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  “I’m the one who’s caused problems,” he said. “It’s time I fixed them. My showdown with Jimmy Van Orr is long overdue. I won’t let him stand in my way anymore. Especially now.”

  “Now?” Victoria lifted her face to his.

  “That I’m going to kiss you.”

  He traced the apple of her cheek then tucked a tangle of hair behind her ear. The motions sent low-voltage electrical charges across her skin while his fingers brushed the sensitive patch behind the circle of her lobe. The currents grew stronger as he dragged the edge of his nails along the crease behind her ear, awakening every nerve ending in her body. Their sensual connection wrapped around her like an invisible cord.

  An emotion blossomed that she couldn’t describe because she’d never felt it with another man.

  When his palm cupped her ear, Victoria leaned her head against his warm, solid hand and closed her eyes. A feminine part of herself she’d never acknowledged stirred.

  During her marriage she’d been the seductress, the vixen, the secret to restoring her husband’s aging libido. Pleasing her husband had been her primary focus. With Steve, she sensed that pleasure would be mutual in every way.

  The thought made her dizzy with want.

  He kissed her then, and her eyelids fluttered as if she’d awakened from a long sleep filled with shadowy dreams. And in a way, she had. Desire burst to life.

  His fingers traveled down the column of her neck and his thumb edged the line of her collarbone as he deepened the kiss, shooting tiny flames over her skin. Tongues touched and tasted, met again and retreated, while they explored. Victoria plunged her fingers into his hair, kneading his scalp with her fingertips to pull him closer. The thick blond strands tangled around her fingers and she reveled in her simple yet decisive act of possession.

  *****

  When they broke their kiss, Steve took Victoria by the hand. “I’ll help you clean up after Pirate. Then I think it’s time I told you the truth about my falling out with Jimmy—and about Layla. I can’t kiss you again in good conscience until I do.”

  They returned to Steve’s office and he poured them both a drink. Victoria took a seat opposite the desk. “Judging by the proof of that whiskey, you must have some story.”

  Steve smiled, but there will little humor in his expression. “I want you to know what you’re getting into…if you decide to be with me.”

  Be with me. Their relationship was taking a huge step forward with his confession. She wanted that, right? Victoria took a swallow of the drink in her hand. Whatever Steve told her next would help her decide.

  “I want Beverly to hear this, too. She deserves to know the truth, since she’s involved in almost every aspect of Carlson’s business.” Steve left his office and returned moments later with Beverly in tow. He offered her a chair and poured her a drink.

  Beverly tasted the whiskey then turned to Victoria. “I’m sorry about Pirate.”

  Victoria stared back. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.” She had to laugh. “I guess this means we’re truly friends. We’ve had our first fight.”

  Beverly tapped her glass against Victoria’s, and then touched it to Steve’s. “Here’s to good friends.”

  “Those lost and others found,” Steve said. He took a gulp of his drink, poured another shot, and began to tell his story.

  *****

  “Her name was Layla. Like the Clapton song. Damn well fit her, too. I used to wonder if she tried to live up to her name or if fate made it fit. Let’s just say the woman pulled me through a razor-edged knothole until I was a bloody stump. I stayed far, far away from women for a long time after her.”

  He shot Victoria a dead-on stare, hoping she’d see he wasn’t messing with her emotions. Victoria stared back, as if trying to read him.

  He re-crossed his feet and scuffed the edge of one boot with the other in the process.

  “I was in med school with Jimmy. We were friends most of our lives, just like our dads. When my dad delivered antiques to the Van Orr estate, I’d go with him and hang out with Jimmy.

  “Kids don’t have the same social restrictions adults have. Jimmy and I really clicked, though our dads were more like business friends. They played golf or had a drink once in a while, but the Van Orrs were way out of our league. Our fathers didn’t socialize as much as they might have liked, because the Van Orrs were part of an elite group that kept them a cut above most everyone else in town. Their lives rotated on a different axis than ours. I admit I envied Jimmy’s status, and how easily things seemed to come to him. But I honestly liked him and valued being his friend.”

  Steve paused with the memory of the bond they shared. Warmth filled him for the flicker of an instant, before dissolving into stone-cold regret. “As the years passed, and the lines between social classes blurred, being friends with a rich kid wasn’t such a big deal anymore. In college, Jimmy and I became roommates, and in med school we shared an apartment. By then we were more like brothers than best friends, and I never thought anything could come between us. Or anyone.

  “Jimmy had class and style to spare and was smart, too. Brilliant, in fact. Few men could stand beside Jimmy Van Orr and walk taller. He was not your stereotypical spoiled rich kid.”

  “I haven’t seen much of that side of him,” Victoria said. The corners of her mouth tightened ever so slightly, and her gaze dropped to the drink in her hand.

  Steve knew her relationship with Jimmy wasn’t much better than his, and let the comment pass. Though he shouldn’t feel an ounce of loyalty to his old friend, Steve missed those days of camaraderie.

  When Victoria looked up, he continued with his tale. “I was raised in a solid home with two good parents. We weren’t wealthy like the Van Orrs, but not hurting, either. I was expected to do my share of the chores around the house, do well in school, and stay out of trouble. I had no real problems and nothing to complain about.

  “I’m not as smart as Jimmy, but close enough that we could get into the same college and pledge with the same fraternity. No one had to know I paid tuition with student loans while Jimmy’s alumnus father paid cash. We dated some of the same girls and played on the same teams. Jimmy wanted to be a cardiologist, and since my mother’s a surgeon, I figured, why not me, too? There was no reason not to apply to medical school. Jimmy and I had talked for years about opening a practice together.”

  Victoria nodded. “He told me about that. I think he’s bitter about you leaving medical school.”

  Steve swirled the whiskey inside his glass and watched it whirlpool. “I know. But it became clear to me early on that I didn’t have the stomach for medicine. And despite being smart, I lacked the genius of a true healer. I knew I was doomed to become a drone in some grueling family practice—if I made it through school, at all. I tried to hold on, but figured I’d wash out sooner or later.”

  Beverly made sympathetic noises. “That must have sucked.” She tilted her head and watched him in a new way. “I didn’t know you were capable of self-doubt.”

  “Hmm.” Though he doubted that was exactly true, since Beverly knew him better than most, Steve’s solar plexus tightened with anxiety. He’d worked hard to win the respect of everyone associated with Carlson’s, and hoped his confession didn’t diminish the women’s opinion of him. His gaze flickered to Victoria.

  Her eyes lifted to his, encouraging him to continue. “Everyone’s capable of uncertainty.” The practiced calm he remembered hearing in Victoria’s voice the first time they met rang with a thousand untold stories.

  Beverly relaxed in her chair and crunched an ice cube between her teeth. “What happened then?”

  The beginning of the end of what he thought would be a lifetime friendship.

  Steve shifted in his seat. He’d told them this much; he might as well let it all out. “I crashed headlong into my fate. I started drinking, missing classes, and chasing women.”

  The shame he’d felt back then returned as he remembered the bewilderment in his mother�
�s eyes, the confusion on his father’s face, and Jimmy’s relentless rage. Steve knocked back his whiskey and continued talking, as if retelling the story could somehow fix what had broken.

  “One of the women I hooked up with was Layla Grimes—a tall, lanky blonde who, quite literally, scrambled my brains. She was like an addiction I couldn’t shake. That’s when my medical career really took a nosedive. But I didn’t care. Layla gave me the perfect excuse to fail.”

  He shot another glance at Victoria, hoping his honesty didn’t backfire and she’d think him a loser. Her expression remained impassive, though, as she shifted in her chair and re-crossed her legs. Steve’s eyes drifted upward and settled on her beautiful face. No tension bracketed her mouth, and for that, he was grateful.

  “How long were you with her?” Beverly asked. She spun the ice cubes inside her glass with a fingertip. Always the curious one, Beverly was never shy about asking questions. She thrived on close personal connection.

  Steve turned back to Bev, glad for the distraction from Victoria’s superb legs and the memory of how kissing her felt. “A month. Maybe six weeks. Then she dumped me when she met Jimmy.”

  “Wait. Whaaat?” Beverly sat straighter in her seat. “She dumped you for Jimmy? Then why is he so angry? Seems like it should be the other way around.”

  Steve nodded. He’d been furious at first, but had let his anger go. He’d reached the lowest point of his life and had almost understood why Layla dumped him. “We’d dated the same girls before. Jimmy had always had the best of things and probably felt entitled to Layla when I started screwing up.”

  Looking back, he realized he should have punched Jimmy’s lights out. He’d never been second best.

  “Layla could have any man she wanted, and when she set her sights on Jimmy, nothing could stand in her way—including me.

  “I think Layla pictured herself leading the next generation in the Van Orr Dynasty with James Van Orr Jr. and a trio of kids in tow. But Jimmy was on the fast track to an unstoppable career and couldn’t devote the time to Layla she thought she deserved. She was a therapist at the hospital, and though her job was demanding, she went home at five o’clock every night, unless there was an emergency—something Jimmy couldn’t do.”

  Steve let out a groan as he stretched his muscles. He glanced over at the women and offered the fifth of whiskey. They nodded, and so he passed the bottle around. Victoria added splashes of the amber liquid to her glass and Beverly dropped in more ice, yawned, and covered her mouth. The warm, heady effect of the alcohol had mellowed the mood inside his office. The palpable tension that had filled the room diffused.

  “You were right about the whiskey, boss,” Beverly said. “This beats chamomile tea any day.” She lifted her glass in another toast. “Now keep talking. I never knew all this stuff about you. I like seeing your humble side. It’s a rare treat for us mortals.”

  Steve smirked at her, and the muscles in his neck and shoulders relaxed. Beverly had a knack for keeping him straight.

  The weight of his past mistakes lifted as he continued to speak. It felt good to clear the air. “It didn’t take long for Layla to resent Jimmy’s heavy schedule. You’d think because she was on the hospital’s medical staff she’d be more understanding of the grueling treadmill he was on. But I guess that a spoiled, beautiful woman like Layla was used to getting exactly what she wanted, when she wanted. If Jimmy couldn’t devote the time to her she needed, she knew I would.”

  He cleared the embarrassment from his throat. “I was all too happy to pick up his slack and take another chance with her. I thought she’d end things with him and come back to me. I was too blind to see she was just using me to make him jealous.”

  He glanced at Victoria to test her reaction. It was humiliating to talk about how love struck and stupid he’d been.

  She met his eyes and he was relieved to find compassion there. “Is Layla the woman you married?” Victoria asked.

  Her voice had turned soft and husky with the alcohol, and Steve’s body responded to the sound. His heartbeat quickened and a pulse formed low in his belly. Victoria was ten times the woman Layla had been and he hated subjecting her to his pathetic story. But it was important she know the truth. He couldn’t move forward without reconciling his past.

  Beverly spoke again, her tone indignant. “Good grief, man, you were infatuated. So what? We all did wild, crazy things in school.” She turned toward Victoria. “Right, Vic?”

  Steve relaxed when Victoria smiled. “I won’t tell unless you pry it out of me.”

  Beverly lifted her brow. “Sounds like a challenge.”

  “Mmm, maybe.” Victoria sipped her drink again with a twinkle in her eyes. She tapped the edge of a polished nail against her glass. “Let’s hear the rest.”

  The surest way to a man’s heart was to listen to him, and Victoria’s ability to do that made her seem even more beautiful, if that were possible.

  Steve settled back in his chair and felt the muscles in his neck and shoulders give a little. He might as well tell the whole story. Maybe that would release the guilt he’d carried too long.

  “During summer break Layla and I drove to Las Vegas. We spent hours in the casinos, and even more time getting high, drunk as sailors, and rolling around in bed. Finally, we did what everyone who’s stoned and sex-crazed does in that town. We got married in that Elvis wedding chapel downtown.” He winced with the admission he’d never told another soul.

  Beverly cackled and the sound filled the room. “Ah, boss, that’s priceless.” She tapped the rim of her glass to Victoria’s. “He’s given us blackmail fodder.” Her eyes seemed out of focus as she licked her lips. “But don’t worry; your secret’s safe with us.” Beverly leaned back in her chair, gave Victoria an exaggerated wink, and signaled for Steve to continue.

  “Very funny.” Steve scraped a hand over his chin. He needed a shave.

  “The novelty of being a newlywed didn’t last more than a couple of hours for Layla. As soon as the pot wore off and reality hit, she pitched a fit. She sulked for a while, refused to let me talk to her or touch her, and finally demanded I drive her home. We returned to town where Layla promptly filed for an annulment and ran crying to Jimmy. She begged him to take her back—said she loved him and not me—and that her elopement was just a bid for attention. But Jimmy refused to have anything to do with either of us after that.”

  He cleared his throat and took another gulp of his drink. “What Layla learned too late was that jealousy wasn’t Jimmy’s only weakness. His fatal flaw is pride. He had—has—an inability to forgive. He tries sometimes, but in the end, his stubbornness wins out.”

  Steve shook his head at the memory of what happened next. “Though I apologized over and over, Jimmy moved out of our apartment and refused to speak to me or Layla again. Some days I can’t blame him for being angry. Other times I wish he’d see the part he played in our falling out. But he saves face by laying all the blame on me.” Love triangles almost always ended in disaster.

  “Once, I wanted to be like him. But all that changed after Layla. I joined the military, then the family business, and it’s been a damn good life. Still, I’m sorry for what happened with Jimmy and Layla.”

  “So that explains why Jimmy wanted me to hire Pinnacle Antiques Auctions,” Victoria said.

  Steve looked up. “Right. He hates my guts. Turns out he really loved Layla. Planned to ask her to marry him. Who knew? I thought he was just playing her. I’d seen him toy with other women.” He shook his head. “After all these years it’s hard to tell anymore who played whom.”

  He finished his drink and set the glass down on the desk. “Well, Victoria, since you’ve heard the official story of my sordid life, I guess all that’s left is for you to decide whether you want to continue your relationship with me.” He meant personal relationship, but added, “Carlson’s.”

  The silence between them felt ominous until Victoria set her empty glass on his desk. “Beverly’s right. W
e all did dumb things when we were younger. And Jimmy is as stubborn as any man I’ve ever known.” She eyed him curiously. “Did you ever think he only wanted Layla because she was with you?”

  Steve had considered that, but he didn’t want to believe the worst of Jimmy at the time. When he really thought about it, though, the girls they’d both dated usually went out with Steve first. Maybe Jimmy’s attraction to Layla was part of a long-standing pattern of jealousy and competition Steve had never acknowledged.

  It hadn’t occurred to him when they were younger that he might have something Jimmy wanted.

  Victoria’s tone turned pensive. “My late husband continued his relationship with your family even after your friendship with Jimmy ended. I can see how that must have bothered him. Lydia’s death and James’s marriage to me might have been too much to bear.”

  Steve nodded. “James said as much to me and my dad. Though Jimmy’s devotion to his father prevented him from trying to form a wedge between you.”

  “And now I’m forcing him to watch while I do business with his former best friend. The man he believes deceived him.”

  “Layla all over again.” The words tasted bitter.

  Victoria sighed. “There must be a way to settle all this.”

  Steve agreed, though he couldn’t think how. “Do you want to cancel your arrangement with Carlson’s? I’ll understand if you want to nullify our agreement.” He knew he had no right to hold her. “Maybe it would be better for you to call Pinnacle Antiques Auction and—”

  “And what?” Victoria snapped. “Do business with that horrible man who threatened us? I’ll never give him one cent of James’s money.”

  Beverly chimed in. “We need you to manage the shop. Having you around has been a godsend.”

  Steve nodded. “She’s right.”

  Beverly squeezed Victoria’s shoulder. “You’re one of us now.”