She leaned up and wrapped her arms around him. “I don’t have a problem with you being here, Mercury.”

  “Glad to hear it.” He then leaned in and captured her mouth with his.

  * * *

  Eli stared hard at his brother when Mercury opened the door to let him into Sloan’s apartment. “Why aren’t I surprised to find you here?”

  Mercury smiled. “I don’t know. Why aren’t you?”

  Before Eli could give a smart-ass answer to Mercury’s smart-ass question, Sloan came out of the kitchen, smiling. “Good morning, Eli. I just made a pot of coffee. Would you like a cup?”

  He smiled over at Sloan. “No, thanks. I had a cup earlier. I’d like to go into my report since I have another appointment in a couple of hours.”

  “Okay,” Sloan said, easing down on the sofa with Mercury sitting beside her. “What did Mr. Rivers have to say?”

  Eli slid down in the wingback chair opposite of them. “To protect you, the terms of your grandfather’s will stated that you will get the proceeds from your trust fund at thirty...unless you marry before then. Then you get it the day after you marry, to do with as you wish.”

  Sloan’s eyes widened in surprise. She hadn’t known. “So, Harold was right. My parents are banking on our marriage not only to combine the family’s wealth, but for me to bring a dowry.”

  “Yes, it looks that way,” Eli said, standing. “If you need me to do anything else, let me know. I like Charles Rivers. It’s obvious he intends to handle business the way your grandfather wanted him to do.”

  “Thanks, Eli,” she said, walking him to the door.

  When she returned to the living room, Mercury was standing in the middle of the floor. “Come here,” he said, opening his arms to her.

  She walked into them, needing a hug and grateful he was there to give her one. He tightened his hold on her and she snuggled closer to him. They’d made love again this morning and then they’d showered together. What she’d told him was true. He was a fantastic lover and had made her feel things she’d never felt before. Things she hadn’t thought she’d been capable of feeling.

  “Go out of town with me tomorrow.”

  She leaned back to look up at him. “You want me to go out of town with you?”

  “Yes. I’m flying to Dallas for a few days to meet with a potential client. I think getting away will do you good.”

  She didn’t want to think about just how good it would be with him. Another thing she didn’t want to think about was how she felt for Mercury.

  She loved him.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she accepted that, love or no love, a serious relationship was the last thing she needed. She was starting a new life and a new job. She needed time for herself without being crowded by emotions for someone else. But she knew loving Mercury wasn’t anything she could put on a shelf to take down when it was convenient.

  And she knew that, although she loved Mercury, he didn’t love her. Hadn’t he told her more than once that he could never love a woman? She had no reason not to take him at his word.

  Even so, the thought of spending a couple of days with him sounded nice.

  “Sloan?”

  She smiled. “I’d love to go to Dallas with you.”

  Twenty

  Mercury sat at his desk steepling his fingers while studying the beautiful view of the mountains outside his office window. Had it been two weeks since he’d persuaded Sloan to go out of town with him? Two whole weeks? He still thought about just how wonderful their trip to Dallas had been and how his life with her had changed since then.

  He had never invited a woman anywhere with him and had surprised himself by asking her. But once the shock had worn off, he’d looked forward to spending time with her. When it came to meeting people and putting them at ease, she’d been a natural. He was convinced Brock Dennison’s parents would not have entertained signing their son with Mercury if it hadn’t been for Sloan. The Dennisons were farmers, and not used to urban ways of life. Because she’d spent so much time with her grandfather on his farm in Texas, Sloan had been able to relate and put the Dennisons at ease. They had loved her.

  And he loved her.

  That admission had Mercury’s heart pounding hard in his chest. He closed his eyes, knowing he’d never expected to admit to feeling those emotions toward any woman ever again, yet here he was, admitting to loving a woman he’d known less than a month.

  At that moment she was a woman he couldn’t imagine living without.

  That was the reason why, since returning to Phoenix, he’d done everything to make her an intricate part of his life. He’d decided to do something he’d never done before, which was to court a woman. He’d taken her to dinner, to the movies, and he’d even shown up at church last Sunday, much to his mother’s shock and delight. And he never assumed he had a right to spend the night. He asked or she would ask. Well, she never really asked, since now she was the one using his TLC approach and seducing him with such finesse that he got a hard-on thinking about how she’d go about it.

  Unlike the other women in his past, with Sloan it had never been about just a physical attraction. It had been more. Spending time together was what they needed to do to get to know each other better. She’d talked about her grandfather and he could feel the love in her words. He’d also discovered that trust was important to her and it hurt her to find out about her parents’ deception. More than once, he’d been tempted to tell her about the car and the apartment and how his name was on both. But he hadn’t wanted anything to ruin their time together.

  He looked at the packet Pauline had given him this morning, the one that had arrived while he was out on Friday. Namely the payment plan for the loan from his accountant, the paperwork for the car and the lease agreement for her apartment. The time had finally come. He would deliver the packet to her this evening and tell her everything then.

  When the buzzer on his intercom went off, he pressed the button. “Yes, Pauline?”

  “A Ms. Beverly McClain is on the line for you.”

  Beverly was the one-night stand that never was. They’d met on a flight to Florida eight years ago, and when they discovered they would be staying at the same hotel, they had agreed to hook up. He hadn’t known her divorce from her husband had become final that day, and instead of burning the sheets, he had taken her to dinner, where she’d cried while telling him what an asshole she’d been married to for three years. The next morning they’d met up again for coffee and decided they could be friends, and for the last eight years, they had.

  Since then, she’d remarried a great guy who’d made her happy and they had two kids. Beverly worked for the government as one of the heads of Homeland Security. If she was calling him, that meant...

  “Please put her through.”

  When he heard the click, he said, “Beverly?”

  “Hello, Mercury. How have you been?”

  He smiled. “Great, and you?”

  “Pregnant again. You know what that means. Morning sickness is kicking my butt, but I’ll survive.”

  “Of course you will. You always do.”

  “The reason I was calling was to let you know of activity with the names you gave me. A plane carrying Carter Haywood Donahue landed in Phoenix less than an hour ago. He didn’t have any checked luggage.”

  Mercury nodded. That meant the man didn’t intend to stay in Phoenix long. “Thanks. I appreciate the information.”

  Moments later Mercury stood and reached for his cell phone to let Sloan know her father was in town. Chances were, he’d found out where she lived and would go straight to her place. He quickly changed his mind about phoning Sloan. There was no way he would let her face her tyrant of a father alone.

  He had stood and was reaching for his jacket when the buzzer on his desk sounded. “Yes, Pauline?”

  “Quade Westmoreland is on line two.”

  “Thanks.”

  Sitting back down in his chair, Mercury said, “Quade? You have something for me?”

  “Yes, man, I do.”

  * * *

  Sloan ended her conference call with the pageant committee feeling excited about what they’d told her. She had two more weeks to enjoy life as she now knew it before her work with them officially began. She had been assigned five countries. All five were now holding their individual pageants that would determine the woman to represent their country in the Miss Universe pageant in December.

  She leaned back in her chair and thought about her five days in Dallas with Mercury and the time they’d constantly been together since. More often than not, he would spend the night after taking her to dinner or to the movies or just hanging out at her place watching television. And she’d been invited to his place more than once to spend the night. He’d told her that he’d never invited a woman overnight before.

  More than once she wondered if there had been a reason for him telling her that. Had he been insinuating that she was special in some way? That he could possibly love her as much as she loved him? He’d even invited her to attend his parents’ Thursday dinners and she felt right at home. No one had questioned their relationship. It was as if his family was giving them the time they needed to build the relationship they wanted. At least the one she wanted.

  Did he?

  Mercury saw to her every need, both in and out of the bedroom. She was feeling like a woman who was living the independent life she’d always wanted. She had to answer to no one. And she was involved with a man who understood how much her feelings of self-worth and her happiness mattered. She was free of dependency and she felt like a new person. A person in love.

  She wanted to believe the last two weeks were the beginning of something special between her and Mercury. She wanted to believe the more they got to know each other the stronger their relationship would grow.

  She wanted to believe she could have both her independence and Mercury, too, because he understood how much not depending on anyone meant to her. He respected her desire for liberation.

  A smile touched her lips when she remembered how he’d even helped by allowing her to test her dominance in bed. She’d loved it. He’d loved it. She had a lot to learn and he’d happily volunteered to teach her.

  She heard the sound of the doorbell. It wasn’t even noon yet. Who would be visiting her? Mercury had said he would be going into the office this morning to get caught up on work. She then remembered that she had ordered a few things from an online office-supply store and figured the delivery was being made.

  Going to the door, she looked out the peephole and her breath caught. She felt like someone had kicked her in the gut. It was her father. What was he doing here? It didn’t matter because he was here.

  For the first time in her life she would not let him intimidate her. Thanks to Mercury, she was more self-assured than ever and wouldn’t let her father treat her like less than the adult she was.

  Opening the door, she faced the man she loved but who for years never knew how to show or return that love. “Dad, come in.”

  He didn’t say hello. He just walked past her like the thought of even being here agitated him. When she closed the door and turned, she saw him glancing around her apartment with disdain.

  “Dad, what are you doing here?” There was no reason to ask how he’d found her. He kept one of the best detective agencies in Ohio on retainer.

  His scornful gaze switched to her. “I am here to take you home, Sloan Elizabeth. I expected Harold to be man enough to handle you, but it seems you’re being difficult.”

  At any other time, his harsh reprimand would have brought her back in check, would definitely have made her lower her head in shame, but not this time. Carter H. Donahue was going to discover that his child who had been a disappointment was more like him in some ways than a son could ever be. The one thing she had inherited from him was his stubbornness.

  “News flash, Dad. I am not going anywhere with you. Did you not listen to what I told you when I left Cincinnati? What I’m sure Harold told you I said when he returned to report back to you? Harold and I aren’t getting married.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Of course the two of you can’t get married in June now. That’s not enough time to plan for the huge wedding the two of you deserve,” he said irritably. “You’ll be happy to know that the Cunninghams, your mother and I have decided that an August wedding for you and Harold will work.”

  She would be happy to know...? Sloan just stood there and stared at her father. His assumption that he had her unwavering obedience was her fault. In the past he’d given her a mandate and she’d marched to whatever beat he played.

  She’d changed.

  “Dad, read my lips. I am not marrying Harold. I love my life here and I am not leaving.”

  There was no way she would tell him about her job with the Miss Universe pageant or else he would ruin that, too. That was why she’d made sure all her employment information was listed under S. E. Donahue.

  “So you’d rather be a kept woman than the wife of an honorable man?”

  She frowned at her father. “What are you talking about?”

  He eased down on her sofa without her having issued an invitation for him to do so. “You think I haven’t checked out Mercury Steele and his family?”

  Sloan’s heart began pounding again and she tried hard to remember what Mercury had always said. Her father couldn’t touch his family. “So, you’ve checked them out. Then you know they don’t scare easily.”

  “Yes, and under any other circumstances I wouldn’t mind doing business with them, but for your future I’m betting my money on the Cunninghams.”

  Doing business? She wasn’t surprised that he saw any marriage for her as a business deal. “You’re not the only one who can have people checked out. I know all about my trust fund and the reason you want me and Harold to marry. You think you can get your hands on it.”

  “Of course I can. I’m your father and will look out for your best interest.”

  “No, Dad, you are looking out for your own interest. There’s no way I’ll let you or the Cunninghams touch what Granddad left for me.”

  His facial features contorted in anger. “So is this how you claim the independence you want so much, by being Mercury Steele’s kept woman? Do you think he will make you anything other than his whore? You’d rather be a man’s whore than his wife?”

  He paused as if he needed a moment to catch his breath before continuing. “Regardless of what you told Harold about Mercury Steele being your fiancé, his reputation proves he’s not going to be any woman’s husband. If you think he will marry you, then you are a fool. Your mother and I raised you for more than being some man’s kept woman.”

  That was the third time he’d referred to her as being a kept woman. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  Her father’s features suddenly changed, and his mouth actually seemed to twitch in amusement. As if it suddenly occurred to him that he knew something she didn’t. “You don’t know, do you?”

  “I don’t know what?”

  “That you aren’t the independent woman you think you are. You left home because you thought your mother and I were being manipulative and you wanted your freedom and didn’t want to be dependent on anyone. Yet you are dependent on Mercury Steele.”

  She frowned. Evidently that detective agency he retained had found out about the twenty-thousand-dollar loan Mercury had made to her. “So, he loaned me money to help get me on my feet. Big deal. I am paying him back.”

  “What about that car you’re driving and this apartment. Both are in his name.”

  “They aren’t.”

  “Yes, they are.”

  Sloan’s frown deepened. That wasn’t true, but she didn’t have the paperwork to prove otherwise because Mercury hadn’t given any documents to her.

  What if her father’s claim was true?

  She refused to believe it because, of all people, Mercury knew how much she wanted her independence. Why would he keep something like that from her?

  “So, what do you have to say to that, Sloan Elizabeth?”

  When she didn’t reply because she was still reeling, in his authoritative voice he said, “Now do what you’re told and go pack. I’ve reserved a ticket in your name. Our flight leaves for Cincinnati in three hours.”

  “I hate to disappoint you, Mr. Donahue, but Sloan isn’t going anywhere with you.”

  Sloan jerked around to find Mercury standing by the door. Legs braced apart with his arms folded over his chest, he had a fierce look on his face. How did he get in when she’d locked the door? Then she saw the key in his hand. A key to her apartment that she hadn’t given him. At that moment she knew her father had been telling the truth.

  Twenty-One

  Mercury refused to look at Sloan’s father. The man was of no significance, but his daughter was, and Mercury’s gaze was trained on her. She meant everything to him and he refused to let anyone, including her father, devalue her or put ideas in her head about her meaning nothing to him.

  When he saw the pain in her eyes, he knew his mistake had been in not telling her the truth weeks ago. “It’s time you left, Mr. Donahue.”

  “Oh, I guess you do have the right to put me out since this apartment is leased to you and not to my daughter.”

  Mercury ignored the man’s words. “We need to talk privately,” he said to Sloan.

  “My daughter has nothing to say to you.”

  Mercury glanced at the other man. Mercury knew his gaze reflected the anger he felt. “Sloan can speak for herself.” He had a mind to kick the man out, literally, but figured even if he was an ass, he was Sloan’s father.