Read Online Desire (#4) by Carrie Cox - Free Book Online Page B

screwed-up family. He probably just felt sorry for me.
    But I couldn’t resist asking. “Do you … want me to stay?” I stammered.
    He stroked my cheek with one finger.
    “Yes,” he said. “I don’t think I can be everything you want, Kate, but I want you to stay with me. I’ll give you everything I can, but I don’t want to settle down and have a family. Ever.” His face tensed. “My family has torn itself apart over the Easton legacy. The money has set brother against brother for generations. I don’t want children. I never will. Are you willing to give that up for me?”
    Never have kids? I hadn’t thought about it in definite terms, but I’d always pictured myself at some point in the future having them. Could I give that up for Benjamin? I didn’t know. My family life hadn’t been a walk in the park either, but I didn’t want to give up on the idea of family.
    I leaned into his touch, pressing my cheek against his hand. “I don’t want to go,” I said in a quiet voice.
    “Then don’t,” he said and leaned towards me until his lips grazed mine.
    A frisson of desire ran through me in response to his fleeting touch. Jeez, how did he do that?
    “Stay, Kate,” he said. “I’ll try to be what you need.”
    I didn’t know what I needed, but I knew right now I wanted to stay with him.
    Could we make it work? Tina’s arrival had changed everything.
    She’d find a way to spill her poison and ruin this for me. Maybe hurting Benjamin in the process. I couldn’t let that happen.
    “My sister…” I began. “…She’s manipulative and…” It hurt me to say those words, even now after everything she’d done. “She’ll find a way to wreck this for us.”
    Benjamin’s mouth set in a firm line as his dark eyes stared down into mine. I shifted beneath his intense gaze.
    “I didn’t get to where I am today by allowing myself to be manipulated, Kate,” he said. “I can handle your sister.”
    I pulled a face and looked away. He didn’t know how persuasive my sister could be. She should have been an actress.
    He tucked a finger under my chin and lifted it up, so I was forced to look at him.
    “Just because you can twist me around your little finger, doesn’t mean she will,” he said. “I’m not like this with anyone else.”
    My heart leapt. I could twist him round my little finger? Really? I couldn’t stop myself grinning.
    He smiled back and kissed me on the cheek.
    “Now we’ve got that settled,” he said and took my hand, “let’s go and deal with your sister.”
    Benjamin convinced me to let Tina stay for dinner. That way I would have a chance to calm down before I spoke to her and wouldn’t say something I’d regret. I made him promise to tell me everything Tina said to him, especially if it involved money.

2

    BENJAMIN WENT BACK TO the sitting room to invite Tina to stay for dinner. I decided to take a quick look around the house. I’d only worked in the Great Hall and hadn’t seen much of the house before we left for England.
    I’d seen Benjamin’s home office, where he worked occasionally if he didn’t have to go to Providence or Easton’s head office in Boston. I flushed as I remembered what happened in his office, over his desk to be precise. Hmm … maybe I might get a repeat performance of that at some point.
    The Great Hall was in effect a huge lobby, with multiple corridors branching off in all directions. On the far right there was the huge, winding staircase, which led up to the bedrooms and Benjamin’s private office and residence.
    I remembered Mrs. Wicker telling me there were seventeen bedrooms. Seventeen. How could anyone need a house this big?
    I picked one of the corridors leading off the hall and walked along to investigate. The first room I picked was a library. Wow. Row upon row of leather-bound books filled the elegantly-carved, walnut bookshelves, and the shelves covered the entire wall, right up to the ceiling. Benjamin even had one of those