The Satin Sash

“I know,” he appeased. “But I need the ball on my field. If they write about me, it’ll be what I tell them to. If I hide or keep silent, they’ll find out who Heath is and dig in our pasts until that one time we smoked marijuana only god remembers where . . . I can’t have that.”

“I know,” she ruefully agreed.

But she knew Grey couldn’t have anyone knowing who Heath was and what he meant to them.

It was over before she even knew it.

They sat undisturbed in a shadowed nook of the restaurant, and all Grey said, a second before they strolled out of the place, was, “Smile.” And she smiled. Blinding flashes exploded before her eyelids.Then Grey was tucking her into his Porsche, and they were driving off, the camera lights fading in the distance.

Neither spoke a word until they got home.

Toni went to her vanity, plucked off one diamond stud earring, then quietly set it down and said, “Why did we just do that?”

Without a backward glance, Grey whipped off his shirt and threw it in the hamper.

“Because of the IPO? Grey, people will buy a piece of your company because it rocks.You make it rock, Heath makes it rock. They’ll buy it because you make them money—they won’t care if you’re the craziest person on the planet or not.” When his hands went to his belt, the concentrated frown on his face spurred her on. “And it’s not about money, either. I hear you talking about off-shores all the time; it’s like you have so much, you don’t even know where to put it.”

He made neither acknowledgment nor denial, but he was listening, so she shimmied out of her cocktail dress and plunged on.

“So why is it?” she insisted.

He yanked off his belt while Toni grabbed his old T-shirt and popped her head inside. “Is it that you can’t stand that people may think less of you?”

He thrust his legs into his cotton drawstring pants, then turned his back to her as he hung his slacks.

“Or is it him, Grey?”

He crossed the room toward the bed, leaving a lamp on by the nightstand. His long, strong arm was already waiting for her by the time she lifted the sheets and slipped into his embrace.“I don’t feel like discussing my father tonight,” he said, kissing the tip of her nose as though to gentle the directness of his words.

She gazed into his golden eyes, noted the low set of his eyebrows, the worried crease on his forehead.

“Grey, look at you,” she marveled as she sat up, her heart exploding with love for him. “Look at this incredible man you are! I swear I quiver every time I see you. Not because of these eyes, this hair, this body, baby, but because of the mesmerizing man that you are! If you haven’t proven yourself to your father by now, there’s nothing you’ll ever be able to do to please that man.”

“I am aware of that,Toni.”

“Then why do you still try to please him? All these people?”

The rigidness in his body increased tenfold, and as the silence lengthened, Toni figured he was not planning to answer her. He clicked off the light, his hand stroking up and down the back of her head when she lay back down, and then he let go a breath.

“I don’t want to please him. I want to be a better man than he is.”

Chapter Fifteen

Duffel bag slung over his shoulder, Heath shuffled among the line of people boarding the aircraft. He sank down in the window seat on aisle eleven, stuck his bag under the front seat, and rubbed his sweaty palms over his jeans. No drugs. He could do it, of course. Pop them at any time. But he wouldn’t.

For the first time in his life, he wanted to kiss an airplane. This was the carrier that would take him to her.And he would not leave again. He would not fucking leave her ever.Whatever Grey said, he was staying. If he had to eat shit, he’d eat shit. If he had to fight Grey, goddammit, he didn’t want to, but he would.

He patted his right pocket, his two pills neatly tucked inside. Next he went to his left pocket and produced the red sash.

The fabric slid like a familiar skin against him, its scent memorized in his lungs. What did it mean, this present she’d given him? Why had she given it to him? She wanted him. She wanted him with her. Did she feel what he felt? Did she care about him?

Whatever she wanted, he would not say no. Oh no, he would not say no to his Cat.

“My, how pretty.”

He frowned, and it took him a moment to realize someone was speaking to him. Normally he would snore or ignore his flying companion.Why people loved to tell their life stories inside an aircraft was beyond him. But this time, he found himself turning his attention to the elderly woman who’d just settled in her seat beside him.

“It is,” he said cautiously as the plane doors slammed shut.