Feel The Fire (Unforgettable Series) (6 page)

But she didn’t move.

When Imani squeezed her stuffed Leap Frog and the alphabet jingle echoed off the bathroom tiles, Ophelia finally jarred out of her reverie and marched out of the bathroom. However, the moment her hand turned the office door, a nest of butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

Michelle sat at her desk, her fingers flying over her keyboard while she talked simultaneously into her headset. However, all movement ceased when she looked up at the office’s new visitor.

Ophelia fluttered a nervous smile. The two women were more than acquainted. Ophelia was Jonas’s employee before she was his runaway bride.

“Hello, Michelle,” she greeted, forcing more cheerfulness than was necessary. Her first sign that things weren’t going to go so well was when the woman didn’t respond. Instead, she just glanced her over her like Ophelia was some troublesome loiterer and she was debating whether to call the police. “Um, is Jonas in?”

“Tariq, let me call you back,” Michelle punched a button and removed her headset. “Actually, you just missed him.”

“Oh.” Ophelia glanced down at the stroller, reeling from the woman’s coldness. “Well, um, can you at least tell him that I stopped by?”

Ophelia froze at the sound of Jonas’s voice, and then slowly glanced over her shoulder. Not surprising, her ex-fiancé was as handsome as ever and his sudden presence dominated the room. She expected to experience a ripple of guilt when she saw him again, but what she got instead was a tidal wave.

Jonas’s shocked gaze roamed over her as if he didn’t trust his eyes.

“Jonas,” she whispered, and then shot an accusatory glare at Michelle. “You
are
here.”

Undaunted at being caught in a lie, Michelle returned her attention to her computer and gave a lousy performance of minding her own business.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, finding his voice.

Ophelia drew a deep breath and summoned a small batch of courage. “I came to ask you to back off.”

Toni rewarded Sterling with a smile when he held out her chair for her at Houston’s. Chivalry should not be over looked in this day and age and so far Jonas’s younger brother had it in spades.

“This must be my lucky day,” he said, taking his seat. “A trip to one of my favorite cities and now lunch with a beautiful woman.”

“Handsome
and
charismatic,” she noted. “I must be experiencing a little luck myself.” When he flashed a smile, she experienced small jolt of disappointment that he didn’t inherit his older brother’s adorable dimples.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“Um, no.” She made a half attempt to wave off his concerns. “I was just thinking...forgive me.”

Sterling grimaced. “If your mind is wandering then that means that I should double up on the charm.” He leaned toward her. “Has anyone ever told you that your eyes sparkle like diamonds?”

Cheesy but cute.

“And you’re even more beautiful when you smile?”

Toni marveled over the differences between the two brothers. Whereas Jonas was guarded and even a bit moody, Sterling was open and available. However, try as she might, she couldn’t get herself to stop comparing the two and preferring the eldest.

With Jonas she was boldly flirtatious, with Sterling she felt reserved and dared she say: stifled?

Sterling struck her more as a model Boy Scout-too good to be true.

After the waiter appeared and then reappeared with their drink order, Sterling continued to pile on the compliments and winning so many brownie points that Toni accepted a second date.

When one door closes another one opens, right?

“Maybe we should take this into my office?” Jonas offered, and then turned to Michelle. “Hold my calls.”

Michelle’s lips puckered like she’d been sucking on a lemon. “You’re the boss.”

Ophelia wheeled the stroller around, took another deep breath and marched into Jonas’s office. With each step, the knots in her stomach tightened and her heart rate climbed to a dangerous level. Out of all the emotions swirling inside of her, so far she had managed to keep regret at a manageable distance.

However, if her husband ever found out that she was here...

Jonas closed the door behind them. “I have to say you’re certainly looking good. Marriage agrees with you.” His gaze swept down to the sleeping baby inside the stroller and a soft smile tugged his lips. “Or is it motherhood?” He glided past her and took his seat behind the desk. “Now what’s all this talk about me backing off?”

“Why did you buy Warner’s interest in Solomon’s company?”

“C’mon, Ophelia. You’ve always known that I’m a voracious businessman. I go where the opportunities and the money lead me. This time, it just so happened to lead me straight to T&B Entertainment.”

Jonas sat back in his chair; his gaze roamed the length of her like a habit he couldn’t break-or didn’t want to break. “Letting you go was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. I’ll admit that.” He braided his fingers. “I’m not accustomed to being embarrassed in front of six hundred friends and family.”

“So this is all about us?”

“All? No.” He smiled.

Ophelia stared, contemplating her next chess move. Logic wouldn’t appeal to a man motivated by emotion. “What happened between us wasn’t intentional. I did care for you. And-”

“Spare me.” Jonas stood and eyed her cagily as he moved around his desk and leaned against one corner. “We’ve already been over this ground. I’m such a good man and one day I’ll make some lucky woman a wonderful husband blah, blah, blah. I remember the speech.”

“Then what?” she snapped. “What do you
really
want from us?”

“I want...” He checked his anger and then smiled benignly. “I want just a little satisfaction. You and Solomon have been living happily-ever-after for the last eighteen months while my world has been turned upside down. I want you both to feel what I feel-just for a little while.” He snapped his fingers as if suddenly remembering something else. “And to make a little money in the process.”

Jonas’s door flew open as Solomon breezed into the office and stopped short when his eyes landed on Jonas and Ophelia. “What the hell?”

Chapter 7

Out of all the duties that Michelle had to engage in over the years, one she hadn’t expected was to act as referee and break up a fight. No sooner had Solomon barreled his way past her did the man launch at her employer’s throat. Granted, Jonas had it coming since they’d walked in on him about to kiss his attacker’s wife.

In order: Jonas writhed on the floor, Solomon was scrawled on top of him with a fierce choke hold, Michelle hopped on Solomon’s back and hooked an arm around his neck in a less effective choke hold, Ophelia stood above everyone screaming for them to stop, while lastly, the baby woke and was wailing at the top of her lungs.

All in all, a circus no matter how you looked at it.

More voices thundered into the room, but no one paid them any attention. However, the next thing Michelle knew, she was plucked off Solomon’s back and set aside. Another pair of arms broke Solomon’s firm grip on Jonas’s neck.

Solomon launched at him again, but Marcel tightened his grip and threw his whole body into keeping them apart. “Calm down, man. Calm down. We came here to make peace, remember?”

Finally Solomon stopped struggling and tossed his hands up in surrender. However, his accusing stare found Ophelia again. “And why did you come here? I remember specifically telling you not to.”

His wife’s chin came up in clear defiance, and though she held her tongue, her eyes flashed with the promise that their argument would continue at another time.

“Maybe you all should leave,” Q suggested. “Come back when everyone has cooled off.”

“I think that’s probably best,” Marcel readily agreed, his own anger stabbing both Solomon and Ophelia. “I’ll have Chelsea call and arrange a meeting.”

Minutes later, Marcel successfully ushered his friends out of the office and left the Hinton brothers and Michelle alone to stare at one another.

“Man, I can’t leave you alone for a moment,” Q burst with a hearty laugh.

Jonas rubbed at his neck, a red welt visible against his light complexion, and his busted lip bleeding again. “If you’d waited another minute, you’d be joking with a corpse right about now.”

“That’s usually the penalty for kissing a man’s wife,” Michelle chirped, and turned toward the door. “I’m taking the afternoon off. I need to rest my nerves.”

Q turned toward one of the empty chairs and eased into it. “So you’re kissing married women now?” His eyes twinkled as he laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of you, bro.”

“You have no idea how much that disturbs me.” Still rubbing his neck, Jonas returned to his desk and reviewed what had just happened. He hadn’t intended to kiss Ophelia. It was just that the urge came out of nowhere.

What did it mean?

Was he still not over her?

He shook his head. Maybe it was curiosity instead of attraction. When she stood before him, his body hadn’t reacted the same way as it did when Toni was in his office.

With Toni, he hadn’t so much as touch the woman and he’d been aroused to the point he wanted to knock everything off his desk and wrap those gorgeous legs of hers around his waist. Suddenly the room’s temperature skyrocketed during his fantasy.

It was and it wasn’t. It had been eighteen months and he could finally say that he was no longer in love with Ophelia. “Yes,” he said, nodding.

Quentin’s smile spread wider. “You old dog. I knew you had it in you.”

Jonas just laughed. “Where’s Sterling? I thought we all were going out to lunch?”

“He should have already been here. He left before I did.” Q glanced at his watch. “We don’t have to wait for him, do we? I’m starving.”

“No. We can just call him on his cell phone on the way to the restaurant. He can just meet us over there.” Jonas stood. “It’s not like Sterling to be late. A woman must have caught his eye.”

“Please.” Q laughed. “Sterling is so straight-laced he wouldn’t know what to do with a beautiful woman if one leaped into his arms.”

Jonas did his best to clean up before he and Q headed out to lunch, but there was only so much one could do with a busted lip, a swollen neck and rumbled suit.

Quentin found the whole thing funny and emphasized how much he wished he could have been a fly on the wall.

“C’mon, man. It isn’t like I’ve seen anyone kick your ass before,” he goaded as they walked through the doors of Houston’s. “Sterling came close that one time, remember? It was right after you stole his girlfriend and took her to the prom.”

Affronted, Jonas’s chest puffed out. “For the last time, I didn’t steal Tracy Mathis from him. He never even told the girl he liked her. She was free game.”

“Uh-huh. You’d ever think that Solomon stealing your girl from right under your nose was the universe’s way of giving back what you put out?”

“Since when did you start believing in karma?”

Q shrugged. “This one chick I was seeing back in um...April...or was it February? Anyway, she was real cool. Really into this spiritual stuff.”

Jonas sighed. “What was her name?”

His baby brother’s face drew a blank, just as he knew it would. “If this karma stuff is true then I don’t want to be anywhere around you when you start getting your comeuppance.”