Blown Away (5 page)

“Your mind is
somewhere else today,” Lena said, observing her carefully. “I can
always tell when you’re distracted.”

Ava knew better
than to try to hide the truth from Lena. She always managed to pry
it out of her. “A guy I used to know contacted me earlier. It just
kind of caught me off guard, I guess.”

“Anyone I
know?” Lena curled up in one of the oversized armchairs in her
office.

Ava claimed the
chair beside her. “I knew him back in college. His younger brother
was in some of my classes.”

“Huh, so why
did he contact you?”

“I have no
idea. I haven’t even thought about him in years.” That wasn’t
entirely true. She’d spent the years since she returned from
Germany fearing she may run into him at a party and have to explain
why she left town so quickly.

“But he’s
obviously thought about you or he wouldn’t have reached out.”

Ava shrugged,
wishing they could talk about something else, anything else. “I
guess.”

“Is he
cute?”

Ava nearly
spewed her mouthful of coffee. “Uh, I don’t know if that’s the word
I’d use to describe him.”

“Okay, now
you’ve really got me curious,” Lena laughed. “What’s his name? What
does he do?”

“Um…” There
wasn’t a person in Tennessee who hadn’t heard the name Brent
Armstrong, and Ava didn’t want to fuel Lena’s curiosity.

“Why are you
being so secretive? That’s not like you.”

Great, she’d
offended Lena. “His name is Brent--” she surrendered when Lena
raised an eyebrow “--Armstrong.”

“Shut up!” Lena
set her coffee down on the table at her elbow. “Not
the
Brent Armstrong?”

“That’s
him.”

“Oh my God,
that man is gorgeous. And rich, filthy, filthy rich.”

Ava laughed and
slapped Lena’s knee. “Behave. Since when did that matter?”

“It doesn’t,”
Lena said, grinning, “but it sure doesn’t hurt his chances.”

“He doesn’t
have a chance.” Ava took a sip of her coffee. Coming to the
boutique when she was still reeling from Brent’s email was a bad
idea.

“Why not?”

“He… I…” Ava
couldn’t explain without telling Lena the nature of their
relationship. If she found out Brent was the man who’d taken Ava’s
virginity, there’s no telling how she might react.

“You know I’m
not letting you off the hook without telling me the whole
story.”

Sighing, Ava
decided to accept her fate with grace. “Fine. We kind of went out
once, right before I moved to Germany.”

“He didn’t have
anything to do with you leaving, did he?”

“No.” That
wasn’t entirely true. She’d been accepted to several schools in
Europe, but she hadn’t intended to attend any of them until she
slept with Brent. She didn’t relish the idea of living in the same
city as him, especially when she found out the lengths he’d gone to
just to find her. A private investigator. Thinking about how intent
he’d been on locating her still gave her chills.

“Are you
sure?”

“Things got a
little complicated.”

“How so?”

Ava wasn’t an
inexperienced teenager anymore. She shouldn’t feel so awkward
talking to Lena about her sex life. “We slept together.” At Lena’s
stunned expression, Ava offered, “He was my first.”

“Oh, wow.
That’s intense.”

“Yeah, it was.
He was intense.”

“What do you
mean?”

“Afterward, he
called me repeatedly, emailed me, and tried to get mutual friends
to reach out to me for him.” Ava wasn’t sure if she should reveal
the last part. “When that didn’t work, he hired a private
investigator to track me down.”

“He
didn’t!”

Ava nodded. “He
did.”

“How do you
know?”

“Tara and I got
scared when we saw this guy following us, so we pointed out the guy
to a cop. He started questioning him and found out Brent had hired
the guy to find out where I was.”

“But you never
heard from Brent again after that?”

“We hopped on
the next plane. No way was I going to stick around with that guy
watching our every move.”

“I can’t
believe this,” Lena said quietly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know.
By the time I came home, it didn’t seem important anymore. I knew
he’d forgotten all about me. He hadn’t tried to contact me since
the police apprehended his friend.”

Lena looked at
Ava out of the corner of her eye. “From everything I’ve heard, he’s
ruthless if you try to cross him, but I’ve never heard anything
about him being unbalanced.”

“No, I’m not
afraid of him or anything. I’d just rather not cross paths with him
if I can help it.”

“I’m surprised
you’ve been able to avoid it. You and he are both on the A-list for
parties and fundraisers in the city.”

“Let’s just say
I’ve been selective about which parties I attend. If he’s rumored
to be on the guest list, I send my regrets.”

“So I take it
he won’t be at tonight’s bash for the children’s hospital?”

“No, a friend
is planning it and she emailed me the guest list. He’s definitely
not going to be there.”

Brent walked into the
ballroom that evening in a foul mood. Ava hadn’t responded to his
email, and he wanted to know why. Why was she still trying to avoid
him?

“You’re quiet
tonight,” Leslie said, tugging on his arm. She looked stunning in a
couture gown. She was a socialite whose mission in life was to land
a rich husband. She’d set her sights on Brent and decided he was
the one, despite the fact he told her repeatedly he wasn’t
interested in a serious relationship.

“I just have a
lot on my mind.” He didn’t have a lot on his mind. He had one thing
on his mind: Ava Cooper. Everything else, including the hostile
takeover he’d been plotting for years, had been relegated to the
back of his mind. He finally had the opportunity to get the answers
she’d denied him ten years ago. Brent hated losing, and he couldn’t
shake the feeling he’d lost Ava before she’d given him the chance
to prove they have something special.

Leslie accepted
a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. “Nice party, isn’t
it?”

“I suppose.”
Brent attended a hundred of those events every year, and each one
was no better or worse than the next. If he had his way, he would
have written a check and called it a night. Unfortunately, he
couldn’t pass up the face time with Nashville’s elite, and his
conscience told him he couldn’t stand Leslie up, no matter how much
he wanted to.

“Don’t be so
grumpy,” she said, pressing her fake breasts into his forearm.
“We’re going to have fun. I promise.”

He wasn’t
interested. Short of spelling it out, he didn’t know how to
convince her they would never consummate their pseudo-relationship.
He’d figure out how to let her down gently on the way home, so she
could move on to her next conquest.

“I don’t
believe it,” he whispered, his eyes fixed on the entrance.

“That’s Ava
Cooper,” Leslie said. “Do you know her?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm.” Leslie
pursed her Botox-injected lips. “She dated my ex-boyfriend. Rumor
was he was crazy about her. I don’t know why she’s holding out. She
couldn’t have done any better. Parker’s a real catch.”

Brent knew
Parker well. He couldn’t earn the right to woman like Ava on his
best day. “How long ago were they together?”

“I don’t know.”
Leslie looked bored. If she wasn’t the subject of conversation, she
wasn’t interested. “Sometime last year. After I dumped him.”

“If he was such
a great catch, why’d you dump him?”

Brent watched
Ava work the crowd like a born socialite. She was obviously
comfortable fraternizing with the blue bloods who’d made him feel
like an outcast until he made his first hundred million. After
that, they were only too happy to call him a friend. He resented
the lot of them, but the right connections were the lifeblood of
his business, so he drank scotch and smoked cigars with them,
smiled when they told a joke, and paid his dues at the country
club.

“Parker was too
self-centered,” Leslie said, her eyes narrowing as Brent tracked
Ava’s movements.

If Leslie
wasn’t careful, her glass house would shatter around her. He’d
never met a more self-centered woman. “Nobody’s perfect,” he
muttered.

“Ava doesn’t go
for guys like you,” Leslie blurted.

“Excuse me?”
Brent asked, tearing his attention from Ava long enough to glance
at his date.

“She likes nice
guys, like Parker.”

Parker Klein
was his rich father’s doormat. Brent had no respect for him or his
old man. Brent couldn’t keep himself from looking back at Ava. She
looked even more beautiful than he remembered. She wore a stunning
black and white evening gown and her long blond hair was upswept in
an elegant twist. Her makeup highlighted the cobalt eyes that still
made his heart falter, even from across the room.

The Ava he’d
known was a young and innocent college girl just finding her place
in the world, testing her boundaries, and developing her
self-esteem. But the woman before him was confident and sexier than
any mirage of the girl she used to be. She held her own with
business moguls and social climbers with practised ease, but she
did it without looking fake or pretentious. She was genuine, and
that was a rare quality in those circles. He watched her talk and
laugh with dozens of people, treating each one as though they were
the most important person in the room. He wanted her attention
fixed on him.

“That guy she’s
with,” Brent said, raising his crystal highball to his lips. “You
know him?”

“No, and I
don’t care to.” Leslie didn’t like sharing Brent’s time or
attention. She’d made that abundantly clear whenever someone
approached to talk business. “Can we sit down now? My feet are
killing me.”

“I’m not
surprised.” Her shoes were at least five inches high. Between the
tight dress and the shoes, she walked like a penguin. Unlike Ava,
who pulled off her glamour effortlessly. “If you’ll excuse me, my
brother just walked in. I need to have a word with him. Why don’t
you find our table? I’ll be right there.”

She wasn’t
happy, but she toddled off with a pout on her face. Brent could
care less about making small talk with his brother. Ava was his
target. He walked up to her group and caught her off guard when he
settled a hand on the small of her bare back.

She sucked in
an audible breath when she saw him. “Brent.”

“Hello, Ava.”
He nodded to the other members of the group.

“Brent, good to
see you,” the vice president of his bank said, offering his hand.
“Nice to see you out supporting this cause tonight.”

Ava shot him a
quick glance before looking away. “I’m surprised to see you
here.”

He suddenly
realized she’d been purposefully avoiding him all these years. But
why? “I’m Leslie’s plus one tonight,” he said, smiling. “I sent my
regrets when they sent my invitation because I was supposed to be
out of town. Turns out my plans fell through and I was able to make
it after all.”

“Lucky us,” Ava
said, low enough so only Brent could hear.

Brent bit his
lower lip, trying to suppress his smile. He was glad the refinement
hadn’t stripped her of the feistiness he’d loved so much. “If
you’ll excuse us, Ava and I haven’t seen each other since college.
I’d like to steal her away for a few minutes so we can catch up
before the evening gets underway.” He didn’t give her a chance to
object. He tightened his grip on her waist and turned her away from
the group.

“Where are we
going?” she asked through clenched teeth when he steered her
outside.

“I need a
breath of fresh air,” he said, inclining his head toward a group of
men.

“Are you asking
me if I’d like to go with you or telling me?” she asked, smiling
sweetly at a little old lady who sat on the board of the charity
they were honoring.

“What do you
think?”

“I think you
have a hell of a lot of nerve cornering me. I didn’t respond to
your email because I’m not interested in talking to you. Can’t you
take a hint?”

Brent wasn’t
used to fighting for a woman’s attention. He was surprised it
turned him on in a big way. “Would I be where I am if I took no for
an answer, sweetheart?”

“Am I supposed
to be impressed because you’re a big shot now?” She smiled at the
valet tipping his hat. “Because I’m not.”

He led her to a
secluded bench amidst a floral profusion and waterfall where he’d
attended a wedding or two over the years. “I’m not asking you to be
impressed, but I think I deserve some answers.”

“I’m here with
a date tonight.” She scowled when he pointed to the bench. “Did it
ever occur to you how he might feel seeing his date take off to
spend time with you?”

“Why should
it?” He folded his arms, pinning her with the stare that made
powerful business men squirm in their seats. It didn’t work with
her. She simply lifted her chin and gave it right back.
Damn
her
. She was throwing him off his game. “If he knows you at
all, he’d know that taking off on unsuspecting men is your
specialty.”

“It was a
meaningless one-night stand. I didn’t owe you anything!”

He grabbed her
upper arms and hauled her body against his. Her mask of
indifference slipped, and he saw something familiar flare to life
in her eyes: arousal. “It meant something to me.” He fixated on her
lips, intent on making her guess what he might do next. “You meant
something to me.”

She seemed to
be having trouble drawing breath when she said, “I never promised
you anything.”

“Yes, you did.”
He leaned in to whisper in her ear. His lower lip grazed her
earlobe, and she sucked in a breath. “Don’t you remember? When you
were coming apart in my arms, begging me to make you come over and
over again?” His plan to remind her was backfiring and making him
recall every detail of a night he couldn’t forget.