An Act of Persuasion

chapterR THIRTEEN



MARK PULLED ALL his courage together as he approached the house. Dom and Marie had been living in the same home in the upper-middle-class suburb of Philadelphia known as Bryn Mawr for as long as Mark had known Helen. He’d had no trouble remembering how to get here. As he parked the car in the driveway he noted that his hands were as sweaty as they’d been the first time he’d met Helen’s parents.

Sweatier even than the time they had come to tell her parents she was pregnant and they were getting married. Funny, because he didn’t remember her being nervous then. It was almost like they were an afterthought to Helen.

His parents hadn’t been thrilled with the announcement, knowing what it would do to his plans to apply for the CIA. His father was a former military man who thought serving the country was a man’s duty, not a choice. While he’d originally imagined Mark following in his footsteps as a career soldier, he’d at least accepted the CIA as the next best thing. Certainly better than, say, the Coast Guard.

Of course, his parents had been even less thrilled when he told them the wedding was off. His mother seemed to know that, while biologically she was a grandmother, she wouldn’t be one in reality. That had certainly borne out. Sophie had disappeared into Helen’s family and his parents had gotten to see her only once as a baby.

He would change that. His father had passed away two years ago, but his mother deserved the chance to know her grandchild. Thankfully his older sister had given her two others to keep her occupied or she might have been more insistent about seeing Sophie and that might have created conflict between the two families.

But now, come to think of it, he wished she had been more insistent. Maybe if his mother had forged some bonds on the Sharpe side of the family, this meeting wouldn’t be quite so nerve-racking. It was too late now. What was done was done.

He got out of the car and started up the trail of steps that led to the front door with the flowers clutched in his hands like a sword he might need to defend himself. He rang the bell and waited.

A few moments later a solemn-faced Dom opened the door and let him inside.

“You’re early,” Dom noted.

“I’m anxious.”

“They’re waiting for you in the living room.”

Mark followed the older man, purposefully slowing his gait to match Dom’s arthritic steps. He thought of the many steps outside without any kind of railing and wondered how Dom still managed them. There was also the size of the house. It felt like it went on forever, sprawling over several thousand square feet. It must take the man an hour to get from the foyer door to the kitchen.

After what seemed like an eternity later, they finally rounded a hallway that had an archway opening to a much larger room than Mark remembered.

Or maybe it was that he felt smaller.

It wasn’t until he saw her, wearing a green dress with her hair in a heavy braid down her back that he let out his breath. She was beautiful in person. So much like her mother. He’d forgotten how pretty Helen had been.

She looked at him, her face expressionless. Marie made a coughing noise behind her hand that sounded feigned and Sophie immediately rose and walked over to him. She held out her hand and met his gaze head-on.

“Father.”

Father? He took her hand and watched her dip into a small curtsy.

“Did you just curtsy?”

Marie shuffled over to them quickly. “Sophie often has to greet dignitaries and sometimes foreign heads of state when she’s traveling. A curtsy is always appropriate.”

Except he wasn’t a dignitary or a head of state. He was her father and she’d shaken his hand as though he were a stranger.

Then again, he was a stranger. But he was here to change that.

“Marie, I brought you some flowers.”

“They are lovely. I’ll put them in water while you two chat.”

Left in the center of the room, Mark didn’t have a clue what to say. There she stood, perfectly still and elegant, while inside he was shaking like a leaf. Wasn’t she supposed to be the teenager, and he was supposed to be the grown-up?

The grown-up thing to do, he supposed, was make the first attempt.

“I’m sorry about your mom. I tried to be there for the funeral but...” He didn’t think she would understand about cargo planes being routed to the Philippines. “Anyway, I’m sorry.”

She blinked then, but said nothing. Looking around the room his gaze landed on the large black grand piano. It made sense that it was the focus of the room. He wondered how many times her family had gathered here to listen to her perform.

He latched on to it. “I was hoping I could hear you play something.”

“I’ve prepared a piece for you this evening.”

She looked like a girl, he thought. The green dress she wore was formal satin with a large bow belted in the back. He thought it looked like something a doll might wear. Not a teenage girl. And she sure as hell didn’t sound like a girl—teenage or otherwise. She sounded like a middle-aged adult.

He certainly wasn’t going to mention either, though. She’d obviously taken care to dress appropriately and prepare a piece of music to play for him. And she hadn’t run screaming from the room as soon as he walked in. That had to be a good sign.

“So what’s the situation with school? Are you thinking high school next year? You would be, what...a sophomore?”

“Given my travel schedule it’s easier for me to be tutored at home and on the road.”

“Sure. But don’t you want to go to high school at some point. For the experience?”

Now she looked at him as if he were dull-witted. And pitted against her formidable IQ, he might very well be. “I believe the experiences I have performing with some of the best musicians in the world while traversing the globe far outweighs any I might have at a pep rally. Did you think I might want to be a...cheerleader?”

Uh-oh, deep waters, sinking fast.

“Of course not. Not that there is anything wrong with cheerleaders. Your mother was a cheerleader, after all.”

“Sophie, darling, why don’t you play,” Marie suggested as she and Dom reentered the room. “It will be a wonderful way to start the evening.”

Mark could have hugged Marie—who was not a huggable woman—for intervening. He felt like a man sliding down a steep slope with nothing to hold on to. He could see the abyss in front of him, but he couldn’t stop.

Dom and Marie moved to two high-back chairs that he was sure were their assigned seats for every performance. That left the elegantly patterned love seat facing the piano to him. He sat and watched as Sophie situated herself on the bench as if she’d practiced just that—sitting on the bench—more than a thousand times.

She went through a few warm-up runs then stilled her fingers and her hands until the anticipation was almost too much for him to bear.

Then she began and it was like heaven cracked open the gates and beauty spilled forward in a slow, steady stream. He knew the piece—one by Beethoven. The sad one. But he’d never heard it played like this. Never so chillingly poignant, so achingly beautiful. He wanted to weep for no other reason than it was that good.

This was his daughter. This creature who could make this incredible sound with her fingers on a large piece of what he’d more or less considered noisy furniture. This was art and she was a master artist.

It was a moment after she finished before he even realized she had stopped. So enraptured he’d been by the story she had spun with the music and the sadness it left in his heart.

“Sophie that was...that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.”

She looked at him then. “That was for my mother.”

“I don’t know what...I don’t what to say.”

She smiled then. Considering how evil that smile was he really should have seen it coming.

“I do. Screw you.”

With that she stood and marched out of the living room with her head held impossibly high. Not so many minutes later the faint sound of a door slamming from above could be heard.

Okay, he thought. So she was a teenager after all.

* * *

“YOU’LL HAVE MY REPORT tomorrow, but overall I think Davis was pleased with the negotiations.”

Ben looked across the desk at his colleague Greg Chalmers and thought that it felt good to be back in this seat. Listening to Greg break down his last assignment as a consultant for Davis Industries felt like old times. Like things in his life were finally returning to normal.

“Was anyone lying?” Ben asked. Greg’s particular talent was being able to identify the physical tells when people were lying. He’d been a hell of a psychologist in his day until he screwed up his practice and career with a gambling addiction. Now his talents were used for more commercial purposes.

“Hell, they were all lying. But only one of them paid us to tell them who and when. Mercer is completely overstating the value of his company. I recommended to Davis he either walk away from the deal or drop his asking price significantly.”

“That’s his call. Ours is simply to provide the information they need.”

A knock on the door had him frowning. Joyce Mellon was the assistant handpicked by Anna to replace her. She wasn’t quite the partner Anna had been. Mostly Joyce kept occupied with the more menial tasks of what he required from an assistant. But she was prompt, hardworking and efficient.

She’d been an executive assistant for years and had only reentered the workforce after losing a large chunk of her retirement savings in the recent financial collapse on Wall Street. For her this job was only temporary until she could rebuild some of what she had lost, but Ben was grateful to have her for as long as she wanted to stay. Good help was hard to find, after all. The Annas of the world didn’t happen very often. In fact, the Annas of the world only happened once in a lifetime.

So it wasn’t like the very efficient Joyce to break protocol and interrupt him while he was in a meeting. If she was doing so, it was because she had a reason.

“Come in.”

Joyce opened the door wearing a concerned expression. “I know you said not to disturb you but you also said—”

“Relax, Joyce, he’ll realize why you interrupted him once he sees it’s me.” Anna breezed past the woman and instantly Ben stood. Like his body simply rose from the sheer excitement of her presence. She’d come to see him. Purposefully. Without him having to ask her.

She wore a sleeveless pink dress that flared out around her. The color should have clashed with her red hair yet it didn’t. It made her look youthful and fun.

More youthful and fun than he had ever been in his life.

Greg also got to his feet. Lanky and tall, it was more like he unfolded himself rather than stood.

“She’s back!” Greg said gleefully.

“She’s not back.”

“I’m not back,” Anna corrected Greg, moving forward and stretching to kiss the tall man’s cheek.

Ben noticed she didn’t kiss his cheek. Sure, the desk was in the way...but still.

“You’re not back, but you’re here.”

“To see Ben.”

“To get your job back? Which he will not be so stupid as to deny you.”

“No,” Ben snapped. “She’s not here about work. Greg, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but Anna and I are...well...we’re engaged in a...um... What are we doing? What am I supposed to tell him we’re doing?”

“We’re dating.” Anna smiled at Ben’s discomfort he was sure. But he still nodded to her in recognition of the lifeline she had thrown him.

He’d never talked about his personal life with his employees before. Certainly he never told anyone of his feelings regarding Anna, although he had a suspicion Madeleine had guessed there was something between them. To tell people who had never known them outside the context of work that they were now dating felt awkward.

Like people would suddenly see something in him they had never realized was there before. However, he had to admit it also felt good. Like he wanted Greg to know someone like Anna would choose to be with a man like him.

“You two? Seriously? In like a hundred years I wouldn’t have thought—” Greg shook his head. “Never mind.”

“Well, maybe we wouldn’t be dating, but the truth is he knocked me up.” Anna tilted her head in Ben’s direction and Greg’s eyes widened tenfold.

“Anna!” Ben shouted.

“What? In a couple of weeks it’s going to be very obvious. Were you planning to hide me away like some dirty little secret? Stuff me in some nunnery until the kid hatched?”

Of course he wasn’t. And it wasn’t like he wanted to keep anything about him and Anna secret. But if he thought he was giving something of himself away by admitting his attraction to Anna, then he was certainly offering all sorts of information by letting his colleagues know he’d slept with her.

“Uh... Congratulations,” Greg said. “To both of you. So you’re just...dating?”

“I offered marriage immediately, of course, but Anna wanted to take things slow,” Ben stated. Then he looked to Anna who seemed to be enjoying herself. “Do you see what you have done? People will think I’m a cad.”

“I don’t think cads actually exist anymore, but whatever.” She laughed and he knew for a fact the imp had enjoyed his awkwardness. Nothing pleased her like unsettling him. It was her favorite game.

“May I ask why you felt the need to come here and offer up our personal lives to your former coworker?”

“I knew you were in here with Greg and I wanted to say hello to him. Also, people should get used to me being around here in a non-professional capacity. I figure if Greg believes we’re dating, then everyone else will, as well. It’s not as though we could pull a fast one on him.”

“Well, I’ll be honest, you two don’t strike me as each other’s type. But if the look on Ben’s face when you kissed my cheek is any indication, I would say you are on the up-and-up.” Greg winked at Anna. “I’m out of here. Talk to you tomorrow, Ben.”

“Goodbye,” Ben said.

The door closed behind Greg and Anna smiled again. “Did you seriously give him a look just because I kissed his cheek?”

“I think it had to do more with the fact that you didn’t kiss mine.”

Anna set the straw bag she carried on the chair. Then with a casualness that Ben couldn’t tell if she truly felt, she moved around the desk and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. He got a hint of her shampoo, her scent.

Anna.

Since the kiss they had shared the other night, he’d been preoccupied with getting her in his arms again. More accurately, he’d been preoccupied with getting her in his bed again. The memories of their night together were no longer enough. He was starting to forget what her nipples felt like, forget how tight she’d been around his cock.

He needed reinforcement to keep those memories alive. And he needed new memories. He needed to be on top of her this time, where he could show her how strong he’d become the past few months. How capable he was of protecting her and the baby.

He imagined this was how cavemen must have done it. Impregnate the woman then convince her you are the caveman strong enough to hold on to her and the baby. Not really a bad plan.

She rocked back on her feet. “Happy?”

“No.” He turned and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her body against his. He could feel her surprise and her gasp of shock when he lowered his head and took her mouth in a searing kiss. It wasn’t sweet or light or intended to be a gesture of greeting. It was simply what he wanted from her.

What he realized he’d always wanted from her. With an effort that showcased the strength he knew he’d regained, he picked her up by the waist and turned her until she was sitting on his desk.

Her pink dress rode up revealing most of her legs from the thigh down. He stepped between them and put his hands on either side of her hips, trapping her there.

“Did you ever think about this?”

“What?” she asked a little breathlessly.

“All those times we were here in my office. Working late. Did you ever think about me putting you on this desk and doing this?” He took her mouth again and she opened to him more readily. As if she was coming to accept the idea that they were two people who kissed whenever they liked.

Her hand circled his neck and he could feel the delicate stroke of her fingers against the short fuzz of hair that had grown back. It made him shiver.

“Yes, I used to think about it.”

“And what did I do to you? What did I make you do to me?”

She blushed and it thrilled him. He liked knowing she thought about him this way when he’d done the same. It used to take sick effort to suppress those thoughts when she was around. He had to work to smother any sexual thought that might enter his mind. But some days...some days either when he was tired or feeling particularly stifled and he would let them come.

Anna sitting on the desk just like this, her arms around his neck holding on to him. Her legs spread around his hips. Her panties torn from her body while he worked his erection deep inside of her all the while knowing anyone could come in and see them entangled. See that Ben Tyler was screwing Anna Summers and she was liking it.

Only this wasn’t a fantasy. This was real and she was pregnant with his child. She needed to be cherished, not screwed on a desk.

“I’m sorry,” he said moving away.

But she was still sitting on the desk panting a little. “I’m not. That was hot.”

Hot was where he wanted to take it. But not here. Not with Joyce sitting on the other side of the door.

“We shouldn’t do this...here.”

“I know,” she said. “This is crazy.”

She hopped off the desk and smoothed down her dress and Ben had to work to stem the disappointment. Before he could offer another apology, she cupped his face in her hand. Her small palm brushing against his skin seemed to soothe him, as though he was some lustful beast needing to be calmed.

“I used to make you do wicked things to me in my fantasies. And I did them back to you.”

He smiled and ducked his head. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to come home with me and demonstrate.”

Her lips were turned up and he knew she was thinking about it. She had been the one to suggest that they take the sexual side of their relationship slowly. With good reason. She was right that, in many ways, they were only starting to truly know each other. But that didn’t make him want her any less.

It seemed he was waiting for trust. She was like a girl who had gotten pushed into the deep end of a pool once and, having had that experience, she was now more cautious. Dipping her toe in first, then perhaps wading in a bit farther. It was agonizing to wait for her to get over the caution, but until she swam into his arms he had to be patient.

“I’m...considering it.”

“Consideration is an excellent thing.”

She laughed. “You’ve been good about not pouncing.”

“Not going to lie. What just happened there was a little bit of pounce.”

“It was. But you pulled back before taking it too far. You’re thinking about me, not only about sex and that means a lot to me.”

“Would you have let me?”

She didn’t answer, but the faint blush on her cheeks was still there and he cursed his noble self.

“Okay, we need to stop talking about this,” he said, sitting slowly in his chair even as he adjusted his pants over his not-fading-fast-enough erection.

“Am I frustrating you?”

“Immensely.”

She moved around to the opposite side of the desk and sat across from him—a safe distance away—a thoughtful expression on her face. “I don’t mean to be a tease, you know.”

“I know.”

“I want to make sure this is...right between us before we start doing it. I mean, the last time it happened without either of us thinking about it, or talking about it. It changed everything and I’m afraid—”

“Anna, you don’t need to explain. I get it. I don’t like it because I do want you. Badly. But I do get that you want it to be more than sex the next time it happens.”

“Right.”

“But so we’re clear...it will happen.”

She didn’t say anything but she wore an expectant expression, like a cat that had been offered a pint of ice cream. Another excellent sign.

“Now, did you come for a visit or was there something else?”

She opened the large straw bag she’d set aside. “Two things. Here are the color samples for each of the rooms. I’ve labeled the room on each sample so the painters know what goes where.”

Ben had already hired the contractors to paint the house to her liking, ensuring she was nowhere near an open can of paint. Once the house was finished and completely dry, she planned to start moving in her things, having already given notice to her landlord.

For him the move couldn’t happen soon enough. He loved the idea that she would be living in the house he provided, loved, too, that she accepted his gift. When he’d bought the house he remembered thinking that by the time she learned of it, he would be dead. She would have no choice but to accept it as his last gesture of what he wanted. He didn’t think she would deny him that.

When he told her about it the other day, he knew there was a possibility she would reject it outright. That the house would make her too beholden to him and she had too much pride to take something of such value.

But no. She’d looked at those papers that declared her the sole owner of the home and she’d put a hand to her belly and nodded as if it all made perfect sense to her. As if he’d been right to give it to her.

It certainly made perfect sense to him. She was only a couple of blocks down the road from him. No matter what happened between them, she would always be close. If they had to share custody of the child, her proximity would make that easier, too. Hell, when the kid was old enough he could walk between their houses.

Of course, that wasn’t Ben’s ultimate plan. The plan was to get her to let him inside. And once he’d gained access, he would do everything in his power to never leave again.

“This is the color for the nursery. Since I’m not sure yet if we’re going to find out the sex and because I’m not really an all-blue, all-pink person, I went with soft canary cream. What do you think?”

Ben looked at the sample intently. He saw yellow. It was nice. But he knew that she would expect him to care about this. This was the first step they were taking together to prepare for their child to be a part of their lives. What color would the room be where he or she spent those first few years. Where the child would remember nothing about the decor.

“I think it’s very nice,” he said thoughtfully. “Calming. Yet cheerful. Soothing but...”

This time she laughed outright and took the sample back from him. “You’re such a faker.”

“It’s yellow, Anna.”

She looked at the sample. “Soft yellow and I think it’s perfect. There, that’s done. The other thing I was thinking about is some furniture shopping. If you want to come along, that is. But you totally don’t have to.”

“Of course I will.”

“It will be boring. You’ll probably hate me when you see how indecisive I can be about these types of things. I’m very careful with my selections. I’ll be even more so shopping for this place. I want everything to be perfect.”

“It won’t be boring. I’ll be with you. I can help your decision making.”

“Okay.” Then she reached into her bag again, this time for a manila folder. “I brought this, too.”

He took the folder and opened it. It contained a copy of her birth certificate. “What’s this for?”

She looked down at her hands, which were twisting in her lap. “I thought about what you said. About going to Mark for help instead of you. The truth is, before everything happened I never once thought about finding them. I don’t know what happened to my father. I have no memory of him at all. But her, well, I know she deliberately left me, so it was, like, who cares what the hell happened to them. But now it seems important. Since you are an important part of my life now and you have experience tracking down information I thought that it was right that I give it to you, too. I’ll let Mark know. Of course, he’ll probably want to make it part of this crazy competition between the two of you, but, really, if anyone is going to find them, it should be you.”

Ben closed the folder and said nothing. He looked at her face, its open expression, and swallowed. This thing that she’d given him. This was trust.

Suddenly it scared the living hell out of him because he didn’t know what would happen to them if he ever broke it. He set down the folder carefully and thought about the lengths he would go to for this woman. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. To make her happy, to keep her safe and to stay a part of her life.

Since you are an important part of my life now...

He’d been her boss. That had to have been important. He’d been the man she thought she loved. Surely that had to qualify as being significant in her world.

Only now she was saying that things were different. That he was different to her and even more important.

No, there was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. And there was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep her protected. Even if it meant lying to her.

“I’ll take care of this,” he said. “Trust me.”