The perfect wine didn’t just titillate her taste buds, though. With each sip she took, the tension that had made her sit up straight in her chair now flowed out of her and in its place came a mood so mellow that she didn’t even flinch when, out of the blue, Ryder asked her a question about Jerome.
“So how did you end up in business with a man like your partner, someone who would betray you like that?” He wasn’t just looking curious. He actually looked puzzled.
She took another sip of wine to fortify herself then gave him a wan smile. “It’s a long story,” she said. “Got the time?”
He cocked his head to one side. “I’m all ears.”
Blake drew in a shallow breath and then she began. “I met Jerome at a cocktail party. One of those meet-and-greet affairs. You know, you’re in business, trying to network, so you show your face at these events.”
“Sure, that’s part of doing business.”
“ Jerome was at one of those events and he walked up to me and said he was a huge admirer of my work.” She gave him a rueful smile. “He started laying it on real thick and I guess after a while I began to believe a little bit of what he was saying.” She shook her head. “Silly me, but you live and you learn.”
Ryder’s gaze narrowed. “Meaning?”
“Meaning, it went from that simple conversation to a meeting at my office to an invitation to go out on a date.” She grimaced. “It turned out that he wasn’t so much interested in my work as he was in me. At least, at first.” She bit her lip and then she spoke again. “Jerome was a real charmer, going out of his way to surprise me with gifts and doing cute little things, unexpected things, things that made me begin to like him.” She gave a hollow laugh. “One time he even made me leave the office to go out with him for the afternoon for a picnic and a ride in a hot air balloon. He was so spontaneous.” She glanced over at Ryder but in the dimness of the room she could read nothing in his eyes. And he wasn’t saying anything. He was quiet and he was watching her, waiting for her to go on.
She let out her breath. “To cut a long story short, it took only a few months before I fell in love with him and when he asked me to marry him I said yes.” Her lips tightened. “Soon after that he started paying close interest in my business and then one day, out of the blue, he said we were a couple now so it would only make sense for us to be business partners.”
“You were okay with that?”
She shrugged. “After I got over the initial shock I said yes.” She gave a soft snort. “Little did I know it was the worst decision of my life.” She grimaced. “Well, maybe the second worst. Agreeing to marry him would probably take that prize.”
Ryder raised an eyebrow. “Your second worst decision, because?”
“Because although he said we should be partners I was the one undertaking most of the risk. His financial contribution was sort of…sparse, to put it generously. He said his main contribution would be his vast network of clients, both private and corporate.” She sighed. “It was more a promise than anything tangible but I guess by that time I was too involved to object. I talked myself into it, telling myself that clients were the key success factor in any real estate business.” She reached for her wine again. After a slow sip she continued. “But that, I could have lived with. What killed me was when I found out, three months after we’d formed the partnership, that he’d begun writing checks to a company I’d never heard of, called Evergreen Enterprises. When I checked into it, it was to find out that he was the owner.”
By this time, no matter that the lighting was weak, Blake could see that Ryder’s face had darkened into a scowl. “The bastard. You reported him to the police, right?”
Blake looked down at her hands then she shook her head. She opened her mouth to speak but she couldn’t. A huge lump had formed in her throat. It took several seconds before the words could come out. “I didn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t believe what he’d done.” She raised her gaze to Ryder’s face. “This was the man I was going to marry. I found this out a week before our wedding day.” Despite herself, her mouth began to tremble and she bit down on her bottom lip. When she spoke again there was a tremor in her voice. “That was why I just left. I had to get away. I found out I couldn’t trust Jerome, the man who swore he loved me so much he couldn’t live without me. After what he did to me…he’s made it hard for me to trust any man again.”
Ryder was staring back at her, looking like he wanted to say something to reassure her, but then he nodded slowly. “I understand,” he said, his voice low and gentle. “You were in shock. And I know exactly what you mean about not being able to trust again.”
She tilted her head as she gazed back at him. “You do?”
He drew in a big breath and as he did his nostrils flared. Then he nodded. “There was a woman I almost married…until I found out she was pregnant for my best friend.”
CHAPTER TEN
Blake sucked in her breath. “What did you say?” The words came out in a whispered rush. It wasn’t even that she wanted him to repeat the words. The shock was that Ryder had a story that sounded like it was even worse than hers. “She was...pregnant?”
Ryder gave her hand a squeeze and then he got up and walked over to the sideboard, his back to her. “We’d been together four years. We were engaged and planning to get married next year. Then she got pregnant.” Ryder stopped and for a long while there was silence. He was so still it looked like he wasn’t breathing. Then he shook his head. “I can’t believe I was over the moon when she told me.” Another silence then his shoulders sagged. “Until two days later she worked up the courage to tell me the baby wasn’t mine.”
“Oh, my God.” The whispered words slipped out before Blake could stop them. She didn’t have to guess at Ryder’s devastation. She could see it in the way he lowered his head and in the way he gripped the edge of the sideboard. Ryder was hurting and it tore at her heart to witness his suffering.
Not even pausing to give it thought, she got up and went to him and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. She didn’t say anything. Sometimes words were not enough. With her touch she was telling him that she was there.
The strange thing was, once she’d heard of Ryder’s pain her own feelings of hurt and loss slid into the background and all she could feel was a new protectiveness toward him. It really wasn’t her affair but she just wanted to make things better.