A Beauty Uncovered

by Andrea Laurence

  Kissing her boss. Again. She was determined to let history repeat itself. Last time was a disaster. Why would it be any different now?

  Sam placed her hands against Brody’s chest and gently pushed until their lips parted and he eased back. They stood still, their warm breath lingering in the space between them. Finally, she crouched down to gather up the paperwork she dropped and pressed the mess of the distribution proposal against his chest.

  Brody took another step back, clutching the wild scattering of paper. But his eyes didn’t leave hers. There was a curious expression there as he watched her. His eyes narrowed, confusion and distrust still evident, but eventually, that faded into confidence.

  And then, for the first time, the corners of Brody’s mouth curled upward and he smiled at her. Her knees started to quiver beneath her. His smile was so charming it caught her off guard. His whole face lit up, his eyes twinkling with a touch of mischief. It made him even more handsome, if she could believe it. His smile made her want to tell him stories to make him laugh. It made her want him all the more.

  A hot flush swept over her body as the rush of arousal from their kiss surged through her with no outlet. Her fingertips tingled where she touched him and ached to reach for him again. Her heart was still racing, although the flash of his smile had caused a momentary skip in her chest.

  This was bad. Very bad. She needed to get out of here before she completely lost her mind and started taking her clothes off.

  Turning on her heel, Sam rounded the pinball machine and ran from Brody’s office, slamming the door shut behind her.

  Four

  Sam didn’t say good-night when she left. Brody had simply looked up at his surveillance monitor at some point and noticed her desk was empty and her coat was gone. It was just as well. If she’d tried speaking to him, he doubted he would’ve managed a sensible response.

  Even three hours later, the cacophony of thoughts in Brody’s head made it hard for him to think. He’d gotten zero work done. There was no way he could focus properly. In a flash, so many things had gone right and wrong at once.

  She’d kissed him. Really kissed him. It wasn’t some chaste peck or tight-lipped obligation. It had fallen nearly into the “making out” category, by his assessment, such as it was. But she’d also snuck into his office, spied over his shoulder and completely invaded his personal space. It didn’t really matter, though. Brody found he couldn’t be mad at her while he could still taste that cherry gloss on his lips.

  It had been a long time since Brody had been kissed by a girl. The week before his accident, Macy Anderson had kissed him at the bus stop after school. Seventeen years later, the woman Xander set him up with kissed him. Mainly so she could get close enough to steal his credit card. But compared to what just happened in his office, they hardly counted.

  Brody didn’t like to think about the parts of his life he had missed out on because of his father’s temper. It wasn’t only depressing, it was embarrassing. The burden of it grew with each passing year, making it harder to bear yet more critical to hide. So much so that not even his brothers knew the full extent of it.

  But even as desperate as Brody was, getting what he wanted would require him to open himself up to someone. There was no way he could keep all of his secrets hidden. He would just have to decide what was more important if the moment ever arrived. So far, he hadn’t had to choose.

  Would Sam have kissed him if she knew he’d never…?

  Brody shook his head. He wasn’t going to taint the moment any more than it was already was. It was a milestone he wanted to savor, but he couldn’t waste his time fantasizing about his secretary. Something more important had happened. It was bad timing that she’d come into his office at the worst possible moment. She’d seen his name on the computer screen.

  He’d been so engrossed in his work that she could’ve driven a tractor through his office and he wouldn’t have noticed. Between the time that he buzzed for the file and she brought it to him, his world had started to crumble. The day had come. The one he’d been anxiously waiting for. One of his web crawler queries had turned up something. Someone was looking for Tommy Wilder.

  Damn it.

  Just like the one that searched for Brody Butler, there was another crawler that sought out any interest in Tom, Thomas or Tommy Wilder. If someone, somewhere, was looking for him, Brody wanted to be the first to know. Once he assessed the risk, he and his brothers could determine what action needed to be taken. It was imperative that Tommy not be found and that questions not be asked about his current whereabouts.

  That’s because his location for the past sixteen years was a makeshift grave on the property where they grew up.

  The Eden kids never talked about that day. It was as though they decided as a group that they could pretend it never happened if no one mentioned it ever again. They all went on with their lives, became successful and wealthy. But nothing they did or achieved could erase those memories. You can’t forget the sight of that much blood. You just have to focus on other things.

  That had worked for a long time. Then about a year ago, everything changed. Julianne had called in a panic last Thanksgiving when she discovered their parents had sold off a large portion of the family property. The part where Tommy was buried. All three plots were being developed and ran the risk of uncovering his remains.

  The question was, which plot? Only his older brother Wade knew where Tommy’s body was located and even then, after all this time, it was a good guess. They sprang into action and Wade returned to Cornwall to buy back the property. He’d been unsuccessful in his initial attempt, but given he was currently engaged to the woman that owned the land, the Eden children felt fairly secure that they’d retained control of the right plot and Tommy’s body wouldn’t be found.

  All but Brody. And he hated to be proven right about these kinds of things.

  Now that Sam had gone home for the day and he had finally quelled the distracting desire she stirred in him, he returned to the report on his machine. According to his records, someone had entered the search query Tommy Wilder Cornwall Connecticut with a variety of other keyword combinations including jail, dead, and arrested. Whoever was looking for Tommy didn’t have a lot of faith in what he’d been doing the past sixteen years.

  Fortunately, the person running the Google query was logged in under their Gmail account. In addition to the query details and results, it provided the IP address, internet provider, location and email address of the person running the search.

  dwilder27. A Hartford, Connecticut, connection.

  It would take a little legwork to figure out who this dwilder27 was and what he was after, but it was obvious he was a relative. Tommy had never been very forthcoming about his background. If he had family that might look for him, he kept that to himself. Brody wished he’d kept his hands to himself, too.

  Fortunately, dwilder27’s query hadn’t pulled up any useful results. Mainly because Tommy couldn’t get arrested in his current condition and no one knew he was dead. There was only an old, archived Cornwall news article about Tommy when he ran away from his foster home at the Garden of Eden Christmas Tree Farm. Molly and Ken had reported their oldest foster child as missing, but since his eighteenth birthday was the following week, not much effort went into the search. He was an adult and out of the system regardless of his location. End of story. For now.

  Brody had queried Tommy periodically to make sure nothing else came up. As far as the internet was concerned, Tommy Wilder had vanished from the face of the earth. He hit the button to send the report to his home network and shut down his machines. He grabbed his coat, scooped up his laptop bag and headed for the elevator.

  Passing through the multiple security measures he put in place was like a soothing ritual to him now, the barriers carefully crafted layers of protection. He was happy to be a ghost, an
enigma. That was better than the reality.

  A swipe of his badge and a scan of his thumbprint opened up the private elevator doors. On the ground floor, he turned away from the exit Sam and Agnes used to a narrow corridor. At the end was another door. A second badge swipe and rotating key code opened up his private entrance and exit to the building. Waiting for him was his car—a black Mercedes sedan with a tint job on the windows that was illegal in some states. He supposed he could’ve selected something flashier, but he didn’t want to draw attention, just to block it out with the darkened glass.

  As it was, he got a few looks from people who thought he might be somebody. They were wrong. He was nobody.

  It was late to be heading home and traffic was easily navigated out of downtown Boston. Most people probably assumed that as an eccentric multimillionaire, he had some big loft apartment in the city, but nothing could be further from the truth. He’d opted for the exclusive and sprawling suburb of Belmont Hill. The lots were large and wooded, backing up to a bird sanctuary. Chris loved running around the backyard barking at the various birds that dared to light on the fence. Aside from that, it was a very quiet, secluded location. It made his home feel like a private retreat. It also helped that the neighbors kept to themselves.

  It gave Brody the luxury of going outside from time to time during the day. He wasn’t exactly an outdoorsy guy, but shooting hoops in his backyard and digging in his garden made him feel normal and boosted all that vitamin D synthesis. He could have wide-open windows letting light spill in and never worry about someone seeing him. That was something a home in the city could not provide.

  The landscaping lights that highlighted the curve of his driveway were already on by the time he arrived. He enjoyed the fall, but the shorter days were hard because with his hours, he wouldn’t see the sun at all.

  Maybe that was part of what drew him to Sam. She was undoubtedly beautiful, but with her golden hair and bright smile, she was like her own source of sunshine. Simply having her at that desk would be enough to keep the winter blues away. She made him think of his roses.

  Attached to the side of his home was a glass greenhouse. He had started growing roses in there a few years back. He didn’t like watching his plants shrivel and die in winter. When it was cold and dreary, he needed their color and vibrancy as much as they needed the warmth. He had about twenty different varieties growing there, but his favorite was a dark pink hybrid tea rose called Miss All-American Beauty. Maybe he would take one to her tomorrow.

  The click of toenails on the hardwood greeted him as he came through the door. He wouldn’t dare compare Sam to his golden retriever outside of his own mind, but he couldn’t help smiling when he saw them both. Chris, of course, inspired Brody to throw a ball and scratch her belly. He had entirely different ideas where Sam was concerned.

  On cue, Brody smiled as Chris skidded around the corner into the kitchen and then greeted her with an enthusiastic ear scratch. “How was your day?” he asked, anticipating no reply. “I had a great day and a terrible day all at once.”

  Chris sat down and cocked her head to one side while he spoke. Finally, she lifted a paw in the air and placed it sympathetically on his pant leg.

  “More on that later, though. Let’s get some dinner.” He went through the routine of feeding the dog, reading his note from Peggy and plating up whatever dinner she’d left for him that night. Today was roasted lemon chicken and mashed potatoes with freshly shelled peas.

  That handled, he headed into his office with his plate and his dog, ready to start research into the mysterious dwilder27.

  * * *

  “What is going on with you and this new job? You seem tense.”

  Sam looked up from her salad and found herself pinned by the knowing gaze of her best friend, Amanda. She’d avoided talking about her work at ESS. She didn’t know what fell into the confidentiality agreement and what didn’t, but it pained her to keep things from the friend she’d known since junior high. “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve been really quiet lately. You haven’t talked about the new gig at all, which is weird considering how excited you were to finally get a break.”

  “I’ve just been busy,” she said with a dismissive shake of her head. “My supervisor is very demanding.”

  “Who exactly are you working for at…?” Amanda paused with a frown. “Have you even told me where you’re working?”

  Sam didn’t remember if she had. “Eden Software Systems.” Certainly her working there wouldn’t be a secret.

  “How could you have not told me that yet?” Amanda’s eyes lit up with unexpected excitement. She leaned over her lunch and spoke low. “Have you caught a glimpse of the mysterious CEO?”

  This was definitely dangerous territory. “No. I don’t have access to his floor,” she lied.

  “Oh, well,” Amanda said with a sigh.

  Her friend always kept up with celebrity gossip. Insider information on the most elusive CEO in history would be huge on the blogs. There was probably a bounty for details about Brody, but it wouldn’t be enough to pay off the penalty of breaking her agreement.

  “So what’s got you all wound up?”

  Sam bit at her lower lip. Now, more than ever, she needed girl talk. She wanted to confide in her best friend and figure out what to do. Maybe she could stay vague enough to talk but not tell too much. “I think I’ve done something stupid.”

  Amanda’s fork paused in midair. “At work?” Sam nodded. “Well it can’t be as bad as last time. You haven’t slept with your new boss, have you?”

  Her friend’s blunt words might have stung if they hadn’t been so close to the truth. “I haven’t slept with him. But I did kiss him yesterday.”

  Amanda rolled her eyes and shook her head. “This isn’t a conversation for lunch. This is meant for Happy Hour with half-price wine.” She eyed her iced tea with disdain. “What possessed you to kiss your boss? Did he come on to you?”

  “No.” And he hadn’t. She had gone after him. Aggressively. Since almost the first day of work. “I kissed him. Frankly, he seemed a little stunned.”

  “Why on earth would you do that after that mess you went through before? This is the first job you’ve been able to land.”

  “I know. I’m not sure what I was thinking.”

  One of the perks of this job, however strange, should’ve been that her boss was a weird recluse who didn’t come out of his office. Given she’d been fired for sleeping with her last manager, she should’ve been thrilled with the arrangement. The distance was a guaranteed buffer to ensure she couldn’t make the same mistake twice. And yet she’d done everything she could to breach the barrier and coax the beast from its den. And then she’d kissed him.

  Success felt bittersweet. First, she’d found a rose on her desk when she arrived this morning. A single pink rose stood on her desk in a tall silver bud vase. It was a deep fuchsia, her favorite shade of her favorite color, captured in her favorite flower. It was flawless, with silky petals that opened farther as the day went by. Brody didn’t leave a note, but given no one else could get to this floor, there was no question from whom it had come. It was a romantic gesture. Not some over-the-top, massive bouquet. One single, perfect rose for one single, perfect kiss.

  Then Brody had come out to see her twice this morning. He’d been surprisingly chatty, asking her about her evening and other pleasantries. Oddly enough, they’d both avoided the subjects of the kiss and the rose. Later, he had asked her—politely—to bring his lunch into his office before she went to meet Amanda, so she was able to enter his private space without being harassed.

  Somehow, by invading his domain, she had tamed the beast. It was good and bad all at once.

  “Is he married?”

  “No,” Sam said emphatically. She was pretty darn certain this time. He seemed too isolated for
that, and Agnes had told her he was single. She would know. “And he’s nothing like Luke. It’s a completely different situation. But it complicates everything.”

  “Kissing your boss can do that. Here’s a question for you, though—do you want to kiss him again?”

  Sam took a deep breath and admitted the truth to herself. She did. It was so unproductive. So complicated. And yet she couldn’t help the way he made her feel.

  Her affair with her last boss had been purely physical. He was far too involved with himself to contribute any emotion to their relationship, and she was aware of it. It wasn’t until later that she realized why. Brody was different. He aroused all the same physical desires, along with a protective instinct and emotional longings she couldn’t ignore. Combined, it cranked up the intensity dial of her body to a point where she could barely concentrate when she was around him.

  Brody was like an injured tiger. Dangerous, beautiful, fascinating…and yet, she couldn’t fight the need to fix the hurt she saw in those blue eyes. Someone needed to be brave enough to go into his cage. Sam wanted to be the one. Even when she knew she could get bitten.

  “I do,” she finally said aloud.

  “So, he’s not married. He’s not a sleaze. He’s got a good job. You’re interested in him, or you wouldn’t want to kiss him a second time. If he’s interested in you, what’s the problem? This is a temporary job, after all.”

  Amanda always had a gift for cutting through the mental clutter to get to the heart of the issue. That’s why Sam needed to talk to her so badly. She just wasn’t sure it was that simple. Her body seemed to think so, but it had proven on more than one occasion that it couldn’t be trusted. “I guess I’m worried it won’t end well. I don’t want to make the same mistake twice.”

  “Honey, I saw you go through that mess with Luke. I’m pretty sure you learned your lesson. Don’t be so hard on yourself. If this guy really is different, you can’t let that cloud your judgment. Take it slow. See what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised.”