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Noah shrugged, as if resigned to a fate he abhorred. “I do owe you an explanation,” he admitted thoughtfully. “I used to work for Ben. From the time I graduated from college I was groomed for the position Ben’s only heir would rightfully assume: the presidency of Wilder Investments, whenever Ben decided to retire. I was never very comfortable with the situation as it was, but—” he hesitated, as if wondering how much of his private life he should divulge “—for personal reasons I needed the security my position at Wilder Investments provided.”
“Because of your wife and son?” Sheila immediately regretted her thoughtless question.
Noah’s eyes darkened. “I’ve never had a wife!” He bit out the statement savagely, as if the thought alone were repulsive to him.
Sheila flushed with color. “I’m sorry,” she apologized hastily. “I didn’t know. . . . You have a child. . . .”
Noah’s glare narrowed suspiciously. “You didn’t know about Marilyn? If that’s the truth, you must have been the only person in Seattle who didn’t know the circumstances surrounding Sean’s birth. The press couldn’t leave it alone. All of Ben’s money couldn’t even shut them up!”
“I’ve never lived in Seattle,” she explained hurriedly, still embarrassed. Surely he would believe her. “And—and I didn’t pay any attention to what my father’s business partner was doing, much less his son. . . . I was only a teenager and I didn’t know anything about you.”
Noah’s anger subsided slightly as he noticed the stricken look on Sheila’s near-perfect face. “Of course not—it happened years ago.”
Sheila’s hands were trembling as she reached for her wineglass and let the cool liquid slide down her parched throat. She avoided Noah’s probing gaze and pushed the remains of her dinner around on her plate. Although the food was delicious, her hunger had disappeared.
Noah speared a forkful of fish and ate in the thick silence that hung over the table. It was a long moment before he began to speak again. When he did, his voice was calm and toneless, almost dead from the lack of emotion in his words. “There were many reasons why I quit working for my father . . . too many to hope to explain. I didn’t like the idea of being treated as ‘Ben Wilder’s son’ by the rest of the staff, and I had never gotten on well with my dad in the first place. Working with him only served to deepen the rift between us.” His teeth clenched, and he tossed his napkin onto the table as he remembered the day that he had broken free of the cloying hands of Wilder Investments.
“I stayed on as long as I could, but when one of my father’s investments went sour, he ordered me to investigate the reasons. A manufacturing firm in Spokane wasn’t making it. Although it wasn’t the manager’s fault, Ben had the man fired.” Noah took a drink of wine, as if to cast off the anger he felt each time he remembered the painful scene in his father’s office, the office Noah now reluctantly filled. The image·of a man near fifty, his shoulders bowed by the wrath and punishment of Ben Wilder, still haunted Noah. How many times had he pictured the tortured face of Sam Steele as the man realized Ben was really going to fire him for a mistake he hadn’t made? Sam had looked to Noah for support, but even Noah’s pleading was useless. Ben Wilder needed a scapegoat and Sam Steele presented the unlikely sacrificial lamb, an example to the rest of the employees of Wilder Investments. It didn’t matter that Sam wouldn’t be able to find another job at a comparable salary, nor that he had two daughters in college. What mattered to Ben Wilder was his company, his wealth, hispower. Though it had all happened years ago, Noah felt an uncomfortable wrench in his gut each time he remembered Sam’s weathered face after leaving Ben’s office. “It doesn’t matter, boy,” Sam had said fondly to Noah. “You did what you could. I’ll make out.”
Sheila was staring at Noah expectantly, and he quickly brought his thoughts back to the present. “That incident,” he stated hurriedly, “was the final straw. By the end of the afternoon I had quit my job, yanked my kid out of school and moved to Oregon. I told myself I would never come back.”
Sheila sat in the encumbering silence for a minute, watching the lines of grief still evident on Noah’s masculine face while he reflected upon a part of his life she knew nothing about. She longed to hear more, to understand more fully the enigmatic man sitting across the table from her. Yet she was afraid, unsure of growing any closer to him. Already she was inexplicably drawn to him, and intuitively she realized that what he was about to tell her would only endear him to her further. Those feelings of endearment would surely only cause her suffering. She couldn’t trust him. Not yet.
“You don’t have to talk about any of this,” she finally managed to say. “It’s obviously painful for you.”
“Only because I was weak.”
“I . . . don’t understand,” she whispered, gripping the edge of the table for support as she lifted her eyes to meet the question in his. “And,” she allowed ruefully, “I’m not sure that I want to understand you.”
“You’re the woman who insisted that I owed her an explanation,” he reminded her.
“Not aboutallof your life.”
“But I thought you wanted to get to know me.”
“No . . . I just want to know how you’re connected with Wilder Investments,” she lied. She ignored the voice in her mind that was whispering,Dear God, Noah, I don’t understand it, but I want to know everything about you . . . touch your body and soul. Instead she lowered her eyes. “You are in charge of the company, aren’t you?”
“Temporarily, yes.”
“And you do make all of the decisions for Wilder Investments.”
“Unless the board disapproves. So far they haven’t.” The mindless members of the board wouldn’t dare argue with Ben’s son, Noah thought to himself.
Sheila held her breath as the truth hit her in a cold blast of logic. “Then you were lying to me when you said that you couldn’t make a decision about the winery until your father got back into the country.”
Noah’s mouth twitched in amusement. “I prefer to think of it as stalling for time.”
“We haven’t got time!”
His smile broadened and his eyes lightened over the edge of his wineglass. “Lady, that’s where you’re wrong. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
His gaze was warm. Though the table separated them, Sheila could feel the heat of his eyes caressing her, undressing her, bringing her body closer to his. Under the visual embrace she felt her skin begin to tremble, as if anticipating his touch.Don’t fall for him,she warned herself.Don’t think for a minute that he cares for you. You’re just a handy convenience that stumbled onto him tonight. Remember Jeff. Remember the promises. Remember the lies. Remember the pain. Don’t let it happen again. Don’t fall victim to the same mistake. Don’t!
Carefully she pieced together the poise that he could shatter so easily. “Perhaps we should go.”
“Don’t you even want to know why I’m back at Wilder Investments?” he invited.
“Do you want to tell me?”
