Billion Dollar Milkmaid: The Complete Series (9 page)

She desperately wanted to believe he was nothing like Hunter, that his engagement to Anna Belle wasn’t true, but the evidence suggested otherwise. Amy frowned and rubbed her forehead. She felt another tension headache coming on.

“What’s wrong?” Patrick asked.

He’d been unusually clingy and concerned for her well-being lately. Normally, Amy would have liked the attention, except that it was her mission to sort out the affairs of Patrick and Hunter. The way Patrick followed her around like a lost puppy made it difficult to investigate. Not to mention, that she was always on the look out for Hunter and Anna Belle. She didn’t think she could contain her rage if she was around either of them again.

Amy had no idea what she was thinking when she slept with Hunter. The whole fiasco left her feeling deeply ashamed. It made her all the more resolved to find out the kind of person Patrick really was. She wanted to believe there was someone worth fighting for in this whole mess.

Suddenly it occurred to her that there was: herself. For a long time Amy had struggled with her self-esteem. If anything good came out of this it was that she learned to fight for herself. She wasn’t going to let anyone use her or make her feel worthless again.

“Amy?”

Amy’s mind had wondered off. “Sorry?”

“You seem distant.”

Amy shrugged.

Patrick rose and walked around the desk. He crouched on the floor in front of her and took her hand. “I know what it is.”

Amy’s heart raced. “You do?”

“Of course. It’s about the other night…when you said you loved me. We haven’t discussed it. I want you to know that you can tell me anything.”

Amy wanted to scoff, to laugh in his face and walk out. The idea that she was supposed to be totally open, but that he could keep his secrets was insulting.

“I know I can count on you to speak just as freely.” Amy kept her voice even. She didn’t want him to know what she was really thinking, but it was hard to hide the bitterness in her words.

Patrick’s eyes narrowed. He examined her closely. She was constantly amazed at how expressive his eyes were. They were vulnerable and boyish one minute, then fierce and dangerous the next. Now he stared at her with a mixture of curiosity and worry.

“I haven’t been totally honest with you.” No shit, Amy thought. “But I’ve never held back without a good reason.”

“What reason would you have?” She tried to sound sweet and innocent, but somehow came across more abrasive than if she’d slapped him.

“You know about my engagement, don’t you?” Patrick laughed.

Amy looked around nervously. “I really don’t think it’s funny.”

Not only was he engaged, but he was laughing in her face about it. Amy considered walking out the door and forgetting having ever met Patrick or Hunter or Anna Belle.

“No, I’m sorry.” He tried to compose himself, but couldn’t erase the smile from his face. He turned to make sure his office door was closed. “Look, I shouldn’t be discussing this with you,” he said confidentially, “but I’m not marrying Anna Belle.”

“But H-” Amy stopped herself. She almost gave away that she’d been with Hunter. Luckily, Patrick ignored her.

“It has to appear that I’m marrying Anna Belle. My business with her father is complicated. He’s a paranoid man. He tries to ensure complete loyalty from the people he does business with. In my case, that means marrying into his family and well… you’ve seen what they’re like.”

Amy nodded. She winced at the memory of Anna Belle attacking her. She suddenly threw herself into Patrick’s arms. He held her tight. Tears came to Amy’s eyes.

As scared as she was of Hunter, she had been more afraid of discovering that Patrick was just as bad. Discovering that his engagement was a ploy gave her relief. It was devious, but Hunter’s family was crazy. Hopefully, she thought, Patrick knows what he’s doing. As precarious as her situation might be, it was nice to know she had an ally.

“Patrick?”

“Yeah?”

“I did something horrible.” It was now or never. She couldn’t continue deceiving him. If they were going to move forward together they had to trust one another- and she didn’t want Hunter to have any leverage over her.

Patrick still held her, but his body stiffened. “Go on.”

“Last night… I was with Hunter.”

Patrick didn’t move. His silence was worse than if he’d flown into a rage.

“We slept together… and he told me you were marrying Anna Belle. Then he called me a whore and threatened me…I-”

The words came flooding out of her. She began to cry. It was a huge relief to get the burden off of her chest, even though she hated herself for hurting Patrick.

An agonizing minute passed before Patrick reached up and ran his fingers through her hair. He was gentle, but Amy could feel the tension radiating off of him. She knew he was furious, but he was trying to control himself.

He wiped a tear from her cheek.

“It’s not your fault,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Of course it is. I betrayed you because I thought you were betraying me. I know it’s no excuse… I just… Please don’t hate me. I do love you.” Amy realized in that instant that it was true: she loved him.

“I know.”

It was all Patrick said before leading her upstairs to his bedroom. He helped her into bed and pulled the covers up, around her.

It was late and Amy felt emotionally drained. She wanted Patrick to lay down with her, but instead he sat in a chair by the bed.

“You aren’t going to lay down?” she asked timidly.

“I have something that I need to do.” His words gave Amy the chills. “I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep.”

Amy fought against sleep. She didn’t want Patrick to leave, but she was too exhausted. Eventually, she drifted off and when she woke with a start in the middle of the night, Patrick was gone.

Amy walked through the big house aimlessly. It was early morning and the house was dark and empty. Somehow, it felt heavy and oppressive. It made her uncomfortable. She felt like a lonely ghost haunting an abandoned home.

Finally, she stopped in front of Patrick’s office.  He was gone and it was a rare opportunity to investigate.

She wanted to know more about his business, but she also wanted his trust. It was severely damaged if not destroyed, now that he knew she’d slept with Hunter. Snooping around his office was not the way to win back his confidence, but she couldn’t help herself. Amy needed to know more about Patrick’s business with Hunter.

She opened the door and tiptoed inside. “I’ll just take a quick peek,” she said to herself.

Amy was suddenly reminded of standing in the hall and rationalizing her date with Hunter. If only she could take it back. Too late, she thought.

Amy closed the door behind her and sat down at Patrick’s desk. She turned on his computer, but stopped when she saw that it was password protected.

She shut it down and began looking through several papers on his desk. Most if it was meaningless to her, but one document gave her pause. It was a memo from Hunter to Anna Belle. Cryptically, it asked that she check on the ‘arrangement.’

The arrangement of what, Amy couldn’t say. The memo was dated yesterday morning, making it the day after her encounter with Hunter.

She put the paper back exactly as she had found it and rose from the desk. She suddenly realized she was going about this the wrong way. She had to convince Patrick to open up to her. He had to understand that they were in this together.

She rubbed her face and sighed. “He’ll be the death of us all,” she said out loud.

“Yes he will.”

Amy jumped out of her seat. Patrick stepped out of the shadows. “I assume you were referring to Hunter.” His voice was cold.

“I was just-”

“Digging for dirt.”

Amy didn’t know what to say. She’d been caught red-handed.

“We can’t go on this way.” Patrick rested against the desk and put his head down. “In all honesty, I don’t blame you for the things you’ve done. I’ve pushed you away and put you in danger. This is my fault.”

Amy walked around the desk and stood before him. “I shouldn’t have slept with Hunter. It was wrong. Don’t apologize for that. If you want us to be close then you have to tell me what’s going on. Why am I in danger? What business dealings do you have with Hunter that are so important that you would keep up this charade? I mean, all of these lies and games over money?”

“It’s not just about money. My families’ legacy is at stake.”

“I don’t understand.”

“My family doesn’t have much anymore, except our name- a name that used to mean something.”

Amy was having a hard time following him. “All of this is over your family name?”

“My family and Hunter’s family have a long complicated history. The recession wiped us out and this deal is a chance to restore what we once had.”

“So you’ll marry Anna Belle then, for your family?”

“I told you, I have no intention of marrying her.”

“And what? I’m supposed to take your word?”

“Believe me, don’t believe me, but understand, I’ve only done what I think is in the best interest of my family and you.”

Amy was beyond arguing the motives of Patrick’s actions. At this point, all she wanted was a plan of attack. She needed to feel some degree of control in this whole bizarre situation she found herself in. “What do we do now?”

“We wait.”

“Will you tell Hunter that I’ve come clean with you?”
 

“
No. He needs to believe everything is proceeding as he planned it. We should carry on as if nothing has changed.”

“But they have changed, haven’t they?”

Patrick stepped close to her and ran the back of his hand down her arm. His touch never failed to send shivers up and down her spine.

“You’re the wildcard in all this,” he whispered. “I need you, but I can’t guarantee your safety. I know you wonder…”

He swallowed hard and looked away.  Amy tried to hold his gaze, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes. She couldn’t read his expression. Patrick had a way of retreating into his mind and blocking her out. She found it maddening.

Amy touched his face and ran her finger along his jaw and over his lips. His eyes searched her face. Could it be that he found her as enigmatic as she found him? The thought made Amy blush.

Suddenly, his mouth was on hers. He kissed her softly. It was a delicate, intimate gesture. One, rarely experienced in life and made twice as tender by the hard road they faced. Times were difficult but it gave Amy hope to know that they were in fact in it together.

He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her onto the desk. She felt as if she weighed next to nothing in his arms. He untied her robe and rested his head on her chest. Amy ran her fingers through his hair, petting him gently.

It suddenly weighed heavily on her mind how much stress Patrick was under. She hadn’t stopped to consider the pressure on him.

Maybe, she thought bitterly, it was because he didn’t let her in. She wanted to share his burden, but he closed her off.

As she felt Patrick’s hot breath on her skin, she realized that as much as she wanted to stay angry at him, she couldn’t, he was the lost piece she’d been searching for; the indefinable part of herself that had been missing.