The Merger Read online

  He parked out back next to her Mercedes and walked up the back porch to the back door. Julie’s car wasn’t in the drive. That was probably better. He didn’t need to have her there, or even as near as the basement.

  Spencer knocked on the door before pushing it opened. He really wished she’d keep it locked.

  “Hey, you here?” He called out.

  “I’m upstairs. I’ll be down in a few.”

  He set the bag on the table and retrieved two plates.

  When Avery walked into the kitchen, still putting on her earring, she wasn’t dressed in the usual yoga gear he’d expected. Her long black hair was curled and her makeup was fresh.

  “Ah, are you going out?”

  She adjusted her necklace. “Yes. What are you doing here? What is this? You brought Chinese food? You know I don’t eat that and I can’t stay away from it.”

  She sniffed at it.

  “I need a place to hang for a while. Tiffany is using my apartment.”

  She scrunched up her face. “Yuck.”

  Spencer shrugged. “Where are you going?”

  “Pete has an engagement at work. His date canceled last minute and I’m his escort.”

  “Escort.” He laughed. “You two are a riot.”

  “Meaning?”

  “The guy is in love with you, has been since childhood, and you just string him along.”

  She reached into the takeout bag and pulled out a fortune cookie. Breaking it open she said, “What about you and Tiffany?”

  “What about us?”

  “Don’t you just string her along?”

  He pulled out an eggroll and took a bite. “No. We did date and we know it doesn’t work. We have sex when it’s convenient, but I don’t string her along.”

  Avery looked down at the fortune in her hand. “I think this relates more to you.”

  She handed him the fortune and he read it. Love is coming for you. Open your eyes.

  He crumpled up the paper and threw it at her. “Funny.”

  “Hey, I have to go. Stay and eat. You can use the spare room if you need a place for the night. I’ll be in late.”

  “Do you have protection in your purse?” He called out as she walked through the back door.

  “Shut up, Spencer. I hate you.”

  “I know you do.” He laughed as the door closed and he was alone in her house.

  His life was pathetic, he decided, as he took out another container of food and dished it out on a plate. They’d only given him chopsticks, which wouldn’t work for him. He simply had never mastered the art of them.

  Spencer stood and walked to the drawer for a fork. It was then he heard the sound of someone stomping up the back steps of the porch. A moment later the door flew open and there stood Julie with two enormous cups of coffee in her hands.

  “Oh, hi,” she said kicking the door shut behind her. “I didn’t know you’d be here. I could have brought more coffee.”

  “I didn’t know I’d be here either and Avery just left.”

  Julie’s eyes opened wide. “She left? We just did yoga and decided to splurge on fancy coffee. She bought, I flew. You know how that is.”

  “Her friend Pete needed a date for a work thing. She just left.”

  “Date for work.” She laughed just as he had. “He came by this morning and I met him. He’s absolutely in love with her and she has no idea.”

  “I told her that too. He’s been in love with her since the second grade and she’s been in denial that long.”

  Julie set down the coffees. “You’re having dinner?”

  “I brought it thinking I could convince Avery to have dinner with me.”

  “I guess she left us both hanging.”

  “Looks like it. Join me then? I have plenty and could use the company.”

  She smiled easily. “I’ll trade you a French vanilla latte for dinner then. On Avery.”

  “Deal.”

  She sat down at the table in her yoga pants and a snug exercise top that showed off a soft set of shoulders and sculpted arms. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail high on the top of her head.

  With chopsticks woven between her fingers, she began diving into the sweet and sour pork.

  “Oh, this is fabulous,” she said with a moan. “Much better than my soup I’d been planning.”

  He smiled as he watched her take another bite. He’d never seen anyone eat with such enjoyment. It was nearly erotic to watch her.

  “Eggroll?”

  She nodded and he slid the small white bag toward her. “You’ll have to tell me where to get this. I enjoy Chinese food.”

  He figured, by the way she dug in with those damn chopsticks. Spencer looked down at his fork full of noodles and thought he was pathetic sitting there eating like that.

  “Trade?”

  She nodded and passed him the box in her hand and took the noodles.

  Spencer stabbed a sweet and sour pork piece and lifted it to his mouth, just as he caught sight of her sucking in a noodle through her lips.

  Certainly he wasn’t going to be able to eat with her anymore. His mind wasn’t on food.

  His eyes were on her lips. Those lips, which had taken him off guard the night in the elevator. Her fingers, which wrapped around the chopsticks, had pressed to his lips when they’d toured the apartment in the basement. With her hair pulled back, he could see the very delicate skin of her neck and the gentle pulse on the side of it.

  He bit down on his fork. Why hadn’t Tiffany just had sex with him? He could have gotten all this pent up frustration out and he wouldn’t be sitting at his cousin’s kitchen table dissecting the delectable parts of the bitch lawyer.

  When she raised her eyes to him and a strand of hair fell over those dark wonders, he realized he’d been staring. She wasn’t so much a bitch, he thought as she sucked in a noodle, and he wasn’t so afraid of her.

  “Is something wrong with the pork?” she asked before she covered her mouth and finished her mouthful.

  Spencer shook his head. “No. I just have a few things on my mind.”

  Julie set her chopsticks on the table and picked up her coffee cup. “I’ve always been told I have a good ear. If you just want to get something off your chest, I’m here.”

  What he wanted was to scoop her up and he didn’t like that he wanted that at all. He was much more comfortable before he liked her.

  There had been some deep satisfaction when she’d fallen on her ass yesterday.

  “It’s nothing really. You know in this industry there is always something going on.”

  She sat back in her seat and studied him. “Why are you here having Chinese?”

  He shrugged. “I was hungry for it.”

  “I thought you were having steak for dinner.”

  He was confused for a moment and then realized what she’d been thinking that morning at the store.

  “Oh, no. That wasn’t for me. Tiffany is trying to hook up with the British guy a few floors below my apartment.”

  Cautiously, she lifted her cup to her lips and studied him. “She’s trying to hook up with another guy? I thought you were an item.”

  “Me and Tiffany? No.”

  She nodded slowly and her dark eyes narrowed on him. “So what was that scene in the office yesterday? The kissing and touching?”

  Spencer set his fork down and took a sip of the coffee. He winced at the taste. “Oh, Lord. Avery drinks this?”

  “She ordered it.”

  “Our tastes are very different.” He set down the cup and realized she was still staring at him. He hadn’t answered her question. “Me and Tiffany.”

  “Let me guess. It’s complicated.”

  Maybe she did, or would, understand him. “Yes. It’s complicated.”

  “Open relationship?”

  “No. No.” He stood and walked to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water and wash down that nasty taste from the coffee, which didn’t go with Chinese food at all.

  She w
as still staring at him over the rim of her coffee cup. Why did he have to answer her? He didn’t owe it to her. What he and Tiffany had was good, when it was anything. Besides, had she ever come clean with why she’d kissed him in the elevator?

  Spencer reminded himself that he was her boss. Maybe he should be asking the questions.

  Her eyes grew wider and he squirmed where he stood next to the counter. “Why are you glaring at me?”

  “You’re not answering my question.”

  “Do I need to?”

  “No. It’s just a politeness factor. But your love life is your own business. I was just making small talk. I can stop.” She took another long sip of that nasty coffee and smiled. “I should probably leave you alone. I don’t think either of us expected to spend the evening together and we probably don’t have a real good basis for a friendship.”

  “You don’t think we’re friends?”

  Now she narrowed her eyes on him again. “We’re friends?”

  “Well, we’re not not friends.”

  Now she nodded and stood. “I know how you feel about me. I can read people. I spent the better part of five months knowing how you felt about me. Everyone in that room hated me. I was just trying to do my job.”

  “Now that’s not fair,” he said taking a single step toward her. “I never said I hated you.”

  “Not to my face. I’ll bet somewhere in your vocabulary when talking about me you used the word bitch a time or two,” she said sharply.

  He took a breath to argue the fact, but then stopped. He had, in fact, more than a dozen times, at least, called her a bitch aloud to others. He’d even used the term when speaking to his father.

  Her pained look let him know she had her answer. “I’m very grateful you even considered giving me a job that will work so closely with you. I’m even more grateful you found me a place to live. I’ll look for something that isn’t so close to your family. I think that would be easier.”

  She started for the back door, but he had to stop her. He set his water on the counter and cut off her exit.

  “Don’t go looking for a new place to live. I can tell Avery has already taken to you.”

  She wasn’t looking at him now. “Then I’ll find a new job. There is no reason for you to have to work with me.”

  He reached for her arm and rested his hand against her skin. “I offered you the job. I wouldn’t have if I thought it was a bad idea.”

  “You’re uncomfortable around me. I don’t like people to be uncomfortable unless I’m trying to make them uncomfortable.”

  He stepped even closer. “I’m not uncomfortable around you. In fact, I seem to be too comfortable.”

  Again, her eyes dulled in confusion. “I need to go.” She reached for the door handle.

  “Why did you kiss me?” He blurted the question out there.

  “Is that what all this is about?”

  “I know why you were in the hotel now, but the kiss...”

  “I will talk to you on Monday.”

  She pushed past him, hurried down the steps of the back porch, and disappeared down the steps to her apartment.

  Spencer bit back an oath. He wanted to go after her. He wanted an answer. The angrier he got, the more he wanted another kiss.

  Julie paced the floor, finally ripping out the tie that held back her hair just so she could run her fingers through it.

  How come that man could spark both love and hate in her? Okay, not love, but strong attraction. With that dark wavy hair and those shimmering brown eyes. Then the thought about his lips made her body throb.

  She cursed. She didn’t need to think of him that way. She didn’t need to think of him at all.

  Julie set her coffee cup on the end table and picked up the remote control, only to set it back down again.

  Her mind was buzzing. So asking if he had some open relationship with the redhead he was kissing was wrong? Yet he needed to know why she kissed him?

  Well, she didn’t have an answer for that. Maybe she had too many answers for that.

  He was handsome.

  He was nice.

  He was right there.

  Weren’t those good enough reasons to kiss him?

  Of course, she was hurt.

  She was desperate.

  She needed validation that she was every bit as desirable as Libby Grayson.

  Had Spencer Benson pushed her away the moment their lips touched, she’d have known that there was a reason no man wanted her. But he hadn’t pushed her away. He’d deepened the kiss. He’d pulled her in. He’d pressed his body right to hers.

  Julie’s breath caught.

  It was vivid in her mind. Less than a week had passed since their mouths had melded. Now she would work in his office and live in his aunt’s home. This was crazy.

  What had possessed her to drive across country to his doorstep? She had connections in the industry. There were other jobs. But for some reason this had been her choice when she realized she had nothing left in Oregon.

  Her mind drifted back to Spencer, which it did so often. So what really was the story with him and the redhead? Should she just forget about it?

  The answer to that was yes. Attraction wasn’t a reason to pack up and move, but she had. The moment she’d been released from PLL, all she had was emotion to guide her because she had nothing left.

  No job. No house. No husband. She was pathetic.

  No wonder her ex-husband was making his move with Libby. Julie had nothing to offer anyone. From the day they’d met he’d done nothing but belittle her. She wasn’t a good lawyer, a good cook, or any good in bed. That must have been why he’d been caught in more than one indiscretion.

  The very thought made her sick to her stomach. There never should have been an opportunity for more than one. She should have left him the first time.

  She slid to the floor and sobbed.

  This was what she wanted wasn’t it? After all, if she didn’t have the position she’d worked for and earned, she didn’t want to be in Oregon anymore. She didn’t want to miss it either.

  Fresh starts were supposed to be enjoyable. But she was miserable and she’d only been in town two days. It would get better.

  Benson, Benson, and Hart was an enormous firm. She’d be working with a lot more people than just Spencer Benson. Assisting on his new community build could mean a lot of things. She’d be working with architects and land developers. Construction foremen and accountants would filter into her day to day. There was a whole new world to open up to her, even if she’d been in the construction world most of her life, in one capacity or another.

  But the pain of being absolutely alone gnawed at her and made her heart ache. It was a slow and squeezing pain that sometimes made her lose her breath. No brothers or sisters. No cousins that she personally knew. All she’d had for years was a husband and even he couldn’t be faithful to her.

  She was twenty-seven-years-old. Being alone wasn’t the end of the world. Lots of people started over before they were thirty. She’d just keep that in mind. And when she turned thirty she could reevaluate.

  For now, she’d become exhausted at the thought of everything. And just to keep her sanity she promised herself she wouldn’t even leave the small basement apartment tomorrow. There wasn’t any need to. That would ensure she wouldn’t run into any other of Spencer’s family or friends.

  Julie pulled off her yoga clothes, ran a hot shower, and washed away the pain. Then she climbed into her shorts and tank top and crawled into bed. If she were lucky, sleep would take her away from all those feelings that were bundling up in her mind and body. And maybe sleep would erase Spencer Benson from her mind for a few hours.

  Chapter Six

  Spencer tossed and turned all night long. He didn’t know if it was because the spare bedroom in Avery’s house was hot, or if it was knowing that Julie Jacobson was only feet away.

  He’d heard Pete and Avery stumble in around two in the morning. He could only assume Avery h
ad indulged in too much wine and Pete, being the diligent friend he was, brought her home and tucked her in.

  Why they didn’t hook up was beyond him. The guy would do anything for her. He was simple though and Avery was anything but simple.

  She’d been brought up by an oil heiress and a doctor. Although, Spencer had never seen a snooty side to his uncle, his Aunt Simone’s rich upbringing showed through once in awhile. And Avery had been the mend between Simone and her father. So Avery had tasted the heiress life. She’d been on the yachts and flown on the private jets. Her tastes were big and her desires for things even bigger.

  She had a taste for wines and wasn’t it interesting that her grandfather had just purchased a vineyard outside of Paris?

  Poor Pete. He’d been in all of their lives for as long as Spencer could remember. And yet Avery was still looking for Mr. Right, when Spencer was sure he was the one who had tucked her in and quietly let himself out the back door.

  But what did he know? He’d been so involved with the lawyer he’d thought he despised, that he’d ruined what was supposed to be a sure thing. Now, he was sleeping in his cousin’s spare bedroom so that sure thing could be someone else’s sure thing.

  He pounded the pillow into a different position and flopped back against it.

  The question remained, he decided as he folded his hands over his chest and lay there looking at the moonlight on the ceiling, why had she kissed him in the first place and then driven to Nashville for a job?

  He’d get his answer. In fact, he didn’t have anything going on Sunday. He’d just wait her out.

  That’s right, he’d stay at Avery’s and just wait until she emerged. He’d corner her and they’d try that conversation thing again. Spencer closed his eyes. Now he just needed some damn sleep.

  He woke the next morning to Metallica blaring from the living room. What in the hell was Avery doing?

  He rolled out of the bed, nearly wrapping himself up in the sheets and falling on his face. He threw his clothes back on and started down the stairs.

  When he saw her, he wanted to break out into laughter, but Avery dancing in the living room in her pink pajamas was exactly what he needed to perk him up.