Glancing over at the man walking beside her, she noted he was staring straight ahead with a brooding expression on his face. He probably hated being bothered about taking her anywhere again, but she would ignore his mood. After all, if he’d taken better care of his car it would not have gotten stolen and she wouldn’t be in this predicament. She knew for her to think that way was absurd, but she didn’t care. It was just as illogical for him to think she would have intentionally stolen his car or be in cahoots with the people who had.

  “I hope I’m not inconveniencing you again, Mercury.”

  He glanced over at her and her heart began thumping hard in her chest. The look he gave her wasn’t one of annoyance but something else. Something she couldn’t quite put a name to. It left her momentarily dazed. Before she could sufficiently recover, the look was gone and replaced by one of indifference.

  “No problem,” he muttered. “Like Galen said, we were raised to respect women and rescue damsels in distress.”

  “In that case, you have a very kind mother.”

  “She is definitely that and I wouldn’t trade her for all the tea in China.”

  Sloan heard fondness in his tone, and she wished she could say the same about her own mother, but she couldn’t. It was not that her mother was a bad person because she wasn’t. She’d just never made her daughter her priority. Her father hadn’t been much better. He never failed to let Sloan know she should have been born a boy, and because she hadn’t been, he’d treated her like the disappointment she’d been.

  “You’re okay?”

  She glanced back over at Mercury. They had reached his car. A serious frown marred his forehead. “Yes, I’m fine.” He nodded and then opened the car door for her. “Thank you.”

  She slid onto the car’s leather seat and then glanced at him. Their gazes met, and when he stood there a moment, she lifted a brow. “Is something wrong?”

  As if her question made him realize he’d been staring, he frowned and shook his head. “No. Nothing is wrong.”

  He then closed the car door and walked around to the driver’s side to get in. He had removed his jacket earlier and she liked the way the dress shirt fit him. It was obvious he worked out. A man didn’t get those kinds of tight muscles by doing nothing.

  “Your address?”

  She blinked. “My address?”

  “Yes. If I’m to take you home, then I need to know it, don’t you think?”

  She swallowed. “Yes, of course.” She then rattled it off for him. When he started the car, she asked, “Aren’t you going to put it in your GPS?”

  He glanced over at her before backing out of the parking space. “No. I’m familiar with the area. How long have you been in Phoenix, Sloan?”

  She sighed deeply. “One week tomorrow.”

  He didn’t ask her anything else during the car ride and she was fine with him ignoring her all the way to their destination.

  “You’re having a yard sale?”

  His question made her look at him. “A yard sale? No, of course not. Why would you ask me that?”

  “Because of what’s going on at your address.”

  She glanced out the car’s window and drew in a sharp breath. Her belongings—the little she’d brought with her—were laid out on a table for everyone to see, and it appeared as if someone was having a sale with her stuff. As soon as Mercury stopped the car, she was out in a flash.

  Four

  Mercury called out to Sloan, but she ignored him and marched with indignation toward the older woman who was still placing items on the table. Shaking his head, he quickly followed while wondering what the hell was going on.

  “How dare you do this!” he heard Sloan yell at the top of her voice, while placing her hands on her hips. “These are my things.”

  The woman, who looked to be in her late fifties and several inches shorter than Sloan, didn’t cower. Instead she placed her hands on her own hips. “I do dare. I am not selling anything, although I should since you’re being evicted.”

  “Evicted? But why?”

  “Like you didn’t know the check Priscilla used to pay her rent this month wasn’t good! It bounced like a rubber ball.”

  Mercury felt Sloan stiffen beside him and immediately realized she hadn’t known what this person named Priscilla had done. “You got a bad check? I didn’t know. I’m sure there’s a mistake.”

  “Ha!” the lady said. “No mistake. Take your stuff and go.”

  “But you can’t make me leave with no place to go,” Sloan implored. “I’m sure if I call Priscilla, we will have this cleared up.”

  “Nothing is going to get cleared up. Besides, I already have someone interested in leasing this place and ready to move in. I want you gone.”

  “Who is this Priscilla and where is she?” Mercury asked Sloan. Personally, he didn’t want to get involved, but he didn’t like the rude way the woman was talking to Sloan.

  She turned to him and he could see the anger in her features. “Priscilla is my roommate from college. She invited me out here but left the day after I arrived. Her boyfriend proposed and sent her a one-way ticket to join him in Spain. Luckily, it was a furnished apartment, and other than dishes and silverware, she packed up her stuff that she didn’t want to take with her and put it in storage. She said I could stay here until the end of the month because the rent was paid up.”

  “Not with a bad check it wasn’t,” the woman intervened to say. “Now get your things and go.”

  Sloan turned to the woman. “And I told you that I don’t have anywhere to go.”

  “Not my problem,” the woman snapped.

  Mercury bit down on his lip. Hadn’t he thought the same when told she didn’t have a car? However, hearing someone else tell her that didn’t sit well with him.

  “Thank you for bringing me here, Mercury. I’ll be okay.”

  Did she honestly expect him to leave after hearing her tell the woman that she didn’t have any place to go? He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants. “You will only be okay when you stop trusting people so easily,” he said, frowning. First, she’d bought a stolen car from a “nice” man, and now she’d been let down by a friend.

  Refusing to let the woman listen to their conversation, he said, “Excuse us.” He then took Sloan’s hand and led her a few feet away from the older woman’s ears. “Listen, I can’t leave until I truly know you are okay.”

  “Thanks for your concern, but I have to figure things out on my own.”

  He nodded. “And how will you do that and where? Were you telling the truth when you said you didn’t have anyplace else to go?”

  He watched her nibble on her bottom lip. She then stared into his eyes. “Yes. I was telling the truth. I’ve been in town just a week and don’t know a soul.”

  He started to say she knew him and Galen. And she also knew Sherman and the overly friendly detective. The detective had even invited her to call him if she ever needed anything. It might be a good time to suggest she take the man up on his offer.

  But Mercury knew he couldn’t do that. He and his brothers might have notorious reputations, but who was to say Sherman and that detective were better? Besides, Galen was right. Mercury and his brothers might be known for their whorish ways, but thanks to Eden Steele, they knew how far to take them when it came to a woman in need.

  “Do you have the funds to move elsewhere?” he asked. He had a feeling she didn’t, no matter what Galen had pointed out about her being high-class. He refused to make any assumptions about her.

  “No,” she said despondently. “Getting to Phoenix took most of my money. Priscilla had offered me a place to stay until I got a job and was on my feet. I had a job interview this morning at a bank.”

  He had a feeling it had taken a lot for her to admit all of that. Now he wondered if she would answer his next question. “Are you running away from someone?” A jealous boyfriend perhaps, he thought.

  She hesitated a minute and then nodded. “Yes.”

  Since she’d given him that much information, he decided to delve deeper. “Who?”

  She paused and then said, “Controlling parents. They were pushing me to marry a man they approved of, Harold. That was fine until he told me marrying me meant he got to keep his girlfriend and that she would be a part of our marriage.”

  “Excuse me.” Mercury was certain he’d heard wrong. He decided to make sure. “You didn’t just say the man you were engaged to marry told you he intended to make his girlfriend his mistress, did you?”

  “Yes, that’s what I said.”

  Mercury was convinced that now he’d heard everything. “Why didn’t you tell your parents?”

  “I did.”

  “And they still wanted you to marry the guy?”

  “Yes. I’m their only child and the marriage between me and Harold would help them with a business merger.”

  Mercury shook his head. It was hard to believe people actually thought that way. Although his mother had been notorious for wanting all six of her sons happily married, but all along the key words were happily married. She would not have forced them into anything, not that they would have let her.

  “So, I decided to leave Ohio and stay with Priscilla. I found out this morning that my parents put a hold on my bank account and I can’t get any cash right now. And they canceled my credit cards.”

  “They actually did that?” he asked, amazed at how far her parents were taking things.

  “Yes. They figure sooner or later, without the financial resources I’m used to, I’ll run back home to do whatever they want me to do.”

  “Which is to marry that prick?”

  “Yes.”

  At that moment, Mercury knew he couldn’t leave her here. He had a huge condo, but he couldn’t take her there either. His home was sacred, and other than female relatives, he didn’t invite women over the Mercury Steele threshold.

  “I will give you a chance to go back in the house and grab anything I might have missed bringing out,” the woman called, as if she was doing Sloan a favor.

  “Go on,” he said to Sloan. Although she was trying hard not to show it, he could still detect how upset she was. “You might as well take advantage of her so-called generosity. I will help you get your things repacked.”

  She slumped her shoulders. “Thanks. And then what?”

  “And then we load the stuff into my car and get the hell away from here.”

  “And go where? I don’t know you well enough to go to your place.”

  “I don’t remember inviting you to my place.” In a way, he was glad she wasn’t suggesting that he do such a thing. “I’m taking you to where you’ll be okay for the night.”

  “Where? To a homeless shelter?”

  “No.”

  “Then where?”

  He hesitated briefly before saying, “I’m taking you to my mom.”

  * * *

  Sloan tried not to dwell on the fact that this was the third time today that she was being taken somewhere by Mercury Steele, and if he was taking her to his mother’s like he said, it wouldn’t be the last.

  She couldn’t believe that she’d broken down and told him everything. The only reason she could think of for doing so was that she needed him to understand that being needy wasn’t her choice, but a situation being forced on her.

  Now, of all places, he was taking her to his mother’s. His mother. If Sloan hadn’t needed a place to stay for the night, she would have refused. Priscilla’s reply to the text she’d sent had said there was no way her check had bounced and that she would contact her bank about it. Priscilla wished she could send her money to tide her over, but she didn’t have any extra cash.

  Sloan glanced over at Mercury. “Are you sure it’s okay with your mom to have an unexpected overnight houseguest?” She figured that would be all the time she needed to come up with a plan B, and she had already sent a text message to Lisa Hall, another friend from college, who was living in Miami.

  The car had come to a traffic light and he glanced back at her. “Yes, I’m sure she won’t mind.”

  Sloan raised a brow. “Have you done this sort of thing before? Taken strangers to your mom for the night?”

  “No. But I know my mom. She has a heart of gold.”

  Sloan’s mother had a heart of gold, too, but not in the same sense. Both her parents thought money was everything and the only important thing in life was more of it. “Tell me about your mom.”

  He chuckled. “I’ll let you get to know her on your own.”

  “What about your dad?”

  He chuckled again. “Dad loves Mom, and whatever makes her happy makes him happy.”

  “Your parents love each other?” she asked, surprise flitting across her features.

  “Of course. Don’t yours?”

  “No,” she replied without hesitation. “I never thought they did and they confirmed it when I told them about Harold’s mistress. They felt a loveless marriage wouldn’t be so bad since they’d had one for years.”

  “They actually told you that?”

  “Yes. My parents think wealth, not love, is what makes a good marriage.”

  He stared at her and then asked, “What do you think makes a good marriage?”

  She released a deep sigh. “I’m not sure there is such a thing as a good marriage. All I know is that I refuse to be forced into one.”

  The traffic light went to green and Mercury’s attention returned to the road. Just as well, she thought. With parents like his, he wouldn’t fully understand parents like hers.

  “How did you and this Harold guy meet?”

  She glanced over at Mercury, whose eyes were still on the road. “Our families have always known each other. Harold and I began officially dating a year ago.” She paused. “He says he loves the other woman, and if he could marry her, he would. However, he’s too much of a weakling to stand up to his parents.”

  What she’d just said was true. She was convinced Harold was so conditioned to do whatever he was told, he couldn’t fathom doing anything else. But then, she had been the same way until she’d begun to see that was no longer the way she wanted to live.

  “Here we are.”

  She looked out the windshield as Mercury pulled into the circular driveway of a house that was just as big as the one her parents owned. “Your parents’ home is beautiful.”

  “Thanks.”

  She felt nervous tension line her stomach.

  As if he sensed her anxiety, when Mercury brought the car to a stop, he smiled over at her and said, “Things will be fine. Trust me.”

  Five

  Mercury walked into his parents’ home, placed Sloan’s luggage down and then glanced around, wondering where his parents were. Both their cars were in the driveway. Suddenly, he heard a sound upstairs in their bedroom and immediately got the picture. He turned to Sloan to find her glancing around. Evidently she hadn’t a clue.

  Quickly moving to the intercom system on the wall, he pressed the one for his parents’ bedroom. “Mom. Dad. I’m here and I have a guest.”

  Turning to Sloan, he thought the last thing he wanted was for her to figure out what his parents were doing. But then he realized that maybe she should know there were some couples who loved the sanctity of marriage and all the benefits that came with it.

  “Come, let me show you my mother’s courtyard.” He opened the French doors to the garden that held every type flower imaginable.

  “It’s so nice out here. Is this the house you grew up in?”

  “Yes. My parents knew they wanted a large family and decided to buy a house to accommodate their dream. Galen told you about our brothers, so if you can see the first eight years of my parents’ marriage, Mom was pregnant most of the time.”

  “And loved every moment,” his mother said, joining them outside. If she was surprised to find his guest was a woman, she didn’t show it.

  Not waiting for him to make introductions, Eden Tyson Steele moved toward them, giving Sloan what Mercury thought was a very gracious smile. He’d made the right decision in bringing Sloan here. Extending her hand to Sloan, she said, “Hello, I’m Eden Tyson Steele.”

  For a minute, Mercury thought Sloan was about to curtsy. He understood. In addition to being an awe-inspiring beauty, his mother’s elegant and refined manner had an effect on people. Even now Eden looked as if she’d just stepped off the cover of Vogue magazine.

  “Mom, I’d like you to meet Sloan Donahue. Sloan, this is my mother,” Mercury said.

  Eden’s smile widened. “Nice to meet you, Sloan. You’re a friend of Mercury’s?”

  “No,” he answered quickly before Sloan could. “Sloan and I just met today.”

  His mother looked up at him. “Oh?”

  “It’s a long story, and unfortunately, I don’t have time to explain since I have an important appointment at the office. She needs you.”

  Eden lifted a brow. “She does?”

  “Yes. I’m leaving her here with you. She’ll explain everything.”

  Then, not waiting for his mother’s questions—or Sloan’s, for that matter—he quickly headed for the door.

  * * *

  Sloan watched Mercury leave, feeling embarrassed that he was doing so without an explanation to his mother or even a goodbye to her. They might not be seeing each other again. She forced her attention away from the closed French doors and looked at the woman standing in front of her.

  Eden Tyson Steele’s eyes were the exact shade of green as her son’s and she was simply gorgeous. Sloan didn’t want to keep staring, but her face looked familiar. The woman still had such a warm smile on her face that Sloan felt even worse.