He dropped his hand from her chin, then moved back from her, his expression inscrutable. “Get some rest. I’ll stay and make sure you’re okay.”
“There’s no need.”
“Yes, there is.” He left the room without further explanation.
Kia woke a couple of hours later and the nausea had gone, though she still felt a little headachy.
“I see you’re awake,” Brant said, lounging against the doorway.
She jumped in fright, then let out a slow breath as her gaze went over him. At least there was nothing wrong with her eyes. She could still appreciate how handsome he was. “You stayed?”
“I had to make sure you didn’t collapse again.”
“I didn’t collapse the first time.”
“No, but you would’ve if I hadn’t been here to help you inside the house.”
Her mouth tightened. “Perhaps if I hadn’t been accosted in the driveway I would have been inside before I felt sick.”
He straightened and walked toward her. “Don’t hide anything from me, Kia. You’ll find it’s not worth it in the long run.”
Suddenly she felt too weak to argue. Anyway, she couldn’t tell him she loved him, no matter what. He wouldn’t want to know. Not after his reaction last night when he’d held himself back from her. That more than anything proved he wasn’t ready for a serious relationship.
As if satisfied that he’d gotten his message across, he walked over to the window and looked out. “I think we should go away for a few days.”
She blinked in surprise. “Wh-what? With you?”
He turned to face her. “It had better not be with anyone else,” he drawled.
The thought of having Brant to herself sounded wonderful. “Do you have a place in mind?”
“I have a house in the wilderness about an hour’s drive south of here. I like to escape there every so often. It has enough luxuries to keep any woman happy.”
Her bubble burst. How many other women had he taken to this house of his? “Sounds fine to me,” she said stiffly.
His expression softened. “Kia, I’ve never taken another woman there, I promise. I want to get away from people when I go there.”
Relief filled her. “When do you plan on going?”
“Tomorrow, if you’re up to it. I have a couple of things to finish first, then we’ll leave mid-afternoon. You just stay in bed and get yourself better. I’ll swing by and pick you up around two.”
For once, she would do what she was told. She didn’t want anything spoiling these few precious days away with the man she loved. It would be moments like those she would always treasure.
The next morning Kia felt more alive than she’d ever been. All lingering nausea had disappeared during the night, and now she was ready to face the world. In fact, today she would embrace it. And for the next couple of days she would revel in her love for Brant. He need never know.
But first she’d drive into the office and leave a note for Evelyn, in case the other woman decided to pop in during the next week to check things over. Knowing Evelyn and the way she took her job seriously, she would want to make sure there were no problems.
And deep inside, Kia couldn’t wait until this afternoon to see Brant. Her heart was full of love for him. So full she was almost bursting.
Her steps light and buoyant, she stepped from the elevator and headed down the hallway to Brant’s office. Not only were her steps light but her whole body—as though she could float to Brant’s office….
“You’ve got it all wrong, Royce,” Brant’s voice warned from inside the office.
A feeling of apprehension shivered down Kia’s spine and she stopped dead. Royce? Wasn’t that Brant’s brother?
“So you deny meeting Julia on numerous occasions?” the other man demanded with all the menace of a tiger about to pounce.
“No, I don’t deny it,” Brant answered, his tone firm. “But it’s not what you think.”
Royce gave a harsh laugh. “Yeah, right. I heard her calling you on the phone, telling you she needed you.”
“To talk. That’s all.”
“At a hotel?”
There was a moment’s damning silence, and Kia’s breath caught sharply in her throat. She prayed there was some sort of mix-up. She waited for Brant to speak, to explain….
“There are other reasons for being at a hotel,” he finally said, and Kia’s heart sank at his detached tone.
What other reasons? Please, Brant, tell us.
“I’m not a fool,” Royce snapped, obviously unconvinced, too. “I took away your fiancée and now you want her back.”
“Don’t be so bloody stupid. Julia loves—”
“Stay away from my wife or you’ll be sorry. I don’t care if you are my brother.”
Kia felt as though her legs had been cut from under her. Julia had been Brant’s fiancée? They’d been engaged? Had been contemplating marriage? And Brant hadn’t bothered to tell her.
A lead weight settled in the pit of her stomach. Dear God, it showed how little he thought of her. She was just another one of the harem. Oh, what a fool she was. An absolute idiot. Brant was no different than her father. She had believed Brant because she’d wanted to believe him.
She needed to get away. Be alone. She whirled around to leave, but then Brant spoke again. Her heart pounded. His voice sounded closer. He was going to come out of his office and at any moment he’d catch her eavesdropping.
“You’re jumping to conclus—” He followed his brother through the doorway, stiffening when he saw her.
“Kia!”
She swallowed, her gaze going from Brant to his brother. Somehow seeing Royce Matthews in the flesh made the accusations, the possibility of Brant’s affair with Julia, more concrete. The younger man wore a business suit and looked rich and successful, and perhaps it was empathy, but in that split second she could see past the anger to the shadows under his eyes, to the bone-deep misery emanating from every pore of his skin. And she knew how Brant’s brother felt.
Betrayed.
“Remember what I said, Brant,” Royce warned, then strode past her and toward the elevator.
For a long moment Kia stared at Brant, trying to hold on to her composure. She heard the elevator door open with a whoosh, then close. And she knew this was the end for them. Utterly and totally. Anguish ripped her heart apart. The feeling was far worse than she’d expected.