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The Tessarae Inn |
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Poseidon Rising CHAPTER 18 When Blair breezed into his office, he looked up but then quickly looked back down to what he was studying. He was tired of her breezing into his space and making some statement or picking someone up then breezing away again as if he was just another prop in an office set for a movie or something. He was tired of it all. She had walked away—actually run away--from him eight days and four hours ago. If she wanted to play hardball, so could he and they both knew he was better at it. “Todd?” He raised his head slowly then let his eyes drift to her face. He planned to shoot her down with a withering stare or a caustic frown but instead he found himself locked in her gaze. Something was wrong. Really wrong. He pushed his chair back and walked around the desk. “What is it? What’s going on?” “I think we’re in trouble, Todd. We need to talk.” “Well, you’re the one who’s so damn emotional. You walked out and…” He suddenly felt a swooshing sound in his head. Could she be pregnant? Was he right the other night? Oh, my God! They were going to have another child! He was going to be a father again. Todd Manning family man. Who would have believed it? There was going to be another person in this world who loved him unconditionally. There was going to be one more piece of concrete living proof that Blair did love him “No, not that. We can deal with that later.” He searched her face quickly for a clue that she was misdirecting his attention then felt such a powerful sense of deflation that he wanted to sit down. The baby had become real in the space of a few seconds and its loss felt like a blow. He began to pick at his left hand. Was this how Blair felt magnified by ten million when he told her that Jack was dead? Something strong and prickly stabbed at him. It was so strange that the weight of that lie would hit him in the face again over such a fanciful notion. He was the one after all who made up the lie about Blair being pregnant and he was, it seemed, the one who had just paid the price. He stretched his neck and turned his head back and forth to dislodge the pain. Well, at least, she did say she wanted to talk about things later. She wasn’t shutting him out completely. “What then?” he said more as a way just to say something. “This is something else,” said Blair. She took a step or two closer to him. “I’m not sure how to tell you this but it’s about Amanda. She married Vincent Jewel.” What the hell? Damn her. Is that what this was about? Blair was upset because Amanda walked off with her golden goose. Damn her. He walked back around the desk, flopped down in his chair and picked up a pencil. “Well,” he said as he leaned back in the chair and tapped the pencil on the desk, “I guess Boyfriend No. 2 wasn’t under your thumb nearly as much as you thought.” Blair placed both of her hands on the desk and leaned toward him. “This is serious and we don’t have time to play mind games. He and Amanda are coming after you and I won’t let that happen.” He put the pencil down and looked up at her. He knew this Blair. She was fierce and in full protect mode. And this was about HIM. She was trying to protect him! Him! He pushed the chair back forcefully, stood up and moved around the desk. He grabbed her hand as he moved past her and pulled her along. “Come on. We need to go somewhere where we can talk in private.” ======== It was stupid and probably always had been but he loved having Blair sitting next to him as he barreled along some road full throttle. It felt like they were moving in sync together and everyone else in the world were just blurs and patches of color with no definite shape or substance. The world be damned and lost. He didn’t care. Not as long as she was hurtling through space with him. He drove for an hour just to enjoy the sensation of moving so fast with her by his side. She didn’t complain. He could see the soft smile on her face. In fact, she seemed as grateful as he did for the release. At some point, though, they needed to stop moving long enough to talk about what was upsetting her. When he saw the “scenic pull-over” marker, he eased the car into the parking area. It was deserted. There were a couple of picnic tables near the parking area but off to the right there was a bench that looked out over a breathtaking view of the mountains. He cut off the engine and Blair jumped out but she looked back at the car. “I like it.” He smiled at her. He had just gotten the car a few days ago and hadn’t really broken it in yet. It was a beautiful car—titanium with a blue leather interior. Looked like something Spiderman would drive when off duty. He hadn’t wanted or loved a car so much in a long time. He should have known Blair would love it too. “2002 Ferrari 360 Modena Spider. Only a couple hundred available in the states. Everybody wants one but almost nobody can get one regardless of how deep their pockets.” “But you did.” “Yeah, Blair. You know I always get what I want.” She crossed her arms over her chest and held her sides for a moment then nodded. “Nice car.” He tried not to smile too much. She walked over to the bench and he fell in step behind her. They were in sync. Again. “He said he’d back off and let me kept Shining Starr if you sold him The Sun. I can’t believe I let that man get so close to what I worked so hard to build. Practically gave him the keys.” She turned her head toward him. “You know, this is one of the reasons why we have got to cut out all of this drama between us.” One of the reasons but not THE reason. THE reason is because I love the hell out of you. “What did you tell him about The Sun?” “Get you to sell it?” She snorted quietly. “Not in this lifetime. The man is a fool if he thinks I’d do that and the thing is I told him as much weeks ago. I can build another Shining Starr but The Sun is Jack and Starr’s legacy.” “Shining Starr is a good company, Blair. I was impressed when I checked into it. You did a hell of a job creating that company.” “I love what it represents but I can do it again. Vincent thinks Shining Starr is just a marketing-product plan put into action but it’s not. It’s me. It’s my passion. It’s my expertise and it is going to hurt like hell to let it go but I know that once I’m gone the company really won’t exist any longer. He’ll be left holding an empty box that’s pretty on the outside but the real substance is missing.” He grinned at her. He couldn’t help it. In the beginning, it was Blair’s enthusiasm and business passion that took his breath away. She was driven and creative and confident. He’d loved that about her. Her love life was a mess back then but she had a life plan. So much had happen between them in the intervening years that he sometimes forgot this part of her existed. Well, in truth it was more like he chose to forget. Blair this confident and self-assured didn’t really need him. “I can’t believe you would let it go for me.” “First of all, I’m the one who gave Vincent access to my life in a way that led up to this. My responsibility. I love that company. My heart is in that company but it was my mistake and I accept the price. I’ve learned a thing or two recently about facing up to consequences.” He ignored the sharp pain in his chest, took a deep breath and looked at the mountains. “Second of all, the only reason The Sun is even on the table for discussion is because Vincent assumes you’d give up something that important to you for me.” She laughed softly. “I guess that’s Amanda’s influence. I never realized that she saw me as a real threat… I mean… Okay, I never really got what was going on between the two of you but I was not trying to interfere. Not really. Well…Anyway, for him to think I’d ask you to give up The Sun is crazy. I’m a big girl, I take my lumps and live to fight another day.” “I would you know.” “Would what?” “I’d give it up for you. She’s not wrong about that.” Blair sighed and then kicked several small pebbles near her foot. “Don’t do this now. We need to stay focused.” “Don’t do what?” “You have never in your life given up anything you considered to be yours that easily. Amanda told me you were going after the children.” “That’s not true. She was lying.” Blair tightened her lips and shook her head. “Okay, if you say so.” He turned away from her. Why did everything have to be so damn difficult? “You can sit there and say you’d give up The Sun to save Shining Starr but you’re lying. I know that and you know it.” He turned back toward her. “I didn’t say it would be easy. And I didn’t say I wouldn’t get it back but I would let it go if keeping Shining Starr was that important to you.” Blair exhaled loudly then shook her head gently. “You broke my heart, Todd. You almost broke my soul. I don’t care how long I live, I can’t believe anything will ever hurt me as much as you telling me Jack was dead and letting me believe it for all those months. Never.” “I’ve heard all of this before.” She looked in him in the eye. “There’s nothing you can do to make up for that.” She held his gaze for a moment longer then shifted her gaze forward. “Selling The Sun to Vincent Jewel sure won’t do it. So let’s keep everything in perspective and not lose sight of the ball here.” He felt something tighten around his head like a rubber band ten sizes too small. “You don’t think I know how important you are to me? Do you really think those things you returned to me so willingly on a silver platter were what mattered to me? Don’t you think I got it? Other than Starr and Jack none of those things meant a damn thing to me without you. You held back the most valuable gift and if I didn’t get it before I sure as hell get that now.” “It wasn’t about that.” “The hell it wasn’t. So I can’t make it right with you, can we get past it at least?” “I don’t know.” “You need to know, Blair. You need to know that even at our worst, being together is a million times better than anything either of us could find anywhere else or with anyone else in this world.” “You love me?” “I love the hell out of you. I always have.” Chapter 19 Poseidon Rising FAN FICTION
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