Finding Pride (Pride Series) (9 page)

Currently, it was a stock sheet labeled Jordan Shipping that lie in front of her.

Megan could feel the heat from his body as he leaned over and turned the pages, looking for the right one. He was leaning closer now to her and she could smell his soap, it was a clean smell that had her stomach doing little twists.

Turning to yet another page, he continued. “You will let me know whether you want to liquidate any of Matt’s assets. I have personal interest in the stock, but I could help you find someone who will help you sell anything else.” He finished, but didn’t move away.

Megan turned her head to thank him and realized how close he was to her. She could not only smell his soap, she could almost taste it.

He had meant to move away, really he had, but then he had smelled her hair. It smelled of violets and spring. She had her head turned down towards the file and her neck was exposed to his view.

What was his fascination with this woman’s neck? When he had walked in earlier to see her sitting in Matt’s large leather chair with tears in her eyes, and Iian leaning over her, he had a flash of jealousy and rage so strong he had wanted to take his brother outside and pound some sense into him.

She turned her eyes towards him, her eyes were the color of the fields after a rain. When she let go of a small breath, he groaned. Then, when her tongue darted out to moisten her full bottom lip, he lost it. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up out of the chair and to her toes.

“Why are you doing this to me?” he asked just before he crushed her lips under his. He liked to think of himself as controlled, but now he didn’t care that he was losing it.

When he had pulled her closer to his chest, her left hand went up on defense. But, when his mouth had come down to hers, she let go and melted against his chest enjoying the hot touch.

He played his tongue against her lips, then took advantage when she opened them, darting his tongue inside for a taste. He knew that once he got a taste of her, things would only get worse. She was spoiling him from any other and he didn’t care. This was madness; he was slowly losing his grip and sinking.

He was about to push her away from him, when he heard her groan and felt her melt further against him. Just that small sound coming from down deep caused him to pull her closer instead; she was a nice little arm full. He put his hand on the back of her neck interlacing his fingers in her soft hair and lowered his other hand to the middle of her back, flexing his fingers and bunching up the shirt she had on.

When he realized it was one of Matt’s old shirts, it was like a cold bucket of water hitting him full force.

He released her at once, stumbling back from the desk as she leaned against the desk. He was going mad, this is Matt’s little sister. He had all but swallowed her whole and on Matt’s desk too. In Matt’s office! Matt’s sister! Damn it, he had to get it together.

He shook his head and looked at Megan. She was flushed and her lips swollen from his, she had her hand on her cheek and he could see that it was pink and heated. Her hair was messed up from his hands and her eyes showed shock and confusion as she remained standing there like a statue.

“I won’t apologize for kissing you; I’ve wanted to do that for a long time. But, I’ll apologize for not handling it smoother.” She was still bruised and he hadn’t been as gentle as he should have. “The papers are all there, if you have any questions, call me.” He turned and walked out leaving her leaning against the desk with her hand still against her cheek.

She wasn’t quite sure what he meant by a long time, since she’d only known him for almost a month. But, she did know that she’d never been kissed like that before. She knew she was small, but she didn’t want to be handled like she would break, at least not by him, and not in that way.

Her lips were still vibrating. Hell, her whole body was vibrating. She sat down in the chair since she was sure her knees would give out any moment. She could still taste him and she had wanted more. What was she thinking? She sat there for a few minutes playing it over and over in her mind.

The more she thought about it the more she was sure she wanted it to happen again. She had come here trying to start a new life and a new life meant no men. Period! End of story. No way! She couldn’t trust anyone again, let alone herself around someone new. But, why not take pleasure where pleasure was given? She needed to stand on her own, find out who she truly was.

But, wow, what a kiss!

Shaking her head to clear it of Todd, she glanced back down at the paperwork and started reading from page one. Two and a half hours later, she was to the point where she thought she might hyper ventilate.

There were papers scattered all over the desk. This couldn’t be right. She had gone over the figures at least six times. She had her copy of Matt’s will, which the lawyer had given her two days ago, along with a stack of other papers. Her hand was shaking slightly when she reached for the phone on the desk and dialed Todd’s number.

“Hmm, hello?” Lacey’s sultry voice came over the phone

“Hi Lacey, it’s me, Megan.”

“Hi Megan, Iian says that you’re coming to dinner tonight. You’ll love it; he’s going to make a special just for the occasion. Todd told me he dropped off the paperwork today, were you calling because you had some questions?”

“Yes,” Megan began. “Actually, quite a few, is Todd there by any chance?”

“Hang on a minute, he’s out feeding the horses. Let me just ring him in the barn.” Megan could hear another dial tone, then more ringing. Todd’s voices came over the line. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Hey Todd, Megan had some other questions about the papers. See you tonight Megan.” And there was a click before Megan had time to answer back.

“Um, Hi, I just had a few questions about some of these figures.” Megan began, she felt awkward, but wanted to clear up any confusion she had.

“Well, how about I finish up with the horses and come over, then we can head over to the restaurant for dinner? Iian says that you were going over there tonight.”

“Yes, that sounds fine, thank you.” Megan felt like a teenager making her first date.

“I’ll see you in about an hour then?”

When Megan hung up the phone, she felt her cheeks turning pink all over again. As she went to go upstairs and change, she passed the mirror hanging over the coat rack by the door. Not only were her cheeks pink, her eyes sparkled. She had to stop this. What power did Todd posses to make her body react this way?

Think Megan! She told herself. New life, no man, new life, no man. She chanted it to herself as she jogged up the stairs. An hour didn’t give her a lot of time to get ready. With her broken arm, things seem to take double the time.

By the time she heard Todd’s car drive up, she was as ready as she would ever be. She had just walked out of the bedroom, when she heard the front door open, then a small curse, and it closed again. She had reached the top of the stairs when she heard the knock. She chuckled, he really was used to just walking right in. When both Iian and Lacey came over they had seemed very comfortable around the house, moving as if it was second nature to them. It was kind of weird to think that Matt had intertwined himself with their family, but then again, Matt had been a very comfortable person. She knew that once you were in with Matt, you were in for life.

Megan opened the door to see Todd’s back. And what a back it was! He had changed from his jean and work shirt to gray dress pants and a dark black blazer. She couldn’t see whether he wore a tie or not, but she couldn’t imagine him wearing one.

He turned and she quite literally forgot her chant of new life, no man. His silver shirt under the blazer turned his blue eyes a silver color so they matched perfectly. She was right; it was a high necked shirt, no tie.

She looked good enough to devour. She too had changed from her jeans and Matt’s old shirt to simple black dress pants that looked like they floated on the air, and a light green button up blouse, the sleeves were short enough for a small amount of arm to show above her cast.

“
Come in, you know, you don’t have to knock, I think I’m getting used to your family coming and going around this house,” she said with a smile.

When he had arrived, he had unlocked the door with his set of keys and walked right in, like he always did when Matt was around. He could see her smiling at him and silently cursed himself a fool again.

“You look very lovely.” Did his voice just crack? Man, here he was almost thirty-two years old and he felt like he was on his first date again. He cleared his throat. They stood there for a minute taking in each other. “You had some questions about the paperwork?”

“Oh, yes.” She moved back into the office, her heels clicking on the hardwood floors, then sat down behind the large desk. “Here, where I have it marked, the total of liquid assets. This can’t be right.” Todd moved over to look. The number on the paper was correct, Todd had seen to it himself.  “Also, here where it shows the working capital total?”

“I assure you, these numbers are correct,” he said looking down at the paper.

“But, then, um, that would mean…” Megan couldn’t finish.

“Your brother was well versed in his financial options. Jordan Shipping stock was and is a solid investment. You don’t need to worry about it; your brother saw fit to take care of you after he was gone.” Todd stepped back, if he didn’t, he might not want to back off at all.

“But, how did he invest in so much stock? I mean.” She was stuttering and starting to feel foolish. “It’s just that my brother never seemed to have any money when I was growing up. How did he…” She couldn’t finish.

“From what he mentioned, he had taken his inheritance and invested, and when that investment paid off, he invested again. When he moved here, he paid cash for the land and house, about a year later invested in Jordan Shipping, which if I do say so myself, has paid off quite nicely over the last four years. Your brother purchased enough stock in our company that I asked him to be on the Board, and then two years ago, I made him a full partner. He was a good asset to the business. He was not only a brilliant man, but also my mentor. I looked up to him quite a lot. My entire family did.”

She had sat there and listened to him talk about her brother, and started wandering whether she really had known the man. The Matt she knew had always had the money in his pockets never in the bank. When she had lived with him, she had questioned whether he had even owned the clothes on his back. He was very laid back; never taking anything too serious and almost always had his nose in a book.

He was a traveler, a wanderer, never really stopping in one place for long. They had traveled a lot. Sure, he had always provided an apartment or condo for them to live in. But Megan was uprooted almost every year, and after she had gone off to live at the college dorm things had moved even faster for Matt, or so she had thought.

She knew he had moved here almost five years ago, right after she married, but even then, she knew he traveled a lot. Not once did she believe that he had been investing his inheritance. She had paid off her college tuition and put a down payment on the townhouse she had lived in when she had married. But, after that, she hadn’t really touched it for fear that Derek would find it.

She just couldn’t get her mind around it, according to these documents, everything was taken care of; the house, land, car, enough money to make the Bed and Breakfast a huge success. His stock accounts covered all of it, and so much more.

Now she was looking down at papers that told her Matt’s holdings equaled to enough that she no longer had to worry about anything for the remainder of her life. Why hadn’t her brother told her? Had he guessed about Derek? Is that why he kept all this from her?