Chain of Title (11 page)

She quickly grabbed her
clutch and began to slide around the table and out of the booth.  Frank slid
out his side and agilely positioned himself in front of her so that she
couldn’t escape so easily.

“Get out of my way, Frank!”

“Shayna, lower your voice and
calm down.  You’re too angry to go anywhere right now,” Frank warned, in a wary
tone.

Shayna’s eyes narrowed and
her chest expanded in fury.  “What’s the matter Frank?  Am I embarrassing
you
for a change?”  She felt as if she was breathing fire into her lungs.

“Sweetheart, please,” he
whispered imploringly.  “You need to get this out, you deserve to, I know, but
not here.  We can go somewhere else.  You can yell and scream all you want—
somewhere
else
,” he said in a more commanding tone.

“Fuck you, Frank!”  She
pushed at him to get out of her way and he dropped to his knees in surrender.

To.  His.  Knees.

She gawked at him and his ridiculous,
meaningless display, with utter mortification.

“Get up, Frank,” she spat
out.

“I said I’d do whatever it
takes.  I meant it.  If you need me to grovel, I will,” he choked out roughly.

Shayna was acutely aware of
the world inside the restaurant coming to a standstill as all eyes focused on
them in a heavy hushed silence.  She could already hear the gossipmongers licking
their chops. 
Poor Frank Chastain.  So contrite.  So ruined by the divorce. 
Trying everything possible to right his wrongs.  But that bitch of an ex-wife
just won’t let him
.

She was beyond livid with his
show, his open manipulation.

Shayna leaned down closer to
his contrite face and hissed, “You’d better get some knee pads, Frank.  Because
you’re going to be down there until
hell
freezes over.”  She shoved hard
by him and stormed out of the steakhouse in a haze of rage.

****

“Upstairs?”
she mouthed, gesturing with her hand.  Johan nodded and winked as he continued
his call.  “Thanks,” she whispered.  Shayna made her way through the busy
restaurant to the back stairs.  Sean and his parents had lived above the
restaurant for a number of years before the family bought their first home.  Now
he used the small apartment as his office and for extra storage.

She had cooled off on the
drive over, but she could still feel the tension gripping her body.  Climbing
the stairs, she reached the top and veered down the hall to her right.  Sean’s
door was partially open.  She peeked in to make sure he wasn’t on the phone and
then silently stepped in, closing and quietly locking the door behind her.

He hadn’t heard her,
appearing to be immersed in the papers spread out before him.  She could just
watch him like this—indefinitely.  What was it about him?  How did he manage to
make her feel this way?  Like a horny teenage girl with a whole future ahead of
her full of infinite possibilities yet to be discovered.  She breathed out
softly, tossing her clutch onto the sofa next to her.  Sean glanced up, and she
could have sworn his face lit up at the sight of her.  Oh, she hoped it had. 
She didn’t want to believe she had imagined it.

“Hey, gorgeous!”  He moved to
rise, but she motioned for him to stay put as she sauntered sexily toward him. 
“So did you and Danielle make up tonight?”

She didn’t respond, just
continued staring heatedly at him as she nimbly rounded the corner of his large
desk.  He had a peculiar look on his face and before he could say what he was
thinking, she smoothly lifted her pale pink dress and shimmied out of her matching
lacy pink panties, letting them feather to the floor before stepping out of
them.  She reached over and confidently cleared the space on the desk in front
of him.  She noticed that his eyes had dilated, his nostrils flared, and he was
breathing deeply.

Smiling knowingly, she sat on
the edge of his desk, raising and then placing her heeled feet astride his hips
in his leather office chair.  His stormy, masculine features exuded
unadulterated desire and prowess.  A wanton grin spread lazily across his soft
lips as his hands glided up and along her stocking wrapped thighs to grip her
hips and pull himself between her taut legs.

He wasted no time dipping
down and pleasuring her with his sinful lips and expert tongue.  She heard
herself groaning, pleading, and then shattering into the much-needed blissful
release that washed away the evening’s tension.  A satisfied, throaty laugh
escaped her lips at the peacefulness that had so quickly replaced the anger and
frustration she had felt earlier.

Then she heard the rattle of Sean’s
belt buckle, followed by its thud on the hardwood floor.  She pushed herself up
and pulled his mouth to hers as he began the slow, deep strokes inside her core
that he knew drove her crazy.

It felt like their bodies had
been made for each other.  She would swear to it.  Admittedly, she had only
ever been with three men, but Sean had gotten under her skin from the first
night.  Attentive, demanding, tender, rough, and everything in between, he just
seemed to know how to push her buttons and exactly when to do it.  Standing at
the edge of the cliff again, Shayna readied for another orgasm when Sean
gripped her hips tightly.

“Look at me,” he demanded hoarsely.

Her lids fluttering open,
Shayna fixed on his green eyes.  They swirled with raw desire and potency as he
smiled triumphantly, watching her fall apart in his arms.  Then he kissed her
hard as he pushed her back onto his desk and pounded relentlessly into her slick
center, releasing his surging power into her.  Winded and feeling weightless,
Shayna’s hands snaked underneath Sean’s dress shirt and lingered, caressing his
strong, damp back.

Nuzzling her ear, he
murmured, “You didn’t even say hello.  Just wham-bam.  What kind of guy do you
think I am?”

She felt his warm smile
against her cheek.

“My kind,” she whispered
breathily, squeezing him even closer.

“So
why didn’t you just tell me?” Sean asked with skepticism written on his face. 
“I would’ve rather heard it from you than someone else, Shay.  This is exactly
what he wants—to cause doubts.”  Sean’s frustration was apparent in his tense
body language.

A business associate of
Sean’s had witnessed Frank’s genuflection and filled him in on the debacle at Kincaid’s,
not to mention the rumor mill that had surged exponentially in the days after the
spectacle.  Shayna was certain that it had been a calculation on Frank’s part. 
It fit the by-any-means-necessary approach that he applied in business and
personal affairs.  Something she did not miss and hadn’t fully understood the
true depths of until she’d left him.  The freedom of the last three years had
opened her eyes to a number of things, about herself—and him.

She sighed and nodded in
agreement.  “You are right, Sean.  I should have told you.  I truly wasn’t
trying to hide anything from you.  I simply didn’t want to give it any more
life than it deserved, didn’t want to give
him
any more of my time, our
time.  He and Dani set that whole farce up.  I was only supposed to have dinner
with
her
, you know that.”  His expression was unreadable.  She threw her
hands up in exasperation.  “I know he wants to come between us, but I made my
feelings very clear to him,
publicly
, as you now well know,” she said,
adamantly.

Sean exhaled softly, standing
straighter, with his hands at his lean hips.  He continued to appraise her,
clearly trying to read her mind.  He seemed to be mulling something over.

“Have you really never talked
to him about what happened?”

Shayna’s face squeezed with
incredulity, as a puff of air involuntarily escaped her.  “What the hell, Sean? 
You too?  What is this?”

He bit at his bottom lip and
slid his hands into his front pockets.  Then he pivoted and walked to the wall
of windows framing Lake Indigo, staring out pensively across the choppy blue
waters.

“You were married for over
twenty years, Shay.  Did you really not, at any point, sit down and talk to
your ex?  Just get it all out so that you could
both
move on.  I mean,
you couldn’t have, or he wouldn’t be pulling this shit.  Right?  He must think
that it’s not really over.  He must think that there’s still a chance.  Why?”
he asked roughly, still looking out over the lake.

All of the air in Shayna’s
lungs had deflated.  A picture was beginning to come into focus as to what
Frank must’ve said to Sean that night at Gaetano’s.

“Because there’s nothing to
talk about.  I know everything I need to know.  His words aren’t going to
change anything, and I’m getting damn sick and tired of sounding like a broken
record.”

Sean slowly swiveled to face
Shayna.  His expression was indecipherable.

“Do you do that a lot?”

Shayna’s brow crinkled, and
she shook her head in confusion.  “Do what a lot?”

“Do you cut people off that
easily?  No gray areas, no room for error...all black and white?”  He paused
for a moment.  “Even after spending most of your life with them?”  He stood
solemnly, waiting for an answer.

Shayna felt a wave of
disappointment wash over her.

“Wow,” she breathed out.  She
puffed softly and averted her gaze to the hardwood floor, then turned and calmly
strode into the kitchen, grabbing a glass from a cabinet and filling it from
the tap.  After a few drinks, she set the almost empty glass on the concrete
countertop and turned to find Sean leaning back against the counter opposite
her, his arms crossed, still waiting for her response.

She mirrored him and
responded coolly, “He really got to you, didn’t he?”

Sean shook his head and
replied, “No.  
He
didn’t. 
You
did.  You got to me the first time
we met.”  His eyes softened around the edges.  “We’re not kids anymore, Shay,
and I’ve already missed out on so much with you—wish we could’ve met so much
earlier in our lives.  But I’ll take what I can get now.  I just need to know
what we’re doing here, because I don’t like games, and I don’t want to be part
of one.”  He stared at her pointedly.

Shayna blinked slowly and
tilted her head to the side, assessing Sean’s body language.  “I’m not playing
a game with you, Sean.  I have no secret desire to get back together with
Frank.”  She gauged him further.  “As far as cutting people out of my life,
it’s only been necessary twice.  I refuse to apologize for that or second guess
myself, but I will tell you why I did it, both times.”

She took another drink of
water, then lifted herself up onto the counter, leaning back against the white cabinet.
 Sighing resignedly, she said, “If it wasn’t bad enough that I caught Frank in
bed with a girl young enough to be our daughter, I now find out that it’d been
going on for more than a year and half.  Frank and I have known each other for
more than twenty-five years.  He could look me in the eyes, day after day,
night after night, sleep with me, tell me how much he loved me and then...do
the same to her.  The only difference being,
she
knew
about me. 
She
had a choice. 
Frank
had a choice.  I didn’t.  Now he doesn’t like
my
choice.  Too bad.

“Do I wish it had worked out
differently?”  She paused and sighed resignedly.  “Sometimes, yes.  But not as
much as you might think...not now,” she said softly, looking at him resolutely
and watching the meaning of her words register in his eyes and expression.  “I
don’t owe him anything.  He had his chance and he blew it, Sean.  He lied to me
so easily and for
so
long that there isn’t anything he could say or do
that would enable me to trust him again.  I’m not obligated to hear him out, to
hear his side.  Fuck him,” she said with an unnerving calm.  Sean’s features
twitched at the unexpected remark.  “I have a real problem with liars.  Frank’s
always known that, which makes his betrayal sting all the more.  He knew all
about what happened with Abigail, the effect it had on me, and yet he chose to
ignore it.  I don’t know if he thought he could just get away with it, or if he
got caught, that he’d be different, that I’d forgive
him
.  Doesn’t
really matter what he thought, or if he even did, because he of all people
should’ve known better.”

She picked up her glass and
drank the remainder of the water.  Silence filled the space as Shayna allowed
Sean time to digest her words.

“So, what’s the story with
your mom?  You said she and your dad split when you were young and she wasn’t
around much.”

Shayna smirked and chuckled
mirthlessly.  “Yeah, well, that’s the euphemistic way of describing it.”

She pinched the bridge of her
nose and hopped off the counter, refilling her empty glass with more water. 
Then she strolled out to the deck and stretched onto an amply padded lounger,
watching the sailboats on Lake Indigo before letting her focus drift up and
over the mountains.  Sean positioned himself on the chaise next to her and
waited quietly.

“I was six when she left.  It
was a Saturday morning, so everybody was sleeping late, but I woke up.  My room
was the closest to the living room and the front door, and I remember hearing
noises.  Not the usual sound of my dad or brothers getting up, but more like
someone was
trying
to be quiet.  I distinctly remember thinking that,
and it made me curious.  So I crawled out of bed and snuck into the living room
where the noise was coming from.”

Shayna paused and inhaled
deeply as the visceral memory came into sharp focus once again.

“There she was, Abigail
Montgomery, placing bags near the front door and looking around as if she was
taking one last inventory.  She took all but one bag out to the car and then
came back for the last one.  That’s when she saw me crouched by the sofa, and
she covered her mouth before she made a noise.  I remember that she looked
scared, and then she smiled and knelt down, holding her finger up against her
lips and motioning me to come to her, which I happily did.  She held my face in
her hands first and then took my hands in hers, pulling me closer.  She kept
smiling at me and then she tucked some hair behind my ear and whispered, ‘It’s
still early, baby girl, you need to go back to bed and not wake anybody up. 
Mommy has to go do some things, but if you’re a really good girl and don’t wake
anybody up, I’ll bring your favorite donuts home for breakfast.  Okay, baby
girl?  Now go back to bed and be really, really quiet for Mommy.’”  Shayna’s
voice had become hard and bitter as she repeated her mother’s final words.

When she spoke next, her tone
was soft and distant.  “Who does that?  Who looks her six-year old daughter in
the eyes and says that?  Who lies that easily?”  Shayna paused.  “Abigail
Montgomery, that’s who,” Shayna answered in a bruised voice, pinching at the
bridge of her nose and then shook her head clear of the old painful memories,
inhaling and exhaling deeply.

“So, I fully admit that my
early experience with a consummate liar undoubtedly changed me.  Abigail
Montgomery showed me that when someone who claims to love you can lie to your
face so shamelessly, and hurt you so deeply, you shouldn’t believe them.  Don’t
doubt yourself—doubt
them
and their words in the future, when they try
to excuse and justify their behavior.”  She breathed out in contempt.  “So, as
useless as my mother was, at least she taught me something—and I’ll be damned
if I will ever apologize for paying attention and learning my lesson.  Frank
and Abigail can both go to hell.”

Shayna jumped when she felt
Sean’s arms encircle her, pulling her back firmly against his chest.  At some point,
she must have gotten up, because she found herself now standing at the cable
railing overlooking the lake.  When had she done that?  Closing her eyes
tightly, she inhaled and slowly shook her head.

“Did she ever try to contact
you after that?” Sean asked tentatively.  Shayna pulled him tighter around her,
dropping her head back against his chest and releasing a sigh.

“Oh, yeah.  When she found
out I’d come into a lot of money.”  She felt Sean stiffen.  “Boy, the remorse
was free flowing then.  She should’ve been an actress.  Her contrition was
Oscar worthy.”

“Jesus Christ, Shay,” Sean
breathed out, squeezing her.  “Your brothers are seriously working things out
with her?”

She shrugged against him.  “It’s
their call, Sean.  I’m staying out of it.  They don’t like my decision not to
give her another chance, especially Jackson, and that’s why they’ve been giving
me the cold shoulder for a while now.  It’ll blow over, eventually.  I’m sure
of it.”

Nuzzling her ear, Sean said
softly, “Sorry about coming off like a prick earlier, Shay.  I really didn’t
mean—”

Shayna cut him off with a
kiss as she turned, raking her fingers through his dark brown hair and pulling
him down to her.

“You were right.  He wants to
cause doubts and friction.  I should’ve told you, but I simply didn’t want to
talk about him.  That’s
really
all there was to it.  I’m just so pissed
at him, and Dani.  I don’t like being played or bullied.”

Sean bit absently at his
bottom lip and appeared to be deciding whether to speak.  “What if you gave him
what he wanted?  Do you think he’d leave you alone then?”  Shayna felt
dumbstruck and Sean apparently read her expression.  “I’m talking
airtime
,
Shay.  What if you let him say whatever it is that he needs to say?  Do you
think he’d back off?”

Shayna’s brows pinched as she
shook her head and breathed out in exasperation.

“It might be good for you too.”

“You must be kidding,” she
murmured, shaking her head.

“I’m not talking second
chances here—
you know that
.  But have you ever thought hearing him out,
saying your peace, might be good for
you
?”

“No,” she said simply.  “I
can’t believe you’d even suggest it.”

“I don’t think I would’ve
until today.”  He stroked her cheek gently.  “But I can hear the tension in
your voice and feel it in your body, Shay.  You haven’t let go either.”

She just stared into his guileless
eyes looking as if she was about to contradict his words, but finding herself
unable to speak.

“Between your mother and your
ex, and what happened to your first husband—you’ve had three pretty important relationships
end very badly without any closure.  Maybe there never really can be, but don’t
you have questions of your own that you want answered, just for the sake of
answers—even though it wouldn’t change anything?”

Shayna blinked slowly and
swallowed, considering what Sean was suggesting.  “Since when did you become
Dr. Phil?”

His brows quirked and his
lips twitched in a grin.  “Who?”

“Never mind,” she said,
shaking her head and looking away over Lake Indigo.

Sean wrapped his arms around
her, pulling her back into his warmth.  “Hearing someone out doesn’t mean
you’re weak or giving them a pass, Shay.”  He gently rubbed his chin across the
top of her silky blonde hair.  Shayna had become unusually quiet, and still. 
“Watching my dad deal with business associates and vendors taught me that early
on.  Living in that cramped apartment with my parents, seeing how they worked
together twenty-four-seven in the restaurant, dealing with the ups and downs,
just drove the point home further.  I couldn’t have asked for better parents,
and that doesn’t mean they were perfect—far from it.  Perfection is an illusion
anyway, and a waste of time.  My parents were
real. 
Flawed.  And, damn
it, they loved each other through all the good and bad.  They never wavered on
that.  My dad wasn’t sick a day in his life, but he died within six months of
my mom.  I know it’s because he didn’t want to be here without her.”