Mitch didn’t rise to the bait. “I like women. I can’t and won’t apologize for that. But I have always been a one woman at a time kind of guy, and I haven’t even looked at another woman since I first laid eyes on you.”
“Not even since you came home?” She wouldn’t have blamed him. They’d had an expiration date and no understanding beyond it.
“Especially since I came home. My friends even staged an intervention over it yesterday.”
“An intervention? Over the fact that you’re not dating?” What kind of friends were these?
“Over the fact that I don’t want to. It’s a first for me, and they don’t know about you.” He twitched those broad shoulders in a shrug.
Yeah, she hadn’t told anybody about their affair either.
“I’m just saying, I’m not seeing anybody but you, and I don’t want to, no matter what my reputation might suggest.”
Tess understood that this was important to him and wanted to put him at ease. “I appreciate your honesty, and I’m fully in agreement on monogamy. As to the rest, I can hardly judge you for whatever adult relationships you had before me. Particularly as I have benefitted from your…cultivated expertise.” Just the thought of that expertise had her flushing hot.
He laughed, that wicked smile she loved so much flashing again. “We could skip the tour, and I could reacquaint you with that expertise.”
Tess crossed her legs, squeezing them together against the sudden throbbing between her thighs. The man was sin personified. “May I remind you that we have legitimate work to do? Unlike Superwoman Norah—”
“Wonder Woman.”
“What?”
“Cam calls her Wonder Woman.”
Of course he does. “Okay, fine. Unlike Wonder Woman Norah, I still have to prove myself.”
“Why?”
Tess stared at him. “I have to work twice as hard and long to have a prayer of people believing I’m in this job because I’m actually capable rather than because of nepotism. My father can afford to give me the world. It’s important to me to earn it.”
“Admirable. And, I would imagine, not an attitude that’s the norm among those who come from that kind of wealth.”
“No. Which is why I have to work so hard in the first place. I’m not going to blow this shot.”
“All right then. Work first.” He nodded, clearly shifting mental gears. “So Heirloom Home Furnishings was the core of the furniture industry that was the original backbone of Wishful’s economy. About two and a half years ago, they picked up stakes and moved manufacturing to Mexico. The building has been vacant ever since.”
As they turned down a long drive, Tess could see the building in the distance. Mitch drove through the gates—or what was left of them. The chain link panels hung askew on their hinges, twisted as if something huge had rammed through them. He continued his history lesson on the place as they went inside, but Tess had a hard time listening. He all but vibrated with tension. Her gaze swept the cavernous space, noting the metal racks around the perimeter and some kind of heavy equipment bolted to the concrete floor. The whole place was, predictably, industrial. It wouldn’t have been her first choice, but the company knew all about retrofitting and restoration. Right this second, though, she was more interested in why he seemed ready to break things.
She remembered what he’d said in her father’s office. “What exactly happened here?”
Mitch paused in the midst of describing how the space could be subdivided, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “My sister was kidnapped and held hostage.”
“Jesus! What happened?”
“Miranda’s a doctor. She was going the extra mile to help one of her patients escape a domestic abuse situation and the husband didn’t appreciate her interference. He took her from her house and beat her.” His voice shook on the words, his hands balling to fists. “If Ethan—that’d be her boyfriend, our chief of police—hadn’t found her as fast as he did, I have no doubt the son of a bitch would have raped and killed her. As it was, Ethan got shot during the rescue, and Harley went out in a hail of bullets. Over there.”
Tess followed the jerk of his head, expecting to see bloodstains on the concrete
floor. But evidently someone had been sent in to clean the place. Still, a chill crawled up her spine imagining it. She took a step closer to Mitch, wanting to do something to soothe but not knowing what. She laid a tentative hand on his arm, finding the muscles rigid as iron. “That’s horrible. But…she’s okay now?”
“Okay is relative. The bruises have faded and her broken nose has healed. She looks fine now, and she’s back at work. But she moved in with Ethan, now that he’s out of the hospital, because she can’t go back in her house. And she won’t even drive on this side of town yet.” His nostrils flared. “I wasn’t here to protect her.” The admission was raw, exposing a vulnerability she hadn’t expected of him.
“When was this?”
“While I was in Europe.”
She blinked. “Just a few weeks ago?”