From Riches to Redemption Read online

  She’d agreed to meet him later that afternoon. Now they were in a town house on the peninsula where he’d recently completed the renovations. Originally part of an 1840s warehouse, it had been converted into a row of town houses a hundred years later. This project had been more art than skill, trying to balance historic details like the original brick facade with the sleek quartz and modern bath and kitchen fixtures that buyers wanted.

  At the moment, he was sitting in the bench seat of the bay window, watching Morgan wander through the place. He wanted to give her time to explore on her own and she was taking advantage of it. Her wide eyes seemed to take in every detail as her fingertips grazed over different surfaces. She hadn’t even spoken to him since she’d signed the paperwork on the kitchen island. She gasped as she spied the original heart pine floors in the living room, and he knew he had her. The place had only been staged a few days ago, but he got the feeling he hadn’t needed to bother with the expense.

  “This is amazing work,” she said at last. There was a flush to Morgan’s cheeks as she turned to him. He recognized that expression. It was love. At one time, she’d looked at him that way. Now he’d have to settle for her loving his handiwork. “It’s stunning, really.”

  River got up and walked over to where she was standing and admiring the fireplace with the original glazed tile surround. “I’m glad you like it.”

  “The location is amazing, too. It’s so close to Broad Street and Waterfront Park. It doesn’t get much better than that in Charleston.”

  “That’s what I thought when I found the place up for sale. It needed a lot of work—I think they hadn’t renovated since the ’80s—but I thought it was worth it. You haven’t even seen the upstairs yet. You’ll adore the master bath, I’m pretty sure.”

  Morgan’s eyes lit up. She turned toward the staircase and this time he followed her upstairs. She explored the three bedrooms and the luxurious Carrara marble bath, then turned to look at him with a suspicious narrowed gaze. “You set me up, didn’t you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, drawing his attention to the press of her firm breasts against her shirt. “You said it would be easier to meet here, but you really just wanted me to see the place. We could’ve met anywhere, but you knew I’d love it.”

  River could only shrug as he shifted his gaze back to her eyes. “How could you not love it? It’s an amazing town house. Yes, I set you up,” he admitted with a grin. “But I only wanted you to see it before I put it on the market in case you had to have it. I expect it to sell pretty quickly when I do, so I didn’t want you to miss your chance. There’s no pressure.”

  She sighed and turned back to admire the original crown molding in the master bedroom. He followed her gaze as it fell onto the king-size bed and plush headboard on the center of the far wall. Normally, his stager would’ve used a queen bed, but the room was big enough to accommodate a larger one.

  “I already have a place. In DC. I don’t need a house here, River.”

  “I thought it was a rental.”

  “Does that make a difference? It’s still a home in a town I love.”

  “Then don’t buy it,” he said dismissively. “I only wanted you to know you have options. There’s no reason for you to spend every summer living with your parents. You’re a grown woman—almost thirty—with the financial means to do whatever you want. As much as you come back to town, I’d think you’d want your own space here in Charleston. Even just as an investment property. The market here is pretty hot.”

  “Thanks for the reminder of how old I am,” she said with a cutting, sarcastic tone. “What you don’t quite understand is how large my parents’ home really is. With all the boys in their own places, I basically have an upstairs wing of the mansion to myself. It’s not like I’m tripping over my parents.”

  River took a step closer to her, closing the gap between them. He stretched one arm out and braced it on the doorway as he leaned in. He didn’t crowd her personal space, but he was close enough to feel her warm breath as she exhaled and smell the scent of her perfume. “So you can do whatever you like, right? How about entertain a gentleman?”

  Her gaze nervously met his and her tongue shot out to wet her bottom lip. She didn’t have to answer that out loud. They both knew her father didn’t care if she was fifteen, thirty or fifty, there would be none of that under his roof. He was as overprotective as he ever was.

  “That hasn’t been an issue,” she said. “I come to Charleston to work, nothing more. I’m too busy to worry much about a personal life these days.”

  There was something about the way she looked at him when she spoke. Something that made him want to move closer, even as she insisted she didn’t have time for a physical relationship. “It sounds to me like all you do is work. All work and no play makes Morgan a dull girl.”

  Morgan’s green-gold eyes focused on his lips as he spoke. The memories of their brief, innocent kiss at the empty plot of land flooded his mind as he looked at her. It hadn’t been a great, passionate connection in reality, and yet it had felt that way. Kissing Morgan was the same as it had always been—like being struck by lightning. His whole body lit up at her touch, every nerve alive with wanting her.

  In that instant, it was as though the last decade and the drama that drove them apart had never happened. To force himself to move on, he’d told himself so many things. That she hadn’t loved him. That she was just a spoiled rich girl using him to get back at Daddy. That the connection they’d shared was nothing special.

  But when she’d touched him again, he knew it had all been lies. She might’ve regretted moving too fast and bent to her father’s will, but he hadn’t imagined the magnetic draw they shared. It was just as strong as it had ever been.

  “Trust me,” he said. “I’m an expert on working too much.” River dropped his arm to his side and moved closer. He looked down at her, only inches away, but she didn’t move. “You can ignore your needs...push them aside...but they don’t go away. They build up inside of you. A burning, churning feeling in your belly. Eventually, you have to let off the pressure or you’ll do something stupid.”

  Morgan’s gaze didn’t move from his own. Instead, she put a hand on his chest and her lips parted softly in invitation. “Something stupid like this?” she asked with an arched brow.

  Her touch was searing through the cotton of his dress shirt. The heat made his brain start to short circuit, making the idea of having her be all he could think about. “That’s...debatable. If you’d asked me a week ago, I’d have said it was a bad idea. A terrible idea. But if you’re going to keep touching me like that, I will argue this is the perfect way to let off steam. I’d be happy to, uh, help you in that department.”

  He was rambling nervously, but he couldn’t stop the flow of words. Not when she was this close and looking at him the way she was.

  Morgan ran her palm over his chest, sliding it up the side of his neck to cradle the back of his skull. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. “That’s very kind of you.”

  “Morgan...” His breath caught in his throat as he said her name. If she was just flirting, she was playing a dangerous game. He wanted her. If she didn’t want him, she needed to step away.

  She didn’t. She pulled his head down until their lips met. It was an explosive kiss, the contact igniting the fire inside of River that he’d fought to keep down. Any reservations he might have had about tasting Morgan again fizzled away as she bit his bottom lip and he groaned aloud.

  She’d gotten feistier than he remembered her to be. He liked that. A lot. River wasn’t sure who moved how, but one moment, they were standing and the next, he was pressing her body into the mattress previously beside them. There wasn’t a break, not a hesitation, but an evolution of their kiss. It deepened, it intensified and with it, River felt the desperation start to bubble up inside
of him.

  He’d been telling the truth when he told Morgan he knew what it was like to work too much and deny himself. He was an expert at that. But he couldn’t deny himself any longer. Not when it came to Morgan.

  His hands roamed over her body, reacquainting themselves with the terrain that had changed some since he’d last touched it. Her breasts were fuller as he cupped one through her thin cotton T-shirt. He could feel the tight bud of her nipple pressing through the fabric of her bra as though it were reaching out for his touch. That much, at least, hadn’t changed. She had always responded to him like that.

  Then he let his hand glide down her stomach. He wanted to keep exploring. To seek out the heat hidden beneath her slacks...but she tensed up beneath him. Suddenly, she was stiff as a board beneath his touch, bringing his worst fear to life. Her mouth jerked away from his, even as her hand caught his wrist and pulled him away from her belly.

  “River, stop,” she said in a harsh whisper. The eyes that had been looking at him with barely masked desire were now wide and startled.

  River immediately pulled back. “What’s wrong?”

  Her gaze met his for only a second before she rolled away from him and got off the bed. He thought he saw a shimmer of tears in her eyes as she turned her back to him. “Nothing,” she said. “I have to go.” She rushed to the door and disappeared to the thumping sound of her feet pounding down the stairs. He heard the front door slam and knew she was gone.

  What the hell?

  He pushed himself to the foot of the bed, tugging his own shirt down and running his hands over his beard in exasperation. His groin was throbbing with interrupted desire as he turned to look at the rumpled comforter they’d lain on a moment before. He didn’t understand what had gone wrong.

  And he got the feeling Morgan didn’t have any intention of telling him.

  * * *

  “What the hell do I think I’m doing?”

  Morgan shook her head as she pulled away from the town house and left it, and River, behind. She’d come to sign paperwork. Just some paperwork. And yet, somehow, she’d ended up on her back and on the verge of giving everything away she’d tried so hard to keep secret.

  She navigated through the narrow busy streets of downtown Charleston with an angry grip on the wheel, heading for the bridge that would take her over the water toward her parents’ home in Mount Pleasant. Her frustration lessened the farther she got from River, but the dull ache of need remained.

  Making peace with him was a bad idea. Fighting wasn’t ideal, but it made it easier to keep her distance. Without that wall of resentment between them, she was just putty in his hands. She had thought that was okay. Her chat with Sawyer had convinced her she was a grown woman and could do what she liked. And that had seemed like a good idea. Until River’s hand ran across her stomach and the reality of her situation set in.

  She and River may have called a truce on how their marriage ended, but she knew that would be short-lived if he knew everything. There were some secrets that needed to be kept. Especially if the Steele housing project was going to be completed smoothly this year. River couldn’t know the truth because it was so inflammatory, so damaging that it would hurt more than the lie.

  That’s what she’d told herself ten years ago as she sat on her dorm room mattress, staring at a positive pregnancy test. She was pregnant with River’s child.

  Up until that point, she had lived firmly in denial. There was no way she was pregnant because her father had wiped the past from the record books. She never married River, according to the state of Tennessee. They never had a honeymoon. So she couldn’t possibly be pregnant. There was no way she was carrying the baby of the guy who had hit her dad up for cash and disappeared from her life. Fate wouldn’t be that cruel. And as such, she ignored the signs, popping antacids and struggling to focus in her classes that fall.

  Her dropping GPA wasn’t the only sign of trouble. Once Christmas break came around, there was no more denying the truth. Not to herself and certainly not to her parents. When her mother arrived to pick her up for the holiday, her gaze had immediately dropped to the rounding belly that Morgan was trying to hide beneath a USC sweatshirt.

  From there, it was a whirlwind that Morgan almost didn’t remember. Her parents went into instant damage-control mode, and she was just along for the ride. No one was to know the truth, they decided. Not even her brothers. For her own protection and that of her reputation, of course. Her parents had successfully kept her short marriage a secret from everyone, and they were confident they could keep the baby a hush-hush topic, too.

  They bought her older brothers a luxurious ski trip in Aspen for Christmas, sending them off to Colorado instead of having them celebrate at home that year. As far as anyone knew, Morgan had the flu and couldn’t attend any events with them. Her only outings were to the doctor for her checkups.

  She hadn’t bothered to argue with them about it. Her spirit had been crushed when she lost what she thought she’d had with River, and nothing else mattered. Part of her wanted to keep their baby so she’d always have a piece of him with her, but she worried the child would only be a painful reminder of his ultimate betrayal.

  Morgan hadn’t known what to do, but it was all a mess of her own making, so she decided that perhaps she’d be better served letting her parents choose the best course. She hadn’t been sure if they were going to send her off to Switzerland or something to have the child in secret and give it up for adoption, let her keep it, or raise it as their own, and she never did find out. Their plans ended up not mattering in the end.

  At twenty-five weeks, just a few days after Christmas, something went wrong. She just didn’t feel right and went in to see her obstetrician. Morgan’s blood pressure was through the roof. She sat in a hospital room for a week, spending New Year’s Eve under the doctors’ careful watch while they tried to get it down. They hadn’t wanted to deliver the baby that early. It was risky. Too risky, even with the latest technology. But it was a dangerous situation for Morgan, too. Soon it became clear they didn’t have a choice or they would lose them both.

  Dawn Mackenzie Steele had been born via emergency C-section and weighed a little over a pound. Morgan never got to hold her, but if she had, the tiny infant could’ve fit in the palm of her hand. She hadn’t known what she wanted to do until she saw her daughter covered in tubes and wires in an incubator. Then, more than anything, she wanted her baby. She didn’t care what her parents wanted or thought. She wasn’t concerned about scandal or what people would say. She just wanted Dawn to be okay. But that wouldn’t happen. The neonatal intensive care staff did everything they could, but Dawn’s little lungs just weren’t ready for the outside world.

  Morgan didn’t realize she was crying at the wheel until the road started to blur around her. She pulled her car over into a shopping center and turned off the engine. She hugged her stomach like she had after Dawn was gone and rested her head against the steering wheel.

  The tears flowed freely then. It had been a long time since she’d cried for Dawn. Years, maybe, as she’d tried to put her past in the past and focus on her future. That’s what her father had told her to do. He’d held her as she cried. She was his baby girl after all, and he hated that she was hurting. But he came from an upbringing that felt the best way to cope was to forget and move forward.

  It was sad... It was unfortunate, he’d said, but perhaps this was her second chance at having the kind of life he’d always dreamed of for her. She was so young with so much ahead of her. He was certain she would have her babies some day in the future, with a good man who adored her and cared for her the way she deserved.

  Trevor Steele’s words fell on deaf ears, although he never knew it. Then, and even now, there was a part of Morgan that never wanted to marry and have children. She’d tried it once and failed. She wasn’t sure her heart could take the pain of failing at all of it again. So she
’d focused on finishing school, concentrated on her work, made sure she was the good daughter they wanted.

  And she got the hell out of South Carolina.

  A quiet tap at the car window startled Morgan out of her tears. She looked out to see a little old man watching her with concern as he clutched a sack of groceries from the store she’d stopped at.

  She rolled down the window, self-consciously wiping the mascara-stained tears from her cheeks. “Yes?”

  “Are you okay, dear? Is there something I can do?”

  Morgan put on her best practiced smile and shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I just need a minute. You’re sweet to check on me, though. Thank you.”

  The man nodded and smiled back, but she could tell he didn’t believe her. “Have a good day,” he said instead, and continued on to his car.

  Morgan rolled up the window and pulled her visor mirror down to fix her face. Her skin was red and blotchy from the tears and her eye makeup was everywhere. She pulled a tissue from her purse to do what she could, blew her nose and got back on the road before anyone else came to check on her.

  When she pulled in at her parents’ house, she didn’t go inside immediately. Instead, she went around the back of the house toward the gardens. There, beyond the entertaining spaces, right at the edge of some trees, there was a stone bench. Beside it, a marble plaque that was nearly invisible if you weren’t looking for it in the grass.

  What seemed like a nice place to sit and enjoy the gardens was actually the world’s tiniest graveyard. Her family had an ostentatious mausoleum at Magnolia Cemetery where generations of Steeles were laid to rest, but after she lost Dawn, her father had had a small private graveyard designated on their property. He told her that he wanted her to be able to visit whenever she wanted to. It didn’t hurt that no one would see it back there, either.