“I take it these will tide us over until I can make another payment?” she said huskily. “And that there’ll be no more talk of selling my grandfather’s house.”
Ling looked at the checks she handed toward him and his lips thinned in appreciation, stretching over his teeth in an avaricious smile.
“For now,” he conceded. “I will accept these from you on one condition.”
“Name it.”
“That we return to our original agreement and that you accompany me here each night this week. I’m expecting some important people. They will—” he paused and smiled “—appreciate your company.”
Lainey fought back the bile that rose in her throat, even as she nodded her assent. She didn’t even want to think what would happen if Adam found out that she was back with Ling. He’d made it clear he wanted her to be at his beck and call exclusively. He’d be livid if he knew what she was doing, even if it was only to act as bait for Ling’s clientele.
She loathed that she’d be actively encouraging people to do exactly what she urged her grandfather to stop. It was all so very wrong, but there was no other option left to her.
Lainey sighed inwardly and wished against everything that she could have told Adam the truth right from the start—told him the real reason why she was here, dressed the way she was, doing the things she did to persuade Ling’s associates to go for higher stakes and ultimately, if their luck fell through, to turn to him for the money to tide them through until Lady Luck smiled their way again.
But the truth wasn’t hers to tell, no matter how much it impacted on her life and any chance she’d ever had that Adam would see her as more than his weekday personal assistant and weekend mistress.
The next morning Lainey fought back a yawn as she put her handbag in her office cupboard and automatically locked it. To her horror, she’d almost slept through her alarm, and covering the ravages of her late night with make up had taken far longer than she had time for.
She continued her morning routine, opening Adam’s mail and downloading his e-mail, before gathering everything and taking it through to his office.
Her heart stuttered in her chest as she caught her first glimpse of him today. The charcoal suit he wore with a pale blue shirt, and a tie the color of his eyes, was a far cry from the warm powerful body that had tangled with hers in the silken water of his pool only two nights ago. She welcomed the heat that spread like gentle fingers over her body as she recalled the sensation of his body beside her, around her, inside her. It was a far cry from how she’d felt last night at the casino working for Ling.
Adam looked up from his laptop and she stopped in her tracks at the look on his face. Gone was the weekend’s lover. Gone was the consummate professional she worked with side by side from Monday to Friday.
Instead, she was staring into the cold hard look of a man possessed of a banked fury she’d barely known Adam was capable of.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, forcing her feet forward, one after the other and leaning over to place his correspondence on his desk.
Adam snorted a laugh that totally lacked in any form of humor. A chill skimmed down Lainey’s spine.
“Okay?” he asked, his voice flat, devoid of emotion, even as his eyes burned with anger and a tiny muscle pulled at the side of his cheek. “You tell me, Lainey.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answered, fighting back the urge to turn tail and leave his office, to forget that today had started this way and to somehow, miraculously, start anew.
“Perhaps you’d like to explain this.”
Adam swiveled his laptop around to her so she could see the screen. Lainey’s eyes barely took in the details of the grainy security camera image. She didn’t need to. She instantly recognized the VIP gaming room at the casino. Worse, she recognized the couple in the center of the frame.
She pressed her lips together. She’d have loved nothing more than to explain the picture, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t betray her grandfather’s secret, not when she’d given her word. One of them, at least, had to be trustworthy.
Last night, before she’d left for the casino, she’d told Hugh she was going to make a payment to Ling. He swore he’d make it up to her, and she believed him. She had to. He’d been her rock, now she was his. They clung to each other because, when push came to shove, they were all each other had.
Lainey stared back at Adam, hoping against hope that he would see past the obvious and would see the truth in her eyes. That somehow he’d know she had no choice in this.
“Well?” he demanded, pushing up from his seat and coming around the desk to face her.
“I went to the casino last night. Is that a crime?” she finally managed through lips that were stiff and uncooperative.
“A crime? Interesting question, Lainey.”
“How did you get that picture anyway?” she demanded, unsettled by his response.
He raised one brow and watched her squirm under his steady gaze. Could this really be the man who’d shouted her name while she rode him to climax less than twenty-four hours ago? He looked at her as if she was a stranger and not the person with whom he’d shared exquisite intimacies.
“How I got the picture isn’t important here. What you’re doing with Ling is.” He reached out a hand and caught her chin in his fingers, tilting her face to his so she couldn’t look away. “Tell me the truth. What the hell were you doing with that man last night when I expressly told you to stay away from him?”
“It’s personal.”
“Personal?” Adam let her go with a sound of disgust. “And what we have isn’t personal? Or are you telling me you’re playing both of us off against each other?”
“It’s not like that!”
“Then tell me. What is it like?”
“How can you ask me that when during the week I’m nothing more to you than just another member of your staff, yet every weekend is completely the opposite? I don’t even know where I stand with you anymore.”
“Where you stand?”
Lainey should have been warned by the deadly focused note in his voice.
“You want me to give in during the week to you when it’s all I can do to focus on my business knowing you’re just a touch away. Knowing that if I do reach out that you’ll be there. Compliant. Willing. Begging for me to do this—”
Adam pulled her into his arms and caught her to him with one hand while the other expertly flicked open the tiny row of buttons of her blouse, exposing the soft mint-green of her bra and the curve of her lush flesh bound within it. Before a protest could fight its way from her throat his fingers had flicked aside the lacy cup and exposed her nipple. As he twirled the distended rose pink nub between his thumb and forefinger Lainey fought to halt the flood of longing that drew like a powerful pull through her body.
His face was millimeters from hers, his eyes boring into hers as his fingers kept up their unrelenting assault on her.
And then, just as quickly, he let her go, leaving her to fight for her balance on unsteady legs. Leaving her open, exposed, her breathing shallow and rapid.
She struggled through the fugue of reaction he coerced from her and with shaking fingers adjusted her bra and rebuttoned her blouse.
“How dare you,” she said, low and angry, when she finally felt as if she was under control.
“I dare because you let me. You want me just as much as I want you. You want to know why I treat you so differently in the office? I treat you like there’s nothing between us because it’s the only way I can get through every day when I’m plagued with thoughts of what I really want to do. Of locking my office door and sweeping everything off my desk and taking you there. Of seeing you naked, willing and driven mad with your need for me. Of giving into that need.
“It’s all I can do to get through the week, but knowing you’re there on the weekend—yeah, that I can handle. But none of that—the money or me—is enough for you, is it? Still you go back to that
scum.” Adam shook his head in disgust. “Did you even mean it in Melbourne when you said you love me?”
He’d heard her? Lainey pressed shaking fingers to her lips. She’d tried to convince herself that her outburst had been lost in their passion for one another. He’d said nothing at the time. Done nothing but make love to her over and over again. She’d bared her deepest, innermost feelings and regretted it just as quickly. But now, here was her chance to convince him.
“Of course I meant it.” She drew in a shuddering breath. Everything now hinged on her ability to make Adam believe the truth. “I would never have said I loved you if I didn’t. I wish I could tell you the truth about Lee Ling, but I can’t. But it has nothing to do with you and me. Adam, I lo—”
“Don’t lie to me.” He shook his head. His face now a mask of indifference. “You want to know how I got that picture? I’ll tell you. I have Ling under surveillance. The man is in the habit of brokering information. Top-secret information that affects our industry in ways that you probably can’t even begin to imagine. Thousands of jobs are on the line every time he does his nasty little trades.
“You think he’s just a money lender? That’s how it starts. And when people can’t meet his financial demands he hits them up in other ways. Tell me, is that the hold he has over you? How much do you owe him, Lainey?”
Slowly it began to dawn on Lainey that by withholding the real reason she’d been with Ling all along she’d set herself up for something far worse. Before she could piece her thoughts together Adam continued in that same driving tone.
“Someone from Tremont Corporation is getting information about us before the ink is even dry on the papers. I’d convinced myself it couldn’t be you, didn’t want to believe it could be—but now, in the light of this—” he gestured to the picture “—I’m not so sure anymore. So tell me, Lainey, how much are you selling information to Ling for?”
Lainey shook her head furiously. He couldn’t believe that of her. He just couldn’t. Tears choked her throat but she forced out her words.
“No! That’s not it. I’m not telling him anything! Adam, you have to believe me. If he’s selling information about Palmer Enterprises, he’s certainly not getting that information from me.”
“Believe you?” He made a noise that in other circumstances could be construed as laughter but in their current situation meant anything but. “How can I believe you when you tell me nothing? It’s obvious he has some hold over you, otherwise why would you be playing us both. Or is that it? Do you like to walk on the wild side? Play two hands on the same deck? Is one man simply not enough for you? Maybe you’ve been sharing yourself with both of us all along.”
“No!” she cried out, tears now streaking down her face. “Don’t do this Adam. Please, I beg of you. I love you—really, I do—but I can’t tell you the extent of my relationship with Lee. I just can’t.”
“Can’t? It seems to me you have no choice. You either tell me or our liaison is over.”
“Please, Adam, you have to trust me on this.”
“I can’t—not anymore—and the instant I have proof of whatever your involvement is with Ling I’ll be taking every action available to me to make certain you pay.”
“What about my job?” Fear clutched her heart. Without her job she and her grandfather would be utterly and completely cast adrift.
“For now, I prefer to keep you where I can keep an eye on you. But Lainey, if I find you have anything more to do with Ling, and I do mean anything, you can count yourself out of a job.”
Twelve
The rest of the day passed in a blur. While Adam continued to give her instructions and accepted work through her, it was as if she had been excised from the heart of what he was doing. By the time she drove home she was completely wrung out.
Lainey let herself in through the front door of the home that had been her sanctuary in the darkest time of her life. The home they would now surely lose. Sheer exhaustion flooded through her body. She leaned back against the solid wood panel and let her head flop back. Her handbag slid from her fingers and fell unheeded to the carpet runner at the door.
What on earth was she going to do? She’d called Lee Ling on her mobile phone to tell him she wouldn’t be at the casino tonight, or any night for that matter. He’d been less than impressed and reminded her in succinct terms of the consequences.
She slid down the door, landing on her backside, and dropped her head onto her knees, giving herself over to the total devastation that scourged deep into her soul.
“Lainey, child? What’s wrong?”
She heard her grandfather come through from the sitting room and approach her as fast as his legs would carry him. She tried to speak, to assure him she was all right, but words simply couldn’t get past the misery that filled her throat.
Hugh’s arms came around her shoulders and he pulled her to him. Uncontrollable sobs tore from her and her body shook as his gnarled hand stroked through her hair.
“What has he done to you, that boss of yours? Led you on and then dropped you, I’ll wager. I knew no good would come of this.”
“But I love him, Granddad. I love him so much.”
“I know, child, I know.” His gruff voice rumbled with soothing sounds that only served to make her cry all the more.
Lainey took a gulp of air between sobs. How on earth could she tell her grandfather that she’d continued to accept money from Adam? Money to pay Hugh’s debts. It would devastate the old man to know he’d reduced her to that, even if she had been a willing partner once she’d had a taste of the delights of Adam’s lovemaking. Once she’d lost her heart to him.
As her sobs lessened and her tears ceased to flow, she wrapped her arms around her grandfather and held on tight. Her rock. He’d always been her rock, and now she’d failed him the one time he really needed her. She’d tried to make it right, she’d tried to solve his problems—but when push came to shove she’d failed.
“Come on,” Hugh said, getting unsteadily back to his feet and giving Lainey a hand up. “Let’s go and have a cup of tea and see if we can’t sort this thing out.”
Lainey accepted his help, and his arm around her waist as they walked together to the kitchen where Hugh bustled about putting the kettle on to boil. She watched him, every movement, every habit, so dear to her.
She had to tell him about Ling’s threat the other night. It wasn’t fair to hold the truth back from her grandfather. Not now.
She tried to think of how to break it to him gently. He was, after all, seventy-three years old. Old enough, for sure, to have known better about his gambling, she reflected. No matter how she turned it around in her head there was no easy way to do this.
“Granddad?”
“Hmm?”
He continued setting bone china cups and saucers on a tray, a lace doily underneath. Everything just so. As he had always done it. Lainey wondered how long they’d have to enjoy these things, the treasures that made up their lives.
“Lee Ling is going to sell the house. I tried to stop him, and he did agree to give us some leeway, but my boss found out about me working for Lee. I’ll lose my job if I keep doing it. And if I don’t, Lee will put the house on the market.”
“Oh, sweetheart, you’re worrying too much. Lee won’t sell the roof from over our heads. It was only security for his loan. He knows I’m good for the money.”
“But Granddad, don’t you see, we can’t even meet his interest installments. We’ll never be able to repay the loan. We can’t even raise a bank loan using the house as collateral for a mortgage anymore because he holds the title. Don’t you see? We’re going to lose everything.”
The desperation in her voice finally struck a chord with her grandfather and he stopped in his movements, his face paling as he met her worried gaze.
She pressed on. “If you’d just let me explain to my boss why I need to work for Lee, I’m sure he’d—”
“No!” Hugh’s exclamation was vehement. “N
o one must know, Lainey. You promised me you wouldn’t tell. You can’t. If the papers get hold of it, and you know they will, everything I am—everything I worked for, for over thirty years—will be gone. I’ll lose the anniversary series, people will look at me different, treat me different. My legacy, my reputation, the respect of my viewers—they’re all I have left.”
“But Granddad…” She faltered as he raised a hand. She wanted to scream at him, to rail at his need to hold onto a reputation that most people had begun to forget. To ask him if she wasn’t worth more to him than all of that. But she was almost too afraid of the answer.
“Come and have your tea, there’s a good girl. We’ll sort something out with Ling, you’ll see. He’s a reasonable chap.”
Lainey followed her grandfather into the sitting room and took her cup of tea but she was incapable of drinking it without her stomach lurching and threatening to throw its contents straight back up. Hugh didn’t understand that men like Lee Ling didn’t play for fun—they played hardball. And it didn’t take long before they found out just how hard.
Lainey was in the bathroom the next morning when she heard her grandfather hammering at the door. She put down her hair dryer and tightened the sash on her robe before opening up.
“Ling’s here,” he said, but there was a note to his voice that made Lainey’s blood chill in her veins. “With a real estate agent. They’re here to do an appraisal. He’s putting the house on the market—today.”
Lainey and her grandfather huddled together on the couch in the sitting room as Lee Ling and the appraiser finished their inspection of the house. She felt a tremor run through Hugh’s body as they overhead the appraiser speaking to Lee on the way out.
“This property is in a very desirable area and, with the gardens landscaped by the Hugh Delacorte, well, I’m sure there’ll be no problem in moving this property quickly for you, Mr. Ling.”
Pretend Mistress, Bona Fide Boss Page 11
