Marriage, Manhattan Style

Ten

Reed couldn’t understand why Elizabeth had left the party. If she was worried about Lucas, she should have said something. As it was, he’d been left in the embarrassing predicament of having to make her excuses.

Unlocking the penthouse door, he found himself struggling for patience. “Elizabeth?” He kept his voice low, not wanting to disturb Lucas if he was asleep.

“Elizabeth?” he tried again, dropping his keys on the table. Her purse and coat were here, and Hanna and Joe had obviously left.

He started down the hall, glancing into the office, Lucas’s room, then, finally, the master bedroom.

“There you are.” He stopped short, seeing an open suitcase on the bed. “What’s wrong?” Had there been some news? Was she going to California?

She didn’t answer, didn’t look at him. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, and there was a stiffness to her walk.

“Elizabeth?” He moved toward her, arms out, fear rising in his throat.

“Don’t touch me!” she snapped, jerking back.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“You know perfectly well what’s wrong.” She met his eyes for the first time, and he was floored by the anger he saw reflected in her depths.

“What?”

She yanked open a drawer. “Don’t play dumb with me.”

“I’m not playing anything. Why are you packing? Where are you going?” His heartbeat thickened in his chest. Something was terribly wrong.

“Selina Marin. Name mean anything to you?”

Uh-oh. Had she heard about the blackmail? Was she afraid for Lucas? “I didn’t want to tell you,” he began, “because-”

“You don’t think I can guess why you kept it a secret?”

Well, yes, of course she could guess. “There were so many things going on. You had so much on your mind.”

Elizabeth gave a hysterical little laugh, then pressed a shaking hand against her mouth. “You think I was too busy to hear about your mistress?”

For a split second Reed was too stunned to react. “My what?” His harsh shout woke Lucas, and the baby cried out.

Elizabeth immediately moved for the door.

Reed grabbed her by the arm. “What the hell are you talking about?” he thundered.

“Let me go.”

He released her, and she darted to the nursery.

Reed followed. “I have no mistress,” he hissed from behind.

Elizabeth picked up the crying baby, rocking him against her shoulder.

“Did you hear me?” Reed demanded.

Elizabeth turned as Lucas’s sobs subsided. “You’re caught, Reed.”

“Caught doing what?”

“I know she’s not a client. I know she’s not a job applicant. I know your friends and your staff have been covering for you. You lie when you say you’re in meetings-”

“I do not lie.”

“Keep your voice down.”

“I do not lie, Elizabeth. When I say I’m in meetings, I’m in meetings. I can’t always share the subjects with you, but that’s for your own good.”

She harrumphed a sound of disbelief. “How long, Reed? How long have you been sleeping with Selina Marin?”

“Selina Marin is a private investigator.”

“There we have it,” said Elizabeth. “Career number four for the intrepid Ms. Marin.”

“She is a private investigator. And I’m not sleeping with her.”

“Prove it.”

Reed almost laughed. Elizabeth was as bad as the SEC, asking him to prove something didn’t happen?

“I saw the e-mails,” said Elizabeth.

“What e-mails?”

“The e-mails from France. You wrote to the woman every damn day. How could…” Tears welled up in Elizabeth’s eyes, and she turned away.

Reed dragged a hand through his hair, wondering how everything in his life could get so far off-track. He could see that Lucas’s eyes were fluttering closed, so he backed out of the nursery, giving Elizabeth a chance to settle him again.

He waited in the hall, his mind ticking through possible scenarios that had led her down this path. He had to come clean about the blackmail. He realized that. But how on earth had she interpreted Selina’s PI activities as an affair? Surely it took more than business e-mails to the woman for Reed to be tried and convicted.

Elizabeth exited the nursery, pulling the door partway closed.

Reed reached out to her. “Come and sit down.”

She shook her head.

“Please? Something’s gone so far wrong, and we’re not going to work it out unless we talk.”

“I don’t want to be lied to.”

“I’m not going to lie.”

She gave a little laugh. “A liar telling me he’s not going to lie. How could I possibly doubt the sincerity of that?”

“Elizabeth.” Now she was frustrating him.

“I’m done, Reed. It’s over.”

“How did you see the e-mails?”

She looked momentarily stricken. “I hacked into your computer.”

“The password wasn’t there to keep you out.”

“You e-mailed her from Biarritz every single day. While you…While we…”

Reed remembered full well what they’d done in Biarritz. “Did you read them?”

Elizabeth shook her head.

He reached for her hand, but she jerked away.

“I’m being blackmailed, Elizabeth.”

“Because you’re having an affair?”

Reed clamped his jaw and counted to ten. “Let’s sit down.”

She set her lips in a mulish line.

“Do you want to know the truth?”

She blinked rapidly. “I want to know the truth. I need to know the truth. Don’t lie to me anymore. Please, Reed. I couldn’t stand it.”

His heart contracted, but this time when he reached for her hand, she let him take it. He led her to the living room, to the wingback chairs in the bay window where they’d be facing each other.

“I’m being blackmailed,” he began. “Last month, I got a letter demanding ten million dollars or ‘the world will learn the dirty secret of how the Wellingtons make their money.’ I ignored it. Then the SEC investigation started, and we realized it was connected to the blackmail. We also realized that my blackmail could be connected with Trent and with Julia and-here’s the biggest problem-the police can’t rule out that Marie Endicott’s death wasn’t a murder and wasn’t connected to the blackmails.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Elizabeth’s voice was small.

“I didn’t want to worry you. You were trying to conceive.”

“How could you not tell me?”

“There was nothing you could do.”

“I could have given you moral support.”

“Yeah. Right.”

Her expression turned thunderous, and she started to stand.

“I meant, I’m man enough not to burden my wife with my problems.”

“So you burdened Selina instead.”

“Yes. And Collin and Trent and the New York State Police Department.”

“But not me.”

“Elizabeth.”

“I’m not made of spun glass, Reed.”

“We were trying to get pregnant. The party was taking a lot of your time. Then the SEC thing hit, and there was Lucas. And I didn’t think you needed to know there could also be a murderer on the loose. Dr. Wendell specifically said no stress. A murderer is stress, no matter how you slice it.”

“So you hired Joe.”

“Selina hired Joe.”

Elizabeth shook her head sadly. “Let me make sure I’ve got the picture. You’re not sleeping with Selina.”

Thank goodness she finally got that part right. “I’m not sleeping with Selina.”

“You’re sleeping with me.”

“As often as humanly possible.”

She didn’t smile, and he regretted making the weak joke.

“With Selina, you’re sharing your troubles, your fears, your aspirations and your secrets.”

Reed wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“And while we were in France, you were tying me to the bedposts-”

“-I never really-”

“-while discussing the weighty matters of our personal lives, our marriage and our future with her.” Elizabeth’s voice rose to a fever pitch. “You know what I think, Reed?”

He was afraid to ask.

“I think you’re married to Selina and having a fling with me.” She rocketed out of her chair.

He jumped up. “That is completely unfair. Completely.”

Elizabeth turned on him. “I bet you spend more hours in a day with her than with me. And is there anything about you she doesn’t know? She’s chasing down a murderer, so I bet you have to give her all the details.”

“You’re bastardizing-”

“Do you lie to her about where you are? Who you’re with?”

“Will you please settle-”

“I don’t just want to share your bed, Reed. I need more than the few minutes you can spare around your other obligations. I need more than the scraps of information you deem safe to share with me. I need you, Reed. I need to share your life.

“You are sharing my-”

“This isn’t a marriage. You and I have none of the fundamental pieces that couples need to build a life together. Yeah, we’re good in bed. You can completely push my buttons. I even liked the silk scarf thing. But I need more. I need all of you. I cannot, I will not play second fiddle to your ‘professionals.’

“I’m going to finish packing, Reed. Then Lucas and I are leaving.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, we are. And you can’t stop us.”

“I’m leaving,” Reed said in a low, firm growl. “It’s nearly midnight. You are not going to drag a baby out of bed and cart him off to a hotel in the middle of the night. I’ll leave. You two stay here.”

He didn’t wait for her answer, simply headed for the door and left the penthouse. He had no other option. If she’d made up her mind, she’d made up her mind. He’d been the best husband he knew how, and if that wasn’t good enough, the only thing left to do was step aside.

Elizabeth had just settled Lucas in his baby swing when Hanna arrived at noon the next day. “All I can say,” she purred as the door clicked shut behind her, “is that Joe Germain sure knows how to take care of a girl’s body.”

“Good night?” Elizabeth asked, feeling exhausted from her own sleepless hours of tossing and turning. She knew in her soul that things couldn’t continue with Reed, but she missed him desperately, especially in their big bed.

When she thought about the fact that he’d never be there again, that his strong arms would never wrap around her, that she’d never feel the satisfying, naked weight of him on top of her ever again, she wanted to collapse in a heap and cry her eyes out.

Hanna, however, was smiling. “Joe is the sexiest, toughest, most inventive man on the planet.”

Elizabeth tried for a smile. “I never would have put you two-” She swallowed. “I never would have-”

“Lizzy?” Hanna peered into her eyes, concern growing on her face. “What the hell?”

As Elizabeth felt a fresh rush of tears, Hanna helped her to the couch, sitting down next to her and curling up her jean-clad legs. “What happened? The Vances? Lucas?”

Elizabeth shook her head. Her throat was raw and her chest felt like it was being squeezed by a giant rubber band. “Reed,” she managed.

“The SEC thing?”

“I don’t understand.”

Elizabeth forced her emotions under control. She had to stop this. It was what it was, and no amount of crying would change that. “Reed and I split up last night.”

“He was not having an affair. I know this.”

“He might as well have been. He won’t share his life with me, Hanna. The man was being blackmailed for ten million dollars, and he never even mentioned it. But to her-” Elizabeth’s voice shook. “With her, it’s a dozen e-mails a day.”

“Like online sex?”

“Like online life. To me, he lies, he evades, he protects. She gets his hopes, his fears, his dreams. I want that,” she said, stabbing her thumb against her chest.

Hanna cocked her head. “But he’s not sleeping with her.”

“No.”

“And he is sleeping with you?”

“Was.”

“And there’s no way to fix the other? I mean, now that you know about the blackmail…”

“There’ll be something else. Something else he worries will upset me, things he needs to keep secret for my own good. He’s got this unbelievable protective streak, and he absolutely refuses to treat me like an adult. I could help. I could have helped.”

“With the blackmail threat?”

“Yes.”

“Yes. Well, of course. Because with your extensive experience with criminal investigative techniques, and your training in hand-to-hand combat…”

“You sound like Joe.”

“Have you tried to talk to Reed?”

“Until I’m blue in the face.” But nothing convinced Reed to let her in. If she couldn’t get in, she couldn’t be his wife.

“Do you still love him?” Hanna asked softly.

The tears that had dried up threatened again. “It’s not like an on/off switch.”

“I’m telling you,” Reed said, rising to his feet and raising his voice so that Collin would get the point. “It’s over. I left her at her request.”

“And I’m telling you,” Collin replied, “it can’t be over for three more weeks.”

“It’s not like I won’t support her. She can have anything she wants.”

“That’s not the point, and you know it.”

Reed did know it. He simply didn’t want to accept it. “To make her happy, I have to stay away.”

“To protect her, you have to go back.” Collin dropped back down in the guest chair. “The judge will want to see an intact family. You want Elizabeth to keep Lucas? You put your ass back in that penthouse and keep it there until the court case is over.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” said Reed, trying to imagine Elizabeth’s reaction if he showed up at the front door. “You don’t understand. You’ve never been married.”

“I’m not giving you marital advice,” said Collin. “I’m giving you legal advice. Sleep on the couch. Eat at restaurants. You work eighteen hours a day anyway. It’s not like you’ll have to see each other.”

Collin’s accusation came too close to one of Elizabeth’s complaints for Reed’s taste.

“I don’t work eighteen hours a day.”

Collin snorted. “How many times last month did you have business dinners?”

Reed scanned back in his mind. “A few.”

“Seventeen, to be exact. Devon showed me your schedule.”

“Seventeen?” Reed turned the number over in his brain. Add to that his Chamber of Commerce functions, the two nights he gave speeches, and a couple of business trips to Chicago, and it started to add up.

He tried to picture his last dinner with Elizabeth. They’d eaten together at the anniversary party, of course. But he’d dealt with a flurry of problems while she danced with other men.

“Let me make one thing perfectly clear,” said Collin. “I have absolutely no designs on your wife.” He paused while Reed’s eyes narrowed. “But I’m glad she did it. If I was her, I’d have left you a long time ago.”

“Wellington International doesn’t run itself,” Reed pointed out. He didn’t attend business dinners because he’d rather be there than at home. They were important. They were necessary. Particularly when you were dealing with out-of-town guests or other cultures, the social aspect could make or break a deal.

“Don’t you think I know that?”

“So, what’s your solution?”

“My solution is to stay single.”

Reed dropped back into his chair. “Looks like I’m about to do the same thing.”

“But not for three weeks.”

“Right,” Reed reluctantly agreed. For Elizabeth, for Lucas, he’d be a man about it. She was going to resist. But he’d make her understand it was for her own good.

The last person Elizabeth expected to knock on her front door was Reed. It was surreal for him not to use his key. Plus, she’d been picturing him in her mind for so many hours, it was almost a shock to see him in person. Frustratingly, her heart gave a little lift. She squelched it.

He made no move to come in.

“Sorry to disturb you,” he said instead, sounding formal even for Reed.

“No problem,” she managed. “Lucas just went down for a nap.”

Reed nodded. “I…uh…”

Did he need something? His clothes? Elizabeth struggled for the right way to behave.

“Can we talk?” he asked, looking very serious.

Her heart did the little lift thing again. “Sure.”

She stood to one side and motioned him in, telling herself that nothing had changed. She could not, would not let him sweet-talk her into trying again.

He walked through the doorway and dropped his keys in their usual spot on the table. There was something about the unconscious act that tightened her chest and clogged her throat.

“What did you want to talk about?” She knew her only hope was to get this visit over with quickly. The pain of having him here was too intense, and she knew she was in for a fresh crying jag after he left.

As long as she could make it that far…

She sat down at one end of the sofa.

“I’ve been talking to Collin,” Reed began. “He thinks…well, for Lucas…” He paced to the bay window.

Her stomach hollowed out. Reed wasn’t going to fight her for Lucas. Please God, not that.

He didn’t meet her eyes. “For the sake of Lucas, and the court case, and to maximize our changes of defending ourselves against the Vances, we should stay together until custody is settled. Three weeks.”

Elizabeth was speechless.

Reed, here? Them, together, but not?

Reed slowly turned to look at her. “Elizabeth?”

“I…” she tried. How could she do it? How could she possibly see him every day while she was trying to get over him? It would be horrible, painful, impossible.

“I can’t,” she managed, her voice cracking.

His jaw clenched. “I know. That’s what I said to Collin.”

So, Reed had already refused. That was good. They’d find another way. A way that didn’t require her heart to be shredded for twenty-one long days.

His blue eyes turned flat with determination. “But we have to.”

A small whimper escaped from her, and she shook her head.

He crossed back to her, coming down on one knee. “If we separate, it gives the Vances exactly what they need. Their lawyer will use it to destroy our case. It puts Lucas at risk, Elizabeth.”

She closed her eyes, fear and despair roiling within her. She wanted to throw herself into Reed’s arms. She wanted his soothing voice to assure her that everything would be okay.

But he couldn’t. And he never would again. She was on her own this time, and she had to be strong for Lucas. Her nephew, and her brother’s last wishes were all that mattered now.

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” Reed offered. Since they’d set up the nursery, there was no spare bedroom.

“I can sleep on the couch,” she croaked out, realizing the words told him she’d given in. Not that there was a choice. Logic told her that Collin was right. How could they present the better environment for Lucas if they were in the middle of a divorce?

Reed was shaking his head. “You need your sleep. You have a baby to take care of.”

“And you don’t?” She found an ounce of strength somewhere to argue with him. “You have a corporation to run, criminal charges to defend against, and a blackmailer on your trail.”

Reed unexpectedly gave a dark chuckle. “We’re fairly pathetic, aren’t we?”

She frowned. It was way too soon for humor.

“Sorry.” His hand moved toward her face. He was going to brush her hair from her cheek, like he’d done a thousand, maybe a million times before. But he checked himself just in time. “I’m going back to the office. I’ll probably be late.”

Elizabeth watched him leave. The door swung shut behind him. The silence closed in around her. And the horrible feeling that she had made a terrible mistake by leaving him pounded relentlessly through her brain.

She didn’t move until Lucas cried from the nursery.

Then she dug deep and found a smile for the baby, changed him, gave him his bottle and a handful of dry cereal. Together they built a block tower on the living room floor and watched a cartoon movie.

Rena took weekends off, so Elizabeth cleaned up after Lucas. By the time she gave him a bath, tucked him in, did his small load of laundry, and made up his bottles for the morning, she was dead on her feet.

After changing into a nightgown she settled down with a comforter on the sofa. Despite Reed’s protests, she would sleep out here. It was less lonely than the bed.

She stared at the city light pattern on the high ceiling, telling herself she’d had no choice but to separate from Reed. Sharing such a minuscule portion of his life was worse than sharing none of it at all.

When his key turned in the lock, she closed her eyes, pretending to sleep.

She knew the exact second he spotted her. His footsteps froze, and he took a sharp breath. Then he moved to the side of the sofa.

“Elizabeth?”

She didn’t answer.

“I know you’re awake.”

How could he possibly know that?

She heard him crouch down beside her.

Astonishingly, there was a trace of humor in his voice. “When you’re asleep, you snore.”

Her eyes opened. “I do not.”

“It’s very quiet, and very ladylike, but you definitely snore.”

“You are lying.”

He gazed the length of her body under the comforter. “What are you doing, Elizabeth?”

“Sleeping.”

“My wife’s not sleeping on the couch.”

She struggled up onto her elbows. “Well, you’re way too tall. I barely fit.”

They both stared at each other in defiance.

“We have to share the bed,” he finally stated.

“We can’t share the bed.”

“It’s a big bed. I’ll stay on my side, you stay on yours.”

She gave her head an adamant shake. “That’s crazy.”

“Is there anything about this situation that’s not crazy?”

She couldn’t come up with an immediate answer.

His arms swept under her shoulders and knees.

“Reed!”

He lifted her. “You need your sleep. I need mine. And there’s only one way to get it.” He started for the bedroom.

His arms felt too good around her. His body felt too good against her. She had to fight to keep from melting into his strength. Twenty feet, ten, five, finally.

He stopped at the edge of the bed. He didn’t immediately put her down, but stared into her eyes for a long moment, making her want all the things she couldn’t have.

“Sleep well,” he finally murmured then laid her gently down on the comforter.

Within seconds, he’d disappeared into the en suite. The fan began to whirr, and the water drummed against the floor of the shower.

Elizabeth buried her head firmly in her pillow and sobbed in utter frustration.