Bachelor Untamed - Brenda Jackson [68]
It might have been the reason she’d agreed to an affair with him, but it hadn’t been the reason she had fallen in love with him.
Chapter 18
“Have a nice weekend, Mr. Lassiter.”
Uriel paused and glanced over his shoulder at his administrative assistant. “Thank you, Karen, and I hope you do the same.”
“Are you headed out to your lake place for the Labor Day weekend?” Karen asked, and smiled as he grabbed his briefcase off his desk.
“No. I plan to have a quiet weekend at home.”
He quickly left the office, not wanting to engage in any further conversation with Karen, or anyone else for that matter. He’d already seen his father before he’d left for the day. His father had made plans to fly to New York and visit with York and his parents.
Due to the holiday traffic on the road, it took Uriel longer than usual to get home. Normally, he would drop by the Racetrack Café and have a couple of beers with Donovan, Xavier and Bronson. But Bronson was racing this weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the guys had gone to Atlanta to give him their support. Uriel thought about going, but had changed his mind. He much preferred being by himself this weekend. Now he knew how his father must have felt. It had been two weeks, and the pain hadn’t eased any.
Donovan had accused him of being stubborn and had tried encouraging him to call Ellie, and listen to her—to let her explain her side of things. Donovan had shared with him the mistake he’d made in jumping to conclusions with Natalie. But Uriel’s heart had hardened more at the thought of even talking to Ellie.
He let himself inside his home, and again noticed how lonely it seemed. He went into his bedroom, tossed his suit jacket on the bed and decided to slip into a pair of jeans and T-shirt before ordering take-out. Then he intended to spend the rest of the evening, probably the entire weekend, with ESPN.
He was stretched out on the sofa, watching the NFL preseason highlights, when he heard the sound of his doorbell. Thinking it was the pizza delivery man, he grabbed the twenty-dollar bill off the table and walked to the door in his bare feet and opened it.
Instead of the pizza man, Ellie stood there. He had to blink to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, and then, with the anger he hadn’t manage to cap, said in a cold tone, “What the hell are you doing here?”
Ellie dragged in a deep breath as she gazed into Uriel’s eyes. Two weeks hadn’t softened them any. They were just as cold as that day he had left Cavanaugh Lake. But she couldn’t let that stop her from doing what she needed to do. What she had to do. It would be the same thing Tamara had had to force Grant to do: to listen to her reasons for doing what she’d done, and make him believe, no matter what or how long it took, that every time he had touched her, had made love to her, she had loved him.
And before she left, she would make Uriel face up to the fact that he loved her, too. She truly believed it, and it had taken finishing her aunt’s manuscript to realize it. She was not dealing with make-believe, but hard, cold reality. And no man would have handled her the way he had unless he had loved her. She believed that. Once they got their love out in the open, they would be able to handle the rest. The man standing in front of her was her destiny. Now she had to convince him of that.
“I asked what you are doing here, Ellie.”
“We need to talk.” Before he realized what she was about to do, she slipped past him and walked into his house. She didn’t turn around until she was in the middle of his living room, and when she did, the shocked look on his face almost endeared him to her.
“You weren’t invited inside my house,” he said, slamming the door shut.
“Then put me out,” she challenged, knowing he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t come close to her. He wouldn’t touch her. He was so much like Grant Hatteras that her heart ached. That’s why the last two chapters had come