One Season And Dynasties Collection

She shrugged. “I guess it’s just a painter’s eye. And at my own wed—”

Ethan’s phone rang. He lifted one finger to signal to Holly to hold that thought while he took the call. “Yes, Nathan?”

Holly’s cheeks turned pink. She bit her lip.

Something he wouldn’t mind doing.

Sweetheart. He’d accidentally called her sweetheart.

“Schedule me for a late lunch with him next Tuesday at that restaurant he likes on Jane Street. Thank you.” He turned his attention back to Holly, “Sorry—what were you saying?”

“Oh. Um... Just that Priya says the tech crew are here if you’re ready to go to the podium.”

“Come with me.”

He took her hand. After taking the few stairs from the ballroom floor up to the stage, Ethan and Holly turned to face the empty event space. Tomorrow night Benton Worldwide Properties would once again fête many of their shareholders with an evening of appreciation. Close to a thousand people—some from nearby, others who had traveled far—would fill this grand room for the annual event.

Holly whistled. “What a breathtaking location for a dinner.” She pointed to the large gold wall sculptures that circled the back of the room. “Those give the idea of waves in an ocean, don’t they?”

Ethan surveyed the familiar surroundings. “The burgundy carpeting is new this year. It used to be a lighter color. That is about the only change I have noticed.”

“You hold the dinner here every year?”

“We have been using this room for as long as I can remember. These galas are as ingrained into my family as birthdays and Christmas are to others.”

This year’s event wouldn’t be a run-of-the-mill evening, though, when his and Holly’s engagement was to be announced.

Holly gestured with her head toward the podium on the stage. “Will you be giving a speech?”

“The baton will pass to me next year,” he said. Uncle Mel had always given the speech and, after he died Aunt Louise had taken over the duty. “Only a few of us know that this is the last time Aunt Louise will deliver the CEO’s report.”

Louise’s retirement wouldn’t be revealed at the gala. Ethan and his aunt had decided that the first step in her exit strategy would be to introduce his fiancée. That would cause enough pandemonium for one evening.

Shareholders could be tricky. They didn’t like too many changes all at once. Benton Worldwide had already made them a lot of money by sticking to the original principles Uncle Melvin and Ethan’s father had established when they’d started the company with one small apartment building in roughneck South Boston.

So only the engagement announcement would come at the gala. In a month, they’d inform the shareholders in writing that Louise Benton was retiring after a distinguished career. A month after that they’d throw a splashy retirement party.

Tomorrow night would belong to him and Holly Motta. In addition to their proclamation to the shareholders, a press release would notify the world that Ethan Benton had finally chosen a bride. Photos of them would appear in the business sections of newspapers and websites across the planet.

Ethan peered at Holly by his side on the stage. Sudden terror gripped him. What if this masquerade was too risky? This pretty young woman appeared to be genuine and of good will. But what if she wasn’t? What if she was like every other woman he’d ever met? Deceptive. Manipulative. Out for herself.

He’d only met her a few days ago, for heaven’s sake. It wasn’t long enough to put her intentions to the test. And he still didn’t know much about her other than what she’d chosen to disclose. Hopefully his head of security, Chip Foley, would get back to him soon with any information he had found. If there was something he didn’t want exposed he’d need to figure out how to bury it so that the press didn’t have a field-day.

Doubt coursed through him. What if Holly simply wasn’t as capable a performer as he’d hired her to be? Maybe she’d crack under the spotlight and the attention. Confess that this was all a set-up, causing Benton Worldwide embarrassment and loss of credibility.

His mind whirled. What had he been thinking? In his haste to plan Aunt Louise’s departure from public life before her medical condition diminished her position of respect, Ethan had made an uncharacteristically rash decision. If it was the wrong one his family would pay dearly for it for the rest of their lives.

However, there was no choice now but to take a leap of faith.

“Are you ready for this?” He took Holly’s hand, as he would tomorrow. Her fingers were supple and comforting, and immediately slowed his breath.

“I may faint afterward, but I promise to put on a show,” she answered amiably, lacing her fingers in his.

“Imagine every table filled with people in tuxedos and evening gowns. Staring at you.”

Her shoulders lifted in a chuckle. “Gee, no pressure there!”

Her humor reassured him that she could pull this off. She wouldn’t have agreed to it if she didn’t know in her heart that she could handle it. And she’d done fine on the yacht last night.

Aunt Louise wanted this one thing for Ethan before she stepped away and let him officially run the company. He was determined to give it to her.

An astute woman, his aunt knew that Ethan’s constant travel was to avoid settling down. He didn’t have any sustained commitments outside of work. Hardly had a base other than his rarely visited corporate flat near their headquarters in Boston. He dated women—and then he didn’t. He spent months alone on a boat. Socialized, then disappeared into a foreign country. He was free. There was nothing to tie him down. He could do whatever he wanted, go wherever he pleased. And he did.

His aunt believed that a fulfilled life took place on terra firma. She wanted him to find a home. A home that would shelter him from the topsy-turvy world of highs and lows, change and disappointment.

Home wasn’t a place.

Home was love.

An all-encompassing love that he could count on. That could count on him. That made life worth living day after day. Year after year.

Because of Holly, Ethan had now had a glimpse into what it might be like to coexist with someone. Like he had last night on the Liberty cruise, easily sharing his thoughts and plans and hopes.

But he would stay firm in his resolve to go it alone.

And that was that.

That was his fate.

That was his destiny.

So he’d give Holly to his aunt as a retirement gift. Deliver her on a silver platter. Let the one woman who had ever been good to him hold the belief she most wanted.

But Ethan would not forget the truth.

“Mr. Benton?” A voice boomed from a dark corner of the ballroom. “We’d like to do a sound-check from the podium, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Of course,” Ethan said to the unseen technician.

Still clutching Holly’s hand, he led her to the side of the stage before they parted. His fingers were reluctant to let go. Yet he dutifully took his place at the lectern and adjusted the microphone. Substituting for Aunt Louise, who would be introduced tomorrow to deliver her speech.

“Thank you for joining us this evening at Benton Worldwide Properties’ annual shareholders’ gala. We are so delighted you are here... Test, test. Test. Testing...”

Ethan dummied through as the technician made adjustments to the sound system.

“Without our shareholders we would not have experienced the global development... Hello, hello. You give us the inspiration... Thank you, thank you. Testing one, two, three.”

He turned to wink at Holly. She grinned in response.

“Thank you, Mr. Benton,” the technician called out. “Now we’d like to run the video, if you’d like to watch and okay?”

“Will do.”

Ethan escorted Holly back down the steps to one of the tables. They took their seats as a screen was lowered from above the stage.

“Hey, do we get to sample the food?” Holly asked. “Quality control?”

“No, that is one department Fernando is actually handling. He was here earlier, approving everything with the chefs, before he went to attend to Aunt Louise.”

“Rats!” She snapped her fingers, cute as could be.

Which made him want to kiss her.

Which was more irrational thinking he’d need to get a handle on.

Kissing was only for show, when people were watching. No more recreational kissing. The Empire State Building kissing shouldn’t have happened. Where he’d thought he might have been able to keep kissing Holly until the end of the world.

His body quirked even now, remembering.

He locked his attention on the screen as the presentation began with a graphic of the company logo and some sprightly music. A slick narrator’s voice explained a montage of all the Benton Worldwide projects that had been started or completed during the past year.

In another montage employees were shown holding babies, celebrating their children’s college graduations, tossing a football at company picnics.

A historical section flashed older photos—one of Uncle Mel and Ethan’s father, Joseph, holding shovels at a groundbreaking ceremony.

“That is my dad.” Ethan pointed. His heart pinged as the image quickly gave way to the next photo. Joseph had died when he was nine. Twenty-five years ago. “I do not remember much about him anymore,” he admitted.

Holly put a hand on his shoulder. He prickled, but didn’t pull away despite his automatic itch to do so.

“Tell me one thing you do remember about him.”

“That photo shows him in a suit. I can only think of him in a casual work shirt. Uncle Mel was the businessman. My father was always at the construction sites.”

One glimpse of memory Ethan did have of his father was of when he’d come home from work at night. He’d greet Ethan and then head straight to the shower to wash off his honest day’s work.

His mother was not a part of that picture. She would sequester herself in her private bedroom before Ethan came home from school, and there she’d stay throughout the evening. It had been a nanny who’d tended to Ethan in the afternoon.

Another older photo had clients at a job site, with Joseph in a hard hat on one side of them and Uncle Mel and Aunt Louise on the other side.

“Do you have any pictures that include your mother?”

“Oh, she was in that shot. We had her edited out. We cut her out of every photo.”

Holly tilted her head, not understanding. “Why?”

Now he shook Holly’s hand off his shoulder. He couldn’t take her touch.

“Because we did not want her in any way associated with Benton Worldwide.”

“But why?”

“My father and Uncle Mel worked hard for every dollar they made. They earned it. They deserved it. And they were loyal to the people who were loyal to them. Values my mother cared nothing for.”

Ethan’s blood pressure rose, notifying him to end this conversation. When Holly started to ask another question, his glare shut her down.

Another photo documented him and Aunt Louise in front of a gleaming high-rise building. “Ah, the Peachwood Center in Atlanta. One of my favorites.”

The last photo had Aunt Louise surrounded by ten or so Benton executives in front of their headquarters. Even though in reality Ethan had been running the company since Aunt Louise’s health had begun to fail, he still made sure that she got all the credit and glory.

“Is everything correct on the video, Mr. Benton?” the technician called from the back of the ballroom.

“Yes—thank you.”

“May I trouble you for one more thing, sir? Can I get an okay for sound and lighting on the dance floor?”

Ethan stood and made his way to the polished wooden floor in the center of the ballroom. Fully surrounded by the burgundy carpet and the tables defining the perimeter, the dance floor was its own little world, and it was lit as such with a yellow tint and spotlights beaming down from the ceiling.

“Mr. Benton, we’d like to check the lighting with some movement. Would you be able to find someone to do a quick waltz around the dance floor for me?”

Naturally Ethan gestured to Holly. Stretching out his arm, he beckoned. “So, we dance again.”

Holly stood and navigated between the tables in the empty ballroom to reach Ethan on the dance floor. She envisioned what he had described—how tomorrow night the room would be filled with well-dressed shareholders gaping at her. Not giving in to panic, she reminded herself that she was here to do a job. To supply what she’d offered.

A love ballad suitable for ballroom dancing began from the sound system. Ethan started to dance and Holly’s body fell in line with his.

He’d taught her well last night, and although she didn’t think she could pull off any fancy ballroom dance moves she didn’t trip all over his feet.

The lights were so bright on the dance floor that she could hardly see out to the tables. Which didn’t matter that much because she really only wanted to close her eyes and enjoy the moment. The croon of the singer... Ethan’s sure steps... His rock-sturdy chest...

Dancing with him, she thought they really were a couple—an entity that was larger than the sum of two individuals.

Ah... Her head fit so well underneath his chin as they danced. Being tall, she’d always had a sense of herself as being gawky around Ricky and the other men she had dated. She loved being encompassed by Ethan’s height and width. As they glided across the dance floor, she felt graceful. A fairy princess. A prom queen. The object of attention.

All things she wasn’t.

How would it be tomorrow, with a roomful of guests scrutinizing her? They wouldn’t think she was beautiful enough for a man like Ethan! Everyone would know that she wasn’t pedigreed and educated. They’d wonder why a Benton had settled for someone as ordinary as her.

Although she would be wearing the magnificent sky-blue gown covered in crystals. That gown alone would convince leaders and kings that she was one of them. Her hair and makeup would be professionally done. The smoke and mirrors tricks would be believable.

She’d hobnobbed with the New York elite last night and no one had guessed that she was not of their social standing. They hadn’t known that she’d grown up in a trailer park with an unmarried mother who’d been too drunk to get out of bed half of the time.

Of course at the gala Ethan’s fiancée would be under closer examination.

She tilted her head back to study her hand on Ethan’s shoulder. Just as she had last night, she actually missed wearing the gargantuan diamond ring that labeled her Ethan’s intended. She thought back to the paper ring he had used to propose to her. When he had bent down on one knee with a ring made from a beer bottle label.

And then she flashed back to the shopping spree on Fifth Avenue. To the blue topaz ring she had loved. But Ethan was right, of course. The ring he’d chosen was one befitting the future Mrs. Benton.

Leaning back further, to look up into Ethan’s handsome face, she asked him, “Being in the spotlight doesn’t faze you in the least?”

“I suppose I have always been visible to the shareholders. They watched me grow up.”

“You came to the galas as a child?”

His muscles twitched. “When I was younger I was kept upstairs in a suite with my mother, who hated these evenings. We would come down and make an appearance.”

Holly had noticed that Ethan’s voice became squeezed every time his mother came up in conversation. Hints of rage had come spitting out when he’d explained how they had edited her out of all the photos in the slideshow.

“Wasn’t your mother obligated to attend?” Holly persisted.

“She would call the kitchen to find out exactly what time dinner was being served. A half-hour before she would trot me down here in a tuxedo. We would do our annual mother-and-son spin around this dance floor. Then she would tug me to the exit, offering excuses that it was my bedtime or that she had a migraine.”

“What about your dad?”

“He was not much the tuxedo-and-martini type, but he would soldier through alone. My mother was not gracious, like Aunt Louise. She would not mingle and exchange pleasantries with the guests. Not even to support my father. He knew that she was not an asset to the company.”

“Was it awful for you, being paraded around?”

“Not really. I understood at an early age that my mother was not good for business but that I was. Whether it had been a profitable year or a struggle, seeing that there was a next generation of leadership instilled confidence in the shareholders. I have always been proud to represent our company.”

“Is your mother still alive?”

“I have no idea,” he bit out. “Nor do I care in the least. I have always assumed the shareholders believe that she went into seclusion and retired from public life after my father died.”

With that, he tightened his hold around Holly’s waist, bolted her against him and guided her with an absolute command that started at the top of his head and ended at the tip of his toes.

Holly molded herself to him and allowed his confident lead. Knowing that talk of his mother had unleashed the beast that he had now locked back into the cage inside him.

As they circled the music got louder, then softer. The low bass tones became more pronounced and then were corrected. Lights were adjusted as well, becoming hotter, then diffused and milky.

“Just one minute more, Mr. Benton!” the technician announced.

The music changed to a swinging standard.

Ethan relaxed his grip and backed Holly away to arm’s distance ready for a quickstep. He twirled her once under his arm. She stumbled and they chuckled into each other’s eyes.

His head tilted to the side. They leaned in toward each other’s smiles. Drawn to each other.

Out of the corner of her eye Holly saw Aunt Louise’s husband, Fernando, enter the ballroom and scurry toward them.

When they had come to the apartment for dinner she had noticed the way Fernando walked with small, mincing steps. She hadn’t liked how he had snooped at the things on Ethan’s desk and taken a fax from the machine. And she had overheard him telling Ethan that he didn’t want to spend his life in Barbados when Louise retired.

But at this moment it was important for them to unify for the sake of Louise. Since the older woman wasn’t well today, Ethan and Fernando had taken charge of the final details for the gala. Ethan had to be grateful for whatever help Fernando was offering. Perhaps he had a report on the status of the menu...

“I’ve been trying to call you!” Fernando approached and yapped at Ethan.

Ethan glanced over to one of the empty tables, where he had left his phone while he was on stage at the podium and while he and Holly had danced. “Is everything in order?” he asked.

“No, it’s not. Louise has taken a bad fall. I’ve called the paramedics.”

CHAPTER TEN

ETHAN LED THE charge out of the ballroom and toward the hotel elevators, with Fernando and Holly racing behind him to keep up. When they reached the bronze elevator bank Ethan rapped the call button incessantly until one set of doors opened. Pressing for the twenty-sixth floor as soon as he’d stepped in, he backed against the gilded and mirrored wall of the elevator car.

His neck muscles pulsed. As the elevator ascended he kept his eyes peeled on the digital read-out of the floor numbers.

One, two, seven, twelve...

“What happened?” He forced the question out of a tight throat.

“Louise had been resting on the sofa in the suite’s living room,” Fernando reported. “She stood up and said she was going to make a phone call. Then, as she started to walk, she tripped on the coffee table and fell face-forward.”

“Why did you not help her get up from the sofa in the first place?” Ethan seethed.

“She didn’t tell me she was going to stand up. She just did it. I rushed to her, but it was too late.”

Ethan’s jaw ground as he fought to keep himself together. This incompetent idiot should have never been allowed to care for Aunt Louise. She was going to need full-time nurses. He’d arrange that immediately.

The read-out reached twenty-three, twenty-four...

On the twenty-sixth floor, Ethan pushed through the elevator doors before they had fully opened. Holly and Fernando followed. At the room’s door, he snatched the key card from Fernando’s hand.

Ethan rushed into the suite. “Aunt Louise?”

Louise sat on the floor with her back against the sofa. Angry scrapes had left red stripes across her right cheek and her knees. She massaged her wrist.

“I’m all right, dear,” she assured him in a fairly steady voice. “Don’t embarrass me any more than I’ve already embarrassed myself.”

“There is no reason to be embarrassed,” Ethan said, trying to soothe her. These incidences must be so humiliating for her. She’d always been such an able woman.

“Falls happen,” Fernando chimed in. “We’ve been here before, Louise. You’ll be fine.”

Ethan fired a piercing glower at Fernando. He didn’t need to try to make light of the situation.

“Oh, goodness. Holly!” Louise spotted Holly standing back from them. She managed a dry smile. “Somehow I’ve become an old woman.”

“Thank goodness you weren’t hurt worse.” Holly nodded her respect.

“At this point we do not know if or how much she is injured,” Ethan snapped, angry with everyone. “She needs to be examined.”

Right on cue, there was a soft knock on the door. Ethan let in the hotel manager, who confirmed that they were expecting paramedics. Two emergency medical technicians filed in.

One checked Louise’s vital signs, such as her blood pressure and heart-rate. He shone a small light into her eyes. Another technician asked questions about her medical history and what had happened.

While that was going on Ethan noticed Fernando pouring himself a cocktail. Holly had noticed too.

He and Holly raised eyebrows at each other. This was hardly a time for drinks.

Ethan clenched his fists and mashed his lips tightly. He stood silently.

Fernando had accused Ethan at dinner the other night of finding himself a wife just so that Louise would retire. Fernando had said he had no intention of spending his life on boring Barbados, as he characterized it, with Louise.

So, following that logic, Fernando should be doing everything he could to try to keep Louise as healthy as possible. Yet he obviously didn’t bother with trivial matters, such as protecting her from falling. And now—with paramedics in the room, no less—he clearly thought it was cocktail hour.

“There don’t appear to be any broken bones,” one of the technicians informed them. “But, given her overall medical condition, we’re going to transport her to the hospital for a more complete evaluation.”

Ethan brought a hand over his mouth, overcome with worry. This woman had shown him so much love—had gone above and beyond the call of duty for him his entire life. Maybe his caring so much for his aunt was a sign. That he was capable of loyalty. Of devotion.

He refused his inclination to look over to Holly.

The technician issued instructions into his phone.

Fernando walked over to pat Louise gently on the shoulder in between sips of his drink.

“Can we take her down in a private elevator?” Ethan asked the manager, who waited quietly beside the door. “And out through a private garage? Many of our shareholders are staying here at the hotel, and we would like to keep this matter to ourselves.”

“Of course, Mr. Benton.”

Fernando settled himself closer to where Ethan was standing. “Clever...” he said under his breath. “Always thinking about image. I’ve got a little surprise for you with regards to that.”

Ethan whipped his head to look into Fernando’s eyes. “What on earth are you talking about at a time like this?” he demanded.