“I make it my business to be good.” Miles drained his coffee mug and stood up. “I’d better call that ride.”
“I feel terrible to have taken up so much of your day. I am sorry.”
“Hey, no need. I wanted to make sure you’d be okay. And, now I know where to have your new phone sent to.”
He gave her a smile and went through to the kitchen, where he washed out and dried his mug and returned it to the
shelf where he’d taken it from originally. So far, he’d done nothing to be faulted on, Chloe realized. He’d been friendly, chivalrous, and he made a darn fine cup of coffee. And she wanted to bring his family’s world down around their ears? Her conscience pricked at her.
She knew this wouldn’t be easy, but she had to remain committed. Chloe thought about the family portrait of her parents and her that she kept on her nightstand. It was a constant reminder of what Trent Wingate had destroyed. Three lives irrevocably changed because of Wingate’s greed. And that greed had continued to fester as his fortune had grown. Nothing had ever been enough.
Chloe needed to keep that truth in the forefront of her mind because no matter how charming Miles Wingate was turning out to be, he was, first and foremost, one of Trent Wingate’s children. Much of the privilege he’d grown up with and taken for granted every day of his life was due to his father stomping all over hers.
All her life she’d witnessed her mother’s deep unhappiness, and she would give anything to see her mom genuinely smile again. Maybe, just maybe, if Chloe succeeded in hurting the Wingates, even if it was just a little, it would be enough to break her mom free of the miserable state she’d lived in over the last nineteen years.
They’d both suffered long enough.
Three
Miles parked his Audi e-tron quattro at the curb outside Chloe’s house and looked at the sad little building. She didn’t belong there. The sagging guttering, the peeling paintwork on the clapboard exterior and the general air of neglect to the rental home told him more about her landlord than he wanted to know. The house could best be described as a renovator’s dream.
His fingers tightened on the leather-wrapped steering wheel. Yes, he knew his feelings about Chloe’s living conditions were irrational. They were also none of his business, if he was being totally honest with himself. But, and it was a big but, he wanted to make it his business.
From the moment he’d knocked her over this morning, he’d wanted to make sure she was okay. And the more time he’d spent with her, the more he wanted to ensure that things went right for her. Sure, he’d been taken by her pretty face, her blond hair and the clear blue of her eyes. Her figure was pretty damn fine, too. Hell, he was a heterosexual male and she was absolutely his type. He’d have to have been blind not to notice her—although, in hindsight he hadn’t noticed her soon enough not to cause her hurt.
But there was more to it than just that. He’d seen the vulnerability in her gaze when she’d looked at him. Sensed the reserve behind the words she’d so carefully chosen before she’d allowed him to help her. Caution was a good thing. His entire business plan revolved around it, after all. But there was something about Chloe that made him want to slay dragons for her. She drew on every protective instinct he’d never known he’d had. And that surprised him.
Every relationship he’d had, to date, had been based on equal footing. Women as strong mentally and, occasionally, even physically as he was. None of them had needed his care or protection in the same way he sensed that Chloe might. Not that she was a complete damsel in distress—in fact she was probably far from it.
She was a schoolteacher. He had no doubt she could control a room of potential delinquents with a smile or a frown—she had that air about her. But there was something else, something that lingered beneath the surface. A sadness. A sense of something broken. Something that called to him to fix it.
Miles had never experienced this kind of attraction before. An intriguing blend of physical awareness together with that special something else that made him want to know everything about her.
The aroma of the Thai takeout he’d picked up on the way here teased his nostrils. Enough thinking. Time to do. He got out of the car and grabbed the takeout bag and tucked the box with the new phone under his arm. Oh sure, the store had offered to courier it out to Chloe for him, but he’d wanted to make the delivery himself.
Miles could hear the sound of music from inside the house as he strolled up the path to the front door. And was that singing? Well, he supposed it might be singing but it sounded like it had more in common with a nine-tailed cat in a room filled with rocking chairs. He raised his free hand to the front door and knocked firmly. Instantly the noise stopped.
A few seconds later, the door opened and Chloe stood there, cheeks flushed and eyes wary.
“Oh,” she said. “You’re back.”
“I’m glad to see that fall today didn’t affect your vision,” Miles said with a grin. He held up the takeaway bag. “Dinner.”
“I wasn’t expecting you. I thought you were the courier.”
“Tonight, I’m whatever you want me to be.”
The flush on her cheeks deepened and a laugh gurgled from her throat. “Did that come out exactly as you meant it to?”
He laughed in response. “To be honest, not exactly. It sounded much better in my head.”
Chloe stepped aside and gestured for him to come in. “I thought as much. You’d better bring that all in then.”
He noticed she was still wearing her arm in a sling, but she’d changed from the plain white one she’d left the clinic with, to a large, multicolored silk square instead.
“I like the sling.”
She half smiled. “White is so yesterday, don’t you know?”