An Act of Persuasion(6)

She was about ready to break that promise.

Three days and nothing.

The entire incident could have been a dream she had, if she hadn’t woken the next day with a faint soreness between her legs letting her know that what had happened had been entirely real.

She allowed him every excuse in the book. He was sick and didn’t have the energy to focus on how their relationship might have changed. Until his prognosis improved, he couldn’t commit to anything in the future. Her personal favorite explanation for his avoidance was that he was shy about admitting how he felt about her because before that night he’d never given her any indication he was attracted to her.

No, any sexual or romantic thoughts, she had been sure—almost sure—were entirely one-sided. Her side.

Looking at him now, thin and exhausted, the portrait of a man who appeared to be wasting away, it was hard to imagine the man as he had been when she first fell in love with him.

Ben Tyler then equaled power. Ben Tyler now equaled frailty.

The crazy thing was she didn’t feel any differently about him. And he certainly hadn’t been frail when he thrust himself deep inside her. So why didn’t he want to talk about it? She understood most guys didn’t like to do postmortems the day after, but this was slightly different.

What happened had been incredibly unexpected.

They hadn’t flirted. They hadn’t teased each other with sexual innuendos. There hadn’t been any buildup of tension that had finally demanded release. She had loved him from afar, keeping her feelings completely to herself thinking he would find them inappropriate, and he...

He what? Had done the same? Had been feeling an attraction to her all this time? If so, the man was the best actor she’d ever known.

Or maybe it was the circumstance of his condition that finally brought home to him the realization that life was fleeting. A person needed to act on what he felt because he might not get a second chance. Maybe Ben had let his instincts take over his ruthless control.

Or maybe Ben had just wanted to get laid.

Either way, together they had made a big fat elephant and sat it in the middle of the room with them. It was getting to the point where not addressing that elephant was making it uncomfortable to be around each other.

The phone rang and it startled her out of her thoughts. It also woke Ben, which annoyed her. She’d told him on more than one occasion to turn the ringer off on his office phone while he was napping.

Except the great and almighty Ben Tyler didn’t acknowledge that he took naps. Rushing forward she attempted to snatch the phone off the hook, but he beat her to it.

“Ben Tyler,” he answered.

She noticed he didn’t look at her while he talked and it occurred to her that he hadn’t looked at her, really looked at her, in the past three days. Her strategy of not talking about that night hadn’t worked, and her strategy of letting him initiate the conversation was obviously not working, either. It was definitely time to forget about playing games. The elephant would not go away on its own.

“Yes. I understand. Yes, I’ll be there first thing tomorrow. Thank you.” He hung up the phone. “Yes?”

“Who was that?”

“The doctor’s office. Confirming an appointment. I need to be at the hospital by 7:00 a.m. Can you take me?”

“Of course,” she answered instantly. Then it occurred to her—something wasn’t adding up. The canceled appointment of a few days ago he wouldn’t discuss, the sudden hospital trip tomorrow. “Why do you need to be at the hospital tomorrow?”

“Anna, I’m sorry. I’m really tired. Can we talk about this later?”

It was her cue to leave. What person wouldn’t? The man was sick, he needed rest. Leaving now would give him what he needed.

Only leaving now would make her crazy. For the past few months—hell, since the day she started working for him six years ago—she’d put his needs first. It made sense, he was the boss. Only he wasn’t the boss anymore. Now, whether he was going to admit it or not, he was her lover. Kind of.

“No.”

He raised his eyebrows. Recognition of the fact that she’d never said no to him before.

“I want to know why I’m taking you to the hospital. In fact, I would like to know why you haven’t mentioned anything about what’s happening next regarding your treatment. It’s not like this is news you have to hide from me, Ben. I get it. The chemo isn’t working like you or the doctors hoped. Okay. We knew this might happen. There are other steps. Many other steps to go before this is over. I thought the plan was to go for the consultation regarding those next steps, but suddenly you’re expected at the hospital in the morning.”