When Leah"s voice drifted off and the tears began pouring more freely, more abundantly, Jocelyn immediately got up and went to her sister, leaned down and hugged her. "But what, Leah?" she inquired softly. "If you had planned to hang around, why did you leave the way you did and without telling anyone you were leaving? Especially Reese?"
Leah shook her head, trying to regain her composure before she could speak. "Something happened, Jocelyn, and I couldn"t tell anyone. Especially not Dad or Reese. Not even you."
Jocelyn heard the trembling in her sister"s voice and the strong conviction, as well. Whatever had happened was something Leah actually thought she could not have shared with anyone. She pulled back and met her sister"s intense, tear-filled eyes. "What happened, Leah?"
Leah hung her head for a moment, then when she lifted her gaze, Jocelyn saw in it tortured memories, recollections Leah didn"t want to relive but was being forced to. Jocelyn felt a warning chill slowly work its way up her spine and thought that nothing could have been bad enough to make her sister flee into the night the way she"d done.
Jocelyn"s hold on her sister tightened and she hoped she was giving Leah the strength to get out whatever it was she needed to say. When she felt Leah respond by holding tightly to her hand, she knew that she was. For the first time Leah was accepting all the smothering, the babying, the overprotectiveness she had refused from her for so many years.
"What happened, Leah?" Jocelyn inquired again, in an even softer tone of voice than before. "What happened to make you leave when you did?"
Leah opened her mouth to speak. Then paused. She slowly opened it again as she met her sister"s intense stare. "I was raped, Jocelyn. Neil Grunthall raped me."
If Jocelyn had been standing upright instead of leaning over with her arms around Leah, she would have fallen to her knees. If not the words her sister had just spoken, then the pain and suffering she saw lining Leah"s face would have definitely knocked her there. For a moment she began trembling, or was it Leah? No, she was certain it was her and she was trembling in anger.
"Neil raped you?" As she heard herself saying the words, she was stunned that the no-good drifter their father had hired on that spring had gone so far.
"Yes," Leah answered softly, "and please sit down. It"s time I tell you about that time."
Jocelyn moved around the table, still clutching Leah"s hand in hers, not wanting to lose the connection, the closeness, the need to exchange strength. When Jocelyn returned to her seat, she braced herself against the chair, needing support. "All right, tell me everything."
Leah lowered her head and whispered, "I doubt if I can, but I will tell you what you need to know, okay?"
At Jocelyn"s nod of understanding, Leah began talking. "You know Reese and Neil never got along. Everyone wondered why Dad even hired Neil because he was nothing but a drifter and he was always causing trouble. Well, Dad finally fired him but I didn"t know it. Late that same afternoon I went to the construction site looking for Reese. I wanted to tell him that I had decided to accept his marriage proposal and would go to a cooking school around here and wouldn"t be moving to California after all."
A tear fell down Leah"s cheek, joining the others. "I arrived at the job site, thinking the work crew was supposed to be there, working on Alyssa Calhoun"s home. Instead I found Neil there, gathering up his stuff. I didn"t know Dad had fired him just a few hours earlier. Neil claimed Reese was downstairs in the bas.e.m.e.nt, finishing up something and stupid me, I went looking for him."
Jocelyn felt her sister"s palms getting sweaty, but she held them tighter, refusing to let them escape her grasp. "And when he got me alone in the bas.e.m.e.nt, he raped me and dared me to tell Dad or Reese. He said if I did he would deny it and convince Reese I went along with it."
"Reese would never have believed him, Leah, you know that."
"Yes, but nothing could erase the shame I felt after being taken like an animal on that floor. I felt humiliated, disgraced and dishonored. Reese had been the only man ever to touch me and I felt dirty and unworthy of him."
"So instead of telling anyone what happened, you left town," Jocelyn said, knowing that was exactly what her sister had done.
"Yes. If Reese had found out the truth, he would have killed Neil, if Dad didn"t get to him first. And I couldn"t let that happen. Neither could I stand the thought of going to the police, pressing charges and facing the humiliation of Neil claiming it wasn"t rape. You remembered what happened to Connie Miller when she claimed that one of the Banks boys raped her. She became the town"s spectacle and eventually she and her family left disgraced."
Yes, Jocelyn remembered. Everyone had known that Ronnie Banks had done it, but the Bankses had had enough money to make Ronnie the victim instead of Connie.
"But it didn"t necessarily have to turn out that way for you, Leah," Jocelyn said, though she clearly understood why her sister would have thought otherwise. Although Neil had been a drifter with no family ties to the area, it still would have been his word against hers. And with him being the troublemaker that he"d been, and with his intense dislike of Reese, he would have loved to make it seem that Leah had practically begged for it.
It was through sheer will that Jocelyn didn"t curse the ground the man was buried under. "If he weren"t already dead I would find him and kill him."
Leah"s trembling hands went still at the same moment she sucked in a deep breath. "Neil Grunthall is dead?" she asked in a shocked voice.
Jocelyn lifted a brow. "Yes, didn"t you know? But then there was no way that you would have since you left town that same night. He left town drunk and drove to that tavern on the outskirts of town and got even drunker. It"s my understanding that he was speeding, hit a tree and was killed instantly."
Leah hung her head and said softly, "I never knew that. The few times I came home I could never fix my lips to say his name to ever ask about him. It took me years just trying to deal with being a rape victim before admitting I needed help. I finally went to a victim a.s.sistance program and I discovered what I felt wasn"t unusual. A rape victim feels ashamed, weak and wounded, and unless they get help they will continue to feel that way. The program I got into has helped me to come to terms with what Neil did, but I have some ways to go before fully recovering. Even to this day I haven"t been able to let another man touch me intimately."
"Oh, Leah," Jocelyn said, tightening her hand around Leah"s. "You shouldn"t have gone through that alone. Even if you didn"t want to confide in Reese and Dad, then what about me? You could have come to me."
Leah shook her head. "No, I couldn"t have, Jocelyn. You were the one who always did the right thing. You would have gone straight to Dad and told him what happened and I couldn"t risk you doing that. Neil was crazy and there was no way I was going to tell Dad or Reese what he"d done."
For a long moment neither of them said anything, and then Jocelyn quietly asked the question she needed to know. "Are you going to tell Reese?"
Leah met her sister"s intense stare and shook her head. "No. I still can"t stand the thought of Reese ever finding out what happened, Jocelyn, and I don"t want his pity. This is something I have to overcome in my own way and time. Like I told you earlier, I can"t stand the thought of a man touching me that way. I can barely tolerate the times I have to visit the doctor for my physicals. Besides, I hurt Reese in a way he would never forgive me for."
"Yes, but if knew the truth about why you left, then he-"
"No, Jocelyn, I won"t tell him. It doesn"t matter now because I can"t ever be that way with a man again even if he did understand. So it doesn"t matter. I won"t tell him and I want you to promise me that you won"t ever tell him, either."
Jocelyn turned her head and gazed out the window. She knew how much Leah leaving without a word had hurt Reese, so much, in fact, that he had left town for a couple of years to get over it. Once he had served time in the army he had returned, and barely ever mentioned Leah"s name. Jocelyn had been nervous as to what his reaction would be upon seeing Leah again at their father"s funeral. She had watched him, had studied his expression the exact moment Leah had walked into the church. Jocelyn had seen the pain and the hurt that was still there, that five years hadn"t fully erased.
"Jocelyn, you have to promise me."
Jocelyn turned and met her sister"s pleading gaze. Then she remembered the reason Leah hadn"t come to her the night she"d been raped was that she"d known that no matter what, Jocelyn would have done the right thing and told her father anyway. There was no way she would have let Neil get away with hurting her sister.
And although she didn"t agree with what Leah was asking her to do, it was her sister"s decision to make, and she would do as she asked. "I promise. I won"t tell Reese, but I"m hoping that one day you will."
There weren"t too many places to go in Newton Grove when you wanted to get away for a spell, but Jocelyn was determined to find one.
When she came to a traffic light she stopped and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her fingertips, recalling what Leah had shared with her at dinner. Each time she thought of her sister being powerless under the hands of Neil Grunthall, she literally felt sick to her stomach. And to think Leah had endured alone the humiliation of being raped.
She sighed, feeling tears sting her eyes. Now everything made sense and she felt angry with herself for not having known something hadn"t been right. Before she"d disappeared, Leah had stopped talking about leaving Newton Grove. In fact her relationship with Reese had grown that much more serious. But Leah hadn"t shared with Jocelyn her decision to marry Reese. If she had, then Jocelyn would have known for certain that something was wrong when she just up and left town.
After dinner she and Leah had tidied up the kitchen together, then, as if she"d needed to be alone, Leah had taken a shower and gone to bed early. Jocelyn had needed to go somewhere and take out her anger and frustration on someone, anyone, and for the past hour had been riding around town trying to cool down.
It was times like this that she missed her dad something awful. He would have known just what to say to Leah. Then there was the issue of Leah not telling Reese. Jocelyn thought Leah was making a big mistake by not doing so.
Not having any particular place to go, but knowing she wasn"t ready to return home yet, she turned the corner toward the office where Mason Construction was located.
Jocelyn"s hands tightened on the steering wheel when she pulled into the yard and slipped into the s.p.a.ce right next to a car already there. She recognized the dark-blue sedan and immediately the anger she had tried cooling for the past hour rushed back in full force. What was Sebastian Steele doing at the Mason Construction office at nine o"clock at night?
Barely waiting for her car to come to a complete stop, she quickly unsnapped her seatbelt and then yanked open the car door. There couldn"t be that many files that he had to go over to be practically spending the night here. Angrily, she grabbed her purse before slamming the car door shut. Just what was he looking for in those files anyway?
When she reached the top step, she could see through the gla.s.s door his profile as he sat at the conference table, and without even thinking of surprising him, she s.n.a.t.c.hed open the door and then slammed it shut.
He turned from the papers he"d been reading and looked at her. And at that moment she wished he hadn"t. There was just something about those dark eyes whenever they lit on her that prompted an overpowering sensation to slide all the way up her spine. Of course she was imagining things but for a moment she thought she felt the floor move. Still, to retain her balance, in case she hadn"t imagined it at all, she tightened her fingers on the strap of her purse and placed pressure on the soles of her feet when he stood up.
He was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. She hated admitting it, but he looked good in black. It did something to the darkness of his eyes and the tone of his complexion. Just looking at him was such a mind-boggling experience that for a moment she forgot what she was upset about. Until a half smile curved his lips.
Then she quickly remembered.
"What are you doing here, Bas?"
Instead of answering her, he said, "I"m curious about something, Jocelyn."
At the moment she didn"t give a flip what he was curious about and was hoping her expression told him so. Evidently not, since he then added, "Are you always in such a pleasant mood?"
She gave him a stony look, one that could probably solidify cement in an instant. "You"re going to see just how pleasant I can be if you don"t answer my question. What are you doing here? This office closes at five o"clock."
His smile widened. "My work hours aren"t dictated by a clock. And as to what I"m doing, I"m still working."
She glanced at the papers spread out on the table and the stack of files on one of the chairs. She then looked back at him. "Why?"
He lifted a brow. "Why what?"
"Why are you here working this time of night? And not only that, why do you feel the need to? You just got here a week ago."
"Let"s just say I"m an eager beaver. I believe in getting the job done."
Angrily, she shook her head and said, "But there isn"t a job here to do. You can go through whatever you want, but you"ll find everything is in order. Like I"ve said, there is no reason for you to be here."
"And my response to that is still the same," he said, taking his seat back at the table. "Evidently your father thought otherwise."
That statement, as usual, triggered Jocelyn"s anger to the boiling point. She crossed the room and slapped her hands, palms down, on the table and leaned in toward him. Their lips were within inches of touching.
She opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it. "Be careful about getting too close, Jocelyn. I"m liable to bite." And then in an even lower voice, he added, "I"m also known to lick, nibble, taste, sample. Should I go on?"
Bas watched as a deep color rose in her cheeks when she got the picture he"d painted. Unfortunately for her she didn"t pull back quick enough and when she unconsciously tilted her head at an angle that brought her mouth even closer, Bas decided to carry out his threat. She was mad anyway, and a little more anger wouldn"t make or break their already fiery relationship.
He locked his mouth to hers before either of them could take their next breath. And he felt her fingers reach out and curl into his shirt the exact moment his tongue entered her mouth. He heard her moan, not in protest but in surrender, and the sound spurred him on.
He had never indulged in a kiss that had made him forget his senses so quickly and so easily. He might have initiated it, but she was certainly adding a delicious topping.
From the taste of things it seemed that he was way over his head and sinking fast without any thoughts of a rescue. But there was only so much of Jocelyn Mason"s pa.s.sion he could take, and, after giving her tongue one final, pa.s.sionate suck, he hesitantly pulled back. His gaze stayed glued to her features, and he saw she was dazed and for the moment speechless. But not for long.
"How dare you," she murmured angrily between moist lips.
"How dare I what? Kiss you or stop kissing you?" he asked, leaning in a little closer. When she didn"t speak up quickly enough for him, he clamped his mouth onto hers again, intent on showing her that he did dare, because from her response it was obvious that she was enjoying the exchange as much as he was. This time he savored her taste at a slow pace, licking, nibbling and tasting. He soon discovered that kissing her slowly wasn"t a good thing because he didn"t want to stop. There was something deeper, different, in her taste this time around. It was more succulent, heated, and it had him devouring her leisurely, at an unhurried pace, yet greedily, as if once the taste was gone, that would be it. It was either now or never.
He heard her protesting moan when he finally pulled back again. "Got enough or do you want more?" he whispered, finishing her off by taking his tongue and lining the outside of her lips.
"Enough," Jocelyn said softly, shaking her head as if to clear any lingering pa.s.sion that had gotten lodged in her brain. His kiss was everything she"d somehow known it would be and then some. She could only stare at him in amazement and wonder. How many practice sessions had he endured to become a fantastic kisser?
Deciding she was better off not knowing, she leaned back and took a step away from the table. She would certainly think twice before she ever got in his face again. Although the kiss had whopped her senses, all it took was seeing the files and folders he"d been going through to make her recall that she was still angry at him for being here.
She crossed her arms over her chest. It was either that or be tempted to reached out and grab him for another kiss. Jeez, what was happening to her? She might not have asked for his kiss but she had wanted it, and would shamefully go so far as to admit that she had antic.i.p.ated his taste since meeting him.
"I need to know something," Jocelyn said slowly, struggling to understand why her father had thought Sebastian Steele was needed here.
He glanced up at her. "What?"
"Is there anything in particular you"re looking for here? Did Dad give you any indication that something is wrong with the business? Something that I don"t know about? Something that he didn"t want me to know?"
Bas shrugged his broad shoulders and his gaze was level and calm when he responded, "No."
She lifted a brow. "Then explain the reason you"re here, because until I understand it, I will continue to fight you at every turn. Dad hadn"t been able to run the company for the past eight months. The chemo treatments took a toll on him. I"ve been in charge of things practically since the first of the year when the cancer was diagnosed, so why did he bring you in? Didn"t he think I could handle things here?"
Bas leaned back in his chair. Evidently she didn"t understand what he did for a living and the way he could benefit Mason Construction during the short time he"d be here. He held up his hand when she started talking again.
"First of all, let me a.s.sure you that my being here has nothing do to with your father"s lack of confidence in your abilities, Jocelyn. Over the years, whenever I spoke to Jim he was always singing your praises and telling me what a great job you were doing."
What he had just told her was the truth and for some reason it was important to him that she believed what he said. He then decided to lean in closer to make sure she was taking in his every word. "I"m a troubleshooter, Jocelyn. Some corporations refer to us as consultants. After I dropped out of college I did a lot of odd jobs, working various places, so I had an in-depth knowledge of organization and customer support services. Your dad convinced me to return home, go back to school and become a part of my family business. When I did return to college, I concentrated on those areas I needed to polish and then went to work fulltime with my dad and brothers at our company. My job is to avert trouble before it can cripple a corporation, whether it"s in employee relations or customer services." Giving her a confident smile he said, "And at the risk of sounding c.o.c.ky, I"m pretty d.a.m.n good at what I do."
He motioned to the files he had spread out around him. "Already I can see several areas within Mason Construction that are red flags."
He knew she wouldn"t like his observation. He saw the slow flaring of her nostrils, the way her eyebrows lifted ever so slightly, the way her lips turned down faintly. Maybe he was a sicko or something, but seeing the heat rise in her cheeks was actually turning him on. Was that crazy?
"What red flags?"
He studied her features and saw the fire in her eyes and the pout of annoyance around her mouth. He wanted to reach out and skim his fingers across those lips he had kissed just moments ago. d.a.m.n, but he really liked her mouth, the shape, texture and taste.
"Bas, I asked you, what red flags?"
His focus returned to her question with the sound of her impatient foot tapping against the hardwood floor. Not to get her dander up any more, he decided to answer. "Like this job for Marcella Jones for instance."
The name of the woman who had that very afternoon given her even more changes to make caused Jocelyn to flinch involuntarily. "What about the Marcella Jones project?"
"All those changes are costing the company money and you didn"t allow for them."
She absently rubbed the back of her wrist as her eyes narrowed. "There"s no way you can allow for them. Marcella makes changes. A builder gets to live with it. Everyone knows it and accepts it."
"But why should you?"
Jocelyn breathed deeply. Unfortunately she was finding Bas"s voice s.e.xy, which was something she didn"t like. She needed to stay focused on what they were discussing. "Because the contract pays big bucks. I"ve padded for some antic.i.p.ated changes but there"s no way I can cover all of them. Everyone knows Marcella is a builder"s nightmare."
"I suggest you handle it differently."
Jocelyn"s eyes narrowed again. "And just how do you suggest I handle it?"
"Let her know that with changes come surcharges because they"re costing you time and money. Once you hit her with enough surcharges, she"ll lighten up."
Jocelyn laughed. "What she"ll do is drop us like a hot potato."
"I don"t think so."
The only thing he had in his favor in making that statement, Jocelyn thought, was that he didn"t know Marcella. "And why wouldn"t she?"
"Because she would want the best outfit building her home, someone she knows will do it right. You said this isn"t the first home you"ve built for her, right?"