Back in His Bed. Heidi Rice
she’d just gone through. The glowing lights from the pool, the bubbling hot tub, the chirp of the crickets and the smell of the flowers created a serene setting designed to soothe—exactly what she’d come looking for tonight. But it was wasted on her now.
Her insides tumbled over each other and her head ached from the emotional extremes and pressure. Even her wine couldn’t calm the storm within her. Grabbing her robe, which she didn’t bother putting on, she concentrated on making her shaky legs move her back to the privacy of her bedroom quickly.
Because, damn it, Jack had made her cry. Again.
“‘EVERY day is a beautiful day at Amante Verano.’ Isn’t that your motto?” Dianne sing-songed the greeting as she poked her head around the lab door and extended a steaming mug in Brenna’s direction.
Brenna accepted the coffee with a grateful smile. After another restless, miserable night, the heady aroma of Di’s high-octane brew was a welcome jolt to her sluggish system. “Ever since you printed it on my coffee mug it is.”
“Then why do you look like someone kicked that puppy you claim you’re going to get?”
She wouldn’t be able to avoid this conversation for long. She might as well go ahead and get it over with. “One guess.”
“Jack.” Dianne pushed a rack of vials and testing supplies to the back of the counter and pulled herself up to sit, her legs swinging gently. “Are you two still fighting? Come on, Brenna, surely there’s a better way to sort this out?”
“I wish. Every conversation—no matter how nice I try to be—always deteriorates into a shouting match. And last night was a nightmare. I thought exes were supposed to get more civil as time progresses. Not us.” Brenna shook her head and leaned back in her chair.
“Unfinished business, I think.”
Brenna stared into her coffee. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Dianne snorted. “Try that with someone who didn’t witness the whole thing. I watched you fall goofystupid in love, elope, and then divorce in less than six months. I also know what that did to you—even if you tried to hide it from everyone else.”
Her stomach was hollow enough at the moment. She didn’t need Dianne making it worse. “Where’s Chloe?” she asked with forced cheerfulness.
“With her father, learning the intricacies of wine-making, testing and probably teething on your new digital refractometer. Now, don’t change the subject.” She shook her head in disappointment. “It was a weak attempt, anyway. No points for effort.”
“I thought it might work there for a minute,” Brenna grumbled.
“With someone else, maybe. But you can’t fool me. Now, spill. What is going on with you two?”
She certainly wasn’t going to go into detail. She still hadn’t made sense of it yet herself. “You know the basics. Then, last night, Jack offered to give me his half of the winery.”
Dianne lit up and she clapped her hands. “That’s fantastic! It’s not perfect, I know, but it beats…” She trailed off as Brenna shook her head slightly. “Oh, no. There’s a ‘but,’ isn’t there? I hate the ‘but.’”
“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