Marty had left, and there hadn’t even been an accepting hug before she departed. God, that sucked. She could have used a hug today.
Paige shook her head before turning back and tossing the cloth in the sink. Maybe it was just time to accept that she wasn’t the woman or the adult that those she loved really wanted.
Her mother was upset that she was working, her father was disappointed that she refused to head the charities his companies oversaw. Her brother disagreed with the men she wanted as lovers, and the lovers were pissed because she wanted to be independent and still live with them.
It was a no-win situation.
Maybe it was time to stop silently begging them to accept her. She needed to find a way to live and stop hurting like this. Khalid had threatened to either disown his brother, or her. Either one would simply break her heart.
Moving back to the bedroom she changed out of her comfortable sweats and T-shirt and pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Warm socks, sneakers. As she tied the leather running shoes the lights of the limo lit up the darkness outside her bedroom window.
Khalid and Marty were going to their party. They were leaving, and they were leaving her alone. Just as she had asked.
Picking up her cell phone she called a cab, then grabbed her purse and made her way quietly downstairs to wait on the transportation, and hopefully to keep anyone else from turning it away.
She didn’t have to wait long. The intercom from the front gate pinged at the wall next to the door. Stepping to it, Paige accepted the summons.
“A Plus Cabs,” the voice on the other end announced.
“Come on up to the house.” Paige pressed the security lock and before the cab was passing through the open gates Daniel Conover was walking into the foyer from the back wing of the house.
“You can follow me, or you can wait for me to return, your choice,” she informed him as he leaned against the wall opposite her, his dark blond head tilting to the side as he regarded her curiously.
“You know I can’t allow you to leave,” he stated.
“But you will,” she told him. “Otherwise, I’ll call the authorities next. I’ll have you charged with kidnapping and imprisonment.”
She wasn’t serious and she had a feeling he suspected it. But She w19;t certain, and that was what mattered.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he finally sighed. He flexed his broad shoulders beneath the cotton shirt he wore and straightened from the wall. He looped his thumbs in the back pockets of his well-worn, just-snug-enough jeans and gave her a curious little smile. “You’re as stubborn as your brother, you know.”
“So everyone says,” she sniffed. “Funny, he always seems to come out the winner though.”
Paige moved past him as he opened the door for her. She walked outside to the cab.
Just a few hours, she promised herself. She wasn’t going to worry her family unnecessarily. She wasn’t going to risk her life or her bodyguards. But she needed to go home to recharge away from the too-big, too-empty house she was usually in alone.
And she needed the space to figure out how to sit back and accept her brother’s protection, her father’s offer to pay the bills while the situation was being resolved, and to decide which was more important. Following her heart, or obeying the brother she would lose if she didn’t walk away from Abram.
She had a feeling that decision was going to be impossible to make.
3
Her apartment was simple, a kitchen and living area, a bedroom and a bathroom with a large soaking tub. That bathtub had been the selling point for her. The electric fireplace sat in front of the overstuffed couch and was the focal point of the room.
The kitchen was small, but roomy enough to cook and entertain a few friends in.
It was hers. She paid the bills, stocked the cabinets, and lived comfortably and happily on the salary she earned at the advertising firm she had gone to work for after graduating from college.
The floors were hardwood, gleaming around the large area rugs beneath the small kitchen table and the coffee table in the living area.
She didn’t have a television, yet. For entertainment she used her laptop, which she had left at her brother’s. She’d been so busy in the past year that she hadn’t really had time to watch television or enjoy movies as she once had.
She’d missed her home while she had been at Khalid’s. Her brother’s home was too big, too private perhaps. The suites were self-contained except for eating, and his house staff was always more than happy to fix a meal and bring it to her room.
She’d been lost there, and lonely. At first, she’d been sequestered there by herself, then with Khalid’s return it had been one lecture and argument after another until she was ready to go insant>
As she placed her purse on the small table inside the door, her cell phone rang again. The ring tone was a set of strident cymbals. It reminded her of her brother’s habit of demanding she answer the phone quickly.