Her heart pounded. He’d come after her. Did this mean…?
Hope faded as she looked at him. Tension tightened his hard features and knotted the muscles under his dark gray T-shirt.
An awkward silence thickened the air.
“Are you responsible for the leak to the Wall Street Journal?” His black gaze bore into her.
Tessa shrank back. “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “Apart from the principals at the meeting, who all signed a confidentiality agreement, you are the only person who was privy to the most recent financial details. Even the auditors haven’t seen them yet.”
“And you think I leaked them to the press? I would never do that.” Horror soaked through her. He thought she was capable of that kind of betrayal?
She swallowed hard and forced back sharp tears.
Obviously their kisses, their caresses had meant less than nothing to him.
And they’d meant so much to her.
He glanced around her apartment. “Moving, I see.”
“Yes.” She could barely get the word out. She needed him out of here now, before she started bawling. “I didn’t leak the information and I have packing to do. Could you please leave?”
Her voice quavered on the last word, dangerously close to a sob. Sebastian’s expression softened for a moment, then closed over again. Hard and rigid.
He backed toward the door, perhaps unwilling to take his eyes off her because he didn’t know what she’d try next.
She held herself steady, lifted her chin. Dared him to believe what he wanted about her.
His unrelenting gaze made her knees tremble, as it always had. But this time a claw of sadness gripped her heart.
He turned and left the room.
Tessa sagged, barely able to stay on her feet as she watched him head for the stairs.
She knew it was just a fling. A stupid fling. A mistake.
Her carefully planned future with Patrick might not have been filled with sweaty nights of passion, but it could have brought the joys of children and family life. That was a dream that might have actually come true.
But now? She’d chucked it all away to fall madly in love with a man who thought so little of her that he believed she’d betray him and his company.
A loud, ugly sob flew from her mouth.
Did he think she was out for revenge?
Perhaps she should want revenge for how he’d seduced her. She felt so broken now. Something had been taken from her, something she never knew she had until Sebastian found it deep in her.
The capacity for sheer joy.
Now that she’d lain in Sebastian’s arms, her body intertwined with his hard muscle, her mind and soul aloft with bliss, she’d never be happy with an ordinary “relationship” again.
Sebastian crashed down the stairs, his heart racing.
He had a hard time thinking straight after he saw those boxes. Tessa was packing to move to California, exactly as she’d planned.
He’d planned to greet her warmly, win her back. Until he saw that she’d already moved on. Left him behind, part of her old life.
He hadn’t meant to rudely accuse her, but the pain of seeing her preparing for her new life without him had cut him to the quick and made fresh, poisonous doubts spring into his mind.
She’d denied leaking the information, but she’d seemed tense, strung out…afraid.
Like someone who’d done something they shouldn’t have.
He thumped his hand on the metal railing and cursed the hot wave of desire that had crashed through him at the sight of her face. Of her long, lean body encased in faded jeans and a skimpy white tank top.
His chest ached, too. He’d climbed the stairs on a crest of anticipation and adrenaline, footsteps springing with hope and excitement at the prospect of seeing Tessa again.
But those emerald eyes had greeted him with suspicion.
With hostility.
An ugly curse flew from his lips as he bolted out into the hot, late-September-afternoon sun of the Brooklyn street. His limo was parked up the block and he stalked over to it in the foulest mood of his life.
How could he have been so wrong about her? He’d dreamed of making her his future queen. Of sharing his life with her.
Was she angry he’d forced her to stay when she wanted to go to California? Was she upset that he’d seduced her?
He slammed the limo door and fell against the seat. “Back to Park Avenue.” His driver had the tact not to turn around or inquire after his activities.
Sebastian clenched his fists as regret soaked through him. He’d coaxed Tessa into bed while she was an employee and he had authority over her. And when he knew that she was involved with another man.
Maybe she had good reason to be angry.
He could have handled things differently.
No, he couldn’t. He’d been completely besotted by her. Common sense didn’t stand a chance when he saw the Caspian sun dance in her golden hair and heard her laughter mingle with birdsong high on the mountaintop.
He held his head in his hands.
Tessa was still leaving for California with another man.
Sebastian’s first experience with total rejection hurt like a crushing blow to his chest. His natural instinct was to fight back, to slay his opponent and emerge victorious in the tradition of his ancestors.
But he was wise enough to know that no true victory came from sheer force.
The phone was ringing as he shoved open the door to his apartment at 721 Park Avenue
. He walked right past the phone on the foyer table, slammed into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water, waiting for the machine to pick up.
Incessantly it rang, pounding his aching brain. The machine must be full. That happened sometimes when there was no one around to check it. Now he needed a new house sitter and a new assistant. Was there no one he could depend on?
He marched back into the foyer, picked up the receiver and barked, “What?”
“Sebastian, darling.”
Faris. He narrowly resisted the urge to slam the phone down. It was probably she who had filled the machine, though, so he might as well find out what she wanted and get her out of his hair.
“I heard how your former assistant leaked proprietary information to the Wall Street Journal. I’m just sick about it! You think you know people, but you can’t trust anyone these days. It’s so hard to find good staff.”
Sebastian’s tongue twitched with words that might have flown off it if he weren’t so used to representing his nation in everything he said and did.
“We don’t know who leaked the information.” He hated Faris gloating over Tessa’s betrayal. It fomented something ugly and painful in his gut.
“Oh, come on, darling! I know you had a bit of a soft spot for her, but really. They probably threw some money at her and she blabbed it all.”
“I hardly think the Wall Street Journal is offering cash for tip-offs.”
“All those proprietary details. Shocking! I do hope she doesn’t spill any other more personal information to the press.” Her smarmy tone made his back stiffen.
“Tessa would never do that.” His voice rumbled with conviction that he truly felt.
“Still defending her? Oh, sweetheart, I’d better fly out there and kiss you all better.”
“Please don’t.” He ended the call, his flesh crawling at the prospect of Faris’s lip-gloss-drenched kisses.
Something still gnawed at him.
And it wasn’t anything as transient as lust.
It was doubt.
Could Tessa really have leaked company information? He couldn’t truly accept the idea. Defending her came as naturally as breathing.
Probably because he was such a sucker for her.
He slammed the phone into its cradle on the hall table, which caused a cascade amongst the mail piled there. Envelopes, cards and junk mail slid down onto the parquet floo
r.
He bent to grab a handful of it, and something caught his eye.
An envelope. A slim beige rectangle. Nothing strange about it, except that it looked eerily familiar.
He slit it open with his thumb.
Black ink crawled over the pages like a drunken spider. “Sebastian darling, I…” He crumpled it and was about to throw it on the floor when that gnawing sensation in his gut turned into sharp claws.
He unfolded the paper with the same revulsion he’d felt at the dining table in Caspia when he opened an identical envelope with an identical piece of paper inside it.
Different writing. Same person.
He let the paper and his hand fall to the table and he leaned on it for a moment. Faris had written him that sleazy, threatening note telling him not to marry a foreign bride and insulting Tessa by name.
That truly surprised him. He wouldn’t have thought even Faris capable of something quite so vulgar.
What else might she try?
The spore of suspicion mushroomed in his brain. Her father was in the meeting about Caspia Designs. Faris could easily have teased some details about the company out of him.
Another thought soaked into his cortex. The article had very specific information about Château D’Arc and its disastrous recent debts. No doubt the reason Pierre de Rochefauld had been so reluctant to show his face at the meeting.
But Tessa didn’t know about the new debts. They didn’t come up until late in the afternoon.
After she’d already left.
A fierce surge of adrenaline stung Sebastian’s muscles. He was going to the offices of the Wall Street Journal right now to find out the source of this information.
As he strode through the lobby of his building, mind racing, he almost knocked right into his neighbor Amanda Crawford. The lively event planner was tall, blond and beautiful.
But she wasn’t Tessa.
He managed a friendly greeting and a kiss on the cheek.
She gave him a faux-stern look. “I don’t think I ever got your RSVP for our party celebrating the landmark status of this old heap.” She gestured around the glittering marbled space of the lobby.
“Oh, yeah.” He grimaced. “Sorry, my mail is a disaster as I haven’t been here much. Carrie quit and I don’t have a new house sitter yet. I saw the invite in the mess, though. I’ll be sure to come if I’m in the country.”
Amanda leaned into him, her gray eyes twinkling with mischief. “Lucky thing you’re so lovable, Sebastian. You already missed the party. But never mind about that, you’ve also missed the juiciest gossip of the decade while you were away. The police seem to think that Marie Endicott’s death was a homicide.”
Sebastian froze. “You’re kidding.” Marie was the younger sister of his friend Drew from boarding school. He’d known her as a cute, curly-haired pest, then later as a successful woman with her own real-estate firm. She’d lived in the building for a while, until one day she jumped off the roof. An apparent suicide.
Amanda grabbed his arm. “Not kidding. Apparently there are tapes of the incident. From security cameras on the roof. I guess they prevent burglars sneaking in from adjoining buildings or something. But the tapes have gone missing.”
Sebastian’s chest tightened. “That’s terrible. Who would kill Marie?”
“That’s what everyone wants to know. Bizarre, isn’t it?” Her conspiratorial whisper chilled his blood.
How did such terrible things happen? His heart went out to her brother and parents. “I hope they catch whoever did it. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“It’s shocking how many crimes go unsolved in this city.” Amanda shook her head.
He bid her goodbye, cursing the harm cruel people inflict on others.
I know one crime that won’t go unsolved.
Sebastian wasn’t leaving the newspaper offices until he uncovered the source of the leak.
Twelve
S ebastian flew out of the Wall Street Journal offices on a wave of excitement.
A staffer told him the story was put together at the European office in Brussels, where one of Sebastian’s oldest friends worked as an editor. Sebastian got his friend on the phone, he’d talked to the reporter, and within minutes he had all the information he needed. He didn’t even have to ask them to reveal their source.
Faris had leaked the information.
Keeping calm, Sebastian offered a story on how he intended to turn the companies around within the year. He talked to a New York reporter for more than an hour about Caspia Designs and its challenges and prospects for the future, until Sebastian excused himself on the pretext of urgent business.
Very urgent business.
He jumped into his waiting limo and slammed the door. “Tessa’s apartment in Brooklyn, and hurry!”
Tessa had nothing to do with the story. The reporter confirmed that he had never heard of her.
Sebastian’s heart threatened to beat right out of his chest as he thought of the way he’d cruelly accused her and refused to take her word for her innocence. He wouldn’t be able to eat or sleep until he’d offered her his most profound apologies.
But she wasn’t there.
Repeated ringing on the doorbell followed by calling up to the open windows brought one of her neighbors to the door. The bearded young man explained that she’d moved out, with all her belongings, about two hours earlier.
She’d left no forwarding address.
Cursing, Sebastian figured he’d earned the humiliation of tracking her down at Patrick Ramsay’s. It didn’t take long to find out where the divorce-lawyer-to-the-stars kept his private office, and Sebastian pulled up in front of the midtown brownstone intent on a dignified and gentlemanly exchange.
As he climbed out of the car, the man in question appeared at the top of the wide stairs, wearing a gray pinstriped suit and carrying a furled umbrella.
Sebastian squared his shoulders. “I’d like to see Tessa.”
Pale eyes squinted at him. “Who are you?”
“Sebastian Stone. I’m her…” His heart yearned to say “I’m her lover” but he held himself in check. “I’m her former employer.”
“Oh, right. The prince.” His tone of derision caused Sebastian’s hackles to rise.
Still, this was the man Tessa had chosen. He held himself steady. “May I speak with her, please?”
“You may speak with whomever you like. You won’t find her here, though.”
“Where is she?”
“Hell if I know. I got a Dear John phone call a few days ago. Just as well, as I’ve been offered a big new case here in New York and won’t be able to make the move we’d discussed. I assume she told you that we were—”
“Yes.” Sebastian cut him off before he could use any unpleasant descriptive phrases. A ray of hope flashed through him as the lawyer’s words sank into his brain. “She broke off with you?”
“Yes. Ironic, really, since a week ago she was hinting about marriage and all that jazz. Hardly my cup of tea when I spend all day rending asunder what the good Lord has joined together.” He laughed.
Sebastian clenched his fists. “Where do you think she went?”
“No idea. For all I know, she went to California without me.”
Panic flashed through Sebastian.
“I doubt it, though,” Patrick continued. “She didn’t know anyone there and she’s not the type to jump off a precipice.” He leaned toward Sebastian. “She’s a sweet girl. You will give her job back if she asks, won’t you?”
“Yes,” Sebastian rasped, slightly revising his opinion of Ramsay.
But I hope to give her so much more.
He headed to where his limo idled in an illegal parking space. As they drove back to Park Avenue, he tried to rack his mind for someone who might know where Tessa would be. Maybe if he combed through the Rolodex she’d recently reorganized for him, he’d come up with something.
He’d left her on the brink of tears, devas
tated that he thought her a traitor to the company.
He’d assumed her behavior sprang from guilt. Now he was sure—so sure—that it came from the pain of seeing his lack of faith in her.
He crashed through the doors of 721 Park Avenue
with such force that the women waiting for the elevator swung around to see what all the commotion was. Carrie and Julia.
Carrie waved. “Hi, Sebastian.” His former house sitter looked radiant with happiness. She still lived in the building with her husband, Trent Tanford. Sebastian held Trent personally responsible for his own overloaded answering machine and teetering stacks of mail.
Still, he didn’t begrudge Carrie her happiness. He kissed her on both cheeks. “Marriage appears to be treating you well.”
“It is. And we’re getting married again.” She blushed.
“Already? To whom?” He raised an eyebrow and tried not to grin.
“Each other, of course. But our last wedding was kind of…rushed. This time we’re going to make it perfect.” Her eyes sparkled. “You will come, won’t you?”
“I can never resist a wedding.” Sebastian did enjoy weddings, with their promise of a bright future and children and the continuation of life’s cycle. All Caspians loved weddings.
His heart squeezed.
If he could just find Tessa and convince her to marry him.
“Do you notice something different about Julia?”
“What?” Carrie’s words tugged him back to the present. He scanned Julia. He’d heard that the former resident of his building had married Wall Street whiz Max Rolland a couple of months ago. She’d moved into his place just a block or so away. Julia looked lovely as always, her blue eyes shining and her skin glowing with good health. Perhaps a little plumper than usual, but he wasn’t idiotic enough to say that.
Julia laughed. “I’m pregnant, Sebastian. Five months, in fact, so don’t worry about noticing my expanded girth.”
“Congratulations.” He kissed her on both cheeks, and again for luck. His heart tugged again. “Your baby will bring you and Max so much joy.”
Joy he wanted to share with Tessa.
Pain sent a surge of adrenaline spearing through him. He grabbed Carrie’s arm. “Carrie, you and Tessa were friends, weren’t you?”
Prince of Midtown Page 13
