by Kwan, Coleen
“Lex doesn’t talk about business much,” she said.
He gave a quick grunt. “Huh. You’re very loyal. Lex should count himself lucky to have you.”
“I don’t follow you.”
“Come on. You must know there’s a coolness between Lex and me. I wouldn’t call it frosty, but it’s definitely on the chilly side.”
Were all the Rochesters this blunt with virtual strangers? Or was it because they saw her as Lex’s girlfriend? The thought of Lex made her frown. He was so damned guarded about his relatives, but if he’d told her why he didn’t get along with each of them, he might have spared her some embarrassment. In contrast to Lex’s tight-lipped silence, Kirk seemed too eager to spill the beans on him. That didn’t sit well with Jacinta.
Resting hands on hips, she fixed Kirk with a sharp stare. “Why are you telling me all this? Are you trying to stir up trouble between Lex and me?”
He blinked. “What?”
“I know you and Lex aren’t the best of friends, but Lex hasn’t given me the details. He hasn’t bad-mouthed you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I wasn’t trying to...” Kirk began before he heaved a sigh. “Okay, yes, you’re right, and I’m out of line. I’ll shut up. I don’t know what it is about Lex that brings out the worst in me.” He exhaled another breath. “And to think we used to be such close friends when we were boys.”
“You were?”
“Yeah. We’re the same age. We spent vacations together here at Mariposa, and we went to the same school. But as we became older, we drifted apart.” He lifted his shoulders. “I guess our personalities are just too different.”
And then there was Alison, his late wife and Lex’s ex-girlfriend. But she couldn’t ask about her.
She started walking toward the house. “Maybe you and Lex could still be friends.”
“Maybe.” Kirk sounded dubious. “But these days he doesn’t seem to trust me at all.”
What was new? When she and Lex had been a couple, he hadn’t trusted her enough to confide in her. He’d kept her apart from his family, kept himself apart too. And even now, in the depths of his crisis, he couldn’t bring himself to talk about the rifts separating him from his cousins and uncle. His patent lack of trust pierced her. Well, why would he trust her when he didn’t care for her?
They walked up a flight of stone stairs and reached a terrace that bordered the house. As they climbed the final stair, Jacinta’s heel caught on the stone riser. She stumbled forward, in danger of falling until Kirk steadied her.
“Thanks.” She smiled at him just as Lex emerged from the house. Kirk’s hand dropped away from her arm as Lex strode over, his shoulders straining against his shirt.
“Are you okay there?”
“Yes, fine.” She blinked at him, surprised by the stiffness in his expression. “Kirk here just saved me from an embarrassing face-plant.”
“Hey, Kirk.” Lex nodded at his cousin, his lips lifting into something that resembled a grimace more than a smile. “I see you’ve already met Jacinta.”
“That’s right. I showed her around the garden.”
Lex’s gaze flicked between his cousin and Jacinta. “Oh? I was going to take Jacinta on the tour.”
“It was no big deal.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t.” The top button of Lex’s shirt looked in danger of popping off. He drew her to him, draping his arm ostentatiously around her shoulders. It was a deliberate move for his cousin’s benefit, she was sure, the kind of Neanderthal tactic that usually didn’t impress her, but this time she didn’t know what to make of it.
She cleared her throat. “Do you think I could get a cold drink from somewhere? I’m parched.”
Lex pressed his weight into her. “Let’s go inside. There’s a cold buffet in the dining room.” Still holding her, he steered her into the house.
…
Lex stayed silent as they reached the dining room. There was no one else in there. A sideboard groaned with platters of cold meats and salad, while several small tables had been set up around the room, bistro style.
He shouldn’t have been so short with Kirk. But the sight of him holding Jacinta so closely had stirred up a powerful sensation in him, and he’d grabbed her almost instinctively. He still had his arm around her waist, was enjoying the feel of her body too much to let go, but she peeled herself free as soon as they stopped moving.
“Do you and your cousin always act like growling hyenas toward each other?” Jacinta asked.
Lex opened a refrigerator concealed behind the wall paneling and took out two bottles of iced tea. “I let him get to me. I shouldn’t have.” He handed her one of the bottles. “Do you want anything to eat? It’ll be a while before we have dinner.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“You obviously know the answer already, so why ask?” He picked up a plate, stabbed a piece of ham, and dropped it onto his plate.
“I want to hear it from you.” She pursued him as he added coleslaw to his plate. “Tell me why you and Kirk don’t get along.”
He moved to a table in the corner and pulled out a chair for her. Kirk was the one person who might have cottoned onto the secret Lex was hiding if he hadn’t been occupied nursing and then grieving his late wife. Was he the mole? What had he and Jacinta talked about on their private walk? The questions made him chomp harder.
“Well?” she prompted as he continued to eat in silence. “You want me to help you find who’s leaking information. If you suspect your cousin, then you have to tell me why.”
“It’s a long story.”
Lowering her voice, she said, “If it helps, I already know about Alison Hancock.”
He blinked at her before slowly setting down his knife and fork. “And what exactly do you know?”
Jacinta squirmed. “Well, she was your girlfriend first. But she married Kirk instead.”
“That’s right.” He contemplated his half-finished meal as he thought about Alison. “I always wondered whether Kirk married Alison just because she went out with me first.”
Jacinta’s eyes grew round.
“Did that sound like a cheap shot?” Lex pushed aside his plate, his appetite gone, and leaned his arms on the table. “Kirk and I were always competing against each other. It started at school and never stopped. If I excelled at math, then he had to beat me in English. If I became captain of the football team, then he had to be head of the basketball team. If I landed a big deal, then he had to land an even bigger one.”
“And vice versa?”
He lifted his shoulders. “Okay, yeah, I wasn’t immune to a bit of one-upmanship myself. My dad encouraged it, said it was good for the company.” Survival of the fittest, he’d said. And he expected Lex to be the fittest, to take over as CEO when the time came. “Kirk and I kept our rivalry to business until I started seeing Alison. She and Kirk met at the company Christmas party. Shortly afterward, I went to Europe for a couple of months on business. When I came back, they were an item. They got engaged a week later.”
Jacinta hunched her shoulders, as if reluctant to hear what he was saying. “You must have been hurt, angry,” she said, her voice quiet.
“Not really. It wasn’t a complete surprise. Oh, I didn’t think she’d hook up with Kirk, but I knew she wasn’t happy with the way things were going with us.”
His brief affair with Alison had quickly fizzled out. He’d let things slide between them, had deliberately avoided her. He should have broken things off cleanly, but business consumed his hours, and he’d assumed they could manage a civilized breakup when he got back to San Francisco. When he did return Alison and Kirk were together, and that was that. His pride had taken a bit of a hit, but he’d been secretly relieved.
Jacinta gazed solemnly at him. “Out on the terrace, you grabbed me like I was the last Popsicle on a scorching hot day. Maybe you haven’t completely forgiven your cousin for taking Alison.”
Hell, the reason he�
�d grabbed her had nothing to do with Alison and everything to do with male instinct. He’d reacted like a primitive caveman claiming his mate. My woman, his brain had snarled, and his body had responded. But he’d be damned if he’d admit she had that kind of hold over him.
“You’re wrong,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, Kirk was more than welcome to Alison.”
Her gaze veered past him, her face tightening with dismay. As he turned, his heart sank when he saw Kirk, Holly, and Uncle Ralph standing in the doorway. By their censorious expressions, they’d overheard his last line.
Silently he cursed his bad timing. He should have known talking about his relatives would be disastrous.
…
By the time Jacinta had dressed for dinner, she was exhausted and wishing she could crawl into the comfortable bed in their room and fall asleep. Her day had been full, she was dead tired, but now she had to go downstairs and mingle with twenty-five of the Rochesters’ nearest and dearest.
The door to the bathroom opened, and Lex strode out, bare to the waist. She jerked upright, her fatigue evaporating at the sight of him half naked. In the flesh he was way more magnificent than any of her dreams about him. His tanned, sculpted abs arrested her attention. The smattering of hair on his chest made her fingers twitch with the urge to trace the line of hair as it arrowed down his flat stomach and disappeared beneath the waistband of his black trousers. He stopped in front of the mirror and wiped his chin with a towel, his shoulder muscles flexing in the soft light. The pants hugged the curve of his butt. Oh, what a perfect butt he had. Heat flashed through her. She bit her lip to stop a telltale moan from escaping.
“Wanna have a quickie?” Lex grinned.
He could see her in the mirror, she realized. Could see her checking him out. And blushing now. How the hell could he sound crude and irresistible at the same time?
She met his brazen stare. “I’ll admit you’re a beefcake, but I’m on a strict diet.”
“I’m fat-free. Look.” He pinched his lean torso. “Here, test me if you don’t believe me.”
She couldn’t help grinning. His banter sent a fizz through her bloodstream faster than champagne. “Fat-free is misleading. It’s the calories you have to watch.”
“Just think of all the calories you’d burn if you let me have my way with you.”
“No thanks, I’m on a heart smart diet.”
Shoot. Why had she said that? Heart smart. Now he would think she was still hung up on him. He reached for his shirt, his face slightly wooden.
To cover her discomfit, she bent down and pretended to adjust the strap of her high-heeled sandals. When she straightened, Lex had buttoned his shirt, put on his bow tie and his jacket, and was busy combing his hair. They were just like a regular couple dressing up for the evening, she thought with a pang.
“You look very nice,” he said, breaking the growing silence.
“You think so?” Oh God, why that squeak in her voice, betraying her need for his approval? She tweaked the skirt of her cherry red crêpe dress, then patted the sides of her classic updo to smooth down any stray hairs.
He walked toward her. “That dress looks great on you. I should have bought you some diamond earrings to set it off.” He reached out and touched her earlobe briefly.
“Oh...” Her heart jumped at his light touch. “No.”
He frowned. “Jacinta, the jewelry I bought for you, why did you return it all?”
She had to take a couple of breaths to calm herself. “Because after we broke up, I had no right to any of it.”
He shifted closer, and desire snaked through her. She had no antidote to his black-suited handsomeness. “They were gifts. I wanted you to have them. Still do.”
Unexpected tears gathered behind her eyes. The fabulous jewels—a fortune to her, a trifle to him—had been repositories of memories she needed to forget. “It wasn’t right to keep them.”
She kept her gaze on his bow tie. It was crooked, she observed, so she straightened it. His hand quickly came up and trapped hers, pressing it against his shirt. The heat from his body leaped out and snagged her.
“You’re a funny girl.” There was an odd, affectionate note in his words, as if he admired her, respected her.
“Yeah, I’m a hoot,” she got out, trying to ignore how much she was enjoying the physical contact.
“So many things I’m finding out about you that I never knew before.” He lifted her fingers and pressed them to his lips, sending another flutter through her veins. “But I’m glad some things haven’t changed.”
Like the way just one touch from him makes me shaky with need. He didn’t have to say it—it was so apparent in the way she was swaying toward him.
“We’re going to be late.” Her voice sounded desperate, but for what she wasn’t quite sure.
Reluctantly, he let her hand fall. “We’ll continue this later.”
The promise in his voice made her shiver again. Her barriers were weakening. How much longer could she keep him at arm’s length?
…
At dinner Jacinta found herself seated next to a garrulous second cousin from Boston. As the cousin rambled on about his cross-country trip, she glanced toward the head of the table where Nana Alice sat with Lex and Kirk on either side of her. Both men were suavely handsome in their dark dinner suits, but it was Lex who dominated her attention. She thought of Alison and wondered how any sane woman would have chosen Kirk over Lex.
Across the length of the table, Lex looked up, caught her eye, and winked at her. Her lips twitched into a smile. Had he sensed her staring at him? She’d better pay more attention to her neighbors.
“Do you have a lot of these family reunions?” she asked the talkative cousin.
“Once every couple of years.” The cousin—belatedly she remembered his name was Matthew—dug into his oysters hungrily. “Aunt Alice likes gathering everyone together. Family’s very important to her.”
Jacinta nodded in agreement. Nana Alice was her kind of grandmother.
Matthew dropped the empty oyster shell and reached for another. “Even people who’ve strayed, she likes to bring into the flock just to keep in touch with them.”
“Strayed?”
“Oh, you know. People who aren’t part of the family anymore.” He shoveled in another mouthful before nodding toward the head of the table. “Like Lex’s mother, Estelle. She divorced Lex’s dad years ago, but I know Aunt Alice still keeps in touch with her. That’s why I thought she’d be here, since it’s such a special occasion.”
Jacinta’s fork slid from her fingers. She was too shocked to speak. Lex’s mother was still alive? She’d always assumed she wasn’t because Lex had never mentioned her. But then again, she herself had never talked about her mother. He knew about her issues with her mother, but what were his? Why didn’t Lex talk about her?
“Do you know if she’s coming to the garden party tomorrow?” Matthew asked.
She picked up her fork and focused on her plate. “No, she isn’t.” Otherwise, she was convinced Lex would have mentioned it to her. Wouldn’t he?
The elaborate dinner stretched on, and when it was finally over everyone rose from the table and dispersed into the library, the billiard room, or the terrace. Jacinta hung back from the bustle, hoping to catch Lex, but it was Nana Alice who came up and linked arms with her.
“At last I have you to myself.” She beamed up at Jacinta. “Come and have coffee with me.”
They went into the library where Nana Alice ushered Jacinta to a couch in the far corner away from the others. The housekeeper brought them coffee and left them with a smile.
“Did you enjoy dinner?” Nana Alice gently squeezed Jacinta’s arm. “You look nice and healthy, but an extra pound or two wouldn’t go astray.”
“Dinner was delicious.”
“And what a pretty dress you’re wearing. Silk crêpe de chine, isn’t it? Lovely.”
“Thank you.”
The elderly lady leaned
toward Jacinta, her tone conspiratorial. “Did Lex buy it for you?”
“Um, yes, he did.” No point in lying.
“Lex is a good boy.” Nana Alice lifted her gaze and sighed. “Do you think he takes after his father?”
Following her gaze, Jacinta saw a portrait hanging on the wall nearby. The man in the painting was about sixty. His head was thrown up, his chin jutting out, his eyes piercing beneath thick eyebrows. One glance told her he could only be Lex’s father. They had the same facial bone structure, the same stature, the same coloring.
“They look similar.” She tilted her head to one side. “But only physically. In other ways, they’re very different.”
“Oh? What other ways?”
“Well, he”—she nodded toward the portrait—“looks autocratic, and I know Lex can be high-handed, too, but his father, that curl to the lips, he looks far more...domineering, ruthless.” Then, realizing who she was talking to, she pressed her fingers to her mouth. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that—”
“It’s quite all right. I’m glad you’re so frank.”
“No, that was rude of me. Your own son...” She took a sip of coffee, wishing she were anywhere but here. She was making a fool of herself. Why hadn’t she just said something bland and complimentary?
“There’s no need to apologize. Philip was my son, yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind to his faults.” She breathed out a sigh. “He was domineering and ruthless. I tried my best, but he was always his father’s son. Lex didn’t have an easy time growing up. He’s always been talented, but no matter what his achievements it was never enough for Philip. Since Lex took his place at the company’s helm, I’ve been afraid he’d still be affected by his father’s treatment.”
She turned to Jacinta, her eyes warming. “But what you’ve just said reassures me so much. You obviously know Lex well. You can see he’s not going to turn out like his father. You know all the gentleness and kindness beneath his cool exterior.”
She did? All she’d said was that Lex wasn’t the bully his father appeared to be. Nothing about him being gentle or kind.
