Mastered (The Enforcers 1)

In her tiny hometown, if someone suddenly came into money under mysterious circumstances, the gossip mill would be in full force, and that was the last thing she wanted for her parents. If it were only she who would suffer, she wouldn’t care. But she did care about how her parents were treated and what was said about them. And she did care what her parents thought of her.

“What am I exactly?” Evangeline whispered as she continued to stare at Drake in complete meltdown. “Your mistress? A paid companion?”

Then she stopped and buried her face in her hands, uncaring of the fact that she’d have to do a serious retouch of her makeup.

“This is not me,” she choked out. “This is not the person I am, letting someone else, let alone someone I barely know, step in and take care of my problems for me. I could take hating myself or even being ashamed, because there is nothing I wouldn’t do for my mother and father, but I do care if they are disappointed or ashamed of me, because they would never want me to do anything that goes against the way I was brought up in order to help them.”

She expected anger, even fury etched into Drake’s features and sparking in his eyes when she finally summoned the courage to remove her hands from her face. But she saw none of those things. In that moment, an inexplicable bond formed between them. One of understanding. And pride.

Neither spoke, both aware of the connection, not on a physical level, but on an emotional level. They might live in completely different worlds, but things like pride and a sense of self-worth were universal, and in that area they were on common ground. Just two people with something in common. No financial or social divide. People. Just people. Experiencing and respecting things that had no barriers.

“Would you prefer I call them and explain, Angel?” he asked softly.

It was tempting. God, it was so tempting. She hated conflict, avoided it at all costs because it ate at her for days, even weeks, after the conflict had subsided. But she had to retain control over some part of her life, having lost every other aspect of it in her brief acquaintance with Drake. And she was many things, self-admittedly a coward and one who kept her head solidly buried in the sand, but she’d be forever shamed if she was too afraid to face the two most important people in her life.

“N-no. No,” she said more firmly the second time. She sucked in a deep breath. “This is something I have to do. I owe them an explanation, and it should come from me, not from a man who is a complete stranger to them. That is not who or what they raised me to be. Above all else, they taught me to take responsibility for my actions and never to hide behind others. I may hide from myself, but I will never be accused of hiding behind another person.”

Again there was a deep flare of respect in his eyes, making them appear deeper and darker than normal. And in that moment, she realized that Drake’s approval—his respect—meant a hell of a lot more than it should given the fact she barely knew the man.

“Did you remember to bring your new cell phone or do you need to use mine?” he asked mildly, as though she weren’t about to make a call that had the potential to send her into an epic meltdown.

“I brought it,” she said, even as she glanced hurriedly around the room, her befuddled mind trying to remember where she’d put her purse.

“If you’re looking for your handbag, you took it into the bathroom with you.”

She flashed him a grateful look and then surged upward before she lost her courage and all but ran into the bathroom, where her bag rested on the counter next to the sink. She fumbled for the phone, realizing she hadn’t entered her contacts into the new one. Not that she had many. In her present state, she would be doing well to punch in her parents’ number by memory.

She was sliding her fingers over the glossy surface of the touchscreen, frowning in concentration, when she walked back into Drake’s office. Returning to the chair she’d just abandoned, she sank into it as she lifted the phone to her ear.

Her gaze lifted and met Drake’s, and she felt a drowning sensation. Like they were magnetized and she was being pulled toward him and absorbed. Without thinking or rationale, she slipped the phone away from her ear and hit the button for the speakerphone option and then she got up, moving toward Drake. She set the phone faceup on his desk and would have stood beside it while she conversed with her parents, but just as her mother’s familiar voice came over the speaker, Drake caught her wrist and tugged her around the corner and into his lap. He then reached for the phone, sliding it so it was closer to Evangeline.