He was sitting at his desk, holding the phone to his ear, which explained her hearing his voice. His back was to her, his gaze fixed on the raging storm beyond the wide glass window. Adrenaline pulsed through her as he started speaking again, as if her body was tuned to the timbre and richness of his voice. But before she could back out of the room and give him privacy for his call, what he was saying caught her attention.
“Dylan,” he said, sounding bored and impatient as he talked to his brother, “dating Colleen was the only sure way to find out exactly what J.D. was up to before he died.”
Her heart stopped and a thin sliver of air worked its way down her lungs. Blindly, she reached out one hand to the doorjamb and held on as if it meant her life.
“She was the closest to the old man and it’s entirely possible that she knows something she’s not even aware of,” Sage continued.
Colleen felt sick. Her heartbeat was slow. Heavy. Like a movie played in extremely slow motion. Ice dropped into the pit of her churning stomach and the cold seemed to spread, snaking out tentacles that reached throughout her body until she shivered with reaction.
She should leave.
She knew she should turn and run. Hit the front door, race to her car and get off the mountain. But she couldn’t move. It was as if her feet were nailed to the floor. She wanted to be struck deaf so she wouldn’t have to hear any more. She wanted to have never come downstairs. To have never come here to this ranch at all.
Sage shook his head and laughed at whatever his brother was saying. “You’re wrong, Dylan. Trust me, I’m not getting too close to Colleen. I don’t do close. Besides, this isn’t about what I want—it’s about what I want to find out.”
Did she make a sound? She might have. A tiny gasp. A small moan. Of course she did. How could her body contain so much pain without letting some of it escape? Whatever that sound was, he heard it, because he slowly swiveled around in his chair, spotted her across the room and said simply, “Colleen.”
Funny. It was the look in his eyes that finally freed her enough to run. The shock. The surprise. The guilt. By the time he slammed the phone into its cradle, she was gone.
* * *
Panic roared into life in Sage’s chest and had him bolting from his office, racing after her, determined to catch her. To explain. To— Hell. He didn’t know what he’d do.
“Damn it, Colleen, wait!” He caught her at the front door and slammed one hand on the heavy oak panel so she couldn’t yank it open no matter how hard she tried.
“Get away,” she said and he heard tears choking her voice.
Pain lanced him as he called himself all kinds of vicious but accurate names.
“I mean it, Sage,” she muttered thickly. “Let me go.”
“It’s raining, Colleen. You can’t leave in a storm.”
“I know how to drive in the rain—and I’m leaving.”
“I can’t let you do that.” That panic was still bubbling up inside him and staring down into her damp eyes, it only got worse. She was trying to leave and he couldn’t let her. Not like this.
“What you heard back there? It wasn’t true.” He hung his head and gave it a shake before finding the strength to meet those tear-filled blue eyes again. “I was just trying to get Dylan off my back, that’s all.”
“No,” she said, her mouth twisting as if she were trying desperately to keep her bottom lip from quivering. “It was true. All of it. I’m only surprised I didn’t see it sooner.”
Seeing tears clouding her clear, beautiful eyes tore at him. Knowing he had caused it nearly killed him. The worst kind of bastard, he’d hurt a woman who didn’t deserve it, all to cover his own ass and save his pride with his brother.
“Why else would you ever go for a woman like me?” Shaking her head, she lifted her chin and he saw what that defiant, proud move cost her. “So don’t tell me that conversation with your brother wasn’t true. Recent behavior notwithstanding, I’m not an idiot, Sage. Now open this door and let me leave.”
“You don’t really want to go and I don’t want you to,” he said, gaze moving over her lovely features, searing her face into his mind. He drew her scent in deep and felt her permeate every cell in his body.
He should have locked the damn office door. Then this wouldn’t be an issue. She never would have overheard him. They could have gone on as they were, and both of them would have been happy. Instead, he had to try to unravel the damage he’d done.