She tried to take a breath but it seemed as though all oxygen had been sucked out of the air. The gay sounds of Christmas carols seemed to come from very far away. For a moment she stopped, swaying, gasping helplessly. Spots danced before her eyes.
“Sit,” a voice ordered from behind her. Hands came down on her shoulders and eased her onto the wrought iron bench behind her. “Put your head between your knees and cup your hands together over your mouth.”
“But—”
“Just do it.”
Keely obeyed. Slowly, her breathing deepened. The terrifying breathlessness abated. After a few minutes, she stirred.
“Easy. Take it slow,” the voice said. Lex’s voice. When she straightened, he was sitting beside her. “Better now?”
She nodded and smiled wanly. “Yes, thank you.”
“You were hyperventilating. What’s going on? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Not a ghost. I—”
Lex stared. “What the hell are you doing out here in just shirtsleeves?” he interrupted.
“I didn’t think about it,” she said vaguely, realizing all of a sudden that she was freezing.
He stripped off his jacket and put it around her shoulders. “You’re nuts. Let’s get you inside.”
“I’m fine,” she muttered.
“You’re turning purple. Although I suppose it’s better than sheet white, the way you were a little while ago.”
She swallowed. “I had some bad news.”
“Tell me,” he said.
She never expected him to be nice. He sat next to her, solid and strong. She could feel the heat from his leg next to hers. Somehow, it made it easier to talk. “It’s about Bradley. The federal agent just stopped by. John Stockton. They think Bradley…”
“What?”
She shook her head. It was so impossible to believe. “They think Bradley was laundering money for an arms dealer,” she finished in a rush.
“An arms dealer?” Lex repeated incredulously.
“I know. I can’t believe it, either, but Stockton says they’ve got proof. Bradley gambled himself into a hole and went to a loan shark. After your father died, he started embezzling from the company and laundering the money. And then he met the arms dealer.”
“Great. Now he’s in the laundry business. How much did he wash?” Lex asked.
“Two hundred million, they think.”
He whistled. “Five or ten percent of that would be a nice chunk of change. Enough to pay off most of what he took from the company. Or to stay gone for a good long time.”
Which would eliminate her main hope of exoneration. Keely rose and began to walk blindly toward a small stand of birches, Lex following. “I don’t know what to do. Everything’s just coming at me at once. And every time I turn around, it just gets worse.”
Across the common, people were gathered about the tree, listening to the elementary-school chorus sing about decking the halls. They weren’t worried about their lives falling apart. They weren’t worried about being in danger. They were safe, content, the way she had been. She swung around to face Lex. “Did you mean it about working together?” she demanded.
He didn’t answer right away. The lights around the edge of the common threw his cheekbones into sharp relief and gilded the tips of his lashes. “I don’t know. You didn’t seem to think it was such a good idea earlier today.”
A smuggler, Bradley had told her. He had that rough, slightly lawless look that made it believable. A man who took what he wanted, did what he wanted, regardless of the rules. Her pulse began to speed up. “I’ve changed my mind.”
“You’re desperate.”
“Does it matter?”
He didn’t answer. He stepped closer, close enough that the white puffs of their breaths mingled. Around them, tiny white lights flickered in the birches, like fireflies. Out by the tree, there was a burst of applause. The chorus swung into “Merry Christmas, Baby.”
It didn’t make sense and Lex knew it. Sure, if she’d been any other woman, he’d have kissed her without a thought. Hell, who was he kidding? If she’d been any other woman they’d have long since been past kissing and onto finding out just what they could do for each other in bed. She wasn’t just any woman, though. There was more at stake here than just satisfying his curiosity. A smart man would steer clear.
And even as he thought it, he found himself pulling her into his arms.
She was surprised at first, pliant against him, her lips parted so that he could feel the breath shuddering out. He tried to be gentle, God help him. But he could feel her move in the beginnings of response, he could taste her.
So he let himself savor that soft mouth of hers, the secret flavors beyond, feeling her slight curves beneath his jacket.
It only made him want more.
With a nip of teeth, a slick of tongue he tempted them both. When her head fell back, allowing him access to the soft underside of her jaw, he moved to the milk pale column of her throat, feeling the mad beat of her pulse against his lips. Beneath the cool facade was a real woman, silky and warm. The soft catch of her breath had him tightening.
He wanted way too much to be kissing like this out in the open. It had been an experiment, but he had to stop. There was too much impatience, too much hunger built up. If he didn’t watch it, he’d take it too far. They were in public, he reminded himself. Time to stop. But he couldn’t prevent himself from taking one more taste, and one more. And one more.
And then her arms came up around him and she turned avid and eager and wanting in his arms and he wasn’t thinking about ending it anymore.
He wasn’t thinking about anything but her.
They didn’t feel the cool of the air. They didn’t hear the strains of “Holly Jolly Christmas,” soft notes of the woodwinds floating sweet and quiet through the night. There was just the slide of lip against lip, the stroke of fingers against hair, the suppressed sounds of hunger.
There was only two.
If he’d asked, Keely would have said no, but he hadn’t asked. He’d taken. And it intoxicated her as nothing else ever had. The demand in his touch, the urgency in his taste had her pressing against him, fighting for more, more.
His hands slipped inside the jacket, sliding over her. And that mouth, that dangerous, delicious mouth was clever and persuasive against hers. She wanted more and she found herself taking, shifting her head to find a new angle, pressing against him to better feel his touch. Now, it was she who was impatient, she who demanded.
She who was standing at the doorway to a whole new world she’d never dreamed of.
Behind them, there was a collective gasp as the tree was switched on, as though the entire town had inhaled at once.
The entire town.
They jolted apart turning to stare at the source of the noise, and the applause that followed. A hundred yards away, the tree blazed with color. The figures of the townspeople were silhouetted against the light. Only here in the little grove was it dim and quiet.
Shaken, Keely stared at Lex. The adrenaline, the energy, still ricocheted through her system. Her lips still felt like they were vibrating with sensation. She didn’t know where the hunger had billowed up from, only that it was nothing like anything she’d ever experienced with Bradley or any other man.
But this wasn’t Bradley or any other man, this was Lex, the brother most likely to be arrested, who had had her twisting and clawing at him like a wanton. If there was any man in the world she had less business kissing in the dark, she couldn’t come up with one offhand. And she had zero desire to think about the fact that he’d taken her so far with just a kiss.
“I must be out of my mind,” she muttered, and without another look, began striding back toward the shop.
“Keely, wait a minute. We have to talk.” With a few quick strides he was beside her.
“Forget it. I’ve got to get back to work.” And she didn’t want to be around him for another minute or God knew what she’d do.
She began unbuttoning the coat, sliding it off her shoulders as she walked quickly along. “Here’s your jacket.”
“Keep it, you’re freezing.”
“No.” Because wearing it was a bit too much like having his arms around her. She swung around to face him. “Look, you want to talk? I’ll talk. I’m going to work with you because someone’s going to go down for this arms-dealer thing. Stockton was almost salivating. If there’s any chance we can find something by pooling our resources, then I’ve got to do it. But that’s all I’m going to do with you, got it?”
Lex studied her as though he’d never seen her before. “You like laying down the law.”
“And you’re not big on rules. Well, deal with it, champ. Right now, all I want to focus on is clearing up this mess Bradley’s left. Maybe we can help each other on that, but you’ve got to figure out what you want.”
“I know what I want,” he replied, his eyes unreadable. “When can you go through my mother’s papers?”
“As soon as possible.” So she could find the answers and get the hell away from him.
“Tomorrow morning?”
“Fine.” She slapped his jacket into his hands. “I’ll see you at nine.”
Chapter Five
So maybe Keely had had reason to be annoyed and rattled, Lex thought. He’d been a little rattled himself. The fact was, sitting at the table with his morning coffee, he couldn’t for the life of him say why he’d kissed her the night before. Every practical part of him had been against it. One minute he’d been listing for himself the reasons it didn’t make sense, the next he’d had his mouth crushed to hers.
And he could still smell her scent.
In the space of seconds, Keely Stafford, Ms. Junior League, his brother’s supposed collaborator, had managed to wipe away the memory of every other woman he’d ever wanted. Except that he was beginning to seriously doubt that she’d had anything to do with Bradley’s criminial fiasco. And he was beginning to see that there was more to her than just the standard charity socialite package.
Damned if that didn’t just serve to intrigue him more than ever.
She was right, they had other things to focus on just then. Bradley was still missing and the authorities were still on the hunt for fall guys. Getting in the middle of something at that particular time wasn’t smart. He had no business pushing it further.
He wasn’t all that sure it mattered. There was something between them, the kiss had shown him that much. And he wasn’t going to get her out of his head before he knew what it was.
The tap of high heels on the floor heralded Olivia’s arrival. She wore a red suit with gold at her ears and her neck. There was no such thing as casual Saturday in Olivia’s world.
“You’re up early,” she said as she poured herself some tea.
“The early bird catches the worm.” Or the front-page photograph, anyway. Sleep was a luxury for guys like him. The news photographer who slept was the photographer who missed the shot.
Olivia looked amused. “You don’t have to eat worms for breakfast. I’m sure Corinne can make you some eggs.”
“I’m good,” he said, taking another glance at the front news section. Bad crop on the shot of the aftermath of the Baghdad market bombing, he thought reflexively, then glanced closer to recognize the name on the byline. Poor Odenthal. He always did have rough luck when it came to the art department. But then, most photographers did. Too bad the wire service couldn’t get a desk editor who could do the job right.
It was only after Lex had moved on to the next story that he registered the fact that he’d just looked at a shot of a place he’d been, a story he’d covered.
And thought about the desk editor.
Every other time he’d been back to the States for a break, seeing photographs in the paper had had just one effect—it had made him itch to be back out in the field. The field was what he was about. The story was what he was about, not the niceties of distributing photos for print.
He slapped the paper down and knocked back the rest of his coffee. It didn’t mean anything except that he was burned out and maybe the few weeks downtime he was getting from the Bradley fiasco were a good thing.
“Everything all right?”
He glanced up to see Olivia watching him. “Yeah, sure, fine. I should probably go take a look at your office to get myself oriented. Keely’s going to be here soon.” He saw Olivia’s lips tighten. “Is it going to be a problem?” he asked. It might just be for him, if he couldn’t get that damned kiss out of his head.
“I told you last night, I’m holding a committee meeting for the Christmas gala this morning, so I won’t be there when you’re looking through things. Remember, these are my personal finances. Be sure you keep an eye on her.”
That, he could guarantee.
“I’m not comfortable having her paw through my private papers,” Olivia added after a moment.
“Well, you’d better get comfortable. Right now, she’s about the only hope you’ve got.”
She took a sip of tea. “And you really think there’s a chance she had nothing to do with this scheme?”
“I don’t know. I’m beginning to think she’s in the clear.” He remembered the look on Keely’s face the night before, the distress as she’d told him about the arms dealer. “Anyway, you know what they say, keep you friends close and your enemies closer.”
Olivia flushed and set her cup down, centering it carefully in the saucer. “It’s so hard to think Bradley could have done something like this.”
“I know. But all the facts point to it. He’s gone. We haven’t heard a word from him. That should tell you something right there. He wasn’t just taking money for himself. He was laundering money for—”
“Stop.” She covered her ears. “I know this is all important but I can’t listen to it right now.”
“You want me to just leave it alone?” Lex asked incredulously.
“No. I want you to look into it. I just…I just can’t hear the details. Please.” She bit her lip. “He’s my son. I can’t help loving him.”
“Good. He’ll need it if they ever find him. But in the meantime we need to get you off the hook, and maybe Keely can help with that. So are you going to play nice when she comes over?”
Olivia recovered enough to give him a starchy look. “Have you ever seen me be anything other than polite?”
“I’ve seen you give people frostbite,” he said neutrally.
The corners of her mouth twitched. “You should give your mother more respect.”
“I give my mother a world of respect. But I’ve gotta warn you, I think she could take you down.”
Olivia snorted. “Now, that I’d like to see.”
“She used to have a mean tennis backhand.”
“Experience trumps strength anytime.” She accepted toast from the maid. “By the way, I got a call from Bill Hartley yesterday. The chairman of the board,” she elaborated.
“The Alexander board?”
“Of course. He wants to know when we’re going to fill the open spot.”
Lex watched the maid refill his coffee from the sideboard. “At the risk of asking the obvious, what open spot?”
“Bradley’s, of course.” Olivia’s voice was brisk. “They removed him as soon as the scandal broke. Now they need to bring someone else on.”
“Why are they coming to you?”
She gave him a surprised glance as she spread marmalade on her toast. “Why, I’m the primary shareholder. I thought you knew.”
“Dad took the company public, what, three years after I left? I figured you guys kept a stake but that’s about it. They don’t carry a lot of financial papers the places I hang out.”
“When your father took the company public, he kept fifty-one percent for us and gave Bradley ten,” she said reprovingly and took a bite of her toast.
Lex raised a brow. “That’s a lot of stock right off the top.”
“He wanted to be su
re the family retained control and we have. Whomever we want on the board goes on the board. While he was alive, Pierce was chairman.”
No big surprise there. “Did Bradley step in after he died?”
Olivia shook her head. “The board didn’t think he had enough experience.” She hesitated. “I didn’t, either.”
“Good call. He managed to do plenty of damage as COO.”
“Notwithstanding which we’ve now got a board with an open position, an even number of members and some key votes coming up. We need to have the full complement.”
Lex shrugged. “Let Hartley and his buddies come up with some candidates. I’m sure they have ideas.”
“I suppose.” Then a pause. “You could throw your name in the hat for the board position,” she added casually.
He stared at her. “I’m the one who’s been living in Third World countries and war zones for the past decade, remember? Forget it. I’m not your guy.”
“I think we can decide who our guy is.”
“Thanks but no thanks. I’d be—” He broke off at the low tones of the doorbell. “I guess this is Keely,” he said with relief.
“Don’t think you’re off the hook about this,” Olivia warned as he headed toward the front door.
Like hell he wasn’t. He’d get Olivia cleared of the money-laundering charges and then he’d head back to his real life.
And try not to think too much about Keely Stafford.
One thing Keely could say for the kiss—it almost made her look forward to having Olivia Alexander around as a buffer when they looked through her home office. And that was saying something. Keely had been anticipating dealing with Olivia with about as much enthusiasm as she would a root canal. All things considered, though, it was a good way to diffuse the tension between her and Lex.
Because tension there would be.
Unconsciously, she raised her fingertips to her lips. Relax, she told herself as she stood on the front steps of the Alexander home, trying to ignore the nerves fluttering in her stomach. It had taken her a long time to fall asleep the night before. While she’d been at the shop, she’d kept herself busy. When she’d made it home after closing up, her parents had been there to give her the full account of their party. But once she’d been in bed, clad only in a cotton sleep shirt, the flashbacks kept unspooling themselves over and over: Lex moving forward, leaning in to kiss her, the instant she’d felt his lips on hers.
Her Christmas Surprise (Silhouette Special Edition) Page 6
