Twice the Trouble Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Praise for THE CHIEF’S PROPOSAL

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Epilogue

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  Twice the Trouble

  by

  Sandra Dailey

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Twice the Trouble

  COPYRIGHT © 2013 by Sandra Dailey

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Debbie Taylor

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Champagne Rose Edition, 2013

  Digital ISBN 978-1-61217-798-4

  Published in the United States of America

  Praise for THE CHIEF’S PROPOSAL

  “I quite liked these two [characters], with their differing goals and motivations, along with a load of conflicts that they need each other to resolve. There are also a few deliciously bad villains. Dailey is a good writer, and her characterizations are excellent. THE CHIEF’S PROPOSAL is a very nice love story with a few twists that you will surely enjoy.”

  ~Alberta, Manic Readers Review

  ~*~

  “Who would have known that an eagle and a dove would make a perfect match? THE CHIEF'S PROPOSAL is well written and it flows well. Believe me that 204 pages went by so quickly that when I got to the epilogue, it felt that I had just started reading the book. I highly recommend this romantic and giddy story with a great plot for anyone in need of a quick romantic read.”

  ~Cozyreader, The Romantic Reviews

  ~*~

  THE CHIEF’S PROPOSAL

  is available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  Dedication

  I dedicate this book to my husband Lee.

  Without his love, support, inspiration, patience, housekeeping, cooking, and comedy relief,

  it would never have been written.

  Chapter One

  “Mr. Benson, a young lady just arrived. She says she needs to speak to you urgently.”

  Damn, just when it looked like he might finally get home early on a Friday afternoon. Visions of a cold bottle of beer and a juicy steak had been teasing him all day.

  Alex held down the intercom button. “I don’t see any appointments on my calendar, Mary Ann. Did she say what this is about?”

  “No sir,” Mary Ann answered over the intercom. “But she seems really desperate. I’ve got a feeling about her.”

  If there was one thing Alex had learned not to ignore, it was Mary Ann’s instincts. Sometimes he thought she must be clairvoyant. That’s how she’d moved into the position as his personal assistant so quickly. She could read people at a glance.

  “Well, okay then.” He picked up his pen and opened his schedule book. “What’s the lady’s name?”

  “It’s Ms. Carlyle,” Mary Ann replied.

  “Pardon me, could you repeat that?” His heart thumped double-time in his tight chest.

  “I said Carlyle sir, Ms. Carlyle. Do you want me to get more information?”

  “No, that’s all right. Send her in.”

  Alex turned his leather chair around to face the Orlando skyline. It wasn’t the rooftops that he saw in the glaring afternoon sun, but the small lake in his memory. He recalled the sparkling beads of water that splashed around Lacey Carlyle’s feet as she swung them off the end of the pier. Her long copper hair flashed like flames around her shoulders. A light sprinkling of freckles covered her straight delicate nose. Her eyes were the color of robin eggs and her soft coral lips invited long, deep kisses.

  He cursed the mention of the name Carlyle, but he would have thought about Lacey before the day was over in any case. He thought about her every day. He thought about the way she’d made him feel as though he could fly without wings. Then he’d remember the way her betrayal had felt, as if he’d crashed to the ground, broken and bleeding. He’d been such an idiot to get involved with her, immature and naive.

  What would he do if Lacey Carlyle were to walk through his door one day? He’d show her he wasn’t a young, tenderhearted boy anymore. He was in control of his life. Hell, he was in control of his world. He’d make her stand accountable for the way she’d destroyed his dreams.

  Alex rubbed his right hand up and down the long, left sleeve of his starched, white dress shirt. It was a habit he had now whenever he became agitated. Damn Lacey Carlyle.

  ****

  It had taken Lacey a week to track down the address for East Coast Land Development’s corporate office. By sheer luck, it was only a couple of hours from her home. Now, she stood outside the solid oak door of the president and CEO. She stared at the brass nameplate at the side of the door. A. J. Benson. This had to be a bad omen. Never mind that she’d driven two hours to find him, if she weren’t so desperate, she’d turn around and leave.

  The name Benson was common, but always succeeded in bringing back memories of his broken promises and the pain of her broken heart. It had been thirteen years since she’d seen Alex, but the pain was still fresh. She took a deep breath. This was no time for a trip down memory lane. Lacey gathered her courage and knocked on the door.

  A deep masculine voice came from inside. “Come in.”

  Lacey stepped into the large office and was awed by the floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the city. The only things obstructing her view was a wide mahogany desk and the back of a tall, brown leather chair. The chair turned slowly to face her.

  Gazing into familiar, jade green eyes, Lacey’s throat and chest tightened painfully. Three thoughts occurred to her simultaneously. One, she had never loved any man more than this one. A thrill ran down her spine at the sight of him. Two, no one had ever hurt her the way he had. A chill ran up the nape of her neck. And three, this couldn’t be happening. Could he possibly be the one responsible for the disaster her life had become? Why wouldn’t he be? He’d upended her life once before.

  Suddenly the sensation of spinning overtook her and there wasn’t anything within her reach to grab hold of. The moment her legs collapsed, his hands tightened around her upper arms and guided her onto a nearby sofa. How had he reached her so quickly? Had time stood
still for that moment?

  Neither of them spoke right away. Lacey couldn’t pull her eyes from him. It was like seeing a ghost. But he wasn’t a ghost. He was a demon from her past.

  She took note of how he had changed. His jaw was harder under a neatly trimmed beard. His neck was thicker and blended into wide, strong shoulders. The long, lanky body he’d had as a teen had matured into a fuller, more muscular build. He’d traded his T-shirts and blue jeans for a crisp white dress shirt, silk tie, and charcoal slacks. His chestnut curls had been clipped into a short, professional style. But his eyes were the same. She’d never forget his eyes. She couldn’t. Was this some kind of cruel joke her mind was playing?

  “What are you doing here, Lacey?”

  No hello? No how are you? No are you all right after nearly fainting in the middle of my office? Lacey took immediate offence at the question, delivered with a stern expression. Who was he, to speak to her that way after what she’d been through? Still, it took another moment for her to gather her thoughts. She’d almost forgotten why she was there.

  “I need to speak to you about the property you purchased.” It was a struggle to regain her composure.

  Alex walked to a small bar in the corner and opened a refrigerator that was concealed there. He removed two bottles of water. “I own property all the way up the eastern seaboard. That’s what I do. I buy land, develop it, and sell it for a profit. I’m not intimately familiar with every parcel.”

  “You know exactly what property I’m talking about, Alex, the property in Indian Lakes-my property.”

  One at a time, Alex twisted the caps off the bottles and placed them on the bar. “I beg to disagree, Lacey. If I bought the land, it belongs to me. It doesn’t even touch your grandfather’s place. I made sure of that.”

  So, he hadn’t completely forgotten her. Lacey’s spine straightened and her chin tilted up. “I don’t live with my grandfather. I’ve leased that land on the east shore for eight years. I was supposed to have first chance at it, when it came up for sale. I didn’t have the funding together before you snatched it up.”

  Lacey watched his eyes scan down her worn blouse and old denim skirt. She was painfully aware of how outdated, worn out and cheap they were. They may have been bought at the Goodwill store, but it had been so long ago, she couldn’t remember. The way his brow cocked arrogantly made her want to slap his face.

  “Do you have the funding now, Lacey?”

  She looked back at the windows to avoid Alex’s gaze. “Not quite, but I’m working on it.”

  Alex slid into a chair to her left and passed her one of the water bottles. “I was told there was an old farmhouse on that land, but I wasn’t aware it was being rented out.”

  Lacey heard the annoyance in his voice and believed him. “The plan is to divide the place into two-acre lots. Ranchettes are popular now. It would be more affordable for you to just buy the lot you’re currently living on. Maybe I could even get you a good deal for…old-time’s sake.”

  Panic rose in Lacey’s stomach like a battalion of butterflies. “It’s not just an old house, it’s my home! I have twenty head of cattle, two-dozen pigs, three horses, and two border collies. I can’t keep all of them on two acres. My vegetable garden is larger than that. I need the whole place! It’s how I make a living!” Lacey stood and started to pace the floor in front of the desk. “All I need is a little time. Given another month or so, I know I can put together the money to pay what you gave for it.”

  “I’ve already made you my best offer, Lacey,” Alex countered. “This is business, nothing personal about it. I already have interested investors. I don’t make money by waiting for maybes.”

  “You sure as hell didn’t mind keeping me waiting,” Lacey blurted. “I waited for you for such a long time before I had to move on. Now you’re turning my life upside down again. What did I do to make you hate me this much? Not a word from you in thirteen years. Now I stand to lose everything, because of you. Why are you doing this to me, Alex?”

  Alex’s jaws hardened and his face turned an angry shade of red. “How can you say that? I wrote to you two, sometimes three times a week. I didn’t quit writing until my letters started coming back unopened. You’re the one that walked away, not me.”

  “That’s a lie,” Lacey retorted.

  Neither of them realized that they were shouting until Mary Ann tapped on the door and cracked it open to look inside. “Is everything all right in here?” she asked.

  “Yes, everything is fine,” Alex said in a calm voice. “I think I’ll knock off early today. Why don’t you go on home? Have a nice weekend with your family.”

  The woman nervously chewed her bottom lip as she looked back and forth between them.

  “I’ll see Ms. Carlyle out as I leave,” Alex assured her.

  After she’d closed the door, Alex removed the jacket of his suit from a coat rack by the door. He slid his left arm into the sleeve, but when he pulled the jacket around to push his right arm through, the left sleeve drew back to reveal the scars covering his wrist and the back of his hand.

  Lacey gasped. She was embarrassed by her reaction and quickly tried to explain. “Several months after you left, I heard you’d been hurt in an accident. By that time, your parents had moved away and I couldn’t find out what had happened. I didn’t even know if you were still alive.”

  Alex straightened his jacket and tugged his sleeve back in place. “What does it matter now? If you had wanted to be in touch with me, if you truly hadn’t received my letters, you still could have gotten my address from my parents. They stayed on Indian Lakes for the first few months after I left.”

  “I couldn’t talk to your parents. They felt I was to blame for you giving up your plans for college and going into the Navy. As more time went by without word from you, I figured you regretted that decision and blamed me too. It might surprise you to know that I’ve also made sacrifices.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Alex sneered. “We both made sacrifices. You gave up your virginity and I gave up my freedom for a few years because of it. Sounds fair to me.”

  “You did what you wanted to do. I didn’t want you to go. If you’ll recall, I begged you to stay.”

  Alex grabbed his car keys and wallet from his desk drawer and slammed it shut. “And then you didn’t want me to come back. Isn’t that why I never heard from you?”

  “Don’t expect me to feel sorry for you.” Lacey spread her arms and turned in a circle to indicate the entire room, maybe the entire world. “You have it all, Alex. What more could you possibly want?”

  Alex’s face turned to cold stone. He was silent for several seconds. “I need to get out of here,” he finally said. “Take a ride with me.”

  “Why should I go anywhere with you?” Lacey asked.

  “The more important questions are, how badly do you want that land, and what are you willing to do to keep it?”

  Chapter Two

  The heat radiated off the asphalt in waves and, even though the inside of his BMW was air conditioned, the blood in Alex’s veins simmered. His body acted like a divining rod to Lacey still. He needed to get himself under control.

  How dare she accuse him of leaving her behind? She had no idea how desperately he’d wanted her, needed her, during the worst, most lonely, and painful time of his life.

  So, she thought he had it all, couldn’t want more. Well, he could want a hell of a lot more. He was a man who took what he wanted without apology. She’d soon find that out. He might be making the biggest mistake of his life, but she’d be the one to suffer this time. He’d tie her down, and then walk away, just the way she’d accused him. This time their parting would be on his terms.

  He didn’t have the need for a woman like he had as a boy, but he knew how to make a woman want him. He’d fill her with desire in every way possible. Then he’d walk. That’s all he would need to put the memory of her behind him once and for all.

  He’d resisted glancing at Lacey for as long as
he could. She had barely changed over the last thirteen years. Her hair had been cut into a soft angle that didn’t quite touch her shoulders, but it was still the color of a bright, new penny. Her makeup was light and natural. The freckles on her nose were still evident. Her eyes were the same clear, aqua blue. And her soft lips were the thing fantasies were made from.

  How many men had acted out their fantasies with her? It shouldn’t matter; he’d had other women but it did, and the thought made his blood hit the boiling point. If he didn’t distract himself, he’d wreck his car.

  “I noticed you still use your maiden name. Didn’t you ever get married?”

  The sudden question seemed to startle Lacey and she blinked a few times. “Some women keep their maiden names and some take them back after a divorce.”

  Evasive, he should have expected as much. A sneer touched the corner of his lips. “So, which are you, Lacey, the modern bride or the bitter divorcée?”

  “Neither,” she admitted.

  “You’ve never married then?”

  “I could have. I simply chose not to.”

  “I’m not surprised. Was I the first on a list of discarded lovers?” Was that a look of regret on her pretty face? Surely not. She’d made her choice.

  After a moment of silence, Lacey returned his question, “What about you, Alex? Is there a Mrs. Benson somewhere, past or present?”

  “Nope, never married,” Alex replied. “Women tell me I have trust issues. Can you imagine that?”

  Alex was still curious. “Is there anyone special in your life now, a fiancé, a boyfriend, a girlfriend?”