One White Lie: Barrington Billionaire's Series: Book One (5 page)

“Damn, that was as sweet as I remember, and why I never could forget you,” Brice said while still holding her.

Coming back to her senses, his words hit home, cutting her to the core. Lena knew this was a mistake even before he spoke. But with everything they had shared in the past,
this
was what he remembers? Had it only been a sexual fulfillment for him back then?
How could I have been so foolish to fall into the same trap? I mean nothing to him but great sex
.

She wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of seeing how hurt she was. In fact, she wasn’t even going to acknowledge it was a mind-blowing experience for her. Picking up her clothes from the floor, she began to dress.

Once they were dressed Brice said, “Have dinner with me and spend the night.”

If he thought this one-time lapse in judgment was going to get her back in his bed, picking up where they left off, he was out of his flipping mind. Meeting his gaze, she said flatly, “I have plans.”

“Break them.”

Not for all the gold in the world.
“Brice, this was a one-time-only mistake. I don’t plan on letting it happen again. I think it’s best if we keep our personal life and business life separate.”

He reached out for her hand and pulled her up against him. “Say what you want now, Lena, but you felt it, too.”

Oh, I did. God, it was wonderful. Amazing.
But that changed nothing. Three years she’d worked to forget he even existed. Now her body still tingled from his touch.

She could hear the phone ringing at her desk. Pulling her hand free she said, “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to finish.”

The room was filled with his laughter as she walked out of the office.
Damn you, Brice Henderson. Why did I let you do this to me? Again.
Sitting at her desk gathering her things, she realized it wasn’t him, it was her. She had wanted him and had practically begged him to make love to her. Why should he think any differently now?
Oh, what have I done?
It had felt so good to be in his arms again, to have him inside her. Even better than she had remembered, and it was fantastic then.
How was that possible?
But the man who’d tossed her aside so easily was the same driven and ambitious man who had just fucked her senseless.
Why had he pursued me? He’d discarded me so easily before. Is that his plan now?
She was angered with herself for allowing this to happen.
I’m worth so much more than that. It will not be repeated. Ever.

T
hankfully the bus ride back home to Plymouth wasn’t the normal overcrowded trip for a Friday night. That would’ve made the already dreaded experience of a weekend in her childhood home all the more difficult.

Home wasn’t a horrible place. She loved growing up in a small town. She could ride her bike freely.
As free as one can get with two older brothers watching my every move.
There was one negative about it. In such a small community, everyone knew everything about everyone and news traveled quickly.
Especially bad news
.

She knew, without a doubt, what was about to happen. People who she had not seen since she was pregnant would approach her with forced smiles to tell her what a charming and cute child Nicholas was. He was a cutie, but Lena knew their interest was more than how much he had grown. They were on a fishing expedition, and each one of them wanted to be the one who brought back the biggest catch.
The latest and greatest for the gossip hotline
.

Lena had never cared what others thought or said about her. And over the last few years she’d given them a reason to gossip. Eventually, all the chatter would find its way to her parents. That only increased the odds of her parents getting all riled up on the one subject that caused them to argue each time they saw each other.
Nicholas’s father.
She’d never told them his name and why they persisted in asking was beyond her.

It didn’t help that they believed the father was someone in Plymouth. Each time she had returned home her mother insisted on talking about men around her age and watching for her reaction, in case she gave away her little secret. Would they ever understand Nicholas was better off without him in his life?
Probably not.

Nicholas lay sound asleep across her seat, his head on her lap. Lena brushed his dark curls from his forehead.
We should be there soon.
The trip from Boston took only an hour, but with a child who was full of energy when she picked him up from daycare, it seemed much longer. She had tried reading to him, then singing to him, but nothing would quiet him for some reason. He was too young to understand where they were going, so that couldn’t be the issue.

Could it be he sensed her anxiety from her encounter with Brice? She had tried to shake it off before picking him up. She tried telling herself it meant nothing, only a temporary lapse in judgment, but that wasn’t the truth. When he’d opened the door that very first day and their eyes had met, she’d known she was lost. No matter how hard she tried to tell herself she was over him, hated him, it was far from the truth. Brice was her first and only love.
Unfortunately, I was not his.

The bus driver announced their arrival over the microphone. Nicholas was so exhausted he didn’t even flinch.
Poor baby. It’s been a rough week for you too, hasn’t it?
Pulling him into her arms, she wrapped him in the blanket and departed. Her oldest brother Gary was waiting there to meet them.

He grabbed her bags from her hands and said, “The folks are still out shopping. I don’t know what is up, but Mom had Dad clear out my old room.” He turned and looked at Lena. “Are you moving back or something?”

God no.
Her heart pounded in her chest. She hoped her parents weren’t planning on her staying. She agreed to a weekend. No more. Living in their house would mean living by their rules. She wasn’t great at following them when she was younger, and that hadn’t improved with age. “Gary, I’m thirty years old and have a child. Do you think I would survive a week, never mind a month, living here?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. His expression said it all. Gary had been the first to leave the house right after college. He may still live locally, but not
with
them.

“So what do you think they’re planning then?”

Lena buckled Nicholas in the car seat in the back and hopped in beside him. “Your guess is as good as mine. You know Mom. When she gets her mind fixed on something, she won’t stop until she gets her way. Maybe she is going to finally make that sewing room she has been talking about for years. Dad always hated having all her supplies all over the dining room table on Tuesday nights when her quilting buddies came over.”
Please let it be that. I don’t need more pressure than I have already.

Gary nodded. “You could be right.”

By his tone she knew he didn’t buy that either. Her mother was up to something and, unfortunately, it had to do with her and Nicholas. Looks like this is going to be a long weekend.
Why did I agree to come?

Everyone had gone home, and the lab was quiet. Exactly how he liked to work. The formula was testing positive on all counts. Things really couldn’t be looking any better at this point. He hadn’t heard from Asher all week, and he took that as a good sign. Normally when he called it was to confirm everything was still on target. Brice wasn’t someone who needed to be monitored. It pissed him off each time Asher called and questioned him on the status. “You handle your end of the business and let me worry about mine,” Brice had said.
Guess he got the message.

With all the distractions today he thought he wouldn’t be able to accomplish shit, but surprisingly he was able to get several uninterrupted hours of data into the computer.
God knows I needed them.
His staff was reliable, yet when under pressure, they became jumpy. When he’d walked over to speak to one of the chemists earlier, he had been so nervous he’d almost dropped the laptop he was carrying. Brice knew he had become more demanding as time went on, but everyone knew that before they signed up for this job.
I don’t pretend to be anything I’m not.
He was, after all, his father’s son.

Leaning back in his chair, he let his mind wander, thinking how his father had looked lying in that hospital bed. Was Zoey right? Was his father so ill he wasn’t going to pull through? He had wanted to ask the doctors his status, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. No matter how bad things were between them, that was his father, and he should care.
Then why don’t I?

Brice didn’t deny things were bad between them, but over the last few years he’d rarely thought about it. It was the choice he had made: to put all of that in the past and only look toward his future. It seemed like only yesterday they had their blow-out fight, and he’d walked out of his father’s office.
How had three years gone by so quickly
? His father looked like he’d aged twenty years, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen his youngest brother, Dean, never mind his other three brothers. The only one he kept in contact with was Zoey.
And that was because she wouldn’t stop until I took her call.

He was sure they understood; they had grown up in that same household. Each and every one of them had physical or emotional scars from the abuse. Some of them more than others. How they were allowed to stay with their father was beyond him. Maybe being one of the richest men on the East Coast gave him the connections to pay off the right people to stay away and shut up.
Money covered a multitude of sins, and with Dad, I’m surprised he didn’t dole out every cent he had.
Whatever it was that kept them all together living in that house, their family had been anything but a happy one.
Never was and never would be a happy family.

That cold thought wasn’t something Zoey would ever admit. No, she pushed him to always look on the bright side of things. To forgive and forget. That might work for her, but it would never work for him. Brice’s scars weren’t visible, but the emotional ones ran deep, always worried he was more like his father than his siblings. For his entire life he had distanced himself from everyone. Never allowing anyone to get close.
Anyone except Lena.

There had been so many women before her, and he’d never looked at them with any serious intentions. He called on them only to occupy his nights then moved on. But from the moment Lena spilled her iced coffee down the front of his dress shirt, he’d been lost. Her dark eyes filled with embarrassment as she unsuccessfully tried to wipe it off. “I would take off mine and give it to you, but your chest is so broad, mine won’t fit.” Brice had been tempted to take her offer of her shirt right then, but he had sensed she was not as experienced as he was at that time.
But she had been a fast learner.

In a matter of weeks she had been able to penetrate the fortress he had built around himself. It was a time when he thought he had everything. A great job working for his father at Poly-Shyn and a hot and sexy young woman on his arm. But she was so much more than that. When he was with her, he felt like a different person. Yes, they had the most amazing sex he had ever experienced, but that was only one piece of their relationship. It had been a time when he relaxed, slowed down, spent quiet evenings doing nothing but enjoying her company.

That’s when I had the time to spare. There is no room for such things now.
If he hadn’t broken things off with her then, he wouldn’t be where he was today. Success came with sacrifices. Sacrifices he still intended to make. He wouldn’t allow everything he had worked hard for slip through his fingers. Yes, he’d had wanted her and felt sated for taking her.
It still was the best sex of his life.

The last thing he needed was the responsibility to care for another person. He was free to come and go as he pleased. No one hounding him about why he didn’t come home after work. He ate what he wanted, when he wanted, and did only things that pleased him.
If anyone has an issue with that, it’s their fucking problem. Not mine.

What would please him right now would be having Lena again. Closing his eyes, he could almost feel how silky soft she’d felt against him. Her body had always enticed him, but something was different. Her hips were rounder than he recalled, and her ass curved perfectly as he cupped it in his hands.
The one thing that hasn’t changed is how damn responsive she is when I touch her
.

He could feel his cock harden with need. Brice wanted her in his arms again, not later, but now.
Damn, why didn’t you take me up on my offer?
She said she had plans. After their hot little afternoon fuck, what could she possibly have found more enticing than going another round? She had said it was a one-time thing, but that was not what he wanted. He recalled a time when they’d spent an entire day in bed enjoying what each other had to offer. Had she forgotten?

He knew there was no way she was spending the weekend alone. But who was she with? If it was a boyfriend, he didn’t mean all that much to her, not the way she’d melted in his arms.

When he thought of some other man having her right now, it pulled at the pit of his stomach. Getting up from his desk, he pushed his chair back and walked out of the lab.
Damn you, Lena.
I closed that door years ago. I’m not going to open it again.
He wouldn’t care. She meant nothing to him. They were purely two people who needed their sexual needs released. Nothing more.