Page 50 of Accidentally Mine
Two and a half years ago?
Something prickled at the back of my neck.“What happened?”
“I was on the Pike, going home from the office late at night, and a westbound semi crushed the median and hit me head-on.”
I stared at him, my body suddenly stiffening.“Oh, my god.How did that happen?”
“Someone tried to cut off the trucker and he lost control of his rig.”Brent had his arm around me and was slowly stroking the skin of my upper arm.I’d felt so good, only seconds before.Now, nausea bubbled in my throat.
“Oh, my god.”I couldn’t think of anything else to say.No words would come that wouldn’t betray the swirl of emotions forcing their way through my head and heart right then.
Brent was the man.The man in the Porsche.The man I’d nearly killed.
“I’m okay,” he said, sensing my distress.“Yeah, it was a long road to recovery, but I’m alive.And in okay working order.Well, for the most part.”
I swallowed the massive lump in my throat.I sat up and looked into his eyes to see if there was any hint of a lie in them.“You are?”
“Yeah.Might not have been, if it weren’t for the woman with the turquoise eyes.”
I blinked at him.“Who?”
He shrugged.“I had a brain injury from the accident that messed with my memory, so my sister thinks it’s just something I made up in my head.But I swear this woman was there.She helped me out of the wreckage and called the police, and then she just left.”He gazed into my eyes.“Her eyes were like yours.”
I looked away, my heart beating double-time.
“I wish I could find her so I could thank her.But I don’t even know if she exists.”He reached over and touched my face.“That was why, when I saw you, I acted like a crazy man.I thought you might be her.”
“Oh.Well, I’m not,” I said quickly, feeling sick from the lie.“But I’m glad you’re okay.”
I curled up beside him, my head on his chest, and wondered how long I could keep lying to him.Because after tonight, I knew that just walking away from Brent McKee wasn’t an option.
But maybe that was fate.Maybe that was karma, showing me there was no escape from what I’d done.
He had a scar over his heart.And maybe I deserved one on mine.
13
Brent
Ifired off an email to my assistant and leaned back in the chair in my home office.The Key Technologies R&D department was dealing with yet another fire they’d had to elevate to me to put out, and on a Sunday no less.To add to that, there was what looked like a monsoon going on outside.I’d had my normal amount of sleep last night—that was, practically none.And I had another fucking gala to attend that night.I should have been on edge.
Instead, I couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear.
I’d let her go at about ten this morning, after lingering kisses in the doorway.She had a story to finish, and I had work to do, and we’d both neglected our responsibilities for too long.After filling us in on Marie’s condition, Ernest practically had to rip us apart to get her into the car.
Even now, all I could think about was her.Her smile.Her taste.Those eyes.Perfect tits.The way she’d come against my mouth, around my body, again and again, just like I’d promised.
I left my office at noon when I realized I hadn’t had anything to eat since dinner the prior night.I went downstairs to the kitchen, in search of a frozen pizza, and spotted Claudia sitting at the center island, going through the stacks of mail I hadn’t had a chance to look at.
“You know,” she said, whirling in the stool she sat on as she studied what looked like a bill.“For the owner of your own business and a complete and total nerd, you’ve always been remarkably disorganized.”
I swept past her into the kitchen, grabbed a coconut water from the fridge, and leaned against the counter, smirking in my lounge pants like the cat who had very much eaten the canary.“Why do I need to organize myself?I have you.”
Since the accident, she’d taken care of my personal finances.She was a forensic accountant, so numbers were in her blood.She lived and breathed her work and seemed to exist on babying me.That was all she ever did.Though she lived not far away in the North End, she was always coming over here, so much so that I’d given her a key.She rarely dated, and the only time she ever went out was when I dragged her along to the many galas I had to attend.
“I just came to see how my favorite brother is doing and see if you wanted to catch a movie.And I find a stack.”
“Sorry.Swamped with work right now.How was China?”
