Cypress Corners Boxed Set (Books 1-3) Read online

  Yeah, they went out. He smiled to himself. Yeah, they stayed in. The impressions they were apparently making with the Cypress folks were bad enough. He didn’t want Harmony’s parents thinking that they were more than casual. In his experience nothing could do that faster than a holiday dinner. His lip curled. Now he was here asking her to do something he wouldn’t do in her place.

  She never questioned his plans, holidays or long-range, and he made sure to never touch on the topic of what would happen after the rec café was complete. They hardly talked about the project at all, come to think of it. It was half-finished now, and on target for completion by the end of the year. That was just a few weeks away. Irritated as his thoughts threatened to linger on the subject, he stepped out of the SUV.

  The late afternoon sun slanted through the tall trees behind her cabin and sparkled on the lake beyond the dock. He breathed in the pine scent and fresh air as he heard the water lapping against the pilings, the tension that had begun to plague him dissipated.

  She had a pretty place here. He’d yet to spend the night though, listening to the things that chirped and splashed as he made love to her again. Surely that wasn’t accidental. This was her place, and he really had no business hanging around through the night. He wouldn’t press for that, either. Not after that awkward morning at his place.

  He rapped on her door. “Harmony?”

  He could hear her moving around, soft sounds as she straightened her home for his unexpected visit.

  “Be right there!” she called.

  Her footsteps must have been muffled by that thick rag rug because she startled him when she opened the door.

  He’d surprised her too, apparently. She was dressed in low-riding pants with a hooded sweatshirt unzipped to show the tank top underneath. She had a pencil tucked up in the hair twisted at the top of her head, and she was barefoot.

  “Were you working?” he asked.

  She blew a loose curl out of her face. “Yes. But it’s nothing that can’t wait. What’s up?”

  Leaning a shoulder on the door, she appeared relaxed. But the uncertainty and tension hummed between them. It had since the morning she’d woken up in his bed.

  He shoved his own preoccupation aside and forged ahead. “I need you.”

  She ran her eyes over him and he could guess what she interpreted from that statement. He would have taken her up on the offer if he thought she was as carefree about it as she appeared. But he needed her for something else today.

  “Bill’s here,” he said.

  She straightened, her eyes going round. “Your father? Oh, to check on the rec café.”

  “To check on me,” he said too fast. “He brought Tiffany with him. My stepmother.”

  Harmony’s brow furrowed but he wouldn’t give her a chance to think of some excuse. “Come to dinner with us. Please.”

  “Oh, Rick.” She stepped back and turned as he followed her into the cabin. “I don’t know. The developers are fine but your father? Your mother?”

  “Stepmother.” He took her hand and turned her toward him. “I need you there, Harmony.”

  Her gaze searched his face for a long moment. God, he saw that tenderness in her eyes he’d seen off and on since that morning two weeks ago. He let himself bask in it for a long moment before setting it aside with a wink. “I can use the distraction.”

  That tenderness cleared, replaced by a conspiratorial expression. So she’d play it his way, apparently.

  “Sure.” She glanced down at herself. “Let me get dressed. We’re not going to Orlando again, are we?”

  “No. The Clubhouse.” He stepped out and held the door open. “Thanks, Harmony. I’ll wait for you out here.” He let the door close behind him.

  ***

  Harmony dressed quickly. The Clubhouse. Casual elegance or some stuff like that. The little silk dress? No. A long gauzy skirt and matching top, both in sunny yellow. She’d look bright and cheery even if she was a bundle of nerves inside.

  She was going to meet his father? His stepmother? Tiffany. Rick’s voice had sounded bitter when he’d said her name. Something was up for sure. Rick seemed like he wanted to be anywhere else but with his parents. He wouldn’t explain why. He’d been Mr. Brush-off since they’d spent the night together. Keeping things casual, staying focused on his work and sleeping with her when the mood struck. But there were times, when he was deep inside her and gazing into her eyes, that she felt the connection he would probably deny. Her heart knew it, too.

  She wouldn’t be the one to press him. She knew what he needed today and she’d be there for him. A diversion, a distraction. A buffer. She didn’t know how valuable she’d be tonight but she’d sure try.

  After putting on a little make-up and running the brush through her hair, she joined him in the SUV. She could sense the tension in him as he tapped his knee. Setting aside the implications it might infer—would he think she wanted more from their relationship?—she placed her hand over his. He eased instantly beneath her touch, and gave a jerky nod. He started the car and turned it around, heading toward the village.

  She spotted the reason for his unease as soon as they pulled up in front of The Clubhouse. The two reasons, actually. Bill Chapman stood at the top step, one hand in his pocket as he sucked on a cigarette. Harmony said a silent prayer of thanks that the state of Florida didn’t allow smoking in any of its restaurants or bars. The woman standing beside Bill seemed as harsh as the smoke coming out of her husband’s mouth. Brassy blond hair framed a face that nature didn’t make. Who has a nose like that, curved pertly at the end and tiny compared to her collagen-injected lips? Her body probably wasn’t as God made it, either.

  She swallowed the unfamiliar, unwarranted cattiness. This was Bill’s wife, not Rick’s girlfriend, she was meeting. Tiffany spied them and lifted a tanned arm and waved. About a dozen gold bracelets caught the light from the streetlamp.

  “God, here we go,” she heard Rick say under his breath. He faced her. “Thank you for this.”

  He seemed… smaller as he got out of the SUV and walked around to her side. He took her elbow as she climbed down and they joined his parents on the steps.

  “Chapman!” Bill called. He threw his cigarette butt on the walk and shook Rick’s hand. “Nice to see you. Who’s this?”

  He faced Harmony and she quickly looked him over. He looked a lot like Rick, only with hard eyes and a chill his son never showed. Well, hardly ever showed. Bill wore pleated tan slacks and a blue blazer over a white oxford shirt. The blazer had an emblem of a sailboat surrounded by fancy gold stitching. Some yacht club, she guessed. Small wonder Rick hadn’t thought much of The Boathouse.

  “Harmony Brooks,” she said, extending her hand.

  Bill took it and pulled slightly before dropping it. “Wait. The tree-hugger?” He turned to Rick. “You didn’t tell me she was a knock-out.”

  Rick didn’t say anything to that. Harmony faced his stepmother, who narrowed brown eyes on her. Curiosity mixed with blatant animosity struck her from beneath thickly-coated lashes.

  “Harmony,” she said. She pursed her peach-tinted lips and grabbed on to Rick’s arm, leaning against him. “Rick didn’t say he was dating anyone here.”

  Rick stepped back from Tiffany and urged Harmony into the restaurant. “Let’s go inside.”

  Harmony wouldn’t be hurt by his brusqueness. She knew it was due to these people and had nothing to do with their issues. Tonight, at least.

  They followed the hostess to a table set in the middle of the restaurant. She didn’t quite know why until the developers and other bigwigs at Cypress Corners began to stop by his table to say “hello.”

  “Great to see you here, Bill,” one man said. “Your son here has done a terrific job pushing the end of the contract through.”

  Bill shrugged and sipped at his glass of scotch. “Rick’s learning the ropes. He’s proving himself.”

  She watched Rick, her heart aching. She’d never seen a family dynami
c like this one. Tiffany devoured her stepson with her eyes—and her sharp fingernails as she used every excuse to touch his arm, his shoulder and probably his thigh, since she’d maneuvered her chair very close to his. Bill spoke only of investors and contracts. Rick didn’t say much, just ate and kept checking his watch as he attempted to shake off Tiffany’s hand.

  The servers bent over backwards to serve Bill Chapman and party, and more courses than Harmony had anticipated covered their table. She picked at her food and waited for the evening to end.

  “So what do you do, Harmony?” Tiffany asked after Rick’s most recent rebuff of her touch. “Bill said you’re the girl from the Institute?”

  She set aside her napkin and nodded. “I’m a plant conservationist, Mrs. Chapman. I make sure nothing infringes on the native plants here on property.”

  “Plant conservation?” Tiffany tossed back her hair. “Sounds dull.”

  Rick cursed softly. “Harmony’s work was integral to letting us build the rec café, Tiffany.”

  “Yeah. The weed.” Bill waved his empty scotch glass at a passing waiter who whisked it out of his hand and replaced it with a full glass. “Rick told me about it when he first got here.”

  She wouldn’t argue the point, not with these people. The thunder showing in Rick’s eyes made her feel vindicated even though nothing either of them could say would convince Bill and Tiffany of her importance. She didn’t care about their opinion. Just look how they treated Rick!

  “How are Jake and Cassie?”

  Bill snorted. “Your brother is off in… Tahiti, I think. Some extreme games, or something. Cassie?” He waved a hand. “According to the latest reports she’s traipsing across Europe with some fortune-hunter.”

  “Reports?” Rick asked. “You’re having her followed?”

  Bill leveled a cold look at his son. “Better I hear of it than the tabloids. Your sister is out of control.”

  Harmony saw the pain flicker over Rick’s face at the man’s dismissal of both his siblings. She wanted to touch his hand as she’d done in the SUV, but once more Tiffany’s bejeweled hand was there. And once more Rick pulled away.

  At long last the evening was over and they all stepped out of the restaurant.

  “I’ll call you before we head back to Boston, Chapman,” Bill said. “Tiffany wants to drive out to the beach tomorrow.”

  “Ooh, why don’t you come with us, Rick?” Tiffany said. Again she ran her eyes over Harmony. “You can bring your… friend.”

  “No.” Rick practically dragged Harmony toward the SUV and opened her door for her to climb in. “Thanks, but no.”

  Tiffany shrugged one shoulder and pouted. “We’ll see you in a few days, then.”

  Rick said nothing as he shut Harmony’s door and walked around to the driver’s seat. He said nothing and just sat very still until his father’s rented convertible had driven out of Cypress Corners. Then he started the car.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion.

  “Don’t be,” she said for lack of anything better.

  He drove her back to her cabin. Resting his head on the steering wheel he was gripping tightly, he closed his eyes. “Why? Why do I let them get to me?”

  She didn’t hesitate. She reached out and touched his rigid shoulder. He softened a bit. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  He lifted his head, his eyes red-rimmed. “It’s always going to be like this.” He laughed harshly. “Since it’s always been like this, I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  She grabbed his hand and tugged. “Come inside.”

  He followed behind her. A bit reluctantly by his plodding footsteps, but he followed. She knew he had to talk about it, to get it out. Her mother would cleanse his aura with crystals and get him feeling more like himself. Harmony only had one thing to help him. Her feelings for him, whatever the heck they were. She only knew her heart was breaking to see him in such a state.

  She’d worry about herself later.

  Chapter 14

  Harmony walked through her cozy cabin and flicked on the small bedside lamp. It’s glow warmed the space but did nothing to the chill inside him.

  “Sit down, Rick,” she said softly.

  He did so, folding his hands in his lap. She kicked off her sandals and settled next to him. His stomach still churned. What a hell of a night. He stared at the rag rug, tracing the patterns of colors in his mind as he tried to block out the memory of yet another awkward evening with his father and Tiffany, that bitch.

  “I’m sorry I put you through that,” he said. “I was selfish. I wanted you there as a buffer.”

  Harmony placed her hand on his shoulder again, like she had in the car. There was magic in that touch, something that had nothing to do with crystals or whatever her mother might employ. He leaned toward her, needing a compassionate touch. It was nothing like the moves his stepmother had made on him tonight, stroking him beneath the table while his father pontificated about something or other across from her. He’d been totally turned off, but it had to hurt Harmony to see another woman act like she wasn’t even sitting there on the other side of him.

  “You have nothing to apologize for,” she said. “I know they’re your family, but… They’re not very nice people.”

  He blew out a breath and faced her. “That’s putting it mildly.”

  She ran her fingers through his hair and he suddenly craved the contact. He stared into those soft hazel eyes, feeling the tension uncoil a bit inside of him.

  “Tell me,” she said. “Tell me why you let them treat you like that.”

  “Like what?”

  She shook her head. “I won’t touch what Tiffany was doing all night,” she said. “That was wrong and a bit disgusting. But your father…” She seemed to be searching for the right word, and he was almost afraid to hear her opinion of Bill Chapman. “He treats you like an employee, Rick.”

  Wow. She was right. He’d always known it but to have her say it straight out like that punched him in the gut. He shrugged off his jacket and hung it on the bedpost. God, he felt like a fool. A fool and a lackey to his father. And now Harmony saw that as well. Nice.

  “Bill Chapman made a place for me at his company, Harmony.”

  “But why do you work there? I know you’ve got the credentials to work anywhere. Dr. Robbins sang your praises to me almost from the start.”

  He looked down at the rug again. “I work there because… Ah, it’s going to sound so lame.”

  She leaned closer, unwittingly giving him some of her strength. “Tell me, Rick. You can tell me anything.”

  He faced her, looked deep into those gorgeous eyes, and suddenly he knew he could tell her. “I do it for my mother.”

  She sat still as he told her all of it, of Bill’s constant cheating and eventual abandonment. Of his throwing money instead of attention at him and Jake and Cassie. Of Rick’s inevitable overachieving and his promise to his mother.

  “That’s it,” he said at last, his voice harsh to his ears. He stretched out on her bed and folded his arms over his eyes. “Pitiful, huh?”

  Harmony sniffed and laid down next to him. “No. God, no. Rick, you’re amazing.”

  “Hardly.” He wiped at his eyes and turned his head to her. “Tell me why your job is so important? I’ve never seen anyone as dedicated as you.”

  A smile tilted her mouth. “You’ll think I’m making this up, but I do it for my parents.”

  This surprised him. “How do they figure into it? They seem pretty self-sufficient.”

  She nodded and fiddled with a button on his collar, the touch nervous but comforting as well. “They are. But because of me, they lost nearly everything. They were promised a string of organic food stores and sank all their money into Adam’s… into the guy’s scheme. I make good money here and pay nearly nothing in living expenses. I… I have to pay them back.”

  Ah. Adam. The jerk in college. “They were ripped off, right? By the guy who broke your heart?�
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  Lashes hid her eyes. “I never said Adam broke my heart.”

  He didn’t know if he wanted to thank Adam for leaving her or flatten him for hurting her in the process. “You didn’t have to say it, sweetheart.”

  The endearment caused her to swallow. He was sick of being so damn careful of everything he said to her. She was a sweetheart. She was his sweetheart and his lover and it was too damn bad if that jerk Adam had hurt her before.

  He lifted her chin. “Look at me, Harmony. My story? Pitiful. Your story? Fine and good. Amazing, even.” He kissed her, drawing her up against him. “You’re amazing.”

  She held on to him as he began his seduction, apparently needing him as much as he needed her.

  “There’s more to you than you let on,” she said softly.

  Was there? He felt things deeper than he wanted her to know. Than he wanted anyone to know.

  She kissed away the tears he hadn’t wanted, her lips tender at the corners of his eyes. She stroked his shoulders as she held him closer.

  “You’re so much better than they are,” she murmured. “You’re a wonderful son.”

  He gave a tired shake of his head but she wouldn’t let him pull away. Somehow he knew tonight would be different, at least for him. For her? He thought he could hear the emotion in her voice, feel the love in her touch. And just for tonight he needed it.

  Coming over him, she unbuttoned his shirt and dropped kisses on his chest. He held her hair up off her neck as she moved lower, over his belly to his navel. She drew in the scent of him and he felt as if he were opening up from the inside.

  He was prone beneath her, his breath catching with each kiss, each lick. Unbuckling his belt, she freed him from his boxer briefs and put her mouth on him. He moaned beneath her, moving against her as she kissed and teased him.