“And if I marry you, you’ll save Wade.”

  One step and then the next, Van walked me backward until I was sandwiched between him and tall cabinets. Despite his obvious size advantage, I refused to believe no matter how worked up he’d become, that Van would hurt me. I lifted my chin, maintaining our eye contact.

  His words came slower, more spaced. “I could save Wade right now, Julia. One press release announcing our engagement. No marriage yet. You said you weren’t ready for that. Only an announced engagement. Giving that information to the world would be the simple gesture that would change everything. We tell the world that you, the Wade heiress, and Donovan Sherman are now engaged. We’ll tell them that I have secured enough stock that together with you, we’ll not only maintain but improve Wade Pharmaceutical...that statement is all it would take. I’m not bribing you. I don’t pretend. I’m not a frat boy who has led you on with an agreement and fucked your best friend.” He pressed himself against me. “I don’t know your friend and I don’t want her. I want you.”

  My mouth felt dry. “You’ve had me, Van.”

  “One taste of you, ten tastes, one hundred tastes...It will never be enough. That’s who I am. I always want more. I won’t be satisfied until we’re dead.”

  “What?”

  “Until our last breath, Julia. I can never have enough of you. I’m already addicted. I could fucking take you right now against this cabinet and again after dinner, and I’d want more.”

  I summoned my courage to ask one of my million questions. “Have you ever been married?” When his eyes narrowed, I added, “I would understand. Millions of people marry and divorce and find someone else. I would suspect that someone your—”

  “Age,” Van said, completing my sentence. “You keep bringing that up. Does my age bother you?”

  I shook my head, answering him honestly. “It doesn’t. I want to know you and know about you before I agree to marry.”

  “Agree to marry and then get to know me. Agree to marry me and tomorrow before the markets close for the holiday weekend, Wade will set records for its turnaround.”

  “No wedding date?” I asked.

  “No date. You tell your parents you’re living here, and together we tell the world we’re getting married.”

  So many thoughts were running through my brain. “If I announce my engagement before the date of my canceled wedding, the world will blame me for what happened with Skylar. They’ll think it was me who found someone else. I did, but the canceled wedding wasn’t my fault.”

  He tilted his head as his palm came gently to my cheek. “Who gives a fuck what the world thinks?”

  “I guess maybe I do.”

  “You shouldn’t. Don’t. What others think of you is irrelevant. You’re strong and determined. You’re smart and beautiful. Whatever misconception the world has doesn’t matter. They’ll judge no matter what you do. You can’t win with them, don’t try. Agree to the engagement and I promise Wade will turn around.”

  “Will you sell when it’s high?”

  “What happens to Wade is immaterial to me. The only thing I give a shit about regarding Wade Pharmaceutical is you. Do you want Wade to fail?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t think I cared, that all I wanted was to write and explore the world...but now, hearing Dad’s voice...I do care. I don’t want Wade to fail. I don’t want to see what my family for generations has worked to achieve be devalued and sold for nothing.”

  “Then...?”

  I blinked as I contemplated my next sentence. There were so many unknowns about Donovan Sherman. However, I reasoned that this was only an engagement. I’d broken one of those off before. “I will agree to an engagement.”

  Van’s lips captured mine.

  When he pulled back, he grinned. “Fucking, dinner, more fucking, and then I’ll call my press secretary. A statement will go out first thing in the morning before the markets open.”

  I smiled at Van’s timeline. “I should call my parents.”

  He looked at the clock. “Do your parents stay up until after ten?”

  “Yes.”

  “You can call your parents when I call my press secretary.” Taking a deep breath, I nodded. “Turn around, beautiful. I’m removing those soft black pants.”

  My pulse quickened. “Van.”

  “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

  Turning toward the cabinet, I splayed my fingers over the ivory surface as Van reached for each soft sock, removing them one by one, and then he reached for the waistband of my black pants. Soon the pants and my panties were lost to the kitchen floor. My insides twisted with anticipation as I heard the click of his belt buckle and sound of his zipper only moments before his large hands seized my hips and his foot spread my legs.

  Looking down, I saw his shiny loafer and the hem of his suit pants.

  I came to my toes as my back arched and my lips opened, and I let out a moan. Without foreplay or so much as a check to see if I was wet—I was—Van drove deep inside me. My body clamped down around him as my forehead fell to the cabinet.

  His shoes were again in my line of vision—his shoes and my bare feet. Van was fucking me while still mostly dressed.

  In the kitchen.

  The ferociousness of his initial invasion now satisfied, Van’s thrusts took on a rhythm that I could anticipate. In and out. Closing my eyes, I saw us last night on the dining room table. I recalled the beauty of his cock moving in and out of me. With my hands on the cabinet, I pushed back against his thrusts, bending further at the waist, taking every inch of what he was giving me.

  Despite his rule of controlling what happened during sex, I was hardly helpless in this encounter.

  If I were to admit it to myself, I was also becoming addicted to this unexplainable connection we shared.

  Van fisted my ponytail and pulled my head back. His warm breath came to the sensitive skin near my ear. “You’re mine now, Julia. All of you.” He gripped tighter, using my hair like reins as he thrust in and out. “You’re perfect, perfect in every way. You feel so fucking tight. I’m the only one who ever comes in your pussy, ever.”

  I nodded the best I could, hearing his words while distracted by his actions.

  My thoughts were consumed with the stretch and friction of his thrusts. Van filled me in a way I’d never imagined was possible.

  Releasing my hair, Van’s hand came to my neck, keeping my head tipped back. “Say it.”

  “It feels good.”

  He pulled my neck back farther. “You’re mine. Say it. Tell me who else has ever or will ever feel how good it is to be inside you.”

  I struggled to breathe and yet his rhythm continued. “I’m yours, Van. Only you. Only you.”

  His grasp of my neck loosened, and his lips brushed my sensitive skin.

  My thoughts tried to sway, to think about what others would think of our sudden engagement and to worry about all the unknowns about Van, but his attention and devotion to my satisfaction washed those thoughts away as well as anything not connected to the here and now.

  Beneath my top, his large hands began to roam, tugging each breast from the lace cups of my bra, tweaking my hard nipples, and moving lower, swirling my clit. His mouth was also engaged, kissing, licking, and nipping. I was on sensory overload as my body began to tremble and we both came.

  Again, my forehead fell to the cabinet as my knees weakened. After our union ended, Van spun me around and picked me up, cradling me to his wide chest. He sat me back on the kitchen counter. As his eyes met mine, he teased loose strands of my fair hair away from my face, put himself back in his boxer briefs, and secured the button on his pants.

  “I can’t tell you what you do to me,” he said as he spread my knees and his gaze went to my core. “Fucking perfect.” Before I could say a word, Van went to the sink and dampened a paper towel.

  Wordlessly, I watched as he came back and gently tended to me.

  The contrast in Van’s unbridled passion versus this gentler caretaker was as different as night was to day. And yet as I leaned back on my arms as he prompted and he cleaned the evidence of this recent encounter, I had the revelation that Donovan Sherman wasn’t one man who I could learn about in a few days. There were too many sides to him. The mysteries wouldn’t go away, but with time, maybe I’d learn the secrets they kept buried.

  Once Van was satisfied, he helped me off the counter and proceeded to clean the cool granite.

  My large sweater hung to the middle of my thighs. After retrieving my socks, panties, and pants, I stood and my gaze met Van’s. “Is there any sense in putting these back on?”

  His smile warmed something within me. “That’s up to you. I don’t mind taking them off again.”

  I scanned him from his dark mane to his shiny shoes. “You’re still completely dressed.”

  “Does that bother you?”

  “I mean, I like looking at you when you’re—” I was going to say naked, but honestly, Van was sexy no matter what.

  “When I’m...?”

  Leaving my clothes on one of the stools, I went to him, wrapping my arms around his torso and looked up. “That was hot.” Warmth filled my cheeks. “I like looking at you. Period. That’s the end of my sentence, Van. I find you attractive in these clothes, your mountain-man clothes, and no clothes at all.”

  He kissed the top of my head. “I believe dinner was next on our agenda.”

  I smiled. He had said ‘fucking, dinner, more fucking, then calls.’

  “I can warm up one of Mrs. Mayhand’s dinners,” I volunteered. “I was about to do that when you came home.”

  Van handed me my glass of wine. “Sit, beautiful. I like taking care of you.”

  Julia

  “Is everything all right?” my mother asked. “Are you on your way home? Do you need our help?”

  I inhaled as I sat straighter, my phone in hand. While Van had gone to his office to call his press secretary, I’d stayed in my suite. We’d maintained the schedule Van had stated earlier in the evening—fucking, dinner, and more fucking. The second round was in my suite, in my bed. Now, after enough time to gather my breath and clean up, wearing only a robe, I stepped from the bedroom and into the sitting room with my phone in hand.

  “Mom, please get Dad. I want to talk to both of you.”

  “Julia, tell me,” she pursued, “is this something bad?”

  “No.” I shook my head, trying to believe my own words.

  What I was about to tell them wasn’t bad.

  It was a shock.

  “Please get Dad,” I repeated.

  “I’m here,” he said.

  “You’re on speaker,” Mom added.

  I sat on one of the soft chairs, pulled my bare feet to the cushion and wrapped the robe around my knees. “I don’t really know how to start this.”

  “Oh, Julia,” Mom said, her voice filled with emotion. “Don’t do anything rash. What Beth and Skylar did isn’t your fault.”

  What?

  “I know that, Mom.”

  “I’ve spoken to Beth. She wants to talk to you.”

  I rolled my eyes. I’d seen her name on my missed calls and texts. I’d deleted the texts without reading them and obviously hadn’t returned her calls. “I don’t want to talk to her. She can have Skylar; he’s a consolation prize anyway. I hope they make each other insanely happy.”

  “She’s hoping you two can work through this.”

  My head shook. “Honestly, Beth is going to be a mother. Maybe she should stop being so selfish. She got Skylar. She can’t have me too.”

  “But, dear,” Mom went on, “the two of you have been best friends since you were little girls.”

  “I didn’t call to talk about Beth or Skylar, and I’m not coming home, not right away. I left Chicago because I wasn’t ready to face everyone. Not because I was guilty but because I didn’t want to see the pity.”

  “You know you have a home with us,” Dad said.

  I had been living back in my childhood home since graduating from Northwestern. “Technically, I suppose I have a home with Skylar too. I suppose I need an attorney to look into that.” I gathered my breath. “Again, none of this is why I’m calling.” Before they could interrupt again, I went on. “The day I drove to Ashland, I was caught in a blizzard.”

  “What?” Mom gasped.

  “Mom, obviously, I’m fine. But that night, I slid and ran the rental car off the road and into a snowbank. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere.” I thought about that. It wasn’t the middle of nowhere. It was the outskirts of where I was now.

  “Julia,” Dad said, “why didn’t you call us?”

  “Well, as luck would have it, there was no cell service. Not wanting to freeze to death in the car, I took off walking.” The memories came back. “A man found me.”

  “Oh no.”

  “He was a good man. He is,” I corrected. “He saved me. He took me to a nearby cabin and well” —I left out a few details— “neither of us knew one another. A few days later when I went to the job interview...well...it turned out that the job I came up here to explore is working for him, writing his memoir.”

  “Who is he?” Dad asked.

  “You’re working for the man who saved you?” Mom asked.

  “Yes,” I replied, answering my mother. “I’m working for him. Dad, he’s also the buyer of the shares in Wade.”

  My dad’s voice hardened. “Who is this man?”

  “Dad, he’s the reason I know about Marlin. I know that he was playing you, using me, and possibly using Skylar as a pawn to sell Wade out from under all of us. The jury is out on what Skylar knew.”

  “No,” my mom said. “That isn’t true. Whoever this man is, he’s feeding you lies, Julia. Come home. Everyone who knows the truth about what happened understands why you postponed the wedding.”

  “I didn’t postpone it.” The meal we’d recently eaten churned in my stomach. “And I don’t want the whole world to know.”

  “It’s not the whole world. It’s the people who matter. Even so, Skylar and Beth were wrong, but the Butlers have been our friends since before you were born. Marlin wouldn’t do what you’re suggesting. The person who bought the shares is responsible for the current state of Wade.”

  “Julia.” Dad’s voice was growing sterner by the minute. “What is the name of the man who bought twenty-one percent of Wade stock?”

  “His name is Donovan Sherman.”

  My mother’s gasp was all I heard.

  Does my mother know him?

  Does my father?

  Or do they only know Van’s reputation?

  “Dad, I’m telling you that despite what you may have heard about Van, he’s not trying to destroy Wade. He’s trying to help.”

  “Julia,” Mom said, “I’m texting the pilot. We can get a company plane to you in a few hours.” She spoke to my father. “Do you know how close we can land to Ashland?”

  “Mom,” I interjected, “I’m not leaving, not yet. I’m going to stay here with Van.”

  “That man will ruin us and ruin you,” Dad said. “That’s what he does.”

  “He won’t ruin me,” I replied. “I know his reputation and that’s what he usually does, but this time he has an incentive to help Wade.”

  “What?” Dad asked. “Why would he help us?”

  “Van will help because I agreed to marry him.” I let out a long breath. My parents were talking, yet all I could hear was a buzz of relief. Now that I’d said the words, the tension tightening my muscles since I hit the call button began to dissipate, flowing away.

  Maybe my concern was telling others, not actually being engaged again.

  “Julia, this is too soon. You’re on a rebound and that man is taking advantage of you.”

  Van had taken advantage of me but not in the way Mom meant and not in a way I minded.

  “Van asked me to marry him. Together we’ll have controlling interest in Wade. With Van’s help Wade will thrive. He won’t hurt it.”

  I wasn’t certain if the phone on the other end had disconnected or if it was suddenly muted.

  “Mom? Dad?”

  It was Dad’s voice I heard first. His tone was eerily calm. “You don’t need to do that, sweetheart. Now that we know who bought the stock, and even without your and Skylar’s marriage, Marlin and I will move forward.”

  “Forward? With what?”

  “We came up with a plan. We can combine our stock under a legal umbrella. Together, we and the Butlers can fight whatever Sherman does. Forget about working for him or for God’s sake, marrying a man you don’t know—”

  “I do know him, Dad. I know him, and I trust him, more than I trust Marlin. Do not combine your shares with him. Those are my shares. I don’t want you to do that.”

  “Little girl, it’s the only way to show the banks and investors that we’re strong and withstand this attempted coup.”

  “I’m not a little girl, Dad.” I stood and paced by the fireplace and windows. “It’s not a coup. Van is talking to his press secretary right now. Tomorrow before the markets open, the world will know that he bought the stock and that despite his history, he wants Wade Pharmaceutical to succeed because he’s marrying me.”

  “Julia,” Mom said, “I texted the pilot. He said we can fly directly to a small airport in Ashland. He needs to get the plane ready and file a flight plan. Once we take off, we can be there in an hour and a half.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t want you to come here.”

  Mom’s voice lowered. “Has he hurt you?”

  He left a hickey on my left breast. I didn’t say that. “No, Van hasn’t hurt me. He’s helped me. He’s listened and now he wants to help with Wade.”

  “Marlin,” Dad said, “will never agree to this.”

  “It isn’t Marlin’s decision.”