Ice-blue eyes in an angular face. Fair hair graying at the temples. Sophistication. Intellect. Style. The images had conspired against her, and she’d fallen ass over teakettle.
Marshaling the force of her anger, she tried to herd the pictures into a box and slam the lid, managing to cram everything inside but those haunting glacial eyes.
“I was on the project team, and we worked long hours together. All of us did. He and I started spending more time alone. That is, until the project ended and he returned to Sweden.” She paused, and Gage gave her an encouraging nod. “He stayed in touch. Then he announced he was traveling to Seattle to check out an opportunity and asked if I would spend a few days with him there. I thought, ‘Why not?’ He bought my plane ticket, then wined and dined me. He pulled out all the stops.”
She tapped nervous fingers against her glass. “We did the long-distance thing for a while. Sometimes we saw each other in Seattle, other times in Chicago or New York. We went to museums, shows, and we walked the cities and looked at the older buildings. Then we’d talk for hours about the architecture and the engineering behind it. I ate it up. Eventually, he told me he was seriously considering taking the opportunity in Seattle, but only if I’d move there too.”
Little did I know he was dangling his business like a carrot in front of the firm’s owner. In return, the owner had to hire me. The pain in her heart was so sharp she swore she’d been struck by shuriken—the proper word for ninja stars, Wolf had instructed her.
Gage sat back. “So you did.”
She nodded slowly. “Yes, I did. I mean, the job was fabulous.” Her words came out in an odd mixture of defensive and sad.
Wolf had been an expert salesman, and she’d been as overwhelmed as a sapling in a gale-force wind. She’d heard “beautiful” often enough, but Wolf took it way beyond her mere physical appearance: he admired her independence, her intellect, her ability to see the world in 3-D, her accomplishments, her sophistication—which she’d never before thought she had. He was masterful at pushing all the right buttons. She was a woman rising to her full potential, he’d smoothly said, and if she let him mold her, groom her, she’d soar to her pinnacle even sooner. He became her mentor, her lover, her lavisher. Her everything. In turn, she inspired him, made him feel youthful again, fascinated him. Yes, she’d fed his ego too, but at the time she hadn’t cared because she’d wanted to.
“I stayed at his place in the beginning, intending to get my own apartment. His house had a beautiful yard and a view of Puget Sound, and I just … never left. It made sense to stay there, especially after I got Archer.
“Then Wolf started traveling for long stretches. He said he was having problems with his business in Sweden. I missed him, but I wasn’t worried. I had my amazing job, and he reassured me that once he got everything straightened out, he’d be around more.”
She took a slug of her drink.
“But something happened,” Gage murmured.
Sarah nodded. “Yep.” She kept her eyes averted from his. “I found out the reason he was gone so much wasn’t because he was in Sweden. It was because he had someone else. Might’ve been more than one, for all I know, but I didn’t stick around to find out.”
“Aw, shit, Sar.”
When she raised her eyes to Gage’s, she only saw concern, and it broke free the tears she’d been holding back. He placed his hand on the table between them, palm up, and she rested her hand in his.
“Guy’s a total douche,” Gage said softly. “You know this, right? He didn’t deserve you.”
“He sure as shit didn’t. But I fell for him, damn it. I’m usually smarter than that.”
He squeezed her hand. “We can’t always control who we fall for.”
She laugh-sobbed. “God, you sound just like Grandma!”
Releasing her, he grinned. “Right? I’ve been practicing.”
Sarah rolled her watery eyes. “Does Lily appreciate what a rare breed you are?”
“All the time.”
“Thought so. She’s a smart cookie.” Unlike yours truly. “So how come there aren’t more of you—unrelated to me, that is?”
He stood, passed her a box of tissues, and let Archer inside. “There are lots of us. You just have to look a little harder. We don’t all flash signs that say, ‘Your perfect man standing right here!’ In fact, steer clear of those guys.”
“I think ‘perfect’ and ‘man’ together equal an oxymoron.” She plucked a few tissues and dabbed at her eyes. Archer laid his head in her lap and wagged as if to say, “How ’bout me? I’m perfect.” She stroked his soft fur, inwardly agreeing.
Gage chuckled. “All I’m saying is don’t judge a book by its cover. You never know what’s written in those chapters until you crack the spine.”
“Omigod, listen to my little brother! You’re like Dear Abby and Yoda rolled into one.” She let out a snort.
“I thought you were Yoda.” He cocked a brow.
“I think I lost my title. Damn, you’re four years younger. How’d you get to be so much smarter? I’ll need to earn my place back and lord it over you again.” Some of the tension drained from her shoulders, and she rotated her neck.
“Ha! It’s taken me a long time to get here, and I’m not giving up my Yoda throne that easily,” he joked.
“What’s a Yoda throne?” Lily stood in the kitchen doorway, surprising them both.
“Didn’t hear you come in, Goldilocks.” Gage rose, strode to her, and swept her up in his arms, laying an embarrassingly long kiss on her. Sarah debated excusing herself.
A breathless Lily pulled away. “Well, hello to you too, Professor.”
Sarah stood. “I’ll leave now.”
“No, Sarah, sit.” Lily
