Heidi Rice - Back in His Bed

“No ‘but.’ An ‘if.’”

Dianne’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “I’m not following you. An ‘if’? What kind of ‘if’ ?”

Brenna glanced over to make sure the lab door was firmly closed. “Jack offered to give me his half if —” She took a deep breath. “ If I slept with him.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re not serious?” Brenna nodded, and Dianne’s jaw dropped. “That’s—that’s—that’s…”

“Disgusting? Amoral?” she offered. “Brilliant? Good business sense? I honestly don’t know.”

“But you didn’t.” Di looked at her carefully. “ Did you?”

“No! Do you think I’d be in this bad shape if I was now sole owner?” Brenna leaned back in the chair and took another sip of coffee. “I have to admit, though, it was pretty tempting.” And if she’d given in to that temptation she wouldn’t have been turned inside out by the rest of their conversation.

“And I can see why. You get everything you want just for a little nookie? That’s a helluva return on your investment.” Brenna felt her own eyebrows go up at the words, and Dianne cleared her throat. “Not that you would, though. That would be wrong.”

“I had no idea you had such a practical Machiavellian streak. In some ways it does seem like a relatively minor thing to do—I mean, it’s not like I’ve never had sex with him before.”

“Ah-ha!” Dianne jumped off the counter. “ That’s what was tempting you. Not the vineyard. Oh, no. Sex with Jack again was the temptation.”

That much was true. No sense in lying. “Yes. Jack was the temptation. I haven’t forgotten what it was like. I remember every single detail.” Images danced through her memory, bringing a physical response. “Vividly.”

“So do I, and I only heard them from you,” Di said, fanning herself.

“But I’m not stupid. Physically and financially it sounds like a pretty decent deal, but honestly—and if you repeat this I’ll kill you—I’m afraid it would hurt too much. In here.” She placed a hand over her chest.

“Afraid you wouldn’t be able to respect yourself in the morning?”

“That, too.” She’d come to several conclusions in the wee hours of the morning. Including that one.

“Ahh.” Dianne bit her lip. She understood. “Jack still has a piece of you. I suspected as much.”

“I don’t know how or why, but, yeah, it seems he does. You’d think I’d be over him by now. It’s been a long time.”

“Avoidance doesn’t mean you’ve been dealing.”

“I guess not. Now look at me.” Brenna balanced her elbows on her knees and let her head rest in her hands. “I’m a mess. And I’m in a hell of a mess.”

“That explains a lot of the fighting.” Dianne returned to her perch on the counter and drummed her nails on it.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Unfinished business, remember? Maybe Jack has some, too.”

“Oh, please.” Jack didn’t sound like someone with unfinished business—unless she counted the winery, of course. “You’re insane. And that noise is making me insane.”

Dianne stopped the drumming and folded her hands in her lap. “Jack doesn’t need to bribe or blackmail women to get them to sleep with him. There’s got to be a reason he propositioned you.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She’d thought about that, too, and decided not to dig too deep lest she find something to make her even worse off than she already was. “I have to admit, though, it’s the one thing we were really good at. It was everything else that didn’t work.”

“Still…even good sex can’t be that hard for him to come by. There are lots of women in San Francisco, and he’s rich, young, and unbelievably handsome. He doesn’t need to hit you up for ex-sex for a little relief.”

Pulling her hair out sounded like a grand plan about now. “ Argh. Can we pick another subject now? Please?”

“Just one more question.” Dianne turned serious. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think the offer is open now anyway—not after last night’s blowout. I may sound like a broken record, but I just don’t know. ”

“You’ll figure it out. I know you will.” Dianne left her then, squeezing her shoulder in comfort and support as she passed Brenna’s chair. Dianne also left the Thermos of coffee for her, but her stomach didn’t seem stable enough to take more.

Brenna stared at the walls—old pictures, notes written in her mother’s elegant handwriting, label prototypes, newspaper clippings and lists of local growers all competed for space. She would figure it out. She had to. But last night’s revelations wouldn’t leave her alone.

She’d loved Jack, but he’d also offered an excitement she’d lacked living out here on the property. When that had gone to hell she’d slunk home, to the one place where she understood who and what she needed to be. She’d thrown herself into Amante Verano—partly because she loved it, but also partly to fill the gap losing Jack had created.

Right or wrong, though, this was her life now. Everything she’d worked for in the last ten years had come to this moment. Jack’s presence had just created a wrinkle; the blast from her past shaking her world a little. She needed to come to a workable arrangement with Jack, and once she did everything would go back to normal.

And Jack himself…Well, she needed to get past old hurts and old feelings and remember what they were now —not what they had been. All she had to do was ignore that pull he had on her and take back that little piece of her he still seemed to have. Needless to say sleeping with Jack was out of the question. For any reason , she told herself.

In the meantime, sitting around moping in frustration wasn’t going to change anything—at least she knew that much. She also had a to-do list a mile long, and she wouldn’t accomplish any of it hiding out in her lab.

Her first stop was the storeroom, where the banal task of inventory was waiting for her. Before she could get started, though, her cellphone rang. Fishing it out of her back pocket, she checked the number. What could Di want?

“Where’s Jack?”

She eyeballed the boxes containing bottles, mentally calculating. “At the main house, I assume.”

“No, because I’m at the main house. His car’s gone.”

Brenna’s heart jumped in her chest, then sank. Which is it? she asked herself. Am I happy or not? “Gone?”

Di sounded exasperated. “I can’t believe he’d take off without telling anyone. That’s just plain rude. And after what you said about last night…”

It was a bit of a slap in the face. “Jack can come and go as he pleases. He doesn’t owe anyone any kind of explanation.”

“Maybe he just went into town for something. Want me to check his room and see if his stuff’s gone? It would give us a clue if he’s planning on coming back or not.”

“Di, no. If he’s not coming back he’ll call. Or have his lawyer call. It’s not like anything is settled. We should enjoy the break while we can.”

Then why didn’t she feel any relief? She still felt the tightness around her chest that hurt when she breathed. Good thing I didn’t sleep with him.

“But Brenna…”

“Don’t you have something you need to do? Something useful?”

“Fine.” Dianne grumbled. “But I wonder where he went? And why?”

Me, too. “It’s not our business.”

She wasn’t naïve enough to believe Jack had simply given up and gone home, and the knots in her stomach tightened. No, Jack had something cooking, and she wasn’t going to like it.