LITMIR.BIZ

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rest in my office—if I can. Going home means…I’m just not ready.”

      Debbie squeezed my hand. “Of course. You do whatever you need to do.”

      “I think I’ll just sit here for a minute, if you don’t mind.”

      “You need anything?” Alaina asked. “Coffee? Water?”

      “No.” I shook my head.

      “All right, Alaina,” Debbie said. “Let’s give Vanessa some peace and quiet.”

      Moments later they were gone, the heavy conference door closed behind them.

      And I was alone.

      The way I would be from now on. Vanessa Cain, single. No significant other.

      Except for my baby, of course. She was and always would be my world.

      With that thought in mind, I forced myself to stand. As Debbie had so eloquently said, Eli was a louse. Even if he hadn’t been murdered, I would have suffered heartbreak when I learned he’d been cheating on me. This way, I’d been spared the agony of marrying him and then having to deal with a messy divorce.

      I was better off—even if it didn’t feel that way at the moment.

      I headed to my office, not turning to acknowledge the people who were throwing curious glances my way. I’d lost it once. I didn’t plan on having another meltdown. Not over Eli, when he so clearly didn’t deserve my tears.

      In my office, I closed the door and grabbed the bottle of Advil I kept in my desk for the days when the stress at work became too much.

      This definitely counted as one of those times. I downed two capsules with my now cold coffee, then made my way to the small love seat near the window. I had a great view overlooking the Port of Miami and Bayside, a trendy area filled with shops and restaurants along the waterfront. It was a view that normally lifted my spirits, but I didn’t even peer outside as I plopped down on my sofa and closed my eyes.

      I lay there wishing that I could rewind this morning and start over. Actually, I’d rewind to the night before and erase the dumb fight I’d had with Eli. Then he wouldn’t have left, and he wouldn’t have ended up in another woman’s bed.

      And he wouldn’t be dead right now.

      I closed my eyes, tried to force sleep to take me away from this nightmare. It wouldn’t come.

      I couldn’t stop thinking about Eli, trying to imagine the man I’d last seen very much alive suddenly dead. My mind simply couldn’t comprehend this information in a real way. It seemed inconceivable that I wouldn’t see him when I went home later. That I would never see him again.

      He was with another woman.

      Had Eli been killed in a car crash, or gunned down at an ATM, I think I wouldn’t have had such a hard time dealing with the news of his death. But the fact that he’d been cheating on me when it had happened was the ultimate bitter pill to swallow.

      Who was this woman? Had Eli been involved in an ongoing affair with her? Or had he picked her up in a bar last night after he’d left our place? Had Eli truly been in love with me? Or had I been so blinded by my feelings for him that I’d missed all the signs that he was going to break my heart?

      Replaying our life together in my mind, I couldn’t think of any signs I’d missed. Eli had chased me. Eli had been the very definition of a romantic. After a whirlwind courtship, he had proposed to me under the stars while we strolled on the beach.

      We were engaged, for God’s sake. Why propose to me if he didn’t love me? And why be such a great father to Rayna? I could see Eli lying to me, breaking my heart—but not my daughter’s.

      My sister, Nikki, said that what attracted me to Eli was his money, but that wasn’t it. It was his smile. I vividly remembered the day I’d met him. The exact moment, actually.

      I had been at a diabetes fund-raiser at the Eden Roc Hotel, a wine-tasting event that brought out Miami’s movers and shakers. Built in the 1950s, the Eden Roc is one of the landmark resorts on South Beach’s famous Collins Avenue. It is right on the beach, a definite plus, and has one of the best spas in South Florida. Once, the exterior had been completely white, but with the recent renovations, it had been painted a pale shell-pink with green accents, giving it more of an art deco look.

      Debbie knew someone working for the American Diabetes Association, and the organization had needed volunteers for the event. I gladly offered to help out. Free wine and possibly a few bottles to take home—it was a no-brainer.

      Even before Eli approached the table I’d been manning, I noticed him among the crowd of happy, stylishly dressed people. I’d finished pouring two glasses of merlot for an older couple, glanced across the room and saw him instantly. He was with a beefy-looking black man in an expensive mustard-colored suit, a man I recognized immediately as Christian Blake, a former Miami Dolphins running back. Christian had retired two years earlier and now appeared in commercials promoting weight training products for men.

      Christian Blake was all flash, and yet the man who caught my attention was the one he’d been with. Eli. Eli looked sharp in a loose-fitting black blazer and crisp white shirt. And unlike Christian, he hadn’t been sporting a pair of dark sunglasses, so I could easily see his eyes when his gaze met mine. Met and held.

      His eyes lit up like he’d just seen the most beautiful woman in the world. Then his lips had curved into a stunning smile, and for that moment, it felt as if we were the only two people in the place.

      I know that sounds corny, but it’s really the way it happened. Eli didn’t stop looking at me as he approached me from across the room, and I tried to be nonchalant, fiddling with one bottle of wine after the next, acting as if I wasn’t as instantly smitten with him as he appeared to be with me.

      We both knew it was a game, however. Cat and mouse. Hunter and hunted. He was on the prowl, and I was his prey.

      “Can I tell you something?” Eli had asked when he’d reached me. “And I hope you won’t think I’m crazy.”

      I made a show of putting an empty bottle under the table, but said, “Sure.”

      “You have got to be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life.”

      Now, I’ve heard that line before, but from Eli’s lips, I wasn’t compelled to roll my eyes and laugh. Maybe it was because he looked so polished, so damn delicious. Maybe it was because after my last breakup, I needed a good distraction.

      Or maybe it was because I couldn’t deny the instant attraction between us.

      “Would you like some merlot?” I asked, deliberately not responding to his comment. I began uncorking a new bottle, even though there were two open ones on the table.

      “I’ll take anything you want to give me.”

      My hands stilled on the cork, and once again I’d looked into his eyes. The charge between us sent a jolt of heat through my body.

      I cleared my throat. “One glass of merlot coming right up.”

      I fumbled to get the cork out of the bottle, all the while making sure not to look at him. He was over six feet tall, strikingly gorgeous, and had an incredible smile; in other words, I needed to keep my guard up around him. Heck, he was friends with Christian Blake, a man who publicly dated women like it was a new sport he’d taken up after football. And you know what they say about birds of a feather….

      I’d already fallen for a smooth-talking pretty boy named Lewis, the guy I had been trying to get over at the time. I didn’t want to go down that road again.

      “Here you are,” I announced, my hand shaking slightly as I passed him the glass of wine.

      “My name’s Eli,” he said.

      “That’s nice,” I replied.

      “Ouch.” He winced. “So it’s like that?”

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