by Coleen Kwan
Chapter Three
“Wow, this Gilbert Challenge sounds fascinating,” Cassie said as they all sat around the dining table finishing lunch. “I’m sure you’re going to do well, Holly.”
“I hope so,” Holly replied, wishing she shared her sister-in-law’s confidence.
“You can kick butt like the best when you want to,” Kirk said with a grin.
Thank god he hadn’t walked in on her and Dane in the conservatory. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t be so supportive if he’d caught her with her tongue down the mouth of one of their rivals. In a public space, too. Her fingers strayed to her blouse beneath which a residual ache lingered in her breasts, reminding her of the orgasm she’d missed out on. She still hadn’t recovered from Dane, dammit.
As soon as Kirk began to clear the table, she jumped up to help him. After they’d cleaned up, her brother assisted Cassie upstairs for a mandatory nap. Holly went in search of her father and found him in the family room gazing at a stack of how-to baby books on the coffee table. Ralph had been very silent during lunch and seemed even more somber now.
Holly’s nerves twitched. She sure as hell hoped he hadn’t seen anything to arouse his suspicions.
“Dad? Is something wrong?”
He glanced at her for a moment. Then he picked up one of the baby books and sank into the nearest armchair.
“I still remember the day your mother said she was expecting your brother. I was just stunned with happiness.” He blinked, his fingers tracing the edges of the book. “She told me at the Halifax Hotel. We went there often; it was our favorite place of all. I took her dancing there on our first date, and three months later I proposed to her there, too. In the ballroom, under the chandeliers.”
“Oh, Dad.” The last thing she’d expected was for her tight-lipped dad to open up like this. She dropped into the armchair beside him, almost too afraid to say anything in case he stopped talking.
“Olivia loved dancing. She was so beautiful, so full of light. I wish you could have seen her dancing at the Halifax Hotel.”
She reached out tentatively and touched his arm. It seemed like an intrusion because her father was not the touchy-feely type, but she couldn’t help herself. “Is that why you want the Halifax Hotel so much? Because of Mom?”
“Yes.” He nodded. He stared off into the distance, lost in his memories. Memories she wished she could share.
“Tell me more about you and Mom. What kind of dancing did you do?”
“Tango, quick step, waltz. I wasn’t very good, I have to admit. At least once a night I trod on your poor mom’s foot, but she never complained. ‘That’s another pair of shoes you owe me, sweetie,’ she’d say.”
A rare smile warmed his face, and again Holly couldn’t contain her surprise. Was this the stiff, humorless father she’d known for so long? While her mom was alive, he’d spent long hours at work, and after her death, he’d spent even more time at the office, avoiding home as much as possible. Then, several years later, he gave up trying to compete with his brother and turned all his concentration on the Rochester Foundation and his art collection, and there he had remained. She’d grown used to his remoteness. But now miraculously he was opening up to her, and all because of the Halifax Hotel.
“We’ll get the Halifax, I promise,” she said impulsively. “And we’ll restore it to what it was before, and the ballroom will look as wonderful as the night you proposed to Mom.”
“That would be great.” Ralph smiled, but a second later his smile faded. “But you’re forgetting we’re up against the Schofields.”
Not the Schofields again. Why did they have to spoil this moment with her dad?
“Dad, I’m not afraid of the Schofields.”
She shouldn’t have allowed Dane to lure her to the conservatory, or let him have free rein with her body. She wouldn’t be making that mistake again.
“The Schofields are vipers.” Ralph’s hand curled into a fist on the armrest.
Holly sighed. “Why do you keep saying that? What did they do that’s so heinous?”
Her father pressed his fist to his mouth. Then he burst out, “Martin Schofield tried to seduce your mother. Is that heinous enough for you?”
Her jaw sagged. “What? But I thought…I thought you and mom were so happy together?”
“We were but—” Her father broke off to haul himself to his feet. He paced up and down. “After Kirk was born, I was under a lot of pressure. I was spending a lot of time at the office, and your mom, well, I neglected her at a time when she needed support. We had a few arguments. I thought it was a temporary setback. I didn’t realize she’d become friends with Martin Schofield. It was all innocent on her part, of course, until he made a move on her, and I happened to come home early for once and walked in on them. Olivia had just slapped him across the face; she was crying. I hit him, threw him out of the house.”
“Oh my god, that’s awful.” Holly wrapped her arms around a stomach that suddenly felt queasy.
“Martin was furious but smug, too. If he couldn’t have Olivia, he’d settle for breaking up our marriage and wreaking havoc on me so I’d be distracted from business.”
“But wasn’t he also married at the time?” she asked, her thoughts jumping to Dane.
“Yes, married with two children, but that never stopped Martin. According to all the gossip, he was a notorious womanizer. I guess illness and age have slowed him down these days.” He paused. “But it’s not him I’m worried about now.” He sat next to Holly and rested his hands on his knees. “You be careful around that son of his, the delinquent one. Be on your guard. Don’t let him fool you.”
She tugged at her skirt as she attempted a nonchalant shrug. “Honestly, Dad, I’m not some doe-eyed innocent. No one’s going to fool me.”
“Are you sure about that? Because I have to tell you, Holly, I saw you looking at Dane Schofield today, and you seemed interested in him.”
“Well, of course I’m interested in him,” she blustered. “He’s the competition, isn’t he? The main competition. The Schofields will want to win just as much as we do. It makes sense that I should find out all his strengths and weaknesses.”
Trouble was, Dane already knew too many of her weaknesses. Like how to kiss her until her bones melted.
“Hmm.” Her father didn’t look convinced. “So you’re not attracted to him?”
Somehow she managed not to flush. “Honestly, Dad, I’m twenty-seven, not some hormone-driven teenager.”
“I just want to make sure he’s not going to turn your head and make you lose focus, that’s all.”
“Oh, that’s all?” Didn’t her dad trust her to get anything right?
“And besides, after what I’ve just told you about your mother, you know I would hate for you to get involved with any of the Schofields.”
She clamped her lips. It wasn’t that she planned on getting involved with anyone, but ordering her not to do something always made her ornery.
“Are you saying I can’t be friends with any of them? Isn’t that a bit medieval?”
Her father gave her a hard look. “I can’t stop you from having friends, Holly, but you’d better believe that I will never welcome any of the Schofields into my family. Is that clear enough for you?”
She dropped her gaze to the carpet. “Yes, Dad.”
***
At six in the evening Dane tapped on the open door of his father’s den before walking in.
“You’re back again?” Martin looked up from his recliner. Two giant TV screens hung on the wall, one tuned into a baseball game, the other showing a stock price and business news feed. “I thought you’d gone for the day.”
After the meeting at the Gilberts, Dane had returned with his father to his penthouse. Martin had given him reams of information about the hotel business, which he expected Dane to absorb over the weekend, then he’d gone to lie down in his bedroom. As soon as Dane was alone, he’d called his PI and told him he needed Holly Rochester’s
address and phone number ASAP.
“I’ve been out with Saffron,” Dane said, dropping into a couch opposite his father. He’d welcomed the chance to get to know his half-sister better, especially since he knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on much until his PI came through with the information. “We went down to Fisherman’s Wharf.”
“Saffron?” his dad barked, raising his eyebrows. “I suppose she conned you into buying a lot of stuff she doesn’t need. That girl is almost as bad as her mother.”
It was obvious his dad had little time for his only daughter, but Dane had enjoyed getting to know his half-sister more. Sure, Saffron was spoiled and juvenile at times, but he sensed there was a lost, sensitive girl behind the bravado.
“We had ice cream, that’s all.” He flicked at a smudge of chocolate ice cream on his jeans.
His father’s eyes narrowed as he glanced at Dane’s T-shirt that featured a skeleton on a bike and the motto Ride or Die. “I see you couldn’t wait to change back to your usual colors.”
“You know I can’t stand suits and ties.” First thing he and Saffron had done was stop by his apartment, where he’d dumped the files his father had given him and quickly changed into his regular jeans, T-shirt, and leather jacket.
“I don’t see why you have to look like a degenerate.”
Dane pressed his knuckles into his thigh to stop himself from biting back. His dad had always been on him over his appearance. The barbed comments still haunted him sometimes. But he refused to be drawn into pointless bickering. Not now, when he had other fish to fry.
“Look, Dad,” he began in a more conciliatory tone. “I want to talk to you about Saffron.”
“Yes, she’s difficult, I know. But you chose to spend all afternoon with her, so don’t complain to me now.” Martin picked up a remote and started to channel surf on one of the TVs.
Dane leaned back and massaged his stomach. “Actually, I liked spending time with her.” He took in a breath. “The thing is, I think she’s getting a raw deal.”
“What do you mean?” Martin asked, his focus on the TV. “She goes to a top private school—that is, when she can be bothered showing up. She has two platinum credit cards, a driver to take her places, and a horse at the equestrian center that costs a fortune to board. What more could she want?”
Some personal attention from her father, maybe. Dane swallowed down the retort. “But what about when you’re gone?”
Martin lowered the remote to stare at Dane. “What’s got into you? She’s in my will. I’m providing for her.”
“I here you’ve nominated Eric as her guardian. Don’t you think it would be better to choose someone else, since they don’t appear to get along?”
“For chrissakes!” Martin exploded. “Don’t tell me she’s been bleating in your ear already! She’s just a teenager. She doesn’t know what’s good for her. Eric is the best choice, and she may as well get used to it because he’ll be managing her trust fund until she turns thirty.”
“What? So Eric will be her trustee too? And until she’s thirty? Come on, that’s way too long.”
Martin’s jowls quivered as he set his jaw. “I’ve made up my mind. And you might as well know that her share of Schofield Enterprises will come with zero voting rights. I don’t want my company divided up and frittered away. I want it to go from strength to strength, and the only way that’s going to happen is by making sure there’s one person in control, and that person is the one who’s shown he’s the best. Survival of the fittest, that’s the only solution.”
Dane shook his head. This was worse than he’d thought. “You mean Eric. So why the hell are you even giving me a chance to share control? Doesn’t that contradict what you just said? One top dog?”
His father leaned back in his recliner and took a sip of water from the glass by his side. “I thought Eric was the top dog until he screwed up one too many times.” A heavy scowl settled on his corrugated brow. “The last deal he let the Rochesters win. That was too much for me to swallow. That’s why I called you, why I’m giving you a chance to prove yourself. If you win the Halifax, you and Eric will get equal shares in Schofield Enterprises, and you’ll have to work out a way to get on together.”
Dane exhaled a breath. “And what about Saffron? Doesn’t she get a chance at running the company?”
His father lifted a shoulder. “Hey, life isn’t always fair.”
Oh, yeah. Dane had had that message well and truly thumped into him. He kneaded his temple where a headache was brewing. It seemed impossible to reason with his dad. The only way to protect Saffron was by gaining his father’s approval.
But that meant going up against Holly Rochester.
Or Olivia, as he’d known her in Lake Tahoe. He still didn’t know why she’d used a fake name, but he was more than pleased he’d bumped into her without having to wait for his PI to track her down.
Once again his mind drifted back to their rendezvous in the conservatory. Holy shit, she was even hotter than he remembered. After two weeks of being tormented by heated memories and wet dreams, it wasn’t surprising that he couldn’t keep his hands off her. Holly brought out the animal in him, and the need wasn’t just physical, it was something more. Nothing emotional, of course—hell, he wasn’t that type of guy—but a kind of mental itch he had to scratch. There was a world of unfinished business between him and Holly, and a competition that pitted them on opposite sides was the last thing he wanted.
“Okay, Dad, I hear you, and I’m happy to prove myself against Eric any day, but the Halifax Hotel could absorb too much time without any outcome. Why don’t I look for another property that doesn’t have so many hoops to jump through?”
“No, it has to be the Halifax.” Jutting out his jaw, Martin picked up the remote again and turned up the volume on the baseball game.
Dane raised his voice. “Come on, there must be plenty of other rundown hotels that would be easier to buy.”
“What’s the matter, son? Scared of that bit of skirt the Rochesters put up? Afraid she’ll wrap you round her little finger and run rings around you?”
Dane’s stomach roiled, but he tamped down the anger. “The Gilberts are kinda wacky, unpredictable. There’s no knowing how they’ll judge this competition.”
“Which is why you should be happy to participate, because you’ve got just a good a chance as everyone else. So go home, and get some rest, because I want that Halifax Hotel in three weeks’ time.” He jabbed the remote and pushed up the volume even further, signaling that their discussion was finished.
***
Dane strode out of his father’s building with the muscles between his shoulders pulled taut. He paused on the sidewalk to roll his shoulders in a vain attempt to work out the kinks in his back. Damn, his father knew how to push his buttons!
He loped toward his customized Triumph Bonneville parked at the curb. A long ride, that’s what he needed. Two hours along the coastline would help. His motorcycle had always been his escape, ever since he’d left home at eighteen on a beat up old Honda. The open road, the wind in his face, an engine between his legs—nothing could beat that. He’d be able to forget about his dad, the crazy challenge, maybe even forget about Holly.
But just as he reached the Bonneville, the cell phone in his back pocket vibrated. He pulled it out. A text message from his PI giving him Holly’s address and phone number. Her home wasn’t far from here. He could be outside her door in ten or fifteen minutes. Animal need surged through his loins.
Cool it, hombre. This wasn’t just any woman. He had to be smart, collected.
He waited until the swell of blood had subsided before punching in Holly’s number.
She answered on the third ring. “Hello?”
“It’s me, Dane.”
There was a pause and an almost inaudible gasp. “How did you get my number?” She sounded wary, but not annoyed.
“Nothing’s secret these days. I think we should meet.”
“Oh, I defini
tely think we shouldn’t!”
“Are you at home? I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“How do you know where—No, you can’t come here.” Now Holly was beginning to sound pissed off.
“We have unfinished business from the conservatory this morning.”
She sucked in a breath. “That—that shouldn’t have happened.”
“Really? Didn’t seem like it at the time.” Dane swung a leg over his Bonneville. “Look, we didn’t get a chance to talk properly. That’s all I want to do: talk, nothing else.”
It was a miracle his nose wasn’t a foot long. What he really wanted was Holly stripped naked in his bed, begging for him to make her come, her heart-shaped face glowing up at him while her nails raked his back. Yeah, that’s what he needed.
“All right,” she said. “There’s a coffee shop on the corner of my block. It’s called Hermanos. I’ll be in one of the back booths.”
“See you there.”
Fifteen minutes later Dane entered Hermanos. It appeared the coffee shop did most of its trade during the day, since there was only a handful of customers. He spotted Holly straight away. She was sitting in a booth at the back of the store, with sunglasses and a brown beanie covering her distinctive platinum hair.
Dane walked over and dropped into the banquette facing her. “Should I be wearing a fake mustache and trench coat, too?”
Holly pursed her lips. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to draw attention to ourselves.”
His gaze lingered on the plump outline of her mouth. “I think you’re doing that already. Who wears sunglasses and a beanie at seven o’clock at night in June?”
After a moment’s hesitation, she dispensed with the sunglasses and beanie. Brilliant blue eyes shaded by wariness studied him. She started to say something but was interrupted by a waiter arriving. They ordered coffee. She drummed her slender fingers on the table.
“Well?” she said eventually. “What did you want to talk about?”
I want to know why you ran away the morning after. The question leaped to the forefront of his mind. He had no evidence that she’d ‘run’ away, but, considering the explosive connection they’d ignited between them that night, it sure felt like that. Maybe he’d come on too strong, maybe she’d panicked. But by now the situation had become far too complicated for him to ask.
