Dare to Submit (14 page)

And she didn’t have to look far for an example of someone who’d conquered her past. Decklan’s sister-in-law, Isabelle, had a man who adored her, a baby on the way, a career in interior design, with a boss who would be giving her leeway on working from home post-baby. A wonderful life, Amanda thought.

But even if she allowed Decklan in all the way, there were no guarantees she’d find what Isabelle and Gabe had. Or that she wouldn’t be hurt or rejected in the end.

FOURTEEN

D
ecklan kicked back in his brother and Isabelle’s living room, enjoying a lazy Sunday morning. Gabe and Iz still lived in his deluxe apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, but they were talking about moving to the suburbs. Decklan tried not to laugh at the thought of his brother so domesticated, because really, it suited him. At least it suited the man he was now, not the one he’d been before Isabelle.

As for Decklan, if he couldn’t be with Amanda, hanging out with his family was the next best thing. Especially since Lucy had come in from L.A. for the weekend. She was staying with him, but she’d promised to make herself scarce later tonight when Amanda came by. Although she did insist on meeting his
new girlfriend
before disappearing. Sisters.

“What are you smirking about?” Lucy asked.

She sat cross-legged on the floor in front of a huge-screen television. Her dark hair was pulled into a messy ponytail, and she wore gray sweats. So did he. They were lounging around. There was a repeat of some television show he didn’t normally watch on the screen, and he wasn’t paying too much attention to the TV.

“Just thinking about you, brat.”

“Ha ha.” She stuck out her tongue like when they were kids.

“Very mature. Nobody would believe you decorate the hottest nightclubs in the country.”

She threw a piece of popcorn at him.

“Would you two behave?” Gabe muttered under his breath.

“You know you missed me, big brother.”

He grunted in reply and Isabelle laughed. “I can’t believe how much I missed out on, growing up an only child.”

“Well, you’ve got siblings now,” Decklan assured her. In a short time, because she made his brother so happy, he’d come to think of Isabelle as his sister.

“Aww. Thanks.” Isabelle blew him a kiss and Gabe scowled.

All in all, a typical family gathering.

Soon Lucy and Gabe began talking about their newest project, and Isabelle was flipping through baby books. Decklan grabbed the opportunity to change the channel. He started scanning slowly, pausing on a local station that was discussing a political fund-raiser taking place in the city.

A female reporter stood outside The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. “And Senator Stephan Ritter is about to make an announcement.”

The senator was well known because over the last few months, the news media was gearing up for the presidential race with constant mentions of possible candidates. Decklan knew of the man and his ultraconservative views but didn’t follow the news on the next president too closely yet. He would when the candidates were narrowed.

“Think the guy will run for president?” Gabe asked.

Decklan glanced at the screen. “That’s what the pundits are saying.

“Oh, look. Here he comes,” Lucy said.

The senator stepped up to a podium. He rambled a bit, and Decklan’s eyes glazed over at the words. But he kept an eye on the screen, watching as the camera panned the audience for their reaction to his statement before returning and remaining focused on the silver-haired man.

“And with the blessing of my family, my wonderful, wife, Stephanie—” The camera captured his wife by his side. “My son, Bradley, and my soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Amanda Collins, along with my campaign manager, Mitchell Dawson, who has been with me from the beginning, as well as my loyal supporters, I hereby announce my intention to run for president of the United States.”

The rest of his statement was drowned out with applause. But the camera continued to land on the people behind the senator, holding for a brief moment on a guy about Decklan’s age in a suit and tie standing hand in hand with a woman Decklan would swear was
his
Amanda, dressed in a conservative yellow skirt and matching jacket, before moving on to the senator’s staff.

“That looked like Amanda!” Isabelle said on a squeal, confirming what the churning in Decklan’s gut already told him.

“Your Amanda?” Lucy asked.

“Shit,” Decklan muttered, trying to come to terms with what he’d seen. He ran a hand through his hair, wondering if he was suddenly in the middle of a nightmare, not reality.

“Decklan? Don’t jump to conclusions,” Izzy said.

Gabe rose to his feet. “Well, what conclusion is there to draw other than the obvious? That she’s got another life on the side? It’s not like our family doesn’t know about that.”

Gabe referenced their father’s brother, Uncle Robert, in Florida, and the fact that the man had had a wife and four children, along with a mistress with another four kids on the side. And nobody had known a thing. Not until one of his illegitimate daughters had needed bone marrow and Robert had wanted his legitimate kids tested.

Decklan’s stomach cramped. He needed information. “Where’s your laptop?” he asked his brother. It was one thing not to dig up information on Amanda when they were just starting out. Now he needed more.

“I’m going to kill her,” Lucy muttered, pacing the family room. “Nobody hurts my brothers without answering to me.”

“Take the pit bull routine down a notch, killer,” Decklan said, but he was grateful for her support.

Unlike Isabelle, who surprisingly wanted him to reserve judgment, Lucy and Gabe had jumped to the worst possible conclusion, while Decklan just felt raw. He knew what he’d seen on television, and a senator who wanted to be president wouldn’t stick his neck out with anything less than facts.

Decklan was leaning toward siding with Gabe and Lucy, but he couldn’t shake the fact that he’d
been
with Amanda. He’d learned about her, insecurities and all. And he’d been inside her body. He
knew
her.

Didn’t he?

He was no longer certain.

Gabe had already returned from his office with his computer in hand. He opened it up, typed in his password, and handed the laptop over to Decklan. After settling into a chair, Decklan performed a quick search and turned up fascinating information on Bradley.

“It seems the almost-fiancé is—”

“You assume he’s her almost-fiancé,” Isabelle said, interrupting him.

Decklan turned to her. “Iz, before Gabe, your live-in boyfriend cheated on you, so forgive me if I can’t trust your instinct.”

“Hey, watch it,” Gabe growled at him.

“It’s fine. I understand what you’re saying, but I have Gabe now,” she said with the confidence of a woman who trusted her man. “I’ve seen the difference between someone who tells the truth and someone who doesn’t.”

Within seconds, Gabe had returned to her side and settled her on his lap. Not in the mood to watch the lovebirds, Decklan turned away and went back to the articles in front of him on the screen.

Lucy walked over and wrapped her arms around him. “I love you,” she whispered.

“Love you too, brat.”

“Talk to Amanda before you make any decisions,” Isabelle pleaded. “I don’t know her well, but I liked her. A lot.”

Decklan frowned, Isabelle’s words hammering home even more issues with Amanda’s behavior. “She ate with my family. She went shopping with you. And all the while, she was involved with another man?”

“Maybe.” Isabelle held firm.

“Call her,” Lucy said, caving in a little. “See if she answers.”

He shook his head. “She’s supposed to be at my place by five. I’ll have my answers then.”

“You can wait?” his sister asked, sounding amazed.

He spun around to face her. “I have no choice. I’m a cop. I’m good at reading people.” Or he’d thought he was. “I want to look into her face when I tell her what I saw. And I’ll know then if she led me around by my—” He cut off his thought in deference to the women.

“I’ve heard the word
dick
before,” Lucy said, trying to make him laugh. “I’ve even seen one.”

Isabelle grinned.

Decklan placed his hands over his ears, and Gabe’s already dark expression turned thunderous. “I don’t care how old you are, you don’t say those things in front of your brothers.”

Both Lucy and Isabelle laughed.

“Get back to whatever you were going to say,” Gabe muttered.

Decklan glanced back at the laptop screen. “Bradley Ritter’s a software genius worth billions.” It was the first thing that came up other than the fact that he was Senator Ritter’s son.

“Could that be why she held on to him? Because he’s rich?” Lucy asked.

“No,” Decklan said immediately. No matter what, Amanda wasn’t a gold digger. “I don’t know what’s going on, but that doesn’t jibe with the woman I’ve come to know.”

To his relief, no one reminded him there was every chance he didn’t
know
her as well as he’d thought. He continued to read. The search turned up the basics on the senator’s son. Where he’d grown up, gone to college—the same college as Amanda, which confirmed what Amanda had already told him, that she’d met her friend Bradley in college.

And when Decklan had had his brief moment of jealousy over the man she’d spoken so fondly of, Amanda hadn’t reassured him. Instead, she’d panicked that Decklan was getting jealous when theirs was supposed to be a one-night stand, something fun and not serious. True, one thing they’d agreed upon from the start was that neither one of them did relationships, but Decklan had changed his mind. And he’d thought she was well on her way. Or maybe he’d just hoped he could bring her around to his way of thinking.

What a joke.

He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. He didn’t doubt that Amanda felt something for him. What he now distrusted was her integrity. No wonder the thought of something more intimate and permanent freaked her out. She was already committed to another man.

FIFTEEN

A
manda ran out of The Plaza the first chance she got and grabbed a cab to Decklan’s apartment. She was horrified and shocked by the senator’s speech. She’d been blindsided by his public announcement naming her as his soon-to-be daughter-in-law. Brad had been taken off guard as well. Now they both had potential damage control to do with the men in their lives.

For Amanda, it no longer mattered that she’d intended to tell Decklan everything tonight, not if he already knew. She’d left Brad to deal with the congratulations and the fallout, not caring how it looked to the men in the senator’s political party. Not caring about anything but getting to Decklan and hopefully revealing everything first.

The taxi dropped her off at his apartment building, and she hit the buzzer, relieved when he let her right in. By the time she reached his unit, she was out of breath and really scared in a way she couldn’t put into words. Because she suddenly realized how much she had to lose.

She raised her hand to knock when the door swung open and Decklan stood in front of her. He looked sexy in his gray sweats and white tee shirt, the muscles in his forearms bulging. His eyes lit on hers, and the dark blue didn’t glitter with anything but anger. Added to the serious look on his face, her hopes disintegrated.

“You saw the news,” she said.

He inclined his head, his expression bland.

She licked her lips. “I can explain.”

“This I’d like to hear,” he said in a cool tone. He swept a hand through the air, gesturing for her to come inside.

She swallowed and walked in ahead of him, her grip on her handbag so tight her knuckles hurt. “Decklan, it’s not what it looked like. Or even what it sounded like.”

He turned, his arms folded across his chest, completely withdrawn from her. “So the senator didn’t announce his candidacy for president of the United States on live television and thank his family, including his soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Amanda? And that wasn’t you standing behind him in the exact same outfit?”

She laid her bag down on the sofa. “He said that. He even believes that, but it isn’t true. You know it can’t be true. I’m not involved with anyone but you.”