Venus found her sister in the children’s department, creating a fantasy display of storybook dresses, headbands festooned with ribbons, dainty, sequined Mary Jane shoes no self-respecting mother or grandmother could resist buying for the holidays.
“I need to talk to you. Alone.” She motioned toward the storeroom and marched purposefully to it, with Diana following.
Being ready to confess her utter folly and being able to do it without crying were two completely separate things. She burst into loud, sloppy hot tears.
“Tears of happiness. I would be doing the same thing.” Diana nodded, watching her with a brilliant smile.
“Happiness?” Venus sucked in a soggy breath. “What are you talking about? I’m more miserable than I’ve ever been in my life. Or ever likely to be. You should have locked me in and thrown away the key the night I begged you to help me find Connor. I set out to make him care about me but it backfired. I care about him too much. It’s different for Athena and Drew. They’ve loved each other their whole lives. Years before the troubles with Dad. So it makes sense they could find a way to be together.”
Her lungs nearly empty, she took another deep breath. “But I didn’t even like Connor for so many stupid childish reasons, and then when he betrayed our family, Dad, everything I hold dearest, I loathed him. What kind of person, daughter, am I to now love him?”
Hiccuping swallowed sobs, she drew herself up. “As it stands, there is no way any relationship between Connor and me can possibly work, and I’m telling him so right now before it becomes even more painful.”
Her tirade appeared to have left Diana speechless.
“Venus, before you do anything, I think you should come with me,” Diana finally said, and abruptly turned on her ballet slippers.
Venus followed her to the first-floor costume jewelry department. Finally Diana stopped in front of a jewelry case and looked pointedly inside it.
“What? I love Alexis Bittar jewelry, too. I own three pieces. What does…” Her throat tightened. The small neat Touch of Venus sign blurred and then focused so sharply it hurt her eyes.
“They’ve already sold two of your pieces this morning,” Diana said quietly beside her.
Mindless, Venus stared at her sister. “How did this happen?”
“Connor brought the pieces in this morning. He wanted to surprise you.”
Delirious happiness felt like a monumental betrayal of her intent to be sensible, yet she couldn’t contain it. “Where is he?”
“I thought he’d be down here to see your reaction. He must be delayed in his office.”
Diana’s final words followed Venus, for she was already running toward the elevator.
On the executive floor, she caught a glimpse of Bridget on the phone at her desk.
Breathless to see Connor, Venus didn’t stop.
Silence greeted her when she rushed into his office.
“Connor,” she called, thinking he must be in the butler’s pantry, board room, or his small gym.
When she couldn’t find him, she wandered back into his office and over to his desk where a blue mug sat beside folders and piles of papers. She felt its porcelain sides.
Still warm. I must have just missed him.
Then she glanced down at the papers, admiring a sheet with pictures of a two-strand ruby bracelet and an emerald and diamond necklace with a matching emerald ring surrounded by mounds of diamonds. It looked vaguely familiar to her.
Her gaze slid to the thick file beside it.
Her father’s name jumped out at her.
Connor’s words rang through her head. At Clayworth’s we’re creatures of habit. We do both computer and hard copies.
Almost in a trance she stared down at the folder.
Was this what she’d been seeking all along? The evidence against her father? The truth that she needed to know so she could refute the surely flawed evidence and somehow help vindicate her dad?
The need made her ache all over. If only she could find something, anything to make Connor change his mind about her dad, all the barriers between them would disappear.
If I can find something, anything that can make it possible for Connor and me to be together, it will be my gift to him.
Trembling, she opened the file and began to read. The sheet after sheet of numbers, stock transactions, and bank statements made no sense to her but yet a pattern appeared in her frenzied mind.
Her father’s signature. Everywhere.
She riffled through the sheets more rapidly, his name flicking before her eyes like an old-time silent movie.
Her jeweler’s eye caught the tiniest shade of difference in the image of his name.
Blood roared through her ears.
Was it simply a trick of light? Her overheated imagination?
She separated out two sheets, comparing them to a third. Now they looked exactly the same, no matter how she shifted them side to side and up and down in the light.
Defeat gnawed at her heart. There was nothing new to show Connor.
But I know I saw something.
Her insides quaking, she clutched the three sheets in her fist and walked back to Bridget’s office.
Not wanting to involve Bridget any more than necessary, she held the papers behind her back as she peeked through the open door.
“Hi, Bridget. Sorry to bother you.”
A frown between her eyes, Bridget glanced up and immediately brightened. “Venus, sorry. I didn’t hear you. Connor went downstairs lookin’ for you. I’ll page him that you’re here waitin’ for him.”
“Great.” She forced a smile. “By the way, I… have a problem with a… possible forged check at Pandora’s Box. Do you know an expert on that sort of thing?”
“Dr. Carl Potts at U of I. He’s the best, but forgeries are tough to prove. In court cases there are often differin’ opinions as to the validity of a signature.”
“Okay. Thanks, Bridget. I’ll give him a call anyway. I’ll… just wait in Connor’s office for him.”
She carefully placed the three sheets of paper in her tote and zipped it securely.
If Dr. Carl Potts could throw even a shadow of doubt on any one of those signatures, there might be a glimmer of hope for her and Connor.
All at once he walked into the room, and despite her best, wisest intentions, she said his name once in a voice that sounded shaky to her and walked into his arms.
She stroked the firm muscles of his back and shoulders, kissed his mouth, his hair, his cheek.
Her heart twisting around in her chest, she flung back her head and looked up into his face.
“Why did you take my pieces of jewelry and bring them to Clayworth’s?”
“Because I think they’re beautiful, like you, and I wanted to make your dream for your designs come true.”
The naked emotion in his voice made her ache for him.
Fed by love, by her belief that she’d found a way for them to be together, she pushed away from him and went to lock the door.
She turned back and smiled at him. “Why don’t you go lie down on that black leather sofa?”
His eyes lightened and there was that new, playful, totally erotic curve to his mouth.
“This is getting to be a much-desired habit. My lounging on a sofa, waiting to ravish you.” Stretched out with his hands behind his head, he watched her walk slowly to him. “You know my uncle, Grey and Ric’s father, took his afternoon naps on this sofa for thirty years.”
She hesitated. “Oh, dear, it seems a bit sacrilegious to continue with my plan now.”
Connor laughed and pulled her down so she sprawled on top of him. “My uncle had four wives and twice as many mistresses. Naps were a euphemism for what went on in here when the door was locked. This old leather sofa has tales to tell.”
“Let’s give it another one.” She laughed and one by one undid his shirt buttons.
Connor’s gaze, open and warm, changed to a deeper emerald when she pulled her sweater dress ov
er her head.
Clad only in a sheer black bra, thong, and thigh-high boots, she slid to her knees beside the sofa and began to tug off his jeans. His loafers followed.
“Venus,” he whispered, a question in his voice. Then his breath sharpened as she slid her fingers into his briefs, as he had her thong last night, to pull them off.
Holding his heated gaze, she stood and with deliberate slowness stepped out of her thong, peeled off her bra, and knelt between his thighs.
Leaning into him, she rubbed her heavy breasts against his chest, his stomach, his thighs, pressing soft kisses in her wake. She lingered at the warmth of his inner thighs, loving the tangy taste of him.
Slowly, she took him into her mouth, sucking, stroking him with her tongue.
“Venus… what in the hell are you doing?” he asked in a thick voice.
“Hopefully making your dreams come true.” she smiled against his inner thigh.
She felt his breathless laughter.
“The best dreams are shared ones, love.”
He drew her up, rolled her on top of him to meet the unguarded blaze of his eyes.
“Tell me yours so we can find them together.” His lips brushed again and again over the aching peaks of her breasts while his hands stroked her hips in the same rhythmic, hypnotizing way.
She closed her eyes, gasping at the sweetness of his hands suddenly cupping her breasts, his thumbs gently rubbing her nipples.
“Tell me how I can bring you more pleasure,” he whispered.
“Everything you do brings me pleasure,” she whispered, meeting his mouth with an open, burning kiss that exploded passion through her blood.
With an urgency that shook her, she slid down his body, straddled his hips, and settled over him.
Gently, he caught and held her. “Slowly, love. Make it last.”
But she couldn’t stop.
Her body shuddered with each thrust and she became part of a hot, wet haze of ecstasy. She couldn’t think, she could only feel.
From a distance she heard him repeat her name over and over, his fingers kneading her flesh with ever-increasing strokes. Now he couldn’t stop, their movements stronger and stronger until he arched hard and tight, their bodies seamlessly meeting.
With tremors throbbing through her, she whimpered his name. Her heart pounding so that she felt light-headed, she collapsed on his chest.
Long moments passed before she could catch her breath. “It must have been the boots,” she said, her lips against his throat.
“Promise me you’ll never take them off.” He chuckled, stroking her back.
She loved the feel of him beneath her, his hand warming her skin, once again giving life to a response.
But all dreams must end. For now.
“Connor, we’re at Clayworth’s, stark naked, except for my thigh-high boots. There’s probably a Chicago city ordinance against this.”
“Who’s to know?” He nuzzled her throat. “We could do this all day. There are no cameras in here, thank God.”
“Cameras?” She glanced nervously around.
The whole idea of being caught on tape snapped her to her senses. With a heavy twinge of regret, she kissed Connor on the cheek and eased off his body.
In record time she gathered up her dress and underwear and slipped into them.
Still gloriously naked, his skin golden and glistening, he smiled up at her. “Where are you going so fast?”
She could hardly resist the playfulness in his eyes. Now she knew she wanted it to last forever, which was why she needed to get the precious documents to Dr. Potts right now.
“If you think lying around naked has any effect on me, you’re right.” She pressed a kiss on his smiling lips.
“I have an important errand to run. Meet me at my place in a few hours. I promise I’ll still have on my boots.”
Chapter 21
When his aunt rapped on the door and walked in, Connor was pulling on his jeans.
Their eyes met, hers brimming with humor and a little surprise. “Well, hello there. Sorry to… interrupt.”
“Nonsense, Aunt Bridget. You didn’t interrupt a thing,” Connor said, buttoning his jeans and hastily reaching for his shirt, a broad smile on his face.
“No need to rush about in false modesty, Connor. After all, I’ve changed plenty of your diapers—there’s little I haven’t seen. So I assume you found Venus.” She laughed. “It seems to have done you a world of good.”
“She always does,” he said without embarrassment.
“I’ve never seen you look happier, Connor. Have the two of you figured out a way to live with the problems between you because of Alistair? Can she honestly, with all her heart, finally let it go?”
“I’m working on it,” he said, fastening his shirt and strolling to his desk.
Uncharacteristically, he’d left papers scattered across its surface when he’d heard Venus was in the store. Eager to be downstairs when she saw what he’d done with her designs, he hadn’t cared about anything else.
He’d missed that moment. Thinking of her private response and his own, here alone in his office, white-hot need to be with her again made him quickly and efficiently gather up the papers.
“I was going over the items stolen in the original heist with the mermaid brooch in the hopes of helping you and Tony. And for the hundredth time, looking at Alistair’s file.”
Having relentlessly studied it again and again he knew the contents by memory, so he saw immediately that pages were missing.
Thinking he’d placed them by mistake in the heist file, he slowly went through those sheets one by one.
“What’s the problem?” Bridget asked, coming to stand beside him.
“I must have misplaced three important documents from Alistair’s file.” Connor stepped back, his eyes searching the carpet.
“I don’t see anythin’ on the floor.” Bridget circled the desk. “Sure the documents aren’t in one of the drawers?”
But he knew they couldn’t be. All the drawers were locked.
Raw disbelief and an edge of panic made him look nonetheless.
Nothing.
Venus was here alone for how long?
“The documents aren’t here. I know they were in the file when I left the office.”
He met his aunt’s eyes, blazing with pain for him.
She shook her head. “But why would Venus only take three documents? What could she hope to…” Bridget gasped. “Dr. Carl Potts. Venus said she had a bad check at Pandora’s Box. She asked me for an expert on forgeries.”
“Forgeries?” He bit out the word. “Even though Alistair denied signing two transactions, he couldn’t deny it was his signature. If there was a chance in hell they were actual forgeries, why wouldn’t Alistair have insisted they be examined by an expert if that could prove his innocence? You know he didn’t.”
The old pain of realizing that a man he’d respected and trusted as much as he had his late father and Tony had robbed him and his cousins roared through him. It felt like nothing compared to the raw agony of Venus’s betraying him and what he’d thought they had together.
He’d dropped his guard and this blow finished him. Had it all been an act to get information from me?
“Connor, please don’t look like… like…” Bridget shook her head, gripping his arm with both hands. “Please let Venus explain why she did it.”
He tried to rearrange his facial muscles to prevent Bridget from again catching the privacy of his pain. “I plan to do that, Bridget. Now.”
“Think about what you want to do, first. Don’t rush to judgment, Connor, you may live to regret it,” Bridget said softly before mercifully leaving him alone.
He tried not to see this in black and white. He tried to believe he could be wrong and there could be another explanation for the missing papers, even though the evidence pointed to Venus’s being alone in the office when they went missing.
Wanting to believe in any scenario exce
pt the one burning up his gut, he called the University of Illinois and Dr. Carl Potts’s office.
When he gave his name, Dr. Potts’s secretary cheerfully told him Miss Smith had dropped off the documents from Clayworth’s and he had only missed her by minutes.
He sat motionless, giving himself time to let the truth, reality, sink in. Gave himself time to shut down to blunt the memories of Venus forever carved in his gut.
Only then did he allow himself to get in his Ferrari and drive to her town house on Schiller.
She opened the door after the first hard jab of his finger against the bell.
Her eyes bright and daring, her hair, which always invited his touch, tumbling across her breasts, she stood clad in a short apricot silk slip and her thigh-high boots.
Laughing, she pulled him inside, shut the door, and leaned against it.
“See, as promised, I’m still wearing my boots.” She stretched out one long leg, exposing the pale flesh of her upper thigh, barely covered by the silk hem.
He coldly disguised any trace of his feelings. “Are the boots where you hid the documents you stole from my desk?”
His cool voice rang in her ears as she stared into his even colder eyes. Heat waves of regret and fear washed over her.
This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.
Feeling suddenly naked in the silk slip and ridiculous boots meant to bring the newly discovered grin to his perfect face, she pulled on the aqua robe she’d dropped onto the hall chair when she’d heard him at the door.
With his almost smile, he seemed relaxed. But now she knew this was the old, controlled Connor, who saw the world in black and white
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice the documents were missing? Did you even care once you took them? What do you hope to accomplish, Venus?”
“What I’ve always wanted. The truth about my father. A way to vindicate him, and I may have found it, Connor. Truly,” she said steadily, refusing to give in to fear. “I took them without telling you, as you took my jewelry, to surprise you and make you happy.”
Slowly, he crossed her tiny foyer until they were so close she felt the warmth of his body.
All I Want Is You Page 21
