when she clearly wanted to wait? She deserved him to stop pushing but he wanted her worse than he’d craved any other woman in his life.

She shook her head. “I’m not saying no. Just that I need to make sure I have the baby monitor out here. I don’t want Sammy to interrupt us.”

“Me either,” he admitted. “Should I go?”

“No,” she said. “We need to get this lust thing out of the way and see if there is anything else between us besides a decades-old rivalry.”

“I agree.”

* * *

Agreeing didn’t lessen the fear in the pit of her stomach. She wanted him and wasn’t about to send him away but there was a big part of her that already knew this was a mistake. But one she wanted: she wasn’t about to deny herself the pleasure of Kell.

She’d been running on empty and sustaining herself as a woman on old memories. Kell was warm, solid, real and so damned sexy it made her ache when he held her in his arms.

She took his hand and led him toward the house but he stopped.

“Where’s your bedroom?”

“Why?” she asked.

“I’ll put this fire out and give you a moment to make sure Sammy is settled and then meet you.”

It made sense. And a part of her wondered if Kell was afraid like her. Then she laughed at herself. What man was afraid of sex?

“Top of the stairs, second door on the left. I’ll leave it open,” she said.

He nodded and she walked into her house, making sure the nightlights she used downstairs were on, and then made her way up to Sammy’s nursery, which was next to her bedroom. He was sleeping soundly in his toddler bed that was shaped like a racecar. She looked down on him and felt that same surge of love she always did.

He made her life so full. But even so, there was always something missing. It wasn’t that she had to have a man in her life, but there were times when she was reminded she was still a young woman with needs.

She pulled Sammy’s door partially closed after she’d adjusted the monitor so she’d have a clear view and then went into her bedroom. She turned the receiver on so she could see him and then flicked on the light beside the bed and turned down the covers.

And then...waited. She’d never been a femme fatale and nothing had happened to change that. She felt awkward, and by the time Kell showed up in the doorway she had had second and third thoughts about this.

He gave her a wry grin.

“Too much time to think?”

“Something like that,” she said.

“Let me help you out.” He walked into her bedroom, taking his iPhone out of his pocket and placing it on the dresser. Then he fiddled with it for a second before she heard the smooth sounds of Ella Fitzgerald singing “Feeling Good.”

He turned and opened his arms to her and she stepped closer and into them. This was what she needed. When they touched there was not time for doubts or worries. Or for anything other than his touch and the way he made her feel. They swayed to the music and she realized that it was a new night for them.

A chance to at last put the past to rest and figure out what their new dynamic would be. Work would sort itself out and they’d get to the bottom of this unexpected thing between them.

“This is the kind of music you like, right?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’m kind of dorky about things like that,” she said.

“You don’t seem too dorky to me,” he said, sweeping his hands down her back to her hips and then pulling her closer so that she was pressed against the cradle of his thighs. His mouth came down on hers as the music changed to Louis Prima, and the rough sound of the music felt like the perfect backdrop to this embrace with Kell.

It gave the evening an unreal aspect, as if she were starring in her own classic Hollywood movie and there would be no consequences from this that she couldn’t figure out on her own. Kell tasted of lime and Corona as he kissed her and she tipped her head farther back to allow him to deepen the kiss.