She opted for silence.
“We grew close at the lodge,” he said in his most seductive voice.
She swallowed hard.
He stepped nearer. She stepped back. He stepped closer. She stepped back. The dance continued until her back hit the radiator by the window and he had her cornered.
Just as he had at the solarium. Memories and seductive heat swept through her.
“Very close,” he said as he took his final step, his thighs coming into direct contact with hers. “Remember?” He stroked her cheek with his hand.
“It’s over,” she said in a shaky tone. Damn, she hated the effect he had on her. The longing and wanting threatened to make her forget her reasons for not being with him.
“Actually, it’s just beginning.” His eyes bore into hers and his fingertips stroked her face, her cheek, her throat. “I love you, Amy.”
She couldn’t have heard him correctly, though everything inside her turned to liquid, molten heat and a sudden yearning for so much more settled inside her chest. “You-”
He inclined his head. “I love you and I believe you love me, too.”
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. How long had she dreamed of the day when the man she loved would tell her he felt the same?
And she did love Roper. She knew it in a soul-deep way and had for a while, though denying and pushing it away from her consciousness had become second nature.
“Tell me, Amy,” he said, his lips inches from hers.
She was enveloped by the sensual cologne he wore that made her weak. She wanted to let herself be swept away by the dream. But she couldn’t.
Because it was nothing more than a dream.
“I can’t.”
“No, you won’t. You’re scared. I understand that. I’ve never said those three words to any woman before in my life. But we can make it work.” His tone was low and imploring.
She drew a deep breath, steadying herself. Reminding herself of the reasons she’d left the lodge and had steered clear of him since. “We can’t. I gave you all the tools to fix your life. I took you away, I showed you what you needed. But the first time you were faced with a choice, you chose to cave into your family’s needs.”
“Let me explain.”
“In a minute. I need to finish first. Until you can make that separation between yourself and your family in a way that leaves you healthy emotionally, you aren’t remotely ready for the kind of relationship that love entails.” Her heart and her voice cracked as she spoke.
“Are you saying you love me, too?”
When she didn’t reply, the knowing smile that had teased the corners of his mouth disappeared. “I will handle my family. You just can’t expect me to shut them down with no explanation after a lifetime of doing just the opposite.”
He made sense. He did. But it wasn’t enough. She merely shook her head.
“There’s more bothering you than just my family,” he stated with certainty.
She trembled, unwilling to admit to anything more. She couldn’t put it into words herself. “The family issue’s enough, considering it’s not going to change.”
“It will. And when it does, are you going to admit you love me? Or are you going to use the press as another excuse to stay away?” Once again, he spoke as if he knew the answer.
She wondered why he even bothered asking the question. “The press is another part of the problem,” she admitted.
He narrowed his gaze. “But there’s more, isn’t there?”
Before she could answer, his cell phone rang.
Both Amy and Roper froze.
He glanced down at the number. “It’s Ben,” he said, meeting her gaze. “Ben never calls.”
“Unless something’s wrong. Go ahead and answer it,” she said, resigned, as she raised her hand, waving him away.
She wasn’t surprised at the intrusion. She supposed it was just as well. She didn’t want to have this painful talk, anyway.
“I’m going to handle this. I’m going to break my family into the way things are going to be from now on. And then I’m coming back to finish this conversation. We aren’t done. Not by a long shot,” he said, before answering his phone.
Oh, yes, we are, she thought as she watched him engage in the same frustrating discussion with his brother that he always had.
Then he left without another word.
They were over.
It was exactly what she told herself she wanted and needed. Yet she’d never felt so miserable in her entire life.
BEN HATED SLEEPING ON a friend’s couch. He hated feeling like a loser who couldn’t hold a job or make a go at any career he started. And he absolutely hated having to ask his brother for money.
“I just know I can make this gym thing work,” he muttered. But Roper didn’t want to talk about money. He wanted to talk to Ben about taking a demeaning coaching job. One that was beneath him.
But his big brother in the major leagues wouldn’t understand that he wouldn’t compromise his principles. Everything came easy for Roper. A father whose genes guaranteed talent and the magic touch with both women and baseball. So what if he was having one bad season?
It wasn’t the same as having a bad life.
“Are you moping again?” his friend Dave Martin, whose couch he currently occupied, asked.
Ben shrugged. “Feeling sorry for myself, I guess.”
“Well, your brother surfaced, so that ought to cheer you up. It means you can talk to him about our gym idea. My friend still hasn’t found a buyer, but he is talking with some people, so you need to step up the pressure before we lose out.” Dave sat down beside him and kicked his feet up on the table.
“At least you have a decent, well-paying job.”
“Being a trainer at Equinnox means I work for someone else. I want to work for myself. Make my own hours, boss someone else around. I’ve been there more than ten years and I have the experience.”
“You just don’t have the money. I know.” And he was counting on Ben for the cash. Or rather Ben’s famous brother. “It just so happens my brother called a family meeting. I’m heading over to my mother’s suite for lunch.”
“Good. Just make sure you get some time alone with Roper and be your charming, persuasive self,” Dave said. “Your brother shouldn’t be so stingy with his money. He ought to share the wealth with his family. Besides, it’s not as if he’s doing anything to earn it lately,” Dave said in a round of Roper-bashing Ben had become used to.
It bothered him, though. Ben didn’t mind complaining about his brother, but it irked him when others did it. For all Ben’s jealousy, Roper had been good to him and they were brothers. Which Ben was counting on to convince Roper not to give up on him just yet.
“I’m going to shower,” Ben said, rising. “And for the record, it’s not my charm I’m worried about. It’s my brother’s built-in immunity.”
“Make it happen,” Dave warned him. “Or else.”
Or else he’d be out a couch and on the street, Ben thought, finishing his friend’s sentence in his mind. There wasn’t much else he could do.
AS MUCH AS ROPER WANTED a quick fix to his and Amy’s problems, he also understood he had obligations to his team, and so he threw himself wholeheartedly into his rehabilitation. Not only did he hope to return as quickly as his body allowed, but he hoped to prove to Amy that he was a man who learned-from his mistakes and from good, solid advice. That he was a man who kept his word.
Through it all, he also dealt with the daily traumas from his family that never seemed to cease. Complaints from his sister that his mother was lining up people and events for the wedding she wanted no part of. Meetings with his mother and Harrison, mediating in order to keep his mother from being in breach of contract before actual work on the television project began. Ben wanting to show him the gym he wanted to invest in, all the while constantly pushing him for money.